Doc's Talk: A Guidebook for Officials Visiting Israel/Palestine

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

A Guidebook for Officials Visiting Israel/Palestine

P. David Hornik
FrontPageMagazine.com
4/1/2008

The endless parade of top officials recently visiting Israel/Palestine has included the American president, defense secretary, and secretary of state, the former British prime minister, the German chancellor and foreign minister, the Russian foreign minister, and so on. Since etiquette is of paramount importance in Israel/Palestine, the following is a useful compendium of gaffes, faux pas, and indelicacies to be assiduously avoided in each and every visit to this contentious land. 1. Do not mention any Jewish connection to the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria). The fact that the “West Bank” is the cradle of Jewish civilization and the scene of biblical events that have resounded throughout Western history and civilization has been successfully wiped from the record and must remain so. Although they have by now dwindled to a fringe, sinister circles in Israel still refer to this connection in efforts to promote “Jewish rights” (itself a baleful concept). Any such allusion jeopardizes the supreme goal of turning this region into yet another Muslim-Arab dictatorship and a still further accretion of Dar al-Islam, which is cramped for real estate and desperately in need of every additional square centimeter it can obtain.

2. Do not mention any Jewish connection to Jerusalem or, if you do, do so evenhandedly. Any mention of the special Jewish connection to the city is to be avoided unless within a fraction of a second you equate it with the Muslim connection to Jerusalem. The Jewish connection to Jerusalem is particularly incommodious because it can be exploited by nefarious Israeli and other types as an obstacle to the treasured outcome of transferring the holiest sites of Judeo-Christian civilization to the control of Hamas, Al Qaeda, and the worldwide jihadist movement in general. Especially since it is laughably easy to demonstrate that the Jewish connection to the city is far more profound than the Muslim one (through mention of the comparative number of references in the two religions’ holy books, etc.), it is best to avoid the subject altogether or, if you do raise it, to equate the two claims as fast as you can cough.

3. Do not mention the “West Bank’s” vital security importance to Israel. Because this, too, can be used to retard progress toward the Goal, it is crucial that you expunge it from your discourse. That entails, of course, shunning any and all allusions to quotations that are still sometimes cited by militaristic circles in Israel, such as Abba Eban’s reference to the 1967 lines as the “Auschwitz borders” or Ronald Reagan’s statement that “in the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely ten miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel’s population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again” (both Eban and Reagan were, of course, rabid Greater Land of Israel fanatics). Above all, never make even the faintest allusion to the existence of the 1967 Joint Chiefs of Staff Study that concluded that the great bulk of the post-1967 lands was indispensable to Israel’s defense; this has almost been obliterated from the record and you are not expected to disturb its deep slumber.

4. Do not mention the sequence of events since the disengagement. At the time Israel evacuated Gaza in summer 2005, recalcitrant, reactionary elements in Israel had the impudence to predict that this would lead to increased attacks on Israeli communities bordering Gaza and an intensification of jihadist trends among the Palestinians. It is absolutely forbidden to mention that what has happened since then conforms precisely with these predictions and that Israel now faces a drastically increased onslaught of missile and other terrorism from Gaza that works in tandem with the threats from the Lebanese, Syrian, and Iranian directions. Any such empiricism on the issue of Israeli land concessions is deplorable and could even dampen the prospects that Israel will make further concessions that are even more reckless and suicidal—something to be avoided at all costs.

5. Do not mention anything negative about Mahmoud Abbas. The “Palestinian moderate” who “wants peace with Israel” is an essential player on the international stage and is, prima facie, a saint who is above human failings and foibles. Unfortunately Mr. Abbas, like his predecessor Mr. Arafat, has a habit of doing and saying things that enemies of peace in Israel seize upon to hamper progress toward a just solution. For instance, he forms unity governments with Hamas, says “We should put our internal fighting aside and raise our rifles only against the Israeli occupation,” saturates his education system with anti-Semitic hatred, and so on. It is the task of Western diplomacy to relegate these actions and statements to non-actions and non-statements and you are expected to contribute your part to this endeavor by relating to Mr. Abbas’s peccadilloes as if you were a Trappist monk.

6. Do not mention polls of Palestinians. These polls tend to reveal unpleasant things about the Palestinians that, again, Israeli warmongers love to exploit and therefore should be meticulously avoided. For instance, a recent poll found that 84% of Palestinians approved of a terrorist attack on a Jerusalem yeshiva, 75% said negotiations with Israel are pointless and should be ended, and 64% supported rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets. This is a subject that is best, of course, scrupulously quarantined in the interest of hastening the advent of the Palestinian state living beside Israel in peace and security for which we all so fervently wish.

7. Do not mention disagreeable phenomena among the Palestinians in general. Again, the enemies of peace love to harp on such matters as Palestinians breaking out in wild glee after terrorist attacks, grooming small children to be suicide bombers, naming schools and sports teams after suicide bombers, and the like. One particularly pernicious organization, Palestinian Media Watch, has the temerity to monitor Palestinian media and make its actual, unadorned content available to the world. Your responsibility is, of course, to overlook all this and if possible keep yourself ignorant of it. Peace cannot be achieved when people morbidly focus on negative phenomena that prevent us from striding confidently forward.

8. Do not mention the fact that Jordan is a state existing in eastern Palestine with a Palestinian majority. Important as each of the above precepts is, this is the cardinal prohibition. The precious myth of a stateless Palestinian people who can achieve national expression of their unique, valuable culture only in a state within shooting range of Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion Airport, and Tel Aviv would be punctured if people knew that a Palestinian state already exists and any fair solution to the issue of the West Bank and Gaza Palestinians would have to take that reality into account. Recognition of the Palestinian identity of Jordan would obviate the need for the “peace process” and deprive the Western countries of a prime means of propitiating the Arab oil powers by providing them a constant spectacle of pressuring and harrying Israel into giving up its strategic assets and shrinking back down to indefensible dimensions.

Once you have mastered these principles, you are ready to proceed to Israel/Palestine and play a constructive role in the quest for peace and justice.
P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/. He can be reached at pdavidh2001@yahoo.com.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk