When Peace Now’s Academic Spokesman Endorses Selective Murder of Jews

May 27, 2001

As the months since the downfall of Ehud Barak go by, not only does the sense of loss increase, but so too the dilemma deepens in which the left wing finds itself – facing a government of the settlers that is pushing Israel closer and closer toward the insane margins of statehood.On the backdrop of the current struggle, the decision to pump huge additional sums of money into the territories, coupled with an explicitly-stated refusal to freeze settlement activities, rears up like a carefully-calculated strategic ploy, and not merely an attempt to placate the masses.

As a result, the Palestinians have the right to view this government initiative as a deciding factor in favor of continuing the conflict. Implementation of the initiative would certainly bring about an escalation in the resistance and violence, together with a louder call for international intervention as the only solution both to the severe distress of the Palestinian population and to Israel’s inability to keep itself in check.

Nevertheless, this government – as cruel, if not criminal, as its behavior toward the occupied population may be – is a government that was democratically elected.

Hence the following simple question, as biting as it is, must be asked – does the fact that a government enjoys a stable majority in the Knesset afford it the authority to demand that the minority accept the law it lays down, at all times and under any circumstances?

It should be noted immediately that expressions of this kind have never once tickled the conscience of the settlement-oriented right. When Barak was in power and was conducting negotiations with the Palestinians on fundamental principles, to which we will have to return to in the future anyway because, after all, there is no other basis for peace, there was no doubt that the settlement leaders would use all means at their disposal to oppose any attempt to evacuate their communities.

It was the fear of violent resistance that kept the moonstruck settlements in the heart of Hebron, the Gaza Strip and the suburbs of Ramallah in place. The settler rightists have always made a point of clarifying that as far as they are concerned, any decision on the evacuation of Jews from their homes is morally invalid and tantamount to treason.

In the past decade, it was this fear of a rupture that could have ended in bloodshed that paralyzed Rabin and Peres and later prevented Barak from unequivocally presenting his withdrawal map. Now comes the practical question: If the right is allowed to aim a loaded pistol at the heart of any government in Israel, why does the left have to submissively accept dictates that threaten turning Israel into a country that could be held accountable for war crimes?

The left has been debilitated not by the Intifada, but by the Palestinian demand for the right of return. The Palestinian leadership, one can safely assume, failed to properly assess the Israeli reaction to such a demand or understand the magnitude of its error in raising it. After all, the top officials in the Palestinian Authority know that a right of return to within the Green Line (the pre-1967 borders of Israel) will never be realized; yet they don’t dare tell the truth to the residents of the refugee camps.

Presumably, this last barrier will also be lifted in the not-too-distant future. The Intifada is serving both as an attempt to delay the outcome and, at the same time, an opportunity to construct another stratum of bravery and sacrifice on which to lay the foundations of independence.

Many in Israel, perhaps even the majority of the voters, do not doubt the legitimacy of the armed resistance in the territories themselves. The Palestinians would be wise to concentrate their struggle against the settlements, avoid harming women and children and strictly refrain from firing on Gilo, Nahal Oz or Sderot; it would also be smart to stop planting bombs to the west of the Green Line. By adopting such an approach, the Palestinians would be sketching the profile of a solution that is the only inevitable one: The amended Green Line will be an international border and territory will be handed over to compensate the Palestinians for land that has already been or will be annexed to Israel.

In the immediate term, however, there is a pressing need to adopt a position on the proposal to send international forces to Israel – a suggestion that is gaining momentum, and not only in Europe. After all, if there is reason to oppose a U.S. infantry battalion stationed in the Sinai, if it is a good idea to allow UN observer forces to take up positions on the Golan Heights and along the border with Lebanon, why is there such a fierce rejection of their proposed presence in the PA?

If we have nothing to hide; if our behavior is exemplary; if we aren’t shooting at children or stopping pregnant women at roadblocks; if we aren’t starving entire villages, why don’t we allow U.S. officers to report this to the entire world? If we are only defending ourselves against the forces of evil, fighting terrorism with the purest of intentions and arms, and, it goes without saying, upholding signed deals and international law, why don’t we allow the truth to be revealed?

This hypocritical government, which has little regard for the life of a non-Jew, appears to be on the verge of setting a new record and persuading its citizens that truly someone else must save us from ourselves. When Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir held the reigns of power, even their most bitter enemies knew that there were red lines that the two former prime ministers would not cross, at least not consciously or intentionally. This confidence in the moral considerations of the veterans of the Etzel and Lehi pre-state, underground militias has now disappeared altogether. The human dimension that characterized the members of that fighting elite is a stranger to the Pinchas Wallersteins, Benny Elons and fanatics from Hebron and isn’t understood by them and their like.

Ariel Sharon has yet to finally decide whether he wants to be like Menachem Begin or the leaders of the settlers. For now, all the signs seem to indicate that imperviousness, evil and shortsightedness are gaining the upper hand.

Published in Ha’aretz on 11th May, 2001

“Gush Shalom” Spokesman Endorses PLO Suicide Attacks in Settlements

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 27, 2001

“I understand that that here is not Ghandi’s India and the Israeli occupation army is not the British army and therefore, the armed Palestinian struggle, just in its essence, will continue. And therefore, it should be concentrated against the settlements. If there is no way except that suicide missions continue, it would be best to take the Japanese Kamikaze method of planes crashing down upon the settlements and army bases rather than suicide bombers blowing themselves up in malls and buses within the Green Line”.

Sharon’s Bureau: Our Patience is Running Out

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 27, 2001

Officials in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Bureau last night stated clearly that Israel’s patience in continuing the cease-fire in the face of Palestinian violence is coming to an end.

“Only Arafat and the Palestinian Authority will bear the consequences of the deterioration for which they are responsible,” said the statement. “Israel expects the international community to do what is necessary to persuade the Palestinians and Arafat to lay down their arms.”

“Even though Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire except in cases where lives are endangered,” said the statement, “the Palestinians are continuing – in contravention of the conclusions of the Mitchell report and despite calls by the prime minister – to carry out terrorist attacks, ever more vigorously.”

The statement points out that despite the terrorist attacks and the security dangers involved, Israel over the last few days has opened an additional crossing point for Palestinian workers, thus allowing thousands more Palestinians to enter and work in Israel.

As to the Mitchell report, it has become known that Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres support a settlement freeze and unequivocal acceptance of the report – in contrast to the stance of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The latter is of the opinion still that an interim formula could be reached which would allow Israel to continue construction in the settlements in a limited manner.

Meanwhile yesterday, American special envoy William Burns arrived in Israel and is due to meet today with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. The envoy is also expected to meet with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.

Yesterday an Islamic Movement conference, representing 56 Islamic countries, convened in Doha, Qatar, and decided to cut off all diplomatic contacts with Israel. The representatives were thus responding to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat’s demands[… ]

This article ran on May 27, 2001 in Maariv

Is Ariel Sharon the Scion of King David or King Saul?

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 24, 2001

Hebron, (May 23, 2001)

Last night Prime Minister Ariel Sharon answered questions following his dramatic press conference, announcing Israeli acceptance and compliance with the Mitchell Report. One of the final questions dealt with’settler security.’ Sharon remarked that he guaranteed the security of all Israeli settlements.

With that, David Bedein, Bureau Chief of the Israel Resource News Agency, interrupted, “what about Abu Sneneh?” Sharon, who until that moment appeared relaxed and poised, look down at his notes and stiffened.

Again, Bedein asked, “what about Abu Sneneh?” Sharon, looking more than mildly upset, walked off the stage, not answering the question, not saying a word.

{From the hills of Abu Sneneh. PLO snipers have targeted the Jews of Hebron for months. While the IDF has responded elsewhere to such shooting, the IDF has yet to respond in Hebron}

Only moments before, Sharon outlined the measures to be taken:

A total and unconditional cessation of violence and terrorism.
A meaningful cooling off period.
Implementing confidence building measures.
Resuming political negotiations.

That having been said, Defense Minister Ben Eliezer issued a new military command: “Due to the ceasefire, all pre-emptive shooting must be halted, excluding life-threatening situations, or a reaction to firing on Israeli soldiers or rescuing of wounded soldiers. Any entrance into Area A territory requires political authorization.”

What has happened since?

Last night, at 12:00 midnight, Arabs started shooting in Hebron. The IDF was not able to identify the ‘source of shooting’ and did not respond.
Early this afternoon two men were shot at the community of Ariel in the Shomron. One of the men died on the operating table a short time ago. The other was wounded.
Gilo was again attacked by Arafat’s armed forces. An 84 year old man was hit and seriously wounded. A woman was also injured. Other homes were struck by Arab gunfire.
The Jewish community Tekoa was again shot at and 3 houses were hit, no one was injured.
Kol Yisrael radio announced that Israeli security forces arrested a Gazza resident, owner of a metal-casting factory. This man admitted that he cast thousands of parts for mortars for Gaza Civil Police head Brig. Gen. Ghazi Jabali. He said that he recently had an order for 10,000 improved 120mm mortars from Jabali. The GSS says that Yasser Arafat was aware of the operation.

The Arab also reported that Gaza Preventive Security head, Col. Muhammad Dahlan, also ordered 120mm mortars from him.

And finally, to climax this wonderful day, (at least, up to this writing), the Sharon administration announced that, despite today’s shootings, despite the murder of another Israeli civilian, the ceasefire would continue!

Thomas Friedman, in a column in the New York Times titled, “The Big Mideast Problem is Arafat,” after blasting Israel’s settlement policy, writes, “But the settlements are not the core problem. The core problem now is that Yasser Arafat cannot say “yes”…he launched this idiotic uprising…because he is essentially a political coward and maneuverer, who apparently has not given up his long-term aim of eliminating Israel…” Friedman concludes, “The real problem is that the Palestinians are leaderless today…”

Friedman’s initial analysis is 100% correct. However, his conclusion is wrong.

The Arab leadership, namely Arafat, Rajoub, Dachlan Tiraway, Barghuti, Jabali, and all the others, are an accurate reflection of so-called’palestinian’ public opinion. They reject the existence of a Jewish state. The reject the concept of anyone other than Moslems living in the Middle East. They fully accept use of brutal, primitive violence to achieve their aims. They will stop at nothing if they really believe their goal is achievable.

What Friedman forgets is that Arafat was elected, as were many of his cronies. His’people’ knew exactly who and what they were electing, and they received what they voted for. Arafat represents them, they are Arafat’s warriors, they are inciting, they are perpetrating the terror attacks, killing Israelis, shooting at our cars and houses.

The problem is not only Arafat. The problem is the entire’Palestinian Authority’, predecessor of the planned’Palestinian State.’

The question that begs to be answered deals not with the Arabs. It concerns Ariel Sharon. What is his problem? What is preventing him from lashing back at those who are attacking Gilo in our capital, at those shooting and killing innocent civilians, at those sniping from the Shalhevet (Abu Sneneh) and Harat a’Shech hills, into Hebron neighborhoods and apartments? Is it possible that the quintessential war hero, Ariel Sharon, is…….. afraid?

What else could be stopping Sharon? Perhaps George W. and Collin, Husni and Bashar, teamed up with Yasser, and let’s not forget Shimon, the 2 Yossis, with Avraham and Bibi watching and waiting from the sidelines, and maybe Fuad too, —- together they…… scare Ariel Sharon?

Perhaps when Sharon sees Arafat, he thinks he is seeing a 21st century Goliath?

When King Saul stared out at Goliath in the Elah Valley, less than an hour from Hebron, he saw what looked like a giant, ranting and raving, taunting, cursing the G-d of Israel.

When David looked at Goliath, he saw Israel’s honor defiled. When Saul gaped at Goliath he was filled with dread. When David gazed at Goliath he said, “Let no man’s heart fail within him.”

And the Philistine (Arafat) said to David (Israel): ‘Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.’

Was this not perpetrated in Ramallah and again, two weeks ago, at Tekoa?

Then said David to the Philistine:

‘Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to thee in the name of the L-RD of hosts, the G-d of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast taunted.”

Arafat, like Goliath, is toying with Israel’s honor, he is taunting and cursing our People, our Land, our G-d. The peoples of the world are observing. All Israel is watching, waiting, expecting. Our eyes are on our leader, anointed by the people to annihilate the enemy.

Who is Arik? Is he David? Or is he Saul?

U.S. Cancels Military Excecise with Israel

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 24, 2001

WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) — As the tension continues in the Middle East, the United States has canceled a regularly scheduled military exercise with Israel, the Israeli government and a Marine Corps general confirmed Wednesday.

The decision to cancel Exercise Noble Shirley, a live-fire training exercise for U.S. and Israeli troops usually held in the southern Negev Desert region of Israel in July and December, was made by U.S. European Command, the Pentagon and the State Department, said Maj. Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations.

“There are political reasons and military-force protection reasons,” Magnus told United Press International on Wednesday after a breakfast meeting with reporters.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit on the USS Kearsarge now in the Mediterranean Sea was supposed to take part in the training exercise, which often practices long-range helicopter raids and mobile assault.

Magnus said the decision to cancel the exercise was made Tuesday.

As Israel and the Palestinians continue to trade bombings and mortar attacks, Israel is considered to pose a higher-than-normal risk of terrorist attack, a Pentagon source said. Eight months after the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, the military is loath to tempt new attackers.

The political reasons for canceling the exercise are unclear, but one government official suggested the United States may not want to be seen practicing with the Israeli military while it is using “disproportionate military force” — including helicopter attacks — to respond to Palestinian provocations.

Magnus indicated Wednesday that the U.S. military does not endorse Israel’s tactics against Palestinian populated areas.

“We don’t consider that to be the way we would prefer to do things,” Magnus said.

Israel has used U.S.-made weaponry, including F-16s, against Palestinian targets. The Pentagon refused comment on the matter Tuesday, deferring to the State Department.

Secretary of State Colin Powell would not specify whether the United States had asked Israel not to use U.S.-made weapons in its operations against the Palestinians.

“We’re asking both sides to not take this up to any higher levels of escalation and let’s start moving things down,” said Powell at a news conference Monday.

Powell called for an “unconditional cessation” of violence by both sides, and endorsed a recently released international report that urges Israel to use non-lethal means for counteracting Palestinian demonstrations and calls for a freeze on building Israeli settlements. He also appointed a new envoy to the Middle East to coordinate with the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, and Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Officially, the Pentagon refuses to comment on the cancellation as it had not yet announced that the exercise was going to take place.

“We’ve made no announcement of an exercise,” said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley on Tuesday. “I’m not going to get into what we may have done if we didn’t announce it in the first place. I’m not going to go there.”

An Israeli government source confirmed Wednesday that Noble Shirley had been canceled and said it was solely an American decision.

“It’s true the cancellation is an American initiative — it was their decision to defer,” said an Israeli Embassy spokesman in Washington.

This article ran on the UPI wire on May 23, 2001

The Left Should Stop Using the “Settlements” as an Excuse

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 24, 2001

“I collected my children and I explained to them that if they hear a strong boom, it’s mortar shells. They usually land in foursomes and then you have to run into the nearest building, even if you’re in a different neighborhood and you don’t know the people who live there. You go in and lie on the floor and put your hands on your head.” – Yifat Tal from Gush Katif, last weekend.

This is war. In Gilo and in Bat Hefer, in Rimonin and Tekoa, in Kfar Azza and Nahal Oz.

A new Middle East, we can now say with certainty, will not be established here in the near future, and a new Arafat is also nowhere in sight. The Palestinians in Hebron and in Lebanon, in Umm el-Fahm and in Nazareth have all linked hands and are demanding the implementation of the right of return: to Acre and Ashkelon, to Jaffa and Haifa, to Lod and Ramle. And today too, as in the past, they do not make any distinction between “the settlements of Kibbutz Ma’aleh Ha’hamisha and Acre” (inside the Green Line) and “the settlements of Ofra and Kedumim” (in Judea and Samaria).

While in Israel, the last of the Oslo accord loyalists are seizing almost obsessively on the settlements as though they are a lifeboat that will somehow save the fragments of the sinking dream, which from the very outset, it now turns out, was no more than a dangerous delusion. These people are even trying to rectify the Palestinians’ mistake for them by reminding them that there are settlements and there are settlements, but the Palestinians, sad to report, are declining to pay heed to this argument.

This bad habit of singling out “the settlements,” which has turned into almost a conditioned reflex in the past 34 years, has now become more repugnant than ever. The comparison that is being made between the settlement enterprise, which is characterized primarily by building and creation, and terrorism, which is characterized primarily by hatred and the murder of women and children, is absolutely and completely groundless. Anyone who talks about terrorism and the settlements in the same breath these days is in effect providing justification for the classic argument advanced by the Arabs against the establishment of the State of Israel.

If the same reasoning is taken to its logical conclusion, it becomes necessary to define as a “catastrophe” (to use the same terminology as the Arabs in the Land of Israel) the establishment of the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Ramat Aviv on the soil of the Arab village of Sheikh Munis, or the building of Ibn Gvirol Street in Tel Aviv on the soil of another village, Sumeil.

Those who were behind the establishment of the settlements, it has to be said, operated within the bounds of the legitimacy that was supplied by the moral umbrella for the whole enterprise of Zionist settlement, including Galilee and the Negev. It is true that the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel and the creation there of a state came at the expense of another public, but the definition of the legitimacy of the Zionist act was clear: even if we were a conqueror, we were not an alien conqueror. We came back to the homeland. The lands and districts in which we settled were not foreign to us, they were the land of our forefathers.

Were it not for these very clear definitions, it would have been sufficient to make do with a haven, and not necessarily in the Land of Israel. It was only our historic, religious and cultural attachment to this land that conferred morality on the Zionist enterprise. This ostensibly self-evident perception of Zionism of itself has to be reinvoked today because this is also the conception that from the outset guided, and to this day continues to guide, the settlement project in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (known collectively by the Hebrew acronym of Yesha). If the settlements there, which draw their legitimacy from the same sources and the same definitions from which Zionism drew its legitimacy are pronounced illegitimate, what must our attitude be toward the entire Zionist enterprise?

The comparison that some people are making today between terrorism and the settlements has the practical effect of validating terrorism – because in this version of the situation the case is one of terrorism against terrorism, not against “settlements.” The same comparison also provides post factum legitimization for the terrorism that was perpetrated against us in Ma’alot, on the coastal road and in Avivim, all of which preceded the Oslo accord by many years.

In addition, this point of view necessarily leads to the creation of a scale of terrorism and thereby to a distinction between terrorism that is more legitimate and terrorism that is less legitimate – and from here the way is short also to discrimination between blood and blood. The blood of a “settler” from Ofra will be less red than that of a “settler” from Acre, and the blood of a “settler” from the Gilo neighborhood in Jerusalem will be less red than that of a “settler” from Bat Hefer in the center of the country or from Kibbutz Nahal Oz opposite the Gaza Strip.

This scale of blood also requires us to completely ignore the fact that Arafat has committed himself time after time in writing to resolve differences with Israel peacefully and through dialogue.

It must be admitted that Elon Moreh, which is in Samaria, may not be a security asset, but then neither is Kibbutz Misgav Am, on the border with Lebanon. The tanks and the missiles will not stop at the one or at the other.

Indeed, there may even be some who will argue that from a purely military point of view both places are a burden. But Elon Moreh and Misgav Am have the same Zionist value and meaning. Both places were established as part of the attempt to create a political fact that would bring into being the borders of the state.

The fact that there is no consensus in Israel concerning the political wisdom of establishing settlements in any part of Yesha certainly cannot provide validity for the perpetration of attacks on their residents or for asserting, as MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) did, that the settlements are also a form of violence.

At least for the time being, Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon have cast aside their disagreement over the settlements, and the time has come for the entire left-wing camp to break this bad habit too.

This article appeared in Ha’aretz on 20th May, 2001

Official Palestine News Agency: Israel poisons Palestinian candies

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 24, 2001

The Head of the Emergency Ward in Alshifa Hospital in Gaza, stated that it seems to be that Israel has started a new genocide against the Palestinian people by poisoning them, using poisoned candy bags dropped down from airplanes.

He based his suspicion upon four peculiar cases of poisoning as a result of touching and smelling candy bags that were dropped from an Israeli airplane at Beit Lahia north to Gaza City.

He said that when the four examined the bags, they felt bad and vomited, and were rushed to the hospital.

He added that the initial testing for these bags showed that the candies smell like coconuts, were poisoned and there is a strong doubt that the candy contains radioactive materials!.

Finally he warned Palestinian citizens to be alert and aware of any suspicious goods.

Peace Will not be Achieved While the Palestinian Refugees are Denied eir right of return

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 16, 2001

Gaza 15th May 2001 Wafa- (Official Palestine News Agency)

President Yasser Arafat said today in a televised speech broadcasted by all Palestinian medias on the 53rd anniversary of Alnakba that the Israeli military force escalation and the cruel siege imposed on the Palestinian lands will not achieve peace and security and will eventually lead to a disaster in the region.

H.E added that the Israeli blind use of force will not stand in the face of justice and the attempts to change history by missiles, aircrafts, tanks and shells in addition to other escalations will not succeed.

H.E. wondered whether the world will keep acting the diff, ignoring the Palestinian bloodshed committed by the Israeli occupation and settlers and added that the time has come for the world to wake up from its deep sleep and say enough to the murderers and the occupiers.

The President added that the Palestinians kept trying time after time to achieve peace but Israel protected by the main force of the international community, armed with its double standards kept destroying the peace process time after time throwing aside all international agreements.

H.E. said that there will be no peace or stability as long as the Palestinian refugees are denied their sacred right of return to their homeland.

He explained that the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative and the Mitchell report and the UN resolutions 242, 338 and 194, and the signed agreements, are the only way for reaching comprehensive, just and long lasting peace.

The President concluded by calling upon the international community to help stop the Israeli military escalation against the Palestinian people, and provide them with international protection.

Hereby is the full text of the President’s speech:

“On this day, commemorating the day of the “Naqba” may 15, 1948, our people, the courageous people, its men, women and children, that declared to the world with its holy blood and the words of truth and justice and the word of history that our people, the Palestinian people has been exposed to misery unlike any other in history and that this great people, which has displaced by a greater conspiracy, whose homeland has been raped by weapons and aggression, has not and will not accept this dark future drawn for it by this greater conspiracy which threatens the people themselves, their holy sites, their lives and their future.

“53 years of continuous suffering and pain and living outside of their country, our people still stand firm against this conspiracy with a strong will that cannot be shaken, will not kneel down, will not surrender. 53 years of continued sacrifice, we gave all this, waiting for the world to wake from its long sleep and to find the Palestinian truth that lights the torch with the blood of martyrs for the homeland and freedom.

“Blind power will not be able to survive for so long in the face of what is right and just and historically true and the attempts to counterfeit history with rockets, shells, planes and tanks will not succeed, because we are the rightful owners and a just cause like ours cannot be killed by tanks, shells, poisonous gas, prohibited weapons and guided missiles, that have killed innocent babies and civilians living under siege for more than 8 months, facing escalations at every level by every means.

“The time has come for the world to wake up, the time has come for the international community to tell the aggressors to say stop to the military escalations, stop the killing and destruction of the Palestinian people. the Palestinian people will not be defeated, whatever the aggressors use. Held in the arms of their mothers, they are hit with rockets and their holy blood is shed while the world remains ignorant of the crimes committed against the Palestinian people. How much longer will the world remain deaf while Palestinian blood is spilt?

“Isn’t it the right of the Palestinian people to live like any free nation? We tried, in good faith, for to achieve the peace of the braves, for peaceful normalization and to become good neighbors. But the executioners continue with walk through puddles of our blood with their military escalations and siege on our towns, and villages and refugee camps. This comes at a time of double standard policy, of walking all over international resolutions that we had accepted to put an end to this and bring about a peace of the braves, to bring about a state for our people and to protect their holy sites, Muslim and Christian.

“A just and comprehensive peace needs to put an end to the occupation and settlements in our homeland, a fair peace can only come about when the Palestinian people receive their rights, otherwise there will never be peace in the region.

“Today, on Al Naqba day, I want to renew my declaration that the way to achieve peace is as clear as the sun in the sky: a full Israeli withdrawal of its army and its settlers, from all Palestinian land occupied since June 4, 1967, and for the implementation of resolution 194. Yes, this is the only road to peace, the peace of the braves, the kind of peace that offers security and stability, for our children and for their children. Blind military might will not bring about peace, it will not bring our people to its knees. We will continue in this way until the day we raise the Palestinian flag over Jerusalem, over Jerusalem’s mosques and Jerusalem’s churches.

“From here, from within the middle of the siege and the aggression, we appeal to the Arab nations, to the Muslim nations, to the Christians all over the world, to the International community, to protect our Christian and Muslim holy sites. I call upon our friends in the UN, the United States, the EU, Japan, China, Russia, to act immediately in order to stop this military aggression, to offer international protection for our women, men and children who all face aggression from the occupier by all kinds of weapons.

“Resolution 194 has to be implemented for there to be peace, for those Palestinians who live expelled from their homes. Their’s is a holy right, and its the responsibility of the international community to secure this right of the Palestinian refugees.

“And I say to the Palestinian people, who have endured the killing of innocents, barbaric shelling, destruction of their homes and farms, the bombing of their factories and the uprooting of trees, “faith, faith, courage, courage”, stand strong in the face of this increasing aggression for the sake of freedom, and the freedom of our land and our holy places, the land of the prophets and messengers, the land of our fathers.”

“We tell the Israelis that military escalation and building settlements on our land will not bring peace, but will bring a catastrophe for both peoples. Let the Jordanian-Egyptian initiative, along with the agreements signed, and the Mitchell report, the international resolutions, 242, 338, 194, be the basis to launch a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, and to revive the peace process, to put it back on track again for the future of the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples and all the world.

“And I say to you steadfast courageous people, that your sacrifices will not be for nothing, that victory will come from God”.

European Union Sponsors Monitoring of Settlement Activity and Publicizing Findings Around the World

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 16, 2001

Monitoring Israeli Colonizing activities in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza is a joint project between the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ) and the Land Research Center (LRC).

The project, funded by the European Union, aims at inspecting and scrutinizing Israeli colonizing activities in their different forms in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza,and to disseminate the related information to policy makers in the European countries and to the general public.

Specifically, the project will be providing accurate updates on the expansion of existing Israeli colonies, associated by-pass roads and land confiscation.

It will also provide detailed baseline data related to specific sites where new Israeli colonizing activities are planned or initiated.

Methods used to collect data and monitor the colonizing activities will include remote sensing satellite images, field work, aerial photographs, colonies’ masterplans, and topographic maps.

Egypt Acquires Missile Components from Germany

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 16, 2001

Egypt has obtained components for guidance systems from German companies in a renewed effort to complete a medium-range ballistic missile.

European intelligence sources said the Egyptian orders were placed over the last year, with the latest one submitted in February. They said the Egyptian government bought the components from Germany through front companies.

The missile transaction was traced by both European and U.S. intelligence services, the sources said. They said the components were delivered from Germany to Japan, where the shipment disappeared. They said the components were sent to North Korea for modification and are now believed to be in Egypt.

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Israel Behind the News

When Peace Now’s Academic Spokesman Endorses Selective Murder of Jews

“Gush Shalom” Spokesman Endorses PLO Suicide Attacks in Settlements

Sharon’s Bureau: Our Patience is Running Out

Is Ariel Sharon the Scion of King David or King Saul?

U.S. Cancels Military Excecise with Israel

The Left Should Stop Using the “Settlements” as an Excuse

Official Palestine News Agency: Israel poisons Palestinian candies

Peace Will not be Achieved While the Palestinian Refugees are Denied eir right of return

European Union Sponsors Monitoring of Settlement Activity and Publicizing Findings Around the World

Egypt Acquires Missile Components from Germany

Column from the Director