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1. Qaddafi Crushed the Graves in the Jewish Cemetery
by Elad Benari and Yoni Kempinski
As the violent protests in Libya continue, Israel National News TV
visited the Libyan Jewry Heritage Center in Israel to hear the feelings
of those Jews who came from Libya.
“My feeling is not good," said Meir Kachlon, Chairman of the World
Organization of Libyan Jews. “The people that I knew are ruled by a
cruel leader who supposedly does everything to help them but really
hurts them, and the proof of that is in the fact that he hired mercenaries to kill them. That’s what hurts me."
Kachlon said that he believes the opposition on Libya isn’t strong
enough, and that in order to rebuild the country, those opposition
leaders who fled from the country will have to come back and take it
upon themselves to renew life in Libya.
"The problem is Europe and the United States, who are very slow," said
Kachlon. "There’s no one to help the Libyans. In Egypt they told Mubarak
to step aside. They haven’t said that to Qaddafi yet.
It’s the oil and the holdings there that are really talking, and I feel
that Qaddafi is in control of his money and his oil. He will stand by
his word: if they don’t listen to him there will be genocide in Libya.”
He noted that before Qaddafi took over, Libya had ancient synagogues,
all of which are gone and some of which have become mosques. But the
worst part, he said, is the ancient Jewish cemetery in Tripoli.
“There was a whole cemetery in Tripoli, 130 acres in size, on top of
which buildings were constructed, complete with roads and everything,"
said Kachlon. "Qaddafi crushed all the graves and threw them into the
sea. The world was silent. When they saw him doing it, nobody asked:
‘What is he doing to that cemetery? Why did he destroy the Jewish
cemetery?’”
Despite the grave looking situation in his country of origin, Kachlon expressed hope that things will get better.
“I hope that there is room for optimism," he said. "I want Qaddafi's
punishment to come from those beloved dead ones whom he took and threw
into the sea.”
For a review of the Jewish presence in each Middle Eastern area today, click here: part one, part two.
For a review of the history of Libyan Jewry, click here.
2. Libya: Protesters Repel Qaddafi's Troops, March on Tripoli
by Maayana Miskin
Anti-regime protesters in Libya successfully pushed back dictator
Muammar Qaddafi's troops on Thursday, seizing control of cities near the
capital. Opposition forces are now planning to take Tripoli.
The military is preparing to fight back an assault Friday, and has been
moving armed soldiers, many of them hred mercenaries, into the city
since early morning.
Many former government officials and military leaders have switched to
the anti-regime side, and are helping to coordinate anti-Qaddafi
activity in cities such as Benghazi and Al-Zawiyah. One leader of the
protest movement predicted that it is “only a matter of days” until
Tripoli falls.
Qaddafi has vowed to fight to the death against his opponents. In his
most recent appeal to the citizens of Libya, he claimed protesters
against his government were working with Al-Qaeda, and were on drugs.
Protesters in Al-Zawiyah, just 30 miles from Tripoli, said Qaddafi's
forces had massacred demonstrators in a mosque, opening fire on
worshipers and killing up to 100.
Qaddafi is facing increasing pressure from abroad as well. The European Union and the United States are considering sanctions
over his refusal to stop attacks on demonstrators. The United Nations
Security Council is scheduled to discuss the situation on Friday
afternoon.
3. Israeli MKs to Attend Anti-Israel Conference in the U.S.
by Elad Benari
An upcoming conference in Washington by the leftist controversial American group J Street will not only feature anti-Israel speakers who for boycotts of the state, but will also feature Israeli MKs.
J Street defines itself as “pro-America, pro-Israel, pro-peace,” and
was formed as a left-wing lobbyist group to counter traditionally
pro-Israel groups. It has repeatedly made claims against the state of
Israel, and it has also been revealed that anti-Israel billionaire George Soros provides much of the organization’s funding.
Detailed information regarding the scheduled speakers at the conference
was provided to Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew website by Journalist David
Bedein, director of the Israel Resource News Agency and The Center for
Near East Policy Research, who is currently in Washington for the
conference.
“We know that the Ambassador from Switzerland will appear at the
conference,” said Bedein. “Switzerland is funding the event through the
Geneva Initiative. There will be discussions within the conference on
BDS.”
Additional guests at the conference, noted Bedein, include U.S. top
envoy Dennis Ross. “Ross is coming to the conference with the official
blessing of the Obama Administration,” he said. “There’s also Ron Pundak
who is representing the Peres Center for Peace, which is a star of the
conference with several representatives on its behalf.”
According to a Bedein, last month J Street conducted a conference in
Jerusalem, during which it encouraged young adults who are soon to begin
their service in the IDF to refuse orders if they are asked to serve in
areas considered beyond the Green Line. “They [J Street] invited
students who are about to be drafted and told them to disobey orders and
even to defect from the IDF if and when they are called to serve beyond
the Green Line,” said Bedein.
He noted the name of another participant in the conference: Mustafa
Barghouti, cousin of Palestinian Authority official Marwan Barghouti,
who is currently in prison in Israel due to his involvement in many
terrorist attacks in which innocent Israelis were killed.
“Mustafa Barghouti is in charge of spreading disinformation on behalf
of the Arabs,” said Bedein. “For years he has spread rumors that Israel
deliberately kills children using tear gas and all sorts of other ways.
He is the Palestinian Authority’s representative at the conference. They
are not bringing someone that is supposed to be a moderate, but rather
this extreme person.”
Bedein said that his organization will send a reporter to the
conference who will ensure that the coverage is appropriate and will
“ask all the right questions.”
In regards to the fact that members of Israel’s Knesset will take part
in a conference which is so blatantly anti-Israel, Bedein said that he
had approached the MKs who are planning to take part in the conference,
including MK Daniel Ben Simon (Labor), Nachman Shai (Kadima), and Shlomo
Mulla (Kadima), and asked them how their Zionist stance goes along with
taking part in such a conferenece. He noted that Ben Simon responded by
denying that J Street is anti-Israel, while Shai and Mulla did not
respond at all.
He added that he believes that MKs taking part in such a conference should be considered crossing a red line.
“When you see that during this conference there will be a broad
discussion on the boycott of Israel, when you see participants who
clearly and blatantly support the Arab right of return and have
expressed their regret that the state of Israel exists, when you see
that UN officials who have criticized the very existence of Israel have
been invited, this is crossing a red line,” said Bedein.
4. Quartet to Push New Negotiations
by Maayana Miskin
Diplomats from the international Quartet – the United States, Russia,
the European Union and the United Nations – announced this week that
they plan a new effort to push negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority. The PA walked away from talks with Israel in late
2010, demanding that Israel freeze all Jewish construction east of the
1949 armistice line.
PA leaders, affiliated with Fatah, have not shown interest in returning
to talks with Israel. Instead, PA leaders recently renewed their
efforts to reunite with Hamas.
Quartet mediators hope to meet with both Israeli and PA leaders in the
upcoming weeks to discuss “core issues”, which include the status of
Jerusalem, the borders of a proposed PA state in Judea and Samaria, and
the Arab demand that millions of descendants of Arabs who fled pre-state
Israel be allowed to “return”.
Despite Israel's willingness to negotiate with no preconditions, UN
coordinator Robert Serry appeared to blame Israel for the impasse in
talks in a UN Security Council session Thursday. Israeli security
measures disrupt “territorial continuity and inhibit freedom of
movement,” he claimed, while praising the PA for reforms.
Israel has removed dozens of checkpoints in recent months in an attempt to ease life for PA Arabs, but continuing terrorism has necessitated the continuing presence of some checkpoints.
Serry expressed hope that Israel and the PA could reach an agreement by
September 2011. When asked what the Quartet could do to push talks, he
said, “I believe we can help the parties by bringing some suggestions to
them which could be a basis for those negotiations.” He declined to
give specific ideas.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton
also expressed hope recently of reaching a peace deal by September,
despite Mideast turmoil, the Hamas leadership in Gaza, and the PA's
failure to hold planned 2010 elections. Ashton admitted that solving the
conflict in seven months would be “challenging”, but said, “It's a time
frame that everybody has signed up to.”
5. Expert: Arab Revolutions May Yet Yield Positive Results
by David Lev
One of the things that Israelis fear most about the recent uprisings in
the Arab world is the possibility that Islamist radicals or other
violent militant groups could step into the vacuum created when the old
regimes fall. With the current revolutions, though, veteran military
correspondent Yisrael Katzover sees a glint of hope that things could
end on a positive note.
“When there is a vacuum in the Arab world, as there is now in Egypt and
Libya, there is always the danger that the best organized group will
step in and take control, and the Islamists by definition are the best
organized groups in these countries,” Katzover tells Arutz 7. “But the
people in these countries, who have worked hard to get rid of their old
dictators, are likely to want to make sure that their hard work does not
fall into the lap of another set of dictators.”
Although Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is still managing to hold onto
power, it's just a matter of time before he departs the stage – but he
is likely to take a lot of people with him. “Qaddafi is a classic
dictator who is fighting a classic dictator's war for survival,”
Katzover says, “including attacking his own citizens with his own
military and hired mercenaries. The rebels have him backed into a
corner, and he is clearly the type who would wish to go out as a martyr.
Leaders like this usually end with a bullet in their head, or by their
men putting a bullet in the heads of the people who oppose him.”
While one would think that whatever comes next in Libya would have to
be better than Qaddafi's regime, Katzover says that things don't always
work out that way. “Whatever the current situation, there are always
worse possibilities, especially for Israel. You don't always get a
democratic alternative – sometimes a worse dictator could emerge.”
Often, those dictators come from well-organized opposition groups – in
the case of the Arab world, usually the Islamists. “They have the clubs,
the hospitals, and the youth movements, and they usually have been
working for years with the population,” Katzover says. “Even if
elections take place as they are supposed to, the better organized
groups have an edge.”
But just because the Islamist groups are better organized, in both
Egypt and Libya, that doesn't mean that those groups will necessarily
take control. “In Egypt, for example, it turns out that the population
was not necessarily waiting for the Muslim Brotherhood to walk in and
take control. The young generation that began the revolutions in the
Arab world are connected to the internet, Facebook, and other social
media, and seem to be aware of their goals,” Katzover said. As the old
leadership is swept away, it's possible that something positive may yet
come of these revolutions.”
6. Saudi King Responds to Unrest with $37 Billion Aid
by Maayana Miskin
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah returned to his country Wednesday after
spending three months in the United States for medical treatment. The
king returned to a changed Middle East in which Arab leaders have been ousted from rule or are facing mass demonstrations for their resignation.
He has since announced a $37 billion aid package for Saudi citizens in
the lower and middle classes, and has released three Shiite Muslim
political prisoners.
The announcement was made as support grew for a Facebook group calling
for “Day of Rage” protests in Saudi Arabia in March similar to those in
Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and elsewhere. Protesters plan to call for an
elected government, more rights for women, and the release of political
prisoners.
Political analysts believe King Abdullah may also be concerned by the
prospect of unrest among Shiite Muslims similar to that in Bahrain,
where the Shiite majority has taken to the streets in opposition of the Sunni Muslim leadership.
Shiite Muslims in Saudi Arabia have no representation in government,
and are often the victims of incitement from Sunni Muslim religious
leaders, who view them as believing in a false faith and as possible
Iranian agents. Unlike in Bahrain, they are a religious minority;
however, many of Saudi Arabia's oil fields are located in
majority-Shiite regions.
Abdullah plans to meet with the king of Bahrain as well.
7. Downturn in Jewish-Arab Relations in Israeli Cities
by Gil Ronen
Reports from Israel's largest cities, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv Yafo
(Jaffa), indicate that relations between Jews and Arabs in the mixed
cities are at a boiling point. In Jerusalem, Jews have been arrested on
suspicion of murdering an Arab man, while in Yafo, Jewish nationalists
are planning a march next week.
On Wednesday, a gag order was lifted on a report that four Jewish
youths were arrested on suspicion of murdering an Arab in central
Jerusalem two weeks ago. Following this news, Arutz Sheva's
Hebrew-language service interviewed Bentzi Gupstein, one of the leaders
of anti-assimilation group Lehava.
"The situation in Jerusalem is on the verge of an explosion," Gupstein
said. "Jewish girls are afraid to walk down the streets, they encounter
harassment. We must put an end to this. There are Jews who decided to
stop the phenomenon but it is the police's duty to do this. If the
police do not act in this matter and if the phenomenon continues more
Jews will get up and act. I do not want this to happen, stopping the
harassment is the job of the authorities, and [if they do it] the Jews
will not have to protect their sisters."
"We, at the Lehava hotline, continue to receive dozens of calls from
all over the country. Girls call us and say that they cannot walk in the
streets. These are girls from all sectors. The harassment must stop."
Meanwhile, nationalists headed by MK Michael Ben Ari have asked to hold
a march down the streets of Yafo next Wednesday. Activists Itamar
Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel met with officers from the Tel Aviv District
and said that the march is a response to the march that radical leftists
and Muslim Arabs held in Yafo last month, in which they chanted slogans
against the state of Israel.
The police asked the Jewish nationalists to keep their march a
low-profile event, but the activists would have none of that. "It is
time to put in their place the Islamic elements seeking to carry put a
revolution in central Israel, against the background of the events in
Arab countries," they said.
Ben Gvir told Arutz Sheva: "If marching down a street in Yafo with the
Israeli flag is a provocation, then we are carrying out a provocation.
Elements in Yafo are trying to carry out a rebellion like the one in
a-Tahrir Square in Egypt, and our job is not to stick our heads in the
sand, and to take preventive measures. I find it hard to believe that
the police will not approve the march."
The harassment of Jewish women by Arabs has become a hot topic in the
past year. The subject of sexual harassment has been the exclusive
domain of leftist gender-feminists for decades, and was used almost
exclusively with regard to Jewish men. Only recently have nationalists
realized that the term can also be used to apply to Arab abuse of Jewish
women. The first known conference on the subject was initiated by the Zionist Women's Forum in 2009.
8. CAMERA: Can We Trust NY Times for the Full Picture?
by Hillel Fendel
So far in February, The New York Times has run two op-eds sympathetic
to the Muslim Brotherhood and a news story favorable to the group’s
leader, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. CAMERA says readers must demand more of the
"full picture."
Excerpts of the Times reports on Al-Qaradawi: “…democracy and pluralism
[have] long [been] hallmarks of his writing and preaching… He [urges] a
civil government founded on principles of pluralism, democracy and
freedom… Scholars who have studied his work say Sheik Qaradawi has long
argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralistic, multiparty,
civil democracy.”
In the same article, however, we read, “But he has made exceptions for
violence against Israel or the American forces in Iraq.”
“In fact,” writes CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East
Reporting in America), “Qaradawi is a virulent anti-Semite who has
called on Allah to wipe out the Jewish people.” He has also defended the
Iranian fatwa calling for the death of writer Salman Rushdie, and
promoted a “day of rage” against cartoons of Muhammed printed in Sweden
and Denmark.
Al-Qaradawi has also issued religious decrees encouraging suicide
attacks against Israeli and American civilians, has defended female
genital mutilation, and has affirmed Muslim teachings calling for death
to homosexuals and for those who leave Islam and encourage others to do
the same. He has been wanted by Israel for years, and is banned from
entering the United States and Great Britain. Al-Qaradawi also heads the
Union of Good, an umbrella organization of more than 50 Islamic funds
and foundations around the globe that channels money into Hamas
institutions in Gaza.
In January 2009, Qaradawi stated that Hitler was a “divine tool” sent
to punish the Jewish people for their sins. He also called on Allah to
“take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. O Allah, do not
spare a single one of them. O Allah, count their numbers, and kill them,
down to the very last one."
Two Op-Eds
Earlier this month, the Times ran two op-eds by Muslim Brotherhood
apologists Tariq Ramadan and Essam El-Errian. On Feb. 8, Ramadan wrote
in The Times that the Muslim Brotherhood “began in the 1930s as a
legalist, anti-colonialist and nonviolent movement that claimed
legitimacy for armed resistance in Palestine against Zionist
expansionism during the period before World War II.” The same-sentence
contradiction regarding violence remains unresolved.
Just two days later, El-Errian argued on the same op-ed page that the
Muslim Brotherhood “has consistently promoted an agenda of gradual
reform. Our principles, clearly stated since the inception of the
movement in 1928, affirm an unequivocal position against violence.” In
fact, however, from 1936 until 1949, when the Egyptian government
cracked down on it, the Brotherhood’s paramilitary wing carried out
numerous assassination attempts against Egyptian and British officials,
and acts of violence against Jews, both in Palestine and in Egypt.
Newsweek journalists Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff have
investigated and reported on connections between Al-Qaeda and leading
Brotherhood figures, calling the Muslim Brotherhood a "movement that
preaches peaceful co-existence but also supports suicide bombings in
Israel and offers inspiration for many violent jihadi groups."
CAMERA urges its supporters to write a letter to Times executive editor
Bill Keller, urging the paper “to provide its readers with a more
accurate view of the Muslim Brotherhood and its spiritual leader, Yusef
Qaradawi, who is fundamentally opposed to women's rights, free speech
and religious freedom.”
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