The Middle bEast

by Tomas Sandell

The iconic picture from the current conflict in Gaza has been that of a courageous Norwegian doctor saving Palestinian lives. Here he is, the only westerner in Gaza, who is able to not only save lives but also run his own news agency out of a hospital, informing Western media about what is "really" happening and - here is the catch - who is to be blamed, namely Israel.

Like millions of other people I have seen these images on the evening news, and I have read about his eyewitness reports day after day. After all, there were no other "reliable sources" available in Gaza, it was said. At first I watched this new Bernard Kouchner personality with great admiration. But then it occurred to me. Something was not right. Why did the doctor seem more interested in explaining who was right and who was wrong than in saving lives? Most humanitarian relief workers are there to save lives. Most leave it at this. Explaining who is right and who is wrong is not their call, but to save lives and ease the suffering.

So I googled 'Mads Gilbert.' The profile I discovered on Wikipedia was not one of a humanitarian icon but that of a political activist with a clear Marxist agenda. His convictions were those of the extreme left; he had accused both the US and Israel of war crimes long before the current military operation in Gaza.

IN FACT, the doctor who was trying to alert the world about the human suffering in Gaza had in 2001 the following to say about the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

Question: So do you support this terrorist attack on the US? Answer: "Terror is a bad weapon but my answer is yes" (Wikipedia).

This had to be a scam. I did what every concerned citizen would have done. I called the responsible editor of the evening news and of the main daily where I live. Did they know? No they did not. Were they going to do anything to correct the news reports? Answer: What is there to correct?

We live in a cynical world which is shaped by iconic images. People remember pictures. The first man on the moon, JFK being shot in Dallas and now the courageous Norwegian doctor in Gaza explaining to the world the atrocities of Israel. These are the images that will remain in the collective memory of people for years to come and will shape their perception of the conflict in Gaza. Even a small correction will not do much to change the public opinion which has already been shaped, influenced by the images in the news reports. The false icon will remain.

MADS GILBERT may be a good surgeon, but his values are not those of a humanitarian. When he appears in the news as the "accidental hero," we need to learn about his other credentials as well. How trustworthy are his claims? Was he involved in other missions to help the Palestinian people than simply medical work and public relations? We do not know. What we do know by now is that Mads Gilbert and his friend Erik Fosse did not end up in Gaza by accident. They did not come only to help out in a hospital but with a clear political agenda to sell. And they did it very successfully because in Marxist theory the means justify the end. The truth is secondary.

But this text is not about Mads Gilbert. It is about how helpless most of us are when we are exposed to world events where it is impossible for us to know who is telling the truth and who is not. Gilbert may be multitalented (running a hospital and a press agency at the same time is no small venture), but he does not have multiple personalities. He can not be a humanitarian one minute and a cynical political activist the next. When he puts all the blame on Israel, he probably does so out of the convictions that the US and Israel are legitimate targets for terrorist attacks as he has stated in his native Norway. But Norway is far away from the news desks in Washington, Paris and London.

Nevertheless, I hope they will report the following news item. The Norwegian doctor in Gaza is a false icon.

The writer is the founding director of European Coalition for Israel. He has been an accredited journalist to the European Commission in Brussels and is a former director of the European Network of Humanitarian Relief Agencies.

The writer is the founding director of European Coalition for Israel. He has been an
accredited journalist to the European Commission in Brussels and is a former director of the
European Network of Humanitarian Relief Agencies.

Source: The Jerusalem Post

Israel has damaged the Hamas infrastructure, but not enough to bring the terrorists to their knees. U.S. did not veto the UN Security Council resolution demanding Israel to stop its assault on Gaza, but did not even mention Hamas by name! The U.S. abstained, allowing the resolution to pass, a very worrying signal for Israel, who wonders if the U.S. is about to give in to world pressure. Fortunately for Israel, Hamas has refused to observe the UN resolution, which gives Israel the opportunity to continue fighting Hamas. Meanwhile, Egypt is at this moment trying to create a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
If Israel does not have the chance to bring Hamas down, the rockets will continue and Israel will have to fight Hamas again another day. Because they are fanatical Islamists, they will not change their ideology to destroy Israel.

Even though Israel still has a short-term window at this time to bring down Hamas, Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, is hesitating to go into his “Phase Three,” sending reserve troops into areas more built up, where Hamas’s central headquarters and operations are. Indeed, Israel’s military is saying that it will be a disaster (like what happened when Israel hesitated in the Lebanese war against Hizbullah) if the IDF does not finish its job.

The goal presented to the Israeli public at the beginning of the war was that Israel had to deal a strong enough blow to Hamas that the terrorist group would no longer launch rockets to Israel (which it has been doing for 8 years) and that all of the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza would be destroyed and not rebuilt, so that Hamas could not rearm itself.

Israel has definitely not achieved these results, while the UN and Europe are breathing down Israel’s back, demanding a cease-fire, and the U.S. is weakening its resolve. In a few days, Barack Obama will be sworn in, and it appears he is bent (from his speech today) on forging a cease-fire as quickly as he can as he assumes presidency.

The good news today is that no Israeli soldiers were killed or hospitalized, and few Palestinians were killed.

Another great miracle that happened today was at a kindergarten in Ashkelon. It was the first day that children had been allowed to come back to school since the war began two weeks ago. The kindergarten received a direct hit, but all the children had gone down to the bomb shelter and were saved.

The world press does not have a lot of pictures of wounded and killed Israeli citizens because the population in the southern part of Israel is very strong and very disciplined. When the sirens go off (which they do many times a day) everyone runs to their shelter, or if they do not have one, to a stairwell.

Please pray that God will be a Help and a Shield to Israel and save her soldiers and her citizens from her enemies that have sworn to destroy her.

Pray that all diplomatic efforts that would cause Israel to lose this war would come to nothing.

Pray that God will guide Israel’s leadership in conducting this war successfully.

Pray for God’s protection on innocent Palestinians, but that the Hamas terrorists would be taken out.

Pray for many opportunities for believers throughout the country to witness to our fellow citizens.

Source: www.maozisrael.com

In an rare interview, posted on YouTube, Academy Award winner - actor Jon Voight, father of actress Angelina Jolie, speaks out on behalf of Israel, the issues related to Sderot and the conflict in the Middle East.

Jon Voight is passionate about supporting Israel for “many reasons”. While not disclosing these reasons in specific terms, Mr. Voight gives us enough material to come to the conclusion that he is indeed for real when it comes to supporting Israel.

When asked by the interviewing journalist what is the reason he switched from being a “lefty to righty”, Voight explains that already after the Vietnam war, he realized the roots of the so called “anti-war” movement are Communist. The actor reiterates that Communists are good at propaganda and “that’s the real danger even today”. Again, Voight emphasizes his firml support for the success of the US-led military operation in Iraq and shares his concern that a premature pull out of the troops may lead to a civil war and a massacre of unheard proportions.

Direct link to the YouTube video: http://tinyurl.com/4fr73c

Here are some economic implications for both Israel and Palestinians if total blockade on Gaza becomes a fact:

* In 2006, total Israeli exports to the 60 million or so residents of France stood at slightly more than $1 billion. Israeli exports to the same amount of people in Italy stood at just below $1 billion.

* But total exports to both of these countries, which rank among the eight richest countries in the world, are equal to Israel's exports to the 3.5 million people of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. This is more than 6 percent of all Israeli exports, excluding diamonds. Despite all the intifadas, the Palestinian Authority is the second biggest customer of Israeli exports, after the United States.

If the blockade becomes permanent policy, Israel will lose a large part of its "captive market" - a stock phrase which in this case literally describes Gaza. "Israel benefited from its relations with the Palestinians," says Dan Catarivas, head of the foreign commerce branch of the Manufacturers Association and a former senior official in the finance and industry ministries. "And at the end of the day, it will lose if these ties are cut."

Whatever the 1.5 million people in Gaza need to live comes to them from Israel - from milk products to diapers, from medicine to cement. Even the humanitarian aid from international organizations is bought almost entirely from Israeli companies. Israeli firms also earn money as middlemen. Gas for cars is bought in Gaza via an Israeli intermediary at a tidy fee. About 5 percent of all freight that passes through the Ashdod port is earmarked for Gaza. This is to say nothing of the customs fees Israel is supposed to collect for the Palestinian Authority as part of the Paris Agreement signed in the 1990s, when everyone believed in a future of cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians. This money represents hundreds of millions of dollars that Israel put aside so it could eventually serve as a whip against the Palestinians.

An estimate by the Palestine International Business Forum shows that cutting off economic ties between Israel and the Palestinians would bring down the standard of living in the PA by one-third. Income per capita would fall to $500, the lowest in the Arab world, even lower than Sudan or Yemen.

Israel, according to this research, would lose around $2 billion per year. Some 76,000 jobs would be lost. Catarivas does not know whether these data are correct, but it is clear to him that Israel will be hurt. To his regret, he does not think that anyone really cares about this damage. "The system will adapt in the long run," Catarivas says. "Economic considerations will not have the upper hand over diplomatic considerations."

based on a report by Meron Rapoprt, Haaretz Correspondent

Many people have claimed that Jews as a group possess far too much wealth and power.

We call this the Economic Theory of Anti-Semitism. It postulates that Jewish wealth and power arouses the envy of other groups, and this in turn leads to anti-Semitism.

This theory has surfaced in different guises throughout history. One of the ways it became popularized was through "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is a viciously anti-Semitic book. It is the second most widely published book in history.

The book is a complete fabrication, created by the Russian secret police. It is an alleged record of the minutes of a secret meeting held by Jewish leaders. These influential Jews, says the book, were plotting to take over the entire world.
This fictional account provided an excellent excuse for the Russians to intensify their campaign of oppression against the Jews. It also strongly influenced the masses and bolstered the credibility of the myth that Jews control governments.

If we use the Economic Theory to explain the phenomenon of anti-Semitism, then anti-Semitism becomes purely a class struggle: the poor versus the rich, the less fortunate versus those with unlimited financial and organizational backing.

How can we test this explanation?

First, consider universal attitudes towards the rich. Have anti-Semites persecuted wealthy non-Jews as well?

As soon as the persecution is in any way limited to Jews it is no longer based upon economics, because at no time in history were Jews the only wealthy people. As soon as the hater decides to single out wealthy Jews and ignore wealthy non-Jews, economics no longer can be the cause for his hatred.

Second, if we remove the element of wealth and power from the Jews, does the anti-Semitism vanish?

Case Study: The Warsaw Ghetto

The Jews who lived in the shtetels of Poland and Russia between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries were poor and powerless, utterly lacking any form of influence whatsoever. Yet they were hated. Often they were persecuted and subjected to unspeakable torments. On many occasions entire villages were ransacked and their Jewish inhabitants massacred in cold blood. Under those circumstances, anti-Semitism did not distinguish between rich and poor, between strong and weak, between powerful and powerless.

Likewise, anti-Semites in the middle ages initiated countless pogroms against Jews without first investigating their bank accounts or investment portfolios.

When the Nazis liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto there were no Jewish businesses to destroy. In fact, the impoverished conditions under which the Jews there lived were appalling. The Jews in the ghetto could not have been thought of as "rich" by anyone’s standards, and yet the Nazis felt they had to be eliminated.

Poor Jews have always been hated just as rich Jews have been. When a Jew meets with financial success, it may set the anti-Semite’s teeth on edge, but the Jew’s success clearly is not what created the anti-Semite. Money therefore cannot be the cause of anti-Semitism.

How about power? Can it be the cause of anti-Semitism?

The Fugu Plan

If someone who is rich and powerful comes to you for a favor, you don’t persecute him – you help him. Having such a person indebted to you is a great insurance policy.

There was one nation that did treat the Jews as if they were powerful and rich.

The Japanese never had much exposure toThe Fugu Plan Jews, and knew very little about them. In 1919 Japan fought alongside the anti-Semitic White Russians against the Communists. At that time the White Russians introduced the Japanese to the book, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

The Japanese studied the book and, according to all accounts, naively believed its propaganda. Their reaction was immediate and forceful -- they formulated a plan to encourage Jewish settlement and investment into Manchuria. People with such wealth and power as the Jews possess, the Japanese determined, are exactly the type of people with whom we want to do business!

The Japanese called their plan for Jewish settlement "The Fugu Plan." The "fugu" is a highly poisonous blowfish. After the toxin-containing organs are painstakingly removed, it is used as a food in Japan, and is considered an exquisite delicacy. If it is not prepared carefully, however, its poison can kill a person.

The Japanese saw the Jews as a nation with highly valuable potential, but, as with the fugu, in order to take advantage of that potential, they had to be extremely careful. Otherwise, the Japanese thought, the plan would backfire and the Jews would annihilate Japan with their awesome power. Meeting with the Japanese

The Japanese were allies of the Nazis, yet they allowed thousands of European refugees – including the entire Mirrer Yeshivah – to enter Shanghai and Kobe during World War II. They welcomed these Jews into their country, not because they bore any great love for the Jews, but because they believed that Jews had access to enormous resources and amazingly influential power which could greatly benefit Japan. This is all detailed in the book, " The Fugu Plan " by Marvin Tokayer.

If anti-Semites truly believe that Jews rule the world, why don’t they all relate to Jews like the Japanese did?

The fact that Jews are generally treated as outcasts proves that people do not really believe that Jews are anywhere near as wealthy or powerful as they claim. It proves that anti-Semites do not take their own propaganda seriously.

Whatever Happened to Jewish Power?

If there is any truth to the notion that Jews control governments, why couldn’t the Jews get even one country to accept the refugees who were struggling to escape the European inferno during the Holocaust?Voyage I If "World Jewry" is so powerful and wields such political influence, surely at least one government would have agreed to take them in as refugees and allowed them to stay until the end of the war...

The film "Voyage of the Damned" dramatically brings home the point that when government after government buries its head in the sand while the wholesale slaughter of Jews goes unchecked, the claim that Jews control governments rings hollow and becomes painfully absurd.

Is Black Gold Thicker Than Milk and Honey?

Those who speak of Jewish power as a world problem have never acted as if they really believed Jews had any power.

Anyone who really believes someone is rich and powerful treats that person All-powerful Jew to be fearedwith kid gloves. As a case in point, the Arab countries initially did not find favor in the eyes of the Twentieth-Century world at large. However, because the world needed Arab oil, the world appeased the Arabs. Think about it -- when is the last time the United Nations issued a proclamation condemning a member of OPEC other than Iraq?

If anyone really believes that the Jews are the possessors of tremendous power and wealth, why do they not treat Jews in accordance with this belief? They should treat Jews with at least as much respect as the Japanese once did...

Economic 'excuse' shot down

So money and power are not the cause of anti-Semitism. Jewish financial success may make an anti-Semite gnash his teeth, but that’s not what made him an anti-Semite in the first place. Poor Jews have been just as hated as rich Jews.

Obviously, the economic reason for anti-Semitism is really an excuse.

The Holocaust Studies