JUNE - DECEMBER 2004 News Archive

Friday, December 24, 2004
CHRISTMAS IN ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post has a story on the holiday situation in Israel over Christmas:

Excerpt:
"It's hard to imagine that Jesus was born in Israel," says Rita Boulus, an Anglican Protestant who lives in Neveh Shalom, a small village dedicated to peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews, which is tucked away in the hills leading up to Jerusalem. "You would think he was born in England. There is no atmosphere in Israel. You just don't feel the holiday."

CHRISTMAS IN EGYPT
The Land of the Pharoahs blog which comes from Egypt reports on what the Christmas holiday is like there (Dec 24 entry):

Excerpt:
"In Egypt we have 2 Christmases! The majority of Egyptians are Eastern Orthodox and so they celebrate Christmas on January 7. Catholics celebrate it on December 25. 2 weeks ago, young men selling Santa hoods and dolls started appearing beside the traffic lights. Several shops sell Christmas trees and decorations. All hotels and businesses put Christmas trees in their lobbies. Of course, Christmas here is not like the one in Times Square, but you can somehow feel it. Two years ago, Mubarak ordered the 7th of January to be a national holiday for both Muslims and Christians. A bit too late, but as they say: better late than never."

Also in the December 15, 2004 entry:

I am concerned because I can feel (I hope I am mistaken) something tearing my beloved country apart while I, along with millions of Egyptians, are happily cocooned within the country's upper and upper middle class thinking that all is well "down there". I am equally concerned because my grandfather and father told me that it wasn't like that during their days.

Christians, especially those in the middle and lower class of our society, are beginning to feel marginalized and threatened. They are becoming increasingly aware of their rights as equal citizens and they are feeling threatened from the rising level of Islamic fundamentalism in the country. Muslims on the other hand are puzzled by this sudden surge of Christian activism and they ask themselves "what's wrong with these people? don't they know that Islam guarantees their safety? They have been protected for over 1,400 years"?. A Muslim friend once told me "homa ayzeen eih tani"? or "what more do they want"?

IRANIAN TV: ISRAEL STEALS ORGANS
Arutz Sheva reports on a Iranian TV program about Israel stealing organs from Arabs for transplanting:

Excerpt:
"Israelis disguised as UN workers visit a PA school, ostensibly to examine the children's eyes for diseases, but in reality to select which children's eyes to steal to be used for transplants.

In Episode 2, the audience learns that the Israeli president is being kept alive by organs stolen from Arab children, and an Israeli military commander is seen kidnapping UN employees and Palestinians"

Saturday, December 10, 2004
UN FORGETS ABOUT ISRAEL'S SECURITY FENCE - FOR NOW
The Jerusalem Post has a story on the demise of interest in punishing Israel over the security fence that is being built:

Excerpt:
Yasser Arafat's death, a more optimistic air in the region, and Europe's reluctance right now to support anti-Israeli initiatives are responsible for knocking the security fence – at least temporarily – off the UN's agenda.

Another possible explanation for the U.N's loss of focus on Israel is the massive corruption scandals Koffi Annan is currently battling.

Saturday, November 13, 2004
HEZBOLLAH & IRAN FLY DRONE OVER ISRAEL
Haaretz reports that Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard advisors have tested unmanned "drone" flights over Israel:

Excerpt:
Iranian experts on unmanned airborne vehicles (drones) from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards took part in the launch from Lebanon of a Hezbollah drone that spent several minutes over northern Israel earlier this week.

...The Iranians supplied several such planes to the Hezbollah, just as they supplied rockets. One of the Iranian conditions for the supply of the drones was that Hezbollah get clearance from Tehran before any launch.

The Hezbollah operatives were trained in the use of the plane by experts from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

JEWS "PLEASE LEAVE THE AREA"
The New York Sun carries a short story on the impact of Arafat's death, including this short mention of Norway's actions to make sure Jews stay out of the anniversary of Kristallnacht ceremonies:

Excerpt:
The local TV2 News reported that no Norwegian Jews participated in Oslo's commemoration of Kristallnacht."TV2 also reported that the authorities, saying they didn't want trouble, forbade any Jewish symbols, including Stars of David and Israeli flags," according to Israel's Arutz-7 radio station. "On the TV2 evening news, a group of Jews and their friends who wanted to take part in the commemoration were shown being firmly told by a policeman to 'please leave the area,'" according to a dispatch from an American journalist living in Norway, Bruce Bawer, on AndrewSullivan.com. "This in a city where Muslim demonstrations take place on a regular basis, and include signs and banners bearing hateful, barbaric slogans." The ban prompted a protest from the Simon Wiesenthal Center to the government of Norway

Monday, November 1, 2004
JEWISH GRAVES VANDALIZED
Yahoo has photos of the Jewish grave vandalism in Alsace:

Excerpt:
Graves desecrated by vandals with Nazi swastikas and anti-semitic slogans in the Jewish cemetery of Brumath, close to Strasbourg, October 31, 2004. It is the third time in the last six months that Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated in the Alsace region.

Monday, October 25, 2004
PRESBYTERIANS & HEZBOLLAH
At the Weekly Standard, more bad news from the Presbyterian's Divesting From Israel:

Excerpt:
The Presbyterian Church (USA) currently has a 24-person delegation touring the Middle East. And one stop they made on October 17 has already caused a bit of controversy: The group visited a prison run by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and then held a joint press conference with one Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, that terrorist organization's regional capo. Nasrallah used his time before the cameras to denounce President Bush. Presbyterian Elder Ronald Stone then thanked him for it.

"We treasure the precious words of Hezbollah and your expression of goodwill towards the American people," Stone said, referring, remember, to an outfit responsible for the 1983 murder of 241 U.S. Marines in their Beirut barracks. "Also," Stone went on, "we praise your initiative for dialogue and mutual understanding." And "we cherish these statements that bring us closer to you." And--here comes the kicker--"as an elder of our church, I'd like to say that according to my recent experience, relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders."

Got that? Mr. Stone thinks the head of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is a more reasonable man than any of those "Jewish leaders" he's previously met.

Back at Presbyterian church headquarters in Louisville, Ky., officials who'd initially done their damnedest to duck the issue altogether, finally, late last week, issued a press release criticizing their delegation's meeting with Hezbollah as "misguided, at best," and calling certain "comments attributed to Presbyterians"--no specific mention was made of Elder Stone--"reprehensible."

To read about the Presbyterian divestiture from Israel, see below

Monday, September 27, 2004
ANGLICANS TO DIVEST FROM ISRAEL
According to this article in Ha'aretz, the Anglicans are following in the footsteps of the Presbyterians and divesting their financial support in Israel:

Excerpt:
Leading members of the Anglican church will recommend that their decision-making body adopt an anti-Israel divestment policy similar to the one the Presbyterian church passed earlier this summer. The announcement, made yesterday in Jerusalem by representatives of the Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN), came at the close of the delegation's 10-day tour of the region.

The delegation, which arrived here last week, toured extensively in the West Bank, and met yesterday with Yasir Arafat in Ramallah. Delegates insisted that they made sure to schedule time with Israeli leadership as well, and pointed to a meeting with MK Azmi Bishara last Wednesday.

"The word draconian barely even begins to describe what we saw," Reverend Brian J. Greives, who represents the U.S. church, said of his experience.

The Anglican Peace and Justice Network represents 75 million Anglicans and Episcopalians worldwide. "

The Jerusalem Post covers the story here.

Excerpt:
Neither the Anglican delegation, nor the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the US last summer, apparently found anything disquieting in today's world aside from Israel. Islamic terrorism - including decapitations, suicide bombings, hostage-taking, and school sieges do not trouble these ecclesiastical entities. Neither do Palestinian bloodlust, Syrian tyranny, Iranian nuclear threats, Sudanese genocide, Saudi export and financing of terror, and much more.

Instead, while Western civilization is increasingly menaced, Israel - the sole democracy in the region - is singled out for rebuke and sanctions because it dares defend itself against those who would destroy it. In what moral universe are Israelis, who must defend every bus, caf , and kindergarten against terrorists, more worthy of censure than the terrorists themselves?

Monday, September 20, 2004
THE ISLAMIC CENTURY
The Human Events web site on the possible culmination of all that immigration over the last 30 years:

Excerpt:
How quickly is Europe being Islamized? So quickly that even historian Bernard Lewis, who has continued throughout his honor-laden career to be strangely disingenuous about certain realities of Islamic radicalism and terrorism, told the German newspaper Die Welt forthrightly that "Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century."

...The Nordgårdsskolen in Aarhus, Denmark, has become the first Dane-free Danish school. The students now come entirely from Denmark's fastest-growing constituency: Muslim immigrants.

Also in Denmark, the Qur'an is now required reading for all upper-secondary school students.

IN THE PARIAH STATE
Jay Nordlinger at National Review has just concluded a five-part tour of Israel in written form:

Excerpt:
When the temperature has reached — oh, I don't know — 170 degrees, we visit Bet She'an, the ancient city destroyed by an earthquake in 749. Good thing, too. I don't mean it is good that a city was destroyed, costing 50,000 people their lives. But the earthquake meant that this city couldn't be looted, stripped, effaced, over the centuries. As our (unbelievably superb) guide says, Bet She'an was "entombed" until 1921, when it was excavated, revealed. It is a formidable sight, whatever the temp.

Local children use playgrounds that are protected by concrete walls. And our host tells us — with jarring matter-of-factness — "We work a few inches from Hezbollah. Their fields are directly up against ours." He also informs us that, "if we are attacked, we aren't allowed to respond." Reminds me of U.S. policy on Israel during war.

For years, workers in the Israeli orchards were Lebanese. According to one resident I meet, Israelis and these Lebanese had good relations, respecting one another, benefiting from one another, participating in one another's celebrations, and so on. But the death grip of Hezbollah meant that Lebanese could not cross to work in Metullah anymore. So who are the workers?

Well, a good portion of them are Thai. It's interesting to see Thais picking apples in the north of Israel, with masks covering their faces, lest they get too much sun. (It seems they do not want to darken.) I ask in what language Israeli employers communicate with their Thai employees. "A little Hebrew, a little English."

WHEN IN SWEDEN
A site calling itself Honest Reporting.com has a list of entries concerned with Swedish attitudes about Israel that is less than, say, balanced:

Excerpt:
The Swedish Journalists' Union's weekly publication, Journalisten, is regularly filled with anti-Israel invective. A search of its online archives shows 37 Israel stories since 10/98, almost all highly critical of Israel. Jan Guillou (at left) - whose writing lionizes Arab dictators and butchers - was elected president of the Association of Journalists by its 5,200 members.

...with a Jewish community of about 15,000, compared with the 300,000-400,000 Muslims in Sweden (total population 9 million), the voices of fairness toward Israel are, Skole says, 'whispers against a hurricane.'

Daniel Schechner, a 21-year-old law student from Stockholm, makes sure to conceal even the slightest hint of his Jewishness when he goes out in public... He uses his non-Jewish last name, which he asks the reporter not to print. He does not dream of walking down the street while wearing a skullcap, and when he went to Israel, he told people that he went to another country... Schechner says that when he and his friends speak about "Jewish" subjects like synagogue or kashruth, they use code words...

VOTING THE PAST TODAY
The UK Telegraph has a story on the developing political fortunes of a neo-Nazi group in Germany:

Excerpt:
Dressed in a smart black suit, crisp white shirt and grey tie, Uwe Leichsenring was last week seeking to present a new, clean-cut image for Germany's neo-Nazis as they headed for a striking electoral breakthrough today.

Mr Leichsenring has previously been investigated by German intelligence over his links to a violent skinhead group called SSS, which has been banned for hoarding weapons and beating up immigrants.

Yet he is indignant at suggestions of extremism. "It is rubbish what they say about us being neo-Nazis," he said. "The established parties are simply trying to destroy our image. They are jealous because we stand up for German interests."

Opinion polls predict that the far-Right NPD will win nine per cent of the vote in Saxony - the most heavily populated state in the former communist east with 4.4 million inhabitants. The average age of an NPD supporter in Saxony is just 28.

UPDATE: The Sydney Morning Herald has an article on the German voting here.

Monday, August 9, 2004
SOLOMON WAS A MOSLEM PROPHET
IMRA has a page on efforts to be creative with Jewish history:

Excerpt:
On an educational program on PA TV, two senior Palestinian Authority [PA] historians went to great lengths to deny ancient Jewish history and erase the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. At the same time they describe an ancient Palestinian - Arab history, creating a historical connection to the land that never existed.

Two central components of this Palestinian myth consist of turning Biblical Israel into Muslim- Arabs, while teaching that the Palestinians are the descendents of the Biblical Canaanites, who are also turned into Arabs. With both the Canaanites and Israelites becoming Arabs and the religion of ancient Israel becoming Islam, the PA takes authentic Jewish history, documented by thousands of years of continuous literature, and crosses out the word "Jewish" and replaced it with the word "Arab".

SUDAN CRISIS "ISRAEL'S FAULT"
Al Bawaba tells how Sudanese violence is increasing because of Israel:

Excerpt:
Sudanese Foreign Minister Musstafa Osman Ismail said Israel was escalating the situation in the western area of Darfur, stressing that his country had information to confirm latest media reports that insurgents there were supported by Israel.
Ismail, in a statement to reporters upon arrival in Cairo Sunday to attend an extraordinary meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers to find a solution to the Darfur crisis, said,

"I’m sure the next few days would reveal that there is lot of contacts between Israel and the rebels."

Meanwhile, at the Scotsman you can read a whole litany of coverage of the ongoing massacre of Christian Sudanese at the hands of the Moslem north, and nary a mention of Israeli involvement.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004
HIZBOLLAH CAN HIT TEL AVIV WITH MISSILES?
Ha'aretz has a story on a possible disaster launching from out of Lebanon:

Excerpt:
Hezbollah might have a few dozen long-range rockets capable of hitting the Tel Aviv area if launched from southern Lebanon, the head of Military Intelligence told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.

STATEMENT FROM CATHOLIC-JEWISH LIAISON COMMITTEE
The July 13, 2004 "Joint Declaration of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee" from the Zenit News Agency:

Excerpt:
As we approach the 40th anniversary of "Nostra Aetate" -- the ground-breaking declaration of the Second Vatican Council which repudiated the deicide charge against Jews, reaffirmed the Jewish roots of Christianity and rejected anti-Semitism -- we take note of the many positive changes within the Catholic Church with respect to her relationship with the Jewish People. These past forty years of our fraternal dialogue stand in stark contrast to almost two millennia of a "teaching of contempt" and all its painful consequences. We draw encouragement from the fruits of our collective strivings which include the recognition of the unique and unbroken covenantal relationship between God and the Jewish People and the total rejection of anti-Semitism in all its forms, including anti-Zionism as a more recent manifestation of anti-Semitism.

PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY DIVESTING FROM ISRAEL
The Presbyterian Church (3 million members in the USA) has announced "selective" divestment from Israel at their 216th General Assembly. Below is a "clarifying statement" from the official Presbyterian web site:

Excerpt:
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has consistently supported the existence of Israel within legitimate and secure borders, and prayed for its security and well-being. It is, however, the conviction of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that “the security of Israel and the Israeli people is inexorably dependent on making peace with their Palestinian neighbors, by negotiating and reaching a just and equitable solution to the conflict that respects international law, human rights, the sanctity of life, and dignity of persons, land, property, safety of home, freedom of movement, the rights of refugees to return to their homeland, the right of a people to determine their political future, and to live in peace and prosperity.”

"...The assembly declared that Christian Zionism is not consistent with the basic values of Reformed theology because it makes use of idiosyncratic interpretations of Scripture to undergird a certain reading of current events, and to generate support for specific political goals that do not bolster work toward peace and potentially endanger Palestinian and Israeli people."

I wonder if the governing Presbyterian (USA) leaders have read their own "fact sheet" on Israel from another of their Presbyterian web sites here? (Note: "Presbyterian USA" is just one of many Presbyterian denominations.)

Ha'Aretz has an Israeli reaction to the Presbyterian actions here. Mid-East Realities, an anti-Israeli group, praises the Presbyterians (USA):

Excerpt:
Finally, one of the Christian denominations in the United States has acted in a principled and courageous way. Will this "most censorious decision ever embraced by any Christian denomination in the United States against Israel" just taken by the American Presbyterian Church now open the door for others to follow?

The actual reality is that many other church organizations already broadcast anti-Israeli views:

Episcopal 2002:
"More than 35 new settlements have been constructed this year,' Tutu added. 'Each one is a step away from the safety deserved by the Israelis, and two steps away from the justice owed to the Palestinians. If apartheid ended, so can the occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined."

Lutherans 1998:
"The tragic encounter of two peoples in the Middle East places a heavy responsibility upon Lutherans to be concerned about the legitimacy of the Jewish state, the rights of the Palestinians, and the problems of refugees. The history and circumstances of the Israeli-Arab conflict are very complicated. It is understandable that Lutherans should be deeply divided in their evaluation of the situation in the Middle East."

"... It seems clear that there is no consensus among Lutherans with respect to the relation between the "chosen people" and the territory comprising the present State of Israel."

Wednesday, July 21, 2004
UN POUNCES ON ISRAELI DEFENSE FENCE
The Jerusalem Post has several stories on the UN vote against Israel following the World Court ruling declaring the security structure "illegal."

Excerpt:
Israeli diplomatic officials said Wednesday that Israel will continue building the security fence, despite the United Nations General Assembly resolution Tuesday night calling for Israel to dismantle it.

The Jerusalem Post has the text of the draft resolution here.

The Associated Press has something on the aftermath of the vote:

Excerpt:
The Palestinian U.N. observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said the court ruling and the resolution could be "the most important" U.N. action since the General Assembly's 1947 partition of British-ruled Palestine to create independent Jewish and Arab states. "It is an advisory opinion, that's true, but the court identified the legal obligations of Israel, the occupying power, as well as the legal obligations on member states as a whole," he said. "This can be only binding on everybody."

Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), said Tuesday's resolution "signifies the bankruptcy of the United Nations (news - web sites)" and reflects the "tyranny of the majority" in the General Assembly.

Israel always loses General Assembly votes, Gissin said, because the Arab world has an automatic majority.

Only the United States, Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau voted with Israel.

Andrew Apostolou at National Review has an essay on the ramifications of the World Court and the UN stepping in so solidly behind Arafat's "Propoganda Machine":

Excerpt:
The propaganda victory of a favorable ICJ ruling is exactly what Yasser Arafat ordered. For Palestinians, the security-barrier case is part of a broader effort to strip Israel of all legitimacy.

[The Palestinian view is] ...Israeli control of the West Bank is actually a positive as it could end up destroying Israel itself. [But] ...Israel seems to have no intention of playing into [this]. The latest Israeli attempt to form a government of national unity should give prime minister Ariel Sharon the political strength to be able to withdraw all Israelis from the Gaza strip before then starting similar moves in the West Bank.

The Israelis will then, in effect, be forcing separation, an end to the occupation and de facto independence upon the Palestinians.

For some background on the World Court "International Court of Justice," Clifford May at the Scripps Howard New Service writes:

Excerpt:
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the United Nation's court. The ICJ has never raised serious objections to terrorism. Indeed in 1998, the ICJ sided with Libya, and against the U.S., Britain and victims of terrorism, in a case related to the Libyan bombing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. Now the same court has strenuously objected to the construction of a passive and non-violent barrier – call it a fence or a wall if you wish – that prevents terrorists from entering Israeli communities to murder innocent Jewish and Arab civilians.

ISRAEL SAYS IRAN GOING NUCLEAR BY 2007
Reuters has a story on the Iranian development of nuclear bombs:

Excerpt:
Israeli estimates of when Iran will be able to build a nuclear bomb have been shifted two more years to 2007, an intelligence report said Wednesday and analysts credited the delay to international scrutiny of Tehran.

Friday, July 7, 2004
"PULL DOWN FENCE" SAYS WORLD COURT
Ha'Aretz carries a story on the World Court decision against Israel:

Excerpt:
"The president of the International Court of Justice started reading Friday the ruling on the legality of the West Bank separation fence, which is expected to declare that the barrier contravenes international law.

...The judges also question the route of the fence determined by Israel, saying they are "not convinced that the specific course Israel has chosen for the wall was necessary to attain its security objectives."

The ruling says: "The wall, along the route chosen, and its associated regime, gravely infringe a number of rights of Palestinians residing in the territory occupied by Israel, and the infringements resulting from that route cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of national security or public order."

..."Israel is bound to comply with its obligation to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and its obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Furthermore, it must ensure freedom of access to the Holy Places that came under its control."

Apparently, Israel "... must ensure freedom of access to the Holy Places [and Israel in general] that came under its control," ...so that it may be blown up adequately by suicide-bombers.

The lone dissenting judge in this matter was the American judge.

Thursday, July 1, 2004
ISRAEL A PUPPET MASTER, SAYS RALPH NADER
The Arutz Sheva web site carries a story on a Council for the Public Interest meeting titled "The Muslim vote in 2004," where Nader is reported to have said:

Excerpt:
"What has been happening over the years is a predictable routine of foreign visitation from the head of the Israeli government. The Israeli puppeteer travels to Washington. The Israeli puppeteer meets with the puppet in the White House, and then moves down Pennsylvania Avenue, and meets with the puppets in Congress. And then takes back billions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for the Washington puppet show to be replaced by the Washington peace show."

Friday, June 25, 2004
WORLD BANK ADVISING ISRAEL OVER GAZA PULLOUT
The Jerusalem Post story on the World Bank report advising Israel how to handle the expected full-scale Gaza pullout has these predictions and suggestions:

Excerpt:
The World Bank has recommended that Israel transfer settlers' homes and other assets to the PA after it withdraws from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank rather than turn them over to a neutral, third party.

"Receiving, administering and disposing of the settlement assets is a task which the PA is in principle capable of handling," the report says.

...Israel has said it would prefer to hand over the evacuated assets to a third party or raze them. The Bank's report said that a third-party custodian "would have to accept a significant reputation risk" and would be blamed "for any subsequent misuse of the assets."

Considering the near galactic corruption of the PA governing body, asking them to handle assets for departing Israelis shows a very peculiar view of issues of reputation. Either that, or an assumption that even if the PA completely stole all the property, sold it and used it for shopping trips to Paris (not hard to suppose), it couldn't possibly harm the PA's reputation anymore than it already is. (For simple reports on the misuse of funds at the PA there is a Washington Post article here, and a very anti-Israeli electronicintafada article here, both more or less stating the obvious).

Another excerpt:
...the Bank says, if Israel seals Gaza's border with Israel to labor and trade, and terminates the supply of water and electricity, "disengagement would create worse hardship than is seen today."

Today, the report says, nearly half of all Palestinians live in poverty, and since the outbreak of the intifada in 2000, GDP has declined by almost 40 percent.

It's unfair for anyone to deny the Palestinians a chance to earn an honest buck (or shekel, as the case may be), but a person has to be intentionally blind to ignore the constant terror attacks from Gaza and not do something. It's hard to imagine a concrete wall ending the problem, since almost every other wall in history built to keep out attackers ultimately failed (e.g., the great wall of China, Hadrian's wall in Britain, the Siegfried line, and others) but Israel is giving it a go, building a good chunk of the wall from concrete purchased from Palestinian companies. If it saves any lives, it could hardly be called (honestly) a mistake, though it's been condemned thoroughly by the usual world governments and organizations before it's even completed. It's too easy for outside parties to be willing to "support peace" right down to the last Palestinian or Israeli corpse.

Israel's main problem is not the treatment of the Palestinians, it's their treatment of Torah. The latter would solve the former if the priorities were made straight.

USS LIBERTY "DEAD IN THE WATER"
The Jerusalem Post carries an op-ed going after the recent BBC broadcast of the "Dead in the Water" documentary, which is about the 1967 air and boat assault on the American surveillance ship USS Liberty:

Excerpt:
If it was Israel's intention to leave nobody alive, why did they? Certainly there was nothing stopping them.

Assuming Israel really was trying to cover up a massacre in El-Arish, why didn't the Israeli torpedo boats circling the crippled, unescorted, unarmed Liberty deliver the coup de grace? Assuming the attack had been planned well in advance, why did the Israeli Air Force drop napalm on the deck, instead of ship-sinking iron bombs? Assuming the attack was meant to look like the work of the Egyptians, thereby provoking US retaliation on Cairo, why did the Israelis attack in broad daylight instead of by stealth?

These are simple questions – so simple, in fact, that it may seem strange that the makers of "Dead in the Water" neither address nor answer them. But of course it isn't strange. For the only way "Dead in the Water" can be taken seriously is if one is predisposed to believe that Israel is capable of perpetrating irrational and basically frivolous cruelties. And plainly, the makers of this documentary are so disposed.

ARCHIVE OF OLD NEWS
2006 January - March here
2005 January - April here
2005 May - Sept here
2005 October - December here
2004 January - February here
2004 June - December here
2003 January - October here
2003 November - December here