Makes you wonder why President Bush and the State Department came out calling for a Palestinian state, fell over themselves welcoming Mazen to the scene, oppose the fence, oppose settlements, refuse to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and routinely caution Israel to exercise restraint when it tries to defend its people.
In fact, we can go back to other Presidents, like Bush Sr. who withheld flight codes from Israel during the Gulf War to ensure they wouldn't retaliate for the Scud bombings, and Reagan, who groveled at nazi graves at Bitburg and sold AWACS to the Saudis.
We also wonder why Congress is going to reduce loan guarantees dollar for dollar to the extent they finance settlement-building (and possibly fence-building).
We also can't explain how less than 15 million Jews in the entire world, the majority of them not Israeli, can "occupy" an America in which they constitute less than 2% of the population. Nor can we explain how "every" American politician is controlled by the Jewish magic wand when most of those politicians represent districts with few or no Jews.
Let's face it. Jews don't cause evil in others. Those already devoted to evil causes will invariably start by hating Jews, who are the collective canary in the mine.
November 30, 2003
A Smooth Stone "We Told You So": Muslim Bush appointee blasts President
Muslim Bush appointee blasts president
Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl, originally of Egypt, was appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent panel established by Congress that makes policy recommendations to the president and secretary of state.
In an interview with an Arab weekly, Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl, appointed by George W. Bush to a religious freedom panel charged the president's policies are driven by a Christian, religious fundamentalism from the colonial era and urged that Bush not be re-elected.
Interview excerpts were published by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Insitute.
We invite you to read the rest of El Fadl's comments, which reek of arrogance and superiority. Here's hoping that this will teach Bush a lesson to not appease one's enemies, or you'll end up with a knife in your back.
Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl, originally of Egypt, was appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent panel established by Congress that makes policy recommendations to the president and secretary of state.
In an interview with an Arab weekly, Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl, appointed by George W. Bush to a religious freedom panel charged the president's policies are driven by a Christian, religious fundamentalism from the colonial era and urged that Bush not be re-elected.
Interview excerpts were published by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Insitute.
We invite you to read the rest of El Fadl's comments, which reek of arrogance and superiority. Here's hoping that this will teach Bush a lesson to not appease one's enemies, or you'll end up with a knife in your back.
November 29, 2003
The year the Arabs discovered Palestine
From Daniel Pipes:
Today is the day when a Palestinian state was nearly declared - for the third time.
On October 1, 1948, the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Husseini, stood before the Palestine National Council in Gaza and declared the existence of an All-Palestine Government.
In theory, this state already ruled Gaza and would soon control all of Palestine. Accordingly, it was born with a full complement of ministers to lofty proclamations of Palestine's free, democratic, and sovereign nature. But the whole thing was a sham. Gaza was run by the
Egyptian government, the ministers had nothing to oversee, and the All-Palestine
Government never expanded anywhere. Instead, this fa�ade quickly withered away.
Almost exactly forty years later, on November 15, 1988, a Palestinian state was again proclaimed, again at a meeting of the Palestine National Council.
This time, Yasser Arafat called it into being. In some ways, this state was even more futile than the first, being proclaimed in Algiers, almost 3,000 kilometers and four borders away from Palestine, and controlling not a centimeter of the territory it claimed. Although the Algiers declaration received enormous attention at the time (the Washington Post's front-page story read "PLO Proclaims Palestinian State"), a dozen years later it is nearly as forgotten as the Gazan declaration that preceded it.
In other words, today's declaration of a Palestinian state would have retreaded some well-worn ground.
We do not know what today's statement would have said, but like the 1988 document it probably would have claimed that "the Palestinian Arab people forged its national identity" in distant antiquity.
In fact, the Palestinian identity goes back, not to antiquity, but precisely to 1920. No "Palestinian Arab people" existed at the start of 1920 but by December it took shape in a form recognizably similar to today's.
Until the late nineteenth century, residents living in the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean identified themselves primarily in terms of religion: Moslems felt far stronger bonds with remote co-religionists than with nearby Christians and Jews. Living in that area did not imply any sense of common political purpose.
Then came the ideology of nationalism from Europe; its ideal of a government that embodies the spirit of its people was alien but appealing to Middle Easterners. How to apply this ideal, though? Who constitutes a nation and where must the boundaries be? These questions stimulated huge debates.
Some said the residents of the Levant are a nation; others said Eastern Arabic speakers; or all Arabic speakers; or all Moslems.
But no one suggested "Palestinians," and for good reason. Palestine, then a secular way of saying Eretz Yisra'el or Terra Sancta, embodied a purely Jewish and Christian concept, one utterly foreign to Moslems, even repugnant to them.
This distaste was confirmed in April 1920, when the British occupying force carved
out a "Palestine." Moslems reacted very suspiciously, rightly seeing this designation as a victory for Zionism. Less accurately, they worried about it signaling a revival in the Crusader impulse. No prominent Moslem voices endorsed the delineation of Palestine in 1920; all protested it.
Instead, Moslems west of the Jordan directed their allegiance to Damascus, where the
great-great-uncle of Jordan's King Abdullah II was then ruling; they identified themselves as Southern Syrians.
Interestingly, no one advocated this affiliation more emphatically than a young man named Amin Husseini. In July 1920, however, the French overthrew this Hashemite king, in the process killing the notion of a Southern Syria.
Isolated by the events of April and July, the Moslems of Palestine made the best of a bad situation. One prominent Jerusalemite commented, just days following the fall of the Hashemite kingdom: "after the recent events in Damascus, we have to effect a complete change in our plans here. Southern Syria no longer exists. We must defend Palestine."
Following this advice, the leadership in December 1920 adopted the goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state. Within a few years, this effort was led by Husseini.
Other identities - Syrian, Arab, and Moslem - continued to compete for decades afterward with the Palestinian one, but the latter has by now mostly swept the others aside and reigns nearly supreme.
That said, the fact that this identity is of such recent and expedient origins suggests that the Palestinian primacy is superficially rooted and that it could eventually come to an end, perhaps as quickly as it got started.
November 27, 2003
Muslim rioters burn 13 churches in Nigeria. Did you hear about it on the news? We didn't.
Muslim rioters burn 13 churches in Nigeria last week
Last week, Islamic militants burned to the ground thirteen churches and several houses in a remote northern Nigerian town after a Christian student was accused of blasphemy, police said on Thursday.
"Irate youths" torched churches, houses and shops late on Tuesday in Kazaure, some 80 km (50 miles) north of Kano, a northern provincial capital where hundreds have died in religious clashes in the past three years.
The dispute began when a Christian student was accused of insulting the "prophet" Mohammad and a group of Muslim hoodlums were not satisfied with the response of school authorities.
The Smooth Stone team wants to ask our readers - did you hear about the riots on the news? We didn't. So, while millions of Americans were tortured repeatedly with the story about Michael Jackson's alleged relationships with little boys, and that CAIR was offended by a Johnny Hart B.C. comic strip, and that Scott Peterson might or might not get away with murdering his wife, the mainstream media, who just adores Islamic Fascism, ensured that no one woud hear that Muslims were, once again, living up to their reputation.
Here are some links to newsfeeds and Christian sites that did report Muslim rioters burning 13 churches in Nigeria:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1025648/posts
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06376353.htm
http://www.hcjb.org/displayarticle1156.html
Last week, Islamic militants burned to the ground thirteen churches and several houses in a remote northern Nigerian town after a Christian student was accused of blasphemy, police said on Thursday.
"Irate youths" torched churches, houses and shops late on Tuesday in Kazaure, some 80 km (50 miles) north of Kano, a northern provincial capital where hundreds have died in religious clashes in the past three years.
The dispute began when a Christian student was accused of insulting the "prophet" Mohammad and a group of Muslim hoodlums were not satisfied with the response of school authorities.
The Smooth Stone team wants to ask our readers - did you hear about the riots on the news? We didn't. So, while millions of Americans were tortured repeatedly with the story about Michael Jackson's alleged relationships with little boys, and that CAIR was offended by a Johnny Hart B.C. comic strip, and that Scott Peterson might or might not get away with murdering his wife, the mainstream media, who just adores Islamic Fascism, ensured that no one woud hear that Muslims were, once again, living up to their reputation.
Here are some links to newsfeeds and Christian sites that did report Muslim rioters burning 13 churches in Nigeria:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1025648/posts
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06376353.htm
http://www.hcjb.org/displayarticle1156.html
Letter to American soldiers in Iraq
Letter to American soldiers in Iraq
Dear American Soldier in Iraq:
I am writing to you simply as a fellow American.
In just about every way, I am quite typical. I am a married man with three children, believe in God and love my country. I differ, however, from many Americans in a couple of ways.
First, my vocation – radio talk-show host and columnist – makes me a professional communicator. So I might be able to say things that most other Americans feel but could not communicate quite as clearly.
Second, and more important, I suspect that more than some Americans, though hardly more than President Bush and his administration, I am keenly aware of the fragility of civilization, of the monumental evil you are fighting, and of the historic mission of America.
For these reasons, I am writing to you. Though you may already know everything I am about to say, I need to say it for those of you who, after seeing fellow soldiers blown up or severely injured, may sometimes wonder whether these sacrifices are worth it.
So, first, let me set the record straight. Not since World War II have the stakes been this great. This is a war for the future of civilization every bit as much as the war against German Nazism and Japanese Fascism was. If we had lost that war, the world would have devolved into barbarism.
If we lose this one, the same will happen.
It was a war for civilization then; the war against Islamic Fascism is such a war today.
Of course, there are hundreds of millions of fine people among the world's 1.3 billion Muslims. But that is, unfortunately, as irrelevant to understanding today's war as the fact that there were millions of fine Germans living in Hitler's Germany was to understanding World War II.
It is not the fine Muslims who rule most Muslim countries, some of which are among the cruelest on earth. It is not the fine Muslims who dominate the Islamic schools around the world that teach that it is right to subjugate women and to slit Christians' and Jews' throats. It is not the fine Muslims who wish to impose a violent, hate-filled religion on others. It is not the fine Muslims who burned 13 churches in Nigeria just last week.
And sadly, most of the fine Muslims, including those in America, rarely condemn their civilization-threatening co-religionists.
Iraq is the battleground for civilization. That is why our enemies are throwing everything they can at you. If you help create the first free and tolerant Arab country in the heart of Islam, they are doomed. If we fail in Iraq, we are doomed. Our enemies know this. We need to know this.
Second, don't be discouraged by America's relative aloneness in the world. The world is not, by and large, a good place. And the United Nations, which reflects the world, reflects that fact. That is why Libya, a police state that ordered the mass murder known as the 1988 bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, is not only on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, it is the head of the commission. And Syria, which is worse than Libya, judges us on the Security Council.
As for Europe, Britain and a few other Western states aside, the folks who gave us Auschwitz and communism, and who now bankroll Iran and North Korea, hardly have a claim to moral superiority. Americans like you died for their errors. They never died for ours. And they err again. Instead of learning to fight evil, they have only learned that fighting is evil.
Third, we Americans are relatively alone because from our founding we have believed that we have a mission to better the world. And for this we are hated. We are not hated for our power; we are hated for our values and our sense of chosenness – just as the never powerful Jews have long been hated for their values and their chosenness.
In sum, you are carrying the great burden of history on your shoulders every day you serve in Iraq. That some of your fellow citizens do not understand this only means that the war for civilization is taking place as much here at home as it is in Iraq.
We pray for you not only because you are our sons and daughters risking your lives, but because if God is good, and if we humans can discern between good and evil, you are doing God's work. It is as clear as that. No American war has ever been clearer.
Letter to American soldiers in Iraq by Dennis Prager
Dear American Soldier in Iraq:
I am writing to you simply as a fellow American.
In just about every way, I am quite typical. I am a married man with three children, believe in God and love my country. I differ, however, from many Americans in a couple of ways.
First, my vocation – radio talk-show host and columnist – makes me a professional communicator. So I might be able to say things that most other Americans feel but could not communicate quite as clearly.
Second, and more important, I suspect that more than some Americans, though hardly more than President Bush and his administration, I am keenly aware of the fragility of civilization, of the monumental evil you are fighting, and of the historic mission of America.
For these reasons, I am writing to you. Though you may already know everything I am about to say, I need to say it for those of you who, after seeing fellow soldiers blown up or severely injured, may sometimes wonder whether these sacrifices are worth it.
So, first, let me set the record straight. Not since World War II have the stakes been this great. This is a war for the future of civilization every bit as much as the war against German Nazism and Japanese Fascism was. If we had lost that war, the world would have devolved into barbarism.
If we lose this one, the same will happen.
It was a war for civilization then; the war against Islamic Fascism is such a war today.
Of course, there are hundreds of millions of fine people among the world's 1.3 billion Muslims. But that is, unfortunately, as irrelevant to understanding today's war as the fact that there were millions of fine Germans living in Hitler's Germany was to understanding World War II.
It is not the fine Muslims who rule most Muslim countries, some of which are among the cruelest on earth. It is not the fine Muslims who dominate the Islamic schools around the world that teach that it is right to subjugate women and to slit Christians' and Jews' throats. It is not the fine Muslims who wish to impose a violent, hate-filled religion on others. It is not the fine Muslims who burned 13 churches in Nigeria just last week.
And sadly, most of the fine Muslims, including those in America, rarely condemn their civilization-threatening co-religionists.
Iraq is the battleground for civilization. That is why our enemies are throwing everything they can at you. If you help create the first free and tolerant Arab country in the heart of Islam, they are doomed. If we fail in Iraq, we are doomed. Our enemies know this. We need to know this.
Second, don't be discouraged by America's relative aloneness in the world. The world is not, by and large, a good place. And the United Nations, which reflects the world, reflects that fact. That is why Libya, a police state that ordered the mass murder known as the 1988 bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, is not only on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, it is the head of the commission. And Syria, which is worse than Libya, judges us on the Security Council.
As for Europe, Britain and a few other Western states aside, the folks who gave us Auschwitz and communism, and who now bankroll Iran and North Korea, hardly have a claim to moral superiority. Americans like you died for their errors. They never died for ours. And they err again. Instead of learning to fight evil, they have only learned that fighting is evil.
Third, we Americans are relatively alone because from our founding we have believed that we have a mission to better the world. And for this we are hated. We are not hated for our power; we are hated for our values and our sense of chosenness – just as the never powerful Jews have long been hated for their values and their chosenness.
In sum, you are carrying the great burden of history on your shoulders every day you serve in Iraq. That some of your fellow citizens do not understand this only means that the war for civilization is taking place as much here at home as it is in Iraq.
We pray for you not only because you are our sons and daughters risking your lives, but because if God is good, and if we humans can discern between good and evil, you are doing God's work. It is as clear as that. No American war has ever been clearer.
Letter to American soldiers in Iraq by Dennis Prager
November 26, 2003
Israeli Doctors Working to Save Iraqi Baby
Israeli Doctors Working to Save Iraqi Baby
In an act of compassion that sometimes seems unimaginable in that war-torn part of the world, Israeli doctors worked Wednesday to save the life of an Iraqi baby who was born with a congenital heart defect.
We wonder if a Muslim doctor in a Muslim nation would try to save the life of an Israeli Jewish baby.
What do you think?
In an act of compassion that sometimes seems unimaginable in that war-torn part of the world, Israeli doctors worked Wednesday to save the life of an Iraqi baby who was born with a congenital heart defect.
We wonder if a Muslim doctor in a Muslim nation would try to save the life of an Israeli Jewish baby.
What do you think?
WorldNetDaily: The priorities of Muslim-Americans by Joseph Farah
WorldNetDaily: The priorities of Muslim-Americans
American Muslims need to get their priorities straight.
Synagogues and consulates are being attacked in Turkey. U.S. troops are fighting an Iraqifada. And Palestinian Arabs continue to blow themselves up in suicide-homicide attacks on Israeli citizens.
It's clear there is a worldwide terror jihad being waged by a small minority of the planet's 1.1 billion Muslims against the West, Jews, Christians and anyone who cooperates with them.
And where are American Muslims – or, at least the groups and leaders who claim to represent them – focusing their attention?
Click here to read the rest of Mr. Farah's excellent article.
American Muslims need to get their priorities straight.
Synagogues and consulates are being attacked in Turkey. U.S. troops are fighting an Iraqifada. And Palestinian Arabs continue to blow themselves up in suicide-homicide attacks on Israeli citizens.
It's clear there is a worldwide terror jihad being waged by a small minority of the planet's 1.1 billion Muslims against the West, Jews, Christians and anyone who cooperates with them.
And where are American Muslims – or, at least the groups and leaders who claim to represent them – focusing their attention?
Click here to read the rest of Mr. Farah's excellent article.
WorldNetDaily: Al-Qaida terrorists to gas U.S. subways?
WorldNetDaily: Al-Qaida terrorists to gas U.S. subways?
Al-Qaida terrorists have developed a crude device designed to spread deadly cyanide gas through the ventilation systems of crowded indoor facilities such as subways, according to a closely held security directive issued to law enforcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and obtained exclusively by WorldNetDaily.
Marked "For Official Use Only," the five-page memo issued Friday says the device produces cyanogen chloride gas and hydrogen cyanide gas, and can be placed near air intakes or ventilation systems in crowded open spaces or enclosed spaces.
Citing "recent information" from al-Qaida sources, the directive also warns of possible car-bombings in America, as first reported yesterday by WorldNetDaily, and advises security officials to take code-red protective measures to guard government buildings and gas and other chemical plants.
"Al-Qaida remains intent on using chemical or biological agents in attacks on the homeland," says the internal warning. "Terrorists have designed a crude chemical dispersal device fabricated from commonly available materials, which is designed to asphyxiate its victims."
"Al-Qaida continues to plan attacks against U.S. targets," the memo asserts. Quelle surprise. So while the Left argues that Bush is fighting an immoral war, non-Muslims will continue to be slaughtered by an immoral unevolved culture.
Al-Qaida terrorists have developed a crude device designed to spread deadly cyanide gas through the ventilation systems of crowded indoor facilities such as subways, according to a closely held security directive issued to law enforcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and obtained exclusively by WorldNetDaily.
Marked "For Official Use Only," the five-page memo issued Friday says the device produces cyanogen chloride gas and hydrogen cyanide gas, and can be placed near air intakes or ventilation systems in crowded open spaces or enclosed spaces.
Citing "recent information" from al-Qaida sources, the directive also warns of possible car-bombings in America, as first reported yesterday by WorldNetDaily, and advises security officials to take code-red protective measures to guard government buildings and gas and other chemical plants.
"Al-Qaida remains intent on using chemical or biological agents in attacks on the homeland," says the internal warning. "Terrorists have designed a crude chemical dispersal device fabricated from commonly available materials, which is designed to asphyxiate its victims."
"Al-Qaida continues to plan attacks against U.S. targets," the memo asserts. Quelle surprise. So while the Left argues that Bush is fighting an immoral war, non-Muslims will continue to be slaughtered by an immoral unevolved culture.
November 25, 2003
Two online Holocaust databases are now available
The Yad Vashem National Holocaust memorial unveiled a project 11/17/2003 that will eventually give internet users access to biographical information on more than half of the 6 million Jewish Holocaust victims, the largest such database in the world.
The project capped years of work and tens of millions of dollars spent by Yad Vashem, which memorializes Nazi Germany's destruction of European Jewry during World War II. By entering data - including name, birth date, place of birth and occupation - users all over the world will be able to sift through the museum's vast files on Holocaust victims.
The project, which will give open access to the largest compilation of Holocaust information anywhere, will be fully operational in June of 2004, said Zvi Newman, a Yad Vashem spokesman.
"Everything we have on our files will soon be available to people regardless of where they are," Newman said. "This includes testimony from relatives and friends about the victim, photos, witness confirmation of the victim's death, and other relevant data."
Internet users would be able to add new names and new information to existing files and correct any mistakes the files may contain, he said. "The time is approaching when the last of the Holocaust survivors will no longer be alive," Newman said. "Our mission is to ensure that the memory of the Holocaust endures. This project is a major part of the process."
The project was unveiled at the annual convention of the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities of North America, an umbrella organization that donates more than US$200 million annually to Israel. It is holding its convention in Jerusalem for only the second time in its 70 year history.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=361698
--------------------------------------------------------
'Gold Train' Internet database
Holocaust survivors from Hungary can now surf the Web to find property allegedly stolen by the Nazis and later seized by U.S. forces. The Web site,
http://www.hagens-berman.com/goldtrain,
has pictures and descriptions of the personal effects seized by U.S. forces when they captured a Nazi train laden with Holocaust booty stolen from Jews. The personal property from the "Gold Train" was never returned to the Jews, and a lawsuit that relies on classified documents is under way to recover the assets, which the lawsuit claims were appropriated by members of the U.S. Army.
A September 2002 court ruling waived the United States' sovereign immunity in the case, allowing the lawsuit, which recently has gotten the attention of several members of Congress, to go forward.
The project capped years of work and tens of millions of dollars spent by Yad Vashem, which memorializes Nazi Germany's destruction of European Jewry during World War II. By entering data - including name, birth date, place of birth and occupation - users all over the world will be able to sift through the museum's vast files on Holocaust victims.
The project, which will give open access to the largest compilation of Holocaust information anywhere, will be fully operational in June of 2004, said Zvi Newman, a Yad Vashem spokesman.
"Everything we have on our files will soon be available to people regardless of where they are," Newman said. "This includes testimony from relatives and friends about the victim, photos, witness confirmation of the victim's death, and other relevant data."
Internet users would be able to add new names and new information to existing files and correct any mistakes the files may contain, he said. "The time is approaching when the last of the Holocaust survivors will no longer be alive," Newman said. "Our mission is to ensure that the memory of the Holocaust endures. This project is a major part of the process."
The project was unveiled at the annual convention of the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities of North America, an umbrella organization that donates more than US$200 million annually to Israel. It is holding its convention in Jerusalem for only the second time in its 70 year history.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=361698
--------------------------------------------------------
'Gold Train' Internet database
Holocaust survivors from Hungary can now surf the Web to find property allegedly stolen by the Nazis and later seized by U.S. forces. The Web site,
http://www.hagens-berman.com/goldtrain,
has pictures and descriptions of the personal effects seized by U.S. forces when they captured a Nazi train laden with Holocaust booty stolen from Jews. The personal property from the "Gold Train" was never returned to the Jews, and a lawsuit that relies on classified documents is under way to recover the assets, which the lawsuit claims were appropriated by members of the U.S. Army.
A September 2002 court ruling waived the United States' sovereign immunity in the case, allowing the lawsuit, which recently has gotten the attention of several members of Congress, to go forward.
Yemen Arrests Mastermind of Attacks on USS Cole
Yemen Arrests Mastermind of Attacks on USS Cole
One of the top Al Qaeda members in Yemen, Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, was arrested after Yemeni forces surrounded his hide-out west of the capital, San'a, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried on the official SABA news agency. He was captured by security forces Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said, calling him a suspected mastermind of the homicide bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors, and the bombing of a French oil tanker off the country's coast.
Folks, don't get too complacent after hearing about this arrest; despite the presence of many amateur warriors, al-Qa'ida cells and militant Islamist terrorists in general, reflect an extraordinary amount of patience, planning, and intelligence in their successful operations such as the 1998 embassy bombings, the bombing of the USS Cole, and the September 11 attacks. The embassy bombings were planned years in advance and involved a scale model manufactured in an Afghan camp.
The Cole bombers took advantage of a four-hour window of opportunity available every other month to attack the U.S. naval vessel. The details and planning involved with the September 11 attacks ranging from how the perpetrators entered the country, to their flight training, to their surveillance of airport security, to their coordination of flights, are all remarkable, and prove how deviant -- and desperate -- is the nature of the unevolved.
One of the top Al Qaeda members in Yemen, Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, was arrested after Yemeni forces surrounded his hide-out west of the capital, San'a, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried on the official SABA news agency. He was captured by security forces Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said, calling him a suspected mastermind of the homicide bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors, and the bombing of a French oil tanker off the country's coast.
Folks, don't get too complacent after hearing about this arrest; despite the presence of many amateur warriors, al-Qa'ida cells and militant Islamist terrorists in general, reflect an extraordinary amount of patience, planning, and intelligence in their successful operations such as the 1998 embassy bombings, the bombing of the USS Cole, and the September 11 attacks. The embassy bombings were planned years in advance and involved a scale model manufactured in an Afghan camp.
The Cole bombers took advantage of a four-hour window of opportunity available every other month to attack the U.S. naval vessel. The details and planning involved with the September 11 attacks ranging from how the perpetrators entered the country, to their flight training, to their surveillance of airport security, to their coordination of flights, are all remarkable, and prove how deviant -- and desperate -- is the nature of the unevolved.
November 24, 2003
Indiana Holocaust Museum Burns
Hat tip to Yaeli at World Watching for posting about Indiana Holocaust museum destroyed by fire . Yaeli writes:
"I didn't hear about this on any news station. In fact, I first heard about it on Michael Savage but because I didn't hear the whole story, I didn't want to write about it in case it wasn't completely true. I found an article about the Indiana Holocaust Museum burning. I am quite disappointed I didn't hear more about it in the media. Please let me know if you heard about this. "
Yaeli makes a good point. The Smooth Stone team did not hear about this fire from any of our news crawlers, either, but the story is popping up now:
Midnight fire destroys Holocaust museum in Terre Haute
"I didn't hear about this on any news station. In fact, I first heard about it on Michael Savage but because I didn't hear the whole story, I didn't want to write about it in case it wasn't completely true. I found an article about the Indiana Holocaust Museum burning. I am quite disappointed I didn't hear more about it in the media. Please let me know if you heard about this. "
Yaeli makes a good point. The Smooth Stone team did not hear about this fire from any of our news crawlers, either, but the story is popping up now:
Midnight fire destroys Holocaust museum in Terre Haute
November 23, 2003
Three U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq - but it's what was done with their bodies that is horrifying
More Muslim Savagery
Iraqi teenagers dragged the bloody bodies of two American soldiers from a wrecked vehicle and pummeled their faces with concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses said, describing a burst of savagery in a city once safe for Americans.
Witnesses to the Mosul attack said gunmen shot two soldiers driving through the city center, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall. The 101st Airborne Division said the soldiers were driving to another garrison.
About a dozen swarming teenagers dragged the soldiers' bodies out of the wreckage and beat them with concrete blocks, the witnesses said.
"They lifted a block and hit them with it on the face," Younis Mahmoud, 19, said.
Television video showed the soldiers' bodies splayed on the ground as U.S. troops secured the area. One victim's foot appeared to have been severed.
The frenzy recalled the October 1993 scene in Somalia, when locals dragged the bodies of Marines killed in fighting with warlords through the streets.
We really shouldn't be shocked. Savagery, rape, torture, mutilation, fraticide, and mayhem were part of this culture for the past 1400 years.
Iraqi teenagers dragged the bloody bodies of two American soldiers from a wrecked vehicle and pummeled their faces with concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses said, describing a burst of savagery in a city once safe for Americans.
Witnesses to the Mosul attack said gunmen shot two soldiers driving through the city center, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall. The 101st Airborne Division said the soldiers were driving to another garrison.
About a dozen swarming teenagers dragged the soldiers' bodies out of the wreckage and beat them with concrete blocks, the witnesses said.
"They lifted a block and hit them with it on the face," Younis Mahmoud, 19, said.
Television video showed the soldiers' bodies splayed on the ground as U.S. troops secured the area. One victim's foot appeared to have been severed.
The frenzy recalled the October 1993 scene in Somalia, when locals dragged the bodies of Marines killed in fighting with warlords through the streets.
We really shouldn't be shocked. Savagery, rape, torture, mutilation, fraticide, and mayhem were part of this culture for the past 1400 years.
Arab Terror: Watch Video Online
Arab Terror: Watch Video Online
These streaming videos will allow you to see how the Israelis are handling the terror, and how the next generation of Palestinian terrorists are being created.
These streaming videos will allow you to see how the Israelis are handling the terror, and how the next generation of Palestinian terrorists are being created.
Israel's Sacred Places by Bernard Shapiro
Israel's Sacred Places
When the late Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn (September 1993), they initiated a process whereby Israel would lose control of its Sacred Places and its Holy Land. Even before Oslo, Moshe Dayan had surrendered the most sacred of Jewish Holy Places, the Temple Mount, to the Arabs. There is much more involved here than politics as ususal. I believe that there is something terribly dangerous about the removal of the Jews from their Sacred Places.
All over the world, from Stonehenge in England to the great temples of India, one finds Holy Places with great mystical power for the people who inhabit those lands. Some shrines of the East draw believers from across the globe. The power of these places can not be explained scientifically. One only needs to step onto Mount Abu in India to feel the presence of great mystical forces. And then there is Banares, the Hindu’s Holy City of Light casting a warm glow over the sacred Ganges river.
Islam arose in the 7th century on the foundation of a pagan (Meccan) religion that worshiped a large black stone, known as the Kaaba. Muhammad learned the rudiments of Judaism from the many Jews living in Arabia. He created the Islamic religion by re-writing the Jewish Holy Scriptures (calling it the Koran) and fusing it with the local pagan customs. One pagan concept became horribly significant as Islam spread both east and west across the world. The reverence for the Kaaba and the belief that Arab power derived from it became a brutal principle in the conquest of other peoples. As Islam was spread by the sword, the Sacred Places of conquered peoples were destroyed and occupied.
It became a standard practice to destroy an Indian, Persian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Jewish or Christian temple and build a mosque on its ruins. This was always interpreted by historians as a kind of one-upmanship; a way to demonstrate the superiority of Islam and humiliate the defeated.
Koenraad Elst in his recent book, Negationism in India, writes:
Let’s see how these forces play out in the Arab war of extermination against the Jewish people (incorrectly called the Arab-Israeli Conflict). After Israel was conquered by the Arabs armies, the Temple Mount was used to build the Mosque of Omar (Dome of the Rock) and the al-Aska Mosque. While Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran, modern Arabs make great pretense by claiming it as one of their holy sites. This, of course, is nonsense.
The Arab claim that each and every Jewish Holy Place is rightfully theirs has become quite common and accepted by the Western media. First Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, then Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs, and on to the Tomb of Joseph (Nablus), the Tomb of Rachel (Bethlehem) and more.
The Western Wall, the last remaining remnant of Solomon's Temple and sacred to Jews for over 2,000 years, had been in Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem since 1949. The Jordanians, acting with malice aforethought, had denied Jews access to their sacred Holy Place. I visited the Wall for the first time in 1967. When I placed my hands on this magnificent relic of our forefathers, I felt a surge of light and energy the likes of which I had never known. In what had to have been but the flash of a second, I felt at one with Jews from all periods of history. At the Passover Seder, we are told to thank G-d for delivering us from Egypt as though we ourselves had been brought out of bondage. At that moment in Jerusalem, this Seder message was very real for me.
In an instant, I saw the continuity of Jewish history and its unbreakable connection with Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel). I understood how modern Israel is the beginning of the Third Temple Period and the spiritual heir to Joshua, Saul, David, Solomon, the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba. I frequently write about the security reasons for incorporating Judea, Samaria and Gaza into the body of Israel. There is another side to this issue and that is the spiritual-religious side.
The truth, which many find inconvenient, is that the Land of Israel was promised by G-d to Abraham and his seed in perpetuity. The Land of Israel is not speculative real estate to be bartered away for some high-sounding (false) promises of peace. The hills and valleys of Judea and Samaria contain the collective memory of the Jewish people. It was *here* that the Israelites first entered the Holy Land. And it was *here* they fought the battles, built the towns, elected their kings and were preached to by their prophets and judges. And it was on *this* soil that they wrote the Holy Scriptures we call our Bible.
In my blinding flash of insight at the Wall, I also understood that Israel on its own soil was more powerful than the sum of its weapons and men. Jews who had wandered the earth powerless for two millenniums attained great power when re-united with the soil of Israel.
What about the Arabs? They are destroying the Jewish people by taking over their Sacred Land. There is something very real and awe inspiring about the Jewish connection to Eretz Yisrael and the Arabs know it and seek to destroy that mystical connection. With profound stupidity and avarice, the political Left in Israel is cooperating with this evil project. And worse, some religious Jews and members of the Right are also going along with the dismemberment of Israel. Some say it will save lives to appease the Arabs. Foolishness. The predatory Arabs already smell victory and each new concession makes their lust for Jewish blood grow.
Wouldn't the Arabs object to the removal of the Mosque of Omar (Dome of the rock) and the al-Aqsa mosque from the Temple Mount? Of course they would, but they have no legitimate rights in the area. There is no reason the sovereign State of Israel needs to allow this desecration of Jewish Holy Places to continue. Today, on the Mount, the Arabs are supreme. They are destroying all archaeological remnants of Jewish sites. They are storing weapons in their mosques to kill Jews.
One thing is clear to me: the L-rd has blessed Israel by re-uniting Jerusalem and bringing Judea, Samaria and Gaza back under its control. It would be a horrendous sin against G-d and common sense for Israel to renounce this inheritance to which it is entitled. Israel holds these lands as a sacred trust for the Jewish people in perpetuity.
It would not only be sinful, but also criminal, to abuse that trust by denying future generations of Jews their Holy Land – Land of their Fathers; the one tiny spot on planet earth given to them by G-d.
©2003 - Freeman Centre
When the late Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn (September 1993), they initiated a process whereby Israel would lose control of its Sacred Places and its Holy Land. Even before Oslo, Moshe Dayan had surrendered the most sacred of Jewish Holy Places, the Temple Mount, to the Arabs. There is much more involved here than politics as ususal. I believe that there is something terribly dangerous about the removal of the Jews from their Sacred Places.
All over the world, from Stonehenge in England to the great temples of India, one finds Holy Places with great mystical power for the people who inhabit those lands. Some shrines of the East draw believers from across the globe. The power of these places can not be explained scientifically. One only needs to step onto Mount Abu in India to feel the presence of great mystical forces. And then there is Banares, the Hindu’s Holy City of Light casting a warm glow over the sacred Ganges river.
Islam arose in the 7th century on the foundation of a pagan (Meccan) religion that worshiped a large black stone, known as the Kaaba. Muhammad learned the rudiments of Judaism from the many Jews living in Arabia. He created the Islamic religion by re-writing the Jewish Holy Scriptures (calling it the Koran) and fusing it with the local pagan customs. One pagan concept became horribly significant as Islam spread both east and west across the world. The reverence for the Kaaba and the belief that Arab power derived from it became a brutal principle in the conquest of other peoples. As Islam was spread by the sword, the Sacred Places of conquered peoples were destroyed and occupied.
It became a standard practice to destroy an Indian, Persian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Jewish or Christian temple and build a mosque on its ruins. This was always interpreted by historians as a kind of one-upmanship; a way to demonstrate the superiority of Islam and humiliate the defeated.
Koenraad Elst in his recent book, Negationism in India, writes:
"In all the lands it conquered, Islam has replaced indigenous places of worship with mosques. In Iran, there are no ancient Zoroastrians or Manichean shrines left. In Central Asia, there are no Buddhist temples left. Similarly, in India (except the far South where Islam penetrated rather late) there are practically no Hindu temples that have survived the Muslim period (over 10,000 destroyed). But there are thousands of mosques built on the foundations of Hindu temples (for example, the Ayodhya temple)."In my opinion, this Islamic behavior was more than an exhibition of cruel superiority. It was based on the pagan belief that they would acquire the power of the defeated peoples by absorbing their Holy Places and making them theirs.
Let’s see how these forces play out in the Arab war of extermination against the Jewish people (incorrectly called the Arab-Israeli Conflict). After Israel was conquered by the Arabs armies, the Temple Mount was used to build the Mosque of Omar (Dome of the Rock) and the al-Aska Mosque. While Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran, modern Arabs make great pretense by claiming it as one of their holy sites. This, of course, is nonsense.
The Arab claim that each and every Jewish Holy Place is rightfully theirs has become quite common and accepted by the Western media. First Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, then Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs, and on to the Tomb of Joseph (Nablus), the Tomb of Rachel (Bethlehem) and more.
The Western Wall, the last remaining remnant of Solomon's Temple and sacred to Jews for over 2,000 years, had been in Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem since 1949. The Jordanians, acting with malice aforethought, had denied Jews access to their sacred Holy Place. I visited the Wall for the first time in 1967. When I placed my hands on this magnificent relic of our forefathers, I felt a surge of light and energy the likes of which I had never known. In what had to have been but the flash of a second, I felt at one with Jews from all periods of history. At the Passover Seder, we are told to thank G-d for delivering us from Egypt as though we ourselves had been brought out of bondage. At that moment in Jerusalem, this Seder message was very real for me.
In an instant, I saw the continuity of Jewish history and its unbreakable connection with Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel). I understood how modern Israel is the beginning of the Third Temple Period and the spiritual heir to Joshua, Saul, David, Solomon, the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba. I frequently write about the security reasons for incorporating Judea, Samaria and Gaza into the body of Israel. There is another side to this issue and that is the spiritual-religious side.
The truth, which many find inconvenient, is that the Land of Israel was promised by G-d to Abraham and his seed in perpetuity. The Land of Israel is not speculative real estate to be bartered away for some high-sounding (false) promises of peace. The hills and valleys of Judea and Samaria contain the collective memory of the Jewish people. It was *here* that the Israelites first entered the Holy Land. And it was *here* they fought the battles, built the towns, elected their kings and were preached to by their prophets and judges. And it was on *this* soil that they wrote the Holy Scriptures we call our Bible.
In my blinding flash of insight at the Wall, I also understood that Israel on its own soil was more powerful than the sum of its weapons and men. Jews who had wandered the earth powerless for two millenniums attained great power when re-united with the soil of Israel.
What about the Arabs? They are destroying the Jewish people by taking over their Sacred Land. There is something very real and awe inspiring about the Jewish connection to Eretz Yisrael and the Arabs know it and seek to destroy that mystical connection. With profound stupidity and avarice, the political Left in Israel is cooperating with this evil project. And worse, some religious Jews and members of the Right are also going along with the dismemberment of Israel. Some say it will save lives to appease the Arabs. Foolishness. The predatory Arabs already smell victory and each new concession makes their lust for Jewish blood grow.
Wouldn't the Arabs object to the removal of the Mosque of Omar (Dome of the rock) and the al-Aqsa mosque from the Temple Mount? Of course they would, but they have no legitimate rights in the area. There is no reason the sovereign State of Israel needs to allow this desecration of Jewish Holy Places to continue. Today, on the Mount, the Arabs are supreme. They are destroying all archaeological remnants of Jewish sites. They are storing weapons in their mosques to kill Jews.
One thing is clear to me: the L-rd has blessed Israel by re-uniting Jerusalem and bringing Judea, Samaria and Gaza back under its control. It would be a horrendous sin against G-d and common sense for Israel to renounce this inheritance to which it is entitled. Israel holds these lands as a sacred trust for the Jewish people in perpetuity.
It would not only be sinful, but also criminal, to abuse that trust by denying future generations of Jews their Holy Land – Land of their Fathers; the one tiny spot on planet earth given to them by G-d.
©2003 - Freeman Centre
November 22, 2003
It is ethnocentric Arabism in general, and Islam specifically, that rots the Middle East.
The killings of Jews by Palestinians, and earlier, by Arabs who didn't yet consider themselves Palestinians -- predated the establishment of the state of Israel.
The killers did not differentiate among their targets. They just had to be Jews, random Jews, any Jews: socialist farmers on some remote kibbutz in the Galilee, working people in Haifa, or ultrapious (and, for that matter, often anti-Zionist) men and women from a town like Hebron where Jews had lived innocuously and continuously since several centuries before Mohammed set foot on this earth.
Nor, for that matter, is the specific phenomenon of suicidal murder altogether an innovation of contemporary Arab and Muslim fanatics. This has been a hot subject in historic Islam for centuries, and it remains so in the mosques and schools of higher Muslim learning today, pro and con.
The widespread adulation of Al Qaeda and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, of Osama bin Laden and Yasir Arafat, of Mohammed Atta and the young man on his way to paradise because he perpetrated mass murder in Tel Aviv, is evidence of the deep roots that this practice has in the culture of the Arab and Muslim world.
And let us name the phenomenon honestly. When pampered Saudi princes praise the "martyrs of Palestine," and when Arafat himself says (more than a bit insincerely) that he wishes to die a shahid, they are promoting the idea of human sacrifice as an active agent of modern politics.
Yasir Arafat has never been finicky about terrorism, and his long history on that score mocks America's calls for him to renounce the only craft he has ever truly known.
Arafat's debut on the world stage coincides with the beginning of the Palestinian revolution, which, it is urgent to recall, commenced at least three years before the Six Day War. This means that Arafat started the Palestine Liberation Organization before one Israeli ever stepped foot into the West Bank or Gaza Strip -- or, for that matter, prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem or walked in the city's ancient Jewish Quarter.
There were no "occupied territories" back then, and there weren't really any disputed territories either -- except in the heads of the Palestinians. What Arafat wanted then (and what I believe he still wants now) was to liberate not Hebron or Nablus or Gaza (which in 1967 were in Arab hands) but Haifa and Tel Aviv, the plains of Sharon, and the Negev desert.
Or, as military historian Victor Davis Hanson put it in The Wall Street Journal, "the current Arab-Israeli war -- at least the fourth fought since 1948 -- is fought over the West Bank: but that is only because... the Arab world lost the first three wars to destroy Israel proper."
From the beginning, Arafat's tactics of terror were audacious: blowing up airplanes in midair; taking children hostage in schoolhouses; skyjackings; hijacking of buses; shootouts and bombings in crowded airports, theaters, terminals, markets, beaches, restaurants, wedding halls. His most daring moment was during the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which eleven Israeli athletes lost their lives. (It was also the first moment when Peter Jennings showed himself to be oh, so understanding of Palestinian terror.)
But this terrorism occurred only sporadically. It wasn't until the Oslo agreements and the handshake on the White House lawn that Arafat's terrorism became a routine feature of life in Israel. Israel obliged itself in 1993 to provide the Palestinian Authority weapons (augmented, of course, by the armaments the Palestinians smuggled and illegally manufactured themselves). And those weapons became the instruments of Jewish death. The closer the Israelis came to meeting Palestinian demands, the more intense the terror became. Suicide bombing, in fact, didn't become the Palestinians' chosen mode of day in, day out terror until the year 2000, when Israel offered Arafat more than the old butcher probably ever expected.
The European country that has hectored Israel the longest and most obsessively, of course, is France. And why should we be surprised? After all, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's attacks on the Jewish state have accompanied a frightening intensification of anti-Semitism in France.
Then there is the left -- like the people who went to be with Arafat inside his compound some months ago. These "progressives" are not a new phenomenon in world affairs: They and their ancestors have been worshiping bloodthirsty leaders for more than half a century.
But with Stalin, Mao, and Castro, there was, for a time, at least a veneer of brutal idealism. Zionism was an expression of European liberalism, and there were Arab intellectuals who imagined that their nationalism also would be nurtured by that source.
But, in practice, Arab nationalism has become a very nasty business, defined everywhere by dictatorship. Palestinian nationalism is no different. Arafat has no grand vision of human affairs whatsoever, no desire other than territory -- and territory not as the seedbed for an inspired vision of community but as a launching pad for war against the Jews.
Arafat could not possibly have stirred these activists' dreams of a just society, because he has none. His scant program contains not even the deceit of egalitarianism. Arafat is a fascist, and his fascism has at its very core the hatred of Jews.
And since he is unabashedly stirred by this passion, one has to also suspect non-Arabs who defend and protest the "hardships faced by Palestinians at the hands of Israel", specifically protests by psuedo-intellectuals who in their rantings, seem to think that innocent Jewish life is without value.
There is nothing dirtier than one who embraces dirt.
The killers did not differentiate among their targets. They just had to be Jews, random Jews, any Jews: socialist farmers on some remote kibbutz in the Galilee, working people in Haifa, or ultrapious (and, for that matter, often anti-Zionist) men and women from a town like Hebron where Jews had lived innocuously and continuously since several centuries before Mohammed set foot on this earth.
Nor, for that matter, is the specific phenomenon of suicidal murder altogether an innovation of contemporary Arab and Muslim fanatics. This has been a hot subject in historic Islam for centuries, and it remains so in the mosques and schools of higher Muslim learning today, pro and con.
The widespread adulation of Al Qaeda and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, of Osama bin Laden and Yasir Arafat, of Mohammed Atta and the young man on his way to paradise because he perpetrated mass murder in Tel Aviv, is evidence of the deep roots that this practice has in the culture of the Arab and Muslim world.
And let us name the phenomenon honestly. When pampered Saudi princes praise the "martyrs of Palestine," and when Arafat himself says (more than a bit insincerely) that he wishes to die a shahid, they are promoting the idea of human sacrifice as an active agent of modern politics.
Yasir Arafat has never been finicky about terrorism, and his long history on that score mocks America's calls for him to renounce the only craft he has ever truly known.
Arafat's debut on the world stage coincides with the beginning of the Palestinian revolution, which, it is urgent to recall, commenced at least three years before the Six Day War. This means that Arafat started the Palestine Liberation Organization before one Israeli ever stepped foot into the West Bank or Gaza Strip -- or, for that matter, prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem or walked in the city's ancient Jewish Quarter.
There were no "occupied territories" back then, and there weren't really any disputed territories either -- except in the heads of the Palestinians. What Arafat wanted then (and what I believe he still wants now) was to liberate not Hebron or Nablus or Gaza (which in 1967 were in Arab hands) but Haifa and Tel Aviv, the plains of Sharon, and the Negev desert.
Or, as military historian Victor Davis Hanson put it in The Wall Street Journal, "the current Arab-Israeli war -- at least the fourth fought since 1948 -- is fought over the West Bank: but that is only because... the Arab world lost the first three wars to destroy Israel proper."
From the beginning, Arafat's tactics of terror were audacious: blowing up airplanes in midair; taking children hostage in schoolhouses; skyjackings; hijacking of buses; shootouts and bombings in crowded airports, theaters, terminals, markets, beaches, restaurants, wedding halls. His most daring moment was during the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which eleven Israeli athletes lost their lives. (It was also the first moment when Peter Jennings showed himself to be oh, so understanding of Palestinian terror.)
But this terrorism occurred only sporadically. It wasn't until the Oslo agreements and the handshake on the White House lawn that Arafat's terrorism became a routine feature of life in Israel. Israel obliged itself in 1993 to provide the Palestinian Authority weapons (augmented, of course, by the armaments the Palestinians smuggled and illegally manufactured themselves). And those weapons became the instruments of Jewish death. The closer the Israelis came to meeting Palestinian demands, the more intense the terror became. Suicide bombing, in fact, didn't become the Palestinians' chosen mode of day in, day out terror until the year 2000, when Israel offered Arafat more than the old butcher probably ever expected.
The European country that has hectored Israel the longest and most obsessively, of course, is France. And why should we be surprised? After all, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's attacks on the Jewish state have accompanied a frightening intensification of anti-Semitism in France.
Then there is the left -- like the people who went to be with Arafat inside his compound some months ago. These "progressives" are not a new phenomenon in world affairs: They and their ancestors have been worshiping bloodthirsty leaders for more than half a century.
But with Stalin, Mao, and Castro, there was, for a time, at least a veneer of brutal idealism. Zionism was an expression of European liberalism, and there were Arab intellectuals who imagined that their nationalism also would be nurtured by that source.
But, in practice, Arab nationalism has become a very nasty business, defined everywhere by dictatorship. Palestinian nationalism is no different. Arafat has no grand vision of human affairs whatsoever, no desire other than territory -- and territory not as the seedbed for an inspired vision of community but as a launching pad for war against the Jews.
Arafat could not possibly have stirred these activists' dreams of a just society, because he has none. His scant program contains not even the deceit of egalitarianism. Arafat is a fascist, and his fascism has at its very core the hatred of Jews.
And since he is unabashedly stirred by this passion, one has to also suspect non-Arabs who defend and protest the "hardships faced by Palestinians at the hands of Israel", specifically protests by psuedo-intellectuals who in their rantings, seem to think that innocent Jewish life is without value.
There is nothing dirtier than one who embraces dirt.
A Smooth Stone Fun Fact: Yassir Arafat is Egyptian.
Muhammad Abd Ar-Ra'uf Yasser Arafat Al-Qudwa As-Husayni was born in 1929 in Cairo, Egypt, the 6th out of 7 children.
That's right, he was never born in, near, around, within, atop, adjacent to, or inside Israel or pre-1948 Palestine.
He studied engineering at the University of Cairo and graduated in the class of 1951. While a student on campus, Arafat helped to smuggle firearms and explosives into Israel and its surrounding regions. In 1959 Arafat established the Fatah movement, whose major objective was to destroy the state of Israel. Fatah later joined the PLO in 1964, 3 years prior to the Six Day War, with its goal of liberating "Palestine" (Israel).
During the Six Day War (June 1967), Arafat escaped from the West Bank into Jordan, where he established a new terrorist base. There, he began efforts to undermine King Hussein's regime, resulting in Hussein's launching a broad military operation against the terrorist facilities Arafat had established. That military operation later came to be known as Black September (September, 1970), with Arafat being expelled from Jordan.
Arafat now set up shop in Lebanon, beginning efforts again to undermine the local administration. He established Fatahland, a small autonomous territory in southern Lebanon that evolved into a key strategic center for terrorist activities and training.
Arafat's name has been linked to airline hijackings in the '70's and the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
In 1974 he was permitted to address the United Nations, which granted observer status to the PLO. Following the 1982 Israel invasion of Lebanon and the siege of Beirut, Arafat was forced to flee with his terrorist gangs. In 1993, Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo peace accords at a White House ceremony. The following year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
In 1996 Arafat was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority, being the only name on the ballot.
Arafat has been forced to leave Arab countries on 5 different occasions:
1. May, 1967 - fled to Jordan when Israel freed Jerusalem.
2. September, 1970 - expelled by King Hussein after stirring up trouble in Jordan.
3. September, 1982 - fled Lebanon following creation of Fatahland, a territory used for terrorist training.
4. June, 1983 - expelled by Hafez el-Assad "permanently".
5. December, 1983 - expelled from Tripoli, Lebanon.
In retrospect, we can see that in every Arab country where Arafat resided for any period of time, he established semi-military, semi-political organizations and infrastructures, and continued to do so after signing the Oslo Accords in 1993. The Palestinian Authority is a semi-political organization that collects taxes and performs minor administrative tasks; it is also a semi-military organization that practices the use of firearms and encourages the establishment of terrorist infrastructures. Arafat has always ensured that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad remain active and operating, even following the major raids he called against them in 1996.
Arafat sees the destruction of Israel as a gradual process - this is why he rejected Barak's offer of a state with the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Arafat considers himself to be a modern version of the mythical Salah-A-Din, who fought against the Crusaders in the Middle Ages. He has referred to the Israelis as "crusaders" in his speeches.
Arafat is a hypocrite who has been known to lie. His speeches in Arabic to his own people, and broadcasts from his official television station are lessons in violence and hatred, calling for the destruction of Israel, the killing of innocent Israeli civilians, and for Arab children to become suicide bombers.
In contrast to this, his speeches in English to the rest of the world often state his choice of peace as a strategic option, and express his commitment to the Oslo Accords.
Arafat controls his rage by smiling. When Arafat is interviewed in brief, non-intrusive Arabic or foreign media sessions, he smiles and appears cheerful. However, when western reporters ask him pointed questions, it isn't long before he erupts into a rage and begins to blubber (there are recorded instances with interviewer Oded Granot of Israel TV and various CNN reporters).
In essence, Arafat is a murderous coward, whose judgement day is coming very soon.
That's right, he was never born in, near, around, within, atop, adjacent to, or inside Israel or pre-1948 Palestine.
He studied engineering at the University of Cairo and graduated in the class of 1951. While a student on campus, Arafat helped to smuggle firearms and explosives into Israel and its surrounding regions. In 1959 Arafat established the Fatah movement, whose major objective was to destroy the state of Israel. Fatah later joined the PLO in 1964, 3 years prior to the Six Day War, with its goal of liberating "Palestine" (Israel).
During the Six Day War (June 1967), Arafat escaped from the West Bank into Jordan, where he established a new terrorist base. There, he began efforts to undermine King Hussein's regime, resulting in Hussein's launching a broad military operation against the terrorist facilities Arafat had established. That military operation later came to be known as Black September (September, 1970), with Arafat being expelled from Jordan.
Arafat now set up shop in Lebanon, beginning efforts again to undermine the local administration. He established Fatahland, a small autonomous territory in southern Lebanon that evolved into a key strategic center for terrorist activities and training.
Arafat's name has been linked to airline hijackings in the '70's and the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
In 1974 he was permitted to address the United Nations, which granted observer status to the PLO. Following the 1982 Israel invasion of Lebanon and the siege of Beirut, Arafat was forced to flee with his terrorist gangs. In 1993, Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo peace accords at a White House ceremony. The following year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
In 1996 Arafat was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority, being the only name on the ballot.
Arafat has been forced to leave Arab countries on 5 different occasions:
1. May, 1967 - fled to Jordan when Israel freed Jerusalem.
2. September, 1970 - expelled by King Hussein after stirring up trouble in Jordan.
3. September, 1982 - fled Lebanon following creation of Fatahland, a territory used for terrorist training.
4. June, 1983 - expelled by Hafez el-Assad "permanently".
5. December, 1983 - expelled from Tripoli, Lebanon.
In retrospect, we can see that in every Arab country where Arafat resided for any period of time, he established semi-military, semi-political organizations and infrastructures, and continued to do so after signing the Oslo Accords in 1993. The Palestinian Authority is a semi-political organization that collects taxes and performs minor administrative tasks; it is also a semi-military organization that practices the use of firearms and encourages the establishment of terrorist infrastructures. Arafat has always ensured that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad remain active and operating, even following the major raids he called against them in 1996.
Arafat sees the destruction of Israel as a gradual process - this is why he rejected Barak's offer of a state with the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Arafat considers himself to be a modern version of the mythical Salah-A-Din, who fought against the Crusaders in the Middle Ages. He has referred to the Israelis as "crusaders" in his speeches.
Arafat is a hypocrite who has been known to lie. His speeches in Arabic to his own people, and broadcasts from his official television station are lessons in violence and hatred, calling for the destruction of Israel, the killing of innocent Israeli civilians, and for Arab children to become suicide bombers.
In contrast to this, his speeches in English to the rest of the world often state his choice of peace as a strategic option, and express his commitment to the Oslo Accords.
Arafat controls his rage by smiling. When Arafat is interviewed in brief, non-intrusive Arabic or foreign media sessions, he smiles and appears cheerful. However, when western reporters ask him pointed questions, it isn't long before he erupts into a rage and begins to blubber (there are recorded instances with interviewer Oded Granot of Israel TV and various CNN reporters).
In essence, Arafat is a murderous coward, whose judgement day is coming very soon.
November 21, 2003
Sentencing in trial of three Arab terrorists who tried to poison Jewish diners at Café Rimon
(Jerusalem Newspaper 11/14/2003)
The three Arab terrorists who tried to poison Jewish diners at Café Rimon last year were sentenced this week, to five, seven and a half and ten years. When the owner of café Rimon was asked if he was angry at his worker for being involved with this terrorist plot, he responded “you can only be angry at someone you don’t know. I’m disappointed, I never expected this, they worked here for three and a half years and were great workers”.
Great workers? What a dope. He's lucky he wasn't stabbed in the back on his way home from work by his "staff".
The three Arab terrorists who tried to poison Jewish diners at Café Rimon last year were sentenced this week, to five, seven and a half and ten years. When the owner of café Rimon was asked if he was angry at his worker for being involved with this terrorist plot, he responded “you can only be angry at someone you don’t know. I’m disappointed, I never expected this, they worked here for three and a half years and were great workers”.
Great workers? What a dope. He's lucky he wasn't stabbed in the back on his way home from work by his "staff".
The International Coalition for Missing Israeli Soldiers: Biography of Elchanan Tannenbaum
Fifty-four years old at the time of his abduction, Elchanan Tannenbaum, the son of Polish Holocaust survivors, immigrated to Israel in 1949, together with his father, mother and sister, after most of his relatives had perished in the Holocaust.
The family settled in Holon, where Elchanan spent his youth and matriculated from high school. He was an active organizer of the boys’ scout organization in Holon, and later became a member of the Scout leadership in Israel, representing the Israeli Scout movement in the USA.
At the age of 18, Elchanan enrolled in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying economics and political science. During his academic studies, he began serving in the IDF. After graduation, he completed his army service as an officer, continuing to fulfill duties as a reserve officer as needed from time to time. In the reserves he achieved the rank of Colonel.
He continued his studies at the Tel Aviv University School of Business Administration. He then became a businessman, working alone and with partners.
Elchanan married in 1971, and is the father of two: a daughter, Keren (26), now studying philosophy and communications at Tel Aviv University, and a son, Ori (20).
Elchanan is chronically ill. He suffers from severe asthma, which requires daily medical treatment.
Elchanan Tenenboim has supported many families who have lost children in the ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict. He is devoted to his country, his family and friends, and is always ready to extend a helping hand.
Among their appeals, Tannenbaum's children have been unable to confirm the delivery of any asthma medications sent to their father via the Red Cross.
For Elchanan's 55th birthday (his first and hopefully his last in captivity), his children sent him via the Red Cross personal letters and Victor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning -- a deeply moving personal essay by the founder of Logotherapy detailing his own imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live.
The International Coalition for Missing Israeli Soldiers
The family settled in Holon, where Elchanan spent his youth and matriculated from high school. He was an active organizer of the boys’ scout organization in Holon, and later became a member of the Scout leadership in Israel, representing the Israeli Scout movement in the USA.
At the age of 18, Elchanan enrolled in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying economics and political science. During his academic studies, he began serving in the IDF. After graduation, he completed his army service as an officer, continuing to fulfill duties as a reserve officer as needed from time to time. In the reserves he achieved the rank of Colonel.
He continued his studies at the Tel Aviv University School of Business Administration. He then became a businessman, working alone and with partners.
Elchanan married in 1971, and is the father of two: a daughter, Keren (26), now studying philosophy and communications at Tel Aviv University, and a son, Ori (20).
Elchanan is chronically ill. He suffers from severe asthma, which requires daily medical treatment.
Elchanan Tenenboim has supported many families who have lost children in the ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict. He is devoted to his country, his family and friends, and is always ready to extend a helping hand.
Among their appeals, Tannenbaum's children have been unable to confirm the delivery of any asthma medications sent to their father via the Red Cross.
For Elchanan's 55th birthday (his first and hopefully his last in captivity), his children sent him via the Red Cross personal letters and Victor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning -- a deeply moving personal essay by the founder of Logotherapy detailing his own imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live.
The International Coalition for Missing Israeli Soldiers
Human Rights for Arabs, but not for Jews
Torture and abuse are systematic in jails in Egypt, and at least seven people died in police custody there last year, Amnesty International said Thursday. Police and state security officials have allegedly subjected inmates to electric shocks, beatings, whippings and other forms of abuse. "Torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment continue to be practiced systematically in detention centers," Amnesty said in a statement. Egyptian officials did not respond to repeated calls by The Associated Press seeking comment. (AP)
Voice of Judea Commentary:
The Egyptian government tortures inmates? Absurd! How does Amnesty International get the chutzpah to accuse the gentle, peace-loving, tree-hugging, baby-kissing Egyptian government of such crimes? So what if Egypt seems a bit anti-Semitic, with the viciously anti-Jewish miniseries released last year, the continuing hate-filled propaganda, the refusal of Egypt to crack down on weapons smuggling to terrorists, etc.
Jokes aside, the real crime of Amnesty International is not what they say, it is what they fail to say. They whine and complain all day long about a poor Arab getting slapped around, but when Jews are murdered killed (like the four Israeli soldiers on the northern border), kidnapped and tortured (like Elhanan Tannenbaum), or captured, placed in living conditions not fit for a rodent, and having his legs utterly destroyed (like Israeli war hero and POW Ron Arad), these human rights groups are no where to be seen. Where are they? Do they feel that Jews are not humans, and thus not deserving of rights which they claim all people enjoy?
A brief check of the Amnesty International website is enough to find numerous articles decrying Israel for a variety of actions, such as restricting the movement of Arab children and making them miss school. When it does criticize an Arab country, it is merely for actions done to Arabs. Jews are not mentioned. Does Amnesty International expect me to shed hot tears over Ahmed the Arab who misses a couple days of school, or for Tareq Souid, an Arab who fears being deported from Lebanon?
Sorry Amnesty, we're too busy mourning the murders of Jewish soldiers and vicious torture of Jewish air force pilots, things which you obviously could not care less about.
Voice of Judea Commentary:
The Egyptian government tortures inmates? Absurd! How does Amnesty International get the chutzpah to accuse the gentle, peace-loving, tree-hugging, baby-kissing Egyptian government of such crimes? So what if Egypt seems a bit anti-Semitic, with the viciously anti-Jewish miniseries released last year, the continuing hate-filled propaganda, the refusal of Egypt to crack down on weapons smuggling to terrorists, etc.
Jokes aside, the real crime of Amnesty International is not what they say, it is what they fail to say. They whine and complain all day long about a poor Arab getting slapped around, but when Jews are murdered killed (like the four Israeli soldiers on the northern border), kidnapped and tortured (like Elhanan Tannenbaum), or captured, placed in living conditions not fit for a rodent, and having his legs utterly destroyed (like Israeli war hero and POW Ron Arad), these human rights groups are no where to be seen. Where are they? Do they feel that Jews are not humans, and thus not deserving of rights which they claim all people enjoy?
A brief check of the Amnesty International website is enough to find numerous articles decrying Israel for a variety of actions, such as restricting the movement of Arab children and making them miss school. When it does criticize an Arab country, it is merely for actions done to Arabs. Jews are not mentioned. Does Amnesty International expect me to shed hot tears over Ahmed the Arab who misses a couple days of school, or for Tareq Souid, an Arab who fears being deported from Lebanon?
Sorry Amnesty, we're too busy mourning the murders of Jewish soldiers and vicious torture of Jewish air force pilots, things which you obviously could not care less about.
Life and Death in Istanbul by Yossi K.
Yossi K., age 37, is a prominent businessman and member of the Jewish community in Istanbul, Turkey. He was at the Beth Israel Synagogue on Shabbat morning, November 15, 2003, when truck bombs exploded there and at a nearby synagogue, killing 23 people and wounding more than 300.
In this Aish.com exclusive, Yossi, married and the father of two, describes the events.
* * *
I've been attending Shabbat morning services at Beth Israel for the past 15 years. This week was a special dedication ceremony of the newly renovated hall, and the shul was packed with people -- including the chief rabbi of Turkey and all the community leaders.
The back of the building (which was actually the front of the synagogue) was made up of two huge, beautiful stained glass walls that had been installed only a few weeks before. That's where the terrorists planted the bomb, realizing that this was a soft target.
I usually sit in the first few rows, but this time since it was so crowded I sat in the back. It was probably the first time in 15 years that I sat in the back. And because of that I was farther from the explosion and was saved from injury or death.
Toward the end of the Torah reading, we suddenly heard a loud noise, followed by a tremendous quake, and then debris was flying everywhere. In that first instant, I had a frozen picture in my mind of everything happening, like the Big Bang.
I always had in the back of my mind that something terrible might happen, with these glass walls abutting a narrow street. But of course I was not thinking about it at that moment. But then when the bomb went off, before I was even conscious of what was happening, I know viscerally that the moment had come and we'd been hit.
After the bomb went off, the room filled with a cloud of thick smoke. People were running in all directions, afraid of further explosions. I checked myself and was covered with blood. I bent down, covering myself in my tallit, and prayed, "Shema Yisrael."
I saw that one of the interior walls was collapsing, so I ran to hold it up so that people would be able to pass. Then I went to the front and noticed gray plumes of natural gas gushing out, where the gas line had ruptured. I knew it could ignite at any moment, exploding the entire block of buildings. I quickly opened the Holy Ark and took out some of the Torah scrolls.
Then I heard our chazan calling my name: "Yossi! Yossi! Please help get me out of here..." His leg was shattered and he could not move. At the same time other people were yelling, "Evacuate immediately!" because of the danger of the natural gas exploding.
I had to make an instantaneous decision: Do I stay to help or run out to save my own life? There was no way that I could leave the chazan there. My mind flashed back to seven years ago when I was in a terrible auto accident. My head and limbs were so badly injured that when the ambulance came, they took my friend but left me there, thinking I was dead.
When the doctor finally arrived, he realized that my lung had deflated and was filled with blood. He told me I could die at any second and he would have to perform an emergency procedure right there. It was then that I experienced how a person's deeds are calculated in Heaven. Everything is recorded on a balance sheet, the good and the bad; nothing is hidden and there is no longer any time for excuses. So I made a vow then to always choose to do good, and to be ready to rise to the challenge whenever it will come, because in life, the opportunity to do the right thing, something truly meaningful, happens suddenly and without warning.
So as I heard the chazan calling out to me, I was not afraid of death. I knew that "doing the right thing" was even more important than surviving this attack. Some things are more important than life itself.
When I had my accident, I prayed that God should send me someone to save me. It was only by a miracle that I survived. So standing there in the synagogue, as the chazan cried out for help, I realized that God was sending me to save him.
I sensed that the chazan knew that, too, and I felt the chazan's faith in God depended on me. I could not disappoint him; I could not cause him to think that God would abandon him at that time. So I grabbed a few people and we moved the chazan to safety.
I don't know who did these bombings, but I don't believe it was Turkish Muslims. Turks are very friendly and sympathetic toward the Jews and we have no anti-Semitic incidents. The Turks are not Arabs. They are peaceful Muslims, and the government is politically secular. Turkey has strong military, diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, and in 1948 Turkey became the first Muslim country to recognize the Jewish state.
But the Istanbul Jewish community has had other difficulties the last few years. In 1986, Palestinian gunmen killed 22 worshipers during Shabbat services, and in 1992 Hizbullah bombed a synagogue. In addition, assimilation is on the rise, poverty is increasing, and our community of 20,000 Jews is dwindling.
To counteract these difficulties I believe it's crucial to bring more intensive Jewish education to our community. I would like the Jewish community to emphasize more of the spiritual side, the connection with God, and less of the material. We are losing our spiritual identity, both as individuals and as a community. I think these killings force each and every Jew to answer the following question: Why be Jewish?
This is an existential question and it is exploding in our faces.
Please pray for the recovery of those wounded in the attacks.
In this Aish.com exclusive, Yossi, married and the father of two, describes the events.
* * *
I've been attending Shabbat morning services at Beth Israel for the past 15 years. This week was a special dedication ceremony of the newly renovated hall, and the shul was packed with people -- including the chief rabbi of Turkey and all the community leaders.
The back of the building (which was actually the front of the synagogue) was made up of two huge, beautiful stained glass walls that had been installed only a few weeks before. That's where the terrorists planted the bomb, realizing that this was a soft target.
I usually sit in the first few rows, but this time since it was so crowded I sat in the back. It was probably the first time in 15 years that I sat in the back. And because of that I was farther from the explosion and was saved from injury or death.
Toward the end of the Torah reading, we suddenly heard a loud noise, followed by a tremendous quake, and then debris was flying everywhere. In that first instant, I had a frozen picture in my mind of everything happening, like the Big Bang.
I always had in the back of my mind that something terrible might happen, with these glass walls abutting a narrow street. But of course I was not thinking about it at that moment. But then when the bomb went off, before I was even conscious of what was happening, I know viscerally that the moment had come and we'd been hit.
After the bomb went off, the room filled with a cloud of thick smoke. People were running in all directions, afraid of further explosions. I checked myself and was covered with blood. I bent down, covering myself in my tallit, and prayed, "Shema Yisrael."
I saw that one of the interior walls was collapsing, so I ran to hold it up so that people would be able to pass. Then I went to the front and noticed gray plumes of natural gas gushing out, where the gas line had ruptured. I knew it could ignite at any moment, exploding the entire block of buildings. I quickly opened the Holy Ark and took out some of the Torah scrolls.
Then I heard our chazan calling my name: "Yossi! Yossi! Please help get me out of here..." His leg was shattered and he could not move. At the same time other people were yelling, "Evacuate immediately!" because of the danger of the natural gas exploding.
I had to make an instantaneous decision: Do I stay to help or run out to save my own life? There was no way that I could leave the chazan there. My mind flashed back to seven years ago when I was in a terrible auto accident. My head and limbs were so badly injured that when the ambulance came, they took my friend but left me there, thinking I was dead.
When the doctor finally arrived, he realized that my lung had deflated and was filled with blood. He told me I could die at any second and he would have to perform an emergency procedure right there. It was then that I experienced how a person's deeds are calculated in Heaven. Everything is recorded on a balance sheet, the good and the bad; nothing is hidden and there is no longer any time for excuses. So I made a vow then to always choose to do good, and to be ready to rise to the challenge whenever it will come, because in life, the opportunity to do the right thing, something truly meaningful, happens suddenly and without warning.
So as I heard the chazan calling out to me, I was not afraid of death. I knew that "doing the right thing" was even more important than surviving this attack. Some things are more important than life itself.
When I had my accident, I prayed that God should send me someone to save me. It was only by a miracle that I survived. So standing there in the synagogue, as the chazan cried out for help, I realized that God was sending me to save him.
I sensed that the chazan knew that, too, and I felt the chazan's faith in God depended on me. I could not disappoint him; I could not cause him to think that God would abandon him at that time. So I grabbed a few people and we moved the chazan to safety.
I don't know who did these bombings, but I don't believe it was Turkish Muslims. Turks are very friendly and sympathetic toward the Jews and we have no anti-Semitic incidents. The Turks are not Arabs. They are peaceful Muslims, and the government is politically secular. Turkey has strong military, diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, and in 1948 Turkey became the first Muslim country to recognize the Jewish state.
But the Istanbul Jewish community has had other difficulties the last few years. In 1986, Palestinian gunmen killed 22 worshipers during Shabbat services, and in 1992 Hizbullah bombed a synagogue. In addition, assimilation is on the rise, poverty is increasing, and our community of 20,000 Jews is dwindling.
To counteract these difficulties I believe it's crucial to bring more intensive Jewish education to our community. I would like the Jewish community to emphasize more of the spiritual side, the connection with God, and less of the material. We are losing our spiritual identity, both as individuals and as a community. I think these killings force each and every Jew to answer the following question: Why be Jewish?
This is an existential question and it is exploding in our faces.
Please pray for the recovery of those wounded in the attacks.
Palestinians Seek Apology for Balfour Declaration by Daniel Pipes
Palestinians Seek Apology for Balfour Declaration
"Palestinians Seek Apology for Balfour Declaration". So reads a headline in [November 3, 2003] Jerusalem Post, neatly summarizing a point I (among others) have been trying to make for years now, for example in the Los Angeles Times in January 2002: the Palestinian problem with Israel is not over the size of the state, nor where its citizens live, nor over control of sanctities, not over water resources, nor over armaments. It has to do, rather, with the very existence of the state.
Here are choice excepts of this article by the talented Khaled Abu Toameh, covering the 86th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration – the British foreign secretary's 1917 announcement that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
Given the inflamed state of views toward the Arab-Israeli conflict in Great Britain, it strikes this observer as entirely conceivable that the government there will indeed apologize, and perhaps not that many years from now.
If such sentiments don't demonstrate root and branch Palestinian rejection of Israel, it's hard to imagine what might. (November 3, 2003)
"Palestinians Seek Apology for Balfour Declaration". So reads a headline in [November 3, 2003] Jerusalem Post, neatly summarizing a point I (among others) have been trying to make for years now, for example in the Los Angeles Times in January 2002: the Palestinian problem with Israel is not over the size of the state, nor where its citizens live, nor over control of sanctities, not over water resources, nor over armaments. It has to do, rather, with the very existence of the state.
Here are choice excepts of this article by the talented Khaled Abu Toameh, covering the 86th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration – the British foreign secretary's 1917 announcement that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip marched in the streets and held rallies to condemn the role Britain played in the establishment of Israel.
…
Statements issued by different Palestinian factions, organizations, and officials demanded an apology from Britain, saying it is morally and legally responsible for the creation of Israel. The Palestinian Council for Defending Refugees' Rights said Britain must apologize for the injustice done to the Palestinians as a result of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
"We hold Britain responsible, morally and legally, for the injustice done to the Palestinian cause," the council said. "Britain is responsible for disarming our people prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, thus depriving our people of their right to self-determination and independence. Therefore, we are demanding that Britain apologize for what happened in Palestine."
Adding a contemporary twist this by-now routine demand, Youssef al-Kazzaz, director of "Voice of Palestine," the Palestinian Authority's radio station, called on Palestinians and Arabs living in Britain to form special committees to put pressure on the British government to issue a similar declaration acknowledging the Palestinians' right to establish their own state. "Otherwise, the Palestinian people in their homeland and elsewhere would continue to hold Britain responsible for this crime in favor of Israel," he said.
Given the inflamed state of views toward the Arab-Israeli conflict in Great Britain, it strikes this observer as entirely conceivable that the government there will indeed apologize, and perhaps not that many years from now.
If such sentiments don't demonstrate root and branch Palestinian rejection of Israel, it's hard to imagine what might. (November 3, 2003)
The Covenant between God and the Jewish People
The Covenant, which God introduced in His promises to the Patriarchs and the entire Jewish nation at Sinai stipulates the following:
On God's side, He promised:
- That the Jewish people will never cease to exist (Gen.17:7).
- That He will never totally abandon the Jewish people (Lev. 26:44).
- That the Jewish people will inherent the Land of Israel (Gen.12:7; Gen.15:18).
On Israel's side, we promised:
That we will be faithful to God and keep His Torah (Ex.24:7).
Unlike most covenants, this one is unconditional. Even if Israel reneges on its obligation, God, in the merit of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, will never annul His Covenant with us.
On God's side, He promised:
- That the Jewish people will never cease to exist (Gen.17:7).
- That He will never totally abandon the Jewish people (Lev. 26:44).
- That the Jewish people will inherent the Land of Israel (Gen.12:7; Gen.15:18).
On Israel's side, we promised:
That we will be faithful to God and keep His Torah (Ex.24:7).
Unlike most covenants, this one is unconditional. Even if Israel reneges on its obligation, God, in the merit of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, will never annul His Covenant with us.
Myths & Facts - The "Palestinian" Refugees
Myths & Facts - The Refugees
MYTH
"One million Palestinians were expelled by Israel from 1947-49."
FACT
The Palestinians left their homes in 1947-49 for a variety of reasons. Thousands of wealthy Arabs left in anticipation of a war, thousands more responded to Arab leaders' calls to get out of the way of the advancing armies, a handful were expelled, but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the cross fire of a battle.
Many Arabs claim that 800,000 to 1,000,000 Palestinians became refugees in 1947-49. The last census was taken by the British in 1945. It found approximately 1.2 million permanent Arab residents in all of Palestine. A 1949 Government of Israel census counted 160,000 Arabs living in the country after the war. In 1947, a total of 809,100 Arabs lived in the same area.1 This meant no more than 650,000 Palestinian Arabs could have become refugees. A report by the UN Mediator on Palestine arrived at an even lower figure — 472,000, and calculated that only about 360,000 Arab refugees required aid.2
Although much is heard about the plight of the Palestinian refugees, little is said about the Jews who fled from Arab states. Their situation had long been precarious. During the 1947 UN debates, Arab leaders threatened them. For example, Egypt's delegate told the General Assembly: "The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries would be jeopardized by partition."
The number of Jews fleeing Arab countries for Israel in the years following Israel's independence was nearly double the number of Arabs leaving Palestine. Many Jews were allowed to take little more than the shirts on their backs. These refugees had no desire to be repatriated. Little is heard about them because they did not remain refugees for long. Of the 820,000 Jewish refugees between 1948 and 1972, 586,000 were resettled in Israel at great expense, and without any offer of compensation from the Arab governments who confiscated their possessions.3a Israel has consequently maintained that any agreement to compensate the Palestinian refugees must also include Arab compensation for Jewish refugees. To this day, the Arab states have refused to pay any compensation to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forced to abandon their property before fleeing those countries.
The contrast between the reception of Jewish and Palestinian refugees is even starker when one considers the difference in cultural and geographic dislocation experienced by the two groups. Most Jewish refugees traveled hundreds — and some traveled thousands — of miles to a tiny country whose inhabitants spoke a different language. Most Arab refugees never left Palestine at all; they traveled a few miles to the other side of the truce line, remaining inside the vast Arab nation that they were part of linguistically, culturally and ethnically.
MYTH
"One million Palestinians were expelled by Israel from 1947-49."
FACT
The Palestinians left their homes in 1947-49 for a variety of reasons. Thousands of wealthy Arabs left in anticipation of a war, thousands more responded to Arab leaders' calls to get out of the way of the advancing armies, a handful were expelled, but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the cross fire of a battle.
Many Arabs claim that 800,000 to 1,000,000 Palestinians became refugees in 1947-49. The last census was taken by the British in 1945. It found approximately 1.2 million permanent Arab residents in all of Palestine. A 1949 Government of Israel census counted 160,000 Arabs living in the country after the war. In 1947, a total of 809,100 Arabs lived in the same area.1 This meant no more than 650,000 Palestinian Arabs could have become refugees. A report by the UN Mediator on Palestine arrived at an even lower figure — 472,000, and calculated that only about 360,000 Arab refugees required aid.2
Although much is heard about the plight of the Palestinian refugees, little is said about the Jews who fled from Arab states. Their situation had long been precarious. During the 1947 UN debates, Arab leaders threatened them. For example, Egypt's delegate told the General Assembly: "The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries would be jeopardized by partition."
The number of Jews fleeing Arab countries for Israel in the years following Israel's independence was nearly double the number of Arabs leaving Palestine. Many Jews were allowed to take little more than the shirts on their backs. These refugees had no desire to be repatriated. Little is heard about them because they did not remain refugees for long. Of the 820,000 Jewish refugees between 1948 and 1972, 586,000 were resettled in Israel at great expense, and without any offer of compensation from the Arab governments who confiscated their possessions.3a Israel has consequently maintained that any agreement to compensate the Palestinian refugees must also include Arab compensation for Jewish refugees. To this day, the Arab states have refused to pay any compensation to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forced to abandon their property before fleeing those countries.
The contrast between the reception of Jewish and Palestinian refugees is even starker when one considers the difference in cultural and geographic dislocation experienced by the two groups. Most Jewish refugees traveled hundreds — and some traveled thousands — of miles to a tiny country whose inhabitants spoke a different language. Most Arab refugees never left Palestine at all; they traveled a few miles to the other side of the truce line, remaining inside the vast Arab nation that they were part of linguistically, culturally and ethnically.
November 20, 2003
A must-read on Yourish.com
Yourish.com
Meryl Yourish explains to an Egyptian enquirer why she is a Zionist.
A must read.
Thank you to Havdala for cross-linking to Meryl's excellent post, and thank you to Meryl for her articulateness, her faith, her righteousness, her defense of Israel and most of all for her astute precision in nailing shut the argument that Israel deserves the right to exist.
Thank you, Meryl.
Meryl Yourish explains to an Egyptian enquirer why she is a Zionist.
A must read.
Thank you to Havdala for cross-linking to Meryl's excellent post, and thank you to Meryl for her articulateness, her faith, her righteousness, her defense of Israel and most of all for her astute precision in nailing shut the argument that Israel deserves the right to exist.
Thank you, Meryl.
Brit says Bush is 'greatest threat to life on planet'
News
Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the "greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen".
His provocatively timed comments, on the eve of Mr Bush's arrival in London, threaten to create severe embarrassment for the Prime Minister. They also come with talks under way on whether to re-admit Mr Livingstone to the Labour Party before his five-year exile ends.
Aside from the fact that Ken Livingstone is an uneducated schmuck for saying such a thing, when bin Laden, Hussein, Stalin and Hitler are the real Icons of Evil, the Smooth Stone team decided that it was time for Livingstone to learn that it is both Islam and England's fault for the problems in the Middle East .
It is Islam's fault because Islam is an ethnocentric, xenophobic unevolved cult.
And it is England's fault because of the following reasons:
During WWI, the entire Middle East, which had been part of the Ottoman Empire, was split into two parts. Half was controlled by France (the French Mandate), the other half by England (the British Mandate).
The French Mandate included the northern part of the Ottoman Empire. The British Mandate included the southern and eastern part of the Ottoman Empire.
It is important to keep in mind that the Ottoman Empire controlled the Middle East from the 16th to the 20th century -- for some 400 years. During this time, the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. did not exist. The residents in these areas were predominately Arab subjects of the Ottoman Empire, living in loosely organized tribal communities.
The British Mandate included the landmass on the West Bank of the Jordan River all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the landmass on the East Bank of the Jordan River, an area known as Trans-Jordan. The British called this whole huge area "Palestine."
When the British took over the land of Israel, suddenly the dream of a homeland for the Jews became a real possibility.
By this time, there were between 85,000 to 100,000 Jews living in the Land of Israel, of a total population of 600,000. (See History of the Jews by Paul Johnson, p. 430.) Most of the Arabs living in the land had migrated there only in the previous thirty years attracted by the jobs created by the Jews who were building and farming. (Note that when Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in large numbers in 1882, fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there.
A big boost for a Jewish homeland came from Earl Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), then foreign secretary, who in 1917 promised British support for the cause.
Balfour became a friend of the Jewish cause in some measure because of Chaim Weizmann whose invention of artificial acetone, the chief ingredient in gunpowder, enabled the British to mass-produce gunpowder for the war effort. Balfour said that acetone converted him to Zionism.
Balfour's support for a Jewish homeland became known in history as the Balfour Declaration which was issued in the form a letter to Lord Rothschild on November 2nd, 1917. It stated:
"His Majesty's government looks with favor upon the establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for the Jewish people."
But talk is cheap, and when it came to the reality of creating such a state, the British had many other considerations and interests to take into consideration, as we shall see presently.
Despite the support of certain British political figures, the British Foreign Ministry and others were generally much more pro-Arab, and the British government got busy carving out Arab countries from the lands of the Ottoman Empire.
Through their efforts the country of Iraq was created in 1921. It was a monarchy with Faisal ibn Hussein, the son of Hussein the Sherif of Mecca, as king. Soon thereafter Iraqi oil started to flow to the West.
Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world (after Saudi Arabia) and it is no wonder the British were interested in having a bond with this country as well as other oil-rich Arab states.
Another country created by the British was Jordan. In 1927, the British installed Abdullah ibn Hussein, another son of the Sherif of Mecca, as emir of the new country called Trans-Jordan, later Jordan. Jordan was confined to the East Bank of the River Jordan and did not include any part of the West Bank.
Why were the sons of the Sherif of Mecca made rulers of these countries?
The British wanted alliances with all the Arab kingdoms. They had shored up support for the Ibn Saud of the Arabian Peninsula, who had fought the Turks alongside them. Ibn Saud got Saudi Arabia.
But when that happened, the British had to pay off the Hussein Sherif of Mecca, who was in charge of the Islamic holy sites. (The Hussein family are Hashemites, the tribe of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, and have been traditionally the keepers of Holy City of Mecca.)
They had to give him and his children some land, so they gave them Iraq and Trans-Jordan -- the land on the East Bank of the River Jordan.
Yet despite all this country-making, and despite the Balfour Declaration, the British could not get around to creating a country called Israel.
Why not?
There was a clear British bias against the Jews as is readily apparent to anyone who has studied the series of White Papers issued by the British government in the 1920s and 1930s.
The reasons for this bias were:
The British had to deal with the issue of an Arab majority living in what was left of Palestine. They came up with all kinds of partition plans all of which were rejected by the Arabs. (Not all Arabs were opposed by-the-way; King Faisal of Iraq signed an agreement with Chaim Weizman calling for peace and cooperation.)
Many members of the British government and military were clearly anti-Semitic and had a romantic/patronizing attitude toward the Arabs.
The Arabs had oil and England needed oil. In the final analysis, the British had to take into consideration what was in their best interest. Looking after their strategic interests and placating tens of millions of Arabs was more important in their eyes than saving a few hundred thousand Jews, even though this went against the conditions of the mandate that they were granted in 1920.
Meanwhile the poor Jews, not knowing that the British were going to back out of their promise, kept migrating to the land.
The third migration or aliyah (between 1919 and 1923) brought 35,000 Jews to the land. The fourth aliyah (between 1924 and 1928) brought 80,000 Jews to the land. The fifth aliyah (between 1929 and 1939 as Hitler rose to power in Germany) brought 250,000 Jews to the land.
The Arabs made it clear that they were not going to sit still for a Jewish state. In August of 1929, due to the instigation of the preachers in the mosques, a series of riots broke out in which many Jews were massacred.
The New York Times in its history of Israel (Israel: from Ancient Times to the Modern Nation, pp. 38-39) writes of this time:
The 1930s saw more rioting and more massacres, especially in Jaffa and again in Hebron.
In response, the British convened the Peel Commission which almost totally did away with the Balfour Declaration that had originally promised a Jewish homeland in Palestine on both sides of the River Jordan.
In July of 1937, the Peel Commission issued a report which said that all the Jews should be confined to a tiny state that would include a sliver of land along the Mediterranean coast and a small piece in the north abutting the west side of the Lake Kineret ("Sea of Galilee").
The Arabs greeted the Peel Commission recommendation with a revolt which lasted until 1939.
The Arab Revolt was led by Haj Amin Husseini, who was originally appointed as the Mufti of Jerusalem by the British. It is interesting to note that in addition to hundreds of Jews who were killed by Arabs, some 3,000 Arabs died in this revolt at the hands of other Arabs and at the hands of the British.
For all the British criticism of Israel today, at that time the British were not shy in their efforts to quell the rioting. They introduced the policy of housing demolition and used artillery to shell rebellious towns.
The revolt was finally crushed and the Mufti fled first to Beirut and later to Europe, where he became an ally of Adolph Hitler, organizing a Bosnian S.S. unit to kill Jews in the Balkans.
After the war he was captured but escaped. He was later involved in fomenting violence, including the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan in 1951. He was last heard of living as a guest in Saudi Arabia. (Faisal Husseini, who was the PLO's representatives in Jerusalem and who recently died of a heart attack was a relative of his.)
The British did not keep the promise contained in the Balfour Declaration and neither did they keep the promise contained in the Peel Commission report.
They did enforce one aspect of the Peel Commission report -- that which limited Jewish migration to the land to only 12,000 a year for the next five years (1939-1943). By doing so the British doomed the Jews under the control of Nazis -- they would no longer be able to find refuge in their homeland.
They did this, knowing full well what the Germans were doing to the Jews -- this was after the Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht (see Part 60). And still the British closed an escape route that would have saved millions of Jewish lives.
The Jews were desperate and they tried to come illegally. In response, the British set up a blockade to keep them out.
Many Jews managed to circumvent the blockade and it is estimated that 115,000 Jews got through. But 115,000 is a very small number compared to the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust and who could not find refuge in the land of Israel.
So Ken Livingstone is just another example of the British showing the same callousness in regard to Jewish men, women and children being murdered today, as they did during the British Mandate.
Thank you to www.aish.com for writing most of this article.
Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the "greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen".
His provocatively timed comments, on the eve of Mr Bush's arrival in London, threaten to create severe embarrassment for the Prime Minister. They also come with talks under way on whether to re-admit Mr Livingstone to the Labour Party before his five-year exile ends.
Aside from the fact that Ken Livingstone is an uneducated schmuck for saying such a thing, when bin Laden, Hussein, Stalin and Hitler are the real Icons of Evil, the Smooth Stone team decided that it was time for Livingstone to learn that it is both Islam and England's fault for the problems in the Middle East .
It is Islam's fault because Islam is an ethnocentric, xenophobic unevolved cult.
And it is England's fault because of the following reasons:
During WWI, the entire Middle East, which had been part of the Ottoman Empire, was split into two parts. Half was controlled by France (the French Mandate), the other half by England (the British Mandate).
The French Mandate included the northern part of the Ottoman Empire. The British Mandate included the southern and eastern part of the Ottoman Empire.
It is important to keep in mind that the Ottoman Empire controlled the Middle East from the 16th to the 20th century -- for some 400 years. During this time, the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. did not exist. The residents in these areas were predominately Arab subjects of the Ottoman Empire, living in loosely organized tribal communities.
The British Mandate included the landmass on the West Bank of the Jordan River all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the landmass on the East Bank of the Jordan River, an area known as Trans-Jordan. The British called this whole huge area "Palestine."
When the British took over the land of Israel, suddenly the dream of a homeland for the Jews became a real possibility.
By this time, there were between 85,000 to 100,000 Jews living in the Land of Israel, of a total population of 600,000. (See History of the Jews by Paul Johnson, p. 430.) Most of the Arabs living in the land had migrated there only in the previous thirty years attracted by the jobs created by the Jews who were building and farming. (Note that when Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in large numbers in 1882, fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there.
A big boost for a Jewish homeland came from Earl Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), then foreign secretary, who in 1917 promised British support for the cause.
Balfour became a friend of the Jewish cause in some measure because of Chaim Weizmann whose invention of artificial acetone, the chief ingredient in gunpowder, enabled the British to mass-produce gunpowder for the war effort. Balfour said that acetone converted him to Zionism.
Balfour's support for a Jewish homeland became known in history as the Balfour Declaration which was issued in the form a letter to Lord Rothschild on November 2nd, 1917. It stated:
"His Majesty's government looks with favor upon the establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for the Jewish people."
But talk is cheap, and when it came to the reality of creating such a state, the British had many other considerations and interests to take into consideration, as we shall see presently.
Despite the support of certain British political figures, the British Foreign Ministry and others were generally much more pro-Arab, and the British government got busy carving out Arab countries from the lands of the Ottoman Empire.
Through their efforts the country of Iraq was created in 1921. It was a monarchy with Faisal ibn Hussein, the son of Hussein the Sherif of Mecca, as king. Soon thereafter Iraqi oil started to flow to the West.
Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world (after Saudi Arabia) and it is no wonder the British were interested in having a bond with this country as well as other oil-rich Arab states.
Another country created by the British was Jordan. In 1927, the British installed Abdullah ibn Hussein, another son of the Sherif of Mecca, as emir of the new country called Trans-Jordan, later Jordan. Jordan was confined to the East Bank of the River Jordan and did not include any part of the West Bank.
Why were the sons of the Sherif of Mecca made rulers of these countries?
The British wanted alliances with all the Arab kingdoms. They had shored up support for the Ibn Saud of the Arabian Peninsula, who had fought the Turks alongside them. Ibn Saud got Saudi Arabia.
But when that happened, the British had to pay off the Hussein Sherif of Mecca, who was in charge of the Islamic holy sites. (The Hussein family are Hashemites, the tribe of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, and have been traditionally the keepers of Holy City of Mecca.)
They had to give him and his children some land, so they gave them Iraq and Trans-Jordan -- the land on the East Bank of the River Jordan.
Yet despite all this country-making, and despite the Balfour Declaration, the British could not get around to creating a country called Israel.
Why not?
There was a clear British bias against the Jews as is readily apparent to anyone who has studied the series of White Papers issued by the British government in the 1920s and 1930s.
The reasons for this bias were:
The British had to deal with the issue of an Arab majority living in what was left of Palestine. They came up with all kinds of partition plans all of which were rejected by the Arabs. (Not all Arabs were opposed by-the-way; King Faisal of Iraq signed an agreement with Chaim Weizman calling for peace and cooperation.)
Many members of the British government and military were clearly anti-Semitic and had a romantic/patronizing attitude toward the Arabs.
The Arabs had oil and England needed oil. In the final analysis, the British had to take into consideration what was in their best interest. Looking after their strategic interests and placating tens of millions of Arabs was more important in their eyes than saving a few hundred thousand Jews, even though this went against the conditions of the mandate that they were granted in 1920.
Meanwhile the poor Jews, not knowing that the British were going to back out of their promise, kept migrating to the land.
The third migration or aliyah (between 1919 and 1923) brought 35,000 Jews to the land. The fourth aliyah (between 1924 and 1928) brought 80,000 Jews to the land. The fifth aliyah (between 1929 and 1939 as Hitler rose to power in Germany) brought 250,000 Jews to the land.
The Arabs made it clear that they were not going to sit still for a Jewish state. In August of 1929, due to the instigation of the preachers in the mosques, a series of riots broke out in which many Jews were massacred.
The New York Times in its history of Israel (Israel: from Ancient Times to the Modern Nation, pp. 38-39) writes of this time:
"The riots of August, 1929, were ignited in Jerusalem over a rumor spread by Arab leaders that Jews were going to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third most holy shrine. Fighting soon spread throughout Palestine. The worst massacres were in Hebron, sacred to Jew and Muslim alike, where 67 Orthodox Jews - men, women and children - were slaughtered by Arabs and 50 more wounded. Pierre van Paassen, a reporter, described the horror that he witnessed by lamplight in a Jewish seminary in Hebron: 'The slain students in the yard, the dead men in the synagogue, slashed throats and mutilated bodies.' By the time order was restored 133 Jews had been killed, 399 wounded."
The 1930s saw more rioting and more massacres, especially in Jaffa and again in Hebron.
In response, the British convened the Peel Commission which almost totally did away with the Balfour Declaration that had originally promised a Jewish homeland in Palestine on both sides of the River Jordan.
In July of 1937, the Peel Commission issued a report which said that all the Jews should be confined to a tiny state that would include a sliver of land along the Mediterranean coast and a small piece in the north abutting the west side of the Lake Kineret ("Sea of Galilee").
The Arabs greeted the Peel Commission recommendation with a revolt which lasted until 1939.
The Arab Revolt was led by Haj Amin Husseini, who was originally appointed as the Mufti of Jerusalem by the British. It is interesting to note that in addition to hundreds of Jews who were killed by Arabs, some 3,000 Arabs died in this revolt at the hands of other Arabs and at the hands of the British.
For all the British criticism of Israel today, at that time the British were not shy in their efforts to quell the rioting. They introduced the policy of housing demolition and used artillery to shell rebellious towns.
The revolt was finally crushed and the Mufti fled first to Beirut and later to Europe, where he became an ally of Adolph Hitler, organizing a Bosnian S.S. unit to kill Jews in the Balkans.
After the war he was captured but escaped. He was later involved in fomenting violence, including the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan in 1951. He was last heard of living as a guest in Saudi Arabia. (Faisal Husseini, who was the PLO's representatives in Jerusalem and who recently died of a heart attack was a relative of his.)
The British did not keep the promise contained in the Balfour Declaration and neither did they keep the promise contained in the Peel Commission report.
They did enforce one aspect of the Peel Commission report -- that which limited Jewish migration to the land to only 12,000 a year for the next five years (1939-1943). By doing so the British doomed the Jews under the control of Nazis -- they would no longer be able to find refuge in their homeland.
They did this, knowing full well what the Germans were doing to the Jews -- this was after the Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht (see Part 60). And still the British closed an escape route that would have saved millions of Jewish lives.
The Jews were desperate and they tried to come illegally. In response, the British set up a blockade to keep them out.
Many Jews managed to circumvent the blockade and it is estimated that 115,000 Jews got through. But 115,000 is a very small number compared to the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust and who could not find refuge in the land of Israel.
So Ken Livingstone is just another example of the British showing the same callousness in regard to Jewish men, women and children being murdered today, as they did during the British Mandate.
Thank you to www.aish.com for writing most of this article.
CNN.com - Weather- Jerusalem, Israel *
CNN.com's Weather page for Jerusalem, Israel
I forgot to include that on CNN's weather page for Jerusalem, Israel there exists the following caveat:
Weather
Jerusalem, Israel*
* The status of Jerusalem, the seat of Israeli government, has been a contentious issue in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Palestinian and Arab leaders consider part of Jerusalem the capital of the prospective Palestinian state. "
It's laughable that even in areas of weather discussions, CNN must make a political statement. It's disgusting. Of course CNN is Jew hater Ted Turner's network, so one must start with low expectations while digesting such media vomit.
The Smooth Stone team often visits web sites with online ordering and "shopping carts", to see if the non-existent territory called "Palestine" is listed as one of the shipping destinations. Most of the time we are pleasantly surprised.
We will post some results of this ad-hoc investigation over the next few months.
I forgot to include that on CNN's weather page for Jerusalem, Israel there exists the following caveat:
Weather
Jerusalem, Israel*
* The status of Jerusalem, the seat of Israeli government, has been a contentious issue in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Palestinian and Arab leaders consider part of Jerusalem the capital of the prospective Palestinian state. "
It's laughable that even in areas of weather discussions, CNN must make a political statement. It's disgusting. Of course CNN is Jew hater Ted Turner's network, so one must start with low expectations while digesting such media vomit.
The Smooth Stone team often visits web sites with online ordering and "shopping carts", to see if the non-existent territory called "Palestine" is listed as one of the shipping destinations. Most of the time we are pleasantly surprised.
We will post some results of this ad-hoc investigation over the next few months.
More poisoned terminology; "held territories"
From Zola Levitt:
American Airlines has labeled a frequent flyer statement to a customer in Israel with the address "Jerusalem, Held Territories."
Angered by this designation of his West Jerusalem residence, Dr. Gerald Schroeder sent a copy of his mileage statement to a Dallas-based Christian ministry to Israel, [Zola Levitt Ministries] which followed up with calls to the airline.
An American Airlines customer relations agent initially apologized, insisting that designating Israel's official capital as part of "Held Territories" was a "computer glitch," according to Zola Levitt Ministries. The airline promised to use "Israel" on Schroeder's future mailings.
The designation came about from an internal two-letter country code on the airline's computer system that was put there many years ago, explained customer relations agent Michelle Simmons on June 19. Until this incident, "Held Territories" had never printed out to customers, she said.
On June 28, however, Simmons replied to Levitt's assistant Lawrence Ford with a letter explaining that calling the matter a "glitch" was a misstatement and that too many years have passed to determine how the words "Held Territories" were put in the airline's database.
Simmons said about 10 people with the airline are looking into the matter, searching for a "globally recognized" source of information to determine if Israel is the best word to describe the area.
"A profit-making business is now deciding who are the real owners of a foreign land," Levitt told WorldNetDaily. "We seem to be bowing to our worst enemies – the Saudis, the terrorists – and trying to please them. It was American Airlines planes that were hijacked by the terrorists in Boston and crashed into the World Trade Center. Is there a hint here, saying, 'We're on your side, pick on someone else next time'?"
Levitt, a member of American's frequent flyer program himself, said he knows Schroeder, who lives in West Jerusalem, formally considered part of Israel. East Jerusalem is in the territory Jordan lost as a result of its 1967 war with Israel.
Simmons said in her June 28 letter: "In answer to your question about future written references to Jerusalem addresses, we certainly understand the argument for the standard use of Israel. However, in view of what has happened, we want to be very accurate in this regard, and we are attempting to identify a globally recognized source to use to update our database."
The U.S. State Department, which has a consulate in Jerusalem, lists the city as Israel's capital on its website. The U.S. Embassy is in Tel Aviv, but the White House has favored moving it to Jerusalem. The United Nations does not list any country called "Held Territories" or "Palestine."
It is not the first time this year that a multi-national company has stirred controversy with its designation of the Holy Land.
WND reported Jan. 28 that customers in Europe and Israel who purchased Motorola cellphones discovered that Israel is not listed on Motorola's customer services manual. While excluding Israel, the list includes the non-existent state of "Palestine," with Jerusalem listed as a Palestinian city.
MSNBC declared a state of Palestine on its online Arabic-language portal, while leaving off Israel from its list of nations, WND reported Feb. 13. In March, according to a WND story, Fujfilm was accused of being anti-Israel when an unauthorized map using the company's logo excluded Israel.
American's Simmons told Ford she could not speak for the corporation in an official capacity, but indicated that mailings to the West Bank and Gaza Strip were labeled according to the address given by the customer. An American representative told WND yesterday that a corporate spokesperson would respond to questions, but the call was not returned by press time.
Simmons said one of the people looking into the matter believed that the country information used by the airline had been obtained from the International Organization of Standardization. The ISO includes "Palestine Territories, Occupied" in its list of nations.
In a reply to Simmons' apology on June 18, Ford said on behalf of Levitt that the mission leader "remains concerned that while an apology has been offered, a reasonable explanation for such a serious mistake has not been made. For instance, has the person responsible for inserting the words 'Held Territories' been reprimanded? Suspended? Fired? Does American Airlines in fact recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel? These are just some of the questions which need answering."
On its website, American lists "Tel Aviv, Israel" as one of the destinations in its network of partners.
American Airlines has labeled a frequent flyer statement to a customer in Israel with the address "Jerusalem, Held Territories."
Angered by this designation of his West Jerusalem residence, Dr. Gerald Schroeder sent a copy of his mileage statement to a Dallas-based Christian ministry to Israel, [Zola Levitt Ministries] which followed up with calls to the airline.
An American Airlines customer relations agent initially apologized, insisting that designating Israel's official capital as part of "Held Territories" was a "computer glitch," according to Zola Levitt Ministries. The airline promised to use "Israel" on Schroeder's future mailings.
The designation came about from an internal two-letter country code on the airline's computer system that was put there many years ago, explained customer relations agent Michelle Simmons on June 19. Until this incident, "Held Territories" had never printed out to customers, she said.
On June 28, however, Simmons replied to Levitt's assistant Lawrence Ford with a letter explaining that calling the matter a "glitch" was a misstatement and that too many years have passed to determine how the words "Held Territories" were put in the airline's database.
Simmons said about 10 people with the airline are looking into the matter, searching for a "globally recognized" source of information to determine if Israel is the best word to describe the area.
"A profit-making business is now deciding who are the real owners of a foreign land," Levitt told WorldNetDaily. "We seem to be bowing to our worst enemies – the Saudis, the terrorists – and trying to please them. It was American Airlines planes that were hijacked by the terrorists in Boston and crashed into the World Trade Center. Is there a hint here, saying, 'We're on your side, pick on someone else next time'?"
Levitt, a member of American's frequent flyer program himself, said he knows Schroeder, who lives in West Jerusalem, formally considered part of Israel. East Jerusalem is in the territory Jordan lost as a result of its 1967 war with Israel.
Simmons said in her June 28 letter: "In answer to your question about future written references to Jerusalem addresses, we certainly understand the argument for the standard use of Israel. However, in view of what has happened, we want to be very accurate in this regard, and we are attempting to identify a globally recognized source to use to update our database."
The U.S. State Department, which has a consulate in Jerusalem, lists the city as Israel's capital on its website. The U.S. Embassy is in Tel Aviv, but the White House has favored moving it to Jerusalem. The United Nations does not list any country called "Held Territories" or "Palestine."
It is not the first time this year that a multi-national company has stirred controversy with its designation of the Holy Land.
WND reported Jan. 28 that customers in Europe and Israel who purchased Motorola cellphones discovered that Israel is not listed on Motorola's customer services manual. While excluding Israel, the list includes the non-existent state of "Palestine," with Jerusalem listed as a Palestinian city.
MSNBC declared a state of Palestine on its online Arabic-language portal, while leaving off Israel from its list of nations, WND reported Feb. 13. In March, according to a WND story, Fujfilm was accused of being anti-Israel when an unauthorized map using the company's logo excluded Israel.
American's Simmons told Ford she could not speak for the corporation in an official capacity, but indicated that mailings to the West Bank and Gaza Strip were labeled according to the address given by the customer. An American representative told WND yesterday that a corporate spokesperson would respond to questions, but the call was not returned by press time.
Simmons said one of the people looking into the matter believed that the country information used by the airline had been obtained from the International Organization of Standardization. The ISO includes "Palestine Territories, Occupied" in its list of nations.
In a reply to Simmons' apology on June 18, Ford said on behalf of Levitt that the mission leader "remains concerned that while an apology has been offered, a reasonable explanation for such a serious mistake has not been made. For instance, has the person responsible for inserting the words 'Held Territories' been reprimanded? Suspended? Fired? Does American Airlines in fact recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel? These are just some of the questions which need answering."
On its website, American lists "Tel Aviv, Israel" as one of the destinations in its network of partners.
Bush presses Israel, and the "poor Palestinians "
Bush presses Israel, Palestinians
President Bush criticized both Israel and the Palestinians during a speech at the beginning of his state visit to Britain. In a wide-ranging address to defense and foreign-policy experts Wednesday at London’s Banqueting House, Bush said that while “the long-suffering Palestinian people deserve true leaders” who did not misuse funds or consort with terrorist groups, Israel had a responsibility to “stop humiliating” the Palestinians, put a freeze on settlement construction and dismantle illegal settlement outposts. He also called on Arab states to end anti-Israel incitement, cut off funding to terrorists and establish normal relations with the Jewish state. A day earlier, a senior official told reporters that the administration is discussing with Israel how to improve Palestinian living conditions.
Cute George. On the same day that America is dropping tons of bombs on Iraq, showing ultimate sensitivity, Bush calls upon Israel to conduct more acts of love and kindness to the poor “Palestinians”. A day after a “Palestinian” terrorist snuck up to a Israeli checkpoint, brutally murdering 2 Israeli soldiers, President Bush urges Israel to permit non-degrading freedom of movement for Arabs at Israeli checkpoints. Perhaps Bush is unaware of the fact that thousands of Arab terrorists seek to pass through roadblocks with bombs and guns to murder Jews. The roadblocks and checkpoints are there so that Israel could detect the bombs and the guns before they are smuggled into major Israeli cities.
If Israel would only expel the hostile Arab population they would not need to “degrade” the Arabs at checkpoints.
President Bush criticized both Israel and the Palestinians during a speech at the beginning of his state visit to Britain. In a wide-ranging address to defense and foreign-policy experts Wednesday at London’s Banqueting House, Bush said that while “the long-suffering Palestinian people deserve true leaders” who did not misuse funds or consort with terrorist groups, Israel had a responsibility to “stop humiliating” the Palestinians, put a freeze on settlement construction and dismantle illegal settlement outposts. He also called on Arab states to end anti-Israel incitement, cut off funding to terrorists and establish normal relations with the Jewish state. A day earlier, a senior official told reporters that the administration is discussing with Israel how to improve Palestinian living conditions.
Cute George. On the same day that America is dropping tons of bombs on Iraq, showing ultimate sensitivity, Bush calls upon Israel to conduct more acts of love and kindness to the poor “Palestinians”. A day after a “Palestinian” terrorist snuck up to a Israeli checkpoint, brutally murdering 2 Israeli soldiers, President Bush urges Israel to permit non-degrading freedom of movement for Arabs at Israeli checkpoints. Perhaps Bush is unaware of the fact that thousands of Arab terrorists seek to pass through roadblocks with bombs and guns to murder Jews. The roadblocks and checkpoints are there so that Israel could detect the bombs and the guns before they are smuggled into major Israeli cities.
If Israel would only expel the hostile Arab population they would not need to “degrade” the Arabs at checkpoints.
They Were Seen Off, Under Turkish Flag
They Were Seen Off, Under Turkish Flag
Turkey embraced the 1300 year old Jewish-Muslim bond because six Jewish people killed in the homicide bombings this past weekend, including one Romanian and five Turkish, were buried with tears and were wrapped to Turkish flags, as martyrs of Turkey. At the funeral in the Askenaz Cemetery in Istanbul, Turkey's Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva said, 'may my prayers rise to the skies, for the elevation of friendship between the people, and terror replaced by peace, love and harmony."
Haleva quoted Ataturk's motto "Peace at home, peace in the world" both in Turkish and Hebrew. State Minister Guldal Aksit represented the government in the funeral.
At least one of the two men who carried out the duel bombings, Masoud Shabok and Azzad Akinji, had spent an extended period of time in Iran undergoing bomb training, a Turkish TV report claimed Monday.
Al Jazeera television news reported that Shabok and Akinji were associated with a small, Islamic extremist organization in Turkey called the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front (known by its Turkish acronym IBDA-C).
Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said DNA tests on the suspected drivers, which could establish identities or at least nationalities, were expected to be ready on Tuesday. Earlier Turkish news reports said police had been questioning a Turk believed to be the brother of one of the drivers. The man questioned was brought to Istanbul from southeastern Turkey for questioning because one of the pickups had been purchased using documentation belonging to him. NTV said DNA testing on the suspected suicide driver's remains and on the brother indicated they were related, helping to identify the driver as a Turk. NTV, without citing sources, said the driver had traveled six times to Iran for bomb training. He was suspected, along with the other suicide driver, of having links with the al-Qaida terrorist network, NTV said.
Turkey embraced the 1300 year old Jewish-Muslim bond because six Jewish people killed in the homicide bombings this past weekend, including one Romanian and five Turkish, were buried with tears and were wrapped to Turkish flags, as martyrs of Turkey. At the funeral in the Askenaz Cemetery in Istanbul, Turkey's Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva said, 'may my prayers rise to the skies, for the elevation of friendship between the people, and terror replaced by peace, love and harmony."
Haleva quoted Ataturk's motto "Peace at home, peace in the world" both in Turkish and Hebrew. State Minister Guldal Aksit represented the government in the funeral.
At least one of the two men who carried out the duel bombings, Masoud Shabok and Azzad Akinji, had spent an extended period of time in Iran undergoing bomb training, a Turkish TV report claimed Monday.
Al Jazeera television news reported that Shabok and Akinji were associated with a small, Islamic extremist organization in Turkey called the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front (known by its Turkish acronym IBDA-C).
Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said DNA tests on the suspected drivers, which could establish identities or at least nationalities, were expected to be ready on Tuesday. Earlier Turkish news reports said police had been questioning a Turk believed to be the brother of one of the drivers. The man questioned was brought to Istanbul from southeastern Turkey for questioning because one of the pickups had been purchased using documentation belonging to him. NTV said DNA testing on the suspected suicide driver's remains and on the brother indicated they were related, helping to identify the driver as a Turk. NTV, without citing sources, said the driver had traveled six times to Iran for bomb training. He was suspected, along with the other suicide driver, of having links with the al-Qaida terrorist network, NTV said.
Photos of the Istanbul Synagogue Bombers (Nov 2003)
Photos of the Istanbul Synagogue Bombers (Nov 2003)
Both of them are ugly as hell. Perhaps that's because that's where they are right now.
Both of them are ugly as hell. Perhaps that's because that's where they are right now.
November 18, 2003
Contributions to Civilization in the Name of Islam
Below is an abbreviated list of the contributions to world terror committed by Muslims and/or in the name of Islam in the last six decades:
- inhumane attack on the World Trade Center killing 3000+ people, September 11, 2001
- conspiracy with Nazi Germany against the U.S. and the Allies in WW2
- American hostage crisis in Iran - 1979 - hostages were detained for 444 days
- bombing of U.S. embassies in Beirut, Kenya, Tanzania, killing hundreds.
- killing of American diplomats in cold blood
- terror attacks against European airports (Rome & Vienna)- dozens killed
- terror hijacking of civilian airplanes - most famous is Air France - Entebbe
- terror hijacking of cruise ships - most famous - Achille Lauro - in which an elderly man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was thrown overboard
- Munich Olympics 1973 - entire Israeli Sports team brutally massacred
- Lockerbie plane - Pan Am civilian airline downed by Muslim terrorists killing hundreds on board, mostly American.
- bombing of USS Cole in Yemen
- bombing World Trade Center in NYC by Muslim terrorists - 1993
- conspiracy to bomb NYC bridges and tunnels and other NY landmarks and infrastructure; 1993
- desecration and destruction of ancient Buddhist, Hindu, and Jewish Holy sites by Muslim governments who sponsor global terrorism
- six wars waged on Israel and instigated by Arabs
- barbaric acts committed on Israeli soldiers - ripping out of their heart and intestines with bare hands and paraded in the streets of Ramallah
- barbaric acts committed on American and Israeli children: savage stoning beyond recognition of two 12-year old boys who were hiking, targeting babies in strollers by Arab snipers.
- dumping poisonous sewage from West Bank and Gaza into Israel
- burning American and Israeli flags
- incitement of their populations by Muslim clerics to kill Americans, British, and Jews the world over.
- arrest of hundreds of Christians in Syria
- attacks on U.S. soldiers in Somalia - 1993
- bombing U.S. personnel in Saudi Arabia - 1995, 1996
- bombing U.S. soldiers in Yemen - 1992
- hundreds of suicide bombings in Israel - killing and maiming civilians
- thousands of attempted suicide bombings in Israel
- synagogue bombing in Istanbul
- hijacking of Pan Am #73 in Karachi
- kidnapping and beheading of Westerners in Phillipines & Malaysia
- armed attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt
- arrest, detention, and execution threats against Christians in Afghanistan
- execution of Hindus in Afghanistan, Hindus forced to wear I.D. tag
- murder of 58 Western tourists in Luxor, Egypt, 1997
- kidnapping and murder of journalists and foreign nationals - Algeria 1992
- planned attack against U.S. Embassy in Albania - thwarted.
- bombing of Orly Airport in Paris - 8 killed, 55 seriously wounded
- bombing of Israeli Embassy in Argentina - 1992
- bombing of Jewish Cultural Center - Buenos Aires- 1994- hundreds killed
- public floggings, mutilations, torture, beheadings, executions of inhabitants in Muslim countries.
- denial of freedom of dress, speech, press, and other basic human rights to inhabitants of Mulsim countries.
- mass murders of Afghans and Hindus by Islamic Taliban
- armed attacks on Sudanese Christians
- Sudanese slavery
- execution of civilians without proper representation (Muslim and non-Muslim)
- exclusion of women from all parts of society - mutilation, torture, honor killings. Women forced to beg in streets, not allowed to speak, or to wear make-up, go to beauty parlor, show public affection to spouses for penalty of Death.
- child soldiers in Sudan, PLO, Muslim African countries.
- establishment of Islamic states where non Muslims are unwelcome and massacred, basic freedoms denied to the inhabitants, women are excluded from society, executions, torture, beheadings, and genocide are a daily ritual - Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan among others
- homicide bombing in two Turkish synagogues while Jews were praying and celebrating a Bar Mitzvah, killing more than 20 people
The Smooth Stone team had some difficulty in coming up with positive contributions. But we did remember some word origins:
- the word hashish, and the word assassin.
At first glance, one would be hard-pressed to find a link between pleasure and the acts of assassins. Such was not the case, however, with those who gave us the word assassin. They were members of a secret Islamic order originating in the 11th century who believed it was a religious duty to harass and murder their enemies. The most important members of the order were those who actually did the killing. Having been promised paradise in return for dying in action, the killers, it is said, were made to yearn for paradise by being given a life of pleasure that included the use of hashish. From this came the name for the secret order as a whole, as "hashish users". After passing through French or Italian, the word came into English and is recorded in 1603 with reference to the Muslim Assassins.
- inhumane attack on the World Trade Center killing 3000+ people, September 11, 2001
- conspiracy with Nazi Germany against the U.S. and the Allies in WW2
- American hostage crisis in Iran - 1979 - hostages were detained for 444 days
- bombing of U.S. embassies in Beirut, Kenya, Tanzania, killing hundreds.
- killing of American diplomats in cold blood
- terror attacks against European airports (Rome & Vienna)- dozens killed
- terror hijacking of civilian airplanes - most famous is Air France - Entebbe
- terror hijacking of cruise ships - most famous - Achille Lauro - in which an elderly man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was thrown overboard
- Munich Olympics 1973 - entire Israeli Sports team brutally massacred
- Lockerbie plane - Pan Am civilian airline downed by Muslim terrorists killing hundreds on board, mostly American.
- bombing of USS Cole in Yemen
- bombing World Trade Center in NYC by Muslim terrorists - 1993
- conspiracy to bomb NYC bridges and tunnels and other NY landmarks and infrastructure; 1993
- desecration and destruction of ancient Buddhist, Hindu, and Jewish Holy sites by Muslim governments who sponsor global terrorism
- six wars waged on Israel and instigated by Arabs
- barbaric acts committed on Israeli soldiers - ripping out of their heart and intestines with bare hands and paraded in the streets of Ramallah
- barbaric acts committed on American and Israeli children: savage stoning beyond recognition of two 12-year old boys who were hiking, targeting babies in strollers by Arab snipers.
- dumping poisonous sewage from West Bank and Gaza into Israel
- burning American and Israeli flags
- incitement of their populations by Muslim clerics to kill Americans, British, and Jews the world over.
- arrest of hundreds of Christians in Syria
- attacks on U.S. soldiers in Somalia - 1993
- bombing U.S. personnel in Saudi Arabia - 1995, 1996
- bombing U.S. soldiers in Yemen - 1992
- hundreds of suicide bombings in Israel - killing and maiming civilians
- thousands of attempted suicide bombings in Israel
- synagogue bombing in Istanbul
- hijacking of Pan Am #73 in Karachi
- kidnapping and beheading of Westerners in Phillipines & Malaysia
- armed attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt
- arrest, detention, and execution threats against Christians in Afghanistan
- execution of Hindus in Afghanistan, Hindus forced to wear I.D. tag
- murder of 58 Western tourists in Luxor, Egypt, 1997
- kidnapping and murder of journalists and foreign nationals - Algeria 1992
- planned attack against U.S. Embassy in Albania - thwarted.
- bombing of Orly Airport in Paris - 8 killed, 55 seriously wounded
- bombing of Israeli Embassy in Argentina - 1992
- bombing of Jewish Cultural Center - Buenos Aires- 1994- hundreds killed
- public floggings, mutilations, torture, beheadings, executions of inhabitants in Muslim countries.
- denial of freedom of dress, speech, press, and other basic human rights to inhabitants of Mulsim countries.
- mass murders of Afghans and Hindus by Islamic Taliban
- armed attacks on Sudanese Christians
- Sudanese slavery
- execution of civilians without proper representation (Muslim and non-Muslim)
- exclusion of women from all parts of society - mutilation, torture, honor killings. Women forced to beg in streets, not allowed to speak, or to wear make-up, go to beauty parlor, show public affection to spouses for penalty of Death.
- child soldiers in Sudan, PLO, Muslim African countries.
- establishment of Islamic states where non Muslims are unwelcome and massacred, basic freedoms denied to the inhabitants, women are excluded from society, executions, torture, beheadings, and genocide are a daily ritual - Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan among others
- homicide bombing in two Turkish synagogues while Jews were praying and celebrating a Bar Mitzvah, killing more than 20 people
The Smooth Stone team had some difficulty in coming up with positive contributions. But we did remember some word origins:
- the word hashish, and the word assassin.
At first glance, one would be hard-pressed to find a link between pleasure and the acts of assassins. Such was not the case, however, with those who gave us the word assassin. They were members of a secret Islamic order originating in the 11th century who believed it was a religious duty to harass and murder their enemies. The most important members of the order were those who actually did the killing. Having been promised paradise in return for dying in action, the killers, it is said, were made to yearn for paradise by being given a life of pleasure that included the use of hashish. From this came the name for the secret order as a whole, as "hashish users". After passing through French or Italian, the word came into English and is recorded in 1603 with reference to the Muslim Assassins.
Child killer publicly honored by PA
Child killer publicly honored by PA
The Palestinian Arab leadership sanctioned by the Bush administration and leaders of most of the world's gentile nations convened a special celebration on Friday to honor a man who last year murdered a Jewish woman and her two little boys in cold blood.
According to The Jerusalem Post Sunday, PLO leader Yasser Arafat was officially represented at the rally in Tulkarm held to pay tribute to Sirhan Sirhan, 40 days after the IDF tracked down and shot the killer dead.
Hundreds of Palestinian Arabs representing a 'nation' in numerous recent surveys remain overwhelmingly supportive of the mass murder of Jewish civilians, rallied in the Samarian town, where speakers took turns praising Sirhan as "struggler and martyr."
Sirhan attacked Kibbutz Metzer in the Jordan Valley in 2002, killing Revital Ohayon, 34, and her sons Matan, 5, and Noam, 4, inside their home. He also managed to kill two other Jews before fleeing the community.
Two months ago, an Israeli undercover force tracked down Sirhan and shot him dead.
Arafat's official representative to the gathering, Tulkarm mayor Izz al-Din al-Sharif, lauded Sirhan's murderous deeds before the mob and conveyed Arafat's personal condolences to Sirhan's family, reports the Post.
Various terror groups that act with impunity in the areas under Arafat's control were reportedly represented in the crowd.
Recent reports out of the PA area indicate these groups are willing to enter into a ceasefire with Israel.
Despite speeches by some of these organizations' spokesmen in support of a hudna, a spokesman for Arafat's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades told the crowd the violent "struggle" against the Israeli occupation would continue.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has for months been urging Israel to reengage this terrorism-supporting Palestinian Authority in negotiations aimed at bringing about the creation of a Palestinian state in the biblical heartland of Israel by 2005, G-d forbid.
President George W. Bush is personally committed to the establishment of this state, which he has repeatedly described as the goal of his personal vision for the Middle East.
While it has cooled in recent months, America's support for the PA has not faded, despite the substantial amount of reportedly conclusive evidence linking senior PA officials, including master terrorist Yasser Arafat, with the ongoing and unrelenting massacres of Jews in Israel's buses and public places.
The United States is by all accounts unwilling to jeopardize what "success" the peace process has achieved in the past years, even at the expense of more Jewish lives.
The Palestinian Arab leadership sanctioned by the Bush administration and leaders of most of the world's gentile nations convened a special celebration on Friday to honor a man who last year murdered a Jewish woman and her two little boys in cold blood.
According to The Jerusalem Post Sunday, PLO leader Yasser Arafat was officially represented at the rally in Tulkarm held to pay tribute to Sirhan Sirhan, 40 days after the IDF tracked down and shot the killer dead.
Hundreds of Palestinian Arabs representing a 'nation' in numerous recent surveys remain overwhelmingly supportive of the mass murder of Jewish civilians, rallied in the Samarian town, where speakers took turns praising Sirhan as "struggler and martyr."
Sirhan attacked Kibbutz Metzer in the Jordan Valley in 2002, killing Revital Ohayon, 34, and her sons Matan, 5, and Noam, 4, inside their home. He also managed to kill two other Jews before fleeing the community.
Two months ago, an Israeli undercover force tracked down Sirhan and shot him dead.
Arafat's official representative to the gathering, Tulkarm mayor Izz al-Din al-Sharif, lauded Sirhan's murderous deeds before the mob and conveyed Arafat's personal condolences to Sirhan's family, reports the Post.
Various terror groups that act with impunity in the areas under Arafat's control were reportedly represented in the crowd.
Recent reports out of the PA area indicate these groups are willing to enter into a ceasefire with Israel.
Despite speeches by some of these organizations' spokesmen in support of a hudna, a spokesman for Arafat's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades told the crowd the violent "struggle" against the Israeli occupation would continue.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has for months been urging Israel to reengage this terrorism-supporting Palestinian Authority in negotiations aimed at bringing about the creation of a Palestinian state in the biblical heartland of Israel by 2005, G-d forbid.
President George W. Bush is personally committed to the establishment of this state, which he has repeatedly described as the goal of his personal vision for the Middle East.
While it has cooled in recent months, America's support for the PA has not faded, despite the substantial amount of reportedly conclusive evidence linking senior PA officials, including master terrorist Yasser Arafat, with the ongoing and unrelenting massacres of Jews in Israel's buses and public places.
The United States is by all accounts unwilling to jeopardize what "success" the peace process has achieved in the past years, even at the expense of more Jewish lives.
Palestinian daughter raped by brothers, murdered by mother
Daughter raped by brothers, murdered by mother
A Palestinian girl who was raped and impregnated by her two brothers was later murdered by her own mother – even though her daughter was the crime's innocent victim – in another of the disturbingly common, if vastly underreported, instances of "honor killings."
The mother will be sentenced in two weeks, but a harsh penalty is not expected.
When her mother found she had become pregnant, she insisted her daughter commit suicide, and even bought the unwed teen a razor so she could slash her own wrists. When the daughter refused, Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud took matters into her own hands and murdered Rofayda to restore her family's "honor."
In a story for World and I magazine, James Emery says women in the communities of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel and Jordan are killed by male kinsmen in an attempt to protect the reputations of their families.
Most "honor killings" occur among Muslims in poor, rural tribal areas or among uneducated urban dwellers, he says, although the practice is not explicitly condoned by the Islamic holy book, the Quran.
Among Palestinians, all sexual encounters, including rape and incest, are blamed on the woman.
"The issue of consent is irrelevant when it comes to honor killings," says Marsha Freeman, director of the International Women's Rights Action Watch. "It has to do with the woman being defiled. It completely objectifies the woman as being about her sexuality and purity. It makes her not human."
Under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, at least 25 "official" honor killings occur each year.
Emery says the women "are murdered in their homes, in open fields and occasionally in public, sometimes before crowds of cheering onlookers."
Emery has done extensive research in Palestinian communities and has lived and traveled overseas for a number of years. He is an expert witness on Asian and Arab culture in civil and criminal cases and a lecturer on Middle Eastern terrorism.
He says the murder of females in the Middle East is an ancient tradition that began prior to the arrival of Islam in A.D. 622. Arabs sometimes buried infant daughters to avoid the possibility they would later bring shame to the family, Emery notes.
So, for more than 1400 years, there has been no evolution in Arab society. It appears that honor killings are, and will continue to be, another horrific Arab cultural event that won't be solved by the kleptocracy called "Palestine".
It's also noteworthy that the U.N. is silent when it comes to Arab cultural events of rape, torture, enslavement of Christian Sudanese, and homicide bombings. Could it be that the Arab controlled U.N. will always protect Arab interests in the name of Political Identity?
A Palestinian girl who was raped and impregnated by her two brothers was later murdered by her own mother – even though her daughter was the crime's innocent victim – in another of the disturbingly common, if vastly underreported, instances of "honor killings."
The mother will be sentenced in two weeks, but a harsh penalty is not expected.
When her mother found she had become pregnant, she insisted her daughter commit suicide, and even bought the unwed teen a razor so she could slash her own wrists. When the daughter refused, Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud took matters into her own hands and murdered Rofayda to restore her family's "honor."
In a story for World and I magazine, James Emery says women in the communities of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel and Jordan are killed by male kinsmen in an attempt to protect the reputations of their families.
Most "honor killings" occur among Muslims in poor, rural tribal areas or among uneducated urban dwellers, he says, although the practice is not explicitly condoned by the Islamic holy book, the Quran.
Among Palestinians, all sexual encounters, including rape and incest, are blamed on the woman.
"The issue of consent is irrelevant when it comes to honor killings," says Marsha Freeman, director of the International Women's Rights Action Watch. "It has to do with the woman being defiled. It completely objectifies the woman as being about her sexuality and purity. It makes her not human."
Under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, at least 25 "official" honor killings occur each year.
Emery says the women "are murdered in their homes, in open fields and occasionally in public, sometimes before crowds of cheering onlookers."
Emery has done extensive research in Palestinian communities and has lived and traveled overseas for a number of years. He is an expert witness on Asian and Arab culture in civil and criminal cases and a lecturer on Middle Eastern terrorism.
He says the murder of females in the Middle East is an ancient tradition that began prior to the arrival of Islam in A.D. 622. Arabs sometimes buried infant daughters to avoid the possibility they would later bring shame to the family, Emery notes.
So, for more than 1400 years, there has been no evolution in Arab society. It appears that honor killings are, and will continue to be, another horrific Arab cultural event that won't be solved by the kleptocracy called "Palestine".
It's also noteworthy that the U.N. is silent when it comes to Arab cultural events of rape, torture, enslavement of Christian Sudanese, and homicide bombings. Could it be that the Arab controlled U.N. will always protect Arab interests in the name of Political Identity?
November 17, 2003
A Curtsy and a Bow to My Blog Buddies
Smooth Stone - Israel, Palestinian, Middle East discussions, blogs, weblogs, comments
I thought that it is important to take the time to write and acknowledge some very special Blog people, who have not only supported me and my site , but who have made my own blog-reading time so very special because each of them write so well and offer terrific insight into so many important subjects, such as friendship, G-d, religion, life, love, and each of them do it with wit, art, compassion, intelligence, and laughter.
So here is my Hats Off To You list:
I first started reading comments by Celestial on Harry's site, BlogSpeak. Celestial would post hilarious one-liner responses to Harry's own funny posts. So I clicked on Celestial's site I Dream, Therefore I Am and I've been hooked ever since. She is smart, funny, giving, sensitive, kind, passionate, and an excellent writer and I am proud to link to I Dream, Therefore I Am.
One day very soon after I met Celestial, I discovered Havdala and her beautiful site, Doves and Pomegranates, one of the most passionate sites I have ever come across. Havdala writes with such love and commitment for God and the love of a man and a woman and does it with magnificent graphics and art and with references to literature and classics. Havdala always has something to teach you; her site is an opportunity to learn something new. I am proud to link to Doves and Pomegranates.
And then of course, there's Harry, creator, owner, king, and master of BlogSpeak, the easiest and best blog commenting tool that is out there. He's a good man, that Harry. A good person.
I want to also mention Solomonia and Yaeli for linking me - thank you very much guys, that's a great compliment - I have linked the both of you as well. And of course my gratitude to Charles, at Little Green Footballs, who has inspired me to create Smooth Stone.
The world is a better place because of each of you. Thank you.
I thought that it is important to take the time to write and acknowledge some very special Blog people, who have not only supported me and my site , but who have made my own blog-reading time so very special because each of them write so well and offer terrific insight into so many important subjects, such as friendship, G-d, religion, life, love, and each of them do it with wit, art, compassion, intelligence, and laughter.
So here is my Hats Off To You list:
I first started reading comments by Celestial on Harry's site, BlogSpeak. Celestial would post hilarious one-liner responses to Harry's own funny posts. So I clicked on Celestial's site I Dream, Therefore I Am and I've been hooked ever since. She is smart, funny, giving, sensitive, kind, passionate, and an excellent writer and I am proud to link to I Dream, Therefore I Am.
One day very soon after I met Celestial, I discovered Havdala and her beautiful site, Doves and Pomegranates, one of the most passionate sites I have ever come across. Havdala writes with such love and commitment for God and the love of a man and a woman and does it with magnificent graphics and art and with references to literature and classics. Havdala always has something to teach you; her site is an opportunity to learn something new. I am proud to link to Doves and Pomegranates.
And then of course, there's Harry, creator, owner, king, and master of BlogSpeak, the easiest and best blog commenting tool that is out there. He's a good man, that Harry. A good person.
I want to also mention Solomonia and Yaeli for linking me - thank you very much guys, that's a great compliment - I have linked the both of you as well. And of course my gratitude to Charles, at Little Green Footballs, who has inspired me to create Smooth Stone.
The world is a better place because of each of you. Thank you.
November 15, 2003
Get a load of this
Palestinian Authority textbook finally declares that jihad does indeed mean war'
A new edition of a Palestinian Authority textbook, a book by the Ministry of Education titled "Islamic Culture," for 11th graders, shows a return to incitement for jihad, or holy war, and "martyrdom".
The textbook says one of the state's tasks is "to prepare the nation for jihad and to defend the country from its enemies," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
The book indicates physical aggression, after friendly persuasion is tried, is a legitimate means to spread Islam.
"Islam is Allah's religion for all human beings," the text says. "It should be proclaimed and invite [people] to join it wisely and through appropriate preaching and friendly discussions. However, such methods may encounter resistance and the preachers may be prevented from accomplishing their duty … then, jihad and the use of physical force against the enemies become inevitable … ."
The text explains jihad "is an Islamic term that equates to the term war in other nations.
"The difference is that jihad has noble goals and lofty aims, and is carried out only for the sake of Allah and for His glory," the book says. "[By contrast] wars by other nations are mainly waged because of wickedness, aggression, love of domination, expanding influence, looting properties, murder and the fulfillment of ambitions and desires, such as the war that the Western countries waged to exploit Islamic countries for imperialistic purposes, to control their Muslim citizens and to rob their resources and richness … ."
The book examines the history of Islam back to the time of its founder, Muhammad, and shows how after the prophet's migration to Medina and establishment of an Islamic society, there "was no escaping the fight against aggression and the polytheists."
After that, the book says, "the duty of jihad was imposed on all Muslims."
"The Islamic nation today is in urgent need [of reviving] the spirit of jihad in its sons, [by using] all types of jihad and to concentrate all its resources on strengthening Allah's religion and to force his enemies [to surrender]," says the text.
The book also encourages the love of "shahada," or "martyrdom," which often is used to describe the act of dying in a suicide bomb attack.
In another section is outlines the punishment for abandoning Islam, or converting to another faith, which is death.
"The logical reason for executing a person who abandons Islam is the following: There is nothing in Islam that comes in contrast to human nature. Whoever joins Islam after recognizing its truth and after tasting its sweetness and then abandons it is in fact rebelling against truth and logic. Like any other regime, Islam has to protect itself therefore this punishment [execution] awaits the person who abandons it, because he is spreading doubt about Islam … ."
The text also addresses Christian missionary activities, stating, "Missionaries are one of the Western institutions used for intellectual invasion of the Muslim world."
"They tried to get the Muslims out of Islam by weakening the faith in their hearts and accepting the Western way of life," the book says. "Outwardly they call for adopting the faith of Jesus, but in reality they try to facilitate the Western intellectual invasion of the Islamic countries … ."
The ultimate aim, the book says, is "to replace Islamic ideology and to pave the way for the occupation of Islamic countries and strengthening imperialism in them … ."
Islam. The ultimate sham.
A new edition of a Palestinian Authority textbook, a book by the Ministry of Education titled "Islamic Culture," for 11th graders, shows a return to incitement for jihad, or holy war, and "martyrdom".
The textbook says one of the state's tasks is "to prepare the nation for jihad and to defend the country from its enemies," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
The book indicates physical aggression, after friendly persuasion is tried, is a legitimate means to spread Islam.
"Islam is Allah's religion for all human beings," the text says. "It should be proclaimed and invite [people] to join it wisely and through appropriate preaching and friendly discussions. However, such methods may encounter resistance and the preachers may be prevented from accomplishing their duty … then, jihad and the use of physical force against the enemies become inevitable … ."
The text explains jihad "is an Islamic term that equates to the term war in other nations.
"The difference is that jihad has noble goals and lofty aims, and is carried out only for the sake of Allah and for His glory," the book says. "[By contrast] wars by other nations are mainly waged because of wickedness, aggression, love of domination, expanding influence, looting properties, murder and the fulfillment of ambitions and desires, such as the war that the Western countries waged to exploit Islamic countries for imperialistic purposes, to control their Muslim citizens and to rob their resources and richness … ."
The book examines the history of Islam back to the time of its founder, Muhammad, and shows how after the prophet's migration to Medina and establishment of an Islamic society, there "was no escaping the fight against aggression and the polytheists."
After that, the book says, "the duty of jihad was imposed on all Muslims."
"The Islamic nation today is in urgent need [of reviving] the spirit of jihad in its sons, [by using] all types of jihad and to concentrate all its resources on strengthening Allah's religion and to force his enemies [to surrender]," says the text.
The book also encourages the love of "shahada," or "martyrdom," which often is used to describe the act of dying in a suicide bomb attack.
In another section is outlines the punishment for abandoning Islam, or converting to another faith, which is death.
"The logical reason for executing a person who abandons Islam is the following: There is nothing in Islam that comes in contrast to human nature. Whoever joins Islam after recognizing its truth and after tasting its sweetness and then abandons it is in fact rebelling against truth and logic. Like any other regime, Islam has to protect itself therefore this punishment [execution] awaits the person who abandons it, because he is spreading doubt about Islam … ."
The text also addresses Christian missionary activities, stating, "Missionaries are one of the Western institutions used for intellectual invasion of the Muslim world."
"They tried to get the Muslims out of Islam by weakening the faith in their hearts and accepting the Western way of life," the book says. "Outwardly they call for adopting the faith of Jesus, but in reality they try to facilitate the Western intellectual invasion of the Islamic countries … ."
The ultimate aim, the book says, is "to replace Islamic ideology and to pave the way for the occupation of Islamic countries and strengthening imperialism in them … ."
Islam. The ultimate sham.
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