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1. Clash Over 'Islamization' at DC Muslim Prayer Rally
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
A new organization dedicated to fighting what it sees as an encroaching Islamic takeover of the U.S. is set to launch later this month with a gathering in Washington, D.C. - on the same day as a massive Muslim prayer rally in the U.S. capital.
The Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) group has declared its mission to be educating Americans "about the threat that Islamic doctrine and those who support it present to our freedoms, and the future of our democracy and country." The organizers call themselves "scholar warriors/ideological warriors in the cause of American freedom and Constitutional government," as well as in "the defense of... our society of liberty, knowledge, and human decency."
SIOA believes that political Islam is opposed to American values of "freedom, tolerance, or human rights." They seek to raise the issue of what they call "brutal, misogynist" Islamic law and jihad in America, because "tolerance for ideologies that are opposed to our principles of individual freedoms and our Constitution is indefensible," the group declares in its online manifesto. A recently-released film, The Third Jihad, warns that radical Islam is working on a non-violent, cultural takeover of the United States.
"We are now in a new phase of a 1,400-year-old jihad against the kafirs (all non-Muslims everywhere); we are not prepared to meet the threat," SIOA says. gnorance about Islam, its doctrine and purposes is a moral and ethical failure whose consequences can be nothing short of national extinction."
The official launch of the SIOA is slated for September 25, 2009, at an as-yet unknown venue in the U.S. capital. The timing and location appears to be far from coincidental.
A massive Muslim prayer gathering is planned for for the same day in front of the Capitol building. Spearheaded by the Elizabeth, New Jersey Dar-ul-Islam Mosque, organizers are expecting 50,000 people to attend the first-of-its-kind national event. The gathering will be limited to prayer, according to Hassen Abdullah, president of Dar-ul-Islam.
SIOA sees the event as a "big-budget... soft jihad," fought through "marketing and cultural/ideological warfare." D.L. Adams of SIOA wrote of the planned Muslim prayer gathering, "It is impossible to see this event as anything but what it is, taqiyya (sacred deception), jihad (endless universal war against the unbelievers), and dawa (conversion)."
The SIOA website calls for 'every protest of this takiya-jihad-dawa event... [ include some component of donkey, dog, and women.'
The SIOA's own event is planned to conclude with a "saunter" around the streets of Washington DC, on the day of the Muslim prayer rally, in order to "engage in conversations with our fellow citizens who might happen to be there on the same day on matters of moment." However, more confrontationally, the SIOA website calls for "every protest of this takiya-jihad-dawa event... [ include some component of donkey, dog, and women." The reason for this unusual suggestion is made clear on the SIOA site as well: Muslim doctrine, according to the SIOA, says that "Islamic prayer is nullified if a dog, a woman, or a donkey are present."
At the same time, the SIOA promotional literature for the organizational launch emphasizes, "We are an entirely non-violent organization. Our sauntering is planned to be more a polite conversational engagement rather than a demonstration." Organizers "look forward to a pleasant several hours chatting with our fellow Americans in the Capitol on the issue at hand."
Speakers at the SIOA launch are slated to include expatriate Egyptian activist Nonie Darwish, Islam scholar and author Robert Spencer, journalist Pamela Geller, and Christine Brim, Senior Vice President for Policy and Program Management at the Center for Security Policy.
2. Report: Paradise Hotel Bomber Among Dead in Somalia
by Maayana Miskin
Wanted Al-Qaeda terrorist Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was killed Monday in a United States special forces air strike in southern Somalia, local civilians have reported. Nabhan is wanted for multiple terrorist attacks, including a 2002 hotel bombing and attempted attack on an airplane that targeted Israeli citizens.
Nabhan was wanted by the United States FBI for both the 2002 attacks and possible involvement in 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in which hundreds of people were killed.
He was rumored to have fled Kenya for Somalia as early as 2002. In early 2008 the U.S. bombed an Al-Qaeda training camp in southern Somalia; analysts suggested that Nabhan was the primary target of the strike.
In 2002, terrorists in Mombasa, Kenya, targeted the Paradise Hotel – the only Israeli-owned hotel in the region, and a popular destination for Israeli tourists. A suicide bomber drove into the building, murdering 13 people, three of them Israelis.
The Israeli victims were tour guide Albert de Havila of Raanana and young brothers Dvir and Noy Anter, 14 and 12, of Ariel. The Anter brothers were survived by their parents and an eight-year-old sister; their mother and sister were wounded in the blast.
At approximately the same time as the bombing, terrorists fired two Strela 2 surface-to-air missiles at an Israeli charter plane owned by Arkia Airlines. The missiles missed the aircraft, which was later rumored to have deployed a defense system meant to confuse the missiles' seeker systems.
While a Lebanese group calling itself the Army of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack, U.S. and Israeli experts believe that the attack was linked to Al-Qaeda. The Somalia-based terrorist group Al-Ittihad Al-Islami, which has ties to Al-Qaeda, was named as a possible perpetrator of the attack.
3. TIME: US to Call Arab Bluff and Force Abbas to Talk
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The Obama administration will use the “Iranian card” to help call the “Arab bluff” and force Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resume suspended discussions with Israel towards establishing a new Arab state within Israel’s current borders, TIME magazine predicts.
Abbas has repeatedly stated he will not talk with Israel unless the Jewish State freezes all construction for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has taken the almost unprecedented step of agreeing to a partial freeze, a rare move in the history of the modern Jewish State that always has encouraged Jews to develop the country.
However, political pressures from within his own Likud party and from most coalition parties have influenced him to exclude eastern Jerusalem from the freeze and to allow the construction of 2,500 residential units that already have been started.
“If the Obama Administration accepts Israel's partial settlement freeze, it will be hard for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to refuse to talk,” TIME magazine wrote in its current issue.
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell is to sit down with Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday to iron out a path that both sides accept. The Prime Minister told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee on Monday that the freeze will be temporary, but that the United States and Israel have not reached an agreement on when a thaw can take place.
Even Robert Malley, who was an unofficial campaign advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama last year and in the past has met regularly with Hamas terrorist leaders, said that Abbas will cave in. "This has become a losing game and it's time to move on to final status, the thing that matters most," Malley told TIME.
What matters most to the PA is a new Arab state on its terms, but the Arab world, which vocally backs Abbas, also is concerned with Iran. President Obama’s aides previously toyed with Israel that if did not agree with Washington’s demands on a building freeze, the U.S. would continue to be “soft” on Iran’s growing nuclear threat. That card now has turned in the other direction “because Arab regimes have as much to fear from a nuclear armed Iran as does the U.S.,” the magazine added.
The next step before a formal resumption of talks between Israel and the PA is a proposed meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Obama and Abbas at the United Nations this month.
Renewed official talks would mark the resumption of a long and drawn out process, but also would be only the first step towards the critical issues of the status of Jerusalem and Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and the Arab demand that millions of foreign Arabs be allowed to immigrate to Israel.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he would not resume negotiations with Abbas unless the PA recognizes Israel as a "Jewish state,” a definition that would effectively preclude the idea of flooding the country with Arabs.
4. PA Teen Gets Jail for Fighting Terror
by Maayana Miskin
The Palestinian Authority is committed to fight terrorism under the Oslo Accords, the Roadmap,and other Israel-PA agreements. However, PA courts continue to convict Arabs who help Israel fight terrorism of “collaboration,” a crime punishable by life in prison with hard labor or death.
This week, PA media reported that another Arab man has been sentenced for collaboration. The man was given a “light” sentence of 17 years in prison due to the fact that he was a minor at the time he helped Israel.
The man was found guilty of providing information on terrorists to the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), leading to the assassination of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Fayid in 2004.
To read the rest of this important story, click here.
5. Assaf Ramon Buried; 'Watch Over your Father'
by Maayana Miskin
Fallen fighter pilot Assaf Ramon was buried Monday in the Nahalal cemetery one day after being killed in a training exercise over the Hevron hills. He was buried next to his father, Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died six years ago in the explosion of the Columbia space shuttle.
Assaf was carried to his final resting place by six of his fellow pilots. He had graduated a pilots course at the head of his class just three months before the fatal crash.
"They promised to watch over you,” Assaf's mother Rona said at his graveside. “Now you watch over your father. I know that your father is watching over you, and is hugging you right now.”
"This was supposed to be my place, this is my grave. You were supposed to bury me here, old and happy with a million grandchildren,” she said.
Assaf's girlfriend Adi parted from him as well, as did his two younger brothers, Tal and Yiftach. The two recited Kaddish, the traditional Jewish mourners' prayer, over their brother's grave. The Shlomo Artzi song “Melech Haolam” was played as the funeral drew to a close.
President Shimon Peres eulogized Assaf at the funeral. “Today Israel lowers its flag, today a whole people is weeping, over the son that has fallen,” Peres declared.
"'Lay not thy hand upon the lad.' These were the words of silent prayer that I made when I pinned the wings on the breast of outstanding pilot-course graduate Assaf a mere three months ago,” the president continued.
Air Force chief Major-General Ido Nehushtan conveyed his condolences to the Ramon family. “Today we are all one family. In our hearts, we embrace Rona, Tal, Yiftah and Noa,” he said.
To send condolences to the Ramon family, click here.
6. Remembering the Munich Massacre
by Maayana Miskin
Israel commemorated the Munich Massacre of 1972 on Monday in a state ceremony attended by politicians, athletes and relatives of the fallen. Eleven Israel coaches and athletes and one German policeman were killed in the attack.
"An entire country held its breath and watched, transfixed, as the El Al plane from Munich landed in our national airport, and out came the surviving athletes, silent and stunned, standing next to their friends who returned in coffins,” said Minister of Sport Limor Livnat, who spoke as the official government representative at the ceremony.
"The memory of the 11 athletes murdered in Munich is the pillar of fire leading the great camp of the children of light to overwhelming victory in their war against the children of darkness,” she said.
Michal Shahar, whose father Kehat Shorr was among those murdered in the attack, spoke on behalf of the bereaved families. Former Olympic swimmer Yoav Bruck spoke in the name of Israel's athletes.
Tzvi Varshaviack, Chairman of the Israeli Olympic Committee, said in a speech, “Thirty-seven years have passed since that black day, and it remains impossible to forget. Since then, Israeli athletes have continued to represent the state of Israel with pride and to make remarkable achievements. We will not let terrorism defeat us,” he said.
The memory of those slain in Munich remains in the Olympic Committee's consciousness, he added. “We will do whatever we can to perpetuate their memories,” he said.
7. Jewish ‘Nakba’ Marks 16 Years since Oslo Accords
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The Oslo Accords, signed by former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in Washington 16 years ago this week, are the Jewish “Nakba,” the Arabic term for “catastrophe,” according to Prof. Ron Breiman, former chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel.
Arabs used the term "Nakba" to refer to the United Nations decision in November 1947 that a Jewish State should be created and to the formal declaration of statehood six months later.
Writing in the Hebrew-language daily Haaretz, Prof. Breiman asserted, “There were the good days of hope that began in Oslo, and the bad days when those hopes were dashed and the gloomy forecasts came true.” The Oslo agreements and subsequent talks exploded with suicide bombings and hundreds of other terrorist attacks on Israelis.
The violence escalated with massive rocket and mortar attacks after the launching of the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, when Gaza was in the firm control of the Fatah faction.
“The people who were seduced into believing in the Oslo dream are unable or unwilling to acknowledge the feelings of the others,” Breiman wrote. “The day that the peace-dreamers danced around the golden calf of Peace Now was the day of awakening for the others, who realized the Oslo war's danger must be blocked. They see the extreme left's identification with Arab nationalism and contempt for Jewish symbols as a threat as dangerous as those of the enemy.”
Despite Prof. Breiman's charges that the Israeli media agenda helped foster what he called “the fallacious title ‘the peace process,’” Yediot Aharonot editorial writer Eitan Haber wrote this week that even nationalists should pine for the days of Oslo.
Haber, who was a senior advisor to Rabin, argued that the Oslo Accords did not mention the term “Palestinian state”, and he did not cite the agreements as serving as a stepping stone towards a new Arab state within Israel’s current borders. However, Prof. Breiman told Israel National News Tuesday that academics who advised Rabin knew that the objective was to create a new Arab state, even if the objective was not explicitly stated.
"Rabin fell into a trap," Prof. Breiman explained, "and that eventually cost him his life."
Haber also attacked the “lie” that Israel provided the Palestinian Authority with the same “IDF rifles” that were eventually used to kill and maim hundreds of Israelis.
However, the Oslo agreements state, and the Israeli government later approved - if not “provided” - thousands of rifles for the PA, which was then under the aegis of Yasser Arafat. Breiman said, "If I am hit by a rifle bullet, it does not matter to me if it is from a blue and white [Israeli- weapon or from somewhere else. Israel provided the rifles, no matter where they came from.”
Haber also credited the Oslo Accords for Israel’s unprecedented economic growth and the establishment of diplomatic missions in Israel by several Arab countries. “The harsh and dirty war against the agreement was accompanied by a campaign of lies and disinformation that to this day is entrenched in the minds of many Israelis, including leftists,” he argued.
Prof. Breiman noted in his article, published earlier this week, “A normal state does not abandon its citizens' security to a group it defines as a terrorist organization. Neither does it put the ‘state-controlled’ electronic media at the disposal of terrorists so they can speak to its citizens over the heads of its government. It does not allow senior terrorists ('VIPs') to drive around its territory escorted by junior terrorist bodyguards. And it does not impose freezes or evictions on its citizens to please the enemy.”
