FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

By Vic Rosenthal

BBC reporter Alan Johnston was kidnapped in Gaza two weeks ago. Hamas and Fatah have both criticized his kidnapping, but seem to be unable to recover him.

Z. [a Fatah worker] told Haaretz he believed the worst was yet to come. “Pretty soon there will be militants in each and every junction. Everybody knows who’s holding Alan Johnston…It’s a large family, and they’re after money. Instead of surrounding the premises and acting against them, the security forces are negotiating with them,” he complains. “Breaking in their will cost lives, but there’s no alternative. You have to move in with force to restore order.”

Johnston’s position is not enviable.

Foreign journalists who have been kidnapped and then released by the family say they were treated in an especially demeaning manner. They go on to say that the Iraqi influence was obvious in the clothing of their captors, their language and their methods of handling prisoners, including forced conversions to Islam. — Avi Issacharoff, Ha’aretz

BBC director Mark Thompson said Johnston was “one of those amazing BBC people who make extraordinary sacrifices and take considerable risks because they believe a story needs to be told“.

While I am horrified by the thought of what he is undoubtedly going through and wish for his speedy release, there’s a certain irony involved when one contemplates the story that Johnston apparently believed needed to be told, a story of the Palestinian David versus the brutal Israeli Goliath.

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Ban Ki-Moon, the new UN Secretary General, is either a historical ignoramus or…I don’t know what else to call him.

Ban Ki-moon met yesterday morning with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, following a tour of the West Bank separation fence in the Al-Ayada refugee camp near Bethlehem.

“It saddens me deeply to see many people suffering as a result of the establishment of the separation fence, which prevents them from enjoying any possibility for basic sustenance,” he said. “This has strengthened my determination and commitment to advance peace in the Middle East.” — Ha’aretz

Unless by ‘basic sustenance’ he meant the need to kill Jews, his statement was foolish at best. But never mind:

He placed a wreath on the grave of Yasser Arafat, one of the worst men in history, the single person most responsible for the perpetuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the instigator of wars in at least three countries, the father of international terrorism, murderer of countless Jews and root of Palestinian suffering — this is the man he honored in the name of the United Nations!

Technorati Tags: Ban Ki-Moon, UN, Arafat, Abbas

By Vic Rosenthal

Last August, Rachel Corrie’s parents came to Fresno to speak about their daughter. Rachel Corrie was the young International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteer who was killed in Gaza in 2003 by an IDF bulldozer. Corrie’s parents and others (ISM leader Adam Shapiro was scheduled but did not appear) presented her death as martyrdom for the cause of peace, and claimed that she was trying to protect a Palestinian home when she was deliberately murdered by the IDF.

The real story is that Corrie’s death was accidental, and ISM photos that allegedly showed Corrie in full view of the bulldozer were taken at a different time and with a different bulldozer. Rather than demolishing a home, the bulldozer was clearing brush near an unoccupied building which sat over the entrance to a tunnel used for smuggling weapons and explosives through the Egyptian border. The ISM is a Palestinian-run organization which recruits young people around the world (but particularly in the US) and uses them to directly obstruct the IDF’s anti-terrorism activities.

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If you haven’t seen the Louis Farrakhan interview from Al-Jazeera (provided by MEMRI), you haven’t lived. Farrakhan, asked if he’s still called antisemitic, chuckles and asks if Arabs are Semites. So how can he, who is pro-Arab, be antisemitic? He goes on to claim that European Jews are not actually Jews or Semites. They are converts to Judaism who have ’segregated’ the Sephardic and Ethiopian Jews! I suppose the point is that he can be anti-European-Jew without being antisemitic.

He claims that Iran is entitled to nuclear power, since it wants it for peaceful purposes, so as not to be dependent on oil. But the US is opposed to Iran’s atomic program because “the cornerstone of American foreign policy is protection of Israel” and the US fears “Iran’s attitude to Israel”. Attitude indeed.

Watching this guy is like watching a poisonous snake, except that I kind of like actual reptiles.

Technorati Tags: Farrakhan

By Vic Rosenthal

Another country has recognized the Palestinian Authority unity government:

Following Norway’s lead, Sweden announced Sunday that it will re-establish political and economic relations with the new Palestinian coalition government.

During a visit to Ramallah, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that Sweden would not differentiate between Hamas and Fatah ministers.

“Just as we wouldn’t let a foreign body interfere with our governmental issues and differentiate between ministers, we believe the Palestinian government should be treated as a single entity,” Bildt said.

Bildt promised that his government would continue making every effort to assist the Palestinians financially. — YNet

Sweden, unlike Norway, is a member of the EU. I think that we will be seeing more announcements of this type in the near future. Bildt is probably correct that it is illogical and not practical to recognize only part of a government (although I suppose this would have some symbolic value).

Let’s understand what this means.

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Recently our local newspaper printed a letter in which the writer suggested that the “moneychangers” (he used this word twice) and Israel were responsible for the war in Iraq. I think it’s safe to say that the editors were surprised by the strength of the reaction that they got from the local Jewish community. I’m sure that the “moneychangers” reference went right by them, but it probably won’t the next time!

Anyway, our contributor Murray Farber was thinking about the lack of awareness of Jewish issues in the media — at least outside of the centers of Jewish population — and he sent us this. Murray is a retired reporter and editor.

Am I too sensitive or am I especially perceptive? Two items in the local media bothered me, and I know it is probably pointless to complain because both came via national syndicates. Last week, a radio station ran an item about Anne Frank as part of a series about women and their achievements or impact. It had the expected material about her — hiding, Nazi occupation, the writings — but it never mentioned that she was Jewish.

Similarly about three weeks ago, local TV ran a piece about high school students — I think they were from Maryland — who gave up their vacations to go to New Orleans to assist in the Katrina rehabilation. The students wore yarmulkas and some had T-shirts with Hebrew writing. You guessed it! Again, the word ‘Jewish’ never came up.

Your reaction?

By Vic Rosenthal

Pope Benedict XVI warned Europeans that their falling birthrate may lead Europe to “take its leave from history”:

Benedict said he was concerned about Europe’s “demographic profile” — though he did not describe the trends that have alarmed the continent for decades.

In countries like Italy, where many married couples have one or no children, the population is expected to shrink dramatically in a generation or two unless fertility rates quickly increase…

Italy’s fertility rate steadily plunged to a low of 1.25 children per women of childbearing age in 2001, with the last few years seeing a small turnaround, mainly due to births to immigrants. — AP (Yahoo), Europe losing faith in its future

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The UN Security Council has voted to place new economic sanctions on Iran:

The new draft UN resolution bans all Iranian arms exports, freezes the overseas assets of 28 additional officials and institutions linked to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including senior officers of the Elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and the state-owned Bank Sepah, and restricts financial aid or loans to Tehran.

It gives Iran 60 days to comply with the repeated UN demands or face “further appropriate measures” — economic sanctions but no military action — under Article 41 of the UN Charter…

The text builds on the December sanctions which included a ban on the sale of nuclear and ballistic missile-related materials to Iran, foreign travel restrictions on Iranians involved in sensitive atomic and ballistic missile work and a freeze on their overseas assets.– YNet

The resolution was passed unanimously today.

The problem is that in order for sanctions to be effective, they must make it more advantageous for Iran to stop her nuclear program than to continue it. And if the Iranian leadership feels that the strategic advantage of possession of nuclear weapons is great enough to risk an attack by the US or Israel, then relatively mild sanctions will not be effective.

The UN should apply sanctions that will be felt throughout the Iranian economy, and not just on the nuclear program. This might put enough pressure on the government to at least temporarily halt the program, or it might result in a change in government, one hopes to one which will have a different evaluation of the risks and benefits that come with Iran’s becoming a nuclear power.

As I wrote yesterday (see “Iran: we’re serious“), these risks are great, both for Iran and the rest of the world.

Technorati Tags: Iran, UN

By Vic Rosenthal

They’re at it again:

Hundreds of Fatah supporters clamored for revenge against Hamas on Saturday, during the funeral of a Fatah loyalist killed in a new round of infighting that left four people dead since the Hamas-Fatah coalition government was formed a week ago.

The formation of the coalition government was to have put an end to a bloody Hamas-Fatah power struggle that killed more than 140 people in the past year. However, four people have been killed in Gaza since the new coalition was sworn in.

Among the dead was a 4-year-old boy caught in crossfire Thursday.

On Thursday, a Gaza man was killed during a showdown between his Fatah-affiliated family and members of a Hamas militia, while on Wednesday a 24-year-old Fatah man was killed in an armed clash between Fatah and Hamas supporters.– Jerusalem Post

This points to an answer to the question of why it hasn’t been possible to get a peace agreement (or one that will stick, anyway) between Israel and the Palestinians.

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By Vic Rosenthal

US and Israeli diplomats have suggested that the Saudi plan might be a good starting point for peace negotiations with some modifications — for example, the demand for a right of return of Palestinian refugees to Israel has to be removed.

The problem is a lot deeper than that, though. The Palestinians and other Arabs view any compromise as a defeat, and would only agree to it as a temporary tactical move. In their view, Israel is totally at fault for the history of conflict in the region, the situation of the refugees, etc. So any peace agreement has to include Israel completely undoing the ‘unnatural’ situation by giving up any territory taken from Arab hands, restoring all that they lost to the refugees, etc. Naturally, an independent state of Israel would not survive such a deal.

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By Vic Rosenthal

If the US or Israel will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, it is expected to be soon:

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An American middle school student had to write a paper on the subject “Who is at Fault in the Middle East”? One can imagine that he would have been somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of material available, and the widely varying points of view. Our contributor Naomi Leitner gave him her take. It’s long for a blog post, but short for a history of the Jewish state! Ms. Leitner is an attorney in Israel.

Dear “RedFox”:

A friend of mine passed your e-mail along to me and I’ll try to answer, in the way that I and many Israelis see our history.

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