We Won't Move From Here

The Jewish people base their claim to the land of Israel on at least four premises:
1) Israel became a state in 1312 BC.
2) God promised the land to the patriarch Abraham;
3) The Jewish people settled and developed the land;
4) The international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine to the Jewish people;
5) The territory was captured in defensive wars.
6) The UN voted for the creation of the state of Israel
7) Jews ruled it for thousands years and maintained a continuous presence for 3300 years.
8) For over 3300 years, Jerusalem was the Jewish capital.
9) Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Bible.
10) Jews pray facing Jerusalem.
12) The history roots of the Jewish nation is in Israel.
12) The holiest Jewish site in the world and a renowned symbol of Jerusalem's Old City is the Western Wall on the Temple Mount..

Israel - We Won't Move From Here - Shlomi Shabbat (Lyric)

Israel Then and Forever - Everything has started here!

From here, doesn't matter where
We won't move from here
Together we'll stay and perhaps...

From here, when the morning come
I won't be surprise that I'm still here

Everything has started here and will never end
Here we stand again together to pray
Never be alone to collect all the hopes
Tonight we are still allowed to shed a tear

Everything has started here and will never end
Here we stand again together to pray
Never be alone to collect all the hopes
Tonight we are still allowed to shed a tear

From here, I have a little light
If I am still here
It's always a sign that...
Goodness will come
That goodness
G-d has taken
G-d has given
The light of blue and white

Everything has started here and will never end
Here we stand again together to pray
Never be alone to collect all the hopes
Tonight we are still allowed to shed a tear

Everything has started here and will never end
Here we stand again together to pray
Never be alone to collect all the hopes
Tonight we are still allowed to shed a tear

From here, doesn't matter where to....
We won't move from here

Crash Course in Islam and Arab Lies

MYTH 1: ISRAEL OCCUPIES ARAB PALESTINE

This is a genocidal claim made by the Muslim Students Association and other pro-Arab groups. It is genocidal because it obliterates the Jewish state. If Israel is actually “Occupied Palestine” then there is no legitimate Jewish state in the Middle East.

Since Roman times when the Philistines inhabited the region around the Jordan (hence the name “Palestine”) there has never been a political entity – neither a province nor a state – called “Palestine” and no one claimed there was until well after the United Nations created Israel in 1948. The land on which Israel was created by the U.N. was also used by the colonial powers to create Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan. It was land that had belonged to Turkey for 400 years. The Turks are not “Palestinians” and are not even arabs.

There never was an Arab country called “Palestine” or inhabited by “Palestinians.” Before the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964, which was sixteen years after the birth of Israel, no Arab political entity was called by that name.

MYTH 2: ISRAEL IS AN APARTHEID STATE

The term Apartheid refers to the segregation of groups on the basis of ethnicity or race, and the denial of basic civil rights to the segregated group. There is no such segregation in Israel. Arabs are granted full civil rights under Israeli law, which forbids discrimination on the basis of race, creed, or sex. Arabs take part fully in Israeli society and government. Arab citizens of Israel vote in national elections, have representatives in the Israeli Parliament, sit on the Israeli courts and on the Israeli Supreme Court benches, and serve as tenured professors teaching in Israeli colleges and universities. The Arab citizens of Israel have more rights, and enjoy more freedom, education, and economic opportunity than the Arabs of any Arab state.

MYTH 3: THE ARABS WANT PEACE AND A STATE ON THE WEST BANK

The Arab nations rejected peace and a state on the West Bank first in 1948 when it was offered to them by the U.N. and then in 2000 when it was offered by Presidents Clinton and Barak. In 1949, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which the U.N. had designated as a homeland for the Arabs, were annexed respectively by Jordan and Egypt. When the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed in 1964 its covenant made no mention of liberating the West Bank or Gaza from Jordan and Egypt. The PLO leadership stated that its goal was to “push the Jews into the sea.” Today the “liberation” of Palestine “from the river to the sea” is still the goal of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The war in the Middle East is about the desire of the Arab nations and Muslims to destroy Israel; it is not about the desire for a Palestinian state.

There are 1.4 million Arabs living in Israel with civil rights that are the envy of the Arab world. Israeli Arabs vote in Israel’s elections, have representatives in the Israeli Parliament, sit on Israeli courts and on the Israeli Supreme Court, and serve as tenured professors teaching in Israeli colleges and universities. The Arab citizens of Israel have more rights, and enjoy more freedom, education, and economic opportunity than the inhabitants of any Arab or Muslim state.

MYTH 4: THE HOLOCAUST IS EUROPE’S PROBLEM; PALESTINIANS HAD NO ROLE IN IT

The father of Palestinian nationalism, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, planned death camps for the Jews in the Middle East. Haj Amin Al-Husseini, was a devoted follower of Hitler who spent the war in Berlin, recruited an Arab legion to the Nazi cause and planned a “Final Solution” for the Jews of the Arab world. The Muslim Brotherhood, which created Hamas, the government of Gaza, translated Mein Kampf into Arabic in the 1930s and called for the destruction of the Jewish state at its birth.

MYTH 5: ISRAEL’S SECURITY FENCE IS AN “APARTHEID” WALL

This is two myths in one. The West Bank fence is a fence, not a wall. About 97% of the fence is made of chain-link material. The remaining 3% is concrete, designed to repel sniper fire in particular areas. The fence was built in 2003 in response to thousands of suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israeli citizens by Palestinian terrorists, sponsored and armed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. The fence was built to keep out terrorists, not Arabs.

In the years since the construction of the fence, terrorist attacks have declined by more than 90%. The fence is Israel’s legitimate defense against a ruthless and amoral terrorist aggressor.

MYTH 6: ISRAEL IS THE CAUSE OF THE REFUGEE PROBLEM

The Palestinians claim there are 5 million Palestinian refugees who fled Israel during the 1948 war. This is false. There were only 500,000 Arab refugees from the 1948 war – an unprovoked war that Egypt and four other Arab states had launched against the newly created state of Israel. In the aftermath of the war, 500,000 Jewish refugees were driven out of the Arab states in the Middle East. There are no Jewish refugees today, sixty years later, because Israel resettled them. Why are there still Arab refugees? The Arab regimes have been given billions of dollars by Israel and the United States to relocate their refugees. But the Arabs are still in refugee camps. While Israel resettled Jewish refugees, no Arab country would take in the “Palestinians” who were forced into camps and were kept there by the Arab regimes to stir up hatred against the Jews. The refugee “issue” has been created by the Arab regimes as a weapon in their war against the Jews. It should be resolved by resettling the inhabitants of the refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza where almost all of them have lived all their lives.

MYTH 7: ISRAEL COMMITS WAR CRIMES BY KILLING CIVILIANS

This is the Big Lie, coming as it does from some Palestinians who have made terrorist attacks on civilians a weapon of choice, and who make martyrs and national heroes out of suicide bombers.

The Gaza strip was a base for 7,000 rocket attacks against schoolyards and townships in Israel before the Israelis responded in 2007. During Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza rocket sites there was one civilian death for every 30 terrorists. By contrast, a 2001 study by the International Committee of the Red Cross found that the civilian-to-military death ratio in wars fought since the middle of the 20th Century has been 10:1 – ten civilian deaths for every soldier death. In other words, the Israelis protect civilians at a rate 300 times greater than any other national army. As Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz observes, “No army in history has ever had a better ratio of combatants to civilians killed in a comparable setting.”

MYTH 8: JEWS HAVE LITTLE HISTORICAL CONNECTION TO ISRAEL

Jews have lived continuously in the land of Israel for over 3000 years; the Arabs arrived through multiple invasions, beginning in the 7th Century AD. In the year 70 AD, when the Jewish civilization was already over 1000 years old, the Romans forced most of the Jews of Judea and Samaria (now the West Bank) into exile. By the end of the 19th Century, the majority population of Jerusalem was Jewish.

MYTH 9: THE KORAN DESCRIBES JERUSALEM AS HOLY TO ISLAM

The Koran does not mention Jerusalem because Mohammed never set foot in the city. Jerusalem was conquered by Muslim armies in 636 after the death of Mohammed. Muslim jihadists claim that the Koran mentions “The Furthest Mosque” — Al-Aqsa in Arabic – and that this is a Koranic reference to Jerusalem. This is a lie. The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem had not been built when the Koran was written, so the reference is to some other (or any other) “furthest mosque.” In contrast, Jerusalem is and has always been a holy city to Jews. The daily prayers of the Jews are focused on Jerusalem. The Hebrew Bible mentions Zion and Jerusalem a total of 809 times.

MYTH 10: THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON IS NOT JEWISH

This myth is one of many designed to steal the history of the Jews in order to justify erasing them from the Middle East. When the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994, it immediately began a campaign to delegitimize Israel by rewriting history with the intention of denying Israel’s right to exist. Among its false claims is that the remains of the Temple of Solomon – the Western Wall – are in fact the remnants of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was deliberately built on top of the Temple after the Muslim conquest to humiliate the conquered.





Rad More:
Wall of Truth

The Proof of Jordan is Palestine

Where is the Kingdom of Jordan?
What is its history?

Jordan was created in the part of the British Mandate of Palestine east of the Jordan River, the majority of the Mandate. It was carved out of the Mandate and given to the Hashemite tribe of Arabia as payment for the Hashemites cooperation with the British in World War I. In todays Jordan, the Hashemites are a minority, but control the state's power - the Monarchy. As a product of the British Mandate of Palestine, the majority non-Hashemite population identify themselves as 'Palestinians', or 'Southern Syrians' depending on the political climate.

~ Society for Rational Peace ~

If Jordan's majority population is Palestinian, why are we trying to give them a second homeland?

Concerning Palestine East Of The River Jordan

Each day brings me closer to the realization that Palestine, as it wants to exist within the boundary of Israel, and impose this view on the world community, is a farce... an imaginative place with imaginative people. History proves over and over again that JORDAN IS INDEED PALESTINE.

Here are several quotes from "officials" in the so-called Palestinian community.



LET THEM SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES!!!!

1) "We are the Government of Palestine, the army of Palestine and the refugees of Palestine."

~ The Prime Minister of Jordan, Hazza' al-Majali, August 23,1959 ~

2) "Palestine and Transjordan are one, for Palestine is the coastline and Transjordan the hinterland of the same country."

~ King Abdullah, at the Meeting of the Arab League, Cairo, 12th April 1948 ~

3) "Let us not forget the East Bank of the (River) Jordan, where seventy per cent of the inhabitants belong to the Palestinian nation."

~ George Habash, leader of the PFLP section of the PLO, writing in the PLO publication Sha-un Falastinia, February 1970 ~

4) "Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine; there is one people and one land, with one history and one and the same fate."

~ Prince Hassan, brother of King Hussein, addressing the Jordanian National Assembly, 2nd February 1970 ~

5) "There is no family on the East Bank of the river (Jordan) that does not have relatives on the West Bank ... no family in the west that does not have branches in the east."

~ King Hussein, addressing the Jordanian National Assembly, 2nd February 1972 ~

6) "We consider it necessary to clarify to one and all, in the Arab world and outside, that the PALESTINIAN PEOPLE with its nobility and conscience is to be found HERE on the EAST Bank The WEST Bank and the Gaza Strip. Its overwhelming majority is HERE and nowhere else."

~ King Hussein, quoted in An-Hahar, Beirut, 24th August 1972 ~

7) "The Palestinians here constitute not less than one half of the members of the armed forces. They and their brothers, the sons of Transjordan, constitute the members of one family who are equal in everything, in rights and duties." (Quoted by BBC Monitoring Service)

~ King Hussein, on Amman Radio, 3rd February 1973 ~

8) "There are, as well, links of geography and history, and a wide range of interests between the two Banks (of the River Jordan) which have grown stronger over the past twenty years. Let us not forget that el-Salt and Nablus were within the same district - el-Balka - during the Ottoman period, and that family and commercial ties bound the two cities together."

~ Hamdi Ken'an, former Mayor of Nablus, writing in the newspaper Al-Quds, 14th March 1973 ~

9) "The new Jordan, which emerged in 1949, was the creation of the Palestinians of the West Bank and their brothers in the East. While Israel was the negation of the Palestinian right of self-determination, unified Jordan was the expression of it."

~ Sherif Al-Hamid Sharaf, Representative of Jordan at the UN Security Council, 11th June 1973 ~

10) Past "President Bourguiba (of Tunisia) considers Jordan an artificial creation presented by Great Britain to King Abdullah. But he accepts Palestine and the Palestinians as an existing and primary fact since the days of the Pharaohs. Israel, too, he considers as a primary entity. However, Arab history makes no distinction between Jordanians, Syrians and Palestinians. Most of them hail from the same Arab race, which arrived in the region with the Arab Moslem conquest."

~ Editorial Comment in the Jordanian Armed Forces' weekly, Al-Aqsa, Amman, 11th July 1973 ~

11) "With all respect to King Hussein, I suggest that the Emirate of Transjordan was created from oil cloth by Great Britain, which for this purpose cut up ancient Palestine. To this desert territory to the bast of the Jordan (River)., it gave the name Transjordan. But there is nothing in history which carries this name. While since our earliest time there was Palestine and Palestinians. I maintain that the matter of Transjordan is an artificial one, and that Palestine is the basic problem. King Hussein should submit to the wishes of the people, in accordance with the principles of democracy and self-determination, so as-to avoid the fate of his grandfather, Abdullah, or of his cousin, Feisal, both of whom were assassinated."

~ Past President Bourguiba of Tunisia, in a public statement, July 1973 ~

12) "The Palestinians and the Jordanians have created on this soil since 1948 one family - all of whose children have equal rights and obligations."

~ King Hussein, addressing an American Delegation, 19th February 1975 ~

13) "How much better off Hussein would be if he had been induced to abandon his pose as a benevolent 'host' to 'refugees' and to affirm the fact that Jordan is the Palestinian Arab nation-state, just as Israel is the Palestinian Jewish nation-state."

~ Editorial Comment in the publication The Economist of 19th July 1975 ~

14) "Palestine and Jordan were both (by then) under British Mandate, but as my grandfather pointed out in his memoirs, they were hardly separate countries. Transjordan being to the east of the River Jordan, it formed in a sense, the interior of Palestine."

~ King Hussein, writing in his Memoirs ~

15) "Those fishing in troubled waters will not succeed in dividing our people, which extends to both sides of the (River) Jordan, in spite of the artificial boundaries established by the Colonial Office and Winston Churchill half a century ago."

~ Yassir Arafat, in a statement to Eric Roleau ~

16) "Palestinian Arabs hold seventy-five per cent of all government jobs in Jordan."

~ The Sunday newspaper The Observer of 2nd March 1976 ~

17) "Palestinian Arabs control over seventy per cent of Jordan's economy."

~ The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram of 5th March 1976 ~

18) "There should be a kind of linkage because Jordanians and Palestinians are considered by the PLO as one people."

~ Farouk Kadoumi, head of the PLO Political Department, quoted in Newsweek, 14th March 1977 ~

19) "Along these lines, the West German Der Spiegel magazine this month cited Dr George Habash, leader of one of the Palestinian organizations, as saying that 70 per cent of Jordan's population are Palestinians and that the power in Jordan should be seized." (Translated by BBC Monitoring Service)

~ From a commentary which was broadcast by Radio Amman, 30th June 1980 ~

20) "Jordan is not just another Arab state with regard to Palestine but, rather, Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan in terms of territory, national identity, sufferings, hopes and aspirations, both day and night. Though we are all Arabs and our point of departure is that we are all members of the same people, the Palestinian-Jordanian nation is one and unique, and different from those of the other Arab states."

~ Marwan al Hamoud, member of the Jordanian National Consultative Council and former Minister of Agriculture, quoted by Al Rai, Amman, 24th September 1980 ~

21) "The potential weak spot in Jordan is that most of the population are not, strictly speaking, Jordanian at all, but Palestinian. An estimated 60 per cent of the country's 2,500,000 people are Palestinians ... Most of these hold Jordanian passports, and many are integrated into Jordanian society."

~ Richard Owen, in an article published in The Times, 14th November 1980 ~

22) "There is no moral justification for a second Palestine."

~ The Freeman Center (September 3, 1993) ~

- Above Quotes researched by HMAVERIK. -

Did the concept of Palestine East of the River Jordan exist before the British Mandate?

The Dead Sea, as you have heard ever since you were children at school, has no outlet, and you can see at once that if it had any connection with the great body of seas and oceans, it would be an inlet. If, as Chinese Gordon proposed a few years ago, a canal were cut so that the waters of the Mediterranean Sea might pour in, they would swell the surface of the Dead Sea thirteen hundred feet up the sides of the mountains on either side; they would rise above the Jordan proportionately; the river Jordan would disappear; the Dead Sea and the lake of Galilee would disappear; and in the place of these a long body of sea water would divide western from eastern Palestine. These characteristics distinguish the Jordan from all the other rivers of the earth, and make its formation a profound study to the geologist--one that has never yet been explained in attempting to trace back the history of this old world.

~ J. W. McGarvey, Louisville, Kentucky, August 27, 1893 ~

What happened when the Palestinian Arabs tried to take control of Jordan?

King Hussein of Jordan ejected Arafat's Palestinians in September 1970, called Black September because they were trying to take over his kingdom. King Hussein drove them into Lebanon after killing more than 10,000. The Lebanese welcomed the fleeing Palestinians into their bosom, but suddenly found themselves under attack by Arafat's Palestinians who set up a mini Terror State within Lebanon. For the next 12 years terror raged and over 100,000 Lebanese were murdered by their Palestinian brothers.

~ Emanuel A. Winston, Middle East analyst & commentator ~

You Might Also Like: Jordan is Palestine

The Face of a Hero

Israel Remembers Her Fallen Soldiers

Roi Klein.
It is a name that until a few years ago held no meaning to me. He was a complete stranger, about whom I had never heard and whom I had never met. Yet an image of the last seconds of his life won't leave my mind.

Roi was a son. He was a brother. He was a husband to Sara and a father to three-year-old Gilad and one-year-old Yoav. But most of all, Roi was a hero for all of us. He was a face and a name to the many Jewish heroes spanning the generations.

Major Roi Klein was a Golani brigade deputy commander. He was killed last Wednesday, in an ambush among the houses of Bint Jbail, a large village in southern Lebanon. Hezbullah terrorists killed eight soldiers, including Roi, and injured nearly two dozen.

There were two other soldiers next to Roi. A hand grenade was thrown at them and Roi shouted, "Grenade!" He then threw his body over it, sacrificing his life for the sake of his soldiers, who later attributed being alive to his act of selflessness.

In his last seconds of life, Roi mustered the strength to shout "Shema Yisroel" the prayer that Jews have prayed for centuries, declaring our belief in G-d and in a better world; the prayer that so many Jewish martyrs throughout the generations called out as they were being led to their deaths.


My mind can't stop conjuring what it must have been like in those last seconds of his life, when Roi made the split-second decision to jump on the grenade. I imagine Roi seeing his beloved family in his mind's eye--his wife, and their two young children who would now grow up knowing him only from stories that they'd be told or from pictures that they'd be shown.

I imagine Roi thinking about his grieving elderly parents; of his mother, Shoshana whose voice cracked at her son's grave as she cried out, "The pain is unbearable... We will look after the children and raise them according to what you left behind…"

And I imagine Roi seeing the West Bank hilltop settlement of Eli that he and his wife idealistically made their home, despite those who wished to dismantle it. It was for these loved one that Roi served in the special units of the Paratroop and Golani brigades. It was for them, and for the ideals represented by the Shema Yisroel prayer, that Roi diligently and courageously pursued his army service, advancing to the point where he would have been promoted to battalion commander.

What a colossal contrast between Roi and his enemy.

Roi was there to ensure a peaceful existence of his people in their homeland. He was there to safeguard the innocent lives of his children and his nation. To ensure that people could live in their homes in peace and tranquility. To guarantee that they could continue their ordinary day to day activities. Activities like shopping in a mall without being blown to bits, like eating a family meal together in a pizza shop without worrying about flying shrapnel, like praying in a synagogue without having to run for cover in a bomb shelter, or like sending their children on a school bus without thoughts of bullets penetrating within.

Roi was there to defend his people against those that vowed their destruction. Even in his death, he sacrificed his own life to ensure that two of his comrades could live. I picture his enemy, too, in my mind. He is there to cause as much death, devastation and destruction as he possibly can. He is eager to send his young, strapped with explosive bombs and stuffed with nails on missions of "suicide bombings," as long as in their death they murder as many Jews as possible with them. He is launching rocket after rocket into densely populated Jewish cities so that hospitals healing the sick and homes housing the elderly will be destroyed together with the lives of those inside.

Roi's enemy was willing to die to bring death and mourning to as many as possible; Roi was willing to die to ensure life and liberty for others, to preserve a world in which Jews could pray to G-d in their synagogues, perform G-d's commandments and make our world a better, more moral and more conscientious place.

This is the third time in this last century that the Jewish people have found themselves on the front lines against those who sought their annihilation. For the Nazis, the Jew was a racial impurity to be exterminated like insects. For the Soviet communists, the Jewish religion was a thorn in their sides to be eradicated. And for the Islamic extremists, the Jew and his state must be eliminated from the face of the earth.

Less than a century has passed since Jews fell in the Soviet gulag with the chant of Shema in their mouths for the mere "crime" of observing Kosher or Shabbat in their private lives. Just over a half a century has passed the echo of the Shema resonated in the Nazi gas chambers where Jews were suffocated and then burnt to ashes in the crematoriums just because they were born as Jews.

And now Roi Klein followed in the path of these martyrs, dying with the cry of Shema on his lips in the act of defending his people from those who, yet again, wish to destroy them.

Roi is no stranger after all. He is each of our husbands, sons and brothers. His face is the face of each of our heroes and martyrs.

Dedicated to all the Israeli Falled Soldiers.

San Remo Conference

A conference of the Allies in World War I (Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States), held in San Remo, Italy, in April 1920, which confirmed the pledge contained in the *Balfour Declaration concerning the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.

The conference was a continuation of a previous meeting between the Allies held in London in February 1920, where it was decided, among other things, to put Palestine under British Mandatory rule. The British delegation to San Remo was headed by Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Lord Curzon, who had replaced Lord *Balfour as foreign minister in 1919.

At both meetings the French expressed many reservations about the inclusion of the Balfour Declaration in the peace treaty, and it was only after the exertion of British pressure that they were gradually persuaded to agree to it.

The San Remo Conference was attended by Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow, and Herbert Samuel, who presented a memorandum to the British delegation on the final settlement in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Lord Balfour was called in for consultations.

The article concerning Palestine was debated on April 24, and the next day it was finally resolved to incorporate the Balfour Declaration in Britain's mandate in Palestine.

Thus Britain was made responsible "for putting into effect the declaration made on the 8th November 1917 by the British Government and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people; it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

The San Remo Resolution of 1920 recognized the exclusive national Jewish rights to the Land of Israel under international law, on the strength of the historical connection of the Jewish people to the territory previously known as Palestine.

The resolution was celebrated by mass demonstrations throughout the Jewish world.

The San Remo Conference of 1920 has been forgotten or ignored by the community of nations, and that the rights it conferred upon the Jewish people

The outcome of the declaration gave birth to the "Mandate for Palestine," an historical League of Nations document that laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, a 10,000 square-miles the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea....

What Does The Koran Say About Israel?

People assume that the Koran (Qar'an - Muslim holy scriptures) has anti-Israel passages. While there is no doubt some level of anti-Jewish sentiment in the Koran, there are many passages that are actually in support of a Jewish state of Israel! The following are eleven passages showing the support for a Jewish state in the Muslim holy scriptures.

Sura 2:190
A case could even be made that Israel's victory over the Arabs in the 1948 war was a judgment by Allah against the Arabs for their apostasy in opposing the Zionists. This would be their just reward for transgressing Sura 2:190, which says, "Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities."

Sura 5:21
Moses is quoted as telling the Jews to "enter into the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you". While Mohammed later condemns the Jews for their sins and their refusal to accept his message, he never says that, as punishment, Allah has revoked our title to the Holy Land. Therefore the title still stands, and Muslim anti- Zionists are apostates.

Sura 9:5
"Then when the Sacred Months have passed, kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and prepare for them each and every ambush. But if they repent and observe the Islamic lifestyle, then leave their way free. Verily, Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful." - Does this sound like a peaceful religion to you?

Sura 10:93-94
"We settled the Children of Israel in a beautiful dwelling-place...If thou wert in doubt as to what We have revealed unto thee, then ask those who have been reading the Book from before thee" - In case you had any doubts about whether the Koran talks about the Jews' right to live in the land of Israel.

Sura 16:126
"If ye punish, then punish with the like of that wherewith ye were afflicted." Yet Ariel Sharon's nonviolent, if provocative, visit to the Temple Mount was met with rioting, including the use of firebombs and AK-47's.

Sura 17:4
"And We [Allah] gave (clear) warning to the children of Israel in the Book, that twice would they do mischief on the earth and be elated with mighty arrogance (and twice would they be punished)!" The succeeding verses tell us that the punishment referred to was banishment from the land. But "twice" means twice, not three times; hence the Jews, having been banished from the land once by the Babylonians and a second time by Rome, will never again be banished from the land. According to the Koran, Israel is an eternal nation.

Moreover, "twice would they do mischief on the earth" means twice, not three times; hence the Jews will never again do mischief on the earth. In particular, the Jews cannot bear moral responsibility for the Palestinian refugee problem.

Sura 17:7
The Palestinians deny that there ever was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. But Sura 17:7 records the destruction of the First Temple by Babylon and the Second Temple by Rome, and Mohammed never contests the Bible's claim that the Temples were in Jerusalem.

Sura 17:104
The Jews' return from 19 centuries of exile is actually the fulfillment of Islamic prophecy. Sura 17:104 says that 'And we said to the Children of Israel afterwords, "Go live into this land. When the final prophecy comes to pass, we will summon you all in one group."'

Sura 60:9
Moreover, Sura 60:9 forbids aiding the enemies of the Muslim people. Contrast this with the Palestinians' continued support of Saddam Hussein, whose hands are red with the blood of Iranian, Kurdish, and Kuwaiti Muslims.

Sura 83:1
"Woe to those that deal in fraud"; yet Yasir Arafat reneged on his promise to guard Joseph's Tomb in Nablus after the Israeli troops withdrew.

How Do You Destroy the Jews?

Not an easy task.

The powerful Pharoah tried it and failed. Even ten plagues were not enough to convince him to stop. Nebuchadnezzer, king of Babylon, gave it a shot. And, of course, Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Syria, failed in his attempt, resulting in the celebration of Chanukah. Then there was the Roman army in the first century and the Crusaders in the 11th century, just to name a few more.

There were expulsions of Jews from England in 1290, France in 1306 and 1394, Hungary in 1349, Austria in 1421, Germany in the 14th and 16th centuries, Lithuania in 1445, Spain in 1492, Portugal in 1497, Bohemia and Moravia in 1744, among others. And throughout history there have been numerous pogroms, mass killings, threats, etc., etc.

Only 3 years after the closest attempt at total Jewish annihilation in the Halocaust, where two out of every three Jewish babies, teenagers, adults and elderly were given a bullet in the head, purposeful starvation, disease, burial alive/dead in a pit with fellow Jewish townspeople or gas chambers, one would think the world would put the idea of Jewish destruction to rest, at least for a while.

No way! Hence, another opportunity arose. Put the Jews into a barren little place that is "unreal" or "is real" (sic), which no one really wants.......except them. Every one of the countries surrounding this barren wasteland hates Jews with a passion, because it is part of their bible. So, either the cruel desert will kill them or the Arabs will. Only this time, the Europeans won't have to lend a "bloody" hand.

Europe certainly knew that after a Jewish state was declared, all surrounding Arab countries would attack the army-less Jews immediately. Survival would be impossible, just through sheer numbers.

In fact, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invaded this pathetic group of already emaciated Jews struggling for survival. Azzam Pasha, secretary general of the Arab League boldly declared, "This will be a war of extermination." Guess what Azzam? This ragtag group with their primitive weapons, claiming to have God on their side, wiped out those big, "brave" Arab warriors.

Europe, still washing the Jewish blood off its hands from WWII, and cleaning burnt flesh from underneath their fingernails, did not lend Israel a helping hand. Since giving them an easily targeted state was not working, the world had to come up with a new "final solution" for the Jewish problem.

This would begin as an idea called the Arab-Israeli dispute, which would mysteriously metastasize as a cause that every European socialist and leftist elite professor throughout the world could join to oppose Jews.. the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The "Palestinian cause" is Europe's way of clearing their consciences of culpability from WWII genocide. If the Europeans can show that the Jews are really bad guys anyway, and indeed, are committing their own form of genocide against the poor, defenseless Palestinians, then their own actions during WWII weren't really so objectionable. By continuing to recognize Yasser Arafat as the leader who is persecuted by those "bad" Jews, Europe today believes they are wiping away their own guilt and blood stained hands.

Most of the world, through the UN, agreed to give the Jews this tiny piece of real estate, probably realizing that it would eventually be destroyed or eaten up by bad neighbors. Thus allowing Europe to sweep its responsibility for The Holocaust quickly under the rug.

Not so fast. Those damn Jews just will not listen to the odds. 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, bigger weapons, more wars and the Jews refuse to lie down, creating even greater defeats and embarrassment for the macho Arab nations. So a new Jewish extermination plot arose.

Since Jews miraculously cannot be defeated by conventional means, we will destroy them from within through a new 21st century phenomenon called "Identity Theft;" thereby confusing and muddying the Jewish identity and historic relationship with its homeland of 3,500 years.

Enter master terrorist Yasser Arafat who began his crusade in 1964 with a totally new strategy. Since he could not steal the word Jew, he successfully confiscated the term that early Zionists used extensively for the Jewish homeland and Jewish inhabitants of Israel...Palestinian/Palestine. With his newly captured "brand identity" now giving him credibility and history, Arafat would now attempt to infiltrate the land by fraudulently claiming historical ties. Even his own Egyptian birth has been changed. And they say Jews are smart.

Diluting the Jewish brand from the Jewish idea of Palestine is the 21st century equivalent of "Zyklon B" for the Jewish people and Israel. The term "Palestinian" unconditionally belongs to Jews, as described in all of Theodore Herzl's works. Unless Jews recapture it, Israel will eventually become a giant gas chamber for Jewish inhabitants.

The only reason that most Arabs moved to Palestine was because Jews were building it up again for 2 centuries in anticipation of a return to this homeland. The Palestinian cause is the world's latest attempt to destroy the Jewish people and is probably the most dangerous in Jewish history.

Gas chambers are immediate proof of death with obvious smoke, smells and ashes. "Identity Theft" is done silently, eating away at your total being like cancer. And suddenly, it is too late. Ask anyone who has been a victim of this new, high tech lynching. Unfortunately, most of those so-called smart Jewish leaders in Israel do not even understand the problem. This form of marketing and public relations has always been Israel's Achilles' heel.

Let's hope Israel wake up before it's too late.

Palestinians VS Philistines

The Philistines:

It is from the term "Philistines" that the name "Palestinians" has been taken. Actually, the ancient Philistines and modern Palestinians have something in common: both are invaders from other lands! That is precisely the meaning of their name, that is not an ethnic denomination but an adjective applied to them: Peleshet, from the verb "pelesh", "dividers", "penetrators" or "invaders". The Philistines were a confederation of non-Semitic peoples coming from Crete, the Aegean Islands and Asia Minor, also known as "Sea Peoples". The main tribes were Tzekelesh, Shardana, Akhaiusha, Danauna, Tzakara, Masa or Meshwesh, Lukki, Dardana, Tursha, Keshesh or Karkisha, Labu and Irven.

The original homeland of the group that ruled the Philistine federation, namely the "Pelesati", was the island of Crete. When the Minoic civilization collapsed, also the Minoic culture disappeared from Crete, as invaders from Greece took control of the island.

These ancient Cretans arrived in Southern Canaan and were known as "Pelestim and Keretim" by Hebrews and Canaanites (that became allied to fight the invaders). Their first settlement seem to have been Gaza, whose original name was "Minoah", a clear reference to the fallen Minoic kingdom. They also invaded Egypt and were defeated by Pharaoh Ramose III in the 12th century b.c.e. The Philistines were organized in city-states, being the most important the Pentapolis: Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron, and their territory was close to the Mediterranean coast, a little longer and broader than the present-day "Gaza Strip" - not the whole Judah, they never reached Hevron, Jerusalem or Yericho!

Those Sea Peoples that invaded Egypt were expelled towards other Mediterranean lands and did not evolve into any Arab people, but disappeared as distinguishable groups in Roman times. Those dwelling in Canaan were defeated by King David and reduced to insignificance, the best warriors among them were chosen as David's bodyguard.

The remaining Philistines still dwelling in Gaza were subdued by Sargon II of Assyria and after that time, they disappeared definitively from history. They are no longer mentioned since the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon.

Where did the name Palestine come from?

The name Palestine refers to a region of the eastern Mediterranean coast from the sea to the Jordan valley and from the southern Negev desert to the Galilee lake region in the north. The word itself derives from "Plesheth", a name that appears frequently in the Bible and has come into English as "Philistine". Plesheth, (root palash) was a general term meaning rolling or migratory. This referred to the Philistine's invasion and conquest of the coast from the sea.

The Philistines were not Arabs nor even Semites, they were most closely related to the Greeks originating from Asia Minor and Greek localities. They did not speak Arabic. They had no connection, ethnic, linguistic or historical with Arabia or Arabs.

The Philistines reached the southern coast of Israel in several waves. One group arrived in the pre-patriarchal period and settled south of Beersheba in Gerar where they came into conflict with Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Another group, coming from Crete after being repulsed from an attempted invasion of Egypt by Rameses III in 1194 BCE, seized the southern coastal area, where they founded five settlements (Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gat). In the Persian and Greek periods, foreign settlers - chiefly from the Mediterranean islands - overran the Philistine districts.

From the fifth century BC, following the historian Herodotus, Greeks called the eastern coast of the Mediterranean "the Philistine Syria" using the Greek language form of the name. In AD 135, after putting down the Bar Kochba revolt, the second major Jewish revolt against Rome, the Emperor Hadrian wanted to blot out the name of the Roman "Provincia Judaea" and so renamed it "Provincia Syria Palaestina", the Latin version of the Greek name and the first use of the name as an administrative unit. The name "Provincia Syria Palaestina" was later shortened to Palaestina, from which the modern, anglicized "Palestine" is derived.

His remained the situation until the end of the fourth century, when in the wake of a general imperial reorganization Palestine became three Palestines: First, Second, and Third. This configuration is believed to have persisted into the seventh century, the time of the Persian and Muslim conquests.

The Christian Crusaders employed the word Palestine to refer to the general region of the "three Palestines." After the fall of the crusader kingdom, Palestine was no longer an official designation. The name, however, continued to be used informally for the lands on both sides of the Jordan River. The Ottoman Turks, who were non-Arabs but religious Muslims, ruled the area for 400 years (1517-1917). Under Ottoman rule, the Palestine region was attached administratively to the province of Damascus and ruled from Istanbul. The name Palestine was revived after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and applied to the territory in this region that was placed under the British Mandate for Palestine.

The name "Falastin" that Arabs today use for "Palestine" is not an Arabic name. It is the Arab pronunciation of the Roman "Palaestina". Quoting Golda Meir:

The British chose to call the land they mandated Palestine, and the Arabs picked it up as their nation's supposed ancient name, though they couldn't even pronounce it correctly and turned it into Falastin a fictional entity. [In an article by Sarah Honig, Jerusalem Post, November 25, 1995]

Conclusion:

There is not one single person in the world who may be able to prove Philistine lineage, yet, if Palestinians insist, they have to recognize themselves as invaders in Israel, and then they must ask Greece to return them back the Isle of Crete! The Philistines are extinct and claims to alleged links with them are utterly false as they are historically impossible to establish. In any case, claiming a Philistine heritage is idle because it cannot legitimate any land in which they were foreign occupants and not native dwellers. Philistines were not Arabs, and the only feature in common between both peoples is that in Israel they should be regarded as invaders, Philistines from the sea and Arabs from the wilderness. They do not want Jerusalem because it is their city, which is not and never has been, they simply want to take her from the Jews, to whom she has belonged for three thousand years. The Philistines wanted to take from Israelites the Holy Ark of the Covenant, modern so-called Palestinians want to take from them the Holy City of the Covenant.

The Palestinians:

No, they are not any ancient people, but claim to be. They were born in a single day, after a war that lasted six days in 1967 c.e. If they were true Canaanites, they would speak Hebrew and demand from Syria to give them back their occupied homeland in Lebanon, but they are not. If they were Philistines, they would claim back the Isle of Crete from Greece and would recognize that they have nothing to do with the Land of Israel, and would ask excuses to Israel for having stolen the Ark of the Covenant.

Jordan is Palestine

In reality the Ottoman Province of Palestine was divided three times between the end of WWI and 1948. In 1923, Churchill gave the land east of the Jordan River to Emir Abdullah of the Hashemite Tribe, to reward him for the Hashemite support of Britain during WWI. In 1948, Britain had lost control of what was left of "Palestine" and threw the question to the UN. The UN voted to divide the remainder of Palestine AGAIN; the result was two states - one Jewish and one Arab. (The Arabs refused to accept this division, and Abdullah saw opportunities to enlarge his own state.)

After the Israeli War of Independence, Abdullah, who had then declared himself King of Jordan, welcomed displaced Palestinians to solidify his claim to the West Bank as part of Jordan and to retain control of Jerusalem.

After the British Mandate in the Middle East came to an end an injustice occurred, the territory of the mandate Divided in an unjust manner, and external factors claimed ownership of part of the territory.

Hashemite Kingdom established a dictatorial monarchy and continues to exist Forcing itself on 70% of Palestinian citizens. They do not enjoy equal rights and in fact Prevents them from establishing their state.

Although most of Jordan's population today is Palestinian (about 70%, since the '50s of the 20th century) there is a dispute about being a Palestinian state. Hashemite royal family established the Jordan (20s of the 20th century), which dominates to this day, not Palestinian, Jordanian kingdom does not see itself as a Palestinian state.

Certain periods even deeper disputes arose between the Hashemite royal family and the Jordanian citizens Bedouin Palestinian population in Jordan. However, Jordan is the only Arab country that gave full citizenship to most Palestinian refugees from its territory following Israel's War of Independence. On 26 December 1981, King Hussein declared in an interview with the Arab newspaper "A - Nahar Al - Arabi, that" truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.

However, the current king of Jordan, Abdullah II (son of King Hussein), declared in a speech in June 2006, following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Jordan will never be an alternative homeland to anyone, the Palestinian homeland and their state should be on the ground Palestinian and elsewhere.

Shalom/ Salaam/ Peace

Join Us As We Declare Jordan the new Palestinian State On This Day, May 9, 2011, (5 Iyar 5771), 63 years to the day, that Israel became the Jewish State. Israel Independence Day and Now The First Jordanian Palestine Independence Day As Well.'Two States Side By Side Living In Peace.'

Mazel Tov.

You Might Also Like:The Proof of Jordan is Palestine

An Open Letter to Israel Prime minister

Dear Prime Minister,

If Israel's best young men and women must die, at least let them die defending a proud Nation... not a Nation groveling at the feet of murderers. Re-ignite the spirit of King David rather than that of the defenseless ghetto Jew. Be merciless on the Arab enemy who feeds off the carcasses of dead Jews. There are NO "bridges for peace." They disappeared long ago... right after Hagar and Sarah realized there wasn't enough of Abraham to go around!

The Arab enemy has chosen the terms of engagement. We want to live... they want us to die. That concept SHOULD be simple enough to grasp. The "Palestinians" are historical nobodies yet you have foolishly given them legitimacy. The world will not miss one single Arab "Palestinian." They have given the civilized world nothing but long lines at airport security checks. So why are you suddenly taking up their cause?

May I suggest that you take a walk through the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem where we took these photos. Look for the grave of that beloved Jewish soldier and try to convince his parents that the Arabs truly seek peace. And one more thing, Dear Prime minister, Wipe that silly smile off your face when you go there!

Why so many Jews have such an inexplicable urge to be loved by the world to the point of sacrificing themselves to minimize harm to enemy civilians or their olive trees?

It can only be called madness!

They twist normal self-preservation to show the world that they are better and DEADER than their enemies.

Unfortunately, by asking the Israel soldier not to sink to his enemy's level, he ends up sinking six feet BELOW his enemy's level! All in hopes of being admired by the world and his enemies.... posthumously, of course!

If there are still some Jews so riddled with some sort of ageless ghetto mentality wishing to lay down THEIR OWN lives so that their enemy's "civilians" might live, that's just fine with us.

And the sooner we Jews rid ourselves of these sick Jewish types, the better!

But when these same Jews happen to be the leaders of Israel or I.D.F. commanders, THEN Israel surely has a problem... And THAT problem is the running out of Jewish soldiers!

The Arabs are fighting Israel and now Israel must fight like a real army!

If Israel could in 1967 defeat the combined Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian Armies in just six days, surely today's more powerful Israel Army could deal a death blow to the Palestinian Arabs in just six HOURS!

And THIS time, throw them out and KEEP THEM OUT!

No End in Sight...

While Israel continues to participate in one make-believe "Peace Process" after the other after the other after the other after the other...

Mothers water their sons' graves while cemetery workers will prepare new ones until the Israeli politicians finally
'Gets It."

This was written during the frightening prime ministership of Ehud Barak, during which he nearly gave away the 'whole store' for peace. Thank G-d Arafat once again saved Israel from herself by refusing his offer which may have been nearly 100% of his 'demands"... but not 100% of them! These words could just as easily have been written during the present Ariel Sharon prime ministership or ANY future one that thinks the Arabs will ever stop murdering Jews.

An Open Letter to Israel Prime Minister, Israel, Jews, IDF, Arabs, Palestine, Palestinians, Wars, Middle East Conflict, Middle East, News, Politics

"An Open Letter to Israel Prime Minister" Israel Jews IDF Arabs Palestine Palestinians Wars "Middle East Conflict" "Middle East" News Politics Military Analysis Arabic Government Educational Religion Warfare Commentary Protest



Masada 2000

Why People Should NOT Support the Palestinians

As I said, I do not, and I will not, support the Palestinian cause. Why not? I have a number of reasons, and here they are:

1. You have made it clear beyond any shadow of doubt that you intend to destroy Israel and kill or drive out its Jewish population. This is genocide, pure and simple. You justify this by saying that Israel has committed many crimes against your people, and that you seek "justice." I say this in response- NOTHING WHATSOEVER is an acceptable justification for genocide. Loss of land, humiliation at being militarily defeated - others have suffered these and moved on to create new
nations and opportunities for themselves.

Examples abound- the Germans thrown out of East Prussia in Europe, 1945, the Nationalist Chinese who fled to Taiwan in 1949, to name but two. Germans and Taiwanese have coped with military defeat and the loss of land. They haven't warred with their neighbors, nor have they launched terrorist attacks upon them. Both countries have more wealth than any Arab nation. Why can't Palestinians cope? Are Germans and Chinese better able to deal with adversity than Arabs?

2. You have accused the Israelis of "genocide" against you. Here's a question for you: Israel has atomic bombs and powerful military forces. If they really, truly wanted you all dead, they could easily do it. Why haven't they?

If the Israelis went all-out, you would be, as we say in New Zealand, "dog tucker". Why did they spend so much time negotiating with your leaders? Because Israel wants peace and secure borders. You refuse to give them even those. You plan genocide and accuse Israel of the same crime. Prove it!

3.The use of terrorism. Killing people for being Jewish is despicable. Terrorist attacks on innocent civilians are also despicable. At this point, I'd like to pause and get a question of nomenclature cleared up, regarding those Palestinians who kill themselves and others with explosives strapped to their bodies. You call them "martyrs." Western media sources and academics debate the precise term to use in describing them. Others, including the Israelis, call them terrorists.

I have a better, more appropriate term. I prefer to use the word "kamikazes." The original kamikazes appeared in 1944, in the war in the Pacific. They were Japanese Navy and Army pilots, organized into "Special Attack Units" with orders to crash their planes into American warships, in the hope of destroying them - "one plane, one ship". Their initial impact was similar to that of the Al-Quaeda attacks on New York and the Pentagon- shock and horror. (I noted that many Palestinians appeared on Western TV celebrating the September attacks). Note: The American response, in both cases was not the one hoped for.

Once the shock had worn off, the US set out to destroy the kamikazes, and terrible destruction was rained down on Japan, ending only with 2 atomic bombs. You know what is happening right now in Afghanistan to the Al-Quaeda group.

4.Using children as suicide bombers. Anyone who teaches children to kill themselves in suicide attacks is not worth supporting under any circumstances. For you to do this to your children is an abomination. A commentator on a Web magazine said that if the Palestinians laid down their arms, they would get peace and land. If the Israelis laid down their arms, they would be killed. You know that is true, even if most of Europe doesn't. Your cause is evil, because it seeks destruction at any price. Genocide is not justice. Sacrificing your own children for the sake of your leader's personal ambitions is wicked.

That's why I cannot support you. That's why I stand with Israel.

Are you really going to give Israel no other option except your destruction?
If they must choose, then as Israeli historian Martin Van Creveld said, "better a terrible end than terror without end.

Palestinian's Holocaust

"The "Palestinians" Think They Have It So Bad, Do They?"

F I C T I O N
"The creation of Israel is "Palestine Holocaust Day" and the Palestinian People
were subjected to the worst Holocaust in history."
-Words spoken by Yassir Arafat May 10, 1997-

R E A L I T Y
The poor, suffering Arab-"Palestinians" see themselves as "Holocaust Victims," do they? Amazing! Before that, they likened themselves to the tragedy of the American Indian! And, so as not to skip a beat, they're also suffering a similar "ethnic cleansing," "genocide," and even "crimes against humanity" as suffered the Kosova Moslems and, yes, even the Jewish victims of Nazi brutality. In Reality, comparing the Arab-Palestinian condition to these other REAL tragedies, is a tragedy in itself!

The Arabs and Islamists remake history to serve their own interests, and their tales of woe and suffering are in reality intended to lull people into a state of pacifism to enable their eventual domination and subjugation of the world.

Palestinian's Holocaust

"The "Palestinians" Think They Have It So Bad, Do They?"

F I C T I O N
"The creation of Israel is "Palestine Holocaust Day" and the Palestinian People
were subjected to the worst Holocaust in history."
-Words spoken by Yassir Arafat May 10, 1997-

R E A L I T Y
The poor, suffering Arab-"Palestinians" see themselves as "Holocaust Victims," do they? Amazing! Before that, they likened themselves to the tragedy of the American Indian! And, so as not to skip a beat, they're also suffering a similar "ethnic cleansing," "genocide," and even "crimes against humanity" as suffered the Kosova Moslems and, yes, even the Jewish victims of Nazi brutality. In Reality, comparing the Arab-Palestinian condition to these other REAL tragedies, is a tragedy in itself!

The Arabs and Islamists remake history to serve their own interests, and their tales of woe and suffering are in reality intended to lull people into a state of pacifism to enable their eventual domination and subjugation of the world.

Palestinians in the Arab World

by Khaled Abu Toameh - Brought to you by Speedy

When was the last time the United Nations Security Council met to condemn an Arab government for its mistreatment of Palestinians?

How come groups and individuals on university campuses in the US and Canada that call themselves "pro-Palestinian" remain silent when Jordan revokes the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians?

The plight of Palestinians living in Arab countries in general, and Lebanon in particular, is one that is often ignored by the mainstream media in West.

How come they turn a blind eye to the fact that Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and many more Arab countries continue to impose severe travel restrictions on Palestinians?

And where do these groups and individuals stand regarding the current debate in Lebanon about whether to grant Palestinians long-denied basic rights, including employment, social security and medical care?

Or have they not heard about this debate at all? Probably not, since the case has failed to draw the attention of most Middle East correspondents and commentators.

A news story on the Palestinians that does not include an anti-Israel angle rarely makes it to the front pages of Western newspapers.

The demolition of an Arab-owned illegal building in Jerusalem is, for most of these correspondents, much more important than the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Lebanon continue to suffer from a series of humiliating restrictions.

Not only are Palestinians living in Lebanon denied the right to own property, but they also do not qualify for health care, and are banned by law from working in a large number of jobs.

Can someone imagine what would be the reaction in the international community if Israel tomorrow passed a law that prohibits its Arab citizens from working as taxi drivers, journalists, physicians, cooks, waiters, engineers and lawyers? Or if the Israeli Ministry of Education issued a directive prohibiting Arab children from enrolling in universities and schools?

But who said that the Lebanese authorities have not done anything to "improve" the situation? In fact, the Palestinians living in that country should be grateful to the Lebanese government.

Until 2005, the law prohibited Palestinians from working in 72 professions. Now the list of jobs has been reduced to 50.

Still, Palestinians are not allowed to work as physicians, journalists, pharmacists or lawyers in Lebanon.

Ironically, it is much easier for a Palestinian to acquire American and Canadian citizenship than a passport of an Arab country. In the past, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were even entitled to Israeli citizenship if they married an Israeli citizen, or were reunited with their families inside the country.

Lebanese politicians are now debating new legislation that would grant "civil rights" to Palestinians for the first time in 62 years. The new bill includes the right to own property, social security payments and medical care.

Many Lebanese are said to be opposed to the legislation out of fear that it would pave the way for the integration of Palestinians into their society and would constitute a burden to the economy.

The heated debate has prompted parliament to postpone a vote on the bill until next month.

Nadim Khoury, director of Human Rights Watch in Beirut, said, "Lebanon has marginalized Palestinian refugees for too long and the parliament should seize this opportunity to turn the page and end discrimination against Palestinians."

Rami Khouri, a prominent Lebanese journalist, wrote in The Daily Star that "all Arab countries mistreat millions of Arab, Asian and African foreign guest workers, who often are treated little better than chattel or indentured laborers…The mistreatment, abysmal living conditions and limited work, social security and property rights of the Palestinians [in Lebanon] are a lingering moral black mark."

Foreign journalists often justify their failure to report on the suffering of Palestinians in the Arab world by citing "security concerns" and difficulty in obtaining an entry visa into an Arab country.

But these are weak and unacceptable excuses given the fact that most of them could still write about these issues from their safe offices and homes in New York, London and Paris. Isn't that what most of them are anyway doing when they are write about the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?





http://www.hudson-ny.org/1422/palestinians-in-arab-world

Zionism

Zionism is the Jewish national movement of rebirth and renewal in the land of Israel - the historical birthplace of the Jewish people. The yearning to return to Zion, the biblical term for both the Land of Israel and Jerusalem, has been the cornerstone of Jewish religious life since the Jewish exile from the land two thousand years ago, and is embedded in Jewish prayer, ritual, literature and culture.

Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in response to the violent persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, anti-Semitism in Western Europe. Modern Zionism fused the ancient Jewish biblical and historical ties to the ancestral homeland with the modern concept of nationalism into a vision of establishing a modern Jewish state in the land of Israel.

The "father" of modern Zionism, Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl, consolidated various strands of Zionist thought into an organized political movement, advocating for international recognition of a "Jewish state" and encouraging Jewish immigration to build the land.

Today, decades after the actual founding of a Jewish state, Zionism continues to be the guiding nationalist movement of the majority of Jews around the world who believe in, support and identify with the State of Israel. Zionism, the national aspiration of the Jewish people to a homeland, is to the Jewish people what the liberation movements of Africa and Asia have been to their peoples.

History has demonstrated the need to ensure Jewish security through such a homeland. The re-establishment of Jewish independence in Israel, after centuries of struggle to overcome foreign conquest and exile, is a vindication of the fundamental concepts of the equality of nations and of self-determination. To question the Jewish people's right to national existence and freedom is not only to deny to the Jewish people the right accorded to every other people on this globe, but it is also to deny the central precepts of the United Nations.

The Spirit Of The IDF

What Would You Do If You Were An Israeli Soldier?

Can you imagine the split second, life and death decisions that you would have to make and some of the ethical dilemmas you would face if you were a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces?

It is not easy to put yourself in the shoes of an 18-year-old Israeli who has a job to do, often a dangerous and unpleasant one. Put aside for a moment the political issues of whether Israeli policy is right or wrong. As a soldier, you have a job to do independent of the decisions of the government or your own personal beliefs.

First, and foremost, the job of an Israeli soldier is to defend the citizens of the State of Israel.

The Spirit Of The IDF
How do you accomplish this goal in a way that is consistent with international law, Israeli law and the ethical code of the military? The IDF has developed a code of conduct – “the spirit of the IDF” to help guide you. Memorize these 11 rules:

1. Military action can only be taken against military targets.
2. The use of force must be proportional.
3. Soldiers may only use weaponry they were issued by the IDF.
4. Anyone who surrenders cannot be attacked.
5. Only those who are properly trained can interrogate prisoners.
6. Soldiers must accord dignity and respect to the Palestinian population and those arrested.
7. Soldiers must give appropriate medical care, when conditions allow, to oneself and one's enemy.
8. Pillaging is absolutely and totally illegal.
9. Soldiers must show proper respect for religious and cultural sites and artifacts.
10. Soldiers must protect international aid workers, including their property and vehicles.
11. Soldiers must report all violations of this code.

This is a helpful guide, but you are fighting an enemy that does not play by any rules. Terrorists, for example, may hide behind civilians rather than defend them. They may dress the same way you do, so it is impossible to distinguish people who are dangerous from those who are innocent. These decisions often must be made in a split second.

As a soldier, you are taught to kill or be killed. You have little time to decide friend from foe – hesitation could be fatal. If a suicide bomber approaches, for example, a soldier has eight seconds to decide whether or not to shoot. But you must think before acting. A mistake can have catastrophic consequences. Instead of killing the enemy, an innocent person might be harmed as when a UN outpost was accidentally bombed in Lebanon and a mortar round was inaccurately fired into a home in Gaza that killed many innocent people. Mistakes are also often magnified by press coverage so they can have international political repercussions.

A Military Solution
Some people say that you cannot defeat terrorism militarily. It is not true. It is possible if you are willing to employ extreme measures. In Syria, Islamic fundamentalists threatened the regime of Hafez Assad. His response was to send the army to the town where his opponents were based and destroy the entire city. An estimated 20,000 people were killed in Hama in 1982 and no television cameras recorded the event, no UN condemnations were issued, no Arab spokespeople decried the massacre. The operation did successfully end the threat to Assad’s power. Similarly, King Hussein faced a threat from the PLO, which had established a state within a state in Jordan. When the danger to his throne became acute in 1970, he sent his army to drive Yasser Arafat and his fellow “freedom fighters” out of Jordan in what became known among Palestinians as Black September. More Palestinians were killed in that month of fighting than in all the conflicts with Israel over the last 58 years.

Even the United States has not hesitated to use overwhelming force to destroy its enemies. And it too has occasionally made tragic mistakes, as when faulty intelligence led to an airstrike on an Afghan wedding party rather than the group of terrorists it expected. The Allies fire bombed Dresden and the U.S. used nuclear weapons against Japan in World War II.

If Israel had no moral code, and did not care how many people died, or how many innocents fell along with the terrorists, it could also put an end to the violence. But Israel does have an ethical code that requires every effort to be made to spare the lives of noncombatants.

Ethical Dilemmas
Israel makes a deliberate effort to target only the people who pose a threat. But who do you choose to strike:

A) The person carrying a bomb?
B) The person who drives the bomber to his destination?
C) The engineer who builds the bomb?
D) The person who provides money for the bomber or the explosives?
E) The Muslim cleric who calls on his followers to kill Jews?
F) The person who watches the preacher on TV?

Once the decision is made to strike, the ethical code of the IDF says that you must provide a warning to prevent civilian casualties. So, for example, in Lebanon, Israel dropped leaflets in villages warning that it intended to bomb them. What other army would give away the element of surprise and announce to their enemies, We’re coming to get you, run away now, or prepare to fight us?

In 2002, Israel learned that the head of the military arm of Hamas was going to be in his apartment and the decision was made to drop a two ton bomb on the building. He was killed, but the intelligence about the surrounding buildings was wrong and many innocent people were also killed, prompting international criticism.

A month later, the entire leadership of Hamas was in one room and the IDF knew it would again need a two ton bomb to destroy the building and eliminate all the terrorists. It was akin to the United States learning bin Laden and all his top commanders were in one place. Because of the earlier experience, however, and fear of harming innocents, the army was forced to use a smaller bomb and it did not destroy the building, and all of the terrorists escaped.

Sometimes Israel actually places its soldiers in greater danger by adopting strategies to save civilians. In one case, for example, before an attack, soldiers were clearing an area in the Gaza Strip of noncombatants. Two soldiers were helping an old Palestinian woman get some water and were shot by a sniper.

In one of the most tragic cases, Israel decided to send troops into the refugee camp in Jenin in 2002 to root out terrorists known to be operating from inside. Israel could have simply dropped a bomb on the area and would have eliminated all the terrorists, but many innocent Palestinians would have been killed. Instead, the decision was made to go house to house and engage the terrorists, who had set up booby-traps and ambushes. In the end, the soldiers successfully completed the operation, but 13 soldiers were killed and 75 were wounded.

Standing in an Israeli Soldier's Shoes
Now that you have some background on what Israel is up against, it is time to take your place on the front lines and make decisions about what you would do if faced with the type of dilemmas Israeli soldiers face every day.

Part 2 - WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Standing in an Israeli Soldier's Shoes
Now that you have some background on what Israel is up against, it is time to take your place on the front lines and make decisions about what you would do if faced with the type of dilemmas Israeli soldiers face every day....

1) At a checkpoint in the West Bank. Your job is to check people and vehicles that are requesting entrance into Israel. On a typical day many Palestinian Arabs cross over from the West Bank into Israel proper, mainly for work and often for medical reasons (many Palestinians use hospitals in Israel). They line up at checkpoints so the Israeli Army can search each person and vehicle to make sure they are not carrying weapons.

According to intelligence information you’ve received, an ambulance is expected to arrive with a wanted terrorist in it carrying an explosive belt for a suicide attack against innocent Israeli civilians.

Suddenly an ambulance arrives, and inside is a woman who is seemingly pregnant. It has happened at checkpoints that not everybody who appears to be pregnant is truly pregnant. The woman appears to be in pain and her husband is also highly anxious. The ambulance driver says the woman is about to give birth and without the proper medical attention at the hospital, the newborn baby will struggle to survive.

It is a hot day and there is a long line of cars. Your commander is yelling at you on the two-way radio, “Do not let ambulances go through because there is a terrorist in an ambulance!”

To complicate the picture, a news video crew is present. To further complicate the situation, the pregnant woman is a religious Muslim and it is considered disrespectful to touch a religious woman. You are not a doctor, but you have to make a decision. If you let the ambulance go through and it contains a terrorist, then innocent people will die. If there is not a terrorist in this particular ambulance, you may cause the woman to lose her child.

What Actually Happened?
The vehicle was stopped and searched and another ambulance was called.

2) You are serving within a commando unit in the southern West Bank, south of Hebron. Your current mission is to infiltrate a small village of about 30 people. There is a suspected terrorist living within this small village who is known to have created explosives for suicide bombings.

There is a lot of information and research on this particular terrorist, and his arrest is important for the safety and security of Israeli citizens. Your unit is heading by foot to this hilltop village starting at 5 a.m. On your trek up to the top of the hill, your leader notices an older shepherd from the village on a nearby hill. The shepherd, with his flock of sheep, sees you and your unit approaching the village.
What Would Do?

What Actually Happened?
The Shepard ends up inflicting some harm though. He warns the village and the operation is compromised.

3) Your unit is called in to respond to a sniper who is shooting from inside a hospital. What do you do?

What Actually Happened?
Warn the hospital of your intention to enter and then move in carefully to take out the sniper.

4) You are part of a patrol unit near the Palestinian city of Jenin. Over the past few weeks a thorough investigative research has found a terrorist aide to be living in a small house on the outskirts of Jenin.

He is thought to have assisted a few suicide bombers in the making and preparing of their suicide-bomb belts. Your mission is to go to his house, arrest him, and search his home for additional weapons and bomb-making materials. Your unit’s truck approaches his house, enters his home through a side window, and arrests him, avoiding gunfire and confrontation. You order his family to take a few belongings with them for a few hours as the unit has to search the house.

The man’s wife and kids reluctantly agree, grab a few items, and slowly exit their home. The wife and kids all leave the home carrying a bag or backpack with a few home items inside. The man’s older son, who is about 4 years old, is crying and requests repeatedly to go over and say goodbye to his father. What do you do?

What Actually Happened?
The boy ran away. He was chased and caught. He was carrying dynamite sticks in his backpack.

5) Palestinians terrorists shoot at an Israeli civilian car and you are engaged in a chase. The terrorists flee into a mosque where a prayer service is being held. What do you do?

What Actually Happened?
A group of terrorists in Gaza holed up in a mosque and a group of women came and put themselves between the soldiers and the terrorists. The Israelis retreated and the terrorists were allowed to escape.

6) You are driving in a jeep in the West Bank with another soldier and see a Palestinian placing a pile of rocks in the road that you suspect may be booby-trapped.
What do you do?

What Actually Happened?
If the soldiers see the Palestinian place the rocks in the road, it is permissible to order the person to remove them. However, if no one is seen placing the rocks, it is forbidden to force a local resident to help move them because civilians cannot be used as human shields.