When Hell Freezes Over?

This British "Think Tank" advocates applying pressure on Israel to live up to some of the promises it has made to the Europeans. [With Tony Blair's chief fund-raiser, Lord Levy, under arrest for a second alleged crime, apparently the intellectuals feel it's safe to come out of the woodwork.]

QUOTE: In order to put pressure on Israel, Britain should push the EU to consider suspending its Association Agreement - a preferential trade pact with Israel - until there are improvements in those access arrangements, it said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/819620.html

Wed., January 31, 2007 Shvat 12, 5767 | | Israel Time: 17:59 (EST+7) Ha'aretz

Last update - 22:16 30/01/2007

U.K. study: Western boycott of Hamas pushing it closer to Iran

By Reuters

The West's isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government has served only to push it closer to Iran, a British parliamentary committee said on Wednesday.

Western countries opened an aid embargo against Hamas when it trounced the more moderate Fatah in an election last year, due to the Islamic group's refusal to recognize Israel, to recognize previously signed peace agreements and to renounce violence.

"Hamas now has closer links to governments like that of Iran than it had two years ago. We doubt whether this is a development that the international community would have intended," the committee concluded in a report on development assistance and the Palestinian Authority.

In order to put pressure on Israel, Britain should push the EU to consider suspending its Association Agreement - a preferential trade pact with Israel - until there are improvements in those access arrangements, it said.

Malcolm Bruce, chairman of the committee, said the international community had created a dangerous situation where Islamist Hamas has no accountability either to the people or to the Palestinian Authority.

"We're saying the situation is unsustainable and the government's refusal to talk to Hamas could be counter-productive," Bruce, a Liberal Democrat, said.

"The clear message is that if this goes on for much longer it will effectively collapse the Palestinian state."

The report also urged the international community to hold Israel to its promise of implementing an agreement with Palestinians, dating back to November 2005, to facilitate the movement of people and goods within the Palestinian territories.

The committee also concluded that the so-called Temporary International Mechanism - created to provide aid directly to the Palestinians while the boycott of Hamas continues - was not a suitable fix.

"The Temporary International Mechanism was a timely response to the crisis... but is insufficient to cope with it," the report concluded. "Increasing donor assistance is not the answer to the problems facing the Palestinians."

The European Union spent 680 million euros on aid to the Palestinians in 2006, of which 200 million went through the mechanism, according to Foreign Office figures. Britain channelled 70 million pounds through the TIM.

A Foreign Office spokesman declined to comment on the report.

Western countries have said they will maintain the boycott on Hamas unless it renounces violence, recognizes Israel's right to exist and agrees to abide by past peace agreements.

Bruce said it was not enough for Britain to hold its breath and hope for a breakthrough in the peace process.

"Over history we've spoken to terrorist organisations like the IRA. That kind of contact has to happen [with Hamas]," he said.

Iraq a Civil War? WORSE! A Religious War

It's bad enough to be caught in the middle of a civil war, but what's even worse -- a LOT worse -- is to be caught in the middle of a religious war, which might be developing in Iraq as a result of Bush's ill-considered debacle.

QUOTE: In a rare interview last week, King Abdullah attempted to calm Sunni worries over what some Sunnis have branded a Shiite threat and growing Iranian influence. He addressed rumors rampant in the mainly Sunni Arab world that Iran was backing efforts to convert Sunnis to Shiism. "We are following up on this matter and we are aware of the dimensions of spreading Shiism and where it has reached," Abdullah told the Kuwaiti Al-Siyassah daily. "The majority of Sunni Muslims will never change their faith."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467848097&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

12 Shvat 5767, Wednesday, January 31, 2007 5:17 IST Jerusalem Post

Jan. 30, 2007 16:07 | Updated Jan. 30, 2007 16:08

Saudi Arabia, Iran cooperating to try to ease Mideast crises

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

US ally Saudi Arabia and Iran are working together to try to calm the crises in Iraq and Lebanon, the Saudi foreign minister said Tuesday, despite Washington's efforts to isolate Teheran and stem its power in the Middle East.

The mediation is an unusual step by two rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran, that have been competing for influence in the region. Mainly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia has been increasingly vocal about its suspicions of mainly Shi'ite Iran's intentions.

US President George W. Bush has rejected calls that the United States reach out to Iran to win its help in easing Iraq's bloodshed and resolve the political crisis in Lebanon that erupted into violence last week. Instead, he has taken a confrontational approach, vowing to break what he called Iranian support for militants in both countries.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Tuesday that Iran had apprached his country to "cooperate in averting strife between Sunnis and Shi'ites in Iraq and Lebanon."

"Saudi Arabia wants only peace in the region," al-Faisal said. "Contacts are ongoing between Riyadh and Tehran."

A Saudi envoy is in Iran studying all the efforts being exerted to calm the situation and defuse the crises in Iraq and Lebanon" and "exploring what Iran can contribute," he said. "The initiative will not succeed unless it is followed by action on the ground."

The deputy leader of Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement visited Saudi Arabia in late December and met King Abdullah and al-Faisal. The next month, Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, also met with the Saudi monarch.

At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he had sent a message to Abdullah offering cooperation and that the Saudi response had been "positive."

The Shi'ite Muslim Hizbullah - which Iran is believed to support with money and weapons - has been waging a campaign of street protests for the past two months in an attempt to bring down the Western-backed government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. Last week, the protests erupted into clashes between supporters of the two sides that raised fears in Lebanon and across the Middle East that the country could explode into a sectarian civil war between its Shiites and Sunnis.

Saudi Arabia has close ties to Sunni politicians in the government's ruling coalition and has strongly backed Saniora.

Hizbullah has demanded the formation of a new national unity government that would give it and its allies more than a third of the Cabinet seats, enabling them to veto major decisions. Weeks of talks between the government and opposition have stalemated.

In Iraq, Iran is believed to back Shiite militias that have been blamed in killings of Sunni Arabs and it has close ties to Shi'ite parties that dominate the government. Saudi Arabia has strong tribal links to Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.

Saudi Arabia's willingness to work with Iran likely indicates the growing alarm in the kingdom's leadership over the two simultaneous crises, which have inflamed Sunni-Shiite tensions throughout the Middle East.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia has given tepid support to a new US strategy in Iraq but has expressed skepticism over whether it will succeed. Besides sending 21,000 additional US troops to Iraq, the new strategy takes a tougher stance on Iran.

In a rare interview last week, King Abdullah attempted to calm Sunni worries over what some Sunnis have branded a Shiite threat and growing Iranian influence. He addressed rumors rampant in the mainly Sunni Arab world that Iran was backing efforts to convert Sunnis to Shiism.

"We are following up on this matter and we are aware of the dimensions of spreading Shiism and where it has reached," Abdullah told the Kuwaiti Al-Siyassah daily. "The majority of Sunni Muslims will never change their faith."

Gay Marriage Recognized by Israel

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467842994&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

12 Shvat 5767, Wednesday, January 31, 2007 5:27 IST Jerusalem Post

Jan. 30, 2007 0:32 | Updated Jan. 30, 2007 4:21

Jerusalem registers its first gay couple

By RUTH EGLASH

Jerusalem officially registered its first homosexual couple as married Monday, three months after a ruling by the High Court of Justice paved the way for same-sex couples to be listed in the Interior Ministry's Population Registry.

Binyamin and Avi Rose married on June 28 in Toronto, Canada, but immediately returned to Jerusalem to start building their life together.

"We did the civil ceremony in the hopes that we would eventually be able to make legal what we felt inside," said Avi, an informal Jewish educator for the Young Judaea youth movement.

"We wanted the government of Israel to recognize that we are a couple. It was no more of a statement than [coming from] a 'regular' couple, but we are both committed Zionists and are hopeful that our union will bring more progress on this issue."

Binyamin, a social worker and therapist who is currently studying at a Conservative yeshiva in Jerusalem, said the registration process at the Interior Ministry had been fairly straightforward.

"Once we had all the right documentation, the process was pretty positive," said Binyamin, who made aliya from Britain in 2006. The clerks at the office "were a little confused by our application but they made the necessary changes to the forms and they came through beautifully for us."

"It was wonderful to get married at the city hall in Toronto, but it was far more important for the State of Israel to recognize us as a couple," said Avi, adding that his father, a rabbi in the US, facilitated a religious Jewish ceremony for the couple prior to the civil one.

He said Monday's registration sent a strong message to other gay couples that Israel recognizes and accepts them as Jews like anyone else.

"The protests last year over the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem really spooked us, and many of our friends here chose to leave the city," said Avi. "But we are very committed to building our lives in Jerusalem and the Interior Ministry provided us with a very positive experience today."

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabene Haddad confirmed that the Roses were the first same-sex couple to be registered at the ministry's Jerusalem branch.

"We work in accordance with the law," she said. "The ministry has no problem with registering same sex marriages and we have become very advanced in processing such requests elsewhere in the country."

In November, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) sponsored five High Court petitions by homosexual couples (not including the Roses) married abroad demanding that the Interior Ministry register them as married. A panel of seven justices, headed by now-retired Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, ruled unanimously that their marriages must be recognized by the state. None of the couples registered in Jerusalem.

Yoav Loeff, spokesman for ACRI, told The Jerusalem Post Sunday he was happy November's High Court decision had paved the way for other same sex couples to be recognized, but he said there was still a long way to go before the discrimination against such couples completely disappeared.

"There is still discrimination in Israel, and not everyone can afford or wants to go to Canada to get married," said Loeff. He said that while several other countries allowed such marriage ceremonies, Canada is a popular place for foreign couples to tie the knot because neither person is required to be a citizen.

Irit Rosenblum, director of the New Family organization, which advocates for the right of Israelis to establish marriages or unions outside of the traditional system, said the registration of a gay couple in the capital was especially significant following the violent debate over the gay pride parade.

"They deserve to live their lives like anyone else," she said. "This is more than a legal victory, it is a humanitarian victory and a message for society to be more tolerant."

SLIME: Joe McCarthy Alive in Israel

Note that the government of Israel is involved in these efforts to brand its critics as "anti-semites."

QUOTE: The forum, a partnership of the government of Israel,

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/819640.html

Tue., January 30, 2007 Shvat 11, 5767 | | Israel Time: 01:56 (EST+7) Ha'aretz

Mayor of Montreal mistakenly labeled anti-Semite

By Amiram Barkat

The Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism said yesterday that it had mistakenly identified Stephane Gendron as the mayor of Montreal.

Gendron is the mayor of Huntingdon, Quebec, and he described Israelis as "modern-day Nazis" in an interview published in the Quebec City daily Le Soleil on August 21, 2006.

The forum, a partnership of the government of Israel, the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization held a press conference on Monday to present data on anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial around the world.

During the press conference one of the spokesmen referred to the analogy made by Gendron, comparing Israelis to Nazis. The spokesman mistakenly identified Gendron as the mayor of Montreal.

In the data sheet in Hebrew, that was given to the reporters, it also stated that Gendron is the mayor of Montreal.

However, yesterday Haaretz clarified the error and the spokesman for the forum recognized that a mistake had been made.

The mistake, which also appeared in an article of the English edition of Haaretz, stirred a great deal of reaction in Canada for which Haaretz offers its sincere apologies.

Top Israeli Criticizes Holocaust "Paranoia"

QUOTE: We can't hold on obsessively to the mentality of being the victim, he continued, warning that "Israel is a captive of paranoia of the memory of the Holocaust."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3358679,00.html

Former FM says Israel a captive of Shoah memories

Shlomo Ben-Ami, speaking to Spanish Parliament in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day, says Israeli Jews must stop comparing current events to Shoah or current leaders to Hitler in order not to legitimize comparisons between Israel and the Nazis

Itamar Eichner

Published: 01.30.07, 09:49

It's time for Israeli Jews to leave behind the mentality of the victim and the ghetto, and stop making comparisons between Hitler and Arafat, Saddam Hussein or even Ahmadinejad, said former Foreign Minister Shlomi Ben-Ami in a speech to the Spanish Parliament Sunday.

Such comparisons are an obstacle to Israel's relationship with the international community and, even worse, "Give legitimacy to some Palestinian comparisons between Israel and the Nazis," he said.

In his speech, the keynote event in a Spanish ceremony in honor of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Ben-Ami also censured Europe and Spain's left-wing, whom he claimed lead a campaign of anti-Semitism, disguised as anti-Zionism.

In particular, he condemned Nobel prizewinner Jose Saramago, who referred to Jenin as "Auschwitz".

Nonetheless, he concluded his speech with criticism of Israel and Jews in general, saying "if the strongest nation in the Middle East refers to every war and every threat as a threat of Holocaust, we ourselves are making the Holocaust banal."

We can't hold on obsessively to the mentality of being the victim, he continued, warning that "Israel is a captive of paranoia of the memory of the Holocaust."

Ben-Ami's statements caused a storm in the small Jewish community in Spain, and among Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The head of Spain's Jewish community, Jacobo Israel, emphasized to the Spanish Parliament that Israel is under existential threat by the Iranian regime.

The Foreign Ministry said that Ben-Ami's statements were enraging, particularly when made abroad by an Israeli Jew, speaking in the capacity of a former foreign minister.

Ben-Ami defended himself to the Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper Monday, saying "I believe in explaining things in a balanced manner, which is the only thing that lends credence to our cries against others...We must not interpret current events as a Shoah."

"The ability to critique ourselves is sometimes the best advocacy...I'm sorry that narrow-minded people, instead of promoting Israeli interests, are weakening Israeli advocacy," he said

"Ninety-nine percent of my speech was a defense of Israel and a harsh criticism of the European left...I respect everyone's feelings but am sorry for those who don't see the statements within the proper context," he added

Lebanon: Panic Attack or Poison Gas?

Considering the Israeli Air Force's illegal flights over Lebanon, which sometimes come late at night and deliberately create Sonic Booms to disturb the sleep of the Lebanese and terrorize them, it's not surprising that they worry about a poison attack. Let's hope it's just a panic reaction to something harmless, which is a well-documented medical phenomenon, e.g., one schoolchild gets nauseous and the whole class is soon vomiting and hospitalized.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467841503&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Jan. 29, 2007 20:32 | Updated Jan. 30, 2007 11:46

Israeli balloons that drifted into Lebanon spark panic

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Balloons drifting from Israel into southern Lebanon sparked a panic among villagers over the weekend amid rumors they were filled with poison gas. The balloons were apparently part of an advertising campaign by a newspaper in northern Israel.

Results of tests conducted by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon showed the balloons did not contain any dangerous gases, a Lebanese security official said Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give statements to the media.

Haaretz reported Sunday that helium balloons from a promotional event by Ha'ir, a chain of local newspapers, had floated north over the border into Lebanon.

Still, their appearance spread alarm among Lebanese - a sign of the tensions and suspicion that remain in the border region after last summer's war between Israel and Hizbullah that devastated much of the south.

After the balloons were first discovered Saturday in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, the Lebanese army issued a statement warning residents not to touch them, pending an investigation. Pictures of the green, orange and black balloons were splashed across newspapers over the weekend and on Monday.

The state-run National News Agency and the Al-Manar TV channel of the Hizbullah guerrilla group claimed the balloons contained toxic gas and had been dropped by Israeli military aircraft, further stoking public fears.

At least five people were hospitalized in southern Lebanon complaining of nausea, dizziness and low blood pressure following contact with the balloons, Lebanese newspaper reports and hospital officials said.

Khalil Malli, a resident of Nabatiyeh, was the first to discover the balloons, finding a bunch tied together with ribbon in his backyard. He told Lebanese media that a "suspicious smell" emanated from them and when he spotted the Hebrew writing he alerted police and journalists in the area.

Not long after, Malli and other members of his family began feeling lightheaded and nauseous and were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Rana Jouni, a journalist in southern Lebanon, reported feeling the same symptoms after a visit to the Malli home during which she took pictures of the balloons. She reported the same suspicious smell.

"About a half an hour after taking the pictures I began feeling dizzy and out of breath. Soon I couldn't breathe and then I felt my arms become numb," she told The Associated Press Monday from her bed at the Najda al-Shaabiya hospital in Nabatiyeh where she was admitted Saturday.

Dr. Samer Suleiman, an intensive care doctor at the hospital, said that although Jouni and the other patients complained of symptoms that are consistent with exposure to toxic gases, blood and urine tests did not reveal exposure to such gases.

"We have no explanation for it," Suleiman said of the contradiction between the patients' symptoms and test results.

Reports that balloons with Hebrew letters had popped up around Lebanon continued Monday, with one TV station reporting that balloons had appeared in Beirut. The report could not be immediately confirmed.

Top Israeli: Israel Assassinated Arafat

It has long been suspected that Israel gave Yasser Arafat some sophisticated poison. Test results were inconclusive, and some reports have been kept from the public. Now we have this:

QUOTE: Recently we got a kind of confirmation. Just before he died, Uri Dan, who had been Ariel Sharon's loyal mouthpiece for almost 50 years, published a book in France. It includes a report of a conversation Sharon told him about, with President (George W.) Bush. Sharon asked for permission to kill Arafat and Bush gave it to him, with the proviso that it must be done undetectably. When Dan asked Sharon whether it had been carried out, Sharon answered: "It's better not to talk about that." Dan took this as confirmation.

From: "Gush Shalom" <otherisr@actcom.co.il>

Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 01:54:48 -0800

Uri Avnery

27/1/07

"If Arafat were Alive..."

Hebrew version at http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/he/channels/avnery/1169934666

"IF ARAFAT were alive..." one hears this phrase increasingly often in conversations with Palestinians, and also with Israelis and foreigners.

"If Arafat were alive, what's happening now in Gaza wouldn't be happening..." - "If Arafat were alive, we would have somebody to talk with..." - "If Arafat were alive, Islamic fundamentalism would not have won among the Palestinians and would have lost some force in the neighboring countries!"

In the meantime, the unanswered questions come up again: How did Yasser Arafat die? Was he murdered? If so, who murdered him?

On the way back from Arafat's funeral in 2004, I ran into Jamal Zahalka, a member of the Knesset. I asked him if he believed that Arafat was murdered. Zahalka, a doctor of pharmacology, answered "Yes!" without hesitation. That was my feeling, too. But a hunch is not proof. It is only a product of intuition, common sense and experience.

Recently we got a kind of confirmation. Just before he died, Uri Dan, who had been Ariel Sharon's loyal mouthpiece for almost 50 years, published a book in France. It includes a report of a conversation Sharon told him about, with President (George W.) Bush. Sharon asked for permission to kill Arafat and Bush gave it to him, with the proviso that it must be done undetectably. When Dan asked Sharon whether it had been carried out, Sharon answered: "It's better not to talk about that." Dan took this as confirmation.

The secret services of many countries have poisons that are all but undetectable. The Mossad tried to kill Khaled Mashal, the Hamas leader, in broad daylight on a main Amman thoroughfare. He was saved only when the Israeli government was compelled to provide the antidote to the poison it had used. Viktor Yushchenko, the president of the Ukraine, was poisoned and saved only when the specific suspicious symptoms were identified by experts in time. Recently, a former Russian spy, Aleksander Litvinenko, was murdered by lethal polonium-210. And how many cases have gone undetected?

Is there proof that Arafat was murdered by Israeli or other agents? No, there is none. This week I again ran into MK Zahalka, and both of us concluded that the suspicion is growing stronger, together with the conviction that Arafat's absence is felt now more than ever.

IF ARAFAT were alive, there would be a clear address for negotiations with the Palestinian people.

The claimed absence of such an address serves the Israeli government as the official pretext for its refusal to start peace negotiations. Every time Condoleezza Rice or another of Bush's parrots talks about the need to "restart the dialog" (don't mention "negotiations") for "the final status" or "the permanent settlement" (don't mention "peace"), that is the response of Tsipi Livni, Ehud Olmert & Co.

Dialog? With whom? No use to talk with Mahmoud Abbas, because he is unable to impose his will on the Palestinian people. He is no second Arafat. He has no power. And we couldn't possibly talk with the Hamas government, because it belongs to Bush's "axis of evil". So what do you want, Condi dear?

Tsipi Livni, Condi's new buddy, goes further: at the convocation of the billionaires' cabal in Davos she warned Abbas publicly not to strike a "compromise with terrorists". A timely warning. Desperate to create a credible Palestinian address, Abbas had just flown to Damascus to meet Mashal. Thus, by the way, he has admitted publicly that nothing can be done without the Hamas leader, who has become a kind of Palestinian super-president.

Livni recognized the danger at once and rushed to torpedo the mission. No dialog with a Palestinian unity government, much as there is no dialog with Abbas or Hamas. That Ok, Condi honey?

IF ONE wants to see real joy, one has only to look at the faces of Israeli correspondents who appear every evening on television to report on events in Lebanon.

What delight! The "Christians and Sunnis" attack Shiite students at the Arab University in Beirut and kill them! Any moment, a new civil war may break out! Look, a female Sunni student interviewed on television says that "Nasrallah is worse than Olmert!" Look at her again! And again! And again!

"When two quarrel, the third laughs," as the proverb goes. When an Arab hits an Arab - whether in Baghdad, Gaza or Beirut - the government of Israel and its commentators in the media are glowing. That has been a dominant theme in Israeli thought since the founding of the state, and even before: when Arabs are fighting each other, that is good for us.

In war, that makes sense. A split between your enemies is a gift to you. In World War I, the German general staff sent Lenin back to Russia in the famous sealed wagon, hoping to create a split between Russia and her British and French allies. In the 1948 war, we were saved because the armies of Egypt and Jordan were more interested in competing with each other than in fighting us. In the 80s, the Israeli army sent officers to North Iraq in order to help Mustafa Barzani to tear the Kurdish region away from Saddam's country.

That is a good strategy in war, which states have followed since the beginning of history. In this respect, Israel is no exception. The question is: is this also a good strategy when one wants to achieve peace?

IF - "IF" in capital letters - the government of Israel desired peace, it would adopt the opposite strategy.

In the 50s, when David Ben-Gurion did his utmost to promote splits between Egypt, Syria and Iraq, Nahum Goldman, the senior Zionist diplomat, opposed this. He argued that the many conflicts between Arab leaders were a danger to Israel, because every Arab leader tries to outdo his rivals in his hostility to Israel.

Nowadays that is more evident than ever. Bush and his henchmen and henchwomen are trying to set up a pro-American bloc consisting of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Abbas and Siniora. On the opposite side there is the "axis of evil" consisting of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas.

The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are paying lip service to the Palestinian cause, but are quite ready to sell it out in return for suitably lavish American aid. The Israeli government is honored to find itself in the company of the three eminent democrats - President Husni Mubarak and the two Kings Abdallah.

But is this good for Israel? It is good for the continuation of the war against the Palestinians, for annexation and the building of settlements. It is not good for the termination of the historic conflict with the Palestinians, the ending of the occupation and the laying down of arms.

There is no chance of making peace with Mahmoud Abbas, nor would it have any value, without the full support of Hamas. But even a Fatah-Hamas partnership would not be broad enough to ensure a peaceful future for Israel. It would need the support of the whole Arab world.

There lies the immense importance of the "Arab Peace Initiative", the Arab League proposal that was adopted by the 2002 Beirut summit conference. Only a united Palestinian leadership, which enjoys the backing of the entire Arab world, can carry out such a revolutionary historic undertaking. Not only should we not object to it, but we should in fact demand it.

The terms of the Arab initiative are the same as those already set out by Yasser Arafat in the 70s: a Palestinian state side by side with Israel, whose border is the Green Line and whose capital is East Jerusalem; the dismantling of the settlements; an "agreed upon" solution of the refugee problem. Unofficially Arafat agreed to swaps of territory that would enable some of the settlements located near the Green Line to remain in place. There is practically no Palestinian, and indeed no Arab, who would agree to less. It would leave the Palestinians a mere 22% of historic Palestine.

This can be achieved, provided the Palestinian people are united and the Arab world is united. That means the agreement of Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and also Iran, which is of course not Arab.

Therefore, if one wants peace, one will not rejoice in face of the bloodshed in Gaza and the Lebanon. We have nothing to laugh about when Arab hits Arab. Woe to such laughter.

And, of course, if Arafat were alive, everything would be much, much easier.

GUSH SHALOM p.o.b. 3322 Tel Aviv 61033

info@gush-shalom.org For information, write to

Massive Corruption Undermining Afghanistan

This story comes just as George Bush announced billions more money for Afghanistan.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/28/wafg28.xml

US military: Afghan leaders steal half of all aid

By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph

Last Updated: 3:04am GMT 28/01/2007

Corrupt police and tribal leaders are stealing vast quantities of reconstruction aid that is intended to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and turn them away from the Taliban, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

In some cases, all the aid earmarked for an area has ended up in the wrong hands. Defence officials in the United States and Britain estimate that up to half of all aid in Afghanistan is failing to reach the right people.

Nato forces in the south of the country say some Afghan police are guilty of corruption and will steal aid if it is handed out. Tribal and mosque elders have also been accused of seizing goods, including building materials and fuel, and selling them in markets. A Pentagon official said thousands of cars and trucks intended for use by the Afghan police had been sold instead.

Last week, the US and European Union announced plans to spend an additional £7 billion on assistance to Afghanistan, of which £1.5 billion will be earmarked for reconstruction. A committee of MPs is to investigate the corruption, which has dogged operations in Afghanistan since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.

James Arbuthnot, chairman of the Commons defence select committee, said the matter needed to be urgently addressed. "Corruption is something we will be examining," he said.

Nato commanders in southern Afghanistan are deeply concerned at the level of corruption but have resolved to press ahead with reconstruction projects in the hope of winning over the local population and improving security.

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In one recent example in Kandahar province, aid distribution went ahead despite fears that it would be stolen. Sergeant Major Denis Tondreau, in charge of delivering Canadian army aid to the Pashmul area, said the Afghan police unit in one village was known for corruption and extortion. "I have been told that if I bring aid to Pasab the police will steal it," he said. "They are just a bad, bad unit... extortion, corruption and use of drugs."

But people in the area said tribal and mosque elders were also guilty of stealing aid. In the nearby town of Panjwaii, workers said aid distributed by Nato's provincial reconstruction teams had not reached the ordinary people.

Abdul Ghany, 20, said: "When the soldiers came here they gave things to the rich people. The elders took things for themselves and we received nothing."

Noor Ullah, a police intelligence officer in the neighbouring Zharey district, said tribal leaders had to be persuaded that the aid was not intended for them alone. At a heated meeting he warned them: "The equipment is not to rebuild your own homes, it is for the mosques and the whole village. It is not for individuals, it is for the community. It is not for you to take and sell it."

Aid and reconstruction work are seen as key elements of the Nato strategy in Afghanistan, and were cited by the British Government as the main reason for deploying thousands of additional troops last year.

On Friday, Nato foreign ministers signalled that they would boost their military and economic contributions amid calls for more investment in development projects to win the support of the Afghan population. Liam Fox, the Conservative defence spokesman, said he had heard first-hand of corruption affecting the reconstruction programmes when he visited Afghanistan last summer. "There is increasing corruption from top government officials down, which is making efforts to get reconstruction off the ground much more difficult," he said.

Charles Heyman, a defence analyst and former British Army major, said millions of pounds earmarked for reconstruction were being siphoned off. "It almost comes with the programme," he said. "You have to build in an element of that into any programme because you know it will leak into people's pockets."

A joint report by the Pentagon and the US state department, circulated to congressional committees last month, concluded that the Afghan police force was corrupt to the point of ineffectiveness. One Pentagon official told The Sunday Telegraph that police officers had stolen and sold at least half of the equipment supplied by the US, including thousands of cars and trucks.

The Department for International Development said progress had been made. "We work closely with local people, the governor and representatives of the national government in drawing up projects, to make sure that what we do meets the needs of local people," said a spokesman.

Among the projects funded by the department are the purchase of uniforms and winter coats for the Afghan police, a hospital generator and a mortuary.

But it confirmed that some of the £2 million allocated to projects intended to help internal refugees had been diverted to build vehicle checkpoints.

Another Smear of Jimmy Carter

In November, 1938, a Jewish youth, Herschel Greenspan, assassinated an official of the German embassy in Paris. He was arrested and put on trial. Dorothy Parker, a popular American journalist, started a fund to pay for the legal defense of Greenspan. Parker said she didn't want any Jews to contribute money. Keep that in mind when you read this latest attempt to smear Carter with the "too many Jews" notation. Dorothy Parker didn't want money from Jews because she didn't want the Germans to turn the defense fund into anti-Semitic propaganda. We may speculate that Carter wanted to broaden the base of support for the Holocaust memorial to include more than just Jews as an indication what ALL Americans, not just Jews were concerned to memorialize the Holocaust.

As for the crimes of the 17-year-old youth, remember that it has long been a principle of American law to hold those under the age of 21, and especially those under the age of 18, to a more relaxed standard of justice in view of their youth, and submit them to lesser punishments. By American standards, the appeal for mercy is not unusual.

So what is Carter's real "sin"? He criticized Israel. Let us remember the case of Kurt Waldheim. The smear of him began only after Austria stopped forcing Russian Jewish refugees to go to Israel, but let them emigrate elsewhere or remain in Austria (where many were given Austrian citizenship so they could qualify for welfare benefits). Even Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi hunter, issued a statement of support for Waldheim as the smear intensified. Today it's Carter's turn to face endless smearing because he criticized Israel: remember the smear for the pro-Israel propaganda it is, and recognize that it is an attempt to intimidate Carter into silence.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3357792,00.html

Report: Carter says too many Jews on Holocaust council

Former US president also rejected Christian historian because name sounds 'too Jewish,' council's former executive director tells WND

Aaron Klein, WND

Published: 01.28.07, 13:04

Former US President Jimmy Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the government's Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman, the council's former executive director, told WND in an exclusive interview.

Freedman, who served on the council during Carter's term as president, also revealed a noted Holocaust scholar who was a Presbyterian Christian was rejected from the council's board by Carter's office because the scholar's name "sounded too Jewish."

Freedman, now a professor of law at Hofstra University, was picked by the council's chairman, author Elie Wiesel, to serve as executive director in 1980. The council, created by the Carter White House, went on to establish the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Freedman says he was tasked with creating a board for the council and with making recommendations to the White House on how best to memorialize the Holocaust.

He told WND he sent a memo to Carter's office containing recommendations for council board members.

He said his memo was returned with a note on the upper right hand corner that stated, "Too many Jews."

The note, Freedman said, was written in Carter's handwriting and was initialed by Carter.

Freedman said at the time the board he constructed was about 80-percent Jewish, including many Holocaust survivors.

He said at the behest of the White House he composed another board consisting of more non-Jews. But he said he was "stunned" when Carter's office objected to a non-Jew whose name sounded Jewish.

Freedman said he could not provide the historians name to WND because he did not have the man's permission.

"I got a phone call from our liaison at the White House saying this particular historian whose name sounded Jewish would not do. The liaison said he would not even take the time to present Carter with the possibility of including the historian on the board because he knew Carter would think the name sounded too Jewish. I explained the historian is Presbyterian, but the liaison said it wouldn't matter to Carter."

Freedman said he was "outraged by this absurdity."

"If I was memorializing Martin Luther King, I would expect a significant number of board members to be African American. If I was memorializing Native American figures I'd expect a lot of Native Americans to be on the board.

"I do not for a moment consider it inappropriate to build a Holocaust council with a significant majority of the board being Jewish," Freedman stated.

Freedman describes himself as "self-proclaimed liberal." He said he decided to speak out after the release of Carter's latest book, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," which some have accused of being biased against Israel .

Another Holocaust-related scandal

This would not be the first time Carter's messages on right hand corners of letters generated a Holocaust-related scandal.

Last week, in an interview with the Tovia Singer Show on Israel National Radio, a former US Justice Department official said he received a letter advocating "special consideration" for a confessed Nazi SS officer accused of murdering Jews in the Mauthausen death camp in Austria.

Neal Sher, who served in the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation, said that in 1987 he received a note from Carter petitioning for re-entry into the US for Martin Bartesch, who had been deported by Sher's office to Austria after it was established he served as an SS officer.

Sher said his office had "extraordinary evidence" Bartesch shot Jews. Bartesch originally immigrated to the US and lived in Chicago. He later admitted to Sher's office and the court he had voluntarily joined the SS as a teenager and served in its Death's Head Division at the Mauthausen concentration camp where many thousands of prisoners were gassed, shot, starved and worked to death. Bartesch also confessed to having concealed his SS service at concentration camp from US immigration officials.

Sher said the Justice Department obtained a journal kept by the SS and captured by the US Armed Forces listing Bartesch as having shot to death Max Oschorn, a French Jewish prisoner.

Bartesch's daughters, who still lived in the US, attempted in 1987 to appeal to politicians to allow the former Nazi officer to enter the country. They wrote a note in which they claimed it was "un-American" to persecute a man for crimes committed when he was only 17 and 18 years old.

Sher said he was shocked when he received the daughter's letter replete with a handwritten note from Carter on the upper right corner stating the former president wanted "special consideration" for the Bartesch family for humanitarian reasons.

The note, containing Carter's signature, was obtained this week by the NY Sun.