Al-Durrah Raw Footage

10 seconds not shown on France TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75hiDGp89Xk

18 minutes of France 2 raw footage, Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qtva4rKnM0
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUhM2NZavcc

Wiki Edit Wars been Going on Since 2006

Yahoo! Community Members Please Report this AntiSemitic Page

This needs to be taken down:

Q: Is the jewish strategy inspired by ancient "scripture"?
I'm thinking of the way judaism glorifies genocide - Joshua and Jericho,that type of thing. Are they basing their whole politico-military strategy on mimicing these old atrocities?


A: Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Yes,but more so in recent years than in the 1940's. The rise of the Religious Right in jewish-occupied Palestine has resulted in an increasing identification of the biblical enemies with various Arab peoples. Certainly Orthodox jews consider mass-murder to be very honorable,and any reader of the Old Testament is acutely aware of the creepy preoccupation with killing babies,as in phrases such as "spare not the suckling babe" and the repeated recommedation to dash their brains out against rocks. There's worse in the Talmud. Today the viciousness of the ancient hebrews is a guiding principle in the continuing attempt to liquidate the remaining Palestinians.


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080213200109AA7h6Sp

Hamas is Barbaric

To see the video clip, CLICK HERE

Here is the brief transcript of the speech which was aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008:

Quote from Hamas MP Fathi Hammad

[The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: "We desire death like you desire life."

Hamas placed children on rooftops as human shields preventing Israeli attack on Qassam workshops and warehouses


Yediot Ahronot correspondent Itamar Eichner reports in today's edition that an officer in Israeli Military Intelligence revealed in a briefing by FM Livni to foreign ambassadors that

"before the IDF attacks Qassam workshops or warehouses it distributes flyers asking the residents to evacuate the area. But Hamas exploits the flyers and places small children on the rooftops in order to foil the attacks. And thus because of this trick the IDF is forced to halt many such bombings at the last moment."

"We are working with our hands tied because of all these laws and because we are part of the free world and because this is part of our values," FM Livni said.

www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=38440

Open Letter to the World

GREAT VIDEO FROM KAHANE'S "LETTER"

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/v/eyC-z0b6L5Y

Hamas Admits it uses mosques for "military" bases

Hamas admits using mosques for "military" [i.e, terrorist] bases :

Military Communiqué



Al Qassam Brigades mourns a group of Mujahideen due to the Zionist raid at Badir mosque in Rafah city

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy.. Today , Al-Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the Mujahideen:

Mohammed Omar Abu Nema 23- year –old

From Khalid Ibn Al-Walid mosque in Al-Salm neighborhood

Samir Hamdi Assfour 35- year –old

From Al-Ansar mosque in Rafah

Emad Ibrahim Al-Talih 32- year –old

From Bilal Ibn Rabah in Rafah

Sadeq Yousif Al-Balishi 27 –year –old

From Al-Nour mosque in Rafah

Sobhi Mofid Awadallah 21- year –old

From Al-Sallhin mosque in Rafah


The Mujahideen were martyred sustained of their wounds. They were injured when the Zionist air force fired a rocket towards him. His body turned into fragments. Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the Mujahideen, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.

http://www.alqassam.ps/english/?action=showsta&sid=1010

thx to Jewish Odysseus

Pro-Palestinian Propaganda --Shamir Quote

Pro-Palestinian propaganda is always making up false quotes and taking things out of context. When I find any I shall put them here. Happily the NYT is making its archive available online, and the quote I am talking about presumably comes from the New York Times April 1, 88 and indeed I found it here.

The original accusation which is surfing the 'net reads like this:

“The Palestinians should be crushed like grasshoppers, their heads smashed against boulders and walls.” -- Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir.

Further research shows that it is purported to have come from the NY Times. Most of the accusations do not bother to even source it, and it is accepted as true. At any rate, at no time does Shamir make that statement. He is clearly referring to "the rioters" though he refers to the Palestinians, from the long perspective of Jewish history in the region, as "grasshoppers" compared to the Jews. At no time does he make the statement above.

Barack Obama And Israel

Talk, Talk vs Walk, Walk


Ed Lasky in The American Thinker has put together some interesting facts about Obama.

The ascent of Barack Obama from state senator in Illinois to a leading contender for the Presidential nomination in the span of just a few years is remarkable. Especially in light of a noticeably unremarkable record -- a near-blank slate of few accomplishments and numerous missed votes.

However, in one area of foreign policy that concerns millions of Americans, he does have a record and it is a particularly troubling one. For all supporters of the America-Israel relationship there is enough information beyond the glare of the klieg lights to give one pause. In contrast to his canned speeches filled with "poetry" and uplifting aphorisms and delivered in a commanding way, behind the campaign façade lies a disquieting pattern of behavior.

One seemingly consistent them running throughout Barack Obama's career is his comfort with aligning himself with people who are anti-Israel advocates. This ease around Israel animus has taken various forms. As Obama has continued his political ascent, he has moved up the prestige scale in terms of his associates. Early on in his career he chose a church headed by a former Black Muslim who is a harsh anti-Israel advocate and who may be seen as tinged with anti-Semitism. This church is a member of a denomination whose governing body has taken a series of anti-Israel actions.

Read it here at The American Thinker

Pollard Responds to Minister Ben Eliezer Championing Barghouti Release

Justice4JPnews - January 6, 2008

Esther Pollard responded this morning to Minister of Infrastructure Fuad Ben Eliezer who declared (regarding a prisoner release deal) "If Barghouti's name is not on the list of those to be freed, I will personally fight for his release!"

Ben Eliezer's remarks today left no room for doubt that his advocacy for the release of Marwan Barghouti, who is serving 5 life sentences for the murder of Israeli citizens, is unconditional.

Asked by Israeli media for her response, Esther replied:

"When we first met with Ben Eliezer he was Israel's Minster of Defense. We asked him what he was doing to free Jonathan, and he shot back, "What have I got to do with Pollard?!" We had to remind him that Jonathan worked under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense and that as Minister of Defense it was his responsibility to seek Jonathan's immediate release. In all the years since then, Ben Eliezer has never lifted a finger to help Jonathan and certainly has never once opened his mouth publicly to advocate for freedom for Jonathan Pollard.

It is simply stunning, on the eve of American President Bush's arrival in Israel, that Israeli Cabinet Ministers (yesterday Matan Vilnai, today Fuad Eliezer, and recently Gidon Ezra and others) instead of advocating for the release of Jonathan Pollard who worked on behalf of the State of Israel for the security of its citizens, are announcing their intention to fight for the release of arch-terrorist,Marwan Barghouti!

Is there no end to the depths this government is willing to sink?"

IMRA

My sentiments exactly

sub-prime mortgages explained

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/11/subprime_mortga.html

Kahane-Olmert Debate

The unforgettable televised debate between the late Rabbi Meir Kahane and Ehud Olmert, over 20 years ago. Olmert had no answers then, and as we see he has not yet found an answer to Israel's Arab demographic threat.

Thanks to http://www.voiceofjudea.com for the video.
Audio: http://kahane.hostultra.com
Book: http://www.whybejewish.org/questions.doc
Writings: http://www.geocities.com/nkmpa/
News: http://www.israelnn.com

from the Voice of Judea

FEATURED STORY

November 6,2007

Jerusalem Judge calls referendum racist

by Moshe Ben Israel

Convicted for making a referendum for Israel

You are probably one of the people who signed a referendum in the summer of 2005 before the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza and Northern Shomron. More than 100,000 people like you participated in that referendum. As insane as this may sound,Yekutiel Ben Yaakov, the man who initiated that referendum was recently convicted in a Jerusalem court on charges of incitement for his efforts to allow the people of Israel to voice their opinion on this critical issue of life or death for the state of Israel.

This draconian measure being used to silence the majority of Jews in Israel must be protested. Please read the below news item and then send an email petition to the judge urging leniency for Yekutiel Ben Yaakov.

On the 25th of March, 2008 at 10:30 AM Judge Rivka Feldman will be sentencing Yekutiel Ben Yakov for his alleged crime of "incitement to racism". More than 100,000 people participated in the referendum which asked voters to choose their preference of two "disengagement alternatives" - "The Sharon plan" - expulsion of the Jews, or "The Jewish Alternative" - to expel Israel's enemy thereby distancing the threat of Kassam rocket attacks.

Over 90 percent of those who participated, opted for the Jewish plan. Is it any wonder that the government will do anything possible hush these results and to bury any referendum initiative? The last thing Olmert and his ilk need is for the people of Israel to voice their opinion openly and for the average Israeli "right wing extremist" to learn that his views are in the majority and not the views of some extremist fringe element. What soldier will obey orders to expel his brother, when it becomes clear that those giving him the orders are not only demanding that he violate Torah and common sense but also that he execute orders that are anathema to the majority of Israelis.

The courts have given Ben Yakov the victory that he has been seeking. Now that it has been established that it is "racist" and illegal to suggest the alternative of expulsion of our enemies in a referendum, it would surely be deemed racist to actually expel 10,000 Jews from their homes.

The public is urged to attend the hearing for the sentencing in Jerusalem on March 25th at 10:00 AM (Beit Mishpat Shalom)

Funds for the legal defense can be sent to Mishalot Yisrael POBox 6592 Jerusalem Israel

Please send a letter of protest to Judge Rivka Friedman Feldman and urge leniency on behalf of Yekutiel Ben Yakov...All emails can be sent to MishalLYisrael@Yahoo.com with the subject Referendums are not illegal.

Funds can also be given now over pay pal at the following link: http://www.defendisrael.net/donate.shtml

http://www.voiceofjudea.com/eng/featured.asp?featured=136

see the Kahane-Olmert debate from 20+ years ago with Peter Jennings on Youtube

A couple of great Jewish links and a Cohn-Chomsky dialogue

I found this magnificient set of links with some great Yiddish links at the bottom from the Jewish Agency for Israel

http://www.jafi.org.il/education/diaspora/links/LinksByACategory.asp?startcatid=10

also this one on Judeo-Arabic works comes from the same source.

http://www.uwm.edu/~corre/judeo-arabic.html

*************************************
Then read:

"Liar...Coward...Little Fascist"
Letters from Noam Chomsky

Some twenty years ago I had a correspondence with Noam Chomsky that lasted for several months. The issues are familiar, and these letters will not add to anyone's knowledge or insights on them. I present the letters now not for their ostensible content but for their style.

The correspondence of academics is generally marked by great courtesy. Sometimes this courtesy is exaggerated so that mockery can be suspected. Sometimes the tone lapses into cool formality and, rarely, thinly veiled incivility. But these deviations from the norm of courtesy are rare.

Professor Chomsky's style, however, is something altogether different and, I believe, unique. Here I was, a perfect stranger, somebody he is unlikely to ever have heard of, somebody who could not have mattered much in his life or work, and yet he invests this correspondence with manic energy, lengthy persistence, and most puzzling of all, with a verbal violence that is almost universally shunned by adults.
--Werner Cohn

http://wernercohn.com/liar.coward.html

Michael Medved Ask Ron Paul Important Questions in this Open Letter

Friday, October 26, 2007

An Open Letter to Rep. Ron Paul

Posted by: Michael Medved at 6:30 PM

Dear Congressman Paul:

Your Presidential campaign has drawn the enthusiastic support of an imposing collection of Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 “Truthers” and other paranoid and discredited conspiracists.

Do you welcome- or repudiate – the support of such factions?

More specifically, your columns have been featured for several years in the American Free Press –a publication of the nation’s leading Holocaust Denier and anti-Semitic agitator, Willis Carto. His book club even recommends works that glorify the Nazi SS, and glowingly describe the “comforts and amenities” provided for inmates of Auschwitz.

Have your columns appeared in the American Free Press with your knowledge and approval?

As a Presidential candidate, will you now disassociate yourself, clearly and publicly, from the poisonous propaganda promoted in such publications?

As a guest on my syndicated radio show, you answered my questions directly and fearlessly.

Will you now answer these pressing questions, and eliminate all associations between your campaign and some of the most loathsome fringe groups in American society?

Along with my listeners (and many of your own supporters), I eagerly await your response.

Respectfully, Michael Medved

New Middle East Forum

Get in on the ground floor.
http://crazyworld.informe.com/forum/

So many forums will ban you if you do not agree with the prevalent (anti-Israel) philosophy. I try to be polite everywhere I go but I keep getting banned at some. For example, I was banned at the Democratic Underground because they thought that the Israel National News was "right wing" and one is not allowed to be right wing at that site. Husband and I have been banned from a number of sites, including the latest "Political Crossfire" which we have both been banned for due to an anti-Israel moderator who claims that all "Zionists" are "making personal attacks" on others. So invite your enemies to my new forum. I will not ban people for a difference of opinion.

http://crazyworld.informe.com/forum/

Doris Lessing's Asymetric Argument

---

"Nobody's" elegant argument:

why should some political driven Nobel laureate from britian judge the value of 9/11 to be less than the self induced ira terror in britain? i am talking about doris lessing.

the ira terror war has been on for decades and ours has been but 6 years. lessing should have the decency to wait another 24 years before rendering judgement. 9/11 was a salvo against america similar to the sneak attack by japan in which fewer casualties happened. one could use lessing's criteria to argue that america's entrance into ww2 was an exaggerated response thus leaving england to fight the nazis.
alone. crazyworld forum

Jimmy Carter: Follow the Money.

Mr. Christian himself, or Mr. Corrupt?

Carter's Arab financiers
By Rachel Ehrenfeld

December 21, 2006

To understand what feeds former president Jimmy Carter's anti-Israeli frenzy, look at his early links to Arab business.

Between 1976-1977, the Carter family peanut business received a bailout in the form of a $4.6 million, "poorly managed" and highly irregular loan from the National Bank of Georgia (NBG). According to a July 29, 1980 Jack Anderson expose in The Washington Post, the bank's biggest borrower was Mr. Carter, and its chairman at that time was Mr. Carter's confidant, and later his director of the Office of Management and Budget, Bert Lance.

At that time, Mr. Lance's mismanagement of the NBG got him and the bank into trouble. Agha Hasan Abedi, the Pakistani founder of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), known as the bank "which would bribe God," came to Mr. Lance's rescue making him a $100,000-a-year consultant. Abedi then declared: "we would never talk about exploiting his relationship with the president." Next, he introduced Mr. Lance to Saudi billionaire Gaith Pharaon, who fronted for BCCI and the Saudi royal family. In January 1978, Abedi paid off Mr. Lance's $3.5 million debt to the NBG, and Pharaon secretly gained control over the bank.

Mr. Anderson wrote: "Of course, the Saudis remained discretely silent... kept quiet about Carter's irregularities... [and] renegotiated the loan to Carter's advantage."

There is no evidence that the former president received direct payment from the Saudis. But "according to... the bank files, [it] renegotiated the repayment terms... savings... $60,000 for the Carter family... The President owned 62% of the business and therefore was the largest beneficiary." Pharaon later contributed generously to the former president's library and center.

When Mr. Lance introduced Mr. Carter to Abedi, the latter gave $500,000 to help the former president establish his center at Emory University. Later, Abedi contributed more than $10 million to Mr. Carter's different projects. Even after BCCI was indicted — and convicted -— for drug money laundering, Mr. Carter accepted $1.5 million from Abedi, his "good friend."

A quick survey of the major contributors to the Carter Center reveals hundreds of millions of dollars from Saudi and Gulf contributors. But it was BCCI that helped Mr. Carter established his center.

BCCI's origins were primarily ideological. Abedi wanted the bank to reflect the supra-national Muslim credo and "the best bridge to help the world of Islam, and the best way to fight the evil influence of the Zionists."

Shortly after assuming office, in March 1977, Mr. Carter made his first public statement regarding a Palestinian "homeland." Since then, he has devoted much of his time to denouncing Israel's self-defense against Palestinian terrorism, which he claims is not only "abominable oppression and persecution" of the Palestinians, but also damages U.S. interests in the region.

By the time BCCI was shut down in July1991, it operated in 73 countries with a deficit of $12 billion, which it had managed to hide with wealthy Arab shareholders and Western luminaries. Among them Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan of Abu Dhabi, who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to Yasser Arafat and Palestinian terrorist groups, and who branded the United States: "our enemy number one"; Former head of Saudi foreign intelligence service, and King Faisal's brother-in-law, Kamal Adham — who with another Saudi, the banker of the royal family, Khaled bin Mahfouz, staged BCCI's attempt to illegally purchase the Washington-based First American bank, in the early 1980s.

True to its agenda, BCCI assisted in spreading and strengthening the Islamic message; they enabled Pakistan's nuclear ambitions, and helped the Palestinian leadership to amass a $10 billion-plus fortune, used to further terrorist activities and to buy more influence in the West.
BCCI founders also supported the Islamic fundamentalist opposition to the Shah of Iran, and saw it as an opportunity to undermine Western influence in the Gulf. They assisted the revolution financially, reinforcing their position within the leadership of the Iranian revolution. Ironically, the success of that revolution cost Mr. Carter his presidency.

BCCI's money also facilitated the Saudi agenda to force Israel to recognize Palestinians "rights," convincing Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to sign the Camp David Accords in September 1978. Since then, Mr. Carter repeatedly provided legitimacy to Arafat's corrupt regime, and now, like the Saudis, he even sides with homicidal Hamas as the "legitimate" representative of the Palestinian people.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Carter again laid responsibility for U.S. bias against the destitute, depressed and (consequently) violent Palestinians on American policy makers' helplessness, over the last 30 years, against the menacing tactics of the powerful American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC).

However, it seems that AIPAC's real fault was its failure to outdo the Saudi's purchases of the former president's loyalty. "There has not been any nation in the world that has been more cooperative than Saudi Arabia," the New York Times quoted Mr. Carter June 1977, thus making the Saudis a major factor in U. S. foreign policy.

Evidently, the millions in Arab petrodollars feeding Mr. Carter's global endeavors, often in conflict with U.S. government policies, also ensure his loyalty.

Rachel Ehrenfeld is the director of the American Center for Democracy.

http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/12/carters-arab-financiers-by-rachel.html

Rice indicates shift in policy: Palestinian state before compliance

I had to put up this article by Dr Aaron Lerner from the IsraelInsider because it is too important to let get by.

By Dr. Aaron Lerner September 28, 2007

When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talks in a public forum she is extremely careful about what she says. And what she doesn't.

That's what makes her remarks at the 23 September press conference at United Nations Headquarters she held with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and other Quartet Principals so disturbing

Here is what she first said:

"And if you look at the phase-one commitments, it is very hard to imagine the establishment of a Palestinian State in which the phase-one commitments have not been realized or have not been carried through. And so, absolutely, those phase-one commitments have to be met."

So far so good.

But then she said:

"... But it is absolutely the case that you're not going to be able to establish a Palestinian State if you don't have a commitment to end terror, if you don't have a commitment to end settlement activity, if you don't have a commitment to non-violence. All of those things have to be achieved. The Palestinians will have to have capacities. They will have to have security forces that can provide security against terrorism, but that can also provide security for the Palestinian people."

Fancy footwork.

First Rice says that "it is very hard to imagine the establishment of a Palestinian State" if the phase-one commitments haven't been carried out.

But Rice doesn't make it a red line. Instead the red line is "commitment" rather than action.

Put simply, the solid red line is that before there is a sovereign Palestinian state the PA has to issue are really well-written declaration -- a really strongly worded one. And they have to be armed to the teeth.

What about actually doing something on the ground? "Terror" has been given the same weight as "settlement activity". As far as Rice seems to be concerned, the people building a sukkah in Ramat Eshkol are just as much a problem as the terrorist trying to blow up a bomb in Tel Aviv. This gives tremendous "wiggle room" to argue that both parties are not behaving.

But again: while the Roadmap spoke of action, Rice's red line appears to be only declarative in nature.

But that's not what phase-one was all about. It requires both talk and action.

Here is the wording:

Talk: "Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel's right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere."

Action: "All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."

Talk: "Palestinians declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism "

Action: "and undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere."

And while Rice talks about apparently arming the Palestinians to the teeth (does "but that can also provide security for the Palestinian people" mean an ability to fight Israel?) she also ignores action:

"Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons ..."

Instead of real action we have some photo ops.

This week the PA tried to make a splash in the press by handing over some pipes to Israeli authorities -- claiming that they were Qassam rockets.

Similar hollow photo ops can be expected in the future. This while "moderate peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas continues to take a strong position against Israel right to defend itself from terror attacks.

The last thing that Israeli officials can afford to do is ignore this policy shift.

The shift away from requiring Palestinian compliance before the forming of a Palestinian state isn't a matter of nuance. It is fundamental.

http://web.israelinsider.com/views/12133.htm

Wake up, Folks!!

On Jewish Guilt and Jesus

I have found two books which have profoundly shaken my worldview up. The books themselves are quite different though on the same topic. Jewish 'guilt' or lack thereof, in the death of Jesus. I picked up the Cohn book (Cohn was an Israeli Supreme Court Judge, retired when he wrote this book) -- What a fantastic analysis! I have read the Gospels many times over but never even noticed the discrepancies in them, or thought about it. Cohn has a wide knowledge of Jewish Law and history and of course an enormous intellect to go with it. I think he has a point, but most Christians can't handle it.

I actually wrote a review of it in Amazon today (not up there yet) and have quite a few comments on the reviews.


The Trial and Death of Jesus by Haim Cohn:

http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Death-Jesus-Haim-Cohn/dp/1568525028/

One thing led to another and I am now in the middle of the following book and in correspondence with the author.


The Ghost in the Gospels: The True Story of How Jesus Died and How We All Missed It for 2,000 Years , by Leon Zitzer

http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Gospels-Story-Jesus-Missed/dp/0595408516

I have always known and understood the Jewishness of Jesus in my heart, which I think is why I am moved by the Christians who have the sticker : "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter".... though heaven knows I don't agree with them about everything!!

Zitzer goes even further with a wonderful thesis regarding Barabbas and Judas which makes magnificent sense. I have never been able to buy the Mel Gibson vision of the Passion. Most Jews don't. It may not be as these 2 people have laid it out, but if it is, time to make some changes in our thinking. Now is actually a very religious time, where millions and millions of people are acting out of religious convictions. Jihads are being fought, wars are being fought over religious conviction; mosques are popping up all over, Christians are being thrown persecuted in the middle east and elsewhere, and Jews are back to being "the sons of apes and pigs."

All of the book reviews (written by nonJews) give Judge Cohn credit for scholarship and such but cannot accept it. They have to have it that the Jews have at least some guilt over the death of Jesus! No one seems to be able argue his thesis away. Argument is based on sheer emotion, not to mention a couple of millennia of tradition as to how things were with Jesus and how things were supposed to have happened. That Jews should be completely innocent, Christians (and maybe even secularists) cannot accept! Maybe they would put a little guilt on the Romans, but Heaven knows most (if not all) of the guilt has to go to the Jews.

Zitzer tells me that he is getting a very hostile reception from everyone, including Messianic Jews, which I would have thought would have taken it well. Anyway, If this is an area of interest of any of you, I highly recommend both books above.
:D

The Myth of Rachel Corrie

The Myth of Rachel Corrie

By Ronald Radosh

Dr. Radosh is author or co-author of 14 books, His work has appeared frequently in such venues as The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, National Review, The American Interest, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and other journals and newspapers.

This letter was sent in June to Ed Herendeen, the founder and artistic director of the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in protest of the production of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" (reviewed on HNN this week).

Dear Mr. Herendeen:

I moved to this area [Shepherdstown, West Virginia] one year ago, largely because it is a community of cultured people active in the arts. Last year my wife and I not only bought a series ticket to CATF, but we invited lots of friends to come from the DC metropolitan area to attend the performances.

I wish to tell you why this year I am boycotting the festival, in protest of your production of My Name is Rachel Corrie. On the CATF website, the play is described as a vehicle to show Rachel Corrie’s “eye-opening Middle East reports,” which are said to be “powerfully direct.” In the Shepherdstown Observer article, you are quoted as noting her “passionate commitment: and her quest to “understand one of the most turbulent conflicts on earth.” You connected to this play, you say, “because of Rachel’s idealistic voice,” which reminds you of your “youth and idealism.”

Your comments and the description of the play is disingenuous and utter nonsense. Rachel Corrie was not a simple idealist seeking to comprehend the truth about conflict in the Middle East. She was, rather, a committed member and activist in the so-called International Solidarity Movement, a group whose own description of their position cites their endorsement of “armed struggle” against Israeli men, women and children. At the same time, the ISM rejects Israel’s right to defend itself against never ending terrorism aimed at its very existence.

As I write this letter, the violence and Quassam missles flying into the Gaza town of Sderot are increasing, and Hamas promises to soon use newer long range missiles that will reach further and larger nearby towns. The Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, has said that “we will keep to the same path until we win one of two goals: victory or martyrdom.” Their spokesman Abu Obeida has noted that we “will strike at the enemy anywhere in Palestine, whether with suicide attacks or operations against soldiers.” One of its leaders told Al Jazeera: “We recognize that violence is necessary and it is permissible for oppressed and occupied people to use armed resistance and we recognize their right to do so.”

Hamas is serious. Since 2000, it has carried out dozens of “suicide” bombings in Israel, and killed more than 250 people. Hamas and Fatah groups have also smuggled weapons into Gaza in preparation for major attacks against Israel. Last year alone they smuggled into Gaza 33 tons of military grade high explosives, 20,000 assault rifles, 38 long-rage missiles, 12 guided missiles, 95 anti tank rocket launchers and 410 anti tank rockets.

It is the activists of Hamas and other terrorist groups that the ISM uses its American cadre to protect. Rachel Corrie’s parents, who are speaking at the forthcoming “The world condemns Israel” rally on June 10th in our nation’s capitol, have said that their daughter was “working in Rafah with a nonviolent resistance organization…trying to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and wells.” In the play, Corrie says she is working among “unarmed people” and that the “vast majority of Palestinians…are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance.” Poor Gandhi must be turning over in his grave. Where did Rachel Corrie think the Hamas terrorists get their rockets, rifles and rocket launchers from? What does she think they use them for?

The weapons she somehow is supposedly unaware of are in fact smuggled into Gaza by a network of hidden tunnels. One of those tunnels was under the house she was supposedly protecting from destruction. Her claim used in the play that she was seeking to prevent “Israeli demolition of civilian homes” is false.The IDF’s aim was not to destroy the house, but to cover up the tunnel they had found dug there by the terrorist groups. Corrie was knowingly demonstrating in a dangerous war zone where she should not have been. She was a human shield for Hamas terrorists who cynically use gullible Americans to deter attacks on their arms caches and homes that are used as weapon depots. Corrie knew the use to which she was put. As she writes, “imagine the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed U.S. citizen.” In other words, she knew she and her comrades were good propaganda subjects for Hamas.

Sadly, Corrie died when an Israeli bulldozer ran her over. We have all seen the famous photo: Corrie standing way in front with a bullhorn, and then, the next photo of her lying near death with other ISM cadre standing over her. The intent is to show that Corrie was intentionally killed by the IDF driver, who saw her clearly. Indeed, the play ends with the words of an ISM militant, Tom Dale, who was there. He “knew absolutely that she was there,” the audience hears. Another ISM militant, Joe “Smith,” signed an affidavit that Israel engaged in the “intentional crushing of a human being,” and five other ISM activists who were there seconded his affidavit. They are, and Rickman-Viner’s script agrees, charging Israel with intentional murder of a peaceful protester. As the late Yassir Arafat said, “Rachel Corrie is a martyr.”

I suggest you read the article by investigative reporter Joshua Hammer, which appeared in the progressive magazine Mother Jones, a vehicle sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and firmly on the left/liberal side of the political spectrum. (Sept.-Oct.2003) Hammer found that the very intention of the ISM team Corrie was part of was “to engage the Israeli military.” When they heard an Israeli bulldozer would soon be in the area, the team moved to the house towards which it was heading. Corrie put herself between the wall of the house and the Israeli D-9 bulldozer. Her death, according to Tom Dale, took place in six or seven seconds.

What did Hammer find? First, the famous photo of Corrie with the megaphone was taken way earlier. Half an hour earlier, she had given it to another militant. When the bulldozer was near her, Corrie was kneeling way down in the dirt, a position that made it difficult for her to be seen. The operator of the vehicle had a limited field of vision, and saw no one in front of him. “You can’t hear, you can’t see well. You can go over something and you’ll never know,” he told investigators. Moreover, the IDF takes videos from the bulldozer cockpit for the record. Hammer saw these videos. His conclusion: The IDF “makes a credible case that the operators, peering out through the narrow, double-glazed, bulletproof windows, their view obscured behind pistons and the giant scooper, might not have seen Corrie kneeling behind them.” Why don’t you consider ending the play with this, rather than Tom Dale’s charge of intentional murder?

After the audience hears this, they will see a home video of a ten year old charming Rachel Corrie talking about the horror of world hunger. How sweet. How manipulative. How phony. Did the mature Rachel Corrie ever consider how the jihad she was supporting was viewed by Israeli young women her own age? Did she ever see the effects of the suicide bombings and rockets that the Hamas militants she sought to protect had on Israeli families?

In the case of Rachel Corrie, her youthful idealism led to the advancement of evil acts by terrorist groups. She was not a heroic peace activist. To quote the Wall Street Journal editorial that appeared a day after her death: “It’s a shame that Rachel Corrie died the way she did. It’s shameful that she lived the way she did.” In the context of the increasing attacks on Israel by Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa fighters, presentation of this one-sided play- actually a crude example of agit-prop at its worst- can only inflame sentiment towards the false conclusion that the terrorists are really only freedom fighters.

Rachel Corrie was not an innocent. She was a dedicated believer who was part of the ISM movement. She knew well the importance of propaganda. As she wrote to herself: “Set up system for media work.” Writing home, she asked that her parents when talking to the press never say things like we must end “the cycle of violence,” because it was not a “balanced conflict,” but a case of victims fighting Israeli imperialists. Think of this “before talking to reporters,” she advised them.

Sadly, Corrie’s wish is carried out in the play, and now will spread to Shepherdstown in this forthcoming production.

Sincerely,

Ronald Radosh
Prof. Emeritus of History, City Univ. of New York
Adjunct Fellow, The Hudson Institute, Washington, DC

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