A Profile: When A Social Worker Who helps Terror Victims Becomes a Terror Victim

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November 16, 2001

Scenes of terrorism in newspapers and television have the same effect on me: they inspire shock and anger. There are the pictures of the ambulance crews, the Chevra Kadisha (Jewish burial Society) workers literally “picking up the pieces” and the sobbing relatives and friends at the funerals. Then it’s on to the next news story.

Yet the tragic effects of terrorism don’ t end at death or even at the funeral. What has been ignored has been the debilitating psychological trauma on the surviving victims and their families,as well as the struggle to recuperate and return to a normal life.

For many victims, the story begins just as they start to recuperate.

National Insurance, known as Bituach Leumi covers most Israelis. Due to the grim facts of life here, there is a special department of “shikum” (rehabilitation) specifically designated for victims of terrorism. Mrs. Osnat Sasson, a sephardic woman in her thirties, with olive complexion and jet black hair, is one of the social workers in that department. For six years she has helped people get through the trauma, the confusion, shock, and disruption of their family life.

Osnat is a neighbor of my sister, a resident of Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim in Gush Etzion.

Never did she dream that one-day she would also have to go through the rehab process herself.

She confided that she always had fears that her husband Tsachi might be lost to her.

Tsachi was of course in the Israeli army reserves like every other Israeli.

He was called up once a month like all other Israeli men to serve his country.

Osnat was often apprehesive that he could get hurt during army service.

It never dawned on her that it would come from terrorism.

And then the unthinkable occurred.

Tsachi was on his way home to Gush Etzion on February 10th of this year.

As he exited one of the tunnels just outside Jerusalem, he was shot dead by a sniper from area of the Arab village of Beit Jala (under Palestinian Authority control.)

An Israeli ambulance appeared on the scene within minutes. The PLO snipers kept firing at the ambulance while the ambulance paramedic driver leaped into Tzachi’s car. There was little that he could do.

Tzachi had been killed instantly.

Now, many months later, you would never known what had happened by calling Osnat at her home.

If you would get the answering machine you would hear the taped message of the soft-spoken voice of her husband Tzachi saying something about the electrical services he provides.

Osnat had been married to Tzachi for 7 ½ years. She is now widowed with 2 young children.

Not long after the murder she was interviewed by CNN. It happened that on the same day of her husband’s death, Israel Defense Forces killed three Palestinians.

The reporter asked her how she felt about their deaths.

She was outraged. The Palestinians were killed for shooting at Israeli soldiers.

Had they not fired, they would have been left alone.

Her husband’s “crime” was that he driving home from work.

Such a moral equivalence enraged her.

Her children are slowly coming to realize that their abba (father) will never be with them for the holidays and for other family activities like tiyulim (outings, hiking).

I was amazed at her composure and serene demeanor.

What goes on in her social work office?

In November a terrorist opened fire on a bus in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood, killing two school children and wounding over 20 other people.

The first stage was to hold a debriefing for those present.

They recall events and express their feelings in front of others so that they know that they are not alone in what they are going through.

After the families of those murdered sat the traditional seven days of mourning (Shiva) special assemblies are held in the school over a period of time to help the students cope with the loss and their own fears and insecurities.

The wounded are taken to the hospital for treatment.

The social worker then visits the hospital to determine the needs of the entire family- for their life has now been disrupted.

If, for example, a father is hospitalized, that means that the mother/wife has to visit and leave the children at home.

Jerusalem is home to many very traditional Orthodox families with many children.

In one case, Ms. Sassoon helpd with a father of 14 children whose wife had to attend to him.

The family needed a babysitter to watch the kids, and a housekeeper to take care of cleaning, shopping and cooking.

Money was needed to pay for transportation to the hospital and medical clinics.

The mother needed guidance on how to manage under stress, and how to handle her husband when he is released.

She is nervous, angry, worried, and afraid and prone to let it out on her children.

Even when the father returns, it won’t be like it was before.

At time like this, everyone needs more attention and without proper outside intervention the tensions could escalate into a never-ending cycle of frustration.

After the horrific explosion at the Sbarro eatery in Jerusalem, Osnat met with a 17 year old waitress who normally works behind the counterthat moved out of direct danger the last minute. Her hand was injured from the blast.

Osnat visited her in the hospital, then she met afterwards with her parents.

The waitress suffered from loss of sleep and appetite, grew increasingly impatient with her family, and had frequent crying spells.

The parents were alarmed at the change in their daughter’s behavior and seeming change in personality.

The parents were reassured that this behavior was normal.

This lowered they fear of her symptoms.

The bombing took place three weeks before she started her studies in school.

By the beginning of the school year, she was calm enough to go back to school and start her studies. It takes on average of six weeks to get through the initial period of shock.

Psychological aftereffects include: insomnia, anxiety, fear of revisiting the scene of the incident, fear of entering a bus or any other activity associated with the event, and obsessive recall of the trauma. Some feel guilt: Why did I say this or do that to him/her before they died??

People who are sensitive have trouble returning to work. Others, who have lost a dear one, need to undergo grief counseling once a week for the next six months.

Many of the families instinctively reach out to other families who have already gone through this experience. Israel is a small country and it doesn?t take long to find and contact others for support and assistance.

In short, the act of terrorism has a ripple effect that affects the spouse, the children and relatives, the job, friends, and schoolmates. It affects business establishments that lose customers and Israel as a whole that loses tourists and investors.

For Osnat Sassoon, faith played a big role in helping her cope with life.

“Tsachi is in a good place… There are no ‘accidents’… Since I have no control I give it over to G-d. I have questions, but if I know that G-d is above, then I can manage below.”.

I was amazed at Osnat’s faith and level of acceptance.

Faith seems to be the main ingredient that allows Israelis to carry on, whether they be religious or secular.

When Christians and Jews Prayed Under Fire in Bethlehem

By

David Bedein

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November 2, 2001

As fighting continued in Bethlehem, the Israel and Palestinian communist parties distributed a memo to the media on the morning of Monday, October 22, in which they informed the press that leading Christian clerics would march on Bethlehem the next morning.

The memo made it clear that the purpose of the march was two-fold: to protest the Israel Army’s presence in Bethlehem and to pray for peace. Anyone reading the memo would not know that the Israeli army had entered Bethlehem after the Palestinian Liberation Army had used the high positions in Bethlehem to launch mortar attacks on the southern neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

The march organizers did not hide their desire to engage the Israeli army in a violent confrontation at the checkpoint.

The image of Israeli troops clubbing priests on the nightly news flashed in my mind.

Understanding the dangers inherent to Christian – Israel relations, I faxed the memo announcing the march to Jack Padwa, the honorary chairman of the ADL in Israel and one of the leading lights in the area of Christian-Jewish dialogue. Upon receiving the fax, Padwa immediately sought out and met with Papal Annuncio Monseniur Pietro Sambi, who acts as the Vatican ambassador to Israel, at a reception in Jaffa. Padwa shared the memo about the march with Msgr. Sambi, who assured Padwa that the Christian clergy would not be used for political purposes.

At the checkpoint entrance to Bethlehem on the morning of October 23, I watched more than two dozen Christian clerics showed up, flanked by PLO and Israeli communist demonstrators as expected. The demonstrators waved their signs in Arabic, Hebrew and English: Free Palestine, Stop the Occupation, Israel Out of Bethlehem. A yelling match began, with the marchers demanding to enter Bethlehem, waving their signs.

Msgr. Sambi was there, He called together the Christian clerics and said, in resonant voice, that what they had come to Bethlehem to do was to march in a prayer vigil for peace in Bethlehem They then marched peaceably through Bethlehem, and chanted psalms in Latin and proceeded in a dignified march to Manger Square in the center of the city, where representatives of Christendom prayed for peace in the Holy Land.

While Christians prayed in Manger square, Arab snipers from a nearby hill overlooking Bethlehem renewed fire on the southern neighborhood of Gilo in Jerusalem. An Israeli tank inside Bethlehem returned the fire.

Yet despite the exchange of fire, the Pope’s ambassador can take credit for preventing might have been an unfortunate confrontation between IDF troops and the leading Christian clergy in he middle east.

As the procession of Christian clerics proceeded to Manger Square, I ascended the daily Israeli tour bus to the building erected that now surrounds Rachel’s Tomb. If Christians are saying Psalms, perhaps this was a hint for me to do the same at the one Jewish place of worship in Bethlehem. Rachel’s Tomb is a different place today, with heavy walls and iron doors built to protect it from the fighting outside. As you enter the shrine, something new has been added – a memorial to Joseph, Rachel’s oldest son. The Shawls from Joseph’s tomb in Nablus (taken over by Moslems and converted into a mosque a year ago) have been relocated to Rachel’s Tomb, with a sign hanging overhead that quoted the Talmudic legend that Joseph came to cry at his mother’s tomb.

At Rachel’s Tomb, I saw a familiar face. Yitzhak, the caretaker since the IDF took it in 1967. The now white-bearded Yitzhak, pale and thin, looked like he had been through an illness. A burly IDF colonel entered with me, and asked Yitzhak for a skull cap and asked if he could give him a book to pray from. The soldier said that he had not been in the shrine for more than twenty years, and that he had seen some terrible things in the past few days. As Yitzhak handed the officer a book of psalms and a skull cap.

Yitzhak said quietly that he had also seem terrible days. Yitzhak’s twenty-year old daughter, Tehilla Maoz, had been blown to bits at the Sabarro restaurant in Jerusalem two months ago.

The IDF colonel began to sob, and embraced Yitzhak, who then told the officer that on the night before her death that Tehilla had said to her father that she was worried about her father and pleaded with him to reconsider working in such a dangerous place.

As I chanted a few psalms, I looked up to the sign behind where Yitzhak stands. “Rachel Cries for Her Children Who are No More”.

Christians and Jews recited Prayers and Psalms in Bethelem, while Moslems fired at will.

Public Condemnation; Private Glee

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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October 31, 2001

Executive Summary

Palestinian press treatment of the Islamic suicide attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 was a prime example of the power the Palestinian Authority wields over newspapers and media. Both PA-owned as well as privately-owned newspapers were careful not to praise the attacks attributed to Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden. At the same time, Palestinian columnists and news reports expressed empathy with Islamic anger against the United States and were venomous toward Washington’s efforts to call to account Bin Laden and his allies for the attacks. The newspapers also condemned the U.S. retaliation against Afghanistan and predicted that any war against terrorism would be futile. To Palestinians, the message was clear: Bin Laden’s goals can be supported without direct reference to the September attacks.

The Report

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat laid down strict guidelines for press coverage of Bin Laden’s attacks on the United States. The directives banned any coverage of the widespread demonstrations in support of Bin Laden in such cities as Gaza City, Nablus and Rafah. But the newspapers were encouraged to be venomous toward the United States and the West in an effort to provide a framework of empathy for Bin Laden’s attacks.

At first, PA newspapers prominently displayed the condemnation over the September 11 attacks by Arafat and several leading officials. This included Arafat’s donation of blood in Gaza for the victims in the United States, Still, the condemnation was selective and included only those Palestinians who focus on the West, such as PA International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath, PA Information Minister Yasser Abbed Rabbo and Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, who is Arafat’s unofficial spokeswoman in the West. Aides to Arafat who dealt with such allies as Iran, Iraq and Syria were silent.

At the same time, the PA press avoided virtually all coverage of the demonstrations in support of Bin Laden in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The demonstrations took place hours after Islamic suicide attackers destroyed New York’s World Trade Center and a wing of the Pentagon in Washington. At first, the PA allowed the pro-Bin Laden rallies as long as foreign journalists were banned from recording the enthusiasm expressed over the killing of 6,000 a.m.ericans. But as the demonstrations were being reported in the West and spread throughout the PA areas, Arafat ordered his security forces to stop the rallies.

PA Censors Reports on Anti-U.S. Protests

In Gaza City, the efforts to stop the demonstration by supporters of the Arafat-led Fatah movement and Islamic opposition members were bloody. Three Palestinian students were killed and a dozen were injured on October 8. Demonstrators accused Palestinian officers under the command of Brig. Gen. Ghazi Jabali of shooting at protesters. At first, the PA turned silent and then referred to the police officers as “masked gunmen.” The reason for the pro-Bin Laden demonstrations was censored. Instead, the Palestinian press referred heavily to the “unfortunate events in Gaza.” The nature of the pro-Bin Laden rally was not mentioned.

The leading force in shaping the Palestinian message was the Ramallah-based Al Hayat Al Jedida, which is owned by the PA. The newspaper — with the smallest circulation of the three Palestinian dailies but receiving the largest official subsidy — viewed the Gaza City shootout as a threat to Palestinian unity rather than a call to support Bin Laden. The newspaper on October 10 provided extensive coverage of the calls to stop internecine strife and heal the rift within society.

“Numerous appeals were voiced by the leadership yesterday, including nationalist and Islamic forces and human rights roup, to immediately stop the calls that were voiced in the unfortunate events in Gaza, in which citizens fell victim and many were wounded, and to ban the internal fighting in light of the difficult conditions that are taking place at this time,” Al Hayat Al Jedida said on October 10.

At the same time, the PA press was ordered to stress that regardless of the attacks on the United States and Palestinian support for Bin Laden, the Palestinian people remained the chief victims of terrorism. The message was relayed by Arafat to all Palestinian newspapers on October 10. Arafat said he condemned “terrorist acts against the American people when the Palestinian people fall victims to terrorism and occupation.”

Bin Laden Obtains Understanding

The political editor of Arafat’s Wafa news service, elaborated. The editor, who represents Arafat’s thinking, warned Palestinians to refrain from public support of Bin Laden. The Palestinians were urged not to be swept away by the support expressed by Bin Laden in the video broadcast on the Qatari-owned A-Jazeera satellite channel, popular in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The editorial warned that words “have a greater lethality than weapons” and whipped the Palestinian populace into a frenzy.

Here, the editor referred to the damage of the pro-Bin Laden riots. He said young Palestinians in Gaza city had engaged in “activities full of hostility, arsons and various attacks that do not suit our tradition and what we are going through from the killing terrorism, hunger and tearing of limbs. What took place in the Gaza Strip, the clashes with our national police, disturbs us. And it does not matter who is the source or who started it or who attacked, who shot or who threw a firebomb.”

At the same time, the Wafa editor expressed understanding with the enthusiasm showed by Palestinians over Bin Laden. Bin Laden’s target, the United States, was deemed as a supporter of Israel and an oppressor of Palestinians. At the same time, the PA news service urged Palestinians to be wary of Bin Laden’s goals.

“Osama Bin Laden threw into the air expressions that the Palestinian people were forced to absorb,” Wafa said. “The Palestinian people do not support terrorism and operates within the upgrading against the occupation. Nobody can criticize or condemn us because our true targets are against occupation troops and settlements and against all that which is opposed by international law — not against citizens. It seems that some people are itching to threaten the United States that oppresses us. This is something else. Bin Laden’s words went to the heart of the frustration by Palestinians and the oppression they suffer and the treatment they receive from the United States. But we have to understand that this is a framework that will turn us into frustrated people. We have to change the conception toward us. We are not enemies of the United States and the West. The most dangerous thing about Bin Laden is his attempt to turn the war as a conflict against Muslims, Christians and Jews and thus sacrifice the Palestinian conflict and damage the legitimate Palestinian rising.”

Palestinian legislator Ashrawi, who is also spokeswoman for the Cairo-based Arab League, reiterated this theme. She also dismissed Bin Laden’s right to speak for the Palestinian people. But in remarks reported by Al Hayat Al Jadida, Ashrawi linked terrorism in the Middle East to U.S. support for Israel. “Washington will act according to its interests and its solidarity with Israel until it becomes clear to the U.S. that Israel is the source of instability in the region, something which is costly to the Palestinian people and the greater Arab world,” she said.

Israel Was Behind the Anti-U.S. Riots

When the pro-Bin Laden riots died down, the Palestinian press turned to condemnation of the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan. Now, those killed by Palestinian police were no longer termed “wild youngsters.” They were termed “martyrs,” a term used for Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks and regarded as heroes. At the same time, Palestinian newspapers reported Arafat’s assertion that an Israeli agent was arrested for organizing the pro-Bin Laden demonstrations. Arafat said the Israeli agent gave 8-10 Palestinians gifts and cameras to record the demonstrations. There was no confirmation of this charge from any other source.

Al Hayat Al Jedida ran a cartoon on October 11 that showed Uncle Sam, or the United States, carrying a missile. Behind Uncle Sam was Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, his hands full of blood. The cartoon is entitled: “Washington intends to attack other countries.” An accompanying article compared the Palestinian victims of the war with Israel to the Afghan victims in the U.S. offensive.

The dailies were also full of reports that reflected Palestinian anger toward Washington. Palestinian newspapers published a poll by Bir Zeit University that 90 percent of Palestinians believed that Washington support of Israel was the source of hostility toward the United States. Most of those polled expressed hatred toward Washington’s policy or the United States. The October poll reported that more than 72 percent oppose Arab or Palestinian participation in the U.S.-led war against terrorism.

The Futility of a U.S. Counter-Strike

The Jerusalem-based Al Quds daily took a different approach on October 11. The newspaper tried to demonstrate the futility of the U.S. war against Bin Laden. A cartoon showed a fat U.S. general asking a junior officer: “Check how much damage was achieved by 90 missiles.” The soldier replied: “The damage is 90 missiles, commander.”

Al Hayat Al Jedida relayed a similar message on October 15. It showed President George Bush telling Americans: “We will fight terror.” The second image shows telling Bush: “And we will win.” The third image shows a forlorn Bush on top of an Afghan mountain, remarking “Wow, I have no idea how.” The newspaper featured an accompanying article that termed the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan as “a war of terror against terror, a confrontation between terrorists. And here [in the PA], the angel of death is still among us. The [Israeli] government of murder continues to kill and has exacted several times the number of people that fell in the two two towers and those that fell in Afghanistan.”

The Ramallah-based Al Ayyam continued with this theme in a cartoon on October 19. The drawing showed a huge bat with bared teeth threatening Ramallah. On the wings of the bat is written “Terrorism.” But the “o” in “terrorism” contained a star of David.

Backlash Against Giuliani

Nowhere was there a greater expression of Palestinian venom against the United States than in the episode of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s rejection of a Saudi gift of $10 million. In October, Giuliani dismissed a donation by Saudi Prince Walid Bin Talal, terming it “blood money.” The Palestinian press joined with its counterparts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Gulf countries in terming the attitude of the American as the root cause of all evil. Here, Giuliani was described as a Zionist supporter who allowed Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert complete access to City Hall and was even deemed a deputy mayor.

The Palestinian charge was led by Al Hayat Al Jadida editor Hafez Barghouthi wrote. Barghouthi poured his wrath on Giuliani, terming him a fraud and hater. “New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani became obsessed by his hatred of Arabs even before the terrorist attacks on New York,” the flamboyant editor wrote on October 17. “He hides his first name, chosen for him by his Italian father, so as not to remind the Jewish voters of the infamous Rudolph Hitler. This is why he prefers to shorten it to Rudy.”

Barghouthi defended the Saudi refusal to cooperate with the U.S. war against terrorism. The editor said the Saudi kingdom is defending its rights by refusing to help in the effort against Bin Laden. Barghouthi did not refer to the connection between Riyad and Bin Laden.

“There is an intense offensive against Saudi Arabia because it is not automatically signing up for the American war; on the contrary, it has many legitimate reservations regarding Western policy towards the Arabs,” Barghouthi wrote. “Anyone following the Israeli and American columnists smells a media trap aimed at accusing the Saudi kingdom of terrorism, and even of harboring terrorists. [This is] not because it is true, but because Saudi Arabia is fighting alone on several fronts to protect the uniqueness of Saudi policy. It will not enter into another’s war when it does not know where that war is headed; it fights terrorism in its own way and protects the interests of itself and its citizens.”

Allies of Giuliani were not ignored. This included New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who welcomed the decision by the New York City mayor and criticized Saudi Arabia.

“Friedman says that the United States is not responsible for what he calls the widespread ‘frustration’ among young Saudis that makes them support Bin Laden,” Adli Sadeq writes in Al Hayat Al Jedida on October 17. “He contends that it is not Washington that maintains an autocratic regime, and denies young people their political rights. He chides the Arab countries for their failure to [deal with] the challenges of development, and says that North Korea’s average per capita income in 1950 was similar to that of Arab countries, but that today Korea has left the Arab states far behind. According to him, the United States is not responsible for this.”

“Thomas Friedman is a liar and a fraud,” Adli Sadeq continued. “The United States is the enemy of the democratic aspirations of the Arab peoples; it is the friend and protector of dictatorships and autocracies; it is the number one schemer against development in the Arab world. With regard to the media attack on Saudi Arabia, I maintain that Riyad is doing the right thing. Refraining from joining the Americans. is counted in the tally of the Saudi government’s good deeds.”

The Palestinian reservations regarding Bin Laden did not include the use of Islamic suicide attacks against Israel, the United States and its allies. Palestinian newspapers praised the use of suicide bombers, particularly against Israel. But the newspapers quoted Islamic clerics as promising Islamic suicide attackers heaven with scores of virgins to service them.

“The Americans and the eunuchs at their sides [i.e. the rulers of Arab and Islamic countries] think that if they kill us, they will win,” Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, a lecturer in the Islamic Law Department at Gaza Islamic University, wrote in the Hamas weekly Al Risala on October 11. “They do not know that with their weapons they only expedite our arrival in Paradise. We yearn to reach paradise; it is our abode, and in it are ‘the black-eyed,’ confined to pavilions, and also there are [women] with downcast eyes whose chastity has not been violated before us by either man or jinn. In contrast, the value of this world in which we live, which they [the U.S. and its Arab allies] think that they have attained, is in our eyes not worth the wing of a mosquito.”

The Islamic Jihad’s weekly, Al Istiqlal, focused on the merits of suicide attacks in the wake of the destruction of the World Trade Center. The newspaper on October 4 published announcements of the death of suicide bombers that resembled wedding announcements. Indeed, Islamic newspapers as well as some secular publications in the Palestinian press regard the suicide bomber as marrying a “black-eyed virgin” in heaven.

“With great pride, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad marries the member of its military wing, the martyr and hero Yasser Al-Adhami, to ‘the black-eyed,'” Al Istiqlal writes.

Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI provided some of the translations for the above report.

The Double Message of the Israeli Government

By

David Bedein

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October 31, 2001

It goes without saying that there is universal disappointment with Israel’s information policies.

The problem is not the lack of funds or professional resources at the disposal of the Israeli government.

The problem remains the double message that the Israeli government conveys.

A case in point:

On October 28, 2001, the state of Israel spoke in two tongues concerning Yassir Arafat’s responsibility for the current wave of Arab terror in Israel.

Throughout the morning of October 28th, Israel’s minister of Foreign Affairs, Shimon Peres, gave an endless round of news interviews, to Israeli and foreign news bureaus in which he said that Arafat was not responsible for the current wave of terror.

Peres spoke of Arafat’s arrests of terrorists, and of Arafat’s efforts to quell Islamic terror groups.

In the afternoon of October 28th, Peres took the unprecedented step of initiating an appearance on the Voice of Palestine radio station in which he assured his listeners that the Palestinian Arab people would soon have a state of their own.

Meanwhile, on the same day of October 28th,, IDF sources met with more than a hundred journalists to provided data that connected Arafat and the PLO to every form of Arab Islamic terror activity that currently plagues the state and people of Israel.

IDF sources noted that when Islamic terror groups train and operate in the full view of the Palestinian Authority security services, they get the message that their activity operates with the full blessing of Arafat’s regime.

IDF sources provided the media with documentation that the Islamic Hamas terror group’s military wing operates as an official integral part of Arafat’s Palestinian Authority security forces in Gaza.

IDF sources told the media that they were were not surprised that on the morning of October 28th that two Hamas terrorists in the service of the Palestinian security services had that very morning murdered four more women and wounded fifty civilians in cold blood at the Hadera bus station.

IDF source emphatically pointed out that the Hamas killers were on the list of wanted terrorists whom Arafat had refused to arrest – especially since they were operating in the open.

This double message that the Israeli government has conveyed to the media and to the world at large, has continued since October, 1986, when Shimon Peres became the Foreign Minister of the State of Israel and when Dr. Yossi Beilin became his deputy at that ministry. Peres and Beilin revised the way in which the government of the state of Israel would relate to the PLO – Even though this seeming policy change did not sit well with then- Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir

At the orders of Peres and Beilin, no longer would the Israeli government ministry of foreign affairs distribute the PLO covenant. No longer would the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs define the PLO as an enemy. The 1986 Peres/Beilin policy change paved the way for the US government to recognize the PLO two years later.

This policy change in the Israel Foreign Ministry became permanent.

Even when the Likud held power in 1990-1992 and 1996-1999, Israel’s Foreign Ministry would not provide governments of the world with the basics of PLO involvement with terror activity.

Even though Israel Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu hired a high level professional staff to provide the media with weekly reports of PLO involvement in terror activity, which functioned under the able direction of David Bar Ilan. Yet when I covered the negotiations conducted by Netanyahu government with the PLO in Oslo in August 1998 and at the Wye Plantation in October 1998, the Israeli embassies in Washington and in Oslo did not distribute any of the material on the PLO that the office of the Israeli prime minister had prepared in Jerusalem. Upon further investigation, Iraeaeli embassy officials informed me that this was a matter of policy.

The bottom line: When the Prime Minister of Israel and the IDF prepare carefully researched material on the PLO, Israel’s representatives abroad, working under the aegis of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will make sure that material critical of the PLO will never reach beyond the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs is invested in an Oslo process that has engaged in a policy of repackaging Yassir Arafat and transforming him from a terrorist into a statesman, reality not withstanding.

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs is armed with a substantial budget to promote that view, and works in tandem with Dr Yose Beilin, whose Economic Policy Forum, funded by the European Union, continues to prepare new plans of appeasement for the PLO.

Neither Peres nor Beilin demand that the PLO disarm the Islamic terror groups inside their security services not even to modify the new school curriculum of the Palestinian National Authority which trains a new generation for war with the state and people of Israel

With public opinion polls showing the Israeli left at an all time low, Peres and Beilin recognize that their current Arafat appeasement efforts represent their “last hurrah” of a ministry of foreign affairs which they “reconstituted” in 1986.

Peres and Beilin will now make that one last effort to appease Arafat.

The solution for journalists:To ignore Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and to report the reality of the PLO.

Yusuf Abu Snena – Headlines of his Sermon on Friday, 26th October as Broadcast on the “Voice of Palestine” PBC Radio: The Palestinian War on America

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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October 31, 2001

Yusuf Abu Snena is a religious preacher at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and and an official of the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs.

“More than 50 were killed during the last week on our holy land, and they have become Martyrs, not for their own sake but for the sake of our nation. Israel’s call to fight fellow Palestinians, as a condition for Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian lands and cities, must be dismissed out of hand. This is only a tactic to cause a split in the nation and a civil war, which is unacceptable. the U.S. support for renewed Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and cities should serve as a lesson to those who shed tears for the American bloodshed (on 11 of September) and for those who did not shed tears for the Palestinian loss of blood. All we have to say is: Trust in Allah and stand up to the insults from the Americans to the Arab people.

In last week’s sermon we warned against believers in the false American promise to support the establishment of a Palestinian state. which they wish to be a persecuted and a rebuked country without a nation, if the criminal aggression continue it will be a weak nation, without dignity, especially if the vagueness of the other Arab States continues, then the nation will become no more then a guinea pig prior to its establishment. The attack on our Islamic allies seems to be a repetition of the First World War, reminding us of the cooperation between the heretics to bring down the German nation, which was destroyed by the heretic nations, thus giving those heretic and imperialistic nations the freedom to invade our Arab Muslim homelands. These heretic nations are once again attacking, like dogs, Muslim Afghanistan, and are fighting Islam everywhere. And the True Believers and the Afghans can only trust in Allah.

Hostile American planes are killing innocent people who are supported by Arab Muslim and other countries. These are heretic nations seeking to destroy Islam. but, servants of Allah, do not forget. We must all give praise to Allah.

Allah will not allow them to conquer Palestine and following that, other Arab cities like Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad and there after Kabul.

Imperialism is returning to Arab regions, through the guise of a “war on terror”, and therefore the question must be asked: When the English and the French fought the Nazis, were they then also fighting terror or were they fighting Islam?. The war in Northern Ireland has been continuing for tens of years. Why did we never hear the word “terrorism” in this case? Why do we only hear the word “terror” used against the Muslims, whom the enemies of Islam want to destroy. This is part of the Crusaders plan….

We must all praise Allah and unite. The events of today are like those of the past. “The issue today is not only Afghanistan but it also points to Europe and those who support Europe both from the east and from the west. This is an attempt to return to the wars of the Crusades.”

We urge all Muslims to unite in a war against the Crusaders, and pray that Allah will bring vengeance upon them.

B’tselem spokesman admits that the report in “incomplete”

By

David Bedein

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October 26, 2001

On October 25, 2001, the 5:00 p.m. Voice of Israel Radio Newsreel announced that the Israel research group Btzelem, financed by the New Israel Fund and European governments through the European Union, has issued a special report with the newsworthy finding that 42 Arabs had been killed since the October 17th assassination of Israel Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze’evi.

The report does not mention how many of the 42 Arab fatalities were armed – only that 21 of the Arabs killed were civilians, including five minors and four women, and that ten of the dead were Arab security personnel.

The report does not mention the proximity of any of the fatalities to the gun positions of the PLO.

When our agency asked the Btselem spokesman why they have not provided the number of civilians who were armed, or whether the fatalities were near gun positions, the answer was that the report was not yet complete.

The report does not mention the proximity of the 42 Arab fatalities to Arab gunners who were firing machine guns and mortars against Israeli communities.

The report mentions that one Israeli civilian was killed during this time period, without mentioning that he was ambushed and murdered while on a hike on the Judean Desert, and that he was not caught in any kind of cross-fire during a riot.

The report ascribes the only reason for Israel’s action in the context of Ze’evi’s killing, without mentioning that Bethlehem, Beit Jalla, the UNRWA Aida refugee camp and Beit Sahour have been used as staging grounds for mortar attacks on Jerusalem’s southern neighborhoods.

The report describes the hermetic closure as “unprecedented in its severity”, without mentioning that the “unprecedented severity” of mortar attacks from these Arab villages on Southern Jerusalem.

The report describes the IDF attack on Hamas military officers as “four civilians extrajudically executed by Israel, without mentioning that they had taken credit for the recent murder of two Jewish women along with other Arab military attacks against civilian targets.

When we mentioned to the Btzelem spokesman that during a time of war you do not provide trials for the enemy – you kill the combatants, he remarked that Israel is not now in a time of war. When we asked about the Hamas military commanders that Israel had killed, the Btzelem spokesman remarked that the dead Hamas commanders were civilians and not combatants.

The report mentions that “hospitals have been hit” and “that their operations have been disrupted”. The report fails to report that the hospital that was hit in Beit Jalla is next to where the PLO has placed the gun positions to fire from on Jerusalem.

The report rejects the notion that it is a procedure for gunmen to “hide behind civilians and shoot”. Has Btzelem not witnessed the fact that the PLA has made it a policy to commandeer homes in Beit Jalla and to fire from those homes and to draw fire back at those homes?

The report calls on the IDF to “avoid fighting in population centers” without recognizing that that is where the PLO is attacking from.

The report condemns Israel for interfering with the “free movement of… medical crews” without mentioning that the IDF have intercepted Red Crescent ambulances that have been transporting arms. Btzelem neglects to mention that the head of the Red Crescent is Arafat’s brother.

The report rejects the IDF decision to “undertake a wide scale military operation within population centers”, without mentioning that the PLO has indeed decided to conduct a war from the haven of those very population centers.

The report continues the Btzelem policy of describing rock throwing rioters as “unarmed demonstrators”, so long as they are not armed with automatic weapons.

Yet Btselem calls the IDF troops “trigger happy”.

Perhaps the timing of the weekend press deadlines in Israel and around the world was the priority of the report.

Rabbis for Human Rights Make New Allegations

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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October 26, 2001

The AP news wire of October 24th, 2001 ran the following news item in which the Rabbis for Human Rights allege that Jewish communities in the Shomron have uprooted 2,000 Olive Trees. The Rabbis bring no evidence to support their claim. AP did not seek out any verification of these allegations from either Jewish community spokespeople, the police, Israeli intelligence, the IDF or the Israel Government Coordination Office for Judea and Samaria.

HARIS, West Bank (AP) – Kneeling side-by-side in the West Bank soil, a Rabbi helps a Palestinian farmer harvest olives. It is a sign of solidarity during times that are tough, especially for those trying to eke out a living from unforgiving land.

The West Bank village of Haris lies next to the Jewish settlement of Revava. The settlers, citing army security regulations, say the farmers of Haris may not tend trees growing less than 300 yards from the settlement walls.

The Palestinian farmers say they do not challenge this edict for fear the settlers, or the soldiers who guard them, may open fire.

So Rabbi Arik Ascherman and eight other Israeli human rights activists traveled to Haris to give the villagers a Jewish human shield and help them harvest their olive crop.

“Recently farmers at another village who went out to tend their fields were beaten by settlers with iron bars,” Ascherman said. “We are here today to support the Palestinians and give them a sense of security without in any way provoking a confrontation with the settlers of Revava.”

But the arrival of the Israelis and Palestinians brought a swift response. Settlers peered down from the walls and a security guard, with a pistol slung on his hip, arrived to ask their business.

The Palestinians eyed their settler neighbors warily. “If you weren’t here I wouldn’t dare be here,” farmer Mamoun Daoud told his Israeli escorts.

Soon an army patrol arrived, led by a major who gave a rough shove to a news photographer who did not understand the officer’s order in Hebrew not to take pictures of him. A short time later, the same officer was heard trying to calm the agitated settlers, assuring them that the Palestinians were on the scene only to work their fields and meant no harm.

The settlers seemed more infuriated by the presence of Israelis helping Palestinians than by that of the Palestinians themselves.

“Rubbish,” they screamed in Hebrew at the activists, adding even harsher curses.

Peace activist Michal Weiner said the abuse exemplified a cultural gap between Israelis which went beyond politics.

“We have different moral standards, we come from different worlds, for me the settlers are like war criminals.”

The activists favor an Israeli withdrawal from all or most of the West Bank, while the settlers defend their right to live in communities set up by successive Israeli governments.

Another member of the Daoud clan, Ghanam, said the settlers’ encroachment on Palestinian land was pushing its owners toward violence.

“I don’t throw stones,” he said. “But when they come and mess with my land, what can I do? I’ll throw stones, then I’ll be a terrorist.”

Ascherman, born in Erie, Pa., is a Reform rabbi and director of Rabbis for Human Rights, an organization promoting social justice programs within Israel and trying to bridge the gap between Israelis and Palestinians.

He acknowledges the legitimate security concerns of settlers throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip who come under almost daily attack from Palestinian gunmen. But he feels that the kind of restrictions the villagers of Haris face in working their own land and the wholesale uprooting of olive trees, ostensibly to remove cover for attackers, is excessive.

“There is a red line between legitimate self-defense and collective punishment of innocent people, and it was been crossed,” he said.

After two hours of work, the Palestinians and Israelis had managed to pick only a few pounds of olives.

“It’s heartbreaking, compared to the harvest last year when we also came,” said Ascherman. “The trees are bearing less because the farmers are scared to come down to the fields and tend the trees as they need to.”

Before leaving the village, Ascherman and his colleagues visited a Palestinian peace campaigner, Issa Souf, who was shot in the spine by troops in May as he tried to usher his brother’s children inside their house and out of the soldiers’ way, he said.

Paralyzed from the waist down, he told of the economic hardship caused by Israeli closures of local roads, the uprooting of 2,000 olive trees and the three villagers shot in clashes with the army.

“We live in a dangerous area here,” he said.

The PLO: Aiming to Bring 300,000 Arab Refugees to the Galil

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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October 26, 2001

Arafat intends to plant in any agreement with Israel a fuse that will eventually blow it to pieces

Settling the Galilee

The way Arafat envisions it, the right of return will be realized by the approximately 300,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. The explanation: Unlike refugees who have found their place in Jordan, or even in the West Bank, these people never became integrated in their country of refuge. This demand poses an existential threat to Israel – not just because of the huge number of hostile residents the country would be forced to absorb (about a 25 percent increase to the present number of Israeli Arabs), but because of the object of their yearnings: the Galilee, from which their families fled in 1948.

Cumulative experience with Arafat indicates that he means what he says: To him, limiting the right of return to refugees residing in Lebanon is a major concession. Yossi Beilin’s assertion that a formula could be found for resolving the problem of the refugees without Israel having to absorb them in great numbers still awaits convincing proof.

According to military intelligence assessments, Arafat is absolutely serious about his position on this issue. He says the same things in public that he whispers in private. The demand to realize the right of return within the borders of Israel is part of his conception of peace. Unlike the accords with Egypt and Jordan, which were based on the “land for peace” formula, Arafat intends to plant in any agreement with Israel a fuse that will eventually blow it to pieces.

Put another way: The way Arafat sees it, peace will not be secured, even in the event of a total Israeli withdrawal (or a near-total withdrawal combined with a territorial exchange), nor in an accord that gives him sovereignty over the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem – unless his demand for the right of return is completely fulfilled.

Even if he says things here and there in unofficial conversations with Israelis that leave his interlocutors with the impression that he is ready to show some flexibility on the issue, army intelligence believes his public position is what counts: He has made what amounts to a historic commitment to bring the refugees home and does not intend on – or is not capable of – retracting it.

Excerpted from “Corridors of Power” Ha’aretz 26 October 2001, with thanks to Dr. Aaron Lerner of “IMRA” for bringing this article to out attention

Comprehensive Report: What Message Has Arafat’s PBC Radio Newsreel Conveyed Since the September 11 Terror Attacks in the US?

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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October 14, 2001

The Palestinian Authority has actually escalated the war-making component of its propaganda organs: Voice of Palestine Radio and Palestinian Television—even as it tells the West that it is entering a cease fire with Israel.

In addition, the PA has been issuing a strong undercurrent of anti-American material before, and even after, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In the material below, we sketch out the principle themes and sophisticated media manipulation techniques employed by the Palestinian state media.

Preface

During the late summer and early autumn, the Palestinian Authority has executed a sophisticated communications policy that encourages political violence against Israeli targets as well as the intermittent use of anti-American and pro-Islamist themes.

It is a sophisticated policy because it rarely sinks to the level of directly calling on listeners to “kill all the Jews” or “destroy America,” although there have been some instances of such remarks, even in the weeks leading up to the attacks on New York and Washington.¹ By referring to those who blow up buses as shuhada (martyrs) and by classifying all Israeli victims as mustawtaneen (settlers) and land-grabbers, the Palestinian Authority in effect puts a halo on the heads of the former and a bounty on the heads of the latter.

It sends a message, a very clear message without having to spell it out. By doing this, the state-run media of the PA are engaging in what Professor Robert L. Merritt dubbed “subtle manipulation” in the form of “structural communication” which is a “powerful strategy of persuasive communication.”² What is the purpose of such communication?

“Its basic idea is to create situations in which the communicator does not have to tell the targeted audience anything at all, but in which the audience, left to its own devices, can only come to the conclusions desired by the communicator.”³

Nevertheless, it is critically important to remember that the Palestine Broadcasting Corportation and the Voice of Palestine radio (Arabic: Sawt Filasteen) are not being controlled by that famous blow-hoard Ahmad Shukeiry⁴ (“throw the Jews into the sea”) but rather by Yassir Arafat, man who is a master of modulating his messages to different audiences, at different times and in different languages.⁵

Israeli policymakers are referred to as “criminals” and “settlers.” Israel’s policies are repeatedly called “irhab dawli” (state terror). Attacks on Israel — even in the heart of Tel Aviv are never called “irhab,” and therefore, Arafat has no problem occasionally “condemning terror” in comments for Western audiences or when pressed by Western leaders. He means something entirely different by “terror.”

For example neither Saddam Hussein nor Osama Bin-Laden nor for that matter any member or any action of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, nor Hizballah have ever been labeled as terrorists or as terroristic, respectively.

Seven Techniques of Palestinian Communication Campaign

Violence against Israel is not only not condemned, but applauded. On the very rare occasions that terror is “condemned,” the acts — not the perpetrators — are criticized as working against Palestinian interests, not as having done something inhumane. Ignoring attacks against Israeli civilians. Many attacks are just not reported. For example the sniper attack on a crowd of holiday worshipers in Hebron October 4, 2001 was not reported, but the Israeli reprisal was called an “act of genocide and racism.” The same day, a Palestinian attack on the Afula Bus Station (in which two Israelis were killed and six wounded) was not reported. When such attacks — even inside “The Green Line” cities of Afula, Beit-Shean, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv — are reported, they are treated as attacks on Israeli settlers or soldiers (therefore legitimate “resistance”). For example a drive-by murder on a main road in northern Jerusalem between Ramot and French Hill was described as having occurred on “a settlement route.”

There is a strong undercurrent of anti-Americanism, and even after the WTC/Pentagon attacks, there are instances of outright support for the attackers. There is no condemnation of Osama Bin-Laden or Saddam Hussein, nor is there ever any reference to them as “terrorists.” The anti-American and anti-Western tone is especially evident in the Arafat-subsidized mosque speeches on Fridays that are broadcast live on Palestinian state television and radio. In the last week (Oct5-October 11), the Voice of Palestine has relayed several reports claiming Israeli Mossad involvement in the World Trade Center attacks, along with complicity of American citizens, not Arabs.⁶

Suicide bombers are still given the highest accolades. They are called “shahid” (Arabic singular form for “martyr”) or “shuhada” (Arabic plural form for martyrs, and they are often characterized as “Kawakib” (Arabic: stars). This last term is one that Bin-Laden also used to describe the Palestinian suicide bombers.

Defining Terrorism In/Out of Existence

Israel is by definition “terrorist,” and its actions, no matter what are irhab dawli (state terror) and must be condemned. Any Arab attacks on Israelis are muqawwama (resistance) and not ever condemned.

Intifada is a form of ” peaceful” persuasion, and that is why it will continue because it is not a violation of the peace process because it is “al-Intifada al-Silmiyya” (Arabic: the peaceful initifada). If you don’t understand the Palestinian dialectical thinking (how Yassir Arafat can “condemn all terror” and “call for a ceasefire,” while still openly calling for “continuing our glorious Intifada”) this may help explain it.

Leaders of Islamic radical movements — such as Hamas and Hizballah — are treated with respect and furnished a forum for their message.

Non-Palestinian reporters are deliberately impeded and intimidated when trying to cover news that may embarrass the Palestinian National Authority.

Five Major Themes of Palestinian Broadcast Media

The Intifada will continue until Palestinian goals are met:

removal of all settlements, all soldiers and all things Israeli establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem
its capital return of refugees and restoration of their rights removal of Israeli presence from previously-Jordanian-controlled areas
Israel is the aggressor, and any military measures Israel takes are by definition aggression.
Islamic and National forces in the Palestinian community must unite to fight the aggressor

The Israeli government is led by war criminals Ariel Sharon and (Army chief of staff) Shaul Mofaz and supported by other war criminals such as “the occupation mayor” Ehud Olmert.

Israeli claims to Jerusalem are a forgery. The Jewish Temple is repeatedly called “the alleged temple” (al-heikal al-maz’oum). Crowd control of potential (and actual ) Palestinian rock throwers from the high ground of Islamic shrines (Dome of the Rock) onto worshipers below at the Western Wall is termed a “plot” against Palestinian religious freedom (October 5 broadcasts and others).

Examples of PLO Propaganda

The Voice of Palestine and the PBC have been basically approving terror against Israel and hinting strongly that the same thing will befall the US (and Britain) up to the day of the WTC bombings.

1. On 9 September 2001
On Voice of Palestine’s (V.O.P.) 2:00-PM Panorama news broadcast, Hannan Ashrawi, who was recently appointed Arab League spokeswoman, was asked to comment on the attacks against Israel that same day. Ashrawi replied: “The only language Sharon understands is the language of violence.”

2. In the first two weeks of September, up to and including the WTC/Pentagon attacks, it should be noted that the V.O.P. coverage, that the only ones being killed were soldiers and settlers. This causes the Palestinian Authority to do some strange things: when a bus carrying school teachers was attacked in the Jordan Valley in early September, killing one teacher and the driver. The attack was described as an attack on a “settler transport” (that killed a teacher and wounded the driver) even though no settlers were involved. Indeed, on the noon V.O.P. news, the assault was described as “an attack on a transport of settlers from the settlement of Maaleh Ephraim, built on land taken from the citizens of the Jordan Valley.”

The murdered teacher in the Jordan Valley was Sima Franco from Beit Shean (within the Green Line).

On the day of the WTC bombing, September 11, at 5 p.m. local time (one hour after the bombing in NY), V.O.P. used very restrained coverage of the WTC bombings and thePentagon bombing, using them as the fifth or sixth item in their news show then and throughout the evening and the following day.

On September 12, V.O.P. opened its morning drive-time news show thus: (Nizar al-Ghul.announcing):
“Tanks in Jenin, and the Resistance Continues
Tanks in Nablus and the Resistance Continues,
And meanwhile, there is Hell in New York”.

It should be noted that for several days before Arafat warned that “if the Israelis continue their Oranim operation, they will reap Hell.”

On September 14, Sahir Habash, a senior member of the Fatah leadership, said: “We have to stand firm in these difficult days until the Americans understand that most of the catastrophes that befell them or are likely to befall them are due to their own one-sided-ness and their participation in the aggression against the Palestinian people.”

Note also that the Mufti, Sheikh Ikrem al-Sabry has been explicitly threatening the US and Britain in his Friday mosque sermons broadcast on V.O.P. and telecast on PBC.

On August 24 at about 12:30 p.m. he said:
“O Allah, destroy the Occupation and its agents and its abettors.
O Allah, destroy America and its agents and its abettors.
O Allah destroy Britain and its agents and its abettors.”

Elsewhere in the Khutba or mosque sermon, Sheikh al-Sabry called on all Muslims to unite to follow the path of Sallah al-Din (Salladin, who repelled the Crusaders):

“O Allah, prepare and unite them (the Muslims) and guide them in the path of Salah al-Din.”

Throughout the speech, the sheikh called on Muslims to follow the path of Jihad, holy war.

Also note: three key Palestinian officials have ‘threatened’ America in the last eight months using almost identical language: Yasser abd Rabbo, Information Minister, Nabil Amr, Civlian Affairs Minister, and Nabil abu Rudeina, Arafat’s personal spokesman:

“If American does not restrict Israel, then there will be a regional, even a global calamity. If the United States does not stop Israel’s aggression, then it, too (the US) will suffer a great disaster.”

Notes

¹ An example of such messages appears later in this report.

² Robert L. Merritt, “Transforming International Communications Strategies,” Political Communication and Persuasion, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York: Crane Russak, 1980, pp. 36-37. At the time of the article, Merritt was Vice President of the International Political Science Association and the International Studies Association as well as Professor (and head) of the Department of Political Science and Research Professor in Communications at the University of Illionois, Urbana-Champaign.

³ Merrit, p. 37.

⁴ The PLO leader from 1964 to 1968.

⁵ See Jim Lederman, Battle Lines: The American Media and the Intifada, New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1992, p. 67, where Lederman, one of the longest-serving foreign correspondents in the Middle East says of Arafat: “To the Arabs he portrayed himself as a fighter to the bitter end. The West, he tried to portray an image of moderation.”

⁶ Voice of Palestine, October 7, 2 p.m. broadcast, said there were reports that three Israeli Mossad cells were intercepted by American securit

The Precise Statement of the Israel Prime Minister Concerning Czechoslovakia

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

October 10, 2001

After the following statement of Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israeli Knesset opposition leader claimed that Sharon was comparing US President George W. Bush to Then-British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. This is Sharon’s statement:

Released from the Office of the Israel Prime Minister, October 4, 2001

Today, Israel suffered another heinous Palestinian terrorist attack, which took a heavy toll: Three dead and seven wounded.

All our efforts to reach a cease-fire have been torpedoed by the Palestinians.

The fire did not cease, not even for one day.

The Cabinet has therefore instructed our security forces to take all necessary measures to bring full security to the citizens of Israel.

We can rely on ourselves only.

We are currently in the midst of a complex and difficult political campaign.

I call on the Western democracies, and primarily the leader of the free world, the United States:

Do not repeat the dreadful mistake of 1938, when enlightened European democracies decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for ‘a convenient temporary solution.’ Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense – this is unacceptable to us. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia. Israel will fight terrorism.

There is no ‘good terrorism’ and ‘bad terrorism,’ as there is no ‘good murder’ and ‘bad murder.’

Terrorism, as we witnessed this week in Alei Sinai, is worse than murder.

We have been fighting terrorism for over 100 years.

Unfortunately, there is no swift and immediate solution, but if we confront this terrorism united, we will be able to overcome it and bring peace.

And we shall overcome.

Israel Behind the News

A Profile: When A Social Worker Who helps Terror Victims Becomes a Terror Victim

When Christians and Jews Prayed Under Fire in Bethlehem

Public Condemnation; Private Glee

The Double Message of the Israeli Government

Yusuf Abu Snena – Headlines of his Sermon on Friday, 26th October as Broadcast on the “Voice of Palestine” PBC Radio: The Palestinian War on America

B’tselem spokesman admits that the report in “incomplete”

Rabbis for Human Rights Make New Allegations

The PLO: Aiming to Bring 300,000 Arab Refugees to the Galil

Comprehensive Report: What Message Has Arafat’s PBC Radio Newsreel Conveyed Since the September 11 Terror Attacks in the US?

The Precise Statement of the Israel Prime Minister Concerning Czechoslovakia

Column from the Director