The Truth about the UN

Ambassador Danny Ayalon spreads the truth about the UN. Hypocrisy and cynicism have taken over the United Nations, the delegitimization perpetrators and Israel boycotters take advantage of the UN's image as an advocate of human rights in order to pass anti-Israeli resolutions which attempt to isolate Israel. It is important to spread the truth that the UN has been transformed into a political arena by undemocratic states who trample on human rights, and UN resolutions must be treated accordingly".

Rebuttal The Real Truth about Palestine

Watch Ambassador Danny Ayalon as he rebuttals to "The real Truth about Palestine" 
"Palestine was the Greco-Roman name for a region. In the year 135 AC, the name of the region became the official name of one of the provinces of the Roman Empire in an attempt to obliterate the connection between the Jewish people and Judea - the land they've inhabited for over 1000 years. 
However, like Antarctica, the Amazons or the Sahara, naming a place doesn't create a nation of Antarcticans or Saharans.
Oh, and for the record, Jesus was not a Palestinian, he was a Judean Jew."

The REAL truth about Palestine in response to Danny Ayalon

Young Palestinians Post The “Real” Truth About Palestine In Response To Danny Ayalon

Posted by: Aussie Dave in Aussie Dave November 6, 2013 28 Comments 460 Views

A new salvo has been fired by the anti-Israel side, with a couple of attractive young Palestinians responding to Danny Ayalon’s The Truth About The West Bank video, albeit over two years since the video was released.

Before responding to their actual arguments, I would like to point out they deal only with a very small portion of the Ayalon video, which I think is in itself quite telling.

As to the substance of their arguments…

The first young woman argues against Danny Ayalon’s contention there was no nation nor state of Palestine by claiming:

• “Palestine” was used to describe the area between the Mediterranean and Jordan river from as far back as 450BC
• It is ridiculous to claim palestinians do not exist since she – and others – actually do exist.

Both of these are straw man arguments.

Ayalon was not arguing there wasn’t a territory referred to as “Palestine.” This is accepted, as is the fact the region (named thus by the Greeks well after the Ancient Israelites inhabited it) has been controlled by numerous different peoples, including the ancient Israelites thousands of years before the Ottoman-Turks, then British, followed by the area being divided between the modern state of Israel, Egypt and Jordan. But never any nation of Palestinians, nor stateof Palestine.

Ayalon correctly stated that the “West Bank” was captured from Jordan. This is a fact. Jordan controlled that area between 1948 (following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War) until Israel captured it in 1967. During that time, no “Palestinian nation” argued this “West Bank” belonged to them. In fact, when the PLO was formed in 1964 – three years prior to the Six Day War – it refrained from claiming these lands from Jordan and Egypt. Per article 24 of the Palestine National Charter:

This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.

There is some controversy regarding when the idea of a “Palestinian nation” came about. Historian Bernard Lewis argues it was not as a Palestinian nation that the Arabs of Ottoman Palestine objected to Zionists, since the very concept of such a nation was unknown to the Arabs of the area at the time and did not come into being until very much later. Even the concept of Arab nationalism in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, “had not reached significant proportions before the outbreak of World War I.”  Benny Morris argues that the Arabs in Palestine remained part of a larger pan-Islamist or pan-Arab national movement. Even the pro Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi cautions against the efforts of some Palestinian nationalists to “anachronistically” read back into history a nationalist consciousness that is in fact “relatively modern.”

Then there’s that matter of the famous quote by PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen in 1977:

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.

Ayalon does not argue in the video that Palestinians like the young women don’t exist. These young women clearly identify themselves as Palestinians, but their claim they date back as a distinct people to 450BC is disingenuous.

The next claim is that Israel started the Six Day War by striking  Egypt in 1967. The young woman even brings the following quote from former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin as proof:

“In June 1967 we again had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.”

But interestingly, and tellingly, enough, she omits the very next words by Begin:

This was a war of self-defense in the noblest sense of the term. The government of national unity then established decided unanimously: We will take the initiative and attack the enemy, drive him back, and thus assure the security of Israel and the future of the nation.

Begin was claiming that Israel did have a choice whether or not to attack, but the considerations were very much tied to our survival. He was never claiming we had a choice to attack as part of some war of conquest, as the young lady is suggesting with her out-of-context Begin quote.

As historian and former Israeli ambassador to the USA Michael Oren has explained:

And going through the documents, both Israeli and Arab, I began to come across actual operational plans by the Egyptians to launch a surprise attack against Israel, an air and ground attack, on May 27th, 1967. ..It was the Israelis operating on a hunch, telling the Americans that really in the night between the 26th and the 27th, that they think that the Egyptians are going to move. The Americans, President Johnson, informed his counterpart in the Kremlin, Kosygin, who, in turn, sent his ambassador to wake up Nasser in the middle of the night and said, `Don’t you dare.’

—-

Moreover there are Arab armies gathering on all of Israel’s border, not just on the Egyptian border–on the Jordanian border, which is Israel’s longest and most vulnerable, and then on the Syrian–army from the Golan Heights. And then there were Arab contingents arriving from 21 Arab states. So there was a tremendous sense of war frenzy in the Arab world. Israeli leaders were uniform in thinking that if they don’t act quickly and act first that the future survival of the state was indeed in jeopardy.

As to the claim that Ayalon’s depiction of “Arabs and Muslims as gun-toting fanatics firing shots in to the air, hell-bent on destroying Israel, or stupidly sitting smoking water pipes” are racist stereotypes, it is also dishonest. The Ayalon video aims to pithily answer certain arguments with simple graphics and representations. Consequently, it represents certain Arabs in certain ways. Those who were expressing genocidal desires against the Jewish State are depicted as “as gun-toting fanatics firing shots in to the air, hell-bent on destroying Israel.” The one “sitting smoking a water pipe” represents the Ottaman-Turks. According to Wikipedia, “Nargile was such an important Turkish custom that it even sparked a diplomatic crisis between France and the Ottoman Empire.” I do not see the problem with these depictions, which certainly do not aim to dehumanize the Arab and Muslim world in the same way as the Nazi propaganda to which the woman are referring. Incidentally, the women need not point as far back as 20th Century Europe; they can easily point to Palestinian society for these dehumanizing depictions of Jews. But they obviously don’t.

I think we are going to see more of this type of video, with young and attractive people making what sounds like ostensibly convincing arguments against Israel. It is part of the same charm offensive we are seeing even from the likes of Hamas. It is therefore incredibly important to be armed with the facts, because the battle is heating up.

Update: HuffPoMonitor has posted a much needed video response, partly based on the arguments I have made, but also with some additional ones.

News Edition soldiers detain five -years- old in Hebron

The Magic of Jerusalem

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, displays in a new video the magic of Jerusalem as a city that combines diversity with harmony, modernity with history, and as a sacred city that for the first time in history, under Israeli sovereignty, Jews, Christians, Muslims, secular, religious, young and old are living side by side. In addition, the video shows the unbreakable bond between the Jewish people and Jerusalem.

סגן שר החוץ, דני אילון, מציג בסרטון חדש את הקסם של ירושלים כעיר המשלבת בין שונות להרמוניה, מודרניות והיסטוריה, וכעיר הקדושה, בה לראשונה בהיסטוריה, תחת הריבונות הישראלית חיים זה לצד זה יהודים, נוצרים, מוסלמים, חילונים, דתיים, מבוגרים וצעירים. כמו כן, הסרטון מציג את הקשר הבל ינותק בין העם היהודי לירושלים.

STATEMENT BY DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER DANNY AYALON

We were deeply disappointed that the IOC did not see fit to remember during the Opening Ceremony the eleven Israeli athletes murdered during the Munich Olympic Games 40 years ago.

Only a few days we were told by IOC President Jacques Rogge that "the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident".

However, the Opening Ceremony did include moments of silence and respect for those British citizens who died during terror attacks. We can only conclude that Rogge meant

that the opening ceremony was not fit to remember a tragic incident involving Israelis.

On Friday night, Rogge finally ran out of excuses. He said a minute silence was not part of the protocol, yet many previous Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies held a minute silence.

It was claimed that it was too political, yet many political causes have been remembered and utilized during opening ceremonies. Finally, he used this his card, that it was not an

atmosphere fit to remember such a tragic incident, yet other tragic incidents were remembered.

On Friday night, Rogge lost our respect and lost his ability to legitimately represent the Olympic ideal that all are equal in the international family of nations. He was exposed as

a hypocrite and as someone who was led by political interests and not the interests of the Olympic Games whose darkest moment saw eleven Israeli athletes tortured and

murdered in the Olympic Village, during the Olympic Games under the auspices and supposed protection of the IOC.

Danny Ayalon's speech at Bet El Dinner

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon's keynote speech at the Bet El dinner where I had interviewed him on Sunday night. Ayalon is not known as a religious person, but he evidently knows his audience, because his speech was chock full of Torah references to the and religious justifications for the State of Israel to remain in the Land of Israel. In other words, people who already hate him for his political views will have their heads explode in anger to see him mention the Torah as well.

Isolation? What isolation? Israel has more embassies and consulates than ever before. Our reoriented foreign policy is opening doors and we are ensuring greater global integration. DANNY AYALON

During the past few months, Israel’s purported growing isolation has been the subject of much discussion. It is far from the truth, and it is ironic that this debate has taken place during an effective Israeli challenge to the long-standing paradigm of the Palestinians using the United Nations as a “rubber stamp” for its capricious policies.

For decades at the United Nations, Palestinian demands, regardless of how spurious or provocative, were granted by a near wall-to-wall majority in most forums. Recently and almost without precedent, Palestinian officials have been hearing strong messages of disapproval and even rejection.

The fact that Palestinian officials, backed by all the resources of the powerful Arab and Islamic world, are travelling around the world pleading for, and not receiving, complete acquiescence for their unilateral declaration of statehood is almost unparalleled and should not go unnoticed.

However, regardless of the outcome of provocative Palestinian unilateralism, Israel’s relations and cooperation in the international arena have rarely been more wide-ranging and comprehensive.

Under the reins of the current political leadership in the Foreign Ministry, Israel has more embassies and consulates than ever before (many reopened after being closed under previous administrations), with more nations requesting Israeli representation our current budget simply cannot cover.

The number of invitations received by Israeli officials to visit nations across the globe is increasing. More nations than ever before understand our reoriented foreign policy is opening up more doors, and we are ensuring greater integration than previously.

Whereas recent governments ignored vast swathes of the globe, focusing on a few areas that were felt to have sole strategic importance, our new policy, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is to make inroads into areas of great importance long ignored by former Israeli foreign ministers.

We have heard too many leaders in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa say they were until recently frustrated by being unduly ignored by Israel.

Many claimed that only when it came to an issue of central importance to Israel did they hear from our officials. To be successful in international relations you have to put in constant and consistent work and effort.

Unfortunately, in many areas we are still playing catch-up for those years of neglect.

However, even despite these challenges, we are achieving successes in the international arena, beyond issues relating to the conflict.

Two notable examples are Israel’s recent acceptance into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

The increase in our trilateral cooperation with partner countries like Germany, Canada and Italy working with nations in the developing world is reaping benefits for the people of those regions and has helped reframe Israel as a significant partner in such global issues as combating desertification, water management and modern agricultural techniques.

In 2009, we held the widely acclaimed and well-attended Watec Conference. A few months ago we hosted the International Women Leaders’ Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation which was attended by women leaders from across the globe, including United Nations Deputy Secretary- General Asha-Rose Migiro and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.

Moreover, over the past few years Israel has promoted UN resolutions completely unconnected to either the conflict or the Holocaust. Our agricultural and technological know-how, and readiness to help humanity, are heavily supported in the UN and other international agencies.

However, the true proof of Israel’s growing inclusion, integration and partnership are our growing diplomatic ties with numerous nations.

Government-to-government dialogues, where a large number of government ministers from Israel and another nation meet to discuss matters of mutual interest and promote a strengthening of bilateral relations, have been significantly increased with an unprecedented amount of these meetings taking place in the last few years.

Economic relations have also been solidified, trade volume has grown, and many agreements of economic cooperation have been signed in the fields of taxation, investments protection, Free Trade Zones and the exchange of economic delegations.

This has assisted in the securing of a strong and stable economy that has seen Israel cope very well with the international recession.

While we face many challenges with some of our neighbors, most recent events are the result of changes completely unrelated to Israel or our conflict with the Palestinians.

The deterioration in relations with Turkey began long before this government took office. Its most obvious manifestation was the public humiliation of President Shimon Peres by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Davos at the beginning of 2009, during one of the most dovish governments in Israeli history.

Turkey’s new foreign policy has led them into disagreements with many of its neighbors and Israel stands with Greece, Cyprus, Armenia and the European Union as having being recently rebuked by the Turkish Government.

The so-called “Arab Spring” which is sweeping the Middle East and North Africa has no connection to either Israel or our conflict with the Palestinians. It is hard to predict the outcome, but if it does lead to greater freedom, democracy and development then the region will only benefit as a whole.

Regardless, Israel will remain true to its principles, despite the changes around us. The security and interests of Israel and its people are second to none on our list of priorities. This is nonnegotiable and we should not apologize for this, even if it leads to misunderstandings, including among allies and friends. Israel should not be asked to accept any less than any other sovereign nation would in a similar situation.

We still face many challenges, but by any measurements our successes far outweigh any perceived failures and we are on a path to even further integration.

Israel is a member of more international forums, participates in a larger number of important international events, signs and implements more bilateral agreements and has further integrated into the global agenda than ever before.

This holistic approach to foreign policy may not make the headlines, but is the fundamental basis for the strengthening of our current international standing.

The writer is Israel’s deputy minister of foreign affairs.

Israel Palestinian Conflict: The Truth About the Peace Process

Ayalon Video Drives Palestinians Nuts

For far too long, Israeli diplomats have spent much of their time trying to avoid the basic arguments about the Middle East conflict. Rather than take every possible opportunity to hammer home the facts about why Israel is in the West Bank and the right of Jews to live there, the country’s foreign ministry has instead often concentrated its energies on smoothing over differences. It has also sought to avoid the arguments entirely with well-intentioned but largely pointless efforts to “brand” Israel in such a way as to make people think about pretty girls, beaches and scientific innovations.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has ignored this convention and created a clever and informative six-minute  YouTube video answering the question of “The Truth About the West Bank.” This is driving the Palestinian Authority up the wall.

PA negotiator Saeb Erekat issued a statement last week claiming that by asserting Israel’s historical rights to the West Bank and debunking the conventional wisdom that claims the territory is “illegally occupied,” Israel is pursuing a “pro-conflict agenda.” Erekat went on to assert Ayalon’s video is filled with false information showing Israel is “denying the Palestinian people their inalienable right to self-determination.”

But all Ayalon does is tell the basic truth about the history of the last century. Israel did not capture the West Bank in 1967 from the Palestinians but from Jordan in a war of self-defense. Jordan had illegally occupied the area as well as half of Jerusalem in the course of its participation in a war to destroy the newborn state of Israel in 1948. Ayalon also says something that is indisputably true but almost never mentioned in the mainstream media: Jews were guaranteed the right of settlement in the West Bank by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.

To assert the Jewish state’s rights is not the same thing as saying Israel should never retreat from an inch of the West Bank. The borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state can only be determined by negotiations. But for too long, Israel and even most of its defenders in the United States have been so intent on trying to appear reasonable, they have appeared to concede the Palestinians’ false charge the land was stolen from them. That’s the problem for those who worry about the nation’s image and media coverage. If the West Bank is stolen property then it should merely be returned to its owners and not be a subject for talks. By rightly putting forth Israel’s claims, Ayalon is buttressing his country’s negotiating position, not undermining it.

So long as the Palestinians talk of rights and the Israelis speak of security, the Palestinians will win the argument every time. Thus, it’s no surprise Erekat and the Palestinians are so exorcised by Ayalon’s video. If it becomes, as it should, the model for a new Israeli diplomatic offensive, the deputy foreign minister’s mantra that the terms “illegal occupation” and “67 borders” are “simply not politically correct” will become an effective talking point for the country’s defenders.

YNET: Israel to promote itself on Facebook

Deputy foreign minister meets networking site's managers to discuss plans for online PR

WASHINGTON – The government intends to turn the social network Facebook into the main platform for Israeli online public relations, investing a lot of resources on creating an efficient strategy to utilize the 600 million-large' network.


Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon visited the California offices of the network on Friday, and met with company heads including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Advertising and Global Operations David Fischer, who is the son of Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer.

The Foreign Ministry is set on turning the famous social network into the main platform for Israeli online public relations both in English and in Arabic. Officials in Jerusalem have expressed their belief that Facebook is a friendly platform for communication with young people around the world, allowing for distribution of messages through video clips and games.

Israeli embassies around the world have already begun to manage Facebook pages, but now the Foreign Ministry intends to make more efficient use of the network to improve Israel's image.

Ayalon's meetings are intended to foster a relationship between the Israeli government and Facebook heads. Ayalon has also invited Facebook managers to visit Israel in order to meet with internet entrepreneurs and participate in the Presidential Conference expected to take place in Jerusalem next June.

The deputy foreign minister displayed before them Israel's high-tech abilities, noting that Intel Company is the biggest private employer in Israel, with more than 7,000 employees.

Following Facebook's slow response in closing the internet page calling for a "third Intifada" and a violent protest against Israel, Facebook managers clarified that in the future they intend to deactivate any pages preaching violence. They also stated Facebook plans to open a marketing center in Israel.

Face to face with Israel's critics

The United States' government is already cooperating with major internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to develop media tools intended to reach citizens around the world, especially in developing communities. Young Egyptians, for example, were part of a program advertised by the State Department online. These youths later organized protests in their country via Facebook.

Ayalon met with California Governor Jerry Brown and told him that due to a travel warning issued by California to Israel there are currently no student exchanges between Israeli and Californian universities.

Ayalon mentioned that these programs, with leading universities such as Stanford and Berkley, are a crucial tool for acknowledging and learning about Israel's reality. Brown responded that he will act to cancel the orders.

As he left the meeting Ayalon ran into an anti-Israel protest, experiencing first-hand the great objection against Israel and its policies. He approached demonstrators, who were holding posters demanding the US government stop funding Israel "because of the occupation", and attempted to speak with them. This rare dialogue caught the attention of those passing by, some of whom expressed their support of Ayalon.

Palestinian revisionism is the only obstacle to peace By DANNY AYALON The attempt to "refute" the Jewish claim to the Western Wall is merely the latest in a series of efforts to deny the Jewish people’s connection with its homeland.

The recent Palestinian Authority report stating that the Western Wall has no religious or historical significance to the Jewish people is sadly yet another attempt at political historical revisionism. Under normal circumstances, we could dismiss this as a pathetic and infantile attempt to erase the history and peoplehood of another people. Unfortunately, as the recent UNESCO report on Jewish sites in Judea and Samaria exposed, the Palestinian rejectionist narrative is foisted on the international agenda and is supported by an automatic majority in multilateral forums.

The recent “study” prepared by Al- Mutawakel Taha, a senior official in the PA’s Ministry of Information, attempting to “refute” the Jewish claim to the Western Wall is merely the latest in a series of efforts, stretching back more than 100 years, to deny the Jewish people’s connection with its homeland.

However, like all Palestinian lies and distortions, it was plucked from thin air. The PA Ministry of Information claims on its website that “according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, published in 1917, the Western Wall became part of the Jewish religious tradition around the year 1520 AD, as a result of Jewish immigration from Spain, after the Ottoman conquest the year 1517.”

In an age of Internet it is very simple to check this outrageous assertion and expose it for the fraudulence that it is. In fact, the entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1917 provides historic references to the Western Wall from antiquity and certainly before the Arab invasion, conquest and occupation of the Middle East.

The recent UNESCO report that Rachel’s Tomb near Jerusalem is the Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque is an even greater scandal. Bizarrely this claim not only flies in the face of Jewish tradition, it also disposes of hundreds of years of Muslim tradition. Muslims throughout history revered the site as that of Rachel’s Tomb and would regularly visit to pray.

According to an Ottoman document found by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, in 1830 the Turks issued a firman (royal decree) that gave legal force to Rachel’s Tomb being recognized as a Jewish holy site. The governor of Damascus sent a written order to the mufti of Jerusalem to fulfill the sultan’s order: “The tomb of esteemed Rachel, the mother of our Lord Joseph... they [the Jews] are accustomed to visit it from ancient days; and no one is permitted to prevent them or oppose them [from doing] this.”

THIS HISTORIC denial has political ramifications. In 2000, talks between former prime minister Ehud Barak and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat at Camp David in the presence of former US president Bill Clinton broke down over similar historical revisionism. After Barak had made an overly generous offer about splitting sovereignty of the Temple Mount, Arafat claimed that he could not concede an inch of this “Islamic territory” because the Jewish Temple never existed. This “Temple denial” wasn’t just distorting Jewish history and tradition but also Christian. Arafat was attacking the belief of more than a billion Christians worldwide.

As we approach Christmas, another form of historical revisionism emerges.

The myth that Jesus was a Palestinian is told to anyone who arrives on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem or other Christian holy sites under the Palestinian Authority.

However, the facts once again don’t add up. The Jewish province of Judea was destroyed by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135 C.E. when the Romans quashed the Bar Khochba-led Jewish revolt. To sever the Jewish connection with the Land of Israel, the Roman emperor changed its name to Syria Palaestina, eventually becoming known in English as Palestine.

According to Christian scholars, Jesus was crucified somewhere between 26 and 36, a full hundred years before the term Palestine had even been coined.

The world at that time did not have a single mosque and Islam and the Arab conquest of this land was still six centuries away.

It is perhaps understandable that those who came late to a region would need to supplant a history by appropriating and denying that of its earlier inhabitants. While the Palestinians claim to be the original residents of our land, history and fact stand in their way.

While the majority of the Jewish people had to endure a two millennia exile from our land, the stones of our Temple, the burial sites of our forefathers, our ritual baths, ancient cisterns and synagogues remained. Palestinians will attempt to destroy historical memory just as surely as they destroyed actual Jewish holy and historical sites like Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.

However, 2,000 years of foreign occupation and attempted negation of Jewish history could not prevent the return of the aboriginal people to our land.

AS A result of the rejectionism and negationism in its media and education, the PA has become so brazen that it is now selling its lies to the world. The international community needs to utterly reject this anti-Jewish crusade.

Recent polls among the Palestinians have shown that almost two-thirds would accept a two-state solution only as a first step to an eventual unitary Palestinian state, supplanting Israel.

This once again proves that the real obstacle to peace is Palestinian rejection of Israel and the self-determination of the Jewish people.

The PA brainwashes its people to disallow Israel’s legitimacy and falsifies history, Jewish, Christian and Muslim in the process. The international community needs to focus on this issue and completely reject and condemn the Palestinian Authority for its actions. This rejectionism has been at the heart of every failed peace effort for more than 70 years. Palestinian hate and intolerance, more than all the other issues combined, will doom the region to many more years of conflict.

Peace can only arrive after acceptance of the other, not just a laying down of arms and weapons. It needs to be enforced by mutual recognition. The current Palestinian revisionism doesn’t just distort history and deny our connection with our ancestral home; it denies the possibility of a peaceful resolution to the conflict and a better future for the people of the region.

The writer is deputy foreign minister.

Israel Matzav: Ayalon: 'Palestinian Authority' more interested in destroying Israel than in a 'Palestinian state'

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told a foreign ministry briefing session for pro-Israel 'activists' on Tuesday that'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's 'Palestinian Authority' is more interested indestroying the Jewish state than in creating a 'Palestinian state.'

The Palestinian Authority has replaced military warfare with political tactics dedicated to defaming Israel and delegitimizing it in the international arena, Ayalon said.

“They [the PA] tried to take us on militarily and they couldn’t, then economically...and then with terror. Now the [battle] front is the political and legal warfare,” he told activists in the oneday seminar sponsored by the Foreign Ministry, called “Israel’s Upcoming Public Diplomacy Challenge.”

“We have to understand that we are facing a very dedicated enemy,” he added, saying it was making use of the Internet and non-government human rights organizations in a very sophisticated way.

If this delegitimization continues, “it will become an obstacle to peace,” he declared.

“If you try and paint Israel into a corner, there is no incentive for the Palestinians to negotiate” because “they believe that someone else will do the job for them,” he said.

Let's go to the videotape.



I am reminded of President Bush's 2002 'new leadership' speech regarding the 'Palestinians.' In that speech, he said that he would not deal with the 'Palestinians' until they got 'new leadership' that was 'untainted by terror.' As a result, Bush did not deal with the 'Palestinian Authority' until Arafat's death in 2004.

The current leadership is obviously no better than the previous leadership. It's a pity that Bush pretended that Abu Mazen was better than Arafat rather than admitting and forcing the Arab countries to confront the truth.

Vatican City - Israel: 'Vatican Synod Became a Forum For Arab Propagana'

Vatican City - Israel said Sunday that a meeting of Middle East bishops was hijacked by enemies of the Jewish state, after the gathering at the Vatican largely blamed Israel for conflict in the region.

Israel Slams Catholic Mideast Statement

A top Israeli official on Sunday criticized a new statement from Catholic bishops on the Middle East and blasted the remarks of a Catholic archbishop who spearheaded the statement as “libel.”