Rice`s Criticism Ruffels Few Feathers
Tovah Lazaroff and AP - Jun 16, 2008 Jerusalem Post
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice`s harsh criticism of Israel`s plan to continue building in east Jerusalem met with little panic and no formal response on Sunday, a sign - one government source said - that with less than five months to the US elections, "it is not that important what she says anymore."
Rice: West Bank building may harm talks "Comments that in the past would have set everybody abuzz, are not making much waves today," the source said. He attributed this both to the waning days of George W. Bush`s administration, and a growing realization that the chances of finalizing any "shelf agreement" with the Palestinians by the end of 2008 are slim, largely because of the political instability in Israel.
The source said that if the government could not make a decision on the cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip because of political considerations, as Defense Minister Ehud Barak has charged, then even less so would it be able to make the even more complicated decision about signing a final-status agreement with the Palestinians.
The source said that Rice`s particularly stern comments about the construction in the settlements and east Jerusalem were an indication of frustration that after 21 visits to the region as secretary of state, she was facing the prospect of leaving office in January without an agreement here. Rice, during each of her public appearances on Sunday, criticized Israeli construction activity. In comments made before meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in the morning, Rice said, "I`ve told the foreign minister that I will also raise the issue of settlements, because I`m very concerned that at a time when we need to build confidence between the parties, the continued building and the settlement activity has the potential to harm the negotiations going forward." And then, after meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, she said that while the US remained committed to the target date of completing a shelf agreement by the end of 2008, Israeli construction plans were hurting the negotiations. "It`s important to have an atmosphere of trust and confidence," Rice said. "Unfortunately I do believe, and the United States believes, that the... announcements taking place are having a negative effect" on talks.
The Interior Ministry announced plans on Friday to build 1,300 homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, which is just beyond Jerusalem`s 1967 lines. And on Sunday, the Jerusalem Municipality announced that a city plan to build tens of thousands of new apartments over the next 12 years, including a couple of thousand in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, had received final approval. That included the 1,300 announced on Friday.
Rice, in a briefing to her traveling press later in the day, said she did not anticipate any "blinding breakthroughs" on the construction.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert`s spokesman Mark Regev said Israel drew a clear distinction between building in Jerusalem, and building in the West Bank.
"It is clear that the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem will remain part of Israel," he said. "It is not realistic that we freeze the lives of people in Jerusalem.
" In her comments after meeting with Abbas, Rice voiced frustration over the slow pace of negotiations.
"This is not easy; it has not been easy at any time," she said. "If it had been easy, I think we would have probably ended this conflict by now and had an agreement."
She noted only minor improvements in the quality of life for Palestinians in the West Bank, where travel and commerce are hindered by a network of IDF roadblocks set up for security reasons, as well as Israel`s failure to remove unauthorized settlement outposts.
"I recognize that we haven`t made the progress that we would like to in terms of movement and access and removal of barriers," she said. "Particularly, I am concerned about the outposts, which are illegal, even under Israeli law, and so I would hope to see more movement." Rice held a dinner meeting Sunday evening with Olmert, and earlier in the day, in addition to meeting with Livni, also met with Barak and held a trilateral meeting with Livni and the head of the Palestinian negotiating team, former PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei.
She is scheduled to hold another trilateral meeting with Barak and PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad on mutual road map obligations, and the settlement construction issue is expected to be a major focus. She is scheduled to return to Washington later on Monday. Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, attacked Rice`s comments.
It was "impertinent and insolent" on her part to scold Israel for providing housing for its citizens in the heart of the capital, Dayan said.
"But most of the blame lies with the government of Olmert and Tzipi Livni, who have treated the way that Israel has been spat at in the face as if it were rain drops.
"When the Olmert-Livni government began, it prided itself on an understanding with the US president over the future of the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria. It`s a sign of this government`s failure that within two years it has managed to lose international support even over [Jerusalem neighborhoods such as] Gilo, Ramot and Pisgat Ze`ev," Dayan said. It should have been clear to Olmert and to Livni that a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria would only move the diplomatic struggle into Jerusalem, he said.
Now the construction of a porch in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol has become a matter of urgent debate in the United Nations, Dayan said.
Tovah Lazaroff and AP contributed to this report.
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Showing posts with label Condoleezza Rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Condoleezza Rice. Show all posts
27 March 2008
ISRAEL IS TO BLAME FOR PEACE PROCESS FAILURE...says OBAMA'S MILITARY ADVISOR
Blogmaster's observation:
First, look at the recent stories that we have posted regarding the total bias of the Bush administration in favor of the palestinians. At every juncture, CondiSleeza Rice is pushing and extorting Israel into a more untenable position with regard to Israel's own security. She insists that Israel give land, give concessions, partition Jerusalem, give, give, give...bleed, bleed, and bleed some more!
When her friends in the West Bank want more, she then blames Israel for not doing enough to make the so-called peace process and the roadmap work. The point is, as long as the Israeli flag flies over Jerusalem, Israel will never give enough to satisfy Bush and Rice.
Then there is Obama and his agenda and the not-so-surprising revelations below. The bigger picture is... no matter who is sitting in the White House in 2009, Israel will always be expendable… A pain in the touches of the Arabists who control the U.S. political scene.
Osama’s Military Advisor, General "Redneck" McPeak makes a valid point...that because of the Jewish Lobby in the United States, they have been unable to cut aid to Israel.
Thank G_d for those American Jews who have confounded the anti-Israeli elements within the U.S. State Department, the D.C. power brokers, and U.S. Military Establishment. Without them, the U.S. would have abandoned Israel long ago.
We need to think about the day when the anti-Israel - anti-Jewish sentiment in the U.S. finally succeeds in throwing Israel to the wolves. Can we survive?. What do we have to do to save ourselves? What kind of leadership do we need to guide us through the terribly difficult times that are hiding around the next corner?
Chevera, there is not a lot of time left for discussion or debate; there is not enough room for us to be both politically correct and to survive the attacks certain to come. It almost seems moronic for me to use the cliché “Pray for Peace but Prepare for War!” but that is what is gnawing at my brain.
Let’s use a little logic here… Are we surrounded by hostile neighbors who want to see us dead? Answer: Yes. Is the IDF strong enough today to prevail in a conventional war against the combined strength of our enemies? Answer: Very Doubtful. Can we count on the United States to go to war against the Arab Middle-East to save Israel? Answer: Unknown, but given the current overextended status of U.S. Forces – very doubtful (even if McCain wins the White House in November).
What then, do we have to do to protect Israel and our people?
Now, it’s your turn to answer!
Anti-Israel and Palestinian Apologist,
Former Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force,
General Merrill Anthony "Tony" McPeak...
Obama's top Military Advisor .
McPeak on Display
By Robert M. Goldberg
Published 3/24/2008 12:07:43 AM
Last week, Barack Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman Merrill "Tony" McPeak accused former President Bill Clinton of "using divisive tactics and unfairly trying to question Barack Obama's patriotism." McPeak, a former chief of staff of the Air Force, previously supported Howard Dean and then John Kerry. He has campaigned for Obama and cut commercials claiming that Obama has the "right stuff" to be Commander in Chief. His job is to burnish Obama's image as a guy tough enough to be President. So who better to go after Bill Clinton and get the Obama campaign back on offense?
In off-the-cuff remarks to reporters Friday he even compared the former president's comments with the actions of Joseph McCarthy, the 1950s communist-hunting senator.
"I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," McPeak said. And last month McPeak had to retract his statement that as president, Obama would not be reduced to "crying fits" like Mrs. Clinton.
Well, it is likely that Obama will soon be having to retract Merrill McPeak. McPeak, who was arrested last year for driving under the influence, apparently has a problem controlling more than his thirst for fermented beverages. He also has a penchant for bashing Israel or, more particularly, Jews who oppose negotiating with terrorists.
McPeak has a long history of criticizing Israel for not going back to the 1967 borders as part of any peace agreement with Arab states. In 1976 McPeak wrote an article for Foreign Affairs magazine questioning Israel's insistence on holding on to the Golan Heights and parts of the West Bank.
In recent years McPeak has echoed the Mearsheimer-Walt view that American Middle East policy is being controlled by Jews at the expense of America's interests in the region. In a 2003 interview with the Oregonian, McPeak complained of that the "lack of playbook for getting Israelis and Palestinians together at...something other than a peace process....We need to get it fixed and only we have the authority with both sides to move them towards that. Everybody knows that."
The interviewer asked McPeak: "So where's the problem? State? White House?"
McPeak replied: "New York City. Miami. We have a large vote -- vote, here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it."
Translation (as if it's needed): Jews -- who put Israel over every American interest -- control America's policy on the Middle East. And McPeak has the audacity to accuse Bill Clinton of McCarthyism.
McPeak also claims that a combination of Jews and Christian Zionists are manipulating U.S. policy in Iraq in dangerous and radical ways: "Let's say that one of your abiding concerns is the security of Israel as opposed to a purely American self-interest, then it would make sense to build a dozen or so bases in Iraq. Let's say you are a born-again Christian and you think that Armageddon and the rapture are about to happen any minute and what you want to do is retrace steps you think are laid out in Revelations, then it makes sense. So there are a number of scenarios here that could lead you in this direction. This is radical...."
McPeak also noted: "The secret of the neoconservative movement is that it's not conservative, it's radical. Guys like me, who are conservatives, are upset about these neocons calling themselves conservative when they're so radical."
Guys like McPeak are upset because they think Jews have too much influence.
McPeak (in his Oregonian interview) also equated terrorist organizations with neoconservative supporters for Israel:
Interviewer: "Do you think...there's an element within Hamas, Hezbollah, that doesn't want Israel to exist at all and always will be there?"
McPeak: "Absolutely."
Interviewer: "So this is -- this is multilateral."
Instead of discussing Hamas and Hezbollah, McPeak returns to his primary target: Christian and Jews who support Israel:
McPeak: "There's an element in Oregon [sic], you know, that's always going to be radical in some pernicious way, and likely to clothe it in religious garments, so it makes it harder to attack. So there's craziness all over the place. I think there is enough good will on the Israeli side -- I've spent a lot of time in Israel, worked at one time very closely with the Israeli air force as a junior officer, and so -- but that's maybe the more cosmopolitan, liberal version of the Israeli population."
In other words, American policy is the product of "religious Jews and neocons" who in McPeak's mind are just as much to blame for a lack of peace in the Middle East as are Hamas and Hezbollah.
It will be interesting to see how the Obama campaign formulates what should be its latest disavowal and dismissal of yet another anti-Israel and anti-Jewish "adviser."
McPeak's comments are worse than McCarthyism. They reflect the views of Reverend Wright and other Obama advisers who believe that Israel is just a problem to be solved, not an ally to support.
McPeak is not the only member of the Obama campaign who holds such twisted views. Others such as Robert Malley or Zbigniew Brzezinski have found themselves downgraded to "informal" advisers as their anti-Israel views are made public. Samantha Powers was dismissed for calling Hillary a monster, not for sharing McPeak's belief in the malign omnipotence of the "Israel lobby."
Obama has a Jewish problem and McPeak's bigoted views are emblematic of what they are. Obama can issue all the boilerplate statements supporting Israel's right to defend itself he wants. But until he accepts responsibility for allowing people like McPeak so close to his quest for the presidency, Obama's sincerity and judgment will remain open questions.
Robert Goldberg is vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
First, look at the recent stories that we have posted regarding the total bias of the Bush administration in favor of the palestinians. At every juncture, CondiSleeza Rice is pushing and extorting Israel into a more untenable position with regard to Israel's own security. She insists that Israel give land, give concessions, partition Jerusalem, give, give, give...bleed, bleed, and bleed some more!
When her friends in the West Bank want more, she then blames Israel for not doing enough to make the so-called peace process and the roadmap work. The point is, as long as the Israeli flag flies over Jerusalem, Israel will never give enough to satisfy Bush and Rice.
Then there is Obama and his agenda and the not-so-surprising revelations below. The bigger picture is... no matter who is sitting in the White House in 2009, Israel will always be expendable… A pain in the touches of the Arabists who control the U.S. political scene.
Osama’s Military Advisor, General "Redneck" McPeak makes a valid point...that because of the Jewish Lobby in the United States, they have been unable to cut aid to Israel.
Thank G_d for those American Jews who have confounded the anti-Israeli elements within the U.S. State Department, the D.C. power brokers, and U.S. Military Establishment. Without them, the U.S. would have abandoned Israel long ago.
We need to think about the day when the anti-Israel - anti-Jewish sentiment in the U.S. finally succeeds in throwing Israel to the wolves. Can we survive?. What do we have to do to save ourselves? What kind of leadership do we need to guide us through the terribly difficult times that are hiding around the next corner?
Chevera, there is not a lot of time left for discussion or debate; there is not enough room for us to be both politically correct and to survive the attacks certain to come. It almost seems moronic for me to use the cliché “Pray for Peace but Prepare for War!” but that is what is gnawing at my brain.
Let’s use a little logic here… Are we surrounded by hostile neighbors who want to see us dead? Answer: Yes. Is the IDF strong enough today to prevail in a conventional war against the combined strength of our enemies? Answer: Very Doubtful. Can we count on the United States to go to war against the Arab Middle-East to save Israel? Answer: Unknown, but given the current overextended status of U.S. Forces – very doubtful (even if McCain wins the White House in November).
What then, do we have to do to protect Israel and our people?
Now, it’s your turn to answer!
Anti-Israel and Palestinian Apologist,
Former Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force,
General Merrill Anthony "Tony" McPeak...
Obama's top Military Advisor .
McPeak on Display
By Robert M. Goldberg
Published 3/24/2008 12:07:43 AM
Last week, Barack Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman Merrill "Tony" McPeak accused former President Bill Clinton of "using divisive tactics and unfairly trying to question Barack Obama's patriotism." McPeak, a former chief of staff of the Air Force, previously supported Howard Dean and then John Kerry. He has campaigned for Obama and cut commercials claiming that Obama has the "right stuff" to be Commander in Chief. His job is to burnish Obama's image as a guy tough enough to be President. So who better to go after Bill Clinton and get the Obama campaign back on offense?
In off-the-cuff remarks to reporters Friday he even compared the former president's comments with the actions of Joseph McCarthy, the 1950s communist-hunting senator.
"I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," McPeak said. And last month McPeak had to retract his statement that as president, Obama would not be reduced to "crying fits" like Mrs. Clinton.
Well, it is likely that Obama will soon be having to retract Merrill McPeak. McPeak, who was arrested last year for driving under the influence, apparently has a problem controlling more than his thirst for fermented beverages. He also has a penchant for bashing Israel or, more particularly, Jews who oppose negotiating with terrorists.
McPeak has a long history of criticizing Israel for not going back to the 1967 borders as part of any peace agreement with Arab states. In 1976 McPeak wrote an article for Foreign Affairs magazine questioning Israel's insistence on holding on to the Golan Heights and parts of the West Bank.
In recent years McPeak has echoed the Mearsheimer-Walt view that American Middle East policy is being controlled by Jews at the expense of America's interests in the region. In a 2003 interview with the Oregonian, McPeak complained of that the "lack of playbook for getting Israelis and Palestinians together at...something other than a peace process....We need to get it fixed and only we have the authority with both sides to move them towards that. Everybody knows that."
The interviewer asked McPeak: "So where's the problem? State? White House?"
McPeak replied: "New York City. Miami. We have a large vote -- vote, here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it."
Translation (as if it's needed): Jews -- who put Israel over every American interest -- control America's policy on the Middle East. And McPeak has the audacity to accuse Bill Clinton of McCarthyism.
McPeak also claims that a combination of Jews and Christian Zionists are manipulating U.S. policy in Iraq in dangerous and radical ways: "Let's say that one of your abiding concerns is the security of Israel as opposed to a purely American self-interest, then it would make sense to build a dozen or so bases in Iraq. Let's say you are a born-again Christian and you think that Armageddon and the rapture are about to happen any minute and what you want to do is retrace steps you think are laid out in Revelations, then it makes sense. So there are a number of scenarios here that could lead you in this direction. This is radical...."
McPeak also noted: "The secret of the neoconservative movement is that it's not conservative, it's radical. Guys like me, who are conservatives, are upset about these neocons calling themselves conservative when they're so radical."
Guys like McPeak are upset because they think Jews have too much influence.
McPeak (in his Oregonian interview) also equated terrorist organizations with neoconservative supporters for Israel:
Interviewer: "Do you think...there's an element within Hamas, Hezbollah, that doesn't want Israel to exist at all and always will be there?"
McPeak: "Absolutely."
Interviewer: "So this is -- this is multilateral."
Instead of discussing Hamas and Hezbollah, McPeak returns to his primary target: Christian and Jews who support Israel:
McPeak: "There's an element in Oregon [sic], you know, that's always going to be radical in some pernicious way, and likely to clothe it in religious garments, so it makes it harder to attack. So there's craziness all over the place. I think there is enough good will on the Israeli side -- I've spent a lot of time in Israel, worked at one time very closely with the Israeli air force as a junior officer, and so -- but that's maybe the more cosmopolitan, liberal version of the Israeli population."
In other words, American policy is the product of "religious Jews and neocons" who in McPeak's mind are just as much to blame for a lack of peace in the Middle East as are Hamas and Hezbollah.
It will be interesting to see how the Obama campaign formulates what should be its latest disavowal and dismissal of yet another anti-Israel and anti-Jewish "adviser."
McPeak's comments are worse than McCarthyism. They reflect the views of Reverend Wright and other Obama advisers who believe that Israel is just a problem to be solved, not an ally to support.
McPeak is not the only member of the Obama campaign who holds such twisted views. Others such as Robert Malley or Zbigniew Brzezinski have found themselves downgraded to "informal" advisers as their anti-Israel views are made public. Samantha Powers was dismissed for calling Hillary a monster, not for sharing McPeak's belief in the malign omnipotence of the "Israel lobby."
Obama has a Jewish problem and McPeak's bigoted views are emblematic of what they are. Obama can issue all the boilerplate statements supporting Israel's right to defend itself he wants. But until he accepts responsibility for allowing people like McPeak so close to his quest for the presidency, Obama's sincerity and judgment will remain open questions.
Robert Goldberg is vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
17 March 2008
TERRORISTS BOMB ISRAELI OFFICIAL IN RHODE ISLAND
Jewish Agency Official Survives Terrorist Bombing in U.S.
by Velvel ben Moshe
B’nai Elim Blogmaster
17 מרץ 2008
Below my comments is the article in the Jerusalem Post which reported this attempted murder of an Israeli representative.
Spontaneous…The Jerusalem Post has said that Israeli Authorities and the FBI believe that the firebombing attack on the home of the local representative of the Jewish Agency in Rhode Island was “Spontaneous”, hmmm??? Just what is the definition of “Spontaneous”? Very simply put, and according to the internet’s “Word Web”, Spontaneous means: “Said or done without having been planned or written in advance”
They said that Yossi Knafo’s, the Jewish Agencies representative for Rhode Island, house was firebombed at 0200 hours. The method of attack was by the use of not one, but TWO Molotov Cocktails and the perpetrators are supposed to be, get this…a “local group” who just happened to launch a “spontaneous” attack.
The preparation of a Molotov Cocktail takes premeditated planning and preparation (which is not “Spontaneous”). This was clearly a botched Terrorist Attack, the purpose of which was the murder of a Jew!
My main concern is why this has not only been ignored by the U.S. media, but why is it being played down in Israel? If my memory serves me correctly, didn’t Hassan Nasrallah, the chief terrorist for Hezbollah, along with the Iranian Putz, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad call for direct attacks and against Israelis “anywhere in the world”?
Isn’t it logical that if a bomb is thrown through the living room window of a Jewish home at 0200 that it was not simply a random “spontaneous” act? Oy vey! We might be dumb, but we ain’t stupid.
I see this omission in coverage as the Israeli Government (and the good ole embarrassed U.S. Government & CondiSleeza Rice) trying to put the lid on the story. This attitude is our carry-over from 1930s Europe when the political correctness of the day was “leave it alone…don’t do anything to call attention to ourselves!!!”. Then we were Sheeple…Today we should be the Sheep Dogs and Sheep Dogs protect the Sheep.
So I say… tell it like it is, we can take the heat because we’re already in the kitchen. I will also say this, isn’t it about time that we responded with this statement:
There will be no sanctuary for those who attack Jewish people, Jewish Institutions, or Jewish Interests anywhere in the world.
Never Again!
by Velvel ben Moshe
B’nai Elim Blogmaster
17 מרץ 2008
Below my comments is the article in the Jerusalem Post which reported this attempted murder of an Israeli representative.
Spontaneous…The Jerusalem Post has said that Israeli Authorities and the FBI believe that the firebombing attack on the home of the local representative of the Jewish Agency in Rhode Island was “Spontaneous”, hmmm??? Just what is the definition of “Spontaneous”? Very simply put, and according to the internet’s “Word Web”, Spontaneous means: “Said or done without having been planned or written in advance”
They said that Yossi Knafo’s, the Jewish Agencies representative for Rhode Island, house was firebombed at 0200 hours. The method of attack was by the use of not one, but TWO Molotov Cocktails and the perpetrators are supposed to be, get this…a “local group” who just happened to launch a “spontaneous” attack.
The preparation of a Molotov Cocktail takes premeditated planning and preparation (which is not “Spontaneous”). This was clearly a botched Terrorist Attack, the purpose of which was the murder of a Jew!
My main concern is why this has not only been ignored by the U.S. media, but why is it being played down in Israel? If my memory serves me correctly, didn’t Hassan Nasrallah, the chief terrorist for Hezbollah, along with the Iranian Putz, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad call for direct attacks and against Israelis “anywhere in the world”?
Isn’t it logical that if a bomb is thrown through the living room window of a Jewish home at 0200 that it was not simply a random “spontaneous” act? Oy vey! We might be dumb, but we ain’t stupid.
I see this omission in coverage as the Israeli Government (and the good ole embarrassed U.S. Government & CondiSleeza Rice) trying to put the lid on the story. This attitude is our carry-over from 1930s Europe when the political correctness of the day was “leave it alone…don’t do anything to call attention to ourselves!!!”. Then we were Sheeple…Today we should be the Sheep Dogs and Sheep Dogs protect the Sheep.
So I say… tell it like it is, we can take the heat because we’re already in the kitchen. I will also say this, isn’t it about time that we responded with this statement:
There will be no sanctuary for those who attack Jewish people, Jewish Institutions, or Jewish Interests anywhere in the world.
Never Again!
The Jerusalem Post story follows:
Haviv Rettig , THE JERUSALEM POST
Mar. 16, 2008
Israeli security officials believe Saturday's Molotov cocktail attack on the home of Jewish Agency emissary in Rhode Island Yossi Knafo was most likely perpetrated by a local group launching a spontaneous attack, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
No one was wounded in the attack, which took place just before 2 a.m. near the Brown University campus in Providence, Rhode Island. One firebomb hit an outside wall of the house and lit a fire in the yard, while a second firebomb passed through a window into the living room, but failed to explode.
Knafo, who was awake in the adjacent bedroom at the time of the attack, immediately alerted local police and Jewish Agency security personnel. He was transferred temporarily to a hotel.
Though the attack was spontaneous, "this marks a serious escalation," a source familiar with the case told the Post. "This isn't a threatening letter, a stone through the window or an anonymous phone call."
Security officials point to other spontaneous anti-Jewish attacks on American soil that had deadly results, such as the July 2006 shooting in the Seattle Jewish Federation and the 2002 shooting attack on an El Al ticket counter at the Los Angeles International Airport.
"This is terrorism in the full meaning of the term," said the source.
Police and the FBI had opened an investigation into the attack. A neighbor reportedly told law enforcement officials that she had seen two unidentified individuals near the house at the time. The unexploded cocktail was being examined for fingerprints and other possible clues to the identity of the assailants.
The Jewish Agency's security apparatus in North America was on alert after the attack, and the Post has confirmed that agency personnel are in contact with the individual detectives handling the case in the FBI and local police.
The context for the attack is as yet unclear. Knafo has said he knew of no reason anyone would target his home, while Amos Hermon, a member of the Jewish Agency Executive and chair of its Task Force on Anti-Semitism, echoed other agency officials in noting the attack may mark an unparalleled escalation of anti-Israel campus activism.
"This is unprecedented," said Hermon. "A Jewish Agency emissary hasn't been attacked in America for decades, and we've never known a Molotov cocktail attack that came from anti-Israel or anti-Semitic groups."
As a semi-official organization, the Jewish Agency is a "protected entity," the security of which is under the purview of the Israel Security Agency (ISA), which coordinates security for Israeli representation overseas.
Agency officials, including Hermon, cite tensions that may have risen over the weekend due to a massive Jewish Agency campaign on dozens of university campuses and in hundreds of synagogues and schools in the US and worldwide to commemorate the March 6 terror attack on Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva which killed eight students.
The agency has also received warnings from Israeli security services over possible retaliation attacks in the wake of the assassination in Damascus of Hizbullah mastermind Imad Mughniyeh on February 12. At the time, Israeli officials welcomed Mughniyeh's death, but did not claim responsibility for the operation.
Following the Saturday attack, hundreds of Jewish Agency emissaries throughout the US and Canada were briefed on the event and its security implications.
11 March 2008
Tzipi Livni gets slapped around by CondiSleeza...AGAIN!
WHEN WILL ISRAEL SLAP BACK?
(Rhetorical question... we all know the answer: Never!)
Blogmaster's articulation:
Take a close look at Tzipi's face and tell me if she doesn’t look like her pet dog just bit her in the touches. Look at CondiSleeza...did you ever see such a phony smile? When will Livini learn (for that matter, when will the broken Government of Israel learn) that the U.S. State Department has no lost love for the Jewish State?
Last week, Rice ordered Olmert to get our troops out of Gaza because the IDF's incursion into Rocket Land was making the U.S. look bad to their "friends" in the EU. Never mind about the victims killed or maimed by the palestinian rocketeers.
What did Israel do, what else?... we capitulated and withdrew our forces to allow Hamas to regroup and resupply.
Hamas welcomed the CondiSleeza brokered cease fire as a Victory. They also needed the time to assemble more missiles with larger warheads...to kill more Israeli children.
"Never mind" says CondiSleeza, "Uncle Sam will send you more dwindling dollars. You can buy more ambulances."
Okay, so the gruesome threesome (Olmert, Barak and Livini) smiled like naive children, and thought that Rice had somehow bribed the terrorists in Gaza... there would be a respite from the rocket attacks. Guess what? There was a respite while the Hamas leadership in consort with Hezbollah made ready for the coming Yeshiva Massacre in Jerusalem.
Almost immediately after the arab murderer had slaughtered our Sons in Jerusalem, CondiSleeza was on the phone to Olmert screaming "Restraint - Restraint - Do Not Retaliate!!!... I'll tell Tzipi how to respond...after all, she's coming to Washington, the Capital of Israel. As long as we have Washington, you don't need all of Jerusalem anyway!"
"Well, well, well Tzipi" said CondiSleeza about the massacre; "you know that this was just a "loan wolf" that did this because of the occupation, just an unfortunate isolated incident...no need for further bloodshed - you understand don't you?" "Of course" said Tzipi grimacing as ConciSleesza twisted and tightened the grip on her wrist.
"Now lets talk about Ehud's mistaken authorization to build more apartments for the growing Jewish population in the Jerusalem suburbs... don't you know that we don't want more Jews in Jerusalem? Can't you see that restarting construction at Givat Zeev could derail the peace process again and ruin George and my chance for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Here is what you will do as a result of the unfortunate attack on the boys school... you need to focus! It's not helpful to the process unless you keep focused on moving the political process forward and you Will speed up the implementation of the Roadmap now won't you? Once that is in place, all of your problems will be over ("Yes thought Rice as she twisted Livini's wrist, there won't be an Israel to worry about.") Now smile nicely for the cameras (photo above).
If that wasn’t the factual conversation, it was nevertheless, obviously on target. Rice, George Bush and Olmert are so narcissistic that they will do anything to go down in history as the great peacemakers of the twenty-first century. First the "Roadmap" and then the debacle at Annapolis will seal the fate of Israel and reserve their immortal places in the history books (or so they think... they obviously don't know Israelis very well, or do they Tzipi?).
Isn't it time that someone in Israel stood up for Israel, our land and our heritage? "If not now, when?"
(Rhetorical question... we all know the answer: Never!)
Blogmaster's articulation:
Take a close look at Tzipi's face and tell me if she doesn’t look like her pet dog just bit her in the touches. Look at CondiSleeza...did you ever see such a phony smile? When will Livini learn (for that matter, when will the broken Government of Israel learn) that the U.S. State Department has no lost love for the Jewish State?
Last week, Rice ordered Olmert to get our troops out of Gaza because the IDF's incursion into Rocket Land was making the U.S. look bad to their "friends" in the EU. Never mind about the victims killed or maimed by the palestinian rocketeers.
What did Israel do, what else?... we capitulated and withdrew our forces to allow Hamas to regroup and resupply.
Hamas welcomed the CondiSleeza brokered cease fire as a Victory. They also needed the time to assemble more missiles with larger warheads...to kill more Israeli children.
"Never mind" says CondiSleeza, "Uncle Sam will send you more dwindling dollars. You can buy more ambulances."
Okay, so the gruesome threesome (Olmert, Barak and Livini) smiled like naive children, and thought that Rice had somehow bribed the terrorists in Gaza... there would be a respite from the rocket attacks. Guess what? There was a respite while the Hamas leadership in consort with Hezbollah made ready for the coming Yeshiva Massacre in Jerusalem.
Almost immediately after the arab murderer had slaughtered our Sons in Jerusalem, CondiSleeza was on the phone to Olmert screaming "Restraint - Restraint - Do Not Retaliate!!!... I'll tell Tzipi how to respond...after all, she's coming to Washington, the Capital of Israel. As long as we have Washington, you don't need all of Jerusalem anyway!"
"Well, well, well Tzipi" said CondiSleeza about the massacre; "you know that this was just a "loan wolf" that did this because of the occupation, just an unfortunate isolated incident...no need for further bloodshed - you understand don't you?" "Of course" said Tzipi grimacing as ConciSleesza twisted and tightened the grip on her wrist.
"Now lets talk about Ehud's mistaken authorization to build more apartments for the growing Jewish population in the Jerusalem suburbs... don't you know that we don't want more Jews in Jerusalem? Can't you see that restarting construction at Givat Zeev could derail the peace process again and ruin George and my chance for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Here is what you will do as a result of the unfortunate attack on the boys school... you need to focus! It's not helpful to the process unless you keep focused on moving the political process forward and you Will speed up the implementation of the Roadmap now won't you? Once that is in place, all of your problems will be over ("Yes thought Rice as she twisted Livini's wrist, there won't be an Israel to worry about.") Now smile nicely for the cameras (photo above).
If that wasn’t the factual conversation, it was nevertheless, obviously on target. Rice, George Bush and Olmert are so narcissistic that they will do anything to go down in history as the great peacemakers of the twenty-first century. First the "Roadmap" and then the debacle at Annapolis will seal the fate of Israel and reserve their immortal places in the history books (or so they think... they obviously don't know Israelis very well, or do they Tzipi?).
Isn't it time that someone in Israel stood up for Israel, our land and our heritage? "If not now, when?"
26 December 2007
An Open Letter to Secretary Rice...from an Israeli
The letter copied below was sent to this blog by one of our readers. It is unknown where it first appeared. However, Yasher Koach to Mr. Reuven Koret for your willingness to speak the truth as most Israelis see it. Personally, I seriously doubt, even if Secretary Rice were to read your letter, that it would have any influence on her attitude towards Israel. At least not as logn as she is kissing Saudi royal touchases. Blogmaster
Reuven Koret. December, 2007
Madame Secretary,
Allow me to introduce myself. I am an American-born Israeli, and since my early childhood I have been sympathetic to the civil rights movement in the US, and human rights movement around the world. My Mother was a civil rights activist, a marcher in the Washington demonstrations of the 1960's, just as she marched for the rights ofbeleaguered Jews in the USSR to gain their freedom. Among my proudest personal accomplishments has been the co-founding, with black and Jewish colleagues at Harvard University , of the pre-eminent website for Africans and African-descent people, now called AOL Black Voices <http://www.blackvoices.com <http://www.blackvoices.com> > .
I therefore have been interested to read of your attempts to connect the civil rights movement and the Israeli-Arab conflict . Most recently, you were quoted as telling, in a closed-door meeting atAnnapolis , a story from your childhood in Birmingham , using it toshow what you thought was empathy for the Israeli and Palestinianpeoples. You said you did not want to draw historical parallels or betoo self-reflective, but you did so anyway, recalling the time when alocal church was bombed by white racists, killing four girls,including your classmate.
'Like the Israelis, I know what it is like to go to sleep at night, not knowing if you will be bombed, of being afraid to be in your own neighborhood, of being afraid to go to your church,' you said. But then you went on to say, that, as a black child in the South, you weretold that you could not use certain water fountains or eat in certain restaurants, you also understood the feelings and emotions of the Palestinians. 'I know what it is like to hear to that you cannot go ona road or through a checkpoint because you are Palestinian,' she said.'I understand the feeling of humiliation and powerlessness .
''There is pain on both sides,' Rice concluded. 'This has gone on too long.'
Well, we can agree on that, Madame Secretary. But the more I thought about your attempt at a historical parallel, the more it disturbed me. I am writing tell you that you are wrong about much else, and what youtrying to do to fix this will lead to results opposite of what you intend.
Dr. Rice, you are wrong about how most Israelis feel. You keep saying that the vast majority of Israelis support leaving most if not all ofJudea and Samaria and handing it over to the Palestinians. But poll after poll shows that is simply not true. Most Israelis are pragmatic and we (sometimes) learn from experience. We saw what happened when wewithdrew from Lebanon and Gaza , and we are not willing to repeat that mistake and allow Jerusalem , Tel Aviv, Haifa, and our airport to become a target for Palestinian rockets.
You are wrong, too, when you think that all we care about is security. These days we worry less about being bombed, because of the security measures our government took, over Palestinian objections. Those samecheckpoints you complain about, and the security barrier that we built which so many others complain about, keep bombers and drive-by shooters out.
But even if security weren't an issue, you need to understand that when you speak about Judea and Samaria, you speak about the Jewish People's heartland, not some foreign country . The Bible you read is filled with those places because that is where our faith was formed,that is where our history was lived for many more centuries than theUnited States has been in existence . And Jerusalem -- above all, theOld City and the Temple Mount at its center -- has been the spiritual core of our existence since the time of David and Solomon.
For centuries, the Jews were denied even the right to pray at our holiest sites near and on the Temple Mount . There and at the Cave ofthe Patriarchs in Hebron and in many other places throughout Judea and Samaria, the Arabs cruelly allowed us get close, but never to touch, never to enter the place itself.
That didn't change even in 1948 when we earned our own nation by defeating 6 attacking Arab armies and the local Arab population. Butthat victory was only partial: we lost the Old City of Jerusalem,Hebron and Gush Etzion , each loss accompanied by ghastly massacres by the Arabs.
They burned down our synagogues: 17 out of 18 in the Old City ofJerusalem alone after the Jordanians took control in 1948. The other one they couldn't find because a decent Arab hid it.
Secretary Rice, I am going to be blunt, in the fashion you are knownto be. Because you are doing business with the worst racists and anti-Semites in the world, and their bigotry is turning you into a racist and an anti-Semite, and an advocate for racist and anti-Semitic policies.
It's not like the world doesn't know who the Saudis are, and what theystand for. Jews can't even visit , for God's sake, and blacks are asclose to slavery there as in most countries, except of course most ofthe other Arab non-democracies you invited to your little gathering.You know that , I assume, but you choose to ignore it.
What stunned me was when I read today that you gave in to the demands of the Saudis and agreed that the Israeli delegation would not be allowed to enter the same door as the representatives of the Arab states.
The Israelis had to enter through the service entrance. TheIsraeli delegation agreed not to be photographed in the same picturesas the Saudis and other Arabs lest Muslims be embarrassed by appearing in the same photograph. God forbid that the two religions should mix! And this Saudi nonsense about no handshakes with Israelis . Doesn't this offend you in the least? Can't you use your bully pulpit to deal with it?
Shame on you, Secretary Rice. How could you allow this to go down? Howcould you tolerate this kind of bigotry? If that's not a modern resurrection of Jim Crow laws, then what is? How dare you! And then to lecture Israel about the morality of its check points?
Let me put it in the bluntest terms I can think of, but no less truefor being blunt: in the eyes of the Arabs, Israel is the "nigger" of the Middle East : not because of our borders but because of being the Jewish State and, to make matters worse, beating the Muslims in every war.
For surviving in a sea of Muslim , we have been constantly insulted, humiliated, discriminated against. We are -- because we are Jews, representing the Jewish State -- treated as less than human or, as thethey continually remind us, 'a race of pigs and monkeys.'
As such, Madame Secretary, we have no faith in the possibility of apeace treaty in a year or even in ten years, maybe not in a hundred.Why? Because the Arabs, the Muslims in general, and the Palestinians in particular, are educating their people, their youth, to hate us, to dehumanize us, to demonize us, to deny our basic rights. The Hamas,Islamic Jihad, and the militant wings of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, defined all as terror groups by your State Department -- these are the localversion of the Ku Klux Klan you remember from your childhood, with onecrucial difference: they don't just want to keep us down. They want tomake us dead.
Theirs is not a non-violent civil rights struggle, but a nationalist struggle to exterminate the people of Israel from the Land of Israel, primarily by violent means and, when necessary, political means using well-meaning people like you.
I need not tell you that our fears are not without justification, with Muslims the world over, and some non-Muslims as well trying to foment the idea of a world without Israel , without a Jewish state.
And, sadly, you have to some extent thrown your lot in with them, bymorally equating them and us, by saying that we are equally guilty of terror and incitement as the Palestinians, who invented terrorism andincite against us in their mosques, media and government statements.
The joint understanding you worked so hard to achieve in Annapolisstarts wrong, when it refers to the Palestine Liberation Organizationas one of the two parties. It's called that because it intends, hasalways intended, to liberate Palestine , all of Palestine , includingall of what is Israel, expelling or exterminating all of the Jews who live here.
The PLO has never, despite all the conferences and word play, retracted that desire. They continue to pursue their Plan of Stages toreplace Israel with Palestine . They want a Jew-Free state ofPalestinian and an Israel they will not recognize as Jewish, which they hope gradually turn into an Arab majority, by virtue of a higher birthrate and whatever 'right of return' they can negotiate. You did not insist that the Palestinian recognize Israel as the Jewish Homeland, even though President Bush does. You are encouraging them to believe they can have Palestine, and also destroy Israel from within.
And the joint understanding is wrong in its very end, when it sets upthe United States as judge of who is and who is not implementing the'road map.'
Secretary Rice, neither you nor your bosses, have the right to judgeus, nor do our leaders have the right to let you to do so. You areacting in ways that show us that you are not an honest broker, norsomeone who knows very much about our region, and certainly not ourcountry. Only the people of Israel can decide what is in the interests of the people of Israel.
You are aligning yourself with the world's most racist andanti-Semitic autocracies . And if your actions in Annapolis, and inyour subsequent maneuver at the UN, are any guide, you are learning from them and following their orders like they were your slavers. Youare applying Jim Crow laws to Israel. That should as shameful and humiliating for you as it is for us.
I am sure that, at some level, you know that what I am saying is true, that the Saudis and their ilk are odious, arrogant racists, who look down at you at least as much as they look down at us.
One day you will recognize that the Arab despots, and the US intereststhey grease, are your masters, exploiting you as a willing slave to dotheir dirty work, a dhimmi to hew their wood and carry their water. And the job they expect is for you to make Israel , the Mideastnigger, the dirty Jew of the world, pay -- pay so dearly and castrate itself to such an extent that it will not be able to defend itself when the killing attack begins.
We Israelis -- most of us -- know that. We shall overcome the Arabs,and the Persians, and we shall overcome you and your masters, if youinsist on forcing us into a situation of existential vulnerability.
We have no desire to rule over another people, but neither do weintend to allow that people or their cousins to destroy the Jewish homeland and exterminate Jewish history , which is their clearly and continuously expressed intention. We want to be free of them, in a way that does not allow them threaten us, or undermine us, or kill us. May that day come soon .
Respectfully, Reuven Koret
[A reader comments]: This is an excellent letter to Secy Rice, pointing out her reprehensible conduct at Annapolis, her erroneous perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian positions, and how she is promoting racism and anti-Semitism by siding with the Saudis.]
Reuven Koret. December, 2007
Madame Secretary,
Allow me to introduce myself. I am an American-born Israeli, and since my early childhood I have been sympathetic to the civil rights movement in the US, and human rights movement around the world. My Mother was a civil rights activist, a marcher in the Washington demonstrations of the 1960's, just as she marched for the rights ofbeleaguered Jews in the USSR to gain their freedom. Among my proudest personal accomplishments has been the co-founding, with black and Jewish colleagues at Harvard University , of the pre-eminent website for Africans and African-descent people, now called AOL Black Voices <http://www.blackvoices.com <http://www.blackvoices.com> > .
I therefore have been interested to read of your attempts to connect the civil rights movement and the Israeli-Arab conflict . Most recently, you were quoted as telling, in a closed-door meeting atAnnapolis , a story from your childhood in Birmingham , using it toshow what you thought was empathy for the Israeli and Palestinianpeoples. You said you did not want to draw historical parallels or betoo self-reflective, but you did so anyway, recalling the time when alocal church was bombed by white racists, killing four girls,including your classmate.
'Like the Israelis, I know what it is like to go to sleep at night, not knowing if you will be bombed, of being afraid to be in your own neighborhood, of being afraid to go to your church,' you said. But then you went on to say, that, as a black child in the South, you weretold that you could not use certain water fountains or eat in certain restaurants, you also understood the feelings and emotions of the Palestinians. 'I know what it is like to hear to that you cannot go ona road or through a checkpoint because you are Palestinian,' she said.'I understand the feeling of humiliation and powerlessness .
''There is pain on both sides,' Rice concluded. 'This has gone on too long.'
Well, we can agree on that, Madame Secretary. But the more I thought about your attempt at a historical parallel, the more it disturbed me. I am writing tell you that you are wrong about much else, and what youtrying to do to fix this will lead to results opposite of what you intend.
Dr. Rice, you are wrong about how most Israelis feel. You keep saying that the vast majority of Israelis support leaving most if not all ofJudea and Samaria and handing it over to the Palestinians. But poll after poll shows that is simply not true. Most Israelis are pragmatic and we (sometimes) learn from experience. We saw what happened when wewithdrew from Lebanon and Gaza , and we are not willing to repeat that mistake and allow Jerusalem , Tel Aviv, Haifa, and our airport to become a target for Palestinian rockets.
You are wrong, too, when you think that all we care about is security. These days we worry less about being bombed, because of the security measures our government took, over Palestinian objections. Those samecheckpoints you complain about, and the security barrier that we built which so many others complain about, keep bombers and drive-by shooters out.
But even if security weren't an issue, you need to understand that when you speak about Judea and Samaria, you speak about the Jewish People's heartland, not some foreign country . The Bible you read is filled with those places because that is where our faith was formed,that is where our history was lived for many more centuries than theUnited States has been in existence . And Jerusalem -- above all, theOld City and the Temple Mount at its center -- has been the spiritual core of our existence since the time of David and Solomon.
For centuries, the Jews were denied even the right to pray at our holiest sites near and on the Temple Mount . There and at the Cave ofthe Patriarchs in Hebron and in many other places throughout Judea and Samaria, the Arabs cruelly allowed us get close, but never to touch, never to enter the place itself.
That didn't change even in 1948 when we earned our own nation by defeating 6 attacking Arab armies and the local Arab population. Butthat victory was only partial: we lost the Old City of Jerusalem,Hebron and Gush Etzion , each loss accompanied by ghastly massacres by the Arabs.
They burned down our synagogues: 17 out of 18 in the Old City ofJerusalem alone after the Jordanians took control in 1948. The other one they couldn't find because a decent Arab hid it.
Secretary Rice, I am going to be blunt, in the fashion you are knownto be. Because you are doing business with the worst racists and anti-Semites in the world, and their bigotry is turning you into a racist and an anti-Semite, and an advocate for racist and anti-Semitic policies.
It's not like the world doesn't know who the Saudis are, and what theystand for. Jews can't even visit , for God's sake, and blacks are asclose to slavery there as in most countries, except of course most ofthe other Arab non-democracies you invited to your little gathering.You know that , I assume, but you choose to ignore it.
What stunned me was when I read today that you gave in to the demands of the Saudis and agreed that the Israeli delegation would not be allowed to enter the same door as the representatives of the Arab states.
The Israelis had to enter through the service entrance. TheIsraeli delegation agreed not to be photographed in the same picturesas the Saudis and other Arabs lest Muslims be embarrassed by appearing in the same photograph. God forbid that the two religions should mix! And this Saudi nonsense about no handshakes with Israelis . Doesn't this offend you in the least? Can't you use your bully pulpit to deal with it?
Shame on you, Secretary Rice. How could you allow this to go down? Howcould you tolerate this kind of bigotry? If that's not a modern resurrection of Jim Crow laws, then what is? How dare you! And then to lecture Israel about the morality of its check points?
Let me put it in the bluntest terms I can think of, but no less truefor being blunt: in the eyes of the Arabs, Israel is the "nigger" of the Middle East : not because of our borders but because of being the Jewish State and, to make matters worse, beating the Muslims in every war.
For surviving in a sea of Muslim , we have been constantly insulted, humiliated, discriminated against. We are -- because we are Jews, representing the Jewish State -- treated as less than human or, as thethey continually remind us, 'a race of pigs and monkeys.'
As such, Madame Secretary, we have no faith in the possibility of apeace treaty in a year or even in ten years, maybe not in a hundred.Why? Because the Arabs, the Muslims in general, and the Palestinians in particular, are educating their people, their youth, to hate us, to dehumanize us, to demonize us, to deny our basic rights. The Hamas,Islamic Jihad, and the militant wings of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, defined all as terror groups by your State Department -- these are the localversion of the Ku Klux Klan you remember from your childhood, with onecrucial difference: they don't just want to keep us down. They want tomake us dead.
Theirs is not a non-violent civil rights struggle, but a nationalist struggle to exterminate the people of Israel from the Land of Israel, primarily by violent means and, when necessary, political means using well-meaning people like you.
I need not tell you that our fears are not without justification, with Muslims the world over, and some non-Muslims as well trying to foment the idea of a world without Israel , without a Jewish state.
And, sadly, you have to some extent thrown your lot in with them, bymorally equating them and us, by saying that we are equally guilty of terror and incitement as the Palestinians, who invented terrorism andincite against us in their mosques, media and government statements.
The joint understanding you worked so hard to achieve in Annapolisstarts wrong, when it refers to the Palestine Liberation Organizationas one of the two parties. It's called that because it intends, hasalways intended, to liberate Palestine , all of Palestine , includingall of what is Israel, expelling or exterminating all of the Jews who live here.
The PLO has never, despite all the conferences and word play, retracted that desire. They continue to pursue their Plan of Stages toreplace Israel with Palestine . They want a Jew-Free state ofPalestinian and an Israel they will not recognize as Jewish, which they hope gradually turn into an Arab majority, by virtue of a higher birthrate and whatever 'right of return' they can negotiate. You did not insist that the Palestinian recognize Israel as the Jewish Homeland, even though President Bush does. You are encouraging them to believe they can have Palestine, and also destroy Israel from within.
And the joint understanding is wrong in its very end, when it sets upthe United States as judge of who is and who is not implementing the'road map.'
Secretary Rice, neither you nor your bosses, have the right to judgeus, nor do our leaders have the right to let you to do so. You areacting in ways that show us that you are not an honest broker, norsomeone who knows very much about our region, and certainly not ourcountry. Only the people of Israel can decide what is in the interests of the people of Israel.
You are aligning yourself with the world's most racist andanti-Semitic autocracies . And if your actions in Annapolis, and inyour subsequent maneuver at the UN, are any guide, you are learning from them and following their orders like they were your slavers. Youare applying Jim Crow laws to Israel. That should as shameful and humiliating for you as it is for us.
I am sure that, at some level, you know that what I am saying is true, that the Saudis and their ilk are odious, arrogant racists, who look down at you at least as much as they look down at us.
One day you will recognize that the Arab despots, and the US intereststhey grease, are your masters, exploiting you as a willing slave to dotheir dirty work, a dhimmi to hew their wood and carry their water. And the job they expect is for you to make Israel , the Mideastnigger, the dirty Jew of the world, pay -- pay so dearly and castrate itself to such an extent that it will not be able to defend itself when the killing attack begins.
We Israelis -- most of us -- know that. We shall overcome the Arabs,and the Persians, and we shall overcome you and your masters, if youinsist on forcing us into a situation of existential vulnerability.
We have no desire to rule over another people, but neither do weintend to allow that people or their cousins to destroy the Jewish homeland and exterminate Jewish history , which is their clearly and continuously expressed intention. We want to be free of them, in a way that does not allow them threaten us, or undermine us, or kill us. May that day come soon .
Respectfully, Reuven Koret
[A reader comments]: This is an excellent letter to Secy Rice, pointing out her reprehensible conduct at Annapolis, her erroneous perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian positions, and how she is promoting racism and anti-Semitism by siding with the Saudis.]
14 December 2007
The right wing's Jerusalem gambit
The right wing's Jerusalem gambit
A new coalition of religious hard-liners with ties to President Bush seeks to scuttle any plans for dividing Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians.
By Gregory Levey
Dec. 13, 2007 On Nov. 26, the U.S. State Department got hit with an unexpected barrage of phone calls. The Coordinating Council on Jerusalem, a new coalition of American groups with hard-line views on Israel, was on the line -- all of the lines. Or so the group said two days later in a press release, proudly proclaiming that with 10,000 calls in less than 48 hours it had managed to overload the State Department's voice-mail system. The group was making known its opposition to any Israeli concessions on dividing Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians -- an issue that was swirling around the Bush administration's peace summit taking place in Annapolis, Md.
The new coalition's dubious achievement wasn't much noticed by the media, and perhaps isn't in itself important, but it was a sign of battles to come in the year ahead, as Israeli and Palestinian leaders struggle to move forward with any real progress after Annapolis. Although most appraisals of the conference were reservedly positive -- after all, at least the two sides were talking seriously again after a seven-year drought -- the event also opened a can of worms.
On the eve of Annapolis, the new right-wing coalition's representatives directly lobbied a top Bush official with their concerns about the summit. Even Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took notice and seemed threatened by their potential to obstruct progress -- leveling some harsh words just before the Annapolis conference apparently directed at the coalition.
Annapolis was only the beginning of a renewed series of high-level negotiations, and the joint Israeli-Palestinian statement read by President Bush at the event was purposefully vague so as to avoid angering either leader's constituents or allies. Anyone reading between the lines, however, could see that the most explosive issue of all, dividing Jerusalem, had reemerged. The new coalition of religious groups seeks to use the incendiary Jerusalem question to scuttle any of the progress promised by Annapolis. Its efforts also threaten to cause painful rifts among American Jews, and perhaps shake up some pro-Israel political alliances.
Although the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most influential pro-Israel lobbying group in the U.S., seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach to the new high-level negotiations, some of AIPAC's major donors and allies are involved with the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem. The coalition is also being aided in its efforts by evangelical Christian groups and supported by figures such as G. Gordon Liddy. It is directed by an influential former fundraiser for George W. Bush, Jeff Ballabon.
Ballabon is a Washington lobbyist who served as a major fundraiser for the 2004 Bush reelection campaign and was the architect of a strategy that has sought to bring Orthodox Jews into the Republican fold, in an effort to balance the overwhelmingly Democratic voting habits of mainstream American Jews. Just before the conference in Annapolis, Ballabon, along with Christian leaders and representatives of various Orthodox groups, met with Bush's national security advisor, Stephen Hadley, to make sure their point of view, and the force of their commitment, were understood by the administration. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Hadley reportedly assured them that, for the time being, the issue of Jerusalem was in fact not on the negotiating table.
Some interesting fissures have begun to crop up along with the new coalition. A few weeks before the Annapolis meeting, a congressional letter requesting increased aid for the Palestinian Authority -- which would help it meet some of its obligations toward achieving peace -- was endorsed by AIPAC, surprising many in Washington lobbying circles. (The Israeli government had not opposed the aid.) That decision earned AIPAC a sharp rebuke by one of its most important donors, billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who said, "If someone is going to jump off a bridge, it is incumbent upon their friends to dissuade them." Adelson, reportedly the third richest person in the United States and a prominent donor to the Republican Party, is also a major donor to the Zionist Organization of America, a group that, although lacking anything near the clout that AIPAC wields, is still influential among Middle East hawks in the GOP. And it is a core member of the new Coordinating Council. The national president of ZOA, Mort Klein, told Salon in an interview that "Israel should not be willing to give away any part of Jerusalem to another entity, just as the U.S. wouldn't give away any part of Washington." He added, "Jerusalem is mentioned 700 times in our holy book. It's not mentioned even once in the Quran."
ZOA has been active for a long time, but has never gotten the kind of political attention enjoyed by AIPAC and other more mainstream groups, or by the Christian evangelical groups pushing hawkish Middle East polices who have joined the Coordinating Council. What has changed is that the obstructionist agenda of the ZOA and the evangelical groups is now being aided by the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish member organizations of the newly formed coalition -- many of which have, prior to now, stayed aloof from international politics.
Agudath Israel, for example, an umbrella organization of ultra-Orthodox American Jews and a member group of the Coordinating Council, recently broke its long-held rule of not delving into Middle East politics by speaking out against the division of Jerusalem. The Orthodox Union, the largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization in the United States, also recently broke its tradition of supporting the policies of the Israeli government, issuing a press release that sharply criticized Olmert's statements at Annapolis because he "did not explicitly resist Palestinian President [Mahmoud] Abbas' claim to a piece of Jerusalem."
That a successful peace deal would necessitate some sharing of Jerusalem is at this point essentially a given in the eyes of most political leaders. It has been floated subtly by Prime Minister Olmert's Cabinet allies, is quite clearly supported by many in the State Department and is thought of as an absolute minimum for agreement by Abbas.
To Orthodox Jews, however, Jerusalem is a red line (just as it is to their opposites on the Muslim side). Any perceived threat to sole ownership of the holy city summons dangerous levels of emotion and energy, even from those who would not normally pause from their prayers and everyday lives to wade into the swamp of Middle East politics. It is these thousands of Americans, normally not involved in Middle East discourse, that may give the Coordinating Council for Jerusalem the strength and potential to be a real obstacle to peace in the year to come.
These stirrings stateside have not gone unnoticed by the Israeli government. In response to the lobbying intended to preempt any talk of dividing Jerusalem, Olmert stated, "Israel is sovereign to decide on any issue regarding Israel." The message was that Jerusalem is an issue to be determined by Israel itself, and not by its hard-line American cheerleaders.
To be sure, the views of this new American coalition of religious right-wingers don't come anywhere near representing the consensus of American Jewry or of Israel's mainstream supporters in the United States -- whose views, unlike those of the CCJ, don't generally turn on Scripture but rather on issues of peace and security. Still, the vigor with which these actors have recently entered the debate, and the determined efforts with which they will likely proceed over the next year, aren't going to make anything easy for those striving for a Middle East accord of any kind.
The Annapolis conference may have been a start, but it has also unleashed a zealotry on U.S. shores that may once again help demonstrate how nearly impossible achieving Middle East peace could really be.
-- By Gregory Levey
A new coalition of religious hard-liners with ties to President Bush seeks to scuttle any plans for dividing Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians.
By Gregory Levey
Dec. 13, 2007 On Nov. 26, the U.S. State Department got hit with an unexpected barrage of phone calls. The Coordinating Council on Jerusalem, a new coalition of American groups with hard-line views on Israel, was on the line -- all of the lines. Or so the group said two days later in a press release, proudly proclaiming that with 10,000 calls in less than 48 hours it had managed to overload the State Department's voice-mail system. The group was making known its opposition to any Israeli concessions on dividing Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians -- an issue that was swirling around the Bush administration's peace summit taking place in Annapolis, Md.
The new coalition's dubious achievement wasn't much noticed by the media, and perhaps isn't in itself important, but it was a sign of battles to come in the year ahead, as Israeli and Palestinian leaders struggle to move forward with any real progress after Annapolis. Although most appraisals of the conference were reservedly positive -- after all, at least the two sides were talking seriously again after a seven-year drought -- the event also opened a can of worms.
On the eve of Annapolis, the new right-wing coalition's representatives directly lobbied a top Bush official with their concerns about the summit. Even Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took notice and seemed threatened by their potential to obstruct progress -- leveling some harsh words just before the Annapolis conference apparently directed at the coalition.
Annapolis was only the beginning of a renewed series of high-level negotiations, and the joint Israeli-Palestinian statement read by President Bush at the event was purposefully vague so as to avoid angering either leader's constituents or allies. Anyone reading between the lines, however, could see that the most explosive issue of all, dividing Jerusalem, had reemerged. The new coalition of religious groups seeks to use the incendiary Jerusalem question to scuttle any of the progress promised by Annapolis. Its efforts also threaten to cause painful rifts among American Jews, and perhaps shake up some pro-Israel political alliances.
Although the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most influential pro-Israel lobbying group in the U.S., seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach to the new high-level negotiations, some of AIPAC's major donors and allies are involved with the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem. The coalition is also being aided in its efforts by evangelical Christian groups and supported by figures such as G. Gordon Liddy. It is directed by an influential former fundraiser for George W. Bush, Jeff Ballabon.
Ballabon is a Washington lobbyist who served as a major fundraiser for the 2004 Bush reelection campaign and was the architect of a strategy that has sought to bring Orthodox Jews into the Republican fold, in an effort to balance the overwhelmingly Democratic voting habits of mainstream American Jews. Just before the conference in Annapolis, Ballabon, along with Christian leaders and representatives of various Orthodox groups, met with Bush's national security advisor, Stephen Hadley, to make sure their point of view, and the force of their commitment, were understood by the administration. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Hadley reportedly assured them that, for the time being, the issue of Jerusalem was in fact not on the negotiating table.
Some interesting fissures have begun to crop up along with the new coalition. A few weeks before the Annapolis meeting, a congressional letter requesting increased aid for the Palestinian Authority -- which would help it meet some of its obligations toward achieving peace -- was endorsed by AIPAC, surprising many in Washington lobbying circles. (The Israeli government had not opposed the aid.) That decision earned AIPAC a sharp rebuke by one of its most important donors, billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who said, "If someone is going to jump off a bridge, it is incumbent upon their friends to dissuade them." Adelson, reportedly the third richest person in the United States and a prominent donor to the Republican Party, is also a major donor to the Zionist Organization of America, a group that, although lacking anything near the clout that AIPAC wields, is still influential among Middle East hawks in the GOP. And it is a core member of the new Coordinating Council. The national president of ZOA, Mort Klein, told Salon in an interview that "Israel should not be willing to give away any part of Jerusalem to another entity, just as the U.S. wouldn't give away any part of Washington." He added, "Jerusalem is mentioned 700 times in our holy book. It's not mentioned even once in the Quran."
ZOA has been active for a long time, but has never gotten the kind of political attention enjoyed by AIPAC and other more mainstream groups, or by the Christian evangelical groups pushing hawkish Middle East polices who have joined the Coordinating Council. What has changed is that the obstructionist agenda of the ZOA and the evangelical groups is now being aided by the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish member organizations of the newly formed coalition -- many of which have, prior to now, stayed aloof from international politics.
Agudath Israel, for example, an umbrella organization of ultra-Orthodox American Jews and a member group of the Coordinating Council, recently broke its long-held rule of not delving into Middle East politics by speaking out against the division of Jerusalem. The Orthodox Union, the largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization in the United States, also recently broke its tradition of supporting the policies of the Israeli government, issuing a press release that sharply criticized Olmert's statements at Annapolis because he "did not explicitly resist Palestinian President [Mahmoud] Abbas' claim to a piece of Jerusalem."
That a successful peace deal would necessitate some sharing of Jerusalem is at this point essentially a given in the eyes of most political leaders. It has been floated subtly by Prime Minister Olmert's Cabinet allies, is quite clearly supported by many in the State Department and is thought of as an absolute minimum for agreement by Abbas.
To Orthodox Jews, however, Jerusalem is a red line (just as it is to their opposites on the Muslim side). Any perceived threat to sole ownership of the holy city summons dangerous levels of emotion and energy, even from those who would not normally pause from their prayers and everyday lives to wade into the swamp of Middle East politics. It is these thousands of Americans, normally not involved in Middle East discourse, that may give the Coordinating Council for Jerusalem the strength and potential to be a real obstacle to peace in the year to come.
These stirrings stateside have not gone unnoticed by the Israeli government. In response to the lobbying intended to preempt any talk of dividing Jerusalem, Olmert stated, "Israel is sovereign to decide on any issue regarding Israel." The message was that Jerusalem is an issue to be determined by Israel itself, and not by its hard-line American cheerleaders.
To be sure, the views of this new American coalition of religious right-wingers don't come anywhere near representing the consensus of American Jewry or of Israel's mainstream supporters in the United States -- whose views, unlike those of the CCJ, don't generally turn on Scripture but rather on issues of peace and security. Still, the vigor with which these actors have recently entered the debate, and the determined efforts with which they will likely proceed over the next year, aren't going to make anything easy for those striving for a Middle East accord of any kind.
The Annapolis conference may have been a start, but it has also unleashed a zealotry on U.S. shores that may once again help demonstrate how nearly impossible achieving Middle East peace could really be.
-- By Gregory Levey
09 November 2007
NO JEW HAS THE AUTHORITY...
"DAVID BEN-GURION“
- No Jew is at liberty to surrender the right of the Jewish Nation and the Land of Israel to exist.
- No Jewish body is sanctioned to do so.
- No Jew alive today has the authority to yield any piece of land whatsoever. This right is preserved by the Jewish people throughout the generations and cannot be forfeited under any circumstance. Even if at some given time there will be those who declare that they are relinquishing this right, they have neither the power nor the jurisdiction to negate it for future generations to come. The Jewish Nation is neither obligated by nor responsible for any waiver such as this.
- Our right to this land, in its entirety, is steadfast, inalienable and eternal. And until the coming of the Great Redemption, we shall never yield this historic right.”
Just a reminder in case someone has forgotten....blogmaster
08 November 2007
An open letter to Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice
An open letter to Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice
The Jewish Community of Hebron
November 06, 2007
The Honorable Dr. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
United States Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520 U.S.A.
Dear Secretary Rice,
Dear Secretary Rice,
We notice that recently you have been pledging much effort and time to the Middle East. We are sure that you are doing this on behalf of those who live in this region and that your efforts are meant to ordain a better future for the region and its inhabitants. We might appreciate these intentions if we did not know clearly that all your efforts and actions will cause the region and its residents much more suffering and bloodshed. Moreover, the goals that you have established are totally contrary to justice, the Bible, and the rights of the Jews in this country.
We wish to remind you, Dr. Rice, that in the Bible this land was promised to the Jewish people some 4,000 years ago. Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, purchased Hebron more than 3,800 years ago. The Jews left Egypt in order to go to their country, the Holy Land, the Land of Israel, 3,500 years ago. There they established a state 3,300 years ago. This state became the kingdom of the Jewish King David, 3,000 years ago. The Temple stood in the center of the country, Jerusalem, and after being destroyed by the Babylonians it was rebuilt some 2,000 years ago. In all of those generations, this land was the sole homeland of the Jewish people. Only the Jewish people gave it independence. Only they lent it a distinct identity.
Please bear in mind that by the time Arabs reached this country, it had belonged to the Jews for thousands of years. The Arabs destroyed the country and caused its inhabitants much suffering. They never established an independent state in this country and never contributed a thing to its development. Under Arab rule, most of the country was unpopulated and desolate, covered with marshes and deserts – as your countryman, the renowned Mark Twain, described in his unforgettable book The Innocents Abroad. The Holy Land remained abandoned, as if loyally waiting for its offspring to return. The Jewish people, too, remained true to its land for millennia and aspired to return to it. Jews began to return to the Land of Israel about 140 years ago and started to make it blossom, cultivate its soil, and build it. Then the Arabs woke up and embarked on acts of terror and murderous attacks. In 1929, lethal Arab terror brought on the destruction of the world’s most ancient Jewish community, that of Hebron. Arabs butchered seventy Jews, brutalized and raped dozens of women, and banished the survivors. The mastermind of pogroms against the Jews of the Land of Israel in the 1920s, the Arab leader Amin al-Husayni, the founder of Palestinian nationalism, went so far as to meet with Hitler during the Holocaust and to plan, in common cause, the annihilation of all Jews in the Land of Israel. He even established Muslim units in the Nazi army. These aspirations have been typical of the Palestinian leadership ever since.
Even if Arabs have personal human rights, they have never had any collective national rights in this country. This is clear to anyone who has average schooling. However, to secure national rights that they never had, the Arabs established terror organizations of which the PLO was the first. These organizations specialize in the murder of civilians – men, women, and children, mainly Jews and Israelis but also many others, including no few American citizens. From the moment Israel recognized the PLO and gave it land in certain parts of the country, these areas have become incubators of terrorism, suffering, and corruption. Not long ago it transpired that the PLO had become so corrupt and reviled an entity that the Arabs themselves gave rise to a much more murderous enemy, Hamas, which very easily seized power in the Gaza Strip by means of gruesome acts of terror. Your persistence in trying to hand further areas to the PLO will certainly inflict more terrorism, more suffering, and more bloodshed on the entire region and its inhabitants.
Moreover, you constantly ignore the rights of the Jews in this territory, their historical and sole country and homeland. The Jewish community has returned to Hebron and is revitalizing the Jewish quarter and the synagogues that the Arabs destroyed. We have full rights to these properties and buildings. Your policies are definitely leading to further destruction and killing. Is this how your country treats the property of Jewish communities on American soil?
You must be aware that Jews who remain in any territory that is handed over to the PLO will be easy prey for brutal murder – and a fortiori if the territory falls into the hands of Hamas, as is likely. How can you promote a policy that will deal the Jews so grievous a blow – in their homeland of all places, the historical Holy Land?
Your schemes plainly include the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews from their localities and homes. Therefore, we wish to inform you that we do not intend to leave our homes on any terms. You will have to use force against us in order to transfer the territory, free of Jews, to the murderers’ organizations – the PLO and Hamas. This is the direction in which you are leading the Middle East. Is this how the United States fights for justice and against Islamic terror?
We hope you receive these remarks and change the dangerous direction in which you are heading. Please remember: many generations after you conclude your term in office, we, the inhabitants of this region, will still be here and will have to endure the consequences of your policies. Only Israeli control from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River will confer rights upon all people in the region and maximize the peace and happiness of all inhabitants of the area.
Respectfully,
Noam Arnon
David Wilder
The Jewish Community of Hebron
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