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RELATED LINKS:
This link will deal primarily, although not exclusively,
with politics in the Middle East. In my opinion, although the U.S. is a good friend to Israel - giving 3 billion
dollars in aid, annually - Israel is most assuredly NOT a good friend of the U.S. In 1948, the Balfour Declaration,
in essence, took land from the Palestinians and gave it to the new Israeli government. Is there anyone among us who
would not object, and fight back, if strangers came into our homes, told us they were taking over and we had no recourse
but to accept their rules? I, for one, would most assuredly fight back, with whatever means necessary. And we
wonder why the Arabs, and most other peoples in the world, despise our policies!?! Gentle reader, please read on.
You just might read some things of which you were not aware, thanks to the often one-sided reporting of the "main stream"
media in the U.S.
PAGE CONTENTS:
Do They Really Hate Us?
Through Racist Eyes
An Open Letter To President Bush
The Making of a Palestinian
The Middle East Before Israel
The Terror That Begot Israel
Palestinian Genocide
Do They Really Hate Us?
- by Jaffer Ali
I heard an analyst say that we had not tapped into the Arab-American
community enough to spread the word “back home” about the nobility of the US war against terrorism. A friend of
mine told me that the foreign services office is busy trying to recruit hundreds of Arab- Americans as well.
When you have a hyphen in your self-definition, you often have a unique
perspective. My father became a hyphenated American and I maintain the hyphen to this day. He came to the US in 1949 after
the “Nakba” (catastrophe) when the family’s orange grove in Lydda was lost to the newly formed Israel. He
spoke little English when he arrived and taught himself the language by going to the movies. He was 17 years old.
Thirty years later, at the tender age of 47, the American dream let him
retire as he moved to sunny Arizona. This brief introduction should give you an idea that I am a product of the American dream,
where a penniless immigrant, through hard work and dedication, can retire in thirty years.
But if I am a product of the American dream, I was also infused with the
wonder and promise of the possibilities of that dream. America embodies the freedom to express oneself, freedom to live without
fear of a military dictatorship throwing you in jail for holding unpopular ideas. And what you do with your life is up to
you. In short, dreams animate my life.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. The same dreams in American hearts
are also yearned for in the Middle East. They are universal human impulses, yet remain buried in the sleep of despair. That
is why so many people flock to the US from all over the world. They cannot realize those aspirations in their home countries.
Why?
Let’s take a look at the landscape of Middle East regimes. Saddam
Hussein, a once US ally, strangles and gasses his own people, using largely US weaponry. Iran, through CIA and MOSSAD intervention
maintained a monarchy that brutalized its own people until 1979. In Jordan, the monarchy has moved to quell all forms of expression
that run counter to the throne. All media is controlled.
A colonel in the Jordanian army once told me that in the US, the army is
trained to fight outside enemies. But in the Middle East, armies are trained to fight their own people. Where did he get his
training? Of course, here in America.
In Saudi Arabia there are 30 multi-billionaires in the royal family while
the rank and file citizen is practically destitute. The royal family appears pious for domestic consumption then go whoring
and drinking all over the world. Saudi citizens have few jobs in their countries. My aunt brought my children souvenirs from
Mecca. They were made in Taiwan. The Saudi monarchy cannot rely on its own military to maintain itself, so the US is there
to help it fight its citizens should the need arise. The monarchy would topple within one month should the US withdraw its
support.
The Palestinian Authority, created by the CIA from PLO remnants, has cut
a deal with the US. In exchange for “cracking down on its own people” and supporting US military goals, America
will supply riot gear and slap its bette noir, Israel. A Palestinian state is planned, but without the democratic ideals that
animate the human soul.
In Egypt, the second largest recipient of US aid in the world, the cries
for freedom land you in jail. In fact, the US asks its client state (with little opposition) to suppress the demonstrations
for freedom. US aid is contingent upon it.
In Syria, its despotism is well known. They can occupy neighboring Lebanon
with US approval as long as they go along with its military objectives. Oh, by the way, we let them in the Security Council,
wiping away its crimes against its own people. The US now welcomes Syria into its political sphere where the dream is only
real for those who flee.
Of course the granddaddy of them all is Israel. Israel’s present
leader, Ariel Sharon is a master butcher. The massacres at Sabra and Chatila are just examples of his desire to kill the dream.
The crimes Israel has accumulated over the last 50 years are almost too numerous to mention… except that they were done
with either US complicity or US turning a blind eye. The US has given Israel over $100 billion since its inception. The result?
More brutalization and Occupation, paid for by the US.
People in the Middle East do not hate Americans. They certainly do not
hate the American Dream. Everywhere you turn, people really yearn for freedom. And in this oil-filled region, everywhere you
turn are regimes, either created or propped up by the US. No regime in the region has legitimacy. Every one violates human
rights. Every regime attempts to kill the American Dream.
So what am I supposed to say to the other side of my hyphen? Forget the
dream? Stop trying to lift yourself from the servitude of your masters?
The people in the Middle East do not hate Americans. They rightly hate
those trying to squeeze the American Dream from their hearts.
Jaffer Ali is a Palestinian-American businessman who writes on business
ethics, management theory and political topics.
Through Racist Eyes
-by Jaffer Ali
As soon as someone of Palestinian descent
decides to engage the world in a self-explaining narrative, one immediately confronts racist attitudes. Many reading this
right now may be thinking that I am exaggerating. Would that it were true.
This phenomenon is especially acute in
the US with the aftermath of the 9-11 tragedy. While a significant portion of the Palestinian community is Christian, this
rarely gets mentioned. All Palestinians are "lumped in" with Muslims. One might think ignorance is at the heart of the
grouping together, but there is something darker behind it.
Palestinians are also "lumped" together with Arabs in
general. Despite having its own unique history, dialect and culture. Many see Palestinians as just another Arab
tribe. You do not need to call a Palestinian a "sand nigger" to exhibit racism. Defining ethnicities in ways that are
detrimental to the group is the beginning of a racist creed.
Palestinians are defined as "terrorists". "radicals". "savages"
often enough. These are obviously racist epithets. But maybe even more pernicious is the benign definitions that rob Palestinians
of their essential identity. It is cultural identity theft and what makes it racist is its political implication.
This
is not a new phenomenon. Cherokee, Sioux, Iroquois and Apache Native Americans were "just Indians" despite having different
languages and culture. With the westward push of "Manifest Destiny" all Indians were the same. Subtle and not-so-subtle differences
were to be ignored. Their individual cultural identities were destroyed as the great westward migration uprooted tribe by
tribe.
All Native American tribes were defined as "savages". "uncivilized" . "barbaric" and needed to be rounded
up and put on reservations. Oh yes, possessing one drop of "Indian blood" in Virginia could disqualify you from the right
to vote.
It is obviously racist to lump all Native Americans into one tribe.one people. Was this an accident? Is it
now an accident to group all Arabs into one tribe? The answer to both is a resounding "NO!"
Racists have an agenda and they use definitional language
to further that agenda. Creating one overriding group is a way to destroy individual cultural identities. In the case of Palestinians,
the racist argot goes something like:
"There are a lot of Arab nations with a lot of land in
the Middle East. Why don't Palestinians go live there, instead of Israel."
There are many people reading right now,
nodding their heads in approval. They are not even aware that the above is a racist statement. But the intention or thought
process is purely born from racism.
Palestinians have a separate identity and culture. We want to live in our ancestral
home. We want to live in an area that is holy to us, whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim. Our own identity is at stake.
Just as Apache and Cherokee were different tribes, we have a different tribe as well.
Racism has a purpose. In the
Palestinian case, it is to divert attention away from justice and to preserve a state dedicated to racist principles; namely
Israel. For Israel will welcome Jews from any part of the world, but not let Palestinians come home. So they must try to eradicate
the Palestinian identity and subsume it into being "Muslim" or "Arab".
To be Palestinians and to assert one's identity
will provoke the racist. You can see this when Palestinians demand the "Right to Return" to their homeland as promised in
the UN charter. Racism is about defining others in one's own terms. "They" become all alike in the racist lexicon.
Understand, one need not say with mock inflection "Ay-rabs are all the same" or use derogatory epithets to be a racist. Intention
is enough.
Golda Meir was a master propagandist - and racist par excellence.
Her racism led her to exclaim, "There are no such things as Palestinians." Denying a people's existence is the
ultimate
racist creed. It means Palestinians have no standing. They simply do not exist. A generation of hard-line Israelis still
clings to this notion. This has lead to many people in
the US parroting the same line of reasoning. If a Palestinian identity
does not exist, they are not unique and should live anywhere else in the Arab world.Anywhere else except the land
of Israel.
The logic is inexorable.
So when Palestinians demand the Right to Return to their homeland.what does the racist
say? The racist says, "But the 'character' of the Jewish state will be compromised if Palestinians return. Jews can return,
but Palestinians (who don't really exist anyway) must live somewhere else.pick an "Ay-rab country". "they are all the same
anyway."
When racist eyes are trained on you, it is not pleasant. There is more than a psychological reason
for institutionalized racism. The entire state of Israel has institutionalized racism because its charter is to preserve a
Jewish character. Any other country in the world would be lambasted for such ethnic exclusionary premises.
But in the US, Israel is celebrated.
Jaffer Ali is a Palestinian-American businessman who writes
on politics and business ethics.
Copyright 2004 by PENN, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Feel free to forward this, in its entirety, to others.
The following article explores just one part
of President Bush’s 'State Of The Union' speech. The notion that freedom can be a gift from the U.S. to the Iraqi people
is the topic of the essay. It is not about weapons of mass destruction. It is not about alleged connections between Osama
Bin Laden (when no connection has ever been made.)
If the notion that President Bush spoke of freedom for the Iraqi
people is hollow and only a rhetorical device uttered for sound bites, then are we to suspect other points of his speech?
If one part is a lie, can we trust the other parts? It is up to the reader to discover whether the President’s
proclamations of bestowing freedom ring true.
An Open Letter To President Bush - By Jaffer Ali
Mr. President, I write today with a heavy heart after listening closely to your
State of the Union speech. As a first-generation American of Arab and Muslim descent, I feel peculiarly qualified to express
not just my thoughts... but my feelings about your speech.
On my office wall hangs a framed reproduction of The Declaration
of Independence. In fact, every office I have ever sat in had this same framed reproduction, cut from the July 4th issue of
The Chicago Tribune in 1976; the two hundredth anniversary of our nation’s independence.
It has been these stirring
words and ideals that have animated my heart and soul ever since I first read the words. Freedom and the inalienable rights
of Man are not just words for me; they are the very reason for living.
In your speech, you spoke about war with Iraq.
You spoke the words of freedom, but somehow they seemed... false. Why? Freedom is not a thing bestowed to a people as a gift
from Uncle Sam. The "gift" is even more awkward when it comes wrapped with an
invasion force of 250,000 US soldiers, carpet-bombing
and missiles raining from the sky. You cannot give the Iraqi people their freedom at the barrel of an American gun. The Iraqi
people must earn their own freedom if it is to be worth more than words.
Our freedom was not a gift from France, but
earned through the toils of those early Americans, and paid for by successive generations that have ensured my right to address
my President as I do now.
You say that the Iraqi people deserve freedom and who can deny any this dream? But no freedom
deserved is without a price. But whose price? Is Iraqi freedom more precious than Palestinian freedom? Is Iraqi freedom more
precious than those suffering from our own allies in the region?
Is the price of Iraqi freedom worth a single American
parent, grieving for his or her son, sent to Baghdad to do for the Iraqi people what they do not do for themselves? The answer
Mr. President is a resounding NO. I suggested that your rhetoric seemed... false. Again, you might ask: Why?
Your rhetoric of freedom rings false because
you cannot speak of freedom on Tuesday, and support the brutal Occupation of Palestine on Wednesday. You cannot speak of freedom
on Tuesday, and support dictatorial monarchies like Saudi Arabia and Jordan
on Wednesday. And of course, you should not
speak of freedom on Tuesday while giving "Most Favored Nations" trading agreements with slave labor countries like China on
Wednesday. There are more examples, but the point is made.
Freedom is a principle. Selectively applied, they are no
longer principles but thinly veiled rationalizations for domestic consumption. Your selective application of freedom is what
makes your words hollow and ultimately devoid of the spirit to which it is aimed. You have taken the words that Thomas Jefferson
dreamed so beautifully and crafted them into sound bites for news headlines. You have stripped them of their meaning... their
soul... by selective application, intended to gain support for a crusade.
As an American of Arab and Muslim descent,
the hollowness of those words is haunting. I know that when Saddam was a US ally in the eighties, Kurds were slaughtered without
our Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld raising their voice. Kurds were slaughtered by our ally,
Turkey, as we looked away.
Freedom did not ring from the Washington steps then, and freedom is not the goal of your policy
now.
One million Iranians were slaughtered by Saddam Hussein, then as an American ally, utilizing American-made weapons.
Our country did more than look away, but supported his military adventure. This is what I know, so your words condemning
Saddam’s aggression against Iran were equally false... rhetoric used for an American people who do not devote the time
to sift through the fog of Middle East politics.
It is true that I follow the Middle East more
closely than my neighbors in the suburbs of Chicago. But there are 1.4 billion Muslims in the world who also follow what happens
in Jerusalem and the rest of the Middle East. The list of dictators in Muslim countries who get active US support in suppressing
and denying freedom to its people is long indeed. Muslim people feel the shackles of CIA-trained forces helping to maintain
the thrones of
power. Every Muslim therefore feels the hollowness of your rhetoric.
Israel has weapons of mass
destruction, but you, Mr. President, and successive presidents before you, spoke not of these weapons. Israel attacked Egypt
in 1956 and again in 1967, and presently practices a form of Occupation unknown since the time of Hitler, yet your silence
only underscores the hypocrisy.
Mr. President, how can I tell you the depth of distrust the chasm between your rhetoric
of Tuesday night and the reality outlined above creates in the hearts of 1.4 billion Muslims? These contradictions cannot
be swept away easily.
Your new crusade against Baghdad harkens back to another time, to another era. Your crusade
against Iraq is felt to be exactly what the word implies. As you rally our nation to join this crusade, the heaviness of heart
for what this means saddens me, because I
know that the words of Jefferson may be used, but his ideals are not to be found.
Jaffer
Ali
THE
MAKING OF A PALESTINIAN - By Jaffer Ali
Amidst the polemics that rage on and off line, sometimes
it is helpful to take a step back to understand the human dimension of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. If you please, indulge
the following reminisces for I believe that they reveal why Israel must necessarily abandon Occupation.
My father was born in the small West Bank village of Beitunia
in 1930. His family owned an orange grove in Lydda and after 1948 neither he, nor his siblings ever saw the grove again. He
came to the US for good in 1949. He was a "man’s man" with shoulders that appeared Atlas-like to me while growing up.
When he was alive, I only saw my father cry three times in my life. The first time transformed me forever. I was eleven years
old and the year was 1968. My father received a package in the mail. Apparently he had donated some money and he received
a book. I do not remember what kind of book, but inside when he opened it, I will never forget what I saw. It was a small
Palestinian flag.
My father took it out and with his head bowed... he wept. I distinctly remember a sense of bewilderment.
I had never seen this hulk of a man cry before. I quizzically asked, "Yaba, what’s wrong?" But he never told me. His
was a generation that found these emotional outbursts confusing and embarrassing. But somehow I "instinctively" knew what
had happened. And something happened to me. That day I became a Palestinian.
It was the next year in school that I
had my first speech class. Most of the boys gave speeches on football and baseball and the girls on dolls and make up. My
speech was on the disastrous consequences of the Balfour Declaration.
Fast forwarding to the year 2000, history has
somehow come full circle. This time, I am the father. One evening my wife, three boys and I decided to break the Ramadan fast
at a restaurant. The waitress came over to ask what beverage we wanted. I answered for the table, "Bring three Cokes for the
boys and two glasses of water."
My ten-year-old looked at me with surprise and said, "Yaba, should we be drinking Coca
Cola? We should order something else because Coke is helping the Israelis." With this statement, my ten-year old became a
Palestinian. Now, if you think that our home is a den of indoctrination, you would be dead wrong. He overheard me speaking
about a Middle Eastern boycott of American goods, which included Coke. I believe my son "instinctively" knew that we should
not lend ourselves to helping Israel brutalize our brothers and sisters, even indirectly.
These two incidents, separated
by more than thirty years, reveal something fundamental, almost metaphysical. What connects ALL Palestinians in the world
is a shared psychic experience. And this experience solidifies a Palestinian identity, no matter where one lives. Diaspora
has not eradicated this identity. Time has not eradicated it. Neither prosperity nor privation has eradicated it. Being a
Palestinian transcends geography and time. It is an eternal thought that lies dormant, waiting for a chance to express itself.
In the refugee camps of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon every Palestinian dreams of freedom and living in dignity without
despair. In the villages of the West Bank and Gaza every Palestinian dreams of a life without identity cards, without Israeli
snipers shooting the eyes out of children in dubious self defense. Every Palestinian living in countries from Australia to
the US is connected to every other Palestinian. We will not go away.
Israel has falsely assumed that time was on its
side. Their belief was that successive generations of Palestinians would assimilate into neighboring Arab countries. Israel
believed that creating conditions of deprivation would cause a mass exodus without a longing to return. They have forgotten
their own history. Israeli brutality has solidified Palestinian identity and demands its expression.
My father died almost twenty years ago and before he became
ill and died, he looked me in the eye and said, "Son, I may not live to see Palestine, but Insha’Allah you will." While
it is true that Palestinians clutch the past to preserve our identity, we are ready to embrace the future. My father’s
hope still rings in my ears.
The Middle
East before Israel
By Denis Mueller
The mysteries of the "Orient" hold a special place in European
culture. Somewhere to the east of Greece and Turkey lies this land, which represented for the West, a kind of vast space with
romance, exotic locals and mystery. By 1918, Colonial occupation of the globe was nearly complete. Europe had divided up the
world at the Conference of Berlin in 1885. The land on which Israel and Palestine reside was now under the control of the
Ottoman Empire at the time but the course of World War I would change that.
In 1822, there were fewer than 24,000 Jews that lived in
Palestine. The rest of the population was Arabic with small minorities of Christians. Palestine became an Arabic and Islamic
country by the end of the 7th century. It was known as a land of fertile soil and great beauty. The Palestinian Arabs were
a largely agricultural society and an area of small villages.
However, another group had its sights on this land. Persecuted
throughout their history in Europe, Dr. T. Herzel and the early Zionists dreamed of a homeland for the Jewish people. But
there were people already there and the Zionists knew something would have to be done. Right from the beginning, the idea
was to move the people who were there out of their land, as Herzel recognized in his diaries:
"We shall have to spirit the penniless population across
the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own coun- try.
Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
This is a perfect example of the mentality of colonialism
and what we call today ethnic cleansing. The people who live there do not matter. This was an easy idea for the British to
accept. After all, weren't the British the largest colon- ial empires in the world. So when Lord Rothschild became the spokesperson
for the Zionist cause and spoke to Lord Balfour, this was something that Balfour could understand. The Balfour Declaration
of 1917 sought to provide a homeland for the Jew- ish people without ever consulting the people who already lived there. This
is how European states looked at the world in the age of imperialism.
Who was living in Palestine at the time? For that we must
go to the 1922 census which shows that there were more Christians in Palestine than Jews, let alone Arabs. The Arabic population
constituted about 78% of the people. Jews made up less than 60,000 while Christians accounted for over 70,000. This is who
lived in Palestine when the British government created a Zionist proclamation. Palestine would be the sight, for the rest
of the century, of a contest between native presence and a Western form of culture. What has been forgotten is the context
in which this conflict begins. That is Western colonialism.
Sources: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine.
The Terror That Begot Israel
- by Khalid Amayreh
Editor's Note:
Ask 1000 people at random about terror in the
Middle East and not one in that thousand will know about the Jewish terrorism that created the state of Israel. What follows
is certainly not a comprehensive list, but should give newcomers to the history of the conflict pause.
"We committed Nazi acts." - Aharon Zisling, Israel's first Agriculture
Minister
"There is no doubt that many sexual atrocities were committed by the attacking Jews. Many young (Arab) girls
were raped and later slaughtered. Old women were also molested." - General Richard Catling, British Army Assistant Inspector,
after interrogating several female survivors (The Palestinian Catastrophe, Michael Palumbo, 1987)
As the state of Israel is celebrating sixty years of ethnic
cleansing and atrocities against the native Palestinians, many people around the world, especially young generations, will
not be fully aware of the manner in which Israel came into existence. Similarly, the younger Zionist generations who don't
stop calling their Palestinian victims "terrorists" should have a clearer idea about Israel's manifestly criminal past which
Zionist school textbooks shamelessly glamorize and glorify.
Prior to "Jewish" statehood, three main Jewish terror organizations
operated in Palestine, primarily against Palestinian civilians and British mandate targets. The three were: The Haganah, the
Zvei Leumi or Irgun and the Stern Gang. The Haganah (Defence) had a field army of up to 160,000 well-trained and well-armed
men and a unit called the Palmach, with more than 6,000 terrorists. The Irgun included as many as 5,000 terrorists, while
the
Stern Gang included 200-300 dangerous terrorists.
The following are merely some examples of Zionist terrorism
prior to the creation of the Zionist state in 1948: The list doesn't include the bigger massacres such as Dir Yasin, Dawaymeh,
Tantura and others.
1937-1939
During this period, Zionist terrorists carried out a series of
terror attacks against Palestinian buses resulting in the death of 24 persons and the wounding of 25 others.
1939
Haganah blew up the Iraqi oil pipeline near Haifa/Palestine. Moshe Dayan was one of the participants in this act.
The technique was used in 1947 at least four times.
1940
On 6 November, 1940, Zionist terrorists
of the Stern Gang assassinated the British Minister resident in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, in Cairo.
On 25 November,
S.S. Patria was blown up by Jewish terrorists in Haifa harbour, killing 268 illegal Jewish immigrants. The explosion, carried
out by the Haganah terrorist group, was only meant to prevent the ship from sailing. However, it seemed that the terrorists
had miscalculated the amount of explosives needed to disable the vessel. Other sources reported that this was no miscalculation
and was a deliberate mass murder of Jews by Jews aimed at drawing sympathy and influencing British immigration policy to Palestine.
1946
Zionist terrorists blew up
the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which housed the civilian administration of the government of Palestine, killing and injuring
more than 200 persons. The Irgun gang claimed responsibility for this criminal act, but subsequent evidence indicated that
both the Haganah and the Jewish Agency were involved.
On 1 October, the British Embassy in Rome was badly damaged
by a bomb explosion for which Irgun claimed responsibility.
1947
In June 1947, a postal bomb
addressed to the British war office exploded in the post office sorting room in London, injuring 2 persons. It was attributed
to Irgun or Stern Gangs (The Sunday Times, Sept. 24, 1972), p. 8.
In December 1947, six Palestinians were killed and 30
wounded when bombs were thrown from Jewish trucks at Arab houses in Haifa; 12 Palestinians were killed and another injured
in an attack by armed Zionists at an Arab coastal village near Haifa.
On 13 December 1947, Zionist terrorists believed
to be members of Irgun Zevi Leumi murdered 18 Palestinian civilians and wounded 60 othersin Jerusalem, Jaffa and Lud areas.
In Jerusalem, bombs were thrown in an Arab market-place near the Damascus Gate; in Jaffa bombs were thrown into an Arab café;
and in the Arab village near Lud, 12 Arabs were killed in an attack with mortars and automatic weapons.
On 9 December,
Haganah terrorists attacked an Arab village near Safad, blowing up two houses, in the ruins of which were found the bodies
of 10 Arabs, including 5 children.
Haganah admitted responsibility for the attack.
On 29 December, two British
constables and 11 Palestinians were killed and 32 others were injured at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem when Irgun terrorists
threw a bomb from a taxi.
1948
On 1 January, Haganah terrorists attacked a village on the slope
of Mount Carmel, killing 17 Palestinian civilians and wounding 33 others.
On 4 January, Haganah terrorists wearing British Army uniforms
penetrated into the centre of Jaffa and blew up the Sarai, which was used as headquarters of the Arab National Committee,
killing more than 40 persons and wounding 98 others.
On 5 January, the Arab-owned Semiramis Hotel in Jerusalem was
blown up, killing 20 civilians, among them Viscount De Tapia, the Spanish Consul. Haganah admitted responsibility.
On
7 January, seventeen Arab civilians were killed by a bomb at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem, 3 of them while trying to escape.
Further casualties, including the murder
of a British officer near Hebron, were reported from different parts of the country.
On 16 January, Jewish terrorists blew up three Arab buildings, killing 8 children between the age of 18 months and
12 years.
December 13, 1947 - February 10, 1948
Seven bombing attacks by Jewish terrorists took
place and the targets were innocent Arab civilians in cafés and markets, killing 138 and wounding 271 others. During this
period, there were 9 attacks on Arab buses. Moreover, Jewish terrorists attacked passenger trains on at least four occasions,
killing 93 persons and wounding 161 others.
1948
On 15 February, Haganah terrorists attacked
an Arab village near Safad and blew up several houses, killing 11 civilians, including four children.
On 3 March,
heavy damage was done to the Arab-owned Salam building in Haifa (a seven-story block of flats and shops) by Jewish terrorists
who drove an army truck to the building and escaped before detonation of 400 pounds of explosives, killing 11 Arab civilians
and 3 Americans. The Stern Gang claimed responsibility.
On 22 March, Jewish terrorists from the Stern Gang blew up
a housing block in Iraq Street in Haifa, killing 17 and injuring 100 others. Four members of the Stern Gang drove two truckloads
of explosives into the street and abandoned the vehicles before the explosives went off.
On 31 March, Jewish terrorists
mined the Cairo-Haifa Express, killing 40 people and wounding 60 others.
On 16 April, Jewish terrorists attacked the
former British army camp at Tel Litvvinsky, killing 90 Palestinians.
On 19 April, fourteen Palestinian civilians were
killed in a house in Tiberias, which was blown up by Zionist terrorists.
On 11 May, a letter bomb addressed to Evelyn Baker,
former commanding officer in Palestine, was detected in the nick of time by his wife.
Wholesale looting of Jaffa was
carried out following armed attacks by Irgun and Haganah terrorists. They plundered and carried away everything they could,
destroying what they could not take with them.
On 17 September, Count Folke Berndadotte, UN Mediator in Palestine
was assassinated by members of the Stern Gang in the Zionist-controlled sector of Jerusalem. Bernadotte's
aide Col. Serot
was also killed and murdered by Jewish terrorists.
In November, the Christian Arab villages of Igrit and Birim were
attacked and destroyed, killing and injuring many unarmed civilians, including women and children. All the Christian Arab
inhabitants were forcibly expelled from their homes. The State of Israel still refuses to allow them to return to their villages
despite several court orders.
1948-1949
The greatest acts of Jewish terror took place when Jewish
terrorists, now called Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), uprooted 700,000-800,000 Palestinians from their ancestral homeland in
Palestine. Since then the refugees have consistently been denied the right to return home. After the expulsion, the Zionist
terrorist army razed to the ground hundreds of Arab towns, villages and hamlets and obliterated their remains. Eventually,
Israeli villages, Kibbutzim and towns were built on the remaining rubble.
Copyright 2008 by NextEra Media. All
rights reserved. Feel free to forward this, in its entirety, to others.
Palestinian Genocide
Palestinian Genocide announced by Israeli Rabbi - "All
of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even their beasts."
This was the religious opinion issued
one week ago by Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, director of the Tsomet Institute, a long-established religious institute attended by
students and soldiers in the Israeli settlements of the West Bank. In an article published by numerous religious Israeli newspapers
two weeks ago and run by the liberal Haaretz on 26 March, Rosen asserted that there is evidence in the Torah to justify this
stand. Rosen, an authority able to issue religious opinions for Jews, wrote that Palestinians are like the nation of Amalekites
that attacked the Israelite tribes on their way to Jerusalem after they had fled from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.
He wrote that the Lord sent down in the Torah a ruling that allowed the Jews to kill the Amalekites, and that this ruling
is known in Jewish jurisprudence.
Rosen's article, which created a lot of noise in Israel, included the text of the
ruling in the Torah: "Annihilate the Amalekites from the beginning to the end. Kill them and wrest them from their possessions.
Show them no mercy. Kill continuously, one after the other. Leave no child, plant, or tree. Kill their beasts, from camels
to donkeys." Rosen adds that the Amalekites are not a particular race or religion, but rather all those who hate the
Jews for religious or national motives. Rosen goes as far as saying that the "Amalekites will remain as long as there are
Jews. In every age Amalekites will surface from other races to attack the Jews, and thus the war against them must be
global." He urges application of the "Amalekites ruling" and says that the Jews must undertake to implement it in all eras
because it is a "divine commandment".
Rosen does not hesitate to define the "Amalekites of this age" as the Palestinians.
He writes, "those who kill students as they recite the Torah, and fire missiles on the city of Siderot, spread terror in the
hearts of men and women. Those who dance over blood are the Amalekites, and we must respond with counter-hatred. We must uproot
any trace of humanitarianism in dealing with them so that we emerge victorious."
The true outrage is that most of
those authorised to issue Jewish religious opinions support the view of Rabbi Rosen, as confirmed by Haaretz newspaper. At
the head of those supporting his opinion is Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the leading religious authority in Israel's religious
national current, and former chief Eastern rabbi for Israel. Rosen's opinion also has the support of Rabbi Dov Lior, president
of the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed and a candidate
for the post of chief rabbi of Israel. A number of political leaders in Israel have also shown enthusiasm for the opinion,
including Ori Lubiansky, head of the Jerusalem municipality.
There is no dispute among observers in Israel that the
shooting in Jerusalem three weeks ago that killed eight Jewish students in a religious school was pivotal for Jewish authorities
issuing religious opinions of a racist, hateful nature. The day following the Jerusalem incident, a number of rabbis led by
Daniel Satobsky issued a religious opinion calling on Jewish youth and "all those who believe in the Torah" to take revenge
on the Palestinians as hastily as possible. A week following the operation, a group of leading rabbis issued an unprecedented
religious opinion permitting the Israeli army to bomb Palestinian civilian areas. The opinion is issued by the "Association
of Rabbis of the Land of Israel" and states that Jewish religious law permits the bombing of Palestinian civilian residential
areas if they are a source of attacks on Jewish residential areas. It reads, "when the residents of cities bordering settlements
and Jewish centres fire shells at Jewish settlements with the aim of death and destruction, the Torah permits for shells to
be fired on the sources of firing even if civilian residents are present there."
The opinion adds that sometimes it
is necessary to respond with shelling to sources of fire immediately, without granting the Palestinian public prior warning.
A week ago, Rabbi Eliyahu Kinvinsky, the second most senior authority in the Orthodox religious current, issued a religious
opinion prohibiting the employment of Arabs, particularly in religious schools. This religious opinion followed another that
had been issued by Rabbi Lior prohibiting the employment of Arabs and the renting of residential apartments to them in Jewish
neighbourhoods. In order to provide a climate that allows Jewish extremist organisations to continue attacking Palestinian
citizens, Rabbi Israel Ariel, one of the most prominent rabbis in the West Bank settlement complex, recently issued a religious
opinion prohibiting religious Jews involved in attacks against Palestinians to appear before Israeli civil courts. According
to this opinion, they must instead demand to appear before Torah courts that rule by Jewish religious law.
Haaretz
newspaper noted that what Rabbi Ariel was trying to achieve through this religious opinion has in fact already taken place.
The first instance of such a court in Kfar Saba ordered the release of a young Jewish woman called Tsevia Teshrael who attacked
a Palestinian farmer in the middle of the West Bank. And there are Jewish religious authorities that glorify killing and praise
terrorists, such as Rabbi Yitzhaq Ginsburg, a top rabbi in Israel who published a book entitled Baruch the Hero in memoriam
of Baruch Goldstein, who committed the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in 1994 when he opened fire and killed 29 Palestinians as
they were performing the dawn prayer in Hebron in the southern West Bank. Ginsburg considers his act "honourable and glorious".
The danger of these religious opinions lies in the fact that the religious authorities issuing them have wide respect
among religious Jewish youth. And while only 28 per cent of Israel's population is religious, more than 50 per cent of Israelis
define themselves as conservative and grant major significance to opinions issued by Jewish religious authorities. According
to a study conducted by the Social Sciences Department of Bar Elon University, more than 90 per cent of those who identify
as religious believe that if state laws and government orders are incongruous with the content of religious opinions issued
by rabbis, they must overlook the former and act in accordance with the latter.
What grants the racist religious opinions
a deeper and far-reaching impact is the fact that for the last decade followers of the Zionist religious current, who form
nearly 10 per cent of the population, have been seeking to take control of the army and security institutions. They are doing
so through volunteering for service in special combat units. The spokesperson's office in the Israeli army says that although
the percentage of followers of this current is low in the state's demographic makeup, they form more than 50 per cent of the
officers in the Israeli army and more than 60 per cent of its special unit commanders.
According to an opinion poll of religious officers and
soldiers supervised by the interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya and published last year, more than 95 per cent of religious soldiers
and officers say that they will execute orders from the elected government and their leaders in the army only if they are
in harmony with the religious opinions issued by leading rabbis and religious authorities.
Wasil Taha, Arab Knesset
member from the Tajammu Party led by Azmi Bishara, says that these religious opinions lead to the committal of crimes. He
mentions religious opinions issued by a number of rabbis in mid-1995 that led to the assassination of former Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin at that time. "If that's what happens when religious opinions urge attacks against Jewish leaders such
as Rabin, what will the situation be like when they urge attacks against Palestinian leaders and the Palestinian public?"
he asks. "We, as Arab leaders, have begun to feel a lack of security following this flood of religious opinions, and
we realise that the matter requires a great deal of caution in our movements as we are certain that there are those who seek
to implement these opinions," he told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Taha dismisses those who ask about the role of the government
and Israeli political cadre in confronting these extremist religious opinions. "The ministers in the Israeli government and
the Knesset members compete to incite against the Palestinian public and don't hesitate to threaten expulsion of the Palestinians
who live on their land in Israel and carry Israeli citizenship outside of Israel's borders, just as former deputy premier
Avigdor Lieberman and representative Evi Etam did," Taha said. He notes that Palestinian citizens within Israel have begun
to take extreme precautionary measures since the issue of these religious opinions, including security measures around mosques
and public institutions and informing officials of public demonstrations so that members of Jewish terrorist organisations
can be prevented from attacking participants. Taha holds that the sectors of the Palestinian population most likely to be
harmed by these religious opinions are those living in the various cities populated by both Jews and Palestinians, such as
Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramleh and Jerusalem.
Palestinian writer and researcher Abdul-Hakim Mufid, from the city Um Fahem,
holds that the religious opinions of rabbis have gained major significance due to the harmony between official rhetoric and
that of the rabbis. Mufid notes that official Israeli establishments have not tried to confront the "fascist" rhetoric expressed
in these religious opinions even though they are capable of doing so. "Most of the rabbis who issue tyrannical religious
opinions are official employees in state institutions and receive salaries from them. And the state has not held these rabbis
accountable or sought to prohibit the issue of such opinions," he told the Weekly.
Mufid points out that when the
official political institution is in a crisis, the Zionist consensus behind these religious opinions grows more intense, and
offers as an example the religious opinions relied upon by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the early 1980s to justify his call to forcefully
expel the Palestinians. Mufid adds that Israel in practice encourages all those who kill Palestinians, and points to the way
that the Israeli government dealt with the recommendations of the Orr Commission that investigated the Israeli police's killing
of 13 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship in October of 2000. The government closed the file even though the commission
confirmed that the police had acted aggressively towards the Palestinian citizens. Mufid suggests that what makes the racist
rhetoric the rabbis insist upon influential is the silence of leftist and liberal voices, and the lack of any direct mobilisation
against it.
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