| The State of the Union is Against the State of Israel |
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January 30, 2008... In his State of the Union address Sunday, Bush waxed poetic – we would more correctly say “delusional” - about the “palestinian” leader Mahmoud Abbas, describing this unrepentant murdering terrorist as a “man of peace”. Bush repeatedly referred not to the State of Israel, but to “the Both in What happened to Bush? Wasn’t he the “best friend” that
Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was involved with money laundering for the Nazis. Bush’s father, George Sr., formed a coalition of “freedom-loving” nations to defeat
Bush Sr. makes money every day as a registered lobbyist for Now, Bush Jr. is trying to finish what his grandfather began and his father continued, attempting to both get rich and serve up Today people call the Iranian leader Achmadinejad the new Hitler. This week Achmadinejad told the world that it should prepare for the day - which he stated will come soon - when Israel does not exist. Bush reacts to this madman by declaring that Israel is on its own against the soon-to-be nuclear Iran. Bush is counting on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to carry out his mission to destroy Israel. Bush so desires to fulfill this plan that he went so far as to interfere in Israeli politics by asking government officials to forget that Olmert is at best corrupt and inept in order to keep Olmert in office.
Olmert and so many of his predecessors have no foundation in Jewish values. They see the |
Thursday, January 31, 2008
The State of the Union is Against the State of Israel
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
'Palestinian state temporary ruse to destroy Israel'
'Palestinian state temporary ruse to destroy Israel'
Official television network calls for 'liberation' of 'all Palestine'
Posted: January 29, 2008
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – The Palestinian goal of a Palestinian state is just a temporary ruse until "all of Palestine" can be "liberated," declared a leader speaking yesterday on the official television network of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization.
Saleh Raafat, a member of the executive committee of Abbas' Palestine Liberation Organization, was interviewed on PA television about the death last weekend of infamous terrorist leader George Habash, who strongly opposed signing peace agreements with Israel.
In comments screened by WND, Raafat told his interviewer: "Habash was a very positive Palestinian leader who used democratic tools to express opinions. He disagreed with [late PLO leader Yasser] Arafat regarding the present temporary vision of a Palestinian state, but he never used weapons to express his disagreement."
Raafat said the Palestinians would accept "22 percent of Palestine" as a "temporary and not permanent" state until "all of Palestine" can be liberated.
While Raafat described Habash as "democratic" and as "never" using weapons, Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has carried out scores of notorious deadly terrorist attacks. Raafat was speaking as part of a mourning series on PA television for Habash, the PFLP leader who died in Jordan at the age of 81.
Habash's PFLP gained notoriety in 1970 for hijacking four Western airliners over the U.S., Europe, the Far East and the Persian Gulf. The aircraft were blown up in the Middle East after passengers and crews disembarked. The PFLP in 1972 then gunned down 27 people at Israel's Lod airport.
The PFLP continues operating from Syria, Jordan and the West Bank. More recent attacks include scores of deadly shootings against Israelis, the 2001 assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rechavam Zeevi and suicide bombings on an Israeli highway and in Tel Aviv's well-known Karmel Market.
According to Israeli security officials, the PFLP is the Palestinian terror group most proficient in carrying out successful drive-by shooting attacks.
Habash also led the second-largest faction of the PLO, next to Yasser Arafat's. Habash strongly opposed interim agreements with Israel and throughout his life advocated terror attacks against the Jewish state. Arafat numerous times said peace accords signed by Israel were part of a "phased plan" for the ultimate destruction of the Jewish state.
A Building Freeze or a Freezing Building
David Wilder
January 29, 2008
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It’s out of the theatre of the absurd. Yesterday a colleague of mine received a phone call from an officer in an IDF unit stationed in Hebron. He had a request/demand. Two soldiers are stationed outside Beit HaShalom for security purposes. The officer told my friend that the soldiers are ‘cold’ and requested/demanded that people in the building supply them with an electric line for a heater to keep them warm.
My friend could not believe his ears. Only days before, Defense Minister Ehud Barak refused Hebron’s request to allow humanitarian renovations in the building, including instillation of simple windows, electric current, and sealing of the building’s roof to prevent water leakage. The letter received from the Defense ministry stated clearly: If you’re cold, go live somewhere else.
The same defense ministry, who refused us electricity, was now demanding that we supply electricity to IDF soldiers. My friend’s answer was short and sweet – Go talk to the Defense Minister. If he gives us electricity, we’ll be happy to share it with you.
A little while later this information was passed on to an Israeli journalist, who requested a response from the IDF. ‘How can you ask for electricity from Jews in Hebron when you yourselves refuse to allow them electric lines?’
A little while later he received his response: ‘The entire episode was a mistake. The IDF unit requesting electricity was not supposed to call the Jewish Hebron municipality. Rather, they should have made contact with the Arab Hebron municipality and asked to receive electricity from them.’
In other words, the army can take electricity from the Arabs to keep their soldiers warm, but Hebron’s Jews cannot receive any more electric lines to keep their children warm.
This afternoon I spoke to one of the building’s residents who told me as follows: We don’t have enough electricity for ourselves, but we’ve tried to help the soldiers guarding at the entrance because it’s freezing there. We’ve given them two of our own electric heaters, but due to the lack of electric current, both of them have burned out.
Early this afternoon I visited Beit HaShalom with my cameras. My daughter, son-in-law and their three children, aged three to three months, have lived there for the past ten months. They live in a one room apartment, divided into parent’s space, children’s space, kitchenette and living room. Their windows are filled withsome kind of corrugated plastic sheets, somehow sealed onto the walls. Two small heaters keep the room from freezing.
Another family in Beit HaShalom just welcomed their seventh child a few days ago. They live in similar conditions to my daughter.
Last night winter finally arrived in Israel. Extremely strong winds pounded the Hebron area, and Beit HaShalom was quite adversely affected. Many of the residents had closed their windows with large sheets of plastic, which up until yesterday were sufficient. That changed in the middle of the night, when the strong winds literally blew the plastic window-coverings away. Families found themselves as if they were camping outdoors in the middle of the winter. Rain started leaking into people’s rooms from the walls and roof, and puddles formed in their apartments. For a good part of today many Beit HaShalom residents attempted to fix their windows, again hanging huge plastic sheets against the window frames, attaching them with screws and glue, hoping that tonight won’t be a repeat of last night. However, many of them expect it to be worse. Snow is expected in Hebron, starting tonight and ending sometime on Thursday.
One of the families has three heaters in their room, but can only use two of them, the two smaller ones. The larger radiator remains cold; it uses too much electricity. Each family has an ‘electric budget’ which they cannot go over, or else the generator which provides the building’s current will break down.
The Hebron Jewish Community is spending some $20,000 a month to keep the building warm. The generator works 24 hours a day, at full power, to heat up the family’s apartments. (You can help if you’d like, and your assistance would be much appreciated: [www.hebrontruma.com]) No one I’ve spoken to have any plans to leave. I interviewed Shlomo Levinger, who lives there with his wife and five children and asked him why he doesn’t find somewhere else to live, as Ehud Barak suggested. His answer: “This is my home, I live here. Just like anyone else in their home can install windows, so too I should be able to. We haven’t asked for very much, just to replace these plastic sheets with something a little more solid to offer us protection, on humanitarian grounds. Last night the wind blew so hard that it knocked the screws holding on the plastic sheets out of the wall. Each child needed at least three blankets; it was very cold.”
While I was there, Shlomo was attempting to repair the window space, hoping that tonight would be a little warmer in his children’s room.
(Short videos of Beit HaShalom, filmed today, can be seen on the Hebron home pages – www.hebron.org.il in Hebrew and www.hebron.com in English).
The Israeli government is doing its utmost to force Beit HaShalom’s residents to leave; Ehud Barak, the current Defense Minister, is acting like a Russian Cossack. As another friend exclaimed today: ‘This is acting like a Jew? This is the way one Jew acts towards another Jew?’
The other Ehud has the authority to overrule his defense minister. But at the moment he’s more concerned with surviving in the Prime Minister’s office follow tomorrows’ release of the Winograd Commission Report, dealing with his failures during the Second Lebanon War. That certainly takes precedence over a few dozen men, women and children in subhuman conditions in Hebron. Besides which, Olmert already declared a full building freeze in all of Judea and Samaria. So the situation in Hebron falls directly within that category: Windowless, electric-less Beit HaShalom, if not part of Olmert’s building freeze, is quite literally a freezing building.
Prescott Bush financed the building of Auschwitz and his grandson prepares a new Auschwitz
THE STATE OF YOUR UNION?
Letter from Ruth Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Dear Friends,
Early Tuesday morning, 4:00 am Israeli time, January 29th 2008, I turned on the TV to watch President George W. Bush give his State of the Union address.
As you know, the STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS is the annual message which the President of the United States gives to Congress, usually to a joint session of Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate).
Modeled after the monarch’s Speech from the Throne during the State Opening of Parliament in the United Kingdom, such a report is required by the United States Constitution.
“He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” (Article II, Section 3)
President Bush spoke about his ideas as to how he would help the poor; improve the country’s educational system; and how his administration plans to provide healthcare for every American citizen, etc., etc.
Towards the end of his speech, President Bush addressed various problems of the rest of the world, such as fighting disease in Africa, world hunger, etc. To my complete amazement, he then proceeded at length to discuss his ideas for resolving the Middle East dispute.
As the President went into his usual mantra about a peaceful two-state solution- “The time has come for a Holy Land where a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine live side-by-side in peace”- the entire audience of Congressmen rose to their feet and applauded at length.
It was at this point, sitting in front of my TV, that I began crying like a little baby. It wasn't just about Bush’s plans, which we have long been worried about. (This much was to be expected of President Bush). But the fact that the entire audience seemed to react so enthusiastically to these ideas was what made me so upset.
The following is an excerpt from Bush’s State of the Union address:
“We're also standing against the forces of extremism in the Holy Land, where we have new cause for hope. PALESTINIANS HAVE ELECTED A PRESIDENT WHO RECOGNIZES THAT CONFRONTING TERROR IS ESSENTIAL TO ACHIEVING A STATE WHERE HIS PEOPLE CAN LIVE IN DIGNITY AND AT PEACE WITH ISRAEL. Israelis have leaders who recognize that a peaceful, democratic Palestinian state will be a source of lasting security. This month in Ramallah and Jerusalem, I assured leaders from both sides that America will do, and I will do, everything we can to help them achieve a peace agreement that defines a Palestinian state by the end of this year. The time has come for a Holy Land where a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine live side-by-side in peace.”
The picture of the Middle East painted by President Bush, unfortunately, has no basis in reality.
Abbas, the President that the Palestinians have elected, DOES NOT recognize that confronting terror is essential to achieving a state where his people can live in dignity and at peace with Israel! As a matter of fact, Abbas is the very same man who was the paymaster for the Munich massacre of summer 1972, where 11 Jewish Israeli athletes were taken hostage and murdered. Abbas, and his group, Fatah, are responsible for more Jews murdered in terror attacks, than even Hamas!
Finally, it is difficult to understand why President Bush ends his State of the Union speech with his fight against extremism in the Holy Land! Who are the extremists? Is it the Jews, who have finally regained their Homeland after 2,000 years of persecution? Or the Arabs, who have vowed not to rest until “their” land has been cleansed of every last Jew.
The hateful sentiments felt by Muslims toward all Jews are derived directly from the Koran, the Muslim Holy Scriptures:
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 176:
A tradition attributed to Muhammad: “The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and kill them. And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: 'O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’”
At the end of his address, President Bush, once again, forcefully stated his desire to divide the Holy Land in order to give the Arabs yet another state.
Who are these people who deserve such incredible compassion? We are not only talking of the thousands of Jews killed by Arab terrorists within the borders of Israel. We surely don't have to remind you of the 2,973 Americans-- Jews and Christians alike-- killed in the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Even if these Arabs in question were the most peace-loving, angelic individuals, President Bush still would not have the right to supercede the word of the G-d of Israel to reapportion his Holy Land.
The G-d of Israel said it clearly in Leviticus 25:23: “AND THE LAND SHALL NOT BE SOLD IN PERPETUITY, FOR THE LAND IS MINE”.
The question I pose to President George W. Bush is as follows:
Would America’s founding fathers, who were Bible-believing Christians, have approved your policies vis-a-vis the Holy Land?
Mr. President, I ask: How will dividing the Holy Land and giving part of it to the Arab Muslim enemy improve the STATE OF YOUR UNION?
For the full State of the Union Address of President Bush, Jan. 28th, 2008:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080128-13.html
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
Brazil has lost it's humanity
Holocaust-themed Rio Carnival float causes strain
By Pedro Fonseca
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Carnival float with a pile of model dead bodies commemorating the Holocaust is causing unease before the lavish parades in Rio de Janeiro this weekend.
The Viradouro samba organization, or school, plans to feature the grim display when it marches in the Sambadrome parade strip on Sunday, despite objections from a local Jewish group.
"Really, it makes no sense addressing this theme with drums and dancing girls," said Sergio Niskier, president of the Israelite Federation in Rio de Janeiro state, referring to the slaughter of Jews by Nazi Germany in World War Two.
"There are still survivors of that horror who have the marks of that tragedy on their skin," he said.
Rio's Carnival is famed for the parades by samba schools with glitzy floats and costumes and street parties where costumed revelers drink and dance all night.
The elaborately decorated floats are a key part of each samba school's presentation, along with thousands of dancers and drummers led by near naked Carnival queens.
Viradouro insisted its Holocaust float is not meant to offend anyone.
"The float is extremely respectful, it's a warning, it's something shocking that we don't want to happen ever again," said Paulo Barros, Viradouro's artistic director.
Viradouro's parade theme is "Shockers" and it includes floats depicting the shock of birth, the shock of horror and the shock of cold.
Barrossaid the Holocaust float would be the only one without dancers on top.
"If we had people dancing on top of dead bodies that would indeed be disrespectful," he told Reuters.
Traditionally, the use of religious references causes last-minute problems for samba schools. In the past, the Roman Catholic Church has barred floats with figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary and samba schools had to cover or modify them.
(Reporting by Pedro Fonseca and Andrei Khalip, Editing by Kieran Murray)
Monday, January 28, 2008
Is this Israel's "peace partner"?
Fatah TV Broadcasts Daily Call For Ethnic Cleansing of Jews
Fatah chief and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's PA television has been repeatedly broadcasting a hate-filled music video calling for the ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people from Israel.
"My enemy, oh snake! Around the land, you are coiled. You have no choice, oh enemy, but to leave my country," is the refrain in the video, which has been broadcast on a daily basis for the past several months, according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).
"The song's refrain, 'My enemy, oh enemy,' is repeated over and over throughout the song. Israel is not even given the courtesy of a name, but is tagged with such labels as 'treacherous,' 'imperialism' and a 'coiled snake,'" PMW Director Itamar Marcus points out. "The Palestinian is portrayed as a heroic victim who courageously confronts the evil 'enemy' Israel."
The song incites Arabs living under Fatah's rule in Judea and Samaria to fight to the death to rid the land of Jews, assuring them that, through this, they will ultimately prevail: "You have no choice, oh enemy, but to leave my country," it says.
"The goal of this music video clip is to inculcate loathing of Israel and anticipation of its destruction," Marcus explains. "The repeated broadcast over recent months by Fatah-controlled television is consistent with other Arabic-language hate messages currently being disseminated - in spite of the peace talks."
PA TV first aired the music video in 2004 and resumed its broadcast in October, 2007. It was broadcast throughout the Annapolis conference as well as during US President George W. Bush's visit to Israel, PMW reports. It continues to be aired on almost a daily basis.
The following is the text of the hate video:
"My enemy. Oh, my enemy.
Stop your crimes.
Treaty breaker! Treacherous!...
If you pull out my eyes,
My heart will see. (x2)
If you cut off my hands,
My chest is knives and swords.
My enemy! Oh imperialism!
This homeland is ours. (x2)
This land will be tilled
only by our hoes. (x2)
Whenever the tension rises,
Whenever this land weeps, (x2)
the flower will return
to grow in our house.
My enemy. Oh, my enemy.
Stop your crimes.
Treaty breaker! Treacherous!...
My enemy! Oh snake!
Around the land, you are coiled. (x2)
We, noble, courageous,
on the day of ruin [battle], shall stand.
You have no choice, Oh enemy,
but to leave my country.
And my children will return.
Jerusalem Belongs to Jews
20 Years of Research Reveals: Jerusalem Belongs to Jews
Gauthier has written a doctoral dissertation on the topic of Jerusalem and its legal history, based on international treaties and resolutions of the past 90 years. The dissertation runs some 1,300 pages, with 3,000 footnotes. Gauthier had to present his thesis to a world-famous Jewish historian and two leading international lawyers - the Jewish one of whom has represented the Palestinian Authority on numerous occasions.
Gauthier's main point, as summarized by Israpundit editor Ted Belman, is that a non-broken series of treaties and resolutions, as laid out by the San Remo Resolution, the League of Nations and the United Nations, gives the Jewish People title to the city of Jerusalem. The process began at San Remo, Italy, when the four Principal Allied Powers of World War I - Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan - agreed to create a Jewish national home in what is now the Land of Israel.
San Remo
The relevant resolution reads as follows: "The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust... the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers, to a Mandatory [which] will be responsible for putting into effect the [Balfour] declaration... in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
Gauthier notes that the San Remo treaty specifically notes that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" - but says nothing about "political" rights of the Arabs living there.
The San Remo Resolution also bases itself on Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which declares that it is a "a sacred trust of civilization" to provide for the well-being and development of colonies and territories whose inhabitants are "not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world."
League of Nations
The League of Nations' resolution creating the Palestine Mandate, included the following significant clause: “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." No such recognition of Arab rights in Palestine was granted.
In 1945, the United Nations took over from the failed League of Nations - and assumed the latter's obligations. Article 80 of the UN Charter states: "Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed, in or of itself, to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties."
UN Partition Plan
However, in 1947, the General Assembly of the UN passed Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan. It violated the League of the Nations' Mandate for Palestine in that it granted political rights to the Arabs in western Palestine - yet, ironically, the Jews applauded the plan's passages while the Arabs worked to thwart it.
Resolution 181 also provided for a Special regime for Jerusalem, with borders delineated in all four directions: The then-extant municipality of Jerusalem plus the surrounding villages and towns up to Abu Dis in the east, Bethlehem in the south, Ein Karem and Motza in the west, and Shuafat in the north.
Referendum Scheduled for Jerusalem
The UN resolved that the City of Jerusalem shall be established as a separate entity under a special international regime and shall be administered by the United Nations. The regime was to come into effect by October 1948, and was to remain in force for a period of ten years, unless the UN's Trusteeship Council decided otherwise. After the ten years, the residents of Jerusalem "shall be then free to express by means of a referendum their wishes as to possible modifications of regime of the City."
The resolution never took effect, because Jordan controlled eastern Jerusalem after the 1948 War of Independence and did not follow its provisions.
After 1967
After the Six Day War in 1967, Israel regained Jerusalem and other land west of Jordan. Gauthier notes that the UN Security Council then passed Resolution 242 authorizing Israel to remain in possession of all the land until it had “secure and recognized boundaries.” The resolution was notably silent on Jerusalem, and also referred to the "necessity for achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem,” with no distinction made between Jewish and Arab refugees.
Today
Given Jerusalem's strong Jewish majority, Gauthier concludes, Israel should be demanding that the long-delayed city referendum on the city's future be held as soon as possible. Not only should Israel be demanding that the referendum be held now, Jerusalem should be the first order of business. "Olmert is sloughing us off by saying [as he did before the Annapolis Conference two months ago], 'Jerusalem is not on the table yet,'" Gauthier concludes. "He should demand that the referendum take place before the balance of the land is negotiated. If the Arabs won’t agree to the referendum, there is nothing to talk about."
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Know your enemies: If you think words cannot kill ... Listen to the sheikhs
Know your enemies: If you think words cannot kill ... Listen to the sheikhs
In August 1979, Saudi Arabia officially declared great Jihad. The western world did not take that declaration seriously because it failed to understand its significance, connotation and implication. The west thought that Saudi Arabia did so in reaction to Sadat's signing of peace treaty with Israel on March 26, 1979. The staunch Wahabi Saudi monarchs would go to any length or do anything to prevent any Muslim country from making peace with "the descendants of apes and pigs.... the enemies of Allah and Islam." The Saudis had been trying very hard to dissuade Sadat from signing the peace treaty with Israel but to no avail. The west which was thirsty more than ever for Saudi oil thought that the Saudi declaration of Jihad was directed to Israel only. Anyway, Saudi Arabia cannot fight Israel especially that Egypt was now at peace with Israel.
Saudi Arabia may not be able to defeat Israel militarily nor, for that matter, defeat "those who stand behind it." It can, however, defeat Israel and those who stand behind her who are all "infidel and enemies of Allah" through holy war (Jihad). Saudi Arabia has the money, the cunning and the will to mobilize the whole Muslim world for the great Jihad. It has devised since 1979 an elaborate plan to prepare for and win Jihad against Israel and the west.
The Wahabis (Saudi adherers of the orthodox radical version of Islam) headed by the royal family have aspired for nearly 2 centuries to "cleanse Arabia of the infidels (for them that includes Palestine.) Since its inception in 1927, el Ikhwan (the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt) has aspired to "cleanse the whole world of the infidels." El Ikhwan brought their pedagogical skills (they control the educational system in Saudi Arabia and all Islamic countries, as well as the teachers unions) and organizational infrastructure expertise in terrorist cells creation and militia formations. The Saudi brought the unlimited financing and their first class privileged connections (lackeys) especially in the West. It’s no wonder that El Zawahri is called the brain, and Ben Laden the financier. Amalgamated, the two groups thought the time is ripe to use their WMD (weapon of mass destruction), Islam. They worked to establish basis all over the world, subdue the West and hold it hostage at gun point. They indoctrinated a Jihadist army for the Islamization war. The Brotherhood announced on March 19, 2002, that it established a new suicide bomber Unit. Some of their leaders have issued fatwas saying it is ok to kill women and children in the process.
The making of a terrorist have to start from his tender age. So they built religious schools in all Muslim countries and Muslim communities in the west, and supplied the preachers to spread the poison (Islam). They even bribed their way to the most prominent Western universities establishing academic degrees in higher education for the teachings of a pedophile, mass murderer rapist 7th century Bedouin. They also bribed all Muslim heads of state.
By late 1990s, Saudi Arabia managed to Wahabize all Muslim countries and communities where over 75% of adult women became veiled, 99% of mosques follow Wahabi prayer rituals, 99% of schools teach Jihadist version of Islam and all mass media promote the same. Anti-American sentiments soared and hate and animosity for Israel reached an all-time high, especially in Egypt, regardless of the peace treaty she signed with Israel. This is the most evident proof that treaties signed with Arabs are not worth the papers they’re written on.
Fanatic Sheiks, preachers and Islamic organizations are the front line (fifth column) central instruments in the Saudi-El Ikhwan Jihadist plan. Though dead for more than 9 years now,
Sheikh Muhammed Metwalli Al Sha'rawi, is still the West deadliest enemy. He is still regarded by Muslims everywhere, mainstream and fundamentalist, as a quasi prophet. His religious books, research papers, videos and cassette tapes are still best selling in the Muslim world. His fatwas (Islamic edicts) and tafsir (interpretation and explanation work) of the Koran are still strictly followed by all Muslims, preachers and scholars who respectfully refer to him as “the prince of Da’wa.” He is the product of Al Azhar Univeristy in Cairo, same as Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman who is serving a life sentence in the US for his role in the 1993 WTC bombing. Recordings of his famous Friday TV show, still broadcasted across the Muslim world, are considered best TV program in most Muslim countries.
He had been entrusted by the Saudi and Egyptian regimes to convert the Muslim populace to jihad and martyrdom. He was an able orator, a skilled actor and a proficient Arabic linguist. This combination, together with his peasant demeanor and accent, enabled him to captivate broad-based audience in all Muslim countries and communities. (View list of his books in English http://www.islambasics.com/view.php?authID=100&page=1.)
For 25 years, his Friday show was broadcasted nationwide by the government-owned television stations in the Muslim world. His videos, tapes and books spreading the teachings of jihad and inciting Muslims to hate people of other faiths were translated, became best sellers in Muslim bookstores all over the Western world, inspired and still inspiring as we speak new generations of Muslim terrorists. Sheikhs Abu Hamza el Masri and Bakri of Finsbury park mosque are but an example of the accomplished spiritual students of Al Sha’rawi.
All this is happening in broad daylight under the nose of Western anti-terrorist law enforcement, and protected by the freedom of religion act. He is credited with the popularization and enforcement of the veil culture for Muslim women all over the world. He told Muslim men that it was halal (acceptable to Allah) to rape Christian, Jewish and Western women in general because they were “slaves.” Prisoners of war are slaves according to Islamic teachings. He wrote an article in the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram on 9/2/1992 in which he said: “Raping female POWs bestows honor on her since the master does to her what he does to his wife.” He incited Muslims to convert, subjugate and take over Western countries by all deceptive means, including illegal immigration, deceiving Western women into marriage of convenience to obtain legal residency, convert them to Islam and produce as many children to increase the Western Muslim populations.
Answering a caller that asked him if it is lawful to use the kaffer (unclean non Muslim) Western products and technology, in one of his live shows, he answered: “Yes it is lawful because Allah created them to serve us, so any thing you can get or embezzle from them is halal ‘lawful’ for the Muslim”. To substantiate his fatwa, he recited Koran 33:27, “And He made you heirs of their lands, their houses, and their goods, and of a land which ye had not frequented (Before). And Allah has power over all things.”
As a result of these live jihad talk shows permitted and supported by the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, thousands of Egyptian female Coptic “POWs” have been abducted, raped and forced to convert to Islam for the past 30 years (and still happening every day). The whole World knows about it (just Google: kidnapped Coptic girls and you’ll have thousands of links,) except the Egyptian government that keep pretending “no hear, no see”. Added to this, thousands of male “POWs” have been abducted, robbed and slaughtered. It may have amused Sheik Al Sha'rawi to know that because of him and the criminal indifference of Western Governments, over 2-3 million Egyptian Christians (13-20% of the Christian population) have immigrated to the West over the past 30 years. It may have pleased him more to know that his teaching was immortalized at Ground Zero.
Over 25 years ago, Sheik Al Sha'rawi was already acting as though the Muslims were at war with the rest of the world. The West which did not realize that there was a war going on did nothing to stop him or to stop those who stood behind him. In fact, he was very generously rewarded by those who stood behind him, namely Mubarak and the House of Saud. Postal stamps were issued carrying his picture, titles were bestowed on him and honorable citations were accorded to him.
Only time will tell how much the legacy Al Sha'rawi left will cost America and the West. Hundreds of Islamic preachers have followed in his footsteps, with the same zeal to achieve similar “glory” and make friends with the same supporting rulers.
No American leader dared to take action against rich Saudi monarchs or Mubarak, the recipient of more than two billion dollars a year from the US, and both are supposedly American allies. It would have been easy to stop Al Sha’rawi and his like in their midst. Many of these Sheiks have dark and shabby secrets in their pasts that can be used to discredit, defame and denounce them to end their career before they had done so much damage to humanity. Bringing them to justice or bringing justice to them would have been a legitimate act of self-defense. Instead, the preacher of doom stopped the lives of thousands and will keep stopping lives from his grave until his teaching is stopped.
From muddy rat holes in God-forsaken villages to great mansions and elegant villas, those Sheiks have made the great profiteering from their fellow Muslims. On the other hand, some of them were or still are secret members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jihad, Jamaa Islamyiah, i.e. they are downright terrorists.
Any Imam can easily captivate, sway and control Muslim audience. After all, the majority of Muslims are simple and undereducated people. They are culturally shallow and illiterate. They are impoverished, downtrodden, exploited, hopeless and lacking in self-esteem. Some of them may have college degrees but that does not change the fact that education in Arab and Muslim world is substandard. Orators like Sheik Al Sha'rawi are the opium of the Muslim people. They detach Muslims from their miserable, disdainful and subhuman reality and dispatch them with Koranic verses to an abstract rosy world that is filled with hopes, promises, virgins and above all recognition and respect. They hypnotize simple Muslims into believing and feeling anything they want them to. They also guide Muslims to a meaningful life for a change. A life of Jihad and death of a martyr which lead to the highest level of Jannah (Paradise) where the pleasures denied to poor Muslims in this life are far better and more abundant.
Since the emergence of Islam in the 7th century, Sheiks have prostituted themselves to whoever pays. They tailor and sell fatwas for any purpose and in the interest of anyone who pays or rules. They issue fatwas forbidding Muslims from opposing their oppressive and corrupt rulers. The 'fortunate' Sheik is the one who is picked by the ruler to help him consolidate his power through cleverly tailored fatwas that serve his purpose and needs. That is why every Muslim country has a Mufti whose job is to issue fatwas ostensibly to guide the Muslim population. Rulers enlist the fatwa and religious propaganda expertise of freelance popular Sheiks like Al Sha'rawi. So, those Sheiks are secretly hired by the Muslim rulers and at times by foreign ones, to enhance and further their political ambitions, deflect dissent, eliminate opponents, distract Muslim populations from the harsh realities imposed on them and channel their anger towards a scapegoat enemy.
From late 1960s and early 1970s, Muslim and Arab rulers have given their Sheiks orders to wage fatwa war against the US and Israel, to ensure the success of their hate campaigns. Religiosity and fundamentalism increased as a result and with them enmity against the US. By September 11, the hate for the US had reached explosive levels. Right now, the hate for the US and Israel in the region is pathologically unsurpassed and dangerously uncontrollable.
Despite the fact that these acts of hostilities amount to a declaration of war, the US and its Western allies have failed to take any action against the Sheiks and against the rulers who stand behind and operate them. America which has a right to act in self-defense should act now correctly and promptly to avert and preempt deadlier and more devastating attacks than those of 9/11.
As we speak now, thousands of younger, angrier and more hateful Sheiks are being hatched by hundreds of religious schools across the Muslim countries. In Egypt alone, there are 50,000 Al Azhar registered Sheiks. the Saudi government has been establishing hundreds of Islamic religious schools in mosques in North America, Europe and Australia.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
WorldNetDaily: Palestinian people do not exist
Posted: July 11, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
A provocative headline? It's more than that. It's the truth.
Truth does not change. Truth is truth. If something was true 50 years ago, 40 years ago, 30 years ago, it is still true today.
And the truth is that only 30 years ago, there was very little confusion on this issue of Palestine.
You might remember the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir making the bold political statement: 'There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.'
The statement has been a source of ridicule and derision by Arab propagandists ever since. They love to talk about Golda Meir's 'racism.' They love to suggest she was in historical denial. They love to say her statement is patently false – an intentional lie, a strategic deception.
What they don't like to talk about, however, are the very similar statements made by Yasser Arafat and his inner circle of political leadership years after Meir had told the truth – that there is no distinct Palestinian cultural or national identity.
So, despite the fact that conventional wisdom has now proclaimed that there is such a thing as the Palestinian people, I'm going to raise those uncomfortable quotations made by Arafat and his henchmen when their publ"
Mafish Falestine, There is no Palestine and there never was
Did you know that there was never any country called Palestine? Did you know that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people?
The ideas that the West Bank and Gaza are occupied Palestinian land, and that the Palestinian people are fighting for their land, have been accepted by most of the governments of the world and by most of the media in the world. But if you read on, you will see that these two claims are the biggest lies ever deliberately perpetrated on humanity.
Check out any map of the Middle East and see for yourself. You will find Palestine listed as a region as it always has been, but definitely not a country. We can locate the Mojave Desert on the map, but we still do not recognize it as our 51st state, let alone a country. Similarly, the region of Siberia is a region not a state. Or the Sahara is a region not a state, etc. Neither is Palestine a state. It never was a country, just a region.
Importantly, the Jews did not displace anyone, because no one permanently resided there. It was a land inhabited by nomadic, Bedouin tribes. The whole region was nothing but deserts and swamps. Only about 120,000 Arabs resided in an area that covered the territories, the state of Israel and Jordan. When Mark Twain visited the area, he wrote he found nothing but a wasteland.
Map of Israel (West Bank and Gaza included)During the 19 years that the territories, including Jerusalem and Gaza, were occupied by the kingdoms of Jordan and Egypt, (refer to http://masada2000.org/historical.html) no one talked about a Palestinian state, not the Arab countries, not the United Nations. Nobody asked Jordan or Egypt to abdicate their ownership and give it to the Palestinians. Not even the Palestinians themselves said anything about a Palestinian state or a Palestinian people, because nobody heard of a Palestinian people. It never existed.
The fact simply is that there are no Palestinians. These people are Arabs like all other Arabs, and they happen to live in a region called Palestine. They are not a separate people.
What makes a separate people? Religion, language, culture, garb, cuisine, etc. The Arabs in Palestine speak the same language, practice the same religion, have the same culture, etc., as all the other Arabs. The few minor differences that exist between them are like the minor differences that exist between the American Northerners and Southerners, Easterners and Westerners... but they are still all Americans. People in the south of France are quite different from the people in the north, but they are still all French. These inconsequential differences do not make a people.
The Arabs living in Syria or Jordan, etc., are also the same Arabs, but they are each a separate nation because they each have a separate country. The so-called Palestinians want a separate country because they claim to be a separate nation. They are not. They were never a separate people before the new state of Israel. How did they become one now?
Because of these lies, the so-called "Palestinians" feel justified in sending suicide bombers to kill women, children, babies, old men, old women and noncombatant citizens. Because of these lies, the United Nations and the media of the world are condemning Israel who is acting less harshly than any other country would act in retaliation for such heinous attacks. What is the United States doing in Afghanistan, a totally foreign country? Killing Afghanis. Why? Because they attacked us on Sept. 11. I understand this. But why do they not understand that that is exactly what Israel is doing, only on a much smaller scale?
Ask yourself this: Should the use of terror ever be rewarded? When is the use of terrorism justified as a military tactic? As a political tactic? As an economic tactic? What implications does this hold for future conflicts?
Let us examine the truths here:
Arab "Palestinian?" with Flag of "Palestine?"1) There never was a Palestinian state or a Palestinian nation. There are no Palestinian people, per se. Rather, these are Arabs living in a region that historically has been called many things, including "Palestine."
2) Israel did not go to war against a Palestinian state and occupy its land. Rather, Israel was attacked by six Arab countries at once. She defended herself, defeated her attackers, and won the so-called territories, not from the Palestinians, but from Jordan and Egypt.
3) Jerusalem was never the capital of any state but Israel. It was certainly never the capital of a country that never existed. Why should the Palestinians get any part of it? Because they want it? Because they have terrorists?
4) Jerusalem, under the current Israeli control, is a free and open city. Israel, as a democracy, guarantees freedom of religion within its borders. Contrast this fact with areas that have come under Palestinian occupation. What percentage of Christians have left in recent years because they cannot stand the harassment and persecution?
5) Most Arabs living in Palestine today are not indigenous to the region. It was not until after the Jews had changed deserts and swamps into a productive and thriving land that the Arabs started migrating there. Arafat himself was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. Did you know that?
The belief that giving the Palestinians a state will bring peace is a delusion. The truth is that they want it all. The short-term goal is a state consisting of the West Bank and Gaza. The long-term goal is a state which includes all of "historical Palestine," including Jordan.
How do I know this?
The late Faisal Husseini, Arafat's Jerusalem representative, a man who was cultured, sophisticated and considered the most moderate of all the Palestinians, shortly before his death on May 31, 2001, expressed his true feelings in an interview with the popular Egyptian newspaper el Arav. Husseini said: "We must distinguish the strategies and long-term goals from the political-phased goals which we are compelled to accept due to international pressures." But the "ultimate goal is the liberation of all of historical Palestine." Explicitly he said: "Oslo has to be viewed as a Trojan Horse."
He even added and clarified that it is the obligation of all the Palestinian forces and factions to see the Oslo Accords as "temporary" steps, as "gradual" goals, because in this way, "We are setting an ambush for the Israelis and cheating them." He also differentiated between "strategic," long-term, "higher" goals, and "political" short-term goals dependent on "the current international establishment, balance of power" etc.
All of historical Palestine! Does not this include all of Israel and all of Jordan?
What does this say to you?
Unless the Arabs recognize and accept these truths, even if they are given a state of their own, and no matter how many agreements and treaties they sign, they will always feel wronged, cheated, and forced into giving up what they now claim is theirs. They will continue to plot and look for an opportunity to destroy Israel in order to take back what they claim is theirs, especially the younger generation that has been brainwashed to hate the occupying enemy. Whether there is a Palestinian state or not, there will be no peace.
Only a massive and ongoing re-education of the Arab people to these truths will enable meaningful negotiations to begin, followed by a lasting peace between Arabs and Jews. It is therefore critical that everyone who has an audience, whether in print or other media, use the forum they have available to repeat these truths again and again until they reach the consciousness of those waging war in the Middle East.
Sharon Nader Sloan's article can be seen at http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26932
Graphics by Masada2000.org
Memo to Condi: The Middle East Isn't Birmingham
By Kenneth Levin
FrontPageMagazine.com | 1/23/2008She's done it again. In the run-up to the president's recent Middle East trip, Secretary of State Rice repeated to an interviewer from Israel's Channel 10 her comparison of Palestinians confronted with Israeli checkpoints to blacks facing Jim Crow restrictions in the Alabama of her youth.
In the past, Ms. Rice has also identified "hopelessness" as the spur to violence both among Palestinians and among those African-Americans who abandoned peaceful protest. She has seen similarities as well between Palestinian leaders seeking a Palestinian state and America's founding fathers fighting for independence from Britain.
Rice did preface her comments to Channel 10 with an acknowledgment that "sometimes one has to be careful about analogies" - this perhaps in response to criticism she's drawn for previously invoking such comparisons. She also repeated that she had lost a childhood friend, a young girl, in a church bombing in Birmingham and so can "understand a little bit" what it's like for Israeli mothers fearing their children might fall victim to a terrorist bomb.
Even a superficial look at Palestinian history, the declarations of Palestinian leaders and political organizations and the rhetoric of Palestinian media, mosque sermons and school texts, demonstrates that the Palestinian goal has been not equality - a state alongside Israel - but supremacy, a Muslim Arab state replacing Israel. This goal predated Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza, and its violent pursuit has led to Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks, not vice versa.
In addition, of course, America's founding fathers never sought the annihilation of Great Britain, never demeaned the British people as inferior beings unworthy of a state or even of life, and never urged American children to dedicate themselves to the murder of British civilians, as Palestinian parties, including that of Mahmoud Abbas, have done vis-a-vis Israel and its citizens.
Those who have pointed out the many problems in Secretary Rice's analogies between the situation of the Palestinians and her own childhood experiences have typically suggested that her error lies in uncritically applying too widely the personal precedent of African-American experience in the segregated South. But one can argue that the problem lies rather in her not applying that precedent widely enough.
Secretary Rice would arrive at a far truer comprehension of the Palestinian-Israeli, and broader Arab-Israeli, conflict, and the obstacles to its resolution, if she turned the prism of her childhood experience toward, and identified with, for example, the 2,000,000 Christian and animist blacks of the southern Sudan killed by Muslim Arab governments of Sudan in a decades-old on-and-off-again war of extermination, a war executed with broad support of the wider Arab world. Deeper understanding would derive as well from applying her personal experience to, and empathizing with, the hundreds of thousands of Darfur blacks likewise murdered by the Arab government of Sudan, and the 200,000 Kurds - another Muslim but non-Arab people - murdered by Saddam Hussein in the first stages of a campaign of extermination, again with broad support in the Arab world. Identification with the plight of the Kurds of Syria and the Berbers of Algeria - another Muslim but non-Arab people - subjected to discrimination and the suppression of their language and culture by the Arab governments of their respective states, would also cast illuminating light for the Secretary of State on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
For, as has been pointed out by genuine reformist voices in the Arab world, that world is dominated by a murderous intolerance of virtually all minorities in its midst, whether religious, racial or ethnic. It is not about to make an exception for the Jews and recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state, whatever its borders.
Were Secretary Rice to apply her own childhood experiences of intolerance to an understanding of this broader reality, the precedent of those experiences could be usefully applied to fathoming the bias and hatred that drive the Palestinian and wider Arab war against Israel and its people and that stand in the way of movement toward peace. Her personal experiences could then be an asset rather than impediment in the fashioning of American policy - a policy whose objective would be interim steps to decrease the risks of violence until such time as changes within the Arab world allow for movement toward genuine peace.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
the PA and the Saudis say that Hamas is to blame !
Arab editor blames Hamas for Gaza crisis
A prominent Arab editor on Monday blamed Hamas for the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip, saying the Islamist movement had acted "stupidly" by firing rockets at Israel.
Meanwhile, sources close to Hamas said some of the movement's leaders had instructed all Palestinian factions to stop firing rockets and mortars at Israel.
According to the sources, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was one of those behind the decision to halt the attacks.
However, other Hamas leaders, including Mahmoud Zahar, Said Siam and Ahmed Ja'bari, commander of Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, have rejected the decision, the sources added.
Abdel Rahman Rashed, a Saudi national serving as general manager of the pan-Arab Arabiya news channel, said Hamas was responsible for the suffering of some 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
"Hamas committed a stupid act when it gave the Israelis an excuse to launch attacks in retaliation for a few antique rockets," Rashed wrote in the London-based daily Asharq Al- Awsat.
"Prior to that, Hamas committed a big crime against the Palestinian people by overthrowing the Palestinian Authority [in the Gaza Strip]. The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have suffered a lot because of Hamas's actions. Hamas is bringing Israel back into the Gaza Strip after it was liberated by the Palestinian groups."
Rashed questioned the wisdom of firing rockets and mortars at Israel which, he said, was only increasing the suffering of the Palestinians, let alone that they were not causing much harm to Israel. He pointed out that "only" 10 Israelis were wounded in the recent attacks as opposed to the "huge disaster" that has befallen the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Rashed is regarded by many Arab journalists as an unofficial spokesman for the Saudi royal family. He previously served as editor-in-chief of the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and his writings regularly reflect the views of the Saudi establishment.
PA officials in Ramallah have joined the bandwagon by blaming Hamas for the looming humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The charges came only hours after the PA openly held Israel responsible for the fuel shortage that has plunged large parts of the Gaza Strip into darkness since Sunday night.
PA Information Minister Riad al-Malki said the latest crisis was the result of Hamas's "insistence on creating an Islamic republic in the Gaza Strip." He also accused Hamas of seeking to evade responsibility for the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip by blaming the Ramallah-based government of PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.
Both Fayad and al-Malki left Ramallah Monday for a tour of a number of EU countries aimed at solving the crisis in the Gaza Strip. According to PA officials, the two are expected to visit Britain, Germany and Spain.
A top PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas was "holding more than 1.5 million Palestinians hostage" in an attempt to rally the Arab and Muslim masses against the PA and Israel.
"Of course, we strongly condemn the Israeli measures against the residents of the Gaza Strip, but Hamas is also responsible for what's happening there," he said. "Unfortunately, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are paying a heavy price for Hamas's irresponsible actions."
The official also accused Hamas of ordering owners of bakeries to keep their businesses closed for the second day running to create a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas is preventing people from buying bread," he said. "They want to deepen the crisis so as to serve their own interests."
The official said that contrary to Hamas's claims, there is enough fuel and flour to keep the bakeries in the Gaza Strip operating for another two months. "Hamas members have stolen most of the fuel in the Gaza Strip to fill their vehicles," he said.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1200572510762&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Copyright 1995- 2008 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
Monday, January 21, 2008
Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza is a Fraud
Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza is a Fraud
Posted: 20 Jan 2008 11:16 PM CST
Less than twenty four hours after Israel announced that it was sealing off the Gaza strip Hamas started claiming that things were disintegrating into a humanitarian crisis. They even started talking about the power shutting off. The problem is Israel hadn't shut off the "juice". Not only was Hamas staging the entire crisis, but the world press and foreign governments were buying the fraud, lock stock and barrel:
IDF Says Gaza is Faking a Crisis
by Gil Ronen
(IsraelNN.com) The news coming out of Gaza depicts a populace living in darkness and cold and blaming Israel. Reporters even claim that the dead can no longer be buried properly because there are no shrouds, and that bodies are being wrapped in flags instead. The IDF says, however, that this is media spin; a deliberate manipulation by the Hamas government to make Israel look as bad as possible.
"Gaza City was plunged into darkness after the plant's turbines stopped," the BBC reported. "Israel's closure of border crossings amid continued rocket fire from GazaGaza's 1.5m inhabitants face serious hardship… Reports from Gaza say people are trying to stock up on candles and batteries, as well as basic foodstuffs… A number of residents began a candle-lit march through Gaza City after the blackout." has brought the delivery of almost all supplies, including fuel, to a halt… The UN says
Israeli sources say this kind of coverage is exactly what the Gaza leadership wants. "There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza," a security source told Ynet Sunday evening. "In the past, there have already been situations in which the [electricity] transformers did not work. As for food and other supplies, the Palestinians have a stock that will last them for the next few days and beyond. This is an image of a crisis created by Hamas."
The source noted that the electricity transformers in Gaza were bombed after the abduction of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, too, yet life went on as usual there because Israel continued supplying Gaza with electricity. Israel continues to supply Gaza with 70% of its power, the source said, adding: "We have not cut electricity and do not intend to at this moment. The Palestinians are the ones cutting off electricity for a few hours and trying to create a crisis."
What burial shrouds?
The source also noted that the announcement of a crisis in Gaza came a bare 24 hours after Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced he was sealing off the crossings into Gaza. "There are hardly any trucks
The Palestinians are the ones cutting off electricity for a few hours and trying to create a crisis.
allowed into Gaza on Fridays and Saturdays anyhow," the source explained. As for burial shrouds – these were never on the list of supplies Israel transferred into Gaza anyways.
Other reports in the press said that all of the operations scheduled to take place in Gaza's hospitals in the next few days have been postponed. The health system in Gaza claimed the dialysis systems and medical equipment taking care of heart patients may cease functioning, and warned that ten minutes without electricity in the hospitals could kill dozens of patients. The Gazan spokesmen also said that if sewage pumping ceases, "an unprecedented humanitarian disaster" could result.
Thousands of Gazans held a candlelight vigil Sunday evening to protest what they called Israel's "siege" of Gaza.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Temple seal found in Jerusalem
<www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellit
ShowFull>
A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in
the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia
has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David,
a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.
The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it,
was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way
just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat
Mazar, who is leading the dig.
According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First
Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the
Babylonians in 586 BCE.
The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.
The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a
common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.
The 2.1 x 1.8-cm. elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing
on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position
of worship.
A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top
of the altar.
Under this scene are three Hebrew letters spelling Temech, Mazar said.
The Bible refers to the Temech family: "These are the children of the province,
that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem
and to Judah, every one unto his city." [Nehemiah 7:6]...
"The Nethinim [7:46]"... The children of Temech." [7:55].
The fact that this cultic scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seemed not
to have disturbed the Jews who used it on their own seal, she added.
The seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered just dozens
of meters away from the Opel area, where the servants of the Temple, or
"Nethinim," lived in the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said.
"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archeology
and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in
the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of
the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."
The find will be announced by Mazar at the 8th annual Herzliya Conference on
Sunday.
The archeologist, who rose to international prominence for her recent excavation
that may have uncovered King David's palace, most recently uncovered the
remnants of a wall from Nehemiah.
The dig is being sponsored by the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institute
where Mazar serves as a senior fellow, and the City of David Foundation, which
promotes Jewish settlement throughout east Jerusalem.
DEATH OF THE BUSH DOCTRINE
By Jeff Jacoby
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Bush Doctrine -- born on Sept. 20,
2001, when President Bush bluntly warned the sponsors of violent jihad:
"You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists" -- is dead. Its
demise was announced by Condoleezza Rice last Friday.
The secretary of state was speaking to
reporters aboard Air Force One en route with the president to Kuwait
from Israel . She was explaining why the administration had abandoned
the most fundamental condition of its support for Palestinian statehood
- namely, an end to Palestinian terror. Rice's explanation, recounted
here by The Washington Times, was as striking for its candor as for its
moral blindness:
"The 'road map' for peace, conceived in
2002 by Mr. Bush, had become a hindrance to the peace process, because
the first requirement was that the Palestinians stop terrorist attacks.
As a result, every time there was a terrorist bombing, the peace process
fell apart and went back to square one. Neither side ever began
discussing the 'core issues': the freezing of Israeli settlements in the
West Bank, the right of Palestinian refugees to return, the outline of
Israel 's border, and the future of Jerusalem .
"'The reason that we haven't really been
able to move forward on the peace process for a number of years is that
we were stuck in the sequentiality of the road map. So you had to do the
first phase of the road map before you moved on to the third phase of
the road map, which was the actual negotiations of final status,' Rice
said. . . . What the US-hosted November peace summit in Annapolis did
was 'break that tight sequentiality. . . You don't want people to get
hung up on settlement activity or the fact that the Palestinians haven't
fully been able to deal with the terrorist infrastructure. . .'"
Thus the president who once insisted that
a "Palestinian state will never be created by terror" now insists that a
Palestinian state be created regardless of terror. Once the Bush
administration championed a "road map" whose first and foremost
requirement was that the Palestinians "declare an unequivocal end to
violence and terrorism" and shut down "all official . . . incitement
against Israel ." Now the administration says that Palestinian terrorism
and incitement are nothing "to get hung up on."
Whatever happened to the moral clarity
that informed the president's worldview in the wake of 9/11? Whatever
happened to the conviction that was at the core of the Bush Doctrine:
that terrorists must be anathematized and defeated, and the fever-swamps
that breed them drained and detoxified?
Bush's support for the creation of a
Palestinian state was always misguided -- rarely has a society shown
itself *less* suited for sovereignty -- but at least he made it clear
that American support came at a stiff price: "The United States will not
support the establishment of a Palestinian state," Bush said in his
landmark June 2002 speech on the Israeli-Arab conflict, "until its
leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle
their infrastructure." He reinforced that condition two years later,
confirming in a letter to Ariel Sharon that "the Palestinian leadership
must act decisively against terror, including sustained, targeted, and
effective operations to stop terrorism and dismantle terrorist
capabilities and infrastructure."
Now that policy has gone by the boards,
replaced by one less focused on achieving peace than on maintaining a
"peace process." No doubt it *is* difficult, as Rice says, to "move
forward on the peace process" when the Palestinian Authority glorifies
suicide bombers and encourages a murderous yearning to eliminate the
Jewish state. If the Bush Doctrine -- "with us or with the terrorists"
-- were still in force, the peace process would have been shelved once
the Palestinians made clear that they had no intention of rejecting
violence or accepting Israel 's existence. The administration would be
treating the Palestinians as pariahs, allowing them no assistance of any
kind, much less movement toward statehood, so long as their
encouragement of terrorism persisted.
But it is the Bush Doctrine that has been
shelved. In its hunger for Arab support against Iran -- and perhaps in a
quest for a historic "legacy" -- the administration has dropped "with us
or with the terrorists." It is hellbent instead on bestowing statehood
upon a regime that stands unequivocally with the terrorists. "Frankly,
it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," Rice says.
When George W. Bush succeeded Bill
Clinton, he was determined not to replicate his predecessor's blunders
in the Middle East , a determination that intensified after 9/11. Yet he
too has succumbed to the messianism that leads US presidents to imagine
they can resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Clinton 's legacy in this
arena was the second intifada, which drenched the region in blood. To
what fresh hell will Bush's diplomacy lead?
------------------------------
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.)
http://www.boston.com/bostongl
