Holding One's Breath

The winds of change in the societies that make up the lands of North Africa and the Middle East in the past few months have burst forth to sweep throughout the Moslem land. These indifferences are now being exacerbated by the "revolutions" in Arab countries around Israel. Added to this there has also been a massive wave of negative views in the personal/public opinion of many Europeans towards Israel.

World opinion towards Israel has drastically eroded since the "Cast Lead" operation with its infamous Goldstone report, based on the scandalous lies and falsified testimonies of the Palestinian Hamas led regime, and in the aftermath of the Turkish "Humanitarian Flotilla" affair. World opinion has and continues to be manipulated by the pro-Palestinian propaganda front with outright lies and distorted and baseless facts used to "bad mouth" Israel. In country after country the world opinion has been brought to focus in a myopic manner on the Palestinian – Israeli conflict as the major cause of all injustices in the Middle East. Little or no light has ever been shown on the corrupt Arab regimes that clamored for the eradication of the "Zionist Entity" from the beginning.

Those of us who reside in Israel are truly concerned for the future Israel and of our region and of the world. With us in Israel the changes that are occurring are of vital strategic concern since they could affect our very physical existence. We in Israel have a deep concern over these recent developments since they are happening right next door and not thousands of miles away across a vast ocean. Added to these changes are the on going threats from our neighbors in Lebanon –vis a vis the Shi'ite Hezbollah. We continue to suffer our daily dosage of abuse in the world press from the Palestinians and their supporters who, "Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity," to reach a final agreement for peace. We also cannot forget the ongoing threat of immediate nuclear immolation promised almost daily by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And let us not forget the occasionally whimper from the supposedly democratically elected President Bashar al-Assad in Syria

We ask what has brought about this harbinger for a change in the Arab countries around us? Just why were the members of the western intelligence agencies caught unaware of the revolutions? Is revolution a new thing in the Arab world? What is the meaning of these changes and are they forebodings of Islamic radicalization Iranian style or are they really revolutions for democratization and social reform?

The countries of the ex French North African holdings of Algeria and Tunisia have known change. These ex colonies had western educated values of Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité exuberated by the French. The prosperity that the bourgeoisie city dwellers had experienced during the long French colonial rule was not a common thing as with the areas of the ex Ottoman Turkish Empire. The great majority of the populated coastal city areas are very westernized with educational opportunities mixed with capitalistic values. Islam to the majority of them is the religion but it is not the fundamentalist belief as with those in the rural southern region of the Sahara desert areas. From the majority of the reports from Algeria and particularly Tunisia the issue is social and economical and is not directly related towards relations with Israel. The ex-Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was a corrupt politician who manipulated his office to enrich his family and associates. So to have him kicked out was a Tunisia affair of state.

Egypt which had a long history of English occupation is very similar in its make up with the ex North African French colonies. However as has been pointed out Egypt suffers from tremendously vast difference in social classes and wealth. It too has an upper middle to high class of extremely wealthy individuals. Many of whom are from what could be termed "old money". Egypt has consistently suffered from a vast impoverished and uneducated Islamic lower class. Nearly 60 million Egyptians attempt to eke out meager livings from farming the Nile River soil and over a million live off the refuse of the garbage dumps of Cairo. In Egypt you have the members of the low to middle classes who are hard working petty bureaucrats, university graduates and professionals who do not receive wages anywhere near those of their counterparts in American or Europe. Some are making less than $100 a month.

Over the past century, from the time of the British occupation, those wanting of a better life for themselves and their children have gravited to the major cities of Cairo and Alexandria. They moved there for opportunities in commerce and education. For many years in Egypt upward movement was only made possible for those who had a "wasta", an influential intermediary to promote their application for employment in a society where most people lived in poverty. The young Egyptian middle class merchants still live well below the wealthy Egyptian elite and this has created the wave of animosity and resentment of those born into wealth and power.

Several statements, made by the thousands of participants in the demonstrations flooding Tahrir Square, that sound loudly are those of the members of the medical profession, educators and lawyers who are paid ridiculously low salaries. University students who can foresee no positive future after their years spent studying for a diploma are at the forefront of the movement. These are young Egyptians who are fed up with the futility of looking for a job that will allow them to improve their status in life and provide for their family.

The wealthy to extremely wealthy merchants and land owners of Egypt have created a pseudo aristocracy of their own which until the recent riots together with Mubarak controlled all life in Egypt. The failure of the high class to assist the members of the educated professional class to earn a decent living has caused the animosity which has burst forth onto the streets and squares of Egypt. The resentment of the masses due to continual abuse and deprivation has spontaneously come forth. Or is it spontaneous?

In light of the recent riots in Egypt against Hosni Mubarak, it is interesting to note the warning that General Muhammad Naguib conveyed to King Farouk during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 where he provided a summary of the reasons for the revolution:

"In view of what the country has suffered in the recent past, the complete
vacuity prevailing in all corners as a result of your bad behavior,your toying with the constitution,and your disdain for the wants of the people,no one rests assured of life, livelihood, and honor. Egypt's reputation among the peoples of the world has been debased as a result of your excesses in these areas to the extent that traitors and bribe-takers find protection beneath your shadow in addition to security, excessive wealth, and many extravagances at the expense of the hungry and impoverished people."

The success of the previous Egyptian Revolution of 1952 which was a military coup d'état by "The Free Officers Movement" inspired numerous Arab and African countries to remove pro-Western and specifically pro-British Empire and pro-French Empire monarchies and potentates behind the veil of ending corrupt regimes. The question today is whether today's revolution will allow the Islamic fundamentalist Moslem Brotherhood which was outlawed and controlled by the Mubarak security forces to break out and seize control. The members of the Moslem Brotherhood are outspoken critics of the peace with Israel and they are the ones behind the assassination of Anwar Sadat 6 October 1981. Moslem Brotherhood members have created political parties in several countries, such as the Islamic Action Front in Jordan and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank. These parties are staffed by Brotherhood members but kept independent from the Moslem Brotherhood to some degree.

So who or what is this Moslem Brotherhood?

The Moslem Brotherhood is an Islamist transnational movement and in many Arab states it is the largest political opposition organization. The group was founded in 1928 in Egypt and it is the "world's most influential Islamist movement." It was founded by the Islamic scholar and Sufi schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna.

The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur'an and Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state."

Since its inception in 1928 the movement has officially opposed violent means to achieve its goals,with some exceptions such as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or to overthrow secular Ba'athist rule in Syria (re: The Hama massacre).

In the group's belief, the Quran and Sunnah constitute a perfect way of life and social and political organization that God has set out for man. Islamic governments must be based on this system and eventually unified in a Caliphate. The Muslim Brotherhood's goal, as stated by Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna was to reclaim Islam’s manifest destiny, an empire, stretching from Spain to Indonesia. It preaches that Islam enjoins man to strive for social justice, the eradication of poverty and corruption, and political freedom to the extent allowed by the laws of Islam. The Brotherhood strongly opposes Western colonialism, and helped overthrow the pro-western monarchies in Egypt and other Muslim nations during the early 20th century.

The causes of the revolutions that have occurred recently appear to be based on economic differences and on the inequality between the classes of people. The oppressive regimes run by corrupt politicians and lead by dictators who have misused their office to fatten their own bank accounts. Demonstrators in Tahrir Square have voiced the opinion that the Egyptian people will achieve democracy through will alone and that the United States should stop playing games with dictators.

So why have the injustices of the Egyptian regime under Mubarak been ignored until now by America and the nations of the European Union, the "democratic countries of the world". Why is it such a surprise to Obama?

How does all this tie into Israel Egypt's supposed partner in peace since the Camp David Accords of 1979 under the auspices of President Jimmy –Peanut Man aka Apartheid Wall – Carter? From some statements of the participants in the demonstrations, Egyptians as a whole aren't necessarily interested in reneging on the Egyptian-Israeli peace, though they do want to see the Palestinians treated justly. Those who have been watching the events in Egypt would do well to remember that in his three decades as president, President Hosni Mubarak did very little, if anything, to educate his people and change their perspective of Israel. Though there have been contacts between the Egyptian authorities and Israeli counterparts, at every other level of government and civil society, Israel is considered to be the devilish enemy. It has also been reported that there have been very few anti-Israel slogans or signs during the demonstrations in Cairo. However Israel still remains a convenient bogeyman for all occasions and at the end of the week of demonstrations. The local and government-controlled television stations are now trying to incite the citizenry against the pro-democracy protesters by saying there were Israeli spies among them.

"We don't want to abolish diplomatic relations with Israel," said one of the secular demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square"Liberation Square". "The wars with Israel were bad and we mustn't go back to that. But in the meantime, we must support the Palestinians more and not sell natural gas to Israel." Another protestor shouted. "Mubarak and Suleiman - they're both Israel's clients." Demonstrators have occasionally shouted for Mubarak to "go to Israel". Many Egyptians see Suleiman as closely involved in maintaining the relationship between the Egyptian and Israeli governments.The protesters want democracy, and if they are blaming any foreign elements for supporting Mubarak, then the United States and the Arab League are the ones most frequently criticized.

As for the tiny remaining Jewish community of Egypt, there remain only a handful of elderly Jews in Egypt’s second-largest city and virtually none in the capital. Thankfully the shuttered synagogues of Cairo and Alexandria have not been attacked as in Tunisia. The reported shooting incident last weekend near the Israeli embassy was probably not connected to any political violence, but to looting.
President Hosni Mubarak should be commended for his restraint so far in not releasing the full force of his dreaded mukhabarat (secret police) since such widespread demonstrations in other parts of the Arab world would have been quickly crushed by force.

We should all be supportive of the revolution for real democratic changes in Egypt but this is the Middle East and not Western Europe and things usually work differently here. There is little hope that a benign and enlightened democracy will replace Mubarak and that he will replaced by a Western style democratic statesman. What can be said of Mubarak is that he did keep the peace for 30 years, albeit a cold one and he was a staunch strategic ally for the US.
It should be noted here that while mass demonstrations were taking place in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world, US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, told the House Intelligence Committee that,

"The term 'Muslim Brotherhood'...is an umbrella term for a variety of movements, in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam."

Immediately after this very public statement on record, by a leader of the United States Intelligence, Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, one of the world's leading Islamic scholars and a regular broadcaster on Al Jazeera and a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood led Friday prayers on February 18 in Tahrir Square by saying,“Egyptian people are like the genie who came out of the lamp and who have been in prison for 30 years.” He demanded the release of political prisoners in Egyptian prisons, praised the Copts for protecting Muslims in their Friday prayer, and called for the new military rulers to quickly restore civilian rule.
This clerical leader of the Moslem Brotherhood who according to US Intelligence has "eschewed violence" supports suicide attacks on all Israelis, including women since he views the Israeli society as a "completely military" society that did not include any civilians. He also considers pregnant women and their unborn babies to be valid targets on the ground that the babies could grow up to join the Israeli Army.
Specific attention should be focused on a, sermon made by Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi during the Gaza War that was aired on Al-Jazeera, on January 9, 2009 where he prayed (as translated by MEMRI):

"Oh Allah, take your enemies, the enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, take the Jews, the treacherous aggressors. Oh Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people. Oh Allah, they have spread much tyranny and corruption in the land. Pour Your wrath upon them, oh our God. Lie in wait for them. Oh Allah, You annihilated the people of Thamoud at the hand of a tyrant, and You annihilated the people of 'Aad with a fierce, icy gale, and You destroyed the Pharaoh and his soldiers — oh Allah, take this oppressive, tyrannical band of people. Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one."

The words of al-Qaradawi echo those of the Hamas Charter, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which affirms that "The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight Jews and kill them". I believe that the American "Intelligence" community's assumption that the Muslim Brotherhood have "eschewed violence" is incorrect to say the least!

Given the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to assume a significant role in any future Egyptian government, should democratic elections be held there. It is hardly surprising than many here in Israel are more than a little concerned about what the future of our relations with Egypt might hold in light of Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi remarks and how they were received by the Egyptian demonstrators.

So the question here is; "Is the Palestinian – Israeli conflict still the major cause of all injustices in the Middle East?" Or, as many Israelis have pointed out for years, that our Arab neighbors should strain for democracy to rid themselves of corrupt regimes that keep them destitute? In the famous letter of 1919 from His Royal Highness Prince Feisal Husseini, king of Syria and Iraq, son of Sherif Husain and later King of Iraq, to Felix Frankfurter, Emir Faisal stated;

"People less informed and less responsible have, I am afraid, misrepresented your aims to the Arab peasantry, and our aims to the Jewish peasantry, with the result that interested parties have been able to make capital out of what they call our differences."

The sole reason that the Palestinian – Israeli conflict has been considered the main cause is only due to the high profile propaganda campaign waged in recent years by those aspiring to bring forth an Arab Palestinian state. These propagandists who "Hate" the "Zionist Entity", continually attack Israel for its proud standing as a truly democratic country with equality for all its citizens. For these "Haters of Israel" the Hamas led regime in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority and the oppressive regimes in the Arab countries have consistently been above criticism.

So is Israel really a democracy?

Though Israel does not possess a constitution as such, it's Declaration of Independence serves as a quasi legal format for a truly democratic country with basic rights and privileges given to all the states inhabitants. The Israeli declaration issue on May 15th, 1948 states:

"THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty,justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

At the end of the document it is set forth;

"In the midst of wanton aggression, we still call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions - provisional or permanent.

We offer peace and neighborliness to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Hebrew nation for the common good of all."

The Right of the Jewish People to A Homeland

There are many people in the world who simply ignore the facts of history because they simply do not care. What they care about is living their daily lives, posting photos of their meals, pets and children in Facebook and being entertained.
TV News programs serve as backdrop noise at the dinner table. Many ignore the news since it does not affect them in their daily lives. When there is action, such as a terrorist bombing or some conflict, the viewer reaches for his remote control and makes the choice to either turn the sound up or down. Few are conscientious enough to care since it does not involve them or their immediate family. What we do constantly hear from the world media is of the misery of the Palestinian side and the cry of the liberal left for Justice for the Palestinians. What we do not ever hear of is, "What about the rights of the Jewish People to one country to call our own?"

My friend Ami once wrote an article of some importance in light of the US led move to force Israel to accept a further concession to further a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. President Obama and the US Administration want Israel to agree to another settlement freeze without any concession from the Palestinians. The people of Israel through Prime Minister Netanyahu have asked for one major concession from the Palestinians. That sole concession is to be recognized by the Palestinians and the entire Moslem Arab world. That Israel is and has always been the land of the Jewish People.
Is it to much of us to ask the Palestinians that they should in turn recognize the right of the Jewish people to a homeland, just as the Arabs, of the Palestinian Mandated area, wish to be recognized as Palestinians in a country called "Palestine".

Many do not realize nor care that the whole matter of the Jewish Homeland was reborn with the establishment of the Zionist movement at the end of the Nationalist Period of the nineteenth century. The movement was able to realize it's dream in the declaration of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that, "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…" and it was written in the League of Nations 1919 that there would be a Mandate for Palestine. The Mandate states, "Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…"

So between the Balfour Declaration 1917 until September 1st 1939 what happened?

The world turned it's back on the Jews and turned to healing the scars of the "Great War" and to live life again. The modern world, which had awoken with the inventions brought about by the terrible conflict of World War I, came to realize the importance of the need for oil. Slowly and progressively they bowed to the rights of the Arabs. Between the two wars the great powers struggled to exert influence over the vast Arab lands and their strategic oil fields. In the process of their strategic moves their promise to the Jews was ignored and denied.

The Jews of the Diaspora themselves, in the aftermath of World War I, had also turned to making a daily living and the celebration of life, since there was no real threat to their lives as Jews. Only a few Jewish Pioneers - Ha'Lutzim had chosen the path to the "Land of Israel" or Zion. Those brave settlers of the "First Aliyah"- the first wave of immigration, who came before World War I, faced the hardships of life in the uncultivated semi-arid desert regions or in the swampy marshlands of lands purchased from wealthy absentee Arab landlords. These wealthy Arabs, lived in distant cities of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, extorted large sums for supposedly worthless lands. The land sold to the Jews was considered so dangerous and useless for habitation that the local Arabs scorned the settlers and called them, "the Children of Death". With the ingenuity of Jewish knowledge, and with their strength and fortitude, these "Pioneers" brought the land of Israel slowly to bloom again and with it the jealousy of the Arabs.

With the establishment of the British controlled Mandate and the realization of the need to control the access through the Suez Canal to the oil fields of Saudi Arabian and Persia. Britain began to develop the area of the Mandate as a forward base for it's strategic needs.

A Trans-Arabian pipeline was constructed from Iraq through Syria to the Port city of Haifa to supply fuel oil for the Royal Navy. The sleepy port city of Haifa was transformed to a forward military supply base. It's beaches forever negated and ruined by places of industry for the Empire's needs. There was a sudden upsurge in employment to supply the needs of the British forces in the Middle East. This need for labor brought an influx of Jewish emigrates and masses of poor landless Arabs from the surrounding Arabic lands. The competition for employment further inflamed the Arab nationalism which in itself was being pushed by agitators from Fascist Italy during the 1920's and 1930's.

With the establishment and rise of Hitler's regime during the 1930's the fate of the Jewish people in Europe began it's descent towards destruction. At first, Hitler actually opened the gates to allow the Jews of Europe to run away. Hitler knew that for Jews there was no where to run to. Hitler had diabolically outlined his plans for the "removal" of the Jews of Europe in his manifesto "Mein Kamph". His actions in the 1930's, after his rise to power, where meant to show the truth that Jews have no where to go. The famous episode of the Hamburg cruise shows us that even America, the great land of the free, turned their back on those 600+ Jews who later perished in the extermination camps.

The British had conveniently established their Pro-Arab anti-Jewish immigration act known infamously as the "White Paper". Mussolini was creating difficulties for Europe in his war with Ethiopian and his schemes for control over the Mediterranean basin. France had been bled white in the trenches of World War I. The Arabs of the mandated Palestine had the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem; Haj Amin El Husseini, who was a friend of Hitler's. The attention of the Americans was on escaping the depression era and it's eyes were busy with Japan. As to the rest of the world they had their own daily isolationist concerns.

This failure of the people of the world to stand up and denounce Hitler and his plans led to the near demise of world Jewry during the Holocaust of World War II. This exact same apathy to deal with the threats of Hitler can be seen in the worlds' reaction Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who threatens the only Jewish state today.

The apathy of the world and the lack of fortitude by the leaders of the world, prior to World War II, led to the infamous Wannssee Conference in 1942. It was at Wannssee that the leaders of the NAZI regime made finite and intricate plans for a methodical industrialized extermination of ALL the Jewish people. The official records of the Nazi's themselves show how efficient their plans were that 6,000,000+ Jews were exterminated.

So what happened?

With the entry of Allied forces into Hitler's empire, Hitler's atrocities were exposed and the world was embarrassed. The embarrassment lasted until the partition vote of November 26th, 1947 in the UN. Once the vote was in Israel was created the world sat back and watched. Five heavily armed regular Arab armies attacked at once and little Israel with its mismatched weaponry and holocaust survivors fought them off and gained victory. The Palestinians who participated in slaughters of innocent Jews on the roads of Israel fled when Israeli forces gained the upper hand. The civilian Arab population, fearful of reappraisal by Israeli forces, especially those of the "Irgun" and "Lechi", for their barbaric deeds carried out prior to the evacuation of the British in May 15th 1948, ran away on the prompting of calls by Arab radio. Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph published on Sept. 6, 1949, stated:

"The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agree upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem.”

These refugees and those of their decendants still today, 62+ years later, received housing and supplies from the UN in camps created by those same Arab countries that called upon them to leave. These Arab refugees refer to the loss as the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe"). These same "refugees" and their descendants are still confined to the camps and the immediate area today supported on handouts provided by UNWRA, the only United Nations organization created for one specific group of refugees.

Did you know that UNWRA is internationally funded, to the tune of $1.23 billion for 2010-2011? Has anyone in the US pointed out that MILLIONS of US TAX DOLLAR$ are being spent every year to support UNWRA? UNWRA is the organization, run by Palestinians themselves, that freely gives to the so called Palestinian (third generation of free-loaders) "refugees". UNRWA’s major raison d’etre is the existence of Palestinian “refugees” and it has in turn created dependency within Palestinian society on its services.

In 1952 a noted British soldier-diplomat Lt.-Gen. Sir Alexander Galloway, who was then UNRWA director in Jordan, made what was to become a famous statement to a group of visiting American church leaders:

“It is perfectly clear than the Arab nations do not want to solve the Arab refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront against the United Nations and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die.”

How can you be classified a "refugee" after SIXTY TWO years?
Has any one EVER pointed out or asked WHY the Arab countries; Lebanon, Syria and Jordan that these "refugees" live in, forcibly keep them in the camps and NEVER allowed them to become viable citizens of Arab countries? NU? Much of this UN US tax$ is spent on such healthy food items as AK-47s, bullets, Mortar rounds and Katyusha (Qasam) rockets!! By the way the Hamas is very generous they have openly shared some 8000+with the immigrant development town of Sderot and surrounding Jewish Israeli farms and villages on a daily basis!

James G. Lindsay, UNRWA's former general counsel has stated;“UNRWA’s failure to match UNHCR’s success (in resettling refugees) obviously represents a political decision on the part of the agency”, and that “UNRWA has gradually adopted a distinctive political viewpoint that favors the Palestinian and Arab narrative of events in the Middle East. In particular, it seems to favor the strain of Palestinian political thought espoused by those who are intent on a ‘return’ to the land that is now Israel”. By that, concluded Lindsay, “UNRWA encouraged Palestinians who favor re-fighting long-lost wars, (and) discouraged those who favor moving toward peace”.

Recently John Ging, head of UNRWA operations in Gaza has stated, “We shouldn’t exist after so many years … it is the manifestation of the political failure of the international community to resolve the conflict…we should not have had to exist after 60 years”.

Has the mass media ever pointed out that 900,000 Jews were kicked out of Arab countries from 1948 -1967?

Ibrahim Fawal, Ph.D., of Birmingham, Alabama,USA once wrote:
"The Law of Return" allows a Jew from anywhere in the world to move to Israel and receive instant citizenship, while Palestinian refugees - still possessing keys to homes that were taken from them - cannot."

What Fawal fails to mention is what happened to the Jewish refugees of Arab lands and their children?Weren't these Jewish refugees also kicked out in the middle of the night? Where they not dispossessed of their homes and businesses? Where they not murdered in their homes and streets in pogroms of Islamic hatred?
Fawal continued; "Palestinians have neither been allowed to return nor offered restitution of any kind...". And what of the rights of the Jews from Arab lands and restitution to them? Has UNWRA paid for THEIR upkeep for SIXTY TWO years? NO it hasn't!!!
The majority of the Jews of Arab lands- who had to leave their homes and property- were never compensated either. But does anyone EVER mention this? OF COURSE NOT! Because they are Jews!






Here is a list of Jewish refugee camps:
Maalot
Shlomei
Kiryat Shmona
Hatzor Hagalil
Beit Shean
Rosh HaEyin
Dimona
Arad
Sderot
Netivot
Yerocham
Wait a minute these are cities in Israel? You mean the Jews were absorbed into the state and made citizens? "Walla!" These are my neighbors in Maalot
Bouchbout = Moroccan
Reumi = Moroccan
Ben Shushan = Moroccan
Mereck = Tunisian
Levy = Libyan
Mansoura = Egyptian

What?! You mean all this talk by the "Liars of Palestine" that the Jews/Israelis are all descendants of the Khazarim and are Yiddish speakers from Europe is not true? You mean to tell us that the BBC and CNN have been duped into telling lies to us? Have they never heard of FAUD Ben Eliazar or Gabi Ashkenazi?

Yet in the end ALL we hear about in the mass media and from the American administration of BHO -Barak Hussein Obama is about the poor Palestinians! Concession, Concession, Concession!

What do we ask for? As Bibi has stated, recognize "us"-Israel- as the national home of the Jewish People?

So now after six wars and 62 years the Arabs still have not come to fully recognize Israel's existence. Yes, we have a peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan but they wanted to wash their hands of the Palestinian issue. They wished to turn to their own affairs. Syria is led by a leader who sits in power over his people in fear. He is not a brave leader as was Sadat or King Hussein. These men knew the historical mistake of their predecessors who chose to go to war and invade Israel in 1948 rather than accept the Jewish people in peace. The vision of a real peace based on mutual recognition of both peoples was first recognized in 1919 by His Royal Highness Prince Feisal Husseini, king of Syria and Iraq, son of Sherif Husain and later King of Iraq.

In a letter written to to Felix Frankfurter on March 3, 1919 to an associate of Dr. Chaim Weizmann Prince Feisal indicated the willingness of Arabs to welcome the return of the Jewish people to Palestine, and implicitly recognized that the land of Israel is the historic homeland of the Jews. The Prince wrote:

"We Arabs, especially the educated among us look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organization to Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate proper. We will do our best, in so far as we are concerned, to help them through: we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.
With the chiefs of your movement, especially with Dr. Weizmann, we have had and continue to have the closest relations. He has been a great helper of our cause, and I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position tomake the Jews some return for their kindness. We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us both."

It is sorrowful that this brave Arab leader's words were forgotten and never heeded. That the blind hatred caused by the Arab loss of face in there utteral defeat in wars that so many have died for nothing. At least Prince Feisal had the intelligence to recognize that more could be gained from welcoming us Jewish Israelis as brothers and neighbors than by waging war against us.

EHR KUMT- They Are Comming

I received an email from the Birmingham Jewish Federation of a sermon given by Rabbi Shalom Lewis of Atlanta, Georgia. I thought that the Rabbis comment are worthwhile reading in respect to not only how Israel is viewed in the world but how ignorance and denial of radical Islamic belief threatens all.

 

EHR KUMT First Day of Rosh Hashanah 2010 By Rabbi Shalom Lewis of Atlanta, Georgia (Edited from the Rabbi's Sermon)

Our planet is immersed in perversity where morality is not so manifest – where the book burner is a hero and the pious one, a villain. 

We are at war. We are at war with an enemy as savage, as voracious, as heartless as the Nazis but one wouldn’t know it from our behavior. 

During WWII we didn’t refer to storm troopers as freedom fighters. We didn’t call the Gestapo, militants. We didn’t see the attacks on our Merchant Marine as acts by rogue sailors. We did not justify the Nazis rise to power as our fault. We did not grovel before the Nazis, thumping our hearts and confessing to abusing and mistreating and humiliating the German people. We did not apologize for Dresden, nor for The Battle of the Bulge, nor for El Alamein, nor for D-Day. Evil – ultimate, irreconcilable, evil threatened us and Roosevelt and Churchill had moral clarity and an exquisite understanding of what was at stake. It was not just the Sudetenland, not just Tubruk, not just Vienna, not just Casablanca. It was the entire planet. 

Read history and be shocked at how frighteningly close Hitler came to creating a Pax Germana on every continent. Not all Germans were Nazis – most were decent, most were revolted by the Third Reich, most were good citizens hoisting a beer, earning a living and tucking in their children at night. 

But, too many looked away, too many cried out in lame defense – I didn’t know.” Too many were silent. 

"Guilt absolutely falls upon those who committed the atrocities, but responsibility and guilt falls upon those who did nothing as well. Fault was not just with the goose steppers but with those who pulled the curtains shut, said and did nothing."

In WWII we won because we got it. We understood who the enemy was and we knew that the end had to be unconditional and absolute. We did not stumble around worrying about offending the Nazis. We did not measure every word so as not to upset our foe. We built planes and tanks and battleships and went to war to win….. to rid the world of malevolence. We are at war… yet too many stubbornly and foolishly don’t put the pieces together and refuse to identify the evil doers. We are circumspect and disgracefully politically correct. 

Let me mince no words in saying that from Fort Hood to Bali, from Times Square to London, from Madrid to Mumbai, from 9/11 to Gaza, the murderers, the barbarians are radical Islamists. To camouflage their identity is sedition. To excuse their deeds is contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable. 

Make no mistake; we are under attack – our values, our tolerance, our freedom, our virtue, our land. 

A few years ago I visited Lithuania on a Jewish genealogical tour. It was a stunning journey and a very personal, spiritual pilgrimage. When we visited Kovno we davened Maariv at the only remaining shul in the city. Before the war there were thirty-seven shuls for 38,000 Jews. Now only one, a shrinking, gray congregation. 

We made minyon for the handful of aged worshippers in the Choral Synagogue, a once majestic, jewel in Kovno. After my return home I visited Cherry Hill for Shabbos. At the oneg an elderly family friend, Joe Magun, came over to me. “Shalom,” he said. “Your abba told me you just came back from Lithuania.” “Yes,” I replied. “It was quite a powerful experience.” “Did you visit the Choral Synagogue in Kovno? The one with the big arch in the courtyard?” “Yes, I did. In fact, we helped them make minyon.” His eyes opened wide in joy at our shared memory. For a moment he gazed into the distance and then, he returned. “Shalom, I grew up only a few feet away from the arch. The Choral Synagogue was where I davened as a child.” He paused for a moment and once again was lost in the past. His smile faded. Pain filled his wrinkled face. 

“I remember one Shabbos in 1938 when Zev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky came to the shul” (Jabotinsky was Menachem Begin’s mentor – he was a fiery orator, an unflinching Zionist radical, whose politics were to the far right.) 

Joe continued “When Jabotinsky came, he delivered the drasha on Shabbos morning and I can still hear his words burning in my ears. He climbed up to the shtender, stared at us from the bima, glared at us with eyes full of fire and cried out. ‘EHR KUMT. YIDN FARLAWST AYER SHTETL – He’s coming. Jews abandon your city.’ ” 

We thought we were safe in Lithuania from the Nazis, from Hitler. We had lived there, thrived for a thousand years but Jabotinsky was right -- his warning prophetic. 

"We got out but most did not.” I am not a pessimist, nor prone to panic attacks. I am a lover of humanity, all humanity. Whether they worship in a synagogue, a church, a mosque, a temple or don’t worship at all. I have no bone of bigotry in my body, but what I do have is hatred for those who hate, intolerance for those who are intolerant, and a guiltless, unstoppable obsession to see evil eradicated."

"Today the enemy is radical Islam but it must be said sadly and reluctantly that there are unwitting, co-conspirators who strengthen the hands of the evil doers."

Let me state that the overwhelming number of Muslims are good Muslims, fine human beings who want nothing more than a Jeep Cherokee in their driveway, a flat screen TV on their wall and a good education for their children, but these good Muslims have an obligation to destiny, to decency that thus far for the most part they have avoided.

The Kulturkampf is not only external but internal as well. The good Muslims must sponsor rallies in Times Square, in Trafalgar Square, in the UN Plaza, on the Champs Elysee, in Mecca condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the slaughter of the innocent. Thus far, they have not.

The good Muslims must place ads in the NY Times. They must buy time on network TV, on cable stations, in the Jerusalem Post, in Le Monde, in Al Watan, on Al Jazeera condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the slaughter of the innocent – thus far, they have not. Their silence allows the vicious to tarnish Islam and define it. Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the hand of the devil." 

We must be diligent students of history and not sit in ash cloth at the waters of Babylon weeping. We cannot be hypnotized by eloquent-sounding rhetoric that soothes our heart but endangers our soul. We cannot be lulled into inaction for fear of offending the offenders. 

Radical Islam is the scourge and this must be cried out from every mountain top. From sea to shining sea, we must stand tall, prideful of our stunning decency and moral resilience. 

• Immediately after 9/11 how many mosques were destroyed in America? None. 
• After 9/11, how many Muslims were killed in America? None. 
• After 9/11, how many anti-Muslim rallies were held in America? None. 

And yet, we apologize. We grovel. We beg forgiveness. 

The mystifying litany of our foolishness continues. 

Should there be a shul in Hebron on the site where Baruch Goldstein gunned down twenty-seven Arabs at noonday prayers? 

Should there be a museum praising the U.S. Calvary on the site of Wounded Knee? Should there be a German cultural center in Auschwitz? 

Should a church be built in the Syrian town of Ma’arra where Crusaders slaughtered over 100,000 Muslims? 

Should there be a thirteen story mosque and Islamic Center only a few steps from Ground Zero? 

Despite all the rhetoric, the essence of the matter can be distilled quite easily. The Muslim community has the absolute, constitutional right to build their building wherever they wish. 

I don’t buy the argument:

“When we can build a church or a synagogue in Mecca they can build a mosque here.” America is greater than Saudi Arabia. And New York is greater than Mecca." 

Democracy and freedom must prevail. Can they build? Certainly. May they build? Certainly. 

But should they build at that site? No -- but that decision must come from them, not from us. Sensitivity, compassion cannot be measured in feet or yards or in blocks. One either feels the pain of others and cares, or does not. 

If those behind this project are good, peace-loving, sincere, tolerant Muslims, as they claim, then they should know better, rip up the zoning permits and build elsewhere. 

Believe it or not, I am a dues-paying, card carrying member of the ACLU, yet from start to finish, I find this sorry episode disturbing to say the least. Let us understand that the radical Islamist assaults all over the globe are but skirmishes, fire fights, and vicious decoys. Christ and the anti-Christ. Gog U’Magog. The Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness; the bloody collision between civilization and depravity is on the border between Lebanon and Israel. It is on the Gaza Coast and in the Judean Hills of the West Bank. It is on the sandy beaches of Tel Aviv and on the cobble stoned mall of Ben Yehuda Street. It is in the underground schools of Sderot and on the bullet-proofed inner-city buses. It is in every school yard, hospital, nursery, classroom, park, theater – in every place of innocence and purity. 

Israel is the laboratory – the test market. Every death, every explosion, every grizzly encounter is not a random, bloody orgy. It is a calculated, strategic probe into the heart, guts and soul of the West. 

In the Six Day War, Israel was the proxy of Western values and strategy while the Arab alliance was the proxy of Eastern, Soviet values and strategy. Today too, it is a confrontation of proxies, but the stakes are greater than East Jerusalem and the West Bank. 

Israel in her struggle represents the civilized world, while Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, Iran, Islamic Jihad, represent the world of psychopathic, loathsome evil. 

As Israel, imperfect as she is, resists the onslaught, many in the Western World have lost their way displaying not admiration, not sympathy, not understanding, for Israel’s galling plight, but downright hostility and contempt. 

Without moral clarity, we are doomed because Israel’s galling plight ultimately will be ours. 

Hanna Arendt in her classic Origins of Totalitarianism accurately portrays the first target of tyranny as the Jew. We are the trial balloon. The canary in the coal mine. If the Jew/Israel is permitted to bleed with nary a protest from “good guys” then tyranny snickers and pushes forward with its agenda. 

• Moral confusion is a deadly weakness and it has reached epic proportions in the West; from the Oval Office to the UN, from the BBC to Reuters to MSNBC, from the New York Times to Le Monde, from university campuses to British teachers unions, from the International Red Cross to Amnesty International, from Goldstone to Elvis Costello, from the Presbyterian Church to the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
•  There is a message sent and consequences when our president (Barack Obama) visits Turkey and Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and not Israel. 
• There is a message sent and consequences when free speech on campus is only for those championing Palestinian rights. 
• There is a message sent and consequences when the media deliberately doctors and edits film clips to demonize Israel. 
• There is a message sent and consequences when the UN blasts Israel relentlessly, effectively ignoring Iran, Sudan, Venezuela, North Korea, China and other noxious states. 
• There is a message sent and consequences when liberal churches are motivated by Liberation Theology, not historical accuracy. 

There is a message sent and consequences when murderers and terrorists are defended by the obscenely transparent “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” John Milton warned, “Hypocrisy is the only evil that walks invisible.” 

 A few days after the Gaza blockade incident in the spring, a congregant happened past my office, glanced in and asked in a friendly tone – “Rabbi. How’re y’ doing?” I looked up, sort of smiled and replied – “I’ve had better days.” “What’s the matter? Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?” he inquired. “Thank you for the offer but I’m just bummed out today” and I showed him a newspaper article I was reading. “Madrid gay pride parade bans Israeli group over Gaza Ship Raid.” I explained to my visitor – “The Israeli gay pride contingent from Tel Aviv was not allowed to participate in the Spanish gay pride parade because the Mayor of Tel Aviv did not apologize for the raid by the Israeli military.” 

The only country in the entire Middle East where gay rights exist, is Israel. The only country in the entire Middle East where there is a gay pride parade, is Israel. The only country in the Middle East that has gay neighborhoods and gay bars, is Israel.Gays in the Gaza would be strung up, executed by Hamas if they came out and yet Israel is vilified and ostracized. Disinvited to the parade. 

Looking for logic? 

Looking for reason? 

Looking for sanity? 

 Kafka on his darkest, gloomiest day could not keep up with this bizarre spectacle and we “useful idiots” pander and fawn over cutthroats, sinking deeper and deeper into moral decay, as the enemy laughs all the way to the West Bank and beyond. It is exhausting and dispiriting. 

We live in an age that is redefining righteousness where those with moral clarity are an endangered, beleaguered species.

Isaiah warned us thousands of years ago – “Oye Lehem Sheh-Korim Layome, Laila v’Laila, yome – Woe to them who call the day, night and the night, day.” 

We live on a planet that is both Chelm and Sodom. It is a frightening and maddening place to be. 

How do we convince the world and many of our own, that this is not just anti-Semitism, that this is not just anti-Zionism but a full throttled attack by unholy, radical Islamists on everything that is morally precious to us? 

How do we convince the world and many of our own that conciliation is not an option, that compromise is not a choice? Everything we are. Everything we believe. Everything we treasure is at risk. 

The threat is so unbelievably clear and the enemy so unbelievably ruthless how anyone in their right mind doesn’t get it is baffling. 

Let’s try an analogy. If someone contracted a life-threatening infection and we not only scolded them for using antibiotics but insisted that the bacteria had a right to infect their body and that perhaps, if we gave the invading infection an arm and a few toes, the bacteria would be satisfied and stop spreading. Anyone buy that medical advice? 

Well, folks, that’s our approach to the radical Islamist bacteria. It is amoral, has no conscience and will spread unless it is eradicated. – There is no negotiating. Appeasement is death. 

I was no great fan of George Bush – didn’t vote for him. (By the way, I’m still a registered Democrat.) I disagreed with many of his policies but one thing he had right.

His moral clarity was flawless when it came to the War on Terror, the War on Radical Islamist Terror. There was no middle ground – either you were friend or foe. There was no place in Bush’s world for a Switzerland. He knew that this competition was not Toyota against G.M., not the Iphone against the Droid, not the Braves against the Phillies, but a deadly serious war, winner take all. Blink and you lose. Underestimate and you get crushed. 

I know that there are those sitting here today who have turned me off. But I also know that many turned off their rabbis seventy five years ago in Warsaw, Riga, Berlin, Amsterdam, Krakow, Vilna. I get no satisfaction from that knowledge, only a bitter sense that there is nothing new under the sun. 

Enough rhetoric – how about a little “show and tell?” A few weeks ago on the cover of Time magazine was a horrific picture with a horrific story. The photo was of an eighteen year old Afghani woman, Bibi Aisha, who fled her abusive husband and his abusive family. Days later the Taliban found her and dragged her to a mountain clearing where she was found guilty of violating Sharia Law. Her punishment was immediate. She was pinned to the ground by four men while her husband sliced off her ears, and then he cut off her nose.

That is the enemy. If nothing else stirs us. If nothing else convinces us, let Bibi Aisha’s mutilated face be the face of Islamic radicalism. Let her face shake up even the most complacent and naïve among us. In the holy crusade against this ultimate evil, pictures of Bibi Aisha’s disfigurement should be displayed on billboards, along every highway from Route 66 to the Autobahn, to the Transarabian Highway. Her picture should be posted on every lobby wall from Tokyo to Stockholm to Rio. On every network, at every commercial break, Bibi Aisha’s face should appear with the caption – “Radical Islamic savages did this.” And underneath – “This ad was approved by Hamas, by Hezbollah, by Taliban, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, by Islamic Jihad, by Fatah al Islam, by Magar Nodal Hassan, by Richard Reid, by Ahmanijad, by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, by Osama bin Laden, by Edward Said, by The Muslim Brotherhood, by Al Queda, by CAIR.”

“The moral sentiment is the drop that balances the sea” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Today, my friends, the sea is woefully out of balance and we could easily drown in our moral myopia and worship of political correctness. We peer up into the heavens sending probes to distant galaxies. We peer down into quarks discovering particles that would astonish Einstein. We create computers that rival the mind, technologies that surpass science fiction. What we imagine, with astounding rapidity, becomes real. If we dream it, it does, indeed, come. And yet, we are at a critical point in the history of this planet that could send us back into the cave, to a culture that would make the Neanderthal blush with shame.

Our parents and grandparents saw the swastika and recoiled, understood the threat and destroyed the Nazis.

We see the banner of Radical Islam and can do no less.

A rabbi was once asked by his students…. “Rebbi. Why are your sermons so stern?” Replied the rabbi, “If a house is on fire and we chose not to wake up our children, for fear of disturbing their sleep, would that be love? Kinderlach, ‘di hoyz brent.’ Children our house is on fire and I must arouse you from your slumber.”

During WWII and the Holocaust was it business as usual for priests, ministers, rabbis? 

Did they deliver benign homilies and lovely sermons as Europe fell, as the Pacific fell, as North Africa fell, as the Mideast and South America tottered, as England bled? 

Did they ignore the demonic juggernaut and the foul breath of evil? They did not. There was clarity, courage, vision, determination, sacrifice, and we were victorious. Today it must be our finest hour as well. We dare not retreat into the banality of our routines, glance at headlines and presume that the good guys will prevail. Democracies don’t always win. Tyrannies don’t always lose.

My friends – the world is on fire and we must awake from our slumber. "EHR KUMT!"

"Facts And the Arab-Israeli Conflict."

Here are overlooked facts in the current Middle East situation 

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem. 

Fact Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, 2,000 years before the rise of Islam. 

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel. 

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion over the land for 1,000 years, with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. 

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22 years. 

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit. 

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. 

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem. 

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs towards Jerusalem. 

9. Arab and Jewish refugees: In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of the Jews. 68% left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. 

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms. 

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be 930,000. 

12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100 million refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey. 

13. The Arab-Israeli conflict: The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won. 

14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them. 15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths. 

16. The UN record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. 

17. Of the 690 UN General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel. 

18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians. 

19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. 

20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

New Comments on Muslims and Terrorism

After I published my last Blog entry I was sent two interesting items that I though pertinent to my previous Blog entry.

The first is an article entitled “All European Life Died in Auschwitz" that was written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on January 15th, 2008. His distinctive warning message that he writes about here is extremely relevant in light of the incident at Fort Hood and other Islamic terrorist actions in the USA and Europe.

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ
By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity and talent. The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

Under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts. And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.

The second item was sent to me from a good Christian friend of mine in America. It is an open letter sent by a venerable 95 year old US Navy veteran BMC Harold Estes to President Barak Obama.

This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man, blind, unable to write and without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now. He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country. One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man. So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish. I can't figure out what country you are the president of. You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:
"We're no longer a Christian nation"
"America is arrogant" - (Your wife even announced to the world, "America is mean-spirited." Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)

I'd say shame on the both of you but I don't think you like America nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said, “America hasn't lived up to her ideals”. Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around because we stand for freedom.

I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts who was putting up a fight? You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing, I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president. You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes

Kindly note these comments are from NON Israeli sources and that they BOTH indicate that what I wrote is important to ALL non Moslems.

Islamic Extemism And Moslem-Americans

In the last three decades successive American administrations and the western press have been fearful of relations with the third world and primarily with the Arab countries as they have bent over backward to refrain from openly confronting Islamic extremism. 
For many in the "Western World" in Europe and America they see that the problem of the Middle East stems from the backing of Israel in it’s continuing conflict with the Palestinians. There are many groups active in Europe and North America, who work tirelessly to lay the blame for Islamaphobia -Anti-Moslem and anti-Arab feelings on Israel. 
Very few see this anti-Moslem feeling as having been caused by the ever widening abyss that has opened in the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan and has caused increased casualties among US service personnel. Recent incidents have brought the west to realize that there may not be a way to satisfactorily end what at one time was a noble cause called Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It is also apparent from the reactions of the news media in the USA that the citizens of the United States have not come to realize fully the danger from within that has arisen among certain members of the Moslem American community. 

Allow me to state here that there are many loyal and patriotic Moslem Americans who have accepted the basis of true pluralism that is America. 

Yet sadly there are those members of the community, specifically those recent immigrants from primarily Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and the Palestinian Areas who are openly hostile and rabidly anti-American. such as the Pakistani born Daoud Gilani aka David Coleman Headley that infiltrated into Mombai in preparation for the terrible terrorist attack that left 173 dead. Headley and his associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana, both of Chicago, are held to have maintained ties with the al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which was held responsible for those attacks. 
The latest in this list was Ahmad Abousamra, a 35-year-old Syrian-American who was the chief editor of its online propaganda magazine was an American computer scientist.

It was from this group of recent Moslem immigrants that the leaders of the Islamic extremists were able to recruit terrorists who brought the fight to America in January 1993 when two CIA agents were shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The following month, February 1993 a rented van packed with explosives was driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City and six people are killed and over 1000 are injured.

Since the tragedy of “9/11” - September 11th, 2001 and the backlash from the terrible destruction of the Twin Towers by the 19 members of Al Quida, many “good hearted” and naïve Americans persist on denying that it was the faith of Islam that was responsible for the deaths of the innocent civilians. Americans are fierce adherents to the philosophy expressed in the Constitution by Thomas Jefferson of the freedom of religion and as such they are fearful of being labeled Islamophobics.

During the past few days, since the horrific murder of 13 and the wounding of many more US service personnel by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, who coldly walked into the room at Fort Hood and climbed on a table and shouted "Allah Akbar" (the "God is great" jihadist battle cry) and committed a “Massacre”. We have all heard the exact same lame words of excuse by the Moslem American community and the lame statements by those in the United States Government who ignore the obvious. That when one goes into a room and kills others by shouting “Allah Akbar” it is cold blooded murder,terrorism for Islamic reasons.

Newsweek's Evan Thomas stated, "I cringe that he's a Muslim. . . . I think he's probably just a nut case…" Time Magazine's Joe Klein said it "odious attempts by Jewish extremists . . . to argue that the massacre perpetrated by Nidal Hasan was somehow a direct consequence of his Islamic beliefs." Nidal's actions have been termed as an effect of "Secondary post-traumatic stress disorder”, in a blatant attempt to ignore the obvious. As Charles Krauthammer stated in his article fom November 13th, 2009 in the Washington Post, "Medicalizing mass murder not only exonerates. It turns the murderer into a victim, indeed a sympathetic one." As of this writing only Fox News has labeled Nidal as a “Terrorist” and his act as that of terrorism.

The Arab-American Anwar Al-Awlaki an American-born imam and now lives in Yemen, preached in 2001 at the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., where two of the “9/11” attackers reportedly prayed. Only this week in an article on his Web site he has praised Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and called the alleged Fort Hood shooter a "hero". Anwar Al-Awlaki claims that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan “…is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people," Awlaki wrote. "This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn't exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a U.S. soldier."
"Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact, the only way a Muslim could justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. army is if his intention to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal."
The Liberal appeasement groups in the west and specifically in the US chose like ostriches to ignore the fact that there are those of the Islamic faith who are inherently violent and that their jealously of other religions, as espoused by Muhammad, is one of conquest –“Jihad”, a demand for supremacy over all others. Extremist Islamic followers in the United States and throughout the Christian world, especially in Europe, are working silently like a cancer on the naïve to subvert, convert and conquer. The fantastic birthrate of the adherents of extremist Islam is a very real threat to all who are not true believers.

Most “Westeners” do not know anything of the ways of the Islamic-Moslem faith. They have no idea of Jihad which means "to strive or struggle" (in the way of God) and is considered the "Sixth Pillar of Islam" by the Sunni Moslems of Al Quiada. According to Islamic jurisprudence, jihad is usually taken to mean military exertion against non-Muslim combatants in the defense or expansion of the Islamic state, the ultimate purpose of which is to universalize Islam. Jihad, the only form of warfare permissible in Islamic law, may be declared against apostates, rebels, highway robbers, violent groups, un-Islamic leaders or states which refuse to submit to the authority of Islam.

Since the beginnings of the Islamic faith when Muhammad used deception against the Jewish tribes of Medina, Islam has spread by the use of subterfuge, conquest and at the edge of a sword. Let us examine a case in point the Jews of Khaybar since the agreement with the Jews of Khaybar also served as an important precedent in determining the status of dhimmis, (non-Muslims under Muslim rule) for Islamic Law.

Those members of the Jewish clans who opposed the Muhammad were forced into exile, enslavement or death. Upon the surrender Jews of Khaybar they were allowed to live in the oasis only on the condition that they would give one-half of their produce to the Muslims. The Jews were allowed to continue to live in the oasis for several more years until they were finally expelled by caliph Umar. The imposition of tribute upon the conquered Jews served as a precedent for provisions in the Islamic law requires the exaction of tribute known as Jizya from non-Muslims under Muslim rule, and confiscation of land belonging to non-Muslims into the collective property of the Muslim community. This is the new policy of Moslem Jihad in the Madrases of the Sunni’s as proposed by Al Quiada.

In recent years the Genie of Moslem violence and the tendency of adherents of Islam to violently express their view’s on others has risen from the Madras’s of the Islamic centers of the Sunni extremists in the Taliban controlled areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Shi’ite Madrases of Tehran. Their word of Jihad has spread through out the world extensively with the help of the Internet and the gross stupidity of the Western “Intelligence” agencies.

Islamic violence exploded on the world in the aftermath of the victory of the Islamic Mujahadeen on the Russians in Afghanistan. Until then the extremist Islamic world had been in a state of suspended animation. With the Russian Invasion of Afghanistan by the forces of the ex-Soviet Union in the 1980s the naïve leadership of the American CIA developed the belief to use Moslem fanaticism to create a Viet Nam dilemma for the Soviet Forces in Afghanistan. This fantastically naïve approach is immortalized in the fantasy movie “Rambo III” pits “freedom loving” Afghanis against the villainous Soviet Regime. What the Americans did not know was that by incorporating Arab “freedom” fighters such as Osama Bin Laden into the Mujehadine they had unwittingly released the Genie of Moslem extremism from it’s slumber. For the fighters of Allah it was not a war against Communism but a war against the Western values that openly clash with those orthodox Islamic beliefs.

Add to this the French government’s release of the Ayatollah to Iran in 1979, in the mistaken belief that the Ayatollah would bring reform and change to the benefit of the western camp against the Soviet Union in Iran, this was a mistake as large as that of the CIA in Afghanistan. What the ulterior motive was of the French Government in the Iranian affair is still unbeknownst.

What is clear is that the Western Christian world began it’s downfall with the hijacking of the four International airliners to Jordan in 1970. The governments of Europe through their “Intelligence” units were desperate to prevent “Arab” Palestinian terrorism from invading their lives. This is why Carlos Illyich Ramirez Sanchez the arch terrorist of the 1970’s was able to keep the millions he brought into his Swiss Bank as well as that of Yasser Arafat and his cronies. “The Jackal” who was run by the East German Intelligence services the STASI for the KGB is now serving a life sentence for three murders in Paris in 1975 and for four bomb attacks in France in 1982 and 1983 that killed 12 people and wounded more than 100. His most audacious attack was the kidnapping of 11 oil ministers in Vienna in 1975, which elicited an estimated £10m in ransom from the “moderate” Arab Sunni leadership primarily that of Saudi Arabia.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s the CIA, The Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service, BND) the foreign intelligence agency of the German government and the French DGSE were protectors of the Palestinian “Black September” terrorists led by Ali Hassan Salameh – aka the “Red Prince” from the vengeance of the Israeli “Mossad” since he was able to “inform” them to prevent attacks on European soil. This Machiavellian approach was used to prevent atrocities on Western targets and it was believed that this same policy would protect them from Arab terrorism.

In April of 1983 the CIA station in the US Embassy compound in Beirut Lebanon was hit by a suicide bomber from the Iranian backed Shi'ite Hezbollah and 63 people were murdered. Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut. 241 US servicemen mainly Marines were killed. Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives wais driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait. The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut. In April 1985 a bomb exploded in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. 22 were murdered in August in 1985 when a Volkswagen loaded with explosives was driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main.

During the 10 year bloody war of Sadam Hussein’s Iraq against the Iranian regime of the Ayatollah, the Sunni versus Shi’ite part of the conflict was largely ignored by the western media. The death of thousands of Iranians many mere children in combat and the massacre of the Kurds, by gas attack, was almost totally ignored by the Western mass media since it had no effect on the west. Meanwhile the continual conflict between Israel and it’s Arab neighbors was constantly under the severest scruntiny of the world media.

It was not until the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 by the Iraqi’s that the West awoke, not so much in response to the invasion of one nation by another, but out of a collective fear at the loss of the wealth of oil revenues that came from the exploitation by the Kuwaitis of their vast monetary wealth and land holdings through out the west. The vast amount of monies in western banks together with extensive property holdings were now part of the thriving western economies. The fear that these vast holding should suddenly by withdrawn by the Kuwaitis and Saudi Arabian’s prompted Western intelligence agencies to push western leaders to act. The close ties of George H. Bush along with prominent business leaders throughout Europe predominately in the United Kingdom also Saudi Arabian princes and business leaders brought the Western powers forward to act against Sadam Hussein.

The question of the story of the WMD –Weapons of Mass Destruction and it’s use as an excuse by American and Western forces to attack Iraq was later “proven to be a lie”. However to us in Israel and the Kurdish people it was never was a lie. What became of the weapons and why the story was suppressed and denied is known only once again to the CIA, The Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service, BND) the foreign intelligence agency of the German government and the French DGSE.
The SAS and DELTA force units that operated in the Western Iraqi desert saw them and how they were smuggled into Syria. These reports were suppressed in order to prevent the Arab world from breaking from the coalition forces. In the aftermath of the Israeli raid on the facilities in the eastern Syrian desert near Dayr az-Zawr on September 6th, 2007, the question that was initially asked was, "Was it an attack on the stockpile of Saddam's chemical/bio weapons snuck out of Iraq and into Syria for safekeeping before the US invasion of April 2003?" Almost as soon as it was disclosed the story was once again suppressed to appease the “moderate” Arab world and to protect allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Americans in particular live the dream of equality and religious tolerance. Americans wish to live in peace in freedom with liberties and equality. Over the years Americans have gone to foreign lands to fight tyrants and darkness to bring the blessings of freedom and life. Americans are not conquerors; they are liberators for we were once conquered. Like the ancient Hebrews, the Pilgrims, the first Americans lived in foreign lands and were oppressed until they came to the shores of North America. They thirsted for religious freedom and tolerance they abhorred hatred. It is this same selfless motivation that motivated so many young brave Americans to fight for freedom on far away shores. Many have died far away in this noble gesture and their bodies lie there as a stark testimony to the price of freedom. The major question that should be raised here is, “Are the people of Iraq and Afghanistan willing to stand up for their own freedom?”

The enlightened and educated in the Arab world know this and they are willing to live in peace. Yet they themselves live in abject fear of Islamic fundalmentalism and Jihad. They are not striving hard enough to prevent it’s spread among the impoverished and poor where hatred and extremist beliefs thrive. Why do Moslem Americans continue to agitate against Israel when they should be striving to lead their brothers and sisters out of the darkness of Islamic extremism? Until the “Moderate” and fabulously wealthy Arab nations begin sharing their wealth to improve the conditions and standard of living of their brothers the world will have “Shahidim” or “Martyrs” for the cause of Islam.

The continual appeasement of the Arabs by the entire “Western World” and the denial of the rise of extreme Islamic fundamentalism has silenced the truth of the danger that it holds for all in the western world.