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Greed Wins: Israeli Profits Override Protection of its Citizens

By
David Bedein
-

Israel Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and a slew of Israeli officials who promote trade relations with the Palestinian Arab population conducted a press briefing on Wednesday, July 8, 2009.

Israeli government officials explained why it is that Israel now lifts security measures over the Palestinian Arab population – despite the refusal of the ruling Palestinian Authority to dismantle or to disband the well organized terror groups that operate under the direct command of that same Palestinian Authority:

Israeli civil administration officials proudly proclaimed that the Palestinian Authority is now Israel‘s largest trading partner.

Israel currently exports 13 billion shekels of products to the Arab population in Judea and Samaria. and another 2 billion shekels of products to Gaza.

There are very few imports from the PA into Israel.

From the transcript of Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon’s briefing:

Question from David Bedein:

“Is there any understanding, from Israel’s point of view, that Abbas has taken any measures to disarm or to disband the El Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or any other terrorist groups under him. Or, the last three nights on Palestinian television they are celebrating Fatah, past Fatah murders of Israelis, any commitment in Israel over the frequencies of Palestinian television….

Answer from Mr. Daniel Ayalon

No, we are still expecting to see a real move over there, and as I mentioned, of course we do appreciate General Dayton’s work to build capacity over there. But of course much more, a lot more, substantially a lot more can be done by the Palestinians to dismantle the infrastructure – that is to collect illegal arms, to disband and outlaw all the terror organizations. Nothing has been done in this area, not to mention of course, the incitement, the curriculum and all that….”

In other words, profits for Israeli companies override security considerations.

Israel‘s interest in the profits of Israeli companies from the Palestinian Authority trumps the responsibility of Israel to protect its citizens.

At the funerals of the next victims of the PLO, keep in mind that “greed wins”.

Hamas Expands Military Academy

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Hamas has expanded operations of its military academy
as part of an effort to produce a trained cadre of officers.

The Abdullah Azzam Academy, located in the central Gaza Strip, has
received additional funding and recruits in 2009 in wake of the war with
Israel.

The academy, launched in 2006 and located in Nusseirat, was seen as
vital in building an officer corps skilled in combat and leadership.
Palestinian sources said the academy would play a major role in the
formation of a professional officers corps as part of a restructured Hamas
military.

At least 50 commanders were said to have been dismissed in 2009
for failing in their duties during the 22-day war with Israel.

The academy, named after the late mentor of Al Qaida chief Osama Bin
Laden, offers four-month courses for military and security cadets.
Instruction includes classroom and field training, provided by teachers who
studied combat tactics in Iran, Lebanon and Syria.

The sources said recruitment for the academy began before the Hamas war
with Israel in December 2008. They said Hamas has long sought to professionalize
its forces and establish a standard military training course.

Hamas has not detailed the courses provided at the academy. But a Hamas
DVD found during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip cited such subjects
as bomb-making, self-defense, wireless communications, camouflage and
Islamic indoctrination.

Israel’s state-financed Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
said the academy has also been teaching cadets how to infiltrate Israel Army
outposts and abduct soldiers. The Israeli center said the Hamas academy has
sought to introduce an advanced system of training, with more professional
courses available in Iran, Lebanon and Syria.

“Founding the academy was part of Hamas’s efforts to raise the level of
its operatives’ skills and activities in all the military-terrorist
professions for the military buildup it has been conducting in recent
years,” the center said.

Crimes against Humanity: Hamas’ Abuse of Gilad Schalit’s Human Rights, Its Rocket and Mortar Attacks on Israeli Populations

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Crimes against Humanity:

Hamas’ Abuse of Gilad Schalit’s Human Rights,

Its Rocket and Mortar Attacks on Israeli Populations

And

Hamas’ and Iran’s Incitement to Genocide

During June 2008 through January 2009

A Brief Submitted to:

Professor Richard Goldstone

Fact Finding Mission c/o OHCHR

G Motta 48 Geneva SWITZERLAND

factfindinggaza@ohchr.org

by:

Professor Elihu D Richter MD MPH

Director of Genocide Prevention Program

Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine

Head of World Genocide Situation Room in GENOCIDE PREVENTION NOW (GPN) Worldwide Web Site Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide

Jerusalem ISRAEL

June 30 2009

….Between June 1 2008 and Jan 29 2009 the UN’s executive organs, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council remained silent in the face of…. [Hamas’ and Iran’s] incitement,[to genocide], ignoring their responsibilities under the UN Genocide Convention. This silence persisted despite the precedents from previous genocides, notably Rwanda, that such hate language is a warning sign, predictor, and catalyst of genocide….

…If the Commission fails to call for criminal prosecution of the known facts concerning the cruel and inhuman mis-treatment of Gilad Schalit, the Hamas rocket and terror attacks directed against civilians, and the incitement and hate language, by Hamas and Iran, it will recycle the culture of impunity for such violations of human rights to life, respect for llife and human dignity. By failing to pursue these actions, it will itself have become a complicit bystander to these crimes….

Excerpts from Brief

Genocide Prevention Program

And Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide

GENOCIDE PREVENTION NOW (GPN) worldwide Web site

Jerusalem

June 30 2009

Professor Richard Goldstone

Fact Finding Mission c/o OHCHR

G Motta 48 Geneva factfindinggaza@ohchr.org

Subject: Brief on Need for Criminal Indictments for Crimes against Humanity of Hamas for its abuse of Gilad Schalit’s human rights, its rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli populations and its and Iran’s incitement to Genocide

I am writing to submit an evidence-based brief to the Fact Finding Commission on the war in Gaza and human rights abuses during the war and the six month period preceding it, starting from June 2008 through the end of January 2009. I address in particular the roles of Hamas and Iran, its enabler and its instructor as perpetrators of crimes against humanity and the role of outside actors, notably certain UN agencies, as bystanders during the six month run-up to the war. I take exception to what appears to be a cynical choice of the time frame, which excludes the months and years prior to June 2008, during which Hamas sent thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel directed at civilian populations and increased its smuggling of weapons after Israel withdrew from Gaza.

Personal Background: I am a medical doctor with specialty certification in public health and Preventive Medicine, and served as the head of Unit of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Hebrew University-Hadassah for some 15 years.

Over the past 30 years, I have participated in investigations by human rights groups of charges concerning the use of tear gas during the first Intimidate, the health conditions of Palestinian prisoner detainees, and supervising and participated in joint Israeli-Palestinian projects to investigate and prevent epidemics of lead poisoning, asthma in refugee camps, and to assess the distribution and determinants of lead exposures in children in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. I am currently supervising a joint project funded by USAID to investigate intrauterine exposures to phthalates and pesticides in Israeli and Palestinian infants. In past years, I was the Chairman of the Committee on Ethics and Philosophy of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, and have published in the professional literature on environmental ethics and human rights, conflict and human rights, and unethical human experimentation.

I am now working in the field of prediction and prevention of genocide and genocidal terror, with a specific interest in state sanctioned and sponsored hate language and incitement, a crime against humanity which is a measurable and prosecutable predictor, promoter and catalyst of genocide. I am currently a member of the Advisory Board of Genocide Watch and Direction of the Genocide Situation Room of Genocide Prevention Now, of the International Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, In the course of this work I have been involved in activities to promote the indictment and prosecution of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his colleagues for their incitement of destruction of the State of Israel and support, backing, and equipping of terror proxies to achieve this genocidal objective.

The Ethical Perspective on Gaza: The right to life, and respect for life and human dignity are the most basic of all human rights, and that the first responsibility of all governments is to protect this most basic of all human rights in the populations they govern and to respect these rights in other populations. Regimes or organizations which promote or advance the attack on these rights in their own and other populations forfeit their legitimacy.

The conflicts in the Mideast are not between “Israelis and Palestinians” or “Jews and Arabs”, but between those who stand for life and respect for life and human dignity against the cults of death, hate, and terror which are now convulsing so much of the Muslim world. The death toll in Gaza -estimated to be 1166– is dwarfed by the toll of 12 million humans have been killed since 1948 in internecine wars, genocides, genocidal terror, mass expulsions, and mass atrocities. When Hamas destroyed greenhouses to turn them into factories making rockets and missiles i.e. breaking ploughshares to make swords-this was the sentinel event signaling that this organization stood for death, not life. (See Attachment-Ben-Dror Yemini-Maariv)

An examination of the conflict in Gaza requires full investigation of the rocket and terror attacks and the incitement by Hamas and Iran which led to it, and, first and foremost, of course, the kidnapping and disgraceful conditions of incarceration of Gilad Schalit. The lessons of this examination are applicable to the prevention of further atrocities not only between Israel and the PA, but the entire world.

As a human being, Jew and Zionist, I cannot be happy about the loss of life and reported wanton destruction of life preceding and during the war in Gaza. But I am sickened by the indifference of bystanders which led Israel to fight a war of no choice after 8 years, during which 5107 mortar attacks and 4322 Kassam and rocket attacks fell on the Western Negev.
(sderotmedia.org.il/Kassam-eng.pdf).But even those compelled to carry out a war of no choice can carry out actions causing bad things.

The State of Israel attacked Gaza to remove the threat of genocidal terror-more than 8000 rocket, mortar and missile attacks over a period of 8 years-at first against Shderot-a city of 20,000, and then, directed against 1 million of its inhabitants. In doing so, Israel was exercising the first responsibility of every sovereign state: to protect the health and safety of its citizens, the most basic of human rights. Without life, there are no other human rights. I have no doubt that its actions caused loss of life and damage to property.

During the war, many of those killed were caught in the chaotic conditions of asymmetrical warfare, where Hamas used “shielding”, the use of civilian centers and hospital as places of concealment-which is considered a war crime, and seized shipments of food supplies intended for the civilian populations. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/06/gaza-un-aid-hamas) According to the Israel Defence Forces, of the 1166 killed, 709 of them were “identified as Hamas terror operatives, among them several from various other terror organizations, and there were 162 names who “have not yet been attributed to any organization.” 295 uninvolved Palestinians were killed during the operation, 89 of them under the age of 16, and 49 of them were women.” http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/26/israel.gaza.death.toll/index.html. 1/3 of the 13 IDF fatal casualties were victims of friendly fire. At this time, data are not available to me on the precise age-gender distribution of those defined as under age 16, but there were several horrible tragedies in which families with large numbers of children who were killed. In striking contrast to Hams, during the war, the IDF dropped leaflets and indeed sent telephone messages to warn Gaza civilians of the location and timing of impending attacks against combatants, a fact which refutes intent to kill or destroy a population or aims to harm civilians. Contrary to bizarre claims published in the Lancet and the British Medical Journal during the war, Israel ensured that adequate food and medical supplies reached Gaza. I have seen schools and nurseries in Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beersheba badly damaged by Hamas’ indiscriminate attacks.

Direct personal evidence. I have direct personal evidence which can be corroborated by external actors proving that the IDF at the command level was doing everything it could to protect civilians in a chaotic situation. Towards the end of the war, USAID Tel Aviv contacted me about a scientific colleague from Gaza and his family were at risk in a battle situation, and I put them in touch with the IDF Spokesman for Coordinating Aid to the Territories, who in turn passed orders to soldiers to ensure his safety and kept in close contact, to the degree that it was possible, over an entire weekend with rescuers from the IRC. The colleague and his family, with the help of the IRC, reached safety. Thereafter, according to the family, the soldiers destroyed the family’s car and shot out parts of the front wall of the family’s large house after they left. I do not know if this damage was wanton, or a result of some military indication to ensure that the house would not be used by terrorists as a hiding place. At the suggestion of the IDF Spokesperson, I told the family to file a complaint. USAID-MERC in the US Embassy and in Washington DC can verify the truth of the above statements. I will not disclose the name of the colleague to the Commission lest his identity place him at risk of retaliation.

Hamas’ Crimes against Humanity

1. The continued incarceration of Gilad Schalit

First and foremost, I call upon this Commission to investigate the circumstances

of Gilad Schalit’s incarceration, to verify his health status and conditions by visiting him,

and ensure visitation rights for him by IRC representatives. During the period June 2008 through Jan 2009, and thereafter, his isolation states the case for initiating legal actions against Hamas for its continued violation of the Geneva Commission, with regard to its disgraceful treatment of GIlad Schalit during the period of June 2008 to now.

I refer the Commission to the words of Elena Bonner, the widow of Andrei Sakharov, which I incorporate by reference in full as part of my submission.

“……AND ANOTHER question that has been a thorn for me for a long time. It’s a question for my human rights colleagues. Why doesn’t the fate of the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit trouble you in the same way as does the fate of the Guantanamo prisoners?

You fought for and won the opportunity for the International Committee of the Red Cross, journalists and lawyers to visit Guantanamo. You know prison conditions, the prisoners’ everyday routine, their food. You have met with prisoners subjected to torture. The result of your efforts has been a ban on torture and a law to close this prison. President Obama signed it in the first days of his coming to the White House. And although he, just like president Bush before him, does not know what to do with the Guantanamo prisoners, there is hope that the new administration will think up something.

But during the two years Schalit has been held by terrorists, the world human rights community has done nothing for his release. Why? He is a wounded soldier, and fully falls under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. The conventions say clearly that hostage-taking is prohibited, that representatives of the Red Cross must be allowed to see prisoners of war, especially wounded prisoners, and there is much else written in the Geneva Conventions about Schalit’s rights. (italics mine) The fact that representatives of the Quartet conduct negotiations with the people who are holding Schalit in an unknown location, in unknown conditions, vividly demonstrates their scorn of international rights documents and their total legal nihilism. Do human rights activists also fail to recall the fundamental international rights documents?

And yet I still think (and some will find this naïve) that the first tiny, but real step toward peace must become the release of Schalit. Release, and not his exchange for 1,000 or 1,500 prisoners who are in Israeli prisons serving court sentences for real crimes.

Returning to my question of why human rights activists are silent, I can find no answer except that Schalit is an Israeli soldier, Schalit is a Jew. So again, it is conscious or unconscious anti-Semitism. Again, it is fascism.

THIRTY-FOUR YEARS have passed since the day when I came to this city to represent my husband, Andrei Sakharov, at the 1975 Nobel Prize ceremony. I was in love with Norway then. The reception I received filled me with joy. Today, I feel Alarm and Hope (the title Sakharov used for his 1977 essay written at the request of the Nobel Committee).

Alarm because of the anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment growing throughout Europe and even further afield. And yet, I hope that countries, their leaders and people everywhere will recall and adopt Sakharov’s ethical credo: “In the end, the moral choice turns out to be also the most pragmatic choice.”

Source:http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242212450779&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

One should add that terrorists in Israeli prisons are entitled to IRC visits, family visits, television and right to study in courses at Israeli institutions of higher learning, as compared with the inhuman conditions applying to Gilad Schalit. Violations of human rights and UNGC and Rome Statute. See the IRC statement, which speaks for itself. http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/israel-interview-111208

2. Between June 2008 and Jan 2009, Hamas carried out Rocket attacks directed at civilian populations.

Between June 2008 and Jan 28 2009, Hamas continued to carry rocket attacks directed specifically at civilian targets with intent to kill, injure, intimidate and cause flight. All totaled there were 1750 rocket attacks and 1528 mortar attacks, totaling 3278 in all of 2008, or on average 9.0 attacks per day, mostly directed at Shderot, a town of some 20,000, but also at cities totaling a population of 1,000,000 or some 14% of Israel’s population. After a lull –during July, there was 1 attack, in August 8, in Sept 1, in October 1—, in November 125 rocket attacks and 68 mortar attacks, and in December there were 361 rocket and 24 mortarl attacks. All totaled, 10 were killed and 433 were wounded. During the “lull”, between 4 November and 19 December 2008, 223 rockets and 139 mortars were fired.

Additional information on the statistics of such attacks comes from:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Hamas+war+against+Israel/Missile+fire+from+Gaza+on+Israeli+civilian+targets+Aug+2007.htm

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/Hebrew/heb_n/pdf/ipc_007.pdf

b. These rocket attacks and were a continuation of previous trends. Prior to June 2008, such attacks, and collateral terror attacks directed at checkpoints processing the permits, increased during a period when Israel granted an increasing numbers of medical permits to Gazans seeking medical care in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. The figure below presents the time line showing these parallel trends. http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=283&PID=0&IID=2649

Source: No. 567 1 October 2008Israeli Approvals for Medical Entryin the Shadow of Terror Attacks at the Erez Crossing Elihu D. Richter MD, MPH http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=283&PID=0&IID=2649

Such rocket attacks before and during the Israeli Operation represent what the Genocide Scholar Professor Gregory Stanton calls “genocidal terror”-in which acts of violence are directed against an entire population defined by its national, religious,racial or ethnic origin with the intention to kill destroy, expel and intimidate. Dan Izenberg, Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1206632348924&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

I refer the Commission to the petition from Nick Kaufman to The International Criminal Court (ICC) calling for prosecution of Khaled Ma’ashal, the leader of Hamas,for crimes against humanity, for his inciting, directing, instructing and ordering rocket attacks against civilian populations with the direct intention of killing and harming these populations. The ICC has acknowledged receipt of this petition. (See attached file: Ma’ashal)

The fact that there were few injuries and deaths in Shderot and environs was most fundamentally a result of the fact that Israel built shelters to protect its population. By contrast, Hamas used members of the civilian population, as well as hospital and m mosques, to shield its fighters. (http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLB732861 ). There are similar reports of the use of shielding by Taliban terrorists in the Swat valley Pakistan. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,521557,00.html ). The past failure to condemn and prosecute such shielding as a crime against humanity in Gaza— opens the door to the spread of this practice to other theaters of warfare.

3. Between June 2008 and January 28 2009, the Hamas regime repeatedly propagated hate language to incite to genocide. The evidence for this statement includes videos showing the background of Hamas incitement and hatred. http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=584 and bulletins from the period of the Gaza War, including video clips. http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=582

The Hamas Charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. (http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP109206Hamas charter, ref_) It offers stereotype images, perpetuated in a Culture of Hate. …
www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/…/$File/G0214418.doc?… –

The language of demonization, dehumanization, and delegitimization appears in media, texts, mosques and political interviews, in violation of Statutes in the UN Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and the International Criminal Court. The content of this hate language is the evidence making the case for the evidence of the nature of intent -to destroy a population, in whole or in part—driving Hamas’s rocket, mortar and terror attacks on Israeli populations.

4, Between June 2008 and January 28 2009, Iran continued to supply, support, instruct, direct, enable, protect, and promote Hamas‘genocidal platform and the terror it deploys to advance this platform.

The evidence for this statement comes from the US State Department Report on Terror, References on Iranian support for Hamas terror activities.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/122599.pdf State Sponsors of Terrorism, This document singles out Iran and details its support for Hamas and Hezbollah. I enclose further documents summarizing this information in the following sources.

amasH

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/iran_e007.pdf

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/iran_e004.htm

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_160308e.htm

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ismail_haniya.htm

5. Between June 2008 and January 2009, Iran continued to Incite to Genocide to mobilize support for Hamas.

During the period June 2008 to Jan 28, President (now re-“elected”) Mahmoud Ahmadninejad of the Islamic Republic of Iran referred to Israel using the following terms: “terrorist and criminal state”,and called for “annihilate[ing] this false regime” to delegitimize, (June 14), and used the language of Mein Kampf to engage in dehumanization, (“stinking corpse”” June 13), “ germ of corruption”, (Sept 23), demonization, (“Zionists few in number but dominating financial and monetary positions”, “caught in the clutches of Jewish power, “inquisitive and invasive people” “Zionism is root cause of insecurity and wars” and finally “”Iran will support Hamas until the destruction of Israel[a]. ( Nov 26 2008) This repeated incitement to genocide with its use of crude anti-Semitic motifs of dehumanization, delegitimization and demonization represents a continuation of trends going back to 1979, which sharply escalated in 2005, when Ahmadinejad was elected.

The time line of Iranian incitement to genocide, using such language specifically for the period June 1 2008 to January 28 2009 is presented below.

Jun. 13, 2008

Press conference

Ahmadinejad

“global arrogance established Zionist regime”

“[which is] a stinking corpse”[b]

Jun. 14, 2008

Ahmadinejad

“terrorist and criminal state..backed by foreign powers…regime to be swept away by Palestinians”[100]

Jul. 2, 2008

21st TV public address,

Ahmadinejad

“Israel’s days are numbered…peoples of region not is narrowest opportunity to annihilate this false regime[d]

Sep. 23, 2008

Ahmadinejad’s 3rd visit to UN[e]

“Thanks to God, your wish will soon be realized, and this germ of corruption will be wiped off the face of the world”[f]

Sep. 23, 2008

“The Zionists are the eternal enemy of ‘the dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people” “Although they are few in number, the Zionists have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the United States in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner.”

“Even some presidential or premier nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support.” even “the great people of America and various nations of Europe” are caught in the clutches of Jewish power: They “need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will.” “Today,”….the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse. There is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters.”

Sep. 25, 2008

Interview with NY Times

“Zionism…is the root cause of insecurity and wars…. What commitment forces the U.S. government to victimize itself in support of a regime that is basically a criminal one?”[g]

Nov. 26, 2008

Ahmadinejad

“Iran will support Hamas until the destruction of Israel[h]

Jan. 12 2009

Hassan Rowhani

Israel is “cancerous tumor”

This timeline is extracted from the paper on Iran’s genocidal Incitement by Richter and Barnea (Tehran’s Genocidal Incitement Against Israel. `http://www.meforum.org/2167/iran-genocidal-incitement-israel)

Thereafter, in March 2009, Ayatolloh Khamenei repeated that “Israel is a cancer” and the Holocaust is a lie”. |http://www.foxnews.com/story/02933,504365,00.html

[a] Ha’aretz Newspaper (Israel’s daily) “Ahmadinejad; Iran will support Hamas until Collapse of Israel” 26/11/08 www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1020630.html

[b] Teitlebaum, J., Op cit, www.jcpa.org/text/Ahmadinejad2-words.pdf p.9, ref 15. see also www.rightsidenews.com/global-terrorism-archives/Ahmadinejadisrael-is-a-dead-fish-and-a-stinking-corpse.html

[100] Teitlebaum,J., Op cit www.jcpa.org/text/Ahmadinejad2-words.pdf p.10, ref 19

[d] Teitlebaum,J., Op cit http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA44708#_edn8.

[e] Philip, C., Ahmadinejad Blames George Bush and Zionists for Financial Woe, 24th September 2008 www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4811646.ece

[f] Sternberg, E., Iranian State Sanctioned Incitement to Genocide: Report on a Symposium, October 20th 2008 www.spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=4523

[g] New York Times, 26th November 2008, An Interview with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/world/middleeast/26iran-transcript.html?pagewanted=3

[h] Ha’aretz Newspaper (Israel’s daily) “Ahmadinelad; Iran will support Hamas until Collapse of Israel” 26/11/08 www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1020630.html

Bystander Indifference between June 1 2008 and Jan 28 2009: Could the War in Gaza have been prevented had International Bystanders not been complicit, passive, and supportive to Hamas’ Terror Activities and Incitement and Iranian support for this Terror and Incitement?

Between June 1 2008 and Jan 29 2009 the UN’s executive organs, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council remained silent in the face of such state sanctioned incitement, ignoring their responsibilities under the UN Genocide Convention. This silence persisted despite the precedents from previous genocides, notably Rwanda, that such hate language is a warning sign, predictor, and catalyst of genocide.

Conclusion:

The Commission has a responsibility to investigate all charges against all actors and bystanders, including UN agencies and officials tasked with investigating early warning signs of genocide. In July 2007, the US House of Representatives passed HCON21, (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.CON.RES.21: ) which called upon the Security Council to initiate proceedings against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his incitement to genocide and support of terror.

If the Commission fails to call for criminal prosecution of the known facts concerning the cruel and inhuman mis-treatment of Gilad Schalit, the Hamas rocket and terror attacks directed against civilians, and the incitement and hate language, by Hamas and Iran, it will recycle the culture of impunity for such violations of human rights to life, respect for llife and human dignity. By failing to pursue these actions, it will itself have become a complicit bystander to these crimes.

I call upon the Commission to endorse the Responsibility to Prevent Petition (the R2P

petition) prepared by the Honorable Irwin Cotler, Member of the Canadian Parliament, and formerly Attorney General of the Government of Canada. This petition (see the R2P attachment) calls upon the international community to use the legal tools for prosecuting and punishing incitement to genocide, and to call for indicting and prosecuting President Ahmadinejad and his colleagues for incitement to genocide and support, aid, equipping and training Hamas, and his brutal suppression of human rights in his own Iran, in violation of UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. (This petition was prepared months before the election in Iran and the brutal suppression of peaceful protests by the regime after the election).

The petition draws upon the legal precedents of the indictments and convictions for incitement to genocide from the Nuremberg Trials for Perpetrators of the Holocaust and the International Criminal Trials -Rwanda (ICT-R). The petition has been endorsed by a world-wide coalition of international jurists, human rights activists and distinguished genocide scholars, including Elie Wiesel, Louise Arbour, Said Ibrahim, Gregory Stanton, Samuel Pisar and some 50 others. In parallel, I call upon the Commission to initiate proceedings based on the petition already submitted by Dr Nick Kaufman to bring Khaled Ma’ashal to justice for his responsibility in ordering rocket attacks against a civilian population with intention to kill and destroy. (see attachment Ma’ashal RTF)

Finally, I call upon the Commission to promote the recognition of genocidal terror as a crime against humanity. It is the opinion of this author that such terror, when directed against populations with intent to kill or destroy, is merely genocide carried out by an NGO -any of those groups or organizations which carry out mass atrocities against non-combatant populations in which the intention is to kill, destroy, intimidate or expel populations in whole or in part. (See Dan Izenberg, Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1206632348924&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

Submitted by:

Professor Elihu D Richter MD MPH*

Head, Unit of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Injury Prevention Center

Genocide Prevention Program

Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine

Associate Director, Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem

Head of World Genocide Situation Room in GENOCIDE PREVENTION NOW (GPN) Worldwide Web Site

Fatah: Unity deal to be signed 28 July following seventh round of talks

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Date: 30 / 06 / 2009 Time: 20:05

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Members of the Fatah delegation to Cairo Drs Nabil Sha’th
and Zakaria Al-Agha announced the close of the sixth round of unity talks in
Cairo on Tuesday, and said a new round was set for 25 July and an agreement
on the 28th.

For the past month sources have cited 7 July as the Egyptian-imposed
deadline on its mediated unity talks, and real pressure was said to have
been put on sides to reach a deal this time. Only three days after they
began, however, the unity talks appear closed.

The state-sponsored Wafa news agency quoted both leaders as saying the
second round of talks would be concluded by the signing of a unity document
on 28 July. Earlier, officials said a unity document would be signed based
on the outcome of talks up to 7 July.

Dr Sha’th said Egypt would give a final chance to Hamas and Fatah, who were
participating in bilateral talks, which members of other factions not
included condemned as a “clan negotiation,” rather than a process fostering
national unity.

All Sha’th said about the sixth round was that talks were “exciting” but
that sides had not reached an acceptable solution.

A report to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

“I expect basic international humanitarian law to protect the civilians to be respected and restored, not repeatedly violated as Hamas has done. I expect there to be accountability. Hamas must cease firing these rockets and I have always insisted on this.”

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, speaking in Sderot

“If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing.”

U.S. President Barak Obama during a visit to Sderot

“The attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups are widespread, systematic and in pursuit of an explicit policy to attack civilians. They therefore constitute crimes against humanity under international law. They may also constitute war crimes”

Amnesty International

Palestinian armed groups routinely violate international humanitarian law when using Qassam-type rockets to attack Israel. They are unlawfully launching strikes that either are directed against civilians or are indiscriminate because they are not directed at a specific military objective. In addition, some statements of the groups responsible for carrying out rocket attacks indicate an intent to use the weapons primarily to spread terror among Israeli civilians, which is also prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Human Rights Watch

Prepared by June 30, 2009

Table of Contents

Introduction. 3

Statistics of Attacks against Civilians. 3

Confirmation of Violations. 4

Psycho-Social Effects. 4

Economic Impact 6

Case Studies. 6

Conclusions. 7

Appendix 1 – Expert describes how babies remember traumatic events for years 8

Introduction

The Israeli town of Sderot was subject to repeated rocket attacks during the period the commission has chosen for its mandate: June 2008 through January 2009. These attacks constituted the indiscriminate firing of anti-personnel missiles aimed at civilian targets.

By all definitions, these attacks were clear and repeated violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.

The direct consequences of these attacks included negative psycho-social and economic affects on the entire population, but it must be noted and emphasized that the population of Sderot was already in a state of trauma as a direct result of seven consecutive years of previous rocket attacks.

While the commission has arbitrarily mandated itself to a restricted timeframe, the traumatic effects as a result of the Gaza Conflict are seen by the residents of Sderot to have a real timeframe of March 5, 2002 through to and including 2009 to the present.

In 2008, over 3200 Palestinian rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, the largest number of rockets fired at Israel (per year) since 2001.

Statistics of Attacks against Civilians

During the Gaza Conflict, Palestinians fired 84 rockets that exploded within the municipal boundaries of Sderot. The residents of Sderot were subjected to 140 warning sirens during the three weeks of fighting. There were thus an average of 7 alerts and 4 actual explosions every day.

Given the average qassam rocket warhead is 20 kg, a total of 840kg of explosives detonated in Sderot during this period.

Each time the alert siren is sounded, all residents have a maximum of 15 seconds to seek shelter before the missile explodes. The rockets are non-discriminatory to age or infirmity, so that babies and the elderly all have 15 seconds maximum to reach cover before an explosion.

We note for the Commission that there were three times of “tahdiya”, the Arabic word for “calming” or “quieting” and these were not ceasefires, as Hamas would not agree to the term. The “tahdiya” was a tacit agreement between the two sides for a calming of hostilities. Despite the “tahdiya”, there were serious rights violations of Sderot and surrounding residents during these times:

In the first “tahdiya” November 26, 2006 until the May 15, 2007 there were more than 315 rocket attacks on Israel.

In the second “tahdiya” June 19, 2008 until December 19, 2008 there were 538 rocket towards attacks on Israel.

In the post-Operation Cast Lead period from January 18 2009 until June 2009, more than 215 rockets attacks on Israel.

Confirmation of Violations

The indiscriminate firing of anti-personnel missiles at civilian populations is by definition a violation of international law. It is assumed that the Commission shares the view of the major human rights organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the firing of rockets at Sderot are factual and self-evident violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.

Psycho-Social Effects

Unlike other Israeli population centers that had not received repeated missile attacks, the population of Sderot did not have to learn new tactics to deal with the attacks during the Gaza Conflict. Rather, the population was already used to being attacked on a regular basis over a prolonged period of time. However, the frequency of attacks was on a higher, sustained basis than the population was used to.

A study released June 29, 2009 by The Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma at Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem discovered that 60% of the children in the Israeli towns near Gaza, including Sderot, who have been in the area for the past nine years under constant missile attack refuse to go to sleep alone. The study found that according to the parents, 45% of children under age six suffer from post-trauma syndrome.

The same study also found that parents suffering post trauma stress disorder affect and influence the distress of their children. The authors discovered that 41% of mothers and 33% of fathers reported they suffer post trauma distress disorder. “For parents who suffer from symptoms of fears and post-trauma, their children have more distress and developmental problems and therefore the most important mission is to strengthen the parents who struggle with this constant threat and build strength for them and their children. There is no doubt that the most effective way to help toddlers is by strengthening their parents,” said report author Dr. Ruth Pat-Horenczyk.

There is no defensive system installed to counter rockets fired at Sderot. There is warning system (named “Colour Red”) that during normal weather conditions sounds a loud audible alert on loudspeakers distributed throughout the town. The system has limited or no functionality in inclement weather when no warning is received before a rocket explodes. Rockets are fired at Sderot from only a few kilometers away in Gaza, and the warning system gives a maximum of 15 seconds for the residents to seek cover.

It is significant to note that because of this small window of opportunity to seek cover, residents actually respond to the initial electronic “click” heard when the alert sirens are turned on, and are already in motion to the nearest shelter or cover when the actual siren is heard a split second later. Trauma psychologists note an increased level of tension in almost all residents due to the necessity of being able to reach cover within 15 seconds or be unprotected during an explosion.

Unlike other civilian population centers in Israel, Sderot had been subjected to thousands of missile and mortar attacks before the Gaza Conflict. Millions of dollars had been spent to fortify schools and public institutions against rocket warheads, hundreds of small concrete bunkers had been installed throughout the town, and residents had had literally thousands of previous live drills over many years. Thus, the psychological trauma was not new to the residents, but just a continuation of the same suffering.

As well, Sderot residents had before the Gaza Conflict suffered hundreds of casualties from missile attacks including 13 killed including 3 infants, and millions of dollars in property damage.

The psycho-traumatic affects on the population had already been documented before the Gaza Conflict, and as a result of the conflict the population was simply subjected to a more concentrated form of the same trauma. Specific studies have shown the trauma affects even young infants (Appendix 1).

Due to significant budget cuts following Operation Cast Lead, trauma therapy facilities in Sderot, which have played a valuable role in rehabilitating residents of the rocket-torn community, are now in danger of closing down.

The Sderot Trauma Center caters mostly to Sderot children and teenagers – ages 17 and below. The trauma center last year treated 620 trauma patients, of whom 80% are children.

Adults receive treatment at the Sderot Mental Health Center, which ministers to adult victims from ages 18 and up. The Mental Health Center’s director Dr. Adrianna Katz reports that she does not have enough staff to deal with over 6,000 trauma victim files.

The Sderot Shock Treatment Center operated under the Trauma Center and provided immediate treatment to shock victims after rocket attacks. Before it opened in 2006, Sderot residents had to be transported 20 minutes away to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital or to Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Hospital.

When the Shock Treatment Center opened in Sderot, it made treatment for Sderot residents much more efficient and easier, as they received help on the spot said Dr. Katz, who also heads the shock center. Sderot residents feel more at home being treated at the center. The cost of transporting patients to distant hospitals is more expensive and many times there are not enough ambulances to transport all victims, especially during episodes when there are a series of rocket attacks on the city. Due to budget cutbacks the Shock Center closed after Operation Cast Lead.

Sderot’s remaining trauma facility remains a vital part of the Sderot community, which for eight years has been under Gaza rocket attack. As the city’s residents continue to live under the range of Qassam fire, these center provides the only local therapy and care which helps residents return to a semblance of normal life.

Because of the constant threat and deaths of several children, several playgrounds have been retrofitted with reinforced concrete play areas that double as bomb shelters. This allows children to play outside in designated areas that have quick access to shelter during a missile attack.

Economic Impact

Before Operation Cast Lead, real estate and small businesses had suffered most from the rocket fire. According to Yakov Levy, a Sderot realtor, prices of homes fell by 50%. Housing prices were nearly double in 2000 before the rocket fire began. Between 20 to 30 percent of businesses in Sderot and surrounding areas have shut down since 2001. Sales at stores in general have dropped by nearly 50 percent. During the intense rocket fire of May 2007, 350 small businesses were forced to close down. In January 2008, Hollandia, a major international mattress factory, employing close to 100 local residents in and around Sderot, shut the factory in Sderot and relocate to central Israel because of the rocket fire.

During Operation Cast Lead, all local schools were closed as well as non-essential businesses and factories. Parents had to stay at home with their children, and in families with two working parents (most instances), at least one income earner was off work in order to care for the children during the war. Stress levels rose as the operation continued, with children being unable to play outdoors and parents being unable to work, coupled with daily stress of alerts and explosions causing all residents to seek shelter an average of 7 times each day.

National Insurance payments covered some of the lost wages, but not all of them.

Close to 1,900 cases were filed with the Israeli government for damages done to homes and property by Hamas rocket attacks during the three weeks of war. Palestinian rockets directly hit more than 1,500 Israeli homes and buildings in the south, and caused heavy damage to 327 vehicles. The 84 rockets that exploded in Sderot during this period caused damage to several dozen homes and businesses, but no dollar figure was available at the time of writing of this submission.

Case Studies

There are dozens of case studies available, but the following two are chosen as typical examples of psycho-trauma.

1. May 19, 2008. 35-year-old, Shir-El Friedman was killed and two others wounded when a Qassam rocket struck a car in Sderot. According to the IDF, a total of 15 rockets were fired at the area during the day. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility. This fatality is listed despite occurring before June 18, because the regularity of rocket attacks before the alleged “calming” agreement with Hamas were identical to the attacks that occurred during Operation Cast Lead.

2. December 17, 2008. A Qassam rocket struck the parking lot of a shopping center in Sderot, injuring three Israelis. Hundreds of shoppers were in the area when the rocket exploded Wednesday afternoon. The explosion caused serious damage to a supermarket and cars. At least 18 rockets and 6 mortar shells were fired this day on southern Israel, 48 hours before the “calming” between Israel and the Hamas expired.

Conclusions

From the definition of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, there were clear violations of these laws perpetrated on the residents of Sderot during the Gaza Conflict. This is clearly stated in previous conclusions by Human Rights Watch:

Palestinian armed groups routinely violate international humanitarian law when using Qassam-type rockets to attack Israel. They are unlawfully launching strikes that either are directed against civilians or are indiscriminate because they are not directed at a specific military objective. In addition, some statements of the groups responsible for carrying out rocket attacks indicate an intent to use the weapons primarily to spread terror among Israeli civilians, which is also prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Human Rights Watch

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/10911/section/7

The attacks against Israeli civilians were not a new development during Operation Cast Lead, but are part of the ongoing Gaza Conflict that did not start in 2008, but rather began in 2001. These attacks were ongoing up to, including, and since Operation Cast Lead. This is clearly stated in a conclusion reached by Amnesty International in 2002:

“The attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups are widespread, systematic and in pursuit of an explicit policy to attack civilians. They therefore constitute crimes against humanity under international law. They may also constitute war crimes”

Amnesty International

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE02/003/2002

There is clear evidence that as a direct consequence of the Gaza Conflict Sderot residents where subjected to high levels of psycho-social stress, although these residents had suffered for several years under the same rights violations that lead to the Gaza Conflict.

There was significant economic stress to residents and businesses in Sderot as a direct consequence of the Gaza Conflict, and this was in addition to the previous hardships due to previous rights violations under the same circumstances.

Appendix 1 – Expert describes how babies remember traumatic events for years

Jun. 29, 2009

US psychiatrist: Babies remember traumatic events for years

By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, THE JERUSALEM POST

The prevailing view among parents, the general public and mental health professionals that infants as young as six months old “do not remember” traumatic events that happen to them or to their loved ones has recently been disproved, a professor of infant mental health said at a Jerusalem conference on Sunday.

Prof. Alicia Lieberman of the psychiatry department at the University of California at San Francisco told an audience of 300 that young children, even babies, “remember traumatic events in their bodies” with increases in stress hormones such as cortisol and that the event makes a distinct impression on them.

Most professionals and parents have pooh-poohed this idea because infants and young toddlers do not have the verbal ability to describe the trauma, but it nevertheless is stored in their brains, she asserted.

The message was very relevant to an Israeli audience, as large numbers of infants have survived terrorist and missile attacks, family violence and other traumatic events, and most remain untreated.

Lieberman was speaking at the first session of the two-day International Conference on Trauma and Early Childhood, held at Truman Hall on the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus and organized by the capital’s Herzog Hospital’s Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, the HU’s Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, and the Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco. It is being chaired by trauma expert and clinical psychologist Dr. Danny Brom, who heads Herzog’s psychotrauma center.

The US psychiatrist said that infants who have been exposed to trauma – anything from witnessing or being hurt by a road accident and terrorist attacks and near drownings to seeing its mother murdered by its father – “always try to find the meaning of their experience and how to fit into the world.”

Lieberman, who was born in Paraguay and spent five years earning a degree at the HU, explained that the seat of verbalization in the brain is in the cortex, but the visceral responses to trauma are based elsewhere.

People are wrong to assume that when traumatized infants grow up and don’t speak about it, they weren’t influenced by it. Therapists often start their relationship with traumatized parents and children with mistaken idea that if the child did not discuss it, they should not bring it up, the California psychiatrist said.

“Basic research shows that young babies even five months old can remember that a stranger came into room and scared them three weeks before. Even though the babies were pre-verbal, they can later remember traumatic events that occurred to them,” said Lieberman.

One case was a girl named “Rachel, who around her first birthday was held by her mother when her angry and abusive father pushed his way through the door in their apartment and shot the mother. He father was jailed for life, and her grandmother raised her, but Rachel had serious behavior problems. One day, when she was four years old, the grandmother noted that she reacted badly to the noise of firecrackers.” The preschooler said: “Don’t kill me!”

Then, at the age of nine, she asked her grandmother how her mother died. The grandmother replied: “She fell off the roof.”

But, unsatisfied, the girl demanded to know “how my mother really died.”

That, said Lieberman, was “the last time she discussed” her memory of the traumatic event.

Among the negative behaviors caused by traumatic events in children are temper tantrums, developmental delays, regression, unsociability and violence. However, the good news is that post-traumatic stress symptoms can be treated by talk therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and other means with help from a trained therapist, said Lieberman, and doing so as early as possible after the child is able to speak is best.

A feature on the two days of lectures will appear on the Health Page on Sunday, July 5.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1245924952462&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

The U.N.’s New “Factfinding” Mission

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

In May, the UN came out with a report accusing Israel of “negligence or recklessness” in the Gaza war. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would seek compensation from Israel for damages numbering at $11 million to UN facilities. Led by Ian Martin, former head of human rights group Amnesty International, the UN inquiry cited that Israel was at fault for nine incidents of damage to UN property.

The 184-page report blamed Hamas for one case of damage, stating that a Palestinian rocket fired at a UN warehouse had caused $29,000 in damages, while according all other damages to Israel.

Indeed, the report apparently did not point out the millions of dollars in damages that Hamas rockets caused in the southern region of Israel or call for an investigation into the nine Israeli schools that Gaza missiles struck during the war.

Israel’s deputy UN ambassador, Daniel Carmon told Reuters that the report was one-sided. “We were really shocked to see a report where the board is limiting itself to the facts of damages only, ignoring the context, ignoring that there is war against terrorism.”

According to The Australian (May 7), the UN inquiry apparently made no mention of the UN’s initial accusation that Israeli shells directly hit a UN school in Jabaliya, killing more than 40 civilians.

UN officials accused Israeli Defense Forces of firing a mortar rocket at an UNRWA school on January 6, killing 43 people. CNN, France24, China Daily, Indian Express, BBC World, and the Israeli Haaretz all ran headlines stating that Israeli Strike Kills 40 at UN School. The New York Times added the word reportedly in its headline.

Only one lone international newspaper, the Canadian Globes and Mail came out 3 weeks later with a follow-up story to the UN allegation, entitled Account of Israeli Attack Doesn’t Hold up to Scrutiny (Jan 29).

Reporter Patrick Martin found that physical evidence and interviews with several eyewitnesses including a teacher in the UNRWA school yard at the time of the shelling revealed that no one inside the compound had been killed. ” Those who died were all outside on a street where the mortal shells landed.”

According to the Globes and Mail article, the teacher who was interviewed refused to give his name because he said UNRWA staff told him not to talk to news media.

Furthermore, the article pointsout that John Ging, UNRWA’s operations director in Gaza blamed Israel for the confusion over where the victims were killed. “Look at my statements…I never said anyone was killed in the school. Our officials never made such allegations.”

Indeed in the European Observer (Jan. 7), Ging condemned the attack as “horrific” and suggested that Israel knew it was targeting a UN facility. “We have provided the GPS co-ordinates of every single one of our locations,” he told the BBC in response to the alleged Israeli attack on the school. “It’s very clear that these are UN installations.”

Only in February 2, 2009, did the United Nations finally admit that it had made a mistake-calling the misleading statements “a clerical error.” According to Haaretz, Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem admitted that the IDF mortars fell in the street near the compound and not on the compound itself. “We would like to clarify that the shelling and all of the fatalities took place outside and not inside the school,” said Gaylord.

Meanwhile the damage had been done. The misleading UN statements and media coverage had led to international outrage with strong condemnations against Israel popping up everywhere including from the European Union.

Not surprisingly, a clerical error of such significance was simply not deemed newsworthy by much of the international press. Except for the Canadian Globe and Mail, and Israeli newspapers including Haaretz, little international media coverage was given to Gaylord’s statements.

And now in June, the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict is spearheading another investigation. Led by South African Judge, Richard Goldstone, the UN investigation has currently focused its investigation in Gaza, interviewing Hamas along with Palestinians. Israel has refused to cooperate in the investigation, citing anti-Israeli bias by the investigation’s sponsor, the UN Human Rights Council, who has conducted numerous reports on Israeli treatment of Palestinians but little of the Palestinian rocket terror impacting southern Israelis.

The UN Fact Finding team includes Christine Chinkin, a law professor at the London School of Economics who signed an editorial published in the Sunday Times in January calling the Israeli offensive a war crime.

Come September, when the UN report is due, can one really expect an impartial, objective examination of the Gaza war? The recent comments of a Hamas official perhaps summed it best. In an AP news article (June 9), Hamas official, Ahmed Yousef, said that he hoped the UN report would be “like ammunition in the hands of the people who are willing to sue Israeli war criminals.”

Abbas restates rejection of Netanyahu’s conditions

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Ramallah – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Monday
his rejection of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s stipulations for a
two-state solution.

Speaking at an event inaugurating a housing project northwest of Ramallah,
Abbas said, “If Israel agrees on freezing settlement construction, we can
start negotiations, however, they have to accept the two-state solution
rather than imposing pre-conditions that empty that solution of its
content.”

Netanyahu said in a speech on 14 June that Palestinians must recognize
Israel as a Jewish state, and that any future Palestinian state must be
demilitarized and enjoy no control of its airspace or borders.

“A Palestinian state [must] live side by side next to Israel in dignity and
stability,” Abbas said, reiterating what his spokesperson said immediately
after Netanyahu delivered his speech two weeks ago.

In a different regard, Abbas addressed the issue of the new round of
Fatah-Hamas talks in Cairo. “We gave emphatic directives to our delegation
to Cairo because we don’t want this dialogue to last forever, and we want
this round to make success at any rate,” Abbas asserted.

He added, “Today we released a number of detainees, and I emphasize that we
don’t have anybody who have been detained for political affiliation because
we respect people’s freedom. However, anyone who tries to disturb security
and order in this country will not be given opportunity.”

According to the Palestinian Authority security spokesman, Abbas ordered the
release of 100 security detainees from West Bank prisons in a goodwill
gesture to Hamas.

The PA’s Preventive Security Service released the first 12 of these in
Nablus, in the northern West Bank on Monday afternoon….

Hamas to deliver letter to Shalit, ‘if he survived the war’

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Gaza –

Hamas leader Osama Al-Mazini promised on Monday to deliver a
letter from the family of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit if the
prisoner survived Israel’s assault on Gaza last winter.

“Hamas received the letter and promised to send it to the relevant persons.
If he is alive it will reach him, but if he is dead it won’t reach him
because we actually don’t know if he is still alive after the Gaza war,” he
said.

Former US President Jimmy Carter had delivered a letter from the family of
the captured soldier to Hamas officials in Gaza earlier this month, in an
attempt to restart failing negotiations over his fate and the fate of
hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

“Carter asked for a confirmation from us and we replied that we don’t know
the real fact about whether he is dead or alive after Gaza’s war,” Al-Mazini
added.

Meanwhile, the Hamas official noted that Shalit’s location is an extremely
guarded secret, and that Israel “doesn’t know where [Shalit] is in spite of
its spies,” adding that recent reports that Israel does not know whether the
soldier is alive is true, “not a media speech.”

Regardless, the official said that there has been little progress on the
soldier’s case, but that in the first year of Shalit’s detainment, there
were understandings reached with Israel. Am-Mazini said that such
negotiations ended with the administration of former Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert, who left office earlier this year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government hasn’t submitted
anything yet, and all that has been reported in the media are “test
balloons,” the official added, referring to a number of Israeli and
Palestinian reports that a release and prisoner swap were imminent.

Al-Mazini added that choosing Egypt as a mediator was Israel’s choice,
apparently because Israel, publicly, says it does not negotiate with Hamas,
which it considers a “terrorist” organization.

He also said that Israel has agreed not to rearrest anyone freed in the
deal, but that there were no guarantees the country’s military would not
attempt to assassinate them later.

Is Israel being sucked into repeat of the “dead soldiers for terrorists” swap?

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

“The crazy war on the Gaza Strip wiped out everything so we don’t know
if Shalit is still alive or if he has died,” Osama al-Muzini, a Hamas
official authorized to speak on this issue, told Xinhua, referring to a
22-day Israeli offensive against the Hamas-controlled territory in January.
Al-Muzini, however, said Israel has to go ahead with talks to exchange
Shalit for a number of Arab prisoners “whether the soldier was dead or
alive.”

Xinhau News Agency 25 June 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/25/content_11600605.htm

Is Israel being sucked into a repeat of the dead Israeli soldiers for live
terrorist swap the Olmert administration made with Hezbollah?

One troubling common thread?: Until the moment that the caskets were
broadcast live, the Israeli media related to the IDF soldier being held by
Hezbollah as alive despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary – in
large part in order to maintain pressure on the Olmert administration to go
through with a trade. When last week Hamas officials warned that Shalit may
be dead, the Israeli media buried the story – with essentially all coverage
taking on faith that Shalit is still alive.

Is it somehow immoral to take the words of Hamas officials seriously when
they say Shalit may be dead?

Or is the opposite the case?

Is it immoral to press for the release of very much alive and dangerous
Palestinian terrorists in a trade without requiring that such a release be
only in return for a live Israeli?

Has Netanyahu Become Mainstream Israel?

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In his address at the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, Netanyahu successfully redefined the Israeli consensus and became a mainstream political leader. Netanyahu’s centrist approach also strengthened his ruling coalition and enhanced his position in a potential confrontation with Washington.

‘Mainstream’ Netanyahu

After US President Barack Obama’s Cairo speech on June 4, 2009, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only felt the need to respond to the American leader, but also to address the Israeli people. In his speech on June 14th at the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, Netanyahu successfully redefined the Israeli consensus and became a mainstream political leader. Over 70 percent of Israelis found themselves in agreement with Netanyahu – quite a feat for the Israeli Prime Minister. In the address, Netanyahu stressed the historic rights of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel (Palestine) and rejected Obama’s interpretation of the Holocaust as legitimation for the Jewish state. He pointed out that a Jewish state where persecuted Jews could flee the Nazis would have prevented the Holocaust.

Despite the ancient Jewish claim to its historic patrimony, Netanyahu expressed willingness for a territorial compromise in order to satisfy the national needs of the Palestinians (a two-state solution). A large majority of Israelis is ready for a repartition of the Land of Israel.

Netanyahu’s acceptance of a Palestinian state came with conditions. His demand for a demilitarized state reflects the ingrained and justified Israeli fears of their dangerous neighbors. Since Oslo, more Israelis have been killed by Palestinians than during the 1973 October War. Netanyahu also demanded the long overdue recognition of Israel as the Jewish nation-state. In line with Israeli consensus, he insisted on Jerusalem remaining the undivided capital of the Jewish state and opposed a total freeze on building in the settlements.

The speech positioned Netanyahu at the center of Israeli politics, maintaining the strength of his coalition. Even the hawkish faction within his party, the Likud, understands that statements in favor of the two-state paradigm are not enough to create a new political reality. Therefore, the party hawks do not rebel against Netanyahu. Moreover, Netanyahu has even succeeded with the opposition; a majority of the Kadima party in the Knesset prefers to join the government. Capturing the center of Israeli politics stabilizes the ruling coalition and will allow Netanyahu flexibility if there is an opportunity for peace, as well as the needed stature to lead Israel in continuous protracted conflict.

Relations with the US

Netanyahu’s centrist approach also strengthened the chances that his coalition will survive potential tensions with Washington. Netanyahu reluctantly agreed to mention the two-state solution to please the US.

It is not yet clear if Washington is looking for a confrontation with Jerusalem by focusing on a total settlement freeze. Israelis are likely to view such an insistence primarily as a pretext for ulterior motives and are likely to support their government. After all, the territory of the settlements is less than 2 percent of the West Bank and even the PLO agreed to an exchange of territory to incorporate the bloc settlements into Israel. Israelis reject a total freeze in the settlement blocs near the 1967 border line, wanting these areas incorporated into Israel in a future peace deal.

Moreover, the Israeli political system has demonstrated its capacity to remove settlements when necessary. Israel dismantled settlements in Sinai in the framework of a peace treaty with Egypt in 1981 and in Gaza and Samaria in 2005. Finally, the Palestinian demand to receive a Judenrein area is racist and unacceptable. If Israel hosts an Arab minority, why can’t a few thousands of Jews reside in a Palestinian state, which occupies part of the Jewish homeland?

The Obama vision of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement within two years is not realistic. While in Cairo, Obama suggested that the Muslim world adopt a pragmatic approach because Israel is a fait accompli that cannot be eradicated. Pragmatism is hardly characteristic of the Palestinian political culture. Israel is still viewed as a temporary entity implanted by the West in the middle of the Muslim patrimony, evident from the Palestinian refusal to accept the generous offer by Ehud Barak in 2000 and the even more generous proposal by Ehud Olmert in 2008. Finally, the Palestinians are beleaguered by internal divisions, culminating with the Hamas takeover of Gaza. They suffer from corruption at the highest levels and the inability to build a state. Palestinian society under the spell of Hamas is moving in the wrong direction.

The Israeli government will try to avert a crisis in US-Israeli relations and will hope for a fast learning curve by the naïve Obama administration. Jerusalem can still count on a reservoir of friendship on Capitol Hill and by the American public at large. Due to this support, Israel might decide to put up a fight and play for time.

Hopefully, Obama will eventually learn that American speeches are not going to reform societies deep in crisis. And Obama, with his idealism and good intentions, can hardly make a difference. So far he has shown little character toward North Korea and seemed to pass the opportunity to erode the dictatorial grip of the anti-American Ayatollas in Iran.

From Jerusalem, Obama looks more like a rookie with scant understanding of world affairs, while Netanyahu increasingly appears as a responsible leader. If they are headed toward confrontation, Israelis are likely to choose the mainstream Netanyahu over the misguided, liberal Obama.

Efraim Inbar is Professor of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University and Director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies.

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