"Stop blaming Israel and wake up: The black flag of jihad is the REAL threat to the world"

[OriZ 3,157]

Time to talk about peace offers!

Camp David Accords/Israel-Egypt Peace Agreement 1978/1979

• The Israel-Egypt peace agreement was a watershed event and marked the first such agreement between the Jewish state and an Arab state. The breakthrough came in
• November 1977 when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made a bold and unprecedented visit to Israel and in a speech at the Israeli Knesset (parliament) addressed the Israeli people with words of reconciliation and peace.
• The so-called “Camp David Accords” of September 17, 1978 were based on U.N. resolutions 242 and 338, and were meant to constitute a basis for peace not only between Egypt and Israel, but also to reach “a just, comprehensive, and durable settlement of the Middle East conflict” for all neighbors willing to negotiate with Israel.
• Israel agreed to withdraw from all of the Sinai within three years and to dismantle its air bases near the Gulf of Aqaba and the town of Yamit;
• Egypt promised full diplomatic relations with Israel, and to allow Israel passage through the Suez Canal, the Straits of Tiran, and the Gulf of Aqaba. The accords also stipulated a framework for solving the problem of the West Bank and Gaza.
• Sadat, having gone out on a limb for the peace treaty, was vilified in the Arab world, and was assassinated in 1981.

• The groundbreaking Israel-Egypt peace paved the way for subsequent Israeli negotiations and treaties with Jordan and the Palestinians.

Madrid Peace Conference 1991

• In October/November 1991, just after the Gulf War, the United States and Russia convened an Arab-Israeli peace conference in Madrid.
• The historic conference marked the first time that Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and a Palestinian delegation (which was officially part of the Jordanian delegation) sat at the same table to negotiate.
• The participants agreed to establish direct negotiations between Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon, and Israel and the Jordanian/Palestinian delegation.
• A series of bilateral negotiation sessions were held in Washington over the next 18 months. The negotiations were significant on a symbolic level, but yielded very few practical results.

The Oslo Accords/Oslo Process

• The “Oslo Process” refers to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process begun in September 1993 which established a framework for resolving the conflict.
• In August 1993 the world learned that secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway, between high-level Israelis and Palestinians, had led to the first Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
• The talks, initiated months earlier under the auspices of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry became a growing success in the drafting of an agreement.
• On September 9, Israel and the PLO exchanged letters of mutual recognition to precede the official signing of an agreement. In his letter to Prime Minister Rabin, Chairman Yasir Arafat recognized Israel’s right to exist “in peace and security.” Arafat renounced “the use of terrorism and other acts of violence.” Arafat also pledged to revoke articles in the Palestinian National Covenant, which deny Israel’s right to exist. In a response to Arafat’s letter, Rabin confirmed that “in light of the PLO commitments included in your letter, the Government of Israel has decided to recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and commence negotiations with the PLO within the Middle East peace process.”
• On September 13, 1993, the Israel-Palestinian Declaration of Principles (DOP) was signed by Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat in the presence of U.S. President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn amidst tremendous fanfare.
• The DOP, the first in a series of what are known as the Oslo Accords, consisted of a carefully constructed two-phased timetable.
• The first phase, or the “interim period,” was to last five years, during which time Israel would incrementally withdraw from Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while transferring administrative power to a soon-to-be-elected Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority would be responsible for combating terrorism and coordinating security with Israel.
• The second phase was the “permanent status” or “final status” negotiations, to resolve “remaining issues, including: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbors, and other issues of common interest.”
• A final status agreement would mark the official peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
• Over the next six years a series of further interim agreements were signed, most significantly the September 1995 Oslo II Agreement and the October 1998 Wye River Accord. Following the implementation of these agreements, as of September 2000, over eighty-five percent of the Gaza Strip and 39.7 percent of the West Bank were under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Ninety-nine percent of the Palestinian population resided under the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction.
• The negotiations were supported by the majority of the Israeli population who believed that Israel needed to make difficult territorial concessions in the pursuit of peace.
• Throughout the interim period Palestinian terrorist groups conducted scores of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets. Over the years, Israelis grew increasingly disenchanted with the Palestinian Authority who did little-to-nothing to control terrorist organizations, and continued to spread anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda.

Camp David Summit 2000

• The Camp David Summit was convened by U.S. President Bill Clinton on July 11, 2000, to bring together Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Chairman Arafat at Camp David for intensive negotiations for a final status agreement.
• 2 weeks later on July 25, President Clinton announced that the Summit had failed and that no agreement had been reached.
• President Clinton publicly acknowledged that Prime Minister Barak had shown “particular courage and vision and an understanding of the historical importance of the moment”.
• Barak entered the summit convinced that a final agreement with the Palestinians was reachable.
• According to first-hand accounts, he offered Palestinians an ambitious peace package which included far-reaching concessions on Jerusalem, borders, settlements, refugees and other issues.
• Barak’s offer reportedly included: an Israeli redeployment from as much as ninety-five percent of the West Bank and one hundred percent of the Gaza Strip and the creation of a Palestinian state in that area; the uprooting of isolated Jewish settlements in the areas to be transferred to Palestinian control; Palestinian control over parts of Jerusalem; and “religious sovereignty” over the Temple Mount.
• In return, all Barak wanted was peace; the final status agreement to include an “end of conflict” clause under which the parties would pledge that all issues between them were now resolved and further claims would not be made at a future date.
• Chairman Arafat refused Israel’s offer and clung to maximalist positions, particularly on Jerusalem and refugees. The Palestinian delegation did not offer any counterproposals.
• On his return to Israel, Barak said: “Today I return from Camp David, and can look into the millions of eyes and say with regret: We have not yet succeeded. We did not succeed because we did not find a partner prepared to make decisions on all issues. We did not succeed because our Palestinian neighbors have not yet internalized the fact that in order to achieve peace, each side has to give up some of their dreams; to give, not only to demand.”
• A mere 2 months after the failed Camp David talks, the Palestinians returned to violence against Israel. This was the start of the Second Intifada.

Disengagement

• In December 2003, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a long-time advocate for settlements, announced plans for Israel to unilaterally disengage from the entire Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank.
• Sharon argued that in the absence of a serious Palestinian peace partner and amidst ongoing Palestinian terrorism, Israel needed to take unilateral steps to ensure its own security and improve conditions on the ground.
• The plan was approved by Israel’s cabinet in June 2004.
• The disengagement plan was not an easy decision for the State as it required the uprooting and resettlement of 25 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. Many of these settlers had lived in the area for decades and built lives, families and businesses there. Graves were uprooted, synagogues and schools abandoned. This totally polarized Israeli society.
• Public opinion polls showed that despite this painful sacrifice and despite a strong resistance to the Disengagement, the majority of Israelis supported the disengagement.
• It was hoped that the Palestinian Authority would ensure a smooth transition of this area to full Palestinian control, and that many structures in the former settlements – including the extensive greenhouses – would be used to benefit Palestinian housing and industry. However, in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli withdrawal, Palestinians entered the former Israeli settlements and burned buildings – including synagogues – and materials from buildings and greenhouses were looted.
• While the Israeli military fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip, there continued to be ongoing security concerns, particularly following the Hamas take-over of Gaza in June 2007.
• Most serious was the intensified launching of Kassam rockets and mortars from Gaza into southern Israel and the smuggling of weaponry into Gaza for use by Hamas.
• Gaza also serves as a base for other Palestinian attacks against Israel, such as the Hamas attack of a military installation inside Israel in June 2006, during which two Israeli soldiers were killed, and Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped.

The Roadmap

• The Roadmap was introduced in September 2002, amidst continuing Palestinian terrorism, by the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation, and the United Nations (collectively dubbed The Quartet).
• On April 30, 2003 the Quartet released the “Performance- Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” which outlined the three phases of the plan with the eventual goal of settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005.
• The first phase of the plan required that the Palestinians undertake the necessary measures to ensure an unconditional cessation of violence, terrorism and incitement, restructure the security forces, enact political reforms and engage in democratic institution building.
• The Israelis were required to facilitate the Palestinian’s security measures and to withdraw its military forces from areas it entered in September 2000. Israel was also called on to dismantle settlement outposts and to freeze settlement activity.
• In the second phase the Quartet was to assess whether the new Palestinian government had met the requirements necessary to lead an independent Palestinian state. If the Palestinians were to meet the Quartet’s approval, a provisional Palestinian state would be established in the territory that was under Palestinian Authority (PA) jurisdiction on September 28, 2000.
• The third and final phase called for the stabilization of the new Palestinian government and security infrastructures which, if the Quartet found that all the prerequisites have been met, would result in negotiations for a final status peace agreement and the establishment of a permanent Palestinian state by the end of 2005.
• The Israeli government, under the leadership of Ariel Sharon, accepted the general framework of the Roadmap, however, they cited 14 reservations which they had to the text.
• These objections included ensuring that the Palestinians make substantial effort to reform their security forces and to stop terrorism before the second phase would be implemented, and calling for American supervision of the implementation of the Roadmap’s obligations.
• However, because of the failure of the PA to clamp down on terrorism, as required by the first phase of the plan, little practical progress was made in the implementation of the Roadmap.
• Additionally, the election of Hamas prevented any progress forward since Hamas does not recognize the Roadmap or other proposals for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.
• On November 27, 2007, the Roadmap was revived at the U.S.-hosted Annapolis Conference. At the conference Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a joint statement in which both parties agreed to begin implementing their obligations under the Roadmap, working towards a permanent two-state solution and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The statement, however, stated that the U.S., and not, as stipulated in 2002, the Quartet, will monitor the execution and fulfillment of the obligations for both sides.

Note

It is important to note, that already in 1947 the Arabs were offered a state by the UN along side a Jewish state. While the Jews accepted this offer, the Arabs violently rejected it.

Question

In light of the above, one needs to ask, what is it that the Palestinians want? If it is a state that they want, they were offered it numerous times over and they turned these offers down time and time again. Therefore one cannot help but wonder, what is the conflict all about? Is it more about the non-existence of a Jewish State, than the existence of a Palestinian State?

On 18 February 1947, the British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin (not an ardent Zionist by any stretch of the imagination) stated:

“His Majesty’s Government have been faced with an irreconcilable conflict of principles … For the Jews, the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine.”.

Even though this is an extract from a speech in 1947, in light of the numerous failed peace attempts, one can’t help ask oneself if this is still not the definition and description of the conflict today?

[Expat1 971]

Following the implementation of these agreements, as of September 2000, over eighty-five percent of the Gaza Strip and 39.7 percent of the West Bank were under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Ninety-nine percent of the Palestinian population resided under the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction.

:rofl:

Where do you find this nonsense? Do you think we are stupid? Better question - are YOU so stupid that you believe the vomit you leave on this board?

Source: IRIN

humanitarian news and analysis a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Gaza

• An estimated 1.1 million Palestinians out of Gaza’s 1.5 million population are UNRWA-registered refugees.
• There are eight UNRWA-administered camps in the Gaza Strip.
• As a result of Israel’s occupation since 1967 and an ongoing blockade on the Gaza Strip, the population suffers severe economic problems.
• UNRWA’s activities in the Gaza Strip have been severely restricted by the blockade

West Bank

• 779,000 Palestinians are registered with UNRWA.
• There are 19 overcrowded and poorly serviced camps.
• The ongoing occupation and military checkpoints and closures implemented by the Israeli army put a huge strain on the West Bank economy.

Israel

• Palestinians whose forbears were displaced in 1948 but remained within the borders of what is now Israel are estimated to number 335,204.
• They have the right to Israeli citizenship but are denied the right to return to their home towns or villages.

Edited August 31, 2014 by Expat1

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Time to talk about peace offers!

Camp David Accords/Israel-Egypt Peace Agreement 1978/1979

• The Israel-Egypt peace agreement was a watershed event and marked the first such agreement between the Jewish state and an Arab state. The breakthrough came in
• November 1977 when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made a bold and unprecedented visit to Israel and in a speech at the Israeli Knesset (parliament) addressed the Israeli people with words of reconciliation and peace.
• The so-called Camp David Accords of September 17, 1978 were based on U.N. resolutions 242 and 338, and were meant to constitute a basis for peace not only between Egypt and Israel, but also to reach a just, comprehensive, and durable settlement of the Middle East conflict for all neighbors willing to negotiate with Israel.
• Israel agreed to withdraw from all of the Sinai within three years and to dismantle its air bases near the Gulf of Aqaba and the town of Yamit;
• Egypt promised full diplomatic relations with Israel, and to allow Israel passage through the Suez Canal, the Straits of Tiran, and the Gulf of Aqaba. The accords also stipulated a framework for solving the problem of the West Bank and Gaza.
• Sadat, having gone out on a limb for the peace treaty, was vilified in the Arab world, and was assassinated in 1981.

• The groundbreaking Israel-Egypt peace paved the way for subsequent Israeli negotiations and treaties with Jordan and the Palestinians.

Madrid Peace Conference 1991

• In October/November 1991, just after the Gulf War, the United States and Russia convened an Arab-Israeli peace conference in Madrid.
• The historic conference marked the first time that Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and a Palestinian delegation (which was officially part of the Jordanian delegation) sat at the same table to negotiate.
• The participants agreed to establish direct negotiations between Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon, and Israel and the Jordanian/Palestinian delegation.
• A series of bilateral negotiation sessions were held in Washington over the next 18 months. The negotiations were significant on a symbolic level, but yielded very few practical results.

The Oslo Accords/Oslo Process

• The Oslo Process refers to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process begun in September 1993 which established a framework for resolving the conflict.
• In August 1993 the world learned that secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway, between high-level Israelis and Palestinians, had led to the first Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
• The talks, initiated months earlier under the auspices of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry became a growing success in the drafting of an agreement.
• On September 9, Israel and the PLO exchanged letters of mutual recognition to precede the official signing of an agreement. In his letter to Prime Minister Rabin, Chairman Yasir Arafat recognized Israels right to exist in peace and security. Arafat renounced the use of terrorism and other acts of violence. Arafat also pledged to revoke articles in the Palestinian National Covenant, which deny Israels right to exist. In a response to Arafats letter, Rabin confirmed that in light of the PLO commitments included in your letter, the Government of Israel has decided to recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and commence negotiations with the PLO within the Middle East peace process.
• On September 13, 1993, the Israel-Palestinian Declaration of Principles (DOP) was signed by Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat in the presence of U.S. President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn amidst tremendous fanfare.
• The DOP, the first in a series of what are known as the Oslo Accords, consisted of a carefully constructed two-phased timetable.
• The first phase, or the interim period, was to last five years, during which time Israel would incrementally withdraw from Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while transferring administrative power to a soon-to-be-elected Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority would be responsible for combating terrorism and coordinating security with Israel.
• The second phase was the permanent status or final status negotiations, to resolve remaining issues, including: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbors, and other issues of common interest.
• A final status agreement would mark the official peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
• Over the next six years a series of further interim agreements were signed, most significantly the September 1995 Oslo II Agreement and the October 1998 Wye River Accord. Following the implementation of these agreements, as of September 2000, over eighty-five percent of the Gaza Strip and 39.7 percent of the West Bank were under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Ninety-nine percent of the Palestinian population resided under the Palestinian Authoritys jurisdiction.
• The negotiations were supported by the majority of the Israeli population who believed that Israel needed to make difficult territorial concessions in the pursuit of peace.
• Throughout the interim period Palestinian terrorist groups conducted scores of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets. Over the years, Israelis grew increasingly disenchanted with the Palestinian Authority who did little-to-nothing to control terrorist organizations, and continued to spread anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda.

Camp David Summit 2000

• The Camp David Summit was convened by U.S. President Bill Clinton on July 11, 2000, to bring together Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Chairman Arafat at Camp David for intensive negotiations for a final status agreement.
• 2 weeks later on July 25, President Clinton announced that the Summit had failed and that no agreement had been reached.
• President Clinton publicly acknowledged that Prime Minister Barak had shown particular courage and vision and an understanding of the historical importance of the moment.
• Barak entered the summit convinced that a final agreement with the Palestinians was reachable.
• According to first-hand accounts, he offered Palestinians an ambitious peace package which included far-reaching concessions on Jerusalem, borders, settlements, refugees and other issues.
• Baraks offer reportedly included: an Israeli redeployment from as much as ninety-five percent of the West Bank and one hundred percent of the Gaza Strip and the creation of a Palestinian state in that area; the uprooting of isolated Jewish settlements in the areas to be transferred to Palestinian control; Palestinian control over parts of Jerusalem; and religious sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
• In return, all Barak wanted was peace; the final status agreement to include an end of conflict clause under which the parties would pledge that all issues between them were now resolved and further claims would not be made at a future date.
• Chairman Arafat refused Israels offer and clung to maximalist positions, particularly on Jerusalem and refugees. The Palestinian delegation did not offer any counterproposals.
• On his return to Israel, Barak said: Today I return from Camp David, and can look into the millions of eyes and say with regret: We have not yet succeeded. We did not succeed because we did not find a partner prepared to make decisions on all issues. We did not succeed because our Palestinian neighbors have not yet internalized the fact that in order to achieve peace, each side has to give up some of their dreams; to give, not only to demand.
• A mere 2 months after the failed Camp David talks, the Palestinians returned to violence against Israel. This was the start of the Second Intifada.

Disengagement

• In December 2003, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a long-time advocate for settlements, announced plans for Israel to unilaterally disengage from the entire Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank.
• Sharon argued that in the absence of a serious Palestinian peace partner and amidst ongoing Palestinian terrorism, Israel needed to take unilateral steps to ensure its own security and improve conditions on the ground.
• The plan was approved by Israels cabinet in June 2004.
• The disengagement plan was not an easy decision for the State as it required the uprooting and resettlement of 25 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. Many of these settlers had lived in the area for decades and built lives, families and businesses there. Graves were uprooted, synagogues and schools abandoned. This totally polarized Israeli society.
• Public opinion polls showed that despite this painful sacrifice and despite a strong resistance to the Disengagement, the majority of Israelis supported the disengagement.
• It was hoped that the Palestinian Authority would ensure a smooth transition of this area to full Palestinian control, and that many structures in the former settlements including the extensive greenhouses would be used to benefit Palestinian housing and industry. However, in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli withdrawal, Palestinians entered the former Israeli settlements and burned buildings including synagogues and materials from buildings and greenhouses were looted.
• While the Israeli military fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip, there continued to be ongoing security concerns, particularly following the Hamas take-over of Gaza in June 2007.
• Most serious was the intensified launching of Kassam rockets and mortars from Gaza into southern Israel and the smuggling of weaponry into Gaza for use by Hamas.
• Gaza also serves as a base for other Palestinian attacks against Israel, such as the Hamas attack of a military installation inside Israel in June 2006, during which two Israeli soldiers were killed, and Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped.

The Roadmap

• The Roadmap was introduced in September 2002, amidst continuing Palestinian terrorism, by the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation, and the United Nations (collectively dubbed The Quartet).
• On April 30, 2003 the Quartet released the Performance- Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict which outlined the three phases of the plan with the eventual goal of settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005.
• The first phase of the plan required that the Palestinians undertake the necessary measures to ensure an unconditional cessation of violence, terrorism and incitement, restructure the security forces, enact political reforms and engage in democratic institution building.
• The Israelis were required to facilitate the Palestinians security measures and to withdraw its military forces from areas it entered in September 2000. Israel was also called on to dismantle settlement outposts and to freeze settlement activity.
• In the second phase the Quartet was to assess whether the new Palestinian government had met the requirements necessary to lead an independent Palestinian state. If the Palestinians were to meet the Quartets approval, a provisional Palestinian state would be established in the territory that was under Palestinian Authority (PA) jurisdiction on September 28, 2000.
• The third and final phase called for the stabilization of the new Palestinian government and security infrastructures which, if the Quartet found that all the prerequisites have been met, would result in negotiations for a final status peace agreement and the establishment of a permanent Palestinian state by the end of 2005.
• The Israeli government, under the leadership of Ariel Sharon, accepted the general framework of the Roadmap, however, they cited 14 reservations which they had to the text.
• These objections included ensuring that the Palestinians make substantial effort to reform their security forces and to stop terrorism before the second phase would be implemented, and calling for American supervision of the implementation of the Roadmaps obligations.
• However, because of the failure of the PA to clamp down on terrorism, as required by the first phase of the plan, little practical progress was made in the implementation of the Roadmap.
• Additionally, the election of Hamas prevented any progress forward since Hamas does not recognize the Roadmap or other proposals for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.
• On November 27, 2007, the Roadmap was revived at the U.S.-hosted Annapolis Conference. At the conference Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a joint statement in which both parties agreed to begin implementing their obligations under the Roadmap, working towards a permanent two-state solution and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The statement, however, stated that the U.S., and not, as stipulated in 2002, the Quartet, will monitor the execution and fulfillment of the obligations for both sides.

Note

It is important to note, that already in 1947 the Arabs were offered a state by the UN along side a Jewish state. While the Jews accepted this offer, the Arabs violently rejected it.

Question

In light of the above, one needs to ask, what is it that the Palestinians want? If it is a state that they want, they were offered it numerous times over and they turned these offers down time and time again. Therefore one cannot help but wonder, what is the conflict all about? Is it more about the non-existence of a Jewish State, than the existence of a Palestinian State?

On 18 February 1947, the British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin (not an ardent Zionist by any stretch of the imagination) stated:

His Majestys Government have been faced with an irreconcilable conflict of principles For the Jews, the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine..

Even though this is an extract from a speech in 1947, in light of the numerous failed peace attempts, one cant help ask oneself if this is still not the definition and description of the conflict today?

Lord of the rings text wall

[Karee 4,189]

Lord of the rings text wall

I'm convinced he's just running up his post count now. I guess he wants more hearts or something. Maybe someone should tell him you don't get those hearts by the number of characters in a post.

[OriZ 3,157]

Another method by which to single out the Jewish state deliberately is pretending it was the only one ever involved in any sort of civil right violations of minorities during the first half and early part of the second half of the 20th century, cause we all know that none of that ever happened in America. Nice try. Next.

Wonder if the millions of muslims around the world that support Israel - there are many more of those than most people realize - also think of themselves as part of a Master Race? Or is it just they acknowledge the truth?

Here is just one of them.

"From the age of zero I was told that Israel stole Palestine from us, but when I was 14 I woke up. I discovered that Jews are not bad," says Ala Wahib, an operations officer at a key IDF training base, and the highest-ranked Muslim officers in the Israeli army.

Michal Yaakov Yitzhaki

Maj. Ala Wahib in the field.

|

Photo credit: Osnat Krasnansky

<< 1 2 3 >>

“I am the operations officer at the IDF ground forces training base at Tze’elim,” Ala Wahib says at the start of our conversation, his eyes twinkling with excitement. “I am like the mother and father of that place,” he adds. “The only thing is that I don’t really have anyone to share it with, so I make sure to pat myself on the back every now and again, and say ‘dude, you’re awesome. Look how far you’ve come.’”

The truth is that he deserves these accolades. It is not every day that a Muslim Arab, hailing from a village whose residents largely do not recognize Israel’s right to exist, comes to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. And he doesn’t only serve: Major Wahib, 32, is currently the highest ranking Muslim officer in the IDF. He is enormously patriotic, a true Zionist. Precisely the kind of person we like to see lighting the torches during the national Independence Day ceremony every year.

But still, Wahib came to this interview with immense trepidation. Even today, after 12 years in the Israeli military, he still doesn’t feel comfortable openly discussing his views. For years he struggled on all fronts: he fought against the residents of his village, who to this day refer to him as a traitor, and he fought the military institution that never fully understood his motives.

“In my village, they can’t understand what could possibly motivate me to protect a country that is not my own. In the army there are people who know me and would go all the way with me, but there are those who don’t know me and don’t really know how to relate to me,” he says.

So why did he decide to give this interview, with his face exposed and his full name in print? “Because it is important to me to show the Arab public what they are missing. There are quite a lot of people [in the Arab community] who want to enlist, but they are afraid and they don’t know if they will be accepted by their environment. It is important to me to show them the road I’ve traveled, and to make them understand that it is possible.” Regardless, he doesn’t take his hand off his gun for a second during the entire interview. “It is my security. It is my only means of protecting myself,” he says.

His Hebrew is fluent, without a hint of an accent, and he could easily be mistaken for an average Tel Avivian. A map of the training grounds hangs on his office wall, and his green eyes constantly sweep it, making sure again and again that everything is under control. Every once in a while a soldier will knock on the door, asking permission for this or that mission, and one of them, noticing the newspaper crew, can’t resist and says “write that he is the best commander there is.” Wahib tries to hide an embarrassed smile and tells the soldier to get his backside back to the field.

He describes himself as a “Zionist Israeli Arab.” Four years ago he went on a tour of Nazi extermination camps in Poland, together with his fellow officers, as part of the IDF’s Witnesses in Uniform program. “As a child,” he says, “I grew up in a society that denies the Holocaust. When I arrived in Poland I was shocked. I cried a lot. It was difficult to contain this thing called genocide. There was something very powerful in the fact that I was standing on Polish soil, holding an Israeli flag and donning the uniform of the Israeli army, but this time from a position of power. It was proof that we can’t be broken.”

When Wahib says “we” he means the Jewish people. “I believe in the Muslim faith, and I will never abandon it, but I think that Zionism is more than a religion. It is something that fully represents my sense of belonging to the State of Israel and to Israeli society, and the immense commitment I have to protecting and guarding the country of which I am part.”

Hold on a second. Doesn’t protecting Israel’s security mean fighting your own people?

“Look, I served in Lebanon, in Gaza and Judea and Samaria and I took part in plenty of clashes where my life was in danger. I never, not for a second, ever thought of leaving. I never asked myself ‘what am I doing here?’ As far as I am concerned, there is no other way.”

I never threw rocks

He was born in the village of Reineh in the Galillee, which currently houses some 17,000 residents, more than 80 percent of whom are Muslim. His father was born in Syria, and had two wives. Each wife had four children. Wahib is the second son of the second wife. Today he lives alone in the village, in a huge house that he built himself. The dichotomy that characterizes his life can easily be seen in his house: modern Israeli furniture side by side with traditional Arab pieces. Two statues of dogs welcome guests, perhaps as a warning to ill wishers to keep their distance.

His family lives on the other side of the village, and has no contact with him. “It is not because I went to the army,” he rushes to explain. “It would make sense for my family not to accept my enlistment, but that is the one thing they could actually live with. My father even supported me. The problem was that after he died, I met a Christian girl. My mother forbade the relationship, and the entire family exerted heavy pressure on us to break up. There were a lot of confrontations. I didn’t want it to become violent, so we had no choice but to split up. The way things look now, I don’t see how we could ever be together. That is why I severed ties with my family. The only family member I am still in touch with is, of all people, my father’s other wife and her children. They are now my only family.”

The price he pays for serving in the IDF is dear. It is a price he pays daily. He has no contact with any of the people in his village, and the only friends that ever visit are his colleagues from the army. “In Arab society it is customary to be involved in each other’s lives, there is no privacy,” he says sadly. “I often prefer the company of the cows that graze down here. They don’t judge me, they let me live my life in peace. I built this house to show everyone all that I’ve achieved – in our society the size of your house is a social status symbol. But today there is nothing tying me to this place. When people ask me where my home is, I immediately answer that my home is my room on the base.”

Why don’t you leave the village?

“I lived in Jewish communities for several years – in Yavne’el, Korazim and She’ar Yashuv. A year ago I returned to the village. I suppose I will leave again soon. You have probably noticed that I haven’t worked on the yard yet, and as long as there’s no garden, the home is a temporary one. I decorated this house with my Christian girlfriend. It is difficult for me to leave this house now – I have so many memories.”

The overwhelming majority of residents of Wahib’s village do not recognize Israel’s right to exist on “Palestinian land.” Wahib says that “from the age of zero I was told that Israel took Palestine away from us, so naturally I referred to myself as a citizen of Palestine. I didn’t recognize the Israeli flag, and I certainly didn’t see myself as part of the country. Every once in a while I would take part in an anti-Israel demonstration, but I never threw rocks.”

He woke up, he says, when he was 14 years old and began studying at the technological high school in Nazareth – a Christian boarding school. There he was exposed to the modern world for the first time. The distance from the village and the family, during these teenage years when one develops an identity, took its course.

“The Christian Arabs’ culture is similar to the Europeans'. They are less fanatic and far more modern than the Muslims. The lessons at the school followed Education Ministry guidelines, and I suddenly discovered a world that I never knew existed. I discovered that the Jews weren’t as bad as I was told growing up. I discovered that they have a good side that I am drawn to. I identified with their principles and the way they protect one another. I felt that I wanted to become a part of this country.” 


At the age of 18 he approached a human resources company, looking for a job. He was sent to the Rabintex factory in Beit She’an to manufacture defense gear. “I would manufacture helmets and flak jackets and I would sew bulletproof vests. That is where I began to see things differently, to think differently. That is also where I began speaking Hebrew. You could say that I really emerged from the bubble I had been living in. My eyes were opened wide and when that happens, it is very difficult to close them again.”

The call up

Wahib put in a request with the IDF to enlist. “Once every few weeks I would travel to the IDF recruitment office in Tiberias to find out why I wasn’t being called up. The only answer I received was ‘you have to wait. There is no answer yet.’ At one point I gave up. I decided to register for automotive engineering studies at a college in Haifa.

“Suddenly, one bright morning, after two years of waiting, the army called. I will never forget that moment. They said ‘get to the induction center in two days.’ I had no idea what an induction center was. I didn’t know what to bring. I didn’t have anyone to ask, either. I said goodbye to my parents, threw some underwear and a towel in a bag and took off.”

As a volunteer, Wahib requested to serve in the Nahal. Not because he knew what the Nahal was, but because he had once heard a friend say it was a good unit. “When I was at the induction center, I thought that those commanders would determine my future in the IDF so I thought it was important to impress them. For a whole week I did everything the drill sergeant could possibly ask, I volunteered for every kitchen duty, I cleaned up cigarette butts without even being asked to, just so they would let me go to Nahal. I refused to go to any other unit. I don’t know if that is what did it, but ultimately I was sent to Nahal boot camp. There was no one happier than me.”

As fate would have it, Wahib’s first days in the IDF were during a particularly tempestuous time in Israel – the Second Intifada. Riots broke out in his village and neighboring villages across the Galilee. “The fear was insane, and I had quite a few doubts about even staying in the army. One of the dangers was going home in uniform. I remember that the army suggested that I change into civilian clothes at the bus station to avoid confrontations. But it was very clear to me that I was going all the way with the truth I believed. I still used side roads, however, so as to run into as few people as possible.”

“I still remember, to this day, the looks I would get. Children would follow me around calling me ‘Jew’ and ‘traitor’ and very quickly I realized that it was better to be smart than to be right. I tried to come home late at night, to draw as little fire as possible.

Do you still avoid walking around the village in uniform?

“Yes. I don’t want to stir up trouble. I sometimes come home late at night, starving, and I want to stop at the convenience store to buy something to eat but I don’t dare do it in uniform. By the time I go home and change I don’t have the energy to go out again. I remember one time when I couldn’t resist and I came into the village with an Israeli flag attached to my car. I was sure that someone would take it down, but it was still there in the morning.”

And how were you treated by the soldiers?

“There were always those who were afraid to get close to me, and didn’t speak to me, calling me ‘Arab.’ But anyone who served with me knew that I was with them all the way. At the end of the day, these people who slept next to me on adjacent beds were my family. They ate with me, and they shared with me all the goodies they got in care packages from home.”

Wahib, for his part, still with very little Hebrew and a heavy Arabic accent at the time, realized that he would have to work much harder than anyone else to be accepted into this family. “I worked my ### off. I carried people. I spit up blood. I completed almost every level of the army with honors. Suddenly I heard that people were talking about me everywhere. I realized that I was good.”

Despite his successes, he knew that wherever he went, and as many honors as he got, his ethnic background would always be with him and never let him go. Instead of going to the Nahal’s reconnaissance platoon, which is considered more elite, he was sent to the Granite Battalion. That is where he first learned about his security clearance, and what a huge obstacle his background posed. “I completed boot camp with honors, and guys who weren’t nearly as good as me were accepted into the reconnaissance unit, and I wasn’t. I was deeply insulted, demanding answers from my commanding officer, and I refused to back down until he told me that it was because of my security clearance.”

He completed his preparatory officer’s training third in his brigade, but again, because of security clearance, he was not allowed to go to the officer’s training course. His feelings were hurt and he asked for some time off. He sat at home and waited. “I had a major crisis,” he says, and the scars are still evident. “I almost gave up and got myself discharged. I couldn’t understand how I was giving my all and getting nothing but endless obstacles in return. I couldn’t understand why I kept having to prove my loyalty over and over again.”

Wahib sat at home for a week and waited for answers. Finally, he was given the go ahead for the officer’s training and he was over the moon. After he completed the officer’s training course he went back to the Granite Battalion to command over boot camp at the same base where he got his start. Knowing that he would have a hand in shaping the future generation of IDF soldiers gave him immense satisfaction. “It was the first time that I had fighters under my command, 56 guys, and I learned the true meaning of leadership. I got soldiers who just enlisted, and I groomed them and raised them to be the type of soldiers that I want them to be,” he says proudly. “I actually left my mark on them.”

No one will ever catch me off guard

In the various command posts that he has filled, Wahib has found himself in complex situations many times. One such situation occurred when he was appointed operations officer of the Southern Gaza Territorial Brigade (Katif Brigade) just as the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza was underway. “I would stand in front of Jews, and they didn’t believe that I was there to protect them. The situation was extremely charged. In retrospect, I think I managed to get through it without any extraordinary clashes.”

After a year and a half in the post, Wahib left the Nahal for the first time and served as a trainer at the National Urban Training Center (known by its Hebrew acronym MALI). This is where he first became acquainted with all the different units that use the facility for training. After another year and a half, he served as an operations officer in Judea and Samaria.

“I found myself in Judea and Samaria, dealing with a fanatic Arab population and a Jewish population who was there because of their beliefs, and they both hate each other. I think that it was there, of all places, that the fact that I was Arab gave me an advantage. I was often able to accurately assess the situation thanks to my understanding of Arab mentality.”

“One day, a young Arab woman arrived at the checkpoint with a knife and tried to stab a soldier. When I was called to the scene she burst into tears and showed me her body. It was covered with black and blue marks. I understood that she had been severely beaten at home for having soiled the family’s honor and that she didn’t really want to kill a soldier. It was just her way of getting away from her family. She preferred to be in an Israeli jail rather than going back home, possibly to her death.”

“When I understood that, though I really couldn’t justify what she had done, I tried to help her. Her family came to the checkpoint to retrieve her, and I literally protected her with my body. They beat me and spit on me. At one point I had to call for backup just to end the incident. The girl was ultimately arrested, but I have no doubt that my interference had saved her. That is just one example of a situation that could have easily ended differently.”

About seven months later, Wahib began training to become a company commander and was appointed to a command post in the Caracal Battalion, which operates along the Egypt border. From there he made his way to Tze’elim. Since 2009 he has served as the deputy commander of the IDF’s Urban Warfare Branch. “All the IDF units, including reserves units, even the most elite, have been trained by me,” he says with unabashed pride.

Have you ever felt that the soldiers under you command doubted your leadership?

“Not even once. I think that I have excellent leadership abilities, and I see the bigger picture, precisely because of where I come from. I have always struggled and worked very hard not to let anyone ever catch me off guard. On nights before giving a lecture to soldiers I would sit at the base and study like crazy all night long, just so they would not catch me unprepared. I think I have also passed my tenacity on to my soldiers.”

Wahib was only appointed to the post of operations officer at Tze’elim last week. His seat is not even warm yet, but to an outside observer he looks like he has been sitting in it for a long time. He has a firm grip on every training area under his command, and he explains that “MALI is one of the bases with the most live fire training facilities. I am responsible for all the training facilities at Tze’elim where training and drills take place. I have to be fully synchronized with everyone all the time, to avoid a situation in which two units train at the same facility at the same time. That could be disastrous. And there are a lot of Bedouin here too who infiltrate the live fire training grounds to collect shells and sell them later, and I have to make sure that this doesn't happen during a live training exercise. It is a lot of responsibility.”

Wahib “is one of the best officers in the IDF,” says Lt. Col. Itzik Cohen, who currently serves as the commander of the Givati training base, but served as Wahib’s commander for the last three years. “He sacrificed a lot in order to be where he is today, went through a lot of anguish, and I will go out on a limb and say that woe is the IDF if it fails to hug him and welcome him and keep him in the army. I did, and will do, everything in my power to keep him in the system. We don’t let good people go that easily. Wahib got an opportunity to prove himself in a very important, key post. It is exactly the kind of post one gets promoted from. I believe in him.”

Wahib is under contract to serve for another year. During this year, he hopes to get promoted to a post that will keep him in the military. He wants to get as far as possible in the ranks, but the fear of disappointment lets him dream of only one achievement at a time. “I hope to make lieutenant colonel and continue in a core post,” he says.

His eventual discharge worries him. “My uniform, my rank, my officer’s card – these are my VIP ticket into Israeli society, they protect me. When I take off my uniform and go back to being a regular citizen, I will once again have to deal with the fact that I am an Arab citizen in the State of Israel.”

Do you believe that things will change in the future, and that you won’t need a VIP ticket to protect you one day?

“The State of Israel has a lot of different colors. There is a wide variety. Two peoples live here, and the sooner we recognize it, the faster we can minimize the damage. I think that the fact that I am an officer in the IDF communicates a positive message to the Arabs living here. I want to believe that the path that I chose will prove to them that there is another way. My nephew and my cousin enlisted in the Border Police this year, for example. I support them and I help them, with my experience.”

“I feel that I am on a mission. I hope that in the future there will be a lot more Muslim Arab officers in the IDF, and that by virtue of us being human beings we will find a way to communicate and find solutions for a shared life.”

In recent years, hundreds of individuals from ethnic minorities have enlisted in the IDF every year. The IDF personnel branch reports that the numbers have tripled in five years. Of the minorities that serve, 65% are Bedouin, 20% are Christians, and 15% (just a few dozen) are Muslim. The Muslim communities that yield the most soldiers are Nazareth, Dir al-Assad, Bi’ina and Reineh. According to IDF statistics, there are two Arab officers currently serving in the IDF, and only one, Ala Wahib, in a core post. A female Muslim officer was recently discharged from the Air Force. Fifteen Muslim Arabs and 14 Christian Arabs have been killed over the years while serving in the IDF.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=5727

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Overblown.

[OriZ 3,157]

Here is another one:

I am a Zionist, a proud Muslim Zionist, and I love Israel, but this was not always the case. In fact, for many years I was quite the extreme opposite. I experienced the high levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity taking place on British university campuses, because I was the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel activist.

Growing up in the Muslim community in the UK I was exposed to materials and opinions at best condemning Israel, painting Jews as usurpers and murderers, and at worse calling for the wholesale destruction of the "Zionist Entity" and all Jews. In short, there was no accommodating a Jewish State in the Middle East.

Hating Israel The new anti-Semitism / Moshe Dann

Op-ed: Anti-Israel campaign identifies Jews as immoral, Jewish state as historical fraud

Full Story

To grow up around this constant barrage of hatred directed at Israel has a massive effect on an individual’s own opinions. More disturbingly, many of these people weren’t radical or extreme, but when it was about Israel the most vicious of rhetoric poured out, coupled with the casual anti-Semitism that seemed too prevalent, when the phrase "stop being a Jew" used as an insult.

My father, however, was much more brazen in his hatred, boasting of how Adolf Hitler

was a hero, his only failing being that he didn't kill enough Jews.

By the time I had reached 18 I was completely indoctrinated to the fold of radical Islamism. My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden.

These views were reinforced when I attended Nakba Day

rallies, where speakers predicted Israel's demise as Hezbollah flags were waved proudly in the centre of London.

The Case for Israel

Was there a case for Israel? In my mind, of course not, there was no shadow of doubt. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified; the Jews must obviously deserve it, I believed.

So what changed? How could I go from all this hatred to the great love for and affinity with Israel and the Jewish people? I found myself in the Israel and Palestine section of a local bookstore and picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz's The Case for Israel. Given my worldview, the Jews and Americans controlled the media, so after brief look at the back, I scoffed thinking "vile Zionist propaganda."

I did, however, decide to buy it, content that I would shortly be deconstructing this propaganda piece, showing that Israel had no case and claiming my findings as a personal victory for the Palestinian cause.

As I read Dershowitz’s arguments and deconstruction of many lies I saw as unquestionable truths, I searched despairingly for counter arguments, but found more hollow rhetoric that I’d believed for many years. I felt a real crisis of conscience, and thus began a period of unbiased research. Up until that point I had not been exposed to anything remotely positive about Israel.

Now, I didn't know what to believe. I'd blindly followed others for so long, yet here I was questioning whether I had been wrong. I reached a point where I felt I had no other choice but to see Israel for myself; only that way I’d really know the truth. At the risk of sounding cliché, it was a life-changing visit.

No apartheid state

I did not encounter an apartheid racist state, but rather, quite the opposite. I was confronted by synagogues, mosques and churches, by Jews and Arabs living together, by minorities playing huge parts in all areas of Israeli life, from the military to the judiciary. It was shocking and eye-opening. This wasn't the evil Zionist Israel that I had been told about.

After much soul searching, I knew what I had once believed was wrong. I had been confronted with the truth and had to accept it. But I had a bigger question to confront, what now? I’d for years campaigned against Israel, but now I knew the truth.

The choice was obvious: I had to stand with Israel, with this tiny nation, free, democratic, making huge strides in medicine, research and development, yet the victim of the same lies and hatred that nearly consumed me.

Doing this is not easy and that’s something that has become very obvious. I have faced hostility from my own community and even some within the Jewish community in the UK, but that’s the reality of standing up for Israel in Europe today. It is not easy, and that’s what makes it so necessary.

This isn’t about religion and politics; it’s about the truth.

When it comes to Israel, the truth is not being heard, the ranks of those filed with blind hatred continue to swell, yet many have not been exposed to the reality, away from the empty rhetoric and politically charged slogans they are so fond of.

We can change this situation but we need to be strong and united. Israel is not just a Jewish issue - it’s about freedom, human rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish. It’s also about trying to be a light among nations.

Israel’s international humanitarian aid<a class="bluelink" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4179089,00.html" href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4179089,00.html" '="" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Arial (Hebrew)', 'David (Hebrew)', 'Courier New (Hebrew)'; font-size: 14px;"> work speaks for itself, but if we don’t get the message out there, no one will. We don’t have to be head-bowed apologists leading with :Israel’s not perfect…" - we should never be afraid to say: I am a Zionist and I’m proud. I stand with Israel. Now I ask, will you do that?

Kasim Hafeez is a British Muslim and former Islamist who is now a proud Zionist and stands with Israel. He runswww.theisraelcampaign.org and has a blog on this site. He is also on the advisory board of StandWithUs in the UK and recently completed a university speaking tour

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4220976,00.html

[OriZ 3,157]

Some Muslim clerics, such as Sheikh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community, and Imam Dr Muhammad Al-Hussaini believe that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the establishment of Israel, are in accordance with teachings of Islam. Some Muslim supporters of Israel consider themselves Muslim Zionists. Notable Muslims who publicly support Zionism include former radical Islamist Ed Husain, Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Tashbih Sayyed, aPakistani-American scholar, journalist, and author, and the Bangladeshi journalist Salah Choudhury. Additional Muslim people who voiced public support for Israel included figures such as Irshad Manji, Salim Mansur, Abdurrahman Wahid, Mithal al-Alusi, Kasim Hafeez, Abdullah Saad Al-Hadlaq, Zuhdi Jasser and Khaleel Mohammed.

In the Muslim world, support of Israel is a minority orientation, and supporters of Israel have faced opposition and violence.

In a 2004 survey conducted by Professor Sammy Smooha of the University of Haifa Jewish-Arab Center, "Index of Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel – 2004", 84.9% of Israeli Arabs stated that Israel has a right to exist as an independent state, and 70% noted that it has a right to exist as a democratic, Jewish state. A Truman Institute survey from 2005 found that 63% of the Arab citizens accept the principle that Israel is the state of the Jewish people.

According to British-based Imam Muhammad Al-Hussaini, traditional commentators from the 8th and 9th century onwards have uniformly interpreted the Qur'an to say explicitly that the Land of Israel has been given by God to the Jewish people as a perpetual covenant. Hussaini bases his argument upon Qur'an 5:21 in which Moses declares: "O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has prescribed for you, and turn not back in your traces, to turn about losers." He cites the Qur'an commentator Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, who says that this statement is "a narrative from God... concerning the saying of Moses... to his community from among the children of Israel and his order to them according to the order of God to him, ordering them to enter the holy land." He argued that this promise to the Jews is ever lasting, and further said: "It was never the case during the early period of Islam... that there was any kind of sacerdotal attachment to Jerusalem as a territorial claim." This interpretation of the promise to the Jews as ever-lasting is not uniformly accepted by all Islamic commentators

According to a translation by the Islamic Law scholar Khaleel Mohammed, Ibn Kathir (1301–1373) interpreted Qur'an 5:20–21 using the following terms: "'That which God has written for you' i.e. That which God has promised to you by the words of your father Israel that it is the inheritance of those among you who believe."

On March 23, 1918, Al Qibla, the daily newspaper of Mecca, printed the following words in support of the Balfour Declaration of 1917:

On 3 January 1919, Hussein's son, king Faisal I of Iraq and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist Organization signed the Faisal–Weizmann Agreement for Arab-Jewish cooperation, in which Faisal conditionally accepted the Balfour Declaration based on the fulfillment of British wartime promises of development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and on which subject he stated:

"The resources of the country [Palestine] are still virgin soil and will be developed by the Jewish immigrants (...) we have seen the Jews from foreign countries streaming to Palestine from Russia, Germany, Austria, Spain, and America. The cause of causes could not escape those who had a gift of deeper insight. They knew that the country was for its original sons [abna'ihi-l-asliyin], for all their differences, a sacred and beloved homeland. The return of these exiles [jaliya] to their homeland will prove materially and spiritually an experimental school for their brethren who are with them in the fields, factories, trades and all things connected to the land."

We Arabs... look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organisation to the Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best, in so far as we are concerned, to help them through; we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home... I look forward, and my people with me look forward, to a future in which we will help you and you will help us, so that the countries in which we are mutually interested may once again take their places in the community of the civilised peoples of the world.

As'ad Shukeiri, a Muslim scholar ('alim) of the Acre area, and the father of PLO founder Ahmad Shukeiri, has rejected the values of the Palestinian Arab national movement and was opposed to the anti-Zionistmovement. He met routinely with Zionist officials and had a part in every pro-Zionist Arab organization from the beginning of the British Mandate, publicly rejecting Mohammad Amin al-Husayni's use of Islam to attack Zionism.

In July 1921, Shukri sent a telegram to the British government, declaring support for the Balfour Declaration and Zionist immigration to British Mandate Palestine:In the 1920s, the Muslim National Associations was established by Muslim Arabs who were employed by the Palestine Zionist Executive. The president of the Muslim National Associations and the mayor of Haifa, Hassan Bey Shukri, has founded the organization with Sheikh Musa Hadeib from the village of Dawaymeh near Hebron and head of the farmers' party of Mt. Hebron.

We strongly protest against the attitude of the said delegation concerning the Zionist question. We do not consider the Jewish people as an enemy whose wish is to crush us. On the contrary. We consider the Jews as a brotherly people sharing our joys and troubles and helping us in the construction of our common country.

In 1929, Hadeib was murdered in Jerusalem, supposedly for his collaboration with the Zionists.

In the late 1930s, Amir Abdullah, ruler of Transjordan, and the pro-Hashemite leader of Syria, Abd al-Rahman Shahabandar, offered the Zionists to create a Jewish autonomy in Palestine under the Transjordanian throne, although they did not propose an independent Jewish state.

A number of Muslim groups that have histories of conflict with Arabs, including Kurds and Berbers, have also voiced support for Israel and Zionism. Ramin H. Artin, of the Kurdish-American Education Society, argues that the creation of Israel has been "a thorn in the eye of fascists who would rather eliminate the Jewish state". He concluded that an Israeli-Kurdish alliance is "natural", and that sincere mutual respect and recognition of each other's rights can lead to peace and prosperity.

Palazzi noted that although in present days support for Israel among Muslims is a minority orientation, there are some exceptions, such as former President of Indonesia and leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, Shaykh Abdurrahman Wahid, and the Grand Mufti of the Russian Federation, Shaykh Talgat Tajuddin, the Mufti of European Russia, Shaykh Salman Farid, who wrote a fatwa against the intifadah. According to Palazzi, more examples for Pro-Israeli Muslim clerics are the Muftis of Chechnya, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

[OriZ 3,157]

During the Israeli War of Independence of 1948, many Bedouin switched sides to join the Zionist forces in opposing the invasion by the regular Arab armies.

Negev Bedouins, a Muslim minority which includes about 12% of Israeli Arabs, tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel. Many Negev Bedouins serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Each year, between 5%–10% of the Bedouin of draft age volunteer for the IDF (unlike Druze and Jewish Israelis; they are not required by law to do so).

During the Palestinian Arab national movement's formation, Bedouins often perceived their tribe as their principal focus of identity, and they generally did not view themselves as a component of the emerging Palestinian identity.

Bedouins had long standing ties with nearby Jewish communities. Bedouins of Tuba-Zangariyye helped defend these communities in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Formal co-operation between Jews and Bedouin began in 1946, when tribal leader Sheik Hussein Mohammed Ali Abu Yussef of the al-Heib tribe sent more than 60 of his men to fight alongside Zionist forces, forming the Pal-Heib unit of the Haganah. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Pal-Heib unit defended Jewish communities in the Upper Galileeagainst Syria. Sheik Abu Yussef was quoted in 1948 as saying, "Is it not written in the Koran that the ties of neighbors are as dear as those of relations? Our friendship with the Jews goes back many years. We felt we could trust them and they learned from us too".

Maj Fehd Fallah, a Bedouin from the village of Saad in the Golan Heights said in an interview: "Yes, I have fought against Muslims in Gaza," he says. "And I would fight again if I had to," he added. "Israeli Muslims who don't serve in the IDF should be ashamed for not serving their country."

Ismail Khaldi is the first Bedouin deputy consul of Israel and the highest ranking Muslim in the Israeli foreign service. Khaldi is a strong advocate of Israel. While acknowledging that the state of Israeli Bedouin minority is not ideal, he said

I am a proud Israeli – along with many other non-Jewish Israelis such as Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, Christians and Muslims, who live in one of the most culturally diversified societies and the only true democracy in the Middle East. Like America, Israeli society is far from perfect, but let us deals honestly. By any yardstick you choose – educational opportunity, economic development, women and gay's rights, freedom of speech and assembly, legislative representation – Israel's minorities fare far better than any other country in the Middle East.

Druze commander of the IDF Herev battalion. Druze citizens are prominent in theIsrael Defense Forces, and a considerable number of Israeli Druze soldiers have fallen in Israel's wars.

The Circassians in Israel are non Arab, predominantly Sunni Muslims. The Circassians have had a good relations with the Jewish community in Israel since the beginning of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. The Circassians community in Israel helped the illegal immigration (Ha'apala) of Jews into Palestine During the British Mandateand fought on the Israeli side of the War of Independence. In 1948, when Israel was created, Circassians of Palestine did not migrate to neighboring countries, rather made the choice to stay within the borders of the new state and embrace full Israeli citizenship. Like the Druze population, since 1958 male Circassians perform Israeli mandatory military service upon reaching the age of majority, while females do not. Many Circassians in Israel are employed in the security forces, including in the Border Guard, the Israel Defense Forces, the police and the Israel Prison Service. The percentage of the army recruits among the Circassian community in Israel is particularly high. This loyalty to Israel is often considered as an act of betrayal by the Arab Muslims, who see Circassians as traitors to the Ummah.

The Druze are a religious community found who consider themselves an Islamic Unist, reformatory sect. The Druze consider themselves to be Muslim, although they are considered non-Muslim by the general Islamic community. The Druze mostly do not identify with the cause of Arab nationalism. The bond between the Jewish and Druze is commonly known by the term "a covenant of blood". Druze citizens are prominent in the Israel Defense Forces and in politics, and a considerable number of Israeli Druze soldiers have fallen in Israel's wars since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Reda Mansour, a Druze poet, historian and diplomat, explained: "We are the only non-Jewish minority that is drafted into the military, and we have an even higher percentage in the combat units and as officers than the Jewish members themselves. So we are considered a very nationalistic, patriotic community." In 2008 more than 94% of Druze youngsters classified themselves as "Druze-Israelis" in the religious and national context. Five Druze lawmakers currently have been elected to serve in the 18th Knesset, a disproportionately large number considering their population.

Rafik Halabi, an Israeli Druze television correspondent and former Israeli military officer, characterizes himself as an Israeli patriot. Opening his 1982 book "The West Bank Story: An Israel Arab's View of Both Sides of a Tangled Conflict", he wrote, "I am an Israeli patriot, although I am not a Jew".

Salman Abu-Salah from the village Majdal Shams established the "Zionist Druze Club" in the Golan in the 1970s and advocated petitioning for Israeli citizenship, even prior to the Israeli annexation of the Golan heights in 1980. Yusuf Nasr al-Din, who believes that the Arab-Israeli Conflict is a historical struggle between Zionism and Arabism, established the Druze Zionist Movement, recommending that the Druze show solidarity with Israel and adopt the national Zionist ideology of the Jewish people.

Amal Nasereldeen, founder of theZionist Druze Circle and a former member of the Israeli Knesset

In 1973, Amal Nasereldeen founded the Zionist Druze Circle, a group whose aim was to encourage the Druze to support the state of Israel fully and unreservedly. A-Din, a Likud member of the Knesset, has lost his son in the War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt in 1969. In 2007, Nabiah A-Din, the chairman of the forum of the Druze and Circassian authority heads, and head of the Kasra Adia municipality, criticized the "multi-cultural" Israeli constitution proposed by the Israeli Arab organization Adalah, saying that he finds it unacceptable. "The state of Israel is Jewish state as well as a democratic state that espouses equality and elections. We invalidate and reject everything that the Adalah organization is requesting," he said. According to A-din,the fate of Druze and Circassians in Israel is intertwined with that of the state. "This is a blood pact, and a pact of the living. We are unwilling to support a substantial alteration to the nature of this state, to which we tied our destinies prior to its establishment," he said. As of 2005there were 7,000 registered members in the Druze Zionist movement. In 2009, the movement held a Druze Zionist youth conference with 1,700 participants.

Other Arab Israelis identifying with Israel

Ala Wahib serves as the highest ranking Muslim officer in the Israel Defense Forces, and originates from a the Galillee village of Reineh. He serves as the operations officer at an IDF ground forces training base, and describes himself as a "Zionist Israeli Arab". Wahib grew up in a society where Holocaust denial was common, but visited Poland while serving in the IDF and was shocked, saying that "there was something very powerful in the fact that I was standing on Polish soil, holding an Israeli flag and donning the uniform of the Israeli army, but this time from a position of power." According to Wahib, there are quite a lot of Israeli Arabs who want to enlist, but do not do so since they don't know how this will be accepted by their environment. In regards to being a Muslim, Wahib explained that he believes in the Muslim faith, and will never abandon it, but believes that "Zionism... is something that fully represents my sense of belonging to the State of Israel and to Israeli society, and the immense commitment I have to protecting and guarding the country of which I am part."

Anet Haskia is another outspoken Muslim supporter of Israel who was born and raised in Akko. A mother of three children who have served in the IDF, she says that Arabs in Israel live better than those living in any Arab state, and states, "I was born in Israel, and it is my homeland. I thank God every day that I was born in the Jewish state because of everything that happens in the Arab states in general and Syria, in particular. Not only do I support Israel, I am also willing to sacrifice my family for the existence of this state. You have to understand, Israel is my homeland. Just because I am an Arab Muslim does not mean I will support Arab countries against Israel or identify with a murderous organization like Hamas that wants to destroy my homeland."

Notable non-Israeli Muslim supporters of Israel

Notable Muslim supporters of Israel include Dr. Tawfik Hamid A former self-described member of a terror organization and current Islamic thinker and reformer, Sheikh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community and self described Muslim Zionist, and Tashbih Sayyed – a Muslim Pakistani-American scholar, journalist, author, and self-described Muslim Zionist, Prof. Khaleel Mohammed, Islamic Law scholar of the San Diego State University and Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Bangladeshi journalist and publisher, and a self-proclaimed Muslim Zionist.

In Bangladesh

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Bangladeshi journalist and publisher, and a self-proclaimed Muslim Zionist. His newspaper, The Weekly Blitz, criticizes the jihad culture and advocates inter-faith understanding between Muslims, Christians and Jews. Choudhury was arrested by Bangladeshi police on November 29, 2003 at Dhaka airport since he was scheduled to fly to Israel, a country Bangladeshi citizens are barred from travelling to. After release from 17-months imprisonment, Choudhury wrote in an Israeli newspaper "I also stand before you perhaps as a living contradiction: a Zionist, a defender of Israel, and a devout, practicing Muslim, living in a Muslim country." He said "I believe in the justice of the Zionist dream. I also acknowledge this historical reality: that the world has endeavored to crush that dream and, yes, even to destroy the viability of the Jewish people. At the same time, I live in an environment where people believe just as passionately in an opposing view—one that sees Israel as illegitimate; and the Jewish people as evil incarnate."

In Canada

Irshad Manji, a Muslim Canadian author and an advocate of progressive interpretation of Islam, says that the Arabs' failure to accept the Jews' historical bond with Palestine is a mistake. Manji accepts that the Jews' historical roots stretch back to the land of Israel, and recognizes their right to a Jewish state. She further argues that the allegation of apartheid in Israel is deeply misleading, noting that there are in Israel several Arab political parties; that Arab-Muslim legislators have veto powers; and that Arab parties have overturned disqualifications. She also observes that Israel has a free Arab press; that road signs bear Arabic translations; and that Arabs live and study alongside Jews. She accuses Arab countries for the Palestinian refugees' plight, saying that they "interfered with every attempt to solve the problem" and that they would rather give "generous support to suicide bombers and their families" rather than help the needy refugees. According to Geneive Abdo, "Muslim Zionist" is a label which Manji "would no doubt accept".

In 2008, Salim Mansur, a Muslim Canadian Political Scientist, columnist and author, congratulated Israel for its 60th anniversary, and declared that the Jewish state "deserves admiration". He wrote, "Israel is a tiny sliver of land in a vast tempest-ridden sea of the Arab-Muslim world, and yet it is here the ancient world's most enduring story is made fresh again by Jews to live God's covenant with Abraham as told in their sacred literature." In 2010, he wrote: "The story of modern Israel, as many have noted, is a miracle unlike any [...] It is a robust and inclusive democracy, and is at the leading edge of science and technology [...] What hypocrites demand of Israelis and the scrutiny Israel is subjected to by them, they would not dare make of any other nation."

In Egypt

Dr. Tawfik Hamid, chair for the Study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, an Egyptian scholar and self-described former member of the militant al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, said that most Muslims correlate the word Israel in Arabic to the word 'Azra'il that sounds like Israel but means "Angel of death". This created a link in the minds of most children of Muslims the need to hate the word Israel. In an article titled "Why I loved Israel based on the Qur'an" he claims that according to the Qur'an, God gave the Israelites the land of Israel as their promised land (Quran 17:104): And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land of promise". He explains the Quran went even further to consider the Promised Land as the permanent inheritance for the Israelites (26:59): "Thus it was, but we made the Children of Israel inheritors of such things (the Promised Land)" He continued by saying "No Muslim has the right to interfere with the gathering of the Jews in Israel, as this is the will of God himself".

In France

Rama Yade, a Franco-Senegalese politician who served in the government of France from 2007 to 2010 and the current vice president of the moderate conservative Radical Party, has been described as "notoriously pro-Israeli".

In Indonesia

Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia's president from 1999 until 2001, was criticised for his pro-Israel views. Wahid moved to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel, and visited Israel six times. In an 2002 interview to ABC, Wahid said that the Islamic world should start recognising and acknowledging Israel's right to exist and prosper. He added, "I think Muslims are rational and rationality dictates that." In an 2004 interview to an Israeli newspaper, he was asked about his friendship with Israel, which was described as "unusual for an Islamic leader". Wahid replied, "I think there is a wrong perception that Islam is in disagreement with Israel. This is caused by Arab propaganda [...] Israel has a reputation as a nation with a high regard for God and religion — there is then no reason we have to be against Israel." According to Wahid, Israel "is a democracy in a sea of misunderstanding".

In Italy

In Italy, Sheikh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community, represents a unique "Muslim Zionist", pro-Israel and pro-American position which according to Morten T. Højsgaard, Margit Warburg, although the organization is small in proportions, is a "thorn in the side of both moderate and radical Islamic fundamentalists in Italy".

In 1996, Palazzi and the Israeli scholar Asher Eder co-founded the Islam-Israel Fellowship to promote cooperation between Israel and Muslim nations.

Palazzi argues against calls for jihad against Israel and says there is no religious demand for Israel to give up control over Muslim holy places.

In Iraq

Mithal al-Alusi, a secular Muslim Iraqi lawmaker, who is openly pro-Israel, paid a heavy price for visiting Israel in September 2004, criticizing Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, and advocating peace with the Jewish state. Upon his return to Iraq, the Sunni politician was immediately removed from Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress Party (INC). In 2005, apparently as payback, a gunmen opened fire on Alusi's car just after it left his house, killing two of his sons, Ayman, 21, and Jamal, 30, while he escaped unharmed. According to Alusi, there is no Iraqi-Israeli problem, and the interests of the two countries are parallel; thus, he advocates strategic relations between Iraq and Israel against terrorism. Alusi returned to Israel for a second visit in September 2008. Upon his return to Iraq, he was stripped of parliamentary immunity so that he could face charges of traveling illicitly to Israel. Later that year, Iraq's Federal Supreme Court ruled in his favor, maintaining it was no longer a crime for Iraqis to travel to Israel.

In Jordan

The Jordanian Quranic scholar Sheikh Ahmad al-Adwan, also called the 'Zionist Sheikh', claims that according to the Quran, the land of Israel is promised to the Jews. He wrote, “Indeed, I recognize their sovereignty over their land. I believe in the Holy Koran, and this fact is stated many times in the book. For instance ‘O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you,’ [Koran 5:21], ‘We made the Children of Israel inheritors of such things.’ [Koran 26:59] and additional verses in the Holy Book.”

In Kenya

Abdalla Mwidau, mayor of Mombasa during the 1970s, and a Muslim supporter of Israel, was elected to Kenyan parliament as the representative of Mombasa-South. In 1979, Mwidau conducted an information campaign among Muslims in the USA, in which he praised Israel's assistance to developing African countries and specifically its assistance to Muslim education in Kenya. His political rivals, led by Sharif Kassir, denounced these activities, calling Mwidau a "Zionist agent". Mwidau remained in parliament until his death in 1986.

In Kuwait

Kuwaiti writer Abdullah Saad Al-Hadlaq urged his country to normalize relations with Israel. Responding to a question whether he believed that Muslims have a right to rule Jerusalem, Hadlaq said, "On the contrary, verse number 21 of Surat Al-Maeda of the Holy Quran emphasizes the right of 'Bani Israel'". He said that Israel's model of democracy is unique and surpassed many of what he described as the "tyrannical, totalitarian" Arab regimes. In his 2008 article, "The Right of Self-defense," Al-Hadlaq supported "Israel's right to defend itself" and told the international community "not to criticize Israel if it continues its fight against Persian terror committed by the terrorist Hamas (...) and not to criticize Israel for using force to defend its citizens and its territory". In 2011, Hadlaq warned against a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, which he says will shatter the idea of real peace in the region. According to Al-Hadlaq, Israel has in the past made strategic concessions for peace, in Sinai, the Gaza Strip and South Lebanon, proving her desire for peaceful negotiations, but the response she earned was a hail of rockets from the "terrorists of Hizballah and Hamas".

In Pakistan

Dr. Tashbih Sayyed, a Shi'ite Pakistani-American scholar, journalist, and author, was a prominent supporter of Israel and critic of the Islamist movement. He said that Israel is vital for the stability of the region. Sayyed praised the treatment of Arabs in Israel, and applauded the "strength of the Jewish spirit that refuses to give in to evil forces despite thousand of years of anti-Semitism". He concluded by saying "I am convinced that it is true that God created this earth but it is also a fact that only an Israel can keep this earth from dying". Tashbih condemned the press that portrays the Israelis as villains, and "chooses to ignore all rules of ethical journalism when it comes to Israel"

In the United Kingdom

In 2011, a pro-Israel advocacy group, British Muslims for Israel, was founded under the umbrella of the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy. The group spokesperson, Hasan Afzal, a political economics student at the University of Birmingham, explained in an interview with Israeli Channel 10 that Muslims in Israel are freer than they are under oppressive regimes in Arab countries. Afzal said that calls for Israel's destruction are "nonsense" and condemned Hamas who he says is "determined to kill indiscriminately."

Kasim Hafeez, a British-born Muslim of Pakistani origin, and self-proclaimed Muslim Zionist, commented it's "far from easy being a Zionist Muslim in England". Hafeez said he's been marginalized by his community and family. Hafeez, who has found an appreciation for Sufi Islam, stated in a lecture that he felt more at home in Israel than anywhere else, and added "I'm proud to call myself a Zionist".Hafeez visited university campuses around the UK presenting his talk, "The Day I Stopped Hating Israel – Confessions of an ex-Radical." In an interview with the Jewish Telegraph, Hafeez said: "It's not about being pro-Israel or pro-truth, I just want the facts to be heard. Israel is a democratic state. Muslims in Israel have more rights than possibly most Muslims in the Arab world and then there is the reality of the actual conflict. In the UK, most of us can't impact what will happen in Israel, we can't stop rockets falling from Gaza or forge a peace process, but we can tackle the delegitimisation and demonisation of Israel."

Mohammed Mostafa Kamal is a freelance journalist from Bangladesh based in the United Kingdom. He has said, "No Muslim country boycotted East Timor or banned its citizens from traveling there after it became independent from mainly Muslim Indonesia. Christian-majority South Sudan became independent from mainly Muslim United Sudan in 2011. As with East Timor, we did not see any Muslim boycotts. However, when Israel became independent in 1948, Muslim countries acted with unrelenting hostility. Why?" Kamal has said that when comparing Israel's actions since 1948 with those of East Timor or South Sudan, "the only conclusion to be drawn is that the Muslim world's attitude toward Israel is totally illogical, unfair and unjust. Israel was established in the exact same manner as were Australia and America. History will not rewind." Kamal further added that "anti-Israel activities have not brought the Muslim world anything but tension, conflict and economic ruin, keeping them relegated to third-world status." Kamal also said that it was a lie to call Israel colonialist or expanionist, using proof that Israel has ceded territory since its formation for peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan and had not committed aggression against these countries since those treaties. Kamal believes that Muslim countries must recognize the state of Israel, and the Muslim world must boycott Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran if they rejected peace.

Muhammad Zahran, whose family was born in East Jerusalem, moved to Jordan, and finally to the United Kingdom, is a Palestinian blogger, lecturer, publicist, and religious Muslim who supports Israel. He has accused Jordan of practicing Apartheid, and is a supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying that those who oppose it "are just encouraging the terrorist groups indirectly. They're giving legitimacy to Hamas." When explaining why he voices his views, Zahran said, "I don't do it because I choose to, but rather because most of the people think this way and only I have the privilege of speaking out because I'm a British citizen. Most of my people think as I do, but they're afraid to say so." He has noted that 70% of Palestinians in East Jerusalem want Israel to retain control over them, and has said that "we suffer because of our Arab brothers, but we are also dependent on them. It's a bizarre situation because the Arab countries don't really care what happens to the Palestinian people. The only assistance that we have ever received from any country was from the 'Zionist enemy.' Zahran has also said that Iran is a threat that must be stopped, and is threatening both Israel and the Palestinians.

Ed Husain a former radical Islamist and author of The Islamist, a book about Islamic fundamentalism and an account of his five years as a radical Islamist activist. Husain also cofounded, with Maajid Nawaz, the counter-extremism organisation the Quilliam Foundation. He is currently senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Husain supports a two-state solution to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Husain has condemned suicide bombing of Israeli civilians as well as the "killing of Palestinian civilians by the Hamas-led Gazan government". He is opposed to the international boycott of Israel by activists, stating in The New York Times that:

Many people condemn Israeli settlements and call for an economic boycott of their produce, but I saw that it was Arab builders, plumbers, taxi drivers and other workers who maintained Israeli lifestyles. Separatism in the Holy Land has not worked and it is time to end it. How much longer will we punish Palestinians to create a free Palestine?

In the United States

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, an American Muslim author, contends that Israel is the historic, sacred land of the Jews, given to the Jews by God "as their eternal home".

The American-Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) was formed in March 2003. The group advocates a liberal Islam, compatible with democracy and American values.The AIFD publicly supports Israel, stating "it is necessary to make a foundational position statement regarding the state of Israel. We stand in support of the existing unqualified recognition of the state of Israel behind internationally recognized borders".

The group's founder, M. Zuhdi Jasser, a former Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy, said that Muslims need to recognize Israel as a state, to stand against radical Islamist groups by name, not by theory, tactic, or condemning terrorism, but by name—Hamas, Al Qaeda and other groups. Jasser calls political Islamism "the root cause of Islamist terrorism" and a matter on which it is "time to take sides." An outspoken supporter of Israel, Jasser warned against what he sees as the increasing threats of Radical Islam to the West: "Israel has always been a canary in the coal mine, dealing with the threat of radical Islam. Now each country is going to have to deal with it".

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Jasser defended Israel's actions, and wrote "I have no reason to believe that Israel is not doing anything but just protecting itself from forces that are using homes north of it to bomb northern Israel". Afdhere Jama, an American-Muslim writer and editor of the Huriyah magazine, added, "My main difference with the majority of Muslims is the belief that a Jewish homeland is an important progress for all of us, especially one in their ancestral land of Israel". He continued, "Muslims in the United States must decide whether they see groups like Hamas and Hizbullah as legitimate resistance or the cause of Muslim troubles in the region".

Khaleel Mohammed, an associate professor of Religion at San Diego State University (SDSU), attracted attention for a 2004 interview in which he stated that based on the Qur'an, Israel belongs to the Jews. Mohammed said that the Qur'an never mentions Jerusalem as a holy city, and added, "It's in the Muslim consciousness that the land first belonged to the Jews. It doesn't matter if the Jews were exiled 500 years or 2000 years, the Holy Land, as mentioned in Quran belongs to Moses and his people, the Jews."

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz,an American Muslim author, and adherent of the Hanafi school of Islam, contends that Israel is the historic, sacred land of the Jews, given to the Jews by god "as their eternal home".

Dr. Qanta A. Ahmed, a British-born Pakistani Muslim who today lives in New York, is a staunch defender of Israel, who has been accused by her critics of being a "Zionist in a Muslim guise". She is firmly opposed to the boycott against Israel, saying that the movement attempts to vilify Israel in almost every argument. While opposing the continued occupation of the Palestinian Territories, Ahmed admits that she doesn't know how Israel can currently relinquish control over a region hosting "a virulent Jihadist ideology" and leaders calling for her own destruction.

In the Qur'an

Surat Bani Isra'il (The Children of Israel), also known as Surat al-Isra'. According to Khaleel Mohammed, an Islamic Law scholar, medieval exegetes of the Qur'an, such as Ibn Kathir, interpreted this Sura as saying that the land of Israel is promised to the Jews

Imam Abdul Hadi Palazzi, leader of Italian Muslim Assembly and a co-founder and a co-chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship, quotes the Qur'an to support Judaism's special connection to the Temple Mount. According to Palazzi, "The most authoritative Islamic sources affirm the Temples." He adds that Jerusalem is sacred to Muslims because of its prior holiness to Jews and its standing as home to the biblical prophets and kings David and Solomon, all of whom he says are sacred figures also in Islam. He claims that the Qur'an "expressly recognizes that Jerusalem plays the same role for Jews that Mecca has for Muslims".

When asked what the Qur'an says about the State of Israel, Palazzi replied:

"The Qur'an cannot deal with the State of Israel as we know it today, since that State came into existing in 1948 only, i.e. many centuries after the Qur'an itself was revealed. However, the Qur'an specify that the Land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, that God Himself gave that Land to them as heritage and ordered them to live therein. It also announces that – before the end of the time – the Jewish people will come from many different countries to retake possession of that heritage of theirs. Whoever denies this actually denies the Qur'an itself. If he is not a scholar, and in good faith believes what other people say about this issue, he is an ignorant Muslim. If, on the contrary, he is informed about what the Qur'an and openly opposes it, he ceases to be a Muslim.

Prof. Khaleel Mohammed, Islamic Law scholar of the San Diego State University, noted that Sura 5 verse 21 of the Qur'an, and the medieval exegetes of the Qur'an, say that Israel belongs to the Jews. He translates it thus:

"[Moses said]: O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God has written for you, and do not turn tail, otherwise you will be losers." Mohammed here understands "written" to mean this is the final word from God on the subject. In reaction, he was inundated with hate mail.

Intolerance towards Muslim supporters of Israel

In the Muslim world, support of Israel is mostly met with opposition. In 2004, Sarah Nasser, a Muslim college student in Canada known for her pro-Israel views, received death threats after expressing support for the Jewish state's right to exist. "Being a supporter of the existence of Israel does not conflict with Islam, it complements Islam," she said. "The Koran does not have any verses that do not allow for the Jews to return to the Land of Israel (...) "I love Jews as I love true Muslims," she said. "Therefore, I believe Jews should have a right to live legitimately in their homeland." In Bangladesh, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz newspaper and self described "Muslim Zionist", was attacked and beaten in 2006 by a mob of nearly 40 people, leaving him with a fractured ankle. During the assault, the attackers shouted at Choudhury, labeling him an "agent of the Jews."

In 2011, Alaa Alsaegh, a Muslim from Iraq who posted online a poem expressing support for Jewish people in Israel, was reportedly attacked in St. Louis, with a Star of David being carved into his back.

Mohammad Zoabi, a self-described Muslim Zionist from Nazareth who has voiced strong support for Israel, decided to taking a break from social media and keep a low profile after he reportedly received death threats from fellow Arab Israelis.

[OriZ 3,157]

Unfortunately and on the other hand, as has been the case for thousands of years now it is the self hating Jews that are the Jewish people's worst enemy. Their ridiculous claims only endanger and cause damage to Israel around the world - people see it as the ultimate proof that Israel is evil, cause, here - you have Jews, or even Israelis saying that - completely ignoring the fact that 1. For every Jew or Israeli saying that you can find an Arab or Muslim saying the opposite and 2. Jews have been doing it to themselves for thousands of years. Masochistic people, if you may.

One such group is BTselem, the Israeli "human rights" group. But, who is BTselem, really?

There is such a thing as Jewish anti-Semitism. Those involved in it are good Jews, some of them are even the descendant of Holocaust survivors, who simply want Tikkun Olam (healing the world in Hebrew) and fight against the "genocide" that Israel has been conducting in Gaza.

Last week they published an article in the New York Times about the Israel's "genocide" in Gaza. This shouldn't come as a surprise after so many lies have been published in recent weeks about the conflict in Gaza in a series of articles and interviews given mostly by "human rights" activists and organizations such as "B'tselem" and "Breaking the Silence".

It is quite possible that their intentions were good, but when claiming in advance that Israel is guilty before it has even responded, their good intentions become some what problematic. One should read the types of articles written by "Breaking the Silence" Spokeperson Avner Gvaryahu in a British Newspaper as well as the comments written in response to it, in order to understand the sources from which anti-Semitism and Jewish anti-Semitism spring forth.

B'Tselem is the main supplier of factual background material thanks to researcher Atef Abu a-Rub who is also a Holocaust denier. The man is responsible for dozens of "researches" and reports about the Israeli abuse in the territories. He is so good at his job that when foreign reporters calls B'Tselem to visit the territories, it is Abu a-Rub who is sent to serve as their tour guide and shows them the area through his eyes.

The problem is not Atef Abu a-Rub; the problem is his operators. His former boss was Lizi Sagie, the organization’s former information director. Lizi claimed that Israel is responsible for humanity's greatest atrocities and that it adopted Nazi values. Sagie quit B'Tselem, but her spirit remained.

Member of B'Tselem public council Hussein Abu Hussein described Israel as a "big monster that attacks us on a daily basis and nibbles through our flesh… we all feel like crushing its head, but just talking will not help, therefore everyone has a role. Atef Abu a-Rub has a role. He is responsible for a flowing supply of "information" to describe Israel as a monster.

How much Abu a-Rub's information is worth? According to him, the mountains adjacent to the Jordan Valley used to be green until the Jews came and stole the water beneath them. In addition those Jews "kill dozens in their sleep and tell everyone it's because of the resistance". But the Jews, he said, manage to hide their evil deeds because they have a strong media. Yes, that is the man's opinions and the world is fed with B'Tselem "researches".

This diabolic propaganda is fascinating, because it succeeds in turning the tables. Holocaust surviving Jews become part of Hamas' propaganda mechanism that wishes to continue the work of those who were engaging in extermination of the Jewish people. Abu a-Rub and other "human rights" activists like him, succeed in creating one of the biggest scams of recent decades.

On one side stands a terror organization, who is also recognized as such by the EU and most of the Western powers, and declares regularly, in the most explicit manner, that its main goal is to annihilate the Jewish people. Since the Nazi regime there hasn't been such a strong body, almost a country, with such a diabolical ideology. On the other side stands Israel who withdrew from the Gaza Strip and begs this reign of terror to renounce terror and choose prosperity.

But the good Jews, the "Tikkun Olam" followers have really turned a corner. There is no doubt that Abu a-Rub and the likes of him have achieved an amazing success. The responsibility of most of it is his employers; B'Tselem's board which Hussein Abu Hussein is one of its members.

Amos Oz and A. B. Yehoshua, who are also sit in B'Tselem board, have completely different opinions, but them sitting there gives legitimacy to Abu a-Rub and Abu Hussein's radical views. They are having a hard time admitting that their organization is not dealing with human rights, but encourage anti-Semitism; it's not about criticizing Israel's actions or about healing the world, it's about Jewish support of fabricated blood libels meant to assist Hamas.

Abu a-Rub's story is taken from a fascinating book called "Catch the Jew" by Tuvia Tennenbaum. Tennenbaum, a former Israeli, wrote the book to a German publishing house following a similar journey through Germany, which was depicted in his book "I Sleep in Hitler's Room" Where Tuvia posed as a German reporter and toured the realm of the "human rights kingdom". The results were terrifying.

Tennebaum is a figurative character with figurative writing. Initially, I thought he was exaggerating, but I was worng. Tennebaum wasn't only writing, he also documented everything via photos and recorders. Tennebaum asked from B'Tselem a tour in the territories and B'tselem sent Atef Abu a-Rub who, off course, told him his 1001 Arabian Nights tales about the Jews' wrong doings.

It's important to mention that Abu a-Rub also contributes to Gideon Levy's research, so next time someone is reading this research they should know that perhaps, occasionally, they point out to things that needs fixing, but mainly they prove that this is a satanic propaganda mechanism; it is not clear whether B'Tselem and Levy planned it that way, but they sure serve as key players in it.

Tenenbaum wasn't just satisfied with one organization – he joined additional bodies and activists that together created a terrifying industry of lies. One of these organizations is "Rabbis for Human Rights" headed by Rabbi Arik Ascherman. Ascherman sent Tenenbaum with the organization's field agents who thought he was speaking only German and English, therefore spoke in Hebrew and in Arabic, two languages Tuvia is fluent in. They tried hard to provide him with evidence of Israel's atrocities, but he wasn't buying it.

Tennebaum was having a hard time understanding people like Ascherman who tries to make Israel look like a monster wrapped in the title of "human rights". Tenenbaum wrote in his book that even Ascherman's wife gave up on him; the man, she explained, is not interested in the facts.

It's rather crazy that we actually need to refute this "genocide" libel, but it's impossible not to. Israel's donation to the violence in the world since its establishment and in recent years is close to nothing. The difference is that every fatality in the Arab-Israeli conflict gets a thousand times more coverage than in any other conflict. But facts never confused anti-Semites, even if they are Jews.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4565828,00.html

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Jews who criticise Israel are self-hating?

Is there any way that someone can criticise Israeli government without being labeled a Jew hater? I'm seriously wondering now...

Perhaps we can have some of those arguments posted here, just for variety.

[Jacque67 7,328]

Hilarious!

I want whatever you are on OriZ!!

Jews who criticise Israel are self-hating?

Is there any way that someone can criticise Israeli government without being labeled a Jew hater? I'm seriously wondering now...

Perhaps we can have some of those arguments posted here, just for variety.

Nah!

Let the Duracell bunny keep running.

This must be working towards some kind of record- awesome!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It's just ridiculous.

[Karee 4,189]

Jews who criticise Israel are self-hating?

Is there any way that someone can criticise Israeli government without being labeled a Jew hater? I'm seriously wondering now...

Perhaps we can have some of those arguments posted here, just for variety.

I guess the U.S. is made up of a bunch of self-haters. I can't think of anyone that doesn't criticize the U.S. govt. for one reason or another.

[Jacque67 7,328]

Hmmm. OriZ might be really hot in the sack? Such persistence! Makes my knees wobble:)