 The news of the day before Christmas is that former President Jimmy Carter has apologized for anything he has said or done to offend America’s Jewish community and presumably around the world.
The news was welcomed by the national director of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation league, Abraham Foxman, who said that it was “incumbent for us to accept” the apology, but Foxman does not speak for me or for the American Jewish community.
I do not accept the apology and neither should anyone who holds the state of Israel as the fulfillment of a 2,000 year old dream of return to the land in which Judaism took root and flourished through exiles and dispersion.
My reasoning is that Carter has spoken only with the prospect that his grandson, Jason, is anticipated to run for public office in Georgia in a congressional district with what is reported as “a vocal Jewish population.” It’s politics. It’s not a confession of the heart. Jason hailed the apology as a “great step towards reconciliation”, but I suggest that it is deeds, not words, that matter.
The former President is credited with trying to resolve the Palestinian conflict with the Israelis and gained a Nobel Peace Prize along with the terrorist, Yassir Arafat, but that prize has long since been tarnished and discredited for having also been awarded to the charlatan Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and most recently to President Obama who has done nothing of significance to earn it.
It was Carter’s 2006 book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” in which he compared Israeli efforts to defend themselves against wars and a campaign of terrorism with South Africa's hateful system. Present attacks have abated only with Israel's action against Hamas in Gaza, a part of Israel from which the Israelis withdrew in yet another effort to achieve a peace that is still rejected.
If the so-called Palestinians and the greater Muslim community throughout the Middle East continue to plan war against Israel, an apology by Carter pales in the face of this reality. If the Jordanians and Egyptians could sign peace agreements with Israel, surely other Middle Eastern nations could do the same.
Carter’s apology is cosmetic. It is a Band-aid that ignores Israel’s claim to statehood and sovereignty. Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE (Before Common Era), a thousand years before the rise of Christianity and 2,000 years before the rise of Islam. Jews have had a continuous presence in Israel for the last 3,300 years.
Jerusalem is mentioned more than 700 times in the Jewish Holy Scriptures, but not once in the Koran. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem. The Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was deliberately built over a site sacred to Jews, deemed the rock where Abraham was commanded by God to spare the life of his son.
Al-Aqsa has twice been destroyed in earthquakes. Jews are forbidden access and restricted to prayers at the Western Wall.
The calumnies and lies about Israel that the former President has lent his name to and the support he has demonstrated for the enemies of Israel cannot be wiped clean by an apology.
A million Christian and Muslim Arabs call Israel home and enjoy full citizenship. They face an Iranian nuclear annihilation with their Jewish neighbors.
It is time for Israel’s enemies to embrace the message of peace on Earth, but a militant Islam forecloses that allusive goal for all mankind and the land where it was first proposed.
 The first sign says it's a National Democratic Party (NDP) office. Another establishes it as a Ministry of Social Solidarity local unit. A third sign claims it belongs to "El Wayli Kindergarten." But really, the building is a synagogue, a Jewish house of worship. Curious pictures of this Cairo temple were first posted by Egyptian blogger Mostafa Hussein last year.
The photos, which showed a sign of the ruling NDP in front of the building's main door and a handful of employees working inside, generated a buzz in the Egyptian online social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The building, in the eastern Cairo neighborhood of Hadayeq el-Qubba, turned out the bygone synagogue that has been revived for different functions at different times. It consecutively became a public kindergarten, a local headquarters for the NDP, and a local administrative center for the Ministry of Social Solidarity. Signs remain from each of the three functions, suggesting a rather schizophrenic identity. People living in the area recall the building being a synagogue until the 1960s, but aren't entirely sure what has become of it since. "Our building used to be filled with Jews. But they all left. This synagogue used to function long time ago, but I don’t recall when it stopped. Now it has become related to the government," says Saleh Mahdy, a 72-year-old retired accountant who lives in the building adjacent to the synagogue. Equally visually confusing is the presence of a small mosque which has almost cordoned the synagogue with its freshly painted green fence. A men's prayer room stands to the right of the synagogue's main body and a women's prayer room is on the left. According to Mahdy, the mosque is only a handful of years old. “It looks ridiculous. I totally disagree with its presence there,” he says. At night, the synagogue looks like nothing but a distant relic of the past with its huge dark gates and walls with Hebrew inscriptions, run-down stairs, and ancient wooden chairs covered with cobweb. An old woman was seated on the stairs of the synagogue. When asked about it, she said she knew nothing. "My husband used to work as an office boy in the kindergarten. When he died, the [Ministry of] Social Solidarity people gave me a room to stay here," she said, pointing to a small wooden structure behind the synagogue. She had extended a laundry rope from the synagogue’s wall to her small house where she hung her clothes. During the day, the synagogue is the working space for about 30 employees who say they work for the Ministry of Social Solidarity. But inside lies a grandiose structure that features a central cupola, Hebrew inscriptions, spiral stairs, huge marble columns and tiles, and ancient wooden gates and chairs. The original stained glass panes, in the shape of the star of David and other geometrical formations, are mostly intact. In the eastern side of the interior architecture--pointing towards Jerusalem--sits the holy ark, otherwise known as the hechal, a curtained niche where the Torah scrolls were kept. The niche is now covered by a makeshift curtain, but the scrolls are long gone. Instead, a bunch of old government folders are scattered behind the curtain. Above the niche, an old Fatah poster of President Gamal Abdel Nasser fails to hide the faded but legible golden Hebrew letters, spelling "Gateway to the Righteous." Above those still are a pair of tablets, on which are inscribed the ten commandments. The "Eternal Light" that hangs above the niche, a common feature in all synagogues, has long been turned out. In stark contrast to the historical feeling of the synagogue are wooden partitions that divide the space into quasi-offices. Employees sit behind grey metal desks reminiscent of a 1960s and 1970s office style. When Al-Masry Al-Youm paid the office a surprise visit, the employees were having their usual breakfast of fuul and taamiya. "We’ve been here for the past 20 years. They keep telling us it’s a temporary location," said a female employee. "Didn’t they occupy Al-Aqsa mosque? We’re occupying them here," said another. Many complained that the synagogue is not the perfect working environment because it’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. "It’s so old that I feel there are ghosts hidden somewhere in the walls," said another woman. Despite the seeming lack of local knowledge about the 400-square-meter synagogue, it does have a long history. It was built by an Egyptian Jewish family that resided in the neighborhood. “This temple was built by the Adda family,” says Carmen Weinstein, president of the Egyptian Jewish Community Council (JCC). "The Adda's were a Jewish Egyptian family of industrialists and bankers, who contributed to the growth of the Egyptian economy in the 1940s. I wish the state would preserve this temple, which is unique in this part of the city." For Jewish communities in Egypt before 1952 it was customary to erect neighborhood synagogues. "In each neighborhood, the local Jewish collectivity built a synagogue," says Weinstein, who also points out that while 29 synagogues once existed in Cairo, only 13 remain. When contacted for more information about the building, Cairo Governorate officials expressed surprise with respect to the building's unusual status, and gratitude that Al-Masry Al-Youm reporters brought the matter to their attention.
According to one governorate employee who wanted to remain anonymous, the building is recognized in the district's files, but has no licenses or ownership documents. Read more at almasryalyoum 
 The leader of Switzerland’s centrist Christian Democrats (CVP) has apologised for calling for a ban on new Muslim and Jewish cemeteries, just days after Swiss voters approved a halt to building minarets. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean it like that,” CVP leader Christophe Darbellay told the tabloid Blick daily on Friday, adding: “It was about the principle that we all belong to the same Swiss society … but you can’t explain that in 15 seconds.” Darbellay provoked protests when he told local television earlier in the week that Switzerland should not allow the building of separate cemeteries for Jews or Muslims in future. The Conference of European Rabbis criticised his comments on Thursday and said the Swiss minaret ban will fuel xenophobia and risks making Jews the next target of religious intolerance.
“We don’t have a situation of the extreme right in Europe attacking Jews because they are content to attack Muslims,” Philip Carmel, the international relations director for the Conference of European Rabbis, told Reuters. “But the Swiss example is classic: it’s not just Muslims who are going to be targeted by the extreme right.” Darbellay has also proposed a ban on the Muslim burqa, or face veil. His comments are seen as a response to the rise of the populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP) which campaigned for the minaret ban. Read the whole story here. Reuters
 Tom Goss writes that the condition of the Palestinian territories is rapidly changing, especially in Nablus. Nicer cars are being seen, more business is being created, movie theaters are opening, and the overall economic situation is improving. And it is happening, in part, due to trade with Israel: Local Palestinian farmers have been trained by Israeli agriculture experts and Israel supplied them with irrigation equipment and pesticides. A new Palestinian city, Ruwabi, is to be built soon north of Ramallah. Last month, the Jewish National Fund, an Israeli charity, helped plant 3,000 tree seedlings for a forested area the Palestinian planners say they would like to develop on the edge of the new city. Israeli experts are also helping the Palestinians plan public parks and other civic amenities…. I’ve long said that the Jewish communities in the Palestinian territories need to be seen as vehicles of mutually-beneficial interaction between the two, and that trying to create a Jew-free Palestine or Palestinian-free Israel will only increase extremism and quickly fail.
Goss also notes in the article that the Palestinian economy grew by 7% this year, but Abbas says it is really 11%, “helped along by strong economic performances in neighboring Israel.” Palestinians need to realize that an attack on Israel’s well-being is an attack on their own well-being, and Israelis should see the Palestinians as an exciting new market that will benefit them as it grows. World Threats
 Switzerland's ban on building minarets will fuel xenophobia and risks making Jews the next target of religious intolerance, according to European rabbis meeting in Moscow. The Conference of European Rabbis condemned the outcome of last Sunday's Swiss referendum in a resolution passed during their two-day meeting, international relations director Philip Carmel told Reuters on Thursday. "We don't have a situation of the extreme right in Europe attacking Jews because they are content to attack Muslims," he said. "But the Swiss example is classic: it's not just Muslims who are going to be targeted by the extreme right." Swiss voters approved a ban on building new minarets in a referendum, defying the government and parliament which had rejected the right-wing initiative as violating the Swiss constitution, freedom of religion and a cherished tradition of tolerance. Speaking after the conference ended, Carmel said any movement towards xenophobia or extreme nationalist sentiment was "bad for Jews", adding: "The growth of the far right legitimizes xenophobic opinion." The Conference, which represents over 800 rabbis in more than 40 countries, was concerned that Jews might be the next targets of a rise in right-wing sentiment aroused by the minaret ban, he said. Rabbis said they were delighted by the revival of Jewish life in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, where their faith was relentlessly persecuted, leading to an exodus of tens of thousands. They said the growth of Muslim extremism in Western Europe's capitals was making life difficult for Jewish communities there. Jonasan Abraham, a London rabbi, said it was "tragic to think that it's safer now to walk the streets of Moscow as a Jew than in many Western European capitals where you feel hostility". In some European cities, Jews were living under tight security at schools and synagogues because of the threat from Islamic fundamentalists, the rabbis said. "You can't talk about the Holocaust in certain classrooms because the Muslim children will stand and complain about why it is being discussed," Carmel said. The rabbis called for European governments to combat Muslim extremism by making a commitment not to engage in dialogue with fundamentalist organizations and their representatives. "Because of the lack of structure of umbrella Muslim groups, politicians have a tendency to prefer dialogue with those who seem to be the loudest but they are not necessarily representative," Carmel said. YNet
 By Ryan Mauro A radical Islamic terrorist attack doesn’t necessarily need several participants or a direct connection to a terrorist organization.
It doesn’t need to be spectacular or done by someone motivated by nothing other than theology.
It just needs to be an act of violence aimed at instilling fear in order to advance the cause of radical Islam, and it is because of this failure to understand what qualifies as a “terrorist attack” that the country does not see how many such acts have actually occurred. The increasingly ridiculous argument over whether Major Hasan’s Fort Hood shooting can be considered a terrorist attack underscores this point. The failure to properly assess several incidents involving Muslims engaging in hit and runs of random civilians serves as a precursor to the debate we are seeing over Hasan today. These may not be big incidents, but they are a symptom of the plague and a foreshadowing of the type of creativity that those wishing us harm will utilize in planning their attacks. The latest possible act of hit-and-run jihad occurred just this month. A 27-year-old man named Munir Muthana was apprehended in Rochester, New York, after he began running random people over, sending six to the hospital. Two squad cars were also hit as they tried to stop him. He has ties to Yemen and when he was arrested, he admitted to having six beers the previous hour and cursed at the police, saying “Ben Franklin was stupid.
He should have made it so you [expletives] can’t swerve the law. The Muslims will fix this country.” If this was just a one-time occurrence, it wouldn’t be an event worthy of this column space unless further evidence of an extremist motivation surfaced. But it is not just a one-time occurrence. The first major incident occurred on March 3, 2006, when Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar injured nine people by hitting them with his car at the University of North Carolina.
Following the attack, the authorities found he had written several letters explaining his actions. They show that the attack was not a sudden outburst but a thoroughly thought-out plan. “I was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohamed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers,” one reads. “After extensive contemplation and reflection, I have made the decision to exercise the right of violent retaliation that Allah has given me to the fullest extent to which I am capable at present,” another states. On August 30 of the same year, Omeed Aziz Popal went on a similar rampage, killing one and injuring 18 with his SUV in San Francisco.
His lawyer said he suffered from mental illness and media reports emphasized that he may have been under stress from becoming recently wedded to a woman in Afghanistan in an arranged marriage.
One report citing sources in the investigation said that he seemed coherent and they ruled out mental illness as causing his actions, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
The fact that Popal targeted people outside the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and was reported by two witnesses as saying “I’m a terrorist; I don’t care” upon his arrest did not affect the media’s coverage, and the story quickly faded. More at Pajamas Media
 A dozen letters saying "Allah Akbar" have been sent since September in the Vaucluse department to priests, Jewish families and recently to François Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa, brother of the French president, the police reported Sunday.The message, concise, is identical and includes this simple phrase: "Allah Akbar", God is the greatest, written in French and Arabic. The same source said that the Arabic included a spelling error. In November, François Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa, brother of the French president, started getting these letters. The letters are all posted from Avignon, and were previously sent to priests and Jewish families in the area between Carpentras and Avignon, and to two banks. The letters caused some commotion in the Jewish community, according to the same source. The investigators don't think the letters represent a real threat. An investigation has been opened, due to the intimidating character of the message and the psychological pressure that it could cause. No complaints have been filed for now, according to the police. Source: AFP (French)
 BARNEY ZWARTZ A SENIOR Melbourne Muslim is proposing a sharia court to handle disputes in the Muslim community, suggesting it might eventually form part of the state's legal structure. Islamic Council of Victoria board member Hyder Gulam was due to meet a senior bureaucrat in the Premier's Department on Thursday to discuss the idea, but the meeting was postponed to this week. Mr Gulam, a lawyer with Logie-Smith Lanyon and also a board member of Australian Red Cross, said a sharia court could function as a voluntary and non-binding dispute resolution mechanism in matters such as divorce, access to children, disputes over wills and financial or commercial disputes. ''We are talking about a system that defuses community tensions before they reach litigation, so it can be settled at the lowest level, as quickly as possible, as cost-effectively as possible, with the best outcome. The Victorian Government is very keen on community dispute resolution mechanisms,'' he said. ''These are ideas we've raised with senior members of the community for three months, and the response has been very supportive because people see it's a cheap way to deal with intra-community disputes.'' However, the Islamic Council of Victoria has rejected the idea, because of concerns about the negative impact of the word ''sharia''. The leading Muslim women's group also rejected it. On Friday a deeply concerned council vice-president Sherene Hassan learnt of it from The Age and held urgent phone conversations with other board members.
She said: ''Sharia courts are not on the organisation's agenda. There has been no pressure for them from the Muslim community, and we have not discussed them. The meeting with the Premier's Department this week will go ahead, but it will not discuss sharia courts.'' Ms Hassan said Mr Gulam was acting on his own initiative and the council's agenda would not be set by one individual. Mr Gulam discusses the possibility of an Australian sharia court in an article co-written with barrister Simon Lee in an Australian Muslim newspaper, the Crescent Times. Saying their aim is to stimulate debate, they conclude the only element of sharia law feasible in Australia is dispute resolution based on mediation and conciliation. Meanwhile, Mr Gulam has received support and advice from the Fitzroy Legal Service on securing government support. Executive officer Rob Inglis said a sharia court ''would fill a really important need and would be a win-win situation''. It would not diminish existing law, but help create a ''safer, more culturally inclusive space'' for Muslims in legal matters. Mr Gulam said the Jewish community had the Beth Din, Catholics had religious courts to settle marriage questions, and indigenous people had the Koori courts, which were part of the state legal system. Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria director Joumanah El Matrah said research showed women and children would be ''extremely disadvantaged'' by any sort of sharia court. ''It's grossly naive to say women can opt out from such a tribunal. Women are often not in a position to make this sort of decision.'' She said examples from Britain showed women not only felt pressured, they became caught between the tribunal and the laws of the state. ''There's no sound argument to establish such a tribunal. Muslims are bound to live by the laws of the state they are members of. They can't opt in and out, according to their convenience.'' Source: The Age
 A survey conducted by a private research company has shown that a great majority of the public does not want atheists, Jews or Christians for neighbors and also disapproves of their employment at top state institutions, the Radikal daily reported yesterday.
Conducted by the Frekans research company as part of a project to promote the Turkish Jewish community and its culture, the poll gauged Turks' views on different ethnic and religious groups in Turkey, the Jewish community in particular. Fifty-seven percent of 1,108 people surveyed in the poll said they did not want to have atheist neighbors, while 42 percent said they did not want Jewish neighbors and 35 percent of respondents were reluctant to have Christian neighbors. Furthermore, when asked whether they would feel uncomfortable if people from Turkey's non-Muslim communities were employed by top state institutions, 57 percent of respondents expressed discomfort with the idea of someone from these groups being employed by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), while 55 percent stated that they did not want non-Muslims to be members of the judiciary or the police force. When participants were asked whether they have close friends who are Alevi, Kurd, atheist, Greek, Armenian or Jewish, 64 percent stated that they had a Kurdish friend, while 53 percent said they had a friend from the Alevi community. The participants were also asked how they defined themselves. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they defined themselves as “citizens of the Turkish Republic,” while 19 percent described themselves as “Muslim” and another 19 percent identified themselves as “Turkish.” Two percent defined themselves as Kurdish. Source: Today's Zaman
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
David Littman to the International Community: The Truth Shall Set You Free.......
Mr.David Littman: "Stop listening to lies and start listening to the truth" The Tundra Tabloids' dear friend and colleague, David Littman, spells out in the following article, the central issues in regards to the Arab-Israel conflict. Mr.Littman explains the need for the international community to return to these facts to help address the ending of the conflict. One can't expect a reasonable solution to the conflict without admitting the historical facts that have led to the present day situation. The Arab myth and propaganda machine has been allowed to twist the historical record beyond all recognition, without any criticism from the international community as a whole. The IC has allowed such blatant revisionism to go uncecked, that one warped and factually challenged claim after the other, are allowed to become a part of the historical narrative no matter how ludicrous it may be. No one challenged Arafat's laughable claim that the Arabs are in fact related to the ancient Philistines, with the hopes of pinning their claim that they (the fakestinians) have been there for over 3000 years, which actually served to undermine their Arab ethnicity. The extinct Philistines were an Aegeatic people that migrated to the levant before the Children of Israel first stepped into the region. The Truth About the Mideast Fourteen fundamental facts about Israel and Palestine.
By David G. Littman It's time to look back on 14 fundamental geographical, historical, and diplomatic facts from the last century relating to the Middle East. These basic facts and figures were stressed in recent statements to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and its subcommission, to the surprise of representatives of both states and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). 1) After World War I Great Britain accepted the 1922 Mandate for Palestine, and then — with League of Nations approval — used its article 25 to create two distinct entities within the Mandate-designated area. Read All here: http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2009/09/david-littman-to-international.html H/T Pamela Geller
 Barney Zwartz | March 18
MELBOURNE Anglican Archbishop Philip Freier is under fire from the Jewish community for hosting a function for former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami while he is in Melbourne this month.
Jewish Community Council of Victoria president John Searle wrote to Dr Freier saying the Jewish community found it inconceivable that the Anglican Church would host "such a man" or even meet him.
He declined an invitation to attend and asked Dr Freier to reconsider.
Mr Searle told The Age that although Mr Khatami, president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, was regarded as a reformist, he was a sponsor of terrorism, a Holocaust denier and leader of a country that has often threatened to "wipe Israel off the map".
"Only last year, this supposed champion of dialogue called Israel 'an old, incurable wound on the body of Islam, a wound that really possesses demonic, stinking, contagious blood'."
Mr Khatami is being brought to Australia by La Trobe University's Centre for Dialogue and will give a public lecture on March 26.
The Jewish Community Council has resigned from the centre's board of advisers in protest.
Dr Freier said he had invited Jewish leaders along with other groups who suffered persecution in Iran - Christians and Baha'is - so they could raise their concerns with Mr Khatami.
He said Anglicans were not unaware of the difficulties for minorities in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and he was not an apologist for Mr Khatami, but if people were ready to engage in discussion he wanted to oblige.
He had been asked by La Trobe University to host a meeting, to be held at his home. "President Khatami speaks of dialogue as being foundational, so it's important to be able to speak and listen. He has been the guest of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace and he has high-level access while in Australia," Dr Freier said.
As president, Mr Khatami was regarded as less confrontational with the West than some others.
He said in Iran yesterday he was withdrawing as candidate for president against the hardline incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to avoid dividing the reformist vote.
Professor Joseph Camilleri, director of La Trobe's Centre for Dialogue, said the Jewish community's response was an over-reaction. He said Mr Khatami was "a major intellectual of the 21st century" and that he would be discussing his influential theory of the importance of dialogue in international affairs, but not Israel or Iran.
"The JCCV is completely out of step with the mainstream thinking of informed Australians," he said. "I told them I think they are shooting themselves in the foot."
Mr Searle agreed that differences over Mr Khatami could increase tension between Melbourne's Muslims and Jews, whose relations are at their lowest ebb in years over Israel's incursion into Gaza in January.
Last month the Executive Council of Australian Jewry cut formal ties with the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils after AFIC chairman Ikebal Patel refused to recant his claim that the former victims of the Holocaust were perpetrating "much worse atrocities" in Gaza.
The controversy over Mr Khatami's visit comes as US President Barack Obama tries to open channels to Tehran and reduce hostility between the two countries amid international concerns that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb. Source: The Age Philip Freier
Latest recipient of the Demented Priest Award
 Natalie O'Brien | February 06, 2009
AUSTRALIA'S most outspoken Muslim leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has compared the Israeli bombing of Gaza to the Holocaust, sparking outrage among Jewish groups.
Sheik Hilali, the imam of the nation's biggest mosque at Lakemba, southwest Sydney, lashed out at the Israeli leaders, branding them as "butchers" whose "Zionist racism" was creating another Holocaust.
"When we remember the atrocities of the Holocaust - it seems that what we are seeing is another Holocaust," Sheik Hilali said yesterday.
"It is not just about numbers of people killed - thousands as opposed to millions - but the atrocity itself, and here we have similar atrocities."
His comments drew an angry response from NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff.
Mr Alhadeff said comparisons between Israel's offensive in Gaza and the Holocaust were obscene and historically unsupportable.
"They trivialise the Holocaust and they falsify history," he said. "The racial hatred and anti-Semitism which Sheikh Hilali has been expressing for 20 years has clearly not dissipated."
Mr Alhadeff was referring to claims that Sheik Hilali gave an anti-Semitic lecture to a group of Muslim students at the University of Sydney in 1988, in which he was quoted as saying: "The Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding."
Sheik Hilali was appointed the following year as Mufti of Australia by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils in what was claimed to be a move designed to prevent him being thrown out of Australia over the comments.
Sheik Hilali hopes to lead a delegation into the Palestinian territory to deliver medical supplies to the wounded and to assess the situation.
The group, being co-ordinated by Melbourne-based group the Popular Committee for Palestine, has invited the attendance of Jewish journalist and the founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, Antony Lowenstein, who said yesterday he did not believe Sheik Hilali's comments were anti-Semitic. Mr Lowenstein said it was important to make the distinction between anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli.
Sheik Hilali is waiting for permission for the delegation to enter Gaza via the Rafa crossing on Egypt's border, and is planning to take a delivery of hundreds of wheelchairs and three ambulances.
The 15-strong delegation is expected to include five doctors and representatives of several Muslim organisations.
In the wake of the Israel-Lebanon war in 2007, Sheik Hilali travelled to Lebanon to deliver aid.
At the time, he was accused of diverting funds to an Islamic leader with links to Hezbollah. But an Australian Federal Police investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.
In 2005, Sheik Hilali travelled to Iraq in an effort to help secure the release of Australian hostage Douglas Wood.
Sheik Hilali, who is a member of the Gaza Committee, which has been established by several prominent NSW community members and religious leaders, said he wanted to be able to see where the funds raised by Australians would most help the Palestinian people.
The Gaza Committee, along with other charities, is understood to have raised more than $2.5 million to send to the Palestinians. Sheik Hilali said the money would only be given to registered charities or hospitals, and would not go to any political organisation. Source: The Australian
 January 06, 2009
MORE than 100 Australian Jews have condemned Israel's invasion of Gaza, describing the action as "inhuman" and "abominable."
They include two authors and a former federal minister.
"We are Australian Jews who join thousands in Israel and around the world condemning ongoing Israeli military attacks on Gaza," the signatories said in a statement today.
"Together with Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, we condemn the current war as 'inhuman, superfluous' and 'abominable."'
The group, which includes the Australian environment minister from 1972-1975 Moss Cass, novelists Linda Jaivin and Sara Dowse and Australian Greens politician Ian Cohen, acknowledged Israel's right to protect itself.
But it said rockets launched from the Palestinian territory into Israel could not be used to justify the "grossly disproportionate military assault on Gaza," saying Israel had violated a fragile truce with Hamas in November.
The group said the Israeli attacks would not bring about peace.
"On the contrary, the assault on the population of Gaza will only inflame hatred of Jews and of the state of Israel while doing nothing to protect the lives of Israelis," they said.
"Above all, it will undermine the prospects of joining with peace-seeking Palestinians to negotiate a lasting, just solution to the conflict."
The signatories called for an immediate end to the attacks on civilians by Palestinians and Israelis.
The statement was rejected by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council as ill-informed and indifferent to Israel's suffering.
About 84,000 Australians, accounting for 0.4 percent of the population, identified themselves as Jewish in the 2001 census. Source: The Australian
At the risk of sounding anti-Semitic, I want to say this: either American Jews are completely clueless about the internal struggle inside Islam or they are so cowardly, that they are even afraid to voice their opinion. Or maybe it's a combination of both. Every time there is a development that involves radical Islam, be it a Mayor of New York attending an Islamist parade, DOJ's officials attending an Islamist conference, or a protester being sued for having the balls to expose an Islamist-sponsored event at an amusement park, the American Jewish community is as quiet as a church mouse. It's like it is not even there. The effect of this silence is devastating. Not for the Jewish community, not yet. That time is still to come. The silence affects the American Muslim community. Every time moderate Muslims are ignored and Islamists are legitimized (by either direct support from government representatives or silent support of the ADL), radicals gain ground. In the current PC climate, moderate Muslims have pretty much no choice but to keep their mouths shut. Luckily for us, not everyone in the Jewish community is like that. There are some Jews that are speaking out. One of them is Steven Emerson, who has been warning the West about the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism since before PanAm 103. Most of his current work is focused on exposing the radicals masquerading as the moderates – those radicals who are embraced by the DOJ and the Pentagon, by the mayor of New York Bloomberg (Rudy would never get into bed with terrorist supporters) and the Treasury Department, by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, by the Congress and the White House. There is a war of ideas within Islam, and moderate Muslims are losing. Most of Muslim clergy and Muslim establishment are paid for by the Wahhabis. Moderate Muslims are being run out of Mosques and community centers, and in many cases are physically threatened. Moderate Muslims have no place in the media or public debate, because the place reserved for Muslims is filled by Islamic radicals, who attempt to make criticizing anything Islamic a taboo. According to the Islamists, a Muslim can do no wrong. 1. When a non-Muslim criticizes Islam or Muslims, he/she is an Islamophobe. 2. When a Muslim criticizes Islam or Muslim, he/she is not a real Muslim, therefore see #1. This is a tactic used by "moderate" Muslims, the darlings of the government and the media. But how can you call someone who praises bin Laden, or has ties to Hamas, or calls for the elimination of Israel, or wants to replace the Constitution with the Koran a moderate? They are anything but moderates, however nobody except for a few people like Steven Emerson seems to notice that. But even when the Emersons of America appeal to the public, they are often being dismissed as alarmists and racists. Well, they are anything, but. You don't have to be a clairvoyant to predict the future when it comes to expansion of radical Islam and extinction of moderate Muslims. All you need to do is get your heads out of the sand. Why our government is so forgiving and forgetful when it comes to individuals or organizations with known terrorist ties and anti-American views is beyond me. Why the Jewish leaders are so timid when it comes to the subject of radical Islam is incomprehensible. I thank God every day for people like Steven Emerson, because they are the last glimmer of hope for moderate Muslims. K.M.
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