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Israel's Gaza PR offensive

Terrorism in the Middle East Conflict: An Open Letter

By Pitman Buck, Jr.

One of the primary reasons given by Israel for its off-and-on refusals to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) is the use of terrorism by the PLO and militant organs of the PA. A brief, historical summary of terrorism used by Zionists and Israel in the Middle East Conflict reveals that Israel has no justifiable right to cite the use of terrorism by others as a basis for refusing to negotiate with the PLO, PA, Yasser Arafat or anyone else. Such an historical summary would include the following facts.

From 1943 to 1948, Menachem Begin - who later became prime minister of Israel - commanded the infamous Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL), an underground terrorist group dedicated to the overthrow of the British Mandate Authority and the expulsion of the native Arabs from Palestine in order to establish therein an exclusive Jewish state. On July 22, 1946, Menachem Begin's IZL blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing over ninety people, fifteen of whom were Jewish. Haganah, the armed militia of the Jewish Agency, was implicated in this horrific, terrorist attack on innocent civilians.

The Stern Gang was another Jewish terrorist group dedicated to driving out non-Jews from Palestine and setting up an exclusive, Jewish state. On November 6, 1944, the Stern Gang assassinated Lloyd Moyne, the British Resident Minister in Cairo, Egypt.

Many more cold-blooded acts of horror were to follow before Israel would establish herself by terrorism in the so-called "Holy Land." On April 9, 1948, Menachem Begin's IZL attacked the small village of Deir Yassin, murdered 254 Arab men, women and children (some of the women were pregnant) and then sought to cover up the foul deeds by throwing some of the bodies into a well.

One of the more ignoble acts of the Stern Gang was the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte on September 17, 1948, while he was on a United Nations peace mission in Palestine.

And then there were the Zionist robberies in 1948 of Barclay's Bank in Tel Aviv and Nablus for the purchase of more weapons of terrorism. "In Nablus they [the Zionists rebels] twice raided Barclays Bank under the noses of British soldiers.

Between July 2 and July 27, 1954, a network of Jewish spies in Egypt fire-bombed American and British cultural and informational centers, British-owned theatres, an Egyptian post office and rail station and then attempted to shift the blame for these terrorist acts upon the Muslin Brothers. This series of terrorist acts became know as the "Lavon Affair," the purpose of which was to sabotage the good relations that existed between Egypt and the Western nations of the United States and England.

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A History of Zionist Terrorism

In the relatively short time I've been posting here, it's become obvious that many DUers uncritically accept the right-wing Zionist line that the Palestinians are the aggressors; that they “terrorize” Israelis, and Israelis merely “retaliate”. In no other country (not even in Israel) is this propaganda met with anything but laughter. Only in the United States is it accepted by most people without the slightest grain of salt.

To demonstrate just how absurd it is to portray Israel as an innocent victim, I've compiled a chronology of Zionist terrorism from the late 19th century to the present. For the purposes of this chronology, I have employed Benjamin Netanyahu's definition: “Terrorism is the deliberate and systematic murder, maiming, and menacing of the innocent to inspire fear for political purposes.” I include wars because the wars Israel has fought have usually included the deliberate targeting of civilians.

1880s: Zionists begin settling in Palestine. Years earlier, wealthy Arabs had taken advantage of the Ottoman Land Code to register in their names land that didn't really belong to them. The Zionists would typically purchase the “rights” to the land from these absentee landlords, then kick out the land's Palestinian inhabitants, leaving them homeless and jobless.

1928: The Wailing Wall incident. The Palestinian Arabs, justly upset with being kicked off their land by the settlers, had by this point grown suspicious of the settlers (as had Palestine's indigenous Jewish population). A disagreement over rights to the Wailing Wall erupted into a riot, with hundreds killed on both sides.

1936-1939: Palestinians go on a General Strike as a demonstration for self-determination. The strike turns into a revolt. The Zionists, aided by the British, respond with incredible force. 329 Jews are killed; 3,293 Arabs are killed.

1938: Irgun terrorists kill 76 Arabs by setting off bombs in markets and other public places. When an Irgun member is arrested by the British, the Irgun killed another 52 Arabs.

1939: The British decide to limit Jewish immigration. The Irgun responds, killing 27 Arabs.

**Throughout the 1930s, Zionists killed 338 Brits, assassinate 40 Jews, hijack a Syrian airliner, and invent the letter bomb.**

1940s: Zionists urge Western governments not to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Chaim Weitzman's cohort Greenbaum says, “One cow in Palestine is worth more than all the Jews in Europe.”

1941: Stern Gang proposes to form Jewish state “on a national and totalitarian basis, which will establish relations with the German Reich” and protect Nazi interests in the Middle East.

1944: Stern Gang kills British minister of state Lord Moyne (who had favored a Palestinian state) in Cairo.

1947: Zionists kill international mediator Count Bernadotte, who'd saved thousands of Jew from the camps during World War II.

1947-1949: Zionists commence campaign of ethnic cleansing, committing scores of massacres in Palestinian villages (most famously Deir Yassin) and driving 700,000+ from their homes.

1948: Zionists declare independence for the state of Israel, despite the fact that the General Assembly resolution proposing partition was not legally binding. Evidence indicates that they'd planned to annex the area allocated in the partition plan for the “Jewish state", and divide up the rest of Palestine between themselves and Jordan. In the ensuing conflict, thousands died on both sides.

1948 – 1964: Palestinians in Israeli territory live under military rule. They aren't legally permitted to vote or join labor unions. During this time (and still today), Palestinians are subject to humiliation, collective punishment, torture, and seizure of land and resources. Economic conditions and standards of living for those in the Occupied Territories are abysmal.

1950s: Ariel Sharon forms Unit 101. Unit 101 conducts numerous raids in which they massacre Arab civilians. Sharon personally slit the throats of sleeping Egyptian soldiers. He chewed out his officers for not killing two old Arabs when they had the opportunity. He laughed as a junior officer tormented an old Arab and then shot him at close range. He ordered his men to ambush and kill two Jordanian women and their way to a well. In 1953, Unit 101 sneaked into the West Bank village of Qibya, where they slaughtered 53 civilians.

1950-1951: Israeli agents bomb Jewish community centers in Iraq, hoping to inspire Iraqi Jews to come to Israel. Subsequently, Israel promises aid to Iraq if it revokes Jewish citizenship. Iraq does, and Israel responds generously.


1954: The Lavon Affair. Ben Gurion, wanting to provoke a war with Egypt, sends Israeli agents to attack American installations in Egypt, hoping the blame would be placed on the Egyptians. Ben Gurion blames the incident on his Defense Minister, Pinchas Lavon.

1955: Israel raids Gaza for no apparent reason. 37 are killed.

1956: The Sinai Campaign. Israel invades Egypt. At the same time, thousands more Palestinians – Israeli Arabs – are expelled from their homes. After the war, Israeli forces kill hundreds of Palestinians and loot their homes in the Gaza Strip.

1967: Six Day War. Israel conquers East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Gaza Strip. Around half a million Arabs are expelled from the conquered territories. 778 Israelis died in the Six Day War. Over 20,000 Arabs died. The USS Liberty is attacked, perhaps deliberately.

1968: Israel bombs Beirut Airport, destroying 13 civilian airliners.

1970s: Israel bombs civilian targets throughout Lebanon repeatedly, killing thousands. Also during this period, Israel begins sponsoring the terrorist South Lebanon Army.

1973: Yom Kippur War: Body Count: 2,552 Israelis; 15,000 Arabs.

1976: Israelis hijack Lebanese Muslim boats and give them to the SLA.

1978: Israel invades Lebanon, committing numerous atrocities and leveling entire villages. In once case, Israeli Lt. Daniel Pinto binds four Lebanese peasants hand and foot, tortured them, strangled them to death, and tossed them down a well. In another instance, the SLA herded 70 Muslims into a mosque and massacred them, while Israeli forces kept out reporters. 2,000 Arabs are dead by the end of this adventure.

1981: Israel bombs an Iraqi nuclear plant.

1982: Israel invades Lebanon again. The scale of the destruction is incredible. Israel bulldozes half the building in Beirut. Hundreds of Palestinians are killed in the destruction of the Rashidiyeh refugee camp. Anti-personnel bombs are used on the trapped residents of the Ein Hilweih refugee camp. Cluster and phosphorous bombs are dropped on school, orphanages, and hospitals. Ariel Sharon presides over the massacre of 800-3,000 in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. The final body count: 487 Israelis and over 30,000 Arabs.

1982-present: Israel engages in limited military activity in Lebanon, killing thousands.

1985: 70 Tunisians and Palestinians killed in Tunis by Israel. 60 killed during Israel's hijacking of an Egyptian airliner. Israelis kill two CBS cameramen.

1986: Israelis hijack Libyan airliner.

1987: The Intifada begins. Memorable for scenes of Israeli soldiers responding to stone-throwing demonstrations with live ammo. The practice of torture and collective punishment intensifies. Thousands are imprisoned without just cause. Journalists are barred from the Occupied Territories without a military escort. Numerous atrocities are committed, including the burying of four Palestinians alive by Israeli soldiers.

1990: Israeli soldiers massacre 27 worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque.

1993: Israel and the PLO agree to the Oslo accords. The Intifada officially ends. The kill ratio: over 10 Palestinians to every Israeli.

1993-2000: Oslo in many ways tightens Israeli control over the Palestinians. More here: http://electronicintifada.net/referencelibrary/hrdocs/d... The number of settlements increases greatly during this period.

1995: Yitzhak Rabin assassinated by right-wing Israeli.

1996: Settlers and soldiers kill Palestinians during dawn prayers El-Ebrahimia Sanctuary.

2000: Ariel Sharon pays a provocative visit to the Temple Mount accompanied by large contingent of soldiers. Palestinians throw stones at the soldiers, who respond with live gunfire, killing 7 and wounding 250. The Al-Aqsa Intifada begins.

2000-Present: The Al-Aqsa Intifada. There is much more deadly violence from the Palestinian side during this intifada. The Palestinians are better-armed, but Israel still much more powerful. Israel intensifies its practices of torture (now officially illegal in Israel, but still widespread), collective punishment, land seizure, humiliation, and assassination. Human rights organizations are united in condemning Israel's “retaliatory” actions as disproportionately deadly. 3 Palestinians are killed for every Israeli killed. 40 Palestinians are hospitalized for every Israeli wounded. According to the Shin Bet's own statistics, almost 80 percent of those killed have no connection to any armed action against Israel. Israel's conduct is described as “state terrorism” in a UN report.

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Google Street View cams collected private content from WiFi networks

Google's roaming Street View cameras have been doing more than snap pics of your neighborhood; they've also been collecting packets of information sent over private WiFi networks, the company acknowledged Friday.

The company said the collection was “a mistake,” the result of a programming error, and that it has now stopped collecting the data, according to a post on its blog.

But the revelation raises questions about whether the company violated federal wiretapping laws in collecting the information and could draw scrutiny from U.S. regulators.

Last month, regulators with the Data Protection Authority in Germany asked the search giant what information its Street View cameras collected and what it did with that information.

Google disclosed at the time that in addition to taking pictures, its camera system collected certain data about local WiFi networks set up in neighborhoods where the cameras traveled. That data included the SSID (the network's name) and the MAC address (a unique number given to each WiFi router) and was collected to improve the location-based services it offers consumers.

The company asserted, however, that it did not collect or store “payload data” — that is, web surfing data or the content of e-mails, transmitted over WiFi networks.

The DPA asked to examine the WiFi network data Google collected. The request prompted Google to take a closer look at the data itself, whereby the company discovered that it was indeed collecting snippets of information passing over WiFi networks and therefore its previous statement was incorrect.

The company wrote in an update on Friday that “it's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.”

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