by Chris Mitchell, CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief | CBN.com | July 31, 2011
GIVAT ZE'EV, Israel - The politics of Middle East peace is affecting some American-Israeli Jews living in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.
The U.S State Department is stamping their passports with the pro-Palestinian term "West Bank" and they aren't happy about it.
Over the Line?
The Lessard family lives in Givat Ze'ev - a thriving community of 12,000 residents just two miles from Jerusalem. Washington calls it one of the occupied territories in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, some say that the State Department is going too far when it records the birth place for Americans like the Lessard's children.
"We have home births, so he was really born here in the West Bank as the Americans like to call it," explained Jake Lessard. "We call it Judea and Samaria. This is Jewish land here. It's been Jewish land since the time of Abraham."
In Jerusalem an estimated 1,000 Americans are born each year and their documents say only Jerusalem - no country is recorded for their birth - the only place in the world where that is the case.
Yisrael Medad says it's the principle that matters.
"It's injurious to Israel's position in the political, diplomatic world and doesn't make any sense," Medad said.
According to Medad, no one has ever declared the West Bank a state and the Palestinians don't call it that. Still, the State Department insists on using it as an official location.
"They are engaged in political diplomatic creationism," Medad said. "They are creating a state that doesn't exist. They take away Israel from Jerusalem but they add West Bank to Ramallah, Nablus or Bethlehem or Shiloh or Alon Shvut."
State Department's Stance
In response, the State Department told CBN News, "The final political status of Jerusalem has been in dispute since 1948 as a result of the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict. The U.S. government has pursued a policy of encouraging the parties to that conflict to settle all outstanding issues - including the final status of Jerusalem - through peaceful negotiations between the parties with the support of the broader international community."
"Therefore, the U.S. government does not acknowledge the sovereignty of any state over Jerusalem," they concluded.
Regarding the West Bank, the State Department said the applicant can decide whether a settlement name or West Bank is listed as the place of birth.
The Lessards say they probably won't pursue changes to their children's documents, but Medad says he wants to see the White House take action.
"The White House should take the lead and tell the State Department 'cut out all this bureaucracy this is the situation,'" Medad said. "If it changes in some sort of future agreement, that's one thing."
"At the present moment we all know Jerusalem is the capital. Judea and Samaria are being administered by Israel," he said.
*Original Broadcast Date: October 21, 2009.
The "Oslo Syndrome" and the Terror Attack in Norway
by Barry Rubin | RubinReports.Blogspot.com | July 31, 2011
Campaigners voicing their opinions to their political leaders that Norway should boycott Israel in Utoya, Norway.
One of the most sensitive aspects of the very sensitive subject of the murderous terrorist attack in Norway by a right-wing gunman is this irony: The youth political camp he attacked was at the time engaged in what was essentially (though the campers didn’t see it that way, no doubt) a pro-terrorist program.
The camp, run by Norway’s left-wing party, was lobbying for breaking the blockade of the terrorist Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip and for immediate recognition of a Palestinian state without that entity needing do anything that would prevent it from being a terrorist base against Israel. They were backing and justifying forces that had committed terrorism against Israelis and killing thousands of people like themselves.
Even to mention this irony is dangerous since it might be taken to imply that the victims “had it coming.” The victims never deserve to be murdered by terrorists, even any victims who think that other victims of terrorists “had it coming.” This is in no way a justification of that horrendous terrorist act. It’s the exact opposite: a vital but forgotten lesson arising from it that can and should save lives in future.
Call it the Oslo Syndrome.
The Stockholm Syndrome is named after an incident in which hostages taken by a terrorist group then quickly became supporters of that group. A combination of intimidation (persuade these people that we’re friends or they’ll kill us); human psychology (get to know someone and hear their sad—whether or not true—story and sympathy arises); and ideology (having—or thinking you have—common ideas and interests with the terrorist movement).
Then there was the Oslo Process, the 1993-2000 effort to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In retrospect, it can be read as an attempt to solve a conflict by offering a great deal to those who instead rejected the offers, believing they could total victory through tactics including terrorism. Many in the West—especially Norway--think it only failed because not enough was offered and exculpating the terrorist side and strategy.
The Oslo Syndrome encompasses all of these things but goes a step further, for the most dangerous things you can do about terrorism is to make it appear politically successful and hence a great thing to do. For terrorism is not an ideology or a movement but merely a tactic: to murder noncombatants systematically and deliberately for political ends.
If you do this, will others, including the victims, be so terrorized as to give you whatever you want? Will they ignore the moral implications and support you nonetheless? Can you successfully make the argument that you are so oppressed as to justify terrorism, as the ambassador of Norway implied is true against Israel after the killings in the summer camp? Is it possible to engage in terrorism yet convince much of the world that your victims are the real terrorists?
And if you can answer any of these questions with a “yes” then terrorism may be for you. Of course, not every worldview or movement would use it but for those who do it is a very practical issue whether using terrorism is likely to result in being reviled and killed yourself or being celebrated internationally and receiving large amounts of money.
The Oslo Syndrome can be defined the opposite of the Stockholm Syndrome. Instead of being a target of terrorism and then changing views to support the terrorists’ side, it means—individually, as part of a movement, or as an entire country—supporting the terrorists’ side then being victims of terrorism.
Here are four cases of terrorism being perceived as failures and itself dying out:
--The idea that terrorism works originated with Gracchus Babeuf, a French revolutionary journalist who coined the word in 1793. A few months later, his comrade, Pierre-Paul Royer-Collard, called terrorism, “The only way to arouse the people and force them to save themselves,” exactly what today’s terrorists think.Babeuf was executed, though, and that idea became out of fashion for decades.
--Late nineteenth, early twentieth century leftist or nationalist terrorism engaging in bombings and murders in Europe and a bit in North America.
--Latin American terrorism of the 1960s and 1970s failing to achieve revolution and being repressed.
--European terrorism of the 1970s and 1980s mobilizing little sympathy.
In contrast, Middle Eastern terrorism (Palestinian, radical nationalist, Islamist) enjoyed much local support and political success even in the West. Shortly after the September 11 attacks, an aide to Usama bin Ladin, Abu Ubeid al-Qurashi, recalled how Palestinian terrorism inspired the assault on America: millions of people around the world heard Palestinian claims and demands; “thousands of young Palestinians” joined the PLO.
Yasir Arafat spent decades as a terrorist, was applauded at the UN—after a speech in which he threatened more murder—then spent decades more as a terrorist, afterward becoming a virtual head of state and winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Why should others not dream that the road to victory is paved with the corpses of deliberately murdered civilians?
If terrorist murders by Hamas and Islamists did not stop well-intentioned future leaders of Norway from enthusiastically considering them heroic underdogs, a local evil man could think his act of terrorism would gain sympathy and change Europe’s politics. After all, it has already changed the Middle East and even been sanctified by Western media, intellectuals, and governments.
When Norway’s ambassador to Israel distinguishes between “bad” terrorism in Norway and “understandable” terrorism against Israelis that opens the door to a man in Norway who thinks his country is “occupied” by leftists and Muslims?
In this sense, the most important thing about the terrorist in Norway is not that he is right-wing or anti-Islam, The most important thing is that he believed terrorism would work on behalf of his cause. After all, if he had held all of the same beliefs but didn’t think murder was a good tactic, nobody would be dead from his actions.
Of course, he was mentally unbalanced but did have a material basis for his imaginings. What he didn’t understand is that many Europeans will accept terrorism against Israelis or even Americans; very few will applaud terrorism against fellow Europeans.
Nevertheless, many people gave him the idea that terrorism would change minds, gain support, and bring victory. They weren’t those whose blogs he quoted a few times in a 1500-page manifesto and who explicitly rejected violence. They merely gave him programmatic ideas. It was the successful terrorists and their Western enablers who gave him the tactic he implemented.
Oh, and one more thing. A young survivor of the terrorist attack at the camp in Norway explained
"Some of my friends tried to stop [the gunman] by talking to him. Many people thought that it was a test ... comparing it to how it is to live in Gaza. So many people went to him and tried to talk to him, but they were shot immediately."
He's right but in a very different manner from what he thought. It is more comparable to how it is to live in Israel being targeted by Palestinian or Lebanese terrorists who won't be talked into sparing your life. But it is people like the victims in Norway who want Israelis "to stop" the gunmen "by talking" to them.
Source: http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2011/07/oslo-syndrome-and-terror-attack-in.html
Posted at 05:34 PM in Africa/Nigeria/Sudan, AntiSemitism/Jew-Hatred, Books/Journals/Magazines/Maps, CAIR/HAMAS/Hezbollah/Muslim/Islamic Organizations/UN, Canada, Commentary/Opinion/Editorial, Current Affairs, Education and/or Campus, Europe/Spain/Germany/France, Food and Drink, History, Images, Iran, Islam and Contemporary Issues, Islam and History, Islamic Doctrine: Koran, Hadiths, etc, Israel, Judaism, Middle East, Muslim Brotherhood aka Ikhwan, Politics/Ideologies, Religion, Russian Federation, Caucasus, Sharia Compliant Financing/Sharia, The United States, Web/Tech/Weblogs/Internet, Women and/or Children | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Reblog (0) | | Digg This | Save to del.icio.us | |