Doc's Talk: Cairo Talks on Gilad Shalit to Begin, Hizbullah Proposal Updated

Monday, June 23, 2008

Cairo Talks on Gilad Shalit to Begin, Hizbullah Proposal Updated

Hana Levi Julian

Indirect negotiations for the release of kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit - between Israeli and Hamas negotiators, via Egyptian mediators - have begun at a hotel in Cairo. Both the Israeli delegation, as well as the representatives from the Hamas terrorist organization, will be staying at the same hotel during the talks, according to Arab sources.The Hamas delegation has once again changed its demands, upping the ante from last week's agreed-upon list of 450 Palestinian Authority terrorists, many of whom had "blood on their hands," to a new list of 1,000 terrorists whose release it demands.

The new demand calls for Israel to initially release 350 terrorists, including those responsible for the deaths of Israeli civilians and soldiers, in return for transferring Shalit to the custody of Egyptian mediators.

In the second step of the proposed prisoner swap, the Olmert government would free another 100 terrorists, and Shalit would be returned to Israel.

In the final step, an additional 550 terrorists would be released two months after Shalit's release, according to the Hamas proposal described by Arab sources.

Israel Updates its Proposal to Hizbullah, Demands Information on Ron Arad
A similar scenario has developed with Hizbullah. Following a disputed change in demands by the Hizbullah terrorist organization in negotiations for the return of kidnapped IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Israel is adding its own demand for information about the fate of missing IAF navigator Ron Arad.

In a four-hour meeting in the Prime Minster's Office Sunday night, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, the Prime Minister's special envoy for MIA Affairs, Ofer Dekel, and other officials discussed various aspects of the deal.

Hizbullah reportedly has demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian Authority terrorists last week, in a sharp turnabout from its prior agreement to a prisoner exchange in which arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar would be freed. Four other live operatives, as well as eight dead terrorists captured during the Second Lebanon War, would also be included in the swap.

"Everyone understands that this deal has to be closed as soon as possible because it has a major impact on the matter of Gilad Shalit," said a government source quoted by Haaretz on Sunday.

Official Denials Hizbullah Changed Demands
Despite media reports to the contrary, government officials denied late Sunday night that Hizbullah had changed their demands.

Miki Goldwasser, mother of kidnapped reservist Ehud Goldwasser, also strenuously denied the report earlier in the day. She said the family was "checking it, and for sure it didn't come from Hizbullah."

Both the Goldwasser and Regev families oppose any move to declare the captives dead - a possibility raised Sunday at a meeting between Dekel, the Prime Minister, former negotiator Ilan Biran, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other security officials.

Prime Minister Olmert reportedly was considering declaring the two soldiers "killed in action," a move that would have sent a signal to Hizbullah that negotiations for the pair were no longer an urgent priority.

Minister Eli Yishai: Issue May Have Become 'A Life for A Life'
Meanwhile the Goldwasser and Regev families began the day on Sunday with a visit to former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, from whom they received a blessing and a sympathetic ear. However, the spiritual leader of the Shas party made no promises and no commitment to tell his ministers how to vote on a prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah, with or without the inclusion of arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar.

The two families spent the rest of the day visiting the offices of one politician after another in a desperate attempt to convince them to vote in favor of a proposal to trade Kuntar in return for their loved ones.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (Kadima), Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima), Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) and Minister-without-Portfolio Ami Ayalon (Labor) were sympathetic, but made no promises either.

Eli Yishai noted, however, that Goldwasser's wife Karnit is now considered an aguna under Jewish law; meaning, unless her husband either returns alive or is proven dead, she will never be permitted to remarry. This, he said, merits serious consideration in any agreement that is negotiated for the two captives.

Yishai was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying, "If it should be concluded that the soldiers are dead, this is not a a deal of live Lebanese prisoners in exchange for dead Israeli soldiers, but rather Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the life of Karnit Goldwasser."

Dekel to Present Modified Israeli Proposal to German Mediator
The Lebanese Druze terrorist around whom the deal is revolving, Samir Kuntar, is currently serving four consecutive sentences of life in prison for the brutal murders of four Israelis – two of them toddlers – during a terror attack on Nahariya which he led in 1979.

Until this point, he has been held as a final bargaining chip for the return of Ron Arad, whose aircraft was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Arad's wife joined the petition filed by Gilad Shalit's parents over the weekend against the government's implementation of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Ron Arad was captured by Amal terrorists (led by Nabil Berri, currently the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament), who transferred him to a Hizbullah unit that eventually transferred him to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. With the exception of a couple of handwritten letters written within the first year of his capture, Arad has never been heard from since.

The Israeli proposal will reportedly demand clear information about the current condition of both Goldwasser and Regev, as well as information about the fate of Ron Arad, before a swap is approved.

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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