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An e-newsletter delivering updates and analysis on current issues about Israel and the Middle East conflict

March 22, 2011

Latest news: The U.S. gives money to the Palestinians. They tell us to shut up. They praise terrorists. They murder a family of five Israelis in Itamar.

Dear Friend of FLAME:

A few weeks ago, Israeli mother Ruth Fogel was in the bathroom when Palestinian terrorists snuck into her home in the West Bank town of Itamar and slit the throats of her sleeping husband, Udi, and their three-month-old daughter Hadas. As Ruth emerged from the bathroom, the terrorists then stabbed her to death and proceeded to another bedroom and killed Ruth and Udi's two sons, Yoav (11) and Elad (4), stabbing them in their hearts and slitting their throats.

The Al-Aksa Brigade, military arm of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, took credit for the five murders. In Gaza, Palestinians took to the streets in celebration of these barbaric acts, and Hamas handed out candy to the revelers.

Such brutality obviously doesn't arise in a vacuum. It's the result of a culture of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate that is perpetuated by both Palestinian leaderships---the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.

As this week's FLAME Hotline makes disturbingly clear, the Palestinian culture of hate runs deep and is based on the fundamental belief that Arabs must kill Jews and conquer Israel. Authors Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberkik, director and senior analyst respectively at Palestinian Media Watch, condemn the international community, including the U.S. administration, for refusing to insist that the Palestinian Authority cease such incitement, which is exactly what is called for in the Quartet's famous Road Map to Israeli-Palestinian peace.

However, it's unlikely Mahmoud Abbas would heed such entreaties even if they were offered. After the U.S. vetoed Abbas' U.N. Security Council Resolution seeking to call Israel's Jerusalem and West Bank settlements illegal, the Palestinian president angrily railed at the U.S., saying that no amount of U.S. foreign aid would influence the Palestinians' behavior. That's a bold statement, considering the U.S. provides upwards of $500 million a year in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority and another $230 million to the infamous U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) for Palestinian refugees.

None of this disrespect is new, however, since Abbas has consistently resisted President Obama's requests to take part in direct peace talks over the past two years and refused more recently to propose a modestly softer anti-settlement U.N. resolution, which the U.S. would have supported.

It's high time we held the Palestinians to account---for their murderous behavior, for their culture of hate and incitement, and for their refusal to take the peace process seriously. In my first P.S. below, I tell you how to sign a petitition directed to the U.S. Congress urging that all funding of the Palestinian Authority cease immediately until the PA's campaign of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish hate indoctrination is stopped. In my second P.S. below, I tell you how you can support FLAME with a financial contribution.

As you know, Israel is under deadly attack from all sides. It's crucial that people like you and I---true believers---fight back with all our power. To this end, I urge you either to: A) sign the petition, B) make a donation to FLAME, or C) forward this week's FLAME Hotline on to friends who deserve to hear the truth---or even better, do all three today.

Thanks for your support of Israel and your support of FLAME.

Best Regards,

Jim Sinkinson
Vice President, FLAME

P.S.

If you'd like to help force the Palestinian Authority to stop its anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hate incitement and cease U.S. funding of the PA until they do, please sign this petition now.


P.P.S.

One of the greatest imposters in the Arab world is the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist group headquartered in Egypt that has convinced many Western media that it is weak, harmless and democratic. In a February 9 op-ed in The New York Times, one of the Brotherhood's spokespeople claims that "we have persistently demanded liberation and democracy" and that the group's principles "affirm an unequivocal position against violence." To disprove such treacherous lies by this blatantly anti-Western, anti-Semitic group, FLAME has produced a new position paper that's about to be published in media that reach more than 5 million Americans. Please read this outspoken piece, "The Truth About the Muslim Brotherhood: Is it a moderate Egyptian party committed to democracy . . . or a jihadist group seeking to create an Islamist empire?" If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel's behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. Remember: FLAME's powerful ability to influence public opinion comes from individuals like you, one by one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're able---with $500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax deductible.) To donate online, just go to http://www.factsandlogic.org/make_a_donation.html. Now more than ever we need your support to ensure that Israel gets the support it needs---from the U.S. Congress, from President Obama, and from the American people.

The Palestinian Authority and Its Leaders Consciously Create an Atmosphere of Anti-Semitic Violence
Let's stop pretending: Incitement is not just another issue to be negotiated over, like borders, water and refugees: Ubiquitous messages of hate make serious peace talks impossible.
By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Jerusalem Post, March 13, 2011I

The Palestinian Authority and its leaders share the blame for the murders of those five Israelis from Itamar on Friday—including two children and an infant—along with the terrorists who committed them. It is the PA and its leaders who have prepared the ground for these murders with the incessant incitement to hatred and the glorification of violence and terror.

In spite of its conciliatory statements in English, the PA continues to use all the structures it controls to demonize Israelis and to promote violence. Terrorists are presented as heroes and role models for Palestinians, teaching that killing Israelis is a way to earn eternal fame.

Just two months ago, PA President Mahmoud Abbas sent a clear message of support for terror when he awarded $2000 to the family of a terrorist who attacked IDF soldiers. Last week, the PA's official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida announced a football tournament named after Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber, and three weeks ago PA TV, which is under the direct control of Abbas's office, broadcast videos glorifying the terrorist Habash Hanani, who in May 2002 entered Itamar and murdered three Israeli students. Twice the PA named summer camps after the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who in 1978 led the most deadly attack in Israel's history in which 37 civilians were killed in a bus hijacking, both in 2008 and again this past summer.

But the long arm of the PA's promotion of violence and terror goes even farther, penetrating the realm of culture and music, which has been used so often in recent years in other places in the world to promote peace and tolerance. Last year, PA TV broadcast a number of performances of a band called Alashekeen, including a song anticipating the conquering of Israel through holy war. The song presents all of Israel as "Palestine," mentioning the Carmel region near Haifa, and the cities of Lod, Ramle, and Jerusalem as regions to be liberated: "In Ramle we are grenades... the Palestinian revolution awaits [them]... We replaced bracelets with weapons. We attacked the despicable [Zionists]. This invading enemy is on the battlefield. This is the day of consolation of jihad. Pull the trigger. We shall redeem Jerusalem, Nablus and the country."

More significant than the repeated exposure on PA TV and at cultural events was the fact that Abbas chose to honor the musical group. He issued a presidential decree turning it into an official Palestinian national band.

Compounding the PA's nationalistic hate promotion are its Islamic-based messages. The PA seems to have adopted what was once thought to be only Hamas ideology, that the conflict with Israel is a Ribat—a religious war for Allah to defend Islamic land in which conflict with Israel is uncompromising. Abbas's appointed minister of religion, Mahmoud Habbash, has taught repeatedly that the conflict with Israel is not territorial but is in accordance with Islamic law: "Allah has preordained for us the Ribat on this blessed land. We are committed to it by Allah's command. Let no one be mistaken or under the illusion that Ribat is a choice and nothing more. It is a commandment."

He has also preached that the conflict against Israel—over all of Israel—is cited in the Koran: "The catastrophe, in truth, did not begin in 1948, but began perhaps in 1917 with the cursed [Balfour] Declaration, which gave a promise to those who did not deserve it... Since that date, resolute people, fighters and Ribat fighters have not ceased upon our blessed land... This conflict is explicit in the Koran and our obligation with regard to it is clarified by the Koran."

In short, the PA, like the Hamas, is telling its people that Islam does not allow for reconciliation with Israel.

With continuous messages like this coming from the so-called moderate leadership of the PA, is it any wonder that people can go on terror rampages like the one in Itamar this weekend? Palestinians may assume that their leaders and society will honor them if they murder Israelis, that their families will receive payment if they are killed, and that their religion encourages Israel's disappearance.

Was the terrorist who committed those brutal killings dreaming about a future Palestinian summer camp in his name? Was he imagining Allah granting him everlasting rewards in paradise for fulfilling his command? Did he feel that he was fulfilling his national duty and would receive a financial reward? And what about the international community which has accepted and naively believed PA leaders' assurances that incitement had stopped? It was the international community, represented by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which stipulated preconditions for the PA to enter into a renewed peace process: "We will only work with a Palestinian Authority government that unambiguously and explicitly accepts the Quartet's principles: A commitment to non-violence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the Road Map" (House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, April 23, 2009).

The Road Map states that "all official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."

The international community has completely failed because it never followed up to see if these preconditions had actually been met, but gladly satisfied itself with Abbas's promises, and continues to fund the PA.

Everyone involved in the peace process is making a tragic mistake by assuming the incitement is just another issue that has to be dealt with, like the issues of water, borders, and refugees. All of those are issues that must be negotiated as part of a peace process. But as long as the Palestinian Authority continues to teach these messages, clearly there is no peace process.

It is incumbent on the international community to inform the Palestinian Authority that a condition for "working" with it, as Clinton stated, is that it erases the messages of hate and replaces them with peace promotion.

And until that time the international community must ostracize and isolate the Palestinian Authority, just as they do Hamas, and stop pretending there is a peace process.

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