Journalists and Jihadis

G. Murphy Donovan January 12^th

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/journalists_and_jihadis.html

Muslim sensitivities everywhere are now more important than truth or justice anywhere. Alas, France and many other naïve Europeans have surrendered pride and identity to Brussels and in turn volunteered to be colonized by a 5 column of Arab/Muslim religious imperialists.

It’s hard to calculate the price of cheap labor when the real currency is common sense, identity, or culture. The Arab no-go slums that surround Paris are testimony to French venality, the blowback from communal Europe, and all those associated social or economic fantasies.

With assimilation off the table, open borders become the open wounds of cultural decay. Urban necrosis in Paris and London, and many other European capitals, is a self-inflicted wound.

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo slaughter, a British Sunni Imam in London crowed on the Fox News Channel that the key to Muslim rage was sharia, that arbitrary amalgam of contrived history, false prophets, and social toxins. Imam Anjem Choudary’s suggestion to “submit” was nonetheless superfluous. European and American journalists have been on their knees since oil was fifty cents a gallon.

Starting with Daniel Pearl, and continuing with the recent spate of beheadings by ISIS, we see video after video of journalists on their knees literally pleading for their sorry apologetic lives, denouncing their homelands, and then being butchered anyway. Journalists are a special obsession for Islam because professional writers are now the iconic representatives of cowering democracies. No group has done more to rationalize and sanitize the barbarity that is Islamic imperialism You would think that Islamists would embrace their Media co-conspirators in Europe and America -- “Arab Spring” propagandists and Palestine pimps for example. Au contraire! For the devout, the apostate must be put to the sword before the infidel.

Apologists and traitors are reviled by both sides.

Fear is the dominant ethic of modern journalism; fear to mock Mohammed or the Koran, fear to document the clear links between atrocity and religious dogma, fear to publish the graphic evidence of beheadings, fear to expose slavery, abuse of children, and rampant misogyny, fear to offend Arab dictators, fear to offend ayatollahs and imams, and now the fear to publish the very satire that precipitated the death of real heroes. American and European editors also fear that things might get worse, a dread that now has all the earmarks of inevitability.

An amateur video about prophetic pedophilia was used to justify the slaughter in Benghazi and now provocative cartoons are used to justify the carnage in Paris. “Piss Christ” is rationalized as high art in New York City but any mockery of Mohammed’s yen for little girls is regarded as justifiable capital blasphemy.

Yes, the Charlie Hebdo journalists were rare exceptions in a trade where timidity is the norm and candor is a vice. Any offense, real or imagined, is the real peril for modern journalists, the tar baby of political correctness. Truth is now any pabulum that pacifies gutless editors and their clueless readers.

The feigned indignation, mock shock, and hypocrisy of private and public media outlets over the latest outrage is mind-boggling.

There’s nothing new or startling about the bloodbath in Paris or the carnage that is sure to follow. Pander precedents are now legendary: the bloody trail from Satanic Verses to Charlie Hebdo is now a well-travelled venue of liberal, artistic, and literary shame.

The Associated Press, Washington Post, or New York Times are no more likely to publish the evidence for which their French colleagues died then they are to refuse to wear head scarfs in Dhār. The BBC, American PBS, and the Fox News Channel are not likely to show on air any satiric cartoons about Islam either. The Charlie Hebdo raid, like the 9/11 attack, is thus another win for the prophet’s vanguard, another nail in the coffin of civility.

The West is now impaled on the horns of the dot.com dilemma: on the one hand governments and internet industries who exercise no restraint in collecting information; and on the other hand analysis, public and private, which ignores or twists facts for fear of offending the guilty.

Small wonder then, that the humiliation of democracies like France, England, and America is now a blood sport for the Ummah. The official response in America is prophylactic self-censorship. The Associated Press (AP) and the Obama White House have revised the official and public rhetoric of politics to eliminate words like Islamism -- as if there were no links between deviance and devotion.

François Hollande, a metrosexual in the Chirac mold, called for a moment of silence the day after the latest Muslim blitzkrieg. That moment of prayer in Paris was no tribute to slain journalists or freedom of the press. Where timidity is a value and courage a vacuum, “silence” is the perfect word to capture European and American cowardice. Silence is the preferred response to jihad, Islamism, and Islamo-fascism. Alas, silence is acceptance and silence is submission. And ultimately, silence is the sickly sweet sound of surrender.

Europe is not “Charlie.” America is afraid too. Both are weak. Islamic terrorists are victorious again.

The Situation on Jerusalem's Temple Mount:

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the two Jewish Temples were located, is the holiest site in Judaism. Called Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) by Muslims, the site now contains the Dome of the Rock as well as the al-Aqsa Mosque, which is considered to be the third holiest site in Islam.

The al-Aqsa Mosque is situated at the southern end of the Temple Mount plaza (esplanade), covering a relatively small part of its surface. Moreover, all evidence places the historical Jewish Temples on a different part of the Temple Mount than that now occupied by the mosque.

When Israel reunited Jerusalem in 1967, it decided to allow the Islamic Waqf to continue to administer the site. Israel also chose to uphold the existing status quo, according to which non-Muslims can visit the Temple Mount at fixed times, but are not permitted to conduct any prayers. Moreover, non-Muslims who visit the Temple Mount cannot enter the al-Aqsa Mosque itself and are limited to visiting other parts of the site, mainly the large open spaces.

It is very important to note that the Government of Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount and will oppose all proposals to change it.

In the past few months, Palestinian radicals have been trying to breach the status quo by preventing Christians and Jews from visiting the Temple Mount. Palestinian rioters - incited by Hamas and the radical branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel - have attacked visitors as well as the police with stones and fireworks, using the al-Aqsa Mosque as their base of operations. The Israeli authorities have sought to contain these attempts by Islamist extremists to escalate the situation on the Temple Mount.

The ridiculous accusations that Israel plans to harm the al-Aqsa Mosque are utterly baseless. The fact that they are made not only by Islamist extremists but also by the mainstream Palestinian leadership is alarming and dangerous.

It is the Palestinian rioters themselves who are defiling the al-Aqsa Mosque by transforming it into a base for attacks. They use the mosque's furniture as barricades and launch fireworks from inside its premises, where carpets and wooden beams could easily catch fire. The rioters are also demonstrating their disrespect for the many Muslim worshippers who simply wish to pray in peace, as well as for the Islamic Waqf that manages the site.

The Israeli Police, which is responsible for public order in Jerusalem, takes extra care not to hurt the sensitivities of Muslim worshippers on the Temple Mount. Officers only enter the area in specific cases when riots have to be controlled. Moreover, as a matter of policy, the police never enter the mosque itself. Although they often find themselves in life-threatening situations, police officers who operate on the Temple Mount are equipped merely with non-lethal measures.

Both Muslim worshippers and visitors from other faiths are expected to respect the status quo. Anyone who breaks the rules will be dealt with accordingly by the police, whether they are Muslim, Jewish or members of another faith.

Israel places the highest value on upholding freedom of religion and worship. Jewish holy sites (like the Western Wall), are open to visitors of all faiths, as are the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

The following is a link to a video clip which shows Palestinian rioters desecrating and endangering the al-Aqsa Mosque they pretend to protect:

http://youtu.be/I5mcCA6UF9I

Moderate Islam is Our New Religion

Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog

For full article see http://sultanknish.blogspot.co.il/2014/09/moderate-islam-is-our-new-religion.html  

I have been searching for moderate Islam since September 11 and just like a lost sock in the dryer, it was in the last place I expected it to be.

There is no moderate Islam in the mosques or in Mecca. You won’t find it in the Koran or the Hadiths. If you want to find moderate Islam, browse the newspaper editorials after a terrorist attack or take a course on Islamic religion taught by a Unitarian Sociologist wearing fake native jewelry.

You can’t find a moderate Islam in Saudi Arabia or Iran, but you can find it in countless network news specials, articles and books about the two homelands of their respective brands of Islam.

You won’t find the fabled land of moderate Muslims in the east. You won’t even find it in the west. Like all myths it exists in the imagination of those who tell the stories. You won’t find a moderate Islam in the Koran, but you will find it in countless Western books about Islam.

Moderate Islam isn’t what most Muslims believe. It’s what most liberals believe that Muslims believe. The new multicultural theology of the West is moderate Islam. Moderate Islam is the perfect religion for a secular age since it isn’t a religion at all.

Take Islam, turn it inside out and you have moderate Islam. Take a Muslim who hasn’t been inside a mosque in a year, who can name the entire starting lineup of the San Diego Chargers, but can’t name Mohammed’s companions and you have a moderate Muslim. Or more accurately, a secular Muslim.

The current generation of Western leaders seeks the affirmation of their secular liberalism in a moderate Islam. Even if they have to make it up.

Without a moderate Islam the Socialist projects of Europe which depend on heavy immigration collapse. America’s War on Terror becomes the endless inescapable slog that the rise of ISIS has once again revealed it to be. Multiculturalism, post-nationalism and Third World Guiltism all implode.

Without moderate Muslims, nationalism returns, borders close and the right wins. That is what they fear.

Moderate Islam is a difficult faith. To believe in it you have to disregard over a thousand years of recorded history, theology, demographics and just about everything that predates 1965. You have to ignore the bearded men chopping off heads because they don’t represent the majority of Muslims.

Neither does Mohammed, who did his own fair share of headchopping.

The real Islam is the religion of Mohammed, the Koran, the Hadiths, the Caliphs and its practitioners in such places as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq or Indonesia. Moderate Islam is a religion that does not exist, but its supporters  fervently believe it must exist because without it their way of life is as doomed as the dodo.

The true moderate Muslims are secular liberals of loosely Christian and Jewish persuasion who have invented and believe in a moderate Islam that doesn’t exist outside of their own heads. This secular Islam, which values all life, is dedicated to social justice and universal tolerance, is a counterpart of their own bastardized religions. And they are too afraid to wake up and realize that it doesn’t exist.

When American and European leaders insist that Islam has nothing to do with the latest Islamic atrocity, they are not referencing a religion practiced by Muslims, but an imaginary religion that they imagine Muslims must practice because the alternative is the end of everything that they believe in.

When you say that moderate Muslims don’t exist, you are calling him a bad person. When you challenge Islam, you are attacking multiculturalism and he will call you a racist, regardless of the fact that Islam is as much of a race as Communism, Nazism or the Mickey Mouse Fan Club were races.

The moderate Muslim is an invention of the liberal academic, the secular theologian, the vapid politician and his shrill idiot cousin, the political activist. Like the money in the budgets that underpin their plans and the scientific evidence for Global Warming, he does not exist.

The degraded lefty descendants of Christians and Jews wait for a moderate Muslim messiah who will reconcile the impossibilities of their multicultural society by healing the conflicts between Islam and the West. Until they find him, they have to believe, not in a divinity, but in the moderate Muslim. 

Islamisation of UK & Africa?

I recently attended a talk by  Baroness Cox from the House of Lords in the UK . Her insight into what is happening in the UK and Africa was quite startling. One has to wonder just when the world is going to wake up.

She began by stating that Britain is suffering from an onslaught on its values and consequently has lost its soul.The contributory factors leading up to this are

a)       The Hedonism and “Flower Power” of the 60’s

b)       The Marxist/Leninist influences in education in the 70’s and 80’s

Cox was employed as a lecturer at, what was, the Polytechnic of North London where the majority of the lecturers followed the ideology of Marx and Lenin. She was threatened if she continued to lecture without having the “content” of her lecture approved.

The situation today claims Cox is that many feel there is nothing worth defending and consequently this vacuum is being filled by ideologists.

Jihad is taking place in Britain on 5 fronts:-

-           Political

-           Cultural

-           Economic

-           Demographic

-           Legal

Political

Attempts are constantly being made to restrict freedom of speech by not allowing any criticism of Islam or allowing promotion of other faiths, banning jokes about Islam and making these criminal offences punishable by up to 6 years in jail.

One bill going through parliament was defeated by just a single vote and this shows the real danger to democracy.

Educational

Massive investment is taking place on campuses via Saudi and Qatari money in faculties of theology.

School heads are being put under tremendous pressure and threats if they are considered to be “anti Islamic”. Many have resigned and have been replaced by pro Islamists. This is on-going.

Demography

Although illegal according to UK law, polygamy is accepted in order to “avoid upsetting the immigrants”.

Legal

Elements of Sharia law have become accepted in many aspects of life in the UK, although the UK legal concept of “one law for all” is flouted.

Muslim arbitration tribunals and Sharia councils (today 80 of these exist around the country) have been set up making decisions which are totally against the existing UK laws on the statute book.

Decisions on matters of inheritance, divorce, bigamy and rape are totally against the values set out in UK law.

Intimidation is rife to avoid women turning to the British courts with threats of violence backed up with the ultimate sanction of death threats.

To counter this legal challenge, a private members bill is currently going through Parliament entitled “Arbitration and Mediation Services Equality Bill” which it is hoped will meet this challenge.

AFRICA

Cox has a lot of personal experience in Africa through her Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) www.hart-uk.org and spends several months a year in many different locations.

She states that Islam is working tirelessly to expand in throughout Africa. In Uganda there are a lot of economic pressures and it is openly stated that via polygamy Islam will take over the country.

In Sudan the war and intimidation of Christians to convert to Islam is backed by the country’s leadership. In many areas healthcare is only available to those who are prepared to convert.

Jihad via slavery of the Christians is rampant.

In South Sudan, Libya and Saudi Arabia are pouring money into the Islamisation of the country and again much humanitarian aid is conditional on the religion of the sick.

Cox stated emphatically that if South Sudan falls, Islam will run rampant all the way to Capetown,

Another country that must be protected is Nigeria since failure to do so would result in the Islamisation of the whole of east Africa.

In conclusion, she stressed “I can’t do everything but I must not do nothing”

Christian Convert Attacked with Acid

Last week in Tel Aviv before returning home, I attended a lecture by Pastor Umar Kalinde where he thanked the Israeli people for their support and the doctors in particular for the wonderful treatment he received after being severely burned following an acid attack by Islamists whom objected to his conversion from Islam to Christianity.

In 2011 just after service at a Church in Namasuba, Kampala, unknown attackers threw concentrated acid into the face and back of Pastor Umar Kalinde. An attacker shouted, ‘Pastor, pastor,’ and as Umar turned to look, liquid was thrown in his face as the others poured more liquid on his back and then fled away shouting, ‘Allahu akbar ’” 

Intense pain caused him to lose consciousness as the acid ate away at his flesh. He regained consciousness at the Kampala Hospital to which he had been rushed. Doctors reported that the acid had not only badly damaged his skin and some facial bones, but also blinded one eye. 

Umar was flown from Kampala to Israel for specialized treatment where after two years of multiple operations he has now been to return home

Umar, who had been a sheikh (Islamic teacher) before his conversion to Christianity, said Muslim extremists opposed to his conversion from Islam, and his outspoken opposition of sharia (Islamic law) courts in Uganda,were responsible for the attack.

Umar had a fatwa declared against him demanding his death by area Muslim leaders. 

He was full of praise for the expertise of the Israeli doctors who "brought him back to life".

I am a Muslim by Faith but......

"I am a Muslim by faith, a Christian by spirit, a Jew by heart, and above all I am a human being." ~ Dr. Tawfik Hamid.

http://www.tawfikhamid.com/

Dr. Hamid is an Egyptian scholar and author of the article.
The world needs more people like him---ones who have the
courage to face-up to reality.

I was born a Muslim and lived all my life as a follower of Islam.
 
After the barbaric terrorist attacks done by the hands of my fellow Muslims everywhere on this globe, and after the too many violent acts by Islamists in many parts of the world, I feel responsible as a Muslim and as a human being to speak out and tell the truth to protect the world and Muslims as well from a coming catastrophe and war of civilizations.
 
I have to admit that our current Islamic teaching creates violence and hatred toward non-Muslims. We Muslims are the ones who need to change. Until now we have accepted polygamy, the beating of women by men, and killing those who convert from Islam to other religions.
 
We have never had a clear and strong stand against the concept of slavery or wars, to spread our religion and to subjugate others to Islam and force them to pay a humiliating tax called jizia. We ask others to respect our religion while all the time we curse non-Muslims loudly (in Arabic) in our Friday prayers in the mosques.
 
What message do we convey to our children when we call the Jews "descendants of the pigs and monkeys"? [Yet, both Arabs and Jews are descendants of Ibrahim (Abraham)!] Is this a message of love and peace, or a message of hate?
 
I have been into [Christian] churches and [Jewish] synagogues where they were praying for Muslims.  While all the time, we curse them, and teach our generations to call them "infidels", and to hate them.
 
We immediately jump in a 'knee jerk reflex' to defend Prophet Mohammad when someone accuses him of being a pedophile while, at the same time, we are proud with the story in our Islamic books that he married a young girl seven years old [Aisha] when he was above 50 years old.
 
I am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness after September 11th and after many other terror attacks.
 
Muslims denounce these attacks to look good in front of the media, but we condone the Islamic terrorists and sympathise with their cause. Until now our 'reputable' top religious authorities have never issued a fatwa or religious statement to proclaim Bin Laden as an apostate, while an author, like Rushdie, was declared an apostate who should be killed according to Islamic Shari'a law just for writing a book criticizing Islam.
 
Muslims demonstrated to get more religious rights as we did in France to stop the ban on the hijab (head scarf), while we did not demonstrate with such passion and in such numbers against the terrorist murders. It is our absolute silence against the terrorists that gives the energy to these terrorists to continue doing their evil acts.
 
We Muslims need to stop blaming our problems on others or on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As a matter of honesty, Israel is the only light of democracy, civilization, and human rights in the whole Middle East.
 
We kicked out the Jews with no compensation or mercy from most of the Arab countries to make them "Jews-free countries" while Israel accepted more than a million Arabs to live there, have their own nationality, and enjoy their rights as human beings. In Israel, women cannot be beaten legally by men, and any person can change his/her belief system with no fear of being killed by the Islamic law of 'apostasy,' while in our Islamic world people do not enjoy any of these rights.
 
I agree that the 'Palestinians' suffer, but they suffer because of their corrupt leaders and not because of Israel.
 
It is not common to see Arabs who live in Israel leaving to live in the Arab world. On the other hand, we used to see thousands of Palestinians going to work with happiness in Israel, its 'enemy.' If Israel treats Arabs badly as some people claim, surely we would have seen the opposite happening.
 
We Muslims need to admit our problems and face them.  Only then we can treat them and start a new era to live in harmony with human mankind. Our religious leaders have to show a clear and very strong stand against polygamy, pedophilia, slavery, killing those who convert from Islam to other religions, beating of women by men, and declaring wars on non-Muslims to spread Islam.
 
Then, and only then, do we have the right to ask others to respect our religion. The time has come to stop our hypocrisy and say it openly: 'We Muslims have to change !

http://www.islamreview.com/articles/From_the_heart_of_a_Muslim.shtml

"Begin on Saturday, Finish on Sunday"

 Ali Salim  a scholar based in the Middle East.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3943/begin-saturday-finish-sunday

Americans need to internalize that Western interests are in danger of being attacked and destroyed by both foreign and domestic enemies. If political Islam is not stopped now in the Middle East, it will explode in the West.

The mood in the Middle East is rapidly changing. The elation of the Arab Spring, which led to prosperity and an economic and social upturn in the lives of millions of Arabs, has now deteriorated into a sense that significant dangers are stalking the Arab-Muslim world.

Arabic TV, especially Al-Jazeera, has been broadcasting programs asking if bloodshed is the only mission of Islam, and if jihad [war in the service of Islam] still motivates believers to invade other countries with abandon and indulge in worldwide slaughter.

Given the current situation, the Middle East is obsessed with asking itself: Who is responsible for the Muslims' catastrophe? And what keeps us chained behind, while the rest of the world forges ahead in social, economic and technological progress? Needless to say, the imams do not blame themselves. They claim that to change the situation we need only more and closer study and practice of the Islamic faith.

As always, our Islamic society, constantly at odds with itself, blames everyone for our misfortunes. In the days of the Prophet (S.A.A.S.), we blamed the Jews of Khaybar in the Arabian Peninsula for our ills. Now the imams who head the militant Islamist organizations tell us that the Jews, a tiny people who pose no threat to the might of Islam, are responsible for all our ills and for all our failures.

Islamic radicals, however, hate not only the Jews but also the Christians, who have become, we are told, our sworn enemies. Christianity, like Judaism, is also vilified. The history of our hatred for the Christians began with the Crusades, and over the years the same hated Crusaders became the hated European imperialists and the hated colonialists.

The hatred for the Christian West is founded on a sense of deprivation, of humiliation and inferiority, of being threatened and exploited, all of which cast doubt on the eternal message of Islam as the only up-to-date religion, destined to rule the world and invalidate the other religions. The Islamic sages who interpret the will of Allah say that both Christianity as well as Judaism, while monotheistic, are anachronistic, and while temporarily they can exist -- with the patronage of, and overshadowed by, Islam -- eventually all Christians and Jews will convert to Islam.

Islam's openly-stated desire to control the world is now light-years away from its current wretched plight. The Muslims' low self-image not only makes us self-destructive, but leads to the desire to destroy anyone who succeeds, even if it means destroying ourselves as well. The unique prosperity and power of the Jews in Palestine, compared with the slaughter, poverty and backwardness of their Arab neighbors, create antagonism, jealousy, rage and an increasingly murderous desire for "revenge" among Muslims still under the heady influence of the Arab Spring and incited by the sheikhs of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The imams in the mosques brainwash the masses, claiming that Islam's real enemies are the Christians, "the Crusaders," manipulated by the Jews who control them. Attempting to fool the leaders of the Christian West and weaken Israel, the Islamists sugarcoat the real situation and tell the Christians that all they have to do is solve the Palestinian problem. Once that has happened, the artificial Jewish existence in Palestine will come to an end, the entire Middle East will metamorphose into paradise and blossom, and everyone will live in harmony forever. Unfortunately, many Europeans have swallowed this tale whole. In the meantime, however, when not speaking to the West and telling each other the truth, the Islamists repeat the ancient adage, "We will begin on Saturday and finish on Sunday," that is, first we will get rid of the Jews and then we will get rid of the Christians -- as we are seeing now in Nigeria, Iraq and especially Egypt.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3943/begin-saturday-finish-sunday

Guess Who Got First Place in the Technion Med School?

Guess who graduated first in this year's medical school class at the Technion, Israel's version of M.I.T.? The answer will surprise you. It's a 27-year-old stereotype-buster: a charming, feminist, smart, open-minded and observant Islamic woman named Mais Ali-Saleh who grew up in a small village outside of Nazareth, in Israel's Galilee.

Ali-Selah's academic excellence not only marks her own personal achievement but also proves that contrary to propaganda spouted by proponents of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement -- whose latest convert is Stephen Hawking -- an academic boycott of Israel is the wrong approach to solving the Israel-Arab conflict. Moreover, it ultimately hurts the very people it claims to help. Ali-Selah put it best when she said, "An academic boycott of Israel is a passive move, and it doesn't achieve any of its purported objectives."

After Ali-Selah's first class at the Technion, in Haifa, northern Israel, she was ready to call it quits. Ali-Selah had studied Hebrew from elementary school through high school but in the predominantly Arab area around Nazareth, she rarely used Hebrew and her vocabulary was limited. During Ali-Selah's first Chemistry lecture, she couldn't understand why her professor kept talking about malls. What did shopping malls have to do with Chemistry? She then realized the professor was speaking about moles, a standard scientific unit for measuring quantities of minute entities.

For more on this story go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-bletter/guess-whos-valedictorian_b_3602610.html?utm_hp_ref=tw    

England goes Halal - March of Islam Continues

Statistics from Waltham Forest a Borough of London


How far has the march of halal progressed in English schools? An unsettling report shines light on one small corner of the country, the London borough of Waltham Forest: "A total of 46 schools and academies supported by the local authority order only halal meat from Waltham Forest Catering, their supplier. Just one school serves both halal and non-halal meat and 15 serve meat from animals slaughtered using 'standard' methods." Hence, three-quarters of the schools controlled by Waltham Forest Council feed students halal meat only. Also note that the borough is home to Larkswood Primary School, where parents recently protested plans to adopt a halal menu

 
We are rapidly approaching a time when it will be easier to list those British establishments that have not gone halal. Schools represent merely the tip of the Shari'a-compliant iceberg. From supermarkets and restaurants to hospitals and sports venues, many food providers serve halal items without bothering to inform the people eating them.

American Textbooks Adopt the Arab Narrative

Thirty-eight textbooks used in American schools were reviewed recently by ACT for American Education. There are key problematic areas in the treatment of Islam in 6th through 12th grade American textbooks. The full 229 page report http://tinyurl.com/7l3gm2b reveals a pattern of historical revisionism, omissions, and bias in the presentation of all aspects devoted to Islam in these textbooks.

Differences in presentation of key problematic areas lie primarily in the nature of the wording or the degree of historical revisionism, omission, bias, sanitization, and misrepresentation. A shortened 31 page Executive summary can be read at http://tinyurl.com/7nqeqoq

The list that follows highlights some of the problematic areas identified in the treatment of Islam as a world religion and of events in past and recent history when Islam and the West have come into conflict. Please note that not all of the points listed below are addressed in this Executive Summary, but they are all covered in the full Report.

· The doctrine of jihad is omitted, incorrectly defined, inaccurately described, or understated.
· Faulty description of women's rights under Islam: The oppressive and discriminatory nature of Shari’a law with respect to women is omitted, mischaracterized, or understated.
· Omission or minimization of the Islamic slave trade, in sharp contrast with what is typically an extensive and appropriately critical examination of the Atlantic slave trade operated by Europeans.
· Aggrandizement and elevation of Muhammad's character that is contradicted by accepted historical facts.
· Misrepresentation of Shari’a Law in such areas as its applicability to non-Muslims and the separation of Church and State.
· Faulty historical narrative of the Crusades. Muslims in the Holy Land are commonly depicted as innocent victims of unprovoked aggression who were defending “their” lands against Christian invaders, rather than what is historically accurate:
(1) that Muslims invaded and conquered the Holy Land centuries prior to the Crusades;
(2) that Christians and Jews were victims of Muslim conquest and aggression centuries prior to the launching of the Crusades; and
(3) that the Crusades were launched to wrest back control of the Holy Land from the Muslim
invaders and conquerors.
· Chronological revisionism of the historical development of Judaism, Christianity
and Islam which incorrectly portrays Islam as preceding Judaism and Christianity and the Muslims/Arabs as the indigenous people in the Holy Land, resulting in
the delegitizimation of Israel.
· Omission of the fact that the United Nations created a two-state partition for Palestine, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs.
· Omission of the fact that the Arabs refused to accept the offer of an independent Arab state contained in the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.
· Omission of the fact that the PLO’s recognition of Israel’s right to exist was and remains a verbal recognition only, contradicted by the unrevised PLO charter.
· Inaccurate claim that most Middle Eastern terrorist groups have roots in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
· Omission of the fact that Islamic Jihadists target Americans not only for their support of Israel but also for what they consider the “decadent nature” of Western way of life that threatens the spread of Islam throughout the world.
· Failure to identify the terrorists who perpetrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on America as Muslims or Islamic Jihadists.
· Failure to explain why the Islamic Jihadists targeted the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and to identify the fourth target as the White House.

With regard to the techniques used to implement the historical revisionism common in these textbooks, some are blatant and obvious, while others are subtle and deceptive. Three articular categories of techniques stand out:
(1) Errors of omission, in which information crucial to gaining an understanding of the topic is left out: e.g., omission of the historical fact that the Arabs refused the offer of an independent Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution proposed by the United Nations in 1947.
(2) False statements or claims, presentation of facts that are demonstrably false and/or unsupported by historical or other evidence: e.g., the false assertion that Islam has historically been tolerant of Jews and Christians.
(3) Partial truths, or the inclusion of some facts while omitting others that might be quite relevant to interpreting and understanding the issues at hand: e.g., asserting that under Islam women had certain “rights” and/or “spiritual equality”, while omitting the facts regarding the many restrictions and legal disabilities imposed upon women in the Qur’an and under Islamic Shari’a law.

Saudi Arabia’s plan, implemented in the mid-1970s, focused on changing how America looked at the Arabs and the Middle East. It focused as well on undermining American support for Israel. Islamist revisionism of Middle East history grew out of this plan, which has without a doubt significantly influenced the material in today’s textbooks.

Perhaps the senior editors who work for the textbook publishing houses do not know the history. Perhaps they check only for spelling and grammatical errors but not for historical inaccuracies and bias. Perhaps they have accepted, with little criticism or examination, material that has been provided them by Muslim organizations, such as the CIE, that lobby publishing houses.

Perhaps these inaccuracies reflect the biases of the writers and editors. Perhaps it is a combination of all of the above. Whatever the reason, the errors must be corrected so that history is recorded accurately and passed on to generations of students who must learn from the past if they are to become the leaders of the future. They can only learn from the past if the history that they study is accurate and unbiased, if the history they receive is “education” rather than “indoctrination.”

The United Nations and Human Rights Abuse

This story by a Muslim lady, Wafa Sultan, a Syrian certified psychiatrist, on October 13, 2011 is asking the questions that should be shouted from every corner of the earth.

The full article can be read at http://www.hudson-ny.org/2485/united-nations-human-rights-abuse

Never did I imagine that one day I would stand outside the United Nations to oppose its perverted conference, to defend against its malicious attempt to single out Israel -- a country that I was taught to hate.

But here I am today, proud to stand for light in the midst of darkness. This darkness brought about by the multiple Muslim countries and their international enablers, who have dishonored the initial objective of the United Nations, only to vilify, and eventually to destroy Israel - the one and the only free democratic country in the entire Middle East.

For the last 1,400 years, since its inception, Islamic ideology has attempted to deprive the Jews of their three most cherished possessions -- their Bible, their Lives, and their Land of Israel.

During my school years, I heard my teachers, family members, neighbors, and the media all bombarding us daily, throughout the Arab world. We, as small kids and young adults, were indoctrinated to share the anti-Semitic vitriol -- to despise and denigrate Jews.
• God condemned the Jews because they falsified the Torah. How did I know it? That is what I was taught.
• Since Jews forged the Bible, they were despised and depicted as pigs and apes. How did I know it? That is what I was taught.
• Jews killed our prophets and were the enemies of Allah. How did I know it? That is what I was taught.
• Therefore, the Jews represent an existential danger to all humanity, so their annihilation, as individuals and as a people, was and would be a legitimate service to God and mankind. How did I know it? That is what I was taught.
•
Yes, killing Jews was always presented to me and my classmates as a religious obligation. We absorbed this evil propaganda with our food and water, and with our school books, each and every day.
As a trained psychiatrist, I assert that seeds of hatred planted in the mind of a child, lead to immense hatred as the child grows into adulthood. Tragically, this hatred generates dangerous actions and even death.

I believe that any nation that grants equal opportunity to every citizen, regardless of race, religion, political affiliation, or gender, thereby, establishes its moral legitimacy. According to this principle, Israel stands alone in the Middle East region, as a nation with moral legitimacy: it grants all citizens equal rights for men and women alike, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech and of the press.

Not a single Arab or Muslim country in the surrounding region does the same. Nor do any of those Arab and Muslim nations allow their citizens personal freedom, or the right to maintain and express opposing points of view.
The United Nations time and again focuses its power on the perpetual manufacturing of false anti-Israel accusations. Painting Palestinians as perennial underdogs provides the perfect cover for their subversive effort.

Without doubt, this trend encourages hatred and violence against the Jewish people in Israel and everywhere else. And that is exactly its point.

Hence, as a woman of an Arab and Islamic background, with that perspective, I join you all today to highlight the hypocrisy of the UN. I challenge the U.N. for neglecting its fundamental mission. They do it under pressure from totalitarian Muslim regimes who put their full faith and credit of their oil wealth behind this anti-Israel campaign.

A Palestinian women's organization reported that Muslim men perpetrate some 40 honor killings annually in the West Bank alone, not including the vast majority of honor killing and abuse of women that go unreported -- as Islamic society maintains secrecy in upholding the popular belief that those "cursed with a sin, [should] hide it."

Where is the UN Human Rights Commission's outcry over the Muslim world's honor killing epidemic? Has the UN adopted the same Islamic philosophy, hiding a societal sin to protect Muslim honor?

I receive countless letters from Arab readers throughout the Middle East, expressing their desperate desire to live as free people with the same human rights we enjoy in the West -- and especially, freedom from Sharia!
One young Arab woman, a student, wrote to me only last month:
"They deprive us of any right to think, and ... remind us each time, how we will burn in hell. They terrorize us, and they do the same with the children. I would like that to stop. I try very hard to change things. I created a little group against sexism. And I hope to be able to defend Arab women one day."

Tell me Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who will defend this young student and her small group fighting Arab sexism and the atrocities committed against Arab women?

Concerning Islamic and Arab violence, the UN remains tragically blind and silent. The UN repeats its denunciation of Israel, the only Middle East nation that grants all citizens the basic human rights this young Arab woman wishes to have for her people.

Those who love liberty and life will strengthen their ties and warm relations with Israel, and stand with her. Israel will continue to shine its light among all nations.

Hello and Goodbye Europe

From the Israeli website YNET one writer is expressing the views and frustrations with a Europe that seems determined to raise the white flag and surrender its independance, its culture and its social norms.

Good morning Europe!

Hello dear continent, for a long time I wanted to write you a few words, as a close neighbor, from here, the Middle East, as one who loves to travel your beautiful landscape, and as one whose parents and roots are planted somewhere across the continent.

You were our home for thousands of years, especially the last thousand years. We knew beautiful days of good neighborly relations, cultural and spiritual prosperity, and partnership in out lives on the continent, just as we knew, and how we knew, hard times of hatred, expulsion, degradation, and liable.

Somehow we survived. Us, and you. To our sorrow, and to your shame, Our affair with you, dear continent, ended by your choice not ours. We could have lived in good neighborly relations and cooperation for many years, but for reasons you chose to keep for yourself you chose to to end and eliminate this partnership-literally. On your land the plan was hatched, on your land the camps were built, on your land the trains moved, on your land the graves were dug, the blood was flowing into your rivers, and in a short time you cut off a significant Jewish presence of a thousand years. Millions of loyal Jewish citizens were eliminated and expelled from your midst. You eliminated not only their lives, but all their contributions to culture, economics, art, spiritualism, academia, literature, medicine, education, commerce, banking, and life in general.

For a long time I wanted to write you, but the opportunity did not come. But this week, after I saw two things-I decided I really must write to you a few words.

First, I have seen reports by all kind of experts in the field of demography, sociology, etc., who claim that within a few years, you, Europe, will become a Muslim continent. In some European countries already 50% of births are by Muslims. If we add to this the low rate of birth by non-Muslims Europeans and the immigration data, in not so a distant future-some say in 10-20 years-you, white, and Christian Europe, will become a Muslim continent.

It is true that you are trying to somehow fight against this phenomenon-against mosques in Switzerland, against women's veils in France, against immigration, and other minute things, but you also know that this train cannot be stopped. There is a plan to build the world largest Mosque in the center of London, and no one will be able to ban Muslim women from wearing the veil. Liberal enlightened European women, who are permissive, know very well that the day may arrive that radical Islam will gain power and the party will end.

Secondly, I also saw the travel warning of many countries warning their inhabitants not to travel to Europe from fear of terrorism. Someone said that it is true that not all terrorists are Muslims, but somehow all terrorists are Muslims.

Slowly and gradually, dear continent, you are beginning to understand whom you are dealing with, what kind of religion and culture radical Islam brings. Suddenly you discover what hatred is, the culture of the Shahids of intolerance, lack of openness, what is rejection and alienation of true democracy, human rights, and women's rights.

Suddenly, radical Islam is stuck in Europe's throat. Not able to spit it out or swallow. Impossible to spit out because of the political correctness of racism and human rights with all its usual Blah, but it is also impossible for you to swallow, because European culture and Christian liberal democratic white cannot contain such extreme elements of culture and religion. It will end in an explosion. Literally.

Dear continent, there is no vacuum in the world. You expelled and killed us, and received instead the Muslim world. In the beginning it was nice and cute, little Mediterranean atmosphere, little oriental sea wind, But with it arrived the storm of radical Islam which threatens to sweep you, our dear neighbor.

Now you are beginning to eat what you have cooked. Suddenly, you find women in veils, fanaticism in the eyes and mosques under every tree. Suddenly you find yourself having to contend with birth rate, culture that has extreme features, terrorism and violence which you have nurtured and ignored. You cannot deny these facts much longer. The conflict is here. we, unfortunately, are experts at this, although, we have our own naive and self righteous people.

The first time, when the Creator decided to destroy His world because the behavior of His creatures, He agreed to give humanity another chance. He asked Noach to enter the ark to try and establish a new core, and foundation to the world. A core that maybe could produce a more deserving humanity. The ark was the chance of the new world, a shelter for a moment.

Will you, dear Europe, be able to prepare for you in advance, a physical, and cultural ark so you can guard yourself and survive? Or aggression, arrogance and hypocrisy will not allow you to admit disaster which you brought on yourself with your own hands, and became a continent who lives on borrowed time?

Sheikh Jarrah was a Jewish Neighbourhood

The recent protests in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem against the eviction of two Palestinian families from a house has brought international condemnation of Israel has come from a variety of sources, including the UN. But the events in Sheikh Jarrah are part of a larger history that the international community never seems to take into account. So reports Seth Frantzman, see link at the end of the blog

What is today called Sheikh Jarrah in the 19th century included two Jewish neighborhoods known as Nahalat Shimon and Shimon HaTzadiq. Sheikh Jarrah was primarily a Jewish neighborhood from 1876 onwards and remained so up until 1948.

ACCORDING TO research carried out by Prof. Ruth Kark of the Hebrew University the Jewish housing developments were bordered by villas constructed by Jerusalem's leading Arab families that began building in Sheikh Jarrah in the 1870s. By 1918 the total number of Muslim houses in the neighborhood had grown to thirty.

In December of 1947 fighting broke out between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem. Initially the leading Muslim families asked Arab fighters from outside the city to leave their neighborhood, and the Jews there, in peace. By March 1948, however, Arabs from a unit called "al Shabab" [The Youth] invaded the neighborhood and set the Jewish synagogues and houses on fire, causing the residents to flee.

Sheikh Jarrah was not the only Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem destroyed in the war. Silwan, where Yemenite Jews had settled in 1882 was also taken over along with the Old city's Jewish quarter which was razed.

After 1948 East Jerusalem passed into Jordanian control and in this period the city's Christian population declined from around 30,000 before 1948 to some 11,000 in 1967.

THE UN was involved in settling Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem. The disputed houses in Sheikh Jarrah were actually handed over to the Hannoun and Gawi families in 1956 under the auspices of UNWRA. The Jewish community which actually owned the properties was not consulted. Neither was the Jewish community consulted when graves on the Mount of Olives were destroyed beginning in 1956.

Many of the disputes about East Jerusalem have their origins in what happened between 1948 and 1967, a period so often ignored by historians, governments and activists. The UN was NEVER given authority to resettle Palestinians in Jewish property, yet this is what they did. Before condemning Israel, the UN should first apologize for their theft of Jewish property without compensation. The Jewish properties in question might well have been left in ruins, like part of Nahalat Shimon and the grave of Simon the Just was. In fact none of the rampant destruction of Jewish sites in Jerusalem was condemned by the UN during the period of Jordanian rule.

Had the international community cared then as much as it does now perhaps the disputes would not have come about. If people understood more about the period of Jordanian rule one might better understand the actual history of the city, rather than focusing merely on Israeli actions and Palestinian victimization.

For more on this read http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251145166123&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

This Apartheid Israel!!

This year has seen a great start for the Israeli soccer scene. It has managed to get 2 clubs through into the official first stage of the European club competitions.
In the premier competition, the Champions League, Maccabi Haifa will be playing. However, until the new stadium is built, its matches will have to be played at the Ramat Gan stadium near Tel Aviv.

The Israeli railways will be laying on special trains to take fans from Haifa to Ramat Gan directly (in the normal schedule, one has to change trains during the journey), a journey of approx 40 mins.

One of their main goalscorers in the qualifying stages for Maccabi Haifa was 18 year old, Mohammed Gadhir, who lives in a small Bedouin village in the Western Galilee, Bir Machsur

He has 7 brothers

Before most games, he deliberately seeks out a blessing form the local sheikh

He has come through the team’s youth system, and it would not be surprising if he is snapped up by a European team during the transfer season

These are the cowards we have to fight

According to YNET, (http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3647934,00.html) the head ofIsraeli's intelligence reported today that Hamas terrorists are hiding in hospitals and maternity wards, wearing the clothes of doctors and nurses.

They are moving rocket launchers into crowded residential neighborhoods, and thus their success in shooting over 45 rockets into Israeli towns this morning alone.

The difficulty of rooting out terrorists who hide behind newborn babies and cancer patients is hard for a civilized country like Israel to deal with. Israel allowed 100 truckloads of medical supplies and basic fooditems to enter Gaza yesterday, along with five new ambulances donated byTurkey. This morning, the Gazans requested that Israeli hospitals takein two small children injured in the hostilities. Israel allowed them in, even as Hamas continued to bomb.

Racism Durban Style and Italian Style

With the imminent start of 2009, the infamous Durban II conference gets nearer and nearer. Nothing in the preparation for this conference suggests that it will be any different from the Durban I Israel bashing forum. I would have hoped that by now that more governments would have made the decision to opt out of this fiasco of a conference, but no such luck.

So far only Canada and Israel have made the decision not to participate and the USA and Holland are “threatening” not to participate.

Thus, as so my commentators far more professional than me are writing, the Islamization of Europe is continuing apace. In my simplistic mind I would have thought what has been proposed for the conference in black and white would be sufficient for the governments of the EU to announce as a body their unwillingness to be part of this conference. Ah well, such is the reality of European politics today.

I suppose that many think of my comments as not politically correct, even racist, but as Michael Richards, better known as Kramer from TV's Seinfeld series, said in his defense speech in a US court after making racial comments in his comedy act.
“I'm proud To Be White, there, someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?
There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc.
And then there are just Americans.You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.You call me 'White boy,' 'Cracker,' 'Honkey,' 'Whitey,' 'Caveman' ... and that's OK.But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner , Gook, or Chink .....You call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund the Martin Luther King Day, Black History Month, Cesar Chavez Day.You have BET, if we had WET (White Entertainment Television) we'd be racists.

If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.If we had White History Month, we'd be racists.If we had any organization for only whites to 'advance' OUR lives we'd be racists.A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships you know we'd be racists. There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US. Yet if there were 'White colleges' THAT would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists. You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.Why is it that only whites can be racists?”

I suppose in Italy there will be calls of racism after the centre-right gov't in Italy,
the only EU country where the elected Gov't rules in full respect of citizens' will as manifested in their clear electoral choice, by gradually erasing the previous Prodi's Left's disastrous policies of indiscriminate immigration which had been responsible for social turmoils and abuses from the growing Islamic contingent ..

The good news now concerns a project of a package of laws regulating future authorizations of Mosquees and of so-called Islamic Centers, representing in reality the perfect Trojan Horse for Islamic propaganda and indoctrination, AND incitement to terrorism - as proved by recent arrest of Moroccan (Italian resident) terrorists planning attacks in Milan and surroundings.

By this body of laws, one of the requirements will be that sermons and speeches shall have to be delivered in Italian language. There's no doubt that one country where good sense and sane minds rule is Italy.

An Italian minister has proposed a register of imams in Italy in order to control the construction of mosques and a referendum to integrate new places or worship in a social and urban context.Andrea Ronchi, European Affairs Minister, and member of the rightist National Alliance party (note: accused of 'fascist tendencies' by the left) proposed the move on Tuesday in what he called a bid to improve interreligious dialogue.

Ronchi also wants to restart dialogue between Muslims and institutions such as the state-backed Islamic Council or 'Consulta per l'Islam'. However, Ronchi said he did not want Italy's largest Muslim group, the Union of Islamic Communities of Italy (UCOII) to take part in the initiative, calling them "the real exponents of non-dialogue".

"We do not speak to those who deny the existence of Israel," he said.

Ronchi announced his proposal after meeting the vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community (COREIS), Yahya Pallavicini.Ronchi said that the existence of new mosques in Italy should be dealt with in a transparent manner and included in a national register. "We need to put a stop to mosques being hurriedly built, without the consensus of the community. We need to match them with the reality of the place," said Ronchi.

The initiative has already been carried out by COREIS, which has trained 20 Italian-speaking imams.Italy's rightist Northern League, allied to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, wants to limit the growth of Islam and block the construction of mosques through strict new regulations.

And so the BIG LIE continues

According to reports in the local press, United Nations General Assembly President, Nicaraguan national and Roman Catholic Priest Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann leveled speeches laced with antisemitism at the State of Israel, last week, accusing the Jews of "crucifying" the Palestinian Arabs, libeling Israel as an "apartheid" state, and calling for global trade and economic sanctions to be imposed on Israel.

This tirade was delivered on the UNs' "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People."

This day is held annually to mark the United Nations vote, in 1947, to partition the ancient Jewish national home - then known as Palestine - between Arabs and Jews

Instead of applauding the outcome of its vote, the UN gathering condemned the Jews (who accepted the dividing up of THEIR land) and supported the Arabs - who through war at the time, and terrorism in the ensuing decades, rejected the partition even though it offered them a homeland for the first time in history.

Speaking from the podium, Brockmann said Israel was responsible for "crucifying the Palestinians." His choice of phrase echoed that employed by such enemies of Israel as the Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, a Palestinian Christian and former Anglican canon who founded and heads up the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.

Ateek has compared Israel's "abuse" of the Palestinian Arabs to Herod's mass-murder of Bethlehem's baby boys in an effort to kill Jesus Christ.

Brockmann, not willing to make do with just this antisemitic accusation, went on to wield the most recent libelous charge against Israel.

"It has been 60 years since some 800,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes," Brockmann said, perpetuating the myth that the Jews were responsible for the "Palestinian refugee problem."

Israel was perpetrating "a version of the highest policy of apartheid" against the Palestinian Arabs, he went on to say. As the world had forced South Africa to abandon apartheid, the UNGA president said, it must rally to boycott Israel and sever its financial ties to the world, imposing sanctions against Jerusalem until the Jewish state likewise buckles under the pressure.

And despite all that Israel has offered, hatred persists. Persists and grows only stronger. Not only from the Palestinian Arabs or their other Arab brethren. Not only from the Islamic nations. Not only from Near Eastern and Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries. But also from many in Scandinavia, Europe and Africa. And it's also manifesting in the Americas, north and south; in Australia and in New Zealand.

As Israel's new ambassador to the UN, Professor Gabriela Shalev has quickly learned (Ynetnews November 21, 2008) double language is the order of the day: One language at the corridors, in private talks backstage, with a lot of appreciation for the Zionist state, and poisonous remarks against Israel in the official speeches.

Thus the BIG LIE concerning Israel continues and continues, ad nauseum.

In an unrelated issue, an opposition member of the Israeli Knesset, in an attempt at creative thinking said that Israel should set up a temporary detention facility in the Gaza vicinity and jail Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners there. "If they [members of Hamas] don't work to stop the fire, they should take into account that the rockets may hurt their men as well.

And what was the reaction from Hamas? "Using Palestinians as human shields is a war crime"!! Now just how cynical can you get??

Come and Join Us

Since I started this blog, I have tried in many cases to give a flavour of life here in Haifa. With my Taiwanese journalist friend we visited, this morning a trauma treament center where she conducted interviews with the staff and filmed some of the children there.

After we had finished and we were discussing future projects for filming in the City, she said to me "Haifa is such an interesting city with such a variety of activities and challenges"

She plans to do a lot more filming in the City.

So to those of you living abroad, (and even to those in Israel not living in Haifa this brings me to the message in this blog WHY NOT COME AND JOIN US IN HAIFA!

The well known Rambam hospital has quite a number of vacancies immediately available and particularly in ONCOLOGY, ANESTHESIA AND GENERAL SURGERY. A great opportunity if you are thinking of coming to live in Israel. you can arrange your work before even setting foot in the country.

Oh, and by the way there is a great support team of Anglos ready to help you settle in

What Israeli Arabs Think of Israel

So much is written by journalists on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians that the story of the real Israel is usually ignored altogether. At a recent conference I attended, the results of a survey in two countries, Denmark and India, showed that the average man on the street really knew very little about day to day life of the Israeli citizen.

In a recent briefing 223 by Beyond Images www.beyondimages.info a number of examples are given which report the way the Arab community views their lives in Israel. These are not isolated cases. I will be visiting an institution this week dealing with a number of very successful co-existence projects and will write about this visit shortly.

Case 1 - Arab parent praises the 'equal treatment' of Jews and Arabs in Israel by a charity for disabled children

Keren Malki is an Israeli charity which supports families with disabled children. It was founded in memory of 15 year old Chana Malka Roth, who was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem in 2001. An Arab parent recently wrote to Keren Malki praising it for "not differentiating between Jews and Arabs", despite how it came into being, and describing how his requests for support and help have always been received warmly. You can click here for the briefing 223, where the text of the letter is printed in full.

The key message is that Keren Malki is a great example of how personal suffering (in this case of the Roth family) has become a foundation on which to build hope. Keren Malki shows the highest respect for human dignity, of Jews and Arabs. It is also a massive refutation of the 'cycle of violence' theory.

Case 2. 77% of Israeli Arabs say they prefer living in Israel to living in any other country

This is a startling conclusion from a 2008 Harvard School of Government survey. And this is despite the social and economic challenges which Israeli Arabs face. Not exactly proof that Israel is an 'apartheid state'.

Case 3. Don't leave us outside Israel - 50,000 of us will move "within minutes" - Arab communal leader

The leader of Shuafat, an Arab neighbourhood of Jerusalem, publicly stated in October 2007 (in a Canadian newspaper) that 50,000 Arab residents in and around Shuafat would move to Israel 'within minutes' if they felt they'd be excluded from Israel under a permanent border arrangement agreed between Israel and the Palestinians.

Case 4. Praising the democracy and justice of Israeli society - communal leader in Umm el-Fahm

The Arab mayor of Israel's largest Israeli Arab town, Umm el-Fahm, who is also chairman of Israel's Islamic Movement, stated publicly in 2004 that in his opinion, despite the discrimination and injustice faced by Israel's Arabs, the democracy and justice in Israel is better than the democracy and justice in Arab and Muslim countries.'

Whilst it is true to say that recently, relations with the Islamic movement in Umm el-Fahm have deteriorated, due to the increased radicalisation of many Arab residents in the town, and their association with Hamas. Nonetheless, the underlying messages from the Umm el-Fahm residents is unmistakeable).