EDITORIALS

ISRAEL'S VIRTUAL SURRENDER TO ARAFAT & TERRORISM....Bernard J. Shapiro
ODE TO SHARON: A DEMENTED MONSTER...Poem....Bernard J. Shapiro
WHY DO WE SUPPORT ISRAEL?...Guest Editorial....Patrick O'Brian
THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION: ISRAEL AND JUDEA...Guest Editorial....Ariel Natan Pasko
COLUMN ONE: OUR SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS...Guest Editorial....Caroline Glick
AN INDEFATIGABLE UNDERMINER.....Guest Editorial....Elyakim Haetzni

FBI/CIA INTELLIGENCE SLANDER AGAINST ISRAEL/AIPAC/BUSH
THE AIPAC KERFUFFLE - Jerusalem Post Editorial
SHARANSKY: PENTAGON-CIA RIVALRY LED TO CHARGE
ANALYSIS: AFFAIR WON'T HARM STRONG US-ISRAEL TIES....Gerald Steinberg
ISRAELI RESPONSES TO THE FBI'S ESPIONAGE INVESTIGATION LEAK....Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
THE FINE ART OF A SET-UP - ENGINEERING & DENIAL....Emanuel A. Winston
JERUSALEM: NO INTELLIGENCE ASSETS ON AMERICAN SOIL....Janine Zacharia and Arieh O'Sullivan

ISRAELI POLITICS /HISTORY/ANTI-SEMITISM
ANOTHER TACK: SHULA IN HISTORYLAND....Sarah Honig
THEODORAKIS: JEWS CONTROL WORLD FINANCES?....Ramit Plushnick-Masti
DRIVEN FROM OUR HOMES....Emanuel A. Winston
TEACHING RETREAT.....Emanuel A. Winston
ABUSING 'APARTHED' FOR THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE....Gerald Steinberg
IF NOT THE ARROW, THEN WHAT?....Moshe Feiglin

STRATEGIC AND POLITICAL ANALYSIS
ISRAEL'S SECURITY STRATEGY....Louis Rene Beres
'LITTLE ISRAEL' WILL NOT SAVE WORLD FROM IRAN....Arieh O'Sullivan
U.S. ARMY'S THEL [Israeli "Nautilus"] Shoots Down Mortar Rounds Again Showing Versatility of Northrop Built System
CHECKMATE ......Ross C. Leiber
LAND FOR PEACE (L-F-P) A POLITICALLY INCORRECT EXAMINATION....Yoram Ettinger
THE PROMISED LAND AND POLITICAL STUPIDITY....Steven Shamrak
IT JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE...For Kurds....Gerald A. Honigman
IRAQ'S DISAPPEARING CHRISTIANS....Daniel Pipes
WILLFUL BLINDNESS IN GAZA....Caroline Glick

ISRAEL'S VIRTUAL SURRENDER
TO ARAFAT & TERRORISM

Some Observations

By Bernard J. Shapiro

1. It is apparent to many people that, despite his exalted military career, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is showing cowardice in the face of Palestinian attacks during the current war. While IDF soldiers and officers certainly are personally brave in the face of the enemy, Israel's political leadership is indecisive and non-aggressive. I ask you: When in Israel's military history did its forces not attack and occupy enemy positions from where live fire was coming? Only today is the IDF entangled with rules that prevent its ability to defeat the enemy decisively. The failure to engage the enemy with force and aggressiveness has led to a massive loss of deterrence on the part of Israel.

2. The repeated cease-fire talks and restraint demanded by the Americans have made the Israelis look like a "banana republic" as well as fools for expecting Arafat's signature on an agreement to mean something tangible.

3. The level of lying on the part of the Palestinians about Arafat's war is an indicator of how unreasonable and "anti-peace" they really are. Of, course, they are truthful about their ultimate goal of destroying Israel and committing genocide against its Jewish population.

4. It is clear to me that Sharon is using Arafat's war for the purpose of causing the Jews of YESHA to evacuate their homes. This was meant to save himself the difficulty of personally taking charge of the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the area. Unfortunately today, he leading the forces demanding the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Eretz Yisrael. Sharon has already given the green light to Arafat, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, by his actions in not suppressing the war and destroying Israel's enemies.

5. Sharon's giveaway of Gaza and the Shomron and his plans to make all of YESHA Judenrein should have brought down his government, yet he still rules. I am very disappointed at this. Where is the nationalist camp?

6. There is talk of international observers for YESHA. This would be a great victory of Arafat and justify his war against Israel. The Israeli response should be a deafening no. From experience of 56 years, we all know that the UN, its bodies, and all International Forces are biased against Israel and in the pocket to the Arabs. The only purpose of such a plan would be to diminish Israel's rightful sovereignty in the area.

7. Sharon's constant warnings and threats, for which he never acts, further reduce Israeli deterrence.

8. Allowing the news media to photograph teenagers throwing stones is bad for Israel's image. It is well know that these very same photographers avoid taking pictures of Palestinian gunfire. The print journalists avoid references to live fire from the Palestinian side. Many rioters wait for journalists to arrive before rioting. Others actually collaborate with journalists to start riots strictly for the anti-Israel propaganda it inevitably brings the Arab cause. It is past time to remove journalists from the areas of clashes.

9. Oslo, Camp David, Road Map, Geneva, and the Disengagement (Retreat -Appeasement to terror) must be terminated with extreme prejudice.

10. Israel must annex immediately all of YESHA. Then the Palestinians must be told that those who engage in hostile activity against Israel will be expelled from the country. If hostility is widespread then the entire population should make a new home in Jordan.

Bernard J. Shapiro is the executive director of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies and the editor of The Maccabean Online and the Freemanlist.

FREEMAN CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES
P.O. Box 35661 * Houston, Texas 77235-5661
Phone or Fax: 713-723-6016 * E-mail <bernards@sbcglobal.net>

ODE TO SHARON: A DEMENTED MONSTER

By Bernard J. Shapiro

Oh Land of my Fathers, lovely land of freedom,
Where has thou gone?
To a New Middle East of retreat and appeasement, across a sea of fog.
Deep into the fantasy world of Beilin & Peres goes Sharon.
Oh love of my fathers, hope of my people,
What has become of your promise of Zion?
Why do you wander drunk and sick?
What has become of thee?

=============

I see no more a land of freedom, love and justice.
I see no more the hope and prayer of the Jew.
I see a monster, a demented monster.
Tell me oh beast, oh mighty beast of prey,
How many dirty deals did you make with our enemies today?
How many Jewish villages did you put in harms way?
How many Jewish homes and families will you bulldoze?
How many Jewish prayers for Eretz Yisrael did you wreck and bury?
And tell me, how many children will die at the
Hands of the murderers you appease and have set free today?
Tell me the truth, oh beast, oh mighty beast of prey.

==============

Oh demented monster, why did you come?
When will you go?
You'll go when the settlers are all gone.
You'll go when religious Jews are no longer in your way.
You'll go when all Zionists have forsaken Zion.
You will go when Israel is Judenrein.
You'll go when They are all dead.
Oh beast, oh mighty beast of prey.
It is We, the people of Israel, who are They.

ISRAPUNDIT - August 13, 2004

WHY DO WE SUPPORT ISRAEL?

Does The Average American Understand What's At Stake?

By Patrick D. O'Brien

The United States and Israel have many mutual political interests. Ethical and altruistic considerations aside, this is the primary impetus behind international alliances. I do love Israel, and I am proud that my nation is Israel's best friend, but I know that it's not for purely noble reasons. Geopolitical maneuvering and backroom deals are part and parcel of the international political landscape. However, so long as such practical matters of utility are necessary, I am very glad that such a fortuity has brought our two nations and peoples together. As an average citizen, I don't need to understand in great detail every facet of our complex relationship with Israel, but I've learned that the Jews of Israel have much in common with us culturally, politically, and economically. I consider them to be my brothers and sisters, and I can't imagine not having Israel as our friend. Sadly, not all Americans understand this special bond.

I've noticed over the years how many of Israel's most ardent critics here in the U.S. decry the amount of foreign aid that the United States gives to Israel (this year's estimate is about $2.7 billion, down from last year's $3.7 billion). It seems to be their favorite point of criticism because it is a hard, established number. One also notes how a lot of these same people are of the opinion that the "Palestinians" are engaged in a legitimate conflict against an aggressive occupying force, and so they take issue with the fact that much of the assistance provided to Israel from the U.S. is in the form of military aid (about 80% this year). I have heard on more than one occasion the mournful plaint, "I don't know about you, but I don't like knowing that my tax dollars are being used to fund the military of a country that kills children." Of course, the fact that Israel is only trying to protect its own children -- all too often from these same Arab children -- is wholly lost on these people. I won't comment right now on the implicit value judgments in such selective affinities.

Personally, I would support Israel no matter what. It's abundantly clear to me that it is only just to do so. Not all of my fellow citizens get that, though. So I'd like to make a more practical and compelling case for why the United States should and must support Israel.

To begin with we are both democratic states trying to maintain order and stability in a disorderly world which sometimes has all the stability of a drunkard on stilts. Interestingly, many of Israel's American detractors don't seem to consider just how little the United States gets in return for its aid to other states in the same region as Israel. Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority together receive U.S. aid comparable to that of Israel, which is in large part, to placate them. Egypt is basically paid not to attack Israel. If one looks into the matter at all, it becomes clear that Israel actually earns its U.S. foreign aid, and then some. The double standard employed by Israel's American critics in this matter is somewhat disturbing. This article is an appeal to my fellow Americans who do not understand why it is not only moral, but also imperative for the United States to do its part to ensure Israel's welfare, and indeed, survival.

Among the most important assets that Israel provides the U.S. with in return for financial assistance are:

-- invaluable intelligence information: The war on terror is a euphemistic title which really means "the war on Islamofascism." Israel is on the front lines of this war every day, and has been for some time now. Rabid antisemitism is more or less de rigueur in Arab/Muslim society, accounting for some of the hatred fueling the terror. Israel is also despised for bringing democracy, success, and the rule of law to an area which knows very little about such things. In the hate-polluted and culturally stagnant waters that are modern Arab/Muslim affairs, Israel has been the local target of choice for the irrational fury of Islamic terror. As a consequence, Israel has excelled at combating terror like no other nation on Earth.

A crucial part of neutralizing Islamic terror is having good, actionable intelligence. Useful and current data needs to be gathered and properly analyzed before it can be acted on. Since Arabic is one of Israel's official languages, Israeli agents are on the ball with electronic, on-the-ground, and print intelligence. They've got agents all over the Arab world. And since 9/11, U.S. intelligence agents and special operations soldiers have begun to pay especial attention to the Israeli playbook, because Israel knows better than anyone how to fight fourth generation warfare. We've participated in joint exercises with Israel in spheres of warfare that are somewhat alien to us, since we haven't had to deal with vicious criminals trying to blow up our kids every day. To be frank, we are pretty damn fortunate to have Israel's expertise to help guide us in these matters. Now more than ever, America needs this sort of tutelage and intelligence support. In my book, that's worth about a billion.

-- technological/economic gains: Not only does Israel easily rank among the world's elite in intelligence gathering and analysis, but its citizens are brilliant and highly educated. Beyond the cultural Jewish spirit for excellence, they have the incentive to succeed in unique ways economically because of Israel's scant natural resources. So, Israelis have tapped into their greatest and most reliable resource: themselves. In fifty-six short years, Israel has accomplished what many nations haven't been able to do in centuries. With a driving demand for survival and success against all odds, Israelis developed an energetic and ambitious entrepreneurial enthusiasm.

This attitude has helped to propel Israel to world leadership in the fields of medicine, scientific research (many disciplines), agriculture, telecommunications, high-tech electronics & software (the country's leading industrial sector), and more recently, the biotechnology industry. To quote industrialist Efi Arazi, "Israel now has a critical mass in high technology that is far ahead of anything in Europe." The United States is deeply involved in many of these enterprises and derives enormous benefits from Israel's unrivaled supremacy in many of these fields. And of course, many American businesses will be given preferential treatment in securing joint venture contracts for Israeli projects. Many Americans have no idea how many Israeli contributions are part of our life. The drug Copaxone, which gives hope to those suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, was developed by Israelis at the Weizmann Institute. ICQ instant messaging was invented by four young Israelis in their twenties, and bought by AOL. Israel's drip irrigation systems save between 40-50% of water usage, while giving a 300% return in crop increase. Israel's innovation and supreme industrial feats confer massive benefits to their economy and to America's. Another billion here, I'd say.

-- a democratic presence in the Middle East: I think it's pretty hard to put a price on this, especially when considering the totalitarian states in that area whose people hate America and the west. Having moved past its strategic role as America's democratic foothold in the Middle East against the "Red Menace" of Soviet Russia, Israel is now viewed by some to be our bulwark against the area's "Green Menace" of militant Islam. I don't personally believe that Islam will ever be an insuperable threat to western civilization. I optimistically like to think that we'll (all) eventually deal with it, if for no other reason than to save ourselves and our freedoms (not to mention the millions of Muslims who might not be averse to a departure from grinding misery, repression, and poverty). However, until the rest of the free world gets its tolerant and multicultural head out of la-la land, it's a good idea for both Israel and the United States to have a strong and defensible secular democracy in the region. The Middle East is hardly the most stable place in the world, and poses severe, if not long-term challenges to democracy. With the psychotic mulllahcracy of Iran, the oil-drunk Saudi terror sponsors, and various other erratic and violent regimes in its immediate neighborhood, Israel has some experience dealing with this sort of thing. We can only gain from this experience.

Below the strata of our governments, I see a mutual affinity among American and Israeli citizens with regard to shared values like: freedom of speech, the rule of law and due process in court, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, equality between sexes, and all of the other worthy advantages of democracy. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if hateful Muslim Arabs look at Israel and its democratic principles with scorn and enmity. Israel is a reminder of what sort of governance truly works for its people, offering freedom and happiness. It's high time the Arab world got beyond its visceral rejection of innovation based upon a backward and anachronistic amalgam of religion, tribal values, entrenched statism and xenophobia. There are other considerations of security which make having a democratic ally in the Middle East an idea that behooves the United States. Cha-ching! -- there's another billion. Israel's U.S. foreign aid has now more than paid for itself. But wait, there's more.

-- peace through superior firepower: The cooperative military ventures between Israel and the United States are nothing short of spectacular. The strategic value derived from these joint projects is hard to measure, and the lives they save makes them priceless. The Arrow missile, as was shown recently, promises to be an indispensable replacement for the useful, yet not quite useful enough, Patriot missile system. From the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) and satellite technology, to Israel's state of the art Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) and down to more mundane military matters, the U.S. takes advantage of Israel's technological prowess and pioneering spirit. In today's world, military supremacy is of paramount importance for free nations, and the U.S. and Israel are a step ahead of everyone else. This is all the more important to the U.S. when we now have the same monsters hammering on our door as Israel's. Also, I'm sure there are also a few black book projects that we don't yet know about. Heck, that's got to be worth another billion, at least.

And when it comes to military might, Israel reigns supreme in the Middle East. The IDF has approximately 150,000 active duty strength troops and another estimated 500,000 regularly trained reservists which can be mobilized inside of 72 hours. This formidable fighting force is also equipped with the best available equipment, armaments, intelligence, and logistical support. And Israel's Air Force has a fleet second in size only to the United States.

After having had to defend Israel in five major wars, the IDF is among the world's most seasoned and battle-trained armed forces. With fresh hostilities each day, Israel's sons and daughters in the IDF are regularly tested and retested in battle. Israel is also in possession of (openly) secret nukes. In the unlikely event of America needing a "helping hand" in the region, isn't it good to know that Israel's first-rate military is on our side? They're numerous, well-trained, disciplined, armed to the teeth, and they're already there -- no deployment. It may well prove to be quite a godsend one day.

The value of the peace (and peace of mind), however tenuous, that all of these military factors buy for the United States, through a powerful deterrent to our enemies, and as a potential front line in a future American offensive in the area is truly incalculable. As arrogant and contentious as it may sound, there truly is something to be said for the accessiblity of peace through superior firepower.

I am obviously not an expert in geopolitics, economics, or foreign policy. I know a thing or two about these matters, though, because I think it's important to understand at least a minimum of what goes on in ones government, and what sort of relations ones country has with others. For practical and personal reasons, I've grown quite fond of Israel over the years, in great measure because I've discovered how tightly knit, on many levels, our relationship with them is. The bottom line here is that dollar for dollar, Israel gives back to the U.S. far more than other nations, especially Arab states, which receive more or comparable aid (and which consistently vote against us at the UN, by the way). I'm almost willing to describe Israel's role in our relationship as being on the United States' payroll; certainly not as a "puppet," but as a valued and crucial friend whose services are indispensable. Israel earns our foreign aid, whereas other countries take our money and give nothing back, or worse, actively work against us.

And anyone who thinks that Arabs hate us primarily because we support Israel is either ignorant or looking for another specious justification for slandering the U.S. and/or Israel. Or worse, they are seeking a way to excuse Islamic terror. If this is what you believe, you need to look into this matter more objectively, turn off your emotions, and rethink your position. The United States is the Great Shaitan and Israel is the Little Shaitan. And if you think that Europe is not hated by those who think that shari'ah is a good idea, all I can say is stay tuned, and perhaps prepare for dhimmitude. It makes sense for us to support Israel. It is in a nation's best interests to do what makes sense for its well-being, for its standing in the world, and for the security of its citizens.

Beyond all this, I just love Israel. The values of Israel's people are more consonant with American values than any other people I know of. I have no issue with the vast majority of my nation's values. I love it here, and I think that in the balance, we are a just nation, like Israel. I am grateful to live in a free and open society where what I do as an individual counts, if only a little a bit. Israelis seem to have a similar outlook, and I am truly glad to live in a nation that supports such people. Despite the material reasons for our alliance, at the end of the day, I am absolutely convinced that there is also pure, human worth in our unique mutual friendship.

I think it's also important to remember that Israel is trying to lead a modern, secular, democratic, existence in the middle of a region comprised mainly of hostile and combative totalitarian regimes. This means that Israel holds itself to standards that its enemies don't. I think many westerners are resentful of Israel's perceived transgressions against liberal democracy because they don't take into consideration just how much adversity Israel is up against. Israel is not in the midst of like-minded nations as European states are, and they are not the global powerhouse that the U.S. is. Such an attitude against Israel is, of course, hypocritical coming from Americans. And in some instances I regret to say that, yes, it certainly appears to be antisemitic.

The fact is that for Israel to lose just one battle against its pugnacious neighbors, is to lose all battles. That will be the end of the short story of the Jewish homeland's rebirth. When I need to explain to others, as I've done here, what's in it for us, then I have to face the fact that some people don't seem to care if the Jewish state is wiped off the map by the Arabs who seem to have all the patience in the world to make that happen. I find it unsettling, just sixty years after the Holocaust, that some of my countrymen have forgotten one of the principal reasons why Israel must be defended -- this is the only place in the whole world that every Jew can call home. This tiny strip of land that comprises about two percent of the Middle East is all that stands between the Jewish people and an ocean of Arabs/Muslims clamoring to spill their blood. This isn't hyperbole either; this is the reality for Jews in israel. For me, this is the best reason for the United States to support Israel -- because it's the right thing to do.

So, some of my fellow Americans are apparently uniformed or willfully ignorant in their one-sided criticism of Israel when it comes to this U.S. foreign aid red herring. They don't seem to object to Arab states which take the same American money that Israel gets, while giving back little outside of hatred and death. Some of my fellow Americans are blind. Just three years after deranged Arab/Muslim savages killed 3,000 of us on our own soil, they still don't seem to see how critical our alliance with Israel is. They wonder how we can afford to send so much foreign aid to our one true friend in all of the Middle East. I wonder how we could afford not to.

THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION:
ISRAEL AND JUDEA

By Ariel Natan Pasko

Back in 1989, the radical Rabbi and former Knesset member Meir Kahane, members of his - still then legal - Kach Party, and an assortment of other miscellaneous - what are euphemistically called today - right-wing extremists, met in Jerusalem, to found the State of Judea. Their program, based on the assumption that an - as yet unknown -Israeli-Palestinian peace process of the future, would call for the expulsion of Jews from parts of the historic Land of Israel, specifically the 1967 liberated territories called Yesha, i.e. Judea, Samaria (the West Bank), and Gaza. In case of this eventuality, they proposed that Jewish settlers declare independence from Israel and establish their own Jewish state, to be called the State of Judea. This idea, was to provide a political and defense alternative to the Jews of Yesha, since the Israeli government, it was believed, would be abandoning them, and turning over sovereignty of the land to an Arab entity.

In juxtaposition to the commonly heard phrase, "two states for two peoples," i.e. Jews and Arabs or Israelis and Palestinians, one can summarize their idea in the phrase, "two states for one people," i.e. Jews-Judeans and Israelis. Let me point out here, there is a historic precedent for it, just open the bible to the Book of Kings, and you can read about the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

Be that as it may, 15 years ago, this idea - of two Jewish states - was the purview of those exclusively on the right side of the political spectrum in Israel, but not anymore.

Referring to Sharon's disengagement plan from Gaza and areas of Samaria, and the forced expulsion of Jews from their homes and communities, American academic, Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, suggested a different type of strategy to avoid a civil war in Israel, "Should the [Israeli] government go ahead with the forcible removal of Jewish residents of Gaza, intra-Israeli violence appears to be a distinct possibility. Which in turn makes me wonder why the Israeli authorities do not take quite a different track and merely stop providing security for them."

This idea has also been proposed in an article in the left-leaning "intellectual" Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz entitled, "If they do not evacuate voluntarily". In it, the author referring to Sharon's Gaza Plan states, "Israel cannot afford a national trauma of this magnitude. Therefore, the disengagement must not be carried out by force. The government had better announce in advance and unequivocally that there will be no forced evacuation, and plan the implementation of the disengagement accordingly. If there were any chance of it succeeding, it would be preferable to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority over the possibility of allowing the settlements, or some of them, and the settlers who so wish to remain under Palestinian rule..."

Speaking of the compensation process and the final date of evacuation the author continues, "One can hope that by that date, not many settlers will remain. But those who do choose to remain - and this must be said regretfully, but decisively - will do so on their own responsibility...Does this mean that Israel is 'abandoning' the settlers? This question cannot be considered out of context. The settlers' fate is not the only thing at stake: The fate of the entire state is...The settlers cannot expect the Israeli majority to agree to subordinate its destiny to theirs..."

So, along with promoting the constant threat of a civil war, writers, thinkers, politicians and generals from the Left, are beginning to define "settlers," as being from another group, whose "destiny" is different. For example, Ha'aretz has in the past few months promoted the "two-state idea," with such lurid titles as, "Land of Israel vs. State of Israel" and "The other Jewish state".

In the "Land of Israel vs. State of Israel," the author states, "Still, the extreme right can't be portrayed solely by means of the debate with Sharon. Its activists act on behalf of another country: the 'Land of Israel.' That country has for years been engaged in subverting the State of Israel...It's part of the great battle between the State of Israel and the Land of Israel, where the residents [i.e. settlers] are not bound by any democratic game. The Land of Israel is a messianic-religious nationalistic entity, in part racist, and it has a lot of clout among the people who live in the State of Israel."

And in "The other Jewish state," the author, in discussing the State Comptroller's Report writes, "In fact, we have to think in terms of two Jewish states, one within the Green Line, living according to Israeli law, and the other across that line...The gap between the two Jewish nation-states is quite clear from the other data scattered in the report. This refers not only to the amount of money that has been invested in the settlements, but to the method..."

Referring to Israel's investment in building Jewish communities in Yesha, the author complains, "It involves the creation of a different Jewish identity - and hence a different culture - from the one that exists in Israel. Underlying this identity is a concept of territories; Jewry as an elite that deserves the best and for which the whole existence of the State of Israel is no more than a feed-line...The comptroller seeks to, almost begs to, apply Israeli criteria to a population that from the outset established its foundations on divine law."

But it's not only the Israeli Left that sees settlers and settlements as "different" from Israel...

For over a year and a half now, the European Union has been arguing with Israel over the inclusion of products from Yesha, under its Free Trade Agreement with Israel. The Europeans began demanding that products produced in the settlements, since they don't originate in "Israel," don't qualify for import tax-free status. Although the Foreign Ministry's policy had been not to give in to European pressure on this matter, Trade and Industry Minister Ehud Olmert last year began working on a "solution". His solution? Israel will label all products for export with the geographic location in which they were manufactured, for example, Made in Israel - Tel Aviv, or, Made in Israel - Gush Etzion, thus enabling the EU to identify and tax products from Yesha. It also will enable pro-Palestinian consumers in Europe to more easily boycott Yesha products, something the far-left Israeli "peace" group Gush Shalom has been promoting for a number of years.

And elements of the Israeli government are facilitating this...

Then there's the recent 14th Ministerial Conference of the 115-member country Non-Aligned Movement, the largest international body outside the United Nations.

According to their "Declaration on Palestine," they wrote, "The Ministers welcomed the Advisory Opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice on the 'Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory'". They referred to the "contravention of relevant provisions of the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention" and stated, "The Ministers further underscored the Court's conclusion that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, have been established in breach of international law..."

And then in section 5b state, "With regard to Member States, the Ministers called upon them to undertake measures, including by means of legislation, collectively, regionally and individually, to prevent any products of the illegal Israeli settlements from entering their markets consistent with the obligations under International Treaties, to decline entry to Israeli settlers..."

They called on their 115 member countries to boycott products from Yesha communities and to forbid entry of Yesha residents into their countries.

Israeli officials quickly brushed off the boycott call. "We are sorry for this decision," said one official, "But we think this political decision will be impossible to implement." And about the ban on settlers, they said that, "Israeli Passports don't have local addresses." But that's not entirely correct, most countries require visa applications, which will require Israeli home addresses. What will an Israeli wannabe tourist from say Ma'ale Adumim or Ariel do? Fill out the form with his real address when he wants to go to India, Thailand, Chile, or Kenya and be denied entry? Or, lie on the form, go there, get arrested for a traffic violation, and if found out where he really lives, be held for prosecution for lying on a visa application as well?

Clearly, the international community, Israel's Left, and the Israeli government are making a distinction between Jewish settlers and settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and Israelis in Israel proper.

And if all this weren't enough, Israeli Attorney-General Meni Mazuz - based on an Israeli Justice Ministry legal team study - has recommended to the government, that it "carefuly examine" the possibility of formally applying the Fourth Geneva Convention - which governs the treatment of civilians in an occupied territory - to Yesha. This would reverse the policies of all Israeli governments since 1967 - that the territories are not "occupied" as defined in the convention, but rather "disputed". Though Mazuz intends it to apply to the treatment of the Palestinians for humanitarian purposes, it could give the Jewish residents of Yesha, the international status of "war criminals," since another section of the convention has been used to define settlements as illegal. With all this effort on the part of the international community to define two different groups of Jews, class A and class B, and the Israeli government acting as a willing accomplice, and with the Israeli government pursuing a policy to expel Jews from their homes, or simply remove Israeli Army security and abandon them, will Jewish settlers decide to declare their independence from Israel? Only time will tell.

Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis. He is also a research associate and member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko

(c) 2004/5764 Pasko

The Jerusalem Post - August 27, 2004

COLUMN ONE: OUR SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS

by Caroline Glick

The Non-Aligned Movement's decision over the weekend to bar Israeli tourists who live beyond the 1949 cease-fire lines from visiting their countries was greeted at the Foreign Ministry with an irritated yawn. No doubt our diplomats should have mustered a bit more revulsion in their reaction to this affront to our national honor, rights and legitimacy. But it is equally true that the NAM declaration will doubtlessly have little impact on the vacation spots chosen by Israelis who live in eastern and northern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.

Just last week it was reported that Israelis make up the largest group -- in absolute numbers -- of tourists in Kashmir. The second largest group of tourists to that war-torn Indian state comes from China. That is, Israelis visit Kashmir in larger numbers than Chinese do even though China's population is 216 times larger than Israel's. No doubt, India, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Kenya, Tanzania and countless other states who are members of NAM would have serious qualms about voluntarily losing millions of dollars in tourist revenue annually by placing restrictions on travel by Israeli tourists in their mountain villages and marketplaces.

And lose them they most assuredly would. Because the truth is that Israelis don't like being treated badly. We don't like it when other people tell lies about us or when they try to selectively accept or reject us. In making our holiday choices, Israelis who are safely ensconced in Haifa and Tel-Aviv and Beersheva would think twice -- actually, 75 times -- before visiting a country that barred their brothers from Ariel and the French Hill and Gilo neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Despite what Peace Now would have the world believe, Israelis don't make distinctions between the blood of "bad settlers" who live in land controlled since 1967 and that of "good Israelis" who live in land controlled since 1949. And make no mistake, even if they do so with a stutter, our diplomats serving in NAM countries will make this point sufficiently clearly to their hosts.

A similar situation holds in the European Union. Like their NAM counterparts, EU member states believe it is to their political advantage to curry favor with the Arabs by condemning Israel and taking a passive-aggressive attitude toward the US. But so far, their talk of sanctions against Israel has been spoken in whispers that have been quickly silenced by cooler heads. As European sources well-versed in the policies of several EU member states assured me this week, the chance of the EU placing sanctions on Israel is small. Individual EU member states are barred from enacting trade sanctions unilaterally and Britain, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic (among others) oppose them. Without consensus on the issue, it will never be adopted. Even with its original 15 members, the EU was never able to reach a consensus on suspension or abrogation of its association agreement with Israel. Now with 25 members and a new European Commission that is far less anti-Israel than its predecessor, the chance of the EU taking any concrete steps against Israel is virtually non-existent.

This is not to say that Israeli diplomats can rest on their laurels. This state of affairs must be cultivated. In spite of the well-known incompetence of Israel's diplomatic corps in making the case for Israel publicly, its members can take some pride in behind the scenes machinations that so far have prevented an anti-Israel consensus from forming in Europe.

All of this is important to bear in mind when examining the legal opinion submitted by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to the editorial offices of Ha'aretz last week on the issue of the legal ramifications of the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion on the security fence. Mazuz made a series of claims in that brief regarding what he views as the perils to Israel emanating from that non-binding ICJ opinion. Incorrectly referring to the ICJ's brief as a "decision," Mazuz wrote, "The decision creates a political reality for Israel on the international level that may be used to expedite actions against Israel in international forums, to the point where they may result in sanctions." Mazuz did not give any evidence to support this claim. He simply asserted it. And on the basis of this far-fetched assertion, he reached some of the most radical and nationally destructive conclusions ever made by an unelected civil servant in Israel.

It should be noted that as a non-binding legal opinion, the ICJ's assertion that Israel has no right to take defensive measures in land it liberated in the 1967 Six Day War (or indeed any defensive measures against terrorism whatsoever), adds nothing substantive to the international legalistic onslaught against Israel that was officially inaugurated with the UN General Assembly resolution 3379 from 1975 equating Zionism with racism. There is nothing new in the ICJ's anti-Israel opinion that will in any way substantively change the hostile international political and pseudo-legal environment in which Israel has been operating for three decades.

Yet in spite of this, Mazuz reacted to the ICJ's opinion with hysteria. In order to placate the ICJ, as Mazuz fervently, though irrationally, believes Israel must, he recommends that the government "thoroughly examine" the formal application of the Fourth Geneva Convention from 1949 on the territories. This view flies in the face of the consistent policy of every single Israeli government since 1967. As former UN Ambassador Dore Gold puts it, "Even a theoretical discussion about the Fourth Geneva Convention appearing on the front page of Ha'aretz with its English website will undercut fundamental Israeli foreign policy positions held for over thirty years." Israel's position on Judea, Samaria and Gaza has not changed since 1967. Israel claims the right to assert sovereignty over these lands by virtue of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine from 1922. The Mandate specifically designated all of these areas as part of what Britain was to develop as the Jewish homeland. As neither Gaza nor Judea and Samaria have been legally redesignated since, Israel is the lawful claimant to sovereignty in these areas.

Additionally, as Gold puts it, "The Fourth Geneva Convention is not applicable in the West Bank and Gaza because previous occupants [Jordan and Egypt] entered those territories illegally in 1948 during the Arab invasion of Israel." Since the Fourth Geneva Convention seeks to protect the sovereign from the occupying military power, and there has not been a recognized sovereign in the territories aside from the Jewish people since 1920, there is no factual basis for its application to the territories.

Perhaps as a result of this simple matter of fact, the ICJ judges felt it necessary to rewrite history in their opinion in a manner that erases the uncomfortable fact that the League of Nations determined that the Land of Israel was to become the Jewish state. In Gold's words, "The entire advisory opinion completely undercuts the fundamental rights of the Jewish people to national sovereignty. From its rendition of the history of the British Mandate one is to conclude that the League of Nations never made even a reference to the creation of a Jewish homeland but instead set up the Mandate for the Arab population alone." Yet, on the basis of this completely biased and legally and historically inaccurate non-binding opinion, the sole goal of which is to groundlessly criminalize the Jewish state, Mazuz has determined that the government should summarily discard its solid legal positions and throw itself at the mercy of a hostile yet not acutely life-threatening UN.

Mazuz is not alone in preferring historically groundless, legally perverted opinions rendered by toothless international forums of not particularly noted jurists to the laws and policies of Israel's democratically elected governing authorities. Our self-appointed Supreme Court shares his view. In an apparent attempt to pre-empt the ICJ's non-binding advisory opinion to the UN General Assembly, the Supreme Court preferred the prescriptions of the irrelevant Fourth Geneva Convention to the security concerns of Israel as manifested in the route of the separation fence determined by the responsible military authorities. Dismissing the army's security concerns and Israeli law, Supreme Court President Aharon Barak based his decision from June 30, to reroute the fence closer to the 1949 armistice lines on the application of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the territories.

Commenting on the new route, forced on the IDF by the Supreme Court, Yuval Steinitz, the Chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said this week, "It is a dark day for Israel's national security." When we take into consideration the low level of threat that UN General Assembly resolutions pose to Israel -- a threat we have been living pretty well with now for 29 years -- and combine it with the security threat constituted by our Supreme Court's reckless preference for its own international reputation over the legal rights and security concerns of the state, we come to a most discouraging conclusion that makes sense of Mazuz's unhinged legal opinion.

Our self-appointed and self-perpetuating legal elites have detached themselves from the rest of the country. Answerable to no one other than themselves, they have created a post-nationalist world view where the greatest threat to Israel's (read "their") well-being is our government and people's stubborn attachment to Israel's legal rights, laws and national interests.

It is not simply international pressure, hypocrisy and prejudice that have kept Israel from pursuing the war that was launched against it four years ago to a conclusive victory. When we look at our imperial legal fraternity we must come to the conclusion that our deepest wounds are self-inflicted.

AN INDEFATIGABLE UNDERMINER

By Elyakim Haetzni

IsraelNationalNews.com - August 18, 2004

Sometimes, one can find tomorrow's news in old newspapers. Urit Struck of Hevron sent me two articles that appeared in Haaretz in December of last year, and they are truly enlightening. Amnon Lord quoted from them in Makor Rishon and I will do the same here because of the importance of the matter; so that we will know how the dark conspiracy to destroy the settlement enterprise was born and who is the dark figure pulling the strings, the figure who will this week or next pop out of the shadows to reap the rewards of the destruction and devastation that he periodically sowed. You guessed it: Shimon Peres.

Ostensibly, what chance did the man have, he who is responsible more than any other for the 1,500 Oslo War dead and thousands injured, to appear out in the open and to again ascend the public stage, in order to again obtain a central role in the national leadership? What chance did he have, essentially, to manage, with or without the title of Foreign Minister, the foreign policy of Israel?

An architect who designed a building that buried its tenants underneath it, a doctor who caused the death of his patients - who would allow the former to design a prestigious government project or the latter to run the national health system? And we have yet to expose the depths of the absurdity. This bad man has been exposed time and again in public as an "indefatigable underminer" and as the master of "dirty tricks", as the late Yitzchak Rabin called him, as a conspirator, as a liar and incorrigible schemer, as well as being obsessed with honor and publicity to the point of illness. What does it say about our society that we are again allowing this dangerous man to lead, to represent us?

Chamberlain, he of the umbrella, brought the world the "Oslo" known as "Munich", assuaged the Yasser Arafat of those days, Hitler, groveled before him and appeased him, and caused, by his foolishness, stubbornness and short-sightedness, the deaths of perhaps 60 million people in the Second World War; and all in the name of "peace". Is it at all reasonable that the English people would place in his hands the running of the country in its war against Hitler, against the results of his own actions? The British, a sensible people, brought in Churchill - Chamberlain's rival, who had warned against Chamberlain and his policies - and forced Chamberlain to resign shortly after the outbreak of war. Since then, he disappeared from view, from any position, from memory - with the exception of the memory of disgrace - he became a symbol of negative, despised and held in contempt.

The people of Israel is no less sane and normal than the English. When the terrorist war exposed for all the embarrassment of Oslo, and thus that of its wise men, its architects and its initiators, Shimon Peres above them all, the people were repelled by them and chose instead someone who was seen to be, and who presented himself as, the diametric opposite of Peres, just as Churchill was the opposite of Chamberlain: Ariel Sharon.

And it was here that the people of Israel fell into the trap. With the entry of Peres into the government, the century's greatest bluff is exposed - a fraud, deceit and misrepresentation for which it is difficult to find historical precedent.

As it turns out, above Sharon, pulling the strings the whole time, was... who, if not that selfsame Shimon Peres? Oslo he brought upon us openly, and the Palestinian state on the ruins of the Jewish settlement enterprise he brings upon us disguised as Sharon.

Hannah Kim, in Haaretz, raised the curtain a bit for us, so that we might witness the construction of the plot to steal the heartland of Eretz Yisrael from us, to divide the nation and bring it to the edge of civil war. Avi Gil, Peres' right-hand man in the past and currently, who was a director under Peres and works closely with him until today, is also a close friend and confidante of whom? You guessed it: Omri Sharon. This selfsame Gil organized a meeting with the millionaire industrialist Dov Lautman whose purpose was to influence Sharon to begin the dismantling of the settlements in the Strip. They believed, writes Hannah Kim, "that the moment even a single settlement will be evacuated, the rest will fall like dominoes." Who took part in the meeting? Their names speak for themselves:

Dan Meridor, Ami Ayalon and Yaakov Perry, Danny Rothschild, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Dalia Rabin-Pilosoff, the publicists Moshe Teumim and Tal Zilberstein, and Uzi Baram.

There, at that meeting, was born and there originated the demand to withdraw from Gaza. Not American pressure, not an American initiative - we did it all to ourselves. The plot originates with Peres, Sharon carries it across the ocean and it returns as American pressure.

The meeting with Lautman was before Sharon and Olmert went public with their declarations. The group threatened to start a public campaign attacking Sharon if he would not come out with his own initiative to dismantle the Jewish settlement in Gaza.

I still remember the birthday party Peres arranged for himself at the Tel Aviv Cultural Center. In his speech there, with Sharon seated beside him in silence, he one, single demand, as if it was a personal birthday wish, was to withdraw from Gaza; that is, to extinguish the Jewish settlement there.

Avi Gil reported on the Lautman meeting to Omri Sharon, who reported to his father. Among other things, Lautman and friends passed along to Sharon poll results, among them one survey according to which most Likud members support uprooting the Jewish communities of Gaza. It is well worth noting this point, how polls are played with. Afterwards, of course, we went and directly asked all the Likud members, and it turned out that the poll was false. But by then, it was too late. Peres already achieved what he wanted.

Sharon responded immediately and asked Omri to check with the Lautman group if the Labor party would join his government if he went with uprooting the settlements. Matters were so far advanced that Avi Gil and Sharon Jr. already sat to plan the division of portfolios in the national unity government. Note: we are talking about December of last year, eight months ago.

And that is how the famous "disengagement" plan was cooked up - in Peres' kitchen.

In a different article, Hannah Kim says that the famous Road Map, the pernicious document according to which the whole world (America, Russia, Europe, the UN) commits itself to take everything from us - including Jerusalem - and return the refugees, and according to which we accept upon ourselves control and oversight of the "Quartet", and essentially relinquish our very sovereignty. This Road Map was also born in Peres' ailing mind. It was Peres who sold it to Condoleezza Rice, it being nothing other than a reincarnation of the Peres-Abu Mazen agreement of 2001, reached with Sharon's approval and according to lines Peres developed beforehand with Sharon, as Sharon himself admitted.

Why is it dangerous "to knock on the devil's door"? Because Satan might open the door. After Peres, as himself and disguised as Sharon, sold George Bush the "vision" of a temporary Palestine in all of Gaza and half of the territory of Judea and Samaria, it became the "Bush vision" for all of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem. Matters went so far that when Sharon's representatives, among them Dov Weisglass and Giora Eiland, asked that same Condoleezza to write explicitly in a letter to Sharon from Bush that at least the blocs of Ariel, Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion will remain ours, she simply threw them out of the room, according to a report by Nachum Barnea. And Barnea gets his information right from the source.

Sever Plotzker wrote in Yediot Aharonot this April in connection with the corruption in the Palestinian Authority, that even the idea of "donor nations", which transferred to Yasser Arafat four billion dollars thus far, was thought up by - guess who - Shimon Peres, of course. And now that it seems that all that money disappeared, Peres is again meandering among people in the American and European administrations in order to convince them to pour more billions into the Palestinians. As you read how the World Bank is being made a guarantor to receive the property of the Jews in the communities targeted for uprooting, and how a financial celebration is being prepared for the Palestinians on the occasion of our flight from the Gaza coast, which will be called "an international operation for the development of the Gaza Strip", for otherwise a terrorist state will arise there after our retreat - be aware that it is all at the instigation of Shimon Peres. That is precisely how he justified the Oslo agreements.

As we see Sharon eat away at Judea, Samaria and Gaza like a pathogen -we just heard that he cancelled all of the construction plans that Sha'ul Mofaz alreaddy approved, among them in Ariel, Maaleh Adumim and Beitar Elite, "privileged" places, supposedly secure - it is important that we remember: Sharon is Peres. And when we hear about the subversion and dark plans of Peres, it is important that we remember: Peres is Sharon; just as Avi Gil is Omri Sharon and vice versa.

The Jerusalem Post Editorial - August 29, 2004

THE AIPAC KERFUFFLE

Spy. Israel. Pentagon. AIPAC. Pollard. Iraq. Iran. Mix these words together and you have quite a story on the weekend before the Republican convention in a hotly contested election campaign. The question is whether the smell that is in the air is that of a spy scandal or of a Washington political and policy war run amok.

On Friday, anonymous FBI officials leaked aspects of an ongoing investigation of Larry Franklin, a mid-level Pentagon official specializing in Iran. Franklin reportedly shared a draft memo on Iran policy with staff from AIPAC, an organization that lobbies to strengthen the already close relations between America and Israel. Those staffers reportedly "may" have passed that information on to Israel.

We are told that the FBI has been investigating Franklin for a year, giving the impression of heft to the story. But as our news pages reveal today, the two AIPAC staffers who are the supposed conduits for Franklin's information have not even been interviewed by the FBI. It can further be assumed that no Israelis have been interviewed either, making one wonder how much substance is behind both the Franklin-AIPAC link and the assumption that the information went further. Finally, the story itself has been watered down in many quarters from handing over classified information to "mishandling documents."

We, of course, do not know whether Franklin did inappropriately release classified information. American authorities have every right to find out, and if he did, to punish him accordingly.

We do know that Israel and the United States, as two countries on the front line in the struggle against militant Islamism should, routinely and officially share intelligence of the most sensitive nature. We do know that the idea of painting routine exchanges of information between Israel and the United States as sinister, or tinged with espionage, is itself sinister.

Let us not, as the media, be na ve. There are two parallel and bitter struggles raging in Washington, now reaching a crescendo. One is between Democrats and Republicans over control of the White House. A spy scandal at this time obviously harms the incumbent's chances of getting his message out in the main week set aside for doing so, the week of the Republican convention.

At the same time, there is an equally passionate and closely related struggle within the Bush Administration and outside over the president's post-9/11 foreign policy. Was ousting Saddam Hussein a critical centerpiece of the wider war or a festering mistake? Should Iran's nuclear weapons program be stopped and if so how? These debates have swirled around a handful of officials, all of whom are "pro-Israel" and some of whom are Jews.

It should not be surprising that the greatest overhaul in American foreign policy thinking since Harry Truman introduced containment after World War II would meet with resistance. There is ample room for debate over how aggressively and by what means the new doctrine of preemption and the new focus against state support for terrorism and for democratization should be implemented. But rather than fight these issues on the merits, the other side has at times stooped to conspiracy theories that are, let's face it -- anti-Semitic.

There may be substance behind the current scandal. Yet even in the most incriminating scenario, it is hard to imagine that the information released about US policy was that far removed from what appears in a serious newspaper. The more likely scenario is, as Newsweek quotes knowledgeable officials, "the political damage to Bush and the Pentagon may prove to be more serious than the damage to national security."

Actually, this scandal does threaten US national security in a different way: by emboldening those who believe that the entire post-9/11 American paradigm is a Jewish conspiracy imposed on the president, and who relish the prospect of a chill in the US-Israeli relationship.

AIPAC ends its statement on the current controversy thus: "We will not let any innuendo or false allegation distract us from our central mission -- supporting America's interests in the Middle East and advocating for a strong relationship with Israel."

Well said. Come what may, American and Israeli security demands that we not succumb to those who view our alliance as a conspiracy and our shared democratic cause as a threat.

Associated Press, The Jerusalem Post - August 29, 2004

SHARANSKY: PENTAGON-CIA RIVALRY LED TO CHARGE

Allegations of Israeli spying in the United States are false and may be the result of internal conflicts between the Pentagon and the CIA, Diaspora Affairs minister Natan Sharansky said Sunday, but analysts admitted that even so, damage has been done to crucial ties between the two countries.

American officials said Saturday that the FBI has spent more than a year investigating whether a Pentagon analyst funneled highly classified material to Israel.

The material described White House policy toward Iran. Israel says Iran - and its nuclear ambitions - pose the greatest single threat to the Jewish state.

Sharansky, the first Israeli Cabinet minister to speak in public about the matter, told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. television that Israel enforces a ban on spying in the United States.

"I hope it's all a mistake or misunderstanding of some kind, maybe a rivalry between different bodies," he said, singling out "the Pentagon and the CIA."

Sharansky said the ban on espionage in the United States dates to the scandal over Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew caught spying for Israel in 1985. Sharansky, who belongs to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ruling Likud Party, said he has "personal experience" with the ban, but he did not elaborate.

"There are absolutely no attempts to involve any member of the Jewish community and any general American citizens to spy for Israel against the United States," he said.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office issued a denial late Saturday, saying "Israel does not engage in intelligence activities in the U.S."

The scandal dominated Israeli news media on Sunday. In numerous interviews, both current and former Israeli intelligence officials said it was highly unlikely that Israel would have to spy on the U.S. government.

Legislator Ehud Yatom, chairman of the parliamentary subcommittee on covert intelligence, said he expected the allegations to be quickly withdrawn.

"I imagine that within a few days the United States will come out with an announcement that Israel has no connection whatsoever with the supposed spy and his activities," he told Israel Radio.

Uzi Arad, a former senior official in the Mossad spy agency, said the allegations were leaked to hurt the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

"They way it was reported, they pointed out in which office (Franklin) worked," Arad told Israel Radio. "They pointed at people like Doug Feith or other defense officials who have long been under attack within the American bureaucracy."

The Jerusalem Post - August 29, 2004

ANALYSIS: AFFAIR WON'T HARM
STRONG US-ISRAEL TIES

by Gerald Steinberg

By their very nature, allegations of espionage and abuse of classified material get huge headlines, although the evidence -- if any -- usually remains murky and hidden from public scrutiny. This is particularly the case regarding the US and Israel, reflecting the wide security cooperation that has developed in response to terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and other mutual threats. Mixed with hints of conspiracy and dual loyalty, such cooperation presents a huge target for the relatively small number of American officials and journalists who want to see this relationship halted.

For many years, claims involving Israel and spying have been manipulated in the effort to drive a wedge between Washington and Jerusalem, particularly after the Pollard fiasco. The damage to relations in that case was extensive, and its echoes are still being felt today, making another "affair" the dream of all those who wish to disrupt US-Israel cooperation. But the lessons from Pollard appear to have been learned by both the Israeli government and the US. At the same time, the absence of real and juicy spy scandals has spurred the invention of fictitious ones.

A few years ago, false charges that Israel was stealing and selling the Pentagon's technical secrets to China were later revealed to have been part of a personal campaign of revenge involving two American officials working for different branches of the government. And headlines claiming that Israel was eavesdropping on the US were also exposed as nonsense. In another case, the head of the CIA -- George Tenet -- sent an apology to then Mossad head Danny Yatom apologizing for accusations linking Israel to espionage.

These periodic leaks and allegations, including the current case, reflect a wider agenda. The Arab lobby in Washington is gaining influence and access to the media, and peddling such stories is one means of moving the focus away from terrorism and the growing pressure from many Americans to end support for the corrupt regimes in the Middle East. In addition, fringe Republican Pat Buchanan and his adherents cling to the classical anti-Semitic myths in which Jews are portrayed as all powerful, and secretly manipulating US policy.

The post-war complications in Iraq and the charge that a neo-conservative kabal (code for Jews and Zionists, even though the top two neo-cons -- Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney are neither) led America into this confrontation have revived these myths. This may explain the attempt to involve AIPAC -- the "powerful" pro-Israel lobby -- and the timing of this leak at the height of the US election campaign.

Yet despite these efforts and short-lived headlines, US-Israel security cooperation has become stronger, reflecting an understanding of the necessity of sharing resources and knowledge in order to counter the threats to both. In addition, the underlying shared values of democracy and freedom remain central, and mark the difference between American and European attitudes towards Israel.

As a result, in the earlier alleged espionage cases, including the Pollard affair, after the dust cleared, this common core remained intact, and there is no reason to expect the outcome to be different this time. Indeed, investigations into the sources of the allegations and the embellishment added by CBS News may deter the next round of this game.

Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg directs the Program on Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University.

Jerusalem Issue Brief - Vol. 4, No. 3 -- 29 August 2004

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Institute for Contemporary Affairs founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation

Israeli Responses to the FBI's Espionage Investigation Leak

A Compendium

1. Israel's security establishment insists there is no Israeli involvement in allegations that a Pentagon analyst provided Israel with secret documents relating to White House deliberations over Iran -- as reported by CBS News.

2. MK Danny Yatom (Labor), who served as head of the Mossad in the 1990s, disclosed on Israel Radio that there are rigid rules against any Israeli espionage activity on U.S. soil, particularly since the 1985 Pollard affair. Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee which oversees the Israeli intelligence services, said he was confident that Israel had not abandoned this more than twenty-year-old decision not to spy on the U.S.

3. Following a similar accusation in the late 1990s, CIA Director George Tenet found the charges baseless and wrote Israel a letter of apology.

4. The CIA, unlike other U.S. intelligence agencies, has political differences with Israel over the Arab-Israeli conflict. CIA relations with Israel have cooled lately over al-Qaeda operations in Africa and Israeli information about the hiding of Saddam Hussein's non-conventional weapons outside Iraq.

5. The background to these allegations is the domestic American debate over foreign policy, with the leak timed to embarrass President Bush on the eve of the Republican convention.

Sixty Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl was the first to report on an ongoing FBI investigation into whether a Pentagon analyst fed Israel secret materials about White House deliberations over Iran, by using the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Both AIPAC and the government of Israel have strongly denied the allegations. Israeli Embassy spokesman David Siegal stated: "We categorically deny these allegations. They are completely false and outrageous." Furthermore, Mossad chief Meir Dagan and the chief of security of the Israeli defense establishment, Yehiel Horev, informed the Foreign Ministry that there was no Israeli involvement in this affair (Ha'aretz, 29 Aug 04). AIPAC issued a statement saying that "any allegations of criminal conduct by AIPAC or our employees is false and baseless" and announced that it was "cooperating fully" with U.S. authorities.

Despite all the denials, parts of the U.S. intelligence community have repeatedly suspected Israel of spying on the United States. Former Mossad head Danny Yatom revealed that former CIA Director George Tenet believed that Israel was engaged in such activity in 1997-98; Yatom flew to the U.S. for a one-on-one meeting with Tenet to prove that the charges were baseless. Tenet dropped his suspicions as a result and wrote Yatom a letter of apology (Ha'aretz, 29 Aug 04).

CIA relations with Israel have indeed cooled lately, according to Ha'aretz commentator Ze'ev Schiff, as seen by the CIA's refusal to cooperate on al-Qaeda terrorism in East Africa and its ignoring Israeli information about the hiding of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction outside Iraq. The CIA, unlike other U.S. intelligence agencies, has political differences with Israel over the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Diplomacy involves a regular exchange of assessments between officials from different countries. As former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Itamar Rabinovich pointed out on Israel Radio-Reshet Bet, a U.S.-Israeli dialogue about how the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was dealing with Iran's clandestine nuclear program would be normal; he also observed: "Professional levels in both countries exchange materials and intimately consult one another regularly" (Ma'ariv, 29 Aug 04).

The background to these allegations, according to Rabinovich, is the domestic American debate over the Iraq War, and the charge made in political circles that American Jews pushed the Bush administration to launch the war on behalf of Israeli interests. Presently, a new debate is being conducted over Iran, with the accusation being made that the U.S. is again being pushed to act militarily because of Israeli interests.

Many Israeli commentators, such as Eytan Gilboa writing in Yediot Ahronot (29 Aug 04), are convinced that the leak of an FBI investigation to CBS News was timed on the eve of the Republican convention to embarrass or even slander President Bush. Alternatively, they see a power play between officials representing the traditional pre-9/11 State/CIA approach to the Middle East and the counter-terrorist policies advocated by the Pentagon and the Office of the Vice President. Both the CIA and the FBI are fighting a "battle for survival" after repeated U.S. commissions have attacked them for failing to prevent 9/11 -- Israel, according to Amir Oren (Ha'aretz, 29 Aug 04), has been "caught in a crossfire" between these agencies and their Pentagon rivals.

This Jerusalem Issue Brief is available online at:

http://www.jcpa.brief/brief4-1.htm

Dore Gold, Publisher; Yaakov Amidror, ICA Program Director; Mark Ami-El, Managing Editor. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Registered Amuta), 13 Tel-Hai St., Jerusalem, Israel; Tel. 972-2-5619281, Fax. 972-2-5619112, Email: jcpa@netvision.net.il. In U.S.A.: Center for Jewish Community Studies, 5800 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21215; Tel. 410-664-5222; Fax 410-664-1228. Website: www.jcpa.org. © Copyright. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

THE FINE ART OF A SET-UP - ENGINEERING & DENIAL

by Emanuel A. Winston

[FREEMAN CENTER NOTE: THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AND THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY MUST DEMAND THAT AMERICAN SPYING ON ISRAEL STOP IMMEDIATELY. WE MUST ALSO DEMAND THAT AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS (INCLUDING ARAFAT'S PA) AND TERRORIST STATES LIKE SAUDI ARABIA, SYRIA, IRAN AND THE SUDAN STOP IMMEDIATELY. THEY MUST BE MADE INCAPABLE OF ATTACKS ON AMERICA, ISRAEL AND THE REST OF THE WORLD.]

THIS JUST IN ON AUGUST 27^TH: An accusation has been floated, presumably by the U.S. State Department, to the effect that information on Iran's nuclear capability has been "subversively" passed on to Israel through AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. You will find the timing and purpose of this leak quite interesting. When the pro-Arab State Department leaks accusations against Israel, you have to look beyond the mere hostile dirty tricks of this Arabist institution. So, let's look deeper, little by little.

At this time the Saudis have launched an expensive PR campaign to take away the image of the Saudis being 'deep pockets' for Terror, including Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. They would like us to forget that 15 of the 19 hijacking suicide bombers on 9/11 were Saudis. (The other 4 were Egyptian).

The State Department would like us to ignore the fact that the Saudis fund 'Madrassas' (school of strict Islam) in America that teach the 'Taliban/Wahhabi' type of Islamic religion to children, to hate America and eventually make America into a Muslim nation.

The State Department, having been deeply penetrated by radical Islamists, would find it an ideal time to engineer an attack on the Jewish lobby to equalize the pressure away from the Saudis. Even today, the State Department - after 9/11 - allows Saudis in with barely a glance at their affiliation with Terrorist groups. So, that's Phase One of the benefits the State Department and the Saudis expect out of their engineered accusation with their "Blame the Jews" syndrome. But, that is comparatively minor as we probe deeper.

The next level down in our search is the subject of the leak or at least a well-molded accusation.

The accusation is that the 'always convenient and secret mole has leaked information' about America's discussions on Iran's nuclear enterprise to AIPAC to be passed on to Israel. AIPAC has, of course, denied the allegation, knowing that our various Intel Agencies watch AIPAC - as they do all lobby groups of all nations. AIPAC being squeaky clean would not deter the Arabist State Department from floating one of its infamous accusations through the back door channels of its media leaker connections - this time CBS TV News. So, let us examine the leak:

Israel and the U.S. are committed to exchanging Intelligence on mutually threatening problems. Israel, for example was the U.S. Humint (Human Intelligence) for America's attack on Iraq. Israel also assisted the U.S. in the 1991 attack against Iraq after Saddam had invaded Kuwait because America just didn't have human resources on the ground. So, in effect, Israel has proven herself time and again as an invaluable source of Intelligence for America and has discharged her obligations to the exchange far and beyond what could be expected of a small nation.

The U.S. and Israel have been routinely exchanging information on Iran as a growing nuclear threat to the region and well beyond. That includes America and Europe. This is no great secret unless a leaker out of State wishes to characterize this exchange as "stolen information" which is what seems to be their goal.

Clearly, the Bush Administration and State would like to avoid angering the Arab oil world by unilaterally taking out Iran's Russian nuclear reactor and the spread out, underground nuclear development sites in Iran. We would like Israel to do the job and, of course, take the heat. The Arabs would most certainly wish to direct their anger at Israel instead of at their business partner, the United States.

We buy their oil; we sell them prodigious quantities of arms; we have provided technology on WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) including NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) weapons which, of course, are now threatening our cities; they bank with us; we sell them goods and services from road-building to massive airports. Here enter the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, Bechtel and hundreds of other U.S. companies. Well, you get the idea.

But, Israel is still a small nation with limited reach with respect to striking nuclear targets in Iran. The United States, on the other hand, has the capability to project massive military power, using sea-based aircraft and cruise missiles, land attack and the unlimited budget to carry out such a strike. However, Israel would be pounded by the U.N., the E.U. and the Arabist State Department should she save the world by striking Iran's nuclear plants - like she did when she hit Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981, just before it went operational. These same nations could not embargo the U.S. if it undertook the project.

If the U.S. is indeed planning such a strike, it would be convenient to have an alternate target of Israel against whom the Arabs could vent their fury. Remember, in the Arab world, adjusting history to whatever is claimed is no problem. Some may recall how the Arabs explained away their defeats in successive wars against Israel by telling their people that it was the Americans they were fighting and not the Jews. Losing to a Superpower did not carry the shame of losing to a small army of poorly equipped Jews.

There are auxiliary benefits to blaming the Jews.

First, it forces AIPAC to lower its profile in lobbying Congress for Israel.

Next, it intimidates Jewish leaders NOT to challenge U.S. government policy when it supports Saudi Arabia, Syria or Arafat.

Moreover, it generally successfully panics Israeli leadership to be more compliant on such issues as giving up more territory and allowing a State Department team to go to Israel as authorities to decide borders for Jewish settlements. Such accusations of disloyalty are beneficial just before an election where Jewish voters generally vote Democratic.

If the voters can be sufficiently intimidated to either vote Democratic or not at all, the game plan of intimidation will have worked. I think of the reported statement of former Secretary of State Zbignew Breshinsky, later denied, when he said: "A little anti-Semitism is a good thing" - presumably for keep Jews in their place.

Another ancillary benefit of this current accusation was to impugn the integrity of Doug Feith who advocated and coordinated an investigation of Saddam's linkage with Al Qaeda. Here again, the State Department and other Arabists in the Government were furious over Feith's probe of Arab Muslim links to Global Terrorism. In essence, the State Department was cut out of the loop and thus unable to offer its usual protection of Arab Muslim allies by sidelining investigations against them.

Other Intel Agencies were also angry that the results of their investigations were to be reviewed by Feith's group which was set up by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. So, Feith was targeted plus whatever benefits could be squeezed out of an intimidated Israel.

Floating a story and a scenario engendered by the Arabist State Department to the effect that the Jews had obtained secret information about Iran is mildly clever - if not transparent. The PR campaign will guide Arab thinking, particularly that of the fanatic Ayatollahs of Iran against the State of Israel as its most imminent enemy.

Perhaps part of the thinking is to provoke the Iranians into a pre-emptive strike against Israel so Israel will have to respond in force - which will also allow the U.S. to intervene.

Intervention in this case would be to save Israel after a saturation missile attack by Iran. It would give the U.S. to follow on with its own cruise missile attacks on Iranian nuclear sites as if to her rescue. In the meantime Israel would suffer as the bait and 'raison d'etre' for the Iranian attack. The reason for the timing of this accusation is anyone's guess but, it would certainly be detrimental to the incumbent, George Bush, coming prior to the Republican Convention leading on to the November elections in eight weeks.

Mind you, I do think that Iran's nuclear capability must be eliminated before it goes operationally nuclear. I wrote about Iran's obtaining tactical nukes from East Germany though under Soviet control when the Soviet Union collapsed. Four to six tactical nukes went missing and, in my opinion, were purchased by Iran. Disinformation was soon floated in the American media that nothing was missing and we could all sleep peacefully.

When Israel blew up Saddam's nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981, the world condemned Israel but, behind closed doors, the champagne corks were popping. Much, much later there was a reluctant acknowledgment that Israel had done the world a great favor. But, at the time, that didn't stop then Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman from cutting off all exchanges of Intelligence with Israel both as a punishment to Israel and as a favor to the Saudis.

The story of how deep the Saudis have penetrated the State Department and the other American Institutions, especially the Intelligence community is yet to be revealed. Even the 9/11 Commission avoided deep questions of the State Department for allowing thousands of Saudis and other Arab Muslims into our American laboratories, universities where sleeper cells were established in deep cover.

I cringe when I hear Lee Hamilton of the 9/11 Commission tell Americans how we must reach out to the Arab Muslim world, winning their hearts and minds. Somehow the 9/11 Commission has decided that the radical Islamic Fundamentalism endemic in the world of Islam must be the fault of the Free West - and that the dictators of Arab nations are not to be blamed for keeping their people backward, uneducated and hostile to America. For Lee Hamilton and others of the 9/11 Commission, it must be America's fault for not reaching out and perhaps bringing more Muslim 'Jihadists' into America through the portals 'guided' by the gate-keepers called the State Department.

Let us watch "The State Department Hustle" to blame the Jewish nation for whatever we are about to do to protect ourselves from Iranian nukes. If they can just get the media to cooperate, the focus of enmity will be on Israel, instead of Iran, the Saudis and Arabist State Department.

Emanuel A. Winston is a research associate and member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies.

The Jerusalem Post - Aug. 28, 2004

JERUSALEM: NO INTELLIGENCE
ASSETS ON AMERICAN SOIL

By Janine Zacharia and Arieh O'Sullivan

The FBI is broadening its investigation into whether a mid-level Pentagon official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense passed classified material regarding internal policy deliberations on Iran to two staffers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who in turn provided the information to Israel.

According to the Washington Post, officials in the Pentagon say that is not yet clear whether the case will develop into a charge of espionage, or whether investigations will result in lesser charges such as improper release of classified information or mishandling of government documents.

Israel vehemently denies having any intelligence agents working in the US. "We are not aware of any Israeli spies in the United States. Israel is not employing any intelligence assets on American soil," an official in the Prime Minister's office was quoted as saying on Channel 2 TV.

Larry Franklin, the alleged informant, worked as a mid-level Pentagon official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Reportedly Franklin had traveled to Israel a number of times, and spent a period of time during his service in the US Air Force Reserve in Israel working as a specialist in foreign political-military affairs.

Security sources in Israel confirmed Sunday morning that Larry Franklin, the suspected "mole" in the Pentagon, did in fact have work ties with Jerusalem, but declared that the relationship most certainly did not deviate from standard diplomatic contact, Israel Radio reported.

CBS Evening News led its broadcast Friday night saying the FBI has a "full-fledged espionage investigation underway" and that the FBI believes it has "solid evidence" that a "suspected mole" in the Pentagon "supplied Israel with classified materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on Iran."

Israel immediately denied the espionage allegation. "We deny these allegations. The United States is Israel's most cherished friend and ally. We have a strong, ongoing, working relationship at all levels and in no way would Israel do anything to impair this relationship," said David Siegel, spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Earlier, the embassy described the allegations as "false and outrageous."

AIPAC, the leading pro-Israel lobby, also denied any wrongdoing. "Any allegation of criminal conduct by AIPAC or our employees is false and baseless. Neither AIPAC nor any of its employees has violated any laws or rules, nor has AIPAC or its employees ever received information they believed was secret or classified," the group said in a statement.

"AIPAC is cooperating fully with the governmental authorities. It has provided documents and information to the government and has made staff available for interviews."

Israel's defense establishment said it conducted a thorough examination over the weekend with all security and intelligence bodies to verify the veracity of reports that a Pentagon employee passed on secrets to Israel.

"The examination revealed what we expected," said a senior defense official. "There are no sanctioned espionage operations going on against the United States. There is no truth to these reports."

The official, who spoke to The Jerusalem Post on condition of anonymity, said that the entire story was dubious from the outset. He noted that Israel and the United States are very close strategic allies and there is enormous sharing of intelligence between the two countries.

"We have very good, excellent working relations with the Americans, and we are very discreet about it. There is no need to operate (spies) in the Pentagon or anywhere else in the United States." The senior official said. "Also, it wouldn't be in our interest to take actions that would jeopardize these relations that we've built up over the years," he added.

The official added that they were speaking in the name of the Defense establishment, and that any official statement from the government needed to come from the prime minister's office or the foreign ministry.

The investigation has been ongoing for a year, according to several news reports. And the Pentagon, in a statement issued late Friday, said it has been cooperating with the Department of Justice on this matter "for an extended period of time."

"It is the D.O.D (Department of Defense's) understanding that the investigation within the D.O.D is limited in its scope," it said.

The Jerusalem Post - Aug. 26, 2004

ANOTHER TACK: SHULA IN HISTORYLAND

By Sarah Honig

On a Saturday, 75 years and three days ago, hordes of Arabs descended on the tranquil and ancient Jewish community of Hebron. At the end of the rampage, 67 Jews - men, women, children, babies - lay dead. They weren't neatly executed. Some were decapitated and disemboweled. Limbs were severed, eyes gouged, and all manner of ghastly, unthinkable mutilation practiced. A preteen girl was raped by 13 heroes of that Palestinian revolution (before there was a state of Israel or an occupation to rage against) and then hung upside down over an open flame to roast slowly to death.

All this is quite unpalatable for Israel's Left, renowned for its impeccably refined tastes and humanitarian sensibilities. The mention of Arab bestiality is off-putting and may, heaven forefend, even serve the dastardly purposes of the real enemy - Jewish political rivals. Remembrance can call attention to undesirable truths about the Arabs' genocidal anti-Jewish hysteria and offer a clear glimpse into what would have happened to this country's Jews had their self-defense failed.

This explosive stuff mustn't reach the tender ears of younger Israelis.

Retrospection is counterproductive for enlightened post-Zionists, "new historians," and a former education minister, Shulamit Aloni, who had done her darndest to expunge from the curriculum any mention of Arab wrongdoing.

Obviously Aloni can't abide the thought of memorial rallies for the slain. Somebody who didn't realize the gross faux pas sent her an invitation to the official commemoration last week in Hebron.

The ceremony got her goat enough to dispatch a livid op-ed to Yediot Aharonot, railing against the "wicked, cunning provocation" calculated to perpetuate "the role of the Jew as the ultimate eternal victim." To make her case, Israel's ex-No.1 pedagogue leads us through Historyland.

The 1929 pogrom, she fulminates, "began when a zealous right-wing bunch Brit Habiryonim burst onto the Western Wall on Yom Kippur eve and blew the shofar." Fear that "Jews will destroy al-Aksa," she authoritatively determines, "kindled the riots." She then wonders "why we don't hold memorials at Dir Yassin, where on April 9, 1948, rightist thugs committed terrible murder, obliterating an entire population - men, women, children, livestock - the whole village was erased."

THE FORMER top educator is either ignorant or a deliberate falsifier. Brit Habiryonim (named after a Second Temple group) was established in 1930 and could hardly have bestirred an Arab bloodbath retroactively.

The shofar-blowing at the Wall was an annual Yom Kippur tradition between 1921-1947. It began after the Muslim Wakf, aggressively engaged in disrupting prayers at Judaism's holiest site, complained about the horn's resonance. The British, eager to please and dispense international justice, outlawed the annoying blasts in 1921.

Revisionist youths, judging this wasn't exclusively a religious issue but one of national self-respect, made it a point to defiantly sound the shofar at the close (not the eve) of each Yom Kippur. They hardly burst on the scene. British undercover agents infiltrated the narrow alleyways to apprehend transgressors. The forbidden instruments had to be secreted in women's bras, and the blowers were always jailed for their crime.

Said crime's prescribed and expected punishment, Aloni seems to intimate, is indiscriminate slaughter. It's the inescapable spontaneous response to Jewish temerity.

The Hebron massacre, however, was perpetrated on August 24, 1929. The previous Yom Kippur was on September 24, 1928 - giving the infamous Haj Amin el-Husseini (later Hitler's avid collaborator) a full 11 months to carefully orchestrate incensed spontaneity. He even prepared postcards with photomontages of Herzl (then dead for 25 years) on the Temple Mount.

Yet while Arabs are capable of no premeditated evil, Jews are capable of nothing else. Enter the Dir Yassin calumny, well exploited early in the state's days by the Left to besmirch political opponents, never mind the damage to Israel's case. Dir Yassin, a veritable vipers' nest, controlled a portion of the Jerusalem road and participated in the strategy of starving Jerusalem's Jews, in preparation for a larger scale Hebron-like bloodbath.

The IZL tried to take it. To avoid civilian casualties, its men warned inhabitants by loudspeakers to surrender or leave. Having thereby lost the element of surprise, they entered a firetrap, were shot at from each house, and even attacked by men in women's garb. One-third of the Jewish force was hit. The count of Arab casualties varies from fabrication to fabrication. But this wasn't intentional murder, just as Hebron's Jews weren't collateral damage. Dir Yassin's residents were caught in a conflict of their own instigation.

Hebron's Jews were slaughtered for being Jews. By whitewashing this, we not only distort the past - we unwittingly become active accomplices in shaping a dismal, tragic future.

We perhaps even facilitate our own destruction, still the goal of the implacable hate enveloping us. That's what makes Shula's saunter through Historyland so dangerous.

Associated Press - August 27, 2004

THEODORAKIS: JEWS CONTROL
WORLD FINANCES?

By Ramit Plushnick-Masti Associated Press Writer

[Freeman Center Questions: If we control all the money, why am I so broke all the time? If we control all the governments, why do they hate us so much? If there is NO anti-Semitism, how can Theodorakis exist? Can he be stopped from spreading such nonsense which is like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater resulting in murdered Jews? I am very confused!]

JERUSALEM - Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who outraged Jews in November by calling them "the root of evil," is at it again, this time saying Jews control the world's banks and the mass media.

Theodorakis, best known for the score of the 1964 film "Zorba the Greek," called himself a "true friend of the Jewish people" in an interview published Friday by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Theodorakis said he granted the interview to try to soothe the feelings he hurt in November.

"And I was very much hurt by the Jewish reaction to what I said. It was not a civilized reaction," he told the paper. He said he had received hundreds of "poisonous e-mails from Jews all over the world. I couldn't understand this hatred toward me."

But Theodorakis went on to reiterate his earlier comments and used common anti-Semitic invectives.

He said he doesn't hate Jews, but rather Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies regarding the Palestinians, which he described as Nazi-like. Sharon -- and other Jews in influential positions -- persuaded U.S. President George W. Bush to go to war against Iraq, he added.

Theodorakis' comments in November led Israel to complain to the Greek government, which distanced itself from the composer's remarks.

In March, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish advocacy group, urged Jews not to visit Greece, saying: "There is no country in Europe that matches the intensity of anti-Semitic invective."

The composer -- who wrote the Palestinian national anthem -- also said there is no anti-Semitism in Europe, despite a recent wave of anti-Jewish attacks.

He called Jewish claims of anti-Semitism a "masochistic reaction" by a people who like to be "the victim."

Theodorakis claimed Jews control banks, the mass media and the United States.

"They hold world finance in their hands, so it's only natural that they would see themselves as very strong," Theodorakis said. "In America the Jewish community is very strong. It controls much of the economy, certainly the mass media," he said.

Theodorakis said Jewish control of orchestras has prevented him from holding concerts.

"The Jewish people now appear to control the big banks. And often the governments. So whatever bad or evil comes from the governments, it's natural for ordinary people to associate that with the Jewish people," he said.

After describing how his religious grandmother believed Jews drank the blood of Christian boys during Easter, the composer said the problem was that Jews didn't accept Jesus.

DRIVEN FROM OUR HOMES

by Emanuel A. Winston

For centuries we Jews have been driven from our homes simply because we were Jews!

The reasons and accusations are no longer relevant. The people, the nations, the religious orders who uprooted and expelled Jews were all assured by their current leaders that they were doing the work that would please their gods. Their teachings were perniciously evil and reached deeply into the minds of men.

Usually before such an expulsion, there preceded a period of forced conversion, torture and burnings of the recalcitrant Jews who refused to accept another religion before Judaism. The sacred scrolls of the Jews (The Torah) and later sacred books were burned to erase the word of G-d. The destructors had never talked with G-d as did Abraham and Moses or accepted the obligations of His Covenant but, nevertheless they maintained they were the rightful heirs to G-d's Covenant with the Jewish people.

Instead, they borrowed bits and pieces of these laws, claiming that the 'lowly' Jews did not deserve such an exalted position of being G-d's Chosen servant and a 'light unto the nations'. They all drove Jews from their homes, falling on the Jews' confiscated properties as carrion eaters always do.

Often the Jews had lived in those nations for hundreds of years before those then in power came to dominate them and drive them away. Nevertheless, despite long-term established residency, the Jews were viewed as separate and apart - and so we were. A remnant of Jews escaped from the graveyards of Europe and the newly created Arab states, only to be followed and attacked by the pagan Arabs - assisted by the killer nations of Europe.

Jews are obligated to retain their separateness and not accept foreign gods and ways of other peoples. Jews were committed to keeping G-d's Laws and, as His keepers, they were to be the role models both in their behavior and by teaching the sacred Laws of Torah to those who would listen.

Now, once again, we Jews are being prepared to be forced from our homes by non-Jewish Jews in collaboration with the same savage nations who murdered us in countless numbers. Special Jewish Forces are being assembled in the Israel Defense Forces who have been screened for their non-Jewishness, their lack of commitment to the Land of Israel, and their disdain for Torah and for observant Jews. Some say they have been selected because they have an amoral nature - sometimes called sociopaths and in that no different than such leaders as Shimon Peres.

Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel (Arik) Sharon has bonded together with Shimon Peres to resurrect the Rabin, Peres, Beilin Oslo plan to drive Jews from their homes. This is not the first time Jews have turned on their own people. Too often through the centuries Jewish leaders have joined with foreign forces to evict Jews from their homes, nations and finally take their lives.

The 'Judenrat' (Jewish leaders) of Germany and other occupied European nations acted as collaborators with the Nazi SS to gather up and assist in transporting Jews to the Nazi death camps. They maintained they were doing it to save Jews but, they were really doing it to save themselves but, were killed in the end. They had their counterparts in the United States who refused to intercede with the Government under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, lest it provoke anti-Semitism in America.

Presently, Ariel Sharon is preparing to drive the Jews who have lived in Gaza for 30 years out of their homes, leaving synagogues, schools, yeshivot, farms, factories, water and infrastructure - all of which are intended to be given over to the Arab Muslims Palestinians 'cum' Terrorists. The Jews arrived in Gaza at the urging of the then Leftist Labor government after the 1967 Six Day War to re-unite it with the rest of Israel. It was then barren, empty of people with only sand dunes no one but the Jews wanted. The Jews built greenhouses, tilled the sandy land and created a fertile cornucopia of vegetables (without bugs), fruits and flowers for internal consumption and export. Sharon and the Leftists ignore the prior centuries of Jewish presence in Gaza so the de-Judaization and re-partition can proceed.

Now Sharon wants the Jews out and the Palestinian Terrorists in. This was from a man temporarily elected to office, who has no mandate to re-title the Land but has assumed Pharaonic-type powers as a man-god on earth.

Sharon, Peres and the non-Jewish Jews of the Left are following the long-established custom of allowing the enemies of the Jews to drive them from their homes. Our enemies have always offered a litany of excuses for driving Jews out so the Sharon/Peres rationale merely adds to the list of excuses. Sharon and the Left have determined that Israel is not to be a Jewish State in practice but rather a secular Jewish State, theoretically acceptable to Arabs and Europeans.

Sharon and all past leaders of the Left had/have one hidden agenda. That was to de-Judaize the nation and to insure not one holy location remained for Jews to be drawn to or rally around. Thus, you see the Temple Mount handed off to Arabs or the Marat HaMachpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs - where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rivka, Ya'acov and Leah are buried) - among other holy sites disposed of by the non-Jewish Jewish leadership.

The coming harassment may very well have such features as concentration camps for those Jews who resist ejection from their homes. Some, perhaps many, will be shot if their resistance is too firm. We already observe the build-up of disinformation by Sharon and his politically controlled GSS (Government Secret Services). The propaganda is that there are "dangerous settlers planning to assassinate Sharon" which, once accepted by the public will allow the round up of all the Jewish leaders in YESHA - especially those in Gaza/Gush Katif and probably the Golan Heights. This was a ploy used by Rabin, Peres, Beilin to demonize all those who correctly objected to the subversive Oslo plan.

IF they can imprison the leaders under the archaic British law of "Administrative Detention", they can more easily drive the Jews out of their homes with less resistance. This was the technique used by Hitler's SS: First imprison the leaders and ordinary citizens will be terrified and follow orders like sheep.

So once again, another chapter is being written in the History of the Jews being driven from the land, from their homes - leaving all they have built so others (their self-declared enemies) can take the fruits of industrious Jewish work. This time it is the non-Jewish Jews who have virtually captured the leadership of the Israeli Government and turned it into an authoritarian regime which parallels any of the Arab Muslim governments in the region. If ever there was a more evil and soulless regime, it is Sharon's current Administration which most certainly need purging.

Having conspired with foreign nations during a War of Terror is, indeed, nothing less than treason. Successive Israeli administrations have shown that they simply have no interest in what their public thinks. This arrogance has ramped up since Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres discovered they could make unilateral decisions with little resistance from the Knesset (Parliament). As for the people, they only exist to pay taxes and the bloated salaries that include months of vacation for the Members and Ministers of Knesset.

Perhaps the secret Oslo debacle was the first major leap away from any normal democratic control over their actions. Their discovery of the 'no checks and balances' over elected governmental officials shows a drift into dictatorship under the guise of being a democracy.

Even the Israeli Courts have created an internal mind-set that leans Left and against the nationalistic Pioneering Settlers. For instance, the Israeli Supreme Court under Chief Justice Aharon Barak has ruled that the Barrier Security Fence must be re-built to accommodate the comfort of the Arab Palestinians more than for the Israelis' security.

The dissolution of the Jewish State has been the goal of the members of the so-called "Quartet", the anti-Israel U.S. State Department, the anti-Semitic E.U. (European Union), the hostile U.N. (United Nations) and Russia, whose history of anti-Jewish pogroms are legendary. Regrettably, we now see a Jewish government join these corrupt nations thinking they will be allowed to exist as a secular State.

To accomplish this destruction of the Jewish State of Israel, they needed to recruit unworldly and naive Israeli leaders to go along with what will be the re-partition/dismemberment of Israel. It was not difficult to flatter such naive, unworldly leaders as Rabin, Peres, Bibi Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and now Sharon. Those who elected Arik Sharon were assured that his brilliance as a General also insured he would be a competent Statesman. He has failed in the one thing he was elected for - mainly ruling the nation and understanding the world at large.

Unlike the Europeans who have experienced centuries of political manipulation and long-term planning in their history, Israel has only 56 years. Her short-sighted leaders have small talents to parade before their voters who themselves are rather insular with little understanding of world affairs and don't begin to understand why even our so-called friends want us off the map of the Middle East.

If you look into the backgrounds of most of Israel's Prime Ministers, you would find shallow small thinkers, unsuitable for the job of Prime Minister. But, through party affiliations they were pushed up the political ladder until they were appointed by their party as the nation's leader. Some were intelligent but had little or no wisdom. Their best thoughts in terms of future planning were a week or possibly a year ahead but, mostly, they were consumed with keeping the power of their office. The fate of the nation always ran a distant second unless it had something to do with advancing their Party finances and keeping their job. That kind of thinking may be acceptable in large countries with no nearby enemies but, Israel is surrounded by millions of hostile Muslim Arabs who simply want to kill them.

To further demonstrate the corruptions of the Sharon regime, it has been reported that prior to the recent vote among Likud, Sharon sent his son Omri to Arab villages to recruit them to "temporarily" join Likud so they could vote for re-partition and, after having done so, resign their Likud membership, reverting to their normal hostile loyalties to Yassir Arafat.

Larger nations can survive incompetent leaders and parliamentarians who cannot think clearly. Their nations can survive stupidity but Israel is tiny and mistakes on security can too easily be fatal. Leeching up to the leaders of larger nations who massage the weak egos of Israel's inept leaders and take advantage of their ignorance as man-children is pure evil - but effective.

Can we really blame these almost Jewish leaders for their ignorance, greed and selfishness? Indeed, we can. While they are stupid in their administration of the nation's security, they were not so unaware that they avoided plundering the nation's treasury for themselves and their party. As a nation and a people, Jews cannot bring themselves to jail or hang political criminals. The most we can do is to pray that HaShem (G-d) brings justice to these people.

As for the nations who wish us dead and buried, may HaShem plague them with incurable disease, drought and floods (some of which is actually occurring now). For their evil planning, let their land burn in the sun and their cities crumble when the earth shakes. Hopefully, they will understand that Nature has become the hunter and the instrument of their punishment from a G-d whose patience has worn thin. Sending a plague of howling Muslims across the planet blowing up what they can, ought to be a recognizable message.

We see today the Leftist Jews become as the Vichy French collaborators were to the Nazi conquerors or, in this case, any Superpower. In the case of Israel, we see the Left as collaborators with the Arab Muslims, the Europeans and the anti-Israel U.S. State Department in the manipulation of Israel to surrender through a succession of incremental retreats.

There is a difference.

The Germans wanted the French to live under their domination whereas the enemies of Israel want the Jewish State destroyed and every Jew dead. The crime of the Jewish Left is that they not only collaborate but, they lead Israel on to self destruction. Perhaps then, a civil war is necessary with the Jews who hate the Jewish nation and their own Jewishness being driven out to lands where they will feel more comfortable, more assimilated and more non-Jewish.

Keep a diary of those who betrayed the Jewish Nation and the Jewish people. Should the nation fall because of their subversion, hunt them to extinction in the lands to which they will flee - hoping to hide from their crime. However, it is likely that G-d will place the mark of Cain to mark them as untouchables who wander the earth as killers of their brothers.

If the Jewish State of Israel falls to Leftist Jews collaborating with our enemies, then all Jews will be hunted to extinction in any land they may flee to. The World could not bear having Jewish witnesses looking at them, day after day, as the criminals they would be. Every Jew in America, Europe - wherever - would have to be murdered so the last witnesses of the crimes against G-d and His Chosen would not be there to testify. No witnesses - no crime = no guilt.

The Jewish people are often called "The People of the Book" and thus recorders of history. Regrettably, we Jews carry this to an extreme. We Jews believe that if we identify the problem and write about it, all others will thereby be informed and act appropriately on our revelations. While ideas are grand, we truly believe we have solved problem by writing about them. For some, however, writing turns into action and decides the day. When Arab and/or Muslims write and harangue their people about "Jihad" (Holy War for Islam), they actually convert the writing into murder of Jews.

When Jews stop writing and rise up to defend their rights to the Land G-d gave them to live, only then will Jews stop running from their shadow and anchor themselves to the Land without apology and without requiring anyone's permission. Then the Jews in the Jewish State will have both security, sovereignty and dignity.

Clearly, it is time to eject Sharon from office and elect One Honest Man for Prime Minister. He is there and, although he does not want the job, as a patriot, he could be recruited to save the Jewish nation.

Emanuel A. Winston is a research associate and a member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies.

TEACHING RETREAT

by Emanuel A. Winston

There can be no forgiveness for the Jewish leaders and Generals who taught the failed tactic of retreat to the embattled Jewish people. Even more unforgivable was to teach the enemy that Israelis can be made to run from the field of battle.

In direct proportion to our infamous retreats, our enemies grew more confident and thus more Jews were murdered and maimed.

The Politicians and Generals who chose Retreat and Abandonment of the Land of Israel were and are traitors to their people. They should be brought to trial before a Peoples' Court and tried for crimes against their own people. If found guilty, they should be imprisoned for life at hard labor.

For all the Jews they made it possible to murder, you would think that hanging would be the correct punishment but, that would end their penalty too soon.

These Politicians and Generals taught Retreat to the Jews while teaching the Arab Muslim Terrorists to advance. None are above reproach.

The Sinai Desert was given up to Egypt - who had never ever owned that land.

Oslo taught the Jews that their leaders could scurry around in secret and give away their Land to howling savages - who also never owned (or deserved) the Land.

With each Retreat, the Muslim Arab Terrorists learned they could too easily get away with murder of the weak Jews.

Jewish leaders made corrupt deals to let thousands of Arab Muslim Terrorists out of prison for virtually nothing in return for a bad bargain. Most simply rejoined their Terror cells and commenced killing Jews. Prison had merely been a convenient place to improve their Terror skills from their co-Terrorists in jail. They had been taught that being caught for committing Terror acts was merely a matter of awaiting another mass release.

Now Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has offered and pledged the next lesson of Retreat as he dismembers the nation in his so-called "Disengagement Plan".

Behind his declaration to the Arab Muslim Palestinians that he will cleanse Gaza/Gush Katif of Jews, he speaks of making the rest of YESHA (Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza) also "Judenrein".

We learn that he works with the infamous Shimon Peres to accomplish this Retreat.

In the Arab Muslim culture, even the willingness to discuss peace is considered as a defeat for the enemy and a victory for the Muslims. Given that they would never abandon their Land, when their self-declared enemy agrees to cut and run, their expectations and pride swell, knowing their enemy is on the run - so they raise their ante.

Israel's Politicians and Generals try to use the tactics of Western civilization where you can negotiate a peace with an enemy - as the Free West did with Germany and Japan - AFTER they beat them soundly.

Not so with Arab Muslims. The credo of Retreat for Peace is merely an acceleration of War to the Muslim Arabs.

Even the political leaders in America and Europe are beginning to learn that you cannot win the hearts and minds of Muslim Arabs. They are in a permanent State of War "Dar al Harb" with the unbelieving 'infidel' (all non-Muslims). They are on the march to achieve their Great Caliphate, where all the planet will accept Sharia Law (strict Islam - like the Taliban) and worship Allah. They aim for nothing less than world domination for Islam.

When the Jews or Christians Retreat and give up Land as a gesture for Peace, for the Muslims it is a signal of weakness and, therefore, they attack. While the Americans are just beginning to learn that radical Islam has declared war with it, the Israelis have had 56 years of lessons as a State and at least another half century of Terror attacks before Statehood was declared in 1948.

There is no excuse that relieves Israel's Politicians and Generals of their blindness in advancing the cause of Final Arab Muslim Conquest.

They are simply traitors to the Jewish State who have often engaged in treason with the enemy in time of war. (There has never NOT been a time of war by the Muslims against the Jews.) Worse yet, these same politicians had a plan from the time of David Ben Gurion to de-Judaize the Jewish State into a secular state. As they gave away our religious holy sites such as the Temple Mount, they taught the Jews that they had no ancient claims to our ancient homeland.

The national memory of our Patriarchs and being the People of G-d's Covenant was shoved aside, insuring that they emptied the nation of purpose and pride in being Jewish. The Arab Muslims saw that the spirit of the Jews was fading at the teachings of their own leadership.

Conversely, the Muslim Arabs belief in their Allah grew and gave them greater courage in battle. They had an anchor in radical Islam while Israel's Politicians taught that being Jewish was simply of no consequence.

Most of the Israeli people soon followed their role models. With the exception of Menachem Begin (and perhaps Yitzhak Shamir) none of the so-called Jewish leaders had any belief in their Jewishness and, therefore, in their rights to the Land gifted to them by G-d. These non-Jewish Jews tore the heart out of the Jewish people and replaced their Jewish faith with Retreat and Surrender of our Land.

Observe the contemptible cowardice of the non-Jewish Jews of Israel's Supreme Court. Their rulings for the Arabs rights to encroach on Jewish Land and against Jewish security is a distinct part of their lessons of Jewish Retreat.

I have little doubt that, one day, they, the Politicians, the Political Generals and the Supreme Court will have to stand before a Peoples' Court, charged with treason and betrayal of the Jewish nation.

The Jerusalem Post - August 24, 2004

ABUSING 'APARTHED'
FOR THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE

by Gerald Steinberg

The 1975 UN resolution equating Zionism with racism was the opening shot in the political war to dismember Israel through what Palestinian leaders refer to as "the South African strategy." The process has continued, most notably in the 2001 Durban conference against racism and in the propaganda campaign that attempts to label Israel's anti-terror barrier as an "apartheid wall."

On August 24, Haaretz reported that South African law professor John Dugard, "the special rapporteur for the United Nations on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories," told the UN General Assembly that "there is 'an apartheid regime' in the territories 'worse than the one that existed in South Africa.'"

Although the comparison between Israel and the apartheid regime that ruled South Africa is entirely fictitious, the demonization efforts are propelled by repeating and reinforcing this analogy. The attempt to label Israel as an illegitimate "apartheid state" is the embodiment of the new anti-Semitism that seeks to deny the Jewish people the right of equality and self-determination among the nations.

The South African strategy is not simply based on rhetoric, academic boycott calls, and waving placards at Israel-bashing demonstrations so common in Europe and elsewhere. There is a vast network of powerful non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, Christian Aid, and their Palestinian and Israel Arab allies, that are the main channels for spreading the big lies of "war crimes" and "apartheid." Similarly, the repetition of the rhetoric of demonization by Palestinian and Arab officials in the media helps to propel this strategy.

Their long-term goal is to use the UN to impose economic sanctions on Israel, widening the Arab boycott to encompass much of the world. Economic measures contributed to the downfall of the real apartheid regime in South Africa -- thus the appeal of this approach. The recent exploitation of the UN to indict Israel for building a security barrier, followed by a pseudo-legal endorsement from the misnamed International Court of Justice, are important elements in this game plan. Next on the agenda will be the introduction of a UN resolution to impose sanctions, citing Israeli rejection of the ICJ advisory opinion.

In reality, the analogy and rhetoric are absurd, and they demean Black victims of the real apartheid regime in South Africa. Zionism and the revival of national sovereignty in the Jewish homeland are not manifestations of European colonialism, in contrast to the white settlers (Afrikans, English, and others) who created Johannesburg and Pretoria. And while Black labor was exploited in slavery-like conditions under apartheid, in contrast, Palestinians are dependent on Israeli employment due to their own internal corruption and economic failures. Israel does not benefit from cheap and unskilled Palestinian labor -- rather, Palestinian dependency is a drain on both societies.

Similarly, while South African apartheid was based on denial of sovereignty for the Black population, Israelis accepted the "two-state solution" from the beginning, including the 1947 UN partition plan. Arab citizens of Israel have the same democratic rights as Israelis, including full parliamentary representation and free speech -- in sharp contrast to the Blacks under apartheid, or minorities in most Arab countries.

The politicized claims of Israeli "apartheid" distort the historical record and denigrate the suffering of Black South African victims of the real thing.

Indeed, the racism and denial of legitimacy characteristic of apartheid are actually applicable to Arab and Islamic rejection of Jewish rights. In the Middle East and the rest of the world, Jews are a tiny and oppressed minority, struggling to maintain cultural identity and survive in a hostile and violent environment. But these basic facts are politically incorrect and inconsistent with the demonization of Israel.

The "Zionism is apartheid" propaganda is also used to justify Palestinian terrorist attacks and the efforts to deny Israelis the basic human right of self-defense against being ripped apart in bus and caf bombings. In effect, the relentless barrage of the term "apartheid wall" by Palestinian propagandists, including Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, UN representative Nasser Al-Kidwa, and NGOs such as B'tselem, Mossawa, Adallah, the ISM, seek to keep Israelis exposed to terror attacks.

By screaming "apartheid" at every opportunity, the leaders of this campaign have succeeded in burying data showing that this barrier has saved the lives of many Israelis. In today's immoral political doublespeak, protecting Israelis from terror has become "apartheid."

At the same time, while there are legitimate differences over the wisdom of Israeli settlement policy in the areas captured in 1967 in the wake of Arab aggression, these differences are also unrelated to the political rhetoric of "apartheid." Ethno-national disputes, occupation, and charges of discrimination against minorities are also part of the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Kosovo and Bosnia, Sri Lanka, India/Pakistan, etc., but the demonization campaign is unique to Israel.

Clearly, the South African strategy designed to propel the political war against Israel has many weaknesses. For instance, faced with a campus divestment campaign, Columbia University president Lee B