PM Sharon's Unilateral Steps to withdraw from Gaza

Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael B. Oren: "Geneva is the product of Israelis who have forgotten how to defend their nation's most basic interests." "Under Geneva, no Jew could remain in the Palestinian state, but Palestinians could live in both Israel and Palestine. Palestinian refugees would be compensated, but the even larger numbers of Jewish refugees from Arab countries aren't even mentioned. Israel represents only its own citizens, and not the Jewish people, while the PLO represents "the Palestinian people," presumably everywhere--even in Israel. And, while the Accord would require Israel to pay Palestine for damages caused by the settlements, the Palestinians are forgiven any debts for decades of terrorism. In fact, the Accord adopts the Palestinian perspective on nearly every key issue. It accepts the Palestinian definition of the Temple Mount as an exclusive Islamic possession, of East Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods as "settlements," and of U.N. Resolution 242 as mandating Israel's return to the 1967 borders. It implies acceptance of the Palestinian narrative on the origins of the refugee problem. Tellingly, the Accord devotes obsessive detail to restrictions imposed on Israel--from yielding a Christian cemetery in West Jerusalem, to the number of hours allotted Israel to complain to foreign monitors--yet it becomes vague when dealing with Palestinian obligations like curtailing terrorism and incitement."

Sharon: "Geneva Accord" is most historic, tragic mistake since Oslo

Natan Sharansky: “One doesn't have to be religious in order to understand that relinquishing the Temple Mount is a justification of the Palestinian argument: You have no right to exist in this country, you have no connection to it, get out of here. One doesn't have to be religious in order to understand that relinquishing the Temple Mount is not only relinquishing the past, it is primarily relinquishing the future. The future of all of us, here.”  

Palestinian lnitiator of "Geneva Understandings" Discloses: Purpose of Agreement Is to Arouse Political Debate in Israel, No Concession on Right of Return, No Recognition of Israel as Jewish State
Kadura Fares, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a senior member of the Fatah movement, gave an interview to the London newspaper al-Hayat in which he clarified the purpose of the "Geneva understandings." He stated that they were intended to arouse an internal Israeli debate that would stand in opposition to the policy of the Israeli government. He specified that while at Taba the Palestinians were to obtain 87% of the 1967 territories, now they would achieve nearly 100% including Israeli removal of Ariel. He added that the Palestinians did not concede the right of return. Nor did they recognize Israel as a Jewish state. [PA national security advisor Jibril Rajoub who represented Arafat at the Geneva ceremony: "There is no phrase that calls for dropping the right of return".] Finally, the Palestinians would acquire full sovereignty over Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount). (NewsFirstClass-Hebrew/MSN-Israel-Hebrew)

From Daily Alert October 14, 2003 Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in association with Access/Middle East by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Charles Krauthammer: "This is not a peace treaty, this is a suicide note -- by a private citizen on behalf of a country that has utterly rejected him politically. That it should get any encouragement from the United States or from its secretary of state is a disgrace."  (Also see: Inside  the surreal world of the Geneva Peace Accords: Sippin' Geneva Juice.)
 

Meanwhile, Egypt, a declared partner in Islam's War against the Jews, backs a false peace to facilitate Israel's destruction.   Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz: "Its crystal clear that Egypt supports terrorism against Israel by enabling Hamas and others to transform Sinai into their logistical rear.   The real policy of Egypt is to get the Israelis and Palestinians to bleed together."

By the way, Against Whom is Egypt Arming?

Caroline Glick: "Egypt's support for the continuation of the Palestinian terror war is part and parcel of an overall strategy of weakening Israel politically, diplomatically, and defensively while building up the Egyptian armed forces to a level of parity with the IDF.  'Egypt's military buildup is beyond any proportion to conceivable external threats to Egypt and is a cause for alarm.'  Starting in 1996, the order of battle at Egypt's annual Bader combined forces exercise has explicitly named the opposing force as "a small nation to the country's northeast." Unless the Egyptians are referring to the Gaza Strip, that nation is of course Israel."  This is made all the more dangerous when one bears in mind that in the event of a war, Egypt will not be fighting by itself but rather as part of a coalition of Arab states."

Palestinians -- supported by Iran, Saudi Arabia (the U.S.'s "great friend," "ally against terror," and master-purveyor of anti Semitism) and EGYPT -- used the Hudna from the beginning  to prepare a  new wave of terror attacks.

Former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) dismisses the widely accepted notion that it was Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's lack of gestures that forced him to resign.  Arafat's Latest Hand Picked PM, Ahmed Qurei ("Abu Ala") Is No Moderate.  And he needs Arafat's approval for every single step.

 "The road map, in both its conception and implementation, is based on the presumption that if we, the United States and Israel, pretend hard enough then reality will follow. It is not working." "Through their actions today, the Palestinians have shown that like Hizballah, they intend to achieve their phase-one goal without disarming or disengaging from their military campaign against Israel."  Make no mistake, the noose around Israel's neck is tightening.

"[T]he conflict is not about the fence or the settlements, or even why the democratically elected Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Israeli army are not the moral equivalent of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his terrorist thugs. . .  The conflict is still about the right of the Jews to have their own state, and to live in it in peace and security."

Intentionally killing civilians from America, Europe, or Asia (or almost anywhere else) makes you a terrorist—but intentionally killing innocent Jews in Israel merely makes you a “militant.” 

Palestinian Authority National Security Adviser Jibril Rajoub's scathing attack on the U.S. and call on Arabs to support "resistance operations" against U.S. troops in Iraq.

WHAT'S COMING

PA Brig.Gen.Wadyeh explained that the PA-announced ceasefire does not mean that the Intifada will stop. . . Our leadership is wise and understands the dimensions of the current stage very well. . . " [PAC Comment:  what this fellow undoubtedly means by "the current stage:" "This is all Palestine, from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea. . .  We will continue the struggle to victory in liberating Palestine."  This last quote comes from an Israeli-Arab summer camp instructor no less!!]  The Palestinians are telling us exactly where this is all headed.  Are we listening?

From the point of view of extremists, suicide-murder pays. It is time to ask ourselves honestly: Is it possible to support a Palestinian state without encouraging terrorists elsewhere?  The fact is, murderers who take 90-day vacations are still murderers.

Jordanian Ambassador Rejects Jewish Claim to Temple Mount - Judy Lash Balint (FrontPageMagazine)
    Last Monday, Jordan's Ambassador to Israel, Dr. Marouf Bakhit, called a hasty meeting with Israeli Foreign Ministry officials to declare his country's outrage over the "provocative act" of a group of Jews who had the audacity to go up to the Temple Mount in commemoration of Jerusalem Day.
    The very next day, the suave, urbane Ambassador Bakhit told a group of diplomats and journalists at a Jerusalem think tank that there is absolutely no proof that the Temple ever stood at the spot, now occupied by the Muslim shrine known as the Dome of the Rock.
    The entire episode may be viewed as part of the ongoing Arab strategy to delegitimize Jewish claims to holy sites and by extension to Jerusalem itself.

Abu Mazen: “They [the Jews] claim that 2000 years ago they had a Temple. I challenge the claim that this is so.” Abu Mazen:  Israel's partner for peace.

Palestinians burn Jospeh's Tomb, Judaism's 3rd holiest site

Aron U. Raskas, www.onejerusalem.org:  Jerusalem Must Not Be Severed From Israel

Ancient Handle with Hebrew Text Found in Jerusalem - Joseph Marks
Archaeologists digging on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives have discovered a nearly 3,000-year-old jar handle bearing ancient Hebrew script, a find significantly older than most inscribed artifacts unearthed in the ancient city. The Iron Age handle is inscribed with the Hebrew name Menachem, which was the name of an Israelite king and is still common among Jews, said archaeologist Ron Beeri, who directed the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority. This is the first time an artifact bearing the name has been unearthed in Jerusalem, Beeri said. Based on the style of the inscription, he dated the handle to around 900 BCE, the time of the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem as recounted in the Bible. (AP/Washington Post)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, May 22, 2009]

2,000-Year-Old Hebrew Scroll Found by Palestinian Antiquities Thieves - Jonathan Lis
Two Palestinians were arrested Tuesday for attempting to sell a rare antique Hebrew scroll. Handwritten in Hebrew on papyrus paper and estimated to be more than 2,000 years old, the document was written by a widow named Miryam Ben Yaakov. The document was apparently stolen from a cave by antiquities raiders. All archeological artifacts within Israel's borders are state property and trading in artifacts is illegal. (Ha'aretz)
    See also Ancient Hebrew Document Found
The document, measuring 15 x 15 cm., is written in ancient Hebrew script, which is characteristic of the Second Temple period and the first and second centuries CE. Fifteen lines of text can be discerned. In the upper line of the text one can clearly read the sentence "Year 4 to the destruction of Israel."  (Israel Antiquities Authority)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, May 7, 2009]

Ancient Seals Unearthed in Jerusalem Dig - Etgar Lefkovits (Jerusalem Post)
    An archeological excavation in Umm Tuba on the southeastern edge of Jerusalem has uncovered a series of seal impressions from the reign of the biblical King Hezekiah 2,700 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.
    The seal impressions found include those of two high-ranking officials named Ahimelech ben Amadyahu and Yehohail ben Shahar, who served in the Judean kingdom's government.
    Another Hebrew inscription, dating 600 years later, was discovered on a jar fragment from the Hasmonean period in the second century BCE.
    The site also housed a large building during the First and Second Temple periods unearthed during the dig.
    See also Greetings from Ahimelech and Yehohail in Judea (Israel Antiquities Authority)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, February 24, 2009]

Temple Mount Rubble Yields Ancient Coins - Etgar Lefkovits
Two ancient coins, one used to pay the Temple tax and another minted by the Greek leader the Jews fought in the story of Hanukka, have been uncovered amid debris from Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Israeli archeologist Gabriel Barkay said Thursday. The two coins were recently found in rubble discarded by Islamic officials from the Temple Mount that is carefully being sifted.
    The first coin, a silver half-shekel, was apparently minted on the Temple Mount itself by Temple authorities in the first year of the Great Revolt against the Romans in 66-67 CE. One side of the coin shows a branch with three pomegranates, and the inscription "Holy Jerusalem"; the other side bears a chalice from the First Temple and says "Half-Shekel." In the Bible, Jews are commanded to contribute half a shekel each for maintaining the Temple in Jerusalem. The coin uncovered shows signs of fire damage, most likely by the fires that destroyed the Second Temple when it was invaded by the Romans in 70 CE, Barkay said. The second coin bears a portrait of the Greek leader Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who ruled in 175-163 BCE. (Jerusalem Post)
    See also The Destruction of the Temple Mount Antiquities (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, December 19, 2008]

Jerusalem Dig Uncovers Ancient City Walls
Israeli archaeologists unveiled on Wednesday a 2,100-year-old Jerusalem perimeter wall on Mount Zion at the southern edge of Jerusalem's Old City, which dates back to the Second Jewish Temple. The 3.2-meter (10.5-foot)-high wall formed part of a 6 km. (3.5-mile)-long fortification around the city in biblical times, said Yehiel Zelinger, who headed the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority. (Reuters)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, September 4, 2008]

Ordinary Israelis Can Read 2,100-Year-Old Hebrew Scroll - Isabel Kershner
Some Israelis have described being moved almost to tears by a rare viewing of the Great Isaiah Scroll, the best preserved and most complete Dead Sea biblical scroll, on special exhibit this summer at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum for the first time in 40 years. Ordinary people are able to read, and at least partly understand, the ancient Hebrew text on the 2,100-year-old scroll. "The Bible is first of all our connection to the land," said Ruvik Rosenthal, a popular Israeli language guru. (New York Times)

Jerusalem Dig Turns Up Gold Coins from Second Temple Period - Ofri Ilani
Last month, archeologists from Tel Aviv University digging at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel near Jerusalem found a hoard of coins dating from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE). A ceramic cooking pot from the 1st century CE containing 15 large gold coins was found under the floor of a cave. Dr. Oded Lipschits described the find: "We discovered the hoard with a metal detector, and then we went down into the niche and found this small cooking pot inside it." According to Lipschits, the pot was covered up in a way that indicates that it had been concealed in a hurry. (Ha'aretz)

Seal of King Zedekiah's Minister Found in Jerusalem Archeological Dig - Etgar Lefkovits
A seal impression belonging to a minister of the biblical King Zedekiah, which dates back 2,600 years, has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, Israeli archeologist Prof. Eilat Mazar said on Thursday. The 1 cm. in diameter seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE), was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekiah's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago. Both ministers are mentioned in Jeremiah 38:1-4. The letters are in ancient Hebrew and are very clearly preserved.

    "On the one hand it is so unexpected to find such a fragile bulla in such harsh conditions of excavation, while on the other hand it was logical to find precisely here the bulla of Gedalyahu ben Pashur," Mazar said. "It is not very often that such a discovery happens in which real figures of the past shake off the dust of history and so vividly revive the stories of the Bible," she said. The current dig is being conducted under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (Jerusalem Post)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, August 1, 2008]

"Jerusalem: Capital of the Jews": Proving the Historic Jewish Identity of Jerusalem - Rivkah Fishman-Duker
For ancient Greek and Roman pagan authors, Jerusalem definitely was a Jewish city, as seen in references to Jerusalem from nearly twenty different sources, dating from the third century BCE to the third century CE. These texts indicate unanimous agreement that Jerusalem was Jewish by virtue of the fact that its inhabitants were Jews, it was founded by Jews, and the Temple, located in Jerusalem, was the center of the Jewish religion. Despite the negative views of Jews and Judaism expressed by authors such as Manetho, Apion, Tacitus and Juvenal, the Jewish identity of Jerusalem is always clear and never a subject of dispute. These ancient texts disprove recent attempts by Muslims and others to deny the historic connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and the location of the Temple in Jerusalem through fabrications and lies. (Jewish Political Studies Review)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, November 14, 2008]

Pres. Bush's Shameful Day, They're Laughing At Us: The Annotated Transcript

President Bush Says:  Dismantle Hamas and other militant anti-Israeli groups. Palestinian Authority Says: No Way: Absolutely, Positively NO. Don't you understand?: "NO"  U.S. Response: Never Mind

PA NGOs Defy US - Refuse to Sign declaration that they will not use USAID grant money to fund terrorism

Contrary to All Reason: U.S. -- NOTHING Will Stop Creation of a Palestinian State -- Not Continued Terrorism Against Israel.  Nor Refusal To Recognize Israel's Right To Exist As A Jewish State.  To What End?

Wanted Palestinian terrorists were traveling on the main north-south Gaza Strip highway within hours after the IDF dropped restrictions as part of the IDF withdrawal.  Israel Radio, Nissim Keinan, July 1, 2003.  Smuggling Tunnels -- direct from Egyptian army bases -- in business, keep terrorists awash in arms. (These tunnels are a crucial supply line of weapons for groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.)  And on and on and on.

Scty Powell condemns Israel's Fight To Address Gaza Tunnels while U.S. Allows  Security Council Rebuke.  Israel's U.N. Ambassador -- a voice of sanity in an insane world- - replies.  Do we get it?

Tunnel Vision in Gaza - Doron Almog (Middle East Quarterly)

• The Philadelphi corridor is a narrow stretch of sand, ten kilometers long and about a hundred meters wide, separating Egypt from the Gaza Strip - a zone established and defined by the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace accord.

• The term "smuggling" does not do justice to the problem. While some smuggling, overland or by tunnel, involves contraband and drugs, in Gaza this smuggling has a strategic dimension, involving the importation of significant quantities of arms and materiel on a scale sufficient to turn Gaza into a launching pad for ever-deeper attacks against Israel proper.

• Informally, the Egyptians have signaled that the moment the Israeli-Palestinian issue is resolved, smuggling and infiltration will be dramatically reduced. But this notion is wholly mistaken. Not only does the smuggling have a strong economic incentive, but it is also linked to ideological groups that have far-reaching objectives that reject the authority of the Egyptian government and the PA.

• Regardless of the disengagement plan, the common goal of Israel and Egypt should be the 100% prevention of smuggling and infiltration from Egypt to Israel. The two partners to the peace treaty should tackle this problem both independently and jointly.

• On the strategic level, the issue has to be placed in its proper context: as another front in the global war on terror. The U.S. must make clear that the present situation on the Egyptian-Israeli border is potentially as dangerous as the situation on the Afghan-Pakistani border, and that Egypt bears responsibility for bringing order to this zone, lest it become the de facto province of international terrorists. The U.S. must make it clear that the present Egyptian policy, allowing smuggling and infiltration as a release valve for public sympathy for the Palestinian armed struggle, is itself a concession to global terrorism.

• A high level of Egyptian involvement could easily result in the export of its own problems into Gaza. In addition, were the disengagement gamble to fail, a high level of Egyptian involvement in Gaza could put Israel and Egypt on a collision course, damaging relations between the two states. Thus, Israel has no alternative but to insist on minimal Egyptian involvement in post-disengagement Gaza.

• There is no alternative to a border regime that rests on forceful deterrence, active interdiction, and swift reprisal. And that means there is no alternative to Israel's continuing presence at this crucial point on the regional map.

  Maj. Gen. Doron Almog served as head of Israel's Southern Command from 2000 to 2003.

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, August, 18, 2004]

PRISONER RELEASE

August 2008: Prisoner Release Does Nothing for Abbas - Khaled Abu Toameh
It's hard to find one Palestinian who regards Israel's decision to release some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a "goodwill gesture." It's also hard to see how the release of the prisoners would "boost" the popularity of Mahmoud Abbas. The argument that the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails strengthens the "moderates" has never proven to be correct. The best way to strengthen the "moderates" is by putting pressure on them to reform the PA and end financial corruption and lawlessness in the West Bank.
    Shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel freed hundreds of Fatah security prisoners, many of whom soon became involved in various criminal activities ranging from armed robbery and extortion to theft and arms trafficking. They also became a financial burden to the PA, which had to put the local "heroes" on its payroll and pay them salaries, although many of them did no work. (Jerusalem Post)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, August 19, 2008]

Sept 24, 2007: ALMAGOR - Terror Victims Association calls on the government to freeze plans to release terrorist prisoners, saying that many return to terrorism despite their promises -- 179 Israeli citizens have been murdered by freed terrorist prisoners in the past five years.

Report: Freed Palestinian Terrorists Were Behind 14 Attacks - Nadav Shragai (Ha'aretz)
    Members of Palestinian terror organizations who were released from Israeli custody after being defined as not having "blood on their hands" perpetrated 14 terror attacks in the past several years, killing 132 Israeli civilians and wounding many others, according to a report released by the Almagor Terror Victims Association.
    From 1993 to 1999, Israel released 6,912 terrorists in the context of various confidence-building gestures, some of whom returned to terror activities "at the cost of huge destruction of life."

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, Sep 18, 2006]

Palestinians Congratulate Hizbullah for "Freeing Heroes" - Ali Waked
Palestinians sent their warm wishes to Hizbullah and its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday for getting Israel to release prisoners. Ziad abu Ein, director-general of the PA Ministry for Prisoner Affairs, said, "The Palestinians congratulate Hizbullah and its leader and send their best wishes to all the Lebanese people and to all the Palestinians upon the completion of the deal and the release of heroes, headed by the prisoners' leader, Samir Kuntar." Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, said the deal "proves that kidnapping soldiers will continue to be the most efficient, favored and ideal way to release Palestinian prisoners, particularly those defined by the enemy as having blood on their hands."  (Ynet News)
    See also Video: Who Is Lebanese Terrorist Samir Kuntar? (YouTube)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, July 16, 2008]

Lebanese Terrorist in Possible Prisoner Swap Vows to Return to Jihad - Roni Shaked
Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar, whom Israel has agreed to free as part of a possible prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah, has vowed to continue engaging in terror after his release. Kuntar, jailed 29 years ago after murdering Haran family members and a police officer during a terror attack on Nahariya, made the promise in a letter to Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. (Ynet News)
    See also Samir Kuntar's Bloody Deeds - Adam Kredo
A member of the Palestine Liberation Front, Samir Kuntar and four others sailed under cover of night from south Lebanon to Nahariya on April 22, 1979. The group murdered police officer Eliahu Shahar after he stumbled upon the gang. The men then entered an apartment building and broke into the Haran family's apartment, taking them hostage. Kuntar shot Danny Haran at close range and threw his body into the sea to make sure he died. He then bashed four-year-old Einat Haran's head on rocks and with the butt of his rifle, killing her instantly.
    Haran's wife, Smadar, hid with her two-year-old daughter Yael in a crawl space above the couple's bedroom. Smadar tried to muffle the girl's cries, and accidentally smothered her. In a 2003 article in the Washington Post, she recalled: "I will never forget the joy and the hatred in [the terrorists'] voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades....As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. 'This is just like what happened to my mother,' I thought." (Jerusalem Post)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, May 30, 2008]

"Unparalleled Cruelty" - Editorial
On any given day, Israeli prisons are hosting Red Cross representatives, journalists, lawyers and prisoners' advocates, as well as family members of convicted Palestinian prisoners. Gilad Shalit, the Palestinians' lone Israeli prisoner, is not a terrorist but a simple soldier who was guarding sovereign Israeli soil when he was abducted on June 25, 2006. The IDF soldier - who under international law should be treated as a POW - is not allowed to see Red Cross representatives, and his parents are forbidden to visit him.
    Meanwhile, Israel released 198 long-serving Palestinian prisoners, including several killers, in a gesture to boost Mahmoud Abbas' standing. Abbas used a Ramallah ceremony welcoming the men to say: "We will not rest until [all] the prisoners are freed and the jails are empty," specifically citing Marwan Barghouti, serving five consecutive life terms for murder; Ahmed Saadat, imprisoned for the assassination of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi; and Aziz Duaik, a Hamas politician taken into custody in response to Shalit's abduction. It is sobering to remind ourselves that Abbas reflects the most moderate of Palestinian opinion.
    Writing in Yediot Ahronot on Monday, novelist and playwright Yoram Kaniuk, a government critic who has long expressed compassion for Palestinian suffering, did what Abbas should have done. He urged ordinary Palestinians to call for better treatment of Shalit: "Keeping a young person imprisoned without trial, without his parents being able to visit him, is unparalleled cruelty." It is. (Jerusalem Post)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, August 27, 2008]

“Good Faith” Gesture? Through July 1, 2003 Israel has released some 280 prisoners since Abbas took office.   July 27 update -- Israel approves release of 100 Hamas, Jihad prisoners on top of a list of some 400 other Palestinian prisoners who are expected to be freed from jail within the next few days. (At this pace it's getting difficult to keep current statistics for this bizarre twist in the Roadmap.) Guess what, Palestinians say, Not Good Enough, the release is A Joke.

Since the beginning of 2001, 23 Palestinians, all holders of Israeli identity cards acquired under the family reunification program were arrested by security forces for involvement in terror attacks inside Israel, including three suicide bomb attacks.

Released prisoners suggest a new tactic: Kidnapping

Ironically, this prisoner release is not called for under the Road Map.  The immediate demand to release prisoners as if they were normal prisoners of war is wrong and reflects the attempt to treat terrorism as an acceptable mode of conflict.  No matter, per the terrorists, it is Israel who is violating the 'hudna.'  Meanwhile, it's just fine that  Hamas making Qassams under cover of truce.

On July 3, Israel released Colonel Suleiman Abu Mutlak alleged bus attack murderer.  Believe it or not, he now assists Minister of Security Affairs /Suicide-Bomber-Advocate, Mohammed Dahlan reorganizing the Palestinian Authority's security establishment.   This comes on the heels of the release of Ahmad Ibrahim Musa Abu El-Sukar, who slaughtered 14 people and wounded 62:  A Palestinian Hero. A Changed Man? No Way. Meanwhile, Arafat is Doing His Best to fill the suicide bomber pipeline For Years To Come.

In the end -- these prisoner releases cost Israel a lot.

"Is it not absurd that we fanatically chase octogenarian Nazis for half-a-century while blithely releasing modern-day Jew-killers? Why should anyone support those who would pull an aging SS man out of a Berlin nursing home if in our own country the vilest criminals walk out of prison flashing a broad smile and "V for Victory" sign? This is moral obscenity of the worst kind."

Arafat IS the leader of the Palestinian People.  Mazen/Arafat  have been Playing Us  all along.

Why Israel Is Building The Fence,  Reluctantly. (See Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Fence Website Also see  Israel's Fence Website.  And: Hague Fence Trial.) 

Other countries have fences -- but Israel is an "apartheid state" while the others are just "beefing up" their borders.

Security Fence Makes Vast Difference to Life in Israel - Licia Corbella
Since the security fence was built, there have been no more suicide murders and no more sniping at children walking to and from school in Jerusalem. Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Muslim journalist who lives in Israel and writes for the Jerusalem Post, says life was unbearable and extremely dangerous before the fence was erected.
    "It's very simple," explains the reporter who once worked for a PLO newspaper. "I live in Jerusalem. I have three children and I can tell you that for three years I was afraid to take my children to the shopping malls here in Jerusalem. For three years if you asked me to meet you in downtown Jerusalem, I would have refused and for three years I was afraid to stop my car at a red traffic light next to a bus because I didn't want to die in a suicide bombing. The suicide bombers killed both Jews and Arabs."
    Today, Abu Toameh says he feels much safer and Jerusalem is a bustling city again, instead of the veritable ghost town it became for three years until the barrier was built. "Look, the wall is bad. I don't like walls....But let's be honest, what other choice did the Israelis have?" he asks. "If I were the Israeli authorities, I would write on the wall that this wall was made by Yasser Arafat and Hamas," said Abu Toameh. (Calgary Herald-Canada)

Palestinian Terrorist Leader Admits Israeli Security Fence Blocks Suicide Bombing Attacks (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
    Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdallah Shalah told the Qatari newspaper Al-Sharq on March 23 that rocket fire had replaced suicide bombing attacks because Israel had found ways to protect itself from such attacks.
    "For example, they built a separation fence in the West Bank. We do not deny that it limits the ability of the resistance to arrive deep within [Israeli territory] to carry out suicide bombing attacks."

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, March 27, 2008]

February, 2007: IDF Warns of Tunnels Under West Bank Security Fence - Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
    It is only a matter of time before Palestinians in the West Bank begin digging tunnels under the security fence in attacks against Israel, said Maj. Eran Davidi, deputy commander of Sayeret Yahalom, the Engineering Corps unit responsible for defusing bombs and mines and destroying tunnels.

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, Feb 12, 2007]

October, 2006, French Foreign Minister Changes His Opinion on Israeli Separation Barrier - Shirli Sitbon
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy declared last week he has changed his opinion on Israel's controversial separation barrier in light of its drastic effect on terror, forcing French authorities to clarify their position on the issue. "I have significantly evolved on the matter of the separation fence," said Douste-Blazy on French Jewish television TFJ on Thursday. "Although the wall was a moral and ethical problem for me, when I realized terror attacks were reduced by 80 percent in the areas where the wall was erected, I understood I didn't have the right to think that way." Hamas vigorously criticized the French FM after his statement. (European Jewish Press)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, Oct 27, 2006]

There is a legitimate argument against the Fence (also see Moshe Feiglin's anit-fence analysis) -- but this U.S. State Dept. response is going TOO FAR.  In America, barrier walls are built along highways to keep neighbors from being inconvenienced by the noise.  It takes a lot of audacity to demand that Israel stop building a fence whose purpose is to prevent foreigners from coming in to commit mass murder.  (No matter, the U.S. decided to punish Israel by deducting $289.5 million from loan guarantees.)  In any event, the PA is using the fence as a disingenuous tactic to divert attention from its failure to meet its own Road Map responsibilities.   By the way, it just may be helping (6/1/04 update: 'In the last five months, we've had zero attacks', 6/17/04: Israeli Arabs credit fence for newfound prosperity)
But,  perils may be lurking under the surface.  It is quite clear why the Palestinians are raising hell about the security fence. First of all, they are not interested in peace.

Gen. Harald Kujat, chairman of NATO's military committee, paid a quiet visit to Israel where he was taken to the West Bank security fence. Upon seeing it, Kujat exclaimed: "It should have been done long ago." 

Secretary Powell, Fox News, July 1, 2003 On The Meaning of This Hudna: "I'm worried [that] remaining terrorist organizations that have not given up the quest to destroy the state of Israel and do not want peace. . . I'm talking about Hamas. I'm talking about the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. I'm talking about the Al-Aqsa Brigades. They have entered into a ceasefire. But as long as they have the capability to conduct these kinds of attacks, they can come out of a ceasefire at some time in the future. So we hope they'll stay with the ceasefire, but ultimately, we are going have to convert this kind of organization into organizations that no longer are interested in using terror as a political weapon." [PAC comment:  Yeah, But Hamas is now being legitimized by all parties with Scty Powell, unfortunately taking the lead.]

"And I believe that's also the commitment of Prime Minister Abbas. As he has said, "The armed Intifadah must end." And he has also said, 'Those who have guns within any state must be under the control of the government. The government has to have the power, the military power, the armed power in a democratic state.'"

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Poll: 57% of Palestinians oppose ending armed intifada

Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, Jun. 30, 2003

A public opinion poll carried out by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion showed that more than 57% of the Palestinians are opposed to ending the armed intifada against Israel.

The poll, which covered 723 adults and has a margin of error of 3.6 %, also showed that 64% of the Palestinians support Arafat as opposed to 41.4% who support Abbas

So much for stopping incitement: Palestinian Media Watch has this charming video the PA began broadcasting at the very time they were installing PM Abbas

Major Concern in Israel  Lack of PA Action Against Terror Cells

Foreign Ministry: 'Cease-fire is poison covered in honey'

Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, Jun. 27, 2003

Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem on Thursday downplayed the significance of a tactical cease-fire (hudna) arranged by the Palestinian Authority, with officials calling it everything from "irrelevant" to "a trap." [Click for Details of the "cease fire."  By the way, it was violated immediately.]

"This 'cease-fire' is poison covered in honey," said Gideon Meir, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director-general for public affairs.

Meir said that neither the Israeli public, which polls have shown supports the development, nor the rest of the world understands the true significance of what is taking place. According to Meir, the cease-fire may hold for a short while, but when it breaks down, and Israel is forced to react to stave off terror attacks, it will be blamed for "breaking the cease-fire."

"This whole business is an internal Palestinian matter," Meir said. "If after the cease-fire they take overall security responsibility in certain areas, that is good. But if not, Israel will need to continue to do what the Palestinians aren't willing to do."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon alluded to this Thursday when he told graduating IAF cadets that the "long arm of the IDF can hit terrorists anywhere, anytime."

Although Sharon did not directly address the cease-fire development, he said that "today, the Palestinians have begun to understand that their interest compels them to stop terror."
A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said the cease-fire development is "none of our business." He said that the only thing the government is watching is implementation of the commitments PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas took upon himself at the Aqaba summit earlier this month.

Referring to Israel's release of some security prisoners and the dismantling of some unauthorized settlement outposts, the official said, "We have done our part, and made good on our commitments, now it is their turn. If there is any move forward, if there is a cessation of violence it won't happen by itself, but only if real steps are taken to stop the terror."

According to diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, Abbas hopes that the three-month cease-fire will buy him enough time to organize the PA's security apparatus and gain popularity on the Palestinian street through what he hopes will be a palpable easing of conditions of the population. This way, he will be able to deter Hamas from taking action without actually having to go in and dismantle the organization.

According to these officials, the Egyptian mediators who helped hammer out the cease-fire deal pressed the Palestinians to agree in an attempt to push Israel into a corner.

According to this logic, a period of quiet will force Israel into having to begin negotiating under the terms of the road map a provisional Palestinian state, and taking steps on the ground to ease significantly the plight of the Palestinians.

The estimation is that the Palestinians do not believe the Sharon government can carry out the steps called for in the road map, and in the end will be seen by the world as the obstacle to an agreement.

In the final analysis, according to these officials, Hamas will agree to the cease-fire in an attempt to preserve its strength in light of the unrelenting Israeli military attacks that have taken their toll; the threatening signals coming from the Bush administration which has called the organization an enemy of peace; a change of attitude toward the organization in Europe; and even signs that Arab states are cutting off some support because of US pressure.

In addition, according to these officials, Hamas has an eye on the Palestinian street. Even though the organization enjoys wide popularity there, Hamas does not want to be perceived as the factor that could lead to a Palestinian civil war, or to a dramatic worsening of conditions for the Palestinians.

According to these officials, the PA will not agree to take over security responsibility in any area until a cease-fire is formally agreed upon, because such an arrangement will make the new PA government's job significantly easier.

In addition, the officials said, it is not coincidental that the announcement of the cease-fire will likely to take place in Cairo, and not in the PA. This is something Egypt wants to happen on its soil in order to show Washington how instrumental Egypt was in securing the deal. [PAC comment: good ol' Egypt.]  And if it all can take place during US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's upcoming visit, all the better, the officials said.

In advance of the declaration of the cease-fire, the Foreign Ministry is going on a public relations offensive abroad to explain that this can not be a replacement for dismantling and disarming the terror organizations.

Among the points being stressed are:
A cease-fire is not the final goal, only a means to dismantling and disarming the terror organizations which must be done to make possible diplomatic negotiations.

Three weeks after Aqaba there is not the smallest sign that the PA intends to engage in a true fight against terror. On the other hand, there remain dozens of "hot" alerts.
There has been no change in Palestinian incitement, or the PA's attitude toward it. The incitement can be stopped without the need to re-organize the PA security apparatus.

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PA 'has no intention' of disarming terror groups

Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, Jun. 30, 2003

The Palestinian Authority has no intention of disarming armed Palestinian groups, the head of the PA Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip, Rashid Abu Shabak, announced Sunday. "Those who think that the road map plan means disarming Palestinian factions are mistaken," he said.

Speaking to Palestinian journalists in Gaza City, Abu Shabak, who is wanted by Israel for his role in terror attacks against Jewish settlers and soldiers in the Gaza Strip, said PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas assured representatives of all the factions he met with over the past few weeks that they would be allowed to keep their weapons. "Today all the factions are convinced that a cease-fire agreement is not designed to confiscate their weapons," he added.

Abu Shabak, who took over his job from Muhammad Dahlan, the current PA minister of state for security affairs, said a cease-fire agreement is aimed at "forcing Israel to carry out its obligations regarding putting an end to the assassinations and incursions, as well as the release of all the Palestinian prisoners."

Abu Shabak said the PA would do its utmost to prevent inter-Palestinian fighting, warning that his forces would not allow any faction to drag the Palestinians into a civil war.

He also rebuffed allegations that his force was collaborating with Israel in thwarting terrorist attacks, claiming that the PSS was also being targeted by Israel.

He said Israel's military "aggression" against the Palestinians hasn't stopped for a moment.

"Each time we are close to an agreement with the other factions, Israel tries to foil such an agreement by stepping up its attacks or assassinating resistance fighters," he said.

"This has been the case ever since we returned to the homeland and the PA was established."

Abu Shabak also claimed that Israel doesn't want the Palestinian to reach any agreement because that would mean it must fulfill its obligations as defined by the road map.

Asked about rumors in the Gaza Strip that the PSS has already begun arresting members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Abu Shabak replied: "I challenge all those who are talking about this to provide us with the name of one Palestinian fighter who is being held by the Palestinian security forces.

All the Palestinians, including the security forces and the resistance fighters, are prisoners in the occupation jails."

Abu Shabak vowed to continue chasing Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel, saying his men managed to arrest several people who allegedly helped in the assassination of some Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists.

He noted that some of the suspects have been executed and others have been sentenced to death.

"We are waiting for President Yasser Arafat to approve the death sentences so that we can execute them," he added.

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Column One: Hamas's big victory

Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, June. 20, 2003

Hamas's latest offer is to temporarily stop massive attacks inside pre-Six Day War Israel, while continuing with smaller attacks.

Massive attacks by Hamas, it says, will be limited during this undefined period to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The offer is contingent on Israel agreeing to stop all targeted killings of Hamas members and releasing all terrorists from jail.

Israel's latest offer is to stop targeted killings of Hamas leaders and commanders if Hamas agrees to stop all terrorist attacks everywhere. In addition, Israel will continue expelling Israelis from their homes in unauthorized communities in Judea and Samaria.

The Palestinian Authority's latest offer is to form a unity government with Hamas if its leaders agree to announce they accept a temporary cease-fire (hopefully) ahead of PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell today. The offer does not seem to be limited in time. That is, even if Hamas does not oblige Abbas ahead of his meeting with Powell, its representatives will still be allowed to join his government.

For his part, Powell is poised to demand that Israel make a new offer that includes releasing terrorists from jail and ending targeted killings of all Hamas terrorists except for "ticking bombs" narrowly defined. The US will expand its demand that Israel increase the pace and breadth of expulsions of Israelis from unauthorized communities and stop building the wall that is supposed to keep Palestinian terrorists from infiltrating into pre-Six Day War Israel.

At this juncture, the demand that Hamas be dismantled as a fighting force is not on the table.

What does all of this talk bode for Hamas? We have a model in Hizballah. Following the failed Operation Grapes of Wrath in Lebanon in 1996, Israel agreed to stop fighting Hizballah in populated areas. That is, it allowed Hizballah freedom to operate on its own favored territory. Ending IAF air strikes against Hizballah targets in populated areas effectively neutralized Israel's military advantage against the terrorist force.

Likewise, Israel's willingness to forgo the option of targeted killings of Hamas terrorists means that Israel is conceding its most powerful weapon against Hamas. As one Palestinian source puts it, "Why do you think this is their first demand? Because it is the Israeli weapon they most fear. Take away the targeted assassinations, you lose all deterrence against them." The upshot is that Hamas will be allowed to retain its finances, arms, leadership, foot soldiers, and access to public opinion. Hamas is now being legitimized by all parties.

Of course, Hamas's second demand to end demolition of the homes of terrorists is already on the road map. No doubt this tool, which has worked to deter hundreds if not thousands of Palestinians from becoming suicide bombers, will soon be loudly condemned by the members of the Quartet, and Israel will agree, in a later stage of negotiations perhaps after this cease-fire fails? to end the practice.

What is the significance of all these rounds of negotiations with Hamas for the PA? What they expose is that the PA has not made a decision to fight terrorism. Abbas has made this repeatedly clear. His security chief Muhammad Dahlan's demand this week that known murderers Tawfik Tirawi and Rashid Abu Shabak be appointed to head his forces in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip is simply further proof that the PA security forces will continue to be terrorist forces.

In offering Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah seats at his cabinet table, Abbas is merely solidifying the already existing unity of forces. This unity has existed overtly since Yasser Arafat and Marwan Barghouti formed the "Unified Resistance of the Intifada" in the fall of 2001 to coordinate terrorist attacks among Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and PLO member organizations like the DFLP and the PFLP.

As for the US, the Bush administration seems intent on repeating the policy that scored its predecessor so badly. Powell made this point clear on Wednesday, when he was quoted as saying, "I am encouraged that both sides seem to realize that they cannot allow this immediate wave of terrorism to stand in the way of progress down the road map. There is no alternative."

The main problem of all the discussions with Hamas is what they say about the Israeli government generally and about the leadership of Ariel Sharon specifically. Just one week ago, Sharon declared that he would wage an all-out war against Hamas, now he is bargaining with it. Was the attempted hit on Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi simply a negotiating tactic? Was Sharon simply putting the notion of targeting Hamas leaders on the table in order for him to concede it? Possibly.

At the very least, it appears that Sharon, who was elected overwhelmingly in 2001 to end his predecessor Ehud Barak's ruinous diplomatic policies, has now adopted them as his own.

And it is impossible to blame Sharon's actions on US pressure. In stepping back from his earlier criticism of the Rantisi hit, US President George W. Bush at least showed last week that he will not advance his Middle East policy at the cost of an overt confrontation with Israel.

As for Sharon, he is beginning to look more and more like Shimon Peres. Until Peres's ascent to national leadership in the 1980s and 1990s, he was one of the most compelling strategic thinkers in Israel. His visions were at once vast, ideologically sound, and pragmatic. But at a certain point it seems that Peres abandoned all his previous convictions in order to enjoy personal popularity among Israel's social elites and European intellectuals. Like Peres, Sharon seems to have abandoned strategic (and moral) clarity for vapid slogans.

Aside from negotiating with Hamas after declaring war on it, the other glaring example of this intellectual shallowness is Sharon's defense of dismantling the outposts. Just last year, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said: "Every evacuation [of settlements] under terrorism and violence will strengthen the terror and violence. It will endanger us." And yet, as civilians are massacred on buses and little girls are shot dead on highways, Sharon is dismantling them. He is doing so to prove what is already as clear as the roundness of the earth that Israel is willing to make compromises for peace. Americans do not need further proof of this fact.

The final question is what our habit of repeating past mistakes says about the way decisions are made in this country. What it says is that today there is no open debate about the future we want for ourselves.

Take the example of the murder of Noam Leibowitz on Tuesday night. In crawling under the eight-meter high wall of separation between Route 6 and Kalkilya, the terrorists put paid to the quaint notion that a new Maginot line can work for us. Yet rather than allow this simple truth to come out, Israeli newspapers and broadcast media invited only the wall's chief proponents to explain why it still works.

For its part, the IDF was quick to say that it will be building 21 military camps and dozens of static outposts along the wall to guard it. So in order to guard a worthless wall, the IDF will be building static defenses that will themselves become attractive targets for terrorists.

As for the larger strategic blunder of regurgitating Oslo, we are told by our media elites that there is no alternative. No other plan exists, they say. Tel Aviv University held a three-day conference this week in which the participants at the failed Camp David summit sat and discussed why their operation was a success, even if the patient died. There has been no discussion whatsoever of Tourism Minister Benny Elon's plan to end the war. His plan, which involves the dissolution of the PA and the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in Jordan is completely unknown to Israelis, even as Elon himself has twice traveled to the US to explain his alternative to American audiences. Perhaps his ideas have merit. Perhaps some do and others do not. How can we know?

That Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel through genocide is known by all. So why is no one pointing out how dangerous it is to be negotiating with these murderers? The time has come for the citizens of this country to demand that our leaders contend with reality. We need to be able to tell ourselves that there is something pathological about a people that insists on repeating its mistakes. We must demand and embrace discussion of alternatives to failed strategies. Our political leaders, academic and media elites must be put on notice that we insist that alternative voices be heard, because what stands in the balance is not about them. It is about our survival.

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Column One  Morality under fire

Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, July 4, 2003

In an interview with the Palestinian Authority's television station shortly after he was named prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas was asked how he thought he would be able to make a deal with Israel given what the interviewer referred to as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's anti-peace stand.

Abbas responded by explaining that Sharon does not operate in a vacuum. He argued that the Israeli people could be counted on to force Sharon to make a deal that will be acceptable to the Palestinians.

More than telling us anything interesting about Sharon or Israeli democracy, this statement revealed much about who Abbas is and the strategy he is implementing from his lofty new post as the Bush administration's favorite son of the Palestinian terrorist revolution. What Abbas said is quite simply a neat encapsulation of the entire doctrine of terrorist and guerrilla forces that war against democratic societies. It is a doctrine that he, like the PLO's chief strategic partner Saddam Hussein, has propounded for years.

Generally speaking, terrorist and guerrilla warfare doctrines are founded on the psychological manipulation of the enemy's society. Aware of his inability to destroy the enemy through conventional military force, the guerrilla or terrorist leader bases his strategy on two central and interconnected tenets.

First, he contends that continuous and seemingly random attacks on civilian populations and military personnel will grind down his enemy's society to the point where that society will lose its will to fight back. If a belief in the existence of a "cycle of violence" takes hold in the victimized society, then terrorist violence will be justified as simple and crude yet not unwarranted responses to the victim society's military "provocations" against the terrorists.

Our society's willingness to accept that last month's bus bombing in Jerusalem was a Hamas response to the attempted assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi is case in point. No matter that such an attack takes weeks of planning. No matter that Hamas attacks us every day. When Hamas claimed that the massacre of 17 Israelis and the maiming of another 50 was in response to the operation against Rantisi, our media duly reported the claim and many even supported it.

As is known to all Israelis, over the past three years we have rearranged our lives and constricted our living space and habits in an attempt to minimize risk of death by terror. We go out less and to fewer places. We ride on buses only as a last resort. This narrowing of our public space is a testament to the terrorists' success in making us doubt our government's ability to protect us. The sense of futility and hopelessness of fighting terror is a vital component of the terrorist's desire to break our will to destroy him.

At the same time, the monstrosity of random acts of murder against civilians being what it is, the natural, moral, and instinctive response of the victimized society is to call for the total destruction of the terror or guerrilla forces and the transformation, by military means, of the society that supports them. Thus, imposing a sense of vulnerability on a democratic society, while necessary, is insufficient to break its spirit. So the terror and guerrilla ideologue fights a parallel battle for victory.

The second premise of terror and guerrilla leaders is that when fighting a democratic society, it is necessary to make their enemy doubt the morality of his stand against them. The moral disorientation of the victimized society is absolutely necessary for a terrorist strategy to succeed. Through a concerted campaign, the terrorist or guerrilla leader must frame his rhetoric in a manner that calls into question whether the targeted society is really being victimized at all.

If it can be argued that the murderers have a legitimate grievance against the targeted society, then it will likely follow that in spite of the barbarity of the campaign being waged against it, members of that society will begin to argue that it is futile, and indeed immoral, to fight back. Once that argument is won, the terrorists have won their war. The democracy will capitulate.

Over the past week, the front pages of US newspapers have honed in on two stories the Iraqi guerrilla war against US and British forces and the Palestinian terror war against Israel. While the angles from which the reporters approach the two stories are different, their essence is strikingly similar.

In contending with the continued and escalating hostilities in Iraq, the Bush administration finds itself, after two years of unapologetic rhetoric and a successful, wildly popular military campaign against Saddam Hussein, suddenly on the defensive. Its enemy, the not so marginal remnants of Saddam's regime and their Arab terrorist partners, is implementing a war strategy against the US and British forces taken directly from the Saddam-Abbas playbook.

Militarily, the coalition forces are under constant attack by mobs, snipers, suicide bombers, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades. These attacks, together with sabotage of Iraqi infrastructure, work to demoralize the coalition forces stationed in the country. Newspapers are filled with accounts of the frustration of soldiers who find their attempts to bring stability to Iraq stymied. As tensions rise in the terrible heat, soldiers communicate a sense of anger and helplessness that makes their countrymen wonder why their armies can't simply come home. Statements by the Iraqis who criticize the coalition troops and demand their immediate withdrawal compound this sense of doubt.

Politically, the fact that Saddam remains at large also casts a pall of doubt as to the actual success of the campaign to oust him. Repeated failure to capture or kill him mars the US public's sense of pride and invincibility against weaker Third World dictatorships.

The fact that the US has so far been unsuccessful in locating any of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction has been highly destructive to the American and British publics' sense of justice and serves to undermine the moral justification of the war itself. This past week, media polls indicated that a majority of Americans believe that the Bush administration misled them wittingly or unwittingly about the threat emanating from Saddam's regime.

When taken separately, all the components of the Iraqi campaign against US-led forces in Iraq are a cause for distress and ambivalence regarding the importance and necessity of the continued fight. But when seen from the perspective of the terror and guerrilla doctrine, long adopted by Saddam, it all makes sense.

Saddam and his loyalists knew they were no match for the coalition forces, so they stole what they could, headed for the hills, and allowed the remnants of their brainwashed forces to launch what resistance they could muster. Even during the campaign, those Iraqi forces that did engage coalition forces made constant use of terror and guerrilla tactics to exact casualties.

Now that US and British forces are hunkered down in static locations, it is easier to kill them. As peacekeepers, they are forced to come into daily contact with Iraqi civilians. As American and British soldiers, they want very much for those civilians to appreciate what they are trying to do for them. They are easily demoralized when confronted by mobs.

For his part, Saddam understands that to continue to energize his own forces, he must remain at large. As long as there is the possibility he will return, those loyal to him will not put down their arms.

Finally, with hindsight, it makes perfect sense that in the year-long run-up to the US led invasion, Saddam would find a way to either destroy or hide his WMD arsenal. Preventing the US and Britain from being able to present that arsenal to their publics is key to eroding their societies' belief in the morality of the war and thus demand the swift exit of US and British forces from the country.

Winning a war against a terrorist enemy is perhaps the most difficult victory for a democratic society to achieve. It requires a deep-seated and resilient belief in its values and, in Israel's case, its very existence.

Both Israel and the US have been built around our core values of human decency and our ideals of a just and moral society. Both countries' military prowess is a direct result of our understanding that these values are worth fighting for. For both Israel and America, power exerted in defense of these values is power exerted morally.

Both Israeli and American societies must now think carefully about how we are allowing the subversive poison of terrorist war doctrine to infect our sense of justice and indeed our sense of our own identity.  [PAC Comment: If we fail in this regard, the enemy we face will tear us to shreds. There's example after example of their savagery, meanwhile the U.S. and Israel fight the "civilized" fight.]

From How We Collapse

Victor Davis Hanson, National Review Online,  August 11, 2003

Western societies from ancient Athens to imperial Rome to the French republic rarely collapsed because of a shortage of resources or because foreign enemies proved too numerous or formidable in arms — even when those enemies were grim Macedonians or Germans. Rather, in times of peace and prosperity there arose an unreal view of the world beyond their borders, one that was the product of insularity brought about by success, and an intellectual arrogance that for some can be the unfortunate byproduct of an enlightened society.

From Victor Davis Hanson, U.S. Naval Institute, Proceedings, March 2003:  Almost every element of the war on terror we are experiencing now has been seen before. We have not come to the end of history. After the war on terror there will be other crises. Certain laws remain. Moral clarity, consensuality, and the idea you are on the side of history, promoting freedom, backed by both conventional and unconventional military force, form the age-old calculus that wins wars. The problem is not weapons of mass destruction but who has control of them. We've got to remove the man who can make and abuse weapons of mass destruction, not just the weapons, per se.

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Excerpted from: Has Bush staked his presidency on Abu Mazen?

Mike Evans, Worldnetdaily.com, July 9, 2003

President Bush telephoned Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on Friday, July 4, to thank him for his strong leadership, said the president's spokesman, Ari Fleisher.

You've got to be kidding me! On the Fourth of July, you call a terrorist and thank him for his leadership? Was it Fleisher who said that, or Baghdad Bob?

This was the same day that President Bush said at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, "We will not stand by and wait for another attack, or trust the restraint and good intentions of evil men."

But is that not exactly what we are doing, trusting the restraint and good intentions of evil men? Abbas was the chief financial officer of a terrorist organization for over two decades.

Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) took office on April 29 with the blessing of the U.S., and a mandate to fight terrorism. The quid pro quo for releasing the roadmap was the appointment of Abbas as prime minister. Is Mazen following through?

If we are willing to do it for the Palestinian Authority, why not do the same for the Baath Party? Maybe they will also help us in Iraq?

The fact that the cease-fire held for eight days only proves one thing: The powers that are restraining terrorism are the same powers that ignited it. That is enough reason to put the whole "Arafatstan" leadership in jail!

Where is the moral high ground in all of this? Do murderers have a legitimate grievance against the targeted society? Once that argument is won, the war on terrorism is lost.

The huda (cease-fire) for 90 days was made with Hamas and Islamic Jihad under the conditions that all the terrorists go free. If this happens we just bought the farm, and terrorists are no longer terrorists – they're freedom fighters and prisoners of war. By the way, when did the war end?

Maybe Mayor Giuliani had it wrong when he told me there is never a justification for terrorism. I should have asked him why didn't he lobby for a Taliban prime minister. Who knows, maybe Osama would have agreed to a 90-day cease-fire had we agreed to release all of New York's murderers from jail.

On June 24, 2002, President Bush set forth the conditions that Abbas must fulfill in order to merit U.S. support for the creation of a Palestinian State. Among the many obligations are that the Palestinians must "dismantle the terrorist infrastructure ... end incitement ... and elect new leaders who would not be compromised by terrorism." This has not happened.

Bush is demanding Israel release terrorists as a confidence-building measure? Just whose confidence are we building – the terrorists?

In June, Israel released more than 100 individuals as a good-will gesture to the PA. Among them was Fatah member Ahmed Jbarra who was serving a life sentence for murdering 14 people in Jerusalem. Jbarra went to Ramallah, headquarters of P.A. Chairman Yasser Arafat to receive his blessing and was appointed an adviser.

Also, among the released terrorists was Taisir Khaled, arrested by security forces in Nablus in February. He is a member of the PLO executive committee. He was the head of the terrorist organization Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Samaria that killed scores of Israelis.

And what about the release of Abu Mutlak as a good-will gesture when P.A. Security Affairs Muhammad Dahlan submitted the request? Mutlak was arrested on May 5. He is suspected of planning the November 2000 attack on a Kfar Darom school bus in which Miriam Amitai and Gavriel Biton were killed and nine children wounded. Three siblings, Orit, Yisrael and Tehilla Cohen ages 12, 8 and 7 lost legs.

Israel is pulling down its security fence, releasing prisoners as demanded by the Quartet, getting out of the territories, and destroying illegal outposts. Israel has stopped attacking terrorists and deporting them.

A senior Palestinian Authority representative said Sunday that the P.A. would break off the cease-fire agreement if Israel decides not to release Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners who have blood on their hands.

How is President Bush reshaping the Middle East? Is he running two foreign policies at the same time? One "we have them on the run," the other "they're running out of prison."

Will appeasement send a signal to the terrorist regimes that crime pays, and that they too can be rewarded with concessions? Will this increase terrorism, undermine America's credibility and put U.S. troops in harm's way?

The P.A. has signed 10 agreements in the past, only to break them. Why not this one?

How can the war on terrorism be won if terrorist organizations on our U.S. State Department's list – like Hamas, Al-Aqsa Brigades and Islamic Jihad – are rewarded for their crimes? What kind of signal will that send to the nut cases of the world? That we fear them, and want to appease them!

On June 18, Abu Mazen offered to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad in his new leadership. "In an attempt to persuade Hamas and other radical Palestinian factions to agree to a temporary cease-fire with Israel, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas offered to give the groups political representation in a newly-formed body called the 'unified national leadership' [Jerusalem Post June 2003]."

I am a Texan who supports President Bush, but he's wrong on this one. I don't want some nutcase showing up in 2004 yelling, "It's terrorism, Stupid!" because of Islamic crackpots losing their fear of America and exporting the Palestinian H-Bomb (human bomb) to our shores.

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WHEN WAR IS INEVITABLE

The Palestinian Authority was in political turmoil yesterday, with Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) threatening to resign over criticism of his handling of negotiations with Israel.

Lurking behind the growing upheaval is Yasser Arafat, who continues to maneuver in ways designed to demonstrate that - together with terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad - he's still calling the shots for the Palestinians.

The Bush administration moved quickly to bolster Abu Mazen's regime, and Israel was considering new concessions that might help silence his critics.

But let's face it: That's just postponing the inevitable.

Abu Mazen's reluctance to forcibly disarm the terrorists is grounded in fear of provoking a Palestinian civil war. But it will almost certainly take nothing less to eliminate Palestinian terrorism - an utterly necessary first step for a lasting Mideast peace.

The immediate crisis was spurred by Israel's refusal to include members of terrorist groups in its decision to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The reasons are obvious: Whenever Israel has opened its prisons as a conciliatory gesture, it ends up putting murderers back on the street.

And it gets nothing in return - save more murder.

It should be noted that a prisoner release is not one of the steps required by Israel under the U.S.-sponsored "road map" - it was a completely voluntary gesture by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The Palestinians, on the other hand, are required to take forceful moves to disarm the terrorists - which they've thus far refused to do.

But Arafat's Fatah faction, together with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are furious over the limited scope of the prisoner release. So they have subjected Abu Mazen to withering criticism and public attack.

Abu Mazen, in return, publicly threatened to resign as prime minister unless Fatah gives him acceptable instructions on how to handle negotiations with Israel.

How much of this is real and how much is political posturing is impossible to say. Clearly, though, there's a game of high-stakes chicken under way.

Who'll swerve first?

For Israel, the stakes are high. That much became obvious with confirmation that Monday's fatal bombing in the town of Kfar Yaavetz was, in fact, an Islamic Jihad suicide attack.

Sharon's spokesman rightly emphasized than "unless the Palestinians dismantle the terrorist infrastructure" as required, the recently announced cease-fire "is not worth the paper it's written on."

Some Israeli officials reportedly have suggested expanding the prisoner-release to include a small number of terrorist-group members.

But that would probably be a mistake.

For years, the Palestinians have been playing the diplomatic game of making steep demands and then, after seeing them partly satisfied, threatening to disrupt the entire "peace process" unless they are fully realized.

That, in turn, has led Washington to press Israel for further concessions for fear of breaking off negotiations entirely.

That's fine, as far as it goes.

But further concessions by Jerusalem won't address the essential issue:

As long as Palestinian factions can bomb the peace process into oblivion, there can be no peace.

Washington has enormous influence in the region now.

If it takes a Palestinian civil war to end the factionalism - and it clearly will - the U.S. might just as well nudge it into motion.

Let the terrorists fall where they may.

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Fighting minority tyranny

Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, July 18, 2003

Last week saw the first official mosque opening in Granada, Spain since the Spanish Inquisition. Just after the mosque opening ceremonies concluded, 2,000 Muslims from all over Europe converged on the town for an Islamic conference. There participants were told that the aim of Muslims in Europe is to overthrow the capitalist system.

According to the BBC, Spanish Muslim leader Umar Ibrahim Vadillo told the conference that Muslims should stop using Western currencies like the dollar, the euro and the pound and instead use a gold dinar. By doing so, Vadillo promised, the Muslims would cause an economic collapse of Western economies so overwhelming in its scope that it would make the 1929 stock market crash look like a minor event.

Also addressing the conference was German Muslim leader Abu Bakr Rieger. He told participants that as Muslims in Europe they must not bend in their religious practices by adapting them to European values or traditions. In Germany itself, radical Islamists dominate the leadership of the Muslim community.

Last April, French Muslims voted to give radical Islamists 14 seats on the new 50 seat national council of French Muslims. The group around the moderate imam of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur won only two seats on the council.

In an interview with UPI this past week, US terrorism expert Michael Radu explained that half of the young Muslims in France "reject the French identity. They see themselves not as Frenchmen but as Muslims."

Commenting on the increasing radicalization of French Muslims, French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy said late last month, "It is irresponsible to ask whether Islam is compatible with our republic, because if you say no, what do you do then?"

Last week too saw the publication of an article by MK Azmi Bishara on the Arabic Media Internet Network Web site. The article, "Deciphering the hudna (sic.)" was distributed by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.

In his article, Bishara explains that the Palestinians must not fall into a US-Israeli "trap" with their cease-fire. He argues that the US and Israel are attempting to cause a split between a Palestinian leadership and the terrorist organizations. Referring to the Palestinians as "we," the Israeli MK Bishara warns that the Palestinians must not allow for the "resistance," (as he euphemizes terrorist attacks on Israelis), to be separated from the negotiations.

Bishara argues that the Palestinians should not accept US financial assistance because it will turn the people "against the resistance, and will function simply as a way of encouraging Palestinians to give in to US and Israeli demands." Bishara continues, "There can be little hope for justice and steadfastness in Palestine if the resistance recedes from its place in public life, and if the population is held captive by those who oppose the resistance in principle." In using the metaphor of a people held captive, Bishara is arguing that any Palestinian leadership that combats terrorism and accepts Israel is by definition illegitimate.

Finally, Bishara warns that a cease-fire by terror groups is liable to reduce their allure to young Palestinians who might decide to get a job instead of becoming human bombs. In the Israeli parliamentarian's words "Unless the Palestinians are determined to continue the struggle, the cease-fire may simply disrupt the resistance and discourage the young from joining its ranks . Those who join the resistance do so because of the existing momentum . Political militants have reason to fear that the cease-fire may weaken the momentum of the resistance and disrupt the link between the resistance and the youth who might have provided it with new supporters."

So Bishara, who as an MK is sworn to uphold the laws of the State of Israel, is advising the Palestinians not to give up terrorism. He is advocating that the Palestinian terrorists and PA leaders work together to formulate a consensual strategy that "coordinate[s] on matters of peace as well as of resistance."

This of course is not the first time that Bishara has gone public in his support of the Palestinian annihilationist war against the country whose laws he is sworn to uphold. We recall Bishara's presence at Hafez Assad's memorial ceremony in Syria in 2001 where he stood next to Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah who had recently ordered the kidnapping and murder of three IDF soldiers stationed inside of Israel and the abduction of Israeli businessman Elhanan Tenenbaum.Standing next to Nasrallah, Bishara called for continued war against Israel.

At the UN's anti-Semitic orgy in Durban, South Africa in August 2001, Bishara led the charge against Israel, which he constantly alleged is a racist, apartheid state. His own party calls for the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state. In short, Bishara uses the organs of Israeli democracy to subvert and delegitimize the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. At the same time, he publicly makes common cause with Israel's declared enemies who themselves make no bones about their intention to use genocidal means to destroy the country.

The problem with Muslim minorities in Israel and in other Western democracies is not that they do not wish to assimilate per se. There are many examples of ethnic and religious minorities, like ultra-orthodox Jews for instance, who wish to live happily and peacefully and separately from the larger national majorities in the countries where they reside. In Israel, the Black Hebrew sect like the Amish in Pennsylvania are other examples of minorities that live peacefully while separating themselves off by tradition, lifestyle and belief from the rest of their countrymen.

The problem with Muslim and Arab minorities in Israel and other Western countries is that increasingly their leaders are not calling for separation from the majority culture. Rather they are calling for the overthrow by a mixture of violence and subversion of the majority culture itself. The aim of men like Bishara and Vadillo and Rieger is not to live as a separate minority group but to destroy the cultures of the countries they live in and to replace these ways of life with their own. That is, these leaders stand opposed to the right of the Jews to be Jews, the French to be French, the Americans to be Americans and the Germans to be Germans. In the name of Palestinian nationalism or Islamic purity, these men wish not to ensure their minority rights but to overturn the majorities' right as free peoples' to self-determination.

For Israel, the problem of Arab rejectionism and the demographic challenge this rejectionism raises is more acute than anywhere else in the world.

This is so because the radical Arabs and Muslims themselves have made Israel the first target in their war against Western culture and civilization. It is also true because of the numbers themselves. Without Judea and Samaria and Gaza's 3.5 million Palestinians, twenty percent of Israel's population is already Arab.

For years Israel has been alternating between denying the problem and mishandling it. Israel's leading doves argue that Israel must establish a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza immediately because if Israel does not do so it will be swallowed up by the growing Palestinian population on both sides of the 1949 armistice lines. But in so arguing, these self-styled demographic experts never stop to consider that such a state is most likely to simply exacerbate the problem.

The Palestinian state they so wish to establish will have no economic independence. Its citizens will continue to flock to Israel for work. The Palestinian state will have open borders with Jordan and Egypt and these populations will inevitably flock to Israel for work as well.

In 1995, just a year after the Palestinian Authority was established in Jericho alone, Israel was already swamped with 50,000 Jordanians who entered the country on visitors' permits to the PA and stayed on illegally in Arab villages in the Galilee.

As well, there is an acute problem of defeatism in the ranks of Israeli policymakers. The New York Times columnist and friend of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, William Safire felt it necessary to devote his latest column to blasting President Harry Truman for his recently unearthed diary which included a virulently anti-Semitic rant from 56 years ago. While Safire understands that anti-Semitism, even that expressed over a half century ago, cannot be brushed aside or go unanswered, Sharon himself apologizes for and accepts PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's current anti-Semitism.

In an interview with FOX News this week, Sharon was asked how he felt about the fact that Abbas devoted his doctoral thesis to denying the Holocaust. Sharon replied, "Well, I think Abu Mazen (Abbas) is a courageous man. He never hesitated to express his views in the past. Look, we have to remember, Abu Mazen is a Palestinian.

He's not a member of the Zionist movement."
But that is precisely the point. For the Palestinians to be credible partners for peace with Israel they must become Zionists. For peace to hold, the Palestinian leadership must accept Israel's right to self-determination as a Jewish state. In the same vein, for Arab and Muslim minorities in the West to flourish in their adopted homes, they must be willing to accept the right of the peoples of the countries they live in to self-determination.

That the demographic threat to Israel is real cannot be ignored or denied. As a democracy, Israel, like other Western countries must contend with the matter at hand without shirking. But adopting a plan that is one part denial and two parts stupidity only worsens the situation. There is likely no silver bullet to solving this problem. But that simply means that limited remedies must be considered.

For instance, Arabs in Israel should be encouraged to assimilate. They should be allowed to do so. Arabs willing to speak Hebrew and serve in the IDF and live at peace within the Jewish state should be embraced by all Israelis.

But at the same time, those who openly advocate and demand the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state should enjoy no immunity from prosecution for treason, abetting terrorism, sedition and similar offenses. In a democracy, all citizens have the right and indeed the duty to demand equal opportunity and liberty. But in granting these rights, all nation states also have a right to demand that their peoples' right to self-determination be respected.

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