POLL: 76% OF ISRAELI JEWS FAVOR TRANSFERRING ISRAELI-ARABS TO "PALESTINE"

Poll: Israelis favor Arab transfer to Palestine (JPost)
A total of 76 percent of Israeli Jews give some degree of support to transferring Israeli Arabs to a future Palestinian state, a poll commissioned by the Knesset Channel revealed, Monday.

The poll asked participants whether as part of an agreement to establish a Palestinian state there would be justification to demand that Arabs with Israeli citizenship relocate to Palestinian territory.

Only 24% were totally against the idea.

Of the remaining 76%, 29% said all Israeli Arabs should relocate. An additional 19% said only Arabs living in close proximity to the Palestinian state should relocate, and 28% said transfer should be decided based on loyalty or disloyalty to the State of Israel.

ISRAELI ARAB SHOOTS SISTER IN HONOR KILLING ATTEMPT

Brother shoots sister in suspected 'honor killing' attempt (Haaretz)
A 24-year-old resident of Kfar Naura shot his sister, seriously wounding her, in a suspected 'honor killing' late Monday night.

Afula police received a call around midnight reporting gunfire in the Israeli-Arab village. Magen David Adom paramedics who reached the house found the sister, 20, seriously wounded and took her to Haemek hospital in Afula.

A short while after, the brother turned himself in to police, admitting he was responsible for the shooting. He maintained that his divorced sister was befriending men, and so he therefore shot her, thinking he killed her.

Man shoots sister then congratulated by family (JPost)
A 19-year-old woman from the Israeli-Arab town of Naura in northern Israel was hospitalized in critical condition at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa Tuesday after being shot twice in the head by her own brother. The suspect shot his sister in order to preserve the "family’s honor," and was warmly congratulated by his family for his actions, according to Afula police investigators.

ISRAELI-ARAB CONVICTED OF "HONOR KILLING"

Israeli Arab jailed for 16 years over 'honor killing' of his sister (HAARETZ)
A Tel Aviv court has sentenced an Israeli Arab man to 16 years in prison for involvement in the murder of his sister in an "honor killing," after several female relatives took the rare step of testifying against him, according to court documents.

Hamda Abu Ghanem was the ninth woman killed in the clan in recent years by men in the family. She was shot in January last year as she slept at her parents' home in a Muslim neighborhood of Ramle, a mixed Jewish-Arab town of 65,000 in central Israel.

ARAB MKs LEAD ROCK-THROWING DEMO AGAINST "ZIONAZIS"

Arab MKs Lead Rock-Throwing Demo Against 'ZioNazis' (INN)
Several thousand Arabs led by Arab nationalist Knesset members participated in a procession through the Israeli city of Umm el-Fahm near Megiddo Tuesday evening. The demonstration was held in protest of Israeli military operations in Gaza and involved incidents of rock throwing at Israeli cars.

The crowd chanted "Israel, the mother of terror" and held a sign that read "Stop the Zionazi" in English. Additional slogans were "Rest, O martyr, we will complete the task," "Warm blessings to the rock children," as well as the standard "With blood and spirit, we will redeem Palestine." The participants held Syrian and PLO flags. Some of them covered their faces with keffiyehs, or traditional headdresses, in the manner of terrorist thugs.

Arab Knesset members from several factions spoke to the crowd and reviled Israel for what they called "the massacre in Gaza." The speakers also justified the rocket fire on Israel and insisted it was a reaction to Israeli actions.

Umm el-Fahm Mayor Sheikh Abd-el Rachman demanded that Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the PA , and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, stop fighting and join hands. He said that "resistance" (a code word for armed attacks) should continue alongside peace talks.

Towards the end of the rally, Arab youths threw rocks at passing Israeli vehicles on Highway 65. Police arrested two suspects.

No one was hurt in the rock-throwing incidents and no damage was caused..

An Arab source told Haaretz newspaper that the organizers had expected more people to take part in procession. "I would have expected twice as many people," he said. "Perhaps we have lost the momentum."

Arab MKs enjoy full rights as legislators yet regularly denounce Israel and side with its enemies. A former Knesset Member, Azni Bishara, fled from Israel after the intelligence services discovered he had held apparently treasonous contacts with Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War. MK Ahmed Tibi is Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and has a large poster of PLO founder and terror master Yasser Arafat on the wall of his knesset office.

ISRAELI-ARABS: AN INTERESTING SURVEY

The Other “Other” Israel

DAVID HAZONY - Contentions

It is widely believed that Israeli Arabs despise the Jewish state, actively support its enemies, and willingly constitute a kind of fifth column in the Jewish state’s population. This is backed up by the wild rhetoric of Arab-Israeli politicians, who frequently bend over backwards to voice their hatred of the country that hosts them.

But is this belief true? A new survey of Israeli Arabs’ opinions about national service has a lot of people scratching their heads.

In Israel, young men and women spend at least two years in mandatory military service–except, of course, for Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are exempt. Failure to enlist often makes it much harder for members of these groups to find jobs later on, however, and doesn’t do much for their patriotism.

But between the military service and exemption, there is a third option: The national service program, in which thousands of Israelis, mostly Orthodox women, spend one to two years serving their country by serving their communities–helping the needy, working in hospitals, or assisting in daycare centers. In recent years, an effort has been under way to expand the program to include the Israeli Arab population, which has been seen as a way to help integrate them into mainstream Israel, help their economic situation, and remove the stigma of disloyalty.

These efforts have been met with virulent opposition from Israeli-Arab leaders, however. MK Jamal Zahalka, of the Balad party, for example, warned in October that Arab society would “vomit out” those who volunteered for national service, and consider them “lepers.” This has been the near-uniform tone coming from the leadership of the Arab community, as it has campaigned against the plan.

But their campaign, apparently, hasn’t worked. According to the study, no fewer than 75 percent of Israeli Arab youth, and over 70 percent of the overall Arab population, support the idea of national service. Nor is this just a matter of getting better jobs, or equality with Jews: According to the poll, “68 percent of those who support national service said they are in favor because it contributes to the country and Israeli society.”

ARAB MK'S ATTEND HABASH FUNERAL

Arab MKs attend Habash funeral (JPost)
Right-wing MKs blasted Israeli Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List), Jamal Zahalka and Wassal Taha (Balad) on Monday for attending the previous day's funeral of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader George Habash in Amman.

MK Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beiteinu) said all Arab MKs were "representatives of terrorist organizations" in the Knesset.

MK Eli Gabai (NU/NRP) said he had written to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz, asking him to prevent the MKs from traveling to the funeral. In the letter, Gabai said that the very presence of the MKs at the ceremony could potentially lead them to commit the criminal offenses of assisting the enemy and contacting enemy agents. The Justice Ministry said it had yet to receive the letter.

Tibi, speaking from the funeral, said Habash was a "leader who turned symbol." Zahalka said he was "one of the most important Palestinian leaders of the 20th century," but emphasized that "the bloodshed should be stopped. Our party always opposed attacks on civilians."

Habash, who died on Saturday at the age of 83, was long considered by Israel to be an arch-terrorist. A Christian refugee from Lod who left the city in the 1948 war, Habash established the PFLP in 1967. He was notorious in the West for his numerous terrorist attacks in the 1970s, including the Ben-Gurion Airport shooting in 1974 and the Entebbe hijacking in 1976.

ISRAELI ARABS CAUGHT SUPPLYING WEAPONS TO TERRORISTS

Israeli Arabs Nabbed Supplying Guns and Explosives to Terrorists (INN)

Approximately two dozen Israeli Arabs from the Wadi Ara region were arrested for dealing in guns and ammunition with PA terrorists.

JERUSALEM ARABS SEEK ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP

More Jerusalem Arabs Seek Israeli Citizenship - Dion Nissenbaum (McClatchy)
Though many Arabs in Jerusalem want to see an independent Palestinian state, they don't want to be part of it. The number of Arab residents of Jerusalem applying for Israeli citizenship more than doubled in 2007, according to the Israel Interior Ministry. 500 residents of eastern Jerusalem requested Israeli passports, up from 200 in each of the previous three years.

There's an uncomfortable acknowledgment, especially among the Arab middle class in Jerusalem, that their lives could get substantially worse under Palestinian rule.  Eastern Jerusalem Arabs receive Israeli social security and health benefits. They're allowed to vote in local elections. They have the freedom to travel throughout Israel without special permits.

PALESTINIANS WHO PREFER ISRAEL

Palestinians Who Prefer Israel - Daniel Pipes (JPost)
Two polls released last week, from Keevoon Research and the Arabic-language newspaper As-Sennara, survey representative samples of adult Israeli Arabs on the issue of joining the PA. Asked, "Would you prefer to be a citizen of Israel or of a new Palestinian state?" 62% want to remain Israeli citizens and 14% want to join a future Palestinian state. Asked, "Do you support transferring the Triangle [an Arab-dominated area in northern Israel] to the Palestinian Authority?" 78% oppose the idea and 18% support it.

These earnest views do not repudiate the vicious anti-Zionism that reigns in the Middle East, but they reveal that four-fifths of those Palestinians who know Israel first-hand understand the attractions of a decent life in a decent country, a fact with important and positive implications.

ISRAELI-ARABS PREFER ISRAEL TO OWN STATE

Arabs Overwhelmingly Prefer Israel (IRIS)

Here is more confirmation that Arabs deeply resent their 'liberation':

Representative sample 514 Israeli Arabs

"There has been a lot of talk lately about the formation of a new Palestinian State. It has been suggested by some that Israeli Arabs could continue to live in Israel, but change their citizenship to the new Palestinian State. Given the choice, and continuing to live where you presently live today, would you prefer to be a citizen of Israel or of a new Palestinian State?"

Remain Israeli citizens 62% Join a future Palestinian State 14%
No opinion or refused to answer 24%

ANOTHER ISRAELI-ARAB LEADER ACCUSED OF AIDING TERRORISM

Another Israeli-Arab leader accused of aiding terrorism
Politician joins slew of arrests for working with 'enemy agents' during wartime
By Aaron Klein
(WorldNetDaily.com)

JERUSALEM – An Israeli-Arab lawmaker was arrested earlier this week on suspicion he spied for the Lebanese Hezbollah terror organization, according to sources familiar with the case.
The arrest follows a slew of other arrests and convictions the past few years of Israeli-Arab activists and politicians accused of aiding terror groups or enemy countries during a time of war. It also follows a WND exclusive report quoting a terror leader stating Hezbollah has "tens" of spies, mostly Israeli Arabs, operating within the Jewish state.

It was cleared for publication yesterday that Niad Malhem, a member of the Knesset's Arab Balad party, was arrested Sunday on suspicion he committed serious security-related offences. Due to a gag order on the case, Israeli reporters were not briefed about the specifics of the accusations.

Sources familiar with the case told WND that, among other offenses, Malhem was accused of spying for Hezbollah during Israel's war against the terror group in July and August of 2006. The war was sparked when Hezbollah raided the Israeli border and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah proceeded to fire over 3,000 rockets into the Jewish state, killing 43 Israeli civilians.

Malhem also traveled in October to Syria, considered an enemy country of Israel. The politician went along with another Balad Arab Knesset member, who was questioned about the duo's visit last weekend.

ISRAELI-ARAB CABINET MINISTER: ISRAEL HAS NO AUTHORITY ON TEMPLE MOUNT

Minister questions Temple Mount jurisdiction (JTA)
An Israeli Cabinet minister drew censure by questioning the Jewish state's legal right to the Temple Mount.

Culture Minister Ghaled Majadle appeared in the Knesset on Tuesday to address lawmakers' complaints about renovations by Muslim authorities on the Temple Mount, which houses Islam's third holiest mosque.

Asked by Aryeh Eldad of the National Union whether he recognizes that Israel has jurisdiction over Judaism's most important site, Majadle, who is the only Arab in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet, said "no."

Asked to elaborate, he said: "As a citizen, as a man, as a Muslim, I believe this should not be so."

Israel annexed east Jerusalem after capturing it in the 1967 Six-Day War, though it allows the Jordanian- and Palestinian Authority-sponsored Muslim Waqf to administer the Temple Mount.

Israel Radio reported that Eldad may file an official complaint charging Majadle with breach of trust, as his remarks clashed with long-standing government policy regarding sovereignty over Jerusalem.

ISRAELI BEDOIN HAS 8 WIVES, 67 KIDS; WANTS MORE

Israeli Father of 67 Kids Seeks 9th Wife (SFChron)
With eight wives and 67 children, Shahadeh Abu Arrar has given new meaning to the term "family man." Abu Arrar, 58, is a member of Israel's impoverished Bedouin Arab community. But even in a traditional society where men commonly have several wives and many children, Abu Arrar is exceptional.

"I'm thinking about a new wife, No. 9," he told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot in a recent interview. "There are many women who wish to marry me and there is no lack of women. I never had a problem with such things."

Abu Arrar, whose oldest child is 37, was photographed by the newspaper in a long Bedouin robe and head cover, surrounded by a dozen of so of his kids.

During a visit to his multistory home in central Israel, The Associated Press spotted 17 of the children milling about, dressed in bright red, blue and green-embroidered Palestinian dresses and headscarves. Four veiled women, including two who said they were his wives, sat on the porch peeling vegetables.

While Islam allows Muslim men to have four co-wives, it is a custom in Bedouin society to flout the already-generous ruling — and an Israeli ban on polygamy — by marrying women one at a time, divorcing them and marrying others, experts on Bedouin culture said.

Culturally, it's understood that the renounced wives are still married to Abu Arrar, the experts said.

It's unclear how Abu Arrar supports his massive family. Camels, goats and a cow were grazing on his property. Yediot said he also receives about $1,700 (euro1,200) in government handouts each month.

PALI JEWISH CONVERT CONVICTED OF AIDING TERRORIST BROTHER

Haifa resident convicted of planning to transfer explosives to Islamic Jihad (YNet)
The Haifa District Court convicted a 39-year-old city resident of conspiring to assist the enemy, contacting a foreign agent and additional security offenses. The man, a Palestinian who converted to Judaism and changed his name to Assaf Ben-David, was convicted of planning to purchase explosives for his brother, an Islamic Jihad member wanted by the IDF. The brother was killed by IDF fire before the deal came through.

ISRAELI TOWN OF THE DEAF

Signs and Wonders: An Israeli town where people talk with their hands--literally. (WSJ)

In the southern Israeli desert of Negev lies a community called Al-Sayyid. Inhabited by approximately 3,500 Bedouin, an Arab nomadic tribe that settled the area about 200 years ago, the village may seem rather humdrum at first glance. That is, until you see the villagers interacting--by making signs with their hands.

In Al-Sayyid, at least 150 residents are deaf, a rate 50 times greater than that of Israel's general population. As it happens, a recessive gene for profound deafness--traced back to sons of the "founding" couple--has made its way, through large families and genetic probabilities, into an ever-widening gene pool. Thus over three generations an extraordinarily high number of deaf children have been born to Al-Sayyid's villagers.

Of necessity, a special means of communication has sprung up: Nearly all the village's residents, hearing and deaf alike, are fluent in a sign language unique to Al-Sayyid. Margalit Fox's "Talking Hands," in part, describes this language and chronicles the work of a group of linguists who were allowed by townspeople to study it.

ISRAELI ARABS WORK TO UNDERMINE JEWISH CHARACTER OF ISRAEL

Israel's Arabs work to undermine the Jewish character of the state (JTA)
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- ....The crux of the debate is what Israel's Arabs make of the very idea of a Jewish state in the ancestral land of the Jews. And our conclusion since the fall of 2000 has been -- as the famously dovish TV journalist Amnon Abramowitz put it at the time -- that while we pro-Oslo Israelis were devising two states for two peoples, our Arab counterparts, on both sides of the Green Line, were contemplating two states for one people: the Palestinians.

Down in the field, a small but increasing number of Israeli Arabs have participated in terror attacks, including driving suicide bombers to their destinations and in some cases performing the bombings themselves. At the same time, the Israeli Arab community's elected leaders are attempting to hammer away at the idea of a Jewish state: They demand the abolition of the Law of Return, seek the alteration of the national anthem and hide behind a seemingly innocent apron like the quest for a country of all its citizens.

The tactics deployed in this well-crafted assault are as simple as they are cunning: diversion and deceit. The diversion is in the systematic changing of the subject from the real aim, which is Israel's extinction, to issues that Jews care deeply about like freedom of expression, right of ownership or equality before the law. The deceit is in that all this crusading energy disappears once one leaves Israel's borders. They fail to demand rights and freedoms for those living under Arab rule throughout the Middle East. ...

There was a time when Israelis like me honestly believed in the imminent emergence of a new Middle East, one where people, goods, capital and ideas would transcend borders as naturally as they do in North America and Western Europe. We have since been disillusioned -- by Middle Eastern despotism, Palestinian violence and Israeli Arab deceit.

The day when we Israeli Jews can roam the Middle East as freely as Italians roam Europe, and purchase real estate in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or Syria as freely as New Yorkers do in Ontario has yet to arrive. Worse, the effort to deprive us of what land we have has yet to abate.

Now one can say, "but Israeli Arabs are Israeli citizens," and I so much want to say, "Gosh, that's so true." But the truth is that Israeli Arab leaders are for now identifying with and actively assisting Israel's enemies, and we Jews have yet to consolidate our grip on the country our parents have built, so that in the future no Jew will be landless.

PRO-SYRIA SUMMER CAMP FOR DRUSE STARTS IN GOLAN

Pro-Syria summer camp starts in Golan (JPost)
A pro-Syria summer camp for Druse children has started on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, it was reported on Thursday. Syrian flags could be seen in the footage, aired by Channel Two, and children were heard proudly singing the Syrian national anthem. The kids were seen split into small groups where they expressed their dedication to what they called their "homeland."

"Syria will remain free," they chanted. The children spoke of how they aspired to return to Syria and visit their families. They said their "souls" were connected to Syria. Head of the Druse community in the Golan, Fazi Abu Jabal, said that that the children considered Syria as their country. "It is close to the children's hearts," he said.

In the camp, each tent is named after a different Syrian village captured by Israel. There were also sections of the summer camp shown draped with Palestinian and Lebanese flags, dedicated to Druse who identified with the two respective causes. "We want to free Arab Palestine," children were heard chanting.

Channel Two reported that the camp's organizers were attempting to raise money to set up similar camps in other Druse areas of the Golan.

L.A. TIMES PUSHES FOR THE "NAKBA"

A WEEK AFTER PUBLISHING AN OP-ED BY HAMAS TERRORIST MOUSA ABUL MARZOOK, THE LA TIMES COMES OUT IN FAVOR OF NEW TEXT BOOKS FOR ISRAELI-ARAB CHILDREN THAT TEACH ISRAEL'S FOUNDING WAS A DISASTER.... BECAUSE IT'S THE TRUTH (EVEN THOUGH THEY THINK ALL TRUTH IS RELATIVE).

Two versions of history (LA Times)
When Israel's education ministry announced that history textbooks for third-graders would now include a heretofore unmentionable truth -- that the creation of a homeland for Jews in 1948 resulted in the exile of 700,000 Palestinians -- it seemed an enlightened step.

"History is written by the victors," as Winston Churchill said, and for the last 59 years, Israeli elementary school textbooks have taught only the Jewish version of events: The outcome of the Arab-Israeli war was justifiable because of Jews' historic roots in the Holy Land and their need for a permanent refuge from persecution. The Palestinian exodus from Israel, called the Nakba (catastrophe) by Arabs, was nowhere to be found.

The education ministry's apparent openness, however, is deceptive. For the new, balanced textbooks will be printed only in Arabic and distributed only to Arab classrooms. Hebrew editions of "Living Together in Israel" won't be revised. Some education officials sought to amend Jews' textbooks too, but they were overruled by those who said Jewish third-graders cannot understand divergent interpretations of history.

Education Minister Yuli Tamir says the new books will help Arab children reconcile the history they learn at home with the history they are taught in school. But Jewish children, who are less likely to hear the Palestinian version of events in their homes, need this information even more than their Arab peers, who at least may have the personal experiences of family and friends to educate them. If Israel acknowledges the fact of the Palestinian exodus, then it should be taught to all children. Instead, the ministry seeks to placate Palestinians without standing up to hard-line Jewish conservatives, who oppose the revisions even for Arab classrooms. [ED. ONE MUST BE "HARD-LINE" AND "CONSERVATIVE" TO BELIEVE THE ISRAELI (TRUE) VERSION]

History is continually being revised. Although written first by the victors, over time the voices of the defeated and disregarded demand inclusion. China and Korea insist that Japan acknowledge wartime atrocities; Native Americans, that their 4,000-year history become a part of this country's founding narrative; and women, that their deeds get equal scrutiny with those of men. [ED. GUESS WHO ISRAEL IS IN THESE ANALOGIES]

Whether most Palestinians fled their homes voluntarily or through coercion and force, and whether they have a right to return, will likely be argued until the end of time. But that thousands did flee and have spent subsequent decades living in refugee camps -- the United Nations says that descendants have swelled the number of refugees to 4 million today -- is not at issue. Why not teach that truth? [ED. OH, KNOW THEY KNOW THE TRUTH...BUT IT'S NOT ISRAEL'S VERSION]

By amending history textbooks for Arab children, Israel has acknowledged the validity of the Nakba. And if it's valid for Arabs, it should be valid for Jews as well.

ISRAELI-ARAB HEZBOLLAH AGENT ARRESTED

Israeli-Arab Hizbullah agent arrested (JPost)
An Arab Israeli was arrested last month by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) after she was allegedly recruited by the Hizbullah in Jordan, officials announced on Tuesday.

The suspect was arrested on June 30 at the Allenby Bridge as she crossed back into Israel from Jordan. During her interrogation she confessed that she offered to join the ranks of Hizbullah during her dental studies at the Amman University in 2003, after being approached by a fellow female student who introduced herself as a recruiter for Hizbullah.

The suspect said that as a Hizbullah agent, she was to be given cell phone memory chips and disk on key memory cards which she was to transfer to Hizbullah operatives in Israel.

A number of weeks after her initial recruitment, the suspect completed her studies in Jordan and prepared to return to Israel. She was given a portable hard disk for a computer, which she was supposed to pass on to other operatives in Israel.

The suspect continued to visit Jordan a number of times in 2004, and she continued to contact her recruiter from 2005 to 2007.

ISRAEL PRODUCES TEXTBOOKS FOR ISRAELI-ARABS CITING PALI VERSION OF 1948 WAR

Israeli Arab schoolbooks cite Palestinian version of war
JERUSALEM (AFP) - History textbooks for Israeli Arab students this year will for the first time present the Palestinian version of Israel’s creation as a “catastrophe,” the education ministry said on Sunday.

“For these types of events, both the Israeli and Palestinian versions have to be presented,” Education Minister Yuli Tamir said in a statement.

Alongside presenting the Israeli interpretation of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the books will also present the version “that is generally accepted among the Arabs, according to which Israel’s War of Independence is perceived as a catastrophe (Naqba) by the Palestinians,” Tamir said.

Another Catastrophe by Emanuele Ottolenghi (Contentions)
School textbooks used by Israeli Arabs will henceforth embrace the new historians’ version of history: the 1948 Israeli War of Independence is now officially “al-Naqba” (the Catastrophe), in books vetted by Israel’s Education Ministry. Education Minister Yuli Tamir defended her decision by saying that “the Arab public deserves to be allowed to express their feelings.” The Minister is entitled to believe, of course, that textbooks are the natural conduit for the expression of collective feelings—rather than the preferred instrument of instruction in history. But the real question is not whether Israeli Arabs—or a guilt-ridden minister—should be allowed to “express their feelings.” They are, and they do (as anyone who has spent any time in Israel can tell you). The real question is: should the discipline of history be the victim of those feelings? (Hillel Halkin’s 1999 COMMENTARY article “Was Zionism Unjust?” suggests an answer.)