16.12.08

UN adopts Middle East resolution

UN adopts Middle East resolution
The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution aimed at giving fresh momentum to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.



UN Security Council Resolutions 2008

S/RES/1850 (2008)

2.12.08

Palestinians

The Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank have been at the centre of more than half a century of dispute over the legality of the occupation of neighbouring land by the state of Israel. Gaza also has a border with Egypt, while Jordan shares a border with the West Bank.

Eastern Jerusalem is claimed as the capital city of the Palestinian territories but the seat of the Palestinian Authority is in Ramalla, and for day-to-day purposes this is the administrative capital.


Fateh Net
Official website (Arabic)

Ynet News
Israeli news site

Palestinefacts.org
History of Fatah

Ma’an News Agency
Independent Palestinian news agency (English version)

BBC coverage

From the Council on Foreign Relations:
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Crisis Guide

Toward the Brink in Gaza
Hamas backgrounder


CIA - The World Factbook: Gaza Strip

CIA - The World Factbook: West Bank




Morning swim, Gaza
courtesy of arabianEye.com



West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be determined through further negotiation; Israel removed settlers and military personnel from the Gaza Strip in August 2005.

Israel continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier along parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel withdrew from four settlements in the northern West Bank in August 2005; since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), headquartered in Jerusalem, monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the region.


The West Bank and the Gaza Strip became distinct geographical units as a result of the 1949 armistice that divided the new Jewish state of Israel from other parts of Mandate Palestine.

From 1948 to 1967, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was ruled by Jordan. During this period, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian military administration.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israel took control of the western part of Jerusalem, while Jordan took the eastern part, including the old walled city containing important Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious sites.

The hostilities that accompanied the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 led to the flight of some 750,000 refugees from Palestine. Most of these refugees fled to the West Bank, then held by Jordan, to the Gaza Strip, held by Egypt, and to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and even further afield. The Arab-Israeli war of 1967 led to yet another displacement, this time of more than 500,000 Palestinians, nearly half of whom were refugees uprooted for a second time.

West Bank: refugees (country of origin): 722,000 (Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA)) (2007)

Gaza Strip: refugees (country of origin): 1.017 million (Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA)) (2007)

More: Israel / Palestine

24.11.08

If Americans Knew

From the if Americans knew propaganda website:

The standard Zionist position is that they showed up in Palestine in the late 19th century to reclaim their ancestral homeland. Jews bought land and started building up the Jewish community there. They were met with increasingly violent opposition from the Palestinian Arabs, presumably stemming from the Arabs' inherent anti-Semitism. The Zionists were then forced to defend themselves and, in one form or another, this same situation continues up to today.

The problem with this explanation is that it is simply not true, as the documentary evidence in this booklet will show. What really happened was that the Zionist movement, from the beginning, looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the indigenous Arab population so that Israel could be a wholly Jewish state, or as much as was possible.

Actually, the Arabs were displaced mostly as a result of wars.

As independence was declared, Arab forces from Egypt, Syria, Transjordan (later Jordan), Lebanon, and Iraq invaded Israel.
The 1948 hostilities witnessed thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes in Palestine to take refuge in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and neighbouring Arab countries. The hostilities that accompanied the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 led to the flight of some 750,000 refugees from Palestine. Most of these refugees fled to the West Bank, then held by Jordan, to the Gaza Strip, held by Egypt, and to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and even further afield.

The Arab-Israeli war of 1967 led to yet another displacement, this time of more than 500,000 Palestinians, nearly half of whom were refugees uprooted for a second time."
source



Land bought by the Jewish National Fund was held in the name of the Jewish people and could never be sold or even leased back to Arabs (a situation which continues to the present).

Jewish National Fund -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Jewish National Fund: History



The Arab community, as it became increasingly aware of the Zionists' intentions, strenuously opposed further Jewish immigration and land buying because it posed a real and imminent danger to the very existence of Arab society in Palestine. Because of this opposition, the entire Zionist project never could have been realized without the military backing of the British.

In World War I the British, with Arab aid, gained control of Palestine. In the Balfour Declaration (1917) the British promised Zionist leaders to aid the establishment of a Jewish “national home” in Palestine, with due regard for the rights of non-Jewish Palestinians. However, the British had also promised Arab leaders to support the creation of independent Arab states. The Arabs believed Palestine was to be among these, an intention that the British later denied. source


The vast majority of the population of Palestine, by the way, had been Arabic since the seventh century A.D. (Over 1200 years)

The Arabs from Arabia conquered Palestine in 638 AD from the Byzantines. So from that time on there was indeed an Arab population in Palestine.

Underground chambers and tunnels used during a Jewish revolt against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in northern Israel. Archaeologists find ancient Israel tunnels

The Jewish revolt against Roman rule ended in A.D. 70, when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. The original settlement, which dates from the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., is also a new discovery. Archaeologists Find Ancient Israel Tunnels

Before that time, the Israelites had their kingdom in Palestine - in the 12th and 13th centuries B.C.

The last Jewish kingdom won control of the land from the Hellenistic Greeks during the Maccabean rebellion from 168 to 140 B.C. The state lasted until 63 B.C., when Pompey conquered Palestine for Rome. When the Jews revolted in A.D. 66, the Romans destroyed the Temple (A.D. 70). Another revolt between A.D. 132 and 135 was also suppressed (see Bar Kokba, Simon), Jericho and Bethlehem were destroyed, and the Jews were barred from Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was never the capital of any state but Israel.

"At this time (during the Umayyad rule), the importance of Palestine as a holy place for Muslims was emphasized, and in 691 the Dome of the Rock was erected on the site of the Temple of Solomon, which is claimed by Muslims to have been the halting station of Muhammad on his journey to heaven. Close to the Dome, the Aqsa mosque was built. In 750, Palestine passed to the Abbasid caliphate, and this period was marked by unrest between factions that favored the Umayyads and those who preferred the new rulers."
source


In short, Zionism was based on a faulty, colonialist world view that the rights of the indigenous inhabitants didn't matter.


in·dig·e·nous
adj. Originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native.

Who were the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine?

co·lo·ni·al·ist
n. A believer in colonialism

co·lo·ni·al·ism
n. A policy by which a nation maintains or extends its control over foreign dependencies.

col·o·ni·za·tion
n. The act or process of establishing a colony or colonies.

col·o·ny
n. A group of people who leave their native country to form in a new land a settlement subject to, or connected with, the parent nation.
Any group of individuals having similar interests, occupations, etc., usually living in a particular locality; community: a colony of artists.
The district, quarter, or dwellings inhabited by any such number or group: The Greek island is now an artists' colony.

Is Israel a colony, or an independant nation?

"At the start of the Zionist colonization of Palestine in the late 19th cent., the rural people were Arab peasants (fellahin). Most of the population were Muslims, but in the urban areas there were sizable groups of Arab Christians (at Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem) and of Jews (at Zefat, Tiberias, Jerusalem, Jericho, and Hebron)." source

The Arabs colonized Palestine. The attempt to tie the Arab Palestinians to the first known inhabitants of Palestine, the Canaanites, is incorrect and a desperate attempt at propaganda.

That the Arab invaders who arrived in Palestine are somehow considered more indigenous than the Jews is baffling. Remember that the Arabs from Arabia conquered Palestine in 638 AD from the Byzantines.

Saladin conquered Palestine in 1187 from the European Christian Crusaders. The European Christian Crusaders conquered Palestine in 1099 from the Seljuk Turks, who ruled in the name of the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, which in 750 took over of the entire Near East from the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, which had inherited control of the Islamic lands in 661 from the Arabs from Arabia. The Arabs from Arabia conquered Palestine in 638 AD from the Byzantines in the first flush of Islamic expansion.

The United Nations General Assembly decided in 1947 on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem to be an international city. The plan, which was rejected by the Palestinians [Arabs], was never implemented.

Anti-Semitism was rife in Palestine before and during the British Mandate Period.
Arab violence toward Jews is well documented:

The Haycraft Commission of Inquiry

TheShaw Report

The Hope Simpson Report

The
Peel Commission of 1936, formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission

aljazeera:
The history of Palestinian revolts

During the leadership of Haj Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the local Arabs rebelled against the British, and attacked the growing Jewish population repeatedly. These sporadic attacks began with the riots in Palestine of 1920 and Jaffa riots (or "Hurani Riots") of 1921. During the riots in Palestine of 1929, 67 Jews were massacred in Hebron, and the survivors were driven out.

During WWII, the Grand Mufti Haj Muhammed Amin al-Hussayni wanted to annihilate Jews in Palestine.

The Arab states have gone to war with Israel. They even tried to divert water from Israel.


Don't forget about Yasser Arafat.

Palestinian support for suicide bombers

Palestinian groups that support and carry out acts of political violence include Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Abu Nidal Organization.


One further point: being Jewish ourselves, the position we present here is critical of Zionism but is in no way anti-Semitic. We do not believe that the Jews acted worse than any other group might have acted in their situation. The Zionists (who were a distinct minority of the Jewish people until after WWII) had an understandable desire to establish a place where Jews could be masters of their own fate, given the bleak history of Jewish oppression. Especially as the danger to European Jewry crystalized in the late 1930's and after, the actions of the Zionists were propelled by real desperation.

Desperation? Palestinian support for suicide bombers

Saying that the Zionists were a distinct minority of Jewish people is a pecualiar thing to say.

Zion was a hill in Jerusalem, on which the Temple was built (used to symbolize the city itself, esp. as a religious or spiritual center).

Zi·on -
n. The historic land of Israel as a symbol of the Jewish people. The Jewish people; Israel.

Zi·on·ism - Origin: 1895–1900
n. A Jewish movement that arose in the late 19th century in response to growing anti-Semitism and sought to reestablish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Modern Zionism is concerned with the support and development of the state of Israel.

So modern Zionism is concerned with the support and development of the state of Israel. This means that anyone who is not a modern Zionist does not support Israel or is against Israel. Being against the existing state of Israel, or anti-Israel, would describe many modern Arabs. Most other modern non-Arab people are not particularly anti-Israel, except perhaps neo-Nazi groups and other fringe elements. Perhaps some modern people do not care about the support of Israel any more than they care about the support of any other foreign country. But the Arabs are fairly unique in their desire to remove Israel.



Early History of the Region

Before the Hebrews first migrated there around 1800 B.C., the land of Canaan was occupied by Canaanites.


“Between 3000 and 1100 B.C., Canaanite civilization covered what is today Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon and much of Syria and Jordan...Those who remained in the Jerusalem hills after the Romans expelled the Jews [in the second century A.D.] were a potpourri: farmers and vineyard growers, pagans and converts to Christianity, descendants of the Arabs, Persians, Samaritans, Greeks and old Canaanite tribes.” Marcia Kunstel and Joseph Albright, “Their Promised Land.”


There is absolutely no evidence that Canaanite tribes remained in the Jerusalem hills. The Jews arrived in Palestine before the Arabs, and conquered the Canaanites - probably assimilating with them. This was many centuries before the Arabs arrived.

This is a desperate attempt to tie the Palestinian Arabs, who arrived in Palestine after the Jews, to the only known peoples who inhabited Palestine before the Jews.


The present-day Palestinians’ ancestral heritage

“But all these [different peoples who had come to Canaan] were additions, sprigs grafted onto the parent tree...And that parent tree was Canaanite...[The Arab invaders of the 7th century A.D.] made Moslem converts of the natives, settled down as residents, and intermarried with them, with the result that all are now so completely Arabized that we cannot tell where the Canaanites leave off and the Arabs begin.” Illene Beatty, “Arab and Jew in the Land of Canaan.”

There is absolutely no evidence that the Moslem converts were Caananites, in fact historical evidence suggests otherwise. That "we cannot tell where the Canaanites leave off and the Arabs begin" is propaganda: "we" cannot tell anything at all about Canaanites.

The Jewish kingdoms were only one of many periods in ancient Palestine

“The extended kingdoms of David and Solomon, on which the Zionists base their territorial demands, endured for only about 73 years...Then it fell apart...[Even] if we allow independence to the entire life of the ancient Jewish kingdoms, from David’s conquest of Canaan in 1000 B.C. to the wiping out of Judah in 586 B.C., we arrive at [only] a 414 year Jewish rule.” Illene Beatty, “Arab and Jew in the Land of Canaan.”


More on Canaanite civilization

“Recent archeological digs have provided evidence that Jerusalem was a big and fortified city already in 1800 BCE...Findings show that the sophisticated water system heretofor attributed to the conquering Israelites pre-dated them by eight centuries and was even more sophisticated than imagined...Dr. Ronny Reich, who directed the excavation along with Eli Shuikrun, said the entire system was built as a single complex by Canaanites in the Middle Bronze Period, around 1800 BCE.” The Jewish Bulletin, July 31st, 1998.


How long has Palestine been a specifically Arab country?

“Palestine became a predominately Arab and Islamic country by the end of the seventh century. Almost immediately thereafter its boundaries and its characteristics — including its name in Arabic, Filastin — became known to the entire Islamic world, as much for its fertility and beauty as for its religious significance...In 1516, Palestine became a province of the Ottoman Empire, but this made it no less fertile, no less Arab or Islamic...Sixty percent of the population was in agriculture; the balance was divided between townspeople and a relatively small nomadic group. All these people believed themselves to belong in a land called Palestine, despite their feelings that they were also members of a large Arab nation...Despite the steady arrival in Palestine of Jewish colonists after 1882, it is important to realize that not until the few weeks immediately preceding the establishment of Israel in the spring of 1948 was there ever anything other than a huge Arab majority. For example, the Jewish population in 1931 was 174,606 against a total of 1,033,314.” Edward Said, “The Question of Palestine.”



There is really no connection between the Palestinians and the Canaanites. The Canaanites were conquered by the Israelites centuries before the Arabs arrived on the scene. The Israelites had their kingdom in Palestine in the 12th and 13th centuries B.C. The Arabs from Arabia conquered Palestine in 638 AD from the Byzantines. You do the math.

Edward Said is a dubious source to quote, to say the least.

[Becoming Palestinian:] A Good Career Move


Commentary: The False Prophet of Palestine

Columnist Charles Krauthammer

Columnist Charles Krauthammer

22.11.08

Help Bob Levinson

Help Bob Levinson

Bob Levinson disappeared on March 9, 2007 in Kish Island, Iran. He was last seen checking out of the Hotel Maryam. If you have any information that can help bring Bob home, please email his family at info@helpboblevinson.com.

5.5.08

illegal immigration





Immigration Prosecutions Hit New High
Federal law enforcement agencies have increased criminal prosecutions of immigration violators to record levels, in part by filing minor charges against virtually every person caught illegally crossing some stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border, according to new U.S. data.

3.5.08

US economy at a glance

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7373158.stm

2.5.08

Call to Arabs on Palestinian aid

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7379328.stm

4.4.08

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani


US charges embassy bomb suspect
The US has charged a Guantanamo Bay detainee with war crimes for the 1998 al-Qaeda attack on the US embassy in Tanzania, which left 11 people dead.


The FBI wanted poster for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani in a file image. The Pentagon on Monday sought murder and terrorism charges against a suspect in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Tanzania, and will seek the death penalty if the man is convicted.
(FBI/Handout/Reuters)

31.3.08

muslimmatters.org

There is a funny little racist rant here: Literacy Tests for White Voters


It is not easy to change the trajectory of a society simply by granting equal rights to historically oppressed minority groups. There must be compensatory measures.

Who would be compensated? If everyone is to be on an equal playing field, how can certain races be given preferencial treatment? By the way, this speaks to the issue of Affirmative Action in the U.S. What are you telling minorities when you tell them that they can have lower test scores than others for getting into colleges? You are telling them that they are not as smart, not as good.


And while black voters and politicians have helped to bring sanity and a sense of social justice to American society, white voters have remained numerous enough to consistently jeopardize and often disgrace the nation.

That statement is iteself a very racist statement. "White voters" have remained numerous enough to... this says that as a group white voters have some stereotypical quality that makes them all the same. And they have consistently jeopardized and often disgraced the nation? How has this strange race, these white people, jeopardized and disgraced the nation? These strange white people couldn't possibly be related to the white people who founded this nation and set its design, could they? And they couldn't be related to the white people who decided this nation would be a melting pot of all people?

And while black voters and politicians have helped to bring sanity and a sense of social justice to American society...

Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell are truly great Americans. Let's look at some other black leaders:

Al Sharpton's finances target of federal probe

Jesse Jackson admits love child

Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) Indicted on Fraud, Bribery Counts

Rev Jeremiah Wright lands Barack Obama in trouble again

D.C. Mayor Marion Barry Arrested on Cocaine Charges in Undercover FBI, Police Operation



I do think that literacy tests are a good idea. Maybe they should include some questions from this or this, or maybe even this.

Hillary Clinton





















19.2.08

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

http://www.defenselink.mil/

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/