1. Our Passover Protests-Bob Kunst
2. What Really Happened in Middle East- Terrorism Awareness Project
3. Jimmy Carter- Letter by Dr. Doug Miller
4. "lst Jerusalem...."- by Hillel Frankel
5. Catholics Blames Israel for Holocaust Denial- Camera
6. German Sieman's company helping Iran - J Post
Dear "Chosen" Activists:
I apologize for not getting back to you since last week, but I had to
be in Portland, Oregon for a convention on the traffic crisis in
America
and our role in this preventing this mayhem (www.stoproadrage.us).
However, I did meet with Federation, spent Shabbos with Chabad and a
family for dinner and met with Christian Zionists who took 200 of our
bumper
stickers and also met with a Jewish leader. Portland is a sister city
to Ashkelon.
The news has been grim and for anyone who can put two and two together
and stop the denial, to recognize that the wagons are circulating
against the Jews once again and most of the Jews are again asleep at
the
wheel.
Here is the latest:
1. We protest Abbas at the White House at 9 AM on 4/24/08. The Bush
White House is trying to sabotage any large turnout against his
treachery to reward the terrorists, so they are holding back on the
date with
the possibility for 4/23/08 instead. Either way, we'll be there both
days, aat 9 AM just in case.
a. Abbas, who said that the 1948 war was the Arabs coming to
rescue the Arabs from the Jews who would slaughter them, not that the
Jews
would be wiped out by the Arabs.
b. Abbas, who will not accept a 'Jewish State' and doesn't even
support the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Osama bin Laden doesn't
support
either.
c. Abbas, who started the Intifada and has the blood of a 1000
Jews on his hands.
d. Abbas, who can't even keep Gaza under Fatah and is nothing more
than a puppet stooge set up by Bush/Rice/Olmert, who says 'peace' to
the West and promotes 'war' among his own.
This Islamic Nazi will be welcomed with open arms by Bush/Rice to
come in from the front door at the White House, while Olmert and
Israel
had to come in a side-door in Annapolis.
Olmert and Abbas met a few days ago in preparation for giving
something up for this trip and before Bush goes back to Israel for
60th on
May 14 and then on to Egypt to finish this treachery.
2. At Noon on April 24th, we protest at the PLO headquarters, 1230
18th St., N.W., Wash., D.C.
This illegal office of a terrorist organization committed to
Israel's destruction was told to shutdown by Congress, but has been
kept
open by Bush/Rice.
3. 3P.M. on 4/24/08, we rally at the Kunta Kinte Memorial in
Annapolis, sight of the lst slave ship landing in America and then
march two
blocks to Gate 1 of Naval Academy, sight of Bush/Rice/Olmert effort
to
enslave Jews and Israel again and in this Pesach celebration of going
from slavery to liberation that apparently Olmert and gang never did
experience.
We may have an additional event in Baltimore that evening.
Regarding the bus from NY to this effort: It would leave at 2 A.M. and
arrive in D.C. in time for early moring prayers and then the above
schedule. You must bring your own Passover foods.
So far only 6 have shown any interest. If there are no more we will get
a 9 passenger van instead.
You must let us know immediately by e-mail or by phone:305-864-5110.
------------------------------**********-------------------------------
At this Passover season, we remember that we were slaves unto Pharoah
and built his pyramids in Egypt and G-d liberated us from this slavery
and the Exodus from Egypt and our getting the '10 commandments' from
G-d
trhough Moses. Then the 'golden calf' pursuit even after the miracles.
And the 40 yrs. of wandering in the desert so that entering into the
promised land would be by people who had not experienced being slaves
except
amongst themselves.
The Wise Son wants to know the history, laws and behaviors on this
critical matter.
The wicked son excludes himself from the entire experience, from G-d
and the community and has assimilated and isn't redeemed.
The simple son asks what this is all about.
The son 'Who wits not to ask', we have to tell him. Actually, we have
to tell all four sons what in the world is going on around us and why
they need to be involved, respond, protest. resist and fund whatever
actions are needed...so that "Never Again" doesn't happen again, but
is
happening again.
With this in mind, here we have Jew-hater and ex-pres Jimmy Carter
,funded by Saudi Arabia, going to Israel and the Middle East to meet
with
Hamas, committed to destroying Israel. At least Olmert snubs Carter
and
hasn't completely capitulated.
In spite of protests from Bush/Olmert etc., Carter goes to embrace
Hamas and to say thanks for this peaceful gesture, Hamas then goes and
kills 3 Israeli soldiers. Carter lays a wreath at Arafat's tomb, they
want
to move to Jerusalem. Carter then wants to visit Hamas in Egypt and
Syria. But Carter is also an Obama supporter and an emissary for Obama
to
Hamas.
---------------------------------------------*****-------------------------------------------
Today the POPE is doing Mass in D.C. with 46,000 and on his way to NY
tomorrow and will visit the 5th Ave. Synogague among his efforts and a
huge mass at Yankee Stadium as part of his trip.
Before he arrived in America, is a key artcile from a National Catholic
Reporter, from 4/4/08, (below) suggesting how the Israelis settlers
are using the Holocaust to justify their stealing land from the Arabs.
This article tells where the Pope is really at and should we be
surprised?
In case you haven't figured out the relationship between this German
Pope, who was in the Hitler Youth and when this Pope went to
Auschwitz,
didn't even mention Jews being murdered there, while this Vatican
keeps
blaming Israel for the Middle East mess....... and of course all of
this ignores the fact that.........the Vatican was the lst to
recognize a
Catholic Hitler and fund him, let alone supported Hitler in the
Holocaust, slave labor and through its 'rat-line' helped 15,000 Nazi
war
criminals to escape to Canada, 10,000 to the U.S., 30,000 to Argentina
and
30,000 to Latin and Central America, and the rest into Arab countries
besides those who got away with it in Europe, all under the auspices
of
Pope Pius the XII, they now want to make a saint.
This Vatican has yet to open its records on its role in WWII or to
return $millions in Jewish artifacts stolen in the Holocaust and
sitting
under the Vatican to this day.
I would lead 40 Israelis in protest of Pope John Paul II when he went
to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 2000 and got 80 media on the above
information, including CBS Network News.
I kept pleading with the Israelies to use the thousands of press
accompanying the POPE to tell their side of the story. They never
understood
opportunity.
I kept pleading with our 'leders' to take over the 'death camps' ,our
largest Jewish cemeteries and show proper respect for ourselves and
all
lost in the Holocaust, instead of the crass commercialism, crosses,
revisionism and politics that in the future people won't know Jews
were
murdered there.
The very nations who supported the mass killings of Jews, the slave
labor and grand theft of everything Jewish and allowed the muderers to
go
free, are the first ones behind supporting the Arabs and their quest
to
finish what Hitler started and they were in cahoots with to finish in
WWII and have cowardly denied since but continued this Holocaust for
the last 60 years to keep killing Jews.
Today, we also face the same grim excuses on not understanding the
opportunity to protest this suicide mission Israel is on, that is
going to
fly back in their faces with another war that's around the corner, let
alone their weakness being an invite for the Nazis to come after us
Jews all over the world and France is a good example of anti-semitism
out
of control again.
--------------------------------------------***********-----------------------------------------------------
Then Hitler Jr., out of Iran, this week says that 9/11 was a
fabrication and not even a list of names released to justify the US
invading Iraq
and Afghanistan. So many lies, so little time.
Meanwhile, Iran has 6000 centrifuges for its nuke weapon they will use
on Israel and must be taken out within the next year to prevent this
extension of the Holocaust.
Charles Krauthammer in the Wash. Post this week, suggests that the US
adopt the issue of Iran bombing Israel as an act of aggression to
America itself and was an issue in last night's debate between Clinton
and
Obama. Clinton definately said she would make this an issue of a
threat
to Israel being as one for America and Obama also agreed.
What is obvious is that the Bush strategy to stop Iran on getting a
nuke has miserably failed and so the Bush/Rice pressure on Israel to
capitulate to its own demise and that of the Jewish nation. Don't you
understand why we must resist this madness?
Neither Clinton nor Obama has resonded to our invite to join with us
on 4/24/08, though we did get a response from Sen. McCain that he
couldn't make it, but that there might be something in the future on
this
issue.
Then below, we see how German's Sieman's Corp is helping Iran monitor
Israel's military. Sieman's, of course participated in 'slave labor'
of
Jews and others in the Holocaust that were either worked to death or
then after the labor, led to the death camps.
My point in this lengthy screed is that those forces that have always
opposed us, still do and lie about it.
Those forces who want our demise are still in motion and looking for
any and all openings our own Jewish 'leaders' are giving them, who
will
make 'peace' at any price', no matter how this repeats history and how
we lost millions as a result and the potential future losses.
Those 'leaders' who played this game before haven't changed and are
doing it again.
When I spoke with Jewish Federation in Portland about the terrorist
support they were giving with a resolution for '2 states and dividing
Jerusalem', that other federations are now having second-thoughts
about, or
didn't even know about, and the grassroots community may well no
longer fund as a result of these kind of politics, I suggested that
this all
had to be looked at quite differently before it all blew up in
everyone's face. No committments, but Bob listened.
The patterns expressed here are building to another war with Hezbollah
(see below) from Lebanon and Hamas/Fatah from Gaza and West Bank and
Carter/Obama politics and of course the infamous sellout from
Bush/Rice/Olmert who keep rewarding these Islamic Nazis.
So what can you do about it all?
1. If you are off on these dates, then come and join with us and take a
stand. Be a real liberated Jew and Christian Zionist and take this
stand with us. Rewarding the Islamic Nazis only means they have the go
ahead to come after the Big Satan-America, as much as Little
Satan-Israel.
2. Get this out to your networks.
3. Get on the talk shows, write Letters to the Editor, whatever, just
don't be silent, which is the 'sin'.
4. Donate to our efforts: www.defendjerusalem.net via paypal. By check
to: "Defend Jerusalem", P.O.Box 402263, Miami Beach, Fla. 33140. Also,
please contact: www.evadeutschdesign.com/jerusalem_prints.html Eva,
our 83 yr. old Holocaust survivor has made some magnificent prints of
Jerusalem. She needs the funding for herself and also to donate 50% to
us. You can do a major mitzvah on both levels here and get magnificent
art work as well.
5. Stop making excuses and realize the real dangers we are in with a
new war just around the corner. Bush goes to Israel on May 14 for the
60th when we are 5000 yrs. old and we must present our case to the
world
and use these opportunities to resist his great sellout of Israel and
America.
We are very grateful for all of you who do get it and are helping us
and helping others... to keep these issues before us all and to change
course before it is too late, again.
Yours in Shalom and a blessed Pesach that with G-d's help will again
liberate us from these Pharoahs:Bush/Rice/Olmert/Shas/JCPA/ etc.
Bob Kunst
Pres., Shalom International
305-864-5110
www.defendjerusalem.net
Subject: Check out What Really Happened In The Middle East - Terrorism
Awareness Proje
Click here: What Really Happened In The Middle East - Terrorism
Awareness Project
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Editor
The Miami Herald
To the Editor,
Jimmy Carter, who is arguably the worst American president
of the 20th century, is now distinguishing himself as the worst
ex-president ever. He is scheduled to meet with the ringleader of the
Lebanese based terrorist gang, Hezbollah. Why would he be meeting
with this
deranged derelict who has much American blood on his hands?
Is Mr. Carter meeting with Mr. Maashal to extract an
apology for blowing up the Marine barracks in 1982 which resulted in
the
deaths of about 180 Americans, many of them servicemen on a
peacekeeping
mission? Or for perpetrating the countless terrorist acts over the
past
25 years resulting in several other murders of Americans? I doubt it.
Is he going to ask Maashal why he incited the second Lebanese-Israeli
war in 2006 by border incursions, missile attacks and the killing and
kidnapping of Israeli soldiers? Hardly. Is he going to ask Maashal
why
he has destabilized Lebanon, turning our struggling democratic ally
into
a puppet of the tyrranical regime in Syria? Unlikely. Is he going to
ask why Hezbollah has stockpiled 20,000 or so sophisticated missiles
supplied by his masters in Tehran? Not on his agenda.
There is only one explanation that makes any sense. Mr.
Carter's post-presidential career is bought and paid for by Arab oil
money. He is either committing this travesty at their behest or he is
lobbying for a raise. Shame on you, Mr. Carter. You are disgrace to
your
country.
Sincerely,
Douglas Miller
2301 Meridian
Miami Beach, FL 33140
H: 305-674-1591
C: 305-951-6977
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. PA Ambassador: "First Jerusalem, Then We'll Take All Palestine"
by Hillel Fendel
"When Israel's ideology will collapse, and after we take Jerusalem,
Israel's ideology will collapse altogether, and then we will proceed
with
our own ideology, inshallah [if Allah wills], and we will throw them
out of all of Palestine." So said Abbas Zaki, the Palestinian
Authority's ambassador to Lebanon on Lebanese television last week,
according to
a translation by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute).
Expressing strong support for terror attacks against Israel, Zaki said,
"We believe wholeheartedly that the Right of Return [of millions of
Arabs and their descendants who left Israel in 1948 and 1967 -ed.] is
guaranteed by our will, by our weapons, and by our faith."
Asked if this means he believes "in weapons, not just in negotiations,"
Zaki said that neither of them is effective by itself: "The use of
weapons alone will not bring results, and the use of politics without
weapons will not bring results. We act on the basis of our extensive
experience. We analyze our situation carefully. We know what climate
leads to
victory and what climate leads to suicide."
"We talk politics," Zaki said, "but our principles are clear. It was
our pioneering leader, Yasser Arafat, who persevered with this
revolution, when empires collapsed. Our armed struggle has been going
on for 43
years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on
for
50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions..."
'Israel Must Pay a Heavy Price'
Speaking with young Arabs who see themselves as Palestinians, Zaki
said, "The important thing is that in any [military] operation, Israel
will
pay a price. We don't want cases in which you [Arabs] don't kill even
a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that
makes Israel pay a heavy price."
'We'll Drive Them All out of All of Palestine'
Zaki said that the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization] is the
sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and that it
remains true to its values and ideology: "In light of the weakness of
the
Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American
control
over the world, the PLO proceeds through phases, without changing its
strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and
we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in
its
entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah
willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine."
From Munich to Hevron
A mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of 11 Israeli
athletes, Zaki has long been a leading inciter against Israel and an
outspoken
proponent of anti-Israel terrorism. Back in 1996, he was arrested by
Israel for suspected involvement in setting fire to Jewish National
Fund agricultural equipment, and later frequently led anti-Jewish
rioters
in Hevron.
Despite his warm words for Arafat, Zaki was one of his opponents at the
end of Arafat's career. In July 2002, Zaki - then a member of the
Fatah Supreme Council - said that then-PA Chairman Arafat "has to
go...
Wherever he went, he brought with him corruption and instability."
IDF General Unhurt as Shell Lands Aside Him
by Hillel Fendel
One of a cluster of five mortar shells fell 20 meters from IDF O.C.
Southern Command Gen. Yoav Galant as he toured east of Gaza on Sunday
morning. No one was hurt.
Galant was touring the Eshkol Regional Council area - one of the areas
bordering Gaza that have been targeted by many mortar shells and
rockets over the past weeks and months - with Council Head Chaim
Yellin. The
two had reached Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha when the shells hit. Hamas
claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ein HaShlosha, nearly adjacent to the border with south-central Gaza,
has frequently been hit by shells, and PA snipers have shot at Kibbutz
workers in the fields; one was killed, one was wounded. Early last
month, St.-Sgt. Liran Banai was killed when a PA terrorist-planted
bomb was
detonated under his patrol jeep in the same area.
Further to the north is Nachal Oz, some ten kilometers south of Sderot.
Just four days ago, Palestinian terrorists infiltrated and murdered
two Israelis at the Nachal Oz Crossing fuel depot, under the cover of
heavy mortar fire.
"Calling Egypt-Israel Border a 'Peace' Border is a Dangerous Mistake"
Amidst all the terrorist dangers in the area, Yellin feels that one of
the worst is the open Egyptian-Israeli border along the Sinai Desert,
through which Hamas terrorists from Gaza and Sudanese refugees easily
sneak. "If Israel continues to ignore the dangers there and continues
to
call it a 'peace border,' this will be a grave and dangerous mistake,"
Yellin told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine.
Speaking of the need to restore "Zionism" to the thinking of typical
central-Israel Jews, Yellin said, "The farmers in the field, working
under the threat of rocket fire and shootings, are the real pioneers;
I'm
just a clerk."
Other Weekend Terrorist Attacks
Palestinians fired two Kassam rockets from the Gaza Strip at the
western Negev Friday night, and two more on Saturday night. The
rockets
landed in open areas outside Sderot, causing no casualties or damage.
In addition, seven mortar shells were fired by Gazan terrorists over
the weekend. One landed south of Ashkelon, and the others landed in
and
near Nachal Oz, causing damage to a stockroom and electric lines.
Sunday afternoon:
Arabs in Hawara, near Yitzhar in the Shomron, hurled a shock grenade at
an IDF jeep, lightly wounding four Border Guard fighters... An Arab
infiltrator from Gaza was caught near Kibbutz Alumim, and was taken
for
interrogation... Arabs stoned a bus near Pisgat Ze'ev outside
northern
Jerusalem, lightly injuring a female soldier...
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA chief Mahmoud Abbas met this evening
at Olmert's home in Jerusalem.
-----------------------------------------**********---------------------------------------------------
Help us grow our team! Please forward this alert to people committed
to fair and factual reporting about Israel and the Middle East. Do not
forward it to members of the news media. Please use this alert as
background for your own unique e-mails, letters and calls.
Shalom CAMERA E-Mail Team:
Catholic Newspaper Blames Israel for Holocaust Denial in Middle East
IN BRIEF
In its April 4, 2008 issue, National Catholic Reporter, a weekly
newspaper catering to progressive Catholics in the U.S., published an
article
by Rosemary Radford Ruether that blames Holocaust denial in the Middle
East on Israel.
Ruether says Israel uses the Holocaust to affirm its territorial
claims. To buttress her case, she recycles a personal anecdote about
arguing
with settlers who allegedly used the Holocaust to justify the
confiscation of land in the Gaza Strip (from which Israel withdrew in
2005).
Ruether's article is emblematic of a tendency in some quarters of the
progressive Christian community to deny Israel's adversaries of moral
agency and blame Israel for Arab and Muslim misdeeds in the Middle
East.
Ruether blames Israel for the anti-Semitic hostility directed at it by
religious and political leaders in the Middle East, disregarding how
these leaders use hostility toward Jews and Israel as a distraction
from
the intractable problems in the societies they lead and govern. She
also downplays the notion that extremists in the Middle East should be
held accountable for their own words and actions. In Ruether's
worldview,
Arab and Muslim hostility toward Jews, while regrettable, can be
explained almost entirely by what Israeli Jews have done wrong.
An in-depth analysis of Ruether's article is below the Action Items.
ACTION ITEMS
Write a letter to the editor of NCR to address Ruether's
blame-the-victim rhetoric. Also, point out her failure to acknowledge
that
anti-Semitism has a life of its own in the Middle East and is rooted
in both
secular and religious ideologies and used by leaders of all stripes in
the
region to distract people from intractable problems in Arab and Muslim
society.
Also remind NCR that Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005,
demonstrating that despite Ruether's fulminations about Israel using
the
Holocaust to lay claim to territory, Israel has repeatedly withdrawn
from
Arab territory in its quest for peace, only to be attacked from the
very territory it has left.
Send your letters to letters@ncronline.org
Please send CAMERA a blind copy of your letter to: letters@camera.org
IN DEPTH
The main thrust of Ruether's piece is that Israeli Jews allegedly
regard Israeli territory as "payment" for the Holocaust - a terrible
tragedy
for which the writer says Palestinians were not responsible. (Ruether
makes no mention of the role Haj-Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of
Jerusalem, played in Europe during the Holocaust.)
The cornerstone of Ruether's argument is an anecdotal confrontation
with Israeli settlers that took place in the Gaza Strip, which
according
to Ruether, occurred "about 10 years ago." The confrontation
allegedly
took place when Ruether and other members of a group went to a plot of
farmland in the Gaza Strip with greenhouses and crops ready for
harvest
that had allegedly been bulldozed and confiscated by Israeli settlers.
According to Ruether, the group's arrival at the scene prompted the
arrival of two Israelis "carrying the ubiquitous Uzis." Ruether
continues:
"Two women of our delegation asked, 'Why did you do this to these
villagers?' The settlers shouted back, 'It's because of what happened
to us
in the war.' 'But these Palestinians had nothing to do with what
happened to you,' the women protested. 'It makes no difference,' the
settlers
replied. 'Everyone must pay. The whole world must pay.'
"In the context of such experiences of land confiscation in the name of
'payment' for the Holocaust that Palestinians and others in the Middle
East are tempted to retort, 'But that never really happened. You just
made it up to justify what you are doing to us.' "
Ruether has used this anecdote before, and it has even appeared
previously in the pages of National Catholic Reporter. In a Dec. 8,
2000
article titled "Bombing in the Name of Redemption," Ruether invokes
this
episode to buttress her claim that "reference to the Holocaust has too
often degenerated into a justification of the oppression that the
state of
Israel is visiting upon the Palestinians."
In both these articles, this anecdote is used to portray Israel as
denying the Palestinian desire for freedom and statehood, but these
portrayals only work if the reader ignores recent history, as does
Ruether.
In the Dec. 2000 article, she ignores the negotiations that took place
earlier that summer at Camp David where Ehud Barak offered the
Palestinians a state of their own that included all of Gaza and most
of the
West Bank.
And in 2008, she ignores Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in
2005 - giving the Palestinians what they have claimed to want for
years -
territory of their own. The response to this withdrawal was
unrelenting
rocket attacks (which Ruether conveniently ignores in her portrayal of
the Palestinians with no responsibility for their actions).
Despite Israel's efforts to withdraw from territory in the name of
peace, Ruether accuses Israelis of "using the Holocaust to justify the
catastrophic destruction of Palestinian life and confiscation of their
land."
Ignores Arabs' Own Admissions
Ruether also accuses Israelis as perpetrating a "Nakba denial" by
refusing to acknowledge the 800,000 Palestinians who "fled or were
forcibly
expelled from their towns and villages" during the 1948 War. She
writes:
"The official Israeli version of the history denies that these
Palestinians were ever forcibly expelled. It claims that the
Palestinians left
voluntarily, having been called to leave by the Arab nations, hoping
to
return triumphantly after the victory of their armies.
"Careful studies of the broadcasts that took place during the war have
proved that no such call from the Arab states took place. Those who
did, did so as a temporary measure to avoid being killed like those
massacred by Israeli forces in the village of Deir Yassin. Many
others, such
as the people of the Arab towns of Ramle and Lydda, were forcibly
marched over the border to Ramallah, many dying along the way."
The un-named studies that Ruether invokes do not prove that Arab
leaders did not call for Palestinians to flee Israel, but merely
demonstrate
that there were no recorded broadcasts of these messages. Predictably,
Ruether does not recount numerous reports and admissions by Arab
leaders and commentators that they did.
For example:
Before the war, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said declared: "We will smash
the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek
shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe
areas until the fighting has died down." (Myron Kaufman, The Coming
Destruction of Israel, NY: The American Library Inc., 1970, pp.
26-27).
On Feb. 19, 1949, the Jordanian daily Falastin reported: "The Arab
states... encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes
temporarily
in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies."
On April 9, 1953, the Jordanian daily al-Urdun, quoted refugee Yunes
Ahmed Assad as saying: "For the flight and fall of the other villages,
it
is our leaders who are responsible, because of the dissemination of
rumors exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in
order to inflame the Arabs... they instilled fear and terror into the
hearts of the Arabs of Palestine until they fled, leaving their homes
and
property to the enemy."
On Sept. 6, 1954, the Jordanian daily a-Difaa quoted another refugee as
saying "The Arab governments told us, 'Get out so that we can get in.'
So we got out, but they did not get in."
In his memoirs published in 1973, the former Prime Minister of Syria,
Khaled al-Azem, listed what he thought were the reasons for the Arab
failure in 1948: "The fifth factor was the call by the Arab
governments
to the inhabitants of Palestine to evacuate it and leave for the
bordering Arab countries... We brought destruction upon a million Arab
refugees by calling on them and pleading with them to leave their
land." He
also wrote: " Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the
refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged
them
to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and
our
appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return."
An in March 1976. Mahmoud Abbas, the current president of the
Palestinian Authority, wrote: "The Arab armies entered Palestine to
protect the
Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned
them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw
them
into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live."
This is not to say that every Palestinian left his home because Arab
leaders told him to. Clearly, some were forced out by Israelis, but it
was a very small percentage. Professor Efraim Karsh estimates only
5-10
percent were expelled by Israelis, and these from areas where
Israel's survival was seriously threatened by armed Arabs, such as
in Ramla
and Lod. Others chose to leave to avoid the coming conflict. And as
much
as Ruether would like to discount this reality, some Palestinians left
their homes because they were encouraged to do so by their own leaders
to make way for the destruction of Israel.
Mischaracterizes Benny Morris's Writings
To buttress her distorted narrative, Ruether invokes and criticizes
revisionist historian Benny Morris at the same time, writing "while
still
confirming the Palestinians were intentionally expelled, has turned to
justifying this, saying it was necessary to create a Jewish majority
in
Israel. He has suggested that it should have been done more
thoroughly." While Morris's "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee
Problem",
(Cambridge University Press, 1987) has been widely criticized for
offering a
rather one-sided narrative, it still provides more detail than Ruether
lets on.
Ruether's claim that Morris concluded the Palestinians - which implies
all the Palestinians - were "intentionally expelled" runs counter to
his description of the refugee problem, which he writes
"was born of war, not by design, Jewish or Arab. It was largely a
by-product of Arab and Jewish fears and of the protracted, bitter
fighting
that characterized the first Israeli-Arab war; in smaller part it was
the deliberate creation of Jewish and Arab military commanders and
politicians." (Page 286)
Predictably, Ruether ignores the ethnic cleansing of Jews in eastern
Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, as well as in the rest of the
Middle
East during and after the 1948 War. Approximately 800,000 Jews were
kicked out of Muslim and Arab countries after Israel's creation.
Writing in the Jerusalem Post, researcher Seth Frantzman reports the
following:
"Sixty-two Jews were murdered by Arabs in the first week after the UN
partition plan was passed, and by May 15, 1948, a total of 1,256 Jews
had been killed, most of them civilians. These deaths were caused by
Arab
militias, gangs, terrorists and army units which attacked every place
of Jewish inhabitation in Palestine.
"The attacks succeeded in placing Jerusalem under siege and eventually
cutting off its water supply. All Jewish villages in the Negev were
attacked, and Jews had to go about the country in convoys. In every
major
city where Jews and Arabs lived in mixed neighborhoods the Jewish
areas
came under attack. This was true in Haifa's Hadar Hacarmel as well as
Jerusalem's Old City.
"Massacres were not uncommon."
Ruether claims to be interested in promoting peace between Israelis and
Palestinians, but pinning the responsibility for Arab and Muslim
anti-Semitism on the Jews themselves, and distorting the (already
widely
criticized) conclusions of controversial Israeli historians does
nothing
to advance the cause of reconciliation.
With thanks,
Dexter Van Zile
Christian Media Analyst
www.camera.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
'German firm helps Iran monitor Israel'
Benjamin Weinthal, JPost correspondent in Berlin , THE
JERUSALEM
POST Apr.
8, 2008
www.jpost.com
/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649965979&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The Munich-based energy and electrical giant Siemens has
with "high
likelihood" delivered sophisticated data surveillance
systems to
Iran, an
Austrian investigative journalist disclosed in a public
broadcast
ORF
report
on Monday.
Speaking from Vienna, journalist Erich Moechel told The
Jerusalem
Post
that
he was "99 percent certain" that "Monitoring Centers,"
used to
track
mobile
and land-line phone conversations, had been sent to Iran.
These
systems
could enable the Iranian intelligence service to document
conversations
between Israel and Iran and "build a communication
profile."
According to Moechel, the technology can show "how many
telephone
conversations over the last 10 years between Israel and
Iran" took
place,
as
well as the locations of the communications.
Moechel, a specialist in the field of data protection and
surveillance,
said
that he was highly certain that the Iranian regime had
purchased
German-designed "Intelligence Platform" systems, which
allow the
Iranian
secret service to monitor "financial transactions and
traffic and
airplane
movements."
The Intelligence Platform would enable the Islamic
Republic to
amass
complex
databases showing, for example, the activities of
international
companies
in
Iran that also conduct business with Israel and other
countries.
When questioned about the delivery of intelligence
equipment,
Wolfram
Trost,
a Siemens spokesman, declined to confirm the sale of the
Monitoring
Centers
and Intelligence Platforms to Iran. Trost said Siemens
"adheres to
the
European Union, United Nations and German guidelines"
covering
restricted
trade with Iran.
The sale of "dual-use goods" - which can be applied for
military
usage and
a
nuclear weapons program - to Iran is unlawful under EU and
UN
sanctions as
well as German export control regulations.
Trost referred the matter to Siemens's joint partner in
the Iranian
deal,
Nokia Siemens Network.
Telephone calls seeking a comment from the Nokia Siemens
Network in
Espoo,
the Finnish telecommunications partner, were not returned.
Moechel wrote in his article that the integrated
intelligence
devices were
used against persecuted minority groups and political
dissidents in
Iran.
He
cited German and Austrian privacy experts who noted that
these
types of
machines would not be lawful within the EU.
The public prosecutor in Munich told the Post that Siemens
was the
subject
of an ongoing bribery scandal investigation. The company
has
acknowledged
that it spent ?19 million to bribe Iranian officials in
January.
Siemens, which conducts an over-$500-million trade
relationship
with Iran,
provides vital engineering and technological equipment for
Iran's
infrastructure. American and Israeli critics have urged
Siemens to
sever
its
business ties with Iran.