Sound Vision http://soundvision.com (USA)
Once upon a time, a widely circulated Jewish document described Islam as "an act of God's Mercy".
Also, Jews in the near East, north Africa and Spain threw their support behind advancing Muslim Arab armies.
No, these aren't fairy tales or propaganda. The relationship between Muslims and Jews really was that cooperative and marked by peaceful coexistence.
Just ask Khalid Siddiqi of the Islamic Education and Information Center in San Jose, California where he also teaches Islamic Studies and Arabic at Chabot College and Ohlone College.
Siddiqi notes that the first quote above is from S. D. Goitein's book Jews and Arabs. The second is from Merlin Swartz's 'The Position of Jews in Arab lands following the rise of Islam' (reprinted from The Muslim World. Hartford Seminary Foundation LXI1970).
Swartz also says the Muslim Arab conquest marked the dawn of a new era. Those forces that had led to the progressive isolation and disruption of Jewish life were not only checked they were dramatically reversed.
In an interview with Sound Vision, Siddiqi gave numerous examples of Jews flourishing under Muslim rule in places like Spain, Morocco, North African in general and various parts of the Middle East.
Siddiqi points out that Islam as a religion has given specific guidelines for the followers of Islam to base their relationship with any non-Muslim. These include People of Scripture, like the Jews, people who belong to other religions, and even atheists. Non-Muslims must be treated on the basis of Birr (kindness) and Qist (justice), as referred to Surah 60 verse 8 of the Quran.
It started at the time of the Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings be upon him)
The peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Jews began at the time of the Prophet.
Siddiqi notes that the Jews welcomed the Prophet when he arrived in Madinah at the time of Hijrah (migration), along with the rest of the city's inhabitants.
But the Prophet had begun the step towards good relations with Jewish and other communities in Madinah even before getting there.
After receiving an invitation to Madinah from one of the city's tribes that had accepted Islam, the Prophet signed treaties with the city's Jewish, Christian and polytheist tribes before he arrived there.
These treaties clearly laid out responsibilities of each of the parties. It was based on these that the Prophet established the Mithaq al Madinah, the constitution of Madinah.
Siddiqi says this was the first constitution of the world and one of the greatest political documents ever prepared by any human being. It is the oldest surviving constitution of any state.
Under this constitution, any Jew who followed the Muslims was entitled to their assistance and the same rights as anyone of them without any injustice or partisanship.
It said the Jews are an Ummah (community of believers) alongside the Muslims. The Jews have their religion and the Muslims theirs. As well, it noted that each will assist one another against any violation of this covenant.
Jews during the Muslim era
Despite this early breach of contract, there are still numerous examples from Muslim history of Muslim-Jewish cooperation and coexistence.
Siddiqi gave examples of how Muslim Spain, which was a "golden era" of creativity and advancement for Muslims was also one for Jews.
While Europe was in its Dark Ages and Jews were reviled there, Muslims in Spain during the same period worked side by side with Jews in developing literature, science and art.
Together, they translated classical Greek texts into Arabic. This task later helped Europe move out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance.
Jews flourished under Muslim rule in Egypt as well, where they achieved very high positions in government.
Siddiqi quotes some lines from an Arab poet of that time, to illustrate: 'Today the Jews have reached the summit of their hopes and have become aristocrats. Power and riches have they and from them councilors and princes are chosen'.
Today: the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland has destroyed good Muslim-Jewish relations
So what happened?
Although not the only cause, a large part of the deterioration in Muslim-Jewish relations comes from the emergence of Zionism, the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland by Zionist Jews and British colonizers, as well as their continuing oppression.
Siddiqi says, "while this reaction results in anti-Jewish feeling it must be seen in its proper historical context. It must be remembered that anti-Jewish sentiments in so far as it is to be found in the contemporary Arab world is strictly a modern phenomenon and one that runs counter to the time honored Islamic tradition of fraternity and tolerance.
"The very widespread popular notion that present day Arab-Jewish hostility is but another chapter in a long history of mutual animosity is totally false. If there is one thing the past makes clear it is precisely that Arabs and Jews can live together peacefully and in a mutually beneficial relationship. History also makes it very clear that they are the heirs to the Islamic tradition of openness and tolerance."
The key to reestablishing good relations between Muslims and Jews again is justice, notes Siddiqui. This principle is foreign to neither Islam nor Judaism.
In Islam, standing up for justice, he points out, must be done even if it is against ourselves, our parents, our kin, the rich or the poor. This is clearly mentioned in the Quran (4:135).
Siddiqi points out that the emphasis on justice is also mentioned in Jewish scripture in the prophecies of Michael in chapter three: "Zion shall be redeemed with justice and by those who will come to her with righteousness."
Mostrando postagens com marcador Muslim. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador Muslim. Mostrar todas as postagens
quinta-feira, 17 de maio de 2012
segunda-feira, 30 de abril de 2012
BEING A JEW IN PALESTINE
19 April 2012, Group 194 http://www.group194.net (Syria)
Beth Miller*
The first people I told were Safa and Imad. Good friends, they lived near me in the Aida Refugee Camp and invited me for lunch every Friday. I knew they were religious Muslims. Imad had told me that Israeli soldiers had killed his brother during the second intifada. But the topic of religion and politics was on the table, and now seemed like a good time.
I was scared. I knew I was speaking with friends, but I had a nightmarish image that they would throw the dish of rice and chicken into the air, grab the glass of sugary tea from my hand and smash it against the wall, bellowing, “Get oooouuuuuttt!”
I took a deep breath. “I’m actually Jewish. And I’ve always felt….” Who even remembers what I said next? I finished my sentence. Safa took my glass and refilled it. Imad said that he wanted to tell me three things. First, there are many similarities between Jews and Muslims. Second, he understands the difference between a Jewish person and the Israel Defense Forces. Third, it was shameful that I hadn’t yet gone to see more of the Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem.
It’s great to be a Jew in Palestine.
My shared taxi was waved over at the IDF checkpoint between Bethlehem and Ramallah. The soldier yanked open the door and looked inside. There was an old man in the front seat, three old men in the middle row, and in the back row myself, a businessman and a teenage boy. The soldier asked the teenager for identification and motioned for the boy to get out of the car. He was placed on a bench between another soldier and an IDF dog. The soldier told the driver to continue on. As we drove off, leaving the boy behind, I saw a third soldier, too scrawny for his uniform, walking toward the checkpoint, holding two pieces of matzo. He dropped them, and when he bent over to pick them up, his M16 fell forward, whacking him in the face.
It’s weird to be a Jew in Palestine.
I was at an IDF military compound. I was there because I’d been at a demonstration. In the West Bank, demonstrations are illegal. The boys next to me were detained for throwing stones. They had plastic cords binding their hands. When they cut the ties off the boy to my left, it took two men to wriggle the knife between the plastic cord and his skin. When they finally broke it off, his wrists were bruised and bleeding. I began speaking in Arabic to the woman to my right, until a soldier shouted, “Sheket!” I opened my mouth and closed it again, just barely stopping myself from finishing his sentence as I’d been taught in Hebrew school: with a singsong “b’vakasha — hey!” and then a big clap.
It’s frustrating to be a Jew in Palestine.
We showed our passports to the two young soldiers. Where was I from in the States? Chicago? Go Bulls! Passports back. My friends and I walked into H2 — the section of Hebron under complete control of the IDF and with the highest concentration of settlers.
First impression: Wild West. “High Noon.” I imagined a crow cawing; a vulture circling; tumbleweed blowing down Shuhada Street, bumping up against the concrete barrier that blocks off the small part of the road on which Palestinians are permitted to walk. I felt my belt, half expecting there to be a six-shooter. Nothing. But the young settler jogging with a baby stroller and wearing a rainbow yarmulke had an M16 slung over his shoulder.
I looked back at the soldiers. One of them was leaning against a wall, soaking in the sun. The other was moving in the direction of a young Palestinian boy.
Farther down the street, a couple more soldiers eyed us as we walked. One made a catcall at us. We kept walking. A few more soldiers were on the next corner, standing, alert, hands on their weapons. I looked up and saw more soldiers on the rooftops, looking down. One waved. In Hebron there are some 4,000 IDF soldiers to protect 500 Israeli settlers.
The street was lined with stores. Each storefront was welded shut. Many spray-painted with a Star of David, a menorah, or the Israeli flag. My friend pointed out that these were Palestinian shops that had been shut down by the settlers or soldiers.
I thought about the Palestinian man I’d just met, who told us how his son was blinded when a settler threw acid in his face on his way to school. Who told us how he often had to shut down his shop when settlers hurled urine-filled bottles from above onto the Palestinian market below.
Stars of David. Everywhere. On stores, on doors, on walls, on windows, on flags, on shirts.
We passed a sign explaining — in Hebrew and English — that this was an area of Hebron that had been “liberated” from the Arabs.
It feels awful to be a Jew in Palestine.
*Beth Miller is a 2010 graduate of Macalester College and has been working with a human rights organization in the West Bank for the past year and a half. She will be a candidate for a Master of Arts in human rights law at the School of Oriental and African Studies this fall.
Beth Miller*
The first people I told were Safa and Imad. Good friends, they lived near me in the Aida Refugee Camp and invited me for lunch every Friday. I knew they were religious Muslims. Imad had told me that Israeli soldiers had killed his brother during the second intifada. But the topic of religion and politics was on the table, and now seemed like a good time.
I was scared. I knew I was speaking with friends, but I had a nightmarish image that they would throw the dish of rice and chicken into the air, grab the glass of sugary tea from my hand and smash it against the wall, bellowing, “Get oooouuuuuttt!”
I took a deep breath. “I’m actually Jewish. And I’ve always felt….” Who even remembers what I said next? I finished my sentence. Safa took my glass and refilled it. Imad said that he wanted to tell me three things. First, there are many similarities between Jews and Muslims. Second, he understands the difference between a Jewish person and the Israel Defense Forces. Third, it was shameful that I hadn’t yet gone to see more of the Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem.
It’s great to be a Jew in Palestine.
My shared taxi was waved over at the IDF checkpoint between Bethlehem and Ramallah. The soldier yanked open the door and looked inside. There was an old man in the front seat, three old men in the middle row, and in the back row myself, a businessman and a teenage boy. The soldier asked the teenager for identification and motioned for the boy to get out of the car. He was placed on a bench between another soldier and an IDF dog. The soldier told the driver to continue on. As we drove off, leaving the boy behind, I saw a third soldier, too scrawny for his uniform, walking toward the checkpoint, holding two pieces of matzo. He dropped them, and when he bent over to pick them up, his M16 fell forward, whacking him in the face.
It’s weird to be a Jew in Palestine.
I was at an IDF military compound. I was there because I’d been at a demonstration. In the West Bank, demonstrations are illegal. The boys next to me were detained for throwing stones. They had plastic cords binding their hands. When they cut the ties off the boy to my left, it took two men to wriggle the knife between the plastic cord and his skin. When they finally broke it off, his wrists were bruised and bleeding. I began speaking in Arabic to the woman to my right, until a soldier shouted, “Sheket!” I opened my mouth and closed it again, just barely stopping myself from finishing his sentence as I’d been taught in Hebrew school: with a singsong “b’vakasha — hey!” and then a big clap.
It’s frustrating to be a Jew in Palestine.
We showed our passports to the two young soldiers. Where was I from in the States? Chicago? Go Bulls! Passports back. My friends and I walked into H2 — the section of Hebron under complete control of the IDF and with the highest concentration of settlers.
First impression: Wild West. “High Noon.” I imagined a crow cawing; a vulture circling; tumbleweed blowing down Shuhada Street, bumping up against the concrete barrier that blocks off the small part of the road on which Palestinians are permitted to walk. I felt my belt, half expecting there to be a six-shooter. Nothing. But the young settler jogging with a baby stroller and wearing a rainbow yarmulke had an M16 slung over his shoulder.
I looked back at the soldiers. One of them was leaning against a wall, soaking in the sun. The other was moving in the direction of a young Palestinian boy.
Farther down the street, a couple more soldiers eyed us as we walked. One made a catcall at us. We kept walking. A few more soldiers were on the next corner, standing, alert, hands on their weapons. I looked up and saw more soldiers on the rooftops, looking down. One waved. In Hebron there are some 4,000 IDF soldiers to protect 500 Israeli settlers.
The street was lined with stores. Each storefront was welded shut. Many spray-painted with a Star of David, a menorah, or the Israeli flag. My friend pointed out that these were Palestinian shops that had been shut down by the settlers or soldiers.
I thought about the Palestinian man I’d just met, who told us how his son was blinded when a settler threw acid in his face on his way to school. Who told us how he often had to shut down his shop when settlers hurled urine-filled bottles from above onto the Palestinian market below.
Stars of David. Everywhere. On stores, on doors, on walls, on windows, on flags, on shirts.
We passed a sign explaining — in Hebrew and English — that this was an area of Hebron that had been “liberated” from the Arabs.
It feels awful to be a Jew in Palestine.
*Beth Miller is a 2010 graduate of Macalester College and has been working with a human rights organization in the West Bank for the past year and a half. She will be a candidate for a Master of Arts in human rights law at the School of Oriental and African Studies this fall.
quinta-feira, 12 de abril de 2012
Scholars of the Levant Conference Calls for Confronting Zionist Practices to Judaize Jerusalem, Expresses Support to Syria
11 April 2012, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) الوكالة العربية السورية للأنباء
DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The Scholars of the Levant Conference to Support al-Quds on Tuseday called upon the Arab and Islamic figures to confront the serious Zionist practices to judaize Jerusalem and destroy al-Aqsa Mosque, calling upon Arab and Islamic media to expose these practices.
Concluding the activities of the conference, the participants stressed that the Arab and international silence towards what is taking place in Jerusalem is a participation in this crime.
The participants underscored rejection of terrorism and the need for differentiation between it and the legitimate resistance, calling for exposing the Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people.
They called upon the scholars in the Arab and Islamic nations to revive the culture of resistance among their people in order to defend rights and the holy sacred places, in addition to devoting religious discourse to support resistance in Palestine, South of Lebanon and the occupied Syrian Golan.
The final statement stressed the importance of unity and rejection of sedition, warning against the instigative calls of some satellite channels that stoke sectarian sedition to fragment the united nation and calling upon these channels to be realistic and credible serving joint issues in the interest of all sides.
The participants stressed the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation, adding that supporting the resistance in Palestine is a legitimate and humanitarian duty.
They called on the people of the Arab and Islamic nations to be united regardless of their racial and sectarian affiliations to face attempts of spreading sedition and fragmenting the nation.
The participants expressed support to Syria's national line and efforts to preserve its territorial unity against all conspiracies which aim at undermining its security and stability.
They condemned instigative fatwas by some Muslim scholars in the Arab countries which violate the principles of Islam, adding that it was better for those scholars stress stopping the bloodshed and getting out of the crisis.
The participants denounced the terrorist sabotage acts in Syria which violates human ethics and all religions, adding that these acts will enhance the people's determination to overcome the crisis.
They rejected extremism and systemized terrorism in Syria such as operation carried out by al-Qaeda members and Takfiri groups serving interests that are hostile to Islam and Muslims.
The participants also hailed the courageous and resistant stances of Syria's people and government under the leadership of President al-Assad in support of the Palestinian cause to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Earlier, under the patronage of President Bashar al-Assad, activities of the Scholars of Levant conference to Support al-Quds (Jerusalem) started at al-Assad Library in Damascus.
The Conference is held by the Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowment) with the participation of scholars from Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
The first session of the conference started with announcing the formation of the Scholars of Levant Union and electing Dr. Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti as its president.
Abbas al-Mosawi from Lebanon and Sheikh Tayssir al-Tamimi from Palestine who didn’t attend because of the practices of the Israeli occupation were elected as deputies.
The union included 60 members from Syria, 20 members from Lebanon, ten Palestinian scholars and five Jordanian scholars.
The first session is entitled 'al-Quds and al-Aqsa Mosque', it will discuss issues related to al-Quds, the role of the Islamic nation's scholars in supporting al-Quds, Syria's resistant role in defending al-Quds and the occupied Arab territories, judaization of al-Quds and the Israeli violations of al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites.
The second session, under the title 'The Role of Levant Scholars in this Stage', discusses the conspiracy against Syria and the dangers of extremism and provocative fatwas (Rulings made by Muftis) on the Islamic nation in addition to the role of scholars in facing the conspiracy against Syria.
Al-Bouti: Liberating al-Quds is a Holy Duty
Dr. Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti on Tuesday said that liberating al-Quds (Jerusalem) is a sacred duty, adding that occupation can never transfer lands' property regardless of its duration.
In a speech during the Scholar of the Levant Conference to support al-Quds, al-Bouti added that "Every Muslim, Arab or Foreigner, and Every Arab person, Muslim or Christian, should sacrifice his life for al-Quds".
Al-Bouti highlighted that the Islamic State liberated al-Quds from the Romans, who occupied al-Quds for several centuries, and restored it to its rightful people of Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Minister of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) Mohammad Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyed said that Jerusalem had been a target along the ages for invaders and that was the main reason for unifying the Arabs when Salah al Din al Ayyubi librated it from foreigners.
" Let us make Jerusalem the direct reason for re-unifying the Arabs as we all agree on librating it," pointing out to the sublime rank of al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem where the Israeli occupation is practicing ethnic cleansing against its people from Muslems and Christens.
He said that the Arabs are eager to pray in al-Aqsa Mosque and Church of the Resurrection, warning that the Israeli and the Zionist-backed media outlets are not saving any efforts to distract the Arabs from their central issue and are working in sowing sedition among them.
For his part, His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch, All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem for the Melkite Greek Catholic said that the resurrection of Messiah is the celebration of Jerusalem and the title of the Conference is to champion Jerusalem.
He said that every human consider themselves from Jerusalem because it’s the city of all religions and it means in Christianity ' redemption and salvation', stressing that it is key for peace in the region.
Laham called the world, the Christians in particular, to campaign for supporting Jerusalem and its unique natur as a convergence for all religions.
For his part, Grand Mufti of the Republic, Dr. Ahmad Badr Eddin Hassoun, asserted that the blood of the Syrian youths who were assassinated by armed terrorist groups was supposed to be spilled in al-Quds, but the terrorists spilled it in Syria.
The Mufti condemned the Arab states' collation against Syria, adding that those states are providing money and weapons to destroy Syria.
He stressed that the Arab League is now working to weaken the unity of the Arab world which is the basis for resolving the Palestinian Cause and defending the holy places in Jerusalem.
The participants stressed Syria's role in supporting the Palestinian Cause which was reflected in the Syrian people's standing by the Palestinians and Syria's firm stance and rejection of giving up the rights of the Palestinians in restoring their lands.
The participants called upon the people of the Islamic countries and the free people to defend justice and call on the international organizations to shoulder their responsibilities in protecting the rights of the Palestinians and the sacred sites in Palestine from the Zionist crimes to desecrate the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.
They also stressed that the scholars of the Levant should unify efforts to reunite the Arab Nation and mobilize its resources to support Jerusalem.
The participants added that the Zionism has created fictitious enemies for Arabs with the aim of drawing their attention from their real enemy which is Israel and those who support it.
English Bulletin
DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The Scholars of the Levant Conference to Support al-Quds on Tuseday called upon the Arab and Islamic figures to confront the serious Zionist practices to judaize Jerusalem and destroy al-Aqsa Mosque, calling upon Arab and Islamic media to expose these practices.
Concluding the activities of the conference, the participants stressed that the Arab and international silence towards what is taking place in Jerusalem is a participation in this crime.
The participants underscored rejection of terrorism and the need for differentiation between it and the legitimate resistance, calling for exposing the Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people.
They called upon the scholars in the Arab and Islamic nations to revive the culture of resistance among their people in order to defend rights and the holy sacred places, in addition to devoting religious discourse to support resistance in Palestine, South of Lebanon and the occupied Syrian Golan.
The final statement stressed the importance of unity and rejection of sedition, warning against the instigative calls of some satellite channels that stoke sectarian sedition to fragment the united nation and calling upon these channels to be realistic and credible serving joint issues in the interest of all sides.
The participants stressed the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation, adding that supporting the resistance in Palestine is a legitimate and humanitarian duty.
They called on the people of the Arab and Islamic nations to be united regardless of their racial and sectarian affiliations to face attempts of spreading sedition and fragmenting the nation.
The participants expressed support to Syria's national line and efforts to preserve its territorial unity against all conspiracies which aim at undermining its security and stability.
They condemned instigative fatwas by some Muslim scholars in the Arab countries which violate the principles of Islam, adding that it was better for those scholars stress stopping the bloodshed and getting out of the crisis.
The participants denounced the terrorist sabotage acts in Syria which violates human ethics and all religions, adding that these acts will enhance the people's determination to overcome the crisis.
They rejected extremism and systemized terrorism in Syria such as operation carried out by al-Qaeda members and Takfiri groups serving interests that are hostile to Islam and Muslims.
The participants also hailed the courageous and resistant stances of Syria's people and government under the leadership of President al-Assad in support of the Palestinian cause to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Earlier, under the patronage of President Bashar al-Assad, activities of the Scholars of Levant conference to Support al-Quds (Jerusalem) started at al-Assad Library in Damascus.
The Conference is held by the Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowment) with the participation of scholars from Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
The first session of the conference started with announcing the formation of the Scholars of Levant Union and electing Dr. Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti as its president.
Abbas al-Mosawi from Lebanon and Sheikh Tayssir al-Tamimi from Palestine who didn’t attend because of the practices of the Israeli occupation were elected as deputies.
The union included 60 members from Syria, 20 members from Lebanon, ten Palestinian scholars and five Jordanian scholars.
The first session is entitled 'al-Quds and al-Aqsa Mosque', it will discuss issues related to al-Quds, the role of the Islamic nation's scholars in supporting al-Quds, Syria's resistant role in defending al-Quds and the occupied Arab territories, judaization of al-Quds and the Israeli violations of al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites.
The second session, under the title 'The Role of Levant Scholars in this Stage', discusses the conspiracy against Syria and the dangers of extremism and provocative fatwas (Rulings made by Muftis) on the Islamic nation in addition to the role of scholars in facing the conspiracy against Syria.
Al-Bouti: Liberating al-Quds is a Holy Duty
Dr. Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti on Tuesday said that liberating al-Quds (Jerusalem) is a sacred duty, adding that occupation can never transfer lands' property regardless of its duration.
In a speech during the Scholar of the Levant Conference to support al-Quds, al-Bouti added that "Every Muslim, Arab or Foreigner, and Every Arab person, Muslim or Christian, should sacrifice his life for al-Quds".
Al-Bouti highlighted that the Islamic State liberated al-Quds from the Romans, who occupied al-Quds for several centuries, and restored it to its rightful people of Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Minister of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) Mohammad Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyed said that Jerusalem had been a target along the ages for invaders and that was the main reason for unifying the Arabs when Salah al Din al Ayyubi librated it from foreigners.
" Let us make Jerusalem the direct reason for re-unifying the Arabs as we all agree on librating it," pointing out to the sublime rank of al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem where the Israeli occupation is practicing ethnic cleansing against its people from Muslems and Christens.
He said that the Arabs are eager to pray in al-Aqsa Mosque and Church of the Resurrection, warning that the Israeli and the Zionist-backed media outlets are not saving any efforts to distract the Arabs from their central issue and are working in sowing sedition among them.
For his part, His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch, All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem for the Melkite Greek Catholic said that the resurrection of Messiah is the celebration of Jerusalem and the title of the Conference is to champion Jerusalem.
He said that every human consider themselves from Jerusalem because it’s the city of all religions and it means in Christianity ' redemption and salvation', stressing that it is key for peace in the region.
Laham called the world, the Christians in particular, to campaign for supporting Jerusalem and its unique natur as a convergence for all religions.
For his part, Grand Mufti of the Republic, Dr. Ahmad Badr Eddin Hassoun, asserted that the blood of the Syrian youths who were assassinated by armed terrorist groups was supposed to be spilled in al-Quds, but the terrorists spilled it in Syria.
The Mufti condemned the Arab states' collation against Syria, adding that those states are providing money and weapons to destroy Syria.
He stressed that the Arab League is now working to weaken the unity of the Arab world which is the basis for resolving the Palestinian Cause and defending the holy places in Jerusalem.
The participants stressed Syria's role in supporting the Palestinian Cause which was reflected in the Syrian people's standing by the Palestinians and Syria's firm stance and rejection of giving up the rights of the Palestinians in restoring their lands.
The participants called upon the people of the Islamic countries and the free people to defend justice and call on the international organizations to shoulder their responsibilities in protecting the rights of the Palestinians and the sacred sites in Palestine from the Zionist crimes to desecrate the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.
They also stressed that the scholars of the Levant should unify efforts to reunite the Arab Nation and mobilize its resources to support Jerusalem.
The participants added that the Zionism has created fictitious enemies for Arabs with the aim of drawing their attention from their real enemy which is Israel and those who support it.
English Bulletin
terça-feira, 6 de março de 2012
Rabbis of JVP Call on Obama: Don’t Let Bibi Pressure US into War on Iran!
5 March 2012. Shalom Rav http://rabbibrant.com (USA)
A Blog by Rabbi Brant Rosen
by Rabbi Brant Rosen
The Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council has just released the following statement, below. If you are a rabbi or cantor, please consider signing on.
We, the undersigned American Jewish clergy, are deeply concerned about reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu will demand of President Obama, at their meeting at the White House today, that either the United States attack Iran, or else, Israel will.
We do not welcome the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. We call on all the military forces in the region - including Israel's - to divest themselves of their nuclear armaments and renounce any belligerent nuclear aspirations.
The State of Israel refuses to acknowledge its own nuclear arsenal or to submit to international monitoring. We believe it is hypocritical of Israel to demand of Iran what it refuses to agree to itself.
Most of the people of the State of Israel oppose Prime Minister Netanyahu's military threats against Iran. They fear the consequences of an attack on Iran. As Jewish leaders, we too believe that the path of wisdom towards achieving peace and stability in the region is through dialog and engagement and not through acts of war. We call on the United States government to safeguard the interests of the people of Israel and Iran.
Nine years after the United States launched a war against Iraq that is widely recognized as having been badly executed and unjustified, Israel would have the U.S. implicate itself in a new war in the region, this time against Iran. We believe that Jews, and other Americans, will not support more reckless adventurism in the Middle East.
In this election year, we call on President Obama not to give in to warmongering. As Jewish leaders we cannot endorse an Israeli act of war against the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Bible teaches us: "bakesh shalom v'rodfehu - seek peace and pursue it." We urge President Obama to stand firm and to use his power as Israel’s chief supporter to draw Israel to the path of peace and justice.
In the meantime, I strongly recommend MJ Rosenberg's analysis of Obama's much-anticipated speech at the AIPAC conference yesterday:
The President, in the middle of an election year, offered AIPAC no more than the bare minimum. In order to get away with that, he larded up the speech with embarrassing professions of love for Israel. I say embarrassing because no other country in the world demands such endless coddling. If a president spoke about Canada or the United Kingdom (two far closer allies) the way Obama does about Israel, he might be considered seriously off his game. Not to worry, he won't.
But the lard doesn't mean much except to smooth his way to the substance of the speech which Obama knew that neither AIPAC nor Prime Minister Netanyahu would like.
quarta-feira, 21 de dezembro de 2011
Book: “FREEDOM JOURNEYS”
The Shalom Center http://www.theshalomcenter.org (USA)
office@theshalomcenter.org
Written by Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow and Rabbi Phyllis O. Berman, Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness across Millennia calls us to rethink the story of Pharaoh, the Exodus, Sinai, and the Wilderness to learn from it ways we can address our modern-day enslavements like the new "Plagues" of climate crisis, the treatment of Hispanics and Muslims as pariahs—and how we can use the wisdom in these stories to free ourselves and shape new planetary communities. Published by Jewish Lights, www.jewishlights.com
Freedom Journeys is a deep meditation on the timeless—and timely—relevance of the Exodus narrative. In the grand tradition of mystical exegesis, Waskow and Berman reflect upon Exodus not only as an event that happened “then” and “there”, but a paradigm of movement that is happening here and in the now, for all of us, Jew and Muslim, Black and White, male and female. —Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies, University of North Carolina.
office@theshalomcenter.org
Written by Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow and Rabbi Phyllis O. Berman, Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness across Millennia calls us to rethink the story of Pharaoh, the Exodus, Sinai, and the Wilderness to learn from it ways we can address our modern-day enslavements like the new "Plagues" of climate crisis, the treatment of Hispanics and Muslims as pariahs—and how we can use the wisdom in these stories to free ourselves and shape new planetary communities. Published by Jewish Lights, www.jewishlights.com
Freedom Journeys is a deep meditation on the timeless—and timely—relevance of the Exodus narrative. In the grand tradition of mystical exegesis, Waskow and Berman reflect upon Exodus not only as an event that happened “then” and “there”, but a paradigm of movement that is happening here and in the now, for all of us, Jew and Muslim, Black and White, male and female. —Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies, University of North Carolina.
quarta-feira, 30 de novembro de 2011
THE ZIONIST ULTRA-ORTHODOX ARE CASHING IN THEIR I.O.U.
30 November 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
Those spending their Saturdays having fun rather than defending shepherds and farmers should not be surprised if the day after, Jewish fundamentalism even invades their bedrooms.
By Amira Hass
The Haredim and Hardalim, as the non-Zionist and Zionist ultra-Orthodox are respectively known, are now cashing in their promissory note from Israeli society. Their bitterness at an ungrateful secular-nationalist public is certainly justified. For what is doing without women's singing in comparison to the direct line to God they offer us? And what are advertisements featuring men only compared to the blank check God gave all of us to be the masters of the entire Promised Land?
Haredi and Hardali Judaism sold three assets on credit to the Israel that desecrates the Sabbath and loves the charming, Arab-free views from the Galilee kibbutzim and the West Bank outposts. These are the assets that enable Israel to be indifferent to both the history that was and the history now in the making, and to live as an armed, gilded ghetto, a beloved outpost of the "developed" and "civilized" Christian West in the Muslim East.
We could have clung to the historical, secular explanations for our ingathering in this land (briefly, the "final solution" of that same civilized Christian West, which also expelled us from the countries of the Diaspora ). This would have committed us to the humanitarian and earthly values and perceptions that have emerged from every struggle against ethnic persecution and oppression. But the historical explanation would also have obliged us to admit our similarity to other colonialist movements, and to understand that what was possible in the 18th and 19th centuries in America and Australia is not possible here and now.
To escape the contradictions created by history and its lessons, we chose to buy the meta-historical explanation of our armed, fortified presence here: no more and no less than God's promise to Abraham, from whom all of us are directly descended. This promise is what permits us, in our view, to do whatever we please to the people that dwells here, the natives of this land: to expel, to concentrate, to divide, to blockade, to impoverish, to dry out, to bomb, to uproot, to dispossess.
This same divine promise grants all Jews everywhere - even those who have never set foot in Israel - more rights in this land than any Palestinian who was born here. This land is ruled by a state that refuses to be a state of its actual citizens and thinks only of potential citizens from the Diaspora.
Ethnic head-counting is second nature to this state. Thus the Haredim and Hardalim know that the second asset they are selling is beyond price: their high birthrate. In the Haredi view, this high birthrate is worth more than any military service or tax payment could ever be.
The Hardalim, in contrast, combine this with a third asset for sale: lust for battle, and for ascending the military ranks, and a willingness to "die for our country" - all of which have been on the wane, relatively speaking, among other sectors of the population. In a state that has done everything in its power over the last several decades to miss any opportunity for peace, this military enthusiasm is a vital asset - especially as good neighborly relations in this region now seem more unachievable than ever before.
Hardalim and Haredim see that most of the Israeli Jewish public has eagerly bought these inexhaustible assets, so now they are continuing down the same consistent path. The Haredim and Hardalim simply long for wholeness: the divine promise and the laws of kashrut. They are offering soldiers in the demographic warfare in exchange for the non-mixing of women and men in the army.
The problem then is not the sellers but the buyers. The secular Jews who allow or even encourage the expulsion of Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, Al-Arakib and Safed, should not complain if tomorrow, theaters and concert halls are required to set up separate sections for the female portion of the audience. And those who spend their holy Saturdays having fun rather than going out to defend shepherds and farmers from skullcap-wearing Salafists should not be surprised if the day after, Jewish fundamentalism even invades their bedrooms.
Read this article in Hebrew: לגרש פלסטינים, ולהדיר נשים
Those spending their Saturdays having fun rather than defending shepherds and farmers should not be surprised if the day after, Jewish fundamentalism even invades their bedrooms.
By Amira Hass
The Haredim and Hardalim, as the non-Zionist and Zionist ultra-Orthodox are respectively known, are now cashing in their promissory note from Israeli society. Their bitterness at an ungrateful secular-nationalist public is certainly justified. For what is doing without women's singing in comparison to the direct line to God they offer us? And what are advertisements featuring men only compared to the blank check God gave all of us to be the masters of the entire Promised Land?
Haredi and Hardali Judaism sold three assets on credit to the Israel that desecrates the Sabbath and loves the charming, Arab-free views from the Galilee kibbutzim and the West Bank outposts. These are the assets that enable Israel to be indifferent to both the history that was and the history now in the making, and to live as an armed, gilded ghetto, a beloved outpost of the "developed" and "civilized" Christian West in the Muslim East.
We could have clung to the historical, secular explanations for our ingathering in this land (briefly, the "final solution" of that same civilized Christian West, which also expelled us from the countries of the Diaspora ). This would have committed us to the humanitarian and earthly values and perceptions that have emerged from every struggle against ethnic persecution and oppression. But the historical explanation would also have obliged us to admit our similarity to other colonialist movements, and to understand that what was possible in the 18th and 19th centuries in America and Australia is not possible here and now.
To escape the contradictions created by history and its lessons, we chose to buy the meta-historical explanation of our armed, fortified presence here: no more and no less than God's promise to Abraham, from whom all of us are directly descended. This promise is what permits us, in our view, to do whatever we please to the people that dwells here, the natives of this land: to expel, to concentrate, to divide, to blockade, to impoverish, to dry out, to bomb, to uproot, to dispossess.
This same divine promise grants all Jews everywhere - even those who have never set foot in Israel - more rights in this land than any Palestinian who was born here. This land is ruled by a state that refuses to be a state of its actual citizens and thinks only of potential citizens from the Diaspora.
Ethnic head-counting is second nature to this state. Thus the Haredim and Hardalim know that the second asset they are selling is beyond price: their high birthrate. In the Haredi view, this high birthrate is worth more than any military service or tax payment could ever be.
The Hardalim, in contrast, combine this with a third asset for sale: lust for battle, and for ascending the military ranks, and a willingness to "die for our country" - all of which have been on the wane, relatively speaking, among other sectors of the population. In a state that has done everything in its power over the last several decades to miss any opportunity for peace, this military enthusiasm is a vital asset - especially as good neighborly relations in this region now seem more unachievable than ever before.
Hardalim and Haredim see that most of the Israeli Jewish public has eagerly bought these inexhaustible assets, so now they are continuing down the same consistent path. The Haredim and Hardalim simply long for wholeness: the divine promise and the laws of kashrut. They are offering soldiers in the demographic warfare in exchange for the non-mixing of women and men in the army.
The problem then is not the sellers but the buyers. The secular Jews who allow or even encourage the expulsion of Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, Al-Arakib and Safed, should not complain if tomorrow, theaters and concert halls are required to set up separate sections for the female portion of the audience. And those who spend their holy Saturdays having fun rather than going out to defend shepherds and farmers from skullcap-wearing Salafists should not be surprised if the day after, Jewish fundamentalism even invades their bedrooms.
Read this article in Hebrew: לגרש פלסטינים, ולהדיר נשים
segunda-feira, 28 de novembro de 2011
ISRAEL MUST ADJUST ITS POLICY TO EGYPT'S CHANGING REALITY
The first round of elections to Egypt's parliament, which begins today, is the first democratic outcome of the revolution. As such, it presents a historic challenge to the Egyptian people.
28 November 2011, EDITORIAL Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
The first round of elections to Egypt's parliament, which begins today, is the first democratic outcome of the revolution. As such, it presents a historic challenge to the Egyptian people, who had been educated for decades to see elections as an asset of their rulers rather than a whip in the people's hands or a means to build the desired regime.
Egypt's citizens need no lessons in democracy or liberal values. Before the Free Officers Revolution, which saddled Egypt with a number of dictators, that country knew what broad public discourse and liberal values were, and its thinkers knew how to fight based on values, not only politics. The 2011 revolution hinges on this historical awareness, which now draws its strength from the recognition of the people's power and the need to bend the regime, any regime, to their will. Egypt's citizens deserve congratulations for this success and all assistance as they pave their way to a democratic state to be molded according to their will.
Of course, this great transformation is also a source of great concern. Will the parliamentary elections go smoothly until the presidential elections in June? Won't the defeat of many movements in the elections generate violent struggles? How will the new regime put together an economic program that will meet Egypt's urgent needs and prevent it from collapsing even before it embarks on its new path? And what will the new regime's foreign policy be?
These are legitimate concerns, but it's too early and unnecessary to break out the horror scenarios. In Israel and elsewhere, anxiety has developed over the Muslim Brotherhood, but we must remember that Egyptian secular leftist movements also see Israel as a menace, an occupier and a representative of colonialism. The attitude to Israel does not necessarily depend on a religious perception, but rather the understanding that Israel has caused injustice to the people it has occupied.
Thus, for now, it would be deceptive to say the Muslim Brotherhood or Islam in general were responsible for the change in attitude toward Israel. Israel must recognize that the region's political and social reality is changing. It would do well to consider how to adjust its policy to the change instead of lamenting the change itself.
קראו כתבה זו בעברית: בחירות במצרים, אתגר לישראל
28 November 2011, EDITORIAL Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
The first round of elections to Egypt's parliament, which begins today, is the first democratic outcome of the revolution. As such, it presents a historic challenge to the Egyptian people, who had been educated for decades to see elections as an asset of their rulers rather than a whip in the people's hands or a means to build the desired regime.
Egypt's citizens need no lessons in democracy or liberal values. Before the Free Officers Revolution, which saddled Egypt with a number of dictators, that country knew what broad public discourse and liberal values were, and its thinkers knew how to fight based on values, not only politics. The 2011 revolution hinges on this historical awareness, which now draws its strength from the recognition of the people's power and the need to bend the regime, any regime, to their will. Egypt's citizens deserve congratulations for this success and all assistance as they pave their way to a democratic state to be molded according to their will.
Of course, this great transformation is also a source of great concern. Will the parliamentary elections go smoothly until the presidential elections in June? Won't the defeat of many movements in the elections generate violent struggles? How will the new regime put together an economic program that will meet Egypt's urgent needs and prevent it from collapsing even before it embarks on its new path? And what will the new regime's foreign policy be?
These are legitimate concerns, but it's too early and unnecessary to break out the horror scenarios. In Israel and elsewhere, anxiety has developed over the Muslim Brotherhood, but we must remember that Egyptian secular leftist movements also see Israel as a menace, an occupier and a representative of colonialism. The attitude to Israel does not necessarily depend on a religious perception, but rather the understanding that Israel has caused injustice to the people it has occupied.
Thus, for now, it would be deceptive to say the Muslim Brotherhood or Islam in general were responsible for the change in attitude toward Israel. Israel must recognize that the region's political and social reality is changing. It would do well to consider how to adjust its policy to the change instead of lamenting the change itself.
קראו כתבה זו בעברית: בחירות במצרים, אתגר לישראל
quarta-feira, 3 de agosto de 2011
MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE: ISRAEL'S BLINDNESS
1 August 2011, Palestine Chronicle http://palestinechronicle.com (USA)
By Lillian Rosengarten*
We are by now too familiar with the label anti-Semite aimed towards all who dissent from the deplorable policies of Netanyahu's right-wing disaster. It does not matter if the resistance to Israeli occupation and ongoing collective punishment arises from the actions of Jews, Muslims, atheists, socialists or any human rights activists. In addition, Jew against Jew has created a deeply disturbing divide that pits Jews against one another and seriously questions what it means to be Jewish within a context of compassion or as a fear response to having once been dehumanized and thoroughly victimized. How can this justify the continuous role of Israel as victimizer in the form of an obscene collective punishment, an entire population marginalized, hated, left war torn and homeless without freedom. What is the message to the world after decades of this occupied prison?
I personally have been called an anti-Semite and nothing could be farther from the truth. My motives are not anti Jewish but rather antiwar I see as fascism in the form of an extreme nationalistic Zionism. This behavior cannot help but destroys the soul of Judaism a spiritual religion that ascribes to tolerance, compassion, does not kill and has the courage to reflect on its way of life. It is by now known that the Knesset, the core of Israeli government has thrown out a female Arab-Israeli member, Hanin Zuabi, who had the audacity to participate in protest against her country's actions. She witnessed the brutal murder of 9 unarmed activists on the ill fated Mavi Marmara that attempted to break the Gaza siege. She is now threatened with the loss of her Israeli citizenship.
Yes it is me again, Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany shouting to the world, never again, not in my name." Every day I am bombarded with news of some other atrocity in the name of protecting the "democratic state of Israel." I want to awaken from this nightmare. I no longer can tolerate to hear, “Palestinians do not recognize Israel and wish to destroy us." How much longer can we hear Netanyahu's mantra (US complicit here) "we will never recognize the terrorists Hamas” (legally elected by a majority of Palestinians.) I want to reiterate again, those who call others terrorists must reflect on the terrorism within themselves. The US is grossly guilty of similar careless projections of the label "terrorist" while refusing to acknowledge their own use of terrorism. Tragically Israel and the US both suffer from inordinate forms of extreme denial on the nature of their own violent behavior to keep wars and human suffering going and cannot self reflect on their ego maniacal political agendas. Other countries aid violence by selling arms and contribute powerfully as destroyers of human life in exchange for exorbitant payments.
Recent news has induced a cringe response. Germany sold a torpedo submarine to Israel, capable of deploying nuclear missiles and firing nuclear holocaust. How is this possible? Can it be a form of German restitution to assuage unconscious (or conscious) guilt by association with their infamous history when Nazi insanity and rabid anti-Semitism coupled with Aryan delusions of grandeur ruled Germany? I do not claim to know yet recognize the sheer lunacy to send weapons to Israel. Do we need more killings and endless suffering? Where is the resistance, the outrage? I need to hear more, louder, stronger. Does the Israeli agenda now include a nuclear war with Iran? Has Israel completely lost all reality? I can say much the same for the US that would engage mindlessly with Israel for we are Israel's strongest ally for an exorbitant corrupt price. Is the agenda of Netanyahu's right wing hoodlums to blow up all their neighbors to become the only country in the Middle East and the “only democracy?" Let Israel not become victim to its own self-fulfilling prophesy by their own hand. Such a nightmare, calling for the destruction of Israel cannot happen. Israel along with their Palestinian neighbors MUST change political direction. As of now, Israel is drowning in a sea of paranoia and fear. How can a democracy and brutal occupation exist together? How is it so many remain blind? It has happened before in the 30's but this time it occurs with a twist of fate. Racism lives in a different form yet is equally virulent. I am afraid. Left undisturbed, this myth of democracy will support a continuous unending tragedy for both Palestine and Israel. They must, in order to survive face each other with honest dialogue and sincere attempts at mutual understanding and compromise.
Now I end with some comments on Israel's harsh decision to build museum over a century old Muslim graveyard. For years Muslims struggled unsuccessfully to prevent this construction. The irony is the "museum of tolerance" is being built to promote coexistence and is a project of the Simon Wiesenthal (Nazi hunter) center. Ultra orthodox Jews claim ancient Jewish graves were once located there. Instead of tolerance, one sees arrogance, racism, infantilism, and utter righteousness in action. Can it be this provocative and destructive decision serves to reinforce the tragic rise once again of worldwide anti-Semitism?
*Lillian Rosengarten, a refugee from Nazi Germany is a Buddhist practitioner, poet, writer and a pacifist. She contributed this article to
PalestineChronicle.com. Contact her at: truthpoem@gmail.com.
By Lillian Rosengarten*
We are by now too familiar with the label anti-Semite aimed towards all who dissent from the deplorable policies of Netanyahu's right-wing disaster. It does not matter if the resistance to Israeli occupation and ongoing collective punishment arises from the actions of Jews, Muslims, atheists, socialists or any human rights activists. In addition, Jew against Jew has created a deeply disturbing divide that pits Jews against one another and seriously questions what it means to be Jewish within a context of compassion or as a fear response to having once been dehumanized and thoroughly victimized. How can this justify the continuous role of Israel as victimizer in the form of an obscene collective punishment, an entire population marginalized, hated, left war torn and homeless without freedom. What is the message to the world after decades of this occupied prison?
I personally have been called an anti-Semite and nothing could be farther from the truth. My motives are not anti Jewish but rather antiwar I see as fascism in the form of an extreme nationalistic Zionism. This behavior cannot help but destroys the soul of Judaism a spiritual religion that ascribes to tolerance, compassion, does not kill and has the courage to reflect on its way of life. It is by now known that the Knesset, the core of Israeli government has thrown out a female Arab-Israeli member, Hanin Zuabi, who had the audacity to participate in protest against her country's actions. She witnessed the brutal murder of 9 unarmed activists on the ill fated Mavi Marmara that attempted to break the Gaza siege. She is now threatened with the loss of her Israeli citizenship.
Yes it is me again, Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany shouting to the world, never again, not in my name." Every day I am bombarded with news of some other atrocity in the name of protecting the "democratic state of Israel." I want to awaken from this nightmare. I no longer can tolerate to hear, “Palestinians do not recognize Israel and wish to destroy us." How much longer can we hear Netanyahu's mantra (US complicit here) "we will never recognize the terrorists Hamas” (legally elected by a majority of Palestinians.) I want to reiterate again, those who call others terrorists must reflect on the terrorism within themselves. The US is grossly guilty of similar careless projections of the label "terrorist" while refusing to acknowledge their own use of terrorism. Tragically Israel and the US both suffer from inordinate forms of extreme denial on the nature of their own violent behavior to keep wars and human suffering going and cannot self reflect on their ego maniacal political agendas. Other countries aid violence by selling arms and contribute powerfully as destroyers of human life in exchange for exorbitant payments.
Recent news has induced a cringe response. Germany sold a torpedo submarine to Israel, capable of deploying nuclear missiles and firing nuclear holocaust. How is this possible? Can it be a form of German restitution to assuage unconscious (or conscious) guilt by association with their infamous history when Nazi insanity and rabid anti-Semitism coupled with Aryan delusions of grandeur ruled Germany? I do not claim to know yet recognize the sheer lunacy to send weapons to Israel. Do we need more killings and endless suffering? Where is the resistance, the outrage? I need to hear more, louder, stronger. Does the Israeli agenda now include a nuclear war with Iran? Has Israel completely lost all reality? I can say much the same for the US that would engage mindlessly with Israel for we are Israel's strongest ally for an exorbitant corrupt price. Is the agenda of Netanyahu's right wing hoodlums to blow up all their neighbors to become the only country in the Middle East and the “only democracy?" Let Israel not become victim to its own self-fulfilling prophesy by their own hand. Such a nightmare, calling for the destruction of Israel cannot happen. Israel along with their Palestinian neighbors MUST change political direction. As of now, Israel is drowning in a sea of paranoia and fear. How can a democracy and brutal occupation exist together? How is it so many remain blind? It has happened before in the 30's but this time it occurs with a twist of fate. Racism lives in a different form yet is equally virulent. I am afraid. Left undisturbed, this myth of democracy will support a continuous unending tragedy for both Palestine and Israel. They must, in order to survive face each other with honest dialogue and sincere attempts at mutual understanding and compromise.
Now I end with some comments on Israel's harsh decision to build museum over a century old Muslim graveyard. For years Muslims struggled unsuccessfully to prevent this construction. The irony is the "museum of tolerance" is being built to promote coexistence and is a project of the Simon Wiesenthal (Nazi hunter) center. Ultra orthodox Jews claim ancient Jewish graves were once located there. Instead of tolerance, one sees arrogance, racism, infantilism, and utter righteousness in action. Can it be this provocative and destructive decision serves to reinforce the tragic rise once again of worldwide anti-Semitism?
*Lillian Rosengarten, a refugee from Nazi Germany is a Buddhist practitioner, poet, writer and a pacifist. She contributed this article to
PalestineChronicle.com. Contact her at: truthpoem@gmail.com.
segunda-feira, 1 de agosto de 2011
Organized Political Terrorism: The Norwegian Massacre, the State, the Media and Israel
By Prof. James Petras
31 July 2011, Global Research http://www.globalresearch.ca (Canada)
“So let us fight together with Israel , with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/Multiculturalists”. Anders Behring Breivik’s Manifesto
“. . . two more cells exist in my organization”. . . Ander Behring Breivik in police custody (Reuters 7/25/11)
Introduction:
The July 22, 2011, bombing of the office of the Norwegian Prime Minister, Labor Party Jen Stoltenberg, which killed 8 civilians, and the subsequent political assassination of 68 unarmed activists of the Labor Party Youth on Utoeya Island, just 20 minutes from Oslo, by militant neo-fascist Christian-Zionists, raises fundamental questions about the growing links between the legal Far-Right, the ‘mainstream media’, the Norwegian police, Israel and rightwing terrorism.
The Mass Media and the Rise of Rightwing Terrorism:
The leading English language newspapers, The New York Times (NYT), the Washington Post (WP), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the Financial Times (FT), as well as President Obama, blamed “Islamic extremists”, upon the first police reports of the killings, publishing a series of incendiary (and false) headlines and reports, labeling the event as ‘Norway’s 9-11’,in terms, which echoed the ideological motivation and justifications cited by the Norwegian Christian-Zionist political assassin, Anders Behring Breivik himself,. The July 23/24 front page of the Financial Times (of London ), read “Islamist extremism fears: Worst Europe strike since 2005”. Obama immediately cited the terrorist attack in Norway to further justify his overseas wars against Muslim countries. The FT, NYT, WP and WSJ trotted out their self-styled “experts” who debated over which Arab/Islamic leaders or movements were responsible – despite Norwegian press reports of ‘the arrest of a Nordic man in police uniform’.
Clearly, the US mass media and political elite were eager to use the bombing and assassinations to justify ongoing overseas imperial wars, ignoring the burgeoning domestic extremist rightwing organizations and violent individuals who are the outgrowth of official Islamophobic hate propaganda.
When Anders Breivik, a known neo-fascist extremist, handed his weapons over to Norwegian police without resistance and claimed credit for the bombing and massacre, the second phase of the official cover-up took place: He was immediately described as “a lone wolf assassin”, who “acted alone” (BBC July 24, 2011) or as mentally deranged, downplaying his political networks, his American, European and Israeli ideological mentors and commitments, which led to his acts of terrorism. Even more outrageous, the media and officials ignored the fact that this complex, multiphase terrorist attack was beyond the capacity of one ‘deranged’ person.
Anders Behring Breivik had been a dues-paying member of a Far-Right political party, The Progress Party and a collaborator and contributor to an overtly neo-Nazi web site. He frequently focused his hatred on the ruling Labor Party for its relative tolerance of immigrants. He despised immigrants especially, Muslims, and was an ardent Christian-Zionist supporter of Israeli repression and terror against the Palestinian people. His criminal action was political in essence and embedded in a much wider political network.
The political elite and media have scrambled to deny the overlapping links between ‘legal’ ideological Islamophobes, like the American Zionists Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, the Dutch far-right Party of Freedom led by the hate-monger Geert Wilders and their counterparts in the Norwegian Progress Party who rail against the “Muslim threat”. The “direct action” terrorists take their cues from electoral parties, like the Progress Party, who recruit and indoctrinate activists, like Behring Breivik, who then leave the ‘electoral road’ to carry out their bloody carnage, allowing the ‘respectable’ hate-mongers to hypocritically condemn him… after the outrage.
The Lone Assassin: A Fascist Superman Travels Faster than a Speeding Bullet Versus the Police Moving Slower than an Arthritic Turtle:
The case for the “lone wolf terrorist” defies credence. It is a tissue of lies used to cover up state complicity, intelligence malfeasance, and the sharp right-turn in the domestic and foreign policies of NATO countries.
There is no basis to accept Breivik’s initial claim that he acted alone for several outstanding reasons: First, the car bomb, which devastated downtown Oslo, was a highly complex weapon requiring expertise and coordination – the kind available to state or intelligence services, like the Mossad, which specialize in devastating car bombs. Amateurs, like Breivik, with no training in explosives, usually blow themselves up or lack the skill required to connect the electronic timing devices or remote detonators (like the unsuccessful ‘shoe’, ‘underpants’ and ‘Times Square’ bombers have proved) .
Secondly, the details of (a) moving the bomb, (b) obtaining (stealing) a vehicle, (c) placing the device at the strategic site, (d) successfully detonating it and (e) then gowning up in an elaborate special police uniform with an arsenal of hundreds of rounds of ammunition and driving off in another vehicle to Utoeya Island, (f) waiting patiently while armed to the teeth for a ferry boat, g) crossing with other passengers in his police uniform, (h) rounding up the Labor youth activists and commencing the massacre of scores of unarmed youth and finally (i) finishing off the wounded and hunting for those trying to hide or swim away - is not the activity of a lone zealot. Even the combination of Superman, Einstein and a world class marksman could not perform those tasks.
The media and NATO leaders must view the public as passive morons to expect them to believe that Anders Behring Breivik “acted alone”. He is willing to take a 20 year prison sentence if it means, as he maintains, that their collective action is the spark that ignites his comrades and advances the agenda of the violent and legal far rightwing parties. Facing a Norwegian judge on July 25, he publicly declared the existence of “two more cells in my organization”. According to witness testimony on Utoeya Island shots from two distinct weapons were heard from different directions during the massacre. The police say they are… “investigating”. Needless to say the police have found nothing; instead they put on a “show” to cover their inaction by raiding two houses far from the massacre and quickly released the suspects.
The most serious political implication of the terrorist action, however, is the conspicuous complicity of top police officials. The police took 90 minutes to arrive at Utoeya Island , located less than 20 miles from Oslo , 12 minutes by helicopter and 25 to 30 minutes by car and boat. The delay allowed the right wing assassins to use up the ammunition, maximizing the death toll of young, anti-fascist activists and devastating the Labor youth movement. The police chief, Sveinung Sponheim, made the feeblest excuse and cover-up, claiming “problems with transport”. Sponheim argued that a helicopter “wasn’t on standby” and they “could not find a boat” (Associated Press, July 24, 2011).
Yet a helicopter was available; it managed to fly to Utoeya and film the ongoing slaughter, and over half of Norwegians, a seafaring people for millennia, own or have access to a boat. A police force, faced with what the Prime Minister calls the ‘worst atrocity since the Nazi occupation’, moving at the pace of an arthritic turtle to rescue youth activists, raises the suspicion of some level of complicity. The obvious question arises as to the degree to which the ideology of right wing extremism – neo-fascism – has penetrated the police and security forces, especially the upper echelons? This level of “inactivity” raises more questions than it answers. What it suggests is that the Social Democrats only control part of the Government – the legislative, while the neo-fascists influence the state apparatus.
The plain fact is that the police did not save a single life. When they finally arrived, Anders Behring Breivik had run out of ammunition and surrendered turning himself over to the police. The police literally did not fire a single shot; they did not even have to hunt or capture the assassin. An almost choreographed scenario: Hundreds wounded, 68 unarmed, peaceful activists killed and the Labor youth movement decimated.
The police can claim “crime solved” while the mass media prattles about a “lone assassin”. The far right has a “martyr” to mask a further advance in their anti-Muslim, pro Israel crusade. (It is reminiscent of the celebrated Israeli-American fascist mass murderer, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, who slaughtered dozens of unarmed Palestinian men and boys at prayer in 1994).
Only two days before the political murders, the head of the Labor Party Youth Movement, Eskil Pederson, gave an interview to the Dagbladet, Norway’s second largest tabloid, in which he announced a “unilateral economic embargo of Israel from the Norwegian side” (Gilad Atzmon, July 24, 2011).
The fact of the matter is that the Norwegian military has no problem promptly dispatching 500 troops to Afghanistan, half way around the world and providing six Norwegian Air Force jets and pilots to bomb and terrorize Libya . And yet they can’t find a helicopter or a row boat to transport their police a couple hundred yards to stop a domestic right wing terrorist – whose murderous rampage was being described second by second by the terrorized young victims on their cell phones to their frantic parents?
The Imperial Roots of Domestic Fascism: Conclusion
Clearly, the decisions of Norway and other Scandinavian nations to participate in the US imperial crusades against Muslim and especially Arab people in the Middle East have aroused and energized the neo-fascist right. They now want to “bring the war home”; they want Norway to go further, to ‘cleanse the nation’ by expelling Muslims. They want to “send a message” to the Labor Party: Either it must accept a full neo-fascist pro-Israeli agenda or expect more massacres, more elected fascists, more followers of Anders Behring Breivik.
The “Progress Party” is now the second largest political party in Norway . If a “conservative” coalition defeats Labor, neo-fascists will probably sit in the Government. Who knows, after a few years of good behavior, they might find an excuse to commute their ex-comrade's sentence . . . or proclaim him mentally rehabilitated and freed.
Clearly what is needed is the immediate withdrawal of all troops from imperial wars and a systematic, coherent and organized fight against domestic right-wing terrorists and their intellectual godparents, in America , Israel and Europe . Labor youth must go press on with their demand that the Labor Government, under Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg, recognize the nation of Palestine and implement a total boycott of Israeli goods and services. A national and international political-educational campaign must be organized to expose the links between respectable electoral fascists and violent terrorists. The Labor Youth martyrs of Utoeya Island should be cherished and their ideals taught in all the schools. Their far-right enemies and supporters whether overt, covert or directly complicit, should be exposed and condemned. The best weapon against the renewed neo-fascist onslaught is a political and educational offensive, taking up the anti-fascist, anti-Quisling (Norway ’s notorious Nazi collaborator) fighting traditions of their grandparents’ era. It’s not too late – if the Labor Party, the Norwegian trade unions and the anti-fascist youth act now before the flood of resurgent fascism.
31 July 2011, Global Research http://www.globalresearch.ca (Canada)
“So let us fight together with Israel , with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/Multiculturalists”. Anders Behring Breivik’s Manifesto
“. . . two more cells exist in my organization”. . . Ander Behring Breivik in police custody (Reuters 7/25/11)
Introduction:
The July 22, 2011, bombing of the office of the Norwegian Prime Minister, Labor Party Jen Stoltenberg, which killed 8 civilians, and the subsequent political assassination of 68 unarmed activists of the Labor Party Youth on Utoeya Island, just 20 minutes from Oslo, by militant neo-fascist Christian-Zionists, raises fundamental questions about the growing links between the legal Far-Right, the ‘mainstream media’, the Norwegian police, Israel and rightwing terrorism.
The Mass Media and the Rise of Rightwing Terrorism:
The leading English language newspapers, The New York Times (NYT), the Washington Post (WP), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the Financial Times (FT), as well as President Obama, blamed “Islamic extremists”, upon the first police reports of the killings, publishing a series of incendiary (and false) headlines and reports, labeling the event as ‘Norway’s 9-11’,in terms, which echoed the ideological motivation and justifications cited by the Norwegian Christian-Zionist political assassin, Anders Behring Breivik himself,. The July 23/24 front page of the Financial Times (of London ), read “Islamist extremism fears: Worst Europe strike since 2005”. Obama immediately cited the terrorist attack in Norway to further justify his overseas wars against Muslim countries. The FT, NYT, WP and WSJ trotted out their self-styled “experts” who debated over which Arab/Islamic leaders or movements were responsible – despite Norwegian press reports of ‘the arrest of a Nordic man in police uniform’.
Clearly, the US mass media and political elite were eager to use the bombing and assassinations to justify ongoing overseas imperial wars, ignoring the burgeoning domestic extremist rightwing organizations and violent individuals who are the outgrowth of official Islamophobic hate propaganda.
When Anders Breivik, a known neo-fascist extremist, handed his weapons over to Norwegian police without resistance and claimed credit for the bombing and massacre, the second phase of the official cover-up took place: He was immediately described as “a lone wolf assassin”, who “acted alone” (BBC July 24, 2011) or as mentally deranged, downplaying his political networks, his American, European and Israeli ideological mentors and commitments, which led to his acts of terrorism. Even more outrageous, the media and officials ignored the fact that this complex, multiphase terrorist attack was beyond the capacity of one ‘deranged’ person.
Anders Behring Breivik had been a dues-paying member of a Far-Right political party, The Progress Party and a collaborator and contributor to an overtly neo-Nazi web site. He frequently focused his hatred on the ruling Labor Party for its relative tolerance of immigrants. He despised immigrants especially, Muslims, and was an ardent Christian-Zionist supporter of Israeli repression and terror against the Palestinian people. His criminal action was political in essence and embedded in a much wider political network.
The political elite and media have scrambled to deny the overlapping links between ‘legal’ ideological Islamophobes, like the American Zionists Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, the Dutch far-right Party of Freedom led by the hate-monger Geert Wilders and their counterparts in the Norwegian Progress Party who rail against the “Muslim threat”. The “direct action” terrorists take their cues from electoral parties, like the Progress Party, who recruit and indoctrinate activists, like Behring Breivik, who then leave the ‘electoral road’ to carry out their bloody carnage, allowing the ‘respectable’ hate-mongers to hypocritically condemn him… after the outrage.
The Lone Assassin: A Fascist Superman Travels Faster than a Speeding Bullet Versus the Police Moving Slower than an Arthritic Turtle:
The case for the “lone wolf terrorist” defies credence. It is a tissue of lies used to cover up state complicity, intelligence malfeasance, and the sharp right-turn in the domestic and foreign policies of NATO countries.
There is no basis to accept Breivik’s initial claim that he acted alone for several outstanding reasons: First, the car bomb, which devastated downtown Oslo, was a highly complex weapon requiring expertise and coordination – the kind available to state or intelligence services, like the Mossad, which specialize in devastating car bombs. Amateurs, like Breivik, with no training in explosives, usually blow themselves up or lack the skill required to connect the electronic timing devices or remote detonators (like the unsuccessful ‘shoe’, ‘underpants’ and ‘Times Square’ bombers have proved) .
Secondly, the details of (a) moving the bomb, (b) obtaining (stealing) a vehicle, (c) placing the device at the strategic site, (d) successfully detonating it and (e) then gowning up in an elaborate special police uniform with an arsenal of hundreds of rounds of ammunition and driving off in another vehicle to Utoeya Island, (f) waiting patiently while armed to the teeth for a ferry boat, g) crossing with other passengers in his police uniform, (h) rounding up the Labor youth activists and commencing the massacre of scores of unarmed youth and finally (i) finishing off the wounded and hunting for those trying to hide or swim away - is not the activity of a lone zealot. Even the combination of Superman, Einstein and a world class marksman could not perform those tasks.
The media and NATO leaders must view the public as passive morons to expect them to believe that Anders Behring Breivik “acted alone”. He is willing to take a 20 year prison sentence if it means, as he maintains, that their collective action is the spark that ignites his comrades and advances the agenda of the violent and legal far rightwing parties. Facing a Norwegian judge on July 25, he publicly declared the existence of “two more cells in my organization”. According to witness testimony on Utoeya Island shots from two distinct weapons were heard from different directions during the massacre. The police say they are… “investigating”. Needless to say the police have found nothing; instead they put on a “show” to cover their inaction by raiding two houses far from the massacre and quickly released the suspects.
The most serious political implication of the terrorist action, however, is the conspicuous complicity of top police officials. The police took 90 minutes to arrive at Utoeya Island , located less than 20 miles from Oslo , 12 minutes by helicopter and 25 to 30 minutes by car and boat. The delay allowed the right wing assassins to use up the ammunition, maximizing the death toll of young, anti-fascist activists and devastating the Labor youth movement. The police chief, Sveinung Sponheim, made the feeblest excuse and cover-up, claiming “problems with transport”. Sponheim argued that a helicopter “wasn’t on standby” and they “could not find a boat” (Associated Press, July 24, 2011).
Yet a helicopter was available; it managed to fly to Utoeya and film the ongoing slaughter, and over half of Norwegians, a seafaring people for millennia, own or have access to a boat. A police force, faced with what the Prime Minister calls the ‘worst atrocity since the Nazi occupation’, moving at the pace of an arthritic turtle to rescue youth activists, raises the suspicion of some level of complicity. The obvious question arises as to the degree to which the ideology of right wing extremism – neo-fascism – has penetrated the police and security forces, especially the upper echelons? This level of “inactivity” raises more questions than it answers. What it suggests is that the Social Democrats only control part of the Government – the legislative, while the neo-fascists influence the state apparatus.
The plain fact is that the police did not save a single life. When they finally arrived, Anders Behring Breivik had run out of ammunition and surrendered turning himself over to the police. The police literally did not fire a single shot; they did not even have to hunt or capture the assassin. An almost choreographed scenario: Hundreds wounded, 68 unarmed, peaceful activists killed and the Labor youth movement decimated.
The police can claim “crime solved” while the mass media prattles about a “lone assassin”. The far right has a “martyr” to mask a further advance in their anti-Muslim, pro Israel crusade. (It is reminiscent of the celebrated Israeli-American fascist mass murderer, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, who slaughtered dozens of unarmed Palestinian men and boys at prayer in 1994).
Only two days before the political murders, the head of the Labor Party Youth Movement, Eskil Pederson, gave an interview to the Dagbladet, Norway’s second largest tabloid, in which he announced a “unilateral economic embargo of Israel from the Norwegian side” (Gilad Atzmon, July 24, 2011).
The fact of the matter is that the Norwegian military has no problem promptly dispatching 500 troops to Afghanistan, half way around the world and providing six Norwegian Air Force jets and pilots to bomb and terrorize Libya . And yet they can’t find a helicopter or a row boat to transport their police a couple hundred yards to stop a domestic right wing terrorist – whose murderous rampage was being described second by second by the terrorized young victims on their cell phones to their frantic parents?
The Imperial Roots of Domestic Fascism: Conclusion
Clearly, the decisions of Norway and other Scandinavian nations to participate in the US imperial crusades against Muslim and especially Arab people in the Middle East have aroused and energized the neo-fascist right. They now want to “bring the war home”; they want Norway to go further, to ‘cleanse the nation’ by expelling Muslims. They want to “send a message” to the Labor Party: Either it must accept a full neo-fascist pro-Israeli agenda or expect more massacres, more elected fascists, more followers of Anders Behring Breivik.
The “Progress Party” is now the second largest political party in Norway . If a “conservative” coalition defeats Labor, neo-fascists will probably sit in the Government. Who knows, after a few years of good behavior, they might find an excuse to commute their ex-comrade's sentence . . . or proclaim him mentally rehabilitated and freed.
Clearly what is needed is the immediate withdrawal of all troops from imperial wars and a systematic, coherent and organized fight against domestic right-wing terrorists and their intellectual godparents, in America , Israel and Europe . Labor youth must go press on with their demand that the Labor Government, under Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg, recognize the nation of Palestine and implement a total boycott of Israeli goods and services. A national and international political-educational campaign must be organized to expose the links between respectable electoral fascists and violent terrorists. The Labor Youth martyrs of Utoeya Island should be cherished and their ideals taught in all the schools. Their far-right enemies and supporters whether overt, covert or directly complicit, should be exposed and condemned. The best weapon against the renewed neo-fascist onslaught is a political and educational offensive, taking up the anti-fascist, anti-Quisling (Norway ’s notorious Nazi collaborator) fighting traditions of their grandparents’ era. It’s not too late – if the Labor Party, the Norwegian trade unions and the anti-fascist youth act now before the flood of resurgent fascism.
segunda-feira, 25 de julho de 2011
Anders Behring Breivik, a perfect product of the Axis of Islamophobia
24 July 2011, Max Blumenthal http://maxblumenthal.com (USA)
Max Blumenthal*
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store visits the Utoya Labor Youth camp a day before Breivik's killing spree. He earned loud cheers with an unapologetic call for Palestinian rights.
When I wrote my analysis last December on the “Axis of Islamophobia,” laying out a new international political network of right-wing ultra-Zionists, Christian evangelicals, Tea Party activists and racist British soccer hooligans, I did not foresee a terrorist like Anders Behring Breivik emerging from the movement’s ranks. At the same time, I am not surprised that he did. The rhetoric of the characters who inspired Breivik, from Pam Geller to Robert Spencer to Daniel Pipes, was so eliminationist in its nature that it was perhaps only a matter of time before someone put words into action.
As horrific as Breivik’s actions were, he can not be dismissed as a “madman.” His writings contain the same themes and language as more prominent right-wing Islamophobes (or those who style themselves as “counter-Jihadists”) and many conservatives in general. What’s more, Breivik was articulate and coherent enough to offer a clear snapshot of his ideological motives. Ali Abunimah and Alex Kane have posted excellent summaries of Breivik’s writings here and here and a full English translation is here. It is also worth sitting through at least a portion of Breivik’s tedious video manifesto to get a sense of his thinking.
From a tactical perspective, Breivik was not a “lone wolf” terrorist. Instead, Breivik appeared to operate under a leaderless resistance model much like the Christian anti-abortion terrorists Scott Roeder and Eric Rudolph. Waagner and Rudolph organized around the Army of God, a nebulous group that was known only by its website and the pamphlets its members passed around in truck stops and private meetings. If they received material or tactical support, it occurred spontaneously. For the most part, they found encouragement from like-minded people and organizations like Operation Rescue, but rarely accepted direct assistance. Breivik, who emerged from the anti-immigrant Norwegian Progress Party (which built links with America’s Tea Party) and drifted into the English/Norwegian Defense League sphere of extremism, but who appeared to act without formal organizational support, reflects the same leaderless resistance style as America’s anti-abortion terrorists.
While in many ways Breivik shares core similarities with other right-wing anti-government terrorists, he is the product of a movement that is relatively new, increasingly dangerous, and poorly understood. I described the movement in detail in my “Axis of Islamophobia” piece, noting its simultaneous projection of anti-Semitic themes on Muslim immigrants and the appeal of Israel as a Fort Apache on the front lines of the war on terror, holding the line against the Eastern barbarian hordes. Breivik’s writings embody this seemingly novel fusion, particularly in his obsession with “Cultural Marxism,” an increasingly popular far-right concept that positions the (mostly Jewish) Frankfurt School as the originators of multiculturalism, combined with his call to “influence other cultural conservatives to come to our…pro-Israel line.”
Breivik and other members of Europe’s new extreme right are fixated on the fear of the “demographic Jihad,” or being out-populated by overly fertile Muslim immigrants. They see themselves as Crusader warriors fighting a racial/religious holy war to preserve Western Civilization. Thus they turn for inspiration to Israel, the only ethnocracy in the world, a country that substantially bases its policies towards the Palestinians on what its leaders call “demographic considerations.” This is why Israeli flags invariably fly above black-masked English Defense League mobs, and why Geert Wilders, the most prominent Islamophobic politician in the world, routinely travels to Israel to demand the forced transfer of Palestinians.
Judging from Breivik’s writings, his hysterical hatred of the Labor Party’s immigration policies and tolerance of Muslim immigrants likely led him target the government-operated summer camp at Utoya. For years, the far-right has singled Norway out as a special hotbed of pro-Islam, pro-Palestinian sentiment, thanks largely to its ruling Labor Party. In 2010, for instance, the English Defense League called Norway a future site of “Islamohell,” “where unadulterated political correctness has ruled the roost, with sharp talons, for decades.” Yesterday, when the Wall Street Journal editorial page rushed to blame Muslim terrorists for what turned out to be Breivik’s killing spree, it slammed the Norwegian government for pulling troops from Afghanistan and demanding that Israel end its siege of Gaza. For his part, Breivik branded the Labor Party as “traitors.”
There is no clear evidence that Breivik’s support for the Israeli right played any part in his killing spree. Nor does he appear to have any connection with the Israeli government. However, it is worth noting that in November 2010, the Israeli government joined the right-wing pile on, accusing the Norwegian government of “anti-Israel incitement” for funding a trip for students to New York to see the “Gaza Monologues” play. Then, the day before Breivik’s terror attack, which he planned long in advance, Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stor visited the Labor Youth camp at Utoya. There, he was met with demands to support the global BDS movement and to support the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral statehood bid. “The Palestinians must have their own state, the occupation must end, the wall must be demolished and it must happen now,” the Foreign Minister declared, earning cheers from the audience.
Breivik’s writings offer much more than a window into the motives that led him to commit terror. They can also be read as an embodiment of the mentality of a new and internationalized far-right movement that not only mobilizes hatred against Muslims, but is also able to produce figures who will kill innocent non-Muslims to save the Western way of life.
Max Blumenthal*
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store visits the Utoya Labor Youth camp a day before Breivik's killing spree. He earned loud cheers with an unapologetic call for Palestinian rights.
When I wrote my analysis last December on the “Axis of Islamophobia,” laying out a new international political network of right-wing ultra-Zionists, Christian evangelicals, Tea Party activists and racist British soccer hooligans, I did not foresee a terrorist like Anders Behring Breivik emerging from the movement’s ranks. At the same time, I am not surprised that he did. The rhetoric of the characters who inspired Breivik, from Pam Geller to Robert Spencer to Daniel Pipes, was so eliminationist in its nature that it was perhaps only a matter of time before someone put words into action.
As horrific as Breivik’s actions were, he can not be dismissed as a “madman.” His writings contain the same themes and language as more prominent right-wing Islamophobes (or those who style themselves as “counter-Jihadists”) and many conservatives in general. What’s more, Breivik was articulate and coherent enough to offer a clear snapshot of his ideological motives. Ali Abunimah and Alex Kane have posted excellent summaries of Breivik’s writings here and here and a full English translation is here. It is also worth sitting through at least a portion of Breivik’s tedious video manifesto to get a sense of his thinking.
From a tactical perspective, Breivik was not a “lone wolf” terrorist. Instead, Breivik appeared to operate under a leaderless resistance model much like the Christian anti-abortion terrorists Scott Roeder and Eric Rudolph. Waagner and Rudolph organized around the Army of God, a nebulous group that was known only by its website and the pamphlets its members passed around in truck stops and private meetings. If they received material or tactical support, it occurred spontaneously. For the most part, they found encouragement from like-minded people and organizations like Operation Rescue, but rarely accepted direct assistance. Breivik, who emerged from the anti-immigrant Norwegian Progress Party (which built links with America’s Tea Party) and drifted into the English/Norwegian Defense League sphere of extremism, but who appeared to act without formal organizational support, reflects the same leaderless resistance style as America’s anti-abortion terrorists.
While in many ways Breivik shares core similarities with other right-wing anti-government terrorists, he is the product of a movement that is relatively new, increasingly dangerous, and poorly understood. I described the movement in detail in my “Axis of Islamophobia” piece, noting its simultaneous projection of anti-Semitic themes on Muslim immigrants and the appeal of Israel as a Fort Apache on the front lines of the war on terror, holding the line against the Eastern barbarian hordes. Breivik’s writings embody this seemingly novel fusion, particularly in his obsession with “Cultural Marxism,” an increasingly popular far-right concept that positions the (mostly Jewish) Frankfurt School as the originators of multiculturalism, combined with his call to “influence other cultural conservatives to come to our…pro-Israel line.”
Breivik and other members of Europe’s new extreme right are fixated on the fear of the “demographic Jihad,” or being out-populated by overly fertile Muslim immigrants. They see themselves as Crusader warriors fighting a racial/religious holy war to preserve Western Civilization. Thus they turn for inspiration to Israel, the only ethnocracy in the world, a country that substantially bases its policies towards the Palestinians on what its leaders call “demographic considerations.” This is why Israeli flags invariably fly above black-masked English Defense League mobs, and why Geert Wilders, the most prominent Islamophobic politician in the world, routinely travels to Israel to demand the forced transfer of Palestinians.
Judging from Breivik’s writings, his hysterical hatred of the Labor Party’s immigration policies and tolerance of Muslim immigrants likely led him target the government-operated summer camp at Utoya. For years, the far-right has singled Norway out as a special hotbed of pro-Islam, pro-Palestinian sentiment, thanks largely to its ruling Labor Party. In 2010, for instance, the English Defense League called Norway a future site of “Islamohell,” “where unadulterated political correctness has ruled the roost, with sharp talons, for decades.” Yesterday, when the Wall Street Journal editorial page rushed to blame Muslim terrorists for what turned out to be Breivik’s killing spree, it slammed the Norwegian government for pulling troops from Afghanistan and demanding that Israel end its siege of Gaza. For his part, Breivik branded the Labor Party as “traitors.”
There is no clear evidence that Breivik’s support for the Israeli right played any part in his killing spree. Nor does he appear to have any connection with the Israeli government. However, it is worth noting that in November 2010, the Israeli government joined the right-wing pile on, accusing the Norwegian government of “anti-Israel incitement” for funding a trip for students to New York to see the “Gaza Monologues” play. Then, the day before Breivik’s terror attack, which he planned long in advance, Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stor visited the Labor Youth camp at Utoya. There, he was met with demands to support the global BDS movement and to support the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral statehood bid. “The Palestinians must have their own state, the occupation must end, the wall must be demolished and it must happen now,” the Foreign Minister declared, earning cheers from the audience.
Breivik’s writings offer much more than a window into the motives that led him to commit terror. They can also be read as an embodiment of the mentality of a new and internationalized far-right movement that not only mobilizes hatred against Muslims, but is also able to produce figures who will kill innocent non-Muslims to save the Western way of life.
terça-feira, 7 de junho de 2011
Why are the Libyan Rebels seeking Israel’s support?
2 June 2011, Jews for Justice for Palestinians http://jfjfp.com
By Anissa Haddadi
UK International Business Times
As mediation and ceasefire initiatives such as the Road Map proposed by the African Union via South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma failed, a French writer, Bernard Henri Levy announced that he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel’s Prime Minister, saying they would seek diplomatic ties with the country if they came to power.
This move, which is set to be ambivalently received in the Muslim world, also breaks the National Transitional Council from the Gaddafi regime, which does not have any diplomatic relations with Israel. Also it comes as the rebels are slowly gaining advantages over Gaddafi. In the last few days they have progressed on the battlefield while the Libyan leader’s regime is facing an increase in defections and is becoming increasingly isolated internationally, especially after last week when Russia shifted its position and called on Gadaffi to step down.
The latest high-profile defection to further demoralise the regime was that of Shukri Ghanem, the regime’s oil minister and former prime minister. He was followed by the defection of eight Libyan army officers, including five generals, who were part of a wider group of 120 military personnel that defected in recent days.
In Africa, five other countries do not formally acknowledge Israel as a state or have diplomatic relations with it. They are Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan, while in the Middle East Iraq, Lebannon, Kuwauit, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen and the United Arab Emirate share the same position.
So why are the rebels interested in obtaining Israel’s support, and affirm they will acknowledge the existence of Israel as a state as soon as they gain power?
Well, according to Levi “The main point was that the future Libyan regime would be moderate and anti-terrorist and will be concerned with justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel”.
It seems that the move will infuriate Gaddafi, not because of the new born relationship between the rebels and Israel but rather because it assumes the transitional council will, no matter what, gain control of the state.
Interestingly, the council’s stance and newly found interest in playing a major role in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict comes just after the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Occampo revealed this week that following accusations of arbitrary imprisonment and ill treatment of foreign workers by the rebels fighters, he was “investigating reports of unlawful arrest, mistreatment and killing” of sub-Saharan African civilians wrongly perceived to be mercenaries.
Also, as members of the fighters on the ground were accused of having ties with Al-Qaeda, it seems that expressing support for (and gaining support from) Israel will help the council steer away from accusations of having links with terrorist movements or of harbouring Muslims fundamentalists, who are not generally noted for their love of Israel.
If the new regime (if it arrives) wishes to be taken seriously by Western countries and become a successful intermediate between Israel and Palestine, then recognition of Israel would give it some initial international brownie points by putting it firmly on the international geopolitical map in a region where the West and Israel are actively seeking new allies.
Of course another possibility is that after the surge of negative reports in the last few days the regime felt it had to take a very public stand to reassure Western liberal democracies of its dedication to democracy but also to their ideals and values.
While only time will tell us what really motivated the move, the conflict is still on-going.
Today, the Libyan government tried to play down the significance of yesterday’s defection of the country’s oil minister Shukri Ghanem.
While Libyan officials had previously insisted that Mr Ghanem was on an official trip to Tunisia, Europe and Egypt, a government spokesman was forced to dismiss Mr Ghanem’s departure was a blow to the regime.
“This is a country, a state, a government, not just one person,” Mussa Ibrahim told reporters and insisted Libya would be still represented at the meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna on June 8. “I don’t have a name yet but we’ll have somebody.”
An executive with the state-owned National Oil Corporation, Mosbah Ali Matoug, took Mr Ghanem’s place today at a meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Cairo.
Meanwhile in rebel-held eastern Libya, an explosion damaged a hotel used by rebels and foreigners in Benghazi, wounding one person while 270 people, who were fleeing the country, went missing after a fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy broke down just off the Tunisian coast.
According to a state run agency, 570 people were rescued and seven people injured, and passengers were mainly said to be migrants from Africa and Asia who planned to enter Italy illegally.
By Anissa Haddadi
UK International Business Times
As mediation and ceasefire initiatives such as the Road Map proposed by the African Union via South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma failed, a French writer, Bernard Henri Levy announced that he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel’s Prime Minister, saying they would seek diplomatic ties with the country if they came to power.
This move, which is set to be ambivalently received in the Muslim world, also breaks the National Transitional Council from the Gaddafi regime, which does not have any diplomatic relations with Israel. Also it comes as the rebels are slowly gaining advantages over Gaddafi. In the last few days they have progressed on the battlefield while the Libyan leader’s regime is facing an increase in defections and is becoming increasingly isolated internationally, especially after last week when Russia shifted its position and called on Gadaffi to step down.
The latest high-profile defection to further demoralise the regime was that of Shukri Ghanem, the regime’s oil minister and former prime minister. He was followed by the defection of eight Libyan army officers, including five generals, who were part of a wider group of 120 military personnel that defected in recent days.
In Africa, five other countries do not formally acknowledge Israel as a state or have diplomatic relations with it. They are Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan, while in the Middle East Iraq, Lebannon, Kuwauit, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen and the United Arab Emirate share the same position.
So why are the rebels interested in obtaining Israel’s support, and affirm they will acknowledge the existence of Israel as a state as soon as they gain power?
Well, according to Levi “The main point was that the future Libyan regime would be moderate and anti-terrorist and will be concerned with justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel”.
It seems that the move will infuriate Gaddafi, not because of the new born relationship between the rebels and Israel but rather because it assumes the transitional council will, no matter what, gain control of the state.
Interestingly, the council’s stance and newly found interest in playing a major role in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict comes just after the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Occampo revealed this week that following accusations of arbitrary imprisonment and ill treatment of foreign workers by the rebels fighters, he was “investigating reports of unlawful arrest, mistreatment and killing” of sub-Saharan African civilians wrongly perceived to be mercenaries.
Also, as members of the fighters on the ground were accused of having ties with Al-Qaeda, it seems that expressing support for (and gaining support from) Israel will help the council steer away from accusations of having links with terrorist movements or of harbouring Muslims fundamentalists, who are not generally noted for their love of Israel.
If the new regime (if it arrives) wishes to be taken seriously by Western countries and become a successful intermediate between Israel and Palestine, then recognition of Israel would give it some initial international brownie points by putting it firmly on the international geopolitical map in a region where the West and Israel are actively seeking new allies.
Of course another possibility is that after the surge of negative reports in the last few days the regime felt it had to take a very public stand to reassure Western liberal democracies of its dedication to democracy but also to their ideals and values.
While only time will tell us what really motivated the move, the conflict is still on-going.
Today, the Libyan government tried to play down the significance of yesterday’s defection of the country’s oil minister Shukri Ghanem.
While Libyan officials had previously insisted that Mr Ghanem was on an official trip to Tunisia, Europe and Egypt, a government spokesman was forced to dismiss Mr Ghanem’s departure was a blow to the regime.
“This is a country, a state, a government, not just one person,” Mussa Ibrahim told reporters and insisted Libya would be still represented at the meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna on June 8. “I don’t have a name yet but we’ll have somebody.”
An executive with the state-owned National Oil Corporation, Mosbah Ali Matoug, took Mr Ghanem’s place today at a meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Cairo.
Meanwhile in rebel-held eastern Libya, an explosion damaged a hotel used by rebels and foreigners in Benghazi, wounding one person while 270 people, who were fleeing the country, went missing after a fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy broke down just off the Tunisian coast.
According to a state run agency, 570 people were rescued and seven people injured, and passengers were mainly said to be migrants from Africa and Asia who planned to enter Italy illegally.
quinta-feira, 2 de junho de 2011
FEAR IS DRIVING ISRAELIS TO OBTAIN FOREIGN PASSPORTS
More and more Israelis apply for a foreign passport, not for easier travel but because something has gone terribly wrong here.
2 June 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
By Gideon Levy
The numbers are climbing rapidly and the phenomenon is intriguing: Many Israelis are longing for a second passport. If Shimon Peres (now president ) once promised "a car for every worker," a second passport is now becoming the object of desire. If our forefathers dreamt of an Israeli passport, there are those among us who are now dreaming of a foreign passport.
A Bar-Ilan University study published in the journal Eretz Acheret has found that roughly 100,000 Israelis already hold a German passport. Over the past decade, the trend has strengthened and some 7,000 more Israelis join them every year. To these should be added the thousands of Israelis who hold foreign passports, mostly European countries. The excuses are strange and diverse, but at the base of them all are unease and anxiety, both personal and national. The foreign passport has become an insurance policy against a rainy day. It turns out there are more and more Israelis who are thinking that day may eventually come.
In recent years the Israeli passport has become useful and effective. It opens the gates of most countries of the world, except for parts of the Arab and Muslim world. It is hard to believe that those applying for a second passport are doing so in order to vacation in Tehran, tour Benghazi or take in the sights of San'a. The alibi that a European passport makes entering the United States easier cannot fully explain the phenomenon, which has no equivalent in other developed countries.
It should not be condemned, though. It reflects a mood, a natural and understandable consequence of the real and imagined fears that have been sown here. When Avrum Burg boasted of his French passport several years ago, a public outcry arose, but in vain. Presumably some of those who cried out did so because they do not have the option, like he does, of obtaining an additional passport for themselves. The others may have since crowded onto the line at one embassy or another.
The fact that Germany, of all places, is the passport provider of preference should also no longer touch off feelings of anger or shame. For many Israelis, Germany has long since become a country like any other: Our cabinet ministers ride in Audis, and the washing machines we import from there excel in their German quality. The scare campaigns have been effective, and the passport applicants are responding in an intelligent and sensible way. It turns out that they are far more rational than their leaders: If the leaders so want to scare us of the Iranian bomb, the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and the hooligans from Gaza, if everything threatens to become a "Holocaust," then it really does make sense to equip oneself with suitable means of protection. An additional passport, for example.
Anyone who believes an additional passport is a national shame and a social disgrace is invited to have a look at why Israelis desire them. If we had a leadership worthy of the name, one that instead of sowing anxieties did something to reduce them, and instead of terrifying us instilled hopes in us, then the lines at the German Embassy would have become shorter long ago. Instead of condemning the passport seekers, let us ask honestly and courageously: Why are they doing this? They are doing this because someone is scaring them, and no less so, because there is someone endangering our future here.
Passports? If the Palestinian people already had one real passport, maybe the Israelis wouldn't need two. If Israel were to try at long last to be accepted in its region, with all that entails, then maybe the region would open to it by means of a single, blue and white passport. If Israel were also to take the advice of its friends in the world, especially in the countries of Europe, then perhaps we wouldn't need their passports.
Israel is strong and established and ostensibly its passport should be sufficient for its citizens. The fact that it is not sufficient for many of them testifies, more than a thousand passports, that something has gone deeply wrong here. Israel, after all, arose to become a haven for the Jewish people, mainly from the horrors of Europe, yet in an irony of history, Europe is in fact becoming a haven for Israelis.
Anyone who can obtain an additional passport is of course invited to do so, but on the way back from the embassy he should ask whether his country has done everything in its power to ensure he will not need it. The answer to this is a resounding no. Still, I personally have no intention of applying for a second passport.
2 June 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
By Gideon Levy
The numbers are climbing rapidly and the phenomenon is intriguing: Many Israelis are longing for a second passport. If Shimon Peres (now president ) once promised "a car for every worker," a second passport is now becoming the object of desire. If our forefathers dreamt of an Israeli passport, there are those among us who are now dreaming of a foreign passport.
A Bar-Ilan University study published in the journal Eretz Acheret has found that roughly 100,000 Israelis already hold a German passport. Over the past decade, the trend has strengthened and some 7,000 more Israelis join them every year. To these should be added the thousands of Israelis who hold foreign passports, mostly European countries. The excuses are strange and diverse, but at the base of them all are unease and anxiety, both personal and national. The foreign passport has become an insurance policy against a rainy day. It turns out there are more and more Israelis who are thinking that day may eventually come.
In recent years the Israeli passport has become useful and effective. It opens the gates of most countries of the world, except for parts of the Arab and Muslim world. It is hard to believe that those applying for a second passport are doing so in order to vacation in Tehran, tour Benghazi or take in the sights of San'a. The alibi that a European passport makes entering the United States easier cannot fully explain the phenomenon, which has no equivalent in other developed countries.
It should not be condemned, though. It reflects a mood, a natural and understandable consequence of the real and imagined fears that have been sown here. When Avrum Burg boasted of his French passport several years ago, a public outcry arose, but in vain. Presumably some of those who cried out did so because they do not have the option, like he does, of obtaining an additional passport for themselves. The others may have since crowded onto the line at one embassy or another.
The fact that Germany, of all places, is the passport provider of preference should also no longer touch off feelings of anger or shame. For many Israelis, Germany has long since become a country like any other: Our cabinet ministers ride in Audis, and the washing machines we import from there excel in their German quality. The scare campaigns have been effective, and the passport applicants are responding in an intelligent and sensible way. It turns out that they are far more rational than their leaders: If the leaders so want to scare us of the Iranian bomb, the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and the hooligans from Gaza, if everything threatens to become a "Holocaust," then it really does make sense to equip oneself with suitable means of protection. An additional passport, for example.
Anyone who believes an additional passport is a national shame and a social disgrace is invited to have a look at why Israelis desire them. If we had a leadership worthy of the name, one that instead of sowing anxieties did something to reduce them, and instead of terrifying us instilled hopes in us, then the lines at the German Embassy would have become shorter long ago. Instead of condemning the passport seekers, let us ask honestly and courageously: Why are they doing this? They are doing this because someone is scaring them, and no less so, because there is someone endangering our future here.
Passports? If the Palestinian people already had one real passport, maybe the Israelis wouldn't need two. If Israel were to try at long last to be accepted in its region, with all that entails, then maybe the region would open to it by means of a single, blue and white passport. If Israel were also to take the advice of its friends in the world, especially in the countries of Europe, then perhaps we wouldn't need their passports.
Israel is strong and established and ostensibly its passport should be sufficient for its citizens. The fact that it is not sufficient for many of them testifies, more than a thousand passports, that something has gone deeply wrong here. Israel, after all, arose to become a haven for the Jewish people, mainly from the horrors of Europe, yet in an irony of history, Europe is in fact becoming a haven for Israelis.
Anyone who can obtain an additional passport is of course invited to do so, but on the way back from the embassy he should ask whether his country has done everything in its power to ensure he will not need it. The answer to this is a resounding no. Still, I personally have no intention of applying for a second passport.
domingo, 15 de maio de 2011
'Palestinians paying for Nazi crimes'
15 may 2011, Ynetnews (Israel)
Muslim Brotherhood official tells Washington Post US, Europe 'exported Hitler's conflict to our land'
Yitzhak Benhorin
Washington- "My dream is to live together as we did before the state of Israel. We lived in peace. We were never in conflict. Americans and Europeans exported the conflict created by Hitler to our land," said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Muslim brotherhood's Egypt branch.
In an interview with the Washington Post, El-Erian calimed his organization does not threaten Israel, and is not interested in annulling the peace accord with the Jewish State.
Commenting on the ongoing clashes between Israel and the Palestinians, El-Erian noted that Israel was punishing the Palestinians for the Jewish Holocaust during World War II.
"The Holocaust was a massacre against a race, against a religion—it is a really big crime, but we were never accused of it. Why do the Palestinians pay the price of Nazis?" he said.
El-Erian stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood has no intention of canceling the peace treaty with Israel.
"A new parliament would make that decision. The army says frankly, and we say it also: We cannot cancel a treaty by a verbal decision. Treaties have regulations and must be respected from both sides. When one side doesn't respect the treaty, the international community must obligate it to do so."
The Muslim Brotherhood official accused the American administration of being biased in favor of Israel and warned the Americans that if they don’t reevaluate their policy in the Middle East, they might "lose" the region.
"We are not threatening Israel. Israel is hurting itself by its policies. It is discriminating inside Israel against Arabs. Israel is not under threat from Arabs—it is under threat from inside Israel, from its leaders like (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and (Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman. It is under threat from Israelis," he said, adding, "I studied the society of Israel, I know everything about this fight and this state. My dream is that we are not going to destroy Israel. If it didn't revise its policy and its policy against Arabs and Jews, it can destroy itself."
Muslim Brotherhood official tells Washington Post US, Europe 'exported Hitler's conflict to our land'
Yitzhak Benhorin
Washington- "My dream is to live together as we did before the state of Israel. We lived in peace. We were never in conflict. Americans and Europeans exported the conflict created by Hitler to our land," said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Muslim brotherhood's Egypt branch.
In an interview with the Washington Post, El-Erian calimed his organization does not threaten Israel, and is not interested in annulling the peace accord with the Jewish State.
Commenting on the ongoing clashes between Israel and the Palestinians, El-Erian noted that Israel was punishing the Palestinians for the Jewish Holocaust during World War II.
"The Holocaust was a massacre against a race, against a religion—it is a really big crime, but we were never accused of it. Why do the Palestinians pay the price of Nazis?" he said.
El-Erian stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood has no intention of canceling the peace treaty with Israel.
"A new parliament would make that decision. The army says frankly, and we say it also: We cannot cancel a treaty by a verbal decision. Treaties have regulations and must be respected from both sides. When one side doesn't respect the treaty, the international community must obligate it to do so."
The Muslim Brotherhood official accused the American administration of being biased in favor of Israel and warned the Americans that if they don’t reevaluate their policy in the Middle East, they might "lose" the region.
"We are not threatening Israel. Israel is hurting itself by its policies. It is discriminating inside Israel against Arabs. Israel is not under threat from Arabs—it is under threat from inside Israel, from its leaders like (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and (Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman. It is under threat from Israelis," he said, adding, "I studied the society of Israel, I know everything about this fight and this state. My dream is that we are not going to destroy Israel. If it didn't revise its policy and its policy against Arabs and Jews, it can destroy itself."
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