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1. PA to Israelis: Go Back to Europe
by Maayana Miskin
As Palestinian Authority officials agree to indirect "proximity" peace talks with Israel, PA television sends a different message. A broadcast that was repeated twice last week called on Israelis to “return” to Europe and Ethiopia, so that PA Arabs can “return” to Israeli cities such as Akko (Acre), Haifa and Jerusalem.
The speaker suggested that Israelis go to “your original homeland,” listing Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Russia and Ethiopia as possible options. He did not mention the many countries in the Arab world from which Jews fled to Israel, such as Syria, Egypt, or Iraq.
PA TV is owned and controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
Besides portraying Israeli Jews – most of whom were born in Israel – as foreigners, the broadcast also backs the “right of return.” The PA, along with much of the Arab world, demands that Israel allow millions of Arabs born abroad to “return” to the Israeli cities from which their grandparents or great grandparents fled during the War of Independence in 1948.
The broadcast was picked up and translated by Palestinian Media Watch, which noted that this is far from the first time the PA has broadcast material portraying Israelis as foreigners who “stole” the land. In February, a PA children's program told Israeli Arab children that they are “part of occupied Palestine.”
In a recent interview with OpEdNews reporter Joan Brunwasser, PMW director Itamar Marcus warned that the incitement in PA media is more indicative of the PA's intentions than its statements given to the foreign press. “We feel that if there is to be peace, it has to start with children," Marcus said. "Therefore, what children are being taught in schools and what they are learning from music videos and children's media are a better indicator of the real beliefs and goals of the leaders, and will also determine if we have peace in the next generation."
2. Iran, Turkey Reach Uranium Deal
by Maayana Miskin
Talks between Iran, Turkey, and Brazil have ended with a nuclear fuel swap deal that could ease concerns over Iran's nuclear program. The countries agreed that Iran will ship most of its enriched uranium to Turkey, which in turn will supply Iran with nuclear fuel rods.
The deal would give Iran what it needs to run a research reactor, while leaving the country with less uranium that could be enriched to weapons-grade material. The material in the fuel rods cannot be enriched to the level required for nuclear weapons.
Iran will officially notify the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the signed deal within the next several days, Iranian officials said.
The deal may reduce pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. Iran has faced threats of harsh sanctions over its refusal to stop uranium enrichment.
Iranian leaders rejected a previous proposal that would have seen Iranian fuel exchanged for fuel rods from Russia and France.
3. Israelis to Confront Pro-Gaza Activists at Sea
by Maayana Miskin
While the government debates how to deal with foreign activists' attempts to enter Gaza by sea, Israeli civilians have come up with their own plan. A grassroots campaign calling to sail out and confront the foreign activists at sea has gained many followers – and 15 ships.
Arutz-7's Hebrew news service spoke with Matan Freiman, one of the organizers of the counterprotest. “Our goal is, first and foremost, to send a message to Turkey,” Freeman said.
The foreign ships making their way to Gaza are sponsored in large part by Turkey. The ships aim to defy Israel's control of waters off the Gaza coast by entering the Hamas-controlled region without Israeli approval. Turkish Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan is hoping to win support in the Arab world at Israel's expense, Freiman said, and the Israeli ships will draw attention to this fact.
Israeli activists will also remind the approaching foreign ships that Hamas bears responsibility for the fact that ships cannot enter and exit Gaza freely. Hamas refuses to release Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit, Freiman said, and is thus to blame for the situation in Gaza.
The goal is to get Israel's point of view into the media, both in Israel and abroad, he explained.
Freiman said he could not give precise details of the planned confrontation at sea, but further details would be released as the date of the expedition approaches. Currently, activists are attempting to time things just right in order to meet the foreign boats at sea before they reach Gaza waters.
The grassroots campaign to confront “Free Gaza” activists gained popularity rapidly, thanks largely to social networking sites, Freiman said. He expressed optimism regarding the campaign's future, saying, “Many successful struggles began with private citizens, and did not go through official channels.”
4. Hamas Demolishes Dozens of Arab Homes
by Hillel Fendel
Hamas police beat and forcibly removed residents from their homes in a southern Gaza city, and the buildings were then demolished by bulldozers.
The Associated Press reports that the Hamas police wielded clubs and pushed the residents out of dozens of homes in Rafah, on the Egyptian border. The incident occurred on Sunday, and destruction was expected to continue on Monday. Hamas authorities said the homes were built illegally on government land.
Newly homeless residents were reportedly furious over Arabs on bulldozers razing Arab homes.
"For years," AP's Rizek Abdel Jawad reports, "Palestinians have criticized Israel for destroying houses, mostly because they were built without permits issued by the military. Now, Rafah residents complained, their own government, run by the Islamic militant Hamas that seized power in Gaza in July 2007, has done the same."
One woman shouted that Hamas had promised reform and change, but had "destroyed our homes" instead. Standing next to the concrete chunks that remained of her house, she said she and her husband had nowhere else to go.
Her neighbor said policewomen wearing Muslim face veils beat her with clubs until she, her husband, and two children fled their house.
Residents said between 30 and 40 homes, ranging from concrete structures to tin shacks, were torn down. Hamas officials did not allow reporters into the area until the demolition was over. Residents said more demolitions in the area were expected on Monday.
Hamas Knows Nothing About Alternative Housing
AP added that though Rafah's mayor, Issa Nashar, promised alternative housing, Gaza's housing minister, Yousef al-Mansi, said he had no information about such housing.
5. Watchdog Group Looks Into State Land for Arab Shepherds
by Maayana Miskin
The government watchdog group Ometz believes the state is wrong to turn over lands owned by the Jewish National Fund to Arab farmers in the Galilee. The group has filed a request with State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss asking him to look into the matter.
The complaint centers around lands near Mount Tur'an, which were recently distributed among surrounding Arab villages. According to Ometz the land distribution ignored the expressed wish of the JNF to begin a forestry project on the land.
The matter was first publicized when local Jewish shepherd Motti Peretz spoke to Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news service several weeks ago. Peretz said the state advertised lands for use by shepherds, but published the ads only in Arabic, and only in Arab communities. “Someone is trying to send a friendly message to the Arab sector,” he said.
Peretz told Arutz Sheva that he has frequently been targeted for attack by local Arabs, who apparently hope to drive him away. Attackers have caused over 450,000 shekels worth of damage to his supplies, poisoned his flocks, and even tried to kill him, he said.
If the state does not do more to encourage Jewish farmers and shepherds, “we are likely to wake up one day and discover that while we hold tight to our borders, we've lost the land inside the country,” he said.
6. Arab Media Cheer Obama for De-Linking Muslims from Terror
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A leading international Arab newspaper has hailed U.S. President Barack Obama for officially removing the description “Muslim terrorist” as part of his campaign “to reach out to the Muslim world.” The op-ed did not note the radical Muslim bacgkround of the terrorists and reasoned they are equal to other terrorists whose religion is not connected with their acts.
Osman Mirghani, the deputy editor-in-chief of 'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat,' which is owned by a Saudi Arabian company and published in London, wrote an op-ed last week under the headline "Why Didn't Obama Mention Islam?." The Obama administration has broken from the Bush government’s policy of using the term “Islamic terrorism” in official documents and "no longer [is] responding to extremist voices" that call for targeting home countries of terrorists, he explained.
He said the president is carrying out his pledge in his “reaching out to Muslims speech” at Cairo University in June 2008. Regarding Obama's statements on the botched Times Square bombing, the editor praised President Obama for not once referring to prime suspect Faisal Shahzad’s being Muslim and for not “mentioning Islam in discussing the terrorist operation."
The same approach was taken after the failed Christmas Day bombing by Nigerian Muslim Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalib. “Obama spoke about the detained terrorist as a member of the Al-Qaeda organization but he did not speak about him being a Muslim,’ Mirghani wrote. “Even when he spoke about Al-Qaeda, Obama noted that it was not the first time that the network had targeted America, ignoring the links that were made in the past between the organization and Islam or when it was put in the context of 'Islamic extremism.'"
Similarly, after the Fort Hood, Texas attack by a Muslim terrorist who murdered 13 people last November, “President Obama 'cautioned against jumping to conclusions’” and did not refer to the terrorist's Arab origin or religion.
The article did not mention that most, if not all, Arab terrorists are indoctrinated by Muslim extremism. Instead, the editor argued that describing terrorists as Muslims actually provokes more terror. “There is recognition today of the fact that terrorists are benefiting from the creation of an anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim atmosphere after any terrorist operation, and that issuing statements or taking steps that target Muslims employed by extremist groups further spreads hostility against the U.S., the West, and even moderate Islamic states,” he reasoned.
Th writer argued that “the identity of the terrorist does not necessarily implicate the country he belongs to, in the same way that other adherents of the religion the terrorist follows should not be condemned."
He accused former President George W. Bush of being “captive to the Big Stick policy and slogans of 'you're either with us or against us,' which caused the popularity of the U.S. to wane, not only in the Islamic world but in numerous countries around the world." In contrast, he continued, “The new president has extended his hand to the Islamic world,… and the tendency to link every terrorist operation to the religion of the perpetrator has disappeared.”
7. Noam Chomsky Barred from Entering Israel
by Gil Ronen
Ultra-leftist MIT professor Noam Chomsky was denied entry from Jordan to Israel at the Allenby Bridge Sunday.
Chomsky, a leading linguist, was scheduled to speak at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah. He reportedly spoke on the phone with an activist in an NGO called Right of Entry and said that his passport had been stamped with the words “entry denied.” He said that when he asked Israeli authorities for the reasons for the decision to block his entry, he was told that it would be sent in writing to the US embassy.
Chomsky has described his views as 'anarchist' and has been a proponent of ultra-leftist politics since the 1960s, when he opposed US involvement in the Viet Nam war.
In a recent interview with Democracy Now, Chomsky appeared to justify the development of nuclear weapons by Iran:"Israel actually is sending the nuclear submarines and other warships through the Suez Canal, with the tacit agreement of Egypt, the Egyptian dictatorship, another US client in the region. Well, those are all threats—constant, verbal, actual.
And the threats do have the effect of inducing Iran to develop a deterrent. Whether they’re doing it or not, I don’t know. Maybe they are. But if they are, the reason, as I think almost all serious analysts would agree, is not because they intend to use nuclear weapons and missiles with nuclear weapons. If they even loaded a missile [with] nuclear weapons, assuming they had them, the country would be vaporized in five minutes. And nobody believes that the ruling clerics, whatever one thinks about them, have a kind of a death wish and want to see the entire country and society and everything they own destroyed." Chomsky visited Lebanon in 2006 and was hosted by Hizbullah. He stated at the time that “Hizbullah's insistence on keeping its arms is justified... I think [Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan] Nasrallah has a reasoned argument and [a] persuasive argument that they [the arms] should be in the hands of Hizbullah as a deterrent to potential aggression, and there is [sic] plenty of background reasons for that.”
One month after his visit, Hizbullah launched an attack against the IDF, sparking the Second Lebanon War.
