"The elements of the Jewish heritage that are hostile to non-Jews
former head of
Courage to Refuse. Combatants' Letter, seruv.org,
(Israeli soldiers -- 376 -- who have refused to serve in the Occupied Territories), March 2002
"• We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.
• We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.
• We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories, destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.
• We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.
• We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.
• We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements. • We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
• We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.
• The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them."
Israelis Accused of Killing Police in Cold Blood,
Sydney Morning Herald, April 1, 2002
"Israeli soldiers shot dead five Palestinian policemen in cold blood in Ramallah, Palestinians said. They said the policemen were found on Saturday, after Israeli tanks had rolled into the West Bank city and smashed into the headquarters of the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat ... Palestinian sources said yesterday that Israel had ordered the evacuation of all Palestinian security offices, compounds and posts in the Gaza Strip. 'It seems that a wide operation in the Gaza Strip is imminent, both from the air and ground,' a source said. Employees of international aid organisations had reportedly been asked to leave Gaza. Palestinian officials said four security officers had been shot dead yesterday at a social club in southern Ramallah that Israeli forces took over. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israel was preventing ambulances from evacuating Palestinians killed and wounded by Israeli gunfire in the streets of Ramallah. 'Each time the ambulances have been stopped by soldiers, who have threatened our crews with guns,' a Red Crescent spokesman said. A senior Palestinian negotiator, Hassan Asfour, said the five policemen found on Saturday had been 'executed in cold blood. This is a clear example of the collective execution policy adopted by the Israeli Government against the Palestinian people.'"
A Fighting Cry from Under the Boot. Palestinians Brace for More Acts of Israeli 'Terror,' by Fadia Issam Rafeedie,
San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco Gate), March 3, 2002
"The Palestinian people have a storehouse of collective memory into which they have begun placing their account of the 18-month-old uprising against Israeli military occupation. In it will be a mental film reel, replaying over and over the image of little Muhammad Al-Durra collapsing into his father's lap as a stream of Israeli bullets - made in America - pierce the protective shield behind which they tried to take cover. There will be pictures from the mass funeral of the five young boys, all from one extended family in Gaza, whom Israel's 'defense' forces blew to pieces with a mine planted near their schoolyard. The historically Arab fields in the West Bank will by their barrenness tell another story - that of tens of thousands of ancient olive trees torn up by their roots by illegal Israeli settlers on a rampage to strike at the symbolic and material heart of Palestinian agrarian society. The last few weeks on the ground in Occupied Palestine will add especially grim reflections, as soldiers from the one of the strongest military in the world invaded refugee camps - whose families were originally displaced by the same unrelenting enemy - tearing down walls, holding civilians hostage in their kitchens and bathrooms and blindfolding innocent men whose arms would later bear the dehumanizing ink of the military's identification codes. For those Palestinians who witnessed the occupation army's missiles flying through office windows, cars and bedrooms to decapitate their chosen leaders, memories build strategy. They will work to form an alternative leadership to carry on the resistance rather than rush to a lopsided negotiating table only to have some U.S. diplomat urge them (again) to trade complete liberation from colonial rule for an Israeli-defined version of 'statehood.'"
Killing Raises Questions about Israeli Tactics,
Washington Post, March 31, 2002
"Something nasty happened on the fourth floor of the British Council building on a hilltop in downtown Ramallah. The bodies of five Palestinian police officers lay on their backs and sides. They had been shot in the head or neck, yet most of the blood on the wall near them was splattered no more than two or three feet high, according to a reporter who saw the scene. The killing of the five officers, who had taken refuge in the building Friday, was the deadliest incident during Israel's storming of Ramallah and the headquarters of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader ... The killings at the British Council have struck particular fear in Palestinians because they suspect the men were assassinated. Israeli officials said the men were killed in a 'close firefight.' On Friday, at least 19 police officers with the National Forces, a unit that handles traffic and border duty for areas under Palestinian jurisdiction, had taken refuge in the building. That night, Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers roared up to the seven-story structure, built in the mid-1990s, when peace between Israel and the Palestinians appeared likely. At 10 p.m., gunshots sounded. Maher Shalabi, Abu Dhabi television's bureau chief in Ramallah, waited in his office on the sixth floor until dawn today while the building shook from the blasts of stun and anti-personnel grenades and the sharp staccato of rifle and machine-gun fire. Shalabi said an Israeli soldier searching the television offices told him, 'We killed five police.' This morning, Shalabi discovered the bodies on the fourth floor. Shalabi said the five men had been hiding and were executed or shot when Israeli soldiers rounded the corner into the hall. There were no signs that the Palestinians had fired from their last position. Their bodies were found in the hallway in front of offices of the Center for the Dissemination of Democracy, but it did not appear that they had tried to take refuge there."
Greek Parliament Speaker Accuses Israel of 'Genocide,'
Yahoo! News (from Associated Press), March 31, 2002
"The speaker of Greece's parliament accused Israel Sunday of committing genocide against the Palestinian people and called for international intervention to protect them. 'This is a barbaric attack on a defenseless people, whose only wish is to live on the land of their forefathers,' Apostolos Kaklamanis said. 'The Greek people, the government, political parties and parliament condemn this genocide taking place in Palestine.'"
Mass Arrests Create New Foes for Israel,
Tikkun (from the Guardian), March 17, 2002
"Hundreds of Palestinian boys and men, rounded up at gunpoint in Israel's sweep through the refugee camps of the West Bank, were left hungry and unwashed and were taunted by their captors during a confinement that lasted as long as six days, the Guardian has learned. The only apparent criteria for the mass arrests was that they were Palestinian and male, aged between 15 and 45. The round-up has been condemned by Israeli and international organisations - including the United Nations - who say such sweeping arrests are a gross violation of Israel's duties as an occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that the army had 'lost any moral compass,' and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel said the detainees had been subjected to 'degrading and humiliating treatment.' 'This is very bad and brutal,' said Hannah Friedman, director of the Public Committee against Torture in Israel. 'You are not allowed to arrest people withou! any real evidence. This goes against all the conventions. They put numbers on arms, and closed their eyes. This was only to humiliate all the men and the people in the camps, and these mass arrests will make it more difficult to make peace with this people later on. We are creating our own enemies.' Amid the chaos of Israel's successive invasions of West Bank refugee camps, it is uncertain how many boys and men were taken from their homes. Israeli human rights groups have said the number may be more than 2,000; Israel's army chief, General Shaul Mofaz, said there were 1,500. What is clear, however, is that by the army's own admission virtually none was a wanted militant, and the detainees had no access to lawyers or humanitarian organisations during their detention."
Live Report from Ramallah. The Israelis Took Over My House, by Maha Sbitani, Counterpunch, March 31, 2002
"CNN reported this morning: 'Israeli forces imposed a curfew in Ramallah shortly before 2 p.m. (6 a.m. EST) Sunday, threatening to kill anyone on the streets.' Anyone.
Yesterday at 5:00am I was awakened by what sounded like huge trucks. When I looked out the window I saw several tanks. A half hour later the Israeli soldiers rang the bell--we did not answer--then I heard them coming up the steps after breaking down the main door. They pounded the door to the house. My husband opened the door and was confronted by huge guns pointed at us. They pushed the door open and distributed themselves throughout our house and office. Over 50 heavily armed soldiers were now in the office and home (which are adjacent). We asked what they wanted and they told us to shut up and sit down ... .As I was getting my laptop I heard a crashing noise, I ran back to the house and found my husband on the floor with three guns pointed at him. I screamed for the commanding officer, who finally came and pushed them away. The soldiers were everywhere and doing whatever they felt like doing, including urinating on the floor. I went to the kitchen to get coffee and found olive oil spilled all over the place. They were just being vulgar and uncivilized, and became extremely annoyed when I complained about the barbaric behavior."
Britains Wounded in West Bank,
Times of London, April 2, 2002
"Wiping blood from his shirt, the comedian Jeremy Hardy told last night how Israeli soldiers in armoured personnel carriers opened fire on international peace campaigners, injuring three Britons. Shaken, the left-wing satirist said Israeli forces had waited until the group of 150 peaceful campaigners came within feet of their vehicles yesterday then opened fire into the road and wall in front of them, spraying shrapnel and stones into the crowd. Among the injured was Kunle Ibidu, 32, a Londoner who went to negotiate with soldiers as the unarmed group marched from the birthplace of Jesus to the West Bank town of Beit Jala near by. 'As Kunle and the other negotiator came within a few feet of the tanks the Israelis fired live rounds into the ground,' Mr Hardy said. The comedian, best known for his appearances on the News Quiz and other BBC Radio 4s programmes, was not hurt, but went to help one Briton who had a shrapnel wound to his hand. 'People were hit immediately, one Australian woman in the stomach, Kunle in the chin, elbow and arms and a couple of men in the head,' he said. 'They aimed towards journalists covering the march and hit one who was clearly wearing press stickers. People started to move back very slowly but the tanks moved towards us and kept firing even though people had their hands in the air. No one was doing anything at all aggressive, all the chanting and singing had already stopped. There were senior citizens, and people from all countries and it was all non-violent.'”
Israelis Kick CBS Out,
Washington Post, April 1, 2002
"Israeli forces expelled a CBS News television crew from Ramallah on Monday as troops continued to occupy the West Bank city and search for militants. The Foreign Press Association in Israel protested the expulsion of the crew and the military's attempt to make the entire city off limits to the media. Kate Rydell, the producer of the CBS crew that entered Ramallah on Sunday, said they were packing their gear Monday when about seven Israeli jeeps pulled up. "They took up positions along the street with their rifles at the ready," she said. 'Two of them came up and asked to see passports.' She said the soldiers said the area was a closed military zone and escorted the crew out of the city. The soldiers did not confiscate any material or equipment and made no threats, she said. Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority's administrative center in the West Bank, was declared a closed military zone by Israel last Friday, when the Israeli army occupied it after a series of Palestinian attacks in Israel. But the measure was only sporadically enforced, and journalists and other foreigners were able to get in as late as Sunday morning. Israel has warned that foreign journalists were at risk in the West Bank city."
American Jewry to Launch Emergency Campaign for Israel,
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), April 2, 2002
"[Jewish American] officials say the Israel Emergency Campaign will be larger, more centralized and more forceful than UJC efforts on Israel´s behalf that started earlier in the 18-month-old intifada. The previous effort, called Israel Now, has raised $90 million since September, with each federation deciding independently whether to do extra fund raising for Israel and how to allocate it. 'The difference now is we´re calling on every community to get with the program,' said Stephen Hoffman, the UJC´s CEO and president. 'We´re no longer advising them, we´re no longer saying it´s a good idea. We´re saying this is a must,' he added. UJC leaders are in ongoing meetings with officials at the Jewish Agency for Israel, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Israel´s Ministry of Finance to determine how the new dollars will be allocated, Hoffman said. However, while national leaders are forcefully pushing for full participation and a centralized allocations approach, it is not yet clear whether every federation will agree to participate. In recent years, issues of 'fair share' — or how much each federation is obligated to contribute for national and international needs — have been a major sticking point in the functioning of the UJC, which is an umbrella for more than 189 Jewish federations. Hoffman said he does not expect federations to object to participating in the campaign. He also said he thinks their fund-raising goals will likely be exceeded."
The War Looks Different Abroad -- and Maybe So Do the Facts,
Haaretz, April 3, 2002
"A journey through the TV and radio channels and the pages of the newspapers exposes a huge and embarrassing gap between what is reported to us and what is seen, heard, and read in the world - not only in the commentaries and analytical pieces, but also in the reporting of the dry facts. Israel looks like an isolated media island, with most of the reporters drafted into the cause of convincing themselves and the reader that the government and army are perfectly justified in whatever they do. Some have actually been drafted - Yedioth Aharonoth has started running a regular column by its reporter, Guy Leshem, who reports with determination from the heart of the West Bank, straight from his military reserve service. This is another step in erasing the line between the defense framework and the editorial framework that is supposed to report and criticize ... .On Arab TV stations (though not only them) one could see Israeli soldiers taking over hospitals, breaking equipment, damaging medicines, and locking doctors away from their patients ... Foreign television networks all over the world have shown the images of five Palestinians from the National Security forces, shot in the heads from close range; one was apparently the manager of the Palestinian Authority orchestra. Some of the networks have claimed they were shot in cold blood after they were disarmed. The entire world has seen wounded people in the streets, heard reports of how the IDF prevents ambulances from reaching the wounded for treatment. The entire world has heard Palestinian residents saying they can't leave their homes because 'they shoot anyone in the streets.' The entire world has heard testimony by Palestinian families who have been imprisoned in their homes for 72 hours, in some places without electricity or water, and the food is running out. There are also reports of vandalism and looting. Maybe it's all mendacious propaganda (though in some cases, the pictures speak for themselves) but Israeli journalists have no way to investigate to find out the truth, whether to deflate the stories, or confirm them. In the absence of that kind of reporting, instead, over and over, we hear the worn out mantras about how "the civilian population is not our enemy," and reports on how the army takes such strict care not to harm civilians."
Cyprus Parliament Condemns Israeli 'Genocide,'
Jerusalem Post, April 4, 2002
"The Cyprus parliament also accused Israel today of committing 'genocide' against the Palestinians and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territories. In a unanimous vote, the parliament adopted a resolution condemning 'clearly and unreservedly the Israeli actions and the genocide conducted by the (Ariel) Sharon government against the Palestinian people, which perpetuates hatred and kills every prospect of peace in the region' ... Earlier today, Turkey's prime minister accused Israel today of committing "genocide" against Palestinians - an unusually harsh denunciation from a country with strong ties to the Jewish state."
Trying to Buck the News Blackout,
Haaretz (Israeli newspaper), April 6, 2002
"The latest storm was caused by a report broadcast on Friday night and then rerun on Saturday night, on [Israeli TV] Channel Two's news show. It showed an IDF force taking over a house in the Al-Ayida refugee camp. During the briefing before entering the house, the soldiers are told to break down the door with a hammer, and if that didn't work, to use an explosive brick. That's what they do. The result: The mother of the family is mortally wounded and lies on the floor, bleeding. The children stand behind her, choking back tears. The father tries calling an ambulance, but it is trapped between checkpoints. The soldiers continue moving through the house, and break into the next house by cutting through the wall. The daughter begs them not to break the wall, but they ignore her. One of the family members asks the soldiers a question, and is shouted at to shut up. To top it all off, one of the soldiers says to the cameras, 'I don't know what we're doing here. Purification. Apparently it's dirty here. It's not clear to me what a Hebrew soldier is doing so far from home.' The report's power lay in the matter-of-fact manner in which the incident was documented. The soldiers did not depart from orders and regulations. They did not intend to harm the woman or any of the residents. Nonetheless, the results were tragic. Later, it was reported, the woman died. Immediately after the report was completed, the IDF spokesman was swamped with angry telephone calls from the most senior officers in the army. They all asked, 'Is this why you stick us with the reporters?'"
Israel and the Occupied Territories
(List of journalists attacked by Israeli troops), cpj, April 5, 2002
"In October and November, CPJ documented nearly two dozen other cases of journalists, most of them Palestinians, who were wounded by Israeli army gunfire or beaten by Israeli security forces while covering the political violence that erupted the day after Likud party leader Ariel Sharon's controversial September 28 visit to the Jerusalem shrine known as Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary (Haram al-Sharif) to Muslims. Ten journalists were wounded by live rounds or rubber-coated steel bullets fired by Israeli troops. In three other cases, reporters on the scene blamed Israeli soldiers for shooting journalists, although the source of gunfire was unclear. There have also been numerous other unverified reports of journalists wounded by IDF gunfire or assaulted by Israeli soldiers and/or militant Jewish settlers. This spate of wounded reporters underscored the perennial complaint of many Palestinian journalists, that Israeli soldiers not only subject them to physical abuse, but are often criminally negligent in cases where journalists are shot."
Israeli Troops Throw Stun Grenades at Journalists,
CNN, April 5, 2002
"Israeli troops on Friday fired stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets at a group of about two dozen journalists waiting for the arrival of U.S. Mideast envoy Anthony Zinni at the compound of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. According to CNN's Michael Holmes, two Israeli military jeeps pulled up along with another unmarked car and ordered the journalists to leave, but not all members of the group heard what the soldiers said. At that point, about six stun grenades were thrown into the midst of the journalists by Israeli soldiers. The members of the media were again ordered to leave, Holmes said. A stun grenade detonated under Holmes' foot as he fled the scene. No one was injured in the attack. Stun grenades produce a blinding flash and a very loud explosion, designed to disorient those targeted As the journalists drove off in five armored media vehicles, the soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets on them. Two bullets struck the back of the vehicle being driven by the CNN crew, damaging a rear window. Some of the journalists had their government-issued media credentials confiscated by the troops."
Turkey Blasts Israel for 'Genocide,'
Gulf News, April 5, 2002
"Turkey's prime minister accused military ally Israel yesterday of "genocide" against Palestinians and demonstrators marched in Muslim and other countries as Israel vowed to pursue its drive to root out suicide bombers ... .Muslim Turkey and Israel cooperate in a range of security areas and, only last month, Turkey signed a deal for an Israeli state defence firm to upgrade ageing Turkish M-60 tanks. But public protests against Israeli military action in the West Bank have grown in Turkey, and thousands of Turks took to the streets yesterday for the third day running. About 2,500 people led by unions and civic groups gathered amid a heavy police presence in central Ankara, shouting 'Damn Israel' and 'Murderer Israel,' witnesses said ... In Jakarta, some 2,000 Indonesians hit the streets calling for an end to Israeli military action, in the third consecutive day of protests in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Thousands of protesters gathered outside the office of the United Nations in central Jakarta shouting slogans in support of the Palestinians."
International Red Cross Says 'Unacceptable' Israeli Actions Curbed Its West Bank Operations,
tbo (Tampa Bay, Florida), April 6, 2002
"The International Red Cross said Saturday that it had reduced its humanitarian operations in the West Bank to "a strict minimum" because of actions by Israeli forces, which it said have shot toward ambulances and threatened workers ... The ICRC said actions by Israeli soldiers were 'totally unacceptable, for it jeopardizes not only the lifesaving work of emergency medical services but also the group's other humanitarian activities.' 'Over the past two days, ICRC staff in Bethlehem have been threatened at gunpoint, warning shots have been fired at ICRC vehicles in Nablus and Ramallah, two ICRC vehicles have been damaged by Israeli tanks in Tulkarem and the ICRC premises in Tulkarem have been broken into,' it said in a statement from Tel Aviv. Aleksandra Matijevic, a spokeswoman in Jerusalem, told The Associated Press on Saturday that all the threats and attacks came from Israeli forces."
Europeans March for Palestinians,
Newsday, April 6, 2002
"Tens of thousands of activists marched through Paris and Rome on Saturday in protests demanding Israel stop its offensive in the West Bank and expressing solidarity with the Palestinians. More than 20,000 people marched in the French capital to the Place de la Bastille, where hundreds of police stood by. Some protesters carried shredded American flags and shouted slogans against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ... .In Rome, about 20,000 protesters marched through downtown, ending up at a rally in Piazza del Popolo, where the crowd swelled to about 50,000 people. A few marchers at the front of Saturday's procession wore black face masks and bandanas like those worn by Palestinian militants. Others carried banners calling for 'Intifada until victory,' and chanted In Rome, about 20,000 protesters marched through downtown, ending up at a rally in Piazza del Popolo, where the crowd swelled to about 50,000 people. A few marchers at the front of Saturday's procession wore black face masks and bandanas like those worn by Palestinian militants. Others carried banners calling for 'Intifada until victory,' and chanted for a "Liberated Palestine.' Italy's three main unions and two major leftist parties, however, decided at the last minute not to participate in the march, amid criticism of the protest by Jewish groups. for a 'Liberated Palestine.' Italy's three main unions and two major leftist parties, however, decided at the last minute not to participate in the march, amid criticism of the protest by Jewish groups."
Israel Against the World,
Jerusalem Post, April 7, 2002
"As far as the braying dogs of war are concerned, Israel is now - and has always been - the real problem in the region and the source of all evil. In this topsy-turvy, irrational scenario, we might be tempted to lose faith in our cause. After all, can we be right and the whole world be wrong? And, even if we are convinced we are waging a just and justified battle, can we successfully take on virtually the entire international community? The answer, on both counts, is a resounding yes. First, we have a long tradition of standing our ground on moral and ethical issues, even if we stand alone. Indeed, Abraham, the father of our nation, was known as a Hebrew, from the word Ivri, which means, 'he who comes from the other side.' Abraham stood on his side of the spiritual divide, smashing the idols of polygamy and converting a reluctant world to the truth of one God. Later in our history, we rejected the pantheistic hegemony of the Greek empire, and rebelled against mighty Rome when it sought to crush our independence. And in this century alone, we heroically withstood the 'War Against the Jews' fought by Hitler and his many accomplices, and established the State of Israel in the face of staggering odds. So we are no strangers to struggles."
72% of Israelis for War,
Jerusalem Post, April 5, 2002
"Seventy-two percent of Israelis support the government's decision to wage wide-scale war in the territories, according to a poll commissioned by The Jerusalem Post. The poll of 501 Israeli adults was conducted yesterday by the Smith Institute, headed by Rafi and Hanoch Smith. The margin of error was 4.5%. Additionally, a plurality of Israelis - 36% - favor Yasser Arafat's expulsion from the territories, while another 23% believe he should be 'eliminated.' Only 15% favor a return to negotiations with him ... According to the results, were elections held today, 32% would prefer to see Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continue in office, slightly ahead of his nearest rival, former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who polled 26%. Both men poll well ahead of Labor Party rival Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who enjoys a mere 4% support. Intriguingly, Sharon also polls substantially better than Ben-Eliezer among last year's Barak voters - a whopping 28% to 9% margin, while Netanyahu enjoys a razor-thin lead over Sharon among last year's Sharon voters."
Some Students at UC Berkeley Planning to Join Israeli Army,
Daily Californian, April 2, 2002
"A group of Israeli UC Berkeley students may soon be joining the front lines of the stand-off between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East. Citing a moral imperative and "a sense of duty" to defend Israel, a country to which they hold dual citizenship with the United States, the students said they plan to join the Israeli army after graduating. 'Going to (the Israeli Defense Forces) is not a nationalist thing, it's a moral responsibility,' said Micki Weinberg, president of Akiva Movement, a student group that supports UC Berkeley students who want to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Land ... .Although citizens who live in Israel are required to serve up to four years in the army, those living abroad may choose whether or not they want to serve. 'It's not a requirement, it's something I want to do," said UC Berkeley senior Oren Lazar, co-chair of the Israeli Action Committee. 'I support the country, especially during times like this." The United States awards dual citizenship with very few countries, said Lt. Col. John Katz of UC Berkeley's Department of Military Science. Becoming a soldier with the Israeli Defense Forces would disqualify the students from becoming officers in the U.S. Military, Katz said. But those considering joining the Israeli army said they have no interest in joining U.S. forces."
[Israeli] Premier Calls on Americans to Mobilize,
[Jewish] Forward, April 5, 2002
"Against a backdrop of recurring suicide bombings and a military confrontation escalating into war, Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon called on American Jews this week to mobilize on Israel's behalf and help it win the battle for world opinion. 'We see our relationship with the Jewish Diaspora as part of our strategic strength,' Sharon said Monday in a conference call to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. 'We need you today,' Sharon said. 'There must be a supreme effort to contradict false accusations against Israel. We need you to express public support, talk to people and groups who influence public opinion, demonstrate your love and support by visits to Israel.' The Israeli leader's appeal drew mixed responses of determination and anguish from heads of the organizations he addressed. Community leaders appeared determined to stand with Israel, yet uncertain they could rally their members."
'That Weasel Word,'
Al-Ahram, April 4-10, 2002
"[Tom] Paulin, currently professor of English at Hartford College, Oxford, a leading poet and, for several years now, a controversial TV pundit, is among the few British intellectuals who has dared to criticise Israel, questioning even its very existence. 'I never believed that Israel had the right to exist at all,' Paulin told Al-Ahram Weekly . 'Paulin has become the rare thing in contemporary British culture; 'the writer as conscience',' wrote one critic. It is a position that has led him into acrimonious public debates about his political views, particularly in relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict. He recently took up his pen in defence of Edward Said, berating Guardian columnist Ian Buruma as a Zionist. Paulin makes no secret of his uncompromising views on Israel. "You are either a Zionist or an anti-Zionist," he says. 'Everyone who supports Israel is a Zionist.' Such Irish bluntness, as one reporter described it, has made him a constant target. His publication of the poem 'Killed in the Crossfire' in the Observer newspaper almost a year ago caused an uproar within pro-Israel circles with predictable consequences: the usual accusations of anti-Semitism followed almost immediately. Paulin is not intimidated by such tactics. 'I just laugh when they do that to me. It does not worry me at all. These are the Hampstead liberal Zionists,' he explains, 'I have utter contempt for them. They use this card of anti- Semitism. They fill newspapers with hate letters. They are useless people.'"
'Genocide' Comment Hits Turkish-Israeli Ties,
Jerusalem Post, April 7, 2002
"Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's remarks that Israel is carrying out a 'genocide' against Palestinians has led to a serious crisis between the two strategic allies. On Thursday, Ecevit said at a meeting of his party that not only PA Chairman Yasser Arafat but the whole Palestinian nation is being destroyed step by step, adding that genocide against the Palestinian people is being carried out before the eyes of the world. Israel has launched simultaneous diplomatic initiatives in Ankara and Tel Aviv to protest Ecevit's remarks linking Israel's use of force to the genocide term. Israel has asked Ankara for an 'explanation' of the comments, warning that Ecevit's announcement could affect relations between the countries. After Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem also warned that ties may be affected by the 'genocide' comment, Ecevit said his words were misunderstood. They merely reflect his concerns over the events in the Middle East, he added. This did not satisfy Israel, according to Foreign Ministry sources who said they were deeply disappointed ... American Jewish lobbies, known for their support of Turkey in the face of Armenian and Greek lobbies in Washington, are preparing to voice their concerns to Turkey. They reportedly delivered a message to the Turkish Embassy in Washington decrying Ecevit's statements. They added that the comments are particularly unseemly in consideration of their attempts to defend Turkey from Armenian claims of genocide, and in light of the Jewish genocide suffered at the hand of the Nazis. Last year, Jewish-American lobbies played a key role in stopping a Congressional bill foreseeing an Armenian genocide law, urging US authorities to allow arms sales for Turkey."
[Interview with Norman Finkelstein],
Flashpoints.net, April 6, 2002
"Norman: the settlements perform two strategic.. one, they fragment the occupied territories into bantustands.. (about South African apartheid).. two, they are located over the crucial water resources.. now 80% of the water resources reserved for Israeli Jews.. under Oslo the number of settlers doubled from 200,000 to 400,000.. since Sharon has come to power 54 new settlements.. but Labor has been more agressive in building settlements.. any lawyer can create wiggle room.. the nature of language.. UN Resolution 242 was very clear.. the first line, 'given the inadmissability of acquiring territory by war'.. at the time of the resolution, every country in the world weighed in.. about the passing of UN 242.. did not allow for settlements.. did not allow for wholesale confiscation of land.. Israel was clear on 242.. Moshe Dayan didn't endorse 242, because he said, 'we would have to withdraw'.. a CIA confidential study on the meaning of 242.. it has been leaked, I have a copy.. requires a full withdrawal on all fronts.. allowed for minor and mutual swaps of land.. one can make the argument, wiggle room on both sides.. but US media obsessively supportive of Israel.. WHAT YOU'RE SEEING NOW, THE OBLITERATION OF A POPULATION.. SEEING THE CULMINATION OF 30 YEARS OF PLANNING, OF SETTLEMENT BUILDING.. Arafat and his corrupt crew.. Israeli hoped in exchange for the perks of power, Arafat would go along with the bantustans.. he didn't.. Dennis: about the separation between church and state?.. Norman: I don't think it is possible to resoncile the two principles.. democracy and Jewish ascendancy.. Israel knows that, that is why they have never ratified a constitution.. I don't hold out great hopes for a two state solution.. THE PALESTINIANS WANT THE ISRAELI VAMPIRES OUT OF THEIR LIVES.. AND I AGREE.. FOR 35 YEARS THEY HAVE DESTROYED THESE PEOPLE.. REDUCED THEM TO A STATE WHERE DEATH IS PREFERABLE TO LIVING.. ISRAEL HAS TO TAKE ITS BAGS, PACK THEM, AND LEAVE."
Thousands March in Paris to Condemn Recent Wave of Anti-Semitic Attacks, Yahoo News! (from Associated Press), April 7, 2002
"More than 50,000 people marched in Paris on Sunday to denounce a wave of recent attacks on Jewish schools, cemeteries and synagogues in France, while expressing their support for Israel amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. An estimated 1,500 police and scores of anti-riot vehicles were deployed as marchers headed toward the historic Place de la Republique, where scuffles broke out between pro-Israel militants and a group of pacifist demonstrators at a separate rally nearby. Police fired tear gas into the crowd to disperse several hundred pro-Israel militants who arrived first at the square and clashed with as many as 1,500 demonstrators at the rally by pacifists. Several people were injured, including a police officer who was stabbed in the stomach, police said, without providing further details. A group of militant protesters attacked journalists and smashed their equipment. An APTN cameraman was among those roughed up in the melee. Paris police said about 53,000 people took part in the march ... 'The goal is to battle against anti-Semitism in France and terrorism in the Middle East, and to support Israel,' said Roger Cukierman, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Groups, known as CRIF, in a telephone interview before the march."
U.S. Jews Cannot Acquiesce to Sharon's Monstrous Behavior,
Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2002
"What does it mean to be Jewish? ... What irony that many Jews now comfortably vacation in Germany but insist that Arab anti-Semitism is an immutable aspect of Muslim culture that can be met only with the crushing power of tanks. Not that anyone asked me, but those are not my tanks careening around the West Bank bringing fear and havoc in their wake. Yet they are marked as Jewish tanks and consequently they and I bear some familial resemblance on my mother's side. I am thus obligated to consider what cruelty is being done in the name of defending my people. Some of us make a deliberate effort to disassociate from the mayhem of Ariel Sharon's carnage, while others seem to wallow in it, as if displaying the awesome firepower of the Israeli army is necessary to the survival of the Jewish state. I would like to think that the peacemakers still outnumber the militarists among U.S. Jews, but my own e-mail and street-corner conversations no longer bear out that hope. While Jews are hardly monolithic, even in their views of Israel, their large presence in the media contrasts sharply with a near total exclusion of Palestinian Americans. Palestinian Americans in particular, and Arabs in general, are the ghosts haunting U.S. newsrooms by their embarrassing absence. As journalists, we do not know them as a people, we have little connection with their slights and sorrows, and we can only, even with the best of intentions, experience their suffering as an abstraction. While the family tales of Jewish oppression during the pogroms of czars, the Holocaust and Soviet anti-Semitism have been merged into the dominant American culture, horrific tales of Arab suffering are systematically ignored."
French Cameraman Shot in West Bank,
Las Vegas Sun, April 9, 2002
"In Bethlehem, Yuzuru Saito, a reporter with TV Tokyo, said soldiers stopped him as he walked with a cameraman in the narrow alleyways of the old city. The soldiers removed the tape from the camera. 'Then he asked us to leave. He said 'You have one minute, if you don't we will shoot,' and we left.' Saito told The Associated Press. Also in Bethlehem, French cameraman Vincent Benhamou said he was interviewing families in their homes. When he left one house, he came face to face with Israeli soldiers. He said the soldiers were abusive and threatening. The soldiers took his tape. 'They pointed their weapons at me, they took the tape and asked me to leave immediately. I started walking away then I heard two single shots in the air,' he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the incidents, but noted that journalists were not allowed in Bethlehem. Several days ago the Israeli military declared the town a closed military zone and banned reporters. Also in Bethlehem, Givara Budeiri, a reporter for the Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera, said she tried to leave Bethlehem because of illness, but Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint barred her car from leaving and fired at the ground. The army said it was looking into the incident."
Israel Court Ruling Confirms Denial of Prisoners' Rights. Torture Claims 'Extraordinary Measures' Permitted,
Financial Times, April 8, 2002
"The Israeli Supreme Court yesterday refused to overturn an army order denying Palestinian prisoners legal rights, despite hearing allegations of torture at a detention camp near Ramallah. The tribunal threw out a petition from four Israeli human rights groups, which quoted an Israeli source at the Ofer detention centre as saying detainees were being subjected to torture during interrogation, including repeated instances of them having their toes broken. In an order last Friday, the army said detainees would not have access to lawyers during their permitted period of arrest, which was at the same time extended from eight to 18 days. Quoting testimony from the unidentified witness, Sharon Avraham-Weis, lawyer for the petitioners, said: "Soldiers dragged one man by the legs back and forth in the mud before standing him against a wall, pulling him by the hair and banging his head against the wall. 'The witness heard noises from nearby rooms that sounded like heads being banged against a wall.' Blindfolded and bound, prisoners were told they would be shown no mercy if they failed to name suspects, according to the testimony. The army said that by the weekend 1,600 people had been rounded up throughout the West Bank. It said that 800 had since been released, although human rights groups have so far been unable to contact them. Malchiel Blas, government lawyer, defending the army's ban on legal representation, said: 'The army is subject to unprecedented conditions that make it impossible for us to work according to the norms.' Rejecting the human rights groups' request for a restraining order against the army, Shlomo Levine, chairman of the Supreme Court tribunal, said the panel accepted the state's argument that the present circumstances justified extraordinary measures."
Extremism in Defense of Liberty,
by Paul Gottfried, The Spectator (UK), April 6, 2002
"Recently I was shown the text of an interview with General Ariel Sharon, the current Israeli premier, conducted in December 1982. The comments are worth considering because the problems stressed in this interview continue to plague the Israeli government and its people ... .The interviewer, a self-proclaimed Israeli dove (and talented man of letters), Amos Oz, published these remarks by the then controversial Israeli defence minister in a pro-Labour daily, Davar. The impression of utter callousness that Oz intended to convey is in tune with the invectives directed against the present Israeli government encountered in the Guardian, Le Monde, and in speeches delivered by the European Union against Israeli aggression. Each time the Sharon government reacts against Palestinian suicide bombers by going after militantly anti-Israeli Palestinians, we are reminded of the general’s lack of compassion and of his casual attitude to inflicting destruction on the other side." [The notorious 1982 interview with current Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon is the next link]
About the Soft and the Delicate, by Amos Oz, (interview with Ariel Sharon published in the Israeli daily Davar Dec. 17, 1982), Counterpunch discussion group; posted by Counterpunch co-founder Jeffrey St. Clair)
"Call Israel by any name you like, call it a Judeo-Nazi state as does Leibowitz. Why not? Better a live Judeo-Nazi than a dead saint. I don't care whether I am like Ghadafi. I am not after the admiration of the gentiles. I don't need their love. I don't need to be loved by Jews like you either ... We'll hear no more of that nonsense about the unique Jewish morality, the moral lessons of the holocaust or about the Jews who were supposed to have emerged from the gas chambers pure and virtuous. No more of that. The destruction of Eyn Hilwe (and it's a pity we did not wipe out that hornet's nest completely!), the healthy bombardment of Beirut and that tiny massacre (can you call 500 Arabs a massacre?) in their camps which we should have committed with our own delicate hands rather than let the Phalangists do it, all these good deeds finally killed the bullshit talk about a unique people and of being a light upon the nations. No more uniqueness and no more sweetness and light. Good riddance. I personally don't want to be any better than Khomeini or Brezhnev or Ghadafi or Assad or Mrs. Thatcher, or even Harry Truman who killed half a million Japanese with two fine bombs. I only want to be smarter than they are, quicker and more efficient, not better or more beautiful than they are. Tell me, do the baddies of this world have a bad time? If anyone tries to touch them, the evil men cut his hands and legs off. They hunt and catch whatever they feel like eating. They don't suffer from indigestion and are not punished by Heaven. I want Israel to join that club. Maybe the world will then at last begin to fear me instead of feeling sorry for me. Maybe they will start to tremble, to fear my madness instead of admiring my nobility. Thank god for that. Let them tremble, let them call us a mad state. Let them understand that we are a wild country, dangerous to our surroundings, not normal, that we might go crazy if one of our children is murdered - just one!"
High Court Orders IDF [Israeli army] Not to Remove Bodies from Jenin, Haaretz, April 13, 2002
"The [Israeli] High Court ordered the Israel Defense Forces not to remove the bodies of Palestinians killed in fighting in the Jenin refugee camp until a hearing is held on the matter. The decision came in response to a petition presented by attorney [Arab Israeli politician] Jamil Dakaur from the 'Adala' organization. A three-judge panel will discuss the issue Sunday morning. The Court also ordered the State Prosecutor to respond to charges that the IDF buried the bodies in a huge mass grave, as Palestinian sources claimed Thursday, and if so, why. The sources said that the army used bulldozers to cover them up, Palestinian sources said Thursday. The army vehemently denied the allegations. Signers to the petition - which also included the 'Kanon' non-profit organization, MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) and MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al-Arab Movement for Renewal) - made the request after Ha'aretz reported that the IDF intended to bury those identified by the army as terrorists in a special cemetery for fallen enemy troops in the Jordan Valley. The IDF said that the bodies of Palestinian civilians killed in the fighting would be taken to the hospital in Jenin and later buried. According to Tibi, removing the bodies from the city is a violation of international law and is intended to hide the truth from the public about the killing that occurred there."
Refugees Flee Camp with Reports of Israeli Abuses,
Guardian (UK), April 12, 2002
"An exodus was under way yesterday from the refugee camp that endured the bloodiest battle of Israel's military offensive, with Palestinians bearing horrifying accounts of a systematic campaign of destruction and abuse. Hundreds of Palestinians fled the camp yesterday, an empty, smoking ruin resounding to bursts of Israeli machine gun fire. They left behind entire neighbourhoods flattened to make way for Israeli armour. Some of the wrecking missions were launched while women and children were inside their homes. The operation began with rocketing from helicopter gunships and bulldozers moved in to finish the job. They also told of the use of human shields for Israeli army patrols, and the random strafing of heavily populated civilian areas, killing elderly women and young boys and girls. Those fleeing were dirty, exhausted and desperately hungry. Doctors in Jenin say 15 babies were sick after their mothers fed them powdered milk and sewage run-off from streets where bodies were left to rot for days. A few also claimed to have witnessed a summary execution and the dumping of the dead - at least 150 Palestinians were killed in the camp by the Israeli army count - into mass graves. The stories of executions and disposal of the dead could not be verified as the Israeli army has encircled the camp with tanks, and shot at, or arrested, journalists approaching the area. The Guardian was among a handful of newspapers whose reporters managed to enter the town yesterday. But the accounts of the massive destruction of civilian homes, and of the firing on civilians, could be confirmed as they also occurred in the town of Jenin, suggesting a widespread and systematic pattern of human rights abuses that is only now beginning to emerge."
Straw Outraged By Palestinian Casualties,
Guardian (UK), April 12, 2002
"The [British] foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said today he was 'deeply shocked' by the Israeli army's disclosure that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed in fighting at the refugee camp at Jenin. Mr Straw said he had instructed Britain's ambassador in Tel Aviv, Sherard Cowper-Coles, to find out the precise circumstances in which the deaths had occurred. Earlier, Israeli army spokesman Brigadier General Ron Kitrey told Army Radio there were apparently 'hundreds of dead' in the Jenin refugee camp - the scene of the fiercest fighting of the current Israeli incursion into the Palestinian-controlled areas."
[Photographs of Israeli Atrocities Against the Palestinians People],
AmPal (Americans and Palestinians for Peace)
"Killing in Cold Blood Israeli Aggression Against Palestinian Children What else can be called Terror?"
Jews Appalled By German Plan for Peace Keeping,
The Times (of London), April 11, 2002
"Germany provoked fierce criticism from the Jewish community yesterday by suggesting that it was ready to send troops to Israel to support a Middle East peacekeeping operation. The idea that German soldiers, after half a century of rebuilding a relationship with Israel, might fire on Jews brought howls of dismay from across the political spectrum. The blocking of weapons sales to Israel and some unusually open German criticism of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, had already strained relations, but when Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, told generals that he was considering troop deployment in the Middle East — a taboo for Germany since the Holocaust — the row erupted. 'It’s absolutely scandalous to think that German soldiers could fire on Israelis,' Saloman Korn, the influential chairman of the Frankfurt Jewish community, said, adding that Israel could not accept foreign troops on its soil. There was no mistaking the new sharpness of the German tone towards Israel. Norbert Blüm, a former Christian Democrat minister, described the Israeli offences as a 'war of annihilation.' Jürgen Möllemann, the Free Democrat Party’s deputy chairman, said that he supported Palestinian violence. 'I would resist, too, and use force to do so,' he said. The German Jewish community protested, saying that such critics were 'standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the anti-Semites.' This flushed out more German critics of Israel. 'It must be possible in Germany to criticise the military politics of the Israeli Government without being pushed into the anti-Semitic corner,' Guido Westerwelle, the Free Democrat chairman, said "
Norway Criticized By the Simon Wiesenthal Center,
Norway Post, April 6, 2002
"The Simon Wiesenthal Centre in the US has criticized Norwegian authorities for colluding with terrorists in the Middle East conflict, and it also acccused most Norwegians of being hypocritical over the issue. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is a leading international Jewish human rights organization. In a letter to Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, the centre says that Norwegians are arrogant and lack an understanding of what is happening in the Middle East. The accusations are in reply to the criticism of Israel's assault on civilian Palestinians ... The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations in the world. It claims a membership of 400,000 world wide."
Israel Buries the Bodies, But Cannot Hide the Evidence,
Independent (UK), April 13, 2002
"Israel was trying to bury the evidence in Jenin refugee camp yesterday, but it cannot bury the terrible crime it has committed: a slaughter in which Palestinian civilians were cut down alongside the armed defenders of the camp. Israeli tanks circled journalists menacingly as foreign reporters tried to get into the camp, cutting off their approach. But a man who had just fled the camp said he had seen Israeli soldiers burying the bodies of the dead in a mass grave. 'I saw it all with my own eyes,' said the man. 'I saw people bleeding to death in the streets. I saw a 10-year-old child lying dead. There was a big hole in his side and his arm had been blown away. 'I saw them burying the bodies. They started work on the grave a few days ago. I recognised some of the bodies in it. I can give you the names.' And he reeled them off: 'Mohammed Hamed, Nidal Nubam and Mustafa Shnewa'. He said the mass grave he saw was in a neighbourhood called Harat Al-Hawashiya. 'They dug a big hole in the ground. I saw them filling it in today. They had a big bulldozer pushing dirt in on top of it.' And so the grieving of Jenin will not be certain where their relatives lie. They will not return to bury their dead, however – the Israeli army will have done that to keep the devastating sight of the carnage away from the eyes of the waiting world. Yesterday, though, they were unable to stifle the evil smell. The reek of putrefying bodies wafted out of the narrow, rubble-strewn alleys which were barred for a fifth day to international aid agencies trying to send ambulances and doctors to evacuate the many wounded, and recover the dead. One after another, international officials, angered by Israel's rampant violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the human misery that has resulted, confided to The Independent yesterday that they had reached the inevitable conclusion: a crime has been committed which Israel is trying to cover up. 'It is clear they have something to hide – that is the bottom line,' said one senior diplomatic source."
Sharon Teaches Powell a Lesson over Breakfast,
Telegraph (UK), April 14, 2002
"An hour later, Mr Powell was sitting around another table in the residence with a group of ministers representing the parties in Israel's broad-based coalition government, gathered to present a united and formidable front for the visitor. Effi Eitam, a controversial 'hawk', who had only been a member of the cabinet for a few days, turned to Mr Powell and said forcefully: 'You have had seven months in Afghanistan and you have not finished your work. We only want eight weeks for our military operation, so why not let us finish the job?' David Levy, the rough-edged former foreign minister, was also in combative mood. 'Sometimes we hear from people in the States that the Israeli prime minister is divided from his people, but I can tell you he was elected by the majority of Israelis and now we are all behind him. 'The world tells us that Arafat was elected by the Palestinian people and because of that we do not have the right to fight against his terror. Let me remind you that Saddam Hussein was also elected. Does that mean that you cannot fight against Saddam?' As the Israelis gave full vent to their anger, Mr Powell sat back and listened, like a dazed man who has strayed into a minefield. Later, as he emerged into the bright sunshine for a press conference, a chastened Mr Powell had dropped the confrontational tone adopted by Washington in previous days, which had seen President Bush demanding an 'immediate withdrawal' of the Israeli army from Jenin and other West Bank Palestinian towns. Instead, Mr Powell emphasised his close 'personal friendship' with Mr Sharon as the Israeli leader glowed with satisfaction beside him. When the nervous Hebrew translator inadvertently referred to the 'United States of Israel', there were knowing smiles all round."
The Camp that Became a Slaughterhouse,
The Independent (UK), April, 14, 2002
"A woman with her leg all but ripped off by a helicopter rocket, the mangled remains hanging on by a thread of skin as she slowly bleeds to death. A 10-year-old boy lying dead in the street, his arm blown off and a great hole in his side. A mother shot dead when she ran into the street to scream for help for her dying son. The wounded left to die slowly, in horrible agony, because the ambulances were not allowed in to treat them. A terrible crime has been committed by Israel in Jenin refugee camp, and the world is turning a blind eye. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, visited the scene of a suicide bombing that murdered six Israelis in Jerusalem, but he did not visit Jenin, where the Israelis admit they killed at least 100 Palestinians. The Israel army claims all of the dead were armed men, that it took special care to avoid civilian casualties. But we saw the helicopter rockets rain down on desperately crowded areas: civilian casualties could not have been prevented. The Israeli army sealed off the entire area around Jenin yesterday, arresting journalists who ventured into it. That is because they have something to hide in Jenin: the bodies. The Israeli army has told the Israeli courts that it will not start burying the bodies until Sunday. But there are abundant eyewitnesses who say they have already seen the soldiers piling the bodies in mass graves. Hiding the bodies is what Slobodan Milosevic did in Kosovo. Either way, the Palestinians are not allowed to bury their own dead, because Israel does not want the world to see what happened inside Jenin refugee camp. The grieving have no way of knowing where to find the bodies of those they have lost. For nine days, Jenin camp became a slaughterhouse. Fifteen thousand Palestinians lived in a square kilometre in the camp, a packed warren of narrow lanes. Thousands of terrified civilians, women and children, cowered inside their homes while the Israeli helicopters rained down rockets on them and tanks fired shells into the camp. The wounded were left to die. The Israeli army refused to allow ambulances in to treat them, which is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. The Red Cross has publicly said people have died because Israel blocked the ambulances. Slobodan Milosevic is on trial in the Hague for breaking the Geneva Conventions, while Ariel Sharon shakes Colin Powell's hand for the television cameras. The Geneva Conventions are in tatters in Israel."
Pro-Israel Rallies Bring Out Thousands in US,
Jerusalem Post, April 14, 2002
"Two pro-Israel rallies brought out thousands of New Yorkers Sunday in mass protests against terrorism as tens of thousands more made arrangements to demonstrate for Israel in front of the US Capitol today. Today's rally, the brainchild of the president of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns-Amcha, Rabbi Avi Weiss, is expected to be the largest gathering of American Jews since 1987, when hundreds of thousands gathered in Washington in support of Soviet Jewry. 'Rallying at this time is absolutely critical,' said Weiss. 'I was just in Israel last week, and everywhere you go, people ask, 'Do American Jews really care?'' In New York, many Jewish organizations planned to close shop today and bus their staff and supporters to Washington, and some day schools and yeshivas cancelled classes to send their students to the rally. By Friday, over 700 buses were booked for New York demonstrators, according to the Jewish Community Relations Council. As of Sunday morning, there was limited availability on public trains and buses from New York to Washington, and supporters were booked to drive and fly in from as far away as Alabama, California, and Alaska."
Tutu Calls US Soft on Israel,
Boston Globe, April 14, 2002
"Likening Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the oppression of blacks by the white apartheid government in South Africa, Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu yesterday chided the Bush administration for being too soft on prime minister Ariel Sharon ... Tutu said the Bush administration should demand Israel withdraw from the Gaza and the West Bank, adding that Israel's isolation of Yasir Arafat was ''bizarre and humiliating.' Speaking earlier to a gathering of about 500 peace activists and members of the pro-Palestinian group Sabeel at the church, he urged a movement in the United States to 'put out a clarion call to the people and the government of Israel.' 'An unjust Israeli government - no matter how powerful - will ultimately fall,' he said. Jewish leaders reacted strongly to Tutu's remarks. 'It's tragic that a person of his moral credentials would sacrifice them with such an ugly slur,' said Rob Leikind, director of the New England chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. 'Israel is in a simple fight for survival. It's a sad day for all of us when people engage in that kind of hyperbole' ... Tutu said he also is 'saddened' by the apparent lack of sympathy for the Palestinian cause in America and by the Bush administration's apparent unwillingness to rebuff Israeli interests at home. 'Somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal, where to criticize them is to be immediately dubbed as anti-Semitic,' he said. 'The Jewish lobby is powerful. Very powerful. So what? This is God's world.'"
Why Is This Happening?,
Washington Post, April 14, 2002
"The latest suicide bomber was said to be from Jenin -- the town that Israeli troops have most thoroughly and bloodily scoured during the past two weeks. Israeli spokesmen say the operation killed 100 or more Palestinian fighters in the town's refugee camp, including a couple of militant leaders, and uncovered stores of illegal weapons and explosives. That may be true -- but it's also clear that innocent Palestinians have died there as well. The Fashafsheh family, for example -- a mother, father and 9-year-old son who perished when an Israeli bulldozer brought down their house on top of them. Palestinians say hundreds of others like them died, shot by snipers or blown up by rocket and tank fire or bulldozed in their homes. But no one really knows how many; Israel so far has denied access to journalists and all other outsiders, and Palestinians reportedly have already buried some bodies in mass graves. In many other Palestinian towns, innocent people are suffering and dying for trying to live their daily lives. Ramallah housewife Manal Sofran was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers as she leaned out of her house to call her family to dinner. Washington-born Suraide Abu Gharbiya, 21, was gunned down as she held her nine-month-old baby in her arms. In Bethlehem, a mentally impaired man who worked at the Church of the Nativity was shot and killed by soldiers when he wandered outside the church under siege. Journalists and human rights groups tell of Israeli soldiers torturing and deliberately humiliating the middle-aged shopkeepers and clerks the army has been detaining in mass roundups. According to Human Rights Watch, Palestinian civilians have been forced at gunpoint to open suspicious packages, knock on doors of suspects and accompany troops on raids."
Wolfowitz Gets Cold Reception at Pro-Israel Rally,
San Francisco Chronicle, April 15, 2002
"A Bush administration official was interrupted and booed Monday when he told thousands of people gathered at the Capitol for a pro-Israel rally that Palestinians as well as Israelis have been victims of Mideast violence. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was drowned out by chants of 'no more Arafat' and booed as he told the crowd that 'innocent Palestinians are suffering and dying as well. It is critical that we recognize and acknowledge that fact.' Wolfowitz, the second-ranked official at the Pentagon, was one of dozens of speakers at what sponsors said was the largest pro-Israel rally ever staged in this country ... Among the other speakers were former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Housing Minister Natan Sharansky, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and New York Gov. George Pataki ... The rally was sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the United Jewish Communities."
Grim Accounts from Jenin Survivors. Growing Testimony That Human Rights Violations Accompanied Israel Victory at Camp,
San Francisco Chronicle, April 15, 2002
"Lukea Tomei could only watch through a peephole as one neighbor was shot, his arms in the air. She cried out when she saw an elderly woman blasted by a sniper. But she could stay still no longer when she saw a little girl wandering through a mine-filled street. 'The soldiers told me not to go out, but I didn't listen to them,' said Tomei, a Palestinian nurse who rushed outside to snatch the girl to safety. 'I could not sit by any longer.' Nearly two weeks after the Israeli army launched the bloodiest battle in the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East War, there is growing testimony that its victory at the Jenin refugee camp was marred by human-rights violations. Israeli soldiers shot unarmed civilians, bulldozed people alive and blocked access to medical care, according to more than a dozen witnesses who spoke yesterday in a temporary shelter just outside the smoldering camp ... Separately yesterday, Israel's High Court ruled that the military could begin removing bodies of Palestinians killed in the assault. The court said that the dead would have to be turned over to the Palestinians and that representatives of the International Committee for the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Society would be allowed to witness the process. Initially, the Israeli army had announced it alone would take the bodies to a remote grave site. The petition to the High Court was filed by Israeli Arab lawmakers and human rights groups, who said Israel was attempting to hide the number of dead."
Amid the Ruins of Jenin, the Grisly Evidence of a War Crime,
The Independent (UK), April 16, 2002
"A monstrous war crime that Israel has tried to cover up for a fortnight has finally been exposed. Its troops have caused devastation in the centre of the Jenin refugee camp, reached yesterday by The Independent, where thousands of people are still living amid the ruins. A residential area roughly 160,000 square yards about a third of a mile wide has been reduced to dust. Rubble has been shovelled by bulldozers into 30ft piles. The sweet and ghastly reek of rotting human bodies is everywhere, evidence that it is a human tomb. The people, who spent days hiding in basements crowded into single rooms as the rockets pounded in, say there are hundreds of corpses, entombed beneath the dust, under a field of debris, criss-crossed with tank and bulldozer treadmarks ... We stared at a mound of debris. Here, [Kamal Anis, a local Palestinian] said, he saw the Israeli soldiers pile 30 bodies beneath a half-wrecked house. When the pile was complete, they bulldozed the building, bringing its ruins down on the corpses. Then they flattened the area with a tank. We could not see the bodies. But we could smell them. A few days ago, we might not have believed Kamal Anis. But the descriptions given by the many other refugees who escaped from Jenin camp were understated, not, as many feared and Israel encouraged us to believe, exaggerations. Their stories had not prepared me for what I saw yesterday. I believe them now."
A Mother's Warning, and a Fatal Shot Though Combat in Ramallah Is Over, Army Killing of Civilians Has Continued, by Daniel Williams, Washington Post, April 12, 2002
"The Palestinian most recently killed by Israeli soldiers in Ramallah was Manal Sofran. She was a housewife shot in the head on Wednesday, neighbors said, while calling her husband Sami and their four children to come in from the garden of their three-story apartment building near Chicken Street. She leaned out from the glass-enclosed sunroom, a common feature of Palestinian houses from the 1950s and '60s. She spied five soldiers by a nearby wall, the neighbors recalled, and feared they might shoot at moving objects ... Israeli soldiers strictly enforce a curfew, to the point that someone who sticks his or her head out a window risks losing it ...Sofran's death and incidents like it raise a different question. How abundantly has this operation fed a lust for revenge -- not merely among armed fighters' relatives and associates, but also among Palestinians related to civilian victims? In Ramallah, civilians speak most heatedly not about militia losses but about such killings: shooting a woman in her home on a clear, quiet day, and hitting the mark with two bullets. Palestinians complain that the United States has written off Palestinian civilian casualties as incidental, even in the early days of the uprising when Palestinians were shot down by the dozens while throwing stones at Israeli troops. 'You foreigners make much of Israeli civilian deaths,' said Bashir Abu Walid, a neighbor of the dead woman. 'Every Israeli death is a big event. But we are just statistics. Because a soldier does it, it is not terrorism. Why not?'"
Inside the Camp of the Dead,
Times (of London), April 16, 2002
"The refugees I had interviewed in recent days while trying to enter the camp were not lying. If anything, they underestimated the the carnage and the horror. Rarely, in more than a decade of war reporting from Bosnia, Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, have I seen such deliberate destruction, such disrespect for human life. This was not only a town of fighters, as Israeli soldiers told me. It was a town of women, children and old men, who have seen the camp grow into a warren of ramshackle homes over half a century. Amnesty International called for an immediate investigation into 'the killings of hundreds of Palestinian', saying crucial evidence may be destroyed as Israel'continues to impede access'. Throughout the camp, which the Israelis called a production line for terrorists, there is the stench of death, of bodies that have been rotting in the sun for days. Everyone who survived the fiercest battle of Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield has a terrible story to tell. They take your hand and lead you into their houses across bulldozed mounds of rubble including photo albums, clothing, toys and pillowcases. There, there are more bodies, burnt or twisted grotesquely, caught off guard by sudden death. Nothing prepares you for the smallness of a dead body. The dead are everywhere ... Yoni Wolff, 26, an Israeli lieutenant who has spent weeks here, told me that no deliberate destruction had taken place and that the soldiers had killed only terrorists. But the hundreds believed dead were not all fighters. Buried under the rubble are the bodies of women and children whose houses caved in around them.'We destroyed the infrastructure of terror,' Yoni boasted."
Sharon Producing 'Worldwide Anti-Israelism': Former French PM,
Arabia.com (from AFP), April 15, 2002
"Former French premier Michel Rocard accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of 'producing world-wide anti-Israelism.' In a long open letter to Sharon published in the daily Le Figaro Monday, Rocard wrote: 'You are producing world-wide anti-Israelism and people like me, who have fought anti-Semitism since they were very young, are powerless to hold back the torrent of anger and hatred to which you have opened the floodgates.' 'You are waging a war that you cannot win,' Rocard continued. 'Each action by (the Israeli army) creates a dozen new terrorists (...) Well, there are two million Palestinians (...) How many will you have to kill? Several hundred thousand? Half a million?' The former French prime minister suggested that the international community would not permit this. Addressing 'the head of those in power in Israel' and not Sharon personally, Rocard went on: 'You have chosen force, you could have not done so. This has a price. (...) The first element to pay, the most immediate, is the complete destruction of any hope -- and that is now done.' The Socialist former premier said Sharon had not learnt the lessons of lost wars by the 'dominant' countries like France in Indochina and Algeria, the United States in Vietnam or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which had refused to negotiate with their adversaries. 'Where in history have you seen that a warlord can choose his adversary?' asked Rocard accusing Sharon, if not wanting to kill Yasser Arafat, of 'working on paralyzing him, humiliating him and trying to exile him.'"
Israel Faces Rage Over 'Massacre,'
Guardian (UK), April 17, 2002
"Israel's international reputation slumped to its lowest point for two decades yesterday, amid condemnation in Britain and Europe of the Israeli army's behaviour at the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin in the West Bank. There were calls for a United Nations-led inquiry into allegations that the Israeli army carried out a massacre and that its soldiers were guilty of war crimes. Senior politicians lined up in London and Brussels to express outrage. The European Union's external relations commissioner, Chris Patten, in an interview with the Guardian, said Israel must accept a UN investigation of alleged atrocities against Palestinians or face 'colossal damage' to its reputation. In a Commons debate, Gerald Kaufman, the veteran Labour MP who is Britain's most prominent Jewish parliamentarian, launched a ferocious attack on the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, denouncing him as a 'war criminal'. With MPs on both sides of the Commons condemning the Israeli incursion, Mr Kaufman said Mr Sharon had "ordered his troops to use methods of barbarism against the Palestinians". Expressing fear that something dreadful had happened in Jenin, he said: 'It is time to remind Sharon that the Star of David belongs to all Jews and not to his repulsive government. His actions are staining the Star of David with blood.' With the Israeli army still blocking full access to Jenin, it is impossible to establish even a rough body count. However, both Amnesty and the New York-based Human Rights Watch yesterday called for inquiries ... US support for Israel remains strong compared with Europe, where anger against Israel reached levels not seen since the massacre at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in the Lebanon in 1982. In the Commons, even the foreign secretary, Jack Straw - in recent months a strong defender in public of Israel - joined in criticism. "
What Israel Has Done, by Edward Said,
The Nation, May 6, 2002
"The monstrous transformation of an entire people by a formidable and feared propaganda machine into little more than militants and terrorists has allowed not just Israel's military but its fleet of writers and defenders to efface a terrible history of injustice, suffering and abuse in order to destroy the civil existence of the Palestinian people with impunity. Gone from public memory are the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948 and the creation of a dispossessed people; the conquest of the West Bank and Gaza and their military occupation since 1967; the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, with its 17,500 Lebanese and Palestinian dead and the Sabra and Shatila massacres; the continuous assault on Palestinian schools, refugee camps, hospitals, civil installations of every kind. What antiterrorist purpose is served by destroying the building and then removing the records of the ministry of education; the Ramallah municipality; the Central Bureau of Statistics; various institutes specializing in civil rights, health, culture and economic development; hospitals, radio and TV stations? Isn't it clear that Sharon is bent not only on breaking the Palestinians but on trying to eliminate them as a people with national institutions? In such a context of disparity and asymmetrical power it seems deranged to keep asking the Palestinians, who have no army, air force, tanks or functioning leadership, to renounce violence, and to require no comparable limitation on Israel's actions. It certainly obscures Israel's systematic use of lethal force against unarmed civilians, copiously documented by all the major human rights organizations. Even the matter of suicide bombers, which I have always opposed, cannot be examined from a viewpoint that permits a hidden racist standard to value Israeli lives over the many more Palestinian lives that have been lost, maimed, distorted and foreshortened by longstanding military occupation and the systematic barbarity openly used by Sharon against Palestinians since the beginning of his career."
Outrage Over Claire Rayner's Attack on Israel,
The Independent (UK), April 21, 2002
"Claire Rayner, Britain's best-known agony aunt, has outraged the Jewish establishment by declaring a loathing of Israel and an apparent empathy with Palestinian suicide bombers. Ms Rayner, 71, who was born Jewish but has long been a self-proclaimed atheist, has said that the Jewish people's claim to a historic homeland was 'a load of crap'. The comments from the 'mother of all agony aunts' have infuriated the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Only last week it castigated another television personality, the poet and Oxford University don Tom Paulin, for suggesting in an interview that American-born settlers in Israel were like Nazis who should be 'shot dead'. Mr Paulin, in a letter to today's Independent on Sunday, says his views have been distorted. Ms Rayner told this newspaper: 'I have never had any attachment to Israel. The only time I went there I loathed the country. People were abominably rude. I am appalled by the right wing hawkishness of this government. What upsets me even more is so many of the constituents seem to approve of what Sharon is doing. People say the Jews have a historic right to live on the land how can they? What a load of crap. You could also say Sephardic Jews have a right to Spain.' Ms Rayner, the president of the British Humanist Association declares a firm preference for a world without national boundaries. She added: 'If you treat a group of people the way Palestinians have been treated they will use the only weapon they have which is their individual lives. This is why there are suicide bombers.'"
Israel Winning Broad Support From U.S. Right,
New York Times, April 20, 2002
"The strongly pro-Israel sentiment marks a profound and telling shift inside the Republican Party, political strategists say. With Jews mostly voting Democratic, Republican presidents for decades had been freer to break with Israel. Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to back a British, French and Israeli attack on Egypt after it nationalized the Suez Canal. Mr. Bush's father's administration repeatedly clashed with Israel. But now, Mr. [Gary] Bauer, 55, the president of a research organization called American Values, often presses Israel's case in a daily e-mail message that makes its way to about 100,000 Christian conservatives. Mr. [Irving] Kristol, 49, who edits The Weekly Standard, has criticized Mr. Bush's Middle East policy in his magazine and in memorandums fired off by the Project for the American Century, a foreign policy group that he heads ... From Jewish neoconservatives like Mr. Kristol to Christian and social conservatives like Mr. Bauer, from the free-market conservatives of The Wall Street Journal editorial page to the talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, has come the same sharp message ... The seeds for the new Republican thinking were planted under Ronald Reagan when his robust anticommunism and advocacy of a strong missile defense drew to his side a group of influential, pro-Israel neoconservatives from the Democratic Party like Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, his United Nations ambassador, and Richard Perle, an assistant secretary of defense. Mr. Reagan, who was strongly pro-Israel, also paved the way for the ascendancy of the Christian right in the Republican Party ... 'For the first time in probably the history of the Republican Party a significantly pro-Israel constituency has to catch the eye of the White House,' said Marshall Wittmann, who has an unusual perspective as a Jewish conservative who was once a lobbyist for the Christian Coalition. Republicans attribute the conservative support for Israel to many factors, including the influence of largely Jewish neoconservatives and the rise of the Christian right, with its belief that the Bible mandates support for Israel. The Likud Party in Israel also built ties to conservatives. After the Sept. 11 attacks, other conservatives who embrace a hawkish foreign policy came to see a stand with Israel as important strategy in the war against terrorism. The departure from Republican ranks of Patrick J. Buchanan and his followers also muted the voices of conservatives who were more critical of Israel. 'That was the part of the movement most skeptical of Israel and most pro-Arab,' said Richard Lowry, the editor of National Review. 'They are effectively out of the picture.' Mr. Buchanan advocated closer ties between the United States and Iraq and Iran, and his past writings were criticized by some as anti-Semitic, a charge he vehemently denied. In the 1960's and earlier, the conservative movement included elements, like the John Birch Society, that were viewed as anti-Jewish. These elements, too, have waned."
Are the Israelis Guilty of Mass Murder?
The Scotsman (Scotland), April 19, 2002
"They left as departing heroes, waving victory salutes and grinning as they went. But even as Israel’s forces pulled out of the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank, relief workers were claiming the carnage and destruction left behind was like an earthquake. They spoke of a war crime on the scale of the Bosnia and Kosovo wars. The United Nations, allowed access after 12 days during which ambulances were turned away and scores of injured bleed to death, struggled to find words to describe the devastation. Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN special envoy, said simply: 'We have expert people here who have been in war zones and earthquakes and they say they have never seen anything like it. It is horrifying beyond belief.' The UN was at last beginning to extract the corpses and search for survivors beneath the rubble, as well as provide food, water and shelter to camp residents. Its officials were unable to bring to mind a time when they had been so obstructed as they had been by the Israelis. Peter Hansen, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency , who had served in the Balkans, said: 'I and my colleagues working in crisis situations for decades do not recall a situation where co-operation from the authorities has been less than what we have experienced from the Israeli government. It is beyond any human decency to let ambulances, food and water stand outside the camp, as has been the case.' Mr Hansen said soldiers had shot up the UN clinic in the camp. Destroyed, along with everything else, was a storage container for vaccines. He was shaken by what he had seen: 'I today have seen decomposed bodies dug out. One was an 11-year-old child, judging from the size of his rib-cage.' In a sense, what Mr Hansen was seeing was the logical outcome of the vow by the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to 'wipe out the last terror cell' in the West Bank. He made similar comments as defence minister before the 1982 Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres."
What Really Happened at Jenin,
(Before and after aerial photos of the Palestinian refugee camp levelled by Israeli invasion)
etherzone.com
European Poll Faults US for Its Policy in the Mideast,
by Adam Clymer, New York Times, April 19, 2002
"People in Europe, while sympathetic to recent American efforts in the Middle East, strongly feel that the United States has not done enough to bring about a peace settlement, according to coordinated polls in Britain, France, Germany and Italy. A key reason for the European unhappiness appears to be a much greater sympathy for the Palestinians than is found in the United States. The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, showed that majorities of 71 percent in France, 67 percent in Italy, 64 percent in Germany and 57 percent in Britain said the United States was not "doing as much as it can to bring about a peace settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians." The respondents, about 1,000 people in each country, were asked, "In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side do you sympathize with more?" In none of the European countries did more sympathize with Israel, while in a companion poll in the United Sates, 41 percent sided with Israel to 13 percent for the Palestinians. The closest European division in the poll -- conducted with the International Herald Tribune and the Council on Foreign Relations -- came in Germany. There 24 percent sided with Israel and 26 percent with the Palestinians, a difference that fell within the poll's margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. But in the other three nations, the Palestinian side was preferred, 36 percent to 19 percent in France, 30 to 14 in Italy and 28 to 17 in Britain."
Daschle Says US Must Support Israel,
New York Times, April 22, 2002
"Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told the largest pro-Israel lobbying group Monday that U.S. support for Israel must be absolute. 'Israel has always had fair-weather friends. What it needs now are foul-weather friends,' he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is holding its annual convention in Washington. 'As long as I am majority leader of the United States Senate, we will be a friend to Israel in fair weather and in foul,' he said."
Amnesty Accuses Israel of Jenin War Crimes,
Reuters, April 22, 2002
"Amnesty International accused Israel Monday of serious human rights abuses during its occupation of the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin and pressed for a full investigation to see if they amounted to war crimes. Basing its allegations on statements from Palestinians and what it said was evidence from its own observers who entered the West Bank town minutes after the Israeli withdrawal, Amnesty said it had clear evidence of serious crimes. 'We have concluded, on a preliminary basis, that very serious violations of human rights were committed. We are talking here (about) war crimes,' Javier Zuniga, the human rights group's regional director, told a news conference. 'We believe that Israel has a case to answer' ...'The claim that only fighters were killed is simply not true,' [forensic pathologist Derrick]Pounder said. 'In Jenin, there have certainly been mass killings -- both of combatants and civilians.' Pounder said the refugee camp should now be treated as a crime scene, and a full international team of investigators similar to The Hague Tribunal for former Yugoslavia be allowed in to try and piece together exactly what happened."
Le Pen's triumph: a message to Muslims to keep quiet,
Haaretz (Israeli newspaper), April 23, 2002
"[Roger] Cukierman, 65, is a professional banker. More precisely, as chairman of the 'Edmund de Rothschild' group, he is a very senior figure in the banking sphere ... He explains: 'The Holocaust happened 60 years ago; and here are the Jews proving nowadays that they too act brutally; and thus the Jews are no longer in a situation wherein they can preach morality. The passage of time has apparently taken its toll; and so were it not for the campaign to restore Jewish property, Europe would stop feeling guilty and `return to normalcy' ... Cukierman does not hold back criticism of leftist members of France's Jewish community, including one of his predecessors at CRIF's top post, Theo Klein, who refused to take part in a large rally organized by the French Jewry two weeks ago, to protest double standards in responses to anti-Semitism, and express support of Israel. These leftists chose to stage a simultaneous rally which was limited to opposition of anti-Semitism. 'I said [at the time] that while France suffered from anti-Semitism, there had not been a single Jew killed in these incidents, whereas 125 people were killed in Israel in the month of March alone. Thus, I felt that decency compelled us to express support for Israel. The fact is that our constituency voted with its feet: About a third of French Jewry, some 140,000 people, took part in this rally. Only 1,000 people turned up for the left-wing demonstration.'"
Gulf Press Slams Bush, Tells Arab Leaders to Ditch 'Friendship' with US, Arabia.com, April 20, 2002
"Gulf newspapers urged Arab governments to rethink their supposed 'friendship' with the United States after President George W. Bush stood squarely behind Israel in its current bloody conflict with the Palestinians. 'Until when will we keep talking about 'the American friend'?' asked Al-Ittihad of the United Arab Emirates ... Qatar's Al-Watan also urged Arab states to 'reconsider their attitude to Washington, which has been discredited by its support for the criminal Zionist entity.' There is no point being friendly to a US administration that is totally under 'Zionist' influence, the paper said. In Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, leader writers and columnists lashed out at Bush for describing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a 'man of peace.' 'The martyr is now a murderer, the killer is a victim, the occupation is security, resistance is terrorism, and Sharon is a man of peace,' Kuwait's Al-Rai Al-Aam wrote sarcastically. 'We're not asking Bush to champion the Palestinian cause; we're only asking him to uphold American values,' the paper said."
Jewish Voters Gravitating Toward GOP,
FoxNews, April 24, 2002
"Jewish Americans make up only 2.5 percent of the U.S. population but they vote in higher percentages than any other minority group in the country. Typically, they are known as staunch Democrats, but as more of the traditional left of the Democratic Party gravitate toward the Palestinian cause, American Jews are indicating that they place more trust in the party of George W. Bush. 'Prior to Sept. 11 on my radio show, a lot of people would call and say, ‘Rabbi, how dare you support a Republican,’' offered Rabbi Chaim Mentz, a Los Angeles radio talk show host. 'Now, all of a sudden, after Sept. 11, they notice there is a moral clarity which America never showed, which is an alliance with our brethren that may be living in Israel,' he added. At a recent pro-Israel festival in Los Angeles, Jewish American voters signed up to support the Republican Party ... A poll of Jewish voters shows that President Bush’s approval ratings among the Jewish community are over 80 percent. Political analyst Susan Estrich said this is an opportune time for the Republicans to start dipping into the wide support Democrats receive from Jewish Americans. 'Right now George Bush has an opportunity that no GOP president has had in our lifetimes — to change the dynamic of the Jewish vote in America,' she said."
American Jews Open Checkbooks in Response to Campaign for Israel,
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), April 23, 2002
"At the New York office of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, phone calls from people seeking to make contributions or volunteer increased an estimated 500 percent in the past month. Hadassah: The Women´s Zionist Organization of America, which raises money for Jerusalem´s largest hospital, has already raised $8.4 million of a special $28 million campaign for its emergency medical center. The Jewish National Fund, which is running a special campaign in addition to its regular campaign, has already raised $19 million this year, 26 percent ahead of where it was at this time last year. And Israel Bonds, which pays for Israeli government infrastructure, reports investments 70 percent ahead of last year at this time. As major Jewish and Israel-related philanthropies launch emergency campaigns for Israel, American Jews are apparently heeding the call and pulling out their checkbooks. The Jewish federation system, which has raised more than $100 million in emergency dollars for Israel in the past few weeks, expects to raise considerably more ... Gary Tobin, president of the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research, ... said, 'There is no question that we are in a real crisis.' He said he expects all giving to Israel — whether to centralized or specialized groups — to increase. 'It´s a plain and simple response. People are concerned. They´re afraid. They are desperate to do something to show support for Israel.'"
The Intifada Reaches the Ivory Tower,
Haaretz, April 25, 2002
"The first time that the international scientific community imposed a boycott on a state was during the apartheid regime in South Africa. The second time is being considered at present, and now the boycott is directed against Israel and its policy in the territories. Several manifestos calling for the imposition of a boycott, on various levels, have been published in recent days by professors from abroad; a number of Israeli scientists have signed the manifestos, arousing a great deal of anger on Israeli campuses. In the United States, students are applying pressure on the universities, demanding that they stop supporting companies and foundations that cooperate with Israel. The initiative began with students from the University of California at Berkeley half a year ago, and recently it has spread to universities such as Princeton. Members of prestigious scientific bodies, such as the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, have condemned Israel's actions in the territories, and criticized their Israeli colleagues for their indifference to the situation of Palestinian researchers, and the damage to academic institutions in the Palestinian Authority. According to Israeli diplomatic sources, steps to have Israel join several large European projects have been postponed until further notice ... The first manifesto published abroad was initiated by a pair of British researchers, Professors Hilary and Steven Rose of Britain's Open University. The manifesto suggests that European research institutes stop treating Israel like a European country in their scientific relations with it, until Israel acts according to UN resolutions and opens serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians. (Israel enjoys the status of a European country in many European research programs.) The manifesto was signed by over 270 European scientists, including about 10 Israelis. "
French FM: US Jewry more 'intransigent' than Sharon,
Jerusalem Post, April 24, 2002
"In order to pressure Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to show more flexibility, the EU should try to whittle away at American Jewry's support for the prime minister, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said in a closed meeting Monday. In the world according to Vedrine, who as a result of the recent French elections is on his way out of office, Sharon is an obstacle to the peace process bolstered in his intransigence by American Jewry, which Vedrine said is essentially more Sharon than Sharon. These diplomatic insights were shared by Vedrine at a closed meeting with the EU and Mediterranean state foreign ministers in Valencia, Spain, on Monday night. In comments which diplomatic officials who we
