Bush Administration Warned Israel to stop Overflights of Lebanon

U.S. officials reportedly asked Israel to stop combat aircraft overflights of Lebanon.

Elliott Abrams, the White House’s deputy national security adviser, and David Welch, the State Department’s top Middle East envoy, met Thursday with Ehud Olmert ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s Nov. 12-14 visit to Washington.

According to Ha’aretz, Abrams and Welch told Olmert that Israel’s overflights, an aftereffect of Israel’s war with Hezbollah this summer, are undermining Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government.

The purpose of the overflights is to stop the smuggling of arms to Hizbullah, supported by Siniora's government.

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Palestinian Authority Threatens Life of Israeli Hostage

"Zahar: Hostage at risk JTA

The Palestinian Authority said Israel´s offensive in the Gaza Strip threatens the life of an Israeli soldier held hostage.

"This aggression may claim the life of the Israeli soldier," Mahmoud Zahar, the Palestinian Authority foreign minister, told the Egyptian news agency MENA over the weekend.

He was referring to Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was seized by Gazan gunmen in a deadly June 25 border raid. Israel has mounted several major military operations in Gaza since, most recently a sweep for Palestinian rocket crews in the northern town of Beit Hanoun."

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Rocket Lands Inside Woman's House

"Qassam lands inside house in Sderot, causing fire to erupt; one woman suffers from shock. Six rockets fall in Israel since Thursday morning, while army continues operations in Gaza.

Six rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip since Thursday morning, despite ongoing IDF incursions in Beit Hanoun area in the Strip, aimed at thwarting Qassam fire.

A rocket that was launched Thursday afternoon directly hit a house in the town of Sderot, setting fire to the place. One person was lightly injured by shrapnel and two others suffered from shock.

One of the residents who lives in the area said: "We heard an explosion and saw smoke billowing over the house. This area has sustained quite a few Qassam hits."

Meanwhile, two IDF soldiers who were injured during the army's operation in Beit Hanoun were evacuated to the Barzilay Hospital in Ashkelon.

Several Qassam rockets were fired Thursday morning from northern Gaza Strip and landed in open fields near Sufa Crossing, the town of Sderot and kibbutzim in the Western Negev."

Soldiers are dying. The war goes on. Prime Minister Olmert remains in office even though he is a complete failure and the UN force he brought in is helping the terrorists.

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Israel's Encirclement - Read it and Weep

Via the Jerusalem Post

"Last week Iran began enriching uranium in a second network of centrifuges. Just as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dropped nearly all pretenses about his intention to achieve nuclear weapons, so too he makes it clear daily that he intends to use such weapons to annihilate Israel.

The world's reaction to Iran's behavior is depressingly instructive. Russia tells us that we are being paranoid and continues to build the Bushehr nuclear plant. The Europeans cluck disapprovingly and threaten to pass a weak, "reversible" sanctions resolution in the UN Security Council whose main target is American security hawks. For his part, US President George W. Bush continues to adhere to the call for sanctions.

Nearly 10,000 French-commanded UNIFIL troops today protect Hizbullah in south Lebanon. And increasingly, they do so while provoking Israel. Last week two incidents took place between German naval forces and the IAF. Last Tuesday and Thursday IAF jets were scrambled when a German naval helicopter entered Israeli airspace after taking off from a German naval ship off Rosh Hanikra without permission or prior coordination.

What is most remarkable about the story is its repetition. Last Tuesday the German helicopter elicited a strong Israeli response. Rather than desist from provoking the IAF, the Germans repeated their action on Thursday. So what could have been viewed as a regrettable incident was transformed into a provocation.

Germany's hostile behavior is par for the course with UNIFIL. Two weeks ago French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie called the IAF's overflights of Lebanese airspace "extremely dangerous," and threatened that France's forces in Lebanon were liable to fire on the IAF flights "because they may be felt as hostile by forces of the coalition." By word and deed, UNIFIL forces are making clear that they view the IDF, not Hizbullah as their enemy. As they increase their provocations against Israel, UNIFIL forces turn a blind eye to weapons being smuggled daily to Hizbullah from Syria. Were Israel to attempt to take action against Hizbullah or Syria to prevent them from attacking in anticipation of an Israeli strike on Iran, there can be little doubt how UNIFIL would respond.

AND THERE is little that Israel today can do about UNIFIL. Olmert and Livni have been UNIFIL's most enthusiastic cheerleaders. They expended Israel's political capital convincing these hostile forces to perch themselves at our border. They then promised the Israeli public that the French would protect us. They are not in a position today to make demands.

Over the weekend, Egypt announced that it was deploying 5,000 troops (or "police" forces) along its border with the Gaza Strip in northern Sinai. The deployment was necessary, Egypt announced, to prevent Israel mounting a serious operation against the massive weapons smuggling that is quickly providing Palestinian terrorists with the means to transform Gaza into south Lebanon.

The fact that Egypt wishes to prevent Israel from stemming the flow of weapons to Gaza - which Egypt itself is supposed to be cutting off - should tell us all we need to know about Egypt's intentions. But apparently the government and Southern Command weren't listening. Sunday, Defense Minister Amir Peretz denied that Egyptian forces had been deployed along the border. An IDF commander in the Southern Command strangely expressed satisfaction at Egypt's move arguing that with the larger force Egypt would finally take action to prevent the arms transfers. The Foreign Ministry assured the public that the peace treaty with Egypt allows Cairo to deploy an unlimited number of "policemen" in the Sinai.

It is hard to decide which is more frightening, Egypt's move or Israel's response to it.

As MK Yuval Steinitz, former chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee explains, Egypt's sudden decision to deploy a massive force along the border is a strategic threat of the first order to Israel. "Egypt," he explains, "is taking advantage of the weakness and incompetence of the government."

Over the past decade, Egypt has been assiduously preparing its military for war against Israel. From the ideological indoctrination of its forces, to its massive armament programs, to the relocation of its military installations, units and logistical bases to both sides of the Suez Canal, to the training of its troops to fight "an unnamed country on Egypt's northern border," Steinitz warns that Egypt has done more than Iran to ready its forces for war against Israel.

Rather than protest Egypt's actions, successive Israeli governments have swallowed whole Egypt's strategic deception. Egypt protests friendship and pretends to combat terrorism and prevent weapons smuggling into the Sinai.

Yet under this friendly guise, Egypt has legitimized Palestinian terrorists and stood behind the massive weapons smuggling operations. As Steinitz puts it, "Egypt is to Palestinian terrorism what Syria is to Hizbullah.

"The weapons to the Palestinians are brought in through Egyptian ports and El-Arish and are imported by land from Sudan. Those latter imports have to traverse Egypt on their way to Gaza. There is no way that the Egyptian government is not colluding with the weapons shippers."

AS STEINITZ notes, over the past eight months the weapons being shipped to Gaza have been sharply upgraded. Egypt today is overseeing the import of sophisticated anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as upgraded Katyusha rockets to Palestinian terror groups.

And now Mubarak is sending 5,000 "policemen to the border." As Steinitz notes, Israel has no way of knowing who these forces are, whether they are police or commandos or infantry or anti-aircraft units. He warns, that "If Israel does nothing to prevent their deployment today, there is no reason to doubt that in a year or two there will be tens of thousands of Egyptian troops along the border with Israel."

As Steinitz notes, not only does every single Egyptian soldier deployed along the border have a job to do in time of war, today they are perched along the border with the Negev, where, as the government turns its back on them and the IDF applauds their deployment, they are within striking distance of some of the IDF's most important military bases and strategic installations.

Since 1993, Israel's leftist governments have consistently followed a strategy of transferring responsibility for our national security to our enemies. First it was Yasser Arafat who was supposed to fight Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Now it is his deputy Mahmoud Abbas, UNIFIL and Mubarak who are all supposed to fight Israel's enemies. Far from learning from our bloody experience that our enemies have no interest in protecting us, in recent months, the Olmert government has expanded tenfold our reliance on our enemies.

As if having hostile Europeans guarding genocidal Iranian proxies in the north, and hostile Egyptians guarding and arming genocidal Palestinians in the south weren't enough, Sunday it was reported that the Olmert government is considering allowing thousands of armed PLO terrorists from the Badr Brigade in Jordan to relocate to Gaza.

It doesn't have to be this way. Although barring a major Hizbullah provocation, it isn't clear what Israel can do against the UNIFIL forces now enabling Hizbullah to rearm, Israel can still prevent the Egyptian deployment. If the government loudly protested the move and publicly requested the Bush administration order Egypt to remove its forces, Mubarak would do so. But in light of the Olmert government's mishandling of every military challenge Israel has faced since it came to power just six month ago, it is hard to imagine it will act responsibly.

But really, we don't have to worry. Olmert won't let Iran get nuclear weapons.

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The Great Blood Libel of September 11

Via Smooth Stone

"Thanks to new media, ancient prejudices need never fade away. So it is that Jew hate, nothing if not adaptable, has become easier to disseminate than ever before. Bigotry as old as time can now be downloaded, podcast, cable cast, sat-phoned, text-messaged, downloaded, YouTubed across state lines, oceans, and all continental borders at the touch of a grimy button.

At this point, you never quite know where you're going to find it next, or what form it will take.

This year, I found it at Ground Zero.

I was handed a complimentary DVD by a 9/11 conspiracist. It was a newly enhanced version of the Protocols of the new millennium, the theory - simultaneously promulgated by elements of the far left, the far right, and fundamentalist Islam, people who in every other respect hate each others' guts and each others' every opinion - that it was Israel and the Mossad that brought down the World Trade Center.


The examples are endless, the conclusion one: The Jews did it. The Jew media covered it up. The Jews did it so that America would have to go to war, shedding the blood of Christian boys in a fight against Israel's Muslim enemies.

"Never in the history of the Jewish people has one terrible lie about 'Jewish control' spread so quickly and with such power, captivating not only those on the extreme fringe but the educated elite, particularly in the Muslim and Arab word," ADL National Director Foxman said in 2003.

"The Big Lie has been repeated by imams, the press and government officials in the Arab world, and is contributing to disturbing and dangerous mutations in global anti-Semitism."

Perhaps it was only inevitable, given the low purposes to which high-technology has been adapted, that the ADL found that one of the mutations is none other than that the one once spread by direct priest-peasant contact: the idea that the key ingredient in Passover matzo dough is the lifeblood of a Christian boy."

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New York Magazine Shreds 'My Name is Rachel Corrie' Play

"Though there’s still time for a protester or counterprotester to do something really dumb, l’affaire Corrie seems, finally, to be at an end...the play develops no cumulative power. For all the gravity of the material, her observations feel curiously weightless, offering no sense of why these bad things are happening all around her. In fact, the play is so thin that anybody who might have told Nicola not to proceed because of its politics seems misguided. For the love of John Stuart Mill, are these journal entries really damning enough to merit suppression? The e-mails of a young outsider who says “I’m really new to talking about Israel-Palestine” don’t seem terribly hard to refute, if you’re so inclined.

More than once, Corrie takes an oddly detached view of Palestinian violence, doubting that it could have “any impact” on the Israelis—a surprisingly clinical tone for such a sensitive advocate of social justice, as if it’s the body count incurred in a bus bombing that matters. I didn’t pick the example at random. While Corrie was in Gaza, a suicide bomber destroyed a bus in Haifa, killing fifteen people—mainly children—including an American girl even younger than Corrie, one involved in a program to reconcile Arab and Jewish students. There’s something poignant in the ways these two sad stories parallel each other and diverge. I can even imagine a drama using their deaths to tell us something new about the conflict, or help us better understand its whole horrible complexity. This play doesn’t."

Full review at New York Magazine

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Where is the fallout shelter for the rest of the country, Olmert?

"However, the government is quietly updating its preparations for a possible nuclear strike. Ephraim Sneh, the deputy defence minister, confirmed that a £300m nuclear shelter is being constructed in the Jerusalem hills for the Israeli war cabinet. “This will be a command and control centre that will be able to run the state of Israel during a war, even after a nuclear strike,” he said.

Many Israelis no longer trust their government to protect them. One man building a £60,000 nuclear shelter in his Tel Aviv garden said: “After the Lebanon war, I concluded that I have to protect my family, as I’m not sure the state will be able to do it.”

Where is the fallout shelter for the rest of the country, Olmert?

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Hezbollah Could Take Power in 5 Years

Hezbollah Could take Power in 5 Years

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Venezuela Refuses Visas to Israelis

Venezuela stops issuing tourist visas to Israelis

Venezuela has ceased issuing tourist visas to Israelis, its embassy in Israel said Monday, accenting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's harsh criticism of Israel.

However, a Venezuelan official claimed the halt was technical in nature. Chavez had called Israel's Lebanon campaign "a new Holocaust" (they set the bar for new Holocausts pretty low these days, don't they? Not to mention the bar for world leaders too)

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Raising Doubts About Lebanon's Civilian Casualties

Via Camera

The perception that Israel’s response to Hezbollah attacks was disproportionate, and that indiscriminate force was aimed at the Lebanese population, was largely a result of media reports on the casualty breakdown in Lebanon. Throughout the hostilities and after the fighting stopped, many news outlets unquestioningly accepted Lebanese claims that almost all Lebanese casualties were civilians. At the same time, they implicitly rejected or ignored Israel’s assertion that between 500-600 of the Lebanese fatalities were Hezbollah fighters. For example:

Hezbollah and its supporters have reason to exaggerate the number of Lebanese civilian casualties: it promotes the charge that Israel uses reckless and disproportionate force, and at the same time bolsters Hezbollah’s reputation by understating their battlefield losses.

On August 25, the Lebanese Higher Relief Council, an official government agency, estimated 1,187 Lebanese deaths in total resulting from the conflict. If, as AP reported, only 68 Hezbollah and 34 soldiers were killed, then it would be true that "an overwhelming majority," "nearly all," or "most" of the Lebanese casualties were civilians. But the number of Hezbollah fighters among the total dead is clearly much higher.

Even before the end of hostilities, Israel released a list of 196 Hezbollah fighters, individually identified by name, who were killed in fighting through Aug. 6, and at the same time estimated an additional 200 fighters were killed beyond those listed. (Israel has since updated its list of fighters to include 532 names.


By contrast, according to an Associated Press report from Aug. 6, Hezbollah admitted to losing only 53 fighters through Aug. 6. AP seemed to accept Hezbollah’s figure in its calculations, apparently subtracting the "53 guerrillas" acknowledged dead by Hezbollah from their count of the total dead to determine the number of civilian deaths: "Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 591 people, including 509 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas." And although the wire service did acknowledge that "Israeli officials said they have confirmed 165 dead guerrillas and even have their names and estimated that another 200 had been killed," it apparently discounted Israel’s assessment, and the possibility that some of the "509 civilians" might have actually been combatants. (AP, Aron Heller, Aug. 6, 2006)

Unlike many of its counterparts in the media, the Daily Telegraph has been candid about Hezbollah’s efforts to hide its casualties. An Aug. 4 piece by Con Coughlin in the Telegraph noted that

Although Hizbollah has refused to make public the extent of the casualties it has suffered, Lebanese officials estimate that up to 500 fighters have been killed in the past three weeks of hostilities with Israel, and another 1,500 injured.

Lebanese officials have also disclosed that many of Hizbollah's wounded are being treated in hospitals in Syria to conceal the true extent of the casualties. They are said to have been taken through al-Arissa border crossing with the help of Syrian security forces. ...

Hizbollah's operational council has drawn up casualty lists that have been passed to the Shaheed Foundation. Copies have been seen by The Daily Telegraph, and have also been obtained by Lebanese newspapers, which have been pressured by Hizbollah not to publish them."Hizbollah is desperate to conceal its casualties because it wants to give the impression that it is winning its war,'' said a senior security official. "People might reach a very different conclusion if they knew the true extent of Hizbollah's casualties." (emphasis added)

A few weeks later, Patrick Bishop of the Daily Telegraph reported:

UN officials believe that Hizbollah will not want to reignite the conflict, at least for a while. The organisation's culture of secrecy has disguised the true number of its casualties – funerals of "martyrs'' are being staggered to soften the impact of the losses. Some were interred without ceremony for re-burial later. A UN official estimated the deaths at 500, 10 per cent of the force Hizbollah is thought to muster ... (August 22, 2006)

Additionally, the Kuwait Times on August 30 reprinted a Stratfor article which reported that "Hezbollah has buried more than 700 fighters" from the recent fighting. This is in accord with a statement by Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, a former senior officer in Israeli military intelligence, who said in a public briefing reported by UPI, that:

... Hezbollah lost more than 500 men, even though it confirmed only some 60-odd killed. Israel identified 440 dead guerillas by name and address, and experience shows that Israeli figures are half to two-thirds of the enemy's real casualties. Therefore, Amidror estimated, Hezbollah's real death toll might be as high as 700. (Sept. 7, 2006)

More recently, Abraham Rabinovich reported in the Washington Times (Sept. 27) that Israel now had identified the names of 532 dead Hezbollah fighters and estimated at least 200 others had been killed.

Regardless, the accumulated evidence from various sources exposes as a deception Hezbollah’s claims to have lost 68 or 74 fighters .

Israel’s claim to have killed 500-600 Hezbollah fighters, meanwhile, is buttressed by the government’s partial list of names of Hezbollah fighters who died through Aug. 6, and is corroborated in some media reports.

These different assessments suggest that Hezbollah losses may have been comparable in number to the civilian losses in Lebanon. Allegations by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International–organizations often criticized for their disproportionate and deceptive focus on Israel–that Israel used indiscriminate force and even targeted civilians should be viewed warily in light of this evidence. And when casualty figures and breakdowns cited by news organizations are based on figures supplied by Hezbollah, Lebanese officials, or Israeli officials, those claims should be meticulously investigated for inconsistencies, and should not be reported as accepted fact.

See full post here

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A Short Guide to Those Obsessed with Peace

NO PEACE, NO PEACE PLANS, NO PRICE FOR PEACE

by Professor Moshe Sharon

Therefore, if anyone asks Israel for plans, the answer should be: no “plans,” no “suggestions,” no “constructive ideas,” in fact no negotiations at all. If the Arab side wants to negotiate, let it present its plans and its “ideas.” If and when it does, the first Israeli reaction should always be “unacceptable! Come with better ones.” If and when the time comes for serious negotiations, once the Arabs have lost all hope of annihilating
the Jewish state, here are ten rules for bargaining in the Middle Eastern bazaar:
* Never be the first to suggest anything to the other side. Never show any eagerness “to conclude a deal.” Let the opponent present his suggestions first. . Always reject; disagree. Use the phrase: “Not meeting the minimum demands,” and walk away, even a hundred times. A tough customer gets good prices.

* Don’t rush to come up with counter-offers. There will always be time for that. Let the other side make amendments under the pressure of your total “disappointment.” Patience is the name of the game: “haste is from Satan!”

* Never change your detailed plan to meet the other side “half way.” Remember, there is no “half way.” The other side also has a master plan. Be ready to quit negotiations when you encounter stubbornness on the other side.


* Never leave things unclear. Always avoid “creative phrasing” and “creative ideas” which are exactly what your Arab opponent wants. Remember the Arabs are masters of language. Playing with words is the Arab national sport. As in the market, so also at the negotiating table, always talk dollars and cents.

* Always bear in mind that the other side will try to outsmart you by presenting major issues as unimportant details. Regard every detail as a vitally important issue. Never postpone any problem “for a later occasion.” If you do so you will lose; remember that your opponent is always looking for a reason to avoid honoring agreements.

* Emotion belongs neither in the marketplace nor at the negotiating table. Friendly words as well as outbursts of anger, holding hands, kissing, touching cheeks, and embracing should not be interpreted as representing policy. * Beware of popular beliefs about the Arabs and the Middle East - “Arab honor” for example. Remember, you October 28, 2006but this has nothing to do with the issues under negotiation. Never do or say anything because somebody has told you that it is “the custom.” If the Arab side finds out that you are playing the anthropologist he will take advantage of it.

* Always remember that the goal of all negotiations is to make a profit. You should aim at making the highest profit in real terms. Remember that every gain is an asset for the future, because there is always going to be “another round.”

The Arabs have been practicing negotiation tactics for more than 2000 years. They are the masters of words, and a mine of endless patience. In contrast, Israelis (and Westerners in general) want quick “results.” In this part of the world there are no quick results, the hasty one always loses.

Moshe Sharon, Ph.D. Is professor of Islamic History at Hebrew U., Jerusalem

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Let Those People Go

32.4% of all Palestinians want to emigrate and leave Palestine Israel. 44% of Palestinians in the 20-30 year old range want to emigrate. For those even younger, the numbers surge to above 50%.

In short, from the total 2.5 million Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza combined, somewhere in the range of at least 1 million (if not more) want to leave to go elsewhere.

Yet what is stopping them?

Answer: Other countries don?t want more Arabs Palestinians for whatever reason. Yet, that would definitely bring peace to the Middle East (when 1 million leave the other million will follow). Benny Elon has again raised the idea of a fund to help Arab families immigrate.

Isn?t it time the rest of the world started putting their money where their mouth was.

Instead of trying to foist another terrorist state on the world and additional capitulations onto Israel, instead they should open their doors wide in the name of peace.

Via Joe Settler

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Jewish Family Attacked While Army Just Watched

Via Israel National News

Arabs nearly lynched two Jews north of Jerusalem on Wednesday, while IDF soldiers at a nearby lookout watched and took no action. Yehuda Karpelis and his wife Suzy, the victims of the near-lynching, say soldiers manning a nearby lookout admitted doing nothing beyond reporting the incident on their radio, while a group of Arabs attacked them mercilessly.

Yehuda and Suzy left their home in the Binyamin region town of Beit El at around 3 PM Tuesday. They drove down the main Highway 60 toward the capital, taking the Atarot road that connects to Route 443, the Jerusalem-Modiin highway which is the fastest route to Ben Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv.

As Yehuda approached the Kalandia Crossing, just before a traffic circle with a tall IDF lookout post in the middle, very close to a large checkpoint staffed by dozens of soldiers and police, the couple was attacked.

“We stopped at the circle, behind eight Arab vehicles, and others pulled up behind us," Karpelis told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine. “Three Arabs, about 17-years-old, saw that I was a Jew because of the kippa [yarmulke] on my head. One of them suddenly opened my door, grabbed my arm roughly and yelled in Arabic ‘inzil!’ [Get out! –ed.] He tried to drag me out of the car but I struggled with him. He then began hitting me with a large stone. As I fought him I beeped the horn. We weren’t able to escape because we were blocked in by Arab cars on all sides. One of [the Arabs] grabbed my cell phone and smashed the hands-free microphone installed in the car in the process.



Chaos erupted at the scene, Karpelis recalled, when finally a middle-aged Arab man interceded on their behalf, yelling at the attackers to cease and grabbing one of them. Yehuda continued:

“The attacker freed himself, ran away a bit and grabbed a large stone which he hurled at my window. G-d saved me a second time when the shatter-proof windows did not give way. They also tried on my wife’s side.

“To my astonishment, the assailant, who was some distance from the vehicle at that point, began to run toward us again like a maniac, trying to kick in the window with his feet like a ninja. It was clear to me that they wanted to kidnap or lynch us. We felt like only G-d was protecting us.

“The attacker tried once again and managed to get his hand through the window, where he grabbed all the papers he could from the door pocket. At that point they decided to run away, with our bags, my wife’s purse, daughter’s knapsack and my cell phone

When the cars in front of Karpelis finally moved, they pulled up to the guard booth at the checkpoint. “We drove past the crossing," Yehuda said, "and got to the armored guard booth. It was clear to me that the soldiers at the booth did not hear any of the riot, the beeping or the screams. When they heard the story, they alerted additional forces, and army and Border Police officers quickly arrived at the scene.”

Karpelis said that one of the border policemen was flabbergasted at the fact that the whole incident took place so close to a lookout post with nobody intervening on behalf of the endangered civilians. “He radioed the soldiers manning the lookout up in the pillbox,” Karpelis recounted. “The lookout confirmed that he had seen a number of Arabs fleeing the area with our bags. He asked the person at the lookout if he had seen what happened to us and if so why he didn’t do anything about it. The lookout answered that he reported what was occurring on his radio, but received no response. The border policeman asked why the lookout did not at least throw a shock grenade [which produces a frightening sound, but no shrapnel, and may have frightened away the attackers –ed.] or do something to help. The lookout had no answer.”

Karpelis believes that the men in the lookout simply did not want to complicate their lives with the investigations and legal problems that result from making a tough decision to intervene in such a crisis. “They saw everything that was happening to us and didn’t lift a finger.”

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French Foreign Minister says Israel Seperation Barrier Good

PARIS (EJP)--- French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy declared last week he has changed his opinion on Israel's controversial separation barrier in light of its drastic effect on terror, forcing French authorities to clarify their position on the issue.

The barrier, which separates the West Bank from the rest of Israel, has garnered much criticism for creating a ghetto-style situation for the Palestinians and for allegedly appropriating Palestinian land on the Israeli side.

But although the French government has been critical of it since the start of its construction four years ago, Douste-Blazy has now reversed the feeling.

“I have significantly evolved on the matter of the separation fence” said Douste-Blazy on French Jewish television TFJ on Thursday. “Although the wall was a moral and ethical problem for me, when I realised terror attacks were reduced by 80 percent in the areas where the wall was erected, I understood I didn’t have the right to think that way.”

Douste-Blazy is the first high ranking French official to openly state his support for the security fence.

Via EJP

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Israel Aborts Another Operation

GAZA CITY [MENL] -- A day after Israel threatened a major operation, the military withdrew from the Egypt-Gaza border, the leading route for weapons smuggling to the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli and Palestinian sources said about 1,000 Israeli troops, backed by main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers, left the 14-kilometer Egypt-Gaza border, termed Philadelphi, on Tuesday. The sources said the Israeli force searched and blew up dozens of suspected weapons tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip that reached the Sinai Peninsula. In all, about 100 tunnels were identified.

"The operation was aborted by the political leadership," an Israeli military source said. "We didn't come close to completing the mission."

Via: Boker Tov Boulder

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A Former Refusenik Speaks Out

A Former Refusenik's Disillusionment

I arrived in Israel exactly 19 years ago on the same date, in fact, that I write these words from the USSR, where Zionist life was thriving. I had come to the land of my dreams not as a refugee seeking a small place under the sun in whatever country was available, but as someone who knew why and for what purpose I had paved ? for over 17 years and often at risk to my life the road to Israel for myself and for many other Jews who shared my feelings and aspirations.

The word Zionism has acquired a negative connotation in Israel. The mass media, i.e., the country?s intellectual elite, inspire hatred between Jewish immigrants from different countries and obstruct the revival of a homogenous Jewish people after 2,000 years of dispersion.

The national bureaucracy hinders the integration of young people into Israel?s economic life and thus pushes them to leave the country. After 2001, when mention of national identity was removed from Israeli IDs, the word Jewish? virtually disappeared not only from official documents but also from the pages of newspapers. Even the anti-Semitic Soviet regime was never able to deliver such a blow to the national dignity of Jews.

In the last decades of the 20th century, the interests of Jewish national revival and those of Israel's national bureaucracy came into real conflict one that endangers the idea of the Jewish national home. We have witnessed how a persecuted and humiliated people?s glorious dream of a resurrected Israel has been reduced, by the national bureaucracy, to a venal vision of nurturing as many millionaires as possible.

The same individuals sit in the Knesset for decades. The intellectuals are concerned only with their personal success, while the mass media have turned into a mass brainwashing machine targeting poor, semi-literate and politically naïve citizens. New millionaires are appearing at a striking rate, while the reverse process of mass impoverishment is also accelerating. The middle class is gradually vanishing from the country?s economic life.

Ida Nudel
Karme Yosef, Israel

(Editor's Note: Ms. Nudel is a former Soviet Prisoner of Zion and a winner of the Jabotinsky Prize.)

Via: Jewish Press

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Half of Palestinians under 30 would leave Israel if Given a Chance

According to the Christian Science Monitor, "a growing number of Palestinians are openly saying they'd like to leave the West Bank and Gaza if given the chance, raising concern about the possibility of a Palestinian brain drain. The sentiment, which flouts the long-held Palestinian belief that Israeli occupation can only be resisted by staying put, is yet another indication of the deepening despair since Hamas was elected to run the government.

Birzeit University pollster Nader Said, who has monitored emigration attitudes for 12 years, says the percentage of Palestinians willing to relocate once hovered just below 20 percent. When that figure jumped to 32 percent in a September survey, Mr. Said says he was shocked.

Even more telling, adds Said, is that the percentage surges to 44 percent among Palestinians in their 20s and 30s. Among young men, it surges beyond 50 percent.

Malik Shawwa, a consultant specializing in obtaining Canadian visas, says his workload has jumped by two-thirds over the past seven months as more Palestinians ask about leaving. "This is the most important subject in the Palestinian territories," he says. "It's not just a matter of a lack of jobs. It's the situation. They're not secure. They don't trust the government."


It seems to me encouraging Arab emigration from Israel is a better approach than trying to retreat from every area with a large Arab population and forcibly deporting Jews tearing Israel apart. Arabs when given a chance would choose the good life in Europe and Europe seems to want them anyway. It's a match made in heaven or hell.

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Melanie Philips - Britain's Mad Hatred of Israel and America

Via: Jewish World Review

Fury at Prime Minister Blair for being President Bush's "poodle" has reached such a pitch that the most successful Labor prime minister in memory is being forced out of office because of his support for U.S. policy in Iraq and Israel. Labor's members of Parliament say his refusal to break with America by calling for an earlier cease-fire in Lebanon was the last straw. The disturbing fact is that Britain is consumed by a rampant anti-Americanism and an allied hostility toward Israel, which are driving public debate into irrationality, prejudice and appeasement.

Despite being an instinctive Atlanticist, Gordon Brown, the most likely successor as Labor prime minister, is thought to be only a reluctant backer of the war in Iraq, according to a new autobiography by former Labor minister David Blunkett. Meanwhile David Cameron, the new young leader of the opposition Conservative Party, made a speech last month distancing himself from U.S. foreign policy and blaming America for fanning the flames of anti-Americanism.

Much of Britain's anti-Americanism is driven by the usual suspects, such as far-left lawmaker George Galloway or newspapers such as the ultra-left Guardian. Galloway, for instance, said during an interview with GQ magazine earlier this year that the assassination of Blair by a suicide bomber would be "morally justified."

Left-wing discourse, now staple fare on the BBC and applauded even by conservatively minded audiences in panel discussions, proclaims that the United States is the fount of Third World oppression and the greatest threat to world peace.

The biggest single cause of British anti-Americanism, however, is Israel. Thus John Denham, chairman of the parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee, wrote that Israel's policies were making Britain a target for terror. America brought the 9/11 attacks upon itself, goes this type of thinking, because of its support for Israel — and the only reason Britain is now threatened by Islamic terror is because of Blair's support for the United States.


OPEN SEASON ON JEWS

This has opened a Pandora's box of anti-Jewish prejudice in Britain.

A recent report by the Parliamentary Committee Against Anti-semitism found that since 2000, anti-Semitism is on the rise in Britain. It is now common to read in the news media, for example, that the Jews are engaged in a global conspiracy that has subverted U.S. foreign policy to serve the interests of Israel and put the rest of the world at risk. In April, for instance, The Independent newspaper illustrated an interview on the subject of the "Israel lobby" in America with a picture of the American flag in which the stars of the union were replaced with the Stars of David. The headline: "The United States of Israel." Thus the prejudice against America is inextricably conflated with prejudice against Jews and the Jewish state.

The dismaying truth is that, even after the suicide bombings in London, America's defense of the free world against Islamic terror is widely viewed in Britain as the cause of that terror. The paranoid bigotry that drives the jihad — that the United States and its Jewish puppet masters make up a giant conspiracy of evil — is being increasingly echoed within Britain's non-Muslim population. The very idea that weakening the alliance with the United States would be in Britain's interests is madness. But in a country that has lost its way, rationality is a commodity in short supply.

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JNF Land Going To The Enemy

Via Smooth Stone

Generous Jews donated many millions of dollars to the Jewish National Fund/JNF for the purchase of land. What they may not know is that in Jerusalem, a portion of that land ends up in Arab hands. These are some of the very same Arabs that celebrate Israel's defeats and Arab suicide bombings, and refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Documented facts, supplied by Aryeh King, resident of eastern Jerusalem, were submitted to Avinoam Binder, Chief Israel Representative for Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, the Hebrew version of JNF, at his New York office.

Mr. Binder confirmed that large scale give-away of JNF lands to Arabs has been occurring through government decisions, and the failure of JNF to oppose those decisions. Four plots, which make up 772 dunams (approximately 193 acres) near Bethlehem, which had been purchased by JNF, are now unavailable to Jews. Mr. Binder explains that the military status of the area makes this problematic.

In north Jerusalem, the JNF owns an area that is known as Shoafat. Arieh King tells us that the plots were registered as belonging to the State, but they really belong to JNF and were purchased by JNF.

Today, the area is the site of hundreds of buildings occupied by Arabs whose Orange ID's theoretically keep them from entering Jerusalem, however, they live inside Jerusalem. The JNF does nothing to remove the Arab squatters from the land. There is also a "refugee" camp on the site, housing about 10,000 persons. When asked why they are not removed, Avinoam Binder replied,"How could so many be removed and relocated?" I pointed out to him that the government had no problem removing 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and setting them down wherever they might land. He smiled at the impossibility of the thought that Israel would try to do the same thing to Arabs. He agreed that scant attention is paid to the Jewish Gush Katif refugees.

In northern Jerusalem, near the Atarot airport, to which Jews dare not travel today, there are thousands of dunams (calculate approx. 4 per acre) that are owned by the JNF. This land exists between the airport, in the top of the finger of Jerusalem, and the borders of the Jerusalem municipality. Avinoam Binder shrugs his shoulders helplessly when questioned as to why this land is being sold to Arabs.

The ghastly wall that scars its way through Jerusalem is also leaving huge tracts of JNF land on the "Arab" side. Once again, JNF looks at this as a decision by the government of Israel, and one they refuse to appeal.

JNF donors, who were under the impression they were reclaiming holy Jewish land through their generosity, will be dismayed to learn that NO land was purchased by JNF in Jewish east Jerusalem in the past twenty years. And with the above information as evidence, land that was purchased for Jewish use has been released into Arab hands.

JNF donors should be outraged by this situation. Questions should be asked whether similar situations are occurring throughout Israel. Is JNF land in the Galilee and the Negev falling into Arab hands? If you are a donor operating on the premise that JNF money is going into Jewish projects protected by that organization, you should immediately request an accounting.

Write to register your protest:

Avinoam Binder at Jewish National Fund,
42 East 69th Street,
New York, NY 10021
abinder@jnf.org
http://www.jnf.org/

Resolve not to give any more money to JNF unless there can be a guarantee that Arabs will not profit from your gift. Send this information to your local newspapers and radio stations. Take part in alerting generous Jews to the deception perpetrated upon them.

Contact Arieh King in Jerusalem for more details - kingshir@bezeqint.net

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High Priestess of the Palestinian State by Don Feder

If the State Department has a religion, it’s Palestinian statehood. On its altar, diplomats are eager to sacrifice the security of America’s only reliable Middle East ally and, ultimately, our own security as well.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has become the high priestess of this cult – muttering mystic incantations about Palestinian suffering under the brutal Israeli occupation and how a Palestinian state would be the crowning achievement of American foreign policy, much the way the Munich pact was the Olympic gold of British diplomacy.

Her recent address to the American Palestine Task Force was modestly described by the Zionist Organization of America as the “most pro-Palestinian Arab, anti-Israel speech in memory by a major U.S. administration official.”

In her remarks, Rice confessed, “I believe that there could be no greater legacy for America than to help bring into being a Palestinian state for a people who” suffer the “daily humiliation.” of living under the so-called Israeli occupation.

This is the way our secretary of state chooses to characterize the nation that has been our steadfast friend for 60 years (brutal occupying power), to demonstrate her devotion for a people who celebrated the slaughter of 3,000 Americans on 9/11 by dancing in the streets of Ramallah.

As a student of history, Rice observed, I know that “there are so many things that once seemed impossible that, after they happened, simply seemed inevitable.” She wasn’t talking about the improbable rise of Nazism in Germany, which would be an apt comparison here.

Scholar that she is, Rice had another political movement in mind, “By all rights, America, the United States of America (in case her audience thought she was referring to another America), should never have come into being,” the lady declared.

To compare Washington, Adams and Jefferson to Arafat, Abbas and the mad bombers of Hamas is kinky, to say the least. Our Founding Fathers were men of learning, achievement and discernment, not a gang of Allah-intoxicated savages. They demonstrated their courage by pledging their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, not by turning mothers and children into smoldering lumps of mangled flesh.

“The Palestinian people deserve a better life, a life that is rooted in liberty, democracy, uncompromised by violence and terrorism,” Rice inanely proclaimed.

What the French are to cuisine and collaboration, the Palestinians are to violence and terrorism.

In January of this year, the Palestinians gave Hamas control of their legislature. It’s not that the rival gang (Fatah) isn’t also a terrorist entity. It’s just that Hamas is more bloodthirsty and fanatical – good things in the eyes of the worthy Palestinian people. Gary Bauer summarized the election’s outcome with the observation, “Faced with a choice, the Palestinian voters picked the most ardent and committed Jew-haters and America-haters.”

In recent opinion polls, 61 percent of Palestinians supported suicide bombings and terrorism, 56 percent favored rocket attacks on civilian targets, 75 percent endorsed the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers (which sparked a mini-war on Israel’s northern border in July and August), and 97 percent were pro-Hezbollah.

Palestinian tastes run to Protocols-of-Elders-of-Zion-type anti-Semitism, “honor killing” of women suspected of adultery, the brutal murder of Israeli civilians, and the sectarian-cleansing of Nazareth and Bethlehem, once overwhelmingly Christian cities.

In the aftermath of Pope Benedict XVI’s speech at a Bavarian university, which included a quote by a 14th century Byzantine emperor, the state-run television station of the Palestinian Authority described the pontiff as “arrogant,” “stupid,” and “criminal.” The pope will be judged by Allah on the day “when eyes stare in terror,” the jihad network predicted.

Hey, the Palestinians need a symbol for their state, right – like Uncle Sam for the U.S. or John Bull for the Brits? How about the mother of a suicide bomber decked out in fashionable black robes describing her pride and pleasure that her martyr son did Allah’s will by detonating himself along with as many innocents as possible?

Rice could look far and wide and not find worse candidates for creating a nation where democracy, tolerance, and pluralism will reign than the Palestinians.

But Condi is more than a ditzy cheerleader for Palestinian nationalism. She’s also a facilitator par excellence. A year ago, Ms. Rice brokered the deal to hand Gaza over to the terrorists, which entailed 7,500 Jews being driven from their homes.

It wasn’t long before the Minutemen of the Middle East were expressing their gratitude for this by rocket attacks on Israel’s southern settlements (45 in September alone).

Rice pressured Israel into turning over checkpoints on the Gaza/Sinai border to a joint force of Palestinians and Egyptians. Since then, Palestinian terrorists (excuse the redundancy) have smuggled 15 tons of explosives over the border, as well as quantities of rifles, ammunition, rockets and other weapons and munitions. Condi must be very popular with Israelis just a rocket’s shot from Gaza.

Now she wants the U.S. to fund an expansion of Abbas’s Presidential Guard from 2,500 to 6,000 troops. She also wants Israel to approve the transfer of additional weapons to the ironically misnamed Palestinian security forces. Toys for Terrorists?

If Condoleezza Rice has a favorite Palestinian, it’s Mahmoud Abbas, president of the “Palestinian Authority.”

In the fantasy realm Rice has constructed, Abbas is the moderate working feverishly for democracy and human rights in Jihadistan, as well as for an enduring peace with Israel. Good Abbas and his noble Fatah party are contrasted with the terrorist black hats of Hamas.

On her Middle East trip earlier this month, Rice told reporters she had “great admiration” for the president of the Palestinians, and praised his “willingness” to restart negotiations with the Israelis (so gracious of him).

“You have the strong commitment of the United States to that cause and the personal commitment of me,” the secretary of state simpered.

Palestine’s George Washington was Arafat’s chief deputy for 40 years and helped him to found Fatah. Abbas was paymaster for the Munich Olympics assassins. His Ph.D. thesis on why the Holocaust never happened reads like David Duke’s memoirs.

Abbas’s party, Fatah, was the undisputed master of the Palestinian Authority until January, when it lost the aforementioned legislative elections to Hamas. (It still controls the presidency.) Fatah and Hamas are rival gangs – like the Capone mob and Bugs Moran’s boys – engaged in a turf war. One is more religious, the other more ideological. Otherwise, there’s no difference..

Both are anti-American. Both seek the destruction of Israel. Both are willing to wade through a river of blood to reach their goals. Both envision a Palestinian state which will resemble a hybrid of Syria and Iran – without the amenities.

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There’s an assiduously cultivated myth that unlike Hamas, Abbas recognizes Israel. Abbas has made it quite clear that he recognizes his Israeli counterparts for purposes of negotiations (when he thinks he can get something) – not Israel’s legitimacy or claim to any territory.
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The charter of Abbas’ party calls for the annihilation of Israel. Maps of the Palestinian Authority show Palestine from the Jordan to the sea. In a 2004 interview on Iranian television, then PA Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddoumi said Fatah’s embrace of a two-state solution was a feint. “At this stage, there will be two states. Many years from now, there will be one state.”
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Abu Ahmed, a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (Fatah’s terrorist auxiliary) is frank: “The base of our Fatah movement keeps dreaming of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Aco. There has been no change in our position (vis a vis the Zionist entity). Abbas recognizes Israel because of the pressure that the Zionists and the Americans are exercising on him. We understand this is part of his obligations and political calculations.” It’s an act to get the dumb Americans to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the Palestinian Authority and pressure Jerusalem into giving in to his latest demand.
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The Brigades are responsible for every suicide bombing inside Israel in the last two years. Rice’s State Department considers the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades a terrorist group. Members of the Brigades are members of Fatah. It was started by Arafat. When they overran Fatah headquarters in 2003, the Israelis discovered documentation that the party had recently transferred $50,000 to the Brigades. With the Brigades, Abbas can have it both ways – playing the sober, business-suited diplomat for the West, while acting as the terrorist chieftain for his own people.
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Abbas has authorized the payment of annuities to the families of suicide bombers. Of both Hamas and the Brigades, Rice’s favorite Palestinian politician says, “Israel calls them terrorists, we call them strugglers.” Also, “Allah loves the martyr.” Suicide bombers should be recognized as “heroes fighting for freedom.” He’s also praised the Islamic lunatics of Hezbollah as a shining example of what he calls the “Arab resistance.”
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A year ago, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began raving about wiping Israel off the face of the earth, Abbas’s party in Gaza distributed flyers proclaiming, “We affirm our support and backing for the positions of the Iranian president toward the Zionist state which, by God’s will, will cease to exist.”

By the will of Allah – and with the unwitting support of Condoleezza Rice.

In her speech to the American Palestinian Task Force, Rice described Palestinian statehood as the impossible dream that we must dare to dream nonetheless.

It’s more like the inevitable nightmare. Everyone wants it. Its boosters include Tony Blair, the European Union, the UN, Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush, the Saudis, the Arab League, the Conference of Islamic Organizations, al Qaeda, Iranian mullahs, Bashar Assad, etc., etc. At least half of Israel, including the Olmert government, is willing to go along with it.

The two-state solution is a one-state solution in disguise.

With a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza, Israel will lose strategic depth. It will be 9 miles wide at its narrow waist. It will lose the high ground of Judea and Samaria. Most of its population and industry will be within mortar- and rocket- range. Instead of a 40-mile eastern border, its new border with the State of Palestine will be over 400 miles long.

For their future security, Israelis will have to trust in the good will of Mahmoud Abbas, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Hamas and al-Qaeda (which is already operating in Gaza). Apologies to the M*A*S*H theme song, but this suicide will not be painless.

Who knows, perhaps Abbas and company will erect a statue of Secretary Rice (their Marquis de Lafayette) in the future Palestinian state – just after they demolish the Knesset and Western wall, turn Yad Vashem into a mosque and drive the Jews into the sea.

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