PA Terror Again Controls Jewish Access to Joseph's Tomb

From Israel National News:

Several groups of Jewish worshippers are planning to visit the site of the tomb of the biblical Joseph in Shechem this Sunday, despite plans by the IDF to block the pilgrimage.

IDF officials said Thursday they are barring Jews from visiting the site next Sunday due to concrete security warnings of [Muslim] terrorist attacks in the area. They also promised they would allow the worshippers to visit the site if and when the security situation changed.

The trip is planned in honor of the 41st day in the counting of the Omer, a day traditionally considered the anniversary of Joseph's death. Each of the seven weeks of the Omer period, and each of the days within each week, is associated with a different attribute corresponding to a different forefather. This week marks that of "Yesod', or "foundation", which is associated with Joseph.

The site is "one of the tombs whose location is known with the utmost degree of certainty and is based on continuous documentation since Biblical times," according to Dr. Tzvi Ilan, who was one of Israel's most prominent archaeologists. The Book of Joshua (24:32) states: “The bones of Joseph, which the Children of Israel brought up from Egypt, were buried in Shechem in the portion of the field that had been purchased by Jacob.”

For generations, Jewish worshippers made their way to Joseph’s tomb - until 1948, when it came under Jordanian control. Access to the site was restored in 1967 following the Six-Day War, when Israel liberated the area.

The IDF retreated from Joseph’s Tomb in the first weeks of the Oslo War, in late 2000. The pullout was marked by an episode that is remembered for the manner in which wounded IDF soldier Madhat Yusuf was abandoned. Yusuf, wounded by [Muslim] Arab gunfire, bled to death at the holy site as the IDF chose to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority for his evacuation instead of sending troops in to rescue him.

With the Oslo agreements, it was turned over to the Palestinian Authority, but with "guarantees" that Jews were to have freedom of access and freedom of worship at this site, acknowledged as having Jewish sanctity.

The arrangement didn’t last.

“Freedom of access and freedom of worship” at the site was constantly disrupted by attacks, often emanating from the [Muslim] terrorist-infested city of Shechem.

The frequency of those deadly attacks finally led the IDF to return to the area in the 2002 counter-terrorism initiative, Operation Defensive Shield. Monthly visits by Jews to the tomb were arranged, and once again PA [Muslim] terror took control of Jewish access to the holy site.

Pilgrimages to the Tomb of Joseph are, to this day, barred when intelligence reports say terrorists are planning to strike.

More Muslim hubris

There is no other word than hubris to describe the behavior of people who insist on killing Jews in order to feed their manufactured man-god. From WND:

The replacement tomorrow in the Al Aqsa Mosque of a podium transported with the coordination of Israeli security forces is "proof" the Temple Mount belongs only to Muslims and will never be returned to Jewish sovereignty, according to the leader of the Wafq – the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount. "This historic occasion proves that the extremist Jews will never achieve their goals of taking over the [Temple Mount.] It shows that we are much closer to liberating the Al Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem from Israeli occupation," said Waqf chief Adnan Husseini.

Muslims believe no real harm lies in conceding the Holy Jewish Temple Mount to Jews except for one very important motivating factor - destroying the Holy Jewish Temple Mount promotes and expedites the Islamic goal to ethnically cleanse Jews from the Middle East. One goal of Islam is to destroy any trace or any artifacts of the Holy Jewish Temple Mount. This way, Islam declares supremacy over Judaism by invalidating claims to the historic Jewish presence of the Holy Jewish Temple Mount. Muslims have enjoyed destroying their enemies icons for hundreds of years. The Twin Towers and the Pentagon, were intentionally chosen because they were national symbols of the United States and the Western world. Jewish synagogues, cemeteries, schools and community centers are often targets of Islamo-rage. For decades, Muslims been busy destroying the archaeological remains of the Holy Jewish Temple. Don't forget about the destruction of the Buddhist statutes in Bamiyan by the Muslim Taliban in Afghanistan. Muslims have desecrated the Holy Jewish Temple Mount just as they did Joseph's Tomb, the Tomb of the Matriarchs and the Church of the Nativity.

Anyone who supports the concession of the Holy Jewish Temple into the hands of Muslims violates the historical veracity of what is written in both the Torah and New Testaments, both books which precede the Koran by thousands of years. Conceding the Jewish Holy Temple Mount into the hands of Muslims will embolden Muslims to continue to try to subjugate the rest of the world.

Folks, read the writing on the wall, while we still have The Wall. Below are 25 archaeological articles, previously posted on Smooth Stone, contained in one simple link, which prove the Jewish presence in Israel predates Islam by thousands of years.

Spread the truth: Archaeology

To Hell With Arab Outrage

In 2004, I wrote the now-famous To Hell With Arab Outrage article that went around the world with such zeal because so many people related to my disgust with Arab Muslim hypocrisy. Now that six imams were asked to leave a US Airways flight after American passengers saw these six Muslim men pray, defame America in their prayers, then ask for seat belt extenders which were then placed under their seats (to strangle?), I decided to reissue my original post.

Please send this to everyone you know. Remember, when we were at war with nazis, we were told to keep our eyes peeled. Have you forgotten that it was Muslims who brought down the Twin Towers?
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Muslims are "outraged" over the humiliation of six "imams" who were asked to leave a US Airways flight.

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when necrophiliacs in Fallujah mutilated four American soldiers by stepping on their burnt skulls and who hung their burnt bodies from a bridge?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when palestinians mutilated and dragged the bodies of two IDF soldiers in Ramallah?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when 19 Muslims blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11/01?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims continue to slaughter Sudanese Christians?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims blew up Pan Am Flight 103?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims bombed the marine barracks in Lebanon killing 241 Americans in 1983?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims bombed the USS COLE ?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims bombed the American embassies in Africa killing 231 people?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Abu Mazen engineered the "Black September" Terror Attack during the Munich Olympics, which killed 11 Israeli athletes and a U.S. citizen ?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when ABu Abbas threw the wheel-chair bound Leon Klinghoffer overboard on the Achille Lauro?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when "Palestinian" rioters torched the Jewish-only Joseph's Tomb ?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when the Taliban blew up the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when simultaneous blasts rocked two of downtown Istanbul's synagogues killing at least 15 people and wounding at least 140?

Where were these "outraged" Muslimswhen "Palestinians" handed out candies celebrating the deaths of 3000 Americans on 9-11-01?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Jemaah Islamiyah suicide bombers killed 12 people and injured 150 at the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta, Indonesia?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when bomb attacks in Morocco killed at least 28 people and injure more than 100?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when suicide bombers killed 12 people at an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Kenya and two missiles narrowly miss an airliner carrying Israelis?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when nearly 200 people, including seven Americans, were killed in bombings in a nightclub district of the Indonesian island of Bali?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when 300,000 Iraqi's bodies were found in mass graves?

Where was their indignation, folks? You know where? Nowhere.

It was nowhere because Muslim outrage, when someone non-Muslim is a victim, does not exist. A non-Muslim's death does not merit outrage. Why? Because the Muslim culture knows nothing but how to be proud and arrogant. The culture is a cohesive political glob of people united simply by political identity and not at all by morality.

It's time for the rest of us, who do know the difference between right and wrong, to tell the world that these "outraged" idiots are too pathetic to warrant any sympathy from the rest of us.

We're waiting for these "outraged" Muslims to get up the manhood to be disgusted by their own people for the disgusting crimes they have committed against others.

Then when that happens, maybe we'll shed a tear.

====

Smooth Stone is the original and authentic author of this diatribe that went around the world, To hell with Arab outrage, in 2004, a diatribe which spoke and continues to speak for everyone who is disgusted by Arab Muslim hypocrisy.

CAIR’s Catholic Blood Money

Folks, in October of 2001, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a CAIR financier, offered New York City a check for $10 million dollars to go towards relief efforts in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. With great integrity and righteousness, the check was rejected by the Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, on the grounds that the money was attached to anti-American political statements made earlier by Bin Talal, concerning America’s relationship to the Middle East. Now, the D.C. based Islamic terrorist-apologist lobby CAIR just passed off $5,000 to the Catholic church. An excerpt from CAIR’s Catholic Blood Money:

On Sunday, September 24, 2006, Ahmed Bedier led a delegation of Muslims from his organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a visit to the St. Paul’s Catholic Church of St. Petersburg, Florida. At the end of the visit, Bedier handed a check for $5000 to the pastor of St. Paul’s for the repair of churches that had been damaged recently in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, over one sentence spoken by the Pope. The money was for a good cause, but accepting the money came with a price.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a speech he gave during a trip to Germany on September 12, quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor as saying, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This set off a firestorm across the Muslim world, resulting in violence. Enraged crowds took their frustrations out on symbols of Christianity. This included the murder of an Italian nun and the firebombing of churches located in the West Bank and Gaza.

Taking advantage of this sensitive situation was CAIR, an organization that pawns itself off as a “civil liberties” group, while having numerous ties to Islamic extremism, including links to individuals convicted for terrorist crimes. At a press conference, on Thursday, September 21, Ahmed Bedier, the Director of CAIR’s Tampa office, and Rev. Robert Gibbons, the Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg, held aloft a large poster-board check for $5000 bearing CAIR’s insignia. The money was said to be for the half-dozen churches that had been attacked, five of which were firebombed and shot at, the other doused with gasoline and set aflame.

It was a disquieting scene as Ahmed Bedier stood side by side with a high-ranking Diocese official. Exactly two months prior to the event, Bedier hosted a radio show where all three of his guests lauded Hezbollah, a group that is found on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. One of the guests went as far as to label the group “heroic.” One must question if Rev. Gibbons was aware of this fact.

The check, which CAIR described as “seed money,” was made out to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), a humanitarian relief program run by the Catholic Church, based in New York City. Additionally, a CNEWA fund was created in CAIR’s name, to raise further monies.

In order to make a donation to the fund, people have been asked to forward their checks to the CNEWA office under the title, “CAIR Palestine Damaged Churches.” The term “Palestine” denotes statehood and seems to have been injected into the fund’s address purely for political purposes. If that is the case, the Catholic Church is being used for nothing more than to make a political statement, and being as such and the fact that the church accepted the money, the implication is that the church is in full agreement with the statement.

Please pass this information on to your Catholic friends. No church anywhere should accept blood money from any group who knowlingly or unknowingly parades "Palestine" as a legitimate nation. "Palestine" is a manufactured entity. It was a region where both Jews and Muslims lived but it was never a nation and it was never singularly Islamic.

Never.

If it were, then please provide evidence for the existence of three of these Jewish archaeological sites: Joseph's Tomb, Rachel's tomb and the Holiest site in all of Judaism, the remnant Western Wall of our Holy Temple. Don't be fooled. Just because a mosque appears where our Holiest of Holies is, means nothing. If Muslims had their choice, mosques would replace St. Patricks Cathedral on New York's Fifth Avenue. Usurping synagogues and churches and supplanting them with mosques is all part of the Islamic warlord tradition. It is a telling example of Islam's iconoclasty. Islam thrives on symbols and symbolism and reinventing history. "Palestine" has a fabricated neo-history and the use of the word is part of Palestinianism. It only became injected into America's lexicon in 1964 when the detestable Yasser Arafat reinvented and revised the history of the Middle East and the rest of the world, which was already being gobbled up by hippies, communists, Jane Fonda-types, and Black Panthers, all of whom fell for The Big Lie.

Don't be misled by wolves in sheep's clothing. Click here to learn the facts about Jewish and Arab claims to the Holy Land of Israel.

History of Assaults on Christian and Jewish Holy Sites by the Palestinian Authority

Abraham's Oak Russian "Holy Trinity" Monastery - located in the Palestinian-controlled part of Hebron, the monastery belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. On July 5, 1997, Palestinian policemen arrived at the monastery, physically removed the monks and nuns, and took over the site. Several of the monks and nuns required hospitalization.

Rachel's Tomb - The Tomb, located on the outskirts of Bethlehem, is the burial site of the Biblical matriarch Rachel and is under Israeli control. During the September 1996 riots, Palestinian mobs assaulted the site and hurled rocks and firebombs at it, causing damage to the outer part of the structure. Palestinian policemen on the scene shot and wounded Israeli soldiers guarding the Tomb. Today, Rachel's Tomb is again a major target for Palestinian attacks.

Joseph's Tomb- During the September 1996 riots, a Palestinian mob led by Palestinian policemen assaulted the Tomb. Palestinian security agents opened fire on Israeli troops at the site, killing 6 Israeli soldiers. After the Israeli forces temporarily withdrew, the Palestinian mob entered the site and set fire to it. They burned the Jewish prayer books, Bibles and religious articles inside the structure and caused extensive damage. In October 2000, Palestinian mobs once again attacked, killed one Israeli soldier, and destroyed the building. Palestinian forces again took part.

Church of St. Nicholas, Beit Jalla – During the October and November 2000 hostilities, Fatah gunmen – members of the "Tansim" fired on the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo from areas adjacent to churches in Beit Jalla. "The positions chosen by the Tansim are near to churches in Beit Jalla, most notably the Church of St. Nicholas, hoping that Israel's return fire will hit a church," reported a Christian cleric. "Then it will be front-page news for the 'Christian West,' that Israel is now destroying churches."

Jericho Monastery - In January 2000, Palestinian police evicted five "White Russian" monks from their 19th-century monastery in the West Bank town of Jericho, handing the property over to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Destroyed Christian Communities and Sites in Lebanon – During the seven-year Lebanese civil war (1975-1982) Christian communities in Lebanon were targets for the reign of terror of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian Authority's predecessor. Christian villagers were massacred, churches destroyed, and cemeteries desecrated. The town of Damour, 10 miles south of Beirut, was particularly hard hit. Hundreds of Damour residents were reportedly massacred.

The massacre of 586 Damour Christians by the PLO on January 23, 1976 was described by an eyewitness, Maronite Father Mansour Labaky: "The attack took place from the mountain behind. It was an apocalypse. They were coming, thousands and thousands, shouting 'Allahu Akbar! God is great! Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammed! And they were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women and children."
Six years later the following reports from the remains of Damour were typical:

The New York Times, June 21 1982, by David Shipler: "For nearly seven years, until the Israeli army attacked and captured [the Christian town of Damour] last week, the town was inaccessible to its own people; the Palestine Liberation Organization made it a stronghold, using the churches as firing ranges and armories... Where a cross would have hung [inside a church] a triangular PLO symbol is painted in the Palestinian nationalist colors... High in the belfry, a concreted cross has obviously been used as a target over the years, for it is chipped and gouged in a thousand places."

The Washington Post, July 7, 1982, by William Braning: "The wall of the church where the cross once hung is pock-marked by bullets. Below where the altar once stood, lies a pile of greasy engine casings and spare parts. Oil stains spot the floor of the church, which evidently had been turned into a garage. In another part of town, the large St. Elias Church is in similar disarray."

To Hell With Muslim Outrage

Well, folks, looks like it's time to whip out my original post "To Hell With Arab Outrage" that I wrote back in 2004 and give it another great ride. This time I swapped out "Arabs" and replaced it with "Muslims" because let's be realistic - does a leopard ever change its spots?

Muslims are "outraged" over the humiliation of their prophet at the hands of a few cartoonists.

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when necrophiliacs in Fallujah mutilated four American soldiers by stepping on their burnt skulls and hung their burnt bodies from a bridge?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when "palestinians" mutilated and dragged the bodies of two IDF soldiers in Ramallah?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when 19 Muslims blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11/01?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims continue to slaughter Sudanese Christians?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims blew up Pan Am Flight 103?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims bombed the marine barracks in Lebanon killing 241 Americans in 1983?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims bombed the USS COLE ?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Muslims bombed the American embassies in Africa killing 231 people?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Abu Mazen engineered the "Black September" Terror Attack during the Munich Olympics, which killed 11 Israeli athletes and a U.S. citizen ?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when ABu Abbas threw the wheel-chair bound Leon Klinghoffer overboard on the Achille Lauro?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when "Palestinian" rioters torched the Jewish-only Joseph's Tomb ?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when the Taliban blew up the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when simultaneous blasts rocked two of downtown Istanbul's synagogues killing at least 15 people and wounding at least 140?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when "Palestinians" handed out candies celebrating the deaths of 3000 Americans on 9-11-01?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when Jemaah Islamiyah suicide bombers killed 12 people and injured 150 at the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta, Indonesia?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when bomb attacks in Morocco killed at least 28 people and injure more than 100?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when suicide bombers killed 12 people at an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Kenya and two missiles narrowly miss an airliner carrying Israelis?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when nearly 200 people, including seven Americans, were killed in bombings in a nightclub district of the Indonesian island of Bali?

Where were these "outraged" Muslims when 300,000 Iraqi's bodies were found in mass graves?

Where was their indignation, folks? You know where? NOWHERE.

It was nowhere because Muslims outrage when someone non-Muslims is a victim, does not exist, it does not rate. Why? Because the Muslims culture knows nothing but how to be proud and arrogant. The culture is a cohesive political glob of people united simply by political identity and not at all by morality.

It's time for the rest of us, who DO know the difference between right and wrong, to tell the world that these "outraged" idiots are too pathetic to warrant any sympathy from the rest of us.

We're waiting for these "outraged" Muslims to get up the manhood to be disgusted BY THEIR OWN people for the disgusting crimes they have committed against others.

Then we'll shed a tear.

Take back Jewish Holy Sites

For far too long Europe and the US have inculcated in the palestinians a sense of impunity when it comes to vandalizing or defiling Jewish holy sites, and it is time for this to change forthwith.

In light of the palestinians' behavior in Gaza this week, it should be clear to all that they cannot, must not, be entrusted with safeguarding or administering Jewish religious sites under any circumstances whatsoever.

The palestinians have once again failed to demonstrate even the modicum of decency and civility that calls for respecting houses of worship that belong to others.

And so Israel should not hesitate to do what should have been done already: take back Joseph's Tomb, reassert its sovereignty over the Temple Mount, and eject the PA-controlled Muslim Wakf from the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

These three sites, more than any others, symbolize our ties to this Land, and the abiding faith upon which they are based. It is time for all of them to return to sole Israeli control.

The destruction of Joseph's tomb: another example of palestinian atrocities

Five years ago, on October 7, 2000, the IDF withdrew from Joseph's tomb after a joint assault was launched by palestinian police and terrorists. The PA agreed to protect the Tomb, but that promise quickly went up in smoke.

Several hours later the burial ground of the biblical Joseph had been reduced to debris.

Palestinians armed with pick-axes and hammers attacked the tomb, smashing the stone structure and ripping it apart, brick by brick.

They burned Jewish prayer books and other religious articles and subsequently began transforming the site into a mosque.

It was then and there, at Joseph's Tomb, just days after the start of the second intifada, that the palestinians learned two lessons.

First, they learned that violence pays. Israel's retreat from Joseph's Tomb was the first time Israel had fled under fire, abandoning territory to palestinian control under threat of the gun.

Secondly, the palestinians also learned that they could deliberately assault Jewish sites of immense historical, religious or emotional significance without fear of retribution from Israel.

After all, if they got away with an attack on Joseph's Tomb, why not take down a couple of abandoned synagogues in Gaza?

The same holds true of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where successive Israeli governments have failed to stand up to wanton palestinian acts of desecration.

Palestinians protect Jewish sacred sites? Shyeah, riiight.

Dr. Shmuel Berkowitz, in his book, The Wars Over the Holy Places, documents a long series of Palestinian acts of vandalism against places Jews consider holy. The most outstanding case was the events at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, when some 5,000 demonstrators and hundreds of Palestinian police attacked the building, finally setting it on fire. Shots have been fired at Rachel's Tomb outside of Bethlehem. Worshippers at the Western Wall have more than once been the target of stones thrown from the Temple Mount. When the largest Jewish cemetery in the world, on the Mount of Olives, was under Jordanian control, tens of thousands of memorial stones were smashed, and the pieces were used to build homes, roads, and latrines.

Muslims always destroy Jewish holy places

Senior Israeli rabbis are asking the international community to oppose a ruling this week by the country's high court that synagogues left behind in evacuated Jewish Gaza towns may be destroyed by the army ahead of its final pullout from the area.

The Israeli military is citing previous rampant "Palestinian" desecrations of other religions' holy sites as justification for the Gaza synagogue demolitions.

Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, former chief rabbi of Haifa and a member of the chief rabbinate, told WND, "the international authorities must step in and protect our holy synagogues. Any world body that does not understand the importance of this is not worthy of acting within civilized society," Cohen said.

He added Israel has acted differently toward abandoned Islamic structures.

"We see plenty of mosques in Israel that have been abandoned by communities that changed locations and it is understood the mosques are not to be touched. Indeed, they are protected. But here, I am shocked at the very idea Jews would propose to damage their own holy places. This would not be done by any other religion."

The IDF has said it is destroying the synagogues out of fear they will be damaged, citing recent examples of Palestinian desecrations of other religions' holy sites.

In 2002, Palestinian terrorists holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity reportedly used the Bible as toilet paper, and left the site in shambles.

According to reports, the gunmen, members of Yasser Arafat's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, also seized church stockpiles of food and "ate like greedy monsters" until the food ran out, while more than 150 civilians stuck inside went hungry. Angry Orthodox priests showed reporters empty bottles of whiskey, champagne, vodka, cognac and French wine on the floor along with hundreds of cigarette butts.

In what is largely considered one of the most flagrant holy site desecrations in history, after Israeli troops evacuated the city of Nablus in October, 2000 as a peacemaking gesture, scores of Palestinians stormed into the Joseph's Tomb compound and destroyed the site believed to be the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph – the son of Jacob who was sold by his brothers into slavery and later became the viceroy of Egypt.

The 1993 Oslo Accords put Joseph's Tomb under Israeli jurisdiction, but on Oct. 7, 2000, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak ordered a unilateral retreat, based on a Palestinian agreement to protect the site.

Within hours of the Israeli withdrawal, smoke was seen billowing from the tomb as an Arab crowd burned Jewish prayer books and other holy objects. Palestinians used pickaxes, hammers and later bulldozers to tear apart the stone building. The dome of the tomb was painted green, and a mosque was subsequently erected in its place.

Yikes, a mosque. They might as well have put up an outhouse.

Read here how the PA has failed to respect the sanctity of Jewish holy sites in violation of the Oslo Accords.

Palestinian Violations of Peace Agreements

Tanzim Activities

A number of agreements (The Declaration of Principles, the Gaza and Jericho Agreement and the Interim Agreement) stipulate the establishment of a police force which will be solely responsible for the enforcement of law and order within the Palestinian Authority. The very existence of the Tanzim as an unofficial security force is forbidden by these agreements.

The Tanzim possesses firearms and does as it pleases, acting as an armed militia - with the encouragement and support of senior Palestinian Authority figures. In both the Wye Agreement and earlier agreements, the Palestinians promised to confiscate all illegal weapons. The fact that the Tanzim have so many weapons is a blatant violation of these agreements. Moreover, the Palestinian Authority itself has in its possession quantities and types of weapons exceeding those permitted by the agreements.

Attacks on Holy Sites

The security of a number of holy sites is mentioned in the Interim Agreements as being the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority. The agreements ensure that the Palestinian Authority will be responsible for the security of these sites, and that Jewish worshipers will be allowed unhindered access to them.

The Palestinians have not upheld this written agreement, have not enabled Jewish worshipers to visit the sites and have allowed mobs to destroy Joseph's Tomb in Nablus and to burn the "Peace for Israel" synagogue in Jericho. In violating the agreements, the Palestinians have proven that they cannot be trusted to protect holy sites.

Detention of Israelis

For some time a serious phenomenon has been taking place, in which Israelis are apprehended by the Palestinians. The Interim Agreement expressly forbids the detention of Israelis and the confiscation of their firearms. During the lynching incident in Ramallah, the Palestinian policemen did not protect the safety of the Israelis. The very fact that they were arrested constitutes an illegal act, and their being taken to Ramallah for interrogation was an even more serious violation of agreements.

Palestinian Media Incitement

In all of the agreements (the Interim Agreement, the Wye Agreement and the Sharm Agreement) there is mention of the prevention of incitement to violence against Israel. The Palestinians have committed to prevent incitement to violence and terrorism.

In recent weeks we have seen that the Palestinian Authority has been using all of its official channels to disseminate inciting material -- incitement to injure Jews, to damage holy Jewish sites, to kill Jews (and Americans) and to carry out acts of terror.

Release of Terrorists

In all of the agreements (a letter from Arafat to Rabin in September 1993, the Interim Agreement, the Wye Agreement and the Sharm Agreement), the most important Israeli demand on the Palestinian Authority was to combat terrorism. The Palestinians took responsibility for the territories based on a commitment to combat terrorism, knowing that without this commitment, there would be no continuation of the agreements.

Contrary to all of these commitments, the Palestinian Authority released the most notorious terrorists it was holding, who have murdered Israelis, and in so doing gave a "green light" to terror.

The Palestinian Police

The Palestinian Police force is supposed to uphold law and order within the Palestinian Authority, and having not carried out these duties, has violated all of the agreements (the Declaration of Principles, the Gaza and Jericho Agreement and the Interim Agreement). The Palestinian policemen have disappeared from the flashpoints, and allowed extremists to set the tone.

In many instances they even joined the Tanzim and fired on Israeli soldiers and civilians. This gunfire was not carried out in self defense, but rather was intended to hit and kill. Again, this is a blatant violation of all the agreements, and the Palestinian Authority is essentially participating in warfare against Israel.

Some Specific Violations

- Commitment to the peaceful resolution of the conflict and that outstanding permanent status issues will be resolved through negotiations (Arafat's Letter to Rabin, September 9, 1993).

- Abstention from incitement, including hostile propaganda and adoption of legal measures to prevent such incitement (Interim Agreement, Article XXII).

- Adoption of all necessary measures to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities and taking of legal measures against offenders (Gaza-Jericho Agreement, Article XVIII; Interim Agreement, Article XV).

- The Palestinian Police will act systematically against all expressions of violence and terror (Interim Agreement, Annex I, Article 11.1).

Palestinian Violations of Peace Agreements

Muslim double standard on religious desecration

With Muslims worldwide protesting a now-retracted Newsweak report that claimed U.S. Army interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a Quran down the toilet, I want to announce that I'm also sickened by this Muslim outcry when Muslims have shown the world they don't have any respect for religion whatsoever. They lost the right to protest about disrespect for religion and holy objects a long time ago.

In October 2000, after Israeli troops evacuated the city of Nablus as a peacemaking gesture, scores of Palestinians stormed into the Joseph's Tomb compound and destroyed the site believed to be the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph – the son of Jacob who was sold by his brothers into slavery and later became the viceroy of Egypt.

The 1993 Oslo Accords put Joseph's Tomb under Israeli jurisdiction, but on Oct. 7, 2000, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak ordered a unilateral retreat, based on a Palestinian agreement to protect the site.

Within hours of the Israeli withdrawal, smoke was seen billowing from the tomb as an Arab crowd burned Jewish prayer books and other holy objects. Palestinians used pickaxes, hammers and later bulldozers to tear apart the stone building. The dome of the tomb was painted green, and a mosque was subsequently erected in its place.

There was almost total silence in the Muslim world when Palestinians blew up Jews at their Passover seder, when Joseph's tomb was desecrated, and even overall with regard to terrorism.

What about the desecration of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem by Palestinian gunmen in April 2002, and the dynamiting of 2,000-year old giant Buddhist statues at Bamian, Afghanistan, by the Taliban regime in March 2001?

Muslim double standard on religious desecration

Jews Demand Gov't Respect Jewish Religious Rights in Jericho

As the IDF withdraws from Jericho, Jews from the region and former students of the Jericho yeshiva want Jewish religious rights at ancient sites in the Biblical city to be restored.

“If they insist on giving away Jericho to the PA yet again and want to see some level of sincerity exhibited by them,” says says David HaLevi, who lives in Mevo’ot Yericho, on the outskirts of Jericho, "can’t they at least restore Jewish rights to access our holy sites?"

The right to a Jewish presence at Jericho’s synagogues was enshrined since the Shalom Al Yisrael synagogue was discovered beneath an Arab house after Israel conquered Jericho in the 1967 Six Day War and even preserved under the ill-fated Oslo Accords, which transferred control over the Jericho area to the Palestinian Authority in 1993. The synagogue, dating from the Byzantine period, boasted an intricate mosaic floor depicting a menorah and a shofar (ram's horn), with the Hebrew inscription: "Peace unto Israel."

Initially, the Arab living in the house above the synagogue charged admission to Jews wishing to pray at the site, but in 1986 Israel turned the site into a National Park. In the early 90s, the house above the synagogue became the study hall of the Shalom Al Yisrael yeshiva, a Torah study academy. Bi-weekly Shabbat celebrations were organized in order to reconnect with Jericho's ancient synagogues and Jewish communities. Visiting Jews stayed in a local Arab hotel and spent the day praying and touring the city. In 1993, then-Prime Minister Yitchak Rabin agreed to give the Shalom Al Yisrael yeshiva special status, similar to that with regard to Joseph's Tomb, in Shechem, where there was also a yeshiva. Shortly after Israel handed over control to the Palestinian Authority, the Sabbath visits were outlawed due to PA fears that a large-scale Jewish presence would weaken their hold on the ancient city.

Though Jewish students were barred from taking up residence at the site, they traveled to the synagogue daily. For the next seven years, groups dedicated to Jewish Jericho spent every other week sleeping in makeshift tents, making Shabbat without the luxuries of refrigeration, permanent toilets or the air conditioning despite Jericho's one hundred and twenty degree summer days.

The Oslo process eventually culminated in a terror offensive that resulted in Israel’s complete abandonment of all Jewish sites in Jericho and Shechem and their subsequent destruction by Arab vandals given a free hand by the Palestinian Authority. The ancient “Shalom Al Yisrael” (Peace on Israel) synagogue was one of the first casualties of the terror offensive.

“Fortunately, the Torah scrolls were saved because they were in a safe. But all the sacred books were destroyed,” said Mordechai Rabinowitz who headed the yeshiva at the Shalom Al Yisrael synagogue. “As far as I know the mosaic is still intact and last Chanukah a Jewish group tried to enter Jericho to visit.”

Groups from nearby Mevo’ot Yericho, where the Torah scroll from the Shalom al Yisrael now rests, regularly embark on clandestine visits during the night to pray in another ancient synagogue on the outskirts of Jericho. The Na’aran synagogue, which is believed to have been built in the 5th or 6th century, was also discovered by accident. The Synagogue was found after the Ottoman Turks shelled a British army unit camped nearby. It also has a mosaic floor, this one with the symbols of the Jewish months, a depiction of the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den and pictures of vessels from the Temple.

“It is now surrounded by Bedouin,” says HaLevi. “The mosaic is intact, but certainly not upkept, and it is outrageous to see this precious ancient place of worship so abandoned and abused.”

Rabinowitz said that it is unconscionable that Israel hand over Jericho to foreign rule after the destruction that was wrought as a result of such a move last time. “When I hear Vice Premier Shimon Peres say things like ‘What do we want with Jericho, it is a cursed place’ it gives me the shivers,” he said. “Suddenly he quotes the Bible to bolster his argument for withdrawal. According to the Bible, Jericho was cursed to remain unbuilt specifically because of the importance of the place, which was conquered in such a miraculous manner.”

Jericho was conquered during the time of Joshua by the Jewish people marching around the city seven times and blowing rams’ horns, at which point the walls sank into the ground.

“Rebuilding Jericho obscures that miracle and the testimony to the fact that the Land of Israel is in our hands due to the Holy One blessed be He,” said Rabinowitz.

http://israelnn.com/news.php3?id=78241

More proof that Israel belongs to the Jews

A reader wrote to us and provided us with the following:

"We have recently found a 100 year old photo of Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) that you should find interesting and useful in Hasbara:

http://keveryoseph.tsel.org

While everyone following TV and news reports from Israel knows that Joseph's Tomb is in the heart of the large "palestinian" city of Nablus - the photo shows the truth: No city, no cultivated fields, just 8 houses huddled together in the distance under Mount Grizim. And the beautiful and well kept site of Kever Yoseph in the foreground. Just 100 years ago!

[There are additional links on the page, giving more information, and pictures through the ages.]"

www.shechem.org
www.tsel.org

The Rosh Hashana War of 2000

Folks, the chronology of Palestinian moves leading up to the outbreak of violence four years ago shows it was planned in advance and ignited over Jerusalem and Ariel Sharon's prayer visit to the Temple Mount, Judaism's Holiest site.

During Rosh Hashana 2000, for those who don't recall, the Prime Minister of Israel was Ehud Barak, not Ariel Sharon, although palestinian Muslims and terrorist apologists love to blame Ariel Sharon for the Palestinian's own failed attempt to forge their kleptocracy neo-nation, instead of on their own culture, their leaders or their religion.

In fact, even Palestinian Authority spokesman Imad Al-Faluji has stated on more than one occasion, Palestinian military action against the Jewish state was planned long before Mr. Sharon's "provocative visit" to Judaism's most holy site.

There were several attacks by PLO Palestinian police against Israelis prior to the start of the Rosh Hashanah War 2000 on September 23rd. One Palestinian policeman point-blank killed the Israeli with whom he was on joint patrol 2 days before Sharon went to the Temple Mount. There were several other incidents preceeding Rosh Hashanah.

Four years earlier, following the September 1996 opening of the Hasmonean Tunnel in Jerusalem, Palestinian policemen and Israeli soldiers exchanged fire throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip leaving 85 Palestinians and 16 Israelis dead, and more than 1,200 Palestinians and 87 Israelis wounded. Arafat ordered the Hasmonean tunnel riots in which 18 Israeli soldiers were killed by PA forces. These were also called the "September riots".

Two incidents in October 2000--the destruction of the Jewish holy site Joseph's Tomb in Nablus and the murderous attack on the Palestinian police station in Ramallah where two Israeli soldiers were held by the police--and mutilated, showed the Palestinian police's lack of humanity. In many cases, Palestinian policemen took off their uniforms, joined the demonstrators and opened fire on IDF troops.

PA-appointed imams in West Bank and Gaza Strip mosques began referring to Israel as "the Zionist enemy" and urged all Muslims to mobilize for the war against the "infidels." In the words of one Gazan preacher, "All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, at the enemies of Allah, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs, worshipers of the calf and idol worshipers."

Other imams spoke of the need and duty to liberate Palestine from the Zionist aggressors. This time the talk was not only about liberating the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Now the demand was for Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa and Ashkelon.

Israel was also being accused of distributing drugs among young Palestinian men and women in order to corrupt them and bring about the disintegration of Palestinian society. In addition to the drugs, the Israelis were also believed to be behind sexually-arousing chewing gum found in Palestinian shops. The alleged goal: to turn Palestinian women into prostitutes. As the tensions intensified, PA officials this time accused Israel of spreading "radioactive belts" that cause cancer.

West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti (sentenced on June 6, 2004, his birthday, to five life sentences for five murders and 40 years imprisonment for attempted murders in terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians) gave an interview on October 22 to the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat in which he admitted that he had played a direct role in igniting the intifada.

He said: "I knew that the end of September was the last period [of time] before the explosion, but when Sharon reached al-Aksa Mosque, this was the most appropriate moment for the outbreak of the intifada... The night prior to Sharon's visit, I participated in a panel on a local television station and I seized the opportunity to call on the public to go to al-Aksa Mosque in the morning, for it was not possible that Sharon would reach al-Haram al-Sharif [the Temple Mount] just so, and walk away peacefully. I finished and went to al-Aksa in the morning.... We tried to create clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that emerged with others in al-Aksa compound at the time.... After Sharon left, I remained for two hours in the presence of other people, we discussed the manner of response and how it was possible to react in all the cities and not just in Jerusalem. We contacted all [the Palestinian] factions."

Excerpts from various articles, including: How the war began , http://www.washingtontimes.com/, and PALESTINIAN MILITARY PERFORMANCE AND THE 2000 INTIFADA and Pa Minister: Intifada Was Planned From The Day Arafat Returned From Camp David

American Victims Killed During Arab Terrorist Attacks

June 5, 1968, Presidential candidate Robert "Bobby" Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian Arab-Palestinian. RFK was shot at point-blank range from behind by three shots from Sirhan's .22 caliber pistol ... two shots entered his back and a third shot entered directly behind RFK’s right ear.

February 23, 1970, Halhoul, West Bank. PLO terrorists open fire on a busload of pilgrims killing Barbara Ertle of Michigan and wounding two other Americans.

March 28-29, 1970, Beirut, Lebanon. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) fired seven rockets at the U.S. Embassy, the American Insurance Company, Bank of America and the John F. Kennedy library.

September 14, 1970, En route to Amman, Jordan. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked a TWA flight from Zurich, Switzerland and forced it to land in Amman. Four American citizens were injured.

May 30, 1972, Ben Gurion Airport, Israel. Three members of the Japanese Red Army, acting on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's behalf, carried out a machine-gun and grenade attack at Israel's main airport, killing 26 and wounding 78 people. Many of the casualties were American citizens, mostly from Puerto Rico.

September 5, 1972, Munich, Germany. During the Olympic Games in Munich, Black September (Right Photo), a front for Fatah took hostage 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team. Nine athletes were killed including weightlifter David Berger (Left Photo), an American-Israeli from Cleveland, Ohio.

March 2, 1973, Khartoum, Sudan. Cleo A. Noel, Jr., U.S. ambassador to Sudan and George C. Moore, also a U.S. diplomat, were held hostage and then killed by terrorists at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum. It seems likely that Fatah was responsible for the attack.

June 29, 1975, Beirut, Lebanon. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine kidnapped the U.S. military attaché to Lebanon, Ernest Morgan, and demanded food, clothing and building materials for indigent residents living near Beirut harbor. The American diplomat was released after an anonymous benefactor provided food to the neighborhood.

November 14, 1975, Jerusalem, Israel. Lola Nunberg, 53, of New York, was injured during a bombing attack in downtown Jerusalem. Fatah claimed responsibility for the bombing, which killed six people and wounded 38.

November 21, 1975, Ramat Hamagshimim, Israel. Michael Nadler, an American-Israeli from Miami Beach, Florida, was killed when axe-wielding terrorists from the Democrat Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a PLO faction, attacked students in the Golan Heights.

August 11, 1976, Istanbul, Turkey. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine launched an attack on the terminal of Israel's major airline, El Al, at the Istanbul airport. Four civilians, including Harold Rosenthal of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (and an aide to U.S. Senator Jacob Javits) were killed and 20 injured.

January 1, 1977, Beirut, Lebanon. Frances E. Meloy, U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, and Robert O.Waring, the U.S. economic counselor, were kidnapped by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members as they crossed a militia checkpoint separating the Christian from the Muslim sections of Beirut. They were later shot to death.

March 11, 1978, Tel Aviv, Israel. Gail Rubin, niece of U.S. Senator Abraham Ribicoff, was among 38 people shot to death by PLO terrorists on an Israeli beach.

June 2, 1978, Jerusalem, Israel. Richard Fishman, a medical student from Maryland, was among six killed in a PLO bus bombing in Jerusalem. Chava Sprecher, another American citizen from Seattle, Washington, was injured.

May 4, 1979, Tiberias, Israel. Haim Mark and his wife, Haya, of New Haven, Connecticut were injured in a PLO bombing attack in northern Israel.

November 4, 1979, Teheran, Iran. After President Carter agreed to admit the Shah of Iran into the U.S., Iranian radicals seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 American diplomats hostage. Thirteen hostages were soon freed, but the remaining 53 were held until their release on January 20, 1981.

May 2, 1980, Hebron, West Bank. Eli Haze'ev (Left Photo), an American-Israeli from Alexandria, Virginia, was killed in a PLO attack on Jewish worshippers walking home from a synagogue in Hebron.

July 19, 1982, Beirut, Lebanon. Hizballah members kidnapped David Dodge, acting president of the American University in Beirut. After a year in captivity, Dodge was released.

August 19, 1982, Paris, France. Two American citizens, Anne Van Zanten and Grace Cutler, were killed when the PLO bombed a Jewish restaurant in Paris.

March 16, 1983, Beirut, Lebanon. Five American Marines were wounded in a hand grenade attack while on patrol north of Beirut International Airport. The Islamic Jihad and Al-Amal, a Shi'ite militia, claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 18, 1983, Beirut, Lebanon. A truck-bomb detonated by a remote control exploded in front of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 employees, including the CIA's Middle East director, and wounding 120. Hizballah, with financial backing from Iran, was responsible for the attack.

July 1, 1983, Hebron, Israel. Aharon Gross, 19, an American-Israeli from New York, was stabbed to death by PLO terrorists in the Hebron marketplace.

September 29, 1983, Beirut, Lebanon. Two American marines were kidnapped by Amal members. They were released after intervention by a Lebanese army officer.

October 23, 1983, Beirut, Lebanon. A truck loaded with a bomb crashed into the lobby of the U.S. Marines headquarters in Beirut, killing 241 soldiers and wounding 81. The attack was carried out by Hizballah with the help of Syrian intelligence and financed by Iran.

December 19, 1983, Jerusalem, Israel. Serena Sussman, a 60-year-old tourist from Anderson, South Carolina, died from injuries from the PLO bombing of a bus in Jerusalem thirteen days earlier.

January 18, 1984, Beirut, Lebanon. Malcolm Kerr, a Lebanese born American who was president of the American University of Beirut, was killed by two gunmen outside his office. Hizballah said the assassination was part of the organization's plan to "drive all Americans out from Lebanon."

March 7, 1984, Beirut, Lebanon. Hizballah members kidnapped Jeremy Levin, Beirut bureau chief of Cable News Network (CNN). Levin managed to escape and reach Syrian army barracks. He was later transferred to American hands.

March 8, 1984, Beirut, Lebanon. Three Hizballah members kidnapped Reverend Benjamin T. Weir, while he was walking with his wife in Beirut's Manara neighborhood. Weir was released after 16 months of captivity with Syrian and Iranian assistance.

March 16, 1984, Beirut, Lebanon. Hizballah kidnapped William Buckley, a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Buckley was supposed to be exchanged for prisoners. However when the transaction failed to take place, he was reportedly transported to Iran. Although his body was never found, the U.S. administration declared the American diplomat dead.

April 12, 1984, Torrejon, Spain. Hizballah bombed a restaurant near an U.S. Air Force base in Torrejon, Spain, killing 18 servicemen and wounding 83 people.

September 20, 1984, Beirut, Lebanon. A suicide bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in East Beirut killed 23 people and injured 21. The American and British ambassadors were slightly injured in the attack, attributed to the Iranian backed Hizballah group.

September 20, 1984, Aukar, Lebanon. Islamic Jihad detonate a van full of explosives 30 feet in front of the U.S. Embassy annex severely damaging the building, killing two U.S. servicemen and seven Lebanese employees, as well as 5 to 15 non-employees. Twenty Americans were injured, including U.S. Ambassador Reginald Bartholomew and visiting British Ambassador David Miers. An estimated 40 to 50 Lebanese were hurt. The attack came in response to the U.S. veto September 6 of a U.N. Security Council resolution.

December 4, 1984, Tehran, Iran. Hizballah terrorists hijacked a Kuwait Airlines plane en route from Dubai, United Emirates, to Karachi, Pakistan. They demanded the release from Kuwaiti jails of members of Da'Wa, a group of Shiite extremists serving sentences for attacks on French and American targets on Kuwaiti territory. The terrorists forced the pilot to fly to Tehran where the terrorists murdered two passengers--American Agency for International Development employees, Charles Hegna and William Stanford. Although an Iranian special unit ended the incident by storming the plane and arresting the terrorists, the Iranian government might also have been involved in the hijacking.

June 14, 1985, Between Athens and Rome. Two Hizballah members hijacked a TWA Flight 847 en route to Rome from Athens and forced the pilot to fly to Beirut. The terrorists, believed to belong to Hizballah, asked for the release of members of the group Kuwait 17 and 700 Shi'ite prisoners held in Israeli and South Lebanese prisons. The eight crewmembers and 145 passengers were held for 17 days during which one of the hostages, Robert Stethem (Right Photos), a U.S. Navy diver, was murdered. After being flown twice to Algiers, the aircraft returned to Beirut and the hostages were released. Later on, four Hizballah members were secretly indicted. One of them, the Hizballah senior officer Imad Mughniyah, was indicted in absentia.

October 7, 1985, Between Alexandria, Egypt and Haifa, Israel. A four-member Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine squad took over the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, as it was sailing from Alexandria, Egypt, to Israel. The squad murdered a disabled U.S. citizen, Leon Klinghoffer, by throwing him in the ocean. The rest of the passengers were held hostage for two days and later released after the terrorists turned themselves in to Egyptian authorities in return for safe passage. But U.S. Navy fighters intercepted the Egyptian aircraft flying the terrorists to Tunis and forced it to land at the NATO airbase in Italy, where the terrorists were arrested. Two of the terrorists were tried in Italy and sentenced to prison. The Italian authorities however let the two others escape on diplomatic passports. Abu Abbas, who masterminded the hijacking, was later convicted to life imprisonment in absentia.

December 27, 1985, Rome, Italy. Four terrorists from Abu Nidal's organization attacked El Al offices at the Leonardo di Vinci Airport in Rome. Thirteen people, including five Americans, were killed and 74 wounded, among them two Americans. The terrorists had come from Damascus and were supported by the Syrian regime.

March 30, 1986, Athens, Greece. A bomb exploded on a TWA flight from Rome as it approached Athens airport. The attack killed four U.S. citizens who were sucked through a hole made by the blast, although the plane safely landed. The bombing was attributed to the Fatah Special Operations Group's intelligence and security apparatus, headed by Abdullah Abd al-Hamid Labib, alias Colonel Hawari.

April 5, 1986, West Berlin, Germany. An explosion at the "La Belle" nightclub in Berlin, frequented by American soldiers, killed three--2 U.S. soldiers and a Turkish woman-and wounded 191 including 41 U.S. soldiers. Given evidence of Libyan involvement, the U.S. Air Force made a retaliatory attack against Libyan targets on April 17. Libya refused to hand over to Germany five suspects believed to be there. Others, however, were tried including Yassir Shraidi and Musbah Eter, arrested in Rome in August 1997 and extradited; and also Ali Chanaa, his wife, Verena Chanaa, and her sister, Andrea Haeusler. Shraidi, accused of masterminding the attack, was sentenced to 14 years in jail. The Libyan diplomat Musbah Eter and Ali Chanaa were both sentenced to 12 years in jail. Verena Chanaa was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Andrea Haeusler was acquitted.

September 5, 1986, Karachi, Pakistan. Abu Nidal members hijacked a Pan Am Flight #103 (Left Photo) leaving Karachi, Pakistan bound for Frankfurt, Germany and New York with 379 passengers, including 89 Americans. The terrorists forced the plane to land in Larnaca, Cyprus, where they demanded the release of two Palestinians and a Briton jailed for the murder of three Israelis there in 1985. The terrorists killed 22 of the passengers, including two American citizens and wounded many others. They were caught and indicted by a Washington grand jury in 1991.

September 9, 1986, Beirut, Lebanon. Continuing its anti-American attacks, Hizballah kidnapped Frank Reed, director of the American University in Beirut, whom they accused of being "a CIA agent." He was released 44 months later. September 12, 1986, Beirut, Lebanon. Hizballah kidnapped Joseph Cicippio, the acting comptroller at the American University in Beirut. Cicippio was released five years later on December 1991.

October 15, 1986, Jerusalem, Israel. Gali Klein, an American citizen, was killed in a grenade attack by Fatah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

October 21, 1986, Beirut, Lebanon. Hizballah kidnapped Edward A. Tracy, an American citizen in Beirut. He was released five years later, on August 1991.

February 17, 1988, Ras-Al-Ein Tyre, Lebanon. Col. William Higgins (Left and Right Photos), the American chief of the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization, was abducted by Hizballah while driving from Tyre to Nakura. The hostages demanded the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and the release of all Palestinian and Lebanese held prisoners in Israel. The U.S. government refused to answer the request. Hizballah later hanged Higgins.

December 21, 1988, Lockerbie, Scotland. Pan Am Flight 103 departing from Frankfurt to New York was blown up in midair, killing all 259 passengers and another 11 people on the ground in Scotland. Two Libyan agents were found responsible for planting a sophisticated suitcase bomb onboard the plane. On 14 November 1991, arrest warrants were issued for Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima and Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi. After Libya refused to extradite the suspects to stand trial, the United Nations leveled sanctions against the country in April 1992, including the freezing of Libyan assets abroad. In 1999, Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi agreed to hand over the two suspects, but only if their trial was held in a neutral country and presided over by a Scottish judge. With the help of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, Al-Megrahi and Fahima were finally extradited and tried in Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. Megrahi was found guilty and jailed for life, while Fahima was acquitted due to a "lack of evidence" of his involvement. After the extradition, UN sanctions against Libya were automatically lifted.

January 27, 1989, Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey. Three simultaneous bombings were carried out against U.S. business targets--the Turkish American Businessmen Association and the Economic Development Foundation in Istanbul, and the Metal Employees Union in Ankara. The Dev Sol (Revolutionary Left) was held responsible for the attacks.

March 6, 1989, Cairo, Egypt. Two explosive devices were safely removed from the grounds of the American and British Cultural centers in Cairo. Three organizations were believed to be responsible for the attack: The January 15 organization, which had sent a letter bomb to the Israeli ambassador to London in January; the Egyptian Revolutionary Organization that from out 1984-1986 carried out attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets; and the Nasserite Organization, which had attacked British and American targets in 1988.

June 12, 1989, Bosphorus Straits, Turkey. A bomb exploded aboard an unoccupied boat used by U.S. consular staff. The explosion caused extensive damage but no casualties. An organization previously unknown, the Warriors of the June 16th Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.

October 11, 1989, Izmir, Turkey. An explosive charge went off outside a U.S. military PX. Dev Sol was held responsible for the attack.

February 7, 1991, Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. Dev Sol members shot and killed a U.S. civilian contractor as he was getting into his car at the Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey.

February 28, 1991, Izmir, Turkey. Two Dev Sol gunmen shot and wounded a U.S. Air Force officer as he entered his residence in Izmir.

March 28, 1991, Jubial, Saudi Arabia. Three U.S. marines were shot at and injured by an unknown terrorist while driving near Camp Three, Jubial. No organization claimed responsibility for the attack.

October 28, 1991, Ankara, Turkey. Victor Marwick, an American soldier serving at the Turkish-American base, Tuslog, was killed and his wife wounded in a car bomb attack. The Turkish Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

October 28, 1991, Istanbul, Turkey. Two car bombings killed a U.S. Air Force sergeant and severely wounded an Egyptian diplomat in Istanbul. Turkish Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

November 8, 1991, Beirut, Lebanon. A 100-kg car bomb destroyed the administration building of the American University in Beirut, killing one person and wounding at least a dozen.

October 12, 1992, Umm Qasr, Iraq. A U.S. soldier serving with the United Nations was stabbed and wounded near the port of Umm Qasr. No organization claimed responsibility for the attack.

January 25, 1993, Virginia, United States. A Pakistani gunman opened fire on Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employees standing outside of the building. Two agents, Frank Darling and Bennett Lansing, were killed and three others wounded. The assailant was never caught and reportedly fled to Pakistan.

February 26, 1993, Cairo, Egypt. A bomb exploded inside a café in downtown Cairo killing three. Among the 18 wounded were two U.S. citizens. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

February 26, 1993, New York, United States. A massive van bomb exploded in an underground parking garage below the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and wounding 1,042. Four Islamist activists were responsible for the attack. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef (Right Photo), the operation's alleged mastermind, escaped but was later arrested in Pakistan and extradited to the United States. Abd al-Hakim Murad, another suspected conspirator, was arrested by local authorities in the Philippines and handed over to the United States. The two, along with two other terrorists, were tried in the U.S. and sentenced to 240 years.

April 14, 1993, Kuwait. The Iraqi intelligence service attempted to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush during a visit to Kuwait. In retaliation, the U.S. launched a cruise missile attack two months later on the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

July 5, 1993, Southeast Turkey. In eight separate incidents, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) kidnapped a total of 19 Western tourists traveling in southeastern Turkey. The hostages, including U.S. citizen Colin Patrick Starger, were released unharmed after spending several weeks in captivity.

March 8, 1995, Karachi, Pakistan. Two unidentified gunmen armed with AK-47 assault rifles opened fire on a U.S. Consulate van in Karachi, killing two U.S. diplomats, Jacqueline Keys Van Landingham and Gary C. Durell, and wounding a third, Mark McCloy.

April 9, 1995, Kfar Darom and Netzarim, Gaza Strip. Two suicide attacks were carried out within a few hours of each other in Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. In the first attack a suicide bomber crashed an explosive-rigged van into an Israeli bus in Netzarim, killing eight including U.S. citizen Alisa Flatow (Left Photo). Over 30 others were injured. In the second attack, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in the midst of a convoy of cars in Kfar Darom, injuring 12. The Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Shaqaqi Faction claimed responsibility for the attacks.

July 4, 1995, Kashmir, India. In Kashmir, a previously unknown militant group, Al-Faran, with suspected links to a Kashmiri separatist group in Pakistan, took hostage six tourists, including two U.S. citizens. They demanded the release of Muslim militants held in Indian prisons. One of the U.S. citizens escaped on July 8, while on August 13 the decapitated body of the Norwegian hostage was found along with a note stating that the other hostages also would be killed if the group's demands were not met. The Indian Government refused. Both Indian and American authorities believe the rest of the hostages were most likely killed in 1996 by their jailers.

August 1995, Istanbul, Turkey. A bombing of Istanbul's popular Taksim Square injured two U.S. citizens. This attack was part of a three-year-old attempt by the PKK to drive foreign tourists away from Turkey by striking at tourist sites.

August 21, 1995, Jerusalem, Israel. A bus bombing in Jerusalem by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) killed four, including American Joan Davenny, and wounded more than 100.

November 9, 1995, Algiers, Algeria. Islamic extremists set fire to a warehouse belonging to the U.S. Embassy, threatened the Algerian security guard because he was working for the United States, and demanded to know whether any U.S. citizens were present. The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) probably carried out the attacks. The group had threatened to strike other foreign targets and especially U.S. objectives in Algeria, and the attack's style was similar to past GIA operations against foreign facilities.

November 13, 1995, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A car bomb exploded in the parking lot outside of the Riyadh headquarters of the Office of the Program Manager/Saudi Arabian National Guard, killing seven persons, five of them U.S. citizens, and wounding 42. The blast severely damaged the three-story building, which houses a U.S. military advisory group, and several neighboring office buildings. Three groups -- the Islamic Movement for Change, the Tigers of the Gulf, and the Combatant Partisans of God -- claimed responsibility for the attack.

February 25, 1996, Jerusalem, Israel. A suicide bomber blew up a commuter bus in Jerusalem, killing 26, including three U.S. citizens, and injuring 80 others, among them another three U.S. citizens. Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing.

March 4, 1996, Tel Aviv, Israel. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device outside the Dizengoff Center, Tel Aviv's largest shopping mall, killing 20 persons and injuring 75 others, including two U.S. citizens. Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. May 13, 1996, Beit-El, West Bank. Arab gunmen opened fire on a hitchhiking stand near Beit El, wounding three Israelis and killing David Boim (Right Photo), 17, an American- Israeli from New York. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, although either the Islamic Jihad or Hamas are suspected.

June 9, 1996, Zekharya, West Bank. Yaron Ungar, an American-Israeli, and his Israeli wife were killed in a drive-by shooting near their West Bank home. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is suspected.

June 25, 1996, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. A fuel truck carrying a bomb exploded outside the U.S. military's Khobar Towers housing facility in Dhahran, killing 19 U.S. military personnel and wounding 515 persons, including 240 U.S. personnel. Several groups claimed responsibility for the attack. In June 2001, a U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, identified Saudi Hizballah as the party responsible for the attack. The court indicated that the members of the organization, banned from Saudi Arabia, "frequently met and were trained in Lebanon, Syria, or Iran" with Libyan help.

August 17, 1996, Mapourdit, Sudan. Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels kidnapped six missionaries in Mapourdit, including a U.S citizen. The SPLA released the hostages on August 28.

November 1, 1996, Sudan. A breakaway group of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) kidnapped three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), including one U.S citizen. The rebels released the hostages on December 9 in exchange for ICRC supplies and a health survey of their camp.

December 3, 1996, Paris, France. A bomb exploded aboard a Paris subway train, killing four and injuring 86 persons, including a U.S. citizen. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Algerian extremists are suspected.

January 2, 1997, Major cities worldwide, United States. A series of letter bombs with Alexandria, Egypt postmarks were discovered at Al-Hayat newspaper bureaus in Washington, DC, New York, London, and Riyadh. Three similar devices, also postmarked in Egypt, were found at a prison facility in Leavenworth, Kansas. Bomb disposal experts defused all the devices, but one detonated at the Al-Hayat newspaper office in London, injuring two security guards and causing minor damage.

February 23, 1997, New York, United States. Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building, killing killing a Danish national and wounding six others before shooting himself to death. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claimed this was a punishment attack against the "enemies of Palestine."

July 30, 1997, Jerusalem, Israel. Two bombs detonated in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, killing 15 persons, including a U.S. citizen and wounding 168 others, among them two U.S. citizens. The Izz-el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, claimed responsibility for the attack.

October 30, 1997, Sanaa, Yemen. Al-Sha'if tribesmen kidnapped a U.S. businessman near Sanaa. The tribesmen sought the release of two fellow tribesmen who were arrested on smuggling charges and several public works projects they claim the government promised them. The hostage was released on November 27.

November 12, 1997, Karachi, Pakistan. Two unidentified gunmen shot to death four U.S. auditors from Union Texas Petroleum and their Pakistani driver as they drove away from the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi. Two groups claimed responsibility -- the Islamic Inqilabi Council, or Islamic Revolutionary Council and the Aimal Secret Committee, also known as the Aimal Khufia Action Committee.

November 25, 1997, Aden, Yemen. Yemenite tribesmen kidnapped a U.S citizen, two Italians, and two unspecified Westerners near Aden to protest the eviction of a tribe member from his home. The kidnappers released the five hostages on November 27.

April 19, 1998, Maon, Israel. Dov Driben, a 28-year-old American-Israeli farmer was killed by terrorists near the West Bank town of Maon. One of his assailants, Issa Debavseh, a member of Fatah Tanzim, was killed on November 7, 2001, by the IDF after being on their wanted list for the murder.

June 21, 1998, Beirut, Lebanon. Two hand-grenades were thrown at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. No casualties were reported.

June 21, 1998, Beirut, Lebanon. Three rocket-propelled grenades attached to a crude detonator exploded near the U.S. Embassy compound in Beirut, causing no casualties and little damage. August 7, 1998, Nairobi, Kenya. A car bomb exploded at the rear entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. The attack killed a total of 292, including 12 U.S. citizens, and injured over 5,000, among them six Americans. The perpetrators belonged to al-Qaida, Usama bin Ladin's network.

August 7, 1998, Dar es Sala'am, Tanzania. A car bomb exploded outside the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Sala'am, killing 11 and injuring 86. Osama bin Laden's organization al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack. Two suspects were arrested.

November 21, 1998, Teheran, Iran. Members of Fedayeen Islam, shouting anti-American slogans and wielding stones and iron rods, attacked a group of American tourists in Tehran. Some of the tourists suffered minor injuries from flying glass.

December 28, 1998, Mawdiyah, Yemen. Sixteen tourists--12 Britons, two Americans and two Australians--were taken hostage in the largest kidnapping in Yemen's recent history. The tourists were seized in the Abyan province (some 175 miles south of Sanaa the capital). One Briton and a Yemeni guide escaped, while the rest were taken to city of Mawdiyah. Four hostages were killed when troops closed in and two were wounded, including an American woman. The kidnappers, members of the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan, an offshoot of Al-Jihad, had demanded the release from jail of their leader, Saleh Haidara al-Atwi.

October 31, 1999, Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed off the U.S. coast killing all 217 people on board, including 100 Americans. Although it is not precisely clear what happened, evidence indicated that an Egyptian pilot, Ahmed el-Habashy (Right Photo), crashed the plane for personal or political reasons.

November 4, 1999, Athens, Greece. A group protesting President Clinton's visit to Greece hid a gas bomb at an American car dealership in Athens. Two cars were destroyed and several others damaged. Anti-State Action claimed responsibility for the attack, but the November 17 group was also suspected.

November 12, 1999, Islamabad, Pakistan. Six rockets were fired at the U.S. Information Services cultural center and United Nations offices in Islamabad, injuring a Pakistani guard.

October 8, 2000, Nablus, West Bank. The bullet-ridden body of Hillel Lieberman, a U.S. citizen living in the Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh, was found at the entrance to the West Bank town of Nablus. Lieberman had headed there after hearing that Palestinians had desecrated the religious site, Joseph's Tomb. No organization claimed responsibility for the murder.

October 12, 2000, Aden Harbor, Yemen. A suicide squad rammed the warship the U.S.S. Cole with an explosives-laden boat killing 13 American sailors and injuring 33. The attack was likely by Osama bin Ladin's al-Qaida organization.

October 30, 2000, Jerusalem, Israel. Gunmen killed Eish Kodesh Gilmor, a 25-year-old American-Israeli on duty as a security guard at the National Insurance Institute in Jerusalem. The "Martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Intifada," a group linked to Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack. Gilmor's family filed a suit in the U.S. District Court in Washington against the Palestinian Authority, the PLO, Chairman Yasser Arafat and members of Force 17, as being responsible for the attack.

May 9, 2001, Tekoa, West Bank. Kobi Mandell, 14, an American-Israeli, was found stoned to death along with a friend in a cave near the Jewish settlement of Tekoa. Two organizations, the Islamic Jihad and Hizballah, claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 29, 2001, Gush Etzion, West Bank. The Fatah Tanzim claimed responsibility for a drive-by shooting of six in the West Bank that killed two American-Israeli citizens, Samuel Berg, and his mother, Sarah Blaustein.

August 9, 2001, Jerusalem, Israel. A suicide bombing at Sbarro's, a pizzeria situated in one of the busiest areas of downtown Jerusalem, killed 15 people, including a 31-year-old tourist from New Jersey, Shoshana Greenbaum and wounded more than 90. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

September 11, 2001, New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, United States. During a carefully coordinated attack, 19 Islamist extremists hijacked four U.S. jetliners and forced them to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In all, 266 people perished in the four planes, and more than 3,000 people were killed on the ground. U.S. investigators determined on the basis of extensive evidence that Usama bin Ladin's al-Qaida group was responsible for the attack. The first plane, American Airlines Flight 11 en route from Boston to Los Angeles, crashed into the World Trade Center's north tower at 8:48 a.m. Eighteen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175, also headed from Boston to Los Angeles, smashed into the World Trade Center's south tower. At 9:40 a.m. a third airplane, an American Airlines Boeing 757 that left Washington's Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles, crashed into the western part of the Pentagon where 24,000 people worked. The fourth plane, a United Airlines Flight 93 flying from Newark to San Francisco, crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, most likely before it could hit its target. Hundreds of firefighters, police officers and other rescue workers who arrived in the site after the first plane crash were killed or injured.

January 15, 2002, Bethlehem, West Bank. Avraham Boaz, 71, a dual Israeli-American citizen, was kidnapped at a Palestinian Authority (PA) security checkpoint in Beit Jala and murdered.

January 27, 2002, Jerusalem, Israel. A Palestinian woman triggered a massive explosion in downtown Jerusalem killing one elderly Israeli and injuring more than 150, including American Mark Sokolow, his wife, and 16 and 12-year-old daughters. Sokolow had earlier survived the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, escaping from his law office on the 38th floor of the South Tower before it collapsed.

July 31, 2002, Jerusalem, Israel. Seven people including four Americans, Marla Bennett (24) of San Diego, California, David Gritz (24) of Peru, Massachusetts, Benjamin Blutstein (25) of Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania and Janis Ruth Coulter (36) from New York were murdered when a remote-controlled bomb detonated in the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria on Jerusalem's Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus. Eighty-six others were injured. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

October 17, 2003, Gaza Strip, Israel, Three Americans were killed and another wounded on October 15, 2003 when an explosion tore through a van that was part of a diplomatic convoy traveling through the Gaza Strip. The killed and injured Americans were part of a security force for the diplomatic officials. The State Department identified the slain Americans as John Branchizio (36) Mark T. Parson (31) and John Martin Linde Jr. (30) all employees of DynCorp, a Virginia-based security firm.


Footnote:

After so many years of Arab Palestinian terrorism against its property and citizens, it is inexplicable that the United States still attempts to view the Arab-Israeli Conflict in an "even-handed" way! Is it because America thinks she can "buy off" or appease these terrorists? Could British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appease Hitler and avert a world war when he sold out Czechoslovakia?

Americans and what's left of the "civilized" world has a real battle on their hands. The sooner they recognize these cold-blooded, barbaric thugs for what they are and unite in a common front against them, the better chance the world will be spared more vicious attacks. A very good start would be to back Israel who is right at the front lines of the war pitting Good against Evil. Jews in Israel and pre-State "Palestine" have been attacked and murdered for over 120 years by Arabs. Even a so-called "peace" agreement didn't put a stop to Jewish deaths!

American Victims of Palestinian Violence

A Jewish pro-palestinian pays a visit

We've been getting some visits and emails from some Jewish pro-palestinian trolls, including one miserable wretch in particular who wrote us three times, each time threatening us with libel. Of course she had no case, but that's what pro-palestinians like to do; shut down and silence their opponents.

Well, folks, the good news is we're here to stay, and Smooth Stone is going nowhere unless WE say so. We won't be dicked around by some little misanthrope from Europe.

So, to those terrorist-loving, self-loathing Jewish trolls out there, and you know who you are, who remain delusional about the culpability of the arab / palestinian / islamist agenda and their crimes against Israel and civilization, here again are the facts for you to choke on:

Show us where it is part of Halacha for a Jew to dedicate the bulk of her time to demonizing the Jewish collective, to defend palestinian terrorists, and to ensure that Jews are not cooperatively empowered, as you have done?

You've made it clear in your posts that you don't think Jews collectively belong at the world's table of nations unless its on everyone else's terms first.

Is it Halacha to tell Jews to always take a backseat to other people's needs/desires, regardless of a whole host of negative consequences?

Oh sure, it's easy to capitulate to the whims of a majority, but any true civil rights advocate would work to foster tolerance of a minority by understanding how Jews, Berbers, Copts, Maronites, Assyrians, Kurds, etc. have all been disenfranchised specifically due to the concept that the Middle East is only "Arab land."

What do you think would have happened when Jews started to return to repopulate Israel, if the Arabs opened up their arms?

If your answer is, 'Yes, I think things would have been better', then you just proved that it was not Zionism that caused the crisis in Israel, but Arab reaction to it.

All people - including Jews - deserve to have their lives safeguarded, even those wrongly accused by people like you, of being outsiders. Being called an outsider doesn't make it so. Too bad you missed the lesson where it is wrong to capitulate to xenophobia.

Bottom line is that you are not interested in making the lives of palestinians better as long as you advocate a transfer of power to Arafat's unaccountable, merciless mafia, or Yassin's intolerant Islamist world outlook.

Tell us one thing that anti-Zionism has ever done that benefits either palestinians or the world at large.

My dear, you've dedicated your life to a pathetically failed social enterprise; at least show us where anti-Zionism has been a success somewhere rather than a complete failure for all involved.

Looking at the condition of the palestinian territories, thanks to anti-Zionist warmongering, you already have lost on the social, political, and economic fronts, and yet you and your cronies continue to try to come up with some rationalization for your flunky social policies.

Until you do so, don't expect anyone to believe that you are interested in a humanitarian principle or social enlightenment. Rather, your interests lie only in facilitating a palestinian powergrab, even though the evidence is quite clear that it would make the lives of people worse, not better. It's always easier to be against something than for something.

You're not an advocate for liberty, freedom, or social justice as long as you wave the destructive, failed anti-Zionist banner.

The proof is clear -- you advocate a terrorist policy and a terrorist state that will result in the absolute liquidation of your people, the Jew's patrimony, such as the now destroyed Joseph's Tomb, our Holy Temple, and the innumerable artifacts unearthed and destroyed by the criminal Waqf, in their attempt to obliterate any evidence that Jews were the original "occupiers" of Jerusalem.

To you, power is an end in and of itself, not a means to achieve a better life, which is the case with Zionism.

You have entrenched yourself with the enemies of Jews, built upon destructive anti-Zionist politics that are destructive in totality offering nothing constructive whatsoever, not for palestinians, not for Jews, and not for the world-at-large.

Why? Where did your parents go wrong?

Obviously, you must admit that you haven't thought your position through clearly, which is sad considering you've dedicated your adult life to it.

Palestinian Justifications for Killing Jews

Barry Shaw highlights some reasons for Palestinian justification for murdering Jews, a theme that has been emanating from Palestinian schools, Palestinian television shows, and Arab mosques around the Middle East and Europe:

~ A Jew visiting the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, is justification for the recent three year violence, and for Arabs to kill Jews.
~ Jews growing tomatoes near Gaza is a reason for Arabs to kill them.
~ Jews building homes in Judea (from where comes the name Judaism) is reason to kill Israelis.
~ A handful of Jews living in Hebron is reason enough for Arabs to attempt to repeat the massacre of Jews in the 1920s.
~ Jews worshipping at Joseph's Tomb is reason to kill them and to destroy this holy Jewish shrine (then rebuild it as a mosque).
~ Jewish children eating pizza in Jerusalem is offensive enough for Arabs to kill them.
~ Jewish teenagers at a Tel Aviv disco is enough to make them a target for death.
~ Jews gathering to observe the Passover tradition in Netanya is justification for a massacre.
~ Not freeing Arab murderers (who wish to return to kill more) is justification to kill Israelis.
~ Building a security fence to protect innocent women and children is sufficient justification for killing Jews.
~ Declaring Israel to be the sole Jewish state is reason enough for Arabs to kill us.
~ Not allowing four million Arabs, who have never set foot here, to enter Israel and swamp us demographically, is justification to kill Jews.
~ Our very existence is justification for them to kill us in rage.

To hell with Arab outrage

Arabs are "outraged" over the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of a few American servicemen.

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when necrophiliacs in Fallujah mutilated four American soldiers by stepping on their burnt skulls and hung their burnt bodies from a bridge?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when "palestinians" mutilated and dragged the bodies of two IDF soldiers in Ramallah?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when 19 Muslims blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11/01?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when Muslims continue to slaughter Sudanese Christians?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when Muslims blew up Pan Am Flight 103?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when Muslims bombed the marine barracks in Lebanon killing 241 Americans in 1983?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when Muslims bombed the USS COLE ?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when Muslims bombed the American embassies in Africa killing 231 people?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when Abu Mazen engineered the "Black September" Terror Attack during the Munich Olympics, which killed 11 Israeli athletes and a U.S. citizen ?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when ABu Abbas threw the wheel-chair bound Leon Klinghoffer overboard on the Achille Lauro?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when "Palestinian" rioters torched the Jewish-only Joseph's Tomb ?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when the Taliban blew up the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when simultaneous blasts rocked two of downtown Istanbul's synagogues killing at least 15 people and wounding at least 140?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when "Palestinians" handed out candies celebrating the deaths of 3000 Americans on 9-11-01?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when Jemaah Islamiyah suicide bombers killed 12 people and injured 150 at the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta, Indonesia?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when bomb attacks in Morocco killed at least 28 people and injure more than 100?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when suicide bombers killed 12 people at an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Kenya and two missiles narrowly miss an airliner carrying Israelis?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when nearly 200 people, including seven Americans, were killed in bombings in a nightclub district of the Indonesian island of Bali?

Where were these "outraged" Arabs when 300,000 Iraqi's bodies were found in mass graves?

Where was their indignation, folks? You know where? NOWHERE.

It was nowhere because Arab outrage when someone non-Arab is a victim, does not exist, it does not rate. Why? Because the Arab culture knows nothing but how to be proud and arrogant. The culture is a cohesive political glob of people united simply by political identity and not at all by morality.

It's time for the rest of us, who DO know the difference between right and wrong, to tell the world that these "outraged" idiots are too pathetic to warrant any sympathy from the rest of us.

We're waiting for these "outraged" Arabs to get up the manhood to be disgusted BY THEIR OWN people for the disgusting crimes they have committed against others.

Then we'll shed a tear.

====

Update: Yes, I am the original and authentic author of this diatribe that went around the world, speaking for everyone who is disgusted by Arab barbarism.

Four Points: Arguments for Israel by Daniel Weinstein

From Four Points: Arguments for Israel:

In this age of sound-bites, here are some key facts at your fingertips.

When it comes to Israel, tempers sometimes flare, and sometimes we don't even know how to respond. We might hear a new argument or a new perspective, and the limited knowledge we have proves to be insufficient. Especially in the age of sound-bites and knee-jerk politics, we need to have more facts at our fingertips, organize what we know, and be prepared to respond effectively.

Recognizing this, here is a "Four-Point" educational campaign produced by Hasbara Fellowships. Each of the following 10 topics has four bullet-points -- to help deepen our understanding of the major issues of the Mideast conflict.

Settlements

1) Jews can live in Mexico City, Bangkok, St. Louis, and any city in the world (except in Saudi Arabia) -- but the PA wants to forbid Jews from living in the very cradle of Judaism.

2) The only period in the last 3,000 years without a continued Jewish presence in the West Bank was the 19 years between 1948-1967 when the Jordanian government banned Jews from living there.

3) In 1979, Ariel Sharon dismantled Yamit and other settlements in the Sinai when it was absolutely clear that compromise would bring a true peace.

4) Since the disputed territories were never part of a sovereign nation, and were acquired in a defensive war, international law permits the voluntary settlement of the land. Recognizing this, and the Oslo agreements never addressed the issue of Jewish or Arab settlements.

Refugees

1) There would be no refugee problem if seven Arab nations had not attacked Israel upon its inception in 1948.

2) Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have consciously chosen to isolate refugees as political pawns, rather than integrate them into a normalized life. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 reads that all governments involved must share responsibility.

3)800,000 Jewish refugees were expelled from Arab countries in 1948, but their descendents are normalized today because they were absorbed by Israel and other countries.

4) As opposed to refugees in Arab countries, Israel integrated Arabs within its borders as citizens, and 1.2 million Israeli Arabs now enjoy citizenship, benefits, and governmental representation in Israel.

Compromises for Peace

1) Israel signed independent peace treaties with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994), each time giving away either land, oil, settlements, or strategic military advantage to achieve a peaceful agreement.

2) Israel gave the Palestinian Authority land, money, weapons, training, and intelligence, all in the hope that the PA would reciprocate with an end to terror and incitement.

3) The very formula "Land for Peace" indicates that Arabs compromise for what they want most -- land, while Israel compromises for what it wants most -- peace.

4) In 1917, 1937, 1947, 1956, 1979, and 1993 Israeli leaders established a pattern of accepting the handover of land in exchange for peace agreements with its Arab neighbors.

Waiting for a true Partner

1) The real PLO took the Israeli Olympic delegation hostage in the 1972 Munich Olympic games, and after failing to extort the release of Palestinian prisoners, killed 11 Israeli athletes.

2) The real PLO invented the idea of skyjackings in 1970, and instilled fear in travelers across the world.

3) The real PLO shot and killed the elderly, unarmed, wheelchair-bound, U.S. citizen Leon Klinghoffer on the Achille Lauro cruise liner in 1985.

4) The real PLO continues to incite violence against Jews, promote the armed struggle to "liberate all of Palestine," and indoctrinate Palestinian children into a culture of hatred where death is the ultimate prize.

The 3,000-year Jewish connection

1) The only independent sovereign nations to ever exist in the Land of Israel were the two ancient Jewish commonwealths, the second of which was destroyed in 70 of the common era.

2) For 3,000 years, Jews have expressed the desire to return to their ancestral homeland: at the Passover Seder, the Yom Kippur service, in daily prayer, in the blessing after meals, under the wedding canopy, on the yearly day of national mourning Tisha B'Av, and by placing Israeli soil in the coffin of their deceased.

3) Even after exile, Jews managed to keep a continual presence of Jewish communities in such cities as Jerusalem, Tzfat, Tiberias, Shechem, and Hebron.

4) Centuries before the inception of Islam, Jews were yearning to return to Israel, and the Koran itself records this in many suras (chapters), such as 17:7, 17:104, and 5:21 that tells the Jews to "enter into the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you."

Holy Sites

1) When Israel gained control and reunified Jerusalem in 1967, rather than forbid Muslim worship or close the mosques, it allowed the Muslim Waqf (religious authority) to administer and control the Temple Mount and maintain the Al-Aqsa mosque.

2) Under Jordanian rule, Jews were forbidden from praying at the Western Wall; the Mount of Olives cemetery and 58 Jewish synagogues were destroyed. However, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim sites are open to all worshippers under Israeli rule -- except for the site of the ancient Jewish Temple, the Temple Mount, where Jews are normally forbidden to pray.

3) When Israel transferred military control to the PA, angry mobs burned and destroyed Jewish holy sites and religious artifacts at Jericho, Hebron, and Joseph's tomb in Nablus.

4) In 2002, Palestinian terrorists took 30 monks hostage in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity because they knew Jewish soldiers would not shoot inside. After the hostages were freed, investigators found the Church profaned and desecrated.

Jerusalem

1) Mecca and Medina are the holiest cities to Muslims; Vatican City is the holiest to Catholics. While Jerusalem has significance to many religions, Jerusalem is supreme and holiest only to the Jews. When it was conquered by Jordan in 1949, no Muslim dignitary or leader visited Jerusalem in any official, public, or religious capacity.

2) Jerusalem has been central to Judaism since biblical times, when it was made the eternal spiritual capital of the Jewish people.

3) Jews have been the majority in Jerusalem since 1840, and there has been a continual Jewish presence in Jerusalem since the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 of the common era. (Paul Johnson, History of the Jews)

4) Jerusalem is for everyone only when it is in Israeli control.

The UN and International Law

1) The 1917 Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations Mandate, the 1947 UN Partition Plan, and Israel's 1949 admission into the UN reaffirmed Israel the international right to exist as the Jewish homeland.

2) UN Security Council Resolution 242 reads that Israel should relinquish land only if it is in the context of a "peaceful and accepted settlement." 3) UN Resolution 242 requires that all states in the area recognize Israel's "right to live in peace with secure and recognized borders free from threats or acts of force."

4) Until 2002, Israel was the only UN member state ineligible to sit on the Security Council, and today that right is still only limited and temporary. Since the 1970s, an Arab-Soviet-Third World Bloc reinforced Israel's outcast status by barring Israel from other key UN bodies and making Israel the object of more investigative committees and special representatives than any other state in the UN.

Israel's Excessive Restraint

1) Israel is facing a serious threat -- Palestinian gunmen have repeatedly fired at civilians and soldiers from hospitals, mosques and schools, using humans as shields and ambulances to transport weaponry.

2) Though the intifada has heaped violence upon Israel, there have been, on average, less than one person injured per Palestinian riot. Israel is currently training 26 other countries in technology it has created to minimize injury in crowd and riot control situations.

3) During "Black September" in Jordan in 1970, 2,500 Palestinian rioters were killed in 10 days by the Jordanian army. In 1993, UN Peacekeeping troops justified the killing of almost 100 Somalis by noting that, "Everyone on the ground in the vicinity was a combatant, because they meant to do us harm."

4) In April 2002, IDF ground forces went door-to-door to target known terrorists in Jenin, rather than use artillery or carpet bomb the city from above. Israel put its own troops at risk and lost 23 of its own soldiers because of this concern to not injure the innocent among its enemies.

Palestinian Lexicon

1) Hudna: strategic ceasefire engineered to rearm for the next battle, in English it is referred to as a "peace agreement." In the West, we tend to think of a "ceasefire" leading to peace - a Hudna is designed to lead to war.

2) Fatwa: Religiously inspired death warrant on the head of an enemy, all Jews living in Israel have a fatwa issued by Hamas leadership.

3) Occupation: Term describing a Jewish presence in any of the Land of Israel, including Israeli cities such as Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Hadera; in Western media it is tailored to refer only to the West Bank and Gaza.

4) Jihad: The religious struggle to eradicate the Jews from Israel and establish an Islamic society in their stead.