February 2005 Archives

Having been indoctrinated in the postcolonialist, self-loathing school of multiculturalism, I thought America was the root of all evil in the world. Its democratic form of government and capitalist economic system was nothing more than a machine in which citizens were forced to be cogs. I put aside the nagging question of why so many people all over the world risk their lives to come to the United States. Freedom of speech, religious freedom, women's rights, gay rights (yes, even without same-sex marriage), social and economic mobility, relative racial harmony and democracy itself were all taken for granted in my narrow, insulated world view.

So, what happened to change all that? In a nutshell, 9/11. The terrorist attacks on this country were not only an act of war but also a crime against humanity. It seemed glaringly obvious to me at the time, and it still does today. But the reaction of my former comrades on the left bespoke a different perspective. The day after the attacks, I dragged myself into work, still in a state of shock, and the first thing I heard was one of my co-workers bellowing triumphantly, "Bush got his war!" There was little sympathy for the victims of this horrific attack, only an irrational hatred for their own country.

As I spent months grieving the losses, others around me wrapped themselves in the comfortable shell of cynicism and acted as if nothing had changed. I soon began to recognize in them an inability to view America or its people as victims, born of years of indoctrination in which we were always presented as the bad guys...

But first, let's look at a session of this "rigorous" committee as provided to me by students belonging to Columbians for Academic Freedom, some of whom appear in the film Columbia Unbecoming.

As the members of Columbia's investigating committee were seated at a roundtable, before a student witness, Professor Ira Katznelson, presiding, said, "There will be two reports [by the committee]: an internal report by the committee, which will be full and frank and detailed, and a public summary."

I left a message for Columbia spokeswoman Susan Brown, asking why the Columbia community and the general public would not also be getting a full and frank report. My call to her was not returned.

Professor Katznelson was asked by one of the students in Columbians for Academic Freedom whether there'd be a tape recording of the committee's sessions.

The answer: "Notes will be taken by a professional note-taker but a tape recording will not be made."

The student asked: "Will they be kept internal or will they be transparent to the public?"

The answer: "The notes are for the use of the committee."

Floyd Abrams, the nation's premier litigator on First Amendment issues that come before the Supreme Court, has been appointed an adviser to this special administration committee. So a student asked Katznelson: "Will Floyd Abrams be present in all meetings of the committee?"

The answer: "Mr. Abrams will not be present when the testimony is taken. He has been advising the committee on procedures, and will be meeting with the group regularly as he continues in an active advisory role."

I know Floyd Abrams, and I am confident that if this committee's report is seriously suspect as to its objectivity, Floyd will issue his own independent report. But since he will not be at the sessions, why is he denied an official tape recording of the testimonies so that he can be objectively informed of the proceedings?

Initially, I asked the students whether they would bring their own tape recorders to the committee sessions. But I was told that tape recorders are not allowed by this committee. Professor Katznelson told a student that the committee will "make a full and frank confidential report to the vice president for Arts and Sciences that will be shared with the provost [Alan Brinkley] and president [Lee Bollinger]."...

The dominoes are falling against Israel. First, US colleges embraced the cause of divestment, next the Anglican Church announced that it was studying the issue, then the Presbyterian Church (USA) adopted the policy – and last week the World Council of Churches encouraged denominations to do the same.

It looks bad; but Jews need to understand that lay members of Christian churches remain firm in their support for the Jewish state. Jews need to reach out to Protestants in the pews of the churches that fund the WCC, telling them that the council isn't worthy of their support and that it's time to start a divestment campaign of their own – against the WCC.

Jews might be surprised at the response they get. US Christians stopped listening to the WCC long ago. Many still have not forgiven it for giving $85,000 to the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe in 1978, months after the group shot down an airliner, killing 38 of the 56 passengers on board. Terrorists killed 10 survivors.

American Christians know the WCC has a history of supporting violent "liberation" movements in Central America, Africa and East Asia.

They know the WCC ignored the plight of dissidents behind the Iron Curtain and "built bridges" with killers and tyrants, just as leaders from the Presbyterian Church (USA) recently extended offers of friendship to Hizbullah, a group that killed 241 US Marines in 1983.

The reaction of Presbyterian lay members was so strong that two church employees were fired for meeting with Hizbullah, demonstrating where the denomination's true power and conscience rest – in the pews, not in the minds of the movement's theologians...

A columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who managed to stay at the appearance when many other journalists were forced to leave, wrote: "Shabazz travels with a retinue of young men and women in jackboots, arm patches and berets. One wandered about with a nightstick. Another snapped photos of white people in the audience.... Try to imagine Farrakhan in Nuremberg."

Shabazz could not be reached for comment Monday. Nor could members of the black student group that organized the appearance. Carnegie Mellon officials said that they tried to persuade the students not to invite Shabazz, who has been criticized as an anti-Semite not only by Jewish organizations but by groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center. But the university decided that its commitment to free expression meant that the students were given the final say.

Michael C. Murphy, dean of student affairs, said in an interview Monday that the "tenor of hurtfulness and hatefulness" by Shabazz had upset many students at the university. Murphy was preparing for a town meeting to discuss student reactions, and for many private meetings with students and others who are concerned.

"This was hate," said Aaron Weil, executive director of the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh. "At one point, he asked all the Jews in the room to raise their hands and say who is a Jew and then he asked who is a Zionist and the people with him told these students, 'I'm watching you.' One of our students was in tears."

Weil stressed that Hillel had not asked that the speech be banned, or tried to disrupt the appearance. But he said that Jewish students feel threatened by the fact that Carnegie Mellon let Shabazz and his entourage violate university rules about weapons during an appearance in which he repeatedly criticized Jews. Among other things, Shabazz suggested that Jewish people aren't really Jewish.

In terms of violations, Weil noted that people were searched for weapons going into the lecture. But members of Shabazz's group had nightsticks visible during the appearance. Murphy, the Carnegie Mellon dean, acknowledged that university rules bar private individuals from bringing nightsticks to campus events. He said that he knew of only one nightstick that was present, and that campus police officers made a "discretionary judgment" not to remove it. Murphy added that the officers "kept a close eye" on the person with the nightstick and that it was never used to threaten anyone...

...Murphy said that when he discussed the Shabazz speech with the students who planned it, they said that they had asked Shabazz to talk about the importance of education and the responsibilities of black students, not about his views on Jewish people. He said that the students "believed" Shabazz would "give a different speech than the one he gave."...

Students report that they were told this again and again. Reporters were told this repeatedly. The university let a student group host the speaker -- who used his appearance to attack Jews -- out of a commitment to free speech, but university officials said it would never have helped bring him to campus.

Except maybe it did.

Students heard rumors that a university research center had paid for part of Shabazz's appearance, and sent an e-mail message to the head of the Center for African-American Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) to ask if it had supported the Shabazz visit. Joe Trotter, director of the center and chairman of the history department at Carnegie Mellon, wrote back that CAUSE had "contributed" to the visit, but that the amount was "quite small."...

Bray spoke at this rally, along with Imam Mohammed al-Asi, former director of the Islamic Education Center in Potomac, Maryland, who exhorted the crowd to violence in the name of Islam. Al-Asi said, "Now, all our khatibs (speakers), our imams, our public speakers, should be concentrating on militarizing the Muslim public. This is not a time to make a speaking issue out of this ... Muslims have to familiarize themselves with every means possible ... Rhetoric is not going to liberate Al Quds and Al Aqsa. Only carrying arms will do this task. And it's not going to be someone else who is going to carry arms for you and for me. It is you and me who are going to have to carry these arms."

...Ahmed Abu-Ali’s family and MAS Freedom Foundation have been informed by the United States government that Abu-Ali has returned to the U.S. and will appear Tuesday, February 22, 2005 before a magistrate at the Eastern District 4th Circuit Federal Courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia at 9:00 AM.

The Freedom Foundation will post any new developments concerning Abu-Ali on its website immediately.

MAS FREEDOM FOUNDATION URGES EVERYONE TO ATTEND THE ARRAINGMENT.

“We’re deeply grateful to the Almighty for the return of Abu-Ali the United States of America,” said Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation Executive Director Mahdi Bray. “However, I am still greatly troubled and concerned about the manner in which our government has dealt with Abu Ali and his family.

”Nothing short of his release and return to his family is acceptable to us," stated Bray.

The North East Derbyshire MP opposed the war in every Commons vote but says that the group, which includes Commons warhorses such as Alice Mahon MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP and Alan Simpson MP, has failed to understand the new realities of Iraq: "Unfortunately, the invasion took place but this led to a situation where the options facing the Iraqi people changed."...

...The MP has also issued a blistering attack on the Lancet figures of the numbers of civilians killed in Iraq.

He said: "I don't follow Stalin's dictum that 'A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.' Every death of a human being is an immeasurable loss to all humanity. But we must tell the truth about Iraqi deaths. The Lancet figure of 100,000 civilian deaths is so often used by some anti-war figures that it is commonly but wrongly accepted as a fact. The Lancet figure is wide of the mark. It's bad enough that, say, 20,000 people have died but the use of exaggerated figures shows that some anti-war leaders are more concerned to win points, regardless of truth, than to make an intellectually rigorous assessment."

The MP also slams the anti-war movement over "their attempts to rubbish the elections."

"One can have been strongly opposed to the war and yet recognise that Iraqis have shown that they wish to take back their country from both the "resistance" and foreign troops. Both motivations were present. And who can blame the Iraqis for wanting democracy free from foreign interference, after so many decades of one of the most awful regimes on earth."...

...Mr Barnes has helped form a new group, Labour Friends of Iraq with Ann Clwyd, the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to Iraq on Human Rights to unite those who took different positions on the war.

Mr Barnes said: "None of us who opposed the war likes how we got here but we must face the facts if we are to provide solidarity to Iraqi democrats in their hour of utmost need. My plain message to those on the left who abuse statistics and rubbish Iraqi democracy because they cannot stand the idea that Tony Blair or George Bush get some sort of credibility from them is to get real and do so quickly."

The 50 clergy and lay leaders from the two faiths -- brought together to discuss the Presbyterian Church-USA's resolution last summer on divestment from Israel -- had heard Presbyterian ministers review their history of divestment and a rabbi emphasize the importance of Israel to the Jewish people.

Then Rev. Susan Andrews of the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda recalled a trip she took to the Jewish state eight years ago.

Having visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum on the heels of a trip to a Palestinian refugee camp the previous day, she said that while she was not equating the two, she had been able to see some similarities between the stories of suffering she had heard from the Palestinians and what she had seen in the museum displays.

That drew a forceful response from Rabbi Michael Feshbach of Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase.

Identifying himself as one of the most left-wing rabbis in the room, he took exception to the idea that there was any "moral equivalency between [Palestinian] suffering in refugee camps and the deliberate targeting" of the Jewish people in the Holocaust.

After the dialogue, Andrews emphasized that she was "not equating what is happening to the Palestinians to the Holocaust." Nor did she want to "minimize the horror of the Holocaust."

She was "merely commenting on the kind of human suffering" Palestinians face.

"We're trying to give voice to Palestinian Christians" who have no links to terrorists, Andrews said in an interview.

While Jews often view Israeli retaliation for terrorist attacks as "appropriate self-defense," she said, she condemns "violence of any kind" as "abusive to human nature and human dignity."

Afterwards, Feshbach acknowledged pain on the Palestinian side, but called Andrews' view on the issue a "psychological approach and not a moral one."

He stressed that the Holocaust and the situation in the Middle East are "not comparable in any way, shape or form."

But both Andrews and Feshbach said the four-hour dialogue on Thursday of last week at Adas Israel Congregation in the District helped to illuminate the views and assumptions of both sides.

"Would that all communities that have disagreements find ways to approach them in this manner," said Feshbach.

Sponsored by the American Jewish Committee's Washington area chapter, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, the Washington Board of Rabbis and the National Capital Presbytery, the event included small group discussions, but began with representatives of both religions outlining some major principles of the two groups...

The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior court by Dr. Yousef Abou-Allaban, 41, a Syrian-born psychiatrist who is a US citizen, alleges that he was defamed by a November 2004 story and promotional spots describing him as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a violent terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.

The suit names Channel 25, its parent company, Fox Television Stations Inc., reporter Michael Beaudet, and producer Jonathan Wells as defendants.

"I felt I was victimized," Abou-Allaban said in an interview. "There have been many people in the Muslim community who have been demonized and lost their businesses. I felt my reputation had been tarnished. . . . I felt I became a walking criminal associated with a criminal like Osama bin Laden."

Abou-Allaban said he began to recognize the potential impact of the story when a longtime patient told him: "I never expected you to be an Al Qaeda member."

A spokeswoman for WFXT said the station had not seen the suit, and refused comment. Wells and Beaudet also declined comment. A spokeswoman for Fox Television Stations Inc. said she could not talk about a pending lawsuit.

In the suit, the plaintiff says that the sole source for the assertion that Abou-Allaban is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood is Dr. Ahmed Elkadi, a man "purported to have been the president of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States prior to 1995," and who "is totally and permanently disabled" and whose "neurological status is that of severe impairment."

Abou-Allaban's lawyer, Harvey Schwartz, said that for the purposes of the suit, his client is likely to be considered a public figure. This means he will have to show not only that the WFXT report was false and defamatory, but also that it was broadcast with reckless disregard for the truth. Asked about that high burden of proof, Schwartz said: "Obviously, it's not insurmountable," referring to the verdict Friday in which a Suffolk County jury awarded Judge Ernest B. Murphy $2.09 million in his libel suit against the Boston Herald...

My line was a slim, shapely silhouette and a high smooth waistline (which I feel is much more flattering on a variety of shapes and sizes of women), deliberately breaking away from the sort of hip-hugger thing we've seen the last couple of years, which I feel never looked attractive. I played with a juxtaposition of rustic looks alongside luxurious finishes, like a gorgeous red gown done with an almost childlike, crude hand-quilting, harkening back to the early American "rough and ready" ideal...

...Now that the show is over, I'm aiming for my spring line and my future career. My goal is to spread the ideal of truth and beauty without any sort of postmodern cynicism. I have always tried to design things that are unapologetically beautiful, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If I can inspire an appreciation for grace and elegance, that would be the ultimate fulfillment of my life's ambition.

Nearly one-third of the 140 winning candidates on the Shiite parliamentary list are women. Moreover, those 45 women from the list supported by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani tend to be more educated, better informed and more committed to change than are their male counterparts, who include a number of political hacks.

Bush has been in Europe this week emphasizing the overall importance of the Jan. 30 elections and his commitment to transforming the autocracies of the Middle East and Central Asia into a zone of peaceful democracies.

But the president's failure thus far to highlight the success of women in the elections -- 31 percent of Iraq's newly elected 275 parliamentarians are women -- suggests that not even he fully appreciates the forces of change that he may have unleashed by toppling dictatorships in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nor do gender liberationists in the West seem eager to publicize this stunning result. Could they not want to accept even implicitly the notion that war can create the conditions needed for a positive social revolution?

That revolution ultimately is even more important to transforming the Middle East than is U.S. military might or European diplomacy. There will be no democracy in the greater Middle East until women break through the crippling restrictions and humiliations imposed on them by Arab cultural chauvinism and widespread, if perverse, interpretations of Islamic faith...

The letter, addressed to the Lebanese opposition, said: “We support your demand for the withdrawal of the Syrian Army from Lebanon and in correcting the Syrian-Lebanese relationship.”

Syria deals harshly with political dissent. The intellectuals who signed the letter criticising their Government risk being jailed.

Syrian national pride has been stung by widespread accusations that Damascus was responsible for the assassination last week of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese Prime Minister, in a bomb blast in Beirut. Bassel Fleyhan, a former minister, was wounded in the attack.

Mr Hariri’s death has spurred an outpouring of anti-Syrian anger in Lebanon. A dormitory for Syrians in north Lebanon was burnt down last week and mobs in Hariri’s home town of Sidon have attacked Syrian workers.

Thousands of Syrian labourers have fled in the past week, fearing further reprisals.

The Syrian activists’ letter said: “We are extremely pained and angry to see and hear that some Lebanese are insulting Syria and its people without (it) being guilty, and attacking hapless Syrian workers, who are seeking a living in Lebanon.”

As many as one million Syrians work in Lebanon, mainly in construction and street cleaning, their earnings giving Syria’s cash-starved economy a significant boost.

Michel Kilo, a Syrian human rights activist and one of the letter’s signatories, said Syria had to change its policies towards Lebanon. “You have the international community against Syria. The Lebanese are no longer with Syria. The Syrians are feeling scared and isolated,” he told The Times.

More than 100 Syrian journalists rallied in Damascus yesterday to denounce the Hariri murder. The rally “reflects the sadness of the man in the street in Syria after the misfortune which has struck our two brotherly countries”, Saber Falhout, head of the Syrian General Union of Journalists, said...

[WCC's international affairs expert Peter] Weiderud also said the WCC was unaware of any intimidation of Palestinian Christians by Palestinian terrorists or desecration of Christian holy sites. No churches under Palestinian control were large enough to qualify for membership in the WCC, although the body had indirect contacts with several churches there, he said...

People abusing the concept of "anti-Semitism" in order to support the Israeli government's racist policy towards Palestinians do nothing less than desecrate the memory of those Jewish victims of real anti-Semitism...If the Jewish people are ever to become "a light to the nations" (Isaiah 42: 6), and return to their core values of justice and human dignity, Israelis and Jews of conscience must call now for effective measures to end the occupation of millions of Palestinians. (Jordan Times, 11/30/04, on internet)

“Is he an Indian? Do we really care?” he said, quoting those he called his “white Republican” critics.

“Let’s cut to the chase; I am not,” he said.

His pedigree is “not important,” Churchill said: “The issue is the substance of what is said.”

He went on to explain that the issue of whether he is Native American has been blown up by sloppy reporting and reporters quoting other reporters.

Depleted uranium ammunition was used mostly where the conflict was centered in Kosovo and in southern Serbia. I visited Bujanovas in southern Serbia where approximately 58,000 people live in the town and nearby villages. With antenna for telephone and television communications located there, the surrounding hills were targeted for bombing...

Mr. Massad, who teaches in the university's Middle East studies department, argues in a recently published essay that Palestinian Arab "resistance" against Israelis is not anti-Semitic but an expression of goodwill toward Jews living in the Jewish state.

Mr. Massad in his writings and teaching has articulated the view that Zionists have adopted the identity of the anti-Semite and Palestinians have taken on a Jewish identity. In one of his latest essays, in the Winter 2005 issue of the scholarly journal Cultural Critique, Mr. Massad argues that Palestinian resistance is a struggle against anti-Semitism and that Israel as a Jewish state represents the most vicious form of anti-Semitism.

"The irony of an anti-Semitic Zionism depicting the Palestinians as the real anti-Semites is not a simply rhetorical move, but instead is crucial to Zionism's fashioning of Jewish public opinion, both in Israel and on a global scale," Mr. Massad writes in the essay, "The Persistence of the Palestinian Question."

Palestinian terrorists have killed more than 700 Israeli civilians since the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada in the fall of 2000, according to the Web site of the Israel Defense Force.

Some critics of the Palestinian Authority, particularly under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, attribute much of the violence to the government-sponsored spread of anti-Semitic propaganda in schools and in the press. The Palestinian group Hamas, a major perpetrator of terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens, posts on its Web site the "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," the notorious forgery created by tsarist Russian secret police at the turn of the 20th century.

Further into his piece, Mr. Massad writes: "What Palestinian resistance demands is the de-Europeanization of the Jew; it calls for Zionism's abandonment of European anti-Semitism as its inspirational source."

A fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Martin Kramer, called Mr. Massad's essay "a string of hallucinogenic fantasies about the Jews, driven by his obsessive crank theory that Zionism is the height of anti-Semitism."

Mr. Kramer, who is also a research associate at the Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, continued: "In Ramallah, Massad might pass for a great expert on Jewish history. That Columbia University allows him to pose as such in New York City is a travesty."[...]

"Multinational corporations have been involved in the demolition of Palestinian homes," the WCC's main governing body said in a statement adopted during a February 15-22 meeting in Geneva. They "are involved in the construction of settlements and settlement infrastructure on occupied territory, in building a dividing wall which is also largely inside occupied territory, and in other violations of international law."

The WCC's central committee commended the action of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in initiating a process of phased, selective divestment from multinational corporations involved in the occupation.

"This action is commendable in both method and manner, uses criteria rooted in faith, and calls members to 'do the things that make for peace'," the WCC committee said, referring to a biblical text (Luke 19:42). It encouraged the WCC's 347 member churches "to give serious consideration to economic measures that are equitable, transparent and non-violent."

Churches with investment funds had "an opportunity to use those funds responsibly in support of peaceful solutions to conflict", the WCC central committee noted. "Economic pressure, appropriately and openly applied, is one such means of action."...

• Largest coalition of leftwing religious denominations in the United States
• Has long record of financial support for Communist regimes
• Remains faithful ally of Communist Cuba
• Reserves criticism on moral issues for Israel and the United States
• Makes common cause with environmentalist radicals
• Masks leftist politics in faith-based declarations

French state television is standing by its claim that the broadcast is authentic. The broadcast purportedly showed 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durra being shot by Israeli soldiers, an event that led to the current Palestinian intifada.

But Denis Jeambar, editor-in-chief of the French news weekly l'Express, and filmmaker Daniel Leconte, a producer and owner of the film company Doc en Stock, say the videocassette is full of staged scenes of faked injuries.

Jeambar and Leconte were allowed by the France 2 network to view an unedited master video cassette of the incident, which took place in September 2000 at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip. Leconte said he is satisfied that the shooting really happened, but he does not believe the bullets that struck the child could have been fired by Israeli troops.

"The only ones who could hit the child were the Palestinians from their position," Leconte told Cybercast News Service. "If they had been Israeli bullets, they would be very strange bullets because they would have needed to go around the corner."...

...France 2 reporter Enderlin, in a response in Le Figaro to the question posed by Leconte and Jeambar about why he accused the Israelis of the shooting, said "the image corresponded to the reality of the situation, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank."

"I find this, from a journalistic point of view, hallucinating," said Leconte, himself a former journalist. "That a journalist like him (Enderlin) can be driven to say such things is very revealing of the state of the press in France today," he added...

...Independent investigators have said that the French press is reluctant to criticize the public television channel because, as the prime employer of journalists in the country, it can exert a great deal of pressure.

Leconte said that because the pictures had such "devastating" consequences - including the public lynching of two Israeli soldiers and subsequent anti-Semitic statements by French Muslims - France 2 or Enderlin need to admit that they gave out wrong information in the report...

It is therefore surprising that the BBC and the Rev John Bell should apologise for having broadcast such an item on the radio.

Two thousand years ago there was a man in Israel who used such uncorroborated tales of Samaritans, servants, agricultural workers, sheep, weddings and the like to illustrate various controversial points. Clearly the passage of time has not dampened the enthusiasm of the Israeli authorities to speak out against such tales and take action to suppress apparent lies. [Emphasis added]

The foundation of the attack against Dr Bell appears to be based on a concern regarding anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, any criticism of the Israeli government and the actions of the State of Israel is now taken as being anti-Semitic. Such a term should be reserved for hostility or discrimination against Jews for simply being Jewish or for observing the Jewish faith. The term should not be used to deflect unfavourable comments about the way that governments abuse their powers.

The Israeli government is no different from those in authority in, for example, Great Britain and the United States. Governments are like monoliths in exercising power on behalf of the people and from time to time must be reminded of the need to see beyond their own self-centred interests to those of the human race. If an uncorroborated story concerning any member of the Israeli Army, real or imaginary, can aid that process then that should be applauded.

In the programme, on 10 February, the Reverend John Bell of the Iona Community spoke of meeting an Arab man conscripted into the Israeli Army.

Dr Bell told listeners the 19-year-old corporal had been jailed for refusing to shoot Palestinian schoolchildren.

However, the remarks angered many members of Britain's Jewish community, who said the account could not be true.

'Factual errors'

Several people told the BBC that Israeli Arabs are exempt from conscription into the army. Moreover, it would be impossible for a 19-year-old to rise to the rank of corporal.

Dr Bell has since admitted, in a letter to the BBC, that his account contained "two factual errors".

"One was that the soldier was 21 and not 19, thus he would have been of the age to be a corporal.

"The second is that he did not say he was conscripted. My presumption regarding conscription is wrong as regards Arab Israelis.

"I perfectly understand that at a time when Jewish sensitivity in Britain is running high because of anti-Semitism that part of my remarks might have been interpreted as furtive racism.

"However, such a conjecture would be completely untrue. For any unintended dismay I may have caused, I apologise unreservedly."

The BBC added their own apology, on the Thought For The Day website, acknowledging that the facts should have been checked prior to broadcast.

"We have talked to the Israeli authorities and we are unable to find any evidence to support the story told to Dr Bell and recounted by him on Thought for the Day.

"The Religion and Ethics Department apologises on behalf of the BBC and regrets the offence that was caused."

I see this propaganda technique all the time. Only the "Jewish community" is alleged to care about truth in reporting or slurs against Jews. It's a subtle, yet effective, way to segregate Jews from the general population. The Chicago Sun Times claimed only unnamed "Jewish groups" didn't want Tariq Ramadan at Notre Dame. I've seen dozens of similar examples.

While considerable work remains before Discovery's test flight, ''this date feels real good to me,'' launch director Mike Leinbach said.

NASA's top space flight official, former astronaut Bill Readdy, said the biggest challenge is to complete all the paperwork not only for Discovery but also for Atlantis, the shuttle that would attempt a rescue mission in mid-June if there were serious launch damage to Discovery...

Rachid Mezher, senior investigator for the Lebanese military tribunal, said the organizers had been recruited from Islamist groups linked to Syria and operating against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Investigators believe that a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into the 60-year-old billionaire's convoy Monday, killing him and 16 others.

Judge Mezher said he believed that a video, in which Ahmed Abu Adas said the attack was the work of "Victory and Jihad in Greater Syria," was a genuine claim of responsibility.

Judge Mezher's opinion, however, is far from universally accepted.

Shortly after the attack, Justice Minister Adnan Addoum said the claim could be an attempt to mislead investigators, the Associated Press reported from Beirut.

Abu Adas, 23, a Palestinian Lebanese believed to have fled the country, attended two Beirut mosques known to be recruiting grounds for the Ansar al-Islam group linked to the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi.

Investigators suspect that the mosques have ties to Sheik Abderrazak, a Damascus cleric who has helped terrorists travel through Syria to Iraq.

The Beirut attack bore similarities to suicide bombings carried out in Iraq by Zarqawi, who leads the al Qaeda organization in Iraq.

Abu Adas, who also spent time in Saudi Arabia, is thought to have fought in Iraq...

Carter, with his wife, Rosalynn, was joined by his vice president Walter Mondale and his wife, Joan, and Stansfield Turner, CIA director in the Carter administration.

The 453-foot, 12,000-ton submarine has a 50-torpedo payload and eight torpedo tubes for Tomahawk cruise missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes. According to intelligence experts, it can tap undersea cables and eavesdrop on the communications passing through them.

It can reach speeds of more than 25 knots and is engineered to be quieter than the other two Seawolves, making it better for surveillance.

A 100-foot hull extension to the Jimmy Carter equips it to replace the USS Parche, one of the fleet's premier spy subs, analysts say.

Democrats were quick to blast Schwarzenegger. But Republicans are no happier -- 16 of California's 20 Republican congressmen oppose his plan. The beauty of redistricting reform is that there is nothing partisan about it. It doesn't empower R's at the expense of D's, or vice versa. It empowers voters at the expense of politicians.

Political trends often start in California, but this time the Golden State is joining a crusade already in progress. Several states, including Iowa, Idaho, Arizona, and Alaska, have done away with partisan gerrymandering. Campaigns to follow suit are heating up in half a dozen others.

Including Massachusetts. More than 190 years after the term ''gerrymander" was coined here in 1812, the watchdog group Common Cause is proposing an amendment to the state constitution that would do away with gerrymandering forever. The measure would make redistricting the job of an independent commission, which would not be allowed to take party registration or voting history into account. When Common Cause tested its proposal as a nonbinding ballot question in 15 state representative districts last fall, it passed handily in each one.

''Massachusetts elections are among the most uncompetitive anywhere," says Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts. ''Redistricting has always taken place behind closed doors, with zero public input." As a result, freewheeling elections are as rare in Massachusetts as they are in California. No member of the Bay State's congressional delegation has been defeated since 1996, for example. No member of the state Senate has lost a race since 1994...

When I was young, I was quite the little Arabist — cocksure, arrogant, wholly misguided. I grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., and there were many Arab students — most of them Palestinian — in my high school. I befriended them, loved them. Was intensely interested in them. Some wore keys around their necks, and they claimed that these were the keys to the homes back in Palestine their families had been forced to abandon. I was mightily impressed. Later on, I knew to doubt the authenticity of those keys.

I remember one girl, who liked me, asking, "Jay, you're not Jewish, are you?" She had to be reassured before our friendship could continue.

I was taught to believe that the Arab-Israeli conflict was very much like the American South: a civil-rights struggle. The Arabs were the blacks — the victims, the oppressed. The Israelis were the whites, the oppressors. Menachem Begin was pretty much George Wallace; his defense minister, Ariel Sharon, was Bull Connor (they even looked alike). Arafat, of course, was Martin Luther King. It seemed very clear.

In due course, I grew up, but it took a while. I enrolled in the Near Eastern Studies Department at the University of Michigan, where I took several courses, including the Arabic language. The department was dominated by extremists. The graduate assistants, certainly, were Arabs to the "left" of the PLO, meaning, they took Arafat and Co. to be sell-outs, untrue to the cause. There was no discussion of the legitimacy of Israel: It wasn't discussable; Israel was illegitimate, and every worthy person knew it.

One day, we trooped into an auditorium to see a documentary on the conflict. I can't remember the name of the documentary or of the documentary-maker, but I can see her, and she was on hand to introduce her film and to take questions. The film featured mainly radical Palestinians talking about dismembering Israel.

During the Q&A, a middle-aged white woman — a little fat — raised her hand and asked the following question: "These were such extreme voices. You've made a wonderful film, but couldn't you have found some softer, more moderate voices?"

In the row in which I was sitting were several Arab students — older ones, graduate students — and one of them, in front of everybody, stood up and said words I will never forget. I won't forget the words, or his face, or his relatively quiet, determined tone. He said: "I will kill you." (This was directed at the woman who had asked the question.) His buddies got him to sit down.

But that's not the important part — what he said is not the important part. The important part is, no one said a word. No one reacted. We all sort of coughed, and looked away, nervously. We all pretended that what had just occurred had not, in fact, occurred — or that it was normal, acceptable. We simply ignored it...

...Forty-five senior high schools were polled across Japan, and 9,587 people responded. In Japan, there are three years of senior high school.

According to the poll, 39% of graduating high school girls and 30% of graduating high school boys had had sex.

Among first-year students, 15% of females and 12% of males had had sex. Among second-year students, 29% of females and 20% of males had had sex.

Asked how they felt after having sex, 9-13% of high school girls said they regretted the experience; 41-45% said they had no regrets, and 41-49% responded that they could not say...

And overlooking it all, rising 556 feet above the carnage, stood Mount Suribachi, where the Japanese could direct their fire along the entire beach. Taking Suribachi became the key to victory. It took four days of bloody fighting to reach the summit, and when Marines did, they planted an American flag. When it was replaced with a larger one, photographer Joe Rosenthal recorded the scene--the most famous photograph of World War II and the most enduring symbol of a modern democracy at war.

Yet, in the end, a symbol of what? Certainly not victory. The capture of Suribachi only marked the beginning of the battle for Iwo Jima, which dragged on for another month and cost nearly 26,000 men--all for an island whose future as a major air base never materialized. Forty men were in the platoon which raised the flag on Suribachi. Only four would survive the battle unhurt. Their company, E Company, Second Battalion, 28th Regiment, Fifth Marine Division, would suffer 75% casualties. Of the seven officers who led it into battle, only one was left when it was over.

But the Marines pushed on. Over the next agonizing weeks, they took the rest of the island yard by yard, bunker by bunker, cave by cave. They fought through places with names like "Bloody Gorge" and "The Meat Grinder." They learned to take no prisoners in fighting a skilled and fanatical enemy who gave no quarter and expected none. Twenty out of every 21 Japanese defenders would die where they stood. One in three Marines on Iwo Jima would either be killed or wounded, including 19 of 24 battalion commanders. Twenty-seven Marines and naval medical corpsmen would win Medals of Honor--more than in any other battle in history--and 13 of them posthumously. As Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said, "Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue."...

"After a year of dialogue, you defend the same things you did when we began."

Leaders of the Anti-Defamation League heard the Rev. Jay Rock explain why the Presbyterian Church USA is considering pulling investments from companies that do business in Israel.

Then the Jewish leaders denounced Rock's comments as doubletalk and said the Presbyterians were siding with Palestinians in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"Emotions are still running deep over this," Rock, the denomination's coordinator for interfaith relations, said after the heated dialogue at The Breakers resort. "My only concern, really, is whether we can keep talking."

Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, ADL's interfaith director, agreed...

Following the completion of the committee's examination, the Minister of Defense decided to accept the recommendation of the Chief of Staff to change the policy, and stop exercising the legal right to demolish terrorists' houses as a means of deterrence. In addition, the Chief of Staff clarified that if an extreme change in circumstances takes place, the aforementioned decision regarding the policy will be reexamined.

The IDF has in the past exercised its legal authority to demolish terrorists' houses. This has been done within the framework of the State of Israel's overall effort to defeat Palestinian terror, and as part of the State of Israel's obligation and right to defend itself and to provide security for its citizens.

As a means of deterring potential terrorists from carrying out attacks, the houses of terrorists who have actively participated in terrorist activity have been demolished.

The necessity of this tactic as part of the fight against terror is often reevaluated; it is done in consideration of the circumstances and assessments regarding the extent of the terror threat and the effectiveness of this serious measure, as well as other measures that may be used as part of the fight against terror.

Al-Alusi's sons were gunned down one week ago in a car in which he decided not to get in at the last minute. Since then, he said his house has been attacked three times, including a fierce firefight Wednesday -- apparently between insurgents and private guards protecting him.

Police were very slow to respond because they don't support his views on peace with Israel, al-Alusi said. The leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation has been outspoken in his belief that Iraq must align with other democratic countries in the Middle East, possibly Turkey and others, to accept the current situation and make peace with Israel.

"It took the police two or three hours to come, even though they know my house," al-Alusi said. "They aren't interested, because of my views."...

... Al-Alusi was defiant toward the killers, saying he would not leave the country following the attacks. He said his sons' killers must be brought to justice.

"I am a target, but this is my job. I will do it until the last second of my life," al-Alusi said. "If I have an appointment, I will go to it. I will not hide."...

All became clear when it was revealed that the advertising brain - if that's not an oxymoron - behind the fiasco was none other than Trevor Beatty, the potty-mouthed cretin responsible for the FCUK campaign that has been blighting Blighty for the past decade. It's hard to explain to Israelis - a people known for their "rudeness" - that for 10 years now it's been impossible to walk down a British high street without having the "word" FCUK smack one in the face, this being a supposedly "inspired" anagram for the fashion chain French Connection U.K., but sadly this is so. So it wasn't anti-Semitism - just stupidity, as per.

The adverts have since been withdrawn. But at the moment, the public standing of politicians over here is so low that maybe the issue shouldn't be whether politicians should be worrying about being identified as being British Jews - but rather that British Jews should be worrying about being identified as politicians.

Perle had just started his comments Thursday when a protester threw a shoe at him before being dragged away, screaming, "Liar! Liar!"

Perle, who was Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's top policy adviser, was a key architect of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and Dean is among the war's most prominent opponents.

Perle, a veteran of the Reagan administration and a former Pentagon adviser, was forced by one of the questioners to recast a comment he made on September 22, 2003, in which he predicted that within one year, there would be "a grand square in Baghdad named for President Bush."

But, Perle added, "I will be surprised, yet again, if we do not see a square in Baghdad named after this president." He did not specify a time...

In fact, he'd like to erect a monument to honor President Bush in the middle of the city.

"We will build a statue for Bush," said Ali Fadel, the former provincial council chairman. "He is the symbol of freedom." ...

President Lee Bollinger February 11, 2005
Columbia University Presidents Office
202 Low Library
New York, New York 10027

RE: CURRENT CRISIS AT THE SCHOOL

Dear President Bollinger,

This is the first time I have written to the President of Columbia and I do so as some one who loves the school. I am a 1968 graduate of the Law School, have contributed generously in the past and currently serve on its Board of Visitors. A copy of my biography from the Board is included for your information.

I have just seen the film Columbia Unbecoming from the David Project and I suspect that alumni and many others have besieged you on the issues raised in that film. I want to describe what I experienced myself a few years ago so that you may have more information than perhaps you do. I certainly do not envy you since this is a problem not of your creation, but one which poses serious and complex problems for the University, the resolution of which will have long term consequences both to the school and potentially to you personally as well

I am very active in the Middle East. For many years, I have served on the Executive Committee of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a DC based think-tank on the Middle East. Ambassador Dennis Ross, the principal US peace negotiator under Bush 41 and Clinton, works for the Institute and its Board of Advisers includes four former Secretaries of State, namely, Schultz, Christopher, Eagleburger and Haig. Its focus is US policy in Region.

I am also the originator of the Palestinian Rule of Law Project, which brings Palestinian lawyers to the U.S. for a one year LLM program on the promise that they return to the Region for two years and work in approved projects that build democratic institutions. Begun about six years ago, and supported by former Dean David Leebron (now the President of Rice) and Dean Alice Haemmerli of Graduate Legal Studies, the project envisions creating a cadre, over the next few years, of 50-60 western trained professionals who might become Founding Fathers and Mothers of a democratic Palestinian State. Last year there were seven participants and this year there are nine, with Columbia having one each year. I recruited, now with some regrets, Soros's Open Society Institute to administer the program. There are about ten Palestinian businessmen in Kuwait, Amman, London and Athens who I have also brought into the program that help fund it as well.

This brings me to my experience with Professor Joseph Massad.[...]

BOSTON, February 14, 2005 - The Northeastern University School of Law Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild will present its Free Speech Award to M. Shahid Alam on Thursday, February 17, 2005, at 12:15 pm in the Law School’s Brown Lounge.

Dr. Alam is a Professor of Economics at Northeastern University. He has written extensively on issues ranging from global economics to international development. He is the author of three books, including Governments and Markets in Economic Development Strategies (Praeger: 1989), Poverty from the Wealth of Nations (Macmillan: 2000), and, most recently, Is There an Islamic Problem? (The Other Press: 2004). In addition, Dr. Alam’s essays have been widely printed in a number of academic journals, including American Economic Review, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Science and Society, Kyklos, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Southern Economic Journal and Journal of Development Economics.

"Dr. Alam has been singled out and had his loyalty to America questioned by conservative commentators like Bill O’Reilly," explained Bina Ahmad, a third-year law student at Northeastern Law and member of the National Lawyers Guild. "Daniel Pipes of Campus Watch ? an organization that claims on its website to respect professors’ right to free speech ? goes on national television and calls Dr. Alam a ‘radical Muslim’ and a ‘bomb thrower’ with ‘venom towards’ America," she continued. "These are outrageous allegations based on a selective and distorted reading of Dr. Alam’s writings. Additionally, Dr. Alam has been the target of physical threats and harassment after excerpts from one of his recent essays were posted on websites of known, extreme right-wing organizations."...

Never in an ostensibly friendly country have I had the impression of embassy staff so besieged. Mr. Erdogan's office recently forbade Turkish officials from attending a reception at the ambassador's residence in honor of the "Ecumenical" Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, who resides in Istanbul. Why? Because "ecumenical" means universal, which somehow makes it all part of a plot to carve up Turkey.

Perhaps the most bizarre anti-American story au courant in the Turkish capital is the "eighth planet" theory, which holds not only that the U.S. knows of an impending asteroid strike, but that we know it's going to hit North America. Hence our desire to colonize the Middle East.

It all sounds loony, I know. But such stories are told in all seriousness at the most powerful dinner tables in Ankara. The common thread is that almost everything the U.S. is doing in the world--even tsunami relief--has malevolent motivations, usually with the implication that we're acting as muscle for the Jews.

In the face of such slanders Turkish politicians have been utterly silent. In fact, Turkish parliamentarians themselves have accused the U.S. of "genocide" in Iraq, while Mr. Erdogan (who we once hoped would set for the Muslim world an example of democracy) was among the few world leaders to question the legitimacy of the Iraqi elections. When confronted, Turkish pols claim they can't risk going against "public opinion."

All of which makes Mr. Erdogan a prize hypocrite for protesting to Condoleezza Rice the unflattering portrayal of Turkey in an episode of the fictional TV show "The West Wing." The episode allegedly depicts Turkey as having been taking over by a retrograde populist government that threatens women's rights. (Sounds about right to me.)...

The department's decision came hours after a report appeared in The New York Sun revealing that the professor, Rashid Khalidi, would be one of the Columbia faculty members instructing the city's teachers on how to teach students about the history, culture, and politics of the Middle East.

"Considering his past statements, Rashid Khalidi should not have been included in a program that provided professional development for DOE teachers and he won't be participating in the future," Chancellor Joel Klein's press secretary, Jerry Russo, said in a statement sent via e-mail to the Sun yesterday evening.

Instead, what you heard were pretty specific, productive suggestions on winning the war against Islamist extremism. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham lobbied for ways to use NATO troops to protect a larger U.N. presence in Iraq. Democratic Representative Jane Harman was pushing the Europeans to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Hillary Clinton suggested ways to strengthen the U.N., while also blasting its absurdities. Clinton affirmed that the U.S. preferred to work within the U.N., but she toughened her speech with ad-libs, warning, "Sometimes we have to act with few or no allies."

The second thing I'd tell them is that the politicians were willing to talk bluntly to the tyrants. McCain sat on a panel with officials from Russia, Egypt and Iran. He began his talk with suggestions on how to use NATO troops in the Middle East. Then it was time for a little straight talk. He ripped the Egyptians for arresting opposition leaders. (The Egyptian foreign minister held his brow, as if in grief.) He condemned the Iranians for supporting terror. (The Iranian hunched over like someone in a hailstorm.) He criticized Russia for embracing electoral fraud in Ukraine. In the land of the summiteers, this was in-your-face behavior.

Then I'd tell the marines about the European speeches. Let me say straight away that I covered Europe for four and half years and I'm no Europhobe. I'm glad trans-Atlantic relations are improving.

But I'd tell the marines that I didn't hear too many Europeans giving specific ideas on how to make Iraq a success. Instead, I heard too many speakers evading this current pivot point in history by giving airy-fairy speeches about their grand visions of the future architecture of distant multilateral arrangements.

I heard the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, in his soaring, stratospheric mode, declaring that we need the "creation of a grand design, a strategic consensus across the Atlantic." We need a "social Magna Carta" to bind the globe. His chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, proposed a vague commission to rebuild or replace NATO. His president, Horst Köhler, insisted, "Unless we tackle global poverty, long-term security will remain elusive."

Fine, let's tackle global poverty and have new arrangements. But maybe democracies should be contributing to Iraq now. That's called passing the credibility test...

The professor, Rashid Khalidi, is director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. His professorship is named in memory of Edward Said, a divisive scholar, and is paid for in part with a donation from the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Khalidi is one of more than a dozen Columbia professors expected to give city public-school teachers an overview of the history and culture of the Middle East, as part of a professional-development course offered by the city's Department of Education...

...The education department is offering the course with Columbia despite a scandal that has been unfolding in recent months at the university, stemming from students' complaints that some professors in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Culture treated pupils who are sympathetic toward Israel with hostility.

When The New York Sun told some public officials about the course, many were outraged.

"I think it's an abomination," a member of the City Council from Brooklyn, Simcha Felder, said. "I am certain that once the administration is made aware of this, they will make sure that a person who has a record of being racist and anti-Semite is not a person who is educating educators who are educating our children."

He said the inclusion of some other lecturers in the course who have pro-Israel stances doesn't excuse the city department's subjecting public-school teachers to Mr. Khalidi's opinions.

One of the Democrats running for mayor, Rep. Anthony Weiner, said: "It's pretty outrageous that this guy is still teaching college students. For my money, this guy shouldn't even be teaching at Columbia, let alone being recruited to train our Board of Ed teachers. Anyone who refers to Israel as a racist and an apartheid state and claims that America has been brainwashed by Israel ... should not be on the city payroll."...

The Board of Deputies of British Jews submitted an official complaint to the Standards Board for England, which - if upheld - could lead to Mr Livingstone being suspended or disqualified from office.

In a separate move, the London Assembly unanimously passed a motion censuring the mayor for the remarks he made last week to a reporter from the Evening Standard. Oliver Finegold had approached Mr Livingstone after a party held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith becoming the first MP to "come out" as a homosexual.

Mr Livingstone asked Finegold if he used to be a "German war criminal". When told that Finegold was Jewish, and that he found the remark offensive, Mr Livingstone said he was like a "concentration camp guard" because he was just following orders.

At a meeting of the assembly, Mr Livingstone defended his behaviour by claiming that Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, had conducted a hate campaign against him ever since his time as the Left-wing leader of the Greater London Council in the 1980s.

With his voice shaking, Mr Livingstone said: "If I could, in anything I say, relieve any pain anyone feels, I would not hesitate to do it. But it would require me to be a liar.

"I could apologise but why should I say words I do not believe in my heart? Therefore I cannot. If that is something people find they cannot accept, I am sorry, but this is how I feel after nearly a quarter of a century of their behaviour and tactics."

He was particularly critical of the Daily Mail, which he also accused of promoting "unremitting bigotry, hatred and prejudice" against various ethnic minority groups over the last 100 years.

The mayor's stance was attacked by members of all five parties in the assembly, including Labour colleagues. They said that, with the row coinciding with this week's inspection by the International Olympic Committee, Mr Livingstone could damage London's Olympic chances...

“We have to send strong messages to such companies,” said Mitri Raheb pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, an ecumenical guest who encouraged the Presbyterian General Assembly to divest.

“Sisters and brothers, this is a moment of truth,” Raheb said.

Sadly enough, the members of the General Assembly voted to divest without a full airing of the facts surrounding the Arab/Israeli conflict. In particular, the proponents of divestment put the blame for the undeniable suffering of Christians in Bethlehem, the West Bank and Gaza at the feet of the Israelis, while ignoring enormous evidence of Arab/Muslim oppression of Christians in these areas. The narrative also gives short shrift to terror attacks against Israel by suicide bombers dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

The sad irony is that by adopting this one-sided dishonest narrative about the Arab/Israeli conflict as justification for divestment, the Presbyterians are contravening the spirit of the Barmen Declaration – one of the creeds included in the PC(USA)’s Book of Confessions. This declaration, written in 1934 by theologians in Germany during the Nazi’s rise to power warns about the dangers of Christianity being appropriated for the purposes of the state. At the time writing, Hitler was pressuring Protestant churches to expel converted Jews from their pulpits and was forcing religious leaders to embrace his obsession with racial purity as a source of revelation. Sadly enough, many church leaders who called themselves "German Christians" willingly accepted the changes and spoke of Hitler as a "German Prophet."

While the theologians who wrote the document were unable to stop German churches from handing themselves over to the Nazis, the declaration remains a powerful statement of the Church's obligation to God and its responsibility to the society in which it exists. Consequently, the declaration remains powerful influence on the outlook of many Protestant theologians and ministers, particularly in the U.S. where ministers invoke Barth’s legacy to warn of the excesses of nationalism. Indeed, the Declaration has become an important touchstone of belief for mainline Protestants in the U.S, with the Presbyterian Church (USA) including the Barmen Declaration in its book of Confessions and the United Church of Christ (UCC) regarding it as one of its historic testimonies...

...Given the centrality of the Barmen Declaration to modern-day Protestantism and the regularity with which it has been praised, interpreted, profiled, and invoked, one would think Protestants, Presbyterians especially, would be sensitive to the prospect of Christianity lending itself to nationalistic purposes, but for some reason the phrase “Palestinian Christian” evokes no ominous overtones for Protestant thinkers who tremble at the thought of “American” or “German” Christian. “Palestinian Christian” is a phrase they should recognize. “I am a Palestinian Christian” is the title of Raheb’s first book about the Arab/Israeli conflict...

The Palestine incident was twice written up, by the Committee to Protect Journalists ("Permission to Fire") and Reporters Without Borders ("Two Murders and a Lie") in biased and sloppy reports that fuel this myth. So when Jordan tells congressmen the military targets journalists, he is only reflecting a view that has been given respectability by deeply concerned professional organizations that have been eagerly seeking out evidence of targeting, and when they can't find it, suggest it must be what happened anyway...

Claire Smith Claire.Smith@flinders.edu.au
Thu, 8 Jan 2004 10:56:25 -0600

Media Release: World Archaeological Congress Condemns Israel's
Destruction of Archaeological Sites
Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2004

The destruction of archaeological and heritage sites in Palestine by the state of Israel is today condemned by the international association for archaeologists, the World Archaeological Congress.

"The destruction of heritage sites in cities such as Bethlehem, Nablus and Hebron by Israeli forces is of tremendous concern. Considering the historical significance of these cities to so many cultures, this is an international tragedy." Dr. Claire Smith, President of the World Archaeological Congress, said today. "'There is a pattern of destruction here and at this moment there are unconfirmed reports that the Israeli military is initiating an operation in the old city of Nablus in the west bank targeting an area in close proximity to AbdulaHadi Palace. This palace was constructed during the Ottoman period in 1855 for Mohamad Bek Abdul-Hadi, and is considered to be one of the significant architectural sites in the city. It is unacceptable for any country to destroy archaeological sites. In this case, in particular, it is attacking another nation's cultural identity. The confirmed destruction of other sites includes sites partly excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority between 1967 and 1993. Of particular concern is the destruction of heritage sites by the wall being constructed by the Israeli Government in the Palestinian territories.=E4

The World Archaeological Congress called on the Israeli Government to respect the UNESCO 2003 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which supports the right of all nations to retain their cultural identity for the benefit of present and future generations.

The World Archaeological Congress also called upon governments worldwide to request compliance by Israel with UNESCO 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its First and Second Protocols which aims to protect the cultural assets of a country in the event of armed conflict.

End

Dr. Clair Smith
President, World Archaeological Congress
Department of Archaeology
Flinders University
Adelaide, South Australia

Dear Dr. Smith,

Subject: The WAC Accusation of Israeli Destruction of Archaeological Sites

I have read your e-mail media release dated 7 January 2004 addressed to the world archaeological community at the conclusion of the Fifth Archaeological Conference held in June, 2003, at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in which Israel stands accused of destroying archaeological sites. I refer, as well; to the accusations at the Congress by Dr. Najat el-Hafi that appear to have influenced the Congress' decision concerning Israel's "destruction" of Palestinian antiquities, an unacceptable one-sided judgment not worthy of the WAC.

As to the matter itself: The concept of separate Israeli (Jewish) and Palestinian (Muslim) archaeological cultural heritage is an unknown concept to me as an Israeli archaeologist. The cultural heritage of the Land of the Bible is common to all past and present groups, religions, nations, and tribes in the area, or to those that look upon this land as being holy to three monotheistic religions. From the aspect of cultural heritage, Tel Shechem (Nablus) and Tel el-Jib (both within Palestinian Authority), and Tel Megiddo or Tel Beersheba (both within the bounds of the State of Israel) are of equal importance to me as an Israeli, and I believe to Dr. Najat as well. By the same token, the Ottoman palace of Mohammed Bek Abdul-Hadi in Nablus is as important a cultural heritage site to both Israelis and Palestinians. Cultural heritage should not be confused with territorial conflicts.

Concerning Israeli observance of the 1954 Hague Convention, I would like to remind you and the entire archaeological community, that the only country in the world which returned antiquities to a neighboring country, as required by the Convention, is Israel. In 1994 Israel returned to Egypt all of the antiquities from Israeli salvage excavations in the Sinai Peninsula, up to the last pottery shard! It was my honor to head that project. The antiquities were returned in excellent condition and meticulous order accompanied by scientific reports and the required drawings. This was not only because we are signatories to the Hague convention, but also due to the fact that we respect the cultural heritage of the Sinai and recognize that the proper place for those antiquities is in Sinai.

In your media release you claimed that, between the years 1967 to 1973, the Israel Antiquities Authority excavated in Nablus and other West Bank sites. This is patently untrue! The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is charged with the enforcement of the Israeli Law of Antiquities, which is applicable in only areas where Israeli law is in force. The IAA only determines archaeological policy, and issues excavation licenses within the borders of Israel. Israel has not applied its own laws to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The existing laws in those areas are the Jordanian law (in the West Bank) and the Egyptian law (in the Gaza Strip). Therefore, until the transfer of responsibility in Nablus to the Palestinian Authority, the person responsible for enforcing Jordanian law was the Archaeological Staff Officer appointed by the Civil Administration. That body-an arm of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)-is legally responsible for the civilian matters in those territories. The Archaeological Staff Officer is not subordinate to nor a part of the IAA. Over the years, the Archaeological Staff Office did indeed conduct many salvage excavations in Nablus and its surroundings due to its flourishing growth. These excavations are of significant scientific value, having uncovered, inter alia, the Hellenistic city on Mount Gerizim (overlooking Nablus on the south), and the rich heritage of Nablus of the Roman period (Neapolis), as well as the Byzantine and early Islamic periods. The full scientific publication (now in preparation) of these excavations will shed new light on the cultural heritage of Nablus - for Israelis and Palestinians alike and for all those in the world who value science.

On some Arguments Raised in Najat's Lecture:

Israeli archeology is not conducted on behalf of any ideology, nor does it explicitly serve the heritage of the Jewish people on its land. It is pure science for the purpose of studying the past through its archaeological finds. No one can claim that prehistoric excavations by Israelis are meant to serve the Jewish heritage. No one can claim that the Staff Archaeological Officer excavations in Nablus that uncovered the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic city aimed to search for Jewish roots in that city. No Israeli scholar that studied the Samaritan burials and synagogues in the Nablus area claims that these belong to the Jewish nation and religion. It is patently clear to us that these are Samaritan items. No one can claim that the hundreds of Byzantine churches and monasteries uncovered in Israel and in the PA areas in the past fifty years serve the claims of the Jewish people to the land. Science is science is science, and heritage is heritage is heritage; they belong to all.

Israeli archeology is not a means to "underline Jewish historical continuity" in Israel, as Dr. Najat contended. I would be surprised to see one scientific paper published by an Israeli with such a claim. I will be happy to refer Dr. Najat to the latest publications by Professor Israel Finkelstein, a respected archaeologist of the Biblical period in Israel, who advocates a significant reduction of the size of the Judean Kingdom. At the same time, I will be happy to refer him to the major archaeological project directed by the late Professor Benjamin Mazar south of the Haram el-Sherif in Jerusalem, where grand palaces built by Umayyad (Muslim) rulers were uncovered. There is no indication of these palaces before their excavation. They did not appear in any written historical source, until the Israeli excavations discovered them.

I will be happy to refer Dr. Najat to the accepted archaeological terminology in Israel when it was decided to label the periods Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid periods with the term "Early Islamic Period" and not with the term used in the rest of the world, "Early Arab Period", because Israeli scholars are well aware that an Arab element existed in the Levant, west of the Jordan since Hellenistic times.

If Dr. Najat had read recent publications by Israeli archaeologists (published also in English) instead of reciting groundless slogans, he would find hundreds of published excavations with strata from Islamic periods, with excavations proving that the pinnacle of church and monastery construction in Israel took place during the Umayyad period under Islamic rule. The IAA is working to change the Law of Antiquities so that the legal definition of "antiquities" will include objects and sites dating from earlier than 1840, and not as in the law today (in effect since the British Mandate), which fixes the date at 1700. The change in this law will give us better tools for preserving sites and finds from the Ottoman period, in which it is universally accepted that the majority of the populations were Palestinians.

Is this what Dr. Najat refers to as archaeology serving Israel's ideology?

The purpose of archaeology is to uncover history. Differing interpretation of archaeological sites should not be based upon the researcher's origins, whether they are Israeli, Palestinian, Australian or others. It may be that the nascent Palestinian archaeology is still somewhat naive (and this is natural). Israeli archaeology is more mature.

I agree fully with every word in the concluding paragraph of Dr. Najat's abstract, with the addition of the underlined words: "The violent events of the last two years in the Palestinian Territories and in the State of Israel, have not only caused irreversible damages to many archaeological and historical sites of intrinsic value, but also shattered hopes for a better definition of the present and the future of the cultural heritage of the Holy Land."

In Summary:

The World Archaeological Congress will do well to concentrate on archaeology as a science, and on preserving archaeological and cultural heritage sites. It will also be appreciated were the WAC to sound the alarm for endangered archaeological sites due to armed conflict. But, taking a political position, or providing a stage for only one political position in a conflict, thereby transforming the science of archaeology into a platform for political polemics, is unacceptable. It is clear to every sensible person that "truth" is subjective-each side has its own version. A common cultural heritage of the sons of Abraham - Jews and Arabs - each with divided opinions on the fate of this country, can serve as a lever for fostering peace. A condition for this is that neither side "take possession" of archaeology for its own objectives.

Sincerely,
Dr. Uzi Dahari
Deputy Director
Israel Antiquities Authority

-Andre Sakharov as quoted by Natan Sharansky

And I went to Kindergarten and I was crying with all the children and singing the songs of our great leader of all the people...Stalin. And I remembered that that miracle happened and that the [unintelligible] is dead.

That is the typical life of a Soviet Double-Thinker, of a Soviet loyal citizen. The way the Soviet people lived their whole lives.

Livingstone: How awful for you. Have you thought of having treatment?

Finegold: How did tonight go?

Mr Livingstone: Have you thought of having treatment?

Finegold: Was it a good party? What does it mean for you?

Mr Livingstone: What did you do before? Were you a German war criminal?

Finegold: No, I'm Jewish, I wasn't a German war criminal and I'm actually quite offended by that. So, how did tonight go?

Mr Livingstone: Arr right, well you might be [Jewish], but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?

Finegold: Great, I have you on record for that. So, how was tonight?

Mr Livingstone: It's nothing to do with you because your paper is a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots.

Finegold: I'm a journalist and I'm doing my job. I'm only asking for a comment.

Mr Livingstone: Well, work for a paper that doesn't have a record of supporting fascism.

Shamir also claims to have occupied a string of important positions as a translator of classical works and to have worked as a journalist in several heavyweight media institutions, including for the major Israeli paper, Haaretz. However, when Monitor started investigating Shamir’s past last year, it found no evidence that Shamir had ever held these positions. His supposed job as Moscow correspondent for Haaretz turned out to consist of just a few freelance articles.

The Swedish Census Registry does give a few clues about Shamir and his movements. It shows that his name was entered onto the Registry in October 1984 and he later obtained Swedish citizenship. According to the register he still lives in Dalagatan, Stockholm, not in Jaffa, Israel, as he publicly claims. Shamir’s first wife and two sons also live in Stockholm.

In July 1993, Shamir emigrated to Russia and later to Israel, where he married again in July 1994. He and his new wife returned to Sweden in autumn 1998.

Shamir, who claims to be one of Israel’s leading intellectuals, has concealed the fact that he has lived in Sweden for a long time. Another strange fact is that there are hardly any references to Shamir on the internet before 2001, the same year in which he changed his name. This was a strange time to do this, just as he was being noticed and had started to publish his works under the name of Israel Shamir...

Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being "unfairly tarnished" by the controversy.

During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum last month, Jordan said he believed that several journalists who were killed by coalition forces in Iraq had been targeted.

He quickly backed off the remarks, explaining that he meant to distinguish between journalists killed because they were in the wrong place where a bomb fell, for example, and those killed because they were shot at by American forces who mistook them for the enemy.

"I never meant to imply U.S. forces acted with ill intent when U.S. forces accidentally killed journalists, and I apologize to anyone who thought I said or believed otherwise," Jordan said in a memo to fellow staff members at CNN.

But the damage had been done, compounded by the fact that no transcript of his actual remarks has turned up. There was an online petition calling on CNN to find a transcript, and fire Jordan if he said the military had intentionally killed journalists.

BACKGROUND
-

Elizabeth and Marthame Sanders served until recently as Presbyterian missionaries in a Christian village in the West Bank. In August, 2004, they joined the head office staff of the Presbyterian Church USA in the prestigious position of missionaries-in-residence.

The Sanders have a flagrantly anti-Semitic article posted on their web page. While Elizabeth and Marthame Sanders did not write the article, posting it makes it appear that they endorse the views expressed.

Here is an excerpt from the article, written by a notoriously anti-Semitic Christian named Israel Shamir.

"The most liberal Jewish plan calls for creation of a few Gentile ghettos fenced by barbed wire, surrounded by Jewish tanks and Jewish-owned factories at the fence, where the Arbeit will macht the Gentiles frei... Israelis are brainwashed from kindergarten, they are taught they belong to the Chosen People, who are Über Alles. They were indoctrinated in the belief that the Gentiles are not fully human, and therefore they can be killed and expropriated at will... "

The material quoted above can be found here.

And also here.

The Sanders website also links to a list of organizations that, according to the Sanders, "offer insightful, educational, and hopeful perspectives." On the list are at least three organizations
that serve as enthusiastic cheerleaders for suicide bombers and other terrorists, including Al Awda, the International Solidarity Movement, and Electronic Intifada. Al Awda and the International Solidarity Movement aim not for peaceful coexistence, but for the destruction of Israel "by any means necessary." According to the International Solidarity Movement, suicide bombing is a "noble" form of "jihad."

ACTION
-

Write to the leaders of the PCUSA expressing your concern. [Always, always, polite!! Please remember that many practicing Presbyterians do not agree with the actions of their church on these issues.]

Rev. Victor Makari
Coordinator for the Middle East
VictorM@ctr.pcusa.org

Jay Rock
Coordinator for Interfaith Relations
jrock@ctr.pcusa.org
Presbyterian Church (USA)
100 Witherspoon Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202

Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church, USA
ckirkpat@ctr.pcusa.org
Presbyterian Church (USA)
100 Witherspoon Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202

What's more, students who have observed the committee's proceedings are raising their own troubling questions about the direction the inquiry has taken.

"I don't understand why a committee investigating such a sensitive issue would be recruited among people with such blatant conflicts of interest," says Judith Jacobson, an assistant professor of public health and founder of the Columbia chapter of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, the group issuing the report.

As the group's report details, out of five members on Bollinger's committee: two signed an anti-Israel divestment petition, one was the thesis adviser for Joseph Massad (a professor prominently accused of wrongdoing), one has written that Israel is responsible for global anti-Semitism and one is a university administrator who ignored student complaints for months. The man who handpicked the committee, Nick Dirks, is married to a professor who co-teaches a class with Massad.

"If the purpose of the committee is to protect . . . faculty, it seems likely to achieve success," the whistleblowing faculty report concludes. "If its purpose is to conduct a serious investigation, it appears doomed to failure." ...

A second barrage was launched several hours later. One mortar shell was fired at a settlement in northern Gaza and three more in southern Gaza, Army Radio reported. There were no casualties or damage...

...Abbas said he had issued "strict instructions" to his security forces to prevent any violations of the cease-fire. He also said he is planning a series of "decisions and measures" for his forces, but did not elaborate.

The Palestinian leader also said that he was committed to the agreements he had reached at the summit in Egypt, which saw Israeli and Palestinian declarations to end hostilities between the two sides after more than four years.

Israel has welcomed Abbas' efforts so far, but a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he must take far tougher action against the militants.

The Israel Defense Forces said that 17 mortar shells had struck Israeli targets Thursday, most of which exploded near the Neveh Dekalim settlement in the Gush Katif bloc.

A number of the shells fell within Palestinian areas of the Strip.

No injuries were immediately reported, although one of the houses in the settlement sustained damage.

IDF sources said the fire was coming from areas in which Palestinian Authority security officers are deployed, and noted that troops returned fire...

The move came just hours after Abbas ordered security forces to stop militants from firing at the settlements in Gaza.

"These are very dangerous developments, and they violate the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority," Abu Libdeh said. "No one can continue with these violations."

The firings led Abbas to reportedly dismiss chief of public security, Brig. Gen. Abdel Razek Majaidie.

In addition, PA officials said the Palestinian leader also sacked Colonel Omar Ashour, commander of PA security forces in the southern Gaza Strip.

As a result of an overnight raid on a Gaza prison, Abbas also fired Saeb al-Ajez, head of the PA Civil Police.

Over 30 gunmen stormed Gaza Central Prison early Thursday killing two prisoners and kidnapping a third, whose body was later found in an open field. The attack itself is related to rivalries between rival families.

Five policemen were injured during the raid, the first of its kind since Abbas took over as PA chairman.

Meanwhile, OC Southern Command, Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel, is slated to meet with the commander of PA forces in Gaza, Mussa Arafat, on Thursday evening.

The meeting was scheduled several days ago, but will naturally deal with Thursday's barrages. Harel is expected to demand of Arafat to crack down on the firing squads.

Meanwhile, the settlers are claiming a total of 38 Kassam rockets and mortar shells have been fired at settlements. The IDF said at least 25 had been fired.

The discrepancy lies in the fact that some of the mortar shells exploded in Palestinian areas, which the IDF does not include in its tally. In addition, the IDF only includes in its count shells or rockets they can locate.

No wounded have been reported, but early Thursday damage was caused to one building and to the electrical system in one of the settlements.

As of Thursday afternoon, the IDF had no plans to launch any offensive operations...

Except the number of North Koreans welcomed by the rest of the world has been tragically small--amounting to about 6,300 all told, most of them arriving in South Korea over the past three years. That's about zip compared to the number who would flee given even a whisper of a decent chance. At risk of their lives, an estimated 300,000 have in any case fled across the border into China.

You might think that once they reached Chinese turf, an outfit such as the United Nations, keeper of the 1951 convention on refugees, would offer help. Hardly. Since famine in North Korea and growing mobility inside China brought the first serious refugee influx in the early 1990s, the U.N. has engaged in what it calls "quiet diplomacy," meant to persuade China's regime to honor its international obligations and at least allow safe passage to these asylum-seekers, who have a fear of persecution deeply grounded in the likelihood that they may be executed, or sent to murderous labor camps, if returned. But so quiet is this diplomacy, so as not to offend China--which sits on the governing body of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and holds a veto-wielding seat on the UN Security Council--that nothing much has emerged from all the hush. There are no refugee centers for North Koreans in China; instead, there is a bilateral treaty with North Korea under which asylum-seekers are labeled illegal economic migrants. If caught, they are sent back.

The result, as South Korea-based private American relief worker Tim Peters reports in a recent bulletin, is that even with help for North Korean refugees signed into law in the U.S. last year, the outlook for them "is indeed grim for 2005." China has beefed up efforts to keep them out or catch them, posting more soldiers along the border, and adding roadblocks to detect private aid workers trying at risk of prison themselves to reach the border areas. From inside North Korea, reports Mr. Peters, he has been receiving accounts that "authorities have stepped up the monitoring and interrogation of families in which family members are unaccounted for." That is awful news, because in North Korea, the regime imposes collective punishment on entire families...

Egypt and Tunisia issued postage stamps of the boy, Muhammad al-Dura, crouching against his father and under attack from a fusillade of bullets in September 2000. Egypt named a street in his honor, and suicide bombers invoked the boy as a martyr in videotaped farewells.

Far from Gaza's street battles, in France, the scene is a picture worth a thousand arguments. Here, debate seethes about whether the televised footage of Muhammad al-Dura was genuine, misinterpreted or — as an American academic put it — artfully staged "Pallywood" theater...

...A 2002 German documentary, "Three Bullets and a Child: Who Killed the Young Muhammad al-Dura?" tried to address lingering questions about whether the boy was killed by Israelis or Palestinians.

Last week, the debate gained fresh momentum after a prominent French editor and an independent television producer broke ranks in the country's media circles and wrote a cautious article in the newspaper Le Figaro, expressing some doubt about the photo's authenticity.

"That image has had great influence," said Daniel Leconte, a former correspondent for France 2. "If this image does not mean what we were told, it is necessary to find the truth." ...

...When the report was first broadcast, France 2 offered its exclusive footage free to the world's television networks, saying it did not want to profit from the images.

The scenes were filmed by its Palestinian cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma, who was the only one to capture images of what Mr. Enderlin characterized then as the killing of a child by gunfire from an Israeli position. Mr. Enderlin was not present during the shooting.

Esther Schapira, a German producer in Frankfurt, said she tried unsuccessfully in preparation for her 2002 documentary to see a master copy of the tape and was astonished when France 2 did not share it because European stations commonly exchange material. "If there is nothing to hide," she said of France 2's initial reluctance, "what are they afraid of?"

When critical articles started appearing in publications like The Atlantic Monthly in the United States, Mr. Enderlin wrote letters insisting: "We do not transform reality. But in view of the fact that some parts of the scene are unbearable, France 2 was obliged to cut a few seconds from the scene."

In many ways, Mr. Enderlin argues, the video has become a cultural prism, with viewers seeing what they want to see. "It's a campaign," he said, "because the video was used as a symbol by the Palestinians as a propaganda tool."

Richard Landes, a Boston University professor specializing in medieval cultures, studied full footage from other Western news outlets that day, including the pictures of the boy.

"We could argue about every frame," he said. But after watching the scenes involving Muhammad al-Dura three times, he concluded that it had probably been faked, along with footage on the same tape of separate street clashes and ambulance rescues.

"I came to the realization that Palestinian cameramen, especially when there are no Westerners around, engage in the systematic staging of action scenes," he said, calling the footage Pallywood cinema.

As questions were raised, some France 2 executives privately faulted the channel's communication. Last week, they showed The International Herald Tribune the original 27-minute tape of the incident, which also included separate scenes of rock-throwing youths.

The footage of the father and son under attack lasts several minutes, but does not clearly show the boy's death. There is a cut in the scene that France 2 executives attribute to the cameraman's efforts to preserve a low battery.

When Mr. Leconte and Mr. Jeambar saw the full footage, they were struck that there was no definitive scene showing that the boy had died. They wrote, however, that they were not convinced that the scene was staged, but only that "this famous ‘agony' that Enderlin insisted was cut from the montage does not exist." ...

1. On Thursday, February 10, 2005, 4:15 - 6 PM, The Sakharov Program on Human Rights at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies will host a talk by Natan Sharansky on "Sakharov's Legacy and the Human Rights Dilemmas of Today."

It will take place at Emerson Hall 105, Harvard Yard.

Please feel free to come, and to spread the word.

Please note that the talk will be given in English and that it is open to the public.

For directions, please check the Harvard Yard map for Emerson:
http://map.harvard.edu/mapindex.cfm?mapname=camb_allston

...Apart from this, Sharansky will be a guest on National Public Radio - The Connection Show WBUR 90,9 FM, Thu., Feb 10, 11 AM.

Thanks for your interest,
Hope to see you on Thursday, Feb. 10th.

Natan Sharansky, Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs

Thursday, February 10
6:30 PM
Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics
The Forum
Harvard University
79 JFK Street, Cambridge

"Is Democracy for Everyone?"

Minister Sharansky is author of the best-selling book
The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
Free Admission

FORUM: NATAN SHARANSKY - IS DEMOCRACY FOR EVERYONE?

Israeli Cabinet Minister; Author, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
Center for Public Leadership and Harvard Republican Club John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum
February 10, 2005 , 6:30 PM
Greg_wilson@harvard.edu

Co-sponsored by: The Kennedy School's Republican Caucus, Kennedy School's Jewish Caucus, Harvard Students for Israel, HBS Republican Club

Bio from
here

Natan Sharansky believes that the truest expression of democracy is the ability to stand in the middle of a town square and express one's views without fear of imprisonment. He should know. A dissident in the USSR, Sharansky was jailed for nine years for challenging Soviet policies. During that time he reinforced his moral conviction that democracy is essential to both protecting human rights and maintaining global peace and security.

Sharansky was catapulted onto the Israeli political stage in 1996. In the last eight years, he has served as a minister in four different Israeli cabinets, including a stint as Deputy Prime Minister, playing a key role in government decision making from the peace negotiations at Wye to the war against Palestinian terror. In his views, he has been as consistent as he has been stubborn: Tyranny, whether in the Soviet Union or the Middle East, must always be made to bow before democracy.

Drawing on a lifetime of experience of democracy and its absence, Sharansky believes that only democracy can safeguard the well-being of societies. For Sharansky, when it comes to democracy, politics is not a matter of left and right, but right and wrong.

This is a passionately argued book from a man who carries supreme moral authority to make the case he does here: that the spread of democracy everywhere is not only possible, but also essential to the survival of our civilization. His argument is sure to stir controversy on all sides; this is arguably the great issue of our times.

Natan Sharansky is a former Soviet dissident, political prisoner, and human rights icon who has spent his life championing democracy and freedom. He now serves as the Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs in the Israeli Government.

See
here

Knesset Member Natan Sharansky will visit Shaloh House to meet with Jewish Community of Boston

At the invitation of the recently formed Russian Jewish Community Foundation, Natan Sharansky will meet next week with members of the Boston Jewish Community. Natan will talk about his book "The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror".

The meeting will take place on Friday, February 11th, at 10:45 am in the Shaloh House, 29 Chestnut Hill avenue, Brighton. The entrance fee of $25 covers the cost of the book and refreshments.

*Seating is limited. Please RSVP to reserve a seat to RJCF@pobox.com.

When a CNN reporter asked President Bush about Natan Sharansky's book, the President replied:
"This is a book by Natan Sharansky, who is - was imprisoned in the Soviet Union. He's a heroic figure. He's now an Israeli official who
talks about freedom and what it means and how freedom can change the globe. And I agree with him. I believed that before I met Natan Sharansky. This is a book that, however, summarizes how I feel. I would urge people to read it."

Much of the mail I have recieved critical of divestment has been well written and actually brought up points we made in our editorial on the subject.

1) A divestment of israel ingores the human rights abuses of other regimes in the mideast and around the world

2) Racists have used seemingly valid criticism of Israel to promote hatred

3) Isreal has been a major force for peace in the last half century

4) taking Isreal's actions out of context from the whole picture of Mideast violence paints a distorted picture of the middle east

Still, the divestment issue brings up legitimate questions and I think my readers would be very interested in a pro israeli response.

Do pro-isaeli people deny the allegations made by those supporting divestment?

Most of the charges of human rights abuses made against Isreal by pro-divestment have been backed by Amnesty International.

Conservative Jews have veiwed all Iraelli divestment racist.
Questions...

In what context is criticism of Isreali national security policy NOT racism?

Would ANY (Israeli)government action justify sanctions?

If so, how is this context different?

Having contact with people on faculty senate, I highly doubt anti semitism had anything to do with the vote.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you

(exponent@uwplatt.edu)

The professor who made those statements yesterday isn't from Columbia but from Harvard. Law professor Alan Dershowitz showed up at the intellectual home of Said, a literature professor who was a fierce critic of Israel, to rebuke Columbia's faculty and administration for tolerating an atmosphere on campus that he said promotes the hatred of Israel.

"This is the most unbalanced university that I have come across when it comes to all sides of the Middle East conflict being presented," Mr. Dershowitz told hundreds of students and a smattering of Columbia faculty members.

"I have never seen a university with as much faculty silence," he said.

At a campus already divided by a controversy that has flared for months - one that pits a handful of Jewish students against some professors in the Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department - the appearance of Mr. Dershowitz was the latest indication that the most serious crisis of President Lee Bollinger's tenure is far from over.

Mr. Dershowitz's speech, which lasted about an hour, drew a few catcalls from some hostile members of the audience, who accused the lawyer of supporting torture. It also prompted frequent outbursts of applause from many in the audience, as he repeatedly expressed contempt for the Columbia scholars in the Middle East studies department who are the subject of an internal campus inquiry.

One of the best-known defense attorneys in the country, Mr. Dershowitz, who is 66, said he would help organize an independent committee to look into the student complaints if the faculty committee appointed by Mr. Bollinger came to a "biased" conclusion. Without mentioning names, Mr. Dershowitz said the external committee would include Nobel Prize winners.

Members of the New York City Council, too, have called for an outside investigation of the student complaints.

Drawing a few laughs, Mr. Dershowitz said the prospects of "peace in Israel itself are greater than they would be on this campus."

"The kind of hatred that one hears on campuses like Columbia, and let me say especially Columbia, is a barrier to peace," Mr. Dershowitz said. "They are encouraging the terrorists. They tell the terrorists you will have academic support even if you oppose the peace process."

At times he singled out for censure an assistant professor of modern Arab politics, Joseph Massad, who is accused of ordering one of his students to leave his classroom if she continued to deny Israel's alleged atrocities against Palestinian Arabs. Mr. Massad, who denies that the incident took place, is among dozens of Columbia professors who in 2003 called on the university to divest itself of financial holdings in companies that support Israel.

"Anybody who advocates for divesting only from the Jewish state ... at a time when Iraq was posing a great threat to the world, when Iran was posing great threats ... when China is oppressing million of Tibetans, when the Kurds are still denied independence and statehood, to single out only Israel for divestiture at that point in time cannot be explained by neutral political, even ideological consideration," Mr. Dershowitz said...

ACTION
-

Please contact Columbia, questioning the university's judgment in giving a podium to a man who has said that Jewish settlers deserve to be "shot dead." [If you do so, remember to always be unimpeachably polite. -Sol]

CONTACT INFO
-

Lee C. Bollinger, President
Columbia University
2960 Broadway
New York, NY 10027-6902
Phone: 212-854-9970
Fax: 212-854-9973
Email: bollinger@columbia.edu

Columbia alumni should contact:

Derek Wittner
Columbia University
Dean of Alumni Affairs and Development
Interchurch Center
Room 917, Mail Code 7732
Columbia College
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212-870-2741
Email: daw8@columbia.edu

BACKGROUND
-

The Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia will host a talk on February 10 by Tom Paulin, the Irish poet notorious for telling the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram that what Paulin described as "Brooklyn-born" Jewish settlers should be "shot dead." He said: "They should be shot dead. I think they are Nazis, racists. I feel nothing but hatred for them." He added: "I can understand how suicide bombers feel. ... I think attacks on civilians in fact boost morale."

Paulin, who has regularly declared that Israel has no right to exist and recently resigned from Britain's ruling Labour party on the grounds that Tony Blair was heading a "Zionist government," is no doubt entitled to his opinion; what is in question is not Paulin's right to spout hatred, support for suicide bombers, and anti-Semitism, but the judgment of the Columbia faculty that invites such a man to campus...

Dr. Khalidi proved to be mere preamble to Dr.Joseph Massad's philippic against the Jewish state, which he declared in no uncertain terms had not only expelled the Palestinian Arab majority and confiscated its property, but continued to prevent its rightful return. He almost always prefixed or suffixed the phrase "the Jewish state" with such adjectives as "racist" or "apartheid." Gaza and the West Bank were invariably termed "bantustans." Any state defining itself as specially Jewish was, in Massud's lexicon, ipso facto labeled racist and beyond the pale. The two-state solution, he argued, "was asking diaspora Palestinians to commit suicide." Only within the confines of a bi-national state, he explained, "can Palestinians be repatriated… and Jews become equal citizens." In order to bring this "equitable" solution about, Israel must be sufficiently weakened by boycott and divestment for starters. Only a change in the balance of power in the Middle East, Massad averred, could bring to fruition his longed-for solution. (Some might even be forgiven the unholy thought that Massad's arguments necessitate Mossad's existence).

Not to be undone, Dr. Ilan Pappe of Haifa University, who some have named "the Noam Chomsky of Israel," gave his own gloss on history, promising to add further polish and refinement to Dr. Khalidi's position. He quickly reminded his audience that Israel controls 80 percent of mandatory Palestine, while the Palestinians are stuck with a mere 20 percent. He selectively ignored the historically recognized fact that 80 percent of the Palestine promised to the Jews as their national home by Lord Balfour was lopped off by Winston Churchill in 1922 and given to the Arabs as the kingdom of Trans-Jordan.

Dr. Pappe's heavily sardonic tone served to portray Israel in the worst possible light as a blunt force riding roughshod over liberty-loving Palestinians. He privileged the Palestinian right of return, while contradictorily insisting that nationalism was even a more baleful force in the world than religion itself. He too invoked apartheid imagery whenever and wherever possible, daubing South Africa and Israel with the same thick brush.

Dripping sarcasm, Pappe described an Israel desperate to "whiten" its population, searching high and low for light-skinned immigrants. To appreciative laughter, nods and titters from parts of the audience, he recounted Israel looking for possible "Hebraic" tribesmen in the mountain fastnesses of Peru, the alluvial plains of India and the equatorial heart of Africa to bring to the Jewish state, while obstinately refusing entry to Palestinian Arabs. "The preoccupation with Israeli demography is the basis of discrimination," he further explained...

Israel is: a) a Jewish supremacist state, b) the worst human-rights abuser in the Middle East, c) a major factor preventing the democratization of the Arab region, or d) all of the above.

If you answered "d," you would fit right in at a core-curriculum course at Columbia University taught by an assistant professor of modern Arab politics, Joseph Massad, who is a rising star of the university's Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures.

Mr. Massad, author of the forthcoming book "The Persistence of the Palestinian Question," is best known as one of the Columbia scholars whose alleged mistreatment of Jewish students is at the center of a campus controversy that has attracted national attention from Jewish and academic leaders.

Though the dispute has focused on allegations of intimidation and harassment of students, the more common criticism brought up by students of Mr. Massad has to do not with the appropriateness of his conduct, but with the quality and content of his teaching.

Students of his say he is relentless in his condemnations of Israel and America, even in a course he taught in the fall called Topics in Asian Civilization, in which Israel, at least according to the syllabus, plays only a minor role...

With a hero who gave his life for the elections, a revived national anthem blaring from car stereos and a greater willingness to help police, the public mood appears to be moving more clearly against the insurgency in Iraq, political and security officials said.

In the week since national elections, police officers and Iraqi National Guardsmen said they have received more tips from the public, resulting in more arrests and greater effectiveness in their efforts to weaken the violent insurgency rocking the country...

...officials in Baghdad said a relative lull in violence in the capital has fueled the sense that something has fundamentally changed since the vote. A change of attitudes in Baghdad could make a crucial difference in the battle against the insurgency, and a buoyed sense of civic pride is already beginning to change the way the public treats the police, authorities say.

"They saw what we did for them in the election by providing safety, and now they understand this is their army and their sons," said Sgt. Haider Abudl Heidi, a National Guardsman wearing a flak jacket at a checkpoint in Baghdad.

Reports from Iraqis reflected a similar shift in attitudes in large areas of the north and south, although authorities acknowledged that in some parts of the country, people remain hostile to the emerging Iraqi authority and supportive, to varying degrees, of the insurgents.

The insurgency began to emerge soon after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, on a tide of anger over the U.S. occupation. But in interviews over the past week, officials and Baghdad residents cited what they called a renewed nationalist pride since the elections that they said may be dampening anti-American sentiment, and may be starting to dispel Iraqi tolerance and support for the insurgents.

"I feel very optimistic that things will change for the better because of the strong turnout in the elections. That reinforced our faith and gave us a sense of change for the better," said Ali Jassem, 32, the manager of a bakery in Baghdad.

"You can feel the situation has changed," said Haider Abdul Hussein, 30, a pharmacy owner. "People seem to linger on the street longer. You can feel the momentum, the sense of optimism."

Part of that mood change is credited to Abdul Amir, Iraq's newest national hero. On election day, Amir, 30, a policeman in Baghdad, noticed a man walking toward a polling station who appeared to be carrying something heavy under his coat. Amir wrapped his arms around the man and dragged him away from the crowd. A belt of explosives wrapped around the man blew both men to shreds.

Members of Iraq's interim cabinet have touted Amir as a symbol of national pride. Newspapers have been filled with stories about him. A statue is being planned, and the elementary school that served as the polling station where he died may change its name to honor him...

Eulogies to suicide bombers, or ''martyrs'' as they were previously known, have given way to ''feel-good'' nature programmes and romantic films. Instead of referring to ''martyr operations'', suicide bombings are described more neutrally as ''explosions''.

The changes have been brought in as Israelis and Palestinians prepare for this week's summit between Mr Abbas and Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, in Egypt.

Mr Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, summoned the directors of the television station and told them to tone down their aggressive programming.

He said that he did not want the kind of sycophantic, round-the-clock coverage of his schedule that was the norm under the former Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

"He said that he does not want a screen full of blood,'' Radwan Abu Ayash, the head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, told The Sunday Telegraph: ''We must avoid bloody things, which are not a good image for our people.

''He also said that he does not want songs praising him or for us to report on all his activities - only if there is some news value. He wanted a 'free screen' and said that all sides should have the right to talk. These are big changes."

Palestinian television used ceaselessly to extol Mr Arafat's virtues and those of his dominant Fatah Party. Attacks on Israeli targets were applauded and special songs composed for the station in praise of fallen ``martyrs''.

Now, Mr Abu Ayash said: "We have passionate Egyptian love films replacing war films, we have soft geography programmes for the kids, films with cute animals roaming in the wild and so on...

Away from false statements and true statements, let's go back to similar situations that took place not far ago; Dweller has given what I consider a very good example, she mentioned last year's resolution 137 issue which was called for by the head of the SCIRI (who's considered a strong candidate for the PM position in the coming government as he's heading the list of the Iraqi United Alliance). But even at that time, when the GC was partially in charge, the role of the people and the other members of the GC was so evident in refuting the resolution in question and thus the Islamists failed to pass the law.

Another important thing I'd like to point out here is that Ayatollah Sistani played the role of a 'safety valve' in Iraq, his wisdom has helped control the anger of the masses in more in an instance an I don't expect him to ruin what has been built so far and push the country into a civil war.

On the other hand, there are rules and regulations that govern the writing of the constitution and these were agreed on by almost everyone (with a few reservations though) but there is a general agreement on these rules, and anyway, passing any legislation will require the approval of 2 thirds of the assembly's members.
Even though the Alliance list seems to be winning a similar majority of the seats now but the future as I expect is hiding a lot of surprises; will the ten or fifteen parties that stood united through out the electoral process keep the same unity when their different interests and agendas contradict each other?? Will a secular Turcoman member of the Assembly for example help Al-Hakim pass such laws just because they were allies during the elections? From what I see, I think the answer is NO...

The party occurred October 30, as the 160th Military Police Battalion, an Army Reserve Unit from Tallahassee, Florida, prepared to turn over its duties to the Asheville-based 105th Military Police Battalion, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, spokesman for detainee operations at Camp Bucca.

In the course of the transfer of duties, "some individuals in their exuberance decided to put together a mud-wrestling thing," Johnson said Sunday by telephone. "There were females involved, and some members of the 105th also became involved, one female soldier in particular."

Following an inquiry, that soldier was demoted and placed on restriction for participating in the event, specifically for indecent exposure, he said.

Four or five other members of the 105th who were spectators received counseling, Johnson said...

Operating from Pan-Arabist and Islamist credos, they could not envisage the elections as at least a step toward political normality in a country long ruled by a brutal dictator and currently under foreign occupation. Commentators emphasized potential voting irregularities, asserting that no free elections would ever take place under occupation and implicitly urging Iraqis to stay away from the polls.

Because Arab writers normally see themselves as embodying an imaginary "Arab street," they had no trouble, in the absence of independent public opinion surveys, in representing their own quite ideological views as those of the Iraqi majority and as those of Arabs generally. They took this line even though their rhetorical warnings at the time of the initial invasion of Iraq -- exemplified by the slogan "the Arab street will explode if the Americans invade" -- had proven incorrect. These writers were taught a hard lesson by the Iraqi voter turnout in a way that should lead to questions about their claim to represent Arab public opinion.

Assessing Arab public opinion is notoriously difficult because of widespread media censorship and government domination of the media. One of the few real indicators we have are readers' written comments on op-ed articles published in Arab dailies, especially in the regional newspapers such as al-Hayat and al-Sharq al-Awsat. The partial liberalization of the media landscape in the region since the 1980s has led gradually to less censorship of readers' comments, especially those published on the Internet. This has created a small but important space for open debate. Of course the readers of these papers represent the more educated sectors and are not fully representative of whole Arab societies. Nevertheless, taking their ideas and opinions seriously opens up the possibility of a direct, less ideological access to the sphere of Arab public opinion. And it is worth doing.

Looking at readers' comments in these newspapers on the Iraqi elections during the past two months, one is first of all struck by the diversity of views and voices...

But Adel Abdel-Mehdi, the current finance minister and a powerful figure in the coalition expected to dominate Iraq's parliament, rejected a key demand of those groups -- a timetable for a withdrawal of the 150,000 U.S. troops in the country.

"We are hearing some positive remarks coming from their side. That's very good. We are encouraging them," he said in an interview. "We are really willing to offer the maximum. . . . It's a balanced view -- from them, from us -- to see what the future has."...

...Abdel-Mehdi's comments were the latest to suggest a departure from the escalating political tension, much of it assuming a sectarian cast, that mirrored the insurgency and preceded Iraq's parliamentary elections. Many Sunni Arabs stayed away from the polls, crystallizing the divide between groups that engaged in the U.S.-backed process and those opposed to it while U.S. troops occupy the country.

Beginning this week, however, influential figures among Sunni and anti-occupation factions signaled their willingness to take part in the process that has followed the election, a recognition by some that the vote may have created a new dynamic. The Association of Muslim Scholars, one of the most powerful groups, has said it would abide by the results of the ballot, even if it viewed the government as lacking legitimacy. Thirteen parties, including a representative of the association and other parties that boycotted the vote, agreed Thursday to take part in the drafting of the constitution, which will be the parliament's main task.

"We should respect the choice of the Iraqi people," said Tariq Hashemi, the secretary general of the Sunni-led Iraqi Islamic Party, which withdrew from the election but which was still listed on the ballot.

The "drafting of the constitution is a very important issue for all Iraqis, and we have to be very clear on that," Hashemi said at a news conference Saturday. "We will have a role, we will play a role. That role depends on the political circumstances." ...

...The constitution cannot be ratified if it is rejected by a two-thirds vote in three provinces, and Sunni Arab leaders believe they can thwart the ratification in provinces where they are the majority...

"Irrespective of what one thought about the military intervention in Iraq in the first place," Germany is "strongly ready. . . to help Iraq to get toward this stable and hopefully democratic development," Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said at a news conference with Rice in Berlin on Friday.

In an editorial Saturday, the influential Warsaw newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza said that "by going to the polling stations in such large numbers, the Iraqi people helped settle the dispute between the United States and Europe over whether democracy can be reconciled with Islam. Thanks to them, the 'de-freezing' of transatlantic relations could happen earlier than even optimists expected."

Poland committed troops to the 2003 invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein, but the war has been highly unpopular among Poles, with public opinion polls showing that about 75 percent of those surveyed now oppose the war and want troops to come home.

Because of domestic pressure, the Polish government had earlier announced that as many as 800 of its 2,400 troops in Iraq would be pulled out after the election, with the rest coming home by year's end. But after talks with Rice, Adam Rotfeld, the Polish foreign minister, said Saturday that the Iraqi election had "totally changed our optics on Iraq."

"In the year 2005, we are in a completely different place than we were in the years 2004 and 2003," Rotfeld said at a joint news conference with Rice. U.S. and Polish officials continue to discuss the future status of the Polish troops in Iraq...

Exactly how Islamic to make the document is the subject of debate.

At the very least, the clerics say, the constitution should ensure that legal measures overseeing personal matters like marriage, divorce and family inheritance fall under Shariah, or Koranic law. For example, daughters would receive half the inheritances of sons under that law.

On other issues, opinion varies, with the more conservative leaders insisting that Shariah be the foundation for all legislation...

The U.S. should announce that it is lowering the reward for bin Laden from $25 million to one penny, along with an autographed picture of George W. Bush. At the same time, it should reduce the $25 million reward for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the chief terrorist in Iraq, to one pistachio and an autographed picture of Dick Cheney.

Don't get me wrong. Bin Laden and Zarqawi have murdered thousands of people. I want them brought in dead or alive - and preferably the former. If I thought $100 million would do it, I'd be for it. But these megarewards clearly are not working, and in many ways they are sending the totally wrong signals...

...What I would do with the $75 million we have budgeted as rewards for bin Laden and Zarqawi is use it instead to sponsor an essay contest for high school students in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria and Egypt. The contest entry form would say the following: "In 2,000 words, write an essay on one of these two topics: 1. Why do you believe the Arab-Muslim world is fully capable of achieving democratic, representative government and how do you envisage it coming about through peaceful changes inside your country, without any American or other outside help. 2. Write an essay about the lives of any of the great medieval Arab or Muslim mathematicians, scientists or philosophers and how their innovations helped to shape our world today."

Maybe we could even call them the "Bin Laden Scholars."...

"We do not want this shadow to hang over the U.N. So we want to get to the bottom of it, get to the truth and take appropriate measures to deal with the gaps," he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Paul Volcker's report, released Thursday, said Benon Sevan "repeatedly solicited" several million barrels of oil worth about $1 million on behalf of a company named African Middle East Petroleum. The illicit deals "violated standards of integrity," the report said.

Sevan, a 40-year U.N. employee who was appointed in 1997 as executive director of the oil-for-food program, denied the allegations late Thursday afternoon.

"I think I'm not the only one who was shocked [shocked!] by what we read in the report," Annan said. "He's been here working with many of us for quite a time, and we had not expected anything of the sort."

But, Annan said, "I think we should wait until the work is done before we draw definitive conclusions."

Annan said the U.N. takes seriously any allegations of corruption or misbehavior...

The Faculty Senate of the University of Wisconsin at Platteville has just become the first faculty of an American university to vote to divest from Israel.

ACTIONS
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Please remember that one thoughtless letter can undo all the impact of a thousand thoughtful letters. Last fall, the Office of the President at Duke diverted attention from the fact that they were permitting a group that openly endorses terrorism to meet on campus by complaining about the hate-mail that he was receiving from supporters of Israel. The Presbyterian Church received a single, anonymous letter threatening violence and has been able to spin that letter into a string of "balanced" articles in newspapers that excuse the church's anti-Israel actions by pointing out that the Presbyterian Church has been threatened with arson.

You are entitled to be hopping mad to learn that the faculty of a state university in Wisconsin has taken an action that is intended to destroy the Jewish State. But please don't let your justifiable anger undermine the effectiveness of your protest.

1. Write to the Chancellor of UW Platteville, Dr. David Markee, asking that he condemn the vote taken by his Faculty Senate. email address: markee@uwplatt.edu

2. Write to the Chairman of the Faculty Senate, Professor Mark Evenson, demanding that the Faculty Senate reconsider the divestment decision. email address: evensonm@uwplatt.edu

3. Send a letter to the editor to the UW student newspaper, the Exponent. email address: exponent@uwplatt.edu

4. Sign the petition asking UW Madison to refuse to host the PSM National Conference. http://www.petitiononline.com/stopPSM/petition.html

5. Write to University of Wisconsin Chancellor John D. Wiley asking that he take action to end the racism being perpetrated by anti-Israel activists on his campuses. email address: chancellor@news.wisc.edu

BACKGROUND
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The State of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin share a long tradition of progressive politics. Sadly, that tradition is being hijacked by anti-Semitic, pro-terrorism activists who support the violent destruction of the State of Israel.

The "Wisconsin Divestment Project" is affiliated with Al Awda, a radical group that uses the racist language of "Jewish control" of the universities and media, refers to Jewish national aspirations as a "disease," and works toward the destruction of the State of Israel "by any means necessary." Al Awda is explicit in its demand for a Palestinian state "From the River to the Sea."

Fayyad Sbaihat is a leader of the Wisconsin Divestment Project, Al Awda, and the Palestine Solidarity Movement. He was a co-chair of the recent PSM National Conference at Duke. This is the third year during which Sbaihat has described himself as a "senior majoring in chemical engineering" at UW Madison. Given his lack of visible means of support, freedom to spend much of the semester in Durham and Platteville, and ability to devote most of his time to anti-Israel politics, observers presume that Sbaihat is among the cadre of anti-Israel "students" paid by anti-Israel organizations to devote their time to anti-Israel activism.

In January, UW Madison allowed Sbaihat to book a room on campus in which to hold a "Winter Planning Session" of the Palestine Solidarity Movement. In the end, Sbaihat held the meeting at a secret location to prevent observers from attending.

Last fall Sbaihat selected UW Platteville as a target, presumably because the Faculty Senate there includes a number of anti-Israel professors. Professor Osama Jadaan moved to approve the divestment resolution seconded by Professor Abulkhair Masoom. It was passed at a meeting the last week of January by a vote of 6-6 with one abstention and with the Chair, Professor Mark Evenson, casting the deciding vote for divestment. We believe this to be the first time that an American university faculty has resolved to divest from Israel.

The Faculty Senate has, of course, no actual control over the UW investment portfolio. That power is held by the UW Board of Regents, which is extremely unlikely to vote to divest. The danger of the resolution taken by the faculty at UW Platteville is that it will encourage other institutions to divest, and help the divestment movement to gain momentum.

REFERENCES
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For further information about the "Wisconsin Divestment Project", see the following URL:

http://alawda.rso.wisc.edu/

For further information about the Faculty Senate vote, see the following URL:

http://www.uwplatt.edu/fsenate/f041214m.html

The JAT website at http://JAT-Action.org/ has general information about anti-Israel organizations such as Al-Awda and the International Solidarity Movement. See especially:

http://JAT-Action.org/ISM_essay.htm

Speaking to the Iraqi daily Al-Mashreq, the source said that the weapons included rifles, mortar rounds, and explosives. He said that those arrested admitted to being agents of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), and said that lodging had been provided for them in Samara, Balad, Najaf, and Latifiyeh.

The individuals revealed that they work working on behalf of the MOIS in conjunction with Iran's Fajr Forces. During interrogation the Iranian agents also revealed the names of a number of Fajr commanders and MOIS agents whom they worked for.

IDF troops stationed at the Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus arrested a 16-year-old Palestinian boy carrying an explosives belt in a bag Thursday.

The bag also contained an improvised gun and 20 bullets. The boy, identified as Mahmoud Tabouq, told troops he was carrying the explosives belt for a suicide attack, an IDF source said.

Palestinian militant groups made no immediate comment.

During the past several months, troops have caught a number of Palestinian youth attempting to smuggle explosives through the checkpoint.

The Palestinian officials demanded at the meeting the release of veteran, ill, and young prisoners. Israel, however, replied that the criterions for the release of prisoners will only be set by Israeli security authorities.

The Palestinian officials, Saeb Erekat, Mohammed Dahlan and Hassan Abu-Libda, who was the hardliner of the three, told the Israelis: "this offer is an insult. You offend Abu Mazen (PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas) and are not trying to meet him halfway."

"You must release the 237 prisoners arrested prior to the Oslo agreement, this is what we care about, and not the 900 that you offer. You are not coordinating (prisoner) names with us," said the Palestinians...

...Their Israeli counterparts - senior aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Dov Weissglass, political adviser Shalom Turjeman, PM's communication adviser Assaf Shariv and head of the politics-security department at the Ministry of Defense, Amos Gilad - clarified the Israeli offer was final, and more prisoners will not be released, certainly not prisoners with "blood on their hands," a reference to attacks that caused Israeli casualties.

Joe Louis won the rematch on 22 June, 1938, in one of the most discussed fights of all time - and also one of the briefest. The fight was portrayed as the battle of the Aryan versus the Black, a struggle of evil against good ..

During the '36 Olympics Max Schmeling exacted a promise from Hitler that all U.S. athletes would be protected. On several occasions Hitler tried to cajole the respected boxer into joining the Nazi Party, but Schmeling vigorously refused ever to join the Nazi party or to publicize the Nazi propaganda line. Over Goebbels' personal protest, he refused to stop associating with German Jews or to fire his American Jewish manager, Joe Jacobs.

In an article, published in History Today, two professors at the University of Rhode Island, Robert Wiesbord and Norbert Heterich, tell how Schmeling agreed to hide the two teenage sons of a Jewish friend of his, David Lewin, during the awful time of Krystallnacht, November 1938 when Nazi pogroms against the Jews reached new heights.

He kept the Lewin boys, Henry and Werner, in his apartment at the Excelsior Hotel in Berlin, leaving word at the desk that he was ill and no one was to visit him. Later, when the rage of hate died down a little bit, did Schmeling help them flee the country to safety. They escaped and came to the United States where one of them, Henri Lewin, became a prominent hotel owner. This episode remained under shrouds until 1989, when Henry Lewin invited Schmeling to Las Vegas to thank him for saving his life. To this day, Henri Lewin believes that he and his brother owe their lives to Max Schmeling and he is convinced that Schmeling himself could have died for his humanitarian gesture.

Hitler never forgave Schmeling for refusing to join the Nazi party, so he had him drafted into the Paratroops and sent him on suicide missions.

After World War 2 Schmeling fought five times and though he never made the top 10, he made enough money to purchase the Coca-Cola dealership that he still operates. He is known as one of the most generous philanthropists in Germany today.

Schmeling treasured camaraderie and friendship and somehow, each of his ring opponents became his friend. He regularly and quietly gave the down-and-out Joe Louis gifts of money, and the friendship continued after death: Schmeling paid for the funeral.

The overnight change in the tone of the German media has been noteworthy. Between the positive comments about the State of the Union address and the breathless reports about Dr. Rice's visit in Berlin today, you would think the good old days of the Cold War have returned. The Germans are nothing if not realists. In light of a successful Iraqi election Germany has come to the conclusion that the effort to bring democracy to Iraq will work and they are scrambling to be on the right side of history. Nothing succeeds like success. Regards from Heidelberg,

David A. Lange

Iraq is now routinely called the "Iraq adventure" instead of the "Iraq disaster". But most journalists are still very negative and prefer to write and talk about all possible (and impossible) problems. We're even reading about the good, old "conflagration" in the whole Middle East" again, this time due to the possible spread of democratic desires, which of course is probably not in our interest - or so they say.

Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch, will discuss the Boston Mosque controversy and why it should be a matter of concern for every defender of Israel and believer in universal human rights. The free presentation is sponsored by the Temple Emanuel Israel Action Forum. For information, call 617-558-8100.

REFERENCES
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Jihad Watch

Directions to Temple Emanuel

It is our humble opinion that many people are overreacting to the situation. Despite the rumors of a coordinated effort to undermine the project, it is not appropriate for Muslims to become angry or hostile. Spreading paranoia and hatred towards Jews or anyone else is grossly outside the teachings of Islam and totally counter-productive to our message of peace. We must remember that the Prophet (pbuh) always attempted to diffuse tensions between people rather than excite them.

The Muslim community in Boston has developed a certain degree of infrastructure and has established very positive relationships with many Jewish and Christian leaders. Since we are not alone in our stand against bigotry and intolerance, it is in our best interest—and the interest of the community at large—to work through these channels with patience and dignity. This is, again, the model of the Prophet (pbuh), who always sought to conduct his affairs by consultation with others.

Therefore, the Islamic Society of Boston encourages people to attend the discussion for the sake of outreach and knowledge. Many in the audience may not personally know any Muslims, and this is an opportunity to show our neighbors the mercy and compassion of Islam and Muslims. However, if any Muslim is to attend the meeting, that person should observe the highest level of discipline and respect for others. We are commanded in the Holy Qur’an to deal with people with the best of manners and the best of words. Attendees are advised to remember Allah's Words and His Prophet's example.

The tone and views of an email circulated during the last few days under heading “Help Defend Roxbury Mosque” does not represent the Islamic Society of Boston and we have never been consulted in any manner regarding that email. We fully disagree with its content. We do not believe that disrupting public gatherings is a way for Muslims to make their point, nor do we believe that such language conforms to our values of humanitarian service, religious tolerance and public outreach. The Society practices and promotes a comprehensive, balanced view of Islam that embodies the "middle path" to which our scriptures call us – a path of moderation, compassion, and healthy community.

Yousef Abou-Allaban, MD, MBA
Chairman, Board of Director
Islamic Society of Boston

The protesters, careful not to disrupt services, held signs and handed out flyers warning parishioners they should not host people who condone the murder of Jews. Anti-Zionists appeared with Palestinian flags and placards. I went inside to witness.

The church portrays itself as embracing a theology of tolerance and peace. Sadly, it does not extend this to all people, denying peace to Israel and, surprisingly, tolerance to gays and lesbians in the West Bank and Gaza.

During the service, Pastor Karl Gustafson spoke of Jews, Israel and God. He said a distinction must be made between ancient Israelites and modern Israelis. How can the pain felt by Palestinian Christians, (some of whom attend services at Clarendon Hill) be understood in the context of Old Testament passages describing the Israelites as God’s chosen people? How is modern-day Israel – a nation, he preached, whose soldiers bulldoze the homes of their friends and neighbors – be the inheritors of God’s covenant? Gustafson’s solution: there is no connection between ancient Israel and today’s Jewish state. Today, God invites everyone to adhere to a law higher than the ancient Jewish Law. (Christians call this “replacement theology.”) Gustafson said Israel should be judged like any other country.

If only it were. Israel gets no free pass for its imperfections, but is singled out because she is not absolutely perfect. (Later I learned that outside, a Palestinianista was asked what army is more moral than Israel’s. He cited armies that don’t fight wars – the Netherlands, the Swiss. When pressed, he refused the comparison. No army is moral, he said. Then why pick only on the Jewish army? No answer. Is this moral fury – invoked only when the Jewish state flunks the phony Utopia test – Christian?

Gustafson made no mention whatsoever of the violence against Israel by Palestinian terrorists, not even a stepping-stone reference on the way to condemning acts of Arab terror. Singling out Israel while failing to provide information that would soften this condemnation and failing to call terrorists to moral account, is indefensible: it offers the promise of peace to Palestinians, but not to the Israelis.

BTP’s presentation was equally unfair. Highlighting the undeniable suffering of the Palestinians, presenters soft-pedaled the impact of terror on Israel. Astonishingly, ISM activist Ben Scribner was unable answer simple, obvious questions: what is the status of gays and lesbians in Palestinian controlled areas? How many Palestinians were killed by other Palestinians during the second intifada? (hundreds -- three quarters of whom, by the way, were Christian). Scribner was unable to provide a cursory explanation the events leading to the wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973 – all of which were started by Israel’s Arab neighbors. I asked him about this in response to his description of Israel “conquering territory” in 1948 and 1967. Scribner didn’t know, but a Clarendon Hill church-goer, who described himself as an Arab Christian, rose up and said Israel was planning the 1967 two years before it happened. This “narrative” was left unchallenged. No one mentioned Egypt’s closure of the Gulf of Aqaba or the evacuation of UN Troops from the Sinai.

At Clarendon Hill, anti-Zionism trumps every other “social value.” Here is a church which embraces gay rights, yet supports the Palestinian cause without a nod to the plight of gays and lesbians in Gaza and the West Bank (or the freedom they enjoy in Israel). ISM training material warns that some delegates “have chosen not to speak about our sexuality with our Palestinian hosts, even though we felt it was important to come out to our international comrades.” There’ll be no coming out in Ramallah for these Somervillian Palestinistas: Gays and Lesbians are brutalized by Arab thugs – and ISM chooses to be complicit in its silence.

Such ignorance and dishonesty should be anathema to Protestantism, but sadly, they have taken root at Clarendon Hill. By standing with the Jews against terrorism, Christians can work to make sure they don’t take root in the larger society.

The David Project, in cooperation with its Christian allies in Boston, is working to bring Israel’s case to Christian congregations, the next target of anti-Zionist campaigns. Last Sunday, we addressed a church in Newton. So far, we’ve found many Christians are confused by radical positions taken by their own national leadership. Indeed, the Presbyterian Church just fired two officials who met with Hezbollah. Jews have many, many Christian friends. They just have to go out and reclaim them.

Dexter Van Zile is a member of the Judeo-Christian Alliance, a David Project initiative.

The oil trade with countries such as Turkey and Jordan appears to have been an open secret inside the U.S. government and the United Nations for years.

The unclassified State Department documents sent to congressional committees with oversight of U.S. foreign policy divulge that the United States deemed such sales to be in the "national interest," even though they generated billions of dollars in unmonitored revenue for Saddam's regime.

The trade also generated a needed source of oil and commerce for Iraq's major trading partners, Turkey and Jordan.

"It was in the national security interest, because we depended on the stability in Turkey and the stability in Jordan in order to encircle Saddam Hussein," Edward Walker, a former assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, told CNN when asked about the memo documents.

"We had a great amount of cooperation with the Jordanians on the intelligence side, and with the Turks as well, so we were getting value out of the relationship," said Walker, who served in both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

The memos obtained by CNN explain why both administrations waived restrictions on U.S. economic aid to those countries for engaging in otherwise prohibited trade with Iraq...

...Rep. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, one of five panels probing the oil-for-food program, told CNN the United States was "complicit in undermining" the U.N. sanctions on Iraq.

"How is it that you stand on a moral footing to go after the U.N. when they're responsible for 15 percent maybe of the ill-gotten gains, and we were part and complicit of him getting 85 percent of the money?" Menendez asked.

"Where was our voice on the committee that was overseeing this on the Security Council?

"The reality is that we were either silent or complicit, and that is fundamentally wrong."...

"We have found in each case that the procurement process was tainted, failing to follow the established rules of the organization designed to assure fairness and accountability," Volcker writes in Thursday's Wall Street Journal.

Volcker was appointed by the United Nations to head an independent probe of the now-defunct program that was intended to ease the hardship of ordinary Iraqis under 1990 sanctions.

He also said that evidence was "conclusive" that Benon Sevan, the undersecretary-general in charge of the U.N. program, had steered oil contracts to certain firms, "an irreconcilable conflict of interest."

But Volcker said that allegations of conflict of interest by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose son Kojo had worked in West Africa for a firm under contract to the United Nations in Iraq, would not be part of a preliminary report to be released on Thursday.

From 1979 to 1981, I made many unsuccessful attempts to escape Vietnam, and was caught twice. Each time I spent only about a month in jail, and my mother bribed me out. In jail, I was beat up, but I wouldn’t call it torture. Compared to what my father went through, my treatment was kid stuff. Finally, in August of 1981, at the age of 16, I managed to successfully escape on a small boat, making it to Hong Kong after 4 days on the South China Sea. After spending 8 months in a refugee camp there, I came to America in April 1982. I was sponsored by my brothers, who had also escaped as boat people and settled in America in 1979. My parents finally were reunited with us when they were sponsored to come as immigrants in 1990. We sometimes tease our parents that they had it better than us: they came on an airplane instead of a boat!...

...What’s this blog about? Well, I just want to share my thoughts on any number things that occur to me. Current affairs, for example. Or, on a totally different topic: Vietnamese poetry. I plan to offer some thoughts on the Vietnam War from a South Vietnamese perspective, which is sorely lacking in the media and academia (I will omit the adjective “left-wing” since it’s redundant)...

By the mid-1980s, the environmental movement had abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism. I became aware of the emerging concept of sustainable development: balancing environmental, social and economic priorities. Converted to the idea that win-win solutions could be found by bringing all interests together, I made the move from confrontation to consensus.

Since then, I have worked under the banner of Greenspirit to develop an environmental policy platform based on science, logic and the recognition that more than six billion people need to survive and prosper every day of the year. The environmental movement has lost its way, favoring political correctness over factual accuracy, stooping to scare tactics to garner support.

We're faced with environmental policies that ignore science and result in increased risk to human health and ecology. To borrow from the vernacular, how sick is that?...

The elections official asked to see some document attesting to my connection to Iraq and the belittling look on his face was replaced by one of sincere astonishment when I gave him my grandparents' 1951 laissez-passez. After pointing out my father's name on the yellowing certificate and presenting a signed and notarized translation of a document proving I am his son, the mustachioed Iraqi ordered me to wait. He disappeared into the big building with my passport and the Smooha family's most precious document, leaving me with the guards at the entrance.

A scant five minutes later it was my turn to be surprised. The mustachioed one, smiling broadly, appeared at the edge of the school's inner courtyard, instructed the guards in Arabic to let me in, and then turned to me in English: "Welcome. Please follow me." When I strode with him into one of the classrooms manned by Iraqi elections officials, another surprise awaited me. The four women and young man seated behind small desks had been apprised of the Israeli's approach and they were waiting for me, all smiling...

"We are going to change the regime!" pronounces the oracular Ahura Pirouz Khaleghi Yazdi. "This is going to happen very fast."

(So very fast, he adds with an insistent waggle of his heavy black eyebrows, that he worries about this article's timing. If too many days pass before publishing, it could be too late. The story may change: Mere days after the vote in neighboring Iraq, the new Iranian revolution may already have begun. Launched from McLean.)

Later this week, Yazdi persists, "I have a very important announcement to make." On the worldwide broadcast of his satellite TV show, "Dr. Yazdi," as he calls himself, will establish how to set up an "interim government" in Iran -- a country where he has never had a home.

It would be simple to write him off. To decide that blowing spitballs at the very governments President Bush railed against in his inaugural address -- those who keep "regions of the world simmer[ing] in resentment and tyranny" -- must be insane. (That's precisely what "the pro-government press in Tehran has described [Yazdi] as," the BBC posted on its Web site last September, adding that his claims are "loopy.")

But would that be snobbery? Cynicism? A sophisticate's sneer denying, as President Bush also intoned in his inaugural address, "the force of human freedom"? ...