Sunday Mail discovers how British tax money is funding 'Palestinian' terrorism
The 'Palestinians' are building the palace above for 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen using £8,000,000 (about $11,310,000) of British aid money, and after visiting the site, London's Sunday Mail Online has finally exposed it.
The shocking revelation that thousands of Palestinian terrorists, including men who have masterminded suicide bombings and murdered children, are given cash handouts from aid money will cause anger and disbelief, particularly in the wake of the Brussels massacres.
In the West Bank and Gaza, despite promises by the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) to end the practice of paying aid money to convicted terrorists, our investigation revealed that they had simply duped the West by allowing the Palestine Liberation Organisation to hand out the cash instead.
Britain gives £72 million a year to Palestine, more than one-third of which goes straight to the PA. It openly admits supporting terrorists whom it hails as heroes for fighting illegal occupation, awarding lifetime payments that rise depending on time spent in jail and the seriousness of crimes.
One Hamas master bomber has reportedly been given more than £100,000. Other ‘salaries’ go to the families of suicide bombers and even teenagers involved in the latest upsurge of deadly attacks on Israel.
DFID and the European Union are still effectively supporting these payments to thousands of terrorists – despite claims to have ended such links two years ago. This was confirmed to the MoS by former prisoners and families receiving the cash, and in official statements by the PA.
In fact, the 'Palestinians' are the main subject of the Mail's 'expose,' most of which could have been written by combing the archive of this blog and several others.
Ahmad Musa sits beside me, a convicted double murderer sentenced to life in prison. As we talk, I ask him if he did indeed kill the two men. ‘Yes, I shot them dead,’ he replies.
Yet we do not meet in a jail cell. Musa is free, released after just five years. For he is a Palestinian terrorist and he was liberated under a peace deal.
Like thousands more Palestinian prisoners, including jihadi bombers and killers of children, Musa enjoys his freedom after being awarded a ‘salary’ for life.
He gets £605 every month, others get far more. If they die, the cash goes to their family. These men are seen as terrorists, certainly by Israel, and many in the West.
But, astonishingly, the money behind these payments – described by some as ‘rewards for murder’ – flows from British and European taxpayers.
For the record, that 'salary' is about 150% of the average teacher's salary in the 'Palestinian Authority.'
The UK cash comes from the Department for International Development, which will give up to £25.5million this year to the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of a £72million aid package. Our investigation discovered that the PA passes millions on to the infamous Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) – which in turn gives it to convicted terrorists locked up in Israeli prisons and their families.
Among them are Amjad and Hakim Awad, cousins who killed Ehud and Ruth Fogel and their three children in their West Bank home in 2011. It is estimated that Amjad alone may have been paid up to £16,000 from the fund so far.
Yes, those are the Fogels HY"D (May God Avenge their blood) in the pictures above. Hakim was 18 and Amjad was 19 when they murdered the Fogels. Unfortunately, they're unlikely to die the slow and painful deaths they so richly deserve. Instead, they are being supported by British and European taxpayers.
Also on the payroll is Abdallah Barghouti, the Hamas bomb-maker who was sentenced to life after attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is thought he has received payments totaling £106,000.
Barghouti prepared the Sbarro suicide bombing (pictured above).
Dfid confirms that the PLO makes such payments, calling them ‘social welfare’ provisions for prisoners’ families.
It denies, however, that any British cash reaches terrorists, with the PLO taking over such payments two years ago from the PA after an international outcry.
But a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that Britain funded the PLO until last year and that the PA openly boasts of still funding salaries of convicted terrorists, even in its own official statements.
Former prisoners and the families of terrorists we have spoken to also confirmed receiving cash from both the PA and the PLO.
British aid money is supposed to be rebuilding and developing the Palestinian territories. However a devastating new report to be released this week by Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli NGO, suggests that Western donors have been duped by assertions that the Authority no longer funds terrorists.
Some Hamas terrorist masterminds have reportedly been given more than £100,000.
Other ‘salaries’ go to relatives of suicide bombers and even teenagers involved in the latest upsurge of deadly attacks on Israel. Several ex-prisoners confirmed to me that they were paid monthly stipends that started in jail.
One said they also received a ‘bonus’ on leaving prison and lucrative civil service job offers, the most senior posts going to those serving more than 15 years behind bars, even though they are not qualified.
PA officials openly defend such stipends. Amr Nasser, adviser to the minister of social affairs, said: ‘It is not a crime to be fighting occupation. These people are heroes.
‘We could be giving them much more money and it would not be enough.’ Nasser added that, if Palestine won independence, the government would seek reparations from Britain for its historic role in encouraging Zionism, saying ‘You should pay us more money.’
Cash is fungible.
There is no difference between the 'Palestinian Authority' and the PLO. It's a shell game.
And lest you think the Mail actually gets that they're doing something wrong other than wasting British taxpayer money... they don't.
The four million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza receive the highest aid support per head in the world. Few would deny they face unique problems given checkpoints, tough crackdowns and disputed settlements.
Their 'unique problems' are entirely of their own making. They could have had a peace agreement 22 years ago and more. They didn't want one.
I don't buy the claim made throughout this article that the 'Palestinians' are 'fooling' the West. They're not. Itamar Marcus, the author of the report on which the part of this article that deals with the 'Palestinians' is based, agrees.
Itamar Marcus, the report’s author, said: ‘There is wilful blindness by the UK and EU, who were happy not to even carry out the simplest investigation.’
Indeed.
But what's most astounding about this article is that it was supposed to be a report on how British foreign aid is wasted in general. There are about two paragraphs about other places in the world, and much, much more about the 'Palestinians,' who are Europe's (and Britain's) pet project. You don't think that has anything to do with rampant anti-Semitism in Britain and Europe, do you?
Abu Mazen last night in Beit Lechem: We oppose murder or bloodshed of any person without connection to his sex/origin/religion. Our opposition will continue to be peaceful and we will not encourage otherwise.
Today, a 15-year old was arrested in connection with the murder of Daphna Meir HY"D (May God Avenge her blood), a mother of six children who was murdered in her own home in front of her children on Sunday. How does a 15-year old become incited to murder?
This video is from 'Palestinian' television in October of 2015. The senior 'Palestinian' official was commenting on the murders of Eitam and Naama Henkin HY"D (on which Abu Mazen had no comment - see the link).
When a child is fed this kind of support for murder with his mother's milk and thereafter for all of his brief life, is it really surprising that he decides that his duty is to murder Jews in front of their children (God Forbid)?
Abu Mazen doesn't oppose bloodshed. He lives for it. He's a liar.
And for this we can thank President Hussein Obama and his European Union friends, which continue to let the 'Palestinian Authority' off scot free for this type of incitement.
Fatah's Rajoub: We have made a political decision to slaughter the settlements
Jibril Rajoub, Head of the PA Sports Authority and Deputy Secretary of
the Fatah Central Committee announced that Fatah has made a "political
decision" to support slaughtering Jews who live in settlements.
Let's go to the videotape. More after the video.
From Palestinian Media Watch via email:
The Fatah movement, headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, is seen by many in the West as a peaceful alternative to Hamas for a future peace agreement. Palestinian Media Watch's book Deception documents that the PA presents different messages to the world in English than in Arabic to its people.
PMW reported that thorough his PA media, Mahmoud Abbas was seen as encouraging Palestinians of the West Bank to initiate violence against Israel. Since then, over 600 Palestinians have been arrested since July for violent rioting that included the throwing of Molotov cocktails, firecrackers and rocks. Earlier this month, a Palestinian tractor driver murdered an Israeli pedestrian and flipped a bus onto its side in an attack in Jerusalem. The PA leadership's response to this violence in Jerusalem and the West bank was supportive:
"The leadership expressed pride 'in the comprehensive popular uprising of our great nation, throughout the homeland and in its heart, Jerusalem... against the criminal aggression (i.e., the Gaza war).'"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 17, 2014]
So when did you say John FN Kerry was coming back?
Official PA TV broadcast a cartoon last month that showed a math teacher pointing to a map of "Palestine" as an example of "a number that is indivisible." The map included both PA areas and all of Israel.
Text on blackboard under map: "Palestine: A number that is indivisible." [Official PA TV, Feb. 21, 2014]
Fatah also continues to promote this idea. Fatah's Facebook administrator recently stated that before teaching them "to read and write," Palestinians teach their children that "Palestine" is indivisible, so that they "will only agree to one rule, which cannot be added to, subtracted from, or calculated: that Palestine cannot be divided":
"We educate our children on the national anthem every morning. They will memorize the anthem of 'return'; they will engrave the four-colored [Palestinian] flag on their hearts; they will learn the foundations of the revolution before they learn to read and write; they will only agree to one rule, which cannot be added to, subtracted from, or calculated: that Palestine cannot be divided."
[Facebook, "Fatah-The Main Page," March 5, 2014]
The text was accompanied by a photo of a teacher pointing to a map of "Palestine" replacing all of Israel drawn on the blackboard, with the explanatory text rejecting Israeli jurisdiction over Israeli cities: "Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Ramle, Safed, Beit Shean, were and will remain Palestinian cities."
Looks like US Secretary of State John FN Kerry has gone a long way toward convincing the 'Palestinians' to accept a 'two-state solution.' Great job Obama and Kerry!
Meretz party seethes: Senior PA official denied entry into Israel due to incitement
Senior 'Palestinian Authority' official Jibril Rajoub has been denied entry into Israel due to statements he made in Arabic that were exposed by Palestinian Media Watch. The radical Leftist Meretz party, which wanted to host Rajoub at a conference, is furious.
The Israeli government prevented senior Palestinian Authority leader
Jibril Rajoub from entering Israel, citing examples of his incitement
against Israel that were exposed by Palestinian Media Watch. Israeli TV Channel 2 News cited Rajoub's statement last month:
Let's go to the videotape.
The radical Leftist Meretz party is seething.
Israel's Meretz Party had invited Rajoub to attend a party conference in
Israel. Israeli TV Channel 2 reported that Israeli Defense Minister
Moshe Yaalon explained his decision with the words:
"Jibril Rajoub incites [against Israel].
I'm not prepared when someone spits on me to say that it's rain."
[Channel 2 News (Israel), June 7, 2013]
Meretz chairwoman, MK Zahava Gal-On, criticized the decision saying:
"This is an attempt at silencing one of the outstanding peace-seekers on the other side." [Haaretz website, June 6, 2013]
'Outstanding peace seekers?' Read the whole thing and watch the rest of the videos to find out how big a lie that is.
Facebook: “We removed the
following content you posted or were the admin of because it violates
Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.”
Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities stipulates that "you
will not post content that is hate speech" or "incites violence."
While Facebook is preventing PMW’s exposure of the PA’s hate speech,
Facebook’s policy has not been applied to the explicit terror promotion
and terror glorification by Fatah on Facebook, which PMW has documented,
all of which were posted by Fatah’s Facebook page administrator:
YouTube accuses Palestinian Media Watch of 'spreading hate,' blocks video
YouTube has blocked a video from 'Palestinian' television that was posted by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) last week as hate speech, and has threatened to close PMW's account.
Last week, Palestinian Media Watch released a video-bulletin showing a Palestinian Authority children's TV broadcast of a hate-poem.
A young Palestinian girl recited a poem referring to Jews as "Allah's
enemies, the sons of pigs" who "murdered children," "cut off their
limbs," "raped the women in the city squares" and "defiled Allah's
book." The host responded with enthusiastic applause and "Bravo!"
The following day, YouTube blocked access to PMW's video, defining it as
a "violation of YouTube's policy prohibiting hate speech."
In the past, YouTube has closed PMW's account or frozen PMW's account for exposing PA religious leaders promoting genocide of Jews. This is the first time YouTube has defined a broadcast on PA children's TV as hate speech, and blocked PMW from exposing it.
PMW does not promote hate speech, but exposes it. PMW believes that the
only way to stop the Palestinian Authority's ongoing Islam-based hate
speech and terror glorification is to expose it. By preventing PMW from
exposing PA hatred, YouTube is actively impeding our ability to fight
the PA's hate promotion.
YouTube has even threatened PMW with termination of its YouTube account should PMW continue exposing this hate speech:
"Additional violations
may result in the temporary disabling of your ability to post content to
YouTube and/or the permanent termination of your account."
PMW has
requested that YouTube return the video. PMW has no direct line of
contact with YouTube administrators, other than their standard appeal
option on their website. Therefore, we ask anyone who has contacts at
YouTube to please help encourage YouTube to make our video accessible
again.
For now, we have uploaded the children's TV video to a different server and it can now be viewed here.
The real purveyor of hate speech is 'Palestinian' children's television. But if it cannot be exposed as such, how will it be stopped?
Democrats tend to do this as well when Republican presidents nominate
people. But Republicans have done it out of pique and spite. And
they've abdicated their advice and consent function, which, after all,
is supposed to help the president govern, and not to force people out of
the mainstream who have unorthodox views. Indeed, when you do that, you
push people like Chaz Freeman, an incredibly intelligent thinker who
was once a top Obama intelligence board nominee, over the edge. You
ratify their suspicions that there is only one way to think about
Israel.
If Hagel was actually an anti-Semite, we would know, and he wouldn't
have survived the first week of his nomination. He's not. It's been
interesting to watch Democrats play the game of listening to Hagel's
contrition for not adopting the public pro-Israel consensus that seems
to be required of all those who want national office. They know very
well what they're getting: a man who believes that Israel is a strong
ally, and also believes that the U.S. needs to push them, our friends,
more than they do.
Like so many others Ambinder absurdly reduces opposition to Hagel to a
narrow subset of the pro-Israel community, which holds sway over the
Republican party.
You would think that Hagel distinguished himself in his hearings. He
didn't. You would think that he has a reputation as being a great
strategic thinker. He doesn't.
(Ambinder thinks that opposition to Freeman sent him "over the edge!"
Freeman didn't get around to disclosing his financial records before
withdrawing. I suspect that the foreign ties his records would have
shown would have disqualified him.)
As Newsweek’s former diplomatic correspondent, Hirsh is well aware of
the full range of facts; he just chooses to ignore them in pursuit of a
political agenda and, by so doing, sullies the National Journal. What
did Bush know and both Hagel and Hirsh ignore?
The Karine-A. While Hagel was praising Iran and castigating his
President for—gasp—harsh rhetoric, Iran was shipping 50 tons of weaponry
to the Palestinian Authority in order to support terrorism and quash
the fragile cease-fire.
Iran’s covert nuclear enrichment facility which was yet to be
exposed publicly, but was known in intelligence circles (including
presumably the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on which Hagel
served) and to the White House.
North Korea-Iran cooperation of nuclear and missile proliferation
is now well established. Iranian and North Korean scientists and
nuclear engineers regularly attend each other’s tests and visit each
other’s facilities.
First and foremost among these is that he has expressed objectively
anti-American views, as was shown, for example, in his agreeing with an
al-Jazeera caller who described the United States as an aggressive
bully. Anti-Americanism may be fashionable among the U.S. elite today
but it is not a good characteristic for a secretary of defense. Aside
from everything else, if the United States has always been bad for
pursing its interests in the past, why should this secretary of defense
compound the sin by championing U.S. interests today?
Second, it is painfully clear — even to his supporters who would never
admit it in public — that Hagel doesn’t understand the issues and is
incapable of running a huge bureaucracy. Hagel even admitted his
incapability in his own defense, boasting that this didn’t matter since
he wouldn’t be making any decisions anyway!
Once again, though, Hillary Clinton’s 2008 election advertisement test
applies: Who do you want to answer the call at three a.m.? We have
before us at this moment a perfect example. The attack on the U.S.
consulate in Benghazi, where four Americans were murdered, was dropped
into the lap of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. How many Americans
might die when Hagel is given the responsibility for action?
Third, one could point out that the ultimate choices for Benghazi were
with Obama. But that’s also a reason for understanding why Hagel
shouldn’t be confirmed. A secretary of defense should not just be a
“yes-man.” He should represent an independent point of view and also
represent his department’s interests.
It's hard to avoid the feeling that Hagel's supporters are motivated by
his - I'll put it nicely - skepticism towards Israel. There really is
little else to recommend him.
2) Building his anti-Israel cred one blog post at a time
One of the most anti-Israel "journalists" currently working, is Robert
Mackey the lead blogger the New York Times, The Lede. He didn't
disappoint this week with Palestinian Blogger Chips Away at Israel’s Image, One Ill-Advised Instagram at a Time At issue was an Instagram picture taken by an Israel solider showing a Palestinian boy in the crosshairs of his weapon.:
Like the activist bloggers in Syria who are working to undermine
their enemies, Mr. Abunimah and his colleagues at the Electronic
Intifada scour the Web for material to counter the effort by Israelis
who use social media platforms to cast their army’s activities in a
positive light.
In an online chat with The Lede on Tuesday, Mr. Abunimah explained that
the Electronic Intifada bloggers, “monitor social media content produced
by Israelis and Palestinians in the context of the ‘conflict.’ This has
proven to be a source of newsworthy content that is often raw and
unfiltered by P.R. machinery.”
...
Mr. Abunimah added: “we’re always on the lookout for sock puppetry and
astroturfing — that Israel or surrogates may launch P.R. campaigns that
are not overtly identified as such. So we look at the output of
individuals because we cannot assume that all propaganda is put out with
the state’s name on it.” The Electronic Intifada helped uncover one
such covert campaign in 2011, in which an Israeli actor pretended to be a
disillusioned supporter of the Gaza flotilla movement for a fake video
blog post.
Israel's army usually does act admirably. What Mackey is doing here is
sanitizing the efforts of an anti-Israel activist. The fact that the
soldier was ostracized speaks of what sort of society Israel is.
“Reconciliation comes only after matters have been settled,” said
Radwan Abu Ayyash, a veteran Palestinian journalist and former director
of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, the parent of the
authority’s television and radio stations with headquarters in the West
Bank city of Ramallah.
“Thinking of Jaffa and Haifa is still there as an old dream, as
history,” he said, referring to the Palestinian refugees’ desire to
return to the homes they occupied before 1948, “but it is not reality.”
Some Israelis struggle with the practice of monitoring the Palestinian
news media, acknowledging the importance of knowing what is being said
in Arabic, yet disturbed by how its dissemination is exploited by those
not eager to see Israel make concessions.
On the one hand Mackey supports Abuminah's efforts to generalize about
Israeli society from isolated incidents; on the other Kershner
attributes ulterior motives to Marcus's well documented research.
The 'Palestinians' show their appreciation to the United States
The 'Palestinians' believe that they owe the US nothing. They believe - to the extent that they acknowledge US beneficence at all - that everything the US has done for them was because they deserved it. They don't acknowledge that anything the US (or Israel for that matter) has done for them or for any of them was an act of kindness.
The official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has accused the
United States of ordering radical Islamists to commit atrocities in
order to justify America's war on terror and its actions against Arabs.
A recent opinion piece in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida claims that after
the fall of the Soviet Union, the US needed "a new straw man, whose
existence would justify all its wars, all its conspiracies and its
policies of supporting oppression."
The writer, Fuad Abu Hajla, who is a regular columnist at the paper,
alleges that the US subsequently "urged Islamist movements to commit
atrocities that tarnished the image of Islam and Muslims in the world,"
thereby allowing it to use its war on terror as an excuse to overthrow
Arab regimes.
The columnist insists that the American-led "lunatics" were forbidden to
operate in Israel - "the Israeli tyrant" - but continue to be
responsible for murders, kidnapping and terror in Syria and Algeria.
You can bet that if President Obama meets with Abu Mazen while he's here (which he undoubtedly will), he won't raise anything like this.
"We strapped ourselves with explosives... and praised [Allah] for the Martyrdom"
Here's a new hit song from 'Palestinian' radio, which glorifies (what else?) suicide bombers and 'martyrdom.' The song was broadcast on the radio on Saturday, December 1.
On Sunday, Yossi Kuperwasser, the director general of the Ministry for Strategic Affairs, made a presentation to the cabinet about incitement in the 'Palestinian Authority.' Here are a couple of important comments.
Strategic
Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon said, "As long as the Palestinian
Authority educates its people toward hatred, and non-recognition, of
Israel, there will not be peace. They are sending deep messages and this
education is being absorbed by all sections of the populace, especially
the younger generation."
So long as there is no peace, there will be no 'Palestinian state.' We're not going to commit suicide.
Investigative reporter Richard Behar writes about how his family in Israel weathered Operation Pillar of Defense. One cousin was on the jeep that was hit in the attack. Another lives near an apartment building in Rishon LeTzion that was hit by rockets. And a third was near the bomb attack on a Tel Aviv bus the day before the operation ended. In the process, Behar does a good job of explaining why there's no peace in this region.
The four soldiers who were inside that jeep included a 21-year-old
distant relative of mine (not that Jews can ever be truly distant, given
our history.) To say they’re all lucky to be alive is – well, hell, – no words will make the rest of this sentence right. Instead, have a look at the video
that Hamas’s operational arm – the Popular Resistance Committees — made
of the occasion, before they claimed responsibility for it. They set
the video to jihadi music, amid their tiresome cries of “Alahu Akbar”
[God is Great].
...
The PA is considered more “moderate” than Hamas, but as I’ll be
demonstrating here, that’s open to debate if you consider what they are
actually showing on official PA media, and teaching in PA-controlled
schools, summer camps and other institutions. In short, they are
indoctrinating the next generation for war with Israel, not for a
peaceful statehood alongside it. And it’s hard to imagine how that could
change for the better after a merger with the maniacs in Gaza.
The missile that nailed my cousin and his fellow soldiers was
identified in media reports as a Russian-designed or reverse-engineered
“Kornet,” which can penetrate up to 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) of the tank’s
steel skin. My information is that it was not a Kornet — but the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) declines to say what type it was, in part because
they are still investigating the incident.
Still, when used for their intended purpose – in other words, when fired at tanks, not jeeps
– all of these laser-guided missiles employ two stages. First, they
lodge themselves deep into the wall of a tank. In the second stage, they
are supposed to explode, producing a jet of heat that burns through the
armor. The molten armor becomes roastingly-hot fragments that
annihilate the crew and detonate the tank’s ammunition.
But in this case, the missile blew right through the jeep without
exploding inside of it. That’s probably why my cousin (he was the jeep’s
commander) and his buddies are still breathing. But not without serious
injuries, in part because the missile went through the jeep’s
windshield and – before continuing its journey — struck a metal section
of the jeep. That caused them all to be lacerated with glass, and lots
of flying chunks of that metal.
Thanks to family members, I’m able to provide some exclusive details.
My cousin escaped with the lightest injuries – which in this case meant
no fewer than 35 shards of metal inside his right arm and leg, plus a
blown-out eardrum. Worst hit was the driver, with serious head injuries,
blindness in one eye, and still-ongoing medical operations to try and
save the other eye. (As my cousin was lifting the driver from the jeep,
he saw that part of his brain was exposed.) The jeep’s medic suffered
metal pieces in both eyes, but he is expected to be okay. The fourth
soldier was an Arabian Bedouin ‘tracker’ who underwent one operation to
remove shrapnel from his body. (The Bedouins are known as “the IDF’s
sharpest eyes” because of their historic ability to spot and trace even
the lightest footsteps in desert terrain.)
It was this incident – the attack on a patrol jeep making a routine
drive approximately 150 meters (500 feet) from the border with Gaza —
that was a game-changer for Israel. For one thing, Israeli civilians are living barely a half-mile from
the border. Moreover, in such attacks, IDF soldiers could more easily be
kidnapped, dragged through border tunnels, and made to suffer the same
fate as Gilad Shalit (also spelled as Schalit)– the soldier held for
five years in wretched conditions by Hamas. “The attack on the jeep was
the immediate catalyst for the escalation of this month’s conflict,”
says an IDF spokesman, Captain Eytan Buchman.
“That kind of thing — an attack on Israeli soldiers inside Israeli territory — you can’t let go unanswered,” he adds.
...
Tzipi arrived with her parents in the early 1930s from Poland, just
as the persecution of Jews there was escalating. She worked as a clerk
in the Israeli Air Force during the war of independence. “I still
remember the period of 1936-39 [the Arab riots], and it was the same
situation – and we didn’t even have an army or a country. They just
don’t want us here, what can I tell you? And they don’t mind if their
own people are killed. I just don’t understand their mothers, because
when their own children are killed they are calling them shaheed [martyrs]. I am unable to understand their mothers.”
Her views are echoed by Itamar, a member of my kibbutz ‘family’ that I
pretty much adopted three decades ago when I picked bananas on one of
Israel’s collective settlements on the country’s northern coastline.
“People are not bothering themselves anymore with the question of
whether we should stay there [the West Bank] or not stay there, whether
we should continue to build [settlements] or should we not,” says
Itamar, a manager for an Israeli multinational that is largely owned by a
U.S. conglomerate.
“It’s not going to change anything,” he continues, “since the last
ten years have shown that there’s no one to talk with on the other side.
And if there is something to talk about, it’s not going to last. If
there’s an agreement [with Abbas], in 2-3 years he’s gone, and the area
will probably be left to those fanatical extremists who in the first
place would not agree to any negotiations with Israel. There is no
partner on the other side. It’s gonna be Hamastan.”
And this from an Israeli who has always been – and remains —
in the political center. “I’m not a left-wing fellow, I’m not a
right-wing fellow. I’m somewhere in the middle.”
...
For years, official Palestinian media, schools and cultural
institutions have been breeding their younger generations for war – not
peace. It simply can’t be denied at this point. And I don’t mean Hamas
and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. While many of my colleagues still label these
groups as militants (rather than death-worshipping terror cults), most
Gazan youth have been so thoroughly indoctrinated that seeking peace
with them would be like asking Americans to negotiate with al-Qaeda.
Hopefully the recent blitzkrieg drove that fact home for most Western
journalists, or at least more of them than before.
No, forget Hamas. I’m talking about the Palestinian
Authority, in the West Bank, run by the unelected Abbas — who presides
over and controls the PA’s official newspaper, TV, schools, and cultural
institutions. Let’s see how truly moderate they are.
...
Salah Khalaf, who planned the murder of two American diplomats — on
top of the killing of 11 Israeli athletes in the 1972 Olympics — has a
sports stadium in his name; it was even built with U.S. funding. Dalal
Mughrabi has schools, sporting events, camps and a square named in her
honor. She’s become an iconic figure throughout the West Bank. Her
achievement: directing the hijacking of a bus and killing 38 passengers
(13 of whom were children), in what was the most lethal terrorist attack
in Israel’s history. A young American nature photographer was shot to
death in that attack. Her crime: Responding to a gunman’s question about
what town they were in, as the terrorists landed their rubber boats on a
beach.
During the 2010 peace talks and ever since, the PA has maintained the practice of defining all of
Israel as “Palestine” on maps and websites. Even the Palestinian
Writers’ Union logo includes a map of “Palestine” erasing Israel – and
with a machine gun through the country. In geography textbooks, the name
“Israel” does not appear in maps of the Middle East. This means that
Palestinian kids aren’t even being taught the reality of what exists
today.
Just two months ago, Abbas and six other senior PA leaders were in
the audience at a packed concert when a singer from his political party
praised him by name — within a song that presented all of of Israel as
“Palestine.” These events happen all the time.
What’s going on here? Basically, there are two Abbas’s – the one who
speaks in English to the international community, spouting the
politically correct things the West wants to hear. And then there is the
duplicitous Abbas – the one who works in the shadows, speaking in
Arabic, and making his people believe that Jews and Israelis are
inherently evil and that there is no room in the region for the state of
Israel. His deputies are doing it, too. As Richard Chesnoff, a former
executive editor of Newsweek, and a prize-winning veteran reporter with
four decades of global news experience, wrote in an article last January: “If there were an Oscar given for doublespeak, the Palestinian political leadership would win it, hands down.”
...
The bottom line: Israel has always been willing to give land for peace –
as it did with the Sinai and with Gaza. But the result has not led to
the end of the hatred. Just how much more should they give, when all
indications are that the hostility – now being pummeled into the younger
generations — will continue? Put another way, if children on a daily
basis are being indoctrinated to see Jews and Israelis as innately
demoniac, then how can they ever grow up to accept a Jewish state and
not work to destroy it.
'I will put it on you and you will go to your death'
The image above was taken from Fatah of Lebanon's Facebook page by Palestinian Media Watch (and blown up a bit by me). It has apparently been there for quite some time.
"My mother dressed me in a strange belt (i.e., a suicide belt).
I asked her: 'What is this, mother?'
She said: 'I will put it on you and you will go to your death!'
I said to her: 'Mother, what have I done that you want me to die?'
She shed a tear that hurt my heart and said: 'The homeland needs you, son. Go and blow up the sons of Zion.'
I said to her: 'Why me and not you?'
She said: 'I will stay in order to give birth to more children for the sake of Palestine.'
I kissed her hand and said to her: 'Keep it up, mother, for you and for Palestine I will kill the impure and the damned.'"
[Fatah-Lebanon's Facebook page,
posted Sept. 3, 2012, accessed Oct. 28, 2012
Keep in mind that Fatah is the party (as opposed to Hamas) with whom we are supposed to make 'peace.'
'Palestinians' consider their kids 'fertilizer' to saturate the land with blood
Golda Meir is known to have quipped that there will be peace with the Arabs when they love their own kids more than they hate ours. That moment has not yet arrived. In fact, we are far from it, as you will see in the video below.
Let's go to the videotape.
The kids - and the 'Palestinian leadership' - agree.
Last week, the principal Palestinian Authority religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein, presented the killing of Jews by Muslims as a religious Islamic goal. At an event celebrating the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah, he cited the Hadith (Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad) saying that the Hour of Resurrection will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them:
"The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: 'Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"
Palestinian Media Watch reported regularly during the PA terror campaign (Intifada, 2000-2005) on the repeated use of this Hadith by PA clerics on official PA TV to motivate Palestinians to terror attacks, preaching that Muslims had an Islamic obligation to kill Jews. The fact that the Mufti quotes this now indicates that this may have remained part of the PA's religious establishment's teachings, even though it is less frequently promoted on PA TV.
The last time official PA TV broadcast a sermon during which this Hadith calling to kill Jews was quoted was in 2010.
In response to yesterday's PMW video-bulletin which showed the PA Mufti's speech that Muslims' destiny is to kill Jews, YouTube has frozen PMW's account. All PMW videos are working except this one but the account is frozen and PMW cannot upload new videos for the next two weeks.
I guess the Leftists at YouTube have a little problem with the truth.
Well, yes, of course, I have the video. Let's go to the videotape.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Sunday, December 25.
1) 3 notes about J-Street
Nearly two years ago, Jeremy Ben Ami, in an op-ed for the International Herald Tribune, Tel Aviv Then and Now - wrote:
Jewish Americans — who remain deeply loyal to Israel and staunch defenders of its right to exist — now face conflicting winds blowing on two continents. An overwhelming majority share the politics and worldview of President Barack Obama and have rejected the Bush-Cheney neoconservatism that framed Middle East conflict in simplistic black and white. They recognize, as the new president said in Ankara this week, that security requires peace and that peace begins by “learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes to see through their eyes.”
It’s impossible to predict how the discourse on J Street will shake out, but one thing is certain: The battle over J Street’s acceptance is taking place at the most granular level of the Jewish community. On November 16, Berkeley’s umbrella group for Jewish student life decided by a one-vote margin to bar the university’s chapter of J Street U from joining as a member organization. (The final tally was 10–9, with two members abstaining from the vote.) This was the first time a Jewish student group barred J Street U outright. But the organization has had a mixed reception when it has attempted to make inroads at other universities. In February 2010, the University of Pennsylvania’s Hillel faced criticism when it hosted Ben-Ami for the national launch of J Street Local, the organization’s grassroots initiative. But rather than cancel the J Street event, Hillel hosted a lecture on another floor by an affiliate of American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the establishment pro-Israel lobby whose stated position is never to criticize Israel’s government.
If J-Street truly represented a majority of American Jews, its acceptance wouldn't require these debates. Ben Ami's false claim about whom is group represents was one of his selling points. The resistance to J-Street - in Berkeley of all places - is evidence that his claim was hollow.
“J Street welcomes Ambassador Michael Oren’s statement yesterday supporting the removal of the Congressional hold on $192 million in US aid to the Palestinian Authority appropriated in last year’s budget. We hope that the Member or Members of Congress behind the hold heed the Israeli Ambassador’s words. Continuing to withhold these funds undercuts the PA’s efforts to build the institutions of statehood. Creating a functional, secure and thriving Palestinian society is essential to advancing the goal of a peaceful two-state resolution to the conflict. Israel’s ability to thrive as a secure, democratic and Jewish homeland is hurt when American politicians look to score political points by advocating policies many in Israel’s own security establishment consider counterproductive.
It is important to note that Israel still considers a formal unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas to be grounds for ending all aid to the PA. No word if the ongoing reconciliation talks constitute "build[ing] the institutions of statehood," that J-Street lauds.
Instead, Mr. Ben-Ami tilted at “pro-Israel hawks,” among whom he included “most Republican [presidential] candidates” for their allegedly “unqualified support for Israeli government policy,” and at their “echo chamber” of pro-Israel activists. These characters would make a scary bedtime story for anyone who’s forgotten that the Israeli government continues to invite Palestinian leaders to resume unconditional negotiations. This tale must frighten anyone who doesn’t know that the PA seeks a unilateral U.N. statehood declaration precisely to avoid the compromises with Israel implicit in U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement and the 2003 international “road map.”
Melvin Farber wrote:
I have a simple definition to offer: To be “pro-Israel” is to respect Israel, its elected leaders and its policies. Israelis are not to be treated as pawns, with their fates dictated by foreigners. There are risks in whatever course Israel chooses. But since Israelis are the ones who would suffer any consequences, they, and they alone, have the right to chart that course, just as we Americans get to choose our destiny.
Jeremy Ben Ami and J-Street understand that Americans (and American Jews specifically) are pro-Israel. So they call themselves pro-Israel. But when it comes to the policies they actually advocate, most people wouldn't call those policies pro-Israel. This is why Ben Ami and J-Street have a hard time producing the majority of American Jews they claim to represent.
2) She coulda had a scoop
Last week Isabel Kershner of the New York Times reported on Palestinian Media Watch. The impetus for the news report was the publication of PMW's new book, Deception: Betraying the Peace Process. The article was disappointing for instead of focusing on the very real problem of incitement, the scope of the reporting seemed to diminish the importance of the issue.
Included in the book was a report that a Palestinian family magazine, funded by UNESCO, quoted a girl who expressed her admiration of Hitler because he killed Jews. This especially egregious example of incitement apparently wasn't fit to print in the New York Times. However subsequently, the Simon Wiesenthal Center highlighted the outrage and challenged UNESCO to stop funding the magazine. Eventually UNESCO determined that this was too much, even for them, and pulled the funding for the magazine.
Had Kershner been interested in highlighting the real problem instead of reducing it to a matter of perception she may well have reported the Hitler story several days ahead of its making the news.
Wiesenthal Center wrote: "How was it possible that your patronage could be abused despite the Ramallah office's responsibility to vet all projects endorsed by UNESCO?"
UNESCO responded, "thank you for drawing our attention to the information reported by Palestinian Media Watch... Allow me to underscore that UNESCO takes this matter extremely seriously and it cannot but strongly deplore and condemn the statements you are referring to... We will bring this matter to the attention of the concerned Palestinian authorities..."
The Wiesenthal Center called UNESCO's response "inadequate."
My guess is that UNESCO will find an excuse not to stop funding the magazine (possibly based on a promise of better behavior) and that the real value to the Wiesenthal Center's call will be to embarrass UNESCO. I would also guess that if UNESCO stops funding the magazine, one or more Arab or Muslim countries will step in and fund it.
But if anyone is paying attention, we have now proved once again that the 'Palestinian Authority' is no partner for peace.
Let's go to the videotape.
I guess no one is paying attention. What a shock....
A letter from the office of UNESCO's Director-General read:
"UNESCO’s attention has been drawn to the February 2011 issue of the Palestinian children’s magazine Zayzafouna. This magazine is published by an NGO of the same name under the patronage of the Palestinian National Commission for UNESCO, which is the national body set up by the Palestinian Authority to facilitate its work with the Organization. The February issue features a story written by a 10-year-old girl in which Hitler is quoted by her as stating that he “killed [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation who wreak havoc on Earth”. While UNESCO upholds freedom of expression as an integral part of its mandate, the inclusion in this publication of a statement that may be interpreted as an apology of the holocaust is contrary to UNESCO’s constitutional mandate and values. It is totally unacceptable.
UNESCO supported the publication of three issues of the Zayzafouna Magazine six months after the February 2011 issue. The support was provided for these issues following agreement with the editorial board that they would focus on building greater appreciation amongst Palestinians for their heritage and culture. They were to open the way for positive dialogue aimed at overcoming the consequences of the Middle East conflict, and to fight against stereotypes that may be conducive to violence. It was UNESCO’s intention to foster a positive view of Palestinian heritage based on the values of tolerance and UNESCO’s mandate of building peace in the minds of men and women. This vision guides all of UNESCO’s activities, and we urge all partners to work in this direction.
UNESCO is shocked and dismayed by the content of the February issue, and has requested more detailed information and clarification from the editors of the magazine and to Palestinian Authority.
UNESCO strongly deplores and condemns the reproduction of such inflammatory statements in a magazine associated with UNESCO’s name and mission and will not provide any further support to the publication in question.
The Organization, which is deeply committed to the development and promotion of education about the Holocaust, disassociates itself from any statement that is counter to its founding principles and goals of building tolerance in the full respect for human rights and human dignity."
Of course, the 'Palestinian Authority' - as UNESCO's letter notes - is publishing this magazine and they obviously have no problem with it. Some 'peace partner.'
Anyone want to take bets on which Arab or Muslim country will come forward to fund this?
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman told The Jewish Week Tuesday that the wording of a memorable phrase in his Dec. 13 column (“Newt, Mitt, Bibi and Vladimir”) may have been inexact when he wrote that the standing ovation Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received in Congress this year “was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” “In retrospect I probably should have used a more precise term like ‘engineered’ by the Israel lobby — a term that does not suggest grand conspiracy theories that I don’t subscribe to,” Friedman said. “It would have helped people focus on my argument, which I stand by 100 percent.”
I took a quick look at Stephen Walt's praise of Friedman; he didn't focus on the verbs but on the term "Israel Lobby" and its influence. If Friedman had said that he wished he used "AIPAC" instead of "Israel Lobby," he might have an argument, but here he's just being dishonest. His argument is that Israel's influence is too strong - about that he's also wrong.
Israel's support in America comes from a belief Israel is an embattled ally with similar values. Or as Martin Kramer put it:
I agree that Israel gets its way in America because of a five-letter word that contains an L and two B's. But it's not the Lobby. It's the Bible.
In From Beirut to Jerusalem, Friedman tells a story that was related to him by Binyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu had just appeared on television with an Arab ambassador. One of the crew told Netanyahu that he won the debate, when Netanyahu asked why:
"Look you both have funny last names, but your first name is Benjamin and his is Abdullah. He didn't have a chance."
For Friedman, American support for Israel is that superficial. But then he goes on to write:
The group of American who seemed to be most consistently and deeply disturbed about what Israel was doing to the Palestinians were American Jews, but that has little to do with concern for the Palestinians per se and more to do with with concern for what Israel as a Jewish state was becoming.
I’d never claim to speak for American Jews, but I’m certain there are many out there like me, who strongly believe in the right of the Jewish people to a state, who understand that Israel lives in a dangerous neighborhood yet remains a democracy, but who are deeply worried about where Israel is going today.
In 1989 he was "deeply worried about where Israel is going today" too. It's a trope of his; not an analysis.
At the end of the article Rosenblatt writes:
Friedman has often written of his support for the State of Israel, despite his sometimes sharp criticism of Jerusalem’s policies. His was a lonely voice of support for Israel in the mainstream press during the Israeli army’s military campaigns against Hamas and Hezbollah.
I looked up several op-eds of Friedman's from 2006 and from Cast Lead. It's true Friedman didn't condemn Israel as other columnists were doing at the time. (And he was nowhere as supportive as someone like Charles Krauthammer.) But the support was qualified. For example here's what he wrote in Israel's Goals in Gaza:
I have only one question about Israel’s military operation in Gaza: What is the goal? Is it the education of Hamas or the eradication of Hamas? I hope that it’s the education of Hamas.
He didn't advocate Israel's defeat of Hamas but its "education."
Israel today is enjoying another timeout because it recently won three short wars — and then encountered one pleasant surprise. The first was a war to dismantle the corrupt Arafat regime. The second was the war started by Hezbollah in Lebanon and finished by a merciless pounding of Shiite towns and Beirut suburbs by the Israeli Air Force. The third was the war to crush the Hamas missile launchers in Gaza. What is different about these three wars, though, is that Israel won them using what I call “Hama Rules” — which are no rules at all. “Hama Rules” are named after the Syrian town of Hama, where, in 1982, then-President Hafez el-Assad of Syria put down a Muslim fundamentalist uprising by shelling and then bulldozing their neighborhoods, killing more than 10,000 of his own people. ... The brutality of the Israeli retaliations bought this timeout with Hezbollah and Hamas, and the civilian casualties and troubling TV images bought Israel a U.N. investigation into alleged war crimes.
Hamas in the end admitted that of those killed in Cast Lead, 600 - 700 were members of Hamas. Gen. Yaacov Amidror has reported that Israel estimated that 500 - 700 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the Lebanon War in 2006. Both these figures contradict Friedman's comparison of Israel to Hafez Assad's indiscriminate use of force against civilians.
Most likely Friedman was somewhat stung by the criticism so he sought out a sympathetic journalist to do damage control. But Friedman can't help himself and simply proved his critics correct.
“The call for bilateral negotiations without preconditions would seem a normal thing to ask for,” he said. But Churkin said the Palestinians are overwhelmed militarily and in every other way by the Israelis and without preconditions they would not get a fair shake in negotiations. The diplomats — including key U.S. allies in Europe — also criticized the council’s failure to take action against escalating violence by Israeli settlers and urged a speedy resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Rosenthal announced the review in reply to a question by the speaker of his own faction, the Liberal VVD. "UNRWA uses its own unique definition of refugees, different to the UN’s. The refugee issue is a big obstacle for peace. We therefore ask the government acknowledge this discrepancy, which leads to the third-generation Palestinian refugees," VVD speaker Hans Ten Broeke said. Minister Uri Rosenthal promised to "thoroughly review the subject and adopt a balanced resolution on it." He added: "I understand many involved parties regard UNRWA’s approach as highly important as it helps clarify matters and bring them into focus."
3) The New York Times of Israel
I've heard Ha'aretz described as the New York Times of Israel. It's usually meant as a compliment, to indicate that its reporting and analyses are detailed and authoritative. Indeed, when someone like Thomas Friedman wants to show how knowledgeable he is about Israel, he'll cite Ha'aretz.
While there is nothing new or surprising in a paper's refusal to own up to its misreporting or publish facts and analysis contradicting its political line, it is ironic that "the paper for thinking people," as Haaretz habitually flaunts itself, would engage in the shoddy business of truth suppression and mouth shutting at a time when it self-righteously fights an alleged attempt by the Israeli government to do precisely that.
The comparison between Ha'aretz and the New York Times seems apt. Both have sacrificed credibility for ideological conformity far from the mainstreams of the countries they publish in.
4) More thoughts on Kershner and PMW
Yesterday I wrote about Isabel's Kershner's disappointing coverage of Palestinian Media Watch's new book. The article took a phenomenon and diminished its significance by turning it into a partisan issue. Of course it wouldn't be the first time the New York Times has done this.
In part, the dispute centers on the translation of the word "jihad." One meaning is "holy war," perhaps the most common one for Westerners and the one that many Israelis immediately assume when they hear it. Used in connection with Jerusalem, the word is especially inflammatory for them. But "jihad" can be interpreted in several ways, including a struggle that is not violent but rather a strenuous effort to achieve a goal. That is what he meant, Mr. Arafat said in Oslo, explaining that the context was "I will continue my jihad for peace."
See it's just perception!
But as the late William Safire noted is in his column, If I forget thee O Jerusalem,it wasn't just Jewish paranoia at play here.
Arguments now being advanced about ruling a foreign nation will soon be applied to East (at least) Jerusalem. The U.N.'s Resolution 904 in March of this year identified "territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including Jerusalem." But of the 550,000 people who live in Jerusalem, 320,000 live on land not under Israeli control before 1967; a majority of these 320,000 are Jewish, and may not take kindly to the imposition of Palestinian sovereignty in the eastern portion of what Israelis were led to believe was their nation's capital. For this, they will be denounced as intransigent colonizers, obstacles to the peace process. Voices in the White House and Congress will urge cutting off aid to the "occupiers" of Greater Jerusalem. World opinion will unite to condemn the territory-grasping Jews who dare to claim sovereignty over the cradle of three religions. And would even that final concession bring peace? In his speech to Muslims, Arafat compared his agreement with Israel to the prophet Mohammed's deal with the tribe of Kuraish, which became a model for deals with infidels: such a "despicable truce" is never permanent.
So it wasn't just a reference to Jihad, it was a statement of intent to discard the treaty. Arafat's incitement and belligerence was predictive of his behavior. Yet Kershner and her interviewee, Itamar Rabinovitch seemingly believe that only an ideologue opposed to peace would make much of Palestinian incitement. Did ignoring Arafat's incitement bring peace?
Of course, this is nothing new. For years, many Israeli and Palestinian analysts have said that what Palestinian leaders tell their own people in their own language — as opposed to English-language statements tailored to opinion in the rest of the world — is the truest reflection of their actual beliefs. This has had the effect of further entrenching the sides to the conflict and undermining confidence that it can ever be resolved. “There is no doubt in my mind that in the mainstream of the Palestinian national movement, Israel is not considered legitimate,” said Shlomo Avineri, an Israeli professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reflecting a widespread sense of disillusionment. “This is the inner truth of the Palestinians,” he said. “They really mean it. It is not what they say on CNN, but it is what they teach their children.”
It's good that Kershner quoted Avineri. Avineri is no right-winger giving his critique more weight given the article's likely audience. However, she doesn't identify Avineri by his political orientation at all. And given that this is the New York Times, PMW's work is basically reduced to "they said / they said."
Mr. Marcus, who set up Palestinian Media Watch in 1996, says that he wants to foster genuine reconciliation. His critics, however, note that he is a settler who lives in the Gush Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem, a contested area of the West Bank that Israel intends to keep under any agreement with the Palestinians.
Really, what relevance is it to PMW where Marcus lives? Either he's accurate or he isn't.
While Palestinian Media Watch acknowledges that there is less blatant incitement than in the past, with fewer direct calls for violence, it says that the Palestinian Authority still glorifies terrorists, “libels” Israel and promotes a culture of violence. For example, Palestinian Authority television has broadcast song clips with lyrics honoring Dalal Mughrabi, a woman who in 1978 helped carry out the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history. Ms. Mughrabi was the 19-year-old leader of a Palestinian squad that sailed from Lebanon to Israel, where it killed an American photojournalist and 37 Israeli civilians, many of them children. Ms. Mughrabi and several other attackers were killed.
This is a good example, but it hardly conveys the scope of this sort of lionization.
Another constant theme is the Palestinian denial of any Jewish historic or religious connection to Jerusalem. Some of the examples publicized by the Israeli monitoring group are old ones that have been repeated over the years, and some of its interpretations are arguable.
Arguable? Given that the twentieth article of the Palestinian National Charter explicitly denies any historical connection between Jews and Israel, there is nothing arguable about these references. The Palestinians had an obligation to change their charter. Even if they did - they held two separate sessions where they supposedly voted to remove those sections of their charter that denied Israel's right to exist - the fact that such references are so prevalent in Palestinian culture, shows that they don't believe in the historical Jewish connection to the land of Israel. (Even the latest iteration of the charter, claims that the old charter is still in force!)
“This is not a serious attempt to solve the problem of incitement,” said Ghassan Khatib, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank. Mr. Khatib said that the authority had significantly reduced the level of incitement on the Palestinian side in recent years. “The question is,” he said, “are the Israelis improving or reversing in this regard?” ... While the Israeli government and news media usually say the same things in Hebrew and English, Palestinians and Israeli critics say they also do little to promote the idea of a Palestinian state. Official Israeli maps do not show the Green Line, the pre-1967 boundary that demarcates East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In Israeli officialdom, the West Bank is routinely referred to by its biblical names, Judea and Samaria. The Israeli education minister recently adopted a plan to take Israeli schoolchildren on trips to a historic Jewish holy site in the West Bank city of Hebron. This summer, the Israeli police briefly detained two rabbis for questioning over their suspected endorsement of a treatise co-written by a third rabbi that seemed to justify the killing of non-Jews, even babies, in wartime.
I'm not sure what this last sentence is doing here, but doesn't it show that rather than denying Palestinian rights, the Israeli government takes action against those who deny them. But there's a larger point here that Kershner ignores. Israel, since 1993, had taken concrete actions - withdrawing from major population areas - at great risk to give the Palestinians control of their own lives. The Palestinian commitment to peace, such as it is, has been marked solely by how they prepare their population for peace. That is a huge contrast.
“Reconciliation comes only after matters have been settled,” said Radwan Abu Ayyash, a veteran Palestinian journalist and former director of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, the parent of the authority’s television and radio stations with headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “Thinking of Jaffa and Haifa is still there as an old dream, as history,” he said, referring to the Palestinian refugees’ desire to return to the homes they occupied before 1948, “but it is not reality.”
But consider that 1948 - not 1967 - is considered Nakba. Consider all the public demonstrations of keys - symbolizing the Palestinian desire to return to their homes. These are efforts to perpetuate the reality or at least a sense of grievance.
Some Israelis struggle with the practice of monitoring the Palestinian news media, acknowledging the importance of knowing what is being said in Arabic, yet disturbed by how its dissemination is exploited by those not eager to see Israel make concessions. “There is peace making and there is peace building,” said Itamar Rabinovich, who served as Israel’s chief negotiator with Syria and as Israel’s ambassador in Washington, explaining why the contentious messages in Arabic are so damaging. The lack of peace building, he said, is part of the failure of the Oslo peace process that began with accords signed in 1993 but has not yet produced a Palestinian state.
I thought here was an excellent point. Unfortunately, Kershner has an agenda signaled in the first paragraph quoted above.
In one of the most egregious examples of Palestinian doublespeak, Yasir Arafat spoke in a mosque in South Africa in May 1994, only months after the signing of the Oslo accords, and called on the worshipers “to come and to fight and to start the jihad to liberate Jerusalem.” As the ambassador to Washington at the time, Mr. Rabinovich said he found himself in the awkward position of having to explain to anyone who would listen that jihad, usually translated as holy war, could also mean a spiritual struggle, in order to justify continuing the peace process. Still, he said, it is not by chance that those focusing on Palestinian incitement and publicizing it are “rightist groups who use it as ammunition.”
Rabinovich's acknowledgment of a lack of "peace building" is on target. If he's really interested in peace worrying how "rightist groups" use the information is dishonest. Explaining away the incitement and denial is what has really prevented peace from taking hold. By the way I found a reference in the New York Times to Arafat's South African speech.
According to diplomats here, Mr. Peres had been so disturbed by Mr. Arafat's remarks in South Africa that he had planned not to meet with him. But he relented after Mr. Arafat seemed to "go out of his way," as one diplomat put it, to reassert his commitment to peace. Mr. Peres was also reassured by Mr. Carter's interpretation of Mr. Arafat's remarks, an Israeli official said.
However, I don't recall it being a major story at the time.
He noted, for example, that a senior Abbas aide had paid a call to the families of three Fatah militants killed by the Israeli military, conveying condolences from Mr. Abbas. Israel held the three responsible for the fatal shooting of a rabbi in the West Bank in December 2009. In addition, Israeli officials note, streets, summer camps and youth tournaments in the Palestinian Authority have been named for people who committed terrorist attacks. The new focus on incitement against Israel, together with Israeli dissatisfaction over the Palestinian response to the brutal attack, seemed to pose a question about the Israeli government’s readiness to deal with Mr. Abbas as a serious peace partner — even though Mr. Abbas and Mr. Fayyad are widely considered moderates who have repeatedly said they would never resort to violence. Mr. Abbas rejected the claims about incitement in mosques, telling Israel Radio that the Palestinian Authority mosques have adopted a unified text for sermons, written by the minister of religious affairs. He called for a joint Israeli-Palestinian-American working committee to investigate claims that Palestinian Authority school textbooks incited violence.
Abbas only defended himself by claiming there's no more incitement in mosques, but left out of his defense are the many official actions and words that tell a different story. But here Kershner seemingly faults Israel for taking incitement seriously!
I recall the Arafat mosque in Johannesburg incident as being quite a big deal at the time - at least for Oslo's opponents in Israel.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
