The Not So Peaceful "peace activists" and the Legality of Stopping Blockade Runners in International Waters

UPDATINGS 6-2 & 7-16-2010at bottom

The purpose of the peace process is peace of mind for antisemites.

Here's a pix of one of those peaceful peace activists in the Gaza pro-terrorism flotilla. Note the wide-bladed knife in his right hand. Yet, some people in the West think that the circa 800 passengers on the pro-terrorism convoy were all Nobel Prize winners [shame on that Corrigan woman!] and 80 year-old "Holocaust survivors." It is questionable just in what way that woman was a Holocaust survivor. She got out of Germany before the war.

This photo was on ynet
[here]. Our bloodthirsty knifewielder appears more clearly and larger with his knife on the ynet, nrg, and Point of No Return sites. This throwback to the Middle Ages is a prominent activist in the Yemeni flotilla delegation who were three MPs from the Al-Islah party, an Islamist party that is close to the Muslim Brotherhood. Our ferocious hound in the photo is one, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hazmi. He was photographed on the deck of the Mavi Marmara brandishing his large curved dagger, having just arrived in a time machine from the 7th century.

But, despite the evidence,

. . . Bulent Yildirim, President of IHH, in response to Israeli military preparations said, “Let them do whatever they want in order to prepare for our arrival. We are not even carrying one little jackknife. We are purely a civilian and humanitarian initiative. We are not involved in politics . . . . We are not doing anything of criminal nature. . . [here].

Actually, the violent ambush of the naval commandos took place only on the largest ship, the Turkish Mavi Marmara with an estimated 600 passengers. The other ships did not violently resist. Note that Arab/Muslim passengers chanted the Judeophobic battle cry,

Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud,
Jaysh Muhammad sa ya`ud.

Khaybar Khaybar O Jews,
The army of Muhammad will return for sure.

This is meant to intimidate Jews, threatening them with the fate of the Jews of the Khaybar oasis in northern Arabia who were slaughtered, enslaved, and dispossessed by Muhammad's Muslim forces after a 7th century attack of aggression. The governments now ruling northern Arabia, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, do not allow Jews to live in their territory.

As with any Israeli effort at self-defense, taking over the pro-Hamas flotilla sent on its way by the Islamist govt of Turkey has met a huge mass of Eurohypocrisy, especially European hypocrisy, although the Turks too are quite capable of hypocrisy.

Now let us look at the main body sponsoring the "peace for terrorists" convoy. It is the IHH (The Foundation for Human Rights and Humanitarian Relief [the initials IHH are based on the Turkish name = Insan Hak ve Hurriyetleri Insani Yardim Vakfi]), which now operates under Turkish govt supervision.

Here are some disturbing facts about IHH, the prominent 'NGO' among the Flotilla organizers and participants: (compiled by Josh Hantman)

1. Famed French counter-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere found that in the mid 1990's the IHH president conspired to recruit members for jihad. CIA reports have linked them with extremist groups in Algeria and Iran.

2. Jean-Louis Bruguiere also testified to a U.S. Court that the IHH played a "central role" in the attempted Al Qaida Millenium bomb plot targeting LAX, the main airport in LA.

3. During the Iraqi war, IHH funneled funds to insurgents in a Sunni dominated area of central Iraq. These were funds used to kill American soldiers in Iraq.

4. In December 1997, Turkish authorities began a criminal investigation into IHH when sources revealed to them that the IHH had purchased semi-automatic weapons from Islamic militant groups. Inside the bureau an array of items were found: "firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions and a jihadi flag."

5. The IHH continue to cooperate closely with Hamas, including joint press conferences and close collaboration regarding the Flotilla. As early as this morning (May 30^th), from within the Flotilla itself we heard the possessed cries of the 'peace activists' chanting repeatedly: "Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud". This chant refers to the battle which took place in Khaybar oasis, 150 km north of Medina in Saudi Arabia, in 628. It refers to a battle – led by Muhammad – which resulted in the slaughtering of 100 Jews combined with the humiliation and surrender of the rest, including the imposition of the infamous poll tax on non-Muslims.

To this day the battle is regarded as a model which Islamic extremists desire. According to this model, the Jews have a right to live under Muslim regimes but in return they have to pay taxes. If the Jews go beyond "rules of the game", the meaning is clear. The anti-Semitic chants echoing through the Flotilla this morning were just the tip of the iceberg.

Many of the assertions above are documented in these two files below.
A Danish think tank [research group] provides data on IHH [here pdf].

The Investigative Project supplies data on IHH based in part on a prosecution of Islamists in the United States [here]

Ties between Hamas and IHH are shown and detailed here on the Hurry Up, Harry blog. Note the delirium of the Turkish crowd yearning for an intifada battle with Israel [see video on blog post]. Before the Six Day War the mob in Cairo was likewise delirious in anticipation of war with Israel which the mobs hoped would be the final victory over the Jews. For those who were not around at the time --and for those who forgot-- the mobs in Cairo were carrying large cloth posters with the skull & crossbones painted on them. They were yearning for death, at least for the Jews.

The San Remo Manual of international law regarding armed conflicts at sea shows that Israel was justified to board these blockade-running pro-terrorist boats at sea, even beyond international waters. Clause 67(a) says:
"67. Merchant vessels flying the flag of neutral States may not be attacked unless they:

"(a) are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture;"

UPDATING6-2-2010 Researcher Evan Kohlmann, author of the study for the Danish think tank linked to above, updates his research [here]
Youssef Ibrahim of the New York Sun, formerly of the NYTimes, smells the stench of antisemitism [here]

Lee Smith explains Israel's strategic dilemma in regard to blockading Hamas-misruled Gaza:

"UNIFIL is supposed to be preventing arms shipments to Hezbollah [in Lebanon according to Security Council resolution 1701], but is not doing the job or else the Israeli navy would not have had to apprehend the Francop [a weapons-carrying ship from Iran to Hizbullah]. There is no UNIFIL for Gaza and hence wiithout a blockade the Iranians and Syrians could send basically anything they wanted, including many weapons they can't get through the tunnels, not least of all because the Egyptians don't want, for instance, scuds on their border either. Moreover, the blockade is what will ensure that Iran cannot harden its nuclear program by sending nuclear material to Gaza - as it may very well to Lebanon."

Lee Smith is author of the new book about the Middle East, The Strong Horse.

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UPDATING 7-16-2010 New York Times finally reports on the ties of the IHH, the backers of the Turkish Thug Armada, to the AK Party of Turkish prime minister Erdogan and how those returning from the armada adventure were welcomed home by high officials after the incident occurred [here]

Turkish Islamist Fanatics Send "Freedom" Flotilla to Gaza to Help Islamist Brethren of Hamas -- Euro "leftist" Fascists/Judeophobes Eager to Help Out

UPDATINGS 5-31 & 6-2&3-2010

Should the Turks succeed in their
efforts to open a sea line to Gaza as
a result of the precedent which may
be created by the current sail, the
southern part of the State of Israel
will be under clear and immediate
danger, similar to the situation in the north.
Ron Ben-Yishai, ynet 30 May 2010

Erdogan, the hate-ridden Islamist prime minister of Turkey, has found a way to international acceptance for his retrograde regime. Work to sabotage Israel. That's the key to successful diplomacy with the Euro Judeophobes, left, right and center. All Turkish offenses of the past are forgiven. Turkey has a very bad human rights record in the past and present!! Turkey still refuses to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. Indeed, not long ago Erdogan himself threatened to expel 100,000 Armenians from Turkey. Also, Turkey is brutally repressing the Kurds, fabricating evidence against his domestic opposition for show trials [see article by Dogan and Rodrik in The New Republic], harassing Turkish Jews, conducting a hate campaign against Israel, broadcasting blood libels against Israel and Jews on TV, etc.

Erdogan was very clever to pick Israel as a target. All the superficial Euro concern over recognition of the Armenian genocide is left behind as well as honest acknowledgment of the bloody war to suppress the Kurdish insurgents, often terrorists themselves, to be sure. The war against the Kurdish rebels has killed many civilians that all the Gaza worshipers are supposedly so keen to protect. He has also corrupted the judiciary, etc.

But he seized the right enemy to strike moralistic postures against. He seems to have found the right formula to endear himself to bien-pensants Europeans. He is making himself ever more worthy of being accepted as a true European and even joining the EU. And the alleged Turkish "humanitarian" body, the IHH, which is behind this propaganda flotilla, has raised funds for al-Qa`ida terrorism. At the same time, IHH officials are sophisticated enough about the advantageous instrumentalization of "human rights" rhetoric and gestures that they sought to procure immunity for the flotilla by appealing to the vanity, hypocrisy and Judeophobia of Euro Judeophobes:

Members of IHH, the Turkish organization which funded and organized the sail, insisted on the inclusion of European parliament members, whom they view as an "insurance policy" against the Israeli Navy's firm hand. [Ron Ben-Yishai, ynet 5-30-2010]

In 2010, anti-Zionism and Israelophobia are the last refuge of the scoundrels.

For the "Left," Turkey’s continuing membership in NATO may now be forgiven since Turkey is anti-Israel. Maybe the Armenian genocide will be finally recognized as a fundamentally progressive accomplishment since those Armenians were really all middle class anyway. Be that as it may, the Armenian genocide cleared eastern Anatolia of its most sizable civilized and civilizing element. So shouldn’t it be heralded the way the Narodnaya Volya hailed the pogroms against Jews??

Once upon a time, Turks and the Ottoman empire had a bad reputation for cruelty, brutality, barbarism, and what have you, etc. Isn’t it wonderful what a little anti-Zionism can do?? Here Erdogan has purified the Turkish rep with a few mendacious smears on Israel to hide his own nation’s record and his very own. I forecast that anti-Zionism and Israelophobia will give the Turks a new, fresh, innocent squeaky clean image, all those ugly hostile tales of 19th and 20th century massacres will be forgotten. The forecast is coming true. Note how a horde of Western would-be do-gooders, some of them Greeks, are happily embarking for Hamas-ruled Gaza with their boats full of “humanitarian aid,” oblivious to or in sympathy with what Hamas really represents. Note how Greeks are getting into the act too, as if the Anatolian Greeks had not been almost literally driven into the sea in 1922, as they were ethnically cleansed by Comrade Ataturk, the Islamic ghazi, before he declared himself a secularist reformer and abolished the caliphate. The Greeks of Greece seem to have forgotten 1922 and the anti-Greek pogrom of 1955 in Constantinople that reduced the Greeks in the city where they had once been a majority to a small minority. But the Cypriot Greeks may have the memory of ethnic cleansing on that island [1974] more freshly in mind.

There is no doubt that Israel's greatest success in this affair was the way the Cypriot authorities were convinced not to let the ships gather in its territorial waters and use its ports as the sail's meeting and fueling point.
The island's leaders realized that the sail was in fact a move orchestrated by the hostile Turkish government and decided not to play along with it. [Ron Ben-Yishai, ynet 5-30-10]

Let us recall that bourgeois governments and Leftist movements alike demonstrate historical forgetfulness when it is convenient.

In 2010, anti-Zionism and Israelophobia are the last refuge of the scoundrels.

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Excerpts from two separate pieces by Fiamma Nirenstein on the Turkish-sponsored Gaza Freedom Flotilla:

Dear Friends,

Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister . . . [is sending] a number of boats, especially from Turkey, that want to reach Gaza in order “to bring humanitarian aid.” This is a totally anti-Israel enterprise: Gaza is in difficulties because of its cruel, authoritarian, hyper-religious government by Hamas. These international humanitarian movements are political movements for delegitimizing that intend, in fact, to help the Hamas terrorist organization. We too ask Erdogan to not involve Israel, assaulting it in words and deeds at every moment, in his management of power in Turkey which is becoming ever more Islamist. . . . [20 May 2010]

http://www.fiammanirenstein.com/articoli.asp?Categoria=6&Id=2376

The Turkish Fleet on the way to Gaza Helps Iran

Il Giornale, 22 May 2010

Israel now has a perfect right to cry out, “Mommy, the Turks are coming.” Ten Turkish vessels want to reach the coast of Gaza next week in order to bring what they call humanitarian aid. In reality, they are bringing a gesture of solidarity and legitimization to Hamas. The latter dominates Gaza by fundamentalist violence against its own people and Israel, that it has sworn to destroy. . . . Turkey is the only country that is helping organize the boats [going to Gaza]. The flotilla is being prepared by the IHH (Turkish humanitarian aid Foundation). Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met the organizers and publicly announced his “support for breaking the siege of Gaza.” Members of the Turkish government are traveling on those boats, as well as artists and journalists, all those who serve to make the expedition untouchable.

Israel is in a seriously awkward position: stopping such a large group of ships would require a true naval battle, and the Jewish State has no desire for that. In Israeli ports, they are reluctantly getting ready, without knowing very well what can be done beyond cruising through the country’s territorial waters. . . . Israel cannot allow them [Hamas] freedom of movement, nor can Egypt either.

Naor Gilad, deputy director of the [Israeli] foreign ministry’s Europe division, tried to tell this to the Turkish ambassador, asking him to stop the violations of Israeli law and to ask Turkish citizens not to sail. But matters are going ahead. No humanitarian aid was ever offered by the same organizations leaving today for Gaza to the population of Sderot and Ashqelon, bombarded for years by Qassam missiles coming from the Strip. Nor did they ever concern themselves with the Fatah men driven from Gaza with their families or killed there. Even less with the Christians persecuted and killed there. But Turkey has now taken an Islamist turn which makes it a natural partner for Hamas, and this is disturbing at the moment when the world must trust it after, together with Brazil, it contracted an agreement with Iran to transfer to Turkey almost one and a half tons of uranium enriched at 3.5%, ignoring the decisions of the IAEA [international atomic energy agency] and the Security Council.

But why has Turkey, from the day when Erdogan attacked Shimon Peres at Davos, set in motion an escalation of anti-Israeli actions up to the point of supporting Hamas in many circumstances? The answer is in the frequent visits to Teheran and Damascus . . . [by] Erdogan . . . .

. . . . [pro-Hamas politicians of Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Russia,] In their recent meeting[s] they repeated in unison that Hamas is an elected force without which nothing can go anywhere. And here the flotilla is sailing from Turkey: Israel chews its fingernails, Erdogan and Hamas are happy, and the sky is still blue.

http://www.fiammanirenstein.com/articoli.asp?Categoria=3&Id=2377

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IHH = The Foundation for Human Rights and Humanitarian Relief [the initials IHH are based on the Turkish name]

When Turkish police raided its premises in Istanbul more than 10 years ago, weapons were found as well as links tying the group to al-Qa`ida. See links:

To Danish research group report -

http://www.diis.dk/graphics/Publications/WP2006/DIIS%20WP%202006-7.web.pdf

To a report by The Investigative Project -

http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/312.pdf#page=17

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AP shows that "freedom flotilla" spokesperson is Huwaida Arraf, a leader of the pro-terrorist ISM [here]. The ISM is a CommuNazi group that specializes in dehumanizing Jews.

CAMERA: Supplies are going into Gaza all the time [here]

UPDATING 5-31-2010 Danny Ayalon, deputy foreign minister, protested the clearly Judeophobic chant chanted by some of the passengers on the flotilla. See the JPost article [here]. Many of the passengers are wearing Islamic garb. Here is the chant, a traditional Arab chant against Jews:

Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud

Jaysh Muhammad sa ya`ud

Khaybar Khaybar O Jews,

The army of Muhammad will return.

This is an Islamic triumphalist chant against Jews. It refers to the conquest, occupation and destruction of the Jewish-populated Khaybar oasis in northern Arabia that was conquered by Muhammad's forces. The Jews fought but were defeated. Their property was usurped, and they were either killed or enslaved. Their wives were seized by the Arabs/Muslims.
The article in the Jerusalem Post incorrectly confuses the name "Khaybar" in this not so charming little ditty with the name "Haifa."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -UPDATING 6-2-2010- - - - - - - - - - -

Lee Smith explains Israel's strategic dilemma in regard to blockading Hamas-misruled Gaza:

"UNIFIL is supposed to be preventing arms shipments to Hezbollah [in Lebanon according to Security Council resolution 1701], but is not doing the job or else the Israeli navy would not have had to apprehend the Francop [a weapons-carrying ship from Iran to Hizbullah]. There is no UNIFIL for Gaza and hence wiithout a blockade the Iranians and Syrians could send basically anything they wanted, including many weapons they can't get through the tunnels, not least of all because the Egyptians don't want, for instance, scuds on their border either. Moreover, the blockade is what will ensure that Iran cannot harden its nuclear program by sending nuclear material to Gaza - as it may very well to Lebanon."

Lee Smith is author of the new book about the Middle East, The Strong Horse.

UPDATING 6-3-2010 Robert Pollock describes Erdogan's sick way of thinking in the WSJ [here] A Catholic bishop was stabbed to death in southeastern Turkey by his own driver [here]. This follows a series of murders of Christian religious personalities since Erdogan came to power in 2002. Erdogan has highly exacerbated the climate of hate already existing in Turkey for non-Muslims.

The Palestinian Authortiy --Obama's pets-- Refutes Big Lie of Apartheid in Judea-Samaria & Demands Apartheid There

While fanatic Israelophobes in the West rant and rave about alleged Israeli "apartheid," the Palestinian Authority --Israel's nemesis to be sure-- tells us --only by implication, of course-- that the "apartheid" charge against Israel is a lie, even in the Judea-Samaria. This is important because Jimmy Carter, one of Israel's professional defamers, fell back when he was challenged on calling Israel an apartheid state, in the title of his book [ghost-written no doubt], Palestine, Peace not Apartheid. Carter fell back, admitting that Israel within the old armistice lines [the Green Line] was not an apartheid society but claiming that he only meant "the West Bank" [Judea-Samaria], allegedly occupied by Israel.

We are not now going to go into the true international law applied to Judea-Samaria. Our subject is how the PA refuted the apartheid lie that is meant to support its demands.

How did the Palestinian Authority refute Carter's lie? The PA recently warned Arabs in the PA zones not to shop in Israeli-owned supermarkets in Judea-Samaria. They should boycott those supermarkets, the PA economy minister demanded. He added that the PA knew just who was shopping in those supermarkets, which entails a warning of PA retribution for those who continue to shop in them. That means that Arabs living in the zones were shopping in Israeli-owned supermarkets in Judea-Samaria. The owner of the supermarkets in question, Rami Levy, was not excluding Arab customers, nor did he refuse to hire Arab employees. Many of the employees were and are Arabs. Arab customers were mingling with Jewish customers in these stores. Where is the apartheid?

PA warns Palestinian shoppers
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
07/05/2010
Rami Levy shoppers, we know who you are, says economy minister.

Palestinian Authority Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh warned Palestinians on Thursday against shopping at Rami Levy supermarkets in the West Bank.

Thousands of Palestinians converge every day on the Rami Levy supermarkets at Sha’ar Binyamin and Mishor Adumim, the only two branches in the West Bank. The two stores also employ dozens of Palestinians.

This was the first threat of its kind issued by the PA against Palestinians who visited the Israeli supermarkets. . . .

Abu Libdeh said in an interview with the local Al-Watan TV station that the PA knew the names of individuals and families who shop in the Rami Levy stores.

He condemned the phenomenon of Palestinians buying goods at the Israeli supermarkets in the West Bank as a “big disgrace.”

Abu Libdeh said the PA was serious in implementing the decision to boycott settlement-made goods. Nevertheless, he denied that the boycott was politically motivated or had anything to do with the resumption of indirect negotiations between the PA and Israel.

The boycott was intended to “cleanse” the Palestinian market of settlement products and boost Palestinians’ confidence in their national products, he said.
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The background of the stores' owner, Rami Levy, is also noteworthy.

This was the first threat of its kind issued by the PA against Palestinians who visited the Israeli supermarkets, which are named after their founder.

Levy, who was born in a tin shack in Jerusalem’s Nahlaot neighborhood in 1955, founded the company in 1976. He has never lived in a settlement.

The supermarket chain has 16 branches all over the country.

This shows that hardwork and ingenuity can lead to success in Israel, although I have yet to find my pot of gold. Anyhow, Rami Levy's story is one of rags to riches.

Another lesson of this episode is that Arabs have the wherewithal to shop in a supermarket. They are not living on the verge of starvation eating a daily crust of bread provided by the UNRWA or some other Western-run charity. Of course, both Jews and Arabs are looking for the best price that they can get for a good product. That's how Levy built his stores' reputation. Low prices, wide variety [his stores are very large supermarkets], and satisfactory quality.

Jerusalem Post story on PA refutation of the apartheid big lie [here]
Here is a post on the Muqata blog with more photos [here]

A Petition against the Vichyite Petition handed to the Euro Parliament

Professor Shmuel Trigano has asked people to sign the petition below which was drawn up to counter the Vichyite petition submitted to the European Parliament at Strasbourg by a group of foolish, supposedly peace-loving intellectuals, much like those intellectuals in France and Britain before World War 2 who wanted to make peace with Hitler and thought that giving him various territories that he was demanding could lead him to make peace. This madness supported the disastrous Munich Pact of 1938 and culminated in the beginning of the Second World War. In other words, the peacemongers helped bring the world to war. The peace process of the 1930s, called "appeasement" at that time, led to war.

The first link is to the Vichyite, peacemonger petition. The link towards the bottom is to the petition supported by Shmuel Trigano, Professor Richard Landes, Professor Pierre-Andre Taguieff, Professor Raphael Drai, Dr Judith Gachnochi, Dr Georges Gachnochi and by several other professors and intellectuals, as well as by me, Eliyahu m'Tsiyon. The message from Shmuel Trigano and others is below the broken line

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BE REASONABLE !

A group of intellectuals and personalities, ostentatiously claiming their Jewishness as a pledge of objectivity, has taken the initiative to publish an “Appeal to Reason” (http://www.jcall.eu/); an appeal they intend to circulate as widely as possible. Unfortunately this appeal goes against it’s own stated aims: democracy, morality, solidarity within the Diaspora, and the commitment to Israel’s fate. It is clear that this offensive has a self-serving agenda and doesn’t truly stand for the best interests of the Israeli people.

We took into our hands to organise a petition under the name of: “Be Reasonable”.

1) The idea of an imposed peace with Israel under pressure, even with the intervention of the superpowers, is a denial of both the democratic process and the international law, with hints of neo-colonialism. It violates the freedom of choice of the citizens of the Israeli democracy and sets a dangerous precedent for all other democracies.

2) It relies on the cooperation of a U.S. president who fails to face the deadly challenge of Iran, and of the European Union, which has generally identified itself with the Palestinian cause. Israel is under threat of extermination, a threat expressed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its satellites surrounding Israel from the north (Hezbollah) and to the south (Gaza, i.e. Hamas).

3) While these petitioners put the blame and responsibility of political deadlocks on Israel alone, every objective investigation tends to prove that neither the Palestinian Authorities nor the Palestinian society are genuinely interested in a fair peace: according to a poll by the Al-Najah University in Nablus, 66.7% reject the creation of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, 77.4% reject the idea of Jerusalem as the capital of both states (April 2010). Creating a Palestinian state without the assurance that there is a real desire for peace within the Palestinian population as well as in the entire Arab world would expose the small territory of Israel to a fatal strategic weakness.

4) The “Appeal to Reason” is suffering from amnesia. The Oslo Accords led to an unprecedented wave of terrorism. The withdrawal from Lebanon was followed by the establishment of Hezbollah. The withdrawal from Gaza helped legitimise Hamas. Furthermore, the guarantees of the UN Security Council are not worth the paper they are printed on: the disengagement from Gaza led to the election of Hamas and the subsequent daily shower of rockets and missiles. Wouldn’t an independent Palestinian state with “East Jerusalem” as a capital be the hub of even more intensified terrorist activity? By then, expression of regrets by our Reasonable Petitioners would be worthless.

5) The sense of morality, of honour and the commitment to peace are not the monopoly of just one side. They are a permanent challenge. This ill-advised petition could bring serious harm and injury to the citizens of Israel. Indeed, such a position has been used to justify calls for boycott against the State of Israel, its products and its citizens as well as questioning the legitimacy of Israel’s existence.

Confronted with the real threats to its security, which compromise any possibility of lasting peace in the Middle East, we intend to establish and promote a public mediation forum within the European Union. This forum will defend and publicise the legitimacy of the State of Israel within the framework of a true and sustainable peace, and continue the fight against anti-Semitism that has been dangerously
resurfacing in Europe.

Please endorse this declaration and show your support for the State of Israel.

Please sign and forward “Be reasonable!”

To sign click the following link: http://www.dialexis.org

First French signers:
Jean-Pierre Bensimon, professor of social science, Raphael Draï, professor of political science and law, Judith Gachnochi, psychologist, Georges Gachnochi, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Nicolas Nahum, architect, Georges Elia Sarfati, university professor, linguist and philosopher, Perrine Nahum Simon, CNRS researcher, historian, Pierre-André Taguieff, research director at CNRS, philosopher, political scientist and historian of ideas, Michèle Tribalat, demographer, Shmuel Trigano, professor of political sociology, editor of revue “Controverses”.
[Note: not all of these signatories are Jews]
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Commentary on the Vichyite JCall petition: Luc Rosenzweig [ici en francais]
Summary of an article on the Peace Process of the 1930s that prepared the road to war [here]
The full article summarized on the previous line is [here]
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Fiamma Nirenstein sent the following critique of the same Vichyite petition sponsored, by the way, by an outfit called JCall, an affiliate of the American JStreet astroturf gang financed by billionaire George Soros, various Arab and Iranian interests, and others. JStreet was set up to help Obama promote an anti-Israel policy in the United States, supposedly with Jewish support. Fiamma Nirenstein is a journalist and member of the Italian parliament, where she is deputy chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
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"STAND FOR ISRAEL, STAND FOR REASON"

The attack against Israel by the Jcall document is inspired by a short-sighted view of the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In fact, the signatories of this appeal do not have the clear perception of the global physical and moral threat to which Israel is currently exposed. It is indeed incredible that intelligent and cultivated people like Alain Finkelkraut and Bernard-Henri Levy - instead of dealing with Iran that will soon keep the whole world under the threat of the range of its atomic bomb - play with the idea that Benjamin Netanyahu is the true hindrance to peace, that the essential obstacle to a resolution of the conflict is a reproachable attitude of Israel. The intellectuals who have signed the French document ignore history and don’t care about the help that it will give and is already giving to the unprecedented delegitimization threatening the life of Israel.

Pushing Israel to concessions without rewards, simply means to surrender the enemy without any guarantee: the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza has produced disastrous consequences, the land Gush Katif inhabitants has been kicked out from is since then a launching pad for missiles and terrorists; Ehud Barak’s concessions in Camp David, designed to give Arafat practically everything he was asking for, led to the horror of the second Intifada, with its two-thousand people killed by suicide attacks; the evacuation of Southern Lebanon in 2000 strengthened the Hezbollah, supplied them with 40,000 missiles and led to the 2006 war.

Finkelkraut, Henri Levy and their fellow signatories claim that they are concerned about the future and the security of Israel. But they actually ignore the basic element that has prevented success of any peace process, namely the Arab and Palestinian refusal to recognize the very existence of the State of Israel as a permanent nation-state in the Middle East. This all-encompassing rejection of Israel’s right to exist is reflected day by day in the Palestinian and pan-Arab media.

The attack against Netanyahu aims at breaking up his right wing coalition. But it actually never mattered whether an Israeli government was right or left: anyhow the Palestinians refused any proposal of peace.

Israeli land concessions like the ones the French intellectuals advocate will never bring peace. Only a cultural revolution in the Arab world can achieve it, but nobody asks for that, not even Obama, who devotes US great strength to pressure only Israel. This is the current fashion.

Peace will not come because Israel becomes smaller. What will bring us closer to peace is if Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas stops naming public squares after mass-murderers like Hamas bombmaker Yehiya Ayash; if the Palestinians stop passing out candies when Jewish families are murdered by suicide bombers in restaurants; and when the Arab world accepts Netanyahu’s modest request to recognize the State of Israel as the State of the Jewish people.

This reality is ignored as well by the Israeli intellectuals who have signed a document against the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who wrote a very noble letter to support Jerusalem spiritual core and historical homeland of the Jewish people.

This sadly politically correct epidemic is probably designed to give some oxygen to the defeated pacifist movements that is actually able only to crash against the rock of the Islamist hatred culture and to defame Israel. But in this approach there is no contribution to any better future for the Middle East: the world must find the courage to face the new Islamist frenzy that springs from Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas and points to the destruction of Israel. Iran and its allies are of course arming themselves with lethal weapons, not with vain words, like those who signed “The Call for Reason”. But even words can kill and destroy.

The signatories of the J-Call manifesto show a blatant ignorance of the extended hand policy adopted by Netanyahu since his Bar Ilan speech in June 2009, the ten-months settlements freeze, the lifting of many check points and the adoption of important measures to ease the Palestinian economy. And you can clearly see that the “Finkelkraut document” has an Obama flavour, a prissy and respectable trendy attitude intellectuals are often unable to say no. This makes possible nowadays to the increasing number of Israel’s enemies to delegitimize the Jewish State rejoicing “even the Jews are with us”. If this was the signatories aim, they have indeed achieved it.

SIGN THE PETITION "STAND FOR ISRAEL, STAND FOR REASON"


A large number of distinguished Italian intellectuals and others have signed the statement sent by Fiamma Nirenstein. The Italian original is here.