|
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
JUDGE THROWS OUT GOVERNMENTS CASE AGAINST CAiR INTERNATIONAL
US judge quashes convictions of Islamic charity leaders-AP
A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the government's case against a former Islamic charity leader and partially overturned the convictions of two others, ruling prosecutors failed to prove all the charges. The charity leader, Samir Al-Monla, was cleared of all charges and immediately released. The two others - Emadeddin Muntasser and Muhammed Mubayyid - remain in custody pending sentencing next week on the remaining counts. The three were convicted in January of duping the US government into awarding their Boston-based organization, Care International Inc., tax-exempt status by hiding its pro-jihad activities. Care International, which is now defunct, described its mission as helping war orphans, widows and refugees in Muslim nations. But prosecutors said the organization also distributed a newsletter promoting jihad and supported Muslim militants involved in armed conflicts around the world. (JPost)
Click to Read more
FIVE ALLEGED AL-QAEDA SUSPECTS TO FACE CHARGES FOR SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS
Al-Qa'eda suspects to face court over September 11 attack-Alex Spillius
Five leading al-Qa'eda suspects will face a military judge to enter a plea to 2,973 charges of murder – one for every person killed in the September 11 attacks on the United States.
It is the first time that alleged ring-leaders of the attacks will appear in public since they were detained in separate locations in 2002 and 2003. They will be arraigned at a special court at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with their full trial due to start within three months. All face the sentence of death. In addition to the charges of murder, the five men – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash – are accused of conspiring with al-Qa'eda to murder civilians, destruction of property and terrorism. All but Qahtani and Hawsawi are charged with hijacking or hazarding an aircraft. Families of the victims expressed their relief that nearly seven years after hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Centre, in New York, and the Pentagon, in Washington, a major step forward had been taken. Dominic Puopolo, whose mother Sonia died on flight UA11, the first plane that crashed into the north tower, said: "The waiting has tested the limits of my patience but I am prepared to wait as long as it takes. I promised my mum that day that I would never rest on this. I am very excited it's moving forward." (Telegraph)
Click to Read more
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
DUTCH JOURNALISTS COULD FACE PROSECUTION FROM JORDANIAN ORGANISATION
Denmark: Journalists face legal action in Jordan for cartoons
Copenhagen, 3 June (AKI) - A Jordanian organisation wants to prosecute the Danes responsible for the publication of cartoons considered blasphemous to the Islamic Prophet Mohammed. According to Danish media reports, 11 Danes have been summoned to appear before the Jordanian public prosecutor to answer charges of blasphemy and threatening the national peace. The media reported the action a day after a bomb attack outside the Danish Embassy killed at least eight people and injured several others in Islamabad. Those facing legal action include the cartoonist who drew one of the Mohammed cartoons and editors from 10 of the 17 newspapers that reprinted them. (AKI)
Click to Read more
JIHADISTS ARE TERRORISTS
Calling jihadists by their right name-Robert Spencer
This New York Times op-ed defends the government's new PC guidelines forbidding use of the term "jihadists" to describe the people who are waging war against the U.S. It does so artfully, but ultimately in a way that exposes the faulty assumptions of this entire initiative.
"What Do You Call a Terror(Jihad)ist?," by P. W. Singer and Elina Noor in the New York (aka New Duranty) Times, June 2 (thanks to all who sent this in):
IMAGINE if Franklin D. Roosevelt had taken to calling Adolf Hitler the “leader of the National Socialist Aryan patriots” or dubbed Japanese soldiers fighting in World War II as the “defenders of Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
To describe the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese Army in terms that incorporated their own propaganda would have been self-defeating. Unfortunately, that is what many American policymakers have been doing by calling terrorists “jihadists” or “jihadis.” This is a terrific way to present this argument. My hat is off to P. W. Singer and Elina Noor for their rhetorical skill. If Roosevelt had called Hitler the “leader of the National Socialist Aryan patriots,” or the Japanese the “defenders of Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere,” he really would have been purveying Axis propaganda. Would he, however, have been purveying Axis propaganda if he called Hitler a National Socialist (or a Nazi), or the Japanese State Shinto imperialists? No, of course not. In the scenario offered by Singer and Noor, the terms are indeed propagandistic, but in the scenario I'm offering, they're merely descriptive. At issue here is whether it is propagandistic, and playing into the hands of the enemy, to call Osama bin Laden and others like him "jihadists," or whether it is merely descriptive to do so -- in which case avoiding doing so would be playing into the hands of the enemy, for if we cannot name the enemy correctly, we certainly cannot defeat him.
Click to Read more
BRIGITTE BARDOT FINED FOR SPEAKING AGAINST MUSLIM PRACTISES
 French screen icon Bardot fined for anti-Muslim remarks-AFP
France's 1960s screen icon Brigitte Bardot received a 15,000-euro (23,000 dollar) fine on Tuesday for inciting hatred against Muslims. In December 2006, the film star-turned-animal rights activist wrote a letter to France's then interior minister, current President Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing that Muslims should stun animals before slaughtering them during the Aid al-Kabir holiday. She outraged anti-racist groups by saying: "I've had enough of being led by the nose by this whole population which is destroying us, (and) destroying our country by imposing their ways." Bardot, now 73 and suffering from arthritis, was absent from Tuesday's court hearing in Paris. She wrote to the court saying: "I'm sickened by how (these organisations) are harassing me." She added: "I will not shut up until stunning is carried out" on animals before their ritual slaughter. Bardot already has four convictions on similar charges. In 2004 she was fined 5,000 euros for inciting racial hatred in her book "Un Cri Dans le Silence" (A Cry in the Silence). France is home to Europe's largest Muslim community, estimated at five million people.
HAMAS ALLOWING ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN GAZA
Anti-Christian 'Cleansing' Campaign Picks Up Pace in Gaza-Gil Ronen
(IsraelNN.com) Attacks on Christian targets and those identified with Western culture have grown more frequent in Gaza in the past two years, and especially since the Hamas takeover in June 2007, experts say. The targets have included churches, Christian and United Nations schools, the American International School, libraries and Internet cafes. The most recent incident occurred this past Saturday, May 31, when gunmen attacked the guards at the Al Manara school, stole a vehicle belonging to the Baptist Holy Book Society which operates the school and threatened the society's director. The Hamas leadership is not acting to stop the attacks and no one has been brought to justice. (INN)
Click to Read more
ANTISEMITISM
ANTHONY JULIUS: (THE UCU MOTION) IS A CRAVEN VERSION OF A BOYCOTT MOTION
Academic union could face legal action on ‘backdoor boycott’-Leon Symons and Shelly Paz
The University and College Union will almost certainly face legal action if its executive decides to turn into policy the “back-door boycott” motion on Israel passed at its congress last week.
Senior lawyer Anthony Julius, acting on behalf of what he called a “growing number” of Jewish and non-Jewish UCU members, has written to UCU general secretary Sally Hunt setting out four areas where he said the union could be challenged legally. He argued that:
- The motion, despite the union’s denials, is a boycott motion;
- It is antisemitic;
- Because of the first two points, the UCU and its trustees could be sued, according to a legal opinion produced for the Stop The Boycott campaign;
- There would also be a claim by members for harassment under the Race Relations Act.
Mr Julius, a consultant at law firm Mishcon de Reya, told the JC this week: “I think the union has to stop being antisemitic and promoting antisemitism. Its denial of antisemitism is something to be taken into account, but it is hardly convincing. (JC.com)
Click to Read more
UCU PASSES MOTION TO BOYCOTT ISRAELI ACADEMICS AND INSTITUTIONS
Build bridges not boycotts-Jeremy Newmark
Last Wednesday, the University and College Union Congress, the second in its short history, followed the well-worn path of its inaugural event last year, along with that of its predecessor unions, in proposing a boycott motion against Israeli academics and academic institutions. It came as no surprise that the motion passed; the UCU Congress was hijacked yet again by far-left factions able to use their delegates to push through a policy platform that in no way represents the views of the wider union membership. However, after last year's experience, it is not at all clear why the motion appeared at all. After UCU passed a boycott motion at its inaugural congress in May 2007, a coalition of academics, education groups, the British Jewish community and pro-Israel organizations formed Stop the Boycott. This coalition aimed to convince UCU to overturn its pro-boycott policy by demonstrating why the proposals would be bad for Palestinians, bad for Israelis, and ultimately work against the cause of peace. (JPost)
Click to Read more
UC IRVINE, THE MUSLIM STUDENT UNION AND ANTI-SEMITISM
 The Most Muslim University in America- Reut R. Cohen and Jonathan Constantine Movroydis
At the University of California, Irvine the Muslim Student Union (MSU), a virulently anti-Semitic and anti-American student group, holds several programs which unabashedly support terrorist groups and unjustly denounce Israel, America, and the Western world. MSU events have featured speakers like Norman Finkelstein, Ward Churchill, Muhammad al-Asi and Amir Abdel Malik Ali, and have had titles such as "Hamas: the People's Choice" and "Israel: The 4th Reich." On May 12, 2008 the Muslim Student Union invited Muhammad al-Asi to speak on the main part of the campus in front of the flag poles. Al-Asi has spoken at UC Irvine before, and his speeches are usually riddled with stereotypical tirades on Jews and unrepentant affirmations of terrorist acts on American and Israel. Out of all the MSU’s speakers, al-Asi has the most lurid personal history. A former Air Force Officer, al-Asi became radicalized by the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and is an avid admirer of the late Ayatollah Khomeini. In 1983, he was removed from his position at the Islamic Center in Washington D.C. for being too radical, and since then, he preaches his hateful message in front of the very same mosque to passers-by. Al-Asi also makes regular trips to Iran to meet hard-line officials, and as reported by the Washington Post, is under constant surveillance from the United State’s government. (FrontpageMag)
Click to Read more
DARWINISM "SERVES GOALS OF GLOBAL JEWRY"
Hamas Deputy Minister of Religious Endowment on Jewish History and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion-Memri
Following are excerpts from an interview with Saleh Riqab, Hamas deputy minister of religious endowment, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 14, 2008.
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1776.htm.
To view the MEMRI TV page on Hamas, visit http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/95.htm.
"They Have Come Up With Many Means to Achieve [the Destruction of Religion and Morality] - Such As Inventing Philosophical Theories That Destroy Religion and Morality"
Saleh Riqab: "The goal of the Zionist movement is to establish a state in Palestine, which would become a base for ruling the entire world. Its other goals are to destroy the religions it opposes, particularly Islam; to corrupt values and morality; to spread permissiveness and sex; and to generate moral decline. "They have come up with many means to achieve this, such as inventing philosophical theories that destroy religion and morality. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim founded the theory of the formation of religion, which attributes it to reason - which means that religion did not originate from God. This is known as the theory of 'collective thought.' "Jean-Paul Sartre, founder of existentialism, which is based on atheism, was a famous French Jew. The psychologist Freud, who interpreted the infant's relations with his mother as sexual, said, when he was given an award, 'I have never renounced my Judaism.'"
Darwinism "Serves Goals of Global Jewry"
"There are also theories that were invented by non-Jews, but they disseminate them, knowing that they are scientifically false, such as the theory of Darwin. Darwin was not Jewish, but they exploited his theory. Even though new Darwinist theories have appeared, they spread the original theory, because the concept of 'survival of the fittest' serves their colonialist needs." (MEMRI)
Click to Read more
AHMADINEJAD VOWS ISRAEL WILL BE WIPED OFF THE FACE OF THE MAP
 President says Zionist Regime of Israel faces deadend-IRNA
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Monday that the Zionist Regime of Israel faces a deadend and will under God's grace be wiped off the map. "O dear Imam (Khomeini)! You said the Zionist Regime that is a usurper and illegitimate regime and a cancerous tumor should be wiped off the map. I should say that your illuminating remark and cause is going to come true today. The Zionist Regime haslost its existence philosophy... the Zionist regime faces a complete deadend and under God's grace your wish will soon be materialized and the corrupt element will be wiped off the map," said President Ahmadinejad. Addressing a ceremony on the 19th departure anniversary of the late Imam Khomeini, President Ahmadinejad said the Palestinian nation has distinguished its path and is proceeding rightly in the way. Elsewhere in his remarks, the President termed the late Imam Khomeini as "flag bearer of monotheism" in the contemporary world and said Iranians will continue to remain loyal to his aspirations.
Click to Read more
TERRORISM
WOMEN DEMAND THE RIGHT TO BE MARTYRS TOO
 Women demand equal opportunities – to blow themselves to smithereens-Lauren Frayer and Mike Theodoulou
IN A bizarre demand for sexual equality, Islamic women extremists are insisting that al-Qaeda gives them the right to become suicide bombers and terrorists. Many women have responded with a mixture of anger and dismay to online advice from Osama bin Laden's right-hand man that they should keep to being housewives. Ayman al-Zawahiri praised the wives of al-Qaeda terrorists and said they must "be ready for any service" their men might require. But he declared that a woman's role must be limited to looking after the homes and children of fighters – and she should not travel to any war front without a male guardian.
Zawahiri's strong views on the subject are the result of both personal experience and religious beliefs. His first wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a US airstrike in the Afghan city Kandahar in 2001. (Scotsman)
Click to Read more
INDIA: EXPANSION IS THE ISLAMIC GAME
Terror as a trump weapon of jehad- Prafull Goradia
The bomb blasts at Jaipur are, above all, acts of cowardice whereby the perpetrators were anonymous and their victims were innocent women, children as well as men. Muslims have generally followed the example and exhortations of Prophet Muhammad. He fought many a battle and most often led the troops himself. Little wonder that his lead inspired the conquest of North Africa and Spain in one direction and through Iraq and Iran as far as Afghanistan and Sindh in the other; all in a matter of a century. It did not take very long for Islam to reach heartland India and go all the way to Indonesia. In the course of 14 centuries, from zero the Muslim population has become the second largest in the world at 21 per cent. The Indian subcontinent today has 40 per cent which was a mere 10 per cent in late Mughal times. Evidently, expansion was the name of the Islamic game: conquer more and more territories and have more and more Muslims. While expansion was the end, exploitation of nature as well as people was the means. With the petro-dollars earned, no Muslim country is yet an industrial power. The ummah’s record of modern education as well as the treatment of women is far from laudable. At the same time, a typical Muslim, whether a soldier or a civilian, is not known to be a coward. On the contrary, he is happy to die in a holy war. (Organiser.org)
Click to Read more
ATTEMPT TO BOMB PARLIAMENT A ‘PR’ STUNT CLAIMS TERROR SUSPECT
Terror suspect: we wanted to bomb Parliament for the publicity, not to kill-Home Staff
The leader of an alleged terrorist gang accused of planning mid-air carnage dismissed a plot to set off a bomb at Westminster as a “publicity stunt”. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, admitted conspiring to explode a bomb at the Houses of Parliament as a political protest, but he told Woolwich Crown Court that neither he nor two other men involved in the plan wanted to kill or hurt anyone. He said that martyrdom videos found by police, in which he and others threatened violent attacks on the West, were propaganda for an anti-government documentary. Giving evidence in his defence, Mr Ali said that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had driven him to act. Describing his plans, he said that an attack in Westminster would attract international publicity. He said: “Enough to cause general concern . . . We did not want to kill or injure anyone. Something small enough to cause a large bang, maybe some smoke. Something that would be considered serious and credible, something to generate that mass media attention.” Mr Ali is accused with seven other men of a terrorist conspiracy to murder thousands in attacks on transatlantic aircraft. The prosecution said that the men planned to smuggle liquid bombs disguised as soft drinks on board and detonate them. (TimesOnline)
Click to Read more
SIR HUGH ORDE UK SHOULD NEGOTIATE WITH AL-QAEDA
Top cop says UK 'should talk' to al-Qaeda-Times Online
One of Britain’s most senior policemen has said that the Government should negotiate with al-Qaeda in a strategy to end its campaign of violence. In an interview with The Guardian, Sir Hugh Orde, head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said that he could not think of a single terrorism campaign in history that ended without negotiation. Sir Hugh, reportedly a front-runner to be the next commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said that 30 years of tackling the IRA convinced him that policing - detecting plots and arresting people - was not enough alone to defeat terrorists. He told the newspaper: “If you want my professional assessment of any terrorism campaign, what fixes it is talking and engaging and judging when the conditions are right for that to take place. “Is that a naive statement? I don’t think it is ... It is the reality of what we face. If somebody can show me any terrorism campaign where it has been policed out, I’d be happy to read about it, because I can’t think of one.” Sir Hugh admits that negotiating with terrorists means “thinking the unthinkable” and said that some of the biggest risks his officers took were talking to people that “historically they would not have dreamed of talking to”. (TimesOnline)
Click to Read more
‘MODERATE ISLAM’ IS THERE SUCH A THING?
Less Violent Islamists Are Still Islamists-Youssef M. Ibrahim
A fierce debate is brewing among jihadists, it seems. To hear pundits and the CIA boss describe it, the rupture is growing over interpretations by radical theologians about whom to kill and how to do it in the name of God. It is progress of sorts flushing out mea culpas from repentant Islamists and widening divisions within Terror Inc., but far from advancement toward a triumph in a war of terror. A more serious shortcoming is an accompanying refrain promoting “moderate Islam” to fill the void. That is tantamount to saying: “Okay, we take bin Laden heavy off the table and give you Sharia light.” A month ago I was on a panel discussion on “Confronting Radicalism in the Arab World” that included Tawfik Hamid, whose pedigree includes serving in al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, the bloodiest of Egypt’s terror groups that assassinated Egypt’s Anwar Sadat in 1981 and carried out assaults on hundreds of intellectuals, writers (including Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz), Christians, and government officials in the eighties. Hamid has developed a good gig as speaker and op-ed writer (mostly at the Wall Street Journal). He passionately expounds on “conditional” interpretations of Koranic verses urging killing of apostates, non-Muslims, infidels, and renegades, explaining that his former colleagues misinterpret them. His subtext is trickier, pleading for a second chance for “moderate Islam” to accomplish what radical Islam clearly is failing at. (Pajamasmedia.com)
Click to Read more
TERRORISTS BOMB DANISH EMBASSY OVER CARTOONS
 Bomb hits Pakistan Danish embassy-BBC
At least six people have been killed and 30 injured in a car bomb attack near the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
An embassy worker was among the dead and three were hurt but no Danish citizens were killed or injured. Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen called the act "cowardly" and said it would not change Danish policies… Some Danish embassies around the world have been threatened since a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad was reprinted in Danish newspapers in February. The cartoons, deemed offensive to Islam, led to worldwide protests when they were first printed in September 2005. The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says suspicion for the attack has fallen on al-Qaeda, as the network's number two Ayman al-Zawahri denounced the cartoons in a recent video. Denmark also has 700 troops fighting the Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan. (BBC)
Click to Read more
TERRORISM-INTERNET
GOOGLES ‘FREE SPEECH’ HYPOCRISY
Hypocritical Google Removes Video Which Offends Thailand's King But Not Terrorists' Videos- Andrew Cochran
On May 19, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman called on Google to remove to remove Internet videos produced by terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda from its YouTube subsidiary. "Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training," the Senator said in his letter. "YouTube also, unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive, and amplified voice, despite military setbacks or successful operations by the law enforcement and intelligence communities." Google responded: "(W)e examined and ended up removing a number of videos from the site, primarily because they depicted gratuitous violence, advocated violence, or used hate speech. Most of the videos, which did not contain violent or hate speech content, were not removed because they do not violate our Community Guidelines." (Countererrorismblog)
Click to Read more
TERROR BILL UNDER ATTACK FROM CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUPS
Internet Attacked as Tool of Terror-Matt Renner
A controversial plan to study and profile domestic terrorism was scrapped after popular push back, however, the spirit of the legislation lives on in Senator Joe Lieberman's office. HR 1955, "The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" passed the House in October 2007 with almost unanimous support. The bill immediately came under fire from civil liberties watchdogs because of what many saw as a deliberate targeting of Muslims and Arabs and the possible chilling effect it might have on free speech. The original bill intended to set up a government commission to investigate the supposed threat of domestically produced terrorists and the ideologies that underpin their radicalization. The ten-member commission was to be empowered to "hold hearings and sit and act at such times and places, take such testimony, receive such evidence, and administer such oaths as the Commission considers advisable to carry out its duties." The bill also singled out the Internet as a vehicle for terrorists to spread their ideology with the intention of recruiting and training new terrorists. (Scoop.co.nz)
Click to Read more
JIHAD-INTERNET
ISRAELI RABBIS, INTELLECTUALS AND POLITICIANS UNDERSCORE THE NAZI MENTALITY PERMEATING THROUGHOUT ISRAEL
 The Israeli Wehrmacht-Posting From A Hamas Forum- From Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
I realize that comparing Israel with Nazi Germany makes many people angry. However, it is perfectly true that when Israel thinks, behaves and acts as Nazi Germany did, Israel becomes deserving of and qualified for the ultimate comparison. And Israel has been and is behaving and acting very much as Nazi Germany did prior to and during the Second World War. I bet this is not news for all those who have been following up Israeli behavior against the Palestinians (and other peoples of the Middle East) ever since Zionism seized Palestine from its native inhabitants sixty years ago. Let us borrow some examples from the outrage that is happening right now before our eyes in the Gaza Strip where Israel is effectively carrying out slow-motion genocide against the enclave’s 1.5 million Palestinians. On Friday, 30 May, trigger-happy Israeli soldiers indoctrinated in the racist ideology that non-Jews are not complete human beings, opened fire on unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in the northern Gaza Strip, wounding and maiming seven people.
According to medical sources, at least two of the victims were listed in critical conditions. The protesters were not trying to “storm Israel” and posed no risk whatsoever to the safety of Israeli soldiers.
They were merely protesting the diabolic blockade imposed on them for the past 12 months by a state that claims to be a light upon the nations. Yet, the murderous sons of Zionism shot into the crowd of protesters without any thought for the innocent blood they were spilling. The apathy and feeling of nonchalance should remind us of Nazi behaviors more than six decades ago. There is no doubt that a state that murders innocent people knowingly and deliberately is a criminal state that is an abomination, not a light, upon the nations. Likewise, there is no doubt that the citizens of such a state who passively or actively watch the daily theatre of murder without trying to stop it or at least speaking up against it are as criminal-minded as those Germans that watched, saw and looked the other way when Jews and non-Jews were being exterminated en mass at the hands of the Nazi beast. Zionist Jews, who are bringing dishonor to Judaism, a great religion that teaches “thou shall not murder” and “thou shall not lie,” and “thou shall not steal” have no right to lecture the world about the evils of Nazism as long as they adamantly refuse to apply the lessons of the holocaust to their Palestinian victims. After all, there is no such a thing as a kosher genocide or a kosher holocaust. And when Jews (or anyone else) think, behave and act like Nazis, they become Nazis. Pure and simple. A crime doesn’t become less when perpetrated by Jewish hands. Interestingly, the incident near the Erez Checkpoint on Friday was actually minor compared to the pornographic atrocities and crimes against humanity Israel has been committing in Gaza. According to human rights organizations, including Israel’s own B’tselem group, Israel has killed and maimed thousands of innocent people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since 2000. The Israeli army murdered Palestinian families vacationing along the Gaza beach. The Israeli army murdered children sleeping in the privacy of their homes and flats. The Israeli army knowingly and deliberately bombed residential homes and annihilated entire families on the ground that a member of the doomed family held political views the Zionist establishment didn’t like. Israel committed these crimes, not once, or twice, but many times. And never ever did Israeli military and political officials truly expressed regret for their crimes. And whenever they did, they did it for media consumption, given the continuation of these criminal obscenities. Israel is a lying nation that lies as often as it breathes. It claims it is only reacting to Palestinian rockets fired from the Gaza Strip onto nearby Jewish settlements in southern Israel. However, it is crystal clear that it is Israel, not Hamas, that has been refusing a ceasefire by arrogantly insisting that Israel must retain the right to murder, starve and blockade Palestinians for not accepting the “legitimacy” of Zionism. Well, Zionism has no legitimacy just as Nazism had no legitimacy, and according legitimacy, especially moral legitimacy to Zionism, would be like according legitimacy to Nazism. Indeed, it would be a thunderous act of moral insanity to lend legitimacy to an ideology that permits the mass murder and mass expulsion of one people in order to enable another people to enjoy life at the expense of the victims. It is perfectly true that the magnitude of Israeli criminality against the Palestinians has not reached the level of the holocaust. But it is also true that the “manageable level” of Israeli Nazism is not mainly attributed to Zionist morality. Morality and Zionism are an eternal oxymoron. Indeed, the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which in many aspects resembles the Nazi siege of Ghetto Warsaw, demonstrates that Zionist Jews could embark on the unthinkable if they thought the world would grant them a few weeks or months to “get the job done.” The nearly daily statements we keep hearing from some Israeli rabbis, intellectuals and politicians underscore the Nazi mentality permeating throughout Israel. This is the reason Israel keeps trying to desensitize and neutralize world public opinion with regard to Israeli crimes against the Palestinians. In the past, Israel refrained from exterminating a larger number of Palestinians due to possible American objections. This is when American retained a modicum of common sense in its overall discourse. Now, however, there are influential American circles, especially within the evangelical and Jewish communities, that wouldn’t necessarily view a prospective Palestinian genocide at Israel’s hands as something totally undesirable or unacceptable. Didn’t Eli Weisel claim that the world that didn’t protect Jews from Nazism had no right to protect Palestinians from Israel? Hence, it is essential that genuine efforts be made to stop the slide toward a full-fledged genocide against a long-tormented people that has survived 60 years of oppression and persecution at the hands of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the holocaust. This task is certainly not easy but not impossible either. We need to see hundreds of thousands or millions of people take to the streets in the capitals of Europe to urge governments to see to it that the current slow-moving genocide be stopped immediately and that the people of Gaza be allowed to access food, and fuel and other basic consumer goods. In short, Israel must not be allowed to destroy an entire people under the rubric of fighting Hamas. Otherwise, what is the point of even remembering the holocaust?
|
