tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89008329046748155532024-02-08T04:48:02.984+02:00IsraelProudCreated to keep Israel proud with proactive and counteractive articles, information, links and news for both the guided and misguided, affiliated and non-affiliated reader.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-44695429331022549522012-12-19T08:24:00.002+02:002012-12-19T08:26:51.572+02:00Stop the JNF - EXPOSED!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>"Stop the JNF South Africa" is part of the South African BDS movement. My response to a recent post in the Mail & Guardian</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Text in original post:</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE">“</span>The temptation is to speak in muffled tones about
an issue such as the right of the people of Palestine… yet we would be less
than human if we did so<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> – </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nelson
R. Mandela</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Jews, with our own painful history
of oppression, we are compelled to speak out against human rights violations
committed by Israel In our name, against the Palestinian people<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We note that the South African Jewish
Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) recent
met with the presidency We also note with great concern that the SAJBD’s and
SAZF’s assertation that they represent and speak on behalf of all Jewish South
Africans<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also note with great concern that
the SAJBD’s and SAZF’s assertation that they represent and speak on behalf of
all Jewish South Africans We also note with great concern that the SAJBD’s and
SAZF’s assertation that they represent and speak on behalf of all Jewish South
Africans<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Jewish community is neither
homogeneous nor monolithic. There is a growing number of Jews, in SA and around
the world who are organising to form alternative spaces and who unconditionally
oppose Israeli policies and practices that shamefully privilege Jews over the
indigenous Palestinian people<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this vein, we support the
non-violent campaign of applying Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
against Israel until it abides by … international law and respects basic human
rights<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are encouraged that SA is joining
those countries that are taking a clear stance against Israel’s violations of
international law…and its acts of violence against the Palestinan people. We
also welcome and support our Department of Trade and Industry’s initiative to
prevent the false labeling of Israeli settlement products<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We hope that the ANC and the SA
government goes further and completely bans Israeli settlement products.
Israeli settlements are in clear violation of international law and seriously
undermine any chance of negotiations and a just peace<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Such positions as those recently
taken by our government against Israeli violence and violations of
international law, in fact, serve to affirm a proud Jewish tradition of respect
for justice and human rights; regardless of race, religion or creed. Such
positions connect us to our fellow humanity<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We humbly – and sadly – acknowledge
that our voices may not be the dominant ones in our community, but neither were
Dietrich Bonnhoefer’s in Nazi Germany nor Beyers Naude’s, Antjie Krog’s, Braam
Fischer’s and Joe Slovo’s in Apartheid South Africa<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our individual consciences, our
Jewish tradition and our painful history compel us to declare to the SAJBD,
SAZF and to the Israeli government that we will continue to speak out and take
a stand for justice and human rights. Taking such a stand is in the very
interests of being Jewish. For when we proclaim “Never Again”, we should mean
“Never Again”, unconditionally, and to any human being – including the
Palestinians<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My response: </span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv4iJMceMo58KcWk8LhX-iiMxesTUKC7XE0hzqPS-Y16-JtTPVU_W_HWPsMQNo_VQ4xTKFnv1eDzG7em7PL4t1bNE7WElntfrklumwVvwsFvjY2F65C_ZVKhKI6rbI8oGso8bDd_atlZCc/s1600/stopReponse1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Response to "Stop the JNF"" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv4iJMceMo58KcWk8LhX-iiMxesTUKC7XE0hzqPS-Y16-JtTPVU_W_HWPsMQNo_VQ4xTKFnv1eDzG7em7PL4t1bNE7WElntfrklumwVvwsFvjY2F65C_ZVKhKI6rbI8oGso8bDd_atlZCc/s1600/stopReponse1.png" height="400" title="Response to "Stop the JNF"" width="265" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Text in response post:</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"It is crystal clear to me that if the Arabs put down a draft resolution blaming Israel for the recent earthquake in Iran it would probably have majority, the US would veto it and Britain and France would abstain"</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - Amos Oz</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8900832904674815553" name="_GoBack"></a>As
Jews with our painful history of oppression, we are compelled to reject
the rape of Jewish history and tradition by "Stop the JNF"; the movement's
rhetoric is a perversion of intellect. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We note that Jewish history and tradition encourages debate,
pluralism and free speech; in fact a large percentage of our teachings are
based on civil debate and dissent. We also note that nowhere in our Jewish history
is the indiscriminate employment of anti-Semitic elements endorsed or
encouraged to bring about or work for change within any society or culture. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us be clear, the Jewish people, its representatives and
recently the State of Israel, have always provided platforms for respectable
debate and discourse. While the quest for change is admirable when fuelled by
pure motives and convictions, the quest becomes repugnant when deceit and
fraudulence are enlisted to justify bias, bigotry and immorality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are encouraged that Israel is a bastion of democracy,
free speech and human rights. We are encouraged by the respect shown for
Israel’s justice system by many nations and statesmen, despite the deafening
silence of apologists whose illegitimate call for the delegitimization and
destruction of Israel overshadow acute human disasters elsewhere in the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We humbly - and sadly – acknowledge that the "Stop the
JNF" movement has no call for Israel's rights, rewrites a twisted history
and willingly adopts every morsel of baseless hate, presented by people committed
to tyranny and terror. We sadly acknowledge the movement's preference to "spit
in the well" and alienation from the SAZF and SABD in favour of violence
under the banner of human rights. Sadly the turncoat history lesson was missed
by all the absent signatories. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our individual consciences, our Jewish tradition and painful
history compel us to fight for universal justice, and specifically for our
Jewish and national rights to self-determination. 'Never again' is part of our
painful history, and we will speak up against those whoring it with hollow
calls on the bandwagon of false protest alongside the wolves. 'Never again'
will we let those who are too weak to work for change from within dictate to us;
not as 'Jews from other spaces'; not from the arena of disinformation; not from
behind the screen of digital anonymity; and not through activism which finds
legitimacy in targeting Jewish businesses in South Africa. <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>The list of signatories is available on request. </i></span></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">Report: UK money pays terrorists' salaries</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">UK Minister of State for International Development Alan Duncan wrote a letter to MP Robert Halfon in which he rejected PMW's earlier findings that exposed the Palestinian Authority's payment of salaries to terrorists with UK money, claiming that the PA only pays "social assistance programmes to provide welfare payments" to families of prisoners. In response, Palestinian Media Watch prepared and presented in UK parliament a second report that reiterates and verifies our original findings, and rejects Duncan's categorization of the PA payments as "social assistance."</span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">Executive Summary</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">:</span><br />
<ol style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">
<li>The Palestinian Authority is currently paying salaries totaling approximately 17,500,000 shekels (£2,798,825) each month to all Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons, including mass murderers.</li>
<li>The word used in the PA law is <i>Ratib</i> - salary; the law never mentions "social assistance" or "welfare."</li>
<li>The amount of the salary rises based on number of years in prison, an amount related to the severity of the terror crime and not family need.</li>
<li>Unmarried terrorists receive the same basic salary as those who are married and have children.</li>
<li>A separate small stipend is given to married prisoners with children. The average prisoner salary is over 3,000 shekels (£480) a month and can reach as high as 12,000 (almost £2,000) a month for those in prison more than 30 years. The additional stipend for a married prisoner is 300 shekels (£48) and a mere 50 shekels (£8) per child.</li>
<li>The terrorist prisoner is the only one who can appoint an "authorized agent" to handle his money when he is in prison. He is not obligated to give it to his wife, children, or parents.</li>
<li>All of these points and more citations in the report refute Minister Duncan's assertion that the money is "social assistance" for families.</li>
<li>As long as the UK continues funding the PA's general budget, it will be a participant in the payment of these high monthly salaries to terrorist murderers.</li>
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">Conclusion:</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">The fact that the PA uses its general budget to reward terrorists with high monthly salaries should be a matter of very serious concern for Britain and for all donor countries to the PA. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">PMW Special Report<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Palestinian Media Watch’s response to letter by <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Minister of State Alan<span style="letter-spacing: .75pt;"> </span>Duncan to MP Robert<span style="letter-spacing: -.3pt;"> </span>Halfon,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">rejecting PMW’s report that exposed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Palestinian Authority’s payment of salaries to
terrorists <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>
money<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 15.0pt;">By Itamar Marcus and <st1:place w:st="on">Nan</st1:place>
Jacques Zilberdik <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Introduction: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On May 20, 2011,
Palestinian Media Watch published a report entitled:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“PA to pay salaries to all terrorists in Israeli prisons:</span></b><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Financial
aid from many donor countries <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">goes
directly to PA budget from which salaries are paid”<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The report exposed
new Palestinian Authority legislation that went into effect in April 2011
retroactive to Jan 1, 2011, which raised salaries for all Palestinian prisoners
in Israeli prisons for terror-related crimes. Recipients include all terrorists
in prison, including those sentenced to dozens of life sentences for planning
and directing suicide bombings. According to the clear language of the PA law,
according to PA economic reports on government salaries, and according to the
PA tax authorities, the monthly payments to prisoners, which range from 2,400
shekels to 12,000 shekels, are salaries no different than salaries received by civil
servants. They are paid from the PA’s general budget and withholding taxes are
paid as is the case with all other PA salaries. The PA’s general budget, which
pays terrorists salaries, is funded by numerous donor countries, including the
UK. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shortly after the
release of PMW’s report, MP Robert Halfon questioned the UK’s policy regarding
funding of the PA in light of these findings. Minister of State Alan Duncan
responded with a letter rejecting PMW's findings: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I am writing to you
further to your comments in the Jewish News regarding claims that British
taxpayers are funding the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and prisoners
in Israeli jails. If these claims were true, this would be a matter of very
serious concern for me and the Department. However, I am pleased to reassure
you that we have investigated the matter fully and can confirm that the
allegations in Palestinian Media Watch's report are both inaccurate and
misleading.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is not clear how the Minister’s office “investigated the matter fully,” but
unfortunately, the information the minister presented in his letter is wrong. The
Minister’s main argument was that the payments were not salaries to terrorists
but “<i>social assistance programmes to provide welfare payments” </i>to the
terrorists’ families<i>. </i>He wrote<i>: “I hope you will also agree that
dependent spouses or children should not be held responsible for the crimes of
family members, or forced to live in poverty as a consequence.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Minister’s letter does not cite any sources to back up this information.
Furthermore, those who conducted the research for the Minister did not bother
to contact PMW - a serious omission, considering that it was PMW’s report that
was under discussion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
present PMW report documents that the general statements made by the Minister
of State in his letter without any sources of documentation that contradict PMW’s
findings, are wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
report verifies PMW’s original findings:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">1- The Palestinian
Authority is currently paying <b><i>salaries</i></b> totaling approximately £2,798,825 each month to all Palestinian terrorists
in Israeli prisons, including mass murderers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2- As long as the UK
continues funding the PA’s general budget, it will be a participant in the
payment of the salaries of terrorist murderers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
report quotes the relevant arguments made by Minister Duncan in his letter to
MP Halfon, followed by PMW’s refutation of each point, with full quotes of the
proof texts from Palestinian Authority sources. The minister’s full letter
follows at the end. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Minister Duncan to MP Halfon (1):<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The PA operates two
social assistance programmes to provide welfare payments to households who have
lost their main breadwinner, either through imprisonment or where they have
been killed or wounded as a result of the wider conflict… It is true that in
some cases, payments will go to families of those who have committed the sort of
crime that we utterly condemn. But I hope it is clear from the information I
have set out above that the schemes are not intended in any way to reward or
encourage such crimes. I hope you will also agree that dependent spouses or
children should not be held responsible for the crimes of family members, or
forced to live in poverty as a consequence.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">PMW’s refutation:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The following are the PA sources showing that what PMW
documented was in fact salaries to terrorists, and not welfare payments to
support women and children:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">1.
The payments PMW documented are defined by the Palestinian Authority in the PA
law “Government resolution # 23 of 2010” as “<b>salaries</b>” for prisoners.
Nowhere in the PA law does the word “social assistance” or “welfare payments”
appear. On the other hand the word “salary” appears repeatedly:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Government
resolution # 23 of 2010 concerning the amendment on payment of a <b>monthly
salary</b> to the prisoner: Every prisoner will be granted a <b>monthly salary</b>…
on condition that he does not receive <b>a salary</b> from a [different]
governmental [body]... <b>The salary</b> will be paid to the prisoner from the
date of his arrest... The <b>minimum salary</b> for a prisoner…” [<i>Al-Hayat Al-Jadida</i>, April 15, 2011]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2.
The salary payments are not related to social welfare, but are determined
according to the severity of the crime as expressed by length of time in prison.
The longer the time in prison, the higher the salary:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The minimum salary
for a prisoner, to be paid to him from the beginning of his detention and for
up to 3 years, is 1,400 shekels. Prisoners who have been imprisoned between 3
and 5 years will receive 2,000 shekels. Those imprisoned between 5 and 10 years
will receive 4,000 shekels. Those imprisoned between 10 and 15 years will
receive 6,000 shekels. Those imprisoned between 15 and 20 years will receive
7,000 shekels. Those imprisoned between 20 and 25 years will receive 8,000 shekels.
Those imprisoned between 25 and 30 years will receive 10,000 shekels. Those who
have been imprisoned 30 years or more will receive 12,000 shekels.” [Government resolution # 23 of 2010, <i>Al-Hayat Al-Jadida</i>,
April 15, 2011]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">3.
The Minister’s assertion that these payments are “<i>welfare payments to
households who have lost their main breadwinner... dependent spouses or
children should not be held responsible for the crimes of family members” </i>is
wrong and appears nowhere in the law. Moreover, the standard payment system cited
above is not related to the family status of the terrorist prisoner. Married
prisoners with children receive a separate “supplement” for their wives and
children, far smaller than the salaries that reach up to 12,000 shekels a
month:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“A supplement of 300 shekels
will be <b><i>added to the salary</i></b> of every married prisoner, as well as
a supplement for children up to the age of 18 in the amount of 50 shekels." [emphasis
added, <i>Al-Hayat Al-Jadida</i>, April 15, 2011]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
core salary is not related to family status. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">4.
Nearly two thirds of the prisoners are unmarried, have no children, and yet
they still receive a full monthly salary: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The Ministry of
Prisoners’ Affairs in Ramallah said… that there are 2,805 married [prisoners],
representing 37.4% percent of the total number. There are 4,695 unmarried
prisoners, representing 62.6%.” [<i>Al-Quds</i>, Jan. 3, 2010]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thus,
nearly two thirds of the money that the British minister was informed is
“welfare payment” for wives and children is actually going to thousands of
single terrorists without families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">5.
Another confirmation that the PA views payments to prisoners as government
salaries in the full sense of the word is that the prisoners pay <b><i>withholding
taxes,</i></b> as do all salaried workers:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Headline: “Prisoners
and their families praise [PA] government decision to raise salaries, [Minister
of Prisoners’ Affairs] Karake: Withholding tax applies to every citizen who
receives income from the PA”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“A meeting was held
between the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs and the Ministry of Finance… several
issues on this subject [of finances] were clarified: The [withholding] tax applies
to every citizen who receives income from PA coffers; it is within the
framework of the Income Tax Act; and begins with salaries over 2,400 shekels
per month. The beginning rate is 5% for salaries over that amount (2,400
shekels). The tax rate is graduated, reaching at most only 10% of prisoners’
salaries. The Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs said that the prisoners in the
[Israeli] prisons and their families are subject to the [withholding tax] law,
and [added that] the salary raise this year had been welcomed with great
satisfaction among the prisoners and their families.” [<i>Al-Hayat Al-Jadida</i>,
June 19, 2011]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Evidently,
in practice, the terrorist prisoners receive salaries in the full sense of the
word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">6.
The following official PA economic document provides further proof that the PA
pays salaries to prisoners. The document discusses in detail what portion of
the PA budget went to paying salaries in May 2011:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“An official
document, a copy of which reached <i>Life and the Market</i> (supplement to the
official PA daily), reveals that the cost of salaries [in the PA budget] is
much higher than people think… The sum of monthly salaries for May 2011 totaled
727,287,824 shekels (i.e., £123,393,581), paid from the treasury of the
[Palestinian] National Authority… The document shows that the largest portion
of the salaries’ expense - more than 40% - was paid to civil servants… <b>As
for the prisoners, they receive approximately 2.5% of the cost of salaries</b>
[for May], in the form of salaries and [additional] payments, totaling
17,678,247 shekels (i.e., £3,000,000).” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">[<i>Life
and the Market</i>, supplement to <i>Al-Hayat Al-Jadida</i>, June 19, 2011]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Significantly.
this PA government report did not deal at all with social welfare payment. It
only discussed government salaries, and it included payments to prisoners. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Minister Duncan to MP Halfon (2):</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Contrary to media
reporting, the payments [to prisoners and to families of people killed] are not
more generous than standard PA civil service or military salaries.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">PMW’s refutation:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
PMW reported that the salaries of prisoners were higher than the salaries of PA
civil servants and military salaries, PMW cited an official PA document which
explicitly states that: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“An official document
[analyzing salaries showed]…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The average salary
for a civil servant in the Palestinian Authority is 2882 shekels…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The average salary
for members of the PA military personnel is 2704 shekels…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The average prisoner
salary is 3129 shekels.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">[<i>Life and the
Market</i>, supplement to <i>Al-Hayat Al-Jadida</i>, June 19, 2011]<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Note
also that Minister Duncan in his letter did not use the word “salary” to refer
to prisoners’ payments, even though the PA only uses the word “salary.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Minister Duncan to MP Halfon (3):</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“In the case of
Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, they receive a minimal allowance
to cover the cost of food and clothes. This scheme operates at the request of
the Israeli authorities and is designed to reimburse them for the costs of
providing prisoners with food and clothing. It is not in any sense a "salary'
to prisoners, nor a "reward" for having committed crimes against
Israel.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">PMW’s comment:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Here
Minister Duncan cited correct information but it is not at all related to the
salaries allotted to terrorists documented by PMW. The PA gives two payments to
the prisoners. First, the main payment is a salary granted to prisoners for
their participation in acts of terror against Israel, as documented above.
Second, the PA pays prisoners monthly canteen money, as recently explained by
the Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“[Minister of
Prisoners’ Affairs] Karake said that the [Palestinian] government pays <b><i>salaries</i></b>
to the prisoners in prison, in an amount averaging 17,500,000 shekels (i.e., approximately:
£2,798,825) per month, as well as millions of
shekels in <b><i>canteen</i></b> money each month, for prisoners in prison.” [<i>Al-Hayat
Al-Jadida</i>, July 8, 2012]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
fact that the prisoners receive canteen money directly in prison is not at all
related to the salary payments that the PMW documented, which is currently
approximately £2,798,825 per month.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Minister Duncan to MP Halfon (4):</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“It is true that in
some cases, payments will go to families of those who have committed the sort
of crime that we utterly condemn. But I hope it is clear from the information I
have set out above that the schemes are not intended in any way to reward or
encourage such crimes.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">PMW’s response:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
following PA TV interview by phone with a released prisoner, who called the TV studio
to complain about the PA, is a striking indicator that the terrorists
themselves understand that they are receiving a PA <b><i>salary</i></b> specifically
because of, <i>or as a reward for, </i>their terror attacks. Iyad Abu
Khaizaran, a member of the Islamic Jihad terror organization, was given a life
sentence in 1991 for stabbing a 76-year-old Israeli man, Shlomo Yahya, to death
in a suburb of Tel Aviv. He was released from prison, when Israel in 2011
agreed to release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier
Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for more than 5 years. The
released terrorist called the PA TV talk show to complain that while he and
other prisoners all received <b><i>full salaries</i></b> in prison, since his
release he had only received half a salary. The terrorist explained the reason
he and other released prisoners should receive a full salary: “We killed Jews.
I personally killed Jews. I killed settlers and I injured soldiers… The PA that
presents itself as responsible for the nation must be faithful to everyone.”
The PA’s payment of salaries is not seen by the terrorist themselves as a
welfare issue at all, but as a way for the government to be “faithful” to him
and his friends for their killing of Jews. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
following is the transcript:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">PA TV host: “With us
is Iyad Abu Khaizaran. Good evening.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Iyad (on phone):
“Hello. Since the day we were released from prison,</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">we were given [only] half a salary... We
killed Jews. I personally killed Jews. I killed settlers and I injured
soldiers. My house was destroyed. I have 11 bullets in my body. I served 22
years in Israeli prisons. The PA that presents itself as responsible for the
nation must be faithful to everyone.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Host: “You, like the
other [prisoners], did you receive salaries in the prisons?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Iyad: “Yes. After
about the year 2000, [the salaries] were organized.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Host: “In other
words, from 2000, I mean, all the organizations,</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">without exception, whether it was Fatah, or
Hamas,</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">supporters
of Abbas or not supporters of Abbas,</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">they [all] received salaries or not?...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Iyad: “Yes, yes they
did.” [PA TV, March 29, 2012]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
interview is very significant. It shows not only that the letter of PA law
defines the payments as salaries but that the terrorists themselves understand
it as a salary. Moreover, contradicting Minister Duncan’s assertion in his
letter to MP Halfon, the terrorists themselves see their salaries <i>as a
reward</i> for their terror activities, in this case the murder of a 76 years
old man. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Conclusions:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">1.
The PA under PA law pays salaries to all Palestinian terrorist prisoners in
Israeli prisons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2.
Prisoners’ salaries are not social welfare payments to support wives and
children, but salaries granted to prisoners because they are imprisoned for
activities against Israel, including terror and murder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">3.
The Arabic language of the written PA law uses the word that means “salary”.
Nowhere in the entire law do the words “social assistance” or “welfare” appear.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">4.
The monthly salary amount is based first and foremost on the number of years
the terrorist has been in prison. The salary goes up based on years in prison –
for single and married prisoners alike – not based on family status.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">5.
The salary for prisoners goes up to 12,000 shekels a month for those who have
served the longest time in prison. Stipends are a mere 300 shekels a month for
wives and 50 shekels per child. 62% of the terrorists in Israeli prisons are
single and receive full PA salaries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">6.
A prisoner serving more than 30 years receives a monthly salary of 12,000
shekels, approximately three times the average teacher’s salary, even if he has
no wife and children. It is the fact that they were imprisoned for terror
offenses that gives them a salary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">7.
Withholding taxes are paid from the higher salaries as with all PA government
salaries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">8.
The average salary of prisoners is higher than the salaries for PA civil
servants and military personnel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">9.
The salaries of the PA terrorist in Israeli prisons are paid form the PA’s
general budget.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">10.The
yearly UK money given to the PA general budget helps pay salaries to terrorist
murderers in prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 28.4pt; margin-top: 3.35pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 56.0pt 91.0pt 100.0pt 118.0pt 127.0pt 168.0pt 177.0pt 187.0pt 204.0pt 243.0pt 300.0pt 344.0pt 358.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
Minister Duncan wrote:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I hope this
information will reassure you that the Palestinian Authority is not operating
any programme which financially rewards those who commit acts of terrorism and
no UK aid is being used for this purpose.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
fact, this PMW report shows the opposite: The PA spends 17 million shekels (i.e.,
£2,798,825) monthly in 2012 to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners of all the
terror organizations. These payments are in recognition of their acts of
terror. UK aid to the general budget of the PA is also being used for this
purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Minister
Duncan:<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“… regarding claims
that British taxpayers are funding the families of Palestinian suicide bombers
and prisoners in Israeli jails. <b>If these claims were true, this would be a
matter of very serious concern for me and the Department</b>. However, I am
pleased to reassure you that we have investigated the matter fully and can
confirm that <b>the allegations in Palestinian Media Watch's report are both
inaccurate and misleading</b>.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 37.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 181.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 37.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 181.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
This report documents that <b><i>PMW’s original report</i></b>
<b><i>is both accurate and true</i></b>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 37.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 181.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
The fact that the PA uses its general budget to
reward terrorists with salaries should be a matter of very serious concern for
all donor countries to the PA.<i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="line-height: 102%; margin-right: 37.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 181.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-88833880946988099652012-11-01T11:03:00.001+02:002012-11-01T11:15:19.650+02:00A Recipe for Peace<h4 style="text-align: center;">
Click the image to watch: </h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlY49G21fYU"" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0tpxo7MeccTarsGtvUeTTqqwhYZ_q890iyHtEymsBhQNcHwf5ChTu_VttObWhUsaEYBR7uQKYVltk9pO6MMiP367ZAIeRbUp02v5WFw7CLM8PUbYplBioY5UEYsIuFeGVswC7M26CYi_/s1600/Capture.PNG" height="181" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-85198168633435684852012-10-29T18:33:00.000+02:002012-11-07T19:43:12.282+02:00Heidi-Jane Esakov - letter<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Open letter Ms. Esakov following her letter to Chief Rabbi Goldstein</i></span></b></div>
<br />
Ms. Esakov,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am writing as a fellow Jew, South African and Israeli
after reading your letter to Chief Rabbi Goldstein - “Do not speak in my name”<sup>+ </sup> (21/08/2012). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While some of the content is factually wrong (see below),
unsupported and seems simply thrown in to serve biased sentiments and obsessive
agenda, the logic which fans the content and arguments is twisted and places
stumbling blocks before the blind. If this <i>is</i> your intention, you
needn’t read the rest of this letter. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Relying on your statement - “as a researcher who focuses on
Palestine-Israel, it is my duty to step back from my anger and engage
intellectually and honestly”, I would expect intellectual engagement and
intellectual honesty too. Furthermore, I am glad to see that you are “committed
to justice for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis….and prefer not to personalize
the debate but rather “remain[s] rooted in intellectual engagement”. I commit
to upholding the same moral duty and commitment. I would thus like to clarify
that each and every statement, historic fact and/or comment can and will be
supported by credible links and other informative reliable resources. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After your short introduction, in which you state that you will
“ensure that the personal is not lost to the political” and “remain rooted
in intellectual engagement”, you accuse Goldstein personally, of abusing his
office and “unapologetically becoming a propagandist for Israeli crimes”. I did
some research and cannot find the likes. The only reference I found attributed
to Goldstein, regarding the Goldstone report, is a statement regarding commission member Chinkin’s article and
statements about "Israel's bombardment of Gaza is not self-defense – it's
a war crime"<sup>1</sup> before even having researched anything. As a
researcher yourself, you know that assumptions and presumptions preceding any
findings are the antithesis of research, fact-finding and reporting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You brought up the point of a “blind-spot” in your first
paragraph. Unfortunately, as a researcher, you seem to have one yourself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.45pt;">
“<i><span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Remember that even when it
became painfully apparent, and the United Nations displayed evidence, that
Israel had committed crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 2008-09
Israeli war on Gaza, leaving about 1,400 civilians dead, including hundreds of
children, and having destroyed places of education and worship, you used your
religious office to defend and condone the indefensible, unapologetically
becoming a propagandist for Israeli crimes.</span> “<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lots of water has passed under the bridge since the
Goldstone report, including Goldstone’s remorse.<sup>2</sup> You seem to lack
some researched information and owe an explanation to your readers to fall in
line with your “commit[ment] to justice for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis”,
unless leading readers astray is part of your agenda. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You insinuate that Israel purposely “destroyed places of
education and worship”, “during the war on Gaza”. Israel has no, and had no
policy to destroy places of worship or education, <b>nor did it proclaim war on
Gaza</b>. Had the mighty Israeli military machine wanted to destroy all places
of worship and education it quite easily could have. Israel did not go to war
on Gaza either. Israel initiated an operation against Hamas and splinter group
terrorists to stop indiscriminate rocket fire at civilian targets. Despite
being a legitimate legal and immediate right, under any law system, Israel
initiated the operation after thousands of rockets were launched at civilian
targets and countless negotiation attempts to stop it, including a ceasefire
intentionally broken by Hamas. Hamas terrorists and their splinter groups were the
<i>only</i> targets. British Colonel, Richard Kemp testifies to this<sup>3,4</sup>
and testified at the UN too<sup>5</sup>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is common knowledge, almost 4 years after Operation Cast
Lead, that the number of civilian casualties is not 1,400 as you falsely wrote
and missed in your research<sup>6, 7</sup>.
Even the Goldstone report did not invent such a number, rewrite this as
history or distort facts so blatantly. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Presenting a simplified snapshot of event or situation is
considered poor journalism in the field of journalism and is totally
unacceptable in research. There are countless anti-Israel hate sites and
speakers whom, for now, I would like to believe that you do not want to be
associated with. Actually, some research shows that you took part in an
anti-Israel hate fest alongside Friedman, Kasrils, Said, Basam, Mohammed,
Abdullah et al. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You continue and claim that Mr. Ebrahim is correct in saying
that visiting Israel gives legitimacy to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian
land. When asked if travelling to China gives legitimacy to China’s occupation of
Tibet, Mr. Ebrahim said that “We do not recognize the occupation of Tibet”<sup>8</sup>.
Is it correct to assume that Mr. Ebrahim has singled out Israel as the worst
perpetrator of human rights violations? Please bear in mind, Darfur, Rwanda,
Tibet, Syria amongst others. Mr. Ebrahim might like see what Mr. Kenneth
Moshoe, a fellow Member of Parliament has to say about the “Apartheid Israel”
he constantly refers to<sup>9</sup>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was going to break down every point you made in your
letter but shall suffice with the above, pending your reply. The more I
research your “moral duties” and “commitment to justice for Palestinians and
Jewish Israelis” the more doubts I have to your real intentions and suspect
foreign elements in your commitment to intellectual discourse and “research”. I
hold this view after not finding any mention of anything concerning Israeli or
Jewish interests or concerns. Not one. Nor do I find any mention of one step
that the Palestinians need to undertake in order to bring about peace. Not one.
Instead I am witness to pure Anti-Israel bias at best, and blatant lies as
second. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This leads me, and the wary reader, to conclude that you are
not a “researcher who focuses on Palestine-Israel” but someone who has jumped
onto the anti-Israel bandwagon with popular misleading banners. Your target
audience might be the unwary and ignorant reader, but only you and I live with
that knowledge, meanwhile. Ironic that you write “Palestine-Israel” and not
“Israel-Palestine” – Palestine first, yet the focus is on Israel, another
subtle hint. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
+ Letter: <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/letters/2012/08/21/letter-do-not-speak-in-my-name">http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/letters/2012/08/21/letter-do-not-speak-in-my-name</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup>1</sup> Chinkin: <a href="http://www.alandershowitz.com/goldstone.pdf">http://www.alandershowitz.com/goldstone.pdf</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -2.0cm;">
<sup>2 </sup>Goldstone:
<sup> </sup><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html</a>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup> 3 </sup>Kemp: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WssrKJ3Iqcw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WssrKJ3Iqcw</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup>4 </sup>Kemp: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fko9F1EAU2g&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fko9F1EAU2g&feature=related</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup>5 </sup>Kemp: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX6vyT8RzMo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX6vyT8RzMo</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8900832904674815553" name="_GoBack"></a><sup>6</sup> Casualties: <a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2010/11/so-how-many-were-killed-in-operation.html">http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2010/11/so-how-many-were-killed-in-operation.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -2.0cm;">
<sup>7</sup>
Casualties: <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-admits-600-700-of-its-men-were-killed-in-cast-lead-1.323776">http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-admits-600-700-of-its-men-were-killed-in-cast-lead-1.323776</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -2.0cm;">
<sup>8</sup>
Tibet: <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2012/08/15/Ebrahim-defends-his-comments">http://ewn.co.za/2012/08/15/Ebrahim-defends-his-comments</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup>9</sup> Kenneth Moshoe: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5xTh8uwyo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5xTh8uwyo</a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-73466018781259390552012-09-06T06:52:00.002+03:002012-11-01T13:35:25.789+02:00The Wits SRC unanimously votes to boycott Israel - a letter<b><i><span style="color: #990000;">A letter to the president of the University of the Witwatersrand's Student Representative Council after an unanimous decision to adopt a call to culturally and academically boycott Israel.</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
To: Mr.
Tebogo Thotela<br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> President
of the Wits Student Representative Council (SRC)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-indent: 36pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
Dear Mr. President,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
I attentively listened to your statement<sup>1</sup>
explaining the reasons and decision-making process for the unanimous decision
subsequently passed by your council to boycott Israel. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
As a South African who grew up during
the Apartheid era in South Africa, and as an Israeli living in Israel, I would
like to request, with your kind permission, a few clarifications regarding some
of your statements and the decision taken by your council. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">
You clearly state that the SRC
"got a presentation from the PSC [Palestinian Student Council] around the
situation going on in Israel/Palestine". As a result the SRC decided "to
take deliberations, discuss, debate and do [your] own research" on the issue.
After having apparently done this, the council resolved to "call for a
total cultural and academic boycott of Israel".<o:p></o:p></div>
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As President of a Council, which by
definition represents all students regardless of race, color, creed and
religion, I am sure that transparency and disclosure are values upheld by the
SRC. In light of this, I would like to request some information on the
deliberations, debate and research undertaken by your council in reaching the
abovementioned call. Specifically I would like to know what research was undertaken
and who opposed the resolution and the final decision. Since debate, by
definition, is a discussion in which opposing arguments are put forward, I am
sure you can provide some information and light on the opposing arguments. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Pending your reply, I would not like
to assume that very few arguments from the opposing point-of-view were debated.
This would certainly not fall in line with categorical policies of the SRC and
the prestige of the university whose students you represent. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Unfortunately you may have drawn an
incorrect parallel between Apartheid South Africa and Israel based on the
information presented, or lack thereof. The times are different, the histories,
the peoples, the cultures and circumstances have absolutely no similarity
whatsoever, unless one relies on cheap unfounded anti-Israel rhetoric and
disinformation published by certain groups. As your own South African
government official Mr. Kenneth Meshoe says<sup>2</sup>, "the claim that
Israel is an Apartheid State minimize the pain of those who suffered under
Apartheid" and expose ignorance by claiming doing so. <o:p></o:p></div>
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You also mention that you "feel that
it is your duty to stand up to Apartheid even if it is miles away". I
would also like to ask why Israel was singled out as the most urgent issue to
address. In many countries surrounding Israel we see many types of Apartheid;
gender Apartheid; religious Apartheid; sexual preference Apartheid, yet the SRC
has chosen to single out Israel, a sovereign democratic country in which women,
Christians, Moslems, gays and all other minority groups enjoy equal
rights. How so? Regretfully, I intuitively
suspect that certain groups are cynically exploiting the pains of Apartheid to
further their cause by turning the SRC into a propaganda tool since a cultural
and academic boycott of Israel is so counterproductive to the interests of
South Africa as explained by a fellow South African Maurice Ostroff in his
article in The Times of Israel<sup>3</sup>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I would like to believe that the
SRC's one month of research and debate was undertaken in good faith while adhering
to the moral ethics and standards which the university holds in the highest
esteem. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I await your reply and thank you in
advance for the attention that this matter deserves. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Laurence Seeff<o:p></o:p></div>
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Israel <o:p></o:p></div>
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/m_XdMTXy7zQ/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m_XdMTXy7zQ&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m_XdMTXy7zQ&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<sup>1 </sup></div>
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<sup>2 </sup> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5xTh8uwyo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5xTh8uwyo</a><sup> <o:p></o:p></sup></div>
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<sup>3</sup> <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/counterproductive-politics/">http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/counterproductive-politics/</a><sup><o:p></o:p></sup></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-26815198516578237702011-10-02T10:01:00.001+02:002011-10-02T10:03:46.038+02:00How dare the UN!Far too often buzz words, conceptions, concepts and ideas become acceptable without any factual or or informative information. Alan Dershowitz puts it straight for all those who have an opinion about the ME, Israel, UN and Palestinians.<br />
<br />
These 17 minutes will upset your logic, change your views and leave you astounded.<br />
<br />
Comments welcome....<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OGrZlL6zjXohvDMGWUaikpOzOdp16rgxu2H-GRCdjATHc3POisHEkLiEVjs3ylHi6VHPuVjIVbaIa7jXJRVBM2TEuOZt9p_AAn4X6_g8tPlfTLgPXRXxdII5-TkkSWa90n0hqpUVyEBe/s320/dersh.jpg" width="320" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=457&load=6057">View video</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-43673400036953064882010-06-05T17:25:00.002+03:002010-06-05T17:27:36.772+03:00Cry for Palestinian ChildrenThis video does not leave room for an introduction or explanations:<br />
<br />
<object width="400" height="249"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YSzAh9Kf-o0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YSzAh9Kf-o0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="400" height="249"></embed></object><br />
<br />
Shame...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-85299293737728908182010-06-03T16:39:00.000+03:002010-06-03T16:39:01.895+03:00Israel Kills 'peace' Seekers II<i style="color: #990000;">A follow up on my previous post</i> <a href="http://israelproud.blogspot.com/2010/06/israel-kills-peace-seekers.html">"Israel Kills 'peace' Seekers"</a>.<br />
<br />
<i style="color: #990000;">Glen Beck from <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/4223912/inside-the-freedom-flotilla/?playlist_id=86917">FoxNews.com</a> analyzes the 'Peace' Flotilla to Gaza, its background and intentions.</i><br />
<br />
In this video, he looks at the people behind "Free Gaza" who financed and organized part of this flotilla.<br />
<br />
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4223984&w=400&h=249"></script><noscript>Watch the latest news video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-70802326081812363462010-06-03T11:16:00.004+03:002010-06-03T11:36:09.750+03:00Israel Kills IHH 'peace' Seekers<i style="color: #990000;">Glen Beck from <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/4223912/inside-the-freedom-flotilla/?playlist_id=86917">FoxNews.com</a> analyzes the 'Peace' Flotilla to Gaza, its background and intentions.</i><br />
<br />
Interesting observations and questions for the anti-Israel mob.<br />
<br />
Looks like the world media is so anti-Israel and biased that I will not be surprised to soon see people and nations defending the following headline as a democratic, peaceful and internationally acceptable trend:<br />
<div style="color: #660000;"><b><br />
</b></div><b style="color: #660000;">"Let's Kill the Israelis peacefully"</b>. <br />
<br />
<br />
<script src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4223912&w=400&h=249" type="text/javascript">
</script><noscript>Watch the latest news video at &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://video.foxnews.com/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;video.foxnews.com&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</noscript><br />
<br />
Comments are welcome.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-12228923787936702872010-06-02T23:26:00.002+03:002010-06-02T23:32:04.984+03:00Flotilla aid refused by Hamas<div style="color: #990000;"><i>The humanitarian aid aboard the 6 boats has been transported to the Gaza border crossing yet Hamas is refusing to allow the aid to enter the Gazastrip.</i></div><br />
Read the entire article from the Jerusalem Post here: <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=177284">Flotilla aid refused by Hamas</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-76374759763255118772010-05-31T20:05:00.001+03:002010-05-31T20:06:44.031+03:00Flotilla "peace" activistsFor those who buy all the world media sell them, here are some of the peace activists before starting their humanitarian aid sail to Gaza:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZe1c41JbA1xqnbRrB9U-24mqRFhyspLfyXrJKrGBUPwOtBP7wIvaOQZLDKBsECo2NRAu9G0qMY4mzfRe393d25TkHnnj-wO6hD-hrBZYDr73j_0a4aTScvM0dIisX8jLjrPVISKZjkr5O/s1600/peace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZe1c41JbA1xqnbRrB9U-24mqRFhyspLfyXrJKrGBUPwOtBP7wIvaOQZLDKBsECo2NRAu9G0qMY4mzfRe393d25TkHnnj-wO6hD-hrBZYDr73j_0a4aTScvM0dIisX8jLjrPVISKZjkr5O/s320/peace.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Courtesy of <a href="ttp://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-navy-commandos-gaza-flotilla-activists-tried-to-lynch-us-1.293089">Haaretz </a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>And here they are in action, calling for peace:<br />
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Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army in 628. Many Jews were killed in that battle, which marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia. There are Muslims who see that as a precursor to future wars against Jews. At gatherings and rallies of extremists, this chant is often heard as a threat to Jews to expect to be defeated and killed again by Muslims.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-20924735767613284512010-05-31T15:38:00.005+03:002010-05-31T15:45:57.999+03:00Israeli soliders kill 10 'peace' activists<div style="color: #990000;"><i><b>Wow! - some headline</b> - the mighty Israeli army cold bloodily executes peace activists.</i></div><div style="color: #990000;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="color: #990000;"><i>Many are going gobble, savor and digest the above headline which will appear in all its ferocious forms in the world media. Good luck to those. For many others, those who are able to breath for a second before resorting to a default "Israel bash" mode, read on...</i></div><br />
Since this incident is far from over, I am extremely cautious not to provide unofficial information that has not been categorically verified. For now, lets examine some of the known verified facts:<br />
<br />
<ol><li>During the planning stages, the Israel Defense Force and government repeatedly announced that unwarranted maritime vessels with unmonitored cargo will not be allowed to enter territorial waters.</li>
<li>An alternative conventional and viable solution was proposed - the cargo would undergo security checks in Ashdod harbor and then be delivered by Israel. This solution was refused.</li>
<li>Before the military operation, the flotilla was repeatedly requested to change course and warned of the takeover. The warnings and requests were met with clear defiance and refusals.</li>
<li> Israeli soldiers were equipped with demonstration dispersion equipment in an effort to prevent using live ammunition.</li>
<li>In video footage, it is clearly evident that the soldiers were attacked with iron bars and other material, yet did not hasten to open fire with live ammunition. In one case, a soldier is seen to be trying to ward off an attacker without making use of a weapon. </li>
<li>Five our of the six vessels were overpowered without any show of violence on behalf of the activists and therefore, on these boats, no one was injured.</li>
</ol> <br />
<div style="color: #cc0000;">Fresh reports announce that the first wave of soldiers was not armed with live ammunition in an attempt to prevent unnecessary violence but rather with riot equipment. After almost being lynched (some of them jumped in the water to escape), the second wave of soldiers took control of the vessel. <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;">(Remember that these are highly trained navy commando seals)</span></span><span style="color: black;">.</span></div><br />
No nation allows unmonitored cross border access. An alternative reasonable solution to pass humanitarian aid were offered but refused. Despite repeated warnings the organizers decided to defy orders and were thus overpowered. Only after the activists initiated violent attacks on the soldiers (clearly seen on video footage), and apparently shooting at soldiers from a seized weapon, did the Israeli soldiers justifiably use live ammunition on the Mari Marmara. <br />
<br />
Was the purpose of this flotilla to send humanitarian aid into Gaza? Or, was it a provocation designed to de-legitimize Israel? Why were the "peace" activists on the Mari Marmara armed with axes, iron bars and clubs? Here is the footage of a "peace" activist stabbing a soldier!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="425" width="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/buzOWKxN2co&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/buzOWKxN2co&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy of Israel Channel2 News)</span></div><br />
The Turkish charity "IHH" is the organization behind this flotilla to send humanitarian aid sent to Gaza. Closely tied to Hamas (considered a terror organization by most of the international community) previous aid sent to the "people of Gaza" was in effect handed over to Hamas leadership (the IHH even confirms in a published document). <br />
<br />
That is is for now - I'll keep you posted or revisit for updates.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-6030798725003045082010-03-17T12:58:00.004+02:002010-03-17T19:33:52.307+02:00Goldstone report - pure anti-Israel bias<div style="color: #990000;"><i>The above heading might seem a bit powerful but it will never be as powerful as this report - considered as Israel's first real response to the Goldstone Report. </i></div><br />
<a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/g_report_e1.pdf">This 349 page report</a> by The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center provides the main findings of a study which examined how the Goldstone Report dealt with the nature and activities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip before and during Operation Cast Lead. The main conclusion of this study is that there is an enormous discrepancy between the findings of the Goldstone Report and the factual findings, and an extreme imbalance tipped against Israel.<br />
<br />
The Goldstone Report systematically relies on selective, biased information, in many cases supplied by Hamas or by individuals and/or institutions controlled by it. The Report analyzes the selective, biased information in a way clearly intended to reinforce the thesis that Israel deliberately targeted civilians.<br />
<br />
This report contains lots of video footage and graphic images: <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkd8bA0fgSi2F8zzEbDppSAbluE2Z5HFBmO6yCWuFPvzlIJxfScVWm3qxZ52dN2f6Oovnj6tV8KsgHqjfqPUSZcrHPuPFN2Jk0US8_npJXrZ-KTZIIM8mH_e2S9epHAArKTFSyDwiacwL/s1600-h/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkd8bA0fgSi2F8zzEbDppSAbluE2Z5HFBmO6yCWuFPvzlIJxfScVWm3qxZ52dN2f6Oovnj6tV8KsgHqjfqPUSZcrHPuPFN2Jk0US8_npJXrZ-KTZIIM8mH_e2S9epHAArKTFSyDwiacwL/s320/Capture.PNG" /></a></div><br />
<br />
This study is based on a vast amount of intelligence information from the Israeli<br />
intelligence community which was made accessible to the team of researchers. It also made<br />
extensive use of Palestinian, Arab and international media, and of previous bulletins issued by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (which were used selectively by the<br />
Goldstone Mission). In addition, the intelligence information was supported and<br />
complemented by statements and investigations of IDF forces who fought on the ground.<br />
<br />
The report is found here:<a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/g_report_e1.pdf"> http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/g_report_e1.pdf</a><br />
<br />
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center website: <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/">http://www.terrorism-info.org.il</a><a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/">http://www.terrorism-info.org.il</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-65033907300064667532010-03-08T18:40:00.001+02:002010-03-08T18:52:14.196+02:00The Green Prince<div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Musab Musab Youssef, son of the Hamas leader in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), followed his convictions to save lives and became an agent of the Israeli General Security Service. For 14 years he served as anagent and prevented many Israeli and Palestinian deaths by exposing suicide bombers and even a planned attempt on Shimon Peres's life.</span></i></div><br />
He left Israel, resides in Canada and<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=israe-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1414333072&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> has converted to Christianity. A very brave man who has endangered the rest of his life for the sake of saving lives. His book "The Green Prince" has recently been released. <span style="color: blue; font-size: x-small;">(Click the link on the left to purchase).</span><br />
<br />
Below is an exclusive interview on Israeli TV. The introduction is in Hebrew but the interview is conducted in English.<br />
<br />
<object style="height: 344px; width: 425px;"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PUb-FBlRF_0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PUb-FBlRF_0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed> </object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-28897533768374628522010-03-02T11:11:00.000+02:002010-03-02T11:11:20.498+02:00Humanitarian Aid Pours into Gaza<div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">There is much talk about Israel's so-called blockade of Gaza. Egypt was the first to close the border, followed by Israel. If you carefully read this article by an "activist [who] discusses Israeli blockade of Gaza", you will notice that Egypt and Jordan delayed and tried to prevent aid from Turkey reaching Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel allows aid to pour into Gaza. Interestingly, this does not feature in the world media.</span></i></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The following is from the IDF spokesperson's office:</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">During the week, 976 tons of humanitarian aid were transferred into the Gaza Strip from Israel. 255 medical patients crossed into Israel and Judea and Samaria for treatment</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Over the last week, a total of 595 truckloads, consisting of 13, 976 tons of humanitarian aid were transferred into the Gaza Strip from Israel via the various crossings. Likewise, ten truckloads of carnations were exported from Gaza to Europe.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBODMIPooe9Kx6CNPqdRAGsxKgCDV7F0h1ryEvqM69mUzeaVECnGndkmZ1ijMLdngE70dXU4Do26I73SF9YFX2DfWw1lSGi99lDD9k6sT2b7jyOjVE6DSVYf_zoQE2O5RfxHyLywD92nUw/s1600-h/aid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBODMIPooe9Kx6CNPqdRAGsxKgCDV7F0h1ryEvqM69mUzeaVECnGndkmZ1ijMLdngE70dXU4Do26I73SF9YFX2DfWw1lSGi99lDD9k6sT2b7jyOjVE6DSVYf_zoQE2O5RfxHyLywD92nUw/s320/aid.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: IDF Spokesperson</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Additionally, 255 medical patients and accompanying individuals from the Gaza Strip crossed into Israel and the Judea and Samaria region for medical treatment. 222 staff members of international organizations crossed into the Gaza Strip.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Essential food and humanitarian aid products, including milk powder, baby food, rice, cooking oil, flour, hygiene products and medicals supplies including a CT scanner were among the goods that crossed into Gaza this past week.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lastly, 1,216,297 liters of diesel fuel and 992 tons of cooking gas also crossed into Gaza. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-55343523554775081952010-03-01T16:40:00.002+02:002010-03-01T16:42:14.731+02:00Vote for the Dead Sea<div style="color: #990000;"><i>The New7Wonders Foundation, which is behind the New7Wonders campaigns, has the express aim of undertaking documentation and conservation works of monuments worldwide under the motto:<br />
<br />
<b>"OUR HERITAGE IS OUR FUTURE"</b></i></div><br />
New7Wonders calls on all citizens of the world to support it<br />
Through film, television, the Internet and books, people shall be sensitized to the beauty of the world’s heritage, both man-made and natural, and be alerted of its destruction and decay.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfbGzKH7rNt5qkNrErSOuVPgNdfg2h7ZOswbu930RfycejyKgSRRgdIqK0GOzHm-Z3Fuju6o3y_xibFc_1FAfysOfXcYZXNfxC4HgQAXWtP2b2TbdLa6AY4Vmz0j2t_k-HASS1-Y3FxUGR/s1600-h/IMG_2866.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfbGzKH7rNt5qkNrErSOuVPgNdfg2h7ZOswbu930RfycejyKgSRRgdIqK0GOzHm-Z3Fuju6o3y_xibFc_1FAfysOfXcYZXNfxC4HgQAXWtP2b2TbdLa6AY4Vmz0j2t_k-HASS1-Y3FxUGR/s320/IMG_2866.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-small;">Photo: Laurence Seeff 02/2010 </span></i></div><br />
You can vote for the Dead Sea and 6 other sites at the<a href="http://www.new7wonders.com/n7w"> New7Wonders Foundation website</a><br><br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-62146140787947208322010-03-01T16:04:00.001+02:002010-03-01T16:05:27.577+02:00Co-existence in an Israeli school<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span></i><br />
<div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Israel is often portrayed as an intolerant, elite society which disregards the needs and desires of minority groups. This video shows integration where Arab and Israeli children co-exist.</span></i></div><div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"></div><div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><br />
<object style="height: 344px; width: 425px;"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/F3DD7lhf_Rs"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/F3DD7lhf_Rs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-47482346205658836302010-02-25T09:35:00.003+02:002010-02-25T09:41:54.958+02:00First Burn Center in Congo - joint Israeli & USA effort<i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">Most of the international media wrongly connects the words "Israel" and "humanitarian" to "violations" and "Palestinian" (Google the first two words), however Israel is also connected to other leading humanitarian efforts worldwide.</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">The Israeli nonprofit aid organization <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1267083372335">Moriah </a><a href="http://www.israaid.org.il/member_page.asp?id=97">Africa</a> (an <a href="http://www.israaid.org.il/">IsraAID </a>member) has joined hands with Los Angeles human rights organization Jewish World Watch<a href="http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/">http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/</a> and <a href="http://mashav.mfa.gov.il/">MASHAV</a>, the Israeli Foreign Ministry aid arm, to establish a Burn Center in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Center will be housed in the large central government hospital in Bukavu, a key city not only in eastern Congo but also in the wider Great Lakes region. <br />
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In a country of 65 million people, where almost the entire population continues to cook over open fires and constant insecurity acutely limits access to medical care, burns and their crippling, disfiguring after-effects are relatively widespread. Yet modern treatment for basic burns and skin trauma is nonexistent. This burn center will be the first ever established in Eastern Congo.<br />
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Working together with Israel’s Rambam and Soroka hospitals, the medical exchange effort has brought expertise and initiative together for the purpose of expanding the surgical skill level and creating a center for reparative plastic surgery for the Congolese population. Combining modern training, equipment, supplies, evaluation and follow-up, the project is a multi-phase effort. With support from the partners—Moriah Africa, Jewish World Watch, and MASHAV--Rambam Hospital provided Phase I training to a Congolese general surgeon, Dr. Leon Mubenga. Phase II began on February 19, when Dr. Mubenga returned to DRC with an Israeli plastic surgeon specialist, Dr. Eldad Silberstein from Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva.<br />
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Now in Bukavu, in addition to daily lecture sessions each morning, Dr. Silberstein is currently training surgeons from six area hospitals in reparative plastic surgery techniques via intensive surgical intervention activity for more than eight hours each day. Surgeons are divided into teams to have two surgical theaters in operation simultaneously. Dr. Silberstein provides guidance, and with the help of the new equipment, surgeons from the six area hospitals are learning to practice their new skills. A transformation is taking place, not only in terms of changed patients but also in terms of changed surgeons.<br />
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These are the first steps in setting up the burn center. It is an ongoing process that will continue to grow. Given the very positive and productive beginning, Moriah Africa, Jewish World Watch and MASHAV are looking forward to the next steps.<br />
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"As the word has spread, the numbers of new patients arriving daily to the hospital here is astounding,” said Gila Garaway, director of Moriah Africa. “I knew there was a problem but had no idea how many maimed people have stayed hidden away. It is a great gift to see this rich blessing unfolding here." <br />
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Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug, Executive Director of Jewish World Watch, added: “We are proud to support this program that will also help the doctors in Eastern Congo expand their expertise, and make available modern equipment and treatment protocols that will immeasurably benefit burn victims there for years to come.”<br />
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About Moriah Africa: The mission of Moriah Africa is to stimulate and facilitate local, regional, and national initiatives, with a focus on providing expertise to support the realization of this vision through training and training seminars, training materials for medical personnel, agricultural experts, water and sanitation engineers, English teachers, program designers and others. The effort has also included financial support, supplies and equipment for schools, health and training centers. Moriah Africa works through partnerships with communities, Government Organizations, and Non-Governmental Organizations.<br />
<br />
About Jewish World Watch: Jewish World Watch, a Los Angeles-based human rights organization, is a coalition of 64 synagogues working together to combat genocide and other egregious violations of human rights worldwide. Since its founding five years ago, JWW has achieved significant success within its three mission goals: education, advocacy and humanitarian relief, having allocated almost $4 million in direct assistance to the people of Darfur. It now begins a campaign to end the atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"> For more information, see <a href="http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/">www.jewishworldwatch.org</a>.</span> </span><i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-22224991323511013522010-02-23T22:54:00.002+02:002010-02-23T23:07:54.341+02:00Campus Intifada<div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><i>University campuses have become the new battleground for anti-Israel propaganda behind a smokescreen of intellectual freedom of speech. </i></div><div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div>A short film worth watching.<br />
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<script src="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/4aa65db379530054/4b557c07725e3dea/4aa65db379530054/de4f8c92/widget.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-34434706902574381392010-02-22T08:27:00.004+02:002010-02-22T08:39:22.637+02:00Goldstone Report Rejected by USA<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><i>Israel is not the only country which has rejected the validity of the Goldstone report. The American government has strongly rejected the report by calling it "deeply flawed" and "irredeemably biased."</i></span></span><br />
<br />
In an article published on the <a href="http://www.aipac.org/The_Issues/index_30873.asp">AIPAC website</a>, a summary of the flaws are listed concisely under the following headers:<br />
<ul><li>The United States has rejected the findings and methodology of the Goldstone report.</li>
<li>The Goldstone report failed to recognize Israel's right to self-defense after years of rocket attacks against its civilians.</li>
<li>The Goldstone report is part of a pattern at the U.N. of singling out Israel for criticism and condemnation.</li>
<li>Israel's actions in Gaza were consistent with international law and subject to rigorous internal legal scrutiny.</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
Read the whole article <a href="http://www.aipac.org/The_Issues/index_30873.asp">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-64584796432329486072010-02-11T16:53:00.003+02:002010-02-11T16:56:19.867+02:00New Revelations About the UN Goldstone Report<div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The Goldstone report caused lots of damage to Israel's image worldwide. I am convinced that quite ironically, because the accusations towards Israel are so grave, the international arena will not be able to just let the report lie (no pun intended). I regularly will be posting updates on the Goldstone report as they emerge, so check in often to see how the bare truth is slowly revealed. </i></span></div><div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Credibility: <a href="http://www.jcpa.org/" style="color: #990000;">JCPA</a> (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) </i></span></div><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>New Revelations About the UN Goldstone Report that Seriously Undermine its Credibility</b></div><br />
Col. (ret.) Desmond Travers was one of the four members of the UN Fact Finding Mission that produced what is widely called the Goldstone Report. The Mission investigated Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009. Travers joined the Irish Defense Forces in 1961 and retired after forty years. As the only former officer who belonged to Justice Richard Goldstone's team, he was the senior figure responsible for the military analysis that provided the basis for condemning Israel for war crimes. <br />
<br />
After following his repeated public appearances with the other mission members in July 2009, and especially in light of his most recent interviews, serious flaws have now become evident in the methodology he followed, in his collection and processing of data, and in the conclusions he draws.<b> In the past, the flaws in the Goldstone report, and especially its lack of balance, have been criticized by the London Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist, but the fundamental problems of its military analysis have not been fully addressed. In the material presented here, this becomes evident in four specific ways:</b><br />
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1. A Fundamental Bias against the Israel Defense Forces<br />
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During the Mission's collection of testimonies from Palestinian psychologists in the Gaza Strip, Travers asked them straight out to explain how Israeli soldiers could kill Palestinian children in front of their parents. In an interview with Middle East Monitor, on February 2, 2010, he asserted that in the past Israeli soldiers had "taken out and deliberately shot" Irish peacekeeping forces in Southern Lebanon. Both of these statements by Travers are completely false. It should be stressed that one of the most vicious and unsubstantiated conclusions in the Goldstone Report is the suggestion that Israel deliberately killed Palestinian civilians.<br />
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While Travers assumes the worst of intentions on the part of the Israel Defense Forces, he praises Hamas for their cooperation with the Mission. When he was asked about Hamas intimidation that affected the Mission's inquiries, he replied that that there was "none <br />
<br />
whatsoever." Yet the Goldstone Report itself noted in Paragraph 440 that those interviewed in Gaza appeared reluctant to speak about the presence of Palestinian armed groups because of a "fear of reprisals." He rejects the notion that Hamas shielded its forces in the civilian population and does not accept the idea that Israel faced asymmetric warfare.<br />
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<br />
2. False Information Reported About Weapons Systems<br />
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Travers comes up with a story that the IDF had unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) that could obtain a "thermal signature" on a Gaza house and detect that there were large numbers of people inside. Incredibly, he then suggests that with this information that certain houses were "packed with people," the Israeli military would then deliberately order a missile strike on these populated homes. The primary technical problem with his theory is that Israel does not have UAV's that can see though houses and pick up a thermal signature. More importantly, Israel used UAV's to monitor that Palestinian civilians left houses that had received multiple warnings, precisely because Israel sought to minimize civilian casualties, a fact that Travers could not fathom, because of his own clear biases.<br />
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<br />
3. Completely Inaccurate Data<br />
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Travers rejects that Israel began military operations against the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008 as an act of self-defense in response to Hamas rockets. He bases this idea on a "fact" that he presents that in the month prior to start of the war, there were only "something like two" rockets that fell on Israel. Israeli military sources found that there were in fact 32 rockets fired from Gaza at Israel over three days alone--between December 16 and 18, 2008. He adds to his analysis that at this time Hamas sought to extend the tahdiya, or lull arrangement--which he called a cease-fire. Yet the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas announced on December 17 that the lull would come to an end two days later and would not be renewed. The head of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, announced the end of the lull on December 14. To say that Hamas wanted to continue the lull is a complete distortion of events.<br />
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In his Middle East Monitor interview, Travers states that he "only came across two incidents of where there was an actual combat situation" – the exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas. Because he minimizes the possibility that Israel was engaged in real combat in the Gaza Strip, it follows that he naturally conclude that Israel was essentially attacking non-combatants during Operation Cast Lead.<br />
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4. Lack of Professionalism in Conducting Thorough Investigations<br />
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Travers relies on his own prejudices when he looks into the question of whether Gazan Mosques had been militarized by Hamas and turned into weapons depots. In an interview with Harpers, published on October 29, 2009, Travers makes a sweeping generalization: "We found no evidence that mosques were used to store munitions." He then dismissed those who suggested that was the case by saying: "Those charges reflect Western perceptions in some quarters that Islam is a violent religion." How many mosques did Travers investigate? He admits that the Mission only checked two mosques. <br />
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Of course, Israel produced photographic proof that large amounts of weapons were stored in mosques, like the Zaytun Mosque. In a subsequent interview, Travers rejected the Israeli proof: "I do not believe the photographs." He described the photographs as "spurious." Travers appears to be bothered by proof that contradicts the conclusions he reaches on the basis of a very limited investigation. In early 2010, Colonel Tim Collins, a British veteran of the Iraq War, visited Gaza for BBC Newsnight <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%28http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8470100.stm">(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8470100.stm</a>, 20 January 2010) and inspected the ruins of a mosque that Israel had destroyed because it had been a weapons depot. He found that there was evidence of secondary explosions cause by explosives stored in the mosque cellar. Travers clearly did not make the effort that Collins made. <br />
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In his questioning of Palestinian witnesses in the Gaza Strip, Travers does not ask the questions that a military advisor should raise. He did not ask those giving testimony if they were member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam units of Hamas and were combatants. He also failed to ask them straight out if their homes had been used to store munitions, like Grad rockets. Instead, his questions reflected his ideological bias.<br />
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Travers most recent interview also had a disturbing additional element. When addressing the role of British officers in defending Israel's claims, Travers suddenly adds: "Britain's foreign policy interests in the Middle East seem to be influenced strongly by Jewish lobbyists." Travers implies that British Jews have interests that differ from Britain's own national interests and that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is influenced by these considerations. This statement, unless corrected, places Travers is a position in which his views are suspect of being motivated by anti-Semitic prejudices. Even without this last statement, he clearly emerges as an individual who is not qualified to take part in any serious fact-finding mission and the U.N. should not seek his services in the future. Given his statements, Justice Richard Goldstone should repudiate Col. Travers and completely reject the conclusions that he reached as a result of his work.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-90765223750388521262010-02-11T16:32:00.007+02:002010-02-11T16:40:51.140+02:00"The resilience of the people is stronger than we expected"<div style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Israeli volunteers have opened a makeshift school in Port-au-Prince, providing education and counseling for 800 of the city's traumatized children.</span></i></div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://israel21c.org/images/stories/socialaction/haiti-school.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://israel21c.org/images/stories/socialaction/haiti-school.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: grey;"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"><span style="font-family: mceinline;">Photo by UN Photo/Logan Abassi, Flash90.</span></span></span></b></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><a href="http://israel21c.org/201002117688/social-action/qthe-resilience-of-the-people-is-stronger-than-we-expectedq">The resilience of the people is stronger than we expected </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-1360210348056747772010-02-05T19:21:00.010+02:002010-02-11T17:18:48.621+02:00Tribute to Alan Dershowitz<div style="color: #990000;"><i><b>Alan Dershowitz</b> is an American lawyer, jurist and political commentator and is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Known as "Israel’s single most visible defender – the Jewish state’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion", he comments regularly on issues related to Judaism, Israel, civil liberties, the War on Terror and the frist amendment.</i></div><br />
Dershowitz is an outspoken commentator on the history and politics of Israel, and has engaged in highly publicized media confrontations on a number of different topics including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and lately, the Goldstone report. Dershowitz is often interviewed and commentates in the mainstream media.<br />
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Dershowitz is the author of a number <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/israe-20">books </a>and <a href="http://www.alandershowitz.com/publications/articles.php">articles</a> which have been published worldwide. He often takes issue on controversial issues, and challenged Jimmy Carter to a debate at Brandeis University regarding Carter's book "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Peace_Not_Apartheid" title="Palestine Peace Not Apartheid">Palestine Peace Not Apartheid</a>". Carter declined the challenge on the grounds that "There is no need . . . to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine."<br />
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Dershowitz has recently been active refuting the Goldstone report, a UN investigation of the "Operation Cast Lead" offensive in Gaza. He was invited to Forham Law School give a talk about the report. Dershowitz invited Goldstone to debate his analysis and findings and rebuttals. Goldstone refused. <br />
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<br />
In his talk, Dershowitz explains why the report is a farce and excuse to bash Israel which does not even legally classify as an investigation. He then continues to explain his views and finally, opens the floor to questions.<br />
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<b>A captivating 1.5hr video of the talk can be found <a href="http://www.israelactivism.com/video/">here</a>. </b><br />
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I am awed by his commitment, devotion, knowledge, eloquence and activities in a lot of fields that are dear to me.<br />
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<br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DershHanseninterv_13-0"></sup><br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DershHanseninterv_13-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dershowitz#cite_note-DershHanseninterv-13"></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Goldberg_14-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dershowitz#cite_note-Goldberg-14"></a></sup>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-46073305261606935132010-02-05T18:42:00.010+02:002012-11-01T13:34:12.233+02:00Jews of Six Arms<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">From a speech by<b> Pilar Rahola</b>, a Spanish politician, journalist and activist and member of the far left. Her articles are published in Spain and throughout some of the most important newspapers in Latin America. </span></i><br style="color: #990000;" /><br />
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Why don't we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona? <br />
Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? <br />
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Why aren't there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? <br />
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Why aren't there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam? <br />
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Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan? <br />
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Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel? <br />
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Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism? <br />
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Why don't they defend Israel's right to exist? </span><br />
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Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism? <br />
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An finally, the million dollar question: Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn't care. <br />
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And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum I hear the left yelling with fervor: "We want freedom for the people!" <br />
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Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria or Yemen or Iran or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press. <br />
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The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. On this topic they don't inform, they propagandize. <br />
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When reporting about Israel the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren't any accusations left to level against her. <br />
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At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain. <br />
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And let me add on the topic of the Spanish left. Many are the examples that illustrate the anti-Americanism and anti-Israeli sentiments that define the Spanish left. For example, one of the leftist parties in Spain has just expelled one of its members for creating a pro-Israel website. I quote from the expulsion document: "Our friends are the people of Iran, Libya and Venezuela, oppressed by imperialism, and not a Nazi state likeIsrael." <br />
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In another example, the socialist mayor of Campozuelos changed Shoah Day, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, with Palestinian Nabka Day, which mourns the establishment of the State of Israel, thus showing contempt for the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust. <br />
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Or in my native city of Barcelona, the city council decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, by having a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thus, they invited Leila Khaled, a noted terrorist from the 70's and current leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization so described by the European Union, which promotes the use of bombs againstIsrael. <br />
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This politically correct way of thinking has even polluted the speeches of president Zapatero. His foreign policy falls within the lunatic left, and on issues of the Middle East he is unequivocally pro Arab. I can assure you that in private, Zapatero places on Israel the blame for the conflict in the Middle East, and the policies of foreign minister Moratinos reflect this. The fact that Zapatero chose to wear a kafiah in the midst of theLebanon conflict is no coincidence; it's a symbol. <br />
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Spain has suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe and it is in the crosshairs of every Islamic terrorist organization. As I wrote before, they kill us with cell phones hooked to satellites connected to the Middle Ages. An yet the Spanish left is the most anti Israeli in the world. <br />
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And then it says it is anti Israeli because of solidarity. This is the madness I want to denounce in this conference. <br />
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Conclusion: <br />
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I am not Jewish. Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not anti Israeli like my colleagues? Because as a non-Jew I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews. <br />
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As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles. <br />
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Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too. <br />
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The struggle of Israel, even if the world doesn't want to accept it, is the struggle of the world.<br />
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</span><o:p></o:p><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black;">Pilar Rahola's website can be found <a href="http://www.pilarrahola.com/3_0/PRESENTACIO/default.cfm">here</a>.</span><br />
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</span><o:p></o:p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8900832904674815553.post-74176166423639649802010-01-31T21:56:00.003+02:002010-02-11T17:13:58.472+02:00Gaza blockade<span style="color: #990000;">My response to MJ Rosenberg's article "Lift Gaza blockade now" (</span><a href="http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/20100" rel="nofollow" style="color: #990000;" target="blank">http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/20100</a><span style="color: #990000;">). This article is cleverly quotes Haaretz but is laced with bias and hearsay. He writes for "Media Matters Action Network" and writes some vile anti-Israel content.</span><br />
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Rosenberg,<br />
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Great article:<a href="http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/201001150001" rel="nofollow" target="blank"> http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/201001150001</a> (“Lift Gaza blockade now”).<br />
<br />
If you are “correcting conservative misinformation” and “ensuring accuracy” and “providing a full range of resources” (as appears in your “about us” text), please correct the following misinformation and ensure its accuracy by providing a full range of sources for the following, quoted from your article:<br />
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“…the war it launched that took 1400 lives (mostly civilians, including 320 children)…”<br />
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Please provide your sources, because it looks like the only possible conclusions (pending your reply) are:<br />
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A. The majority of the casualties during Operation "Cast Lead" were militants.<br />
B. "The Palestinian Center for Human Rights" (PCHR) blatantly lied and distorted the findings.<br />
<br />
The PCHR (Palestinian Center for Human Rights) published very similar figures. Since then, Hamas has published their “martyrs”. You can find their names and photographs here:<br />
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<a href="http://www.hosem.org.il/Cast-Lead">http://www.hosem.org.il/Cast-Lead</a><br />
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Something is very wrong, I am afraid. Israeli reports, published immediately after the Operation, pretty much confirm this new info, yet you rely and publish old inaccurate figures. Surely this is considered misinformation. I hope you have not fallen into the <a href="http://www.seconddraft.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=522:pallywood-qaccording-to-palestinian-sourcesq&catid=58:according-to-palestinians-sources&Itemid=159">Pallywood</a> net. Please correct this urgently, it discredits your article and paints them with bias.<br />
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Another point to consider and correct:<br />
Hamas publicly announced the end of the 26 week cease-fire. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak pleaded with Hamas not to resume indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli civilians. Mubarak also blamed Hamas for the Operation which followed. The cease-fire did not end "because Israel did not live up to its commitment to lift the blockade and continued, despite the cease-fire, to target and kill Hamas militants in Gaza".<br />
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I could go on, but prefer to allow you to make these corrections first.<br />
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Sincerely,<br />
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Laurence SeeffUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0