It’s hardly been a secret to those of us who care about Israel that Sec. of State Rice conducts herself in ways that are severely detrimental to Israel’s security and wellbeing. We’ve known that she hasn’t a clue as to what Arab mentality is or what can be achieved; she has made statements that demonstrate a very tenuous grasp of reality.
But now she has surpassed herself. This past week she consulted with former president Jimmy Carter about how to handle the negotiations. Carter! A bald-faced enemy of Israel.
This seems to me to move beyond the limits of what is remotely excusable. For Rice has to know what Carter’s views are with regard to Israel.
Rice’s position must be weakened , as her legitimate qualifications to do the tasks she has set out for herself — to mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and manage the Annapolis conference — are questioned.
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Once again, I call on all of you who are US citizens and enraged at Rice’s action to participate here. The first thing to be done is to contact President Bush in order to express your concern about his reliance upon her in the sensitive matter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — explaining why you are upset (information follows below). Ask him to monitor her or rein her in. Suggest that her judgment is so bad that now is not the time to hold the conference.
Calling the White House Comment Line or faxing is the most effective way to make contact! Use your own words, please.
President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
White House Comment line: 202-456-1111 TTY/TDD Comment line: 202-456-6213
Fax 202-456-2461 comments@whitehouse.gov
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The next thing to be done — and this is important — is to make a very public issue of this at every opportunity: write letters to the editor, do talkbacks on the Internet, speak to people, call in to talk shows, post on blogs. In other words, make noise: Rice is not fair. Rice has poor judgment. Rice cannot be trusted. Ask how Annapolis can proceed with such a person at its helm. Those of you who are activists in the US — pick this up and run with it, please.
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Below you have a very brief summary of Carter’s more egregious attitudes and actions. If you wish more detail, do not hesitate to contact me.
— In 1990, Carter drafted the strategy and wording for a generic speech that Arafat would give. He advised him to present himself as a peacemaker victimized by Israeli belligerence.
— In 1996, he headed a delegation that monitored elections in the PA, which he pronounced "open" and "fair," which was something of a joke as Arafat had no real electoral opponents.
— Over a period of many years , it has been documented that the Carter Center has been funded primarily by Arabs, such as the Saudi royal family. Most significantly, he has received support from the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow Up, located in the United Arab Emirates. Carter has publicly praised Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, now deceased, for whom the center was named, as a "personal friend." The Zayed Center, however, is so immersed in anti-Semitism and radical Islamo-Fascist attitudes that when it presented the Harvard Divinity School with a substantial gift to endow a chair in Islamic studies, Harvard returned the money. But Carter has never disavowed his connection with the center or leveled criticism at it.
— Most recently Carter has written a book , Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, that is thoroughly biased and virulently anti-Israel. Kenneth Stein, Carter’s long-time associate, quit the Carter Center because he didn’t wish to be associated with this book. Wrote Stein:
“[Carter] does what no non-fiction author should ever do: He allows ideology or opinion to get in the way of facts…the narrative aims its attack toward Israel, Israeli politicians, and Israel’s supporters. It contains egregious errors of both commission and omission. To suit his desired ends, he manipulates information, redefines facts, and exaggerates conclusions.
“…Carter’s grievance list against Israel is long… Carter believes that if the U.S. government reduces or stops its support for Israel, then the Jewish state will be weakened and become more malleable in negotiations…"
Please, share this as broadly as possible. And feel free to copy this portion of my posting, with attribution to me, to send separately to others.
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A great deal is going on with regard to the proposed cut back in the amount of electricity and gas to be supplied by Israel to Gaza.
It truly seems that one intention on the part of the Israeli government in doing this is to move slowly towards what is being called total disengagement: the day when Israel will no longer be responsible for providing the people of Gaza with any of its energy.
But there are also other motivations at work . Ostensibly, one is to create a situation in which the terrorists fire fewer rockets, presumably because pressure will be put upon them by the populace. But an article in Haaretz last Friday suggests that just the opposite is what’s going on: It is expected that the terrorists will escalate their attacks in response to the cut offs, which will make it easier for Israel to justify finally moving in on the ground.
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That ground action is considered inevitable . For disengaging from the responsibility to supply Gaza with energy, even if it does motivate few Kassam attacks, does not take out the trained Hamas army that is preparing to attack, or remove the arsenal of weapons that is stored there and constantly being augmented.
According to the Haaretz article, this war will be a prolonged and dirty war: The IDF will use artillery bombardment before sending in the ground troops. Chief of Staff Ashkenazi says he will support this operation only if the IDF is permitted sufficient time to do arrests and gather intelligence.
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We’re going to hear about it from the international community, big time! Now we’re talking about cutting back some of the electricity to Gaza for 15 minute intervals (with care to be taken so that hospitals are not affected) and already there’s a hullabaloo, and we are charged with promoting a humanitarian crisis, which is not the case.
The major cut will be in gasoline fuel , which will be reduced from 450,000 liters a week to 300,000 liters; this means inconveniencing people who will have less use of their private cars. Diesel fuel will only be cut a small amount — from 1.4 to 1.25 million liters per week — so that there is no emergency with ambulances, garbage trucks and the like.
None of these cutbacks has actually started yet , as the final approval has not been given; it is anticipated that this will come in days — and even then it would be some days thereafter until the populace felt the change.
And yet, today a senior Palestinian official said that fuel has been cut by 40% – 50%. "This is a serious warning to the people of the Gaza Strip. Their lives are now in danger," bemoaned Ahmed Ali, deputy director of Gaza’s Petroleum Authority. These guys never miss an opportunity to make us look bad, even if truth must be stretched.
While the Palestinians were bemoaning their fate, European Union officials involved with overseeing the Gaza power plant (because the
y do funding) reported that the full amount of fuel was delivered there today.
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Tip of the iceberg. This is what we’re dealing with: Arab citizens of Israel are not drafted into the IDF — there is no notion of their fighting against other Arabs and it is understood that this would be problematic on several levels. However there has now been a government initiative put forward for Arab Israeli youth to do an alternative national service. This is altogether appropriate.
Last year over 500 Arab youth served . But the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee of Israeli Arabs is working hard to dissuade young Arabs from serving the Israeli nation. Never mind that they get to vote in Israel and are eligible for health care, and welfare benefits and ultimately pension benefits. No service to Israel. Bragged the Committee’s CEO, perhaps thousands would have volunteered to serve if they hadn’t intervened.
Worse yet, Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka (Balad), is voicing a vigorous protest against the government initiative. He resents the attempt to "Israelisize" Arab youths and says that "Anyone who does national service will become a leper and Arab society will throw him up from its midst."
You have the picture? An Arab who is not only an Israeli citizen but a member of the Knesset objects to efforts to incorporate Israeli Arab youth within productive Israeli society, providing them with an opportunity to serve their nation in a manner that parallels the responsibilities of Jewish youth (i.e., makes them more equal). Better we should let them stay outside. But, if they had been forced to stay outside, we would have been vilified for that.
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And there’s more from Israeli Arab members of the Knesset. Responding to proposals from Avigdor Lieberman, MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List) has declared that "There can be no peace agreement without the dismantlement of settlements and the removal of settlers…The borders must be the 1967 lines, including east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine."
Do you find yourself wondering , as I do, what he’s doing in the Knesset when he’s clearly on the other side? Tibi, you should know, used to advise Arafat. Ours is a strange society, altogether too politically correct and too tolerant for my taste. A loyalty to Israel first ought be the bottom line minimum requirement for members of its Knesset.
"Lieberman should calm down. There won’t be a deal if there is no essential change in Israel’s stance toward the Arab peace initiative," said Jamal Zahalka (Balad).
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I cannot help but wonder if what really bothers these Israeli Arabs is Lieberman’s proposal for a population exchange. I consider this a non-starter as you cannot move populations from one sovereignty to the other without their consent. And the supreme irony is that the very people who foment trouble here and are not loyal to us, have absolutely no desire to be under Palestinian Authority sovereignty instead. It’s much much better in Israel.
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Today Lieberman told Army Radio that his party won’t remain in the government if "there will be significant negotiations on the core subjects." This makes me nervous, as it’s also a hedge. What does this mean? That Olmert can discuss Jerusalem a little bit, but not significantly?
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Since nonsense seems to be fairly ubiquitous , let me end with this: According to Khaled Abu Toameh in the Post, the PA is planning to fire 30,000 people from the PA security forces. in Judea and Samaria. This is ostensibly a move to tighten the forces, but officials are warning that 30,000 unemployed people will cause unrest, rebellion against Fatah, and a movement of loyalty to Hamas.
Why should such a mass firing be necessary? Are you ready? According to Oslo, the PA was to have a force of 30,000, but they have 80,000 on their payroll. This is in good part of legacy from Arafat’s time. Explained one Palestinian:
"Arafat wanted to provide jobs for as many Palestinians as possible, so he recruited as many people as possible to the dozen or so security forces. The international community was anyway paying the salaries of the members of the security forces. [Are you paying attention here?] This way Arafat managed to provide an income for tens of thousands of families."
This, clearly, is a lesson in how the PA has abused international funds. But the above source has one particular wrong. There was nothing altruistic about Arafat. He was buying people, that was his style. The more on the PA payroll, the more loyal to him.
The kicker here is that about half of the people on the PA security forces payroll have no assigned jobs and never report for work.
Now, ask yourself, how, in the face of this, the Americans can think it’s a good idea to give the PA $400 million dollars.
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