Hamas
1987 | A new movement occupies the field: Hamas, a fighting branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Under the pretext of educating and training children, Hamas indoctrinates them into martyrs for the Palestinian cause.
School materials are paid for by the European Union and printed in Europe. Lies and misinformation inculcated in the young generation are not lacking. Instead of opening young Palestinians’ minds to the world, schools lock them into narrow Islamic and anti-Israeli thinking.
A hostage in Beirut
Kidnapped by Palestinians in Beirut in January, journalist Roger Auque regained his freedom in November. In Un otage à Beyrouth, he describes his captivity with precision, perception and emotion. It’s a breathtaking testimony to the resistance of a man who wanted to escape his captors, to survive in order to live. The cubbyhole was lightless, with no way out. The duct tape made it hard for me to breathe. I was afraid. Even though I was an atheist, I asked for help from the God I had heard about long ago in a church. I prayed, and immediately felt a presence, a warmth. I was no longer alone.92 His book won the 1988 Prix Goncourt.
Intifada
On December 7, the first intifada (uprising in Arabic) was launched. Young Palestinians rise up against the Israeli army in Gaza. The soldiers were reluctant to defend themselves with their rifles against teenagers throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. The movement spread like wildfire throughout the Arab-majority territories. Journalists love to film and comment on these young people’s demonstrations. The staging is worthy of a propaganda film.
Peace treaty with the PLO
1988 | On December 15, 1988, at the UN General Assembly in Geneva, the UN accepted resolution 43/177, stipulating that the PLO movement cease its terrorist activities in return for recognition of a Palestinian Arab state. Thus, five years after his forced departure from Beirut, the terrorist Yasser Arafat became head of state. His troops were in no way disbanded, but became the forces of order of the new state. The headquarters are in Gaza.
Extract from Yasser Arafat’s speech: … I am proud to announce that our Palestinian National Council, through a totally free democratic practice, assumed its high national responsibilities and adopted a series of serious, constructive and responsible resolutions. These resolutions have paved the way for the deepening and manifestation of our desire to contribute to the search for a peaceful settlement guaranteeing the national and political rights of our people, as well as security and peace for all.
The first and most decisive of the resolutions adopted by our Council is the proclamation of the State of Palestine with Al Quds Al Sharif, Jerusalem, as its capital, on the basis of the natural, historical and legal right of the Palestinian Arab people to their homeland, Palestine. … And if we reach out for the olive branch, the branch of peace, it’s because it spreads in our hearts from the tree of homeland and freedom.
I have come to you on behalf of our people, with an open hand, to work for a true peace, a peace built on justice. On this basis, I ask the leaders of Israel to come here, under the auspices of the United Nations, so that we can achieve this peace. And I say to them, as I say to you: our people desire dignity, freedom and peace. They desire security for their state, just as they desire it for all states and parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
I address myself here in particular to Israelis of all categories, currents and backgrounds, and above all to the forces of democracy and peace, and I say to them: Come! Far from fear and 1a threat, let’s make peace, far from the spectre of wars uninterrupted for 40 years in the inferno of this conflict, far from the threat of new wars, which would have no other fuel than our children and your children, come, let’s make peace, the peace of the brave, far from the arrogance of force and weapons of destruction, far from occupation, tyranny, humiliation, killing and torture.
I said: “O people of the Book, come together in one word”, so that we may establish peace in the land of peace, the land of Palestine.
“Glory to God in the highest Heaven and Peace on earth to men of good will!”
My God, You are Peace. Peace comes from You. Peace comes to You. Lord, make us live in peace and enter Paradise, your home, the home of Peace.
Finally, I say to our people: the dawn, inescapably, is coming, and victory, too, is already on its way. I see the homeland in your sacred stones; I see the flag of our independent Palestinian state flying on the heights of the beloved homeland.” 93
How can we fail to think of the quote: “Quand on parle de paix, je tire mon couteau” (Henry de Montherlant)? Yes, there’s no doubt that, in the eyes of many, the source of the violence lies exclusively on the Israeli side. This is only the second time that Yasser Arafat has sworn to renounce violence and attacks! And before an international organization, the UN, and the representatives of the States. A frivolous speech in which the words Peace and God are held hostage to the terrorist cause.
Jordan withdraws from the West Bank. The inhabitants will be governed by the Palestinian Authority.
Lockerbie
At 9:55pm on December 21 1988, a Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded in mid-air over the Scottish village of Lockerbie. The death toll: 259 passengers and crew, plus 11 local residents. The cause of the disaster was quickly identified: a packet of explosives with a detonator hidden in a radio. The terrorist trail led to Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya. He was not alone: investigators remain convinced that the attack was carried out on behalf of Iran by a Palestinian group, the Palestine Liberation Front, based in Syria. No doubt about it: terrorism is an international nebula.
PLO budget
1989 | As agreed in the peace treaty, Israel allows Arafat to return to Gaza.
On May 4, Paris welcomes Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to the Elysée Palace. The aim was to find the financial means to continue the struggle. Without batting an eyelid, Yasser Arafat asked France for 43 million dollars.94 This was the monthly cost he needed to maintain order or unrest in Gaza and the West Bank.
Immigration
1990 | After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the borders between East and West opened up and crossing them became much easier. Hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union took advantage of the situation to reach the Promised Land. A prophetic word is fulfilled: I will bring your race from the east, and gather them from the west. I will say to the north: Give! And to the south, do not withhold! Bring my sons from distant lands and my daughters from the ends of the earth.95
Kuwait invaded
On August 2, Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait, a country on the Persian Gulf. An international coalition is formed to repel the invaders from the north.
1991 | January 25, Operation Desert Storm. Saddam Hussein’s troops are driven out of Kuwait by the international coalition. The Iraqi army was destroyed, and the death toll was high: 25,000 dead and 80,000 prisoners.
Unable to cope with his defeat, on January 25 Saddam Hussein fires seven SCUD II missiles at Israel, aiming with sufficient accuracy at the country’s most populous areas, Tel Aviv and Haifa. Five warheads were destroyed by Patriot anti-missile missiles. The population, holed up in their shelters, was only slightly affected. There was one casualty and 30 injured, apart from material damage.
On January 28, another Iraqi SCUD attack. Fear that poison gas had been introduced into the warhead caused panic. One missile crashed near an Arab village, while all the others were destroyed in flight.
The text equating Zionism with racism was repealed by UN representatives. But the damage was done. For the Palestinians, it is still in force today, as written in the Hamas Charter (art. 22).
1992 | In the West Bank, 45 Palestinians are found with their throats slit. The Israeli police concluded that they were certainly people suspected of relations and collaboration with the enemy of the Palestinians. All it takes is one false step, one word not measured enough, and you’re tortured to death.96
Climate
It’s snowing in Israel, all the way to Eilat. In camel memory, this has never happened before. This is thanks to the rabbis of Safed, the country’s highest town, who have been praying for an end to the drought for three years. On the heights, the white layer sometimes reaches two meters. The rabbis have promised to pray for a return to meteorological calm.97
Declaration of war
Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah announces that it will wage war against Israel until its total annihilation. It invites all Palestinians to pick up sickles and knives and kill the Jews. A shower of 65 missiles on northern Galilee follows the official declaration.98
It seems that, in order to be well received by Muslims, it is necessary to announce the death of the Jews, the destruction of Israel. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein tops the hitparade of threats, followed by Yasser Arafat and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.
In 1992, the 200, 000th Russian immigrant was registered in Israel. This required a large number of housing units and language courses. Everything was done to make life easier for the new arrivals.
Attack in New York
1993 | Islamic terrorism moves to the United States. On February 26, a truck loaded with 680 kg of explosives disintegrates in an underground parking lot in the north twin tower of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring 1,042. Extent of damage: a crater measuring 30 by 60 metres across five basement levels. Damage to the central support columns necessitated a safety shutdown. Both towers remain closed for several months. Six Islamic extremists, including Ramzi Yousef, are sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in the attack.
Oslo Agreements I
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meet in Oslo, Norway, to take the first steps towards resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Oslo Treaty stipulates that the two nations, Israel and Palestine, have the right to live in peace in the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. The two entities recognize each other legally. Signed in Washington on September 13, 1993, the agreements laid the foundations for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fatah recognized Israel’s right to exist, while Hamas vehemently opposed it.
In October, the Israeli army intervened against Hamas, but was unable to put an end to the ongoing violence against Jews in the settlements. It’s clear that young Palestinians see no prospects. So armed struggle is part of daily life. Above all, don’t accept anything from a Jew, oppose him and you become a star.
Holy See
The Vatican is caught off guard, as states and peoples in the Middle East strive to find ways of achieving a lasting peace for all. The Jewish people have a long, painful and often tragic history with the Catholic Church. On December 30, the Fundamental Agreement was signed in Jerusalem between the two entities. It does not erase 2,000 years of suffering and darkness, but it does commit them to cooperate in an appropriate manner, to combat all forms of anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance. Both states undertake to promote mutual understanding between nations and tolerance between religious communities. Diplomatic relations are established between the two nations. Israel hosts an apostolic nunciature and Rome an embassy.
Massacre at the Caveau des Patriarches
1994 |TheOslo agreement is poorly received by the population. The vehement positions taken stirred up uncertainty, contempt and hatred. For many Israelis, the government has made too many concessions. For PLO spokesman Yassir Arafat, all the territories Israel hands over to them must be accepted; they will be springboards for further territorial gains, until Palestine is completely liberated. Tension between the two communities is very high.
On February 25, physician Baruch Goldstein, dressed in battle gear and armed with his submachine gun, entered the mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. He fired into the crowd, killing 29 Muslims and wounding 125 others. As he reloaded his rifle, the Jewish terrorist was killed.
A hero according to some, a mentally ill man who couldn’t get over the death of his son in a bombing, Baruch Goldstein is an extremist. He is not honored for his act, which runs counter to IDF strategies.
Peace agreements
After the Oslo I Accords, Hashemite King Hussein of Jordan sided with the United States and signed a peace treaty with Israel on October 26, 1994. A year later, he ceased all negotiations and associations with Iraq.
The Cairo agreement provides for the establishment of an autonomous regime in Gaza and the West Bank, followed by the opening of negotiations on the final status of these territories. Israel evacuated 70% of the Gaza Strip and the Jericho enclave. In return, all anti-Israeli movements ceased their hostile activities. On May 4, Gaza became the headquarters of the administration and the Palestinian National Authority. Yasser Arafat made his grand return to Gaza.
The political and international world crowns the efforts of both Presidents Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat with the Nobel Peace Prize. But for the Israeli population, the peace process is increasingly unpopular.
1995 | Increasing numbers of Hamas attacks undermine the peace process. Suicide attacks become a means of struggle for the Palestinians. A suicide bomber sets off a bomb and carries it on his person, hoping to carry as many Jews as possible into the afterlife.
Oslo II
Negotiations resume, leading to the signing of the Oslo II accords on September 28, 1995, between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. An interim agreement was reached in Washington on the extension of autonomy to the West Bank. It provides for a series of Israeli withdrawals from the conquered territories. This agreement was unthinkable for many Jews, who felt that the government was giving in to the violence of Palestinian attacks. The Jewish right, the Orthodox, the kibbutznikim and the military refused to budge.
The signing of the agreement gave rise to nationwide demonstrations. On November 5, 1995, one month after signing the agreement, Yitzhak Rabin, considered a traitor to the nation, was assassinated in Tel Aviv.
The mistake of international politics is not to demand an end to hate speech. If a president like Yitzhak Rabin makes an exceptional gesture towards peace, the universal media should also support the process. But no, on the contrary, the opponents’ words are amplified. In this way, Rabin came across as a weak man who gave in to global pressure.
1996 | Benyamin Netanyahu is appointed Prime Minister. He refused to enter into agreements providing for the withdrawal of Tsahal from the Golan Heights, the return to the borders of the Green Line for Jerusalem and the end of the said settlements. For the Palestinians and certain diplomats, he is not seeking peace. Obviously, when you don’t give the Palestinians everything they want, when you don’t withdraw, when Israel’s diplomats don’t bend over backwards, they are opposed to peace. Where are the efforts made or the concessions made by the Palestinians?
And there is one. The PLO, now Fatah, under international pressure and above all the weight of the United States, deleted article 17 from the Palestinian Charter. This article stipulated: ” The liberation of Palestine, from the human point of view, will restore to the Palestinian individual his dignity, his pride and his freedom. The PLO will fight by all means until the total liberation of the Palestinian territory.
On April 11, 1996, as Hezbollah sent hundreds of missiles into the Galilee, the Israeli air force retaliated by bombing Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon in an operation called Grapes of Wrath.
1997 | Yasser Arafat is allowed to visit Hebron. Tensions between Palestinians and Israelis are high. Attacks claimed by Hamas continue throughout the year.
July brings bloodshed to Jerusalem. Thirteen civilians lose their lives. The presence of Palestinians becomes unbearable. The government seeks to abolish their residence permits in Jerusalem.
Tensions between Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and the United States continue to grow. UN inspectors are expelled from Iraq.
Islamists in southern Egypt launch a violent attack on tourists armed with their cameras. Luxor becomes the tomb of 68 holidaymakers.
1998 | To relaunch the peace process, US President Bill Clinton organizes a meeting at Wye Plantation on October 15, 1998, between President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. Israel will withdraw from 13% of Palestinian territory on the West Bank. No problem, everyone agrees. The Palestinian Authority affirms and signs to put an end to the attacks and violence.
With information and disinformation rubbing shoulders on a regular basis, a man who supports the Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson is going to examine the history of Israel. He is one of the new historians: Ilan Pappé, born in 1954 in Haifa, is Israeli. He is critically re-examining the history of Israel and Zionism. Ilan Pappé believes that the Palestinian exodus can be compared to ethnic cleansing, the result of a policy planned by David Ben-Gurion and always intended by the Zionist movement. According to Ilan Pappé, this policy was applied as early as December 1947, and not only during the expulsions that took place after July 1948. The weak point of this historian’s hypotheses is that he neglects the importance of the Jewish period before 1947.
Ilan Pappé’s theories are continually picked up by the media, because they are pro-Palestinian. They are fashionable. Other new historians, who defend very valid theses, such as Benny Morris or Yoav Gelber (the latter born in Haifa), are ignored. Because they’re not from the extreme left?
1999 | In retaliation for numerous rocket attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah, outgoing Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu ordered the bombing of targets near Beirut, in eastern and southern Lebanon.
Implementing the Wye Plantation agreements (1998), which were completed by the decision to withdraw from 42% of the West Bank, is very difficult for Israel. Part of the population understands its leaders less and less. The ministers refuse to negotiate the partition of East Jerusalem, which is declared an integral part of the capital, one and indivisible.
Prisoner exchanges are of interest to both sides in the conflict. The text exchanged in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on September 4, 1999, demanded that the Israeli government release 700 prisoners. In the end, the Israeli government agreed to the release of 199 prisoners on September 9, and 151 prisoners on October 15, all of them serving long sentences. But the release of 369 other prisoners was refused by Israel, which would receive nothing in return.
Another important issue was on the table. Negotiations concerning the Golan Heights resumed with Syria on December 15 and 16, 1999 in Washington. Israel annexes this territory because its military security depends on it.
The Pope in Jerusalem
2000 | Pope John Paul II begins the second papal visit to the Holy Land since Paul VI. He speaks of decades of suffering by the Palestinian people. He refuses to acknowledge the Church’s responsibility for the development of anti-Semitism, which led millions of Jews to their deaths. He visits the holy sites of Christianity and Judaism. He prays at the Wailing Wall and visits the Yad Vashem museum. A few sentences from his speech:
I have come to Yad Vashem to pay tribute to the millions of Jews who, deprived of everything, especially their human dignity, were killed during the Holocaust. More than half a century has passed, but the memories remain.
Here, as in Auschwitz and many other places in Europe, we are overwhelmed by the echo of the heart-rending moans of so many people. Men and women cry out to us from the abyss, expressing the horror they have experienced. How can we ignore their cry? No one can forget or ignore what happened. No one can diminish its importance.
We want to remember. But we want to remember for a purpose – to ensure that evil never again prevails, as it did for millions of innocent victims of Nazism.
How could man feel such contempt for man? Because he had reached the point of despising God. Only an ideology without God could program and carry out the extermination of an entire people.
The tribute paid to the “righteous gentiles” by the State of Israel at Yad Vashem for their heroic action in saving Jews, sometimes even offering their own lives, is proof that even in the darkest hour, not all the lights have gone out. This is why the Psalms, and the whole Bible, while aware of the human capacity for evil, proclaim that evil will not have the last word. From the depths of suffering and pain, the hearts of believers cry out: “And I will trust in you, Yahweh, and say, ‘You are my God'”(Ps 31:14).
Jews and Christians share an immense spiritual heritage, derived from God’s self-revelation. Our religious teachings and spiritual experiences demand that we overcome evil with good. We remember, but without any desire for revenge, nor as an incitement to hatred. For us, remembering means praying for peace and justice, and committing ourselves to their cause. Only a world at peace, where justice reigns for all, can avoid a repetition of the horrors and terrible crimes of the past.
As Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the evangelical law of truth and love and not by political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and manifestations of anti-Semitism expressed against Jews by Christians in every time and place.
Withdrawal from Lebanon
Strongly criticized by the media and international politicians, Tsahal withdrew its 15,000 troops from the land of the cedars, after 18 years of military presence in Lebanon. The demilitarized zone is immediately invaded by Hezbollah fighters. 37,000 Lebanese disappear without a trace! Escape? Massacre? No sign of life from them. Surprisingly, the media ignores this second act. Journalists also ignore the presence of 70,000 Syrian soldiers in Lebanon. Not a word against this invader who protects the Hezbollah Islamists in the Land of the Cedars! The pro-Syrian socialist party infiltrates all levels of political and economic power. Dare we say it: Lebanon is being systematically Islamized, without the UN world reacting.
Failure of Camp David
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak refuses to discuss the partition of Jerusalem and the 1948 refugee issue!
On September 28, 2000, Likud party chairman Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Esplanade was the pretext for unleashing the second Intifada, a new Palestinian uprising. The Oslo Accords were definitively buried. The year also saw the start of rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel.
The Arab Workers’ Movement has been dissolved, but its theses are on everyone’s mind. Suspicion and fear of aggression are all too present. Jews do without Palestinian labor. Many fruits are left to rot on the trees. A few kilometers away, Palestinians are hungry and registering en masse as unemployed.
In Europe, socialist, green and pro-Palestinian movements are calling for a boycott of products from Erets Israel.
We are witnessing a change in the general attitude of the Palestinian population. Commitment to food and development is declining. Money from UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, is so readily available that it’s wise to take advantage of it. Instead of working, after receiving UN money, men hang around in the streets and public squares. The Palestinian becomes a pauper, a victim of the rich Zionists.
2001 | Ariel Sharon becomes Prime Minister of Israel. His appointment does not sit well with the Palestinians, let alone his visit to the Temple Esplanade. Two arguments that gave way to violence and attacks that left over 1,800 people injured and 85 dead. All Palestinian promises of peace came to nothing.
The Prime Minister does not intend to let his people suffer without reacting. As soon as the Palestinians fail to respect the agreements, Ariel Sharon authorizes new housing construction in the territories. The Palestinians are caught at their own game.
September 11, 2001
The terror. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines flight 11 is hijacked by Islamists. They steered the plane towards New York, where it collided with the facade of the twin north towers of the World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the facade of the South Twin Towers. Two other planes came under the control of Islamic terrorist hijackers. One crashed into the Pentagon, the fourth into a field somewhere. The attacks of September 11, 2001 cause the death of 3,850 people.
The whole world is holding its breath. Sadness, incomprehension, grief for the families of the victims and solidarity are the sentiments expressed. Only the Arab countries are jubilant: this immeasurable tragedy is their victory. Islam is showing its true face, its true objectives: jihad throughout the world, with no respect for human beings.
Durban Forum
At the International Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Durban, South Africa, NGOs are distributing hate literature. Many of them claim to be committed to human rights and anti-racism. Yet some have not hesitated to depict Jews with fangs dripping blood and helmets bearing swastikas. Probably one of the most striking examples of this orgy of hatred is a brochure on display at the Durban Exhibition Center, featuring a portrait of Adolf Hitler and the caption: If I had won the war, there would be no more Palestinian bloodshed.
December 1: double suicide bombing in West Jerusalem, killing 15 people in addition to the suicide bomber.
2002 | In early January, a ship loaded with weapons from Iran bound for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza was intercepted by Israel. Against this tense backdrop, and despite the truce, attacks by Hamas and Fatah resumed on January 9. With the Hamas assault on an Israeli military post, the cycle of violence and reprisals intensified. In February, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to build a wall between Israelis and Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Fatah transfers its headquarters from Gaza to Ramallah. Yasser Arafat has his brothel in a convent that the monks have been kindly asked to leave! According to certain sources, none of the brothers survived. There were no witnesses, and the church took no interest in the case. What a shame! Imagine the international outcry if the President of Israel had acted in this way.
January 27: Wafa Idris, secretary of Fatah in Ramallah, bedridden in an official ambulance to make it look like she was having a difficult delivery, crossed the border without too much control to be directed to a hospital in Jerusalem. On arrival, she set off her kamikaze bomb and killed an 81-year-old man. Only 10 people were injured. A miracle.
In order to carry out attacks and kill, Palestinians violate the International Red Cross laws on the misuse of emergency vehicles. Some forty suicide attacks claimed 120 victims.
March 2: suicide attack in West Jerusalem, killing 10 people in addition to the bomber.
March 9: suicide bombing in a West Jerusalem bar, killing 11 people in addition to the suicide bomber.
April 2-11: clash at the Palestinian camp of Jenin, considered a breeding ground for suicide bombers. Tsahal loses 23 men, the Palestinians 52.
April 12: suicide bombing in West Jerusalem, killing 6 people in addition to the Palestinian bomber.
June 18: suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem, killing 19 people in addition to the bomber.
June 19: suicide bombing in Jerusalem, killing 7 people in addition to the bomber.
July 31: bomb attack on a Hebrew university in Jerusalem, 9 people killed.
November 21: suicide attack on a bus in West Jerusalem, killing 11 people in addition to the bomber.
Go back to 1988 and reread President Yasser Arafat’s text.
All the weapons intended for the Palestinians and seized by Tsahal in 2002 weighed a modest 50 tonnes. But Arafat and all the Palestinians talk about peace.
Question: what meaning do you give to the word peace in the mouth of a Palestinian politician? To act, to react, to be firmer? The Israeli ministers were divided and had different opinions, and in the end, six of them resigned. On November 5, 2002, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced the dissolution of the government.
2003 | A Palestinian state alongside Israel is planned by the major nations. Conditions: Palestinian violence ceases and Israel freezes new settlements of agricultural villages.
On January 13, two children, aged thirteen and eight, left Gaza for a Jewish settlement. Armed with knives, they attacked a child and then tried to kill a rabbi. Armed with a revolver, the rabbi drove off the two children, who were quickly arrested by the army.99
This incursion demonstrates the extent to which young people are indoctrinated into violence and hatred of Jews. The murder of Jews is inculcated in these children who are incapable of discernment because they are too young. The idea of dying a martyr’s death for the cause is normal. Any martyr or jihadist will be received into Mohammed’s paradise with 72 virgins at his disposal.
Surprisingly, no international commission on children’s rights or education is interested in this situation, which seems perfectly normal!
On February 16, a major explosion at Al-Zeitun, a Hamas community farm. Six Palestinians carrying explosives were killed. The materials used to fertilize the soil are astonishing! 100
The roadmap proposed by the United States was published on April 30, 2003. Its aim is to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005. Palestinian political leaders must put an end to terrorism and establish a democratic regime based on tolerance and freedom. For its part, Israel must take the necessary steps to establish a democratic Palestinian state. It must also dismantle its settlements. Nevertheless, the violence continues.
May 19: suicide bombing on a bus in East Jerusalem, killing 7 people in addition to the bomber.
May 22: Israel arrests a Lebanese trawler carrying Hezbollah weapons to Gaza.
June 11: suicide bombing of a bus in West Jerusalem, killing 17 people in addition to the bomber.
August 19: suicide bombing of a bus in West Jerusalem, killing 23 people in addition to the bomber.
September 9: suicide bombing in a Jerusalem café, killing 7 people in addition to the suicide bomber.
The safety wall
Organized attacks from the Palestinian territories cause death and injury. Several families are destroyed by explosions in their apartment buildings. After the suicide bombing at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa (where a suicide bomber from the village of Jenin killed 21 people and wounded 51), the Israeli government ordered the construction of an impenetrable security fence along the border with the Palestinian territories. Immediately dubbed a wall, even though only 3% of its 750 km length is actually a wall, the project sparked a global outcry. All the Palestinian movements, human rights NGOs and pseudo pacifists, silent during attacks on Jews, protested and demonstrated at international level.
Encouraged by the reactions of pro-Palestinian Arab parliamentarians and politicians, the youngsters no longer hold back. Tensions were extreme, with groups of young people regularly attacking the soldiers, who were obviously defending themselves. A state of emergency was declared on October 5. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are called to dialogue. The international conference is held under the auspices of the United States in Annapolis, Maryland. It’s another flop. Yasser Arafat is interviewed by a Figaro journalist on 8.10.2003. Question: “Why didn’t you accept the proposals of the peace agreement, when 95 % of your demands were accepted by the Israelis?” The Palestinian President’s reply leaves one wondering: “For peace, 5% was missing !“ No Palestinian effort to live in harmony. All contributions to peace must come from Israel.
The following day, October 10, the international press reported on the disastrous state of health of the Palestinian leader.
Israel perseveres in its stubborn determination to protect itself. The expropriations carried out to make way for the construction of the security fence have obviously left painful traces and bitterness. The families were rehoused and given another plot of identical size. But dissatisfaction continues to grow. Can we blame the authorities for effectively protecting their population? Isn’t that their political duty?
The civil war and gradual occupation of Lebanon by the Hezbollah and Palestinian Fatah armies from 1974 to 1994 left tens of thousands dead in various massacres in Damour, Zahlé and throughout the Bekaa. According to the published report, to these must be added 672,000 refugees.101 Yet no international aid is given to these Lebanese refugees, victims of UN-subsidized refugees!
2004 | At the beginning of the year, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his intention to unilaterally dismantle all Jewish villages in the Gaza Strip, in accordance with the “Road Map” plan for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More than 7,000 people will have to be relocated.
In March, the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was assassinated in a raid.
According to one analysis, there is absolutely nothing spiritual in the doctrines of Islam. It’s not misery that drives terrorists to action. Islamism reflects Muslims’ frustration with lost power and their thirst for power. Unable to assert themselves in a positive way, they don’t hesitate to kill anyone, including women and children.
Islamists seek to assert their authority by imposing the veil on their women, who are incapable of imposing it on society as a whole. Women do not wear the veil in Egypt or Kuwait. But to make themselves more important, the fundamentalists want to impose it on children in French secondary schools. It’s just a tactic to make us feel guilty: “Where is the right to freedom? “102.
For peace, Israel releases over 400 Palestinian prisoners and some 30 Lebanese prisoners, including Hezbollah leaders, in exchange for one civilian prisoner, Elhanan Tannenbaum, and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers: Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Souad.
On June 7, Swiss Walter Fust, head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), reported that the number of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza dependent on food aid from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA) had risen from 130,000 to 1,100,000, and that 60% of Palestinians were living below the poverty line. The UN Secretary General is calling on donor countries to be more generous.103 Is this one of the consequences of the radicalization of the Arab Workers’ Movement? As an autogoal, it couldn’t be better.
Ignominious fact: from 1993 to date, 880 summary executions of “collaborators with Israel” have taken place in the Palestinian territories and Gaza.104 This figure is far higher than the number of Palestinians killed by the Israelis during the same period! But nobody is outraged.
Israeli incursion into Gaza to stop rocket fire. Palestinian counter-attack on beaches: 34 bathers killed, including 13 Jews.
On November 11, 2004, Yasser Arafat died in Paris.
2005 | Mahmoud Abbas is elected President of the Palestinian Authority. In February, from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, he announces the end of hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians. It’s a day of celebration: peace at last!
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon orders the unilateral evacuation of Gaza’s pioneer villages. This marks the end of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities. The Qassam rockets stop falling on Israel. The Jewish population rejoices in the peace and security that are to become their daily lot.
On September 12, 2005, the Gaza Strip was offered by Israel to the Palestinian Authority. The citizens of Gaza elected Khaled Mechaal, leader of Hamas, as their mayor. In his first speech, the inspired Mechaal said: ” We are happy that Gaza is Judenrein “105 (a term used in 1943 to announce to Hitler that the Warsaw ghetto had fallen). The Israeli authorities were shocked. Hamas’s objective is clear: a Holy Land without Jews. Not a nation, not an ambassador, not a negotiator to set the record straight. All the officials applaud. Israel’s enormous effort for peace is turned into contempt.
The most widely read book in Turkey is Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. This does not bode well. Why this return and interest in this abject book?
2006 | Thunderclap in the financial world of the Palestinian Authority. The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNWRA) pays a billion dollars a year into the central fund. However, only $300 million has been acknowledged. 700 million dollars earmarked for schools, education, hospital construction and water purification plants have disappeared. Palestinian television shows a $20 million hole. Tensions between Fatah and Hamas rise. Various outbursts give rise to inter-Palestinian altercations.106
On February 3, Khaled Mechaal, head of Hamas’s political bureau and mayor of Gaza, declared that Hamas would never recognize Israel’s right to exist.107 Hamas thus buried the concessions made by Israel at the peace conferences, with total contempt.
On April 5, Hamas Secretary General Mahmoud Zahar, in a letter to the UN, officially recognized the Jewish people’s right to exist. On the same day, a high-ranking official in the Palestinian Ministry, who requested anonymity, denied Mr. Zahar’s words.108 Whom to believe and what to believe?
On June 10, during a security operation near Gaza, Corporal Gilad Shalit was taken prisoner by Hamas.
In Jerusalem, left-wing and “Peace Now” Jews clash with Orthodox Jews opposed to any further withdrawal from the territories. The Israeli left is communist and heavily influenced by the atheistic humanist doctrines of international socialist secularism. The Orthodox read, listen to and study the Torah, which is divine revelation. They are very attached to their history, which they teach to their children. Obedience to God is superior to submission to the laws of the State, especially if the decisions are contrary to what they feel to be the truth. The nation of Eretz Israel is divided, almost ungovernable.
At the beginning of July, a rain of Katyusha missiles fired from Lebanon fell on northern Israel. This war is known in Israel as the Second Lebanon War, and in the Arab world as the Sixth Arab-Israeli War. The Israeli-Lebanese conflict of 2006 is an armed conflict pitting Israel mainly against armed forces such as Hassan Nasrallah’s Hezbollah, and to a lesser extent against the Lebanese army. A truce was declared on August 11, 2006, at the height of the fighting, in accordance with UN Resolution 1701. During the month-long conflict, 4,000 missiles fell on Israel, a quarter of them on populated areas. Despite having lost twenty times more armed men than Tsahal, Hezbollah claims on the net and in the media that it is the great winner of this conflict!
Gift from Gaza, 1720 Qassam rockets fired into southern Israel. Amnesty International accuses Hezbollah of war crimes. In serious and deliberate violations, it arms missiles with metal balls (shrapnel) in order to kill and injure as many civilians as possible. In addition, the group has knowingly stored heavy weapons in houses inhabited by Gazan civilians and their families.109
Israel and Egypt, the victims of acts of vicious violence, inform the UN by mutual agreement that they are blocking the port of Gaza. Only controlled ships are allowed to enter the port. The two countries wanted to prevent weapons from reaching Gaza.
2007 | In Annapolis, USA, Israel and the Palestinian Authority attempt to reach a peace agreement before the end of 2008. Fatah talks peace, Hamas sends missiles to towns in southern Israel. Inter-Palestinian tensions between Fatah and Hamas lead to hundreds of deaths in the Gaza Strip. Hamas takes military control of Gaza. The mayor of Gaza is proud to be able to claim that the city is Judenrein. He forgets Israeli corporal Guilad Shalit in his Gaza jail, without permission to visit from the Red Cross, which is contrary to the international laws of war.
On Palestinian national television, Imam Ismail Radwan called on all Muslims to finally unite and kill all Jews. Shocked, several United Nations representatives appeal to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, about this incitement to genocide.110
A look at UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), the largest UN agency with 25,000 employees. Its annual budget is 1,285,600,000 euros, contributed by various countries. Switzerland donates 20,833,000 euros, the European Union 66,000,000 euros, Bahrain 60,000 euros, the Republic of Oman 30,000 euros, Egypt 12,000 euros and the United Arab Emirates 800,000 euros.111 Surprisingly, Americans and Europeans feel closer to Palestinian refugees than their Arab neighbors. And this is nothing new: Arab governments have always been very reserved towards the Palestinians.
Persecution
A black day in October for Gaza’s small Christian community. Bookseller Rami Ayyad was found dead. Responsible for the Christian bookshop, he had been tortured before his death.
Switzerland, at the instigation of Socialist Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy Rey, has just pledged a further 11 million francs in support of the Palestinian population.112 A population whose leaders never cease to mention that their objective is the annihilation of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.
At the end of the year, 1276 rockets were fired at Eretz Israel.
2008 | Echoes of attacks and massacres of Christians in Iraq reach us via the Internet. The international community fails to react. In the silence of the arid deserts of the Middle East, more than 500,000 members of the Church of the East are disappearing. Various Islamist movements behead farmers to steal their victims’ herds, land and homes. Information that led to the death of its author, 65-year-old Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Chaldea, assassinated on March 13, 2008. No one intervened. Not even the World Council of Churches was moved by the appeals of the ecclesiastical authorities. The Forum program Exile ou mort pour les fils de la croix (Exile or death for the sons of the cross), provides an opportunity to question the situation.113
Balance sheet
Was the effort to build the security wall worth it? You be the judge.
Construction of the wall/fence began in 2003.
Israeli victims of terrorist attacks.
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Injured | 1785 | 1752 | 806 | 565 | 434 | 224 | 110 |
| Dead | 85 | 220 | 142 | 55 | 22 | 15 | 3 |
Source: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Saturday, May 17, 2008. According to the Journal du Jura, Israel’ s daily newspaper for French-speaking Switzerland, the Palestinians have no right of return. Can we blame the Israelis for refusing the return of those who cry out to destroy them? Not a week goes by without Muslim clerics inciting hatred and jihad.
Lacking the objectivity and courage to react and shout out the truth, the Swiss authorities allow the intellectual Azzam Tamimi to come. An apostle of violence, a preacher of jihad and suicide bombings, he dares to come and preach his venom in Geneva, as part of pro-Palestinian organizations.114 Jean Calvin and Henri Dunant must hide their faces in shame. The Swiss League Against Racism remains silent. Being against Jews is not racism.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s most terrible diatribe against Israel: this nation is doomed to disappear , repeated several times, and the political regime and the Knesset are nothing but stinking corpses.115
Gaza’s Christian bookshop burns to the ground. Baptist pastor Naïm Khoury’s church, burnt down 14 times between 2005 and 2008, goes underground.
Operation Cast Lead
After a shower of 2048 Hamas rockets (total for the year), Israel declared war on Gaza on December 27. Objective: to destroy the 980 launching pads and 26 ammunition storage sites.
During its incursion, Tsahal made a surprising discovery at Rafah. A combat unit discovered a smuggling tunnel to Egypt. In the end, 140 arms tunnels from Egypt were discovered and destroyed.
Prior to aerial bombardments of buildings occupied by civilians, Tsahal warns them by making telephone calls. This practice, validated by Israeli justice, is called knocking on the roof.
2009 | On January 19, the military operation was over and Israel proposed a ceasefire. Hamas, on the ground, refused, only to accept it 24 hours later.
A video shows that Palestinian ambulances are also used to transport weapons and fighters. This is contrary to the international laws of the Red Cross and any affiliated organization.
Israel is accused of war crimes against the Palestinians: 1330 Palestinian deaths compared with 13 Jewish deaths. According to Tsahal, the cause lies in the Palestinians’ strategy of surrounding themselves with the population and children as human shields. Israel sends its soldiers to the front and protects civilians in shelters.
Human rights
We are celebrating sixty years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed by the majority of nations. Yet there are still 220 million persecuted Christians in the world. How is this possible?
Ministers from many nations sign up to commitments that they are unable to implement in their own countries. And we accept this. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights set goals to be achieved immediately, and others to be achieved as quickly as possible. 60 years was not enough.
Dr. Farhad Afshar, development sociologist and President of the umbrella association for the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland (COIS), was asked why so many Christians are persecuted in Muslim countries. Farhad Afshar simply said to the 150 to 200 people gathered in Berne: I don’t know what you’re talking about? There’s no persecution, only human problems. … You’re in the wrong century! How can he be unaware of Hezbollah’s ambition to drive out Christians, set fire to churches and destroy Lebanon? How can he ignore the disappearance of around a million Christians from the Middle East?
Compensation
At the end of a showdown with the ultranationalist camp hostile to any withdrawal from the West Bank, on December 4, 2008, Israeli police forcibly evacuated settlers entrenched in a house in Hebron.
Angry Israelis then went on to vandalize Palestinians, destroying olive groves, throwing stones and shooting at houses. Three people were injured. The settlers also set fire to some fifteen Palestinian cars. Three days later, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denounced the settlers, calling them a pogrom.
The decision was taken by the military administration, which received complaints from Palestinians, to compensate them. Compensation paid by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to the Palestinians will total 250,000 shekels or 95,000 euros.116
2010 | Hamas leader Khaled Mechaal declares that the Palestinian Charter is a historical document that is no longer relevant…117Anylie is good, even if it’s a mouthful to swallow. One day we say we want peace, the next day we support terrorist groups without the slightest hesitation.
Festivities and controversy are the order of the day. Keren Kayemeth Leisraël (KKL), Israel’s largest non-political, charitable environmental organization, is working to ensure sufficient water resources, the creation of green spaces for the country and the ecological use of the soil. The KKL organizes a major festival dedicated to nature. From its foundation in 1909 to this day in 2010, 200 million trees have been planted in Eretz Israel!
Controversy, since Palestinians claim that the land in Palestine has always been fertile and wooded. Jewish counter-argument: if Palestine was a fertile region as the revisionists claim, why didn’t they cultivate it? Why did they wait for the immigrants beginning their pioneering life in Israel to plant a tree or trees?
Integration of Arabs in positions of responsibility
The Knesset, or Israeli parliament, is made up of 120 deputies. Currently, 17 (15%) are Arab. The Supreme Court is made up of Jewish and Arab judges. The former speaker of the Israeli parliament, Moshe Katsav, was found guilty and sent to prison by the Arab judge George Kara. Israel is a true democracy, and its functioning is exemplary, far removed from the racist declarations of Palestinian leaders targeting the Judenrein for their nation. There are no summary executions of so-called collaborators.
Tsahal appointment: Elias Gaby Karam, an Arab of Druze descent, is promoted to the rank of major in the Israeli army. In an interview, he declares: ” There are more than 3,000 Arabs in the Israeli army and police force.118
Peace Flotilla
An extremely interesting coalition charters eight ships to force the Gaza blockade. Main backer Bülent Yldirim, of the Turkish Islamic NGO İnsani Yardım Vakfı (IHH), a Muslim aid organization whose support for Islamists in various countries is unquestionable. Joining the action are the AKP, the Turkish Islamo-conservative movement of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, green, socialist and communist politicians, totalling 700 passengers. Neither Egypt nor Israel were intimidated. The boat was boarded and the crew reacted violently, killing nine people and injuring 28, including 10 Israeli soldiers. Boarded, the boat was sent to the port of Ashkelon for inspection. The pacifists were armed with iron bars, knives and chains. Did they have a clear conscience? Can violence lead the way to peace?
On August 15 in Damascus, at a meeting between Syria, Hezbollah and the Palestinians, the latter declare that Israel has been proven to be an apartheid state. Kahled Mechaal (mayor of Gaza) and Hassan Nasrallah (head of Hezbollah) declare at a press conference that the aim is to achieve a Judenrein Palestinian state.
In resolution 185 EX/15 of November 19, 2010, after tumultuous negotiations, UNESCO named the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Al Haram Al Ibrahimi and Rachel’s Tomb, Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, and consecrated them as Muslim monuments. It declares them to be part of the Palestinian territories and demands that Israel remove them from the Israeli national heritage list.
Certainly, Abraham’s tomb is linked to both the Jewish and Muslim religions. The text is clear: Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Macpelah.119 But Ishmael was not a Muslim! What are the links between Ishmael and Muhammad? Who are the descendants, relatives and ancestors linking them? There is no genealogical line between Ishmael and Muhammad.
On the other hand, in reference to Rachel’s Tomb, in a Judean valley, we read in Matthew 2.17-18, (the Massacre of the Innocents): Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet: Cries were heard in Ramah, weeping and great lamentation: Rachel weeps for her children.120 Ramah shelters the tomb of Rachel, wife of Jacob, father of the twelve tribes of Israel, as it is written: Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrathah,121 that is, on the way to Bethlehem.
In the case of Rachel’s tomb, Unesco’s decision is beyond astonishing. It signifies a lack of knowledge or a desire to hurt the Jews.
2011 | On the evening of April 17, two 17-year-old boys enter the town of Itaamar. They went to a house, entered and killed the father, mother and three children aged 11, 4 and 3 months. I mention this massacre committed by Palestinians because their President Mahmoud Abbas has taken a firm stance in condemning this odious act, which is also unworthy of the Palestinian cause.
The soldier Gilad Shalit has been a Hamas prisoner for six years. He has not been allowed a single visit from the Red Cross, which is contrary to the rights of prisoners of war. The UN takes no offence, but Tsahal wants his release. In exchange for a corporal, Israel releases 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners. Victory for Hamas at first. In a second, the international press headlines: One Jew is worth more than 1,000 Palestinians.122
The price Israel pays for the pain of seeing its sons again is too high. Where is the justice,” says a father. My son died under torture and now his executioner can come and go, enjoy himself, even be proud of his deed, proud to have his hands stained with the blood of a Jew. Where is the justice? The freed prisoners had 926 Jewish lives on their conscience. The total sentences of these terrorists amounted to 4,500 years of deprivation of liberty.123
A new Freedom Flotilla sails for Gaza. Israel intercepts the boat, despite all the politicians and oilmen on board. Cries of indignation from around the world. The Palestinians love front-page news. To achieve their goal, anything goes: disinformation, lies and violence. But when it comes to practical politics, they make no concessions to allow peace to progress.
In Egypt, the Arab Spring is turning sour. The elections were won by the power-hungry Muslim Brotherhood. The situation is disastrous for Coptic Christians. The introduction of Sharia law as political law opens the door to persecution. Thousands of victims of exactions, summary stonings and forced marriages are to be deplored.
Den of robbers
On November 18, 2011, the World Council of Churches issued a statement from Colley-Bossy, Switzerland. It states that significant human trafficking is taking place in the Sinai Peninsula. The statement urges… the Israeli authorities to apprehend the suspects, who on their territory are cooperating with the traffickers! The desert that Israel has three times given back to the Arabs has become a den of brigands, arms dealers, human traffickers and drug traffickers. From the port of El Arish (an Egyptian town in northern Sinai), human cargoes leave the African continent to be sold in the Mediterranean and European worlds. The world knows, but no one is doing anything about it.
2012 | As part of the Tehran International Film Festival, on February 2, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad awarded the first prize for courage, resistance and combativity to revisionist Robert Faurisson. The award follows the screening of Paul-Éric Blanrue’s film about him. Faurisson receives a private audience with the Iranian president.
February. The ten thousandth rocket fired from Gaza by Palestinians or Islamist terrorists falls on Israel. This does not bode well. Some people do everything they can to raise the pressure and bring about a conflict. It can also be seen as a thank-you to Israel for releasing 1027 terrorists in exchange for Corporal Gilad Shalit.
On August 18, Fatah president Mahmoud Abbas declared in an interview with The Economist that Gaza is home to 800 millionaires and 1,600 near-millionaires. The people who control the tunnels earn a very good living.124 Once again, it’s confirmed that there is a luxury Gaza, to which billions in international aid converge. But unfortunately, the open-air prison is the daily reality for 95% of the Palestinian population.
On December 8, 2012 in Gaza, before a crowd of 100,000 people, PLO leaders living in exile in various countries call for the physical annihilation of Israel. Hamas leader and Gaza mayor Khaled Mechaal will say: Palestine … is our land and our nation, of which we cannot cede a part, an inch. We cannot recognize the legitimacy of the occupation… Liberating Palestine, all of Palestine, is a right, a duty and a goal.125 It’s a declaration of war, an invitation to genocide broadcast by all the media, and the whole world accepts it.
Forgotten is the fact that, in the name of peace, Israel surrendered the Sinai Peninsula three times. Forgotten are the peace talks, the withdrawal of Tsahal from Gaza in exchange for a guarantee of an end to terrorist acts. The amnesia of diplomats is staggering. It’s incredible what the media world tolerates from Muslim leaders, while every word from Israeli ministers is analyzed and condemned.
– The Gaza conflict raises many questions. Why are Gaza refugees paid 1.7 times more by UNRWA than a Palestinian from the West Bank? Or five times more than a Jordanian refugee? 126
– We can imagine a strategy aimed at bringing as many Palestinian fighters as possible into the Gaza enclave. With no professional future, these men will become ferocious fighters. The whole thing is, unbeknownst to us, financed by our humanitarian aid.
2013 | The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates that of the 174 Palestinians killed in Gaza during last November’s conflict, six civilians, including one woman and three children, may have been killed by rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups, rockets fired from Gaza but which would have landed inside the territory.127
The 12th World Social Forum takes place in Tunis. Socialists and alter-globalists remake the world, including the Middle East. Pro-Bachar el-Assad and pro-Al Qaeda clashed, and the police had to intervene. To end the forum in unity, it was decided to demonstrate against Israel and for Palestinian rights.128
The World Intellectual Property Organization publishes its statistical data. These are patent filings per nation/million inhabitants, for 2011. The only Muslim nation mentioned is Turkey, with 6 filings. Israel ranks 11th worldwide, with 130 filings.
On July 3, 2013, after a massive demonstration, the Egyptian army ended the presidency of Muslim Brother Mohamed Morsi in a coup d’état.
On this July 21, 2013, the European Union decides to put Hezbollah on the list of banned terrorist groups. Muslims speak of a conspiracy that the Western world will bitterly regret.
Water
If nothing is done by 2020, the Gaza Strip could be deprived of drinking water. Health is already suffering. Many sewage pipes empty into the sea.
In Gaza, the blue gold destined for consumption is now bought at between 8 and 10 Swiss francs per cubic metre, from unreliable suppliers. Fecal bacteria, salts, nitrates, fluorides and chlorides invade the taps. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), if no major measures are implemented by 2020, the damage to Gaza’s only groundwater, the coastal aquifer, will be irreversible. This source is 90% contaminated today, and will be completely contaminated in just three years’ time. At present, groundwater can still be tapped and partially treated at a reasonable cost. Tomorrow, if pollutants and salt from the sea become even more concentrated in the aquifer, the precious liquid could become unusable.129
It’s raining and snowing like never before since hydrometric measurements began in Israel. On December 14, 15 and 16, snow blocked Jerusalem. The melting snow caused major flooding. Torrents raced down the Golan slopes. Israel sends four helicopters to Gaza to rescue Palestinians threatened by rising waters. The prophet Isaiah must be happy, for his prophecy is fulfilled: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field will glorify me, … because I will have put waters in the solitude to water my people, my chosen. The people I have formed will declare my praise.130
Disinformation
The greatest dangers for Israel are misinformation, lies and injustice. The UN, an international organization, regularly condemns the policies of the State of Israel! The massacres in Syria, causing over 80,000 deaths, in Iraq, Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Mali are unfortunately frequently ignored.
Corruption is a terrible scourge that impedes the evolution of the nations affected. Relationships are painful, money diverted from its original targets. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) publishes a world map with a corruption scale. Alongside the least corrupt countries, such as Canada, Norway, Sweden, Australia, England, Denmark and Switzerland: Israel.
2014 | The snow continues to fall, covering the whole country in a white blanket. As soon as the sun returns, this snowmelt swells the rivers. Impetuous torrents tumble down the slopes of Hermon and Golan. Tel Aviv railway station is under water, and many roads are cut off. Israel is experiencing its heaviest rainfall since 1887, when rainfall records began. Behold, I will do a new thing, about to come to pass… I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field will glorify me, the jackal and the ostrich, for I will put waters in the desert, rivers in the dry land, to give water to my people, my chosen.130
The Islamist Hamas movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reach an agreement on the formation of a unity government. Hamas has always refused to recognize Israel’s legitimacy. So is Fatah backtracking?
On January 27, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi was promoted from army general to field marshal of the Egyptian army. He has the important task of securing the country. Islamists brandish threats.
March 25, 2014 marks the twentieth anniversary of Swiss support for the humanitarian program for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank. With CHF 25 million per year, our country supports economic development projects for civil society.
In April, Gaza was compared to the world’s largest open-air prison. It’s one of the poorest places on the planet,” says Ahmad Assaf, spokesman for the Palestinian Fatah party. There are those who are lining their pockets and the others, the people who are deliberately kept in poverty and ignorance.
Three Jewish teenagers are captured. After a few days, the three badly mutilated corpses were found. In Gaza, it was a time of celebration, with sweets being distributed in the streets and jubilation and joy. Tsahal continued its investigations to unmask the perpetrators of this atrocity. Nine Palestinians fleeing into the darkness were shot dead. In response, Hamas and other organizations launch attacks on Israeli towns.
Caliphate
Message of June 23, 2014: “the jihad will not end until the flag of Islam flies over Jerusalem, Rome, Washington!”131
Fighting intensifies in Syria. The Islamic State hopes to become an international caliphate stretching from Iran to Morocco. Fighters from all over the world are invited to join the EI for its universal cause. Youtube adverts for summary beheadings, the absence of justice and unconditional submission to Sharia law are perplexing. Back to the Middle Ages! 50,000 Druze, the peaceful Bedouin population of the Syrian Golan Heights, have already perished.
The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade has joined forces with other jihadist groups to form the Khaled Ibn al-Walid Army and is fighting for Daech on the Syrian Golan Heights. It has already begun to establish the laws of Daech within the territories its fighters have taken control of. The Khaled Ibn al-Walid army pledged allegiance to the EI a year and a half ago, and follows its orders.
The largest jihadist groups operating on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights are Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Shuhada al-Yarmouk. The Levant Conquest Front is allied to the al-Qaeda terrorist group. With the help of other rebel groups, they have taken control of a large part of the border. Like Daech, the Front de la conquête du Levant was originally part of al-Qaeda in Iraq before breaking away.132
Operation Protective Edge
Month of July. According to anAFP report, 1,000 missiles were fired from Gaza into Israel in the first week of July. This corresponds to 6 missiles every hour. More than 100 tons of explosives were sent towards Eretz Israel. The population needs peace, not to live in these conditions.
After more than ten days of bombardment, Tsahal unleashes an offensive aimed at destroying Gaza’s launch pads on July 17, 2014. In the morning, Hamas men attempt to leave the Gaza Strip and attack various Israeli cities via tunnels. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu orders ground intervention to destroy the terrorists’ tunnels from Gaza into Israel.
An article in the Swiss daily, l’Express de Neuchâtel of July 17, 2014 is entitled “Gaza: the UN discovers 25 rockets in one of its schools. The school also served as a shelter for children … 276 mattresses littered the floor of the various classrooms”. Undeniably, children and many civilians are being used as human shields by the fighters of Hamas, the Palestinian branch of Al Qaeda.
More than 10,000 rockets, some flying more than 65 km and crashing into the heart of Israel, caused extensive damage. The IDF loses 67 men in the search for the hundred or so Palestinian tunnels. The fighting did not cease until Hamas had completely destroyed its military infrastructure. More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed and many more wounded in Gaza. Palestinian victims of Hamas atrocities are counted among the casualties caused by Tsahal.
It’s an asymmetrical war! The question must be asked: why do the Palestinians continually provoke Israel? What are the motives behind these perpetual attacks? Is it not a desire to provoke such a major conflict that a great power intervenes against Israel? This would automatically provoke other powers to react, and thus a new world war.
According to opinion polls, 83 % of Israelis (including 95% of the Jewish population) support the military operation ordered by Benyamin Netanyahu against the Gaza Strip.133 Even Arabs living in Israel are fed up with Hamas violence and condemn Palestinian terrorist acts.
International protection
With 29 votes in favor, 17 abstentions (including France) and one vote against (the United States), the 47 member states of the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution tabled by the Palestinian authorities following the military operations carried out by Tsahal. The text condemned the widespread, systematic and flagrant violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and called for the Palestinians to be placed under immediate international protection.134
The armed wing of Hamas has executed Palestinians guilty of helping Israel during the Gaza war. The site states that these executions were carried out by the Al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, but does not specify the number of collaborators involved.135
A few days later, on Friday August 22, Hamas carried out an expeditious series of public executions of Palestinians accused of working with the Israeli enemy. Eighteen collaborators were executed, Hamas television reported. At least seven Palestinians suspected of being collaborators were shot dead and their bodies dragged through the streets of Gaza on motorcycles.136
The message of the last two paragraphs is astonishing. First, the Palestinians ask for recognition and international protection. As soon as they have obtained it, they act like vulgar barbarians, ignoring the judiciary, Human Rights, the international conventions of the Red Cross and other international legislation. Where are the ethics?
Finance
Big discussion around UN Gaza chief Robert Serry! Why should Western nations fund relief efforts in Gaza, when the fortune of Hamas leader Khaled Mechaal is being reported in the Arab press? This man is a Tycoon, a great lord of finance who can rank among the richest men in the world, on Forbes magazine’s list with his $2.6 billion fortune.137
Palestinian proclamation of November 14, 2014: the flag of the Islamic State will fly over Jerusalem!138 Excitement for Palestinians? Provocation against the Jews? If Israel can believe in its future, that of the Philistines of Gaza is bleaker: Indeed, the day is coming when all the Philistines will know devastation … for the Lord will sow devastation among the Philistines.139 What is the reason for this devastation of Gaza? What is it that so imperatively attracts divine judgment? The Lord has spoken against you, land of the Philistines: I will destroy you; you will have no inhabitants. I have heard the insults of Moab and the sarcasm of the Ammonites when they insulted my people and attacked its borders quarreled about the limits of the borders of my people.140 This text is an almost daily reality that is easy to monitor in the world’s media.
Syria
2015 | More than 275,000 Syrians have already paid with their lives, for the absurdity of the objectives of the Islamic leaders of Daech and the Muslim fighters. The genocide of Christians in Syria and Iraq continues, filmed and broadcast on websites. There are no words strong enough to express the hatred, wickedness and absurdity of the actions of these Islamist Muslims. They see themselves as vigilantes and representatives of the divine on earth, while they break every biblical commandment, as well as those of the Koran.
On this beautiful day in May, Middle East specialist Alain Rodier, Director of Research at the French Centre for Intelligence Research, declares: The Islamic State is trying to open up fronts outside its Iraqi-Syrian cradle, in order to scatter the efforts of its enemies. This is already the case in Sinai, with the risk of fighting spreading to the whole of Egypt, as well as in Libya, particularly in the Derna and Tripoli regions. The conflicts of the Islamic State and Daech are set to intensify. To weaken their enemies, they are interested in as many conflicts as possible, anywhere in the world: in Syria, Sinai, Pakistan, Yemen, North Africa, the southern Sahel, the Philippines, China, even Europe and the USA. This is their strategy, to gradually impose the Islamic Caliphate, their ultimate goal, on the whole world. The Islamic State’s ultimate goal is a global war, not a limited war for local control of Iraq and Syria. 141
Was Jesus Christ Jewish or Palestinian?
On June 11, Pope Francis visited the Middle East, stopping off in Israel and the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority’s High Commission for Church Affairs organized a special exhibition. Paintings by old masters were reworked and mixed with contemporary photos. In Van Rijn Rembrandt’s work (1635), The Sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham has been replaced by Tsahal soldiers. The painting by Bartolomé Estoban Murillo (1670), of Christ healing the paralytic in Bethesda, has been modified with a Palestinian sitting at the foot of the security wall. The central part of the Baglioni Altarpiece (1507), the Deposition of Christ, has been cut in half. The second half of Christ’s body is represented by the legs of a Palestinian victim being carried by his friends under the gaze of Israeli policemen. Instead of the New Testament, the photos depict the ordeal of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, who through their suffering complete the saving work of Christ.142 In his speech, Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas points out that Jesus Christ was neither from Judea nor Jewish, but Palestinian!143 He certainly didn’t know Christ’s words to the Samaritan woman: salvation comes from the Jews.144
What a display of ignorance! Jesus had been presented at the Temple, circumcised according to Jewish tradition, of parents from the lineage of David. He did not attack the credibility of Moses’ laws; on the contrary, he said that not one iota of the law would disappear.145 Christ did not come to abrogate but to fulfill the law.146 He was Abraham’s sacrificial lamb, the Messiah foretold by the Jewish prophets. What’s more, Jesus perfectly fulfilled his role as Savior of the world; he accomplished everything! Jesus suffered death for all … he rendered powerless the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil! … to make atonement for the sins of the people.147 Death could not hold him back, Jesus Christ rose and became the Prince of salvation. We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once and for all … So then, brethren, by means of the blood of Jesus, we have free entrance into the sanctuary.148 Any other discourse is historically and theologically totally false. The Palestinians, through their suffering, can add nothing to the saving sacrifice of Christ, a work completed 2,000 years ago. This is revisionist disinformation! The lack of reaction from international authorities is proof of the almost universal acceptance of these erroneous theses.
Many political and representative elements are at stake for the Palestinians. They talk of peace with the ulterior motive of secretly arming themselves, the better to attack. In Palestinian diplomacy, signs of a change of mentality in favor of peace are sorely lacking.
Press release issued on June 27, 2015, on December 31, 2015, the Hezbollah flag will fly over Jerusalem!149 Islamist declaration of 1.10.2015: the Palestinian flag will fly in Jerusalem before 31.12.2015!150 It’s terrifying to see identical rhetoric held in Lebanon as in Morocco. Islamists throughout the Mediterranean basin are cuddling a morbid and destructive chimera of Israel.
Pollution
Gaza’s largest seawater desalination plant will come on stream in autumn 2016 in a bid to avert the looming humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, where water supplies will soon be unusable. Eight out of thirteen sewage pipes flow directly into the Mediterranean Sea. In this narrow strip of land wedged between Egypt and Israel, the 1.9 million inhabitants, including almost a million children, struggle to find drinking water. The plant is intended to quench the thirst of 150,000 Palestinians. The richest? And the other 1.75 million people?
Distressing news from the Media Research Institute on October 16, 2015. The best-selling book in the Middle East is Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.151 People gorge themselves on hate literature of incredible baseness. Who is racist? The one who reads or the one who distributes xenophobic literature? The one who reads will act, he will be induced to carry out abject acts, such as rapes, attacks, crimes! As for moral responsibility, it lies with the person who makes available to the public literature inciting hatred and contempt. This is indoctrination, even insidious propaganda, with the aim of perverting the mind.
The elections give rise to widespread criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu. The media are revelling in it day after day. The chairman of the Arab list, Ayman Odeh, claimed to have won 30 seats. In the end, Benjamin Netanyahu won the majority of votes, while the Arab list lost 18%, with the result of 10.54%.
In November, the terrorist organization Islamic State launched a series of kamikaze attacks in France at the Stade de France, preceding the appalling massacre at the Bataclan. The toll was 130 dead and over 400 injured. A state of emergency is declared throughout France.
As of December 31, 2015, Jerusalem was still flying the blue and white flag with the Star of David. Arab struggle groups have failed to make their mark.
Secret pact
2016 | Revelation of a secret pact between Switzerland and the Palestinians. The news of this January 20, 2016 is a stab in the back for many Confederates. Former Swiss Federal Councillor Pierre Graber, in collaboration with former National Councillor Jean Ziegler, also a socialist, had concluded a secret agreement with Palestinian leaders. According to their claims: to prevent attacks on Swiss territory or hijackings!
This emotional earthquake was triggered by the publication by NZZ journalist Marcel Gyr of information kept secret to this day: the Palestinians had planted the bomb, a parcel bomb, in the Swissair plane that crashed at Würenlingen on February 21, 1970, killing 47 people.152 Otto Hostettler, a German-language journalist with the Beobachter, deplored the fact that Switzerland and its justice system had never really bothered to shed any light on this appalling act!153 Why? Because of the secret agreement? The file on the Würenlingen crash had been carefully placed at the bottom of a drawer in the Federal Supreme Court and covered with numerous files, to be forgotten for decades.
Unbeknownst to its citizens, what compensation has Switzerland given to Palestinian terrorist movements? Will we ever know? The extent of the damage is incalculable! It is by no means exclusively financial, but above all ethical. Switzerland is a democracy, and neutrality is one of its fundamental national values. In the context of the secret agreement, all these values were ignored, flouted and trampled underfoot by socialist leaders, a government party. The ethical and legal aspects also deserve to be addressed. How many times have the authorities turned a blind eye to the malicious actions of people with criminal pasts, staying illegally on our national territory? The terrorist Carlos (Ramirez Sanchez) is said to have been granted immunity to travel around Europe and reach the sites of attacks! And how many others?
There was probably never a secret agreement, informs Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter on April 8, 2016.154
Socialist National Councillor Jean Ziegler takes a different view. He considers the Palestinians’ struggle to be asymmetrical,155 which justifies everything. Even the worst terrorist acts? The right of families to know the truth about the crash is replaced by the preponderance of atheistic socialist ideology in support of a fighting movement. Justice neglected, Palestinian terrorists become resistance fighters.
While we might have expected a great deal of debate in the media, none of the obscure aspects were picked up. As the autumn fog envelops everything in its path, the cumbersome dossier disappears from the news. This is the second burial of an explosive dossier, unfavorable to the Socialists.
Socialists have been fighting for gender equality for years, but they accept that Arab women should be wrapped in a prison of fabric: the burqa. Where’s the logic in that? In gymnastics, we call this figure the grand écart.
Cannabis trafficking from the Balkans has been known for years. It is one of the ways in which Islamists finance their wars.156 Is this why Socialists are fighting for the legalization of this drug, which is so harmful to young people?
More money to help the Palestinians. Why do you ask? Cultural openness or outside pressure? Would they be in a position of weakness? Would Palestinians be able to pass on information that would be very disturbing for the party if the socialists did not commit to providing them with sufficient resources through Swiss aid organizations?
Tunnels
Egypt wants to put an end to arms smuggling from Sinai to Gaza. As a first step, they flooded the tunnels with seawater. Some tunnels collapsed, unusable. Those that withstood the floods were dried out and put back into use. Fed up, the Egyptians changed their technique, flooding the smuggling tunnels to Gaza with sewage! The tunnel is guaranteed unusable, but the water table is systematically polluted by the infiltration of unsanitary water.157
International Coalition
Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey are welcoming millions of refugees from Syria in a wave of solidarity. Civilians are fleeing the increasingly intense fighting.
The battle zone is expanding. It’s no longer just President Bashar al-Assad against Islamist groups. Russian troops are advising him and intervening on the ground. The Americans are present, as is the European Union coalition. It’s an international war in which each country comes to test its weaponry and measure itself against the other. This huge gathering of armies just to the north of Israel leaves one wondering!
Things are not much better in the south. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly intervened in the conflict in Yemen, directly opposing the armed forces supported by its enemy Iran. The only nations missing from this mess are China and India.
Jesus Christ warned us that it would be like this at the end of time: When you hear of wars and uprisings, don’t be afraid, for these things must happen first. But it will not yet be the end! Then he said to them: nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.158
UNESCO’s failure
In April, Resolution 199 EX/19 was tabled, stipulating: ” Nothing in the history of the Jewish people entitles it to claim a spiritual heritage over Jerusalem, the Mosque Esplanade and the Western Wall“.159. The UNESCO committee accepts the amendment proposed by the Palestinians and five Arab nations, which above all demonstrates the committee members’ ignorance of this immense international machine. On October 18, 2016 at the international organization’s headquarters in Paris, 58 representatives of nations approved the ambiguous text, which obscures thousands of years of Jewish history. In concrete terms, this means that Solomon’s construction of the Temple, its destruction, its rebuilding under Nehemiah, the place where Mary presented the child, where Jesus would come to preach and drive the vendors out of the Temple, are not a cultural and cultic heritage? Isn’t denying this a form of negationism? Or blindness and lack of culture?
Jews and Muslims share the ancestor Abraham, a wealthy patriarch buried in Hebron. Ishmael, grandfather of the Muslims, was lost for 2,500 years in the desert hills, only to be revived by Mohamed in the 7th century AD.
But Abraham’s descent into the Jewish people never stops. Isaac begat Jacob, father of the twelve sons who would become the twelve tribes of Israel. David, the man after God’s own heart, settled in Jerusalem 1,000 years before Christ. His son Solomon would have the privilege of building the temple where God agreed to dwell: Now I choose and sanctify this house, that my name may dwell there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there always.160 The lives of the prophets, Jesus and the disciples were spent in the land of Israel. The writings of the Bible, those of Jewish traditions, the accounts of the historian Flavius Joseph and even the Roman Protocols speak of the Jews, Canaan and Jerusalem.
While the Koran doesn’t mention the City of Peace once, Jerusalem is mentioned more than 660 times in biblical writings. To deny the millennia-old historical ties between Canaan, now Eretz Israel, and the Jews is immeasurably absurd. This unfortunate decision has incalculable repercussions. Far from bringing peace, it will divide people, stirring up misunderstanding and hatred. It will split cultures and nations. Some will take the argument of the international organization as a reference, others will refer to the Bible and history. Conflicts are orchestrated.
In an insidious way, this decision will cost the lives of countless people. Wars are always fomented by misunderstanding, which in turn gives rise to a sense of injustice. Terrorism is one consequence, and all too often armed conflict is another.
In this case, UNESCO has failed in its duty as an international body of education and science charged with promoting understanding between peoples. The whole world picks up information from this global organization. Teachers pass on its instructions to children, and the web enables every inhabitant of the earth to read them. So misinformation is universal.
UN Resolution 2334
This December 23, 2016 decision was not vetoed by U.S. President Obama. It was accepted by 14 yes votes and zero no votes!
Israeli settlement dwellers are singled out as being responsible for misunderstandings between Israelis and Palestinians. These settlers are stealing land from the Palestinians, say the international organization.
Established in the West Bank, the land-clearers are settling without authorization, illegally and to the detriment of the Palestinians. They believe they are entitled to this land west of the Jordan River, according to the international legal decision of the League of Nations in 1922. Israel has surrendered the Sinai three times, for what gain? The Government of Israel has signed six peace treaties, only to be continually bombarded by rockets and missiles! The UN, the nations and the Palestinians included, are not credible, their promises are empty. To the destructive violence and threats of the Palestinians, the pioneers reply we don’t want to die, so we’ll defend ourselves (Golda Meier). Our trust is in God, and we clear, cultivate and irrigate these lands that belong to us.
Peace Conference
2017 | The political theater at the start of this year leaves one wondering. On January 15, 2017, between two shopping sprees on the Champs Elysées, 70 state representatives took the time to attend the Paris Peace Conference.
For one or other, it was the ultimate opportunity to puff out their chests for a photo with an international flavour, before the pages of history turned for good. The proposed texts were hastily approved, without measuring the political consequences.
In the name of peace, the UN imposes a neighboring nation, Palestine, on Israel. Yet the representatives of this entity have never concealed their goal of eradicating Israel. Clearly, 70 nations are imposing on Israel a neighbor that has sworn to destroy it! This is a declaration of war, even if the Paris conference claims to be about peace.
It’s an unacceptable slap in the face to the only democracy in the Middle East. What motivated the representatives of the nations to take such a decision? To open a new front? Weapons are crackling in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya – is that enough? The UN is imposing a peace plan on Israel! There are a thousand times more victims in other conflicts, but international policy focuses exclusively on Israel’s situation.
From the outside, logic is lacking. The international community reacts instead of acting with sense and reflection. It obeys, submits, bends and positions itself like a sick man in spasm. Why does it denigrate a democratic country, a nation whose rights granted in 1922 are systematically flouted? What is happening to her?
Teaching
The school materials offered by UNRWA to the children of Gaza and the West Bank are highly distasteful. Especially the history books denouncing the illegal Jewish occupation of Palestinian territory. The Jew is the thief of lands that once belonged to the Arabs. Those in charge of education in the Jewish community are shocked that UNESCO tolerates and distributes this teaching material. With no future in sight, and no alternative solutions, children from an early age embrace the notion of fighting the enemy, of offering themselves as martyrs for Allah. Their commitment will lead to the liberation of Palestine.
Weapons training camps are regularly held in the Gaza Strip. Widely circulated videos show very young children learning to wage war, in schools often funded by the international community. Unfortunately, all fighting groups recruit children. In their extreme poverty, parents are willing as soon as they receive a small sum of money to buy food.
Education and schooling for young people is the best way to lift them out of poverty. The use of child soldiers is universally condemned. The inaction of international organizations and NGOs active in the Gaza Strip is incomprehensible.
Northern border
Syria is a politically destroyed and ruined country. Russia, the USA, Iran and Turkey are the main external players in this never-ending war. The Islamic State or Daech, the Syrian rebels, the Islamists of Fatah el Cham claim more or less important parts of the country. Syrian troops and their allies are trying to impose themselves, chasing the rebels who are fleeing towards the Jordanian border and Lebanon.
No less than three Islamist movements have gathered in the towns of Deraa and Qunaytra, close to the Israeli border. The Hashemite kingdom, which already hosts more than a million Syrian refugees, refuses the arrival of Islamist fighters on its territory. Israel is fighting terrorist infiltration from the Golan Heights and Lebanon.
Islamic State expands
March 2017, Islamic State fighters establish themselves in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, at Rafah in the Gaza Strip and at El-Arish. They carry out kamikaze attacks: 27 dead at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Cairo, 7 Christians executed in El-Arish. They hunt down Christians to intimidate them and steal their property. A young refugee teenager who arrived in Ismailia said. One evening, the terrorists knocked on the door of our house. They demanded our papers and checked that we were on their list. They killed my father, sprayed my older brother with inflammable material and burned him.161
More than 600 barbaric attacks by Daech have taken place, according to the Egyptian authorities. This violence terrifies those who refuse to submit to the EI dictatorship. More than 3,200 people will leave all their belongings to save their lives by settling on the other side of the Suez Canal. Among them are many Coptic Christians.
NGO
April, NGOs active among Palestinians hold information conferences. They want to show what they observe on the ground, what the effects of military occupation can be on a daily basis. They show the impact of the violence committed against Palestinian civilians, which we never see on television and which is sometimes briefly mentioned in the newspapers. We’re talking about the everyday lives of Palestinian adults and children, who are also suffering the effects of the occupation.
Fortunately, NGOs are on hand to treat the wounded, provide food and support the dying elderly. The injustice demonstrated is abject, the culprits never named.
I felt a sense of unease listening to the speeches and watching the short documentaries. They talk about occupied Palestine when they talk about Israel, that the Palestinians are the victims of a historic injustice, and that UNRWA money doesn’t reach them! Israel is to blame. Since 1988, the Palestinian Authority has been the political authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There is misinformation, unacceptable lies and falsification of history. When I asked him to name the culprits behind these atrocities, he said: the Jews, the Israelis, their soldiers.
If historical reality is altered, if terrorist acts are concealed and the Jews’ right to security obscured, the picture of life for the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is hardly an enviable one. It’s sad to see charities with names evocative of peace and human rights raising money in churches while discrediting the nation born of the Holocaust.
An audit has been ordered by the government, and the work, commitment and fundraising of 23 NGOs working among Palestinians will be scrupulously analyzed.
Embassies in Jerusalem
May 14, great excitement in Jerusalem as the United States of America inaugurates its embassy in Jerusalem. Built 50% on Israeli land and 50% in the eastern zone, territory claimed by the Palestinians. President Donald Trump’s way of making it clear that Jerusalem is exclusively the capital of the State of Israel.
For the Arab nations, the embassy move was a provocation. Nonetheless, the violence was much less than predicted, and short-lived. Along the Gaza Strip, some sixty people were killed as a result of crossing the fence.
Many nations are imitating the courage of the USA and moving their embassies to Jerusalem.
Drug trafficking
June, Islamist groups need money. The war is costly, weapons have to be bought. Iran is singled out. It makes very cheap raw materials available to European distribution networks. Incredible quantities of cocaine, amphetamines, captagon (the fighter’s drug) and other products arrive via the Balkans in Western Europe.162
What are the traffickers’ objectives? Satisfy the needs of customers, enrich themselves to finance war, destroy Western youth? Or all three?
Water
On July 13, a major shortage of drinking water hit Gaza. Under the terms of the agreement, Israel will sell 32 million m3 of drinking water to the Palestinians, equivalent to 50 liters of water per day per inhabitant. What other country in the world sells water to its neighbors, who never cease to remind us that their objective is the liberation of the whole of Palestine.
Islamic prophet
The Muslim prophet Bassam, in a 12-minute video translated into many languages, announces to the world the definitive destruction of Israel. The eradication of the Jewish nation will take place between March and June 2022. This important date was discovered by compiling and digitizing verses from the Koran. The video has been viewed by approximately 70% of the Palestinian population. These statements are interpreted as highly plausible and encourage Palestinians to radicalize against Israeli society.
Islamist terrorists communicate extensively in order to export their fight for a global caliphate. London is particularly hard hit by the scourge of knife attacks. More than 30 young people under the age of 25 lose their lives during the month of July. In one year, between April 2016 and March 2017, police counted 12,100 knife attacks that injured 4,400 individuals. Most of those attacked are left with lifelong physical scars, not to mention psychological trauma says police spokesman Mr Green. For the modest sum of £7 million (CHF 8.7 million), metal detectors have been installed in London schools.163
Hebron
Nestling in the heart of the Judean hills, the town is located near the oaks of Mamre, where Abraham settled 4,000 years ago. It was in the cave of Macpelah that his wife Sarah was laid to rest, before this cave became the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca and Leah. These are the ancestors of the people of Israel. King David reigned for 7 years in Hebron (2 Samuel 5.1), before ascending to Jerusalem. Mentioned over 70 times in the Torah, but never in the Koran, the city of Hebron is renamed Al Khalil. Visit World Heritage Committee World Heritage CommitteeUNESCO World Heritage Committee inscribed on July 7, 2017 World Heritage List the site of the Old City of Hebron/Al Khalil
A diplomatic victory for the Palestinians, of course, but UNESCO has definitively lost all credibility! What sense does such a decision make? In protest, many nations reduced their financial contributions to the organization. For Israel, it’s a total incomprehension; for others, the desire to offend is undeniable.
Gaza worries
In September, Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross and a highly effective humanitarian diplomat, visited the West Bank, Israel and the Gaza Strip. The situation was extremely critical and gave cause for deep concern. The lack of respect for people’s needs and security aspects are being neglected. He believes that the intra-Palestinian conflict between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas is turning into a humanitarian conflict. The PA is putting pressure on Hamas, with appalling consequences for the civilian population: lack of water and electricity, the impossibility of treating wastewater, and a reduction in agricultural land. This situation is a gas pedal of catastrophe, a dangerous political dynamic.164
Egypt fears losing control of the northern Sinai Peninsula. It engaged its army to try and restore a little security. The fighting was fierce, and the air force was needed to reconquer the checkpoints that had fallen into the hands of the Islamists. More than 100 terrorists were killed, the rest taking refuge in the Gaza Strip.
Nidal al-Jaafari from Raffat is killed in a suicide bombing. The Hamas man from the al Qassam Brigade had just married. On guard at the border with Egypt, he surprised two Salafists entering the Gaza Strip. This is an example of the war being waged by the various PLO, al-Qaeda, EI and Hamas Islamic factions in Gaza.165
November 3, Italian police have seized 24 million Tramadol lozenges distributed by the terrorist organization Islamic State (EI). The synthetic drug tablets, worth around 50 million euros, were seized in Italy as part of a trafficking operation organized by the EI group. The drugs were seized in the port of Gioia Tauro, in Calabria, southern Italy.166 Trafficking in tramadol is said to be managed directly by the EI in order to finance terrorist activities. Nicknamed the “fighter’s drug”, tramadol is a stimulant that increases the ability to withstand physical exertion.
Public statements
After allegations of well water poisoning by Jews, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, is at it again. In December 2017, before theOrganization of Islamic Cooperationhe accused the Jews of forging history and religion, of being masters of falsification and claims that the Koran would confirm that the Jews falsify the truth.167
2018 Expression and rhetoric are analyzed, as many messages pour out unacceptable ideologies. Thus any restriction concerning Islam is considered Islamophobia. Everyone says anti-Semitism is a disgrace, but anti-Zionism, which consists in demonizing the State of Israel, is acceptable. Is it a way of preparing, or even making the annihilation of Eretz Israel understandable, even desirable for some? In fact, the Palestinians are trying to broaden their conflict with Israel into a Judeo-Muslim conflict, embracing all Arab countries. It’s a way of preparing for the return of the Muslim messiah. He will only come when the last Jews and Kufars (infidels to Islam) have been destroyed.168
On May 6, a deadly explosion shook the Gaza Strip. The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades immediately informed the world that Israel had carried out an attack that killed 6 Palestinians. The Israeli army denied any activity during the night. According to witnesses, the six Hamas members were blown up while handling explosives.169
May 31, Major Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel border. 13,000 Palestinian demonstrators have been injured in the last two months. Over 3,500 by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces. Thousands of Gazans are facing new medical needs in an already overburdened healthcare system, according to Regional Director Robert Mardini. The health situation is unprecedented,” he told reporters on Thursday. An additional $5.3 million has been requested. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will organize the deployment of two surgical teams to Gaza following the Israeli crackdown on recent demonstrations.170
How were the 9,500 demonstrators who were not hit by IDF fire injured?
On June 20, from Geneva, US Ambassador Nikki Haley announced that the USA was withdrawing from the Human Rights Council. A flagship but hypocritical body that protects human rights violators more than victims. This is terrible news for some, but the problem is mainly financial. Who is going to pay the 300 million that the United States was paying? On October 8, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced a $1.9 billion cut in the 2019 budget. The huge international institution is forced to review its priorities.
Tunnels
December 5, alarm at Metulla in northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon. After the discovery of an initial tunnel, the army vigorously searches the entire border. The discovery of several underground excavations crossing the border convinced Tsahal to have foiled a Hezbollah attack in extremis. Finul General Stefano Del Col confirmed the seriousness of this discovery. The terrorists had to penetrate the enemy’s premises to engage in combat or carry out attacks. The entrance to the tunnels was in houses close to the border, and the exit 200 metres further on, in groves in Israel. Not believing the information, a dozen ambassadors and UN delegates came to Israel to verify the accuracy of the alarming Israeli messages, which feared an attack on Al Quds by Iranian forces from Lebanon.
In Beirut, Foreign Minister Gebrane Bassil asked the Lebanese ambassador to the UN to lodge a complaint against Israel, according to a press release. He accused the Hebrew state of waging a diplomatic and political campaign against Lebanon, as a prelude to aggression against the country.171
UNESCO
December 31, The decisions of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization are disappointing. Two members walk out. For the USA, the organization is not very modern and, above all, anti-Israeli. Washington does not accept UNESCO’s decision to declare the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank a Palestinian World Heritage Site.
For Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that UNESCO is a place where history is distorted rather than preserved.172
2019 The year begins badly for the Palestinians of Hamas. At the home of Al Qassam Brigade leader Muhammad Talal Al-Ajani in Khan Yunis, the ammunition depot catches fire. Grenades, missiles and ammunition exploded, destroying his house and the surrounding area. 15 victims were identified and over 40 wounded were rescued. The explosion was so intense that several witnesses spoke of earthquakes.173
40th anniversary
February, Iran is abuzz with activity, with many heads of government present for the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. After the parade of thousands of military personnel, the highlight of the show is an aerial demonstration of the Qaher 331 conqueror fighter plane. Brigadier-General Aziz Nasirzadeh declares from the rostrum the most important news of the event: with the Qaher 331, Israel will be wiped off the world map in three days.
Church on the run
Fifteen years ago, some 3,500 Christians lived in Gaza. Now there are barely a thousand: ” During this period, 70% of the Christian population has gone into exile!” exclaims Father Mario da Silva, originally from Brazil.
Since the regular opening of the border crossing with Egypt in 2018, tens of thousands of Gazans have left the enclave on a one-way trip.
At the Holy Family parish, the faithful celebrate mass several times a week, perpetuating a tradition that goes back two thousand years and is now under threat. Church employee Kamel Ayyad comments: ” Our future is uncertain, it’s a foggy situation, and I’m afraid that one day there will only be a hundred of us left here.
Like other Christians, the Al Sayegh family lives in isolation. Few speak out about religious persecution. Despite established relations with Hamas and the protection provided by the ruling Islamist movement, Christians are a prime target for Salafist groups. In the face of daily harassment, Tawfiq does not hesitate to describe a delicate coexistence and a heavy atmosphere.
In a tiny building in the narrow alleyways of the Al Shati refugee camp, a handful of teenagers and young adults attend English and theology classes. Despite the Church’s initiatives, hope of building a future here remains slim,” says Talal, 20. His round face framed by long blond curls comes to life. My only dream is to leave. I want to be able to walk down the street without asking questions, with my hair out in the open, and no longer live in a place where everything is forbidden,” exclaims the young girl. In this conservative Muslim society, under the thumb of an authoritarian regime, freedom is limited and the horizon is blocked.174
Numerous places of worship in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are being destroyed or converted into Salafist and Muslim prayer halls. Hamas claims to protect places of worship, but cannot prevent malicious acts. Christians are in an inextricable situation.
UNRWA
November, Director Pierre Kräenbühl retires from UNRWA. Committed and active, he wants the best for the Palestinians. Unfortunately, he ignores remarks about budget management and the disappearance of hundreds of millions without receipts. Clearly he was too trusting, and got ripped off. Why didn’t he realize that UNRWA schools were also weapons caches?
Merry Christmas
December 25, Church attacks, kidnappings, forced conversions: Christians are being persecuted by the Palestinians, but the media are not interested. Christianity is on the verge of disappearing in the place of its birth, including Bethlehem. According to lawyer Justus Reid Weiner, the systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is met with almost total silence from the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs. In a society where they have no rights, no voice, no protection, there is only exile.
When Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, they began to persecute us, ruining our churches and forcing Christians to convert to Islam. These are the memories of Kamal Tarazi, a 60-year-old Christian from Gaza who now lives in Israel. Before fleeing, he tried to resist the Islamist takeover, notably by calling on Muslims and Christians to unite against Hamas. As a result, I was imprisoned several times. Do you know what a Hamas prison is like? It’s pure torture.
In the West Bank, Christian Arabs are under threat and pressure, while in Gaza, their situation is so dangerous that they live out their faith in total secrecy. The influence of radical Islamic ideology is marked by violent fanaticism. Residents are obliged to pay the jizya, the tax of the submissive. Christians who denounce the injustices they suffer are eliminated or imprisoned.175
Neither the Palestinian Authority, nor the PLO, nor Fatah, nor Hamas, will tolerate messages referring to them as oppressors or unjust. For their part, they readily flaunt their status as victims of the Israelis. And so many media broadcast it.
2020 Covid is sweeping the world. The earth is confined, and people are forced to stay indoors, avoiding human contact as much as possible. Everyone protects themselves, and travel is subject to numerous conditions. The countries of the Middle East are counting their victims of the pandemic, as is Israel. No nation has been spared. Researchers are trying to find the most effective remedies and vaccines. Hospitals are overcrowded, and nursing staff are doing their best. The media inform and disseminate the news, sometimes reassuring but generally alarmist and discouraging.
While humans bury their dead in the privacy of their families, everyone waits for the good news that the epidemic is over and freedom of movement is restored. The earth holds its breath.
Attack in Würenlingen
50 years ago, on February 21, 1970, the Swissair SR 330 crashed. The explosion of a bomb planted by Palestinians in the cargo hold killed 47 passengers and crew. For the commemoration, over 300 relatives of the victims gathered to learn that the Swiss Confederation had closed the case. A classified act of war on neutral territory, forgotten in the drawers of the Federal Court or Prosecutor’s Office, raises indignation. Switzerland is incapable of officially declaring that the Palestinians were the instigators of this terrorist attack. The Left under Federal Councillor Pierre Graber, National Councillor Jean Ziegler and their cronies have succeeded in imposing a deafening silence of injustice!
Beirut
At around 6.00 pm on August 4, the city of Beirut was partially destroyed by a huge explosion. Silos containing hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in warehouse number 12 in the port area exploded. 235 people lost their lives, and 6,500 injured were treated in what remained of the city. Anti-terrorist services the world over tracked down this granular powder used as a fertilizer in agriculture, but also as a powerful explosive, to make homemade bombs.
According to the experts, storing this product is not a problem. But the question remains: what were these 2750 tonnes of high-risk product doing in this port, in the middle of the city? Following the accusations, a commission of inquiry was appointed.
Founded in 1920, the small Lebanese state had everything it needed to succeed: water, fertile valleys, a favorable climate for growing crops. Its predominantly Christian population lived in harmony with the Arabs. Lebanon was called the Switzerland of the Near East, and Beirut the Paris of the East. The country enjoyed fundamental freedoms, attracted many tourists and prospered.176
Expelled from Jordan in 1971, 300,000 Palestinians found refuge in the Land of the Cedars. Armed, they continued to fight against Israel, but above all against the ruling Maronites. Between 1975 and 1982, the radiant Bekaa Valley became the mass grave of 250,000 Christians killed by UN-sponsored refugees. The Islamization of Lebanon led to violent fighting and an endless civil war.
The Lebanese economy falls from 6% to 0.6%. The country is divided between Palestinians, Sunnis, Shiites and Christians. Attacks punctuate the lives of the inhabitants. Murderous attacks decimate the political class: in 1982, Béchir Gamayel was killed in a church; in 2005, Prime Minister Rafic Hariri; in 2006, MP Pierre Gamayel; in 2007, the presidential candidate, army chief Michel Sleimane; in 2013, Mohammad Chatah and 6 advisors, etc. The Iranian Hezbollah is establishing itself as an independent army. Its general Hassan Nasrallah sits in the government. Sharia-compliant laws are imposed.
Lebanon is sad proof that cohabitation between multiple cultures is an illusion. The use of terrorism for political and ideological ends is destroying the nation. The refugees we have taken in have set the country on fire. As a result, 875,000 Lebanese have gone into exile. Guns have taken the place of ploughs. Misery has replaced prosperity; 85% of food is imported, and the population has been crying famine for months.
The violence has gradually driven many Christians and their moral values out of the country. The explosion on August 4 demonstrated the incapacity of a government that had failed177 to take urgent political action. Embezzlement, injustice and corruption have replaced the rule of law. Is the Islamization of Lebanon a blessing for its people?
Abraham Agreements
September 15, in the night, the slightest light is a hope. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law has drafted peace agreements. The first treaty was signed between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. The second between Bahrain and Israel. The United States is witness to these agreements, which demonstrate a strategic evolution in the Persian Gulf region. Diplomatic normalization is announced, as well as broad cooperation in a number of areas, including tourism, education, health, trade and security.
The desire for a just peace for all inhabitants lies at the heart of the agreements.
The Declaration of the Abrahamic Accords notes the need for interreligious and intercultural dialogue between the religions descended from the patriarch Abraham. Freedom of religion is proclaimed.
Direct air links are inaugurated.
Other countries soon followed suit: Morocco, Oman and Sudan. For Israel, it was a celebration and a success. By contrast, the Palestinians denounced the betrayal of the Arab nations.
On December 17, the TV program Temps Présent aroused emotions and much misunderstanding when it quoted Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis as saying: ” Is UNRWA part of the solution or part of the problem? Yet 5.7 million Palestinians are dependent on international aid. Rahaf, a young Palestinian who studied at UNRWA schools, testifies: ” We know that we refugees are the victims of a historic injustice. These young people are indoctrinated from early childhood to correct history, to do justice. The seeds of violence are sown in schools financed by Europe. They expect the right to return to the lands of their ancestors, … the terrorists are our heroes? What teaching materials does UNRWA use? Where is the right of return for the Jews of Europe? Where is the right of return of the 650,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries in 1950? Or the Boat People? Or the 150,000 Lebanese Maronites driven out by UN-funded Palestinian refugees?
Federal Councillor Ignacio Cassis, so unfairly disparaged, is the first to have had the courage to question processes that have been inert for over 70 years. Financing refugees from father to son, creating eternal dependents? Humanitarian aid is vital to overcome a situation for a few years, after which other victims of conflict must be able to benefit.
2021 Eliminated
Publisher, politician and social activist, Slim Lokman is a leading Lebanese figure. Justice and righteousness are close to his heart. A Shiite Muslim, he investigates the attacks and crimes of his co-religionists in Hezbollah and the PLO. Since 1976, how many people have disappeared, been summarily executed and died as a result of violent acts? He seeks to understand, to demand justice and to explain to loved ones, so that the victims’ families can mourn.
His work on the Lebanese civil war, and the many injustices he discovers and documents, make him an important opponent of the Shiite Hezbollah movement. He believes in and fights for Muslim justice, even if numerous death threats cast a shadow over his daily life. He organizes Missing, a photo exhibition of people who have disappeared, been kidnapped or imprisoned.
On February 4, Lokman Slim was found murdered in his car. A few days earlier, he had demonstrated that Syria and Hezbollah were solely responsible for the explosion in the port of Beirut.
Elections
For the past 14 years, Israeli politics have followed a more or less tranquil course. Numerous elections have failed to produce a candidate with a clear majority. The candidates’ numerous campaigns exacerbate confrontations and foster divisions. The clerics try to gain importance by offering their political weight in exchange for ministerial seats. The Left increased its influence by reaching out to Arab parties. They thus achieve a political weight of around 45%, insufficient to hope to reign.
Coalition governments have little persuasive power. Citizens are still trying to understand what’s behind the official discourse.
Faced with politicians on a razor’s edge, the tenors of alternative groups have it easy. Demonstrations multiply, and the police unfortunately have to intervene. These unhealthy atmospheres divide the population even further, between those who want to get things moving and the more peaceful others, inclined to verbal solutions, who believe in dialogue.
UNRWA teachers
August 2,More than 100 teachers and staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) publicly called for violence and anti-Semitism on social networks.
The report reveals 22 recent cases of propaganda by UNRWA staff that clearly violate the Agency’s own rules and declared values of zero tolerance of racism, discrimination or anti-Semitism.
As the report shows, UNRWA staff stationed in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan have publicly called for anti-Semitism and terrorism. Among the educators who have used their social networks to spread propaganda are, for example, mathematics teacher Nahed Sharawi from UNRWA Gaza, who shared a video of Adolf Hitler with the words to enrich and enlighten your thoughts and minds. Or Husni Masri, an UNRWA West Bank professor, posted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that Jews control the world. They created the coronavirus and want to destroy Islam.178
The UN Watch report lists a total of 113 cases in the public pages of UNRWA staff, in which violence is glorified and claimed, even against young children.
Following publication of the report, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, told the media: UNRWA proves once again that it is not a humanitarian organization, but one that, under the guise of UN hypocrisy, encourages brutality .It is inconceivable that an organization backed by the United Nations should finance support for terrorism and anti-Semitism.
The director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, said: All over the world, educators who incite hatred and violence are being removed from the classroom. We call on the governments that fund UNRWA to take action to stop the vicious circle in which younger generations are being educated in hatred and violent attacks against Jews.
At Lebanon’s bedside
August 4 Sad anniversary of the Beirut explosion. Are the media providing accurate information? Are those responsible for the tragedy in the country that used to be called the Switzerland of the Middle East being denounced, and the reasons why the Lebanese population is sinking into poverty? A sclerotic government? Incompetent oligarchy? Unsustainable financial policy?
None of the media mentioned Hezbollah, the well-known owner of the explosive used in its missiles. This party is a dictatorship that imposes itself on Lebanon. It takes no responsibility, but murders all those who oppose its ideals. Lebanon has been conquered by Islam, and this is the concrete result.
Why are we afraid to talk about it clearly in the Swiss and international media? Is it forbidden to talk badly about Islam? Are the Muslim Brotherhood watching? If journalists no longer denounce dictators, what are the media for?
With 55% of the population below the poverty line, i.e. with a monthly income of between $50 and $150, Lebanon is 5% behind Gaza, with 60% poor. What both countries have in common is that they border Israel. The embargo on the Gaza Strip is often cited as the main reason for the poverty of the Gazan enclave. Lebanon, however, does not suffer from any embargo, but is nonetheless extremely poor. We have proof that it is not the Israeli state that is responsible for the poverty of the Palestinians in Gaza. A state run by Islamists is ruined and destroyed in just a few years.
Hezbollah and Hamas are fighting the same battle, and have the same objectives: to see their flags flying over Jerusalem! This conquest justifies all sacrifices, even that of lining their own pockets.
NGOs banned
October, six NGOs active in the defense of Palestinian rights will no longer receive financial support from the Swiss Confederation and will be banned from operating in Israel. According to the federal authorities, the anti-Semitic messages, incitement to hatred and racist actions of these charitable organizations do not meet the criteria required of international humanitarian organizations.
2022
June, publication by the UN of the N. Pillay report, concerning Israel, which is accused of being responsible for all the violence in the Middle East! When one speaks in the name of Human Rights, one must be realistic in one’s declarations. Madame N. Pillay seems to have forgotten this!
- The declarations of Palestinian prophet Bassam Jarrar, who since 2014 has been proclaiming the end of Israel’s existence in June 2022, isn’t this violence? Is announcing genocide, fanaticizing people to carry out the fight, innocent? No, it’s Israel that’s responsible for stirring up hatred and fostering conflict!
- On May 28, 2022, Iran unveiled caves housing hundreds of attack drones designed to eradicate Israel. Is this not a military provocation that stirs up hatred and violence? Or should it be seen as a peace proposal?
- The government of the Hebrew state is made up of Jews, Druze, Arabs and a few Palestinians! As for Gaza City, it proclaims itself Judenrein or Jewish-free! It could not be clearer that apartheid does not apply to Israel.
The fact that the UN publishes human rights reports so marked by racism and such ignorance of the reality on the ground totally discredits this international body.
Exported hate
October, in Brussels, over 700 people take part in a demonstration in support of Hamas. Many of the participants are dressed in combat fatigues, others in terrorist militant outfits, their faces camouflaged. They chant words calling for the annihilation of Israel. The speaker praises Mohammed Deïf, head of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigade, the military wing of Hamas.179
The parade provoked a wave of indignation. Are we in Gaza? Are we in Beirut? Are we in Cairo? No, we’re in Brussels ,” reacted MP Théo Francken. A demonstration of Hamas hatred overflowing with anti-Semitism, animosity towards Jews, glorification of terrorism and calls for violence in the streets of our capital,” said the former Secretary of State.
Elections and tensions
In November, against a backdrop of crises and dissatisfaction, the role of deputy is a painful one. After two resignations, Yair Lapid’s coalition no longer has a quorum to run the country. New elections allow Benjamin Netanyahu to become Prime Minister once again.
A reform of the laws of 1949 concerning the influence of judges obsessed the population. Numerous demonstrations, both for and against the reform, have brought together hundreds of thousands of people. One of them, bringing together the Left, Arabs and LGBTs united against the reform, raised many questions.
To maintain his coalition’s majority, the Prime Minister has to juggle. Depending on the decisions taken, group leaders put pressure on, or threaten to withdraw. Instead of discerning the needs of the people, religious minorities try to secure financial benefits for their specific constituencies and special rights.
– Exemption from military service for yeshiva students is an explosive issue that divides the people and stimulates religious scorn. This position is astonishing, given that Jewish sages should know the story of Elisha. He had the double portion of Elijah’s Spirit. And yet, he set out with his army, and marched seven days without claiming anything.180 The unjustified claims of the devout block all politics, the country is paralyzed. Decisions are made with delay, the minority demonstrate their dissatisfaction.
– Governing in such a situation is too delicate. Israël, une démocratie devenue illusoire,” ran the December headline in the French daily Le Monde. Israel’s enemies are noticing the breach and seeking to take advantage of it.
Death sentence
On July 2023, seven traitors to the Palestinian cause were executed without trial and without the approval of the President of the Palestinian Authority. The Islamist Hamas movement governs Gaza without coordination with the PA. On the same day, the Islamist movement also handed down 7 life sentences, meaning 25 years of hard labor.181
Despite numerous UN condemnations, Hamas acts in flagrant violation of Palestinian laws and international law. Those condemned to death are immediately executed. None of the many NGOs defending the rights of Palestinian prisoners has reacted. The absence of lawyers has not been noted, even though international law requires a lawyer for each condemned prisoner. Imagine the universal condemnation if Israel had acted in this way.
Three years on
August 4, the third anniversary of the explosion in the port of Beirut. Hundreds of people from the victims’ families’ collective, who have been fighting tirelessly for three years to demand justice, accuse the political class of obstructing the investigation into this tragedy.
The first judge in charge of the investigation had to throw in the towel after indicting former Prime Minister Hassan Diab (a member of the PFLP), sentenced to life imprisonment for his attack in Paris in 1980.
His successor, Trek Bitar, turned his attention to politicians, but Parliament refused to lift the immunity of the MPs charged. The Ministry of the Interior opposed the interrogation of high-ranking officials. The security forces refused to execute the arrest warrants. The Prosecutor also ordered the immediate release of 17 prisoners detained since the explosion.182
Mysterious explosion In September, a mysterious explosion near an IRGC missile base shook the city of Khorramabad. The hypothesis of an earthquake was quickly ruled out. The Iman Ali underground base housed mainly missiles and drones. Handling accident or sabotage? A remote-controlled drone attack cannot be ruled out.