Palestinian People Do Not ExistBy Joseph Farah © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com |
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provocative headline? It's more than that. It's the truth. Truth does not change. Truth is truth. If something was true 50 years ago, 40 years ago, 30 years ago, it is still true today.
And the truth is that only 30 years ago, there was
very little confusion on this issue of
You might remember the late Israeli Prime Minister
Golda Meir making the bold political statement: "There is no such thing as
a Palestinian people."
The statement has been a source of ridicule and
derision by Arab propagandists ever since. They love to talk about Golda Meir's
"racism." They love to suggest she was in historical denial. They
love to say her statement is patently false - an intentional lie, a strategic
deception.
What they don't like to talk about, however, are the
very similar statements made by Yasser Arafat and his inner circle of political
leadership years after Meir had told the truth - that there is no distinct
Palestinian cultural or national identity.
So, despite the fact that conventional wisdom has
now proclaimed that there is such a thing as the Palestinian people, I'm going
to raise those uncomfortable quotations made by Arafat and his henchmen when
their public-relations guard was down.
Way back on
“The Palestinian people does not exist. The
creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle
against the state of
“For tactical reasons,
That's pretty clear,
isn't it? It's even more specific than Golda Meir's statement. It reaffirms
what I have written on this subject. And it is hardly the only such statement
of its kind. Arafat himself made a very definitive and unequivocal statement along
these lines as late as 1993. It demonstrates conclusively that the Palestinian
nationhood argument is the real strategic deception - one geared to set up the
destruction of
In fact, on the same day
Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles on the White House lawn in 1993, he
explained his actions on Jordan TV. Here's what he said: "Since we cannot
defeat
No matter how many people
convince themselves that the aspirations for Palestinian statehood are genuine
and the key to peace in the
I've said it before and I
say it again, in the history of the world,
Why now has it become such
a critical priority? The answer is because of a massive deception campaign and
relentless terrorism over 40 years.
Gold Meir was right. Her
statement is validated by the truth of history and by the candid, but not
widely circulated, pronouncements of Arafat and his lieutenants.
Israel and the West must not surrender to terrorism by granting the killers just what they want - a public relations triumph and a strategic victory. It's not too late to say no to terrorism. It's not too late to say no to another Arab terror state. It's not too late to tell the truth about Palestine.
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If the Arabs laid down their weapons today, there would be
no more violence.
If the Israelis laid down their weapons today, there would be
no more Israel.
RAPE OF CHRISTIAN GIRL IN PAKISTAN IGNORED BY POLICE
Thursday, July 4, 2002
CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE
GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- The rape of a 16-year-old girl in Pakistan has been ignored by police because of her religious beliefs. Shakeela Siddique, a Christian from Fatewala village in the northeastern Gujranwala district, was reportedly raped by an influential local Muslim landlord in February 2002.
Traumatized and ashamed,
Shakeela kept quiet about her ordeal. The incident only came to light two
months later when she realized she was pregnant. In order to avoid social
stigma, she was forced to have an abortion (illegal in Pakistan) at the end of
April and has suffered from severe depression since the attack.
When her father, Siddique
Masih, attempted to confront the alleged rapist, he was badly beaten up. He
told Christian Liberation Front, a Pakistani human rights group: "My
everything has been ruined as my daughter is now a living corpse. No Christian
in our village dares to raise his voice against the Muslim landlords."
There are about 150 Muslim
families and 50 Christian families living in Fatewala and most of the
Christians are poor peasants employed by Muslims. In February 2001, Naira
Nadia, a 14-year-old Christian girl, was kidnapped and gang raped by a group of
Muslim men.
This was apparently a
reprisal for sharing her faith with her school friends. The group forcibly converted
her to Islam and sent her parents a certificate of conversion. Despite evidence
that Naira was underage and therefore could not marry or convert to another
faith without her parents' consent, the presiding judge at Lahore High Court
ruled in favor of the abductor.
Naira has been missing for almost 17 months. Her
family filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in February this year, but they are
under increasing pressure from local Muslims to drop the case.
In May 2000, eight Christian girls were allegedly
gang raped by six Muslims. Their case went before the Ferozwala District and Sessions
Court in May 2002 and the judge ruled against the girls. It is widely believed
that he did so because of pressure from extremists who packed the courtroom at
every stage of the proceedings.
Minority women who are rape victims are often
forcibly converted to Islam and married to their rapists or sold into
prostitution. According to a ruling of the Lahore High Court, if a non-Muslim
married woman converts to Islam, her marriage is automatically dissolved. In
some cases, the rape, conversion, marriage and even subsequent divorce can take
place in a single evening.
In Pakistan, women who have been raped are at risk of being accused of committing adultery, the penalty for which is death by stoning. To successfully defend a charge of adultery, the burden falls on the victim to prove rape, requiring four adult Muslim males to testify that they have witnessed the act.
Pakistan has been a signatory to the UN Convention
on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) since
1981. CSW is calling on the government of Pakistan to bring its law and
practice in line with CEDAW. CSW is also urging the government of Pakistan to
bring to justice those responsible for these crimes and to hold independent
inquiries into those officials who seem to have acted impartially in these
cases.
Stuart Windsor, National
Director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: "Shakeela's ordeal has
had terrible consequences for her but the injustice in the way her case is being
dealt with by the authorities adds to her suffering.
"Women from minority
religions such as Christianity have virtually no voice in the Pakistani
criminal justice system and Shakeela's case is an outrage about which the
international community should not be silent."
Islamic Cleric Speaks Out Against Arafat
MONTREAL: There is no basis in Islam for anti-Zionism and the current intifadah is, in fact, contrary to Islamic law, says an outspoken Italian Muslim scholar, who publicly condemns the Palestinian Authority and its chairman Yasser Arafat for distorting the teachings of Islam for their own purposes.
During his recent visit to Canada, Sheikh Abdul Hadi
Palazzi said in an interview with the C.J.N. that the Qur'an recognizes the
Land of Israel as the heritage of the Jews and that the modern State of Israel
is the fulfillment of the prophecy that, before the Last Judgment, the Jewish
people will return to dwell there.
Those who rise up against Israel in the name of
Islam are committing "fitnah," meaning apostasy and sedition, Palazzi
said, and those who encourage the ignorant to do so are "terrorist
criminals."
He is a harsh critic of Palestinian suicide bombers
and what he sees as the sacrifice of children in the current intifadah. No
"paradise" awaits those who die this way, Palazzi said. "Islam forbids suicide for any
reason."
He accuses "pseudo-Islamic" organizations, like Hamas, of cruelly exploiting the impoverished in refugee camps. "Unfortunately, it is true that their only opportunity for a better future lies in sacrificing their children as suicide bombers, for which they will be paid by these organizations."
The only justification for a Muslim to rebel against
the government he or she lives under is if that authority prevents them from
abiding by the laws and practices of Islam.
That is definitely not the case with regard to Israel and Arabs under
its jurisdiction, said Palazzi, who is emphatic that Muslims actually have more
freedom in Israel than they do in many Arab states.
"A Palestinian state
is inconceivable." It would simply be a time bomb under Israel, Jordan and
the whole Middle East," he said.
"In two to five years, it would become a basis for terrorism like
Afghanistan under the Taliban".
Palazzi thinks the only
"realistic" solution is to give the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza
autonomous administration, similar to that now extended to the Tyrolean region
of northern Italy, where German is the official language. But first the P.L.O., Hamas and other
terrorist groups should be expelled from the area and "not one
weapon" should be allowed to remain.
"There are already
two 'Palestinian' states: Israel and
Jordan. What is being suggested is a
third Palestinian state," Palazzi said.
He also dismisses the
notion that Jerusalem, because it is the traditional site of Mohammed's ascension
to heaven, must be the Palestinian capital. "A city's religious status is
not necessary connected to its political role...Mecca, for example, was never
the capital of Saudi Arabia. At the time
of the Prophet Muhammad, Jerusalem was, in fact, under Persian administration."
Palazzi said a
"Palestinian" people has never existed in history. Before 1967, the Arabs in the West Bank were
Jordanians and those in Gaza were Egyptians, he said. Arafat himself, Palazzi claims, is really an
Egyptian.
Palazzi, a Sufi, is the
chief imam of Italy's Muslims and is director of the community's Cultural Institute,
which seeks dialogue with Jews and Christians.
His mother's family is originally from Syria.
He has strongly condemned
Islamic fundamentalism and the dictatorial regimes in much of the Arab world,
and has upheld Israel's right to use military force to defend itself.
He charges that if there had been an uprising "one-tenth" the strength of that which Israel is confronting in any Arab country, it would have been "met with an order of 'open fire' and be over in a week".
Palazzi believes many
Palestinians realize they would be better off under Israeli administration than
in a P.L.O.-ruled state, but they cannot speak out, fearing for their lives or
those of their children.
"At least in Israel,
an Arab can have a new car and be sure he will not be stopped by the police and
told to hand it over because it is needed for the state. That happens under
Arafat".
The Israeli-Palestinian
conflict has been "artificially created" to focus attention away from
the lack of economic and social progress in most of the Arab world, Palazzi argues.
Palazzi is also unsparing
in this denunciation of the Saudi Wahhabi regime, which he calls
"evil" and accuses of spending millions of "petro-dollars"
to support those who commit terrorism against Israel.
His visit to Canada, his
first, was sponsored by the Montreal-based Canadian Institute for Jewish
Research and the Asper Foundation. He
spoke in three synagogues in Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.
Source: Roots & Branches
Association
WESTERN ECONOMY DEPENDS ON ISRAELI TECHNOLOGY
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srael's strong hi-tech industry received national recognition this week, reports the Jewish Agency's Global Agenda. Leading global advisory firm, Giga Information Group, in a position paper published on Wall Street this past week, wrote, "Without Israeli technology, the West will not develop. Many organizations throughout the world, including the American national infrastructure, will not survive for long without constant support from the revolutionary technology coming from Israel."
In response to inquiries
from various large organizations regarding the advisability of continuing to
acquire Israeli products, the heads of Giga note:
"Israeli technology has the greatest influence on the modern world, since it is leading both conceptually and technologically. Israeli engineers find elegant and creative solutions to deal with the biggest problems and threats. Israeli innovativeness sets a very high standard that challenges other technologies. Therefore products from countries such as Sweden, Germany, England, Asia, and even North America become much better, thanks to the standards set by Israel."
(Arutz 7, www.IsraelNationalNews.com
July 21, 2002)
PRAYER FOCUS: Pray for Israel’s economy, which is in
a slump resulting from the ongoing violence in the country. Pray that Israeli technology, which is very
advanced, will be in demand around the world.
TERROR
THROUGHOUT THE NATION – ALL IN ONE DAY
It hit in the north when a bus was blown up by a suicide bomber, killing nine and wounding more than fifty. It hit in the nation’s capital, when a terrorist opened fire near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, killing a telephone company worker at point blank range. It happened in the south, when a terrorist attempted to infiltrate the Israeli community of Dugit in the Gaza Strip from the sea. It happened in Samaria, when a roadside bomb was detonated as army jeeps passed by, and when terrorists opened fire near the community of Avnei Hafetz. The terror attacks came while Israelis were still shaken by the slaughter of students and faculty members at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University last week. Then, just after midnight, a car traveling near the Samarian community of Eli came under fire from an ambush, killing a young couple and injuring their one-year-old and three-year-old children. Also overnight, three soldiers were seriously injured in the area of Beit El when a bomb was exploded near their vehicle.
(The Media Line, August 5, 2002)
PRAYER FOCUS: Pray for the people of Israel who are so tired of terror, sorrow and death. Pray that in their distress they will turn to God for His answers.
Molestations Revealed
Summary: Nearly every week there are media accounts of homosexuals molesting boys. Homosexual sexual predators seem to be everywhere—in churches, in businesses, and secretly leading Boy Scout troops.
One story that received
scant attention in the media involves a homosexual couple in Arkansas who have
been sentenced to ten years in prison and fined $5,000 each. Lewis Ray and Tim
Murphy took a 16-year-old boy out to dinner, shopping, gave him marijuana, and
then sexually assaulted him. Ray and Murphy have to register as sex offenders
and provide DNA under the DNA Detection of Sex and Violent Offenders Act. (See:
http://www.montimes.com/news1.htm
A Palo Alto, California
man has just been arrested for molesting three boys. He taught woodworking for
children at a local Home Depot. Carlitos Gerald Saucedo was convicted of child molestation
in 1988 and failed to inform Home Depot that he is a registered sex offender.
In late June, a Boy Scout leader and married man was
arrested for molesting five boys in his home and on Boy Scout camping trips.
David Brown, an active church member and a pillar of
the community in Blue Springs, Mo. He had bondage and discipline images involving
children on his computer. His bail was set at $1 million. He faces 32 counts of
molestation and will also face charges on possession of child pornography.
In late July, two New Jersey priests were arrested
in Montreal on charges of soliciting sex from minor boys. The priests were
caught in a sting operation that involved a boy prostitution ring. One of the
priests was the former head of a Catholic high school for boys in New Jersey.
In Florida, the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest
Florida has started a review of more at least 700 files of priests. The
investigation began after two priests were exposed for sexual misconduct. The
goal is to locate any priests who have been accused of child molestation in the
past.
Read TVC’s Special Report, “Homosexual Child Molesters” for
more on this:
http://traditionalvalues.org
ASIA PACIFIC MESSIANIC FELLOWSHIP
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et's organize!” “Why?” “OK, let's not organize.” As we examine the Acts and Epistles, it seems that congregations got to know about each other by traveling apostles and teachers, and the writing of letters.
There was no organization, no paperwork, no
denominations, no office, no officers, and no expenses. Each congregation was independent of all
others, but bound together by the Holy Spirit.
We might call this "local autonomy," but in Fellowship with
each other.
We have also had this privilege of being
"traveling ambassadors for the Lord."
First we pioneered the BIBAK Bible Fellowship among the tribal people of
the mountainous BIBAK Provinces, Philippines, since 1958.
Then we were invited three different years to do
Seminars for the Japan Messianic Fellowship in various cities in Japan. Last March we were invited to spend 2 weeks
teaching in Singapore, including an intensive 3 day HaYesod[1] Seminar for 40 congregational leaders on the
Hebraic Roots of Biblical Faith. HaYesod
is an excellent study program. Try
it.
As a result, Messianic Believers from the Philippines, Japan, and Singapore would like to meet each other. To accomplish this, the newly formed Asia Pacific Messianic Fellowship will sponsor a BIBLE CONFERENCE in Baguio City, Philippines June 3—9, 2003. This will include the Festival (literally, Appointed Time) of Shavuot, or Pentecost, June 6, 2003. When the details are finalized, a web site will be put on the internet. Look for more information in the next PETAH TIKVAH as well as the address of the web site.
Back to basic Truth and implementing the basics is,
I hope, the objective of the Messianic movement. However, Yeshua's clear requirements in
Matthew 23 seem to be ignored. He
clearly says, "Do not be called rabbi... father... master," as all
Believers are brethren, no distinctions.
"Servant leadership" is a buzzword today, but what it really
means is just what Yeshua said about Himself and what He expected of His
disciples and others.
Volunteerism is foundational to "get the work
of the Lord" accomplished. The
Greek uses koinonia ("joint participation," translated
Fellowship) to indicate every Believer, gifted in some way by the Spirit,
fulfilling his niche in the overall ministry.
The BIBLE CONFERENCE of the Asia Pacific Messianic Fellowship will seek
to seriously get "back to the basics of the 1st century
Kehilah/Ekklesia," and its excellent koinonia.
Following tradition seems to be the norm today,
whether taken from Judaism or Christianity, paganism, or some of each. We do
not intend to flinch or look the other way as we examine the current situation
in the light of the clear teaching of the Bible. Then, by making the proper
changes, we expect to be more efficient in fulfilling the Great Commission to
reach the whole world with His Truth, starting with the Asia Pacific region! A
few specialists cannot do it all. We must “make and multiply disciples” as was
done in the First Century! “Teaching them everything that I have commanded you”
is a basic function of congregations, as well as for every Believer to “pass it
on.”
Roger Walkwitz
The Olive Tree Message! 2751 SE
150th Ave, Morriston FL 32668
Ph 352.528.2740
rogwalkwitz@att.net