Israel Resource Review |
9th May, 2000
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Contents:
Should Israel Bomb Damascus Now?
David Bedein
Syria openly provides airfields and roads to supply the Hizbullah terror
organization in Southern Lebanon, a group which declares that its
purpose is to galvanize the Moslem world to invade and overthrow the
state of Israel and to replace it with an Islamic state.
Syria openly provides a haven for the ten Palestinian Arab terror
organizations that have sworn to destroy any peace process between
Israel and its neighbors, including the negotiations between Israel and
the nascent Palestinian Authority.
Syria openly floods Israel with narcotics, according to Israel's National
Drug Enforcement Authority.
Syria openly runs a school system that trains a new generation for war
to liberate all of Palestine and Jerusalem from the Jews.
Syria openly runs a state-controlled media that communicates a daily
message that compares Israel to a Nazi regime.
Syria openly rules the nation of Lebanon, since its invasion and
takeover of the Lebanese regime in 1987.
The consensus in Israel is that the IDF should take strong preemptive
action to stop the attacks from Hizbullah at its northern border.
The question to ask is whether the time has come for Israel to attack the
source of its problem in the north: to hit the Syrian supply lines, drug
routes, poppy fields, communications facilities and terror headquarters.
To attack Lebanon, Syria's surrogate, would seem to leave the job half-done.
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Orient House Orients the Visitor to the Palestinian State
David Bedein
The Orient House, which serves as the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem,
provides the
visitor to Jerusalem with an understanding of how the PLO conceptualizes a
Palestinian state.
The Orient House, with a complement of diplomatic vehicles that are usually
parked outside
the building, is located just off of Nablus Road, a block away from the
American Colony Hotel,
three blocks from the US consulate in East Jerusalem, and only a twenty
minute walk from Jaffa Road
in downtown West Jerusalem.
The "visiting dignitaries" department of the Orient House provides the visitor
with a complimentary poster entitled. "The Dehieshe Refugee Camp" that
pictures a little girl
in a hut in the UNRWA Deheishe refugee camp, located just south of
Bethlehem. Under the
the picture of the little girl is an appeal,“Let her return home:UN
RESOLUTION #194”,
with a list of Arab villages that are now inside or nearby Jerusalem that
were abandoned in 1948 on the
left side of the poster, and a statement, "The Refugees who live in
Deheishe come from these villages". Rounding off the poster
is a quote from Pope Paul II from his March 2000 visit to Dehieshe, when he
declared that "No one should forget the tragedies
that hgave marked your history and your sufferings".
The Orient House pr office also provides the visitor with an very
informative multicolored 37 page brochure published in
April, 2000 by the PLO on the subject of the 3.5 million Palestinian
refugees, which presents the PLO position on the refugees, which is hat all
refugees must have the right to return to their homes and villages from 1948.
The manager of the Orient House press office, Nabel Aweidah, together with
Khalil Tafakji, a department director of the Arab Studies Society headed by
Faisal Husseini, provide a map reprinted only three weeks ago of the
Palestinian state for a fee of fifteen shekels.
That map, incidentally, which was originally published in 1988, includes
all of Palestine, makes no mention Israel, and features every Arab village
that was abandoned in 1948.
A new addition to the Orient House that Tafakji is pleased to show his
guests is the special computer map room of Orient House
where computer operators run five state of the art computers that locate
Arab owned homes from before 1948, and connect them to the deed-owners of
these homes who have been living in UNRWA refugee camps since 1950. The
Orient House's chief computer operator has been focusing lately on
Arab-owned homes from Talbia, Katamon, Bakka. Tafakji says that he will
soon turn his attention to locating Arab-owned homes throughout Israel and
connecting them to UNRWA refugee camp residents.
All in all, a visit to the Orient House provided the visitor with insight
into the official Palestinian perspective of the peace process at this time.
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Anti-Barak Rhetoric in the Egyptian Media
MEMRI
Special Dispatch - Egypt
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent,
non-profit organization providing translations of the Arab media and
original analysis and research on developments in the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available upon request.
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Anti-Barak Rhetoric in the Egyptian Media
Since the collapse of the Clinton-Assad summit in Geneva, both the
government and the opposition press in Egypt have been increasingly critical
of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The criticism takes the form of
typical anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic rhetoric. The common
theme holds that Barak is worse than Netanyahu. While this could be merely
a matter of political tactics aimed at prompting a change in Israel's
policy, it still marks a serious change in the attitude towards the present
Israeli government. Following are two examples:
Barak is like Nero
In the government daily Al-Akhbar, (1) Dr. Said Al-Kurdi compares Barak to
Nero:
"The Roman emperor Nero, whose [reign] was characterized by despotism and
cruelty, set fire to Rome in 64 AD. The Israeli emperor Ehud Barak, whose
reign is characterized by deceit and light-headedness, has begun setting
fire to Lebanon and plans to torch the entire Middle East."
"Comparing the two arsonists is valid [and] uncovers the similarities
between the goals of the Romans and the Israelis."
"Nero burnt Rome claiming that the city was 'dirty.' He shifted the blame
to the Christians and persecuted Christianity. We emphasize the word
'dirty' and move to Israeli emperor Ehud Barak, who, like other Israelis,
thinks Israel is 'an island of cleanliness in a sea of dirt.' [Former
Israeli Prime Minister] Shimon Peres said this at the Davos conference.
Therefore, the Middle East must be completely burnt .beginning with Lebanon,
while blaming Hizbullah and the Palestinians fighting for the liberation of
their land from . . . a state that seems more like a gang of robbers in the
heart of a civilized region."
"The Middle Eastern Nero thinks in terms of the double standards that
prohibit a Jew from harming his fellow Jew, but allow him to harm a
non-Jew."
The Christian Holy Book .warned us that the heretics from amongst the
Israelites are a 'rebellious [sect]'. .The Koran warned us, in Allah's
words: "Thou shalt certainly find the bitterest of people in enmity against
the believers [Muslims] to be the Jews.'(2) .Jews do not fulfill the
treaties they sign, and they should not be trusted because they are a nation
of vagabonds filled with hatred toward the entire world. Therefore, the
world must know the psychological nature of the Israeli emperor before he
explodes in anger, setting fire to the entire Middle East."
"It seems that Israel has forgotten the lesson it was taught by the Egyptian
army in October [1973]. Although Israel is now 'burning' on a low flame --
the flame of hatred of the Arabs and the world -- the Arab summit must not
be delayed and it must examine new methods. [For] when the fire breaks out,
it will devour its entire surroundings indiscriminately."
Barak -- Worse than Pharoah
'Abbas Al-Tarabily, editor of the opposition daily Al-Wafd, which is
affiliated with the secular nationalist Wafd party, writes (2):
"Because of what former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did to us
for over three years, we cursed him and prayed that Allah would remove him
from our path -- the path of peace. The early elections in Israel gave us a
chance from heaven to make use of Israel's democracy .we hoped for his
[arrival], we wrote articles and songs of praise."
"We all wanted Netanyahu's downfall because of his rigidity, his hostile
policy, his objection to the peace process, and because he ruined every
opportunity [to promote peace]. Everyone who attacked Netanyahu said that
no Israeli could ever be worse."
"However, it turned out that all the Arab hopes were misplaced. Time has
shown that Barak is worse than Netanyahu; he is more hostile to peace than
Netanyahu. He supports the extremist settlers as if he were their leader.
[Barak], who we thought would be Moses, turned out to be Pharaoh. In fact,
even Pharaoh was not as despotic as Barak. It is enough to recall that in
his nine month reign, he has built more houses for settlers than Netanyahu
did in three years."
"However, Barak is not satisfied with disrupting the peace process, like his
predecessor did. He has torn up all the agreements signed by his
predecessors. It has reached the point where he dashed the agreement he
himself had signed. Moreover, he ignores those who witnessed the signing,
like Egypt and the US."
"What else can be said?"
"In the past we spoke of hawks and doves in Israel, and about one hand
covered with a silk glove, and another which is an iron fist. But they are
all Zionists from head to toe; there is no difference between the extremists
who founded the Zionist state, and those who followed them and protected it,
or those who made a commitment to 'expand' its borders."
"In the past we heard [Arabs] who promised to cast Israel into the sea, and
who referred to it as the 'so-called state,' or as the 'state of gangs.'"
"Today...we try to regain the land like beggars, one meter after the
other... Will we get to the Sea of Galilee, where it had been since the dawn
of history? Will the sovereignty of sister Syria reach its northeastern
shore? Barak is determined to prevent Syria from getting there .even though
we speak of only one quarter of the lake."
"It proves that they are all Zionists, from Ben-Gurion to Barak. It is just
happenstance that they belong to this or that political party. Their faces
have changed, but their strategy is one and the activity for its completion
is at full speed."
"What happened with Barak, who we prayed to take Netanyahu down, brings us
to call him 'Barahu' [i.e. Barak-Netanyahu]. It is sufficient to remember
that it was Ehud Barak who wore prostitute's clothes, painted his face, and
put on a wig when he led in the murder of Kamal 'Adwan and his comrades in
Beirut."
"What will we do now, after it has turned out that they are all thieves,
that is to say, Zionists?"
Footnotes:
(1) Al-Akhbar (Egypt). April 12, 2000.
(2) The Koran, Suran Al-Malidah, verse 82.
(3) Al-Wafd (Egypt). April 17, 2000.
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) 1815 H Street, NW Suite 404 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: (202) 955-9070 Fax: (202) 955-9077 E-mail: MEMRI@erols.com Website: www.memri.org
[MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be cited with proper attribution.]
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