A PALESTINIAN STATE

I received this opinion piece via the email but don't know its author's name.

There is only one reason why the Palestinians are going to the United Nations in September hoping for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State by the General Assembly.

It is because they are not willing to pay the one price demanded by Israel and the democratic world in negotiations.

And that price is the agreement that the State of Israel can exist and can do so in its current guise – as the Homeland of the Jewish People.

That is what is missing from the Palestinian resolution.

So called obstacles such as settlements, borders, Jerusalem etc are not the core issues at all.

Nor is the existence of a Palestinian State.

The core issue is whether the Palestinians and their supporters can tolerate a Jewish presence, of any size, in their midst.

The consistent policy of the Zionist Leadership has been “2 States for 2 Peoples”.

On the 29th of November 1947 that is in fact what the UN agreed upon in Resolution 181 – “A Jewish State and an Arab State”.

As we know, the Jewish People accepted this and the Arab People rejected it.

This has been the pattern ever since – post 1967 in August in Khartoum; Oslo in 1993; Camp David in 2000; Annapolis under Olmert; and times in between – our acceptance and their rejection.

And most importantly for those who continue to bury their heads in the sand both on the “ultra left” and “ultra right” – this is the public and repeated and sincere policy of the Netanyahu Government.

Six Israeli Prime Ministers (including Netanyahu) have offered the Palestinians a State, in return for the one real red line Israel has – no Palestinian Right of Return.

As the realisation has dawned on almost everyone, that the Palestinians mean something different from us when we each say “2 State Solution”, we have begun to emphasise that they need to recognise Israel as a Jewish State.

For clarity.

And to avoid the continuing Palestinian double speak to the world and perhaps especially, to their own people.

President Abbas’ stated aim is a Palestinian State where no Jews will be able to reside, alongside a State called Israel to which some 4.5 million claimed Palestinians will have the right to return and which will then be a supposed democratic Bi National State.

This is a reality that should be accepted by those within our community and those people who profess to be friends of Israel generally, when they attempt to lay blame for why no resolution of the conflict has yet occurred.

The constant belabouring of moral equivalence and of blame equivalence is erroneous and counterproductive. And it is doing exactly what it is designed to do – pushing our own youth away and depressing those who remain.

The Palestinians are continuing their strategy of trying to get what they want piece by piece, without ceding a single thing.

It is beyond time now for the world to finally tell the Palestinians et al a truth they have been avoiding for Israel’s entire existence and at the same time, lying to their own people about.

The Jewish State is here to stay.

This UN move is a tactic designed to avoid that truth.

TAXI HIJACK RAMPAGE IN TEL AVIV

Today's Melbourne Age tells the story of a Nablus man who hijacked a taxi, ran over two policemen and stabbed six people outside a Tel Aviv nightclub early yesterday -
Taxi hijacker on rampage

The cab hit two policemen and the taxi driver was among the six stabbed by the assailant before he was subdued and taken into custody.

The report then goes on to provide a rendition of the old style Age scoreboard of death reminiscent of the Ed O'Loughlin days:-

Eight Israelis were killed on August 18 in attacks near the resort city of Eilat. The bloodshed led to an escalation in the Gaza Strip, where at least 24 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes, and one Israeli died from a Gaza-launched rocket attack.

True, but it only tells half the story.

The Israeli victims were all non combatants - attacked by terrorists who inflitrated into the country or by missiles fired at civilians.

The Palestinian victims included combatants - terrorist leaders and those killed while planning more attacks - or human shields placed in harm's way by the terrorists.

Pity this reporter decided not to put the figures in their right context.

DAY AFTER DAY

Day after day missiles are fired from Gaza into Israel aimed at civilian targets. Some of them are Grad rockets capable of doing major damage. A rocket recently fired by Palestinian terrorists contained phosphorus. Israel's new Iron Dome defensive system has intercepted some of the deadly missiles.

Day after day there is silence in the media about these Palestinian attacks. Why are such war crimes ignored?

GILAD SHALIT

There are many reasons why international recognition should not be given unilaterally to a Palestinian State next month.

One of them is the fact that one of the partners in the so-called Palestinian "Unity Government" is Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation and perpetrator of multiple crimes against humanity.

Hamas holds Gilad Shalit, who turns 25 years of age today, captive without any of the internationally accepted rights accorded to captured soldiers.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on Gilad Shalit. May he be released as soon as is humanly possible.

"Gilad Shalit (Hebrew: גלעד שליט‎, born 28 August 1986) is an Israeli and French national and an IDF soldier who was attacked and kidnapped from Israel on 25 June 2006 by Hamas militants* in a cross-border raid. Shalit was captured near the Kerem Shalom crossing (in Israel), and has been held as a hostage at an unknown location in the Gaza Strip by Hamas and deprived of all International Red Cross visits since his abduction.

"Hamas has refused requests from the International Committee of the Red Cross to allow the ICRC to visit Shalit, and claims that any such visit could betray the location where Shalit is being held captive. Multiple human rights organizations have stated that the terms and conditions of Shalit's confinement are contrary to international humanitarian law. To date, the only contact between Shalit and the outside world since his capture has been three letters, an audio tape, and a DVD that Israel received in return for releasing 20 female Palestinian prisoners."

* for some reason it seems that Wikipedia deigns to describe Shalit's captors as "militants" yet the circumstances of his captivity clearly show them to be nothing other than  barbarians and terrorists. Such is the stupidity of a world that bends over backwards to appear evenhanded.

Swastikas in the City

The Sydney Daily Telegraph carries this story by John Masanauskas - Parents blasted after daughter carried swastika placard

The offensive placard above was paraded at a city rally in 2009 to protest against Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission chairman John Searle said police needed better training so they could take swift action under racial vilification laws.

It is believed the issue was raised with the equal opportunity commission but no formal complaint was made because the culprits could not be identified.

Indeed not.

The Peace Team

The mixed Israel-Palestine Peace Team is in town competing in the AFL's International Cup competition.

Please listen as two members of the contingent were interviewed yesterday on Melbourne radio station SEN:

Saji and Nimrod Part One

Saji and Nimrod Part Two

Turkish newspaper says Why Golda Meir was Right

An article in a Turkish Newspaper, Hurriyet - Turkey, tells why Why Golda Meir was right.

It has been more than two and a half years since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Israel's President Shimon Peres, "You (Jews) know well how to kill." In this holy month of Ramadan full of blood on Muslim territories, let's try to identify who are the ones who know well how to kill.

As the Syrian death count clicks every day to come close to 2,000, the Turkish-Kurdish death count does not stop, already over 40,000 since 1984. Only during this Ramadan, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK's, death toll has reached 50 in this Muslim Kurds vs. Muslim Turks war. This excludes the PKK casualties in Turkey and in northern Iraq due to Turkish military retaliation since they are seldom accurately reported.

But a simple, strictly Middle East research will reveal one million deaths in the all-Muslim Ira! n-Iraq war; 300,000 Muslim minorities killed by Saddam Hussein; 80,000 Iranians killed during the Islamic revolution; 25,000 deaths in 1970-71, the days of Black September, by the Jordanian government in its fight against the Palestinians; and 20,000 Islamists killed in 1982 by the elder al-Assad in Hama.

Muslim Arab deaths in the Arab-Israeli conflict are estimated at 46,000 including 11,000 during Israel's war of independence. That makes 0.05 percent of all deaths in all conflicts, or 0.4 percent of all Arab deaths in the Middle East conflicts.

Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel, had a perfectly realistic point when she said that peace in the Middle East would only be possible "when Arabs love their children more than they hate us."

Australian man faces indictment for anti-Semitic letter

This article about a Sydney man accused in the District Court of New South Wales of sending letters to families of soldies who died in Afghanistan appeared in the Jerusalem Post - Australian man faces indictment for anti-Semitic letter.

In one instance, Man Haron Monis described a Jewish soldier who had killed a civilian as a "dirty animal" in a letter to politicians and the Jewish community. "Some Jews who blame Hitler for violations of human rights are not much better than him," he added.

I suppose it's a local matter and not worthy of mention in the Age.

Not even in the blank pages ...

AUSTRALIA SHUNS HATEFEST

ALP sources confirm that Prime Minister Gillard announced that Australia will not be sending any representatives to the Durban III Conference (aka racist anti-semitic hatefest).

LETTER OF THE WEEK

From today's Australian ...

Risking shame

WHILE it's understandable that the Gillard government is keen to do all in its power to glean support at the UN for Australia's campaign to be admitted to the Security Council ("Canberra torn between racism conference and UN ambitions", 19/8), the question of whether Australia should attend the Durban III conference is a no-brainer.

To give credence to the most xenophobic, racist, anti-Semitic alliance on the planet by attending their conference would be to Australia's shame, Security Council membership notwithstanding.

Anne Robards, Tura Beach, NSW

THE SAME OLD GAME

I turn my back for a few days and the Palestinian terrorist groups and their mentors are playing the same old game.

It starts with a murderous attack on innocent civilians such as the one at the end of last week in Southern Israel. The Israelis strike back at terrorist targets and that's followed by a hundred rocket attacks by terrorists at civilian targets inside Israel.

Hamas says "it's not us - try Islamic Jihad", Israel strikes at the terrorists including those caught in the act of launching rockets and Mahmoud Abbas complains and asks for an Arab League meeting to take action against Israel. No expressions of sorrow for the deaths caused by his own people and those in his so-called "unity government".

Then there are the apologists for the terrorists and their enablers, people like the flotilla and flytilla idiots and the BDS racists who condemn the Israelis and ignore Palestinian barbarism.

Business as usual.

INTERMISSION

Taking a break for a couple of weeks ... back soon

THE AGE TRAVELS

What a surprise.

An Age travel writer goes to Israel expecting military checkpoints and religious fanaticism but instead discovers a land where culture, nightlife and the beach often take precedence over piety and politics - A holy bunch of hedonists.

He also found sights like the one above.

And if he went to Gaza, he wouldn't find Aushwitz either but rather a third world area that also has beaches, restaurants, hotels and country clubs.

The problem must lie with the contorted and unreal picture painted by political correspondents with an agenda because, for years, the real Israel and the real Palestine have been hidden away in the blank pages.

IT'S ALL A RIOT AT FAIRFAX

Israeli's demonstrate peacefully in their streets and the Sydney Morning Herald trumpets that Protests put unflattering spotlight on Israel.

I wonder what tomorrow's Fairfax headlines are going to say about the spotlight that has been suddenly thrust on England after the current rioting and mayhem?



Less than unflattering?

Consumer watchdog asked to investigate Israel boycott

I wonder if something will become of this?

The Victorian Government has asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate a campaign targeting businesses with links to Israel - Consumer watchdog asked to investigate Israel boycott

Fogel Family Murderer Found Guilty

The vicious murder of the Fogel family played itself out in Court last week with the conviction of a Palestinian man Hakim Awad - Fogel murders: Israeli court convicts Palestinian man.

The BBC does a good job here of masking some of the underlying issues involved in the grissly murders such as incitement to violence in official Palestinian media and the fact that, in the case of these murder, President Mahmoud Abbas actually blamed Thai workers for the atrocity.

The BBC concludes:-

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called those behind the killings "immoral and inhuman".

There are almost 500,000 settlers living on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Settlements are regarded as illegal under international law although Israel disputes this.

No mention of incitement and Thais but the Beeb couldn't resist the temptation to mention the settlements as part of the story of a cold blooded racist murder.

The Palestinians' Imaginary State

Steven J. Rosen is the director of the Washington Project of the Middle East Forum.

He asks in The Palestinians' Imaginary State published in Foreign Policy whether Palestine really qualifies for Statehood?

According to the prevailing legal standard, the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, a "state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government; and d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states." Both the Hamas-controlled Palestinian entity in Gaza and the rival Fatah-governed Palestinian entity in the West Bank can be said to meet all four of these criteria of the law of statehood. The one on which the United Nations will vote does not.

INDEPENDENCE FOR KURDISTAN

The Kurdish people are far more numerous than the Palestinians and are being oppressed by Arab rulers.

Opinion writer Guy Bechor raises the The Kurdish connection

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was described here as the Middle East’s ruler. Commentators spoke at length about “the Ottoman empire’s revival” and used similar superlatives that are largely disconnected from reality. After Turkey was kicked out of Europe and realized it has no chance to be accepted by the European Union, Ankara was also rejected by the Arabs (with the exception of the PLO, which has been left without a patron.) Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab elements made it clear to the Turks that they are unwanted in the Middle East. The only option left for Turkey in our region is, again, Israel.

Rather than securing Mideastern hegemony, Turkey itself may fall apart. This is the case after the Kurdish leadership in the country declared on July 15 the establishment of a democratic Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey, with its capital in Diyarbakir.

THE EEEEVIL ZIONISTS

According to a lawyer at Mubarak's trial, the Zionists replaced Hosni M with a lookalike after he actually died in 2004.

Who's on trial then?

11.32 Surreal moment as a lawyer calls out that Mubarak died in 2004, and that this court appearance is a conspiracy on the part of America and Israel. He is calling for a DNA test to prove that it's the real Mubarak and not a lookalike.

Various lawyers ranting at the judge, who wearily asks one: "What does what you're saying have to do with the trial?"

Hosni Mubarak trial: as it happened

Sheesh ...

Understanding UN Bias Against Israel

FLAGS

Michael Walzer writes in Dissent on the Israeli left's involvement in what some might want to call "peace marches" with Palestinians but the impression is that they will one day have to ask themselves what on earth were they really marching for - FLAGS