[The slain Wall Street Journal reporter snooping around in Iraq was a secret Israeli. Mossad? The United States media, in a bloc, intentionally withheld this information from the American public. As if a (secret) Israeli Wall Street Journal "reporter" tracking down insurgents in Iraq wasn't a news story? Whatever happened to the "free press" once it became Jewish and Israel-centered? The man was already murdered. Hiding his Israeli citizenship wasn't going to save him. His Israeli citizenship was withheld from the world for what real reason? ]
Pearl's father: 'Israeli connection' could hinder investigation,
by Yossi Melman, Haaretz (Israel), February 24, 2002
"Professor Yehuda Pearl, father of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, has told Ha'aretz that he fears that making public his son's Israeli citizenship could adversely affect investigative efforts by Pakistani police to apprehend the killers and track down the murdered reporter's body.
In a telephone conversation from his Los Angeles residence, Professor Pearl expressed regret and anger over the revelation by the Israeli media of his family's "Israeli connection." The U.S. media, which was aware of the information, complied with the family's request not to make it public. The American media was asked to comply with this request after information was obtained that confirmed reports that the 38-year-old reporter was dead. Professor Pearl went on to say that he had not viewed the videotape in which his son's murder was documented and has no intention of doing so. He was told of his son's death Thursday by U.S. government officials after they had viewed the videotape and were convinced of its authenticity ... Pearl, born in Princeton, New Jersey, died at the age of 38. He worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal for twelve years. His last job was to report from Afghanistan and Pakistan on the U.S. war against terror. On Thursday, Fahad Naseem, one of three men accused of involvement in the kidnapping, said Pearl was abducted because he was a Jew working against Islam."

Background: Not AIPAC's first controversy,
by CALEV BEN-DAVID, THE JERUSALEM POST, Aug. 29, 2004
"A lobby is like a night flower; It thrives in the dark and dies in the sun." So wrote Steven Rosen, AIPAC director of foreign policy issues, in an internal organizational memo several years ago. Unfortunately for the influential pro-Israel lobbying group, this new affair is turning far too much of the media spotlight on an organization that prefers to work behind the scenes on Capitol Hill. But it is hardly the first time AIPAC has found itself at the center of public controversy, although never in such a serious matter as receiving classified security material. In 1988, the investigative show 60 Minutes ran a critical piece on AIPAC using information supplied by its former communications director (and ex-Jerusalem Post reporter) Barbara Amouyal. Among the material supplied by Amouyal was an internal memo suggesting that the media be fed stories regarding Jesse Jackson's private life. Also included in the 60 Minutes report was another internal memo which seemed to direct how political action committees should donate money to specific pro-Israel candidates, a possible violation of federal law forbidding lobby groups such as AIPAC from directly involving themselves in elections. A subsequent investigation by the Federal Elections Commission cleared AIPAC of any violations. Nonetheless, AIPAC continues to face accusations that it unduly interferes in the electoral process, especially from politicians who credit their defeats at the polls to the organization's efforts. The most notable example in recent years was the 2002 congressional race, in which two Georgia Democrats, incumbents Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard, were defeated in party primaries by contenders perceived as more pro-Israel. McKinney subsequently commented: "Despite the fact that I easily won the Democratic vote, 40,000 Republicans maliciously crossed over and overtook the Democratic Primary. And because AIPAC had telegraphed in newspaper articles that they were going to target both Earl Hilliard and me, the Democratic Party was paralyzed" ... AIPAC's efforts to keep a low media-profile have also led to accusations that it has put undue pressure on journalists, especially from the Jewish press, who cover it critically. Among them is Washington Jewish Week reporter Larry Cohler, who earlier this year told an Internet site: "Their mission statement doesn't say anything about them mucking around in Jewish newspapers. AIPAC tried to get me fired, [and editor] Andy [Silow-Carrol] fired [from The Washington Jewish Week in 1992]." (AIPAC has denied those charges.) Given its task, it is inevitable that AIPAC will serve as a perennial whipping-boy for anti-Semitic Jewish conspiracy theorists, and as the phantom spoiler by disgruntled anti-Israeli politicians who fall short at the ballot box. But its reported involvement in the Pentagon-leak story will force it to handle mainstream-media damage control of the like the organization has not yet known."

A Long History Israeli Espionage Against the US,
By SAM HUSSEINI, Counterpunch, August 30, 2004
"[This survey of Israeli spying on the US was compiled in 1997.] The Washington Post reported in a front-page story on May 7th, 1997 that US intelligence had intercepted a conversation in which two Israeli officials had discussed the possibility of getting a confidential letter that then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher had written to Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. One of the Israelis had commented that they may get the letter from "Mega"-- apparently a codename for an Israeli agent within the US government ... Here is a sampling of the public record of Israeli espionage and covert actions against the US: According to Time magazine (5/19/97), the US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, last year "complained privately to the Israeli government about heavy-handed surveillance by Israeli intelligence agents, who had been following American-embassy employees in Tel Aviv and searching the hotel rooms of visiting US officials." *** Three relevant documents were made public in early 1996: 1) A General Accounting Office report "Defense Industrial Security: Weaknesses in US Security Arrangements With Foreign-Owned Defense Contractors" found that according to intelligence sources "Country A" (identified by intelligence sources as Israel, Washington Times, 2/22/96) "conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any US ally." The Jerusalem Post (8/30/96) quoted the report, "Classified military information and sensitive military technologies are high-priority targets for the intelligence agencies of this country." The report described "An espionage operation run by the intelligence organization responsible for collecting scientific and technologic information for [Israel] paid a US government employee to obtain US classified military intelligence documents." The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (Shawn L. Twing, April 1996) noted that this was "a reference to the 1985 arrest of Jonathan Pollard, a civilian US naval intelligence analyst who provided Israel's LAKAM [Office of Special Tasks] espionage agency an estimated 800,000 pages of classified US intelligence information." The GAO report also noted that "Several citizens of [Israel] were caught in the United States stealing sensitive technology used in manufacturing artillery gun tubes." 2) An Office of Naval Intelligence document, "Worldwide Challenges to Naval Strike Warfare" reported that "US technology has been acquired [by China] through Israel in the form of the Lavi fighter and possibly SAM [surface-to-air] missile technology." Jane's Defense Weekly (2/28/96) noted that "until now, the intelligence community has not openly confirmed the transfer of US technology [via Israel] to China." The report noted that this "represents a dramatic step forward for Chinese military aviation." (Flight International, 3/13/96) 3) The Defense Investigative Service circulated a memo in late 1995 warning US military contractors that "Israel aggressively collects [US] military and industrial technology." The report stated that Israel obtains information using "ethnic targeting, financial aggrandizement, and identification and exploitation of individual frailties" of US citizens. (Washington Post, 1/30/96) (This report was criticized by several groups for allegedly implying that Americans Jews were particularly suspect.) *** From New York Times December 22, 1985, by David K. Shipler: Many American officials are convinced of Israel's ability, on a routine basis, to obtain sensitive information about this county's secret weapons, advanced technology and internal policy deliberations in Washington... The F.B.I. knew of at least a dozen incidents in which American officials transferred classified information to the Israelis, [former Assistant Director of the F.B.I.] Mr. [Raymond] Wannal said. The Justice Department did not prosecute. "When the Pollard case broke, the general media and public perception was that this was the first time this had ever happen," said John Davitt, former chief of the Justice Department's internal security section. "No, that's not true at all. The Israeli intelligence service, when I was in the Justice Department, [1950-1980] was the second most active in the United States, to the Soviets." *** From "The Samson Option," by Seymour M. Hersh [Page numbers are from the Vintage paperback edition, 1992.] The name "Mega" in the recent Washington Post story may be noteworthy: [I]llicitly obtained intelligence was flying so voluminously from LAKAM into Israeli intelligence that a special code name, JUMBO, was added to the security markings already on the documents. There were strict orders, [Ari] Ben-Menashe recalled: "Anything marked JUMBO was not supposed to be discussed with your American counterparts." ("The Samson Option," pg 295) After Jonathan Pollard was arrested for selling secrets to Israel, the Israeli leadership denied all knowledge. Hersh provides several sources indicating that they did know. Here's one: The top leadership, of course, knew what was going on. One former Israeli intelligence official recalled that Peres and Rabin, both very sophisticated in the handling of intelligence, were quick to ask, as the official put it, "Where are we getting this stuff?" They were told, the Israeli added, that Israeli intelligence 'has a penetration into the U.S. intelligence community.' Both men let it go. No one said: 'Stop it here and now.'" ("The Samson Option," pg 296) One of the little-known aspects of the Pollard case is that information was passed along by the Israelis to the Soviets: For Shamir, the Israeli added, the relaying of the Pollard information to the Soviets was his way of demonstrating that Israel could be a much more dependable and important collaborator in the Middle East than the "fickle" Arabs: "What Arab could give you this?" ("The Samson Option," pg 299) The Pollard information helped in Israel's ability to exercise "The Samson Option" -- to threaten the Soviet Union, and therefore the US, with nuclear war if they didn't get their way in developments in the Mideast. Disclosure of information to the Soviets also apparently led the Soviets to track down US agents: One senior American intelligence official confirmed that there have been distinct losses of human and technical intelligence collection ability inside the Soviet Union that have been attributed, after extensive analysis, to Pollard. "The Israeli objective [in the handling of Pollard] was to gather what they could and let the Soviets know that they have a strategic capability--for their survival [the threat of a nuclear strike against the Soviets] and to get their people out [of the Soviet Union]," one former CIA official said. "Where it hurts us is our agents being rolled up and our ability to collect technical intelligence being shut down. When the Soviets found out what's being passed"--in the documents supplied by Pollard to the Israelis--"they shut down the source." ("The Samson Option," pg 300) *** A portion of a 1979 CIA internal report, "Israel: Foreign Intelligence and Security Services" (from The Nation, "I Spy, You Spy, We All Spy," December 14, 1985, by Alexander Cockburn) included the following: In one instance Shin Beth [the Israeli internal security agency] tried to penetrate the US Consulate General in Jerusalem through a clerical employee who was having an affair with a Jerusalem girl. They rigged a fake abortion case against the employee in an unsuccessful effort to recruit him. Before this attempt at blackmail, they had tried to get the Israeli girl to elicit information from her boyfriend. Two other important targets in Israel are the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) with headquarters in Jerusalem. There have been two or three crude efforts to recruit Marine guards for monetary reward. In the cases involving UNTSO personnel, the operations involved intimidation and blackmail. In 1954, a hidden microphone planted by the Israelis was discovered in the Office of the US Ambassador in Tel Aviv. In 1956, telephone taps were found connected to two telephones in the residence of the US military attache. *** In March 1978, Stephen Bryen, then a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer, was overheard in a DC hotel offering confidential documents to top Israeli military officials. The F.B.I. found Bryen's fingerprints on the documents in question, and he admitted to having obtained them the night before the meeting with the Israelis. Bryen was forced to quit his job, but was never indicted. He was later brought on to the Defense Department as a deputy to Reagan Administration Assistant Secretary Richard Pearle. There Bryen was in charge of such matters as overseeing technology transfers in the Mideast. (See "The Armageddon Network" (Amana Books) by Michael Saba, an officer of the National Association of Arab Americans when he overheard Bryen offer the documents to the Israelis.) As late as 1992, Stephen Bryen was serving on board of the pro-Israeli Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs while continuing as a paid consultant -- with security clearance -- on exports of sensitive US technology. (Wall Street Journal, 1/22/92, Edward T. Pound and David Rogers) *** * "The Lavon Affair": In 1954, Israeli agents attacked Western targets in Egypt in an apparent attempt to upset US-Egyptian relations. Israeli defense minister Pinchas Lavon was removed from office, though many think real responsibility lay with David Ben-Gurion. * In 1965, Israel apparently illegally obtained enriched uranium from NUMEC corporation. (Washington Post, 6/5/86, Charles R. Babcock, "US an Intelligence Target of the Israelis, Officials Say.") * In 1967, Israel attacked the USS Liberty, an intelligence gathering vessel flying a US flag, killing 34 crew members. See "Assault on the Liberty," by James M. Ennes, Jr. (Random House). * In 1985 Richard Smyth, the owner of MILCO was indicted on charges of smuggling nuclear timing devices to Israel (Washington Post, 10/31/86). * April 24, 1987 Wall Street Journal headline: "Role of Israel in Iran-Contra Scandal Won't be Explored in Detail by Panels" * In 1992, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israeli agents apparently tried to steal Recon Optical Inc's top-secret airborne spy-camera system. (1/17/92, Edward T. Pound and David Rogers). * In early 1997, an Army mechanical engineer, David A. Tenenbaum, told investigators that he "inadvertently" gave classified military information on missile systems and armored vehicles to Israeli officials (New York Times, 2/20/97). * For detailed analysis of the Israel-US relationship, including covert operations, see "Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel" by Stephen Green (Amana Books). Also see "Dangerous Liaisons" by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn (Harper Collins). * For information on economic espionage see "War By Other Means: Economic Espionage in America" by Wall Street Journal reporter John Fialka (Norton). Also see "Israel's Unauthorized Arms Transfers" in Foreign Policy, Summer 1995, by Prof. Duncan Clarke of American University."

Jews are creating their own ghetto warns Israeli,
Ekklesia, 1/9/04
"Jews are not making themselves safer by building a security wall in Israel but are rather sending themselves back into a ghetto, according to an Israeli Jew writing in a publication launched today by Christian Aid agency World Vision and the Christian Socialist Movement. Rami Elhanan writes in Barrier to Peace? Perspectives on the Barrier that the construction is a "wall of hatred" and will not make life better for Jews in the Palestinian Territories: "As a Jew, the most alarming thing for me is that my people are getting back into the ghetto. "We are creating our own ghetto, which will not protect us. It will make us give up any hope. It will make us give up any dialogue or negotiation and connection with our neighbours. It will make us feel full of power when we are really powerless. The price of this wall is too high. It will put the very existence of the State of Israel in jeopardy." Mr Elhanan, former soldier and father of a girl killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber, is one of two contributors to Barrier to Peace? Perspectives on the Barrier, the other is Reverend Alex Awad, an ordained Palestinian Christian and Dean of Students at Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem. The former spends much of his piece explaining why most Israeli Jews support the wall's construction. The latter writes about how devastating the effect the wall has on Palestinians and on the future of the peace process. "As Palestinian territories shrink due to the wall, so will the Palestinian ability to form a viable state on what little that is left," writes Rev Awad. "Israelis deceive themselves when they assume that they can throw Palestinians into fenced in, isolated islands of historic Palestine, while Israelis enjoy the fruits of the imposed peace and security. "It did not work for the apartheid regime of South Africa and it will not work for Israel. This wall will not make good neighbours. This wall will embitter and impoverish Palestinians and add fuel to militancy and terrorism."

Zionism Also Trampled Over Arab Jews,
By Yehudith Harel, Miftah (from Al-Ahram), September 4, 2004
"While struggling for truth and equality, true partnership and reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians, we need to address the wrongs inflicted by Zionism not only on Palestinians but on Arab Jews as well. While doing so we're not damaging or diluting the struggle for truth and equality between Jews and Palestinians but on the contrary, strengthening it, making it more powerful by giving it another dimension which can also help us to mobilize wider groups in Israeli society to support our cause. One must state clearly that one cannot compare the discrimination and oppression of the Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories with that of the oriental or Arab Jews. Nor should one overlook the major national component of the Jewish-Palestinian struggle and the immense present day suffering of the Palestinians at Israel's hands. One should not forget that Zionism constitutes first and foremost an assault against Palestinian Arabs ... Several, not all, expressions of the discrimination and oppression of both groups came from the same psycho-political "source", even if not from the same root, and begot the same practical attitude towards them. First, the European- colonialist attitude of the Zionists, looking down on the "natives" and regarding them as second class and inferior in being "oriental", "Arab" and culturally "underdeveloped". Second, the cold, calculated and instrumental attitude towards both groups: oriental Arab Jews were treated by the Zionist movement like objects not subjects, and their fate and well being did not count in face of the "big national ideals" and achievements sought by the Jewish nationalist movement which was, after all, completely Ashkenazi, both in origins and in essence. Therefore, the Zionists could oust the majority of the Palestinian community and oppress and discriminate against the remaining ones; bring in oriental Arab Jews almost like imported cattle and practically "throw them off" vehicles and thrust them in the new developmental cities in the desert and in other remote agricultural settlements, doing so "for the benefit of the State" and the Zionist cause. There was no consideration whatsoever of the welfare of those people. There are many well-documented instances in the historical record indicating this instrumental attitude. Third, the deep cultural disdain and contempt that survives to this very day. The culture of oriental Arab Jews was Arab, the culture of the "enemy", which has been and is still looked down upon, de-legitimized, disdained and seen as inferior. Their Judaism was one of a traditional mode, in sharp juxtaposition to the secular aspirations of the Ashkenazi Zionists. Therefore, in order to be accepted by and belong to the hegemonic Jewish collective -- that is the Ashkenazi one -- the oriental Arab Jew had to distance him or herself from Arab culture and Arab-Jewish identity, which was a mild, traditional school of Judaism, and assimilate into the Israeli nationalist Ashkenazi secular culture. This same attitude remains prevalent among Ashkenazi elites, who find the emergence of traditional Jewish Sephardic protest movements like Shass not only utterly incomprehensible, unacceptable and even repulsive, but also a "cultural threat". The mainstream and hegemonic Jewish-Israeli cultural orientation is completely Western in aspiration -- if not in real practice and content. It has shifted from the traditional Euro-centric orientation to be predominantly Americanised. To this very day, Jewish-Israeli "oriental" culture is not considered mainstream nor equal, but rather fringe and inferior. This is the case despite the adoption and integration of folkloric elements from the Orient, mainly in the gastronomic and popular music realms. Since the foundation of the State of Israel there has existed long-standing and clearly institutionalized discrimination against oriental Arab Jews and Israeli Palestinians in the allocation of funds for education, job opportunities, land ownership, etc. It's true that Israeli Palestinians are more severely discriminated against, are even lower down the ladder, but the roots of this discrimination and its socio-economic outcomes are pretty much the same, let alone the national component. The outcome of the Ashkenazi attitude towards oriental Jews, their Arab culture and traditions, including their specific stream of Judaism and Jewish identity, has had a strong negative political significance."

[Rabbis like this open the door to Hell. If there is no such thing as a difference between a "civilian" and "combatant," then anyone anywhere is subject to murder. If non-combatants are fair game, this brutal Jewish rationale not only would be aimed at Palestinians, but -- in an inevitable tit-for-tat response -- would be violently expanded to include innocent Americans and all Jews themselves.]
Rabbis call for IDF to hit civilians if needed,
By MATTHEW GUTMAN AND RONIT SELA, Jerusalem Post, September 7, 2004
"A group of prominent right wing rabbis on Tuesday issued a potentially inflammatory public call on the government to fight terrorism more tenaciously and to heed no difference between civilian and combatant in battle. The call by West Bank, Gaza, and right wing rabbis from Israel proper, arrived just a few hours after an IDF strike in Gaza killed 15 people – all of them Hamas members, according to a Hamas spokesman. The group of rabbis, headed by former MK and Chairman of the popular Bnei Akiva youth movement Haim Drukman (National Religious Party), said the army's policy in Palestinian areas should take into consideration that no army, when fighting amongst civilians, can protect the lives of its soldiers unless it is willing to take the risk of injuring, or even killing, civilians amongst whom terrorists hide "In a time of war as in today, we cannot differentiate between [civilian] population to an Army," the letter read ... Part of the letter hinges on the teachings of Rabbi Akiva a 2nd century AD scholar, who preached that while one should respect above all one's neighbor, there are choices to be made, specifically "our lives first." Other rabbis who signed the letter include the Chairman of the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Rabbi's council, Dov Lior, and rabbi's Amnon Shugerman and Yuval Sherlo who both head hesder yeshivas which combine Torah learning and shortened army service. The letter follows a slew of similar epistle by various Rabbinical councils who support the Greater Israel ideology, calling for the employment of harsher tactics against the Palestinians and for IDF soldiers to refuse their orders should they be summoned to dismantle an outpost or settlement. Yesha Rabbis' Council secretary Yishai Ba'abad said the rabbis' letter to the heads of state is based on a previous psak halacha (Jewish decree) that the lives of Israeli soldiers comes first and should be protected, even on the expense of "so-called civilians". "According to Christian law, one must turn the other cheek; but according to Jewish law, we must first and foremost protect ourselves. If 10 civilians are killed so that we can save the life of one IDF soldier - so be it."

[ American Jews continue to worry about growing evidence of Jewish dual loyalty and primary allegiance to Israel. No surprise here. The gay New Jersey governor's extramarital lover was an Israeli. Then there are the hoardes Jewish spies and traitors throughout the U.S. government for Israel and AIPAC (one and the same). Then there's the Jewish likes of Monica Lewinsky and Chandra Levin, dragging politicians down into the gutter. Where does it end? And so very, very clearly, there is increasingly no difference between the American Jewish community and its Israeli counterpart. Some American Jews are getting uncomfortable with their own dual loyalty chutzpah.]
We may be one, but which one? Blurring the line between American Jewish leadership and Israel isn't healthy for American Jews or for Israel. SIMPLY SABRA: Former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey had one too many Israeli connections ,
by Jonathan S. Tobin, Jewsweek, September 7, 2004
"It's been an odd week tracking the relationship between Israelis and Americans. Most of the attention here has focused on the fact that a young Israeli man named Golan Cipel was the governor of New Jersey's alleged extramarital lover or, depending on whose story you believe, the victim of sexual harassment by the state's chief executive. The fact that Gov. James McGreevey announced last month that he was "a gay American" who cheated on his wife wasn't the scandal in the eyes of most observers. It was the fact that McGreevey had appointed Cipel to a high-paying job as a state homeland security advisor, in spite of the fact that he wasn't remotely qualified and, as a foreign national, couldn't get a security clearance to receive classified information from Washington. The fact that an Israeli who hadn't even troubled to become an American citizen would even be considered for such a position marks an interesting turning point in the relationship between Israel and America. Israel began its history with citizens of other countries serving key roles in its armed forces. Most famous was U.S. Army Colonel David "Mickey" Marcus, who commanded the Israeli forces that lifted the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. Marcus was buried at his alma mater, West Point, the only American soldier who died fighting under a foreign flag to be so honored. But Cipel apparently was ready to return the favor. Like World War I American Gen. John J. Pershing, who landed in France in 1917 with the words, "Lafayette, we are here!" on his lips, Cipel might well have proclaimed, "Mickey Marcus, hinenei - 'I am here!' " when he entered the office that went along with his $110,000 salary. Yet the McGreevey mess isn't the only example of Israelis becoming players on U.S. shores. In a story that hasn't even been a blip on the radar screen of the secular news media, another Israeli has been appointed to an American job, raising different though troubling questions. It was the announcement that the American Jewish Congress was appointing Alon Pinkas as its new CEO. Who's Pinkas? Up until a few weeks ago, he was Israel's consul general in New York, serving in one of the Jewish state's most important diplomatic posts. But if the AJCongress gets its way, he will doff the mantle of diplomat, and take up the less-exalted title of chief macher for a Jewish organization best known for its unyielding stand on the separation of church and state in the United States. Perhaps I'm missing something, but the idea of a man who was an Israeli envoy just weeks ago taking the helm of a group that attempts to represent the interests of American Jews strikes me as more than a bit odd. Granted, maybe not as odd as the idea of the baby-faced Golan Cipel defending the people of New Jersey from Al Qaida, but still rather strange ... But AJCongress has still crossed a line. Pinkas, previously a foreign-policy advisor to Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak, has spent the last few years waltzing his way through the complicated labyrinth of New York Jewry. By all accounts, he has done a fine job, charming both the hoi polloi and the high-and-mighty. But while some Israelis have finished their terms in that office and fled back to Israel for a break from unending rounds of lox-and-bagel breakfasts and caviar receptions, Pinkas apparently can't get enough of it, and will get a salary from AJCongress far greater than the pittance New Jersey taxpayers shelled out to Cipel ... But don't the good people at AJCongress understand that blurring the line between American Jewish leadership and Israel isn't healthy for America Jews or Israel? The old slogan of the United Jewish Appeal was "We are one." But that was supposed to be a symbol of solidarity, not an avowal that no difference exists between being a U.S. citizen and one of the State of Israel ... But when some ask who do groups like AJCongress really represent - the State of Israel or the many loyal Americans who love both nations - do we really want that question answered by a foreign diplomat? By even contemplating the Pinkas appointment, AJCongress has stumbled badly. Their timing was also off in more ways than one. This was, it turns out, not a good week to be hiring an Israeli to fill a job better suited to an American."

Concern for the small animals,
By Meron Benvenisti, Haaretz (Israel), September 10, 2004
"Two main demands have been raised by environment groups in connection with the environmental damage caused by the separation fence: "environmental compensation" within the Green Line and "setting up crossing points for small animals." One stands incredulous before such a blatant expression of disregard for the human and physical landscape. Terrible environmental damage is being inflicted on large areas in the heart of the country. Seventeen million cubic meters of soil, with tens of thousands of olive trees, thousands of dunams of orchards and groves, tens of thousands of dunams of natural growth, hothouses, archaeological sites and wells - as well as the fabric of life of hundreds of thousands of people - are being crushed by giant bulldozers. Yet the environmental organizations have nothing to say about the damage caused by the fence. On the contrary, they exploit the tragedies of others to promote their own interests: The destruction of the Palestinian environment presents the opportunity to demand "environmental compensation" within Israel. Moreover, the environmentalists are fighting for safe passage for small wildlife, while ignoring the fact that freedom of movement is being denied to hundreds of thousands of people - including small children - in an arbitrary manner. What selective sensitivity! Of course, the environmentalists wish to avoid issues that are considered political - especially when the separation fence enjoys widespread domestic support and its few opponents are castigated as traitors. The "mandate" the environmentalists took upon themselves ends at the Green Line and whatever happens on the other side is of no interest to them. Just don't accuse them of annexing land. But attention should be directed to the destructive consequences of an ethnic or geopolitical approach to the environment, rather than addressing the environment from an ecological perspective. A mountain range that happens to fall within Israel's borders deserves careful preservation as "an ecological pocket" of great value. But the part of this same range that lies on the other side of the fence is of no interest. The environmental damage incurred is justified by security considerations and can be ignored because it "is not under our responsibility." In this way, those who destroy the environment and rape the landscape enjoy full freedom to continue their destructive work, which - how ironic - is driven by a love of the Land of Israel and the sanctity of its soil. The array of outposts and the plan for settlement contiguity, as exposed in Haaretz, constitute a program of environmental destruction of monstrous proportions. A chain of outposts, whose location is only determined by political considerations, aims to insert a wedge between Palestinian population blocs. The result is a series of octopus-like arms that stretch for many kilometers and include homes and other installations, as well as roads and infrastructure, defacing the environment and engendering chaotic development. These octopus arms, which hold a grip on Palestinian population centers, connect to Israeli settlement blocs via broad highways allocated "for Jews only," while parallel roads are paved "for Palestinians only." Together, these road systems damage the landscape and destroy ecological habitats. Who would dare to engage in something trivial like environmental protection when we are dealing with a fateful struggle for the Land of Israel? And if those responsible for protecting the environment remain silent, then those who raise a hue and cry about this must just be exploiting ecology to promote their political agenda."

[This is a few months old: propaganda as "art" in a tax-supported public institution (the Boston Public Library). In the interests of fair play, why isn't a future photographic exhibit entitled: ISRAEL WITH A FROWN?]
Zionist House/Israel Cultural Center and The Consulate General of Israel to New England Present Our Country: Israel with a Smile,
Israeli Embassy (Boston)
"An exhibit featuring the photographs of renowned Israeli photographer Alex Levac On display now through June 17 at the Boston Public Library Concourse Level For more information, call Zionist House at 617.267.3600"

[Torah-fearing nuts even worse than Ariel Sharon.]
Rabbi may be indicted for inciting to murder,
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS, Jerusalem Post, September 15, 2004
"Police are investigating the possibility of indicting a popular settler rabbi for inciting to assassinate Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel Radio reported Wednesday. "I definitely want something bad to happen to Sharon so that he will cease doing whatever it is he does," Rabbi Yosef Dayan said on New Year's Eve. "Nobody has called on me. A person can pray to the heavens on any subject he wishes." "When you talk about something bad happening to Sharon – the conditions may be created for this or they may not," he said. Dayan, who lives in the the West Bank settlement of Psagot, has a notorious record of extremist views. On Tuesday night he said that he was willing to carry out a religious Kabbalistic ceremony aimed at killing the prime minister. "If the rabbis ask me to carry out a 'pulsa denura' curse, I will be willing to do so at once," Dayan told Channel 2 News. "There are people who wish for the death of Prime Minister Sharon. I am one of them. Am I forbidden to wish?" he added. Dayan, who has previously been interrogated by the Shin Bet for performing such a ceremony against the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, was a close associate of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose party was banned in Israel for its extremist and racist views ... Jerusalem Police chief Ilan Franco said Tuesday police were investigating death threats made over the last few days by suspected Jewish extremists against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip. A number of threats were called in by phone against the premier, the head of Sharon's disengagement authority Yonatan Bassi and workers in the disengagement office."

[It looks like death threats work like prayers ... ]
Sharon: Israel Won't Stick to Peace Plan,
Guardian (UK), September 15, 2004
"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Wednesday that Israel has no intention of sticking to the U.S.-backed ``road map'' peace plan it endorsed last year. Sharon also said that there may be no further troop pullbacks after Israel carries out its so-called unilateral ``disengagement'' from the Palestinians - a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements in 2005. ``It is very possible that after the evacuation (disengagement), there will be a long period when nothing else happens,'' Sharon told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, commenting for the time in detail on Israel's plans after a Gaza withdrawal ... The road map, launched last year, envisioned a Palestinian state by 2005. The plan did not spell out the borders of that state, but senior U.S. officials have said that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza must come to an end. Sharon said that as long as there is no significant shift in the Palestinian leadership and policy, ``Israel will continue its war on terrorism, and will stay in the territories (of the West Bank) that will remain after the implementation of disengagement.'' President Bush has since said that it would be ``unrealistic'' to expect Israel to remove large Israeli population centers in the West Bank - a statement seen by Sharon as backing for his plan to keep large West Bank settlement blocs in any future deal with the Palestinians. Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Sharon's comments confirmed Palestinian concerns that the disengagement plan is a ploy to cement Israel's control over large areas of the West Bank."

“God Wills It!”,
by Uri Avnery, Information Clearinghouse, 09/15/04
"Two shocking manifestos were published this week. Both call for comment. One of them declares that dismantling the settlements in the Gaza Strip is a "crime against humanity." It does not mention that they were set up on the land reserves of a million Palestinians crowded in the tiny strip, and rob them of their scarce water. Their removal, it says, is an "expression of tyranny, evil and arbitrariness." Officers and soldiers are called upon not to take part in this "ethnic cleansing." This manifesto is signed by the father and brother of Binyamin Netanyahu, as well as Meir Har-Zion, the favorite pupil of Ariel Sharon, who became famous in the 1950s for slitting the throats of several innocent Bedouins with his own hands in revenge for the killing of his sister. Two former directors general of the prime minister's office also signed. Most of the signatories are not religious. The second manifesto declares that the Halakha (Jewish religious law) commands the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians if this helps to save Jews. It is signed by the heads of the "Arrangement Yeshivot," the West Bank settlement rabbis and other religious leaders. They were later joined by one of the two chief rabbis (the Sephardic one). I was not unduly upset by the first manifesto. People of this kind can be found all over the world. In other countries they are called fascists (but, because of the Holocaust, we do not like to use this term in our country). What unites them is a primitive, atavistic morality that says that "we" are a superior race, God's chosen people, a master race, etc., while "they" are inferior races, untermenschen ... The second manifesto is far more dangerous. A religious doctrine that calls for the killing of civilians in the name of God is very serious. Such a decree signed by the rabbis of the "Arrangement Yeshivot" is tenfold worse. In order to understand this, one has to know that these Yeshivot are in fact military units. They constitute a unique phenomenon in the Israeli army: whole units formed on an ideological-political basis, obeying their own leaders. When David Ben-Gurion created the Israeli army (officially called the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF) in the middle of the 1948 war, he was determined to eliminate all its political groupings. So he disbanded the Palmakh, the legendary elite force that was based on the kibbutzim and tended to the left. The present setup was created, officially, in order to enable students of Yeshivot (Jewish religious seminaries) to serve in the army without interrupting their studies. In practice, they constitute a militia of the extreme-right wing, especially the settlers. While serving in the army, the Yeshiva students are nominally under the army chain of command, but in practice they are also subject to their rabbis, whose position is reminiscent of the political commissars of the Red Army. If the orders of the officers and the directives of the rabbis ever conflict, the great majority of the soldier-students will undoubtedly obey the rabbis ... The Arrangement Yeshivot soldiers are daily engaged in situations where they have to decide whether to shoot civilians or not. It is quite clear that the "opinion" of their rabbis will determine their behavior. It is a sentence of death for many people. Even today, Palestinian civilians are killed every day. Only a small fraction of the incidents are reported in the media. An old handicapped man was recently buried under the ruins of his home by an army bulldozer that demolished it so quickly that his family had no chance of getting him to safety. Only yesterday a 9-year-old boy was killed while sleeping at his home by shrapnel from a missile fired by a helicopter at an adjacent building. Almost every day, boys of all ages are killed while throwing stones at tanks and soldiers (whose bulletproof vests and helmets mean they are in no danger). It is impossible to know how many, if any, of these civilians – men, women, old people and children – are killed by Arrangement Yeshivot soldiers, or soldiers commanded by kippa-wearing officers. Nobody can be accused without incriminating evidence. But it is clear that the interpretation of the Halakha by the rabbis has now put a kosher-stamp on such acts. It puts an end to any pretense of the "pure arms" myth. It negates not only the prohibition of murder, but also the shame for such acts. The only religious voice raised against this appalling document was that of a small and courageous group called Rabbis for Human Rights, which opposes the dirty messianic current that has submerged almost the whole religious camp in Israel."

[Jews completely control popular discourse about what is, and isn't, a "Holocaust." Locked in important military deals with Tukey, for decades Israel has lobbied the U.S. government to ignore Armenian suffering in World War I. So at last a couple Jews finally step up to share a little piece of their martyrdom pedestal -- one guy because Israel's refusal to accept Armenian suffering hasn't completely bought Muslim Turkey off.]
JEWISH WRITERS BLAST ISRAEL, US AND TURKEY FOR DENYING GENOCIDE,
Harut Sassounian, Armenian Daily, September 18, 2004
"The Turkish government spends millions of dollars to deny the Armenian Genocide. Yet, despite such intense Turkish efforts, and sometimes because of them, the Genocide is becoming more widely known to the world. Scores of countries and international organizations have officially acknowledged it in recent years. The international media frequently refers to the Armenian Genocide. Despite the Israeli government's shameful support for Turkish revisionism, Jewish scholars and commentators have played a major role in reaffirming the facts of the Armenian Genocide. In recent weeks, two more Jewish writers have published very important articles on this issue. Hillel Halkin, an Israel-based author, in an article published in the August 17 issue of The New York Sun, castigated the "Republican congressional leadership and the Department of State "for opposing congressional resolutions "that do nothing more than express official American acknowledgment of the pre-meditated murder, mostly in 1915, of an estimated 1 to 1.5 million Armenians by the armies of the Ottoman Empire" ... Halkin blasts the Israeli foreign ministry for being "chock-full of fearful bureaucrats needlessly anxious about jeopardizing their country's good ties with Turkey." He accuses both the Israeli government and "some Jewish lobbies in America," for having "collaborated shamefully with the Turks on the Armenian issue." Halkin concludes his powerful article by pointing out that since the "Jewish State does not recognize" the Armenian Genocide "for reasons of realpolitik," the Jews should then stop blaming other countries that for their own reasons of realpolitik did not lift a finger while the Nazis were slaughtering the Jews! A second important article, written by Israeli attorney Nir Eisikovits, appeared in the September 1, 2004 issue of "In the National Interest," an online weekly published jointly by The National Interest magazine and The Nixon Center. The writer points out that Israel's denial of the Armenian Genocide is based on two considerations: the belief in the "uniqueness" of the Holocaust, and Israel's self-perceived strategic interests or "realpolitik." Eisikovits considers the first argument "both morally warped and empirically unfounded." By asserting that "Jews do not have a monopoly on pain," he emphatically states: "Jews cannot, simultaneously, attack those who deny the Holocaust and assist others who deny the Armenian Genocide." The writer also points out that the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides have not in any way diminished the Nazi atrocities. As for the considerations of "realpolitik," Eisikovits sadly concludes that Israel's appeasement of Turkey "does not seem to be working." Recalling that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently accused Israel of "state terrorism," he concludes that Israel has apparently sold its "moral integrity in vain." He also argues: "Realism in international affairs, with all its merits, must be subordinate to a nation's most basic principles rather than dictate them." By refusing to recognize other cases of genocide, "Israel would have undermined the main reason for its own existence," Halkin states. The courageous positions taken by these righteous Jewish writers, combined with all other efforts by Armenians and non-Armenians worldwide would eventually force the governments of the United States and Israel to stop parroting the lies and start telling the truth on the Armenian Genocide."

Israelis invent stink bomb for riot control,
By Hugh McManners, The Independent (UK), 18 September 2004
"The ever-ingenious inventors at Israel's weapons research and development directorate have created a schoolboy's dream: the ultimate stink bomb, with a disgusting smell that lingers in its victim's clothing for up to five years. The foul-smelling liquid squirted by angry or frightened skunks at their victims was analysed by Israeli defence scientists and a synthetic version created for use in a weapon they call the "skunk bomb". Fired with great care, and from a respectable range, it is designed to force civilian protesters to disperse. Security forces would not be keen to arrest the victims, and they would be equally unwelcome at home. When soldiers try to control crowds, or take action against guerrillas hiding in urban areas, there is a high risk of damage to property and people near by. Military weapons are designed to kill, and are often too powerful to use under these circumstances, as Israel Defence Forces have discovered in their clashes with Palestinian crowds. After years of using rubber bullets and tear gas, plus small arms, Israeli forces have been under pressure to create less-than-lethal weapons with which to target Palestinians. The skunk bomb is one example. The Israelis have always been innovators of military technology. Their Merkova tank was designed with a rear compartment for carrying the bodies of their dead from the battlefield. But tanks can be sitting ducks to protesters, who can set fire to them. Israel Military Industries has developed tank shells that explode immediately after leaving the tank's barrel, deafening and terrifying but not seriously injuring bystanders."

[More Israeli state "terrorism."]
Sharon hints that Arafat may be killed,
by Chris McGreal, The Guardian (UK), September 15, 2004
"Ariel Sharon has threatened that Yasser Arafat will meet the same fate as Hamas leaders who were assassinated earlier this year by the Israeli military. In ambiguous comments to Israeli newspapers to mark the Jewish new year, the prime minister said he intends to force the Palestinian leader into exile. But he also hinted that Mr Arafat might be killed. Speaking to Ma'ariv newspaper, Mr Sharon made direct reference to the Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by a missile in Gaza in March, and his successor as the Islamic resistance movement's leader, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, who was killed by the Israelis the following month. "We operated against Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi when we thought the time was suitable. On the matter of Arafat we'll operate in the same way, when we find the convenient and suitable time. One needs to find the time and to do what has to be done," said Mr Sharon. However, the prime minister told other newspapers that he would send Mr Arafat into exile. Sheikh Yassin and Mr al-Rantissi were both exiled from the occupied territories at one time. A prominent Palestinian minister, Saeb Erekat, said Mr Sharon's comments show that he intends "to kill President Arafat and to push the Palestinian people toward chaos"

[Anti-Semitism! Anti-Semitism! Jewish graves desecrated! But ... wait? Who did this? And why? The world Jewish Lobby will vehemently decry "anti-Semitism" when a fly is allowed to land on a Jewish grave in Poland or Romania. But does a 12 year-old spraying swastikas on an old Jewish headstone in Europe remotely match this below? On one hand the world Jewish posse almost wants to throw into prison any non-Jew who cuts across a Jewish cemetery. On the other hand, in the Jewish homeland, a Jew decides to bury piles of garbage with the Jewish dead just to save a few dollars in gas money.]
J'lem cemetery workers may have dumped waste in graves,
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz (Israel), October 17, 2004
"Some 200 graves in the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem are suspected to have been violated in the past few weeks by employees of the site's sanitation company, who filled them with piles of garbage. The Jerusalem police suspect that contractor Ezra Aslan, who is in charge of the cemetery's sanitation, had hoped to save on waste transport expenses, and instructed to have the waste buried inside graves instead. A sanitation worker who worked for Aslan led police detectives to 30 graves where he had buried garbage. Because of Aslan's expertise the graves were sealed over, so that the act would remain undetected. The police, who decided not to open up the graves they were shown, noted that a few gravestones had not been re-set, and piles of rubbish were peeking out from the ground below. Asland denied having instructed his workers to hide the garbage on the gate at a hearing at the Jerusalem's Magistrate's Court on Sunday to extend his remand. Police launched the investigation when two pistols were discovered in one of the graves. Aslan said he had intended to hand in the guns he found, via his business partner, who works as a security officer in the Shin-Bet, upon his partner's return to Israel from an overseas trip." [Givat Shaul is indeed a Jewish cemetery. Madonna visited a rabbi's tomb there last month.]

[This is a thinly disguised form of Jewish-inspired genocide: murdering children in the name not only of the Jewish state but of all Jews everywhere. It is Jewish moral corruption at rock bottom. And the brutal Jewish Lobby has forced brainwashed Americans to be silent accomplices to it.]
Killing children is no longer a big deal,
By Gideon Levy, Haaretz (Israel), October 17, 2004
"More than 30 Palestinian children were killed in the first two weeks of Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip. It's no wonder that many people term such wholesale killing of children "terror." Whereas in the overall count of all the victims of the intifada the ratio is three Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed, when it comes to children the ratio is 5:1. According to B'Tselem, the human rights organization, even before the current operation in Gaza, 557 Palestinian minors (below the age of 18) were killed, compared to 110 Israeli minors. Palestinian human rights groups speak of even higher numbers: 598 Palestinian children killed (up to age 17), according to the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, and 828 killed (up to age 18) according to the Red Crescent. Take note of the ages, too. According to B'Tselem, whose data are updated until about a month ago, 42 of the children who have been killed were 10; 20 were seven; and eight were two years old when they died. The youngest victims are 13 newborn infants who died at checkpoints during birth. With horrific statistics like this, the question of who is a terrorist should have long since become very burdensome for every Israeli. Yet it is not on the public agenda. Child killers are always the Palestinians, the soldiers always only defend us and themselves, and the hell with the statistics. The plain fact, which must be stated clearly, is that the blood of hundreds of Palestinian children is on our hands. No tortuous explanation by the IDF Spokesman's Office or by the military correspondents about the dangers posed to soldiers by the children, and no dubious excuse by the public relations people in the Foreign Ministry about how the Palestinians are making use of children will change that fact. An army that kills so many children is an army with no restraints, an army that has lost its moral code. As MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) said, in a particularly emotional speech in the Knesset, it is no longer possible to claim that all these children were killed by mistake. An army doesn't make more than 500 day-to-day mistakes of identity. No, this is not a mistake but the disastrous result of a policy driven mainly by an appallingly light trigger finger and by the dehumanization of the Palestinians. Shooting at everything that moves, including children, has become normative behavior. Even the momentary mini-furor that erupted over the "confirming of the killing" of a 13-year-old girl, Iman Alhamas, did not revolve around the true question. The scandal should have been generated by the very act of the killing itself, not only by what followed. Iman was not the only one. Mohammed Aaraj was eating a sandwich in front of his house, the last house before the cemetery of the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus, when a soldier shot him to death at fairly close range. He was six at the time of his death. Kristen Saada was in her parents' car, on the way home from a family visit, when soldiers sprayed the car with bullets. She was 12 at the time of her death. The brothers Jamil and Ahmed Abu Aziz were riding their bicycles in full daylight, on their way to buy sweets, when they sustained a direct hit from a shell fired by an Israeli tank crew. Jamil was 13, Ahmed six, at the time of their deaths. Muatez Amudi and Subah Subah were killed by a soldier who was standing in the village square in Burkin and fired every which way in the wake of stone-throwing. Radir Mohammed from Khan Yunis refugee camp was in a school classroom when soldiers shot her to death. She was 12 when she died. All of them were innocent of wrongdoing and were killed by soldiers acting in our name. At least in some of these cases it was clear to the soldiers that they were shooting at children, but that didn't stop them. Palestinian children have no refuge: mortal danger lurks for them in their homes, in their schools and on their streets. Not one of the hundreds of children who have been killed deserved to die, and the responsibility for their killing cannot remain anonymous. Thus the message is conveyed to the soldiers: it's no tragedy to kill children and none of you is guilty. Death is, of course, the most acute danger that confronts a Palestinian child, but it is not the only one. According to data of the Palestinian Ministry of Education, 3,409 schoolchildren have been wounded in the intifada, some of them crippled for life. The childhood of tens of thousands of Palestinian youngsters is being lived from one trauma to the next, from horror to horror. Their homes are demolished, their parents are humiliated in front of their eyes, soldiers storm into their homes brutally in the middle of the night, tanks open fire on their classrooms. And they don't have a psychological service. Have you ever heard of a Palestinian child who is a "victim of anxiety"? The public indifference that accompanies this pageant of unrelieved suffering makes all Israelis accomplices to a crime. Even parents, who understand what anxiety for a child's fate means, turn away and don't want to hear about the anxiety harbored by the parent on the other side of the fence. Who would have believed that Israeli soldiers would kill hundreds of children and that the majority of Israelis would remain silent? Even the Palestinian children have become part of the dehumanization campaign: killing hundreds of them is no longer a big deal.

[The newspaper that published the following piece is African-American. The man severely beaten by Jewish attackers for daring to walk Palestinian children to school is also Black. His crime? Peacefully challenging Jewish racism.]
Heroism in the Holy Land: Chris Brown beaten for walking children to school,
by Alison Weir, San Francisco Bay View, October 6, 2004
"There are a small number of people around the world who exhibit extraordinary courage. An even smaller number commit repeated acts of heroism. San Francisco resident Chris Brown is one of them. On Wednesday morning, Brown, with his colleague Kim Lamberty, was on the other side of the world walking children to school. The children were like any other children – except for one thing. They were scared. Not that they would fail a test, not that their teacher would call on them with a difficult question, not that they would lose a schoolyard game. These children were scared that adults would physically try to attack them.They were right. It was a bright morning. There were two girls and three boys, and they ranged in age from 6 years old to 11. Chris, 39, and Kim, 44, were there to protect them. The children were Palestinian. Chris and Kim are volunteers with an organization called Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), which provides nonviolent intercession in areas of violence. They serve in the West Bank city of Hebron, where Palestinian civilians are frequently attacked and harassed by Israeli settlers. The presence of such international witnesses often reduces this violence. Children in a small village outside of Hebron, Tuba, attend school in the neighboring village of Tuwani. The problem is, Israeli settlements lie between Tuwani and Tuba. The route around these settlements is over 6 miles – too long for small to children to trek twice a day. There is an alternative route between settlements that reduces the journey to a little over a mile. Villagers asked CPT to accompany the children on this shorter route. Last Wednesday, Chris and Kim picked the children up from their village at 6:30, and all began walking to school. Part of the way there, settlements on either side, Kim and two of the children had gotten a little ahead and were just turning a bend in the road, when Chris saw them suddenly stop and begin running back, screaming. Then he saw why.“I saw men with black masks on, dressed all in black, wielding chains, one carrying a bat, most of them wearing black.” As the five men rushed at them, Chris called out, “Please don’t hurt the children, please don’t hurt the children.” The men smashed a rock to his head, knocking him to the ground, and began beating and kicking him with steel-toed boots. The attackers tried, unsuccessfully, to break his left wrist and dislocate his shoulder. “I said, ‘Why are you doing this? All we’re doing is walking children to school – we’re nonviolent,” Chris told them. “We’re Americans.” An attacker laughed, and Chris heard a man say, in a heavy Israeli accent, “They’re Americans.” Kim, meanwhile, lay face down, not moving as the men kicked and beat her. She says much of the attack is a blur – “It’s almost like for a moment you leave reality … I just remember thinking, ‘If I just lie here like I’m unconscious, maybe they’ll leave me alone.’”Finally, the men sauntered away, stealing Kim’s waist-pack containing her money, passport and cell phone. Unable to walk, she crawled over to Chris, who still had his phone and was able to call for help. Upon receiving Chris’s call, two CPT members rushed over immediately, despite fear that the attackers might still be nearby. They called for an ambulance on the way, and arrived to find Chris and Kim bleeding and in enormous pain. Twenty-five minutes later, Israeli officials, who, according to international law, are responsible for the safety of all civilians under their occupation, finally arrived, having taken half an hour to cover the 10-minute distance. The officials took statements, provided an ambulance to transport Chris and Kim to an Israeli hospital, but made no effort to find their assailants. At the hospital, Kim was found to have a broken arm, a severely injured knee, and bruises across her head and body. It is still difficult for her to move. Chris has a punctured lung and broken ribs and is similarly covered with cuts and body-wide contusions. He is still in the hospital. The children, who were able to flee immediately, are largely unhurt, physically.Who committed this vicious assault? Why? What kind of people try to prevent small children from going to school?It is unlikely that non-Israeli Americans will ever learn the names of the attackers, since Israel rarely shares this kind of information with its “ally.” We do know, however, the type of people who attacked Chris, Kim and the children. And we do know why."

[The Jewish Lobby decrees that comparing Nazis to Israelis is "anti-Semitism." What do YOU think?]
Israeli Commander Probed in Girl's Death,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), October 11, 2004
"Israel's top military prosecutor has opened an investigation into a platoon commander whom soldiers accuse of emptying an ammunition clip into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl to make sure she was dead, the army said Monday. In media interviews, soldiers said the commander approached the girl, who had already been shot and possibly killed, and repeatedly shot her as they pleaded with him to stop ... The issue surfaced when soldiers who serve under the platoon commander - whose name was not made public - told Israeli newspapers and TV reporters about the incident. Iyman Hams, 13, was shot and killed Oct. 5. Initially the army said soldiers shot and killed Hams as she planted a bomb near an army outpost in southern Gaza. But after soldiers recounted a different version of events to the media, an investigation was launched. The soldiers told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper they were unhappy that the platoon commander had not been suspended. Dozens of Palestinian children have been killed since fighting erupted four years ago, but the army rarely launches investigations into the incidents ... The soldiers told Yediot that before the commander shot the girl they shouted to him over the two-way radio: "Don't shoot, she's a little girl." "We saw her from a distance of 70 meters. She was fired at ... from the outpost. She fled and was wounded. I understood that she was dead. The platoon commander neared her shot two bullets at her, returned toward the force, turned back to her, put the weapon on automatic - and emptied his entire clip," one soldier said. "We were in shock, we held our heads. We couldn't believe what he had done. Our hearts ached for her. Just a 13-year-old girl. How do you spray a girl from close range? He was hot for a long time to take out terrorists and shot the girl to relieve pressure," the soldier said ...Ihab Samir Hams, the girl's brother, said his sister was on the way to school when she was shot. He said soldiers didn't allow an ambulance into the area for 70 minutes. He said she had bullet wounds in her head, chest, legs - "everywhere."

Jaffee Center: Israel better off strategically than last year,
By Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz (Israel), October 11, 2004
"Israel's overall strategic standing in the Middle East has improved and its security forces have registered impressive achievements in their war on terror in the past year, according to Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. At the same time, the Palestinians' motivation to continue to act against Israel has not been undermined, says "The Middle East Strategic Balance 2003-2004," this year's volume of the Jaffee Center's annual publication, which was presented yesterday to the media. According to the Jaffee Center publication, "From its current position of strength, Israel is striving to advance its planned disengagement from the Palestinians. "Alongside the successes, notes the head of the Jaffee Center, Prof. Shai Feldman, the past year has also been characterized by a failure to exploit opportunities - first and foremost, the disregard shown for signs of Syria's willingness to renew peace negotiations. The Jaffee Center publication also notes that alongside Israel's supremacy in the region's conventional balance of power, the past year has seen dangerous developments in Iran's nuclear program.The deputy head of the Center, Dr. Ephraim Kam, said that the United States seemed closer to the possible use of force to prevent Iran from completing its nuclear program. According to Kam, any Israeli military operation against Iran would require dialogue with the United States because U.S. forces are currently positioned between the two countries. Prof. Feldman believes that the improvement in Israel's strategic standing is not limited to the field of conventional warfare only, and notes that Israel has maintained exclusive capabilities in the non-conventional field too ... Dr. Kam noted that the current situation in Iran was more complex than existed in Iraq on the eve of the Israel Air Force's strike on the latter's nuclear facilities in 1981. Iran, Kam said, had 4-5 nuclear reactors, and maybe even additional ones that had been built in secret. Hence, he said, multiple strikes may be needed in order to neutralize Iran's nuclear capabilities completely. ... The Jaffee Center researchers believe that the biggest danger facing Israel today stems from the sub-conventional field and the increased activity of the terror organizations. According to the Jaffee Center, "Iraq has now become a convenient arena for jihad... With the growing phenomenon of suicide bombing, the U.S. presence in Iraq now demands more and more assets that might have otherwise been deployed against various dimensions of the global terrorist threat."

[A headline for our times. Hey, Jews. Stop spitting on EVERYONE. Note the recipients of Jewish drool here aren't blue-eyed Nazis -- they're Armenians. Jewish spit has a very wide range -- anyone who's not Jewish.]
Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them,
by Amiram Barkat, Haaretz (Israel), October 12, 2004
"A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face. The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot. On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student. Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days. But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something. "When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" he asks. According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country."

Israel Special Weapons Guide

[Israel's] Nuclear Weapons

Palestinian civilians in Israsel's sights?,
by Khalid Amayreh, Al-Jazeera, October 5, 2004
"Palestinian officials and witnesses have dismissed Israel's assertion that its forces are not deliberately targeting civilians in ongoing army operations in the northern Gaza strip. At least 65 Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 injured in the five-day onslaught, ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in retaliation for the death of two Israeli children in a Hamas missile attack on the Israeli settler town of Sderot, east of Gaza, last week. "The number of civilian victims exceeds by far the number of resistance fighters killed. As for the injured, I can say that 99% of them are innocent men, women and children who had no connection with the hostilities," Isa Dhahir, deputy mayor of Jabalya, said. In an interview with Aljazeera.net on Sunday, Dhahir accused the Israeli army of "knowingly and deliberately" targeting civilians, particularly children. "An army that is equipped with state-of-the art technology can easily distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. An army that can strike and assassinate a person driving in a small car through a crowded street, can easily distinguish children and women from resistance fighters ... [A]n initial investigation into the fatalities by B'Tselem - the Israeli organisation that monitors and documents human rights violations in the occupied West Bank and Gaza - found that 41% [of thoses killed] were civilians "who took no part in the fighting". B'Tselem also found that 19 children under the age of 17 had been killed by Israeli forces ... According to UN estimates, the Israeli army has destroyed more than 4500 homes since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada four years ago. Independent sources put this figure at 8000 and cite partially-damaged homes at more than 70,000. International law classifies home demolitions as a war crime."

[JTR Contributor's comment: "Oy vey! It's so hard to get good help these days. I will be forced to use machines, reducing the selling price for my crop, grown on land that once belonged to the Palestinians, but which we call 'Galilee,' which translates as 'Mine, all mine, forever'. What, pick my own olives? Damned anti-semite."]
Olive growers rue absent Palestinians,
By Eli Ashkenaz, Haaretz (Israel), October 2004
"For years, the olive harvest in Israel has relied on the labor of Palestinians from the territories, mostly from the region of Yamun near Jenin. However, the large number of security alerts has resulted in a total denial of passage for Palestinian laborers into Israel. The small number of exceptional permits arrived "too few and too late", say the growers. Yesterday entry was allowed to 1,300 Palestinian workers, but according to Gadi Horowitz, deputy director general of the Olive Council, "We are suffering from a huge lag, and are in desperate need of reinforcement. Much of the crop on the trees can still be saved". It is estimated that 1000 workers can pick 250 tons of olives per day. Currently 2,000 tons of olives remain on the trees to be picked. The Defense Ministry yesterday said the olive growers had been given 1,000 permits at their request before the holidays. The olive growers say workers were barred entry, despite the permits, until yesterday. Because of the great delay, they are now in need of an additional 1,000 pairs of hands, they say. Abraham Birger of Kfar Kish was expecting the arrival of a group of workers yesterday ... Birger says Palestinian laborers rise at 3 A.M. to reach work at 6-7 A.M. By 5 P.M. they have to head back to be home by 8 P.M. Basem, a Palestinian worker, on the phone from Kabatiya yesterday, said he can't understand the policy at the checkpoints. "We are given permits, and then stopped. We merely want to work for our livelihood, otherwise we will have nothing to eat. I don't own any land, or property, if I can't work, what will I do? People here are living on one meal a day. I don't know how we will celebrate Ramadan this year, we need to buy food and presents for the children." Birger has had to redirect eight of his Thai workers from other tasks on his farm to pick olives. But more and more fruit have blackened on the branches, the Thai workers can't keep up."

Israel's reputation deteriorating,
News 24, October 13, 2004
"Israel's international standing is likely to deteriorate in the coming years and its reputation could soon rival that of South Africa's former apartheid regime, Israeli army radio reported on Wednesday, citing a secret foreign ministry report. The document warned that if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues, Israel was likely to find itself on collision course with the European Union. Worse still, Israel could lose its international legitimacy and even find itself ostracised in the way South Africa was during the apartheid years, the radio said, quoting the document. The ministry refused to comment on the report. Israeli justice minister Joseph Lapid raised similar fears in January, warning that Israel could face an international boycott over its controversial West Bank separation barrier similar to that faced by South Africa during apartheid. The report warned that if Israel continued to ignore and neglect its ties with Europe, there could be serious political and economic implications for the Jewish state, with a danger that Europe could use its economic leverage to exert pressure. Even beyond Europe, the report painted a gloomy picture, predicting that Russia and Asian states were likely to build closer ties to the Arab world at the expense of Israel."

JTR contributor's comment: "Another sadistic Israel crowd control device." Added note: We anticipate the day when crowds protesting apartheid Israel in the West are subjected to this too. And, now that the Jewish state has unleashed it, it is of course a highly marketable item to oppressive governments and police states throughout the world.]
Israel to stun rioters into submission with new 'shouting,' gun,
Telegraph (UK) October 17, 2004
"Israel is to introduce a non-lethal acoustic weapon to control riots and disperse crowds after widespread criticism of its use of tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. The latest system, known as The Shout, uses a high intensity, high frequency sound beam to incapacitate targets up to 100 yards away without causing them permanent physical damage. The Shout is to be used within weeks after recent tests by the Israel Defence Force (IDF). Three systems have been delivered to the force's Central Command and are ready for imminent deployment. Israeli officials believe that the sound-based system will be less harmful to unarmed civilians than the non-lethal weapons already in its armoury. The Shout, first described in Jane's Defence Weekly, consists of a mounted acoustic cannon that aims a narrow beam of sound at targets to incapacitate them. This is achieved through the intensity of the noise but leaves bystanders and operators unaffected. "The Shout produces an intolerable sound, which either completely neutralises the subject or drives the person to escape the scene," said an official from the IDF, which has just withdrawn its forces from Gaza after a two-week effort to stop rocket attacks on Israeli settlers. "The system has undergone a series of tests by the IDF's Medical Corps, which determined it causes no permanent physical damage," the spokesman said. The Shout will be deployed initially on armoured Sufa 4x4 light utility vehicles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. If successful, the weapon may also be used at sea to intercept suspected terrorist vessels. Israel's development of non-lethal weapons was spurred by a critical report last year by the country's State Comptroller ... In addition to The Shout, tests are being carried out on a foul smelling non-lethal weapon that is nicknamed The Skunk Bomb. It releases a synthetic version of the odour used by skunks to repel predators. Defence officials say that the cloud of gas is so potent that it will remain in clothes for up to five years."

[Endless billions of dollars of U.S. carte blanche support to apartheid Israel has allowed a significant religio-fascist element to fester in the Jewish state. It heralds a cosmic Jewish supremacism, despises non-Jews, and seeks to expand present Israeli borders. These people are not few, and they're so far to the political right that they are a threat to right-wing prime minister Ariel Sharon. If you think the current Zionist regime in Israel is morally bankrupt, wait'll you see what happens when the other guys get power. In future years Israel may actually face civil war between secular apartheid Zionism and supporters of religious fascism.]
Army chief condemns rabbis' call on soldiers to refuse to evacuate settlements,"
by Ravi Nessman, San Francisco Chronicle (Associated Press), October 19, 2004
"Israel's army chief of staff Tuesday condemned a call from scores of rabbis who urged observant soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate Jewish settlements under next year's planned Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip. The statement by Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, broadcast on local media, reflected army officials' growing concern that a significant number of soldiers would heed the rabbis' call, causing a crisis in the army. "Insubordination is dangerous to us as an army, as a society and as a nation. This is not legitimate and inappropriate," Yaalon said. "Don't put us in impossible situations. "I call upon all those involved, from across the political spectrum, to show responsibility and not to undermine the (military)," he said at a navy memorial ceremony. Under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement plan," Israel would withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements next year, removing 8,600 settlers from their homes ... Sharon's plan, though supported by a strong majority of Israelis in opinion polls, has infuriated many in his hard-line Likud Party and his former allies in the settlers' movement. Opponents have begun waging strident verbal attacks on the prime minister. Opposition leader Shimon Peres said they are reminiscent of the poisonous political climate that preceded that 1995 assassination of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In the months before he was killed by an ultranationalist Jew, Rabin came under a barrage of increasingly personal verbal assaults from hard-liners -- including Sharon -- opposed to his peace deals with the Palestinians. New posters in the campaign against the plan accuse Sharon of "tearing the nation apart." Others show a picture of Sharon, the word "crazy" and three question marks across his forehead. "While I am very much worried about the climate, I believe that all the security measures have been taken to defend anybody, including the prime minister," Peres told The Associated Press. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he, too, is concerned. "We had enough a decade ago," he said of Rabin's assassination. "There is no way we can allow ourselves to experience the same trauma again" ... Last week, Avraham Shapira, a former chief rabbi of Israel, ruled that Sharon's plan violates Jewish law and said observant soldiers should not participate in removing settlers from their homes. Sixty other rabbis signed on to Shapira's statement. Analysts warned that even a small-scale mutiny could paralyze the army, where many observant soldiers serve in combat and other elite units. Some soldiers are in special programs combining army duty and Jewish seminary study, possibly dividing their religious and military loyalties, analysts said. "If the calls by the rabbis lead to a wave of refusing orders, it could become the greatest internal challenge to the army since the war began," military analyst Amos Harel wrote in the Haaretz daily ... Palmach Zeevi, an opponent of Sharon's plan and the son of slain hard-line minister Rehavam Zeevi, told a memorial service for his father Tuesday that disobeying orders "is a type of anarchy that will shake the very foundations of the state." Rehavam Zeevi was gunned down by Palestinians in a Jerusalem hotel in 2001."

Days of Penitence. Gaza Sinks in a Sea of Blood,
by Mohammed Omer, Couples Company, October 17, 2004
"It smells unbelievably bad here. To walk down any street—if you dare to—you skirt, or sometimes unavoidably walk through, pools of blood. There are shreds of human flesh—some of them unrecognizable as human remains—all over, on rooftops, plastered to broken windows, on the street. The stench of rotting blood mixes with the more acrid odor of flesh burnt to black char by the rockets fired by the Israeli Army's American-made Apache helicopters. Welcome to Hell The sky is full of black smoke, some from the rocket explosions, but even more, it sometimes seems, from the endless fires of tires and other debris that people keep stoking. The smoke confuses the heat-seeking unmanned drone surveillance planes, so setting fires in any relatively open area may draw fire and let a bomb explode somewhat harmlessly. All this smoke mixed with plaster and cement dust is a blessing and a curse. The stench of burning flesh and rotting blood masks to some extent the smell of raw sewage from broken sewer pipes and the tens of thousands of bodies unwashed for over a week now. Water to drink is a rare and precious commodity here—baths and showers have become impossible luxuries. Your eyes inevitably tear up from all the smoke—but then, that protects you a tiny bit from some of the more harrowing sights—recognizable body parts—a piece of a leg, an obvious part of a torso, and fingers—more scattered, individual, recognizable fingers than anyone should ever have to see. Volunteer crews are gathering these human fragments and bringing them to Jabalya's two hospitals but the ambulances cannot possibly keep up with the flood of newly dead and injured ... Shooting to Kill I interviewed Dr. Mahmoud Al Asali, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who told me he was forced to assume the Israeli Army has been deliberately targeting civilians. He said most of those injured by gunfire were wounded in the upper parts of their bodies, indicating the Israeli sharpshooters must have orders to shoot to kill. Palestinian doctors have removed many flechettes from the dead and injured, indicating the IDF are using illegal fragmentation bombs. These release razor sharp flechettes as they explode. Dr. Al Asali says these illegal fragmentation devices greatly increase the number of deaths and the number and severity of injuries. The IDF has refused to comment on this."

Conference At Duke Equates Zionism And Apartheid,
By Janine Zacharia, Jerusalem Post, October 18, 2004
"A weekend conference urging divestment from Israel got underway at Duke University on Friday and continued into Saturday with speakers equating Zionism with South African apartheid and some calling for an end to an exclusively Jewish state ... As of late Saturday, the heavily guarded events were peaceful. Only a handful of local protesters gathered outside the main venue of the PSM conference, a campus gym, to demonstrate. But at least one busload of Jewish demonstrators was expected to arrive early Sunday morning and some PSM representatives warned of possibly violent confrontations .. Rev. Mark Davidson, a Presbyterian pastor from Chapel Hill, said the Church leadership's recent decision to explore ways of divesting its holdings from certain businesses that have operations in Israel, was a way of "prodding Israel to live up to its highest ideals" ... On Saturday, Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Yale University professor and the co-founder of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right of Return Coalition, referred to Zionism as a "disease" and said the media only reported on "resistance to colonization" not on the violence of "repression and ethnic cleansing" by Israel. He also rejected a two-state solution. "We ought to stop talking about these vague concepts about a two-state solution," he said .. Across campus, at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, Jewish students gathered for an "Israel Teach-In," with lectures on Zionism, US- Israel relations and how to confront anti-Semitism. Some expressed concern about the PSM conference."

[The Jewish state murders with impunity. The U.S. Congress is petrified of offending the Jewish Lobby that dangles gagged senators by elastic strings.]
Corries push U.S. government to investigate their daughter's death,
PCUSA News (Worldwide Faith News), October 16, 2004
"Craig Corrie isn't politically naive. He served in Vietnam, after all. He's seen governments lie. Or cover up. He's seen armies be duplicitous. And political spin, he's seen that, too. But it still takes him aback when officials duck questions. Corrie and his wife, Cindy, are pushing the U.S. Congress to open a new investigation into the death of their daughter, Rachel, 23, who was crushed by a bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in March 2003 as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian physician's home. The army said it was wrecking homes in the Rafah refugee camp to create a "buffer zone" to prevent weapons smuggling from Egypt by building a high, steel wall. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reported that the driver of the bulldozer had not seen Corrie and did not run over her intentionally. But international eyewitnesses - some of them U.S. citizens - said Corrie stood 100 feet in front of the more than 60-ton bulldozer and was within the sight of the two men who manned the heavy equipment as it moved closer. They contend that she even clambered on top of the pile of dirt the machine raked as it approached the house. She was wearing the bright orange jacket that is the emblem of theInternational Solidarity Movement (ISM), a coalition of Palestinian and other international activists who volunteer to serve as human rights monitors in the occupied territories. Corrie was also using a megaphone. Israel and the United States have repeatedly rejected attempts by the United Nations to put monitors in place. "There's been no attempt [here] to record the testimonies of the international eyewitnesses. They all say Rachel was clearly visible," says Corrie, who is on the lecture circuit pushing for more international scrutiny of the IDF's actions in Gaza and of Caterpillar's complicity in what most international organizations call human rights abuses. Corrie wants to know why the U.S. government can't get testimonies from the U.S. citizens who are now back on U.S. soil, a first step in taking a deeper look at his daughter's death, since the Israeli government is apparently unwilling to allow the U.S. government access to conduct its own investigation. There isn't much Congressional support, either, to conduct anindependent inquiry, although 77 members of the House have signed onto a bill introduced by Rep. Brian Baird of Washington State calling on the U.S.government to "undertake a full, fair and expeditious investigation" into the death of Rachel Corrie. Neither the White House nor the Justice Department are pressing for further investigation. According to Corrie the Israeli government has exonerated the two soldiers involved and closed the case. And it is refusing to release a complete report of the military investigation into the death - despite having promised what Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told President Bush what would be a "thorough, credible and transparent" investigation. Even the U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission in Tel Aviv told the Corries that the report contained several "worthy inconsistencies. But the U.S. State Department has not received the actual details of the investigation. What the Corries want is an inquest like that run by the London police into the death of a young Brit in Rafah within a few miles of the spot where Rachel died. Corrie wants the FBI to do the same. Three internationals died near Rafah within a seven-week period in 2003. As it turns out, the British investigation contradicted the IDF's inquest, revealing that soldiers at the site lied about how 21-year-old Thomas Hurndall was killed. He was reportedly helping small children avoid IDF fire and was shot in the head when he returned a second time to helpanother child who was paralyzed by fear and unable to run. Hurndnall was also wearing the orange ISM vest. His lawyer father collected evidence that launched an investigation while his son lay in a comain an Israeli hospital. According to The Guardian, a London newspaper, the initial IDF reportclaimed that Hurndall was in camouflage and wielding a gun. Those statements were withdrawn in the face of testimonies by witnesses. A soldier is now charged with Hurndnall's killing. The third death along the same border strip was that of British filmproducer James Miller, who was shot by an Israeli tank while he was completing work on the Gaza portion on his HBO film Death in Gaza, which chronicles the impact of violence and terrorism on three young Palestinian children. Corrie was the first of the three to die. "Apparently at the point that Rachel realized the bulldozer was not going to stop, it was already dropping dirt on her," says her father. As she climbed to the top of the dirt pile, eyewitnesses said the blade caught her legs and pushed her under it. Then the bulldozer reversed, dragging the blade over her body again. She died about 20 minutes later in a Palestinian hospital. The photograph of that March 17 scene was printed in major newspapersaround the world: the Corries' crumpled daughter, her face covered with blood, being dug out of the rubble by other young people. That day, too, maymark the only time in history that the U.S. flag flew in the Gaza Strip, commemorating Rachel's death. This ordeal has been long for the Corries, who have visited the siteof their daughter's death, talked with the families who housed her in Rafah,met her friends there, seen the nursery school, the youth center and thewomen's center in Rafah that have been named after Rachel. Cindy is painfully aware that Palestinians die daily without the furor that Rachel's death has caused. "Rachel is the not the only person who has been killed there," says Cindy, mentioning the name of a woman who was nine months pregnant when her house collapsed on top of her as soldiers bulldozed the house next door. An elderly gentleman died in a similar incident. She says too that she watched women be cut off from their olive groves by the steel barrier. "The bulldozer is the symbol of the occupation in that part of the world - a symbol of oppression," her husband says, matter-of-factly, but with a tinge of incredulity that the U.S. manufacturers of the equipment can somehow divorce themselves from how it is being used. Several campaigns are now under way aimed at getting Caterpillar to stop selling bulldozers to the military. The most notable of these is theStop Cat Coalition, which held a demonstration that the Corries attended in Peoria, IL, last April."

[The rise of Jewish religio-fascism.]
Return of the Zealots and Sicaari. With the help of rabbis, self-appointed spokesmen for the Holy One, the French Le Pen option is accelerating right under the nose of a nation that thinks it can't happen here,
by Gideon Samet, Haaretz (Israel), October 20, 2004
"The prime minister's one and only political plan is stuck - not because he doesn't want to carry it out, not because he doesn't have a public majority, not because it isn't vital. The disengagement plan is stuck because Israeli politics, in a drawn-out and destructive process, is deteriorating rightward. A quarter of the Knesset is extreme right. With the help of rabbis, self-appointed spokesmen for the Holy One, the French Le Pen option is accelerating right under the nose of a nation that thinks it can't happen here. Attempt to pass the plan is therefore in itself a critical test case to find out if the country has gone crazy. If the plan is defeated, or its implementation is shelved, nothing afterward will stop Israel collapsing into the very worst condition. This would be a resounding victory for extremism and nationalist demagoguery, for messianism and xenophobia, which would destroy any chance of dealing with the war with the Palestinians. That quarter of the Knesset that wants the conflict to last forever could swamp parliament, because outside the gates there are more political barbarians. More rebels from the ruling party will join the Likud rebels, the NRP, Yisrael B'Aliyah, and the National Union, as will the pliant reeds of Shas and United Torah Judaism. They will be more than a third of the parliament - and new elections might strengthen them. In the last elections many people refused to see the very same thing the Europeans recognize among themselves as the rise of a quasi-fascist, separatist process, one that hates everything it sees, from damage to nationalist holy sites all the way to homosexuality. That process is capturing positions even without elections. The meeting point between Israeli fundamentalism, dressed up as sacrosanct patriotism, and its Muslim twin is a great national threat that meets the strangest apathy here. The details of the ultimate disaster are well-known. More blood. Lots of blood. Becoming an international pariah, as predicted in the Foreign Ministry's own report. Don't let the false prophets of the nationalist and religious Le Penism spread tall tales - it is not disengagement that is threatening to destroy the Third Commonwealth. A horrifying national crisis has already taken root because of the rising influence of the Zealots and Siccari of our time."

[Still milking German guilt. "Hey, Germany. We want your submarines so we can nuke you some day and we want you also to pay for it." Where's the redemption for Germany in supporting a different brutal "birthright" state?]
Germany and Israel restart talks on sale of submarines,
by Yossi Melman, Haaretz (Israel), October 22, 2004
"The director-general of the Defense Ministry, Amos Yaron, visited Berlin this week and met with his German counterpart, senior Bundeswehr officers, and chairman of the foreign affairs and defense committee in the Bundestag - Germany's lower house of parliament. According to German defense sources, Germany's Defense Ministry and military support Israel's request, which would supply employment at shipyards. However, implementing the deal requires approval by the government, which is divided on the issue. Germany is barred from selling arms - particularly offensive weapons - to crisis zones, but the main sticking point is monetary. Israel wants Germany to partially fund the construction of the submarines, which is expected to cost nearly $1 billion, or to grant a long-term interest-free loan. The German treasury is opposed to these ideas. Israel hopes Germany ultimately will agree to supply the submarines and announce its willingness to fund their construction by the beginning of 2005, 40 years since diplomatic ties between the two countries were reestablished."

Clashes mar Mid East inquiry,
BBC News (UK), March 25, 2001
"At least 20 Palestinians and one Israeli have been injured in further clashes near the West Bank town of Nablus. The violence came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reluctantly met an international fact-finding mission headed by former US senator George Mitchell. The international commission is meeting Mr Sharon at the end of a five-day visit looking into six months of violence in the region. Even as they met, Palestinians in Nablus protesting against the continuing blockade imposed by Israel threw stones at troops, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Historic mistake A few hours before the meeting on Sunday, Mr Sharon told Israeli radio he had no choice other than to meet the commission, but described the investigation into recent violence in the Palestinian territories as a "historic mistake" ... The Mitchell commission was set up after the Sharm el-Sheikh accord between former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Mr Arafat. But Mr Sharon says his predecessor made a grave "historical mistake" by allowing the investigation, equating it with putting Israel before an international tribunal. "Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial," he said."

Israel targets resistance fighters' kin,
by Khalid Amayreh, Al-Jazeerah, October 24, 2004
"Israel is increasing its attacks on the families of resistance fighters, according to rights organisations and anecdotal evidence. In recent weeks, Israeli Apache helicopters have fired a number of Hellfire missiles at the homes of Palestinian resistance activists, killing and maiming several civilians. In one incident, the brother of an Islamic Jihad activist was killed when a helicopter fired missiles at his family home. Nine other family members, including six children and two women, were badly burned in the attack. On 21 October, another helicopter fired missiles at the home of a local Popular Resistance Committees member, destroying the building in Bait Lahya in the Gaza Strip. His family narrowly escaped. "It is a war crime. Targeting innocent people is a war crime" Yehezkel Lien, international law expert at Israeli rights organisation Btselem Israel has on many occasions targeted the homes of Palestinian political leaders, killing civilians, including children. However, until recently, the army refrained from targeting the families of Palestinian activists, ostensibly fearing undesirable international reaction. No holds barred Since the beginning of October, as many as 150 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, have died and 100 homes in the northern Gaza Strip have been destroyed, leaving dozens of Palestinians homeless. According to Gaza journalist Salih Naami, who writes for the London-based pan-Arabic daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, Israel is adopting the "Russian style" in its war on virtually defenceless Palestinians. The international community has failed to check Sharon Naami was referring to the "scorched-earth tactic" reportedly used by Russian forces in Chechnya. Naami says the virtual absence of any meaningful international reaction to recent atrocities in Gaza has emboldened Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, assuring him that he can carry out disproportionately aggressive reprisals against Palestinians without fearing Western, especially US, reaction."

[The hi-tech tools of the Thought Police by the world's best at it.]
Israeli companies tout security gear,
By Sharon Behn, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, October 25, 2004
"Chemical-detecting cameras and imaging gear that instantly can map out an area of nuclear contamination will be among the goods offered at an extraordinary trade conference in Washington this week. Sixty top Israeli security-related companies will be displaying their latest technology for American companies and agencies responsible for patrolling U.S. borders and protecting against terrorist threats. Some of the most exciting equipment is suitable for customs, border patrol, and detection, said Rob Hartwell of the American Business Development Group (ABDG), which helped organize the Oct. 28-29 conference for invited guests only. "The Israelis excel at combining photo optics, sensing devices, cameras and also water-acoustical instruments, capable of detecting any intrusion and identifying whether it is human or animal," Mr. Hartwell said. The conference also will help Israeli firms connect with like-minded American companies interested in satellite tracking, security systems, firearms, ammunition, maritime security, armor and bulletproof glass. The United States and Israel already cooperate in the military arena, and several skilled Israelis have clearances to work in the U.S. military sector. This week's symposium is designed to expand that cooperation into the homeland-security arena. Israel's government must approve the transfer of any sensitive technology, and several companies will not disclose their most advanced technologies. But many companies are ready to show off equipment that is more advanced or more competitive than anything made in the United States ... ABDG, a consulting group, traveled to Israel with more than 20 experts, including former military members, program managers, potential clients and Capitol Hill defense staff, to vet the companies invited to the program."

Warnings Against Burying Arafat In Jerusalem,
Israel National News, October 28, 2004
"MK Uri Ariel of the National Union made the warning today. His party colleague Benny Elon has asked the Defense Minister to give advance notice that Arafat will not be buried in Jerusalem. National Union MK Uri Ariel warned today, "Many thousands of right-wing demonstrators will bodily prevent Arafat from being buried in Jerusalem." MK Benny Elon, also of the National Union, has turned to Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, asking him to declare that Israel will not allow terrorist leader Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem. Other MKs have made a similar request to Prime Minister Sharon and Mofaz. "I have no problem with not burying him at all," Elon said this morning, "but rather scattering his ashes like they did with Adolph Eichmann. But if he is to be buried at all, then at least it shouldn't be in Jerusalem." He said that such an announcement must be made before Arafat's death. "The police must be prepared for a funeral procession in which the Arabs will try to burst into Jerusalem," Elon said. "It could be an explosive situation..."

[World Jewish/Israeli assault on everyone.]
UN rights expert charges Israel killed peace map,
By Irwin Arieff, Reuters, October 28, 2004
"Israel has killed the road map peace plan for the Middle East with apparent U.S. acquiescence, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Thursday, triggering a strong rebuttal from the Jewish state. "The road map is dead. Israel has killed it," South African law professor John Dugard told a General Assembly committee. "The world is looking to the United States for leadership in this region, and the world is simply not getting it," said Dugard, who monitors the Palestinian territories for the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission. His remarks came as a gravely ill Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to be rushed from the West Bank to a French hospital for treatment, casting a cloud of uncertainty over the Middle East political landscape. The United States is part of the quartet of international mediators that laid out the road map to Middle East peace, along with Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. But the other quartet members quietly accuse Washington of encouraging Israeli policies that violate the plan. Israeli envoy Tuvia Israeli responded to Dugard by saying his work had long been marked by "lack of context, lack of balance, omission of facts and distortions of both law and reality' ... Dugard, in a report issued last month, accused Israel of building its barrier on West Bank land in order to confiscate the land and put pressure on Palestinians to move away, rather than to keep out suicide bombers, as Israel says. The Palestinians have similarly charged that the barrier was a land-grab aimed at dashing their hopes for statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has fueled this notion by arguing that his plan for a withdrawal from Gaza would ensure a hold on much bigger settlements in the West Bank. The criticism of Dugard marked the second day in a row that the Jewish state attacked a U.N. rights expert's findings. Wednesday's target was Jean Ziegler of Switzerland, a U.N. expert on the right to food whom Israel wants dismissed. Relieving Ziegler of his duties would require the vote of a majority of the 53 nations on the Commission on Human Rights. "Since his appointment in 2000, Mr. Ziegler has been conducting a public relations assault against Israel, and recently he has escalated his efforts into a trade war," Israeli told the same assembly committee. Ziegler in June wrote U.S. heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar to say that a sale of its bulldozers to the Israeli military could violate Palestinians' human rights."

[Israel is founded on spying, lies, illusions, and corruption and would be incapable of functioning without all this. Everything about the Jewish state is propaganda. Now they've been looking to justify the killing of United Nations workers.]
Truth becomes the casualty in tale of missile in UN ambulance,
By Ed O'Loughlin, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), October 8, 2004
"The Israeli Government is refusing to apologise to the United Nations for releasing footage which it falsely claimed showed a Palestinian militant loading a missile into a UN ambulance in the Gaza Strip. The dispute has again highlighted the poisoned relations between Israel and the world body and the use of intelligence reports to mould public opinion. Shot by an Israeli spy drone and revealed with great publicity by the Israeli Army and Government last Friday, the grainy black and white footage shows an apparently unarmed man walking first one way and then the other in a darkened street lined with bystanders, swinging a long, slender object in one hand. Joined by another apparently unarmed man, the figure then throws the object into the back of a marked UN ambulance and drives off. According to the Israeli Army and the Foreign ministry, the footage showed a Palestinian terrorist carrying one of the homemade missiles used to bombard Israeli towns and Jewish settlements. It said the footage proved its frequent claims that the UN often helped terrorists in the occupied territories.The story received saturation coverage in a country where many citizens regard the UN as at best an unwanted and meddlesome presence, and at worst a representative of global anti-Semitism in league with Palestinian terrorism. On Monday the Israeli ambassador to the UN demanded the resignation of Peter Hansen, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, accusing him of complicity in terror. However, the story began to unravel when the agency claimed that the object in the video was too thin and light to be a missile and that a militant would be more careful in handling a crude, homemade explosive device. A day later the agency produced the driver of the ambulance in question, who said that the object was a rolled-up stretcher and his crew had been on an abortive call. By Tuesday the controversial footage had been pulled from the Israel Defence Forces and Foreign Ministry websites and the Israeli security establishment was in disarray, with some anonymous "senior officials" briefing journalists that the UN's version was probably correct. Officially, a defence forces spokesman would yesterday only say that "we are reviewing the analysis because of the questions asked". He insisted that even if the defence forces has been wrong this time, it knew for a fact that the UN often helped terrorists in smuggling weapons and carrying out their missions ... The agency has in turn complained about what it says are numerous acts of Israeli harassment against foreign and local staff, the destruction of its schools and compounds by Israeli forces and attacks on clearly marked UN vehicles and compounds."

Rabbis 'incite violence' over Gaza plan,
From Ian MacKinnon, The Times (UK), October 22, 2004
"The Israeli Justice Minister warned right-wing rabbis yesterday that they risked sparking civil war with their incendiary remarks against the looming withdrawal from Gaza and could face prosecution. The threat from Tommy Lapid, before a bitterly contested Knesset vote next Tuesday on Ariel Sharon’s plan to pull out of Gaza, came in response to calls from leading rabbis for soldiers to refuse orders to expel Jewish settlers. Tensions have escalated in the run-up to the debate, a showdown that Mr Sharon is expected to win by at least six votes. Victory would pave the way for the evacuation of all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four others in the West Bank by next September. Security around the Israeli Prime Minister, senior politicians and parliament is being tightened amid fears that Jewish extremists, spurred by ultra-nationalist rabbis, could resort to violence in the hope of derailing the process. The Justice Minister joined the outcry against right-wing rabbis opposed to the evacuation plan, giving a warning that their statements to Orthodox Jews could incite violence. “I fear there is a risk of bloodshed,” said Mr Lapid, who heads the secular Shinui party, a partner in the governing coalition. “I hope it does not spill over into civil war. History has seen more crimes committed in the name of sanctity than in the name of sin. We have reached the outer limits of our patience with statements that could pose a danger to public security.” Mr Lapid hinted that the religious leaders could be prosecuted for inciting violence. “Some would say we have been too circumspect,” he said. “After the (former Prime Minister, Yitzhak) Rabin murder, we must observe the boundary between acceptable and criminal statements.” Shimon Peres, leader of the Labour opposition, said that he feared that Jewish extremists, who branded Mr Sharon a dictator endangering Israel’s future, may try to kill the Prime Minister. Mr Peres said that the febrile climate was reminiscent of that before Mr Rabin’s assassination by a Jewish extremist in 1995. The Shin Bet security service has been put on high alert and has stepped up protection around Mr Sharon, adding to his bodyguard detail and running decoy convoys to confuse would-be assassins. Despite the precautions surrounding Mr Sharon — he was dwarfed by ten bodyguards this week — the bulky Prime Minister was evasive as to whether he wore a bullet-proof vest. He joked that the vests were not made in his size. Police are investigating death threats made by anonymous callers. Steps are being taken inside and outside the Israeli parliament to ensure that the marathon debate, due to start on Monday, will not be interrupted by any of the thousands of settlers expected to converge on Jerusalem to besiege legislators."

[Israel as a "Jewish state' and "democracy" is a contradiction in terms. The following author is an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset (Israel's Parliament) from Nazareth. He heads the National Democratic Coalition "Balad". He should know what he's talking about: he lives Israeli "democracy" every second. Of course, he's got to be careful of what he says. He could be jailed for speakng TOO frankly.]
Jewishness versus democracy,
by Dr. Azmi Bishara, Arab Media Internet Network, October 28, 2004
"The 16th Knesset is strenuously working to hammer together a constitution at a time when the right controls both the Israeli parliament and its Law and Constitution Committee. One of the most important missions of the forthcoming constitution in the view of the Israeli right is to reinforce the notion of the Jewishness of the Israeli state. In order to promote this drive in the media and academic circles the Israeli Institute for Democracy, that elitist establishment that holds its annual conventions in Herzliya, has launched a campaign "for the sake of constitution by consensus". As part of this campaign, the institute resorted to a tactic generally used by Israeli liberals to compel Arab Knesset representatives to toe the party line, which was to conduct a survey among Arab Israelis. In this case, the survey was designed to impress upon Arab MPs the desire of their Arab constituents to participate in the making of a "historic deal" by approving a constitution that upholds the Jewishness of the state in exchange for full equality in civil rights and liberties. Naturally, the survey did not take the trouble to point out to respondents the inherent contradiction between the notions of equality and the Jewishness of the state or the fact that the conservative and religious right will have the ultimate say in producing a new, solid and immutable definition of what it means to be a Jewish state. Until now any such definition has been restricted to a few words in the opening lines of the Basic Laws, which the Arabs never had the opportunity to approve or disapprove to begin with. These same words were imposed on them under Article 7A of the Knesset Law, which the Arabs would oppose if it were put to a vote again, just as they opposed it when the law was first enacted. According to this provision any party that does not recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state cannot participate in parliamentary elections ... The current campaign is an attempt to entrench ideological and historical concepts that are still being contended. It is being spearheaded by the Israeli right as part of its ongoing battle against the liberal democratic concept of a state for all its citizens and, to a lesser degree, against what it perceives as the liberalism of the Supreme Court. The origins, sources and dynamics of the development of Israeli democracy cannot be divorced from their Zionist context. Agreement on Israel being a state for Jews, a Jewish state that seeks to attract Zionist migrations, is at the core of Israeli democracy. In the absence of a shared democratic history or national structure, it was this concept that was promoted as the key to creating the unity and cohesion needed to support pluralistic democracy and to forestall any disintegration of the state through, for example, civil/sectarian war. Zionism, and not citizenship, is the vehicle for Jewish democracy and, simultaneously, the prime obstacle to its development. In times of crisis in particular it is a democracy that has all the hallmarks of the tribe ... Israel's prevailing Zionist culture fears too loose an interpretation of democracy, specifically one the liberal components of which may undermine the notion of the Jewish state or conflict with the essence, identity or character of that state's democracy. There is an instinctive feeling, seldom articulated, that an inherent contradiction exists between the Zionist ideology and character of the state, and the liberalisation of its democracy in the direction of such concepts as the rights of citizenship. Consequently, in order to preclude any further discussion of the subject in the process of legislating acts of a constitutional nature the Knesset has made it de rigueur to include the phrase "Jewish and democratic" in any Basic Law it contemplates passing. "

[*** Important article! Progress: the British Medical Journal addresses Jewish fascism. This article answers the question: Why are there "suicide bombers?"]
Personal Views. Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes,
by Derek Summerfield, Institute of Psychiatry, London, British Medical Journal, October 2004
"Does the death of an Arab weigh the same as that of a US or Israeli citizen? The Israeli army, with utter impunity, has killed more unarmed Palestinian civilians since September 2000 than the number of people who died on September 11, 2001. In conducting 238 extrajudicial executions the army has also killed 186 bystanders (including 26 women and 39 children). Two thirds of the 621 children (two thirds under 15 years) killed at checkpoints, in the street, on the way to school, in their homes, died from small arms fire, directed in over half of cases to the head, neck and chest—the sniper's wound. Clearly, soldiers are routinely authorised to shoot to kill children in situations of minimal or no threat. These statistics attract far less publicity than suicide bombings, atrocious though these are too. Amnesty International has called for an investigation into the killing of Asma al-Mughayr (16 years) and her brother Ahmad (13 years) on the roof terrace of their home in Rafah on 18 May, each with a single bullet to the head. Asma had been taking clothes off the drying line and Ahmad feeding pigeons. Amnesty noted that the firing appeared to have come from the top floor of a nearby house, which had been taken over by Israeli soldiers shortly before. Amnesty suspects that this is not "caught in crossfire," this is murder. Israeli military reoccupation of the West Bank and Gaza—a system of military checkpoints splitting towns and villages into ghettos, curfews, closures, raids, mass demolition and destruction of houses (more than 60 000), and land expropriations—has made ordinary life impossible for everyone, and is driving Palestinian society and its institutions towards destitution. Moreover, Israel has been constructing a grotesque barrier that, when completed, will total over 400 miles—four times longer than the Berlin Wall. Extending up to 15 miles into Palestinian territory, the real purpose of the wall is permanently to lock more than 50 illegal Israeli settlements into Israel proper. This is expansive, aggressive colonisation, in defiance of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and the United Nations General Assembly resolution of last July. Last year a UN rapporteur concluded that Gaza and the West Bank were "on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe." The World Bank estimates that 60% of the population are subsisting at poverty level (£1.12; $2; 1.6 per day), a tripling in only three years. Half a million people are now completely dependent upon food aid, and Amnesty International has expressed concern that the Israeli army has been hampering distribution in Gaza. Over half of all households are eating only one meal per day. A study by Johns Hopkins and Al Quds universities found that 20% of children under 5 years old were anaemic, 9.3% were acutely malnourished, and a further 13.2% chronically malnourished. The doctors I met on a professional visit in March pointed to a rising prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women and low birthweight babies. The coherence of the Palestinian health system is being destroyed. The wall will isolate 97 primary health clinics and 11 hospitals from the populations they serve. Qalqilya hospital, which primarily serves refugees, has seen a 40% fall in follow up appointments because patients cannot enter the city. There have been at least 87 documented cases (including 30 children) in which denial of access to medical treatment has led directly to deaths, including those of babies born while women were held up at checkpoints. The checkpoint at the entrance to some villages closes at 7 pm and not even ambulances can pass after this time. As a recent example, a man in a now fenced in village near Qalqilya approached the gate with his seriously ill daughter in his arms, and begged the soldiers on duty to let him pass so that he could take her to hospital. The soldiers refused, and a Palestinian doctor summoned from the other side was also refused access to the child. The doctor was obliged to attempt a physical examination, and to give the girl an injection, through the wire. There are consistent reports of ambulances containing gravely ill people being hit by gunfire, or detained at checkpoints while drivers and paramedics are interrogated, searched, threatened, humiliated, and assaulted. Wounded men are abducted from ambulances at checkpoints and sent directly to prison. Clearly marked clinics are fired on, and doctors and other health workers shot dead on duty. Physicians for Human Rights (Israel) have lambasted the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) for its silence in the face of these systematic violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which guarantees the right to health care and the protection of health professionals as they do their duty. Remarkably, IMA [Israeli Medical Association] president Dr (WMA), the official international watchdog on medical ethics, Y Blachar is currently chairperson of the council of the World Medical Association. A supine BMA appears in collusion with this farce at the WMA. Others are silenced by a fear of being labelled "anti-semitic," a term used in a morally corrupt way by the pro-Israel lobby in order to silence. How are we to affect this shocking situation, one which to this South African-born doctor has gone further than the excesses of the apartheid era.^"

Help! Write letters in support of Dr. Derek Summerfield's piece published in the British Medical Journal,
Palestine Monitor, October 2004
"We need your help in writing letters to the ‘rapid response’ section of the British Medical Journal. Dr. Derek Summerfield, who was here in March 2004 visiting us at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, has just had a piece published in the British Medical Journal on Palestine. The onslaught was enormous, many hate males to him and responses to the BMJ that we need to address. Unlike the Lobby, we are very few here who are able to access journals, and are organized with enough material and other support to be able to respond as the Lobby does."

[World Jewish censorial fascism steps into gear:]
Israel slams UK medical journal,
by Jeremy Last, Jerusalem Post, October 31, 2004
"The official publication of the British medical profession has come under fire over an article which claims IDF soldiers regularly shoot children "in situations of minimal or no threat." The opinion piece, "Palestine: The Assault on Health and Other War Crimes," by psychiatry professor Derek Summerfield, was published in the weekly British Medical Journal on October 16. The journal is sent to more than 100,000 doctors and trainee medical professionals throughout the UK, all of whom are members of the British Medical Association. In the article, described as "inflammatory" by the Israeli Embassy, Summerfield vehemently attacked Israel's conduct in the territories and claimed the "pro-Israel lobby" uses accusations of anti-Semitism against critics of Israel in a "morally corrupt way." Summerfield, an honorary senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, wrote: "Clearly, soldiers are routinely authorized to shoot to kill children in situations of minimal or no threat. These statistics attract far less publicity than suicide bombings, atrocious though these are too."Attacking the construction of Israel's "grotesque" West Bank separation barrier, he added: "The real purpose of the wall is permanently to lock more than 50 illegal Israeli settlements into Israel proper. This is expansive, aggressive colonization." "We found Derek Summerfield's article appalling, highly biased, inaccurate, and inflammatory," embassy spokesman Shuli Davidovitch said. "We were concerned that he only briefly mentioned Palestinian suicide bombings, with no mention that the victims are Israelis and failed to elucidate the reason behind the construction of the security barrier. "We overwhelmingly reject the false accusation that Israel ever authorizes the shooting of children. We would expect such a well-respected and professional journal not to be politicized and to concentrate on its medical agenda." The article attracted numerous responses on the BMJ Web site, where it was also published, the majority of which attacked Summerfield. Dr. Daniel Ellis, representative of the London Jewish Medical Society to the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called on the editor to resign. He said: "How can the BMJ print an article containing such a load of tripe that is clearly not evidence based." A group of prominent doctors, including fertility expert and television personality Lord Robert Winston, have vowed to complain to the journal's editorial board. "We are making formal complaints to the BMJ about it," Winston, who has become well known in the UK for his BBC documentaries on the human body, said. "I don't think it is an appropriate thing to be written, but we will sort it out." However, BMJ deputy editor Jane Smith defended the publication, saying the article was clearly marked as opinion and said the journal does not want to stop debate. "It appeared in our personal view slot, and it is therefore not a scientific article," she said. "The medical consequences of conflict are a legitimate subject for a medical journal to cover. The BMJ has not got a line, but we are not trying to suppress debate."

Jewdyism(s),
by Judy Andreas, rense.com, October 31, 2004
"I call myself a "truth seeker," and my pursuit of truth has led me down some long and winding roads. I was born of Jewish parents, became an atheist in my late teens (it seemed so hip) and ultimately became immersed in psychology. From the readings of Carl Jung, it was a short hop into the realm of metaphysics My metaphysical pursuits led me to Hinduism where I experienced Shaktipat with a Guru. Next came Buddhism, which, although peace loving, lacked the passion I craved ... My myth of Israel was shattered. Through such Jewish voices as Ralph Schoenman, Norman Finkelstein and Lenni Brenner, a whole new picture of the "homeland" was emerging. I read the "Hidden History of Zionism" by Schoenman and "The Holocaust Industry" by Norman Finkelstein. I began researching the writings of Lenni Brenner and attended a meeting at which he spoke. I listened to the lectures of the late Edward Said. I was learning that Zionism was a dangerous geo-political movement and the part that the Rothschilds had played in establishing the state of Israel. I was learning about the Rothschilds' unholy relationship with the Nazis. I was learning about the atrocities that were being perpetrated on the Palestinians. I wondered "How could people who had suffered so much turn around and do the same thing to the people who were living on that land?" I was questioning everything I had been taught."

MSF calls for access to its patients in the Gaza Strip, To this day Gaza is still cut into three segments, and access to our patients is impossible,
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), October 9, 2004
"Since September 28 2004, and the onset of the "Operation Days of Penitence" in Gaza, MSF medical teams have not been authorised to access the vast majority of their patients in the southern and centre areas of the strip. Since then, and despite multiple daily requests to the Israeli authorities to allow medical teams to reach people in need, no "coordination" - clearance given by Israeli army - has been given to MSF. To this day Gaza is still cut into three segments, and access to our patients is impossible. Furthermore, MSF staff members, along with the entire population in the zone, are under direct violence. In Beit Hanoun, an MSF staff member and his family was stuck in their partially destroyed house with children while the army destroyed their car and killed livestock. The family, who was not specifically targeted as an MSF member, was shot at when trying to leave. Despite assurances given to MSF by the relevant authorities that all attacks were to cease immediately, the bombing never stopped. Authorization to evacuate the family at that time was refused and eventually they fled to a neighboring house, remaining in a dangerous situation. Soldiers then occupied the house. MSF teams were not authorized to evacuate the family until the following day.Authorities were officially notified of the presence of MSF staff members in this area last July. Since the beginning of this operation, MSF has received numerous calls asking for help to secure food, water and medicines for people blocked in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia. In these zones, which remain isolated from the rest of Gaza, all movement has been impossible since September 28. Medical authorities in the area have asked MSF psychologists to provide their medical staff with emergency debriefing. However, as hospitals are located in the firing zone, our psychologists have not yet been able to work. For the past eight days, MSF teams, who have both the capacity to treat and to provide food supplies for the families they are supporting, are unable to do so, for lack of authorization by the Israeli Defense Forces. Once again, MSF asks for access to its patients in the Gaza Strip."

[Israeli Nazi madness. Jewish barbarity, second to none.]
I killed thirty children. Confirmed and confessed, B. Michael,
Yediot Aharonot (Israel), posted in English at Information Clearinghouse), October 2004
This article was translated from Hebrew, from the Yediot Aharonot web site .
"Between Sept 29 and Oct 15, fifteen days in all, I killed thirty children. Two children per day. Two dead children per day is more or less four bereaved parents per day. Why more or less? Because some of them were brothers. So, two dead children for one pair of bereaved parents. Perhaps that's better, because these parents are bereaved anyway, so they are just bereaved twice, and another pair of parents is released from being bereaved. But perhaps it is less good, because to be bereaved is worse than being dead, and being twice bereaved is twice worse than being dead. So I don't really know what to decide.
All these children I killed in the Gaza Strip, and all of them I killed by mistake. That is, I knew that there were children there, and I knew I would kill some of them, but since I knew it would be by mistake I did not feel so pressured about it. Because everybody makes mistakes. Only the one who does nothing does not make mistakes. Mistakes happen, we are all human beings. That is what I think is so nice about my mistakes, they make me so human and fallible, is it not so?
The 30 children I killed by all kind of mistakes. Each child with his special mistake. There was one about whom I thought by mistake that he was not a child. And there was one which I hit because he insisted on standing exactly on the spot at which I decided to shoot. And there was one who threw stones and did not at all look six years old. And there was one who from the air looked like a wanted terrorist. Or like a Qassam rocket. Or like a terrorist holding a Qassam rocket. And there were some children who by mistake got into their heads some of the shrapnel from the shell I shot into their house. And there was one who by mistake hid under her bed exactly when I blew up the bed in order to expel the terrorist squad which was hiding there. But this does not count, it was her mistake, not mine. I remember it was the most hard with my first mistake. I shot and shot and shot, then they told me I had killed a child. I became pale, and my mouth was dry, and my knees were shaking, and in general I did not sleep very well that night. But with the passing of time, and of mistakes, it became much easier. Now I make mistakes with hardly any side-effects. It was very helpful that my friends, my environment, everybody, did not make so much fuss over every small mistake. Here, just last week, when I killed by mistake one girl, I shot two more mistakes into her head, just to make sure that I was making a mistake. And then the rest of my magazine, full of mistakes. Once, I would not have been able to do that. True, some people tell me that I am making a mistake in making this confession. They tell I have not been in Gaza at all, and did not shoot any bullet, and did not bomb, and did not shell, and did not snipe. That's true, I did not. But who paid for the bullets? Me. And who bought the gun? And financed the shell? And the missile? Me. Me. Me. Also me.And also, who is not growing pale any more with every new mistake? Whose mouth is not getting dry when one more child is laid in the earth? Whose knees do not grow weak when another nameless baby lies dead in a bloody cradle? Who goes on sleeping soundly even when the number of mistakes reaches thirty in two weeks? Me. Also me. So, don't tell me I didn't kill."

[JTR contributor's note: "Jewishmayhem.com is having a "Guess Arafat's Death Contest." I thought you might be interested."]
Guess Arafat's Death Contest,
jewishmayhem.com

Sources: Arafat might be poisoned,
China View, November 7, 2004
"Well-informed Palestinian sources said Saturday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who suffers from deterioration in his health, might be poisoned by putting poison into his food. The sources told Xinhua that Israel is accused and responsible for trying to poison Arafat, adding that "Israel wanted to get rid of Arafat through a slow death." The question that Arafat had been poisoned" is a first priority for his illness after doctors at Percy Military Hospital outside Paris in France failed to diagnose the illness that Arafat suffers from, said the sources. Arafat's bureau chief of staff Tayeb Abdel Rahim told reporters in Ramallah that the possibilities that Arafat has been poisoned are one of the existing possibilities." Palestinian reports said that the Palestinian security forces are holding intensive investigation to find out whether the poison had been put into his food, adding that Arafat had escaped 13 times of assassinations, three of them were to poison him. The checkups that had been made to Arafat since he was transferred from Ramallah to France on Oct. 29 showed that he doesn't suffer from any organic disease or Leukemia. But his health has been deteriorating."

[Was Arafat poisoned? This article came out just two months ago ... When an entire nation has no ethical principles except vengeance and self-advancement, and murders Palestinians as daily policy, anything is possible.]
Sharon hints that Arafat may be killed,
by Chris McGreal, The Guardian (UK), September 15, 2004
"Ariel Sharon has threatened that Yasser Arafat will meet the same fate as Hamas leaders who were assassinated earlier this year by the Israeli military. In ambiguous comments to Israeli newspapers to mark the Jewish new year, the prime minister said he intends to force the Palestinian leader into exile. But he also hinted that Mr Arafat might be killed. Speaking to Ma'ariv newspaper, Mr Sharon made direct reference to the Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by a missile in Gaza in March, and his successor as the Islamic resistance movement's leader, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, who was killed by the Israelis the following month. "We operated against Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi when we thought the time was suitable. On the matter of Arafat we'll operate in the same way, when we find the convenient and suitable time. One needs to find the time and to do what has to be done," said Mr Sharon. However, the prime minister told other newspapers that he would send Mr Arafat into exile. Sheikh Yassin and Mr al-Rantissi were both exiled from the occupied territories at one time. A prominent Palestinian minister, Saeb Erekat, said Mr Sharon's comments show that he intends "to kill President Arafat and to push the Palestinian people toward chaos"

[So next the Bush administration, guided by the Zionist hand, will try to crush Iran for its nuclear development?]
A blast from the past,
By Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz (Israel), November 5, 2004
"What did the U.S. know in the 1960s about Israel's nuclear option? Apparently, the U.S. knew everything: Within six to eight years Israel would conduct its first test and by 1975 it would have an appropriate nuclear force, as a new study reveals ... Shalom's study of the argument between Jerusalem and Washington over the development of Israel's nuclear capability is based entirely on documents from official archives in the United States, England and Canada. The documents clearly indicate that in 1963 the American administration had a precise timetable on the Israeli nuclear program: Within six to eight years Israel would conduct its first nuclear test and within 10 to 12 years - that is, 1973 to 1975 - Israel would have an appropriate nuclear force.
In order to ensure the capability of independent launches, Israel also began to develop - with the assistance of the French firm Marcel Dassault - a two-stage, ground-to-ground Jericho missile, fueled by solid propellant, with a range of about 500 kilometers and capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The missiles developed in Israel were similar to the American Pershing missiles. Based on information the American intelligence branches had in 1963 and on memoranda the State Department sent to President Kennedy, it appears that Israel decided to produce between 200 and 300 missiles at a cost of $700,000 per missile. Shalom focuses on the enormous interest two Democratic presidents in the 1960s - Kennedy and Johnson - showed in the Israeli nuclear initiative. The book examines their activities regarding this issue and the pressure they exerted to ensure that the reactor in Dimona would be under close supervision. Israel had a ready answer to explain why it was building a nuclear reactor - it was ostensibly intended to develop energy for water desalination. But when questions were asked about missile development, Israel stuttered and stammered. Robert Komer, who briefly served as Johnson's national security advisor in 1966, asked during a discussion with the American president, "Why does Israel need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a project that has little [deterrent] benefit [as long as it carries only conventional warheads]?" One can understand from this question that the U.S. believed the missiles were intended to carry nuclear warheads. Myer "Mike" Feldman, a presidential advisor from 1961 to 1965, pressed Eshkol to inform the U.S. how many missiles Israel planned to produce. The memorandum in the State Department archives reveals that the Israeli prime minister responded to Feldman's prodding in the style of a Jewish shopkeeper: "Perhaps five less, or more than 25, perhaps 10, 20 or 30' ... Some 40 years later, Israel is still concealing all information about its nuclear capabilities, but an unforeseen breach has been exposed. Though access to relevant archive documents is still blocked in Israel, the U.S. is ignoring Israel's sensitivity regarding the nuclear issue. When Shalom began his research about four years ago, some of the documents dealing with foreign relations from 1963 to 1967 were declassified in the presidential archives of Kennedy and Johnson and in the national archives of the U.S., Britain and Canada. Thus, a considerable amount of material surfaced that documents conversations between U.S. administration officials and Israeli government leaders about the U.S. demand to halt the development of Israel's nuclear capacity and allow full American supervision over the activities at the nuclear facility in Dimona. These documents, now accessible to the general public, document the most intimate conversations about the Israeli nuclear program and raise questions about Israel's continued policy of ambiguity and vagueness regarding its nuclear status. Shalom's study reveals that the U.S., Britain and Canada established a joint mechanism in Israel, through their embassies, to collect information on the Israeli nuclear program. The ambassadors and military attaches exchanged and compared information about the Israeli program and sent reports back to their governments. The government of Israel also used this mechanism, exploiting it to send messages, sometimes as "trial balloons." In February, 1961, the British ambassador in Israel raised a series of questions about the Dimona project. The questions were passed on to Ben-Gurion, who responded in a detailed letter that Israel harbored no intention of producing nuclear arms. Nonetheless, he emphasized that Israel was surrounded by hostile countries and that it would be difficult to assess the future ... The U.S. government ultimately enabled Israel to develop the nuclear option ... Israel the poker player Dr. Zaki Shalom's study appears four years after the Hebrew publication of the controversial book by Dr. Avner Cohen, "Israel and the Bomb," which deals with the development of Israel's nuclear capability. Cohen's book was delayed for a long time due to arguments raised by Yehiel Horev, the Defense Ministry's director of security. Horev claimed that the book includes information that could harm Israel's security. Shalom's book does not deal with the development of the nuclear project, but focuses on the construction of an Israeli nuclear option. "What is exciting," Shalom says, "is the Israeli success in creating an image of reliable deterrence without having to publicly prove its nuclear capability. In this sense, Israel is similar to a poker player who succeeds in creating the impression among the other players at the table that he holds all of the winning cards, despite the fact that he does not show them."

Aide alleges Israel poisoned Arafat,
by Lamia Lahoud, THE JERUSALEM POST, Nov. 8, 2004
"Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was poisoned by Israel, one of his advisers said Sunday. The option is being seriously considered by the PA, which has sent blood samples to the US and Germany to confirm or rule out the option, he said. Arafat suffers symptoms similar to those of former PFLP military leader Wadi'a Hadad, he said. Hadad was poisoned in the late 1970s by a close aide who was allegedly recruited by the Mossad, the adviser said, although the official reason for his death was cancer. "It took Hadad eight weeks to die... he also entered a coma", he said, "Unless they find an antidote, Arafat will die," he added. There are four possible reasons for the breakdown of Arafat's red blood cells, and two options have been ruled out, he said. He does not have cancer and did not take an overdose of certain medications, he added. Poisoning is one of the two remaining possibilities, he claimed."

[We think there are more than enough Jewish "fascists" to go around. Presumably, Issam Makhoul is one of the few Arab members of the Israeli Knesset.]
MK Makhoul Labels MK Eldad a “Nazi Fascist”,
Israel National News, November 10, 2004
"A feud erupted in the Knesset plenum on Tuesday between National Union MK Prof. Aryeh Eldad and MK (Hadash) Issam Makhoul. Eldad was speaking from the podium, commenting “I have one good thing to say about Arafat – that finally he is dead! Arafat was a corrupt terrorist who created a nation in his own image”. Makhoul responded angrily and shouted “Nazi fascist” at Eldad. “It would be preferable if your spoke German. That you are a physician does not make you a human being. Mengele was also a physician”, he added."

To Bush & Blair: We Don't Want Peace, We Want Our Homeland,
by Ariel Natan Pasko, Truth News, November 11, 2004
"One last warning... According to rabbinic tradition, there are three gates to Gehinam (Hell); one of them is in Jerusalem. (Talmud: Eruvin 19a). Arafat's already in Hell, anyone else, world leaders or Israelis, who block G-D's plan, and try to take away the Jewish people's homeland, will end up there too. We don't want your peace; we want our homeland!"

[Let this be our prayer then: May Arafat make his case, freely, openly, for the first time, in some Other Heavenly Court that transcends the strangling web of the Jewish Tribunal. May the sun shine at last on thousand-year olive orchards and may the Great Bitterness lift like fog from the soil of his grave -- wherever it is, his struggling breath at long last liberated.]
American Jewish Committee Statement on Death of Yasser Arafat,
U.S. Newswire, November 11, 2004
"Following is a statement from the American Jewish Committee on the death of Yasser Arafat:
"The passing of Yasser Arafat today ends a tragic chapter in the history of the Middle East and presents a potentially new opportunity for a long overdue peace in the region. "As a symbol of Palestinian political aspirations, Arafat was undeniably a figure of significance. But given an historic test - the chance to evolve from revolutionary apparatchik and terrorist par excellence to democratic ruler of a nascent state - he failed utterly. Indeed, it was a failure of catastrophic proportions for the Palestinian people, for the entire region, and for the world. "The legacy of that failure is the toll of death and destruction, poverty and despair, terrorism and incitement that has defined the Palestinian existence for years. "Arafat rejected the landmark peace offer made at Camp David in 2000 by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, an offer supported by U.S. President Bill Clinton. "He also failed to seize the opportunity presented by President Bush in June 2002 for the creation of a Palestinian state, contingent on an end to violence and terror. "Arafat's refusal to halt terrorism has blocked the path to peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians, alike, deepened regional instability, destroyed hope and trust between neighboring peoples, and cost the lives of thousands of innocent men, women and children. This must be viewed as the ultimate tragedy. "As the Palestinians mourn the passing of Arafat, we hope they are resolved that the next individual who rises to lead them will deliver the responsible governance, transparency and accountability, prosperity, and, ultimately, peaceful, democratic state alongside Israel that represents the only viable political solution for the region."

Arafat's Jordanian Physician Urges Autopsy,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), November 12, 2004
"Yasser Arafat's Jordanian physician on Friday urged an autopsy be performed on the Palestinian leader because of the mystery surrounding his illness and death. Dr. Ashraf al-Kurdi's comments underscored frustration in many corners of the Arab world over the intense secrecy surrounding Arafat's condition Some have speculated Arafat was poisoned, but Israeli and Palestinian officials have sharply denied that theory. "These stories are simply ridiculous," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told The Associated Press on Friday. "We never denied Arafat access to medical help. We never prevented doctors from visiting him. We never prevented him from going to a hospital." Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath has said after talks with Arafat's French doctors that they had "ruled out completely poison." Gen. Christian Estripeau, spokesman at the French military hospital where Arafat was treated, refused to say whether an autopsy was performed or to comment on speculation that Arafat was poisoned. There was no comment from Palestinian officials. Arafat died Thursday in Paris, where he was taken Oct. 29 for treatment after tests indicated he had a low count of blood platelets, components that help clotting. "One of the causes of platelet deficiency is poison," said al-Kurdi, who examined the ailing Arafat in his Ramallah compound two weeks ago, before he was taken to Paris. Although "not definitive, I believe the highest reason for Arafat's mysterious death is poisoning," al-Kurdi told The Associated Press. "Therefore, there should be an autopsy performed," added the leading Jordanian neurologist, who had frequently examined Arafat over the past two decades ... Al-Kurdi ... called the burial hasty and expressed concern about the failure to perform an autopsy in compliance with Islamic rules, especially when suspicious death occurs. He said it all raised concerns of poisoning and questions of whether Israel or others could be involved. "It looks as if somebody is trying to hide the truth," he said."

Amnesty accuses Israel of war crimes,
China Daily, November 5, 2004
"Israel committed war crimes, including unlawful killings, during a military offensive in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus earlier this year, the human rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday. The Israeli military said the offensive was launched in self-defence, in response to Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians. In its report, Amnesty said there is "clear evidence that some of the act committed by the Israel Defence Forces during Operation Defence Shield were war crimes." Israeli carried out "unlawful killings, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, wanton destruction of hundreds of homes," Amnesty wrote. The group has also accused Palestinian suicide bombers of crimes against humanity. The latest report said soldiers blocked access to ambulances and denied humanitarian assistance, leaving the wounded and dead lying in the streets for days, and used Palestinians as "human shields" while searching for suspected militants. "Up to now, the Israeli authorities have failed in their responsibility to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious human rights violations," the Amnesty report said. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Taub accused Amnesty of ignoring the reasons for the military incursions. "The report describes Israel as going into the West Bank as if this happened in a vacuum," Taub said ... The Amnesty report said that more than half the Palestinians killed in Jenin were civilians, but did not give specific figures. At least 16 of the 80 people killed in Nablus were women and children, Amnesty reported. Former Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres said too much weight should not be placed on the Amnesty report. "Amnesty is an organization that tries to create . . . a better world, but they are not a court and not judges," he said ... Kathleen Cavanaugh, a researcher for Amnesty International, said Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz, who is to become Israel's new defence minister this week, could be charged with war crimes for his role as the army's chief of staff during the incursions ... The report documents witness accounts from Palestinians present during the springtime fighting. They tell stories of torture, beatings of prisoners who were stripped down to their underwear and of soldiers demolishing homes with residents still inside, leaving them to die in the rubble."

Author, prisoner urges tough Cuba policy,
by Les Kjos, Interest Alert (UPI), November 14, 2004
"Former Soviet political prisoner Natan Sharansky urged a tough policy against the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba Monday, saying that kind of policy helped bring down the Soviet Union. Sharansky, who had met with President Bush at the White House Thursday, appeared in Miami as part of a book tour and took the opportunity to swap stories with four Cuban-Americans who had spent time in Cuban prisoners. Sharansky, now the Israeli minister for Jerusalem, said the happiest day of his nine years in the gulag was the day President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire."He said it was an indication that the United States would no longer express any kind of support or superficially friendly relationship with the Soviets. He said that kind of tough attitude should now be displayed toward countries such as Cuba and Saudi Arabia. Speaking in heavily accented English -- translated for the mostly Spanish-speaking audience by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. -- he said appeasing tyranny brings "shame to the free world."

[JTR contributor's comment: "As we learned from the "I Hate Pam" cartoon caper, there does appear to be at least one 'holy' cow: saying something like 'I don't want Isaiah down at the bank to beat me with his nose'. Our comment: No holy cows? We wonder what Israeli consumer reaction would be if someone tried to sell beef jerky using a well known image of dead bodies from a Tel Aviv "suicide bomber" attack. Or better, yet, selling a bag of potato chips with one of the photographic icons of the Holocaust era. No "holy cows," indeed.]
9/11 terror used to sell cigarettes in Israeli papers,
by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, THE JERUSALEM POST, November 14, 2004
"A local advertising agency that claims there are "almost no holy cows" is using the image of a jet about to strike the doomed Twin Towers to sell cigarettes imported from Holland. The ad for Max cigarettes, which appears in the Hebrew tabloids and was prepared by the Zarmon-Goldman agency, uses two cigarettes standing vertically, with the top quarter of one looking like it's about to fall as a plane heads for it. "The Dutch [one] that put the Americans into shock [helem, in Hebrew] and took them out of LM," says the full-page ad for Max cigarettes. The LM refers to the best-selling US brand L&M, while a slangy pronunciation of the Hebrew word for shock sounds like LM. "There's no arguing about taste; everyone has his own opinion," said Eilon Zarmon, an owner of the ad agency who was asked to say whether he thought the promotion was vulgar, given the fact that some 3,000 people died in the Islamist terror attack on New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. "We are not afraid of slaughtering holy cows," he added. "There is a clear message here. The idea is to attack L&M; we are not afraid to start up with a big US cigarette maker. Max cigarettes are better than L&M. They taste better and are produced better. We think this ad is humorous, creative, young and impudent," Zarmon said, declining to reveal whether he smoked them himself. There is nothing sacrosanct about the image of the exploding Twin Towers, he maintained, as "it has already been used in art and theater. One needn't get too excited about using it." The advertisement will continue to run, he said. But when asked what he would do if the US Embassy in Tel Aviv expressed revulsion over the ad, Zarmon said: "We will consider our reaction if they say so. Embassy officials were unavailable for comment, as yesterday was a US holiday, Veterans' Day. The ad agency owner was asked what he thought of a controversial potato chip ad currently running on Channel 2 TV. It shows an elderly man tripping his frail wife with his walking stick and, when she lands flat on her face, jabbing its end into her back to keep her down so she won't get her hands on a package of potato chips that fell on the floor. "It's a very funny ad," said Zarmon in admiration."

Court awards non-Jewish mother Israeli citizenship,
By Relly Sa'ar, Haaretz (Israel), November 17, 2004
"The Tel Aviv District Court has issued an unprecedented ruling allowing the non-Jewish mother of two Israeli citizens to live in Israel as a permanent resident to allow the family to live together, citing humanitarian reasons. The verdict, issued last week, overruled the Interior Ministry's decision to deport the mother, a citizen of Uzbekistan, because her daughters were not minors. The court ruled that in this case the "humanitarian consideration" was more important. District Court Judge Michal Rubinstein also criticized the Interior Ministry's position, accusing it of "extreme lack of reasonableness." "This is an unprecedented ruling, since for many years it has been the norm in the Interior Ministry that parents are the ones who provide the status of Israeli citizenship to their children, and not the other way around, as the Tel Aviv District Court determined," said Nicole Maor, an attorney for the Israel Religious Action Center. The petition was filed by attorney David Mena in the name of M.V., 52, the mother of L.A., 32, and A.D., 25. Both daughters moved to Israel in 1994 with their father, who was eligible to become a citizen under the Law of Return, while their mother remained in Uzbekistan. "After a short time, the daughters were exposed to violence on the part of their father, including humiliation and attempted rape," the petition states. In 1995, according to the petition, the mother came to visit her daughters in Israel with a tourist visa, but due to their psychological state, she stayed in the country and rented a small apartment for the three of them. When the youngest daughter turned 18, the Interior Ministry instructed the mother to leave the country, and she obeyed the order "even though her youngest daughter was then in the first months of pregnancy," according to the petition. In 1997 the mother returned to Israel, and "the mother and her daughters turned to various authorities to arrange the mother's residency in Israel, but fell prey to acts of deceit and fraud," the petition states. While the mother was in Israel, according to the petition, the marriages of her daughters were on the rocks; the husband of M.V.'s youngest daughter and the father of her granddaughter was verbally and physically abusing them. Since the mother does not fall under the Law of Return, in July she asked the committee to make her an exception and allow her to live in Israel for humanitarian reasons. The purpose of this committee, headed by the director of the Population Administration, is to make recommendations to the interior minister on issuing citizenship to those who do not qualify for it under the Law of Return - that is, non-Jews. The committee decided in July to reject the request, saying, "The incident is not humanitarian because the daughters are not minors." A representative of the mother said in the petition that the daughters needed their mother with them. "The mother's entire world is her daughters and her only granddaughter, and her daughters cannot live their lives in Israel and survive the difficult situation they are in without their mother," he wrote. However, the state prosecution said the situation did not meet the Interior Ministry's standard practice of refusing citizenship "other than in exceptional cases involving exceptional humanitarian considerations," saying "such considerations were not presented in this case." The prosecution quoted a High Court of Justice decision from 16 years ago that said a parent not eligible for citizenship cannot derive citizenship from his minor child. The Interior Ministry policy comes from this ruling. According to attorney Maor, the Tel Aviv District Court's "unprecedented ruling could have positive consequences" on the inter-ministerial committee's policy."

[JTR contributor's note: "Dear JTR, Germar Rudolf is facing deportation to Germany. He has committed no crime in America, and the "crime" that Germany has charged him with doesn't exist in American law. His unbiased research regarding the "holocaust" has enraged organized Jewry, Israel,and the governments that act on their behalf. His "crime" can only be defined by Talmudic law:]
http://www.germarrudolf.com

[This is another of the many paradoxes and hypocrisies of Jewish identity. The largest liberal Jewish religious denonimations in America are the Reform and Conservative movements. Both support apartheid Israel. Yet, to be recognized as a legitimate convert to Judaism in Israel (to be a certifiable "Jew"), you've got to go the Stone Age Chosen People route and be converted by traditional Jewish Orthodoxy. For the most part, converting to Judaism in America is a joke. Most likely the convert takes the Reform or Conservative routes, and in Israel the convert won't be recognized fully as a Jew. And note again the doublethink intrinsic in the Jewish state. Israel proclaims itself to be a secular "democracy," while American Jews constantly war in America in defense of their sacred separation of "Church and state." In Israel, however, not only does the Judaic religion dictate what the state thinks about who a "Jew" is, and therefore who is allowed to emigrate to apartheid Israel, it is Stone Age religious Orthodoxy that dictates the terms.]
Rabbis blast state on conversions,
by Dan Izenberg, Jerusalem Post, November 18, 2004
"The Reform and Conservative movements in Israel on Wednesday responded angrily to the state's position that it would only recognize conversions to Judaism that were performed by the special conversion courts made up of Orthodox rabbis subordinate to the Chief Rabbinate. "Time after time the High Court of Justice gives the state the opportunity to change its illegal policy whereby the only conversion recognized in Israel is the Orthodox conversion, but it refuses to listen," said attorney Nichole Maor on behalf of the Reform movement's Israel Religious Action Center. "Such an absurd declaration can only be understood as an insult to our movement, our rabbis, and our converts," added Rabbi Reuven Hammer, head of the Conservative (Masorti) Rabbinical Court for Conversion. "At this time, when Israel seeks the support of world Jewry for the difficult decisions it faces, the government of Israel should not discriminate against the majority of Diaspora Jews, its strongest supporters." The movements were responding to the state's latest reply to a petition on behalf of 15 people living in Israel legally who were converted by Reform or Conservative rabbis after studying Judaism in Reform and Conservative conversion courses. They are demanding to receive Israeli citizenship in accordance with the Law of Return. The state has always refused to register non-Orthodox converts as Jewish, thus preventing them from obtaining citizenship on those grounds according to the Law of Return ... The state's position in favor of Orthodox conversions did not come as a surprise. The Jerusalem Post reported on September 28 that the state would tell the court it would only accept Orthodox converts."

Roger Waters against the wall,
Arabs Against Discrimination
"Musician Roger Waters, a member of the band Pink Floyd, has joined a group of prominent British artists against the separation wall. The movement War on Want began a campaign on the day that the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel 's separation wall is illegal. The campaign has put together a mobile exhibition of a model of the Israeli wall accompanied by the Pink Floyd song, “The Wall.” The exhibition will be shown all over the world. The stars participating in the campaign will sign the model of the separation wall. “The poverty inflicted by the wall has been devastating for Palestinians,” Waters said about the campaign. “It has kept children from their schools, the sick from proper medical care, and continues to destroy the Palestinian economy. I fully support War on Want's campaign and hope that as many as people as possible sign the wall as a strong message to the British government that immediate action is essential.” In order to illustrate this message he wrote a sentence on the wall often sung by his band, “We don't need no thought control.” He also drew the band's logo on the wall."

[Hmmm. If Egypt starts lobbying bombs into Israel and kills a few dozen Jewish cops, would the "Whoops. I'm sorry" strategy work? Or do such "mistakes" only work in one direction?]
Israel apologizes after tank shell kills 3 Egyptian policemen,
by Amos Harel, Yoav Stern and Aluf Benn, Haaretz (Israel), November 19, 2004
"Three Egyptian policemen were killed by an Israeli tank shell yesterday near Rafah, on the border between Gaza and Egypt, when the tank crew mistook them for Palestinian guerrillas. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hastened to call Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to apologize for the error and express his "deep sorrow" over the deaths. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz did the same with his counterpart, Egyptian Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi. GOC Southern Command Dan Harel also apologized publicly for the mishap at a Tel Aviv press conference.Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, condemned the killings and Cairo lodged a formal protest over Israel's "irresponsible action," demanding a comprehensive investigation. Egyptian security officials charged that the policemen were shot from only 20 meters away ... Cairo also declined to make an issue of the fact that, under its peace agreement with Israel, Israel Defense Forces tanks are not supposed to be on the road that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border. In practice, Israeli tanks have been there almost continuously since the intifada began four years ago, but Egypt has chosen to overlook this treaty violation. The incident occurred at about 1 A.M. According to the army's initial investigation, it began when soldiers stationed in the lookout tower of the Girit outpost near Rafah spotted three Palestinians digging a hole nearby, on the Israeli side of the border fence with Egypt. They summoned the company commander to the tower, and he agreed with their conclusion that the Palestinians were laying a bomb. Therefore, after almost 40 minutes of discussions that also involved the battalion and brigade commanders, he ordered a nearby tank to fire at them. But the tank commander, from his much lower vantage point, could not see the three Palestinians. He therefore assumed the company commander was referring to the only three figures he could see - who proved to be Egyptian policemen on the Egyptian side of the border, some 200 meters distant from the Palestinians ... The company that preceded this one in Girit was guilty of a similar error: Its soldiers shot and killed a 13-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl whom they mistakenly identified as a terrorist."

UPI Hears,
Interest Alert (UPI), November 19, 2004
"Israel is so proud of its separation barrier that it's attempting to export its technology. Israeli Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz on a visit to Poland has proposed to Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Ryszard Kalisz that it use the barrier as a model for Poland's eastern border defenses. When Poland joined the EU in May, it undertook the increased protection of its eastern frontier with Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. The Polish border measures include 14 border crossings, more than 30 control centers, dozens of manned observation towers for a night observation system, and tens of miles of fences with sensors linked to sophisticated control centers. Mofaz offered Kalisz the Israeli technology utilized in Israel's separation barrier. Mofaz and Kalisz agreed that Poland would send a delegation to study the technologies embedded in the separation barrier with the intention of applying them in Poland's border fence project."

[Alan Dershowitz is a prime example where self-obsessive Jewish identity blinds all perspective on ethics and morality. Jewish self-conception is rooted in moral hypocrisy: one standard for non-Jews, another for the trans-world Jewish community of "Israel." Professor Deroshowitz fulfills the quintessential Jewsh stereotype: the arrogant two-faced huckster who thinks he can talk his way out of anything.]
The Harvard Law Professor Who Sat On An Israeli Assassination Target Review Panel. The Jihad of Alan Dershowitz,
By LIAQUAT ALI KHAN, Law Professor, Washburn University School of Lawl, CounterPunch, September 30, 2004
"If to dispute well is law's chiefest end, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz has honed this ability to a stunning craft. In high-profile cases, such as O. J. Simpson, Doctor Dershowitz, a seasoned criminal law jurist, serves as a media-savvy lawyer determined to defend "the guilty." Less well known, however, is that this advocacy
Mephistopheles thrives on inventing unpopular, counter-intuitive, and even unjust exceptions to international law--a subject he normally does not teach. These exceptions--mutually folded in each
other's orb---allow the torturing of terrorists, the assassinations of their leaders, and the demolition of their family homes. What is most intriguing is the contempt that Dershowitz has for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its current President (the Chinese judge) whom he calls a thug, discarding the language of professional courtesy. Somewhat intrigued by his incendiary views daringly, and sometimes crudely, expressed in books and newspaper columns, I requested to interview Dershowitz, an interview he granted promptly and generously. We both taped the interview, I for no other reason but to save as a souvenir. I came out of the interview with the clear impression that--setting aside the civil liberties concerns that inform his criminal defense rhetoric--Dershowitz concocts these exceptions not merely to embellish his ivory tower but to proactively defend, and sometimes shape, Israeli policies in occupied Palestine. For example, Dershowitz's contempt for the ICJ has deepened ever since the Court decided to rule on the legality of Israel's separation wall. Comparing the ICJ to a Mississippi court in the 1930s, Dershowitz contends that the ICJ is a credible court for the rest of the world but not for Israel, just as the Mississippi court was a just tribunal for whites but not for blacks. This argument, in its analogical enormity, paints the ICJ as an exceptionally anti-Israel body. Furthermore, Dershowitz challenges the neutrality of ICJ judges, arguing that they are shameless mouthpieces of their governments. When asked to comment on whether he holds the same view about British and American judges on the Court, Dershowitz stepped back to distinguish between the Court and its judges, now saying that the ICJ is bigoted but many of its judges are not. This distinction made no sense to me, since all judges on the Court, except one, held the separation wall to be illegal. Dershowitz's exceptional defense of Israel is not confined to academic criticisms of the ICJ (or the International Red Cross or the United Nations). In the interview, Dershowitz, who opposes the death penalty, revealed that he had sat on the Israeli assassination committee that reviews evidence before terrorists are targeted and killed. This "due process" hearing is designed to reduce the raw charge that state-sponsored assassinations are blatantly unlawful. Dershowitz favors targeted assassination of terrorist leaders "involved in planning or approving on-going murderous activities." Under this protean standard, it is unclear whether spiritual and political leaders who favor terrorist violence but do not materially participate in specific terrorist acts may also be assassinated. These niceties aside, the idea of a Harvard law professor sitting on an occupying state's assassination committee would be, to many in the legal academy, a trifle perplexing. What rattles his many critics the most, however, is the innovative exception Dershowitz draws for the Convention against Torture (1987). The Convention prohibits all forms of torture and provides for no exception. In fact, the prohibition against torture has attained the status of jus cogens--the peremptory norms of international law that cannot be abandoned or altered. Dershowitz confesses to know all this. Yet he makes an empirical argument to carve out an exception. Since torture cannot be eliminated in the real world, he argues: "Ay, think so still, 'til experience change thy mind." Dershowitz proposes that the legal system regulate torture by requiring state officials to obtain a judicial warrant before torturing. Despite Dershowitz's connections and influence, Israel refused to launch the proposed torture warrant, although it embraced the idea of exception to the Convention it had signed. However, when more than 90 percent of the Palestinian security detainees began to be tortured, the Israeli SupremeCourt put an end to the fledgling exception. Undeterred by such judicial rebuffs, Dershowitz continues to manufacture legal exceptions to shore up the universally condemned Israeli practices, such as bulldozing the family homes of terror suspects. Calling it property damage, he apparently dismisses the sanctity, the intimacy, and the memories attached to a family home,anybody's family home. As if demolition of family homes is a minor punishment, Dershowitz is willing to pull down even the entire "villages of suicide bombers' ... Despite his legalistic jihad for Israel's security and despite his employment of the Harvard Law School stature to propose questionable exceptions to international law, Dershowitz does not completely throw away the sense of limits. For example, he opposes Nathan Lewin, a prominent Washington lawyer and a federal judge hopeful, who blatantly argues, contrary to popular feelings of the Jewish community, that family members of suicide bombers be executed."

PizzaIDf.org,
"On behalf of the soliders of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), we wish to thank the many, many people who send Pizza, Burgers and a variety of other treats. Friends of Israel around the world are always looking for real ways to share their feelings with our soldiers and at the same time support the Israeli economy. From this site you can send Pizza and Soda and now for the winter, hot, hearty, healthy vegetable soup, to active duty soldiers who, day after day, are fighting terror and protecting the Jewish people."

[Arrogant Jewish Nazi course 101. When thugs hold power:]
Meet the people shaping the future of science. The Enforcer,
New Scientist, (No date)
"Michael Koubi worked for Shin Bet, Israel's security service, for 21 years and was its chief interrogator from 1987 to 1993. He interrogated hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including renowned militants such as Sheikh Yassin, the former leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, who was killed in an Israeli attack this year. He claims that intelligence gained in interrogation has been crucial to protecting Israel from terrorism. He tells Michael Bond that, given enough time, he could make almost anyone talk.
What cut you out to become an interrogator?
It was in my character. It was natural for me. Also I spoke Arabic very well.
What was it about your character?
Being an interrogator is 70 per cent character, 30 per cent learned. You have to know how to use intonation when you speak to a prisoner. You have to let him feel you are the boss, always. Not many interrogators can do that, because they don't have the self-assurance. I was born with that. You have to know instinctively the exact time when to shout, when to speak loudly, when to speak quietly, or when not to speak at all and just sit and look at him - for hours if necessary. These things are instinctive.
How good are you at Arabic and why is that important?
At school I learned Arabic better than other students, even the small nuances. I spoke it with my grandmother, with my parents. I can speak Arabic better than most Arabs. I learned the Egyptian, Lebanese and Jordanian dialects as well as Palestinian. This is very important because many Palestinians have worked all over the Arab world and they might speak, say, Egyptian Arabic better than they speak Palestinian. So when I'm interrogating someone who lived in Egypt they'll think I was actually there. They'll think I know everything about their world. Language is the key.
How does that help you in interrogation?
It's about making them think they cannot hide anything from you. If they live in a certain neighbourhood in Cairo, I will learn everything about that neighbourhood. I will know it like the back of my hand. I will learn the details, the houses, even the trees, everything about it. I will give the prisoner the feeling that I followed him there. You have to learn everything about him and his background. You have to know about his family, his wife, his children, his friends, his neighbourhood, his city. You have to be better than him, wiser than him. If I interrogate Sheikh Yassin, I have to know about the Koran. If I interrogate a maths teacher, I have to know maths. If you feel your detainee is wiser than you and you cannot stand head to head then you must change interrogators. That has never happened with me.
How do people behave when they are interrogated for the first time?
Every detainee behaves differently. It depends whether he's from the city or the village, or a Bedouin from the desert. It depends whether he's educated or not. Prison is unimaginably different to normal life. People behave in unexpected ways. People who talk tough in public often submit in interrogation.
I once interrogated a Bedouin who said nothing at all for a few days. He was a very tough man. During one session I was playing with a stick, and this idea came to me: I said to him, do you realise there's a snake hidden in the stick? And suddenly he became very afraid. He said he'd tell me anything. This man was used to dealing with snakes in the open, but in a cell it was a different matter.
What's the first thing you do when faced with a new detainee?
It depends on the person. I have a thousand different systems for a thousand detainees. I always have to start alone in the room with him. Sometimes, to make a show, I get other, cooperative detainees to shout outside the door, and when he hears them yelling he gets fearful. Many detainees are young, between 18 and 24. It's their first time in jail and being interrogated, and most of them are likely to do what I tell them. Of course they won't talk about everything at the beginning. Sometimes I'll come in and give him a slap - but only with permission from higher authority.
What do you do when faced with someone who won't talk?
That is my speciality. I know how to do that. It has happened a lot.
How do you do it?
I have many systems. But I do it without using any kind of physical pressure.
Can you tell me about these systems?
No, I cannot.
Can you give me an example of when you've used them?
Once I interrogated a Palestinian man who belonged to Hamas and who I believed knew about the murder of two Israeli soldiers. I had interrogated him once before, when he had said nothing. This time he behaved differently. I looked in his eyes, at his hands, his legs, and he was reacting differently. I assembled my other interrogators, more than 20, in the room, and told them to remain silent. I told them, I am going to show you how to interrogate someone.
Of course he was scared with 20 interrogators there. Then I did a few actions, without physical pressure. I showed him how I knew that he was involved. Suddenly he asked for a cigarette. When a Hamas terrorist asks for a cigarette during interrogation, you know he is going to admit something. I gave him one immediately, before he changed his mind. He asked for another. He smoked 10. Then he said, look I'm going to tell you things you don't know. He told me about all the leaders of Hamas, and about hundreds of others who were involved in Hamas that we didn't know about. He opened the way for us to get at Sheikh Yassin and other Hamas leaders who have been killed by our forces ...
[T]here have been many accusations [of Israeli torture].
I know. But these accusations come from detainees who heard screams and shouts coming from neighbouring cells and believed it was really happening, when it was just theatre. The yelling was from other detainees who were cooperating with us.
Did you ever have a detainee you couldn't break?
It has happened, but very seldom. I could count them on one hand.
Why were they so difficult?
They were very primitive people, not literate and not well educated.
Why does that make it harder?
Because I cannot use some of my systems. For example, I cannot show him written papers because he does not know how to read or write. They behave differently. I cannot speak about it. I cannot teach you all my tricks ...
Do you think you could be broken if you were interrogated?
No. I would use the same methods I use when interrogating someone, only the opposite. I would give nothing away. Nothing.
Don't you have any weaknesses?
None. None in interrogation."
[Note: this man could probably be "broken" by thoroughly massaging his pomposity and arrogance.]

[JTR contributor's comment: "Check out the cartoon [below] by Jack Higgins (who isn't Jewish I think???), which depicts a dove leaving Arafat's body and goung into the light, while Arafat stays in the dark (symbolizing heaven and hell???"]


[Hey! All you "Jews" who have converted to Judaism in America via the Reform or Conservative movement, guess what? Are you Jewish? Are you sure? To be a REAL Jew for apartheid Israel, you've got to go the racist Talmud route and crawl into the moral Stone Age.]
Israeli government to High Court:Only Orthodox conversions count,
by Dina Kraft, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 22, 2004
"Maya Gabai considers herself a Jew. Last week, the 25-year-old Romanian celebrated her conversion under the auspices of Israel’s Conservative movement. But this week Gabai, who has lived in Israel for six years, was miffed by an Israeli government opinion submitted to the High Court maintaining that only conversions overseen by official, state-sanctioned, Orthodox rabbinical courts should be honored. “I am 100 percent a Jew,” said Gabai, who married an Israeli man last year and plans to stay in Israel. “All this is about politics, not about what I feel.” In the latest battle over conversion in Israel, the state opinion was submitted in response to an appeal by a group of 15 foreigners wishing to have their Conservative or Reform conversions in Israel recognized by the state. But the state, wary of foreigners in Israel converting en masse for the citizenship benefits that follow, said Nov. 17 that they would not recognize what they termed “private conversions” — conversions that are not overseen and approved by the Orthodox-run rabbinate. “The moment they convert everybody that comes, this contradicts the meaning of conversion because conversion should stem from a real desire to be a Jew, not a real desire to be an Israeli,” said Yochie Gnessin, who is representing the state in the case. Gnessin said the government’s position is intended to protect the integrity of Israel’s Law of Return, which gives Jews the automatic right to Israeli citizenship. Last week’s government opinion was the latest salvo in a debate that has long roiled both Israel and the Diaspora. Non-Orthodox Jews, who represent the majority of Jews outside Israel, see the issue as a critical one in their efforts to gain acceptance by Israeli authorities. The Israeli courts have played an active role in the conversion controversy over the years. In 1989, the High Court ruled that Reform and Conservative conversions conducted overseas would be recognized in Israel. The High Court is expected to rule on the current case, which was filed in 1999, in the coming months. Reform and Conservative officials in Israel insist the move is just the latest government attempt to entrench the Orthodox monopoly on conversion ... Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel who is in charge of conversion in the country, told JTA he stood by the government opinion. He said that an Orthodox conversion is the only conversion considered valid according to halachah, or Jewish law. He said the Conservative and Reform movements do not do conversions according to halachah, “they do not know halachah, they themselves do not follow halachah' ... In a highly unusual development, the state’s opinion notes that Interior Minister Avraham Poraz has a dissenting opinion. Poraz, whose ministry oversees immigration, said he believes non-Orthodox conversions conducted in Israel should be recognized by the state ... As many as 300,000 of the nearly 1 million immigrants who came to Israel in the 1990s from the former Soviet Union pay taxes and serve in the army, but can’t marry Jews in Israel or be buried in Jewish cemeteries."

[Imagine a headline in a U.S. newspaper that said "White Wives are Black Husband's Prey." First, after your initial shock and realization that it wasn't a joke, you'd wonder if the Ku Klux Klan had taken over. And then you'd wonder if the newspaper's building had been burned down yet by mobs of anti-racist protesters. Would the newspaper also be driven out of business tomorrow and its leaders put on some kind of "hate crime" trial? In Israel, it is common parlance to print stuff below like this because the very principle of an expressly Jewish state is racist to the core and there's a large, hating, racist Jewish audience -- worldwide, including in America -- for this. "Arabs are savages, beasts, and they're polluting our Jewish maidens." Here below is exhibit 12 million of incessant Jewish hypocrisy. In America, Jews are in the vanguard of making sure a headline like this never sees the light of day. These same hypocritical American Jews turn a blind eye to endemic Jewish racism from the apartheid Israeli state.]
Jewish Wives Are Arab Husbands' Prey,
by Mayaan Jaffe, Israel National News, November 22, 2004
"The stories of pain and torture chill every bone in my body. Trembling, I sit before half-a-dozen women in the Lev L'Achim rehabilitation center for battered women, learning about how they lost their independence, lost their happiness, lost their lives. These women have been rescued from the misery of life in their husbands' Arab villages ... This is where Lev L'Achim comes in. Members of the anti-assimilation division of Lev L'Achim launch clandestine missions to rescue [Jewish] women who are trapped in their husbands' Arab villages. Once liberated, the girls are generally brought to the organization's unmarked hostel where a security camera monitors the electrically locked door. At the hostel, the women undergo psychological treatment and counseling. They are given the opportunity to begin new lives. But the transition from living in an Arab village to living in the hostel is not an easy one. Hostel director Chaya Stashevsky says the women are in constant conflict. Sometimes, the woman thinks she still harbors affection for her former Arab husband. After all, she has lived with him for who knows how many years; she has had children with him. "We don't have everything at the hostel. We give a lot of love, but their time with us is seen as temporary. The anxiety of what awaits a woman when she leaves this shelter sometimes psychologically paralyzes her," Mrs. Stashevsky explains.Still, says Shtigletz, the results are generally positive. Most of the women gain independence. Lev L'Achim helps them find and marry good Jewish men with whom they can start afresh. "In the end, we get these women to a place where they can live their lives according to Torah law…" he says. Thank God for Lev L'Achim."

MER Articles about the Assassination and Cover Up of Yasser Arafat,
Mid-East Realities
"Five critical days before it was officially announced that Yasser Arafat was actually dead -- even as leading media organizations were repeatedly parroting officials to the contrary -- MER not only reported the real news that Arafat was all but legally dead but the important news that he had been 'Stealth Assassinated' by blood poisoning by the Israelis. Below are links to MER articles published from 4 to 12 November about the assassination of Yasser Arafat and the cover up that followed. As always exclusive MER analysis and commentary is directly to the point, hard-hitting, and not to be found anywher eelse with the incisiveness, expertise and depth of coverage provided by MER."

[JTR contributor's comment: "Violins? What does this remind you of?" Our comment: Yes, but did the Jewish Nazis also cut off the Palestinian's beard?]
Soldiers force Palestinian to play violin at W. Bank checkpoint,
by Akiva Eldar, Haaretz (Israel), November
"An Israel Defense Forces officer and soldiers at the Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus forced a young Palestinian on November 9 to open a violin case he was carrying and play the instrument, while local residents waited behind him in a long line. The incident was filmed by Horit Herman-Peled, a volunteer for the women's human rights organization Machsom Watch, and a complaint was reviewed by the regional brigade commander who conveyed to his troops the severity of the matter. According to Machsom Watch, another volunteer reported several months ago about a similar incident in which a Palestinian was forced to play for soldiers at a checkpoint in the Jerusalem region. The IDF Spokesman's Office said in response that an inquiry indicated that the incident was the result of "insensitive conduct on the part of the soldiers at the checkpoint, who contend with a complex and dangerous reality. The IDF does and continues to do all it can to improve the situation at the checkpoints. As part of this effort, the IDF makes efforts to enhance sensitivity toward humanitarian and humane issues at checkpoints. The IDF continuously employs educational, command and disciplinary tools to emphasize to the soldiers and commanders at the checkpoint both the importance of the mission and the need to show sensitivity and consideration in the execution of the mission' ... The latest Machsom Watch report points to the Beit Iba checkpoint as one of the key sites where residents' freedom of movement is curtailed. Because there was no lighting and a decision was made to relocate the checkpoint, the checkpoint closed down at 5 P.M. and many residents were forced to retrace their steps."

[More of Israel's Beacon of Light to the World: today's Jewish Nazism:]
Israeli officer: I was right to shoot 13-year old child. Radio exchange contradicts army version of Gaza killing,
by Chris McGreal, The Guardian (UK), November 24, 2004
"An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a warning from another soldier that she was a child by saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old. The officer, identified by the army only as Captain R, was charged this week with illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and other relatively minor infractions after emptying all 10 bullets from his gun's magazine into Iman al-Hams when she walked into a "security area" on the edge of Rafah refugee camp last month. A tape recording of radio exchanges between soldiers involved in the incident, played on Israeli television, contradicts the army's account of the events and appears to show that the captain shot the girl in cold blood. The official account claimed that Iman was shot as she walked towards an army post with her schoolbag because soldiers feared she was carrying a bomb. But the tape recording of the radio conversation between soldiers at the scene reveals that, from the beginning, she was identified as a child and at no point was a bomb spoken about nor was she described as a threat. Iman was also at least 100 yards from any soldier. Instead, the tape shows that the soldiers swiftly identified her as a "girl of about 10" who was "scared to death". The tape also reveals that the soldiers said Iman was headed eastwards, away from the army post and back into the refugee camp, when she was shot. At that point, Captain R took the unusual decision to leave the post in pursuit of the girl. He shot her dead and then "confirmed the kill" by emptying his magazine into her body. The tape recording is of a three-way conversation between the army watchtower, the army post's operations room and the captain, who was a company commander. The soldier in the watchtower radioed his colleagues after he saw Iman: "It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward." Operations room: "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?" Watchtower: "A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death." A few minutes later, Iman is shot in the leg from one of the army posts. The watchtower: "I think that one of the positions took her out." The company commander then moves in as Iman lies wounded and helpless. Captain R: "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over." Witnesses described how the captain shot Iman twice in the head, walked away, turned back and fired a stream of bullets into her body. Doctors at Rafah's hospital said she had been shot at least 17 times. On the tape, the company commander then "clarifies" why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over." The army's original account of the killing said that the soldiers only identified Iman as a child after she was first shot. But the tape shows that they were aware just how young the small, slight girl was before any shots were fired. The case came to light after soldiers under the command of Captain R went to an Israeli newspaper to accuse the army of covering up the circumstances of the killing. A subsequent investigation by the officer responsible for the Gaza strip, Major General Dan Harel, concluded that the captain had "not acted unethically". However, the military police launched an investigation, which resulted in charges against the unit commander. Iman's parents have accused the army of whitewashing the affair by filing minor charges against Captain R. They want him prosecuted for murder."

Israelis occupy state of denial over Zionism's great
moral crisis,
by William Pfaff, The Australian, October 11, 2004
"A generally unremarked note has been the glacial
semi-silence on the subject of what is going on in the Gaza Strip, and on its implications for declared US foreign policy. This silence very likely will continue. However, there are new and extremely important questions on this subject that could be asked, and that now excite intense controversy inside Israel itself. The Gaza affair is another act - and possibly a culminating one - in a great moral crisis for Israelis, and for Israel's friends elsewhere. Most Israelis sense this. The source of the crisis is the one identified by Israel's first prime minister, David ben Gurion, in 1967, when he expressed his fear of the consequences of Israel's annexation of new areas with large Arab populations. Should Israel annex those populations, enclose them, expel them? Or, as in Gaza, has it a right - intentionally or otherwise - to destroy civil society itself in retaliation for these people's resistance to Israel's settlement and effective annexation of what legally and historically are Palestinian lands? The psychological as well as political conditions created in Gaza's wretched refugee camps by the Israeli army's new intrusions, the most violent in two years and announced as of indefinite duration, are those of anarchy and what may be described as existential struggle: the conviction that struggle affirms existence and survival. The rhetorical accompaniment to the attacks suggests Israel intends this time to finish with the resistance in Gaza. But, as an important part of Israeli opinion itself understands, this is what Ariel Sharon's Government cannot do. The ostensible aim of the intrusions is to force Hamas and other Palestinian militants to stop their rocket attacks on Israeli towns adjoining the Gaza Strip (and settlements inside Gaza), or to make the Palestinian Authority or Palestinian civil society stop the attacks. The effort is self- defeating. An analysis by the Strategic Affairs Unit of the Israel-Palestine Centre for Research and Information points out that the Israeli aim obviously requires the existence of some kind of Palestinian authority capable of taking and enforcing decisions. Yet the Israeli attack itself is a continuation of the campaign by the Sharon Government to make sure that no Palestinian centre of decision survives ... A new and crucial interpretation and elaboration of the significance of what is going on has now been provided by Sharon's political adviser Dov Weisglass, who has been the Israeli Prime Minister's main contact with the Bush administration and with the congressional leadership in Washington. Last week he told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Gaza withdrawal was meant to put an end to the US-backed road map that was supposed to provide an overall peace settlement, including an independent Palestine - and that the Bush administration had secretly acquiesced. The road map for negotiations leading to peace and a free Palestine was drafted by the US, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, all of whom promised to support it. Weisglass said a deal had now been made with the US Government that, in exchange for the Gaza withdrawal, the US would abandon its promise of a Palestinian state, "with all that entails". He added: "All this with a presidential blessing (from Bush) and ratification by both houses of Congress." He subsequently and unconvincingly denied saying this. But it has been apparent from the start of the road map plan that, for the Sharon and Bush governments, it was merely a gesture to appease international opinion. (It was originally devised to provide domestic political cover for Tony Blair's decision to join the invasion of Iraq.)"

Israel's Mossad rocked by internal crisis: report,
Yahoo! News (from AFP), November 15, 2004
"Israel's spy agency Mossad has been rocked to the core by an internal crisis which has seen scores of resignations over the policies of its controversial boss Meir Dagan, according to a television report. Dagan, a close associate of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has come under fire for launching risky operations abroad, a documentary broadcast on the private Channel 2 television said. The documentary, which was based on interviews with former officials in the agency, also claimed that relations with the US Central Intelligence Agency have sharply deteriorated under Dagan. It said more than 200 agents including seven department heads had resigned in recent months. When Dagan, a reserve general, took over the agency in October 2002, Mossad turned its sights on international terrorism with a renewed focus on overseas commando operations ... In 1970, Dagan ran a secret commando unit called Rimon, which, according to press reports, summarily executed Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip."

[Hmm. Why wouldn't Israel have a huge presence in Iraq, a country in which it has an enormous Jewish nation "safety" stake. Israel's bloody hands and weapons are on killings and slaughters throughout the Third World. For a good review of all this, read Israeli professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi's excellent The Israeli Connection. Who Israel Arms and Why, 1987. "Mention any trouble spot in the Third World over the past ten years," wrote Hallahmi in 1987, "and, inevitably, you will find smiling Israeli officers and shining Israeli weapons on the news pages. We have seen them in South Africa, Iran, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nam ibia, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Phillipines, Chile, Bolivia, and many other places." -- BEIT-HALLAHMI, p. xii. Beit-Hallahmi's thesis is that Israel usually props up Banana Republic dictatorships to suppress struggles everywhere for human rights, lest the Palestinians be too emboldened towards justice in Israel's own backyard.]
Israel hand seen in Ivorian clash,
By Martin Sieff (UPI Senior News Analyst), World Peace Herald (from UPI, November 17, 2004
"New allegations that Israeli arms dealers helped the army of Ivory Coast attack a French military base look likely to reignite long-tense relations between Israel and France. "Israeli mercenaries assisting the Ivory Coast army operated unmanned aircraft that aided the aerial bombing of a French base in the country on Nov.9," France's TF-1 television station reported Wednesday. Also Wednesday, the respected Paris newspaper Le Monde reported that a group of 46 Israeli advisers were running an electronic-surveillance center for the Ivory Coast army, which has turned on French peacekeepers invited in by the government two years ago. Israel Radio cited an Israeli defense source as denying the reports. The attacks on French bases cost the lives of at least nine French soldiers. "Israel is unaware of such a thing," the Jerusalem Post quoted the Israeli Foreign Ministry saying. Earlier, French troops at Abidjan airport in Ivory Coast, now Cote D'Ivoire, seized an Israeli-built drone, or unmanned-surveillance aircraft. In September, France called on Israel to clarify its role in Ivory Coast. On Nov. 9, the Israeli Defense Ministry's Director General Amos Yaron promised to stop supplying military equipment to the army in the poor West African nation ... The allegations are political dynamite for many reasons. France was so incensed by the deadly Nov.9 air attack on its troops it responded with overwhelming force, wiping out the entire Ivory Coast air force. In retaliation, enraged mobs attacked French troops and citizens in the former French colony and France evacuated more than 5,000 Westerners in the country. The U.N. Security Council Monday approved an arms embargo on Ivory Coast, a move that was a blow to President Laurent Gbagbo, who had pledged to rebuild the air force. On Wednesday, the African Union called for an urgent meeting of its Peace and Security Council to prevent Ivory Coast from collapsing into full-scale civil war like its West African neighbors, Liberia and Sierra Leone ... Israel makes some of the most advanced unmanned drone surveillance aircraft in the world and has been a significant arms exporter to sub-Saharan Africa for more than 35 years. But the Israelis are not eager to infuriate the French government or rally the French public around Chirac who has often clashed with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on many issues. France is one of the most powerful nations in the 25-country European Union. It also has the largest Jewish community in Europe and one that has been targeted by Islamist extremists from the country's Algerian-Muslim community. The last thing French Jews would want is for Israel, and by implication them, to be scapegoats for mainstream French nationalists because of the deaths of French troops in Ivory Coast. Tensions between Israel and France are based on serious policy differences between the governments but there is much more personal animus to them thanbetween Israel and most other members of the EU. A few years ago at a large dinner, France's ambassador to Britain was reported as having described Israel as "a shitty little country." More recently, Sharon enraged the French government and many Frenchmen by calling on French Jews to immigrate to Israel for their own safety. Few took his advice. The tensions are particularly ironic as no nation did more to help Israel during the first and most dangerous 20 years of its struggle for existence than France. Under both the Fourth and Fifth Republics, Israel received more important weapons for its army and air force from France than from any other country. Israel won the 1967 Six Day War with then state-of-the-art Mirage fighter-bombers supplied by France when neither the United States nor any other European nation would or could supply comparable weapons."

Donor countries won't fund Israeli-planned separate roads for Palestinians,
by Amira Hass, Haaretz (Israel), November 30, 2004
"The Palestinian Authority has asked the donor countries to turn down an Israeli request for them to finance the paving and upgrading of alternative roads in the West Bank that would take the place of the main roads that the Israel Defense Forces prevent Palestinians from accessing, allowing only Israeli cars on them. The representatives of the donor countries, including the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, have officially said they do not intend to finance any project against the will of the PA. According to a diplomatic source, the donor mandate (including the World Bank, as the planning, coordinating, financing and monitoring arm) is to operate opposite the PA and therefore they are only committed to development projects the PA submits and is interested in. Another diplomatic source said that most of the donor countries are also committed to the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague concerning the separation fence. That source said that most of the donor countries are carefully examining the projects they finance to make sure the projects do not inadvertently sustain the fence or the settlements, as the international court ruled. The separate transportation system proposed by Israel, said that source, raised concern among some donor countries that the system contravenes the international court's ruling. Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan al Khatib told Haaretz yesterday that the Palestinians in principle reject the Israeli proposal for a separate road network because it would perpetuate the settlements and consolidate an apartheid regime. The separate road system contradicts the Palestinian and international demand, he said, for removal of all the checkpoints and lifting the internal closure in the West Bank and it should be regarded as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan."

Israel: Caterpillar Should Suspend Bulldozer Sales Weaponized Bulldozers Used to Destroy Civilian Property and Infrastructure,
Human Rights Watch, November 23, 2004
"Caterpillar Inc., the U.S.-based heavy-equipment company, should immediately suspend sales of its powerful D9 bulldozer to the Israeli army, Human Rights Watch said today. As Human Rights Watch documented in a recent report, the Israeli military uses the D9 as its primary weapon to raze Palestinian homes, destroy agriculture and shred roads in violation of the laws of war.“Caterpillar betrays its stated values when it sells bulldozers to Israel knowing that they are being used to illegally destroy Palestinian homes,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Until Israel stops these practices, Caterpillar’s continued sales will make the company complicit in human rights abuses.” In a letter to Caterpillar’s chief executive officer and board of directors, Human Rights Watch on October 29 called on the company to cease all sales to the Israeli military of the D9, as well as parts and maintenance services, so long as the military continues to use the bulldozer to violate international human rights and humanitarian law. Caterpillar’s CEO James Owens responded to Human Rights Watch in a letter dated November 12 by saying the company did “not have the practical ability or legal right to determine how our products are used after they are sold.” This head-in-the-sand approach ignores international standards on corporate social responsibility and the requirements of Caterpillar’s own code of conduct. Since 2003, the United Nations has begun to develop standards for corporations in the form of the U.N. Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights. This document states that companies should not “engage in or benefit from” violations of international human rights or humanitarian law and that companies “shall further seek to ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human rights.” Caterpillar’s own code of conduct requires it to consider the broad impact of its business. The company’s Code of Worldwide Business Conduct states that “Caterpillar accepts the responsibilities of global citizenship.” The company’s commitment to financial success, the code says, “must also take into account social, economic, political and environmental priorities.” Caterpillar makes the D9 to military specifications and sells the bulldozers to Israel as weapons under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program, a government-to-government program for selling U.S.-made defense equipment. Once exported to Israel, the bulldozers are armoured by the state-owned Israel Military Industries Ltd. Weighing roughly 64 tons, the armored D9 is more than 13 feet tall and 26 feet long with front and rear blades. A Human Rights Watch report released last month, “Razing Rafah,” documented the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) systematic use of the D9 bulldozer in illegal demolitions throughout the occupied Palestinian territories. The IDF has demolished over 2,500 Palestinian homes over the past four years in the Gaza Strip alone, most of them without the military necessity required by international humanitarian law. Nearly two-thirds of those homes were in Rafah, a town and refugee camp on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. The Israeli military has used the Caterpillar bulldozer to raze the homes of more than 10 percent of the population in Rafah. The government plan to expand a “buffer zone” along the border would entail the destruction of hundreds more homes. In May, the IDF destroyed more than 50 percent of Rafah’s roads and damaged more than 40 miles of water and sewage pipes with a blade on the bulldozer’s back known as “the ripper.” “We found no legal justification for the senseless destruction of infrastructure essential to the health of the civilian population,” Whitson said."

[Throughout the world, more and more, the image of the generic Jew -- thanks to Israel that speaks in world Jewry's name -- is beginning to be "Nazi." And look how sick many of these arrogant Jews have become about their self-obsessions -- and their barbarous actions against Palestinians. But it is not really Jewish savagery that in the foremost troubles Israelis. Oh, no. What is obscene in Jewish eyes? Israeli crimes against Palestianians disturb Jews "not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust." This is the classical Jewish paradigm. And it is sick, sick, sick.]
Israel shocked by image of soldiers forcing violinist to play at roadblock,
by Chris McGreal, The Guardian (UK), November 29, 2004
"Of all the revelations that have rocked the Israeli army over the past week, perhaps none disturbed the public so much as the video footage of soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin. The incident was not as shocking as the recording of an Israeli officer pumping the body of a 13-year-old girl full of bullets and then saying he would have shot her even if she had been three years old. Nor was it as nauseating as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth. But the matter of the violin touched on something deeper about the way Israelis see themselves, and their conflict with the Palestinians. The violinist, Wissam Tayem, was on his way to a music lesson near Nablus when he said an Israeli officer ordered him to "play something sad" while soldiers made fun of him. After several minutes, he was told he could pass. It may be that the soldiers wanted Mr Tayem to prove he was indeed a musician walking to a lesson because, as a man under 30, he would not normally have been permitted through the checkpoint. But after the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists, it prompted revulsion among Israelis not normally perturbed about the treatment of Arabs. The rightwing Army Radio commentator Uri Orbach found the incident disturbingly reminiscent of Jewish musicians forced to provide background music to mass murder. "What about Majdanek?" he asked, referring to the Nazi extermination camp. The critics were not drawing a parallel between an Israeli roadblock and a Nazi camp. Their concern was that Jewish suffering had been diminished by the humiliation of Mr Tayem. Yoram Kaniuk, author of a book about a Jewish violinist forced to play for a concentration camp commander, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the soldiers responsible should be put on trial "not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust". "Of all the terrible things done at the roadblocks, this story is one which negates the very possibility of the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. If [the military] does not put these soldiers on trial we will have no moral right to speak of ourselves as a state that rose from the Holocaust," he wrote. "If we allow Jewish soldiers to put an Arab violinist at a roadblock and laugh at him, we have succeeded in arriving at the lowest moral point possible. Our entire existence in this Arab region was justified, and is still justified, by our suffering; by Jewish violinists in the camps." Others took a broader view by drawing a linkbetween the routine dehumanising treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, the desecration of dead bodies and what looks very much like the murder of a terrified 13-year-old Palestinian girl by an army officer in Gaza. Israelis put great store in a belief that their army is "the most moral in the world" because it says it adheres to a code of "the purity of arms". There is rarely much public questioning of the army's routine explanation that Palestinian civilians who have been killed had been "caught in crossfire", or that children are shot because they are used as cover by fighters. But the public's confidence has been shaken by the revelations of the past week. The audio recording of the shooting of the 13-year-old, Iman al-Hams, prompted much soul searching, although the revulsion appears to be as much at the Israeli officer firing a stream of bullets into her lifeless body as the killing itself. Some soldiers told Israeli papers that their mothers had sought assurances that they did not do that kind of thing. One Israeli peace group, the Arik Institute, took out large newspaper adverts to plead for "Jewish patriots" to "open your eyes and look around" at the suffering of Palestinians ...While the officer responsible for killing Iman al-Hams has been charged with relatively minor offences, and the soldiers who forced the violinist to play were ticked off for being "insensitive", the only troops who were swiftly punished for violating regulations last week were some who posed naked in the snow for a photograph. They were dismissed from their unit. Last week the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem criticised what it described as a "culture of impunity" within the army. The group says at least 1,656 Palestinian non-combatants have been killed during the intifada, including 529 children. "To date, one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian," it said. "The combination of rules of engagement that encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers together with the climate of impunity results in a clear and very troubling message about the value the Israeli military places on Palestinian life."

[Jewish dual loyalty in America? Not quite. Sometimes there's only loyalty in ONE direction. If these people are your neighors in the U.S. or Canada, their roots, their dreams, are in the Jewish state. They're a kind of carpet-bagger, sucking up whatever they can in America to hustle it over to their real homeland. Take it from the Orthodox source: Jew = racist, apartheid Israel.]
At Orthodox Union convention, strong tie to Israel seen as key,
by Dina Kraft, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 29, 2004
"North American modern Orthodox Jews say they can explain their connection to Israel in one word: Torah. “It’s an organic existence. An Orthodox Jew grows up and believes that Eretz Yisrael and the people of Israel are one. The fulfillment of Torah is Eretz Yisrael,” said David Cohen, director of Orthodox Union activities in Israel. “It’s not about connection. It’s who we are.” It’s this Torah-observant lifestyle, Cohen says, that brings the Orthodox on aliyah in disproportionately large numbers and has led them to visit Israel even during the darkest days of intifada violence and to send their children here to study. It also accounts for the record numbers of participants at the Orthodox Union convention in Jerusalem last week, organizers said. More than 800 O.U. members from 25 states and Canada gathered in Jerusalem for the group’s bi-annual convention over the Thanksgiving holiday, and hundreds more were turned away for lack of space. This was the first year the convention was held in Jerusalem, and attendance far surpassed the 500 or so people who typically turn out for O.U. conventions, said convention chairman Stanley Weinstein of Miami Beach. The Orthodox Union represents mainstream modern Orthodox Judaism in North America. About 125 synagogues were represented at the conference, including smaller congregations from places like Newfoundland and Texas ... Children in the Orthodox community are raised with an Israel focus from a young age, Blitz said. They’re taught about Israel in school and are encouraged to spend time at Israeli yeshivas after they graduate high school. So it’s not surprising that a large percentage of immigrants to Israel from North America are from the Orthodox community, he said ... Rabbi Joshua Fass, an Orthodox Jew who made aliyah from Boca Raton, Fla., and is a co-founder of Nefesh B’Nefesh, said aliyah is the natural extension of an Orthodox upbringing. “The exposure that an individual in the modern Orthodox movement gets from schooling, camp, involvement in synagogue, is always with involvement in Israel. It’s not only a connection to a land but a viable place for one’s future,” he said. Lorraine Hoffmann of Milwaukee, president of the Lake Park Synagogue, spoke of how prayers make the link stronger. “It’s a daily reminder of the link between the Jews in the Diaspora and the State of Israel. It is what we are all about,” she said. Many synagogues around the world say a prayer for the Israel Defense Forces, and cards with the prayer on them were displayed at the convention. The cards are sold for one dollar in North America, with proceeds donated to help soldiers .. But the majority of Jews, Orthodox or otherwise, don’t immigrate to Israel. The guilt of not moving to Israel can be acute, O.U. members said, but the connection to Torah ensures an ongoing relationship with the Jewish state. “If you read the Torah, you have a hard time staying away from Israel,” said Yitz Strauchler, an orthopedic surgeon representing his West Orange, N.J., synagogue at the convention. His visit also gave him the chance to see a son who is studying here for the year. Isabelle Novack of Los Angeles, an incoming member of the O.U. board, also has a son studying in Israel ... David Landau, an Orthodox Jew who is editor of Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, challenged the politics of those at the conference who believe the Gaza Strip and West Bank should belong to Israel. Landau presented several news stories from the week of the convention that he said reflected the toll Israel’s control of those areas has taken on Israeli morality. One story ran in Ha’aretz on Nov. 25, the day Landau addressed the conference, about a Palestinian man forced to play his violin by soldiers at an Israeli checkpoint. The photograph accompanying the story was seen as eerily reminiscent of Nazis forcing Jews to play musical instruments. Another story from Yediot Achronot detailed what the newspaper termed the “open secret” of the mutilation of some Palestinians killed by the Israeli army. It also included photographs, the most jarring of which showed a soldier putting a cigarette in the mouth of a recently killed terrorist suspect’s detached head ... He thanked Orthodox Jews for their generous support of Israel but criticized what he called religious Zionism’s “return to atavistic zealotry which is demographically and morally impossible to achieve.” The audience appeared somewhat hostile to Landau, clapping loudly when his comments were rebutted by Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations."

[Evil defined. Talk about bad press. This kind of stuff will cycle and recycle around the world for a long, long time -- Muslim forums or not. Israeli immorality and world Jewish allegiance to it continues to fuel the ranks of resistance to world Judeocentric imperialism.]
Israeli Soldiers Abuse Dead Palestinians,
MIFTAH, November 27, 2004
"An Israeli newspaper splashed out Friday, November 19, photographs showing Israeli soldiers abusing and posing for photographs with the bodies of dead Palestinians. The Israeli army said it was launching an investigation to get to the bottom of the scandal. Mass-selling Israeli daily Yedout Ahronot carried the photos, in which Israeli occupation soldiers were posing next to the bodies of dead Palestinians. In another picture, a soldier points his weapon at a corpse while pressing his foot into the half-naked body. A third picture shows a dead man, a cigarette allegedly stuck in his mouth by troops. Investigations Yedout Ahronot's investigation of the scandal includes numerous accounts of Israeli soldiers who photographed the bodies of Palestinians or who were themselves photographed with bodies. “When walking by a Palestinian shot in combat, several troops would fire into the dead body. One of them even shot four bullets,” one soldier is quoted as saying by the Israeli newspaper. One account, provided by a soldier serving in the Nahal Haharedi battalion, told of the abuse of the remains of a bomber who blew himself up at the unit's Hamra checkpoint in the Jordan Valley. Soldiers from the unit positioned the bomber's head on a concrete barrier and placed a cigarette in his mouth before taking photographs. Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Ya'alon ordered Military Police Friday to investigate the report. Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz submitted an urgent motion to the Knesset concerning the abuse of dead bodies by Israeli soldiers, Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported Friday. According to Pines-Paz, the soldiers' actions “testify to a moral imperviousness and there must be action taken to prevent this from recurring.”

Probe ordered into claims that soldiers abused dead Palestinians,
by Amos Harel, Haaretz (Israel), November 21, 2004
"The Military Advocate General ordered an inquiry over the weekend into claims that soldiers abused the bodies of dead Palestinians and posed for photographs with them, following an expose published in Friday's Yedioth Ahronoth. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Ya'alon condemned the behavior. "These are terrible acts," he said at a press conference on Friday. "Such a thing cannot take place in an army that educates to respect human dignity. Our strength is in our values." The expose consists of numerous accounts of IDF soldiers who photographed the bodies or were photographed with them. Some pictures show the Palestinian bodies in humiliating postures, or soldiers abusing them. In one incident, soldiers bound the body of an unarmed Palestinian to the hood of a jeep. In another, soldiers in Golani's Egoz unit reported the close-range shooting of two Lebanese hunters who arrived at the Israeli border near the village of Ghagar about a year ago.About six months ago, the military police started investigating various offenses, including the abuse of bodies, following the testimonies of former soldiers who formed the group Shovrim Shtika (breaking the silence). A Nahal Haredi soldier told of the abuse of the remains of a suicide bomber who blew himself up at the unit's Hamra checkpoint in the Jordan Valley. Soldiers from the unit positioned the bomber's head on a concrete barrier and placed a cigarette in his mouth before taking photographs.This is the first time that such photographs have been published. However, officers and soldiers told Haaretz that such actions have been prevalent in the territories for several years. They said similar acts took place when the IDF occupied the security strip in southern Lebanon. A Givati soldier reported that he saw soldiers spitting and urinating on the bodies of terrorists killed in the Gaza Strip. The worst case in the expose was of soldiers abusing the remains of a suicide bomber's body in 2001. It was reported in the Jerusalem weekly Kol Ha'ir at the time but the army did nothing to find the perpetrators."

[How non-Jewish migrant workers are treated in Israel:]
For You Were Strangers. Modern Slavery and Traffiicking in Human Beings in Israel.
Written by: Sigal Rozen, Ella Keren, Nomi Levenkron, Shevy Korzen, and Ronen Steinberg, Hotline for Migrant Workers (Israel), February 2003 [pdf file - 66 page report]
"Ever since the Israeli government introduced non-Palestinian migrant workers to the local labor market more than a decade ago, there has been a continuous deterioration in their wages and working conditions. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in instances of enslavement and trafficking in human beings. Its primary manifestations include debt bondage, restrictions and violations of basic human freedoms, and renting and selling of workers. The accomplices and beneficiaries of the trade in human beings include employers, employment agencies and smugglers. The vocabulary which has evolved in Hebrew, such asquotas, importing and supplying workers, disposal of workers, “portable” workers, and runaway workers truly reflects how human beings have been reduced to mere chattels. Although the authorities are aware of this deterioration, they have failed to take adequate measures to prevent it. Furthermore, the continuous erosion of migrant workers’ rights is a direct consequence of the government’s own policies, in particular binding workers to their employers, failing to enforce laws applicable to employers which could have protected workers’ basic rights, and deporting “illegal” migrant workers. Each of these policies, and especially the combination of the three, has created fertile ground for the development of conditions of slavery and trafficking in human beings in Israel ... Another practice, common especially among Romanian workers, is to require the worker to mortgage his house as a guarantee, used as a kind of “insurance” to prevent him from leaving his Israeli employer. These handsome fees are shared between recruiters abroad and Israeli employers and employment agencies, thus making profits from just recruiting the workers ... Due to the hefty fees migrant workers are required to pay for the work in Israel, many employers and middlemen have discovered that the business of recruiting the workers is highly profitable irrespective of the additional profits made from their labor. The culmination of this phenomenon is evident in the recruitment of workers for whom there is no need, in other words: importing the unemployed. On December 2001 the daily Yediot Aharonot published a shocking series of articles which found that “employment agencies have realized that it is far more profitable to recruit a Chinese worker and collect the fees he pays for the work than to actually employ him ... Confronted with the harsh realities in Israel, migrant workers realize that they have been
deceived. Most workers’ wages remain well below the legal minimum, and they can only dream of the salaries promised to them in the contracts they signed in their countries of origin ... The employer’s control over his migrant workers extends far beyond the sphere of work, and includes intrusion into and complete control over their personal lives. The employer determines where they will live, under what conditions, what to eat, whether or not they can have a mobile phone, etc. Additional restrictions limit workers’ access to legal advice andmedical care. In August 2002, three Chinese workers employed by the Malibu constructioncompany through the Gal Meshi employment agency gave a volunteer of the Hotline forMigrant Workers a detailed description of their conditions. All the workers were living at anisolated caravan site in Rishon Lezion that was run like a prison. They were forbidden toleave the site during the week, even after the end of the workday. Inspections and “roll calls” (just like in prisons) were conducted three times a day in order to make sure no one escaped. Mobile phones were forbidden. Anyone caught with a mobile phone in his possession wasimmediately deported to China. Workers’ passports were taken away and held by thecompany Under these circumstances, the migrant worker’s subjugation to his employer is total since the worker’s legal status within Israel is completely dependent upon his employer’s will. At the basis of the “binding policy” is the perception of the migrant as a mere working tool. A migrant worker is not perceived as an independent entity possessing rights, needs and desires. He has no right to choose his workplace, and the authorities permit him to switch employers only if he has first received a “letter of release”from his former employer. From the moment an employer no longer requires his services for any reason whatsoever, all he must do is call the police and declare that he is no longer interested in employing the worker. The worker is then likely to be deported. The “binding policy” is the most extreme and flagrant use of the exercise of proprietary authority and complies with international definitions of slavery: “Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.” ... In order to replace one authorized permitted worker with another, the employer must either “transfer” the worker to another employer who possesses an unfilled permit, or send the worker out of the country. The “binding policy” encourages employers to place harsh restrictions on workers’ freedom, to deport them by force, and in extreme cases even to employ man-hunters to hunt down “runaways.” An article published in the Yediot Aharonot daily newspaper on July 2, 1999 detailed these practices: “The methods of the manhunters are as follows: abduction, incarceration, interrogation, beatings, humiliation, and starvation. In some cases the treatment ends in workers being taken, under threats, to the airport and in their deportation … in full view of policemen and security men. Fear guarantees the success of this ‘black deportation’.”... [M]any of the practices used by employers of migrant workers and by employment agencies create in effect a state of slavery and trafficking in human beings in Israel. In its continual failure to fight this phenomenon, the state of Israel enables employers and employment agencies to engage in illegal practices whose sole objective is to enlarge their profits as much as possible. By agreeing to sustain legal mechanisms and institutional arrangements which exempt criminals from punishment and deny protection to their victims, Israel contributes, directly and indirectly, to the unfettered development of this phenomenon, and in doing so it also systematically violates its international obligations."

[Another story about the "systematic" Israeli desecration of Palestinian corpses.]
Gruesome revelation
Israeli soldiers regularly desecrate bodies of Palestinians, paper says, The Halifax Herald Limited, November 18, 2004
"Young Israeli soldiers systematically desecrate the bodies of dead Palestinian militants, playing with body parts and posing for souvenir photographs with bullet-riddled cadavers, an Israeli newspaper's Internet site reported Wednesday. The report on the Yediot Ahronot daily's site comes at a delicate moment in relations between Israel and the Palestinians following the death of Yasser Arafat. The photographs of the mutilations could raise tensions among Palestinians still mourning their longtime leader. The report gave several examples of what it described as systematic desecration and photography of the bodies of Palestinian terrorists, charging that it had become a phenomenon in the army. The military challenged the accuracy of some of the accounts, and promised an investigation. In general, it condemned such incidents as being a clear breach of its code of ethics ... Some of the photographs showed soldiers playing with remains of a suicide bomber as if he were a human jigsaw puzzle, then parading his severed head with a cigarette in its mouth. It quoted a junior officer, identified only as "Y," saying pictures of the incident later went on sale for two shekels (about 60 cents Cdn) apiece. "It really cracked up the whole platoon, everyone was delighted," he told the newspaper. "I remember I tried to tell them, 'Are you crazy, you're disgusting.' They just couldn't understand what I was talking about." Another soldier, "G," tells of returning to base after an operation. The bodies of dead militants were dumped next to the camp latrines. "Somebody covered them with blankets but soldiers kept coming to lift the blankets and have a look, have a bit of fun," he said. "I remember that some pulled the hair of one of the bodies and played with it." In another unit, another soldier, "D," tells of an army patrol searching for militants near the West Bank city of Nablus. The patrol riddled a group of Palestinians with bullets."

Who's who of the Anglo rich. The who's who of Israel's richest English-speaking immigrants [in Israel],
by Yehezekel Laing, Jerusalem Post (Israel), November 19, 2004
"As the old joke goes: "Want to know how to make a small fortune in Israel? Come with a big one." But what was once the butt of a joke has some laughing all the way to the bank. According to US investment bank Merrill Lynch, the number of Israeli millionaires grew by 20 percent in 2003 and now exceeds 6,000. Among those, there is a fair representation of wealthy Anglo olim. In fact, two of the country's five wealthiest citizens, including its wealthiest, are English-speaking immigrants. In order to keep track of who has the most toys, The Jerusalem Post has compiled its own list of the wealthiest Anglo olim ... Almost half of the people on the list have made their fortunes here. But the other half of the well-heeled olim came to Israel wealthy and have used their wealth to invest heavily in the country. The list includes three billionaires, four worth hundreds of millions and the rest worth dozens.
1. Shari Arison, $4.6b.
Arison, 47, originally from Miami, is not only the wealthiest olah in Israel, she's its wealthiest citizen. According to Forbes Magazine, Arison is the 94th richest person in world. The majority of her wealth comes from the 80 million shares she inherited from her father, Ted Arison, in Carnival Cruise Lines - the largest cruise line company in the world. Her shares are worth some $3.6b. Shari's father, Israeli-born Ted Arison, moved to Miami in the 1960s and started Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972 utilizing a refurbished former transatlantic liner ... Ted Arison died in 1999 at the age of 75. Carnival, which posted a net profit of $1.2b. last year, is currently managed by Ted's son, Micky. Shari currently holds 35 percent of the shares in Arison Holdings which owns 20.7% of Bank Hapoalim, 35% of Housing and Construction (Shikun Ubinui) and 49% of Eurocom - Israel's largest privately-owned communications group. She also holds a significant number of shares in Partner Communications and Internet Zahav. Shari, who served in the IDF, officially made aliya in 1967 but has been back and forth between the US and Israel many times over the years. She left Israel in September last year following withering media attacks but returned in June saying that she loves Israel and that her heart is here. Arison is heavily involved in the Arison Foundation which has distributed $150m. in Israel ...
2. Morris Kahn, $1.75b.
South African-born Kahn, 74, made his fortune through software giant Amdocs which he co-founded in 1982. Amdocs went public on the New York stock exchange in 1998. It is estimated that half the phone calls made in North America today rely on Amdocs software. In 2000, Kahn began selling off his Amdocs shares, netting him the majority of his $1.75b. fortune ...
3. Pincus Green, $1.1b.
Commodities trader Green, 69, is rated No. 514 on Forbes' 2004 Wealthiest Americans list. In the Sixties and Seventies, Green and partner Marc Rich amassed a fortune dealing in oil, precious metals and other commodities. But in the Seventies, the two were indicted on charges of manipulating the US oil system, trading with Iran during the hostage crisis, and evading taxes. In spite of paying about $150 million in fines, criminal charges remained outstanding against the two and they moved their base to a town south of Zurich. Rich and Green eventually both became citizens of Spain and Israel, countries where the tax charges aren't grounds for extradition. Despite receiving pardons from president Bill Clinton in 2001, the partners have been reluctant to return to the US. While Rich's lavish lifestyle and campaign contributions to Clinton made headlines, soft-spoken Green was considered an appendage. But Swiss bankers say that Green was the brains behind the commodity trades, exploiting price differentials due to delays and other glitches in transporting nickel, aluminum, oil and other commodities ...
4. Benzion (Benny) Landa, $500m.
Known as the father of digital offset color printing, Landa, 56, is the former chairman and founder of Indigo, which he established in 1977. In 2002, Landa sold Indigo to Hewlett-Packard for $830m. Landa was born in Poland to post-World War II refugee parents but grew up in what he described as a "poor but loving home" in Canada. His interest in printing goes back to the time he worked as a child in his father's photo shop. "As a young man, I dreamed about two things: machines and Israel," he said. His dream of moving to Israel he fulfilled in the mid-Seventies ...
5. Leon Koffler, $444m.
Canadian-born Koffler, 56, is CEO of the Israeli drugstore chain Super-Pharm. The story begins with his father, Morry, who founded Shopper's Drug Mart in Toronto in the 1960s. Over time it blossomed into a chain of more than 1,000 stores across Canada and today has annual revenues of almost $5b. In the early Seventies, at the invitation of then finance minister Pinhas Sapir, Morry came to Israel with other Jewish businessmen ...
6. Benjamin Jesselson, $350m.
American-born Jesselson, 51, along with his two brothers, Michael and Daniel, inherited their father Ludwig's fortune. Ludwig founded Phillip Barders, a commodities trading company which dealt in oil and metals. He later merged it with investment giant Solomon Smyth Barney and the Jesselsons became the largest shareholders in the firm. Brother Michael currently manages the family's holdings in the US while Benjamin does the same in Israel ... He has had a couple of run-ins with the law. Last year he was acquitted on charges of helping businessman Shlomo Eisenberg deceive shareholders and manipulate a vote in the Arad investment company. In 1998, he was acquitted of mismanagement with intent to deceive in tax fraud charges brought against Teva CEO Eli Hurvitz and senior managers of Promedico. He was, however, charged with tax evasion, and acquitted in 2000 ...
7. Erwin Eisenberg, $300m.
London-born Eisenberg, 54, inherited his fortune from his father, Shoul, who built up a $1b. empire, which included real estate and industrial holdings such as Israel Corp. ...
8. Shirley Porter, $125m.
Tesco supermarket heiress Dame Shirley Porter, 73, is believed to be worth at least BP69m. according to the Sunday Times's 2001 rich list. Unfortunately for her, she is wanted by British authorities for a 1994 conviction in the "homes-for-votes" affair. In the Eighties, Porter was believed to be active in trying to boost votes in a London borough by offering heavily discounted council housing to potential voters, and she relocated to Tel Aviv. Earlier this year, Porter paid London's Westminster Council some BP12.3 million as a settlement of their claim for BP42 million. Porter's latest difficulties, which may be grounds for extradition, center on an affidavit she signed during the affair in which she claimed she was worth just BP300,000 ...
9. Isi Leibler, $60m.
Born in Belgium, Leibler, 70, grew up in Melbourne, where he made his money in the travel industry. Leibler is the son of a diamond merchant who wisely moved his family to Australia prior to World War II. After working in his family's jewelry business, Leibler got involved in the travel industry in 1964, creating a travel company called Jetset which eventually was valued at $100m. He netted $20m. when he sold his share in the company to Air New Zealand in 1997. Since then he has been involved in real estate deals. A former head of the Australian Jewish community, Leibler has also served as the co-chairman of the World Jewish Congress governing board and is currently vice president of the WJC. Leibler made aliya [moved to Israel] in 1998.
10. Barry Shaked, $55m.
South-African-born Shaked, 47, made aliya with his family in 1960 at the tender age of three, but that still officially qualifies him as an oleh. Shaked is founder, chairman and CEO of Retalix.
11. Avi Arenson, $30m.
Winnipeg-born Arenson, 64, is the founder and majority shareholder of private company A. Arenson Construction, one of Israel's largest infrastructure firms ...
12. Jonathan Kolber, $25m.
Canadian-born Kolber is vice-chairman and CEO of Koor Industries. Kolber graduated from Harvard in 1983 with a BA in Near Eastern Languages and civilization and later studied at the American University of Cairo. He moved to Israel in 1988 to take charge of the Israeli branch of Claridge, an investment company he controls together with the Bronfman family ...
13. Shlomo Ben-Zvi, $20m.
Businessman Ben-Zvi, 39, grew up in Golders Green, London, where he was known as Michael Goldblum. He moved to Israel in 1978 at the age of 13. He learned at Hesder Yeshiva Kerem B'Yavne and Mercaz Harav Kook before studying philosophy and math at the Hebrew University. He also holds a graduate degree in international relations. Following his studies, Ben-Zvi went into the family business - commercial real-estate development - in Tel Aviv and Europe. He also started investing in hi-tech companies in Israel and Europe, including Israeli company Ness Technologies. Most recently Ben-Zvi has been involved in building a media empire aimed at taking on Israel's powerful media establishment. Along with American-Jewish billionaire Ronald Lauder he formed the Techelet Group which established Techelet, Israel's first Jewish-content television channel ...
14. Marc Belzberg
Vancouver-bred Belzberg, 49, made aliya in 1992 and is chairman and CEO of e-Sims, a simulation software company, formerly known as Emultek. He is also CEO of ODF Electronics and was CEO of the now defunct Versaware, which converted books into electronic versions on the Internet and CDs. Before coming to Israel, Belzberg managed Mergers & Acquisitions and LBOs for Salomon Brothers and Oppenheimer & Co. and served as the first president of First City Capital Corp. from 1983 to 1990 ... Marc is the son of Samuel, one of the famous Belzberg brothers of Canada. The sons of Polish immigrants, Sam, William and Hyman Belzberg made a fortune in real estate, oil and gas investments and were said at one point to be worth $8 billion ...
15. Edward Reichmann
Edward, 79, is the oldest of the five famous Reichmann brothers. The brothers, who fled Austria to Canada with their parents during World War II, built a real-estate development empire estimated at $18 billion. Olympia & York, the firm founded by the brothers eventually became the world's biggest owners of office space. But after risking $6 billion in the 24-building Canary Wharf project in London, the company crashed and today the brothers are believed to hold less than $1b."