DAVID HOROWITZ TAKES ON MUSLIM STUDENTS AT BROOKLYN COLLEGE BY: FERN SIDMAN Exceptionally heavy security prevailed at Brooklyn College on Thursday evening, March 10th, as conservative commentator, prolific author and founder of the FrontPage Mag web site, David Horowitz, delivered a lecture in response to the propaganda being promulgated by the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week on campus. Over 150 people gathered at the college library auditorium to listen to Mr. Horowitz's speech entitled the "Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Myths and Facts" and was sponsored and organized by Brooklyn College student Yosef Sobel and Mitchell Langbert, an associate professor in the department of business and economics. "Because the Hillel organization on campus was too afraid to sponsor me, I must thank those who had the courage to do so." said Mr. Horowitz. Despite numerous warnings prohibiting verbal disruptions, bellicose Muslim student hecklers abounded and Mr. Horowitz's remarks were often punctuated by the sounds of acrimonious, ad hominem attacks. A native New Yorker and a graduate of Columbia University, David Horowitz has led a polemical existence as a one-time self proclaimed Marxist and a former left-wing academic whose political beliefs have now shifted to the right. As one of the founders of the New Left in the 1960s, he was also the editor of its most influential magazine, Ramparts. Along with Peter Collier, he is the author of a number of best-selling dynastic biographies on the Rockefellers, the Kennedys, the Fords, and the Roosevelts. With Collier he also wrote "Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the 60s" (1989), a chronicle of their break with the 1960s Left, that has been compared to Whittaker Chambers' "Witness" and other classic works documenting a break from totalitarianism. Through the work of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, he champions an array of causes including the defense of the principles of individual freedom as well as the preservation of free societies in the war against the values inherent to Western civilization and the reestablishment of academic freedom in American schools. His recent books include, "Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left" (2004), "Indoctrination U: The Left's War Against Academic Freedom" (2007) and "Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party" (2007). Making oblique references to the security of Israel, Mr. Horowitz began by ruefully observing, "When I went to college you didn't need all of this security on campus, but things have changed and that's the reason we now need checkpoints on campuses. Checkpoints are essential to defend against terrorists and Jew haters." Adding that he has been verbally and physically assaulted on campuses around the country for his forthright views, he said, "Our campuses are controlled by liberal fascists and it is a movement to suppress the free speech rights of conservatives. He said that the International Socialist Organization, a Marxist organization, is culpable for creating an academic climate of intimidation and hate. "It is they who spread lies about me and work with their Muslim allies towards the mobilization of radical jihad against the West. The Muslim community needs to stand up and defend democracy in this country and that's what we're all waiting for." Providing a historical backdrop to the Middle East conflict, Mr. Horowitz said, "There was no Palestine since the days of the Roman conquest of the land of Israel and there certainly was no Palestine in 1946. The war against the Jews started in the form of Pan Arab nationalism and the PLO was created by the KBG. They advised Arafat that the best way to succeed is to play the victim role and say that all they want is their own state and that Israel is occupying Palestine." Saying that the entire region around the Jordan River was created by imperialist powers such as the Ottoman Empire, he intoned that, "Israel was not built on Arab land." Declaring that he is a "political Zionist", Mr. Horowitz said he believes that the Jewish people have a right to exist and have a right to their own state. Equating such terrorist organizations as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Islamic Republic of Iran as "Nazis in the Middle East", he said that their objective is "not to create a Palestinian state but rather, to push the Jews into the sea" because they can't live alongside a people of another faith. "In 1922, 80 percent of the land of Israel was ceded to become the state of Transjordan that is now ruled by the Hashemite kingdom and there are more Palestinians in Jordan than in Israel", he said, adding that their calls for a Palestinian homeland are eclipsed by their desire to eradicate Israel. "Democracy is a threat to political Islam and they believe that everyone who is not a Muslim is an infidel and is deserving of death. The Christian population of Bethlehem once stood at 80 percent and is now 12 percent because of Islamic influence," he said. Addressing the subject of Israeli Apartheid Week on over 55 campuses across North America, Mr. Horowitz said, "Muslims have more rights in Israel than they have in any Arab country in the world" and called the notion of Israel as a state that practices apartheid as "disgusting". Pointing to the sheer hypocrisy of such egregious and fraudulent accusations, Mr. Horowitz said, "If you want to know what real religious and gender apartheid is just look at the entire Muslim Middle East, and not Israel." Speaking of the political realities in the aftermath of World War II, he said, "12 million ethnic Germans were purged from Poland, but after the state of Israel was established, no one expelled the Arabs, hoping that one day rationality would take hold, but it never did." He said that such organizations as the Muslim Students Association and the Islamic Society of North America who are the chief sponsors of Israeli Apartheid Week are "fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood" and are "hate organizations" that make campuses unwelcome for Jewish students. On campuses around the country, he said, the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week erect an "apartheid wall" and proffered the idea that "a wall of lies" be built to counter their pervasive myths and distortions of the truth. Speaking of the well known Saudi Arabian funding of Middle East Studies departments at Western universities, Mr. Horowitz suggested that this is the impetus for the inextricable links between Muslim organizations and the Muslim Brotherhood. Calling the expulsion of close to 10,000 Jews from Gaza in the summer of 2005 as part of the disengagement a "mistake", Mr. Horowitz said, "a normal people in a normal state would never have done so, but would have driven out the 1.2 million Arabs because they are possessed by hate as manifested in their violent destruction of the thriving horticultural industry that the Jewish population had created there and their incessant rocket assaults on such towns as Sderot." Taking aim at the ubiquitous political zeitgeist that views the Palestinians as a nation of oppressed refugees, Mr. Horowitz intoned, "No people have shown themselves as so morally sick as the Palestinians", adding that, "In the history of all mankind, there was never a people who strapped bombs on their bodies and killed innocent people. No other people have sunk so low as the Palestinians and everyone is afraid to say it." Describing Islam as a religion possessed by "hate, violence and racism", he said that a resolution to the protracted Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio could is not beyond reach. "If you disarm the Palestinians in the Middle East there will be peace, but if you disarm the Jews there will be further death and destruction." "How is it that Jews do not get the narrative?" he queried. "The Palestinians are suffering, but it is not by the hand of the Jew, but rather their true oppressors are Hamas and Hezbollah" he said. Calling the Palestinian Authority a "terrorist government", Mr. Horowitz said, "when we see hate we must call it so, we must label the enemy as who they are". "The Palestinians don't want peace. How can you negotiate with those who won't recognize Israel's right to exist? Look what happened to those Arab leaders that have tried to establish peace with Israel. They were assassinated by radical Islamist elements." Extolling the idea that "jihadist murderers" are tantamount to "Nazis and blatant Jew haters", he said although they may appear to be perfectly decent, nice people, a great many of them support Osama Bin Ladin and like minded genocidal murderers. "Hitler did not publicly announce his 'final solution' in the fear that the German people were too civilized to accept it, but Ahmadinejad proudly and publicly announces his version of the 'final solution' and no Islamists condemn him. To the contrary, they cheer him on and embrace his vision." Challenging the belief that America is an Islamophobic country, Mr. Horowitz said, "Muslims are treated with kid gloves in America and are a protected species." He said that 8 to 10 times more hate crimes are committed against Jews than there are against Muslim in America. Pointing to the case of the Holyland Foundation, a purported Islamic charity that was found guilty of funding terrorism on the West Bank by their direct contributions to Hamas, Mr. Horowitz said that the unindicted co-conspirators in this case were the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and that there has been "no significant condemnation of this group or others of this ilk". He unabashedly condemned Hamas as a "fanatically religious, Jew hating, America hating, Nazi organization." During the question and answer period, a male Muslim student implied that a witch-hunt cabal was taking place and drew a parallel between Mr. Horowitz and the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, adding that Horowitz was a racist. When asked by Mr. Horowitz if the student would condemn Hamas, the student refused to do so, but proceeded to engage in further equivocation. Referring to Mr. Horowitz as an "ignorant racist" a female Muslim student who identified herself only as Magdalene said, "he has no proof of anything that he's said here tonight", adding that women in Muslim countries are "not persecuted by the rules of Sharia law but by draconian dictators who serve American political puppets." According to Lauren Kunis, a pro-Israel supporter who sought entry into the auditorium but was denied, "I had wanted to bring my Israeli flag in with me and was told by the Brooklyn College security that I couldn't. I told them that I'd wear the flag around my neck as the Arab members of the audience were wearing keffiyahs around their necks. I was then strong armed out by an African American security guard, who I've learned is the Brooklyn College deputy director of security. She accused me of making a ruckus and then called other police officers to escort me to the gate and out of the college. Seems like anyone who takes a proud pro-Israel position is considered a troublemaker and an enemy on campuses today."
"STAND WITH US" COUNTERS ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTORS BY: FERN SIDMAN On Sunday afternoon, January 9th, "Stand With Us", the pro-Israel student advocacy organization, staged two counter-protests in New York City, as they faced off against hundreds of seething Hamas supporters and anti-Israel apologists assembled for vitriolic demonstrations in New York's Herald Square and outside of the Israeli Consulate in midtown Manhattan. Spearheaded by Al-Awda NY - The Palestine Right to Return Coalition along with a litany of similar far left radical offshoots such as the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, American Muslims for Palestine, Siege Busters Working Group, Existence is Resistance, ANSWER - NY and the International Socialist Organization, the demonstrators marked the two year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead which saw an Israeli incursion into Gaza; with the focus being the deterrence of Hamas sponsored rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. Calling for an "end to the occupation of Palestine" and railing against purported "IDF atrocities" against civilians in Gaza, the demonstrators held aloft signs declaring, "No US Aid to Zionist Racism and Murder!", "Bring Zionist War Criminals to Justice!" and "Free Palestine". "In the last two years since the bloody massacre on Gaza, the Zionist aggression has grown exponentially, with the backing of US imperialist forces", Ali Hussein, a spokesman for Al-Awda told the crowd. "The US continues to block international bodies from pursuing the findings of war crimes during the attacks laid out in the Goldstone Report and we are here today to tell the world that our battle against the Israeli occupation forces will never end until the illegal and morally repugnant Zionist entity is defeated", he continued. Chanting, "Free, Free Palestine" and "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free", the demonstrators marched through midtown Manhattan to the Israeli Consulate where they continued their rally. Countering the anti-Israel forces were close to 100 activists representing "Stand With Us". On display at the counter demonstration were two rockets that were fired from Gaza into Israel's southern towns since it's withdrawal in 2005. Pointing to the rockets, Avi Posnick, the Stand With Us regional coordinator for the New York chapter said, "These rockets are among the 8000 fired into Israel by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and it is because of these rockets that Israel targeted the terrorist and weapons smuggling operations during Operation Cast Lead in December of 2008." Citing the fact that in 2010 another 235 Hamas sponsored rockets have fallen on innocent civilians in Sderot, Ashkelon and other Israeli towns, Posnick said that "Despite all this, Israel permits tons of food and supplies into Gaza through its crossings every day - calling into question the incessant and baseless accusations that there is a humanitarian or hunger crisis in Gaza. If we want to talk about peace in the Middle East, we must confront the agitprop emanating from the Hamas propaganda machine that is taking place across the street from here and declare to the world that it is Hamas terrorism and incitement that represents an impediment to peace, not Israel." The pro-Israel demonstrators held signs saying, "Israel: We Stand With You", "Stop Palestinian Terrorism; Teach Peace", and "Israel Wants Peace, Hamas Supports Terror". These signs are also part of the "Say Yes to Peace" campaign that Stand With Us launched to counter anti-Israel ads in Seattle and San Francisco. New York State Assemblyman David Weprin addressed the pro-Israel contingent by asking some simple questions. "What is rockets were fired at New York? What would the reaction of the United States be? Israel has the right to defend herself just as the United States does and we are here today to support the freedom loving State of Israel in her continual battle for survival against those bent on wanton terror", he said. Chanting "Stop Hamas Now" and "Israel Wants Peace, Hamas Wants War", the Stand With Us activists continued their vigil until early evening and vowed to return to square off against others planning similar anti-Israel protests. Said David Ruchlamer of Brooklyn, New York who attended the counter protest, "The facts on the ground are quite clear for anyone who has eyes to see. The Palestinian Authority refuses to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, so real and enduring peace is just not attainable. Israel cannot be compelled to make any further territorial concessions with an enemy who is devoted to its complete destruction."
 The following are excerpts from an interview with Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf, the son of Sheik Hassan Yousuf, Hamas leader in the West Bank. Yousuf Jr. converted to Christianity, and recently revealed that he had collaborated with Israel. The interview aired on BBC Arabic on March 12, 2010.
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: I have said, and I continue to say, that my problem is not with Hamas or with the Muslims. My problem is with the God of Islam and with the Prophet of Islam. With regard to... There were continuous conflicts, which drove me to think about which direction I would like my life to go. Of course, the torture carried out by Hamas on its people in prison, their stupidity, and their political inadequacy drove me to speak out.
[...]
Interviewer: Are you saying that your views on what you call "the Islam of Hamas" are what led you to collaborate with the Israelis?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: Who said there is the Islam of Hamas and the Islam of Al-Qaeda?
Interviewer: That's what you are saying, more or less.
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: No, I am not saying that. What I am saying is that Islam is Islam, and the Koran is the Koran. The Koran suffers from a split personality, and the God of Islam suffers from a split personality. All the Muslims who follow the God of Islam interpret Islam as they like, but this does not negate the terroristic and murderous character of Islam, which incites people, through the Koran, to kill people and blow themselves up.
[...]
Interviewer: Where does the Koran call for terrorism?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: Go to Surat Al-Tawba, verses 5 and 29. The problem is that Muslims do not understand their own religion. I call upon the Muslims to read their Koran and understand it, before they say that Islam is a religion of peace and compassion.
Interviewer: I asked you...
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: The God of Islam calls to kill any non-Muslim. The God of Islam calls to kill me today.
Interviewer: But don't you agree that Islam recognizes other religions, exalts Jesus, recognizes Judaism, and so on? Do you or do you not accept this?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: There are several unreliable views of several Islamic thinkers, but their authority does not supersede that of the God of Islam, who said: "Slay the People of the Book wherever you find them."
Interviewer: How can you say that? Did the Koran call to slay the People of the Book?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: He said: "Slay the polytheists wherever you find them." Read the surah.
Interviewer: But the People of the Book are not polytheists, are they?
[...]
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: If you want to ague with me – let's argue. Is Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, the supreme role model for the Muslims?
Interviewer: What do you think?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: Did Muhammad kill the Jews of Khaybar, or didn't he? You tell me. Why distort the facts? The Muslims must be honest with themselves and with the rest of the world. Muhammad – the supreme role model for the Muslims – killed the Jews of Khaybar, of Qureiza, and of Nadhir. He killed their children and captured their women. This is the supreme role model for the Muslims.
Interviewer: So your problem is with history, not with the present.
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: My problem is with that false prophet, Muhammad, and with the God of Islam.
[...]
The Muslims are not terrorists by nature. They are among the best nations, in my opinion. However, if the Muslims continue to cover for the terrorists, and to glorify and honor terrorists who blow themselves up, killing children, they will continue to be accomplices. My father is an accomplice.
[...]
Israel has been acting with violence, and killed innocent people. It killed people with or without a reason, but mistakes may happen. Every country on the face of the earth makes mistakes, not only Israel. The difference between Israel and Hamas...
Interviewer: When Israel kills innocent people, this is a "mistake," but when others kill innocent people, it is not?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: Killing is a mistake – regardless of who the killer is – but Hamas has no principles, no laws, and no limits, whereas Israel is bound by law and constitution. If there is a racist Israeli, he will stand trial. Give me one example of a Hamas official who stood trial.
[...]
In my view, if Islam were implemented properly, this would spell the destruction of the Arab and Muslim world – the whole world, in fact – because every Muslim would become a Bin Laden.
[...]
The Christians have been persecuted for the past 14 centuries – not by the Muslims, but by the God of Islam. The persecution begins in the Koran and in the behavior of the Prophet of Islam. View Film Clip Here. With thanks to MEMRI 
 Hamas political leader has said that his group will not recognise Israel despite new pressures and will give priority to building resistance to the Jewish state. Addressing a rally in the Syrian capital on Friday to mark the end of the Israeli attack on Gaza a year ago that killed 1,400 Palestinians, Meshaal said Hamas does not want another war with Israel, but it will stick to armed struggle as a means to liberate occupied land. "Hamas will keep rejecting the occupation and refuse to recognise the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Priority will remain building and developing the resistance," said Meshaal, who lives in Syria along with other Hamas leaders in exile. "Pressure, siege, temptations and opening doors or communication channels will not fool Hamas, which will not compromise on the rights. Hamas will be only tempted by restoring the land," Meshaal said. Meshaal was referring to increased contacts between Hamas and Western delegations since the Gaza war, including a meeting with a US group that included Jack Matlock, a former American ambassador in Moscow. "Triumphant Gaza today is still wounded. Its houses are still destroyed. It's still under siege and its borders are still closed. Add to this the new steel wall," Meshaal said, referring to a structure being built by Egypt along its border with Gaza to stop the smuggling of arms and goods into the strip. "Today we do not seek war but if war is imposed on us we will fight fiercely," Meshaal said. Meshaal said reconciliation with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, was needed to strengthen the Palestinian cause but he made no new proposals on how to do so after Egyptian efforts to bring about agreement between the two sides foundered. Meshaal also said that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will not be freed unless Israel releases hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. "Shalit will not to home before the liberation of our prisoners," he told the rally, blaming Israel for the failure to reach a deal on freeing the soldier, who was captured in June 2006. Al Jazeera
 From CAN: The Illinois State Police’s first Muslim chaplain, Sheikh Kifah Mustapha, is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terrorism financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation and a member of the radical Muslim Brotherhood organization by the federal government, reports The Investigative Project on Terrorism. The list that was drawn up as a result of the trial says that Mustapha is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, a group set up to secretly support the Hamas terrorist group in the United States.
He also worked as a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation until 2001 when the government shut the non-profit group down for financing Hamas. Prior to that, he worked for the Islamic Association of Palestine, another Hamas front that was shut down.
“It’s not clear whether the Illinois State Police knew about these connections and didn’t care, or whether it failed to adequately research Mustapha’s background. Either raises serious concerns about who will counsel the state’s Muslim troopers,” IPT says. The IPT report says that Mustapha has also helped raise money for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, another group tied to the Muslim Brotherhood that was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, and the Muslim-American Society. CAIR is currently the subject of a book by Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry titled “Muslim Mafia” that alleges the group supports extremism and engages in criminal activity including fraud in order to support Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. World Threats
 by Noah Shack Government Relations Research Associate, Canada-Israel Committee “Could our resources have been more wisely used? Without a doubt, though it’s easier to criticize than to envision.” – David Symons, a ‘Gaza Freedom March’ participant. In response to an endless barrage of rockets being fired from Gaza onto civilian populations in southern Israel, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December of 2009.
On the first anniversary of that operation, 1,360 people joined Mr. Symons in Cairo on the Gaza Freedom March, the announced goal of which was to break the so-called blockade of Gaza. This small number was a far cry from the Million-Man March show of force that they hoped for. But more importantly, it appears that an obsessive condemnation of Israel edged out the welfare of Gazans as the core objective. If a repeat of this ill-fated campaign were planned for next year, a quick visit to Air Canada’s website shows that a single, round trip, economy class ticket from Toronto to Cairo would cost $1584.52. To be generous, let’s assume the average flight to Cairo for the Gaza Freedom Marchers cost around $1,000 per person. That’s nearly $1.4 million evaporated before a single protester touched down on Egyptian soil. According to its organizers, “the Gaza Freedom March will show the residents of Gaza that the international community of citizens has not forgotten them, and will call worldwide attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.” In reality, the action was barely picked up in the media with the exception of Iranian Press TV, which was only too happy to broadcast images of another regional government manhandling protesters in the streets. Not even the population of Gaza mobilized in response to this grotesquely expensive failed publicity stunt.
According to Maggie Young, a UC Berkeley student who was one of 84 marchers admitted to Gaza, the protest was primarily led and controlled by 500 men associated with Hamas.
Ha’aretz correspondent Amira Hass described it as “a ritual, an opportunity for Hamas cabinet ministers to get decent media coverage in the company of Western demonstrators,” noting that “there were no Palestinian women among the marchers – a slap to the many feminist organizers and participants, both women and men.” A popular blog sagaciously relates the following: “An interesting fact about white people is that they firmly believe that all of the world’s problems can be solved through ‘awareness.’ Meaning the process of making other people aware of problems, and then magically someone else like the government will fix it… This belief allows them to feel that sweet self-satisfaction without actually having to solve anything or face any difficult challenges.” Would it not have been a better use of resources to send $1.4 million to initiatives already engaged in alleviating the humanitarian situation in Gaza? A successful global mobilization to raise millions of dollars for the Red Cross or UNRWA would surely enjoy more profile, and have the added bonus of actually impacting the situation on the ground for the people of Gaza. Instead, 1,360 people took a trip to Cairo to ring in the New Year, and returned home with nothing to show for it but some paltry awareness. The root of this misguided resource allocation is precisely as Mr. Symons elucidates: “it’s easier to criticize than to envision.” By focusing exclusively on criticizing and demonizing Israel, participants in the Gaza Freedom March have revealed their true objectives.
Their goal has far less to do with helping Gaza than with condemning Israel. The marchers are home, but their campaign against Israel continues. Those same people who opted to hold a self-aggrandizing protest rather than allocate funding to a worthy cause now decry the Government of Canada for seeking transparency regarding its aid to UNRWA, blaming a shady Zionist conspiracy no doubt. Never mind that Canada will continue to actually support the people of Gaza by providing much needed food, and over $300 million in other Palestinian aid projects. Easier to criticize than envision indeed. CIC H/T: Blazing Cat Fur
 by Khaled Abu Toameh Arab journalists are under growing pressure from the Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to avoid “hanging the dirty laundry in the open.” Arab journalists are often taught that they should place the interests of their leaders, governments and homelands before above anything else, including the facts and the truth. Americans and Europeans who are pouring billions of dollars on Abbas and Fayyad need to be aware of the absence of an independent media in the West Bank. One can understand why the Iranian-funded Hamas is repressing journalists, but there is no reason why American and European taxpayers should be funding a regime that has no respect for independent reporters. If the West nevertheless insists on dealing with corrupt secular regimes to keep radical Muslims away, then Washington and its Western allies should demand good government and free media.
Western donors have every right to demand something positive in return for their money. The financial corruption and lack of democracy and freedom of expression is, meanwhile, driving many Arabs into the open arms of Hamas and al-Qaeda. Journalists are forced to go and work in the international or even Israeli media to be able to practice some form of real journalism. The absence of a free and independent media in the Palestinian territories has driven a majority of Palestinians to rely on foreign media outlets as a reliable source of information. Public opinion polls have even shown that most Palestinians prefer Al-Jazeera to the Hamas and Fatah media. The pressure is taking place in the context of the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas that has been raging in the Palestinian territories since the Islamist movement won the parliamentary elections in January 2006. Since then, the two rival parties have been waging a smear campaign against each other, using every available platform to discredit and undermine one another. Many local journalists have found themselves caught in the middle of this ongoing dispute. In the West Bank, the Western-backed “moderate” government of Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad has been exerting pressure on journalists to “toe the line” and refrain from reporting news that might reflect negatively on the two men. Abbas and Fayyad are using the US-trained Palestinian policemen not only to crack down on Hamas supporters in the West Bank, but also to silence critics and intimidate local reporters and editors. Some journalists who have dared to publicly criticize the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have either found themselves behind bars under the pretext of “supporting” Hamas - an allegation aimed at keeping human rights organizations and Westerners silent. Other journalists who are not renowned as Fatah loyalists often receive threats over the phone directly from officials close to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. This policy has resulted in the creation of a media that is not much different than the ones existing under Arab dictatorships. The three major Palestinian newspapers, Al-Quds, Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, are controlled, directly and indirectly, by Abbas and Fayyad loyalists. Criticism of these two men and their policies in the local media is unheard of. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of journalists who seek jobs with the Palestinian media in the West Bank are required to be Fatah loyalists. Of course no one is expecting Abbas and Fayyad to employ Hamas-affiliated journalists, but what about those who don’t belong to any political faction? And there’s certainly no shortage of fine and independent Palestinian journalists. Hamas’s attitude toward Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip has not been any better. Many journalists living there are afraid to speak out or report stories that might anger Hamas. Under this frightening atmosphere, many of these journalists nowadays sound as if they are Hamas spokesmen. A free media is one of the basic foundations of a healthy and prosperous society. It’s also an important element in the construction of a solid infrastructure for the much-desired Palestinian state. Hudson New York
 People in America are often shocked to discover the extent to which the authorities in Britain have been taken in by the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, to such an extent the UK government and police use them as advisers on combating Islamic extremism. Americans would be even more shocked to discover that exactly the same thing is going on in their own backyard. Pajamas TV features two interviews with former US security people, one described merely as having been given some kind of intel-gathering assignment by the ‘joint chiefs’ and the other described as a ‘former FBI special agent’.
The first describes how, when he discovered to his alarm that there was not only no evidence that Islamic radicals were wrong in Islamic law but that there were no counter-arguments to them in that law, the US intel/law enforcement community that had instructed him just didn’t want to know. The second, the ex-FBI man, is even more alarming. He states that the American counter-terrorist establishment has allowed itself to be infiltrated by radical Islamists -- to whom counter-terrorism officials are going for advice and training in countering Islamic radicalism.
Every major Muslim representative organisation in the US, he says, is a Muslim Brotherhood front. Hamas fronts such as CAIR are used by the US authorities for outreach to the Muslim community in America. They are invited to sit in on brainstorming sessions about investigative techniques, and are actually training the FBI. ‘The Muslim Brotherhood are telling us how to fight them’, he says. The PJTV interviewer seemed stunned by this unbelievable situation. But it’s exactly what’s happening in the UK, too, where the Brotherhood are used – incredible as this sounds – as an antidote to radicalisation and as interlocutors in good faith with the Muslim community.
In the US, this profound and wilful institutionalised ignorance of the religious war being waged against the free world revealed itself most catastrophically recently when seven CIA officers, amongst them some of the most experienced and valuable, were blown up by a Jordanian triple agent. Not only were they duped, but it seems their professional training went by the board in inviting such a man onto their base and with so many of them clustering around him. As the Washington Post reported: ‘The tradecraft that was developed over many years is passé,’ complained a recently retired senior intelligence official, also with decades of experience. ‘Now it’s a military tempo where you don't have time for validating and vetting sources. . . . All that seems to have gone by the board. It shows there are not a lot of people with a great deal of experience in this field. The agency people are supporting the war-fighter and providing information for targeting, but the espionage part has become almost quaint.’ Endemic ignorance, sloppiness, incompetence -- even now, even after 9/11, even after the restructuring which was supposed to remedy the dysfunctionality and turf wars between intelligence agencies but which – as was predicted at the time – has merely stuck another layer of bureaucracy on top. And if one thinks back to the systematic failure over decades to identify and analyse correctly the rise of Islamism and before that, the imminent collapse of Soviet communism, one has to ask oneself the terrifying question whether US intelligence really is fit for purpose at all. Melanie Phillips
 Eleven Palestinian human rights groups have asked Hamas to conduct a credible internal investigation into allegations it committed war crimes during last winter's war with Israel. UN investigator Richard Goldstone has said he believes both Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers committed war crimes during Israel's offensive in Gaza. Goldstone said Israel used excessive force and Hamas terrorized Israeli civilians with indiscriminate rocket attacks. The UN General Assembly adopted Goldstone's findings and gave both sides until Febuary 5 to investigate. Neither has done so. Israel and Hamas deny the allegations. Shahwan Jabareen of the Palestinian group al-Haq said that Hamas told him it would investigate, but that he has not seen serious steps. JPost
 An Egyptian daily newspaper has published an article praising Israel for preventing Iran from completing its proposed nuclear facilities.
The article claims the Israeli intelligence service Mossad has carried out assassinations and acts of sabotage in recent years to prevent the facilities being completed.
The daily newspaper Al-Ahram, in its Saturday edition, says Mossad chief Meir Dagan has led the charge against Iran, and without him the Islamic Republic's nuclear plants would have been completed years ago.
"Over the past seven years, he has worked in silence, away from the media," the op-ed article says. "He has dealt painful blows to the Iranian nuclear program, he is the Superman of the Jewish state."
The Egyptian newspaper cited assassinations, inciting of opposition protests, the carrying out of acts to embarrass Iran's leaders, and covert attacks against nuclear facilities, among the list of achievements by the Mossad chief.
The article also lauds Dagan for his, "many bold victories," against Syria, Hezbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and praises the Israeli intelligence service's wisdom for not admitting its involvement in the various acts it orchestrated.
 I was waiting for the crew at my local car wash to finish drying my car when a young man approached and asked where he could get the US Army decal that I display on the rear window.
“The Army gives them to people who have served, veterans, and I assume to active duty members as well,” I told him.
“You were in the Army?” he asked. Oh yes, a very long time ago before you were born, I replied, noticing a distinct accent.
He was joined by another young man. “Did you fight in the Middle East?” No, I said, but there has never been an absence of wars for America. We have never been free to ignore the rest of the world even if we wanted to.
In a similar fashion, as much as Israel may yearn for peace, they have never been permitted to function as a normal nation. From the hour that Israeli sovereignty was proclaimed, the nation was attacked by its “neighbors” and has, for all intents and purposes, been on a war footing ever since.
The two young men talking with me said they were Palestinians. Both came to America to find peace.
I think that tells you everything you need to know about the reality of Israeli-Palestinian relations—--if one can call the one-sided determination of the Palestinian leadership to “drive the Israelis into the sea.” Or the Iranian pledge to “wipe Israel off the map.” Or the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon being re-armed by the Iranians for whom they are a proxy army against Israel.
In the course of our chat, they said they were both from Gaza and I was reminded that the Israelis, in their futile quest for peace, had forced out their own people from the Gaza strip and turned the area over to Fatah, also known as the Palestinian Liberation Authority.
What they got in return was an endless cascade of rockets from Gaza, not just for a few weeks, but for months and years. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas forced Fatah to retreat to the West Bank where they could have the protection of the Israelis who continue to desperately look for anyone with whom to negotiate a real peace.
In January of last year, the Israelis initiated Operation Cast lead in which their military targeted the sources of the Gaza rockets and looked for Hamas leaders who cravenly hid in the midst the population. The rocketing has largely stopped since then, though ugly individual attacks on Israelis have continued.
The Israeli solution has been to build a very high wall between them and the Palestinians and to maintain tight control over who passes through it. To do otherwise would be to subject their people to suicide bombers and other killers.
“Would you accept peace with Israel?” I asked. I was greeted with broad smiles. Yes, Palestinians want peace I was told, but “Hamas will not permit it.”
So, there you are. It has nothing to do with Washington’s foreign policy with regard to Israel and it has everything to do with the bad intentions of those who continue to use the Palestinian people as pawns of resistance to any Western presence in what they regard as their sacred lands.
The Islamic jihad knows no boundaries, killing Jews, Christians, Hindus and even Muslims with abandon. It took President Obama a year to say out loud that the U.S. is at war with al Qaeda. It took three days to say anything about the Christmas bomber.
Israel was sacred to the Jews for two thousand years before there ever was an Islamic religion. It was sacred to Christians for a thousand years before Islam existed. Jerusalem is never mentioned even once in the Koran, but, for reasons known only to Israel’s “neighbors”, they cannot find any reason to make peace with them.
The two young Palestinians were very happy to be living and working in America. They treated me with the greatest of respect and with good will. That’s the way it should be.
 Canada is redirecting its Palestinian aid away from a United Nations agency and toward specific projects. The shift in Canadian policy was announced this week by Vic Toews, president of Canada’s Treasury Board, who wrapped up a five-day trip to Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. Canada is not reducing the amount of money it gives to the Palestinian Authority, “but it is now being redirected in accordance with Canadian values,” Toews said. The move “will ensure accountability and foster democracy in the PA.” In the past, Canadian aid earmarked for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, went into a general operating fund in the PA’s treasury.
The U.N. agency runs 59 Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. In a meeting in Ramallah, Toews refused a request by the PA’s minister of planning and administrative development, Ali al-Jarbawi, for aid to be given “directly” to the PA treasury, the Jerusalem Post reported. Among the projects receiving the redirected aid are those training prosecutors, judges and police, and shoring up the Palestinian judicial sector by building courthouses. “If we train people properly, we will have the emergence of proper institutions necessary for a state,” the Post quoted Toews as saying. “It is obviously more difficult to monitor the use of money sent into general funds than specific projects.” A statement from Toews’ office said Canada is “on track” to deliver on its pledge of $300 million over five years to the PA. Toews said Ottawa needed “to ensure that [the Palestinian Authority] has less wide discretion.” B’nai Brith Canada praised the shift away from funding UNRWA, which reportedly has been infiltrated by Hamas. With thanks to www.vladtepesblog.com
 I wrote about some of the revelations incidental to the government's prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for NRO in "Coming clean about CAIR."CAIR and other prominent Muslim organizations were named as unindicted co-conspirators of the Holy Land Foundation at the criminal trials that ultimately resulted in the HLF's conviction of supporting terrorism as a Hamas front. Though exposed at the two Holy Land Foundation trials, CAIR et al. continue to operate as partners of the United States government.
At PJTV, Bill Whittle updates the story in an in-depth interview with an anonymous former FBI Special Agent in "The Islamic infiltration, part 1: Inside our government, armed with our secrets" and "The Islamic infiltration, part 2: From influence to insurrection." These segments mimic the format of 60 Minutes, but Whittle and PJTV go where 60 Minutes fears to tread. With thanks to Power Line
 Hamas and Hizbullah proclaim they will fight until Israel is destroyed, without causing an international furor.In spite of Israel's ongoing dialogue with the United States to search for the right formula for the resumption of talks, the position taken by the Obama administration, and the unfair pressure exerted by the European Union, have brought down the fragile structure which had previously made negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians possible. Though these negotiations did not bring about the desired peace, they did constitute an agreed channel for discussions between the two parties and brought about, for instance, the Olmert government's agreement to an American proposal to train Palestinian forces in Jordan under the supervision of Gen. Keith Dayton, thus paving the way for the creation of a regular Palestinian fighting force trained with Western methods. This was a major concession and a risky one. This force is intended to keep order in Judea and Samaria, but who is to say that it would not turn againstIsrael under different circumstances? Israel has shown a greater willingness in the past year to meet the Palestinians halfway, as exemplified by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Bar-Ilan speech recognizing the two-state principle. Then there was the 10-month freeze on West Bank settlements. HOWEVER, BUOYED by US President Barack Obama's intense wooing of the Muslim world, the Palestinian Authority has chosen the opposite course, refusing to come back to the negotiation table and launching an all-out diplomatic, media and legal war against the Jewish state. The EU is ratcheting up the pressure, and has issued a declaration calling for a withdrawal to the 1967 borders and for Jerusalem to become the capital of both countries. This would, in effect, rendernegotiations useless by determining their outcome from the outset. It is as if the world has forgotten that Israel already made the most extraordinary concessions at Camp David and in Taba. Yasser Arafat not only turned down the Israeli proposals, he did not make any counter-proposition. The same scenario played out at Annapolis in 2008. According to a lengthy Al-Jazeera interview with Saeb Erekat on March 27, prime minister Ehud Olmert made even greater concessions, but that was not enough for PA President Mahmoud Abbas: He walked out when Olmert suggested a jointadministration of the Temple Mount. Erekat also said that when US president Bill Clinton told Arafat at Camp David that he would be the first president of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, but that he had to recognize the fact that vestigesof the Temple were buried under the Aksa Mosque and there would have to be joint administration of the Temple Mount, Arafat put an end to the negotiations. THERE WAS no Israeli denial following these revelations, and recent interviews by Abbas and Olmert support Erekat's version - though the latest round ofnegotiations carried out by Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni enjoyed a degree of secrecy rarely seen here. As such, the extent of the concessions the two leaders had been ready to make was kept under wraps - perhaps for fear of the impact on the coming elections. That was a colossal miscalculation. The Knesset, the country and the world should have been told that the extremely generous terms offered to the Palestinians had been turned down, putting the blame squarely on Abbas. Such a step would have gone a long way to defuse the situation with Obama and his advisers. It seems that the new government led by Netanyahu had not been fully conversant with the details of the failednegotiations and was thus ill prepared to deal with the accusations leveled against it. Then came the Goldstone Report. The main message there is not so much the totally unfounded accusations of war crimes but an attempt to limit the extent to whichIsrael is "allowed" to use force to defend itself against terrorist organizations. Such a move was not totally unexpected coming from the UN, especially from the Committee on Human Rights, where Islamic and Arab countries have a decisive voice. What was not expected was that it would lead, for instance, to the White House asking for "clarifications" following a recent operation in Nablus. (In a confrontation with Israeli security forces, three terrorists who had murdered a father of seven were killed.) This demand, made at the request of the Palestinian Authority, constitutes a dangerous precedent. Coupled with the Goldstone Report, it tends to present a difficult dilemma to the government and to the security forces when contemplating military intervention. AT THE same time, terrorist organizations, at the behest of some Arab countries, will be able to keep attacking our citizens while sheltering behind their civilians, in hospitals, in schools and in mosques. Hamas and Hizbullah proclaim on every available channel that they will never recognizeIsrael and will fight until it has disappeared - without causing an international furor. In fact, Arab organizations, supported by leftist Western groups, are busy getting arrest warrants issued in European countries having relevant legislation against Israeli leaders and army officers for "war crimes," calling for boycotting Israeli products and demonstrating their support for Gaza. In each and every successive confrontation, Arab states and Palestinian movements have been defeated. Now they are seeking other ways to harassIsrael . They are waging an all-out media war to blacken its image and ultimately delegitimize its very existence. They are helped in this endeavor by hundreds of leftist organizations and civil society movements in the West. For them Israel is a neo-colonial power, as is the US. But Israel is easier prey because of its size and isolation. Anti-Semitism is also at work here. Palestinian and Arab media, with the full support of the Islamic establishment in Arab countries, use every anti-Semitic cliché in the book, and some of that leached into the West where it led to a renewal of classic European anti-Semitism. More at JPost
 Israel has been roundly and repeatedly condemned by the UN and pretty much everyone else for civilian casualties in Gaza. We have repeatedly pointed out that there are numerous signs (including open admissions) that jihad groups in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon intentionally mount attacks from civilian areas in order to draw responses from Israel that kill civilians and can be used for propaganda purposes, but no one seems to care. And now, Gaza residents themselves are rising up against this. "Gaza Residents Enraged Over Hamas IEDs In Densely Populated Areas," from MEMRI, January 13 A website close to Fatah claims that Hamas militias are placing powerful IEDs near densely populated buildings in Gaza in regions far from the border with Israel, as part of preparations for war with Israel. It was reported that this is infuriating the residents and sparking clashes between them and Hamas members. Source: Alaahd.com With thanks to JihadWatch
 [Note: This is the latest segment in an ongoing series about Code Pink and its co-founder Jodie Evans. Click here to read earlier articles.] Fresh on the heels of their Hamas-protected trip to Gaza, the so-called feminist, American antiwar group Code Pink, co-founded by top Obama funder Jodie Evans, is running banner advertisements on the English language version of the official Web site of a terrorist sympathizing group, the Muslim Brotherhood, one of which invites the Muslim Brotherhood to “join us in cleansing our country.” The ad, titled “Arrest the War Criminals” with a subhead that contains the invitation to “join us in cleansing our country” links back to a Code Pink site that calls for the kidnapping of former President George W. Bush, his wife Laura and other former members of his administration through ‘citizens arrests’ for defending America against terrorists in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al Qaeda. The Jawa Report first reported the advertising in a post this morning (January 11, 2010). A check by Big Government of the front page of www.ikhwanweb.com. on Janaury 11, 2010 showed three Code Pink banner ads. One near the top, one in the middle and one at the bottom of the Muslim Brotherhood’s official English language Web site. The top one is pink-colored and promotes Code Pink’s “Women Say NO to War!” campaign and features a subhead of “Gaza Peace Delegations & More!” The middle ad features pink handcuffs to promote Code Pink’s “Arrest the War Criminals” campaign. The bottom ad promotes Code Pink’s “Gaza Freedom March” and features a sepia-toned photograph of a forlorn-looking child with a message about the march that concludes with the phrase, “Lift the Siege of Gaza!” The middle ad links directly back to Code Pink’s official Web site, codepinkalert.org, while the other two link back to Code Pink created Web sites that bear the names of the respective campaigns, womensaynotowar.org and gazafreedommarch.org. The Muslim Brotherhood published a statement by Code Pink issued in May to promote Code Pink’s trip to Gaza that month. In December, the Muslim Brotherhood published an open letter to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by Code Pink and the Gaza Freedom March decrying the Egyptian government’s refusal to allow the group passage into Gaza. Discover the Networks provides background on the current status of the Muslim Brotherhood: In recent years, the Brotherhood has attempted to forge a reputation as a moderate and reformist Islamic group that has renounced its violent past. Lending plausibility to this reputation has been criticism of the organization by radical Islamist groups, who have condemned the Brotherhood’s willingness to participate in the political process as heretical. These groups have also criticized the Brotherhood for supposedly abandoning violent struggle as a means of establishing an Islamic empire. However, numerous statements by the Brotherhood’s leadership belie its moderate posture. Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni, the leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, has repeatedly disavowed violence while concurrently pledging his support for the terrorism of Hamas and Hezbollah. Muhammad Mahdi Othman Akef, a prominent leader of the Brotherhood, has expressed his support for suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq “in order to expel the Zionists and the Americans.” He has also denounced the United States as a “Satan,” saying: “I have complete faith that Islam will invade Europe and America, because Islam has logic and a mission.”
Many other leaders of the Brotherhood have likewise justified terrorism against Israel and the United States, with many defending the September 11 terrorist attacks against America.
Jews are another common object of the Brotherhood’s hatred. Of the Jewish people, Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, the spiritual leader of the Brotherhood, has written: “There is no dialogue between them and us other than in one language — the language of the sword and force.” Even as it is deemed insufficiently militant by some Islamist groups, the Brotherhood has had a discernible influence on contemporary jihadist terrorism.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of 9/11, was a member of Muslim Brotherhood. More prominently still, Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood preacher, was a mentor to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. A recent sympathetic article on the Muslim Brotherhood was published by the Christian Science Monitor. Jodie Evans and Code Pink attempted to destabilize the Egyptian government by provoking a crisis last month over the government’s refusal to allow all 1362 ‘Gaza Freedom’ marchers to enter Gaza through Egypt. It would appear that Jodie Evans and Code Pink found an ally in Egypt in their opposition to the Mubarak government. This is how Jodie Evans repays the kindness showed by First Lady Suzanne Mubarak who came to Code Pink’s aid after Jodie Evans sent her a letter asking for help delivering the ‘humanitarian aid’ to Hamas-controlled Gaza. Code Pink’s involvement with radical Islamic terrorists and terrorist sympathizers in the Middle East would be troubling enough without Jodie Evans’ close ties to President Barack Obama and his administration. Does CIA Director Leon Panetta know that a close ally of the president he serves is asking a radical Muslim group with terrorist sympathies to join them in “cleansing our country”? Big Government H/T: WeaselZippers
 KHALED ABU TOAMEH
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday demanded a public apology from one of the most prominent Islamic scholars, who called for stoning President Mahmoud Abbas to death. Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said that if it is proven that Abbas had instigated Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip, he must be stoned. "During the debate raised over the UN's Goldstone Report that accused Israel of war crimes against Gaza, there were reports that Abbas encouraged Israel to launch its attack," Qaradawi said in a Friday khutba (sermon) at the Omar bin al-Khattab mosque in Doha, Qatar. "There also were reports that he foiled a vote on the report by the UN Human Rights Council," he said, calling on the Arab League to investigate the matter. "If it is proven that Abbas instigated the Israeli war against Gaza, he deserves to be publicly stoned in Mecca because this would be a betrayal on his part," he added. Qaradawi emphasized, however, that he was not issuing a fatwa, or Islamic religious decree, against Abbas. He said his appeal was aimed at prompting the Arab League and other Arab and Islamic groups to launch an inquiry into Abbas's alleged involvement in the war. PA Minister for Religious Affairs Mahmoud Habbash strongly condemned Qara-dawi's statements against Abbas and demanded that he publicly apologize to the Palestinians for insulting their president. Habbash accused Qaradawi, who is a Qatari citizen living in Doha, of exploiting his status and the podium offered him in mosques for incitement and slander. The PA's official news agency, Wafa, noted that Qaradawi was the one who had issued fatwas allowing Hamas to kill innocent Palestinians in theGaza Strip. The agency said that the scholar was being ungrateful to Abbas, who was the one who found him a job in Qatar when the PA president was a senior government official in the emirate. JPost
 A Middle Eastern country is building a massive thick steel wall as a barrier between themselves and a Palestinian regime. The country is being condemned for its actions across the Arab world, denounced by Islamist figures like Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and facing angry demonstrations at its embassies around the world. Signs with the president’s face daubed with a Star of David are waved, and furious slogans are chanted.
The new construction project, written about critically in the world press as “choking” Gaza, has been dubbed the “iron wall” and the “wall of shame.” Sound familiar? Nothing new? In fact, the situation is very new. The country that is being berated and condemned is not Israel.
The wall is being build by the Egyptian government to separate territory controlled by Egypt and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Israel is routinely charged with inhumanely and heartlessly fencing off Palestinian Gazans in a “prison,” despite the fact that Egypt’s official crossing to Gaza is also clamped shut, with the exception of a few days each month.
But with the construction of this new wall, Egypt is taking some powerful hits from within the Arab world. The wall being constructed is designed to stop the flow of smuggling between Egypt and Gaza through the border town of Rafah, an underground economy that is not limited to — but certainly includes — major weaponry and ammunition being stockpiled for terrorist attacks and to help Hamas rearm for the next war between Gaza and Israel.
Along with the weaponry brought in to replace the stockpiles decimated in Operation Cast Lead, millions of dollars worth of other commerce flows through the tunnels on a daily basis. Everything from food, to gasoline, to machinery, to farm animals. The tunnels are a major source of revenue for Hamas, which charges a premium for the construction and use of the tunnels and puts a tariff on any goods that are brought in. The planned 10 kilometer-long wall will include steel sheets that will reach 60 meters underground — an attempt to cut off the tunnels and the commerce that flourishes there. In addition to weaponry, the tunnels are also a conduit for terrorists, both reasons that the tunnels themselves were targeted in Operation Cast Lead. Construction of the wall began in early December, with the Egyptian government doing its best to keep news of it quiet for as long as possible. By mid-December, it became impossible to hide such a massive project, and news of the construction broke and began to spread. Even as reports began appearing in the media, Egypt refused to acknowledge its existence. An AP article dramatically described the construction in the same judgmental terms normally reserved for accounts of Israel’s building of barriers: A jackhammer pounded large steel beams side by side into the sandy soil on the Egyptian side of Gaza’s border, putting in place an underground wall that could shift the balance of power in this volatile area. Once completed, the steel barrier would cut off blockaded Gaza’s last lifeline. In the wake of the media attention, demonstrations condemning the Egyptian action have ensued, beginning in Jordan, where an organization of unions and professional associations protested construction of the wall.
Some 150 people gathered outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman earlier this month and burned photos of President Hosni Mubarak. The photos depict Mubarak with a Star of David stamped on his forehead. More at Pajamas Media
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