Can you look at this map and say Israel does not systemically appropriate land?

In last week’s election, American Jews stayed steadfastly loyal to their liberal values, yet they turn a blind eye to their steady erosion in Israel.
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Many U.S. Jews believe that criticizing Israel’s foreign and defense policy or its occupation regime in the territories plays into the hands of Israel’s enemies. Many of them believe, understandably, that on matters of life and death, only those who will pay the price should make the decisions. For the benefit of this sizeable chuck of Jews, here’s the deal: Support Israel’s fight against its external enemies, whoever they deem them to be, but pressure Israel to combat its internal demons as well. Don’t critique the occupation, but fight the metastatic spread of its ethno-supremacist Weltanschauung inside Israel’s body politic. Don’t criticize the settlements, if you don’t want to, but come out swinging against their rapid colonization of politics and public mores inside the Green Line as well. Let the world deal with the rights of Palestinians, if those don’t concern you, but make sure Israelis don’t start losing theirs as well.

The Laws Against Non-Jews


"Chapter 5"
Jewish History, Jewish Religion:
The Weight of Three Thousand Years

by Professor Israel Shahak

About the Author:
Israel Shahak was born on April 28, 1933 in Warsaw, Poland. In 1943-5, the Nazis in the Poniatowo and Bergen–Belsen concentration camps imprisoned Shahak and his parents. The 12–year–old Shahak and his mother immigrated to Palestine after the liberation of the camps in 1945. In the 1960s, while working as Professor of Chemistry at Hebrew University, Shahak became one of Israel´s leading voices of dissent. In 1970 he was elected chairman of the Israeli Human and Civil Rights League, and spent the next three decades strongly advocating equality and civil rights. In the 1990s, Shahak emerged as one of the strongest critics of the Oslo ‘peace process’, which he denounced as a fraud and a vehicle for making the Israeli occupation more efficient.

Shahak gained a wide international audience through his regular “Translations from the Hebrew Press”, which gave the non-Hebrew speaking world a unique glimpse into the extreme and racist rhetoric about Arabs, Palestinians and Jewish supremacy that characterizes much of ‘mainstream’ discourse in Israel. The translations also clarified Israeli strategic thinking and policy goals in a manner that directly contradicted official ‘hasbara‘ (propaganda), which presented Israel as a besieged state struggling only for peace and survival. Shahak´s writings continuously exposed and denounced Israel as an expansionist, chauvinist and racist state bent on the domination of the surrounding Arab peoples, especially the Palestinians. His recent books, including Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear and Foreign Policies (Pluto Press, 1997), Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years (Pluto Press, 1997) and Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (Pluto Press, 1999), provide an invaluable insight into Israeli discourse and policy. Shahak explained, “After 1967, when I ceased being just a scientist and became a political being, my first reason was that after 1967 the Israeli aim was to dominate is the Middle East, which every rational human being knows is impossible. My second reason was that there must be a Palestinian state.” Edward Said observed “As someone who spoke and wrote about Palestine, I could not have done what I did without Shahak's papers and of course his example as a seeker after truth, knowledge, and justice. It is as simple as that, and I therefore owe him a gigantic debt of gratitude.”

Ban said nothing more powerfully symbolized the "summer of suffering" than the Jabalia school where thousands of families had sought shelter from the fighting "under the U.N. flag." Yet, he said, the school was shelled despite the U.N. having provided details to the Israeli military.

"Other U.N. facilities — sheltering other innocent civilians — shared a similar fate," he said at the time. "The shelling of United Nations schools is absolutely unacceptable. These actions must be fully and independently investigated."

A BBC Spotlight NI investigation has uncovered 731 photographs of Northern Irish schoolgirls on a pornographic website used by paedophiles.

The schoolgirls included pupils from 19 post-primary schools in Northern Ireland, including some of the best known grammar and high schools.

The schools covered a wide geographical area and all communities.

The photographs were those that girls had taken of themselves and their friends.

They were in normal situations, having fun both inside and outside school - pictures taken in innocence.

In some of the pictures underwear was exposed as well as some bare skin.

Neither the pupils, nor the schools, have done anything wrong.

The pictures appear to have been taken from legitimate social network profiles without their knowledge or consent.

On discovering the images in October, BBC Spotlight NI immediately passed information about the website to the PSNI's Child Protection Unit.

The programme also informed all the schools concerned.

The pornographic website had multiple galleries of the schoolgirls under provocative headings.

Within the galleries, explicit paedophilic comments were left under some photos.


The website in question is registered to an offshore accountancy business in Cyprus, with its servers located in The Netherlands.

However, BBC Spotlight NI has discovered that it is actually based in and run from Israel.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Enas Shalodi, a Palestinian mother of six, has been severely punished by Israel for something she didn't do.

Israeli Cabinet moves to define Israel as Jewish Associated Press
A wrecking crew gutted her family's apartment in Jerusalem last week, tearing down inner walls and leaving behind a thick layer of debris.

The demolition came a month after her oldest son, 21-year-old Abdel Rahman, drove a car into a crowd waiting for a train in Jerusalem, killing a 3-month-old girl and an Ecuadorean tourist before being shot and killed at the scene.

Israel says it needs tougher tools to stop recent "lone wolf" attacks on Jews by Palestinians. But critics say the practice is strikingly at odds with basic notions of justice, fairness and legality in a democracy — and that it is bound to bring on more hatred rather than serve as a deterrent.

Israel has given house demolition notices to families of six Jerusalem assailants, including the Shalodis and the relatives of two cousins who killed five people in a synagogue last week.

In razing the homes of attackers, Israel is reviving a punishment it largely halted in 2005. An army committee found at the time that punitive demolitions don't deter potential attackers.

Government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel's security services now "firmly believe that this can be an effective deterrent."

The European Parliament has considered formally recognising a Palestinian state; a wave of support for independent statehood has swept across Europe as the peace process remains deadlocked.

In an impassioned debate lasting nearly three hours, many MEPs urged the assembly to follow the lead of Sweden, whose government passed a resolution in October recognising the existence of a Palestinian state, despite protests from the Israeli government. The British, Irish and Spanish parliaments have passed symbolic motions urging their governments to consider a similar move, and France will debate the question this week. “This parliamentary initiative can provide extra impetus which can finally bring talks to success and peace to the Middle East,” said Richard Howitt, Labour MEP for the East of England.

Other MEPs warned that such a stance could compromise the EU’s role as a neutral negotiator. A vote was due on Thursday, but has been postponed until December – partly because of intense lobbying by Israeli diplomats, The Jerusalem Post reported, but partly because of divisions within the EU. Germany is against formal recognition. Even if the vote does pass in December, it will be a symbolic rather than a binding gesture, as formal recognition is up to the 28 governments of the EU.

The postponement is due in part to the intensive work by Israeli diplomats.

A vote by the European Parliament in Strasbourg over whether to recognize a Palestinian state was postponed Tuesday from later this week to mid-December.

Israeli diplomatic officials said the move was pushed off from Thursday for three reasons: Emerging difficulties between the various parties regarding the language of the resolution; opposition by some members of the parties – especially from Germany – to the resolution; and intensive work by Israeli diplomats in Brussels to postpone the vote, hoping to gain more time to change minds.
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... all this unilateral action by the EU ...

Foreign minister publishes new party platform, says Israel should offer Arabs 'economic incentives' to leave in order to help resolve the 'duality and divided loyalties from which they are suffering.'


Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday published an updated platform for his party, Yisrael Beiteinu, which includes a "peace plan" that calls on the government to encourage the transfer of Israeli Arabs to a Palestinian state by offering them "economic incentives."

The platform, which may be another sign that Knesset elections are forthcoming, was published on the Yisrael Beiteinu website and reiterates declarations the foreign minister has made over the past year. The diplomatic portion of the platform, or its "peace plan," does not include clear positions on issues such as Israel's borders, the status of Jerusalem or settlement construction and the future of existing Israeli settlements.

The only subject that the plan addresses in detail is that of Israel's Arab citizens. Lieberman repeated his proposal for land and population swaps between Israel and a future Palestinian state, but took it a step further by encouraging Israel to pay Arabs from Jaffa or Acre to move.

"As for Israeli Arabs, any agreement must include a plan for territorial and population exchange," Lieberman writes in the platform. "An arrangement of this kind with the Palestinian state will allow Israeli Arabs who do not identify with the State of Israel to become part of the Palestinian state. This will, first of all, resolve the problem of Arabs in the Wadi Ara triangle, adjacent to the Palestinian territories, who will be able to become citizens of the Palestinian state without leaving their homes."

Lieberman emphasized that his plan would allow Arabs from other parts of Israel, such as Jaffa and Acre, "who feel that they are part of the Palestinian people, to resolve this issue of duality and divided loyalties from which they are suffering. Israel should even encourage them with economic incentives."

He said that while he is not giving up on the dream or the principle of Greater Israel, he realizes Israel will have no choice but to reach a territorial compromise. "In the argument over the unity of the land versus the unity of the people – the latter takes precedence," Lieberman writes. "There can be no compromise over the unity of the people and we will never be able to recover from the loss of this unity."

At the same time, Lieberman claimed that peace with the Palestinians and the establishment of a Palestinian state can only be achieved as part of a comprehensive peace agreement with Arab states. The foreign minister presented this view in a speech he gave several months ago; however he has yet to outline how to attain such a deal.

Lieberman claims that left-wing politicians believe Israel should achieve peace with the Palestinians first and then reach an agreement with other Arab states. However, he writes, this formula has failed to yield results for more than 20 years, and also leads the Palestinians to believe they don’t have to compromise on any of their demands.

In addition, Lieberman claims, achieving peace with the Palestinians won’t solve the "problem" of Israeli Arabs' loyalty to Israel, nor will it end the conflict between Israel and Arab nations or bring Israel the political and economic gains that a comprehensive peace agreement would.

"Unlike the obsessive position of other parties, Yisrael Beiteinu understands that the State of Israel's conflict is not just a territorial one with our Palestinian neighbors, but a three-dimensional conflict: the Arab states, the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs," Lieberman writes. "That is why any agreement with the Palestinians must be part of a comprehensive agreement, including peace agreements with Arab countries and territorial and population exchanges with Israeli Arabs."

Lieberman did not elaborate on how to reach a comprehensive agreement, but said it is possible because, "Many people now understand that the Palestinian problem is not the main problem facing the Middle East, nor is it the main cause of violence."

"The events of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere prove this," he writes. "Moderate Arab countries also understand that the main threat to them today is not from Israel or from Zionism, but from radical Islamic organizations like Isis, Jabhat al-Nusra, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. For the first time, therefore, we can now reach a comprehensive agreement, the terms of which are reasonable and acceptable to Israel."

Meretz chairwoman Zahava Gal-On responded to Lieberman's plan on Friday, saying that the hysteria over elections had driven the foreign minister to pull out his "populist, shady and irresponsible plan that encourages the transfer [of Israeli Arabs] and only fans flames on the ground."

Gal-On said the only diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the obvious one based on 1967 lines with land swaps and shared sovereignty over Jerusalem. "There is no other agreement," Gal-On said, "and everyone in Netanyahu's extremist suicidal government knows that, including Lieberman, whose positions change like the wind and according to poll results."