Israel cannot be blamed for pan-Arab roots of al-Haram (shame)

Excerpted from FLAME:

In the prevailing Arab “narrative,” all the problems in the Arab world are due to Israel. In the Arab world, where Osama bin Laden is the Arabs’ most adulated hero because he committed the 9/11 deed (though everyone in that world also knows that “Israel’s Mossad was responsible for 9/11”), the crazy logic that “Israel is the cause of all Arab misfortunes” does indeed make sense.

However, in our world, a world that strives for rational analysis by means of objectivity and the evaluation of all relevant facts, things look different.

In the real world, Israel cannot be blamed for:

The Muslim enslavement of black Africans in Mauritania,

The mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Arabs in a 13-year Algerian civil war,

The endless brutal oppression of Egyptian Christian Copts in Egypt by Egyptian Muslims,

The genocide of 2,000,000 black African Christians and animists in South Sudan by Sudanese Muslim Arabs over the past 23 years,

The genocide of 800,000 black African Muslims in Western Sudan (aka Darfur) by Sudanese Muslim Arabs over the past 5 years,

The blatant religious apartheid of the Saudi government in Arabia,

The mass murder of Arabian Shi’ites by the Saudi royal family,

The de facto maintenance of slavery as an economic institution in Arabia,

Saddam Hussein’s murder of hundreds of thousands of his own Iraqi citizens during his 32 years of repressive tyrannical rule,

The current Muslim-vs.-Muslim terrorist carnage in Iraq,

The Taliban reign of terror in Afghanistan,

The decades-old civil war between Islamofascists and non-Muslims in Nigeria,

Syria’s brutal 27-year occupation of Lebanon,

Six decades of Muslim terrorism against the Hindus of Kashmir and Gujarat,

The Muslim repression of Hindus in Bangladesh,

Islamic terrorism in East Asia (Bali, East Timor, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia),
Muslim terrorism against Russia (remember 186 dead children at the school in Beslan?)
The brutal Islamic subjugation of women prevalent in many Muslim countries for the last millennium,

The Muslim persecution of Christians and Jews throughout the Muslim world since the beginning of Islam,

The fact that the “religion of peace” spawned a thousand-year war against the non-Muslim world (aka Jihad) a thousand years before Israel came in to existence,

The grinding poverty and lack of productivity that typify even the richest of Arab countries, as documented in three recent UN-sponsored studies,

The fact that, while not all Muslims are terrorists, almost all terrorists, for the past 30 years, are Muslims,

The fact that millions of Muslims every year flee their home states, Shari’a law, and Islamic sovereignty, to seek refuge, a better life, broader opportunities, freedom and a brighter future for their children . . . in Western states.

Until Arab leaders are willing to accept responsibility for their own cultural dysfunctionality, they and their unfortunate subjects are unlikely to emerge from social, economic and political bankruptcy. Obviously, blaming Israel does not merely miss the point, it also creates a profoundly dangerous misrepresentation of the root cause of the conflict. It confuses the arsonist (obdurate Arab hatred of Jews) with the fire-fighter (Israel defending itself against Arab terrorism). Given this intransigent Arab hatred of Jews and Israel---as well as the message of misappropriated blame---it is not just folly for the USA to pressure Israel to make concessions when negotiating Middle East peace deals; it is actually a mechanism that stokes violence by supporting the Arab lie, and it weakens Israel’s ability to defend itself.

It’s time that Western governments stop pretending to believe the Arab lie. It’s time to address the real root causes of the relentless Arab war against Israel and the Jews.

Racism in the Islamic World: How can peace prevail in the Middle East in the face of Islamic bigotry and hate? When will moderate Muslims speak out?

For years, the U.N., led by Islamic and Arab nations and their sympathizers, has accused Israel of racism, but the world consistently turns a blind eye to open, seething anti-Semitism in Islamic society.

What are the facts?

In one of the most astonishing propaganda coups ever, a United Nations conference on racism, which took place in Durban South Africa in 2001, declared that Zionism is racism. No wonder the U.S. and Israel walked out of the meeting, which was dominated by representatives of Islamic and Arab states and other anti-Israel forces, and whose conclusions were predictable from the outset.

The supreme irony of this conference was that it accused no other nation of racism—only Israel. In truth, Israel is perhaps the most racially and ethnically diverse and tolerant country in the world. More than half of Israel’s Jewish population consists of people of color—blacks from Ethiopia and Yemen, as well as brown-skinned people from Morocco, Iran, Syria, Egypt and Israel itself. In addition, Israel’s population includes more than one million Arabs, who enjoy the same civil rights as Jewish Israelis. In Israel hate speech is banned, and it is against the law to discriminate based on race or religion.

In contrast, anti-Semitism—a poisonous form of racism directed specifically against the Jewish people—is rampant in most all Islamic societies. Not only is anti-Semitism commonplace in Muslim nations, but it is propagated shamelessly by their leaders, in state-sponsored media, and by Muslim clergy.

For example, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed declared in a 2003 speech to the Organization of Islamic Conference that, “today Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.” Imagine if an American president had made a similarly sweeping and bigoted statement about blacks, Latinos or any other race—what a justifiable uproar, perhaps even an impeachment, would ensue. Yet there was no condemnation by the Muslim world of Mohamed’s comments. Rather, virtually all of the conference’s Muslim leaders actually voiced their approval.

In response to a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia in May 2004, Crown Prince Abdullah declared that “Zionism is behind [these] terrorist actions in the kingdom.” (Zionism is the code word often used by Islamic anti-Semites for Jews.) U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos called the Prince’s assertion “an outrage . . . blatant hypocrisy,” but Islamic leaders were silent. In fact, millions of Muslims still insist that Zionists were behind the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Anti-Semitism is expressed so freely and ubiquitously in most Islamic societies that no citizen can escape it. During Ramadan in 2002, Egypt’s state-controlled TV aired “Horseman Without a Horse,” a program based on the notorious forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in which Jews allegedly use the blood of non-Jews to make Passover matzot. In Iran, a TV series, “Zahra’s Blue Eyes,” portrays “Zionists” kidnapping Palestinian children and harvesting their organs.

Perhaps nowhere is the hatred of Jews more virulent than among the Palestinians. Most perniciously, Palestinian children are taught in school that Jews are descended from apes and pigs and that the most noble thing they can do is to kill Jews. Muslim clerics like Imam Ibrahim Madiras, an employee of the Palestinian Authority, declared in a 2005 television sermon, “Jews are a cancer” and later that, “Muslims will kill the Jews . . . [and] rejoice in Allah’s victory.” No surprise, then, that the 1982 doctoral dissertation of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas makes the astounding claim that “Zionists” collaborated with the Nazis to annihilate the Jewish people in order to drive the survivors to Palestine.

Anti-Semitism and the prospects for peace: Islamic anti-Semitism permeates the Arab Middle East and creates an atmosphere in which Jews are reviled and represented as subhuman. How can the Palestinian people embrace peace with a people represented by their religious and political leaders as dehumanized, evil beings? Even more importantly, how can Israel be expected to trust a so-called peace partner who expresses abject hatred and murderous intent toward Jews on a daily basis? Yet the U.S. and many European nations continue to demand that Israel make one-sided sacrifices for peace with a people steeped in racism and committed to its destruction.

Until Islamic leaders muster the integrity to relentlessly condemn anti-Semitism (and its evil twin, anti-Zionism), we can’t expect Israel to accept a forced peace with the Palestinians. Likewise, until moderate Muslims reject racism in all forms, they can’t expect Islam to enjoy full respect as a political and spiritual force among the world’s people.

“ Until Muslims reject racism in all forms, they can’t expect Islam to enjoy full respect as a political and spiritual force.”

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The Forgotten Refugees: Why does nobody care about the Jewish refugees from Arab lands?

The world is greatly concerned about the Arabs who fled the nascent state of Israel in 1948. But no mention is ever made of the Jewish refugees from Arab lands. Their history is as compelling and arguably more so than that of the Arab refugees from Israel.

What are the facts?

Jews in Arab countries. Jews have lived since Biblical times in what are now Arab countries. After the Roman conquest, Jews were dispersed, mostly to what are now the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East. Many Jews migrated to the Iberian peninsula – Spain and Portugal. They were expelled from those countries at the end of the 15th century. They mostly migrated to the Arab countries, where, by now, they have been living for almost 500 years, many Jews for over 2,000 years.

There is a myth that Jews had an easy life in Muslim/Arab countries. The opposite is the case. Jews under Islam were treated as second-class citizens and worse. The relationship was governed by a system of discrimination, intended to reduce the Jews in those Arab countries to conditions of humiliation, segregation and violence. They were excluded from society, from government, and from most professions. They were barely tolerated and often, under the slightest pretext or no pretext at all, were victimized by vicious violence.

When Israel declared its statehood in 1948, pogroms broke out across the entire Arab/Muslim world. Thousands died in this violence. Their homes and businesses were destroyed, their women violated. The vast majority of those Jews fled from where they had lived for centuries. They had to leave everything behind. Most of those who were able to escape found their way to the just-created state of Israel.

Over 850,000 Jews were driven from Arab countries, most of them in 1948, at the birth of Israel. Most of the remainder were chased out during or immediately following the Six-Day War in 1967, when, in fury about the disastrous defeat, the “Arab street” erupted and subjected its Jewish population to bloody pogroms. Israel received every one of those Jewish refugees from Arab countries with brotherly open arms; it housed, fed, and quickly integrated them into Israeli society. They and their descendants now make up more than one-half of the country’s population.

A different history. It is instructive to compare the history of those Jewish refugees with that of the Arabs who fled from Israel during its War of Independence. There were about 650,000 of them. Most left following the strident invocations of their leaders, who urged them to leave, so as to make room for the invading Arab armies. After victory was to be achieved, they could return to reclaim their property and that of the Jews, all of whom would have been killed or would have fled.

In contrast to the Jewish refugees, who were quickly integrated into Israel, the Arab countries resolutely refused to accept the Arab refugees into their societies. They confined them into so-called refugee camps. Those camps are essentially extended slum cities, where their descendants — now the fourth generation — have been living ever since. The reason for the Arabs’ refusal to accept them was and still is the desire to keep them as a festering sore and to make solution of the Arab/Israel conflict impossible. These “refugees,” whose number has by now miraculously increased from their original 650,000 to 5 million, are seething with hatred toward Israel and provide the cadres of terrorists and suicide bombers.

The Palestinian refugees occupy a unique place in the concern of the world. Since 1947, there have been over 100 UN resolutions concerning the Palestinian refugees. But there has not been one single resolution addressing the horrible injustices done to the nearly one million Jewish refugees from the Arab states.

There have been many millions of refugees in the wake of the Second World War. With only one exception, none of those refugee groups occupy the interest of the world and of the United Nations in a major way. That one exception are the Palestinian refugees. In fact, a special branch of the United Nations (UNWRA) exists only for the maintenance of those “refugees.” In the almost sixty years of the existence of this agency it has cost many billions of dollars, most of it — you guessed it — contributed by the United States.

Jewish refugees from the Arab countries are the forgotten refugees. The world, and especially of course the Arabs, claim compensation from Israel for the Arab refugees and insist on their return to what has been Israel for almost 60 years. The Jewish refugees from Arab countries, all Israelis now, have no desire to return to their ancient homelands, where they had been treated so shabbily and so brutally. But if there is to be any compensation, those forgotten Jewish refugees are certainly entitled to such compensation as much as the Arab refugees. Anything else would be an outrage and a great injustice.

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Piercing the Mystery of Hate: Why Arabs and Muslims Despise Jews and Israel

Via FLAME:
-------------------
In this most significant article, Yair Lapid raises a question that, at least in this form, I have never seen before. The question is, why do Arabs and other Muslims really hate us (the Jews in general and the Israelis in particular) so much? In the almost sixty years of Israel's existence, the super-rich Islamic countries could have performed miracles in bringing their Palestinian brethren to happiness and prosperity. (Just last year Israel abandoned Gaza, leaving an infrastructure of thriving farms and factories in place, but rather than exploit these resources, the Palestinians trashed them in wanton, spiteful anger.) This folly started in 1948, when the Arabs were offered a state alongside the newly formed Jewish state, but rejected it and opted instead to wage war---a war that is still going on in undiminished ferocity. One can perhaps understand that the Palestinian Arabs have a resentment against Israel, but what about all the other Arab and Islamic states? Most of these countries lay very far away, prominently among them Iran, yet they still nurture a fanatical hatred and undiminished hatred against Jews and Israel, to the point of flirting with self-destruction. Perhaps the conundrum is similar to trying to explain the source of Nazi anti-Semitism---a challenge many have approached, but none has adequately conquered. It's like trying to rationalize hate itself. This article, by Israeli journalist author and talk show host (and son of Israeli politician Tommy Lapid), seeks an answer to the question of Arab and Islamic anti-Semitism and sheds much useful light on it. He may not give us the complete answer, but then how does one explain the inexplicable, the completely irrational?
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The Mystery of Hate
by Yair Lapid, August 20, 2006, www.israpundit.com

Hundreds of years of fighting, six and a half wars, billions of dollars gone with the wind, tens of thousands of victims, not including the boy who laid down next to me on the rocky beach of Lake Karon in 1982 while we both watched his guts spilling out. The helicopter took him, and to this day I do not know whether he is dead or survived. All this, and one cannot figure it out.

And it's not only what happened, but all that did not happen—hospitals that were never built, universities that were never opened, roads that were never paved, the three years that were taken from millions of teenagers for the sake of the army. And despite all the above, we still do not have the beginning of a clue to the mystery of where it all started.

Why do they hate us so much?

I am not talking about the Palestinians this time. Their dispute with us is intimate, focused, and it has a direct effect on their lives. Without getting into the "which side is right" question, it is obvious that they have very personal reasons not to stand our presence here. We all know that eventually this is how it will be solved: In a personal way, between them and us, with blood, sweat and tears that will stain the pages of the agreement. Until then, it is a war that can at least be understood, even if no sane person is willing to accept the means that are used to run it by.

It is the others. Those I cannot understand. Why does Hassan Nasralla, along with tens of thousands of his supporters, dedicate his life, his visible talents, his country's destiny, to fight a country he has never even seen, people he has never really met and an army that he has no reason to fight?

Why do children in Iran, who can not even locate Israel on the map (especially because it is so small), burn its flag in the city center and offer to commit suicide for its elimination? Why do Egyptian and Jordanian intellectuals agitate the innocent and helpless against the peace agreements, even though they know that their failure will push their countries back 20 years? Why are the Syrians willing to remain a pathetic and depressed third world country, for the dubious right to finance terror organizations that will eventually threaten their own country's existence? Why do they hate us so much in Saudi-Arabia? In Iraq? In Sudan? What have we done to them? How are we even relevant to their lives? What do they know about us? Why do they hate us so much in Afghanistan? They don't have anything to eat there, where do they get the energy to hate?

Jews are the least of their problems

This question has so many answers and yet it is a mystery. It is true that it is a religious matter, but even religious people make their choices. The Koran (along with the Shariaa—the Muslim parallel to the Jewish Halacha) consists of thousands of laws—why is it that we occupy them so much?

There are so many countries who have given them much better reasons to be angry. We did not start the crusades, we did not rule them during the colonial period, we never tried to convert them. The Mongolians, the Seljuk, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, the British, they all conquered, ruined and plundered the whole region. We did not even try . . . so how did we become the enemy?

And if it is identification with their Palestinians brothers, then where are the Saudi Arabian tractors building up the territories that were evacuated? What happened to the Indonesian delegation building a school in Gaza strip? Where are the Kuwaiti doctors with their modern surgical equipment? There are so many ways to love your brothers—why do they all prefer to help their brothers with hating?

The smallest, most irritating footprint in the Middle East

Is it something that we do? Fifteen hundreds years of anti-Semitism taught us—in the most painful way possible—that there is something about us that irritates the world. So, we did the thing everyone wanted: we got up and left. We have established our own tiny little country, where we can irritate ourselves without interrupting others. We didn't even ask a lot for it. Israel is spread on a smaller territory than 1% of the territory of Saudi Arabia, with no oil, no minerals, without settling on another existing state's territory. Most of the cities that were bombed [by Hezbollah] were not plundered from anyone. Nahariya, Afula, and Karmiel did not even exist until we established them. The other katyusas landed on territories over which no one ever questioned our right. In Haifa there were Jews as early as the 3rd century BC, and Tiberias was the place where the last Sanhedrin sat, so no one can claim we plundered them from anyone.

However, the hatred continues. As if no other destiny is possible. Active hatred, poisoned, unstoppable. Last Saturday the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called again "to act for the vanishing of Israel" as if we were bacteria. We've gotten so used to it that we don't even ask why.

Israel does not hope and never did hope for Iran to vanish. As long as they wanted, we had diplomatic relations with them. We do not have a common border with them or even any bad memories. And still, they are willing to confront the whole western world, to risk a commercial boycott, to hurt their own quality of life, to crush what's left of their economy and all that for the right to passionately hate us.

Islam's greatest problem?

I am trying to remember and cannot: Have we ever done something to them? When? How? Why did Ahmadinejad say in his speech that "Israel is the main problem of the Muslim world"?—more than a billion people living in the Muslim world, most of them in horrible conditions. They suffer from hunger, poverty, ignorance, bloodshed that spreads from Kashmir to Kurdistan, from dying Darfur to injured Bangladesh. How come we are the main problem? How exactly are we in their way?

I refuse to accept the argument that claims "that is just the way they are." They've said it about us so many times that we have learned to accept this expression. There must be another reason, some dark secret that because of it, the citizens of South Lebanon allowed their quiet border to be disturbed, the kidnapping of soldiers of an army that has already retreated from their territory, the transformation of their country into a wasteland at precisely the time they finally escaped twenty years of disasters.

We've gotten used to feeding ourselves worn expressions: "It's the Iranian influence," or "Syria is stirring things up behind the scenes"—but this is just too easy explanation. Because what about them?

What about their thoughts?
What about their hopes, loves, ambitions and their dreams?
What about their children?
When they send their children to die, does it seem enough for them to say that it was all worth while just because they hate us so much?

Is Israel an asset or a burden to our country?

What are the facts?

The United States is without question Israel’s most important ally. Also, without question, Israel is the staunchest and most reliable friend of the United States. But there are some who believe and vigorously advocate that Israel is a burden to the United States and that, were it not for Israel, peace would prevail in the Middle East.

The “Israel lobby.” A patriotic-named foundation urges, in full-page ads in national newspapers (very expensive — who pays for it?), to influence Congress to withhold support for Israel. Professors from prestigious universities write essays in which they aver that the United States is in thrall to the “Israel lobby.” This lobby is said to pull the strings of American policy. Its supposed main promoters are AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the so-called “neo-cons,” some of whom are indeed Jewish. They are said to exert an almost magical spell over policy makers, including the leaders of Congress and the President. Some even say that the Iraq war was promoted by this omnipotent “Israel lobby,” that the President was flummoxed into declaring war on Saddam Hussein, not in order to defend the United States or to promote its interests, but in order to further the interests of Israel.

Israel is indeed a major recipient of U.S. aid. Israel receives yearly $1.8 billion in military aid and $1.2 billion in economic aid, a substantial portion of our yearly aid budget. Almost all of the military aid is spent in the United States, making Israel one of the major customers of the U.S. defense industry. Virtually all of the economic assistance goes for repayment of debt to the United States, incurred from military purchases dating back many years.

America’s staunchest ally. A good case can be made that aid to Israel, certainly the military portion, should be part of the United States defense budget, rather than of the aid budget because Israel is, next only perhaps to Britain, by far the most important ally of the United States. Virtually without exception, Israel’s government and its people agree with and support the foreign policy objectives of the United States. In the United Nations, Israel’s votes coincide with those of the United States over 90% of the time. The Arabs and other Moslem countries, virtually all of them recipients of American largess, almost reflexively vote against the United States in most instances.

Israel is the major strategic asset of the United States in an area of the world that is the cradle of Islamo-fascism, which is dominated by tyrants and permeated by religious obscurantism and shows almost total disregard for human rights. During the decades-long Cold War, Israel was America’s indispensable rampart against the inroads of the Soviet Union. It is now the bulwark against the aggressive intentions of Iran. During Desert Storm, Israel provided invaluable intelligence, an umbrella of air cover for military cargo, and had personnel planted in the Iraqi deserts to pick up downed American pilots.

Gen. George Keagan, former head of U.S. Air Force Intelligence, stated publicly that “Israel is worth five CIAs,” with regard to intelligence passed to our country. He also stated that the yearly $1.8 billion that Israel received in military assistance was worth $50 to $60 billion in intelligence, R&D savings, and Soviet weapons systems captured and transferred to the Pentagon. In contrast to our commitments in Korea, Japan, Germany, and other parts, not a single American serviceperson needs to be stationed in Israel. Considering that the cost of one serviceperson per year — including backup and infrastructure — is estimated to be about $200,000, and assuming a minimum contingent of 25,000 troops, the cost savings to the United States on that score alone is on the order of $5 billion a year.

Israel effectively secures NATO’s southeastern flank. Its superb harbor, its outstanding military installations, the air and sea lift capabilities, and the trained manpower to maintain sophisticated equipment are readily at hand in Israel. It is the only country that makes itself available to the United States in any contingency. Yes, Israel is not a burden, but a tremendous asset to the United States.

Israel is indeed America’s unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Middle East and the indispensable defender of America’s interests in that area of the world. The people of the United States, individually and through their Congressional representatives, overwhelmingly support Israel in its seemingly unending fight against Arab aggression and Moslem terror. But that support is not based on the great strategic value that Israel represents to the United States. It is and always has been based on shared values of liberty, democracy, and human rights. America and Israel are aligned by their shared love of peace and democracy. Israel and the United States stand together in their fight against Islamo-fascist terrorism. These shared values, these common ideals, will bind Israel and the United States forever.

Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)
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Keyword(s): FLAME; economics; Israeli lobby

What are the facts about Jewish and Arab claims to the Holy Land of Israel?

Islamic identification with the Jewish and Christian Holy Land is tenuous, and secondary to the most important sites in Islam.

The 16 facts listed below underscore the unremitting campaign of Arab nations to destroy Israel in the face of numerous overtures by Israel to trade land for Middle East peace.

If you have friends, acquaintances, or fellow synagogue or church members who would appreciate knowing these facts, I encourage you to pass this document along to them.

Every time you help someone understand the facts about Israel, you do a mitzvah---a divinely good deed. This list will help. Via FLAME:

16 Important Facts About Jews, Arabs and Israel

1. Israel became a state circa 1030 B.C., more than two millennia before Islam.

2. Arabs from Israel first began to be called "Palestinians" in 1967 by Yasser Arafat and other Arab leaders, two decades after modern Israeli statehood.

3. After conquering the land in about 1250 B.C., Jews ruled it for more than 1,300 years and have maintained a continuous presence there for 3,300 years.

4. For over 3,000 years, Jerusalem was the Jewish capital. It was never the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even under Jordanian rule, (East) Jerusalem was not made the capital, and no Arab leader came to visit it.

5. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Bible, but not once is it mentioned in the Qur'an.

6. King David founded Jerusalem; Mohammed never set foot in it.

7. Jews pray facing Jerusalem; Muslims face Mecca. If they are between the two cities, Muslims pray facing Mecca, with their backs to Jerusalem.

8. In 1948, Arab leaders urged their people to leave, promising to cleanse the land of Jewish presence—some 70% of them fled without ever being ordered by Israel to leave, most of those without ever having seen an Israeli soldier.

9. Virtually the entire Jewish population of Muslim countries had to flee as the result of violence and pogroms.

10. Some 650,000 Arabs left Israel in 1948, while about 850,000 Jews were forced to leave Muslim countries.

11. In spite of the vast territories at their disposal, Arab refugees from Palestine were deliberately prevented from assimilating into their host countries. Of 100 million refugees following World War II, they are the only group to have never integrated with their coreligionists. Most of the Jewish refugees from Europe and Arab lands were settled in Israel, a country no larger than New Jersey.

12. There are 22 Arab countries (with 800 times the land mass of Israel), not counting the Palestinian territories. There is only one Jewish state. Arabs started all five wars against Israel, and lost every one of them.

13. The Fatah and Hamas constitutions still call for the destruction of Israel. Israel has agreed under several proposals to cede most of the West Bank and all of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, and even supported the arming of its police force after the Oslo Accords in 1993.

14. During the Jordanian occupation, Jewish holy sites were vandalized and were off limits to Jews. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian holy sites are accessible to all faiths and maintained in good order at Israel’s expense.

15. Out of 175 United Nations Security Council resolutions up to 1990, 97 were against Israel; out of 690 General Assembly resolutions, 429 were against Israel;

16. The U.N. was silent when the Jordanians destroyed 58 synagogues in the old city of Jerusalem. It remained silent while Jordan systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and it remained silent when Jordan enforced apartheid laws preventing Jews from accessing the Temple Mount and Western Wall (Kotel).

Keyword(s): FLAME; Arab occupation of Jewish land; facts and logic; Muslim mythology

New Lesson for Palestinians: Those Who Live by Terror Can Die by It

Folks, Jim Sinkinson of FLAME writes:

The terror attacks in Amman, Jordan, should be a wake-up call to Jordanians, who have never thought of themselves as potential targets of Muslim extremism. In this article, commentator Daniel Pipes makes a similar observation about the Palestinians, also newly awakened to the price of terror. You see, many of those who died in the Amman attacks were, ironically, Palestinians. As you may know, millions of Jordanians (in fact, a majority of Jordan’s population) consider themselves to be Palestinians---Arabs who are related tribally to Arabs living in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) and Gaza. Unfortunately, as Pipes points out, the lesson that terror is a morally reprehensible tactic may be lost on the Palestinians, who seem still to believe terror is wrong only when they themselves are the targets. Despite the fact that the same people who directed the Amman attacks---followers of the Jordanian-born al Zarqawi in Iraq---also murder hundreds of Muslim Iraqis every week, Palestinians may still be in denial that Islamic terror can be directed even against Arabs. Yet as these chickens come home to roost---as Islamic jihadists carry their crusade to its logical, bloody conclusions---we can only hope that moderate Arabs will soon come to realize that they, too, are in terror’s sights.

Returning lost objects

Here is scripture from our Holy Book, the Torah, which proves that palestinians and Jews don't believe in the same God.

In our Holy Book, it is written:

"If you see another person's animal, you shall not hide from it; you must return it to the owner. If the owner is not known to you, then you should bring the object into your house, where it shall remain until the owner inquires after it, and you will return it to him. So shall you do for his donkey, his garment, or any lost article that you may find..."
(Deut. 22:1-3)

Clearly, the palestinians who are looting Gaza were never imbued with the teachings of the same Holy G-d who wrote the Holy Torah, because if their souls were drenched with the loving-kindness of HaShem, they would not have pillaged Gaza and set the synagogues on fire; instead, they would have returned the remnants of what was Jewish property to the proper owners, the Jews.

Another application of this commandment written by G-d Almighty is taking responsibility for the damage of someone else's property. Palestinians don't think they have to answer to G-d. Another extension of the commandment is to return lost objects and to guard the object carefully until it is returned. We are taught that we don't have permission to use it; rather we are required to care for it.

Asking a palestinian to care for an object that belongs to a Jew is like asking a moth not to be drawn to a flame.

Palestinian clerics preach hate of the US and Israel? Can we really make peace with them?

The day after the London bombings, a Palestinian Authority imam prays for extermination of Infidels:

"Annihilate the Infidels and the Polytheists, Your [God's] enemies and the enemies of the religion. God, disperse their gathering and break up their unity, and turn on them the evil adversities. God, count them and kill them to the last one, and don't leave even one."

Ibrahim Madiras, Friday sermon
Palestinian Authority Television, July 8, 2005

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"Praise [Allah] who united America, Britain and Spain, reaching a decision against our people in Iraq. This is the Infidel's way, oh, Muslims. The United Nations, to our regret, has become a "House of Assembly" because that is where the Infidels meet."

Yusuf Abu Sneina, Friday Sermon Al-Aqsa mosque
Palestinian Authority Television, Feb. 28, 2003

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"The infidel countries under the leadership of the US made up an excuse and justification to wage their dirty war against Islam and the Moslems and against the Islamic movements worldwide.Concerning evil Britain, which directly brought about this corrupt entity on Palestinian land, Britain forgot that it is the height of terror and the height of hatred against Islam and Moslems."

Palestinian Authority Radio, Dec. 28, 2001

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PA religious leaders have regularly prayed for the destruction of the USA, Britain, and Israel. This one was just weeks before the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

"Oh, Allah, defend al Aqsa mosque from any evil. Oh, Allah, destroy the occupation and its supporters and collaborators. Oh, Allah, destroy America and its supporters and collaborators. Oh Allah, destroy Britain and its supporters and collaborators."

The Palestinian Authority Mufti, Ikrima Sabri
Palestinian Authority Radio, Aug. 24, 2001

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". . . You'll find that Jews are behind every conflict on Earth. The suffering of nations—the Jews are behind it! Ask Britain! What did it do to the Jews at the beginning of the sixth century? What did they do to the Jews? They persecuted them, tortured them, and prevented them from entering for more than 300 years. . . . Ask France! They tortured them, persecuted them and burned their Talmud, for the conflicts that they [i.e. Jews] tried to ignite in France in the period of Louis XIX. Ask Portugal what it did to the Jews! Ask Czarist Russia—who invited the Jews and they plotted to murder the Czar! And he massacred them repeatedly. Don't ask Germany what it did to the Jews, since the Jews are the ones who provoked Nazism to fight the entire world.On the day the Jews provoked—through the Zionist movement—the nations of the world to fight Germany economically, and to boycott German goods, on the day that they incited Russia, Britain, France and Italy, the anger of the Germans toward the Jews increased significantly, and what happened—happened at that time so that [Holocaust] Remembrance Day is commemorated by the Jews to this day.

For they are doing something worse than was done to them in the Nazi war. Possibly some of them were killed, possibly some of them were burned, but they're exaggerating [the Holocaust] in order to win over world media, and world sympathy.

The worst criminal acts in history were perpetrated upon the Jews, but they are not worse than those perpetrated upon the inhabitants of Palestine. What was done to the Jews is a crime, but isn't what they are doing in Palestine a crime...?

The Jews did not have a national home on this earth because they are liars! They lie when claiming that part of their faith is the establishment of a national home in Palestine. They were never interested in and never considered the establishment of a national home in Palestine itself. They were interested in a national home in any place at all, any place at all . . . Britain is the one that promised them the establishment of a national home on the land of Palestine. Why? Because Britain was upset by the Jewish presence in Britain, and wanted to be relieved of them, so it promised to establish a national home in Palestine...

Allah is the one who says that the Jews have the character of cowards; they fear Muslims more then they fear Allah...

The Palestinian nation is the strongest on earth. Look at all the civilizations! Look at all the states! Look at all the civilizations and forces and empires.

Where did Great Britain disappear? Where did the Czar's Russia disappear? Where did France, that almost ruled the world, disappear? Where did Nazi Germany, which massacred millions and ruled the earth, disappear? Where did all those forces disappear? In Allah's will, He will get rid of the USA like he got rid of them. He caused Russia to disappear within a day, and He is the one Who can remove the USA and bring it down, and so He shall do it, in Allah's will...We [Muslims] have ruled the world [in the past] and a day will come, by Allah, and we shall rule the world [again]. The day will come and we shall rule America The day will come and we shall rule Britain, we shall rule the entire world, except the Jews. The Jews will not live under our rule agreeably permanently, since they have been treacherous in nature throughout history. A day will come when all shall rest from the Jews, even the tree and the stone, which have suffered from them. Listen to your Beloved [Muhammad], who tells you about the most dire end of the Jews. The tree and the stone want the Muslim to bring every Jew to his end.We [Muslims] have ruled the world and a day will come, by Allah, and we shall rule the world [again]. The day will come and we shall rule America. The day will come and we shall rule Britain."

Ibrahim Madiras Palestinian Authority Television, May 13, 2005

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Israel's new neighbor to be state of Taliban?

Allright, folks, I'm addressing this post to the Jewish and non-Jewish libs, the "peace-now" advocates, the apostate Jews ashamed of their heritage, to the left-wing Hollywood and European elite who shout "Israel is an occupier", to those who have uttered the "I believe in a two-state solution" euphemism and who have defended "the poor palestinians" and useless humans like Rachel Corrie and Stanley Cohen:

Hamas, the godless mob of murderous barbarians, is swiftly gaining power in Gaza. Hamas, which is now firing an average of three rockets or mortars per day at Gaza's Jewish communities, is using social welfare organizations in competition to the lesser or nonexistent services of the P.A. to garner support for its political candidates. The terror group already administers social services in Gaza, including medical, charitable and educational resources. Hamas also maintains a civilian infrastructure in Gaza that owns several shopping centers and local businesses.

Big deal, you say. We already knew that, you say. Well, keep reading, I'm not done yet:

The Palestinian Authority announced yesterday it will hold talks with Hamas and other terror groups regarding the possibility of a "national unity government" that will incorporate the various violent factions.

What does that mean? Well, lately, there have been alarming signs Hamas plans to use its newfound control to enforce Taliban-like rules on Gaza's palestinian inhabitants. Hamas in Gaza has established hard-line Islamic courts and created the Hamas Anti-Corruption Group, which sources describe as a kind of "morality police" operating within Hamas' organization. In fact, this weekend, a Hamas-run council in the West Bank barred an open-air music and dance festival, saying it was against Islam.

Hamas recently carried out an "honor killing". On April 8, Yusra al-Azzami, a young female university student in the northern Gaza Strip, was caught by Hamas, together with another female, riding in a vehicle with two men. The Hamas members, reportedly officers of the Anti-Corruption Group, suspected the vehicle occupants of "immoral behavior" and shot at the car, killing al-Azzami and wounding the other occupants. The matter, according to the Palestinian media, was settled in Hamas' hard-line Gaza Islamic court, not through the Palestinian Authority's official judicial system. The terror group announced it agreed to pay al-Azzami's family $35,000 for the wrongful death. (That's cheap. That's only $10,000 more than what Hamas, Arafat and Saddam Hussein paid palestinian terrorists to bomb Jews and Jewish establishments.)

Folks, Hamas is imposing Islamic law and order, not democratic law and order. Next month, Israel plans to evacuate the Jewish communities of Gaza. What's going to happen then? Well, Hamas regularly fires rockets and mortars at Gaza's Jewish communities. As the Aug. 15 evacuation draws closer, the rocket attacks are expected to increase exponentially so Hamas can claim it drove Israel from Gaza.

Once the Jews are gone from Gaza, Hamas and the other Muslim barbarians will engulf Israel, like a bacterial paramecium, in order to attack and invade Israel, and it will continue daily. It will be worse than it ever was. Thousands of more Jews will be blown to pieces.

To those Jews whom I addressed this post - those who were faithless and apathetic and ashamed of being Jewish - they are the ones that helped enable this godless 23rd Islamic kleptocracy to be born. It is to those Jews who I admonish; because it was not politically correct to do so, you remained silent and were afraid to name Islam the enemy. As Jews, you retreated and were embarassed about your religion. You said about your fellow Jews in Israel - retreat - because it's better to live like mice than to live like lions, like the lions of Judah.

Now, sadly, you will get what you wanted. Your apathy and your self-loathing has placed your fellow Jews into a dangerous, self-imposed ghetto, surrounded by 23 nations of Islamic theocracies and brutal dictatorships, run by racist madmen.

More horror is to come because the battle over Jerusalem has not yet begun. But when it does, so will our heartache. Perhaps then, Jews who didn't believe will begin to believe, and they will find a flicker, a flame, somewhere deep inside their souls - a knowledge of HaShem, the One and Only, and maybe then the rest of us will be able to receive our promised redemption, because other than being redeemed in Gd's Eyes, there is nothing good that is going to come our way. Nothing.

Learn to read with a critical eye

Folks, I started this blog in July of 2003 with the singular intent to create an online fact-based compendium on Israel and the 50+ year long war waged against her by Islamists, or Mohammedans as I like to call them, and other brutal Jew hating fascists.

What Islam and its adherents did on September 11, 2001, gave jihad a new urgency for the simple fact that Muslims found themselves on the defensive, which not only has led to a hardening of Muslim attitudes, which were already unevolved and coarse, but it has also furthered their goal to engage in radical offensive warfare.

The American submission, dhimmitude, to Islam is obvious to everyone. Americans tiptoe around their shrines and mosques like scared little girls. It's disgusting.

Islamists know deep down how backward and behind the times they are and, being human, their response is to find someone to blame. Islamists are killingly envious and will try to bring down what they cannot compete with.

Although this blog is almost two years old, I have been online combatting Israel's enemies for several years prior to this blog's creation.

One of the things that I have learned is that I must read documents with a critical eye, especially when it had to do with the complex story of the modern Middle East. There are so many blogs, websites and news services plagued by myths, distortions and omissions about Israel and her enemies and each of these online sites all serve to paint Israel in a negative light. Therefore, I am going to list several links here, that already exist on my sidebar, for you to review. Please read them. Bookmark this post and although this list is overwhelming on first sight, take your time, and each day visit at least one. Study the contents, memorize the facts, and feel empowered by the knowledge:

Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict,

20 Facts About Israel and the Middle East,

FLAME,

History in a Nutshell,

Nutshell 2,

Pipeline of Hatred,

Palestine Facts,

Balfour Declaration, 1917,

As early as 1922, Arabs were apprehensive that Palestine would become 'as Jewish as England is English.': British White Paper, 1922,

Arabs required, again in 1939, reassurances that Palestine would not become 'as Jewish as England is English.': British White Paper, 1939 ,

Palestinian National Charter,

Camp David Accords, 1978,

Israel-Palestine Liberation Agreement, 1993,

The creed of the terrorist group Hamas: The Hamas Covenant,

UN Resolution 242. What does it really say? ,

JIMENA,

Dhimmis and Dhimmitude The Status of Minorities Under Islamic Rule,

What Muslims Really Believe: Jihad Watch,

The Arroganice of Islam: Dhimmi Watch,

American Jewish Historical Society,

The Fence. The Facts. ,

The false claim of "occupied" territories ,

The Fake History of the "West Bank" and Gaza Strip,

Yes, This Is About Islam,

The Promised Land of Israel,

Arab/Nazi Connection,

Why We Support Israel,

The Arab Invasion - 1948,

The Myth of "Arab East Jerusalem",

Was there ever a flourishing Arab society in what used to be Palestine?,

What words are contained in the Hamas Covenant? ,

Muslims who have left their faith

My blog, Smooth Stone, should serve as a comprehensive starting point for learning about Israel. I encourage you to consult these sources and a variety of other published materials on the topic, so that you can learn from other experts and get all the facts, because folks, we are at war. I urge you to read these documents.

Until we stop "battling insurgents", fighting "foreign entities", or "confronting the Saddam loyalists", and get on to the real order of business of declaring that "Islam" is the enemy, we will never win this war.

British Teachers' Boycott of Israeli Academics Makes Anti-Semitism Official

Dear Friend of FLAME:

You may be aware that the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) has declared an "academic boycott" against two Israeli universities and its academic staff. The Association has not seen fit to condemn Palestinian terrorism---or terrorism of any sort in any part of the world---nor has it chastised repressive dictatorships, such as Syria or North Korea, nor those responsible for the genocide in Darfur. One can only conclude that Israel was singled out because it is a Jewish state.

Even the staid London Times decried the AUT resolution in an April 25 editorial: "The decision ... is a mockery of academic freedom, a biased and blinkered move that is as ill-timed as it is perverse ...[It] can quickly become an excuse for anti-Semitism ... Why does the AUT not call for a ban on contacts in dozens of other countries inimical to human rights? ... AUT members should defeat this pernicious ban by cultivating every contact available as soon as possible with the two Israeli universities."

This article, written by Douglas Davis before the resolution was passed, throws a somewhat humorous, but ultimately dead-serious light on this important subject. At the same time the article makes clear what enormous contributions Israel has made and continues to make to science, to technology and to the welfare of the world. Obviously, the examples given in the articles are only the tip of the iceberg of Israeli accomplishments in so many fields. Israel's achievements are the more admirable since they were reached despite almost incessant war and terror since the birth of the state and despite the ingathering and absorption into its society of millions of people.

Raise Your Voice Against the Anti-Semitic, Anti-Israel Resolution of the British AUT

The mean-spirited, anti-Semitic resolution of the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) must be fought by all available and possible means, because if it is not, such hateful action may spread to other universities and institutions. Immediately following this article is information about how you can protest this outrageous action. I urge you to take just 30 seconds to make your voice heard on this important issue.

From FLAME:

Dear Friend of Israel,

This is not the time to be silent.

Please write to the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) and tell them to REVERSE THEIR DECISION, made Friday April 22, 2005 to boycott Haifa and Bar Ilan Universities .

Consider a writing and sending a variation on this simple message:

SUBJECT: Reverse boycott of Israeli universities

Dear Sir/Madam:

I am writing to express my outrage at the AUT's recent decision to boycott Israeli universities. Since you have not chosen to condemn any other state in this troubled world than Israel , your actions can only be interpreted as anti-Semitic. Since Israel represents the only democracy in the Middle East and since its universities supply so much advanced research to the rest of the world, your resolution must be seen as mean-spirited and counterproductive. I encourage your organization to rescind its boycott immediately.

Sincerely,

(your name)

Here are the suggested AUT people to write to:

press@aut.org.uk,
president@aut.org.uk,
sally.hunt@aut.org.uk,
paul.cottrell@aut.org.uk,
brian.everett@aut.org.uk,
catherine.wilkinson@aut.org.uk,

In addition, we urge you to send a copy of your letter to the British press—suggested addresses follow:

letters@the-sun.co.uk,
stletters@telegraph.co.uk,
info@ap.org,
oneclick@bbc.co.uk,
newsbeat@bbc.co.uk,
psdalexander@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk,
info@standwithus.com,
editor@thisislondon.co.uk,
help@ft.com,
newsdesk@news-of-the-world.co.uk,
politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,
foreigneditor@independent.co.uk,
newseditor@independent.co.uk,
expressletters@express.co.uk,
editorial@dailymailonline.co.uk,
dtletters@telegraph.co.uk,
online.editor@timesonline.co.uk

Hamas Vows to Keep Fighting Israel Until "Occupation" Ends

From FLAME:

Hamas: We'll keep our weapons until the end of the occupationBy Amos Harel, Haaretz Service and News Agencies, April 26, 2005

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said he expects Hamas to hand in its weapons after joining the Palestinian parliament this summer, but gave no indication he would forcefully disarm the militant group. In response, however, Hamas said later Monday it has no intention of disarming in July.

"When a militia turns into a political party I believe the issue of a need for arms becomes irrelevant," Abbas said.

"Our fingers will remain on the rifle triggers until the removal of the occupation," Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said.

Masri said Hamas' participation in elections "does not mean it is on the way to becoming a political party."

Abbas, who has been under heavy pressure by the United States and Israel to rein in armed groups, was set Monday to meet with the Palestinian groups shortly, Israel Radio reported. While repeatedly calling on militants to halt their attacks on Israel, he has so far refused to take action against them, preferring instead to co-opt them.

Hamas, the largest Palestinian opposition group, has said it will participate in legislative elections set to take place in July. It would be the first time the group has sought a place in the Palestinian parliament.

Abbas welcomed the group's desire to join the political process, but said the group, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis, would be expected to give up its militant tactics after the vote.

"When a movement or militia is transformed into a political party, I would say that there will then be no need for them to possess weapons," Abbas told reporters. "There will be only one authority, one law, and one legal gun. The issue is very clear, and this has been common practice throughout history.

"But the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud a-Zahar, said Monday he would not agree to give up arms, the radio said.

A-Zahar called on Hamas leaders of Hamas who live abroad to return to Palestinian territory after Israel withdraws from Gaza, Israel Radio reported.

Hamas leaders living abroad, mostly in Syria, include Khaled Meshal, head of Hamas' political department and one of the group's most influential leaders abroad.

Under its plan for the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, however, Israel intends to retain control over the land, air and sea entrances and exits to the Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad questions value of calm

The Islamic Jihad network in northern Samaria has emerged as one of the most tangible threats to the implementation of the disengagement plan, as the Jihad leadership questions the value of sticking to the policy of calm (tahadiyah).

The Jihad network, encompassing Jenin and Tul Karm and the villages in between, is responsible for the last major attack within Israel—the suicide bombing at the Stage club in Tel Aviv, in which five Israelis were killed.

After the attack, the leadership in Damascus engaged in evasive tactics, designed to escape the flames of the Israeli response, as well as the unexpected fury the attack aroused among Palestinians, who mostly want the calm to continue. But in the past fortnight, various signs have been accumulating that indicate Jihad is back in action.

Last Thursday, in an unusual move for this period, the organization claimed responsibility for detonating an explosive device on the Gaza Strip border, moderately wounding an Israel Defense Forces tracker. Israeli intelligence sources also see evidence of the military wing in the northern West Bank having resumed planning major attacks.

Understanding The Religious War Against Israel And America: Barbarism As Sacrifice

In their religious zeal, Islamic fundamentalists are driven by a savagery and bloodlust that is totally alien to most Westerners, but it is a motivation we must be aware of and understand in order to be clear as to what confronts us. As you know, suicide bombers willingly, even happily, lay down their lives in order to kill their "enemies"---and as we saw with the 9/11 attacks, more often than not they also injure innocent bystanders. Thus there can be no doubt that these fanatics are willing to sacrifice thousands or even millions of lives in order to accomplish their ends. It is of existential importance, of course, that Israel be on guard against such likely attacks. Once Iran obtains a nuclear weapon---and it seems to be only a matter of short time before they do---they will have no compunction, indeed will feel God-driven, to use such a weapon to destroy Israel and the hated Jews. To know and to understand one's enemy is of vital importance---not to know him could be fatal.

Louis Rene Beres is a professor at Purdue University and an author of many books and articles dealing with terrorism, war and international law and relations, and we have published his work in previous editions of the FLAME Hotline. Beres is a keen observer of the Middle East, and in the article that follows, he chillingly describes the mindset that animates the enemies of Israel, who are also the enemies of the United States and, indeed, of all Western culture.

Louis Rene Beres writes in the Jewish Press, March 24, 2005 :

How shall we truly understand what happened on the last day of March one year ago, when an Iraqi mob burned, desecrated and hanged four American contractors from a bridge in Fallujah? Utterly jubilant in their orgy of mutilation and murder, the members of this frenzied mob seemed to be acting in ways that were only marginally human. In fact, however, their behaviors were not only decidedly human, they were also tied intimately to certain distinct and long-enduring forms of religious worship. I refer specifically to the undiscarded practice of ritual sacrifice.

To find plausible comparisons with what happened at Fallujah, we needn`t go back to medieval times. Rather, only a few years earlier, a similar mob in Palestinian Ramallah tortured, gouged out the eyes, disemboweled and burned two entirely defenseless human beings. The sacrificial victims of that particular day, two Russian-speaking Israelis who had gotten lost on the roads, were not in any way identifiable to the mob as individual persons. For the sacrificers, it was more than enough that they were "Jews." For that reason alone, Vadim Norjitz and Yossi Avrahami were ripped apart with a measure of bliss and cruelty that seemed to defy all rational conduct.

"Truly I live in dark times," says the poet Bertolt Brecht. "The man who laughs has simply not yet heard the terrible news." The "news" here is that those who mete out brutality in places like Fallujah and Ramallah act with premeditation, conviction and purity of heart. Presuming their barbarism to be both enviable and sanctified, an incontestably worthy fulfillment of divine expectation, they revel in the literal dismemberment of "G-dless" enemies. (Editor's note: Beres observes the Jewish orthodox custom of not spelling out the name of the divine.) Though mired in blood, their joyous discovery of victims is always self-assured and firmly reinforced by religious faith. Such discovery is born of the deeply felt knowledge that the death they are dealing is not in any fashion evil, but is instead genuinely heroic.

The American military authority in Iraq had pledged one year ago to "find and punish" the perpetrators of Fallujah. This is well and good, to be sure, but it misses a much more important point. There are certainly tens of thousands of others in the area who are potential perpetrators, entire legions of others whose only regret is that they were not there this time, but who would surely participate robustly if another opportunity arose.

We can`t fight this sacrificing enemy with guns and rockets alone. We can`t even fight it effectively with improved intelligence and targeted killings of lead terrorists. We must fight it also by first understanding how to "delink" mob violence from religious sacrifice throughout the Arab/Islamic world.

To understand what happened at Fallujah we can go back to the prior events at Ramallah. There the torture-killing of the two Israelis exhibited clear signs of ritual sacrifice. When one of the overjoyed murderers appeared before the crowd of thousands smeared in the victims` blood, the mob roared a collective orgasm of satisfaction. The victims, after all, were "unbelievers," Jews, not true humans deserving of care and compassion. Even more importantly, their violent elimination was a signal to allah of the sacrificers` own worthiness and a clear promise of divine reward.

America and Israel must soon understand that terrorism in the Arab/Islamic world is only a tactic and that murder by mutilation in this world is related directly to religious sacrifice. Until now, this understanding has lent itself only to very insubstantial theorizing. Now, immediately, Arab/Islamic terrorism must be recognized, at least in part, as a bloody and sacred act of mediation between sacrificers and their deity. To be sure, the killers who take visible delight in mutilation-centered forms of terror are also enjoying themselves immensely, but this does not in any way deny the religiously sacrificial quality of their unforgivable barbarisms.

Religious sacrifice always serves to quell growing violence and hatreds within a primitive community. Left unappeased, violence will accumulate until it overflows its confines, flooding the surrounding areas. A firm principle of sacrificial behavior, then, is that it stems a rising tide of random and intracommunal harms, redirecting it into "proper" and socially productive channels.

The two "Jews" in Ramallah, as expressions of an already-despised other in Palestinian society, were more than a proper channel. They were altogether perfect victims for ritual killing. So, too, for the same reasons, were the "Americans" in Fallujah.

An intended function of religious sacrifice is to restore harmony to the primitive community, to strengthen a fragile social fabric. The murders in both Ramallah and Fallujah offered exactly such restoration. Having stumbled upon vulnerable surrogates for their own overflowing violence, the perpetrators in both cases revealed that their surface affinity for mutilation was part of a much deeper passion for "sacred" sacrifice of despised "others." In both cases, the sacrifices were approved widely by Islamic clerics round the world.

We can also learn more about all this from the world of ancient Greece, from the myth of Dionysus described by Euripides in [his play] "The Bacchae." Idyllic at first, the Bacchantes` celebration quickly evolves into a bloodthirsty nightmare. The delirious women of Thebes hurl themselves indiscriminately on men and beasts. They are reportedly in the midst of a "strange illness," one that we can now recognize unquestionably as a sacrificial crisis.

It is futile, it seems, to try to restrain the still-growing tide of violence and mayhem in parts of the Arab/Islamic world. The Dionysian outbreak prevails over all. So it was that terrible morning in Ramallah, and again — several years later — in Fallujah.

The murderous mutilations of Ramallah and Fallujah are strikingly similar to the sacrificial violence of Dionysian ritual practice. We can better understand the contemporary events by looking backward to ancient Greece. In Dionysian ritual, "Sparagmos, or dismemberment, is always included. Moreover, as many of the Bacchantes as possible take part in the collective frenzy. This is meant to satisfy the requirement of unanimity, which figures importantly in sacrifice.

Significantly, few or no actual weapons are used in Dionysian practice. The victim is always torn apart by the killers` bare hands. This dismemberment of a living victim, by multiple assailants — each participating wholly in the act — assumes a clear religious meaning. A mob rapidly comes to a high pitch of mass hysteria, then throws itself on a fragile individual or individuals — victims who serve thereby to polarize all the fears, anxieties and hostilities of the profane assembly. Finally, the victims` death provides the desired outlet for mass frustration while it simultaneously restores intracommunal peace.

Fallujah, like Ramallah before it, must be understood in America and Israel as much more than an explosion of passionate hatreds. It was, more than anything else, a selected venue for primal sacrifice. We shall now need to better recognize this religious dynamic before we can prevent its intermittent recurrence in Iraq, Israel, the United States or elsewhere.

FLAME

The Facts on Israel and the "Palestinians"

Folks, here is a compilation of some of the best resources available to help you counterpoint the misinformation about Israel that oozes out of the mouths of terrorist-apologists and psuedo-intellectuals.

Hat tip to Think-Israel:

An excellent introduction to the differences in perception between the Israelis and their Arab neighbors is an article by Victor David Hanson in the National Review. It is called Palestinian Pretense and Israeli Reality. You'll find it at http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson031802.shtml

Here are some short articles that will introduce you to the History and Geography of Israel and its neighbors.

Start with a superb set of visuals called History in A Nutshell. It was produced by Udi Ohana of Concept Wizard. He has a new presentation called PipeLine of Hatred on Islamic anti-Semitism.

Download Twenty Facts About Israeland the Middle East from the Empower America web site. Empower America is a highly respected group; its directors include Jeane Kirkpatrick, William Bennett and Jack Kemp.

Read the page on Palestinians in The Peace Encyclopedia. It's an eye-opener, hard-hitting and accurate, laying out the stages in the bogus creation of a Palestinian people.

FLAME is an organization that buys space in different magazines to present factual and well-written articles on Israel and its neighbors. Its aim is to counteract the nonsense that passes as truth in so much of the media. You can read their articles on their web site: http://www.factsandlogic.org.

By now, you should be ready for real detail. These are some excellent background books:

Mitchell G. Bard: Myths and Middle East. It is easy to read and accurate. You will probably want to own a copy. But you can read it online at Middle East Myths.

Steven Emerson: Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us. Emerson is an authority on American-based organizations that aid and abet Arab terrorists.

Joan Peters: From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine. This was one of the first books to expose the Arab lies that underlie the Arab claims to the Land of Israel.

Mitchell Geoffrey Bard: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict. As the review in Amazon.com from the AOL Jewish Community Newsletter says: "Don't let your brain get parched. This useful book sorts through the political and military quagmire of the Middle East in language anyone can understand."

The internet has superb websites that are informative, and often with excellent graphics. Israel Science and Technology has factual articles on the Arab-Israeli conflict, including statistical tables and graphics. The home page is a compendium of essential information on Israeli science and technology: universities, departments, businesses, libraries, professional association, jobs, etc.

Maps of Israel from the Kingdom of David and Solomon to the present are presented in good detail. There are also maps comparing population, literacy, GNP, etc between Israel and its neighbors.

Middle East Information is dedicated to advancing democracy and pluralism innets the Arab world. Its Resources Links - libraries with internet Middle East collections, bibliographies and maps - are outstanding.

Use the virtual library of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) as an online encyclopedia of Jewish subjects. You can retrieve original documents and essays indexed as: maps, references, history, religion, Judaic treasures at the Library of Congress, and so forth. Log into www.us-israel.org.

Palestine facts is a site "dedicated to providing comprehensive and accurate information regarding the historical, military, and political background to the on-going struggle between the State of Israel and the Arab Palestinians." It is superbly organized and can well serve as a single-source resource.

Legal and diplomatic documents relevent to the history of the Middle East can be viewed by logging into the Avalon Project of the Yale Law School: Avalon Project.

Jews, Arabs and Eretz Israel is a succinct but excellent summary of the conflict between Jews and Arabs. It was composed by Samuel Kurinsky and includes an excellent summary of the history of Israel.

"Facing Jihad" by Dr. Asher Eder has an excellent monograph on the necessity of renouncing Jihad, if there is ever to be peace between Israel and Islam. Sol Jacobs has constructed a downloadable PDF file on the Arab initiation of the Six-Day War, as recorded on newspapers of the time.

Our Enemies is both entertaining (delightful graphics) and instructive. In association with www.masada2000.org, they present an excellent history of the "Palestinian" people. Articles are thought-provoking. They discuss not only Jewish self-haters but Christian self-haters such as Hanan Ashrawi, mouthpiece for the PLO.

As background for why the Arab young people hate Jews enough to sacrifice their own lives, you need to know what Arabs have been teaching their children in recent years. Mitchell G. Bard, Rewriting History in Textbooks is a monograph written in the early 90's on factual errors about Jews and Israel in several history texts. Read it by logging in to http://www.us-israel.org/pub/texts.html. And read Jews, Israel and Peace in Palestinian School Textbooks by logging into http://www.edume.org/reports/index.htm, the web site of the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.

A Homeland for the Palestinians? Why they? Why not anyone else?

The need and justification of a “Palestinian homeland” has been repeated so often and so insistently that people all over the world have come to accept it as an inevitability. That “homeland,” it is generally agreed, would consist of the Gaza Strip and most of Judea/Samaria, generally referred to as the “West Bank.” Even many good people in the U.S. and even our president, a well-intentioned man, advocate a “homeland,” a Palestinian state, at the end of the so-called “road map.”

What are the facts?

An unwarranted request. There is no such thing as a “Palestinian people.” That is a concept that, by the drumbeat of incessant propaganda, has been foisted on the world. The so-called Palestinians are the same Arabs that live in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Never at any time in history did the “Palestinians” have a homeland, nor did they ever demand one.

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted to set up both a Jewish and an Arab state within the borders of the territories. The Arabs were allotted three contiguous areas and the enclave of the city of Jaffa. The Jews were allotted three discontiguous areas. Jerusalem was to be an international city. In order to get their homeland, the Jews reluctantly accepted the unfavorable deal. The Arabs rejected it out of hand and instead invaded the nascent Jewish state with the armies of six nations. The ragtag Jewish forces decisively defeated the aggressors and stayed in control of most of the area. Egypt retained control of the Gaza Strip, and Jordan occupied Judea/Samaria (the “West Bank”). Had the Arabs accepted the United Nations partition plan, they would have had their “Palestinian homeland” for almost 60 years. They spurned the opportunity when it was available to them.

For nineteen years, until the Six-Day War, the territories involved were under the control of Jordan and Egypt. Never during those years was there ever a demand for a “Palestinian homeland.” Only after the Six-Day War in 1967, when the territories reverted to Israeli control, did the insistent clamor for a “Palestinian homeland” arise.

Although the Israelis would probably be glad to get rid of those bothersome and rebellious people, it is regrettably not that simple. The declared goal of the Arabs, a goal never rescinded, is the destruction of Israel. Were they granted an independent state, it would geographically and strategically dominate all of Israel. Within a very short time, this “Palestinian homeland” would be bristling with the most advanced weaponry, in all likelihood including weapons of mass destruction. Arab armies would be invited to participate in what they would hope to be the final onslaught against Israel and against the hated Jews.

How about other nationalities that yearn for a homeland, for their own state? There are first of all the Basques, the vast majority of whom live in the northwestern region of Spain. They are a unique people, with a language and a culture that has no relationship to anything else in the world. They have been fighting to become liberated. But Spain – most vociferous in the promotion of a “Palestinian homeland” – refuses that. An independent Basque homeland would not endanger Spain in any way. But does the world, does the UN support the Basques in their quest for independence? Of course not!

Or take the Kurds. They are a distinct group. They live in a land that is part of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Armenia. They have been fighting for independence for centuries, but it has never been granted. An independent Kurdestan would not endanger the countries that now occupy it. But does the world, does the UN support the Kurds in their quest for independence? Of course not!

And then there are the Tibetans. They are a distinct people, unique in language and religion. They have been annexed by China, which has flooded the country with its “settlers.” The Chinese are fully in the process of making Tibet into an integral part of China. Clearly, an independent Tibet would not be any existential threat to China. But does the world, does the UN support the Tibetans in their quest for independence? Of course not!

The quest for an independent homeland for the Palestinians is unwarranted because the Palestinians are not a distinct people which never had or even claimed such a homeland, and because the creation of such a homeland would be an existential threat to Israel. Both the world and especially the Europeans don’t really care about self-determination – they don’t lose any sleep over the Basques, the Kurds, the Tibetans or others who yearn for a homeland. They care about their own political and economic interests, which they cloak in the language of political morality. And of course, there are quite a few who wouldn’t shed a tear if, at the end of the day, Israel were indeed wiped from the face of the earth.

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An Independent Palestinian Kleptocracy

The concept of a Palestinian state, which has by now acquired an aura of almost inevitability, is a fairly new and quite unjustified one. It is unjustified because there are no distinct “Palestinian” people — they are the same Arabs as those of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The concept of a Palestinian state came about after the Six-Day War in 1967. It is the product of unrelenting Arab propaganda and insistence. A Palestinian state never occurred to the Ottomans who ruled the area until their defeat in World War I, nor to the British when they had the mandate over Palestine until 1948, nor to the Jordanians who ruled the “West Bank” from 1948 to 1967. George Bush (father) declared “…In accordance with U.S. traditional policy, we do not support the creation of an independent Palestinian state.” It is therefore difficult to understand why his son, our current president, would declare that it was “…a vision of longstanding U.S. policy to create a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.”

The Arab world is presently comprised of twenty-two states of nearly five million square miles and of one hundred forty-four million people. The greater Islamic world contains forty-four states with one billion people. Israel, with five million people, is smaller than Lake Michigan, smaller by half than San Bernardino County in California. There seems to be no need for another Moslem/Arab state, especially one that would certainly serve as an advance base for the ultimate destruction of Israel, the state of the Jews.

How the President would promote the creation of a terrorist state, a state that without question would become a mortal enemy of the United States, and how he would countenance the inevitable destruction of the Jewish state, the only loyal ally of the United States and its only strategic asset in the area, is incomprehensible. House majority leader Tom DeLay put it well when he said, “I can’t imagine this president supporting a state of terrorists… The peace plan is a road map to destruction.”

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More Twisted Words and Phrases

Arab propaganda systematically twists words and phrases so that eventually they come to mean almost the exact opposite of their original intent.

What are the facts?

Palestinian land: A great hue and cry has arisen about the Israeli barrier (called the “apartheid wall” by its noisy detractors). At a cost of billions of dollars, Israel has been forced to erect such a barrier in order to safeguard itself against constant murderous attacks that have so far cost over 1,000 Israeli lives and have hurt and mutilated thousands more.

Fourteen out of fifteen judges of the International Court of Justice have condemned this barrier as “illegal.” The only laudable exception to this lopsided and totally unwarranted decision was that of the U.S. judge on this (otherwise kangaroo) court. What particularly agitated the judges was that this barrier allegedly intrudes on “Palestinian land.” But, of course, there is no such thing as “Palestinian land.” The Palestinians do not own any land in Judea/Samaria (the “West Bank”). That land, originally part of the Ottoman Empire, became part of the British Palestine mandate after the First World War and was allocated as part of the Jewish homeland by the Balfour Declaration. In the War of Liberation of 1948, right at the birth of Israel, the invading Jordanian army occupied that territory and assumed possession. In the Six-Day War, Israel repulsed the attack and stayed in possession of the territory.

Judea/Samaria (the “West Bank”) is therefore part of Israel. If at some future date Israel should decide to relinquish any part of that territory to a Palestinian entity, then it would indeed become Palestinian land. But right now, there is no such thing. “Palestinian lands” do not exist. It is a twisted phrase, created by Arab propaganda to score public relations points and to create confusion in an uninformed public.

“Arab humiliation:” A great deal of ink is being spent on “Arab humiliation” at the hands of the Israelis. There are almost daily stories in the papers deploring the “endless delays” that Arabs suffer at being stopped and interrogated and in some cases searched at one of the many check points. Those delays, which undoubtedly are major inconveniences and annoyances to the Arabs, have one purpose only, namely to reduce and to the degree possible to prevent altogether the passage of suicide bombers that have so far caused so many Jewish victims.

The Arabs have brought those miseries upon themselves with their “intifada,” now over four years old. There were no check points and no delays before that started. And what could one say about women who, feigning pregnancy, carry explosives under their garments and blow up the female guards who examine them and all others around them? Or what about little children in ambulances who are supposedly in urgent need of quick passage (to a Jewish hospital), but who have bombs hidden in their gurneys, ready to explode and to kill?

But how about the “humiliation” and annoyance that the Jews have to endure? For Jews, normal life in Israel has practically ended. Motorists in Israel expose themselves to a gauntlet of sniper fire on the highways. Most school trips have been canceled for fear of attack on the children, similar to what the Moslem barbarians have just perpetrated in Russia. Social occasions, such as weddings or bar mitzvahs, can’t take place unless armed guards are provided. Restaurants, movies, stores and parking lots have to be heavily guarded. Arabs, on the other hand, can freely move through any part of Israel, the cities and the countryside, without any fear of attack. They need not protect their schools or their places of worship, their restaurants, grocery shops or other places where people gather. And they need not fear for their children and that Jews are going to blow them up.

The prevention of Islamic terror is an enormous burden on Israel. Fully three percent of the country’s $40 billion GNP goes to protection against terror. The Palestinians brought their misery upon themselves, but the Jews suffer much more from the necessary security precautions than they do. “Arab humiliation” is a twisted phrase, invented and endlessly promoted by Arab propaganda in order to engage the sympathy of the world.

The Arab Moslems have launched three major wars against Israel and have engaged in a constant war of attrition, in order to destroy what they call the “Zionist entity” (another twisted phrase). Unable to defeat Israel militarily, they have resorted to an endless war of propaganda, in which twisted words and phrases play a major role. They have been quite successful at that. Peace cannot come about until the Arab world is willing to wholeheartedly accept Israel and to forget about military action and the war of propaganda. But that day, if it is to come at all, is not yet in sight.

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A warning to Israel's enemies

A warning to the enemies of Israel: do not have illusions that you can destroy Israel. The judgement of the G–d of Israel, as He warned you, is prophecied:

"For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your reward shall return upon your own head. For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually; indeed, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble, and they shall burn them and consume them; and none shall remain of the house of Esau; for the Lord has spoken it. And they of the Negev shall possess the Mount of Esau; and they of the Shephelah the land of the Philistines; and they shall possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria; and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. And this exiled host of the people of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the Negev. And saviors shall ascend Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's." (Obadiah 15-21)