No way home: The tragedy of the Palestinian diaspora

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/no-way-home-the-tragedy-of-the-palestinian-diaspora-1806790.html

You might think Palestinian refugees would be welcomed by their Arab neighbours, yet they are denied basic rights and citizenship
A special report by Judith Miller and David Samuels
Thursday, 22 October 2009

It is a cynical but time-honoured practice in Middle Eastern politics: the statesmen who decry the political and humanitarian crisis of the approximately 3.9 million Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Gaza ignore the plight of an estimated 4.6 million Palestinians who live in Arab countries. For decades, Arab governments have justified their decision to maintain millions of stateless Palestinians as refugees in squalid camps as a means of applying pressure to Israel. The refugee problem will be solved, they say, when Israel agrees to let the Palestinians have their own state.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/no-way-home-the-tragedy-of-the-palestinian-diaspora-1806790.html
Please follow the link to read the entire article.  This is important information for prayer and understanding but I cannot re-post it.

 

Benny Begin: No Chance of Peace as PA/Fatah Seeks Israel’s End

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133525

(IsraelNN.com) Cabinet Minister Dr. Benny Begin, a member of the seven-minister security cabinet, praises Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for not giving in on settlement construction – and says there is no chance for negotiations while the Palestinian Authority continues to seek Israel’s destruction.

Please click here to see the video report.

The minister also spoke earlier in the day with IDF Army Radio in the wake of what appears to be a diplomatic victory for Israel: successful American pressure on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to participate in a three-way summit with U.S. President Obama and Netanyahu, even though the latter has not agreed to freeze Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria.

(Go to the Israel National News link to view the entire article and watch the video. Pray for Israel as they stand against terror, Islamists and unrighteousness according to God’s sovereign will.  -Ruth Mayfield)

Candidly Speaking: Evangelicals: An appreciation

JPost.com » Opinion » Columnists » Article Aug 16, 2009 20:46 | Updated Aug 17, 2009 9:10

Candidly Speaking: Evangelicals: An appreciation

By ISI LEIBLER

A prominent American Jewish leader recently told me that the passionate standing ovation he received after addressing 4,000 participants at John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel rally in Washington was reminiscent of the fervent Zionist gatherings he attended as a youngster. The two-day Evangelical Christian parley was designed to express support for Israel, receive updates on the current challenges facing the Jewish state and lobby congressmen in support of Israel. They heard addresses from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu via satellite, Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ambassador Michael Oren, Malcolm Hoenlein of the Presidents’ Conference and others.

At a time when much of global public opinion views Israel through the distorted lenses of Arab and anti-Semitic defamation, millions of Evangelicals have emerged as our most devoted supporters.

The evolution of this relationship is extraordinary and defies logic. It is only over the past three decades that support for Israel assumed such a high priority among this Christian denomination, which is rapidly expanding at a time when other churches are in dramatic decline.

Until recently, most Jews regarded Evangelicals as zealots obsessed with a desire to convert everyone. They also believed that their philo-Semitism was not “genuine” because it was based on an eschatology which predicted that the second coming of the messiah would only come after the Jewish people had returned to Israel and brought about the end of days.

Read the rest of this article from the Jerusalem Post at: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1249418620257&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Gas Field Near Haifa Exceeds Expectations — Again!

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132849#replies

by Hana Levi Julian

Gas Field Near Haifa Exceeds Expectations — Again! by Hana Levi Julian Follow Israel news on and . (IsraelNN.com) The capacity of natural gas fields at the Tamar I drilling site off the coast of Haifa have exceeded the most optimistic expectations.- for a second time. The natural gas reserves found at the site are 16 percent more than estimated, according to an independent report released by Noble Energy, which owns 36% of the field under exploration. Noble Energy also operates the drill site on behalf of a conglomerate of partners, including Texas-based petroleum company Netherland, Sewell and Associates. The site is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of Haifa. Israeli partners in the well include Isramco Negev 2, which owns 28.75%, Delek Drilling, which has 15.625%, Avner Oil Exploration with 15.625% and Dor Gas Exploration, which owns 4%. Shares rose in response to the announcement at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Tests by an outside consultant have revealed 207 billion cubic meters of gas. The previous estimate of 178 billion, made a month ago, was already 30 percent higher than original estimates. “There is already enough Israeli made natural gas to provide for the county’s needs for years to come, said Avner CEO Gideon Tadmor and Delek CEO Tzvi Greenfield in a joint statement. They said that the group plans to “determinedly seek out additional reserves in our many licenses along the coast,” pointing out the discoveries free the Jewish State from dependence on foreign energy sources.

Russia-Iran Naval Maneuvers Begin in Caspian Sea

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132634#replies

Arutz 7- Israel National News
by Hana Levi Julian

Russia is joining up with Iran for joint naval exercises for the first time ever, according to the Iranian Mehr News Agency.

The joint Russian-Iranian naval maneuvers, which were announced Wednesday, are taking place this week in the Caspian Sea.

The report, which could not be independently confirmed, quoted a senior Iranian ports authority official who said the drill was aimed at preventing pollution and improving search and rescue operations coordination between the two nations.

However, the maneuver, involving some 30 vessels, is seen by some analysts as a way to join forces against the U.S., which the Asia Times referred to as “the intrusive Western superpower.”

Entitled “Regional Collaboration for a Secure and Clean Caspian,” the two-day drill quietly combines military objectives with environmental goals. A 1921 Iran-Russia friendship agreement was the legal foundation for the present naval cooperation between the two countries, according to political analyst Kaveh L. Afrasiabi.

Russia has been instrumental in protecting Iran from further sanctions by the United Nations Security Council due to its defiance of a U.N. mandate to end its nuclear development program.

Iran has continued to add uranium enrichment centrifuges and improve its ability to produce nuclear weapons-grade uranium, to the dismay of those hoping to persuade the Islamic Republic through diplomacy to abandon the effort.

Russia has been behind the construction of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, although Russian banks several months ago balked at funding any more of the project. Nevertheless, Russia has sent at least two shipments of nuclear fuel supplies to the facility, which is expected to come on line by the end of the year.

Israel has warned repeatedly that it will not tolerate a nuclear Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has often threatened to annihilate the Jewish State.

Israel to Hit Iran ‘as Part of Deal including Yesha Evictions’

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132430#replies
Israel National News
by Gil Ronen

As two Israeli missile-class warships joined a navy submarine in the Red Sea, an Israeli defense source made it clear that the moves are intended as a threatening message to Iran.

“This is preparation that should be taken seriously,” the unnamed source told the London Times. “Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran.”

“These maneuvers are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats,” he emphasized.

The exercises “come at a time when Western diplomats are offering support for an Israeli strike on Iran in return for Israeli concessions on the formation of a Palestinian state,” the Times said. It quoted an nanonymous British official as saying that if the deal completed, it would make an Israeli strike on Iran realistic “within the year.”

Diplomats said that Israel had offered concessions “on settlement policy, Palestinian land claims and issues with neighboring Arab states, to facilitate a possible strike on Iran. “ A senior European diplomat, also unnamed, said that “Israel has chosen to place the Iranian threat over its settlements.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a news conference Wednesday that the ships passed through the canal with Egypt’s permission, and that “ships may pass through the canal as long as they do not threaten the country which controls the canal.” He noted that the international agreements regulating which ships may pass through the Suez Canal date back to 1888.

The two Saar-class ships, INS Eilat and INS Chanit, sailed into the Red Sea Wednesday in what was the report described as “a clear signal that Israel was able to put its strike force within range of Iran at short notice.”

Ten days earlier, a Dolphin-class submarine with nuclear-missile strike capabilities passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea as well. Later reports said it, too, was accompanied by two Israeli missile boats – meaning that four missile boats have now crossed the canal. Israel has six Dolphin-class submarines, three of which are believed to carry nuclear missiles, the Times said.

Later this month, the Israel Air Force will hold long-range exercises in the U.S. and will test a missile defense shield at a U.S. missile range in the Pacific Ocean.

While local Israeli media have played up alleged tensions between Egypt and Israel over past statements by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the Times report says that Israel “has strengthened ties with Arab nations who also fear a nuclear-armed Iran” and quotes an Israeli diplomat who said that relations with Egypt, in particular, have grown increasingly strong this year over the “shared mutual distrust of Iran.”

The report estimates that Israel’s missile-equipped submarines and its fleet of advanced aircraft could simultaneously strike at more than a dozen nuclear-related targets in Iran.

The Arrow interceptor system that will be tested in the Pacific is designed to defend Israel from ballistic missile attacks by Iran and Syria. According to Lt.-Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, Director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, this month’s test will be against a target with a range of more than 1,000km. This range is too long for testing in the eastern Mediterranean, where Israel held its previous tests of the Arrow.

The Israeli Air Force, meanwhile, will send F16C fighter jets to participate in exercises at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada later this month, and Israeli C130 Hercules transport aircraft will participate in the Rodeo 2009 competition at the McChord Air Force base in Washington.

“It is not by chance that Israel is drilling long-range maneuvers in a public way. This is not a secret operation. This is something that has been published and which will showcase Israel’s abilities,” an Israeli defense official said.

The Shape of the Holy

from the Jerusalem Post, July 14, 2009

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443809628&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

Jews and Muslims once worshiped together at the Dome of the Rock, and many Jews considered it to be the Third Temple, according to research compiled by Dr. Moshe Sharon.

In his study, “The Shape of the Holy,” the Hebrew University professor theorizes that the Dome of the Rock’s construction challenged Christian dominance in the city, and that the Islamic tradition of the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey and ascension to heaven from this spot was an invention to legitimize their presence in Jerusalem.

Islamic tradition ascribes the conquest of Jerusalem to a number of glorified Muslim rulers, but Sharon believes this to be a fabrication, saying Jerusalem capitulated to a minor commander out of choice rather than necessity.

“The tradition about its conquest was shaped at least a century after the event took place and it was no longer possible for the first association of Islam with Jerusalem to remain mundane,” writes Sharon.

The city was a bastion of Christian relics and glory, epitomized in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. Between the two sat the desolate rectangular complex where Herod’s Second Temple once stood, which intrigued the Muslims who learned of its connection to Koranic prophets Abraham, David and Solomon.

Before the Arabs entered the city, Jews held the belief that the perforated rock on Mount Moriah was present in Solomon’s Temple, a tradition that the Muslims adopted.

“There is reason to assume that Muslims together with Jews attached themselves to the rock and Jews had developed around it annual pious rituals,” writes Sharon.

Islamic tradition attributes construction of the Dome to ruler Abd al-Malik, and according to Sharon it symbolized Solomon’s Temple, a notion accepted by Jews of the time. The tradition of the Al-Aksa complex as the site of Muhammad’s Night Journey developed years later.

“It was built to symbolize the renewal of the Solomonic Temple, and an early Jewish Midrash known as Nistarot Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai hailed the Muslims as the initiators of Israel’s redemption and a Muslim ruler as the builder of the House of the Lord. Abd al-Malik acquired his Divine authority by rebuilding a mighty symbol for his temple, and was the new Solomon,” writes Sharon.

Other pre-Crusades Islamic traditions regarding the Dome of the Rock highlight a heavy Jewish role at the site.

“One tradition says, ‘The Jews used to light the lamps of Bayt al-Maqdis.’ Bayt al-Maqdis is the exact Arabic rendering of the Hebrew Beit Hamikdash, and is reminiscent of the lighting of the Menorah in the Temple,” writes Sharon.

Other Islamic traditions mention Temple customs practiced by Jews in the Dome, such as the use of incense, oil lamps and prayer services conducted by wuld Harun, Arabic for “the sons of Aaron.”

“There is nothing remotely Islamic in these rituals and the traditions insist that they took place on Mondays and Thursdays. These days have no meaning in Islam but are of particular sacredness in Jewish tradition,” writes Sharon.

In the final section of his work Sharon builds on the research of Tuvia Sagiv, attempting to prove that the foundations and design of Al-Aksa replicated the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which the Roman Emperor Hadrian had built on the Temple Mount.

Noting that all Roman Temples of Jupiter had an almost identical design, Sharon compares the schematic of the ruins of a Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek to that of the Al-Aksa complex.

“Jupiter’s Temple in Baalbek had exactly the three features which we find in the Al-Aksa complex: the polygon building in the front where the worshipers assembled, the open space where the god’s statue stood and the rectangular main temple. The same symmetrical line which goes through the three components of Jupiter’s Temple also goes through the Al-Aksa complex, and both plans fit each other perfectly,” writes Sharon.

Sharon and Sagiv’s theory is potentially incendiary because it suggests the Al-Aksa complex was built on pre-existing foundations and was not designed according to Muhammad’s famous Night Journey to Jerusalem.

Sharon’s research, which questions the Islamic justification for the Dome’s existence and describes similar patterns in Jewish and Muslim worship, has inflamed some figures in Israel’s Islamic community.

“We Muslims believe that Jews have no right to a single inch in front of the Al-Aksa Mosque, the whole complex – everything within the walls of the holy site. Jews have no right to worship there – under the ground, above the ground or in between the skies,” said MK Sheik Ibrahim Sarsur, who heads the Islamic Movement in Israel.

The Palestinians’ man in Jerusalem

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=bb95c711-ecbd-45e9-aeaa-c6cef1c753d9&p=1 

National Post, Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Palestinians’ man in Jerusalem
Robert Fulford

The clouds that normally obscure events in the Middle East start to recede when Khaled Abu Toameh begins talking about the future of Palestinians and Israelis. This relationship, the key to his future life as an Israeli Arab, has been the subject of his journalism for more than two decades. What he’s learned contradicts beliefs held by much of the world, and differs sharply from what we expect from someone with his background.

He was in Toronto this week, talking to a few journalists. He’s a Muslim-Arab, son of an Israeli-Arab father and a Palestinian-Arab mother. When he was studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he went to work for Al- Fajr ( “The Dawn”), the Palestine Liberation Organization newspaper. He left when he realized it would never print anything but propaganda.
Hoping to be a real journalist, he began working with foreign reporters covering Israel. Eventually, he produced TV documentaries and wrote for Britain’s Sunday Times and other papers. For the last eight years, he’s been the Jerusalem Post’s specialist in Arab affairs. “I am an Arab Muslim and the only place I can write honestly is in a Jewish newspaper,” he says. Other Arab journalists envy his freedom.

He believes the so-called “peace process,” begun with the Oslo Accords of 1993, has been a tragic failure and holds little promise of success. Over 16 years, the peace process has brought war — and plenty of it. It has disillusioned both Arabs and Jews — Arabs because they haven’t acquired the independence and honest self-government they wanted, Jews because security has become more elusive than it was two decades ago. Even so, the United States and others believe the virtue of the peace process is self-evident.

The Palestinians are now divided between two bloodthirsty sects — Fatah, which holds fragile power in the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls Gaza. Their conflict has cost nearly 2,000 Palestinian lives and shows no sign of abating. At the moment, Fatah has 900 alleged Hamas operatives imprisoned in the West Bank without charge. Some of them may well be Hamas sympathizers, Abu Toameh says, some not. In any case, Fatah has arrested them mainly to show foreign governments that it is “cracking down.”

Fatah, of course, is considered the “moderate” Palestinian force, as opposed to radical Hamas. Abu Toameh thinks neither of them could be called moderate by any sensible Arabic speaker. Fatah makes moderate sounds in English but in Arabic sounds as anti-Semitic and anti-American as Hamas. Abu Toameh sees no moderates on either side. Both factions suppress moderate opinion wherever it raises its head, which is apparently not often.

“This is not a power struggle between good guys and bad guys,” he said in a recent speech. “It is a struggle between bad guys and bad guys.” He wishes they were fighting over what would be best for Palestinians. “But they’re only fighting over money and power.”

The West spends a fortune propping up Fatah, in return for its relatively benign rhetoric. But Fatah remains unpopular. West Bank Arabs take its corruption for granted and now suspect that it’s controlled as well as backed by the Americans. Anyone who listens to Abu Toameh has to consider that U. S. President Barack Obama is now part of the problem.

Great fortunes stolen by Fatah officials are only occasionally reported in the West. When Abu Toameh first suggested foreign journalists

tell this story, he was asked by some of them if he was paid by the Jewish lobby. Other reporters explained that information on Palestinian corruption simply didn’t fit into the stories their editors wanted, about Palestinians oppressed by Israelis.

Most of the world believes, often with passionate intensity, that Jewish settlements on land claimed by Arabs limits the chances for peace. Abu Toameh disagrees. “I wish the settlements were the problem,” he says, because it can be solved by the Israelis. If settlements were the problem, he argues, then Gaza would now be at peace. After all, the Israelis pulled out in 2005. But the result has been war — war among the Palestinians, war with Israel. “The real obstacle to peace is not a Jew building a settlement but the failure of the Palestinians to have a government. Is there a partner on the Palestinian side for peace talks? No.”
What is to be done? He thinks Israel should simply wait until the Palestinians stop killing each other and create a credible political entity that can make a deal. Peace will then become possible.

© 2009 The National Post Company. All rights reserved.

A Rapid and Harsh Turn against Israel

A Rapid and Harsh Turn against Israel

by Daniel Pipes
Jerusalem Post
June 4, 2009

 The much-anticipated meeting between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu on May 18 went off smoothly, if a bit tensely, as predicted. Everyone was on best behavior and the event excited so little attention that the New York Times reported it on page 12.

As expected, however, the gloves came off immediately thereafter, with a series of tough American demands, especially U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s insistence on May 27 that the Netanyahu government end residential building for Israelis in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. This prompted a defiant response. The Israeli governing coalition chairman pointed out the mistake of prior “American dictates,” a minister compared Obama to pharaoh, and the government press office director cheekily mock-admired “the residents of Iroquois territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem.”

(Read the rest of this article at http://www.danielpipes.org/6389/rapid-and-harsh-turn-against-israel )

Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon: Two-State Solution Will Lead to the Collapse of Israel

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD235809
THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Special Dispatch – No. 2358
May 14, 2009    No. 2358

Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki: Two-State Solution Will Lead to the Collapse of Israel

 Following are excerpts from an interview with PLO Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki, which aired on ANB TV on May 7, 2009. (To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2109.htm ).

Also below are excerpts from other television appearances by Zaki, on New TV, OTV, and NBN TV:

Two-State Solution Will Lead to the Collapse of Israel

ANB TV, May 7, 2009

Abbas Zaki: “What is needed is a settlement, not a hudna [truce]. After 45 years of struggle, we have the right to reach a conclusion to this conflict, rather than extending the hudna, enabling Israel to expand on a daily basis.

“My advice is: we should not give Israel a hudna, because whenever Israel is given a hudna, it consolidates its position and becomes more deeply rooted. What hudna? If they do not withdraw from the 1967 lands – what hudna? Israel will become a fact on the ground, and we will end up as small enclaves, and should be driven out with time.

“Therefore, it is high time that we found a final, comprehensive solution. The Arabs talk about a comprehensive solution and present initiatives, and the world talks about a solution, yet we say: Let’s stick to the hudna. No, my friend. I personally joined Fatah somewhat belatedly, in 1962. Work out how many years that is. Should I keep on extending the hudnas? Impossible. We want a solution now.

“They talk about a two-state solution, and when that is achieved… Even Ahmadinejad, leader of the rejectionists throughout the region, said he supports a two-state solution. Nobody fools anybody.

“With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? What will become of all the sacrifices they made – just to be told to leave? They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse. It will regress of its own accord. Then we will move forward.”

 

I Support Suicide Bombings in Israel

New TV, January 6, 2009 (to view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1980.htm ).

Interviewer: “I asked you earlier if you support martyrdom operations today, and you said that the Israelis are afraid both of the Palestinian stones and people.”

Abbas Zaki: “First of all, in light of the blood that is being shed in Gaza, and the crying of the men – not only of the women… The hardest thing is to watch the men crying in Gaza. I now support any operation that will make the women and men in Israel cry. When the Al-Qassam Brigades and all the other forces were told to strike everywhere, I expected things to be carried out quickly. All those who always flex their muscles, and say they want to slaughter Israel – this is their opportunity. Soon, the world will view us as those responsible for the crime. Currently, in light of what is happening to the children of Gaza, any martyrdom operation is permissible, I swear by Allah.”

Interviewer:”Do you call for such operations to be launched from the West Bank as well? Some people are asking: What can the people of the Gaza Strip do right now? Perhaps now, with the land invasion, they will be able to act. But do you really call upon the people of the West Bank to carry out martyrdom operations?”

Abbas Zaki: “The people of the West Bank are active day and night – with stones, with demonstrations, all the people have taken to the streets. You asked me if I support, in light of this bloodshed… Don’t forget we’re Arabs – we believe in blood vengeance. No one can treat our blood like water. We should have afflicted them with three or four operations, and then their women would have said to those sons of bitches: ‘Come home, we are getting killed here.’ When Israel focuses on one front, other fronts should be activated.”

We Consider the U.S to Be an Enemy Country

OTV, November 7, 2008 (to view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1933.htm ).

Abbas Zaki: “We consider the U.S. to be an enemy because its only strategic alliance is with Israel.”
Interviewer: “How could you possibly accept your enemy in your land?”

Abbas Zaki: “What do you mean? We meet even with Israel.”

Interviewer: “How can you consider Israel to be your enemy, if you signed a peace treaty with it?”

Abbas Zaki: “Allow me… This enemy… If I had the capabilities of the U.S. – would I be fighting it or negotiating with it?”

Interviewer: “Israel ceased being an enemy once you signed a peace treaty with it. I don’t know how it could be your enemy. Do you talk to the Israelis as if they were your enemies? Do you talk to Israel as a friendly or enemy country?”

Abbas Zaki: “An enemy country, which owes us certain things. The heroic Vietnamese used to negotiate with the French, while they were slaughtering them.”

Interviewer: “I can assure you that in his speeches, Abu Mazen says the U.S. is a friendly country.”

Abbas Zaki: “Well, this isn’t true. Perhaps Abu Mazen, in his position, needs to use diplomatic language, but he is the greatest critic of the U.S.”

 

 

We Act According to the Phased Plan; Once We Get Jerusalem, We Will Move On to Drive Israelis Out of All of Palestine
NBN TV, April 9, 2008 (to view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1738.htm ).

Abbas Zaki: “We believe wholeheartedly that the Right of Return is guaranteed by our will, by our weapons, and by our faith.”

Interviewer: “Do you still believe in weapons, not just in negotiations?”

Abbas Zaki: “The use of weapons alone will not bring results, and the use of politics without weapons will not bring results. We act on the basis of our extensive experience. We analyze our situation carefully. We know what climate leads to victory and what climate leads to suicide. We talk politics, but our principles are clear. It was our pioneering leader, Yasser Arafat, who persevered with this revolution, when empires collapsed. Our armed struggle has been going on for 43 years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on for 50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions, and we shame the world so that it doesn’t gang up on us, because the world is led by people who have given their brains a vacation – the American administration and the neocons.”[...]

Young Palestinian: “As I recall, the invasion of 1982 and the destruction of South Lebanon was not just in response to missile attacks, but in response to operations as well. Israel does not use only the missiles as a pretext. It uses any activity of the resistance as a pretext.”

Abbas Zaki: “The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don’t want cases in which you don’t kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price.

[...]

“The P.L.O. is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota. In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American control over the world, the P.L.O. proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine.”

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD235809
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