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Contents:
Newsworthy Quotations from Official
Palestinian Television Official Palestinian television devoted much of its programming this past Friday (May 13) to attacking Israel and Jews in general, as part of the lead-up to the 57th anniversary of "Al-Nakba"-The Catastrophe-as Palestinians call events of 1948. Coming less than two weeks before Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is set to visit Washington to seek aid and to proclaim his successes in promoting moderation and democracy, the Palestinian propaganda campaign illustrated how, sometimes, it seems that little has changed in the Palestinian media after the death of Yasser Arafat. This article focuses on one particular element of Friday's coverage: some of the anti-Semitic highlights from the mosque address of Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris, the white robed cleric who led the broadcast prayers at the Sheikh Zayid Sultan al-Nahayyan Mosque in Gaza. Sheikh Mudeiris, who is a noted supporter of Osama Bin-Laden's Al-Qaeda organization, did not waste time and from the first word of his sermon attacked Jews over the centuries for their "immorality" and "corruption." In a speech dedicated to "The Catastrophe," Sheikh Mudeiris mixed a traditional Muslim phrase with today's politics. "Praise be to Allah whom we to praise even for what is hateful, and [praise be to Him] for having made heroes of us to withstand what the Jews have done to us," declared the young rotund, bearded cleric as he clutched his gold-trimmed white robe. He unleashed scathing charges against "the Jews who the Prophet [Muhammad] warned had killed their prophets, distorted the teachings of their Torah and corrupted their way of life." Most Jews were treacherous and unreliable, Sheikh Mudeiris said, and the Prophet Muhammad and his follower Abu-Bakr were correct in fighting them and evicting them first from Muhammad's base city of Medina and then from ancient Arabia. "Israel is a cancer among the Islamic peoples," the sheikh shouted at the crowd kneeling at his feet. Sheikh Mudeiris said that the Jews would have killed Islam's Prophet Muhammad, just as they had killed their own prophets, if Muhammad had not outmaneuvered them. "I don't ask you to read the Quran [for this]. I know you read the Quran. …Bur for those who do not. All you have to do is read history. Ask the British what they did with their Jews. In the sixth century (CE/AD), according to the Christian calendar. They were thrown out for 300 years. Ask the French what they did with their Jews." The young charismatic cleric also accused the Jews of idolatry of "corrupting their morality." In previous speeches in recent weeks, he and other mosque speakers on Palestinian television and radio have said that there is an Israeli-American plot against the Arab states, and called for holy war against both Israel and America. "Palestine is the doorway for all the world-between Asia and Europe. "The Jews are responsible for all dissension on this earth. The Jews are behind the suffering of all peoples. "Ask the French. They burned their Talmud because of the dissension they [the Jews] stirred there. "Ask Portugal what it did with the Jews. Ask Tsarist Russia what it did with its Jews who were conspiring to kill the Tsar. "And don't ask Germany what it did with the Jews. Because it was the Jews who brought Nazism which led to the destruction of the entire world. "When the Jews burnt the world with their Zionist movement which moved countries to hurt Germany economically, when they moved Russia, Britain, France and Italy, and Germany's anger against the Jews grew strong. "What happened to the Jews happened to them, and it was one of the worst crimes in history, but it is not as great a crime as what the Jews did to the people of Palestine?! "And what the Jews are doing today, isn't that a crime. Their use of bulldozers, destroying homes, impoverishing their inhabitants. Is it not a crime to kill our children in the ruins of their houses?" The quotations above are only a small portion of the sermon broadcast on Palestinian television on May 13, 2005.
[For a general picture of the Palestinian media this week, see
inter alia
www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=25187, Dr. Michael Widlanski teaches political communication and comparative politics at the Rothberg School of Hebrew University. His doctorate, "Palestinian Broadcast Media In the Palestinian State-Building Process: Patterns of Influence and Control," was based on eight years of research involving more than 7,000 hours of monitoring Palestinian radio in Arabic as well as television and newspaper surveys. Widlanski was the NYTimes campus correspondent at Columbia University, 1974-1976, a reporter-researcher in the NYTimes Jerusalem bureau, 1980-82, Middle East Correspondent for The Cox Newspapers/Atlanta Constitution/Boston Globe, 1982-89. He has also served as Strategic Affairs Advisor to the Ministry of Public Security, editing secret PLO Archives captured in Jerusalem. He has also served as a special advisor to Israeli delegations to peace talks in 1991-1992 and as Strategic Affairs Advisor to the Ministry of Public Security, editing secret PLO Archives captured in Jerusalem.
Official PA Website Spreads the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion The al-Nakba website, which belongs to the Palestinian Authority's information service, disseminates "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", among other things. This website, which is hostile to Israel and contains inciting material, deals with the Nakba-the "Holocaust" of 1948 from the Palestinians' perspective, and appears in Arabic and English. The page on Al-Nakba that offers The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is available only in Arabic, as a sub-section under the heading: "historical background to the 'Nakba.'" What the Arab and Palestinian reader deduces is that the establishment of the State of Israel and, as a consequence, the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem are merely part of the application of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This piece ran on May 16th, 2005 in the daily HaTzofe newspaper
The Hidden Clauses of Oslo
One senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official has documented the Israel-PLO negotiations and through a second-party permitted them to be leaked to the Israeli media. The story told is a shocking indictment of Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin's, "Peace Team", and was privy to the most highly-classified Foreign Ministry documents. And as a ranking diplomatic aide, he was a first-hand witness to the process and development of the secret Oslo negotiations. The PISGA The Foreign Ministry program for Israel's future is outlines in a document authored by Beilin himself, called The Palestinian Interim Self-Government Agreement (PISGA). When first prepared, the document was classified by the Foreign Ministry as a proposal submitted by the Joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to the Washington talks in order to obfuscate its authorship and true policy significance. The PISGA has been incorporated into other local media reports about deception in the peace process. The main points are that the ultimate aims of the peace process are to roll back Israel's territory to the 1949 borders; to create a Palestinian "entity", which, after an interim period will be granted statehood; to accede to this state exclusive rights to underground water resources geologically shared by both states; and to permit the right of return for any Palestinian to the new nation. The clauses of the PISGA describe a plan to disarm territorial settlers and force them to evacuate the West Bank and Gaza Strip, after which no Jews will be permitted to reside in the areas. Parts of this plan may have already been put into force. Illegitimacy Beilin is said to have personally authored or authorized another policy paper revealingly titled, "The Illegitimacy of Israeli Sovereignty Over Jerusalem". It outlines the government's program for the future of Jerusalem. (see Inside Israel December, 1993) by calling for the division of the Old City into cantons whose border posts will be under UN control. Israelis will be barred from freely entering East Jerusalem, which access to West Jerusalem will be severely restricted for Arabs. In effect, Jerusalem will once again become a divided city. Israel Started The Six Day War One of Beilin's greatest worries was that a future Likud government would short-circuit his plan for a Palestinian state during the interim period by resettling the remaining lands outside Jericho and the Gaza Strip. To counter such a possibility, the program calls for Israel to pass a law declaring itself the aggressor in the Six Day War. To justify such a misreading of history, Beilin cited such legal texts as "Palestine and International Law" by Henry Cattan and Gerard von Glahn's "Law Among Nations", which stress the illegality of Israel's presence in the Administered Territories. The rationalization for the declaration of aggression is that if Israel took the disputed territories illegally it would have no right under international law in the future to settle or retrieve them. American Cooperation The on-going negotiations between Israel and the PLO are largely, theatrics. The peace program has already been written by Beilin, Peres and the PLO's Abu Mazin. It was submitted for Washington's approval in September '93, was upgraded in November and formally, though covertly, authorized by Secretary-of-State Warren Christopher during his visit to Jerusalem in December. The Americans promised to solve intractable problems; i.e. water. Beilin gave away the underground reservoir that supplies 30% of Israel's water needs. To compensate for the loss, America offered to build Israel two large desalinization plants. This solution did nothing to salve the anger of Israel hydrologists who observed that desalinized water could not be produced in quantities needed to run industry and agriculture and would up to cost of drinking water beyond the consumers' ability to pay. Keeping Shas In Line Beilin was well aware of the flimsy nature of his government's coalition as he prepared his program. He realized that if the Shas Party refused to support his plans, then they would fail. Since the constituency of Shas is largely opposed to closer or any ties with the PLO, a party decision to oppose Labor's legislation was viewed as likelihood unless steps were taken to keep members in line. The method of ensure control was organized blackmail. After an extensive investigation with the cooperation of the US Justice Department and the FBI, Israeli government investigators managed to trace some $600,000 of Shas leader Arye Deri's embezzled funds to drug money laundering operations in the U.S. and Belgium. The government's Justice and Police Ministries kept these crimes out of Deri's indictments. In the event that Shas chooses to throw Deri to the legal dogs someday, the Justice Department has prepared indictments against party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's sons. Strong cases have been prepared against them for embezzlement in the $50 -100,000 range each. The thorn in the Shas blackmail strategy at the time it was concocted was attorney-general Yosef Harish. He was replaced in the late fall of 1993 with a far more compliant politico, Micha Ben Yair. Since taking up his new post, Ben Yair has covered up the crimes off Shas and has been holding them in escrow until the day that Shas threatens to stop supporting the current peace process. The Campaign Against the Settlers and Their Supporters The Beilin plan calls for the removal of all Jews from beyond the Green Line. Before such a change can be implemented, opposition from the settlers of the Administered Territories is to be eliminated. Beilin is well aware that tens of thousands of Jewish territorial residents will fight his program and that they will have broad support throughout the country. Thus, if they are to be removed, he decided it will have to be in stages. Stage one calls for the disarming of the settlers and the process has already begun in earnest. Last December, Israeli Police ordered all registered gun owners to test their weapons at licensed shooting ranges. Since the policy began, hundreds of guns have been confiscated from settlers, while notifications of license cancellations have been sent to many others. Once the settlers become less able to defend themselves, army presence on the roads leading to their homes will be greatly diminished, leading to heavy terrorist casualties and a feeling of fear and helplessness. This will cause the more passive residents to panic, sell their homes and flee. With the resulting crash in housing prices, the government will offer to buy up the homes of all other settlers wishing to move, at the current market value. Thus, the settlers can be evacuated without paying the high cost incurred when the government gave up the Sinai in 1979. Kafka Visits Hebron Clearly, thousands of residents committed to staying in their homes will see through the plan and will resist it. Beilin's program calls for instilling increased fear in the rebels and this will require a great deal of intelligence material to counteract their resistance. To facilitate this need, Beilin requested and received a significant expansion of Army Intelligence (Aman), in order to supply the General Security Services (Shabak) with information required for total suppression of opposition voices. New surveillance equipment installed at Beilin's suggestion monitors all international phone and fax communications. The equipment is programmed to do real-time scanning for key-words which, when spoken or written, automatically switch on recording equipment. On a more personal level, the entire phone system of Hebron has been tapped, while hundreds of individuals living elsewhere are being listened to. Aman has expanded its database of potential opposition activists to include detailed cross-checks, while the Shabak has infiltrated the settlements with dozens of spies. Dehumanizing The Settlers In order to take his program to its extremes, Beilin had to take precautions that violence against settlers would not provoke a sympathetic reaction from other Israelis which would be translated into opposition to the peace process as he created it. Dehumanizing the settlers required, first, deligitmizing them. This was to be accomplished with a media campaign aimed at painting the residents of the territories as fanatics. Once such an image had been planted, the settlers would no longer be identified by most Israelis as one of them. Then it would be easier to have a small number killed to break the moral of the rest. To finance an expensive state-of-the-art PR campaign, Beilin turned to Peres who solicited the necessary start-up funds, some $6.5 million, from French millionaire and close friend, Jean Friedman. A Few Extraditions For The Cause Beilin's plan called for the government to consider drafting a law which will permit the extradition of Jews to Palestine for crimes against Palestinians. There, they will be subject to Palestinian criminal law. Beilin believes that Jewish retaliatory actions will be stopped cols if the perpetrators are sent to the Palestinian entity for trial and possibly, executed. If any part of Beilin's program has been put into effect, there may have been a backlash that led indirectly to the massacre last month at the Cave of the Mechpala in Hebron.
USAID Adds $7 Million to its
Education Program
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The American people Monday donated an extra $7 million to enlarge U.S.-funded higher education and training programs in the West Bank and Gaza. The education projects are part of a $41 million quick impact initiative that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched as a sign of America's commitment to support the newly-elected Palestinian leadership. "These new funds will benefit institutions of higher education, students and faculty alike, giving them better access to current research and technology, "said Bassam Kort, head of USAID's Higher Education sector. "The goal is to enhance their knowledge about evolving trends in all disciplines. "Education is crucial to the future of Palestinians," Bassam added. "We need to build Palestinian intellectual capital to meet the needs of local development and to enhance Palestinian competitiveness at the global level." USAID developed the project elements in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, and conducted a study to assess the most crucial needs of universities and colleges. About $1 million of the new funds will be used to expanded USAID's Local Scholarship Program to cover the tuition fees of an additional 1,500 students at technical and vocational colleges. The program seeks to respond to the demands of the local labor market by encouraging students to learn essential skills that are lacking. Another $3.5 million will go to provide 13 technical and vocational colleges, with a total of 4,000 students, with modern equipment and supplies. USAID also earmarked $1.5 million for the modernization of computer labs. New computers and other peripheral equipment, and upgraded software will be installed at 20 community colleges in order to improve internet access and provide state-of-the-art skills training for 5,000 students. Libraries at 11 universities will receive $1 million to enhance student and faculty access to the latest global information in the fields of science, business and economics. Based on lists prepared by the universities and the Palestinian Universities Librarians Committee, USAID will fund the procurement of books, reference materials and subscriptions to electronic journals and data bases that provide access to thousands of periodicals, referee journals and scientific publications. An estimated 85,000 students will directly benefit from these improved library resources. USAID administers the U.S. foreign assistance program and provides economic and humanitarian aid in 84 countries worldwide. Since 1993, Palestinians have received more than $1.5 billion in U.S. economic assistance via USAID projects - more than from any other donor country.
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