An invitation to American Jews, bring your land deeds to any US Federal Courts

For the last 40 years ever since the military take over by Israel of Jerusalem and the West Bank, and with substantial financial and political support from the Northern American Jewish community Israel has been on a robbery spree unprecedented in history, taking over Palestinian land and property left and right under all pretexes making sure there will be no Palestinian state in any final settlement, if any. And of course doing all of this in the name of G-d.
I am not so sure if there is a God, or G-d that gives any one the rights including Jews to take over another person property and land and making them refugees. In addition to the hundreds of thousands exiles and expelled back in 47/48, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been stripped of their properties in order for Jews to take over the land, build on and ending on the auction block in Teaneck Synagogue in New Jersey of all places.
The Israel Settlement movement has nothing to do with God or religion and it has every thing to do with political and Jewish Zionism, which advocates and carries on the expropriation of Palestinian lands all in the name of G-d, through fraud, and of course the power of gun and generous funding from the US. One has to wonder what kind of G-d is that that will allow, permit and advocate open robbery and theft. For sure it must not be a Jewish G-d.
It is interesting to note that the majority of the 250,000 Jewish settlers living on stolen Palestinian lands hail from the US mostly from New York and New Jersey. There must be something about these two states that makes their Jewish citizens hate them so much that they take the steps and become thieves and robbers of course all in the name of G-d.
No where in history has any occupational force taken over the “native” lands like the Israeli Army, a criminal enterprise that is the key sponsor and supporter of an expanded policy of settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem and of course we must not forget Hebron, where some 500 criminal Jews have taken over the city putting some 100,000 in constant curfew and of course making life hell for all Palestinians resident of the city of Hebron. I may add most if not all Hebron settlers are American Jews. It was an American Jew who broke into the Abrham Mosque and shot to death dozens of Muslim worshipers. To celebrate his crime, a shrine was built in his honor.
Rabbi Steve Pruzansky, the chief Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Yeshurun so sure of what he is doing and so confident of the right to trade in stolen property that he is holding the event in the inner sanctuary of the synagogue to make his point that he is doing G-d bidding of trading and selling stolen property for an on behalf of Amana Settlement Movement.
The Rabbi and Congregation B’nai Yeshurun is so engaged in the stolen Palestinian property that it is asking American Jews to buy the stolen property for some $125,000 an apartment and turning around and renting them to these criminal settlers. Of course non-Jews do not qualify to purchase G-d stolen property. Only those who believe that G-d gave the Jews the right to the land can apply.
Well, if that is the case and the good Rabbi is so sure of his legal case, then I as an American citizen with property in the West Bank town of El-Bireh invite the Rabbi and his congregation, in fact I invite all the Jews of the world to present a valid deed signed and sealed by G-d witnessed by Moses, even Mohamed or Jesus and meet me in US Federal Courts and if such a deed pass mustard in any US Federal Courts, then I will give up any rights to such property and will hand over all of the properties I have. I must note here that we as US citizens have a number of properties stolen by Israeli settlers, perhaps some of them Jews from NY and NJ. Too bad our government does not see any thing wrong with that.
Perhaps it is time for us Palestinian American, in fact all Diaspora Palestinians to take on all those thieves and take them to courts all over the world and make them pay for what they have done. Recover the property stolen,and corresponding compensation just like the Jews, and rightly so, did in Europe when they went after governments and individuals who stole Jewish property during the Holocaust. I always believed in the rights of Jews, including “Arab” Jews, those who left to Israel from the Arab countries to recover their properties and get compensation. It is only right, and the same is true for the Palestinians, they have the absolute right to recover their stolen property in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Yaffa, Acre, Safad, and West Jerusalem and of course in all of the West Bank.
I have been advocating this course of action for over 30 years, however Arafat and his PLO were not interested in such actions but were interested in Oslo which accelerated the process of property theft. If Jews can recover their property any where in the world, I do not see any reason why the Palestinians could not do the same. I am sure G-d agrees with me. I could never think that the Jewish G-d could ever sanction such theft.

Arab possible nuclear weapons are a waste of time, and money. The cost could be put where it counts. Invest it in the people.

These days there is so much talk about Iran and its nuclear program, with Secretary Rice traveling the globe to drum up support for UN sanctions against Iran. Of course so far, the Iranians insists the technology and use is for peaceful means, i.e., nuclear energy, while the US and its allies not knowing what it is going on insist the technology has military use. Caught in the Middle is the Gulf Arab countries worried both about Iran’s expanding military capabilities and worried about the safety of Iran’s nuclear program.
Meanwhile in Tel-Aviv, Washington, Berlin, Paris and London, no one talks of Israel’s 150 plus nuclear weapons and no one of course date to talk about Israel’s intentions giving the fact it did not sign the international treaty for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, Iran did and one has to say in defense of Iran it did and does allows intentional inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities. Of course we have to remember it was the US during the late Shah that gave Iran its first nuclear facilities, so why the fuss now?
The problem with Iran is it system of government which allows clergy men, the likes of Khameini to be the supreme ruler and the ultimate decision makers, thus depriving the democratic and electoral process out of true essence which is the people’s representation. I never understood nor could I accept the idea that Muslim clerics rule and have a say so in the people affairs, let alone accept Iran’s model of “Wilyat Al-Faqih” which translate to the supremacy of the clergy class. Of course the late Khomaini wanting to make sure that his class is never marginalized like in the days of the Shah, introduced the idea of Wilyat Al-Faqih to make sure that control of Iran is always with the clergy and never by the people’s representative. I am very leery and worried about the course of civilization when crazy Muslim, Jewish, Christian or Hindu clergy takes charge; the world is in real trouble.
Iran’s nuclear program is scaring the Arab gulf countries and for good reasons. In addition to having a neighbor with possible nuclear weapons next door, without any kind of system of checks and balances within the governing system and with the decision making process shifting from one center of power to another. In addition we always reminded of the failures in Chernynoble and in Three Miles Island and we know what a failure can mean to so many people within and outside the borders. Nuclear technology is nothing to miss around with and failures will mean death for a long time to come. One only need to look at Kazakhstan, where the Soviet conducted most of their nuclear experiment, half of the country, literary dead, and will be dead for millions of years.
Personally I am against the Arabs wasting their time and money on nuclear weapons, since I do not believe that nuclear weapons will solve any problem or provide any protection, and all the nuclear weapons in Israel, China, Russia, USA, France, UK, N.Korea, Pakistan and India are nothing but a waste of time, and any country that will use nuclear weapons will be doomed, even if it dooms others. Israel, a real source of danger for the world, is the only country with so much physiological damage and screwed up minds that may use nuclear weapons. But then will it use it against the Palestinians in Ramallah or in Gaza, giving the fact that Israeli technology so far is not far development to make a distinction between Arabs and Jews. But then who knows may be the Israelis with the help of the Americans will develop a weapon system that can kill only Arabs even if these Arabs are standing among bunch of Jews. Who knows every thing is possible.
The best thing for the Arabs, and especially the Gulf Arabs to do is try to form some kind of cooperation with Iran and jointly developed and invest in nuclear technology for peaceful means, making sure that Iran’s nuclear program is not for military use and by joining Iran in the development of its program insuring the safety and upping the technology given the fact that the Arab gulf countries have the financial and political connections to secure the best nuclear technology any where in the world.
The problem with Iran’s nuclear program is the fact that it did not sign a peace treaty with Israel and if and when it does, all of the problems the US, France, Germany, and England have with Iran will go away in an instant. It is not the issue of safety of the Arabs and the oil sources that is troubling America, it is the potential danger to Israel that such a technology may have. If the Islamic Republic of Iran establishes diplomatic relations with Israel the entire affairs will simply disappear from the radar screen and no one in the White House or in Berlin will talk about the crazy and unstable Mullahs of Iran.
Again, back to the Arab countries, I think the Arab atom bomb is a stupid idea and an irresponsible idea and is a waste of time, money, and efforts, when the Arab countries can put the cost of such investment in human development where it counts and not in weapons, they will never be allowed to have let alone use. The Arab world does not need more weapons, they need to put the costs of such weapons and invest it in infrastructures and in their own people. There are no needs to keep the West weapon factories going, while their own people are having a tough time finding a decent job. Let us see what Israel will do with all of its 150 nuclear bombs. Perhaps it will use them as it did the more than one million cluster bombs dropped on civilian targets in Lebanon.

The US is too dishonest to be peace broker between Israel and the Palestinians. Time for a civil uprising that ends the Occupation

Just finished watching the noon news on Ajazeera International (that first-rate international station boycotted by all major cable networks that refuse to carry any station that tells the other side of the story. So much for First Amendment Rights in the US). In any case the leading story was the just completed meeting between Secretary Rice of the US, Olmert the Israeli Prime Minister and Abbas of the Palestinian Authority under Israeli Occupation. The interesting story out of this meeting is the fact that Rice instead of moving thing forward toward final status negotiation is going back to several years ago and asking for the first phase of the Road Map, that proved nothing more than a license for Israel to build its Apartheid Wall and steal more lands for settlement and continue its ethnic and religious cleansing of Arab Muslims and Christians from the City of Jerusalem.
Again, the US is defining the conflict not in terms of occupation and an end to the Israeli Occupation but in terms of security for Israel while it expands settlements and of course continues building the Wall while strangling the Palestinians along every step of the way.
Not surprising is the fact that Mahmoud Abbas and his team of negotiators did not walk away from the meeting with Rice and Olmert to show their protest and anger about the entire dealing of the US administration with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. One would think that the PA represented by Mahmoud Abbas after hearing and reading of the agreement between Bush and Olmert would use the occasion of the meeting with Rice as a platform to insist on the Arab Peace Plan and to put an end to the farce that is the Road Map, or use the occasion to turn the keys of managing the Occupation to Israel.
Of course any one familiar with the US and its policies in the Middle East can see, with the exception of the few on the Palestinian negotiating team, that the US could never be the honest broker and could never be the party that can bring peace between the two parties. The US is simply part of the Israeli Occupation, in fact a very important partner and sponsor of the Israeli Occupation, funding the army of occupation, funding the expansion of settlements, funding and sponsoring the Apartheid Wall and insulating Israel from any need to heed the international community and always protecting Israel from any actions sponsored by the UN.
Never understood why the Arabs and in particular the Palestinians could believe the US as honest broker when the US in violation of its own laws on arms export, allows Israel to use US supplied weapons to kill civilians and destroy infrastructures. How could the US be an impartial broker in this conflict when the decisions are made in Tel-Aviv and not in Washington, and where the US Congress under control and management by the Israeli Lobby could stop and put an end to any peace efforts made by the administration. How could the US be the honest broker when the decision makers in the White House and the State Department are die hard Likudist Zionist or die hard evangelical Christians who believe in the conversion of Jews or putting them to death. How could the US be the honest broker when it stood by and allowed and funded all of Israeli illegal activities in the Occupied Territories? The US is too pregnant and too poisoned with Zionism to ever be an impartial and honest broker in the conflict. If the US does not allow Aljazeera International, accompany owned by one of its closest allies in the Middle East to air in the US, how can such a country be the honest broker. When it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict the US is simply too dishonest and simply under the undue influence of the Israeli Lobby to ever bring peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
What is needed is for the Palestinians to think of a third apprising, this time, consistent, persistent and well disciplined civil uprising the will force the Israeli public and the Jewish community at large to think seriously of ending the Occupation. What the Palestinians need to do is put an end to the joke that is the Palestinian Authority, turn over the keys to Israel and allow the people to take matters in their hands. It is time for ALL Palestinians to burn their Israeli identity cards in mass in public view, end any recognition of the check points, wear the yellow arm bands with the star of David on it, tattoo every Palestinian with a number, to remind the Jews of the way they were treated by the Nazi. This time around there is no room or presence for any guns, rockets, suicide bombing, 70 virgins, and armed militias of the PA. There is only one thing to do, keep the civil uprising going until the Israelis and the US give up on the Occupation. Time for a new ideas and new leadership and time to put an end to the joke that is the peace process. Time to end the Occupation.

Jesus Camp. Army and worriers of God. Scary and crazy stuff

My daughter Diala who is a senior in college, just send me a message to watch a certain video aired on ABC News. I did and I had to watch it couple times to make sure that I see what I see and hear what I hear. And man, it is crazy and scary and I thought only some Muslims where nuts. Just take a look at this and see for yourself.
I thought that Muslims who send their kids to the Madrasa in Pakistan and Afghanistan where crazy and out of their mind sending such young innocent minds to be poisoned and missed up by the likes of the Talibans, however we need to take a closer look at home and see how the evangelical ministries in the US has taken over the country and is doing permanent damage to some very young people who are yet to sin to be saved by their sinful parents and pastors.
Somewhere in North Dakota, there is training camp for young evangelical Christians called Jesus Camp at Lakewood Camp and it is run by what seems to be Christian Talibans, since the message and calls for action is the same. Pastor Becky Fischer is taking charge of these young minds and training them to be members of Jesus Army, or God Army where very young Christian children hardly reached the age of puppetry are told they are sinners and they must wash their sins with tap waters provided by Pastor Fischer and of course with a very powerful and angry message. Young recruits for the US military no doubt.
More dangerous and freighting is what one see and hear in the video, where calls for Harry Potter to be hanged, killed and executed by these young Jesus worriers, where we hear and see some very young kids not more than 10 or 12 years old stating that when they see a non-Christian they feel there is something wrong, and where they feel “yucky” because the person in front of them is a non-Christian.
In the old days of the Christian Crusades, the Pope was giving young and old worriers certificate of entry to the kingdom of heaven and where these Christian Crusaders set out to kill and murder hundreds of thousands of innocent people, Jews, Arab Christians and Muslims were slaughtered like sheep and where blood of innocent people ran ankle deep in Jerusalem. And now we see Pastor Becky Fischer teaches what amount to a simple message of hate of all non-Christians with calls to actions for these young people to be members of Jesus Army and God knows what she and these young kids plan to do. The message one get from the video is not a simple message of love, love of Jesus and the things he loved most, people, sinners and believers alike. There is a clear and present danger to the US and to the world from these Jesus Camps, just like there is a danger from the Talibans camps.
While US officials makes it a daily practice to insist on changes in curriculum taught in the Medrasas, they over look what is going on in their own backyard. Perhaps it is time for Muslim, Jewish, Hindus and Shinto officials to demand from the US that it also clean its acts and stop allowing Evangelical pastors like Becky Fischer scaring the hell out of these children and instill hate and fear in them and the want to kill and murder non-Christians. I simply feel sorry for the young and innocent Muslim, Christian and Jewish children when parents allow missed up and screwed up adults to take over their minds and hearts and instill hate of others and scare the hell out of them and makes them believe they are sinners who must cleans their souls by washing their sins in tap water, without soap, and of course. They give them a simple message of hate and want and needs to go out and commit murder in the name of Allah, or Jesus or G-d. We live in a very scary time, when we allow misfits and crazy people like Pastor Fischer, the Talibans or Rabbis in Hebron to take over the very young and innocent and do permanent damage. Instead of teaching the young to love one another, to seek out the truth in others and to go beyond the limits of language and religion and seek others, explore music, arts and literature, we take young and innocent kids and make them believe they are dirty, with filthy minds and they are sinners who deserve to be saved. For God sake, these are young innocent kids, how could any one imagine the needs for people like Pastor Fischer to save them. In the word of Pastor Fischer, these are extreme times that call for extreme actions. I wonder what those extreme actions would be… to go out and kill. That is the only action that I think is meant. Poor Jesus, Mohamed and Moses, how many murder of innocent people are committed in their names. I am sure they are wondering aloud, is this message we came up with to mankind? I do not think so. Perhaps the Justice Department should look into this more carefully before these young worriers of Jesus go out and commit another Oklahoma City.
I thought that Muslims who send their kids to the Madrasa in Pakistan and Afghanistan where crazy and out of their mind sending such young innocent minds to be poisoned and missed up by the likes of the Talibans, however we need to take a closer look at home and see how the evangelical ministries in the US has taken over the country and is doing permanent damage to some very young people who are yet to sin to be saved by their sinful parents and pastors.
Somewhere in North Dakota, there is training camp for young evangelical Christians called Jesus Camp at Lakewood Camp and it is run by what seems to be Christian Talibans, since the message and calls for action is the same. Pastor Becky Fischer is taking charge of these young minds and training them to be members of Jesus Army, or God Army where very young Christian children hardly reached the age of puppetry are told they are sinners and they must wash their sins with tap waters provided by Pastor Fischer and of course with a very powerful and angry message. Young recruits for the US military no doubt.
More dangerous and freighting is what one see and hear in the video, where calls for Harry Potter to be hanged, killed and executed by these young Jesus worriers, where we hear and see some very young kids not more than 10 or 12 years old stating that when they see a non-Christian they feel there is something wrong, and where they feel “yucky” because the person in front of them is a non-Christian.
In the old days of the Christian Crusades, the Pope was giving young and old worriers certificate of entry to the kingdom of heaven and where these Christian Crusaders set out to kill and murder hundreds of thousands of innocent people, Jews, Arab Christians and Muslims were slaughtered like sheep and where blood of innocent people ran ankle deep in Jerusalem. And now we see Pastor Becky Fischer teaches what amount to a simple message of hate of all non-Christians with calls to actions for these young people to be members of Jesus Army and God knows what she and these young kids plan to do. The message one get from the video is not a simple message of love, love of Jesus and the things he loved most, people, sinners and believers alike. There is a clear and present danger to the US and to the world from these Jesus Camps, just like there is a danger from the Talibans camps.
While US officials makes it a daily practice to insist on changes in curriculum taught in the Medrasas, they over look what is going on in their own backyard. Perhaps it is time for Muslim, Jewish, Hindus and Shinto officials to demand from the US that it also clean its acts and stop allowing Evangelical pastors like Becky Fischer scaring the hell out of these children and instill hate and fear in them and the want to kill and murder non-Christians. I simply feel sorry for the young and innocent Muslim, Christian and Jewish children when parents allow missed up and screwed up adults to take over their minds and hearts and instill hate of others and scare the hell out of them and makes them believe they are sinners who must cleans their souls by washing their sins in tap water, without soap, and of course. They give them a simple message of hate and want and needs to go out and commit murder in the name of Allah, or Jesus or G-d. We live in a very scary time, when we allow misfits and crazy people like Pastor Fischer, the Talibans or Rabbis in Hebron to take over the very young and innocent and do permanent damage. Instead of teaching the young to love one another, to seek out the truth in others and to go beyond the limits of language and religion and seek others, explore music, arts and literature, we take young and innocent kids and make them believe they are dirty, with filthy minds and they are sinners who deserve to be saved. For God sake, these are young innocent kids, how could any one imagine the needs for people like Pastor Fischer to save them. In the word of Pastor Fischer, these are extreme times that call for extreme actions. I wonder what those extreme actions would be… to go out and kill. That is the only action that I think is meant. Poor Jesus, Mohamed and Moses, how many murder of innocent people are committed in their names. I am sure they are wondering aloud, is this message we came up with to mankind? I do not think so. Perhaps the Justice Department should look into this more carefully before these young worriers of Jesus go out and commit another Oklahoma City.


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xp4e5_jesus-camparmy

The Killing Fields of Israel

Israel, touted by the world Jewish community and the Lobby as the "only democracy in the Middle East" never ceases to amaze me how the Israel Jews perfect the art of murders and lies. The history of Israel and its perfect killing machines that kills the young before the old, that kills the innocent before the guilty has created its own Killing Fields in Palestine. One has to wonder what kind of Jewish values does the IDF and those in charge have. Where is the sense of humanity that is total absent from any decision made by the IDF. Dropping millions of cluster bombs on Lebanon and dropping poisoned balloons are all designed to kill and maim the innocent before the guilt. Where are you Moses to see what your people are doing? Below is an article that appeared in Haaretz, the Israeli daily. Again, in Israel and unlike the US there are courageous Jews who speak out the truth and they speak for all of us, thank you.
Sami Jadallah

The Twilight Zone / Victims of the fence
By Gideon Levy
A still-life image: a building covered with Jerusalem stone, a large memorial poster hanging high up on one of the floors, and below, a sign in broken English over the "Paradise Cafe." Second image: a makeshift soccer field, empty, on which a huge puddle formed on Sunday of this week. Across the road a barbed-wire fence encircles the abandoned airfield of Atarot, once touted as "Jerusalem's international airport." Along the fence runs a ditch - into which the boy fell and, according to witnesses, bled for a long time until he died. He was struck by a bullet in the leg and lay there, dying in agony. Was he only playing soccer? Did he just run to get the ball, which had fallen into the ditch along the fence, as his friends say? Or did he sabotage the fence and try to take the metal for his family's livelihood, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the next day? What difference does it make? What does make a difference is the appalling question of what prompted a soldier, or a Border Policeman, to open fire from a long way off at the boy and then to leave him bleeding on the ground until he died. What goes through the mind of the shooter, in the moments before and after he takes the life of an adolescent, who was in no way putting anyone at risk - even if he touched a fence that must not be touched? Three fences surround the abandoned airport, and last Sunday we saw no hole in any of them, three days after the unnecessary, criminal shooting.
In this terrible place the children of Qalandiyah and its surroundings are killed like flies. At least eight have been killed here in the past few years, along the death fence. In this space we wrote about 11-year-old Yasser and his brother, Samar, 15, the two children of Sami Kosba, who were killed at the fence a month apart, in February, 2002; about Omar Matar, 14, killed in April, 2003; and about Ahmed Abu Latifi, 13, in September, 2003. And there was Fares Abed al-Kader, 14, killed in December, 2003. Now there is also Taha Aljawi, February, 2007. It's said that he was a good boy, the kind of boy who goes with his father to pray in the morning and evening. And he was Jerusalem-born, the bearer of a blue ID card, like us. Taha Aljawi, a nice kid from Jerusalem, not yet 17 at his death. The Hamas memorial poster shows dripping blood. In the Fatah poster the photograph is more recent: Taha looks a little older and has the shadow of a mustache. The Al-Aqsa Mosque appears in both posters - a rare instance of Palestinian national unity these days, in the paradisical cafe in Kafr Aqab, a Jerusalem neighborhood whose residents carry blue ID cards and pay municipal taxes, but which has nevertheless been fated to be on the other side of the separation fence, north of the capital, on the way to Ramallah. The men sit in the big space of the cafe, which has been transformed into a mourning room, and eat lamb with rice in yogurt, as is the custom. Two weeks ago we were offered the same fare in nearby Anata, on the occasion of the killing of an 11-year-old girl, Abir Aramin, by the Border Police. Taha's bereaved father, Mahmoud Aljawi, worked for the Jerusalem Municipality part-time for 11 years as a school janitor, until he was forced to take early retirement a few months ago. He is 48 and the father of six children, including the dead Taha, who was the second child. To supplement his income, Mahmoud also made leather garments in the Old City, and had a kiosk that sold sweets at the Qalandiyah checkpoint. He learned basic Hebrew at a beginners' course at the Gerard Behar cultural center on Bezalel Street in Jerusalem. Until three years ago the family lived in the Old City, but because of the overcrowding moved to Kafr Aqab. Their rented apartment is above the Paradise Cafe. Last Thursday, Mahmoud went to the offices of the National Insurance Institute (NII) in Jerusalem, to arrange for his unemployment insurance. Taha had a free morning: In the past few weeks the authorities lengthened the school hours on the first four days of the week and canceled classes on Thursdays. He was a 10th-grader at the school for orphans in the Old City, opposite Al-Aqsa, an educational institution for the children of poor families. He got up at 5 every morning and went with his father and his two brothers, Mohammed, 18, and Suleiman, 8, to the adjacent mosque to pray, and then at about 7:30 left for school via the checkpoints. It was 40 minutes each way, if there were no problems. Taha wanted to learn the printing profession. He was weak in English and also got into problems with the teacher. Not long ago his father had a talk with him and explained that if he wanted to work in the print industry, he would have to be articulate in both English and Hebrew. Taha was thinking about enrolling in Hebrew lessons at a center near the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem. Last Thursday Taha returned from the mosque at 7 A.M., after his last prayer, as it turned out. Mahmoud made breakfast for his son and at 7:30 his friends came by and asked him to play soccer with them on the field on the other side of the Ramallah road. The word "road" is a bit misleading: It's actually an intercity route peppered with potholes and puddles, flanked by garbage on both sides, on which traffic moves slowly. According to the testimonies of Taha's friends, as related to the grieving father, shortly after the game started, the ball flew over another road that abuts the improvised playing field. Taha ran to retrieve the ball and then the kids heard a few shots. They say they ran in panic, but saw Taha slump into the ditch. No one knows for sure what happened after that. The children told Mahmoud that the shots had come from the direction of the skeleton of a tall building, which is under construction next to the soccer field. They say that the soldiers hid high up in the building and that they opened fire at Taha. Usually, they said, there are no soldiers in that building - only on that particular day. The bullet slammed into Taha's left leg, above the knee. At the time, his father was near the government compound in East Jerusalem, on the way to the NII. Mahmoud's brother, Kamal, phoned him to say that Taha had been wounded. The two brothers rushed to Kafr Aqab. They tried to call Taha on his mobile phone - Mahmoud says he got his son a phone so he would always know where he was - but the boy didn't answer. Next to the house, people had already gathered; they related that Taha had been taken to the hospital in Ramallah. Kamal set out for Ramallah, while the distraught Mahmoud said he felt he had to stay with the mother and other children to calm them. At the hospital, Kamal was told that Taha had been dead on arrival. He saw his nephew's body - with one bullet hole above the knee. In most cases, a bullet in the leg will kill you only if it causes a massive loss of blood. Taha apparently lay in the ditch for a long time: The children told Mahmoud that at least an hour went by before the soldiers arrived to collect their victim and take him to the Qalandiyah checkpoint. From there a Palestinian ambulance was summoned - even though Taha was Israeli - to take him to Ramallah. Kamal called his brother and told him to come to the hospital to identity his son's body. Taha was buried that evening in the cemetery on Saladin Street in East Jerusalem, next to the post office. "I always made sure that my children were with me. I watched over them, like over my eyes," Mahmoud says. "On Fridays I would walk with them to pray at Al-Aqsa, go by the grandparents' place, have a bite to eat, always staying close together. Everyone who knows me knows how I watched over them. I hear a lot from people: You have good children - they pray, they are getting a good education, they have no problems, quiet children. Sometimes people would ask: Who is Taha's father? Good for you, having a well-educated boy like that. In the winter he went to play computer games, in the summer he went to the Casablanca Pool in Ramallah, and other than that he was with me. Maybe 18 hours a day with me. We are a family that respects its children and the children respect their father. "How can we know what he was doing there, next to the fence? It's not important. A boy of that age, he didn't endanger the soldiers - a shy boy, not violent, quiet. I didn't see what he was doing next to the fence. I didn't see, but what if he even cut the fence? And why should he cut the fence? He has a blue ID card. I always taught him to keep away from things like that." The response of the IDF Spokesperson's Office: "On February 1 during the morning an IDF force spotted four suspicious youths next to the Qalandiyah refugee camp south of Ramallah, while they were still engaged in sabotaging the security fence and trying to breach it. The force fired at the lower body of one of the youths and hit his leg. Minutes later an IDF medical team arrived, which worked to stabilize the wounded person's condition, but without success." We go out to the killing field. Mahmoud hasn't been there since his son fell by the fence. It's empty, even though people live all around it. We stop at the road, looking at the fence from a distance and at the ditch where Taha bled to death. Within seconds a Border Police Jeep barrels out of the abandoned airport terminal - a long way from us - and we scatter, in panic.

They stopped singing

Sitting at home in Tangier on a nice cool day, I just finished watching an A&E documentary on Pol Pot the Khamer Rouge leader who inspired the very powerful movie the "Killing Field".
During his rule of few years, Pol Pot and his army killed more than 2 million Cambodians and was perhaps one of the most ruthless totalitarians dictators during the last century joining Hitler, Stalin, Moe Tse-Tung, and Saddam as killers and murders of nations.
The interesting thing about Pol Pot is his formative years in France where he joined the Communist Party during its hay days, and where he thought he can restore the glorious past of Cambodia by destroying its present and starting over reclaiming eight centuries of glories. Pol Pot wanted to create a Utopia and engaged in massive and systemic killing fields.
The killing fields of Cambodia, like the killing fields of Iraq were triggered by a Republican president and his secretary of state. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger triggered the killing field with their decision to start bombing claimed Communist Vietnamese military basis on the border with Vietnam.
While Henry Kissinger was the father of the killing fields of Vietnam and Cambodia, it was quite a surprise to see Secretary George Schultz visiting and meeting with Pol Pot after he successfully killed over 2 million people. The same can be said of Ronald Reagan who sent his defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq to give Saddam Hussain the assurance of support few days after the world discovered that Saddam Hussien and his army gassed, killed and murdered tens of thousands of Kurds with arms and chemical weapons supplied by the western alliance of the "more than willing" including Germany, and the UK in addition to the US and France.
It seems wherever there is a dictator or a killer and a murder there is lurking in the background a Republican president and a secretary of state.
Supporting dictatorship and totalitarian rulers is the mark of Republican administrations and this includes supports of ruthless dictatorships like Suharto of Indonedia, Pinochet of Chile, Marcos of the Philippines, Samoza of Nicaragua, Noriega of Panama, the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussain of Iraq, Samuel Doe of Liberia, Moboto of Zaire, Ceausescu of Romania among others.
When Pol Pot was chased out of Nom Penh by the invading Vietnamese communists, he asked one of his closets friends how the people were doing in the country side, his friend told him" they stopped singing" and so it is true with tens of millions of people who stopped signing because the US Republican administrations supported killers and murderers.
While it is true that Republican administrations could never resist falling in love with a dictators, Stalin killed directly or indirectly more than 35 million n forced relocations of people within the former Soviet Union. Hitler killed more than 6 million Jews and god know how many more, Moe Tse-Tung of China with his Cultural Revolution killed more than 20 millions during the upheaval of those days. The sad thing is that for the most part, killer dictators hardly ever come up before any tribunal. The late Milosevic died while waiting for his trial to conclude. He was responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Catholic Croats. African dictators who where always friend of the US and the West never stood trial for the murder of tens of millions of their own people. Samuel Doe, the sergeant who tied up the entire government of Liberia to palm trees on the beach and shot them in cold bloood was soon welcomed to the White House because he decided to restore diplomatic relationship with Israel and was awarded $ 500 millions in aids for his decision to break ranks with other African nations who cut diplomatic relationship with Israel after the 73 war. Killer dictatorship does not speak well of the US foreign policy and does not speak well of so many Republican administrations.

Thank you King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia

At the personal invitation of King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia the Palestinian warring factions of Hamas and Fatah signed a "peace agreement" in the Holy City of Mecca promising to form a "Unity Government" within one week and putting an end to the killing and murder that both organizations engaged in for the last several week.
The Palestinians have to remember that the Iraqis and the Afghans also signed a peace deals in Mecca only to return home and start killing and murdering each other again. I hope and all Palestinians hope that Hamas and Fatah will never ever engaged in any further acts of killing and murder again. While one has to be optimistic, there are certain leaderships within both organizations that have a lot to lose from any peace deal and stand to lose among their community of thugs.
The problem as I see it now with the daily announcement and with the stupid and unnecessary appearance of the many Hamas speakers who continue to make recognition of the State of Israel as the central issue of the Mecca accord, when there are other important issues to deal wit. Perhaps these people need to shut up and take few days off and give us a break from seeing and listening to many spokesmen crowding the air waives. Let us give this peace deal a chance and let the new government form first, announce its policies and programs and then these guys get their moment of glory before the TV cameras.
I read the agreement and yes, it is clear about ending the fighting and forming a unity government and yes, it does address the issues of recognizing and abiding by international agreements signed by the Palestinians.
One would think the new unity government take the opportunity of the support given by the Saudis and especially by both King Abdallah and Crown Prince Sultan to announce full support and commitment to King Abdallah's Peace Plan announced in Beirut few years ago, and should seek funding from the Arab Gulf States and organize one hell of PR campaign inside Israel to gather support for the Arab Peace Plan, and wage an active campaign within the American Jewish community for such a peace plan given the fact that the US Jewish community always stood in the way of peace between Israel and the Arabs, for its own selfish interest of losing control over US Congress and lose it undue influence over America's foreign policy.
Never understood why the Arabs and especially the Palestinians shied away from waging a peace campaign toward Israel. It certainly makes lots of sense and makes more sense than the stupid and senseless rockets fired from Gaza and certainly it is more effective than any suicide bombing and the killing of innocent people in cafes and restaurants in Tel-Aviv. I advocated this peace campaign soon after the conclusion of the Arab Summit Conference announcing the Arab Peace Plan with calls of putting some $ 50 millions toward this campaign.
The Palestinians more than ever need to have a vision for their own state and need to articulate this vision through actions and not words and need to prove to themselves that they have what it takes to build a modern nation- state where democracy and votes counts and where guns and militias have no place and where corruptions and incompetence are things of the past. Moreover, it is time for a massive and collective retirement of all those who served at one time or another with the late Yasser Arafat. They have proved, without any exception they are simply unfit to lead in liberation, are too incompetent to build a modern state and they have no vision for the future. 40 years of the same old people, the same old message, the same simple mind is just too much to take any more.
Reforming the PLO and dividing the cake like old times is no longer acceptable and we, in the Diaspora should not accept such a proposal, where those with few useless guns and no brains make all of the decisions. Of course it is time for the Palestinians in the Diaspora to step forward, make their voice counts and challenge those who have lead the Palestinian people from one disaster to another for the last 50 years. It is time for the Palestinians in the Diaspora to insist on having an independent voice separate from the PLO and insist on having an independent seat at the table in any future negotiations with Israel. There is so much talent outside of Palestine that it will be a crime for the Palestinians leadership under occupation not to make good use of and it will be a crime for the Diaspora Palestinians to leave their faith with the kind of leadership that we have seen for the last 50 years.

Jerusalem for All, Israel's practices of ethnic and religious cleansing makes it unfit and unqualified to have total sovereignty over Jerusalem.

Ever since Israel took total control of East Jerusalem and it declared annexations as the "eternal capital of the Jewish state, of course in total violations of international law, Israel with active and generous financial support from the American Jewish community began a very active and well organized campaign of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem.
Over the years, Israel not only tore down the wall that separated West Jerusalem from East Jerusalem, before the 67 War, but began to build a new wall of Jewish settlements chocking and strangling the Arab city of Jerusalem and putting in place laws, remnant of Nazi Germany, that makes it almost impossible for the Arab residence to stay and live in East Jerusalem. Introducing residency restrictions that make it almost impossible for any Arab (Muslim or Christian) to continue to have residency in Jerusalem.
The American Jewish community through its active political and financial support of the Israeli Settlers movement became actively engaged in committing large scale acts of fraud buying and selling Arab properties in the city, making sure that Jews form the majority of the city residence and of course illegally depriving the Arabs of their rights to their properties within the city, of course not to mention using guns and bullets to get rid of Arab resident of the city. Zionism was intent on changing the entire demographic of the city, making sure the Arabs have a hard time staying.
Moreover, the Israel entire legal system from land and property registration up to the Israeli Supreme Court and the Knesset allowed and permitted to the Israeli government to commit acts of outright theft of Arab properties, with the most active individual is Nathan Sharansky, that Russian immigrant whose campaign to ethnically cleanse the city of its Arabs earned him the most distinguished honor American could bestow on any citizen. George W. Bush in recognition of Sharansky's acts and support of apartheid and ethnic cleansing awarded him the Congressional Medal of Freedom.
Many rich and well influential American Jews became actively engaged in large scale fraud providing hundreds of millions of dollars to criminal settlers allow them through fraud and guns to take over Palestinian properties in Jerusalem and of course in Hebron.
Israel at the moment is continuing what it has been doing for the last 40 years of changing the nature of the cit buy destroying entire Arab neighborhoods and substituting Jewish neighborhoods. One can understand the renovation of the old Jewish quarter within the old city, but making sure that it changes the entire ethnic make up of the city. Israel as not to be satisfied with stealing so many Arab properties within West Jerusalem but is making sure it continue its theft well into the 21st century
As if stealing Arab property is not enough for Israel, and under the pretext of keeping Israel safe from Palestinian suicide bombers and terrorists, continue to build a new wall. Unlike any other wall in the world, The Israeli Apartheid Wall, put the Berlin Wall built by the communist into shame. It snakes through the Arab city, dividing families from their neighbors, and diving Arab families from their properties and business, dividing Arab school children from their schools and most important depriving Arabs of their properties. The Israeli Apartheid Wall, supported by the US Administration and members of Congress, is made up in some areas 500 meters deep of concrete and barbed wires with the concrete supplied by senior officers of the Palestinian Authority. Within the Arab city, the Wall is some 8 meters ( 23 feet high) tall with Arab families forced to travel miles and go through many check points when they can simply walk over in minutes to their schools and businesses.
More dangerous than the Wall, is the fact that Israel is making it an official policy of depriving Arab Muslims and Christians of the right to worship freely in their holy places. Every week and every day, Israel deploys its border guards at the entrance of the city making it almost impossible for any Palestinians to have free access to the holy places.We all want a united and open Jerusalem, a Jerusalem for All We want a Jerusalem that is Jewish, a Jerusalem that is Muslim, a Jerusalem that is Christian, a Jerusalem that is international, but we do not want nor accept a Zionist Jerusalem. However Israel over the last 40 years have proven that it is unfit, unqualified and does not deserve the moral and legal rights to manage an open city for the benefits of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Israel and its supporters within the US administration, Congress and within large circles of the American Jewish community is too racists and too full of hate to have total sovereignty over such a holy city like Jerusalem

Which international community they are talking about?

These days we here so much talk of "international community" whether it is President George Bush, Secretary Rice, Prime Minister Blair or Chancellor Merkel, all speak of the "international community" whether they are talking about Iran's nuclear programs, or Hamas government. These leaders speak as if they have been appointed and elected to speak for the rest of the world. The "international community" they speak about does not include countries in Africa, Asia or the Middle East; even it does not include some countries in Europe, let alone all of Latin and Central America. This if any, shows the arrogance of these leaders.
We must remember few years, the "international community" is the one that gave the Shah of Iran, all the weapons he needed and more to appoint himself as the guardian and ruler of the Arabian Gulf, it is the same "international community" that gave Saddam Hussain, all the weapons he needed including weapons of mass destructions which he put to effective use against his own people and that of Iran. It is the same "international community" that supported the wars in Sudan, Angola, Central America and supported dictatorships like Suharto of Indonesia. When we speak of the "international community" we must nit forgot that it is the one that supported and supplied Israel with its nuclear weapons program, that supported Israel's twenty years occupation of south Lebanon and it is the same community that supports one of the longest and most criminal military occupations in modern time, that of Israel and its policy of ethnic cleansing and property theft inn the name of G-d and the jailing of over 350,000 Palestinians at one time or another.
One would and can accept the notion of an "international community" if this community has the moral standing and consistency and has track records of supporting freedoms and democracies throughout the world. The problem with this international community is it total silence on all the crimes committed by its proxies like Saddam Hussain, the Shah of Iran, and General Suharto and consistently supported all the prime ministers of Israel as they waged their relentless wars of killing, murdering Palestinians and the ethnic cleansing that forms the basic ideology of Jewish Zionism.
Since no one appointed the US, the UK or Germany as guardians of international rights these particular countries do not qualify to speak for the world community, a country like the US supported both Saddam Hussain and the Shah of Iran, and country like England that gave the Balfour Declaration depriving Palestinians of their natural rights to their homes and land and a country like German that put more than 6 millions Jews in death and gas chambers. It is very difficult to see how such countries with poor if not absent moral standing can speak of the "international community". It is only when these countries can translate their moral claims to real practice can the rest of the international community accepting such leadership. Until then, please let s not hear again, the words "international community" from countries like the US, England ad Germany.

Which and What Israel should Hamas and the Palestinians recognize?

Israel and the US always insisted that as a condition for Israel and the US to even think of talking let alone end the occupation is for the Palestinians to recognize Israel. Arafat, without the benefit of smart legal advice and as a way to save his ass after siding with Saddam, decided to strip down and gave full recognition to Israel, without defining which Israel he and his PLO was recognizing, and without insisting on ending the settlements, let alone removing the settlements. The PLO gave full recognition to "Greater Israel" without Israel ever giving recognition to a Palestinian State. All Arafat got for was several canton under occupations with Israeli corpals guarding the gates and with Palestinians having to navigate some 400 different check points. Then Hamas came to power and as expected, the US, Israel and now the European Union decided not to deal with Hamas until it recongizes Israel. Of course without ever giving any indication which Israel should Hamas recongnize, and if such recognition ends the Occupation. Hamas not the smart and political savvy organization it is, did not know how to deal with this issue head on, decided to reach to 1,400 years of history, and offer a "Hudna" which Israeli and Jewish scholars know more about Hudna than all of the Islamic clerics Hamas have. Hamas wasted one whole year without taking the challenge and asking the question which Israel should Hamas recognize? and whether the US and Israel needs to have every single Palestinian, woman, man or child, under Occupation or in the Diaspora sign and deliver to the White House valid and notorized signitures of all 7 million Palestinians and if the delivery of all 7 million signitures will end the Israeli Occupation. Failure of Hamas to anticipate this demand, and its failure to take up the challenge is but another proof that Hamas does not have the leadership or the political sophistication to deal with Israel and the US. What follows is a very interesting article that address the very basic issues of recongitions and what does it mean?
Sami Jamil Jadallah


The Christian Science Monitor
from the February 02, 2007 edition
What 'Israel's right to exist' means to Palestinians
Recognition would imply acceptance that they deserve to be treated as subhumans.
By John V. Whitbeck JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA
Since the Palestinian elections in 2006, Israel and much of the West have asserted that the principal obstacle to any progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace is the refusal of Hamas to "recognize Israel," or to "recognize Israel's existence," or to "recognize Israel's right to exist."
These three verbal formulations have been used by Israel, the United States, and the European Union as a rationale for collective punishment of the Palestinian people. The phrases are also used by the media, politicians, and even diplomats interchangeably, as though they mean the same thing. They do not.
"Recognizing Israel" or any other state is a formal legal and diplomatic act by one state with respect to another state. It is inappropriate – indeed, nonsensical – to talk about a political party or movement extending diplomatic recognition to a state. To talk of Hamas "recognizing Israel" is simply to use sloppy, confusing, and deceptive shorthand for the real demand being made of the Palestinians.
"Recognizing Israel's existence" appears on first impression to involve a relatively straightforward acknowledgment of a fact of life. Yet there are serious practical problems with this language. What Israel, within what borders, is involved? Is it the 55 percent of historical Palestine recommended for a Jewish state by the UN General Assembly in 1947? The 78 percent of historical Palestine occupied by the Zionist movement in 1948 and now viewed by most of the world as "Israel" or "Israel proper"? The 100 percent of historical Palestine occupied by Israel since June 1967 and shown as "Israel" (without any "Green Line") on maps in Israeli schoolbooks?
Israel has never defined its own borders, since doing so would necessarily place limits on them. Still, if this were all that was being demanded of Hamas, it might be possible for the ruling political party to acknowledge, as a fact of life, that a state of Israel exists today within some specified borders. Indeed, Hamas leadership has effectively done so in recent weeks.
"Recognizing Israel's right to exist," the actual demand being made of Hamas and Palestinians, is in an entirely different league. This formulation does not address diplomatic formalities or a simple acceptance of present realities. It calls for a moral judgment.
There is an enormous difference between "recognizing Israel's existence" and "recognizing Israel's right to exist." From a Palestinian perspective, the difference is in the same league as the difference between asking a Jew to acknowledge that the Holocaust happened and asking him to concede that the Holocaust was morally justified. For Palestinians to acknowledge the occurrence of the Nakba – the expulsion of the great majority of Palestinians from their homeland between 1947 and 1949 – is one thing. For them to publicly concede that it was "right" for the Nakba to have happened would be something else entirely. For the Jewish and Palestinian peoples, the Holocaust and the Nakba, respectively, represent catastrophes and injustices on an unimaginable scale that can neither be forgotten nor forgiven.
To demand that Palestinians recognize "Israel's right to exist" is to demand that a people who have been treated as subhumans unworthy of basic human rights publicly proclaim that they are subhumans. It would imply Palestinians' acceptance that they deserve what has been done and continues to be done to them. Even 19th-century US governments did not require the surviving native Americans to publicly proclaim the "rightness" of their ethnic cleansing by European colonists as a condition precedent to even discussing what sort of land reservation they might receive. Nor did native Americans have to live under economic blockade and threat of starvation until they shed whatever pride they had left and conceded the point.
Some believe that Yasser Arafat did concede the point in order to buy his ticket out of the wilderness of demonization and earn the right to be lectured directly by the Americans. But in fact, in his famous 1988 statement in Stockholm, he accepted "Israel's right to exist in peace and security." This language, significantly, addresses the conditions of existence of a state which, as a matter of fact, exists. It does not address the existential question of the "rightness" of the dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people from their homeland to make way for another people coming from abroad.
The original conception of the phrase "Israel's right to exist" and of its use as an excuse for not talking with any Palestinian leaders who still stood up for the rights of their people are attributed to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. It is highly likely that those countries that still employ this phrase do so in full awareness of what it entails, morally and psychologically, for the Palestinian people.
However, many people of goodwill and decent values may well be taken in by the surface simplicity of the words, "Israel's right to exist," and believe that they constitute a reasonable demand. And if the "right to exist" is reasonable, then refusing to accept it must represent perversity, rather than Palestinians' deeply felt need to cling to their self-respect and dignity as full-fledged human beings. That this need is deeply felt is evidenced by polls showing that the percentage of the Palestinian population that approves of Hamas's refusal to bow to this demand substantially exceeds the percentage that voted for Hamas in January 2006.
Those who recognize the critical importance of Israeli-Palestinian peace and truly seek a decent future for both peoples must recognize that the demand that Hamas recognize "Israel's right to exist" is unreasonable, immoral, and impossible to meet. Then, they must insist that this roadblock to peace be removed, the economic siege of the Palestinian territories be lifted, and the pursuit of peace with some measure of justice be resumed with the urgency it deserves.
• John V. Whitbeck, an international lawyer, is the author of, "The World According to Whitbeck." He has advised Palestinian officials in negotiations with Israel.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0202/p09s02-coop.html

The Palestine Agency, why and why now? Open letter to Palestinians in the Diaspora, Part III

( leaders of militias; Hamas, Fatah and Presidential Security, that kills and murder Palestinians are unfit and unqualified to lead and represent the Palestinian people). The PLO with tens of billions of dollars and with 40 years of unquestionable leadership failed to liberate, certainly failed to even manage under the occupation, and is too incompetent, too corrupt and with no more ligitimacy to represent any one.
Mission:
The Palestine Agency intent to earn the rights, privilege and trust to represent the Palestinian people outside the Occupied Territories, not by a questionable decision by a questionable organization like the Arab league, the Arab heads of states, but by working hard to earn the trust, confidence and votes of the Palestinians in the Diaspora it seeks to represent. There is an urgent need for an organization like the Palestine Agency to represent the legal, economic, social, political interest of all those Palestinians living in Arab countries and those living in Europe, Africa, North America and Australia and other countries of the world.
The Palestine Agency was incorporated as a not for profit organization in the USA, to represent the legal, economic, political, cultural and social interest of all those Palestinians living in the Diaspora, and to represent that interest in host countries and within present day Israel.
The Palestine Agency can learn from the Jewish experience in the Diaspora on how best to protect the interest of the Palestinians, how best to reclaim rights and lost properties, how best to track and bring to trial all those who killed and murdered Palestinians, track and bring to trial go all those who committed war crimes against the Palestinians in Occupied Palestine, in Lebanon and in Syria. Track and bring to trial all those who stole their lands and properties, track and bring to trial all those who fraudulently acquired Palestinian lands for use as Israeli settlements especially the properties of those living outside Palestine. A Palestine Documentation Center similar to the Simon Weisenthal Center will do just that.
It is unacceptable after 55 years of “exiles” that we Palestinians continue to rely on UN and other international agencies to manage our affairs, run our refugee camps, run our schools, run our clinics, even run the distributions of our food. It is time we took charge of our own destiny.
The Palestine Agency intent on creating one of the best and competent “Pro-Pono Law Firm’ made up of Palestinian lawyers from around the world who can and will represent the best legal interest of the Palestinian people and take the necessary legal actions and steps to addresses all of the wrongs we had to suffer for more than 100 years. To take on those who have wronged us for so long, and to make sure that our rights are well protected now and in the future.
The Palestine Agency intents and will proceed to create one of the best “Pro-Pono Consulting Firm” made up of Palestinian professionals and experts in all disciplines who, working with the legal team will insure that the rights and interests of the Palestinian people in “historical Palestine” and in host countries are protected and well represented. Those rights and interest and are not “fair game” for Israel or for any country or organization. The Palestine Agency will earn the right, as true representative of the Diaspora people, to sit at the table and represent the interest of ALL Palestinian people in the Diaspora and represent the interest of the Palestinian people hosted in the Arab countries. The Palestine Agency will have a “mandate” to represent all Diaspora Palestinians.
Next Step:
I invite all “independent” Palestinian groups, organizations and individuals who have the courage, and vision to make a difference, to join and make the Palestine Agency, the people organization and institution that we all can be very proud to be associated with. Together we will make sure that the Palestine Agency is not a one “man/woman” shop, but a true representative of the Palestinian people and accountable to its constituents. The Palestine Agency is not a “public relation” organization, but an action oriented organization, with lots of hard and difficult work and tasks ahead. I urge all of you to join, and help the Palestine Agency to be the kind of organization that can make a difference in the lives of Palestinians in the Diaspora.
The charter calls for organizing conventions in countries to select the committee that will lead the Palestine Agency and organize its affairs and work toward earning the trust and votes of the Palestinians in the Diaspora. We need to move and move fast before it is too late
The charter calls for organizing conventions in countries to select the committee that will lead the Palestine Agency and organize its affairs and work toward earning the trust and votes of the Palestinians in the Diaspora. We need to move and move fast before it is too late.
In the next six months’ concerted efforts will be made to enlist and sign up independent activist from around the world to organize an international conference in Europe (no restrictions on visa) and launch the Palestine Agency and establish chapters around the Middle East and in other countries with substantial Palestinian community.
Sami Jamil Jadallah
Fairfax, VA, USA and El-Bireh, Palestine
Organizer and Sponsor
Palestine Agency is registered as a Not for Profit organizations in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

An open letter to the Palestinians of the Diaspora, Part II

( leaders of militias; Fatah, Hamas and Presidential Security, that kills and murder Palestinians are unfit to lead Palestinians to freedom and independance)
With Hamas and Fatah fighting over the little crumbs under the Israeli Occupation, and fighting over ministries with little or no power, and with both leaderships having vested interest in the funding and maintenance of their own militias and much more involved in making sure their own cadre, especially Fatah are getting the kind of cars, homes and personal privileges they are getting now while the rest of the nation suffers. There is no time and no room to give any attention to the more pressing issues of the Apartheid Wall, the expansion of settlements, the daily incursion of towns and cities, of the hundreds of checkpoints and of course not to mention ending the Israeli Occupation, and providing the kind of daily security the people need to carry on with whatever little and miserable life they have under the Israeli Occupation, let alone a useless and ineffective government.
While Mahmoud Abbas is counting on American to deliver Israel to the Palestinians rather than the other way around, Khalid Mishal is counting on Syria and Iran to deliver Israel to Hamas rather than the other way around, both are looking to the wrong parties to help them with ending the Israeli Occupation.
Under all these circumstances it is unlikely that the Palestinian Authority under Hamas, the PLO, Fatah or the Palestine National Council can have the time, the means or the resources, the competence and priority to give any attentions to the pressing issues facing the more than 5 million Palestinians in exile. The present Palestinian leadership is unfit and is incompetent to take care of the needs of the people under the Israeli Occupation, certainly they do not have the means, the competence, certainly the credibility to represent the interest of the Palestinians in the Diaspora.
With the PLO having no legitimacy, credibility nor competence to represent any one The Palestine Agency is the alternative for the more than 5 million Palestinians in exile. It is an organization that they can have total ownership of, rather than leave the decision to represent them like the PLO with a cadre that proved incompetent to do any thing right, that proved it is nothing but a total fraud lead by leadership that represents no one, but themselves. The Palestine Agency will be that representative body where competent and accountable leadership are elected from Diaspora. The Palestine Agency can be that organization to represent the true face and image of the Palestinian exiles, where hundreds of thousands of professionals can make a difference. The Palestine Agency, can be with the help and support of every one, can be that organization that Israel and the US and the world community have to deal with rather than dealing with a bunch of incompetent leadership that we have now. The Palestine Agency will certainly add to the bargaining position of the Palestinian Authority when it comes to the final negotiations between The Palestinian Authority, Israel and the world community. We the Palestinian people of the Diaspora demand a seat at the table!
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Open Letter to All Palestinians of the Diaspora. Part 1

Why PALESTINE AGENCY and Why Now?
Introduction and background:
(leaders of militias that kills and murder Palestinians have no place and is unfit to represent let alone lead the Palestinians to freedom).
Ever since chosen by Arab heads of states, most of whom were of questionable legitimacy, the PLO and its leadership have lead the Palestinian people from one disaster to another, from one failure to another, from one “strategic mistake” to another. Even when it has a chance to negotiate with Israel under the Oslo Accord, it negotiated for itself a role, recognition of Israel, while failing to negotiate the most important issues; ending the Israeli Military Occupation, freedom and independence for the Palestinian people and addressing the rights of all Palestinian in the Diaspora.
Over the last 35 year, the PLO leadership has always acted not in the best interest of the Palestinian people, but in the best interest of the PLO as an organization with vested interest for its leadership and cadre and it’s so called “institutions”. This was the case in Jordan, in Lebanon, in Kuwait and now in the Occupied Territories, after Oslo Accord.
The Palestine National Congress as the representative body of all Palestinians in Occupied Palestine and in the Diaspora, never lived up to its name and responsibilities of faithful representations of the people, failed to exercise its duties of checks and balances, accepted decisions and actions of the PLO and its leadership without critical assessment of the issues and decisions, and for the most part remained silent, on status and decisions affecting the Palestinians in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and the Gulf States especially Kuwait. The daily needs and interests of millions of Palestinian gave way to the more pressing interest of the leadership perpetuating its role and of course its selfish benefits and interests and failed to call the leadership to accounts for its actions and failures, in Jordan, in Lebanon, in Libya, in Kuwait and under Oslo.
Palestinian intellectuals, thinkers, artists, and businessmen for the most part, went along with the leadership and never challenging the leaderships on its failures. After Oslo few Palestinian intellectuals dared to challenge Arafat questioning his leadership and his actions. The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestine National Congress forfeited the privilege and right to represent the Palestinians in the Diaspora.
No one takes responsibilities for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians killed or murdered, and no one knows where are the billions of dollars raised by the PLO from Diaspora Palestinians and donations from Arab nations; yet, there was never any accounting of any of these funds and actions. Arafat death and the possible loss of billions of dollars of the “people money” demand immediate actions making sure that the public and people interest are protected. It is time to renegotiate the relationship between the Palestinians of the Diaspora and the PLO and the PNC.
Moreover, under Oslo Accord, the PLO for all practical and legal purposes merged into the Palestinian Authority, leaving millions of Palestinians around the world without any legal representation. Thus the urgent need for the Palestinians of the Diaspora to organize.
The death of Yaser Arafat and the assumption of Mahmoud Abbas may bring about a change, yet to be responsive and accountable leadership. However, it is unlikely that Mahmoud Abbas and his team of old guards, or for that matter any one else, can make fundamental changes in the way the PLO, Fatah or the Palestine National Council operate.
With Mahomud Abbas busy with the task of trying to put an end to the militia war going on in Gaza, in which his own private militia is a party to and with Hamas failing to live up to its commitments to change and cleaning house, getting more involved in regional alliances that do not service the cause of liberation and having proved it is but another militia, not to mention living in time past and with rhetoric that is over 1400 years old. The Palestinian leadership inside the Occupied Territories depending for the most part on militias that does not serve the cause of liberation, it is time to let go of the PLO.
Instead of focusing on ending the Israeli Occupation, putting an end to the expansions of Israeli settlements and stopping the building of the Apartheid Wall, and of course putting in place effective administrative and financial reforms and putting those whose fleeced the citizens behind bars, we see the Palestinian leaderships whether of that of Hamas, Fatah or the PLO all are drowning in a cup of Turkish coffee. How can such a leadership that could not manage the mundane day-to-day things under the Occupation provide the leadership and vision of representing the interests of the Palestinians in the Diaspora?
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Thank you Virginia, it is never too late to express "profound regret" for hundreds of years of slavery. May be the rest of the nation will follow.

This morning while reading the online edition of the Washington Post, I was pleasantly surprised to read an article written by Tim Craig, a Washington Post Staff Writer, that the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia passed a resolution last Friday expressing “ profound regret” for the state role in the slavery of Africans, and African-Americans. Of course the ‘profound regret” is not yet complete until such time the State Senate approves a similar resolution and the governor signs it.
This story coming out of Richmond, makes me and should make all Virginians very proud that the House of Delegates takes such an important, courageous and leading role and be the first legislative body within the United States to address more than 400 years of shameful, disgraceful and immoral and inhuman acts of enslavement not to mention the destructions of American Indians communities.
This “ profound regret” of course does not come with recognition of the state’s involvement and sanctions in the salve trade, with Republican (no doubt God fearful) legislatures reluctant to participate in an out right apology, which they are afraid, will lay the ground for reparations and compensations. Perhaps the trillion of dollars, Republicans are spending on the war on Iraq can have a better use going toward reparations and compensations to Blacks who no doubts suffered from the most and cruelest crimes ever committed. How could any one imagine, let alone accept the ownership of one human being of another.
This “profound regret” should be a nice and a good way to celebrate the 400 anniversary of the establishment of the settlement of Jamestown. Few years after arriving and settling in Jamestown, these God fearing and good White Christians began to import and trade in “stolen” African slaves, flooding the nation with Black slaves.
It is not so surprising that America, the strongest and most powerful nation and no doubt God fearing nation with profound Judea-Christian values have yet to recognize the wrongs inflicted on tens of millions of Africans and African-Americans, and dare not face its ugly history in promoting and sanctioning 350 years of slavery. We must not forget the fact that it was not until 1968 with the introduction of a series of civil right legislations that America began to over come such a disgraceful history. While the Blacks are no longer owned by Whites, they are never the less entrapped and imprisoned in poor, dangerous, drug infested ghettos, where the very few and the very determined are able to escape the cycle of daily humiliation. Of course, we must not put all of the blames on White America, we must also put the blame on the Black leadership within the African-American community who failed in over 50 years to make a difference and change the lives of the tens of millions trapped in these ghettos. It seems that successful Black leaders once they make it in life, they get the hell out of the ghetto and move to whiter neighborhoods and send their kids to whiter schools forgetting to do something about those less fortunate left behind. With tens of billions of dollars put in the war on poverty, the US records is as dismal as its record on the war on terror and the war on drugs. That should not speak well of the different administrations handling of the issues of poverty and empowerment of Blacks. Of course the only beneficiaries of these programs where the management and the so called “ community leaders” who made it like bandits.
Perhaps it is also never too late for the Arabs and Muslims to admit their role in such business of trading in slaves and perhaps it is never too late for the Japanese to admit their role in the murder of millions of Chinese and Philippines, and it is never too late for the Turks to admit and apologies for the murder of more than 1.5 million Armenians and it is never too late for the Europeans to admit to and apologize for the hundreds of years of colonization of African and Asia and the Middle East. It is also never too late for the French to admit to and apologize for their ruthless and criminal behavior in Algeria and Morocco. And it is never too late for Spain to apologize for its years of Christian Inquisition. Now the next sentence will no doubt generate the most debate and will over shadow the spirit of this posting. I am calling on Israel and world Jewry to admit to and apologize to the Palestinians for the crimes committed by the European Jewish Zionist settlers and the forced exiles of hundreds of thousands of native Palestinians. And of course to apologize for one of the longest inhuman military occupation in modern times and apologize to some 250,000 Palestinians who were wrongfully imprisoned by Israel and of course we need not mentioned the apology for the hundreds of thousands of uprooted trees and the hundreds of thousands of stolen parcels of land and apartments and homes. Thank you Virginia for setting the pace for the rest of the country, perhaps the rest of the world.

The Palestinian people and the UN should demand total disarming of ALL militias including those of Hamas, Fatah and the Presidential Security

As I got us this morning at 6 am the first thing I did was to take a look at Asharqalawsat newspaper to see the headlines and to see the number of dead and injured in Gaza. Well, the numbers are not like Baghdad, but getting up there. 22 dead and couple of hundreds injured and of course both sides of the conflict Hamas and Fatah used the best weapons the Israeli Occupation can provide to kill each other.
The civil war in Gaza and soon in the West Bank was inevitable. Since Oslo, when over 18,000 veterans of the failed to liberate PLO returned to Occupied Palestine under Oslo forming the backbone of the bureaucracy and the security for Arafat, his Fatah and his PLO, which proved to be the most corrupt and incompetent administration.
Under Oslo, Arafat and Fatah became the subcontractors for the Israeli Occupation, keeping the peace and security for Israel, its Army and armed and criminal settlers as they went about the West Bank and Gaza and as they went on with their confiscation of more and more land and building more and more settlements. While Arafat and Fatah where providing this service to Israel, the Israeli, the Americans and the Europeans were very pleased with the work rewarding Arafat and Fatah billions of dollars and of course allowing him to build up his security forces to some 60,000 armed men, divided into more than 13 different security organization. Of course the purpose of so many different and competing security organizations, in addition to providing security for Israel, is to provide Arafat with the kind of security he needs, with the spies he needs and of course to create jobs and means of fleecing the people to the heads of these security forces.
Out of these 13 different security organizations, the Preventive Security Forces (how did Arafat came up with this name no one knows) were the most ruthless when it came to dealing with the Palestinians and especially with Hamas, which was at odd with Arafat and Fatah. Last week I saw a documentary on Alarabia TV, where Mohamed Dahlan, the former head of the Preventive Security in Gaza at the time, gave a promise to Mofaz to break the bones of Hamas, and this was on public television, the same documentary that showed Nabil Shaath restating what was denied later, that George Bush told him, God gave him the divine mission to end the Arab-Israel conflict. Of course Hamas, whose leaders where jailed, tortured and beaten by Dahlan and his Preventive Security could never forget that and now it is their chance to even and settle scores.
With the wild fight going in Gaza and seeing Gaza going up in smoke one would think that both Hamas and Fatah forgot they are both under Israeli Occupation and that the Israeli Military Occupation is not over yet, and that a corporal in the Israeli Army can stop even the president of Palestine from getting into his car and travel from one side of Ramallah to the other, and that a private in the Israeli Army can stop and humiliate even the biggest honcho within Fatah, the PLO and Hamas.
For the last 30 years, I always stated that the Palestinians under the leaderships they have for the last 50 years are unfit and are not yet ready for independence on their own. The PLO and Arafat have rendered the Palestinian society so dysfunctional, so maligned, so corrupt and so incompetent that no matter who is at the helm, whether it is Mahmoud Abbas, Khalid Mishal, Ismail Haniyah, Azzam Al-Ahmed, Mohamed Dahlan or the other ten thousand “Abu” could be the leader, that is able and have the competency and trust to lead to freedom and independence. The Palestinians need help to protect them from themselves and from the Israeli Army and Israeli armed settlers. They need a third party that can walk them through independence, if and when the Israeli and the world Jewry come to recognize it is time to end the Israeli Occupation and it is time to let the Palestinians go.
Only few years ago, both the US and Israel where demanding that Arafat consolidate all of the 13 different security forces and to reduce the number of the presidential security. Now the US is providing $ 86 millions to arm and train the presidential security forces for WHAT? To have one more well armed militia to kill and murder.
The Palestinians do not need more weapons and more militias. They need total disarmament of all the militias including those of Hamas, Fatah, PLO, Islamic Jihad, Alaqsa Brigade, and Izzendin Alqassam among others. The security of the people at large requires immediate international intervention to disarm all of the militias, even the presidential security, since all have proven they are the main source of insecurity for Palestinians after the Israeli Army and after the well-armed and well-protected Israel settlers.
One would think the US and Mahmoud Abbas, would put that kind of money in education and healthcare instead of arming one more militias.
It is too bad the Palestinian leadership under Mahmoud Abbas is allowing the Americans to play the same role they played in Central America where the US using the School of the Americas at Ft. Banning, GA to train army officers who went back and became ruthless killers and murderers. The same will happen now. The US will train these presidential security forces to become the ruthless militias repeating the same story.
If the Palestinian leadership under Mahmoud Abbas, want to do something for the Palestinian people, then he should push for an end to the Israeli Occupation, even if he has to invite the UN to take over his job and his responsibility.
As for Hamas, they are proving to the people and to the world, they are no different from their enemy Fatah. They are ruthless, incompetent and unfit to lead the government, let alone lead to freedom and independence.
I could never believe what is going in Gaza and the West Bank from cold blooded murder, to ruthless killings, to destructions of public property, to dragging people from their homes, to kidnapping foreign aid workers and journalists, to firing in the air, and of course to see all these armed motorcades, taking small time militia leaders and small ranking officers from one place to another place. If one were to see these armed motorcades zipping through Gaza one would think George Bush himself is buzzing through town.
Yes, we the Palestinians have no sense of shame and no sense of honor to allow this kind of leadership to take over. Hamas and Fatah leadership should remember that an Israeli corporal can force them to stop at a checkpoint and can force them to kneel to the ground. Where is the sense of dignity and priority? We have lost it all.