Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.(Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)
We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948) With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last.(Friends of Israel Initiative)
Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.
He writes:
President Trump’s attempt to see a five-year Gaza ceasefire negotiated between Hamas and Israel seems to be an exercise in futility destined to failure.
America’s involvement first surfaced on 7 July when “an unnamed senior Trump administration official” stated:
“We definitely have a Gaza focus right now because the situation is the way it is, and we want to try to help. But it’s not as though we think we need to fix Gaza first before we would air the peace plan.”
If it sounds like a cop-out and looks like a cop-out – it is a cop-out.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) had made it very clear months ago it would have nothing to do with Trump’s yet to-be-released peace plan – no matter when it is aired.
Arab States supportive of Trump’s plan were wavering.
Leaving those small technicalities aside - any negotiations between Israel and Hamas over Gaza would be anathema to the PLO - which has been engaged in an internecine struggle with Hamas to govern Gaza since 2007.
Indeed, Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmeh has already reportedly said the number one priority should be achieving Palestinian unity on the basis of previous agreements signed between Hamas and Fatah - and not a truce with Israel in return for humanitarian aid.
Trump’s “ultimate deal” was initially foreshadowed back in 2016 – before Trump was even sworn in as president:
“I believe that my administration can play a significant role in helping the parties to achieve a just, lasting peace – which must be negotiated between the parties themselves, and not imposed on them by others. Israel and the Jewish people deserve no less”
Trump did not then define who he meant by “the parties”.
Given the developments in the Middle East generally since 2016 – and in Gaza and the West Bank specifically – both Hamas and the PLO seem to have disqualified themselves from possibly participating in negotiating Trump’s peace plan. This leaves the way open for Jordan and Egypt – the last two Arab States to occupy the West Bank and Gaza respectively between 1948 and 1967 – to fill the empty Hamas and PLO chairs at the negotiating table with Israel.
Trump’s new Gaza approach is conditioned upon the following observation made by his three negotiating emissaries – Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and David Friedman – in their op-ed article in the Washington Post on 20 July:
“For far too long, Gaza has lurched from crisis to crisis, sustained by emergency appeals and one-time caravans of aid, without dealing with the root cause: Hamas leadership is holding the Palestinians of Gaza captive. This problem must be recognized and resolved or we will witness yet another disastrous cycle.”
Hamas is not going to suddenly disappear or allow free and fair elections in Gaza to determine who shall govern Gaza’s population. Any reconciliation by Hamas with the PLO seems most unlikely to occur.
Israel appears to be going along with this Gaza trial balloon being floated by Trump.
Realistically however – ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas will be fatuous unless the following provision in the 1988 Hamas Covenant is shredded:
“The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. … "
For Trump to contemplate being dragged into the Hamas and PLO quicksand that has claimed so many sincerely-intentioned do-gooders preceding him is incomprehensible.
(Author's Note: is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones” – one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)
Here's former Israeli ambassador to the Court of St James Daniel Taub, in Australia last week, covering several issues including the "new look" Hamas Charter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tTSLK58yJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WCyrpI6RwE
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) videos.
Here's the latest article, entitled "Gaza – Hamas Evil Must Be Confronted And Defeated", by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer. He writes:
One month of fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas has resulted in an enormous propaganda victory for Hamas as horrific pictures of dead and wounded Gazan children and civilians, their destroyed homes and other buildings have appeared daily in social media and newspapers around the world.
Israelis have been represented as Nazis inflicting war crimes on Gazan Arabs – just as war crimes were inflicted on Jews by the Nazis.
Jews have been attacked in Paris, London, Sydney, Rome, Frankfurt and Austria.
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has been told by a leading trade union official:
“If the Jewish Board of Deputies wants to advance a Zionist agenda, they should leave South Africa and go advance their agenda elsewhere”
Hamas is attempting to gain continuing success in its campaign to denigrate and demonize Israel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosab_Hassan_Yousef
Hamas rejected the continuation of a 72-hour ceasefire that ended at 8.00 am on 8 August – hoping to again induce Israel into retaliating against Hamas and the myriad other terrorist groups embedded in Gaza as they continue their indiscriminate firing of more than 3300 rockets so far into Israeli population centres from rocket launchers positioned in Gazan civilian population centres.
Gazan civilians have unwillingly become the sacrificial lambs in Hamas’s evil objective of eliminating the only Jewish State in the world.
Gregory Baskin summarises how the propaganda war is so far removed from the reality:
“In the current foray into the Gaza Strip, Israelis have killed approximately 1,200 Palestinians. To be clear, Hitler and his army of hypnotized worshippers not only killed millions of people but murdered them, meaning that lives were terminated and family lines severed on purpose. Anyone not consumed with their own anti-Semitism understands the distinction
Many Arab civilians have died in the Gaza Strip. At the least, Israel has made attempts to avoid this by warning civilians ahead of its bombing strikes with the use of dummy bombs, text messages and telephone calls. (Perhaps it is true, as has been reported, that the human shields Hamas puts in harm’s way are not allowed freedom of movement, thus generously contributing to the death toll.) Even the United States and Commander-in-Chief President Obama do less than this when U.S. drones kill terrorists in far off lands. Like so many guerrilla armies before it, Hamas fighters hide amongst the people it purports to protect and represent.
Again, yes, the deaths in the Gaza Strip have been undeniable and horrific. But by no means is what has, and is happening, there a Holocaust. What it is, most unfortunately, is a moment for anti-Semites to express their hatred. Logic is pushed aside as bigotry converts to delirium and then inevitably inflates in magnitude. Again: 1,200 killed compared with 6 million-plus murdered.”
1. “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is realised.”
2. “The basic structure of the Islamic Resistance Movement consists of Moslems who have given their allegiance to Allah whom they truly worship, – "I have created the jinn and humans only for the purpose of worshipping" - who know their duty towards themselves, their families and country. In all that, they fear Allah and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils.”
3. “The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that.”
The London Times has refused to run an advertisement featuring Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel speaking out against Hamas’s use of children as human shields – because:
“the opinion being expressed is too strong and too forcefully made and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers”
This advertisement has run in the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, among other U.S. newspapers
Wiesel’s message is clear and unequivocal:
“What we are suffering through today is not a battle of Jew versus Arab or Israeli versus Palestinian. Rather, it is a battle between those who celebrate life and those who champion death. It is a battle of civilization versus barbarism.”
The events in Gaza over the past month would have been avoided if Hamas had accepted the ceasefire proposed by Egypt on 16 July.
Hamas is evil – it must be confronted – and defeated.
"Kalb Yehud! [Jewish dog!] That, Allahu akbar, and "something about Gaza in Arabic" is what two young men screamed as they jumped on and punched a former IDF soldier wearing an identifying T-shirt in a Jewish district of Melbourne last Thursday night, leaving him with cuts and a swollen face:
"I noticed them when it was too late.... One of them tried to pull me to the ground, I started fighting and punching back. I grabbed one of them by the throat and screamed at them, cursing in Arabic as well. This shocked them, they ran off."
(Hat tip: reader Ian)
"Jewish scumbag hail hitler let's finish what hitler left for us"
"Isreal[sic] the Jewish Terrorist State of the zionist bankers. It keeps forcefully evicting people from their homes and lands and expects there to be no retaliation? Then they accuse the aggressors to be the palestinian people? wake up up humans! This dirty jew rat bastard in new york is feeding you propeganda [sic] that he gets paid huge money to talk about. This is war crimes being excused because they are dirty JEWS. I will meet you in hell jew cocksucker"
Those are two intemperate comments left by obvious antisemites beneath the following video on YouTube in which Senator Charles (Chuck) Schumer (Democrat, New York), in an able and fair speech, talks of
“The dangerous notion is that there’s a moral equivalence between the actions of Hamas, and those of the State of Israel. It must be said, there’s no moral equivalence between the actions, and reactions, of Israel, and Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to the violence that has occurred there.”
The current "Operation Protective Edge" waged by Israel against Hamas in Gaza has of course garnered a predictable outbreak of outrage against the Jewish State, forcefully expressed, though of course not invariably in nakedly antisemitic terms, by the usual suspects.
Biased and/or inept reportage, which harps on the "asymmetrical" nature of the conflict and presents it as a "tit-for-tat" exercise, helps, unwittingly or not, to stir prejudice against Israel among the general public (the BBC, to its utter shame, has excelled at this; see here and here): after all, who can remain unmoved by the spectacle of suffering civilians and dead and injured children?
In the shrewd words of one pro-Israel commenter responding to criticism of Israel's current response to Hamas terror:
'Imagine this ...: A group of your neighbors have repeatedly and
consistently declared their intent to murder you and your entire family
(See the Hamas Charter, especially Article 7, for a sample of what they
say).
They regularly fire home-made rockets at your house. You build a
shelter. The continue firing, threatening all the while to drink your blood and elevating their hatred of you to a religious principle. They teach their kids that
killing you is a sacred duty. They build luxury hotels for their
leadership but no shelters for their children. Instead, turn their
places of worship and schools and hospitals into arms depots and launch
rockets from them. When you retreat they use the place you left as
another launching pad.
They encourage their women, elderly and children
to be human shields for anyone trying to murder you and boast that they love death more than you love life. Then they import much more
sophisticated rockets from other people who regulalrly boast that they
want you murdered and launch hundreds of those rockets at you and your
family from within civilian areas (and accuse you of committing
"aggression " and "war crimes" when you start to defend yourself) A
disproportionate casualty count is completely misleading in a situation
when one side wants only death for you - is willing to commit suicide to
see you dead - and consistently encourages their children to be killed in the attempt to murder you.
Now do you see the situation more clearly? ... The Israelis are not bombing indiscriminately. Unlike any other
army in this region - and indeed the world - they call the people living
in houses where arms tunnel entrances are located to warn them of an
impending strike. The IDF also sends SMS's and drops leaflets and fires
warning shots - Hamas tells people to ignore these warnings and
encourages them to expose themselves to danger.
If you had
neighbors so determined to murder you and your family - exploiting
pictures of those killed in the process in order to get others to hate
you, too. Now, for the hard question: How do you respond to this
scenario? Think carefully, knowing that the the your life and the lives
of all you hold dear are at stake. See the problem?'
'Why ... did Hamas just provoke a war with Israel? Out of nowhere, on June 11 it began launching rockets, shattering a calm in place since November 2012.... The battlefield outcome of Arab-Israeli wars in last 40 years have been predictable; everyone knows Israeli forces will prevail. It's more like cops and robbers than warfare. Ironically, this lopsidedness turns attention from winning and losing to morality and politics. Israel's enemies provoke it to kill civilians, whose deaths bring them multiple benefits.
The four conflicts since 2006 have restored Hamas' tarnished reputation for "resistance," built solidarity on the home front, stirred dissent among both Arabs and Jews in Israel, galvanized Palestinians and other Muslims to become suicide bombers, embarrassed non-Islamist Arab leaders, secured new United Nations resolutions bashing Israel, inspired Europeans to impose harsher sanctions on Israel, opened the international Left's spigot of vitriol against the Jewish state, and won additional aid from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The holy grail of political warfare is to win the sympathy of the global Left by presenting oneself as underdog and victim....
The tactics of this new warfare include presenting a convincingly emotional narrative, citing endorsements of famous personalities, appealing to the conscience, and drawing simple but powerful political cartoons (Israeli supporters tend to excel at this, both in the past and now). Palestinians get even more creative, developing the twin fraudulent techniques of "fauxtography" for still pictures and "Pallywood" for videos. Israelis used to be complacent about the need for what they call hasbara, or getting the message out, but recent years find them more focused on this.'
And those in the media and elsewhere who present Hamas's rocketry as of the homemade, pipsqueak kind are economical with the truth. The Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, pointed out last Wednesday that about three-quarters of the Israeli population are now within striking range of Hamas's rockets, thanks largely to shipments, since 2012, of long-range rockets from Iran.
"You
remember that ship that we interdicted a few months ago in the Red Sea
was carrying 40 long range rockets. Well, one of those types
of rockets was actually fired yesterday into Israel. But
in addition to the rockets being smuggled in—and the smuggling route
went from Iran to Sudan and up through the Sinai into Gaza—in addition
to that, Hamas has developed a domestic manufacturing capability for
these long range rockets and part of Israel’s military operation is to
not only go after the missile batteries but to go after these factories
that are essentially making these weapons."
"In addition to Hamas, the
Iranian-funded Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has been firing many
rockets into Tel Aviv and southern cities such as Be’er Sheva.
PIJ, which acts at Iran’s behest, is in possession of multiple Iranian-made rockets, including the Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 missiles...."
and that
"If the fighting with Israel escalates,
the organizations are likely to launch more of these missiles toward the
Greater Tel Aviv area and northern cities (Hadera, Haifa), believing
that to put an end to Israeli attacks, they will need to ramp up the
pressure on Israel with strikes on major cities to create a balance of
terror that will force Israel to end its
operation."
To quote analyst Jonathan Spyer, author of The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict:
"....There is a tendency to see the Israeli-Palestinian arena as somehow set apart from the rest of the Mid-East neighborhood. But this is an illusion.
Firstly, in the most tangible way, the most potent elements of the Hamas assault on Israeli cities of recent days is made possible only by the movement's link with Iran....
Similarly, the Islamic Jihad movement, which has been rapidly gaining strength at Hamas's expense in Gaza in recent months, is a full proxy of Iran.
But in a deeper sense, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad are local manifestations of the particular, pathological Islamist political-religious-paramilitary style and ideology which has challenged order and made life a misery all across the region in recent decades, and with added strength in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring of 2011.
Take a look around the neighborhood. In Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, rival, equally implacable versions of political Islam are at each others' throats. In Syria, upwards of 160,000 people have died over the course of the last four years. In Lebanon, a Shia Islamist terror group, Hizballah, enjoys unrivalled dominance. In Iraq, a Sunni Islamist killing machine has conquered the west of the country and is poised to assault Baghdad.
So why then have Israel and its environs nevertheless managed to avoid the general collapse of these other countries? The reason is deterrence.
There is a single, dominant military element west of the Jordan River. This element is the Israel Defense Forces.
But deterrence, alas, is a perishable substance, which must be periodically replenished. Hamas, facing difficult economic straits, with its tunnels sealed by Sisi's armed forces, with newer and yet more radical Islamist elements inspired by ISIS emerging from within, evidently decided that it was time for another round.
As of now, Israel is engaging in a far reaching operation designed to hit at Hamas' capabilities. But more profoundly, in the simple and brutal logic of the neighborhood, Israel is trying to remind Hamas of the cost of tangling with the Jewish state.
The objective of this is not to re-conquer Gaza, nor to impact on local politics, still less to impose suffering on the Palestinians for its own sake.
When one's neighbors are Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the modest objective of quiet can only be bought at the cost of periodic military actions intended to remind the enemy of the cost of aggression and thus reinforce deterrence.
Because of the strength of Israeli arms, the conflict between Israel and the PA territories don't resemble those roiling Iraq or Syria. The relative balance of forces, however, is a lesson which those who wish to turn the country into something resembling those hell-holes must periodically re-learn - through bitter experience."
Daphne notes: In common with numerous pro-Israel bloggers, I have had no hesitation in signing the open condemnation of the ghastly murder and evil killers of young Mohammed Abu Khdeir, which appears on the Elder of Ziyon website. As Elder writes: "I invite any blogger, columnist or pundit to sign on to this letter in the comments section (please include the URL of your blog/column) so I can add to the signature list. Bloggers are also encouraged to reproduce this letter on their own blogs."
***
And now, titled "Palestine – PLO And Hamas Threaten Split Over Islamic State", here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.
Writes David Singer:
The declaration of the Islamic State on the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan threatens once again to embroil the recently reconciled PLO and Hamas in renewed and violent confrontation after just ending their seven-year internecine feud – destroying any hope of ever achieving a Palestinian Arab State between Jordan and Israel.
The Islamic State is a self styled Caliphate – a system of rule that ended in 1924 after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
The statement declaring its establishment reads:
“Here the flag of the Islamic State … rises and flutters. Its shade covers land from Aleppo [Syria] and Diyala [Iraq]. The infidels are disgraced. The Sunnis are masters and are esteemed. The people of heresy are humiliated. The Sharia penalties are implemented, all of them. The front lines are defended, crosses and graves demolished. Governors and judges have been appointed, a tax has been enforced and courts will resolve disputes and complaints.”
The Islamic State already controls large swathes of northern Iraq after a sustained assault which began with the overthrow of Iraqi control of the country’s second largest city of Mosul, near the Syrian border, on June 9.
Over the last two years it has established a strong presence in parts of Syria, controlling key oil fields in eastern Syria in the area bordering Iraq, levying taxes and other penalties and implementing strict Sharia law on besieged communities.
At its head as Caliph – the self-proclaimed successor to the Prophet Mohammed – is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose spokesman has made his intentions clear:
“The time has come for those generations that were drowning in oceans of disgrace, being nursed on the milk of humiliation, and being ruled by the vilest of all people, after their long slumber in the darkness of neglect — the time has come for them to rise”
Will Hamas rise and throw its weight behind this new Caliph – given the following provisions of Article 11 of the Hamas Charter:
"... Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection. Who can presume to speak for all Islamic Generations to the Day of Resurrection? This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. This [norm] has prevailed since the commanders of the Muslim armies completed the conquest of Syria and Iraq, and they asked the Caliph of Muslims, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, for his view of the conquered land, whether it should be partitioned between the troops or left in the possession of its population, or otherwise. Following discussions and consultations between the Caliph of Islam, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, and the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, be peace and prayer upon him, they decided that the land should remain in the hands of its owners to benefit from it and from its wealth; but the control of the land and the land itself ought to be endowed as a Waqf [in perpetuity] for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. The ownership of the land by its owners is only one of usufruct, and this Waqf will endure as long as Heaven and earth last. Any demarche in violation of this law of Islam, with regard to Palestine, is baseless and reflects on its perpetrators."
Hamas has reserved the right to resist the temptation to blindly pledge its allegiance to this newly declared Caliph and the Islamic State under article 23 of the Hamas Charter:
"The Hamas views the other Islamic movements with respect and appreciation. Even when it differs from them in one aspect or another or on one concept or another, it agrees with them in other aspects and concepts. It reads those movements as included in the framework of striving [for the sake of Allah], as long as they hold sound intentions and abide by their devotion to Allah, and as along as their conduct remains within the perimeter of the Islamic circle."
The PLO also needs to reassess its recently established symbiotic relationship with Hamas given that there appears to be far more common ground in the stated aims and objectives of Hamas and the Islamic State than exists between Hamas and the PLO.
This view is reinforced by Article 27 of the Hamas Charter:
"Under the influence of the circumstances which surrounded the founding of the PLO, and the ideological invasion which has swept the Arab world since the rout of the Crusades, and which has been reinforced by Orientalism and the Christian Mission, the PLO has adopted the idea of a Secular State, and so we think of it. Secular thought is diametrically opposed to religious thought. Thought is the basis for positions, for modes of conduct and for resolutions. Therefore, in spite of our appreciation for the PLO and its possible transformation in the future, and despite the fact that we do not denigrate its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, we cannot substitute it for the Islamic nature of Palestine by adopting secular thought."
Hamas and the PLO have always been perfectly up front and transparent in their declared aims and objectives. The problem has always been the inability of the West to believe them.
Last week, CiF Watch's Adam Levick produced a magnificent piece entitled "Jewish reaction to antisemitism in the Arab world: no riots, no injuries, no deaths" replete with pictorial examples of the antisemitism that bedevils the Muslim world. CiF Watch subsequently cross-posted a compellingly informative article from Palestinian Media Watch regarding the routine demonisation of Jews ("depicted as beasts, evil, satanic") in the media of the Palestinian Authority.
In this, the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, the focus is on antisemitism among Palestinian Arabs, and why it's an impediment to a true and lasting peace with Israel. The article is entitled "Palestine: End The Jew Hatred, End The Conflict".
Writes David Singer:
'The universal international condemnation of the anti-Islamic film "Innocence of Muslims" – whilst defending at the same time the freedom of individuals to express those abhorrent views – has come in response to the anger and violence that has broken out in many Moslem populations around the world and cost the lives of the American Ambassador to Libya – J. Christopher Stevens – and three other members at the Embassy in Benghazi on September 11.
Such reactions need to be compared with the continuing failure to condemn, repudiate, and disassociate from the official policies of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas when it comes to extreme vilification and denigration of Jews.
These vile statements do not emanate from individuals – but from organizations that seek to assume leadership roles in any future Palestinian Arab State.
The original PLO Charter in 1964 - contained the following provisions in Articles 7 and 18:
"Jews of Palestinian origin are considered Palestinians if they are willing to live peacefully and loyally in Palestine"
"The claims of historic and spiritual ties, ties between Jews and Palestine are not in agreement with the facts of history or with the true basis of sound statehood. Judaism because it is a divine religion is not a nationality with independent existence. Furthermore the Jews are not one people with an independent personality because they are citizens of the countries to which they belong."
In 1968 these statements were revised and the following provisions appeared as part of Articles 6 and 20 in the newly adopted PLO Charter:
"The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians"
"Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong."
In 1974 the PLO was appointed as the sole spokesman for the Palestinian Arabs, and its leader,Yasser Arafat, was welcomed to the United Nations with an olive branch in one hand and a gun in the other.
Since then the PLO has progressed its above-declared racist policy of recovering every square meter of former Palestine and denying all Jews any right to Palestinian nationality in any part of former Palestine. It refuses to acknowledge Israel as the national home of the Jewish people.
The PLO is perfectly entitled to maintain and propagate its vile and racist program – but the civilized world should show its repugnance and rejection of such policy – and its refusal to recognize or endorse such a hate-filled program.
The President of the United States should refuse to welcome PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas to the White House or maintain any diplomatic discourse with the head of such an Organization. Let President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton issue such a declaration.
Other countries that have come out so strongly against "Innocence of Muslims" should be equally as responsive in rejecting the retention of these racist provisions in the constitution of an Organization they deal with. Financial assistance – now running into billions of dollars – should be discontinued until these provisions are removed.
Should Islam, being a religion – indeed a divine religion – be treated by the world in the same way Islam seeks to denigrate the Jews? Should the 56 Islamic member states forming the Organization of Islamic Co-Operation be denied any national identity or national recognition as Islamic states? Clearly not.
At the same time, Jews need to be treated differently by these Islamic states, which – with the exception of Egypt and Jordan – still have not recognized Israel after 64 years of concerted and ongoing efforts to deny the Jews a state in their biblical and ancestral homeland since Israel was established in 1948.
The 1988 Hamas Charter is equally as virulent in its steadfast opposition to Jews, Jewish statehood and Christianity – declaring in Article 13 (among many offensive provisions):
"Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitrators. When did the infidels do justice to the believers?
"But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah." (The Cow - verse 120).
There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:
"The people of Syria are Allah's lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation."
Hamas has been banned as a terrorist organization in many countries around the world.
That is not enough.
It should be similarly banned from any form of contact or receive financial assistance of any sort whatsoever whilst it retains such inflammatory and offensive statements in its Charter.
Those who meet with its officials and representatives should be condemned for engaging in and giving encouragement to such Jew-hating and Christianity-hating incitement.
Those who have voted such an organization into power and do nothing to seek a change in its Charter or to overthrow it must bear the consequences of their decisions.
Jew-hatred – more than anything else – has been the driver in ending the 130-years-old conflict between Jews and Arabs. It did not begin in 1967.
Until it is stamped out and removed from the official policies of those representing the Palestinian Arabs - no real resolution of the conflict between Jews and Arabs can ever occur.
In a hot-off-the-press scathing denunciation of Ehud Olmert's intention to be the keynote speaker at J Street's Gala Dinner later this month, that prophet for our time, Isi Leibler, reminds us of J Street's shameful and unconscionable record:
'....in the midst of the Gaza conflict - orchestrated by Olmert – when all sections of the Israeli political spectrum,including the far leftwing Meretz,were united in support of the war, J Street refused to back Israel. Applying moral equivalence to Israel and Hamas it claimed “that there are many who recognize elements of truth on both sides of this gaping divide” and reproached Israel for launching “a disproportionate response”. J Street stated that “we recognize that neither Israelis nor Palestinians have monopoly of right and wrong” and accused the Israelis of “lacking sanity and moderation” in their attitude towards Hamas.
Only last week as hundreds of missiles were being launched against Israeli civilians, J Street, again applying moral equivalence, expressed “concern” on attacks on Israel and IDF “airstrikes on Gaza that killed over a dozen Palestinian civilians”. They were subsequently obliged to retract and apologize as all but two of those killed were terrorists.
For Olmert to be so desperate as to appear before such a discredited body which had even maligned him, reflects his pathetic desperation for a platform in order to fabricate a contrived historical legacy. One would feel sorry for him were it not for the anti-Israeli propaganda that, as a former prime minister, he provides to our adversaries.'
Here's a man who knows a thing or two: Dr Mordechai Kedar, an Arabic specialist at Bar-Ilan University who for 25 years served with IDF Military Intelligence. (He became something of a cult figure with a memorable, belligerent appearance on Al-Jazeera concerning Jerusalem; the clip is shown in the video below, in which Dr Kedar amplifies his views.)
Now, in a most incisive article, he explains how, appearances to the contrary, Hamas is as dedicated to Israel's ultimate destruction as ever it was:
'Ever since the Hamas movement took control of Gaza trip in 2007, it has transformed itself from a gang of jihadists into a ruling organization which has a state, government, advisory council, legal system, police, military and economic bodies. Thus, Hamas has turned into a standard Arab state, which is attempting to impose its agenda upon the tribes and the clans that live in the Strip. The State of Hamas serves the interests of the group that leads it, and therefore it is in constant conflict with the tribes and the clans and must reach agreements with them.
The minor movements – Islamic Jihad, the PRC (Popular Resistance Committees), the Salah-a-Din Division, the Army of the Nation, the Army of Islam and others – function like tribes, challenging the authority of the state, which is in the hands of Hamas. Today, these groups are doing to Hamas what Hamas did to the PLO twenty years ago when the PLO was in power. The widespread corruption among the top echelons of Hamas strengthen the influence of the small organizations that oppose Hamas. What encourages these organizations is the fact that Hamas has “hung up the gloves” and is trying to reach a calm with Israel. Hamas has not become a Zionist organization, and has not changed its covenant or its sole goal: to eliminate Israel and bring an end to the “occupation” of Jaffa and Acre, not only Hebron and Nablus. However, in the present historic phase it is suspending its battle against Israel in order to establish a state which, when the time comes, will be the basis from which the war of the destruction of Israel will be waged. The small organizations do not accept this suspension of jihad and call Hamas derogatory names such as “The Israeli Border Guard” and the “South Lebanese Army”.
From a practical point of view, Hamas is capable of eliminating the organizations, just as it dealt with the Army of Islam, of the Dughmush clan in August of 2008, and as it eliminated Sheikh Abd Al-Latif Moussa’s Islamic Emirate of Jerusalem in cold blood in August of 2009 in a mosque in Rafah, murdering him, his wives and children and 24 followers. As of today, in the year 2012, Hamas refrains from imposing itself on the small organizations by force of arms so that it will not become the “Israeli Border Guard”in the eyes of Gazans, and prefers to come to an agreement with them; to compromise with them and to calm them down.'
"It's a dream," she smiles. "But I am not optimistic."
So concludes a typically snide let's-have-another-bash-at-Israel article by the BBC's Jon Donnison, reporting on restrictings placed on Palestinians' freedom of movement between Gaza and the West Bank ever since the Second Intifada.
It was the reply of a Gaza woman whose degree in Gender Studies at Birzeit University has been put on hold owing to the Israeli restrictions. Writes Donnison:
"I ask her if one day she can imagine going to do her shopping in the West Bank in the morning, before attending her classes in the afternoon and then heading home to Gaza in the evening for dinner with her family."
"It's a dream," she smiles. "But I am not optimistic."
Al Beeb's practice is to tell us in a sort of grudging aside that Hamas is considered by Israel to be a terrorist organisation (in the same way as the formulaic phrases "Israel says" or "Israel disputes this" turn up near the end of reports that almost invariably present the Palestinian position first), but they have never, so far as I'm aware, told us exactly and at length what is in the Hamas Charter to make Israel so justifiably fearful. Indeed, I seem recall that Jeremy Bowen, during Cast Lead, omitting the bits of a cleric's rantings that reflected genocidal intent towards Jewish (not just Israeli) children...
Donnison's latest article, entitled "Hamas denies it will attack Israel in any war with Iran," is a case in point:
"Although both Hamas and Iran are hostile towards Israel, which regards the Palestinian group as a terrorist organisation, Hamas supporters are Sunni Muslims while Iran has Shia Muslim majority.
This makes it much closer to Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist movement which operates in southern Lebanon. [My emphasis]"
No explanation as to why.
Today on the website there's an admission of sorts that the Hamas Charter is antisemitic, but you have to read Al Beeb's rather snotty feature on Freemasonry to find it:
"The charter of Hamas - the Islamist party governing Gaza - states that the Freemasons are in league with the Jews and the Rotary Club to undermine Palestine"
Of course, the admission is not there to highlight judeophobia, but to inform a point the freelancer (note, freelancer, not one of the Bowen gang) who wrote it is making about attitudes to Freemasons.
So, when will Al Beeb give the bare facts about the antisemitic and genocidal nature of the Hamas Charter on its Middle East pages, so that readers have the full background of what valiant Israel is up against?
"It's a dream," she frowns. "But I am not optimistic."
Here's our old friend, London-based Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, and long one of left-liberal Al Beeb's very favourite studio pundits as well as a pin-up boy of the like-minded Guardian (he was recently claimed by Gaddafi's Libyan foes to have been on the colonel's payroll, incidentally), telling an Arabic network what Arafat said about Jews:
And here he is spilling the beans on what Arafat really thought of the Oslo Accords:
Eye-opening stuff, huh?
Here's Dr Atwan again, back in 2007, saying something very spiteful indeed about Israel. Judging from the number of times he's appeared on Al Beeb since then, the outburst apparently served to make the Beeboids (as the much-to-be-recommended Biased BBC website terms them) revere him all the more (I believe they've kept rather shtum about that Gaddafi payroll allegation):
Here's a par-for-the-course statement from Hamas about Israel and its sympathisers as well as about Jews and Christians in particular:
Of course, Al Beeb, which never publicises the genocidal document that is the Hamas Charter, is always very careful not to reveal such tidbits that serve to blunt the Bowen arrows it shoots in Israel's direction.
I refer you to the pictorial examples of Palestinian antisemitism here, where the very pertinent observation is made:
'The Palestinian cause is increasingly supported by western "progressives" who also claim to be champions for tolerance, pluralism, and minority rights [yet] have been too willing to ignore the basic and unfortunate fact that racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism are widespread and accepted in Palestinian society.'
And as Benjamin Weinthal observes in amasterly commentary on the excrescence that is Durban 111, no less than 18 of the 27 European Union states - representatives, for the most part, of the Western liberal tradition - have betrayed Western value by attending that forum despite its deep taint of antisemitism.
Brought to you courtesy of Al Beeb, from its Glasgow studio. Participants Sam Westrop, Raymond Mann, Peter Hitchens and Professor Denis MacEoin get it right.
This is Hamas MP Yunis al Astal on Hamas Al Aqsa TV last week explaining in language reminiscent of Hitler that the ingathering of the "Zionists" to Palestine is part of a divine plan, to give Arabs the "honour"of exterminating their "evil".
It all fits in with that genocidal Hamas Charter, the warrant for genocide that the BBC never publicises.
He also predicts that Palestine will be the capital of the new Caliphate when Israel is no more and the region becomes "the United States of Islam".
Meanwhile, a repeat of the "Nakba Day" incursions across Israel's borders on 15 May (see video below) is in the works.
Again, it's being planned on Facebook.
The site whose logo I reproduce seems to be the pivotal one. It's called "Third Palestine Intifada".
It urges Arabs to rush Israel's borders after Friday prayers on 20 May...
Part of the London crowd; photo from Richard Millett's Blog
At yesterday's angry demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in London (see my previous post for a nine-minute video), where Hezbollah flags were waved by many in the mob, a certain genocidal chant rang out.
To quote Tom Friedmann, who has a most evocative description of the demonstration that deserves to be read in full:
"Over at the [simultaneous] Israeli demonstration Jewish teenagers waved Israeli flags, sang traditional Jewish songs and joined in chants declaring their will to peace. If they could have been described as provocative at all it was when they chanted ‘We love life, you love death’ yet undeniably quite accurately reflecting the statements of countless Islamist clerics on the subject. Nor could the Palestinian side really attempt to claim that they were not championing the Islamist cause; several Hezbollah flags could clearly be seen among their crowed. And while the Israeli demonstrators made their calls for peace and that Gaza be freed from Hamas the Palestinian groupdecidedtogoforarendition of ‘Khyber al-Yahud’ which calls on Jews to remember how they were slaughtered by Mohammad and his men at Khyber in 7th century Arabia. [My emphasis] Indeed much of the chanting was in Arabic as most of the crowed appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin, many in traditional Islamic dress. The odd Quaker/Anarchist that had ill-advisedly come along nervously struggled to join in with the Arabic, but for the most part Middle England had stayed away this time. There was of course Lauren Booth who seemed to have come in fancy dress; sporting an amusingly dysfunctional combination of designer sunglasses, a pink jacket and a keffiyeh for a hijab, but then she can hardly be said to count." See: http://tomfriedmann.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/two-very-different-demonstrations-at-the-israeli-embassy/ and also http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/naqba-day-extremists-spew-hate-outside-israeli-embassy/
No doubt the genocidal chant pierced the air at similar "Nakba Day" rallies in other cities round the world.
Binyamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, in assuring his compatriots that "we are determined to protect our borders and our sovereignty" from "Nakba Day" incursions by Arab trouble makers, added:
"The leaders of these violent demonstrations have personally stated that their struggle is not over the '67 lines, but rather to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel, which they define as a disaster which must be corrected."
This fact - that the issue is not one of borders but of Israel's very existence - is powerfully expressed by Egyptian-born expert in Islamic radicalism Dr Tawfik Hamid, of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia.
A former Islamic extremist who once belonged to the same terrorist organization as Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Dr Ayman al-Zawahir, he has a message for American diplomats that deserves to be heard and heeded by all who place the onus for peace upon the Jewish State:
"Approaching the Arab-Israeli conflict from the perspective that it is about land, so that giving more land to the Palestinians will solve the problem, is a failed endeavor.
Israel has already given Egypt the whole of the Sinai, and got nothing in return except a cold peace and rising anti-Semitism in the country. Similarly the disengagement from Gaza did not magically lead to a decline in the wave of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.
Pro-Palestinian Muslim demonstrators across the world repeatedly use the chant “Khyber Khyber Ya Yahood... Gaish Muhammad Sawfa Yaood,” which reminds the Jews that the army of Muhammad is coming back for a repeat of what was done to the Jewish Khyber tribe.
According to authentic Islamic history books, the Islamic army, led by Muhammad, annihilated the Jewish tribe of Khyber, raping its women and killing all its men.
Such barbaric statements against the Jews have been used by many in the Muslim world, and even inside the US and Europe. Sadly the chant was also used on Friday by thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
The Hamas charter also calls for the destruction of Israel. This violent principle has its roots in the traditional Islamic teaching, based on Hadith books, that encourages the killing of all Jews before the end of days.
.... [T]he problem in the eyes of the Palestinians and their supporters is not the borders of Israel but the very existence of the country, all future missions will similarly fail. Solving the Arab-Israeli conflict must be done initially at the theological rather than the political level, as the former is impeding the latter. [My emphasis]
It is unfair to ask Israel to trust those who shamefully advocate the killing of Jews, and claim that Islamic annihilation of the Jews by an Islamic army is a model that must be emulated today. [My emphasis]
The problem is not only in the existence of violent teachings in historical Islamic texts, but also in the dangerous desire of many Islamists and violent Islamic scholars to revive such violence in modern times....
The problem is that this disastrous anti-Semitic religious dimension is not limited to verses in books, but is also propagated by a powerful media machine that utilizes vicious, Nazi-style propaganda across the Muslim world. Publishing dehumanizing cartoons in the mainstream media, and blaming Jews for nearly every problem in the world has become much too common in the leading Arab media over the past few decades.
It is virtually impossible to promote any form of peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict without reducing such levels of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.
Until future envoys to the Middle East understand the religious dimension of the problem, and that the Arab- Israeli conflict is not about borders but about the existence of the state of Israel, all future attempts to make peace in the area will fail. [My emphasis] See: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=220694
And for a truly repellent Israel-delegitimising piece by Jody McIntyre in The Independent newspaper today that says, inter alia:
"I often wonder how I am expected to recognise the legitimacy of a state that does not recognise its own borders. I often wonder how I can recognise a state that has invaded and occupied every country it shares a border with. How can I recognise a country that refuses to recognise the right of return, as enshrined in international law, of the Palestinian refugees? Yesterday, those refugees proved that they will never allow that right to be forgotten. Despite the combined efforts of Israel, the US, and the Palestinian Authority, they will never forget the homes that they left in 1948."
BBC News 24 anchor Clive Myrie is a lawyer by training, and, pleasant though he seems, his interviewing style tends to be adversarial. So I did not bristle unduly when, in Wednesday evening's 9'oclock bulletin he appeared somewhat hectoring when interviewing Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev on the new-found friendship between Fatah and Hamas.
Nevertheless, Myrie interrupted a tad too readily and sounded distinctly too emotively involved in his argument when in strident, passionate tones he suggested to Regev that Israel should cease to "follow old nostrums" and take Hamas to its bosom now that Fatah has accepted Hamas "as a partner for peace".
Determined to stand his ground, the stolid Regev managed to state that Israel does seek peace and is willing to negotiate but that Hamas is an authoritarian oppressive organisation that wants Israel destroyed, that advocates the killing not only of Israelis but of Jews worldwide, that tramples human rights in Gaza, including those of women and gays, and is hardly trustworthy as a negotiating partner.
But , as usual,what was lacking was any background to the interview that laid out firmly for the viewer the terrorist nature of Hamas and the antisemitic, murderous terms of its Charter. It's conceivable that Myrie himself is unware of this, because it's not something on which Al Beeb has ever reported. And until it states the nature of the Hamas Charter explicitly, especially on its website, the most watched news website in the world, Al Beeb is committing a sin of omission, misleading the public, and doing Israel's case an outrageous disservice.
That's the same Al Beeb, of course, which is presently on the defensive over Wikileaks information which appears to show that certain pro-Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay were found to be in possession of the telephone number of Bush House, headquarters of the BBC World Service, leading to speculation that someone at Al Beeb is rather partial to Al Qaeda: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/04/bbc_world_service_and_afghanistan.html
It would be too much to ask, of course, that Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen and his henchmen also educate themselves - and by extension viewers and listeners - regarding the devious nature of Fatah, and ventilate the entire question of whether the Arab-Israeli conflict really revolves around a fight for territory - or whether Arab rejectionism and Palestinian intransigence is in fact rooted in something that might in fact prove insoluble short of Israel's destruction.
As an article by Yonatan Silverman states:
'The PA's nationalistic hate promotion also includes Islamic messages. It seems to have adopted what was once thought to be only Hamas ideology, that the conflict with Israel is a Ribat – an uncomprising religious war....
The fact is the Palestinian national ethos is brazen malicious deceit and Jew-hatred. Their aim is not peace with Israel but Israel's resting in peace or Israel piece by piece.This is the reality, but the world’s governments have agreed en masse to vote for recognition of a Palestinian State in the UN in September.
Abbas’s appointed minister of religion, Mahmoud Habbash, has taught repeatedly that the conflict with Israel is not territorial but is in accordance with Islamic law: “Allah has preordained for us the Ribat on this blessed land. We are committed to it by Allah’s command. Let no one be mistaken or under the illusion that Ribat is a choice and nothing more. It is a commandment.”
He has also preached that the conflict against Israel – over all of Israel – is cited in the Koran: “The catastrophe, in truth, did not begin in 1948, but began perhaps in 1917 with the cursed [Balfour] Declaration, which gave a promise to those who did not deserve it... Since that date, resolute people, fighters and Ribat fighters have not ceased upon our blessed land... This conflict is explicit in the Koran and our obligation with regard to it is clarified by the Koran.”
In short, the PA, like Hamas, is telling its people that Islam does not allow for reconciliation with Israel.
Coincidentally, at the time that a socialist party in Norway's government exhibits its moral depravity by calling for Israel to be bombed if it defends itself against Hamas in Gaza (see http://tundratabloids.com/2011/03/norway-socialist-left-party-to-vote-on-motion-calling-for-bombing-israel-if-it-acts-against-hamas-in-gaza.html) Dr Harold Brackman has written for the Simon Wiesenthal Center a masterly, footnoted analysis of Hamas entitled "Hamas, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - No Partner for Peace". It opens with a number of handy bon-mots and battle cries from the Jew-hating death cult that is Hamas, and provides a clear insight into Hamas's antisemitic Charter. The similarities to Nazi propaganda are obvious, and there are clear links to the antisemitism spewed out by radical imams in Egypt and elsewhere in the Islamic world; of course, Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. I can think of no better or more comprehensive overview of Hamas.
Here are some of those bon-mots and battle cries:
“‘I will cast terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved, so strike
them over the necks, and smite all their fingers and toes. You have killed
them not, but Allah killed them’.”
“Truly, the destruction of the state of Israel is a Quranic inevitability.”
“The language of bullets and bombs is the only language that the Jews
understand.”
“We tell them [the Israelis]: in as much as you love life—the Muslims
love death and martyrdom.”
“Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas!”
“Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population,
defies Islam and the Muslims.”
“The Jews are a cancer that is spreading and is threatening the entire
Islamic world.”
“[Jews are] brothers of the apes, assassins of the prophets, bloodsuckers,
and war mongers. . . . Only Islam can break the Jews and destroy their
dream.”
“They [the Zionists’] established a state to protect the Jews from death
and murder. If death and murder chase them in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem,
Netanya . . . then they will say: I want to flee and go back to Europe and
America.”
“The Islamic Movement gives it condolences to the hero of the attack
[at Beit Lid in January 1995], which led to the killing of twenty pigs and
injuring of sixty monkeys.”
“The war is open until Israel ceases to exist and until the last Jew in the
world is eliminated.”
“You [America] will face the mirror of your history for a long time to
come. . . . [With the 9/11 attacks] Allah has answered our prayers.”
“We are in love with the color of blood.”
“Palestine is a green tree whose thirst can only be quenched with the blood of martyrs.”
“Our words remain dead until we die in their cause.”
“Hamas has won the election on the Israeli body county ticket.”
“When the blood of martyrs irrigates the land, roses appear.”
Belowis the text of a speech (2 February 2011) in the United States Senate by Senator Mark Kirk (Republican, Illinois). I recommend it to the BBC’s Jon Donnison, who in reporting the expressed fears regarding the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt by Dan Gillerson, a former Israeli envoy to the UN ("We are already facing Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the prospect of, God forbid, an autocratic, fundamentalist, Islamic organisation taking over in Egypt is obviously not something we can ignore") intruded the aside “Many analysts would disagree with his description, seeing the Brotherhood as a conservative, but more moderate, Islamic organisation.”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12338222
Just pimping his boss Jeremy Bowen’s mindset on the Brotherhood, is Jon – evidently a lad who knows the side on which his bread’s buttered, if nothing else.
Hamas, (pictured) is, of course, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and just as the BBC obfuscates the true nature of the Brotherhood, so Britain's licence-funded "national broadcaster" with its incorrigible anti-American, anti-Western, pro-Islam agenda does not explain on its website the genocidal antisemitic nature of Hamas as seen in the Hamas Charter. (I fear that only a campaign of mass civil disobedience - refusing to pay the TV licence fee and risk being carted off to goal will lead to a clear-out of the Augean Stable that is Al Beeb.)
Said Senator Kirk:
[W]ill Egypt follow Poland or Georgia to foster a new democratic government or will it follow Iran's revolution, converting Egypt into a state-sponsor of terror?
While US policy should support human rights and democracy, we face the risk that the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) could seize power. Who is part of the Brotherhood and what are its political objectives?
A detailed study shows why these questions should command the attention of the President and Congress. With so much at stake in the Middle East, Americans must be clear-eyed about the Muslim Brotherhood and its radical Islamic agenda with a pledge of jihad against the West and the State of Israel.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamist movement in the Middle East and is widely described as the most organized political force in Egypt.
Its membership is estimated at over 600,000.
Although it claims to be a “non-violent,” conservative organization, the Muslim Brotherhood has profoundly influenced Islamic terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
One of its disciples was the prominent Islamist theologian Sayyid Qutb, who provided the intellectual underpinnings of Al-Qaeda. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, was once a member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
As recently as 2004, the organization’s motto was as follows:
“Allah is our objective.
The Prophet is our leader.
Qur'an is our law.
Jihad is our way.
Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. Banna is famously quoted as saying that “it is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has a violent history. In 1946, the US Army issued an intelligence report, stating that the Muslim Brotherhood “maintains commando units and secret caches of arms.”
Throughout the 1940s, the paramilitary branch of the movement carried out targeted bombings and assassinations. In 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood was implicated in the murder of Egyptian prime minister Mahmoud Naqrashi. In 1954, the group allegedly tried to assassinate then-prime minister Gamal Abdul Nasser. The government banned the Brotherhood as a political party the same year.
The Muslim Brotherhood went underground only to resurface during the 1980s. It claimed to disavow violence and attempted to win political power as a religious and social organization. It was increasingly successful with allied candidates winning 17 seats in the parliament in 2000 and then a stunning 88 seats (or 20%) in 2005.
The Muslim Brotherhood is not a monolithic organization, but it does maintain a leadership structure and a core set of beliefs.
Its leader is called the “General Guide.” He has several “Deputy Guides.” Below them is the “Guidance Council” comprised of 15-16 senior leaders as well as a broader body (“The Shura”) comprised of roughly 100 members.
Mohammed Badi was elected the Eighth General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 2010. As noted by the U.S. Government’s Open Source Center, Badi is “influenced by the writings of famous MB ideologue Sayyid Qutb… [and is] known for his conservative views.”
In an interview on April 14, 2010, Mr. Badi said “we will continue to raise the banner of Jihad and the Koran in our confrontation with the enemy of Islam.” He went on to say, “The Muslim Brotherhood still considers the Zionists to be its main and only enemy. The Jews who occupy Palestine have their eyes set on Egypt.” [My emphasis]
Two days ago, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Ghannem, reportedly told the Al-Alam Iranian news network that he “would like to see the Egyptian peopleprepare for war against Israel” adding that the world should understand that “the Egyptian people are prepared for anything to get rid of this regime.” He went on to say that the Suez Canal should be “closed immediately,” and that the flow of gas from Egypt to Israel should cease “in order to bring about the downfall of the Mubarak regime.” [My emphasis]
In 2007, the Muslim Brotherhood released a political platform, which contained a number of indications on how this organization would govern Egypt if it came to power.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the platform “called for the establishment of a board of religious scholars with whom the president and the legislature would have to consult before passing laws.”
As noted by Mohamed Elmenshawy – the editor-in-chief of Taqrir Washington and Arab Insight: “Reminiscent of Iran's Guardian Council, this undemocratically selected body could have the power vested by the state to veto any and all legislation passed by the Egyptian parliament and approved by the president that is not compatible with Islamic Sharia law.”
The same document raises the important question of the Muslim Brotherhood’s commitment to a pluralistic society. Despite pledges to treat minorities and women as equals, the platform allows neither to hold high public office. As stated in the platform, “non-Muslims are excused from holding this mission.” For women, the post of the Presidency or Prime Minister would “contradict with her nature, social and other humanitarian roles.” The draft also cautions against “burdening women with duties against their nature or role in the family.”
[My emphasis]
Mr. President, the people of Egypt and apparently its army are mandating the fall of the Mubarak regime. While we support human rights and democracy, we must heed growing warnings about the Muslim Brotherhood, their leaders and plans for taking Egypt back to the 13th century.
We have seen this movie before – in Iran, in Lebanon and in Gaza. To prevent a strategic reversal on the scale of what happened in Iran, the United States and her allies should do all it can to support Egypt’s army and secular leaders, ensuring no future for the Muslim Brotherhood. An Egypt locked under Sharia law and oppressing women, Christians or Jews would be a catastrophic setback for progress in the Middle East. Such a state could renounce the Camp David peace accords or even start yet another war with Israel. [My emphasis]
Decisive action and influence now will benefit the national security and economy of the United States later. The defeat of the Muslim Brotherhood and victory for Egyptian secular nationalists will be the best way to avoid war and restore economic confidence to the Middle East and wider world.
