http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=4009&q=1
DAVID BEDEIN, DIRECTOR, ISRAEL RESOURCE NEWS AGENCY AND THE CENTER FOR NEAR EAST POLICY RESEARCH , WWW.ISRAELBEHINDTHENEWS.COM
Violence and deaths that occurred on ships en route to Gaza on May 31 resulted from a systematic campaign of misinformation which conveyed the specious notion that the people of Gaza are starving.
Flying to Cyprus in August 2008 to cover the first FREEGAZA.org press launch for the Philadelphia Bulletin, it was there and then that the first FREEGAZA.org boat was launched.
Jeff Halper, an Israeli American community organizer, initiator of the FreeGaza.org campaign, opened the FreeGaza.org press conference in Cyprus ,stating in a matter of fact comment that “people in Gaza wake up every morning without food or medicine”. Halper's remarks were taped on the Bulletin tape recorder for posterity.
Over the past two years, Halper coordinated a campaign to spread the rumor of deprivation Gaza with 62 Rabbis, many of who are affiliated with the Rabbis for Human Rights, who then pioneered a new organization and web site, “TANNIT TZEDEK”, http://fastforgaza.net/, where they actually hold monthly fasts for the deprived people of Gaza...with generous support from the New Israel Fund.
In the Philadelphia area, their guru is Arthur Waskow.
Yet the founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, Rabbi David Foreman objected to spreading the false notion that there was deprivation of food and medical supplies in Gaza.
Writing in the Jweekly in California and in the Jerusalem Post last September, 2009 , Rabbi Foreman described the web site as “anti-Zionist, bordering on anti-Semitism”., and asked uncomfortable questions, “How well have these rabbis examined the blockade?... Do they think that concern about arms smuggling is completely bogus?...Do they consider that the blockade justifies shooting at Israelis, while Israel’s response deserves wholesale condemnation? Rabbi Foreman concluded that their web site implies that “that they care not at all about an objective critique of an Israel that should be “a light unto the nations,” but rather care only about painting Israel as an “evil empire,” thereby justifying their and others’ blatant assault on the very legitimacy of a Jewish state.
Rabbi Foreman died on May 3, and was not around to act as a moderating force when ships sailed on their mission on May 30th.
Instead, the man who now speaks for the Rabbis for Human Rights, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, wrote a passionate letter on May 28 to Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak to allow the boats to enter Gaza, where Ascherman repeated the mantra of the “humanitarian crisis” facing the population of Gaza.
The audio tape of Halper's opening remarks in August 2008 is filed in a good place at the Beit Agron International Press Center, along with statments of those who spread the lie to the world over the past two years that a humanitarian crisis was afoot in Gaza.
These files await the formation of a Commission of Inquiry that must be formed to determine how the rumor of starvation in Gaza was systematically and successfully marketed by a few Israeli citizens to the media outlets, NGO's and diplomatic missions of the entire world, sparking the greatest international disgrace for Israel in recent memory.
The first step should be for people - lawyers, social workers, medical professionals, media experts - to offer their services to help put together the rudiments of a commission of inquiry.
The Center for Near East Policy Research, located at the Beit Agron International Press Center in Jerusalem, would be pleased to host a task force who purpose would be to facilitate the formation such a commission.
END
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Israel Plans to Stop "Peace" Flotilla
by David Bedein
Jerusalem - In a special meeting of the inner Israeli government security cabinet that took place on Tuesday, a decision was taken to order the Israeli security establishment to deny the ships of a massive “peace flotilla” entry into Gaza.
These ships are slated to land in Gaza on Saturday or on Sunday.
The plan is for the Israeli navy to stop them upon entering Israel’s territorial waters.
Eight ships-four freighters and four passenger ships-left ports in Greece and Turkey at the beginning of the week, bearing some 800 passengers from 30 countries, most of whom are in one large ship that left Istanbul.
In addition, about 30 members of various European parliaments are on board the ships, as well as an Israeli Arab member of the Israeli Knesset Parliament, Hanin Zuabi.
Dror Feiler, one of the organizers of the flotilla, is a former Israeli and currently a Swedish citizen, made headlines in 2004 when he staged the “Snow White and the Madness of Truth” exhibit at a museum in Stockholm, depicting the figure of the suicide bomber from the Maxim restaurant (21 dead) in a blood-red pool, and elicited great anger in Israel.
Passengers aboard these ships claim to have brought humanitarian supplies, including 10 tons of medicine and medical equipment, construction materials, 100 prefabricated homes and 500 wheelchairs.
The Israeli Navy will issue warnings from different ranges to the ships not to enter Israel’s territorial waters.
The plan is that if the ships decide, nevertheless, to enter, they will be stopped by Naval Commando forces and Navy missile boats, and their passengers will be transferred to a special facility in Ashdod.
From there, passengers will be turned over to the responsibility of the Israel Interior Ministry and Immigration authorities, and sent back to the countries from which they came. The Israeli security establishment will take the cargo and, after security checks, will move it to Gaza.
An Israeli police special counter-terror unit will serve as a backup force if necessary. In addition, dogs from Oketz, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dog-handlers’ unit, will be put on the ships in order to detect explosives and bombs. In the past few days, Israel Navy Commander Maj. Gen. Eliezer Marom has held special drills in advance of the takeover of the ships and bringing them to Israel’s shores.
Passengers without suitable permits - a valid passport or Israeli ID card - will be arrested on the spot and taken to questioning. The Israel Prisons Service has set up a special detention facility at the port, but it is feared that left wing demonstrators will come from all over Israel and try to disturb the peace.
Information that has reached Israel indicates that participants in the flotilla are preparing to contend with Israel by legal means in order to prevent their expulsion.
According to Israeli law, a foreign national who is a candidate for expulsion must be permitted to file an appeal with the court within 72 hours.
At the same time, Israel is also preparing on the public relations front: Special electronic shielding will prevent broadcasting images from the takeover and arrest to media outlets around the world.
In addition, the Israeli government has issued data showing that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is not as bad as the Palestinians assert, and that every day 100 trucks enter Gaza bearing goods, medicines, clothing and diesel oil. The Prime Minister’s Office also sent foreign correspondents a facetiously-worded e-mail, recommending that they visit the exclusive restaurants and cafés of Gaza. “We were told that the beef stroganoff and cream of spinach soup are highly recommended,” it stated, “you should ask for a discount with your press card.”
The Turkish Factor
The flotilla is spearheaded by IHH, a Turkish humanitarian relief organization that is backed by the Turkish government and is an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey.
Turkish government refused the Israeli compromise offers, which proposed to unload the goods in Ashdod and transfer them, after examination, to Gaza.
Israeli diplomatic sources assess that the Turks want a confrontation and that they want images of Israeli soldiers taking over ships and beating civilians.
The Turks speak explicitly about opening a permanent naval line between Turkey and Gaza without Israeli supervision
It is convenient for them to use the IHH, so that if and when a clash takes place on the ships, it will not appear as a direct confrontation between two states.
It is no accident that when the flotilla left Istanbul on May 22, the person who stood beside the organizer of the flotilla, Bulent Yildirim - serves as the leader of the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to a report by the Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center, based in Herzlia, Israel senior Islamic terror leaders attended the launching ceremony in Istanbul of a boat participating in the flotilla. Among the participants were Mahmad Tzoalha and Sahar Albirawi, both top Hamas terrorists who today operate in Great Britain, and Hamam Said, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. “If the goal of the flotilla was humanitarian, they would have let Israel transfer the aid through, and would not have attempted to infiltrate the Gaza Strip in an illegal way,” explains Col. (res.) Reuven Ehrlich, a former member of the Israeli Intelligence Corps who currently heads the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. “Their only goal is to generate a provocation aimed at embarrassing Israel...”
See the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
See this and related stories at Israel Behind the News
Jerusalem - In a special meeting of the inner Israeli government security cabinet that took place on Tuesday, a decision was taken to order the Israeli security establishment to deny the ships of a massive “peace flotilla” entry into Gaza.
These ships are slated to land in Gaza on Saturday or on Sunday.
The plan is for the Israeli navy to stop them upon entering Israel’s territorial waters.
Eight ships-four freighters and four passenger ships-left ports in Greece and Turkey at the beginning of the week, bearing some 800 passengers from 30 countries, most of whom are in one large ship that left Istanbul.
In addition, about 30 members of various European parliaments are on board the ships, as well as an Israeli Arab member of the Israeli Knesset Parliament, Hanin Zuabi.
Dror Feiler, one of the organizers of the flotilla, is a former Israeli and currently a Swedish citizen, made headlines in 2004 when he staged the “Snow White and the Madness of Truth” exhibit at a museum in Stockholm, depicting the figure of the suicide bomber from the Maxim restaurant (21 dead) in a blood-red pool, and elicited great anger in Israel.
Passengers aboard these ships claim to have brought humanitarian supplies, including 10 tons of medicine and medical equipment, construction materials, 100 prefabricated homes and 500 wheelchairs.
The Israeli Navy will issue warnings from different ranges to the ships not to enter Israel’s territorial waters.
The plan is that if the ships decide, nevertheless, to enter, they will be stopped by Naval Commando forces and Navy missile boats, and their passengers will be transferred to a special facility in Ashdod.
From there, passengers will be turned over to the responsibility of the Israel Interior Ministry and Immigration authorities, and sent back to the countries from which they came. The Israeli security establishment will take the cargo and, after security checks, will move it to Gaza.
An Israeli police special counter-terror unit will serve as a backup force if necessary. In addition, dogs from Oketz, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dog-handlers’ unit, will be put on the ships in order to detect explosives and bombs. In the past few days, Israel Navy Commander Maj. Gen. Eliezer Marom has held special drills in advance of the takeover of the ships and bringing them to Israel’s shores.
Passengers without suitable permits - a valid passport or Israeli ID card - will be arrested on the spot and taken to questioning. The Israel Prisons Service has set up a special detention facility at the port, but it is feared that left wing demonstrators will come from all over Israel and try to disturb the peace.
Information that has reached Israel indicates that participants in the flotilla are preparing to contend with Israel by legal means in order to prevent their expulsion.
According to Israeli law, a foreign national who is a candidate for expulsion must be permitted to file an appeal with the court within 72 hours.
At the same time, Israel is also preparing on the public relations front: Special electronic shielding will prevent broadcasting images from the takeover and arrest to media outlets around the world.
In addition, the Israeli government has issued data showing that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is not as bad as the Palestinians assert, and that every day 100 trucks enter Gaza bearing goods, medicines, clothing and diesel oil. The Prime Minister’s Office also sent foreign correspondents a facetiously-worded e-mail, recommending that they visit the exclusive restaurants and cafés of Gaza. “We were told that the beef stroganoff and cream of spinach soup are highly recommended,” it stated, “you should ask for a discount with your press card.”
The Turkish Factor
The flotilla is spearheaded by IHH, a Turkish humanitarian relief organization that is backed by the Turkish government and is an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey.
Turkish government refused the Israeli compromise offers, which proposed to unload the goods in Ashdod and transfer them, after examination, to Gaza.
Israeli diplomatic sources assess that the Turks want a confrontation and that they want images of Israeli soldiers taking over ships and beating civilians.
The Turks speak explicitly about opening a permanent naval line between Turkey and Gaza without Israeli supervision
It is convenient for them to use the IHH, so that if and when a clash takes place on the ships, it will not appear as a direct confrontation between two states.
It is no accident that when the flotilla left Istanbul on May 22, the person who stood beside the organizer of the flotilla, Bulent Yildirim - serves as the leader of the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to a report by the Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center, based in Herzlia, Israel senior Islamic terror leaders attended the launching ceremony in Istanbul of a boat participating in the flotilla. Among the participants were Mahmad Tzoalha and Sahar Albirawi, both top Hamas terrorists who today operate in Great Britain, and Hamam Said, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. “If the goal of the flotilla was humanitarian, they would have let Israel transfer the aid through, and would not have attempted to infiltrate the Gaza Strip in an illegal way,” explains Col. (res.) Reuven Ehrlich, a former member of the Israeli Intelligence Corps who currently heads the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. “Their only goal is to generate a provocation aimed at embarrassing Israel...”
See the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
See this and related stories at Israel Behind the News
Saturday, May 22, 2010
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Israel: We Will Stop The Flotilla To Gaza
by David Bedein
JERUSALEM - The Israeli Foreign Ministry gave an unequivocal message to the ambassadors of several European countries last night that Jerusalem would not allow the flotilla that is intended to aid the Gazan Islamic regime.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s deputy director general for Western Europe, Naor Gilon, held a series of meetings with the ambassadors of Turkey, Greece, Ireland and Sweden, whose citizens are connected with the organization. Gilon said that this was a provocation and a blatant violation of Israeli law.
“Israel has no intention of allowing the flotilla to enter Gaza,” he said. Foreign Ministry officials said that anyone who wishes to extend humanitarian aid or transfer goods to Gaza may do so legally, through the coordinator of government activities in the territories.
The international flotilla is expected to set out from the Larnaca port in Cyprus on May 25 and reach Gaza in two days. Behind the initiative is a series of organizations including Free Gaza, which has organized several flotillas to Gaza in the past, and the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Organization (IHH). Ten vessels, with more than 600 people aboard, are expected to participate in the largest solidarity flotilla intended to reach Gaza.
At August 2008 press conference which launched the first ship of aid to Gaza, held in Nicosia, Cyprus, one of the conference organizers, an American Israeli by the name of Jeff Halper, claimed that there the people of Gaza had run out of basic food and medical supplies. Halper could not answer the question put to him by The Bulletin as to where Israel’s daily supply of food and medical supplies to Gaza had gone.
See this report in the Philadelphia Bulletin
See this report at Israel Behind the News
JERUSALEM - The Israeli Foreign Ministry gave an unequivocal message to the ambassadors of several European countries last night that Jerusalem would not allow the flotilla that is intended to aid the Gazan Islamic regime.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s deputy director general for Western Europe, Naor Gilon, held a series of meetings with the ambassadors of Turkey, Greece, Ireland and Sweden, whose citizens are connected with the organization. Gilon said that this was a provocation and a blatant violation of Israeli law.
“Israel has no intention of allowing the flotilla to enter Gaza,” he said. Foreign Ministry officials said that anyone who wishes to extend humanitarian aid or transfer goods to Gaza may do so legally, through the coordinator of government activities in the territories.
The international flotilla is expected to set out from the Larnaca port in Cyprus on May 25 and reach Gaza in two days. Behind the initiative is a series of organizations including Free Gaza, which has organized several flotillas to Gaza in the past, and the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Organization (IHH). Ten vessels, with more than 600 people aboard, are expected to participate in the largest solidarity flotilla intended to reach Gaza.
At August 2008 press conference which launched the first ship of aid to Gaza, held in Nicosia, Cyprus, one of the conference organizers, an American Israeli by the name of Jeff Halper, claimed that there the people of Gaza had run out of basic food and medical supplies. Halper could not answer the question put to him by The Bulletin as to where Israel’s daily supply of food and medical supplies to Gaza had gone.
See this report in the Philadelphia Bulletin
See this report at Israel Behind the News
Friday, March 5, 2010
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Israel to Conduct Nationwide Civil Defense Drill
by David Bedein
The most extensive nationwide civil defense drill in Israel’s history will be launched starting next Sunday.
It will start with a “battle in Gaza” that will spread as a second front in the “war” opens in northern Israel. In addition, the forces will train for an uprising and rioting by Israel’s Arabs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli media: “[T]his is a routine drill, which was planned several months ago and is held every year in order to coordinate between civil and military systems.”
The drill will begin on May 31 and will last five days.
The Israeli Defense Ministry will coordinate the exercise with the assistance of the Israel National Emergency Authority. It aims to train the Israeli home front, from the government level down to the civilian level, and will simulate a comprehensive regional war.
According to the planned scenario, Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria will become involved in the war, while Palestinians will carry out terror attacks and Israel’s Arabs will riot en masse.
The Israeli government will announce various scenarios, while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will mobilize forces as the events unfold. The proposed scenario simulates an escalation lasting three months, reaching its peak with an overall attack on Israel.
The outline of the drill has been presented to the government ministers. The overall war scenario will begin with a mock escalation in Gaza, which will lead to an Israeli military ground offensive. After 60 days of fighting in Gaza, tensions in the north will heat up. At that time, the scenario proposes forcing the army to enlist reserve forces and launch a war on the northern front.
During the war, barrages of missiles will hit the Israeli home front.
Simultaneously, a terror offensive will develop, and extensive riots will take place across the country.
Air raid sirens will sound across the country.
The drill will kick off on Sunday with an exercise involving Israeli government ministers at their weekly cabinet meeting.
Monday will involve the IDF’s Home Front Command, the Emergency Economy, the Israel Police, government ministries and local authorities.
On Tuesday, an air raid siren will sound across the country; roads will be blocked and citizens and school students will practice entering bomb shelters.
On Wednesday, the Israeli security cabinet and the national information system will go into full operation.
On Thursday, the last day of the drill, the Israeli military will hold field exercises, in coordination with the Israel Home Front Command headquarters.
As part of the drill, cooperation between departments of the Israeli government and the military will be examined.
In addition to war scenarios, Israel will also witness a simulated a major terror attack, natural disaster, epidemic malfunction in a hazardous materials facility.
Last week, the Israel Air Force (IAF) held a three-day drill that included various scenarios and staged fronts the force may have to handle.
Pilots also practiced a number of combat maneuvers. The drill incorporated scenarios relevant to the current threats faced by Israel. As part of the drill, members of the Israeli Air Force were briefed on Iran’s test-launch of its new missile, the Sajjil-2, which has been said to pose a threat to Israel’s security.
View this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin
View this story at Israel Behind the News
The most extensive nationwide civil defense drill in Israel’s history will be launched starting next Sunday.
It will start with a “battle in Gaza” that will spread as a second front in the “war” opens in northern Israel. In addition, the forces will train for an uprising and rioting by Israel’s Arabs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli media: “[T]his is a routine drill, which was planned several months ago and is held every year in order to coordinate between civil and military systems.”
The drill will begin on May 31 and will last five days.
The Israeli Defense Ministry will coordinate the exercise with the assistance of the Israel National Emergency Authority. It aims to train the Israeli home front, from the government level down to the civilian level, and will simulate a comprehensive regional war.
According to the planned scenario, Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria will become involved in the war, while Palestinians will carry out terror attacks and Israel’s Arabs will riot en masse.
The Israeli government will announce various scenarios, while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will mobilize forces as the events unfold. The proposed scenario simulates an escalation lasting three months, reaching its peak with an overall attack on Israel.
The outline of the drill has been presented to the government ministers. The overall war scenario will begin with a mock escalation in Gaza, which will lead to an Israeli military ground offensive. After 60 days of fighting in Gaza, tensions in the north will heat up. At that time, the scenario proposes forcing the army to enlist reserve forces and launch a war on the northern front.
During the war, barrages of missiles will hit the Israeli home front.
Simultaneously, a terror offensive will develop, and extensive riots will take place across the country.
Air raid sirens will sound across the country.
The drill will kick off on Sunday with an exercise involving Israeli government ministers at their weekly cabinet meeting.
Monday will involve the IDF’s Home Front Command, the Emergency Economy, the Israel Police, government ministries and local authorities.
On Tuesday, an air raid siren will sound across the country; roads will be blocked and citizens and school students will practice entering bomb shelters.
On Wednesday, the Israeli security cabinet and the national information system will go into full operation.
On Thursday, the last day of the drill, the Israeli military will hold field exercises, in coordination with the Israel Home Front Command headquarters.
As part of the drill, cooperation between departments of the Israeli government and the military will be examined.
In addition to war scenarios, Israel will also witness a simulated a major terror attack, natural disaster, epidemic malfunction in a hazardous materials facility.
Last week, the Israel Air Force (IAF) held a three-day drill that included various scenarios and staged fronts the force may have to handle.
Pilots also practiced a number of combat maneuvers. The drill incorporated scenarios relevant to the current threats faced by Israel. As part of the drill, members of the Israeli Air Force were briefed on Iran’s test-launch of its new missile, the Sajjil-2, which has been said to pose a threat to Israel’s security.
View this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin
View this story at Israel Behind the News
Monday, February 22, 2010
UN Afghanistan report: UN blames Terrorists for Civilian Casualties - Unlike Standards Used For Israel
by David Bedein
A little-noticed “United Nations’ Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict”, issued in January, which absolved allied coalition forces of culpability for civilian casualties in the almost decade long war against Taliban terror groups in Afghanistan.
According to the report issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, at least “5,978 civilians were killed and injured in 2009, the highest number of civilian casualties recorded since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.”
The United Nations report asserted that the rising death toll there was due to the Taliban terror group’s suicide attacks and explosive roadside devices placed by the Taliban.
he UN report explained that the Taliban frequently attacked coalition forces in densely populated areas and did not blame the United States army or its allies for deaths of civilians who were non combatants who live near the areas from where Taliban launched its attacks, using the civilian areas as a collective human shield.
The UN Afghanistan report stands in stark contrast to a recent report issued by a United Nations’ Human Rights Council’s investigative team, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, which conducted an inquiry into Israel’s January 2009 three week military incursion into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The Goldstone Report discussed “eleven incidents in which Israeli forces launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome... in which the facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack.” These UN allegations of war crimes by the Israeli Defense Forces have been vociferously protested by Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone so far as to call the Goldstone report a “strategic threat,” saying that it hampers the ability of democracies to fight terrorism and to engage in asymmetrical warfare.
A senior Israeli government official said that Israel is held to a different standard than other countries in international forums.
In direct contrast to the Goldstone Report from the same United Nations, the UN holds the Taliban terrorists directly responsible for collateral deaths in Afghanistan, at the same time that the UN alleges that Israel engages in “intentional attacks against the civilian population and civilian objects,” even though Hamas terrorists openly use homes, schools, hospitals and mosques as their protective place of operation.
Unlike Afghanistan, the UN blames Israel - not Hamas - for collateral deaths, injuries and damage to non combatants. The United Nations even suggests that Israel must award reparations to the population of the Gaza Strip, a territory ruled by an internationally recognized terrorist organization.
The United Nations Afghanistan report, on the other hand, noted that coalition forces have been attempting to minimize civilian casualties in Afghanistan, saying that “International military forces did take strategic and specific steps to minimize civilian casualties in 2009,”
In summarizing its findings, the Afghanistan Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict found the “declared strategy of prioritizing the safety and security of civilians is a welcome development.”
By the same token, the report laid the blame on the Taliban for causing Afghan civilian deaths,
Drawing the conclusion that “the inability or unwillingness of the armed opposition to take measures that pre-empt and reduce the harm that their tactics entail for civilians translates into a growing death toll and an ever larger proportion of the total number of civilian dead.”
Significantly, more non-combatants have been injured or killed in Afghanistan by allied troops than by IDF forces in Gaza.
A former British commander in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, told the BBC that he did “not think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more effort to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the [Israel Defense Forces] is doing... in Gaza."
However, a career diplomat with years of experience at the United Nations, noted that it is no surprise that the United Nations uses a different standard to judge Israel. The diplomat mentioned that the UN defined the Sri Lankan-Tamil conflict as an “internal matter”, and that the UN turned a blind eye to the brutal tactics used by the Sri Lankan army, when it finally crushed the 25 year Tamil terrorist rebellion only last year, causing the deaths of thousands of terrorists and non combatants who were slaughtered by Sri Lankan Government forces in the final stages of the conflict.
View the original link at Israel Behind the News
A little-noticed “United Nations’ Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict”, issued in January, which absolved allied coalition forces of culpability for civilian casualties in the almost decade long war against Taliban terror groups in Afghanistan.
According to the report issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, at least “5,978 civilians were killed and injured in 2009, the highest number of civilian casualties recorded since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.”
The United Nations report asserted that the rising death toll there was due to the Taliban terror group’s suicide attacks and explosive roadside devices placed by the Taliban.
he UN report explained that the Taliban frequently attacked coalition forces in densely populated areas and did not blame the United States army or its allies for deaths of civilians who were non combatants who live near the areas from where Taliban launched its attacks, using the civilian areas as a collective human shield.
The UN Afghanistan report stands in stark contrast to a recent report issued by a United Nations’ Human Rights Council’s investigative team, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, which conducted an inquiry into Israel’s January 2009 three week military incursion into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The Goldstone Report discussed “eleven incidents in which Israeli forces launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome... in which the facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack.” These UN allegations of war crimes by the Israeli Defense Forces have been vociferously protested by Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone so far as to call the Goldstone report a “strategic threat,” saying that it hampers the ability of democracies to fight terrorism and to engage in asymmetrical warfare.
A senior Israeli government official said that Israel is held to a different standard than other countries in international forums.
In direct contrast to the Goldstone Report from the same United Nations, the UN holds the Taliban terrorists directly responsible for collateral deaths in Afghanistan, at the same time that the UN alleges that Israel engages in “intentional attacks against the civilian population and civilian objects,” even though Hamas terrorists openly use homes, schools, hospitals and mosques as their protective place of operation.
Unlike Afghanistan, the UN blames Israel - not Hamas - for collateral deaths, injuries and damage to non combatants. The United Nations even suggests that Israel must award reparations to the population of the Gaza Strip, a territory ruled by an internationally recognized terrorist organization.
The United Nations Afghanistan report, on the other hand, noted that coalition forces have been attempting to minimize civilian casualties in Afghanistan, saying that “International military forces did take strategic and specific steps to minimize civilian casualties in 2009,”
In summarizing its findings, the Afghanistan Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict found the “declared strategy of prioritizing the safety and security of civilians is a welcome development.”
By the same token, the report laid the blame on the Taliban for causing Afghan civilian deaths,
Drawing the conclusion that “the inability or unwillingness of the armed opposition to take measures that pre-empt and reduce the harm that their tactics entail for civilians translates into a growing death toll and an ever larger proportion of the total number of civilian dead.”
Significantly, more non-combatants have been injured or killed in Afghanistan by allied troops than by IDF forces in Gaza.
A former British commander in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, told the BBC that he did “not think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more effort to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the [Israel Defense Forces] is doing... in Gaza."
However, a career diplomat with years of experience at the United Nations, noted that it is no surprise that the United Nations uses a different standard to judge Israel. The diplomat mentioned that the UN defined the Sri Lankan-Tamil conflict as an “internal matter”, and that the UN turned a blind eye to the brutal tactics used by the Sri Lankan army, when it finally crushed the 25 year Tamil terrorist rebellion only last year, causing the deaths of thousands of terrorists and non combatants who were slaughtered by Sri Lankan Government forces in the final stages of the conflict.
View the original link at Israel Behind the News
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Crossing Red Lines; NIF and Israel
David Bedein
Special to the Jewish Week
This week, the battle in Jerusalem over the credibility of the New Israel Fund moved to the Knesset, where Israel’s elected officials will conduct what will likely be a spirited debate as to whether NIF poses a security risk to Israel. The debate follows the publication of the full text of the Goldstone commission, where NIF grantees such as the Rabbis for Human Rights, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Israel Committee Against Torture, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights and at least a dozen more NIF-funded groups collectively accused the government and the Israeli army of crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.
This “war crime” accusation has become the trigger for a host of European countries that have threatened to prosecute Israeli politicians and Israeli reserve army officers for war crimes, if they were to step foot on their soil.
The New Israel Fund, in its defense, says it does not support those who demonize Israel or call for divestment or boycott of Israel, and that it will not assist those who advocate the “right of return” for Palestinians to reclaim land lost to them in 1948.
What the Knesset will examine, however, are a host of NIF grantees that violate these stated NIF policies, independent of the Goldstone controversy.
NIF funds the Coalition of Women for Peace, which recently hosted a conference in Jaffa, whose keynote speaker, Naomi Klein, issued a call for BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions). CWP promoted the results of the event, declaring that “Klein’s public meetings, in Ramallah, East Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa drew hundreds of people to hear her clear-eyed analysis of why it is time for a full boycott of Israel until the occupation ends, [until] Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel have full and equal rights, and [until] the right of return for Palestinian refugees is fully realized under international law.”
CWP went a step further, calling on Norway to become the first Western government to divest from Israel as did NIF grantees Mossawa and Machsom [Checkpoint] Watch.
NIF grantee I’lam, the media hub of the Israeli-Arab community, consistently demonizes Israel and the Jewish people. Its Web site continues to promote the questionable claims of a “massacre” in Jenin in 2002 with the following report:
“The soldiers are the grandchildren of the Nazis’ victims, the Nazis’ survivors. They have come here to consume food quickly and consume life quickly. This is the true image of Israel. The real Israel is not in the clean, lofty suburbs of Northern Tel Aviv.... It is not in the literary cafes and journalists’ clubs.... It is not its High Court. I saw the real Israel, its ugliness in the Jenin Refugee Camp on Monday, April 15, 2002. The rest remains decor for murder.”
I’lam’s claims of the Jenin massacre are still hosted on the NIF Web site.
Adalah, a key NIF grantee in the Israeli-Arab sector, expresses support for Sheik Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of Israel’s Islamic movement, whose incitement against Israel is legendary. Salah claims that there was never a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount and has called for an intifada to protect Al-Aqsa from a Jewish plot. Salah remains a member of the board of trustees of the “Union of Good,” an umbrella group that openly funnels seemingly charitable funds to Hamas-affiliated organizations. When Salah’s offices were shut down by the Israeli government in 2008, Adalah filed claims on behalf of Salah.
NIF grantee New Profile openly works to convince young Israeli citizens not to serve in the Israeli army.
NIF grantee Breaking the Silence distributes questionable and anonymous testimony regarding Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza.
NIF grantee B’tselem spreads the false notion to the media and, most recently, to the U.S. Congress that Israel has created a siege of Gaza that has caused a severe humanitarian crisis there, ignoring the 640 convoys of trucks that Israel dispatched into Gaza during 2009 alone. It is one thing to oppose the Israeli policy of blocking building materials and potentially lethal substances into Gaza. It is quite another matter to fabricate a humanitarian crisis and to claim that there is a lack of food and medical supplies in Gaza.
NIF grantee Zochrot openly supports the right of Palestinian refugees to return and “reclaim” the 531 Arab villages and neighborhoods that they lost in 1948, organizing tours to enable for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to reclaim former Arab properties where Israelis now live. Zochrot has gone so far as to issue a new map of the Tel Aviv area that depicts former Arab neighborhoods that can be reclaimed by Palestinians, even if that would mean displacing Israeli citizens.
In the Israeli Arab sector, NIF embarked on a five-year program, beginning in 2001, to help transform the identity of Israeli Arabs into a Palestinian national minority in Israel.
In that context, the NIF grantee Adalah, the Israeli-Arab legal group that played a pivotal role in the anti-Israel gathering in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001 and in Durban II conference in April 2009, promotes the so-called Haifa declaration. Adalah openly declares that its goal is to replace Zionism as the basis of the state of Israel. The principal means of achieving that goal, according to the constitution proposed by Adalah, involves the implementation of the “right of return,” which Adalah would facilitate in the form of “family reunification.”
In the 1990s alone, Israel allowed 140,000 Palestinians to enter the country as a result of marriage. Yet the proposed Adalah amendment to the Israel Citizenship Law would allow for the flow of return en masse. Israel would no longer be a Jewish and democratic state, but a state that will disguise itself as being either “binational” or a “state of all its citizens,” but which, in practice, would become a Palestinian state.
According to Maariv journalist Ben Dror Yemini, “The New Israel Fund is part of the global deception campaign. [It] thinks it is OK to take part in the demonization campaign being staged by organizations whose goal is the elimination of Israel. It thinks it is OK to cooperate with the Goldstone commission, even though it was formed by an automatic majority of the benighted countries that control the UN Human Rights Council.... It does not deal with human rights but with denying one people’s right to self-determination.”
See this article at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com
Special to the Jewish Week
This week, the battle in Jerusalem over the credibility of the New Israel Fund moved to the Knesset, where Israel’s elected officials will conduct what will likely be a spirited debate as to whether NIF poses a security risk to Israel. The debate follows the publication of the full text of the Goldstone commission, where NIF grantees such as the Rabbis for Human Rights, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Israel Committee Against Torture, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights and at least a dozen more NIF-funded groups collectively accused the government and the Israeli army of crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.
This “war crime” accusation has become the trigger for a host of European countries that have threatened to prosecute Israeli politicians and Israeli reserve army officers for war crimes, if they were to step foot on their soil.
The New Israel Fund, in its defense, says it does not support those who demonize Israel or call for divestment or boycott of Israel, and that it will not assist those who advocate the “right of return” for Palestinians to reclaim land lost to them in 1948.
What the Knesset will examine, however, are a host of NIF grantees that violate these stated NIF policies, independent of the Goldstone controversy.
NIF funds the Coalition of Women for Peace, which recently hosted a conference in Jaffa, whose keynote speaker, Naomi Klein, issued a call for BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions). CWP promoted the results of the event, declaring that “Klein’s public meetings, in Ramallah, East Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa drew hundreds of people to hear her clear-eyed analysis of why it is time for a full boycott of Israel until the occupation ends, [until] Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel have full and equal rights, and [until] the right of return for Palestinian refugees is fully realized under international law.”
CWP went a step further, calling on Norway to become the first Western government to divest from Israel as did NIF grantees Mossawa and Machsom [Checkpoint] Watch.
NIF grantee I’lam, the media hub of the Israeli-Arab community, consistently demonizes Israel and the Jewish people. Its Web site continues to promote the questionable claims of a “massacre” in Jenin in 2002 with the following report:
“The soldiers are the grandchildren of the Nazis’ victims, the Nazis’ survivors. They have come here to consume food quickly and consume life quickly. This is the true image of Israel. The real Israel is not in the clean, lofty suburbs of Northern Tel Aviv.... It is not in the literary cafes and journalists’ clubs.... It is not its High Court. I saw the real Israel, its ugliness in the Jenin Refugee Camp on Monday, April 15, 2002. The rest remains decor for murder.”
I’lam’s claims of the Jenin massacre are still hosted on the NIF Web site.
Adalah, a key NIF grantee in the Israeli-Arab sector, expresses support for Sheik Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of Israel’s Islamic movement, whose incitement against Israel is legendary. Salah claims that there was never a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount and has called for an intifada to protect Al-Aqsa from a Jewish plot. Salah remains a member of the board of trustees of the “Union of Good,” an umbrella group that openly funnels seemingly charitable funds to Hamas-affiliated organizations. When Salah’s offices were shut down by the Israeli government in 2008, Adalah filed claims on behalf of Salah.
NIF grantee New Profile openly works to convince young Israeli citizens not to serve in the Israeli army.
NIF grantee Breaking the Silence distributes questionable and anonymous testimony regarding Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza.
NIF grantee B’tselem spreads the false notion to the media and, most recently, to the U.S. Congress that Israel has created a siege of Gaza that has caused a severe humanitarian crisis there, ignoring the 640 convoys of trucks that Israel dispatched into Gaza during 2009 alone. It is one thing to oppose the Israeli policy of blocking building materials and potentially lethal substances into Gaza. It is quite another matter to fabricate a humanitarian crisis and to claim that there is a lack of food and medical supplies in Gaza.
NIF grantee Zochrot openly supports the right of Palestinian refugees to return and “reclaim” the 531 Arab villages and neighborhoods that they lost in 1948, organizing tours to enable for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to reclaim former Arab properties where Israelis now live. Zochrot has gone so far as to issue a new map of the Tel Aviv area that depicts former Arab neighborhoods that can be reclaimed by Palestinians, even if that would mean displacing Israeli citizens.
In the Israeli Arab sector, NIF embarked on a five-year program, beginning in 2001, to help transform the identity of Israeli Arabs into a Palestinian national minority in Israel.
In that context, the NIF grantee Adalah, the Israeli-Arab legal group that played a pivotal role in the anti-Israel gathering in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001 and in Durban II conference in April 2009, promotes the so-called Haifa declaration. Adalah openly declares that its goal is to replace Zionism as the basis of the state of Israel. The principal means of achieving that goal, according to the constitution proposed by Adalah, involves the implementation of the “right of return,” which Adalah would facilitate in the form of “family reunification.”
In the 1990s alone, Israel allowed 140,000 Palestinians to enter the country as a result of marriage. Yet the proposed Adalah amendment to the Israel Citizenship Law would allow for the flow of return en masse. Israel would no longer be a Jewish and democratic state, but a state that will disguise itself as being either “binational” or a “state of all its citizens,” but which, in practice, would become a Palestinian state.
According to Maariv journalist Ben Dror Yemini, “The New Israel Fund is part of the global deception campaign. [It] thinks it is OK to take part in the demonization campaign being staged by organizations whose goal is the elimination of Israel. It thinks it is OK to cooperate with the Goldstone commission, even though it was formed by an automatic majority of the benighted countries that control the UN Human Rights Council.... It does not deal with human rights but with denying one people’s right to self-determination.”
See this article at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com
Friday, February 12, 2010
New Revelations About the UN Goldstone Report that Seriously Undermine its Credibility
Col. (ret.) Desmond Travers was one of the four members of the UN Fact Finding Mission that produced what is widely called the Goldstone Report. The Mission investigated Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009. Travers joined the Irish Defense Forces in 1961 and retired after forty years. As the only former officer who belonged to Justice Richard Goldstone's team, he was the senior figure responsible for the military analysis that provided the basis for condemning Israel for war crimes.
After following his repeated public appearances with the other mission members in July 2009, and especially in light of his most recent interviews, serious flaws have now become evident in the methodology he followed, in his collection and processing of data, and in the conclusions he draws. In the past, the flaws in the Goldstone report, and especially its lack of balance, have been criticized by the London Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist, but the fundamental problems of its military analysis have not been fully addressed. In the material presented here, this becomes evident in four specific ways:
1. A Fundamental Bias against the Israel Defense Forces
During the Mission's collection of testimonies from Palestinian psychologists in the Gaza Strip, Travers asked them straight out to explain how Israeli soldiers could kill Palestinian children in front of their parents. In an interview with Middle East Monitor, on February 2, 2010, he asserted that in the past Israeli soldiers had "taken out and deliberately shot" Irish peacekeeping forces in Southern Lebanon. Both of these statements by Travers are completely false. It should be stressed that one of the most vicious and unsubstantiated conclusions in the Goldstone Report is the suggestion that Israel deliberately killed Palestinian civilians.
While Travers assumes the worst of intentions on the part of the Israel Defense Forces, he praises Hamas for their cooperation with the Mission. When he was asked about Hamas intimidation that affected the Mission's inquiries, he replied that that there was "none
whatsoever." Yet the Goldstone Report itself noted in Paragraph 440 that those interviewed in Gaza appeared reluctant to speak about the presence of Palestinian armed groups because of a "fear of reprisals." He rejects the notion that Hamas shielded its forces in the civilian population and does not accept the idea that Israel faced asymmetric warfare.
2. False Information Reported About Weapons Systems
Travers comes up with a story that the IDF had unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) that could obtain a "thermal signature" on a Gaza house and detect that there were large numbers of people inside. Incredibly, he then suggests that with this information that certain houses were "packed with people," the Israeli military would then deliberately order a missile strike on these populated homes. The primary technical problem with his theory is that Israel does not have UAV's that can see though houses and pick up a thermal signature. More importantly, Israel used UAV's to monitor that Palestinian civilians left houses that had received multiple warnings, precisely because Israel sought to minimize civilian casualties, a fact that Travers could not fathom, because of his own clear biases.
3. Completely Inaccurate Data
Travers rejects that Israel began military operations against the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008 as an act of self-defense in response to Hamas rockets. He bases this idea on a "fact" that he presents that in the month prior to start of the war, there were only "something like two" rockets that fell on Israel. Israeli military sources found that there were in fact 32 rockets fired from Gaza at Israel over three days alone--between December 16 and 18, 2008. He adds to his analysis that at this time Hamas sought to extend the tahdiya, or lull arrangement--which he called a cease-fire. Yet the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas announced on December 17 that the lull would come to an end two days later and would not be renewed. The head of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, announced the end of the lull on December 14. To say that Hamas wanted to continue the lull is a complete distortion of events.
In his Middle East Monitor interview, Travers states that he "only came across two incidents of where there was an actual combat situation" - the exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas. Because he minimizes the possibility that Israel was engaged in real combat in the Gaza Strip, it follows that he naturally conclude that Israel was essentially attacking non-combatants during Operation Cast Lead.
4. Lack of Professionalism in Conducting Thorough Investigations
Travers relies on his own prejudices when he looks into the question of whether Gazan Mosques had been militarized by Hamas and turned into weapons depots. In an interview with Harpers, published on October 29, 2009, Travers makes a sweeping generalization: "We found no evidence that mosques were used to store munitions." He then dismissed those who suggested that was the case by saying: "Those charges reflect Western perceptions in some quarters that Islam is a violent religion." How many mosques did Travers investigate? He admits that the Mission only checked two mosques.
Of course, srael produced photographic proof that large amounts of weapons were stored in mosques, like the Zaytun Mosque. In a subsequent interview, Travers rejected the Israeli proof: "I do not believe the photographs." He described the photographs as "spurious." Travers appears to be bothered by proof that contradicts the conclusions he reaches on the basis of a very limited investigation. In early 2010, Colonel Tim Collins, a British veteran of the Iraq War, visited Gaza for BBC Newsnight and inspected the ruins of a mosque that Israel had destroyed because it had been a weapons depot. He found that there was evidence of secondary explosions cause by explosives stored in the mosque cellar. Travers clearly did not make the effort that Collins made.
In his questioning of Palestinian witnesses in the Gaza Strip, Travers does not ask the questions that a military advisor should raise. He did not ask those giving testimony if they were member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam units of Hamas and were combatants. He also failed to ask them straight out if their homes had been used to store munitions, like Grad rockets. Instead, his questions reflected his ideological bias.
Travers most recent interview also had a disturbing additional element. When addressing the role of British officers in defending Israel's claims, Travers suddenly adds: "Britain's foreign policy interests in the Middle East seem to be influenced strongly by Jewish lobbyists." Travers implies that British Jews have interests that differ from Britain's own national interests and that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is influenced by these considerations. This statement, unless corrected, places Travers is a position in which his views are suspect of being motivated by anti-Semitic prejudices. Even without this last statement, he clearly emerges as an individual who is not qualified to take part in any serious fact-finding mission and the U.N. should not seek his services in the future. Given his statements, Justice Richard Goldstone should repudiate Col. Travers and completely reject the conclusions that he reached as a result of his work.
For an expanded version of this report in Hebrew, see Unprofessional Conduct of the Goldstone Commission's Military Expert - Jonathan D. Halevi.
Dr. Dore Gold
Ambassador Dore Gold is President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He was the eleventh Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations (1997-1999). Previously he served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the former Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. He has served as an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who asked him to accompany his entourage to Washington and the 2003 Aqaba Summit with President George W. Bush.
Ambassador Gold was a member of the Israeli delegation at the 1998 Wye River negotiations between Israel and the PLO, outside of Washington. He negotiated the Note for the Record, which supplemented the 1997 Hebron Protocol, and in 1996 concluded the negotiations with the U.S., Lebanon, Syria, and France for the creation of the Monitoring Group for Southern Lebanon.
Dore Gold speaks at the UK Parliament on October 12, 2009
Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi
Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi is a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is a co-founder of the Orient Research Group Ltd. and is a former advisor to the Policy Planning Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
View this article at Israel Behind the News
After following his repeated public appearances with the other mission members in July 2009, and especially in light of his most recent interviews, serious flaws have now become evident in the methodology he followed, in his collection and processing of data, and in the conclusions he draws. In the past, the flaws in the Goldstone report, and especially its lack of balance, have been criticized by the London Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist, but the fundamental problems of its military analysis have not been fully addressed. In the material presented here, this becomes evident in four specific ways:
1. A Fundamental Bias against the Israel Defense Forces
During the Mission's collection of testimonies from Palestinian psychologists in the Gaza Strip, Travers asked them straight out to explain how Israeli soldiers could kill Palestinian children in front of their parents. In an interview with Middle East Monitor, on February 2, 2010, he asserted that in the past Israeli soldiers had "taken out and deliberately shot" Irish peacekeeping forces in Southern Lebanon. Both of these statements by Travers are completely false. It should be stressed that one of the most vicious and unsubstantiated conclusions in the Goldstone Report is the suggestion that Israel deliberately killed Palestinian civilians.
While Travers assumes the worst of intentions on the part of the Israel Defense Forces, he praises Hamas for their cooperation with the Mission. When he was asked about Hamas intimidation that affected the Mission's inquiries, he replied that that there was "none
whatsoever." Yet the Goldstone Report itself noted in Paragraph 440 that those interviewed in Gaza appeared reluctant to speak about the presence of Palestinian armed groups because of a "fear of reprisals." He rejects the notion that Hamas shielded its forces in the civilian population and does not accept the idea that Israel faced asymmetric warfare.
2. False Information Reported About Weapons Systems
Travers comes up with a story that the IDF had unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) that could obtain a "thermal signature" on a Gaza house and detect that there were large numbers of people inside. Incredibly, he then suggests that with this information that certain houses were "packed with people," the Israeli military would then deliberately order a missile strike on these populated homes. The primary technical problem with his theory is that Israel does not have UAV's that can see though houses and pick up a thermal signature. More importantly, Israel used UAV's to monitor that Palestinian civilians left houses that had received multiple warnings, precisely because Israel sought to minimize civilian casualties, a fact that Travers could not fathom, because of his own clear biases.
3. Completely Inaccurate Data
Travers rejects that Israel began military operations against the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008 as an act of self-defense in response to Hamas rockets. He bases this idea on a "fact" that he presents that in the month prior to start of the war, there were only "something like two" rockets that fell on Israel. Israeli military sources found that there were in fact 32 rockets fired from Gaza at Israel over three days alone--between December 16 and 18, 2008. He adds to his analysis that at this time Hamas sought to extend the tahdiya, or lull arrangement--which he called a cease-fire. Yet the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas announced on December 17 that the lull would come to an end two days later and would not be renewed. The head of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, announced the end of the lull on December 14. To say that Hamas wanted to continue the lull is a complete distortion of events.
In his Middle East Monitor interview, Travers states that he "only came across two incidents of where there was an actual combat situation" - the exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas. Because he minimizes the possibility that Israel was engaged in real combat in the Gaza Strip, it follows that he naturally conclude that Israel was essentially attacking non-combatants during Operation Cast Lead.
4. Lack of Professionalism in Conducting Thorough Investigations
Travers relies on his own prejudices when he looks into the question of whether Gazan Mosques had been militarized by Hamas and turned into weapons depots. In an interview with Harpers, published on October 29, 2009, Travers makes a sweeping generalization: "We found no evidence that mosques were used to store munitions." He then dismissed those who suggested that was the case by saying: "Those charges reflect Western perceptions in some quarters that Islam is a violent religion." How many mosques did Travers investigate? He admits that the Mission only checked two mosques.
Of course, srael produced photographic proof that large amounts of weapons were stored in mosques, like the Zaytun Mosque. In a subsequent interview, Travers rejected the Israeli proof: "I do not believe the photographs." He described the photographs as "spurious." Travers appears to be bothered by proof that contradicts the conclusions he reaches on the basis of a very limited investigation. In early 2010, Colonel Tim Collins, a British veteran of the Iraq War, visited Gaza for BBC Newsnight and inspected the ruins of a mosque that Israel had destroyed because it had been a weapons depot. He found that there was evidence of secondary explosions cause by explosives stored in the mosque cellar. Travers clearly did not make the effort that Collins made.
In his questioning of Palestinian witnesses in the Gaza Strip, Travers does not ask the questions that a military advisor should raise. He did not ask those giving testimony if they were member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam units of Hamas and were combatants. He also failed to ask them straight out if their homes had been used to store munitions, like Grad rockets. Instead, his questions reflected his ideological bias.
Travers most recent interview also had a disturbing additional element. When addressing the role of British officers in defending Israel's claims, Travers suddenly adds: "Britain's foreign policy interests in the Middle East seem to be influenced strongly by Jewish lobbyists." Travers implies that British Jews have interests that differ from Britain's own national interests and that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is influenced by these considerations. This statement, unless corrected, places Travers is a position in which his views are suspect of being motivated by anti-Semitic prejudices. Even without this last statement, he clearly emerges as an individual who is not qualified to take part in any serious fact-finding mission and the U.N. should not seek his services in the future. Given his statements, Justice Richard Goldstone should repudiate Col. Travers and completely reject the conclusions that he reached as a result of his work.
For an expanded version of this report in Hebrew, see Unprofessional Conduct of the Goldstone Commission's Military Expert - Jonathan D. Halevi.
Dr. Dore Gold
Ambassador Dore Gold is President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He was the eleventh Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations (1997-1999). Previously he served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the former Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. He has served as an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who asked him to accompany his entourage to Washington and the 2003 Aqaba Summit with President George W. Bush.
Ambassador Gold was a member of the Israeli delegation at the 1998 Wye River negotiations between Israel and the PLO, outside of Washington. He negotiated the Note for the Record, which supplemented the 1997 Hebron Protocol, and in 1996 concluded the negotiations with the U.S., Lebanon, Syria, and France for the creation of the Monitoring Group for Southern Lebanon.
Dore Gold speaks at the UK Parliament on October 12, 2009
Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi
Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi is a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is a co-founder of the Orient Research Group Ltd. and is a former advisor to the Policy Planning Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
View this article at Israel Behind the News
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Grandi Now Head Of UNRWA, Boasts Anti-Israel Stance
by David Bedein
Jerusalem - An American citizen, Karen Abu Zayd, retired last week as the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which services Palestinian Arab refugees from 1948 and their descendants.
Ms. Abu Zayd has been succeeded by a Spanish citizen, Filippo Grandi, who had been her lieutenant.
Mr. Grandi’s inaugural letter to the UNRWA staff, dated Jan. 26, provides insight into his attitude toward Israel:
“I need not tell you how difficult this period is for the Palestinian people. We are all painfully aware of the counterproductive policies collectively punishing the people of the Gaza Strip; conscious decisions that have caused untold suffering and a dramatic deterioration in the lives of the population, in contravention of international law. One of my key priorities will be to continue to advocate strongly on behalf of the 1.5 million Gazans, and to do so not only until the end of the blockade and the occupation, but also until a just and lasting solution to the plight of the refugees is achieved.
“Despite some recent economic improvements for some, the lives of most Palestinians in the West Bank continue to be made almost impossible by obstacles, walls, movement limitations and other restrictions, and by the expanding threat of settler violence. For those residing in East Jerusalem, as I do, it is cause for daily anguish to watch the situation deteriorate rapidly under our very eyes, especially the ruthless evictions of Palestinians from their homes. UNRWA will continue to stand with the affected families and all of those in need of our protection and will tirelessly lend our voice to their calls for justice.”
UNRWA’s mandate is purely humanitarian - however, the new UNRWA director has inaugurated his new role with a political stance that seems to be beyond his purview.
Jerusalem - An American citizen, Karen Abu Zayd, retired last week as the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which services Palestinian Arab refugees from 1948 and their descendants.
Ms. Abu Zayd has been succeeded by a Spanish citizen, Filippo Grandi, who had been her lieutenant.
Mr. Grandi’s inaugural letter to the UNRWA staff, dated Jan. 26, provides insight into his attitude toward Israel:
“I need not tell you how difficult this period is for the Palestinian people. We are all painfully aware of the counterproductive policies collectively punishing the people of the Gaza Strip; conscious decisions that have caused untold suffering and a dramatic deterioration in the lives of the population, in contravention of international law. One of my key priorities will be to continue to advocate strongly on behalf of the 1.5 million Gazans, and to do so not only until the end of the blockade and the occupation, but also until a just and lasting solution to the plight of the refugees is achieved.
“Despite some recent economic improvements for some, the lives of most Palestinians in the West Bank continue to be made almost impossible by obstacles, walls, movement limitations and other restrictions, and by the expanding threat of settler violence. For those residing in East Jerusalem, as I do, it is cause for daily anguish to watch the situation deteriorate rapidly under our very eyes, especially the ruthless evictions of Palestinians from their homes. UNRWA will continue to stand with the affected families and all of those in need of our protection and will tirelessly lend our voice to their calls for justice.”
UNRWA’s mandate is purely humanitarian - however, the new UNRWA director has inaugurated his new role with a political stance that seems to be beyond his purview.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Hamas Faces Fiscal Crisis due to Tight Restrictions and Blockade: sources
by Emad Drimly, Saud Abu Ramadan for People's Daily Online
The deposed government of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the impoverished enclave of the Gaza Strip, faces a severe fiscal crisis due to the lack of financial liquidity and the tight restrictions of the Israeli blockade, sources close to Hamas said on Sunday.
The sources, which spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Hamas government is facing difficulties in bringing money into the blockaded enclave, which resulted in the lack of financial liquidity, adding that "this might lead to a severe financial crisis that Hamas would soon suffer from."
Israel had imposed a tight blockade on Gaza after Hamas and two minor armed groups' militants kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border attack in southeast Gaza Strip in June 2006. Israel tightened the blockade after the movement seized control of the enclave in June 2007.
"Hamas government is about to face so many difficulties, mainly about paying the monthly salaries for its civil and security employees and other running costs," said the sources. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deposed Hamas government after the movement took control of the Gaza Strip.
In addition to the tight blockade that Israel imposes on the enclave, the international community led by the U.S. had imposed an embargo on the movement after it won the legislative elections four years ago. Hamas rejected the world's requirements, mainly recognizing Israel and denouncing violence.
"The financial crisis is not linked to the sources of finance or its fundamental financial abilities, but it is linked to the difficulties of bringing this money to the Gaza Strip and the shortage of liquidity due to more than three years of Israeli blockades and the restrictions imposed on the banks," said the sources.
The deposed Hamas government hasn't yet paid the salaries of January to its 34,200 employees in the Gaza Strip, said the sources, adding that "there are concerns that the government of Hamas wouldn't be able to pay its employees the salaries of the coming months if the crisis goes on."
There has been no official announcement made by Hamas government officials in Gaza that the government suffers from a financial crisis and a shortage of financial liquidity to cover its monthly running costs.
Gaza economy experts believed that the reason behind the crisis "is the tight security measures Egypt is imposing on its borders with the Gaza Strip," adding that Egypt imposes tight restrictions on money entrance into the Gaza Strip either held by individuals or groups.
Hamas had repeatedly expressed concerns over an underground steel barrier that Egypt builds under the borderline between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The purpose of building the barriers, according to Egyptian officials, is to secure Egypt's borders and prevent smuggling through underground tunnels.
According to the experts, there is another reason behind the fiscal crisis that Hamas in Gaza is suffering from, where local banks in the Gaza Strip have financially boycotted Hamas and refused to deal with the movement or its deposed government.
According to Hamas government's official figures, there are 34, 200 employees who receive about 16 million dollars as monthly salaries, adding that 16,700 are police and security officers, and 17,500 are civil employees working at the various ministries of the government.
The sources said that the deposed government of Hamas had recently met with several experts to study the possibilities of carrying out cuts off and closing down some of the less influential ministries, merge other ministries together and reduce the monthly invoice of the salaries.
An official source in Hamas ministry of finance, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted to Xinhua that there are " serious difficulties the government suffers from, especially bringing financial liquidity from abroad to the Gaza Strip."
However, the source said that "so far, the government is still able to run its affairs, adding that the delay in paying January salaries to the employees is basically related to "technical problems," adding that "the salaries will be paid within the coming few days."
In December last year, the government of Hamas approved its annual budget which is 540 million U.S. dollars. However, and due to the current difficulties it is not clear if Hamas government in Gaza will be able to continue paying the salaries to its employees in the coming few months.
Hamas officials said there are four basic sources of income into the budget of Hamas government: first is the taxes and customs the government collects from the Gaza Strip population, second is the agricultural investment in Gaza, third is the local donations and fourth is the Arab and Islamic donations.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) which is a rival to Hamas accuses Iran, Syria and Qatar for supporting Hamas government in the Gaza Strip by sending huge amounts of money to the movement to keep it surviving and controlling the Gaza Strip.
The deposed government of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the impoverished enclave of the Gaza Strip, faces a severe fiscal crisis due to the lack of financial liquidity and the tight restrictions of the Israeli blockade, sources close to Hamas said on Sunday.
The sources, which spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Hamas government is facing difficulties in bringing money into the blockaded enclave, which resulted in the lack of financial liquidity, adding that "this might lead to a severe financial crisis that Hamas would soon suffer from."
Israel had imposed a tight blockade on Gaza after Hamas and two minor armed groups' militants kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border attack in southeast Gaza Strip in June 2006. Israel tightened the blockade after the movement seized control of the enclave in June 2007.
"Hamas government is about to face so many difficulties, mainly about paying the monthly salaries for its civil and security employees and other running costs," said the sources. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deposed Hamas government after the movement took control of the Gaza Strip.
In addition to the tight blockade that Israel imposes on the enclave, the international community led by the U.S. had imposed an embargo on the movement after it won the legislative elections four years ago. Hamas rejected the world's requirements, mainly recognizing Israel and denouncing violence.
"The financial crisis is not linked to the sources of finance or its fundamental financial abilities, but it is linked to the difficulties of bringing this money to the Gaza Strip and the shortage of liquidity due to more than three years of Israeli blockades and the restrictions imposed on the banks," said the sources.
The deposed Hamas government hasn't yet paid the salaries of January to its 34,200 employees in the Gaza Strip, said the sources, adding that "there are concerns that the government of Hamas wouldn't be able to pay its employees the salaries of the coming months if the crisis goes on."
There has been no official announcement made by Hamas government officials in Gaza that the government suffers from a financial crisis and a shortage of financial liquidity to cover its monthly running costs.
Gaza economy experts believed that the reason behind the crisis "is the tight security measures Egypt is imposing on its borders with the Gaza Strip," adding that Egypt imposes tight restrictions on money entrance into the Gaza Strip either held by individuals or groups.
Hamas had repeatedly expressed concerns over an underground steel barrier that Egypt builds under the borderline between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The purpose of building the barriers, according to Egyptian officials, is to secure Egypt's borders and prevent smuggling through underground tunnels.
According to the experts, there is another reason behind the fiscal crisis that Hamas in Gaza is suffering from, where local banks in the Gaza Strip have financially boycotted Hamas and refused to deal with the movement or its deposed government.
According to Hamas government's official figures, there are 34, 200 employees who receive about 16 million dollars as monthly salaries, adding that 16,700 are police and security officers, and 17,500 are civil employees working at the various ministries of the government.
The sources said that the deposed government of Hamas had recently met with several experts to study the possibilities of carrying out cuts off and closing down some of the less influential ministries, merge other ministries together and reduce the monthly invoice of the salaries.
An official source in Hamas ministry of finance, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted to Xinhua that there are " serious difficulties the government suffers from, especially bringing financial liquidity from abroad to the Gaza Strip."
However, the source said that "so far, the government is still able to run its affairs, adding that the delay in paying January salaries to the employees is basically related to "technical problems," adding that "the salaries will be paid within the coming few days."
In December last year, the government of Hamas approved its annual budget which is 540 million U.S. dollars. However, and due to the current difficulties it is not clear if Hamas government in Gaza will be able to continue paying the salaries to its employees in the coming few months.
Hamas officials said there are four basic sources of income into the budget of Hamas government: first is the taxes and customs the government collects from the Gaza Strip population, second is the agricultural investment in Gaza, third is the local donations and fourth is the Arab and Islamic donations.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) which is a rival to Hamas accuses Iran, Syria and Qatar for supporting Hamas government in the Gaza Strip by sending huge amounts of money to the movement to keep it surviving and controlling the Gaza Strip.
Hamas Faces Fiscal Crisis due to Tight Restrictions and Blockade: Sources
by Emad Drimly, Saud Abu Ramadan
The deposed government of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the impoverished enclave of the Gaza Strip, faces a severe fiscal crisis due to the lack of financial liquidity and the tight restrictions of the Israeli blockade, sources close to Hamas said on Sunday.
The sources, which spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Hamas government is facing difficulties in bringing money into the blockaded enclave, which resulted in the lack of financial liquidity, adding that "this might lead to a severe financial crisis that Hamas would soon suffer from."
Israel had imposed a tight blockade on Gaza after Hamas and two minor armed groups' militants kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border attack in southeast Gaza Strip in June 2006. Israel tightened the blockade after the movement seized control of the enclave in June 2007.
"Hamas government is about to face so many difficulties, mainly about paying the monthly salaries for its civil and security employees and other running costs," said the sources. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deposed Hamas government after the movement took control of the Gaza Strip.
In addition to the tight blockade that Israel imposes on the enclave, the international community led by the U.S. had imposed an embargo on the movement after it won the legislative elections four years ago. Hamas rejected the world's requirements, mainly recognizing Israel and denouncing violence.
"The financial crisis is not linked to the sources of finance or its fundamental financial abilities, but it is linked to the difficulties of bringing this money to the Gaza Strip and the shortage of liquidity due to more than three years of Israeli blockades and the restrictions imposed on the banks," said the sources.
The deposed Hamas government hasn't yet paid the salaries of January to its 34,200 employees in the Gaza Strip, said the sources, adding that "there are concerns that the government of Hamas wouldn't be able to pay its employees the salaries of the coming months if the crisis goes on."
There has been no official announcement made by Hamas government officials in Gaza that the government suffers from a financial crisis and a shortage of financial liquidity to cover its monthly running costs.
Gaza economy experts believed that the reason behind the crisis "is the tight security measures Egypt is imposing on its borders with the Gaza Strip," adding that Egypt imposes tight restrictions on money entrance into the Gaza Strip either held by individuals or groups.
Hamas had repeatedly expressed concerns over an underground steel barrier that Egypt builds under the borderline between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The purpose of building the barriers, according to Egyptian officials, is to secure Egypt's borders and prevent smuggling through underground tunnels.
According to the experts, there is another reason behind the fiscal crisis that Hamas in Gaza is suffering from, where local banks in the Gaza Strip have financially boycotted Hamas and refused to deal with the movement or its deposed government.
According to Hamas government's official figures, there are 34, 200 employees who receive about 16 million dollars as monthly salaries, adding that 16,700 are police and security officers, and 17,500 are civil employees working at the various ministries of the government.
The sources said that the deposed government of Hamas had recently met with several experts to study the possibilities of carrying out cuts off and closing down some of the less influential ministries, merge other ministries together and reduce the monthly invoice of the salaries.
An official source in Hamas ministry of finance, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted to Xinhua that there are " serious difficulties the government suffers from, especially bringing financial liquidity from abroad to the Gaza Strip."
However, the source said that "so far, the government is still able to run its affairs, adding that the delay in paying January salaries to the employees is basically related to "technical problems," adding that "the salaries will be paid within the coming few days."
In December last year, the government of Hamas approved its annual budget which is 540 million U.S. dollars. However, and due to the current difficulties it is not clear if Hamas government in Gaza will be able to continue paying the salaries to its employees in the coming few months.
Hamas officials said there are four basic sources of income into the budget of Hamas government: first is the taxes and customs the government collects from the Gaza Strip population, second is the agricultural investment in Gaza, third is the local donations and fourth is the Arab and Islamic donations.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) which is a rival to Hamas accuses Iran, Syria and Qatar for supporting Hamas government in the Gaza Strip by sending huge amounts of money to the movement to keep it surviving and controlling the Gaza Strip.
View the original article in People.
The deposed government of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the impoverished enclave of the Gaza Strip, faces a severe fiscal crisis due to the lack of financial liquidity and the tight restrictions of the Israeli blockade, sources close to Hamas said on Sunday.
The sources, which spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Hamas government is facing difficulties in bringing money into the blockaded enclave, which resulted in the lack of financial liquidity, adding that "this might lead to a severe financial crisis that Hamas would soon suffer from."
Israel had imposed a tight blockade on Gaza after Hamas and two minor armed groups' militants kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border attack in southeast Gaza Strip in June 2006. Israel tightened the blockade after the movement seized control of the enclave in June 2007.
"Hamas government is about to face so many difficulties, mainly about paying the monthly salaries for its civil and security employees and other running costs," said the sources. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deposed Hamas government after the movement took control of the Gaza Strip.
In addition to the tight blockade that Israel imposes on the enclave, the international community led by the U.S. had imposed an embargo on the movement after it won the legislative elections four years ago. Hamas rejected the world's requirements, mainly recognizing Israel and denouncing violence.
"The financial crisis is not linked to the sources of finance or its fundamental financial abilities, but it is linked to the difficulties of bringing this money to the Gaza Strip and the shortage of liquidity due to more than three years of Israeli blockades and the restrictions imposed on the banks," said the sources.
The deposed Hamas government hasn't yet paid the salaries of January to its 34,200 employees in the Gaza Strip, said the sources, adding that "there are concerns that the government of Hamas wouldn't be able to pay its employees the salaries of the coming months if the crisis goes on."
There has been no official announcement made by Hamas government officials in Gaza that the government suffers from a financial crisis and a shortage of financial liquidity to cover its monthly running costs.
Gaza economy experts believed that the reason behind the crisis "is the tight security measures Egypt is imposing on its borders with the Gaza Strip," adding that Egypt imposes tight restrictions on money entrance into the Gaza Strip either held by individuals or groups.
Hamas had repeatedly expressed concerns over an underground steel barrier that Egypt builds under the borderline between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The purpose of building the barriers, according to Egyptian officials, is to secure Egypt's borders and prevent smuggling through underground tunnels.
According to the experts, there is another reason behind the fiscal crisis that Hamas in Gaza is suffering from, where local banks in the Gaza Strip have financially boycotted Hamas and refused to deal with the movement or its deposed government.
According to Hamas government's official figures, there are 34, 200 employees who receive about 16 million dollars as monthly salaries, adding that 16,700 are police and security officers, and 17,500 are civil employees working at the various ministries of the government.
The sources said that the deposed government of Hamas had recently met with several experts to study the possibilities of carrying out cuts off and closing down some of the less influential ministries, merge other ministries together and reduce the monthly invoice of the salaries.
An official source in Hamas ministry of finance, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted to Xinhua that there are " serious difficulties the government suffers from, especially bringing financial liquidity from abroad to the Gaza Strip."
However, the source said that "so far, the government is still able to run its affairs, adding that the delay in paying January salaries to the employees is basically related to "technical problems," adding that "the salaries will be paid within the coming few days."
In December last year, the government of Hamas approved its annual budget which is 540 million U.S. dollars. However, and due to the current difficulties it is not clear if Hamas government in Gaza will be able to continue paying the salaries to its employees in the coming few months.
Hamas officials said there are four basic sources of income into the budget of Hamas government: first is the taxes and customs the government collects from the Gaza Strip population, second is the agricultural investment in Gaza, third is the local donations and fourth is the Arab and Islamic donations.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) which is a rival to Hamas accuses Iran, Syria and Qatar for supporting Hamas government in the Gaza Strip by sending huge amounts of money to the movement to keep it surviving and controlling the Gaza Strip.
View the original article in People.
Palestine's 'economic miracle' : Immense amount of international donations inflate Palestinians' disposable income
by Avi Trengo, Economics Correspondent
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been crowned as "the Palestinian Ben-Gurion at the recent Herzliya Conference. However, there is a great gap between the achievements attributed to him and his abilities in practice.
Fayyad is credited with changing the corrupt PA apparatus, but even in the financial realm where his expertise lies, his abilities are mostly manifested through the drafting of impressive documents as well as fundraising.
Meanwhile, the absurdity inherent in his statements regarding "Palestinian independence within two years" is clear to anyone familiar with the Palestinian economy. Fayyad is a former World Bank official, but even on the financial front his deeds are far from the image he has nurtured.
The Palestinian economy is the only place in the world where the per capita GDP is less than half the disposable income per capita. This is the result of three factors:
1. The Palestinians barely produce anything. Most of their GDP comes from government expenditures by the PA itself.
2. The Palestinians receive immense sums donated by the world.
3. Tax collection is almost unheard of, aside from the taxes collected (for Fayyad) by the Israeli government, which provides the PA with NIS 450 million (roughly $120 million) monthly; this comprises about 40% of the PA's budget.
The result is clear: Low GDP, but high disposable income. Indeed, it's an economic miracle.
Meanwhile, the situation is even more extreme in the Gaza Strip, where the PA spends 57% of its budget. Fayyad hands over salaries and allowances to 150,000 people, yet tens of thousands of them don't work, while others receive two salaries: One from Fayyad and another from Hamas. This is why the only industries active in Gaza are imports through smuggling tunnels and real estate - the surplus of cash in Gaza's banks prompts them to offer mortgages, and this results in a rise in real estate prices.
The former finance minister in Fayyad's government expressed it vividly in an interview with Le Monde: He said the Europeans are unaware that their money funds Hamas. Hamas doesn't know what to do with all the money in its pockets so it buys real estate. As result, the price of upscale beachfront real estate in Gaza increased by 300%. The money from the EU and from the taxes collected by Israel ultimately reaches Hamas, he said.
When Hamas took power, Fayyad was supposed to ensure (in line with the international community's demand) that the salaries he hands over do not reach Hamas hands. He indeed proceeded to remove 20,000 people form the list of salary earners, but two months later added more than 10,000 of them to the list of recipients of government allowances.
By doing so, Fayyad showed that he too is familiar with the Palestinian concept of the "revolving door." However, this is not his only economic failure.
Palestinian PM’s dubious schemes show he’s nothing like Israel’s founding father
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3845482,00.html
On the security front, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad counts on the IDF and Shin Bet. Despite his claims that the IDF should not be operating "in the Palestinian state's territory," he knows that he has no control on the ground, neither in the Gaza Strip which he dreams of reuniting with the West Bank, nor in his own backyard in Judea and Samaria.
If Fayyad is indeed interested and capable of reuniting Gaza and the West Bank, when and how does he intend to do so? Will he be leading a Palestinian army that will deploy in Rafah and move north until it retakes Gaza City from the hands of Hamas? Obviously not. He is in fact creating the conditions for boosting Hamas, so that the IDF will ultimately have to enter Gaza, retake it while paying a heavy diplomatic price, and then end the "occupation" and hand it over to Fayyad, without him having to do a thing.
And back to the economic front: About two years ago, the World Bank demanded that Fayyad not only cut down PA salaries (no results thus far) but also that he minimize the second-highest PA budget clause: Payments aimed at covering electricity and water bills which PA residents refuse to pay (the accumulated electricity debt of Gaza residents stands at $2.7 billion.) This clause, which constitutes about 8% of the PA's budget, is hidden by Fayyad under the heading “Net Lending.”
Fayyad seemingly charges local authorities for the electricity provided to their residents by Israel, yet immediately “loans” them the money. As such, they appear as a local authority debt to the Palestinian Treasury. Two years ago, he attempted to force PA residents to present proof of payment on their electricity bills before receiving government allowances. The PA’s “public service sector” immediately embarked on a warning strike, and Fayyad got the hint and has refrained from demanding that the bills be paid.
A few months ago, Fayyad came up with an original solution: As he hands over immense sums for the salaries of tens of thousands of security officials in Gaza, who no longer work since Hamas took power there, he raised their salaries by 4% and even got EU funding for this. However, at the same time he deducted a similar sum from these salaries for “electricity bills.”
Everyone was pleased until Hamas authorities found out about it. They viewed it as financially detrimental to their government, and in response stopped handing over to the Palestinian fuel authority the sums of money collected from Gaza residents who do pay for electricity. This was the reason for the latest fuel crisis in the PA.
In conclusion: Ben-Gurion, who was a man of real work and pioneering spirit would be turning in his grave had he heard that Fayyad - a man who excels in dubious schemes and in drafting impressive donation requests that include words like “transparency,” “responsibility,” and “economic stability” - has been crowned as his successor in the 21st Century.
View the original article at Yediot Ahronot
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been crowned as "the Palestinian Ben-Gurion at the recent Herzliya Conference. However, there is a great gap between the achievements attributed to him and his abilities in practice.
Fayyad is credited with changing the corrupt PA apparatus, but even in the financial realm where his expertise lies, his abilities are mostly manifested through the drafting of impressive documents as well as fundraising.
Meanwhile, the absurdity inherent in his statements regarding "Palestinian independence within two years" is clear to anyone familiar with the Palestinian economy. Fayyad is a former World Bank official, but even on the financial front his deeds are far from the image he has nurtured.
The Palestinian economy is the only place in the world where the per capita GDP is less than half the disposable income per capita. This is the result of three factors:
1. The Palestinians barely produce anything. Most of their GDP comes from government expenditures by the PA itself.
2. The Palestinians receive immense sums donated by the world.
3. Tax collection is almost unheard of, aside from the taxes collected (for Fayyad) by the Israeli government, which provides the PA with NIS 450 million (roughly $120 million) monthly; this comprises about 40% of the PA's budget.
The result is clear: Low GDP, but high disposable income. Indeed, it's an economic miracle.
Meanwhile, the situation is even more extreme in the Gaza Strip, where the PA spends 57% of its budget. Fayyad hands over salaries and allowances to 150,000 people, yet tens of thousands of them don't work, while others receive two salaries: One from Fayyad and another from Hamas. This is why the only industries active in Gaza are imports through smuggling tunnels and real estate - the surplus of cash in Gaza's banks prompts them to offer mortgages, and this results in a rise in real estate prices.
The former finance minister in Fayyad's government expressed it vividly in an interview with Le Monde: He said the Europeans are unaware that their money funds Hamas. Hamas doesn't know what to do with all the money in its pockets so it buys real estate. As result, the price of upscale beachfront real estate in Gaza increased by 300%. The money from the EU and from the taxes collected by Israel ultimately reaches Hamas, he said.
When Hamas took power, Fayyad was supposed to ensure (in line with the international community's demand) that the salaries he hands over do not reach Hamas hands. He indeed proceeded to remove 20,000 people form the list of salary earners, but two months later added more than 10,000 of them to the list of recipients of government allowances.
By doing so, Fayyad showed that he too is familiar with the Palestinian concept of the "revolving door." However, this is not his only economic failure.
Palestinian PM’s dubious schemes show he’s nothing like Israel’s founding father
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3845482,00.html
On the security front, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad counts on the IDF and Shin Bet. Despite his claims that the IDF should not be operating "in the Palestinian state's territory," he knows that he has no control on the ground, neither in the Gaza Strip which he dreams of reuniting with the West Bank, nor in his own backyard in Judea and Samaria.
If Fayyad is indeed interested and capable of reuniting Gaza and the West Bank, when and how does he intend to do so? Will he be leading a Palestinian army that will deploy in Rafah and move north until it retakes Gaza City from the hands of Hamas? Obviously not. He is in fact creating the conditions for boosting Hamas, so that the IDF will ultimately have to enter Gaza, retake it while paying a heavy diplomatic price, and then end the "occupation" and hand it over to Fayyad, without him having to do a thing.
And back to the economic front: About two years ago, the World Bank demanded that Fayyad not only cut down PA salaries (no results thus far) but also that he minimize the second-highest PA budget clause: Payments aimed at covering electricity and water bills which PA residents refuse to pay (the accumulated electricity debt of Gaza residents stands at $2.7 billion.) This clause, which constitutes about 8% of the PA's budget, is hidden by Fayyad under the heading “Net Lending.”
Fayyad seemingly charges local authorities for the electricity provided to their residents by Israel, yet immediately “loans” them the money. As such, they appear as a local authority debt to the Palestinian Treasury. Two years ago, he attempted to force PA residents to present proof of payment on their electricity bills before receiving government allowances. The PA’s “public service sector” immediately embarked on a warning strike, and Fayyad got the hint and has refrained from demanding that the bills be paid.
A few months ago, Fayyad came up with an original solution: As he hands over immense sums for the salaries of tens of thousands of security officials in Gaza, who no longer work since Hamas took power there, he raised their salaries by 4% and even got EU funding for this. However, at the same time he deducted a similar sum from these salaries for “electricity bills.”
Everyone was pleased until Hamas authorities found out about it. They viewed it as financially detrimental to their government, and in response stopped handing over to the Palestinian fuel authority the sums of money collected from Gaza residents who do pay for electricity. This was the reason for the latest fuel crisis in the PA.
In conclusion: Ben-Gurion, who was a man of real work and pioneering spirit would be turning in his grave had he heard that Fayyad - a man who excels in dubious schemes and in drafting impressive donation requests that include words like “transparency,” “responsibility,” and “economic stability” - has been crowned as his successor in the 21st Century.
View the original article at Yediot Ahronot
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Training the Palestinian Security Forces for What?
by Jonathan Rosenblum, Director of Jewish Media Resources
On Thursday afternoon December 24, Rabbi Meir Chai, a 45-year-old religious school teacher, was shot and killed as he left the Shomron settlement of Shavei Shomron, in which he lived with his wife and seven children. Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade claimed responsibility almost immediately, and promised “more quality operations from us.... “
Two days later, on Shabbos, Israeli forces blockaded Nablus and surrounded the homes where the three Al-Aqsa Brigade members who plotted the attack lived. None of the three surrendered in response to a demand from the IDF forces that they do so, and each was subsequently killed in gun battles with Israeli forces.
The response of the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian media to the murder of Rabbi Chai and to Israel’s subsequent killing of his murderers raises again troubling questions about the Palestinian security services forces currently being trained by American and European experts.
Since 2005, the Untied States and EU have spent hundreds of millions of dollars training thousands of members of the various Palestinian security forces on the assumption that those forces will constitute one of the key institutions of the Palestinian state in the making. Those forces have been trained both in the basic police work and tasked with anti-terrorist efforts (at least in the minds of the trainers), on the assumption that a reduction in anti-Israel terror is a key component in winning Israeli agreement to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The results so far do not justify the investment nor give much cause to hope that the Palestinians are any closer to creating a stable political entity capable of living in peace with Israel. In The Case for Democracy, Natan Sharansky argued that only a democratic Palestinian state, in which citizens are capable of freely proclaiming their views in the marketplace, offers any hope of long-term peace with Israel. The creation of a trained police force would not have been self-evidently the first item on the agenda in creating the basics of a civil society capable of evolving into a democratic state. Nor has the record of the Palestinian security forces provided much cause for optimism on this score. Palestinian human rights groups have raised constant complaints against the various security forces for arbitrary arrests, brutality, and shakedown operations.
Nor has the training proved successful in creating a national identity that supercedes various other identities. Almost all members of the security forces are simultaneously members of Fatah, the revolutionary Palestinian organization from which most of the current leaders of the Palestinian Authority were drawn, and profess loyalty to Fatah. In addition, American trainers are not sufficiently sensitive to the importance of clan loyalties in Palestinian society.
The latter may have played a key role in the total failure of the American and European-trained forces to prevent a Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, even though those forces enjoyed a vast numerical advantage over the Hamas forces. Many Palestinian Authority fighters simply deserted or joined with Hamas fighters. Low levels of loyalty and esprit de corps have also characterized the Palestinian Authority forces in confrontation with Palestinian gunmen on the West Bank since 2007. Palestinian Security forces proved incapable of evicting Fatah gunmen from the casbah. They proved similarly ineffective in operations against an Islamic Jihad group in the Kabatya refugee camp. And in a mock drill, fake “Hamas” operatives attacked a PA prison and freed all the prisoners after the Palestinian security forces fled the scene.
Most important from Israel’s point of view, the American-trained forces have proven to be indifferent as an anti-terrorist force. As Maj.-General Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the IDF Staff and Command College and former head of the IDF Research and Assessment Division, points out, police work may have legitimacy in Palestinian society, anti-terrorist activities do not. Israel continues to carry out 70-80% of the anti-terrorist actions in the West Bank. To the extent that the Palestinian Authority security forces have conducted such operations, it has been almost entirely out of a desire to prevent a repeat of Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip in the West Bank, not out of any desire to protect Israel from terror attacks.
Indeed it would be impossible to expect Palestinian security forces to show any commitment to anti-terror action when the Palestinian Authority leadership continues to glorify terrorism. After the murder of Rabbi Chai, approximately 100 meters from the site of a recently removed security checkpoint, the Palestinian Authority issued no condemnation of his murder, even after the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade claimed responsibility. Palestinian media described Anan Subbah as the mastermind of the murder of Rabbi Chai, after the former was killed by IDF security forces. And yet Palestinian Authority President Abbas sent personal condolences to “the holy martyrs of the Palestinian revolution,” and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salem Fayyad personally visited the families of the slain terrorists. Meanwhile the official Palestinian media denounced their deaths as “murder in cold blood” and an “assassination.”
The proclamation of Rabbi Chai’s murderers as “military commanders, brave heroes and fighters,” was of a piece with the Palestinian Authority’s consistent glorification of terrorists. In late December, Abbas sponsored a celebration of the 50th birthday of Dalal Mughrabi, the mastermind of the 1979 Coastal Road Massacre, in which 37 Jews were killed. The official proclamation described her as the “bride of the cosmos,” and the Palestinian Authority daily proclaimed her “the heroine of the Palestinian heroines.”
Two high schools, numerous sports competitions, a new computer center, a Palestinian summer camp and a town square have been named after Mughrabi to date. A one-hour Palestinian television special recently celebrated the 1979 attack. In a similar vein, the Palestinian Authority just issued a musical video celebrating Wafa Indris, the first Palestinian female suicide bomber.
But while the U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces have proven largely ineffective against Palestinian terrorists of various stripes, they do threaten Israel. Twice before have CIA-trained Palestinian security forces, with whom there was a façade of cooperation with Israel, turned their guns on Israelis - the first time during the Tunnel Riots of 1996 and the second time at the outset of the Second Intifada called by Yasir Arafat after the 2000 Camp David summit. The fear is that those being trained under the supervision of U.S. General Keith Dayton may prove more effective than their predecessors. Dayton has himself stated that U.S. training has lifted Palestinian expectations of receiving their state within two years, and he raised the spectre of the Palestinian security forces turning their guns on Israel if those expectations are not met.
There is evidence that those U.S.-trained security forces include members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade responsible for the murder of Rabbi Chai. PA Prime Minister Fayyad, the great “Palestinian moderate” in Western eyes, has previously offered shelter to Brigade members in the compounds of the Palestinian security forces and paid their salaries out of PA coffers. Dan Diker, one of Israel’s most respected political analysts, writes that senior Al-Aqsa Brigade commanders have been assigned senior positions in the PA security forces, such as Aba Jabbal, the senior Palestinian Authority officer in Nablus. The mastermind of the murder of Rabbi Chai’s murder, Anan Subbuh, was found with two M-16s in his possession, even though as part of a U.S.-brokered amnesty agreement, he had foresworn any future possession of such arms.
Senior members of the Israeli defense establishment point out that the Palestinian security forces are not only receiving training from the United States and Europe, but high quality equipment. For instance, advanced surveillance equipment capable of monitoring military communications networks, intelligence networks, and cellular phones has been employed against Israeli targets. Abu Yousuf, a senior officer in Abbas’s Force 17 Presidential Guard, told the New York Sun (August 21 2007), “I do not think the operations of the Palestinian resistance [a code word for terrorism] would have been so successful and would have killed more than one thousand Israelis since 2000... without these [American] trainings.”
After the IDF eliminated the three terrorists who murdered Rabbi Chai, the United States demanded public clarifications from Israel of what had taken place. No similar clarifications were sought from the PA after Rabbi Chai’s murder and the PA’s failure to condemn it.
Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice-president of Agudath Israel of America, wrote to Secretary of State Clinton, of Mr. Abbas’s failure to disassociate himself and the Palestinian Authority from Rabbi Chai’s murder, “There is something deeply wrong here.” When the recipients of half a billion dollars in aid under the 2010 foreign aid budget law “are linked to terrorists, and even have words of praise for terrorists, it is only logical to question the wisdom, not to mention the moral rectitude of our aid,” he continued.
Indeed.
Jonathan Rosenblum is the director of Jewish Media Resources, a leading media organization dedicated to furthering an understanding of Torah Judaism. Jewish Media Resources works with foreign journalists stationed in Israel and with local journalists by providing access to leading figures within the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, and with information and insights about the community. Jonathan also serves as an English-language spokesman for the Orthodox Jewish community with foreign journalists.
View the Post at israelbehindthenews.com
Saturday, December 12, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: US-Trained Fatah Forces Vow To Continue Battling Israel
by David Bedein
JERUSALEM - The Fatah organization, the dominant factor in the Palestinian Authority (PA), has called to continue the “armed struggle” against Israel.
According to the official Fatah Web site, translated by the Palestinian Media Watch organization, members of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades announced Wednesday that they are arming themselves for war against Israel by buying guns, instead of food for their kids and by selling their wives’ jewelry.
Fatah’s Web site makes it clear that the Brigades are preparing a “harsh and painful” response to any Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The following is the transcript of the item from Fatah’s Web site:
“With the renewal of the threats emanating from the Zionist military establishment to carry out a new attack on the Gaza Strip... the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades... warned of a harsh and painful response that the occupation state is not expecting. This response was conveyed by one of the heads of the Brigades in the Gaza Strip, Abu Ahed.”
Mr. Ahed also declared that the Brigades’ activity in Gaza should be viewed as a personal endeavor, since many of the Brigades’ jihad fighters purchase weapons rather than food for their children, and many of them have even sold their wives’ gold in order to obtain weapons, since the Hamas forces have confiscated the Brigades’ members’ weapons.”
This presents a dilemma to United States policymakers.
Although U.S. law defines Al Aqsa Brigades as a terror entity, the U.S. now provides military training for the Fatah armed forces - which includes Al Aqsa Brigades.
At the direction of the U.S. government, the Israeli army has stopped pursuing wanted terrorists who are affiliated with the Al Aqsa Brigades.
The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem would not comment, on behalf of the U.S. government, with regard to threats on the Fatah’s Web site about Al Aqsa Brigades’ threats of military action against Israel.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
JERUSALEM - The Fatah organization, the dominant factor in the Palestinian Authority (PA), has called to continue the “armed struggle” against Israel.
According to the official Fatah Web site, translated by the Palestinian Media Watch organization, members of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades announced Wednesday that they are arming themselves for war against Israel by buying guns, instead of food for their kids and by selling their wives’ jewelry.
Fatah’s Web site makes it clear that the Brigades are preparing a “harsh and painful” response to any Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The following is the transcript of the item from Fatah’s Web site:
“With the renewal of the threats emanating from the Zionist military establishment to carry out a new attack on the Gaza Strip... the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades... warned of a harsh and painful response that the occupation state is not expecting. This response was conveyed by one of the heads of the Brigades in the Gaza Strip, Abu Ahed.”
Mr. Ahed also declared that the Brigades’ activity in Gaza should be viewed as a personal endeavor, since many of the Brigades’ jihad fighters purchase weapons rather than food for their children, and many of them have even sold their wives’ gold in order to obtain weapons, since the Hamas forces have confiscated the Brigades’ members’ weapons.”
This presents a dilemma to United States policymakers.
Although U.S. law defines Al Aqsa Brigades as a terror entity, the U.S. now provides military training for the Fatah armed forces - which includes Al Aqsa Brigades.
At the direction of the U.S. government, the Israeli army has stopped pursuing wanted terrorists who are affiliated with the Al Aqsa Brigades.
The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem would not comment, on behalf of the U.S. government, with regard to threats on the Fatah’s Web site about Al Aqsa Brigades’ threats of military action against Israel.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
The Philadelphia Bulletin: IDF Says Rocket Fire Down, Hamas Threat Present
by David Bedein
JERUSALEM - Exactly one year after Israel’s incursion into Gaza, assessments are being made of the results of the operation.
There has been a 90 percent drop in rocket fire at Israel since the end of its military operation in Gaza, according to figures assembled by the Sderot Media Center for Information in the Western Negev and also by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson’s bureau.
The figures show that since the last of the soldiers left the Gaza Strip, 282 rockets were fired at Israel, but only a very small number exploded in populated areas.
In February, immediately after the operation, 88 rockets were fired at Israel, in March, 76 rockets were fired, and then the fire dropped significantly.
In June and July, for example, only three rockets were fired at Israel and, in November, 13 rockets.
Since the end of the operation, the IDF attacked 143 targets throughout the Gaza Strip in response to high-trajectory fire. Among the targets were tunnels used for arms smuggling and for smuggling activists. The majority of the attacks took place in February and March, when the rocket fire was greater.
The IDF believes that the quiet in the Gaza Strip in the past year is fragile, since Hamas continues to operate without pause underneath the surface and is renewing its smuggling practices through Philadelphi Road and by sea.
The IDF also continues its preparations for a future threat against the home front. The IDF Home Front Command is preparing to brief the population living at a distance of up to 60 miles from the Gaza Strip for a possible confrontation. The IDF does not rule out the possibility that Hamas has rockets which could reach that population area.
View the original article in the
JERUSALEM - Exactly one year after Israel’s incursion into Gaza, assessments are being made of the results of the operation.
There has been a 90 percent drop in rocket fire at Israel since the end of its military operation in Gaza, according to figures assembled by the Sderot Media Center for Information in the Western Negev and also by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson’s bureau.
The figures show that since the last of the soldiers left the Gaza Strip, 282 rockets were fired at Israel, but only a very small number exploded in populated areas.
In February, immediately after the operation, 88 rockets were fired at Israel, in March, 76 rockets were fired, and then the fire dropped significantly.
In June and July, for example, only three rockets were fired at Israel and, in November, 13 rockets.
Since the end of the operation, the IDF attacked 143 targets throughout the Gaza Strip in response to high-trajectory fire. Among the targets were tunnels used for arms smuggling and for smuggling activists. The majority of the attacks took place in February and March, when the rocket fire was greater.
The IDF believes that the quiet in the Gaza Strip in the past year is fragile, since Hamas continues to operate without pause underneath the surface and is renewing its smuggling practices through Philadelphi Road and by sea.
The IDF also continues its preparations for a future threat against the home front. The IDF Home Front Command is preparing to brief the population living at a distance of up to 60 miles from the Gaza Strip for a possible confrontation. The IDF does not rule out the possibility that Hamas has rockets which could reach that population area.
View the original article in the
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Justice Dept. Investigation Of Peace Now Is Sought: Unregistered Agent Of Foreign Governments Questioned
by David Bedein
JERUSALEM - Last week, Attorney Lee Bender, head of the Beth Hillel Wynnewood-based Israel Advocacy Committee, received documentation from Karmel Israel-Nytt, a Norwegian newspaper published in Oslo, Norway with editorial offices in Jerusalem, that the Norwegian government has allocated 1.3 million Kroner, something over $200,000, to "Peace Now," a political organization which conducts surveillance of Israeli Jewish communities in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria, to determine the extent of their growth and expansion.
Norway stands out in its hostility to Israel, as one of the few Western nations to give full recognition and aid to the Hamas regime in Gaza, at a time when the U.S., the European Union, the UN and Russia, the entities that form the quartet in the Middle East peace process, have predicated any recognition or negotiation with Hamas that it must first recognize Israel and cease its terror activity.
Peace Now, registered as a legal entity in the U.S. (and not in Israel, even though its projects are carried out in Israel) has received annual grants from the Norwegian government over the past eight years, along with governmental allocations from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Finland and Holland.
On Monday, Mr. Bender dispatched a letter to the Counterespionage Section/Registration Unit of the U.S. Department of Justice to ask why the U.S. government does not demand that Peace Now register as a foreign agent, a procedure required of a political lobby which receives grants from foreign governments.
The fact that Peace Now, which has operated a lobby in Washington, DC, since 1992, has never registered as a foreign agent means that it may be liable to prosecution under federal law.
Mr. Bender's letter received wide publicity on Israeli Internet sites.
On Monday, a Peace Now spokesperson appeared on an Israel radio network and denied any connection to funds received from Norway.
However, following a Tuesday morning seminar at the Israeli Knesset Parliament session at which foreign government funding of Israel-based political groups was documented and discussed, the Peace Now spokesperson appeared on the Israeli TV on Tuesday night and said that Peace Now was proud to receive funds from foreign governments, including Norway. The Peace Now spokesperson said on Israeli TV that Peace Now had received more than 1.1 million dollars from foreign governments.
The U.S. Department of Justice has not yet responded to Mr. Bender’s demand that the federal government require Peace Now to register as a foreign agent of a foreign government.
View the original article at
JERUSALEM - Last week, Attorney Lee Bender, head of the Beth Hillel Wynnewood-based Israel Advocacy Committee, received documentation from Karmel Israel-Nytt, a Norwegian newspaper published in Oslo, Norway with editorial offices in Jerusalem, that the Norwegian government has allocated 1.3 million Kroner, something over $200,000, to "Peace Now," a political organization which conducts surveillance of Israeli Jewish communities in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria, to determine the extent of their growth and expansion.
Norway stands out in its hostility to Israel, as one of the few Western nations to give full recognition and aid to the Hamas regime in Gaza, at a time when the U.S., the European Union, the UN and Russia, the entities that form the quartet in the Middle East peace process, have predicated any recognition or negotiation with Hamas that it must first recognize Israel and cease its terror activity.
Peace Now, registered as a legal entity in the U.S. (and not in Israel, even though its projects are carried out in Israel) has received annual grants from the Norwegian government over the past eight years, along with governmental allocations from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Finland and Holland.
On Monday, Mr. Bender dispatched a letter to the Counterespionage Section/Registration Unit of the U.S. Department of Justice to ask why the U.S. government does not demand that Peace Now register as a foreign agent, a procedure required of a political lobby which receives grants from foreign governments.
The fact that Peace Now, which has operated a lobby in Washington, DC, since 1992, has never registered as a foreign agent means that it may be liable to prosecution under federal law.
Mr. Bender's letter received wide publicity on Israeli Internet sites.
On Monday, a Peace Now spokesperson appeared on an Israel radio network and denied any connection to funds received from Norway.
However, following a Tuesday morning seminar at the Israeli Knesset Parliament session at which foreign government funding of Israel-based political groups was documented and discussed, the Peace Now spokesperson appeared on the Israeli TV on Tuesday night and said that Peace Now was proud to receive funds from foreign governments, including Norway. The Peace Now spokesperson said on Israeli TV that Peace Now had received more than 1.1 million dollars from foreign governments.
The U.S. Department of Justice has not yet responded to Mr. Bender’s demand that the federal government require Peace Now to register as a foreign agent of a foreign government.
View the original article at
Friday, November 6, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Tunnel Smuggling into Gaza Increases
by David Bedein
Jerusalem - The Middle East Newsline confirms that the Hamas regime has approved a huge increase in the number of smuggling tunnels from the Gaza Strip to neighboring Egypt.
Palestinian sources said tunnels that span the Gaza Strip to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula have more than doubled this year.
They cited the Israeli and Egyptian closure of their borders as well as increasing Gazan demand for consumer goods.
“We can get anything for anybody at almost any time,” a Palestinian source said.
The Hamas regime approved the sharp increase of tunnels in wake of the war with Israel in January. They said the number of tunnels skyrocketed from about 700 to 1,500 over the last eight months.
“Hamas directly controls about 100 tunnels and this supplies the government and security forces,” the Palestinian source said. “Whenever they need something fast, they turn to private tunnel operators.”
In August, tunnel operators began smuggling luxury cars from Egypt to Gaza. Over the last two months, the sources said, about 100 late model cars were dismantled in Egypt, transported through the tunnels in parts and reassembled in the Gaza Strip. The price per car was reported at $20,000.
Tunnels are a part of the smuggling industry, the largest industry in the Gaza Strip.
About 30,000 people are employed in the smuggling industry, with diggers earning about $30 day.
The number of tunnels discovered and destroyed by Egypt or Israel marked less than one percent of the smuggling network.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
Jerusalem - The Middle East Newsline confirms that the Hamas regime has approved a huge increase in the number of smuggling tunnels from the Gaza Strip to neighboring Egypt.
Palestinian sources said tunnels that span the Gaza Strip to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula have more than doubled this year.
They cited the Israeli and Egyptian closure of their borders as well as increasing Gazan demand for consumer goods.
“We can get anything for anybody at almost any time,” a Palestinian source said.
The Hamas regime approved the sharp increase of tunnels in wake of the war with Israel in January. They said the number of tunnels skyrocketed from about 700 to 1,500 over the last eight months.
“Hamas directly controls about 100 tunnels and this supplies the government and security forces,” the Palestinian source said. “Whenever they need something fast, they turn to private tunnel operators.”
In August, tunnel operators began smuggling luxury cars from Egypt to Gaza. Over the last two months, the sources said, about 100 late model cars were dismantled in Egypt, transported through the tunnels in parts and reassembled in the Gaza Strip. The price per car was reported at $20,000.
Tunnels are a part of the smuggling industry, the largest industry in the Gaza Strip.
About 30,000 people are employed in the smuggling industry, with diggers earning about $30 day.
The number of tunnels discovered and destroyed by Egypt or Israel marked less than one percent of the smuggling network.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Take the Fayyad Plan for What It Is
Take the Fayyad Plan for What It is
by David Bedein
In a Jerusalem Post article “In the land of miracles, let’s get real (Sept. 29),” Gershon Baskin describes Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayad’s plan as “one of the most positive and optimistic developments of recent times.”
However, a reading of Fayad’s plan, entitled “Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State: Program of the Thirteenth Government (August 2009)” would seem to belie Baskin’s postulation.
While the preface to Mr. Fayad’s paper introduces a Palestinian state that would strive for “peace, security and stability in our region on the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967, with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Mr. Fayad’s 38-page position paper reads like a declaration of war, not of peace.
Mr. Fayad asserts that “Jerusalem” will be the Palestinian capital of the Palestinian state - not east Jerusalem.
In case anyone was wondering if Mr. Fayad had made a typographical error by not mentioning “east” Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, he repeats - 10 times - that he means Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem. He leaves nothing to the imagination, and writes that the Palestinian state will “protect Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Palestinian state,” because he asserts that, “Jerusalem is our people’s religious, cultural, economic and political center. It is the Flower of Cities and Capital of Capitals. It cannot be anything but the eternal capital of the future Palestinian state. Jerusalem.”
Mr. Fayad goes on to claim that Jerusalem “is under threat” and that “the occupying authority is implementing a systematic plan to alter the city’s landmarks and its geographical and demographic character in order to forcibly create facts on the ground, ultimately separating it from its Palestinian surroundings and eradicating its Arab Palestinian heritage.” Mr. Fayad further claims that “Palestinian life in Jerusalem is under daily attack through systematic violations perpetrated by the occupation regime” and that “it is the right and the duty of all Palestinians to protect their land, reject the occupation and defy its measures,” adding that the Palestinian state “bears special responsibility for nurturing our people’s ability to persevere and protect their homeland.”
He adds that the Palestinian government will maintain its “unreserved commitment to defending the Arab character and status of Jerusalem.... The government will continue to do all that is possible to achieve this goal. The government will work with all organizations to preserve the landmarks of Jerusalem and its Arab Palestinian heritage, develop the city, and secure its contiguity with its Palestinian surroundings.”
Mr. Fayad frames Jerusalem as an illegal settlement, postulating that, “the occupying authority is pursuing its intensive settlement policy in and around Jerusalem.... The occupation regime has shut down our national institutions, neglected the development of Palestinian life, continued to demolish and evacuate Palestinian homes, and restricted access to sacred Christian and Islamic sites.”
He goes so far as to present a practical plan to Arabize Jerusalem: Maintaining Jerusalem as a top priority on the government’s agenda and “highlighting its predicament in the media. Launching programs to promote the steadfastness of Jerusalemites, including: Strengthen Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, providing financial support to help them deliver services to citizens.”
He reassures his readers that a future Palestinian state would not be satisfied with Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza as the national home for Palestinians, and says that the Palestinian government will continue to advocate for “Palestinian refugees in accordance with relevant international resolutions, and UN General Assembly Resolution 194 in particular,” which mandates that Palestinian refugees and their descendants have a right to return to the homes and villages that Palestinians left during the 1948 war and its aftermath.
Mr. Fayad reminds Palestinians that, “the refugee issue will remain under the jurisdiction of the PLO through its Department of Refugees’ Affairs... in a manner that does not exempt the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from its responsibilities.” In Mr. Fayad’s view, UNRWA will therefore continue to confine Palestinian refugees and their descendants to the indignity of refugee camps under the premise and promise of the “right of return.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Fayad expresses full support for Palestinians who have been convicted of murder and attempted murder, saying that, “the state also has an enduring obligation to care and provide for the martyrs, prisoners, orphans and all those harmed in the Palestinian struggle for independence.” He simply cannot understand why Palestinians convicted of capital crimes should be jailed.
He proclaims that “the continued detention of thousands of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention camps in violation of international law and basic human rights is of great concern to all Palestinians,” and declares that “securing the freedom of all these heroic prisoners is an utmost Palestinian priority and it is a fundamental duty all Palestinians feel to honor their great sacrifices and end their suffering,” and demands the “freedom of all Palestinian detainees and prisoners and will continue to strive to secure their liberty.”
He further declares that the Palestinian state will be an Islamic state and will “promote awareness and understanding of the Islamic religion and culture and disseminate the concept of tolerance in the religion through developing and implementing programs of Shari’a education as derived from the science of the Holy Koran and Prophet’s heritage.”
In sum, the Palestinian prime minister concludes with a demand for a Palestinian state in the next two years, along the parameters that he has outlined - Jerusalem as the capital of an Islamic Shari’a state that will campaign for all convicts to be freed, for all refugees to return to the homes and villages that they left in 1948.
It would be instructive to know whether Baskin even bothered to read the plan before calling it a “positive development.”
by David Bedein
In a Jerusalem Post article “In the land of miracles, let’s get real (Sept. 29),” Gershon Baskin describes Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayad’s plan as “one of the most positive and optimistic developments of recent times.”
However, a reading of Fayad’s plan, entitled “Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State: Program of the Thirteenth Government (August 2009)” would seem to belie Baskin’s postulation.
While the preface to Mr. Fayad’s paper introduces a Palestinian state that would strive for “peace, security and stability in our region on the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967, with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Mr. Fayad’s 38-page position paper reads like a declaration of war, not of peace.
Mr. Fayad asserts that “Jerusalem” will be the Palestinian capital of the Palestinian state - not east Jerusalem.
In case anyone was wondering if Mr. Fayad had made a typographical error by not mentioning “east” Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, he repeats - 10 times - that he means Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem. He leaves nothing to the imagination, and writes that the Palestinian state will “protect Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Palestinian state,” because he asserts that, “Jerusalem is our people’s religious, cultural, economic and political center. It is the Flower of Cities and Capital of Capitals. It cannot be anything but the eternal capital of the future Palestinian state. Jerusalem.”
Mr. Fayad goes on to claim that Jerusalem “is under threat” and that “the occupying authority is implementing a systematic plan to alter the city’s landmarks and its geographical and demographic character in order to forcibly create facts on the ground, ultimately separating it from its Palestinian surroundings and eradicating its Arab Palestinian heritage.” Mr. Fayad further claims that “Palestinian life in Jerusalem is under daily attack through systematic violations perpetrated by the occupation regime” and that “it is the right and the duty of all Palestinians to protect their land, reject the occupation and defy its measures,” adding that the Palestinian state “bears special responsibility for nurturing our people’s ability to persevere and protect their homeland.”
He adds that the Palestinian government will maintain its “unreserved commitment to defending the Arab character and status of Jerusalem.... The government will continue to do all that is possible to achieve this goal. The government will work with all organizations to preserve the landmarks of Jerusalem and its Arab Palestinian heritage, develop the city, and secure its contiguity with its Palestinian surroundings.”
Mr. Fayad frames Jerusalem as an illegal settlement, postulating that, “the occupying authority is pursuing its intensive settlement policy in and around Jerusalem.... The occupation regime has shut down our national institutions, neglected the development of Palestinian life, continued to demolish and evacuate Palestinian homes, and restricted access to sacred Christian and Islamic sites.”
He goes so far as to present a practical plan to Arabize Jerusalem: Maintaining Jerusalem as a top priority on the government’s agenda and “highlighting its predicament in the media. Launching programs to promote the steadfastness of Jerusalemites, including: Strengthen Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, providing financial support to help them deliver services to citizens.”
He reassures his readers that a future Palestinian state would not be satisfied with Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza as the national home for Palestinians, and says that the Palestinian government will continue to advocate for “Palestinian refugees in accordance with relevant international resolutions, and UN General Assembly Resolution 194 in particular,” which mandates that Palestinian refugees and their descendants have a right to return to the homes and villages that Palestinians left during the 1948 war and its aftermath.
Mr. Fayad reminds Palestinians that, “the refugee issue will remain under the jurisdiction of the PLO through its Department of Refugees’ Affairs... in a manner that does not exempt the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from its responsibilities.” In Mr. Fayad’s view, UNRWA will therefore continue to confine Palestinian refugees and their descendants to the indignity of refugee camps under the premise and promise of the “right of return.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Fayad expresses full support for Palestinians who have been convicted of murder and attempted murder, saying that, “the state also has an enduring obligation to care and provide for the martyrs, prisoners, orphans and all those harmed in the Palestinian struggle for independence.” He simply cannot understand why Palestinians convicted of capital crimes should be jailed.
He proclaims that “the continued detention of thousands of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention camps in violation of international law and basic human rights is of great concern to all Palestinians,” and declares that “securing the freedom of all these heroic prisoners is an utmost Palestinian priority and it is a fundamental duty all Palestinians feel to honor their great sacrifices and end their suffering,” and demands the “freedom of all Palestinian detainees and prisoners and will continue to strive to secure their liberty.”
He further declares that the Palestinian state will be an Islamic state and will “promote awareness and understanding of the Islamic religion and culture and disseminate the concept of tolerance in the religion through developing and implementing programs of Shari’a education as derived from the science of the Holy Koran and Prophet’s heritage.”
In sum, the Palestinian prime minister concludes with a demand for a Palestinian state in the next two years, along the parameters that he has outlined - Jerusalem as the capital of an Islamic Shari’a state that will campaign for all convicts to be freed, for all refugees to return to the homes and villages that they left in 1948.
It would be instructive to know whether Baskin even bothered to read the plan before calling it a “positive development.”
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Shocking Conclusions From Inquiry Over Gaza Expulsions
by David Bedein
An Israeli soldier keeps watch at a machine gun post atop a guard tower overlooking the Jewish settlement of Netzarim and surrounding Palestinian lands inside a small army base contiguous with the settlement, several kilometers inside the Gaza Strip on Oct. 26, 2003. An Israeli government commission has released a report criticizing the government for its handling of the last pullout of settlements from Gaza. (Brennan Linsley/Associated Press)
JERUSALEM - Four years and two months have passed since Israel expelled Jews from their homes in the Katif district of Gaza and from Jewish communities in Northern Samaria, after which the government bulldozed their homes and property, an official Israel state commission of investigation nto the Israeli government's handing of these deported Jews has issued its interim report.
The Israeli government investigation commission has concluded that the Israeli prime minister must take all practical steps for immediate and decisive action. “The state’s handling of the evacuees was tainted with failures. The obligation and stated purposes of the Israeli government was not implemented, and not enough was done for the majority of the evacuees,” states the interim report, that was filed so to allow the government to meet its obligations. According to the commission, headed by retired Israeli justice Eliyahu Matza, the treatment of the evacuees ought to have been made a national undertaking. “The treatment of the evacuees ought to be again placed at the top our national priorities, in action and not merely in declarations. This is the duty of the state, that in an effort to advance political and defensive aims has harmed a wide public. The state must hasten, it is a matter of human rights, of common human decency, of Jewish ethics.”
According to the summary report, only 250 families have begun building their permanent home, of the 926 plots that were allocated to the expelled families. The report states that some of the evacuees cannot begin building “because they lack the ability to fund the construction, since their money has been spend on their daily outlays, due to having failed to find employment. This problem concerns between 100 and 250 families that are undergoing severe economic difficulties, and it is worsening as long as they continue to reside in transient housing facilities.”
The commission also noted the worsening employment levels: whereas before the evacuation unemployment was nearly nonexistent, unemployment today stands at 16.2 percent - twice the national level. “The evacuation has directly brought about the high unemployment levels. The state must intensify its efforts to solve the employment problem, and if need be also resort to unconventional solutions,” the commission stated. Former judge Matza added that the interim report does not note those responsible for the failure and that this would be undertaken in the final report: “the report concerns an ongoing event, not merely something of the past, and it is therefore very compact and pragmatic.”
Israeli Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said at the event of the report’s release that “beyond all disputes, those who have been paying the price so far are those who have been removed from their homes, and most of them have not yet found permanent housing.”
The context of this report is that the government of Israel did everything in its power in the initial stage of the expulsion process to reassure public opinion that the Jews who were expelled from their homes were being taken care of - despite the petition to the Israel High Court of Justice by a bipartisan group of sociologists who brought overwhelming date to the court that the government of Israel had no real plan for resettlement of people from 26 communities that were being decimated.
The Israeli government at the time, under the leadership of then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, hired a top flight PR agency that blared a commercial, every hour on the hour, that "there is a solution for everyone being relocated."
On August 20, 2005, in the midst of the expulsions. Sharon's top advisor, Dov Weisglass and then Housing Minister Yitzhak Hertzog made presentations to the Conference of Major American Jewish organizations, in which these Israeli officials assured that the people being expelled would all have homes waiting for them, with ample funds to support them. Following these reassurances, a number of American Jewish groups spread the word that every family expelled from Katif was going to receive a grant of $400,000. In addition, Israeli government minister Shimon Peres assured Israeli public opinion that the American government was granting $2 billion to cover the expulsion and resettlement costs.
The investigation has put to rest any notions spread by Weisglass and Hertzog that people expelled by Israel were taken care of, while Peres's assurance of $2 billion coming from the U.S. government never came to fruition.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
An Israeli soldier keeps watch at a machine gun post atop a guard tower overlooking the Jewish settlement of Netzarim and surrounding Palestinian lands inside a small army base contiguous with the settlement, several kilometers inside the Gaza Strip on Oct. 26, 2003. An Israeli government commission has released a report criticizing the government for its handling of the last pullout of settlements from Gaza. (Brennan Linsley/Associated Press)
JERUSALEM - Four years and two months have passed since Israel expelled Jews from their homes in the Katif district of Gaza and from Jewish communities in Northern Samaria, after which the government bulldozed their homes and property, an official Israel state commission of investigation nto the Israeli government's handing of these deported Jews has issued its interim report.
The Israeli government investigation commission has concluded that the Israeli prime minister must take all practical steps for immediate and decisive action. “The state’s handling of the evacuees was tainted with failures. The obligation and stated purposes of the Israeli government was not implemented, and not enough was done for the majority of the evacuees,” states the interim report, that was filed so to allow the government to meet its obligations. According to the commission, headed by retired Israeli justice Eliyahu Matza, the treatment of the evacuees ought to have been made a national undertaking. “The treatment of the evacuees ought to be again placed at the top our national priorities, in action and not merely in declarations. This is the duty of the state, that in an effort to advance political and defensive aims has harmed a wide public. The state must hasten, it is a matter of human rights, of common human decency, of Jewish ethics.”
According to the summary report, only 250 families have begun building their permanent home, of the 926 plots that were allocated to the expelled families. The report states that some of the evacuees cannot begin building “because they lack the ability to fund the construction, since their money has been spend on their daily outlays, due to having failed to find employment. This problem concerns between 100 and 250 families that are undergoing severe economic difficulties, and it is worsening as long as they continue to reside in transient housing facilities.”
The commission also noted the worsening employment levels: whereas before the evacuation unemployment was nearly nonexistent, unemployment today stands at 16.2 percent - twice the national level. “The evacuation has directly brought about the high unemployment levels. The state must intensify its efforts to solve the employment problem, and if need be also resort to unconventional solutions,” the commission stated. Former judge Matza added that the interim report does not note those responsible for the failure and that this would be undertaken in the final report: “the report concerns an ongoing event, not merely something of the past, and it is therefore very compact and pragmatic.”
Israeli Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said at the event of the report’s release that “beyond all disputes, those who have been paying the price so far are those who have been removed from their homes, and most of them have not yet found permanent housing.”
The context of this report is that the government of Israel did everything in its power in the initial stage of the expulsion process to reassure public opinion that the Jews who were expelled from their homes were being taken care of - despite the petition to the Israel High Court of Justice by a bipartisan group of sociologists who brought overwhelming date to the court that the government of Israel had no real plan for resettlement of people from 26 communities that were being decimated.
The Israeli government at the time, under the leadership of then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, hired a top flight PR agency that blared a commercial, every hour on the hour, that "there is a solution for everyone being relocated."
On August 20, 2005, in the midst of the expulsions. Sharon's top advisor, Dov Weisglass and then Housing Minister Yitzhak Hertzog made presentations to the Conference of Major American Jewish organizations, in which these Israeli officials assured that the people being expelled would all have homes waiting for them, with ample funds to support them. Following these reassurances, a number of American Jewish groups spread the word that every family expelled from Katif was going to receive a grant of $400,000. In addition, Israeli government minister Shimon Peres assured Israeli public opinion that the American government was granting $2 billion to cover the expulsion and resettlement costs.
The investigation has put to rest any notions spread by Weisglass and Hertzog that people expelled by Israel were taken care of, while Peres's assurance of $2 billion coming from the U.S. government never came to fruition.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Hamas Continues Rocket Strikes on Israel
by David Bedein
Jerusalem - Israeli Military sources that the Hamas regime in Gaza continues to aid terrorists who launch missile, mortar and rocket attacks Israel.
“Hamas wants to show that it is a major player and that it can torpedo any agreement,” an Israeli military source said.
The Hamas regime has launched 261 aerial attacks on southern Israel since the January 18 cease fire
The fact that no one has been killed in these attacks has resulted in nearly no press coverage of the fact that Israel’s southern region remains on high alert.
On Monday, Hamas fired several times into Israel. The Israeli military responded with air force strikes on three suspected Palestinian weapons tunnels in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, which borders Egypt.
In addition, Hamas has been targeting Israeli military deployment along the Gaza security fence
On Tuesday, Israeli tanks fired at two Palestinians who were planting bombs along the security fence around the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-aligned Popular Resistance Committee and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took credit for the attempt to plant the bombs, identifying the two dead Palestinian combatants as Mahmoud Nazir and Abdul Al Silawai. The statement said Nazir and Al Silawai were responsible for firing three rockets into Israel on Aug. 24.”The soldiers on the scene fired tank shells and mortar fire, and identified hitting the suspects,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, European nationals in Israel have filed suit against the EU for relaying hundreds of millions of euros to the Gaza Strip. The 15 plaintiffs said the Hamas and Palestinian militia attacks on their homes in Israel’s Negev Desert violated the European Treaty, which obligated the protection of EU nationals regardless of their residence.
“The European Union gives hundreds of millions of euros every year to aid groups in Gaza,” Mordechai Tzivin, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said. “This money cannot be allowed to target European citizens.”
Tzivin said the EU must reply to the eight-page suit by 14 Britons and an Italian national, submitted in August 2009. He said that unless the European Commission accedes to the demands of the plaintiffs the suit would be filed in the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg.
In 2008, the EU relayed 55.6 million euro in aid to the Gaza Strip. EU states have pledged separately more than 41 million euro in additional funds to Gaza.
The European plaintiffs live near the Gaza Strip and their communities have come under missile fire over the last five years.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
Jerusalem - Israeli Military sources that the Hamas regime in Gaza continues to aid terrorists who launch missile, mortar and rocket attacks Israel.
“Hamas wants to show that it is a major player and that it can torpedo any agreement,” an Israeli military source said.
The Hamas regime has launched 261 aerial attacks on southern Israel since the January 18 cease fire
The fact that no one has been killed in these attacks has resulted in nearly no press coverage of the fact that Israel’s southern region remains on high alert.
On Monday, Hamas fired several times into Israel. The Israeli military responded with air force strikes on three suspected Palestinian weapons tunnels in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, which borders Egypt.
In addition, Hamas has been targeting Israeli military deployment along the Gaza security fence
On Tuesday, Israeli tanks fired at two Palestinians who were planting bombs along the security fence around the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-aligned Popular Resistance Committee and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took credit for the attempt to plant the bombs, identifying the two dead Palestinian combatants as Mahmoud Nazir and Abdul Al Silawai. The statement said Nazir and Al Silawai were responsible for firing three rockets into Israel on Aug. 24.”The soldiers on the scene fired tank shells and mortar fire, and identified hitting the suspects,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, European nationals in Israel have filed suit against the EU for relaying hundreds of millions of euros to the Gaza Strip. The 15 plaintiffs said the Hamas and Palestinian militia attacks on their homes in Israel’s Negev Desert violated the European Treaty, which obligated the protection of EU nationals regardless of their residence.
“The European Union gives hundreds of millions of euros every year to aid groups in Gaza,” Mordechai Tzivin, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said. “This money cannot be allowed to target European citizens.”
Tzivin said the EU must reply to the eight-page suit by 14 Britons and an Italian national, submitted in August 2009. He said that unless the European Commission accedes to the demands of the plaintiffs the suit would be filed in the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg.
In 2008, the EU relayed 55.6 million euro in aid to the Gaza Strip. EU states have pledged separately more than 41 million euro in additional funds to Gaza.
The European plaintiffs live near the Gaza Strip and their communities have come under missile fire over the last five years.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: UN Report Outrages Israel
by David Bedein
Jerusalem - Officials in Jerusalem are mobilizing for battle in an attempt to undermine the standing of the UN report on "Israel's crimes in Gaza," with the hope that it will not come before the UN Security Council or the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
Despite a certain criticism of Hamas, the report deals mainly with "proof of significant violations of international human rights law that Israel committed in the Gaza war, and possibly crimes against humanity as well." Experts in Israel who examined the work of the commission and followed the recorded testimonies published on the UN web site, say that the commission members chose not to make things difficult for the witnesses.
"I listened closely to the testimonies, but also to the questions of the commission members," explained Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, "the commission members didn't try to confront them with other information that they held. They were asked questions that were irrelevant to clarifying the facts of whether war crimes were committed or not."
For example, Dahoah-Halevi relates, in the case of the attack on the mosque in the town Beit Lahiya, the commission members asked many questions on the prayer arrangements, but did not ask even a single question on the presence of armed men or weapons at the site. The Goldstone report admits that it identified "reluctance" by the witnesses to deliver information on the activity of terrorist elements within armed [sic] areas. The report states that it is unable to determine the reason for this "reluctance," but notes that it could not discount the possibility that "the interviewees' reluctance may have stemmed from a fear of reprisals."
The commission approached the Hamas government and requested details on the activity of the organization's activity in populated sites from which rockets were fired. The response of the Hamas government, however, was: We have no data. However, the report determines that the fire constitutes "a deliberate attack against the civilian population.
These actions would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity." This sparked great anger on the part of Hamas.
"Resistance is a legitimate right that is anchored in international law," said Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
Israeli President Shimon Peres also rallied yesterday for the Israeli attack against the report.
"The Goldstone report makes a mockery of history, and fails to distinguish between aggressor and defender," the president said, attaacking the author of the report. "He would not have written this if his children lived in Sderot and experienced the terror of the rockets there." Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, "the report is a drumhead court martial, the outcome of which was known in advance, and it makes it difficult for democratic countries to fight terror."
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who is currently in New York, has already initiated talks with senior members of the US administration and Congress on the report, and is expected to meet with US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, with the aim of recruiting her to the battle against having the report reach the UN Security Council.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
Jerusalem - Officials in Jerusalem are mobilizing for battle in an attempt to undermine the standing of the UN report on "Israel's crimes in Gaza," with the hope that it will not come before the UN Security Council or the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
Despite a certain criticism of Hamas, the report deals mainly with "proof of significant violations of international human rights law that Israel committed in the Gaza war, and possibly crimes against humanity as well." Experts in Israel who examined the work of the commission and followed the recorded testimonies published on the UN web site, say that the commission members chose not to make things difficult for the witnesses.
"I listened closely to the testimonies, but also to the questions of the commission members," explained Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, "the commission members didn't try to confront them with other information that they held. They were asked questions that were irrelevant to clarifying the facts of whether war crimes were committed or not."
For example, Dahoah-Halevi relates, in the case of the attack on the mosque in the town Beit Lahiya, the commission members asked many questions on the prayer arrangements, but did not ask even a single question on the presence of armed men or weapons at the site. The Goldstone report admits that it identified "reluctance" by the witnesses to deliver information on the activity of terrorist elements within armed [sic] areas. The report states that it is unable to determine the reason for this "reluctance," but notes that it could not discount the possibility that "the interviewees' reluctance may have stemmed from a fear of reprisals."
The commission approached the Hamas government and requested details on the activity of the organization's activity in populated sites from which rockets were fired. The response of the Hamas government, however, was: We have no data. However, the report determines that the fire constitutes "a deliberate attack against the civilian population.
These actions would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity." This sparked great anger on the part of Hamas.
"Resistance is a legitimate right that is anchored in international law," said Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
Israeli President Shimon Peres also rallied yesterday for the Israeli attack against the report.
"The Goldstone report makes a mockery of history, and fails to distinguish between aggressor and defender," the president said, attaacking the author of the report. "He would not have written this if his children lived in Sderot and experienced the terror of the rockets there." Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, "the report is a drumhead court martial, the outcome of which was known in advance, and it makes it difficult for democratic countries to fight terror."
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who is currently in New York, has already initiated talks with senior members of the US administration and Congress on the report, and is expected to meet with US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, with the aim of recruiting her to the battle against having the report reach the UN Security Council.
View the original article in the Philadelphia Bulletin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
