Jimmy Carter: Hamas wants an end to the violence, but not Israel

- Jimmy Carter reiterates apartheid accusations against Israel ... and much more

Swiss newspaper Le Temps has more on former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's views on Hamas and Israel.  Translation of an excerpt :

"What do you say to Hamas leaders ? Do you trust Khaled Meshaal [a Hamas leader who is a refugee in Damascus] who is considered as a terrorist in your country?

Let's be reminded that he was not considered a terrorist until he won the elections in 2006. The United States insisted that elections be held, I was there.

When I meet with Hamas officials, they say clearly that they will accept any peace treaty negotiated between Israel and Mahmoud Abbas and which is to be approved by the Palestinian people through a referendum. Such a referendum is both a Hamas and a Fatah requirement. They also told us that they would not be opposed to an agreement based on the Arab Peace Initiative. I have been meeting Hamas leaders for many years. They have always stated that they would accept a truce [Carter confuses truce and peace] in the West Bank and in Gaza if Israel did the same. Israel has rejected this proposal because it does not want a truce in the West Bank. Hamas wants an end to the violence."

- Carter offers Jewish community ‘Al Het’
- Jimmy Carter to U.S. Jews: Forgive me for stigmatizing Israel
- Carter: Grandson’s race not reason enough to apologize ...

Norway has decided to teach Israel a lesson

"Norway is trying to send us messages on different fronts through its talks with Hamas and intolerance toward settlements. [...] They are tough Vikings and are not intimidated, not even by Lieberman." (Alon Liel)

Source: The Jerusalem Post

FM accuses Norway of anti-Semitic policy

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Norway last week of upholding anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli policies, Army Radio reported Tuesday.

Lieberman fiercely criticized the Norwegian government during the UN General Assembly in New York, demanding answers from Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre regarding talks Oslo had been holding with Hamas. He then brought up what he termed Norway's quiet support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stating that Norwegian representatives to the UN did not leave the room during the Iranian leader's New York speech.

Lieberman also mentioned the Norwegian Culture Ministry's commemoration of Nazi-affiliated author Knut Hamsun, who had once eulogized Hitler in the Norwegian daily Aftenposten as a "warrior for mankind." In response, Støre denied the allegations of anti-Semitism, explaining that the commemoration was not political in nature and that a distinction was made between Hamsun's work and his world view.

However, former Foreign Ministry director-general Alon Liel told Army Radio that "Norway is trying to send us messages on different fronts" through its talks with Hamas and "intolerance toward settlements."

"They are tough Vikings and are not intimidated, not even by Lieberman," concluded Liel. "[Norway] is an ideological opponent who has decided to teach us a lesson."

Lieberman first voiced his criticism of Norwegian policies in August, after a newspaper in neighboring Sweden published a controversial article accusing Israel of organ harvesting.

For more on Norway, please click HERE

In Switzerland, Hamas is not considered a terrorist organization

"In Switzerland, Hamas is not considered a terrorist organization." (Swiss foreign ministry)

Israel furious over Hamas leader's trip to Switzerland

The Foreign Ministry is furious over news that Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official based in the Gaza Strip, recently headed a Hamas delegation to Switzerland for talks with Swiss diplomats. A senior Foreign Ministry official said the visit will further destabilize already shaky relations between Jerusalem and Bern, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Switzerland in April for the "Durban 2" United Nations anti-racism conference.

China's news agency broke the story of Zahar's visit nearly two weeks ago.

Officials at the Israeli Embassy in Bern were surprised by the report, since they knew nothing about the June visit. The embassy has requested clarifications from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, but Israeli officials say the responses have not been satisfactory. One Jerusalem officials said it was many days before the Swiss confirmed the Hamas visit to the embassy. Swiss officials told Israel's ambassador in Bern, Ilan Elgar, that the Hamas delegation was invited to Geneva by a nongovernmental research institute. The Foreign Ministry source, however, noted that Swiss diplomats, including the Swiss envoy to the Middle East, met with the delegation during a conference at the institute.

When Elgar requested official clarification regarding the visa issued to the delegation, he was told by the Swiss foreign ministry, "In Switzerland, Hamas is not considered a terrorist organization."

Tensions between Jerusalem and Bern began to build about a year and a half ago, when the Swiss foreign minister went to Iran to sign a major gas purchase contract. In May, in the wake of Ahmadinejad's visit to Geneva and the official working meeting with him held by Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, Israel recalled Elgar to Jerusalem for consultations in protest.

Source: article Barak Ravid by in Haaretz

- Hamas statements on Israel (2006-2007)
- Nonie Darwish and Tawfik Hamid discuss Hamas at European Parliament
- France halts Hamas broadcasts to Europe
- Nizar Rayyan: Hamas "Human Shield" strategist succumbs to his own stratagem, by Ely Karmon
- Proportionality: international law and practice, Hamas' behavior, Israeli conduct
- EU says Gaza reconstruction won't happen under Hamas rule
- Different values: Israeli soldier and Hamas/Hezbollah 'soldier'

Belgium: Israeli Ambassador talk cancelled because of threats by Hamas

Unusual news: Hamas threatening violence in Belgium

The talk Ms. Tamar Samash, the Israeli Ambassador to Belgium and who is a French-speaker, was scheduled to give at Thuin on Tuesday has been cancelled because of terrorist threats by Hamas and a far left group, the PTB.

The authorities (Socialist Party) declared that they had decided to call off the event for security reasons because public order could not be guaranteed. As a token of good faith and open-mindedness, the mayor indicated that a Palestinian week had been organised in the city ... which one can only assume went off peacefully.

It seems that the authors of the threats have been identified, and that they had already caused trouble in Charleroi during a pro-Hamas demonstration last month.

Carine Beghain, one of the conference organisers, deplored the Mayor's decision to cave in to terrorist threats : "Poor Belgium, where are you heading to !", she exclaimed. And she added "Because threats have been proffered, people cannot express themselves in this country. It's shocking that some people import the conflict here. We invited the Ambassador to find out what her country's position is and, as we always do, there would have been a debate with the audience. This debate has been confiscated !"

Source: article in Sud Presse (in French)

- Hamas headquarters in Verviers, Belgium
- Belgium: Brussels parliament boycotts Israel, but not Lybia ...
- Israelis compared to Nazi SS on Belgian radio blog
- Zionism, a "Tumour in the midst of Judaism", Belgian radio forum

Photo taken during a pro-Hamas rally in Brussels on 11 January.

Cyprus: anti-Semitism and suspected Iran arms shipment for Hamas

Arms smuggling and the Obama effect : although the ship, flying the Cypriot flag (of convenience), was carrying Iranian weapons in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1747, it was only stopped at Limassol as a gesture to the new U.S. administration, and apparently not because it was the right thing to do. In fact, Cyprus which is a State member of the European Union probably had no choice.

Diplomats: Cyprus stopped suspected Iran arms ship 'as gesture to U.S.' (Haaretz, 1/1/2009)

"The diplomats said that the government of Cyprus understands that the ship is "Cypriot for all intents and purposes" in terms of international law, because it is flying the Cypriot flag, and added there was no legal obligation to detain the vessel. "We could have let it sail on to Syria and disappear there," one diplomat said.

The officials did note, however, that detaining the ship was part of a decision to respond to an American request.

"This was an opportunity to show the new U.S. administration that we are interested in closer ties," one source said. "We stopped the ship as a gesture to the United States.""

Cyprus detained Iran arms ship en route to Syria (Haaretz, 2/2/2009)
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Jews in Cyprus witness spike in anti-Semitic acts (TJP, 2/2/2009)

"With the start of the IDF's Gaza offensive on December 27, the 350-family Jewish community of Cyprus has been targeted by hate crimes, according to the island's chief rabbi, Arie Zeev Raskin.

"Since [the] last day of Hanukka (December 29), we have been subjected to anti-Semitic offenses coming mainly from people of Muslim origin," Raskin wrote in an e-mail to benefactors of Cyprus's Jewish community sent out on Thursday.

Perhaps hardest hit has been Cyprus's Chabad house. On the last day of Hanukka, a car carrying a hanukkia on its roof and traveling around the country in celebration of the holiday had two of its windows broken.

In another incident, a hanukkia that had been placed in Limassol, the second-largest city in Cyprus, was "completely destroyed," according to Raskin

On January 25, 50 policemen surrounded the Chabad House, located in the capital city of Larnaca. They said that they had received reports that there was to be an attack on the building.
In addition to stone-throwings and on one occasion, the egging of Chabad House, verbal assaults have been mounted against the Jewish community by telephone. "We received phone calls in which people accused us of killing innocent people," Raskin said. "I tried to explain to them that we are a Jewish educational organization and that we have nothing to do with the Israeli government."

Raskin and members of the Jewish community have met with local security officials as well as Israelis to discuss the situation. "They have recommended us putting up heavy walls and doors, and security alarms," he said. "It's not something that makes us happy, but we have to take some kind of action."

In his e-mail message, Raskin appealed for donations to fund a more comprehensive security system for the Chabad House, which serves as the multi-purpose building for the entire Jewish community. "Due to this, meetings with security specialists, police and civil authorities were arranged, and plans for the enhancement of our security systems were drawn up," he wrote. "We find ourselves facing a different and totally unexpected horizon, which requires expenses that we were not ready for."

With the increase in violent attacks, Raskin expressed concern for what he sees as the ineffectiveness of the authorities in Larnaca. "The local authority doesn't recognize the situation we're in," he said. "They say, 'Don't worry, we're looking after you.'"

"Last Friday night we saw two suspicious-looking men standing in front of Chabad House. We called the police and it took them 40 minutes to come!" Raskin declared.

Raskin attributed the rise in anti-Semitism to a growth of the Muslim population in Cyprus. The Second Lebanon War in 2006 saw the arrival of more than 100,000 Lebanese refugees in Cyprus, Raskin said. "They used to be a closed society. Now they are opening up businesses and restaurants and becoming a major part of Cypriot society," he said.

Raskin and his family moved to the island in 2003 as emissaries of the Chabad movement. The Jewish community at the time was free of anti-Semitic attacks.

"When we came, everything was open," he said. "The gates to Chabad House were open and you could lie on the grass and take a nap."

The feelings of Cypriots toward the Jewish community have changed, he said. "You feel it in the street. The locals are not smiling at us like they used to," he said. (...)"

German court prohibits calls to murder Israelis at demonstrations, but allows ...

Fantastic good news/fantastic progress : a German court prohibits calls to murder Israelis (Jews ?) at the demonstrations. But allows use pro-Hamas paraphernalia and "Jewish pigs" insults.

"A court in the German capital struck down an administrative ban on Hamas flags, clothing and banners on Friday, but left in place the ban on invoking Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar's call to murder Israeli children worldwide.

The decision paved the way for supporters of the Islamist movement to march in anti-Israeli rallies on Saturday with pro-Hamas paraphernalia.

The German Peace Council and the Palestinian community in Berlin prevailed in their effort to revoke the administrative order issued by Ehrhart Körting, the Social Democratic Party commissioner for security in Berlin, that banned use of Hamas flags.

However, the court prohibited calls to murder Israelis at the demonstrations.

Körting told the Berlin Morgenpost daily "that because of their terrorist attacks, and especially their constant rocket attacks on Israeli citizens, Hamas has been on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations since September 2003. Support for Hamas in Germany through demonstrations justifies the rocket attacks on Israel and encourages Hamas to undertake further rocket attacks."

Körting added that if a court permits support for "verifiably anti-constitutional and anti-Semitic organizations" due to freedom of speech protections, other ways must be found to restrict pro-Hamas activity.

Anti-Israeli demonstrations across Germany have been marked by calls to "kill, kill Israelis" and "kill, kill Jews", as well as "Jews out" of Germany and Israel.

A political commentator in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger wrote a column titled "About looking away and forgetting" that "blatant anti-Semitism is blossoming. Germany is currently experiencing perhaps the largest anti-Jewish manifestations since World War II. Jews are called child-murderers, and Israel is compared with the Third Reich."

A handful of critics have bemoaned German political and societal indifference to the widespread loathing of the Jewish state at the mass demonstrations in German cities. In Kassel, in Hesse state, protesters were greeted by cheers as they attacked a solidarity stand for Israel and attempted to tear down Israeli flags and banners on Saturday.

Police departments in Duisburg and Düsseldorf banned Israeli flags and pro-Israeli solidarity activity at rallies over the last two weeks. In Mainz, people waving Israeli flags at an angry pro-Palestinian demonstration over a week ago were forced to seek refuge in the Kaufhof department store. Aggressive protesters screamed "Jewish pigs" and motioned toward the Israel supporters who found shelter in Kaufhof. According to the pro-Israeli activists, consumers in Kaufhof said, "We do not need people like you here."

Kai Süssenbach, a police spokesman in Mainz, told a local television station that "a group of people were provokingly waving Israeli flags."

Süssenbach added that since the activists were not Israelis, it could be assumed they were provocateurs. The Kaufhof department store issued an order banning the pro-Israeli group from the store's premises.

Ironically, the Nazis stripped the Jewish owner of Kaufhof, Leonhard Tietz, of his property in 1933 and "aryanized" the store."

Source: article by Benjamin Weinthal in TJP

Europe Reimports Jew Hatred, by Daniel Schwammenthal

The anti-Israel hysteria, by Pilar Rahola

"Does Hamas have anything to do with freedom, or rather, doesn't it have everything to do with Islamism of a fascist tendency? Is freedom defended by training children to commit suicide attacks and by enslaving women? Is freedom defended by Iran, which supports Hamas financially? Does freedom belong to the terrorists of Hezbollah?"

"I understand that you want to wipe us off the map, just don't expect us to help you attain that goal. The fact that this old sentiment - the gist of a line uttered by a caustic Golda Meir to the Palestinian leadership - is so relevant these days, gives us a sense of the scope of the tragedy the Holy Land has been suffering through for so many decades.

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In fact, this same idea - the need for continued efforts to curb the intended destruction of Israel - lies behind the dramatic military decision made by the Israeli government, one that has again made it an object of wrath for so many around the world.

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As Prof. Joan B. Culla said recently, there can be multiple reactions to the Israel Defense Forces' military incursion in the Gaza Strip, and some of these are justifiably critical. But, given the fact that hysterical reactions abound, lacking any semblance of calm reflection, and based strictly on Manichaeanism and prejudice, there are some questions that must be asked.
.

Ari Shavit wrote recently in Haaretz ("A Just but Tragic War," January 1) that "Operation Cast Lead is a just campaign" and that it is also a "tragic campaign." I disagree with the term "just," because, as Golda Meir also said, "We don't want wars, even when we win." A military incursion that causes dozens of deaths can never be considered just, even if it is aimed at the destruction of the Hamas military machine. But can it be considered inevitable?

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Some intellectuals, including Amos Oz, have already warned that the Gaza incursion will lead to a significant new wave of anti-Israel sentiment. But even the Israeli left has taken a very lukewarm position about the incursion. The decision to attack Hamas was made by an Israeli society suffering from fatigue, fed up of not being able to find a way out, or reason for hope. And fed up, too, of the knowledge that the other side is working tirelessly to destroy it.

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Here they are, then, the questions, directed particularly to those carrying signs proclaiming their hatred of Israel through the streets of our cities - most of them the usual suspects, from the certain ones belonging to the radical left, always ready to raise their fist against Israel, to the various sectors of Islamism. It's curious, in fact, this obscene partnership.

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Those who go into the streets claim to do so in favor of the freedom of Palestine. Well, where have they been all these years, as the fundamentalist phenomena that oppressed the Palestinians were on the rise? Does Hamas have anything to do with freedom, or rather, doesn't it have everything to do with Islamism of a fascist tendency? Is freedom defended by training children to commit suicide attacks and by enslaving women? Is freedom defended by Iran, which supports Hamas financially? Does freedom belong to the terrorists of Hezbollah?

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Those who protest in the streets also say they do so out of solidarity. Well, solidarity with whom? With Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, who has been less critical of the incursion than any European carrying a sign? With the Palestinians who do not agree with having the financial aid sent to their people being used to build armies and prepare bomb attacks? Do they wonder what happens to these funds? Does solidarity with the Palestinians mean defending terrorism and excusing Hamas' aggressions? Is peace defended by boosting Palestinian leaders who do not believe in it?

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It is true that the intolerant left lives better by being anti-Israel. And it is also true that, in the face of complex realities, the vociferous masses prefer the simplicity of the "good" and the "bad." But, beyond prejudice, facts are stubborn. Israel withdrew from Gaza, leaving intact the economic structures it had created. Hamas destroyed them all, and took advantage of the withdrawal to prepare an army of destruction. And hundreds of missiles later, it continues its preparations. The silence of this left, which is so loud today, has been very significant. What is happening in Gaza is tragic. But it did not start with the Israeli incursion. And to put all the blame on Israel is comfortable and simple, but useless. Because the main enemy of the Palestinian people comes from within."

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Source: Haaretz

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Pilar Rahola is a Spanish-Catalan journalist. She writes a regular column for the Barcelona paper La Vanguardia, where this article originally appeared in Spanish.

- Cross-eyed Europe. The Protocols of the Sages of Information, by Pilar Rahola (2003)

- Apology of evil, by Pilar Rahola

Why Israel had to carry out such an operation?, by Dimitri Dombret

Source: European Friends of Israel

"To better understand the ongoing situation in the Middle-east, a brief historical overview is necessary.

Since 2001 more than 7000 rockets and mortar shells deliberately targeting civilians have been fired onto Israeli cities neighboring the Gaza strip. This permanent threat to the Israeli population has tremendously changed the lives of thousands of citizens and caused the deaths of dozens while more than 1,000 were wounded.

In September 2005, Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza strip and dismantled all of its settlements.

In January 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections. Rule over Gaza passed to the Islamist organization government led by Ismael Haniyeh.

June 25, 2006, Gilad Shalit was abducted by the Hamas from Israeli soil – An act of aggression and provocation from Hamas to which Israel refrained from responding.

In June 2007, Hamas during a bloody putsch took control of the Gaza Strip, brutally killing dozens of Fatah members while chasing out the rest.

In June 2008, a 6 month truce negotiated by Egypt was expected to lead to calm, both for the inhabitants of the Negev and for the population of Gaza. This truce was not respected as many rockets and missiles were fired into Israel from Gaza.

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Hamas has exploited the six-month ceasefire to smuggle an enormous amounts of weapons through tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, including Iranian manufactured Grad-type rockets that have a range of up to 40 km. This kind of rocket has hit for the first time a school in Beersheba on December 31. There were no casualties since the school had been evacuated the day before.
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After the Israeli withdrawal, the Hamas – with total control over Gaza – could have improved the daily life of the Gaza’s citizens by concentrating its energy on the economic development of the region and ceasing its cross-border attacks. Such a step from the Islamic movement would certainly have convinced the Israeli government and the entire world community that it was capable to change. Then, it’s more likely that the Israeli authorities would have been willing to make a similar withdrawal from the West bank where most of the Palestinians reside which would subsequently lead to the constitution of a Palestinian State.
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Israel has tried, unsuccessfully, to send many signals to the Hamas in order it stops its attacks. Israel could more or less get along with a low amount of short range rockets, the constant increase of field of rockets finally left no choice but to intervene against the Hamas. Israel, as every Nation, has the duty to protect its citizens.
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It must be clear that not a single responsible Member State would sit back in silence and do nothing as its citizens and territory came under constant attack. They would not lay idle as the alarms in Sderot, Ashkelon, Beersheba and tomorrow possibly Tel-Aviv? - blare "Colour Red, Colour Red", giving Israeli civilians less than 15 seconds to protect themselves before the rocket slams into their lives, their homes, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, and playgrounds.
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After 6 months of truce, Hamas decided unilaterally to break it and was not only willing to cease attacks. Instead, it mocked Israel’s inability to counter attacks, explaining that the Jewish State was paralyzed by its domestic politics. Hamas thought that Israel’s will to renew the truce was an acknowledgement of weakness that allowed it to continue firing and acquiring longer range rockets.
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The decision to launch Operation 'Cast Lead' was not easy for the Israeli authorities but they managed to carry out an operation that could obviously no longer be postponed.

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Yet, Israel has declared that it does not intend to reoccupy Gaza but only to make sure that all the military capacities of Hamas will be dismantled. The aim is to make the operation as short as possible. Unfortunately, Israel cannot allow pressures to freeze its operation as long as Hamas’ aggressions have not been eradicated. Israel cannot allow a return to the previous status quo ante or, worse, a victory for Hamas. This would be a catastrophic scenario which would weaken not only Israel in the long term but would certainly put the Middle-East into an era of unprecedented chaos, strengthening the conviction of Islamist extremists – including Iran – that Israel can be defeated.
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As Karel Schwarzenberg, the EU presidency’s Foreign Affairs Minister stated few days ago: "Let us realize one thing: Hamas increased steeply the number of rockets fired at Israel since the ceasefire ended on Dec. 19. That is not acceptable any more".

It is Israel’s interest; it is Palestinian’s interest and the world’s interest to make sure that Hamas – which is on the European terrorist organizations’ black list – will be neutralized."

To read more :

Humanitarian Aid in Gaza
Civilian casualties in Operation Cast Lead

(last updated 5 January)

Nizar Rayyan: Hamas "Human Shield" strategist succumbs to his own stratagem, by Ely Karmon

"According to the Jerusalem Post of January 1, 2009, Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, 52, a senior Hamas leader and cleric, was killed along with several others on Thursday when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on the eight-story Jabalya apartment building he lived. Rayyan was not only the religious leader of Hamas's military wing, Izzadin Kassam, but also one of their military commanders. A lecturer at Gaza's Islamist University, Rayyan, had mentored suicide bombers and would sometimes go on patrol with Hamas fighters. He was an outspoken advocate of renewing suicide bombings against Israel.

Rayyan's house was serving as an arms and ammunition warehouse and as a Hamas communications center, a statement released by the government press office said. In addition, a tunnel was located under the house and was used for the escape of terror operatives.

He was both the director and the financier of the March 14, 2004 sophisticated terrorist attack at the strategic Ashdod port perpetrated by two terrorists hiding in a container with double walls specifically built for this operation. Israeli police evaluated at the time that this suicide attack using a highly sophisticated plastic explosive may have targeted tanks of dangerous chemicals, including bromine, causing far greater casualties. Ten Israelis were killed in the attack.

As a consequence of this strategic attack, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin the leader of Hamas, responsible for dozens of suicide attacks inside Israel during the second intifadah, was killed in a targeted helicopter gunship operation on March 22, 2004.

In the air attack on Nizar Rayyan, nine other people were killed, including Rayyan's four wives and four of his 12 children, and around 30 were wounded in the air strike. According to Palestinian sources, his family was warned before the attack but did not leave the building.

According to the Hamas website in English it was Rayyan, 'who took the initiative, two years ago, to protect homes against Israeli occupation air strikes by forming human shields'.

According to the Israeli Haaretz of January 2, 2009, in some cases residents of suspected houses have been able to prevent bombing by climbing up to the roof to show that they will not leave, prompting IDF commanders to call off the strike. The IDF has code named such operations 'roof knocking,' in which the army informs the residents of suspected building that they have 10 minutes to leave the premises. In these cases, the IAF sometimes launches a relatively harmless missile at the corner of the roof, avoiding casualties but successfully dispersing the crowd.

It seems therefore that for this time, the deliberated strategy of using human shields has not worked because the IDF opted to bomb the house anyway. The fact that his family was warned before the attack but did not leave the building, shows that Rayyan did not bother for more civilian victims even when they belonged to his family. He had already a history of family 'sacrifice': in October 2001, he sent his son to perpetrate a suicide attack in the Gush Katif settlement Elei Sinai, in which two young Israelis were killed.

Hamas spokesperson Mushir al-Masri responded to the attack saying, 'This is a new escalation in violence. We are taking every precaution to guard the Hamas leaders in order to ensure the enemy doesn't score further victories' and a Hamas statement threatened revenge on IDF soldiers."

Article by Dr. Ely Karmon, Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya and Senior Research Fellow at The Institute for Policy and Strategy at IDC.

Source: O Diplomata

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sides with Israel over Gaza operation

Source: EJP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has blamed Hamas for the latest conflict with Israel and said Germany would do all it could to promote peace in the Middle East.

In her New Year's address, Merkel said that "the terror perpetrated by Hamas is unacceptable."
She placed the blame for Israel's military operation on Hamas's rocket attacks and stressed that Israel has the right to defend it territory and citizens.

"The causes and consequences of the current round of violence in the Gaza Strip should not be forgotten," she said.

"But we should also not forget there is no rational alternative to the peaceful co-existence of Palestinians and Israelis in two states. This is in the interests of people on both sides," she added.

Merkel spokesman Thomas Steg said Merkel stressed in a telephone conversation late Sunday that Israel must do everything possible to avoid civilian causalities and insisted that Hamas must immediately halt its rocket attacks on Israel.

Germany's Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is a member of the Socialist Democratic Party (SPD), Merkel’s coalition partner, urged Muslim nations to use their influence to help secure an end to Hamas's rocket attacks on Israel.

The Foreign Ministry said Steinmeier advocated a "humanitarian cease-fire" that would make it easier to get supplies to Gaza's civilians and open the way for diplomacy.

In response to the ongoing military operation in Gaza, a fresh wave of anti-Israel demonstrations fanned out across Germany on Friday and Saturday.

Around 8,000 protesters marched in Berlin and 10,000 in Frankfurt on Saturday, including members of the Left Party who waved party flags among banners equating Operation Cast Lead with a “second Holocaust,” some reading "Israel, go to hell", and others with a crossed-out Star of David with the words "Israel, child murderer."

A representiative of the 12,000-member Berlin Jewish community told the Jerusalem Post that the community has filed a criminal complaint asserting incitement against Jews.

Levi Salomon, who is in charge of monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, was present at the anti-Israeli protests and said, "We cannot accept anti-Semitic taunts" such as "Jews out."

Sacha Stawski, the editor-in-chief of Honestly Concerned, a German media watchdog monitoring anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, said he heard chants of "Gas the Jews" and "Merkel out," and witnessed the burning of an Israeli flag at the Frankfurt demonstration.

Merkel: The terror of Hamas cannot be accepted

Hamas lawmakers invited to visit EU HQ - is this the European dream?

European Union: hostility to Israel runs deep. The European Parliamanet has yet again sponsored (merci beaucoup to European taxpayers) a Parliamentarians' visit to Gaza. There have been no protests and the media has been quiet about who went to Gaza and the aims of the visit. If support for Hamas, whose ideology calls for the destruction of Israel, is one of the "ideals" the EU upholds, no wonder Europe is no longer an European dream ... the European dream is the America dream - the US presidential elections have shown how irresistibly attractive that dream has become for Europeans.

"A European parliamentary delegation on Monday invited Hamas lawmakers to visit the European Union headquarters.

The invitation would seem to violate an EU boycott of Hamas, but the significance of the gesture is not immediately clear.

Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the Hamas parliament, said the EU invited him and a delegation of the Palestinian Legislative Council to visit the EU headquarters in Brussels in March. He said Hamas lawmakers agreed to go.

The invitation was given by Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, head of a European delegation that visited Gaza on Monday.

Speaking to Reuters, Triantaphyllides defended the invitation.

"We don't care who they are as long as they are members of the Legislative Council," Triantaphyllides said. "We don't ask if they are members of Hamas or members of Fatah."

"The PLC was elected in 2006 and it was democratically elected," Triantaphyllides continued.

The move seems to be mostly symbolic as Hamas leaders are unlikely to be allowed to leave the territory."

Source: TJP

- European money fuels Palestinian terror, says EU lawmaker
- UN-European Parliament: The Israel-Bashing Club (a year ago)

Wiesenthal Centre Court Victory Against the Committee for Welfare and Aid to the Palestinians

Why doesn't the media report this?

"A charge of defamation brought against the Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Stanley Samuels, was dismissed October 1st, by the Paris Court of Appeal.

In March 2007, a lower tribunal had sentenced Samuels to a symbolic fine of 1 euro. Dr. Samuels appealed the verdict.

The charge, brought in 2006 by the Comité de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens (Committee for Welfare and Aid to the Palestinians - CBSP), was based on a 2004 Wiesenthal Centre report to the French Interior Ministry.

Samuels' principal witness, Dr Matthew Levitt, former Assistant Secretary of Intelligence at the United States Treasury and currently Senior Researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, reported on the procedure whereby the United States had designated the CBSP as a terrorist organization – a measure also taken by Canada and Australia.

The Court of Appeal Judgment acknowledged Samuels' good faith:

"Considering that Stanley Samuels pleads his good faith by emphasizing the quality of his enquiry, while the CBSP had maintained, in the lower tribunal, that he had failed in his duty of prudence and moderation;

Considering that this Court accepts, as did the tribunal, that the accused could not be reproached for the legitimacy of the objective pursued, nor likewise, for personal animosity toward the CBSP;

Considering, moreover, that the number of documents produced by Stanley Samuels, and which appear useful to establish his firm belief, show the enquiry to be serious;

That, therefore, in view of the documents produced, the Court submits that:

- Hamas is, since 27 December 2001 and 12 September 2003, considered as a terrorist organization in the sense of Community legislation and French law;

- while it is also deemed that the investigations conducted by the Nancy Court were closed without follow-up, it remains that these investigations, dating from 2001 and 2002, preceded the positions taken by some democratic countries;

That this is the case of the governments of the United States, Australia and Canada, which, respectively in August, September and November 2003, designated the CBSP among those organizations "Specially Designated Terrorist Group - SDGT";

that the United States State Department had therefore frozen the assets of that association; that it is not disputed that the Lebanon Central Bank, from August 2003, had led an investigation into private banks concerning associations close to Hamas, among which was cited the CBSP;

- an enquiry was conducted in October 2003 by the Brigade de recherches et d’investigations financières (the Brigade for Financial Research and Investigation);

- the communiqué attached to a report transmitted to the Ministry of the Interior which denounced, inter alia, facts of antisemitism, the links of the UOIF (Union des Organisations Islamiques de France – Union of Islamic Organizations of France) with the Muslim Brothers and Sheikh Qaradawi, an ideologue close to Hamas who had authorised "human bombs" (suicide bombings), and recalled the United States government's decision to freeze the assets of individuals and associations, among which the CBSP, which, as noted above, are designated as providing financial support to a terrorist movement;

- the Minister of the Interior had therefore not yet been able to proceed to an enquiry based on the elements furnished in the said Report; Considering, finally, that as Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre – Europe, whose notable objective is to combat antisemitism throughout the world, Stanley Samuels disposed of elements constituting a sufficient factual basis for the contentions for which he was reproached, which, when placed in their context, i.e. to call on the Minister of the Interior to conduct an in-depth investigation of the CBSP, did not overstep the permissible limits on freedom of expression, guaranteed by domestic and international law.

Considering, in consequence, that the first judges' decision is to be annulled, and Stanley Samuels is acquitted."

(See: CA Paris – 11ème Chambre A – Dossier 07/02520 – Arrêt du 1er Octobre 2008, pp 7-8.)

The Wiesenthal Centre thanked its legal counsel, Advocates Thierry Levy and David Père, for their efforts – as well as the many individuals who supported Samuels - to arrive at this vindication of justice."

Source: Simon Wiesenthal Centre