Friday, July 26, 2013

EUROPE CANNOT BE TRUSTED, AN INTERVIEW OF MANFRED GERSTENFELD BY GERMAN JEWISH PUBLICATION JUDISCHE ALLGEMEINE……..

KGS

I received permission to republish, as well as the translation, of this highly interesting and timely interview of Dr.Gerstenfeld, first published in German by the Judische Allgemeine.
Judische Allgemeine 25 July 2013
Translation from German

It is a pity that there are no psychiatrists who analyze countries and supra-national entities. The E.U. would be a suitable client for treatment. In one of my books I call one major element of the European Union’s attitude toward Israel, “Humanitarian racism.” This is one of the least recognized forms of racism. It can be defined as attributing reduced responsibility to people of some ethnic or national groups regarding their criminal acts and intentions, even if these are major.

Europe Cannot be Trusted

Israeli expert, Manfred Gerstenfeld comments about the new E.U. directive and the demonization of Israel.

Mr. Gerstenfeld, Israel feels itself discriminated by the new E.U. directive concerning the territories? Why is that?

This directive is another step in a lengthy anti-Israel discriminatory process by the European Union. It has many aspects to it. One is that it signals to Israelis that the Europeans only have demands from them. At the same time Europeans turn away from the huge incitement and demonization of Israel by the Palestinian Authority. Furthermore, the European Union is giving financial support to the Palestinian Authority. This Palestinian body continuously glorifies murderers of Israeli civilians, and also calls for the murder of Israelis.

What do these calls for hatred represent concretely?

One can find a summary of this huge hate-mongering on the Palestinian Media Watch website. There are so many Palestinian hate messages that this website divides them into categories such as ‘animalization,’ ‘Jews and Israelis are evil,’ ‘Jews and Israelis are ‘cancer and other diseases,’ ‘Jews/Israelis endanger all humanity,’ and so on. All this is partly financed with E.U. funds.

There have recently been inconclusive debates in various European parliaments about whether their countries’ funding to the P.A. also serves to pay generous salaries to Palestinian mass murderers sitting in Israeli jails. While devising ways to cause Israel problems, the E.U. remains largely inactive about Syria, where, according to the UN, every month approximately 5000 people are killed and many more are wounded.

How do you explain all of this in view of the European official post-war credo, “Never again to allow anti-Semitism.”

It is a pity that there are no psychiatrists who analyze countries and supra-national entities. The E.U. would be a suitable client for treatment. In one of my books I call one major element of the European Union’s attitude toward Israel, “Humanitarian racism.” This is one of the least recognized forms of racism. It can be defined as attributing reduced responsibility to people of some ethnic or national groups regarding their criminal acts and intentions, even if these are major.

Humanitarian racists judge misbehavior and crime differently according to the color and power of those who commit them. White people are held to different standards of responsibility than people of color are, for example. Israelis are often condemned for whatever measures they take to defend themselves. Palestinian responsibility for suicide bombings, murderous missile attacks, glorification of murderers of civilians and promoting genocide is frequently reduced. The latter appears in the platform of Hamas.

A short time ago you published a book Demonizing Israel and the Jews. You write there that at least 150 million out of the 400 million adult citizens of the E.U. hold a demonic view of Israel. How did you arrive at these figures?

A study in seven countries conducted by the University of Bielefeld, carried out on behalf of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, found that well over 40% of people sixteen years and older agreed with the statement that Israel conducts a war of extermination against the Palestinians, in other words a genocidal war. The figure for Germany was 47%. An earlier study by the same university at the beginning of this century was limited to Germany. It asked those polled whether they agreed with the statement that Israel behaves toward the Palestinians like the Nazis behaved toward the Jews. Fifty-one percent answered in the affirmative.

The results of similar studies done by others institutions in Norway and Switzerland are in line with these data. These findings illustrate the analogies between the mindset of many contemporary Europeans and large parts of the continent’s population in the Middle Ages, who had similar irrational and hateful views of the Jewish people.

How was this picture created?

If one frequently condemns and attacks Israel and largely looks away from the enormous criminality in many parts of the Arab and Muslim world, an atmosphere is created in which these absurd ideas emerge and gain great popularity, as statistics show. People don’t ask the most minimal of rational questions: How has the Palestinian population grown so much over the past decades? And how does this growth fit the demonic views of Israel that it commits genocide? I am not even speaking about the fact that Palestinians are treated in Israeli hospitals and Israeli doctors try their best to save sick Palestinian children.

Is the E.U. guilty of this?

Many in E.U. politics and civil society have helped to create and maintain these demonic views of Israel. This brings us back to the recent E.U. directive. This anti-Israel measure hardly received reactions in Europe. This shows that a circular process is going on. The E.U. helps to create a widespread, very negative atmosphere about Israel and in such an environment it can take further discriminatory measures against it, which stimulate these negative views.

The E.U decision is also legally doubtful. My colleague at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Ambassador Alan Baker has summed this up in a paper. There are flawed legal and political European assumptions concerning the status of the pre-1967 armistice lines as Israel’s border and the illegality of Israel’s settlements. He also points out that the current European position negates the E.U. commitments as a signatory and witness to the Oslo Accords. It has undertaken not to undermine negotiation issues concerning final status of the territories, borders, settlements, Jerusalem and so on.

This directive is published at a time when the U.S.A. tries to restart the peace process. How does the European position affect this?

It gives great support to the many Israelis who are convinced by now that further concessions will not lead to peace and that whatever agreement presented as final will only encourage the Palestinians to continue the — from their viewpoint — rather successful incitement. Thereafter, they will make further demands, with the help of Europeans and other allies, until Israel is annihilated. There is much evidence to support that opinion. Another colleague of mine, Ambassador Dore Gold found after the Oslo Agreements in 1993 when he was Israel’s ambassador at the U.N. that the Europeans continued to vote for the same anti-Israel resolutions in the General Assembly of the United Nations as they did before.

In other words, you say that Israel cannot trust the European Union?

I think that is a fair summary. Accepting some of the European positions on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may ultimately become suicidal for the State of Israel.

Questions by Michael Wuliger

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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

Friday, July 26, 2013