: "Action Alert: Letter or Email to Kristin Halvorsen
(thanks to Marlene)

Please take a few moments to send a letter to Kristin Halvorsen, the Norwegian Finance Minister, who apparently has searched deeply in her heart and realized how inherently wrong it is to boycott Israeli producs. She is now apologizing for asking Norweigian citizens to boycott Israeli producs. You can send your support to her via email, or please use the Comments form that I left below, or use both. I'm leaving the article as published in Ha'aretz today regarding her decision to 'apologize.' Please distribute widely.

Ministry of Finance
The Norwegian Ministry of Finance
P.O.Box 8008 Dep, NO-0030 Oslo, Norway
Visiting address: Akersgata 40, 0180 Oslo

E-mail: postmottak@finans.dep.no

My letter:

Dear Minister Halvorsen,

When I learned that Norwegians were supporting the boycott of Israel, I immediately sent a message to a dear Norwegian friend condemning Norway's action. It was a moment of terror, that Norway was going back to it's Quisling regime.

It is my fervent hope that your apology will help heal the rest of Europe from its emerging antisemitism, spurred by the ever increasing migration of Arab Islamic workers escaping their failed regimes. Adults should not abdicate their responsibility to ensure justice.

What is left to the Israelis, Ms. Halvorsen? Just the other day, Israeli citizens were subjected to random missle fire from the Palestinian state of Gaza. The Israli people have a right to peace and security, just as the Norwegian people are.

Sincerely yours,

Ibraham Av
Citizen of the World

Rowan Berkeley, noted Nazi apologist, comments on the previous post regarding holocaust deniers and their ilk.
Al-Hayat is an intellectually and educationally retarded milieu itself, and its editor sucks jurdanian royal ass.
Rowan Berkeley | 01.07.06 - 6:27 am | #

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uh, I must stop responding to Iblis's little paste-ins, it only makes me look demented when Mary rubs them out.
Rowan Berkeley | 01.07.06 - 7:28 am | #

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It makes you look demented regardless.
Anonymous | 01.07.06 - 2:09 pm | #

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Special Dispatch – Antisemitism Documentation Project
December 30, 2005
No. 1062

Columnist for London Arabic Daily on Arab & Iranian Leaders Who Deny
the Holocaust: "[This] is Discussed Only in Intellectually and
Educationally Retarded Milieus"

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD106205 .

In a column that was published on December 26, 2005 in the London daily Al-Hayat, columnist Hazem Saghiya harshly attacked Arab and Iranian leaders who denied the Holocaust. Those he singled out included Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahdi 'Akef, Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The following are excerpts, in the original English:

"Mahdi 'Akef has joined Khaled Mash'al, who, in his turn, had joined [Iranian President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in denying the existence of the Nazi holocaust that targeted the European Jews. The issue is no longer tackled or discussed, except in intellectually and educationally retarded milieus. When the denial is being uttered by Arabs and Muslims, this adds another dimension, which is the inability to achieve any progress in reality, then proceed to contest history with myth.

"For the millionth time, the truth must be reiterated: the stance towards the Holocaust is not linked to the stance towards Israel. Those who connect the two are either staunch Zionists who consider that the attitude towards the Hebrew State is automatically the same towards the Holocaust, and vice versa; or Jewish haters who consider that acknowledging the Holocaust is tantamount to supporting Israel, and leave no space for contradicting it.

"As it was previously mentioned, there is no longer a need to discuss this settled issue, despite what an Iranian official said when he dubbed [Ahmadi]nejad's opinion as 'an academic point of view,' and despite 'Akef's muddy sources ranging from David Irving to Roger Garaudy.

"Most importantly, the 'culture' of denying the Holocaust – which is, among other things, the outcome of lack of education – has grown to occupy a dominant position in public Arab and Islamic life. Although the issue was about to come to an end and be confined to narrow margins that gather utter fanaticism with utter retardation, the heavy, poisoned Iranian rain blew on us and was welcomed, quite avidly, by the eager Arab deserts.

"The issue is now no longer restricted to narrow margins. The reason is that [Ahmadi]nejad, regretfully and painfully, is the President of the Republic elected by millions of Iranians. As for Mash'al, he is one of the symbols of the organization that bit at Palestinian municipalities, and may now bite at its Parliament too, in case legislative elections take place, confusing the world over the way to avoid such a stalemate. As for 'Akef, he is the rising star in Egypt, as his Muslim brethren have secured more than a quarter of the Parliament's seats. They could even have achieved more in better electoral circumstances.

"Ushered by some writings of the former Syrian Defense Minister Mustapha Tlas, or some letters and instructions of Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the library of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizbullah abounds with long excerpts drawn from Protocols of the Elders of Zion, The Jewish Peril, and other yellow pages intermingled with mythical visions about martyrdom and graves.

"This means that we are not to be envied at all. The ailment is swelling up from the heart of the societies to the decision makers therein. It is no coincidence that the elements of the bloc spreading and disseminating the above mentioned 'ideas' are those same elements who promise us salvation from occupations and darkness to a brighter and more glowing horizon. It is also no coincidence that the same bloc represents an anti-modern sensitivity coupled with a certain regression to what has [been] tried many times before, in power as well as in opposition…"

Jeff Blankfort admits that the International (Palestinian) Solidarity Movement is a failure!!!

In a message dated 01/01/06 00:04:06 GMT Standard Time, jblankfort@earthlink.net writes:
Dear Mary,

... it is clear that the Palestine solidarity movement as a whole has been an utter failure in the US, not only because of the economic, political power and sophistication of the Zionists who have infiltrated it, but because (1) it has tended to line up with US-based ideological groups whose own record is one of failure and allowed those groups to dictate their equally failed political line (e.g., to place the entire blame for Israel's actions on US imperialism ...; (2) it has from time to time been immobilized by political differences among contending groups in the occupied territories or, in some instances, Syria, ...

Why has there never been a campaign launched to stop aid to Israel by the movement? Why no opposition to the $19 billion in loan guarantees? Why have small protests against AIPAC just started taking place in the last two years? Why did the diaspora movement collapse when the first intifada began? Why has there been no diaspora campaign to free Marwan Barghouti?

You want to know why, Jeff? Because the majority of Americans find your stance to be morally repugnant.

Rowan Berkeley declares his admiration for Hitler

Someone lent me a collection of Saddam's speeches in English a few months ago, but I found I just couldn't be bothered to read it. I think all the sordid history of America's crooked dealings with him has been gone over so many times there's nothing left to be learned, and, given the ideological derivativeness of Ba'athism, I doubt if his speeches are as interesting (or relevant for us) as those of, say, Hitler.

I mention these because I have been reading them, and they are excellent. A lot of the most lurid quotes we all know, or think we know, turn out to be bogus ("Who now remembers the Armenians?" and "My greatest fear is that some schweinhund will come along with a mediation proposal", for instance).
Rowan Berkeley | 01.03.06 - 8:55 pm | #

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Suicide bomber was planning attack at kids' Hanukkah party
By Amos Harel

The suicide bomber who killed an Israel Defense Forces officer and two Palestinians at an army checkpoint near Tul Karm yesterday was apparently planning to blow himself up at one of the many children's events taking place in Tel Aviv during this week's Hanukkah holiday, army sources said.

Had the bomber not been stopped at the checkpoint, the attack would have been far more deadly, said the sources.

Three soldiers and seven Palestinians were wounded in the bombing. Of the soldiers, one was seriously wounded, while the others suffered only light injuries.

The slain officer was Lieutenant Ori Binamo, 21, of Nesher. Of the slain Palestinians, one was the taxi driver who was carrying the bomber, and army sources said that the other might have been the bomber's guide.

As of last night, no organization had claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the IDF believes that the Islamic Jihad network in the northern West Bank was responsible. That network, the most lethal one currently operating in the territories, has been responsible for the deaths of 26 Israelis since the start of the year, including all of those killed in suicide bombings inside Israel.

Although the IDF had no specific intelligence about yesterday's attack, it had received information indicating that Islamic Jihad was trying to infiltrate a suicide bomber into Israel. This information, as well as knowing that the many jam-packed Hanukkah events would make an attractive target, moved the army to order stepped-up counterterrorism efforts in the northern West Bank around Tul Karm and Qalqilyah this week, including extra patrols and surprise checkpoints.

Binamo's unit was responsible for one such checkpoint, at the southern entrance to the village of Irtah, near Tul Karm. At 9:15 A.M., a Palestinian taxi approached the checkpoint, and Binamo, the platoon commander, came over to inspect the occupants. Behind him stood the soldier whose job it was to guard him during the inspection.

Binamo ordered the three occupants to get out of the taxi, and thought that one, a young man of about 18, seemed suspicious. He therefore ordered the man to remove his overcoat. The Palestinian refused, and Binamo, now more suspicious, took a step or two toward him. At that point the Palestinian blew himself up, killing Binamo and the other two occupants of the taxi instantly. The soldier who was guarding the inspection was seriously injured, and two other soldiers, as well as the occupants of several nearby Palestinian vehicles, were lightly injured. The wounded were evacuated to hospitals for treatment.

IDF sappers who inspected the scene said that the bomber apparently wore a suicide belt containing more than 10 kilograms of explosives, packed with nails and iron scraps to make it more deadly. Because the blast occurred in an open area, its effect was mitigated. But had it gone off in an enclosed hall packed with parents and children, as was apparently intended, the effect would have been devastating.

Yesterday's suicide bombing was the fifth this year carried out by the Islamic Jihad network in the northern west Bank. The others were two bombings in Netanya's Sharon Mall, one in an open market in Hadera, and one at a Tel Aviv nightclub.

As a result of these attacks, the army has been waging an intensive campaign against the network for the last several months, during which time it has killed dozens of Jihad members and arrested hundreds. However, the network has evidently succeeded in replacing its killed and captured members, and is still in operation.

"For every suicide bomber that succeeds, we have stopped dozens who did not reach their targets," said Colonel Aharon Haliba, commander of the Ephraim Brigade. "We've hurt them [the Jihad network] badly, but it still has an active infrastructure. There is no decline in the volume of its attacks."

"I don't want to speak of a miracle," he continued, "but with all my sorrow over Ori, I have to tell the truth: He and his soldiers, with their bodies, prevented [a far more serious] attack. That is their job; that is our job."

Binamo, who will be buried in Haifa this morning, was considered an outstanding platoon commander. On Wednesday evening, just a day before the attack, his battalion commander had been asked to name his best platoon commander and unhesitatingly chose Binamo. "We have to convince him to remain in the army and become a company commander," the battalion commander said that evening.

Haliba said that the Palestinian Authority was also partly to blame for yesterday's attack, because "its security services are simply doing nothing."

Due to warnings of other attacks, the high alert along the seam between the West Bank and Israel will remain in force.
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