zaterdag 25 juli 2009

Netanjahoe wil gaan bouwen in omstreden E1 gebied

 
Volgens het VN delingsplan van 1947 zou Israel in 3 delen en de Palestijnse staat zelfs in 4 delen gesplitst zijn, naast een status aparte voor Jeruzalem. Tegenwoordig gaat men uit van territoriale continuiteit, wat zeker wenselijker is maar niet makkelijk uitvoerbaar. De bevolkingsgroepen zitten her en der dicht op elkaar en door elkaar gehuisvest. Vooral 'Jeruzalem' is omringd door Arabische en Joodse wijken waartussen nauwelijks nog een landsgrens te trekken valt.
 
Dat het E-1 gebied samen met Maaleh Adumim de Westoever in tweeën verdeelt klopt niet helemaal, er is ten oosten daarvan nog genoeg ruimte. Behalve het verbinden van de grote nederzettingen die Israel niet wil opgeven, lijkt het Netanjahoe vooral te gaan om de claim op Jeruzalem. De Palestijnen zouden nauwelijks nog directe toegangswegen tot hun gedroomde hoofdstad overhouden.
 
Wouter
______________
 

U.S. warns Israel not to build up West Bank corridor
By Aluf Benn - Haaretz
Last update - 06:43 24/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1102567.html

 
The U.S. administration has issued a stiff warning to Israel not to build in the area known as E-1, which lies between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. Any change in the status quo in E-1 would be "extremely damaging," even "corrosive," the message said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed in the past to finally build the controversial E-1 housing project - as have several premiers before him, though none has done so due to American pressure. He opened his recent election campaign with a visit to Ma'aleh Adumim in which he declared: "I will link Jerusalem to Ma'aleh Adumim via the Mevasseret Adumim neighborhood, E-1. I want to see one continuous string of built-up Jewish neighborhoods."

He has also warned in the past that failure to build in E-1 would allow the Palestinians to create territorial contiguity around Jerusalem.

Just before his government was installed this spring, the media reported that Netanyahu had reached an agreement with his largest coalition partner, Yisrael Beiteinu, to unfreeze construction in E-1. However, that clause was ultimately not included in the coalition agreement.

The plans for E-1 call for building 3,500 housing units, along with commercial areas and tourism sites, to create a single urban expanse stretching from Jerusalem to Ma'aleh Adumim and strengthen Israel's hold on East Jerusalem, which would then be completely surrounded by Jewish neighborhoods.

The United States has always vehemently opposed this plan, fearing it would deprive a future Palestinian state of territorial contiguity, cut the West Bank in two and sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank - all of which would thwart any hope of signing a final-status agreement and establishing a Palestinian state.

President Barack Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, vigorously opposed building in E-1 during the terms of prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. Sharon did approve construction of a police station in E-1, and under Olmert, infrastructure work in the area continued. But neither ever approved construction of either the residential units or the commercial buildings, for fear of a confrontation with the United States.

Four years ago, after resigning from Sharon's government, Netanyahu attacked him for giving in to American pressure on E-1. "A sovereign government must build in its eternal capital," he said. "Sharon set a precedent that will lead to the division of Jerusalem."

The Obama's administration - which opposes all construction in East Jerusalem, even of a few houses - would be even more outraged by a large-scale project such as E-1.

It is demanding a moratorium on Jewish building in East Jerusalem until an agreement is reached on the city's legal status, arguing that the cumulative effect of even small-scale projects would destroy any chance of a peace agreement and arouse fierce opposition in the Arab world, especially among East Jerusalem Arabs. Small projects include the construction of 20 apartments in the Shepherd Hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood or plans to build new Jewish housing in Silwan.

At Sunday's cabinet meeting, however, Netanyahu rejected this American stance. "United Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Our sovereignty in it is not subject to appeal, and among other things, this means that Jerusalem residents can buy apartments anywhere in the city," he said. "We cannot accept the idea that Jews should not have the right to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem."

Next week, three senior American officials will visit Israel: special envoy George Mitchell, National Security Advisor James Jones and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Mitchell will continue his efforts to reach agreement on a settlement freeze, including in East Jerusalem, while the other two will focus on the Iranian threat.

vrijdag 24 juli 2009

Europese Mensenrechtenhof vindt oproepen boycot Israel discriminerend

 
Over rechterlijke uitspraken ontstaan al snel misverstanden in de buitenwereld. Zo heeft een Duitse rechtbank NIET verklaard dat Hajo Meyer een antisemiet IS, alleen dat hij die aantijging te dulden heeft, en heeft een Franse rechtbank NIET verklaard dat het filmpje over Al Dura nep of gemanipuleerd IS, alleen dat France 2 die aantijgingen te dulden heeft. Onderstaande uitspraak lijkt van hetzelfde laken een pak: het Europese Mensenrechtenhof heeft NIET geoordeeld dat het in Europa verboden moet zijn om tot een boycot van Israel op te roepen, alleen dat een Franse rechtbank dit mag verbieden aan een Franse burgemeester. Althans, dat is wat ik eruit opmaak. De betreffende Franse burgemeester lijkt mij een blaaskaak van het type Ken Livingstone, dus het is sowieso een plezant bericht dat hij uiteindelijke in het ongelijk is gesteld, na 7(!) jaar...
 
Wouter
___________


European court: Israel boycotts are unlawful discrimination
by Herb Keinon
The Jerusalem Post
20 July 2009


Israel finally won one last week in an international human rights court.

On Thursday, the Council of Europe's European Court of Human Rights upheld a French ruling that it was illegal and discriminatory to boycott Israeli goods, and that making it illegal to call for a boycott of Israeli goods did not constitute a violation of one's freedom of expression.

The Council of Europe is based in Strasbourg, has some 47 member states and is independent of the European Union. The court is made up of one judge from each member state, and the rulings of the court carry moral weight throughout Europe.

On Thursday the court ruled by a vote of 6-1 that the French court did not violate the freedom of expression of the Communist mayor of the small French town of Seclin, Jean-Claude Fernand Willem, who in October 2002 announced at a town hall meeting that he intended to call on the municipality to boycott Israeli products.

Jews in the region filed a complaint with the public prosecutor, who decided to prosecute Willem for "provoking discrimination on national, racial and religious grounds." Willem was first acquitted by the Lille Criminal Court, but that decision was overturned on appeal in September 2003 and he was fined €1,000.

His appeal to a higher French court was unsuccessful, and as a result he petitioned the European Court of Human rights in March 2005, saying his call for a boycott of Israeli products was part of a legitimate political debate, and that his freedom of expression had been violated.

The court, made up of judges from Denmark, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Macedonia and the Czech Republic ruled that interference with the former mayor's freedom of expression was needed to protect the rights of Israeli producers.

According to a statement issued by the court on Thursday, the court held the view that Willem was not convicted for his political opinions, "but for inciting the commission of a discriminatory, and therefore punishable, act. The Court further noted that, under French law, the applicant was not entitled to take the place of the governmental authorities by declaring an embargo on products from a foreign country, and moreover that the penalty imposed on him had been relatively moderate."

The one dissenting opinion was written by the Czech judge.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor hailed the ruling Sunday, saying it provided important ammunition for those challenging on legal grounds calls frequently heard in Europe for a boycott of Israeli products, as well as calls for a boycott of Israeli academia.

"It is now clear that in every country in Europe there is a precedent for calling boycotts of Israeli goods a violation of the law," Palmor said. "This is an important precedent, one that says very clearly that boycott calls are discriminatory. We hope this will help us push back against all the calls for boycotts of Israeli goods."

Ontruiming buitenposten in september - afscheidingsbarrière over 4 jaar klaar

 
Praten met kolonistenleiders, zoals Barak de hele tijd doet, vind ik iets voor bij het ontruimen van echte nederzettingen; betreffende de illegale caravans waaruit een groot deel van de buitenposten bestaat, lijkt het mij zaak om vooral duidelijk te maken dat met de wet niet te spotten en te marchanderen valt. Zoals Gerd Leers het woonwagenkamp Vinkenslag in Maastricht aanpakte dat tot een vrijstaat was verworden, en zoals Steven Stevaert de illegale vakantiehuizen in Vlaanderen liet slopen. Barak zou eens op werkbezoek mogen komen bij deze doortastende Limburgers!
 

Wouter
________________

Illegal outpost evacuation set for Sept.
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
 
Amid fears of violent settler resistance, defense officials said Wednesday that the evacuation of illegal outposts in the West Bank will likely take place after the school year begins in September.

"There are a lot of children and teenagers on vacation now who can reinforce the outposts and make their evacuation much more difficult," explained one defense official. "The ideal time for an evacuation would be from once the school year begins and until the Jewish holiday season, when everyone is on vacation."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is currently on vacation with his wife abroad, is scheduled to return over the weekend and begin holding consultations on setting a time for such an operation.

The evacuation of the 26 outposts, the official said, would likely span a number of days since they were spread out throughout the West Bank and a one-day evacuation would require almost the entire police force and a significant portion of the IDF. Barak, the official said, planned to hold talks with settler leaders upon his return with the aim of convincing them to voluntarily evacuate some of the outposts.

 
In related news, the officials said that the Defense Ministry recently completed construction of the West Bank security barrier surrounding Jerusalem, bringing the total length of the barrier to 500 kilometers. The officials said that 310 km. remained, mostly in the Jordan Valley and the Judean Desert. The IDF had initially drawn up a plan to erect electronic sensors along the route throughout the desert but was now reconsidering the construction of a physical barrier.

Construction on 100 km. of the barrier was currently being help up by the High Court of Justice, which was petitioned by various human rights and Palestinian groups. The officials said the barrier would likely be completed within four years.

IDF plant ontruiming 23 buitenposten op Westoever

 
1. De zogenaamde kolonistenbeweging (niet te verwarren met de kolonisten) wordt aardig nerveus over de aangekondigde ontruiming van meer dan 20 Joodse buitenposten op de Westoever. Uiteraard hoeven die niet op 1 dag ontruimd te worden, maar het huidige tempo van gemiddeld 1 ontruiming per jaar zal Israel toch hopelijk wel kunnen verbeteren...
 
 
2. Sommige extremistische kolonisten hebben verzonnen om zich na ontruimingen op de Palestijnen te wreken:
 
On Monday, in the aftermath of the destruction of isolated structures in three outposts in the Binyamin region, settlers throughout the West Bank torched trees, stoned Palestinian vehicles and blocked roads.
 
Een briljante Hasbara-strategie! Ik zal het zeer met deze mensen te doen hebben als ze straks huilend en schreeuwend geëvacueerd worden uit hun illegale woningen.
 
 
3. Dit zou weleens in de NRC of de Volkskrant of op het NOS Jorunaal mogen komen:
 
The problem was that a Likud-led government, which had coalition partners such as Israel Beiteinu, Shas and Habayit Hayehudi, had not approved a single building plan [for] new apartments in the settlements, he said.
 
Wat nu -buiten Jeruzalem- aan bouwactiviteiten plaatsvindt zijn jaren geleden goedgekeurde bouwplannen.
 
Wouter
_____________

IDF denies it plans to remove 23 outposts on same day
By YAAKOV KATZ, YAAKOV LAPPIN AND TOVAH LAZAROFF
Jul 21, 2009 23:55 | Updated Jul 22, 2009 7:16
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443873014&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 
The evacuation of so many outposts in one day would be "near impossible" due to the manpower that would be required, defense officials said.

"The entire police force and a significant portion of the IDF would be needed to evacuate all of outposts in one day," a defense official said, adding that once the IDF received a directive to remove outposts from the political echelon it would begin formulating an operational plan.

Israel has promised the United States it would remove 26 outposts built after March 2001. But it speaks of 23 because there is a deal to relocate the largest one, Migron. In 2008 the IDF removed two of them, Yatir South and Mevo Horon North.

Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said he also didn't believe it would be possible to evacuate all 23 in one strike, but that he did not put it beyond the army to initiate a commando raid in the middle of the night against one of the outposts.
"I hope that they would not do that, but I do not think the important thing is the tactic," said Dayan.

The problem was that a Likud-led government, which had coalition partners such as Israel Beiteinu, Shas and Habayit Hayehudi, had not approved a single building plan [for] new apartments in the settlements, he said.

And at the same time, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had "warmed the bulldozers" when it came to destroying Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, Dayan said.

Esther Karish of the Samaria Citizens Committee said the issue was not the timeframe.
So they do it in a week and not a day, she said.

The level of fear and tension was very high, because settlers believed the IDF would act against the outposts soon, she said.

To prevent the demolition of any outpost, settlers are lobbying politicians and readying activists to head to protect the hilltop communities.

For the past year, as a warning to the IDF, settlers have enacted a "price tag" policy against any demolition of Jewish structures in Judea and Samaria.

On Monday, in the aftermath of the destruction of isolated structures in three outposts in the Binyamin region, settlers throughout the West Bank torched trees, stoned Palestinian vehicles and blocked roads.

Tensions remained high on Tuesday. According to police, a group of masked individuals believed to be settlers hacked at olive trees in near Yitzhar, south of Nablus.

Earlier on Tuesday, Palestinian Legislative Council member Walid Assef was lightly wounded and his car was damaged by stones allegedly thrown by settlers near the Gilad Farm outpost in Samaria.

A member of the army's civil administration aided the parliamentarian and recommended he file a complaint with the police. A spokesman for Gilad Farm said no one from the outpost was connected to the incident.

Separately on Tuesday, police arrested three people in Bat Ayin, Gush Etzion, wanted for a series of crimes. During the arrests, one of the three, a 30-year-old man, verbally threatened the life of one of the officers.

 
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Opiniepeiling Palestijnen toont steun voor Abbas en voor Palestijnse eenheid

 
Hoewel een meerderheid van de Palestijnen voorstander is van verzoening tussen Fatah en Hamas, heeft men er niet echt vertrouwen in dat dit gaat lukken. Een soort zakenkabinet zou de Westoever en Gazastrook moeten herenigen tot aan de volgende verkiezingen. Abbas kan zich gesteund weten door meer dan de helft van de kiezers.
 
Wouter
____________

Results of Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No. 38 / 16-18 July 2009
www.najah.edu/file/centers/OPSSC/Poll_en38results.pdf

 
Following are the results of the Palestinian Public Opinion Poll no. 38 conducted by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah National University during the period from 16-18 July 2009.

The sample included 1360 persons whose age group is 18 and above and who have the right to vote. The enclosed questionnaire was distributed on 860 persons from the West Bank and 500 persons from the Gaza Strip. The sample was drawn randomly and the margin of error is about +/-3%; still 3.6% of the members of the sample refused to answer the questionnaire.

The opinions represented in the results reflect those of the study; they do not, by any means, represent the opinion of An-Najah National University.

The General Results of the Poll

Do you support or reject the formation of a unity government that will work on ending the sate of division and prepare for the presidential and legislative elections?
I support 80.0 I reject 11.8 I am not concerned 6.6
No opinion/I do not know 1.6

In the Cairo dialogue, the formation of a committee that would include members who represent factions and independent personalities and that would replace a unity government and take charge of coordination between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was suggested. Do you support or reject this suggestion?
I support 52.5 I reject 37.1 I am not concerned 7.0
No opinion/I do not know 3.5

The recent rounds of the Cairo dialogue were limited to representatives of Fateh and Hamas; other Palestinian factions and independent personalities were not invited. Do you support or reject limiting the participation in the Cairo dialogues to the representatives of Fateh and Hamas?
I support 25.3 I reject 65.3 I am not concerned 6.9
No opinion/I do not know 2.5

Do you support or reject the participation of national independent Palestinian in the Cairo dialogue?
I support 73.8 I reject 17.9 I am not concerned 6.5
No opinion/I do not know 1.8

Do think that the participation of national independent personalities in the Cairo dialogue will influence the proceedings of the dialogue positively or negatively?
It will have a negative effect 18.8 It will have a positive effect 63.9
I am not concerned 7.5 No opinion/I do not know 9.9

Do you think that a reconciliation agreement will be signed in the coming round of dialogue at the end of July?
Yes 31.4 No 53.0 63.I am not concerned 4.0
No opinion/I do not know 11.6

Do you think that the parties of the dialogue, particularly Fateh and Hamas, are concerned with ending the state of division?
Yes 39.7 No 49.0 I am not concerned 4.6
No opinion/I do not know 6.8

Do you think that there are positive signs that the Cairo dialogue will succeed?
Yes 35.7 No 55.4 No opinion/I do not know 8.9

Do you think that the parties of the dialogue in Cairo have the intention to make the dialogue succeed?
Yes 40.1 No 50.3 No opinion/I do not know 9.6

Do you think that the parties of the dialogue in Cairo have the genuine intention to end the Palestinian division?
Yes 40.0 No 49.9 No opinion/I do not know 10.1

If the Cairo dialogue succeeds, how does its success generally affect you personally?
Positively 65.6 Negatively 6.0 It will not have any effect 26.8
No opinion/I do not know 1.6

Which of the following objectives do you think the parties of the Cairo dialogue aim at?
Personal interests 27.6
The interests of their movements and parties 38.8
The interest of the Palestinian people 27.7
No opinion/I do not know 5.8

A group of Palestinian national independent personalities participated in the Cairo dialogue. Do you support or reject such participation?
I support 74.6 I reject 19.2 No opinion/I do not know 6.3

How do you assess the participation of the Palestinian independent personalities in the Cairo dialogue?
Good 55.9 Bad 24.9 No opinion/I do not know 19.3

In your opinion, whose interest does the participation of Palestinian independent personalities in the Cairo dialogue serve?
The personal interests of these personalities 28.9
The interests of Fateh 6.3
The interests of Hamas 1.5
The interests of the general Palestinian cause 52.1
No opinion/I do not know 11.2

If presidential elections are held in the present time, to whom from among the following do you give your vote?
An independent candidate 7.5 A candidate from the left 3.1
A candidate from Hamas 11.8 A candidate from Fateh 26.8
A national independent candidate 7.1 An Islamic independent candidate 5.2
I will not participate in the elections 21.3 I have not decided yet 17.2

If new PLC elections are conducted, whom do you vote for?
An independent ticket 6.0 A ticket from the left 3.5
A ticket from Hamas 12.5 A ticket from Fateh 29.
A national independent ticket 6.8 An Islamic independent ticket 5.2
I will not participate in the elections 21.0 I have not decided yet 16.0

If new legislative elections were to be held today, which of the following would win?
Independent Islamists bloc 6.3 Independent Nationalist bloc 9.3
Fateh bloc 39.3 Hamas bloc 17.9
A bloc from leftist organizations 2.0 No opinion/I do not know 25.3

In case presidential elections are held, to whom do you give your vote?
Mahmoud Abbas 53.1 Ismail Haniyeh 16.8 Others 8.
I will not participate in the elections 21.3

In your opinion, who is the most capable of managing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and serving the highest national interest?
Mahmoud Abbas 52.6 Ismail Haniyeh 22.1
No opinion/I do not know 25.3

As you know, there is a government in the West Bank led by Salam Fayyad and another government in the Gaza Strip led by Ismail Haniyeh. In your opinion which government is more capable of managing the internal Palestinian affairs?
The government of Salam Fayyad 44.8
The Government of Ismail Haniyeh 24.0
No opinion/I do not know 31.2

How do you assess the performance of the government of Salam Fayyad?
Good 48.8 Bad 38.7 No opinion/I do not know 12.5

How do you assess the performance of the government of Ismail Haniyeh?
Good 32.4 Bad 48.5 No opinion/I do not know 19.2

There are those who say that Hamas is belligerent towards Fateh activists in the Gaza Strip. Do you support or reject this allegation?
Yes 64.6 No 21.4 No opinion/I do not know 14.0

There are those who say that the Palestinian Authority arrests Hamas activists in the West Bank. Do you support or reject this allegation?
Yes 64.2 No 21.5 No opinion/I do not know 14.3

Are you worried about your life under the present circumstances?
Yes 52.4 No 46.5 No opinion/I do not know 1.2

Are you pessimistic or optimistic towards the general Palestinian situation at this stage?
Optimistic 37.2 Pessimistic 60.7 No opinion/I do not know 2.1

Under the present circumstances, do you feel that you, your family and your properties are safe?
Yes 22.9 May be 37.4 No 39.0 No opinion/I do not know 0.7

Which of the following political affiliations do you support?
People's Party 1.3 Democratic Front 0.7 Islamic Jihad 2.1
Fateh 33.6 Hamas 14.9 Fida 0.3 Popular Front 3.0
Palestinian National Initiative 0.9
I am an independent nationalist 8.1
I am an independent Islamist 4.9
None of the above 29.3 Others 1.0

 
======
An-Najah National University
Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies
Tel: (972) (9) 2345113 Fax: (972)(9) 2345982
Nablus - Palestinian: P.O.Box 7, 707
Email:
Polls@najah.edu hussein596@yahoo.com

--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website:
www.imra.org.il

donderdag 23 juli 2009

Zomerkampen voor Joodse en Palestijnse kinderen: vrede en verzoening in het Midden-Oosten

 
Duizenden Israeli's en Palestijnen werken samen aan vrede en verzoening, maar zij halen zelden de krant. Eén van die initiatieven is het Peres Centrum voor Vrede.
 
Wouter
________________

Inspiration and ray of hope - Summer Camp for Palestinian and Israeli Youth

 
 
Danny Shapiro, a friend who has started working at the Peres Peace Center wrote the following account.


July 19 was the first day of a six day camp joining 32 Israeli kids, aged 12 – 14, from the poor southern towns of Yeruham and Sderot, and 28 Palestinian kids living in poverty and despair in the occupied territories.

The camp, held at Kibbutz Galon, is organized by the Peres Center's Sports Department. And as much as I read about this kind of program, no article I could read, or video I could watch, could in any possible way match the almost incredulous sense of wonder and inspiration aroused by seeing these sixty kids playing in Galon's pool together, and enjoying a multi-lingual "Darbuka" session with a Palestinian madrich (leader).

It was also fascinating and deeply impressive to speak at length with Issam, who works on a number of projects with the Peres Center. Issam grew up in Gaza and moved to Ramallah after Hamas came to power and he felt his life was in danger for his many years of reconciliation work. No doubt some of you know him.

His story is amazing. He sat in Israeli prison and had a life-changing experience with an Israeli officer that put him on the path of working towards conciliation and peace. If I have the time I will write the story down and pass it along.

Issam reminded me again and again that not only was this the first time most of the Palestinian children had met an Israeli who not either a soldier or a settler – but for the great majority of them, this was the first time in their lives outside of their town or certainly the territories; the first time they had eaten in a restaurant; the first time they experience what even the lowest social and economic classes in Israel take for granted.

I have no illusions that the experience of these 60 kids, and that of the additional several hundred who will be treated to similar camps this summer, will make any serious dent in overall public opinion or attitudes, and certainly will not make the leaders on both sides more peace loving and conciliatory. But then, that (the latter, at least) is not the goal of the Peres Peace Center.

But this type of program most certainly changes attitudes (this is based on professional evaluation following multiple years of experience), and, if nothing else, humanizes the conflict for those who are involved in it; and injects a few rays of hope into our battered and shattered hearts and minds


That is what Peres Peace Center does. That is what the "peace" group Alternative Information Center finds objectionable. They published an article insisting that Palestinians must boycott Peres Peace Center. The article states:

Shimon Peres is definitely an enemy of the Palestinian people, of human rights and of peace, and any kind of collaboration by a Palestinian organization with the Peres Center is scandalous.


Is the summer camp "scandalous?" You decide. The directors of the Peres Peace Center, in any case, are Uri Savir and Ron Pundak, though Peres founded the Peres Peace Center.

Ami Isseroff

De valse roep om eenzijdige concessies (Barry Rubin)

 
If Israel's leaders and people believed that a freeze in settlement construction would actually bring benefits--either for real peace or for at least real and full Western support based on an understanding that the Palestinian leadership didn't want peace and that Arab states would do almost nothing to bring it about—it would happen despite all the political obstacles. But the Israeli public is, for good reasons, doubtful.
 
Op zijn minst een deel van de Israelische weigering de nederzettingen te bevriezen komt omdat mensen er weinig van verwachten in termen van vrede, concessies van de Palestijnen en Arabische staten en minder druk vanuit de VS en EU. De regering, die sterke banden heeft met de kolonistenbeweging, kon de verkiezingen winnen vanwege de kater na de terugtrekking uit Gaza en Zuid-Libanon. De vredesbeweging krijgt nauwelijks meer mensen op de been om de regering onder druk te zetten omdat weinig mensen meer geloven dat dat helpt, dat dat ook maar het begin van de oplossing van het conflict is. Het vreemde is, dat onze media deze 'olifant in de kamer' negeren en de Israelische weigering toeschrijven aan de hardline posities en expansionisme, nationalisme etc. die de Israelische politiek in zijn greep zou hebben.
 
RP
----------
 
 
One problem with the analogy to Sirens is that the Sirens used only a carrot. The Europeans and Americans use the stick as well. A second problem is that peace is not a luxury or tempting song only. It is vital for Israel. If someone offers you water when you are dying of thirst in the desert, you will tend to accept it, even if you know it is just a mirage. (A.I.)
 
=================
 
http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2009/07/2009-diplomatic-odyssey-on-wine-dark.html
 
By Barry Rubin

"'If anyone unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. There is a great heap of dead men's bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them. Therefore pass these Sirens by….

"'Come here,' they sang….`He who listens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we…can tell you everything that is going to happen over the whole world.'" --The Odyssey, Book 12

So sang the Sirens to Odysseus. They promised not material or carnal joy but wisdom, for they claimed to predict the future. And thus warble the two Sirens, those of America and those of Europe. And what do they sing to Israel?

More! More! More concessions; take a risk; take a chance; prove you want peace. If you make a deal with Arafat; if you give control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip; if you offer to come down from all the Golan Heights; if you withdraw from south Lebanon, if you withdraw from the Gaza Strip, if you offer a state, then we will love you and help you and you will live in peace! We know the future and it will be a future of peace if you only heed us, you silly, stubborn people!

Come the delegations, come the parliamentarians, come the journalists, to the shores and luxury hotels, and conference rooms. And those who comply are rewarded, for a short time, with honeyed words and nice media coverage. Blessed are those Israelis who make unilateral concessions for they are called "moderates." And cursed be those Israelis who don't make unilateral concessions, for they will be called "hawks" and "hardliners."

But soon their bones, or rather those of their less fortunate countrymen, lay all around. And the Sirens reset and start all over again.

We are only looking for your own good, they say. We want to help you. These are the lotus wholesalers.

As Homer also wrote:

"The Lotus-eaters did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their return." –The Odyssey, Book Nine.

For no sooner is a concession given, a risk taken, that it is forgotten by those who ate lotus at the diplomatic banquets, at the international conference buffets. And so is the promise of support.
Remember the 1990s' version of the Sirens' song?

Here's the plan: Create a Palestinian Authority, give them lots of money and guns. Let them bring in tens of thousands of Palestinians. Turn over more and more of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

And by governing they will learn responsibility. And Yasir Arafat will become moderate, and a statesman. And there will be no more terrorism or incitement to terrorism. And there will be a two-state solution.

And what about the 2006 song: Stop the war with Hizballah and the UN will establish a strong force to patrol south Lebanon. Hizballah will not be able to return or to build military installations. Arms smuggling will be halted. For we are the entire international community, almost 200 nations strong.

And each time, the chorus goes: if this doesn't work out, we will support you. We will recognize the risks you have taken, and the concessions you have given, and the losses you have suffered. And the name of Israel will be exalted as a great peacemaker. And the media will say nice things about you.

The above is written in what I hope to be an entertaining style. But it is deadly serious—as dead as hundreds of Israelis are as a consequence of Western advice and promises, along with hundreds of Palestinians whose deaths are also a direct result of these failures.

That's what happened. And here we are at the end of that process as if none of it has happened.

As if the concept of having a "reset" of policy is just a euphemism for short-term memory loss.

If Israel's leaders and people believed that a freeze in settlement construction would actually bring benefits--either for real peace or for at least real and full Western support based on an understanding that the Palestinian leadership didn't want peace and that Arab states would do almost nothing to bring it about—it would happen despite all the political obstacles. But the Israeli public is, for good reasons, doubtful.

If only, we were told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would accept a two-state solution, how we will appreciate you! And he did. And they didn't.

How many weeks after the freeze, for example, would the Europeans find some new reason to stop advancing toward Israeli integration with the European Union?

Knowing all this, we will follow the advice of Circe to Odysseus on how to deal with the Sirens:
"Pass these Sirens by, and stop your men's ears with wax that none of them may hear; but if you like you can listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you…and they must lash the rope's ends to the mast itself….If you beg and pray the men to unloose you, then they must bind you tighter."

With all seriousness, the absolute refusal of American and European leaders and journalists even to acknowledge this history and their own behavior guarantees Israeli refusal to heed their Siren song.

Repeatedly, without being tied to the mast, I have raised this issue in private conversations—What about your unfulfilled promises in the past? What about the risks we've taken unrewarded? What about all the other concessions that have backfired?--to Western political figures and diplomats. Not a single one responds.

Let me emphasize that: they don't deny, they don't apologize, they don't even make a counter-argument. They simply go on without any reference to what I've just said. Not once have I ever heard an effort to address this issue from anyone in an official position. That's no exaggeration.

They are the ones with wax in their ears. But if they refuse even to acknowledge the consequences of their past demands and advice, why should we listen to their latest versions of the same tune?

==========
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition) and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books, go to http://www.gloria-center.org. To see his blog, http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com .
 
 

Arabische en Harediem scholen leren niet over volkslied Israel

 
Asked why the curriculum was not designated for Arab and haredi schools, in which about one-half of Israeli kindergarteners now study, Yoed replied that "the Arab system is more or less autonomous in selecting its curriculum."
 
Met andere woorden, zij zijn vrij de leerlingen de Palestijnse versie van de geschiedenis en het conflict te leren, zonder enig begrip van het Israelische narratief - het land waar ze nota bene wonen en geacht worden als loyaal staatsburger te functioneren, zoals dat voor alle staatsburgers geldt, in Israel, maar ook elders.
Dat de harediem dit - en een aantal andere onderdelen van het seculier-zionistische onderwijs - ook niet krijgen is helemaal absurd. De harediem plaatsen zich daarmee buiten de samenleving, zoals zij ook al vaak doen door niet te werken of in het leger te dienen maar hun hele leven slechts wijden aan de studie van de torah.
Het land heeft dringend behoefte aan meer eenheid, en dat begint bij het onderwijs.
 
RP
--------------
 
The Jerusalem Post
Jul 21, 2009 23:11 | Updated Jul 22, 2009 0:44
Arab and haredi schools pass on national anthem education
By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443872731&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


A new Education Ministry curriculum on the history and meaning of the Hatikva, the national anthem, will not be distributed to Arab and haredi schools.

The curriculum will be distributed to the state secular and state religious schools in the coming weeks, and is meant to be incorporated across the disciplines. It includes research into the origin of the anthem's melody and lyrics, and discussions of its history and meaning.

"This is structured material full of examples and original research," Dr. Zofia Yoed, director of curriculum development in the Education Ministry said on Tuesday.

"For example, the new curriculum incorporates groundbreaking research that overturns what we all knew about the origins of the melody. Everybody knows that the Hatikva melody comes from a Romanian folk ballad, but we have discovered the melody in an earlier instance, in a text from the 1330s found in an old Portuguese synagogue and written in the musical notation of the time. It was Sephardi Jewish before it was Romanian," Yoed explained.

Asked why the curriculum was not designated for Arab and haredi schools, in which about one-half of Israeli kindergarteners now study, Yoed replied that "the Arab system is more or less autonomous in selecting its curriculum."

"I wish this material entered those school systems as well," she said, "but this is an issue for serious debate and it's not for me to decide. I hope it happens."

A representative of Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) told The Jerusalem Post it was too early to determine where in the education system the curriculum would be used, but that a decision would be made soon.

"Er waren nog geen 6 miljoen Joden in heel Europa" volgens Palestijnse moslimgeestelijke

 
Dergelijke haat propaganda is een grove schending van de Routekaart naar Vrede, maar haalt zelden de krant, en roept zelden de verontwaardiging op in de media, in de politiek en onder (zogenaamde) mensenrechten- en vredesactivisten die minder radikale uitspraken van Israelische politici en rabbijnen oproept. Door NRC Handelsblad en de Volkskrant, maar ook het NOS journaal wordt het Palestijnse en Arabische antisemitisme bijna volledig doodgezwegen, en nooit benoemd als een obstakel tot vrede.

RP
------------

Bulletin July 21, 2009
Palestinian Media Watch

Palestinian cleric on PA TV:
"In all of Europe there weren't 6 million Jews"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 
Since "it is known that in all of Europe there weren't 6 million Jews," the Holocaust should be seen as one more example of Jews' exaggeration of their sufferings, according to a senior Palestinian religious official. This latest Palestinian Holocaust denial was expressed by Abd Al-Rahman Abbad, Secretary General of the [Palestinian] Organization of Clerics and Disseminators of Islam. This organization is headed by Ikrima Sabri, former Palestinian Authority Mufti under Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas.

In another repugnant distortion of history, Abbad explained on official Palestinian Authority TV that Jews possess "an attitude of superiority towards others"
and therefore Jewish "culture and religion obligate them to have contacts only among themselves." This, he explained, is the source of the historical Jewish isolation in ghettos: Jews were not placed in ghettos by others, but chose to build walls around themselves and live in ghettos to avoid associating with non-Jews.

This attitude, which he called the Jewish "ghetto mentality," is not just one Jewish trait among many, but dominates: "The Jewish mindset [is] a mindset controlled by the [idea of the] ghetto."

President Barak Obama sees a direct connection between Holocaust denial and Israel's security:

"I will never compromise when it comes to Israel's security. Not when there are still voices that deny the Holocaust. Not when there are terrorist groups and political leaders committed to Israel's destruction." [AIPAC Conference, June 4, 2008]

Click here to view interview with Palestinian official
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWlrICrghBY

Click here for examples of 10 years of PA Holocaust denial
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102646296595&s=4998&e=001LyxVSOIKq4y8fAxMWtbGbM1RvAHuFU-34NLQRExlCaFwe15WzrVx7iQeKHLmE-a0OTOapdG4x0dhITTST_Pvot6p-eRZP3aX3ZyqhuoYRyVTUQB3RLURjQP6h16hNF7TG7Yt4WvC3t0

The following is the transcript of the interview on PA TV:

"[The Israeli separation fence is a symptom of] the Jewish mindset, a mindset controlled by the [idea of the] ghetto. The ghetto means living in an isolated neighborhood only for Jews. That's why they cannot live with other groups because they believe that their culture and religion obligate them to have contacts only among themselves, based on an attitude of superiority towards others. That's why they did not live, for example, in the West, in separate neighborhoods, but lived in what is called "a ghetto."

The ghetto was not forced upon them, as is thought, rather, they were the ones who forced it upon themselves. This [separation] fence is not just one fence, there are many fences. Look at the [Israeli] city Lod, for example, or Ramle. There is no mixing between different population groups who are all Israeli citizens. There is separation. The reason for this is the Israeli mentality, the ghetto mentality, the mentality of rejection of 'the other', and refusal to coexist with him...

[Jews] exaggerate every action that other [nations] do against any Jew in the world. In this context is the Holocaust issue, which the whole world still [deals with]. There is a place [in Israel] called "Memorial for Holocaust and Heroism," which tells of the killing of 6 million Jews, but it is known that in all of Europe there weren't 6 million Jews."
[PATV (Fatah) July 17, 2009]
 
 
=======================
Palestinian Media Watch:
p:+972 2 625 4140 e:
pmw@pmw.org.il
f: +972 2 624 2803 w:
www.pmw.org.il

Fatah erkent Israel niet volgens woordvoerder Rafik al-Natsheh

 
Een hoge functionaris van Fatah zei het volgende:
 
'We will maintain the resistance option in all its forms and we will not recognize Israel," he said. "Not only don't we demand that anyone recognize Israel; we don't recognize Israel ourselves. However, the Palestinian Authority government is required to do it, or else it will not be able to serve the Palestinian people."
 
Is dat nou geen havikachtige positie van een ultra-nationalist die overeenkomt met de hardline positie van andere leden van Fatah? Vreemd genoeg wordt Fatah nooit in dergelijke termen beschreven, en deze opmerkingen zullen, in tegenstelling tot die van Lieberman, volledig door de media worden genegeerd.
 
RP
--------------
 
Senior Fatah official: We won't recognize Israel
Fatah official: Movement to display commitment to armed struggle in upcoming convention
Ali Waked - YNET
 
As the Fatah movement prepares for its upcoming leadership convention, a senior group member says the event will be used to display Fatah's commitment to the armed struggle against Israel.

Preparations for the convention, scheduled for August 4, are in full force at this time. During a series of preliminary meetings ahead of the event, senior Fatah official Rafik al-Natsheh said that the group will not be recognizing Israel.

'We will maintain the resistance option in all its forms and we will not recognize Israel," he said. "Not only don't we demand that anyone recognize Israel; we don't recognize Israel ourselves. However, the Palestinian Authority government is required to do it, or else it will not be able to serve the Palestinian people."

"I am certain that we will hinder all the traitors who wish to remove the resistance option from the movement's charter," Natsheh added.

Last week, a senior Egyptian official claimed that tensions within Fatah ahead of the movement's convention had a negative impact on reconciliation talks with Hamas. In a conversation with Ynet, the Egyptian source said that Fatah officials were maintaining tough positions because they fear the prospect of appearing at the convention with a disputed reconciliation agreement.

woensdag 22 juli 2009

De Joden van Turkije en de Armeense genocide

 
Bevreemdend is het in eerste instantie wel, de aarzeling van Israel om de Armeense genocide te erkennen, maar Turkije is een onmisbare bondgenoot voor de Joodse staat. Dat Joden in de VS daar lobbyden tegen de erkenning van de Armeense genocide door het Amerikaanse congres leek ronduit bizar. In onderstaande boekbespreking wordt een tipje van de Joods-Turkse sluier gelicht.
 
 
Wouter
_____________
 

The Jews of Turkey, Israel, the "Jewish Lobby" and the Armenian Genocide

 
The book and the article reveal an unmentioned factor in Israel's reluctance to condemn the Armenian Genocide - the hostage Turkish Jews and the cynical pressure that is put on them. But the article uses, perhaps unwittingly, the anti-Semitic "Jewish Lobby" phrase:
 
Yet, it is important to note that Bali is by no means interested in justifying the Jewish lobby's vigorous efforts to please the Turkish authorities. While he puts forth a wealth of evidence of the huge pressure the Jewish community in Turkey is subjected to, that evidence does not prevent him from giving a critical account of how the Jewish leadership in Turkey has displayed an eagerness to advocate Turkish views and to support official Turkish policies. There are numerous accounts in the book of how the Turkish chief rabbinate confirmed the Jewish community's happiness and well-being in Turkey, opposing the promotion of the Armenian Genocide thesis, and how the Quincentennial Foundation, established by Turkish Jewish leaders in 1992 to celebrate the 500th year anniversary of the arrival of the Jews to Ottoman lands, actively championed Turkish official theses.
The "Jewish Lobby" generally refers to pro-Israel political activists in the United States, even though there are a lot of Jewish anti-Israel political activists there as well as non-Jewish Israel supporters. Jewish lobby is certainly not an appropriate term for the leaders of the Jewish community in Turkey.
 
(A.I.)
-----------
 

 

A groundbreaking book by independent scholar and historian Rifat Bali was published recently in Turkey, unearthing facts and first-hand accounts that unmistakably illustrate how the Turkish establishment blackmailed the leaders of the Jewish community—and through them Jewish organizations in the United States—to secure their support of the Turkish position against the Armenians' campaign for genocide recognition. The title of the book, Devlet'in Ornek Yurttaslari –Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri 1950-2003, can be roughly translated into English as "The Model Citizens of the State–Jews of Turkey in the Republican Period 1950-2003." (I will refer to the book as "The Model Citizens" in this article.)

The book is a product of the meticulous work Bali carried out for many years at around 15 archives worldwide, including the American Jewish Archives (Cincinatti, Ohio), B'nai B'rith International Archives (Washington, D.C.), National Archives and Records Administration (Maryland), Israeli National Archives (Jerusalem), Central Zionist Archives (Jerusalem), Turkish State Archives (Ankara), public archives in Tel Aviv, private archives (like that of Manajans Thomspson A.S., an advertising agency based in Istanbul), and his personal archives. He also researched hundreds of books, dissertations, and articles in Turkish and other languages, and interviewed numerous individuals.

"The Model Citizens" is in fact the complementary volume of Bir Turklestirme Seruveni–Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri, 1923-1945 (A Story of Turkification–Jews of Turkey in the Republican Period 1923-1945), a reference book Bali published in 1999 that reveals the true picture of the relations of domination between the ruling elite and non-Muslims in general (and Jews, in particular) after the founding of the Turkish Republic.

Rifat Bali's books are the richest sources of information for anyone looking to study the history of the non-Muslims in Turkey during the republican period. These books differ from others by their sheer wealth of archival references, details from daily life, and insights into the political, social, and cultural background. They are the result of arduous and untiring work carried out in both the public and private archives, in addition to a very detailed scanning of the daily press—which, apparent in both volumes of the history of the Jews of Turkey, significantly sheds light on how the "establishment" in Turkey, an organic system covering not only the state apparatus but also the representatives of the "civil society" from business organizations to the press, operated as a whole to treat the non-Muslims in Turkey as hostages and not as equal citizens. Although the history of the minorities in Turkey has become a topic of interest among the dissenting academia and a limited circle of intellectuals (especially after the turn of the millennium simultaneously with Turkey's prospective membership to the European Union), as far as I can see, none of the works in this field is supported by such a comprehensive press scan, which includes cartoons in addition to news items and articles.

Turkish Jews lobbying against the Armenian Genocide

In his 670-page book, Rifat Bali gives a detailed account of the Turkish government's efforts to mobilize its Jewish subjects to win the support of the Jewish lobby in the United States against the Armenian campaigners. At the same time, Bali shows, how the Turkish authorities played the Israeli government against U.S. policymakers for the same purpose, by making use of its strategic position in the Middle East, at times promising rewards (i.e., raising the level of diplomatic relations with Israel), at times overtly or covertly making threats (i.e., cutting off Israel's vital military logistical resources by hindering the use of U.S. bases in Turkey).

The book also offers rich material about how Turkish diplomats and semi-official spokesmen of Turkish policies, while carrying out their lobbying activities, threatened both Israel and the U.S. by indicating that if the Jewish lobby failed to prevent Armenian initiatives abroad—Turkey might not be able to guarantee the security of Turkish Jews. Such Armenian initiatives included the screening of an Armenian Genocide documentary by an Israeli TV channel in 1978 and 1990; Armenian participation in an international conference in Israel in 1982; Armenian genocide bills up for discussion in the U.S. House of Representatives, and so on. It has been a routine practice for Turkish authorities to invariably deny such threats. However, Bali's industrious work in the archives reveals first-hand accounts that confirm these allegations.

But this is not all. Rifat Bali throughout his book unfolds the entire socio-political setting  of the process of making the Jewish community leaders active supporters of Turkish governments' struggle against the "Armenian claims" in the international arena.

Now let us look at this background. From what Bali brings to our attention, we can see that there has always been a frantic, extremely vulgar anti-Semitism freely expressed by Islamic fundamentalists and racists, and openly tolerated by the government and judiciary. Such anti-Semitism—escalating at times with the rising tension between Israel and the Muslim countries of the Middle East—often went as far as warmly praising Hitler for doing the right thing and exterminating the Jews; declaring Jews the enemies of the entire human race; listing characteristics attributed to Jews as the worst that can be found in human beings; in one instance, putting up advertisements on walls in Jewish-populated neighborhoods in Istanbul; and in another case, sending letters to prominent members of the Jewish community threatening that if they didn't "get the hell out of Turkey" within one month, no one would be responsible for what happened to them.

Whenever Jewish community leaders have approached the authorities for a determined stance against such open anti-Semitism, the answer has been the same: These are marginal voices that have no significant effect on the general public; and there is freedom of expression in Turkey.

The eternal indebtedness of Jews to Turks

An important fact about such violent anti-Semitism is that it goes hand in hand with the widespread official and public conception of the Jews as guests who are indebted to their hosts; it is a debt that cannot be paid no matter how hard the debtors tried. This view isn't only shared by extremist elements in Turkey, but by the entire society—from the elites to the average person. It is a conviction purposefully designed and maintained by the establishment. And it enables the perpetual, unending, and unrestricted generation and regeneration of the relations of domination in Turkey between the establishment and non-Muslims in general, and Jews in particular, manifested in the treatment of the latter as hostages.

There are regular manifestations of this relationship. The most unbearable is the shameless, extremely offensive repetition by both top-ranking government officials and the mainstream media of how Turkey generously offered shelter to the Jews in 1492, when they were expelled from Spain, and how the Turkish people have always been so "kind" to treat the Jews with "tolerance" throughout history. This theme is repeated on every occasion but is voiced more loudly and more authoritatively whenever pressure on Turkey regarding the Armenian Genocide increases abroad. Another theme has been the obligation of the Jews to show material evidence of their gratitude to Turkey on account of the latter's welcoming of German Jewish scientists right after the Nazis' ascension to power. (Readers of Bali's first volume instantly will remember how Turkey declined thousands of asylum requests by German Jews; how 600 Czeckoslavakian Jews on board the vessel "Parita" were turned down; and how 768 passengers on the Romanian vessel "Struma," after being kept waiting off Istanbul for weeks in poverty and hunger, were sent to death in the Black Sea by Turkish authorities, with only one survivor in the winter of 1942.)

An illustrative example is the story of the fury that broke out in Turkey in 1987 when the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in Washington, D.C. decided to include the Armenian Genocide—as the first genocide of the 20th century— in the Memorial Museum that was going to be built.

The mainstream media, and not only the ultra-nationalist extremists, started a campaign that would last for years. Melih Asik from Milliyet (which has always positioned itself as a liberal and democratic newspaper), in his article on Dec. 20, 1987, accused "Jews" for being "ungrateful." After observing the regular ritual of reminding the Jews of the Turks' generosity in 1492 and during World War II, he wrote: "We treated them with utmost kindness for many years and now these same Jews are preparing to present us to the world in the Holocaust museum as genociders. Before everything else this behavior should be exhibited in the museum of 'historical displays of ingratitude and disgrace.'"

Melih Asik, as can be seen, is so confident that his readers would not question the use of the words "these same Jews," nor ridicule the identification of those Jews who sought shelter in the Ottoman Empire in 1492 with those sitting in the Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in 1987. He is that confident because he knows that such identification and essentialization is a regular, daily pattern internalized by the readers of the Turkish press.

Another very liberal and democrat anchorman of Turkey, Mehmet Ali Birand, known as a taboo breaker in recent years, joined—and even surpassed—Asik in his Dec. 29, 1987 article that appeared in Milliyet. In it, he publicly called on the Jews of Turkey to fulfill their "duty of gratitude" and do their best to prevent the Armenians from including the Armenian Genocide in the museum. He added: "Isn't it our right to expect [such a display of gratitude] from every Turkish citizen?" There's hardly any need to mention that just before this call to duty, Birand paid tribute to the routine of mentioning the Turks' generosity towards the Jews back in 1492.

Not an apologist at all

Yet, it is important to note that Bali is by no means interested in justifying the Jewish lobby's vigorous efforts to please the Turkish authorities. While he puts forth a wealth of evidence of the huge pressure the Jewish community in Turkey is subjected to, that evidence does not prevent him from giving a critical account of how the Jewish leadership in Turkey has displayed an eagerness to advocate Turkish views and to support official Turkish policies. There are numerous accounts in the book of how the Turkish chief rabbinate confirmed the Jewish community's happiness and well-being in Turkey, opposing the promotion of the Armenian Genocide thesis, and how the Quincentennial Foundation, established by Turkish Jewish leaders in 1992 to celebrate the 500th year anniversary of the arrival of the Jews to Ottoman lands, actively championed Turkish official theses.

It is clear from the book that Bali does not like to make comments on the meaning of his findings; rather, he puts the facts together like a scientist, avoiding to make personal comments, draw conclusions, or speculate about the reasons or outcomes of certain facts and events. What he exposes is clear enough to make the picture complete in the eyes of the reader. It's up to the reader to acknowledge, for example, the fact that those who criticized Turkish Jews for their submissiveness had no right to expect bravery -- when none of them raised their voice against the rabid anti-Semitism freely displayed by fundamentalists, or against the innuendos from government officials, or against the quite obvious threats from opinion leaders who kept asking the Jews to prove their loyalty to the Turkish state or relinquish their right to be treated as equal citizens.

A last word about Rifat Bali's book "Model Citizens." It should definitely be translated into English for those who are interested in the Jewish factor in Turkey's struggle against Armenian initiatives to recognize the genocide. It would be impossible for anyone either in Turkey or elsewhere to make a realistic, objective, and complete evaluation of Turkey's success in securing the support of Jewish leaders both in Turkey and abroad without reading this book. Not only that, but the "Model Citizens" is a guide to understanding how deeply rooted anti-Semitism still is in Turkey that claims to be a European country knocking on the door of the EU. It also shows how powerful it can be when mobilizing a country's human resources against its Jewish citizens—to make the leaders of the Jewish community act as they are told. Turning the pages of Bali's book, the reader is made to see that anti-Semitism has a historical context so horrifying and so vivid in the collective memory that it can be very instrumental in manipulating victims, and very successful in carving out "model citizens" as the voluntary executioners of government policies.

 

Jeruzalem als bevroren Joodse nederzetting?

 
Oost-Jeruzalem, waaronder de oude stad, wordt geregeld als 'Arabisch Oost-Jeruzalem' of 'bezet Oost-Jeruzalem' aangeduid, ondanks het feit dat hier millennia lang Joden hebben gewoond, er eind 19e eeuw al een Joodse meerderheid was in Jeruzalem, en Joden in de oude stad de grootste minderheidsgroep waren. Hoe kan dat? Waarom wordt algemeen aangenomen dat de Palestijnen recht hebben op Oost-Jeruzalem terwijl dit nooit een Palestijnse stad was, en zij maar 19 jaar onder Arabische soevereiniteit was? In die periode had Jordanië bijna alle synagoges vernield evenals de Joodse begraafplaats op de Olijfberg, en in de 1948 oorlog had Jordanië de Joden uit Oost-Jeruzalem verdreven ofwel 'etnisch gezuiverd'. Ondanks Palestijnse beschuldigingen dat Israel de stad wil verjoodsen (wat op zichzelf waar is), neemt de Arabische bevolking verder toe en heeft zij het recht zowel in Oost als West huizen te bouwen en te bewonen. In Oost-Jeruzalem trekken steeds meer Arabieren bovendien in Joodse wijken, maar het omgekeerde door Joden wordt een poging tot het verdrijven van de Arabieren genoemd. Ami Isseroff merkt hieronder op:
 
Large numbers of Arabs were allowed to settle as squatters for years in Siloam (Silwan). No attempt was made either to regularize their status or to make them leave until recently. By now they have established a "fact on the ground" and the entire world believes that the squatters who arrived mostly in 1967 are direct descendants of the conquerors of Omar and Saladin, if not of the ancient Jebusites. 
 
Niet alleen de Joden creëren feiten op de grond.
 
RP
--------

It was really a no-brainer to predict that the settlement freeze dispute with the United States would lead to a dispute over the status of Jerusalem (see Will Jerusalem be a frozen settlement?). It was a no-brainer, but it seems, predictably, that almost nobody saw it coming.

Now the problem is upon us. The United States has tried to stop a plan by Irving Moskowitz to renovate a hotel in East Jerusalem that had been property of the Israel government for many years and create a relatively small number of housing units. US protests were reportedly deliberately leaked by Israeli officials to the media, in order to announce limits to the settlement freeze and to reassert the Israeli position regarding Jerusalem. Israel has rejected the calls. PM Netanyahu said:

[Jerusalem is the] "unified capital of Israel and the capital of the Jewish people, and sovereignty over it is indisputable...".

"Hundreds of apartments in the west of the city were purchased by Arabs and we didn't get involved. There is no prohibition against Arab residents buying apartments in the west of the city and there is no prohibition barring the city's Jewish residents from buying or building in the east of the city."

"We cannot accept the notion that Jews will not have the right to buy apartments specifically in Jerusalem.

.A peculiarity of this round of the US - Israel settlement freeze fracas is that only Israel is talking about it in public. An Ha'aretz article headlined "No difference to U.S. between outpost, East Jerusalem construction", but the body of the article stated,

Asked to comment on these remarks, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was in New Delhi, said the administration is trying to reach an agreement with Israel on settlements, and "the negotiations are intense."

There is no hint in the article that any US or Israeli official made the statement ostensibly quoted in the headline. Nor has there been any other direct quote by any US official for public consumption, though Ambassador Oren was called in and apparently read the riot act by US officials. The Obama administration is now playing at make believe regarding the pressure on Israel, especially on the Jerusalem issue, both because Jerusalem is politically sensitive and because the US stand on Jerusalem is indefensible and makes no sense. It made no sense for the United States to ignore the existence of Communist China until the Nixon administration. It would have made even less sense if US ally Taiwan had reconquered the mainland, but the US refused to recognize a nationalist government in China.

The Jerusalem question is not new. The United States never formally recognized Israeli sovereignty in any part of Jerusalem, even before 1967. The US stance is consistent with "international law" since the UN declared Jerusalem to be internationalized in General Assembly Resolution 181 and reaffirmed its status as a "Corpus Separatum" in General Assembly Resolution 303. General assembly resolutions are not binding in international law, but there have been a number of Security Council resolutions condemning Israel for upsetting the international status of Jerusalem. Though there was no Security Council resolution regarding Jerusalem as a Corpus Separatum, there were several such resolutions (252, 298, 478) that condemned Israeli actions such as having a military parade in Jerusalem and the annexation of Jerusalem in 1980. The annexation was condemned as against "international law" even though no law had been passed and no security council resolution had declared Jerusalem to be internationalized. The UN never condemned Jordanian annexation of Jewish East Jerusalem.

US Presidents continually and farcically side-step a congressional requirement to move the United States embassy to Jerusalem and to register Jewish Americans born in Jerusalem as born in Israel.

A US appeals court recently upheld the refusal of the United States Department of State to list Israel as country of birth for U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem. This is done, "because of fears that recognizing the city as Israeli would pre-judge Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations." Of course, Arab countries recognize Jerusalem as not part of Israel, so the negotiations are already prejudiced, and the US insistence on a settlement freeze in Jerusalem prejudices the negotiations by labeling Jerusalem as a "settlement."

The fictive and farcical nature of the Jerusalem internationalization resolutions and the sad history of their non-implementation are related in the book "O Jerusalem," by LaPierre and Collins. The resolutions were opposed by the Arabs at the time, but were maintained in order to satisfy objections of the Catholic Church to Jewish rule in Jerusalem. Though Israel had agreed to internationalization initially, the United Nations made no real attempt to implement it or to send troops to save the besieged Jewish part of the city.

The internationalization issue is a dead horse, but the United States continues to ride it in order to appease Arab opinion. During the 19 years when Jerusalem was illegally occupied by Jordan, there were no UN resolutions condemning the Jordanian annexation of Jerusalem, or the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem by the British officered and supplied Jordan Legion in 1948. Palestinians and their supporters regularly complain of the "Ethnic Cleansing" of Jerusalem of its Arab inhabitants by Israel, notwithstanding the fact that more Arabs live in Jeruslaem today than have ever lived there in all of recorded history.

Israel and the Jewish people have been tardy and confused in pursuit of Jewish rights in Jerusalem. Perhaps it was because the Arab claims in Jerusalem seemed to be too absurd to merit opposition, or perhaps because of internal Zionist divisions over the importance of Jerusalem. David Ben-Gurion realized its symbolic national importance.
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Twijfel over aantal burgerdoden Gaza Oorlog

 
De media nemen kritiekloos de cijfers van Palestijnse bronnen over, en Israel wordt ervan beschuldigd een wel erg brede definitie te hanteren van wie en wat een legitiem doelwit is. Echter, uit onderstaande blijkt dat de Palestijnen wel een erg brede definitie hanteren van wie een onschuldige burger is.
 
RP
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Ben-Dror Yemini
Maariv 20.07.09 [translated]

Every week new reports are published on the number of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead. Again and again, Israel is blamed for "disproportionate casualties among civilians." Here and there, claims of "war crimes" are raised. It must be said that, first, any civilian death is deplorable and everything possible must be done to prevent such deaths. Second, any reasonable allegation must be investigated. There is not an army in the world that has not made mistakes, and the IDF is no exception. But apparently there are many entities that are enamored of lies. Hamas claimed from the start that only a small number of those killed in Gaza were fighters. Many human rights organizations adopted the claims made by Hamas and other Palestinian organizations. So the time has come, if truth has any meaning whatsoever, to present the real story.

Abdullah Abdel Hamid Muammar, a 22-year-old student from the village of el-Nassar north of Rafah, was killed in Operation Cast Lead. So we are told by the official report of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). This report contains details about the war casualties that purport to be accurate. The purpose is obvious: to prove to the whole world that most of the casualties were innocent civilians who were hurt by the bombing of the civilian population.

Many human rights organizations, including Amnesty, B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch (HRW), relied, in whole or in part, on the PCHR data, which turned Muammar into an innocent victim. But there's a problem with that. According to a publication issued by the Press Department of the Al Qassam Brigades, Muamar was a member of Hamas, and he appears in a picture on an Arabic website in which he is carrying a Qassam missile. This is also the case with many other "innocent civilians." They were terrorists. It turns out that, to discover that lie - which was just one of many - meticulous investigations were required. Dr. Tal Pavel of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, and Jonathan Dahoah-Halevy, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center, investigated each name on the list of casualties.

The various organizations announced that between 1,200 and 1,400 were killed in Gaza. The number may have been inflated, as claimed, for example, by journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi, reporting from the Gaza Strip for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera about inflation of the numbers and the manipulations by Hamas. We should also mention the investigation conducted by the IDF which appears to be a bit more reliable and puts the number of killed at 1164, as well as the fact that Hamas issued explicit instructions to conceal and deceive.

According to Pavel's research, 564 of the dead were members of Hamas. All of them were honored, as fallen fighters, on Hamas websites. In addition to them, according to IDF investigations, about 100 Islamic Jihad members were killed. Assuming that other terrorists were killed, for example those belonging to Fatah, then most of the dead were not innocent civilians. And that's just the beginning.

The bombing of the Hamas Police Academy earned wall-to-wall condemnation because, according to international law, police are considered civilians. Here we will go into the results of the research conducted by Dahoah-Halevy. According to a name-based investigation of each of the "policemen", it turns out that 88.4% of them belong to the security - i.e., terrorism - mechanisms of Hamas. One of them, Muhammad el-Dasuqi, a member of the Resistance Committee, is suspected of being one of the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the American convoy in 2003.

One of the most prominent events in the Gaza operation was the bombing of the UN school in the Jabalya refugee camp on January 6. All the media around the world publicized horrific pictures of "over 41 killed in the Al Fakhura school." The condemnation was worldwide, from the UN Secretary General, through the President of the United States, to the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Many long weeks passed before it was shown to be a libel. First, the three artillery shells did not hit the school at all. Second, Hamas people were firing from the area and the IDF aimed its fire at them. Third, the number of killed was far smaller than originally reported. Most of the media and human rights organizations that publicized the original news did not bother to publicize the information that was disclosed. Those who are infatuated with libel are not prepared to be confused by the facts.

There were still many killed who are not identified as fighters. That is also worth investigating. If the IDF strike lacked discernment, the demographic breakdown of the casualties (erroneously called "uninvolved civilians") should have been identical to the demographic breakdown of the general population. However, a different picture emerges. A quarter of the population are adolescent girls. Actually, 8% of those killed were adolescent girls. A quarter of the population are adult women. Only 14% of those killed were women. The higher percentage of male casualties – much higher than their proportion of the population – proves that among them were a higher percentage of men involved in the fighting. In other words, the percentage of civilian casualties was dramatically smaller than the claims made against Israel. According to a more in-depth investigation by a team of researchers from the Interdisciplinary Center, between 900 and 1,070 of the casualties (63% - 75%) were killed because they were involved. If we add to that the fact that Hamas used civilians as human shields, or adolescent boys who were forced to participate in the fighting, the percentage of the casualties who were involved in the fighting only increases.

It is interesting to note the behavior of the armies of western countries when they had to conduct a similar war. Let's assume that there is no comparison with the World War II Allied bombing of Tokyo and Dresden. We'll deal with something more similar and closer in time. In 1999, NATO forces conducted a similar war, mainly by aerial bombing, against Yugoslavia (Operation Allied Force). 462 soldiers, 114 policemen and 489-512 civilians were killed.

Because there, the policemen were actually policemen, and in Gaza they are terrorists, the general balance shows that Israel hurt far fewer civilians than NATO did. And with regard to the demographic breakdown and the forced use of adolescent boys and civilians, the number of innocent casualties is apparently far lower.

The Israeli media, which publicized the stories of soldiers from the pre-military preparatory course - which turned out to be rumors and outright fabrications - did not publish the results of the serious investigations below. On the contrary. An editorial by Ha'aretz stated that it involved the "criminal killing of dozens of policemen…knowing that these policemen were nothing but enforcers of civilian order." Hamas is snickering. They publicize pictures of the "policemen" armed with Qassams, and Ha'aretz calls them "enforcers of civil order." The West reads Ha'aretz in English, not Hamas in Arabic. So sometimes, when Ha'aretz is around, Hamas does not need a propaganda department.

Even when this research was available, no one bothered to make corrections. On the contrary. The hara-kiri continues. The media, in Israel and around the world, are tainted with a peculiar selectivity. Any serious research that proves that there were no war crimes is rejected. Any fabrication that doesn't have a shred of basis in fact rates enormous headlines. That is what happened with the bombing of the Al Fakhura school in Jabalya, and in other cases as well.

Prof. Arnold Toynbee, who was no friend of Israel, wrote in one of his books, "In the history of man's endeavors to develop culture, there has never been a society whose progress and cultural level were so advanced that in time of revolution or war, its members could be depended upon not to commit evil acts." That is true of Israel and it is true of every country that finds itself in a state of war. So I will reiterate that every deviation should be investigated. But by the same token, there is no need to hide the true picture: with regard to the fact that Gaza is controlled by an entity whose way is terrorism, whose platform is anti-Semitic, and whose official objective is the destruction of the State of Israel, the number of innocent casualties in the course of the operation was far smaller than the stories fabricated by Palestinian organizations, human rights organizations and newspapers in Israel and around the world, such as Ha'aretz, which feeds many news agencies worldwide. We can, and should, publicize serious claims of deviations. But we also can, and should, at least to the same extent, present the serious research.

Ben-Dror Yemini is a researcher and a columnist in Maariv, daily newspaper