Meet another Israel’s “peace partner”

Recently we saw evidence that Fatah still refuses to recognize Israel.

Here’s a word from another supposed “peace partner”:
Syrian Actress Amal ‘Arafa: “Hatred of Israel Is in Our Genes and Blood”

(Hat tip: MEMRI TV via Road90)

I must say that I do believe that peace is possible, but it seems that Arab/Muslim societies will need to go through a process of denazification. There is nothing genetically wrong with Arab children and they are not born with hatred: it is how they are educated.

Hamas Wins Teachers Union Elections for UN Schools in Gaza

How lovely. Guess who finances this: you and me.

Hamas Wins Teachers Union Elections for UN Schools in Gaza

Hamas won all 11 seats in elections for the teachers union at UNRWA schools in Gaza held Wednesday. Hamas has controlled the teachers union for the past 16 years.

Terror and the UNRWA

In 2004, former UNRWA commissioner-General Peter Hansen revealed to the Canadian Broadcasting Company that UNRWA may very well employ Hamas members. “I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as crime,” Hansen infamously stated. He further added, that “We do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another.”

UNRWA has employed several high profile terrorists which include top Islamic Jihad rocket maker, Awad Al-Qiq who was killed in an Israeli air strike last May 2008. Al-Qiq was the headmaster and science instructor at an UNRWA school in Rafah, Gaza. Another terrorist, Hamas’s interior minister and head of the Executive Force, Said Siyam, was a teacher for over two decades in UNRWA schools.

Related posts:
UNRWA: reform or abolish
More calls to reform UNRWA

The Two-State solution is 87 years old. What did it bring?

Victor Sharpe, author of Politicide: The attempted murder of the Jewish State, has an excellent article in Am Thinker:
The Two-State Solution is 87 Years Old

In 1920, Great Britain was given the responsibility by the League of Nations to oversee the Mandate over the geographical territory known as Palestine with the express intention of reconstituting within its territory a Jewish National Home.

The territory in question stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the eastern boundary of Mandatory Palestine, which was a border that would separate it from what was to become the future state of Iraq.

The League of Nations created a number of articles, which were in line with the original intent of the Balfour Declaration of November 29th, 1917. At the last minute, however, a new article was introduced by the British Colonial Office: article number 25.

At first the sudden addition of this article was not a cause for alarm but gradually it became apparent that its inclusion directly enabled Great Britain in 1921 to tear away all the territory of geographical Palestine, east of the River Jordan, and give it to the Arab Hashemite family; the territory to become Trans-Jordan and led by the emir Abdullah.
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This was the first partition of Palestine and created a brand new entity 87 years ago covering some 35,000 square miles or nearly four-fifths of the geographical territory of Palestine. Immediately Jewish residence in the territory was forbidden and it became in effect judenrein – the German term for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from a territory.

This betrayal by none other than Winston Churchill, the Colonial Secretary at the time, was a devastating blow to the Jewish and Zionist leadership, which now saw the promised Jewish homeland reduced to the remaining narrow territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan – an area barely 50 miles at its widest.

Shortly after, in 1923, the British and French colonial powers also divided up the northern part of the Palestine Mandate. Britain stripped away the Golan Heights (ancient biblical Bashan) and gave it to French occupied Syria.
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The succeeding history of the remaining one fifth of the original territory promised to the Jewish people by Lord Balfour and the British government was one of continuing British betrayal as each successive Mandatory administration displayed pro-Arab and anti-Jewish policies.

During its administration up until 1947, Britain severely restricted Jewish immigration and purchases of land while turning a blind eye to massive illegal Arab immigration into the territory from neighboring Arab states.

Britain’s sorry record of appeasement of the Arabs, at the expense of Jewish destiny in the remaining territory, culminated in the infamous 1939 White Paper, which limited Jewish immigration to just 75,000 souls for the next five years. This onerous and draconian policy, coming as it did on the eve of the outbreak of World War 2, was a death blow to millions of Jews attempting to flee extermination by Nazi Germany.
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In 1948, Trans-Jordan, renamed the Kingdom of Jordan since 1946, had joined the other Arab nations in invading the Jewish state, illegally annexing the Biblical and ancestral Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria and renaming it the West Bank. Only Britain and Pakistan recognized the annexation.

The war ended in tortuous armistice lines resulting in an Israeli border a mere nine miles wide at the most densely populated area, which stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordanian occupied West Bank. Israel’s late Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, described these dangerously vulnerable armistice lines as the Auschwitz borders.

Nineteen years later the Arab states declared again their imminent intention to destroy Israel. In the June 1967 Six Day War Israel liberated Judea and Samaria from Jordan in a defensive war. Israel offered to give away the newly liberated West Bank to the Hashemite regime in Jordan and the Gaza Strip to its erstwhile Egyptian occupiers in return for a full and lasting peace. But the Arab League, meeting in Khartoum in August, 1967, delivered the infamous three No’s: No peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel.

It is within the narrow territory remaining for the Jewish state, if one includes Judea and Samaria, that the world now demands the establishment of yet another Arab state. Hamas controlled Gaza would be included in this future state to be called Palestine; a state which has never existed before by that name in all of recorded history – certainly not as an independent Arab state.

Gaza has already been given to the Arabs and they have turned it into a terror base from which they have launched a lethal missile blitz against Israel numbering to date over 10,000 rockets.
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Sadly, Israeli governments have become notoriously fearful of rejecting outright the deadly trap inherent in the so called two-state solution. Their muted responses have merely encouraged world leaders to repeatedly breathe new life into the discredited plan. The searing tragedy is that the two-state solution may presage for the Jewish people another Final Solution.

Perhaps the Secretary of State prefers to remain oblivious to the stark fact that the Arabs, whom she embraces and who today call themselves Palestinians, are as committed as their parents and grandparents before them to destroy the Jewish state; whatever size or shape its borders. The fact is that this is not a dispute over borders; this is a religious war and the Arabs, so long as the overwhelming majority remain Muslim, will never accept the existence of a non-Muslim state in territory previously conquered in the name of Allah -whatever the size or shape of its borders.

Only just recently, Muhammad Dahlan, speaking on behalf of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, declared on PA TV that the PA will not recognize Israel — one of the primary demands made upon the Palestinian Arabs in the Oslo Peace Accords. Indeed, Dahlan admitted that the only reason they meet with Israelis at all is in order to continue receiving the immense flow of international funds.
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I wrote about Dahlan’s speech here. Note how Arab leaders consistently reject any partition that allows any Jewish state in the Middle East. That is what happened in 1937, 1947, 1967, 2000, etc.

Hat tip: Israel Matzav, who calls this is a “must read” (I agree) and also links to a great commentary by Melanie Phillips: The essential history.

Why do totalitarian regimes love to hate Jews?

Echoes of the ’30s in Caracas

CHAVEZ’S CAMPAIGN against the Jews has three principal components. The first is the systematic stigmatizing of Israel as a “bloodthirsty,” “oppressive,” “genocidal” and “monstrous” country (quoted from Chavez and his officials) that disregards basic human decency and arrogantly defies international law. The second is the objectification of Jews as Zionists, seamlessly tying the Jews to the imagined evils and horror of the Israeli state. Statements such as “Zionism is Nazism” abound, both on the streets and in parliament.

All of this takes place in the context of anti-capitalist class warfare, in which “enemies of the people” are labeled by the government-controlled media to provide both justification and an outlet for bitter frustration and anger. This strategy was used to great effect in the national socialist movements of the 20th century, where Jews were specifically targeted as “elitist” to subject them to the anger and resentment of collectivist masses.
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Hugo Chavez continues to deny any involvement in these incidents and claims to have no antipathy toward the Jews. Instead, he cunningly offers them a Faustian deal by demanding their support in publicly denouncing Israel for its alleged misdeeds. Yet even these statements clearly promote a climate where anti-Semitism is not only tolerated, but is encouraged by his government.

This reminds me the Soviet Union a few decades ago. As a rule, totalitarian regimes need enemies, real or imaginable – in order to threaten and manipulate their own population – and Jews under such regimes are a predictable and usually defenseless target. Also, it is easy to whip up the hatred against them and there is no need to invent new accusations: simply recycle old antisemitic canards – they never seem to die off.

QOTD: Peace

“Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.” — Baruch Spinoza

The future of comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace

It’s not a secret that the Arab/Muslim world is deeply divided and bogged down with despotism, terrorism, corruption, economic troubles, internal conflicts – political, ethnic, religious, etc. It seems that the only common denominator there is the hatred of Israel.

Nevertheless, the 2002 Abdullah Plan (announced on the morning after the Passover Massacre) promises the normalization of relations with Israel. Conditions aside, today Haaretz published an atypically sober piece about the prospects of such promises come (and stay) true:

A comprehensive Mideast peace is a fantasy

Pieces of a puzzle that do not fit together but are being forced together so some sort of picture can emerge – this is how the Arab League summit in Doha is looking. Host Qatar, is not getting along with Egypt. Jordan is furious with Qatar because Al Jazeera, owned by the emirate’s ruling family, reiterated the claim that the late King Hussein was a CIA agent. Sudan, whose participation was still unclear as of Saturday afternoon because of the international arrest warrant for its president, is trying to rally Arab support. Egypt and Syria are still not reconciled. Saudi Arabia has embarked on a pan-Arab reconciliation effort, but with limited success. The Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have not reached an agreement. And Iraq is still considered suspicious, in part because it is under Iranian influence. In short, it looks like the Arab Disagreement League.

On the face of it, this scene is not uncommon. It’s a joyous moment for anyone seeking proof of a divided Arab Middle East, in which even the lowest common denominator is being destroyed. But it’s also a scene that should raise thoughts about the concept of the Arab initiative, which passed during the 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut.

At that time the Arab countries unified on an issue they had never been asked to agree on. The enormous efforts of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with cooperation from Jordan and a number of Gulf states, spurred a new sort of Arab unity: to grant Israel security, declare an end to the conflict, and hold diplomatic ties and normalize relations. This would be in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from all the territories, the establishment of a Palestinian state and a just solution to the refugee problem. That was the summit that officially replaced the Arab strategic outlook toward Israel formulated at the Khartoum summit in 1967 − the three nos: no recognition, no peace and no negotiations. However, the strategic change the initiative offers depends entirely on across-the-board Arab support. Without it, there is no point.

Howdy, “peace partner”

PA dismantles W. Bank youth orchestra

Palestinian authorities disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp after it played for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel, a local official said on Sunday. … Adnan al-Hinda, director of the Popular Committee for Services in the Jenin refugee camp, said that the participation of the children in the concert was a “dangerous matter” because it was directed against the cultural and national identity of the Palestinians. He accused “suspicious elements” of being behind the Holon event, saying they were seeking to “impact the national culture of the young generation and cast doubt about the heroism and resistance of the residents of the camp during the Israeli invasion in April 2002.” … Ramzi Fayad, a spokesman for various political factions in the Jenin refugee camp, also condemned the participation of the teenagers in the Holocaust event, saying all the groups were strongly opposed to any form of normalization with Israel.

This is “good” Fatah, which supposedly supports the “peace process” – as opposed to the “bad” Hamas. See any difference? I don’t.

Indeed, as of 2009, Fatah leadership does not make it a secret that they do not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Why all attention and aid go to Gaza?

Gaza and Darfur: Some People Matter More than Others

The UN estimates that more than 2 million Darfurians, out of a population of about 6 million, are living in refugee camps. Yet to this day, not one Arab or Muslim leader has publicly criticized Sudan’s actions in Darfur, even though both sides in Darfur are Muslim and Darfurians – both Arabs and Africans – are Sudan’s most devout Muslims.

Why nobody cares? It’s simple really: can’t blame Joos.

More calls to reform UNRWA

Rotten UNRWA practices seem to attract more attention:

A good piece by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Wash. Times: Cut off Relief Agency. UNRWA backed U.S. foes for years

For six decades, the United States has voluntarily contributed billions of dollars to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which was created strictly to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. In return for our generous investment, UNRWA subverts our laws, aids violent Islamist extremists, propagandizes against our ally Israel and in favor of Hamas, and works with banks targeted by the United States for money laundering and terrorist financing.

As our nation faces growing economic challenges, Congress must cut off funding to UNRWA and use our foreign aid to advance, rather than undermine, American interests and values.
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As a recent report by UNRWA’s former general counsel concluded, the agency has continually failed to properly vet staff members and humanitarian aid recipients for ties to foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). UNRWA does not ask personnel or aid recipients if they are members of FTOs, and it screens staff names through a U.N. list that does not include members of Hamas, Fatah’s al-Aqsa Brigades or other groups Palestinian extremists would be most likely to join.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd has stated that the agency does not consider those groups to be of concern. Her predecessor, Peter Hansen, proclaimed in 2004, “I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as a crime.” A number of UNRWA staffers were discovered to be members of FTOs – Awad al-Qiq, a now-deceased rocket-builder, even served as headmaster of a UNRWA school.

UPDATE:
UNRWA, where is the money going?
HT: Living with Rockets

What’s behind overwhelming anti-Israel bias in the UK media

Melanie Phillips reveals the reason of overwhelming anti-Israel bias in the British media: The real lobby and its acolytes

Well now Arab Media Watch lifts a curtain to show us the real lobby at work. It boasts:

Some 200 guests gathered at Kensington’s Royal Garden Hotel on 21 March 2009 to attend Arab Media Watch’s fifth annual fundraising dinner, and to mark its ninth anniversary. Among the guests were almost three-dozen senior journalists from the BBC, Al Jazeera English, Financial Times, Reuters, Daily Mail, Independent, Asharq Al Awsat, Al Quds Al Arabi, Al Hayat and others.

The evening began with a welcome speech by AMW chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi, who outlined the extensive work done by the organisation during and since Israel’s invasion of Gaza, including:

– forcing the media to correct factual errors
– meeting with editors and journalists
– providing them with information
– being interviewed by them or arranging interviews for them
– getting letters and articles published
– being quoted and cited in articles
– publishing studies, press releases and Action Alerts
– organising and speaking at events
– helping university students and researchers

‘All this was done,’ Nashashibi reminded the audience, ‘while continuing our work on media portrayals of the entire Arab world, a huge but vital task undertaken on a budget that’s dwarfed by that of the pro-Israel lobbies.’ He added: ‘We’ve proven the sceptics wrong for the last nine years, establishing ourselves as a credible, professional, dynamic organisation with the recognition, respect and support of much of the British media, and high-level contacts in every news organisation…AMW is making a considerable and invaluable difference, and wants to continue doing so.’

Here are some of the ‘factual errors’ that on its website AMW has tried to correct:

* The ‘myth that Hamas is out to destroy Israel’
* The ‘myth that Palestinian rockets are a grave threat to Israeli civilians’
* The ‘myth that five Arab armies tried to wipe out Israel in 1948: ‘Strictly speaking, therefore, the Arab states did not launch a war against Israel, but undertook an armed intervention which was both lawful and justified.’

On and on its goes, lie after smear after brazen lie.

Read the whole thing, it explains a lot.
Let’s remember this the next time we hear them lament about “all-powerful Israeli lobby”.

HT: LGF via IsraelMatzav