posted 10-07-2003 12:38 AM            

http://www.rense.com/general42/where.htm

posted 10-08-2003 07:33 PM            

http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/documents/Post100503/css/Post100503.htm

AND

Israel In Big Military Build-Up On Lebanon Border
Special to World Tribune.com
Middle East Newsline
10-8-3

posted 10-10-2003 05:28 PM            

Oct. 8, 2003
'This should be the last lesson I give the Air Force'
By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN

Outside Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yiftah Spector's house is a plastic bin filled with trash. On top of the heap is the Yediot Aharonot weekend magazine featuring the pilots, himself included, who have refused to participate in targeted killings.

Spector himself will not go quietly to the garbage can of history. His ferocious self-confidence and sense of mission prevent this man from falling to the wayside of contrition and regret.

Spector is the most senior of the signatories of the 27 pilots who refused to participate in targeted assassinations and advocated ending the occupation.

"I don't fly anymore. They threw me out," he told The Jerusalem Post this week, his bare feet up on his large wooden desk of his office, decorated with his own paintings. "I'm 63. The country isn't losing much. Until a week ago I was training flight instructors. The air force thought I was suitable for this task. But in light of my political expressions – not while I was wearing a uniform and not in a military framework – last Friday [OC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Dan] Halutz summoned me to his office and asked me for permission to end my flying.

"I felt this was something he needed to do for his own authority so I told him 'No problem.' I put my record and my reputation and my wings on the table for the future," said Spector.

And so ended the flying career of this living legend, a man who helped write the pages of Israel's history books for bad and for good, the man who taught most of the present commanders how to fly and tales of who's exploits are used to raise young pilots.

Spector pretends it doesn't hurt. Since signing what he calls the "declaration" and which the nation calls the "pilots' letter," he has been busy trying to explain why he agreed with their refusal to carry out "illegal and immoral orders" and condemn Israel's occupation of the territories for corrupting the country and undermining its security.

In many ways Spector is the epitome of "the new Jew," a son of a hero, a triple ace, a mythological fighter pilot turned painter and sculpture who led squadrons into some of the most fateful battles of the Jewish state. If pilots were the elite of Israel, he symbolizes the elite of the elite. He is the son of one of the "23 men in the boat," a group that was sent in World War II to demolish oil installations in Lebanon (at the time under Nazi-puppet Vichy French control) and were never heard of again. He participated in the attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.
So when a man like this signed on as the senior ranking officer among the 27 pilots refusing to do what they feel is illegal, the nation listens. The tidal wave of reaction hit him while he was in India visiting a friend.

"I am not a refuser, the contrary," he says. "Yes, I refuse to carry out an illegal order, but this is not being a refusnik. I fulfill the laws of the state. I pay taxes and have fought for the state every time they asked. I am not a refuser in the same way that a woman who refuses to be raped is not a refuser."

Spector relates how a few weeks ago a young pilot came to his house on a moshav in the center of the country with a letter. Spector was on his way to the airport for a trip abroad, but the pilot was persistent so he laid out the letter on his large white pine kitchen table and read it.

"'It's badly drafted,' I told him. 'Let me fix it. You are mixing two issues, one political and one legal.' The kid told me that the declaration had already been signed by a number of people. The kid pointed out to me that I had just said I agreed with it and it was up to me to make a decision. I agreed that we could not carry out illegal orders and I am at the head of a movement that says that the occupation is eroding us.

"'What is important for you, Mr. Spector. What are you, a lawyer?' I said to myself. 'Was this how you were raised? Or were you brought up concerned about human lives and principles?' I signed it.
"I didn't join this group. I signed a declaration. I have signed lots of declarations, but always as a civilian," he added. "No one will silence me."
But this argument rang hollow since some of the pilots were photographed wearing their flight suits and helmets. For the record, Spector said he opposed such a move.

Spector also rejects the claim that these principles of disobeying illegal orders were self evident among the entire military.

"Why should I and the other pilots strip off our shirts and start yelling like a mad man 'I don't want to kill!' Why? It's because these pilots and myself have a sense that this could happen. We have enough examples to tell us we are walking on the edge."

The timing of the pilot's letter came after the IAF deliberately undermined a strike on Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and top Hamas henchmen by choosing to use a smaller bomb that would reduce civilian casualties. Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon himself said that choice was made because that principle overrode the military objective.

Speaking to the Post on Tuesday, the day after Yom Kippur, Spector recalled the same day 30 years before. Commander of a vaunted 107th F-4 squadron, he said the situation on the second day of the Yom Kippur War was one of chaos close to collapse.

He himself had embarked three combat missions that day on both fronts. It took another week before he felt his squadron was back on its feet.

"We were like a boxer who had been hit in the nose and were striking out in all directions. There was a lack of faith," Spector said.

"Today I know what I am doing. Where as in the Yom Kippur War I didn't. I was carrying out orders from people who had lost their bearing. Then, I was serving the state. Today, I am a citizen and I am sovereign. I am a civilian and I am saying what I demand from my government," Spector says.

Spector says he knew the pilots' letter would become scandalous, but didn't foresee just how large of a splash it ultimately made. He blames this mainly on the way the IAF reacted. He believes Halutz should have summoned the pilots to his office to hear them out and chastise them quietly for introducing politics into their military service. Ironically, this is exactly the criticism the air force has of the pilots who chose a PR campaign instead of keeping their concerns in house.

"People are asking me why am I using the fact that I am a pilot to express political opinions? I don't think that the only one who can express opinions on bad command are bereaved parents," Spector says.

Spector has no qualms about raising the background to the purity of arms in the IDF, mentioning Deir Yassin, Kibya, and Kafr Kasim where Israeli fighters killed civilians.

"The prime minister was involved in some of these," he notes. "We are fighting against a civilian population because our government doesn't have any solution other than using brute force."
Spector says that if he were a Palestinian living under the oppression of Israel today he would strongly fight against it.

"My father fought against the British Mandate and against the Nazis. If I were an Arab, part of a people who were being treated like this I would fight it too."
He espouses a unilateral separation from the Palestinians to preserve the Jewish State.
Spector opened up his computer flight log. There have been very few like him in the IAF; nearly 7,000 flight hours, 8,500 sorties including 334 combat flights. A triple ace having shot down 15 enemy aircraft. Only one other Israeli pilot shot down more planes.

Spector says he did 47 days of reserve duty so far in 2003, and flew 110 times. The last flight?
"Gee, I don't remember, I think it was a night-time training flight with flight instructors."

He says he gave up his wings willingly, but notes others who have signed the letter have not coped as well.

"One of these kids phoned me and cried. They told him they are grounding him and he doesn't know what to do. I asked him how old he was, and he told me 25. I told him 'You've developed a spine, use it.'"

After a life of incredible victories he sacrificed his wings by joining a declaration whose benefits are shrouded in controversy. But he has no regrets.

"I left Halutz last Friday. I put my wings on the table and I told him take them," Spector says. "I want freedom to speak. He didn't let me go and we talked for two hours. I shook his hand and I told him 'Halutz, this should be the last lesson I give the air force.'"

Excerpts from the pilots' letter

"We, veteran and active pilots alike, who served and still serve the State of Israel for long weeks every year, are opposed to carrying out attack orders that are illegal and immoral of the type the State of Israel has been conducting in the territories...

"We, who were raised to love the State of Israel and contribute to the Zionist enterprise, refuse to take part in air force attacks on civilian population centers. We, for whom the Israel Defense Forces and the air force are an inalienable part of ourselves, refuse to continue to harm innocent civilians...

"These actions are illegal and immoral, and are a direct result of the ongoing occupation which is corrupting all of Israeli society...

"Perpetuation of the occupation is fatally harming the security of the State of Israel and its moral strength."

Source: Jerusalem Post
Published: October 8, 2003 Author: ARIEH O'SULLIVAN

posted 10-12-2003 05:33 PM            

Israeli Rafah Raid Leaves 1500 More Homeless
news24.com
10-12-3

GAZA CITY (AFP) -- About 1,500 people have been left homeless in Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza as a result of a major ongoing Israeli army operation, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on Sunday.

"We have had very, very significant damage to the refugee camp.

"This is well more than twice as much as has been destroyed in any other action," Peter Hansen, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told reporters here.

Hansen, who was speaking after inspecting the site on Sunday morning, said that his agency had yet to complete a definitive tally of the damage to property in the raid which has cost eight Palestinian lives.

But he said: "It would appear between 100 and 120 shelters/houses were completely destroyed and completely demolished. These shelters are homes to some 250-300 families.

"The damage is very, very extensive in three of the so-called blocks the camp is made into.

"If these initial estimates are correct, it will mean we will have some 1,500 persons added to the homeless roll in Rafah which already has some 6,000 people."

Hansen said that UNWRA would be setting up temporary shelters for the homeless but that it was not a long-term solution.

Eight Palestinians have been killed and about 80 injured during the operation launched Thursday night which Israel says is aimed at destroying tunnels used to smuggle in weapons from across the border with Egypt.

copyright Media24 Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1429075,00.html

posted 10-18-2003 08:14 PM            

Michigan Jews Hold Vigils Against Israeli Occupation
Anti-Occupation Is Not Anti-Semitic
Real Jews Despise Israeli Apartheid
By Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace
10-15-3

A small group of Jewish activists have organized to vigil in a solemn, dignified manner, the only conservative synagogue in Ann Arbor, Beth Israel Congregation. Our group is not completely Jewish -- many non-Jewish supporters have elected to stand with us out of their convictions, and we are grateful.

Vigils are scheduled for the start of worship services on Saturday mornings -- we have completed three vigils so far and look forward to many more.

We offer handouts describing who we are and why we are vigilling. Not many congregants take these, claiming that Sabbath regulations forbid them from taking paper.

The theory on vigilling is this: The goal is to stop U.S. funding of Israel's violent Occupation, now into its 37th year. To achieve this goal, we've got to get Congress to stop funds, and to stop signing those Nancy-Pelosi-we-stand-with-Israel resolutions that pop up every time AIPAC thinks their ox is gored. To get congress to stop funding, we've got to get AIPAC to reduce their lobbying efforts. To get AIPAC to stop lobbying, we've got to address the people who support AIPAC, The Jewish Federation, etc. And to get the people's attention, we've got to go where they go.

And they go to synagogue.

We recognize our approach is simple, but it is direct, and is intended to raise consciousness of those Americans who can possibly sway Congress with their influence and donations.

What I find amazing, is how many so-called "peace activists" are questioning our tactics. These detractors encapsulate the Silence that is overwhelming in the Jewish and Peace communities. Some comments have been personally offensive, but provide us the encouragement that our vigils must be effective; otherwise the comments wouldn't be so heated and personal. One Ann Arbor "progressive" claims that I have an ego problem.

Whether or not members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace have personal problems is not the point. The point is that detractors will use anything to focus the conversation away from the effects of Occupation. e.g. "Your vigils will harden hearts". "What do you hope to achieve by disturbing the sanctity of the Sabbath?" "You will make it harder for us working on the "inside" to do our work". "Please do not vigil on Rosh Hashana", etc.

Last year Dr. Sami Al-Arian spoke on campus here, and warned of this exact scenario. "Keep the conversation focused on the Occupation", he said. And now he's in prison. One voice is lost.

So before our voices are similarly lost, we want to speak as loudly as we can. And we ask EI to spread the word to other Jewish groups, even tiny ones, in cities and towns across the e-world. Here are two links to some coverage we have already enjoyed. And our statement is below.

JEWISH WITNESSES FOR PEACE STATEMENT

As Jews and friends of Jews who respect Judaism and its values, we feel a need to open discussion about the risks to Jews involved in the community's current support of the state of Israel and its actions. We contend that the actions of the Israeli government are antithetical to the precepts of Judaism and to the memory of those who perished in one of the worst of the 20th century's genocides.

Is the remembrance of our relatives enhanced by supporting the continuous confinement of Palestinians into smaller and smaller ghettos? Where in the Torah does it say that the demolition of another's home, built on their own property, is allowed? Does Judaism allow for requiring Palestinian women to deliver their babies at checkpoints because they are not allowed to travel to their doctor? Does it comfort you to know that now, by courtesy of the Israeli army, some Palestinian men have serial numbers marked on their arms just like our own relatives? Is there somewhere in the Talmud that justifies the killing of a family walking across their own field? Is the uprooting of a farmers olive trees on his land, and destroying his livelihood justified somewhere in the Torah or the Talmud? Certainly Isaiah had something to say about that subject. The situations in this paragraph happened because of actions by the Israeli government and have been reported in mainstream Israeli media. Some have happened with great regularity.

These questions must be discussed seriously in the Jewish community along with some more: will there be any moral authority left in Judaism after the support for the actions of the state of Israel? Will we be able to read thou shall not kill or thou shall not steal from the Torah without wincing? Can Judaism as a religion and the Jewish people survive its support of the policies of the state of Israel?

- If you wish to begin the discussion with us you may talk to us here or contact us at your convenience. Send contact information to: vigilannarbor@hotmail.com.

©2000-2003 electronicIntifada.net unless otherwise noted.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2060.shtml

posted 10-18-2003 08:56 PM            

Jews Are Not All Zionists
Jews Not Zionists.org
10-17-3

Contrary to common perception, Jewish anti-Zionism is not restricted exclusively to the well know Jewish anti-Zionist movements such as Satmar and Neturei Karta.

There are in fact many Jewish movements, groups and organizations whose ideology regarding Zionism and the so-called "State of Israel" is that of the unadulterated Torah position that any form of Zionism is heresy and that the existence of the so-called "State of Israel" is illegitimate.

No one has created antagonism between Torah and Zionism seeing that this antagonism is mutually inherent in the very nature of Torah and of Zionism respectively.

Zionism is wrong from the Torah viewpoint, not because many of its adherents are lax in practice or even anti-religious, but because its fundamental principle conflicts with the Torah.

Unfortunately, due to many undesirable factors, the view of Torah-true Jewry has been concealed from the general public.

We, the staff at www.jewsnotzionists.org are delighted that with the advance in media technology a substantial benefit to researchers, students, and the general public has been made available. We are elated at the advantage which the internet provides for the presentation of and accessibility to a position so widely held yet so deliberately ignored by many a Zionist-inclined medium.

It is our hope that the information presented on this site will be of benefit to all and that we soon merit the peaceful dismantlement of the so-called "State of Israel" and that Jewish-Muslim brotherhood be restored as prior to the arrival of the Zionist scheme on the global scene.
http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/

posted 10-23-2003 07:17 PM            

http://www.rense.com/general43/zizi.htm

AND

Israel To Build 100s New Homes In West Bank Settlements
By Gwen Ackerman
10-23-3

posted 10-27-2003 01:47 AM            

Thousands Evacuate As Israelis Level Big Buildings
Aljazeera.net
10-26-3

Forcing thousands of residents to leave their homes in the night, the Israeli army has blown up three Palestinian Authority buildings in the Gaza Strip.

Sunday's deafening explosion sent shock waves kilometres away. It was the largest such demolition since the start of the Intifada three years ago.

The 13-storey partly constructed buildings were dynamited after troops at night evacuated an estimated 2000 Palestinian residents from the Gaza Strip town of al-Zahra.

A flash of light was seen against the night sky as the simultaneous blasts sent all three buildings tumbling down and a cloud of grey smoke from the rubble rose into the air.

Apartments in Gaza City shook from the force of the blast which took place at about 02:30 (00:30 GMT) and could be felt across the border in Israel.

Message

"It was very accurate, very well done. I hope there is no collateral damage. I hope it will be a good message to the Palestinian Authority not to let their infrastructure be used for terror," said Brigadier-General Gadi Shammi, commander of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

Security sources said the buildings were used by Palestinian groups to observe troop movements before launching a resistance attack on the nearby Jewish settlement of Netzarim on Friday in which three soldiers were killed.

"It was very accurate, very well done. I hope there is no collateral damage."

Brigadier-General Gadi Shammi,
Israeli army

Leaflets in Arabic were distributed to residents in the hours before the explosion saying: "You must leave your homes immediately until the end of this operation.

"The army is going to blow up some sites. Please leave your windows open, turn off electrical devices and go to the southern part of your neighbourhood. Anyone who stays is risking his life. Anyone seen with a weapon will risk his life."

Friday attack

One security official said plans to demolish the buildings were drawn up about a year ago but the decision to implement them was taken only after Friday's attack, which was claimed by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"We gave them a chance," the source said. "We expect buildings owned by the Palestinian Authority will not be used for terrorist activities, but after the raid on Friday we saw that we could not let this go on."

Senior security sources said all the several hundred settlers living at Netzarim had taken refuge in bomb shelters while the Gaza buildings were being blown up.

Hundreds of Israeli troops, including demolition experts and humanitarian liaison officers, were deployed in the operation to evacuate residents living in a 400m radius of the three buildings earmarked for destruction.

Commanders monitored the situation on live video from a truck several kilometres from the scene.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3C7B312C-533D-4013-8D26-94E8B6AB1136.htm

posted 11-07-2003 03:14 AM            

Soldiers can shoot Gazans spying on Netzarim
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/357490.html

AND

posted 11-17-2003 02:34 AM            

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ending its emergency food programme in the West Bank, saying the economic collapse there is the direct result of Israeli military closures and that Israel must live up to its responsibility as the occupying power for the economic needs of the Palestinians.

The move comes as the Israeli media reported that Fran×ois Bellon, the Red Cross representative, told senior Israeli generalsthat the Palestinian Authority was on the verge of an "explosion" that could lead to "the worst ever humanitarian crisis" in the occupied territories.

Israel is concerned that other international organisations may follow the Red Cross, which would leave Israel to face the cost of providing the services they currently provide - a cost that some estimates put as high as $1.1bn (£650m) a year.

The Palestinian economy has collapsed under the weight of military closures of Palestinian cities, making it impossible for Palestinians to move their produce or travel to jobs in other cities or in Israel. Last year and early this year, curfews imposed for all but a few hours a week by the Israeli army made it impossible for Palestinians to work at all.

The Israeli government says the tight closure is needed to prevent Palestinian militants crossing into Israel to carry out suicide bombings and other attacks, but it has been accused of inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinians. Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli army's chief of staff, recently spoke out against the closure, saying it was increasing Palestinian resentment of Israel.

As a result of economic collapse, a fifth of Palestinian children are malnourished, according to a report last year by an American government aid agency. International aid organisations have stepped in to provide assistance. In the wake of the invasion and reoccupation of West Bank cities last April, the Red Cross launched an emergency food and essentials programme for Palestinians.

The organisation has spent $46m over the past year and a half providing food and such necessities as cooking oil and matches to around 300,000 of the most needy Palestinians in the West Bank. But now the ICRC says that must stop, and that Israel must live up to its responsibility as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention to meet the economic needs of the civilian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Vincent Bernard, an ICRC spokesman, said: "This was humanitarian relief designed to assist in a humanitarian emergency, not to address the longer-term problems caused by curfews, closures and the collapse of the economy that has occurred. It is not our responsibility to take care of the economic needs of the Palestinians. We have repeatedly said it is the responsibility of the occupying power."

Mr Bernard denied Israeli press reports that the food programme had been cancelled for budgetary reasons. "As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility to minimise the humanitarian consequences of its actions," he said. "You cannot go on for ever with the curfews and closures which are destroying the Palestinian economy. They have to find a different way to guarantee their security. If they lifted these security measures, the Palestinian economy, though damaged, would start again."

Mr Bernard refused to comment on a report in Ha'aretz newspaper that Mr Bellon had told senior Israeli generals at a recent meeting that the Palestinians were on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. But it is an assessment with which senior officers in the Israeli army are believed to agree.

For the time being, the UN's World Food Organisation has stepped into the breach, setting up an alternative food programme until next summer.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=464142