So is Obama a replay of Carter?
And will Egypt be a reply of Iran?
January 28, 2011
January 26, 2011
Spinning the News
"The recent shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords should cause us to examine the nature of disagreement between political groups — an underlying topic to the congresswoman's shooting. At the same time, we should also reconsider our gun control policies.Many have noted the connections between Gifford's shooting and the idea that, as a country, we are unable to disagree without it devolving into name-calling and insults."Typical "he was disturbed" analysis of the Jihadi shooter:
"Why would someone who used to be known as a seemingly rational person suddenly perpetrate a gruesome, irrational act of violence?" ...Dr. Hasan had easy access to potent brain-altering psychiatric drugs which he was probably prescribing widely to his psychologically traumatized soldier-patients, unaware of the serious dangers to them or to himself... Certain heavily-marketed psychiatric drugs are known to cause a number of serious adverse side effects including hostility, suicide, sleep alteration, depression, mania and the potentially lethal “I don’t give a damn” attitude so common among adolescent users of antidepressant drugs."
January 25, 2011
Jews in the Home of the Mufti: Historic Justice
Jews in the Home of the Mufti: Historic Justice
Elyakim Haetzni
Yedioth Ahronoth
January 15, 2011
Karm el-Mufti is the name of the land in Sheikh Jarrah owned by Hajj
Amin el-Husseini ("der grosse Mufti," the great Mufti, as he was
called in the Nazi German Reich, to which he was affiliated, body and
soul). In 1929, the year in which he was responsible for the murder of
118 Jews, two Jewish architects, almost on a volunteer basis, built a
spacious home for him.
Hajj Amin, the ideologue of harnessing belligerent Islam to all-out
war against the Jews and Zionism and the father of Arab terrorism, was
also an ideological Nazi, who in the [Second] World War directed from
within Germany the Nazi propaganda for the Middle East. Hitler and
Himmler's door was open to him, he built SS divisions in Bosnia, and
he received a "franchise" to implement the destruction of the Jews of
Eretz Israel by means of the local Arabs, upon Rommel's conquest of
the area, as they expected. The Mufti also prevented the rescue of
Jewish children in exchange for German prisoners of war, and saw to
their destruction in Auschwitz.
After the war, not only did the British not try him as a war criminal,
they even allowed him to continue to fight against us in partnership
with Nazis, until his dying day.
Now Jews are in the Karm of the Nazi murderer, and a synagogue in
memory of the Holocaust will be located in his house: is there any
greater historic justice than this?
The Mufti rented the house to the Christian Arab historian George
Antonius, one of the creators ex nihilo of the false Palestinian
mythos, in order to neutralize the historical claims of the Jews. Hajj
Amin mobilized religious fanaticism in the service of the "Palestinian
cause," and Antonius provided the educated West with a
pseudoscientific Palestinian narrative with which to attack Zionism.
Under the influence of his wife Cathy, the house functioned as a
social salon in which, in an aristocratic atmosphere, the Palestinian
nobility met with the senior British officials. Both shared their
profound loathing of the Jews. Among other lovers, Cathy shared her
bed with the infamous General Barker, the commander of the British
forces in Eretz Israel, and the author of the slogan "Hit the Jews in
their pockets." Members of the Haganah would eventually find his love
letters in the house.
Jews in the cradle of Palestinian nationalism and the stylish social
anti-Semitism in Eretz Israel: is there any greater historic justice
than this?
On April 16, 1948, a convoy to Mount Scopus was attacked close to the
"Mufti's House." The British broke their commitment to defend it, and
for six hours, in broad daylight, Dr. Yassky, the director of the
Hadassah Hospital, Dr. Moshe Ben-David, the director of the medical
school, the linguistics scholar Dr. Benjamin Klar, Abraham Freiman, an
expert on Jewish law, doctors, professors, nurses, and patients were
brutally murdered. At that time, a British regiment (the Scottish
Highlanders) was stationed in the Mufti's house, but didn't lift a
finger.
And as in Hebron in 1929, the British put an end to the massacre with
a single shot, but only after they drank their fill from the blood of
68 Jews, so, too, next to the Mufti's house, they put an end to the
horror only after 78 had been murdered. To the contrary, they
prevented the Palmah from coming to the assistance of those being
slaughtered. On the border of the Mufti's house the British built a
beautiful consulate building, that serves - what else? - as a focal
point for the consuls' opposition to Jerusalem being the capital of
Israel.
Now, the hostile British cannot open a window without seeing Jews
through it, from close up: is there greater historic justice than
this?
"The Mufti's House" stands at a major junction, in the seam line of
historic Jerusalem. The Ramallah authorities, the American and
European foreign ministries, and the Jewish collaborators claim that
Jewish "settlement" here will prevent the partition of the city, and
will frustrate the establishment of the Palestinian capital in it.
O that it would be so! And if this is the case, then the couple Irving
and Cherna Moskowitz, who purchased "Karm el-Mufti" and other
strategic sites in order to plant Jewish life in them, have acquired
their place in Jewish history.
Only a single question remains hanging in the air unanswered: what has
happened to us, that we have lost the ability to experience the
satisfaction of achievement, the gratification of success, and the joy
of victory?
Elyakim Haetzni
==============================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org
Elyakim Haetzni
Yedioth Ahronoth
January 15, 2011
Karm el-Mufti is the name of the land in Sheikh Jarrah owned by Hajj
Amin el-Husseini ("der grosse Mufti," the great Mufti, as he was
called in the Nazi German Reich, to which he was affiliated, body and
soul). In 1929, the year in which he was responsible for the murder of
118 Jews, two Jewish architects, almost on a volunteer basis, built a
spacious home for him.
Hajj Amin, the ideologue of harnessing belligerent Islam to all-out
war against the Jews and Zionism and the father of Arab terrorism, was
also an ideological Nazi, who in the [Second] World War directed from
within Germany the Nazi propaganda for the Middle East. Hitler and
Himmler's door was open to him, he built SS divisions in Bosnia, and
he received a "franchise" to implement the destruction of the Jews of
Eretz Israel by means of the local Arabs, upon Rommel's conquest of
the area, as they expected. The Mufti also prevented the rescue of
Jewish children in exchange for German prisoners of war, and saw to
their destruction in Auschwitz.
After the war, not only did the British not try him as a war criminal,
they even allowed him to continue to fight against us in partnership
with Nazis, until his dying day.
Now Jews are in the Karm of the Nazi murderer, and a synagogue in
memory of the Holocaust will be located in his house: is there any
greater historic justice than this?
The Mufti rented the house to the Christian Arab historian George
Antonius, one of the creators ex nihilo of the false Palestinian
mythos, in order to neutralize the historical claims of the Jews. Hajj
Amin mobilized religious fanaticism in the service of the "Palestinian
cause," and Antonius provided the educated West with a
pseudoscientific Palestinian narrative with which to attack Zionism.
Under the influence of his wife Cathy, the house functioned as a
social salon in which, in an aristocratic atmosphere, the Palestinian
nobility met with the senior British officials. Both shared their
profound loathing of the Jews. Among other lovers, Cathy shared her
bed with the infamous General Barker, the commander of the British
forces in Eretz Israel, and the author of the slogan "Hit the Jews in
their pockets." Members of the Haganah would eventually find his love
letters in the house.
Jews in the cradle of Palestinian nationalism and the stylish social
anti-Semitism in Eretz Israel: is there any greater historic justice
than this?
On April 16, 1948, a convoy to Mount Scopus was attacked close to the
"Mufti's House." The British broke their commitment to defend it, and
for six hours, in broad daylight, Dr. Yassky, the director of the
Hadassah Hospital, Dr. Moshe Ben-David, the director of the medical
school, the linguistics scholar Dr. Benjamin Klar, Abraham Freiman, an
expert on Jewish law, doctors, professors, nurses, and patients were
brutally murdered. At that time, a British regiment (the Scottish
Highlanders) was stationed in the Mufti's house, but didn't lift a
finger.
And as in Hebron in 1929, the British put an end to the massacre with
a single shot, but only after they drank their fill from the blood of
68 Jews, so, too, next to the Mufti's house, they put an end to the
horror only after 78 had been murdered. To the contrary, they
prevented the Palmah from coming to the assistance of those being
slaughtered. On the border of the Mufti's house the British built a
beautiful consulate building, that serves - what else? - as a focal
point for the consuls' opposition to Jerusalem being the capital of
Israel.
Now, the hostile British cannot open a window without seeing Jews
through it, from close up: is there greater historic justice than
this?
"The Mufti's House" stands at a major junction, in the seam line of
historic Jerusalem. The Ramallah authorities, the American and
European foreign ministries, and the Jewish collaborators claim that
Jewish "settlement" here will prevent the partition of the city, and
will frustrate the establishment of the Palestinian capital in it.
O that it would be so! And if this is the case, then the couple Irving
and Cherna Moskowitz, who purchased "Karm el-Mufti" and other
strategic sites in order to plant Jewish life in them, have acquired
their place in Jewish history.
Only a single question remains hanging in the air unanswered: what has
happened to us, that we have lost the ability to experience the
satisfaction of achievement, the gratification of success, and the joy
of victory?
Elyakim Haetzni
==============================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org
January 18, 2011
‘A Black Day for Israel's Enemies’
(Israelnationalnews.com) January 5, 2011
MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) praised the Knesset for passing a motion that requires investigating the funding sources of far-left groups. Ben-Ari said that far-left organizations are undermining the country’s legitimacy under the guise of human rights.
“This is a black day for the enemies of Israel Knesset and a day of celebration for IDF soldiers," he said.
MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) praised the Knesset for passing a motion that requires investigating the funding sources of far-left groups. Ben-Ari said that far-left organizations are undermining the country’s legitimacy under the guise of human rights.
“This is a black day for the enemies of Israel Knesset and a day of celebration for IDF soldiers," he said.
Meir Kahane - Magazine of the Authentic Jewish Idea March-April 1989
"In day days when men were humble enough to know what they were – and what they were not; what they knew – and what they did not, the ignoramus knew his place. Whatever arrogance existed was the province of those who were, at least, nominally scholars. And so, while ignorance and arrogance are both attributes to be shunned, their separation was at least a small favor for which to be grateful. But, times have changed and we are today, victims of the ultimate curse – the arrogance of ignorance. The unabashed and haughty readiness to display one’s abysmal and absurd ignorance before people and congregation is the symbol of our wretched times."
My goodness, does this not describe the world around us now... The World remains to be turned upside down... We wait for the Moshiach!!!
My goodness, does this not describe the world around us now... The World remains to be turned upside down... We wait for the Moshiach!!!
January 13, 2011
Gulf War - Desert Storm, 1991
To see the TV broadcast we would see on January 18, 1991 click on the image below of Martin Fletcher reporting from Tel Aviv:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6pL-6BoaoY
January 12, 2011
Katzav and the Right Wing conspiracy theorists - Naomi Ragen
Friends,
The Right-Wing conspiracy theorists are getting on my nerves with their
commentary about the Katzav conviction. First Steve Plaut, who I
respect enormously, and then Barry Chamish.
All you have to know is this: Katzav first testified he never touched the
victim, his employee. Then he changed his testimony and said the sex was
consensual. So that means he lied. She claimed it was rape, and the judges
found him to be a liar and her to be telling the truth. She claimed that
she didn't want to lose her job by reporting him. And I believe her as did
the judges. Because it
makes sense, and because Katzav lied.
As for Chamish: You don't need DNA when the rapist admits he had sex with
the victim. You don't need lie detector tests, or sex crimes experts, or to
humiliate the
victims by having them testify in front of cameras. You don't need Katzav's
hair or clothing, because the man admitted he had sex with the victim. All
you need is to decide who is telling the truth and who is a liar.
The police decided that when they interviewed the victim and perpetrator and
had them in one room confronting each other. That's why Katzav was indicted
in the first place. The judges decided that when they listened to their
testimony.
And the conspiracy theorists? They decided that when they looked in the
mirror in the morning and saw they were men, not women. They never heard
the testimony, or met the victims, unlike the police and the judges.
The only thing you need is to believe that Israeli police were doing their
job, and the Judges were doing their job and that sometimes women actually
know when they are raped, and that they deserve to be believed, even if it
takes them years to report it, and would probably never have reported it if
Katzav hadn't stupidly reported one of his victims for asking him for
compensation, claiming blackmail. That's what broke this whole thing wide
open. If you read the transcripts of the tapes "Aleph" made ("Aleph", who
Steven Plaut mistakenly thought was actually the one Katzav got convicted
for raping. She wasn't. Her testimony wasn't even in this case. She was
just another employee of Katzav who got raped by him, and her charges
weren't even included in the judgment) you'll hear a man negotiating with a
victim.
The judges made a good decision in my opinion. And I wish these
conspiracy theorists would give it a rest already. After all, the leftist
MK Chaim
Ramon was also found guilty by Israeli courts of indecent behavior and he
only kissed a girl.
Naomi Ragen
The Right-Wing conspiracy theorists are getting on my nerves with their
commentary about the Katzav conviction. First Steve Plaut, who I
respect enormously, and then Barry Chamish.
All you have to know is this: Katzav first testified he never touched the
victim, his employee. Then he changed his testimony and said the sex was
consensual. So that means he lied. She claimed it was rape, and the judges
found him to be a liar and her to be telling the truth. She claimed that
she didn't want to lose her job by reporting him. And I believe her as did
the judges. Because it
makes sense, and because Katzav lied.
As for Chamish: You don't need DNA when the rapist admits he had sex with
the victim. You don't need lie detector tests, or sex crimes experts, or to
humiliate the
victims by having them testify in front of cameras. You don't need Katzav's
hair or clothing, because the man admitted he had sex with the victim. All
you need is to decide who is telling the truth and who is a liar.
The police decided that when they interviewed the victim and perpetrator and
had them in one room confronting each other. That's why Katzav was indicted
in the first place. The judges decided that when they listened to their
testimony.
And the conspiracy theorists? They decided that when they looked in the
mirror in the morning and saw they were men, not women. They never heard
the testimony, or met the victims, unlike the police and the judges.
The only thing you need is to believe that Israeli police were doing their
job, and the Judges were doing their job and that sometimes women actually
know when they are raped, and that they deserve to be believed, even if it
takes them years to report it, and would probably never have reported it if
Katzav hadn't stupidly reported one of his victims for asking him for
compensation, claiming blackmail. That's what broke this whole thing wide
open. If you read the transcripts of the tapes "Aleph" made ("Aleph", who
Steven Plaut mistakenly thought was actually the one Katzav got convicted
for raping. She wasn't. Her testimony wasn't even in this case. She was
just another employee of Katzav who got raped by him, and her charges
weren't even included in the judgment) you'll hear a man negotiating with a
victim.
The judges made a good decision in my opinion. And I wish these
conspiracy theorists would give it a rest already. After all, the leftist
MK Chaim
Ramon was also found guilty by Israeli courts of indecent behavior and he
only kissed a girl.
Naomi Ragen
Codes of Incitement
"This year, Apartheid Week will take place concurrently in over 40 cities worldwide, including Toronto, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Bay Area, Chicago, Washington, London, Oxford, and cities in South Africa. Complete with lectures, multimedia presentations, cultural performances, art showings film screenings and demonstrations, our understanding of apartheid Israel is developed throughout the Week, with every event and speaker adding insight into our analysis
http://www.caiaweb.org/2010/12/07/israeli-apartheid-week-2011/
January 11, 2011
The Arab Hitler's Hotel Demolished
Haj Husseini’s Shepherd Hotel in east J’lem demolished
By Melanie Seidman and Khaled abu Toameh - January 9, 2011 - JerusalemPost
Construction of Jewish homes in Sheikh Jarrah gets underway at a site that was built by former mufti of J'lem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. Demolition of the Shepherd Hotel, in east Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, began at dawn on Sunday.
It came after a long battle over construction rights that drew condemnation from US President Barack Obama and other leaders around the world over the past few years.
The hotel, which was built in the 1930s by the mufti of Jerusalem Haj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini (1921- 1948), was bought in 1985 by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, who has bankrolled other Jewish housing projects in Arab neighborhoods in the capital. Moskowitz, partnering with the Ateret Cohanim organization, plans to turn the complex into 20 apartments for religious Jewish families.
The building received a construction permit from the municipality six months ago, the last stamp of approval needed before construction can begin.
Construction was delayed for six months over a dispute with a son of Faisal al-Husseini (1940-2001), a cousin of Haj Husseini and a former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs, who claimed that the family owned part of the parking lot that will serve as an entrance to the future complex. They lost the court case about a month ago, allowing Moskowitz to start demolishing the building.
On Sunday, only the right side of the building was demolished. Because of its historical value, the façade of the left part will be remain intact.
The first bulldozers arrived around 5 a.m.; by noon the right half of the four-story structure was a pile of rubble.
“It’s not just a disgrace against the owners, it’s a disgrace against history,” said Adnan Abdul Razeh, a resident of Bab e-Zahara, a neighborhood south of Sheikh Jarrah. His wife was a niece of Haj Husseini.
“They’re trying to erase this, but it will stay in people’s minds, they can’t erase a whole nation. No imperial power has ever stayed in Jerusalem, not the Ottomans, not the British, and not Israel.”
Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the project. “As long as this government continues with settlement and acts such as the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel there will be no negotiations,” Erekat said.
Erekat accused Israel of conducting a policy of “ethnic cleansing” against Arabs in Jerusalem.
“Israel is demolishing Palestinian buildings one after the other in an attempt to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem from its Palestinian inhabitants, culture and history,” he said. “Israel is targeting east Jerusalem in general and Sheikh Jarrah in particular through a fierce campaign to expel Palestinian residents from their homes and replace them with Jewish settlers.”
Erekat said such actions, which he dubbed illegal, were designed to undermine the two-state solution and the peace talks.
City Councilor Elisha Peleg (Likud), who sits on the Local Planning and Construction Committee that gave the plan the building permit half a year ago, defended the Jewish right to build in east Jerusalem.
“It’s a very simple thing, people are just trying to make a provocation,” Peleg told The Jerusalem Post at the demolition site on Sunday. For several hours he was a lone voice defending the construction against an angry crowd of Arab activists and residents.
“Jews building in Jerusalem is routine. Arabs are building all the time in east Jerusalem, and no one comes to photograph them,” Peleg said.
Around 50 left-wing activists, mobilized by the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement, protested the demolition at the site on Sunday afternoon. The Solidarity Movement has also organized weekly protests in the neighborhood to protest the eviction of three Arab families from Jewish-owned apartments.
Resident Nasser Ghawi, who was evicted in August 2009, said he expects the hotel to become a new focal point for protests.
“It’s magnificent, this is beautiful,” Ateret Cohanim spokesman Danny Luria said, watching the dust rise from the bulldozers and passing out pamphlets highlighting Haj Husseini’s connection to the Nazis and to the death of thousands of Jews in pogroms that he encouraged.
“Call it poetic justice, call it historic justice, this is something special... The symbolism of destruction of the house of a Nazi is rather unique,” Luria said.
Moskowitz’s original plan included 100 apartments, but it was scrapped because it would have needed to go through a lengthy approval process by the Local and District Planning and Building committees.
Since the plot had been zoned for up to 20 residential units under the a master plan for Sheikh Jarrah, by not exceeding the zoning plan Moskowitz was able to bypass the regular approval process, which includes approval from the Interior Ministry.
Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said Israel had no right to build in any part of east Jerusalem or the Palestinian territories that were captured in 1967.
By demolishing the hotel, Israel had destroyed all US efforts to revive the peace process, Abu Rudaineh. The Obama administration should put an end to Israel’s practices if it wanted to maintain its credibility, he said.
The PA was determined to seek a UN Security Council resolution condemning construction in the settlements, he said. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior PLO official and adviser to Abbas, said the razing of the hotel would have “grave repercussions” for the region.
“The actions of this Israeli government prove that it does not want peace,” he said. “Israel is only interested in creating new facts on the ground.”
Abed Rabbo too said that the demolition of the hotel would accelerate the PA’s plan to seek a Security Council resolution condemning the settlements.
The PA-appointed mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, said that the demolition of the historic hotel was in the context of Israel’s “arbitrary actions to Judaize Jerusalem and wipe out its Arab and Islamic character.”
Earlier, PA negotiator Nabil Shaath said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not want peace.
“Netanyahu is a dangerous man,” Shaath said. “He doesn’t want peace and stability in the region. He doesn’t want the Palestinians to have their own independent state.”
Obama first condemned the Shepherd Hotel project in July 2009, followed by similar complaints from Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and Russia.
The British Embassy condemned the demolition anew on Sunday.
“The British government reaffirms its strong, long-standing opposition to the creation of this new illegal settlement in occupied east Jerusalem and condemns today’s demolition in Sheikh Jarrah. The establishment and expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal,” said Alistair Burt, minister for the Middle East and South Asia.
“This latest settlement activity does not help – on the contrary, it raises tensions unnecessarily.”
The British Consulate in east Jerusalem is next to the Shepherd Hotel property.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said, “I strongly condemn this morning’s demolition of the Shepherd Hotel and the planned construction of a new illegal settlement. I reiterate that settlements are illegal under international law, undermine trust between the parties and constitute an obstacle to peace.”
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=202785
READ THIS RELATED PIECE:
Shepherd Hotel: An end to the Arabs' war of limited liability?
Lenny Ben-David
August 6, 2009
The Arabs paid little for their attacks in 1947 and 1948, yet today they demand the 'right of return'.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's resolute response to a State Department official's objection to a Jewish building development in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem may actually close a 90-year-old chapter of the Arab-Israeli conflict and bring about a measure of justice. "We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy [homes] anywhere in Jerusalem," Netanyahu said.
For much too long Arab states, terrorist groups and Palestinian Arabs believed that they could wage "wars of limited liability" first against the Jews of Palestine and then against the State of Israel. They embraced a fantasy that they could unleash attacks with impunity in an attempt to wipe out Israel, convinced that if they were defeated they could return to a status quo ante, or even achieve diplomatically what they couldn't win on the battlefield. Territories captured by Israel would be returned and not annexed, terrorist leaders would be honored and not condemned, and Jews/Israel would be blamed and never indemnified. Tragically, that fantasy became reality.
IN 1920, the Balfour Declaration was a very pertinent and relevant document in Palestine. The Turks left Palestine after 400 years, and the British attempted to establish their authority. Jews who had fled the Turkish regime began to return, and they were joined by other Jews - "Zionists" from Russia and Eastern Europe - eager to build the promised "national home for the Jewish people."
Arab clans and local groups began to coalesce and compete to fill the vacuum left by the Turks. They found sympathetic British authorities who opposed the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine and sought to rescind the Balfour Declaration. Together, they opposed Jewish immigration into Palestine and the Jewish purchase of large tracts of land.
The Jewish settlement of Tel Hai in the Galilee was overrun by local Arab marauders in early 1920, and within months, riots and pogroms against Jews erupted across Palestine. According to witnesses, the ax- and sword-wielding mobs, emboldened by their perception of supportive British authorities, yelled, "Addowlah ma'anah! The government is with us! Itbah al-Yahud! Slaughter the Jews!" as they attacked Jewish communities. They were led by the nephew of Jerusalem's mayor, a young rabble-rouser named Haj Amin el-Husseini. Rather than throw Husseini in prison or hang him, the British appointed him as the grand mufti of Jerusalem. The anti-Semitic terrorist leader used his position to garner a following and a status that he would wield for the next 25 years, culminating in his collaboration with Adolf Hitler in World War II.
WHEN THE British attempted to arrest the mufti in 1937, he fled Palestine, and the British made do with confiscating his property. The Husseini clan owned several well-known buildings in Jerusalem, among them the Palace Hotel on Rehov Mamilla (later Israel's Ministry of Industry and Trade and and now being rebuilt as a hotel), the Orient House (the site of Palestinian Authority attempts to establish its rule in east Jerusalem) and the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah on a plot of land known as Karam al-Mufti, named for Husseini.
The Shepherd Hotel was located on a key roadway; just yards away is the site of the infamous Hadassah Hospital convoy massacre in April 1948. Seventy-nine Jews, mostly doctors and nurses, were killed on that road when their convoy to the Mt. Scopus hospital was attacked by hundreds of Arab terrorists.
A meek British military response allowed the attack to continue for many hours throughout the day. Despite all of the Arab attacks against Jewish communities in Palestine in those years, the British response was to reward Arab aggression and impose draconian restrictions on Jewish immigration. Part of the British Mandate of Palestine, what could have been part of the Jewish homeland, was lopped off in 1922 and given to Emir Abdullah to later form the state of Jordan. Addowlah ma'anah.
The pattern of Arab attacks and rewards would repeat itself time and again.
Limited liability - the Arabs paid little for their attacks. In 1956, Egyptian-commanded fedayeen terrorist attacks caused Israel to join Britain and France in the Sinai Campaign against Egypt. Two days into the war, US president Dwight Eisenhower called prime minister David Ben-Gurion. According to a biographer of Jewish leader Max Fisher, Eisenhower admonished Ben-Gurion, "...You ought not forget that the strength of Israel and her future are bound up with the United States." This was followed by specific threats: If Israel did not leave Sinai and Gaza there would be UN condemnation, US aid would be terminated, the tax-status of charitable contributions would be challenged.
AIPAC's founder, Si Kenan, wrote of the period: "There were long and feverish negotiations between the Israelis and secretary of state [John Foster] Dulles, who tried to divide American Jews, most of whom were backing the Israelis. Dulles invited a group of major Jewish philanthropists, including leading non-Zionists, to use their influence to persuade Israel to accept the US position..." Sound familiar and contemporary? To a recent meeting with American Jewish leadership, President Barack Obama also invited two leftist organizations highly critical of Israeli policies. In 1957, US pressure forced Israel to withdraw from Sinai without securing ironclad guarantees against Egyptian aggression and blockades.. In October 1965 Max Fisher visited Eisenhower at his Gettysburg farm. Eisenhower admitted to him, "... looking back at Suez, I regret what I did. I never should have pressed Israel to evacuate the Sinai."
Several casus belli directly led to the 1967 Six Day War. They include Egypt's naval blockade of Israel, the massing of Egyptian troops in Sinai, Jordan's dispatch of tanks into the West Bank and shelling of Jerusalem, and Syria's bombardment of Israel's northern communities. The American and British drafters of the 1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242 also recognized the madness of returning to the 1949 armistice lines.
"We didn't say there should be a withdrawal to the '67 line," said British ambassador Lord Caradon. "We all knew - that the boundaries of '67 were not drawn as permanent frontiers, they were a cease-fire line of a couple of decades earlier... We did not say that the '67 boundaries must be forever; it would be insanity." Yet, today, under the Arab concept of wars of limited liability, they and the UN demand a complete withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem - "100 percent" - and a dismantling of the security barrier erected to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. In other words, there is no punishment, no price to pay and no indemnification for acts of aggression. Addowlah ma'anah.
The actions and words of the Obama administration today elicit from Israel's "peace partners" echoes of that ominous war cry. "Obama," noted The Washington Post's Jackson Diehl after interviewing the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas, "has repeatedly and publicly stressed the need for a West Bank settlement freeze, with no exceptions. In so doing he has shifted the focus to Israel. He has revived a long-dormant Palestinian fantasy: that the United States will simply force Israel to make critical concessions... while Arabs passively watch and applaud." Addowlah ma'anah.
Ironically, Abbas himself recently revealed that once the Arabs of Palestine did not expect the great powers or other Arabs to rescue them, and that indeed they were capable of recognizing the responsibility for their actions. Describing the 1948 flight of his Arab community from Safed, Abbas admitted on Al-Palestinia TV last month, "People were motivated to run away... They feared retribution from Zionist terrorist organizations - particularly from the Safed ones. Those of us from Safed especially feared that the Jews harbored old desires to avenge what happened during the 1929 uprising. This was in the memory of our families and parents... They realized the balance of forces was shifting and therefore the whole town was abandoned on the basis of this rationale - saving our lives and our belongings."
The acquisition of the Shepherd Hotel site was carried out according to the letter of the law. The land, first confiscated by the British, was administered by the Jordanian government after it illegally annexed the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1950. Under international law, the Israeli government became custodian after the 1967 war. For the Past 15 years the building stood abandoned. Soon the piece of real estate will house the descendants of those whom Haj Amin el-Husseini tried to kill in Palestine, or the grandchildren of those European Jews who escaped Husseini's ally, Adolf Hitler. Maybe, just maybe, there are consequences for aggression.
The writer served as a senior Israeli diplomat in Washington. Today he is a public affairs consultant and blogs at www.lennybendavid.com.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=151033
By Melanie Seidman and Khaled abu Toameh - January 9, 2011 - JerusalemPost
Construction of Jewish homes in Sheikh Jarrah gets underway at a site that was built by former mufti of J'lem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. Demolition of the Shepherd Hotel, in east Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, began at dawn on Sunday.
It came after a long battle over construction rights that drew condemnation from US President Barack Obama and other leaders around the world over the past few years.
The hotel, which was built in the 1930s by the mufti of Jerusalem Haj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini (1921- 1948), was bought in 1985 by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, who has bankrolled other Jewish housing projects in Arab neighborhoods in the capital. Moskowitz, partnering with the Ateret Cohanim organization, plans to turn the complex into 20 apartments for religious Jewish families.
The building received a construction permit from the municipality six months ago, the last stamp of approval needed before construction can begin.
Construction was delayed for six months over a dispute with a son of Faisal al-Husseini (1940-2001), a cousin of Haj Husseini and a former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs, who claimed that the family owned part of the parking lot that will serve as an entrance to the future complex. They lost the court case about a month ago, allowing Moskowitz to start demolishing the building.
On Sunday, only the right side of the building was demolished. Because of its historical value, the façade of the left part will be remain intact.
The first bulldozers arrived around 5 a.m.; by noon the right half of the four-story structure was a pile of rubble.
“It’s not just a disgrace against the owners, it’s a disgrace against history,” said Adnan Abdul Razeh, a resident of Bab e-Zahara, a neighborhood south of Sheikh Jarrah. His wife was a niece of Haj Husseini.
“They’re trying to erase this, but it will stay in people’s minds, they can’t erase a whole nation. No imperial power has ever stayed in Jerusalem, not the Ottomans, not the British, and not Israel.”
Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the project. “As long as this government continues with settlement and acts such as the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel there will be no negotiations,” Erekat said.
Erekat accused Israel of conducting a policy of “ethnic cleansing” against Arabs in Jerusalem.
“Israel is demolishing Palestinian buildings one after the other in an attempt to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem from its Palestinian inhabitants, culture and history,” he said. “Israel is targeting east Jerusalem in general and Sheikh Jarrah in particular through a fierce campaign to expel Palestinian residents from their homes and replace them with Jewish settlers.”
Erekat said such actions, which he dubbed illegal, were designed to undermine the two-state solution and the peace talks.
City Councilor Elisha Peleg (Likud), who sits on the Local Planning and Construction Committee that gave the plan the building permit half a year ago, defended the Jewish right to build in east Jerusalem.
“It’s a very simple thing, people are just trying to make a provocation,” Peleg told The Jerusalem Post at the demolition site on Sunday. For several hours he was a lone voice defending the construction against an angry crowd of Arab activists and residents.
“Jews building in Jerusalem is routine. Arabs are building all the time in east Jerusalem, and no one comes to photograph them,” Peleg said.
Around 50 left-wing activists, mobilized by the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement, protested the demolition at the site on Sunday afternoon. The Solidarity Movement has also organized weekly protests in the neighborhood to protest the eviction of three Arab families from Jewish-owned apartments.
Resident Nasser Ghawi, who was evicted in August 2009, said he expects the hotel to become a new focal point for protests.
“It’s magnificent, this is beautiful,” Ateret Cohanim spokesman Danny Luria said, watching the dust rise from the bulldozers and passing out pamphlets highlighting Haj Husseini’s connection to the Nazis and to the death of thousands of Jews in pogroms that he encouraged.
“Call it poetic justice, call it historic justice, this is something special... The symbolism of destruction of the house of a Nazi is rather unique,” Luria said.
Moskowitz’s original plan included 100 apartments, but it was scrapped because it would have needed to go through a lengthy approval process by the Local and District Planning and Building committees.
Since the plot had been zoned for up to 20 residential units under the a master plan for Sheikh Jarrah, by not exceeding the zoning plan Moskowitz was able to bypass the regular approval process, which includes approval from the Interior Ministry.
Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said Israel had no right to build in any part of east Jerusalem or the Palestinian territories that were captured in 1967.
By demolishing the hotel, Israel had destroyed all US efforts to revive the peace process, Abu Rudaineh. The Obama administration should put an end to Israel’s practices if it wanted to maintain its credibility, he said.
The PA was determined to seek a UN Security Council resolution condemning construction in the settlements, he said. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior PLO official and adviser to Abbas, said the razing of the hotel would have “grave repercussions” for the region.
“The actions of this Israeli government prove that it does not want peace,” he said. “Israel is only interested in creating new facts on the ground.”
Abed Rabbo too said that the demolition of the hotel would accelerate the PA’s plan to seek a Security Council resolution condemning the settlements.
The PA-appointed mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, said that the demolition of the historic hotel was in the context of Israel’s “arbitrary actions to Judaize Jerusalem and wipe out its Arab and Islamic character.”
Earlier, PA negotiator Nabil Shaath said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not want peace.
“Netanyahu is a dangerous man,” Shaath said. “He doesn’t want peace and stability in the region. He doesn’t want the Palestinians to have their own independent state.”
Obama first condemned the Shepherd Hotel project in July 2009, followed by similar complaints from Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and Russia.
The British Embassy condemned the demolition anew on Sunday.
“The British government reaffirms its strong, long-standing opposition to the creation of this new illegal settlement in occupied east Jerusalem and condemns today’s demolition in Sheikh Jarrah. The establishment and expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal,” said Alistair Burt, minister for the Middle East and South Asia.
“This latest settlement activity does not help – on the contrary, it raises tensions unnecessarily.”
The British Consulate in east Jerusalem is next to the Shepherd Hotel property.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said, “I strongly condemn this morning’s demolition of the Shepherd Hotel and the planned construction of a new illegal settlement. I reiterate that settlements are illegal under international law, undermine trust between the parties and constitute an obstacle to peace.”
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=202785
READ THIS RELATED PIECE:
Shepherd Hotel: An end to the Arabs' war of limited liability?
Lenny Ben-David
August 6, 2009
The Arabs paid little for their attacks in 1947 and 1948, yet today they demand the 'right of return'.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's resolute response to a State Department official's objection to a Jewish building development in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem may actually close a 90-year-old chapter of the Arab-Israeli conflict and bring about a measure of justice. "We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy [homes] anywhere in Jerusalem," Netanyahu said.
For much too long Arab states, terrorist groups and Palestinian Arabs believed that they could wage "wars of limited liability" first against the Jews of Palestine and then against the State of Israel. They embraced a fantasy that they could unleash attacks with impunity in an attempt to wipe out Israel, convinced that if they were defeated they could return to a status quo ante, or even achieve diplomatically what they couldn't win on the battlefield. Territories captured by Israel would be returned and not annexed, terrorist leaders would be honored and not condemned, and Jews/Israel would be blamed and never indemnified. Tragically, that fantasy became reality.
IN 1920, the Balfour Declaration was a very pertinent and relevant document in Palestine. The Turks left Palestine after 400 years, and the British attempted to establish their authority. Jews who had fled the Turkish regime began to return, and they were joined by other Jews - "Zionists" from Russia and Eastern Europe - eager to build the promised "national home for the Jewish people."
Arab clans and local groups began to coalesce and compete to fill the vacuum left by the Turks. They found sympathetic British authorities who opposed the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine and sought to rescind the Balfour Declaration. Together, they opposed Jewish immigration into Palestine and the Jewish purchase of large tracts of land.
The Jewish settlement of Tel Hai in the Galilee was overrun by local Arab marauders in early 1920, and within months, riots and pogroms against Jews erupted across Palestine. According to witnesses, the ax- and sword-wielding mobs, emboldened by their perception of supportive British authorities, yelled, "Addowlah ma'anah! The government is with us! Itbah al-Yahud! Slaughter the Jews!" as they attacked Jewish communities. They were led by the nephew of Jerusalem's mayor, a young rabble-rouser named Haj Amin el-Husseini. Rather than throw Husseini in prison or hang him, the British appointed him as the grand mufti of Jerusalem. The anti-Semitic terrorist leader used his position to garner a following and a status that he would wield for the next 25 years, culminating in his collaboration with Adolf Hitler in World War II.
WHEN THE British attempted to arrest the mufti in 1937, he fled Palestine, and the British made do with confiscating his property. The Husseini clan owned several well-known buildings in Jerusalem, among them the Palace Hotel on Rehov Mamilla (later Israel's Ministry of Industry and Trade and and now being rebuilt as a hotel), the Orient House (the site of Palestinian Authority attempts to establish its rule in east Jerusalem) and the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah on a plot of land known as Karam al-Mufti, named for Husseini.
The Shepherd Hotel was located on a key roadway; just yards away is the site of the infamous Hadassah Hospital convoy massacre in April 1948. Seventy-nine Jews, mostly doctors and nurses, were killed on that road when their convoy to the Mt. Scopus hospital was attacked by hundreds of Arab terrorists.
A meek British military response allowed the attack to continue for many hours throughout the day. Despite all of the Arab attacks against Jewish communities in Palestine in those years, the British response was to reward Arab aggression and impose draconian restrictions on Jewish immigration. Part of the British Mandate of Palestine, what could have been part of the Jewish homeland, was lopped off in 1922 and given to Emir Abdullah to later form the state of Jordan. Addowlah ma'anah.
The pattern of Arab attacks and rewards would repeat itself time and again.
Limited liability - the Arabs paid little for their attacks. In 1956, Egyptian-commanded fedayeen terrorist attacks caused Israel to join Britain and France in the Sinai Campaign against Egypt. Two days into the war, US president Dwight Eisenhower called prime minister David Ben-Gurion. According to a biographer of Jewish leader Max Fisher, Eisenhower admonished Ben-Gurion, "...You ought not forget that the strength of Israel and her future are bound up with the United States." This was followed by specific threats: If Israel did not leave Sinai and Gaza there would be UN condemnation, US aid would be terminated, the tax-status of charitable contributions would be challenged.
AIPAC's founder, Si Kenan, wrote of the period: "There were long and feverish negotiations between the Israelis and secretary of state [John Foster] Dulles, who tried to divide American Jews, most of whom were backing the Israelis. Dulles invited a group of major Jewish philanthropists, including leading non-Zionists, to use their influence to persuade Israel to accept the US position..." Sound familiar and contemporary? To a recent meeting with American Jewish leadership, President Barack Obama also invited two leftist organizations highly critical of Israeli policies. In 1957, US pressure forced Israel to withdraw from Sinai without securing ironclad guarantees against Egyptian aggression and blockades.. In October 1965 Max Fisher visited Eisenhower at his Gettysburg farm. Eisenhower admitted to him, "... looking back at Suez, I regret what I did. I never should have pressed Israel to evacuate the Sinai."
Several casus belli directly led to the 1967 Six Day War. They include Egypt's naval blockade of Israel, the massing of Egyptian troops in Sinai, Jordan's dispatch of tanks into the West Bank and shelling of Jerusalem, and Syria's bombardment of Israel's northern communities. The American and British drafters of the 1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242 also recognized the madness of returning to the 1949 armistice lines.
"We didn't say there should be a withdrawal to the '67 line," said British ambassador Lord Caradon. "We all knew - that the boundaries of '67 were not drawn as permanent frontiers, they were a cease-fire line of a couple of decades earlier... We did not say that the '67 boundaries must be forever; it would be insanity." Yet, today, under the Arab concept of wars of limited liability, they and the UN demand a complete withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem - "100 percent" - and a dismantling of the security barrier erected to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. In other words, there is no punishment, no price to pay and no indemnification for acts of aggression. Addowlah ma'anah.
The actions and words of the Obama administration today elicit from Israel's "peace partners" echoes of that ominous war cry. "Obama," noted The Washington Post's Jackson Diehl after interviewing the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas, "has repeatedly and publicly stressed the need for a West Bank settlement freeze, with no exceptions. In so doing he has shifted the focus to Israel. He has revived a long-dormant Palestinian fantasy: that the United States will simply force Israel to make critical concessions... while Arabs passively watch and applaud." Addowlah ma'anah.
Ironically, Abbas himself recently revealed that once the Arabs of Palestine did not expect the great powers or other Arabs to rescue them, and that indeed they were capable of recognizing the responsibility for their actions. Describing the 1948 flight of his Arab community from Safed, Abbas admitted on Al-Palestinia TV last month, "People were motivated to run away... They feared retribution from Zionist terrorist organizations - particularly from the Safed ones. Those of us from Safed especially feared that the Jews harbored old desires to avenge what happened during the 1929 uprising. This was in the memory of our families and parents... They realized the balance of forces was shifting and therefore the whole town was abandoned on the basis of this rationale - saving our lives and our belongings."
The acquisition of the Shepherd Hotel site was carried out according to the letter of the law. The land, first confiscated by the British, was administered by the Jordanian government after it illegally annexed the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1950. Under international law, the Israeli government became custodian after the 1967 war. For the Past 15 years the building stood abandoned. Soon the piece of real estate will house the descendants of those whom Haj Amin el-Husseini tried to kill in Palestine, or the grandchildren of those European Jews who escaped Husseini's ally, Adolf Hitler. Maybe, just maybe, there are consequences for aggression.
The writer served as a senior Israeli diplomat in Washington. Today he is a public affairs consultant and blogs at www.lennybendavid.com.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=151033
January 9, 2011
The Slow-Motion Exodus of European Jews
by David J. Rusin • Jan 7, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Do Jews have a future in an increasingly Muslim Europe? Often explored by Daniel Pipes, this question recently drew a disconcerting answer from prominent Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein, who opined on the grim choices facing visible (e.g., Orthodox) Jews in his nation:
Recent years also have seen increasing numbers of Jews moving to Israel from France and the UK. Will this soon be the case for Jews of other European countries as well? Given the raft of worrying tales from 2010 alone — Muslims assaulting Jews in Norway and Denmark, stone-tossing Arabs driving Jewish dancers from a stage in Germany, and a poll finding that 38% of Muslim youth in Austria agree that "Hitler had done a lot of good for the people" — the future does not look happy.
It has become fashionable to equate the plight of today's Muslim population in Europe with that of the continent's oppressed Jews during the 1930s. However, one can tell which group faces the real threat in modern Europe by watching migratory trends. While European governments are planning fences to keep Muslims from entering illegally, Jews are exiting in droves. People vote with their feet. The results — Muslims in, Jews out — offer critical lessons and warnings.
Do Jews have a future in an increasingly Muslim Europe? Often explored by Daniel Pipes, this question recently drew a disconcerting answer from prominent Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein, who opined on the grim choices facing visible (e.g., Orthodox) Jews in his nation:
The former EU commissioner says there is no future for this group in the Netherlands because of "the anti-Semitism among Dutchmen of Moroccan descent, whose numbers keep growing."Bolkestein's remarks echo those of Benjamin Jacobs, the country's chief rabbi, who told Arutz Sheva in 2010 that "the future for Dutch Jewry is moving to Israel." Indeed, some Jews are acting. The same news service reported in December that the son of Raphael Evers, another leading Dutch rabbi, "has announced plans to move to Israel due to anti-Semitism":
He feels that this group of Jews should encourage their children to emigrate to either the United States or Israel, because he has little confidence in the effectiveness of the government's proposals for fighting anti-Semitism.
"It's not that you can't leave the house, but you need to constantly hide, to be careful," he explained. He related his own cautionary measures, which include avoiding certain neighborhoods, and hiding his kippah (yalmulke) when walking through areas with a high number of Muslim immigrants.Next consider Sweden. Last month, the Simon Wiesenthal Center urged traveling Jews to exercise "extreme caution" due to "harassment of Jewish citizens in the southern city of Malmö." An estimated 60,000 Muslims comprise a fifth of Malmö's population and hate crimes regularly impact the lives of its 700 remaining Jews. "The city's synagogue has guards and rocket-proof glass in the windows," the Telegraph notes, "while the Jewish kindergarten can only be reached through thick steel security doors." With the government's response a mix of denial and blaming the victim, many Jews are leaving Malmö — and even Sweden altogether.
Recent years also have seen increasing numbers of Jews moving to Israel from France and the UK. Will this soon be the case for Jews of other European countries as well? Given the raft of worrying tales from 2010 alone — Muslims assaulting Jews in Norway and Denmark, stone-tossing Arabs driving Jewish dancers from a stage in Germany, and a poll finding that 38% of Muslim youth in Austria agree that "Hitler had done a lot of good for the people" — the future does not look happy.
It has become fashionable to equate the plight of today's Muslim population in Europe with that of the continent's oppressed Jews during the 1930s. However, one can tell which group faces the real threat in modern Europe by watching migratory trends. While European governments are planning fences to keep Muslims from entering illegally, Jews are exiting in droves. People vote with their feet. The results — Muslims in, Jews out — offer critical lessons and warnings.
January 7, 2011
The Islamist war against the Jewish State
The Islamist war against the Jewish State has been successfully repackaged as an Israeli war against the "Palestinians". Even Zionist organizations now refer to the conflict as the "Israeli Palestinian problem".
* * *
I did the cartoon after reading a quote from Israel's Makor Rishon Hebrew Newspaper:
Which Side Is the Tiny,Threatened Minority?
- Uri Elitzur (Dec 31, 2010)
"We in Israel are 6 million Jews surrounded by 250 million Arabs, and beyond them a billion Muslims.
We are the tiny, threatened minority - and the Palestinians are an integral part of the vast, threatening majority."
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