F L A M E : Responding to Worldwide Islamic Terror

Responding to Worldwide Islamic Terror
Spring, 2002

Dear Friend of Israel, dear Friend of FLAME:

There can be no question that you are as concerned as all of us are about the events in Israel.

After having received the most generous offers from Israel's previous prime minister, Ehud Barak, offers that would have enabled the Palestinians to have their own country, the Palestinians, led by Yasser Arafat, erupted in bloody warfare against Israel. Instead of leading his people to live in freedom, democracy and prosperity alongside a free, democratic and prosperous Israel, Arafat and the murderous gangs that he controls created conditions that — in the over eighteen months this intifada has gone until now, has had thousands killed and many more thousands wounded — many of them maimed and handicapped for life.

The Palestinians deserve a better leader, but they are saddled (or have saddled themselves) with Yasser Arafat, a thug and a murderer — a man who is personally responsible for thousands of killings (including, among countless others, those of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics). Mr. Sharon, never one to mince words, said that the world would be better off if Israeli troops would have killed Arafat when they had the opportunity during the Lebanon war. I think he is right. (I was somewhat amused by the State Department's "mild rebuke" against Mr. Sharon's statement. What could be wrong with it if it is all right to declare publicly that we want bin Laden — dead or alive? Oh, well!)

The fact that Arafat could have earned the Nobel Peace Prize is an outrage and a cosmic joke. And as Prime Minister Sharon said, Arafat is, indeed, irrelevant — and he becomes more so day by day. Arafat has presided over eight years of mismanagement and corruption, has squandered the billions of dollars that have been lavished on him by the United States and by the European community, and has "educated" the children under the Palestinian Authority to hate Jews and Israel and to become martyrs in the cause of the destruction of Israel.

If anybody still had any doubts about Arafat's intentions, the capture by Israeli commandos of the KARINE A, a ship loaded with over fifty tons of advanced weaponry destined to wreak terror, death and havoc in Israel should dissipate any such doubt. The Palestinians are preparing for war — a war to be fought with weapons that would put all of Israel, including all of Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport and Israel's military and industrial institutions in imminent danger of destruction. Once that happens — and it already might have happened had Israeli commandos not intercepted and captured the KARINE A — Israel will find itself in a full-fledged war in which, very soon thereafter, Israel's neighbors — especially Egypt and Syria, with Iraq and Iran not very far behind, will also be involved. That is what Arafat wants. He does not want a Palestinian homeland. He wants war, a war in which he hopes Israel will finally be wiped off the map.

Thankfully, at long last, our government, after years of equivocating about it, seems to have come to the realization that Israel is in the right in vigorously defending itself against the daily bombings and suicide attacks of the Palestinians.

We do not wish to overstate our role and our influence, but there is little doubt in the minds of those who monitor these things that FLAME's monthly hasbarah (educating and clarifying) messages over the last fifteen years have been an important factor in persuading the American public about Israel's plight, about the mendacity (and worse) of the Arabs, and about what has to happen in order to bring peace to the Middle East.

The American public has come to realize — and, yes, we have to take some credit for that — that peace will not come by giving pieces of the Jewish homeland away; it will come about only if and when there is finally a different mind-set on the part of all Arabs, including all Moslems. They must accept that Israel is here to stay, that it is not a "temporary aberration," that it will survive, no matter what it takes, and that, ultimately, it will be a good and respected neighbor of the Arabs in the Middle East. None of that is going to happen very soon, and certainly not with Yasser Arafat still around.

FLAME's purpose, as stated in every one of our messages, is:

"The research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world."

We fulfill this purpose by bringing, in an ongoing and systematic manner, the truth about Israel and about the Middle East to the attention of the American people. We do that by publishing monthly our hasbarah messages in major national magazines (such as U.S. News and World Report, The New Republic, The American Spectator, The National Review, The Washington Times National Weekly, The Weekly Standard, World Magazine, and others), in select metropolitan newspapers (including The New York Times), in over fifty small-town newspapers all across the United States and Canada, and in several Jewish publications here in the United States and in Israel.

You will be pleased to know that, unique among American Jewish organizations, we have never paid any executive salaries since our inception — all such work, including all creative work, is done on a pro bono basis — and we operate with minimum overhead expenses. In fact, I believe that we are the only major Jewish organization that makes its financial statements freely available to its contributors and potential contributors. By far the greatest part of our revenues goes directly to the good cause. You may be sure that your contribution, too, will be put to the purpose for which you intended it.

We include three of our most recent hasbarah messages:

#3B Those "Palestinian Refugees"

#70 War in the Middle East

#71 The Unrelenting and Virulent Hatred of the Arabs

These messages have appeared or will be appearing this month in most of the major media mentioned above and in others.

Israel's public relations are virtually non-existent. We are the only voice that informs the American people as to what is really going on in that part of the world and what has to happen to bring peace about. Nobody else does it!

You have been a contributor to FLAME in the past. I invite you and urge you to be a contributor today, at a time when, once again, Israel is in crisis and stands at a crossroad that may well determine whether Israel is going to prosper and continue to be a beacon of democracy and progress for the world or whether its enemies will attempt the "final solution" (once again) and try to destroy the Jewish state once and for all.

FLAME, as you of course know, is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. All contributions to FLAME are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

I hope that I may once again count on your support and I thank you in advance for your solidarity and for your generosity.

Shalom and sincerely yours,

Gerardo Joffe, President

PS. 1: Look at the transmittal card for a "thank-you" bonus for donations of $25 (a nifty and useful FLAME pocket knife) or of $100 or more (the pocket knife and a two-hour videotape on Three Important Aspects of Israel's Strategic Situation, with "bonus" footage of Arafat addressing his followers, and Farrakhan's fulminations).

PS. 2: Please consider making a monthly pledge for a 12-month period and mark the appropriate box on the transmittal card. We have to make media commitments months in advance; therefore, some steadiness of income would be most helpful. Thank you!

PS. 3: I have a question for you. Please read it and answer if you would. I am very interested in what you have to say. Be assured that you and your opinion will not be personally quoted in any publication. The question is: If Mr. Sharon were to ask me for advice, I would tell him this . . . Click here to e-mail your reply to me.

Return to top of page>>