posted 01-17-2003 05:21 PM            

Issue 207 January 17, 2003

ISRAELI INTERNATIONAL ASSASSINATION SQUADS

A story surfaced this week regarding Ariel Sharon's
creation of assassination squads that will be sent into
allied foreign countries in search of enemies of the State
of Israel. That such clandestine units operate
internationally comes as no surprise. Many governments are
thought to employ them. Indeed, the public accepts this
fact as a way of life. But, officially, Israel has not
previously acknowledged the existence of such units. The
story was reported by UPI.

Israel is embarking upon a more aggressive
approach to the war on terror that will include
staging targeted killings in the United States
and other friendly countries, former Israeli
intelligence officials told United Press
International.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has forbidden
the practice until now, these sources said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli statements were confirmed by more
than a half dozen former and currently serving
U.S. foreign policy and intelligence officials in
interviews with United Press International.

But an official at the Israeli Embassy in
Washington told UPI: "That is rubbish. It is
completely untrue. Israel and the United States
have such a close and co-operative intelligence
relationship, especially in the field of
counter-terrorism, that the assertion is
ludicrous."

So, the question arises, is the story true? It is the
kind of politically sensitive story that a wire service
would not run if it had not been checked. If anything, the
story may be designed to put Muslim terrorists on notice.
It gets an official disclaimer, which is enough to let the
report sink into oblivion, but then, when the
assassinations multiply, the targeted groups conclude that
the story was true. I keep thinking of George Wallace's
slogan, "Send them a message."

Will they send back a message?

WHO GETS BLAMED?

If the story is true, then the West is about to
experience an escalation of terrorism. Assassinations of
suspected terrorists will be blamed on anti-terror squads.
But whose? It will become more difficult for President
Bush to evade suspicion for such acts, whether he or a
subordinate arranged the assassinations or not. His "dead
or alive" statement after 9-11 could blow back.

The problem with terrorist warfare and counter-
terrorist warfare is the inability of the public to know
who is responsible for any event unless someone admits it
publicly, and even then no one is sure.

We see this theme on "The West Wing." At the end of
last season's show, the President of the United States
authorized the assassination of a Muslim nation's chief of
security, who supposedly had planned a foiled attack on the
Golden Gate Bridge. In what has become a standard shtick
for the main character, President Bartlett initially
resisted launching the death squad, all in the name of
morality, but then he capitulated to his advisors.
Bartlett initially talks ethics, but he invariably sells
out to expediency before the show is over. The viewers'
challenge is to guess what reason he will use as his
excuse.

What is interesting in the light of the recent story
about Israeli assassination squads is that on the show,
Israel has been blamed for the suspected assassination,
when in fact the U.S. did it. A Muslim terrorist then
retaliated by using a missile to shoot down an Israeli
airliner. The advisor who recommended the assassination
briefly suffered guilt from the knowledge that an Israeli
friend who was on the airliner was killed because of what
he had recommended to the President. But, on "The West
Wing," guilt never lasts for more than a part of any
episode. Politics heals everything by the next installment.

BRINGING THE WAR BACK HOME

America surely appears to be preparing for an invasion
of Iraq. Any invasion would violate UN's 1974 protocol: an
unprovoked attack for the purpose of replacing a foreign
ruler.

Reaffirming the duty of States not to use armed
force to deprive peoples of their right to
self-determination, freedom and independence, or
to disrupt territorial Integrity, . . .
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/3314.htm

After an invasion, the Muslim world from that point on
will regard the United States as an aggressor against
Islam. This nation has been regarded by Muslims as the
chief accomplice of the State of Israel, but an offensive
war in Iraq will change this. We will become the front-
runner in the jihad sweepstakes. Now comes the UPI story.

With the appointment of Meir Dagan, the new
director of Israel's Mossad secret intelligence
service, Sharon is preparing "a huge budget"
increase for the spy agency as part of "a tougher
stance in fighting global jihad (or holy war),"
one Israeli official said.

Since Sharon became Israeli prime minister, Tel
Aviv has mainly limited its practice of targeted
killings to the West Bank and Gaza because "no
one wanted such operations on their territory," a
former Israeli intelligence official said.

Another former Israeli government official said
that under Sharon, "diplomatic constraints have
prevented the Mossad from carrying out
'preventive operations' (targeted killings) on
the soil of friendly countries until now."

He said Sharon is "reversing that policy, even if
it risks complications to Israel's bilateral
relations."

A former Israeli military intelligence source
agreed: "What Sharon wants is a much more
extensive and tough approach to global terrorism,
and this includes greater operational
maneuverability."

In analyzing this story, we readers must make guesses.
The Israeli government has not confirmed it. It is
possible that a series of rumors has led UPI reporters to a
misperception. But the timing, from America's standpoint,
could not be worse. Just as the United States is
escalating military pressure in the Middle East, Sharon has
escalated pressure inside the borders of allied nations.
The war on terrorism is the justification in both
instances.

Meanwhile, Al Qaeda is forgotten by the American
public. The U.S. government's interpretation of events
ever since bin Laden got away has been to blame Saddam
Hussein for being in some unstated way responsible for
backing Al Qaeda, despite the fact that it is public
knowledge that Pakistan's equivalent of the CIA was the
source of bin Laden's funding in Afghanistan. He was their
boy, and they were ours.

A congressional staff member with deep knowledge
of intelligence matters said, "I don't know on
what basis we would be able to protest Israel's
actions." He referred to the recent killing of
Qaed Salim Sinan al Harethi, a top al Qaida
leader, in Yemen by a remotely controlled CIA
drone.

"That was done on the soil of a friendly ally,"
the staffer said.

Assassinations attempts don't always work as planned.
Then the blowback process begins.

Phil Stoddard, former director of the Middle East
Institute, cited a botched plot to kill Ali
Hassan Salemeh, the mastermind of the 1972 Munich
Olympics massacre. The 1974 attempt severely
embarrassed Mossad when the Israeli hit team
mistakenly assassinated a Moroccan waiter in
Lillehammer, Norway.

Salemeh, later a CIA asset, was killed in Beirut,
Lebanon, in 1976 by a car bomb placed by an
Israeli assassination team, former U.S.
intelligence officials said.

The Mossad will supervise the new program, according
to the UPI story.

Dagan, the new hard-driving director of Mossad,
will implement the new changes, former Israeli
government officials said.

Dagan, nicknamed "the gun," was Sharon's adviser
on counter-terrorism during the government of
Netanyahu in 1996, former Israeli government
officials say. A former military man, Dagan has
also undertaken extremely sensitive diplomatic
missions for several of Israel's prime ministers,
former Israeli government sources said.

Former Israel Defense Forces Lt. Col. Gal Luft,
who served under Dagan, described him as an
"extremely creative individual -- creative to the
point of recklessness."
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=20030115-035849-6156r

Presumably, the spirit of secrecy will prevail on all
sides. The civilian populations of both the United States
and Israel are now the targets of Muslim terrorists. So
far, Islamic terrorists have not targeted national leaders.
The attempt on Karzai's life last fall was an exception,
but the plot failed. It was not well-thought-out.

Historically, national leaders have left alone other
national leaders during wartime. This is because tit-for-
tat retaliation is the obvious response. Armies have
slaughtered each other, but leaders have not been
assassinated. The attempt on Hitler's life in 1944 was
made by Germans, not by a British or American spy.

But we are now facing a new battlefield. The Muslim
world has no military means of inflicting meaningful damage
on Western military forces. While our government is
officially in a sweat about nuclear weapons or
sophisticated biological weapons, the technology of
biological terrorism is becoming ever less expensive. As
prices fall, technology spreads to NGO's (non-government
organizations). When desperate, a cadre of religiously
motivated men who see that their political leaders are
powerless to defend traditional Islam against aggression by
the West, will accept the challenge to inflict revenge.
There is a pool of eligible adult recruits that is well
over 100,000,000. They are scattered all over the Middle
East and Asia.

I think anyone who has given thought to the technology
of retaliation knows that terrorism and counter-terrorism
can up the ante at will. The constant suicide bombings
inside the boundaries of Israel is a reminder to everyone:
"Nobody is safe, no matter what the police do."

ESCALATION

The escalation bothers me. Terrorism feeds on
counter-terrorism, at least up to a point. At some point,
which the tyrannical Czar Alexander III crossed after
Alexander II was assassinated, the government can crush a
domestic terrorist movement. But, sooner or later, a
weaker, less ruthless leader ascends to the throne. Louis
XVI and Nicholas II are classic examples. Then the
repressed anger manifests itself in acts of violence.

The United States is on the edge of a major
escalation. Its target is a moral monster, but is he a
threat to the U.S.? This threat, the Administration has
not proven. If the Administration knows where the
radiating gun is, why not tell Blix?

North Korea is proving to everyone in the Muslim world
that if you've actually got weapons of mass destruction,
you can thumb your nose at America. This lesson will not
be lost on the terrorists. They don't have weapons of mass
destruction . . . yet. But biological weapons are cheap to
produce. Once deployed, they can create terror in whole
populations. The chilling words, "If a terrorist is
willing to die. . . ," point to what we civilians know, but
what our political leaders dare not articulate. We cannot
be protected.

To attack a nation in lieu of attacking the terrorist
underground is futile. There are too many recruits.
Martyrs increase the supply of recruits. If the UPI story
is true, we are facing an escalation of attacks on
individuals. But attacks on individuals call forth tit-
for-tat responses.

Now that the war on terrorism is escalating on two
fronts, military and clandestine, the threat is that the
response of the underground will be to escalate. But the
weapons of that underground war are more likely to be aimed
at leaders if the terrorists perceive that any retaliation
by the U.S. will be directed at leaders of compromised
Islamic client states.

When it becomes clear to Al Qaeda that the Middle
East's Muslim states have become operational client states
of the United States, the traditional restraints on high-
level assassination will be removed. This is my fear. If
the U.S. removes Saddam Hussein and brings the Saudi
princes into line, Al Qaeda will no longer worry about
retaliation on Muslim heads of state. In fact, such
retaliation will be welcomed.

The West is not used to dealing with underground
terrorists. Our leaders are used to dealing with nation-
states that can be defeated on geographical battlefields.
But the battlefields of the terrorists are selected at
their discretion.

CONCLUSION

A swift military victory in Iraq, if coupled with
assassination squads from the West, is a formula for long-
term warfare. I don't think the West's voters perceive
this threat. The West's military tactics rely on our
military forces' ability to hammer foreign troops with high
technology and then sending in occupying troops, such as
the 37,000 who are still on the Korean border. Our enemies
have only rarely been religiously motivated. They are
usually identifiable either racially or geographically.

But what if our enemies are dispersed across many
borders? What if they are united by the lust of revenge
against the West because of the West's perceived embodiment
of two hated religions? That would change the nature of
the war.

We are about to roll into uncharted territory. The
official rule is correct: "Things are easier to get into
than out of."

posted 01-17-2003 11:07 PM            

Thanks for the article Ellyn.

"----- Israel is embarking upon a more aggressive
approach to the war on terror that will include
staging targeted killings in the United States....."

posted 01-18-2003 01:38 AM            

arafat should be first on the list he has plundered and squandered the aid and monies give to the palestinians for decades...

his wife hangs out in a suite in france (big surprise) @ 15k per month...on US and un humanitarian aid dollars...meanwhile back at the ranch his people are starving, living in fear and poverty and blowing themselves up over it !

posted 01-19-2003 09:14 PM            

Lenni BRENNER
ZIONISM IN THE AGE OF DICTATORS

Chapter 26
THE STERN GANG

Until Begin's election victory in l977, most pro-Zionist historians dismissed Revisionism as the fanatic fringe of Zionism; certainly the more extreme 'Stern Gang', as their enemies called Avraham Stern's Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, were looked upon as of more interest to the psychiatrist than the political scientist. However, opinion toward Begin had to change when he came to power, and when he eventually appointed Yitzhak Shamir as his Foreign Minister it was quietly received, although Shamir had been operations commander of the Stern Gang.

'The Historical Jewish State on a National and Totalitarian Basis'

On the night of 31 August/1 September l939 the entire command of the Irgun, including Stern, was arrested by the British CID. When he was released, in June 1940, Stern found an entirely new political constellation. Jabotinsky had called off all military operations against the British for the duration of the war. Stern himself was willing to ally himself with the British so long as London would recognise the sovereignty of a Jewish state on both sides of the River Jordan. Until then, the anti-British struggle would have to continue. Jabotinsky knew that nothing would make Britain give the Jews a state in 1940, and he saw the creation of another Jewish Legion with the British Army to be the main task. The two orientations were incompatible and by September 1940 the Irgun was hopelessly split: the majority of both the command and the ranks followed Stern out of the Revisionist movement.

At birth the new group was at its greatest strength for, as Stern's policies became clearer, the ranks started drifting back into the Irgun or joined the British Army. Stern or 'Yair', as he now called himself, (after Eleazer ben Yair, the commander at Masada during the revolt against Rome) began to define his full objectives. His 18 principles included a Jewish state with its borders as defined in Genesis 15: 18 'from the brook of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,' a 'population exchange', a euphemism for the expulsion of the Arabs and, finally, the building of a Third Temple of Jerusalem.[(1 )]The Stern Group was at this time a bare majority of the military wing of Revisionism but by no means representative of the middle class Jews of Palestine who had backed Jabotinsky. Still less was the fanatic call for a new temple attractive to ordinary Zionists.

The war and its implications were on everyone's mind and the Stern Gang began to explain their unique position in a series of underground radio broadcasts
There is a difference between a persecutor and an enemy. Persecutors have risen against Israel in all generations and in all periods of our diaspora, starting with Haman and ending with Hitler... The source of all our woes is our remaining in exile, and the absence of a homeland and statehood. Therefore, our enemy is the foreigner, the ruler of our land who blocks the return of the people to it. The enemy are the British who conquered the land with our help and who remain here by our leave, and who have betrayed us and placed our brethren in Europe in the hands of the persecutor.[(2)]
Stern turned away from any kind of struggle against Hitler and even began to fantasise about sending a guerrilla group to India to help the nationalists there against Britain.[(3)] He attacked the Revisionists for encouraging Palestinian Jews to join the British Army, where they would be treated as colonial troops, 'even to the point of not being allowed to use the washrooms reserved for European soldiers'.[(4)]

Stern's single-minded belief, that the only solution to the Jewish catastrophe in Europe was the end of British domination of Palestine, had a logical conclusion. They could not defeat Britain with their own puny forces, so they looked to her enemies for salvation. They came into contact with an Italian agent in Jerusalem, a Jew who worked for the British police, and in September 1940 they drew up an agreement whereby Mussolini would recognise a Zionist state in return for Sternist co-ordination with the Italian Army when the country was to be invaded.[(5)] How seriously either Stern or the Italian agent took these discussions has been debated. Stern feared that the agreement might be part of a British provocation.[(6)] As a precaution, Stern sent Naftali Lubentschik to Beirut, which was still controlled by Vichy, to negotiate directly with the Axis. Nothing is known of his dealings with either Vichy or the Italians, but in January 1941 Lubentschik met two Germans --Rudolf Rosen and Otto von Hentig, the philo-Zionist, who was then head of the Oriental Department of the German Foreign Office. After the war a copy of the Stern proposal for an alliance between his movement and the Third Reich was discovered in the files of the German Embassy in Turkey. The Ankara document called itself a 'Proposal of the National Military Organisation (Irgun Zvai Leumi) Concerning the Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe and the Participation of the NMO in the War on the side of Germany.' (The Ankara document is dated 11 January 1941. At that point the Sternists still thought of themselves as the 'real' Irgun, and it was only later that they adopted the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel --Lohamei Herut Yisrael-- appellation.) In it the Stern group told the Nazis:
The evacuation of the Jewish masses from Europe is a precondition for solving the Jewish question; but this can only be made possible and complete through the settlement of these masses in the home of the Jewish people, Palestine, and through the establishment of a Jewish state in its historical boundaries...

The NMO, which is well-acquainted with the goodwill of the German Reich government and its authorities towards Zionist activity inside Germany and towards Zionist emigration plans, is of the opinion that:

1. Common interests could exist between the establishment of a New Order in Europe in conformity with the German concept, and the true national aspirations of the Jewish people as they are embodied by the NMO.

2. Cooperation between the new Germany and a renewed volkish-national Hebrium would be possible and

3. The establishment of the historical Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, and bound by a treaty with the German Reich, would be in the interest of a maintained and strengthened future German position of power in the Near East.

Proceeding from these considerations, the NMO in Palestine, under the condition the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Israeli freedom movement are recognized on the side of the German Reich, offers to actively take part in the war on Germany's side.

This offer by the NMO... would be connected to the military training and organizing of Jewish manpower in Europe, under the leadership and command of the NMO. These military units would take part in the fight to conquer Palestine, should such a front be decided upon.

The indirect participation of the Israeli freedom movement in the New Order in Europe, already in the preparatory stage, would be linked with a positive-radical solution of the European Jewish problem in conformity with the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Jewish people. This would extraordinarily strengthen the moral basis of the New Order in the eyes of all humanity.
The Sternists again emphasised: 'The NMO is closely related to the totalitarian movements of Europe in its ideology and structure.'[(7)]

Lubentschik told von Hentig that if the Nazis were politically unwilling to set up an immediate Zionist state in Palestine, the Sternists would be willing to work temporarily along the lines of the Madagascar Plan. The idea of Jewish colonies on the island had been one of the more exotic notions of the European anti-Semites before the war, and with France's defeat in 1940 the Germans revived the idea as part of their vision of a German empire in Africa. Stern and his movement had debated the Nazi Madagascar scheme and concluded that it should be supported, just as Herzl had initially backed the British offer, in 1903, of a temporary Jewish colony in the Kenya Highlands.[(8)]

There was no German follow-up on these incredible propositions, but the Sternists did not lose hope. In December 1941, after the British had taken Lebanon, Stern sent Nathan Yalin-Mor to try to contact the Nazis in neutral Turkey, but he was arrested en route. There were no further attempts to contact the Nazis.

The Stern plan was always unreal. One of the fundamentals of the German-Italian alliance was that the eastern Mediterranean littoral was to be included in the Italian sphere of influence. Furthermore, on 21 November 1941, Hitler met the Mufti and told him that although Germany could not then openly call for the independence of any of the Arab possessions of the British or French --out of a desire not to antagonise Vichy, which still ran North Africa-- when the Germans overran the Caucasus, they would swiftly move down to Palestine and destroy the Zionist settlement.

There is rather more substance to Stern's own self-perception as a totalitarian. By the late 1930s Stern became one of the ring-leaders of the Revisionist malcontents who saw Jabotinsky as a liberal with moral reservations about Irgun terror against the Arabs. Stern felt that the only salvation for the Jews was to produce their own Zionist form of totalitarianism and make a clean break with Britain which, in any case, had abandoned Zionism with the 1939 White Paper. He had seen the WZO make its own accommodation with Nazism by means of the Ha'avara; he had seen Jabotinsky entangle himself with Italy; and he personally had been intimately involved in the Revisionists, dealings with the Polish anti-Semites. However, Stern believed that all of these were only half-measures.

Stern was one of the Revisionists who felt that the Zionists, and the Jews, had betrayed Mussolini and not the reverse. Zionism had to show the Axis that they were serious, by coming into direct military conflict with Britain, so that the totalitarians could see a potential military advantage in allying themselves with Zionism. To win, Stern argued, they had to ally themselves with the Fascists and Nazis alike: one could not deal with a Petliura or a Mussolini and then draw back from a Hitler.

Did Yitzhak Yzertinsky --rabbi Shamir-- to use his underground nom de guerre, now the Foreign Minister of Israel, know of his movement's proposed confederation with Adolf Hitler? In recent years the wartime activities of the Stern Gang have been thoroughly researched by one of the youths who joined it in the post-war period, when it was no longer pro-Nazi. Baruch Nadel is absolutely certain that Yzertinsky-Shamir was fully aware of Stern's plan: 'They all knew about it.'[(9)]

When Shamir was appointed Foreign Minister, international opinion focused on the fact that Begin had selected the organiser of two famous assassinations: the killing of Lord Moyne, the British Minister Resident for the Middle East, on 6 November 1944; and the slaying of Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN's special Mediator on Palestine, on 17 September 1948. Concern for his terrorist past was allowed to obscure the more grotesque notion that a would-be ally of Adolf Hitler could rise to the leadership of the Zionist state. When Begin appointed Shamir, and honoured Stern by having postage stamps issued which bore his portrait, he did it with the full knowledge of their past. There can be no better proof than this that the heritage of Zionist collusion with the Fascists and the Nazis, and the philosophies underlying it, carries through to contemporary Israel.

Notes

[(1.)] Geula Cohen, Woman of Violence, p. 232.

[(2.)] Martin Sicker, 'Echoes of a Poet', American Zionist (February 1972), pp. 32-3.

[(3.)] Chaviv Kanaan (in discussion), Germany and the Middle East 1835-1939, p. 165.

[(4.)] Eri Jabotinsky, 'A Letter to the Editor'' Zionews (27 March 1942), p. 11.

[(5.)] Izzy Cohen, 'Zionism and Anti-Semitism', (unpublished manuscript), p. 3.

[(6.)] Author's interview with Baruch Nadel, 17 February 1981.

[(7.)] 'Grundzuege des Vorschlages der Nationalen Militaerischen Organisation in Palastina (Irgun Zwei Leumi) betreffend der Loesung der juedischen Frage Europas und der aktiven Teilnahme der NMO am Kriege an der Seite Deutschlands', David Yisraeli, The Palestine Problem in German Politics 1889-1945, Bar llan University (Ramat Gan, Israel) (1974), pp. 315-17.

[(8.)] Kanaan, Cermany and the Middle East, pp. 165-6.

[(9.)] Interview with Nadel.

posted 01-19-2003 09:27 PM            

Look at how much military aid we send Israel every year.

And if you disgree with Israeli policy you immediately get labeled an "Anti-Semite".

Anyway you look at it SHARON is a murderer.

I have a feeling that is another reason the Globlists want to attack Iraq so bad.

posted 01-19-2003 09:29 PM            

blah blah blah ellyn...

cut and paste to your hearts content ellyn...it don't make you any smarter or more right...just look at mech for an example...

posted 01-19-2003 10:50 PM            

and we all know about you mech king of the unemployed (39 weeks) cut and paste hypocrites....

btw that's quite a vacation on the government's tit there mech....

posted 01-20-2003 12:37 AM            

It's definately an insane world right now.

People's irrational behavior is a direct result.

posted 01-20-2003 01:43 AM            

and
http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/

and
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/717_reg.html

The first full-scale history of the only organized American Jewish opposition to Zionism during the 1940s

Jews Against Zionism
The American Council for Judaism, 1942-1948
Thomas A. Kolsky

and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jewsagainstzionism2/

posted 01-20-2003 03:22 AM            

all jews are zionist according to ellyn...

not according to seeker...

virtually every post you have made on the palestinian / israeli issue has been pro-palestian....

muslims constantly portray the Christians and the jews as the aggressor...the tyrant...when it is their own leadership that dumbs down their people...and forces them to think it is ok and "allahs way" to heaven to blow themselves and innocent people up with bombs....

this is a classic propaganda machine infection...and it is spreading...arafat is a waste of skin...a terrorist...always has been one...he has sucessfully oppressed the palestinian people for a great long while and will continue to do so as long as people like you ellyn refuse to see the truth...

Ariel Sharon is palestinian...did you know that ellyn ?

I don't do impressions over the net of people...but just to prove I can pee farther than mech and ellyn here's an impression of them simultaneously...and I think it is time ellyn and mech realize the truth of this issue...how it relates to saddam, the war on terrorism, and the US policy...

this below is the real information you don't hear about...

muslim vs. the world

The Palestinian Authority's War
Against Jews & Christians

I. The Palestinian Authority's Persecution of Christian Arabs:

* Christian graves vandalized:
Israeli Major-General Yaakov Or, coordinator for the territories, told the Israeli daily Ha'aretz (Feb.28, 2001) that there has been a rise in "vandalism of Christian graves" in the PA-controlled areas. He added that "some fifty Christian families from Beit Sahour [a mostly-Christian town in PA territory] alone tried to emigrate in the last month."

* PA police storm monastery:
The PA police burst into a Jericho monastery and tried to seize control of the building. Four nuns and monks were expelled. Two American nuns -- including Sister Maria, whose brother is former top Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos-- managed to remain in the monastery, and are refusing to leave. Sister Maria was injured by PA police officers during the course of the initial police invasion. (Associated Press, Jan.18, 2000)

* Senator meets Christians persecuted by PA:
Accompanied by ZOA leaders, U.S. Senator Connie Mack visited Israel in 1999, and met with Christians persecuted by the PA. In a speech he delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 3, 1999, Senator Mack reported:

I had a profound meeting during this week. I met one evening privately-- secretly--with Arabs who were being persecuted for their Christian faith. I met with about 10 Palestinian Christians. I will tell you just one of their stories, but I will change some of the details to protect the person I am describing.

I remember an energetic man, in his early 40s...He had many children and very little money. He converted to Christianity in 1993. He clearly loved God, and he loved to tell people about his conversion. He described to me how in 1997, the Palestinian Authority asked him to come to the police station for questioning. When he arrived, he was immediately arrested and detained on charges of selling land to Jews. He denied this charge, since he was very poor and owned no land. He was beaten. He was hung from the ceiling by his hands for many hours. He showed me what I just said. He showed me how his hands were tied behind his back and then raised from the floor and hung that way for many, many hours.

After 2 weeks, he was transferred to a larger prison where he was held for 8 months without trial. He was released in February 1998, after his family borrowed thousands of dollars to pay off the local authorities. And even though he is free, they are keeping his father in prison. They believe it is for his son's beliefs. He feels his father is being held hostage to prevent him from talking with people about his faith. Needless to say, these Christians met with me at considerable risk. They conveyed to me a message of fear and desperation. But their mere presence in the room with me demonstrated their hope, and it also caused me to ask, how can the people of Israel find peace with the Palestinian Authority while the Palestinian Authority engages in coercion and torture based upon religious beliefs?

* PA police expel nuns and monks:
On July 5, 1997, Arafat's police broke down the doors of the Abraham's Oak Russian Monastery in Hebron, expelled all the nuns and monks, and took over the site.

* Christians "subjected to brutal persecution":
The Israeli government has reported that "on the social and religious level, the few Christians remaining in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas are subjected to brutal and relentless persecution." (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 24, 1997)

* U.S. courts acknowledge PA's persecution of Christians:
Two American courts--one in Illinois, the other in North Carolina, have granted asylum to Palestinian Christian Arabs on the grounds that they would be persecuted for their religious beliefs if they return to PA-controlled territory. (Jerusalem Report, April 2, 1998)


II. The Palestinian Authority's Abuse of Jewish Holy Sites:

The Tomb of Joseph: On October 7, 2000, Palestinian Arab mobs assisted by PA policemen destroyed the Tomb of Joseph. The PA then built a mosque there, and has barred Jews from visiting the site. (Ha'aretz, Oct.10, 2000)

The Cave of the Patriarchs:
Fatah terrorists who were captured on November 13, 2001, revealed they were planning to set off a car-bomb at the Cave of the Patriarchs, burial site of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah.

In addition, PA Minister of Religious Affairs Hassan Tahbub said that when the PA gains control of the Cave of the Patriarchs, Jews will not be allowed to pray there, since "the Koran doesn't allow non-Muslims to pray in a mosque." (Jerusalem Report, Jan. 25, 1996) The PA-appointed mayor of Hebron, Mustafa Natshe, said "We will agree to permit Jews to visit the Cave of the Patriarchs. But we will not let them pray there." (Ha'aretz, June 24, 1996) The PA-appointed deputy mayor of Hebron, Kamal Dweik, said the Cave of the Patriarchs "is a mosque, not a synagogue. For Jews to pray in a mosque would mean that it is changed into a synagogue. And we refuse this thing." (IMRA, June 22, 1999) PA official Hisham Abdel Raziq said "The Jews can pray in the plaza outside the mosque," but not in the Cave of the Patriarchs itself. (IMRA, July 2, 1997) The PA's Deputy Minister of Islamic Endowments, Sheikh Yousef Salama, said (Jerusalem Times, Nov.12, 2001): "Al-Ibrahimi Mosque [the Cave of the Patriarchs] is a purely Muslim venue."

The Western Wall:
Palestinian Arabs have repeatedly undertaken massive rock-throwing attacks against Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

In addition, the PA-appointed Mufti (chief Islamic religious authority) of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, has issued a fatwa, a Muslim legal decree, declaring that the Western Wall is "part of the Haram el Sharif [the Al Aqsa Mosque compound] and exclusively Muslim." The fatwa "was issued after it was discovered some stones in the Wall have become loose and in need of repair. The edict declared that Jews are forbidden to make any repairs to the Haram (known to Jews as the Temple Mount). If the Wall is part of the Haram, they cannot be allowed to repair it or touch it." (Ha'aretz, February 21, 2001)

PA Minister of Religious Affairs Hassan Tahboob has said that Jews should be prohibited from blowing the shofar at the Western Wall (IMRA, Sept. 24, 1996) and should be prevented from coming any closer than two meters from the Wall (IMRA, Nov.23, 1997).

The PA's Deputy Minister of Islamic Endowments, Sheikh Yousef Salama, said (Jerusalem Times, Nov.12, 2001): "The name Al-Aqsa refers to the entire campus comprising mosques, prayers halls, and Al-Buraq Wall [the Western Wall], named as such in reference to the beast Prophet Mohammed tied to it on his nocturnal journey to heaven. As for the 'Wailing Wall', it exists nowhere."

The Tomb of Rachel:
Fatah and the PA security forces have carried out constant shooting attacks and firebomb attacks on the Tomb of Rachel, in Bethlehem. The PA's Deputy Minister of Islamic Endowments, Sheikh Yousef Salama, said (Jerusalem Times, Nov.12, 2001): "The Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque, which the Zionists refer to as 'Rachel's Tomb'...is a purely Muslim site."

The Shalom al-Yisrael synagogue:
On October 12, 2000, Palestinian Arabs burned down the ancient Shalom al-Yisrael synagogue in Jericho, which is PA-controlled territory. PA forces physically prevented Israeli fire-fighters from reaching the scene (Ha'aretz, Oct. 13, 2000)

Attacks on Synagogues:
On Yom Kippur (October 2000), Palestinian Arabs attacked and desecrated the Tiferet Zion synagogue in Ramleh, synagogues in Jaffa, Haifa, and elsewhere. Palestinian Arabs also attacked the Tiferet Avot synagogue in Efrat, desecrating religious objects and defacing its walls with swastikas and the slogans "Hitler knew how to deal with vermin" and "All honor to Jibril Rajoub" (the PA security chief). In an earlier attack, Palestinian Arabs destroyed a synagogue near Beit El on August 13, 1995, and set fire to its Torah scroll and prayer books.

Attacks on Jewish Cemeteries & Graves of Talmudic Sages:
* There have been repeated Palestinian Arab attacks on the ancient Jewish cemetery on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.

* There have been repeated Palestinian Arab attacks on the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron.

* In October 2000, Arabs burned and desecrated the grave site of the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Baba, the Tomb of Rabban Shimon, and an adjacent ancient synagogue, near the town of Shfaram.

Obstructing Access to Other Jewish Holy Sites: The PA regularly impedes the access of Jewish worshippers to the 16 additional Jewish holy sites that are situated in PA-controlled territory, including the tombs of the biblical patriarch Joshua, Nun (Joshua's father), and Calev Ben-Yefuneh (Joshua's close comrade), all in Kifl Harit; the grave of the biblical judge Otniel ben Kenaz, in Hebron; the tombs of Ruth (central figure in the biblical Book of Ruth), Avner (biblical military leader during the era of King Saul and King David), and Yishai (father of King David), all in Hebron; the grave of the biblical prophet Amos, near Tekoah; the Tomb of Noah, in Dura; the tombs of Elazar and Itamar (sons of Aaron the High Priest), in Awarta; the graves of the biblical prophet Natan and Gad the King's Seer, in Halhoul; the ancient synagogue in Yata; the graves of the biblical prophets Ovadiah and Elisha, near Sebastia; the ancient Na'aran synagogue, near Jericho; and the ancient synagogue in Gaza.


III. The Palestinian Authority's Promotion of Hatred of Jews and Judaism:

(A) Examples from official PA school textbooks:

* "Jews are evil":
"Why do the Jews hate Muslim unity and want to cause division among them? Give an example of the evil attempts of the Jews, from events happening today."
--from Islamic Education for Seventh Grade, p.19

* "The fanaticism of the Jews":
"Write in your exercise book: An event showing the fanaticism of the Jews in Palestine against Muslims or Christians."
--from Islamic Education for Ninth Grade, p. 182

* "Jews kill Muslims and Christians":
"The Jews have killed Muslim and Christian inhabitants of Palestine, whose inhabitants are still suffering oppression and persecution under racist Jewish administration."
--from Islamic Education for Ninth Grade, #589, p.182

* "Jews are treacherous":
"One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal."
--Islamic Education for Ninth Grade, p.79

* "Jews are the enemies of the Prophets":
"Learn from this lesson: I believe that the Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers."
--from Islamic Education for Fourth Grade, Part 2, p.67

* "Jews are evil racists":
" 'Racism': Mankind has suffered from this evil both in ancient as well as in modern times, for, indeed, Satan has, in the eyes of many people, made their evil actions appear beautiful...Such a people are the Jews."
--from Islamic Education for Eighth Grade, p.95

* "The Jews fought Mohammed":
"The Jews adopted a position of hostility and deception towards the new religion [Islam]. They called Mohammed a liar and denied him; they fought against his religion in all ways and by all means, a war that has not yet ended until today, and they conspired with the hypocrites and polytheists against him, and they are still behaving in the same way."
--from Islamic Education for Seventh Grade, p.125

(B) Statements by PA officials and the PA media:

* "The Jewish lobby rules the USA":
An editorial on the PA's WAFA web site on May 24, 2002, complained that "the USA tries to reshape the Palestinian Leadership and opinion according to Sharon's desires and Israel planning and the Jewish Lobby that rules the USA Administration."
[see http://www.wafa.pna.net/EngText/24-05-2002/page001.htm]

* "The Jews killed Jesus":
Senior Arafat aide Bassam Abu-Sharif claimed in his March 20, 2002 column in the London-based Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Israeli soldiers shot at the statue of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, and added: "This was, of course, a failed attempt to murder peace, love, and tolerance, just as their forefathers tried to murder the prophetic message when they hammered their nails and iron stakes through the body of Jesus into the wooden cross." (Translation courtesy of MEMRI.)

* "Jews made Jesus & Arabs suffer":
The PA's WAFA news agency distributed a "news" article on Christmas Eve 2001, in which it quoted a Palestinian Arab resident of Bethlehem saying, "Jesus had suffered on the hands of the Jews and we and our President are facing the same now."
[see http://www.wafa.pna.net/EngText/24-12-2001/page004.htm]

* "The Jews killed Jesus like Sharon kills us":
An editorial on the web site of Arafat's Fatah movement on April 15, 2001 stated: "Today on April 15, 2001, while we are celebrating the days of Passover, Sharon's hostile acts remind us of what his predecessors did to Christ."
[see http://www.fateh.net/e_editor/01/150401.htm]

* The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:
An article in the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on January 25, 2001 cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Czarist Russian anti-Semitic forgery, as "proof" that Israel is trying to control the international media.

* "The Jews deceive the world":
Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, the PA-appointed Mufti (senior Muslim religious authority) of Jerusalem, told the German magazine Die Welt (Jan.17, 2001): "It is the art of the Jews to deceive the world." (Translation courtesy of the Middle East Media Research Institute.)

* "The Jews are descendants of Satan":
Excerpts from a religious program broadcast on official PA television on February 16, 1999: "The Jews are used to deceit... they fake the facts and changed the laws of Allah.... They faked the words of Allah and changed their religion and laws and they are the wicked. And whomever does not rule according to what Allah brought down, whomever rebelled against this... is the descendant of the Satans and he is worthy of receiving the punishment of the oppressors...They changed this Torah to an expression of the History of the Jews, and their history is full of guilt and crimes... they changed the grace of Allah into heresy and they faked this Torah..."

* "Corruption is the nature of the Jews":
From an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 7, 1998: "Corruption is part of the nature of the Jews. So much so that it is only on rare occasions that one finds corruption in which Jews were not behind it. Their intense love of money and accumulating wealth is well known and they do not care what method is used to achieve it. They are likely to use the lowliest and most convenient methods to achieve their objectives.... If one studies their history, it becomes apparent that the Jews were subjected to losses and expulsion as a result of their wickedness and their despicable acts. All this occurred after their true nature and their responsibility for destroying the world was revealed... Since this is their mode of behavior, they have focused their efforts on developing their plotting mentality, as they believe the secret of their survival lies in their control over the economies of the countries which opened their gates before them."

* "The Jews are the seed of Satan":
Excerpts from a religious program broadcast on official PA television on November 3, 1998: "There is no light nor teaching in their Torah today. Their Torah today is just a collection of writings in which those people wrote lies about God, His prophets and His teachings... the Jews are the seed of Satan and the devils."

* "Israel acts according to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion":
"'Netanyahu's Plan' completely matches the foundations of the greater Zionist plan which is organized according to specific stages that were determined when the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was composed and when Herzl along with Weizmann traveled around the world in order to determine the appropriate location for the implementation of this conspiracy," according to an article in the official Palestinian Authority (PA) newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Nov. 30, 1997.

* "The Jews seek to conquer the world":
The PA's Minister of Agriculture, Abdel Jawad Saleh, told the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Nov. 6, 1997 that "We must expose the Zionist-Colonialist plot and its goals, which destroy not only our people but the entire world."

* "Israel is Shylock":
"We do not want Shylock-style banks that empty our pockets, but national banks; we have had enough of the Shylock of the lands and settlements," said Hafez al-Barghouti, editor of the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, in a column on Nov. 5, 1997.

* "The Judaized Congress":
An article in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Nov.18, 1997 by its editor, Hafez al-Barghouti, referred to the United States Congress as "the Judaized Congress."

* "Netanyahu's Talmudic arrogance":
On Nov. 4, 1997, the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah published an official biweekly communique from Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement, which referred to Prime Minister Netanyahu's "outdated Talmudic arrogance and his absolute belief that he is the spoiled child of Brooklyn's nymphs."

* "The Jews spread death and spill blood":
An article in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Oct.31, 1997 condemned "those who spread death and murder and spill blood, and who are said to be our cousins and, like us, 'the children of Abraham,' despite the fact that Abraham did not immigrate to Poland, did not visit New York and New Jersey, and did not live in Russia."

* "Israel has a Talmudic quarrel-mongering mentality":
The Israeli government exhibits "a Talmudic quarrel-mongering mentality," according to an article in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Oct. 29, 1997. The column also referred to Prime Minister Netanyahu's "blood-sucking lips."

* "The Jews live by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion":
"These Zionists are not fit to establish a nation or to have their own language or even their own religion. They are nothing more than a hodgepodge," according to an article in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Sept. 2, 1997. Another article in the same issue claimed: "The Jews live by the Talmud and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The conflict between Muslim and Jews is an eternal conflict, similar to the conflict between mankind--the Muslims, and Satan--the Jews, and how unfortunate the Palestinians are that they have to serve as the Muslims' avant garde in the eternal battle of the Muslims and all the nations against the 'nation of Jews.'" (quoted in Ma'ariv, Sept. 12, 1997)

* "Chewing of the peace by the teeth of the Talmud":
"Netanyahu's claws of hatred dive into our Palestinian blood in search of oxygen-rich blood cells [with] fangs of hatred and the chewing of the peace by the teeth of the Talmud," declared a position paper by Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO, published in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Oct. 18, 1997.

* "The Jews are like Satan":
"The conflict between the Jews and the Muslims resembles the conflict between man and Satan," according to an article in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Sept. 1, 1997.

* "An enemy which bares its Jewish fangs":
On Aug. 6, 1997, the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah published an article which urged the PA to "protect its people and itself from an enemy which bares its Jewish fangs from the four corners of the earth."

* "Jews are stingy":
"Generosity is an Arab custom and stinginess is a Jewish custom," according to an article in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on Aug. 5, 1997.

* "The Jewish brain is cowardly":
An article in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on July 27, 1997 asserted that "the Jewish brain is cowardly" and referred to "the baseness of this reactionary and cruel American Jewish world."

* "Zionism's Talmudic offensive":
"Zionist racism reaches its peak with this Talmudic offensive, which tears the pages of the Koran, and which offends the Master of Prophets, Mohammed, and the Blessed Virgin," said Hasan Al-Kashef, director-general of the PA's Ministry of Information, in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on July 7, 1997.

* "Jesus was the victim of the roots of Talmudic extremism":
"Jesus was the victim of the roots of Talmudic extremism, which is currently waving a national flag, wearing a helmet of a national army and employing state-run terrorism by means of armed settlers and an army," said Hasan Al-Kashef, director-general of the PA's Ministry of Information, in the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah on July 7, 1997.


http://www.zoa.org/pubs/PAvsJewsAndChristians.htm

here is a good link that forces you to make a descision on whose lying...one side is and it is very clear to me which...

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/jenin020501.html

unlike the phantom "jenin massacre" which was said to be 500+ and was really according to semi-impartial muslim favoring un inspectors closer to 50 and mainly due to the fact the innocent casualties would not leave their homes and were forced to stay there as a human shield....

posted 01-20-2003 05:50 AM            

COURAGE TO REFUSE--COMBATANT'S LETTER

We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.
We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.
We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories, destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.
We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.
We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.
We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.
We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.
The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them.

AND
http://www.counterpunch.org/kaplan0502.html

May 2, 2002

Israeli Soldiers Resisting the Occupation
Why We Refuse to Fight
by Rami Kaplan

Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip can in no way be considered democratic. It oppresses 3.5 million people, denying them their basic human rights. My refusal to militarily participate in this occupation, on the other hand, is most certainly a democratic act.

It exercises my right to protest, as I strive to hold on to the values of justice and peace, and it sends a message to my government that it cannot use me as a tool for attaining every goal it decides upon. In doing so I am fulfilling my obligations as a moral citizen of the world. Every man and woman must decide where the boundaries of conscience lie, and my conscience does not permit me to fight today in the occupied territories.

The refusal of the 435 signatories to the "Courage to Refuse" letter, is a refusal to fight for continuation of the occupation, or, more precisely, for continuation of the settlements. It is a refusal to fight in a war of choice fueled by an extremist messianic ideology.

Make no mistake, Israel has no other reason for remaining in the occupied territories than to preserve the existing settlements, even when they are deep within Palestinian centers of population. Maybe the Palestinians are not interested in peace - one of the most commonly heard justifications for our recent invasions - and truly want to push us into the sea. Even then, we would be much better off defending ourselves from the 1967 borders rather than from inside the narrow alleys of Jenin, Ramallah and Bethlehem. This is why I think that the occupation runs against the most basic interests of the state of Israel, even to the extent of threatening its very existence.

As a concerned and involved citizen in a democratic regime, I see it as my right and duty to do all I can to save my country, the country I am willing to die for, from this dizzy descent into violence and mayhem.

This kind of struggle is not one to wage alone, and so when I heard that a group of reserve officers were organizing with the intention of publishing an open letter stating their categorical refusal to don their uniforms in the service of the occupation, I knew I had to join them.

For me, as for the others who have signed our letter, the decision was at once terribly difficult yet glaringly simple.

Difficult, because I am a Zionist. I served in the standing army for six years, and have since spent upward of 50 days a year in the reserves, and I have always equated love of the country with loyal service in the army. It was difficult to break rank, to look my fellow officers and soldiers in the eye and tell them that I would not join in their next campaign, in the war for the settlements, a war we chose, not one we had forced upon us.

Yet the decision was also easy. Both as a democrat and as a patriot, I had no other choice. It took me a long time to realize, to understand that not everything I learned during my long years as an officer was correct. The turning point was a tour of duty in the Gaza Strip a year ago. My soldiers committed no atrocities, but I could see the futility of our military presence there, and the daily injustices inherent in it.

Today I stand firm, confident that I am doing the right thing, hopeful that the group of soldiers currently demonstrating their tremendous courage to refuse, and spending long weeks in military prisons as a result, will help bring an end to the occupation.

The occupation is destroying Israel from within, it is destroying the Palestinians, and it is destroying those two nations' common future.

Rami Kaplan, aged 29, is a major in the Israeli armored corps and a leading activist in the Courage to Refuse group.

AND
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0417-07.htm

Published on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 in the Miami Herald
Why Some Soldiers Refuse to Fight
by Guy Grossman

For an Israeli officer, refusing to serve is one of the hardest decisions to make; in the current atmosphere of war, the pressure for solidarity is intense. Yet, at this time of crisis, it is a critical step to protect the very foundations of the state that I, as an Israeli, am sworn to defend.
I was reared on the Zionist values of self-sacrifice and commitment to my people's national survival, as well as on universal values of justice and human rights.

At 18, I volunteered for an elite paratrooper unit, became an officer and during my service spent 18 months in the occupied territories and three months in Lebanon. After four years of rigorous military service, I became one of Israel's 400,000 reserve soldiers, responsible for four to six weeks of duty a year.

The 11-year journey from enthusiastic recruit to refuser has been arduous and soul searching. It required challenging some of my country's cherished myths as well as a painful shift in identity. I was a hero, and now I am shunned, even called a traitor. But this step is necessary not only for my own conscience but also to protect the values on which Israel was founded.

I was the 11th Israeli reserve officer to join Ometz Le'sarev (Courage to Refuse) and sign the declaration that ''We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.'' At the same time, we declare our loyalty to the state and people of Israel and our willingness to ``continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel's defense.''

This decision required difficult confrontations with family and friends and a willingness to pay a high personal price. Some military comrades severed all ties with me, and 35 municipalities have decided not to employ refusers. As I write, 36 fellow refusers are serving sentences in military prison. Last week the Israeli attorney general raised the stakes by proposing the much more serious charge of treason.

Renowned Israeli author Amos Oz wrote in the April 7 Observer, ''Two wars are being fought in this region. One is a just war, and the other is both unjust and futile.'' I am willing to fight the just war for the survival of Israel.

HATRED IN KIDS' EYES

I refuse, however, to fight for the continued occupation of Palestinian land. This war is unjust. It saps my country's sanity and morality and corrupts its soul. There is not and can never be a benign occupation. For 11 years my friends and I risked our lives and sanity to perpetuate this unbearable reality -- the daily humiliations at checkpoints, the arbitrary closures and destruction of homes. I saw the kids grow up with hatred in their eyes -- eyes that I was ashamed to meet.

This war is also futile. During my service in the occupied territories, I realized that I was issuing commands with little bearing on the security of my country. Quite the opposite. As a patriot, it is my duty to speak the truth and tell my people that this continued war of folly is undermining my country's long-term security. It erodes our legitimacy and the world's support.

This ''war for the settlements'' does not deter the despicable scourge of Palestinian terror that strikes us almost daily in our buses, hotels and restaurants. Indeed, we have relentlessly stirred a cauldron of uncompromising hatred, which is gradually turning potential neighbors and partners into relentless foes. This futile war is unwinnable -- eventually we will withdraw, and the Palestinians will have their state.

A JUST WAR?

Confusing these two wars, the just and the unjust, exacts a terrible price. We fight in Jenin and Ramallah, but our politicians insist that that we are fighting the just war for our homes. Our leaders tell us that we will forever have to live by the sword and that where force has failed, more force will succeed.

But it is clear that all our tanks and fighter aircraft cannot impose a military solution. Confusing these two wars endangers Israel's long-term security, which rests on two pillars: the legitimacy of our country and our military effectiveness.

In fighting the unjust war, a war designed to delay the inevitable and defend the indefensible, we are eroding these fundamental pillars of security. We strengthen our enemies, lose international support and, worst of all, weaken our own morale. Tanks and aircraft are only as strong as each individual soldier's belief in the justice and morality of the mission.

As a patriot, it is my obligation to expose the confusion and say No to the unjust war. I refuse to serve in the occupied territories. It is not only my democratic right to refuse; it is my duty.

Ending the occupation and establishing secure, internationally recognized borders may not stop every terrorist attack, but it will start the process of cooling the cauldron. It may not stop every military threat, but we will confront any threat with courage, conviction and strong international support. This is the just war that I stand ready to fight.

WE LOVE ISRAEL

Our voice is growing louder every day. In January, 54 reservists signed the initial officers' letter, and today we number 417. We bring the message to our fellow citizens and American supporters that one can love Israel and yet criticize its misguided policies. We have seen the injustice and futility of the occupation with our own eyes and refuse to participate any longer.

We are articulating a different vision of Israel that draws from a proud Jewish and Zionist heritage. Refusal is not just saying No; it is a patriotic way of saying Yes to a secure, just and prosperous state of Israel.

Guy Grossman, a second lieutenant in the Israeli Defense Forces reserves, is a member of Courage to Refuse.
www.seruv.org.il
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