Ynet News: 'Murdered simply for being a Jew'

Preface

The "Oslo agreement" is talking about free Jews entarnce to "Joseph's Tomb". Here is the part of the document:

Hanan

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Thousands bid farewell to Ben-Yosef Livnat, who was killed Sunday morning in a shooting at Joseph's Tomb, allegedly by Palestinian policemen. 'It was cold-blooded murder,' says victim's aunt Sports and Culture Minister Limor Livnat. Brother of teen injured in incident: 'They knew what they were getting into, and level of risk involved, but they wanted action'

Yair Altman Published: 04.24.11, 16:31 / Israel News

'Just wanted to pray.' Ben-Yosef Livnat Photo: Curtesy of The Shomron Settlers' Committee

Thousands gathered at Mount Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem to bid farewell to Ben-Yosef Livnat, who was killed Sunday morning in a shooting at Joseph's Tomb, presumably by Palestinian policemen.

Among the participants were right-wing activists, rabbis and public figures, as well as Sports and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, who is Ben-Yosef's aunt.

Windshield sustained bullet holes Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg

Prior and during the funeral procession, participants shouted "vengeance," but Noam Livnat, the victim's father, said "revenge is irrelevant because the perpetrators will get what they rightfully deserve."

 
Limor Livnat's father, Azriel Livnat, compared Ben-Yosef's death to that of Shlomo Ben-Yosef, the first Jew executed by the British authorities during the mandate period.
 

Funeral procession (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

A member of the settlement project told Ynet that "even if they find the murderers, they will probably sit in prison, get an academic degree on the expense of the tax payer, earn the respect of their own people for being Jew killers and eventually find their way back to freedom in this or the other deal, just like what happened in the Itamar massacre."

No eulogies were made due to the holiday, but Sports and Culture Minister Limor Livnat said over her nephew's fresh grave: "I woke up this morning and received a phone call from Ben-Yosef's mother, who told me that he was murdered by a terrorist masked as a Palestinian police officer.

Limor Livnat and Ben-Yosef's grandfather (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"It was cold-blooded murder. Ben-Yosef went to pray with other Jews, and he was murdered simply for being a Jew," she said.

"It's hard to grasp these things. This is why that area should be under the control of Israel. My own private nephew, a personal sacrifice, I hope that he's the last victim," she said.

'Went withut rabbi's permit'

Meanwhile, the police asked the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court to remand three Breslov Hasidim, aged 19 from Jerusalem and Bnei-Brak, for five days, for violating a restricted military zone order.

The motion said that the three, along with 15 other hasidim, entered the Joseph Tomb compound on Sunday morning sans the proper permits. The act resulted in the shooting incident that left one Israeli dead and five others injured.

The Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court ordered to release the three under a two-day house arrest.

The court permitted the three to attend prayer services with the escort of family members and ordered them to pay bail of NIS 5,000 each (about $1,400).

The 17-year-old brother of one of the wounded men arrived at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, where they have been hospitalized.

"They knew what they were getting into, and the level of risk involved. But they considered it as action," the brother told Ynet.

"They only wanted to pray; sometimes fate can be pretty bad and unpleasant," he said, adding "they have a rabbi that coordinates these entries. This time they came without a permit or authorization of the rabbi.

"When the visits are coordinated nothing happens – the rabbi looks after us. However this time the rabbi wasn’t there with them; it was a crime for them to enter the tomb without the rabbi or a permit," noted the brother.

Raanan Ben-Zur contributed to this report

Ynet News: Mideast without Christians

Op-ed: Christians must realize Israel’s fate intertwined with fate of non-Muslims in region

Giulio Meotti Published: 04.18.11, 21:14 / Israel Opinion

This is the saddest Easter in the long epic of Arab Christianity: The cross is near extinction in the lands of it origin. The much-vaunted diversity of the Middle East is going to be reduced to the flat monotony of a single religion, Islam, and to a handful of languages.

Protests in Egypt (Archives) Photo: AP

In 1919, the Egyptian revolution adopted a green flag with the crescent and the cross. Both Muslims and Christians participated in the nationalist revolution against British colonialism. Now, according to the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights, more than 70 Christians a week are asking to leave the country due to Islamist threats.

The numbers are telling. Today there is only one Middle Eastern country where the number of Christians has grown: Israel. As documented in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the Christian community that numbered 34,000 people in 1949 is now 163,000-strong, and will reach 187,000 in 2020.

In the rest of the Middle East, the drive for Islamic purity is going to banish all traces of pre-Islamic pasts. This has affected not only Christians, but other non-Islamic communities too, such as the Zoroastrians and Baha’is in Iran (the late also found refuge in Israel, in Haifa.)

The silence of the global forums, the flawed conscience of human rights groups, the self-denial of the media and the Vatican’s appeasement is helping facilitate this Islamist campaign. According to a report on religious freedom compiled by the US Department of State, the number of Christians in Turkey declined from two million to 85,000; in Lebanon they have gone from 55% to 35% of the population; in Syria, from half the population they have been reduced to 4%; in Jordan, from 18% to 2%. In Iraq, they will be exterminated.

Should the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continue in the next two or three decades, there may be no clergy left to conduct religious services in Jesus’ birthplace. In Iran, Christians have become virtually non-existent since 1979, when Khomeini ordered the immediate closure of all Christian schools. In Gaza, the 3,000 who remain are subjected to persecution. In Sudan, Christians in the South are forced into slavery.

Israel’s flag a symbol of hope

In Lebanon, the Maronites, the only Christians to have held political power in the modern Arab world, have been reduced to a minority because of Muslim violence and Hezbollah’s rise. In Saudi Arabia, Christians have been beaten or tortured by religious police. Benjamin Sleiman, archbishop of Baghdad, is talking about “the extinction of Christianity in the Middle East.”

The Christian Egypt was symbolically represented by former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a Christian married to a Jewish woman whose sister was the wife of Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban. In 1977, Boutros-Ghali, who was then Egypt’s foreign minister, accompanied President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem.

Sadat, who as a child had attended a Christian school, was killed because the treaty his signed with the “Zionists,” among other reasons, and his cold peace is now under attack from the new rulers in Cairo.

In 1948, the Middle East was cleansed of its ancient Jews. Today is the Christians’ turn. Just as Islamist totalitarians have ruthlessly persecuted Christians in the Middle East, they have been waging war for the past 63 years to destroy the Jewish state in their midst. That’s why the fate of Israel is intertwined with the fate of the non-Muslim minorities.
 
Should the Islamists prevail, the Middle East will be completely green, the colour of Islam. Under atomic and Islamist existential threats, the remnant of the Jewish people risks being liquidated before Israel’s centennial in 2048. It’s time for Christians to recognize that Israel’s survival is also critical and vital for them. During the Holocaust, when most Christians were bystanders or collaborators, the Yellow Star was a symbol of death for the Jews. Today, the white flag with the beautiful six pointed star is a symbol of survival and hope for both Jews and Christians.

Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism

Glenn Beck peels the scorching onion (truth is scorching)

Recently I was watching Glenn Beck's shows. I was astonished by his brilliant interpretation of what is going on in our world. Glenn peeled off the onion leaf after leaf as truth is exposed in is most bitterness, scorching as a fresh onion.

He peeled of the true face of the US president Barack Obama and his staff of advisors and cabinet. He peeled off the combined plan of the extreme Islam to dominate the world starting with the middle east by wiping off Israel from the map. Isn't it a kind of the "Protocols of the eldest of Muslims" (with the analogy to what is claimed as "The protocols of Eldest of Zion")? The Protocols of the Eldest of Zion" is a fiction while the plan according Islam is to Islamize the world either by good will or by the Jihad sward. This is not a fiction, it is written in blood today, it was written in blood in the past and it will be written in the future.

I still wonder if friendship can be established in such circumstances. More generations must pass to wait for that moment.

You can watch the shows attached hereby. I hope you'll watch all of them.

















































If this is not the truth or almost the truth, than what is the truth?

Ynet News: Itamar massacre solved; 2 arrested

Preface

In relation to the slaughtering of the five members of the Fogel family in Itamar, including a 3 months baby girl, Israeli security forces managed to fing and arrest the beasts who did it. The sights from the butchery arena can be viewed here: http://friendship-prior-peace.blogspot.com/2011/03/pictures-and-video-clips-from-itamar.html.

Another reason to reject "Freindship" while the Palestinians are still teaching their youth the hatred of Jews.

Is this the vision of Islam?
Is this called Jihad?
Palestinians must wash their own dirty laundry. No one will do it for them. Till then, no one in the world will be able to like them except the leftist and anarchist hypocrites.
Is our world a safer pleace to live with such beasts?
Cold blooded beast who slaughtered a 3 month baby girl.

Hanan
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Joint investigation of Fogel family murder by Shin Bet, IDF and police culminates in the arrest of two Palestinians. Both suspects admit involvement in terror attack; say they wanted to 'die martyrs' death'

Hanan Greenberg Published: 04.17.11, 12:21 / Israel News

Cleared for Publication: Shin Bet, IDF and police have arrested two Palestinians, both residents of the village of Awarta, in connection to the Fogel family massacre in Itamar in March.

The first suspect is Hakim Mazen Awad, 18, a high school student whose father was active in the Popular Front terror organization. Awad has a prison record. His uncle, who was killed in clashes with IDF forces in 2003, was involved in a June 2002 terror attack in Itamar, which left five dead.

Hakim Mazen Awad Photo courtesy of the Shin Bet

The second suspect, Amjad Mahmad Awad, 19, also a student, is affiliated with the Popular Front.

Amjad Mahmad Awad Photo courtesy of the Shin Bet

The two suspects confessed to their involvement in the murders, and said that they sought to carry out a terror attack in order to kill Israelis. They expressed no regret over the murders.

The Shin Bet arrested the two subsequent to a strenuous investigation, which included the interrogation of multiple persons of interest in the case.

On April 5 and April 10, IDF forces arrested Amjad and Hakim. The investigation into the attack revealed that the two decided to carry out a terror attack and attempted to acquire weapons three days before the March 11 attack.

In order to obtain the weapons they turned to a Popular Front militant in their village, but he refused to acquiesce to their request. And yet, at midday on Friday March 11, they decided that they would go to Itamar that night, armed with knives and carry out the attack.

Masterminds of evil

At approximately 9:00 pm the two cut the settlement fence and entered its ground, masked. At first, they entered a neighboring house, found it empty, and stole an M-16 rifle, clips and a Kevlar vest. From there they moved onto the Fogel home.

Before entering the house the murderers noticed that there were children in the home. Undeterred, they still chose to proceed, killing two of the children immediately after breaking in. Parents Ehud and Ruth were murdered next. According to the investigation's report, the two struggled with their attackers before succumbing to multiple shotgun wounds.

Before fleeing the scene, the two stole an additional gun from the Fogel home. When they had already left the house and saw a patrol car outside, they feared they would be captured. At that point, Amjad insisted on going back into the house and searching for additional weapons. Unfortunately, this was when the Fogel's baby girl started crying. Fearing it would attract attention, the two murdered her, as well.

As for the two surviving children, the murderers said they hadn't noticed them. Had they found the two, both said, they would not have hesitated to kill them, as well.

The Fogel family home after the attack

The heinous deed done, the two, who are not related, returned to their village on foot and appealed to Hakim's uncle, Salah Awad, also a Popular Front militant, for assistance, giving him a detailed report of the attack they had carried out.

Salah Awad helped them conceal their weapons and bloodstained clothes, and later, he transferred the stolen weapons to a Ramallah resident, for hiding. The latter was arrested after the weapons were discovered in his possession.

Israeli security forces also arrested five of the two's family members and friends in connection to the case.

Complex investigation, chilling reenactment

The Shin Bet noted that even though the murderers are affiliated with the Peoples Front, it appears that they acted of their own accord and were not following orders. The issue is still under investigation.

A senior Shin Bet official said that the massacre had the characteristics of a "lone-terrorist" attack and even though it was carried out by two people, it was difficult to receive any information in advance which could have prevented the attack.

A senior Shin Bet official said that the massacre had the characteristics of a 'lone terrorist' attack and even though it was carried out by two people, obtaining intelligence to thwart such attacks in extremely difficult.

Sources familiar with the investigation said the two offered a dispassionate account of the attack, and "a chilling reenactment." Shin Bet officers described it as one of the most "shocking, cold, remorseless and detailed description," they had ever come across.

Amjad noted that he went to Itamar to "die a martyr's death", which strengthened his willingness to carry out an act of terrorism. During their interrogation the two suspects made no distinction between the murder of the parents and the children, describing it simply as an act against five Jewish Israelis.

The village of Awarta, with 8,000 residents is known as a breeding ground for terror and has quite a few hostile elements. Nevertheless, following the massacre and the series of arrests carried out by the defense establishment, the residents renounced the massacre and even attempted to point the blame away from the village.

The Shin Bet said that in spite of the time that passed between the murder and the case's resolution, it was a major achievement.

Following today's discoveries, Ruth Fogel's brother, Yochai Ben Yishai told Ynet: "We are very proud of the State and the security services. But on a personal level, there is no consolation, the pain remains sharp."

Yishai added that "the capture of he murderers gives us a sense of satisfaction on a national level but we must get to a point where these people are deterred before they take action and not just apprehended after the murder."

Ynet News: Hamas: Body of kidnapped activist found

Preface

Can we trust the Palestinians and make with such people peace?
Can we trust those evil Muslims?
Are they human beings?
Are they beasts?
Where are those so called moderate Muslims to speak?
Muslims among themselves must vomit from their society the evil. If not then their moderate destiny is sealed with blood from their own brothers.
Who can be a friend of such people?

Another good reason to close this "Friendship prior Peace" web blog.

Hanan
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(Video) Body of International Solidarity Movement member kidnapped in Strip said to be found in Gaza City, mere hours after news of abduction break. Hamas police arrest two suspects

News agencies Latest Update: 04.15.11, 05:57 / Israel News

VIDEO - The body of an Italian pro-Palestinian activist abducted Thursday by Islamic extremists has been found hanged in a Gaza City house, after a clash between Hamas police and the abductors, Hamas officials said in the early hours of Friday morning.

The officials said Hamas police stormed an apartment in Gaza City belonging to a member of the extremist group that released a video of the activist. Hamas police said they found the man dead from an apparent hanging. Security officials added that two men were arrested and others were being sought in the killing.

The International Solidarity Movement had identified the kidnapped activist as Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, a member from Italy. An Italian doctor was reportedly on his way from Israel to examine the body, a Hamas official said.

Arrigoni, a pacifist and blogger, had lived in the Gaza Strip for some time. Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, identified him as one of the group's members. Arrigoni had not been heard from in the past 24 hours, Arraf said.

Italy's government condemned Arrigoni's kidnapping and "brutal murder" on Friday.
 

Arrigoni in the Gaza Strip (Photo: AP)

The Italian foreign ministry "denounces in the strongest manner the act of vile and senseless violence committed by extremists who are indifferent to the value of human life," a statement said.

The ministry expressed "its deep horror over the barbaric murder and its most sincere condolences to the family."

Arrigoni's abduction was first kidnapping of a foreigner since Hamas overran Gaza in 2007. In the past, all foreign kidnap victims in Gaza had been released unharmed.

According to accounts, Gaza police were surrounding the small house where the clash took place. A police officer said the body was inside, adding that two people were arrested in another location in connection with the abduction, and a third was being sought.

A video released earlier Thursday night showed a man with a thick black blindfold and a large bruise on his face. Apparently seated, he was held in front of the camera by an unseen person.

Video posted by kidnappers

 
In a message on the video, an extremist group calling itself "Monotheism and Holy War" demanded that Hamas free its leader, Sheikh Abu Walid-al-Maqdasi, who was arrested in early March; and two other members whose names had not been previously known. The Hamas government had no immediate reaction.

Early Friday, the group – beleaived to be affiliated with al-Qaeda – posted a statement on its website denying responsibility for the abduction.

Before the body was found, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was aware of the kidnapping, was in touch with Arrigoni's family and was taking steps to ensure his safety. "Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is in touch with diplomats in the country and is following the situation with great attention," the statement said.

'A heinous murder'

Hamas' Interior Ministry called a special press conference following the recovery of the Italian peace activist's body in Gaza.

The ministry denounced the act: "This is a heinous murder which does not represent our religion, values and costume," it said in a statement, adding the act "harms the Palestinian people's goals." Hamas police have launched a full inquiry in the case.

Hamas itself is a fundamentalist Islamic group, but it faces challenges from even more extremist offshoots of Islam, including Walid-al-Maqdasi's group, that take inspiration from al-Qaida and the world jihad movement. Hamas has denied that al-Qaeda has a presence in Gaza.

Kidnappings of foreigners were common before the Hamas takeover. Most of those abducted were foreign correspondents, including Alan Johnston of the BBC, who was abducted and held for 114 days before being freed in July 2007, just after Hamas overran Gaza, expelling forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

ISM operates in the West Bank and Gaza and is known for trying to prevent the Israeli military from carrying out its missions. Arraf said this activist has been going in and out of Gaza for more than two years. He was working with farmers and fishermen.

The ISM incident that got the most attention was the 2003 death of American activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in southern Gaza while trying to block its path.

'Fighting an occupation is in my DNA'

Since his murder, online videos of an interview Arrigoni held earlier this year have surfaced on the internet.

"I arrived in Gaza on August 23, 2009 on a boat of the Free Gaza Movement with about 40 activists from 17 different countries," he said. "We arrived and broke a siege lasting since 1967. I remember this day as one of the happiest in my life."

Arrigoni said he came from a family of partisans. "My grandfathers died fighting an occupation, another occupation, the Nazi-fascist occupation in Italy. For this reason, my DNA, my blood probably has parts pushing me to fight for freedom and human rights."

Arrigoni said that there are people who are willing to devote their lives to support the people in Gaza despite their governments' complaisance and "cooperation with the Zionist-Israeli regime."
 
He said that he and his friends came to Gaza to "face the snipers as a human shield" and did what the UN should be doing to enforce international law.

Elior Levy, Reuters and AFP contributed to this report

This is what Vitorio Aggrosini was thinking.

Ynet News: Actor Juliano Mer-Khamis shot dead in Jenin

Preface

I cannot simply understand the behavior of the Palestinians. They are murdering in the same speed as slaughtering a goat. I have no other words but just to describe those people as the garbage of humanity. A man came to make their situation better and they just spit into the well, sorry shit (I have no other expression at the moment) into their drinking well.

They simply murdered a man of friendship and those are the people we need to deal with them peace. I don't want to dig deeper into their culture and faith which encouraged them to be easy on their guns to their own brothers and friends. So how easy will be their gun against the infidel Jews? It is no wonder if clerics and leaders like Erdogan, Mahathir and other radical anti-Semitic Muslim leaders are brainwashing their minds. They are the cancer of themselves. Just watch what Muslims are doing to Muslims. It is related to the religion. Not all Muslims are terrorists but almost all terrorists are Muslims. Just for that reason of being easy to murder and kill, the Muslims will be punished with a great bloodshed in a brother's war in a very short time. This is not my punishment, it is a divine punishment. They will face darkness for centuries.

In this case we don't need friendship, we don't need peace, not that prior this nor this prior that.

I'm about to change my blog name or remove it from the web. I simply don't want to be a friend of any Palestinian. They should learn first the minimal human behavior.

Hanan Leshnovolsky

Israeli-Arab actor, a pro-Palestinian activist, has received death threats for establishing theater

Elior Levy Published: 04.04.11, 17:27 / Israel News

The Israeli-Arab actor Juliano Mer-Khamis was shot to death in Jenin, Palestinian police in the West Bank announced.

The actor was shot by a masked man who fired five bullets at him as he was exiting his car in the neighborhood in which he resides, afterwards fleeing the scene, police say. Mer-Khamis has resided in Jenin and Haifa alternately.

Civil Administration officials say his body has been transferred to the Abu-Kabir Forensic Institute.

The 52-year old Mer-Khamis, a pro-Palestinian political activist born to a Jewish mother and Arab father, has previously received death threats after establishing a theater at Jenin refugee camp.

The refugee camp disseminated fliers in 2009 calling the actor a fifth column. "If words don't help we will have to speak in bullets," the fliers said.

The theater, which became one of the city's main culture centers since its establishment five years ago, has sustained many firebomb attacks. In April of 2009 the theater's door was torched.

The Washington Post: Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes

The Washington Post: Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes

By Richard Goldstone, Friday, April 1, 8:42 PM

We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.

The final report by the U.N. committee of independent experts — chaired by former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis — that followed up on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report has found that “Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza” while “the de facto authorities (i.e., Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.”

Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and “possibly crimes against humanity” by both Israel and Hamas. That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.

The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

For example, the most serious attack the Goldstone Report focused on was the killing of some 29 members of the al-Simouni family in their home. The shelling of the home was apparently the consequence of an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image, and an Israeli officer is under investigation for having ordered the attack. While the length of this investigation is frustrating, it appears that an appropriate process is underway, and I am confident that if the officer is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly. The purpose of these investigations, as I have always said, is to ensure accountability for improper actions, not to second-guess, with the benefit of hindsight, commanders making difficult battlefield decisions.

While I welcome Israel’s investigations into allegations, I share the concerns reflected in the McGowan Davis report that few of Israel’s inquiries have been concluded and believe that the proceedings should have been held in a public forum. Although the Israeli evidence that has emerged since publication of our report doesn’t negate the tragic loss of civilian life, I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.

Israel’s lack of cooperation with our investigation meant that we were not able to corroborate how many Gazans killed were civilians and how many were combatants. The Israeli military’s numbers have turned out to be similar to those recently furnished by Hamas (although Hamas may have reason to inflate the number of its combatants).

As I indicated from the very beginning, I would have welcomed Israel’s cooperation. The purpose of the Goldstone Report was never to prove a foregone conclusion against Israel. I insisted on changing the original mandate adopted by the Human Rights Council, which was skewed against Israel. I have always been clear that Israel, like any other sovereign nation, has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within. Something that has not been recognized often enough is the fact that our report marked the first time illegal acts of terrorism from Hamas were being investigated and condemned by the United Nations. I had hoped that our inquiry into all aspects of the Gaza conflict would begin a new era of evenhandedness at the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted.

Some have charged that the process we followed did not live up to judicial standards. To be clear: Our mission was in no way a judicial or even quasi-judicial proceeding. We did not investigate criminal conduct on the part of any individual in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank. We made our recommendations based on the record before us, which unfortunately did not include any evidence provided by the Israeli government. Indeed, our main recommendation was for each party to investigate, transparently and in good faith, the incidents referred to in our report. McGowan Davis has found that Israel has done this to a significant degree; Hamas has done nothing.

Some have suggested that it was absurd to expect Hamas, an organization that has a policy to destroy the state of Israel, to investigate what we said were serious war crimes. It was my hope, even if unrealistic, that Hamas would do so, especially if Israel conducted its own investigations. At minimum I hoped that in the face of a clear finding that its members were committing serious war crimes, Hamas would curtail its attacks. Sadly, that has not been the case. Hundreds more rockets and mortar rounds have been directed at civilian targets in southern Israel. That comparatively few Israelis have been killed by the unlawful rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in no way minimizes the criminality. The U.N. Human Rights Council should condemn these heinous acts in the strongest terms.

In the end, asking Hamas to investigate may have been a mistaken enterprise. So, too, the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds.

I continue to believe in the cause of establishing and applying international law to protracted and deadly conflicts. Our report has led to numerous “lessons learned” and policy changes, including the adoption of new Israel Defense Forces procedures for protecting civilians in cases of urban warfare and limiting the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas. The Palestinian Authority established an independent inquiry into our allegations of human rights abuses — assassinations, torture and illegal detentions — perpetrated by Fatah in the West Bank, especially against members of Hamas. Most of those allegations were confirmed by this inquiry. Regrettably, there has been no effort by Hamas in Gaza to investigate the allegations of its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Simply put, the laws of armed conflict apply no less to non-state actors such as Hamas than they do to national armies. Ensuring that non-state actors respect these principles, and are investigated when they fail to do so, is one of the most significant challenges facing the law of armed conflict. Only if all parties to armed conflicts are held to these standards will we be able to protect civilians who, through no choice of their own, are caught up in war.

The writer, a retired justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former chief prosecutor of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, chaired the U.N. fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.

The Tulip mania effect and the approaching mortal of the Israeli Arab conflict

The Tulip mania effect and the approaching mortal of the Israeli Arab conflict

Dr. Guy Bechor, 7-March-2011
(Translation from Hebrew: Hanan Leshnovolsky)

The fantasized “Israel” and the struggle against it were used as a tool by regimes to unite the sections, tribes, communities and the peoples they ruled. But today the masses are not buying anymore that lie, which is tagged, not for good, with the old regimes. The masses always knew that this struggle is artificial and fake, but they needed to devote themselves to the governing anti-Israeli fantasy. Nowadays it is not bothering them anymore. They have a more vital intimidation like survival. In front of us there are ten rare tulips with a raising price tag.

There is an effect in the rarity law of economics: Removing an item off the market creates an immediate value. Its price will rise. During the 17th century in Holland, the upper class wanted to transform the tulip from a regular flower into a social and economical status icon. They made the flower rare and almost impossible to get. By doing this they were able to create so called “Tulip Mania”, which means the tremendousness for the tulip. A single tulip value was higher than its value in the weight of gold.

The greater is the quest, the greater is the tulip’s value. From a simple flower it became a social-economical phenomenon, a status grade, a condition, a declaration. This is what means “The tulip effect”. And now it is our (Israel) turn: We experience the “Tulip Effect”.

Quietly, almost without a notice, increasingly now, twining, wriggling between the walls the “Tulip Effect” is growing around Israel. It is an essential and vital process, which we haven’t yet possessed through our history. As much as in a spell, Israel is now disconnecting from the Arabic Middle East and its value is leaping higher. The more the Arabs riots are developing, the more the violence is spreading, the more is increasing Israel’s value, day by day. It is a spell since our conflict is melting in front of our eyes. It is vanishing without even noticing it. It is squelching for those who claims that Israel is the Middle East conflict root cause, the problem.

Why is that a historical process?

1. As the huge waves of riots, that will increase and develop, the Arabs don’t have any more time for Israel, As it happened in Iraq after Saddam Hussein. Those are not just simple defined countries; those are tribes against tribes, high class elite against the oppressed lower class, communities against communities, Shiites against Sunnis, establishment against establishment, peoples against peoples, sections against sections, organizations against organizations, radical Islam against the rest while all that is crumbed in front of our eyes.
Will the Egyptian sections have the time for Israel, or the Libyan tribes, or the Tunisian parties, or other countries on their way to crumble? They will be busy among themselves for decades. If reformists will ascend, the communal-tribal crumble will resist. If the political Islam will ascend – the reformists will resists and so will be the cycle of protests, riots, murdering and revenge. Since today nothing is any more stabile and who has the power and time to deal with Israel? This is the paradox: indeed great anti Israeli forces will rise in the Arab world, but the internal turbulence of the internal enmity will keep them busy more than the Israeli problem.
Hence this is not the real overthrow, but the vanishing of Israel as a tool, a function, as the bonding glue. The imaginary “Israel” and the “struggle” against it were used as a tool by the regimes to unite the sections, tribes, communities and peoples under their governing. But today the masses are not buying anymore that lie, which is recognized, not for its good, with the old regimes. The masses knew always that this struggle is artificial and fake, but were enforced (by brainwashing and power) to obey the anti Israeli illusion. Iraq of Saddam Hussein was the anti Israeli spearhead, just to hide the dictatorship governing of Sunnis on Shiites. Nowadays, who has time for Israel in Iraq? There is no need in “Israel” (as an issue) because the Shiite majority is already governing. As more as the fakeness in the Arab countries is collapsing, the lower is the need to use “Israel”. Israel was the Arab scale of fakeness. It was the glue, and that glue is no more bonding like in the past.
The Israeli-Arab conflict will become distant from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

2. The automatic support for the Palestinians is expected to be lower now. Who will be interested in them? In the past, the official Arab media used the Palestinians as a tool, a kind of a scarecrow. Now, who has the time for them? This should worry the Palestinians. Saddam was their great patron, so is Gaddafi and Mubarak. But who has the time at the moment in Iraq, Libya or Egypt for the Palestinians? They are defined as trouble makers, as a luxury which doesn’t bother anyone nowadays. The more the conflict with Israel will become minor, the less will be the support for the Palestinians.

3. The exposure. Since half a year we could peep on the real Middle East via WeekyLeaks documents and now we are facing it in real. The region is bothering about Iran, the political Islam and the economy. But what about the (Israeli-Arab, Israeli-Palestinian) conflict/s? It is clear that the Arab world already accepted Israel and the proof is the “Arab Peace Plan”. The purpose of it was to bridge a bit between the artificial usage of “Israel” as an imaginary enemy and the reality. So the reality of WeekyLeaks is the reality in the field. Where is that fakeness still remaining? In those countries where the riots virus didn’t reached there, Syria (is already under heavy protests and riots), Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestinian Authority. But much more is in front of us. There is no need any more in WeekyLeaks; the Arabic Middle East was revealed.

4. So, in front of our eyes, the Israeli-Arab and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are minimizing, shrinking. It can be determined with high confidence that it is not the heart of the Middle Eastern conflict. Three huge conflicts broke out and those are not related to us (Israel) any more. The first is the economic-social-tribal. The second is the big conflict between Shiites and Sunnis. And the third is between the political Islam and the Arab nationalism. Those three will keep busy the Arab world for decades. We (Israel) are a peewee compared to the inner Arab enmity. The strait of destiny: Europe tried to overthrow on us (Israel) that conflict, but now it is falling on them, with the North African anarchies and accelerating emigration towards it.

5. The “regional superpowers” Iran and Turkey. Everything looks now different, even if Iran will get a nuclear bomb; it isn’t pointed against Israel at all, but to threaten the Sunnis and to protect the regime from the world. All is changed. Israel is no more the bonding glue; it is not a valuable function. The Iranian regime tried to attach the internal riots to Israel – but no one is buying it anymore, and Iran faces problems of marketing the hatred toward Israel as an ideology. It is interpreted in the region not as fakeness but as an escape; not as strength, but as a weakness. So is about the Turkish regime. From now on it will be difficult to relate everything to Israel, because now it is well known that the claim is artificial. Both regimes, the Iranian and the Turkish, were left naked of their self-legitimacy. Israel fled away from them.

6. While Israel is captured as an island of stability, security, interesting and western, the regimes and Arab societies around us (Israel) are doing the job for us. They are violent, non stabile, dangerous. This is the conclusion of every TV watcher around the world. Israel’s enemies are inventing it from the very new beginning, and this is the best explanation we could expect. The relation towards Israel is changing. It is no more the problem but the solution. Refinement fakeness was masking the anarchy of the Arab world till now, the violence, the hypocrisy and the aggressiveness. Now all that is vomited out. Napoleon said once: “I never disturb enemies for self hanging”.

7. It is true that the world’s expectations from Israel are higher, but today it is drawn as a solid point of human rights, constitutional and governing by law. While thousands are massacred in the entire Middle East the process will just get bitter and bitter, the birth of constitutions in Egypt by the slaughter of the governing military junta regime, and so they vanish. So did the UN against Israel? Goldstone (regrets his report)? The UN human rights organizations, which Libya was a leading member? Ha, human rights are a relative business. Suddenly, everything is getting dominant colors in the Middle East. In Egypt that is ruled by the military junta regime, in Libya where people are massacred, in Yemen where they disappear, or Tunisia, Bahrain or Kuwait, they are simply shot to death. it is speechless about the violent oppression in the countries the riots not yet arrived.

8. The price hike effect: The more the stability in the Arab space vanishes – Israel becomes a stability icon. The more the rights vanish – Israel becomes a temple of individualism. The more the tribal a communal behavior leaps, the Israeli unity is emphasized. The more the regional economy withers; Israel’s is an astonishing one. The more the Middle Eastern scale lowers, Israel’s is rising. That effect should open for us (Israel) a unique opportunity of a complete diplomacy throughout the world and Israel's legitimacy. It is an opportunity.

9. A preference tough question: Regional stability, but an endless bothering with Israel? Or an Arabic chaos, while no one has really the time and cares about Israel? I know well my preference.

It is a spell. Quietly, almost without noticing it, it is growing, twining, developing – “The tulip effect” around Israel.

This article was translated intentionally for the foreign audience to read Guy Bechor's brilliant analysis about the recent events in the Middle East.