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Contents:
Launching ABU MAZEN WATCH.
The Western world, eager to see progress towards peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, interprets the January 9 election of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as an indication of democracy in the Palestinian Authority. Already there is talk of providing additional funds for the PA, in order to make it easier for Abu Mazen to proceed. There is eagerness to push Israel to show "good faith" through gestures such as releasing terrorists convicted of murder. All of this is highly premature. International pressure to grant the PA a state, without fulfilling basic obligations on its part, will spell disaster for Israel and the region. The PA as it now stands, with Abu Mazen at its head, has not renounced the PLO goal of dismembering Israel in stages and has not established any genuine democratic institution. ABU MAZEN WATCH will monitor the performance of Abu Mazen and draw on the appropriate intelligence experts who are fluent in Arabic. ABU MAZEN WATCH will provide timely, brief and succinct reports to be presented by experts to staffers of the Knesset, the US Congress, the Canadian Parliament, the European Parliament and to other appropriate venues.
ABU MAZEN WATCH reports will address four criteria: 2) Incitement. For more than ten years now, the Palestinian Authority has inundated its people with hateful anti-Semitic messages inciting to jihad, and denying the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. This incitement - delivered to the people in Arabic via PA textbooks, newspapers, radio, sermons, and popular culture - is the single greatest indicator of PA intentions. Textbooks must be revamped so that they recognize the legitimacy of Israel and of the Jewish connection to the land, cease promulgating anti-Semitism, and teach peace instead of "martyrdom." Similarly, messages that go out via a variety of PA-controlled outlets must deliver new peaceful messages. We must remind the world that every word that is printed in PA textbooks and every word that emanates from PA media outlets is tightly controlled by Abu Mazen. 3) Freedom of speech and right to dissent. There is at yet no indication that genuine freedom of speech and the press -- a primary hallmark of a true democracy -- is permitted in the PA. Hundreds of Palestinians await trial for the crime of dissent. Until basic freedom of speech is possible, without fear of repercussions, it cannot be said that the PA has established a democracy. 4) Palestinian Arab refugees. A fourth generation of Arab refugees languish in UNRWA camps in areas administered by the PA continue to be utilized as political pawns by the PA as well as by UNRWA. The PA has from the beginning made it clear that the refugees would not be included in the body politic of a future state, and has been reluctant to provide assistance to the refugees, who were presumably within PA areas only temporarily: the PA fashioned itself as their "temporary host." Abu Mazen has focused on this theme by heavily utilizing the promise of "right of return" to 1948 villages and homes in Israel in his campaign. So long as he sustains this policy, it is clear that he intends the destruction of Israel. The "return" would eliminate Israel as a Jewish state. What is more, promoting a false and unobtainable hope in the Palestinian Arab refugees generates rage and frustration, which increases terrorist tendencies. His promotion of "right of return" is antithetical to peace. Abu Mazen must cease and desist from his talk of "return." The time has come for the PA to embrace Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants as part of their body politic and to provide them with permanent homes and a humanitarian solution to their plight, and to put an end to the specious premise and promise of the right to return to homes that no longer exist.
(US tax-deductible) funds for ABU MAZEN WATCH may be sent to: Queries: policyresearch1@yahoo.com.
A Rabbi who Marched from Selma
to Montgomery Recalls the Moral Message of Dr. Martin Luther
King
In other words, two Jews and a Blacks were expendable: They were non-people. This week also coincides with the 76th birthday of Martin Luther King, on a day that is observed in the USA as a national time of reflection on matters related to human rights and civil liberties. The is a also a time when Americans recall the 40th anniversary of the seminal on Selma - Montgomery Alabama march, which galvanized the issue of civil rights into a national moral concern It may seem hard to recall but there have been times in the very recent history of Jews and of Black people when both were considered to be less than human beings. It is for that reason that a contingent of Rabbis were proud to march with Dr. Martin Luther King from Selma to Montgomery. Only few of those Rabbis are around today. One of those Rabbis who marched with Dr. King to Montgomery was Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who has lived in Israel since 1983 and is the Dean of Ohr Torah Educational Institutions and who is also the Rabbi of Efrat, Israel. In 1965, He was then the young Rabbi Steven Riskin, recently ordained at Yeshiva U, and the Rabbi of the fledgling Lincoln Square Synagogue. I asked Rabbi Riskin about the most vivid memories he had of marching with Dr. Martin Luther King and the message that he learned from Dr. King. Rabbi Riskin: "Dr. Martin Luther King believed very profoundly, in democracy but he believed in democracy which understood, number one, freedom of speech and number two, the rights of a minority. And he understood that the right of a minority was the most important check and balance that democracy has. To that end, the minority has the right to adopt a strategy of passive resistance. If only a few people were to resist and only a few people would be willing to go to jail, then obviously it would not make such an impact. If many people did it, it would make a greater impact. And if close to a majority of people would do it, then obviously the government would have to rethink its entire policy. In 1896, the US Supreme Court, in the "Plessy vs. Fergusen"case, ruled that 'separate But equal' is valid…as long as the Blacks got equal treatment - separate places on separate buses, separate schools, separate toilets,. separate drinking places, that would Not be considered to be violation of rights or discrimination. Martin Luther King belived that was not the case. Many Blacks believed that was not the case. And most importantly, Many whites believed that this was not the xase. In the march to Selma, there were many Many blacks and there were many whites,. And the message was the right Of passive resistance against a law that frowns on the rights of many black people. I asked Rabbi Riskin if there was a particular experience that he had as a young Rabbi At the age of less than 25, when he marched with Dr. King. Rabbi Riskin: "The sweetest experience was there were many Blacks who came over and asked about my beany. I had to explain the "kippa", my head covering, in a way that would make sense. And I said that the beany is a freedom cap, and that we Jews believe in freedom, and that we emerged from a slave race, that God told Pharoah That we should be freed from Egyptian domination. I explained that we wear A head covering as a freedom cap. The name "freedom cap" spread like wild fire. And the Blacks asked where they get it. When we began passing by Jewish communities in the South, I asked for Kippot, and thousands of Blacks started wearing Kippot, very Proudly calling them freedom caps. It was obviously written in all of the newspapers, And that was especially exciting to me as a young Rabbi." [Indeed, when the US consulate in Jerusalem organized an exhibition in memory of Martin Luther King in Israel only a few years ago, the US consular press attaché mounted press clippings of the "freedom caps" that a young "Rabbi Raskin" gave out, en route to Montgomery.] I asked Rabbi Riskin if there is a message from Dr. Martine Luther King's moral Crusade that he feels that he can apply to the reality that we face today in the modern State of Israel. Rabbi Riskin: " I do not believe that the Torah takes an absolute strand on the question of disengagement. But I do believe that this is an issue which touches on the Conscience of every single individual. I believe that it is within the right of a democratic state to make a democratic decision to declare its boundaries, and even to declare Certain citizens as living beyond those boundaries. However, one of the most Fundamental human rights is the right of a human being to live in his home. One of the worst disasters that Jews have suffered throughout 2,000 years of persecution was being Exiled from their homes. For a Jewish government and for an Israeli government To ask people to leave their homes is, it seems to me, a very extreme act. It requires Enormous sensitivity. I think that there should have been a national referendum. In the absence of that, this should have been the issue of a new election, I think it would have Made it much easier for people to swallow. From what I understand now, the government is trying very ahrd to find suitable communities from Gush Katif and to transplant them, Almost as they are, to another location. That would be a step in the right direction. From a moral point of view, I would have preferred to have seen this as part of a peace treaty, with the Palestinians on the other side, in their own nation…And if there is a Decision for passive resistance based on conscience, not absolute Jewish law,which would be tantamount to a call for insurrection. The movement should instead be based On a call to conscience, a call for protection of minorities, and speaking out without violence and in the spirit of passive resistance. I think that that is what is very much called for. I asked Rabbi Riskin about the moral implications of the Israeli government decision to once again provide military training for the Palestinian security services, as mandated in clause five of the government decision, since those same security forces had carried out hundreds of deadly attacks against Israelis, especially over the past four years. Rabbi Riskin: "I see a déjà vu of Oslo all over again. Oslo proved to be a Trojan Horse. I am afraid that we are being dragged into the same kind of situation. I am very very concerned. That is why I am against Sharon's plan".
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