REQUIRED READING: Rafi G finds that the Israeli government has been proposing ideas that he suggested first--including its latest idea.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza.

BILL TO BRING PALESTINIAN MURDERERS OF 3 AMERICANS TO JUSTICE. From the Bill, HR 2293:

On October 15, 2003, a convoy of clearly identified United States diplomatic vehicles was attacked by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza resulting in the deaths of John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde, and the injury of a fourth American.

Check out Israel Matzav for details of the murder and what has not been done.
The progress of HR 2293 can be tracked on GovTrack.us here.
The page tracks the 5 stages of a Bill:

• Introduced
• Scheduled for Debate
• Voted on in House
• Voted on in Senate
• Signed by President

So far, only the first stage has taken place--on May 14th.

HR 2293 addresses the murder of Americans that has been forgotten--and that senior officials within the PA said they knew who the murderers were and that despite the assurances of Abbas, those murderers of Americans are still at large. The Bill also suggests measures to take to apply pressure on the PA

This Bill bears watching.

Here is the entire text of the Bill:

HR 2293 IH

CONGRESS1st Session H. R. 2293

To require the Secretary of State to submit to Congress a report on efforts to bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 14, 2007

Mr. ACKERMAN (for himself, Mr. PENCE, and Mr. LANTOS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

---

A BILL

To require the Secretary of State to submit to Congress a report on efforts to bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REPORT RELATING TO THE MURDERS OF JOHN BRANCHIZIO, MARK PARSON, AND JOHN MARIN LINDE.

(a) Findings- Congress makes the following findings:

(1) On October 15, 2003, a convoy of clearly identified United States diplomatic vehicles was attacked by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza resulting in the deaths of John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde, and the injury of a fourth American.

(2) John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde were contract employees providing security to United States diplomatic personnel who were visiting Gaza in order to identify potential Palestinian candidates for scholarships under the Fulbright Program.

(3) Senior officials of the Palestinian Authority have stated that they were aware of the identities of the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde.

(4) Following her visit to Israel and the West Bank on February 7, 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that she had been `assured by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority's intention to bring justice to those who murdered three American personnel in the Gaza in 2003'.

(5) Since the bombing on October 15, 2003, United States Government personnel have been prohibited from all travel in Gaza.

(6) The United States Rewards for Justice program is offering a reward of up to $5,000,000 for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any persons involved in the murders of John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde.

(7) The Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde have still not been brought to justice.

(b) Sense of Congress- It is the sense of Congress that--

(1) the continued inability or unwillingness of the Palestinian Authority to actively and aggressively pursue the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde and bring them to justice calls into question the Palestinian Authority's suitability as a partner for the United States in diplomatic efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict;

(2) future United States assistance to the Palestinian Authority may be suspended or conditioned, and the continued operation of the PLO Representative Office in Washington may be jeopardized, if the Palestinian Authority does not fully and effectively cooperate in bringing to justice the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde; and

(3) it is in the vital national security interest of the United States to safeguard, to the greatest extent possible consistent with their mission, United States diplomats and all embassy and consulate personnel, and to use the full power of the United States to bring to justice any individual or entity that threatens, jeopardizes, or harms them.

(c) Report- Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 120 days thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit a report, on a classified basis if necessary, to the appropriate congressional committees describing--

(1) efforts by the United States to bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde;

(2) a detailed assessment of efforts by the Palestinian Authority to bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde, including--

(A) the number of arrests, interrogations, and interviews by Palestinian Authority officials related to the case;

(B) the number of Palestinian security personnel and man-hours assigned to the case;

(C) the extent of personal supervision or involvement by the President and Ministers of the Palestinian Authority; and

(D) the degree of cooperation between the United States and the Palestinian Authority in regards to this case;

(3) a specific assessment by the Secretary of whether the Palestinian efforts described in paragraph (2) constitute the best possible effort by the Palestinian Authority; and

(4) any additional steps or initiatives requested or recommended by the United States that were not pursued by the Palestinian Authority.

(d) Certification- The requirement to submit a report under subsection (c) shall no longer apply if the Secretary of State certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde have been identified, arrested, and brought to justice.

(e) Definition- In this section, the term `appropriate congressional committees' means--

(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; and

(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.

Technorati Tag: John Branchizio Linde and Mark Parson and John Marin and Palestinians.

USS LIBERTY INCIDENT IN THE NEWS AGAIN--AND THE FACTS. Tim Fischer, former Australian politician, has dredged up the disproven claim that the attack was deliberate--see HonestReporting on Fischer's article.

Dr. Mitchell Bard sums up the evidence that debunks this myth.

MYTH #265 [revised #106]

"During the 1967 War, Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty.."

FACT

The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a grievous error, largely attributable to the fact that it occurred in the midst of the confusion of a full-scale war in 1967. Ten official United States investigations and three official Israeli inquiries have all conclusively established the attack was a tragic mistake.

On June 8, 1967, the fourth day of the Six-Day War, the Israeli high command received reports that Israeli troops in El Arish were being fired upon from the sea, presumably by an Egyptian vessel, as they had a day before. The United States had earlier announced at the UN that it had no naval forces within hundreds of miles of the battle front on the floor of the United Nations a few days earlier; however, the USS Liberty, an American intelligence ship assigned to monitor the fighting, sailed into the arrived in the area. Following a series of United States communication failures, whereby messages directing the ship not to approach within 100 miles were not received by the Liberty,the ship moved within 14 miles of the Sinai coast , as a result of a series of United States communication failures, whereby messages directing the ship not to approach within 100 miles were not received by the Liberty. The Israelis mistakenly thought this was the ship doing the shelling their soldiers and directed war planes and torpedo boats to attack the ship. Thirty-four members of the Liberty’s crew were killed and 171 were wounded.

Tapes of the radio transmissions made prior, during and after the attack do not contain any statement suggesting the pilots saw a U.S. flag before the attack on the ship. During the raid, a pilot specifically says, “there is no flag on her!” The recordings also indicate that once the pilots became concerned about the identity of the ship, by virtue of reading its hull number, they terminated the attack and they were given an order to leave the area. 27 Critics claimed the Israeli tape was doctored, but the National Security Agency of the United States released formerly top secret transcripts in July 2003 that confirmed the Israeli version.

Numerous mistakes were made by both the United States and Israel. For example, the Liberty was first reported — incorrectly, as it turned out — to be cruising at 30 knots (it was later recalculated to be 28 knots). Under Israeli (and U.S.) naval doctrine at the time, a ship proceeding at that speed was presumed to be a warship. The sea was calm and the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry found that the Liberty’s flag was very likely drooped and not discernible; moreover, members of the crew, including the Captain, Commander William McGonagle, testified that the flag was knocked down after the first or second assault.

According to Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin’smemoirs, there were standing orders to attack any unidentified vessel near the shore. 28 The day fighting began, Israel had asked that American ships be removed from its coast or that it be notified of the precise location of U.S. vessels. 29 The Sixth Fleet was moved because President Johnson feared being drawn into a confrontation with the Soviet Union. He also ordered that no aircraft be sent near Sinai.

A CIA report on the incident issued June 13, 1967, also found that an overzealous pilot could mistake the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, the El Quseir. After the air raid, Israeli torpedo boats identified the Liberty as an Egyptian naval vessel. When the Liberty began shooting at the Israelis, they responded with the torpedo attack, which killed 28 of the sailors.

Initially, the Israelis were terrified that they had attacked a Soviet ship and might have provoked the Soviets to join the fighting. 30 Once the Israelis were sure what had happened, they reported the incident to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and offered to provide a helicopter for the Americans to fly out to the ship and to any help they required to evacuate the injured and salvage the ship. The offer was accepted and a U.S. naval attaché was flown to the Liberty.

The Israelis were “obviously shocked” by the error they made in attacking the ship, according to the U.S. Ambassador in Tel Aviv. In fact, according to a secret report on the 1967 war, the immediate concern was that the Arabs might see the proximity of the Liberty to the conflict as evidence of U.S.-Israel collusion. 31

A U.S. spy plane was sent to the area as soon as the NSA learned of the attack on the Liberty and recorded the conversations of two Israeli Air Force helicopter pilots, which took place between 2:30 and 3:37 p.m. on June 8. The orders radioed to the pilots by their supervisor at the Hatzor base instructing them to search for Egyptian survivors from the “Egyptian warship” that had just been bombed were also recorded by the NSA. “Pay attention. The ship is now identified as Egyptian,” the pilots were informed. Nine minutes later, Hatzor told the pilots the ship was believed to be an Egyptian cargo ship. At 3:07, the pilots were first told the ship might not be Egyptian and were instructed to search for survivors and inform the base immediately the nationality of the first person they rescued. It was not until 3:12 that one of the pilots reported that he saw an American flag flying over the ship at which point he was instructed to verify if it was indeed a U.S. vessel. 32

In October 2003, the first Israeli pilot to reach the ship broke his 36-year silence on the attack. Brig.-Gen. Yiftah Spector said he had been told an Egyptian ship was off the Gaza coast. “This ship positively did not have any symbol or flag that I could see. What I was concerned with was that it was not one of ours. I looked for the symbol of our navy, which was a large white cross on its deck. This was not there, so it wasn’t one of ours.” The Jerusalem Post obtained a recording of Spector’s radio transmission in which he said, “I can’t identify it, but in any case it’s a military ship.” 33

Many of the survivors of the Liberty remain bitter, and are convinced the attack was deliberate. None of Israel’s accusers, however, can explain why Israel would deliberately attack an American ship at a time when the United States was Israel’s only friend and supporter in the world. Confusion in a long line of communications, which occurred in a tense atmosphere on both the American and Israeli sides is a more probable explanation.

Accidents caused by “friendly fire” are common in wartime. In 1988, the U.S. Navy mistakenly downed an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 civilians. During the Gulf War, 35 of the 148 Americans who died in battle were killed by “friendly fire.” In April 1994, two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters with large U.S. flags painted on each side were shot down by U.S. Air Force F-15s on a clear day in the “no fly” zone of Iraq, killing 26 people. In April 2002, an American F-16 dropped a bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. In fact, the day before the Liberty was attacked, Israeli pilots accidentally bombed one of their own armored columns. 34

Retired Admiral, Shlomo Erell, who was Chief of the Navy in Israel in June 1967, told the Associated Press (June 5, 1977): “No one would ever have dreamt that an American ship would be there. Even the United States didn’t know where its ship was. We were advised by the proper authorities that there was no American ship within 100 miles.”

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told Congress on July 26, 1967: “It was the conclusion of the investigatory body, headed by an admiral of the Navy in whom we have great confidence, that the attack was not intentional.” Twenty years later, he repeated his belief that the attack was a mistake, telling a caller on the “Larry King Show” that he had seen nothing in the 20 years since to change his mind that there had been no “cover­up.” 35

In January 2004, the State Department held a conference on the Liberty incident and also released new documents, including CIA memos dated June 13 and June 21, 1967, that1967, which say that Israel did not know it was striking an American vessel. The historian for the National Security Agency, David Hatch, said the available evidence “strongly suggested” Israel did not know it was attacking a U.S. ship. Two former U.S. officials, Ernest Castle, the United States Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in June 1967, who received the first report of the attack from Israel, and John Hadden, then CIA Chief of Station in Tel Aviv, also agreed with the assessment that the attack on the Liberty was a mistake. 36

Israel apologized for the tragedy and paid nearly $13 million in humanitarian reparations to the United States and to the families of the victims in amounts established by the U.S. State Department. The matter was officially closed between the two governments by an exchange of diplomatic notes on December 17, 1987.

Notes

27 Hirsh Goodman, “Messrs. Errors and No Facts,” Jerusalem Report, (November 21, 1991); Arieh O’ Sullivan, “Exclusive: Liberty attack tapes revealed,” Jerusalem Post, (June 3, 2004) .
28 For the most comprehensive analysis, see A. Jay Cristol, The Liberty IncidenThe Rabin Memoirs, (CA: University of California Press, 1996), pp. 108-109
29 Rabin, p. 110.
30 Dan Kurzman, Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin, (NY: HarperCollins, 1998), pp. 224-227; Rabin, p. 108-109.
31 Washington Post, (November 6, 1991)
32 Nathan Guttman, “Memos show Liberty attack was an error,” Ha’aretz, (July 9, 2003).
33 Jerusalem Post (October 10, 2003).
34 Hirsh Goodman and Zeev Schiff, “The Attack on the Liberty,” Atlantic Monthly, (September 1984).
35 The Larry King Show” (radio), (February 5, 1987).
36 Jerusalem Post, (January 13, 2004); Washington Times, (January 13, 2004).

This article can be found at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths2/1967war.html#f9

Source: Myths & Facts Online -- A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Mitchell G. Bard.

UPDATE: Fred Fry International links to this post and gives links to web sites that claim the Israel attack is deliberate (scroll down). Another article about the incident is The 'USS Liberty': Case Closed by historian Michael Oren, written in 2000. He writes:

Refuting this accusation was difficult if not impossible in the past, when the official records on the Liberty were designated top-secret and closed to the general public. With the recent declassification of these documents in the United States and Israel, however, researchers have gained access to a wealth of primary sources--Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and U.S. military records, Israeli diplomatic correspondence, and memoranda from both the State Department and the White House. With the aid of these materials, the attack on the Liberty can now be reconstructed virtually minute-by-minute and with remarkable detail. The picture that emerges is not one of crime at all, nor even of criminal negligence, but of a string of failed communications, human errors, unfortunate coincidences and equipment failures on both the American and Israeli sides--the kind of tragic, senseless mistake that is all too common in the thick of war.

Technorati Tag: Israel and USS Liberty and Tim Fischer.

SIGN UP FOR OTZAR HAARETZ: Jameel writes about the upcoming Shmitta Year and the 3 standard options--and the problems associated with them.

He also writes about a new 4th option:

Otzar Haaretz (Treasure of the Land):

The Torah and Land Institute, which used to operate in Gush Katif up until the disengagement, has set up a system called Otzar Haaretz (treasure of the land), which offers kosher marketing of fruits and vegetables during a shnat shmita [and does not rely on Heter Mechira]

and about the problem:

For this to be successful, enough people need to sign up in advance, guaranteeing enough Otzar Haaretz produce for those that want to observe Shmitta in this matter. If this as important to you, and you would like to be able to buy Otzar Haaretz produce during the Shmitta year, please call them at 08-684-7325 or 1-700-709-177, or by e-mail otzarhaaretz at gmail.com

Read Jameel's post for all the details.
[Hat tip: West Bank Mama]

Technorati Tag: Israel and Shmitta.

10 PART SERIES ON THE WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY: Investor's Business Daily is in the middle of a 10-part series on Jimmy Carter, entitled Profile in Incompetence.

Part One: Look Who's Talking

Leadership: So Jimmy Carter calls the Bush administration "the worst in history." This from the man who wrecked the world's greatest economy and made a nuclear Iran and North Korea possible.


Part Two: 'Malaise' Maestro

Leadership: When it comes to economic performance, there's no contest: Apart from the early years of the Depression, Jimmy Carter's brief tenure as president was the worst in the 20th century.


Part Three: Carter Planted Seeds Of Al-Qaida

Leadership: After being told over and over by President Jimmy Carter that America's ability to influence world events was "very limited," the Soviet Union believed him and invaded Afghanistan. And al-Qaida was born.


Part Four: Iran: Carter's Habitat For Inhumanity

Leadership: In the name of human rights, Jimmy Carter gave rise to one of the worst rights violators in history — the Ayatollah Khomeini. And now Khomeini's successor is preparing for nuclear war with Israel and the West.


Part Five: Carter's Red Carpet

Leadership: On President Jimmy Carter's watch, more territory was lost to tyranny than at any other time since Yalta. And he'd have us return to those thrilling days of yesteryear.


Part Six: A Feeble President

Leadership: When men of strength are presented with difficult problems, their responses are firm and decisive. Jimmy Carter spent four years as president of the United States responding with weakness.

And 4 more to come.

Technorati Tag: Jimmy Carter.

EICHMANN'S PASSPORT FOUND IN ARGENTINA:

The Red Cross-issued passport used by high-ranking Nazi Aldolf Eichmann as he escaped to Argentina after World War II has been turned over to the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires after a judge stumbled up it in a musty court file.

To be fair, keep in mind that it's not as if the passport read: Adolf Eichmann, Genocidal Killer...

The passport, on a single page of cardboard fold in three parts, bears the photograph of Eichmann and the neatly hand-lettered alias Ricardo Klement. It also bears the French words Comite International De la Croix-Rouge and a stamp of its Genova, Italy, delegation.

Technorati Tag: Adolf Eichmann.

WHEN PALESTINIANS ARE CALLED TERRORISTS: And then they turn around and defend Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians without skipping a beat.

Last week, the Lebanese army attacked a squalid Palestinian refugee camp that's become infested with Islamist suicide terrorists and guerilla fighters. On May 20, government troops surrounded the camp, with tanks and artillery pieces shelling it at close range. Army snipers gunned down anything that moved. At least 18 civilians were killed, and dozens more injured. Water and electricity were cut off. By week's end, much of the camp had been turned into deserted rubble. Thousands of terrified residents fleeing the camp reported harrowing stories of famished, parched families trapped in their basements.

How did the rest of the world react? The Arab League quickly condemned "the criminal and terrorist acts carried out by the terrorist group known as Fatah al-Islam," and vowed to "give its full support to the efforts of the army and the Lebanese government." EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also condemned Fatah al-Islam, and declared Europe's "support" for Lebanon. And the UN Security Council called the actions of Fatah al-Islam "an unacceptable attack" on Lebanon's sovereignty. As for the Western media, most outlets ignored the story following the first flurry of news reports.

At this point, please indulge me by re-reading the first paragraph of this column -- except this time, substitute the world "Israeli" for "Lebanese" in the first sentence.

But of course--in the end the condemnations will go no further than that. The world supports a different side, but it's all talk.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Lebanon and Palestinians and Fatah.

CARTER DOES FOR CBS WHAT HE DID FOR THE US: Apparently Carter has not lost his touch.

Carter Publisher May Be Accused Of Damaging CBS's Reputation

President Carter has recently been a hot topic at the White House, but today his name is expected to be mentioned before news executives and owners at the CBS stockholders annual meeting at the Equitable Center in Midtown Manhattan.

A CBS subsidiary, Simon & Schuster, will be accused of damaging the reputation of its parent company by publishing Mr. Carter's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." Carol Greenwald, the treasurer of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, a CBS shareholder, plans to criticize the publisher at the meeting.

According to a statement shown to The New York Sun, Ms. Greenwald, who calls Mr. Carter's book "error-filled," plans to ask that a fact-checking system be set up to prevent material errors in books Simon & Schuster publishes and that a code of ethics be adopted for its publishing division.

Technorati Tag: Jimmy Carter.

THE CLOTHES MAKE THE IMAM: Take a look at this post at The Spectator Blog that compares the Before and After pictures of an Islamist as he is dressed before being deported from Great Britain and after he arrives in Jamaica:

On the right is a picture of Sheik el-Faisal, the Islamofascist who was finally sent back to his native Jamaica last weekend after serving time in Britain. Here, he dressed in a Muslim skullcap and robe – but as soon as he stepped off the plane in his native Jamaica, he was down to tracksuit bottoms and a shirt. Why? Because his real name is Trevor Forrest, and people like him seldom get away with their mad mullah act in their native countries. [emphasis added]

He explanation on the difference between England and Jamaica is right on target.

Technorati Tag: Trevor Forrest and Sheik el-Faisal and Islamists.

THE LONG HISTORY OF ISLAMIC ANTI-SEMITISM: Andrew G. Bostom, the author of The Legacy of Jihad, is coming out with a new book in November: The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism. More information on the book is available at Bostom's web site.

According to the book jacket:

This comprehensive, meticulously documented collection of scholarly articles presents indisputable evidence that a readily discernible, uniquely Islamic antisemitism—a specific Muslim hatred of Jews—has been expressed continuously since the advent of Islam. Debunking the conventional wisdom, which continues to assert that Muslim animosity toward Jews is entirely a 20^th-century phenomenon fueled mainly by the protracted Arab-Israeli conflict, leading scholars provide example after example of antisemitic motifs in Muslim documents reaching back to the beginnings of Islam. The contributors show that the Koran itself is a significant source of hostility toward Jews, as well as other foundational Muslim texts including the hadith (the words and deeds of Muhammad as recorded by pious Muslim transmitters) and the sira (the earliest Muslim biographies of Muhammad). Many other examples are adduced in the writings of influential Muslim jurists, theologians, and scholars, from the Middle Ages through the contemporary era. These primary sources, and seminal secondary analyses translated here for the first time into English—such as Hartwig Hirschfeld’s mid-1880s essays on Muhammad’s subjugation of the Jews of Medina and George Vajda’s elegant, comprehensive 1937 study of the hadith—detail the sacralized rationale for Islam’s anti-Jewish bigotry. Numerous complementary historical accounts illustrate the resulting plight of Jewish communities in the Muslim world across space and time, culminating in the genocidal threat posed to the Jews of Israel today. Scholars, educators, and interested lay readers will find this collection an invaluable resource for understanding the phenomenon of Muslim antisemitism, past and present. [emphasis added]

The foreword to the book, by Ibn Warraq details the persecution that Maimonides suffered in Muslim lands. He then details Antisemitism as reveal in the Quran, Islamic commentaries on the Quran--and as practiced in Islamic countries:

Here are examples of the persecution of Jews in Islamic lands: the massacre of more than 6000 Jews in Fez (Morocco) in 1033; of the hundreds of Jews killed between 1010 and 1013 near Cordoba, and other parts of Muslim Spain; of the massacre of the entire Jewish community of roughly 4000 in Granada during the Muslim riots of 1066. Referring to the latter massacre, Robert Wistrich writes: “This was a disaster, as serious as that which overtook the Rhineland Jews thirty years later during the First Crusade, yet it has rarely received much scholarly attention.”

Following on the heels of busted myths about the Palestinian population in Israel and Muslim population of the US--it becomes clear that Islamic Antisemitism is a homemade phenomenon and not something that can be blamed on Christians or the West.

Technorati Tag: Antisemitism and Islam and Andrew Bostom and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism.