Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Israel's viewpoint in videos



15 Seconds

distance is only a matter of time

1 comment :

  1. The mostly Mizrachi Jews stuck living in the Negev have not suffered any less than the Palestinian Arab civilian population through all of this deadly "chess game".

    Ahmed Yassin, (the founder of Hamas) returning from Cairo in the seventies, established an Islamic charity association. Prime Minister Golda Meir, saw this as a an opportunity to counterbalance the rise of Arafat’s Fatah movement.

    According to the Israeli weekly Koteret Rashit (October 1987), "The Islamic associations as well as the university had been supported and encouraged by the Israeli military authority" in charge of the (civilian) administration of the West Bank and Gaza. "They [the Islamic associations and the university] were authorized to receive money payments from abroad."

    The Islamists set up orphanages and health clinics, as well as a network of schools, workshops which created employment for women as well as system of financial aid to the poor. And in 1978, they created an "Islamic University" in Gaza. "The military authority was convinced that these activities would weaken both the PLO and the leftist organizations in Gaza."

    Thanks to the Mossad,
    (funding and training) Hamas was allowed to reinforce their presence in the occupied territories while members of Fatah and the Palestinian Left were subjected to brutal repression.

    In 1984, Yassin was arrested and condemned to twelve years in prison, after the discovery of a hidden arms cache. But one year later, he was set free and resumed his activities. When the Intifada began, in October 1987, Yassin responded by creating the Hamas.

    Yassin was in prison when, the Oslo accords were signed in September 1993. At that time, 70% of Palestinians had condemned the attacks on Israeli civilians.

    Yassin did everything in his power to undermine Oslo. Even prior to Prime Minister Rabin’s death, he had the support of the Israeli government.

    The Hamas then launched a carefully timed campaign of attacks against civilians, one day before the meeting between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, regarding the formal recognition of Israel by the National Palestinian Council. These events were largely instrumental in the formation of a Right wing Israeli government following the May 1996 elections.

    Quite unexpectedly,Netanyahu ordered Yassin to be released from prison. Netanyahu, together with President Bill Clinton, was publicly putting pressure on Arafat to control Hamas while in fact, Netanyahu knew that he could rely on Hamas to sabotage the Oslo accords. Worse still: after having expelled Yassin to Jordan, Prime Minister Netanyahu allowed him to return to Gaza, where he was welcomed triumphantly as a hero in October 1997.

    Arafat was helpless in the face of these events. Moreover, because Arafat had supported Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf war, (while Hamas had cautiously abstained from taking sides), the Gulf states decided to cut off their financing of the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, between February and April 1998, Yassin was able to raise several hundred million dollars, from those same countries. These new sources of funding enabled Hamas to effectively pursue their various charitable activities. It is estimated that one Palestinian out of three is the recipient of financial aid from the Hamas. And in this regard, Israel has done nothing to curb the inflow of money into Gaza.

    Hamas built its strength through its various acts of sabotage of the peace process, in a way which was compatible with the interests of the Israeli government. In turn, the latter sought in a number of ways, to prevent the application of the Oslo accords. In other words, Hamas was fulfilling the functions for which it was originally created: to prevent the creation of a Palestinian State. And in this regard, Hamas and Ariel Sharon, saw eye to eye; they were exactly on the same wave length.

    (Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

    Arab civilians in Gaza are not the only ones suffering due to paramilitary extremists who cloak themselves in a "pseudo-Islam"; currently Arabs in Southern Syria and Lebanon are struggling and dying under the tyrannical and violent rule of the Salafis who are the ideological heritage of Al Qaeda.

    Public CIA documents, have revealed that Al Qaeda was funded, trained and recruited by the CIA in the late 70s as a guerrilla army to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.

    Ronald Reagan praised the mujahideen (paramilitary extremist fighters) as "freedom fighters", and four mainstream Western films, the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights, the 1988 action films Rambo III, The Beast and the 2007 biographical movie Charlie Wilson's War, portrayed them as heroic.

    The mujahideen were financed, armed and trained by the CIA during the Carter and Reagan administrations.

    Extremists from other countries volunteered to assist various mujahideen factions in Afghanistan, and gained significant experience in guerrilla warfare. Groups of these veterans have been significant factors in more recent conflicts in and around the Muslim world. (Osama bin Laden, for example is originally from a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia).

    The horrific amount of human suffering that we are all painfully witnessing is the handiwork of Israel's past leaders, the CIA, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

    Here are some references:

    Freedom Next Time, by John Pilger, p. 275
    "Reagan Doctrine, 1985," United States State Department.
    The Path to Victory and Chaos: 1979-92 - Library of Congress country studies

    Also of note : Battle of Algiers, a 1966 French film that was recently screened at the Pentagon as a primer on "what went wrong in Iraq".

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