Who was David "Mickey" Marcus?

David "Mickey" Marcus (1902-1948) was an American Jew who volunteered to fight for the Israeli army in the 1948 War of Independence.

Marcus was a tough Brooklyn street kid who attended West Point and then law school. In World War II, Marcus rose to the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army, where he helped draw up surrender terms for Italy and Germany. While serving in the occupation government in Berlin, he was responsible for clearing out the Nazi death camps, and then as chief of the War Crimes Division, where he helped arrange the Nuremberg trials.

Seeing the Jewish suffering first-hand, Marcus became a committed Zionist, and in 1947 he volunteered to help secure the Jewish settlements which were under attack from hostile Arabs.

Marcus designed a command structure for Israel's new army and wrote manuals to train it. His most famous achievement was ordering the construction of the "Burma Road," a winding mountainous path which allowed Jewish convoys to reach Jerusalem and relieve the Arab siege.

Tragically, on the day that the war's cease-fire took effect, Marcus was mistakenly shot by a Jewish guard.

His story became the subject of a movie, Cast a Giant Shadow, starring Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner.

Source: Aish.com

What is Theresienstadt?

Theresienstadt was a nazi holding pen in Czechoslovakia. It served as a transit camp for Czech Jews whom the Germans deported to killing centers, concentration camps, and forced-labor camps in German-occupied Poland, Belorussia, and the Baltic States. It was a ghetto-labor camp to which the SS deported and then incarcerated certain categories of German, Austrian, and Czech Jews, based on their age, disability as a result of past military service, or domestic celebrity in the arts and other cultural life. Third, Theresienstadt served as a holding pen for Jews in the above-mentioned groups.

Today, on 27 Iyar in 1945, the Theresienstadt concentration camp was liberated. From Aish.com:

Theresienstadt was not a death camp by the usual definition. It was the center of a Nazi PR ploy -- a mythic, idyllic city that was supposedly built to protect Jews from the vagaries and stresses of the war. The Red Cross was once allowed to visit Theresienstadt, which was spruced up for the occasion; inmates were dressed up and baked goods suddenly filled the shelves. (The Red Cross concluded that the Jews were being well-treated.)

In reality, starvation and disease proved rampant. Of the 200,000 people (mostly Czech Jews) who passed through its gates, thousands died of malnutrition and exposure, and others were sent to Auschwitz.

Is Israel Bound by International Law to Supply Utilities, Goods, and Services to Gaza?

More data and definitions for you to use in the TalkSpeak and NewSpeak war against Israel and the manufactured accusations of her "violation of International Law". From The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs:

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Development Secretary Douglas Alexander recently alleged that Israel's decision to respond to ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks by limiting the supply of fuel to Gaza violated international law. The new UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert H. Serry, also asserted: "Israeli measures amounting to collective punishment are not acceptable. We call on Israel to meet its obligations toward the civilian population of Gaza under international law." Yet international law does not require Israel to supply Gaza with fuel or electricity, or, indeed, with any other materials, goods, or services.

Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention permits states like Israel to cut off fuel supplies and electricity to territories like Gaza. It only requires Israel to permit passage of food, clothing, and medicines intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers, and maternity cases. Moreover, Israel would be under no obligation to provide anything itself, just not to interfere with such consignments sent by others. Article 70 of the First Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1977 creates a slightly broader duty regarding the provision of essential supplies, but it does not list fuel and electricity as items for which passage must be permitted.

Dependence on foreign supply - whether it be Gazan dependence on Israeli electricity or European dependence on Arab oil - does not create a legal duty to continue the supply. Absent specific treaty requirements, countries may cut off oil sales to other countries at any time. In addition, neither Israel nor any other country is required to supply goods in response to its foes' resource mismanagement or lack of natural bounty.

There is no precedent that creates legal duties on the basis of a former military administration. For instance, no one has ever argued that Egypt has legal duties to supply goods to Gaza due to its former military occupation of the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, control of airspace does not create a legal duty to supply goods either. For instance, UN Security Council-ordered no-fly zones in Iraq and Libya were not seen as the source of any legal duty to supply those countries with electricity, water, or other goods.

What is Muslim land?

The virus calling itself Osama bin Laden emerged once again to vow in a new audiotape Saturday, that he and his followers will expand the Muslim holy war to Israel, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction." The muslim went on to say "We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea," he said, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction. We will not recognize even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have." Same crap, different day.

Let's talk about Muslim land. Who and what are the origins of the hubris of Islam to lay claim to any land it occupies, breaches and terrorizes? What is "Muslim land"? What are its borders? Is the Arabian nation truly one nation? If so, then why are Egyptians called Egyptians and not Arabs? What is the caliphate? The Islamic empires of the Middle Ages were ruled by caliphs. Is there a call to reintroduce the caliphate? Is your land next?

From Robert Spencer, The Goal of the Jihad:

This is from the Turkish branch of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an international political party whose stated goal is reviving the caliphate – or khilafah:

It was a day like this 79 years ago, and more specifically on the 3rd of March 1924 that...the criminal English agent, Mustafa Kemal (so-called Ataturk, the “Father of the Turks”!) announced that the Grand National Assembly had agreed to destroy the Khilafah; and...the establish...a secular, irreligious, Turkish republic....

Since that day the Islamic ummah [nation, community] has lived a life full of calamities; she was broken up into small mini states controlled by the enemies of Islam in every aspect. The Muslims were oppressed and became the object of the kuffar’s [that is, unbelievers’] derision in Kashmir, Philippines, Thailand, Chechnya, Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Palestine and other lands belonging to the Muslims [...]

So the crime took place and the kuffar tightened their grip over the Islamic lands and tore it up into pieces....In place of a single Khilafah state they established cartoon states and installed rulers as agents to carry out the orders of their kuffar masters. They abolished the Islamic Sharee’ah [religious law] from the sphere of ruling, economy, international relations, domestic transactions and judiciary.[...]

“Without the Khilafah, the Islamic lands will remain torn up and the Islamic peoples will remain divided. Without the Khilafah the kafir, crusader and colonial states will continue to control us, plunder our resources and create divisions amongst us. Without the Khilafah, the Jews will continue to occupy our sacred places and kill and humiliate our brothers in Palestine. Without the Khilafah, the Islamic peoples in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Uzbekistan and so on will continue to be killed....Without the Khilafah, those Muslims who do not work seriously for its implementation will be sinful and incur the anger of Allâh, even if they fast, pray, make Hajj [pilgrimage] and pay Zakah [alms]. This is because the work to establish the Khilafah Rashidah is a fard [obligation] on every Muslim, and it should be conducted with the most extreme effort and utmost speed.[...]

Well, just from the above passage, we have learned that Muslims believe that they own Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Uzbekistan, Kashmir, Philippines, and Thailand. They also lay claim to the entity calling itself "palestine" but we already know that "palestine" was never a nation, just another region stolen by and occupied by Muslims. Robert Spencer adds:

And there is something else also. In Islamic law, jihad warfare may be defensive or offensive. Jihad is ordinarily fard kifaya – an obligation on the Muslim community as a whole, from which some are freed if others take it up. Jihad becomes fard ayn, or obligatory on every individual Muslim to aid in any way he can, if a Muslim land is attacked. That is what jihadists argue today – that the American presence in Iraq and Afghanistan makes jihad fard ayn, or obligatory on every individual Muslims.

But still, that is just jihad for the defense of Muslim lands. There is also offensive jihad, in line with Muhammad’s command that Muslims offer non-Muslims conversion to Islam, subjugation as inferiors under Islamic rule, or war. But in Islamic law, only the caliph is authorized to wage offensive jihad.

That’s a primary reason why jihadists want to restore the caliphate. Some would even say that they’ve already done so. In 1996 the Taliban’s Mullah Omar went to the shrine of the Respectable Cloak of Muhammad in Kandahar and stood on the roof of the shrine wrapped in the cloak. His followers proclaimed him Emir al Momineen, or leader of the believers – a title of the caliph. So far, however, only a jihadist group in Algeria has joined the Taliban in accepting Mullah Omar as caliph.

In any case, the desire to restore the caliphate ultimately highlights the expansionist, imperialist, totalitarian, globalist aims of the jihad movement, even as today it presents itself as a defensive action against Western evils. This is, I believe, a crucial point for our understanding the enemy properly, so that we can formulate the proper defensive responses. If we don’t understand what we’re up against correctly, we will not defend ourselves properly against it. And that is, unfortunately, in many ways the fix we’re in today.

Now, by the time of his death in 632 AD, Muhammad had extended his control via raids and battles over most of southern Arabia. Near the end of his life, Muhammad sent letters to the empires of the Middle East demanding their submission to his authority. This dispels any notion that the Muhammad intended Islam's expansion to stop with Arabia. Muhammad fought and crushed the people of the Arabian peninsula. Other Caliphs fought and crushed the people of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe, all in the name of Allah. Arab Muslim armies occupied and terrorized the Holy Land, conquered what is now Iraq and Iran, then swept west across North Africa, into Spain, and finally into France. Forunately, the Muslim offensive was halted at the Battle of Poitiers/Tours, not far from Paris, in 732 AD. But, in the east, the jihad penetrated deep into Central Asia.

In another excellently researched article, Robert Spencer writes "Almost overnight, the more advanced civilizations of the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, and Iberia saw their agriculture, native religions, and populations destroyed or plundered... jihad engulfed much of the Byzantine, Visigothic, Frankish, and Persian Empires and left the newborn Islamic Empire controlling territory from Southern France, south through Spain, east across North Africa to India, and north to Russia. Early in the second millennium AD, the Mongol invasion from the east greatly weakened the Islamic Empire and ended Arab predominance therein."

Here is a map depicting historical Arab Muslim occupation, land theft, plundering and barbarity, from 632 to 750AD.

Robert Spencer adds,

"Some twenty-five years before the first Crusading army set out from central Europe for the Holy Land, the Turkish (Ottoman) armies began an assault on the Christian Byzantine Empire, which had ruled what is now Turkey since the Roman Empire’s capital was moved to Constantinople in 325 AD. At the battle of Manzikert, in 1071, the Christian forces suffered a disastrous defeat, which left much of Anatolia (Turkey) open to invasion. This second wave of jihad was temporarily held up by the invading Latin Armies during the Crusades (see Islam 101 FAQs), but, by the beginning of the 14th century, the Turks were threatening Constantinople and Europe itself. In the West, Roman Catholic armies were bit by bit forcing Muslim forces down the Iberian peninsula, until, in 1492, they were definitively expelled (the Reconquista).

One of the most significant engagements between the invading Muslims and the indigenous peoples of the region was the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, where the Turks annihilated a multinational army under the Serbian King, St. Lazar, though their progress into Europe was significantly slowed. After numerous attempts dating back to the seventh century, Constantinople, the jewel of Eastern Christendom, finally fell in 1453 to the armies of Sultan Mahomet II. Lest one ascribe the atrocities of the first wave of jihad to the "Arabness" of its perpetrators, the Turks showed they were fully capable of living up to the principles of the Quran and the Sunnah."

Here is a map of the second wave of jihad from 1099 through 1492.We all know the canard perpetrated by Muslims that Muslims are not attacking their enemies, but only counterattacking, so that if non-Muslims would only stop provoking them, all would be well.

Those maps above say otherwise. History says otherwise. That is why when Osama bin Laden talks, he utters orthodox Islam: Muslims must convert non-Muslims by force, if necessary, or otherwise kill them. This is why Islam has been on the attack since its birth in the 7th century AD. Muhammad started fighting to force conversions and his followers continue to fight to this day, hoping to spread Islam throughout the world.

Logical arguments as to why Islam is appealing to so many millions of people are scarce, which is why moderate Islam today is nearly non-existant, and with regards to deception and mendacity, for Muslims, history renews itself each day. This is all the more reason why Osama bin Laden and his vicious followers need to be hunted down, targetted, and destroyed.

So, readers, when Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan, hold an anti-American, anti-Israel demonstration and carry signs bearing slogans such as “US Hands Off Muslim Land”, now you'll know what they're talking about.

Video: Who is Yael Korin?

Yael Korin is the co-founder of the Los Angeles branch of Women in Black and is an ex-Israeli Jew working for the destruction of Israel. Yael Korin is a pathologist at the medical school of UCLA who believes the canard that Jews have no right to live in Israel. She is associated with Greta Berlin, another she-pig at Women in Black, and as Discover the Network writes,

"...Yael Korin... joins other fanatically anti-Israel ex-Israelis, including such people as Avi Shlaim in Britain; Gabriel Piterberg (also at UCLA); Zalman Amit in Canada; and Yigal Arens, a Los Angeles extremist and son of Israel's one-time Defense Minister Gilad Atzmon. "

These vermin seek to see their native homeland destroyed and replaced by an Arab majority.

Yael Korin may as well be a Muslim, because her hatred for Israel runs so deep and her lies are so vast.

Yael Korin is allegedly a child of Holocaust survivors, so she also brought shame to her parents as well as to the nation of Israel.

Watch her video here at a speech in California. Listen to Yael Korin's lies. If you weren't able to catch them all, I identify the mendacity below:



Yael Korin neglects to mention that Jews were also residents of the region of Palestine and were thrown out of their homes by Arabs.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that Palestinian Arabs do not have an absolute, natural right to self-determination without the reciprocal absolute natural right of the Palestinian Jews.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that Palestinian Jews had a prior right to create a national existence in the land of the Mandate of Palestine as was promised to them in several documents including the Balfour Declaration and the San Remo resolution.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that Palestinian Jews have the right to preserve themselves by defending themselves against a culture who wants to commit genocide against them.

Yael Korin was silent when Arabs forced hundreds of thousands of Jews out of their homes in 1948.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that when the West Bank and Gaza were "occupied" by Egypt and Jordan, from 1947 thru 1967, the palestinian leadership had no complaint about any "alien occupation " and expressed no desire for self-determination. There was no movement toward a palestinian state when Gaza was under the control of Egypt and the West Bank under Jordan. Jordan didn't give up its territorial claims until 1988.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that Fatah was founded in 1964 by Arafat; unless causality has no meaning, the resistance to Israel was born with no reference to 1967 or "ocupation", but, rather, with Israel's birth in 1948 and with the return of Jews to their homeland in the 19th century. Jews were living in Israel for 3000 years and the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel is a resturn to their homeland, not an invasion, as Yael Korin and her minions claim. It only makes sense considering the archaeology, our Patriarch's tombs, our Matriarch's tombs, and most of all our Holy Temple, which Muslim supremacists usurped out from under the Jewish people just like they did to Christian chruches throught out the region. Talk about land grabs.

For Muslims and their apologists like Yael Korin, history starts anew each day.

For more on Yael Korin, see this.

What are the causes of Muslim Israelophobia?

Muslims believe that destroying the Jewish Holy Temple Mount promotes and expedites the Islamic goal to ethnically cleanse Jews from the Middle East. By invalidating claims to the historic Jewish presence of the Holy Jewish Temple Mount and by destroying any trace or any artifacts of the Jewish Holy Temple Mount, Muslims can declare supremacy over Judaism. We hear that desire all the time. We consistently hear Muslims invoke, demand, command, preach and pray that Israel "should not exist", "will not exist", "never existed", "does not exist", "can't exist".

Let's say Israel doesn't exist in an imaginary scenario. Israel is not here, there are no Jews, the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel is gone. Let's explore what this imaginary non-existent Israel provides to Islam's baseline of thought: what does Israel - this piece of land and its Jewish inhabitants therein - represent to Muslims that Muslims simply cannot tolerate? We have all heard the propaganda that Israel is a virus, Israel is a cancer, etc, but we have not heard what the actual threat is that Israel represents to Muslims.

A cause to rule out is Jews offend Muslims while proselytizing to them - but Jews don't do that. They don't ask others to convert to Judaism. Besides, if a Muslim's faith in his god is anchored, there should be no logical basis to feel threatened, so if Israel does exist, then the existence of Judaism would not be a threat because Muslims would be secure in faith in Allah, so there would be no impetus to destroy Judaism. So, clearly the source of Muslim Israelphobia is not faith based.

Maybe the source of Muslim Israelphobia is racism. But since Jews come in every color and race, we have to reject attempts to legitimize racial causes for Muslims to eliminate Jews because of race. Besides, racism refers only to racial issues, not to views on culture, religion, or ideology.

So maybe the reason why Muslims want to eliminate Israel is because it is a territory. Let's imagine, then that in this imaginary scenario of a Middle East without an Israel, Muslims would have more territory and therefore, Muslims would occupy what once was Israel. Perhaps this is all about land. Perhaps Muslim Israelphobia is just a case for a land grab. In political economics, lots of land is a good thing. The more land owned by Muslims allows for the spread of more Muslim supremacy. But is any of this true according to the Koran?

According to the Koran, no person, people or religious community can claim a permanent right of possession over a certain territory, since the earth belongs exclusively to God, Who is free to entrust sovereign right to everyone He likes and for as long as He likes:

Say: O God, King of the kingdom, Thou givest the kingdom to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off the kingdom from whom Thou pleasest. Thou endurest with honor whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest. All the best is in Thy hand. Verily, Thou hast power over all things. (Koran, Sura 3:26, "The Imrans")

From this verse one can filter a basic principle of the monotheistic philosophy of Judaism and Christianity, both which preceded Islam: God can control relationships between people and countries. Sometimes God gives a land to a people, and sometime He takes land back and gives it to another people.

Maybe Muslims hate Jews simply because Muslims politically identify with others who look, act and behave like Muslims. It's hard to ignore the parts of the Koran which asks Muslims to kill or abduct all those who refuse to become members of their belief. This is the precise and official text given by Mohammed:

"So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (Koran, surat IX, 5)

But then it's just too difficult to ignore the racism one finds in the Koran. Islam officially encourages racism and discrimination which is contrary to Human Rights and democratic laws:

"O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." (Koran, surat V, 51)

As Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi writes,

"The idea of Islam as a factor that prevents Arabs from recognizing any sovereign right of Jews over Palestine is quite recent and can by no means be found in Islamic classical sources. To see anti-Zionism as a direct consequence of Islam is a form of explicit misunderstanding which implies the transformation of Islam from a religion into a secularized ideology."

So it does come down to ideology. Palazzi says the most common argument against Islamic acknowledgement of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is that, since al-Quds is a holy place for Muslims, they cannot accept it being ruled by non-Muslims, because such acceptance would be a betrayal of Islam.

Yet, Muslims seek to convey to non-Muslims that Islam is a tolerant religion.

So how does one explain this intolerance when the Muslim Hamas terror organization is planning a radio broadcast Wednesday from the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site –while the Israeli government has completely banned Jews and Christians from ascending the Mount that same day for fear of offending Muslims?

Wednesday marks the Muslim holiday of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of Abraham's willingness to sacrificehis son Ishmael for Allah. The Torah says Abraham nearly sacrificedhis son Isaac, not Ishmael.

Wednesday is also the Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, which commemorates the start of the siege of Jerusalem leading up to the destruction of the First Jewish Temple during the reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar. The fast also was proclaimed to mourn the First Temple's destruction.

The Islamic Jihad terror organization exclusively broadcast daily Ramadan prayers from the Mount on their official station, the Al Quds Network. The radio network regularly features Iranian and anti-Semitic propaganda and death threats against Jews.

This is not tolerance. This is a crapstorm.

Professor Moshe Sharon writes:

"There is no Fundamental Islam. Fundamentalism is a word that came from the heart of the Christian religion. It means faith that goes by the word of the Bible. Fundamental Christianity, or going with the Bible, does not mean going around and killing people. There is no fundamental Islam. There is only Islam full stop. The question is how the Koran is interpreted."

Muslim Israelphobia is clearly a matter of how the Koran is interpreted. The more one studies the Koran, the more clear the idea becomes that by removing Israel, the whole Middle East world would become a Muslim world, and moreso, that the whole world would be subdued under the rule of Islam.

But the most dificult content to digest regarding Muslim hatred of Israel is the way in which it is to be fulfilled. The Koran teaches Muslims to give their lives in exchange for assurances of paradise. Suicide bombings is one example. Suicide bombings are condoned by major authoritative Muslim voices whereas suicide bombings are absolutley unacceptable in Judaism and Christianity.

The accounts of Muhammad's actions and personal statements (hadith) elaborate on the Koran, providing specific dictations regarding treaties, pay, booty, prisoners, tactics, and much else. During his years in power, Mohammed engaged in an average of nine military campaigns a year, or one every five to six weeks.

Conquering and humiliating non-Muslims was a main feature of the Mohammed and his jihad. We can say for sure that Islam is not at all like Judaism and Christianity. Evidently there is more than one reason why Muslims share such pronounced Israelphobia and no, the Koranic texts were not taken out of context. The Koranic quotes mentioned in this post were made in context. Perhaps the answer is best described here:

"Jerusalem is a symbol for every Muslim in the world. The claim of the Jews to the right over it is false, and we recognize nothing but an entirely Islamic Jerusalem under Islamic supervision..." --- PA Mufti Ikrama Sabri, Al-Bilad, July 31, 1997

Although the Koran never mentions Jerusalem once, and regardless of the fact that the Torah mentions Jerusalem over 600 times, these will just be more documented facts relegated to the back alley of Muslim ignorance and blood libel, to be used as a religious rationale for Muslim imperialism, supremacy and Jewicide.

What are the links between domestic violence, misogyny and Jihad?

Front Page interviewed Jeffrey Denning, co-owner of Liberty Protective Solutions, LLC, a private security consulting company, and who was a former police officer, SWAT team leader and Federal Air Marshal. Denning believes

...that one of the reasons ethically and civilly-minded societies fail in their approach to stop or predict terrorism at the tactical level is because we try to place our moral value system on an amoral enemy. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t do a proper threat assessment unless you can really get into the mind of the terrorist. These men and women aren’t superheroes; they are people. Sure, that sounds plainly obvious, but I believe most of the free world has a misconception of what a terrorist is and what one can do.

Denning also believes that they "do not hate us because we’re rich or free, or even because we might appear collectively arrogant. They don’t attack us today solely based on our foreign policy, the Christian Crusades, or in the case of Israel , because of a land dispute. Those things play a part, but when you really begin understanding Islamic terrorism, it goes much, much deeper than that. "

Here's the clincher, folks, and it turned a key for me. Denning says:

The more we understand terrorists the greater their vulnerability becomes. They are strengthened by their own anonymity. And we give them power by labeling them as some difficult to understand entity. We empower them unintentionally by calling them terrorists. We mustn’t confuse a tactic with a vulnerable and angry human being with weaknesses. Words like jihadist, holy warrior—mujahideen or mujahidat—and al Qaeda don’t show who they really are. Abu Mushakil, literally the father of trouble, seems more accurate.

If we made fun of them or occasionally taunted and humiliated them, that might help destroy the mystic of these criminals who use terror tactics. What, are they going to hate us more? I don’t think so. But joking a bit may ease our fear of them on some level. I could tell you some funny and totally stupid things terrorists have done. Most of them could be put in for the Darwin Awards or the world’s dumbest criminals. If we could really understand terrorists, if we could speak with them face to face and learn about them, we’d lose our sense of fear towards them entirely. And, it would shock us at how foolish we were to ever embolden them with any sort of power.

{...}

The truth is there’s a huge similarity between domestic violence, misogyny and terrorism on a bigger scale. Interestingly, I have read letters from stalkers who want to kill their victims. Not a few read like this: “If I can’t have you on earth, we’ll both be in heaven together.” These stalkers, like many terrorists, have a homicide-suicide type mentality. The allure of an Islamic terrorist seeking intimate relations in the afterlife is also evident.

Moreover, when a female is murdered in a domestic abuse relationship, she is often left naked and exposed—almost like a sadistic sexual punishment. And when it comes to these so-called terrorists, sex crimes and their associated terror acts seem united.

{...}

I don’t think that Islamic extremists have begun hating their own women more in recent years. I think we may have just uncovered some of the irregular abuses and horrible atrocities that have been occurring for years. Since 9/11 we’ve tended to speak up a little more and shed some light in the dark corner. Like abusive relationships are often done in secret, the same could be said of the abuses against women within Islam. Generally speaking, all of them are debased and devalued. Devaluing women is a cultural thing with them. It’s terrible and horrible. It’s sad.

Just the other day I overheard a co-worker and good friend of mine talk about his experiences as a corrections officer and policeman. He was telling someone about the many transsexual men in prison. He said that when they get confused about their own sexuality they often become engaged in violent and bizarre crimes.

That encapsulates much of the reasons why Islamic terrorist-criminals do what they do; they’re confused. Many of them are homosexual. They hate women and yet they wish for 72 black-eyed virgins? As Dr. Kobrin teaches, “for Islamic male dominated terrorist groups, the female is sexually terrifying.” She’s absolutely right. Moreover, she teaches that they subconsciously hate their own mothers and that’s one of the reasons they act out. That’s almost the antithesis of my situation.

Lastly, they dehumanize us. That’s one of the reasons it was so easy for the mob in Fallujah , Iraq to mutilate, and then hang from the bridge, the immolated carcasses of the three U.S. government contractors in March 2003. Remember, they danced and cheered and smiled? I can’t even imagine the worst of all neighborhoods doing that. But, then again, I can because I’ve seen the evil that people are capable of.

Click here to read the whole interview. Click here to visit Jeffrey Denning's blog.

Who is Raeed Tayeh?

From Discover the Networks:

• Former Executive Board member of the Islamic Association for Palestine
• Former research fellow for the United Association for Studies and Research
• Spoke at a 2001 rally along with Sami Al-Arian and George Habash
• Worked for Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
• Official of the Muslim American Society
• “Islamists refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Israel or the peace agreement made with it, and vow to return the Holy Land to the Muslim nation.”

An American-born Palestinian activist, Raeed N. Tayeh was formerly an Executive Board member of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and a research fellow for the United Association for Studies and Research. He also has had connections to American Muslims for Jerusalem.

On June 21, 1999, Tayeh expressed his contempt for Israel on the Friends For Palestine (FFP) website, an extremist site run via the University of Memphis Web server, which posted diatribes against Jews and featured a map of Israel with the Palestinian flag superimposed on it. “Very nice Website,” wrote Tayeh. “I am very proud of the FFP, keep up the good work. It is our duty to return Palestine, ALL OF PALESTINE. I suggest that if any of you really want to get involved, to join the Islamic Association for Palestine -- IAP, they have chapters all over North America, and if you don’t have a chapter, I will help you start one. You should also read the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. This is one of your best sources for fair news about the Middle East.” [Tayeh was the Chicago correspondent for this vehemently anti-Israel publication.]

On November 29, 1999, Tayeh wrote a story for Islam Online -- a website that has published religious/legal opinions in support of suicide bombings -- about the Third Annual IAP Convention. In that piece, Tayeh stated, “Islamists refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Israel or the peace agreement made with it, and vow to return the Holy Land to the Muslim nation.” He also praised Issa Nakhleh as “a distinguished Palestinian Christian historian.” Nakhleh had called Yasser Arafat “an honorable Palestinian leader”; had called Ariel Sharon “an irresponsible terrorist, murderer and war criminal”; and had excused suicide bombings as understandable responses to “Israeli crimes.”

In his poem titled “Who Am I?” -- which originally appeared on the IAP website -- Tayeh says, "Oh how I dream of that wonderful day, when our flags are raised, and when the marching bands will play. When the young will cheer, and when the old will cry. When the refugees return, and when Zionism will die."

In November 2000 Tayeh was the spokesman for a group protesting against the Chicago Sun Times for having published an editorial blaming Yasser Arafat for Middle East violence.

In February 2001 Tayeh was the contact -- along with the pro-terrorist Palestinian activist and writer Hatem Abudayyeh -- for a solidarity march organized by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine.

On April 7, 2001, while he was still with the IAP, Tayeh was a featured speaker at a rally in New York City that included Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leaders Sami Al-Arian and Mazen Al-Najjar. The rally also featured a statement by George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Also in 2001, Tayeh was hired as Communications Director for Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. But on November 28 of that year, he was forced to resign from McKinney’s staff when it was learned that he had written a “letter to the editor” questioning the loyalty of Jewish members of Congress. He stated in that letter: “What is more disturbing to me is that many of these pro-Israeli lawmakers sit on the House International Relations Committee despite the obvious conflict of interest that their emotional attachments to Israel cause. . . . The Israeli occupation of all territories must end, including Congress.”

At IAP’s 5th Annual Convention in December 2001, Tayeh was again a featured speaker along with Sami Al-Arian.From February 2002 to September 2002, Tayeh was the Washington Director of American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice (AMGPJ). During this period, he issued a press release “condemning” the U.S. government for conducting raids on northern Virginia Islamic organizations that were being investigated for their role in terrorist financing.

Tayeh was also the promoter of a boycott against Starbucks Coffee -- a campaign initiated in response to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s “support for various Jewish charitable organizations and his warnings about rising anti-Semitism around the world.”

Tayeh authored a book titled A Muslim’s Guide to American Politics and Government. It was published by the Muslim American Society (MAS), and its foreword was written by MAS President Souheil Ghannouchi.

Since September 2002, Tayeh has worked as the Public Affairs Director for the MAS Freedom Foundation. On April 26, 2003, Tayeh gave an MAS-sponsored “activist training seminar” with the organization’s Communications Director, Randal Todd “Ismail” Royer, who would later be sentenced to prison on firearms and conspiracy charges in relation to a group associated with al Qaeda.

The MAS 2003 annual convention was co-sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America. Tayeh was a featured speaker at this event, along with: Mustafa Abu Sway, who the Israeli government has labeled “a known activist” in the Hamas terrorist movement; Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as a possible co-conspirator to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; Zulfiqar Ali Shah, CEO of the Universal Heritage Foundation; and the neo-Nazi William Baker.

In February 2004, MAS sent Tayeh to the Cleveland Mosque to assist Fawaz Damra, who had recently been arrested for concealing his links to anti-Israel terrorist groups. Damra in 1991 had said that “[Muslims should be] directing all rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation, and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews.” Four years later, Damra was named as a possible co-conspirator to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

During an August 2004 appearance on CNN, Tayeh made the following remarks:

• “The United Nations needs to stop passing resolutions and start enforcing the ones that are on the books, namely returning to the 1967 borders and allowing Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes.”
• “The Palestinians ... fighting the people who have occupied their land, who have stolen their land …”
  “Well, the United Nations, in 1947, came up with a plan to divide Palestinian [sic], giving the Jews the majority of the country and the Palestinians the minority. The Palestinians rejected it because they said, hey, we live here. This is 100 percent of our land.”
• “Jews can have their land, but the Palestinians didn't commit the Holocaust. That was Germany under the Nazis. Why not create a state in Germany?”
• “Jews live in Arab countries and in some countries they live very well, and they're protected.”

Groups appeal for info on Bosnians who aided Jews in WWII

What is the Sarajevo Haggadah? Via JPost:

Leaders of Bosnia's Jewish community appealed Tuesday for help locating Bosnians who aided Jews during World War II and have not been recognized. The search is aimed at locating people who offered help and documenting their stories, said the Bosnian Jewish Community. The effort is part of a broader project to record the lives of Bosnia's Muslim and Jewish communities over the past centuries.

One of the best-known stories of Bosnian involvement inpreserving Jewish tradition during World War II involves efforts to safeguard a 600-year-old Jewish manuscript known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. In 1492, when Spain expelled the country's Jews, a refugee brought the book to Italy. A rabbi later brought the Haggadah from Italy to Bosnia and passed it down through his family until a descendant, Joseph Kohen, sold it to the National Museum in 1894.

The museum kept the treasure in a safe until World War II, when a Catholic museum director and his Muslim colleague saved the book from a Nazi officer who came to pick it up.The two men spirited the book through Nazi checkpoints and carried it to a village in the mountains above Sarajevo, where a Muslim cleric kept it hidden beneath the floor of a mosque until the war ended. It was then returned to the museum. During Bosnia's 1992-95 war, a Muslim museum director and a Serb policeman risked sniper fire to reach the museum, take the book and hide it in a National Bank safe, where it remained until the end of the war.

Bosnia regards the Haggadah as its most important national treasure.

The Syrians lie again

What bullshit. The lying Syrians claim that Golan never belonged to Israel. Guess what. There is no negotiation over the withdrawal of the Golan Heights in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. Syria already turned down Israel's offer to return all the Golan Heights in exchange for peace. The warring Arabs lost the Golan Heights because they attacked Israel. Arabs chose war. Arabs must face the consequences of their aggressive barbaric 7th century warring nature.

The intended destruction of Israel has been frenetic since 1947 and is still going on, 60+ years later. The results of each defeated act of Muslim aggression perpetuate excuses for more Arab aggression against Israel. A Muslim Syrian barbarian organization, the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights, says it is holding missing Israeli soldier, Guy Hever, missing since August 1997. Ten years, folks. The Muslim vermin have been holding onto Guy Hever for ten years. We really don't know if he is alive or if he is dead. In late 1966, a youth was blown to pieces by a mine while playing football near the Lebanon border. In hundreds of incidences, attacks on Jews were carried out by the dead puke Arafat's Fatah, which Syria allowed to operate from its territory.

Most importantly, the Golan is Israeli. Why does no one in the White House know this? Via INN:

The Syrian and Lebanese delegates to the Annapolis conference Tuesday were provided a forum in which to express their countries' views, but were not accorded the privilege of delivering a speech to the conference plenum.

Speaking at a workshop entitled "Towards a Comprehensive Middle East Peace," Syrian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Faisal al-Mekdad insisted that Israel must hand over the Golan Heights and totally withdraw from the "1967 Arab land." Only then, he declared, would Damascus consider "normalizing" ties with the Jewish State. He then said Syria "is sincere in seeking a comprehensive and just peace and possesses the political will to achieve it."

Israeli officials said the Syrian delegate also demanded that Israel withdraw from the Har Dov (Sheba'a Farms) area as well.

Know these points about Israel

POINT : Israel’s size is 1/6 of 1% of the Arab World.

POINT : Israel has 1,300,000 Israeli-Arab citizens, who are 20% of its population. Israel also officially recognizes and gives privileges to 15 different religions.

POINT : Palestinian Arabs living in the territories are not citizens of Israel.

POINT : There was no Security Fence along the West Bank prior to the relentless violence in 2002, and since it was built, terrorism has dropped by 85%

POINT : Israel wants peace and is willing to make painful compromises by giving away land as it did for peace with Egypt and Jordan. Today it is unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza.

POINT : Where is the money? Arafat was given billions of dollars to improve living conditions for the Palestinians. He did not build schools, roads or hospitals. He did not improve housing or sewage systems. Those billions are missing. Hamas and other terrorist groups continue to misappropriate funds sent by well-meaning organizations like the U.N. and the E.U. Instead of building a Palestinian state these funds are being used to attack Israel. Why?

POINT : Peace Must Be Taught. The PA must immediately change the message being taught by its clerics who call for the murder of Jews and by its teachers who deny Israel’s right to exist. PA schoolbooks must promote peace, not hatred.

POINT : The PA Charter Must be Changed. It still calls for the destruction of Israel, just as the Hamas Charter does.

POINT : Israel is a reestablishment of the Jewish State Jews have lived in and identified with this land for thousands of years. The Old Testament, New Testament and Koran all refer to this area as the land of the Jews. Even if one is not religious, these old documents are another way to show that Jews are indigenous to Israel and the surrounding area.

POINT : The Definition of Zionism: If you believe that Jews have a right to self-determination and to their own country in the area that is ancient Israel where they have maintained a presence for thousands of years, then you are a Zionist. Most Jews are Zionists, as are many non-Jews.

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What were the seven Arab nations that attacked Israel in 1948?

The seven Jew-phobic nations that attacked Israel, before there was any "occupation", were Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen.

What Happened to Saddam's WMDs?

We are convinced that mobile weapons were transferred from Iraq to Syria. Why is the rest of the world resisting the facts evident in satellite footage of that weapons transfer? From What Happened to Saddam's WMD?, via Daily Alert:

Former federal prosecutor and the head of the non-governmental International Intelligence Summit, John Loftus, has released a report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, based on a private study of captured Iraqi documents. As Loftus summarized, "Roughly one-quarter of Saddam's WMD was destroyed under UN pressure during the early to mid-1990s. Saddam sold approximately another quarter of his weapons stockpile to his Arab neighbors during the mid-to-late-1990s. The Russians insisted on removing another quarter in the last few months before the war."

"The last remaining WMD, the contents of Saddam's nuclear weapons labs, were still inside Iraq on the day when the coalition forces arrived in 2003. His nuclear weapons equipment was hidden in enormous underwater warehouses beneath the Euphrates River. Saddam's entire nuclear inventory was later stolen from these warehouses."

Loftus then cites Israeli sources who claim that the Iraqi nuclear program was transferred to Deir az Zour province in Syria. Israel reportedly destroyed a Syrian nuclear installation at Deir az Zour.

For more on Satellite Images, see this.

What led to the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964?

From Palestine Facts:

What led to the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964?

In 1964 the Arab League, a loose confederation of fourteen Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, met in Cairo and established a political body to deal directly with the problem of the Palestinian Arabs. They called it the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The PLO's first leader was an Egyptian, Ahmed Shukairy. He coined the organization's famous slogan about "driving the Jews into the sea."

He is also remembered for saying on May 31, 1956, to the UN Security Council:

It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria.

So what were they "liberating"? From whom? There were no "occupied territories" and no "illegal settlements" at that time, and Jordan controlled East Jerusalem. The PLO was intent on the destruction of Israel without any of the causes or reasons they now claim are fundamental. Their emblem includes a map -- Israel is part of their concept of Palestine.

The PLO's founding congress took place in May 1964 in East Jerusalem, then annexed by Jordan. The organization's charter -- Palestinian National Covenant -- called for the destruction of the Zionist state and for the establishment of a "Palestinian entity". The Arab League chose the word "entity" as a concession to the Egyptians and the Jordanians, who felt that a sovereign Palestinian state would threaten their own existence. Despite the use of the word Liberation, nothing and nobody was being liberated -- the only real goal was to destroy Israel, then and now.

Later claims that the West Bank or Gaza are "historic Palestine" are demolished by Article 24 of the PLO Charter, which states in part:

This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, [or] on the Gaza Strip...

This makes it crystal clear: the PLO views Israel as its target. Anything else, like the West Bank or Gaza, is merely a tactical sideshow. The PLO was actually an umbrella organization for various other factions:

-- Fatah, the largest, was founded in 1956 by a group of young Gazans. It was, and still is, the military arm of the PLO. Among the young terrorists was Yasser Arafat. By 1968 Arafat was al Fatah's leader and he has been chairman of the PLO since 1968. Among the offshoots of Fatah was the infamous Black September who massacred the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

-- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was the second largest of the commando groups. It was founded in 1967 by George Habash. The PFLP carried out some spectacular skyjackings in the 1970. But 30+ years does not diminish their thirst for Jewish blood. In October or 2001, several of their operatives murdered the Israeli Government Minister Rechavam "Ghandi" Ze´evi.

-- The Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine split from the PFLP which it accused of not being militant enough. This group carried out the terrorist raid on Ma'alot in May of 1974 in which 21 young Israeli school children were murdered.

-- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command was another splinter group of the PFLP They were responsible for the 1974 incursion into Northern Israel in which 16 residents of Kiryat Shemona were murdered.

-- Al Saiqa was formed by Syria in 1967 and most of its terror participants were Palestinian refugees who fled to Syria during the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israel wars.

-- The Arab Liberation Front, a minor player in the terrorism against Israel.

True to the Covenant, since its founding, the organization has sponsored innumerable guerrilla raids on Israeli civilian and military targets and has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians.

The founding documents and program of the PLO illuminate the fundamental dishonesty of their later negotiating position. If the "occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza by Israel is the obstacle to peace, as has been endlessly proclaimed by Arafat and others, what was the motivation to create the PLO to strike at Israel at a time when Israel had no role in those territories? Why did the PLO and other Arab terrorist groups continually attack Israel at that time? If Jerusalem is so important to the Palistinian Arabs, why is it that the Palestinian National Covenant of 1964, does not even once mention Jerusalem?

Sources and additional reading on this topic:

The PLO: Background Briefing
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
If I Forget Thee: Does Jerusalem Really Matter to Islam?
The Palestine National Charter
Letter dated 27 July 1998 from the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations
Palestinian Terrorism
Palestine Liberation Organizaion

PALESTINE FACTS
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What is Machsom Watch?

The she-pigs at Machsom Watch love to tour Hebron and other parts of the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel with groups of Israelis and non-Israelis, against the Jews of Hebron by giving false, warped presentations. Furthermore, the she-pigs at Machsom Watch act with the cooperation of Palestinian interlopers and marauders in order to undermine the operations of the Israel Defence Forces, whose purpose is to defend the citizens of Israel against palestinian murderers. In fact, the actions perpetrated by the she-pigs at Machsom Watch are racist actions that aim to bring about the ethnic cleansing of Hebron of all of its Jewish citizens.

Ehud Olmert, acting prime minister of Israel who was never elected, who is responsible for the carnage at Amona, who is responsible for uprooting Jewish families from their homes, well, his wife, Aliza, is a charter member of 'Women In Black', an organization of Arabs and Jews who support Arab takeover of Israel. His son Shaul belongs to the extreme left group, 'Yesh G'vul'. He was arrested as a deserter from the Israeli Army. He now lives in New York. His son Ariel never even served in the Israeli Army. He lives in Paris, and his daughter Donna, a self-professed Lesbian, is one of the she-pigs at Machsom Watch.

The she-pigs at Machsom Watch monitor and disseminate reports on Israeli soldiers at checkpoints, with the ultimate aim of “ending the occupation.” Machsom Watch publications regularly omit the context of terror and employ human rights terminology, “apartheid” rhetoric and emotive and politically charged language that contribute to the demonization of Israel. In many cases, their allegations are either inaccurate or unverifiable. Machsom Watch is funded by private donors, the New Israel Fund and the EU.

Background from NGO Monitor:

Machsom Watch (also known as “Checkpoint Watch” / “Women’s Fund for Human Rights” / “Women for Human Rights” / “Women Against the Occupation” / “Women of the Checkpoints”) was established in January 2001 “in response to repeated reports in the press about human rights abuses of Palestinians crossing army and border police checkpoints”. Its stated goals are “to monitor the behavior of soldiers and police at checkpoints; to ensure that the human and civil rights of Palestinians attempting to enter Israel are protected; to record and report the results of our observations to the widest possible audience, from the decision-making level to that of the general public.” On the New Israel Fund website, Machsom Watch claims another main goal of "end[ing] the Occupation."

This project has the potential to promote good practice at checkpoints, and increase awareness of the complexities of balancing Palestinian rights to dignity and freedom of movement, with Israeli rights to life and security. However, Machsom Watch's strong political agenda and its distorted approach to and portrayal of events at the checkpoints, undermine its credibility, and reveal its core anti-Israel ideology.

Machsom Watch was founded by three Israeli women: Ronnee Jaeger, a Canadian social worker formerly active in Friends of Pioneering Israel and New Jewish Agenda; lesbian Adi Kuntsman a 1990 immigrant from the former Soviet Union, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D in sociology and gender studies at Lancaster University; and UK-born Yehudit Keshet, who has been involved in a variety of groups, from the Communist Party to Bat Shalom.

Membership in Machsom Watch is open exclusively to Israeli women. The organization acknowledges its “definite bias towards mature, professional women”. Although it claims to be “politically pluralistic”, “opposition to the occupation” is a prerequisite for membership. According to its website, Machsom Watch has 400 members throughout Israel.

Description of Activities:

Machsom Watch members spend 3-4 hour shifts in small groups, at checkpoints throughout the West Bank, observing the interaction between Israeli soldiers or border police and Palestinians. They often document their observations as photographs or videos, and occasionally intervene with an Israeli officer on behalf of Palestinians. After each shift, they compose reports in Hebrew and English that are distributed to Knesset members, military commanders, High Court judges, the State Comptroller, other human rights organizations and the public. Machsom Watch’s website also features an exhibition of photographs taken at the checkpoints (see below for an analysis of the manipulation of these images to misrepresent events).

Funding:

Machsom Watch does not publicize its sources of funding nor its total budget, but accepts donations through the New Israel Fund, which acts as a fiscal agent, administering contributions from external sources and individual donors. The New Israel Fund also donates to Machsom Watch directly, though it refuses to reveal the sum[1]. This organization, whose stated mission is to fight for civil and human rights, promote religious tolerance and pluralism, as well as close the social and economic gaps in Israeli society, often funds politicized NGOs which fuel the conflict or which seek to end the status of Israel as a Jewish state. In 2005, Machsom Watch received €60,000 from the EU, as part of the “Partnership for Peace” program.

Highly Politicized Agenda:

Machsom Watch reports often deviate away from describing events at the checkpoints. Through omission of context, use of pseudo-legal terminology and emotive language, many reports become a platform for the author's radical political views.

Writing of the targeted killing of terrorists, on August 31 – September 6, 2003, Machsom Watch celebrates the “fortunately failed” attempts that week to assassinate Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Isma’il Haniyeh (both senior terrorists responsible for a number of suicide bombings, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs). The report lists the number and ages of the Palestinian casualties of these operations, but omits Hamas’ ongoing terror war against Israelis, and describes IDF actions as "revenge." In another report, “Invisible Prisoners” from April 2007, Machsom Watch describes the Palestinians as
“victims of collective punishment meted out in a complex scheme of oppression which is typical of tyrannical regimes elsewhere in the world. How did it happen that the Jewish nation, itself the eternal victim of persecution for generation upon generation, dreamt up and created such a dismal reality in the back yard of its own state?”

Such statements implicitly draw a parallel between Israel and Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa, demonizing Israel with no factual basis.

Omission of Context:

Machsom Watch reports regularly omit the context of terror and claim that the presence of checkpoints is arbitrary, unrelated to the security situation and created solely to disrupt the Palestinians’ daily lives, hinder their business and humiliate them. In her report “Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy?”, Tsilli Goldenberg claims that “this entire arrangement [of checkpoints] bears no connection whatsoever to the security of Israeli citizens.”[2] Such statements are misleading, based entirely on the Palestinian perspective and not supported by fact. Don Morris of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East explains in his January 23, 2005 article, “Understanding Israeli Checkpoints,” that checkpoints constitute a necessary and effective measure for preventing terrorists from attacking civilians inside Israel. Prior to the outbreak of violence, there were no checkpoints and Palestinians could move around Israel and the West Bank freely. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the first 6 months of 2005, "389 Palestinians, among these potential suicide bombers… wanted terrorists and those suspected of terror activities," were apprehended at checkpoints. This crucial security aspect is ignored by Machsom Watch.

In its December 2006 report, Machsom Watch accuses Israel of implementing “draconian regulations,” including the law prohibiting the transportation of West Bank Palestinians in Israeli cars. The report omits the fact that this rule was issued following several instances of Palestinian terrorists using Israeli drivers to cross checkpoints, enter Israel and carry out terror attacks, according to the Shin Bet Security Services and the IDF. Although this explanation appears as the rationale in the text of the law which Machsom Watch cited in its report, the NGO's analysis completely ignores the terror threat and criticizes Israel for this new measure.[3]

Pseudo-Legal Terminology:

Machsom Watch members routinely employ the rhetoric of human rights law in order to condemn Israel. In her article “Checkpoint witnesses” that appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Amelia Thomas quotes Adi Dagan, Machsom Watch’s spokesperson, who claims that the system of checkpoints “violates international law.”[4] Furthermore, in her article “On Founding Machsom Watch,” Yehudit Kirstein-Keshet refers to “abuse” and “human rights violations at checkpoints”, and accuses Israel of “collective punishment, pure racism, violation of freedom of worship, and cruelty”.[5] These terms are not defined, nor applied universally to the situation. They are merely employed to provide a veneer of legality to Machsom Watch's political position against Israel.

Similarly, Machsom Watch’s December 2006 report begins with the subtitle “Apartheid?” but no evidence is provided for the existence of such a state in Israel. Phrases such “the apartheid roads and checkpoints” merely serve as slogans, to draw a parallel between Israel and Apartheid South Africa and to promote the “Durban Strategy”.

Emotive Language:

Machsom Watch reports frequently employ emotionally charged language in order to demonize all Israeli actions at checkpoints. In her February 24, 2006 article, “Where Do you Draw the Line?” Esti Tsal’s states: “Now I see sharp and clear. The sight is anything but simple. It's cruel. … you're in another world. Neglected, tense, unstable. Lawless. With a different body language of dominator and dominated." In a 2003 report, “Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy?" one mention is made of the "suicide bomb attack" which prompted additional security at the checkpoint, but such factors are overwhelmingly ignored in the nearly 4000 word piece, which includes the description that, "all of the stories speak of humiliation and simple harassment, of the indescribable suffering of an entire population that wants to live its life with dignity and is unable to do so."[6] Furthermore in the summary of their observations for July 2007, Machsom Watch members cynically describe the Bethlehem checkpoint as a site enfolded by “Orwellian language,” with its negative evocation of an invisible controller. This interpretation ignores the fact that decreased interaction with the Israeli soldiers has been identified as an improvement toward a more dignified and efficient way of running checkpoints.

Affiliation with Other NGOs:

Machsom Watch is a member of the “Coalition of Women for Peace”, which conducts highly politicized campaigns to further its stated goal of "support[ing] … human rights and a just peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.” The first of its nine principles is “an end to the occupation,” but an end to terror does not appear as one of its goals. Machsom Watch members regularly participate in events sponsored by the “Coalition of Women for Peace”, including a 2006 “Call for International actions against the siege on Gaza,” which demanded that “Israel and the international community … respect the political choice of the Palestinian people” and declared that “the siege is sowing anarchy and death in Gaza.” This campaign urged dialogue with Hamas and ignored Palestinian infighting, blaming the internal situation in Gaza entirely on Israel.

Machsom Watch has signed several petitions with the aim of changing Israeli policy. For instance, along with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Public Committee against Torture in Israel, HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights and Bimkom Planners for Planning Rights, Machsom Watch signed the petition initiated by Yesh Din on January 7, 2007 against the ban on transporting Palestinians in Israeli vehicles in the West Bank, which was submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court. These NGOs claimed that “the Directive implements an ideology of 'segregation'" and "creates an apartheid regime, as well as a regime of persecution of a national group, both of which constitute international crimes.” However, the context of terror that necessitated this law was overlooked and even denied, as demonstrated by the statement that “the chief purpose of the Directive is to create segregation and discrimination, and not to preserve security.” The negative connotations associated with the term “apartheid” due to its South African origins distort the reality of the situation in Israel, while the use of pseudo-legal terminology to support its case and demonize Israel demonstrates Machsom Watch’s pursuit of the “Durban Strategy.”
In its reports, Machsom Watch takes advantage of the “Halo Effect” (the high regard in which NGOs are held in public opinion), often citing statements made by other politicized NGOs, such as the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). In turn, other NGOs rely on Machsom Watch’s reports and use its photographs taken at the checkpoints as evidence of Israeli aggression.

Machsom Watch lists several organizations on its “Links” page, including B’Tselem, Adalah, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Gisha. It has also collaborated with lawyers from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) on its latest project dealing with blacklisted Palestinians. NGO Monitor has issued reports on these organizations, detailing their unbalanced, politicized approach to the conflict.
Videos and Photographic Exhibition:

Machsom Watch has a record of deliberately propagating inaccurate information based on visual materials gathered at the checkpoints

On November 9, 2004, a Palestinian man was filmed playing his violin at a checkpoint. Machsom Watch publicized the video in the media, accusing the Israeli soldiers of forcing him to perform in order to humiliate him. It later emerged that he had only been asked to open his violin case (to ensure that it did not contain explosives) and that the Watchers were not close enough to hear the conversation between the soldier and the man.[7] This unscientific interpretation of visual information based on speculations and false assumptions raises questions about the credibility of Machsom Watch’s reports.

Machsom Watch's website features an exhibition (from 2006) of over a hundred and thirty photographs entitled Endless Checkpoints: Photographs Taken by Machsom Watch Women. The photo descriptions encapsulate Machsom Watch’s ideology, using the same techniques apparent throughout its reports and website. These include omission of context ("the regime practiced at the checkpoints is arbitrary and random"), legal human rights terminology ("collective punishment") and emotive language (“the scars will remain with us for the generations to come”).

The exhibition has been presented in public galleries in many Israeli cities. Be’er Sheva mayor Ya’akov Turner banned Machsom Watch from exhibiting the photographs in the local Teachers’ Center, claiming that the contents of the exhibition were “harmful to the sensitivities of the public.” This decision was upheld by the Be’er Sheva District Court, after the city’s attorney, Elisha Peleg, stated that the exhibit constitutes “political propaganda whose aim is ‘to undermine the moral right of the State of Israel to exist as a Jewish state in the land of Israel’.” The Israeli High Court refused to interfere with the mayor’s decision, despite an appeal submitted by Machsom Watch in April 2006, complaining that the ban infringed upon the organization’s freedom of expression.

Below are two representative examples of the distortions deliberately created by the exhibition. The final chapter of the exhibition is entitled “body language” and aims to show that the Israeli soldiers present themselves as masters over the Palestinians. However, this impression of Israeli supremacy is not apparent in the picture, but created through the manipulation of the photograph, or through techniques such as perspective, layout and composition.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The photograph Beit Iba Checkpoint: God and Men’s [sic] Hands: Checking an I.D. (December 2004)by Esti Tsal (figure 1) evokes Michelangelo’s painting of The Creation of Adam (1512). The viewer is directed to identify the Israeli soldier with God, and the Palestinian man with Adam. In the original photograph taken by Tsal (figure 2), the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian civilian are aligned horizontally, just as in Michelangelo’s mural. Yet, for the purposes of this exhibition, the picture was rotated by 90 degrees to the right, dissolving the balance and equality among the protagonists, and creating an artificial hierarchal relationship, with the Israeli at the top. The cropping of the picture also contributes to a false impression of Israeli domination. We see neither of the men’s faces, human beings’ most expressive feature. Both men may be smiling, but we are denied this view and left to deduce the nature of their interaction from the position of their hands. In sum, the representation of Israeli control over the Palestinian civilians is not objective, but artificially constructed through the rotation of the photograph and arbitrary cropping. This modified picture appears three times, first as part of the title page of chapter twelve, then as a background for the synopsis and finally on its own as an object in the exhibition.

Figure 3

The misrepresentation of photographs in order to portray the Israeli soldiers as aggressors and the Palestinian civilians as victims is again apparent in Huwwara Checkpoint: A Taxi Driver Attacked by a Soldier and Pushed to the Ground (2004), also by Esti Tsal (figure 3), featured in chapter seven, “Violence at the Checkpoints”. Once again, the title is misleading and is not supported by the poses of the figures. The soldier stands upright with both hands on his gun barrel (pointing to the ground), while a Palestinian man lies on his back and stretches out his arm for the soldier to help him up. If the soldier had just pushed the man to the ground, he would be leaning forward and at least one of his hands would be outstretched. In addition, the Palestinian man would appeal to his Palestinian comrades for help and not to the Israeli soldier. Moreover, the other Palestinian men are standing around in all kinds of relaxed poses, leaning on the railing or on each other’s shoulders, not in the least alarmed or fearful, and do not rush to help their companion up. One of the men, standing on the left in the white shirt, even appears to be laughing, but covers his mouth with his hand. In fact, it seems that the man on his back is just lying down to rest in the shade, until the Israeli soldier announces that his turn has come to cross the checkpoint, and so the Palestinian man asks him for help in getting up. Yet the caption condemns the Israeli soldier and accuses him of aggression toward the Palestinian.

Conclusion:

Machsom Watch’s stated goal of protecting the human rights of Palestinians passing through Israeli checkpoints is admirable. However, in reality, Machsom Watch pursues a political campaign against the Israeli government and military, with the aim of “ending the occupation”. Its omission of the context of terror, as well as its use of legal human rights vocabulary, “apartheid” rhetoric and emotive language contribute to the demonization and delegitimization of Israel. The work of Machsom Watch would be much more effective if it reported accurately, and promoted human rights universally, recognizing the difficulties in balancing Israeli rights to life and security, and Palestinian human rights.

Endnotes:

1. In our telephone conversation of October 25, 2007, NIF representative Liora Halivni would not say how much NIF gives to Machsom Watch from its own budget.

2. Tsilli Goldenberg, “Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy? A Report on the Operational Practices of the Civil Administration in Occupied Palestinian Territories”, Machsom Watch, 2003. Available: http://www.machsomwatch.org/docs/civilAdministration.asp?link=summaries&lang=eng

3. “MachsomWatch Observations During December 2006”, Machsom Watch. Available: http://www.machsomwatch.org/docs/monthlyReports/December2006Eng.asp?link=summaries&lang=eng

4. Amelia Thomas, “Checkpoint Witnesses,” The Christian Science Monitor, June 7, 2006. Available: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0607/p13s02-wome.html

5. Yehudit Kirstein-Keshet, “On Founding Machsom Watch,” originally published in Hedva Isachar’s Sisters in Peace, Feminist Voices of the Left, Resling, 2003. Available: http://www.gilasvirsky.com/yehuditkeshet.html

6. Tsilli Goldenberg, “Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy? A Report on the Operational Practices of the Civil Administration in Occupied Palestinian Territories”, Machsom Watch, 2003. Available: http://www.machsomwatch.org/docs/civilAdministration.asp?link=summaries&lang=eng

7. NGO Monitor, “Machsom Watch Reports Distorted by Political Bias”, December 15, 2004. Available: http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/_machsom_watch_reports_distorted_by_political_bias

Who owns the Golan Heights?

The Golan is Israeli. From The Golan Is Israeli:

It is almost politically incorrect, practically heresy, to claim today that the Golan is not Syrian in the least nor a deposit or bargaining chip for negotiations. The Golan is a lot more "Israeli" than "Syrian." It has been Israeli for 40 years, double the time it was in Syria's hands. It has been under Israeli sovereignty for 26 years. It has neither a foreign people nor a demographic problem. The Golan has become a part of Israeli life. It is the most frequently visited part of the country, dotted with dozens of Jewish communities, agricultural fields, industrial areas and tourist resorts, nature reserves and wild landscape.

Whoever talks about "returning" the Golan to Syria is being misleading. The Golan was placed under a French mandate in the colonialist agreement that divided the region; Syria won independence only in 1946. In the brief period it was in the Golan - 0.5 percent of its territory - Syria turned the region into a launching pad for its attempt to conquer and decimate Israel. The Syrian army shelled the Israeli communities along the border, attacked the Lake Kinneret fishermen, tried to divert the course of its waters and made life "down below" a Sderot-style hell. The Golan was conquered in a justified defensive war. We paid for it with blood. The Syrians lost it fair and square.

In previous eras as well, the Golan was not considered a part of Syria, and it is replete with findings of Jewish heroism and sovereignty, starting with the reign of Solomon, through the Second Temple period, the heroic battle of the city of Gamla and the Talmudic period. It was no foreign land that we conquered. The results of the Second Lebanon War greatly increased the Syrian appetite and led it to threaten a war against Israel unless the Golan is handed over. This is exactly the time to tell the Israeli story of the Golan Heights.