JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2004 News Archive

ISRAEL AND THE ICJ
An article at National Review Online looks at the current wrangling at the ICJ courts in which a one-sided legal assault on Israel is being orchestrated:

"The International Court of Justice in the Hague is being asked by the U.N. General Assembly to provide advice on the "legal consequences" of Israel's security fence. Predating the request for such advice, was a November report from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan detailing the harm done to Palestinians said to result from the fence and a December 2003 General Assembly resolution already deciding that the fence violates international law. The question before the court has therefore been carefully crafted to elicit a list of negative human-rights consequences for Palestinians."

Meanwhile, also at the NRO site, is an article by Richard W. Carlson & Mark Dubowitz:

"A light snow was falling on the International Court of Justice in the Hague, an imposing building in a fenced, park-like setting. TV cameras perched on the front lawn as hundreds of demonstrators, gathered in front of the blackened shell of an Israeli municipal bus and read aloud the names of 935 Israelis, mostly noncombatant citizens — Christians, Druze, and Muslims, as well as Jews — who have been murdered in the last two years in attacks by terrorists in Israel's public places.

Not far away, another rally was forming in another park with knots of demonstrators toting Palestinian flags and signs saying, "Boycott Israel." One middle-aged white man in a surplus military jacket, decorated in Pentel-scrawled peace signs, wore a red-and-white-checkered Arafat scarf around his neck and every few minutes shouted: "Jews are Nazis." Dutch riot police kept the groups apart"

Monday, February 23, 2004
ISRAEL HAS 82 NUKES
The Drudge Report is carrying a story about a book on American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield in which it states a "secret" defense department report has Israel confirmed with 82 nuclear devices.

"RUMSFELD'S WAR, the new book by WASHINGTON TIMES Pentagon reporter Rowan Scarborough, includes a secret Defense Intelligence Agency report that shows Israel owns 82 nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, arch-rivals Pakistan and India plan big increases in their atomic arsenals.

The news story goes on to quote the book as predicting Iran will have 10 to 20 nuclear weapons in twenty years.

ISRAEL'S WALL & THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
The Jerusalem Post is covering the ICJ proceedings in the Netherlands:

"The bombed No. 19 bus, which killed 11 Israelis only three weeks ago, pulled up in front of the Peace Palace Monday morning, where the International Court of Justice resides.

The court's three-day oral proceedings over the legality of the disputed West Bank security fence began at 11 a.m. Monday, with thousands of people from all over the world demonstrating on the streets of The Hague, in the Netherlands.

...Standing behind two Palestinian flags, a number of Ultra-Orthodox Jews held signs protesting the construction of the fence and the existence of the State of Israel.

Paramedics from Magen David Adom read out the names of the 935 men, women and children who where killed by terror.

A number of the protesters taped bumper stickers to their clothing, with a slogan: "Fence out terror - give peace a chance."

Behind them a small number of demonstrators were standing with various signs: "ICJ: Justice or Politics?"

The Damian Penny blog site has this take on the ICJ and Israel:

The casualty toll from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade's latest bus bombing in Jerusalem: 7 dead and 62 wounded.

This should have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the ICJ's hearing on the Israeli security barrier, considering that this fair, unbiased, impartial court is refusing to hear from Israeli terror victims' families, because they "do not represent a country". They will, however, hear from relevant parties like South Africa, Cuba, Belize, Algeria, Sudan, the League of Arab States and Organization of the Islamic Conference - and also "Palestine", which last time I checked didn't represent a country, either.

This "hearing" is a farce. Everyone knows it's a farce. But when they inevitably hand down a decision demanding Israel tear down the wall, we'll be inundated with newspaper columns, Reuters wire stories and NGO Press Releases deeming the fence "illegal under international law".

Friday, February 20, 2004
JEWISH GROUPS ASK E.U. FOR HELP
The EU Observer carries a report (with several links) to a one-day seminar held in Brussels that had Jewish leaders asking the E.U. to deal with anti-Semitism in Europe:

"We bring a message today - and that message is a warning to Europe... anti-Semitism and prejudice have returned. The monster is here with us once again" Cobi Benatoff, the president of the European Jewish Congress warned.

Sunday, February 14, 2004
PA: ISRAEL IS "SATAN OFFSPRING"
A website called The Independent Media Review Analysis is carrying a story about the Secretary of the Palestinian Legislative Council decrying Israel as having no right to exist:

In an interview broadcast Feb. 6 on PATV, Ahmad Nasser, Secretary of the Palestinian Legislative Council, asserts that Israel cannot exist "among human beings" because it was "founded on the basis of robbery, terror, killing, torture, assassination, death, stealing land and killing people."

The interview also cites The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous Russian forgery that was presented as the Jews' secret plan to rule the world, as the basis for the recent exchange of 400 Arab prisoners for one Israeli and the bodies of three soldiers. Nasser says the prisoner exchange is part of Israel's plan to show that a Jewish life is worth more than an Arab life, and proves that Israel is a "racist country" that "hates all the
goyim, all the foreigners."

The IMRA page has further text from the broadcast interview.

HAMAS, THE U.N. AND AUSTRALIA
Townhall.com has a report on the Australian ABC broadcast organization trying to conform to U.N. stances on Hamas, Hizballah and Islamic Jihad:

Australia's national broadcaster has instructed its staff not to identify Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizballah as terrorist organizations, because they have not been designated as such by the United Nations.

The instruction comes despite the fact the Australian government has listed Hizballah as a terrorist group, and is likely to add Hamas and Islamic Jihad to the list soon.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's head of international operations, John Tulloh, confirmed the policy Friday, in response to emailed queries.

PIG LARD TO STOP SUICIDE ATTACKS
Agence France-Presse has a story running at news.au.com about Rabbinical approval of a scheme to stop suicide attacks in Israel by utilizing bags of pig lard:

ISRAELI police have come up with plans to place bags of pig lard on buses in a bid to deter Palestinian militants from carrying out suicide attacks, the Maariv daily reported.

Rabbinical authorities have given the idea its approval on the grounds that it could be a life-saving measure even though pigs are also considered impure by Jews.

Sunday, February 8, 2004
"HECKLED" IN FRANCE
Cybercast News has a short news article on the televised music concert held in France which had Jewish singer Shirel being "heckled" (How can a death threat be called "heckling?")

Anti-Semitism in France reached a new level last weekend when a singer performing at a charity concert was heckled with cries of "Dirty Jew" and "Death to Jews" as the country's first lady and the patroness of the event, Bernadette Chirac, stood watching backstage.

Shirel, a 25-year-old singer who holds American, French and Israeli citizenship, was performing in the eastern French town of Macon on Saturday night at a concert that was being taped for television.

The singer told a local newspaper, Le Dauphine Libéré, that after the performance, Mrs. Chirac said to her that the incident was "deplorable." But Shirel also said she was shocked that none of the organizers went on stage to "publicly condemn the anti-Semitic aggression."

This event is also covered at expatica.

ISRAEL AND THE WORLD
Blogger Damian Penny comments on the Israeli government decision to close settlements in Gaza:

There is no strategic reason why Israel should be building settlements in Gaza, and considering the resources put into maintaining them, I think Israel is doing the right thing. But if the Israelis think this will somehow turn international public opinion in their favor, they're sadly mistaken. Pulling out of Lebanon didn't help them - to Arabs (and the likes of Robert Fisk) the "legacy of Israeli occupation" is responsible for all of Lebanon's problems, and pay no attention to a civil war which raged for 7 years before the IDF showed up. Or the current Syrian occupation. Or the fact that southern Lebanon has been turned into a de facto Hazbollah statelet.

Israel could pull out of Gaza, and nothing will change. They can retreat to the 1967 borders altogether, and nothing will change. The Arabs want Israel destroyed, period - and most of the world really couldn't care less.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
The Jerusalem Post has coverage on this years World Social Forum which met in India:

Last year in Brazil the lowest common denominator was anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and an obsession with the hidden hand of Zionism. We heard bizarre anti-Semitic sloganeering: "Nazis, Yankees, Jews – No more chosen peoples!"

Last week, the fourth WSF made Bombay a platform for a more sophisticated anti-Zionism as Jewish voices in solidarity with the Palestinian cause were welcomed

Participating activists talked about recruitment for the Palestinian cause. An American student demanded that "the WSF send people to Palestine to take up arms in their defense." But Rania protested that "without Arabic or training, you will be an obstacle to the struggle. Yes, come to be our PR agents at home."

Ahmed Shawki, a Palestinian teachers unionist had this advice: "We need you in the belly of the beast to destroy US, Indian, European support for Israel in every sector."

Israeli Michael Warschawski called Geneva "a huge diversion from the real struggle against the wall." But Warschawski was derided as "a so-called Israeli." A Palestinian doctor told Warschawski that "the struggle against Israel is not for a Palestinian state but for the defeat of the Zionist project. Israel is illegitimate, not since 1967, but since 1948. We would resist it even if it were on the other side of the Mediterranean."

Some of the highlights mentioned in the article describing the conference:

To create confusion in Israeli and Diaspora Jewish opinion. Rania Al-Masri, a US-Lebanese lobbyist, paid tribute to "increasing numbers of Jews and especially opinion-molders turning against Israel."

An Israeli backpacker added: "I am a good Israeli. I accept the Palestinian right to violent resistance." He was crushed by the response of Faisal from Tullkarm: "I know better Israelis; they are dead."

Tuesday, February 3, 2004
VISAS FOR CHRISTIANS GOING TO ISRAEL HELD UP
The Jerusalem Post is carrying a report on the ongoing delays for Christians traveling to Israel:

Two years ago, says Hershler, the Interior Ministry set itself the task of reexamining case by case all the visas of Christian clergy and their staff.

Until then, Christian clergy visas had been issued by the Interior Ministry according to recommendations from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which had a fairly liberal policy with regard to the clergy.

Now, Christians are complaining of long delays, uncertain policies, and unfair decisions resulting in visas not being granted.

Considering some of the virulent anti-Israel stuff written by clergy from various Christian organizations (or, really, that should be in quotes: "Christian" organizations) it's a wonder the Interior Ministry didn't crack down two decades ago.

SHARON TO ABANDON GAZA STRIP
CBC News is saying that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is planning for a complete pullout from Gaza.

All 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip will eventually be dismantled, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a Likud Party meeting Monday.

"It is my intention to carry out an evacuation – sorry, a relocation – of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements," Sharon was quoted as saying on the Haaretz website.

No matter how far the Israeli's "relocate" the same people who hate them and want to blow them up will not be far behind.

HEZBOLLAH PLEDGE FURTHER ABDUCTIONS
Yahoo News is carrying an AP story about the Hezbollah vow to kidnap (and presumably murder) more Israelis in an effort to get future prisoner exchanges with Israel:

Speaking at a mass rally to welcome 21 Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel hours earlier, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his guerrillas could capture more Israelis to bargain for the freedom of Lebanese still held in Israeli prisons. Turning to a huge poster of a guerrilla ambush in which three Israeli soldiers were captured in October 2000, Nasrallah said: "This is a choice."

Friday, January 23, 2004
"GOD RULES THROUGH PHYSICS"
Washington Times is carrying a story from the Moscow Times about Russian mathematicians in St. Petersburg determining the "Red Sea crossing was possible:"

Russian mathematicians have determined the legendary parting of the Red Sea that let the Jews flee Egypt was possible, the Moscow Times reported.

"I am convinced that God rules the Earth through the laws of physics," Volzinger told the Times.

THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM?
The Nation carries an essay by Brian Klug attacking the spate of books which purport to describe the emergence of new "mutant" strains of anti-Semitism:

The claim that I am criticizing is not that there is a new outbreak of "old" anti-Semitism but that there is an outbreak of anti-Semitism of a new kind. Thus the case in support of this claim is not merely cumulative: It does not consist simply in piling up one example after another. There is an organizing principle, a central idea that holds the case together. It is only in terms of this idea that many of the examples cited in the literature count as evidence of anti-Semitism. Without this central idea, the case that is made with their help falls apart. So the question is this: What puts the "new" into "new anti-Semitism"?

Although the writer handily dismantles the idea that the "new anti-Semitism" as being truly new, or in cases a genuine anti-Semitism at all, he goes further and carefully tries to draw lines in between "Wilhelm Marr anti-Semitism" and "political protest" which just so happens to include random violence against Jews in countries outside of Israel:

In the scenario painted by Chesler, Foxman and others, no distinction is made between, say, the young Muslim immigrants who carried out the vast majority of physical attacks against Jews in France in 2002, and someone like the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir's speech to the tenth session of the Islamic Summit Conference this past October was an example of classical anti-Semitic discourse, with its peculiar combination of animus and admiration. Describing Jews as "the enemy," he warned, "We are up against a people who think." He went on to credit Jews with having "invented," among other things, human rights and democracy. "With these," he explained, "they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power." Mahathir was singing from the same anti-Semitic hymn book as Wilhelm Marr. But the evidence suggests that the perpetrators of the anti-Jewish attacks in France were animated by political outrage, not bigotry. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry itself, most of the incidents were a protest against inequities in the occupied territories.

This is rather far-fetched: a Jewish man assaulted on the streets of Paris because he looks and dresses like a Jew will be at odds to define the abuse as 'political protest' versus old fashioned Jew-hatred. Klug attempts to define "anti-Semitism" as containing a certain set of motivations, as opposed to other motivations which equal "political protest." It seems to boil down to "correct thinking" versus "wrong thinking" while you attack your Jewish target.

Klug states flatly there is no excuse for violence against Jews ("such attacks are repugnant"), yet logically seeks to explain 'the context' of those attacks, and why they do not fit the conception of what anti-Semitism is. Klug goes further to show that "Many Jewish community leaders, religious and secular, publicly reinforce this identification with the state. All of which is liable to give the unreflective onlooker the impression that Jews are, as it were, lumping themselves together; that Israel is indeed 'the Jewish collective.' "

Klug may be saying that attacking Jews because they are a Jew is 'repugnant,' yet in asserting his argument he shows how closely aligned is the "political protest" ("anti-Zionism") to anti-Semitism:

Jews have good reason to be concerned about growing hostility toward them. But while this includes the revival of hard-core anti-Semitism, it is closer to the truth to say that anti-Zionism today takes the form of anti-Semitism rather than the other way round. As Akiva Eldar observed recently in Ha'aretz, "It is much easier to claim the entire world is against us than to admit that the State of Israel, which rose as a refuge and a source of pride for Jews...has become a genuine source of danger and a source of shameful embarrassment to Jews who choose to live outside its borders."

Essentially, it's "repugnant" to attack Jews because they are Jews, but in the end, the politics dictate meaning (i.e., "context"), and the meaning expressed is "The Jews asked for it."

Thursday, January 22, 2004
IRAN BUILDING URANIUM ENRICHMENT PLANT
Ha'aretz reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency is in dispute with the government of Iran over continued construction of an uranium enrichment facility:

According to the sources, the dispute erupted amid continued Iranian construction of centrifuge devices at the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.

Iran claims it will not enrich uranium, as required by an agreement reached last month with the IAEA, but adds it will continue its construction work on the Natanz site.

Enriched uranium is an important component for the development of nuclear weapons.

Sunday, January 18, 2004
ISRAEL'S CHIEF RABBIS MEET WITH THE POPE
The Christian news organization Truthnews.net is reporting on a scheduled meeting between the Pope and Israel's two chief Rabbis:

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger and his Sephardi counterpart Shlomo Amar are off to Rome today for a 20-minute meeting with the Pope to discuss resurgent anti-Semitism and terrorism. The Pope has denounced both of late, and Amar’s spokesman indicated the real reason behind the papal invite may be to announce an international day honoring Judaism.

Reporters have queried whether the issue of possible Temple Mount treasures held underneath Vatican City may also come up, but delegation member Rabbi David Rosen dismissed the notion that any such relics are hidden there.

ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO SWEDEN DESTROYS ART EXHIBIT, THROWN OUT OF MUSEUM
The AFP has a story on the Yahoo! News pages about Zvi Mazel:

The art installation, called Snow White and located in the museum's courtyard, featured a basin filled with red water, designed to look like blood. A sailboat with the name Snow White floated on the water, and placed like a sail was a photo of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the female lawyer who blew herself up in the Haifa suicide bombing attack in October which killed 21 Israelis.

"For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims. As ambassador to Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality," the ambassador told Swedish news agency TT.

According to museum director Kristian Berg, the ambassador went berserk in front of the 400 specially-invited guests when he saw the piece.

"He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening," he told TT.

Ha'aretz is covering the same story, but includes the Ambassador's efforts to defend himself:

"My wife and I stood there and began to tremble," he said on the Ynet site. "There was the terrorist, wearing perfect makeup and sailing placidly along the rivers of blood of my brothers and the families that were murdered."

The envoy told Haaretz that his protest was not spontaneous; he had planned the act after learning about the exhibit in the local press. He said he could not understand how an exhibition devoted to preventing genocide can feature a work that casts the murderer of 22 Israelis as Snow White. "In my eyes, that's not art; it's abominable," he said.

The incident made headlines in Sweden's media on Saturday, and most, but not all, commentators criticized the ambassador's behavior.

Thursday, January 8, 2004
HATE CRIMES INVESTIGATION ON CANADIAN NEWSPAPER
The National Post is reporting about a Muslim weekly paper in British Columbia:

Copies of a B.C. Muslim newspaper have been turned over to the province's hate crimes unit after it published an article accusing "the Jews" of everything from faking the Holocaust to staging the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks...

"It isn't Arabs lying about and guilt-tripping us with 'the holocaust' -- it is Jews," the article reads. "It wasn't Arabs who caused the Great Depression -- it was Jews. It wasn't Arabs who started WWI -- it was Jews. It wasn't Arabs who started WWII -- it was Jews."

Tuesday, January 6, 2004
CHRISTIAN EXODUS FROM MIDDLE EAST
WorldNetDaily has a column by Joseph Farah describing the extreme shift in Christian population under areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority:

"Some 2 million Christians have fled the Middle East in the past 20 years. Some estimates are much higher than this. Since Arafat took over administration of the Palestinian territories from Israel, the Christian population has dropped from 15 percent to 2 percent.

They are being driven out. They are being murdered. They are being raped. They are being systematically persecuted. They are being harassed. They are being intimidated.

Such is life for Christians now in Bethlehem and other formerly Christian towns in the West Bank. Just imagine what it will be like when Palestine becomes a real state."

PALESTINIANS IN ARAB COUNTRIES
The Associated Press is putting out a story on the conditions of Palestinians in Arab countries bordering Israel:

"Zahar was born in Egypt to an Egyptian mother, married an Egyptian and has 10 children. Yet he and the children are Palestinians under Egyptian law.

"We can't own a house, land or get a loan from the bank, despite the fact that I was born here and have no idea what is Palestine," Zahar told the AP.

"It is an evil hypocrisy," said prominent Palestinian writer Mureed al-Barghouti, who lives in Cairo. "The language of the (Arab) governments and media is in one direction and the real practices on the ground are totally the opposite."

Al-Barghouti is married to an Egyptian but he and his Egyptian-born son can't have Egyptian nationality.

The Arab media, particularly state-run newspapers, constantly denounce Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, but the refugees say it doesn't give them any concrete help.

"All the Arab countries want to keep this problem looking like an open wound" to keep world attention focused on Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, said Ana Liria-Franch, regional representative in Cairo for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees."

The immediate irony is that Palestinians can be (and are) legal citizens in Israel, something they cannot attain in these other Arab countries. The other irony is that no mention is made here of the thousands of Jews forced out (i.e., made into refugees) from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, etc.

IRAN EARTHQUAKE
The 6.3 earthquake that hit Iran December 26, 2003, and the aid efforts from other countries on behalf of the Iranians is examined with a twist by Dennis Prager in this townhall.com column:

"A massive earthquake kills between 20,000 and 40,000 Iranians, and the government of Iran announces that help is welcome from every country in the world . . . except Israel.

This little-reported news item is of great significance. It begs commentary.

 Israel not only has the world's most experienced crews in quickly finding survivors in bombed out buildings, it is also a mere two-hour flight from Iran. In other words, no country in the world would come close to Israel in its ability to save Iranian lives quickly.

But none of this means anything to the rulers of Iran. The Islamic government of Iran has announced to the world that it is better for fellow countrymen and fellow Muslims -- men, women and children -- to die buried under rubble than to be saved by a Jew from Israel."