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Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against Jerusalem.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Zechariah 12:2,3

• Change of the Guard and New Players - Editorial (May, 2006)
• Eye on the Middle East - Editorial (June, 2005)
• A New Chapter for an Old Story - Editorial (Feb 24, 2005)
• Life After Death - Editorial (Nov. 17, 2004)
• Editorial (June 17, 2003)
• Editorial (March 20 2002)
• Palestinian Television: "The Sweet Fragrance of Martyrdom"
• Saudi Crown Prince Warns of Middle East War
• The Wackiness Factor
• Russia Marketing New Scud in Damascus
• Editorial (April 19, 2001)
• Young British Muslims Trained for Jihad
• Israel Threatens Syria with Air Bombardment
• Anti-Israel Anger Around the World
• Synagogue on Temple Mount Could Provoke a War
• Arafat Says No to Peace in the Regin Without Jerusalem
• Middle Eastern Roots
• Bin Laden Still After Nuclear Bombs
• Israel Warns of War with Syria
• Hackers Uncover Secret Billions of Arafat's PLO
• Israel as Portrayed in Palestinian TextBooks
• Hizbullah Vows to Never Recognize Israel's Right to Exist
• RELATED LINKS

Change of the Guard and the New Players

Editorial (May 2006)

Since our last editorial recap, much has happened in the Middle East region and specifically in Israel. Briefly and principally, the dismanteling of Israeli settlements in the Gaza strip, which we commented in our STRANGE DAYS column, the stroke impairement of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ( to this day still in a comatose state with practically zero chances of ever reviving), the latest elections both in Israel and in the Palestinian territories which have produced the present stressing and peculiar situation, with the surprise election of Hamas from one side and the minority victory of Ariel Sharon's right-centrist party by his successor Ehud Omert, who apparently thinks that Hamas is NOT a threat to Israel.

One has to wonder whether Mr. Omert is for real or just politicking, and his latest declarations on the future of Israel's borders and in particular Jerusalem's proper, kind of complicate this issue. Many have attributed Sharon's stroke to his giving away Israel's biblical land away to the Palestinians in a bid for peace and security. Many are now warning Mr. Omert about following Sharon's footsteps. While it is easy to discount such notions as extreme or worse, Mr Omert is showing a particular lack of wisdom persisting in the nefarious belief that by giving back land to the Palestinians, he will be able to achieve a reasonable state of peace with them, when even fools know that such a notion is totally Disneyland since no amount of given land will be sufficient to the Palestinians until the Jews are eradicated fron ALL THE LAND. In their vision of reality Israel has no right nor place in the Middle East and they wll not blink first. Unless heavily obliged.

But now we have someone who is saying it loudly and clearly. Think what you want about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, but you cannot call him a hypocrite. Since his election turned into a shocking surprise to Iranians and the world at large, he has not lost an occasion to vent his views and feelings against the State of Israel that will be, according to him, "wiped off the map." And as Iran rushes towards confrontation with the world over its nuclear programme, the question uppermost in the mind of western leaders is "What is moving President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to such recklessness?"

Listen carefully to the utterances of Mr Ahmadinejad and we enter another dimension, a religious messianism that, some suspect, is giving the Iranian leader a dangerous sense of divine mission.

In November, the country was startled by a video showing Mr Ahmadinejad telling a cleric that he had felt the hand of God entrancing world leaders as he delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly last September.

When an aircraft crashed in Teheran last month, killing 108 people, Mr Ahmadinejad promised an investigation. But he also thanked the dead, saying:
"What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow."

The most remarkable aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's piety is his devotion to the Hidden Imam, the Messiah-like figure of Shia Islam, and the president's belief that his government must prepare the country for his return.

One of the first acts of Mr Ahmadinejad's government was to donate about £10 million to the Jamkaran mosque, a popular pilgrimage site where the pious come to drop messages to the Hidden Imam into a holy well.

All streams of Islam believe in a divine saviour, known as the Mahdi, who will appear at the End of Days. A common rumour - denied by the government but widely believed - is that Mr Ahmadinejad and his cabinet have signed a "contract" pledging themselves to work for the return of the Mahdi and sent it to Jamkaran.

Iran's dominant "Twelver" sect believes this will be Mohammed ibn Hasan, regarded as the 12th Imam, or righteous descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.

He is said to have gone into "occlusion" in the ninth century, at the age of five. His return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed. After a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.

This is similar to the Christian vision of the Apocalypse. Indeed, the Hidden Imam is expected to return in the company of Jesus. Mr Ahmadinejad appears to believe that these events are close at hand and that ordinary mortals can influence the divine timetable.

The prospect of such a man obtaining nuclear weapons is worrying. The unspoken question is this: is Mr Ahmadinejad now tempting a clash with the West because he feels safe in the belief of the imminent return of the Hidden Imam? Worse, might he be trying to provoke chaos in the hope of hastening his reappearance?

Its most remarkable manifestation came with Mr Ahmadinejad's international debut, his speech to the United Nations. World leaders had expected a conciliatory proposal to defuse the nuclear crisis after Teheran had restarted another part of its nuclear programme in August.

Instead, they heard the president speak in apocalyptic terms of Iran struggling against an evil West that sought to promote "state terrorism", impose "the logic of the dark ages" and divide the world into "light and dark countries".

The speech ended with the messianic appeal to God to "hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace".

In a video distributed by an Iranian web site in November, Mr Ahmadinejad described how one of his Iranian colleagues had claimed to have seen a glow of light around the president as he began his speech to the UN.

"I felt it myself too," Mr Ahmadinejad recounts. "I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink…It's not an exaggeration, because I was looking. They were astonished, as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

Western officials said the real reason for any open-eyed stares from delegates was that "they couldn't believe what they were hearing from Ahmadinejad".

Their sneaking suspicion is that Iran's president actually relishes a clash with the West in the conviction that it would rekindle the spirit of the Islamic revolution and - who knows - speed up the arrival of the Hidden Imam.

Telegraph Co. UK

EYE ON THE MIDDLE EAST

The Palestinian leadership has proven its ability to keep the situation under control. It has also proven its ability to coordinate the activities of all Palestinian organizations, including those who hold tough positions toward the Israelis.

The author of those words is Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who declarede his country's committment to consider the possibility of selling Russian military equipment to the Palestinian Authority.

What was not in the equation was that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has done little to prevent the militant factions under his authority from planning or carrying out attackson innocent Israelis. This unfortunate reality came to light February 25 (2005-ed) when a suicide bomber slipped into Tel Aviv and detonated an explosive device that killed five people and injured 100 a few days after Russian President Vladimir Putin offered aid to the new Palestinian regime.

The deadly incident brings to the surface once again a consideration few have mentioned since the euphoria of the road-map-to-peace era began a few years ago. Those who argued against the viability of a totally autonomous, soveriegn Palestinian state and predicted its danger to Israel spoke with foresight we can ill afford to ignore.

If such a state, now all but assured, comes into existence based on Palestinian promises and the West's eagerness to make it work and then get out, we may have a prescription for tragedy.

The hard fact is that despite all assurances, there is a strong possibility, even probability, that a Palestinian state will be hostile to its Israeli neighbor.

Why do we say this? For starters, consider the circumstances under which Abu Mazen's government now functions. Terrorists organizations that existed and operated under Yasser Arafat have not been dismantled, disramed or dissuaded from their determination to fight to destroy Israel, should everything not fall their way through negotiations.

Writing off such incidents as the suicide bombing inTel Aviv and the rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip as mutant, temporary manifestations can be a devastating mistake. And doing so verifies the gut feelings of many radical Palestinians that whatever promise of hudna (ceasefire) they make is only temporary. In their minds, the issue has not been settled. And whatever concessions the Israelis, starved for peace, are willing to offer, it will never be enough. There is not enough land that Israel can give away in any land-for-peace scheme that will both allow the Jewish nation to survive and the Islamists and Palestinians to declare victory.

Take a long look at Iraq, Syria, Iran and remnants of Saddam Hussein's decimated Iraqui regime carry on the fight against freedom and democracy for the battered Iraqui people. Unfortunately, many people have dignified these bands of murderers and thugs by calling them insurgents. They are not insurgents; they are terrorists.

By the same token, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and their bedfellows are not freedom fighters in quest of a noble cause. They are cold-blooded, ruthless killers of innocent men, women and children.

The problem with these elements is that they will not disappear when the issues are settled in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Israel. An insatiable passion to destroy or drive out the "infidel" consumes them. And they will surely continue their crusade to destabilize democracies and find rogue states from which to operate.

For this reason, a sovereign Palestinian state cannot, under any circumstances, be allowed to fall prey to these forces of evil. Russia offering military materiel to the Palestinian Authority may seem of little consequence today. But it should be a wake up call for us all.

A NEW CHAPTER FOR AN OLD STORY

February 27, 2005

Yassir Arafat, the "strong man" in the Palestinian territories is gone and, as many are now saying that a new era is opening for the Israelis and the Palestinians people to finally work out some kind of co-exsisting arrangement and move on with their future. IMHO, formulas do not apply when Israel is the main subject at hand and this for obvious reasons which escape strategists, analysts and pundits.

So, while the world is hailing the new Palestinian Government elections and its new leaders' declared willingness to approach a discussion table with the Israelis, forecasting the dawn of a new age of co-operation or at least, tolerance, I beg to differ since I know that nothing of the kind will be possible. Surely, at one level, we would all love to see the much-battered peace flag fly over that part of the world, but its destiny has already been established and for the foreseeable future, peace is not in the cards.

Peace indeed one day will reign in Jerusalem, whose very name embodies that exalted state but it will not be brought about by human intervention, but by the divine hand. If we are to examine the flurry of statements, good intentions and invitations coming from moderate Arab states and to which Israel is responding with a satisfied sigh, the Middle East is on the verge of a golden moment, in which prosperity and freedom will be showered upon it.

To those who are ignorant of what the God of the Bible has to say about Israel's future, all the bright prospects of a peaceful beginning are like the twinkling little stars that dot a clear night sky. Those who are instead well versed with the Word know that the worse is yet to come and comunicating this vision is practically impossible. In ancient times, those who announced "bad news" had in many cases their life snuffed out as if silincing them would annull the message. Today we have the Internet and the life of those who predict bad news is somewhat preserved. One benefit of civilization!

As I am writing this article, a news flash reports a suicide (homice) bombing in Tel Aviv outside of a disco club and the count is on, sadly again, for the dead and injured youngsters whose appointment with destiny had in the vicinity of the explosion. This to say that no Palestinian Government will be able to reign in the various factions of militants which, like a cancer, were allowed to proliferate and act undisturbed under Mr. Arafat's regime. After such a long time, many Palestinians are living a virtual reality unshared even among themselves, a reality made of violence, lawlessness, abuses and arrogance. That's a pretty strong cocktail to overcome and no pussy-footing Palestinian Government will be able to stop them, and I agree that it is impossible for them to do, even with their best intentions. When a cancer is left undisturbed for too long, it will gradually enlarge itself by eating all the healthy surrounding tissue. At that point even surgically removing it is futile, since it has grown so large and metastised that its removal would spell the end of its host.

Syria, another prophetically important nation, is under stress due to its Lebanese relationship (after the assassination of former Lebanon premier Rafik Hariri) of which rightly or wrongly it is being accused. For the first time in ages, there have been open manifestations with tens of thousands of Lebanese carrying anti-Syrian banners and invoking freedom from Syrian occupation. Syria had "controlled" Lebabon since civil war in the sixties destroyed what was the most pro-west and modern country in the middle East, after Israel. Beirut, its capital was known as the Paris of the Mediterranean but all this "modernity" rubbed the wrong way its neighbours since it was seen as a threat to their own existence and therefore it should be terminated at any cost.

Syria is burdened with an incapable leader (Basher Assad) who unlike his father is imprudent and arrogant, not that his father was less of a dictator, just a better rehearsed one. This is what FrontPage Magazine reported on young Assad:

He has increased power by widespread use of the thugs in his intelligence agency, and he is ratcheting up Syria's support for terrorist organizations. Several of the most heinous are openly headquartered in Damascus. Most disturbingly, there are credible reports that Syria has become a welcoming home to Iraqi Ba’athist most-wanted criminals who fled just before Saddam’s statue fell in the square. It is reliably reported that as many as 54 top Iraqi leaders are running the insurgency in Iraq from Damascus. This is the reason many analysts say that while the body of the insurgency is in Iraq, the head hides in Syria. It is well known that huge sums of stolen money – mostly U.S. dollars – were smuggled across the border into Syria around the time of Iraq’s collapse.

Even before the war began billions of dollars were electronically transferred into Syrian-controlled banks for safe keeping by Saddam’s regime. Given the generous funding for the insurgents, it is clear that some of those Iraqi criminals from the old regime had access to these funds. US Marines and soldiers searching terrorist bodies during and after the Battle of Fallujah report that each one had $200-$300 in crisp $100 bills in his possession. Their paymaster in Syria had sent them funds to pay them off.

LIFE AFTER DEATH?

Palestinian Authority President Yassir (easy going) Arafat, 75, has died in Paris, from a mysterious disease.

During his "apparently" endless agony, the world was treated to some juice moments whose nature have defined the contradictions and mystery that have always been an integral part of this man's life.

"Mysterious" disease
There are several reports that Arafat was suffering from AIDS, but we will never know for sure, will we? While there are accounts of his homosexual past, the faithful will never admit it, due to the shame involved and the automatic condemnation of this practice among the Moslem world. The French doctors have ruled out poisoning, leukemia, and other possibilities. The latest postmortems declare liver cirrhosis, a disease mostly due to alcohol abuse.

Money honey
Regardless of what was known or suspected about Arafat's wealth, it was nonetheless disconcerting to see his wife squabbling with the Palestine would-be leaders over his still warm body. A class act, it was not and it may have been even hilarious in other circumstances.
Yassir Arafat's wealth is claimed to run in the billions $$$. No wonder everybody was claiming special rights to him. It turns out that the wife will be getting $20 million per year, courtesy of the PLO who certainly got the pin to Arafat's accounts. Another revelation is that Arafat was skimming $2 million per month over gasoline sales in his fiefdom.
Sure, money makes the world go around, and it is almost a natural that political leaders, especially in "unaccountable" parts of the world enrich themselves at the expense of their poor and ignorant subjects. Seeing the chaotic ululating Palestinians at Arafat's funeral, we must assume that they seem not to care about the hand in the cookie jar. Fatalistic or stupid?

Arafat's legacy
If we are to take as witness the nauseating obituaries emanating from Arab and Western powers, we would have to conclude that the world has lost a precious and irreplaceable hero of justice and liberty and while we can understand the feeling of the Arab nations, we are once again dumbfounded by the sheer and pragmatic hypocrisy of countries like France, for example. In reality, what the world has lost, is one of the most callous, inveterate and unlikely heroes to walk this earth from day one. Defined as a congenital liar, he was nonetheless a genius in crafting his image. I don't think there has been anybody in modern history who has been photographed with presidents, kings, popes and heads of states as Yassir Arafat. Always smiling, always lying. Such men don't leave legacies but problems, as the infighting for his succession is demonstrating. Personally, I don't think that Yassir Arafat loved his people. He just loved himself.

Life after death?
What can the world expect now in this perennial and not understood conflict? If we are to base our replies on men's intentions, we could go as far as to say that now, finally, some reason and consent can emerge and guide the steps of the new leaders. I am not at all optimist on this, however. Arafat has done his work well, imprinting his people, from toddlers to old men and women, with his absurd and pathological hate for anything Israeli.
If then we examine the future of this area in light of Biblical prophecy, the correct looking glass, we must be ready to see an acceleration of events which will lead to all-out war. Once again, let me state loudly and clearly that the situation will get worse before it gets better. And much worse.

Links
The two following links about Yassir Arafat, the first, a short audio/video report and the second, probably the best psychological and strategic analysis to be found about the man, are provided for further study.

www.honestreporting.com/m/legacy.asp

www.ict.org.il/articles/yasir_arafat.htm

EDITORIAL

June 17, 2003

We have not been updating this page for over a year for exactly the same reasons we posted in our March 20, 2002 editorial. However, a new and different attention is now due because of recent developments within the Palestine Authority, with the formation of an initial form of government, supposedly replacing the absolute authority previously held by Mr. Arafat. Not that Mr. Arafat has been taking this sitting down: He is still trying cunningly to control and manipulate the new born government, but his time is obviously passed. Till the end he is living proof that his terrorist heart has not changed an iota from his old plane-hijacking and machine-gunning days. I wonder if the Nobel folks have ever thought they may have made a little mistake in awarding Mr. Arafat the Peace prize. Probably not, given some of their latest utterances.

What this new development will mean to the region is anybody's guess. Strangely enough, though, this comes at the same time of Mr. Bush ROADMAP TO PEACE proposal (A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict) - see full text at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/20062.htm

While it may be still too early to say, we believe that this is NOT the infamous PEACE AND SECURITY pact which will usher the Tribulation and introduce the Antichrist, but we are getting closer. This pact, like the ones that have preceded it, is destined to the dustbins of history but it is nevertheless making its statement in pointing the world's attention towards Israel and about the absolute necessity that things cool out in that part of the world. From a human standpoint it is good and admirable that some people endeavor to bring about peace in that troubled geographical region. However, when we are dealing with Israel, all bets are off for the very simple reason that its future destiny has already been established by Someone Who is indeed able to carry it through to the smallest detail. It's a continuous source of amazement that most people who call themselves Christians don't know it, don't realize it or don't believe it. Evidently it must be the old pick-and-choose syndrome at work, a very dangerous behavior when dealing with the Word of God.

EDITORIAL

March 20, 2002

It has been quite a few weeks since we have updated this page, and certainly not due to the lack of news, but rather to a lack of relevant news. It's been a season of crazed kamikazes and illogical retaliations, a daily crescendo of tit-for-that, leaving any thinking person exhausted and disgusted.

While we affirm that Israel has an absolute and proven historical right to the land, we do not agree with the methods applied to acquire it. Granted, on a basic survival level, one must respond to an attack, however, in this case, the response has been inadequate and ineffective. The authorities in Israel should have known from the beginning that there is no defense against a fanatical suicide who has been promised 72 virgins, a palace and all he can eat for his terrorist actions, as they should have known from the beginning, that there is no lack of willing "manpower" among the Palestinians. Paradoxically, Israel has painted itself into a corner, something that the liberal media has been ready and willing to jump in and exploit.

Where do we start in establishing who is right and who is wrong in this so called Holy Land debate? if one believes the Bible, a lot of problems just fall off, since it is clear that God has promised the land to Abraham's seed in perpetuity. Most of the Jewish people living in Israel today are oblivious to the "religious" aspect of the question. Israel today is not a theocracy and actually is mostly pagan. Perfunctory allusions to "God" are just empty words. Some politicians think that they have a right to the land by divine fiat, while ignoring He Who promised it and try to enforce this right by force. But that is not God's way.

... Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.
Zechariah 4:6

The way this promise of God is being presumed and carried out is totally wrong and it will bring no good fruits. Israel has a right to the land, but the timing is the Lord's. Let's suppose that Israel were today a holy nation unto the Lord (as they should be). I have no doubt whatsoever that God would make sure that her enemies would be defeated and covered with shame. As it is, it is Israel which is being covered with shame. This happens regularly when anyone, including Christians, presume on God, one of the hardest lessons to be learned.

What next? There has just been a UN resolution that, for the first time since 1948, speaks of two states, Israel and the Palestinian State, living contiguously and in mutual acknowledgement. Resolutions are easily made, enforcing them, that is the problem. Let there be no doubt that the "peace and security" that Israel wants so bad will not be brought about by man's actions, although at a certain point and for a certain time, it will sure appear to be so. In fact, the Word tells us that a seven years treaty, assuring Israel "peace and security" (the exact words used in the Bible) will indeed be signed, as the entire world, breathes its unanimous approval and relief. Trouble is, it will turn out to be the worst accord Israel has ever approved. After the first three and a half years of said treaty, Israel (and the world) will realize the mistake made, sadly, when it will be too late to do anything about it.

On top of this, we deplore the behaviour and attitude of American Jewish intellectuals and trend makers, who in their insane liberal blindness have become enemies of their own people. From their influential positions within the ACLU, the Media, Hollywood, politics, the arts etc. for decades, a relentless attack has been launched upon Christianity, with the purpose to discredit and ridicule it. Well, in part they have succeeded in their goals, but in the process they have alienated a large part of the only true friends of their people Israel. There is a suggestion that the Antichrist will be a Jew, and if it will turn out so, I, for one, will not be a bit surprised.

Certainly, a remnant of Israel will finally inherit the promise and the "Promised Land." That day is surely coming, as it is written, but before it, Israel will undergo the most traumatic and dramatic moments of its entire existence, aptly named "Jacob's trouble." In total and hopeless desperation Israel will finally look upon their true Messiah, and surrender unto Him.

"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that, when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
Zechariah 12:10

PALESTINIAN TELEVISION: "THE SWEET FRAGRANCE OF MARTYRDOM"

"Until recently, we have suspected that the PA was encouraging children to get killed - but a look at many clips that have been broadcast recently on Palestinian television has now supplied concrete proof of it. A new clip that was broadcast [last] week for the first time accompanies a Palestinian boy on the day he plans to die. This is a nice-looking and smiling boy of about 12 who says goodbye to his family and walks off happily, self-confidently, and purposefully to his death. Before he leaves, he even writes a parting letter to his family - but he does not give it to his father, but rather transmits it via his friends. The message here probably is not to inform one's parents, so that they will not put a stop to it.

"In the background, the singer sings, 'Don't be angry, my love, and don't cry over my parting. Oh, my dear father, this martyrdom is on behalf of my land! For my land I will sacrifice myself! . How sweet is martyrdom, when I embrace you, my land! [Picture shows the boy falling on his chest] ... My beloved mother, more dear to me than anything [mother wailing], be happy over my blood, and don't cry for me! Tell my brother [the boy kisses his brother] that our souls are sacrificed for beloved Jerusalem! We don't run after wars, but we are great at them.'"

Marcus reports that the boy conveys a feeling of serenity throughout the clip: "The death itself is not cruel, and the boy shows no fear or resistance, he does not cry, and even the way he falls is gentle, and he hardly bleeds. His friends approach him, turn him on his face, and they are serene."

PMW also reports on the screening of clips of the "life after death" of Muhammad al-Dura, the 12-year-old Arab who was killed in crossfire near the Netzarim junction at the beginning of the current war. The boy has been made into a Palestinian hero; some 400 songs have been written about him, and the films of his death, which were internationally televised at the time, are shown dozens of times a day on Palestinian television. Information indicating that he was likely killed not by Israeli bullets but by Palestinian fire has been largely ignored. A recent clip on PA television shows him calling to other children, "I'm waving to you, not to say goodbye, but to say, 'Come follow me.'" He is portrayed after his death playing with a kite in a beautiful, green, tree-lined field; on the beach; at an amusement park; on the Temple Mount; and in a sunny field with water being sprinkled high - while sandwiched in-between are scenes of blood and Israeli Army violence.

"In the background is the voice of a popular female singer, "How pleasant is the fragrance of the earth, its thirst quenched by a gush of blood flowing from a youthful body... How pleasant is the aroma of the martyrs..." The clip ends with the flashing of a caption, "Produced by the [Palestinian] Ministry of Information and Culture and the Palestinian National Fund."

Palestinian Media Watch and Itamar Marcus can be reached at
"pmw@netvision.net.il".

SAUDI CROWN PRINCE WARNS OF MIDDLE EAST WAR

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has warned of the prospect of a Middle East war, accusing Israel of raising Middle East bloodshed to "unacceptable" levels. Abdullah told German magazine Der Spiegel that the region is "sitting on a powder keg" that could "explode at any time".  

He added that such a war "would not only affect Israelis and Arabs but many parts of the world" but did not elaborate any further. Abdullah, who ended a three-day official visit to Germany on Friday, blamed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for eight months of violence that has left 484 Palestinians and 108 Israelis dead. He told the magazine: "The bloodshed is reaching levels we can no longer accept. The Israeli war machine takes aim daily at unarmed people who are at the most throwing stones."

Abdullah said Palestinian attacks against Israelis were "a sign of desperation and frustration", and that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could only stop his people's revolt if Israel ends the "cancerous growth of settlements in Palestinian areas". Abdullah, who met Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder during his stay in Berlin, encouraged the European Union to mediate in the Middle East and said Germany should not be restrained by historic traumas. "The crimes of the Nazis against the Jews must not serve as an excuse for accepting crimes against the Palestinians," he told the magazine.

THE WACKINESS FACTOR

Call it the wackiness factor, obsessive hatred of Jews, or profound misperception, but Syrian President Bashar Assad's response to Pope John Paul II's mission to promote Middle East peace shows precisely why peace efforts in the region have collapsed.

The pope tried, like many others have done before him, to give Syria's leader credit for moderate sentiments. "You, Mr. President," he told Assad, "have wisely confirmed that a just and global peace is in the best interests of Syria. I'm confident that under your guidance Syria will spare no effort to work for greater harmony and cooperation among the peoples of the region." But like US secretary of state Warren Christopher's roughly 17 trips to Damascus, president Bill Clinton's strenuous efforts, and dozens of European envoys, the pope heard what Syria's ruler really thinks.

On one hand, Assad gave the usual Syrian line, stating, "We say we adhere to a just and comprehensive peace that returns the land to its original owners, and the return of refugees and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital." There's a nice ambiguity there, since returning "the land to its original owners" and "the return of refugees" are both essentially code words for removing Israel from the map. In short, this is the hard-line sentiment concealed in the velvet phrase.

On the other hand, Assad claimed that Israeli policies are like alleged Jewish attacks on early Christians and persecution against that religion's founder, Jesus. "They tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Mohammed." Thus spake Syria's British-educated, reportedly Internet-loving, and supposedly reform-minded president. Presumably, and if so unfortunately, the pope was too polite to respond appropriately.

Such statements are not really out of character for the young Assad. Aside from his fire-breathing rhetoric at the last Arab League meeting, he referred to Israeli society as "more racist than the Nazis." In addition, Syria's veteran defense minister, Mustafa Tlas, has long held that Jews murder Christians to use their blood in making Passover matza. When do such sentiments go beyond being repugnant propaganda and become major factors in setting national policy? By setting the tone of the country's debate, this kind of demagoguery heightens popular support for hatred and anti-Israel violence that inhibits rulers from making peace for many years to come. After all, a leader who makes peace with anti-Christian, anti-Moslem, Nazi-fascist, genocidal Jews must be a traitor. And, of course, peace with such a repugnant people could not possibly last.

Such an approach also sets the stage for an irrational disregard for national interest, the balance of power, and similar realpolitik considerations that can come back to haunt rulers. Assad has already made clear that he knows Syria is in no condition to make war on Israel. Yet by demonizing Israel, he could lay the basis for a miscalculation that would give him the same kind of disaster his predecessors created by threatening war with Israel in 1967.

RUSSIA MARKETING NEW SCUD IN DAMASCUS

As Putin strives to reassert Moscow's political influence in Damascus, Russian arms manufactures have begun actively marketing upgraded weapons systems to Syria. Although no shipments have been reported, the new generation of arms being peddled by Moscow could significantly enhance Syria's regional capability.

Most notably, Moscow has offered to sell Damascus a new optically-guided Scud missile that is capable of penetrating US and Israeli-made missile defense systems. According to Victor Solunin, the director general of Russia's Central Scientific and Research Institute of Automatics and Hydraulics, the upgraded Scud has an optically-guided warhead that disengages in the terminal phase of the missile's flight, averting incoming defensive missiles. Solunin, whose institute has been building Scud missiles since 1968, also said that the upgraded Scud is much more accurate than its predecessors, "with a miss distance not exceeding 10 to 20 meters, irrespective of the range." The missile's optical system has a matrix photo receiver and digital mapping system, enabling it to scan terrain based on pre-programmed target information during its final approach, as well as a mid-course correction device to avoid obstacles. It is supposedly immune to signal jamming and other electronic countermeasures.

Solunin added that the missile can destroy underground bunkers and silos. "Owing to an increased weight of the explosive charge and steep approach angles, the Russian missile system is capable of destroying hardened targets," he said. "The number of Russian missiles required for guaranteed destruction of such targets is several times less than that of similar missiles made by other countries' manufacturers." The missile has a maximum range of only 300 km (190 miles), but this can potentially be increased to 450 km (285 miles) by adding an additional rocket.

EDITORIAL

In this page we do not present personal views, but news reports from various Middle Eastern and International newspapers. However, at this time, as the editor of this site, I need to comment the present situation.

As I have stated a few months ago, in another column, the then recently started intifada had a different flavour from precedent tactics. I noticed a change of mood and purpose, and I wrote thus. The subsequent election of Ariel Sharon, a man of resolute ideas, has compounded the Middle Eastern chess board. There exists precious little space for compromise and the prospects for the future do not bode well at all.

Most media coverage seems to favour the Palestinian side, pointing to Israel as the tyrannical overlord of the area, and at first view, it surely appear so. Yes, the Palestinians start the action, but they are only using stick and stones, while Israel is using heavy armed response to each provocation, even when a little restraint would be in order. Ariel Sharon is determined that his people should live in "peace and safety", a vague term at best, and being the military man that he is, can only bring forth his purpose through the use of force, military and otherwise. Yasser Arafat is determined that his people should have their statehood and should not depend from Israeli decisions. More or less this is what is presented to the world as their legitimate aspirations. However, as in all things, there are deeper motivations that drive both leaders and only a fool would believe their stated purposes and rethoric as the ONLY reason of the struggle.

I am not going to explain what these deeper motivations are. Anybody who is minimally fair-minded, can see the strategies at play and the means used. But alas, it is very hard to be fair-minded in this situation, as in any other, since each of us has a preconceived pair of glasses through which we observe the world. So, I will look at this thing from a different angle.

For Christian believers, the Bible is the Word of God. For Jewish believers, the Old Testament is the Word of God. For Islamic believers, the Old Testament is an inspired text. All three monotheistic faiths, then, ascribe to the Old Testament divine status, to a more or less extent. Now, this Old Testament, speaks very clearly about the role and future status of Israel. Many may not believe or like it, but for those who believe it, there is no problem in stating that Israel is and will be the rightful owner of the land, and not only of the small parcels it presently owns, but of the total land mass that goes from the Nile river to the Euphrates. Wow, really? Yes, that is exactly what the Word of God says from Gen.15:18 to the Apocalypse. Surely it seems a "mission impossible" situation but "Faithful is He Who promised."

How will this come about? It will be the work of God Himself. This is why, and against all appearences, true Bible believers know the final outcome and most importantly they know that whatever the immediate future may bring, the final outcome is already established and NO ONE can change that. Those who do not believe, will try to bring their brand of truth into being by deceit, violence and force not understanding their personal contribution to the final outcome, having thus a hard time coping with a reality that escapes them.

This brings us to the crucial question: Is there fairness in all of this? Why, dare someone accuse God of being unfair, or dare someone accuse Him of not knowing what He is doing? Again, only a fool would think so. The big problem in understanding this and other Biblical prophecies is man's very very limited vision of the whole picture. The reality we observe today, is the natural outcome of all that has preceded it. When we look at the ownership of the land of Israel today, our limited view goes back ONLY to a certain point and moreover it is full of gaps, distorsions and misinterpretations. Not so with God. He has the universe spread out like a small map in front of Him, and He has Time, in its past-present-future modes, "frozen" before His Eyes (I AM WHO I AM). What He promised to Abraham and confirmed to his descendants, may seem mythically rethoric to us, but certainly it is a very alive Yes and Amen fact to Him.

Hard times are ahead for Israel. War is on the horizon and it cannot be avoided. The Bible states also that some Arab nations who will change their ways (more on this in an a forthcoming article), will benefit of God's Grace. This confirms and this is why we are confident not only of the final outcome, but of the infinite Justice and Goodness of God, Who is ever ready to offer His loving Grace to anyone who asks Him.

YOUNG BRITISH MUSLIMS TRAINED FOR JIHAD

'Young British Muslims are being trained to make bombs and use Kalashnikov rifles to fight in a jihad - holy war - in Israel. The first 'Mujahideen' fighters, trained in military-style camps around Britain, flew out this month for Lebanon and Jordan.

At a secret location in a technology park in north London, three men in their mid-twenties told The Observer that it was their duty to fight the Israelis. Anyone in Britain who supported the state of Israel and companies such as Marks and Spencer, which had connections with Israel, were also legitimate targets, they said. The men will leave for the Middle East as soon as they can arrange visas. These Islamic warriors, who are known only by their noms de guerre, Abu Yahya, Abu Izzadeen and Abu al-Mujahid, have been schooled in the Koran and believe that the holy verses told them to fight against the occupation of Arab lands.

'When we see what is happening in Palestine, it's not a matter of choice, it's a matter of obligation,' said 23-year-old Abu al-Muhajid. 'I have chosen to go and fight to fulfil that obligation and hopefully reap the highest rewards.' He said he had been trained to use a range of arms, including Kalashnikovs. Abu Izzadeen, a 25-year-old black Muslim convert, said: 'I have been with the Islamic movement since the day I embraced Islam, eight years ago, and I am willing to die for it.'

He said that he had been trained in Britain, but also in the Islamic camps in Pakistan: 'In Islam, when we say training, we mean military training. The camps inside the UK prepare people with physical training and martial arts, and if they can obtain weapons they use them for training. 'When we talk about jihad, we are not talking about harsh words, we are talking about training in bomb-making and strategy.' He added that, although he had no argument with individual British Jews, those who supported Israel were a legitimate target, as were companies with Israeli connections, such as Marks and Spencer, and the Jewish Chronicle newspaper. 'If someone supports a government which kills and rapes and murders, then you have a responsibility for it.'

Abu Yahya, also 25, went further: 'We don't have a problem with Christians and Jews, it is only with people who occupy our lands. We have a problem with oppression. That is, with the Hindus in Kashmir, the Russians in Chechnya, the Christians in the former Yugoslavia and the Israelis in Palestine.' To illustrate, he quoted a verse of the Koran: 'Fight together those who fight you together.' A spokesman for Maddad Security Services, which is organising the recruitment, said the process was a closely guarded secret: anti-terrorism legislation now makes it an offence in Britain to conspire to commit terrorist acts abroad. The legislation was introduced by Home Secretary Jack Straw after pressure from Arab governments who claim that Britain has become a haven for Islamic extremists.

ISRAEL THREATENS SYRIA WITH AIR BOMBARDMENT

Israel is threatening Syria with air strikes against its military bases in south Lebanon if there are further border attacks on Israeli soldiers or civilians by Hizbollah guerrillas.

Such warnings were common during Israel's occupation of south Lebanon but they have resumed following fresh Hizbollah assaults. They raise anew the alarming spectre of a wider Middle East conflict. The threat against Syria's 20,000 troops in Lebanon was outlined yesterday by a senior Israeli security source. He said Syria possessed the power to rein in Hizbollah, but instead Bashar al-Assad, its president, encouraged it. The Syrians did not understand the consequences of their "dangerous policies", said the source.

Iranian-sponsored Hizbollah recently renewed attacks on Israel, capturing four soldiers in the last two months and killing one with a roadside bomb. It is acting on the pretext that Israel is still occupying the Shebaa Farms, a small pocket of what it claims was originally Lebanese land that was seized by Syria in the 1940s and – in 1967 – occupied by Israel as part of the Golan Heights. The United Nations has ruled it to be on the Israeli side of the "blue line" that marks out the Israeli-occupied Golan from Lebanon.

Israel's annoyance with Syria's new young president has been heightened by disappointment that he has not proved any more likely to succumb to Israeli demands than his father, Hafez al-Assad, who died in June. The bizarre, but widely circulated notion that "Dr Bashar's" British training as an ophthalmologist and his interest in computers would soften his stance on Syrian interests – making him, in western eyes, a relative "moderate" – has predictably proved to be no more than diplomatic guff.

The Israeli military is alarmed by Bashar al-Assad's eagerness to forge closer relations with Iraq in contrast to his father, whose hostility towards Saddam Hussein reached a peak in 1991 when he supported Operation Desert Storm. Last month Izzat Ibrahim, a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, was the most senior Iraqi official for two decades to visit Damascus. Reports abound that Iraq is piping oil to Syria in defiance of sanctions.

Bashar al-Assad "was expected to be more moderate due to his western education," said the Israeli security source, who requested anonymity. "But he is behaving just the opposite way. He is very extreme. He has turned very hard in the direction of the Iraqis." If Israel gets embroiled in a conflict with Damascus, the source warned, then Iraq would be "delighted" to join in.

ANTI-ISRAEL ANGER AROUND THE WORLD

There have been widespread demonstrations in Arab and Muslim countries against Israel's territorial ambitions towards the Islamic holy places in Jerusalem and the killing of protesters in the Palestinian territories. The most significant incident was in Damascus on Wednesday, when police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who stoned the United States embassy. Washington subsequently issued a worldwide alert for US nationals abroad and some diplomatic missions were closed to the public in sensitive locations.

The Syrian protest was a rare display of public unrest in a country which is usually under strict control. A less spontaneous demonstration came from Iraq, where President Saddam Hussein was shown on TV banging the table in anger at the Arab countries' failure to defend Palestinian rights. While the Iraqi leader was raging against Israel - which he claimed he would destroy if given adjacent territory - other Arab governments responded to the crisis with offers of medical aid.

Kuwait dispatched a military cargo plane with supplies for the Palestinians, while Saudi Arabia sent three truckloads of medicines and said its hospital facilities would be made available to Palestinians wounded by the Israelis.

A more unusual shipment is reportedly being organised in Dubai, where an Emirates businessman wants to send 50 truckloads of "extra hard" rock and half a million slingshots to the Palestinian territories to use against the Israeli army. Siddiq Fateh Ali bin Abdullah al-Khaja told the Khaleej Times he was getting "Suwan rocks of the UAE mountains, known for being extra hard". In Egypt, where the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, had been due for a continuation of summit talks after Paris, there were protests at universities. Students at Alexandria University shouted: "Barak get out! Egypt will always remain clean."

In Tehran's Palestine Square, thousands of demonstrators have gathered amid growing calls for holy war against Israel in defence of Jerusalem's Islamic holy places. A representative of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas, Khalid Mish'al, called for the destruction of the state of Israel and said: "God willing, the blood of Iranian and Palestinian brothers will be spilled at the Al-Aqsa Mosque." He condemned Palestinian efforts to negotiate agreements to quell the violence, which was greeted by chants of "Death to Arafat".

There are reports of angry protests in various other countries, especially those with large Muslim populations.

• Indonesia: Muslim youths in Jakarta burned US and Israeli flags
• Lebanon: Children marched through Palestinian refugee camps
• Jordan: A crowd prevented from marching on the Israeli embassy
• US: Marches and demonstrations in various cities

SYNAGOGUE ON TEMPLE MOUNT COULD PROVOKE A WAR

Palestinian leaders warned Israel yesterday that a plan to build a synagogue on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem could provoke a war in the Middle East.

The warning came after the Chief Rabbinical Council announced that it was setting up a committee to "realise our rights and sovereignty on the Temple Mount". The decision appeared to be an attempt to avoid a confrontation with Muslims over what many regard as the most sensitive site in the Middle East. Jews believe that their temples stood on the site, which is inside Jerusalem's walled Old City, in biblical times. To Muslims it is known as al-Haram al-Sharif, the "Noble Sanctuary", housing the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosques. Ikrema Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem, said that building a synagogue on the hill would start a war and "only God knows where it would lead".

Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the most senior Islamic administrator at al-Haram al-Sharif, appealed to Israel: "Don't play with fire, this is not politics, this is religion, and if something happened, God forbid, you will find millions of Muslims willing to sacrifice their souls for our holy places." The synagogue proposal was made by Shaar-Yeshuv Hacohen, the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, who opposes the view of most rabbinical authorities that Jews must not enter the Temple Mount because of its holiness and concerns about ritual purity. He also rejected suggestions that the issue should be debated only after a peace accord has been reached with the Palestinians. "I think that it should be negotiated before an agreement is reached," he said. "To the Jewish faith, the Temple Mount is the holiest place and we all pray towards that place and we should not give it away to any other people and any other religion."

Israeli police arrested four right-wing Jewish activists on the Temple Mount yesterday after Palestinians were reported to have seen a Jewish worshipper praying there. One activist was attacked by an Islamic official at the site. Rabbis representing Jewish settlers have called for a ruling to forbid the Israeli Government from transferring any more land in the West Bank to the Palestinians. They say that the Government is not allowed to give away parts of the biblical land of Israel because God bequeathed the area solely to the Jewish people. Israel's Chief Rabbinical Council said that the issue should be discussed at a meeting in Bet El, a settlement on the West Bank, but it did not set a date for the meeting.

ARAFAT SAYS NO TO PEACE IN THE REGION WITHOUT JERUSALEM

(IsraelWire-6/1) According to an Israel Radio report on Thursday morning, PLO Authority (PA) Chairman Yassir Arafat was quoted in a Saudi Arabian newspaper interview as stating there would be no peace in the region without the PA receiving Jerusalem. The report quoted Arafat as saying that without the State of Palestine enjoying its capital, Jerusalem, there could be no regional peace. The remarks come following the PA’s rejecting the latest Israeli offer, which including turning over control of 92 percent of Yesha to the PA. Talks between Israel and the PA are scheduled to resume on Thursday night

MIDDLE EASTERN ROOTS

They may be enemies but Jews and Arabs really are brothers, a genetic analysis shows. The comparison, published Monday, of groups of Semites also shows that Jews have successfully resisted having their gene pool diluted, despite having lived among non-Jews for thousands of years in what is commonly known as the Diaspora — the time since 556 B.C. when Jews migrated out of Palestine.

Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona in Tucson and colleagues studied and compared the genes of more than 1,300 males from 29 different populations.

Map of the Past
These included seven different Jewish groups — the Ashkenazi (European), Roman, North African, Kurdish, Iraqi and Iranian, Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews. They compared their genes to samples from Arabs such as Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Israeli Druze and Saudis, and then compared the Semitic group to groups such as Russians, Germans, British, Austrians, Egyptians, Gambians, Ethiopians, Turks and others.

The researchers looked at the Y chromosome, which only males have and which is passed down with little change from father to son. These small changes can be tracked and provide a kind of molecular road map to the genetic past. They found that grouping Jews and Arabs together — both are Semites — is based on genetic and well as historical and linguistic reality.

Semites Have Remained Separate
Jews and Arabs are all really children of Abraham,” Dr. Harry Ostrer, director of the Human Genetics Program at New York University School of Medicine, who worked on the study, said in a statement. And all have preserved their Middle Eastern genetic roots over 4,000 years. They also found that Jews had remained remarkably similar on the genetic level over the millennia.

Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level,” Hammer’s group wrote in their report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Very few non-Jewish European genes have gotten into the Ashkenazi and Roman Jewish populations, they said. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggests that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora,” they wrote.

BIN LADEN STILL AFTER NUCLEAR BOMBS

The US Government fears that wanted terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is trying to develop an "Islamic bomb" following the seizure of nuclear material being smuggled to Pakistan from the former Soviet Union, according to the DAILY TELEGRAPH of London.

Customs officers from Uzbekistan discovered 10 lead-lined containers at a remote border crossing with Kazakhstan at the end of last month. These were filled with enough radioactive material to make dozens of crude weapons, each capable of contaminating a large area for many years. Military analysts have described such "radiation bombs" as "poor man's nuclear weapons," in which conventional explosives are used to spread radioactive material. The seizure has raised fears that the extensive terrorist network run and financed by bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi exile and hero of Muslim extremists, could be developing the capability to unleash them on the West and Israel.

The consignment was addressed to a company located at the main Pakistani border crossing into southern Afghanistan, a six-hour drive from Kandahar, where the Taliban regime has given refuge to the international fugitive bin Laden. Uzbek border guards were alerted to the lorry shipment when their radiation sensors "went off wildly." Two years ago, Washington issued such portable radiation detectors to customs agents from several countries in the former Soviet bloc in an attempt to stem the flow of nuclear materials on the black market.

Military experts consider the confiscated material "an ideal terror weapon." Large numbers of Islamic terrorists from bin Laden's camps and Pakistan have been fighting in Chechnya, whose rebels once deployed a radiation device. In addition, a radiation bomb was found buried last year in Moscow, after Muslim terrorists warned they were about to detonate an explosion in the area. Last year, an intelligence source in the US Congress published a lengthy book on bin Laden and revealed he had acquired dozens of nuclear "suitcase bombs," most probably through Pakistan. Recent intelligence reports have confirmed that bin Laden also has been trying to acquire chemical weapons.

ISRAEL WARNS OF WAR WITH SYRIA

For the first time, Israel has warned that Syria could be the next target of Israeli retaliatory attacks that stem from the violence in southern Lebanon. Israeli officials said that in the wake of an Israeli withdrawal the government and military will establish new guidelines that will escalate retaliation for any attacks on the Jewish state from Lebanon and hold Syria responsible. Syria has 35,000 troops in Lebanon.

HACKERS UNCOVER SECRET BILLIONS OF ARAFAT'S PLO

THE Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has salted away billions of pounds for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in secret foreign bank accounts and investments, including property in London.

The disclosure about the hidden wealth of his PLO comes amid deepening economic hardship in his Gaza and West Bank fiefdoms. It will also hamper his efforts to woo a huge influx of European aid for his fledgling Palestinian regime.

The timing of the disclosures could not have been more embarrassing as Mr Arafat, seated before a stage built to resemble a giant Christmas crib, yesterday opened Millennium celebrations in Bethlehem . He hopes that the year of festivities in Jesus's birthplace will showcase his push for an independent Palestinian state. New details of the vast PLO fortune he controls have come to light following a series of computer break-ins at the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Tunis.

The hackers discovered that the PLO maintains about £5 billion in numbered bank accounts in Zurich, Geneva and New York. It also holds accounts with smaller sums in north Africa, Europe and Asia. They are not registered in the PLO's name, but in the names of private individuals. The records also showed that the PLO owns shares on the Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo stock exchanges, including stock in the German car giant Mercedes Benz, and property in prestigious areas of European capitals, including Mayfair in London.

The organisation, which once specialised in aircraft hijackings, also has shares in several airlines, including the national carriers of the Maldives and Guinea Bissau. The computer security breach is believed on the West Bank to have been carried out by PLO officials disgruntled with Mr Arafat's leadership. "They wished to dispel the smokescreen created around the PLO's finances," a Palestinian official told The Telegraph.

Mr Arafat has always refused to comment on reports about the foreign bank accounts. But the disclosures caused anger in poverty-stricken Gaza. One embittered Palestinian said: "Why is he sitting on a mountain of gold, while there is a desperate lack of jobs and medical supplies here?" Mr Arafat is both president of the Palestinian Authority, the semi-autonomous organisation that governs parts of Gaza and the West Bank, and the chairman of the PLO, which maintains its headquarters in Tunis, its base during its terrorist heyday.

The creation of the Palestinian Authority, the embryonic government for a future Palestinian state, was supposed to lead to the winding-up of the PLO - and make the Palestinian leadership accountable and law-abiding. But the authority has in fact been repeatedly accused by domestic opponents of rampant corruption and mismanagement.

The web of secret bank accounts and assets held around the world is believed to be so complex that only Mr Arafat himself and two of his most trusted aides know the overall picture. Much of the money is the result of "taxes" levied on Palestinians working in Kuwait and other Gulf states in the Seventies and Eighties, and of donations from wealthy states such as Saudi Arabia.

The assets are controlled by Mr Arafat himself and it is not known what would happen to them if the 70-year-old, who is said to be suffering from Parkinson's disease, should die. An Israeli intelligence analyst said: "These revelations are almost certainly not the whole story. No one can know the full extent of the PLO's assets. They are so well hidden."

The disclosures are also likely to prompt international donors, including the European Union countries, to ask why Mr Arafat is still demanding aid for his Palestinian authority. Nor will they have been impressed by his decision to invite Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslavia's president, to Bethlehem.

ISRAEL AS PORTRAYED IN PALESTINIAN TEXTBOOKS

Six years following the signing of the Oslo Accords, Arafat - a mainstream leader and a recipient of annual US foreign aid - is intensifying the demonization of Israel, Zionism and Jews in the Palestinian school system. PLO strategy is authentically represented by its own education curriculum, which shapes long-term attitudes of Palestinians and mirrors the ideology of its leadership. Arafat's refusal to expunge - from textbooks - systematic depiction of Jews and Zionists as enemies of Arabs, Islam and humanity, has reaffirmed concerns about Arafat's actual intentions and his harboring of Hamas terrorists (including murderers of Americans).

Recurring themes in school textbooks within the PA educational system educate Palestinian pupils to reject Israel, Zionism and Jews on moral, political, nationalistic and religious grounds. Jews and Zionists are systematically depicted as enemies, deceitful, treacherous, plunderers, aggressors and inhumane. The heralding of Jihad (Holy War) and legitimizing of martyrs/terrorists permeate both PA textbooks and summer camps. Martyrs are promised unique rewards in Paradise, including unlimited sex with 70 virgins per martyr.

A few examples follow:

"The first words the young boy heard were the words Jihad, attack and conquest...For him no joy equaled the participation in Jihad...Nothing gave him more pleasure than the sight of the enemy lying dead on the battlefield...Coming down on them, blow after blow, crushing their skulls..." (The Conqueror of Africa, 6th grade, pp 6,7,43,93,96).

"One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal" (Islamic Education, 9th grade, p.79).

"Jihad and sacrifice are a duty...draw your sword, let us gather for war with red blood and blazing fire...Death shall call and the sword shall be crazed for such slaughter...Oh Palestine, the youth shall redeem your land..." (Reader and Literary Texts, 8th grade, pp.120-122).

"The final and inevitable result [of Jihad] will be victory of the Moslems over the Jews..." (Our Arabic Language, 5th grade, p.67).

by Yoram Ettinger
(Excerpted. For complete report: yoramtex@netvision.net.il)

HIZBULLAH VOWS TO NEVER RECOGNIZE ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO EXIST

In a statement released on Thursday by the number two man in the Hizbullah guerilla organization, Sheik Naim Kassim stated his organization would never recognize Israel's right to exist and it did not make a difference if Arab countries signed peace treaties. The guerilla leader made his statements during a Sky News interview. Kassim also refused to make any promises to curtail or cease attacks against Israeli targets following an Israeli withdrawal from the security zone.

In a related matter, senior IDF commanders have acknowledged a slowdown in Hizbullah activities in the security zone of late but have warned it may only be a temporary lull due to Israel's heavy air assaults over Beirut, seriously compromising the infrastructure of the area in response to Katyusha attacks over northern Israel.

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