A TIME TO SPEAK
Vol. II:12 (No. 24)
December 2002 -
Heshvan/Kislev 5763
A TIME TO LISTEN
They scoff and plan evil. From their
eminence they plan wrongdoing.
-- Psalm 73:10
"Sometimes the first obligation
of intelligent men is to restate the obvious."
-- George Orwell
There is a currently popular pun "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt". It can well be applied to all those who pursue Peace in the Middle East by dispatching emissaries, shuttle diplomacy, drafting plans, engineering roadmaps, debating resolutions, convening conferences, lavishing hospitality on terrorists, or performing as soloists, chorus or claque in a sour quartet.
"Denial" is the delusion or pretense that peace can be achieved by forcing Israel to surrender to Arab demands on territory, borders, settlements, redeployments, refugees and any other demand that occurs to them.
For those willing to listen, the Arabs themselves make it clear as can be that
1] the "problem" is that Israel exists at all
2] the only solution is that Israel cease to exist, all land should belong to the Arabs, and all Jews be slaughtered, expelled or subjugated.
They themselves issue the message, but the popular news media are not generally inclined to disseminate it. For those willing to listen, however, the message can be found. It is so clear and so unequivocal that those who ignore it --
1] do not bother to learn the elementary facts, or
2] cannot perceive that their designs would be fatal to Israel, or
3] cut off reality to avoid the perception, or
4] intend that their designs should be fatal to Israel.
The European Union and the United Nations by their own records give credence to Explanation No. 4, via the relentless vilification, slanders, libels and defamation, by which they portray Israel as unworthy of life.
* * * * * * *
"Peace for us means the
destruction of Israel, and nothing else."
-- Yasser Arafat
"We are not fighting so you will
offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you". -- Hassan Massawi, Hezbollah.
"We will use the skulls of Zion's
sons [Jews] to build a bridge to
heaven".
--
Hamas website, December 2002
"Take away hatred from some
people, and there you have men without faith".
-- Eric Hofer.
Journalist Ehud
Ya'ari considers the significance of Judeophobia in popular entertainment, in The Jerusalem
Report, 16 December 2002:
"Horseman without a horse," the Egyptian TV hit series being
broadcast by 14 Arab TV networks, is not the only anti-Semitic production to be
galloping across the screens each evening this Ramadan. [. . . . ]
Anti-Semitism has become the last word in the Arab entertainment industry.
Al-Manar, the Hizballah TV station broadcast from Lebanon, features Dr.
Ghazi Hussein, a [who] sits in the studio and knowledgeably defines the typical
characteristics of the Jew, including "lying, treachery and greed" .
. . . The program’s promo includes video clips promising "Israel
will be obliterated," with appropriate images for illustration.
Syrian TV is running the dramatic locally produced series, "The
Collapse of Legends." Its central premise is that there is no archeological
evidence to support the stories of the Old Testament; that the Torah we hold
holy is nothing but one big forgery made up by rabbis; that it has no
connection with the Ten Commandments, but is rather a fabrication of history
designed to give the Jews a claim to the Land of Israel.
[ . . .] Palestinian TV is broadcasting a series of documentaries with
one single objective: to disprove the "myth" that any Jewish Temple
ever stood in Jerusalem, and to present any historical reference to that claim
as an act of deception. The message is that the Jews have no business in the
Holy City.
[In] the Egyptian series . . . Jews in the series look like they've
jumped straight out of Der Sturmer and behave like
devil’s advocates, scheming, sowing corruption and generally
encapsulating all that is ugly about humanity.
The inevitable conclusion is that significant numbers, though by no means
all, of the young generation of Arab artists . . . have volunteered their
services to sharpen and stylize the message . . . that there is no
possibility of making peace with the Jews -- not because of any political
argument or clash over territory, but because that nation is a priori unfit to
be counted among the human race [emphasis added]. The Jewish religion is
one big, ongoing lie, and Jewish history is the fruit of a consistent
distortion of the past. Furthermore, the Jewish people present a future threat
to the rest of the world.
For some time now I, along with a few colleagues who lend their ears day
by day to the voices coming from the other side, have been asking ourselves:
Where is this campaign leading? After all, this is not about withdrawing from
the territories or granting Palestinian refugees the "right of
return." Rather, it is a far-reaching, dangerous rationale laying the
ground for the justification of a mass exile of Jews from Israel --
"ethnic cleansing" in contemporary terms -- and even beyond that, it
is gradually building a case for justifying genocide! [. . . . ]
* * * *
* * *
Jews living in Muslim societies were from the start degraded to the status of dhimmi, subjected to ingenious oppressions and humiliations. A few among them:
-- forced to pay an exorbitant head tax
-- denied any legal or civil rights
-- forced to wear a special identifying badge
-- forced to have a "devil" emblem on their doors
-- forced to perform the harshest of labor -
-- vulnerable to abduction and enslavement
-- forbidden to live in a two-story house, lest they be "above" a Muslim in the street
-- forbidden to wear shoes
-- forbidden to ride a horse
-- forbidden to walk in the rain, that might spread their pollution to a Muslim
Today, the Arab world sees the loathed and despised Jew building a nation in their midst that is -- despite flaws and shortcomings -- free, vivacious and thriving. It has tried every means to destroy it: war, terrorism, blockade, boycott, propaganda -- and despite an enormous superiority in numbers, resources and money, it has failed.
Such ancient and cherished hate, exacerbated by such frustration, cannot be assuaged by any concessions or awards that leave Israel still alive.
To imagine otherwise is denial. To pretend otherwise is fraud.
* * * * * * *
Some of the roots of Arab hatred of
Jews and Israel are revealed in excerpts from "Arab Muslim Anti-Semitism,
by Andrew G. Bostom, FrontPage Magazine.com., 25 November 2002:
It behooves friends of the truth to recall the foregoing history when
Arab spokesmen and PLO apologists attempt to 'contextualize' terrorism against
Jews in Israel by blaming it on 'the Israeli occupation of 1967.' Such violence
did not start in 1967, or even upon Israel's founding in 1948; it was never
limited to any geographical boundaries; and its source is not political.
As a Friday-sermon broadcast on Palestinian Authority television last
year declared, 'blessings to he who shot a bullet into the head of a Jew…
the enemies of Allah, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom the Koran describes
as monkeys and pigs . . . .'
There was also a message for the future in the words of that PA-appointed
cleric, 'Allah shall make the Muslim rule over the Jew, we will blow them up in
Hadera, we will blow them up in Tel-Aviv and in Netanya… We will enter
Jerusalem as conquerors, and Jaffa as conquerors, and Haifa as conquerors and
Ashkelon as conquerors…' Referring to a Hadith (a Muslim oral tradition
attributed to Muhammad or his disciples), the preacher said that nature itself
will come to assist the Muslims in their pursuit of the Jews '…until the
Jew will hide behind the trees and stones and the tree and stone will say:
Muslim! Servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me.'"
[Dr, Bostom explains how the man that the British appointed spiritual head of the Palestine Muslims murdered almost half-a-million Jews at one stroke:]
Hajj Amin el-Husseini was appointed Mufti of Jerusalem by the British High Commissioner, in May 1921 . . . . [D]uring the incitement which led to the 1929 Arab revolt in Palestine, he called for combating and slaughtering "the Jews", not merely Zionists. In fact, most of the Jewish victims of the 1929 Arab revolt were Jews from the centuries old dhimmi communities (for example, in Hebron) . . . .
With the ascent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the Mufti and his coterie intensified their anti-Semitic activities to secure support from Hitler's Germany, Bosnian Muslims, and the overall Arab Muslim world, for a jihad to annihilate the Jews of Palestine. . . . .
[He] spent the remainder of World War II in Germany and Italy. From this sanctuary, he provided active support for the Germans by recruiting Bosnian Muslims, in addition to Muslim minorities from the Caucasus, for dedicated Nazi SS units. [He instructed them] "Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion.". [. . . .]
[His] relentless hectoring of German, Rumanian, and Hungarian government officials caused the cancellation of an estimated 480,000 exit visas which had been granted to Jews . . . . As a result, these hapless individuals were deported to Polish concentration camps. A United Nations Assembly document presented in 1947 which contained the Mufti's June 28, 1943 letter to the Hungarian Foreign Minister requesting the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Poland, includes this stark, telling annotation: 'As a Sequel to This Request 400,000 Jews Were Subsequently Killed'. [. . . . ]
The esteemed journalist and writer David Pryce-Jones elucidated the pre-eminent status of anti-Semitism in the Mufti's bitter legacy [. . . . ] 'His hatred for Jews was instinctive, tribal; he wished to cut them down, declaring to their face, '..Nothing but the sword will decide the future of this country..'. That this came true amid calamity and ruin was Hajj Amin's memorial to posterity'.
Pryce-Jones insights underscore the profound impact of the Mufti's personal convictions and hateful messages on the development of Arab and Palestinian political culture in the latter half of the 20th century, to the present. It is undeniable that the Mufti's virulent anti-Semitism continues to influence Arab policy toward Israel. Not surprisingly, Yasser Arafat, beginning at the age of 16, worked for the Mufti performing terrorist operations. Arafat still considers the Mufti his primary spiritual and political mentor."
* * * * * * *
We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror. --
Jeremiah 8:15
"This unjust state Israel will be
erased. This unjust state the United States will be erased. This unjust state
Britain will be erased".
-- official sermon in a PLO mosque
In an interview with
PLO television, the mother of two late terror-bombers recounts her pilgrimage
to Mecca and her prayers there. Her sentiments are so often repeated by other
parents that they cannot be taken as rare or aberrant. Reported by Palestinian
Media Watch, 12 December 2002:
My second son] became a shahid [suicide-bomber] . . . at
the age of 20. Before I made my pilgrimage [to Mecca], he put his hands on my
head and said: "Be calm, mother, be calm, this is my wish. Pray for me,
that I will be a Shahid [Die for Allah]." When I did the circuit in Mecca
and Medina, I swear to Allah, that I prayed for him ...and said: Praise Allah,
my children asked for Shahada, and it is better than the way we will die. Their
death is for Allah, death for our country, death for our Jerusalem.
I have one wish for all Israeli mothers, for all Israelis: They should
not relax, they should not sleep peacefully, they should always have
nightmares, night and day, wherever they go, and whatever they do . . . not
only from bombings or attacks, but nightmares day and night. They should dream
of how the Palestinian people kill them, and blow them up. They should not be relaxed,
and should not sleep. Not them and not there sons, not their children, nor the
Israeli army. They should not be able to travel on the buses, nor drive a tank,
nor even ride a bike. Wherever they turn, the Israelis should see [someone] and
say: 'Maybe it's a Palestinian'. [. . . . ]
No Israeli of any kind should live in comfort. Even in their sleep, they
will have nightmares. We will blow them up day and night, wherever they go. And
I, as the mother of two shahids, if I see an Israeli I will
blow up among them.
Comment by the conductor of the interview: "Of course, We are always
very proud of all of our shahids."
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, 15 November 2002, as translated
by MEMRI:
We view America as an enemy of the
[Islamic] nation yet we have not engaged it directly in a military act (as of
yet).
The nation has resumed the use of
suicide attacks, without the act of suicide the struggle is meaningless. The
American government and the experts in America and Israel as well as the military
generals were unable to eliminate the concept of suicide (attacks) and the
weapon of suicide attacks.
. . . we must act in order to spread
the concept of death for the realization of Allah's way as well as the act of
suicide among the [Islamic] nation in order to protect our land.
From an official sermon in a PLO Mosque broadcast on PLO
television, reported by PMW (Palestinian Media Watch), 11 December 2002:
"Praise be to Allah, who has cursed [the Jews], the brothers of
monkeys and pigs, with a stream of curses that will continue until the
Resurrection of the dead. He has warned us against their evil and their
arrogance [. . . .] The Jews are Jews,
and we are forbidden to forget their character traits even for a moment . . .
O [Muslims] Servants of Allah! [. . . . ]
While we are the believers in the truth and in the true faith. Allah
loves those who fight on his behalf. Allah said against the Jews and the
Idolaters 'your Lord has declared that he will surely send against them [Jews]
until Resurrection, those [Arabs and Muslims] who will afflict them with
terrible torment.'
. . . . [Muhammad] warned us, in strongest terms, against them. He said,
after he expelled them from Arabia, . . . [Muslims] are the ones with the Truth
and the Jews have Falsehood."
* * * * * * *
From the inception of the "Oslo Peace Process" the PLO leaders admitted that it was a trick, designed only to weaken Israel for the final death blow. [See Issue No. 4] It never changed its charter, that still defines its raison d'etre as the destruction of Israel.
Now some opinion-makers in PLO-land
want to drop the pretense that the PLO meant to co-exist with Israel. Excerpts
from report by Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 15 December 2002:
Some 70 prominent Palestinian figures have signed a petition calling on the Palestinian Authority to abolish the Oslo Accords, . . .
This is the first time that such a large group of widely respected and influential Palestinians have issued a public demand to abolish the Oslo Accords and return to the "option of resistance" against Israel.
Signatories to the petition include members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and Palestinian National Council, as well as university teachers, academics, lawyers, former mayors, physicians, political activists, workers student union members, and businessmen.
[. . . ] 'We call on the Arab states and their leaderships, first and foremost the Palestinian Authority, to reject the Oslo Accords,' reads the petition . . . . We also call for the rejection of separate and bilateral agreements that are imposed against the will of liberation and [against] Arab solidarity.'
The petition implores the PA to repair the damage that has resulted from the Oslo Accords and to 'unite the national will to resist'.
* * * * * * *
Saudi Minister of Saudi Minister of the
Interior Prince Nayef Ibn Abd Al-Aziz, argues that "the Zionists"
were behind" the terrorism of 11 September. From in interview with a
Kuwait newspaper, reported by MEMRI, 3 December 2002:
Prince Naif stressed that relations between the Saudi and U.S.
governments are strong despite the Zionist-controlled media that manipulated
the events of September 11 and turned the U.S. public opinion against Arabs and
Islam. Prince Naif said, 'we put big question marks and ask who committed the
events of September 11 and who benefited from them. Who benefited from events
of 11/9? I think they [the Zionists] are behind these events.' [. . . .]
* * * *
* * *
The IDF (Israel
Defense Forces) pays compensation to Palestinian Arab civilians to whom they
have -- even inadvertently -- caused injury. How this practice can be exploited
is noted in a report of 10 December 2002:
Several Palestinian[s] testified to filing fake claims against the IDF
for injuries that they profess to have received . . . in order to receive
compensation from Israel. They also maintain that many other Palestinians have
filed such fraudulent claims in the past.
[. . . .] In testimony given by a Palestinian suspect to security sources
several months ago, the suspect claimed that he was wounded by stones thrown at
IDF forces by Palestinian children. 'As I stood there, I was hit in the head by
a rock that was not thrown far enough by one of the children.' The suspect was
evacuated to hospital. In hospital, a doctor told the suspect that he would be
provided with a complaint form blaming the IDF, which enabled him to claim
compensation from the state of Israel.
'The doctor said that he would write me a complaint form blaming the army
so that I would receive compensation. I paid the doctor 35 shekels and he gave
me the form. I gave this form to a foundation called the 'Foundation for the
Wounded'. They told me to say that I had been injured by gunshots, so I went
back to Dr. Zahar and told him what the foundation had said. He offered to
change the complaint form.'
The suspect said that Dr. Zahar, who had treated him for his injuries,
had persuaded him to file the fake complaint by telling him that this kind of
thing had been done many times before.
Another Palestinian suspect fell down the stairs at his home on October
26, 2002, and broke his leg. According to the suspect's testimony, his neighbor
persuaded him to file a complaint claiming that the injury was a result of a
beating he had received by IDF soldiers. This, his neighbor told him, would
mean he could claim compensation.
[. . . . ] The suspect did as his neighbor suggested. He received a
medical form stating that he had been beaten by IDF soldiers, filed a complaint
and received $200. He added that he knew of many other Palestinians who had
filed similar bogus claims. He emphasized that the aim was to get as much money
in compensation out of Israel as possible.
'I heard that there are a lot of people who have filed similar bogus
claims. There are people who were injured in their own homes and upon arrival
to hospital claimed that soldiers had beaten them. Israeli soldiers did not
injure them. They were injured in accidents such as a bad fall, as in my case.
The aim is to receive compensation money from Israel.
[Comment: These victims are included in the news media tallies of Arabs
wounded by the Jews.]
* * * * * * *
It is customary on the Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr to give gifts to
children. This year, a a popular toy for the occasion was an Osama Bin-Laden
doll.
END