Author: admin

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Feb 14 2005

US aid to Azerbaijan $20m less than to Armenia

Baku, February 11, AssA-Irada — The United States government plans
to allocate $35 million to Azerbaijan, $55 million to Armenia and
$67 million to Georgia in financial assistance in 2006, the Bush
administration says. Besides, the Bush administration plans to allot
$5 million to Azerbaijan and Armenia each for military purposes and
$750,000 for military education.

The US government also plans to provide humanitarian assistance to
Upper Garabagh, the amount of which is not disclosed.*

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Eurasianet Organization
Feb 14 2005

DIAMOND INDUSTRY SLUMP SLOWS ARMENIAN GROWTH
Emil Danielyan 2/14/05

After a decade of rapid expansion, Armenia’s diamond cutting industry,
which manufactures the country’s number one export item, suffered
a major slump in 2004. The almost 20 percent decline in production,
measured in the Armenian currency, the dram, calls into question the
success of an ambitious government plan to promote the sector’s growth.

According to government officials, the drop in production is
largely due to the plunge of the US dollar in international currency
markets. Publicly, authorities say they are not concerned about the
diamond-cutting sector’s health, and predict that production should
rebound this year.

“Rumors about the industry’s death are exaggerated,” Gagik Mkrtchian,
head of the department on precious stones and jewelry at the Armenian
Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, said earlier this month.

Gem diamonds have long accounted for the biggest share of Armenian
exports, making the tiny ex-Soviet republic one of the world’s major
suppliers of the highly expensive stones. Though there are now more
than 50 diamond cutting firms in Armenia, the sector is dominated by
a handful of foreign investors. One of the largest gem-cutting firms
is owned Israeli tycoon Lev Leviev, an internationally prominent
diamond dealer.

The share of gem diamonds in Armenian exports has decreased in recent
years, but it still stood at a commanding 39 percent in 2004. The
production decline in cut diamonds was enough to bring export growth,
along with Armenia’s overall industrial output, to a virtual halt.
Even though the economy as a whole expanded at a robust rate of
10 percent last year, economists believe that Armenia’s long-term
development should depend heavily on exports, given the small size
of the domestic market.

In late 2003, the government approved a three-year plan that aimed
to nearly double annual cut-diamond production to $500 million and
create roughly 10,000 new jobs. However, the sector’s trouble in 2004
would appear to put those targets out of reach.

According to government estimates, diamond production only slightly
shrunk from the 2003 level in dollar terms, totaling about $280
million last year. But officials admit that dollar-based statistics
are misleading, given the US currency’s more than 20 percent drop in
value against the Armenian dram since beginning of 2004. In general,
the greenback has lost considerable ground against major world
currencies, especially the euro.

The weaker dollar made the diamonds more expensive in the United
States, which accounts for more than 50 percent of global sales.
Mkrtchian explained; “2004 was a year of retreat for the global
diamond industry. … The main reason for that was a decline in the
dollar’s value.”

A shortfall in anticipated deliveries of rough diamonds from
Russia has added to Armenia’s problems, officials indicate. A 2001
Russian-Armenian agreement enabled Armenian firms to process up to
400,000 carats of Russian rough diamonds annually from 2002 through
2004. The quota was subsequently raised to 450,000 carats for 2005
and 2006.

Only a fraction of that has actually been delivered to date. Armenia,
for example, imported about 970,000 carats of uncut diamonds in 2004.
Yet, only 16 percent of them were of Russian origin. The bulk of the
rough supplies came mainly from Israel and Belgium, explaining why
the two countries are among Armenia’s leading trading partners.

Mkrtchian blamed the shortfall on “unjustified” Russian price hikes,
but expressed confidence that Yerevan will negotiate better terms
with Russia’s Alrosa diamond monopoly this year. That, he said,
should help to ensure the sector’s growth by at least 30 percent.

But some analysts believe that even if the industry soon turns the
corner, the benefits for Armenian government coffers will remain
marginal. Eduard Aghajanov, a former head of the National Statistical
Service, has long argued that gems exported from Armenia are not
quite Armenian because their owners are mainly foreigners.

“Given that those products are exempt from the excise and value-added
taxes, Armenia’s state budget is not getting anything from that
industry except employee income taxes,” Aghajanov. “Big profits made
as a result are taxed abroad because those products do not belong
to Armenia.”

Payroll and social security taxes collected from Armenia’s 12 biggest
diamond plants totaled a meager $2 million in 2004, while the average
monthly salary of their approximately 4,000 workers was only $150,
according to official figures. In addition, the government calculated
that diamond-related business activity injected only $37.7 million
in the Armenian economy in 2003.

“Making the sector a strategic priority is therefore wrong,” argues
Aghajanov. “Nobody is against its existence as it provides quite
a few jobs. But Armenia’s future lies in high-tech industries and
especially information technology.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Washington Post
February 13, 2005 Sunday
Final Edition

Washington Is Also Reading . . . Selling Well in Local Independent
Bookstores

Birds Without Wings

By Louis de Bernières (Knopf, $25.95)

De Bernières’ much anticipated new novel relays, in epic fashion, the
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the modern Turkish
state via a small Anatolian village whose multicultural tranquility
is shattered by the vagaries of war and the Armenian massacre.

(F)

In Other Words

By Christopher J. Moore (Walker, $14)

As translators of foreign works into English can attest, the nuances
of other languages often make a precise English rendering of a word
or phrase next to impossible. Moore, a linguist, has assembled a
global lexicon of some of the more difficult and amusing examples.
(NF)

What We Do Now

Ed. by Dennis Loy Johnson & Valerie

Merians (Melville, $12). The 2004 election is history. As the shock
abates and a new game plan emerges on the Left, a group of 24
prominent progressives offer their vision of how to counter the
conservative rally. And for the inspired, a gazetteer of activist
group contacts is included. (NF)

–Boundary_(ID_dqXyws9j42HkcFKsm+EEaA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Aristakes sings Armenian anthem during international match

Amersfoortse Courant (Dutch regional newspaper)
February 13, 2005

NIJKERK – Aristakes from Nijkerk will perform in front of at least thirty
thousand listeners. The singer was asked by the Royal Dutch Football
Association (KNVB) to sing the Armenian national anthem during the
international football match Netherlands-Armenia.

With this, the singer of Armenian heritage, will be the center of attention
on March 30 during the international match that will be played in Eindhoven
in the stadium of football club PSV.

An employee of the KNVB asked Aristakes whether he would like to sing the
Armenian national anthem at the start of the match.

“I immediately sat behind a piano and played the song. He was instantly
captivated,” says the Nijkerkian singer. Aristakes promptly suggested to
sing the Dutch national anthem as well.

“In the current discussions on integration, I think this is a chance to show
how you can adapt yourself in a foreign country”, says the Armenian.

Whether the Dutch anthem will indeed sound from his throat on March 30 is
still to be confirmed by the KNVB. The singer is not nervous for his
contribution to the international football match. “During the anthem usually
only the players are shown.”

Aristakes Yessayan has been living in the Netherlands since 1956. In the
1980s, the singer born in Greece scored two Top-40 hits with the songs
“Diamond Forever” and “Don’t Wanna Live Without You”.

This week the Foundation Square Promotion Nijkerk, organiser of events in
downtown Nijkerk, announced that Aristakes is the new chairman of the
organization.

He replaces Bert van ‘t Hazeveld who wants to have more free time for his
administrative function at football club NSC.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

STAATSCOURANT (DUTCH GOVERNMENT GAZETTE) NO. 17

Tuesday 25 January 2005

Armenian Auschwitz

‘This God, to whom you want pray, does not exist. Where was he when the Jews
in Poland had dig their own graves? Where was he when the Nazi’s played with
the skulls of Jewish children? If he exists and he has been silent, he is a
murderer just like Hitler.’ These are the words of Joseph Shapiro, main
character from the novel The Penitent of Isaac Bashevis Singer. They are in
fact also the words of Richard Rubinstein in his book entitled After
Auschwitz: ‘Auschwitz killed God’.

This week, it is 60 years ago that the concentration camp Auschwitz was
liberated. Was Auschwitz indeed that turning point in the mental history of
humanity, about which Joseph Shapiro and Richard Rubinstein speak? The
moment when the belief in God, and therewith the existence of God, was no
longer justifiable? No matter how strange it may sound, I would like for
this to be true. I would like that no earlier horrors of the same level as
Auschwitz had taken place, by which God or a another human unifying
universal faith would lose its credibility once and for all. But this is not
so simple.

This year is also the ‘jubilee year’ of another horror. This one took place
not only almost 30 years before Auschwitz, but therefore also served as a
model for Auschwitz. It was Hitler himself who in 1939, briefly before the
bloody attack on Poland, made clear to his army commanders that Germany
should not be afraid of world opinion. Because, he said, ‘Wer redet heute
noch von der Vernichtung der Armenier?’ (Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?). How it is possible that, different from
Auschwitz, the massacres of the Armenians, which were committed under
command and responsibility of the Turkish government in the period of
1915­17, can still be denied by the perpetrator who continues to get away
with it internationally? On 24 April 1915, thousands of Armenian
politicians, priests and intellectuals were arrested in some large Turkish
cities and were in part directly assassinated and in part deported. It was
the start signal for the deportation and then eradication of the largest
part of the Armenian population in the Turkish Empire. Of the two million
Armenians living there, according to prominent historians certainly
1,200,000 died in concentration camps, by massacre or by starvation. In that
process German diplomats and consultants were ­ Turkey had chosen the side
of Germany in the first World War I ­ actively involved.

The Turkish minister directly responsible for the Armenian Auschwitz, Talaat
Pasha, did not make a particular secret out of it. As such he asked the
American ambassador at that time, Henry Morgenthau, the following: ‘I wish
that you would get the American Life Insurance companies to send us a
complete list of Armenian policy holders. They are practically all dead now
and have left no heirs to collect the money. It of course all escheats to
the state. The government is beneficiary now. Will you do so?’ The request
has not been granted. But the fact remains that numerous streets and squares
of modern Turkish cities are named after Talaat Pasha. The fact is also that
the EU talks with Turkey about accession without having required the
recognition of her Auschwitz in advancee. I am deeply ashamed as an
European.

René F.W. Diekstra
————————————-

STAATSCOURANT (DUTCH GOVERNMENT GAZETTE) NO. 23

Wednesday, 2 February 2005

Members of Parliament condemn Armenian genocide

By André Rouvoet

In the Dutch Government Gazette of 25 January René Diekstra, under the title
‘Armenian Auschwitz’, wrote about the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. He
rightly concludes that the EU will talk with Turkey about accession without
requiring the recognition of her Auschwitz in advance. For that Diekstra is
deeply ashamed as a European.

I can imagine his feeling of shame well. Like Diekstra many factions in the
House of Representatives were very disappointed about the lack of the
requirement for the recognition of this Genocide by Turkey in the
conclusions of the European Council of December 2004. Preceding that summit,
many factions had expressly called for such a requirement.

In the debate on the conclusions of the European summit, where much
attention was given to the reached agreement with respect to the start of
the negotiations with Turkey, I therefore introduced a motion in which the
government is requested, within the framework of the intensive political and
cultural dialogue, which will be conducted parallel to the accession
negotiations with Turkey, to continuously and expressly raise the
recognition of the Armenian genocide. Nevertheless, a (new) European Member
State must be required to deal with its own history honestly. Minister Bot
welcomed this motion, which was unanimously accepted by the House of
Representatives.

Unfortunately it is true that the House of Representatives cannot add the
requirement of recognition to the conclusions of the European Council
through a motion. Meanwhile, however, this parliamentary pronouncement is of
great and fundamental significance. It is namely the first time that the
Dutch House of Representatives explicitly speaks of ‘the Armenian genocide’.
Whereas the European Parliament has already done this, the term ‘genocide’
was so far always avoided in the Dutch parliament. The fact that the
parliament has now unanimously sided with a motion in which the events of
1915 to 1917 are actually labelled as genocide and the fact that the Dutch
government has also welcomed this motion is of great significance for the
Armenian community world wide.

Moreover, in the debate several spokesmen also referred to the massacres of
the Assyrian people. Although the motion does not mention this issue, when
asked, the Minister of Foreign Affairs insured me that he will interpret the
motion in such a way that in this also the Assyrians are included. Therefore
both horrors will be raised in the negotiations with Turkey.

I am of the same opinion as Diekstra that justice must be done to the entire
history. The acceptance of my motion has the chance that this will
effectively happen in the coming time. Either way, it has been brought a
little closer.

The author is Chairman of the Christian Union faction in the House of
Representatives.

–Boundary_(ID_iClox6BsAwI4J3C4HgcVXA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL
50 Khanjian Str., Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Tel: (3741) 551582, 571798
Fax: (3741) 574639
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

PRESS RELEASE

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a non-governmental, humanitarian
organization that has worked actively for more than 50 years to create a
safer and more dignified life for refugees and internally displaced persons
(IDPs), regardless of their race, religion, nationality or political
convictions. We work for the rights of refugees and IDPs, assisting with
food, shelter and education – and offering counseling on repatriation.

In Armenia, NRC has invested more that 10 million USD in refugee-targeted
projects since 1995. These include primarily housing construction, but also
school construction and rehabilitation, construction of drinking and
irrigation water pipelines, as well as human rights education and an IDP
mapping survey. So far, NRC has provided new homes for nearly 1000 refugee
families in Armenia.
_____________________________________________

On February 8-th The Norwegian Refugee Council handed over 18 keys to new
stone houses to refugee families in the villages of Deghdzut, Kanachut,
Noyakert and Sis in Ararat marz. For the past 14 years all the families had
lived in uninhabitable constructions, like old school building, bathhouse,
metal containers, half-constructed houses in miserable conditions.
Each house will have a plot of land for gardens.

The project was completed in cooperation with the Department of Migration
and Refugees and Ararat Marzpet’s office and village mayors.For construction
of house in Sis village a completely new design was developed toghether with
USDA Experts.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Libération, France
jeudi 10 février 2005

Quand la Turquie redécouvre sa mémoire arménienne

Livres et expos traitent du tabou du génocide arménien, occulté
depuis 1915.

Par Ragip DURAN

Istanbul de notre correspondant

Occultée pendant quatre-vingt-dix ans par l’histoire officielle, la
mémoire arménienne ressurgit en Turquie. Les livres et les
expositions sur ce sujet rencontrent les faveurs du public. Alors que
la Turquie va entamer, à l’automne, ses négociations d’adhésion avec
l’Union européenne, un tabou est brisé.

Prénom changé. Le succès du livre de l’avocate Fethiye Çetin, Ma
grand-mère, en témoigne. Membre de la Commission des minorités du
barreau d’Istanbul, elle raconte comment elle a retrouvé les traces
de sa famille arménienne. «Je l’ai appris très tard. Ma grand-mère
était née arménienne, mais elle a été enterrée en musulmane. Quand
elle est morte, j’ai publié une petite nécrologie dans la revue
Harach, qui paraît en France, afin de retrouver mes parents perdus»,
raconte Fethiye Çetin. Le prêtre du village natal de sa grand-mère,
installé en France, se souvenait d’un lointain parent chrétien,
adopté par une famille musulmane en 1915 et qui avait changé son
prénom.

Autre exemple : l’exposition de cartes postales des années 1900-1914,
organisée à Istanbul mi-janvier, qui montrait, chiffres à l’appui et
ville par ville, l’omniprésence des communautés arméniennes sur le
territoire ottoman. «En Turquie, l’histoire a toujours été enseignée
par rapport au seul peuple turc, comme s’il n’y avait jamais eu que
lui sur ce territoire. Quand on parle des Arméniens, ils ne sont pas
décrits comme une partie intégrante de la société, mais comme une
source de problèmes», explique Osman Koker, directeur de
l’exposition. Même engouement pour le livre sur la gastronomie
arménienne de Takuhi Tovmasian, Bonne et joyeuse table. Souvenirs de
la cuisine de ma grand-mère. Des romans commencent aussi à sortir
comme, le Dernier Arménien, de Peter Najarian.

Si les élites commencent à débattre de la question arménienne, le
sujet reste quand même très sensible. Des historiens de Turquie et
d’Arménie, proches de leurs gouvernements respectifs, ont tenu des
réunions préparatoires afin d’échanger des documents officiels, mais
le manque de bonne volonté et de confiance a empêché la poursuite de
ce dialogue. Une délégation turque composée d’intellectuels de gauche
et islamiques, venue en décembre à Erevan, capitale de l’Arménie, y a
été relativement bien accueillie mais elle est rentrée sans aucun
résultat concret. Certaines initiatives laissent apparaître un léger
changement dans l’attitude des dirigeants d’Ankara. Le Premier
ministre, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, issu du mouvement islamiste, a ainsi
inauguré en décembre un Musée arménien à Istanbul, peu avant le
sommet européen de Bruxelles.

«Malgré ces petits changements, il reste encore beaucoup à faire au
niveau de l’Etat et de la société», estime Hirant Dink, directeur de
l’hebdomadaire Agos. Deux spécialistes turcs de la question
arménienne, Taner Akcam et Halil Berktay, dont les publications
démentent les thèses officielles d’Ankara, sont encore bannis des
milieux académiques et des médias. Dans l’imaginaire populaire, le
mot «Arménien» conserve une connotation péjorative. Par exemple, les
«terroristes séparatistes kurdes» étaient accusés par les grands
médias d’être des «rejetons d’Arméniens». Le chanteur Charles
Aznavour fut interdit d’antenne dans les années 70-80, parce qu’il
était de souche arménienne. Le film Ararat, du réalisateur canadien
d’origine arménienne Atom Egoyan, n’a pas pu être projeté en Turquie
malgré un visa officiel, car des groupuscules d’extrême droite
avaient menacé de brûler les salles de cinéma.

Lourd héritage. La reconnaissance, ces dernières années, du génocide
arménien de 1915 par une dizaine de pays, dont la France, a provoqué
un choc. La République turque, créée sept ans après la tragédie, n’a
toujours pas réussi à se situer par rapport à ce lourd héritage.
«Nous devons trouver une solution où il n’y aura ni perdant ni
gagnant», assure Hirant Dink. Les Arméniens de Turquie restent pour
la plupart sceptiques sur la position de la France, souhaitant faire
de la reconnaissance du «génocide» un préalable à l’adhésion turque à
l’UE. Chroniqueur au quotidien Zaman, l’écrivain Etyen Mahcupyan,
Arménien d’Istanbul, rappelle que «la population turque n’a pas
encore pleinement conscience du problème et, dans un tel contexte,
imposer une solution ne peut que susciter des réactions hostiles».

–Boundary_(ID_GTfFT+qtgnZbQo+Rubx5Ww)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

REPORT ON NAGORNY KARABAKH IN PACE AND LATER ADOPTION OF PACE
RESOLUTION DICTATED FROM WASHINGTON: RUBEN TOVMASIAN

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12. ARMINFO. The report of PACE Rapporteur on Nagorny
Karabakh David Atkinson and later adoption of the PACE resolution
were dictated from Washington. First Secretary of Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Armenia Ruben Tovmasian stated during the
news conference at the discussion club Azdak.

According to him, the recent events round the process of settlement of
the Karabakh problem are links of one chain – statements of Assistant
of State Secretary of the United states Elizabeth Jones, the report
and resolution of PACE, the arrival of the OSCE Monitoring mission –
all they took place by order of official Washington. The untalented
foreign political course of the incumbent authorities of Armenia
resulted in that “the ring round Armenia and Nagorny Karabakh is
being tightened”, the leader of Armenian communists stated.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE ONLY REAL REVOLUTIONARY PARTY IN ARMENIA IS CPA, THINKS LEADER
OF ARMENIAN COMMUNISTS

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12. ARMINFO. The only ideology the people believes
and has believed is the socialistic ideology, and the only real
revolutionary party is the Communist party of Armenia. First Secretary
of the Central Committee of CPA Ruben Tovmasian stated during the news
conference at the discussion club Azdak, commenting on the statement
of leader of the party “New Times” Aram Karapetian, according to which
the party New Times begins the process of national revolution in the
country in April 2005.

According to Tovmasian, the revolution is a hard process, and it is
necessary to get prepared for it thoroughly, and not declare about
it during the press conferences. Speaking about the current internal
situation in the country the leader of Armenian communists stated that
the social-economic situation in the country remains grave, the plunder
of the country is being continued, rates of unemployment and emigration
from the country increase. Socialism gave all and to everybody –
free apartments, job, medical service and education. Just that’s why
the people will follow only the Communist Party of Armenia, and nobody
else, the first secretary of CPA CC is sure. He also mentioned that
the Communist Party does not intend to join to anybody and become an
ally of a political bloc or federation – other political forces of
the republic must think to consolidate with the CPA”.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Condi’s Mideast roadmap is being influenced by whom!?
By Caroline B. Glick

Jewish World Review
February 9, 2005

As US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embarked on
her maiden voyage, it was reported that she departed
from America armed with a new policy paper on how to
implement the Quartet’s road map produced by the James
Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

According to Edward Djerejian, the former US
ambassador to Syria who directs the Baker Center, the
paper, with its detailed recommendations, is a “street
map to the road map.”

One of the things that make the paper significant is
that it bears former US secretary of state James
Baker’s name. Not only did Baker serve under the
president’s father, he now plays a formal role in
mobilizing international support for Iraqi
reconstruction efforts.

As well, the team that composed the report included
senior policy makers from the US, the Palestinian
Authority, Egypt, Canada and the World Bank. The US
was represented by current Assistant Secretary of
State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns as well
as by Norman Olsen, the political counselor at the US
embassy in Israel. The PA was represented by security
strongman Jibril Rajoub and by senior aides to Mahmoud
Abbas, Yasser Arafat and Ahmed Qurei. Egypt was
represented by Dictator Hosni Mubarak’s senior adviser
Osama El Baz and by General Hossam Khair Allah.

Israel had no official representation. Rather, the
Jewish state was represented by none other than Yossi
Beilin’s Geneva Accord crowd. Amnon Lipkin Shahak and
Shlomo Brom, signatories to that subversive agreement
where private citizens tried to abscond with the
government’s sovereign power to determine foreign
policy by negotiating the scandalously anti-Israel
“accord,” participated. They were joined by members of
Beilin’s EU-financed think tank, the Economic
Cooperation Foundation.

Not surprisingly, the product this team produced and
delivered to Rice is soft on Palestinian terrorism,
soft on Palestinian democratization, and relentlessly
harsh toward Israel — its sovereignty, its right to
defend itself, and its ability to claim any right to
retain any of the Israeli communities in Judea and
Samaria.

The document makes no clear statement on the need for
the Palestinians to dismantle terrorist organizations.
Indeed, the term “terror organizations” is absent from
the report. Instead, the Palestinian requirement to
combat terrorism is reduced to demands on Israel to
facilitate the training, arming and operation of the
“reformed” Palestinian security services while not
interfering with them in any way.

While the report pays lip service to the need for the
PA to reform its governing institutions, its only
clear statement on the end-product of reform is
unabashedly authoritarian. The aim of all the reforms
must be the “consolidat[ion of] Fatah as the main
political player in Palestinian society.”

While the report makes no call for the destruction of
Palestinian terror organizations and bucks up the
authoritarian, corrupt PA, it calls for Israel to be
treated with hostility and suspicion.

The paper calls for the establishment of a
multinational force that will implement the
agreements. Implicit in this statement is the
assumption that Israel will be prevented by the
presence of this force from taking any measures to
defend itself against attacks.

International border crossings in Gaza and Judea and
Samaria, including the weapons smuggling hub at the
Philadephi Corridor which separates Gaza from Egypt,
are to be controlled by the Palestinians. The report
gives Egyptian forces a more prominent role in
implementing the agreements than the IDF.

WHERE THE report’s anti-Israel bias is most blatant is
in its discussion of the Israeli communities in Judea
and Samaria. The authors refer to their desire to see
“The Palestinian people establish a viable state in
the West Bank and Gaza” and make it clear that a
precondition for the state’s viability is that it be
racially pure — entirely cleansed of Jewish
communities. At the same time, they express their
desire to “assure that Israel will continue to exist
as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people and
its other citizens.” So in the authors’ view, Israel
is to be a state of all of its citizens while
“Palestine” is to be Judenrein.

The report calls for the institution of a draconian
regime in the Defense Ministry and the Justice
Ministry to effectively prevent any building
activities whatsoever from being conducted in the
Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. This regime,
“The Special Office on Settlement Activities,” will be
obliged not simply to act as the enforcer of the
attrition of these communities. The report determines
that this body will be subordinate to the US embassy
in Israel — effectively ceding Israeli sovereignty to
the US.

The study even dares to dictate what propaganda moves
must be made by the Israeli government to force the
Israeli public to accept this policy. A close reading
makes it clear that the result of this policy will be
the expulsion of more than 400,000 Israeli Jews from
their homes. This is so because the destruction of
Israeli neighborhoods in Jerusalem is implicit in the
section’s opening paragraph, which mendaciously
claims: “The US government policy has been based on
the principle that there can be no acquisition of
territory by war.”

Not only does this sweeping and totally false
statement necessarily include Jerusalem; it can easily
be interpreted as saying that the only borders Israel
can legitimately claim are the UN partition borders
from 1947 since much of the land that makes up the
1949 armistice lines was acquired in war.

Perhaps it is reasonable that officials pushing a plan
that would cause Israel to effectively become the ward
of the international community should not feel limited
by the positions of the Israeli government as it makes
its plans — sufficing instead to have Israel
“represented” by radical free agents with Israeli
citizenship.

But two questions still arise: Why is the US
government sending its officials to participate in a
“working group” which works to undermine the
sovereignty of a US ally; and why is the Israeli
government not taking legal action against private
citizens who travel the world “negotiating” away the
sovereign rights of the state while undermining the
prerogatives of the Israeli government?

Jewish World Review contributor Caroline B. Glick is
the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for
Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy
managing editor of The Jerusalem Post.

–Boundary_(ID_U+8v2OK9IL7QKtjDWHHR1Q)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress