| To: StormRider who wrote (2113) | 8/28/2002 8:24:07 AM | | From: Brumar89 | | | | Interesting article. Guess supporters of Israel can be critical as well - unlike what some say.
Here's another interesting story:
timesonline.co.uk
Palestinians kill Muslim mother
From Ross Dunn in Jerusalem
A PALESTINIAN mother of seven has been shot dead by Palestinian militants in the first known murder of a woman suspected of collaborating with Israel in the 23-month intifada.
Neighbours said that Ikhlas Yassin was dragged from her home by members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades then shot several times in the head and chest in a public square in Tulkarem in the West Bank. The killing was a warning to others not to become informants for the Israeli security forces.
The group is the armed wing of the Fatah faction of Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, and has led much of the fighting with Israel.
Mrs Yassin, who had been recently widowed, seemed calm as she made a forced confession to a video camera, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli television yesterday. She was dressed in traditional Muslim attire, including a headscarf.
Her 18-year-old son, Bakir, said last night that gunmen had tortured him until he had invented a story of his mother’s involvement in a militant’s death. Lifting his T-shirt, he showed black and blue marks that he said had been made by electrical wires shortly before his mother was killed. “They accused me of helping Israeli Intelligence,” he said. “When they started beating me with wire, I confessed and invented a story.”
The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades admitted the killing. A Palestinian militia member in the town said that Mrs Yassin had admitted recruiting Bakir to help her in aiding the Israeli Army. Bakir was kidnapped earlier by Fatah gunmen and allegedly confessed to telling his mother of the movements of the local chief of the militia group, Ziad Da’as. A wanted member of the Brigades, Mr Da’as was shot dead with his deputy on August 7 by Israeli forces.
Hassan Khreisheh, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in the West Bank, condemned the killing. He said: “I don’t support such killings — it’s against human rights, beyond the law. If residents suspect someone of collaborating, they should let the Palestinian Authority investigate.”
He said that he first heard of the incident when one of Mrs Yassin’s relatives went to him, complaining of the woman’s abduction. The next thing he knew was that her body had been discovered on Saturday.
A spokesman for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem called on Israel to stop hiring Palestinians as informants. He said that the killing was a “clear human rights violation, like any execution or murder”. He added: “If she was a collaborator, the Israeli forces that recruited her have a heavy responsibility for what has happened since they endangered her life.”
Since the start of clashes in September 2000, more than 60 Palestinians — all men — have been killed on suspicion of working for Israel’s secret police. At least 14 have been killed in Tulkarem since May. |
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| To: Gersh Avery who started this subject | 8/28/2002 4:43:37 PM | | From: pie-faced-mutt | | | | Israel's Iraq Dilemma
salon.com
"The Iraqi scenario has already influenced Israel's approach to the conflict with the Palestinians. Soon after Gen. Ya'alon took command last month, the military chiefs called on Sharon. They proposed a waiting period of "risk management": turning down the military heat on the Palestinian front and avoiding violent outbreaks along the Lebanese border. In their view, Israel should do everything possible to support an American attack on Iraq, and containing the local conflict is the best way to do that. The Bush administration sent a similar message to Jerusalem. The army also told Sharon that within six to 12 months the Palestinian leadership would change, with Yasser Arafat's power declining. During this period, Israel would build the fence separating it from the West Bank, thus erecting a physical barrier to Arab expansion. Sharon accepted the military's policy recommendations. He agreed to implement certain calming measures toward the Palestinians, like withdrawing from Bethlehem, while keeping his right-wing coalition partners in line by assuring them that "we only moved two jeeps from their positions." |
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| To: Brumar89 who wrote (2121) | 8/29/2002 12:49:33 AM | | From: Thomas M. | | | | This you?
Eight years after Hebron massacre, another Goldstein plots Florida remake
JERUSALEM (AFP) - They share the same profession, the
same nationality and even the same name. Before his arrest in
Florida, Robert Goldstein was about to follow in the footsteps of
Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Muslims in a Hebron
mosque eight years ago.
Parallel pictures of the two Goldsteins were splashed across the daily Maariv's
centre-spread and most Israeli newspapers drew a parallel between the two Jewish
extremists in their Sunday editions.
Doctor Robert Goldstein, 37, was arrested by US security services Friday on
suspicion of planning to bomb mosques and Islamic centres, after a huge arsenal of
around 40 weapons and 30 explosive devices was found at his Florida home.
A typed list of approximately 50 Islamic places of worship in the Tampa and St.
Petersburg areas was also found, and the doctor was still being questioned Sunday.
On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein sprayed automatic gunfire on worshippers
praying in a mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy site in both Islam and
Judaism, killing 29 Muslims before being lynched.
An American who lived in a Jewish settlement in the heart of the southern West Bank
city of Hebron, Goldstein went on his suicidal shooting spree in a bid to avenge the
victims of Palestinians attacks.
However many more Israelis were to die in the following months during a wave of
revenge bombings by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The 1994 massacre was widely condemned in Israel, but a minority of extremist
Jewish settlers have since turned Baruch Goldstein into an icon of their struggle
against the Arabs.
His tomb became a pilgrimage destination for some far-right supporters, and a book
singing his praise and written by an extremist rabbi has been circulating on the black
market.
Baruch Goldstein's grave was symbolically dug at the entrance of the Kiryat Arba
settlement near Hebron, at the end of Meir Kahana street, named after the founder of
the anti-Arab Kach party, who was himself assassinated in New York.
Following the 1994 massacre, Kach was officially outlawed over charges of incitement
to racial hatred, but its militants have continued to be openly active, calling for
Palestinians to be expelled from the entire "land of Israel", including the West Bank,
and accusing successive Israeli governments of weakness or even treason.
Only after a group of Jewish extremists close to the Kach party were caught on April
30 preparing an anti-Palestinian attack near a school did the police carry out some
arrests.
A few weeks earlier, a bomb attack which had also targeted a Palestinian school in
east Jerusalem had been claimed by an underground extreme-right group.
Bloodshed was averted when two other bombs were defused on the same site, while a
fourth one was also discovered nearby.
Since the intifada erupted on September 28, at least 12 Palestinians have been killed
by Jewish extremists, B'Tselem said, adding that in most cases the killers were not
found.
Official Israeli reports have expressed concern at the impunity of some of the most
militant settlers, especially those in Hebron.
arabia.com |
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| To: Thomas M. who wrote (2123) | 8/29/2002 7:21:50 AM | | From: Brumar89 | | | | Nope. Say did you attend this rally?
cnsnews.com\Nation\archive\200208\NAT20020822c.html
'Neo-Nazi' Group Plans Anti-Israel Rally and Concert in DC
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
August 22, 2002
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - A coalition calling itself Taxpayers Against Terrorism plans to gather at the U.S. Capitol Saturday to "rally against terrorism" and "the U.S. government's support for Israel," but religious and civil rights groups say the rally's real purpose is to incite hatred, bigotry, and violence.
A flyer promoting the rally and "Rock Against Israel" concert boasts that the event will be "the largest gathering of White Nationalists in our nation's capital since World War II."
"Just as Jews - whether they are in Israel or New York - identify themselves as being Jews and would prefer to work for the interests of the Jewish people," said Billy Roper, coordinator for the Taxpayers Against Terrorism coalition, "white nationalists are persons who, regardless of where they might be, would prefer to work for the interests of their own people."
Roper blames the Sept. 11 attacks on American support for "the terrorist state of Israel."
"U.S. tax money helps buy the bullets that go into Israeli guns that murder Palestinian women and children," he claimed, "and that's why the U.S. is a target for terrorism."
During a briefing at the National Press Club Wednesday, Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, accused the coalition of hiding their real agenda behind the veils of patriotism and national security.
"What they are really rocking against is the very notion of America itself," said Henderson. "This is an organization whose members will be preaching hatred of other people because of who they are, where they worship, who they love, or the color of their skin. This, of course, is the antithesis of what we stand for as a nation."
Devin Burghart, director of the Building Democracy initiative at the Center for New Community, said Taxpayers Against Terrorism is merely a front group for the National Alliance, "the largest, best organized and, in fact, most dangerous neo-Nazi organization in the United States."
In addition to coordinating Taxpayers Against Terrorism, Roper serves as deputy membership coordinator for the National Alliance.
Burghart believes the group's white nationalist "interests" are less than innocent.
"They have transformed their recruiting strategies and developed a new mission," he said. "That mission is, simply put, the eradication of Jews and people of color from the planet."
The Alliance was founded in 1974 by William Luther Pierce III, author of The Turner Diaries, the book said to have inspired Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing of the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City.
Because Pierce died on July 23, additional supporters of his white supremacist beliefs are expected to attend the rally.
Burghart believes Saturday's events are a continuation of the Alliance's strategy to use music and related products to recruit young people, bypassing parents who might disagree with their message. He noted that the group even owns its own record company.
"Resistance Records has an estimated income of over $1.3 million a year," he said, "with the release of a variety of compact discs in a variety of different musical genres targeting a variety of different youth music subcultures, all designed to promote the most extreme forms of hatred and bigotry you can imagine."
One of the Resistance Records bands scheduled to perform at the "Rock Against Israel" concert is "Intimidation One."
"Die Jew. I hate you. You are nothing but a fool. Line you up and cut you down. Where you belong is in the ground," state the lyrics to one of the group's songs. "Slam you down into the ground, you filthy slimy s---. Break your nose and your toes, and split your f------ lip."
Despite the self-described "racist" views of the rally's organizers, Roper believes they will receive support from many people of Arab descent and others who support the efforts of Palestinians against Israel.
"They might have some very real and significant philosophical or ideological differences with us on certain other issues, and that's fine," he said. "Despite the differences that we might have ideologically, racially, and culturally, we have one thing very much in common and that is the belief that it is not in the interest of America to continue to support Israel."
But if most people are willing to look past the Alliance's "racist" beliefs, Henderson asks, why would they promote the rally and concert under the name of another group?
"What we are seeing here is an organization that has repositioned itself so that, somehow, it purports to represent mainstream America, preying on the fears and anxieties of the white majority," he said. "The fact that this is a group that now calls itself 'Taxpayers Against Terrorism' tells you how it intends to morph and project itself in the wake of the tragedies of 9/11."
While Burghart is calling on opponents to stay away from the rally, one group does plan to be nearby to counter the Alliance's "propaganda."
"As a nation and as a people, we have to support youth and youth organizations that promote diversity and understanding," said Robin Chen Delos, the 19-year-old co-founder of Stop Hate, Inspire Neighborly Engagement (SHINE). "SHINE is encouraging young people, the religious community, and labor in the D.C. area to come out and peacefully oppose the neo-Nazis on Saturday."
Roper said he is concerned that those attending the rally might be attacked by their opponents.
"We are, on average, more intelligent, better educated, and more eloquent than they are," he charged. "They've always refused [to debate] because they know that they would lose.
"[So] they attempt to silence us and to deny us our First Amendment right to freedom of speech by violently confronting us and using intimidation tactics," Roper continued. "They will try to physically and violently keep us from reaching the Capitol, and that should prove interesting."
U.S. Capitol Police are expecting 800 to 1,000 people to attend the rally. Roper believes an additional 700 to 800 people will gather in the area of Union Station to support Israel and oppose his group.
Henderson hopes the news media will not dismiss the rally and its organizers.
"The media and, unfortunately, even some of our leadership fail to appreciate the significant threat posed by groups like [National Alliance]," he said. "Our job is to call attention to the significance of the problem."
Miles Joyner, a 13-year-old member of SHINE, summed up his feelings about the National Alliance's message.
"It's not hip," he said. "Love is a better message than hate." |
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