In the wake of the Gush
Katif/Shomron rape, somehow Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief connected me to a
very optimistic viewpoint:
The disengagement from Gaza and two West Bank
settlements is complete. The settlers only put up token resistance and were met
with overwhelming power. Barry Chamish, Israel's most effective voice for
guiding the Israeli faithful out of the clutches of the Sharon betrayals, was
justifiably depressed by the failure of the settlers to make a stand, or to heed
his warnings about how the movement was infiltrated ahead of time.
But I
remain optimistic for the long-term, believing that the God of Israel is merely
paying out sufficient rope to let these treacherous Jewish leaders of Israel
hang themselves someday. There is only so much unarmed settlers can do to fight
the all-powerful state. I hope Barry's voice is preserved for the sake of the
hundreds who continue to wake up to his warning voice each year. Someday it may
be enough to make a difference. Even if they have lost this battle, they must
never fail to learn the lessons of that failure -- the main one being that the
right wing must never trust the Likud again nor any of its leaders who are
connected to the US and European globalist establishment, like Benjamin
Netanyahu, waiting in the wings.
I wish I
shared this assessment. I reply, "No Way. These Jews will never catch on." Watch
them support Netanyahu. Watch their protest leaders demonstrate against all the
wrong people. Watch the mistakes compound each other. It's only getting worse
since the disaster.
Example One: Many people cited
Daniel Pipes' post-pullout piece as proof that he's in their camp.
It means
nothing that he is the director of the Middle East Forum of the Council On
Foreign Relations (CFR).
| A Democracy
Killing Itself |
Daniel Pipes -
Monday, August 15, 2005
The Israeli government's removal of its own
citizens from Gaza ranks as one of the worst errors ever made by a democracy.
This step is the worse for being self-imposed, not the result of pressure from
Washington. When the Bush administration first heard in December 2003 that
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had unilaterally decided to pull all
soldiers and civilians from Gaza, it responded coolly. Months of persuasion were
needed to get the White House to embrace the
initiative.
Can you imagine a more cynical trough of horse manure? Look at Pipes protect his
CFR buddies! No pressure from Washington?
Self-Imposed?
Once and
for all, let us state the obvious: the CFR is destroying Israel. That is its
intent and Pipes is deliberately deluding the
Jews.
Without further
commentary, we present the case against the CFR. Afterward, watch how the
Jews fail to digest this mass of cold, unforgiving, unmistakable
evidence:
http://www.nysun.com/article/19031
Mystery Solved
New York Sun
Editorial
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
One of the little-noticed virtues
of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, completed yesterday, is that it puts in
sharp relief one of the questions of the Middle East debate that has puzzled us
in recent years, centering on the Council on Foreign Relations and Henry
Siegman. The council's Web site describes Mr. Siegman as "senior fellow and
director, U.S./Middle East Project" and also as "foremost expert on the Middle
East peace process ... and U.S. Middle East Policy." Yet his writings over the
past few years are hard to distinguish from the hard-line propaganda of the Arab
tyrannies.
A visitor to the Council's Web site yesterday could view in
its archives an interview with Mr. Siegman by a former foreign editor of the New
York Times, Bernard Gwertzman, under the headline, "Siegman: Sharon Unlikely to
Carry Out Plans to Withdraw from Gaza." In the interview, Mr. Gwertzman asks Mr.
Siegman, "Why won't the withdrawal take place?" Mr. Siegman answers in all
apparent seriousness that Mr. Sharon lacks majority support for his plan in the
Israeli parliament.
It's now clear that Mr. Siegman's assessment in October
2004 was precisely wrong. It's hardly the first time. America's Middle East
policy, in Mr. Siegman's analysis, is the result of how "Sharon manipulates
Washington," as he put it in an April 26, 2004, article in the International
Herald Tribune. A similar theme is conveyed in cartoons in the Arab press,
labeled as anti-Semitic by the Anti-Defamation League, depicting Mr. Sharon as a
puppeteer manipulating President Bush.
Mr. Siegman has said Israel is
worse than the terrorist leader Yasser Arafat. "Surely depriving the freedom of
3.5 million Palestinians and subjugating them to a military occupation for
nearly two generations is a more fundamental and egregious offense to basic
democratic values than the authoritarianism of Arafat, who at least came to
office in a free and democratic internationally supervised election," Mr.
Siegman wrote on February 27, 2003, in the International Herald Tribune. He
suggested that U.S. policy-makers who think that "our actions in Iraq will
inspire admiration and trigger regionwide democratic change better check what
they are smoking." The smoke had barely cleared when American actions in Iraq
did trigger regionwide democratic change and admiration from Beirut to Cairo and
beyond.
So why would the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based
American institution, fund this "expert" at the level of $204,151 in salary and
benefits, making him, in the most recent year for which tax returns are
available, its fourth-highest paid employee? It turns out that much of the
funding for the Council's "U.S./Middle East Project" comes from overseas,
including the European Commission, the government of Norway, Kuwaiti and Saudi
businessmen, a Lebanese politician, and, for one year, an official of the
commercial arm of the Palestinian Authority, Munib Masri.
Mr. Siegman
tells us that his views have been consistent over his career and that his
project's funding sources - which he points out are a matter of public record -
haven't influenced his opinions. A spokeswoman for the Council says that there
is no connection between funding sources and any scholar's opinions. The editor
in charge of the opinion page at the International Herald Tribune, Serge
Schmemann, says that the paper never asked about, and Mr. Siegman never
mentioned, where his money was coming from. Editors at the New York Review of
Books, where Mr. Siegman also publishes, did not return our phone calls seeking
comment.
Why aren't the New York Review of Books and the New York
Times-owned IHT disclosing that the man attacking Israel in their pages is being
supported by European governments and non-American Arab businessmen? The Times
itself has an integrity policy requiring freelance contributors to "avoid
conflicts of interest, real or apparent," yet the Times ran an op-ed piece by
Mr. Siegman in 2002 identifying him only as "a senior fellow at the Council on
Foreign Relations." If the publications had made the disclosure, their readers
could draw their own
conclusions.
___________________________________________________
© 2005
The New York Sun, One SL, LLC. All rights
reserved.
** I am grateful to my correspondent Elisheva Rubin for gathering
more cold facts and for proving that not all Jews can be fooled. Take your time
and read. I won't be back until the end of this section: **
----------------
An Open Letter
to:
The C.F.R.
- Council on Foreign Relations
&
Judith Kipper, CFR Director,
Middle East Forum
Is the CFR a "Nonpartisan Think Tank"?
CFR Books discuss "turning refugees into
citizens".
- But the CFR policy in Israel has done the reverse:
Turned
law-abiding, income producing Jewish citizens:
Into displaced persons and
refugees.
How can anyone think that the recent Pogrom on the Jews of Israel
is acceptable "foreign policy"?
http://www.cfr.org
http://www.cfr.org/thinktank/?jsessionid=154d05d5e29ecf31d8c74e3311c70da2
FULL C.F.R.
"NONPARTISAN" ARTICLE - BELOW
Siegman: Crucial for Sharon to Offer Palestinians
Full Peace Negotiations in Return for Ending Violence
Interviewer:
Bernard Gwertzman Interviewee: Henry Siegman
August 22,
2005
Introducing [L to R]: C.F.R. President Richard Haass;
Judith
Kipper, Director, Middle East Forum;
James M. Lindsay Vice President, Director of
Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
-- -
Refugees and the Displaced
- January 1997
Refugees into Citizens: Palestinians and the End of the
Arab-Israeli Conflict By Donna E. Arzt Book
See more in Refugees and the
Displaced
April 10, 2003
Internally Displaced Persons in Iraq: A Potential
Crisis?
By Arthur C. Helton and Gil Loescher
Op-Ed See more in Iraq,
International Peace and Security
January 18, 2003 The
World's Refugee Crisis By Arthur C. Helton Op-Ed
January 9, 2003
Building the Capacity to Re-Integrate Angolan Returnees Transcript - See
more in Sub-Saharan Africa
November 19, 2002
The
Repatriation of Angolan Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
Other
Report See more in Sub-Saharan Africa
November 10, 2002 Tide of
Refugees Could Swamp War Effort By Arthur C. Helton and Gil Loescher Op-Ed
July 16, 2002 War on Terror Hurts Refugees
Too
By Arthur C. Helton Op-Ed
See more in Terrorism,
Society and Culture
Richard N. Haass, President - Phone:
212-434-9543; For all media requests, contact: Lisa Shields at 212-434-9888 or
lshields@cfr.org E-mail: president@cfr.org
- Judith Kipper, Director, Middle
East Forum - Phone: 202-518-3416 E-mail: jkipper@cfr.org
James
M. Lindsay, Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
Tel: 212-434-9627 E-mail: aalpha@cfr.org
President
Richard N. Haass
Richard Haass, a former director of policy planning in the State
Department, is president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
"There is a growing awareness in Israel that the current
situation -- one of open-ended Israeli occupation of lands mostly populated by
Palestinians -- is inconsistent with Israel's determination to remain a secure,
prosperous, Jewish and democratic state..."
http://www.cfr.org/bios/3350/richard_haass.html Biography
Excerpts: Experience: Richard Haass is President of the Council
on Foreign Relations, a position he has held since July 2003. The Council, based
in New York with an office in Washington, DC, is an independent, national
membership organization and a nonpartisan center for scholars dedicated to
producing and disseminating ideas so that individual and corporate members, as
well as policymakers, journalists, students, and interested citizens in the
United States and other countries, can better understand the world and the
foreign policy choices facing the United States and other
governments.
Until June 2003, Richard Haass was Director of Policy Planning for
the Department of State, where he was a principal advisor to Secretary of State
Colin Powell on a broad range of foreign policy concerns. Confirmed by the U.S.
Senate to hold the rank of ambassador,
Communications Contacts:
Lisa
Shields Vice President 212-434-9888
lshields@cfr.org
Marie Strauss Deputy Director 212-434-9536
mstrauss@cfr.org
Anya Schmemann Communications Manager DC
Office 202-518-3419 aschmemann@cfr.org
Kathleen Zimmerman Assistant Director
212-434-9537 kzimmerman@cfr.org
Amy Gunning Communications Coordinator
212-434-9679 agunning@cfr.org
-------
More on Pres. Haass: CFR on GUSH KATIF POGROM
http://www.cfr.org/publication/7734/lets_seize_opportunity_while_we_can.html
Let's Seize
Opportunity While We Can
Author: Richard N. Haass
February 6, 2005 Miami
Herald
Let's seize opportunity while we can.
== INSERT: CFR on GUSH KATIF POGROM
http://www.cfr.org/index.html
On reading the CFR materials, one gets
the decided impression that the CFR not only supported the Pogrom on the Jews of
Gush Katif, and others; But possibly created it.
Direct links to the Israel
Gov sites promoting it.
None of the material even remotely addresses the
harm it has caused.
---------
CFR - COUNCIL ON
FOREIGN RELATIONS - ON "GAZA WITHDRAWAL"
THE SPIN GOES ON!
Major
Stories
GAZA
WITHDRAWAL
Israel completes its withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the
West Bank and issues orders to seize Palestinian land near the West Bank’s
largest settlement, Maale Adumim, to secure its border.
Background and
analysis: NEW Gwertzman interview with Council Fellow Henry Siegman (CFR); NEW
Background Q&A on the Gaza Withdrawal (CFR); Gwertzman interview with former
Middle East envoy Dennis Ross (CFR); CFR Fellow Max Boot on the Gaza pullout
(Los Angeles Times)Resources and documents: Sharon’s August 22 statement
(Office of Israel’s Prime Minister); Documents on Israel's disengagement plan
(Office of Israel’s Prime Minister); Brief on Israel’s disengagement plan
(Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
August 24, 2005 What Does Democracy
Look Like? By Steven A. Cook Op-Ed See more in Democracy
Promotion
August 22, 2005 Israel's Leaders Are Now Freer to Make
Tough Choices By Henry Siegman Op-Ed See more in
Israel
August 22, 2005 Siegman: Crucial for Sharon to
Offer Palestinians Full Peace Negotiations in Return for Ending Violence Henry
Siegman interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman Interview See more in Israel,
Palestinian Authority, Peacemaking
August 18, 2005 MIDDLE EAST:
The Gaza Withdrawal By Esther Pan Background Q&A See more in Israel,
Palestinian Authority
August 17, 2005 Hamastan? Gaza Pullout Is Worth
the Risk By Max Boot Op-Ed See more in
Israel
August 16, 2005 Ross: The United States Should be More
Involved in Follow-up to Israeli Withdrawal from Gaza Dennis B. Ross interviewed
by Bernard Gwertzman Interview See more in
Israel
------------
http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/DisengagemePlan/
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Israels+Disengagement+Plan-+Renewing+the+Peace+Process+Apr+2005.htm
Israel's Disengagement Plan: Renewing
the Peace Process
20 Apr 2005
Introduction -
Hope for
the prospects of peace has revived in recent months. The death of Yasser Arafat
and the election of his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, have fostered the expectation
of a new era in relations between Israelis and Palestinians. Within this
context, Israel’s Disengagement Plan, introduced in December 2003, should be
seen as an important step forward.
Ever since the 1967 Six Day War
brought Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Gaza Strip under Israel’s
administration, their status has been in contention. Israel was forced to wage
that war in self-defense, and the disputed territories were held not as the
object of conquest, but to be part of eventual negotiations for lasting
peace.
====> back to CFR President Haass oped promoting the
destruction of Israel ====>
It has been a long time since the words
opportunity and Middle East appeared in the same sentence. But now they are.
Even better, this optimism may have some basis in reality. One important reason
for this change in attitude is, of course, Yasser Arafat's disappearance from
the scene. Like the Thane of Cawdor in Shakespeare's Macbeth, "Nothing in his
life became him like the leaving it."
Arafat never grew beyond the man who
appeared at the United Nations decades ago with both an olive branch and a gun.
His unwillingness to jettison terror and choose diplomacy proved his undoing, as
he lost legitimacy in the eyes of both Israel and the United States. The result
was the failure to create a Palestinian state.
But it is not simply Arafat's
passing that provides cause for optimism. We now have a Palestinian leadership
legitimized by elections, one that appears to be opposed to using terrorism as a
tool to achieve political aims. Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has a good record of
questioning the wisdom of the intifada that has taken too many lives and caused
only misery and destruction on all sides.
Changes in Israel are also
contributing to the mood swing. There is a growing awareness in Israel that the
current situation -- one of open-ended Israeli occupation of lands mostly
populated by Palestinians -- is inconsistent with Israel's determination to
remain a secure, prosperous, Jewish and democratic state.
The formation of a
new Israeli government, one more centrist in its composition and support, is
another positive development. Israel is now led by a prime minister who has the
ability to make historic choices and a government inclined to support him.
But opportunity is just that. Middle East history is replete with examples
of missed and lost chances to make peace. The challenge now is to break this
pattern and turn today's opportunity into reality.
Govern responsibly
This requires that the promised Israeli disengagement from Gaza and parts of
the West Bank succeed. But "success" entails more than departing Israelis. It
also requires that Palestinians demonstrate that they can govern responsibly and
that they can put an end to terrorist violence emanating from Palestinian soil.
What happens in Gaza after Israel leaves will have a profound impact on
Israeli politics. If Gaza turns into a lawless failed state, one that is a base
for attacks on Israelis, it will be difficult to persuade Israel to withdraw
from other areas that it now occupies. But if Palestinians in Gaza demonstrate
that they can rule themselves and be a good neighbor, a key justification for
Israel's continuing occupation elsewhere will weaken.
Palestinians will need
help if things are to turn out right in Gaza. The United States, Europe and Arab
states such as Egypt, along with Russia and the United Nations, all have a
responsibility to assist Abbas. Palestinians need financial and technical help
to build up a unified and capable security establishment, to revive a moribund
economy and to build a modern, transparent political system.
Domestic
challenges
It is also important that the Gaza withdrawal be a beginning, not
an end, to the political process. There must be a link between what takes place
in Gaza and a comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian question if Abbas is
to persuade a majority of his people that diplomacy and compromise deliver more
than violence and confrontation.
Here, too, there is an important role for
America to play. In fact, the United States has already begun to do what is
required. In a September 2004 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
President Bush reassured Israelis that it was "unrealistic to expect that the
outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the
armistice lines of 1949." The framework for a solution to the Palestinian
refugee issue "will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian
state and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel."
These promises meant a great deal to Sharon as he faced domestic political
challenges. What is needed now is a parallel letter from Bush to Abbas. Such a
letter could spell out the U.S. commitment to a viable, contiguous, sovereign
and independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines, with compensation
provided by Israel wherever territorial adjustments are agreed.
Territorial
return
In return, Palestinians would need to pledge to reject the use of
violence and terror once and for all. The United States should not, however,
make the establishment of a full Palestinian democracy a prerequisite for
territorial return and peace. To delay negotiations until Palestinian democracy
matured would only persuade Palestinians that diplomacy was a ruse and give many
a reason to turn to violence.
After more than a half-century of
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, translating opportunity into reality will be
difficult enough without introducing new requirements that, however desirable,
are not essential.
Judith Kipper:
Expert on Israel???
- Judith Kipper Director, Middle East Forum - Contact Info:
Phone: 202-518-3416 E-mail: jkipper@cfr.org
Location:
Washington, District of Columbia
Israel July 2, 2003
Mideast Expert
Sees 'New Chapter' in Push for Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Judith Kipper
interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman Interview
See more in Israel,
Palestinian
Authority
Media downloads: additional CV (DOC, 28K)
Expertise: Middle East
and Persian Gulf regional developments and threats; Arab-Israeli peace process;
Islamic trends; U.S.-Middle East policy.
Experience: Former Co-director,
Middle East Studies Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
(current); consultant to ABC News (current); Guest Scholar, Brookings
Institution (1987-95); Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute (1980-86);
former consultant to RAND on international affairs.
Education: B.A.,
University of California, Los Angeles.
Selected Publications: The Middle
East in Global Perspective (co-editor, 1991).
Research
Projects Energy Security Group Middle East Forum
Judith
Kipper Director, Middle East Forum
Middle East analyst with
expertise in U.S. Middle East policy, regional politics and development,
Arab-Israeli peace process, Gulf region, Iran, and Iraq.
Expertise:
Middle East and Persian Gulf regional developments and threats; Arab-Israeli
peace process; Islamic trends; U.S.-Middle East policy.
Phone: 202-518-3416
Email: jkipper@cfr.org
-
- - The CFR Think Tank -
James M.
Lindsay Vice President, Director of Studies, and
Maurice R. Greenberg
Chair
Welcome to the Council on Foreign Relations’ Studies Program. We
are the Council’s “think tank.” We are a key part of the Council’s mission to
produce and disseminate ideas so that individual and corporate members, as well
as policymakers, journalists, students, and interested citizens in the United
States and other countries, can better understand the world and the
foreign-policy choices facing the United States and other governments. We do
that by thinking, writing, and speaking about a broad range of foreign-policy
issues.
The
Think Tank
The Studies Department
The Studies Department, the “think
tank,” is the central element in achieving the Council’s goal of adding value to
the foreign policy debate. Studies does this primarily by conducting research on
and writing about U.S. foreign policy challenges whether long term or more
immediate.
For more information on the Studies Department, contact: James M.
Lindsay Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg
Chair
Tel: 212-434-9627 E-mail: aalpha@cfr.org
Lee Feinstein Deputy
Director of Studies
Tel: 202-518-3412 E-mail: lfeinstein@cfr.org
Janine Hill
Associate Director of Studies
Tel: 212-434-9753 E-mail: jhill@cfr.org
http://www.cfr.org/thinktank/fellows.html
Rachel Bronson Senior Fellow
and Director, Middle East and Gulf Studies - Director of a joint Council-Baker
Institute report on post-conflict Iraq; expert on U.S. security and foreign
policy toward the Middle East, particularly the Persian Gulf. Consultant for
NBC.
Expertise: U.S. national security and foreign policy toward the
Middle East; Middle East politics and strategy, particularly in the Persian
Gulf; Iraq.
Isobel Coleman Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy
Expert on
economic development in the Middle East and South Asia; director of a Council on
Foreign Relations initiative on women and U.S. foreign policy, focusing on the
role of women in economic and political development in the broader Middle
East.
Expertise: Economic development; Afghanistan; women's initiatives
in the Middle East and Southwest Asia; international trade; aid to developing
countries; microfinance; and education reform in the Middle East.
Phone:
212-434-9771 Email: icoleman@cfr.org
Steven A. Cook
Douglas
Dillon Fellow
Expert on Arab politics, political reform in the Middle East,
U.S. Middle East policy, and Turkish politics.
Expertise: Arab politics;
Political reform in the Arab world; Turkish politics; Civil-military relations
in the Middle East; U.S.-Middle East policy; Arab-Israeli conflict.
Phone:
212-434-9644 Email: scook@cfr.org
http://www.cfr.org/region/publication_list.html?id=406 - Israel related articles.
Peacemaking
August 22, 2005
Siegman: Crucial for Sharon to Offer Palestinians Full Peace
Negotiations in Return for Ending Violence
Henry Siegman interviewed by
Bernard Gwertzman Interview
See more in Palestinian Authority,
Peacemaking
July 27, 2005 Mideast Road Map Essential
Documents - Plan
See more in Middle East, Palestinian Authority,
Peacemaking
http://www.cfr.org/publication/8728/siegman.html
Siegman: Crucial
for Sharon to Offer Palestinians Full Peace Negotiations in Return for Ending
Violence
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman Interviewee: Henry Siegman
August 22,
2005
Henry Siegman, the Council’s top expert on Israeli and
Palestinian issues, says that in the aftermath of the successful withdrawal of
Israelis from Gaza, it is imperative for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to offer
President Mahmoud Abbas a return to full negotiations on all aspects of the
so-called “road map” to peace if the Palestinian leader can put an end to
violence against Israel.
“If Sharon will take the position that Israel will
not move on the road map until all violence comes to an end, without adding that
if the Palestinians succeed in ending the violence, then Israel is prepared to
negotiate all the issues included in the road map— the pre-1967 border, the
capital of a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, trading territories in order to
accommodate the major Israeli settlement blocks in the West Bank, etc.—then it
will be clear he is using the security issue to prevent a peace process,
and the Gaza withdrawal was nothing more than a ploy to gain time for the
deepening of Jewish settlements in the West Bank,” says Siegman, senior fellow
and director of the U.S./Middle East Project at the Council on Foreign
Relations. “If he makes it clear that Palestinian success in dealing with terror
will create a genuine Palestinian state, then we’re on the way back to the road
map.”
Siegman was interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, consulting editor for
cfr.org, on August 22, 2005.
With the Israelis now having concluded the withdrawal of settlers
from the Gaza strip, what’s your impression of the way the operation was
handled?
I think it went far better than anyone could have anticipated. There
were instances where the Israeli military seemed to be more tolerant than
circumstances required. Some people may ask: If the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces)
can show this kind of forbearance toward Israeli settlers even when they break
the law—some of them in very outrageous ways—how can they justify their behavior
in dealing with demonstrations by Arabs who are Israeli citizens, and also
Palestinians on the other side of the border, who hold non-violent
demonstrations to protest Israeli government’s policies? As we know, in previous
instances where Israeli Arabs were involved, several were killed by the Israeli
police. That’s not to take away any credit from the way [the IDF] handled the
settlers, but it does raise some serious questions [about] whether it is
necessary for them to be as brutal as they often are in dealing with Israeli
Arabs or Palestinians.
How did you think the Palestinians acted during this withdrawal
period?
They showed the kind of restraint responsible people hoped they would
by not engaging in activities that would have made it impossible for [Prime
Minister Ariel] Sharon to continue the withdrawal, or to provide fodder for
criticism by Sharon’s opponents. So on balance, the Palestinians, particularly
President Mahmoud Abbas, behaved very well. I also have to say Hamas, who most
people believed would act irresponsibly and attack the Israelis, also behaved
well. I think the reason they didn’t [attack] is not necessarily out of
compassion for the settlers or consideration for Sharon, but because they
understood the Palestinian public would have been very angry with them—and they
would have lost a great deal of political support—had they attacked the IDF or
the settlers during the withdrawal.
What are the next political steps for both the
Israeli and Palestinian sides in coming weeks and months?
Sharon has a number
of issues he has to deal with, all of them complex, and they fall under two
major headings. The first one is Gaza itself. If Sharon wants this withdrawal to
be a bridge towards the resumption of the peace process—and to make sure Gaza is
not turned into a hotbed of renewed terrorism—then he must do certain things
that would enable Palestinians in Gaza to revive their economy, to create a
political horizon for a return to the peace process, and more specifically, [to
help them achieve] a Palestinian state, so they do not come to the conclusion
that this was indeed what Sharon intended—Gaza first and Gaza last—as some
critics were saying all along.
What are these things that Sharon has to do?
He
has to open the borders and place them under international supervision. [This
will] enable the Gazans to conduct trade and have free movement of people and
goods, subject to international controls at the crossing points, both to the
West Bank itself—so there is secure access for Gazans to the West Bank—and also
to Egypt, Jordan and the rest of the world. There will not be any investment in
Gaza if Gaza doesn’t have the opportunity to trade with the rest of the world
and export its agricultural and manufactured goods. That’s absolutely
key.
This also requires that the airport be reopened. Palestinians also need
a seaport, but that’s for the future. It will take them at least three years to
build a seaport, which only emphasizes the importance of opening these other
points of entry and exit into Gaza. If that does not happen, Gaza will be turned
into a large prison.
Has Israel at this point agreed to any of these
issues?
There’s no final agreement on any of them. Sharon has said Israel is
looking at these matters, but so far [he] has made no definitive
commitments.
Is
there a timetable for Israel on this? It’s going to be a while before
Palestinians move into this area, right?
The need to open up Gaza to outside
investment, to manufacturing, to a revived agriculture, all of that is
immediate, and is not dependant on moving [Palestinians] into the area where
settlements existed.
Is [former president of the World Bank] James Wolfensohn, a
special U.S. envoy on economic questions, working on this problem too?
He is.
He has an incredibly difficult job and is doing it as well as anyone can. What
he’s doing there, from my point of view, is truly
amazing.
What
is he doing?
He has defined the issues and [determined] what Gaza needs to
succeed. He has personally helped raise public money from governments and public
institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the
European Union, and has [also] raised money from the private sector. For
example, he put together $14 million dollars toward a much larger sum of money,
most of which is public money, for the purchase of the
greenhouses—
—the greenhouses and the dairy.
Right. They were bought from
the settlers so they could be left in place and used by the Gaza Palestinians.
And he personally contributed half a million dollars toward the purchase of
those greenhouses. So he’s doing an outstanding job. But in the end, it is the
government of Israel that has to agree to these
arrangements.
And the second set of issues for Sharon?
They deal with the
political process, particularly returning to the road map and the peace process.
And that means, at the very least, he must finally put an end to the expansion
of settlements; he must finally keep his word about dismantling the illegal
outposts; and he must also halt plans for construction in East Jerusalem, whose
express purpose is to prevent the establishment of a capital in any part of East
Jerusalem for a future Palestinian state. These are the things he must do now.
They’re all demanded and required by the road map. These are things he must do
if Palestinians are not to conclude that withdrawal from Gaza was not intended
to renew the peace process, but rather to deepen Israel’s occupation of the West
Bank. And if they do come to that conclusion, then we can say goodbye to Abu
Mazen [Mohammed Abbas’ nom de guerre], to the peace process, and to the
possibility of Gaza itself succeeding in terms of its economy and
governance.
The
Palestinians have scheduled their parliamentary elections for the end of
January. Will there likely be an Israeli election in the same time
period?
There’s likely to be one. We don’t know that
yet.
Is
Sharon’s popularity now high or low?
His popularity remains higher than that
of any other politician in Israel, despite the unhappiness of the extreme right
wing and the settlers. However, his popularity among members of the Likud party
is not high. There’s a great deal of disenchantment and even anger with him, and
former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is now seeking to take advantage of
that anger to run against him and to replace him as the Likud candidate for
prime minister in the next election.
The polls have shown Netanyahu enjoys
greater support than Sharon within the Likud. Those same polls have also shown
that if Sharon were to decide to leave the Likud—if he were to come to the
conclusion that he cannot defeat Netanyahu, and instead establish a new centrist
party drawing on some of the more moderate members of the Likud and more
importantly, moderate Israelis generally, and get Shimon Peres and his Labor
Party and the Shinui [a secular Israeli party] to join with him—such a party
would emerge in the next election as dominant and would form the next
government.
And
this centrist party, I assume, would be more willing to go to road map
negotiations?
Yes, exactly. And what also would make it possible for such a
centrist party to do that—to return to the road map, which means doing some
difficult things—is the fact that as a consequence of the experiences Israelis
have had this past week, there is a fairly widespread disenchantment with the
settlers. Israelis no longer see them as the best and the brightest but as a
danger to the country and its democracy. Israelis may now feel more confident
about taking the risk of doing some difficult things required by the road map
that they would not have considered doing before, when they feared the power and
influence of the settlers. The settlers emerge from this confrontation
considerably weakened, a shadow of what they were
before.
That’s
interesting because in the United States, so much TV footage has been of the
settlers, showing them in a very sympathetic light. But the same TV images in
Israel did not win them much support?
No, it did not. I think the Israelis
generally empathized with their anguish, but there’s been a demystification of
the settlers. And I think this will have serious political consequences. I think
from the point of view of the peace process, that is one of the most positive
outcomes of this encounter between the largely secular and centrist Jewish
public in Israel and the settlers.
What about the Palestinians? What do they have to
do?
What Palestinians need to do most importantly is to clean up their own
government. Their government under the leadership of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei
is comprised of many people who are held in contempt by the Palestinian public.
They are seen as self-dealing, as corrupt, and as simply politically inept. For
a long time now, the Palestinian public has been furious that they have been
allowed to stay in office.
Abu Mazen’s greatest challenge is to replace these
people and to open up the Fatah component of the Palestinian Authority—which is
by far its most important political component—to new elections, which have been
resisted by the old guard. He must allow new young people, referred to as the
young guard, to run for office and to replace these people. That’s one of the
most important things he has to do. Equally important, he has to take some tough
measures on the security front. He must finally create a security system that is
in fact under the control of the central government. So far, he has not done
so.
Is that
because he’s not able to?
He is far too weak. He has two problems: first, he
is too weak politically. If he were to try to take on Hamas, he would trigger a
Palestinian civil war that the Palestinian public would not support. He must
first show that his opposition to violence and terror produces tangible benefits
for the Palestinian population, which the intifada and those advocating
violence could not produce. And [second] he must also show that [his way]
produces a credible political path to Palestinian statehood. There is an
interdependence here between what he is able to do and what Sharon is willing to
do. And Sharon has to allow the strengthening of the Palestinian security forces
that were destroyed during the intifada by the IDF. So Israel has to permit Abu
Mazen to rebuild that security structure. So far, Israel has opposed even
allowing the Palestinian Authority’s security forces to obtain the new vehicles
and arms they need to confront Hamas. Sharon cannot say to Abu Mazen, “You may
not have the arms and you may not have the necessary equipment to confront the
terrorists, but you must dismantle them.”
So there is a very real
interdependence between the two. Neither Abbas nor Sharon can succeed without
each of them doing what the other needs to succeed.
Should the United States get more
involved than it is now?
The United States has become more involved than it
had been in the past, but so far mostly on the rhetorical level. [Secretary of
State] Condoleezza Rice has taken a more personal role and State Department
officials have been there as well, on a fairly regular basis. But the question
of whether the Bush administration is prepared to put some real political muscle
behind the rhetoric remains unanswered. And the pressure must begin with Sharon,
because Sharon still insists he is nowhere near returning to the road map.
What is the
single most important thing in getting the parties back to the peace
process?
There are, of course, many factors that are important if the Gaza
withdrawal is to lead to a sustainable peace process. But if I have to identify
the most important one, I would say it is how Prime Minister Sharon will deal
with the security issue. If Sharon will take the position that Israel will not
move on the road map until all violence comes to an end, without adding that if
the Palestinians succeed in ending the violence, then Israel is prepared to
negotiate all the issues included in the road map— the pre-1967 border, the
capital of a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, trading territories in order to
accommodate the major Israeli settlement blocks in the West Bank, etc.—then it
will be clear he is using the security issue to prevent a peace process,
and the Gaza withdrawal was nothing more than a ploy to gain time for the
deepening of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. If he makes it clear that
Palestinian success in dealing with terror will create a genuine Palestinian
state, then we’re on the way back to the road map. If all he says is, “First I
want an end to terror and then we’ll see,” then a return to violence is
inevitable.
--- Copyright 2005 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All
Rights Reserved. ---------
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The Truth About Jewish and Muslim Claims to
Jerusalem Op-Ed - By Henry Siegman
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The Truth About Jewish and Muslim Claims to Jerusalem. ... 25k - August
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Toward Greater Democracy in the Muslim
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Journal Article - By Richard N. Haass
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Muslim
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SAMPLE OF
ARTICLE ON JUDAISM, BUT HAS ANTI-JUDAISM PERSPECTIVE; DESPITE USE OF
REFERENCE TO "TALMUD".
http://www.cfr.org/publication/3804/truth_about_jewish_and_muslim_claims_to_jerusalem.html
The Truth About
Jewish and Muslim Claims to Jerusalem
Author: Henry
Siegman August 10, 2000 International Herald
Tribune
NEW YORK—When the sages of the Talmud had irreconcilable
differences over a point of Theology or law, they decided to defer a decision to
the Messiah, when he comes. It is a legal fiction referred to in the Talmud as
teiku. Teiku is the only solution to the issue of sovereignty over Jerusalem’s
holiest site.
By every account, Israel and the Palestinians made significant
progress on most of the permanent-status issues during their 15-day negotiations
at Camp David. Only the issue of Jerusalem defied agreement, thus rendering all
other agreements null and void. The ground rules included a clear understanding
that "nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to."
So both sides
preferred to abandon historic agreements on most of the issues that divide them
for the sake of retaining certain claims to sovereignty over parts of East
Jerusalem.
For Israelis, a redivision of Jerusalem, which has served as the
"undivided, eternal capital" of the Jewish state since 1967, is inconceivable.
Equally inconceivable to Palestinians is Jewish sovereignty over Arab
neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and above all over the Haram al Sharif, on
which stand the Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques.
The surpassing irony
is that by failing to reach an accord, each side is in fact bringing about the
very situation it is seeking to prevent. Israel is all but assuring the division
of Jerusalem, and the Palestinians are assuring that they will have far less
access to their holiest shrines than they now do.
Israel has had complete
sovereignty over all of East Jerusalem for more than three decades, yet for
Israelis the Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem might just as well be on the
other side of the moon. Most Israelis have never entered these areas, a foreign
and threatening place for them. It is quite common for Israeli taxi drivers to
refuse to take passengers to these parts of East
Jerusalem.
If that is
today’s reality, how much more isolated will East Jerusalem be from the rest of
the city in conditions of far greater political confrontation, or even of actual
violence. In those perilous circumstances, the division between Palestinian
areas of East Jerusalem and Jerusalem’s Jewish parts would become complete.
This radical fragmentation of the city is the predictable consequence of a
sterile Israeli policy denying manifestations of Palestinian sovereignty.
The consequences of Palestinian rigidity are equally predictable. Today,
Palestinian Muslims enjoy largely unfettered access to the Haram al Sharif. But
absent a peace agreement, and most certainly after a unilateral declaration of
Palestinian statehood, Palestinian access to this area will be curtailed by
Israel. In the case of violence, it may well be halted entirely.
In the name
of protecting the unity of the city and guaranteeing access to holy places in
East Jerusalem, both sides are in fact accomplishing the opposite. It is clear
that only by reaching an agreement that creates new levels of sharing can the
unity of Jerusalem and access to its holy places can be enhanced.
Which
brings us to the dirty little secret about Jerusalem. Both Islam and Judaism
have managed quite well over the centuries (in the case of Judaism, for two
millennia) even when they did not exercise political sovereignty on the Temple
Mount, as they call the Haram al Sharif. They would undoubtedly continue to
manage well without such sovereignty in the future.
What neither side can
apparently imagine is yielding sovereignty over its shrine to the adversary. It
is Jewish sovereignty over the Haram al Sharif and Muslim sovereignty over the
Temple Mount that most outrages the religious/national sensibilities of Muslims
and Jews, not the absence of their own sovereignty.
This unpleasant truth
suggests the solution—both sides deferring indefinitely the issue of sovereignty
over Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif.
This does not preclude Palestinian
sovereignty in areas of Jerusalem in which Palestinians predominate, a
possibility that Ehud Barak conceded at Camp David. Palestinians would continue
to have administrative control of the Haram al Sharif, as they do now, and
unfettered access to the mosques from the Palestinian side would be assured by a
sovereign land connection.
Israel would defer any further action on its claim to sovereignty
over the Temple Mount, but it would not concede anyone else’s sovereignty.
Some may dismiss this proposal as politically unrealistic since it requires
Israel to withdraw its earlier annexation of the Temple Mount. In fact it
requires no such thing, for, contrary to conventional assumptions, Israel never
annexed East Jerusalem. In 1967, Israel’s government decided to apply Israeli
law and administration to the enlarged municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. The
terms "sovereignty" and "annexation" do not appear in the Knesset’s legislation.
==============
**
Ladies and gentlemen, the CFR. Now go and do nothing.
**
end
Once again, proof that, at least in the
case of Rabin, I helped change a country. Here is the latest poll, conducted by
the popular news portal, Rotter. Surprise, surprise. Two thirds of Israelis
don't believe the government.
http://rotter.net/cgi-bin/votes/vote100/vote.cgi?name=first&a=5
Do you believe the official
version of the Rabin Murder ??
21.5% - I believe it's true
5.1% - Most of
it is true
8.5% - Partially, half-half
13.6% - Mostly lies.
51.4% - I
don't believe it [at all]
Number of votes 3214
Date of survey
04.08.2005
Being the eternal optimist, I am backing a strong idea
for salvaging what's left of the country. This is the tenth anniversary of the
Rabin assassination and Sharon is planning to make a huge deal of it.
Show up
in force at Rabin's Memorial Service this year. Drive the truth to the surface!
If you are interested in helping out in any way, write me or call David
052 6694999. Long Distance; 011 972
526694999.
I have been
accused of being insensitive by condemning anyone who helps resettle the Gush
Katif refugees. Sharon applauds you all. You're letting the government off the
hook. Correspondent Marlene Young expands on the issue:
The
Danger of Hugging the Expulsion
The Yesha Leaders were, to be generous, unwittingly
used to coordinate with the Police, IDF and Mofaz on every act of "resistance"
they would be "allowed" to take. All mass rallies were held BEFORE the
Disengagement, not during, which could have prevented it! They coordinated in
the disarming of all the Jewish citizens in the communities slated for
destruction, based on an imbalanced lone gunman who Sharon managed not to arrest
even as he arrested a thousand "settler extremists", including kids. Not one,
not one, PA terrorist has been disarmed in violation of all Accords and the
Roadmap, but Sharon, as part of the "Disengagement" accomplished the disarming
of thousands of law-abiding citizens in Israel, and the portrayal of Rightist
and Religious Israeli citizens protesting their expulsion as "dangerous".
Listen carefully: A neighborhood in which Jews are convinced to cry and hug
those sent to expel them will be quickly expelled again and again.A neighborhood
in which every single law-abiding Jewish citizen was armed and demanded new
elections and investigations of those involved in the Expulsion Plans could
never be destroyed and expelled. Never.
If you want to know the
atrocities committed by the current Israeli government, please purchase my new
book Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism And The Holocaust in English or Hebrew or my 2
set DVD, The Deadly War Against The Settlers.
Also available at
chamish@netvision.net.il
So are my English books; Shabtai Tzvi, Labor
Zionism And The Holocaust; Save Israel!; Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin; Israel
Betrayed; The Last Days of Israel;
