Israel news from within Israel

[Shammu]

Election violence: Haredim riot in Jerusalem

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with police on municipal election day as haredim try to prevent voters from getting through. Officer, security guard lightly injured in two separate incidents

Efrat Weiss
11.11.08, 19:34 / Israel News

Elections for local authorities continued across Israel Tuesday afternoon with most of the nation's eyes on Jerusalem, where things are heating up.

Tuesday afternoon dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews tried to prevent voting at the Beit Israel neighborhood ballot in Jerusalem, apparently following disputes between different ultra-Orthodox groups.

Police and Border Guard police officers arrived at the scene to clear the rioters, and clashes broke out as the ultra-Orthodox began throwing stones, leaving one officer with light head injuries. The officer was taken to hospital for treatment, and one of the stone-throwers was detained for questioning.

Later, another altercation developed in the capital near a polling station on Yermiyahu Street. The clash pitted a group of ultra-Orthodox residents who object to the elections against Haredi voters who support the democratic process.

A civilian security guard who waded in to break up the fight was lightly wounded and evacuated to the Shaare Zedek Hospital for treatment. Police were called to the scene and eventually dispersed the crowd.

Police reinforcements deployed
Before ballots were even opened in Jerusalem, most of the ballots in the city's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods were labeled "sensitive" and police reinforcements, including undercover officers, were deployed to prevent forgeries, attempts to influence voters and attempts to prevent voters from getting through.

Police will remain alert until the polling stations close at 10 pm and beyond, in order to prevent attempts to disrupt the votes being transferred to Safra Square, where they will be counted. Police will also be deployed around the various parties' headquarters during result time.

Tuesday's haredi clash with police was not the only election-related unusual incident to occur in the capital. Seven Arab residents of east Jerusalem were also arrested on Tuesday on Salah al-Din Street under suspicions of intimidating vendors to join the partial commerce strike held in protest of the democratic process.

The race in Jerusalem is tight between ultra-Orthodox candidate MK Meir Porush and businessman Nir Barkat.

By 6 pm local time, some 28% of Jerusalem residents exercised their democratic right to vote. In Tel Aviv, where current Mayor Ron Huldai and Knesset Member Dov Khenin (Hadash) are running for the mayor, voter turnout was recorded at 21.5%.

Election violence: Haredim riot in Jerusalem

[Shammu]

Iraq's Jewish Population: From 117,000 to Eight in 60 Years
Nov 9, 2008 12:25pm EST

By Peter Graff

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One of the last eight Jews in Baghdad, a portly retired accountant, erupts in a bellyful of laughter when asked why he never married.

"I was a playboy. Don't write that!" he jokes, grinning. "How old do you think I am? Wrong. I'm 65! Don't write that! Write that I am 55!"

His government ID proves his age, and on the back it says, unmistakably: "Religion: Jewish."

He has made contact with a reporter, not because he wants to tell the story of his persecuted community, but because he wants to complain about the landlord who is raising his rent.

"Because we are Jewish he knows we can do nothing. He isn't afraid because he knows we have no tribe here. Don't use my name."

Once one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle East, Baghdad Jews have now nearly vanished while the country has been consumed by sectarian war.

Speaking in fluent English, the ex-accountant launches into a description of the Baghdad of his youth, one of the Muslim world's most cosmopolitan cities.

He recites the names of legendary social clubs where Jews, Christians and Muslims mingled in better days, with music and whisky and parties that ran through the night.

"So many people -- Muslim people -- say if the Jewish people come back it will be nicer," he says.

His family have left. Some are in London, some in the United States. His father was offered a chance to move to Canada, but turned it down because he wanted to die and be buried in Iraq.

The ex-accountant himself stayed, but if he can sell his father's house -- now a ruin bombed out in the Iran war in the 1980s -- he will finally leave.

"I want to sell the house and go. I like Iraq, but I am fed up. We had very nice times in Iraq, but now we don't like it."

Iraq's Jewish community dates from biblical times. According to Charles Tripp's History of Iraq, the country was home to 117,000 Jews in 1947.

Under Ottoman rule, well into the first half of the 20th century, Jews made up about a fifth of the population of the capital. Some of the villas in neighborhoods along the Tigris still have six-pointed stars of David in their stucco.

How many Jews are there now?

"We know them all," says the ex-accountant, counting.

There's the ex-accountant himself, plus the nephew with whom he shares a rented house in Baghdad's central Karrada district. There's the man who lives near them, the man who leads the community, the very old woman, the male doctor and the female dentist. And the man whose brother was a goldsmith.

The goldsmith married the dentist a few years ago. A few months later, he was abducted by gunmen.

"They came to his house and took him. He disappeared. They left his car, they left his mobile. They just took him."

So that leaves eight. Eight Jews left.

The synagogue in central Baghdad has been boarded up since 2003. The ex-accountant occasionally runs into some of the other Jews on the street, but confesses he isn't much for religion.

"We don't know how to pray," he says. "Hebrew books we have everywhere in the synagogue, but we don't know how to read it. Some words I know. The important one is Adonai. Adonai is God. We believe in God."

In the old days, Jews were an integral part of Iraqi life. A relative of the ex-accountant was finance minister decades ago. But beginning in the late 1940s, successive Arab governments accused Baghdad's Jews of supporting Zionism.

Some were jailed, others were barred from government posts, and thousands upon thousands left for Israel or the West.

By the time of Saddam Hussein's fall, the ex-accountant estimates there were only a few dozen Jews left. Western organizations came and evacuated most of the rest.

"A woman called Rachel, she came here took some of them to the Jewish community in London, I think," he said.

In 2003, he went to the Green Zone to meet a cousin who was born in the United States and had come to Iraq to work for the U.S.-run administration. The American woman was shocked when her mother put them in touch.

"She said: incredible! You are still here? She did not know she had a cousin in Iraq," he said.

Apart from his quarrel with his landlord, the ex-accountant says he has had few problems with the neighbors, most of whom don't know he is Jewish, some of whom don't care.

"Somebody says 'You are Christian', I don't say anything. Somebody says 'You are Muslim', I don't say anything. I think most people think we are Christian because they don't know there are still Jews in Iraq."

Iraq's Jewish Population: From 117,000 to Eight in 60 Years

[Shammu]

The Bible promised the land to the ‘seed of Abraham’. The Bible says that in the last days, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would return to the ‘mountains of Israel, which have always been waste’

The first returning Jews to Palestine came primarily from eastern Arab countries. The next major movement came from the western countries of Europe, especially Germany. Then they came in great numbers from Russia during the end of the 1980's. The last great migrations of Jews returning to Israel came from Ethiopia in the south. This precise order of return was predicted by the prophet, Isaiah.

Isaiah 43:5-6 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;

KEEP LOOKING UP brothers and sisters!!

[Shammu]

150 Bnei Menashe to Immigrate from India
 
by IsraelNN Staff
Cheshvan 16, 5769 / November 14, '08

(IsraelNN.com) Israel's Interior Ministry has granted permission to the Shavei Israel organization to bring a group of 150 Bnei Menashe Jews from northeastern India on aliyah (immigration).

The Bnei Menashe claim descent from a lost tribe of Israel and some 7,200 of them reside primarily in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, which border Burma and Bangladesh.

"We have been working on this for quite some time, and I am grateful to the Prime Minister's Office and the Interior Ministry for approving our request," said Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund, adding that, "With G-d's help, we will shortly bring the immigrants home to Israel."
 
Over the past decade, some 1,500 members of the community have made aliyah largely thanks to Shavei Israel, which assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people.

In recent years, the bulk of the Bnei Menashe new immigrants have settled in Maalot, Karmiel and Afula in the north.
 
Freund said that the group would most likely come to Israel in the next few months and settle in the Galilee, "whose lush and verdant landscape and pastoral setting resemble the land of their birth, making it an ideal place for the Bnei Menashe to start their new lives in the Jewish state."
 
Because the new arrivals will be coming on special tourist visas, and not under the Law of Return, the entire cost of the operation will be borne by Shavei Israel, which receives no government funding.
 
The immigrants will subsequently undergo formal conversion by the Chief Rabbinate, after which they will receive Israeli citizenship.
 
In March 2005, after being approached by Freund, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar recognized the Bnei Menashe as "descendants of Israel" and agreed to facilitate their return.

Interior Minister Meir gotcha2reet had previously opposed the Bnei Menashe aliyah, but apparently decided to approve it after he recently met with a group of immigrants from the community and became convinced that they are productive and well-integrated members of Israeli society.

"The return of the Bnei Menashe to Zion after 27 centuries of exile is a miracle," Freund said. "Just as the prophets foretold, the ingathering of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland continues."

150 Bnei Menashe to Immigrate from India
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I posted about the Jews coming home last night. Please see my comment above this post.

[Shammu]

Israel Deems Hezbollah Strategic Threat
By David Bedein, Middle East Correspondent
11/14/2008

Jerusalem - The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that Israel's military has determined that the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah has become an increased strategic threat to the Jewish state.

The Israeli intelligence community, including Israeli military intelligence, has deemed Hezbollah a strategic threat to Israel. Hezbollah has reached the capability to strike virtually every strategic Israeli asset, including the strategic nuclear facility in Dimona, with rockets.

"Hezbollah has become a powerful military although it operates much like a guerrilla force," an Israeli official said. "Iran and Syria have made Hezbollah the front line of any war against Israel."

On Nov. 6, Israel's military concluded its first exercise to test the readiness of the reserves and General Staff. The four-day exercise envisioned a Hezbollah and Syrian strike on northern Israel.

Hezbollah has accumulated an arsenal of more than 40,000 missiles and rockets, many of them with a range of more than 137 miles.

It can therefore strike every major Israeli city.

Hezbollah was also said to have established a military presence in much of Lebanon, including the Bekaa Valley, Beirut, south as well as the area north of Beirut.

This would require a greater effort by the Israel Air Force and the rest of the military than during the 2006 war.

Hezbollah has taken control over most of the Lebanese military. It says this would allow Hezbollah to use Lebanese military assets, such as air defense systems and helicopters, in any war with Israel.

"In the field, the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah work together," an Israeli official said. "In the south, Hezbollah operates in civilian clothes while the military is in uniform. But their activities are completely coordinated."

Israel Deems Hezbollah Strategic Threat

[Shammu]

Gilad: We won't let Iran go nuclear
Nov. 14, 2008
David Horovitz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Israel will not tolerate a nuclear Iran, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, has stressed to The Jerusalem Post in an unusually hard-hitting interview.

For now, Israel is backing diplomatic and economic efforts to thwart the Iranians, Gilad added, but it doubts these will work and it is keeping all options open.

Asked about the complexities of any resort to military action, particularly since Iran has built its facilities to withstand a repeat of the IAF's 1981 destruction of Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak, Gilad replied, tellingly, that domestic critics 27 years ago said the Osirak raid "couldn't be done. And the fact is, it succeeded."

"Iran is a country with smart people that have capabilities," he noted. "It really would be a considerable challenge. Come the day, if and when this or that option is adopted, what will matter is the outcome."

Gilad was speaking to the Post at a time when some senior figures in the defense establishment have indicated in private forums that Israel might have to begin to prepare for the reality of Iran achieving its nuclear goals.

But he dismissed this notion and was adamant that there was no tendency whatsoever in the defense establishment to accept a nuclear Iran.

He said the assessment, which he shared, was that Israel could not be reconciled to a nuclear Iran - not only because it might press the button, but because the very fact of this regime having that weaponry would constitute an existential threat.

"The Iranians are determined to obtain nuclear weaponry," said Gilad. "Iran is controlled by an ideology and a regime that has set itself the goal to be rid of Israel."

While US President-elect Barack Obama has said he will engage in tough diplomacy to try to deter the Iranians, Gilad said flatly that "diplomatic pressure against a state this determined can slow processes, but cannot halt them."

As for economic pressure, that might work if Iran were facing "total isolation," he said. "But that's not happening."

The economic pressure was "much more impressive than is understood," he noted. "But the fact is, it is not preventing the dangerous process of a nuclear Iran."

On Wednesday, Iran announced it had test-fired a two-stage, solid-fuel rocket with a 1,200-mile range that could reach Israel.

Said Gilad: "They will continue. The picture is clear. They are building more missiles. They're dealing with uranium enrichment."

For Israel, he said, "this is indeed a situation that we can't tolerate. What can be done about it? First of all, we still stick with the diplomatic option, and all the options are on the table, as President [George W.] Bush said."

Beyond that, he said, "I can't go into details... Elaborating directly assists the enemy in its war against Israel. The test will be in the result - whether we are able or not to prevent this grave threat.

"The more we talk about it - however seductive that may be - the more we brag, the more we weaken our capacity to achieve. We cannot accept a nuclear Iran. We cannot be reconciled to it."

Gilad: We won't let Iran go nuclear

[HisDaughter]

The Bible promised the land to the ‘seed of Abraham’. The Bible says that in the last days, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would return to the ‘mountains of Israel, which have always been waste’

The first returning Jews to Palestine came primarily from eastern Arab countries. The next major movement came from the western countries of Europe, especially Germany. Then they came in great numbers from Russia during the end of the 1980's. The last great migrations of Jews returning to Israel came from Ethiopia in the south. This precise order of return was predicted by the prophet, Isaiah.

Isaiah 43:5-6 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;

KEEP LOOKING UP brothers and sisters!!

Halleluiah!!

[HisDaughter]

Ancient Jewish Rite May Save Africa From AIDS: Operation Abraham

www.israelnationalnews

The patriarch Abraham, who complied with the Torah-recorded commandment by God to circumcise himself, his sons Isaac and Ishmael, and all his generations afterward as a sign "in your flesh for an everlasting covenant" (Genesis 17:13), is the inspiration for a consortium of Israeli doctors who are training circumcision teams in Africa to fight the continental pandemic of AIDS in a project called Operation Abraham.

The United Nations announced in 2007 that the procedure could reduce the rate of the HIV virus transmission by up to 60 percent.

Operation Abraham was launched in 2006 by Dr. Inon Schenker, founder of the Jerusalem AIDS project and respected researcher and senior consultant specializing in HIV/AIDS prevention. The project is currently training counterparts in the AIDS-infested capital of Swaziland, Mbabane, to conduct assembly line-style circumcisions. Death rates are so high in Swaziland that the life expectancy of a citizen has plummeted to the tender age of 31.

In interviews with the Chicago Tribune and a website called HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health Integration, Schenker described the dawning of his belief in mass circumcision as a solution to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, during the wave of Russian aliyah to Israel in the 1990s.

Ritual circumcision, which is ordinarily conducted according to the Torah commandment on the 8th day following the birth of a boy, was performed on tens of thousands of Russian Jewish men and older boys who were barred from taking part in the ancient Jewish tradition while living behind the Iron Curtain and chose to take part in the rite upon emigrating to Israel. According to Schenker, approximately 1,000 circumcisions were conducted every day in five hospitals around Israel during the height of Russian immigration.

"Israel is the only country with such experience in mass adult-male circumcision, and it can respond to a very important humanitarian challenge," Schenker told the Tribune.

Operation Abraham, which employs Israeli doctors and educators – Jews, Muslims, and Christians in partnership with the Jerusalem AIDS project and Hadassah Medical Center - is in high demand to expand its program, with requests for training coming from Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, and Lesotho.

Officials from the World Health Organization traveled to Jerusalem in 2006 to gather information on Israel’s expertise in the field, and used Israeli methodology to formulate a male circumcision manual and teaching course which are now part of government male circumcision programs in several African countries.

Operation Abraham's pilot project was finalized in February 2008, and was submitted for replication and expansion in the summer. Three training teams have already conducted training seminars in Swaziland this year.

[Shammu]

King of Bahrain Reiterates Invitation for Jews to 'Come Home'
November 17, '08
by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) The King of Bahrain has called for expatriate Jews to return to the small Islamic island nation.

King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa expanded the invitation to all expatriate Bahrainis,  announcing during a recent visit to the United States that regardless of religious affiliation, any former citizen could return whenever they want.

“It’s open, it’s your country,” declared the king, who also extended a personal invitation to Washington D.C.-based Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Levi Shemtov to meet with him in New York during his visit.

The king had been in New York to attend last week’s Interfaith Conference, organized at the United Nations at the initiative of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah. Israeli President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were both present at the conference, along with representatives of more than 50 other nations.

According to the Chabad.org website, at the meeting Rabbi Shemtov bestowed the traditional blessing on the king that is recited when one sees a ruling monarch. A delegation of 50 Bahraini Jews who currently live in the U.S. stood for the blessing.

“I rise in honor of Your Majesty,” Rabbi Shemtov said to King Hamad, “and I humbly ask Your Majesty to rise in honor of the One G-d, the King of all Kings, in Whose Name we offer blessings.”

When the king rose, the rest of the room rose with him, and the rabbi thanked the Creator for “bestowing a part of His glory” on an earthly monarch.

“Bahrain has a rich Jewish history,” noted Shemtov, “and I feel that Bahrain, and particularly His Majesty, can play a unique role in bringing about positive movement within their arena in regard to the Jewish people and the world at large.”

King Hamad, who ascended to the throne in 1999, has been a controversial figure in the Arab Muslim world, instituting a number of electoral and legal reforms.

This past year he appointed a Jewish woman, Huda Azra Nunu to be Bahrain’s Ambassador to the United States -- the first Jewish woman to serve in such a capacity in the Arab world.

In August, he also extended a general invitation for Bahrain’s expatriate Jews to return to their former home, including those who had moved to the Jewish State.

More recently, the king promoted through his Foreign Ministry the suggestion that Israel be included in a regional summit of Middle Eastern nations that would also list Iran among the attendees.

King of Bahrain Reiterates Invitation for Jews to 'Come Home'

[HisDaughter]

2 Jewish cemeteries defiled in Germany
jewishworld.jpost.com

Two Jewish cemeteries in eastern Germany have been desecrated in an anti-Semitic attack, police said Monday.

Police said a pig's head and an anti-Semitic banner were left at the gate of a cemetery in the city of Gotha. They said that several glasses containing a red blood-like liquid were thrown over the cemetery's gate.

In Erfurt, a memorial plaque at the entrance gate to a Jewish cemetery was also covered in a red liquid. Police were analyzing the liquid to determine what it is.

The damage to both cemeteries was discovered Monday morning.

Both cities are in the state of Thuringia, whose top security official, Interior Minister Manfred Scherer, said police and prosecutors were working to find the perpetrators.

[HisDaughter]

Israel says will boycott U.N. forum on racism

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Wednesday that Israel had made a final decision not to participate in a U.N. forum on racism and urged other countries to boycott what she termed an "anti-Israel tribunal."

The United Nations said it regretted the decision.

The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held in Geneva in April, is a follow-up to a 2001 summit in Durban, South Africa on the same issues.

Israel and the United States walked out of the first conference in protest over draft texts branding Israel as a racist and apartheid state -- language that was later dropped.

In a speech to visiting U.S. Jewish leaders, Livni said she announced last February that Israel would not participate in the 2009 meeting unless it was clear it would not be used "as a platform for further anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic" activity.

She said documents prepared for next year's forum showed it was "turning once again into an anti-Israeli tribunal, singling out and delegitimizing the State of Israel."

As a result, she said: "I decided that Israel will not participate and will not legitimize the Durban-2 conference."

"We call upon the international community not to participate in this conference, which seeks to legitimize hatred and extremism under the banner of the fight against racism," Livni added.

In August, officials from 21 African countries held talks ahead of the Geneva conference and adopted a text which recommended it discuss, among other issues, "the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupations."

Canada has said it will not take part in the Geneva meeting. The United States, Britain, the Netherlands and France have said they may stay away if Israel's relations with Palestinians stands to eclipse all else.

Some countries are also concerned that some Middle Eastern states will try to use the conference to push a declaration that could stifle free expression by labeling criticism of religions as defamatory.

The office of U.N. human rights commissioner Navi Pillay said it regretted Israel's decision.

"Given the critical importance of the issues under discussion at the conference, broad participation is essential," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in New York, speaking for the Geneva-based office.

"These ... are issues which affect all countries and millions of individuals around the world on a daily basis."

[Shammu]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Wednesday that Israel had made a final decision not to participate in a U.N. forum on racism and urged other countries to boycott what she termed an "anti-Israel tribunal."

Good for Foreign Minister Livni, I have a feeling this is going to be more then an "anti-Israel tribunal."

Israel and the United States walked out of the first conference in protest over draft texts branding Israel as a racist and apartheid state

Again good for Israel and the United States. Once they start talking about Iran, and some of the muslim countries, then it maybe a good time to listen. Course those muslim countries will be the ones walking out.

"These ... are issues which affect all countries and millions of individuals around the world on a daily basis."

It will probably effect those of Christian, or Jewish Religion. I myself will NOT have the cult of islam forced on me, or anyone I know.

[Shammu]

Israeli Air Force chief: We are ready to deal with Iran
Nov. 18, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

"We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us" in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, IAF commander Maj. -Gen. Ido Nehushtan told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Tuesday.

Nehushtan told the magazine that whether a military strike is eventually decided upon is a political question and not an issue of Israel's military capabilities.

A strike against Iran's nuclear facilities "is a political decision," the IAF commander said, "but if I understand it correctly, all options are on the table… The Air Force is a very robust and flexible force. We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us."

When asked by the paper whether the Israeli military was able to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, which are spread around the country and partly located underground, Nehushtan said, "Please understand that I do not want to get into details. I can only say this: It is not a technical or logistical question."

Nehushtan said the cutting edge capabilities of the IDF in the region were not only a derivative of the advanced technologies it uses.

"Modern technology is one thing, but the biggest advantage we have is our soldiers and officers. Israel is a small country. We neither have a big population nor natural resources. Our biggest asset is our human resources. And it is the Air Force that makes best use of it," he said.

Nehushtan then addressed the new reality in Lebanon since the integration of Hizbullah into the government in Beirut several months ago.

"Hizbullah has been part of the Lebanese government since this spring. It is not a fringe terror organization - it is supported by the state. Militarily, Hizbullah is stronger than the regular Lebanese army. If they attack us, we might react differently [to how we did in the 2006 Second Lebanon War]," he said.

Asked about deploying missile defense systems to protect Israelis from the Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza, as well as the Iranian threat of ballistic missiles, the IAF commander described Israel's huge investments in missile defense as an "insurance policy."

"Each type of rocket requires a different defense system. Up until today, only the Arrow System, is functioning. It can intercept ballistic missiles. In order to defend ourselves against the short-range rockets of Hamas and Hizbullah, we are building the Iron Dome system. In response to the threat of medium-range rockets, we are developing a system called David's Sling. This is all very expensive. It is like an insurance policy: You pay a lot, even if nothing happens. But if something then does happen, then you are satisfied with the investment," he explained.

Israeli Air Force chief: We are ready to deal with Iran

[Shammu]

I don't think this is a declaration of something happening. This guy is saying if they needed they are ready. But just in case, I'd buckle my seat belt, this may turn out to be a wild ride.

[Shammu]

'Land for peace, but not land for rocket fire'
Nov. 19, 2008
JONNY PAUL
THE JERUSALEM POST

President Shimon Peres received a standing ovation from students and staff at the University of Oxford following his keynote speech to an audience of 1,000 on Tuesday night.

The 85-year-old president delivered a speech on globalization of peace at the Sheldonian Theatre at Balliol College, where Education Minister Yuli Tamir studied for her doctorate.

Peres was introduced by the master of Balliol College, Prof. Andrew Graham, who paid homage to the man and his contribution to peace and announced a series of lectures in the president's name.

Peres was heckled intermittently by pro-Palestinian activists. "Sometimes it's not a terrible thing to open the eyes and ears and keep the mouth for a later occasion," he told one activist.

At one stage a protester ran toward Peres and was bundled out by security staff.

Around 100 activists protested after the Oxford branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign fringe group sent e-mails to student unions across Britain. Calling the president a "war criminal" they asked students to turn up in Oxford to protest against the "apartheid state that has committed human rights abuses on such a large scale."

Outside the hall, they chanted slogans and handed out flyers claiming the president had been part of the Hagana that performed the "ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948" and that he was responsible for Israel's "nuclear arsenal" and the deaths of 106 Lebanese at Kana in 1996.

"These people have no interest in peace and little understanding of the conflict. They are a small, radical minority," said a student who did not wish to be named.

Before the event, The Jerusalem Post spoke to other students.

"I have lived in the West Bank, and worked in a refugee camp just outside Ramallah, so I'm interested [in] what the enemy has to say," said Stella Bratt-Smith, a Ballilol graduate student.

"Considering the policies Israel is pursuing, in Gaza and settlement building, I think it is a shame to our university to invite Peres, and naming a lecture series in his name is going too far," said Karli Memet, a student from Oxford's Lincoln College.

"I really believe in his message, so to have the president can only be good thing for the college and for students to hear Israel's perspective," said Adam Vallance from Oxford's Regent's Park College.

"I'm here because I love Israel and am very excited that he has come to speak here. I think the man has done fantastic things for peace in the region," said James Fox, also from Regent's Park College.

On Wednesday morning, Peres laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey.

He then made the short journey to Parliament, where he addressed both houses.

In his speech, the president said he had been moved by Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech to the Knesset in July, and that it had invoked memories of his own father.

"His remarks invoked a distant memory within me. Today, in your Parliament, I feel like your home is my home as well. Gordon Brown's father cherished the Bible; my father experienced an attempt to kill the people of the Bible," Peres said.

He paid tribute to the leadership of Winston Churchill, who "saved the world from the Nazi threat," and British leaders who stood by Israel, "even in hard times."

"Israel would not have a vibrant democracy if it hadn't been for the British legacy," Peres said. "The way in which Britain ran the Mandate, and its courageous fight against the Nazis, inspired the State of Israel."

He spoke of Israel's quest for peace and normalization.

"In its 60 years of existence, Israel fought seven wars. Defeat would have ended our existence. However, victory did not necessarily yield peace," he said. "We insisted that a day of war shall never postpone a day of freedom, that the glory of victory shall never weaken our desire for peace. As a matter of fact, the peace we have won, though incomplete, was achieved through negotiations."

The president shared his optimism for the future.

"We reached peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. Though at times imperfect, peace prevails as all sides prefer it to the alternative. We started to negotiate with the Palestinians and have made some progress. Eventually we will accomplish our goal.

"We left Lebanon [in 2000], we left Gaza [in 2005] and are weighing the Syrian option, whether it's a clear cut turn for peace. We now explore the Saudi initiative - contrary to their past policy of the 'Three Nays' of Khartoum [as laid out by the Arab League in 1968 - no recognition, no negotiation and no peace with Israel] - the Arab initiative calls for a comprehensive regional peace."

Israel would continue negotiations with the Palestinians through the upcoming election campaign, with a two-state solution as the fundamental premise, he said.

Peres was unequivocal about Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran's intransigence.

"Hamas violently rejects compromise. It continues to fire rockets at Israeli civilians. We can understand land for peace but will not accept land in return for rocket fire.

He called on the international community to stand up to Iran, to "answer fear with hope" and said that Israel is not at war with the Iranian people.

"The international community should prevent Iran from shattering the already fragile stability in the region," he said. "The Middle East requires international support to make change possible, Israel will do its utmost to support the moderates."

Ending to a standing ovation, Peres said: "I am grateful for the privilege to address you in this distinguished chamber. You represent two great institutions, the front line in a fortress of democracy.

"Your call to the world carries enormous political and moral weight, the region needs your spirit, your voice and firm support as it marches ahead towards a new dawn of peace."

'Land for peace, but not land for rocket fire'
~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't think he knows the false peace that will come later, only to be broken after 3 & ¹/₂ years later