What Oslo Accords Failed to Do: Wrench in Progress for Kerry

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

Twenty-five years ago in 1987, the First Intifada started.  It didn't stop until the Madrid Peace Conference.

Twenty years ago, on September 13, 1993 to be exact, Prime MinisterYitzchak Rabin and Simon Peres, Foreign Minister, along with Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) were at the White House in Washington DC.  They all  signed the "Declaration of Principles" which had all been discussed in Oslo, Norway. Russia and the USA were co-signers.   It stipulated mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO.  The PLO were to stop terrorism and end it's covenant calling for Israel's destruction.

Israel had ratified this accord in the Knesset one week later.  Arafat never could get the PLO to ratify it, announcing this on October 7, 1993.

On May 4, 1994 they had signed the Gaza-Jericho Agreement
On August 29, 1994 they had signed the Preparatory Transfer of Power and Responsibility
On August 27, 1995 they signed the Protocal transferring power to the PA.

"The five-year transitional period would commence with Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area. (This they have done.)  Permanent status negotiations would begin as soon as possible between Israel and the Palestinians. The negotiations would cover remaining issues, including: Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbors, and other issues of common interest."

Starting in  the year 2001, Israel was being attacked by rockets, mortars and missiles.  800 rockets rained down on Israel by 2005.  Attacks forced Israel's retaliation with Operation Rainbow and Operation Days of Penitence in May 2004.  In August and September 2005, Israel had pulled out of Gaza.  Since the pullout, there have been more than 12,800 rockets that have attacked southern Israel from there.  Operation Summer Rains from June 28th  to November 26th took place in 2006 when IDF soldier Gilat Shalit was captured.  "Israel's stated goals in Operation Summer Rains were to suppress the firing of Qassam rockets from Gaza into the western Negev  Attacks into Southern Israel have not stopped. 4,000 rockets had rained down on Israel since 2005.  Israel answered the attacks with Operation Autumn Clouds in 2006 and Operation Hot winter in 2008 and Operation Cast Lead in 2009.   Even though there was a cease fire from Operation Defensive Shield in November 21, 2012,  23 rockets and 7 mortars have been shot into Southern Israel in 2013 with only January free of them.  30 Israelis were killed, 1,500 were injured and all the residents have been traumatized.  

This makes the PLO (today's Fatah)  still on the books in Israeli law as a terrorist entity because of not ratifying the Oslo accord.  This is also true in American Law being the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah are listed as a terrorist organization.  Such groups are to forfeit US foreign aid assistance.

Two times the Palestinian National Council had never canceled the PLO Covenant.  So David Bedein, head of Israel Resource News Agency and director of Near East Policy Research,  brings up the issue of the fact that there is a reason to renew talks with the PLO or Fatah.   They need to ratify the Oslo Accord and to cancel the PLO covenant calling for Israel's destruction even before they decide to recognize Israel.

Already the Palestinians have let it out that a future Palestine is to have no Jews living in their territory.  They want East Jerusalem, or even have grandiose ideas of having all of Jerusalem.  The Palestinian officials want all Palestine refugees to return and be allowed in their territory.  This would be overcoming  and would drown Israel. There were few Palestinians in Palestine in 1948 and now there are millions.   They have produced textbooks with geography maps showing all of Israel as Palestine and teach hatred for Israelis and Jews.  Fatah and Hamas have no cooperation with each other let alone with Israel, and they have no proper resource for money other than donations from other Muslim countries and groups.  The occupation of so many have been in bomb making and that's about it.

One can see that these are very sensitive matters.    Kerry and Obama are pushing the oppositional Palestinians into discussions with Israel. Why is it so imperative that Fatah sit down to discuss peace with Israel when they haven't a united force for a Palestinian state?     How can Israel even consider being held to discussion with Hamas terrorists who wish to wipe them out?  Is this an act just to get something written on one's resume?

Mahmoud Abbas was first Prime Minister of Palestine and is now the president.  He has just ousted Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister and has replaced him with Rami Hamdallah, another Fatah member who is a USA educated economist.  They have discovered that they are just about bankrupt, owing far more money than a state should that hasn't even been officially  formed yet, even though google hadn't been aware of its standing as yet.

Peace is not ready to be served on the table.  There is much that the Palestinians have to do to become neighbors of Israel.  They're not showing their willingness to live in peace when they teach their children to hate Jews and Israelis as shown by their school textbooks and their cultural programs.  Peace will have to remain in the oven where it is simmering.

Resource: http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=5582&q=1 by David Bedein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bedein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/palestine-challenges-hamdallah-government-hebron.html
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-president-appoints-prime-minister-173034019.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-battle-of-fatah-and-hamas-with.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/06/kerrys-plan-dud-with-palestinians.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Summer_Rains
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/rocketrange.html

All Is Not Quiet in Israel/Gaza: Presidents Keep Working

Nadene Goldfoot
We may not be reading articles about what's happening in Israel right now, but Ashdod just saw and felt a rocket fall in their neighborhood on Tuesday morning.  The IDF air force responded overnight by hitting 2 rocket launching sites and an arms storage facility.

That makes 858 rockets and mortars that have been shot into Israel this year so far.  119 of them were shot in the latest round that fell into Israel.  The Iron Dome also intercepted 110.  Dozens fell inside the Palestinian territory.

Besides this one rocket shot during the new ceasefire, Gazans were rioting near the border fence trying to damage it.  The IDF were forced to shoot at them and injured 7.  So the IDF must remain alert to problems that keep happening.  Jerusalem Post has an article saying that Hamas is counting on Jews leaving the country because they feel they have scared them enough to leave if another round of shooting starts up again.  They don't know the resistance these people have to their adversity.

In the meantime, Fatah, living in Judea and Samaria territory have Abbas who is going to the UN to become a state of sorts.  There already are 48 Muslim majority states, and this would make 49.    The United States will not be able to veto this as it'll take place in the General Assembly, but not surprising, France said they will go along with it.  What do they care?  They're not neighbors.  They're not involved.  What the USA has done is threaten Abbas that they will cut off  the annual $500 million aid if they make the bid without any negotiations and peace terms with Israel.

Why I"m against it is that it gives Fatah clout that they will use against Israel, making a solution even farther away; definitely in the time of the Messiah, no doubt.  Abbas is intent on retiring with this accomplishment, as he'll be 78 years old on March 26, 2013. If he gets this bid, it'll also mean his political survival if he wants it, as he took over leadership from Arafat when he died 8 years ago.    Only someone like Israel's President Shimon Peres, who'll be  90 years old on August 2, 2013, has the stamina and intelligence to keep working for the public.  This Polish-born dynamo is the grandson of a Rabbi in a line of Rabbis.  He seems to know how to live with stress, and is in good shape.

Resource:  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4304605,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-28/abbas-tries-to-outflank-hamas-with-return-to-un-statehood-bid

Revealing Turkey's Ambitions

Nadene Goldfoot

January 2009: Prime Minister of Turkey Erdogan walked out of debate with Israel's Peres in Switzerland.

October 11, 2009: Turkey excluded Israel in international air force exercises. Then the USA pulled out, also.

January of this year Turkey showed their being a turncoat against Israel by airing a TV program called "Valley of the Wolves" which showed a horrible play of Israelis kidnapping Turkish babies and attacking old men. It included assassinating the Israeli ambassador.

On June 16th Turkey sent hundreds of troops followed by their warplanes into N. Iraq to go after Kurdish guerrillas, killing four after they had attacked a Turkish unit near the border. They have had continuing raids on Kurds, last in February 2008. 40,000 people have been killed since 1984. Turkey says they are defending themselves against a terrorist organization. What the Kurds have wanted for a very long time is their own state. Kurds are the closest to Jews by dna in the Middle East. They have supported us, and we had been supporting them.

You'd think that Turkey would be sympathetic to its old friend, Israel, but no, they were the ones who organized the six ship flotilla. Actually, it was organized by the Turkish Islamist terrorist group, IHH. Nine of their activists were killed in the planned attack on Israel in the act of attacking the Israeli soldiers boarding their ship. Israel was told they were a peaceful group, but they attacked these young men with metal bars, axes and knives causing them to defend themselves.

"In his footage, taken on board the Mavi Marmari on 30May2010, IHH leader Bulent Yildirim clearly instructs his followers to throw the Israeli commandos overboard when they land on the ship. His speech was made in Turkish and repeated in Arabic by a translator."

Turkey is claiming new friends, Iran and Syria, so has turned against Israel and the West. They have a Muslim majority now, but had been secular before. They have the chutzpa to call on the international community to punish Israel for the "bloody massacre" when they were the ones yielding the knives, etc.

Now Turkey gets some of Iran's enriched uranium in a swap so that Iran can avoid sanctions. Brazil is in on the deal, too. Hillary has called this a transparent ploy. One must remember that during WWI, Turkey was on the German's axis side of the war.

Resource: The Israel Project http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=689705

Israel Ministry of foreign Affairs

Liberal american Jews Rethinking Israel: Never Knew It to Begin With

by Nadene Goldfoot

Adam Horowitz and Philip Weiss wrote in "The Nation" that there is a dramatic shift in American Jews' attitudes toward Israel. They were shocked by the Gaza war. they felt that Israel used "overwhelming force against a mostly defenseless civilian population unable to flee. The way this article is written makes me think of sitting ducks being shot at in a carnival booth.

What has happened to our young people? Have they watched so much football or basketball that they feel the real world evolves around rules of a game? For eight years Israel has been attacked by missles. Just because the number of casualties suffered by Israel was not extremely great is not a good reason to continue to suffer. There are other cruel ways in which the Israelis suffered besides death after being under attack for so long. Do our young people think that Israel should have used the very same type of missiles and had shot them at exactly the very same distance from the border line like a shot at a basketball net? Tit for tat? You get one shot and then we get one shot? You get a kill count of one and then we get the same? How about percentages? Does anyone have any idea how that works?

For eight years Israel tried to get the Palestinian terrorists to stop, and for eight years the only thing that happened was that the terrorists were getting stronger and more brazen. The world sat back like spectators at a Roman arena no doubt betting that Israel would be wiped out soon.

Israel warned the whole world that they were tired of being shot at and that they had been patient at the expense of their own citizen's welfare and could not hold out any longer without taking steps in stopping the attacks. Whereas citizens of Israel are not expendable items to Israel, the Arabs in Gaza are expendable to the terrorists. They have been and always will be pawns ready to be sacrificed in this new type of battle.

Peres was a weak Prime Minister in that he wanted to be liked by his peers, leaders of other countries. The only problem is that leaders of other countries do not benefit from such a friendship and had more to gain by befriending the terrorists. Netanyahu won because he is a strong individual who can see the trees from the forest and is not interested in any popularity contest. He understands how the chess game is played and is sticking to his goal, putting Israel's few people in a safe situation despite being surrounded by a sea of murderers.

As far as their statement of "traditional Jewish resistance to criticizing Israel", Israelis are the first to criticize themselves. It's not that we can't take criticism, but it should be fair and not just repeated words from our opponents. Like children, people sometimes take a side that seems to be the popular one just to be accepted. Here, the popular mode is that of being against Israel.

Bashing Jews has been the popular thing in the world to do for centuries. Do our young people think the world has changed all that much? What happens is that it simply changes color each generation. It takes on different forms. We're not accused of poisoning the wells anymore because science could disprove that, but now it's "using overwhelming force".

The seemingly "overwhelming force" caused more consternation to Israel's commanders than to the Hamas terrorists. Hamas purposely located amid populated centers in order for people to be killed just to gain the sympathy vote. "Oh, those mean Israelis. See how they shoot poor defenseless people. Look at them drop dead. Oh my! "

No doubt many Israeli soldiers suffered right along with it all. Most are just out of high school. We are raised with a very high morality. We don't even shoot a cow and then eat it. We don't eat meat unless it has been killed in a specified way giving the least amount of pain. We don't eat milk products with meat so as not to make the mother animal feel badly. We are taught from birth to consider other's feelings. We have a huge conscience. Has anyone read Portnoy's Complaint? How other Jews can be sucked into thinking that we are the bloodthirsty conquerers painted by the terrorists just shows how little they know about their own people or history.

I suggest that people supporting "J Street" pick up a few books and start studying. They're throwing out the baby with the bath water. There was a need and a right to create Israel in 1948. Goals do not become passe because we're in a new decade. This cannot change like presidents. The need is still there. What has M.J. Rosenberg done to improve public relations for Israel besides criticize her? I doubt if he has been on the front lines in the line of fire. I doubt if he's a colonel or general. Has he ever been in the army? It really helped to hear Roger Cohen say he was "shamed" by Israel's actions. I'm shamed at how little he understands. He can rectify that by moving to Sderot for the next five years. I think we'll hear a different tune.

I guess I'm tired and disgusted to hear all the whiners blame Israel when they've been the ones trapped in an untenable situation. American Jews don't have the guts to pick up and move to Israel because it takes a lot of bravery to do so. Those remnents of society, those that were half starved were able to pick themselves up and beat all the odds of becoming a state. They were not to be toyed with nor trampled on. They molded themselves into a fighting force of warriors who mean to stay alive and will not be bent.

If American Jews have any fortitude, they'll have to show me by doing something in their lifetime that is for the good of their people, and that doesn't mean continuing to give into people who only want their destruction. Israelis have been pretty slow in realizing that giving up land doesn't mean peace-in fact it means just the opposite as Gaza has proven. If anything has become passe, it's the Peace Now movement. Some American Jews are behind the times and haven't picked up on this at all. If they really want to be modern, they'll have to learn and think. They'll have to walk the walk and talk the talk.

Reference: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091102/horowitz_weiss/print
Added 10/27/09: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/peeling-off-j-streets-invisibility-cloak-what-t0days-ny-tim