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Israfax
Homicide bombers, rocket attacks, and Kalachnikovs have replaced the first intifada's stones and concrete blocks. Over 500 Jews (27 since July 22nd alone) and 1,500 Palestinians, have so far died in an ongoing war of attrition, and Europe is witnessing a wave of anti-Semitic expression and attacks unparalleled since the Nazi accession to power in Germany in the 1930s. On the other hand, the terrible, tragic events of September 11, 2001 and the new George W. Bush Administration's global war against terrorism, beginning with the attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, have constituted a new reality. America and Israel are today partners in the war against terror, with the Bush administration recently turning away from an earlier "Arafat stays-Palestinian state first, then peace" policy towards the more realistic current "Arafat leaves-democratic Palestinian state first, then peace". The much-bruited American "regime-change" attack against Iraq, which may well change the political the map of the Middle East, seems clearly in the cards. And even the Russians, under Putin, are cooperating, abandoning Iraq and upping oil production to offset Iraqi interruption and possible Saudi and Gulf State embargoes if, and when, war comes. It has become clear that the Palestinian terror attacks are the product of a deeply disturbed culture of death, expressed in the popular cult of "suicide"-martyrs and issuing from a deep-seated, irrational hatred of Jews. They express essentially genocidal intent, one echoed in the Arab mass media. This intent--given chemical, biological, and potentially nuclear weapons, and long-range ballistic missiles--constitutes a radical, and pressing danger, not only to Israel but also to the West, to Europe and the U.S. A sovereign Palestinian state is, under current circumstances, not in the offing. But while Arafat alone cannot destroy Israel, he is causing grievous harm, and could still trigger a dangerous regional conflict. Under such circumstances, our unflagging support for Israel, the miraculous expression of a reborn Jewish People after 2,000 years of exile and the tragedy of the Holocaust, remains crucial. We here at CIJR are proud to play our part in assuring this support. Please make a generous (and tax-deductible) contribution, so that our work--with the community, with students, and in the media--can continue. Please help. (Prof. Frederick Krantz is Director of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, and Editor of its ISRAFAX quarterly magazine and daily Isranet Briefings series.) LETTERS Dear Prof. Krantz, I always read your newsletter with interest, and am impressed with its quality and coverage. There is no doubt in my mind that is a very helpful tool in helping to educate young Jews in Canada by presenting facts and views not published elsewhere. In view of the intense and widespread propaganda put out by the Arabs, especially on campuses in the USA and Canada, your newsletter is especially to be commended. I wish you all success in your fund-raising efforts and hope that you will be able to continue your good work for many years. Sincerely yours, Ephraim Katzir May 9, 2002 Dear Friends, Keep the Daily Isranet Briefing rolling. With all my political disagreements with your orientation, I still find that you bring out interesting and important material, and that you fill a real need in the community. We in Israel appreciate it. Best wishes, Bella and Prof. Ted Friedgut "PEACE? NO CHANCE" Back in 1993, when I began work on Righteous Victims, a revisionist history of the Zionist-Arab conflict from 1881 until the present, I was cautiously optimistic about the prospects for Middle East peace...[The] Israelis and Palestinians...had agreed to mutual recognition; and had signed the Oslo agreement...But by the time I had completed the book, my restrained optimism had given way to grave doubts--and within a year had crumbled. [My] main reason...was the figure of Yasser Arafat...[who] has proven himself a worthy successor to Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini, the [1930s] Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem...Husseini...rejected two international proposals to partition the country into Jewish and Arab polities [and] spent the war years...working for the Nazi[s]. After Husseini came Arafat, another implacable nationalist and inveterate liar...In 1978-79, he failed to join the Israeli-Egyptian Camp David framework, which might have led to Palestinian statehood a decade ago. In 2000ÉArafat rejected yet another historic compromise. Palestinians and their sympathisers have blamed the Israelis and Clinton for what happened: the daily humiliations and restrictions of the continuing Israeli semi-occupation; the wily but transparent Binyamin Netanyahu's foot-dragging during 1996-99; Barak's continued expansion of the settlements...and Clinton's insistence on summoning the Camp David meeting despite Palestinian protestations that they were not quite ready. But...Barak...offered Arafat a reasonable peace agreement that included Israeli withdrawal from 85-91% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip; the uprooting of most...settlements; Palestinian sovereignty over the Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem; and the establishment of a Palestinian state. As to the Temple Mount...Barak proposed...UN security council control or "divine sovereignty" with actual Arab control. Regarding the Palestinian refugees, Barak offered a token return to Israel and massive financial compensation. Arafat rejected the offer...Instead of continuing to negotiate, the Palestinians...launched the intifada...with the underdog, who rejected peace, simultaneously in the role of aggressor and, when the Western TV cameras are on, victim. The semi-occupier, with his giant but largely useless army, merely responds, usually with great restraint, given the moral and international political shackles under which he labours. Instead of being informed, accurately, about the Israeli peace offers, the Palestinians have been subjected to a nonstop barrage of anti-Israeli incitement and lies in the PA-controlled media. For decades, Israeli leaders...denied...the legitimacy of Palestinian aspirations...But during the 1930s and 1940s, the Zionist movement agreed...to divide Palestine with the Arabs...Unfortunately, the Palestinian national movement...has denied the Zionist movement any legitimacy. But...the real litmus test...is the fate of the refugees...My conclusion...was that most of the refugees were a product of Zionist military action and, in smaller measure, of Israeli expulsion orders and Arab local leaders' urgings or orders to move out. Critics of Israel subsequently latched on to those findings that highlighted Israeli responsibility while ignoring the fact that the problem was a direct consequence of the war that the Palestinians--and...surrounding Arab states--had launched. ...Like every people, the Jews deserve a state...If the refugees return, an unviable binational entity will emerge and...Israel will quickly cease to be a Jewish state. And don't get me wrong. I favour an Israeli withdrawal from the territories...But I don't believe that the resultant status quo will survive for long. The Palestinians...will continue to harry Israel, with Katyusha rockets and suicide bombers...Ultimately, they will force Israel to reconquer the West Bank and Gaza, probably plunging the Middle East into a new, wide conflagration. ...Ultimately...the balance of military force or the demography of Palestine, meaning the discrepant national birth rates, will determine the country's future, and either Palestine will become a Jewish state, without a substantial Arab minority, or it will become an Arab state, with a gradually diminishing Jewish minority. Or it will become a nuclear wasteland, a home to neither people. (The Guardian, February 21, 2002) FOCUS: ISRAEL UNDER CONTINUING TERROR
THREATS "Since the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada...more than sixty suicide attacks have been executed against us. It is no longer a marginal phenomenon...It is a phenomenon that is developing at a quick pace into a half legitimate form of warfare... "The 11th of September was...an official and biting declaration of World War III...It is...being waged against free societies [and] does not adhere to the rules of war, or the international legal norms... "...Violent Radical Islam has been until now a minority stream in the Islamic religion...But if the violent minority groups are not restrained...then the statement 'nothing succeeds like success' is liable to symbolise the terrible threat to the basic fabric of...NATO... "...We identify terror...and suicide attacks in particular, as 'a form of warfare' that must be outlawed and prohibited in international law...Dispatchers, movements, countries and entities that are involved in actions of this kind...must be taken out of the area of law and justice. By our doing this we will serve not only...Israel, but also...the free societies in Europe, Asia, on the American continent and everywhere else... "...Chairman Arafat has placed the matter of the suicide attacker, the tortured saint, the 'shahid' at the top of his list of priorities... There are defining, revealing moments, in the history of a country or of a political movement. Placing the ideal of suicide--'the shahid status' at the peak...has become such a defining decision... "Even more significant was the message that Arafat relayed to his people...on May 15É [He] told his audience that they had to remember the 'Hudeiba Treaty'...signed at a time when Mohammed was in an inferior position in the battlefield... Mohammed had the obligation to break the treaty... Arafat announced to his people that this was his strategy--to sign an agreement with the purpose of breaking it... "The second element...is the threat of the spread of weapons of mass destruction... Iran has invested tremendous sums in developing launch systems... The missile, Shihab 3, with a range of 1,300 km, was tested successfully... Iran is also...developing a military nuclear capability... The Iranians are investing...in the area of biological warfare. "[On] the eve of the Gulf War, Iraq was on the verge of attaining nuclear capability... [W]e have reason to believe that the Iraqis have succeeded in preserving parts of their capability in the fields of biological and chemical warfare... "For years we have been following the purchase--and later the production--of North Korean missiles of the SCUD B and SCUD C and SCUD D types by Syria...the Syrians also have chemical and biological capability... They have produced large quantities of nerve gas... "I suggest that we turn our eyes to Libya, which is developing long range missiles with the aid of North Korea... "...What is as clear to us as the sun at noon is that responses need to be in conformity with the size of the threats... The war...has to be organized with weapons and strategy that befit the challenge... "...Israel cannot abandon any effort to counter, prevent or delay attainment of the capability of weapons of mass destruction. Cooperation with certain NATO members has led to results deserving all praise... "...To sum up, preservation of the free societies and the lives of their citizens must be recognized as a basic right of every man and woman on the earth. We must shorten the days of criminal countries and entities, that act not only as lords of their destinies, but as lords of your destinies and ours." (Trans. from Hebrew by Jonathan Silverman. Yediot Aharonot, June 28, 2002) |
     
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ISRAFAX
EDITORIAL