..."Both east and west Jerusalem are waqf [and] from a religious standpoint, not only Jerusalem but rather all of Palestine is Islamic waqf," the Palestinian Authority's Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheik Ikrima Sabri, told interviewer Aaron Lerner of IMRA on June 10. Asked to clarify the political implications of declaring a particular territory to be waqf, Sabri replied: "From a religious standpoint, it is not accepted that waqf be owned by non-Moslems." Lerner asked: "Do you also stand by the position that the Jews have no connection to the Western Wall--the 'Al Baraq Wall'?" The Mufti responded: "Yes. That's right. This position is not up to me. It is the Islamic position that it is the Al Baraq Wall. It is Moslem property and waqf "...
...On the occasion of Israel's 50th anniversary, leftwing Israeli novelist Amos Oz was asked to outline, on the op-ed page of the Washington Post, his vision of Israel's future. "There can be no such thing as a Jewish state," Oz wrote. "It can be the state of the Jewish people and all its citizens, which means that Israeli Arabs will have the option to be full-scale citizens with all rights and duties, including joining the Israeli Army." Evidently Oz has not yet discussed his army-duty proposal with any Israeli Arabs...
..."Moderate" James Zogby of the Arab-American Institute, who has been embraced by Jewish establishment figures such as Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, recently called on Arab leaders to "take concrete steps to economically and politically isolate the state of Israel." Writing in the Jordan Times, Zogby also declared: "If the European Union can propose to boycott Israeli goods produced in occupied territory, the Arabs must find the political will to incrementally reestablish economic sanctions of their own..."
...Karen Armstrong, a faculty member at England's Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the Training of Rabbis and Teachers, authored an article in the latest issue of the pro-PLO Journal of Palestine Studies, in which she accused the Israeli authorities in Jerusalem of "expropriating land, torturing, destroying property, threatening other people's holy places, ejecting people from their ancestral homes, and depriving them of essential human rights"...
...The latest issue of NIF Report, the New
Israel Fund's newsletter, reports that the Fund recently
gave $80,000 to Meimad, a leftwing Israeli political party.
The grant to Meimad was the 11th-largest grant out of the
72 grants that the Fund recently announced. The NIF
made the grant to Meimad despite the NIF's own declared
policy that "We have no affiliations and make no grants to
political parties or to organizations which are controlled
by political parties." Meimad competed in the 1988 Israeli
Knesset elections, but failed to win enough votes for
even one seat in the Knesset. It did not take part in the
1992 or 1996 elections, but it did publicly campaign for
Shimon Peres for prime minister in 1996. In February
1998, Meimad announced that it will compete in the
next Knesset elections. Will the NIF now revoke its grant
to Meimad?...
...Ray Hanania, former president of the Palestinian American Congress, claims that the PLO Covenant is no worse than "Israel's Declaration of Independence, which not only calls for the destruction of Palestine, but gloats about it." In fact, Israel's Declaration does not contain any references to destroying anything...
The Jewish Wars
by Edward Alexander - $19.95 (non-members: $24.95)
A Matter of Priorities: Labor Zionism and the
Plight of Soviet Jewry, 1917-1996
by Geoffrey Martin & Natan Herzl - $4.95
Israel: Righteous Claims in a Hostile World
$12.50 plus $1.70 postage
Shimon Says: Shimon Peres in His Own Words
$3.95 (non-members: $4.95)
With Friends Like These...: The Jewish Critics of Israel
by Edward Alexander (ed.) - $10.95
Should America "Guarantee" Israel's Safety?
by Dr. Irving Moskowitz - $3.95 (non-members: $4.95)
Order from:
Americans For a Safe Israel
1623 Third Ave., # 205 - New York, NY 10128
(Continued from p.8)
A rare editorial asserting Israel's right to be proud, not apologetic, on her 50th birthday, appeared in the Detroit News: "It is a trait of the Jewish people, shaped by centuries of experience, to view success with some degree of apprehension and anxiety. But at 50, Israel has earned the right to regard itself with satisfaction and to enjoy a heartfelt mazel tov." Only when her people rediscover their national pride, essential to preserving and defending the sovereignty of Israel, will the state's strategic and moral decline be reversed.
Marc Baker is an attorney in Detroit.
July-August 1998 - 9 - Outpost