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Sivan 25, 5769, 6/17/2009

An Interesting Questionnaire for Palestinian Advocates

by Yehudah Lev Kay

The following is circulating by email:

An interesting questionnaire  for Palestinian Advocates
By Yashiko Sagamori
If you are so sure that " Palestine , the country, goes back through most of recorded history," I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of Palestine :

1.  When was it founded and by whom?

2.  What were its borders?

3.  What was its capital?

4.  What were its major cities?

5.  What constituted the basis of its economy?

6.  What was its form of government?

7.  Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?

8.  Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?

9.  What was the language of the country of Palestine ?

10. What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine ?

11. What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date.

12. And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?

You are lamenting the "low sinking" of a "once proud" nation. Please tell me, when exactly was that "nation" proud and what was it so proud of?

And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call "Palestinians" are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over -- or thrown out of -- the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?
I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day "Palestinians" to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won't work here.

The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned the dream of destroying Israel; they still cherish it today. Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal with military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it "the Palestinian people,” and installed it in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the "West Bank" and Gaza, respectively?

The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less claim to nationhood than that Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them. The so-called "Palestinians" have only one motivation: the destruction of Israel and in my book that is not sufficient to consider them a nation" -- or anything else except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled.

In fact, there is only one way to achieve peace in the Middle East. Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side should, pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited on it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and accepting Israel’s ancient sovereignty over Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.

That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?




Sivan 22, 5769, 6/14/2009

The Speech Netanyahu Should Deliver

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Sunday evening, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will deliver a major policy address at Bar-Ian University. Following is a suggested text.

Shalom Aleichem, my fellow Jews in Israel and around the world.

Salaam Aleikum to Arab citizens of the State of Israel.

May peace be upon to you to all law-abiding Christians who live in our country.

As U.S. President Barack Obama said in his speech at Cairo University 10 days ago, I have come here tonight to speak the truth and to put on the table issues that Israel faces and must deal with.

The issue of extremism threatens the entire world. Terror in the past several decades has become a popular and accepted method for evil people to achieve their goals. Religions, particularly the Muslim faith, have been usurped by terrorists who exploit the masses for their own personal financial gain. They use stock market manipulation, drug trafficking and arms smuggling for their own personal gains in the name of religion.

The next issue is that of the Palestinian Authority’s desire for an independent state. The PA, which is an outgrowth of the Palestine Liberation Organization, founded by arch terrorist Yasser Arafat, is basically dysfunctional. Its rule is divided, with the Fatah party based in Judea and Samaria and the rival Hamas terrorist party based in Gaza.

As such, talk of a “Palestinian state” is irrelevant, and that is only one of the dozens of reasons I have called on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resume negotiators but have not accepted the idea of agreeing to a state that cannot exist. To do so would be a de facto approval for the current state of affairs in which the PA spreads incitement against Israel, teaches that all of the Land of Israel is Arab Palestine and refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

In fact, the PLO, which is the umbrella organization overseeing the PA, still does not recognize Israel at all.

Nevertheless, Israel time after time after time in the past few years has made ”good will” measures to the PA without any quid pro pro. Incitement continues. Terror remains rampant in the PA. The American-trained Fatah special forces, which Israel agreed could be deployed, with arms, in major Arab cities in Judea and Samaria, does not tackle terror except when it threatens the Fatah party.

The low number of terrorist attacks in Israel emanating from Judea and Samaria is due mainly to Israeli intelligence and counterterrorist actions, some of which are carried out in cooperation with the PA but not to the extent that it can be relied upon to maintain law and order.

Israel also has continued to transfer to the PA hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues collected for the PA, but economic growth and stability are a far cry from the years following the Six-Day War in 1967. Israeli supervision of Judea, Samaria and Gaza allowed an unprecedented rise in the standard of living after the occupying Jordanian and Egyptian governments had neglected the area and deprived its residents of basic rights,

My government, like previous governments of the State of Israel, accepts previous agreements.

The U.S. Roadmap plan had been the basis for negotiating with the PA on the final borders of a proposed PA state and the State of Israel. The Roadmap calls for those borders to be negotiated and we abide by that agreement.

Unfortunately, the PA, sometimes with help from other nations, has unilaterally brought about changes in the Roadmap and skipped over critical steps, such as the halt of incitement. While it does not carry out its obligations, Israel has continued to carry our own. We have removed dozens of roadblocks and checkpoints, often resulting in terrorist attacks or attempted attacks.

We have begun removing Jewish communities that were built after an agreement with the U.S. that no new communities would be built. However, every step Israel makes towards peace has been followed by new PA demands, which are presented as pre-conditions and as non-negotiable.

Negotiations cannot be carried out in an atmosphere under which one side states there is nothing to negotiate. The Arab world has made the Saudi Arabia 2002 Peace Plan a take it-or-leave-it proposition. It unreasonably expects Israel to meet all the demands in return for a promise of diplomatic recognition by the 22-member Arab League. At the same time, the League itself says it is not sure if it would recognize Israel and in any case will decide only after Israel carries out all of the irreversible steps that in effect threaten the security of our country.

The PA has been encouraged in this direction by many European countries who are threatened by Muslim dominance. They follow the same suicidal appeasement policy that allowed Hitler, may his name be erased, to threaten the entire free world with devastation.

The Nazi regime butchered, gassed and tortured six million Jews to death until the Allies, led by the U.S., defeated the regime of evil in 1945. Three years later, the State of Israel was re-established.

Inasmuch as we are speaking the truth, let it be clear, without any manipulation of facts, that the State of Israel was re-established and not established. It was first established nearly 3,000 years ago, and the original State of Israel fell to foreign conquerors and occupiers nearly 2,000 years ago.

 

We will not allow that to happen again.

Secondly, let it be perfectly clear that the State of Israel was re-established despite the Holocaust and not because of it. No people other than the Jews could overcome the trauma of nearly being annihilated and ignored by the world and still work under seemingly impossible threats and conditions to re-build a nation from scratch.

The People of Israel changed this barren land to a flourishing country that has contributed to the world far beyond what any other country has contributed on a per capita basis Our ability to do so does not go back to having survived the Holocaust; nor does it go back to surviving the Arab pogroms, such as the Hevron massacre in 1929 when Muslims went on a rampage and killed Torah scholars and students.

It does not go back to the breaking of promises by other nations who said they would encourage a Jewish state and then took every possible stop to prevent it.

Our ability goes back 3,500 years ago, which is more than 2,000 years before the Muslim religion was founded, with its religious capital in Mecca.

But Jews never have used religion as an excuse to bar other people from practicing their faith. Before Judea, Samaria and Gaza and the Golan Heights were restored to Israel in 1967, the occupying powers forbade the Christian and Jewish public from even visiting their holy sites. It was Israel that re-opened those sites in 1967.

Judaism is the only religion in the world that never has persecuted those who practice a different faith.

That brings us to one other issue that must be addressed— that of the 'refugees'. Tens of thousands of Jews throughout Arab countries have been displaced in the past 60 years. Their properties have been stolen and many have been executed simply because they were Jews.

In addition, properties legally recorded as bought by Jews, have been overrun by Arabs throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Land in Gaza, in eastern Jerusalem and in many parts of Judea and Samaria were legally bought by Jews before the re-establishment of the State of Israel but were confiscated by Arab occupiers.

Just as Israel recognizes the rights of Arabs to their houses that were legally bought, the same rights of Jews must be recognized.

The last issue I address is that of Iran. All of the talk the past two years about the threat that Iran will become a nuclear power is reminiscent of the talk during the period of appeasement to the Nazi regime. If the Western world wants to stop a new regime of evil from dominating the world and bringing catastrophe to the Free World, it must isolate Iran completely without ifs, ands or buts.

As President Obama said during his campaign for the presidency last year, "Yes, we can.”

Thank you




Sivan 18, 5769, 6/10/2009

Israel Book Week Reaches Senators

by Baruch Gordon

As Israel book week commences, a new initiative has been launched to flood U.S. lawmakers with a book that purports to outline the urgent dangers faced by the Jewish state, including how current American policy may be harming Israel.
 
"One major concern is that it seems many lawmakers don't understand how America is contributing to the threats facing the Jewish state. For example, how U.S. funding, arming, and training of Fatah forces translates into Fatah terrorism against Jews," said Aaron Klein, author of the new book, "The Late Great State of Israel."
 
Klein's book details how U.S. funding to Fatah may fuel Palestinian terror.  Klein also argues some of President Obama's foreign policies may be harmful to the Jewish state, such as proposed talks with Iran and the trumpeting of a so-called Arab Peace Initiative.
 
The author, who served as Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com, pointed to a recent letter from the vast majority of Congress urging Obama to mind the "risks" to Israel in any Middle East peace accord as evidence lawmakers are concerned at the president's Mideast approach.

Joseph Farah, CEO of WorldNetDaily, commented: "Though Obama has made it clear U.S. policy in the Middle East will change under his leadership, there's still a chance to maintain a supportive friendship with the Jewish state by targeting Congress."

"One effective tool is getting Aaron Klein's important new book into the hands of as many senators and representatives as possible – because this book lays out the stakes. Members of Congress are not inclined to abandon Israel, but they need some ammunition to resist the pressures of the Obama administration."
Farah's website launched an initiative allowing those concerned to send their representative and two senators copies of Klein's book. Each copy sent will arrive with a letter from the concerned citizen explaining why the book is important – along with the U.S.'s continued support for the Jewish state.

The initiative can be accessed online at www.wnd.com/truthtocongress or orders can be placed by phone at 1-800-496-3266.



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