ISRAEL ADVOCACY COMMITTEE (IAC) Emails

The Israel Advocacy Committee of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El (TBH-BE) will be sending students, whose parents are members of TBH-BE, brief material about issues relevant to Israel being discussed on college campuses. Your name and email address are not shown on any email messages to the list of students and therefore are not available to others on the list. If you do not wish to receive these brief reports, then please send an email to (adv4isr@verizon.net) requesting that we remove your name from our list.
Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Bryn Mawr College Dr. Matthew Yarczower

Important issues confront us and we would like to distribute your views about them to the synagogue's Israel Advocacy Committee.

1. Hamas, an undisputed terrorist organization openly dedicated to the destruction of Israel, has won enough votes to lead the Palestinian government.

2. Iran's leader has repeatedly said that Israel should be wiped off the map. Iran sends arms and support to Hizballah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad and Hamas in the Palestinian areas, and is developing a nuclear weapon and with Russian help has missiles that can easily reach Israel.

1. Do you support Israel's unilateral efforts (e.g., the Gaza withdrawal to give up territory in the pursuit of security or should they agree to try to negotiate with Hamas?

2. Do you favor military action, if diplomacy fails, by the U.S., Israel, and any other willing countries to impede Iran's development of nuclear weapons or do you believe that Iran has the right to develop such weapons?

Please email me your responses and let me know whether I may distribute your comments with your name attached or whether I should distribute the comments anonymously.

Almost everyone agrees that there should be a viable Palestinian state living in peace with Israel. The focus of most of the discussion has been on violence. We might ask, however, why has there been no economic, social, or educational development. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has received billions of dollars in foreign aid. Palatial mansions were built for PA ministers, and Arafat's wife Suha was wired $22 million annually. Arafat's net worth was $3 billion in 2003., Palestine Broadcasting Services director Hisham Makki, at the time of his assassination, had $17 million in his bank account but a monthly salary of only $1,500. Palestinian refugees, meanwhile, live in squalor. Corruption in the PA is so widespread that Hamas, a vicious terror group is gaining support because the Palestinian people do not consider Hamas corrupt. The PA's corruption and their lack of preparing the people for peace with Israel have been disastrous for the Palestinians. Israel removed all Jews from Gaza, where the Jews had developed a successful and profitable agricultural business, selling some of the world's finest tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. There were productive, flourishing greenhouses that had been bought by Jewish philanthropists for $14 million for the Palestinians so that they could begin to work towards a promising future. After the Jews left, Palestinians destroyed many of the greenhouses solely because of their hatred for Jews, The Palestinians now complain that they have failed to develop a viable agricultural enterprise.. In addition, they complain that their wages from their compatriots are significantly lower now than what they received from the Israelis. Had they been prepared by the PA to become partners in the agricultural enterprise, the Gazans would have been on the road to a productive and promising future. Instead, hatred for Jews is taught in mosques, schools and in the PA media, while millions of dollars go not to the building of a viable Palestinian state but to the same corrupt group that was affiliated with Arafat.

Strongly divergent views about the withdrawal from Gaza exist. Regardless of which of the positions one holds, when the withdrawal took place, it was an occasion for one to be proud of being Jewish. Pundits in the press, including those in Israel, told us to be ready for a violent confrontation between those “extreme fundamentalist settlers” and the soldiers sent to evacuate them. What took place instead was resistance to being evacuated with tears shed by both settlers and soldiers. No violence, no deaths, but compassion and understanding that in the end they, the settlers, had to leave, and they, the soldiers, had to remove them. A grandson of a congregant wrote that he witnessed a young soldier sitting with a family to be evacuated, whose son had been killed defending Israel. He listened in tears to the mother talk about her son. He asked the mother if he could say something. He said,” I and my friends serve in the most distinguished units, just like your son, whom I have heard so much about. We fight the terrorists just like he did. I'm here just to help overcome any possible fracture among our people... please let me help bring your bags out." She walked with him as he helped her.

What happened when Gaza was evacuated? Palestinians displayed their hatred by burning 20 synagogues that the Palestinian Authority had said would be treated as honored places of worship. Further, they destroyed farms that once produced some of the world's finest tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. These were productive, flourishing greenhouses that had been bought by Jewish philanthropists for $14 million for the Palestinians so that they could begin to work towards a promising future. Unfortunately, hatred overcame any desire to work towards a better life, a characteristic too often seen in their history.

I attended an entire day’s conference devoted to the allegations of intimidation of students by extremely biased faculty teaching courses on the Middle East. Although much of the discussion centered on Columbia U., speaker after speaker noted a similar trend throughout the country. Speakers included Natan Sharansky, Alan Dershowitz, Phyllis Chesler, Martin Kramer, and Rachel Fish, who as a Harvard U. divinity student single-handedly forced Harvard to return $2.5m given, with strings attached, by a virulent

antisemitic ruler of the United Arab Emirates. She demonstrated what one student can do when truth and solid information are on your side. At the U. Cal at Irvine, a supposed conference to discuss Zionism was entitled “56 years of Terrorism”, with signs depicting that the Mogen David equals the Swastika. Jewish groups were not invited to attend. One speaker at our day-long conference outlined a Saudi Arabian program, begun in the 70’s, to spread Wahhabism (radical Islam) into U.S. universities. Several black Africans from Darfur (Sudan) and Mauritania spoke to the attendees how they and members of their family had been kept as slaves by Arabs who wished to change them from African Muslims to Arab Muslims. Other speakers noted how “ Palestinianism” has kept the world from giving any serious attention to the dire situations in the Sudan, in Mauritania and other African countries, some of which consider themselves to be part of the Middle East. Yet, they are never discussed by Professors of Middle Eastern studies in their classes on the Middle East, who instead emphasize the plight, over and over again, of the Palestinian refugees, many of whom were made refugees by Arab countries who also refuse to grant them citizenship. Worth noting was an impassioned talk by a Lebanese media consultant who reviewed her indoctrination as a child to hate Jews and over TV, radio and the newspapers constantly heard “ Kill the Jews.” She learned differently when in Israel she saw how compassionately Jewish physicians treated her mother and even wounded terrorists. She said that she didn’t think that Jewish students are prepared to counter the constant barrage of Palestinian lies about Israel and its history. She said that we should be prepared to “ do battle in the cockpit of academia.” America’s future Congressional support of Israel depends upon a knowledgeable population of current and future Jewish college students.

Professor Matt Yarczower, Chairperson of the Israel Advocacy Committee

Israel took action immediately upon hearing about the tsunami disaster. A 14-member delegation of IsraAID members began work on an Israeli – Jewish Emergency Medical, Feeding and Children’s Station in a southern city of Sri Lanka. There were representatives from the Kibbutz movements, Magen David Adom, as well as other Israeli aid organizations. The team operated a field clinic and sent mobile medical units to assist people from coastal villages that were wiped out by the tsunami. The team gave guidance on sanitation for children because of the concern of outbreaks of epidemics. The team set up an emergency feeding center and water distribution point to help serve thousands of vulnerable survivors. An El Al plane landed in Indonesia for the first time ever with humanitarian aid to tsunami victims after delivering 15 tons of emergency supplies to Sri Lanka. The plane's captain said the flight was made possible by Israel's Foreign Ministry. The Israeli team won much praise and admiration from foreign delegations seeking to identify the bodies of their nationals. A ZAKA rescue-and-recovery team arrived in the disaster areas armed with its specialized equipment for identifying bodies. Zaka is used to the job; it is first on the scene of homicide bombers, scraping pieces of flesh off the surroundings to give the victims a proper religious burial. A six-man Israeli team, including an infectious disease specialist, was on one of the first planes into the Sri Lanka capital's airport to aid tsunami victims against the feared cholera outbreak from contaminated water. The Israeli organization Latet ('To Give') filled a jumbo jet with 18 tons of supplies. A medical team headed by four doctors from Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital arrived in Sri Lanka carrying medicine and baby food. The doctors specialize in rescue operations, trauma and pediatrics. An IDF [Israel Defense Force] rescue team went to Sri Lanka with 80 tons of aid material, including 10,000 blankets, tents, nylon sheeting and water containers, all contributed by the IDF. Contrast these efforts with the following:

The "Egyptian Nationalist Weekly" blamed the tsunami on joint American-Israeli nuclear tests. Other radical Islamic media argued that "Allah" was responsible for this revenge on the "infidels."

An advisor to Saudi Arabia's Justice Minister stated on the Saudi Arabian/UAE Al-Majd TV channel that the sins of the affected countries caused the tsunami.

This from a Sheik Ibrahim Madiras Friday sermon on Palestinian Authority TV: "Oh Muslims! We keep warning you: the Jews are a cancer that spreads inside the body of the Islamic and Arab nation.... They invest in the East Asian countries, which were destroyed [by the Tsunami] because of the Jewish and American corruption and destruction." Muslims were the overwhelming victims of the disaster but Muslim countries contributed very little for their assistance.The Saudis spent $87 billion in 10 years on Wahabbi institutions that preach hate and are terrorist breeding grounds. The Saudis pledged $30 million or about what they spend on radical Wahabbi institutions every 30 hours.

We have every reason to be proud of Israel’s humanitarian efforts in spite of having to assist their own citizens, victims of human-made disasters.

I, Ishmael Khaldi, am an Israeli who served with the IDF, the Israel police, and with the Israeli Defense Ministry. I have lost two Bedouin friends on army duty (God bless their memory) defending the State of Israel. I came to the U.S. and Canada to speak on college campuses as a proud Israeli who is not Jewish. I had not come to preach that Israel was perfect but many students tried to stop me from speaking. There were even students who had the audacity to compare me to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister. I can't believe that the hatred for Israel is so strong that student governments try to keep the truth about Israel a secret. A Muslim student at Rutgers University asked, "How could you support a Hebrew state if you're not Jewish?" I was asked, "How many Palestinian old men and women have you humiliated while serving in the Israeli police?" If only the truth were known, that Israeli soldiers have on many occasions helped Palestinians. The situation I encountered on many of the campuses in North America and Canada was horrifying. I was not as shocked by the Arab questioners as I was by the severe apathy of the majority of Jewish students. In my years of speaking to people, I've never received threats and personal attacks like I did speaking on campuses. A crowd in Florida was full of anger and hatred. In California, I spoke facing a young student who wore a T-shirt with a swastika on it. Even more upsetting, I expected to see many more Jewish students aware of the situation in Israel, but that wasn't the case. On the other hand, the Arab students and their supporters knew almost all the last minute news clips from the Middle East. I expected the Jewish students to realize that the situation not only affected Israel and Israelis, but also Jews all over the world. How can Israel's voice be heard if the Jewish students don't have the facts or the knowledge to speak up? I don't take the mass of Jewish students to task for not agreeing with all of Israel's policies, but I do take them to task for not caring about Israel or what happens there. It is the apathy that allows the anti-Israel propaganda to strengthen itself more and more over time. And yet, 60 years after the horrors of the Holocaust, I felt that on campus, the Jewish voice is silent. Where are the Jewish students? Just as history demands for me to fight for Israel, history also will not tolerate a generation of Jews who don't care.

There continues to be great concern about the intimidation of students, not only in Middle Eastern courses but in others as well. I will cite only two examples from well known universities but you can check the following web sites: studentsforacademicfreedom.org and campus-watch.org for relevant material. An underground documentary is causing concern to ripple through the campus of Columbia University. The film, about anti-Israel sentiment at the school, has not yet been released to the public, but it has been screened for a number of top officials of Columbia, and talk of its impact is spreading rapidly on a campus where some students have complained of anti-Israel bias among faculty members.

Joseph Massad, an assistant professor of Arab politics and one of the harshest critics of Israel on campus is said to have likened Zionism to Nazism in a public speech. The professor, in a published article, also has denied Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. He is the professor, as described in the underground film , who upon completing a lecture refused to answer a question from an Israeli student but ordered the student to say how many Palestinians he killed as a soldier. Duke University Professor Miriam Cooke is a Professor of Asian and African Languages and Literature and President of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies. Jihad, she maintained, is not for an "Islamist state," but rather for "an Islamic community." Israeli civilians appear to be fair game for this " jihad." When Wafa Idris, a 27-year old Palestinian woman, perpetrated a suicide bombing, killing an 80 year-old man in January, 2000, Cooke appears to have justified this atrocity by stating "...the situation has become so desperate that now women's participation in war is a mark of absolute hopelessness. " She overlooks the sexist practice of some in Palestinian society to coerce some women into becoming suicide bombers as penance for the shame of having sex out of wedlock, being raped or unable to marry. Israel's very existence is threatened and vehement anti-Israel movements on campus must be met by informed Jewish students. These movements are part of a countrywide effort to delegitimize Israel. You are the future defenders of the State of Israel in the United States. It is important to become informed.

This is the last email for this academic year. I wish you a productive and healthy summer. If you are changing your email address and wish to continue to receive these emails, which will begin again in Oct of ’04, then please send me your new email address. Note my new email address (adv4isr@verizon.net).

U. Arizona Members of the Hillel Foundation and the Israel Alliance will create a human Israeli flag on the UA Mall to promote Israel and peace in the Middle East.

Columbia U. A committee appointed by President Lee Bollinger has been quietly probing allegations of bias and intimidation by faculty, particularly in Middle East studies. Jewish students have complained that some Middle East classes are unbalanced and that faculty members have used their authority to promote anti-Israel activism.

Emory Over 1,000 students and some academic staff have signed an on-line petition accusing the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of being anti-Semitic and fostering hostility towards Israel.

NYU. The director of the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies has come under fire for signing an online open letter that critics say identifies him as supporting an academic boycott of Israel.

Widespread condemnation, including that from Great Britain, and the U.N., has been leveled at Israel’s targeted killing of a man who has been called the “spiritual” leader of Hamas, a group almost universally recognized as a vicious terrorist organization. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the man killed in the recent Israeli attack, supported and encouraged the mass murder of Jewish infants, children, women, and the elderly and had vowed to continue terroristic attacks against Jews, even if the “occupation” ended and settlements were removed. He supported the killings and blessed those who carried them out. Yassin, like other Islamists, would never accept a Jewish State in what they consider land that should be under Islamic rule. Should we feel sympathy because he was disabled and confined to a wheelchair? Yassin rejected any efforts at peace, including the American “road map.” Further, he appealed to the Iraqi people to continue a jihad against the Americans and the British. Some have argued that since he did not personally kill Israelis, he was not personally guilty of terrorism. Have we heard any widespread condemnation of the attempts, still ongoing, to kill Osama Bin Laden, who also did not personally fly one of the planes into the World Trade Center or into the Pentagon? Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who replaced Yassin, immediately issued a directive that Hamas use all means to attack all places in Israel. Some have said that now Hamas will attempt to kill more Israelis! Have these observers been asleep? Hamas’ goal is to kill as many Jews as they can. Remember my email about elections at Bir Zeit University? Hamas ran on the platform against Fatah that Hamas had killed more Jews than Fatah.

One may disagree with the killing of Yassin because of what the consequences might be but one cannot legitimately argue that Yassin was not a combatant and that therefore Israel had no right to target him. It seems that time and time again, the only country denied the right of self-defense against murderous attacks on its people is Israel.

Freedom of Speech as Practiced by The Muslim Students Association Dr. Daniel Pipes is Director of the Middle East Forum, was appointed a member of the U.S. Institute of Peace by President Bush, and is a columnist for the New York Sun and the Jerusalem Post. He is pro-America, pro-Israel, and has lectured widely and on TV about the threat of militant Islam. He was invited by the Israel Action Committee and Hillel to speak at the University of California at Berkeley. The Muslim Students Association had planned beforehand to disrupt his speech.

When Pipes stepped up to the podium but before he said a word the jeering, hissing, booing, and finally, the chanting of ''racist'' and ''Zionist,'' starting drowning out the lecture. Pipes kept his cool and managed to deliver his lecture, which covered the War on Terrorism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Iraq, but he was forced to stop many times. Pipes spoke directly to the protesters on several occasions, pointing out their undemocratic behavior. He brought up the fact that members of the MSA are currently under investigation for possible ties to terrorism.

When Pipes brought up the need to support moderate Muslims over those who subscribe to militant Islam, they booed. When he brought up the need to improve the status of women in Islamic countries, they booed. When he warned that peace in the Middle East would never be achieved as long as the Palestinians continued to subscribe to a ''cult of death,'' they booed. When he mentioned Middle East Studies' professors who have been arrested under terrorism charges, they booed. When he discussed the need to combat Islamic terrorism, they booed. When he referred to the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks as militant Islamists, they booed and shouted ''Zionism''--no doubt a reference to the myth that Jews were behind the attacks.

When he mentioned Iraqis' liberation from Saddam Hussein's tyranny, they booed even louder. When it came time for the question and answer period, the group of MSA students all got up together and left, chanting ''racist'' and ''Zionist'' over and over again. Some were left in the audience and they had to be escorted outside by the police because of their unruly behavior. One of them called Pipes ''a racist Jew.'' For those Jews who hadn't encountered Muslim hostility up close, it was an eye-opening experience. The fact is that radical Muslim students and their supporters are the most domineering, destructive, and dangerous forces in higher education today. This account was taken from one by Cinnamon Stillwell.

She is a contributing editor to ChronWatch and lives in San Francisco, and can be reached at: cinnamons@sbcglobal.net.

On January 14, 2004, when the female homicide bomber passed through the metal detectors and set them off, she told the security guard that she had metal pins in her leg. She even lifted her dress slightly to show the guard a bandage. The bomber then began to cry, lying on the floor and begging to be let through. Other women also asked the guards to let her through. The bomber was allowed to move into the terminal and a female guard was called to conduct a physical examination. Security procedures dictate, that when necessary, women be examined in a side room by a female guard. When the female guard turned away to find gloves for the examination, the bomber advanced some 12 feet into the terminal. When she was in the midst of a group of guards, she detonated the
explosive belt she was wearing around her waist.

This terror attack demonstrates why Israel must check all Palestinians entering Israel, even women and even those who appear to be in need of medical care. As a result, Palestinian women, and patients who appear to be in obvious
pain, will now be subjected to even stricter scrutiny at checkpoints to ensure that they also are not human bombs.
On March 10, 2003, Palestinian ambulance driver, Aslam Jibril, pleaded guilty to transporting explosives hidden in his ambulance. The explosives, weighing about 22 lbs and attached to a belt [worn by homicide bombers], were hidden
underneath a stretcher, which was carrying a young boy (his nephew) pretending to be sick. In the Gaza Strip, soldiers arrested a wanted militant who was traveling in a Palestinian ambulance. The troops became suspicious after noticing that there were no medical personnel or injured persons in the vehicle. They proceeded to search the ambulance and found the Palestinian. In another incident, a Palestinian ambulance was seen unloading crates of ammunition and firebombs.

You should be aware of these examples that take advantage of Israeli compassion in order to carryout murderous acts when you hear, for example, that Israeli guards are searching women who seem to be pregnant or appear to be in need of hospital care. Or, that ambulances are stopped at checkpoints and searched.

Here is how Palestinian students campaign for office in the West Bank:

The campaign for the student government council at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah in the West Bank featured exploding models of Israeli buses and claims of prowess based on Israeli casualties. The focus was on which party had killed the most Israelis. The terrorist group Hamas swept to victory defeating Yasser Arafat's Fatah. At a debate, the Hamas candidate asked the Fatah candidate: "Hamas activists in this university killed 135 Zionists. How many did Fatah activists from Bir Zeit kill?" Fatah set up models of Jewish settlements and then blew them up with fireworks. Hamas countered by blowing up models of Israeli buses, a "tribute" to the dozens of suicide bombings its members have carried out in the past three years, killing hundreds of Israelis. Activists held samples of the group's homemade Qassam rockets, which often are fired at Gaza Strip settlements and Israeli towns that border the coastal area. These are examples of what happens when Palestinian children from kindergarten on are indoctrinated in the hatred of Jews and are encouraged and rewarded for striving to become suicide bombers. Their textbooks and school plays focus on the killing of Jews as their "teachers" and parents look on with pride. The Palestinian Authority states that it cannot crack down on terrorists because the police are not strong enough. How much of a police force does it take to change the textbooks and education of kindergarten children and others to prepare them to live in peace with Jews?

The following is an email I received from a father of a young Israeli child. He attended the lecture to kindergarten teachers and parents.

“The Atropine shot is to be jammed into the leg, emptied, and then the syringe should be hooked onto the clothing of the victim of the nerve agent so that emergency personnel will know what medicine has been given and how much. This is in the event that a nerve agent strikes before the child can get into a sealed room or into a gas mask and body suit. And don't forget, when drinking water from an open container, don't drink the last few sips at the bottom -- biochemical agents sink. In kindergarten, the teachers often have a special sound for the children to get them to be quiet. My son's kindergarten teacher will soon be introducing a new signal to tell the tots to get into the bomb shelter. It is a new bomb shelter, the kindergarten teacher told me proudly, equipped with its own air purification system. Needless to say, it was not a topic that immediately comes to mind when one says "kindergarten." I was in attendance as the designated emergency parent. In the event that a warning siren is sounded in our city, I am to run to the kindergarten and assist the teachers in making sure all the little ones get into the spiffy new bomb shelter. At least, I thought, I will be with my son. It is perversion that nursery school and kindergarten teachers need to think about injecting Atropine, what toys to stock in a bomb shelter and how to fit a gas mask and body suit on a child with asthma. Yet, it is a wise precaution. Evil men have threatened to incinerate us, nursery schools and all. These men have names like Osama, Saddam, Yasser, Mohammed.” nissan@nrk-online.com. I just finished listening to a tape taken in a Palestinian elementary classroom where young children, accompanied by their proud parents, were being taught songs glorifying suicide bombers and shouting that when they grow up they too would kill Jews and become martyrs. The intensity and sincerity with which they screamed their songs was chilling. When you hear,”cycle of violence”, think of these two examples.

October 2003 - Once again, on behalf of the Israel Advocacy Committee of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, I will be sending you brief emails about issues concerning Israel being discussed on college campuses. Your email address is not shown to the other students and therefore is not available to them. If you do not wish to receive these, then please send an email to adv4isr@aol.com requesting that your name be removed. Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Bryn Mawr College, Dr. Matthew Yarczower

This email consists only of sample items taken from college newspapers. Subsequent emails will answer these and other misstatements.

U. Michigan - A comparison of the destruction of terrorists' homes by the Israeli Defense Force and the Nazis' industrial-style genocide;

Rutgers-New Brunswick -the painting of swastikas at Hillel, and on the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house, a predominantly Jewish fraternity;

Rutgers University-a pie thrown in Natan Sharansky's face when he attempted to address the students;

George Washington U.-Author Norman Finkelstein compared Hitler's policy toward the Jews and Israel's "opinion" of the Palestinians and asserted that Israel attacks Palestinians to evoke a violent reaction inorder to create a totally Jewish state in Israel and" Palestine";

Penn State U.-faculty member writes that the possible tripling of aid to Israel during economic recession at home makes it important that we closely examine how aid is being used and if it is justifiable;

Lehigh University-a letter titled, "Israel responsible for Middle East violence" states that Israel alone bears the responsibility for all of the bloodshed.

Columbia U.- The most basic fact is that Israel was founded on stolen land. In years following World War II, young Zionists like Ariel Sharon conducted a campaign of terrorism to compel families... to leave historic Palestine, ...from the land that is now Israel."

To see the emails sent from Oct '02 to April '03 go to tbhbe.org ( Israel Advocacy Committee,then College Emails). Sites worth exploring are: campus-watch.org ( Daniel Pipes analysis of issues on campus), www.memri.org (translations from the Arab press), www.honestreporting.com (analysis of current issues concerning Israel)

If you go to www.palestineremembered.com, then you will see that every town and city in Israel is considered an "illegal settlement". These include the cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa!! Obviously, any areas in which Israelis have lived since the Six-Day War(1967) also are considered illegal settlements by the Palestinians. Most of the discussion in the newspapers only focus on settlements in the West Bank and Gaza but it is important to understand the real position of the Palestinian Authority. There are differences of opinion among Israelis about what to do concerning certain settlements, primarily those settled after the Six-Day War ( 1967).

Israeli Defense Forces are required to defend the settlements in Palestinian dominated territories (e.g., Hebron, or Gaza) but there are Israelis who do not want lives put at risk for their defense. Some Israelis want the settlements to remain because of either their biblical-historical significance or because they believe that Jews should be able to live anywhere. It was in Nazi Germany that Jews were prohibited from living in "Jewish-Free" areas. Many more Israelis would consider negotiations leading to the removal of some settlements if they believed that it would lead to a true peace. In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to dismantle dozens of settlements, but the Palestinians would not agree to end the conflict. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently stated that Israel may have to remove certain settlements, and he specifically named some of them. It created quite a stir within his own party but it demonstrated that, unlike what is said about him, he is willing to undertake what he termed, "painful" concessions in order to reach a true peace with a credible partner for peace. Currently, the entire world is waiting to see if Arafat will allow the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen to have real power over security and negotiations with Israel, powers that not only are demanded by the USA but also expected by much of the world community. As of today, Arafat has tried to appoint his own men to those positions, thus limiting Abu Mazen's real power. Let us hope that as we celebrate our freedom from slavery during this Passover, we soon will see some hope for freedom from persecution and terrorism.

Settlements: This is one of the most complicated issues about which there are many components. There is an important historical lesson concerning the status of settlements in any peace negotiations. When Egypt attacked Israel, initiating the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Israel was in control of the Sinai desert, which Egypt had lost in the Six-Day War (1967). The Yom Kippur War ended with Israel still in control of the Sinai. An Israeli settlement had been established in the Sinai. Most of the international press, including the press in the U.S., had painted Begin, the prime minister of Israel during this period, as someone who would never give up territory once it was conquered or dismantle settlements because of his "religious" views that territory once gained should never be relinquished. Nevertheless, he forcibly removed settlers, using the Israeli army, from Yamit, the settlement in the Sinai, and gave up the entire Sinai as part of a peace agreement with Egypt. Today, approximately 200,000 Jews live in roughly 150 communities in the West Bank. The overwhelming majority of these settlements have fewer than 1,000 citizens. U.S. State Department figures, published in May 2000 depicted the following: In Gaza, there are 15 settlements with 3,000 Jews and 589,000 Arabs. In the Golan Heights, there are 30 settlements with 12,000 Jews and 14,700 Arabs. In the West Bank, there are 150 settlements with 90,000 Jews and 895,000 Arabs. In East Jerusalem, there are 12 settlements with 120,000 Jews and 140,000 Arabs. The total number of settlements is 207 with 225,000 Jews and 1,638,700 Arabs. When an attempt to establish a settlement is considered illegal by Israeli authorities, then the Israeli army removes it. There is a case pending in the Israeli Supreme Court in which some Israelis wanted to establish a new settlement but the Nasser family of Bethlehem took the case to the Supreme Court, which is deciding the issue (3/10/2003). The Israelis are not allowed to continue work until the Supreme Court rules. This is yet another example of Israeli justice in action. Do you think Jews can bring cases against Arabs in an Arab court? As was mentioned, the settlement issue is complex and we have barely dealt with it. The next email, in April, will deal with what Israelis themselves believe (there are widely different views) and what the U.S. position is.

We will deal with the oft-cited formula" Give Peace a Chance." Give Peace a Chance: When the United Nations, in 1948, proposed the establishment of two states, one Jewish, one Arab-the Jews accepted the proposal and declared their independence in 1948. The response? The Arab states rejected it and five Arab armies invaded Israel in an effort to eradicate it. Give Peace a Chance: After the Six-Day War, Israel offered to exchange land for peace. The response? Eight Arab states issued the Khartoum Resolutions-"no peace, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations." Give Peace a Chance: When Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Jordan's King Hussein recognized Israel's right to exist, the results were peace treaties that benefited the peoples of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. Give Peace a Chance: Prime Minister Rabin signed a peace treaty with Arafat in the hope that violence would end and negotiations would occur. Violence and terrorism continued. Give Peace a Chance: Prime Minister Ehud Barak, at Camp David, offered unprecedented concessions at summits with Arafat and President Clinton that most Israelis thought were dangerous. Barak agreed to the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state in 97% of the West Bank with east Jerusalem as its capital, and to dismantle isolated settlements. According to U.S. peace negotiator Dennis Ross, Arafat rejected "every single one of the ideas." The second intifada began with a marked increase in terror. Give Peace a Chance: In spite a cease fire, on January 3, 2002, the Israeli navy intercepted the Karine-A, a Gaza-bound freighter and found 50 tons of sophisticated Iranian weaponry, for which the Palestinian Authority had paid $15 million. There were 346 rockets, 700 mortar bombs, several hundred rocket-propelled grenades, more than 500 high-explosive mines, over two tons of C-4 plastic explosives, 735 fragmentation grenades, and almost 700,000 rounds for machine guns and assault rifles. The evidence against the Palestinian Authority led to the condemnation of Arafat by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of State Powell. Interviewed in prison, Omar Akkawi, the Karine-A's captain, admitted being an officer in the Palestinian navy and a salaried employee of the Palestinian Authority. Give Peace a Chance: Israel had tolerated the formation of a Palestinian police force (actually an army) of 40,000 men -- the largest police-to-population ratio in the world and has equipped this "police force" with a complete arsenal of automatic weapons in hope that they would fight terrorism. As the world now knows, these weapons were turned on Israeli soldiers and civilians. Give Peace a Chance: Even today, in the presence of homicide bombers in Israel, Prime Minister Sharon has stated openly, and he has for some time, that if the violence stops, then he is willing to negotiate with a legitimate (i.e., non-supporter of terror) Palestinian representative to bring about a Palestinian state that would live side by side, in peace, with Israel. It is time that the Palestinian leadership "Give Peace a Chance."

Make no mistake about it, behind most anti-Israel and anti-Zionist attacks is antisemitism. At the U.N. Conference on Racism and Xenophobia, Jewish delegates were spat upon, shoved and asked to leave public sessions. A cartoon in a leading newspaper in Greece shows two Jews in Nazi uniforms with Stars of David on their helmets stabbing two Arabs. Similar cartoons have appeared in Spain's daily, El Periodico and Italy's La Stampa. Vicious attacks have occurred in the Arab world, where there is governmental approval of the official newspapers. In Egypt, the television series, "Horseman Without a Horse," was shown during the Moslem holy month of Ramadan. The theme was that there is a conspiracy of Jews to control the world, based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious antisemitic book written in the late 1800's and exposed as a fabrication by the London Times in 1920. The producers replied to criticism stating that, "Zionism exists and it has controlled the world since the dawn of history." No criticism was heard from the President of Egypt, even though this series incites hatred in direct violation of the Camp David Accords, which Egypt signed. Syrian Defense Minister Tlas released the eighth edition of his book, "The Matzah of Zion", in which he accuses Jews of murdering a Catholic priest in Damascus in 1840 and then draining his blood to bake matzah for the festival of Passover. His introduction states, "My intention in publishing this book is to bring to light...secrets of the Jewish sect [and]... the hateful fanaticism and the implementation of the teachings of the Talmud." The Syrian official newspaper published an article claiming that the Nazis and Zionists cooperated to kill Jews and that Jews were exterminated during the Holocaust by the Nazis at the request of the Zionist leadership!! In England, the Saint Jerome Publishing Company terminated its contract with Bar llan University in Israel, refusing to sell them textbooks. The Saudi Interior Minister blamed September 11th on the Jews stating, "We ask who committed the events of September 11th and who benefited from them. I think the Zionists are behind these events." In Paris, Flammarion Publishing Co. published "Dream of Palestine", in which the hero is a teenage Palestinian suicide bomber who fights "blood thirsty Jews who profane mosques and rape Arab women." Indian Chief, David Ahenakew, who is a member of the prestigious Order of Canada, said that Jews were "a disease" and, "That's how Hitler came in. He was going to make damn sure that the Jews didn't take over Germany or Europe. That's why he fried six million of those guys. Jews would have owned the God damn world. " When Zionists or Israelis are condemned or when Palestinian textbooks teach young children to hate Israelis, they mean Jews and that includes each one of us.

It may seem that pro-Palestinian elements on campus have begun protesting only recent events occurring in the Middle East. Such is not the case. The Organization of Arab Students (OAS) was founded in 1952 and is the oldest Arab student group in the U.S. OAS resolutions have called for " applying military, economic and psychological pressure on the ...enemy in the occupied territories through a comprehensive popular war...to engage in a prolonged military struggle against the Zionist-Imperialist-reactionary triumvirate...."The General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) was founded in 1959 combining 3 Palestinian associations from Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. They decided to start chapters in the U.S., which they did in June 1980. They declared themselves committed to the "armed struggle" against Israel. The Muslim Students Association (MSA), founded in 1963, asserted that "The Zionist and racist entity of Israel must be eradicated to bring peace." The present attacks and methods have become more sophisticated as they have profitted from professional advice outside of academia. They try to equate Israel with South Africa( the topic of our 1st email), they say they want to end "the cycle of violence"( the topic of our 2nd email) yet their goals remain the same, namely, to weaken or eliminate the State of Israel. They have used outrageous tactics, and received moral support by some faculty members, to intimidate many Jewish students, who are not used to methods so foreign to an academic institution. A useful web site to read comments from college students about bias and intimidation in the classroom is NoIndoctrination.org. For a web site dealing with a broader view of faculty bias go to campus-watch.org. To read about what the Arab press is reporting, read translations in www.memri.org.

"Occupation" and "Cycle of Violence"

The two topics of this 2nd email deal with "the occupation" and " the cycle of violence." Occupation typically refers to foreign control of an area that was under a previous sovereignty of another state. Israel entered the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War. Prior to 1967, Jordan had occupied the West Bank, and Egypt had occupied the Gaza Strip. Their presence in those territories was the result of their illegal invasion in 1948.
Jordan's 1950 annexation of the West Bank was rejected by the vast majority of the international community, including the Arab states. Therefore, Jordan did not have sovereignty over the West Bank. During their 19-year rule, neither Jordan nor Egypt made any effort to establish a Palestinian state on those lands. In any case, under UN Security Council Resolution 242, Israel is expected to withdraw "from territories" to "secure and recognized boundaries" but not from "all the territories" captured in the Six-Day War. Thus, the UN Security Council recognized that Israel was entitled to part of these territories for new defensible borders. Taken together with UN Security Council Resolution 338, it is clear that only negotiations would determine which portion of these territories would eventually become "Israeli territories" or territories of Israel's Arab counterpart. Since the Oslo
Agreements, Israel has transferred responsibility for security and public order to the Palestinian Authority, while retaining powers for Israel's external security and the security of Israeli citizens. Over time, 98 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have come under Palestinian jurisdiction. Israel's security powers have been used extensively, in recent months, in response to the homicide bombings. Describing the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "occupied Palestinian territories" is incorrect and misleading. It would be far more accurate to describe the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "disputed territories". The best way to end that dispute is for the Palestinian Authority to stop the violence against Israeli citizens, which would then bring about negotiations. The use of the phrase "cycle of violence" makes it appear that homicide bombings by Palestinians and the Israeli Government's response to them are morally equivalent. While it is true that there are deaths that result from the actions of both sides, there is a huge difference between the deliberate targeting of men, women and children for indiscriminate murder and the attempt to target those responsible for the murders. Each time Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the Al Aksa Brigade murders civilians, they claim it was in retaliation for one or another Israeli action. Those claims are lies as their own statements show. They say that the murders will continue until Israel is removed from "their land", "their land" being Israel.

The current attempt to get universities to remove their investments in Israel is part of a concerted effort to isolate Israel from the world community. Arab boycotts of companies that do business with Israel, professors that prohibit Israeli scholars from their societies, Arab countries that still are in a state of war with Israel, regions that refuse to accept Israel as a member of their region, thereby denying her the right to sit on the Security Council, the attempt to equate Zionism with racism, and many other practices are not designed to bring about change in Israeli government policies. They are designed to eliminate the Jewish State. Divestment seekers try to place Israel in the position of a South Africa, against which the divestment effort was very successful. It is an evil and incorrect comparison. Apartheid was part of the legal system in South Africa. "Israel has the only independent judiciary in the entire Middle East. Its Supreme Court, one of the most highly regarded in the world, is the only court in the Middle East from which an Arab or a Muslim can expect justice, as many have found in winning dozens of victories against the Israeli government, the Israeli military and individual Israeli citizens. There is no more important component in the protection of human rights and civil liberties than an independent judiciary willing to stand up to its own government." (from Alan Dershowitz, internationally-known Harvard U. law professor). If students and faculty are sincere in their efforts to support human rights in foreign lands, then let them "choose nations for investment in the order of the human rights records. If that were done, investment in Israel would increase dramatically, while investments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Philippines, Indonesia, the Palestinian Authority and most other countries of the world would decrease markedly." (from Alan Dershowitz)

If you are interested in helping our Israel Advocacy Committee in its important work of supporting Israel, please contact Dr. Matthew Yarczower, IAC Chair, at adv4isr@verizon.net.

Month	Subject	Month	Subject
Jan 2006	Hamas & Iran	Feb 2004	Freedom of Speech
Dec 2005	Palestinian Authority	Jan 2004	Israeli Compassion and Palestinian Murderers
Nov 2005	What textbooks say about America and Israel	Dec 2003	Student Elections
Oct 2005	Gaza Withdrawal	Nov 2003	Kindergarten
Mar 2005	Intimidation	Oct 2003	Issues Concerning Israel
Jan 2005	Israel’s response to Tsunami Disaster	Apr 2003	Settlements (Part 2)
Nov 2004	Where are the Jewish students?	Mar 2003	Settlements (Part 1)
Oct 2004	Intimidation of Students	Feb 2003	"Give Peace a Chance"
Apr 2004	Pro-Israel Campus Activities	Jan 2003	Antisemitism
Mar 2004	Hypocrisy	Dec 2002	Pro-Palestinian Campus Groups
		Nov 2002	"Occupation" and "Cycle of Violence"
		Oct 2002	Anti-Israel Divestment Attempts