SHANA TOVA - HAPPY NEW YEAR

SHIMON PERES - UN SPEECH

Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen ...

Over Sixty years have passed since the United Nations General Assembly voted on the historic resolution that would have put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Resolution 181 called for the establishment of a Jewish and an Arab state. Its title was: "Plan of Partition with Economic Union". It envisioned two states for two peoples, each fulfilling a distinct national aspiration.

The Jewish people adopted the resolution and established the State of Israel. The Arabs rejected it and led to war.

What happened in the ensuing years is much different from the resolution's original intent. While much has changed, the ironies of history summon similar circumstances today.

Today, again, we are the middle of the lake. There is no sense in rowing back. Continuing forward will show how near we are to the shore of peace.

Mr. President,

A year prior to Israel's declaration of statehood, its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, called me, a young man from a Kibbutz, to serve in our national defense.

Since then, I participated in Israel's dynamic realities: the building of security, striving for peace. So, I need no book to learn the history. I witnessed its miraculous unfolding.

We went through seven wars. All have paid heavily. Tears still flow down the faces of bereaving mothers.

Remembrance Days fill the air with silent prayers of widowed families who lost young boys and girls in battle. They are, today, at the same age, but lifeless.

Israel turned military victories to a peace process, knowing that the cost of life renders imperfect peace superior to perfect victories.

We have also achieved two peace agreements. The first with the largest Arab country, Egypt. The second with the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan.

All the land, water, and natural resources that fell in our hands through war, were repatriated after peace was signed. Our countries can now offer remedies to other disputed areas.

But for peace, the call in our region is to repair the damaged environment and wounded land leading to poverty.

If we shall not overcome the desert, the thirst, the pollution - they will overcome us.

Joint ventures can meet this call. Nature does not carry a national passport.

With the Palestinians, we negotiate full peace. Both parties agreed to building a Palestinian State side by side with Israel, living in peace, security and respect.

We tried to conclude the negotiations this year. It will take longer. But, I believe it can be accomplished within the next year.

We agreed to progress in spite of possible changes that may take place in the leadership.

Gaps have been narrowed through negotiations. Particularly the territorial ones. But, peace is not just a matter of territorial compromise.

Rogue politics reject peace even where territorial dispute was resolved.

In Lebanon, we implemented resolution 425. Yet Hizbullah paralyzed the country and cut the road to peace.

From Gaza, we withdrew completely and dismantled our settlements. Hamas responded with a bloody takeover and turned the strip into a basis of rocket fire.

These militants carry no positive alternative - but the agonies of Job.

They added kidnapping to bombings, bringing strife for innocent families. From this important stage, I call for the immediate release of Gilad Schalit. The son of Aviva and Noam. A peace-loving family.

This honored assembly should make his release top of its agenda. Holding a hostage in Gaza determines its isolation and further deterioration.

Mr. President,

At the center of this violence and fanaticism stands Iran.

It built a danger to the entire world. Its quest for religious hegemony and regional dominance divides the Middle East and holds back chances for peace, while undermining human rights.

Iranian support for Hizbullah divided Lebanon. Its support for Hamas split the Palestinians and postpones the establishment of the Palestinian State.

Yesterday, on this very stage, the Iranian leader renewed the darkest anti-Semitic libel - the protocols of the elders of Zion. An attempt to bring to life one of the ugliest plots of history.

Their despicable denial of the Holocaust is a mockery of indisputable evidence, a cynical offense to survivors of the horror. Contradictory to the resolutions adopted by this assembly.

Iran continues to develop enriched uranium and long range missiles.

They introduce a religion of fear, opposing the call of the lord in respect of life.

The Iranian people are not our enemies. Their fanatic leadership is their problem and the world's concern.

Their leader is a danger to his people, the region and the world.

He is a disgrace to the ancient Iranian people.

He is a disgrace to the values of Islam.

He is a disgrace to this very house, the United Nations, its basic principles and values.

His appearance here is already shame.

The Jewish People have known, throughout history, to stand firm at the face of evil.

Alongside the enlightened humanity we shall know to enable good and freedom to prevail.

Tehran combines long-range missiles and short-range minds. It is pregnant with tragedies.

The General assembly and the Security Council bear responsibility to prevent agonies before they take place.

Israel has shown that democracies can defend themselves. We do not intend to change.
Terrorism did not solve a single problem. It never has, and never will.

They will make the world ungovernable. If small groups of violent killers are allowed to threaten innocent masses, the world will be without order or security. A hopeless battleground.

The free world must unite to combat it.

Israel, on its part, shall continue to seek peace. We suggest immediate peace with Lebanon.

Israeli prime ministers indicated to Syria that for peace, we are ready to explore a comprehensive compromise.

In order to gain trust, and save time, we have suggested face-to-face meetings with President Assad: "Follow the successful example set by President Sadat and King Hussein".

We still await an answer.

I know there is a growing concern that peace is far away. My life-long experience provides me with a different point of view.

True, I have seen stagnation and regression in our journey. But, today, I can identify a road leading to the right direction.

In addition to the peace agreements, a series of summits took place - Madrid, Oslo, Wye, Camp David, Sharm and Annapolis. Their accumulated sum encourages a clear direction. In fact, Israelis and Arabs are marching towards peace.

After a long internal debate, Israel accepted the two state solution.

The Arabs replaced the three NOs of Khartoum (no peace, no negotiation, no recognition) with a peace initiative, inaugurated by King Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

I call upon the king to further his initiative; it may become an invitation for comprehensive peace, one to convert battlegrounds to common grounds.

I invite, respectfully, all leaders to come and discuss peace in Jerusalem, which is holy all of us. Where we all pray to the same lord, as offspring of the same father.

Israel shall gladly accept an Arab invitation at a designated venue where a meaningful dialogue may take place.

Mr. President,

We are facing a serious economic crisis. Maybe it has happened because we are rich and light with funds and poor and heavy with ideas. While we live in an era where science, not land, is the basis of economy.

Science does not stop at borders. Is not disturbed by distance.

Wisdom is not conquerable by armies. Knowledge diminishes discrimination because it operates through good will and transcends race, nationality and gender.

The Global dangers unite and divide us at the same time.

The dangers are the deterioration of environment. The shortage of water. The lack of renewable energy. The spread of terrorism and the increased poverty.

Divisions of the free world will increase them.

Unity offers the potential of alternatives. It will direct global investments to new areas and demanding challenges like health, security, education and environment.

The future is not in the hands of oil or gold. Intellectual assets, new inventions and superior education hold the key to our future.

In our region, border areas can become open economic zones. Enabling free movement of people, commodities and ideas. They may encourage tourism and build High Tech incubators. They will cultivate advanced agriculture.

Economic zones will provide a million jobs and produce billions of cubic meters of desalinated water. We started to do so. The first steps are promising.

The 21st century calls for pioneers. It is an opportunity to provide our children with peace and knowledge. Strength and friendship. It is their right. It is our moral obligation.

Mr. President,

The Jewish people are celebrating a new year. I would like to end with a quote from Rabbi Nachman of Breslav:

"May it be thy will to remove war and bloodshed from the world and perpetuate the wonders and greatness of peace.

All the inhabitants of the world shall recognize and know the truth: that we have not been placed on this earth to wage war and not for hatred or bloodshed."

Amen.
Shana Tova.
Thank you, Mr. President

DOCTORS WITH BORDERS

Elder of Ziyon presents vision from Israel's Channel 2 news of Hamas humiliating doctors in a Gaza mosque and reports that "the Doctors Without Borders website still has no condemnations of the arrests, torture and humiliation that Gaza doctors, nurses, pharmacists and lab techs have been forced to undergo for the past month."

FEASTING IN GAZA

In today's Melbourne Age Jason Koutsoukis continues to cover the political situation in Israel following Tzipi Livni's dramatic victory in the contest for leadership of the Kadima party - 40 days for Livni, wilderness for Olmert.

Strangely enough, the killings of 20 Palestinians by fellow Palestinians in the wilderness of Gaza rates no mention. As I've said many times before, Palestinian lives only have a meaning to most of the world's media if they are lost in fighting with Israelis and even when the latter are defending themselves against terrorists bent on wiping out Jews, the blame is mostly sheeted home to the Jews.

So the Jason Koutsoukis article ends with a little speculation on a future timeline:-

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

■Ehud Olmert formally resigns as Prime Minister and his cabinet resigns with him.

■President Shimon Peres consults parties to choose a Knesset member to form a new cabinet — expected to be Kadima leader Tzipi Livni.

■The prime minister-designate has 42 days to form a coalition acceptable to the Knesset.

■If no coalition is formed, a general election must be held in 90 days.

So permit me to add some speculation of my own -

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

■Palestinians continue to kill Palestinians and the world continues to yawn and take no notice.

■Palestinians continue to intermitently breach the ceasefire recently reached with the Israelis by attacking Israeli civilians and nobody apart from the victims will really care.

■So called "peace activists" will continue to lie with their allegations comparing conditions in blockaded Gaza to concentration camps and Darfur while well fed Gazans are photographed in their feasting [hat tip: Elder of Ziyon], not a soul has died of starvation there and there's plenty of pictorial evidence of fat mammas in residence there.

■Anti Jewish crusader and ignoramus Antony Loewenstein suddenly wakes up to the fact that Tzipi Livni is a "she" and not a "he".

Lost in the mail

Alan M. Dershowitz makes the point in his jpost blog Double Standard Watch the "Democratic Party, and its leaders, made a deliberate decision not to invite Jimmy Carter precisely because they so fundamentally disagree with the bigotry toward Israel and its Jewish supporters that he displayed both in his mendacious book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid and in his subsequent television appearances."

Poor old demented Jimmy thinks it was he who made the decision not to speak at the convention and that the invitation was lost in the mail.

Pigs fly!

More Human Wrongs

It seems that whenever Jews commit any violent acts in the Middle East it makes the news, even when the violence is in self-defence or in reaction to violence instituted by Arabs against Jews.

Hence, Melbourne Age reporter Jason Koutsoukis was on the ball with his article "Stabbing ignites Jewish rampage" about Jewish settlers who went on a rampage through the West Bank at the weekend after a nine-year-old Jewish boy was stabbed by a Palestinian intruder. The behaviour of the settlers was reprehensible but it was newsworthy even if the slant was heavily against the Jews by the way in which the "Jewish rampage" was highlighted.

Personally, I've never seen a Jewish rampage anywhere and would be curious to know what differentiates Jewish rampages from say, Mongolian rampages.

It seems however, that when the violence is Arab on Arab violence the blank pages rule comes into vogue and the Age goes shtumm. News like this piece is obviously of no interest to Age readers - 11 killed as Hamas forces battle armed clan in Gaza. The lives of the victims of this sort of violence seem to be worth even less than the Israeli victims of ongoing Palestinian violence even during the time of the alleged cease fire between Israel and the thugs running Gaza.

Then again, there's no such thing as a "Palestinian rampage" is there?

DEAR PROFESSOR

I've come across this brilliant piece from Ann Bayefsky who is Director, Touro Center for Human / Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute / Professor, York University. Rights and the Holocaust.

In Lethal Politics: Antisemitism as Human Rights she tells how human rights have become "a potent force for denunciation and defeat – not in the hands of the abused, but in the hands of the abusers".

It's a damning look at how the United Nations human rights organs in particular have been bastardised and overrun by barbarians and human rights abusers who use the U.N. as a force against the civilised world and of course, the Jewish people.

MICKEY MOUSE AGAIN & AGAIN

We all know about the callous use by Hamas of animal cartoon characters to indoctrinate Palestinian children into hating Jews - all of us bar those who only read the Melbourne Age during Ed O'Loughlin's term as Jerusalem correspondent when such stuff was apparently not deemed newsworthy.

Now Israel's peace partner, the Fatah controlled Palestine Authority is getting in on the act according to Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook of Palestine Media Watch.

Fatah TV, controlled by the office of PA head Mahmoud Abbas, is airing a children's show that glorifies a mass murderer of children while trying to create a Mickey Mouse Club atmosphere.

Last week the program taught children to deny the existence of Israel.

Check it out - it's absolutely appalling!

So you want to boycott Israel?

BRAVO HONDA

DEATH OF A "MARTYR"

The folk down at Hamas whose raison d'etre is to kill Jews are mourning the recent passing of one of their comrades who died a martyr, from cancer - Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades Information Office. To make matters worse, those nasty Jews get the blame because Mohammed Rawhi Mahmoud Hassouna "didn’t manage to travel for medical treatment, because of the Zionist siege on Gaza strip."

Aw, shuchs!

The communique doesn't mention whether our boy Mohammed was wearing his suicide belt when the request was made for him to obtain treatment.

[Hat tip: Elder of Ziyon]

One battling team not giving up on peace

Full marks to the Israeli-based Peres Peace Centre and the Palestinian al-Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue for their efforts to get together the team of twenty-six footballers (13 Israelis and 13 Palestinians) taking part in the 2008 Australian Football International Cup.

The team which wore yellow guernseys with a peace motif (see above) was part of a 16 team international competition, that took place in Melbourne, Geelong and Warrnambool over the past fortnight. The Peace Team displayed great spirit in its first few matches in which they were outplayed by stronger teams including the eventual winners Papua New Guinea but it came back at the end to record two victories against China and Finland.

The players would most certainly been singing their theme song - the John Lennon version of "All we are Saying is Give Peace a Chance" - with great gusto at the end of their last game playoff for 13th and 14th at the Western Oval against the Finns which they won by a whopping 75 points.

For the record the scores for that game were:

Peace Team 15.5.89 defeated Finland 2.2.14

Peace Team

Goal Kickers: R. Nadir 2, K. Abualthom 2, Y. Belik 2, N. Almanasra 2, F. Rumman 2, D. Haim, A. Abu Haduan, K. Kol, N. Koke

Best Players: R. Nadir, A. Suissa, D. Haim, U. Kandel, D. Tamimi, K. Abualthom

Finland

Goal Kickers: T. Heiskanen, T. Oksanen

Best Players: V. Koivunen, J. Loven, K. Byrne, K. Heikkila, F. Romar, S. Doherty

And for the record, congratulations to the Melbourne Age's Martin Flanagan for his absorbing story about the team - One battling team not giving up on peace

Flanagan understands that it's the people and not the politics that is the only hope the troubled region has for true peace - a message lost on so many others over the ages.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BLOOD LIBEL

Islamic and Arab leaders in Australia are fast developing a penchant for making the most horrendously racist statements about Jews and Israel.

And they are getting away with it - both in the broader community and within their own constituencies.

Last month, it was Australian Arabic Council chairman Roland Jabbour who was quoted in Melbourne Age in support of Hizbullah's Al Manar television channel which broadcasts programmes that describes Jews as "the offspring of apes and pigs" and advocates their annihilation. He told Barney Zwartz of the Age [Jam 'terror TV' broadcasts, says group] that "he would not call Jews the offspring of apes and pigs, but that in the context of 'the crimes of the state of Israel' it was reasonable for al-Manar to do so and to portray Israeli rabbis as killing Christian children to use their blood in Passover meals."

Jabbour made a pathetic and unconvincing attempt to back track on his comments but kept his foot firmly planted in his mouth as an outraged Jewish community group's Anti-Defamation Commission sought sympathetic ears throughout the wider community and among Islamic, Arab and Palestinian groups.

It got very little response from them - not even a critical op ed from supposed moderates like Waleed Aly and Maher Mughrabi who usually have something to say about racism and intolerance in the coverage of issues relevant to the people from this region.

Now joining Jabour and the widely discredited Sheik Hilaly whose racist and misogynist views are now well known (and fortunately condemned by most in this country) is Australian Federation of Islamic Councils President Ikebal Patel who couldn't resist the temptation to draw on Israel as the cause for the problems in far away Afghanistan when asked to comment on the Special Forces Australian soldier who was critically injured in an ambush by the Taliban - Wounded soldier flown to Europe:

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel issued a statement expressing sympathy for the wounded soldiers and their families. He said he was concerned about developments in Afghanistan and the increasing numbers of military and civilian deaths.

And he questioned the continuation of the war and linked the Taliban campaign to the situation in Israel and Palestine.

"There must be a better way to deal with terrorism than by means of war," Mr Patel said. "We must address the many underlying causes of terrorism and violence, such as the 60-year-old injustices and suffering of Palestinian people at the hands of a brutal Israeli regime."

Right.

Apart from the fact that this statement fairly drips with insincerity (Patel's point was to vilify Israel and there's absolutely not a skerrick of sympathy in him for the wounded Aussie soldier), the claim inverts the historical truth of this conflict so that the terrorist becomes the victim and not the instigator and aggressor of violence in the region.

Apologists like Patel simply ignore the fact that the violence and the terror in Israel/Palestine historically stems from attacks on Jews in the 1920's and '30's starting with the horrific massacre of the Jews of Hebron in 1929.

Further, to suggest that the motivation for the Taliban's terrorism in Afghanistan is related at all to the conflict between the Jews and the Arabs ignores the history of the current jihadist campaign. Is Patel really suggesting that Hamas and Hizbullah are no different to Al Qaeda, Iraq's Baath Party, and the Iranian regime?

Meanwhile, the silence of the so-called moderate Arabs in the face of these overt racist comments remains deafening.

It has been a major disappointment that the Arab community has generally failed to embrace the concept of the Peace Team - a group of 13 Palestinians and 13 Israelis competing in the AFL's International Football Championships that end today in Melbourne. The rabid opposition by some of the local Palestinian groups to the concept of Israelis and Palestinians - Jews, Muslims and Christians - playing together in one sporting team to promote peace and reconciliation is not only a tragedy but an indication of how hopeless a task it is to achieve peace in the region.

The silence of Australian Arabs in the face of these developments is another source of despair for the prospects of peace because that silence also seems to be reflected among most Arabs and Palestinians everywhere.

LOCKED IN

The ABC news reports that an Australian woman is among four "peace" activists who have been stranded in the Gaza Strip - Aussie activist stranded in Gaza.

What makes her a "peace activist"?

Ms. Lock entered the territory as part of an initiative of the Free Gaza Movement in an attempt to "break the siege of Gaza". However, as Honest Reporting has revealed, "a closer look at the background and motivations of these so-called 'peace activists' exposes an anti-Israel publicity stunt." - Sailing Into a Publicity Stunt.

The Free Gaza Movement "is a coalition of groups such as the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).

ISM has a shameful record of placing foreign nationals in danger through encouraging 'direct action', which resulted in the death of American citizen Rachel Corrie. In 2003, ISM's extreme ideology was underscored when terrorists, originating from the UK, used ISM as a cover to attack Mike's Place bar in Tel Aviv, murdering three people. More recently, ISM has been a leading force in the violent protests against the security barrier at Ni'lin, while an ISM activist has been jailed in the US, charged with "giving about $20,000 to a group he knew supported Hamas."

The picture at the top is a nice example of what Hamas is all about, yet not a single one of the so-called "peace activists" or their supporters has had a critical word to say about the rulers of Gaza.

Some peaceniks!

And since Ms Lock has been trying to get back home through the Egyptian border, it might be an idea for her to let her fellow "peace activists" know on her return that Gaza is not completely surrounded by Israel and to ask them to stop issuing misleading statements to this effect. They don't fool anybody except those who travel on ships of fools.

THE SUM OF ITS PARTS (AND MORE)

Mark Aarons, in the Australian, puts forward an interesting history of the conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbours - More than the sum of its parts. He starts with the long held views by those who support the Jewish State that when Israel declared independence in 1948, it was on the cards that the nascent state would be "strangled at birth".

Aarons delivers the two conflicting narratives and comes up with the logical conclusion that there are only two realistic choices for the Palestinians. They can fight a war without end (a choice made by the ruling Hamas) or they can make "a noble compromise" with the Israelis which will result in a two State solution.

The Australian allows for public comments at the end of the article. There should be some interesting responses.

Another dose of unreality

It seems that they're waiting for the next full moon.

There's a blogger who posts on a blog called Middle East Reality Check who is has joined the group of unhinged individuals who really believe that "both Fairfax and Murdoch are overwhelmingly pro-Israel in orientation: the former, largely out of cowardice and often (but not always) out of sheer ignorance and/or incompetence*, the second out of pure Zionist zeal."

I you want to read more of this stupidity try - Try Busting the Zionist Blockade of the Australian Press.