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WILL RABBI HIER, DEAN OF THE SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER, HELP GEORGE W. BUSH, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THE PLO?
In the Thursday meeting, President Bush repeated his directive that he had issued in Annapolis in November, when President Bush called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian entity under the leadership of the under the leadership of the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, alongside the state of Israel within six months (1). Indeed, for almost twenty years United States State Department officials have issued directives that endorsed the creation of an independent Palestinian state under the PLO, so long as it would coexist in peace, alongside the state of Israel. In 1989, the prestigious Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, known for its tenacity in the war against intolerance and anti-semitism, warned against any such scenario. In that light, the Wiesenthal Center issued a seminal volume, entitled CAN ISRAEL SURVIVE A PALESTINIAN STATE, authored by Michael Widlanski, a journalist fluent in Arabic who had worked at the time as the deputy bureau chief of the New York Times office in Jerusalem and then as the middle east bureau chief of the Cox syndicate. The conclusion of CAN ISRAEL SURVIVE A PALESTINIAN STATE was that peace with the PLO was impossible, since the purpose of the PLO remains the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine, albeit in stages. CAN ISRAEL SURVIVE A PALESTINIAN STATE warned that the PLO would use any area under its control as a launching pad from which it would attack Israeli communities, with the logistical help from nearby Islamic Arab nations. The premonitions of CAN ISRAEL SURVIVE A PALESTINIAN STATE came to fruition much earlier than expected, over the past few years. The quasi-independent Palestinian entity in Gaza has been quickly transformed into an armed Palestinian entity that now lays siege to all of southwestern Israel, amply supplied with lethal weaponry and ammunition that flows to the new terror state from Egypt, even though a formal peace treaty between Israel and Egypt remains intact. However, in a surprising development, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi Marvin Hier, announced in the April 11th 2008 issue of the Jewish Press, published in New York, that he endorsed the establishment of the Palestinian state that he had warned against, not too long ago. This reporter asked Rabbi Hier about the veracity of his statement. Rabbi Hier responded emphatically that he supports a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The follow-up question to Rabbi Hier: How could he support an independent Palestinian entity like this, considering the fact that his book had correctly warned that such an entity would use all areas under its control as a launching pad, from where it would attack Israel, and considering the fact that his center 's book was proven to be correct. Witness the daily lethal attacks on Sderot and the 45 farming communities in the Western Negev. The other follow up questions to Rabbi Hier addressed the issue of how the Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose Center for the Study of Tolerance was committed to the fight against intolerance, could support the creation of an entity whose incitement against the state and people of Israel continues unabated, whose educational system was still inculcating the next generation of Palestinian children to continue the war to liberate all of Palestine(2) , whose leadership harbored terrorist organizations such as the Al Aksa Brigades -– defined by US law as an illegal terror organization(3), whose constitution did not allow for the juridical status of any religion other than Islam(4) , and where allegations of widespread persecution of Christians at the hands of the Palestinian Authority are rampant (5)? Rabbi Hier called this reporter and explained that his endorsement of a Palestinian entity was "entirely dependent" on the creation of a viable Palestinian entity which would recognize Israel as a Jewish state, which would be committed to peace and reconciliation, and which is "right now not in the offing", according to Rabbi Hier. In light of Rabbi Hier's statement in this regard, Rabbi Hier was asked if he would appeal to President Bush to reconsider his directive to create a Palestinian state within six months. Rabbi Hier was also asked as to whether he would ask President Bush to desist from arming an entity still at war with Israel. Finally, Rabbi Hier was asked if he would ask President Bush to insist on the cancellation of the Palestinian anti-Semitic curriculum and the nullification of the new Palestinian constitution, which is based on the intolerant Islamic Sharia law. Rabbi Hier has received these questions and according to a senior staff official, is still considering these queries. Rabbi Hier, rated by Newsweek in its April 18th issue as the most influential Rabbi in the United States of America, can call the President of the United States, knowing that his call will be taken seriously. The question remains: Will Rabbi Marvin Hier use his pivotal position of influence to tell President George W. Bush what he has informed this reporter, which is that his April 11th endorsement of a Palestinian state was conditioned on the creation of a viable Palestinian leadership, which, in Rabbi Hier's assessment, does not yet exist. FOOTNOTES: (1)http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=710C1845-B60F-4D51-8317-32F98545422D (2)www.edume.org (3)http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/2003/17067.htm (4)http://israelbehindthenews.com/Archives/Nov-19-04.htm#TotalitarianDemocracy (5)SOURCES ON PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY OPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANS AND OF CHRISTIANITY: http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=022E7397-9DF7-4C0A-8DAF-12E4B56221F1 http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=19180862&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=585832&rfi=6 http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=19161293&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=585832&rfi=6 http://thebulletin.us/site/news.asp?brd=2737&pag=460&dept_id=585832
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