THE NEWS

​Sometimes I get so frustrated with what I see, hear and read that I want to spit, shout profanities, throw a brick…. I think you get the idea. That's how I feel when a report comes to my attention that the Mufti of Jerusalem has declared that Jews are not allowed to touch the Western Wall 1, or that Amnesty International, the European Union, the United Nations, the United States 2 and the Palestinians are accusing the Israelis of Human Rights Violations, or that the US State Department 3 is concerned that the Israelis are using US-provided weapons to kill Palestinians. Then, another report surfaces that these governments/organizations are demanding that the Israelis release funds to the Palestinians, when they won't do so themselves because of the mishandling by the Palestinian leaders of previously provided funds to the Palestinians. All of this is so absurd that I almost laugh. But then I catch myself and remind myself that none of it is funny. What began in Nazi Germany before World War II also seemed absurd, until it became ruthless fact. The not-so-comical news items that I listed above can also become "factual" bases on which future actions could be justified. When statements are made often enough, whether they are correct or not, people accept them as fact/truth. People then react accordingly with condemnation, or worse.

What makes me so frustrated when I hear or read these reports? The media most often reports only one side of these issues. They give their readers and listeners enough information to draw false conclusions and then don't bother to give the rest of the information. The media leads us to believe that the Israelis are the over-powering aggressors in the Middle East. Let's look at some of the facts that the media is not giving us. Under the Palestinian-Israeli Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Oslo Agreement) signed in Washington, D.C. on September 28, 1995, the Palestinians are allowed to have a police force for the protection of their civilians, "The total number of policemen of the Palestinian Police in all its branches in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be no more than 30,000." (Excerpt from portion entitled Annex 1) Section 4 of Annex 1 states "Except for the arms, ammunition and equipment of the Palestinian Police described in Annex I, and those of the Israeli military forces, no organization, group or individual in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip shall manufacture, sell, acquire, possess, import or otherwise introduce into the West Bank or the Gaza Strip any firearms, ammunition, weapons, explosives, gunpowder or any related equipment, unless otherwise provided for in Annex I." This section also specifies the number and type of firearms the Palestinians are allowed to possess. What is rarely reported is that the number of Palestinian "police" is now well over 60,000, many of whom are known terrorists. 7 They are using weapons beyond those specified in the Oslo Agreements, many suspected to be “imported” through tunnels from Egypt and on aircraft that the Palestinians have refused to allow the Israelis to inspect.7 The Palestinians are using mortar fire against the Israelis.7 Why are there no reports of denunciation by human rights groups of these flagrant violations of the Oslo Agreements? As angry as these facts make me, they are not the absurd part. Many of the weapons that the Palestinians are using against the Israelis have been provided to the Palestinians by the Israelis themselves! Where is the outcry from the U.S. State Department or the human rights groups about this?

Then there is this question: Why are the Israelis shooting at the Palestinians? Answer: The Palestinians are attacking them. Is there any criticism of the Palestinians' attacks in the media? Hardly! We're talking about shootings at civilian vehicles, including school buses, and neighborhoods, bombs on the roads and in the city streets. The Israelis are shooting back to eliminate the source of the shootings and bombings in order to protect themselves. There wouldn't be any Palestinians being killed if the Palestinians weren’t attacking the Israelis. Just what is it that the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians that the Palestinians aren't doing to the Israelis, that's causing the human rights groups to condemn the actions of the Israelis and not the Palestinians? Nothing! The Palestinians are attacking, injuring and killing the Israelis. What’s the difference? The difference is one group is Jewish and the other is not. Yes, anti-Semitism exists in any and every organization that protects other people, except the Jews!

Another example of one-sided reporting concerns the Palestinian economy. Why is it so wrong for the Israelis to refuse to release monies to the Palestinians when the Arabs and the European Union hesitate to do so also? "In a meeting in Cairo at the start of the uprising, the Arab states met and agreed to donate $1 billion to the Palestinians in support of the renewed intifada. They have since frozen payment of the funds on account of Arafat's unwillingness to share information on the transfer and allocation of funds he receives, especially considering Arafat's long history of corruption and embezzlement of funds." 4 "In a development related to the collapse of the Palestinian economy, the European Union has privately warned Arafat that it will reassess its future financial support for the PA unless progress is made toward peace, a senior European official told THE JERUSALEM POST. He said the EU - the most generous benefactor of the PA/PLO - had sent an ultimatum to Arafat. In another report, the LONDON GUARDIAN quoted EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten as warning that Europe's leading role in providing emergency loans and funding for the PA was nearing an end." 5


If one report could anger me more than another it would be the Palestinian claim that there has never been a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. "Sabri: There is not [even] the smallest indication of the existence of a Jewish temple on this place in the past. In the whole city, there is not even a single stone indicating Jewish History. Our right, on the other hand, is very clear. This place belongs to us for 1500 years. Even when it was conquered by the Crusaders, it remained Al-Aqsa, and we got it back soon afterwards. The Jews do not even know exactly where their temple stood. Therefore, we do not accept that they have any rights, underneath the surface or above it." 6 This is the ultimate in revisionist history! Secular history books (ones that haven't been revised) bare witness to the fact that King Solomon built a temple there. Also, how could the Romans have destroyed a temple, as reported by historians, if a second temple hadn't been built? Yet, the Palestinians have begun another effort to repeat and repeat a claim until it becomes accepted as fact. How can the fact that 2 Jewish Temples stood on the Temple Mount, as told in the millennia-old Bible, now be discredited by the "facts" being presented by this man?

Here is another fact the media fails to report. The "Palestinians" have never had an established state anywhere in the Middle East. They are not a people displaced from their land. After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem they mockingly named part of Israel "Palestine". Over the centuries various Moslem conquerors ruled this land. In the early 20th century the area came under the administration of the British. This eventually led to the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations' Mandate for Palestine, both of which favored the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine. When the Jews began their return to this Biblical land of Canaan it was barren desert with few inhabitants. Once the Jews returned and transformed it into a desirable place to live the Arabs began to inhabit the area also. Now the Arabs are claiming, and the media repeats and repeats it, that the Israelis are the "occupiers".

Have you ever looked at a map of the Middle East? The Arab countries comprise all but a small sliver of land, which belongs to Israel. (Of course, if you looked at a Palestinian map of the Middle East you wouldn't see Israel on there at all.) The point is Israel is not a threat to the existence of any Arab country. The Arabs just don't want Israel to exist. That is what all of this warring is about. Yes, Israel does have a superior army. But they wouldn't need to use it if their enemies wouldn't attack them. It's all so elementary. However, hatred, power and greed (products of the satanic presence in the Middle East) are the driving forces causing the unrest in the Middle East. And the anti-Semitism of the rest of the world continues to fuel the flames that no "Peace Agreement" can extinguish.
1. Interview with the Mufti by Independent Media Review and Analysis, 2/21/01 (www.imra.org.il)
2. 'U.S. Slams Israel on Human Rights" by Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz.
3. "U.S. Reviewing Israeli Use of US Weapons Against Palestinians," Matthew E. Berger, JTA, 2/21/01
4. ICEJ News Service, 2/14/01
5. ICEJ News Service, 2/26/01
6. Middle East Media Research Institute interview with PA Mufti, Ikrima Sabri, by the German Die Welt, 1/25/01
7. Jewish Virtual Library

Chief of Staff: PA is becoming a terrorist entity
Reuters 28 February 2001
Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz accused the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday of stockpiling weapons smuggled by sea and underground tunnels to use in a Palestinian revolt that has been raging for almost six months.

Mofaz said Chairman Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority has been amassing small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and mortar shells. He said some of the arms, especially mortar shells, had been used in recent attacks against Jewish settlements in the occupied Gaza Strip. A senior aide to Arafat called Mofaz's allegations baseless.

"He wants to use these accusations to cover his crime and aggressions and his future plans against the Palestinian people," the aide, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, said.


Speaking in English to Jewish activists from abroad, Mofaz said, "Lately we have been forced to deal with significant maritime transfer of weapons into the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians are making a very big effort to smuggle [ammunition and arms] into the territories, especially into the Gaza Strip by sea and by tunnels from Egypt to Rafah," he said.

Palestinian security sources have denied that they have mortar shells or heavy weapons. Israeli television stations have broadcast footage of mortar attacks on at least two Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Mofaz said there had been an escalation in fighting in the past few weeks and that this had partly been spurred by the involvement of Palestinian Authority officials in the violence. "This escalation is due to the fact that more and more Palestinian policemen and more and more people from the security agencies from the Palestinian side are taking part in the terror activity and in the circle of violence," he said.

Mofaz said there were more than 3,600 incidents of Israeli soldiers being shot at or attacked with hand grenades or bombs since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in late September after peace talks became deadlocked. He accused the Palestinian Authority of using Arafat's Fatah faction as its "operational arm." "The implication is that the Authority is being converted into a terrorist entity," he said

Mofaz also threatened Israeli retaliation if Hezbollah guerrillas operating out of southern Lebanon continue to attack Israeli forces on the border.

Hezbollah guerrillas killed an Israeli soldier patrolling the frontier earlier this month and Israel responded by firing artillery shells against Hezbollah positions. IMRA

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ICEJ NEWS SERVICE
Editor: David Parsons

Throughout the past year or more of wanton Muslim destruction of the rich treasure trove of antiquities on the Temple Mount, neither the United Nations, its antiquities forum UNESCO, nor any of its member states condemned the Waqf's actions there. But in an interesting development that demonstrates the widespread international bias against Israel, the UN warned Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on Friday of a devastating reaction if it continued with a campaign to destroy ancient rock-hewn statutes of Buddhas scattered throughout the mountainous country.

Taliban sources in Kabul acknowledged that mortars and cannon were being used to destroy the two giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, defying world protests at the move. They consist of the world's tallest standing Buddha, measuring 175 feet, and a smaller Buddha standing 120 feet, which are listed as world heritage treasures.

Francesc Vendrell, assistant secretary-general and head of the UN special mission to Afghanistan, said he had told Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil of the world anger over the destruction in a three-hour meeting in Kabul on Thursday. "I conveyed to him the extremely serious concerns of the secretary-general, of the international community," Vendrell said in an interview with REUTERS. "I asked him to convey to the leadership that the implementation of the edict would have devastating effects for the image of the Taliban abroad," he said. "I hope it is not true because if it is true the international reaction is going to be extremely negative," he said. "I think it would be a shocking thing to do." Even Muslim Pakistan, the Taliban's main supporter, has appealed for a halt to the destruction.

Ovadia Sofer, Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon's emissary.

Sofer, a former ambassador to the US, spoke with ISRAEL RADIO after meeting with the Vatican's deputy foreign minister and the pope's adviser on the Middle East. He added that the Vatican representatives expressed concern for the freedom of religion and free access to holy sites if these come under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.

ICEJ NEWS SERVICE FROM JERUSALEM FRIDAY, 2 MARCH 2001

At a PLO rally in the Ein Hilwe refugee camp in South Lebanon on Friday, Faluji told the crowd that the five-month-old intifada was not a spontaneous reaction to Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount, but was planned after Israeli-Palestinian peace talks failed in July at Camp David. "It [the uprising] had been planned since [Palestinian Authority] Chairman [Yasser] Arafat's return from Camp David, when he turned the tables on the former US president and rejected the American conditions," Falouji said.

Yeshua awaits those who will but call upon His Name to be saved. He desires Life for each person but we have the freedom to say no to Him. Don't say no...come before Him with heart repentant and ask Him to come into your life and be Lord of your life. He loves you and desires to be with you always, loving and guiding your life with Him.

Baruch Haba B'Shem Adonai
Blessed Is He Who Comes In The Name Of The Lord!

A Post Script:

You might be wondering why we spend so much time writing about the current situation in Israel. The reason is that we are led by the Holy Spirit to do so. There is great deception in the world media with regard to Israel and the Jewish People. The "church" is no better with its relationship to Israel and the People of the Book. "Time" IS drawing to a close and truth must be proclaimed while Truth can still be found. Have you found Truth? Seek Truth and you will find Truth! "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:..." Isaiah 55:6