Jack Cohen – Palestinian Criminality-M.E. Christians-Anti-Israel Hypocrisy
Jack Cohen – Palestinian Criminality-M.E. Christians-Anti-Israel Hypocrisy
Palestinian criminality:
A report by Amnesty International has exposed the murderous excesses of the Hamas regime in Gaza. This is unusual because AI is generally biased against Israel in its Reports. Entitled “Strangling necks: Abduction, torture and killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict,” this Report exposes the extra-judicial murders and “spine-chilling” war crimes carried out by Hamas against its own people, most of whom were suspected of being either collaborators with Israel or members of Fatah, its Palestinian enemy that controls the West Bank. At least 23 people were either dragged out of their homes or out of detention centers or prisons and summarily executed. Some were subjected to horrific tortures, including one, Atta Najjar, a former PA policeman, who was serving a 15 year prison sentence for “collaboration”, a sentence that was imposed to remove former PA police from society. Najjar’s body showed signs of extensive torture, including many broken bones, 30 bullet holes and a smashed brain. Dozens were tortured but survived with injuries.
This all took place under cover of the Israeli Operation Defensive Shield, and can be seen as both an opportunity by Hamas to remove enemies among Palestinians and to intimidate others. It was clearly an official Hamas operation since it was given the name “Strangling necks.” Further the Hamas administration were at first not shy about these killings since several of them were filmed by journalists, as men were dragged out into the street and summarily shot in the head and then their bodies dragged around tied to motorcycles. The Report was authored by Philip Luther, Head of the Middle East Program at AI. He pointed out that while Hamas calls for “justice for Palestinians” they act in a manner that shows no respect for justice for their own Palestinian people.
Meanwhile the PA has lied to the EU and its foreign donors about its program of paying stipends and salaries to convicted terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails and after their release. The EU in particular, that is the major donor of billions of euros to the PA, complained about this travesty. In response, the PA in Aug 2014 closed down its Ministry of Prisoner Affairs that was paying the stipends. But, Palestinian Media Watch has published a Report that exposes the fact that the PA instead opened a PLO Commission on Prisoners under the same former Minister Issa Karake, all under Pres. Mahmud Abbas’ overall supervision, that performs the same task and pays the same salaries to the same terrorists. According to this Report the PA paid m$144 to the prisoners and their families last year, while at the same time pleading total poverty and being unable to pay salaries to its own workers. The Report accuses the PA of deliberately lying and deceiving its donors into believing that the payments to the terrorists had been stopped. One wonders if the EU will actually act on this exposed deception by the PA.
Jack Cohen – Palestinian Criminality-M.E. Christians-Anti-Israel Hypocrisy:
Middle East Christians:
I choose to use the quote from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “A pox on both your houses” to characterize Israel’s position regarding the two sects of Islam, Sunni and Shia, that are at each other’s throats. As Pres. Obama continues to underestimate the threats of both the Islamic State Sunni extremists and the Iranian-backed Shia extremists, they both continue to to gain ground in the Middle East.
Who are the losers in the instability that has gripped this region since the Arab Spring of 2011. It is not only the Arab dictators that have been removed from power, such as Mubarak in Egypt, Ben Ali in Tunisia, Qaddafi in Libya, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Assad who is hanging on my his finger nails in Syria. But, it is also the minorities, both religious and ethnic, who are being decimated by the forces of the Islamic State and Shia Iran.
A BBC production entitled “Kill the Christians” (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32287806) focussed on the destruction of the Christian communities in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. In Iraq, where before Islam there were millions of Christians, the situation is so dire because of continued attacks since the removal of Saddam Hussein by extremists on both sides of the Muslim divide, that now there is no future for Christians there. There are only remnants remaining and the IS have driven the rest into the stronghold of the Kurdish Autonomous Region in the north-east of Iraq where they are protected.
In Syria it is no different, but Christians can persist and practice their religion ironically only in those areas held by the forces of the Assad regime. In areas held by IS, Christians are systematically being killed and Churches destroyed. In Lebanon, where the Christians constitute a large proportion of the population, although the Maronites still exercise power in their own regions, they have lost significant power to the Shia Hizbollah militia. Also, the IS forces have mounted attacks on the Lebanese border with Syria. Many Christians have left or are leaving Lebanon, some put the number as high as 1 million or more. There is a general exodus of Christians from the Middle East, and what is the West doing about it?
What is happening to the Christians is sad and typical of the Muslim fundamentalists who tolerate no minorities, as far as they are concerned they are all kaffirs (infidels). This is very similar to the policies of the Nazis, who as “Aryans” also tolerated no minorities. And his has all happened before in these countries, to the Jews, and the presenter of this BBC program, Jane Corbin, neglected to mention that. Namely that Jews were previously driven out of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, where they had lived for thousands of years before Islam. And of course, they were also driven out of many European Christian countries, until they found haven in Israel. And although she did not mention Israel, it is in fact the only country in the Middle East where Christians are guaranteed freedom of religion and where the number of Christians is in fact growing. Something you would think was relevant. Not surprising coming from the BBC, who of course are very concerned about the plight of Middle Eastern Christians, but not that of Jews.
Jack Cohen – Palestinian Criminality-M.E. Christians-Anti-Israel Hypocrisy:
Anti-Israel hypocrisy:
The British National Student Union voted by a majority in a secret ballot in its Executive Committee to boycott Israeli universities. Presumably this is because Israeli universities are committing horrible atrocities and human rights abuses against Palestinian Arabs. Can anyone name these atrocities, give details, give any kind of documentation of these abuses? No, of course not, since they don’t exist. It is a fact that the British Student Union has always been very left-wing and is controlled by pro-Palestinian elements who will do anything to demonize Israel. As PM Netanyahu himself pointed out, this is the same Union that chose less than a year ago not to condemn the human rights abuses of the Islamic State, that has been beheading, burning people alive and generally massacring thousands of people, including Christians, Yazidis, Kurds, and Shia Muslims. So much for the British version of “fair play.”
Another source of anti-Israel rhetoric is of course that famous oracle, Pres. Obama. In an interview with an Israeli journalist he stated that PM Netanyahu does not really support the “two-state solution” to the conflict and that he puts too many conditions that make any negotiations less likely and that this makes it difficult for the US to support Israel when world opinion is against Israel. In other words, the US will follow the views and policies of the third world, rather than those of its best ally in the Middle East, Israel. He did not mention the impossible pre-conditions that the Palestinians put on any renewal of negotiations. However, this is not a surprise, Obama is constantly justifying his lack of sympathy and support for Israel. Yet, he has our back, as he has told us numerous times, we can rely on him (for sure!)
Jibril Rajoub is the Commissioner of the Palestine Football Association of the PA. In this capacity he tried to get the Israel Football Association expelled from the International agency FIFA at its recent Congress. His move was unsuccessful, since he could not get the required three-quarters majority of the member nations, so he was forced to drop the resolution, although he warned that this is not the end of his attempt. He was greatly criticized among Palestinians for not having succeeded in expelling Israel as he had boasted he would. Who is Rajoub? He was a terrorist, throwing grenades at IDF soldiers during the first intifada. He was caught and imprisoned and spent several years in and out of jail. He joined Yasir Arafat in exile in Tunisia and returned with him to Palestine in 1992. He rose inside Fatah to be Head of the Palestine Preventive Security Force in 2002, a well known repressive force. He is also the Head of the Palestine Olympic Committee and has vowed to expel Israel from the Olympic movement. Yet this terrorist is accepted as the legitimate representative of the Palestine people in the world of sport.
One of the chief origins for all this anti-Israel rhetoric is the perceived wisdom that Israel is “occupying” the West Bank, which is considered to be “Palestinian (or Arab) Land.” Consequently any Jewish settlements constructed on that Land are therefore considered to be “illegal.” Leaving out the earlier history of this land (from the San Remo Conference and the League of Nations Mandate to Great Britain of 1922, that supports Jewish claims), I am indebted to Eli Hertz (mythsandfacts.org) for pointing out a salient fact. In the Oslo Agreement signed between Palestinian representatives and Israel in 1993, that in fact established the Palestine Authority and is its legal basis for existence, the West Bank was divided into three parts, labelled A, B and C. Detailed maps were drawn up by the two sides that were signed and agreed to. Area A was under full Palestinian control to constitute the PA, Area B was under joint PA/Israeli security control and Area C was entirely under Israeli control. Since most Israeli settlements are built in Area C, they are actually legal under the Oslo Agreement that was signed by the representatives of the Palestinians and Israel. Anyone who doesn’t accept this is merely biased without consideration of the facts. The Oslo Agreement was in fact the last agreement/treaty signed by the two sides and if anyone thinks the Oslo Agreement is null and void then they must also accept that the PA would then no longer have any legal basis for its existence. You can’t have it both ways, either the PA is legal and then the settlements are legal or the settlements are illegal and so then would be the PA.
Born in London, UK, lived in suburban Washington DC area for 30 years, moved to Israel in 1996. He has a web site: Jack’s Blog
Jack Cohen – Palestinian Criminality-M.E. Christians-Anti-Israel Hypocrisy
