Since Zionist cyber terrorists stoop to deceptive practices such as tampering with the writings of anti-Zionist activists, you should always go to the source of where the original article comes from, in this case, here is the direct link to the original, authentic article:

http://www.marwenmedia.com/articles_images/MyVirulentAnti-Semitism.html

Here’s the article:

My Virulent Anti-Semitism (and theirs)
by Mark Green


After years of denial, I've concluded that I'm hopelessly anti-Semitic. Why? It's my terrible attitude. Not only do I disdain U.S. militarism in the Middle East, but I've identified its key enabling causes: intellectual dishonesty, democratic corruption and media deception. But it gets worse: I place the primary blame for America's Mideast disasters squarely on organized Jewry.

For those in the know, this makes me not only an anti-Semite, but a "virulent" anti-Semite, which is surely worse. Had I blamed everything on G.W. Bush, "Big Oil", or unnamed hawks in the Pentagon, then everything would be fine. Some might even call me a political leader. But what I've discovered doesn't take me there.

Indeed, America's relentless Mideast military engagements consistently support the agenda of one nation only. That nation is Israel.

It's undeniable that many savvy political observers agree that Israel tends to make its own rules, which is bad enough. What's worse, is that America tends to follow them. Take the war our ruling establishment is threatening to wage against Israel's enemy du jour, Iran. Who would have guessed that the prospect of nuclear energy development 5,000 miles from the nearest American city would bring out the Sixth fleet? Funny thing. As it is, however, Iran's proximity is a mere 450 miles from Israel's which, sadly, is the real reason America's on another war footing. Iran, you see, just happens to support several local resistance movements (called "terrorists", here) that contest Israel's confiscation of land formerly belonging to one neighboring country or another. This might not be such a big deal if not for an unexpected development which has crept up on America in recent years: when Israel gets irritated, Washington gets agitated.

Let's agree that the cheapest and easiest option for U.S. is simple neutrality. It's an old-fashioned idea, sure, and one that's largely forgotten, but it's got a nice ring to it. After all, given the relative strength of Iran's army vs. ours, few experts see this less affluent nation launching a successful attack on the U.S. for about two centuries. So we've got time. Unfortunately, there are lobby pressures here in the U.S. to consider. That's where Israel comes in. Neutrality makes sense for a country with our strengths, power and accomplishments, sure. Only it's not an option. Why? "Strategic necessity". And in addtion to that, don't forget the pro-Israel fundraisers, assorted intellectuals, DC lawyers, policy wonks, movie moguls, Jewish federations, Zionist donors, esteemed academics, news editors, advisors, Holocaust survivors, AIPAC's minions, TV executives, roving bloggers, and more ADL operatives than you can shake a stick at.

In fact, with today's politics being what they are, the option of neutrality--of doing absolutely nothing, of not sending troops--is so totally out of step, so terribly reminiscent of Nazi appeasement (we're told) that it will certainly not even be considered--at least when Israel's foes are concerned. This is what passes for contemporary political wisdom: "Great Powers" must always intervene.

And in no instance is this more true than when the Great Power in question is the United States of America and the intervention in question concerns our plucky, defiant, besieged "democratic" (but only for Jews) ally, the State of Israel!

There are a few drawbacks however. Serial warfare does, unfortunately, get expensive. Plus there's the problem of all those dead and wounded G.I.s....

Then again, nobody said managing an Empire would be easy, right?

Anyway, as for the latest nuclear "crisis" with Iran, first, a little background:

Way back when, decades ago, long before Israel enjoyed the territorial breathing space it now occupies, Jewish operatives secretly decided to acquire enriched uranium. I don't recall them asking anyone's permission. From there, Israel upped the ante and cranked out a stadium full of atomic bombs. When the headline finally broke, Washington didn't fuss much. Nor in fact did N.Y., Hollywood or any of those other heady places where scorn and disapproval rain down upon those miscreants who break vital rules involving The American People and Revered Democratic Values. Later, regional rivals in the Middle East tried to follow Israel's bold example. Leading American voices responded: "How dare they?" Soon thereafter, high government official officials decided that "measures" had to be taken: "These dangerous steps will not be tolerated."

U.S. political morality is less about the rule of law, than about alliances, "interests" and deals. The objective is power. How do we get it? Through the abuse of power. This is how the game is now played. And no government alliance with our great republic is more "special" than the one involving Israel. To merely call this "cronyism" does not even come close to acknowledging the absolute brilliance behind the accomplishments of a small, determined collection of Zionist visionaries. Their extraordinary feat took decades to achieve. And it all happened while the average American snoozed. Here we go:

Billions in foreign aid? No problem.

Zero accountability? Naturally.

Special privileges, special rules? Of course.

Ethnic cleansing? What's the big deal?

Weapons of Mass Destruction? For YOU, anything anytime.

To me, this smells like the deal of the century. But then, I'm a "virulent" anti-Semite.

But for you remaining moralists out there, consider this:

Like Iraq before it, Iran is a signatory to the international Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Israel however refuses to sign. Israel, and only Israel, gets the perennial green light from above to manufacture and possess nuclear weapons in all the Middle East. This unspecified privilege is rarely discussed, yet it's surely central to Iran's current quest to achieve its own deterrent capabilities. Despite all this, it is Iraq and Iran--not Israel--who face America's wrath for the mere possibility that they could follow the Jewish State's provocative lead. Israel's nuclear arsenal not only makes the possibility of atomic annihilation more likely, but it gives life to an arms race in the world's most volatile region.

Washington, London, New York and Hollywood's collective wisdom on this matter may be summarized as followed: "So?"

U.S. foreign policies have become so uniquely inconsistent, so politicized, that they make a mockery of international law. Can moral decay be far behind? No wonder the U.N. is such a basket case. Like the corpse of a fish, it's rotting from the head down. In supreme deference to Israel, America has discarded its opportunity to lead the world by example, namely, upholding the impartial rule of law. Consequently, America's entire Mideast mission carries the stain of Jewish "exceptionalism". Why so little outcry? The problem is demographic and ideological: America's media and political classes are overstocked with 'Israel-first' loyalists. Their target: U.S. public opinion and the institutions which shape it.

To push this agenda, pro-Israel spin-meisters have convinced Americans into believing that our government's ongoing war dance towards all of Israel's adversaries signal nothing more than the mere convergence of U.S.-Zionist interests. But that's a kosher fairy tale. Israeli fingerprints are all over America's disastrous war in Iraq as well as our continuing confrontation with Iran. And our President's self-righteous claims about spreading "freedom" and "democracy" are just as contrived. Not only have all the original rationalizations for the U.S. invasion of Iraq been discredited, but comparable Israeli misdeeds are consistently met with American aid, diplomatic cover, and state-of-the-art weapons systems. This pattern has endured for decades. And woe to those would-be leaders who dare challenge this glaring double standard, as they tend to disappear.

It can be argued that America is a nation under 'soft occupation' by a shadow government serving a foreign power.

Despite that provocative claim, my anti-Semitism has its accommodating limits. I strive to live harmoniously with those Jews (and others) who refuse to push our nation into needless wars. I even believe that our nation can make peace with most of the "Muslim terrorists" we Americans are programmed to despise. But Western interventionists must give them autonomy and leave them be, since we demand nothing less for ourselves. My anti-Semitism is real, yes, but nuanced. What about yours? Is it incorrect (like mine) or conventional (like Washington's)? After all, the U.S. and Israel bomb, demonize and depopulate areas of high Semitic density way over there (near Israel) with some regularity, yet the ADL, both major political parties in Washington, the American Jewish Committee, FOX News, AIPAC, the majority of Christian evangelicals, and even most mainstream institutions of governance don't seem to mind much. Even the American voter (depending on the headlines) is pretty much on board. What gives? Are some forms of anti-Semitism a good thing? Are some Semites more equal than others?

Indeed, it's clear that the very meaning of the word "Anti-Semitism" is kept deliberately fuzzy, and it is this ambiguity of definition which makes the term so politically useful. After all, we are reminded that the Nazis began their genocidal campaign by making accusations against the Jews, right?--And where did that lead? Thus, the suppression of "hateful" (or even "hurtful") speech is now one of the key unwritten rules of protocol when it comes to criticizing Semitic behavior that is Jewish. Yes, you may respectfully chastise Israel as it sends guided missiles into Arab neighborhoods, but there must be love in your heart! Better yet, just say nothing at all. Leave policy arguments to the Left wing ("pro-peace") Jews who, after 50 years, remain highly visible but dutifully ineffective. As for those other Semites--those "Islomo-fascists," those "homicide bombers"--here is where the rules of discourse and engagement reverse course.

Witness the modern, conventional and politically-correct form of anti-Semitism: identify the Jihadist enemies, vilify them, and crush them. The political movement might be Hamas or Al Queda or Hezbollah. Whatever. Who knows, and who cares? Their respective origins and purposes are as much of a blur in the American Mind as our reasons for hating them. What matters is that they, like Saddam Hussein before them, oppose American (and Israeli) "interests". Thus, we paint Hamas and Hezbollah with the same brush as Al Queda.

Now go out there and vote you American knuckleheads. But watch out for what you say. Racism and bigotry will NOT be tolerated, especially anti-Semitism. What we've got to do is spread freedom, stop terrorism, and fight for... whatever.

But when rhetoric fails to match reality, problems arise. U.S. policies are in an moribund state. Despite the loud chatter about democracy, no nation on earth comes close to matching our quantity of unwelcome soldiers patrolling foreign lands. Yes, the Empire has no clothes, as we're running out of money and friends. Whether or not the average, clueless voter ever figures this out is another matter.

Contributing to this problem, Big Media is in bed with Big Government, as they both need one another to effectively rule the world. America's hand-picked pundit class is not only pro-empire, but overwhelmingly pro-Israel. So the political forecast is grim. Expect continued war, escalating world-wide disgust with U.S.-Israeli hegemony, and a further rise in political cronyism here at home. This, regrettably, is our political future no matter which candidate gets the nod in 2008, since all viable U.S. office-seekers invariably run on the anything-for-Israel platform.

Indeed, when we look closely at the contemporary phenomena of privilege and power in America, we see something quite different than what's commonly advertised. Those scary anti-Semites of the world are actually quite powerless, unfairly mocked, continuously threatened, and often destroyed. And their poor, beleaguered adversaries? American Jews are the most affluent, influential and accomplished minority in U.S. history, criticism of their political actions by 'outsiders' is taboo, and our government is hog wild IN LOVE with the Jewish State. Champagne, anyone?

In fact, it can be argued that we are in the midst of a unparalleled epidemic of PHILO-Semitism. Pound for pound, no nation on earth gets the amount of economic, military and diplomatic cover that we Americans lavish on Israel year after year. Despite the money and bloodshed, America's commitment to the Jewish State remains, to quote former Presidential candidate Al Gore, "unshakable". And President G.W. Bush's infatuation with Israel may be even more off the charts. Indeed, no change of Administration, no U.N. resolution, no war crime charge, or U.S. national emergency, ever diminishishes our federal government's unsettling adoration for the Jewish State. More unsettling still: virtually no public figure dares to ask, "Why"?

When we review our political relationship for the past generation or more, we find that there is simply nothing our nation is unwilling to do for our colonizing, nuclear-ready, ethnic-cleansing, "democratic" ally. Isn't this just a wee bit outrageous? It's certainly unprecedented. The costs of this alliance to the American taxpayer are absolutely astronomical and climbing rapidly. What it's done to our national reputation however, moves us in the opposite direction. Recent polling data indicates that nearly a third of Western Europe considers the U.S. a primary threat to world peace. Our nation's international reputation is probably at an all-time low.

Indeed, it's America's unconditional love for one group of Semites over another that has lead us into a series of needless (and morally questionable) wars. Even America's "War on Terrorism" may eventually be understood as little more than a manufactured pretext to advance bankrupt policies. After all, "terrorism" too is a fuzzy and politicized term. It describes merely a tactic, not an ideology. But the political grievances behind many acts of terror are real. Mideast terrorists hate us for what we do, not for who we are. And what we do is sustain Israeli militarism and expansionism virtually without condition. If this wasn't true, these terrorists could easily turn their sights on other "Western" targets. But don't hold your breath. You will never see Al Queda attacking the likes of Japan, Switzerland or Austria, since these Western nations don't advance meddlesome and hegemonic foreign policies.

In fact, it's American taxpayers and Americans in uniform who are the unwitting fools in this whole scenario. America is a captive bride, the victim of an arranged marriage which, at its core, is loveless. The Israeli affection for the United States is born of political necessity. And their distrust of the American people is unmistakable. This is why we Americans, the "great friends of Israel", are subjected to continuous Holocaust propaganda as well as other kosher narratives day in and day out. America's once modest pride and sense of fairness has given way to collective hubris, guilt and arrogance. Gentleness, fair play and humility do mesh well with war.

How else do you explain the manufactured alarm over one small country's ambition to develop nuclear energy (Iran), while its famously besieged neighbor confiscates land and water by force, systematically destroys non-Jewish property, launches a full-scale international invasion over the kidnapping of two armed soldiers, and moves defiantly towards enlarging its already terrifying arsenal of nuclear weapons? Do you see a happy ending on the horizon?

More perverse still, our very own news media is determined to circulate the false news that it's the U.S., not Israel, which is most threatened by Iran's tiny step into the atomic age. U.S. production of pro-Zionist spin simply never stops, since 'attitude management' on a national scale is a colossal job.

Our Israeli-centric cultural values have created a swelling distortion in our nation's intellectual and political climate, which brings us back to the obsessive use of that overwrought and overused term, "anti-Semitism". Why the fancy lingo? After all, those other Semites aren't at all what that unique term is designed to cover. So why the misleading label? The sacred taboo shields Jews exclusively. Why the avoidance of plain language?

Why? Because plain language tends to undermine vital myths and taboos. When one removes the anti-Semite boogeyman from the political arena, the non-Jewish critic is free to choose sides in a complex struggle involving Jews, Arabs, Persians and Americans. One then can one be legitimately anti-Jewish, pro-Jewish, whatever, just as one can be pro- or anti-Syrian, or pro- or anti-war, or pro- or anti-Republican. The presumed 'Original Sin' of anti-Semitism (concerning Jews) must be lifted from the American Mind. Only then can freedom-of-choice return to the intellectual marketplace. Thereafter, political discourse goes guilt-free. The playing field becomes level again. And finally, the option--the necessity--of exploring pro-Israel excess in American politics is legitimately on the table, where it belongs.

Let's agree and state openly that hostility against Jews because of their genetic profile, economic status, or religious beliefs is utterly wrong. Unprovoked violence against any and all is unacceptable. But special protections and special privileges are a dangerous step in the direction of racial supremacism.

The "anti-Semitism" taboo has become an abused privilege. The taboo assures that certain conduct and behavior (guided by Jewish self-interest) is beyond criticism. The charge of anti-Semitism succeeds by insinuation. The accusation, the suspected "whiff", is designed is to render critics guilty of 'bad character' automatically. As a political tactic it is brilliant, since it manages to keep millions whispering among themselves rather than speaking out publicly. These chains must be broken.

When that day comes, will America regain enough independence of mind to re-evaluate its national prerogatives? It's possible. But the Israel conundrum is surely our greatest challenge. Certainly, all military alliances must be earned. And the double-standards must end as well.

Indeed, the preferential treatment we accord the Jewish State would be illegal if practiced openly within the U.S., since it violates Constitutional provisions mandating equal treatment under the law, as well as the separation of Church (and Synagogue) from State. Isn't it about time our nation started respecting the world's Semitic peoples outside our borders equally, as we're required to do towards the many different ethnic and religious groups living within our borders? This is the core problem: America's "special relationship" with the Jewish State is all about Israel gaining an advantage over its adversaries. And to maintain this preference, we Americans are subjected to a continuous drumbeat of noise involving anti-Semitism, The Holocaust, Islamo-fascism, Nazism and so on. This unending, repetitive chatter subliminally softens us towards bending in the direction of Tel Aviv. Without saying so, Israel requires (and gets) special consideration from Americans each and every day.
.
The latest "crisis" concerning Iran's quest for nuclear energy/weapons is a valuable example of how this political reflex works. Here the message is clear but mixed: Iranians, Iraqis and non-Jews in the Middle East can't be trusted with nuclear deterrence. But Israel? Your nukes are absolutely fabulous, babe.

No doubt about it: Israel is not only America's most coddled ally, but Israeli-Americans enjoy government-sanctioned, special treatment. Their Semitic cousins on the other hand are the political equivalent of a leper colony. Which brand of Anti-Semitism will YOU be buying? President Bush's brand calls for an American-style Jihad against "Islamic fascism", even though Christians and Muslims have successfully coexisted in the Middle East for centuries. But this was before the invention of the Jewish State. Polling data confirms that Arab Christians throughout the Middle East resent Zionized America every bit as much as their Muslim counterparts. Clearly then, the escalating tension between America and the Arab world does not involve theological differences or America's much-ballyhooed "freedoms". The core issue for millions of Arabs and Persians alike concerns longstanding U.S. policies which favors Israeli interests over those of its neighbors. Foremost, this includes the festering, unresolved issue of Palestine.

Therefore, what's desperately needed now is more responsible criticism of America's Israeli-centric policies, not less. Due to political pressures, anti-Zionist commentators and journalists have been sidelined. No wonder there's so little public discussion on this vital topic: would-be critics have been purged or unfairly smeared.

Under normal circumstances, those waging war, dissembling propaganda, and confiscating lands are required to justify their actions, not the victims. Yet pro-Israeli American culture has turned this tradition on its head.

This undermines our nation's sovereignty, democratic institutions, and the rule of law.

# # #

Mark Green is a former TV talk show host. He is the co-founder and former co-editor of MarWenMedia.com and can be reached at markgreen@flashpoint-tv.net

Great article, thanks for clearing the air.
More on pro-israel bias:
www.ifamericansknew.org

now why does this uncomfortable historical racism entitle israel to crush the lives from people who didn't participate in these practices? Unless you believe in shared sin. Maybe it's like the tragic consequences this path of ethnic consolidation will bring everyone. The only thing new are the weapons being used. And readied to be used.
This is insanity.

Wow, now what are the odds of some random passerby just knowing that about Mark Green of the top of his/her head? hmmmm tippy-tappy-tap... Oh only about 15-fucking-giga-billion-to-one.

You maniacs' (this word has clinical meaning you should learn about)...

...you maniacs' fetish for this sort of dossier-quality INTELLIGENCE on INDIVIDUALS ***you_don't_like*** validates every suspicion I ever felt or voiced about the manner in which you're functioning collectively within this society.

You are a fucking MENACE.

You hate democracy in exactly the way Leo Strauss, Mussolini, and Jabotinsky did. You pay lip service to it only because you can't resist a sure-thing rhetorical gambit, while your honesty ethic is so atrophied you actually believe your own posturing. What you REALLY crave, though, is a world in which total conceptual control of the herd is at last possible, so that you can then wield it.

Don't even try flipping this back on me. I don't want to wield that kind of sadistic gloating control over anything, not an atom. I'm here *entirely* because I can't abide your efforts to wield it over ME. You arrogant fuckers started this confrontation. O yeah you did. nobody -- NOBODY -- needs to go swaggering around right in front of me presuming that sort of power over my brain

You're EXACTLY the type of people who were responsible for Stalinist Russia, and it's NOT AT ALL "paranoid" to consider you potentially extremely dangerous, capable of A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G -- as Jabotinskyists have always been.

It's just simple lucid smarts

That's good. Files and files and files... and files. Hope they have mental damage from having to collate and cross-reference sort and index. and it still comes up crap. Ha ha ha ha ha

But it definitely is a team.
-We'd be negilent if we didn't know our enemies, wouldn't we? -
And who exactly are your enemies?
Curious. Can I be one, please?

Now we all know who exactly the reference of yours:
"-Nightmare spook, piece of heat,
It's you and me.
You and me.

Click flash blade in ghetto night-"
image came from.
Hope you know what you're doing, lady.

"Never once has my AG prevented any event from happening, though its been within our power."

Speak English. This is VERY cryptic. Now why would that be?

"I'm live and let live, all the way."

You're full of blindingly stinky bullshit is what you are, and I already put my finger on it: "your honesty ethic is so atrophied you actually believe your own posturing ... You arrogant fuckers started this confrontation. O yeah you did."

"Live and let live," huh? So that's why you tacitly support Israel's orchestrated killing of a whole regional mosaic of communities? You're capable of rationalizing A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G to yourself, and you do, but don't try pulling that shit over on me.

"I will lose playing the "moral high ground""

Damn right you will, and that's because you never had a claim to it to begin with and everyone here knows it

Here you are a natural-born citizen of the US, cushy and privileged, playing on the internet in a climate-controlled environment all day, you got no fucking grievances AT ALL, certainly not with Arabs on the other side of the planet, and yet here you are imagining you're a poor persecuted Jew, conniving over Israel so fanatically you're openly talking political ugliness now

"I now know that for the playing field to be level, I need to address you on your own terms. Thats I as in me, and I as in we."

More cryptic words. What exactly does this mean Tia? Is this a threat?

And don't think I didn't notice how you never delivered on that citation I asked for

"And these zionists are fueling a huge resentment worldwide directed towards all Jews, which I believe is the deep intent."

Good work Sheepdog. Albert Einstein thought so too

"Anti-Semitism is nothing but the antagonistic attitude
produced in the non-Jew by the Jewish group. The
Jewish group has thrived on oppression and on the
antagonism it has forever met in the world...the root
cause is their use of enemies they create in order to
keep solidarity"

-- as quoted in the 26 November 1938 issue of Collier's Magazine

It's deadly fuckin real

http://www.foodnotbombs.net/adl_examiner.html

Right here in this thread I've challenged you to deliver a citation. You've hole-hopped away from this challenge at least twice. This question you're posing now -- a perfect non-sequitur here -- I've addressed it before. It's a big question, so an effective rebuttal would include many elements, most of which I bring up regularly. With a little thought you could write my answer yourself.

You don't care about any of that. You have no sincere interest in debating such a question; you're here to renew Israel's political license, period, which means sealing off a priori any possibility that such a question can have a legitimate answer you don't like. A more immediate concern is pretending your ass didn't just get handed to you. Again. And so you're importing the question from another thread in which your ass did get handed to you, again, into this one, where it might save you some face.

And while you're treating us to this incredible diversionary song and dance, you pretend that **I** am the one being evasive.

Your arrogance is just mind-boggling, it truly is. Its scale is exceeded only by your intellectual dishonesty, which is a teeming organic force running riot over your intellect like a mutant strangler-vine from Mars. Come to think of it, that's a great metaphor for zionism Itself

TIA: Wendy, a contributor to Stormfront is a known racist, white supremicist and anti-Semite who has been banned from many progressive websites. Mark is not publishing their racist screeds under his own name to avoid the ostracism that comes with her name.
These are not the good guys folks. If you value pluralism, tolerance and diversity, the Green/Campbell clan should be avoided

APPLYING SAME STANDARD:
Becky, a member of DAFKA, banned from progressive collectives and media associates with right wing whacko-nut Lee Kaplan. These guys are not the good guys folks. If you value pluralism, tolerance, diversity, critical thinking and come from a position of being anti-state sponsored terror, then the Becky JOhnson/Lee Kaplan clan should be avoided.

"Guilt by association". This was the false argument put forth re: Lee Kaplan.

Now that you mention it, check out the lead article on Lee Kaplan Watch this week

http://kaplanwatch.blogspot.com/

Here's another must-see site:

leekaplanisadouchebag.ytmnd.com

Then three minutes on Google is all ***YOU*** will need to come up with some nice links to hit me with. If Dhimmi status is indeed "well documented in both Western and Eastern sources," why are you evading my simple request?

Oh.

I remember now:

"You know, something credible. That would not include your patron saint Herr Ziff. Nor anything cranked out by you pathological bullshits' hasbarah machine going all the way back to Ziff's day. I'm sorry if that walls off every bit of info you actually KNOW, but it's not my fault your interests are so incestuously narrow. Since you carry on so much about your unassailable scholarship, I was sure you wouldn't mind"

I guess my surmisal that hasbarah bullshit is the sum of your knowledge had you dead to rights. Otherwise you could actually come up with something.

Its just a power struggle. You really don't care where the information came from.
Now will you treat us to an explanation of how the Encyclopedia Britannica is really part of the Zionist construct for world domination?

Guilt by Association.
Why this doesn't work.

The Campbell /Green association is a partnership- MARWEN- Get it?

The Becky- Lee thing is a loose Association. They happen to be members of the same organization. I'm a member of Greenpeace. Does that make the entire organization suspect? Does that make each individual member suspect? By your logic, it does.
Megafauna is active in the green party. Does this make the entire organization suspect? Apparently.
Listen here people- don't vote for Todd Chretien - I saw him have coffee with a known zionist once.
And, for all your whining about Lee Kaplan- I have yet to see one racist or inaccurate thing he has written so far.

Passover and the Ignored Liberation
By Andrew G. Bostom

During Passover Jews celebrate their liberation from Egyptian servitude, an estimated 3300 years ago. And yet each Passover, I am struck by how this widely celebrated ancient narrative contrasts starkly with an equally important, but almost unrecognized historical phenomenon completed in full only by the creation of the State of Israel just 58 years ago—the liberation of the Jews from the oppressive system of jihad-imposed dhimmitude in their very homeland. These uniquely Islamic systems—jihad and its corollary institution, dhimmitude—have shaped events in historical Palestine—modern Israel, Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and Jordan—from 634, through the present, setting in place archetypal patterns still quite evident today.

There is only one historically relevant meaning of jihad regardless of contemporary apologetics. The noted 19th century Arabic lexicographer E.W. Lane, who studied the etymology of the term, observed, “Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war, against unbelievers”. Jihad was pursued century after century because jihad embodied an ideology and a jurisdiction. Both were formally conceived by Muslim jurisconsults and theologians from the 8th to 9th centuries onward, based on their interpretation of Koranic verses and long chapters in the Traditions i.e., the “hadith”, or acts and sayings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, especially those recorded by al-Bukhari [d. 869] and Muslim [d. 874]

Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), jurist, renowned philosopher, historian, and sociologist, summarized these consensus opinions from five centuries of prior Muslim jurisprudence with regard to the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad:

In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to] convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force... The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense... Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.

To understand the legacy of jihad in historical Palestine, one must return to Arabia—the birthplace of Islam, and its founder, the Muslim prophet Muhammad. September 622 C.E. marks a defining event in Islam- the hijra. Muhammad and a coterie of followers (the Muhajirun), persecuted by fellow Banu Quraysh tribesmen who rejected Muhammad's authenticity as a divine messenger, fled from Mecca to Yathrib, later known as Al-Medina (Medina). The Muslim sources described Yathrib as having been a Jewish city founded by a Palestinian diaspora population which had survived the revolt against the Romans. Distinct from the nomadic Arab tribes, the Jews of the north Arabian peninsula were highly productive oasis farmers. These Jews were eventually joined by itinerant Arab tribes from southern Arabia who settled adjacent to them and transitioned to a sedentary existence.

Following Muhammad's arrival, he re-ordered Medinan society, eventually imposing his authority on each tribe. The Jewish tribes were isolated, some were then expelled, and the remainder attacked and exterminated. Muhammad distributed among his followers as "booty" the vanquished Jews property—plantations, fields, and houses—and also used this “booty” to establish a well-equipped jihadist cavalry corps. Muhammad's subsequent interactions with the Christians of northern Arabia followed a similar pattern, noted by the great scholar of early Islam, Richard Bell. The “relationship with the Christians ended as that with the Jews (ended)- in war”, because Islam as presented by Muhammad was a divine truth, and unless Christians accepted this formulation, which included Muhammad's authority, “conflict was inevitable, and there could have been no real peace while he [Muhammad] lived.”

Within two years of Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, launched the Great Jihad. The ensuing three decades witnessed Islamdom's most spectacular expansion, as Muslim armies subdued the entire Arabian peninsula, and conquered territories which had been in Greco-Roman possession since the reign of Alexander the Great; within a century of Muhammad’s death the jihad wars of his successors had expanded the Muslim empire from what is now Portugal, to modern Pakistan.

Moshe Gil, in his monumental analysis A History of Palestine, 634-1099, emphasizes the singular centrality that Palestine occupied in the mind of its pre-Islamic Jewish inhabitants, who referred to the land as “al-Sham”. Indeed, as Gil observes, the sizable Jewish population in Palestine (who formed a majority of its inhabitants, when grouped with the Samaritans) at the dawn of the Arab Muslim conquest were, “the direct descendants of the generations of Jews who had lived there since the days of Joshua bin Nun, in other words for some 2000 years...” Jews and Christians speaking Aramaic inhabited the cities and the cultivated inner regions, devoid of any unique ties to the Bedouin of the desert hinterlands, who were regarded as bellicose and threatening, in the writings of both the Church Fathers, and in Talmudic sources.

The following is a summary of the devastating consequences of the Arab Muslim conquest of Palestine during the fourth decade of the 7th century, directed by the first two Caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar b. al-Khattab.

The entire Gaza region up to Cesarea was sacked and devastated in the campaign of 634, which included the slaughter of four thousand Jewish, Christian, and Samaritan peasants. Villages in the Negev were also pillaged, and towns such as Jerusalem, Gaza, Jaffa, Cesarea, Nablus, and Beth Shean were isolated. In his sermon on the Day of the Epiphany 636, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, bewailed the destruction of the churches and monasteries, the sacked towns and villages, and the fields laid waste by the invaders. Thousands of people perished in 639, victims of the famine and plague wrought by this wanton destruction. The Muslim historian Baladhuri (d. 892 C.E.), maintained that 30,000 Samaritans and 20,000 Jews lived in Caesarea alone just prior to the Arab Muslim conquest; afterward, all evidence of them disappears. Archaeological data confirms the lasting devastation wrought by these initial jihad conquests, particularly the widespread destruction of synagogues and churches from the Byzantine era, whose remnants are still being unearthed. The total number of towns was reduced from fifty-eight to seventeen in the red sand hills and swamps of the western coastal plain (i.e., the Sharon). Massive soil erosion from the Judaean mountains western slopes also occurred due to agricultural uprooting during this period. Finally, the papyri of Nessana were completely discontinued after the year 700, reflecting how the Negev also experienced the destruction of its agriculture, and the desertion of its villages.

And what was the nature of the system of governance imposed upon the conquered indigenous Jews, Samaritans, and Christians of Palestine? In his seminal The Laws of Islamic Governance al-Mawardi (d. 1058), a renowned jurist of Baghdad, examined the regulations pertaining to the lands and infidel (i.e., non-Muslim) populations subjugated by jihad. This is the origin of the system of dhimmitude. The native infidel “dhimmi” (which derives from both the word for “pact”, and also “guilt”—guilty of religious errors) population had to recognize Islamic ownership of their land, submit to Islamic law, and accept payment of the Koranic poll tax (jizya), based on Koran 9:29. He notes that "The enemy makes a payment in return for peace and reconciliation. " Al- Mawardi then distinguishes two cases: (I) Payment is made immediately and is treated like booty, "it does, not however, prevent a jihad being carried out against them in the future. ". (II). Payment is made yearly and will "constitute an ongoing tribute by which their security is established". Reconciliation and security last as long as the pavment is made. If the pavment ceases, then the jihad resumes. A treaty of reconciliation may be renewable, but must not exceed 10 years.

The “contract of the jizya”, or “dhimma” encompassed other obligatory and recommended obligations for the conquered non-Muslim "dhimmi" peoples. Collectively, these "obligations" formed the discriminatory system of dhimmitude imposed upon non-Muslims-Jews, Christians, [as well as Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists]-subjugated by jihad. Some of the more salient features of dhimmitude include: the prohibition of arms for the vanquished non-Muslims (dhimmis), and of church bells; restrictions concerning the building and restoration of churches, synagogues, and temples; inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims with regard to taxes and penal law; the refusal of dhimmi testimony by Muslim courts; a requirement that Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims, including Zoroastrians and Hindus, wear special clothes; and the overall humiliation and abasement of non-Muslims. It is important to note that these regulations and attitudes were institutionalized as permanent features of the sacred Islamic law, or Shari' a. The writings of the much lionized Sufi theologian and jurist al-Ghazali (d. 1111) highlight how the institution of dhimmitude was simply a normative, and prominent feature of the Shari'a:

...the dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or His Apostle.. .Jews, Christians, and Majians must pay the jizya [poll tax on non-Muslims]...on offering up the jizya, the dhimmi must hang his head while the official takes hold of his beard and hits [the dhimmi] on the protruberant bone beneath his ear [i.e., the mandible]... They are not permitted to ostentatiously display their wine or church bells...their houses may not be higher than the Muslim's, no matter how low that is. The dhimmi may not ride an elegant horse or mule; he may ride a donkey only if the saddler-work] is of wood. He may not walk on the good part of the road. They [the dhimmis] have to wear [an identifying] patch [on their clothing], even women, and even in the [public] baths...[dhimmis] must hold their tongue.

The practical consequences of such a discriminatory system were summarized in A.S. Tritton’s 1930 The Caliphs and their Non-Muslim Subjects, a pioneering treatise on the status of the dhimmis:

…[C]aliphs destroyed churches to obtain materials for their buildings, and the mob was always ready to pillage churches and monasteries…dhimmis…always lived on sufferance, exposed to the caprices of the ruler and the passions of the mob…in later times..[t]hey were much more liable to suffer from the violence of the crowd, and the popular fanaticism was accompanied by an increasing strictness among the educated. The spiritual isolation of Islam was accomplished. The world was divided into two classes, Muslims and others, and only Islam counted…Indeed the general feeling was that the leavings of the Muslims were good enough for the dhimmis.

Dhimmitude in Palestine During the Initial Period of Muslim Rule 634-1099

The stark, unromantic reality of Muslim ruled Palestine during these 465-years is perhaps best illustrated by examining a putative "Golden Age" during the Abbasid-Baghdadian Caliphate, between 750 and 878. Under early Abbasid rule (approximately 750-755 C.E., perhaps during the reign of al-Saffah), Greek sources report orders demanding the removal of crosses over Churches, bans on Church services and teaching of the scriptures, the eviction of monks from their monasteries, and excessive taxation. Gil notes that in 772 C.E., when Caliph al-Mansur visited Jerusalem,

..he ordered a special mark should be stamped on the hands of the Christians and the Jews. Many Christians fled to Byzantium.

Bat Ye' or elucidates the fiscal oppression inherent in eighth century Palestine which devastated the dhimmi Jewish and Christian peasantry:

Over-taxed and tortured by the tax collectors, the villagers fled into hiding or emigrated into towns.

She quotes from a detailed chronicle of an eighth century monk, completed in 774:

The men scattered, they became wanderers everywhere; the fields were laid waste, the countryside pillaged; the people went from one land to another.

The Greek chronicler Theophanes provides a contemporary description of the chaotic events which transpired after the death of the caliph Harun al-Rashid in 809. He describes Palestine as the scene of violence, rape, and murder, from which Christian monks fled to Cyprus and Constantinople.

Perhaps the clearest outward manifestations of the inferiority and humiliation of the dhimmis were the prohibitions regarding their dress codes, and the demands that distinguishing signs be placed on the entrances of dhimmi houses. During the Abbasid caliphates of Harun al-Rashid (786-809) and al-Mutawwakil (847-861), Jews and Christians were required to wear yellow (as patches attached to their garments, or hats). Later, to differentiate further between Christians and Jews, the Christians were required to wear blue. In 850, consistent with Qur'anic verses associating them with Satan and Hell, al-Mutawwakil decreed that Jews and Christians attach wooden images of devils to the doors of their homes to distinguish them from the homes of Muslims.

Muslim Turcoman rule of Palestine for the nearly three decades just prior to the Crusades (1071- 1099 C.E.) was characterized by such unrelenting warfare and devastation, that an imminent "End of Days" atmosphere was engendered. A contemporary poem by Solomon ha-Kohen b. Joseph, believed to be a descendant of the Geonim, an illustrious family of Palestinian Jews of priestly descent, speaks of destruction and ruin, the burning of harvests, the razing of plantations, the desecration of cemeteries, and acts of violence, slaughter, and plunder.

The brutal nature of the Crusader's conquest of Palestine, particularly of the major cities, beginning in 1098/99 C.E., has been copiously documented. However, the devastation wrought by both Crusader conquest and rule (through the last decades of the 13th century) cannot reasonably be claimed to have approached, let alone somehow "exceeded", what transpired during the first four and one-half centuries of Muslim jihad conquests, endless internecine struggles for Muslim dominance, and imposition of dhimmitude.

Moreover, we cannot ignore the testimony of Isaac b. Samuel of Acre (1270-1350 C.E.), one of the most outstanding Kabbalists of his time. Conversant with Islamic theology and often using Arabic in his exegesis, Isaac nevertheless believed that it was preferable to live under the yoke of Christendom, rather than that of Islamdom. Acre was taken from the Crusaders by the Mamelukes in 1291 by a very brutal jihad conquest. Accordingly, despite the precept to dwell in the Holy Land, Isaac b. Samuel fled to Italy and thence to Christian Spain, where he wrote:

...they [the Muslims] strike upon the head the children of Israel who dwell in their lands and they thus extort money from them by force. For they say in their tongue, ...'it is lawful to take money of the Jews.' For, in the eyes of the Muslims, the children of Israel are as open to abuse as an unprotected field. Even in their law and statutes they rule that the testimony of a Muslim is always to be believed against that of a Jew. For this reason our rabbis of blessed memory have said, 'Rather beneath the yoke of Edom [Christendom] than that of Ishmael.

And about 120 years earlier (in 1172), Maimonides had written these words having escaped in 1148 the purely mythical “tolerance” of Muslim Spain, specifically Cordoba, during the jihad depredations of the Almohads:

The nation of Ishmael…persecute us severely and devise ways to harm us and to debase us…None has matched it in debasing and humiliating us. None has been able to reduce us as they have. We have done as our sages of blessed memory instructed us, bearing the lies and absurdities of Ishmael. We listen, but remain silent…In spite of all this, we are not spared from the ferocity of their wickedness, and their outbursts at any time. On the contrary, the more we suffer and choose to conciliate them, the more they choose to act belligerently toward us.

Sadly, this chronic, grinding oppression interspersed with paroxysms of violent fanaticism persisted throughout the approximately 630 year period, combined (i.e., 1291-1918), of Mamluk, and then Ottoman Muslim rule of historical Palestine, until the British Mandate after World War I.

For example, the Polish Jew, Gedaliah of Siemiatyce (d. 1716), who, braving numerous perils, came to Jerusalem in 1700, recorded these appalling conditions, in his book, Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, motivating him to return to Europe in order to raise funds for the Jews of Jerusalem:

No Jew or Christian is allowed to ride a horse, but a donkey is permitted, for [in the eyes of Muslims] Christians and Jews are inferior beings... The Muslims do not allow any member of another faith-unless he converts to their religion-entry to the Temple [Mount] area, for they claim that no other religion is sufficiently pure to enter this holy spot.

Moreover, the Muslim law requires that each religious denomination wear its specific garment so that each people may be distinguished from another. This distinction also applies to footwear. Indeed, the Jews wear shoes of a dark blue color, whereas Christians wear red shoes. No one can use green, for this color is worn solely by Muslims. The latter are very hostile toward Jews and inflict upon them vexations in the streets of the city...the common folk persecute the Jews, for we are forbidden to defend ourselves against the Turks or the Arabs. If an Arab strikes a Jew, he [the Jew] must appease him but dare not rebuke him, for fear that he may be struck even harder, which they [the Arabs] do without the slightest scruple.

Even the Christians are subjected to these vexations. If a Jew offends a Muslim, the latter strikes him a brutal blow with his shoe in order to demean him, without anyone's being able to prevent him from doing it. The Christians fall victim to the same treatment and they suffer as much as the Jews, except that the former are very rich by reason of the subsidies that they receive from abroad, and they use this money to bribe the Arabs. As for the Jews, they do not possess much money with which to oil the palms of the Muslims, and consequently they are subject to much greater suffering.

These prevailing conditions for Jews did not improve in a consistent or substantive manner even after the mid 19th century treaties imposed by the European powers on the weakened Ottoman Empire included provisions for the Tanzimat reforms. First introduced in 1839, these reforms were designed to end the discriminatory laws of dhimmitude for both Jews and Christians, living under the Ottoman Shari’a. European consuls endeavored to maintain compliance with at least two cardinal principles central to any meaningful implementation of the reforms: respect for the life and property of non-Muslims; and the right for Christians and Jews to provide evidence in Islamic courts when a Muslim was a party. Unfortunately, these efforts to replace the concept of Muslim superiority over “infidels”, with the principle of equal rights, failed. Almost two decades later, an eyewitness account from Jerusalem, written by the British Jerusalem Consul James Finn, (reported November 8-11, 1858) highlights this tragic failure:

…my Hebrew Dragoman, having a case for judgment in the Makhkameh before the new Kadi...was commanded to stand up humbly and take off his shoes...during the Process, although the thief had previously confessed to the robbery in the presence of Jews, the Kadi would not proceed without the testimony of two Moslems-when the Jewish witnesses were offered, he refused to accept their testimony-and the offensive term adopted toward Jews...(more offensive than Giaour for Christians) was used by the Kadi's servants... In continuing to report concerning the apprehensions of Christians from revival of fanaticism on the part of the Mahometans, I have... to state that daily accounts are given to me of insults in the streets offered to Christians and Jews, accompanied by acts of violence... the sufferers are afraid

Tudor Parfitt's 1987 analysis of the entire Tanzimat period concluded that these problems persisted for Jews through the close of the 19th century,

...the courts were biased against the Jews and even when a case was heard in a properly assembled court where dhimmi testimony was admissible the court would still almost invariably rule against the Jews. Inside the towns, Jews and other dhimmis were frequently attacked, wounded, and even killed by local Muslims and Turkish soldiers. Such attacks were frequently for trivial reasons.

During World War I in Palestine, the embattled Young Turk government actually began deporting the Jews of Tel Aviv in the spring of 1917—an ominous parallel to the genocidal deportations of the Armenian dhimmi communities throughout Anatolia. A contemporary Reuters press release discussing the deportation stated that,

Eight thousand deportees from Tel Aviv were not allowed to take any provisions with them, and after the expulsion their houses were looted by Bedouin mobs; two Yemenite Jews who tried to oppose the looting were hung at the entrance to Tel Aviv so that all might see, and other Jews were found dead in the Dunes around Tel Aviv.

Ultimately, enforced abrogation of the laws and social practices of dhimmitude required the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, which only occurred during the European Mandate period following World War I. Remarkably soon afterwards, however,( i.e., within two years of the abrogation of the Shari'a!) by 1920, Musa Kazem el-Husseini, former governor of Jaffa during the final years of Ottoman rule, and president of the Arab (primarily Muslim) Palestinian Congress, demanded restoration of the Shari'a in a letter to the British High Commissioner, Herbert Samuels:

[Ottoman] Turkey has drafted such laws as suit our customs. This was done relying upon the Shari'a (Religious Law), in force in Arabic territories, that is engraved in the very hearts of the Arabs and has been assimilated in their customs and that has been applied ...in the modern [Arab] states... We therefore ask the British government...that it should respect these laws [i.e., the Shari'a]...that were in force under the Turkish regime…

It is within this overall historical context that one must view contemporary Palestinian Muslim pronouncements regarding the status of non-Muslims—Jews in particular, but Christians as well—under past, present, and future under Islamic rule.

For example, Palestinian Authority (PA) Undersecretary for Religious Endowment, Sheik Yussef Salamah, representing the PA at a May 1999 "Inter-Cultural Conference," in Tehran, praised the 7th century system of Ahl Al-Dhimma (i.e, the system of dhimmitude), as the proper paradigm for relations between Muslims and Christians today.

During a Friday sermon broadcasted live on June 6, 2001 on PA TV, from the Sheik ‘Ijlin Mosque in Gaza, Palestinian Authority employee Sheik Muhammad Ibrahim Al-Madhi reiterated these sentiments with regard to Jews:

We welcome, as we did in the past, any Jew who wants to live in this land as a Dhimmi, just as the Jews have lived in our countries, as Dhimmis, and have earned appreciation, and some of them have even reached the positions of counselor or minister here and there. We welcome the Jews to live as Dhimmis, but the rule in this land and in all the Muslim countries must be the rule of Allah

And most recently, interviewed by Wall Street Journal reporter Karby Legget in late December of 2005, Hassam El-Masalmeh, who heads the Hamas contingent at the municipal council of Bethlehem, confirmed the organizations plan to re-institute the humiliating jizya. El-Masalmeh stated explicitly,

We in Hamas intend to implement this tax (i.e., the jizya) someday. We say it openly – we welcome everyone to Palestine but only if they agree to live under our rules.

There have been ceaseless calls for jihad in Palestine during modern times—in the 1920s and 30s by Hajj Amin El Husseini and Izz Al-Din al Qassam; by the late Yasser Arafat throughout his 40-years as leader of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization; and now under Hamas. Hamas's foundational covenant calls for an annihilationist jihad to eradicate Israel. It states, “There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by jihad.” Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers are presently assisting Hamas commanders in arming and training a new jihadist army called the Murbitun—a name which derives from the pious Almoravid religious warriors—Islamized Berbers whose jihad campaigns ravaged North Africa and Iberia in the 11th and 12th centuries. And on April 1, 2006 the new Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahmoud al-Zahar made clear the goal of such jihadists, “…our dream to have our independent state on all historic Palestine …will become real one day. I'm certain of this because there is no place for the state of Israel on this land”

Thus let me close with these penetrating insights from historian Bat Ye’or, who observed, that jihad remained,

…the main cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since Israelis are to be regarded, perforce, only as a religious community, their national characteristics – a geographical territory related to a past history, a system of legislation, a specific language and culture – are consequently denied. The “Arab” character of the Palestinian territory is inherent in the logic of jihad. Having become fay territory by conquest (i.e. “taken from an infidel people”), it must remain within the dar al-Islam. The State of Israel, established on this fay territory, is consequently illegal.

And she concluded,

…Israel represents the successful national liberation of a dhimmi civilization. On a territory formerly Arabized by the jihad and the dhimma, a pre-Islamic language, culture, topographical geography, and national institutions have been restored to life. This reversed the process of centuries in which the cultural, social and political structures of the indigenous population of Palestine were destroyed. In 1974, Abu Iyad, second-in-command to Arafat in the Fatah hierarchy, announced: "We intend to struggle so that our Palestinian homeland does not become a new Andalusia." The comparison of Andalusia to Palestine was not fortuitous since both countries were Arabized, and then de-Arabized by a pre-Arabic culture.

A Year After 'Disengagement': Gaza Still Occupied and Under Attack
Al-Haq, 11 September 2006

Palestinians bury 14-year-old Jihad Abu Snemh who was killed by Israeli forces in Rafah Refugee Camp southern Gaza Strip, 11 September 2006. (MaanImages/Hatem Omar)

One year ago, on 12 September 2005, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip under the 'Disengagement Plan'. In the year that followed, the Gaza Strip endured military incursions, shelling, attacks on infrastructure, targeted assassinations, sonic booms, aerial surveillance, border closures, and fishing restrictions. Also Israel retains control of the civil population registry. The unilateral withdrawal aimed to establish that the Gaza Strip was no longer occupied, thereby relieving Israel of its duties as the Occupying Power. In reality, Israel has retained effective control of the Gaza Strip and consequently has never ceased its occupation.

Israel continues to control Gaza's land borders, air space and territorial sea. It closes at will the border crossings regulating the entry and exit of people, goods and services. In fact, external freedom of movement has worsened since the withdrawal. In the year since 12 September 2005, Karni Crossing, used for the transit of goods, was closed completely for a total of 175 days and partially for a further 169 days. Since April 2006, there have been severe humanitarian shortages in the Gaza Strip, including essential medicines and food stuffs. The situation has been aggravated by restrictions on the entry of humanitarian supplies and access for humanitarian workers. These measures violate Israel's obligation to ensure the right to freedom of movement to, and to provide for the well-being of, the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

Since the unilateral withdrawal, Israel has actually increased its shelling and its targeted assassinations of wanted Palestinians within the Gaza Strip, especially since the beginning of large scale military incursions (Operation 'Summer Rains') on 28 June 2006. These attacks have killed 362 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians, including women and children. The attacks have also targeted private houses, educational institutions, charitable associations, government ministries, and infrastructure such as bridges and roads, as well as Gaza's main power plant, resulting in severely restricted power supply. By these actions, Israel has repeatedly failed to uphold its duty to distinguish between combatants and civilians, as well as between military objectives and civilian objects.

On 9 July 2006, Israeli online newspaper Arutz Sheva reported that Israeli General Yoav Galant, Southern District Commander, described the purpose of Operation 'Summer Rains' as follows:

The IDF is ready for a long operation involving raids. Within a month or two, the Palestinians will count hundreds of dead terrorists, damaged infrastructures and destroyed offices. When they make the overall calculation, I assume that they will think twice before their next attack or abduction attempt.

The stated intention is to punish all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for an armed raid and rocket attacks against Israel carried out by a small number of individuals. Those actions cannot justify Israeli military operations such as indiscriminate shelling and sonic booms by low-flying military planes, which affect the Palestinian population as a whole. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment of protected persons for an offence they have not personally committed. By undertaking such measures, Israel is in clear breach of this provision.

The events of the past year demonstrate that Israel's occupation remains, and consequently its obligations as the Occupying Power in the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, there have been numerous breaches of these obligations, and Operation 'Summer Rains' has done much to worsen the situation. Ending occupation and respecting international law are fundamental prerequisites for a durable solution to the conflict. On this day, one year after the conclusion of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Al-Haq calls on the High Contracting Parties to the four Geneva Conventions to recognise Israel's continued occupation of, and responsibility for, the Gaza Strip, and to uphold their obligation under common Article 1 to ensure Israel's respect for the four Geneva Conventions.

Are you happy now?

"The writings of the much lionized Sufi theologian and jurist al-Ghazali (d. 1111) highlight how the institution of dhimmitude was simply a normative, and prominent feature of the Shari'a"


So, an article from a publication you don't like, quotes Sufi theologian al-Ghazali. How is that propaganda?
Did al -Ghazali write those words? Can you dispute his observations with a different source?

In the words of dear departed Nessie "An ad Hominim is not a rebuttal" Its a way to change the subject.

Thats all you can do, dearest, because facts and history aren't on your side. You'll slipped out that lie about the size of Israel's army, but I caught you at it. Shame on you, Tw. Shame on you.

Oh, poor little TW, research skills of a clam. But thats because he won't leave the healing rays of his computer to read a real book, or go to a real library.

Kama ima shelha lokahat le laila, Schtarker?

Yeah, how many times is Schtarker Yidiot going to spam?

Did this hit a nerve?
Here's a portrait of a desperate spammer-troll having a meltodwown (and these are just the hidden posts from today--it goes on and on, on multiple indymedia sites...)
http://la.indymedia.org/news/?keyword=&author=&comments=yes&display=f&year=&month=&day=&medium=&language_id=&category=0&sort=&limit=30
Poor thing.

Did this hit a nerve?
Here's a portrait of a desperate spammer-troll having a meltodwown (and these are just the hidden posts from today--it goes on and on, on multiple indymedia sites...)
http://la.indymedia.org/news/?keyword=&author=&comments=yes&display=f&year=&month=&day=&medium=&language_id=&category=0&sort=&limit=30
Poor thing.

The portrayal by Mark Green of "tail" Israel wagging the dog's "body", US, is another form of spin that seeks to scapegoat Jewish people for Zionist Israel's aparteid policy towards Palestinians. Yes, the Zionist Israeli government is brutal and murderous towards the Palestinians, though so are many other CIA led puppet governments of US globalist imperialism. To claim that Israel is unique other than their Middle Eastern location from any other US sponsored colonial dictatorships is journalistic deceit..

Israel plays the role of a vital US nuclear/military colonial outpost against the greater Muslim diaspora. The end goal is control of and extraction of the Middle East's remaining accessible petroleum reserves. Iraq was just the beginning, Iran and Syria are next on GW bush/Cheney regime's hit list. We, the US people, are resigned to play the role of helpless petroleum addicts, the track marks on our arms showing our daily allegience to Big Daddy Bush's petroleum cartel like a heroin addict kisses the feet of their dealer..

Then the response would be, "why would the US choose Israel as an ally and isolate themselves from the Muslim world?" For example, wouldn't the US have better luck with controlling MidEast petroleum resources by becoming allies with Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, etc..

Maybe part of the answer is cultural similarity (ie., Judeo-Christianity) is easier to form ideological allies than with completely foreign cultures. Even our Muslim allies in Saudi Arabia conform with US standards of materialism/consumerism. The Bin Laden family proves that they are "keeping up with the Bushes" by financing the construction of the world's largest parking garage in Saudi Arabia..

So Mr. Green, what about the role of Saudi Arabia and the close family ties between GW Bush and the powerful Bin Ladens? Like a reverse polarity of Mike Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11", Green focuses only on Israel as calling the shoots ignoring decades of CIA sponsored dictatorships and continued support of the Bin Laden's Saudi kingdom by GW Bush (& US military bases in Saudi Arabia). How do the Wahhabist extremists in Saudi Arabia (ie., Al-Queda) effect the moderate Muslims throughout the diaspora??

"PALAST:
In the eight weeks since the attacks, over 1,000 suspects and potential witnesses have been detained. Yet, just days after the hijackers took off from Boston aiming for the Twin Towers, a special charter flight out of the same airport whisked 11 members of Osama Bin Laden's family off to Saudi Arabia. That did not concern the White House.

Their official line is that the Bin Ladens are above suspicion - apart from Osama, the black sheep, who they say hijacked the family name. That's fortunate for the Bush family and the Saudi royal household, whose links with the Bin Ladens could otherwise prove embarrassing. But Newsnight has obtained evidence that the FBI was on the trail of other members of the] Bin Laden family for links to terrorist organisations before and after September 11th."

more on Bush/Bin Laden family ties that bind @;
http://www.bushwatch.com/binladens.htm

Another missing component of Green's article is lack of mentioning Christian Zionist supporters of Israel (Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee), their close ties to the GW Bush regime and other far right neo-con politicians. Include the known (though often ignored) Christian Zionist adgenda of "Holy War" to take place in Israel's "Armageddon Valley" following the return/resettlement of all Jews to their "Promised Land"..

Here's the latest comment from CUFI (Christians United For Israel) founder John Hagee;

"
"I also encourage as many of you who can and those you lead to attend the Pro-Israel Rally in front of the United Nations building on Wednesday, September 20 at 12:00 noon."

Haggee supports a narrow nationalism, one group dominating the other, Israel having the right to occupy and control all the land - a Pax Romana rather than a Pax Christi."

read more @ Challenging Christian Zionism;
http://www.christianzionism.org/

Let me tell ya'll as an agnostic pagan (yep, me is an infidel also) it is beyond frustratin' to wade through the combined rubbish of so many Judeo-Christian AND Muslim religious fanatics on imc (especially la) networks..

BTW, if "they" had their druthers, both the Christian Zionist Jerry Falwell and the Saudi Wahhabist clerics would be all the more happier if smartmouth pagans like myself were burned at the stake..

Lest we forget the words of Christian Zionist Jerry Falwell post-9/11;

"I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians, ... the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this [terrorist attack] happen." Jerry Falwell, 700 Club, 2001-SEP-13."

Falwell's quote found @;
http://www.religioustolerance.org/reac_ter7.htm

Who can forgive the countless Jewish neo-conservative Zionists holed up in the GWBush regime and their role in the continued support of Israeli militarism that inflicts cruel death upon the Palestinians? Just like the prominent Jewish Zionists in the US who ignored warnings of the Nazi Holocaust, the neo-con Jews like Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, etc.. who support the Bush regime will be recorded by history as mass murderers AND traitors to their own people..

"Pleas to rescue Jews in the Holocaust
ignored by Zionist leaders

The following message about bombing concentration camps and railways, was an exhibit in the Kasztner libel case in Israel during the 1950's. It was sent by Rabbi Michael B. Weissmandel, an organizer for rescue activities operating in the quisling Nazi state of Slovakia. It provides shocking and disturbing evidence of how the Zionist leadership ignored the growing evidence of mass murder and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against Europe's Jews."

read Rabbi's entire letter asking for help @;
http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/pleasignored.html

Mark Green is certainly correct about one point, Israeli Zionism itself IS indeed anti-semitic and anti-human..

Here's an open-ended slightly off-subject question for ya'll to ponder;

Were the indigenous African nations any better/worse off when Judeo-Christian colonialist guns of Europe replaced the previous curved swords of Islamist Arabic colonialism??

Now your free to continue using up imc comment space for your ad hominem attack festival. Carry on goons..

(Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandel, Exhibit of the Defence, no. 36, State Attorney v. M. Grunwald, District Court, Jerusalem, CC124/53)

After the war, Rabbi Weissmandel expressed his frustration in "The Holocaust Victims Accuse", a book by Rabbi Moshe Shonfeld (Neturei Karta, USA, New York, 1977):

"Why didn't they try, from their place of freedom, to break through to us and send us a secret messenger? This question becomes greater when we see that the governments of Czechoslovakia and Poland, which were in free lands, sent secret messengers daily to their loyal people in the occupied countries. And therefore our amazement grows. Why don't the great organizers of Jewry use these messengers if they have no other way? And during all of the years since we developed this method, those in the free countries did not once attempt to send messengers to us - rather, WE had to send them and to pay for them. How many did we send them only for the to return empty-handed - because those over there did not have time to answer why?"

In answer to this, Rabbi Shonfeld quotes the Zionist leader Yitzhak Greenbaum, who, after the war, stated:

"When they asked me, couldn't you give money out of the United Jewish Appeal funds for the rescue of Jews in Europe, I said, 'NO!' and I say again 'NO!' . . . one should resist this wave which pushes the Zionist activities to secondary importance."

During the Kasztner case, Menachem Bader of the Jewish Agency was asked "Did you receive this letter from Rabbi Weissmandel?" He answered: "Letters like this came to us every day".

This is no ordinary letter - it is from a Rabbi who was a first-hand witness of the holocaust. Note how Rabbi Weissmandel asks that the crematoria in Auschwitz be bombed from the air. How it is "sharply visible" - he clearly gave information that he hoped would be passed on to help Allied air crews bomb the murder camps. Rabbi Weissmandl also enclosed a map of the camps. Rabbi Weissmandel knew the bombing would delay the work of the Nazis, which is why he spefically asked for the Allies to bomb "persistently" all the roads leading from Eastern Hungary to Poland and the bridges in the neighborhood of Karpatarus. He advised the the Zionist leadership to "Drop all other business to get this done . . . Remember that one day of your idleness kills twelve thousand souls". Did they do this ? The overwhelming evidence suggests that the Zionists ignored this - and other pleas - to save the majority of Jews in Europe from the Holocaust, insteading they pursued the policy of building the dream of Zionism - the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Were the indigenous African nations any better/worse off when Judeo-Christian colonialist guns of Europe replaced the previous curved swords of Islamist Arabic colonialism??

Ismail Kamil of the Sudan said " Exact same thing. Different colored helmets"

Pretty river, huh? Yeah: pretty DEAD

The industrial planet-killer machine introduced into the rest of the world by the Western planet-cancer has been 100 to 100,000 times more destructive than ANY previous influence, Islamic or otherwise, which never caused destruction remotely like this

This is obvious IF your vision is so expansive...

Most Americans don't seem able to swing it, got their faces mashed too tight into the big creamy suburban tit and into their X-boxes and up their own assholes. It's so sad and sick, the way they keep imagining they're the Big Heroes

"Only people matter" is the most malevolent bigotry of all

Pciture speaks a thousand words...

'Some Palestinian West Bank towns have become "dustbins" for Israeli industrial wastes -- including toxic wastes -- raising cancer rates 5 to 10 times normal according to local Palestinian doctors and politicians. Dr. Abdul-Rahmen Abu-Hanih, who has been practicing medicine in the area for the last 11 years, has "witnessed a tenfold increase in the incidence of cancer -- mainly leukemia, prostate cancer and Hodgkin’s disease" in the town of Azzun reports the Manchester Guardian Weekly. (August 2, 1998, "Palestinians pay price for Israel's toxic waste," by Julian Borger in Azzun, the West Bank)'

Wow, talk about chemical warfare! I'm not surprised. Israelis wage war on the Palestinians in any way they can think of. It's not just the government, it's all of them. The more insidiously vicious the attack the fonder their wet-dreams about it. If you want to see malice so pure it will make your skin crawl, just get on the bad side of an Israel-firster. They're all borderline insane

"Some Palestinian West Bank towns have become "dustbins" for Israeli industrial wastes -- including toxic wastes -- raising cancer rates 5 to 10 times normal "

There is an inherent fallacy in this assertion. Chemicals in the air and in the groundwater know no borders. They effect all. Israel is a tiny nation- the fate of the Palestinans is shared by the Israelis. The fate of the Israelis is shared by the Palestinians

Nonetheless, a recent article - Middle East cancer incidence through 2001. published in the J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006 Jul 18 directly refutes the posted assertions.
Will you share the citation that these figures are gleamed from, please, since I cannot verify them in the published medical literature? The Manchester Guardian is not a peer viewed medical journal, and I see no articles published by the named physician

This assumes Palestinian and Israeli individuals and communities have equal resources at their disposal with which to counteract the health threats posed by pollution, and this is obviously false. Israelis have magnitudes more wealth to bring to bear on such problems. They can use carcinogenic pollution to drive Palestinians dependent on wells out of a given area, then bring in settlers and pipe in water from elsewhere, even from a desalination plant. They have the wealth to do this. And this is exactly their speed. It's just a variation on menacing Palestinian farmers with machine guns to force them to abandon their fields. Or hell, throwing poison into their wells directly, one of the classic Israeli psycho-bigot dirty tricks.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/627/focus.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4482211.stm

"The Manchester Guardian is not a peer viewed medical journal..."

hahahahaha! This is called "inventing an issue." It's one of their faves. They just can't resist getting haughty over credentials and such. If it HAD been a "peer-reviewed" source (big whoop), he would have pulled some other rabbit out of his ass

Since this Natl Cancer Inst asshole-rag can't be accessed by non-subscribers, I would have to take the WORD of a desperate scrambling Israel-firster that this is what it says, and I would sooner shove a soldering iron through my eyeball

-The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, publishes a long expose in which is calls the Israeli Institute of Biological Research (IIBR) "metropolitan Tel Aviv's most severe environmental hazard" and also raises questions regarding the secrecy surrounding the institute's activities.
— Avner Cohen, "Israel and Chemical/Biological Weapons: History, Deterrence, and Arms Control," The Nonproliferation Review, Fall-Winter 2001, Vol. 8, No. 3, p. 36.

19 August 1998
The British magazine Foreign Report reports the four workers have been killed and 25 injured at the Israel Institute of Biological Research in recent years due to separate accidents. It also reports that the authorities ordered the evacuation of the surrounding area following one of the accidents.
— Davis, Douglas, "Report: 4 Killed, 25 Hurt, at Secret Institute," Jerusalem Post, 20 August 1998, p. 2.

3 September 1998
An Israeli court agrees to the release of Avraham Marcus Klingsberg in fifteen days because of his poor health.
— "Israeli Court Paroles Spy for Soviet Union," Agence France Presse, 3 September 1998-

(The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, publishes a long expose in which is calls the Israeli Institute of Biological Research (IIBR) "metropolitan Tel Aviv's most severe environmental hazard" )

Notice how the Institute is in metropolitan Tel Aviv, as opposed to anywhere near the disputed territorties, as asserted in an earlier post.

The crux of the centers research is detection and prevention of such weapons, BTW

This is where the scrabbling desperate Izzy-firster hacked and pasted from

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP25501

I'm so sick of these antics! Hey asshole: if I wanted to take in Jabotinskyism's insane cognitively- & morally-inverted vision of "reality," I would go the MEMRI site and partake first-hand. Make like the wind and blow

Memri translates items from the Arabic press. Its a good insight into what people are reading halfway across the world. It you don't like what you are hearing, its unfortunate. They don't write the news, they just report it. Its what's been translated. If you can find a source that offers a different free translation service, share it with us. If you can dispute the accuracy odf anything MEMRI has translated, be my guest. In the meanwhile- the cry of "They are Jews. We can't trust them" is getting old. Don't you know any other games?

Dose MEMRI ever translate favorable articles about Muslims or Palestinians and disfavorable articles about Israeli policies?
Or does it act like another arm of the Israeli lobby by cherry picking specific bad views on Islam?
Can you provide just one favorable "translation"?

These are some recent reports: most are pretty neutral

Sep 15 SD# 1291 - A Word From the Prison: Dr. Ayman Nour's Letter on the First Anniversary of the Egyptian Presidential Election

Sep 15 SD# 1290 - Somali Journalist: The Islamists Have a Grand Agenda; They Want to Arabize Somalia and Turn it Into an Islamic Emirate in the Fashion of Taliban

Sep 15 SD# 1289 - Tehran Avenue.com - The Discovering of Iranian Pop Culture

Sep 14 SD# 1288 - Editor of Kuwaiti Daily: 'Fighting Terrorism Should Not Be the Concern of Only the U.S. – We Need an International Alliance to Combat This Phenomenon'

Sep 13 SD# 1287 - Former Head of Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. on Iranian TV: 'The 9/11 Events Were Planned by the American Administration'

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 292 - September 6, 2006
If Attacked—Iran's Options Reassessed
By Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli*.

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 291 - August 31, 2006
Pleasure Marriages in Sunni and Shi'ite Islam
By Aluma Dankowitz*.

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 290 - August 11, 2006
Iraqi Shi'a Views of the Lebanon Crisis
By MEMRI Staff, Baghdad Office*

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 289 - July 24, 2006
The Middle East Crisis – Local, Regional, and Global; Conventional and Nuclear (2): The War in the Perception of Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah
By Y.Carmon, A. Savyon, N. Toobian and Y.Mansharof.*.

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 288 - July 21, 2006
The Middle East Crisis - Local, Regional, and Global; Conventional and Nuclear
By Y.Carmon, A. Savyon, N. Toobian and Y.Mansharof.*.

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 287 - July 13, 2006
Egyptian Sheikh Dr. Abd Al-Sabour Tantawi - Islamic Reformist: A Religious and Intellectual Profile
By A. Dankowitz*

I have let to see anyone complain that MEMRI translations were less than accurate.

"...the cry of "They are Jews. We can't trust them" is getting old."

Who cried that? My cry is "they are desperate hole-hopping only-Momma-Izzy-matters political maniacs, so we can't trust them." It's as sound an axiom as "it's gravity. It makes things fall."

Oh, but you have to TWIST criticism of zionist politics into criticism of all Jews, don't you? Yes, of course. This way you can stretch Holocaust Guilt into a smokescreen for your batshit indefensible politics. Yes, we've seen this game before. You're not fooling anybody

Take a researcher, like , oh, lets say Norman Finkelstein, who speaks neither Arabic or Hebrew for that matter. Without a service like MEMRI, it is difficult to examine primary source documents. Of course, its best to abandon the ugly AMerican tendency all together and learn another foreign language, but how many people actually bother?

I asked for an article, not headings, so is that your response?
How about some links?

The truth behind Zionist propaganda

Throughout the last fifty years and especially in the last few months Zionist propaganda has been continuing to spread the untruth that there exists a war between Jews and Muslims. The truth however is not so, there exists no war between Jews and Muslims there exists only a war between Zionists and Muslims which is an outcome of Zionist occupation of the Holy Land and their oppression of the Palestinian people, this is a war in which the true Jewish people (i.e., those true to the Creator and his Torah) have no part for the following reasons.

1.) Orthodox Jews have always vehemently opposed Zionism, from its inception the Zionist movement has been opposed by all Judaism's great Sages and Rabbinical authorities as can be clearly documented, even those living in the Holy Land continue to oppose the existence of the Zionist 'state' and many such as Rabbi Moshe Hirsch of Jerusalem have met with P.L.O leaders expressing the will of Orthodox Jews to live under Palestinian as opposed Zionist rule (Rabbi Hirsch has even been appointed Minister of Jewish affairs in a future Palestinian government).

2.) The true Jewish people desire only to live as peaceful citizens of the non-Jewish governments under whose protection we live, in contrast to the Zionists whose sole interest is to sow hatred and what they call anti-semitism' so as to justify their need for a 'state' and their occupation of the Holy Land.

3.) Orthodox Jews are opposed to the existence of a sovereign 'Jewish' state in the Holy Land due to the fact that our people were exiled from the Holy Land about 2000 years by Heavenly decree because of our sins and our Torah tells us that we are forbidden to act against this Divine decree, and although we are permitted to live in the Holy Land we must live there as peaceful, suborddinate citizens of the ruling non-Jewish government.

4.) The above would apply EVEN to a state run by observant, G-d fearing Jews, all the more so does this apply to the current 'State of Israel' which is run predominantly by atheists who because they have cast off belief in the Creator are (according to the Torah) not even considered part of the Jewish people.

Unfortunately however the Zionists continue to falsely portray themselves as representatives of the Jewish people and are still attempting to transform the Jewish people from a G-d centered into a materialistic nationalistic people, they have transformed Judaism into a dry nationalism and use this as a justification fort their occupation of the Holy Land and injustices committed by them. This is a profanation of the name of the Creator and our Holy faith and therefore hurts us greatly, we therefore see it as it as our duty to inform the world of the following points

a.) The Zionist ideology has no connection whatsoever with Judaism, on the contrary Judaism is totally opposed to Zionism.

b.) The Zionists and their actions do not in any way represent the true Jewish people.

c.) Orthodox Jews share in the grief of all victims of Zionist oppression and pray for the dismantling of the Zionist state and peace to the world.

Rabbi E Weissfish,
Neturei Karta,
Representatives of Orthodox Jewry,
UK, US, Palestine and worldwide

Thanks for clarification about the differences between Judaism and Zionism, as presented by Rabbi Weissfish from Neturei Karta. The Orthodox Rabbis of NK really know their history and religion better than anyone else, and deserve their long awaited turn at the mike..

Visit NK's fact filled site @;
http://www.nkusa.org

To return to earlier comment postings on the ecological effects of Zionist Israel's nuclear weapons and other pollution, Palestinians bear the brunt of this ecocide moreso than do wealthier suburban Israelis (as in environmental racism in US), though the "Holy Land" of both Israel/Palestine is effected beyond any man made borders. Maybe this issue of ecological destruction by Israel's nuclear/chemical weapons activity can bring together moderate Israelis and Palestinians against the apartheid state of Israel. The ongoing house arrest muzzling of nuclear weapons whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu by Israeli government doesn't help in getting the facts out either..

"Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician, completed his entire 18-year sentence in Israel's Ashkelon Prison on April 21, 2004, for blowing the whistle on his government's secret nuclear weapons program. Captured by Israeli agents on September 30, 1986, he spent more than 11 1/2 years in solitary confinement."

Help free Mordechai Vanunu @;
http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/morestory.html

here's the intro for ecocide article;

"Holy Land or Living Hell?
Pollution, Apartheid and Protest in Occupied Palestine

By Ethan Ganor / Published in Earth First! Journal, September/October 2005

From the Jordan River valley and Dead Sea basin, through the central highlands comprising the West Bank's populated core, to the fertile western hills bordering Israel, recent reports from occupied Palestine reveal a worsening environmental crisis. A labyrinth of settlements, industrial zones, dumps, military camps, fortified roads, electrified fences and a massive concrete wall—all of it installed by Israel in the West Bank since 1967 and intensified since 2000—is draining the life from this ancient land."

Entire Earth First! article on Israeli ecocide @;
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/09/21/17689901.php

& @;
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/articles.php?a=888

Obviously the destruction of Palestinian olive orchards by IDF tanks/CAT bulldozers is another form of ecocide and genocide against Palestinians..

"Olive trees are significant in the history of Palestine because they are primary parts of its economy. As I studied them I saw great character in them. Their rugged beauty and their usefulness has affected many others and especially those peasants who tend these trees. Every day as I walked back to my home, I saw an old grandmother in village dress fussing about the olive trees of her family's garden. She belonged to the olive tree every bit as much as the olive belonged to her; and both are part of the essence of Palestine."

more on Palestine's olive trees @;
http://www.art.net/~samia/pal/olives/olives.html

Many Palestinians are glad that certain non-Zionist Jews and Christians have stepped to the plate to denounce the fallacies of Zionist Israeli apartheid. The greatest challenge in the US may be that many people are continuously misled by pro-Israeli propaganda from powerful christian Zionist media (Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network) OR put off by non-Zionist facts that appears to take the form of Islamic dogma. Palestinians have legitimate claims on factual info, although their status as Muslims unfortunately alienates them from many Judeo-Christians in post-9/11 US..

The info balance for the Westerners in US may come in the form of honest non-Zionist Christians and Orthodox Rabbis who denounce Israeli apartheid/ militarism..

The preterist non-Zionist Christians explain the fallacies of Christian Zionists' "dispensationalist dementia" from their database;

http://www.preteristarchive.com/Doomsday/index.html

"INTRODUCTION:

FEAR TACTICS AND DOCTRINAL SUPREMACY TIED TO THE IDEOLOGY OF EMPIRE

"Rapture Theology" represents the most vocal Christian sect in America today. This view, wedding an extremely Right Wing political theory, attaches itself to Israel theologically, convinced that the State of Israel is "God's Chosen Nation". Watching current events very closely, they believe that war in Israel/Iraq/Iran will hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ. Besides being terribly racist and dangerous, this Doomsday Theology is simply unfounded in Christian History -- and, even more significantly, is completely unknown in the Bible.

The Dispensationalist view of bible prophecy teaches that the nation of Israel is still waiting for its kingdom and King, as well as the reception of the inheritances of the biblical 'Abrahamic Covenant'. Accordingly, they teach, the Second Coming and Great Tribulation is right around the corner to settle affairs."

The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) is a regional center for environmental leadership.
By encouraging environmental cooperation between peoples, the Arava Institute is working towards peace and sustainable development on a regional and global scale. The Institute is situated on Kibbutz Ketura in Israel's Southern Arava Valley - a desert in the Syrio-African rift near the Jordanian and Egyptian borders and the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat. The Institute is home to academic programs, research and public involvement.

The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is the premier environmental teaching and research program in the Middle East, preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the
region’s environmental challenges. Located in the heart of Israel’s Arava desert, the Arava Institute is a unique oasis of environmental education, research, and international cooperation.

Students at the Arava Institute explore a range of environmental issues from a regional, interdisciplinary perspective while learning peace-building and leadership skills. The studies are international in scope, with a student body comprised of Jordanians, Palestinians, Israelis, North Americans as well as other nationalities.

The Arava Institute gives Jewish, Arab and other students a unique opportunity to study and live together for an extended period of time; building networks and understanding that will enable future cooperative work and activism in the Middle East and beyond. Here, the idea that nature knows no political borders is more than a belief. It is a fact, a curriculum, and a way of life.

Wow, we never see anything about Ahava in the mainstream media