Open Letter to Amnesty International

I have just completed reading your report about the way Israel treats Palestinians in the West-Bank and it was sad to read how unfair and slanted this report is.

Even before the 1967 war, Palestinians were kept in refugee camps by their host countries and how they were not only restricted but also massacred by the thousands!

YOU NEVER SAID A WORD ABOUT IT!

They are still being restricted by their own and still:
YOU SAY NOTHING ABOUT IT in Lebanon, they are being killed!

Jordan has weekly quotes as to how many may enter, a bride missed her wedding because after standing in line for hours the bus was filled and she couldn't get to her wedding.

Egypt refused ti take back Gaza strip when the peace treaty was signed with Israel, so did Jordan. (they knew why...)

If there were less attacks on Israelis in the past few years, it's not because the Palestinians have all of a suddenly decided to live in peace with Israel, it's because the separating wall has made it harder for them to infiltrate suicide bombers.

As to the check points... How else can Israel defend its citizens from those suicide bombers?

"Arab Red Crescent" ambulances that wait to pick up the injured, often serve a secondary role, a role that is illegal under international law.

They have been photographed as they transport gunmen, Molotov cocktails, suicide bellts, suicide bombers and rock to confrontation locations, secure in knowledge that Israel will NOT fire on these "medical vehicles".

AND STILL YOU SAY NOTHING ABOUT IT!

Israel has offered the Palestinians an olive branches, many times, the Gaza strip was handed over to them, instead of rebuilding it, with the billions of dollars that have been given to them, Arafat became a billionaire, and I have no doubt that so have Henyia and Abu-Maazan.

It's NOT Israel that have abusing them, it's their own leaders, and you say nothing about that in your report.

People... children, women, the aged, are being bombed daily in Sderot, you think that is OK, not one word against that. North of Israel were bombed daily until summer of 2006.

WHERE WERE YOU?

It was the Hezbollah that started the second war of Lebanon 2006 by kidnapping two soldiers.It was Hamas that kidnapping one soldier from Israel's territory, does Israel not have the rights to defend her citizens?

If those are the conclusions and your opinion about the situation in the Middle-East, then you are nothing but a group of bigotry people, who can't see beyond your noses.

You do NOT care about the rights of all the people, you care only about the rights of some of them.

That makes your organization absolutely useless!!!

Hudna

Is the Palestinian Goal A Peace Agreement or“Hudna” [cease fire]?
by Itamar Marcus

Executive Summary
Israeli Arab Knesset Member Abd-Al Malek Dahamshe was interviewed on Palestinian Television. A viewer called in to the studio and commented that, “Our problem with Israel is not a border problem, but one of existence”. Dahamshe responded: “We exaggerate when we say ‘peace’... what we are [really] speaking about is ‘Hudna’ "
[Israeli Arab Knesset Member Abd-Al Malek Dahamshe, PATV, 1 September 2000]

“Hudna” is an Islamic term meaning cease fire. MK Dahamshe accepted the position expressed by the caller, by referring to the agreements with Israel not as “Peace” but rather as a cease fire.

This report investigates to what extent this position of Dahamshe reflects the position of the Palestinian Authority. When Palestinian officials speak to their own people in Arabic, do they anticipate that a permanent agreement with Israel will be peace agreement ending the conflict with Israel, or that it is just a “Hudna” a temporary cease fire?

Findings
The research demonstrates a clear and unified world-view within the Palestinian leadership, in speeches to the nation, in educational programs, and through school textbooks published by the Palestinian Authority. Consistently Israel is defined as a colony that stole the land of “Palestine” having no right to exist. Therefore within the framework of the “justice”, there is no room for Israel’s permanent existence. The Arabic Palestinian lexicon contains many expressions to describe the negotiations with Israel in this context: “The permanent agreement is a stage”; “The Oslo accord is to gain a foothold”; “All the agreements are temporary”. In this context the Oslo process is part of the process of liberating “Palestine”. The recurrent justification given for the need for a temporary agreement with Israel is “because of current balance of power”. From the positions expressed within the Palestinian Authority it is evident that Dahamshe’s position whereby the permanent status agreement with Israel is to be viewed as “Hudna”, is the rule and not the exception.

The following are examples where PA leaders have stated this explicitly:
1. Faisal Husseini, Palestinian Authority Representative for Jerusalem Affairs:
Oslo accords are a Trojan Horse:

“Had the U.S. and Israel realized, before Oslo, that all that was left of the Palestinian National movement and the Pan-Arab movement was a wooden horse called Arafat or the PLO, they would never have opened their fortified gates and let it inside their walls…
This effort [the Intifada] could have been much better, broader, and more significant had we made it clearer to ourselves that the Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step towards something bigger... We distinguish the strategic, long-term goals from the political phased goals, which we are compelled to temporarily accept due to international pressure. … [Palestine] according to the higher strategy [is]: ‘from the river to the sea.’ Palestine in its entirety is an Arab land, the land of the Arab nation.” [Al-Arabi' -Egypt, 24 June 2001]

2. Abd El Aziz Shahian, Palestinian Authority Minister of Supplies: "Oslo is just the first step in the destruction of Israel":

“The Palestinian people accepted the Oslo agreements as a first step and not as a permanent settlement, based on the premise that the war and struggle in the land is more efficient than a struggle from a distant land [i.e. Tunisia, where the PLO was based before Oslo -Ed] ... the Palestinian people will continue the revolution until they achieve the goals of the ’65 revolution...”.
[P.A. Minister of Supply Abd El Aziz Shahian, Al Ayyam, 30 May 2000]
[The “’65 Revolution” is the founding of the P.L.O. and the publication of the Palestinian charter that calls for the destruction of Israel via an armed struggle.]

3. Othman Abu Arbiah, Arafat’s Deputy: "The Palestinian state is just the first stage":

“... At this stage we’ll prevail in our struggle [toward] the goals of the stages [plan]. The goal of this stage is the establishment of the independent Palestinian State, with its capital in Jerusalem. When we achieve this, it will be a positive [step] and it will advance us to the next stage via other ways and means... ‘Every Palestinian must know clearly and unequivocally that the independent Palestinian State, with Jerusalem as its capital is not the end of the road’. The [rise of] the Palestinian State is a stage after which there will be another stage and that is the democratic state in all of Palestine [i.e. in place of Israel].” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 25 November 1999]
[Othman Abu Arbiah is Arafat’s aide for Political Guidance and national affairs, and the Director-General for National Affairs, a senior position in the Palestinian national educational structure]

4. Sheikh Yousuf Abu Sneina, the preacher of the Al-Aqza Mosque: "All of Israel is “Palestine” forever":

“The Islamic land of Palestine is one and can not be divided.
There is no difference between Haifa and Nablus, between Lod and Ramallah, between Jerusalem and Nazareth, between Gaza and Ashkelon. The land of Palestine is Waqf land that belongs to Moslems throughout the world and no one has the right to act freely or the right to make concessions or to abandon her. Whoever does this betrays a [trust] and is nothing more than a loathsome criminal whose abode is in Hell!”
[The Preacher of Al Aqza Mosque, Sheikh Yousuf Abu Sneina, PATV, 8 September 2000]

5. Abdullah Al-Hourani, Chairman, Palestinian National Council Political Committee: "The conflict remains eternal - all of Israel is Palestine":

Interviewer: “How do [you] read the future of the peace process…?”
Al-Hourani: “Whether they return to negotiations or not, and whether they fulfill the agreements or not - the political plan is a temporary agreement, and the conflict remains eternal, will not be locked, and the agreements being talked about are regarding the current balance of power. As to the struggle, it will continue. It may pause at times, but in the final analysis, Palestine is ours from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River.” [Al Hayat Al Jadida, 14 April 2000]

6. Imad Alfalugi, the Palestinian Authority Minister of Communication:"Israel “the Occupation State” will cease to exist":

“Our people have hope for the future, that the Occupation State ceases to exist, and that it makes no difference [how great] its power and arrogance...”.
[Minister of Communications, Imad Alfalugi, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 18 November 1999]

7. Salim Alo’adia, Abu Salam, Supervisor of Political Affairs:"The goal has not changed - the “liberation of Palestine”:

“When we picked up the gun in ’65 and the modern Palestinian Revolution began, it had a goal. This goal has not changed and it is the liberation of Palestine.” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 20 January 2000]

8. Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, Palestinian Authority appointed Mufti of Jerusalem & Palestine: "We have not forgotten about Jaffa or about Acre":

“We are discussing the current problems and when we speak about Jerusalem it doesn’t mean that we have forgotten about Hebron or about Jaffa or about Acre….we are speaking about the current problems that have priority at a certain time. It doesn’t mean that we have given up... We have announced a number of times that from a religious point of view Palestine from the sea to the river is Islamic.” [PATV, 11 January 2001.]

Note: Jaffa and Acre are Israeli cities. The “sea to the river” is all of Israel.

9. Dr. Ahmed Yousuf Abu Halbiah, PA Religious leader, member of the Palestinian Sharianic (Islamic religious law) Rulings Council, and Rector Advanced Studies, the Islamic University:“All the agreements are temporary”:

“We the nation of Palestine, our fate from Allah is to be the vanguard in the war against the Jews until the resurrection of the dead, as the Prophet Mohammed said: The resurrection of the dead will not come until you do battle with the Jews and kill them… We the Palestinians, are the vanguard in this issue, in this battle, whether we want to or whether we refuse. All the agreements being made are temporary...” [Preacher Dr. Ahmed Yousuf Abu Halbiah, PATV, 28 July 2000]

10. Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi, a Palestinian Authority religious leader:" “We will enter Jaffa, Ramle and Lod and all of Palestine, as conquerors”:

“We are positive that Allah will help us triumph. Our belief is firm that one day we will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, enter Jaffa as conquerors, Ramle and Lod… and all of Palestine, as conquerors… [ed. note: Jaffa, Ramle, and Lod are Israeli cities.]

“If He [Allah] asks them [Arab leaders], on Judgment Day: ‘the majority of Palestine was lost in ’48 and what did you do? And the remainder was lost in ’67, and now it is being vanquished again.’
How shall we respond to our Lord?…

“Palestine shall be the burial grounds of the invaders just as it was for the Tartars, and the Crusaders and for modern colonialism… The Tradition relates to us that Allah’s cherished one [Muhammad] said: ‘The Jews will battle against you but you shall emerge masters over them.”
[Preacher Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi, PATV, 12 April 2002]

11. Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi, a Palestinian Authority religious leader: “We will blow them up in Hadera, we will blow them up in Tel-Aviv”

“We will blow them up in Hadera, we will blow them up in Tel-Aviv and in Netanya... We will fight against them and rule over them until the Jew will hide behind the trees and stones and the tree and stone will say: 'Moslem! Servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, kill him’… We will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, and Jaffa as conquerors, and Haifa as conquerors and Ashkelon as conquerors....” [Preacher Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi, PATV, 3 August 2001]

12. Dr. Ahmed Yousuf Abu Halbiah, a Palestinian Authority Religious leader:
“We will not forget Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, the Galilee Triangle, and the Negev”

“Even if agreements were signed [regarding] Gaza and the West Bank, we will not forget Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, the Galilee Triangle, and the Negev. It is only a question of time…”[Ed note: All are Israeli cities or regions.] [Preacher Dr. Ahmed Yousuf Abu Halbiah, PATV, 13 October 2000]

13. Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi, PA religious leader:" Palestine shall return to its former days..Israel shall pass.."

“Who is responsible for the loss of Palestine, the good land that the passages of the dear Koran bless many times, and [for] deceitfully labeling it Israel? Who is responsible for the loss of Jerusalem... The Prophet [Muhammad] soothes us with many Hadiths that Palestine shall return to its former days.... We must prepare a foothold, for the coming army of Allah, by divine predetermination. May it be Allah’s will, this oppressing state shall pass, Israel shall pass...” [Preacher Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi, PATV, 8 June 2001]

Conclusions
What is clear from the Palestinians is that their goal of destroying Israel has never been abandoned. Indeed, the message from the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to their respective people are direct opposites of one another:

Israel leaders are saying:
The permanent status agreement will be painful, but we will accept it because it will mark the end of the conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world in general.

The Palestinian leaders are saying:
The permanent status agreement will be painful, but we will accept it because it is not the end of the conflict. This is one stage leading to Israel’s destruction. The words of MK Abd-Al Malek Dahamshe constitute the conceptual basis for the Palestinian Authority’s policies:

“We exaggerate when we say ‘peace’...
what we are [really] speaking about is ‘Hudna’ ”.



http://www.pmw.org.il/specrep-31.html

IDF's History

The IDF traces its roots to Jewish paramilitary organization in the New Tishuv starting with the Second Aliya.

The first such organization was Bar-Giora, founde in September 1907. It was converte to Hashomer in April 1909, which operated until the British Mandate of Palestine came into being in 1920.
Hashomer was an elitiest organization with narrow scope and was mainly created to protect against criminal gangs seeking to steal property. During the WW1 the forerunners of the Haganah/IDF were te Zion Mule Corps and the Jewish Legion.

After the Arab riot in April 1920, the Yishuv leadership saw the need to create a nationwide underground defence organization and the Haganah was founded in June of the same year. The Haganah became a full scale defense force after the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine with an organization stracture, consisting in three main units: The Field Corps, The Guard Corps and the Palmach.

During WW2, the successor to the Jewish Legion of WW1 was the Jewish Brigade.The IDF founded following the establishment of the State of Israel, after Defense Minister and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion published the order of its creation on May, 26, 1948. The order called for the establishment of the Israel Defense Force (IDF), and the abolishment of all other Jewish armed forces.

Although, Ben-Gurion had no legal authority to issue such an orer, the order made legal by the cabinet on may,31. The two other Jewish underground organization, Irgun and Lehi, agreed to join the IDF if they would be able to form independent units and agreed not to make independent arms purchases. This was the background if the dispute wich led to the Altalena Affair, when following a confrontation regarding the weapon it brought resulted in a battle between Irgun members the newly created IDF. It ended when the ship was shelled. Following the affair, all independent Irgun and Lehi units, were either disbanded or merged into the IDF.

The Palmach, a strong lobby within the Haganah, also joined the IDF with provision, and Ben-Gurion responded by disbanding its staff in 1949, after which many senior Palmach officers retired, notably its first commander Itzhak Sadeh. The new army organized itself during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, when Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, declared war on Israel.
Twelve infanty and armored brigades were created: Golani, Carmli, Alexandroni, Givati, Etzioni, the 7th and 8th amored brigades, Oded, Harel, Yiftach and Negev.
After the war, some of the brigades were converted to reserve units, and other were disbanded. Golani and Givati are still on service.

Immediately after the 1948 war, Israel Defense Forces shifted to low intensity conflict against Arab Palestinian guerrillas.

The 1956 Suez Crisis was the IDF first test of strength after 1949, an the new army proved itself by capturing Sinai Penninsula from Egypt, which is immediately returned.

In the 1967 Six days War, Israel captured the Sinai Pennisula (2nd time), West Bank and Golan Heights from the surrounding Arab states, changing the balance of power in the region, a well as the role of the IDF.

In the following years leading up the Yom Kippur war, the IDF fought war of attrition against Egypt in the Sinai and a border war against the PLO in Jordan, culminating in the battle of "Karameh".
The surprise od the Yom Kippur war and its aftermath completley changed the IDF procedures and approach the warfare/ Organizational changes were made and more time was dedicated to training for conventional warfare. However, in the following years, the army's role slowly shifted again to low intensity conflict, urban warfare an counter-terrorism.

It was involved in the Lebanese Civil War, intiating operation Litani and later Lenanon war, where the IDF ousted Palestinian guerilla organizations from Lebanon. Palestinian militancy and Hezbollah has been the main focus of the IDF ever since, especially during the first and second Intifadas, operation Defensive Shield, Gaza War and Lebanon war 1 & 2, causing the IDF to change many of its values and published the IDF spirit.

Deir Yassin's Massacre

By: Steven Plaut 

FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, April 11, 2005


This week is the anniversary of the events that took place in the Arab village of Deir Yassin in 1948. In recent years, Deir Yassin has been converted into a bludgeon by the Far Left, the Neonazi Right, and Israel-bashers in general.

Deir Yassin is the ultimate "Man Bites Dog" news story supposedly based on the inversion of players. It is recited endlessly by the very same people who have nothing to say against a century of countless massacres of Jewish civilians by Arabs. The church in St. John's Wood in London is just one of many examples of outfits "commemorating" the "victims" of Deir Yassin this week.

Deir Yassin was a not-at-all innocent Arab village sitting near the only road into Jerusalem in 1948. In the previous December, the UN had voted to partition what was left of Madatory Palestine into two states, one a Jewish state and the other an Arab state to be named Palestine, of approximately equal sizes. The Jews of Israel accepted the plan, while the Arab states and the Palestinian Arab leadership rejected it. Had they accepted it, a Palestinian state would have arisen peacefully in 1948.

In response to the UN resolution, Arabs launched attacks against Jews everywhere in the country and in particular placed the city of Jerusalem under siege. The Jewish population of Jerusalem was quite literally starving. The only road into the city passed through the area of Deir Yassin, and the Arab militiamen in the town were stopping all convoys from passing through.

Since Israel had yet to be formally proclaimed, the only Jews doing the fighting were members of three poorly-armed militias. The main one was the Hagana, commanded by David Ben Gurion and the socialist Zionist party. There were two smaller ones operating independently under the command of the dissident "revisionist Zionist" movement, the Etsel and the Lehi.

Poorly-trained irregulars of the two latter militias were ordered to attack Deir Yassin to relieve the siege. They did so in ferocious hand-to-hand fighting, in which some Deir Yassin villagers were killed. The Bash-Israel lobby has always maintained that the villagers were "massacred" in cold blood, despite a distinct lack of evidence.

Those who participated in the battle claim the villagers were killed when the Jewish militiamen fired into homes from which fire was directed at them.

The village was successfully taken and the siege of Jerusalem was lifted. Large numbers of Jewish militiamen had been killed in the house-to-house battle for the village. Approximately 100 Arabs in the village died, a number that was later greatly inflated by anti-Jewish propagandists to 250.

Part of the problem was that the mainstream socialist Zionist parties themselves magnified the supposed misbehavior of the two opposition militias in order to discredit them in the coming political contest for control of the emerging Jewish state. This trend has been echoed in recent years, and Deir Yassin has become the "massacre of choice" for anti-Semites trying to prove the Jews are bloodthirsty barbarians. In part these have based their claims on a document by a Hagana officer, one Meir Peil, who was not actually present at the battle but surveyed the village AFTER the fighting was finished.

Peil claimed he thought there had been looting and intentional killing of some villagers. The problem is that Peil is also a leftwing radical and not exactly a neutral source. Other less politicized sources tell a different tale. Even some Arab sources confirm that no massacre took place in Deir Yassin.

Meanwhile, a few years back the ZOA issued a new study, Deir Yassin History of a Lie, a 32-page analysis (with 156 footnotes) by ZOA National President Morton A. Klein. (For a free copy, please call (21....)

 Among other things, the ZOA study shows that the original claim of 254 dead was not based on any actual body count. The number was invented by Mordechai Ra'anan, leader of the Jewish soldiers who fought in Deir Yassin. He later admitted that the figure was a deliberate exaggeration in order to undermine the morale of the Arab forces, which had launched a war against the Jews in Mandatory Palestine to prevent the establishment of Israel. Other eyewitnesses to the battle estimated that about 100 Arabs had died.

Despite Ra'anan's admission, the figure 254 was circulated by Palestinian Arab leader Hussein Khalidi. His claims about Deir Yassin were the basis for an article in the New York Times claiming a massacre took place--an article that has been widely reprinted and cited as "proof" of the massacre throughout the past 57 years.

Meanwhile, there have been numerous exposes of the lies that have been invented surrounding the battle for Deir Yassin and these have largely discredited the Peil "eyewitness" report.

A massacre did take indeed take place, following the events in Deir Yassin, which had occurred on Friday morning April 9, 1948. On Monday morning, April 13, 1948, an Arab mob, chanting "Deir Yassin", massacred a bus convoy of Jewish doctors and nurses who were headed to Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. Seventy-eight members of Hadassah's medical staff were murdered in cold blood. Only recently was it revealed that some of the Hadassah nurses had found refuge in the nearby compound of the British consul, only to be turned over to Arabs by the Brits, and the Arabs proceeded to slaughter them in "revenge" for what they thought had occurred at Deir Yassin.

Both sides used the symbol of "Remember Deir Yassin" in 1948 during the war.

There were Jews who intimidated Arabs with the slogan and there were Arab commanders who rallied their populace with the same adage. Meanwhile, what has fanned the flames of Deir Yassin has been the United Nations decision to confine more than three million Palestinian Arabs to refugee camps, promising them the "right of return" to Arab villages that no longer exist.

In recent years a group of pro-Arab propagandists in the US have stared holding annual "memorials" for the "victims" of the "massacre" in Deir Yassin. The late Edward Said had been a member and the group includes such people as anti-Semite Norman Finkelstein, Saudi-financed ex-congressman Paul Findlay, and PLO propagandist Hanan Ashwari.

These are people who have never denounced Arab massacres of Jewish children, which were committed not by poorly trained irregulars in the heat of a crucial battle, but by Islamofascist terrorists awash in money and under the direct personal command of the PLO.

Steven Plaut is a professor at the Graduate School of the Business Administration at the University of Haifa and is a columnist for the Jewish Press. A collection of his commentaries on the current events in Israel can be found on his "blog" at www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com.

Bleeding Heart

To you, the citizens of the "bleeding heart" world...

Before you attacking us with words, claim that we are brutal, talking about how emotionless we are, before you sending another e-mail or chat to the world that claims that the Israelis are the problematic, before you determine that we are the bad guys and the rest are week and miserable, I wonder if you know these things:

1) When you were born, you left the hospital with flowers and presents -
Babies in Israel, left the hospital with gas mask and self defending kit.

2) When you learn in the kindergarten how to draw and sing -
Kids in kindergarten in Israel learns what to do in case of alarm and where is the shelter.

3) When you celebrate for the good days -
We celebrate that "they" didn't succeed to eliminate us during all these years.

4) When you have a memorial day for a friend or relative that died in old age -
We memorize that six millions of our nation murdered just because they were Jewish and our soldiers who dies in daily basis to defend us from Islamic terrorism or any other threats.

5) When the age of 18, you start your academic studying, we must join the army (IDF)
and not necessarily that we come to 20 years old.

6) When you are planning vacation overseas and ask about sea and pampering -
We, first of all, have to check if there are any warnings about the place.

7) When you build your house in your country with big guestroom and playroom -
We obliged to build our with a "strong-room".

8) When you go out to have fun, going out to a movie or restaurant, a host is waiting for you in the entrance - We have a guard to check that no one will come to explode and kill innocent people.

9) When you take the bus in the morning on your way to your work or arrangements -
You don't need to be frightened and you don't need to look at the rest of the passengers and search for suspects.

10) When you drive across your wonderful country from north to south or from east to west -
You don't need to be afraid of an ambush.

11) In the last war of your country, takes part your grandfather, now at the age of 87 -
I already took part in 4 wars, and I am only 37.

But this is our reality and we don't have problem with that. We never complained and we never looked for any mercy. There were better days that we hoped for peace, but when there are leaders in the twentieth century from other nation, that announce that it will be better to eliminate the Jewish state...

I assumes that we forced for many years in this reality that when you read this letter you discover that it is non-realistic to live like that. So when you are in your peaceful and pastoral country and sometimes hear news about the Middle-East, please do me a favor and don't even think you know who or what is right.

And if you do want to know better - You invite to live here and then...
We Will Talk!