Menzies House

Israel - Palestine - who should live where

Who are the rightful land owners and who shall live where is an argument that has stagnated in the Middle East for decades with heads of major Western powers achieving little via peace talks.

Lev Cherkasski has recently toured the region and writes on matters not generally covered in foreign, mainstream media. GC.Ed.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has stopped short of accusing Israel of war crimes following a six-month inquiry into settlement activity in the West Bank. The report found that Israel is pursuing a policy of annexing the Palestinian territories through its policy of settlement expansion, thereby further complicating the creation of a viable future Palestinian state. Asked directly whether or not Israel had committed war crimes, Christine Chanet, one of the authors of the damning report, replied that “its offences fell under Article 8 of the International Criminal Court [‘ICC’] statute. Article 8 of the ICC statute is the chapter of war crimes. That is the answer”.  For a body whose sole purpose for existence appears to be bashing Israel, the report has lived up to the expectations of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

To put things into perspective, it is often claimed that Israeli settlements violate international law and their mere existence puts into threat the likelihood of a future Palestinian state. These facts alone might lead the casual observer to take them at face value. What is very often forgotten however, is that Israel has previously offered to dismantle settlements in the West Bank in the event of a future peace deal. Having set the precedent for this in the Sinai withdrawal in 1979 and the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, Israel has proven to be a credible partner for peace when it comes to genuine negotiations and compromise.

President Morsi in his finest hour

Egyptian President Morsi had strong views about Israelis when he made this interview in 2010. He referred to Jews as Bloodsuckers and "Descendants of Apes andPigs.” GC.Ed.
 

Gillard policy on Israel - shameful and harmful.

Late Thursday night while Australia was deep asleep, the UN General Assembly voted to confer nonmember statehood on the Palestinian Authority by huge majority.

The only countries of any size to stand with Israel were the  US, Canada, and the Czech Republic. Czech Republic?

Back in 1993, the whole west, including Australia, piously sanctioned the Oslo Accords to set up the Palestinan Authority’s path to statehood. Everybody cheered and clapped each other on the back. Oh! there were smiles and air kisses and handshakes that day.

But with this vote, the UN turfed the Oslo Accords and its intentions. Pretended they had forgot about them.

In a nutshell, the members of the UN know perfectly well that the Palestinian Authority had done nothing to qualify for nonmember statehood.

Firstly, This ‘state’ cannot even control its own territory. It has had zero control over Gaza for the  five years since Hamas seized power and, on the West Bank, where Abbas pretends to be in control, whole towns are run by tribal extortionists.

Secondly, Gaza itself is a terrorist state in every possible sense. Al Quaeda does what it likes; and it is a jumpoff for the demented mullahs of Iran in their aim to annihilate Israel.

In Defence of Freedom

Senator Cory Bernardi stands with Israel:

I have always been a supporter of Israel.

It is a beacon of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. During a visit there a few years ago, I was struck by the resilience and optimism shown by the Israelis under very trying circumstances. The testing of their patience and resolve in the face of repeated attacks from terror group Hamas has since increased.

Most recently, missiles salvaged from the Libyan Islamist insurgency by the rulers of Gaza have been launched at major Israeli population centres – Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. This is an alarming escalation from the hundreds of home-made and rather ineffective rockets directed at Israel annually from within the Gaza Strip.

The cowards in Hamas responsible for these attacks usually store and launch their weapons of terror from within residential areas. This is so that any retaliatory strike will likely incur civilian casualties, which can be paraded before a sympathetic and often unquestioning press in an attempt to discredit the justifiable Israeli defence response.

This is a common tactic used in the propaganda war by terrorists. They view the loss of innocent civilian lives as just collateral damage that can be used to further advance their cause. In some instances, they will even target their own people in grotesque public displays of political violence.

This morning’s media carried one such event. 

Click here to keep reading

Senator Cory Bernardi is a Senator for South Australia. 

Why is the UN Condemning Israel Over “Women’s Rights” But Ignores Syria?

The United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) is set to wrap its annual conference this Friday. And according to them, the great threat to womens‘ rights isn’t Syria, nor Iran, nor even the Taliban, but wait for it...Israel.

Friday's session will include such professional resolution as concerning "woman and natural disasters," "women hostages," women and girls and AIDS," and "mortality among women.

However, the panel is expected to also an eight-clause resolution, determining that the "Israeli occupation" in territories, including East Jerusalem, is the main obstacle for the advancement of the Palestinian woman.

The panel, which includes representatives from 45 countries, including Israel, is considered to be one of the UN's most active and respected bodies.

Responding to the decision to condemn Israel, Israeli envoy to the UN Ron Prosor told Haaretz that the "council's bring levels of absurdity and cynicism to new heights."

"The thousands of Syrian women butchered, tortured, raped and trampled under Assad's iron boot don't even get a passing mention in the panel's decisions," Prosor added.

Why the double standard exists is not immediately clear, though it may have something to do with the makeup of the UN generally. Many openly Anti-Semitic countries are representatives of the UNCSW.

 

 

This post was first published on Andy’s RANT!

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Released Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi: I Would Bomb Israelis Again and in the Same Manner

Meet scumbag Jordanian terrorist Ahlam Tamimi. She was serving 16 life sentences for her role in the August 9 2011 bombing of a Sbarro’s pizzeria in Jerusalem that killed 15 and wounded 130 innocent Israelis. Unfortunately she and 1,000 other convicted terrorists were released from prison in Israel as part of a prisoner exchange that freed Israeli solider Gilad Shalit.

Ahlam Tamimi said in an interview on October 19 that she would return to her terrorist ways in a heartbeat. She also considers the murders a tremendous success — one granted to her by “Allah.”

When asked if she would carry out such a large-scale attack again if given the chance, Tamimi replied:

“Of course. I do not regret what happened. Absolutely not. This is the path. I dedicated myself to Jihad for the sake of Allah, and Allah granted me success. You know how many casualties there were [in the 2001 attack on the Sbarro pizzeria]. This was made possible by Allah. Do you want me to denounce what I did? That’s out of the question. I would do it again today, and in the same manner.”

MEMRI provides the interview and translation:

 

Pity some Israeli commando didn’t put a bullet in her head.

Meanwhile, some good news to report...

Can We Trust the PLO?

Leesa Ashton discusses the two state solution:

A couple of days ago, Mahmoud Abbas as the current chairman for the Palestinian Authority presented a case for gaining Palestinian Statehood at the UN.  There seems to be a ground swell of support for the Palestinian case of late and equally strong anti-Israel sentiment going around.  Is there a strong case of global amnesia infecting the world at the moment?

It was in 1974 when the UN formally recognized the PLO as a legitimate voice for the people of the Palestinian Authority, even though it had a long history of terrorist activity and links to many terrorist organisations such as Hamas.  The modern state of Israel has a fairly short history, it doesn’t take much research to see the openly proclaimed agenda of the PLO and the surrounding Arab nations for the total destruction of the ‘Zionist Entity’ known as Israel (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel) and in 1967 those surrounding Arab nation attempted to do just that in the six day war.

Let’s look at the facts; Israel is the only democracy in the region, it has an elected head of state, it has freedom of religion and freedom of speech, it has a rule of law; the Arabs living in Israel enjoy full citizenship.  Do we really believe this will be the case if the Palestinian Authority is granted full statehood?  All the surrounding Arab nations are Muslim states with varying degrees of religious law, where religious persecution is normal, any Muslim in these countries daring to convert to any other religion or even criticising Islam in any way can be tried for apostasy and given the death penalty.  Churches are regularly burnt to the ground and Christians and people from other non-Islamic faiths are imprisoned. Israel is the only Jewish state in the world and it is surrounded by Arab and Muslim countries, most of which do not recognize Israel’s right to exist, in fact 5 of the 7 world’s state sponsored terrorist are either Arab or Iranian.   

Can we now really trust the PLO to turn its back on all the previous rhetoric and actions against Israel and live peacefully side-by-side?  Do we expect a Palestinian State to be a democracy and promote equal citizen rights to all its people?  Do we trust Mahmoud Abbas, who has previously stated that the holocaust was exaggerated and that gas chambers were never used, to lead this new nation into peace and reconciliation with his long term enemy? (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Abbas).

Had the Palestinians agreed to the UN recommendation partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, a Palestinian state would have been a reality in May, 1948, but they only wanted to drive Israel into the sea, and continued to pursue that agenda for many, many years, through wars, violence and terrorism.  Australia has always supported Israel’s right to exist and condemned the anti-Semitic sentiments and violence from their Arab neighbours, suddenly  are we going to put our trust in the same people who have supported and encouraged terrorism against Israel and believe they have changed?   I hope Australia shows more sense than to support this.  I hope the UN takes a good look at history before it jumps head first into this idea.  It is my belief that if the Palestinian Authority is given Statehood, it won’t take them long to begin pursuing their long stated agenda of eliminating Israel, at least they will try.   

Leesa Ashton is a stay at home mum, and occasional writer.

Pop Star Katy Perry Attacked After Tweeting her Followers to “Pray for Israel”

Katy Perry faced a slide of hateful responses from Palestinians and their supporters after she sent a tweet asking others to pray for Israel.

It didn’t take long for the Twitterverse to light up with offensive responses from Muslims, Palestinians and others who found her message less-than-appealing.

She was also called a “heartless lesbian.”

Unfortunately it didn’t take Perry long to backtrack on her initial Tweet.

Political correctness strikes again.

So in the end Perry doesn’t “support ANY side of violence in ANY place for ANY reason.” But, what about “violence” that occurs when a nation is defending itself? Certainly, most reasonable people stand against violent actions, but many would contend that there are times during which forceful defence is a necessary action.

Perry was raised in a conservative Christian home, which may explain her less progressive inclinations on the Middle Eastern conflict.

It would seem that it is forbidden for anyone to say anything nice about Israel these days.

 

Via Michelle Malkin

Andy Semple

Follow him on twitter @Bulmkt