Presenting Israel.
28.10.2006
Zionism meant, among other things, a departure from Jews being the victim, and Jews being powerless. It meant owning and working their own land, and defending that land, and being independent from the whims of others who mostly looked upon Jews with contempt. It meant minding their own business, instead of listening to others and seeking their approval, as history had shown that others had not much use for the Jews. I have a strong impression that up until now, Israel is shaped by that narrative, and as a result is not always very sensitive to world opinion. PR/Hasbara people want to 'market' Israel from a sense of power and success, not vulnerability, and they fail to see how that backfires. One of the first remarks Meir is quoted as saying in the interview, is that the translation of Hasbara, meaning to 'explain', is not accurate, as it sounds to passive and apologizing, whereas Israel is not passive and has nothing for which to apologize. This Israeli self-esteem sounds good to Zionists, but arrogant to Israel's critics. Different from any other form of racism, an important feature of anti-Semitism is the claim that Jews are powerful, intelligent and have secret plans to rule the world. Israeli Hasbara people telling proudly how powerful they are and how they influence politicians, media and universities fits exactly into such anti-Semitic notions. Another problem with Israeli Hasbara is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very much in the picture, and every Palestinian child that is killed by the IDF makes headlines. China, Russia, Iran and many other countries can present themselves apart from the regional conflicts they are involved in and the human rights violations within their country, but Israel cannot. Presenting Israel as a modern high-tech country that is great to do business with or to visit on vacation, will likely backfire, as it will be contrasted with the numerous pictures of helpless Palestinians who have barely enough to eat. It is important to explain that the problems and the poverty of the Palestinians are not in the first place caused by Israel, although the checkpoints and closures, that are in large a result of the second Intifada, cause real hardship to them. After Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, life expectancy, health care, and literacy rates all improved significantly. Several universities were set up with the help of Israel, as well as birth control clinics and joint industries. This was no Israeli altruism, but well perceived self-interest. Sometimes the interests of Israelis and Palestinians don't contradict each other. Even before the creation of Israel, Zionists created job opportunities that attracted Arabs, also from Transjordan and Syria. The Arabs in Palestine profited from British investments in infrastructure and health care that were paid in large with Jewish tax money. Palestine had to be self sufficient under the British Mandate, and Jews provided most of the tax money, even though they were a rather small minority at that time.). Israel has not become rich at the expense of the Palestinians. Israel is (relatively) rich despite the Palestinians. Besides, prior to 1967 Israel did not receive significant foreign aid from the USA other than donations of US Jews, and it absorbed over a million refugees from Europe (including some 250,000 penniless Holocaust survivors) and from the Arab countries without any aid from the international community.Israeli Hasbara people are unwise to boast about how successful they are, while the media overtly blame Israel for the Middle East conflict, and Western journalists seem just too eager to point out how powerful and professional the Israeli lobby is. If Israeli Hasbara would be really successful, such stories would not fill our newspapers; instead they would focus on the 'sneaky' tactics of Israel's enemies. Having PR people in charge who say they are successful is not at all proof that Israeli Hasbara is successful, quite the contrary, and most journalists know this. The fact that they deliberately tell such stories about the successful Israeli propaganda machine, casts serious doubts on their motives and integrity.It will not be long before the European newspapers write in the same words about the new 'brand Israel' project, which aims to improve Israel's image as a country that is modern and high-tech, has the most scientists per 1000 inhabitants of any country in the world, and is attractive for tourists and investors. It is meant to show to the world the Israel behind the conflict, and to stress all kinds of positive things about the Jewish state. This will however grant greater credibility to people claiming that the Zionists are arrogant and powerful, and that they don't care about the Palestinians.Such campaigns don't make people think: "Oh really! Now that I know about the beautiful Israeli children and the green forests in the north, I think they are right in building a big wall and uprooting Palestinian olive trees for that". It will be explained widely as diverting attention from the conflict and the occupation because those are indefensible, so it is better not to talk about hem Israel's image will only improve if it shows compassion for the Palestinians, and if people will understand its actions because they see Hamas and Hezbollah for what they are, and see that Israel is the only country whose right to exist is widely questioned and even denied.
Ratna Pelle
Original content is copyright 2006 by the author.
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Sunday, October 29, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Modernising Morocco
SBS-23/10/06.
CUTTING EDGE -Documentary.
MODERNISING MOROCCO
In recent years, the government of Morocco, led by the young Western-educated King Mohammed VI, has unleashed what some regard as the most sweeping peaceful political and social reforms of this decade in the Arab world. Moroccan women, in particular, have achieved some important victories, playing an increasingly active role in politics, and successfully lobbying for a new family law which now grants them equal rights in marriage, divorce and the ownership of property. But Morocco, like countless Muslim nations across the globe, is teetering in a delicate balance between a reformist spirit and a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism. According to this documentary, over the past decade, significant research has demonstrated what many have known for a long time – women are critical to economic development, active civil society, and good governance, especially in developing countries. Gender disparities hit women and girls the hardest, but ultimately all of society pays a price for them. Achieving gender equality is now deemed so critical to reducing poverty and improving governance that it has become a development objective in its own right. This documentary investigates what are the possible outcomes of the increased participation of women in Moroccan society. (From the US, in French, English and Arabic, English subtitles) CC WS SMS Alert Code: 4268
CUTTING EDGE -Documentary.
MODERNISING MOROCCO
In recent years, the government of Morocco, led by the young Western-educated King Mohammed VI, has unleashed what some regard as the most sweeping peaceful political and social reforms of this decade in the Arab world. Moroccan women, in particular, have achieved some important victories, playing an increasingly active role in politics, and successfully lobbying for a new family law which now grants them equal rights in marriage, divorce and the ownership of property. But Morocco, like countless Muslim nations across the globe, is teetering in a delicate balance between a reformist spirit and a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism. According to this documentary, over the past decade, significant research has demonstrated what many have known for a long time – women are critical to economic development, active civil society, and good governance, especially in developing countries. Gender disparities hit women and girls the hardest, but ultimately all of society pays a price for them. Achieving gender equality is now deemed so critical to reducing poverty and improving governance that it has become a development objective in its own right. This documentary investigates what are the possible outcomes of the increased participation of women in Moroccan society. (From the US, in French, English and Arabic, English subtitles) CC WS SMS Alert Code: 4268
Monday, October 23, 2006
NATION BUILDING: THE HUMAN COSTS IN CIVIL WARS.
NATION BUILDING: THE HUMAN COSTS IN CIVIL WARS!
April ,1861- American Civil War starts.
May, 1865 finish.
Remaining Confederate forces surrender. The Nation is reunited as the Civil War ends. Over 620,000 Americans died in the war, with disease killing twice as many as those lost in battle. 50,000 survivors return home as amputees.
OTHER CIVIL WARS.
Klang War; also known as Selangor Civil War, 1867 - 1874
Boshin War (Japan), 1868-1869
Jementah Civil War, 1879
Russian Civil War, 1917-1921
Finnish Civil War, 1918
Irish Civil War, 1922-1923
Chinese Civil War, 1928-1937, 1945-1949
Vietnamese Civil War, 1930-1975
Austrian Civil War, February 12 to February 16, 1934
Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
Greek Civil War, 1946-1949
Paraguayan Civil War, 1947
Costa Rica Civil War, 1948
Korean Civil War, 1950-1953
Indonesian Civil War, 1965-1966
Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970
Pakistan Civil War ,1971
Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990
Mozambican Civil War, see Rome General Peace Accords, 1975-1992
Sandinista Civil War, 1979-1989
Salvadoran Civil War (El Salvador), 1979-1991
Yugoslav wars, 1991-2001
Afghan Civil War, 1992-2001
First and Second Congo Wars (1996-1997, 1998-2002)
M.E. AND ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN CONFLICTS.
2000 Al-Aqsa Intifada1987 - 1993 Intifada1982 Lebanon War1973 War1970 Black September1970 War of Attrition1967 War1956 Suez War1948 WarEarly Arab-Jewish Conflict
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A Homemade Genocide
The Arab world is subject to genocide, it is true. It's just that it's mostly self-inflicted, and Israel has nothing to do with any of it. An article by Ben Dror Yemini,
Ma'ariv correspondent
דפדף בחדשות
בן דרור ימיני
26/9/2006 13:33
Fact no. 1: Since the establishment of the State of Israel a merciless genocide is being perpetrated against Muslims and/or Arabs. Fact no. 2: The conflict in the Middle East, between Israel and the Arabs as a whole and against the Palestinians in particular, is regarded as the central conflict in the world today. Fact no. 3: According to polls carried out in the European Union, Israel holds first place as "Danger to world peace". In Holland, for instance, 74% of the population holds this view. Not Iran. Not North Korea. Israel. Connecting between these findings creates one of the biggest deceptions of modern times: Israel is regarded as the country responsible for every calamity, misfortune and hardship. It is a danger to world peace, not just to the Arab or Muslim world.
The finger is pointed cleverly. It's difficult to blame Israel for the genocide in Sudan or for the civil war in Algeria. How is it done? Dozens of publications, articles, books, periodicals and websites are dedicated to one purpose only: Turning Israel into a state that ceaselessly perpetrates war crimes. In Jakarta and in Khartoum they burn the Israeli flag, and in London, in Oslo and in Zurich hate articles are published, supporting the destruction of Israel.
Any request in Internet search engines for the words "genocide" against "Muslims", "Arabs" or "Palestinians", in the context of "Zionists" or "Israel" – will give us endless results. Even after we've filtered out the trash, we are left with millions of publications written in deadly seriousness.
This abundance brings results. It works like brainwashing. It is the accepted position, and not just a fringe opinion. Only five years ago we
were witness to a international anti-Israeli show in the Durban Convention. Only two years ago we were shocked when a member of our Academia blamed Israel of 'symbolic genocide' against the Palestinian people. Much ado about nothing. There are thousands of publications blaming Israel of genocide, and not 'symbolic'.
Under an academic and/or journalistic umbrella, today's Israel is compared to the damned Germany of yesteryear. In conclusion, there are those who call to terminate the 'Zionist project'. And in more simple words: because Israel is a country that perpetrates so many war crimes and engages in ethnic cleansing and genocide – it has no right to exist. This, for instance, is the essence of an article by the Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder (writer of "Sophie's world"), who wrote, among other things: "We call killers of children by their name"). The conclusion is that Israel has no right to exist.
How the deception works
The tragedy is that in Arab and Muslim countries a massacre is happening. A genocide protected by the silence of the world. A genocide protected by a deception that is perhaps unparalleled in the history of mankind. A genocide that has no connection to Israel, to Zionism or to Jews. A genocide of mainly Arabs and Muslims, by Arabs and Muslims.
This is not a matter of opinion or viewpoint. This is the result of factual examination, as precise as possible, of the numbers of victims of various wars and conflicts that have taken place since the establishment of the State of Israel up till this time, in which the massacre continues. It is, indeed, death on a massive scale. A massacre. It is the wiping out of villages and cities and whole populations. And the world is silent. The Muslims are indeed abandoned. They are murdered and the world is silent. And if it bothers to open its mouth, it doesn't complain about the murderers. It doesn't complain about the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity. It complains about Israel.
This great deception, that covers up the real facts, endures and even grows because of one reason only: The Media and Academia in the West participate in it. In endless publications, books, periodicals and websites Israel is portrayed as a state that perpetrates "war crimes", "ethnic cleansing", and "systematic murder". Sometimes it is because this is fashionable, sometimes it is mistakenly, sometimes it is the result of hypocrisy and double standards. Sometimes it is new and old anti-Semitism, from the left and from the right, overt and covert. Most of the classic blood libels were refuted not long after they came into being. The blood libel of modern times, against the state of Israel, continues to grow. Many Israelis and Jews are accessories to the nurturing of the libel.
The Arab-Israeli conflict
The Zionist settling of this country, which began at the end of the 19th century, did indeed create a conflict between Jews and Arabs. The amount of those killed in various clashes up till the establishment of the State of Israel was no more than a few thousands, of both Jews and Arabs. Most of the Arabs killed in those years were killed in armed struggles of Arabs amongst themselves; such as, for example, in the days of the Great Arab Uprising of 1936 – 1939. That was a sign of things to come. Many others were killed as a result of the harsh hand wielded by the British. Israel never did anything comparable.
Israel's War of Independence, known also as the War of 48', left between 5,000 to 15,000 dead from among the Palestinians and citizens of Arab countries. In this war, as in any war, there were indeed atrocities. The attackers declared their goal, and if they had won, a mass extermination of Jews would have taken place. On Israel's side there were also barbarous acts, but they were on the fringe of the fringe. Less, far less, than in any other war in modern times. Far less than what is being perpetrated every day in these very times, by Muslims, mainly against Muslims, in Sudan and in Iraq.
The next event of importance was the Sinai War of 1956. About 1,650 Egyptians were killed, about 1,000 at the hands of the Israelis and about 650 by the French and British forces. Next came the Six Day War (1967- IJ). The highest estimates talk of 21,000 Arabs killed on all three fronts – Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The Yom Kippur War (1973 – IJ) resulted in 8,500 Arab dead, this time on only two fronts – Egypt and Syria.
Then there were 'smaller' wars: The first Lebanon war, which was initially mainly against the PLO and not against Lebanon. This was a war in a war. These were the years of the bloody civil war in Lebanon, a war we will discuss further later on. And thus also in the second Lebanon war, in which about a thousand Lebanese were killed.
Thousands of Palestinians were killed during the Israeli occupation of the territories, that began at the end of the Six Day War. Most were killed during the two Intifadas, the one that commenced in 1987 and resulted in 1,800 Palestinian deaths, and the one that commenced in 2000 with a Palestinan death toll of 3,700. In between, there were more military actions that caused further Arab fatalities. If we exaggerate, we can say that these were a few hundred more who were killed. Hundreds. Not hundreds of thousands. Not millions.
The total count reaches about 60,000 Arabs killed in the framework of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Among them only several thousand Palestinians, although it is because of them, and only them, that Israel is the target of the world's anger. Every Arab and Muslim death is regrettable. And it is okay to criticize Israel. But the obsessive and demonic criticism emphasizes a far more amazing fact: The silence of the world, or at least relative silence, in the face of the systematic extermination of millions of others by Muslim and Arab regimes.
The blood price of the Muslims
From here on we must ask: How many Arabs and Muslims have been killed in those same years in other countries, for instance, in Russia or in France, and how many Arabs, Muslims and others, were killed in those same years by Arabs and Muslims. The information gathered here is based on various research institutes, academic bodies, international organizations (such as Amnesty and other bodies that follow human rights), the UN, and governmental agents.
In many cases the different organizations present different and contradictory numbers. The differences sometimes reach hundreds of thousands, and sometimes even millions. We will probably never know the precise number. But even the lowest agreed numbers, that are the basis for the tables given here, present a staggering and horrific picture. In addition, time is too short to survey bloody conflicts that are not even covered in these tables, although these conflicts took a higher human toll than the blood price of the whole Arab-Israeli conflict.
Algeria: A few years after the establishment of the State of Israel, there began another war of independence. This time it was Algeria against France, between the years 1954-1962. The number of victims on the Muslim side is a subject for controversy. According to official sources in Algeria it is over a million. There are research institutes in the west that tend to accept that number. French sources have tried in the past to claim that it is only a quarter of a million Muslims, with an additional 100,000 Muslim collaborators with the French. But these estimates are regarded as tendentious and low. Today there is no question that the French killed nearly 600,000 Muslims. And these are the French, who do not stop preaching to Israel, the Israel that in the whole history of its conflict with the Arabs failed to reach even one tenth of that number, and even then, according to the more severe assessments.
The massacre in Algeria continues. In the 1991 elections the Islamic Salvation Front was voted in. The results of the elections were cancelled by the army. Since then a civil war has been raging, between the central government, supported by the army, and Islamic movements. According to various estimates, there have been about 100,000 victims so far. Most of them have been innocent civilians. In most cases it has been horrific massacres of whole villages, women, children and old people. A massacre in the name of Islam.
Algeria summary: 500,000 to 1 million in the war of independence; 100,000 in the civil war in the 90's.
Sudan: the worst series of crimes
Sudan: A country torn by campaigns of destruction, almost all of them between the Arab-Muslim north, that is control of the country, and the south, populated by blacks. Two civil wars have taken place in this country, and a massacre, under government patronage, has been taking place in recent years in the district of Darfur. The first civil war spanned the years of 1955-1972. Moderate estimates talk of 500,000 victims. In 1983 the second civil war began. But it wasn't a civil war but a systematic massacre suitably defined as 'genocide'. The goals were Islamization, Arabization and mass deportation, that occasionally becomes slaughter, also for the need to gain control over giant oil fields. We are talking about an estimated 1.9 million victims.
The division between Muslim and other victims is unclear. The large district of Noba, populated by many black Muslims, was served its portion of horrors. The Muslims, should they be black, are not granted any favors. Since the rise to power of radical Islam, under the spiritual guidance of Dr. Hassan Thorabi, the situation has worsened. This is probably the worst series of crimes against humanity since WWII. We're talking about ethnic cleansing, deportations, mass murder, slave trade, forcible enforcement of the laws of Islam, taking children from their parents and more. Millions have become refugees. As far as is known, there are not millions of publications about the Sudanese 'Right of Return' and there are no petitions by intellectuals negating Sudan's right to exist.
Recent years have been all about Darfur. Again Muslims (Arabs) are murdering (black) Muslims and heathens, and the numbers are unclear. Moderate estimates are talking about 200,000 victims, higher estimates say 600,000. No one knows for sure. And the slaughter continues.
Throughout the atrocities of Sudan, the slaughter has been perpetrated mainly by the Arab Muslim regime, and the great majority of victims, if not all, are black, of all religions, including Muslims.
Sudan summary: 2.6 million to 3 million.
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan: This is a web of non-stop mass killing – domestic and external. The Soviet invasion, which began on 24th December 1979 and ended on 2nd February 1989, left about a million dead. Other estimates talk of 1.5 million dead civilians and an additional 90,000 soldiers.
After the withdrawal of the Soviet Forces, Afghanistan went through a series of civil wars and struggles between the Soviet supporters, the Mojahidin and the Taliban. Each group carried out a doctrine of mass extermination of its opponents. The sum of the fatalities in civil war, up to the invasion of the coalition forces under American leadership in 2001, is about one million.
There are those who complain, and rightly so, about the carnage that took place as a result of the coalition offensive to overthrow the Taliban regime and as part of the armed struggle against al Qaida. Well, the invasion into Afghanistan caused a relatively limited number of deaths, less than 10,000. Had it not taken place, we would have seen a continuation of the self-inflicted genocide, with an average of 100,000 fatalities a year.
Afghanistan Summary: One million to one and a half million, as a result of the Soviet invasion; about one million in the civil war.
Somalia: unending civil war
Somalia: Since 1977 this Muslim state in East Africa has been immersed in an unending civil war. The number of victims is estimated at about 550,000. It is Muslims killing mainly Muslims. UN attempts to intervene, in the interest of peace keeping, ended in the failure, as did later attempts by American Forces.
Most of the victims died not in the battle fields, but as a result of deliberate starvation and slaughter of civilians, in bombardments aimed at the civilian population (massive bombardments of opponent districts, such as the bombardment of Somaliland, that caused the deaths of 50,000 ).
Somalia Summary: 400,000 to 550,000 victims in the civil war.
Bangladesh: 1 of the 3 greatest genocides
Bangladesh: This country aspired to gain independence from Pakistan. Pakistan reacted with a military invasion that caused mass destruction. It was not a war, it was a massacre. One to two million people were systematically liquidated in 1971. Some researchers define the events of that year in Bangladesh as one of the three greatest genocides in (history - IJ) (after the Holocaust and the Ruanda genocide).
An inquiry committee appointed by the government of Bangladesh counted 1.247 million fatalities as a result of systematic murder of civilians by Pakistan's army forces. There are also numerous reports of 'Death squads', in which "Muslim soldiers were sent to execute mass killings of Muslim farmers".
The Pakistani army ceased only after the intervention of India, which suffered from waves of refugees - millions – arriving from Bangladesh. At least 150 thousand more were murdered in acts of retaliation after the retreat of the Pakistan army.
Bangladesh summary: 1.4 million to 2 million.
Indonesia: The massacre commenced with a communist uprising
Indonesia: The biggest Muslim state in the world competes with Bangladesh for the dubious title of 'The biggest massacre since the Holocaust'. The massacre commenced with a communist uprising in 1965. There are different assessments (of the number of fatalities - IJ) in this case as well. The accepted estimate talks of as many as 400 thousand Indonesians killed in the years 1965-1966, although stricter estimates claim the number is higher.
The massacre was perpetrated by the army, led by Hag'i Mohammed Soharto, who seized power in the country for the next 32 years. An investigator of those years points out that the person who was in charge of suppressing the rebellion, General Srv Adei, admitted: "We killed 2 million not 1 million, and we did good work". For this argument, we will stick to the lower, more accepted estimates.
In 1975, after the end of the Portuguese rule, East Timor announced its independence. Within a short time it was invaded by Indonesia, who ruled the area until 1999. During these years about 100,000 to 200,000 people were killed, along with the complete destruction of infrastructure.
Indonesia summary: 400,000 killed, with an additional 100,000 to 200,000 in East Timor
Iraq: the destruction of Saddam Hussein
Iraq: Most of the of the last two decades was the doing of Saddam Hussein. This is another case of a regime that caused the deaths of millions. Nonstop death. One of the highpoints was during the Iran-Iraq war, in the conflict over the Shat El Arab River, the river that is created by the convergence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. This was a conflict that led to nothing but large scale destruction and mass killing. Estimates are between 450,000 and 650,000 Iraqis, and between 450,000 and 970,000 Iranians. Jews, Israelis, and Zionists were not around, as far as is known.
Waves of purges, some politically motivated (opposition), some ethnic ( the Kurdish minority) and some religiously motivated (the ruling Suni minority against the Shiite majority), yielded an astounding number of victims. Estimates vary from one million, according to local sources, to a quarter million, according to Human Rights Watch. Other international organizations quote an estimate of about half a million.
In the years 1991 - 1992 there was a Shiite uprising in Iraq. There are contradictory estimates about the number of victims. The numbers vary from 40,000 to 200,000. In addition to the Iraqis that were slaughtered one must add the Kurds. During Saddam Hussein's reign, between 200,000 to 300,000 of them were killed in a genocide that continued all through the 1980's and the 1990's.
Over half a million more Iraqis died from diseases because of the shortage of medicine, which was the result of sanctions imposed after the first Gulf War. Today it is clear that this was a continuation of the genocide perpetrated by Saddam on his own people. He could have purchased medicine, he had enough money to buy food and to build hospitals for all the children of Iraq, but Saddam preferred to build palaces and to distribute franchises to many in the west and in Arab states. This issue is being exposed in the corruption of the UN's 'Oil for Food' project.
The Iraqis continue to suffer. The civil war that is raging there now - even if some would rather not give that name to the mutual massacre of Sunis and Shiites – is costing tens of thousands of lives. It is estimated that about 100,000 people have been killed since the coalition forces took control in Iraq.
Iraq Summary: 1.54 million to 2 million victims.
Iran Summary: 450,000 to 970,000 victims .
Lebanon: The Lebanese civil war
Lebanon: The Lebanese civil war took place from 1975 to 1990. Israel was involved in certain stages, by way of the first Lebanon War in 1982. There is no disagreement that a considerable part of the victims were killed in the first two years.
The more assessments talk of over 130,000 killed. Most of them were Lebanese killed by other Lebanese, on religious, ethnic grounds and in connection with the Syrian involvement. Syria transferred its support between various parties in the conflict. The highest estimates claim that Israeli activities were the cause of around 18,000 people, the great majority of which were fighters.
Lebanon summary: 130,000.
Yemen: In the civil war that took place in Yemen from 1962 to 1970, with Egyptian and Saudi involvement, 100,000 to 150,000 Yemenites were killed, and more than a thousand Egyptians and a thousand Saudis.
Egypt committed war crimes by incorporating the use of chemical warfare. Riots in Yemen from 1984 to 1986 caused the deaths of thousands more.
Yemen summary: 100,000 to 150,000 fatalities
Chechnya: Russia turned down Chechen Republic demands for independence, and this led to the first Chechen war of 1994 to 1996. The war cost the lives of 50,000 to 200,000 Chechens.
Russia put a great deal into this conflict, but failed miserably. This did not help Chechens, because although they had gained autonomy there republic was in ruins.
The second Chechen War began in 1999 and officially ended in 2001, but it has not really ended, and number of the victims is estimated at 30,000 to 100,000.
Chechnya summary: 80,000 to 300,000 fatalities.
Smaller confrontations
From Jordan to Zanzibar: In addition to the wars and the massacres, there have also been smaller confrontations, that have cost the lives of thousands and tens of thousands, of Muslims and Arabs (killed) by Muslims and Arabs. These confrontations are not even taken into account in the tables presented on these pages, because the numbers are small, relatively speaking, even though the numbers of those killed are far higher than the numbers of the victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Here are some of them:
Jordan: 1970 to 1971 the Black September riots took place In the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. King Hussein was fed up of the Palestians use of the country and their threatened to take control of it. The confrontation, mainly a massacre in the refugee camps, took thousands of lives. According to estimates provided by the Palestinians themselves - 10,000 to 25,000 fatalities. According to other sources - a few thousand.
Chad: Half of the population of Chad are Muslims: In various civil wars 30,000 civilians have been killed.
Kosovo: In the mainly Muslim area of Yugoslavia about 10,000 were killed in the war there from 1998 to 2000.
Tajikistan: Civil war from 1992 to 1996 left about 50,000 dead.
Syria: Hafez Assad's systematic persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood ended in the 1982 massacre in the city of Hama, costing the lives of about 20,000 people.
Iran: Thousands were killed in the beginning of the Humeini Revolution. The precise number is unknown, but is somewhere between thousands and tens of thousands. The Kurds also suffered at the hands of Iran, and about 10,000 of them were murdered there.
Turkey: About 20,000 Kurds were killed in Turkey as part of the conflict there.
Zanzibar: In the earlyu 1960's the island was granted independence, but only for a short time. At first, the Arabs were in power, but a black group, made up mainly of Muslims, slaughtered the Arab group, also Muslim, in 1964. The estimates are that 5,000 to 17,000 were killed.
Even this is not the end of the list. There were more conflicts with unknown numbers of victims in former USSR republics with Muslim majority populations (like the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagurno Karabach), and a disputable number of Muslims that were killed in mixed population countries in Africa, such as Nigeria, Mauritania or Uganda (in the years of Idi Amins reign in Uganda, in the decade that began in 1971, about 300,000 Ugandans were killed. Amin defined himself as Muslim, but in contrast to Sudan, it is hard to say that the background for the slaughter was Muslim, and it certainly wasn't Arab.
"to liquidate the Jewish entity"
To all the above, one can add this data: The great majority of Arabs killed in the framework of the Israeli-Arab Conflict were killed as a result of wars instigated by the Arabs and as a result of their refusal to recognize the UN decision regarding the establishment of the State of Israel, or their refusal to recognize the Jews' right of self-definition.
The number of Israelis killed by Arab aggression has been relatively far less than the numbers of Arabs killed. In the War of the Independence, for example, more than 6,000 Israelis were killed out of a population that was then made up of 600,000. This means: One percent of the population. In comparison with this, Arab fatalities in the war against Israel came from seven countries, the populations of which were already tens of millions. Israel did not dream, did not think and did not want to destroy any Arab state. But the ostensible goal of the attacking armies was "to liquidate the Jewish entity".
Obviously, in recent years, the Palestinian victims have received most of the attention of the Media and the Academia. In actual fact, these make up just a small percentage of the total sum of all victims. The total sum of Palestinians killed by Israel in the territories that were conquered is several thousand. 1,378 were killed in the first Intifada, and 3,700 since the start of the second Intifada.
This is less, for instance, than the Muslim victims massacred by former Syrian president, Hafez Assad in Hama in 1982. This is less than the Palestinians massacred by King Hussein in 1971. This is less than the number of those killed in one single massacre of Muslim Bosnians by the Serbs in 1991 in Srebrenica, a massacre that left 8,000 dead.
Every person killed is regrettable, but there is no greater libel than to call Israel's actions 'genocide'. And even so, the string 'Israel' and 'genocide' in Google search engine leads to 13,600,000 referrals. Try typing 'Sudan' and 'genocide' and you'll get less than 9 million results. These numbers, if you will, are the essence of the great deception.
not enlightened, but is not brutal
Another fact: Since WWII, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the national conflict with the lowest number of victims, but with the world's highest number of publications hostile to Israel in the media and in the Academia.
At least half a million Algerians died during the French occupation. A million Afghanis died during the Soviet occupation. Millions of Muslims and Arabs were killed and slaughtered at the hands of Muslims. But all the world knows about one Mohammed a-Dura (whose death was regrettable, but there is some doubt whether he was killed by Israeli gunfire at all).
It is possible and acceptable to criticize Israel. But the excessive, obsessive, and at times anti-Semitic criticism serves also as a coverup, and in some cases also as an approval, of the genocide of millions of others.
Occupation is not enlightened and can't be enlightened. But if we try to create a scale of 'brutal occupation', Israel will come last. This is a fact. This is not an opinion.
And what would have happened to the Palestinians if, instead of being under Israeli occupation they were under Iraqi occupation? Or Sudanese? Or even French or Soviet? It is highly probable that they would have been victims of genocide, at worst, and of mass killings, purges, and deportations at best.
But luckily for them they are under Israeli occupation. And even if, I repeat, there is no such thing as an enlightened occupation, and even if it is acceptable and possible, and at times necessary, to criticize Israel, there is no occupation and there has never been an occupation with so few fatalities (indeed, there are other injuries that are not manifested in the numbers of fatalities, such as the refugee problem. This will be discussed in a separate chapter).
Television screen ethics
So why is the impression of the world the direct opposite? How come there is no connection between the facts and the numbers and the so very demonic image of Israel in the world?
There are many answers. One of them is that western ethics have become the ethics of television cameras. If a Palestinian terrorist or a Hizbullah man tries to shoot a rocket from the midst of a civilian neighbourhood, and Israel retaliates with fire - causing the death of two children - there will be endless headlines and articles all over the world that "Israel murders children". But if entire villages are destroyed in Sudan or whole cities are erased in Syria, there will be no television cameras in the area.
And so, according to television ethics, Jose Saramago and Harold Pinter sign a petition protesting 'genocide' and 'war crimes' perpetrated by Israel. They have never read the Geneva Convention either. They probably do not know that, aside for very few exceptions, the actions of Israel against military targets hitting civilians is allowed according to the Geneva Convention (protocol 1 paragraph 52.2). And because these people are so submerged in television ethics, they will not sign any petitions in protest of the genocide of Muslims by Muslims. Murder for the sake of it. They are allowed to do it.
Television ethics is a tragedy for the Arabs and the Muslims themselves. Israel pays dearly because of it, but the Arabs and the Muslims are its real victims. And as long as this blue screen morality continues, the Arabs and the Muslims will continue to pay the price.
Epilogue
There are those that claim that Arab and Muslim states are immune from criticism, because they are not democratic, but Israel is more worthy of criticism because it has democratic pretences. Claims like this are Orientalism at its worst. The covert assumption is that the Arabs and the Muslims are the retarded child of the world. They are allowed. It is not only Orientalism. It is racism.
The Arabs and the Muslims are not children and they are not retarded. Many Arabs and Muslims know this and write about it. They know that only an end to the self-deception and a taking of responsibility will lead to change. They know that as long as the west treats them as unequal and irresponsible it is lending a hand not only to a racist attitude, but also, and mainly, to a continuation of their mass murder.
The genocide that Israel is not committing, that is completely libelous, hides the real genocide, the silenced genocide that Arabs and Muslims are committing mainly against themselves. The libel has to stop so as to look at reality. It is in the interest of the Arabs and the Muslims. Israel pays in image. They pay in blood. If there is any morality left in the world, this should be in the interest of whoever has a remaining drop of it in him. And should it happen, it will be small news for Israel, and great news, far greater news, for Arabs and Muslims.
חדשות
April ,1861- American Civil War starts.
May, 1865 finish.
Remaining Confederate forces surrender. The Nation is reunited as the Civil War ends. Over 620,000 Americans died in the war, with disease killing twice as many as those lost in battle. 50,000 survivors return home as amputees.
OTHER CIVIL WARS.
Klang War; also known as Selangor Civil War, 1867 - 1874
Boshin War (Japan), 1868-1869
Jementah Civil War, 1879
Russian Civil War, 1917-1921
Finnish Civil War, 1918
Irish Civil War, 1922-1923
Chinese Civil War, 1928-1937, 1945-1949
Vietnamese Civil War, 1930-1975
Austrian Civil War, February 12 to February 16, 1934
Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
Greek Civil War, 1946-1949
Paraguayan Civil War, 1947
Costa Rica Civil War, 1948
Korean Civil War, 1950-1953
Indonesian Civil War, 1965-1966
Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970
Pakistan Civil War ,1971
Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990
Mozambican Civil War, see Rome General Peace Accords, 1975-1992
Sandinista Civil War, 1979-1989
Salvadoran Civil War (El Salvador), 1979-1991
Yugoslav wars, 1991-2001
Afghan Civil War, 1992-2001
First and Second Congo Wars (1996-1997, 1998-2002)
M.E. AND ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN CONFLICTS.
2000 Al-Aqsa Intifada1987 - 1993 Intifada1982 Lebanon War1973 War1970 Black September1970 War of Attrition1967 War1956 Suez War1948 WarEarly Arab-Jewish Conflict
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A Homemade Genocide
The Arab world is subject to genocide, it is true. It's just that it's mostly self-inflicted, and Israel has nothing to do with any of it. An article by Ben Dror Yemini,
Ma'ariv correspondent
דפדף בחדשות
בן דרור ימיני
26/9/2006 13:33
Fact no. 1: Since the establishment of the State of Israel a merciless genocide is being perpetrated against Muslims and/or Arabs. Fact no. 2: The conflict in the Middle East, between Israel and the Arabs as a whole and against the Palestinians in particular, is regarded as the central conflict in the world today. Fact no. 3: According to polls carried out in the European Union, Israel holds first place as "Danger to world peace". In Holland, for instance, 74% of the population holds this view. Not Iran. Not North Korea. Israel. Connecting between these findings creates one of the biggest deceptions of modern times: Israel is regarded as the country responsible for every calamity, misfortune and hardship. It is a danger to world peace, not just to the Arab or Muslim world.
The finger is pointed cleverly. It's difficult to blame Israel for the genocide in Sudan or for the civil war in Algeria. How is it done? Dozens of publications, articles, books, periodicals and websites are dedicated to one purpose only: Turning Israel into a state that ceaselessly perpetrates war crimes. In Jakarta and in Khartoum they burn the Israeli flag, and in London, in Oslo and in Zurich hate articles are published, supporting the destruction of Israel.
Any request in Internet search engines for the words "genocide" against "Muslims", "Arabs" or "Palestinians", in the context of "Zionists" or "Israel" – will give us endless results. Even after we've filtered out the trash, we are left with millions of publications written in deadly seriousness.
This abundance brings results. It works like brainwashing. It is the accepted position, and not just a fringe opinion. Only five years ago we
were witness to a international anti-Israeli show in the Durban Convention. Only two years ago we were shocked when a member of our Academia blamed Israel of 'symbolic genocide' against the Palestinian people. Much ado about nothing. There are thousands of publications blaming Israel of genocide, and not 'symbolic'.
Under an academic and/or journalistic umbrella, today's Israel is compared to the damned Germany of yesteryear. In conclusion, there are those who call to terminate the 'Zionist project'. And in more simple words: because Israel is a country that perpetrates so many war crimes and engages in ethnic cleansing and genocide – it has no right to exist. This, for instance, is the essence of an article by the Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder (writer of "Sophie's world"), who wrote, among other things: "We call killers of children by their name"). The conclusion is that Israel has no right to exist.
How the deception works
The tragedy is that in Arab and Muslim countries a massacre is happening. A genocide protected by the silence of the world. A genocide protected by a deception that is perhaps unparalleled in the history of mankind. A genocide that has no connection to Israel, to Zionism or to Jews. A genocide of mainly Arabs and Muslims, by Arabs and Muslims.
This is not a matter of opinion or viewpoint. This is the result of factual examination, as precise as possible, of the numbers of victims of various wars and conflicts that have taken place since the establishment of the State of Israel up till this time, in which the massacre continues. It is, indeed, death on a massive scale. A massacre. It is the wiping out of villages and cities and whole populations. And the world is silent. The Muslims are indeed abandoned. They are murdered and the world is silent. And if it bothers to open its mouth, it doesn't complain about the murderers. It doesn't complain about the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity. It complains about Israel.
This great deception, that covers up the real facts, endures and even grows because of one reason only: The Media and Academia in the West participate in it. In endless publications, books, periodicals and websites Israel is portrayed as a state that perpetrates "war crimes", "ethnic cleansing", and "systematic murder". Sometimes it is because this is fashionable, sometimes it is mistakenly, sometimes it is the result of hypocrisy and double standards. Sometimes it is new and old anti-Semitism, from the left and from the right, overt and covert. Most of the classic blood libels were refuted not long after they came into being. The blood libel of modern times, against the state of Israel, continues to grow. Many Israelis and Jews are accessories to the nurturing of the libel.
The Arab-Israeli conflict
The Zionist settling of this country, which began at the end of the 19th century, did indeed create a conflict between Jews and Arabs. The amount of those killed in various clashes up till the establishment of the State of Israel was no more than a few thousands, of both Jews and Arabs. Most of the Arabs killed in those years were killed in armed struggles of Arabs amongst themselves; such as, for example, in the days of the Great Arab Uprising of 1936 – 1939. That was a sign of things to come. Many others were killed as a result of the harsh hand wielded by the British. Israel never did anything comparable.
Israel's War of Independence, known also as the War of 48', left between 5,000 to 15,000 dead from among the Palestinians and citizens of Arab countries. In this war, as in any war, there were indeed atrocities. The attackers declared their goal, and if they had won, a mass extermination of Jews would have taken place. On Israel's side there were also barbarous acts, but they were on the fringe of the fringe. Less, far less, than in any other war in modern times. Far less than what is being perpetrated every day in these very times, by Muslims, mainly against Muslims, in Sudan and in Iraq.
The next event of importance was the Sinai War of 1956. About 1,650 Egyptians were killed, about 1,000 at the hands of the Israelis and about 650 by the French and British forces. Next came the Six Day War (1967- IJ). The highest estimates talk of 21,000 Arabs killed on all three fronts – Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The Yom Kippur War (1973 – IJ) resulted in 8,500 Arab dead, this time on only two fronts – Egypt and Syria.
Then there were 'smaller' wars: The first Lebanon war, which was initially mainly against the PLO and not against Lebanon. This was a war in a war. These were the years of the bloody civil war in Lebanon, a war we will discuss further later on. And thus also in the second Lebanon war, in which about a thousand Lebanese were killed.
Thousands of Palestinians were killed during the Israeli occupation of the territories, that began at the end of the Six Day War. Most were killed during the two Intifadas, the one that commenced in 1987 and resulted in 1,800 Palestinian deaths, and the one that commenced in 2000 with a Palestinan death toll of 3,700. In between, there were more military actions that caused further Arab fatalities. If we exaggerate, we can say that these were a few hundred more who were killed. Hundreds. Not hundreds of thousands. Not millions.
The total count reaches about 60,000 Arabs killed in the framework of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Among them only several thousand Palestinians, although it is because of them, and only them, that Israel is the target of the world's anger. Every Arab and Muslim death is regrettable. And it is okay to criticize Israel. But the obsessive and demonic criticism emphasizes a far more amazing fact: The silence of the world, or at least relative silence, in the face of the systematic extermination of millions of others by Muslim and Arab regimes.
The blood price of the Muslims
From here on we must ask: How many Arabs and Muslims have been killed in those same years in other countries, for instance, in Russia or in France, and how many Arabs, Muslims and others, were killed in those same years by Arabs and Muslims. The information gathered here is based on various research institutes, academic bodies, international organizations (such as Amnesty and other bodies that follow human rights), the UN, and governmental agents.
In many cases the different organizations present different and contradictory numbers. The differences sometimes reach hundreds of thousands, and sometimes even millions. We will probably never know the precise number. But even the lowest agreed numbers, that are the basis for the tables given here, present a staggering and horrific picture. In addition, time is too short to survey bloody conflicts that are not even covered in these tables, although these conflicts took a higher human toll than the blood price of the whole Arab-Israeli conflict.
Algeria: A few years after the establishment of the State of Israel, there began another war of independence. This time it was Algeria against France, between the years 1954-1962. The number of victims on the Muslim side is a subject for controversy. According to official sources in Algeria it is over a million. There are research institutes in the west that tend to accept that number. French sources have tried in the past to claim that it is only a quarter of a million Muslims, with an additional 100,000 Muslim collaborators with the French. But these estimates are regarded as tendentious and low. Today there is no question that the French killed nearly 600,000 Muslims. And these are the French, who do not stop preaching to Israel, the Israel that in the whole history of its conflict with the Arabs failed to reach even one tenth of that number, and even then, according to the more severe assessments.
The massacre in Algeria continues. In the 1991 elections the Islamic Salvation Front was voted in. The results of the elections were cancelled by the army. Since then a civil war has been raging, between the central government, supported by the army, and Islamic movements. According to various estimates, there have been about 100,000 victims so far. Most of them have been innocent civilians. In most cases it has been horrific massacres of whole villages, women, children and old people. A massacre in the name of Islam.
Algeria summary: 500,000 to 1 million in the war of independence; 100,000 in the civil war in the 90's.
Sudan: the worst series of crimes
Sudan: A country torn by campaigns of destruction, almost all of them between the Arab-Muslim north, that is control of the country, and the south, populated by blacks. Two civil wars have taken place in this country, and a massacre, under government patronage, has been taking place in recent years in the district of Darfur. The first civil war spanned the years of 1955-1972. Moderate estimates talk of 500,000 victims. In 1983 the second civil war began. But it wasn't a civil war but a systematic massacre suitably defined as 'genocide'. The goals were Islamization, Arabization and mass deportation, that occasionally becomes slaughter, also for the need to gain control over giant oil fields. We are talking about an estimated 1.9 million victims.
The division between Muslim and other victims is unclear. The large district of Noba, populated by many black Muslims, was served its portion of horrors. The Muslims, should they be black, are not granted any favors. Since the rise to power of radical Islam, under the spiritual guidance of Dr. Hassan Thorabi, the situation has worsened. This is probably the worst series of crimes against humanity since WWII. We're talking about ethnic cleansing, deportations, mass murder, slave trade, forcible enforcement of the laws of Islam, taking children from their parents and more. Millions have become refugees. As far as is known, there are not millions of publications about the Sudanese 'Right of Return' and there are no petitions by intellectuals negating Sudan's right to exist.
Recent years have been all about Darfur. Again Muslims (Arabs) are murdering (black) Muslims and heathens, and the numbers are unclear. Moderate estimates are talking about 200,000 victims, higher estimates say 600,000. No one knows for sure. And the slaughter continues.
Throughout the atrocities of Sudan, the slaughter has been perpetrated mainly by the Arab Muslim regime, and the great majority of victims, if not all, are black, of all religions, including Muslims.
Sudan summary: 2.6 million to 3 million.
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan: This is a web of non-stop mass killing – domestic and external. The Soviet invasion, which began on 24th December 1979 and ended on 2nd February 1989, left about a million dead. Other estimates talk of 1.5 million dead civilians and an additional 90,000 soldiers.
After the withdrawal of the Soviet Forces, Afghanistan went through a series of civil wars and struggles between the Soviet supporters, the Mojahidin and the Taliban. Each group carried out a doctrine of mass extermination of its opponents. The sum of the fatalities in civil war, up to the invasion of the coalition forces under American leadership in 2001, is about one million.
There are those who complain, and rightly so, about the carnage that took place as a result of the coalition offensive to overthrow the Taliban regime and as part of the armed struggle against al Qaida. Well, the invasion into Afghanistan caused a relatively limited number of deaths, less than 10,000. Had it not taken place, we would have seen a continuation of the self-inflicted genocide, with an average of 100,000 fatalities a year.
Afghanistan Summary: One million to one and a half million, as a result of the Soviet invasion; about one million in the civil war.
Somalia: unending civil war
Somalia: Since 1977 this Muslim state in East Africa has been immersed in an unending civil war. The number of victims is estimated at about 550,000. It is Muslims killing mainly Muslims. UN attempts to intervene, in the interest of peace keeping, ended in the failure, as did later attempts by American Forces.
Most of the victims died not in the battle fields, but as a result of deliberate starvation and slaughter of civilians, in bombardments aimed at the civilian population (massive bombardments of opponent districts, such as the bombardment of Somaliland, that caused the deaths of 50,000 ).
Somalia Summary: 400,000 to 550,000 victims in the civil war.
Bangladesh: 1 of the 3 greatest genocides
Bangladesh: This country aspired to gain independence from Pakistan. Pakistan reacted with a military invasion that caused mass destruction. It was not a war, it was a massacre. One to two million people were systematically liquidated in 1971. Some researchers define the events of that year in Bangladesh as one of the three greatest genocides in (history - IJ) (after the Holocaust and the Ruanda genocide).
An inquiry committee appointed by the government of Bangladesh counted 1.247 million fatalities as a result of systematic murder of civilians by Pakistan's army forces. There are also numerous reports of 'Death squads', in which "Muslim soldiers were sent to execute mass killings of Muslim farmers".
The Pakistani army ceased only after the intervention of India, which suffered from waves of refugees - millions – arriving from Bangladesh. At least 150 thousand more were murdered in acts of retaliation after the retreat of the Pakistan army.
Bangladesh summary: 1.4 million to 2 million.
Indonesia: The massacre commenced with a communist uprising
Indonesia: The biggest Muslim state in the world competes with Bangladesh for the dubious title of 'The biggest massacre since the Holocaust'. The massacre commenced with a communist uprising in 1965. There are different assessments (of the number of fatalities - IJ) in this case as well. The accepted estimate talks of as many as 400 thousand Indonesians killed in the years 1965-1966, although stricter estimates claim the number is higher.
The massacre was perpetrated by the army, led by Hag'i Mohammed Soharto, who seized power in the country for the next 32 years. An investigator of those years points out that the person who was in charge of suppressing the rebellion, General Srv Adei, admitted: "We killed 2 million not 1 million, and we did good work". For this argument, we will stick to the lower, more accepted estimates.
In 1975, after the end of the Portuguese rule, East Timor announced its independence. Within a short time it was invaded by Indonesia, who ruled the area until 1999. During these years about 100,000 to 200,000 people were killed, along with the complete destruction of infrastructure.
Indonesia summary: 400,000 killed, with an additional 100,000 to 200,000 in East Timor
Iraq: the destruction of Saddam Hussein
Iraq: Most of the of the last two decades was the doing of Saddam Hussein. This is another case of a regime that caused the deaths of millions. Nonstop death. One of the highpoints was during the Iran-Iraq war, in the conflict over the Shat El Arab River, the river that is created by the convergence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. This was a conflict that led to nothing but large scale destruction and mass killing. Estimates are between 450,000 and 650,000 Iraqis, and between 450,000 and 970,000 Iranians. Jews, Israelis, and Zionists were not around, as far as is known.
Waves of purges, some politically motivated (opposition), some ethnic ( the Kurdish minority) and some religiously motivated (the ruling Suni minority against the Shiite majority), yielded an astounding number of victims. Estimates vary from one million, according to local sources, to a quarter million, according to Human Rights Watch. Other international organizations quote an estimate of about half a million.
In the years 1991 - 1992 there was a Shiite uprising in Iraq. There are contradictory estimates about the number of victims. The numbers vary from 40,000 to 200,000. In addition to the Iraqis that were slaughtered one must add the Kurds. During Saddam Hussein's reign, between 200,000 to 300,000 of them were killed in a genocide that continued all through the 1980's and the 1990's.
Over half a million more Iraqis died from diseases because of the shortage of medicine, which was the result of sanctions imposed after the first Gulf War. Today it is clear that this was a continuation of the genocide perpetrated by Saddam on his own people. He could have purchased medicine, he had enough money to buy food and to build hospitals for all the children of Iraq, but Saddam preferred to build palaces and to distribute franchises to many in the west and in Arab states. This issue is being exposed in the corruption of the UN's 'Oil for Food' project.
The Iraqis continue to suffer. The civil war that is raging there now - even if some would rather not give that name to the mutual massacre of Sunis and Shiites – is costing tens of thousands of lives. It is estimated that about 100,000 people have been killed since the coalition forces took control in Iraq.
Iraq Summary: 1.54 million to 2 million victims.
Iran Summary: 450,000 to 970,000 victims .
Lebanon: The Lebanese civil war
Lebanon: The Lebanese civil war took place from 1975 to 1990. Israel was involved in certain stages, by way of the first Lebanon War in 1982. There is no disagreement that a considerable part of the victims were killed in the first two years.
The more assessments talk of over 130,000 killed. Most of them were Lebanese killed by other Lebanese, on religious, ethnic grounds and in connection with the Syrian involvement. Syria transferred its support between various parties in the conflict. The highest estimates claim that Israeli activities were the cause of around 18,000 people, the great majority of which were fighters.
Lebanon summary: 130,000.
Yemen: In the civil war that took place in Yemen from 1962 to 1970, with Egyptian and Saudi involvement, 100,000 to 150,000 Yemenites were killed, and more than a thousand Egyptians and a thousand Saudis.
Egypt committed war crimes by incorporating the use of chemical warfare. Riots in Yemen from 1984 to 1986 caused the deaths of thousands more.
Yemen summary: 100,000 to 150,000 fatalities
Chechnya: Russia turned down Chechen Republic demands for independence, and this led to the first Chechen war of 1994 to 1996. The war cost the lives of 50,000 to 200,000 Chechens.
Russia put a great deal into this conflict, but failed miserably. This did not help Chechens, because although they had gained autonomy there republic was in ruins.
The second Chechen War began in 1999 and officially ended in 2001, but it has not really ended, and number of the victims is estimated at 30,000 to 100,000.
Chechnya summary: 80,000 to 300,000 fatalities.
Smaller confrontations
From Jordan to Zanzibar: In addition to the wars and the massacres, there have also been smaller confrontations, that have cost the lives of thousands and tens of thousands, of Muslims and Arabs (killed) by Muslims and Arabs. These confrontations are not even taken into account in the tables presented on these pages, because the numbers are small, relatively speaking, even though the numbers of those killed are far higher than the numbers of the victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Here are some of them:
Jordan: 1970 to 1971 the Black September riots took place In the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. King Hussein was fed up of the Palestians use of the country and their threatened to take control of it. The confrontation, mainly a massacre in the refugee camps, took thousands of lives. According to estimates provided by the Palestinians themselves - 10,000 to 25,000 fatalities. According to other sources - a few thousand.
Chad: Half of the population of Chad are Muslims: In various civil wars 30,000 civilians have been killed.
Kosovo: In the mainly Muslim area of Yugoslavia about 10,000 were killed in the war there from 1998 to 2000.
Tajikistan: Civil war from 1992 to 1996 left about 50,000 dead.
Syria: Hafez Assad's systematic persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood ended in the 1982 massacre in the city of Hama, costing the lives of about 20,000 people.
Iran: Thousands were killed in the beginning of the Humeini Revolution. The precise number is unknown, but is somewhere between thousands and tens of thousands. The Kurds also suffered at the hands of Iran, and about 10,000 of them were murdered there.
Turkey: About 20,000 Kurds were killed in Turkey as part of the conflict there.
Zanzibar: In the earlyu 1960's the island was granted independence, but only for a short time. At first, the Arabs were in power, but a black group, made up mainly of Muslims, slaughtered the Arab group, also Muslim, in 1964. The estimates are that 5,000 to 17,000 were killed.
Even this is not the end of the list. There were more conflicts with unknown numbers of victims in former USSR republics with Muslim majority populations (like the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagurno Karabach), and a disputable number of Muslims that were killed in mixed population countries in Africa, such as Nigeria, Mauritania or Uganda (in the years of Idi Amins reign in Uganda, in the decade that began in 1971, about 300,000 Ugandans were killed. Amin defined himself as Muslim, but in contrast to Sudan, it is hard to say that the background for the slaughter was Muslim, and it certainly wasn't Arab.
"to liquidate the Jewish entity"
To all the above, one can add this data: The great majority of Arabs killed in the framework of the Israeli-Arab Conflict were killed as a result of wars instigated by the Arabs and as a result of their refusal to recognize the UN decision regarding the establishment of the State of Israel, or their refusal to recognize the Jews' right of self-definition.
The number of Israelis killed by Arab aggression has been relatively far less than the numbers of Arabs killed. In the War of the Independence, for example, more than 6,000 Israelis were killed out of a population that was then made up of 600,000. This means: One percent of the population. In comparison with this, Arab fatalities in the war against Israel came from seven countries, the populations of which were already tens of millions. Israel did not dream, did not think and did not want to destroy any Arab state. But the ostensible goal of the attacking armies was "to liquidate the Jewish entity".
Obviously, in recent years, the Palestinian victims have received most of the attention of the Media and the Academia. In actual fact, these make up just a small percentage of the total sum of all victims. The total sum of Palestinians killed by Israel in the territories that were conquered is several thousand. 1,378 were killed in the first Intifada, and 3,700 since the start of the second Intifada.
This is less, for instance, than the Muslim victims massacred by former Syrian president, Hafez Assad in Hama in 1982. This is less than the Palestinians massacred by King Hussein in 1971. This is less than the number of those killed in one single massacre of Muslim Bosnians by the Serbs in 1991 in Srebrenica, a massacre that left 8,000 dead.
Every person killed is regrettable, but there is no greater libel than to call Israel's actions 'genocide'. And even so, the string 'Israel' and 'genocide' in Google search engine leads to 13,600,000 referrals. Try typing 'Sudan' and 'genocide' and you'll get less than 9 million results. These numbers, if you will, are the essence of the great deception.
not enlightened, but is not brutal
Another fact: Since WWII, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the national conflict with the lowest number of victims, but with the world's highest number of publications hostile to Israel in the media and in the Academia.
At least half a million Algerians died during the French occupation. A million Afghanis died during the Soviet occupation. Millions of Muslims and Arabs were killed and slaughtered at the hands of Muslims. But all the world knows about one Mohammed a-Dura (whose death was regrettable, but there is some doubt whether he was killed by Israeli gunfire at all).
It is possible and acceptable to criticize Israel. But the excessive, obsessive, and at times anti-Semitic criticism serves also as a coverup, and in some cases also as an approval, of the genocide of millions of others.
Occupation is not enlightened and can't be enlightened. But if we try to create a scale of 'brutal occupation', Israel will come last. This is a fact. This is not an opinion.
And what would have happened to the Palestinians if, instead of being under Israeli occupation they were under Iraqi occupation? Or Sudanese? Or even French or Soviet? It is highly probable that they would have been victims of genocide, at worst, and of mass killings, purges, and deportations at best.
But luckily for them they are under Israeli occupation. And even if, I repeat, there is no such thing as an enlightened occupation, and even if it is acceptable and possible, and at times necessary, to criticize Israel, there is no occupation and there has never been an occupation with so few fatalities (indeed, there are other injuries that are not manifested in the numbers of fatalities, such as the refugee problem. This will be discussed in a separate chapter).
Television screen ethics
So why is the impression of the world the direct opposite? How come there is no connection between the facts and the numbers and the so very demonic image of Israel in the world?
There are many answers. One of them is that western ethics have become the ethics of television cameras. If a Palestinian terrorist or a Hizbullah man tries to shoot a rocket from the midst of a civilian neighbourhood, and Israel retaliates with fire - causing the death of two children - there will be endless headlines and articles all over the world that "Israel murders children". But if entire villages are destroyed in Sudan or whole cities are erased in Syria, there will be no television cameras in the area.
And so, according to television ethics, Jose Saramago and Harold Pinter sign a petition protesting 'genocide' and 'war crimes' perpetrated by Israel. They have never read the Geneva Convention either. They probably do not know that, aside for very few exceptions, the actions of Israel against military targets hitting civilians is allowed according to the Geneva Convention (protocol 1 paragraph 52.2). And because these people are so submerged in television ethics, they will not sign any petitions in protest of the genocide of Muslims by Muslims. Murder for the sake of it. They are allowed to do it.
Television ethics is a tragedy for the Arabs and the Muslims themselves. Israel pays dearly because of it, but the Arabs and the Muslims are its real victims. And as long as this blue screen morality continues, the Arabs and the Muslims will continue to pay the price.
Epilogue
There are those that claim that Arab and Muslim states are immune from criticism, because they are not democratic, but Israel is more worthy of criticism because it has democratic pretences. Claims like this are Orientalism at its worst. The covert assumption is that the Arabs and the Muslims are the retarded child of the world. They are allowed. It is not only Orientalism. It is racism.
The Arabs and the Muslims are not children and they are not retarded. Many Arabs and Muslims know this and write about it. They know that only an end to the self-deception and a taking of responsibility will lead to change. They know that as long as the west treats them as unequal and irresponsible it is lending a hand not only to a racist attitude, but also, and mainly, to a continuation of their mass murder.
The genocide that Israel is not committing, that is completely libelous, hides the real genocide, the silenced genocide that Arabs and Muslims are committing mainly against themselves. The libel has to stop so as to look at reality. It is in the interest of the Arabs and the Muslims. Israel pays in image. They pay in blood. If there is any morality left in the world, this should be in the interest of whoever has a remaining drop of it in him. And should it happen, it will be small news for Israel, and great news, far greater news, for Arabs and Muslims.
חדשות
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Awarding Hon. Life Memberships in Organizations.
LIFE MEMBER OR MEMBER FOR A LONG LIFE?
Being honoured with an Hon. Life Membership of NCJW Victorian Section was like a jolt from the deep. It suddenly brought home the realization that one has come to the end of one’s “active career” in the organization;- that one has reached the zenith of one’s life! Pushed aside,- “kicked upstairs”,- for the term of one’s natural life! Seniority demands it,- but the blunt reality is difficult to face!
Interestingly NCJW has had a string of senior leaders right across Australia who were awarded Honorary Life Presidencies, Life Memberships & Life Governorships and in almost all cases these stalwarts lived (and some still do) to ripe old ages, mostly well into their nineties! In Sydney, NCJW’s Founder Dr. Fanny Reading was the first Life President, living until the age of 90; Vera Cohen followed her to the age of 92 ; from Queensland’s Mary Lieberman and Aelsie Magnus, to WA’s Life President Edna Luber-Smith (to the age of 96) Council has been blessed with longevity of its Life leaders to this day and I was indeed fortunate to have met or known most of them during my 40 years in the organization. Now it is my turn!
So instead of a “sentence” I now look upon my next “term” in Council as a “prediction” of an active long life. But looking back to the time I started in NCJWA, I guess that I was “the new-age" leader,-the transition from the “old guard” to the new generation. The 1960s were the “Women’s Liberation” years. Until then, most women who were volunteers in the community were known as “charity” workers. They were the homemakers, wives and mothers, not career-women. They were supposed to do voluntary work because they could not do anything else. They were not the “professionals” like the men in the community,- the lawyers, doctors, businessmen who were the communal leaders. The women were the ones getting the cups of tea for them, with younger ones minding the offices and taking the Minutes at the male-dominated meetings.
The meetings of the communal Roof Bodies were run on a Parliamentary procedures system, with legal-eagles in the Chair who used sarcasm and patronizing sneers whenever a female delegate dared to raise her voice! Unless of course, the female was the wife of someone important! Then respect might have been shown, but on the whole, unless the Chairman recognized the delegate as representing an important section of the community, or was a VIP in his/her own right, there was little respect shown at the public meetings to anyone.
It was all very intimidating and it took a lot of courage therefore for newcomers to these establishments, whether new women leaders, or rank-and-file delegates, to speak-up at the meetings of the Board of Deputies, or the ECAJ or at the SZCs in Australia in those days. One had to be a strong personality of the calibre of Dr. Fanny Reading or Vera Cohen to force oneself to be heard and taken seriously among the Jewish male hierarchies in all the capital cities. It was easier for the WIZO leadership because they were usually the wives of communal Presidents.
NCJW being an independent Women’s organization, with an independent agenda but not as large a fundraiser for Israel as the other Zionist groups, it was difficult for its leaders to make the vocal professional men understand the breadth of interests and influence that a Women’s NGO with international affiliations and UN –Agencies’ representations was developing in those days on behalf of the Jewish community. The Women's Movement was in its infancy, but its influence was already being felt and NCJW was in there with the top groups.
So here I was, also a University graduate able to hold my own with the men in the community, with European experiences while the others were mostly Aussie Jews, or pre-WW2 immigrants,- but I was treated as someone who was not worth listening to!
Not being as forceful as my mentors, I chose to deliver my salvos via the Jewish News,- and the Editor of the day loved me! The difference between me and the others who felt like I did but were too afraid to speak up, was the fact that I had nothing to lose. I didn’t need any of them. Most men involved in the community had business or professional connections with each other and therefore avoided offending anyone! My husband was not involved with the “establishment”, we were ”New Australians” and had no ties either professional or business with any of “ the Establishment”. Hence I was a free-agent, totally unafraid to express my views as I saw them.
As a result I collected many “fellow-travellers” during my terms as State and National president,- but at the same time causing also plenty of controversies. Some leaders avoided me, while others sought my counsel. But suffice it to say that soon it became apparent that NCJW was not to be overlooked when important issues of the day were to be discussed. At the same time, within our organization we were able to attract the new breed of professional women in leadership positions, such as e.g. Dr. Geulah Solomon who was able to help us deal with the Government bureaucracies independently from the other Jewish communal bodies. Already in ’75, NCJW in Victoria was able to hold the first ever Jewish International Convention in Australia, which was honoured by the highest in the land, from the Governor General to the Prime Minister and State Premier, politicians and dignitaries; while NCJW NSW built its landmark building in Woollahra already in the ‘60s due to Dr. Fanny’s foresight, it was after the Convention thatVictoria was able to purchase its first modest Council House in St. Kilda. I was instrumental in getting assistance from someone at the Tax Office so that we were able to establish our NCJWA Foundation at the time and we were readily joined by the top Jewish jurors as our initial Trustees.
Of course, in all of this we were assisted by the indefatigable Mina Fink and her sister-in-law, Sadie, together with Annia Castan and their Smorgon and Fink families and all their friends. The enthusiasm with which they embraced every Council challenge,- such as bringing out the whole Israeli disabled basket-ball team to the World Championships in Melbourne which we undertook in the ‘80s,- made my leadership years in Council that much easier to sustain. I started much earlier than most,- my first presidency was in my 30s, (while still working and 2 small children at home) and I finished my 6-year National term by the time I was 54. Internationally I went to my first Convention in ’72 in Toronto Canada at the age of 35 and brought back the Convention for ’75 to Australia at Mina Fink’s urging. Again through Mina Fink, I was nominated to go to China with a small group of 10 as soon as I was elected to the Presidency in ’85,- the first time that a Jewish Zionist was officially invited,- before even the ECAJ President Isi Leibler at the time, (who also headed Jetset Travel) had been there,- after China started opening up to the world.
Altogether, my journey through the ranks of the State, National and International Council of Jewish Women has been an exciting and fulfilling one. When I was elected to the Life Membership of the ICJW Executive last May, I felt that I have earned it. I have held as many positions as I could from this far-away country of ours. I have made so many friends and visited with so many of them throughout our travels overseas over the years, that they actually made our journeys fantastical experiences each time. For this my husband and I shall be forever grateful.
Sadly, on the local scene, most of those early stalwarts are no longer with us. The only one of my early mentors and my companion with whom I shared Mina Fink’s President’s subsidy for that first Canadian Convention, is our dear Life Governor, Ray Ginsburg, who at some 96 years of age in Sydney, is still valiantly trying to keep up with her life-long devotion to NCJW. May she still continue to do so to 120!
I and my fellow past leaders and newly elected Victorian Life Members, Geulah Solomon and Susie Balint, intend to keep an eye on Council’s future as long as we are able. As the late Vera Cohen always insisted, we have to pay our dues regardless,- because you never know when we may need to have a vote! (She had to organise an Extraordinary General Meeting to stop Council House being taken over by another Organization in Sydney!)
Therefore, we don’t intend being “out of sight and out of mind”. There are Council’s “Core-Values” which we feel need protecting from being eroded by newer interests and administrations which in the future may not have the longstanding loyalties and experiences on which Council was founded 80 years ago. I would put these as the ones which Vera Cohen first espoused during her presidency:
NCW’s 3-point platform:
#1. Always ISRAEL------------Projects, education, Zionism, Hasbara, support at every level!
#2. LOCAL JEWISH…..community services,- filling a need wherever it is needed in our own community.
#3. GENERAL CAUSES…….status of women,- general and in Jewish law; -multicultural affairs, Human Rights issues. Fighting racism and anti-Semitism.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“It is not necessary for us to finish the task, but we must not desist from attempting it”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Malvina Malinek OAM
Hon. Life Member, NCJWA Victoria Inc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Being honoured with an Hon. Life Membership of NCJW Victorian Section was like a jolt from the deep. It suddenly brought home the realization that one has come to the end of one’s “active career” in the organization;- that one has reached the zenith of one’s life! Pushed aside,- “kicked upstairs”,- for the term of one’s natural life! Seniority demands it,- but the blunt reality is difficult to face!
Interestingly NCJW has had a string of senior leaders right across Australia who were awarded Honorary Life Presidencies, Life Memberships & Life Governorships and in almost all cases these stalwarts lived (and some still do) to ripe old ages, mostly well into their nineties! In Sydney, NCJW’s Founder Dr. Fanny Reading was the first Life President, living until the age of 90; Vera Cohen followed her to the age of 92 ; from Queensland’s Mary Lieberman and Aelsie Magnus, to WA’s Life President Edna Luber-Smith (to the age of 96) Council has been blessed with longevity of its Life leaders to this day and I was indeed fortunate to have met or known most of them during my 40 years in the organization. Now it is my turn!
So instead of a “sentence” I now look upon my next “term” in Council as a “prediction” of an active long life. But looking back to the time I started in NCJWA, I guess that I was “the new-age" leader,-the transition from the “old guard” to the new generation. The 1960s were the “Women’s Liberation” years. Until then, most women who were volunteers in the community were known as “charity” workers. They were the homemakers, wives and mothers, not career-women. They were supposed to do voluntary work because they could not do anything else. They were not the “professionals” like the men in the community,- the lawyers, doctors, businessmen who were the communal leaders. The women were the ones getting the cups of tea for them, with younger ones minding the offices and taking the Minutes at the male-dominated meetings.
The meetings of the communal Roof Bodies were run on a Parliamentary procedures system, with legal-eagles in the Chair who used sarcasm and patronizing sneers whenever a female delegate dared to raise her voice! Unless of course, the female was the wife of someone important! Then respect might have been shown, but on the whole, unless the Chairman recognized the delegate as representing an important section of the community, or was a VIP in his/her own right, there was little respect shown at the public meetings to anyone.
It was all very intimidating and it took a lot of courage therefore for newcomers to these establishments, whether new women leaders, or rank-and-file delegates, to speak-up at the meetings of the Board of Deputies, or the ECAJ or at the SZCs in Australia in those days. One had to be a strong personality of the calibre of Dr. Fanny Reading or Vera Cohen to force oneself to be heard and taken seriously among the Jewish male hierarchies in all the capital cities. It was easier for the WIZO leadership because they were usually the wives of communal Presidents.
NCJW being an independent Women’s organization, with an independent agenda but not as large a fundraiser for Israel as the other Zionist groups, it was difficult for its leaders to make the vocal professional men understand the breadth of interests and influence that a Women’s NGO with international affiliations and UN –Agencies’ representations was developing in those days on behalf of the Jewish community. The Women's Movement was in its infancy, but its influence was already being felt and NCJW was in there with the top groups.
So here I was, also a University graduate able to hold my own with the men in the community, with European experiences while the others were mostly Aussie Jews, or pre-WW2 immigrants,- but I was treated as someone who was not worth listening to!
Not being as forceful as my mentors, I chose to deliver my salvos via the Jewish News,- and the Editor of the day loved me! The difference between me and the others who felt like I did but were too afraid to speak up, was the fact that I had nothing to lose. I didn’t need any of them. Most men involved in the community had business or professional connections with each other and therefore avoided offending anyone! My husband was not involved with the “establishment”, we were ”New Australians” and had no ties either professional or business with any of “ the Establishment”. Hence I was a free-agent, totally unafraid to express my views as I saw them.
As a result I collected many “fellow-travellers” during my terms as State and National president,- but at the same time causing also plenty of controversies. Some leaders avoided me, while others sought my counsel. But suffice it to say that soon it became apparent that NCJW was not to be overlooked when important issues of the day were to be discussed. At the same time, within our organization we were able to attract the new breed of professional women in leadership positions, such as e.g. Dr. Geulah Solomon who was able to help us deal with the Government bureaucracies independently from the other Jewish communal bodies. Already in ’75, NCJW in Victoria was able to hold the first ever Jewish International Convention in Australia, which was honoured by the highest in the land, from the Governor General to the Prime Minister and State Premier, politicians and dignitaries; while NCJW NSW built its landmark building in Woollahra already in the ‘60s due to Dr. Fanny’s foresight, it was after the Convention thatVictoria was able to purchase its first modest Council House in St. Kilda. I was instrumental in getting assistance from someone at the Tax Office so that we were able to establish our NCJWA Foundation at the time and we were readily joined by the top Jewish jurors as our initial Trustees.
Of course, in all of this we were assisted by the indefatigable Mina Fink and her sister-in-law, Sadie, together with Annia Castan and their Smorgon and Fink families and all their friends. The enthusiasm with which they embraced every Council challenge,- such as bringing out the whole Israeli disabled basket-ball team to the World Championships in Melbourne which we undertook in the ‘80s,- made my leadership years in Council that much easier to sustain. I started much earlier than most,- my first presidency was in my 30s, (while still working and 2 small children at home) and I finished my 6-year National term by the time I was 54. Internationally I went to my first Convention in ’72 in Toronto Canada at the age of 35 and brought back the Convention for ’75 to Australia at Mina Fink’s urging. Again through Mina Fink, I was nominated to go to China with a small group of 10 as soon as I was elected to the Presidency in ’85,- the first time that a Jewish Zionist was officially invited,- before even the ECAJ President Isi Leibler at the time, (who also headed Jetset Travel) had been there,- after China started opening up to the world.
Altogether, my journey through the ranks of the State, National and International Council of Jewish Women has been an exciting and fulfilling one. When I was elected to the Life Membership of the ICJW Executive last May, I felt that I have earned it. I have held as many positions as I could from this far-away country of ours. I have made so many friends and visited with so many of them throughout our travels overseas over the years, that they actually made our journeys fantastical experiences each time. For this my husband and I shall be forever grateful.
Sadly, on the local scene, most of those early stalwarts are no longer with us. The only one of my early mentors and my companion with whom I shared Mina Fink’s President’s subsidy for that first Canadian Convention, is our dear Life Governor, Ray Ginsburg, who at some 96 years of age in Sydney, is still valiantly trying to keep up with her life-long devotion to NCJW. May she still continue to do so to 120!
I and my fellow past leaders and newly elected Victorian Life Members, Geulah Solomon and Susie Balint, intend to keep an eye on Council’s future as long as we are able. As the late Vera Cohen always insisted, we have to pay our dues regardless,- because you never know when we may need to have a vote! (She had to organise an Extraordinary General Meeting to stop Council House being taken over by another Organization in Sydney!)
Therefore, we don’t intend being “out of sight and out of mind”. There are Council’s “Core-Values” which we feel need protecting from being eroded by newer interests and administrations which in the future may not have the longstanding loyalties and experiences on which Council was founded 80 years ago. I would put these as the ones which Vera Cohen first espoused during her presidency:
NCW’s 3-point platform:
#1. Always ISRAEL------------Projects, education, Zionism, Hasbara, support at every level!
#2. LOCAL JEWISH…..community services,- filling a need wherever it is needed in our own community.
#3. GENERAL CAUSES…….status of women,- general and in Jewish law; -multicultural affairs, Human Rights issues. Fighting racism and anti-Semitism.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“It is not necessary for us to finish the task, but we must not desist from attempting it”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Malvina Malinek OAM
Hon. Life Member, NCJWA Victoria Inc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, October 15, 2006
THERAPEUTIC CLONING EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS
.
CLONING OF EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS.
The debate rages on,- legalise or not?
A Private Members’ Bill will be introduced in the Australian Parliament by the previous Health Minister, Senator Kay Patterson to allow the use of embryonic stem cells for cloning for research purposes. The embryonic stem cells can be made to reproduce in the laboratory, the idea being that they can be made to form themselves into any organ cells as required, for the purposes of therapeutically targeting genetically deficient cells of those organs with healthy ones.
This is the theory, but in practice the results have not yet been proven. Therefore there is still a lot of scepticism about this technique and its future therapeutic value. It seems that it is the hope of success which drives this research forward. However, the production of a potential human life in its first embryonic stage for the purpose of destroying it later, is contrary to some people’s religious and ethical beliefs. Hence the strong debates raging in and out of the Australian Parliament, at the end of a 2-year moratorium on this issue. At the moment, only discarded ova after IVF are allowed to be used for this purpose.
Adult stem cells which are much easier to obtain, are also being used at the moment for the same purpose, by introducing a foreign nucleus into the denucleated ovum. Apparently these are not as successful as the embryonic ones.and the researchers are clamouring to be allowed to use the embryonic ones. For these, one needs ova from women’s ovaries plus nuclei from sperms (preferably) to produce the first multiplying embryonic cells in vitro. These are the same as the ones being implanted into the uterus of women undergoing IVF, hence they are a potential human life. Hence the objections.
The other objection is the fact that women will have to donate their ova and this may result in coercion and a “trade” in the purchase of ova to the detriment of women’s health. Some countries such as the UK are already allowed to use embryonic stem cells and they face the dilemma of where to obtain women’s ova in suitable amounts under ethical conditions.
On the other hand, the best researchers will naturally try to go to work in those countries; hence a brain-drain of our finest scientists may result from Australia. I don’t believe that this is a good-enough reason to sell-out our moral principles, unless the end result will really prove to justify the means. Therefore strict regulations and safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that women are not exploited for their ova and that therapeutic cloning needs to have a time-line drawn to prove itself. - If it does not do so within say 5 years,- after already having been tested over many years,- then the program should be abandoned for better techniques!
Malvina Malinek OAM M.Sc.
NCJWA Health Committee.
CLONING OF EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS.
The debate rages on,- legalise or not?
A Private Members’ Bill will be introduced in the Australian Parliament by the previous Health Minister, Senator Kay Patterson to allow the use of embryonic stem cells for cloning for research purposes. The embryonic stem cells can be made to reproduce in the laboratory, the idea being that they can be made to form themselves into any organ cells as required, for the purposes of therapeutically targeting genetically deficient cells of those organs with healthy ones.
This is the theory, but in practice the results have not yet been proven. Therefore there is still a lot of scepticism about this technique and its future therapeutic value. It seems that it is the hope of success which drives this research forward. However, the production of a potential human life in its first embryonic stage for the purpose of destroying it later, is contrary to some people’s religious and ethical beliefs. Hence the strong debates raging in and out of the Australian Parliament, at the end of a 2-year moratorium on this issue. At the moment, only discarded ova after IVF are allowed to be used for this purpose.
Adult stem cells which are much easier to obtain, are also being used at the moment for the same purpose, by introducing a foreign nucleus into the denucleated ovum. Apparently these are not as successful as the embryonic ones.and the researchers are clamouring to be allowed to use the embryonic ones. For these, one needs ova from women’s ovaries plus nuclei from sperms (preferably) to produce the first multiplying embryonic cells in vitro. These are the same as the ones being implanted into the uterus of women undergoing IVF, hence they are a potential human life. Hence the objections.
The other objection is the fact that women will have to donate their ova and this may result in coercion and a “trade” in the purchase of ova to the detriment of women’s health. Some countries such as the UK are already allowed to use embryonic stem cells and they face the dilemma of where to obtain women’s ova in suitable amounts under ethical conditions.
On the other hand, the best researchers will naturally try to go to work in those countries; hence a brain-drain of our finest scientists may result from Australia. I don’t believe that this is a good-enough reason to sell-out our moral principles, unless the end result will really prove to justify the means. Therefore strict regulations and safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that women are not exploited for their ova and that therapeutic cloning needs to have a time-line drawn to prove itself. - If it does not do so within say 5 years,- after already having been tested over many years,- then the program should be abandoned for better techniques!
Malvina Malinek OAM M.Sc.
NCJWA Health Committee.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
STOP FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING.
SIGN THE PETITION.
Hi friend,More than 135 million women and girls worldwide have been affected by female genital cutting (FGC), also called female circumcision. In countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, girls as young as 4 years old are forced to submit to this painful, unnecessary, and unsafe practice.
Take action. Infibulation, the most severe form of FGC, involves the removal of all or part of the external genitalia, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstruation. The cutting usually takes place between the ages of 4 and 12 and can cause serious complications including severe bleeding, infection, long-term difficulties with intercourse and childbirth, and even death. Psychologically, cutting can cause tension between couples due to painful or difficult sexual relations. And socially, cutting makes it harder for girls to go to school or earn income by making them more likely to marry early.We need the help of people like you.
Speak out against this unnecessary and unsafe practice. By signing this petition today, you'll be raising awareness and taking a stand to stop the painful practice of female genital cutting. Your name will be added to a list that will demonstrate to key decision makers just how strong the opposition against FGC is. We must do all we can to save these girls from a lifetime of pain and suffering.
Start by taking a stand against FGC. Sign today. Thank you for making a difference today!
Agata Gussmann,Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team
Hi friend,More than 135 million women and girls worldwide have been affected by female genital cutting (FGC), also called female circumcision. In countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, girls as young as 4 years old are forced to submit to this painful, unnecessary, and unsafe practice.
Take action. Infibulation, the most severe form of FGC, involves the removal of all or part of the external genitalia, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstruation. The cutting usually takes place between the ages of 4 and 12 and can cause serious complications including severe bleeding, infection, long-term difficulties with intercourse and childbirth, and even death. Psychologically, cutting can cause tension between couples due to painful or difficult sexual relations. And socially, cutting makes it harder for girls to go to school or earn income by making them more likely to marry early.We need the help of people like you.
Speak out against this unnecessary and unsafe practice. By signing this petition today, you'll be raising awareness and taking a stand to stop the painful practice of female genital cutting. Your name will be added to a list that will demonstrate to key decision makers just how strong the opposition against FGC is. We must do all we can to save these girls from a lifetime of pain and suffering.
Start by taking a stand against FGC. Sign today. Thank you for making a difference today!
Agata Gussmann,Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
JEWISH FOOD AND EATING CUSTOMS.
FOOD,- GLORIOUS FOOD!
Eating Jewish!
Partaking of a meal with friends is a wonderful social experience. Australia is blessed with an abundance of foods from all over the world and with restaurants and food-shops catering to every international taste and palate. However, when we have to entertain anyone outside our close circle of family and friends, we often face dilemmas.
There are ethnic differences, dietary fads and health-related dietary restrictions of all kinds for many individuals. Courtesy demands that as hosts, we inquire of our guests not only about their likes and dislikes, but also about what they can or cannot eat for all these other reasons. This applies particularly to Jewish people whom one may like to invite to one's home, but who may be devoutly religious/orthodox and therefore restricted in what they will accept in a non-Kosher, food-wise, home,- Jewish or non-Jewish.
The laws of "kashrut", i.e. what constitutes "kosher" food, are very complex and far too difficult for anyone who does not practice the Jewish religion to follow,- particularly if it is only for one occasion here and there. Therefore the rule of thumb when inviting privately an Orthodox Jewish person, is to prepare plenty of unpeeled fresh fruit, nuts for nibbles, some raw vegetables, hot or cold drinks using disposable cups and utensils,- and leave it at that. If they do not even touch that, don't be offended,- they appreciate the invitation without the food!
However, if you want to do more than the basics, then the best way is to ring one of the many Kosher caterers around town and order the meal. They will deliver it to your home with their own dishes, plates, cutlery, etc. as many meals as you like,- but obviously at a cost! Kosher food is unfortunately dearer. Alternatively, buy take-away Kosher foods already prepared from one of the shops, say, in Carlisle Street, Caulfield or Glenferrie Rd., Malvern, or other Caulfield shopping strips in your city and without handling the food, using disposable tableware and cutlery, just place it still in their containers (foil ones can be warmed up in the oven) on the table for the guests to help themselves. They will not eat from anyone's non-kosher tableware and utensils.
Official invitations for Jewish representatives of organisations need different considerations. One cannot cater for every individual requirement at a general function obviously,- but if there is a strictly vegetarian choice provided, then there is no problem.
In my many years' experience representing the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia at many official functions, I was often appalled at the ignorance displayed when serving food in a multicultural, multi-ethnic society which Australia is today. I would sometimes sit at a table with others who practice the Hindu or Moslem religion, as well as just vegetarians and we would be served mixed sandwiches including all kinds of meats and meat products. We either went on a "fishing expedition" to see what we could salvage out of these to eat, or we would just stay hungry (after sometimes paying for the privilege to boot!). One group provided a beautiful cold buffet with lots of different salads, except that every one of them was sprinkled with bacon pieces!
Most Jewish people do eat out in restaurants, particularly in vegetarian and fish restaurants. Only certain fish (salmon, whiting, perch, trout) are usually OK, but certainly no shellfish or exotic sea-foods (e.g. calamari!) and the fish should be preferably steamed, baked or grilled. If anything is to be fried, only pure vegetable oils should be used. Vegetables of all kinds are also totally acceptable.
Some years ago I had a phone-call from the wife of the British Consul who invited me and a few of my colleagues for lunch to meet the wife of a British VIP while on an official visit to Melbourne. This lady was particularly insistent on meeting members of the Jewish community. I regretfully declined as it was right in the middle of our 8-day Passover holiday when no bread or flour products are eaten. Undeterred, she insisted that we should come and she would provide us with whatever we needed for our meal from her caterer. I then suggested that she may like to order from a Kosher caterer who would know exactly what to prepare. She did just that and some 12 of us sat down to a fully Kosher-catered Passover lunch at the British Consulate. This event was such a success that we all became great friends and the Consul and his wife became one of our keen supporters during their term in Australia.
Where there is a will, there is a way! No one should use food as the excuse for not inviting, nor using it as a reason for not accepting an invitation, except during the Sabbath or a religious holiday, when they cannot travel. (There are also proscribed fast-days, most importantly the Day of Atonement.) It is just a simple matter of discussing beforehand the pros and cons of what is acceptable and what is not! Just as some people of the Greek Orthodox religion will not be allowed to eat any animal products at certain times during the year and others of different faiths who are observant will have their own dietary restrictions , so too the observant Jewish people have their restrictions also. It is just a matter of being aware of the basics:
no meats, unless kosher-slaughtered and prepared by "kosher cooks";
no meat products of any kind (inc. stock cubes);
no shellfish or sea foods ;
plenty of vegetables and fruit in disposable utensils, -
that is all that is really necessary to provide for your Orthodox-observant Jewish guests.
Bon appetit! The company is usually more important than the food anyway,- unless you have to pay for it!
Malvina Malinek OAM (M.Sc.)
(Past Pres. NCJWA)
Eating Jewish!
Partaking of a meal with friends is a wonderful social experience. Australia is blessed with an abundance of foods from all over the world and with restaurants and food-shops catering to every international taste and palate. However, when we have to entertain anyone outside our close circle of family and friends, we often face dilemmas.
There are ethnic differences, dietary fads and health-related dietary restrictions of all kinds for many individuals. Courtesy demands that as hosts, we inquire of our guests not only about their likes and dislikes, but also about what they can or cannot eat for all these other reasons. This applies particularly to Jewish people whom one may like to invite to one's home, but who may be devoutly religious/orthodox and therefore restricted in what they will accept in a non-Kosher, food-wise, home,- Jewish or non-Jewish.
The laws of "kashrut", i.e. what constitutes "kosher" food, are very complex and far too difficult for anyone who does not practice the Jewish religion to follow,- particularly if it is only for one occasion here and there. Therefore the rule of thumb when inviting privately an Orthodox Jewish person, is to prepare plenty of unpeeled fresh fruit, nuts for nibbles, some raw vegetables, hot or cold drinks using disposable cups and utensils,- and leave it at that. If they do not even touch that, don't be offended,- they appreciate the invitation without the food!
However, if you want to do more than the basics, then the best way is to ring one of the many Kosher caterers around town and order the meal. They will deliver it to your home with their own dishes, plates, cutlery, etc. as many meals as you like,- but obviously at a cost! Kosher food is unfortunately dearer. Alternatively, buy take-away Kosher foods already prepared from one of the shops, say, in Carlisle Street, Caulfield or Glenferrie Rd., Malvern, or other Caulfield shopping strips in your city and without handling the food, using disposable tableware and cutlery, just place it still in their containers (foil ones can be warmed up in the oven) on the table for the guests to help themselves. They will not eat from anyone's non-kosher tableware and utensils.
Official invitations for Jewish representatives of organisations need different considerations. One cannot cater for every individual requirement at a general function obviously,- but if there is a strictly vegetarian choice provided, then there is no problem.
In my many years' experience representing the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia at many official functions, I was often appalled at the ignorance displayed when serving food in a multicultural, multi-ethnic society which Australia is today. I would sometimes sit at a table with others who practice the Hindu or Moslem religion, as well as just vegetarians and we would be served mixed sandwiches including all kinds of meats and meat products. We either went on a "fishing expedition" to see what we could salvage out of these to eat, or we would just stay hungry (after sometimes paying for the privilege to boot!). One group provided a beautiful cold buffet with lots of different salads, except that every one of them was sprinkled with bacon pieces!
Most Jewish people do eat out in restaurants, particularly in vegetarian and fish restaurants. Only certain fish (salmon, whiting, perch, trout) are usually OK, but certainly no shellfish or exotic sea-foods (e.g. calamari!) and the fish should be preferably steamed, baked or grilled. If anything is to be fried, only pure vegetable oils should be used. Vegetables of all kinds are also totally acceptable.
Some years ago I had a phone-call from the wife of the British Consul who invited me and a few of my colleagues for lunch to meet the wife of a British VIP while on an official visit to Melbourne. This lady was particularly insistent on meeting members of the Jewish community. I regretfully declined as it was right in the middle of our 8-day Passover holiday when no bread or flour products are eaten. Undeterred, she insisted that we should come and she would provide us with whatever we needed for our meal from her caterer. I then suggested that she may like to order from a Kosher caterer who would know exactly what to prepare. She did just that and some 12 of us sat down to a fully Kosher-catered Passover lunch at the British Consulate. This event was such a success that we all became great friends and the Consul and his wife became one of our keen supporters during their term in Australia.
Where there is a will, there is a way! No one should use food as the excuse for not inviting, nor using it as a reason for not accepting an invitation, except during the Sabbath or a religious holiday, when they cannot travel. (There are also proscribed fast-days, most importantly the Day of Atonement.) It is just a simple matter of discussing beforehand the pros and cons of what is acceptable and what is not! Just as some people of the Greek Orthodox religion will not be allowed to eat any animal products at certain times during the year and others of different faiths who are observant will have their own dietary restrictions , so too the observant Jewish people have their restrictions also. It is just a matter of being aware of the basics:
no meats, unless kosher-slaughtered and prepared by "kosher cooks";
no meat products of any kind (inc. stock cubes);
no shellfish or sea foods ;
plenty of vegetables and fruit in disposable utensils, -
that is all that is really necessary to provide for your Orthodox-observant Jewish guests.
Bon appetit! The company is usually more important than the food anyway,- unless you have to pay for it!
Malvina Malinek OAM (M.Sc.)
(Past Pres. NCJWA)
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