Hamas's New Blood Libel: Jews burn Palestinian Children

Palestinian exhibit depicts children
in crematorium

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Mar 20 2008

Palestinian children in Gaza were gathered for an exhibition that depicts Israel burning children in a crematorium. Young children are seen standing beside dolls being placed into a model of a cremation oven.

According to the article in Al Ayyam, "The National Committee for defense of Children from the Holocaust opened its activities with a Holocaust exhibit. The Exhibit include a large oven and inside it small children are being burned, the picture speaks for itself." [Al Ayyam, March 20, 2008]

Another part of the exhibit was a black platform with the words, "Stop the Israel's Holocausts." [Al Hayat Al Jadida, March 20, 2008]

Palestinian Authority (Fatah) TV already already taught children in the past that Israel burned children in the Holocaust. With ovens pictured in the background and actors playing dead children as part of a musical play, an actor in a video declared:

"They [Israel] are the ones who did the Holocaust ... They opened the ovens for us to bake human beings... and when one oven stopped burning they lit a hundred more ovens." [PA TV March 25, 2004]

Hamas MP: We used women and children as human shields

How many war crimes has Hamas committed? Try 30,000. Here are a few of them:

"Hamas MP Fathi Hammad: We Used Women and Children as Human Shields," from MEMRITV (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008.

Fathi Hammad: [The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: "We desire death like you desire life."

And yet, the Left cannot see the truth, even if it is directly in front of their eyes. If you tell them that Hamas caused all of the deaths in Gaza, they will still refuse to believe it, so much is their hatred for Jews and for America.

How many war crimes has Hamas committed in the past seven years?

Here's how to calculate them:

Take the number of rockets intentionally fired at civilians (war crime), times the number of warheads filled with ball bearings and rat poison designed to harm as many civilians as possible (war crime), times the number of rocket launchings from civilian homes, schools, hospitals, marketplaces (war crime), times the number of hospitals, ambulances, and schools disguised to look like military targets (war crime), times the number of rocket crews and armed militants attacking Israel dressed as civilians, doctors, ambulance drivers, religious leaders (war crime), times the number of staged Israeli "massacres," (war crime), times the number of fake surrenders that led to ambushes (war crime).

What you have are tends of thousands of blatant, war crimes committed without the slightest hint of humanity.

So, you can take your phony UN Resolutions and shove them up your pipe.

Hamas MP: Arabs Ruled by '4 Million Brothers of Apes and Pigs'

Hamas MP: Arabs Ruled by '4 Million Brothers of Apes and Pigs'

MEMRI TV: Hamas MP Fathi Hammad Slams Arab and Islamic Regimes for Being Ruled by "4 Million Brothers of Apes and Pigs"

Fathi Hammad: The wounded men have sacrificed themselves in defense of the honor of the Arab and Islamic nation, and in defense of the holy places. They have sacrificed parts of their bodies in order to stop the advance of the Jews, who want to uproot you. As you know, the Israeli flag has a star between two blue lines. They want to establish the state of Israel between the Euphrates and the Nile. The Jews want to invade Egypt and Iraq, to destroy Saudi Arabia, and to return to Khaybar...

...Where is your valor? Stop being such cowards. The time has come for you to awaken from this deep slumber. The time has come for your honor, dignity, and valor to awaken. Where are you, Muslims? Are you monotheistic, or not? Are you Muslims, or not? Do you love Allah, or not? Do you love the Prophet, or not? As a sign of your love for Allah and the Prophet, you should sweep away the borders, which were created by imperialism. We are in need of weapons, we are in need of food, we are in need of moral support, as well as support by the media, economic support, medical aid, and support in weapons. Therefore, oh Arabs, who number 300 million, you cannot allow yourselves to be ruled by four million brothers of apes and pigs. Where is your nobility? Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? Where are you, oh Muslims, who number one and a half billion, yet you are ruled by four million brothers of apes and pigs?...

...Where is your manliness? Where is your nobility You stand there like women and do not lift a finger. What is the meaning of this apathy? What is the meaning of this cowardice? What is the meaning of this fear?...

...Your armies have become like women, who hide and cannot lift a finger. Your armies, tanks, and planes have become rusty...

OK, Mr Hammad-as-Hell, maybe you would be so kind as to tell your Muslim Brothers and Sisters, who go ballistic about Mohammed cartoons and beauty pageants, and who go on killing sprees, and rampaging entire villages in their wake, just exactly how your calling Jews, "Apes and pigs" is NOT racist and an affront to their God?

Mr. Fat-headed Fathi: if Israel wants to take over the entire Arab world, then why are they giving their own land to Arabs? It's been 40 years since the 1967 War, and instead of capturing more of the territory promised to them, they are giving it to be run by a bunch of psychokillers, child abusers, and pedophiles.

Maybe, someone on the brain-dead Left can tell us why they support these racist madmen who, quite literally, want to drink the blood of every Jew in the Middle East, and who lament that Hitler did not go far enough?

There you are, supporting the Palestinians, prima facie, who elected these monsters to rule over them, a government composed of the lowest scum imaginable, then what does that say about you and your self-righteous indignation against Israel?

The answer is that the Left is lower than whale dung, and their blogs like the "Huffington Post" is one of the deeper hole into which that dung falls.

MSM's by-in to the bogus blackout in Gaza

Here is an article taken from Solomon's blog about the bogus blackout in Gaza:

Darkness at Noon -- MSM Plays Along with Hamas Photo Staging (Updated)

The Hamas leader of the Gaza Strip , Ismail Haniyeh , left, and Gaza's Hamas strongman, Mahmoud Zahar, are seen during a cabinet meeting held in candle light in solidarity with the residents of Gaza, in Gaza City, Tuesday Jan. 22, 2008. The latest round of Israel-Gaza fighting erupted last week, amid a spike in rocket fire on Israeli border communities, and prompted Israel to seal the territory and cut off fuel supplies. Gaza's power plant shut down, cutting off electricity to about one-third of Gaza's residents, and international aid groups warned they may have to suspend food distribution to hundreds of thousands of people by the end of the week for lack of truck fuel. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Khaled Abu Toameh: 'Hamas staged some of the blackouts'

On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.

In the first case, journalists who were invited to cover the Hamas government meeting were surprised to see Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his ministers sitting around a table with burning candles.

In the second case on Tuesday, journalists noticed that Hamas legislators who were meeting in Gaza City also sat in front of burning candles.

But some of the journalists noticed that there was actually no need for the candles because both meetings were being held in daylight.

"They had closed the curtains in the rooms to create the impression that Hamas leaders were also suffering as a result of the power stoppage," one journalist told The Jerusalem Post. "It was obvious that the whole thing was staged."

Another journalist said he and his colleagues were told to wait for a few minutes before entering the chamber of the Palestinian Legislative Council so that each legislator would have time to light his candle. He said that when he saw that the curtains had been closed to prevent the light from entering, he realized that Hamas was trying to manipulate the media for political gain.

Update: Jerusalem Posts emails some more photos [Note the sunlight behind the curtains.]:

Palestinian lawmakers attend a parliament session in candlelight during a power cut in Gaza January 22, 2008. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Palestinian lawmakers attend a parliament session in candlelight during a power cut in Gaza January 22, 2008. Israel agreed to allow some fuel, medicine and food into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Tuesday, at least temporarily easing a blockade that has plunged much of the territory into darkness and sparked international protests. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)

Palestinian lawmakers attend a parliament session in candlelight during a power cut in Gaza January 22, 2008. Israel agreed to allow some fuel, medicine and food into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Tuesday, at least temporarily easing a blockade that has plunged much of the territory into darkness and sparked international protests. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)

Hamas manufactures a "humanitarian crisis"

After Hamas convinced the world that Israel was creating a "humanitarian crisis" out of the very limited restrictions that Israel placed on industrial diesel fuel and on nonessential goods, Israeli resumed shipments of fuel and supplies to the Gaza Strip. However, the intensive news coverage of the strip's electrical, medical and food situation continues, not all of it balanced, accurate or containing sufficient context. While some media reports now include statements from Israeli
officials maintaining that Hamas manufactured the disputed crisis and accusing
the terrorist group of responsibility for hardships, almost all continue to
ignore similar statements from Arabs themselves. In short, all too many media
outlets continue to mislead.

For instance, the headline of Rory McCarthy’s article in the January 22 edition of the Guardian reads:

"Palestinian crisis: No light, no heat, no bread: stark reality for the powerless
in Gaza: Besieged civilians pay the price for Israel's hardline response to
rocket attacks." McCarthy wrote:

"Large parts of the overcrowded strip had no power, leaving it without lights
and heating, closing bakeries and forcing hospitals to rely on generators and
their own limited fuel reserves."

Underscoring the alleged severity of the crisis, McCarthy writes :
"Osama Nahal, a paediatric doctor in the European hospital's special care baby
unit, looked resigned. 'Politics is politics, but the care of human beings
must be away from politics,' he said. His unit now has 10 newly-born patients,
of whom two are on ventilators.

"The hospital in Khan Yunis, which was built with European and UN funding,
takes most of its electricity from the power plant, so it was largely without
any yesterday. The hospital's own fuel reserve, normally 120,000 litres, are
down to 10,000 litres following Israel's economic boycott of Gaza over the
past two years.

"The UN sent emergency fuel supplies from its depot inside Gaza. It was enough
to power the hospital's smallest generator and to provide electricity for the
intensive care units and emergency operations. But when those last reserves
run dry, the power will stop. 'If new supplies don't come, we'll have to put
the patients on manual ventilations. All of us will have to work at it non-stop,
24-hours a day,' said Nahal.

" 'It's a very serious situation. If it continues, we will stop being able
to give our service,' said Mohammad Abu Shahla, the hospital director. 'Do
you think we have anywhere else to move the patients? There is nowhere.'"

Yet, if the European hospital is low on fuel, that is the fault of Hamas, charged
the Palestinian health ministry last month. The independent Palestinian news
agency Maan reported on Dec. 6, 2007:

"The Palestinian health ministry of the Ramallah-based caretaker government
said on Thursday that 'Hamas militias' have looted the fuel stores destined
for hospital vehicles in the Gaza Strip.A statement released by the health
ministry said that fuel from the European hospital in the Gaza Strip had been
stolen by the director of the hospital drivers to supply the Hamas-affiliated
Executive Force. The statement explained that the fuel reserve had been supplied
by the ministry to enable the hospital to continue working for as long as possible."

Of course, Hamas' theft of fuel meant for the hospital kills two birds with
one stone - practically, it gives the Hamas terrorists the fuel it needs to
continue its attacks against Israel, and strategically, it creates a humanitarian
crisis for which the United Nations, 'human rights' groups, and reporters like
McCarthy are all too willing to blame Israel.

In another example of Hamas' media manipulation of the situation, Oakland Ross
of the Toronto Starreports today (Jan 22): "A Hamas official said yesterday
that five patients died over the weekend in Gaza hospitals because of the latest
fuel embargo."

Likewise, Steve Inskeep reported on NPR's "Morning Edition" yesterday (Jan
21): "Now Hamas officials, who are in charge in Gaza, say at least five hospital
patients have died, but Israeli officials say Hamas is exaggerating this crisis
for political gain."

But it's more than Hamas just "exaggerating this crisis"; Hamas has created
the crisis. And it is not just Israeli officials who dispute Hamas' claims.
As AP's Ibrahim Barzak reported yesterday: "Hamas claimed that five people
had died at hospitals because of the power outage. However, health officials,
speaking on condition of anonymity because they were contradicting the official
line, denied the claim."

Similarly, when it comes to the bakeries shutting down, many journalists blame
the Israeli fuel cuts while ignoring contradictory statements by Palestinians.
For example, Ibrahim Barzak of the Associated Press reported on January 21:

"Gaza bakeries stopped operating because of the blockade, bakers said, because
they had neither power nor flour. Residents of the impoverished strip, which
as a population of some 1.5 million, typically rely on fresh pita bread as
a main part of their diet. Waiting in a line at the only open bakery for miles
around, Mohammed Salman said he had spent far more on a taxi getting to the
shop than he would on bread."

Yet, Khaled Abu Toameh, reporting in the Jerusalem Post, quotes a Palestinian
Authority official who insists that the bakeries are sufficiently stocked with
fuel and flour:

"The official also accused Hamas of ordering owners of bakeries to keep their
businesses closed for the second day running to create a humanitarian crisis
in the Gaza Strip. 'Hamas is preventing people from buying bread,' he said.
'They want to deepen the crisis so as to serve their own interests.' The official
said that contrary to Hamas's claims, there is enough fuel and flour to keep
the bakeries in the Gaza Strip operating for another two months. 'Hamas members
have stolen most of the fuel in the Gaza Strip to fill their vehicles,' he
said."

Beyond responsibility for this or that particular aspect of the blockade, some
news articles reported Israel's position that the blockade itself is the product
of Hamas' continued assault against Israel. None of the Western journalists,
however, reported that this Israeli view was shared by a prominent voice in
the Arab world. As Abu Toameh reported on January 21 in the Jerusalem
Post:

"A prominent Arab editor on Monday blamed Hamas for the ongoing crisis in the
Gaza Strip, saying the Islamist movement had acted 'stupidly' by firing rockets
at Israel. . . .Abdel Rahman Rashed, a Saudi national serving as general manager
of the pan-Arab Arabiya news channel, said Hamas was responsible for the suffering
of some 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. 'Hamas committed
a stupid act when it gave the Israelis an excuse to launch attacks in retaliation
for a few antique rockets,' Rashid wrote in the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat. 'Prior
to that, Hamas committed a big crime against the Palestinian people by overthrowing
the Palestinian Authority [in the Gaza Strip]. The Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip have suffered a lot because of Hamas's actions. Hamas is bringing Israel
back into the Gaza Strip after it was liberated by the Palestinian groups.'

"Rashed questioned the wisdom of firing rockets and mortars at Israel which,
he said, was only increasing the suffering of the Palestinians, let alone that
they were not causing much harm to Israel. He pointed out that 'only' 10 Israelis
were wounded in the recent attacks as opposed to the 'huge disaster' that has
befallen the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"Rashed is regarded by many Arab journalists as an unofficial spokesman for
the Saudi royal family. He previously served as editor-in-chief of the Saudi-owned
Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and his writings regularly reflect the views of the
Saudi establishment."

The readiness of Western journalists to assign blame to Israel for Gaza's hardships
while ignoring information to the contrary - even from Arab sources - is not
a new phenomenon. Last November, for example, the New York Times' Steven Erlanger
blamed Israel for an impending recurrence of the Gaza sewage disaster and ignored
Palestinian evidence which pointed to Palestinian culpability. Whether the
subject be human waste or fresh pita, it's unconscionable that journalists
allow Hamas spin to drown out opposing Arab voices.

A Grim (sic) Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a pauper named Arafat who went on to become the Prince of Palestine -- a mythical land somewhere under the rainbow and not far, far away enough. A-Fat, as his adoring fans call him, became a billonaire on the backs of the eternal refugees in Never-Never Land. Yassir Arafat had absolutely no redeeming qualities, except for committing crimes against humanity, and an uncanny ability to spin a yarn so outlandish that none could possibly believe it...except for the brainwashed refugees, and the permanently-tenured, permanently brain-dead professors of Anti-American academia.

Oh, and let's not forget the liberal Left who always support the underdog, even if the underdog is a fighting pit bull on rabies.

Here is the legacy of A-Fat.

With a cadre of Palestinian and Egyptian "archaeologists" to take the ball and run, A-Fat constantly concocted tall tales of yore when ancient Palestinians roamed the Earth about the same time that Neanderthals were spending their winter vacations along the Riviera.

Actually, A-Fat's major contribution to the world of junk science and anthropology was "discovering" a suitable gene pool from some obscure ancient tribes which he could use to prove that Palestinians arrived and settled Caanan (aka the land of Israel) before the Hebrew exodus left Egypt and came a-knockin' on their walls.

A-fat's initial comparison to the ancient Phillistines turned out to be a bad choice because the Phillies (the barbarians, not the Baseball team), were sea people who lived along the seacoast in Gaza, and because they never established any permanent settlement in Caanan (or anywhere else, for that matter). The Phillistines made their living as marauders, doing drive-bys (well, sail-bys) and were more comparable to the Vikings of Greenland and Scandinavia who terrorized the countrysides of Britain and France, instead of terrorizing Israelis.

Since the Philistines never settled Caanan, Arafat had to search for another pre-Hebrew (aka Jewish) lineage to stake his claim.

Bingo! Here come the Caanans!

First of all, A-fat could not have chosen a more fitting group of misfits for ancestors. Caananites were the scum of the ancient world. If you thought that the Philistines were bad, they couldn't hold a candle to the psychokillers of Caanan. They created all sorts of "innovative methods of execution" long before any other group in history. They practiced child and human sacrifice, and would drink their blood to "gain strength" form their enemies. They raped and strangled "virgins" to appease their gods (maybe that is why there are so many virgins in the Muslim afterlife).

But, these minutia never fazed the ever-clever A-fat. The only thing that rang his chimes was the fact that Caanites were "there" before the Israelites -- IF you call "there," a temporary encampment.

In other words, they never stayed "there" or anywhere for too long. After they had exhausted the land and their resources, they would take off to pillage yet another village.

People ask me, "Why did a loving God command that the Israelites kill every living thing in Caanan, including women, children, and animals? Why didn't God do it Himself""

This is one of the most perplexing questions ever asked about God, but the answer is really simple:

In the 21st Century CE , and in every age since 1250-1550BCE, Jews have had to face one mortal enemy after another, who are all bent on not only the total annihilation of Jews, but also their heritage. After they escaped from one mortal enemy, Egypt, they arrived at the gates of another, the Caananities.

Sure, God could have kicked the Caananites out with a flick of his finger, but that would be analogous to the "Give a man a fish/Teach him how to fish" parable. In other words, the Israelites would have to learn how to not only defeat their enemies, but also recognize the existence of pure evil in them that is so strong, that its effects all living things around it.

Knowing that they could not exist "side-by-side" with an enemy who would not even break a sweat to eliminate the Jewish People, as they had with other cultures. In the face of that stark reality, and, of course, doing what God wanted them to do, they wiped the slate clean.

I know that some of you cannot justify in your mind the idea of a "preemptive strike," which, essentially describes their conquest of Caanan. However, the world,as a whole, was not quite as civilized and developed socialized, 3,000 years ago, as it is today. On the other hand, the Caananites and the Palestinians could have been made from the same mold.

Any way, I digress.

The point of this discourse was to remind readers that Jews, and only Jews, have been hated for more than three millenia -- which is a "distinction" held by no other people in the history of mankind. What other group in the world (and nation in the world) has to devote every single minute of every single hour to defending itself from outside marauders?

A-Fat had lots of fans who backed him up. We are now, at the point, where Palestinian, Egyptian, Iranian, and other Muslim "scholars" (aka people who don't know jack about Israel) have concluded that there never was a First or Second Temple in Jerusalem, that all of the Jews who arrived in "Palestine" before becoming a state, that they were refugees from Europe, that Jews are the descendants of monkeys and pigs, that all of the Jewish patriarchs were actually Muslims, and that, at most, 60 Jews died in the Holocaust.

Rod Serling...how could you miss this one?

We can all tip our hat to that fun-loving Roman Emperor, Hadrian, who decided to eradicate any memory of Israel by changing its name to Syria-Palestina -- named after the Jews primary enemies, the Syrians and the Phillistines -- and by also changing Jerusalem's name after he had the temple plowed under the ground.

For some, unknown reason, Palestinians do not pay homage to Hadrian, especially after all the things he's done for them.

The conclusion ot this story has yet to be written, but it bears noting that prior to Israel becoming a state in 1948 -- the year that five Arab states launched a war of extermination against Israel -- "Palestinians" were known as JEWS, not ARABS!

So, when was the mythical land of "Palestine" created? In 1964, by the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) three years before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The PLO went onto become the PA (Palestinian Authority) but their charter -- remains unchanged -- and in it, is a statement calling for the elimination of the State of Israel.

WHAT WAS THE REAL CIVILIAN DEATH COUNT IN GAZA? ZERO!!!

Yep. you heard me. Zero. Zip. None. Not only was Hamas using the Hezbollah playbook for help on how to fire rockets at Israeli civilians while using your own as human shields, it also took a page on "How to stage an Israeli massacre."

Of course, nobody stages massacres better than Pallywood, and nobody manipulates the mainstream media like the PPM, Palestinian Propaganda Machine. Remember Jenin? The massacre that wasn't?

In short, back in April 2002, the Israeli Defense Force s engaged what was the Mother of All Anti-Terrorist operations as it ran into a Palestinian hornet's nest, booby traps filled with explosives, teenagers and terrorists alike wielding AK-47's, hand grenades, RPG's, and all sorts of "primitive weapons" (as the MSM likes to opine). When the dust cleared, 27 Israeli soldiers were ambushed and killed -- needlessly because they, Israel, chose the risky tactic of using troops to minimize civilian casualties. Israel, clearly, could have used air power to flatten Jenin, but in its concern for innocent human life, it chose to go in on the ground, and they paid a terrible price.

In reality, 56 Palestinians were killed, of which only 10 were "civilians." I put quotes around "civilians" BECAUSE Palestinians dress themselves to look like civilians. Not even bandanas and head scarfs to identify them. The line between civilians and terrorists is cleverly and intentionally blurred.

That was the REAL casualty count. BUT, the MSM, especially the terminally anti-Semitic British press all quoted the "eye witness accounts" of ONE MAN, a man who did not even live in Jenin at the time. And so, the saga of Jeninograd began.

The press printed reports of "mass graves," "summary executions," "torture," and upwards of 500 to 1,000 civilian deaths, half of which were women. This charade, like all the others before it (Think Al-Dura), had no basis in reality. Since the media did not question the reports, the PPM had a field day.

When the truth finally had come out, the damage to Israel's image was done and no amount of backtracking -- which many media outlets REFUSED to do so -- was extensive, and let to an immediate call for a ceasefire.

Most recently, a Hamas leader spoke on Arab television admitting that they use civilians as human shields (link to be posted later).

Like Hezbollah had done in the 2005 Lebanon "war," Hamas planted its rocket crews on top of apartment buildings, in schoolyards, near hospitals, in market places, anywhere a strike by Israel would cause civilian casualties that they could exploit for political purposes, and run to the UN crying to have the "International Community" (the IC) stop Israeli aggression.

Even the alleged moderate, "Mahmoud Abbas," President of the PA, repeated Haniyah's claim (Haniyah is the leader of Hamas) that "Israel was committing a real Holocaust in Gaza."

The IC, MSM, and the UN must have thought that Abbas, the terrorist, had given up his terrorist ways just as they thought Yassir Arafat had done. Not a chance in Hell! Saying that "Gaza is the real Holocaust," was easy for a confirmed Holocaust denier."

If there is one thing that you should learn about Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, Islamic jihad, is that they have no compunction to murder their own citizens and use them as canon fodder.

So, in this most recent "incursion" into "unoccupied Gaza" -- not that it ever was "occupied" -- the single, solitary, insibstantiated report out of the mouths of one or two "Palestinian eye witnesses," Israel had killed 120, half of which are civilians including dozens of women and children."

So, just as there was the Jenin faux massacre fabricated by a lone, "eye witness," so too was there another faux massacre manifactured for public consumption.

I argue, and there is none to deny it, that Israel killed only terrorists -- militants if it will make you sleep at night -- and no civilians. That is correct. There were no civilians killed directly by Israeli ordinance.

Hamas has murdered more civilians as "Israeli collaborators" than Israel has killed "innocent civilians." sorry, but a terrorist in any other wrapper is still a terrorist.

It doesn't matter how many Hamas has killed because the number will always be less than Israel's.

So, to sum up. Hamas fires rockets indiscriminantly at Israeli civilians, from launch pads inside civilian areas, forces civilians to stay inside their homes from which they fire on IDF troops and tanks, using civilians as human shields, hoping to entice Israel to fire back at them and maybe kill their human shields.

In other words, Hamas, and only Hamas kills Palestinian civilians, not Israel. There were NO CIVILIANS KILLED DURING THE MARCH INCURSION INTO GAZA.

And, you can take that to the bank!

Empowering Lies by Barry Rubin

Empowering Lies
Barry Rubin
January 12, 2008

What if a major news story is completely made up? What if it is basically Hamas propaganda without any basis in truth? And what if this story is repeated around the world?

Of course, nowadays it is not hard to imagine such things happening on debatable issues. When one gets to specific statistics, however, it should not be too easy to lie and get away with it.

But it is.

The story in question here is by Ibrahim Barzak, "Israel cuts fuel, electricity to Gaza," January 7, 2008. Like all individual articles it might be of limited importance by itself but it is an example of a phenomenon which has grown to be almost daily.

In the version run by the Philadelphia Inquirer it carries the following subheadline: "People have only a third of winter needs, said an official. The intent is to halt rocket attacks."

It is important to emphasize--do a computer search if you like--that this article has been published and broadcast around the world by huge media outlets, not to mention websites.

And the main point--and impact--of the story is a fabrication.

Here is the lead:

"With winter deepening, Gazans will be forced to live without lights and electric heaters for eight hours a day because Israel has cut fuel supplies to the territory's only electric plant in half, Gaza's top energy official warned yesterday....

"Yesterday, Kanan Obeid, chairman of Gaza's Hamas-run energy authority, said Gaza now has only 35 percent of the power its 1.5 million residents need."

Well, perhaps Gaza's top energy official said that but it is a lie. AP and the media that depend on AP--fell for this lie. Or perhaps the author and institution are not so innocent because there is no Israeli source provided for the main issues at stake. When I investigated the story it took me five minutes to get an official who totally denied the claims made by it.

Here is the true story, so obscured by the AP article that one can only believe the distortion was deliberate.

1. Gaza's electricity comes about 70 percent from Israel (the article says 60 percent though this changes nothing about the analysis that follows), 5 percent from Egypt, and 20 percent from Gaza itself.
2. There has been very little cutback in the electricity provided directly by Israel.
3. The only reduction is in supplying diesel fuel, some of which is used in the Gaza generating plant, though more is used by trucks.
4. Thus if the diesel fuel supply was cut back by half, the Gaza generator would lose less than half of its supply, even less if the Hamas government made it a priority. At most, the electricity supply would be cut no more than 10 percent--not 65 percent.
5. Note also that while it sounds rather horrible not to have electricity eight hours a day, this merely would mean that you don't use electricity when you are sleeping. It should also be added that winter in Gaza is not exactly like Maine.
6. In addition, Barzak tries, and no doubt succeeds, in fooling readers by stating in passing: "The power outages, which will rotate across Gaza...." In other words, at worst each sector would only have temporary power reductions, taking turns, rather than--as the article states earlier--everyone having eight hours without electricity.

After trying to convince readers that people in Gaza are suffering greatly from existing cuts, the article slips into making its case by talking about things that have not happened yet. The Israeli government wants small cutbacks in the electricity directly applied to the Gaza Strip. Even if these cuts were made--and this may not happen--the result would still fall very far short of the claims made about huge reductions and tremendous suffering.

The article continues:

"Israel said the purpose of the cutback was to nudge Palestinians to call on extremists to stop their daily rocket attacks on southern Israel. But Gazans contended they have become targets of unfair punishment, and 10 human-rights groups took that argument to the Israeli Supreme Court."

Note that while, technically, Israel's motive is presented--so the AP can claim to be balanced--we are quickly told that this claim is untrue. Israel's statements are questioned; Hamas's statements are accepted as fact.

The point here is to avoid telling readers three other things as well:

1. Israel is a remarkable democracy where even wartime actions against an enemy openly declaring an intention to kill all its people and carries out daily attempts at terror attacks are fairly adjudicated in court.
2. Israel is still supplying directly and indirectly the vast majority of Gaza's power despite the war being waged against it by a regime there which sponsors cross-border attacks, holds an Israeli soldier as hostage, and proclaims that it will never accept Israel's existence.
3. If the Hamas regime were to change its policy there would be no sanctions at all.

The article's goal, therefore, is to muster support for Hamas within the Gaza Strip and to mobilize forces throughout the world against sanctions. That may be the job of Hamas but is it the task for the world news media and Associated Press? Instead, this article is not reporting news but attempting to indoctrinate readers in the belief that Palestinians are suffering, Israel is responsible, and Israel's excuses for doing so are false.

But it is this article that is false by claiming that Israeli activities have reduced Gaza's electricity by two-thirds.

Oh, by the way, on January 11, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the restrictions on even diesel fuel oil would be lifted. So residents of the Gaza Strip will get everything necessary for 100 percent of their usual electricity production.

While rocket attacks, attempted terrorist operations, and incitement continue, Israel will provide power for Hamas's offices, broadcasts calling for the killing of all Israelis, and arms' workshops. This, we are told by too much of the media, is the way things are supposed to be according to morality and international law.

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Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloriacenter.org and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://meria.idc.ac.il . His latest books are The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan) and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley) .

"Root causes" of root rot.

While most of the world is focused on what President Bush has done in Iraq, his resurrection of the dreaded "road map" to peace in the Middle East bears some attention. The best thing that Bush should have done would have been to forget about what the Saudis proposed as yet another draft for a two-state solution to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, Bush still doesn't get it, and his solution, and all other such solutions that do not address the underlying problem are doomed to failure.

The road to peace in the Middle East is filled with the potholes of racial hatred, blood libel, and distortions of reality that paint Jews as "brothers of pigs and monkeys," "Zionist Nazis," "blood suckers," "usurpers of Arab lands," and other epithets too terrible to print.

How can the world expect the seeds of peace to take root in the toxic soil of anti-Semitism?

If the quartet is serious about wanting peace, then they must do the following:

1. Insist that all countries and entities stop fomenting hatred towards Jews and stop spreading lies, distortions, and blood libels about Israel and the Jewish people.

2. Remove weapons and explosives from all Palestinian refugee camps (which have become armed fortresses). Remove all materials from these camps that promote hatred and violence against Jews (especially those given to Palestinian children), and remove any U.N. relief workers who have ties to terrorist groups.

3. Insist that the U.N. abide by its own resolutions which call for the cessation of hostilities towards Israel and which also identify the West Bank and Gaza as "disputed territories," not "Palestinian lands under Israeli occupation."

4. Insist that the U.N. and other countries of the world stop referring to the "1967 borders." These are armistice lines, not recognized borders of Israel because Arab countries have never recognized Israel. The U.N. resolutions called for the establishment of "secure and defensible borders," and the withdrawal from "some" of the disputed territories acquired by Israel in 1967 -- not "all" territories as so many claim.

5. Finally, the true agenda of Yasser Arafat's Fatah, Hezbollah, Al-Aksa, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and others has to be revealed and repudiated which is, and has always been, the destruction of Israel and the creation of a unified Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. Arafat nor anyone of the aforementioned groups will ever be satisfied with any plan that allows Jews to exist anywhere in the Middle East.

Peace cannot be achieved when the death and destruction of Jews are preached as the solution to all the ills of the world. The road map to peace will be a dead-end as long as hatred for Jews continues to be the driving force in the Middle East.

New years resolutions like those made in the UN.

What's happened to the United Nations? It's been awhile since they passed their last anti-Semitic/anti-Israel resolution. Gosh, people might forget that its Anti-Jewish and Anri-Israel bias not changed one bit for the past 50 years.

The examples are numerous, but, perhaps what event sums it up best is when the U.N. General Assembly passed the infamous and outrageous resolution that equated Zionism with racism in November 1975.

What is even more damning are the 43 U.N. resolutions condemning Israel for human rights abuses, when not a single condemnation was ever passed against such human rights "champions" as Cuba, China, North Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and even Iraq.

The Oslo Accords were a seven-year experiment in Palestinian self-government that demonstrated, quite clearly, a failure at self-government and a failure to rehabilitate the Palestinians' hatred of Israel.

Palestinians do have rights, but these rights do not include the right to preach the destruction of Israel and hatred of Jews, and to commit acts of terrorism.

Palestinians have yet to demonstrate that they are serious about coexisting with Israel by ending terror attacks. Lest one give credence to the claim that the Palestinian Authority "lacks the resources" to fight terrorism, consider this: Under Oslo, the PA had a 42,000-person security force -- nearly twice the number it was supposed to have -- and still did nothing to stop terrorism.

Palestinians living in Israel now have far more rights, feel safer and have a higher standard of living than anywhere else in the Middle East.

In retrospect, the best thing that could have happened for Palestinians would have been for Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, instead of propping up a terrorist organization (the Palestine Liberation Organization) as their de facto government in the hopes that they would reform.

It never happened, and there are no signs that it ever will. The PA will never morph into the kind of responsible government that it takes to run a democratic state.

Simply electing a new prime minister and rehashing failed "land-for-peace" schemes won't work either. What is needed is a total change in the way Palestinians (and other Arabs) view themselves and their Israeli neighbors.

MIDEAST: U.S. helped Arafat to gain his position

I love it when leftist Americans parrot Arab characterizations of Israel as a "terrorist nation" and call upon the United States to stop funding Israel, its only friend and ally in the region.

I agree that we should stop funding terrorist organizations. However, Israel is not one of them.

He may be dead, but he his deadly legacy remains. Yasser Arafat took over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1969 and built it into the world's largest and richest terrorist organization.

In the 1970s, Arafat made billions of dollars by exploiting the narcotics trade and by looting Lebanon banks.

Arafat and friends continued to get rich during the Gulf War. Palestinians who supported Arafat helped direct Iraqi troops to rich Kuwaitis and deposits of gold and valuables, while joining in the rape, pillage and murder of Kuwaiti citizens.

With the Oslo Accords, the PLO-dominated Palestinian Authority began receiving billions of dollars in funds from previously reluctant Western countries, in addition to the $500 million our Congress gave it annually in foreign aid.

In 1995, the General Accounting Office produced a financial report (made classified by the Clinton administration) confirming that Arafat and the PLO held well over $10 billion in assets, even at a time when Arafat was publicly claiming bankruptcy. To date, more than 37 percent of these assets remain unaccounted for.

None of Arafat's money has ever been invested in refugee camps or human services infrastructure, whereas much has been invested in lavish housing and gifts for Arafat and friends. So much for saving his Palestinian people.

How then did Arafat and his thugs wind up in control of the Palestinian Arabs with the authority and appellations of government officials? The reason is because our government thought that the more money and "re- sponsibility" it gave to Arafat, the more inclined he would be to "join the international community."

It was American money and influence that enabled the PLO to make itself into the Palestinian Authority, a typically corrupt, internally violent and externally warlike Third World regime based on "special security forces."

Before people ask why we fund Israel, maybe they should ask why we funded an organization that murdered hundreds of Americans in the past and has never made any apology or restitution. Maybe they should also ask why we continue dealing with Mamoud Abbas, Arafat's protege.

Who CAIR's about Islamofascists

Whether we call the perpetrators radical Islamics, militant Islamics, Islamists or Islamofascists, the common denominator is a pernicious political ideology that is an extreme interpretation of Islam.

It is called Wahhabism and is perhaps the most dangerous "ism" since Nazism, with which it has many parallels.

Islamic terrorism is a hallmark of Wahhabism, and the vast majority of its victims are non-Wahabi Muslims.

Which brings me to my main question:

Why does an organization like the Council for American-Islamic Relations, which claims to protect the welfare of other Muslims, do all it can to thwart any discussion of Islamic extremism and Islamic terrorism?

Two weeks ago, its national chairman, Parvez Ahmed, sent another letter to the editor complaining yet again about our government's war on terror, which Ahmed calls a "war on Islam."

Crying "Islamophobia," he complained about the Bush administration, the State Department and key members of the Evangelical Christian community for their "belligerent viewpoints."

I guess he wants us to be nice to the people who chant, "Death to America."

In his October letter, Parvez accused our government of conducting a "smear campaign" against an Islamic organization suspected of funding terrorism.

In his November letter, he tried to convince us that we condone the actions of two, non-Islamic terrorist groups (which is not true), and that somehow this nonexistent contradiction invalidates our concern about the worldwide spread of Islamic terrorism and the millions of Muslim victims of it.

I have to wonder, once again, why are Ahmed and CAIR not more concerned about the worldwide spread of Islamic terrorism?

I understand his frustration given that CAIR is also one of those accused of supporting Hamas.

Hamas' desire to destroy Israel is well-known, as are its brutal attacks against innocent civilians.

It raises children into a culture of death, instilling in them a pathological hatred of Jews.

Terrorists themselves don't raise money, which is why they want to halt our efforts to turn off their funding tap and throw them in jail

Who hasn't called for Israel's destruction?

When the President of Iran said that "Israel should be wiped off the map," he was far from being the first Arab leader to do so. Back in April 2003, Bashar Assad of Syria stated to the world media that "Israel needs to be destroyed."

Likewise, the state-run news- papers of Egypt, Yemen, Iran and Libya repeatedly have called for "ridding the Middle East of the Zionist entity (Israel by another name)" during the previouys four months.

Since its inception, Hamas has always called for Israel's destruction. Even so-called "moderate" Arabs have expressed their determination to destroy Israel.

President Mamoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority is considered by President Bush and our State department to be a "moderate Palestinian willing to make peace with Israel." Yeah, right, the Al-Aksa Martyrs, card-carrying members of Abbas' Fatah group, is responsible, along with Islamic Jihad, for every homicide bombing committed inside Israel. Also, Abbas has repeatedly stated, in private and in Arabic, that he will never abandon the strategy of "armed struggle" (terrorism by another name).

Abbas is doing the Arafat dance. He continues to blame Israel for all the failures to reach a peaceful settlement because Israel had not given up plans for expansion inside the West Bank and Gaza.

Wrong. Israel gave up control of 98 percent of the West Bank and Gaza under the Oslo accords, despite the repeated violations of the Palestinian Authority.

Israel has no plan to annex what is, in effect, its ancient land, which is why the Israelis gave up control of it. Abbas, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are the biggest obstacles to peace. They will never give up their vision of a unified Palestine, which, by the way, requires the destruction of Israel.

Finally, it was the Arabs who rejected the U.N. resolution to create an Israeli state in 1948. It was the Arabs who urged Palestinians to leave their homes until after Israel was "driven into the sea" by "the victorious Arab armies."

The Arabs not only created the Palestinian refugee problem, but they have maintained it for the past 50 years to deflect criticism of their own failings.

These are the cold, hard facts.

They are not stereotypes if they are valid descriptions.

A lot of misguided people mistakenly blame Israel for engendering hatred of America by Arabs and other Muslims, even going so far as to claim that 9/11 was the result.

They also question our support and monetary aid to Israel, acting as if the United States never gave a dime to any other Middle Eastern country.

Reality check. For the past three decades, the United States has sent hundreds of billions annually in military aid to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, without so much as a peep from the public.

Although Israel was slated to get $3 billion in U.S. aid this year (now cut by $700 million), this pledge was made only because the United States also planned to give $20 billion in advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia and $2 billion to Egypt.

Why are we sending billions in advanced weapons to Saudi Arabia, the richest country on Earth?

Saudi Arabia, the home of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11, is also ground zero and Grand Central Station for their radical Islamic beliefs, having given birth to them, and relentlessly spreading them throughout the world (with our tax money).

What about the billions to Egypt?

Egypt, home to Musab al-Zarquawi, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, and the other hijackers, is getting weapons supposedly to protect it from Iran and to reward it for its "peace" agreement with Israel.

With it being the world's leading exporter of the most virulent, anti-Semitic media ever seen, and the top exporter of illegal weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza, Egypt is hardly a great partner for peace.

Why aid Israel?

Who else in the Middle East shares its expertise and technology with the United States, contributing to our efforts to combat terrorism and to protect our troops and nation?

U.S. troops use several Israeli technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, decoys to confuse enemy radar and reactive armor on Bradley tanks to repel enemy fire.

Both countries coordinate strategies for combating terrorism and weapons proliferation.

Israel, as the world's leading expert in collecting intelligence on terrorist groups and counterterrorism, shares highly sensitive data with us on a daily basis.

Just as Pearl Harbor brought us into the ongoing global war between fascism and the free world, so, too, did 9/11 bring us into the ongoing global war between radical Islamics and the free world.

To avoid another 9/11, we desperately need to keep Israel safe and thriving.

Jews in nation for 3,000 years

Jews in nation for 3,000 years

Question:

How many Palestinians does Israel have to kill in order for Palestinian leaders to call them atrocities?

Answer:

Zero.

The only answer that Palestinian Arabs and their apologists have to real atrocities committed against Jews is to manufacture a few. The only problem is that there were no "Palestinians" in the former state of Israel. There were just plain, old Arabs and the British. It does not matter that there were thousands of terrorist attacks against Jews long before there was any movement to create an independent Arab state, such as the anti-Jewish riots in 1920-1921 (which the British encouraged and made no effort to stop), the 1929 massacre of Jews in Hebron and the Arab revolt of 1936-1939, which, in total, left 700 Jews killed and several thousands injured.

Therefore, given the anti-Jewish violence that existed well before 1948, the oft-mentioned charge that "Israel's occupation begets terrorism" is totally bogus.

Meanwhile, between 1936 and 1945, the British turned away thousands of Jews seeking exile from Nazi Germany, while simultaneously allowing thousands of Arabs to migrate to Israel unrestricted.

In doing so, the British signed their death warrants, as returning Jews were sent to the gas chambers.

Following the Hebron massacre and the Arab riots, the British evicted Jews from their homes in Gaza and Hebron and prevented their return, despite the fact that they had lived there for centuries.

Secondly, just because the despicable Roman Empire changed the name of Israel to Syria-Palestine does not mean that Israel ceased to exist.

The same goes for the expulsion of most, but not all, Jews.

There has been a continual Jewish presence in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza for the past 3,000 years.

The Zionist movement was, and has always been, to return to the land that was taken from them.

The Zionists did, in fact, legally purchase empty land that had been abandoned and left undeveloped for over 100 years.

The Zionist movement began almost 70 years before the nationalistic movement to create an independent Palestinian state. Only after the Zionists had turned Israel from a desert into a garden did Arabs want to live there.

"O' Little Town of Bethlehem" through lying Leftist eyes

National Georgraphic is a wonderful magazine when it come to photographing and sicussing nature. I would have also included, "Writing true historical documentaries," but not after reading your artcile on Bethehem. It is revisionist history, littered with glaring factual errors and filled with intentional fabrications that comprise the same anti-Jewish rhetoric and anti-Israel propaganda spewed out by the Arab media, Palestinian terror groups, and empty-headed Leftists. It is the most egregious collection of tripe ever to appear in your magazine, and I strongly suggest that you stick to Anthropology, Astronomy, and Paleontology and stay away from things for which you have no real understanding.

Here are my responses to their statements:

NG: The reason the wall exists here, according to the Israeli government, is to keep terrorists away from Jerusalem.

ME: The wall is only there to keep terrorists from entering into any part of Israel, not just Jerusalem. Bethlehem is a hotbed of terrorism. Yet, your use of the comment, "according to the Israeli government," and is to make readers think that the wall is there for other, nefarious reasons.

NG: After World War II, in the wake of the Holocaust, the United Nations voted to partition the region into two states—one Jewish, one Arab

ME: The decision to set aside land on for a Jewish homeland began in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration, which was followed up with others documents saying the same thing. Several partition plans had been issued for over 30 years before the 1948 UN plan -- most of which came from the League of Nations. As you may or may not know, The League became the UN who was mandated to enact and maintain the resolutions passed by the League. The UN did not. The 1948 partition planIt was NOT in response to the Holocaust. The land included what was ancient Israel established 3,000 years earlier. Terrorist attacks by Arabs on Jews had been going on for 50 years BEFORE 1948, that date when Israel declared her independence, and th Arab States declared their intention to "push the Jews into the Sea."

NG: Fighting between Arabs and Jews began even before Israel declared independence, in 1948, and the ensuing war resulted in about 750,000 Palestinians fleeing their native villages, many of them forced to do so by the Israeli army.

ME: Terrorist attacks by Arabs on Jews had been going on for 50 years before 1948, such as the Arab revolts of 1920-21, the Arab massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1929, and the Arab Revolts in 1935-46. The date when Israel declared her independence was followed a week later by an invasion of Arab armies intent on "pushing the Jews into the Sea." No more than 390,000 Palestinian Arabs left their homes in 1948, and the vast majority who left were URGED TO DO SO BY THEIR ARAB LEADERS. They were told that after the Arab armies ethnically cleanse Israel of Jews, that they could return and take what had belonged to the Israelis. Israel's leaders pleaded with the Palestinian Arabs to stay and become full citizens of israel, which many did. The smaller percentage of those who left in advance of the IDF did so in response to the IDFs call to get out of harm's way.

At the same time as when 350,000 Palestinian Arabs left Israel on their own accord, 850,000 Jews were expelled from neighboring Arab States and were subsequently absorbed by Israel. Conversely, the Arab states have done everything in their power to keep Palesitinan Arabs in refuge camps in order to use them as political pawns.

NG: He was born in what is now Israel but was then, during World War II, known as the British Mandate for Palestine

ME: It should read, "He was born in the historic land of Israel that is mistakenly called Palestine." After destroying the 2nd Temple in Jeruslam, and the last of the Jewish revolt, the Romans renamed Israel to "Syria-Palestina" after Israel's most hated enemy, the Phillistines. They also renamed Jerusalem to "Aelia Capitolina," butits rightful name was restored soon after the Roman Empire collapsed. The same should have been done to Israel. There has never been a country or nation known as "Palestine" and Palestinian Arabs are no difeent than any other Arabs.

NG: Many relocated to the West Bank of the Jordan River, administered by Jordan, or the Gaza Strip, governed by Egypt. These were the first Palestinian refugees.

ME: Jordan and Egypt illegally captured and annexed the West Bank and Gaza, respectively. Jordan occupied the West Bank for 19 years (where were the cries of "occupaton?" before both countries negotiated separate peace agreements with Isreal. FYI: When Jordan captured and occupied the West Bank, all Jews were expelled from jordan and not permitted to visit Jerusalem or any other part. Well before Israel became a state, the British carved out 75% of the land that was intended to be the Jewish Homeland and gave it to Jordan -- a country comprised of 75% Palestinian Arabs (or, in other words, the real Palestinian state.)

NG: When, in 1967, Israel defeated the military forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon in six chaotic days and occupied, among other lands, the West Bank, a place many Israelis refer to by its biblical name, Judaea and Samaria. This initiated the settlement movement—Jews establishing homesites throughout the newly won territory.

ME: Wrong! The "settlement movement," is a part of the "Zionist movement," that began in the late 1890's. The number of Jews were establishing homesites in the West Bank could be counted in the hundreds, whereas there were hundreds of thousands of Arabs who also built there, many of which were really iillegal. Jews were never prohibited from building these settlements in the West Bank by an UN Resolution. Jews have lived continuously in Judea and Samaria for over 3,000 years, and the vast majority of Jewish settlements in the West Bank were in the exact, same places that Jews had lived before being expelled by Jordan. By the way, a significant proportion of Christians all over the world also refer to the West Bank by its Biblical names.

NG: Palestinian Muslims also revere this land as sacred, since Jesus is one of their prophets. Also Bethlehem and the surrounding West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, are where they hope to establish a viable homeland.

ME: They did not revere any of these lands as sacred before 1967, nor did they ever have any movement to create a Palestinian homeland before 1967. These are the result of myths concocted by Yassir Arafat, who was the leader of the PLO terrorist group at the time, and perpetrated on the Palestinian Arabs. The vast majority of Palestinian Arabs who lived in Israel prior to 1948, had migrated there from other countries. Today, the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs (71%) would prefer to live in Israel rather than a state run by the PA or Hamas. What they did to Gaza after Israel pulled out is a testament to how far away they are from creating a "viable homeland."

NG: The United Nations, the European Union, and the International Court of Justice have declared the Israeli settlements illegal, a violation of the Geneva Convention that prohibits occupying powers from allowing its citizens to populate the territory it occupies.

ME: Totally false! Israel is not an "occupying force in a foreign country," which is what the Geneva convention requires. Israelis and Palestinian Arabs both live in what the UN calls, "disputed territories," even though the territory used to belong to israel. Disputed territories do not fall under the rules of the Geneva convention. Since neither the UN or the rest of the world did anything to prevent Jordan from "administering" these territories for 19 years, then, it is totally disingenous to say that Israel cannot do the same, especially since it gained control of them from Jordan as part of their peace agreement.

NG: The Israeli government, though, provides easy loans to those seeking houses in West Bank settlements.

ME: You fogot make it seem like only Jews can get easy loans when, in reality, Israel offers easy loans to both Jews and Arabs. There are 10 to 20 times more new Arab settlements in the West Bank than Jewish ones.

NG: Not one Palestinian who owned acreage was compensated.

ME: Yet another outright Palestinian lie. Palestinians were, indeed, compensated if they produced proof of ownership. Why didn't you talk about the land purchased for Jews with Jewish money that was stolen by the Palestinians? What about the tens of thousands of Jews who were evicted from the West Bank after Jordan captured it?

Where is "Palestine?"

"Palestine" was part of the lost continent of Atlantis, and Palestinians are direct descendants of Homo Erectus.

As ridiculous as this sounds, it pales in comparison to the fairy tales and lies that are at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict (which, in 1967, morphed into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). The idea that European Jews invaded a country called "Palestine," displaced millions of Palestinians who had lived there for millenia and forced them to live in refugee camps, began an "illegal occupation" of "Palestinians," which included torturing, brutalizing, and murdering innocent civilians, building illegal settlements on their land, and causing all sorts of misery for the rest of the Arab world, is at the core of the second-most pernicious, despicable, and evil plot ever perpetrated against the Jewish people. The worst, of course, is the Holocaust, but the same, twisted logic that led to it is "alive and well" in the mindset of the Arab world.

There has never been a state or country called, "Palestine." "Palestinians" are no different than any other Arab. Before 1948, the only people called, "Palestinians" were Jews -- the others were called "Arab."

After Britain defeated the Ottomans in 1917, they subsequently divided the former Empire into independent Arab states, all except for the land east and west of the Jordan River That land was given the informal title of "Mandated Palestine" because both Britain and the League of Nations were mandated to set aside this land as the permanent "Jewish National Homeland." The US also supported this mandate. Were it not for WWII, and some British double-dealing, the Jewish National Homeland would have replaced all of “Mandated Palestine,” instead of only a tiny strip of along the coastline that the Arabs claim is theirs as well.

In 1922, after the British disregarded their own Mandate and gave 75 percent of it Jordan, Jordan subsequently granted full citizenship to all Palestinian Arabs living on both side of the Jordan river, while denying Jews even the right to visit. Given that over 70 percent of its population consists of Palestinian Arabs, Jordan became the de jure Palestinian state, and Arabs have no right to demand yet another Palestinian state.

This push for Palestinian statehood is a political invention of the PLO, and was begun in 1967 after the Six-Day War. By their leaders' very own words, it is nothing more than a straw man that Arabs are using as a political way to eliminate Israel.

Between 1921 and 1948, the British restricted Jewish immigration into what was left of Palestine to only a trickle while simultaneously allowing the unrestricted (and unreported) migration of hundreds of thousands of Arabs into and around existing Jewish settlements.

What’s worse is the Arab’s so-called, “Right of Return” whereby any Arab claiming to have lived in Israel only two years before the 1948 War is considered to be "an indigenous resident of the land for generations." Furthermore, this “Right” is also extended to every member of their family regardless of where or when they were born.

There is no "Right of return" mentioned anywhere in any of the UN resolutions regarding Israel and Palestinians. It is, and has always been, a problem created by the Arab states that attacked Israel, and one perpetuated by the same Arab states who wish to use the "refugee problem" as a way to destroy Israel.

There is a well-established and well-organized conspiracy among Arabs and Jewish-hating leftists to replace all of Israel with an Arab state by whatever means possible, and that is what I call, "The Palestine Plot"