Thursday, February 15, 2007
It is Ok to stone women in Hérouxville after all
The town council in Hérouxville amended its provocative immigrant code of conduct Monday night to remove certain rules.
Council adopted the changes, which include removing references to "no stoning of women in public" and "no female circumcision."
Councillors said the rules were open to misinterpretation by journalists who have flocked to the Mauricie town of 1,200 since it adopted the code of conduct in January.
The town's leaders denied the amendments had anything to do with a visit from a delegation of Muslim women on Sunday as part of a mission to educate residents about their beliefs and practices.
The code itself will remain enshrined in the town's public documents.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest has ordered a commission to look into the debate over the reasonable accommodation of cultural and religious beliefs.
Seven out of 10 towns in the neighbouring region have moved to support Hérouxville's code of conduct.
Women's delegation satisfied with visit
The Canadian Islamic Congress is still considering filing a human rights complaint against Hérouxville, but a group of Muslim women who visited the town Sunday said they're generally pleased at how residents welcomed them.
"There was a real exchange," Najat Boughaba told Radio-Canada on Monday. "There were people who reached out to us. I really think our visit to Hérouxville benefited both sides."
Boughaba, who led the women's visit, said she was struck by how little the townspeople knew about Islam and its customs.
Boughaba said André Drouin, the municipal councillor who drafted the code, told the women's delegation he had done some research before writing the rules.
"But people I met knew very little," she said.
She was glad to share some of her beliefs with Hérouxville locals, but is realistic about changing people's opinions on reasonable accommodation.
"Hérouxville won't change," she said.
Boughaba believes pride is preventing Hérouxville from scrapping the code altogether.
"We'll leave them to think about it for a bit of time."
Source
Council adopted the changes, which include removing references to "no stoning of women in public" and "no female circumcision."
Councillors said the rules were open to misinterpretation by journalists who have flocked to the Mauricie town of 1,200 since it adopted the code of conduct in January.
The town's leaders denied the amendments had anything to do with a visit from a delegation of Muslim women on Sunday as part of a mission to educate residents about their beliefs and practices.
The code itself will remain enshrined in the town's public documents.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest has ordered a commission to look into the debate over the reasonable accommodation of cultural and religious beliefs.
Seven out of 10 towns in the neighbouring region have moved to support Hérouxville's code of conduct.
Women's delegation satisfied with visit
The Canadian Islamic Congress is still considering filing a human rights complaint against Hérouxville, but a group of Muslim women who visited the town Sunday said they're generally pleased at how residents welcomed them.
"There was a real exchange," Najat Boughaba told Radio-Canada on Monday. "There were people who reached out to us. I really think our visit to Hérouxville benefited both sides."
Boughaba, who led the women's visit, said she was struck by how little the townspeople knew about Islam and its customs.
Boughaba said André Drouin, the municipal councillor who drafted the code, told the women's delegation he had done some research before writing the rules.
"But people I met knew very little," she said.
She was glad to share some of her beliefs with Hérouxville locals, but is realistic about changing people's opinions on reasonable accommodation.
"Hérouxville won't change," she said.
Boughaba believes pride is preventing Hérouxville from scrapping the code altogether.
"We'll leave them to think about it for a bit of time."
Source
Wilders: Muslims Should Tear Up Half The Koran/Suicide attack planned on Wilders
THE HAGUE, 14/02/07 - If the Prophet Mohammed were living in the Netherlands today, he would have to be deported from the country. And if Muslims want to stay in the Netherlands, they must tear up and throw away half the Koran, says Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders.
Wilders gave an extensive interview yesterday to De Pers newspaper. In it, he outlined ambivalent feelings about the Middle East. Wilders travelled as a young man through Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Syria. "Oh, it is so beautiful there! The Syrian region of Palmyra for example (...) has a rich history, a rich culture (...) How often I was invited by people into their homes in small villages in the Middle East. And Iran, what friendly, lovely people live there (...) I only have something against the religion, not against the people."
Wilders discovered "that there is a constant factor" in the Middle East. "That the regime, the religion, the spiritual leadership is no good at all." There was not a specific moment when he became annoyed with Islam. "It happened gradually."
According to Wilders, Islam is a violent religion. "If Mohammed lived here today, I would propose tarring and feathering and hunting him out of the country as an extremist. (...) If Muslims want to stay here, they must tear up and throw away half the Koran. They must not listen to their Imam. I have read the Koran. (...) And I know that there are enough terrible things in it. If Muslims do assimilate, they are fully-fledged citizens, not a millimetre less valuable than you or I."
Wilders believes his new PVV party - it obtained 9 Lower House seats in November - can grow into "one of the biggest parties" in parliament. "Other parties avoid the themes that threaten us in our existence. Everything we are proud of, we sell to the devil. (...) You feel that you are no longer living in your own country."
Wilders thinks he cannot accomplish much but something with his current nine seats. He points to the ban on all-enveloping clothing that he instigated. "Two years before I put forward my motion for a burqa ban, I was denounced for this. But it has succeeded, the burqa ban was adopted by 76 to 74 votes."
Wilders concurs that he is "mad about Israel." The only criticism he has of the country is that "I find Israel sometimes listens to Europe too much. It should have intervened in Lebanon much earlier. I am more inclined to consider that Israel does not go far enough than that it goes too far."
Source
Suicide attack planned on Wilders
14 February 2007
AMSTERDAM – MP Geert Wilders was threatened with a suicide attack last week. Two young men reportedly planned to shoot the politician down and detonate a van full of explosives next to the politician. “Many innocent people were to die in the chaos.”
This has emerged from the report Wilders filed with the Haaglanden police. A warning of the attack planned for either The Hague or Amsterdam came via the anonymous hotline for crime tips. A similar, but less detailed, death threat came in via the hotline this week. It is unusual for this hotline to be used to announce death threats.
The initial, very concrete warning spoke about an attack planned for early February. Wilders would first be shot, and then a man would drive a white delivery van into the victim and detonate the 500 to 600 kilos of explosives in the vehicle.
The perpetrators reportedly got the explosives from a contact in the military. The rest of the material was bought on the last Monday in January from DIY chain Gamma in The Hague.
The person who called the hotline said that the perpetrators were not fundamentalists, but “just wanted revenge.” Wilders has been under heavy personal protection for some time and says that the number of threats to his person have doubled since his party won nine seats in the parliamentary elections in November.
Source
Wilders gave an extensive interview yesterday to De Pers newspaper. In it, he outlined ambivalent feelings about the Middle East. Wilders travelled as a young man through Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Syria. "Oh, it is so beautiful there! The Syrian region of Palmyra for example (...) has a rich history, a rich culture (...) How often I was invited by people into their homes in small villages in the Middle East. And Iran, what friendly, lovely people live there (...) I only have something against the religion, not against the people."
Wilders discovered "that there is a constant factor" in the Middle East. "That the regime, the religion, the spiritual leadership is no good at all." There was not a specific moment when he became annoyed with Islam. "It happened gradually."
According to Wilders, Islam is a violent religion. "If Mohammed lived here today, I would propose tarring and feathering and hunting him out of the country as an extremist. (...) If Muslims want to stay here, they must tear up and throw away half the Koran. They must not listen to their Imam. I have read the Koran. (...) And I know that there are enough terrible things in it. If Muslims do assimilate, they are fully-fledged citizens, not a millimetre less valuable than you or I."
Wilders believes his new PVV party - it obtained 9 Lower House seats in November - can grow into "one of the biggest parties" in parliament. "Other parties avoid the themes that threaten us in our existence. Everything we are proud of, we sell to the devil. (...) You feel that you are no longer living in your own country."
Wilders thinks he cannot accomplish much but something with his current nine seats. He points to the ban on all-enveloping clothing that he instigated. "Two years before I put forward my motion for a burqa ban, I was denounced for this. But it has succeeded, the burqa ban was adopted by 76 to 74 votes."
Wilders concurs that he is "mad about Israel." The only criticism he has of the country is that "I find Israel sometimes listens to Europe too much. It should have intervened in Lebanon much earlier. I am more inclined to consider that Israel does not go far enough than that it goes too far."
Source
Suicide attack planned on Wilders
14 February 2007
AMSTERDAM – MP Geert Wilders was threatened with a suicide attack last week. Two young men reportedly planned to shoot the politician down and detonate a van full of explosives next to the politician. “Many innocent people were to die in the chaos.”
This has emerged from the report Wilders filed with the Haaglanden police. A warning of the attack planned for either The Hague or Amsterdam came via the anonymous hotline for crime tips. A similar, but less detailed, death threat came in via the hotline this week. It is unusual for this hotline to be used to announce death threats.
The initial, very concrete warning spoke about an attack planned for early February. Wilders would first be shot, and then a man would drive a white delivery van into the victim and detonate the 500 to 600 kilos of explosives in the vehicle.
The perpetrators reportedly got the explosives from a contact in the military. The rest of the material was bought on the last Monday in January from DIY chain Gamma in The Hague.
The person who called the hotline said that the perpetrators were not fundamentalists, but “just wanted revenge.” Wilders has been under heavy personal protection for some time and says that the number of threats to his person have doubled since his party won nine seats in the parliamentary elections in November.
Source
Chavez to Al Qaeda: Don't fight us, we are on the same side
Venezuela to verify "illogical" threat from Al Qaeda
Related articles
- Al Qaeda suggests striking Venezuelan oil premises
Rear admiral Luis Cabrera, one of the members of President Hugo Chávez' Joint Chiefs of Staff, Thursday asked for verification of the "illogical" threat Al Qaeda allegedly launched against Venezuela, as this country is fighting US imperialism too, but using other methods.
"We should confirm the authenticity of these reports. It seems illogical that Al-Qaeda, which is against the US imperialism, is going after a State that is precisely fighting this hegemony, this imperialism, yet using other methods," Cabrera told official TV channel VTV.
Reports from Abu Dhabi on Wednesday claimed that the Saudi branch of Al Qaeda has urged followers to strike oil facilities in all countries around the world supplying oil to the United States, including Mexico, Canada and Venezuela.
The call came in an article called "Bin Laden and the Oil Weapon," featured in the latest edition of on-line magazine Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad), of the so-called "Al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula," Efe reported.
The article urges the Mujahideens (Islamic fighters) to target oil premises for attacks not only in Saudi Arabia, but throughout the world.
"We should strike petroleum interests in all areas which supply the United States, and not only in the Middle East, because the target is to stop its imports or decrease it by all means," said the group on the on-line magazine (Voice of Jihad).
Cabrera stressed that the means to fight the United States "are different" because Venezuela fight "with the Constitution, with legality, moral and the truth, rather than terrorist attacks."
He reminded that there are "serious suspicions" that September 11, 2002 terrorist attacks on a number of civilian and military targets in the US were "self-attacks."
"This could be part of a plan," he said, adding that "it is important for Venezuelan security agencies to take all necessary measures of security and defense to avoid any attack."
In this connection, on Wednesday, Minister of the Interior and Justice Pedro Carreño said they have declared "an early alert" and are "ready to conduct any relevant investigations to guarantee supply of strategic resources."
Source
Related articles
- Al Qaeda suggests striking Venezuelan oil premises
Rear admiral Luis Cabrera, one of the members of President Hugo Chávez' Joint Chiefs of Staff, Thursday asked for verification of the "illogical" threat Al Qaeda allegedly launched against Venezuela, as this country is fighting US imperialism too, but using other methods.
"We should confirm the authenticity of these reports. It seems illogical that Al-Qaeda, which is against the US imperialism, is going after a State that is precisely fighting this hegemony, this imperialism, yet using other methods," Cabrera told official TV channel VTV.
Reports from Abu Dhabi on Wednesday claimed that the Saudi branch of Al Qaeda has urged followers to strike oil facilities in all countries around the world supplying oil to the United States, including Mexico, Canada and Venezuela.
The call came in an article called "Bin Laden and the Oil Weapon," featured in the latest edition of on-line magazine Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad), of the so-called "Al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula," Efe reported.
The article urges the Mujahideens (Islamic fighters) to target oil premises for attacks not only in Saudi Arabia, but throughout the world.
"We should strike petroleum interests in all areas which supply the United States, and not only in the Middle East, because the target is to stop its imports or decrease it by all means," said the group on the on-line magazine (Voice of Jihad).
Cabrera stressed that the means to fight the United States "are different" because Venezuela fight "with the Constitution, with legality, moral and the truth, rather than terrorist attacks."
He reminded that there are "serious suspicions" that September 11, 2002 terrorist attacks on a number of civilian and military targets in the US were "self-attacks."
"This could be part of a plan," he said, adding that "it is important for Venezuelan security agencies to take all necessary measures of security and defense to avoid any attack."
In this connection, on Wednesday, Minister of the Interior and Justice Pedro Carreño said they have declared "an early alert" and are "ready to conduct any relevant investigations to guarantee supply of strategic resources."
Source
A proud Israeli Bedouin questions American-Jewish apathy
by Ismail Khald
Two years ago, a few proud Bedouin Israeli citizens like myself asked: what is our position and status in the State of Israel in the midst of its current situation? After all, Bedouins are part of Israel's success story. During current times, when Israel is being attacked and accused of being a racist state, an 'aggressor and an oppressor', we decided that the smallest and probably most effective thing we could do is to spread our story as part of Israeli society.
I, Ishmael Khaldi, am Israeli. I served with the IDF, with the Israel police, and with the Israeli Defense Ministry. In the last year, I have lost two Bedouin friends on army duty (God bless their memory) defending the State of Israel. My friends and family feel that we have a common destiny with the Jewish people in Israel: our grandparents created this land with Jewish immigrants who arrived during the 1920s, '30s and '40s to build a democracy.
Because of this connection to the State of Israel, I cannot stand on the sidelines during Israel's time of need. I feel that I must speak up and be heard.
I recently returned from a two-month campus speaking tour in North America, mostly organized by Hasbara Fellowships. This was the fourth tour I had done over the past year. I've traveled the United States coast to coast (of course, being a Bedouin nomad, I mainly took Greyhound!) and flew for a ten-day tour across Canada.
The tour was certainly miraculous -- a Bedouin shepherd who had never been to any major city before, all of sudden found himself in downtown Manhattan! It proved to be one of the most adventurous, challenging and enriching experiences of my life.
I came to the U.S. and Canada to speak on college campuses about Israel, as one who certainly holds a perspective that is rarely heard -- a proud Israeli that is not Jewish. I came to share one man's tale of Israel's culture, society and politics from the perspective of a Bedouin minority in the Jewish State.
Arriving in North America, committed to defending Israel from the poisonous venom of hatred and attacks that I had heard much about, I expected to see the same commitment on campuses among the Jewish students. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case.
I had heard much about the struggle of pro-Israel student activists, attempting to counter the unbalanced, biased and false accusations made against Israel. I had not come to North America to preach that Israel was perfect. As all Israelis know, Israel has problems like all nations of the world. Still, many students tried to stop me from speaking. There were even students who had the audacity to compare me to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, making false claims that I was doing the same for Israel.
The United States has always been described as being the 'land of the free' and a home for free speech. How can New Hampshire's slogan read, "live free or die" if the student union is allowed to ban me from telling a cultural story? I can't believe that the hatred for Israel is so strong that student governments are able to defy their own dignity as free American citizens, in order that the truth about Israel should remain a secret.
The deep-seated hatred manifested itself clearly throughout the country with the many loaded questions asked by anti-Israel students. For example, a Muslim student at Rutgers University completely ignored the fact that Israel is a free state and asked, "How could you support a Hebrew state if you're not Jewish?" Another questioner asked, "Don't you think that if Israel didn't exist, then the Palestinians wouldn't have any problems?"
In Milwaukee, I was asked, "How many Palestinian old men and women have you humiliated while serving in the Israeli police?" How can such a question be asked? Only if the truth were known, that Israeli soldiers have on many occasions helped Palestinians.
The situation I encountered on many of the campuses in North America and Canada was horrifying. I was not as shocked by the Arab questioners as I was with the personal threats, and the severe apathy of the majority of Jewish students.
In my years of speaking to people, I've never received threats or personal attacks like I did speaking on campuses. There were threatening incidents at both the University of Florida and at California State University. Both were chilling. The crowd in Florida was one full of anger and hatred, yet I had to stand before them unsure of the enemy who had sent threats earlier that day. In California I spoke facing a young student who wore a T-shirt with a swastika on it, chewing on a piece of paper as some sort of protest against! m! y talk.
Even more upsetting, I expected to see many more Jewish students aware of the situation in Israel, but that wasn't the case. I expected the Jewish students to realize that the situation was not only affecting Israel and Israelis, but Jews all over the world.
On the other hand, the Arab students and their supporters knew almost all the last minute news clips from the Middle East. How can Israel's voice be heard if the Jewish students don't have the facts or the knowledge to speak up? I don't take the mass of Jewish students to task for not agreeing with all of Israel's policies, but I do take them to task for not caring about Israel or what happens there. It is the apathy which allows the anti-Israel propaganda to strengthen itself more and more over time.
As a personal aside, sixty years after the horrors of the Holocaust, Israel is going through one of the most critical times in its history. More than 60 years after my grandparents joined their destiny to that of the Jews coming to the Land of Israel, I feel that history is somehow moving backwards. Anti-Semitism and hatred towards Israel is soaring. Comparing me, a Muslim Bedouin who supports Israel, to the Nazis is just another clear piece of evidence.
And yet, 60 years after the horrors of the Holocaust, I felt that on campus, the Jewish voice is silent. Where are the Jewish students fighting back? My commitment in these crucial days, while Israel is struggling for its right to exist, is to continue the heritage of my grandparents and to stand together to fight for the State of Israel.
History will not tolerate us if we keep our voice silent. We must roll up our sleeves once again to build a better future for Israel and all of its loyal citizens. Israel's right to exist is my right and my people's right, just as Israel's destiny is our destiny.
But just as history demands for me to fight for Israel, history also will not tolerate a generation of Jews who don't care.
Source
Two years ago, a few proud Bedouin Israeli citizens like myself asked: what is our position and status in the State of Israel in the midst of its current situation? After all, Bedouins are part of Israel's success story. During current times, when Israel is being attacked and accused of being a racist state, an 'aggressor and an oppressor', we decided that the smallest and probably most effective thing we could do is to spread our story as part of Israeli society.
I, Ishmael Khaldi, am Israeli. I served with the IDF, with the Israel police, and with the Israeli Defense Ministry. In the last year, I have lost two Bedouin friends on army duty (God bless their memory) defending the State of Israel. My friends and family feel that we have a common destiny with the Jewish people in Israel: our grandparents created this land with Jewish immigrants who arrived during the 1920s, '30s and '40s to build a democracy.
Because of this connection to the State of Israel, I cannot stand on the sidelines during Israel's time of need. I feel that I must speak up and be heard.
I recently returned from a two-month campus speaking tour in North America, mostly organized by Hasbara Fellowships. This was the fourth tour I had done over the past year. I've traveled the United States coast to coast (of course, being a Bedouin nomad, I mainly took Greyhound!) and flew for a ten-day tour across Canada.
The tour was certainly miraculous -- a Bedouin shepherd who had never been to any major city before, all of sudden found himself in downtown Manhattan! It proved to be one of the most adventurous, challenging and enriching experiences of my life.
I came to the U.S. and Canada to speak on college campuses about Israel, as one who certainly holds a perspective that is rarely heard -- a proud Israeli that is not Jewish. I came to share one man's tale of Israel's culture, society and politics from the perspective of a Bedouin minority in the Jewish State.
Arriving in North America, committed to defending Israel from the poisonous venom of hatred and attacks that I had heard much about, I expected to see the same commitment on campuses among the Jewish students. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case.
I had heard much about the struggle of pro-Israel student activists, attempting to counter the unbalanced, biased and false accusations made against Israel. I had not come to North America to preach that Israel was perfect. As all Israelis know, Israel has problems like all nations of the world. Still, many students tried to stop me from speaking. There were even students who had the audacity to compare me to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, making false claims that I was doing the same for Israel.
The United States has always been described as being the 'land of the free' and a home for free speech. How can New Hampshire's slogan read, "live free or die" if the student union is allowed to ban me from telling a cultural story? I can't believe that the hatred for Israel is so strong that student governments are able to defy their own dignity as free American citizens, in order that the truth about Israel should remain a secret.
The deep-seated hatred manifested itself clearly throughout the country with the many loaded questions asked by anti-Israel students. For example, a Muslim student at Rutgers University completely ignored the fact that Israel is a free state and asked, "How could you support a Hebrew state if you're not Jewish?" Another questioner asked, "Don't you think that if Israel didn't exist, then the Palestinians wouldn't have any problems?"
In Milwaukee, I was asked, "How many Palestinian old men and women have you humiliated while serving in the Israeli police?" How can such a question be asked? Only if the truth were known, that Israeli soldiers have on many occasions helped Palestinians.
The situation I encountered on many of the campuses in North America and Canada was horrifying. I was not as shocked by the Arab questioners as I was with the personal threats, and the severe apathy of the majority of Jewish students.
In my years of speaking to people, I've never received threats or personal attacks like I did speaking on campuses. There were threatening incidents at both the University of Florida and at California State University. Both were chilling. The crowd in Florida was one full of anger and hatred, yet I had to stand before them unsure of the enemy who had sent threats earlier that day. In California I spoke facing a young student who wore a T-shirt with a swastika on it, chewing on a piece of paper as some sort of protest against! m! y talk.
Even more upsetting, I expected to see many more Jewish students aware of the situation in Israel, but that wasn't the case. I expected the Jewish students to realize that the situation was not only affecting Israel and Israelis, but Jews all over the world.
On the other hand, the Arab students and their supporters knew almost all the last minute news clips from the Middle East. How can Israel's voice be heard if the Jewish students don't have the facts or the knowledge to speak up? I don't take the mass of Jewish students to task for not agreeing with all of Israel's policies, but I do take them to task for not caring about Israel or what happens there. It is the apathy which allows the anti-Israel propaganda to strengthen itself more and more over time.
As a personal aside, sixty years after the horrors of the Holocaust, Israel is going through one of the most critical times in its history. More than 60 years after my grandparents joined their destiny to that of the Jews coming to the Land of Israel, I feel that history is somehow moving backwards. Anti-Semitism and hatred towards Israel is soaring. Comparing me, a Muslim Bedouin who supports Israel, to the Nazis is just another clear piece of evidence.
And yet, 60 years after the horrors of the Holocaust, I felt that on campus, the Jewish voice is silent. Where are the Jewish students fighting back? My commitment in these crucial days, while Israel is struggling for its right to exist, is to continue the heritage of my grandparents and to stand together to fight for the State of Israel.
History will not tolerate us if we keep our voice silent. We must roll up our sleeves once again to build a better future for Israel and all of its loyal citizens. Israel's right to exist is my right and my people's right, just as Israel's destiny is our destiny.
But just as history demands for me to fight for Israel, history also will not tolerate a generation of Jews who don't care.
Source
Limit Muslim migration, Australia warned
Barney Zwartz
February 16, 2007
LIFE can become untenable when the Muslim population of a non-Muslim country reaches about 10 per cent, as shown by France, a Jewish expert on Islam says.
The Australian Jewish News yesterday quoted Raphael Israeli as saying Australia should cap Muslim immigration or risk being swamped by Indonesians.
Professor Israeli told the Herald that was a misunderstanding. But he said: "When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia."
Professor Israeli, an expert on Islamic history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has been brought to Australia by the Shalom Institute of the University of NSW. The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council is co-hosting many of his activities.
He said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of Western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance.
"Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence. There is no Italian or Jewish Hilaly [a reference to the controversial cleric Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly of Lakemba mosque]. Why?"
Professor Israeli said that when the Muslim population increased, so did the risk of violence.
"Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble. If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it - they don't have the backing of big communities. They know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved."
In Australia, Muslims account for about 1.5 per cent of the population.
Professor Israeli said that in France, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Europe at about 10 per cent, it was already too late. There were regions even the police were scared to enter, and militant Muslims were changing the country's political, economic and cultural fabric, and demanding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies.
"French people say they are strangers in their own country. This is a point of no return.
"If you are on a collision course, what can you do? You can't put them all in prison, and anyway they are not all violent. You can't send them all back. You are really in trouble. It's irreversible."
Professor Israeli said that in Australia a few imams had preached violence. "You should not let fundamentalist imams come here. Screen them 1000 times before they are admitted, and after they are admitted screen what they say in the mosque."
He said some Muslims wanted to impose sharia (Islamic law) in their adopted countries, and when propaganda did not work they turned to intimidation.
Professor Israeli said his task was to describe, not prescribe. He also said his warning did not include immigrants, including Muslims, who simply wanted to improve their lot. As long as they respected the law and democracy, their numbers — Buddhist, Muslim or Jew — were immaterial. It became material when a group accepted violence.
"The trains in London and Madrid were not blown up by Christians or Buddhists but by Muslims, so it is them we have to beware," he said.
Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said "Not only religious clerics need to be screened before entering Ausralia but also academics … this type of academic does nothing but create hatred, suspicion and division … We should review not only what the man has said but also those who have sponsored him, to see if they endorse those comments."
Source
February 16, 2007
LIFE can become untenable when the Muslim population of a non-Muslim country reaches about 10 per cent, as shown by France, a Jewish expert on Islam says.
The Australian Jewish News yesterday quoted Raphael Israeli as saying Australia should cap Muslim immigration or risk being swamped by Indonesians.
Professor Israeli told the Herald that was a misunderstanding. But he said: "When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia."
Professor Israeli, an expert on Islamic history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has been brought to Australia by the Shalom Institute of the University of NSW. The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council is co-hosting many of his activities.
He said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of Western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance.
"Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence. There is no Italian or Jewish Hilaly [a reference to the controversial cleric Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly of Lakemba mosque]. Why?"
Professor Israeli said that when the Muslim population increased, so did the risk of violence.
"Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble. If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it - they don't have the backing of big communities. They know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved."
In Australia, Muslims account for about 1.5 per cent of the population.
Professor Israeli said that in France, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Europe at about 10 per cent, it was already too late. There were regions even the police were scared to enter, and militant Muslims were changing the country's political, economic and cultural fabric, and demanding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies.
"French people say they are strangers in their own country. This is a point of no return.
"If you are on a collision course, what can you do? You can't put them all in prison, and anyway they are not all violent. You can't send them all back. You are really in trouble. It's irreversible."
Professor Israeli said that in Australia a few imams had preached violence. "You should not let fundamentalist imams come here. Screen them 1000 times before they are admitted, and after they are admitted screen what they say in the mosque."
He said some Muslims wanted to impose sharia (Islamic law) in their adopted countries, and when propaganda did not work they turned to intimidation.
Professor Israeli said his task was to describe, not prescribe. He also said his warning did not include immigrants, including Muslims, who simply wanted to improve their lot. As long as they respected the law and democracy, their numbers — Buddhist, Muslim or Jew — were immaterial. It became material when a group accepted violence.
"The trains in London and Madrid were not blown up by Christians or Buddhists but by Muslims, so it is them we have to beware," he said.
Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said "Not only religious clerics need to be screened before entering Ausralia but also academics … this type of academic does nothing but create hatred, suspicion and division … We should review not only what the man has said but also those who have sponsored him, to see if they endorse those comments."
Source
Why Europe Abandoned Israel
By Richard Baehr
Why is Israel viewed so differently in Europe than in the United States? To argue as the title of this article does, that Europe has abandoned Israel, is to suggest that it was once in its corner. And in fact, this is true.
Prior to the Six Day War in 1967, it was France which was Israel's primary military supplier, not the United States. In the War of Independence in 1948-49, it was arms smuggled from Czechoslovakia that enabled the Zionists to fight on. Most European nations, including some Soviet satellites, supported the partition resolution in the General Assembly in November 1947. European nations supported Israel at the UN through the late 1960s and in some cases well beyond then.
Clearly, some of this support in the post World War 2 period-was a reflection of European guilt over the murder of six million Jews in their midst from 1939 to 1945. As Raul Hilberg has written, most Europeans and most European nations fell into one of two categories during the Holocaust: perpetrators, or bystanders. Few nations distinguished themselves (Denmark, Bulgaria, and maybe Italy, were better than average).
Today 40 years later, that residue of sympathy for the plucky underdog nation of Israel has disappeared.
When I refer to Europe I mean for the most part the EU (which includes all of western Europe except Norway Switzerland, and Iceland and an increasing number of eastern European countries: Romania and Bulgaria the most recently admitted, joining Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia).
As an alumnus of the Bronx High School of Science and MIT, I have an attachment to numbers. So I will start with some important ones that emphasize my major point: modern Europe, as a result of consolidation through the EU, is experiencing a certain schizophrenia in terms of its role in the world.
Size versus military might
1. Europe is a growing economic powerhouse due to creation of a collective economy.
2. But Europe is a declining military power with a diminished role versus the United States' power and role, and this gap is more pronounced with George W. Bush as President than before, given his inclination to defend and promote what he believes are American interests despite substantial international resistance.
Let us look at some numbers: The EU now has 27 countries with a GDP over $13 trillion. The EU countries have almost 500 million people. The United States with 300 million people, also has a GDP of about $13 trillion, so obviously per capita GDP is much higher in the US than in Europe (60% higher per capita in fact). Europeans claim that the greater income disparity among Americans means the real gap in per capita income is narrower between most citizens of the US and Europe.
Add Turkey and the non-EU Eastern European nations, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro (reuniting Yugoslavia within the EU!), and the EU could soon be well over 500 million people. Russia has another 150 million people, Ukraine 40 million, though these countries are not currently considered potential members.
But there is little or no population growth within Europe, and with the exception of some of the Eastern European economies, Ireland and Scandinavia, relatively slow economic growth overall. In the US, the 1950 population of 150 million has doubled 55 years later. In the US, we have replacement population growth from the birth rate, plus immigration, mostly from Mexico and East Asia. Europe's population, which grew only 20% the past 55 years, is now stagnant, and headed downward sharply, given today's low birth rates.
Defense budgets in Europe are dropping. The US defense budget is larger than the next 20 largest defense budgets in the world combined. The European solution is to solve problems multilaterally, and not by military means. Why? If a military solution is required, then Europe must follow the American lead and be in America's shadow. This is a dignity issue. If international problems are addressed multilaterally, then Europe has 27 EU nations, and in international forums like the UN, Europe has more than 30 votes, and the US just one.
Lifestyle issues
But there is also an attitude or life style issue at play between Europe and America.
Western Europeans want to believe that all international disputes can be resolved amicably, or as they call it, diplomatically, and multilaterally. Deal with diplomatic issues in Geneva or at the UN. Resolve economic problems in Davos. Address war crimes disputes in Brussels. One explanation for this somewhat naïve view of addressing the world's problems is that Europe is militarily and spiritually weak and willing to appease those who might threaten the European life style. The Europeans' new ethos is the New York Times' editorial page social philosophy writ large: tolerance for everything - euthanasia, gay rights, drugs, abortion, Islam. The only intolerance that is allowed is towards Christianity, America, and Israel. Bruce Bawer, who left America for what he thought was a better place in Western Europe, has documented the spiritual emptiness of this new multicultural ideology in his recent book While Europe Slept.
Look at lifestyle issues. In the US, average hours worked per year is close to 1900. In Germany it is now below 1400. Europeans work less, retire earlier, and are better secured cradle to grave through an extensive and expensive social net than we are here. But this social system is paid for with much higher taxes than I believe would be accepted in the United States. And the high cost to business to pay its share for this rich safety net means few workers are hired, hence close to 10% unemployment is a near constant level for some countries on the continent. The population in Europe is aging almost as quickly as Japan's. Europeans have the lowest birth rates in the world. All countries in Europe except Ireland, have below-replacement fertility rates. Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain have an average of 1.1 or 1.2 births per female of child bearing age. In Northern Italy, the fertility rate (number of children per woman of child bearing age) has fallen below 1, a first in world history.
Population decline
The most up to date demographic forecasts project that every single European country will have a smaller population in the year 2050 than today with the possible exception of Ireland and France. Ireland has a high birth rate by European standards. France still has sufficient immigration to counter declining fertility rates. Some of the former Soviet states already have declining population. In Russia the death rate is now 1/3 greater than the birth rate. Russia may be half its current size in 50 years, as might some of the Baltic States. Italy is projected to be 1/4 smaller. Every minute on average, there are 3 births and 4 deaths in Russia. Mark Steyn in his new book America Alone, argues that demography is destiny. He concludes, a bit hyperbolically, that Europeans are in the throes of a death spiral.
So Europe's population is aging and declining, and workers want to work less. This creates huge social issues. Who will do the work that Europeans increasingly do not want to do themselves (maid service, child care, working with the elderly, dishwashers)? Who will pay the taxes to support the social services which are skewed, as in the US, towards the elderly, a rapidly growing bloc?
Europeans have had largely homogeneous populations for most of their history. European diversity used to mean Hungarians living in Rumania. Basically the continent was all white and largely Christian, except for Muslim areas of Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Turkey, and the Jews of eastern Europe. In the past 40 years, African and Asian immigrants (mainly Muslim in both cases) have come in to do the work Europeans do not want to do any more, and which Europeans so far can afford to pay others to do.
Rising Muslim population
But the immigrant groups have changed the social dynamic. Crime is way up in center cities. European cities still have lower murder rates than American cities but higher overall crime rates in many cases. London's crime rate is twice as high as New York's. The new immigrants, especially the Muslim immigrants, have not mixed well with the native population. Entire immigrant communities have taken over sections in major cities, particularly in France, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Belgium. Half the babies born in Brussels are Muslim. The city of Mälmo, Sweden, has become so dangerous that the fire department will not come for an emergency call in certain neighborhoods without police protection.
And then came the bombings in Spain in March 2004, and in Britain in July 2005 and the murder of Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands, and the cartoon riots created by the publication of a few unflattering drawings of Muhammed in an obscure Danish newspaper. Europe has been forced to think about the crazy aunt in the bedroom.
New pressures are emerging to restrict immigration because of its threat to societal homogeneity, and public safety. But there is a need for high levels of immigration to provide the warm bodies to do the work that needs to be done, and to contribute to the tax system to support the social safety net. This is I think an irreconcilable conflict.
Current estimates are that at least 20 million Muslims now live in Western Europe. A few years back, I met with a French consul general to complain about French anti-Semitism, which of course he denied. When I told him that the French were kowtowing to the Muslim minority because it was ten times the size of its Jewish community, he cut me off to say there were only 4 million Muslims in France, not 6 million as I was implying. A year later, 6 million is the official estimate the French accept. There are also 3 million Muslims in Germany (mainly Turks), 2 million in Britain (mainly Pakistanis), and a million each in Italy and the Netherlands (both mostly from North Africa). A recent article I read says the real Muslim population in France may be between 8 and 9 million, as illegal immigration, aided and abetted by Europe's new open borders, has brought more and more Arabs to the country in Europe where they were most numerous already: France.
One forecast I read suggests that France may be half Muslim by 2050 given continued immigration and the much higher birth rate for Muslims than other French. While Texas may be half Hispanic by 2025, I don't think that this demographic change will necessarily affect Texas for the worse, and Texas will still be America. Immigrants to America tend to become more Americanized over time. But will France still be French if it is half Muslim? David Pryce Jones in an article in Commentary stated that either Islam will be Europeanized, or Europe will be Islamized. Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis put it more starkly: given the comparative birth rates (white Europeans very low, Muslims very high) and immigration levels, soon enough Europe will be Muslim, and the question will be answered.
The numbers provide important background to explain Europe's problems with Israel and its seeming obtuseness and infinite patience in continuing to defend and financially support the PA with billions in contributions, though the money is continually diverted for terrorism (otherwise known as security forces) and to support the lifestyles of the PA's thugocracy. It also explains Europe's near 100% support for Israel-bashing efforts in the UN and international bodies. With the Hamas election victory, many in Europe agreed to an initial aid cutoff, but soon wanted aid restored, because they believed it was needed for humanitarian purposes. One small sign of sanity was the petition by a French legislator demanding a full accounting of money sent to the PA. The petition gathered over 100 EU parliament signatures, enough to require a formal response by the EU administration. That response was to send it to committee for further study. Remember that Europeans invented bureaucracy, and have perfected the art.
Hostility to Israel as the product
So why are the Europeans so hostile to Israel, and so sympathetic to the Palestinians?
There are a number of factors that explain European behavior towards Israel. I have identified seven of them:
1. Europe's dependence on Middle East oil
2. Europe's rivalry with the US
3. The growing number of Muslims and their militancy
4. The small number of Jews, and their passivity
5. The role of elites in Europe's politics
6. Europe's long term disease of anti-Semitism, and
7. The decline of Christianity in Europe.
Oil
The US obtains almost 40% its oil from domestic sources, and much of the rest from Venezuela, Nigeria, and other non-Arab or Middle East countries. Europe is much more dependent on foreign oil, and especially Middle East oil. If OPEC , and Middle Eastern nations use the oil weapon to punish the US for its policies with Israel and the Palestinians, or for war against Iraq, Europe will suffer more than we will.
Rivalry with the US
Taking a slap at Israel is a cheap and easy way to annoy the US, and insert Europe in a competing power role. The US is too pro-Israel, so Europe will be more balanced and nuanced, more multilateral, more understanding of the Palestinian side. The old argument was that only the US could pressure Israel, so Arabs needed to work with the US as well. Now the European argument is that only Europe can work with the PA given America's tilt towards Israel. We have seen a similar logic in the French and German approach in the period leading up to the war with Iraq. Part of the resistance to American efforts may have been honest disagreement about the results of continued inspections, and hence the wisdom of going to war over WMDs. But a far greater part, especially in the case of France was designed to spite the US, and interfere with America's projection of power abroad. A final factor of course was money- the spoils for France, and Russia and Germany from the oil for food scandal, the largest financial scandal in the world's history, but reported in this country almost entirely on just one channel (FNC), and in one newspaper - the Wall Street Journal.
Fear of the Muslim population
Europe is afraid of its Muslims. There is fear that if Europe behaves towards Israel the way the US does, that the terrorism of 9/11 and the terror that Israel experiences would explode over into Europe's streets. This explains why Spain voted for an appeasement government after the train attacks of 3/11. This is why the violence against Europe's Jews is explained away as youth vandalism, not as racist hate crimes.
Europe's police forces are also not made of the same stuff as New York's finest. Not all European police are as pathetic as the British in terms of severely limiting the use of firearms for police officers and security personnel, but that is the trend. The Muslim gang members who commit crimes against Europe's Jews have no fear of the police in European cities, as African American criminals might in major US cities.
Yes, Muslims in Europe are often treated as second class citizens, and they are resentful. But most of this resentment comes from the hostility that is bred into those who attend the mosques of Europe, and learn from the imams trained in Saudi style Wahhabism in the Saudi Kingdom or Pakistan. The Muslims in Europe are by and large not integrated into the fabric of their societies, but much of this is not a result of discrimination, but a conscious decision to remain outside the new secular Europe.
But it is also the case that most Europeans are happy to have the new immigrants live among themselves and not integrate in their societies. Do native Germans regard the Turks living among them as Germans? Do the Dutch view South Moluccans as they do their Dutch neighbors? In America, if an immigrant works hard and earns a living, nobody really cares about his or her ethnicity. We are after all a nation of immigrants and their descendants.
Islam is at heart both a religion, and a political system. There is no separation of church and state in Islam. Radical Islamists intend to dominate and overwhelm Europe. Melanie Phillips has written about how this disturbing trend is playing out in Britain in her recent book Londonistan.
There is also little intermarriage by immigrants in Europe. In the US 10 % of blacks marry whites, 5% of Asians marry non-Asians, and as we know, about half of Jews marry non-Jews.
Few Jews left in Europe
Other than France and Britain, there are not many Jews around in Europe today. The total Jewish population is a little over a million in Western Europe, and merely a handful in Eastern Europe other than the former Soviet republics. There has been a little Jewish revival in Germany caused by immigration from the Soviet Union. So we see declining numbers everywhere else; aging population, low birth rate, high intermarriage rate. Does this sound familiar?
But unlike the US, the Jewish communities in Europe are in many cases remnants of once larger communities, and are not politically assertive. There is no European equivalent of AIPAC, and Jews lack a meaningful political voice. Most European Jews before 1939 lived in Eastern Europe, not Western Europe. France has twice as many Jews today as it did in 1939 as a result of getting a sizable share of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Arab countries after the creation of the state of Israel, particularly from Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Western Europe may have lost a million Jews in the Holocaust, while Eastern Europe lost 5 million.
Interestingly, in Eastern Europe (other than in the countries that were part of the former Soviet Union), being Jewish is now becoming a bit trendy, even "hot" in some cases. In Slovenia, my wife's native country, with perhaps 500 Jews, a major magazine had a ten page story on the Jews of Slovenia (that's 50 Jews per page), the President lit Chanukah candles, and the first synagogue in almost 500 years has just been opened in the capital of Ljubljana. There is a sort of philo-Semitism in some other Eastern European countries as well, including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and amazingly enough, even in Poland. Jews or partial Jews are coming out of the woodwork. While this is better than the situation that existed in these countries for decades or centuries in some cases, the Jews who remain are in some respect museum pieces or curiosities, and the communities belong to history.
In Western Europe, however, Jews are looking for cover. Wear a yamulka in a public places, and you could become a target. Eat at a Jewish cafeteria, go to synagogue, go to a Jewish day school, and you might become a target. You are even a target after you are buried. The worst anti Semitism is in France, but it is also terrible in Belgium and Germany, and bad in other countries as well. The more critical the governments and media are of Israeli behavior in a particular country, the more the violence seems to spread, almost as if it were given a license. Were European government policy to become more supportive of Israel, the fear is that the attacks would then be directed against European institutions, rather than Europe's Jews.
Role of the Elites
In Europe the elites have a far different role than they do in the United States. The elites of Europe are the coffee shop philosophers: leftists who romanticize the violence of Che Guevara, Yassar Arafat, and the Sunni killers fighting our forces in Iraq. They fancy themselves revolutionaries fighting western hegemony, colonialism, militarism, imperialism, etc. In the US we have such people too. They make up the humanities faculties of most colleges and universities, particularly at elite schools.
In America the leftist academics prepare petitions and write their drivel for academic conferences, but they really do not much affect public policy. Yes, there is a soft leftist mind set that wafts out of academia and courses through the media that has a real influence over the messages that are communicated in our society. This is what Bernard Goldberg has written about in his book Bias. But it is not the harsh anti western nihilistic nonsense that is so prevalent in academia. It is easy to forget that in the 1960s, the Kennedy administration seemed to take half of Cambridge, Massachusetts with it to Washington. That kind of academic influence on policy, whether in a Democratic or Republican administration, no longer exists.
Europe is very different. The elites are public intellectuals and have a major role in making government policy. This is why the mindless anti-Americanism of the German minister with her Hitler analogy to George Bush can be voiced. It is why major media in Britain and France and Italy, and to a lesser extent Germany, are full of biting anti American, and anti Israel commentary. That "shitty little country" comment by the French ambassador to Britain reflects the worldview of the European elites. Israel is the imperialist colonialist power. There is nothing noble about its struggle against terrorism. The Palestinians are the oppressed - the new South Africans fighting the Israeli apartheid. Jimmy Carter has attempted to popularize this view in America with a vindictive assault on Israel in his latest book: Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.
Romanticism
In Europe, these views are not just a reflection of government policy caused by fear of domestic Muslim terrorism, but a romanticism for the presumed helpless victim, and admiration for the revolutionary gunmen fighting for their freedom. In Europe the elites believe this garbage. The anger against Israel among the elites is very strong. The coverage of the conflict by the leftist European media, the bibles of the elites - The Guardian, Le Monde, the BBC, Reuters - feed this anger with their reporting. Even something as seemingly innocent as an annual calendar, distributed by Reuters, contains but one provocative photo - a Palestinian "militant" marching to protest the "killing" of Palestinians by Israel (obviously no context required). And recently, in a clear violation of the most basic tenets of academic freedom, both British and French academics have attempted to eliminate scholarly contact with Israeli academics.
In the US we are a very culturally diverse and politically divided nation - abortion, gun rights, taxes, government spending, the proper role of religion in the public sphere, are all issues on which the population is sharply divided. But there is also common ground that we can call an acceptance of basic American and democratic principles. It is a fairly conservative common ground, patriotic, respectful of religion (remember the public reaction to the 9th circuit judges ruling on the under God language in the pledge of allegiance), and supportive of free enterprise.
The European elites align with Noam Chomsky's world view. An example is the way the European elites ridicule religion (other than Islam). An Oxford scientist, Richard Dawkins, has written The God Delusion claiming that teaching religion to children is a form of child abuse. Because of the role that the elites have in European politics, often moving into and out of government and non-governmental organization roles, their views have a hearing in the circles of government decision making.
The Greens, a far left movement that started as an environmental movement, are now pro-Palestinian, anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-war, and growing in strength throughout the continent. There is pitifully little common ground between the major American policy consensus and Europe's Greens.
America's greens (represented by Ralph Nader and Israel-hating film director Michael Moore) have similar views as Europe's Greens, but here, thankfully, the Greens are only a 1%- 2% phenomenon. In Europe they are ten percent of the voters in many countries, and part of many governing coalitions. They influence all the other parties on the left and make them less sympathetic to America and by extension to Israel.
How bad has it gotten for Israel in Europe?
Public opinion surveys up through the end of 2003 showed huge majorities favoring the Palestinians over Israel, by 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 in the large countries and by 10 to 1 in some smaller ones. In the US, surveys showed 3 to 1 to 4 to 1 support for Israel over the Palestinians in the same period. The number of Europeans supporting the Palestinians dropped after the electoral victory by Hamas, but support for Israel did not increase. In a survey last year, Europeans named Israel the most dangerous country in the world, with the US and Iran tied for second! The media is least hostile to Israel in Germany (with greater care taken to not cross the line to anti-Semitism given the Germans' ignoble history), and most hostile in Britain, France, and Spain.
The public is also very hostile to Israel in Belgium, and in Scandinavia, which has no Jews to speak of. Norway took great pride in the Oslo Agreement. Foreign Minister Terje Larsen facilitated this agreement. Norway awarded a Nobel Peace Prize to Yassar Arafat (and Jimmy Carter). No one subsequently questioned whether Arafat was still deserving, but some questioned Shimon Peres' award because of his complicity in the "massacre" in Jenin, which of course never happened. Larsen is very hard on Israel and his attacks on Ariel Sharon were slanderous. In Jenin he knowingly lied about war crimes. There is a total unwillingness to accept that Oslo was a disaster for Israel. Sweden prides itself on its moral superiority and has condemned Israel in unusually strong language even for Europe. Let us not forget, however, that Sweden was neutral in World War 2 and grew wealthy selling war materiel to Hitler. Somehow they could not come around to choosing sides between the allies and the Nazis.
The international criminal court and the war crimes tribunals against Sharon in Belgium, and the International Court of Justice's advisory ruling on the security barrier in the West Bank, were other ways for Europeans to annoy America, badger Israel, and try to force a European role in American foreign policy and military decisions. But it also demonstrates the problem of moral equivalence (or in reality, the absence of any grounded morality) which is an endemic problem for Europeans. Sharon was viewed as equivalent to Milosevic. Sabra and Shattila were the same as Srebenica. The occupation and suicide bombings are viewed as equivalent. Without occupation, claim the European apologists for Palestinian violence, there would be no terror bombings or attacks.
Anti-Semitism lives on in Europe
Europeans have a Jewish problem. In fact with the exception of a few decades after World War 2, they always have had a problem with their Jews. But charges of anti Semitism are hurtful to Europeans. They want to put the past in the trunk and lock it for good. The centuries of discrimination, the pogroms, the ghettos, the Holocaust, are all ancient history, crimes of an older Europe. Anti-Israel attitudes are everywhere in Europe, - in many cases official government policy, and are all over the media, from the BBC and Reuters to the tabloid rags.
But anti Semitism is more problematic, since it violates Europeans' notion of human rights, and their more ordered higher quality societies. So the rejection of the charge is immediate and fierce. There is no more guilt about past behavior but defensiveness about current charges of Jew-hatred. Even Amnesty International has been forced to condemn suicide bombings as crimes against humanity because of the charge that by ignoring these atrocities, and concentrating instead on Israel's counter measures, it was anti Semitic, since murder of Jews did not concern them, only what happened to Arabs.
The decline of Christianity
Here one can see perhaps the biggest difference between Europe and America, and a difference that is very favorable to support for Israel in the US. Jews are now less than 2% of America's population, down from 4% in 1950, and our numbers have declined from six to just over five million, according to one population survey, and held steady at six million according to a more recent survey. Muslims and Arabs may together be 3 to 4 million, certainly not the 6 to 7 million they claim, but their numbers are rapidly growing.
The decline in church membership in America is in the liberal Protestant churches - the Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians - the groups least sympathetic to Israel. Their members, of course, behave like most liberal Jews: they read the New York Times, listen to NPR, vote Democratic, and attend Michael Moore movies.
Evangelical Christians and practicing Catholics, on the other hand, are growing in numbers. And especially among evangelical Christians, support for Israel is very strong. This community, which has an above average number of births, is growing as a share of the population. That is good for political support for Israel here.
In Europe, the number of practicing Christians has fallen very far very fast. In Europe the elites routinely ridicule Christianity ( in fact they ridicule all religions, other than Islam), in the fashion of Bill Maher or Maureen Dowd. Europeans now have the lowest church attendance in the western world. In Britain, of those who attend Anglican church services, more than half are African or Caribbean blacks. There are exceptions of course - Ireland and Poland are countries where many white Europeans still go to church. Current estimates are that 10% of Europe's population are practicing Christians, about double the number of Muslims on the continent. What is left - the vast majority of Europeans - are secular humanists or anti-religious right wingers, and Israel has no biblical or moral significance for either group.
In the case of the secular humanists, Israel's alleged misbehavior with the Palestinians is viewed as a thorn in the side of good relations with their Muslims. Israel's strongest supporters in Europe, much as in America, are the religious Protestants on the continent. But they are few and far between, and they themselves are the subject of the same scorn and hostility from the left as occurs here. The liberal Christian churches of Europe have been behaving for many years towards Israel, just as the Presbyterian Church USA has been behaving in the US, with its calls for divestment.
Does Israel have any hope for better relations with Europe?
Europe will react better to an Israel run by someone from the left, and an Israel that shrinks. The withdrawal from Lebanon was applauded, as was the disengagement from Gaza. A Barak or a Peres, or an Olmert, in fact most anyone other than a Sharon or a Netanyahu, makes Europe happier. But Europeans, thankfully, do not get to vote in Israel's elections, or ours. Israelis will pick their leaders, just as we pick our own.
Ariel Sharon had no hope of ever getting a fair hearing in Europe. From the beginning, the Europeans viewed him as a war criminal. If a more moderate Palestinian leadership emerged and there were substantive peace talks and the appearance of flexibility on the part of Israel, Israel's public image in Europe could improve. There are lots of hypotheticals in this last statement of course, and a risk to Israel's security from trying to do too much to make the Europeans happier with Israel. So don't bet the ranch on it happening. I do not have much confidence that we are entering a new period of reconciliation between the Palestinians and Israel.
The recent intifada was a disaster for both peoples, but particularly for the Palestinians. In Israel, in addition to the dead and the injuredand the destruction, the vicious terror war killed any sense of trust that had developed between the two sides, and gravely weakened what I call the illusionists - the members of the Israeli peace camp who made the Palestinians' case within Israel. The electoral victory of Hamas, the war with Hezb'allah, and the strident and repeated eliminationist threats coming from a near nuclear Iran, have hopefully wiped away most of the vestiges of defeatism - the belief that more Israeli concessions will bring peace.
The Europeans demand that if negotiations are to begin again between Israel and the Palestinians, that Israel go back to where it left off at Camp David or Taba in early 2001 and forget its 1500 dead, the terror attacks, the vicious hate rhetoric and de-legitimization campaign that the Palestinians and their Arab allies have broadcast relentlessly in venues all around the world. The Israelis know that the Islamic terror groups, as well as the secular terror groups, are still armed to the teeth and remain aggressive in their intentions.
In Southern Lebanon, the UNIFIL and Lebanese army forces merely looked on as Hezb'allah rearmed after the war. Israel's conflict with Hezb'allah and the Palestinians has never been primarily about settlements or the occupation, as the Europeans charge, though these are issues that reasonable parties could negotiate. More basically we have two peoples claiming the same land. And the conflict will not end so long as most Palestinians and their allies believe that Palestinian land is not only the West Bank and Gaza, but Israel too.
The American-led war with Iraq was revealing for the divisions that it revealed within Europe, though on Israel the negative sentiment remained close to universal. Britain, Spain (under Aznar), Italy, and a few Eastern European countries provided troops and material support in the war effort. The French, Germans, Belgians, Greeks, and many other Europeans opposed the war for a variety of reasons. Certainly, there were legitimate strategic arguments that could be developed to explain why some might have been opposed to the war, just as in America. But in Europe, there were additional issues:
1. The instability it might cause among their own Muslim populations which would need to be controlled.
2. The potential loss of business investments and opportunities since Europeans willingly filled the gap left by America's boycott of business activity with Iraq.
3. Because the war demonstrated America's military power, and Europe's weakness, military action meant the UN and diplomacy and multilateralism had not worked. Since these are the holy trinity of European international politics, the resistance to American action was deeply felt, and resented.
The Americans have learned that a country that only responds to attacks against it will continue to be attacked. Sometimes you have to take the battle to the enemy, as Israel did after the Passover massacre in Netanya, and the Americans did to Al Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11 (and as FDR did by going after Germany first after Pearl Harbor, though we had been attacked by Japan, and not Germany, a piece of history that seems to have been largely forgotten). The best defense is often a good offense. As in football, keep the other side's offense off the field.
Other than Tony Blair, this doctrine is foreign to the Europeans. After the train bombings in Madrid in 2004, the newly elected peace government in Spain quickly removed their forces from Iraq. Appeasement did not work in Europe in 1938, and Spain's pitiful behavior will only encourage the Islamic radicals to intensify their efforts to undermine the soft regimes they see all over the continent. Now we have James Baker's Iraq Study Group Report, as good a European style document as we ever could hope to produce in this country . The ISG report maintains that the way to wind down our Iraq involvement is to plead for mercy from Syria and Iran (this is what is otherwise known in diplomatic circles as engagement), and to pressure Israel for concessions to the Palestinians. Is there anyone who seriously believes that anything Israel might offer to the Palestinians will impact how the rival religious insurgencies and militias behave in Iraq? And why would Syria and Iran, who have worked to destabilize Iraq, so that the Americans would pack up and leave, and allow them to share the spoils, care to solve the problems they helped create?
To his credit, Bush rejected the ISG recommendations, while paying them the required lip service. The US, at least under this president, remains hard headed about the enemies we face, regardless of the wisdom of the Iraq war. Israel needs the same kind of leadership.
In Europe, the fear of military conflict is so strong, that the illusionists reign supreme. Think of how pathetic was the European response to the savagery in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. In this country, the ties with Israel remain strong. Certainly, the support of evangelicals, the bipartisan support in Congress (thanks in large part to AIPAC and Jews' political activism), and the different sizes of the Jewish and Muslim communities here versus in Europe, all matter to the equation. But we should never under-estimate leaders, and the messages they send. George Bush seems to understand, that in the conflict with radical Islam in which we are now engaged, Israel is on the same page as we are.
[A version of this article was delivered as a talk at Temple B'Nai Israel, Aurora, Jan. 7, 2007.]
Soure
Why is Israel viewed so differently in Europe than in the United States? To argue as the title of this article does, that Europe has abandoned Israel, is to suggest that it was once in its corner. And in fact, this is true.
Prior to the Six Day War in 1967, it was France which was Israel's primary military supplier, not the United States. In the War of Independence in 1948-49, it was arms smuggled from Czechoslovakia that enabled the Zionists to fight on. Most European nations, including some Soviet satellites, supported the partition resolution in the General Assembly in November 1947. European nations supported Israel at the UN through the late 1960s and in some cases well beyond then.
Clearly, some of this support in the post World War 2 period-was a reflection of European guilt over the murder of six million Jews in their midst from 1939 to 1945. As Raul Hilberg has written, most Europeans and most European nations fell into one of two categories during the Holocaust: perpetrators, or bystanders. Few nations distinguished themselves (Denmark, Bulgaria, and maybe Italy, were better than average).
Today 40 years later, that residue of sympathy for the plucky underdog nation of Israel has disappeared.
When I refer to Europe I mean for the most part the EU (which includes all of western Europe except Norway Switzerland, and Iceland and an increasing number of eastern European countries: Romania and Bulgaria the most recently admitted, joining Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia).
As an alumnus of the Bronx High School of Science and MIT, I have an attachment to numbers. So I will start with some important ones that emphasize my major point: modern Europe, as a result of consolidation through the EU, is experiencing a certain schizophrenia in terms of its role in the world.
Size versus military might
1. Europe is a growing economic powerhouse due to creation of a collective economy.
2. But Europe is a declining military power with a diminished role versus the United States' power and role, and this gap is more pronounced with George W. Bush as President than before, given his inclination to defend and promote what he believes are American interests despite substantial international resistance.
Let us look at some numbers: The EU now has 27 countries with a GDP over $13 trillion. The EU countries have almost 500 million people. The United States with 300 million people, also has a GDP of about $13 trillion, so obviously per capita GDP is much higher in the US than in Europe (60% higher per capita in fact). Europeans claim that the greater income disparity among Americans means the real gap in per capita income is narrower between most citizens of the US and Europe.
Add Turkey and the non-EU Eastern European nations, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro (reuniting Yugoslavia within the EU!), and the EU could soon be well over 500 million people. Russia has another 150 million people, Ukraine 40 million, though these countries are not currently considered potential members.
But there is little or no population growth within Europe, and with the exception of some of the Eastern European economies, Ireland and Scandinavia, relatively slow economic growth overall. In the US, the 1950 population of 150 million has doubled 55 years later. In the US, we have replacement population growth from the birth rate, plus immigration, mostly from Mexico and East Asia. Europe's population, which grew only 20% the past 55 years, is now stagnant, and headed downward sharply, given today's low birth rates.
Defense budgets in Europe are dropping. The US defense budget is larger than the next 20 largest defense budgets in the world combined. The European solution is to solve problems multilaterally, and not by military means. Why? If a military solution is required, then Europe must follow the American lead and be in America's shadow. This is a dignity issue. If international problems are addressed multilaterally, then Europe has 27 EU nations, and in international forums like the UN, Europe has more than 30 votes, and the US just one.
Lifestyle issues
But there is also an attitude or life style issue at play between Europe and America.
Western Europeans want to believe that all international disputes can be resolved amicably, or as they call it, diplomatically, and multilaterally. Deal with diplomatic issues in Geneva or at the UN. Resolve economic problems in Davos. Address war crimes disputes in Brussels. One explanation for this somewhat naïve view of addressing the world's problems is that Europe is militarily and spiritually weak and willing to appease those who might threaten the European life style. The Europeans' new ethos is the New York Times' editorial page social philosophy writ large: tolerance for everything - euthanasia, gay rights, drugs, abortion, Islam. The only intolerance that is allowed is towards Christianity, America, and Israel. Bruce Bawer, who left America for what he thought was a better place in Western Europe, has documented the spiritual emptiness of this new multicultural ideology in his recent book While Europe Slept.
Look at lifestyle issues. In the US, average hours worked per year is close to 1900. In Germany it is now below 1400. Europeans work less, retire earlier, and are better secured cradle to grave through an extensive and expensive social net than we are here. But this social system is paid for with much higher taxes than I believe would be accepted in the United States. And the high cost to business to pay its share for this rich safety net means few workers are hired, hence close to 10% unemployment is a near constant level for some countries on the continent. The population in Europe is aging almost as quickly as Japan's. Europeans have the lowest birth rates in the world. All countries in Europe except Ireland, have below-replacement fertility rates. Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain have an average of 1.1 or 1.2 births per female of child bearing age. In Northern Italy, the fertility rate (number of children per woman of child bearing age) has fallen below 1, a first in world history.
Population decline
The most up to date demographic forecasts project that every single European country will have a smaller population in the year 2050 than today with the possible exception of Ireland and France. Ireland has a high birth rate by European standards. France still has sufficient immigration to counter declining fertility rates. Some of the former Soviet states already have declining population. In Russia the death rate is now 1/3 greater than the birth rate. Russia may be half its current size in 50 years, as might some of the Baltic States. Italy is projected to be 1/4 smaller. Every minute on average, there are 3 births and 4 deaths in Russia. Mark Steyn in his new book America Alone, argues that demography is destiny. He concludes, a bit hyperbolically, that Europeans are in the throes of a death spiral.
So Europe's population is aging and declining, and workers want to work less. This creates huge social issues. Who will do the work that Europeans increasingly do not want to do themselves (maid service, child care, working with the elderly, dishwashers)? Who will pay the taxes to support the social services which are skewed, as in the US, towards the elderly, a rapidly growing bloc?
Europeans have had largely homogeneous populations for most of their history. European diversity used to mean Hungarians living in Rumania. Basically the continent was all white and largely Christian, except for Muslim areas of Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Turkey, and the Jews of eastern Europe. In the past 40 years, African and Asian immigrants (mainly Muslim in both cases) have come in to do the work Europeans do not want to do any more, and which Europeans so far can afford to pay others to do.
Rising Muslim population
But the immigrant groups have changed the social dynamic. Crime is way up in center cities. European cities still have lower murder rates than American cities but higher overall crime rates in many cases. London's crime rate is twice as high as New York's. The new immigrants, especially the Muslim immigrants, have not mixed well with the native population. Entire immigrant communities have taken over sections in major cities, particularly in France, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Belgium. Half the babies born in Brussels are Muslim. The city of Mälmo, Sweden, has become so dangerous that the fire department will not come for an emergency call in certain neighborhoods without police protection.
And then came the bombings in Spain in March 2004, and in Britain in July 2005 and the murder of Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands, and the cartoon riots created by the publication of a few unflattering drawings of Muhammed in an obscure Danish newspaper. Europe has been forced to think about the crazy aunt in the bedroom.
New pressures are emerging to restrict immigration because of its threat to societal homogeneity, and public safety. But there is a need for high levels of immigration to provide the warm bodies to do the work that needs to be done, and to contribute to the tax system to support the social safety net. This is I think an irreconcilable conflict.
Current estimates are that at least 20 million Muslims now live in Western Europe. A few years back, I met with a French consul general to complain about French anti-Semitism, which of course he denied. When I told him that the French were kowtowing to the Muslim minority because it was ten times the size of its Jewish community, he cut me off to say there were only 4 million Muslims in France, not 6 million as I was implying. A year later, 6 million is the official estimate the French accept. There are also 3 million Muslims in Germany (mainly Turks), 2 million in Britain (mainly Pakistanis), and a million each in Italy and the Netherlands (both mostly from North Africa). A recent article I read says the real Muslim population in France may be between 8 and 9 million, as illegal immigration, aided and abetted by Europe's new open borders, has brought more and more Arabs to the country in Europe where they were most numerous already: France.
One forecast I read suggests that France may be half Muslim by 2050 given continued immigration and the much higher birth rate for Muslims than other French. While Texas may be half Hispanic by 2025, I don't think that this demographic change will necessarily affect Texas for the worse, and Texas will still be America. Immigrants to America tend to become more Americanized over time. But will France still be French if it is half Muslim? David Pryce Jones in an article in Commentary stated that either Islam will be Europeanized, or Europe will be Islamized. Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis put it more starkly: given the comparative birth rates (white Europeans very low, Muslims very high) and immigration levels, soon enough Europe will be Muslim, and the question will be answered.
The numbers provide important background to explain Europe's problems with Israel and its seeming obtuseness and infinite patience in continuing to defend and financially support the PA with billions in contributions, though the money is continually diverted for terrorism (otherwise known as security forces) and to support the lifestyles of the PA's thugocracy. It also explains Europe's near 100% support for Israel-bashing efforts in the UN and international bodies. With the Hamas election victory, many in Europe agreed to an initial aid cutoff, but soon wanted aid restored, because they believed it was needed for humanitarian purposes. One small sign of sanity was the petition by a French legislator demanding a full accounting of money sent to the PA. The petition gathered over 100 EU parliament signatures, enough to require a formal response by the EU administration. That response was to send it to committee for further study. Remember that Europeans invented bureaucracy, and have perfected the art.
Hostility to Israel as the product
So why are the Europeans so hostile to Israel, and so sympathetic to the Palestinians?
There are a number of factors that explain European behavior towards Israel. I have identified seven of them:
1. Europe's dependence on Middle East oil
2. Europe's rivalry with the US
3. The growing number of Muslims and their militancy
4. The small number of Jews, and their passivity
5. The role of elites in Europe's politics
6. Europe's long term disease of anti-Semitism, and
7. The decline of Christianity in Europe.
Oil
The US obtains almost 40% its oil from domestic sources, and much of the rest from Venezuela, Nigeria, and other non-Arab or Middle East countries. Europe is much more dependent on foreign oil, and especially Middle East oil. If OPEC , and Middle Eastern nations use the oil weapon to punish the US for its policies with Israel and the Palestinians, or for war against Iraq, Europe will suffer more than we will.
Rivalry with the US
Taking a slap at Israel is a cheap and easy way to annoy the US, and insert Europe in a competing power role. The US is too pro-Israel, so Europe will be more balanced and nuanced, more multilateral, more understanding of the Palestinian side. The old argument was that only the US could pressure Israel, so Arabs needed to work with the US as well. Now the European argument is that only Europe can work with the PA given America's tilt towards Israel. We have seen a similar logic in the French and German approach in the period leading up to the war with Iraq. Part of the resistance to American efforts may have been honest disagreement about the results of continued inspections, and hence the wisdom of going to war over WMDs. But a far greater part, especially in the case of France was designed to spite the US, and interfere with America's projection of power abroad. A final factor of course was money- the spoils for France, and Russia and Germany from the oil for food scandal, the largest financial scandal in the world's history, but reported in this country almost entirely on just one channel (FNC), and in one newspaper - the Wall Street Journal.
Fear of the Muslim population
Europe is afraid of its Muslims. There is fear that if Europe behaves towards Israel the way the US does, that the terrorism of 9/11 and the terror that Israel experiences would explode over into Europe's streets. This explains why Spain voted for an appeasement government after the train attacks of 3/11. This is why the violence against Europe's Jews is explained away as youth vandalism, not as racist hate crimes.
Europe's police forces are also not made of the same stuff as New York's finest. Not all European police are as pathetic as the British in terms of severely limiting the use of firearms for police officers and security personnel, but that is the trend. The Muslim gang members who commit crimes against Europe's Jews have no fear of the police in European cities, as African American criminals might in major US cities.
Yes, Muslims in Europe are often treated as second class citizens, and they are resentful. But most of this resentment comes from the hostility that is bred into those who attend the mosques of Europe, and learn from the imams trained in Saudi style Wahhabism in the Saudi Kingdom or Pakistan. The Muslims in Europe are by and large not integrated into the fabric of their societies, but much of this is not a result of discrimination, but a conscious decision to remain outside the new secular Europe.
But it is also the case that most Europeans are happy to have the new immigrants live among themselves and not integrate in their societies. Do native Germans regard the Turks living among them as Germans? Do the Dutch view South Moluccans as they do their Dutch neighbors? In America, if an immigrant works hard and earns a living, nobody really cares about his or her ethnicity. We are after all a nation of immigrants and their descendants.
Islam is at heart both a religion, and a political system. There is no separation of church and state in Islam. Radical Islamists intend to dominate and overwhelm Europe. Melanie Phillips has written about how this disturbing trend is playing out in Britain in her recent book Londonistan.
There is also little intermarriage by immigrants in Europe. In the US 10 % of blacks marry whites, 5% of Asians marry non-Asians, and as we know, about half of Jews marry non-Jews.
Few Jews left in Europe
Other than France and Britain, there are not many Jews around in Europe today. The total Jewish population is a little over a million in Western Europe, and merely a handful in Eastern Europe other than the former Soviet republics. There has been a little Jewish revival in Germany caused by immigration from the Soviet Union. So we see declining numbers everywhere else; aging population, low birth rate, high intermarriage rate. Does this sound familiar?
But unlike the US, the Jewish communities in Europe are in many cases remnants of once larger communities, and are not politically assertive. There is no European equivalent of AIPAC, and Jews lack a meaningful political voice. Most European Jews before 1939 lived in Eastern Europe, not Western Europe. France has twice as many Jews today as it did in 1939 as a result of getting a sizable share of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Arab countries after the creation of the state of Israel, particularly from Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Western Europe may have lost a million Jews in the Holocaust, while Eastern Europe lost 5 million.
Interestingly, in Eastern Europe (other than in the countries that were part of the former Soviet Union), being Jewish is now becoming a bit trendy, even "hot" in some cases. In Slovenia, my wife's native country, with perhaps 500 Jews, a major magazine had a ten page story on the Jews of Slovenia (that's 50 Jews per page), the President lit Chanukah candles, and the first synagogue in almost 500 years has just been opened in the capital of Ljubljana. There is a sort of philo-Semitism in some other Eastern European countries as well, including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and amazingly enough, even in Poland. Jews or partial Jews are coming out of the woodwork. While this is better than the situation that existed in these countries for decades or centuries in some cases, the Jews who remain are in some respect museum pieces or curiosities, and the communities belong to history.
In Western Europe, however, Jews are looking for cover. Wear a yamulka in a public places, and you could become a target. Eat at a Jewish cafeteria, go to synagogue, go to a Jewish day school, and you might become a target. You are even a target after you are buried. The worst anti Semitism is in France, but it is also terrible in Belgium and Germany, and bad in other countries as well. The more critical the governments and media are of Israeli behavior in a particular country, the more the violence seems to spread, almost as if it were given a license. Were European government policy to become more supportive of Israel, the fear is that the attacks would then be directed against European institutions, rather than Europe's Jews.
Role of the Elites
In Europe the elites have a far different role than they do in the United States. The elites of Europe are the coffee shop philosophers: leftists who romanticize the violence of Che Guevara, Yassar Arafat, and the Sunni killers fighting our forces in Iraq. They fancy themselves revolutionaries fighting western hegemony, colonialism, militarism, imperialism, etc. In the US we have such people too. They make up the humanities faculties of most colleges and universities, particularly at elite schools.
In America the leftist academics prepare petitions and write their drivel for academic conferences, but they really do not much affect public policy. Yes, there is a soft leftist mind set that wafts out of academia and courses through the media that has a real influence over the messages that are communicated in our society. This is what Bernard Goldberg has written about in his book Bias. But it is not the harsh anti western nihilistic nonsense that is so prevalent in academia. It is easy to forget that in the 1960s, the Kennedy administration seemed to take half of Cambridge, Massachusetts with it to Washington. That kind of academic influence on policy, whether in a Democratic or Republican administration, no longer exists.
Europe is very different. The elites are public intellectuals and have a major role in making government policy. This is why the mindless anti-Americanism of the German minister with her Hitler analogy to George Bush can be voiced. It is why major media in Britain and France and Italy, and to a lesser extent Germany, are full of biting anti American, and anti Israel commentary. That "shitty little country" comment by the French ambassador to Britain reflects the worldview of the European elites. Israel is the imperialist colonialist power. There is nothing noble about its struggle against terrorism. The Palestinians are the oppressed - the new South Africans fighting the Israeli apartheid. Jimmy Carter has attempted to popularize this view in America with a vindictive assault on Israel in his latest book: Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.
Romanticism
In Europe, these views are not just a reflection of government policy caused by fear of domestic Muslim terrorism, but a romanticism for the presumed helpless victim, and admiration for the revolutionary gunmen fighting for their freedom. In Europe the elites believe this garbage. The anger against Israel among the elites is very strong. The coverage of the conflict by the leftist European media, the bibles of the elites - The Guardian, Le Monde, the BBC, Reuters - feed this anger with their reporting. Even something as seemingly innocent as an annual calendar, distributed by Reuters, contains but one provocative photo - a Palestinian "militant" marching to protest the "killing" of Palestinians by Israel (obviously no context required). And recently, in a clear violation of the most basic tenets of academic freedom, both British and French academics have attempted to eliminate scholarly contact with Israeli academics.
In the US we are a very culturally diverse and politically divided nation - abortion, gun rights, taxes, government spending, the proper role of religion in the public sphere, are all issues on which the population is sharply divided. But there is also common ground that we can call an acceptance of basic American and democratic principles. It is a fairly conservative common ground, patriotic, respectful of religion (remember the public reaction to the 9th circuit judges ruling on the under God language in the pledge of allegiance), and supportive of free enterprise.
The European elites align with Noam Chomsky's world view. An example is the way the European elites ridicule religion (other than Islam). An Oxford scientist, Richard Dawkins, has written The God Delusion claiming that teaching religion to children is a form of child abuse. Because of the role that the elites have in European politics, often moving into and out of government and non-governmental organization roles, their views have a hearing in the circles of government decision making.
The Greens, a far left movement that started as an environmental movement, are now pro-Palestinian, anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-war, and growing in strength throughout the continent. There is pitifully little common ground between the major American policy consensus and Europe's Greens.
America's greens (represented by Ralph Nader and Israel-hating film director Michael Moore) have similar views as Europe's Greens, but here, thankfully, the Greens are only a 1%- 2% phenomenon. In Europe they are ten percent of the voters in many countries, and part of many governing coalitions. They influence all the other parties on the left and make them less sympathetic to America and by extension to Israel.
How bad has it gotten for Israel in Europe?
Public opinion surveys up through the end of 2003 showed huge majorities favoring the Palestinians over Israel, by 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 in the large countries and by 10 to 1 in some smaller ones. In the US, surveys showed 3 to 1 to 4 to 1 support for Israel over the Palestinians in the same period. The number of Europeans supporting the Palestinians dropped after the electoral victory by Hamas, but support for Israel did not increase. In a survey last year, Europeans named Israel the most dangerous country in the world, with the US and Iran tied for second! The media is least hostile to Israel in Germany (with greater care taken to not cross the line to anti-Semitism given the Germans' ignoble history), and most hostile in Britain, France, and Spain.
The public is also very hostile to Israel in Belgium, and in Scandinavia, which has no Jews to speak of. Norway took great pride in the Oslo Agreement. Foreign Minister Terje Larsen facilitated this agreement. Norway awarded a Nobel Peace Prize to Yassar Arafat (and Jimmy Carter). No one subsequently questioned whether Arafat was still deserving, but some questioned Shimon Peres' award because of his complicity in the "massacre" in Jenin, which of course never happened. Larsen is very hard on Israel and his attacks on Ariel Sharon were slanderous. In Jenin he knowingly lied about war crimes. There is a total unwillingness to accept that Oslo was a disaster for Israel. Sweden prides itself on its moral superiority and has condemned Israel in unusually strong language even for Europe. Let us not forget, however, that Sweden was neutral in World War 2 and grew wealthy selling war materiel to Hitler. Somehow they could not come around to choosing sides between the allies and the Nazis.
The international criminal court and the war crimes tribunals against Sharon in Belgium, and the International Court of Justice's advisory ruling on the security barrier in the West Bank, were other ways for Europeans to annoy America, badger Israel, and try to force a European role in American foreign policy and military decisions. But it also demonstrates the problem of moral equivalence (or in reality, the absence of any grounded morality) which is an endemic problem for Europeans. Sharon was viewed as equivalent to Milosevic. Sabra and Shattila were the same as Srebenica. The occupation and suicide bombings are viewed as equivalent. Without occupation, claim the European apologists for Palestinian violence, there would be no terror bombings or attacks.
Anti-Semitism lives on in Europe
Europeans have a Jewish problem. In fact with the exception of a few decades after World War 2, they always have had a problem with their Jews. But charges of anti Semitism are hurtful to Europeans. They want to put the past in the trunk and lock it for good. The centuries of discrimination, the pogroms, the ghettos, the Holocaust, are all ancient history, crimes of an older Europe. Anti-Israel attitudes are everywhere in Europe, - in many cases official government policy, and are all over the media, from the BBC and Reuters to the tabloid rags.
But anti Semitism is more problematic, since it violates Europeans' notion of human rights, and their more ordered higher quality societies. So the rejection of the charge is immediate and fierce. There is no more guilt about past behavior but defensiveness about current charges of Jew-hatred. Even Amnesty International has been forced to condemn suicide bombings as crimes against humanity because of the charge that by ignoring these atrocities, and concentrating instead on Israel's counter measures, it was anti Semitic, since murder of Jews did not concern them, only what happened to Arabs.
The decline of Christianity
Here one can see perhaps the biggest difference between Europe and America, and a difference that is very favorable to support for Israel in the US. Jews are now less than 2% of America's population, down from 4% in 1950, and our numbers have declined from six to just over five million, according to one population survey, and held steady at six million according to a more recent survey. Muslims and Arabs may together be 3 to 4 million, certainly not the 6 to 7 million they claim, but their numbers are rapidly growing.
The decline in church membership in America is in the liberal Protestant churches - the Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians - the groups least sympathetic to Israel. Their members, of course, behave like most liberal Jews: they read the New York Times, listen to NPR, vote Democratic, and attend Michael Moore movies.
Evangelical Christians and practicing Catholics, on the other hand, are growing in numbers. And especially among evangelical Christians, support for Israel is very strong. This community, which has an above average number of births, is growing as a share of the population. That is good for political support for Israel here.
In Europe, the number of practicing Christians has fallen very far very fast. In Europe the elites routinely ridicule Christianity ( in fact they ridicule all religions, other than Islam), in the fashion of Bill Maher or Maureen Dowd. Europeans now have the lowest church attendance in the western world. In Britain, of those who attend Anglican church services, more than half are African or Caribbean blacks. There are exceptions of course - Ireland and Poland are countries where many white Europeans still go to church. Current estimates are that 10% of Europe's population are practicing Christians, about double the number of Muslims on the continent. What is left - the vast majority of Europeans - are secular humanists or anti-religious right wingers, and Israel has no biblical or moral significance for either group.
In the case of the secular humanists, Israel's alleged misbehavior with the Palestinians is viewed as a thorn in the side of good relations with their Muslims. Israel's strongest supporters in Europe, much as in America, are the religious Protestants on the continent. But they are few and far between, and they themselves are the subject of the same scorn and hostility from the left as occurs here. The liberal Christian churches of Europe have been behaving for many years towards Israel, just as the Presbyterian Church USA has been behaving in the US, with its calls for divestment.
Does Israel have any hope for better relations with Europe?
Europe will react better to an Israel run by someone from the left, and an Israel that shrinks. The withdrawal from Lebanon was applauded, as was the disengagement from Gaza. A Barak or a Peres, or an Olmert, in fact most anyone other than a Sharon or a Netanyahu, makes Europe happier. But Europeans, thankfully, do not get to vote in Israel's elections, or ours. Israelis will pick their leaders, just as we pick our own.
Ariel Sharon had no hope of ever getting a fair hearing in Europe. From the beginning, the Europeans viewed him as a war criminal. If a more moderate Palestinian leadership emerged and there were substantive peace talks and the appearance of flexibility on the part of Israel, Israel's public image in Europe could improve. There are lots of hypotheticals in this last statement of course, and a risk to Israel's security from trying to do too much to make the Europeans happier with Israel. So don't bet the ranch on it happening. I do not have much confidence that we are entering a new period of reconciliation between the Palestinians and Israel.
The recent intifada was a disaster for both peoples, but particularly for the Palestinians. In Israel, in addition to the dead and the injuredand the destruction, the vicious terror war killed any sense of trust that had developed between the two sides, and gravely weakened what I call the illusionists - the members of the Israeli peace camp who made the Palestinians' case within Israel. The electoral victory of Hamas, the war with Hezb'allah, and the strident and repeated eliminationist threats coming from a near nuclear Iran, have hopefully wiped away most of the vestiges of defeatism - the belief that more Israeli concessions will bring peace.
The Europeans demand that if negotiations are to begin again between Israel and the Palestinians, that Israel go back to where it left off at Camp David or Taba in early 2001 and forget its 1500 dead, the terror attacks, the vicious hate rhetoric and de-legitimization campaign that the Palestinians and their Arab allies have broadcast relentlessly in venues all around the world. The Israelis know that the Islamic terror groups, as well as the secular terror groups, are still armed to the teeth and remain aggressive in their intentions.
In Southern Lebanon, the UNIFIL and Lebanese army forces merely looked on as Hezb'allah rearmed after the war. Israel's conflict with Hezb'allah and the Palestinians has never been primarily about settlements or the occupation, as the Europeans charge, though these are issues that reasonable parties could negotiate. More basically we have two peoples claiming the same land. And the conflict will not end so long as most Palestinians and their allies believe that Palestinian land is not only the West Bank and Gaza, but Israel too.
The American-led war with Iraq was revealing for the divisions that it revealed within Europe, though on Israel the negative sentiment remained close to universal. Britain, Spain (under Aznar), Italy, and a few Eastern European countries provided troops and material support in the war effort. The French, Germans, Belgians, Greeks, and many other Europeans opposed the war for a variety of reasons. Certainly, there were legitimate strategic arguments that could be developed to explain why some might have been opposed to the war, just as in America. But in Europe, there were additional issues:
1. The instability it might cause among their own Muslim populations which would need to be controlled.
2. The potential loss of business investments and opportunities since Europeans willingly filled the gap left by America's boycott of business activity with Iraq.
3. Because the war demonstrated America's military power, and Europe's weakness, military action meant the UN and diplomacy and multilateralism had not worked. Since these are the holy trinity of European international politics, the resistance to American action was deeply felt, and resented.
The Americans have learned that a country that only responds to attacks against it will continue to be attacked. Sometimes you have to take the battle to the enemy, as Israel did after the Passover massacre in Netanya, and the Americans did to Al Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11 (and as FDR did by going after Germany first after Pearl Harbor, though we had been attacked by Japan, and not Germany, a piece of history that seems to have been largely forgotten). The best defense is often a good offense. As in football, keep the other side's offense off the field.
Other than Tony Blair, this doctrine is foreign to the Europeans. After the train bombings in Madrid in 2004, the newly elected peace government in Spain quickly removed their forces from Iraq. Appeasement did not work in Europe in 1938, and Spain's pitiful behavior will only encourage the Islamic radicals to intensify their efforts to undermine the soft regimes they see all over the continent. Now we have James Baker's Iraq Study Group Report, as good a European style document as we ever could hope to produce in this country . The ISG report maintains that the way to wind down our Iraq involvement is to plead for mercy from Syria and Iran (this is what is otherwise known in diplomatic circles as engagement), and to pressure Israel for concessions to the Palestinians. Is there anyone who seriously believes that anything Israel might offer to the Palestinians will impact how the rival religious insurgencies and militias behave in Iraq? And why would Syria and Iran, who have worked to destabilize Iraq, so that the Americans would pack up and leave, and allow them to share the spoils, care to solve the problems they helped create?
To his credit, Bush rejected the ISG recommendations, while paying them the required lip service. The US, at least under this president, remains hard headed about the enemies we face, regardless of the wisdom of the Iraq war. Israel needs the same kind of leadership.
In Europe, the fear of military conflict is so strong, that the illusionists reign supreme. Think of how pathetic was the European response to the savagery in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. In this country, the ties with Israel remain strong. Certainly, the support of evangelicals, the bipartisan support in Congress (thanks in large part to AIPAC and Jews' political activism), and the different sizes of the Jewish and Muslim communities here versus in Europe, all matter to the equation. But we should never under-estimate leaders, and the messages they send. George Bush seems to understand, that in the conflict with radical Islam in which we are now engaged, Israel is on the same page as we are.
[A version of this article was delivered as a talk at Temple B'Nai Israel, Aurora, Jan. 7, 2007.]
Soure
PC is the Incubator of Islamism
By Amil Imani
Time and again we are told by the politically correct "experts" not to worry about Islam posing a threat to our way of life. We are repeatedly lectured that only a very small minority of Muslims are troublemakers who are giving the peaceful masses of Muslims a bad name. We are also informed that the terrorists, who happened to be Muslims, are the disaffected and the young. And not to worry, since as the fire of youth turns to ashes of old age the rebellious will mellow, as they always have.
With heavy assurances like this, coming from so many know-it-all authoritative figures, we can sleep soundly without the aid of sleeping pills. After all, people reason that these pundits are "experts" whose job is to know and tell it like it is. Those who voice contrary views must be a bunch of racist, alarmist hate mongers. Who is right?
Wouldn't it be more prudent to let the facts settle the matter, rather than blindly accepting either position? Of course it would, except for one huge problem. In the face of threats, people tend to go to the mind's medicine cabinet and take a few denial and rationalization pills, in the same way that it is the aspirin bottle they turn to when a headache strikes. Why not? We are the Easy Species. We love effortless, quick and simple solutions. And that's not invariably bad. It has given us all kinds of labor and time saving devices.
Yet, the Islam problem is very real and deadly. Neither the pronouncements of the experts, nor the tranquilizing pills of the mind can make it go away. It is here and it shows every sign of imposing itself on us. Let us look at some of the facts.
* Not every Muslim wears an explosive vest ready to detonate in the midst of a crowd of innocent civilians, yet there are more volunteers for the mission than there are explosive vests. The Islamic Republic of Iran, for instance, hasn't even officially joined this form of jihad. Yet, by its own admission, it has over 10,000 volunteers trained ready to be deployed, and thousands more queuing to join in. This time around, the jihadists heading for Allah's heaven might come fitted with nice little suitcases of dirty bombs instead of the bulky explosive vests. Recall that it took only 19 of these killers to launch the aerial mass murder of 9/11 that killed 3,000 people, shattered our open trusting way of life, and cost us billions of dollars.
* The jihadists are not confined to a minority of disaffected Muslim youth. How young are Bin Laden, his deputy doctor of death Al Zawahiri, mullah Omar of the Taliban, Khamenei and Refsanjani of Iran, just to name a few? How disaffected are they? Muhammad Ata, leader of the 19 airborne thugs and the decapitator of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl were somewhat younger, yet well-healed and Western educated.
* Just coin some terms such as the "Melting Pot," or "Multiculturalism" and you have the problem solved? Roll out the red carpet for the immigrant Muslims, treat them as you would your own citizens, give them stipends, medical care, and free education and they will integrate seamlessly into the society? No such thing at all. The idea of Melting Pot may work with people who come from different lands to make the new country their home. The Islamists, on the other hand, come with the belief that they already own the place and want to make it part of the Ummeh. Some forty percent of second and third generation Muslim Britons reject British democracy, express their allegiance to Islam and want to live under Sharia. So much for the Melting Pot comfort pill.
* The new Islamist arrivals take advantage of the provisions of the most benign system known to humanity, democracy, to implode it from within. Muslims, by sheer numbers, will soon be in a position to vote out democracy in many countries. They are already doing that in bits and pieces. They are imposing many of their values, in a number of societies, even while they are in the minority. Politicians, hungry for votes and devoted to the practice of political correctness bend backward to accede to Islamists' demands.
* As for Multiculturalism, it is even more of a delusion than the Melting Pot myth. It is a second generation Comfort Pill. Since the Melting Pot proved to be worse than a placebo, the politically correct gave us the new pill. A glance at Europe shows how Multiculturalism in fact has served as the incubator of Islamism in no time at all. Europe's Multiculturalism is rapidly birthing a Uniculturalism, if the Islamists' medieval way of life can be dignified as a culture.
* Respect for diversity, separation of religion and state, freedom of belief and expression, are pillars of democracy, yet anathema to Islam. In no Islamic land do you find an ecumenical organization. It is only in non-Islamic countries that the shameless duplicitous Muslim, be he an imam, a mullah, or a regular run-of-the- mill faithful of Allah, meekly participates in ecumenical feel-good gatherings.
* To Muslims, no other religion is deemed worthy of recognition, much less accommodation. There is not a single church or synagogue or a Buddhist temple in all of Saudi Arabia. They are barred. The Islamic Republic of Iran's raft of genocidal pogroms includes the heinous practice of bulldozing even the cemeteries of its Baha'i religious minority. The Islamic tyranny of the mullahs imprisons Christian Iranians for celebrating Christmas. Egypt denies its own citizens identity cards for refusing to lie and fake their religious belief or disbelief. The ID cards are required for education, securing work, receiving medical care and just about every right of citizenship. Without it, a citizen is literally subjected to slow death.
* In Islam only Muslim men, and, to a lesser extent, Muslim women, are entitled to certain rights. All non-Muslims, including the so-called people of the book, namely Christians and Jews, are at best second-class subject, subjects who must pay the back-breaking Jezyyeh, poll tax, for their "sin" of not converting to Islam. So, as Islam makes its inroads in new lands, as its membership swells through explosive birth and conversion, secular democracies will be inevitably replaced by Islamism with its stone-age Sharia laws. The best offer that Islam will make is to spare the non-Muslim's life if he puts on the heavy yoke of Jezyyeh for the rest of his living days.
* Not to worry about the horrific things that are happening on the other side of the world? If Muslims act heinously toward non-Muslims, it is just the way things are in those countries and it is hardly any of our business? This is the same attitude that set Islamization of Europe on a seemingly irreversible track. One European country after another is rapidly buckling under the weight of Islamism.
* Most importantly, not to worry about Islamization of our country? After all, Muslims are about 6-7 million minority in a population of nearly 300 million, you reason? That even a smaller number of these Muslims are hothead radicals, while the majority is just like everyone else? But small minorities can overwhelm the majority by use of coercion and deadly force. Islamists are notorious for their dedication to the use of force for achieving their aims. The Taliban were a very small minority in Afghanistan, the Islamists were a tiny faction in the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran. Both overwhelmed the masses and imposed their reign of terror. The terrorist Hamas is also a "minority" in number, yet it rules the Palestinian Territory. Hizbollah of Lebanon is a minority, yet it has taken the country to the verge of destruction.
* Islamists are Islam's locomotive that takes the wrecking-ball Islamic train on its demolition course. Islam and democracy are incompatible. As democracies practice their magnificent accommodating belief, they knowingly or unknowingly lay the track for the advancing wrecking train of Islam. We, in the United States of America must resist Islamism while it is still gathering momentum, unless we wish to end up in the same fix as the Europeans.
* We, in the United States, further need to embark on a comprehensive legal, educational, and social campaign to eradicate the deadly plague of Islam. By effective action, we even save those peaceful Muslims from their own affliction. I am not hatemongering. I would love to see all Muslims become ex-Muslims and full-fledged members of a diverse tolerant democratic society. It is a statement of fact about what Islam is. Islam is a highly communicable pandemic violent disease that demands urgent and serious containment.
Europe is already badly infected with Islamism. It is the coal-miners' canary. It is telling us that the next stop is America. We must act and act now. We must not sacrifice our cherished way of life and the lives of our children at the altar of political correctness: the incubator of Islamofascism.
Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. He maintains a website, http://www.amilimani.com/
Source
Time and again we are told by the politically correct "experts" not to worry about Islam posing a threat to our way of life. We are repeatedly lectured that only a very small minority of Muslims are troublemakers who are giving the peaceful masses of Muslims a bad name. We are also informed that the terrorists, who happened to be Muslims, are the disaffected and the young. And not to worry, since as the fire of youth turns to ashes of old age the rebellious will mellow, as they always have.
With heavy assurances like this, coming from so many know-it-all authoritative figures, we can sleep soundly without the aid of sleeping pills. After all, people reason that these pundits are "experts" whose job is to know and tell it like it is. Those who voice contrary views must be a bunch of racist, alarmist hate mongers. Who is right?
Wouldn't it be more prudent to let the facts settle the matter, rather than blindly accepting either position? Of course it would, except for one huge problem. In the face of threats, people tend to go to the mind's medicine cabinet and take a few denial and rationalization pills, in the same way that it is the aspirin bottle they turn to when a headache strikes. Why not? We are the Easy Species. We love effortless, quick and simple solutions. And that's not invariably bad. It has given us all kinds of labor and time saving devices.
Yet, the Islam problem is very real and deadly. Neither the pronouncements of the experts, nor the tranquilizing pills of the mind can make it go away. It is here and it shows every sign of imposing itself on us. Let us look at some of the facts.
* Not every Muslim wears an explosive vest ready to detonate in the midst of a crowd of innocent civilians, yet there are more volunteers for the mission than there are explosive vests. The Islamic Republic of Iran, for instance, hasn't even officially joined this form of jihad. Yet, by its own admission, it has over 10,000 volunteers trained ready to be deployed, and thousands more queuing to join in. This time around, the jihadists heading for Allah's heaven might come fitted with nice little suitcases of dirty bombs instead of the bulky explosive vests. Recall that it took only 19 of these killers to launch the aerial mass murder of 9/11 that killed 3,000 people, shattered our open trusting way of life, and cost us billions of dollars.
* The jihadists are not confined to a minority of disaffected Muslim youth. How young are Bin Laden, his deputy doctor of death Al Zawahiri, mullah Omar of the Taliban, Khamenei and Refsanjani of Iran, just to name a few? How disaffected are they? Muhammad Ata, leader of the 19 airborne thugs and the decapitator of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl were somewhat younger, yet well-healed and Western educated.
* Just coin some terms such as the "Melting Pot," or "Multiculturalism" and you have the problem solved? Roll out the red carpet for the immigrant Muslims, treat them as you would your own citizens, give them stipends, medical care, and free education and they will integrate seamlessly into the society? No such thing at all. The idea of Melting Pot may work with people who come from different lands to make the new country their home. The Islamists, on the other hand, come with the belief that they already own the place and want to make it part of the Ummeh. Some forty percent of second and third generation Muslim Britons reject British democracy, express their allegiance to Islam and want to live under Sharia. So much for the Melting Pot comfort pill.
* The new Islamist arrivals take advantage of the provisions of the most benign system known to humanity, democracy, to implode it from within. Muslims, by sheer numbers, will soon be in a position to vote out democracy in many countries. They are already doing that in bits and pieces. They are imposing many of their values, in a number of societies, even while they are in the minority. Politicians, hungry for votes and devoted to the practice of political correctness bend backward to accede to Islamists' demands.
* As for Multiculturalism, it is even more of a delusion than the Melting Pot myth. It is a second generation Comfort Pill. Since the Melting Pot proved to be worse than a placebo, the politically correct gave us the new pill. A glance at Europe shows how Multiculturalism in fact has served as the incubator of Islamism in no time at all. Europe's Multiculturalism is rapidly birthing a Uniculturalism, if the Islamists' medieval way of life can be dignified as a culture.
* Respect for diversity, separation of religion and state, freedom of belief and expression, are pillars of democracy, yet anathema to Islam. In no Islamic land do you find an ecumenical organization. It is only in non-Islamic countries that the shameless duplicitous Muslim, be he an imam, a mullah, or a regular run-of-the- mill faithful of Allah, meekly participates in ecumenical feel-good gatherings.
* To Muslims, no other religion is deemed worthy of recognition, much less accommodation. There is not a single church or synagogue or a Buddhist temple in all of Saudi Arabia. They are barred. The Islamic Republic of Iran's raft of genocidal pogroms includes the heinous practice of bulldozing even the cemeteries of its Baha'i religious minority. The Islamic tyranny of the mullahs imprisons Christian Iranians for celebrating Christmas. Egypt denies its own citizens identity cards for refusing to lie and fake their religious belief or disbelief. The ID cards are required for education, securing work, receiving medical care and just about every right of citizenship. Without it, a citizen is literally subjected to slow death.
* In Islam only Muslim men, and, to a lesser extent, Muslim women, are entitled to certain rights. All non-Muslims, including the so-called people of the book, namely Christians and Jews, are at best second-class subject, subjects who must pay the back-breaking Jezyyeh, poll tax, for their "sin" of not converting to Islam. So, as Islam makes its inroads in new lands, as its membership swells through explosive birth and conversion, secular democracies will be inevitably replaced by Islamism with its stone-age Sharia laws. The best offer that Islam will make is to spare the non-Muslim's life if he puts on the heavy yoke of Jezyyeh for the rest of his living days.
* Not to worry about the horrific things that are happening on the other side of the world? If Muslims act heinously toward non-Muslims, it is just the way things are in those countries and it is hardly any of our business? This is the same attitude that set Islamization of Europe on a seemingly irreversible track. One European country after another is rapidly buckling under the weight of Islamism.
* Most importantly, not to worry about Islamization of our country? After all, Muslims are about 6-7 million minority in a population of nearly 300 million, you reason? That even a smaller number of these Muslims are hothead radicals, while the majority is just like everyone else? But small minorities can overwhelm the majority by use of coercion and deadly force. Islamists are notorious for their dedication to the use of force for achieving their aims. The Taliban were a very small minority in Afghanistan, the Islamists were a tiny faction in the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran. Both overwhelmed the masses and imposed their reign of terror. The terrorist Hamas is also a "minority" in number, yet it rules the Palestinian Territory. Hizbollah of Lebanon is a minority, yet it has taken the country to the verge of destruction.
* Islamists are Islam's locomotive that takes the wrecking-ball Islamic train on its demolition course. Islam and democracy are incompatible. As democracies practice their magnificent accommodating belief, they knowingly or unknowingly lay the track for the advancing wrecking train of Islam. We, in the United States of America must resist Islamism while it is still gathering momentum, unless we wish to end up in the same fix as the Europeans.
* We, in the United States, further need to embark on a comprehensive legal, educational, and social campaign to eradicate the deadly plague of Islam. By effective action, we even save those peaceful Muslims from their own affliction. I am not hatemongering. I would love to see all Muslims become ex-Muslims and full-fledged members of a diverse tolerant democratic society. It is a statement of fact about what Islam is. Islam is a highly communicable pandemic violent disease that demands urgent and serious containment.
Europe is already badly infected with Islamism. It is the coal-miners' canary. It is telling us that the next stop is America. We must act and act now. We must not sacrifice our cherished way of life and the lives of our children at the altar of political correctness: the incubator of Islamofascism.
Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. He maintains a website, http://www.amilimani.com/
Source
Middle east kicks ass!!!!
An international grade school poetry contest quickly deteriorated into an aggressive cyberspace battle for Middle Eastern honor when word got out on the Internet that a nine-year-old Israeli girl had pulled ahead of an Egyptian competitor and threatened to take first prize.
Sharon Livneh, a fourth grader at Ma'aleh Adumim's Sde Hemed elementary school, had no idea when she penned a poem about her sister's bat mitzva that she had set off a chain of events that would lead to a fierce Arab-Israeli confrontation on the Internet.
Livneh was the pride of her school and hometown when she became the only Israeli to be chosen as one of six finalists in a British Council-sponsored poetry contest.
Just a few hundred kilometers south of Livneh's home an Egyptian school boy named Youssef el-Kattan was also celebrating his success.
The two children's poems along with their names and countries of origin appeared on the British Council's Web site. Whoever received the most votes via the Internet would win.
Almost immediately it was clear that Livneh and el-Kattan had attracted a disproportionately large amount of attention on the Web. While most children had received dozens of votes, Livneh and el-Kattan had accrued thousands.
"All along she was in second place," recalled Sharon's mother, Adina. "Youssef from Egypt was in first place.
"But around 2 p.m. on Monday, Sharon pulled ahead with 3,475 votes against his 3,445. I admit that I and Sharon's grandfather were doing some serious campaigning among friends and family.
"All of a sudden they dropped a bomb on us. At 5:40 p.m., Sharon had 4,171 votes, while Youssef had 39,538. Two-and-a-half hours later the results were 4,476 and 43,347."
Sharon's mom and others, suspecting computer hackers had manipulated the results, contacted the British Council to complain. In an e-mail message to The Jerusalem Post, Ellen Miller, a spokesperson for the British Council, responded that "the competition on the Learn English Kids Web site was set up to encourage children worldwide to improve their creative writing. The winner was to be decided by public vote.
"Because there has been some unusual voting activity on the Web site, we have
decided to suspend voting. We are taking this matter very seriously and are investigating the issue."
Sharon's mother said in response that the competition "turned into a mini Six Day War."
"All the campaigning on our side was done in good sportsmanship," she said. "But suddenly the whole thing took an inexplicable turn for the worse. The people on Youssef's side took the competition so seriously. I don't get it. Those kids are not even 10 years old.
"The reason I complained to the British Council was because I did not want them to have the satisfaction of wiping us off the map. Personally, I am totally apolitical. But I feel very strongly about this. I'm willing to fight them fairly, but cheating is wrong."
Before the British Council suspended the voting, Youssef was leading with 70,000 votes to Sharon's 5,000.
Source
Sharon Livneh, a fourth grader at Ma'aleh Adumim's Sde Hemed elementary school, had no idea when she penned a poem about her sister's bat mitzva that she had set off a chain of events that would lead to a fierce Arab-Israeli confrontation on the Internet.
Livneh was the pride of her school and hometown when she became the only Israeli to be chosen as one of six finalists in a British Council-sponsored poetry contest.
Just a few hundred kilometers south of Livneh's home an Egyptian school boy named Youssef el-Kattan was also celebrating his success.
The two children's poems along with their names and countries of origin appeared on the British Council's Web site. Whoever received the most votes via the Internet would win.
Almost immediately it was clear that Livneh and el-Kattan had attracted a disproportionately large amount of attention on the Web. While most children had received dozens of votes, Livneh and el-Kattan had accrued thousands.
"All along she was in second place," recalled Sharon's mother, Adina. "Youssef from Egypt was in first place.
"But around 2 p.m. on Monday, Sharon pulled ahead with 3,475 votes against his 3,445. I admit that I and Sharon's grandfather were doing some serious campaigning among friends and family.
"All of a sudden they dropped a bomb on us. At 5:40 p.m., Sharon had 4,171 votes, while Youssef had 39,538. Two-and-a-half hours later the results were 4,476 and 43,347."
Sharon's mom and others, suspecting computer hackers had manipulated the results, contacted the British Council to complain. In an e-mail message to The Jerusalem Post, Ellen Miller, a spokesperson for the British Council, responded that "the competition on the Learn English Kids Web site was set up to encourage children worldwide to improve their creative writing. The winner was to be decided by public vote.
"Because there has been some unusual voting activity on the Web site, we have
decided to suspend voting. We are taking this matter very seriously and are investigating the issue."
Sharon's mother said in response that the competition "turned into a mini Six Day War."
"All the campaigning on our side was done in good sportsmanship," she said. "But suddenly the whole thing took an inexplicable turn for the worse. The people on Youssef's side took the competition so seriously. I don't get it. Those kids are not even 10 years old.
"The reason I complained to the British Council was because I did not want them to have the satisfaction of wiping us off the map. Personally, I am totally apolitical. But I feel very strongly about this. I'm willing to fight them fairly, but cheating is wrong."
Before the British Council suspended the voting, Youssef was leading with 70,000 votes to Sharon's 5,000.
Source
Run and hide, worms... run and hide...
Mahdi army commanders withdraw to Iran to lie low during security crackdown
Michael Howard in Baghdad
Thursday February 15, 2007
The Guardian
Senior commanders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have been spirited away to Iran to avoid being targeted in the new security push in Baghdad, a high-level Iraqi official told the Guardian yesterday.
On the day the Iraqi government formally launched its crackdown on insurgents and amid disputed claims about the whereabouts of Mr Sadr, the official said the Mahdi army leadership had withdrawn across the border into Iran to regroup and retrain.
"Over the last three weeks, they [Iran] have taken away from Baghdad the first and second-tier military leaders of the Mahdi army," he said. The aim of the Iranians was to "prevent the dismantling of the infrastructure of the Shia militias" in the Iraqi capital - one of the chief aims of the US-backed security drive.
"The strategy is to lie low until the storm passes, and then let them return and fill the vacuum," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Tehran authorities were "playing a waiting game" until the commanders could return to Baghdad and resume their activities. "All indications are that Moqtada is in Iran, but that is not really the point," he added.
Uprisings
One of the main aims of the latest government crackdown - codename Imposing Law - is to halt the work of the Shia militias and death squads thought to be behind much of the sectarian violence gripping the capital.
The Mahdi army has launched two failed uprisings against US troops and has been linked to death squads preying on Sunnis. The new security operation in Baghdad will be the third attempt by US forces and their Iraqi allies to end violence that soared following the bombing of the sacred Shia shrine in Samarra a year ago.
"They [the Iranians] are calculating that the security operation will continue for a certain period of time, and that it will do serious damage to the Sunni jihadists and the insurgents," the official said. "While in Iran they will be able to get more training and then once the Sunnis have been pacified, they plan to return."
The claims appeared to be partially confirmed in the holy city of Najaf, south of the capital, yesterday by a senior figure in the Mahdi army, Karim al-Moussawi. He said most of the militia leaders had gone to Iran, but on their own initiative. "They were neither ordered to go by Sayid Muqtada nor invited to enter by the Iranian authorities," he said. "Simply they were seeking sanctuary as individuals from expected targeting by the US occupying forces during the security drive in Baghdad." A number of commanders had also gone to Najaf and the southern provinces, he added. "The US forces should be targeting the real terrorists," he said.
The US has long blamed Iran - and Syria - for letting militants use their territory to slip into Iraq to attack US and Iraqi forces as well as civilians. Yesterday George Bush said he was convinced Iranian weapons were being used by insurgents in Iraq and promised to "do something about it".
Iraqi authorities, although regularly echoing the US charges against Syria, rarely repeat claims of interference from Iran, with which the Shia-led administration in Baghdad has close ties.
Vanishing
Reports of the vanishing Mahdi fighters came amid mounting speculation over the whereabouts of Mr Sadr. The chief US military spokesman in Baghdad said the anti-western cleric had fled to Iran. "He is in Iran and he left last month," said Major General William Caldwell. US forces were tracking him "very closely", he said.
The assertion was hotly contested by senior members of the Sadr movement, who said their leader had been in Najaf meeting local officials. One pro-Sadr satellite channel showed footage of Mr Sadr that it said was taken in Najaf three days ago. Falah al-Akaily, a pro-Sadr MP, said: "This is just a rumour sent around to confuse people. Sayid Moqtada is available and has not left Iraq. Why would he need to do so? The movement has declared its support for the security crackdown and its full cooperation in defeating the terrorists."
A statement by the Sadr movement's office in Sadr City accused the US of playing games: "This is a lie put out as part of a psychological and media campaign by the US occupation to hurt the reputation of the brave national leader."
Backstory
The Mahdi army, also known as Jaish al-Mahdi, was born in the vacuum left by the fall of Saddam Hussein. With no one in charge, Shia clerics organised religious students to distribute food and essentials from the mosques of Sadr City in Baghdad. One of the most popular of the clerics was Moqtada al-Sadr - young, radical and anti-American. The groups soon took on "security duties", and in June 2003 Mr Sadr brought them together as the Mahdi army. The militia rose to prominence in April 2004 when they led the first major Shia confrontation against US forces. The army has continued to gain in strength since the handover to the Iraqi interim government, feeding on dissatisfaction among Shias who initially welcomed the fall of Saddam. Mr Sadr, despite his anti-Americanism, is a political ally of the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. His fighters, dressed in black, are armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-air missiles and other light weapons, and have been known to use IEDs (improvised explosive devices). The size of the force is thought to be between 6,000 and 10,000.
Source
Michael Howard in Baghdad
Thursday February 15, 2007
The Guardian
Senior commanders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have been spirited away to Iran to avoid being targeted in the new security push in Baghdad, a high-level Iraqi official told the Guardian yesterday.
On the day the Iraqi government formally launched its crackdown on insurgents and amid disputed claims about the whereabouts of Mr Sadr, the official said the Mahdi army leadership had withdrawn across the border into Iran to regroup and retrain.
"Over the last three weeks, they [Iran] have taken away from Baghdad the first and second-tier military leaders of the Mahdi army," he said. The aim of the Iranians was to "prevent the dismantling of the infrastructure of the Shia militias" in the Iraqi capital - one of the chief aims of the US-backed security drive.
"The strategy is to lie low until the storm passes, and then let them return and fill the vacuum," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Tehran authorities were "playing a waiting game" until the commanders could return to Baghdad and resume their activities. "All indications are that Moqtada is in Iran, but that is not really the point," he added.
Uprisings
One of the main aims of the latest government crackdown - codename Imposing Law - is to halt the work of the Shia militias and death squads thought to be behind much of the sectarian violence gripping the capital.
The Mahdi army has launched two failed uprisings against US troops and has been linked to death squads preying on Sunnis. The new security operation in Baghdad will be the third attempt by US forces and their Iraqi allies to end violence that soared following the bombing of the sacred Shia shrine in Samarra a year ago.
"They [the Iranians] are calculating that the security operation will continue for a certain period of time, and that it will do serious damage to the Sunni jihadists and the insurgents," the official said. "While in Iran they will be able to get more training and then once the Sunnis have been pacified, they plan to return."
The claims appeared to be partially confirmed in the holy city of Najaf, south of the capital, yesterday by a senior figure in the Mahdi army, Karim al-Moussawi. He said most of the militia leaders had gone to Iran, but on their own initiative. "They were neither ordered to go by Sayid Muqtada nor invited to enter by the Iranian authorities," he said. "Simply they were seeking sanctuary as individuals from expected targeting by the US occupying forces during the security drive in Baghdad." A number of commanders had also gone to Najaf and the southern provinces, he added. "The US forces should be targeting the real terrorists," he said.
The US has long blamed Iran - and Syria - for letting militants use their territory to slip into Iraq to attack US and Iraqi forces as well as civilians. Yesterday George Bush said he was convinced Iranian weapons were being used by insurgents in Iraq and promised to "do something about it".
Iraqi authorities, although regularly echoing the US charges against Syria, rarely repeat claims of interference from Iran, with which the Shia-led administration in Baghdad has close ties.
Vanishing
Reports of the vanishing Mahdi fighters came amid mounting speculation over the whereabouts of Mr Sadr. The chief US military spokesman in Baghdad said the anti-western cleric had fled to Iran. "He is in Iran and he left last month," said Major General William Caldwell. US forces were tracking him "very closely", he said.
The assertion was hotly contested by senior members of the Sadr movement, who said their leader had been in Najaf meeting local officials. One pro-Sadr satellite channel showed footage of Mr Sadr that it said was taken in Najaf three days ago. Falah al-Akaily, a pro-Sadr MP, said: "This is just a rumour sent around to confuse people. Sayid Moqtada is available and has not left Iraq. Why would he need to do so? The movement has declared its support for the security crackdown and its full cooperation in defeating the terrorists."
A statement by the Sadr movement's office in Sadr City accused the US of playing games: "This is a lie put out as part of a psychological and media campaign by the US occupation to hurt the reputation of the brave national leader."
Backstory
The Mahdi army, also known as Jaish al-Mahdi, was born in the vacuum left by the fall of Saddam Hussein. With no one in charge, Shia clerics organised religious students to distribute food and essentials from the mosques of Sadr City in Baghdad. One of the most popular of the clerics was Moqtada al-Sadr - young, radical and anti-American. The groups soon took on "security duties", and in June 2003 Mr Sadr brought them together as the Mahdi army. The militia rose to prominence in April 2004 when they led the first major Shia confrontation against US forces. The army has continued to gain in strength since the handover to the Iraqi interim government, feeding on dissatisfaction among Shias who initially welcomed the fall of Saddam. Mr Sadr, despite his anti-Americanism, is a political ally of the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. His fighters, dressed in black, are armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-air missiles and other light weapons, and have been known to use IEDs (improvised explosive devices). The size of the force is thought to be between 6,000 and 10,000.
Source
Leftist terrorism is back
Red Brigades planning attacks
14/02/2007 23:30 - (SA)
Rome - Fifteen suspected members of the far-left Red Brigades arrested in northern Italy this week were preparing attacks on specific targets, interior minister Giuliano Amato said on Wednesday.
Amato told lawmakers that "concrete" targets included the Milan headquarters of the right-leaning daily Libero and the home of a labour law expert.
He said an incendiary attack with petrol and acid had been planned for the Libero offices during a day off for the editorial staff as a "demonstrative act".
He said they also considered attacking a Milan residence of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The 15 suspected members of the far-left Red Brigades were arrested in a large-scale police operation on Monday in the northern cities of Milan, Padua, Turin and Trieste.
They are accused of "associating with terrorists and participating in an armed group".
Soure
14/02/2007 23:30 - (SA)
Rome - Fifteen suspected members of the far-left Red Brigades arrested in northern Italy this week were preparing attacks on specific targets, interior minister Giuliano Amato said on Wednesday.
Amato told lawmakers that "concrete" targets included the Milan headquarters of the right-leaning daily Libero and the home of a labour law expert.
He said an incendiary attack with petrol and acid had been planned for the Libero offices during a day off for the editorial staff as a "demonstrative act".
He said they also considered attacking a Milan residence of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The 15 suspected members of the far-left Red Brigades were arrested in a large-scale police operation on Monday in the northern cities of Milan, Padua, Turin and Trieste.
They are accused of "associating with terrorists and participating in an armed group".
Soure
Prince Bin Talal to build 150-room hotel on Tel Aviv's coastline
Ofer Petersburg
Published: 02.15.07, 08:46 / Israel Money
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is in negotiations to build a hotel on Tel Aviv's coastline.
Two architects have already started working on the project. The one is Bin Talal's private architect, who had worked with him on oriental hotels across the world, Basel al-Beiti. The other is former Tel Aviv Chief City Engineer, Yisrael Gudovich.
The planned project is a joint venture with the Abulafya family, which owns a structure on a 1-acre plot on Herbert Samuel Street.
According to the blueprints submitted to the Tel Aviv Municipality, an eight-story, 150-room hotel is planned to be built on the site.
Bin Talal is the nephew of the late Saudi King Faisal, and is believed to be worth $26.4 billion.
The prince's empire includes holdings in banks, financing and investment firms, hi-tech and communications companies, leading hotels in the United States, Europe and the Arab world, and tourist sites.
Source
Published: 02.15.07, 08:46 / Israel Money
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is in negotiations to build a hotel on Tel Aviv's coastline.
Two architects have already started working on the project. The one is Bin Talal's private architect, who had worked with him on oriental hotels across the world, Basel al-Beiti. The other is former Tel Aviv Chief City Engineer, Yisrael Gudovich.
The planned project is a joint venture with the Abulafya family, which owns a structure on a 1-acre plot on Herbert Samuel Street.
According to the blueprints submitted to the Tel Aviv Municipality, an eight-story, 150-room hotel is planned to be built on the site.
Bin Talal is the nephew of the late Saudi King Faisal, and is believed to be worth $26.4 billion.
The prince's empire includes holdings in banks, financing and investment firms, hi-tech and communications companies, leading hotels in the United States, Europe and the Arab world, and tourist sites.
Source
Discovery of mosaic halts work at Jerusalem walkway
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 15 February 2007
The planned walkway at the centre of the furious dispute over Jerusalem's holiest site could be further delayed by the discovery of a Byzantine mosaic.
The geometric patterned fragment was exposed by archaeological workers yesterday at the bottom of an underground shaft where one of the walkway pillars is intended to go, as The Independent examined excavation work in the area.
"We have a real time discovery," reported Gideon Avni, director of excavations and surveys at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Dr Avni said further excavations would now be needed to see whether the mosaic, probably from the fifth or sixth century AD, was part of a larger decorated room or house. He said it was too early to say whether the pillar would have to be moved. If the fragment turned out not to extend further, it could possibly be extracted and exhibited.
The discovery was the latest in a series of twists in the conflict over access through the Mugrabi Gate to the compound sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif - noble sanctuary.
Seventeen policemen and 23 Palestinians were injured last Friday during demonstrations against the building of the new walkway, where the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque - Islam's third holiest site - is located. The work, is being carried out close to the Western Wall, the remains of the second Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans AD70, and most sacred place in Judaism.
On Monday, Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mayor, Uri Lupolianski, won praise from Israeli liberals when he unexpectedly announced work on the new walkway would be frozen to allow time for objections, including by Muslims, under a formal planning procedure. But the Israeli government said the archaeological "salvage digging" customary when construction work is carried out in the area, would continue.
Dr Avni vehemently denied claims by some Islamic leaders - and echoed by demonstrators from Cairo to Damascus - that the excavations posed a threat to the foundations of the mosques, saying they were all taking place in a limited area outside the walls of the compound. The Israeli authorities are arranging for webcam pictures of the dig to prove his case.
And while archaeology in Jerusalem is often complicated by religious and political overtones, Dr Avni virtually ruled out the possibility that the digs will discover remnants of the Jewish temple period.
Pointing to arches from Ottoman and Mameluke structures below the ramp, he added: "I don't believe that they will even reach the early Islamic period."
The eminent Israeli novelist Amos Oz yesterday praised the Mayor's decision to put work on the walkway on hold but added in an article in Yedhiot Ahronot: "It would be appropriate if this argument would also lead to the postponement of the archeological excavations - these excavations are also sparking the fires of religious dispute over the question of who in fact is the proprietor of the Temple Mount holy sites."
Source
Published: 15 February 2007
The planned walkway at the centre of the furious dispute over Jerusalem's holiest site could be further delayed by the discovery of a Byzantine mosaic.
The geometric patterned fragment was exposed by archaeological workers yesterday at the bottom of an underground shaft where one of the walkway pillars is intended to go, as The Independent examined excavation work in the area.
"We have a real time discovery," reported Gideon Avni, director of excavations and surveys at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Dr Avni said further excavations would now be needed to see whether the mosaic, probably from the fifth or sixth century AD, was part of a larger decorated room or house. He said it was too early to say whether the pillar would have to be moved. If the fragment turned out not to extend further, it could possibly be extracted and exhibited.
The discovery was the latest in a series of twists in the conflict over access through the Mugrabi Gate to the compound sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif - noble sanctuary.
Seventeen policemen and 23 Palestinians were injured last Friday during demonstrations against the building of the new walkway, where the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque - Islam's third holiest site - is located. The work, is being carried out close to the Western Wall, the remains of the second Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans AD70, and most sacred place in Judaism.
On Monday, Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mayor, Uri Lupolianski, won praise from Israeli liberals when he unexpectedly announced work on the new walkway would be frozen to allow time for objections, including by Muslims, under a formal planning procedure. But the Israeli government said the archaeological "salvage digging" customary when construction work is carried out in the area, would continue.
Dr Avni vehemently denied claims by some Islamic leaders - and echoed by demonstrators from Cairo to Damascus - that the excavations posed a threat to the foundations of the mosques, saying they were all taking place in a limited area outside the walls of the compound. The Israeli authorities are arranging for webcam pictures of the dig to prove his case.
And while archaeology in Jerusalem is often complicated by religious and political overtones, Dr Avni virtually ruled out the possibility that the digs will discover remnants of the Jewish temple period.
Pointing to arches from Ottoman and Mameluke structures below the ramp, he added: "I don't believe that they will even reach the early Islamic period."
The eminent Israeli novelist Amos Oz yesterday praised the Mayor's decision to put work on the walkway on hold but added in an article in Yedhiot Ahronot: "It would be appropriate if this argument would also lead to the postponement of the archeological excavations - these excavations are also sparking the fires of religious dispute over the question of who in fact is the proprietor of the Temple Mount holy sites."
Source
Target "for the resistance" LOL
Islamic Jihad Issues Death Threat Against U.S. Sec'y of State Condoleezza Rice Over $5M Reward for Leader’s Capture; Al-Quds Brigades Threatens Violence to U.S. Interests
In response to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's signing of a decision to reward $5 million to anyone helping in the arrest of Islamic Jihad secretary-general Ramadan Abdallah Shelah, the Islamic Jihad sent a threat to kill Rice.
The Islamic Jihad spokesman in the Gaza Strip said: "Any attempt to harm Dr. Shelah means that Rice and the one who carries out the decision are at the top of the list of wanted individuals and are a target for the resistance."
Source
I gues that the word "resistance" has a different meaning in ME...
In response to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's signing of a decision to reward $5 million to anyone helping in the arrest of Islamic Jihad secretary-general Ramadan Abdallah Shelah, the Islamic Jihad sent a threat to kill Rice.
The Islamic Jihad spokesman in the Gaza Strip said: "Any attempt to harm Dr. Shelah means that Rice and the one who carries out the decision are at the top of the list of wanted individuals and are a target for the resistance."
Source
I gues that the word "resistance" has a different meaning in ME...
Intelligence Reports On Hezbollah's Immense Firepower
Hezbollah can fire approximately 150 Katyusha rockets into Israel per day for four months, according to a current intelligence assessment that has reached Jerusalem.
High-ranking political officials said that Hezbollah is becoming stronger at an alarming rate and has already succeeded in rehabilitating its capability almost entirely. One of the things that worries Israel the most is the smuggling of Iranian Zelzal rockets that have reached Lebanon by way of Syria. A high-ranking political source said that at present, Hezbollah has dozens, if not hundreds, of Zelzal rockets. As Yedioth Ahronoth reported, according to information that reached Israel, the Syrians recently sent Hezbollah shipments of new Kornet anti-tank rockets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted publicly for the first time that Russian anti-tank rockets have trickled from Syria to Hezbollah. In statements he made during the Munich Conference, he said: "There are boxes of our anti-tank systems in Lebanon, that is true. Our Israeli partners told me about that immediately." Jerusalem officials say that the Russians did not use their supervisory apparatus, as they had promised, and did not prevent the trickle. The quantity is not at the level that it was before the war, but rather at the beginning of a worrying trend.
EU Will Not Work With Palestinian Gov't That Does Not Recognize Israel
The European Union foreign ministers decided Monday night at a meeting in Brussels not to engage in talks with a Palestinian unity government that failed to meet the three threshold conditions that were set by the Quartet - recognition of Israel, recognizing agreements that were previously signed by the Palestinian Authority and forswearing terrorism.
A statement issued by the foreign ministers noted that the council of foreign ministers welcomed the Mecca agreement and praised PA Chairman Abu Mazen for his efforts to form a national unity government and the contribution of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to resolve the differences between the Palestinian factions. "The EU stands ready to work with a legitimate Palestinian government that adopts a platform reflecting the Quartet principles and welcomed the Quartet statement of 9 February (which made such dialogue contingent upon the Palestinian government accepting the three conditions)," read the EU foreign ministers' statement.
The statement of the European foreign ministers was preceded by intensive efforts that were made by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in talks that she held with European foreign ministers. Livni spoke with the foreign ministers of Germany, the U.K., Spain, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovakia, Austria and with EU foreign policy director Javier Solana. The statement that was issued by the European foreign ministers constitutes a significant achievement for Israel, since other European Union officials actively supported lifting the economic siege on the Palestinian Authority even without the Palestinian unity government's acceptance of the three threshold conditions.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who is also the leader of Hamas, delivered a speech Monday that was broadcast by Palestinian television. In the speech he said: "The Mecca agreement to form a national unity government is the will of the Palestinian people and was signed in accordance with the decision of its representatives. Please, respect the new government."
Haniyeh called on the Quartet to recognize the unity government and to help it play its role, mainly by lifting the economic and political siege on the Palestinians. He called on Palestinians to close ranks, to stop bickering and to end the bloodshed in Palestinian society. Haniyeh made no mention of the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit in his speech and made no reference to Israel. Haniyeh will resign his post tomorrow as prime minister, as obliged by law, so as to allow Abu Mazen to present him with the task of forming the new government. This is expected to occur tomorrow. Four of the cabinet ministers in the new Palestinian government are currently in Israeli prison.
Israeli Army Sees More Ethiopian Immigrant Than Native-Born Recruits
Ninety percent of the members of the Ethiopian community join the IDF compared with 74 percent of native-born Israelis, according to statistics that the IDF presented to the Knesset's Absorption Committee.
Brig. Gen. Nissim Bardah, director of the planning and personnel unit in the IDF's human resources department, presented the statistics.
Despite the gap in the recruitment statistics, native-born Israelis still lead among those who serve in combat units: 46.9 percent of the native-born Israelis who serve in the army go to combat units as compared to 40 percent of Ethiopian immigrants, 39.5 percent of new immigrants (up to two years in Israel) and 35 percent of long-time immigrants.
One comparative statistic shows that as compared with 74 percent of native-born Israelis born in 1987 who joined the army, the rate of enlistment among long-time immigrants reached 72 percent. The rate of enlistment among those defined as new immigrants reached only 31 percent, but IDF officials explained that the low rate stems from the fact that many new immigrants move to other countries or return to their countries of origin after receiving the absorption basket.
The statistics are equal among women. The share of women recruits is identical among native-born Israelis and long-time immigrants, and stands at 58 percent. But also among women, those of Ethiopian origin are the champions: 69 percent of the young women of the community join the army.
Source
High-ranking political officials said that Hezbollah is becoming stronger at an alarming rate and has already succeeded in rehabilitating its capability almost entirely. One of the things that worries Israel the most is the smuggling of Iranian Zelzal rockets that have reached Lebanon by way of Syria. A high-ranking political source said that at present, Hezbollah has dozens, if not hundreds, of Zelzal rockets. As Yedioth Ahronoth reported, according to information that reached Israel, the Syrians recently sent Hezbollah shipments of new Kornet anti-tank rockets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted publicly for the first time that Russian anti-tank rockets have trickled from Syria to Hezbollah. In statements he made during the Munich Conference, he said: "There are boxes of our anti-tank systems in Lebanon, that is true. Our Israeli partners told me about that immediately." Jerusalem officials say that the Russians did not use their supervisory apparatus, as they had promised, and did not prevent the trickle. The quantity is not at the level that it was before the war, but rather at the beginning of a worrying trend.
EU Will Not Work With Palestinian Gov't That Does Not Recognize Israel
The European Union foreign ministers decided Monday night at a meeting in Brussels not to engage in talks with a Palestinian unity government that failed to meet the three threshold conditions that were set by the Quartet - recognition of Israel, recognizing agreements that were previously signed by the Palestinian Authority and forswearing terrorism.
A statement issued by the foreign ministers noted that the council of foreign ministers welcomed the Mecca agreement and praised PA Chairman Abu Mazen for his efforts to form a national unity government and the contribution of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to resolve the differences between the Palestinian factions. "The EU stands ready to work with a legitimate Palestinian government that adopts a platform reflecting the Quartet principles and welcomed the Quartet statement of 9 February (which made such dialogue contingent upon the Palestinian government accepting the three conditions)," read the EU foreign ministers' statement.
The statement of the European foreign ministers was preceded by intensive efforts that were made by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in talks that she held with European foreign ministers. Livni spoke with the foreign ministers of Germany, the U.K., Spain, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovakia, Austria and with EU foreign policy director Javier Solana. The statement that was issued by the European foreign ministers constitutes a significant achievement for Israel, since other European Union officials actively supported lifting the economic siege on the Palestinian Authority even without the Palestinian unity government's acceptance of the three threshold conditions.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who is also the leader of Hamas, delivered a speech Monday that was broadcast by Palestinian television. In the speech he said: "The Mecca agreement to form a national unity government is the will of the Palestinian people and was signed in accordance with the decision of its representatives. Please, respect the new government."
Haniyeh called on the Quartet to recognize the unity government and to help it play its role, mainly by lifting the economic and political siege on the Palestinians. He called on Palestinians to close ranks, to stop bickering and to end the bloodshed in Palestinian society. Haniyeh made no mention of the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit in his speech and made no reference to Israel. Haniyeh will resign his post tomorrow as prime minister, as obliged by law, so as to allow Abu Mazen to present him with the task of forming the new government. This is expected to occur tomorrow. Four of the cabinet ministers in the new Palestinian government are currently in Israeli prison.
Israeli Army Sees More Ethiopian Immigrant Than Native-Born Recruits
Ninety percent of the members of the Ethiopian community join the IDF compared with 74 percent of native-born Israelis, according to statistics that the IDF presented to the Knesset's Absorption Committee.
Brig. Gen. Nissim Bardah, director of the planning and personnel unit in the IDF's human resources department, presented the statistics.
Despite the gap in the recruitment statistics, native-born Israelis still lead among those who serve in combat units: 46.9 percent of the native-born Israelis who serve in the army go to combat units as compared to 40 percent of Ethiopian immigrants, 39.5 percent of new immigrants (up to two years in Israel) and 35 percent of long-time immigrants.
One comparative statistic shows that as compared with 74 percent of native-born Israelis born in 1987 who joined the army, the rate of enlistment among long-time immigrants reached 72 percent. The rate of enlistment among those defined as new immigrants reached only 31 percent, but IDF officials explained that the low rate stems from the fact that many new immigrants move to other countries or return to their countries of origin after receiving the absorption basket.
The statistics are equal among women. The share of women recruits is identical among native-born Israelis and long-time immigrants, and stands at 58 percent. But also among women, those of Ethiopian origin are the champions: 69 percent of the young women of the community join the army.
Source
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