Sunday, April 01, 2007

Links where you can find information on Israel

Media Related

Educational Resources on Israel and the Middle East

Human Rights Organizations in Israel

Think Tanks, Commentary, Opinion on the Situation in the Middle East

Terrorism Related

Hate, Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic Monitors

Blogs

Israel Advocacy and Pro-Israel Organizations

posted by Celine at 8:28 PM 0 comments

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Websites and blogs where you can learn more about Israel

Hopeways (newsletter)

www.hopeways.org

IFLAC (International Forum for Literature and Culture)

www.iflac.org

MidEastWeb (for a listing of various website and blogs)

http://www.mideastweb.org/mewsyndication.xml

posted by Celine at 6:45 AM 0 comments

Saturday, April 02, 2005

ISRAEL AND THE HOLOCAUST -- IT IS TIME TO FORGET THE MYTH

Israel and the Holocaust - it is time to forget the myth

04/02/2005

Ami Isseroff

Many people hold the view that Israel was created because of the Holocaust. It is a view that is impossible to prove or disprove, because you cannot re-run the film of history without the Holocaust and see what would have happened.

Americans are correct in believing that the Holocaust helped to win US and world support for the UN partition plan in 1947. The 250,000 Jewish Displaced Persons in Europe and the Holocaust figured largely in the public debate and in the Report of the Anglo American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine of 1946. However, that does not mean that there would never have been a state of Israel were it not for the Holocaust, or that the world did not previously recognize the right of the Jews to a national home (though not necessarily a state). The right of the Jews to a national home was declared in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine given to Great Britain.

However, as historian Tom Segev points out in his book about the British Mandate, "One Palestine Complete," Zionists had envisioned European Jews as the mainstay of the Jewish state. Mass immigration of European Jews was prevented first by the Russian revolution, then by the British White Paper of 1939, and finally by the Holocaust.


The myth of the state that was born from the Holocaust has again been challenged by Sever Plocker, writing in the mass circulation Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. .... More at http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000346.htm where you can comment.


Please feel free to circulate this message with this footer and with the URL referring to the complete article. If you are viewing this message in text mode, you are missing hyperlinked references.

posted by Celine at 5:48 PM 0 comments

ATTENTION SURFERS, BLOGGERS AND WEB MASTERS

April 2, 2005

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/mideastweb

Attention surfers, bloggers and Web masters:

Help promote a fair break for Israel and Zionism on the Web

By Ami Isseroff

Every people is entitled to a fair hearing. Every people. That must even include people you do not like!! It must even include Jews and our Jewish national movement - Zionism. Unfortunately Zionism has become a kind of cuss-word, not just in the dens of Al-Qaeda and remote Sheikhdoms where women can't vote, but in Europe and in the USA and in the UN, in the media and on the Web.

It is one thing to disagree with policies of the Israeli government, which are undoubtedly disagreeable at times. It is quite another thing when that criticism stems from an ideology that denies the Jewish people the right to national self-determination. That is a form of racism. Unfortunately, it is a "permitted" and politically correct form of racism. No other country has been singled out for this treatment, no matter what their policies. The Chinese have plundered Tibet and oppressed the Tibetan people, but nobody says that the Chinese do not have a right to a country. The Turks repressed the Kurds. Nobody said that Turkey is an apartheid racist colonialist warmonger state. The examples are endless. Only Israel, of all countries, is singled out for this sort of treatment.

Systematic delegitimization of Zionism has been "Politically Correct" since the infamous UN "Zionism is Racism" resolution of 1975, and it has not abated. This situation is mirrored on the World Wide Web. Depending ont he day, Five or Six of the ten first links retrieved by a Google search for "Zionism" are anti-Zionist polemics, inlcuding some obnoxious racist diatribes. "True Torah Jews Against Zionism," the top-ranked Web site, represents a tiny minority of medieval Jewish religious fanatics who insist that only their view is correct and brands every other view as heresy. Another site offers us the following enticing introduction: "What Zionism is -- and its pernicious influence upon the USA." Sounds to me like that could have been plagiarized from Mein Kampf, with "Zionism" replacing a certain other word. Here is another "A Crude Attempt To Equate Anti-Zionism With Anti-Semitism ... Jewish Persecution - A Primary Tool Of International Zionism" "International Zionism used to be the International Jew-Bolshevik conspiracy in the good old Third Reich of course. Many of the Web sites that insist they are not racists and that criticism of Zionism is not racist have links to Mein Kampf, Protocols of the Elders of Zion and similar materials.

Anti-Zionism sometimes masquerades as "peace" or "peace and justice" advocacy. Destroying the national home of another people, whether it is the Jewish national home, or the Palestinian national home, cannot have anything to do with either peace or justice.

Suppressing such Web sites would not help much, but there is no reason why decent people have to read them, or keep silent in the face of this abuse. The unsuspecting high school student somewhere in Midwestern USA who has to do a homeowork assignment about Zionism should not be immediately confronted with the rantings of religious fanatics, Stalinist ideologues and racists, placed so that they seem like the authoritative "last word" on Zionism.

You can help. Rankings in Google and other search engines are determined in part by how many other sites link to a particular Web site. This means that if you have a Web site or a blog, you can help promote decent and fair Web sites about Zionism. Even if you are just a surfer, you can leave comments at blogs that allow them and in forums that include links to these sites.

I have compiled a list of such Web sites. These are not primarily pages that promote a particular Israeli policy or answer particular claims about the Arab Israeli conflict. They are all focused on the definition and history of Zionism.

Here it is:

Sites that are fair to Zionism

Zionism - Definition, Early History and Role in the Creation of Israel

http://www.mideastweb.org/zionism.htm

- A comprehensive and balanced treatment.

Labor Zionism - Early history and analysis

http://www.mideastweb.org/labor_zionism.htm

Wikipedia article about Zionism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism

A comprehensive and fairly balanced article including the history of Zionism as well as links to specific topics and articles about anti-Zionism.

Zionism - Table of contents at the Jewish Virtual Library

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/zion.html

Zionism article at Infoplease http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0853449.html

The US Library of congress has a comprehensive and balanced set of articles about Zionism:

Zionist Precursors - US Library of Congress http://countrystudies.us/israel/8.htm

Political Zionism - US Library of Congress http://countrystudies.us/israel/9.htm

Cultural Zionism - US Library of Congress http://countrystudies.us/israel/10.htm

Labor Zionism - US Library of Congress http://countrystudies.us/israel/11.htm

Revisionist Zionism - US Library of Congress http://countrystudies.us/israel/12.htm

Essential Texts of Zionism http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/6640/zion/essential.html

Jewish Agency Zionism pages - Links to basic information about Zionism from the Jewish Agency

http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/index.html

Ambassador Herzog explains Zionism in the UN

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/UN/herzogsp.html

The above links were chosen for one or more reasons:

All of them are fairly solid materials that have historical information and are comprehensive and/or balanced.

None of them tries to pass off a particular view of Zionism as "holy writ."

None of them contains apologies for particular policies of the Israeli government. They just explain Zionism and give its history.

Nany of them are already fairly popular and in the first 20 links retrieved by google.
We want to get all of them on the first page of information retrieved by Google.

You can add your own favorites to the above list, but please post at least the above sites, so that we can focus efforts to raise the popularity of representative Web sites.

Please post this list (remember to keep the word "Zionism" in the hyperlink text of each link) wherever you can, and please pass this article on to others.

IMPORTANT

If you have posted permanent links to these Web sites in your blog or Web site, I will be happy to link to your Web site. Contact me at mew (at) mideastweb.org. [Replace the " (at) " with a @ to get the actual e-mail address]

Thank you.
Ami Isseroff

Reminder - The above do not represent the views of any organization. They are my own views.

posted by Celine at 5:37 PM 0 comments

Thursday, March 31, 2005

LA PAIX AU MOYEN ORIENT? PAS POUR DEMAIN....Par Albert Soued 30 mars 2005

LA PAIX AU MOYEN ORIENT? PAS POUR DEMAIN…

Par Albert Soued, écrivain, www.chez.com/soued/conf.htm et www.nuitdorient.com

Le 30 mars 2005

Malgré les efforts du roi Abdallah II de Jordanie pour bousculer le statu quo de la Ligue arabe, celle-ci s'est cantonnée dans des déclarations fermant la voie à une paix véritable au Moyen Orient.

Il faut savoir qu'au Moyen Orient un état palestinien et un Israël en paix ne font pas l'affaire de régimes autocratiques qui n'auraient plus d'épouvantail à agiter devant leurs populations, plus de bouc émissaire. De plus, l'exemple de démocraties qui prospèrent au Moyen Orient, alors que du Soudan à la Syrie les autocraties régressent est un spectacle insoutenable et humiliant pour celles-ci.

Le roi Abdallah II est un des rares dirigeants éclairés au Moyen Orient. Il a proposé aux pays arabes avant la réunion de la Ligue Arabe à Alger de commencer par reconnaître Israël et d'avoir des relations normales avec ce pays afin d'apaiser ses craintes sécuritaires. Les négociations qui suivraient seraient facilitées. Définir les frontières, régler le problème des réfugiés et le statut de Jérusalem seraient des problèmes beaucoup moins ardus à résoudre si on tenait compte de la réalité du terrain, sous entendant qu'on ne peut pas demander l'impossible à Israël si on veut réellement obtenir la paix dans la région.
Le ministre Jordanien des Affaires étrangères Hani al Moulqi n'a pas mâché ses mots en déclarant "Les Arabes ne savent pas lire l'histoire, car ils sont mus par leurs émotions et non par leur raison". Il a précisé que les concessions à faire par les arabes n'étaient pas à faire à Israël mais à la réalité de la situation.

À Alger la Ligue arabe a rejeté cette proposition et a repris le plan Saoudien de 2002 adopté à Beyrouth et qui demande "l'impossible" à Israël: retour aux frontières de 1967, retour des réfugiés en Israël, Jérusalem capitale arabe. Le "non" opposé par la Ligue arabe au roi Abdallah II de Jordanie montre l'incapacité de cette organisation à entrer dans une nouvelle ère de paix et de démocratie. Il faut savoir aussi que pour des raisons diverses 9 chefs d'état arabes sur 22 ont évité de se rendre à Alger.

La résolution 1559 du Conseil de Sécurité de l'ONU demandant à la Syrie de retirer ses troupes et ses agents de renseignement du Liban ainsi que le désarmement des milices a provoqué la mort de l'ex-premier ministre Rafiq Hariri. Quand on les coince, les régimes féodaux comme celui des Assad à Damas ne peuvent réagir que par la force brutale. Bashar al Assad a juré de "casser" le Liban si on l'obligeait à le quitter. Depuis, la terreur s'installe au Liban. Les premières cibles sont chrétiennes: 3 attentats à Beyrouth Est et Nord (5 morts et une vingtaine de blessés), une école incendiée à Deniyé, des locaux de Caritas saccagés à Tripoli, des armes sont distribuées aux milices prosyriennes. Plus la pression internationale sur la Syrie croit, plus l'insécurité s'installe au Liban. Le but d'Assad est de créer un chaos démontrant la nécessité d'une présence syrienne dans le pays. Son plan "Liban" consiste à redéployer ses troupes aux frontières et à réactiver la terreur au Liban par l'intermédiaire de collaborateurs libanais selon le scénario irakien. Le colonel Moustafa Hamdane qui dirige la Garde Républicaine contrôle une milice sunnite de 500 combattants à Beyrouth Ouest, "al Mourabitoune". Les milices pro-syriennes coopèrent avec deux autres groupes dangereux le H'ezbollah au Sud et les Palestiniens au Centre.

Pour contrecarrer le plan "Liban", l'opposition libanaise demande une protection internationale…

Sur le front Israélien un calme précaire règne, des armes affluent à Gaza venant d'Egypte, notamment des missiles Strella SA7, capables d'atteindre des avions de ligne.
Le ministre de la Défense Shaoul Mofaz vient de déclarer qu'une ligne rouge venait d'être franchie. Par ailleurs les incidents et les attentats déjoués par l'armée sont quotidiens.
Malgré tous les discours apaisants de part et d'autre, les seuls moyens d'éradiquer la terreur demeurent l'arrestation des leaders, la confiscation des armes illicites, l'arrêt des flux financiers. Or rien n'est fait du côté palestinien; bien au contraire on demande la libération de dangereux prisonniers et on favorise l'installation de groupes terroristes à Gaza. Voici ce que déclare Abou Moussab, un des chefs des Brigades d'al Aqsa, branche armée du Fatah: "Ce qui se passe actuellement n'est pas une accalmie; c'est le repos du guerrier dont nous profitons pour reprendre des forces. Quand les affrontements reprendront, nous reviendrons avec de nouvelles méthodes et de nouveaux équipements!"

Le roi de Jordanie a averti que la Syrie et le H'ezbollah incitent les terroristes palestiniens à commettre des attentats contre Israël afin de détourner l'attention mondiale du Liban. Il a précisé que les menaces les plus sérieuses à la paix au Moyen Orient venaient d'Iran, de la Syrie et du H'ezbollah et que son pays a fait avorter à plusieurs reprises des attentats contre Israël.

La paix au Moyen Orient ? Pas pour demain.

Si la politique européenne et notamment celle de la France parvenait à tenir compte des réalités du terrain au Moyen Orient, il est probable que la paix serait plus à portée de main.

Nota
Au Sud d'Israël, à Gaza une forte population, maintenue pauvre et illettrée depuis 1948, constitue un foyer permanent d'agitation et d'agression. Elle est sous la coupe du Hamas grâce aux centres de soins, aux madrassas et aux subsides accordés, s'ajoutant à ceux de l'UNRWA. Le Hamas est financé par l'Arabie Saoudite.
Au Nord d'Israël, soit au Sud du Liban, une population shiite pauvre et illettrée est sous la coupe du H'ezbollah. Elle constitue un foyer d'agitation et d'agression. Elle est alimentée par des subsides venant d'Iran, endoctrinée par des mollahs et formée à la guerilla.

posted by Celine at 4:55 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Disengagement No or Yes...

Disengagement from settlements is a complex problem complicated by outside influences. Hence it is difficult to form an opinion. Disengagement is seen by many as a form of hope that PEACE will reign soon in the region. Israel would have been able to negotiate a lasting peace with its neighbors.

Hope is needed in Israel. Because, the current leadership of Sharon has been vilified around the world and portrayed as an aggressor guilty of causing the current Intifada. Since Arafat died, there is a feeling of expectation and optimism PEACE might be possible with the new leadership of Abbas. Hence the conundrum and dilemma.

Should Israel disengage from the settlements? The answer can be a simple categorical: “NO”. Do not leave the settlements, stay strong be firm. The problem becomes an Israeli problem, they have to find a new home, move and rebuilt their lives as farmers and growers. It also highlights a new problem, that is the current PLO does not want to have a Jewish presence in its territories however, they are happy to have a “Palestinian” presence in Israel. The question becomes: “WHY?”

The answer comes from history, the pan-Arabic perception of Israel. Its Arab neighbors have systematically refused to recognize the legitimacy of Israel as a sovereign country. Israel in the pan-Arab world is often referred to as “the Zionist State” or “Palestine” rarely as Israel and only when addressing Western journalists. Between 700 000 and 900 000 Jews living in the Arab world were sent into exile between 1947 and 1967. The Arab world purged itself of its Jewish community which they referred to as Zionists. Once again Jews are being displaced out of Arab lands because they are settles of the Zionist State and ultimately Zionists.

The Zionist State implies it is a political move that came out of Europe, and not to Mount Zion. It also negates the fact that it is a Jewish State that rules over some Muslims who remained in Israel after 1948. The reference to “Palestine” is the old appellation of the area which was viewed as Jewish up until the 19th century, it is also a reference to the Roman invasion and destruction of the Second Temple and the exile of Jews. Whereas, Palestine is an epitaph Israel, is a resurrection a rebirth a coming home after a 2000 year.

Pressure has been put on Israel since 1948. Israelis have been scrutinized by the world media. Criticism often unfair can be understood as a new form of anti-Semitism. Maybe, we should put pressure on the pan-Arab world to force them to accept Israel as legitimate country and member of the UN.

For more commentaries please visit: http://www.israpundit.com/archives/2005/03/calling_all_ant_1.php

and the main site: http://www.israpundit.com/

posted by Celine at 8:51 PM 0 comments

Love Israel

To love Israel mean to know the land, the people and the history of a people who was in exile for over 2000 years.

This blog will look at disengagement of the Israeli army in the territories. It will also look at the plight of Jews who lived in the Arab world. It will ask will disengagement bring the peace that is so much needed in the area or will it be a band aid solution.

Various points of views will be posted and links for you to read and look up.

The situation is not clear cut it is complex, at times complicated other times frustrating. Yet it is all about love the love of Israel form a Biblical, historical Qur’anic and modern point of view.

posted by Celine at 8:13 PM 1 comments