Israel's Awful Terrorist Pacts

TODAY, Israel is set to undertake an incredibly wrongheaded prisoner exchange with the terrorist group Hezbollah. It's just the latest move in a troubling trend of unequal deals between the Jewish state and its declared enemies.

The swap, approved overwhelmingly by the Israeli cabinet, has the Israelis handing over five Lebanese prisoners, including the notorious terrorist Samir Kuntar, plus the bodies of 199 Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists. In exchange, it will get two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 - though it's widely expected that it will only receive their remains - plus an 80-page Hezbollah report on captured Israeli airman Ron Arad. Excerpts of report released yesterday have revealed very little actual information, and the final product is likely to further disappoint.

But at least Israel is getting something in return. Consider another deal with terrorists - Israel's "truce" with the Hamas rulers of Gaza. Since the "truce" took effect on June 19, Israel has been hit by least 20 rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza.

What else can you expect from a group whose charter calls for Islam to "obliterate" Israel? Yet the Olmert government opted to "give peace a chance" with Hamas.

To be fair, Olmert was under great diplomatic pressure, including from the State Department. And Hamas, which pleaded for the truce, had pledged that all violence against Israel from Gaza would stop.

Indeed, Hamas isn't directly behind the launches. But, after the Islamic Jihad terrorist group claimed credit for the first missile volley of missiles, Hamas issued a statement saying that it wouldn't "police" the truce with Israel. In other words, You didn't really expect us to mean all violence, did you?

Israel should've expected no such thing. The last time it made a truce with Hamas, the terror group used the pause to smuggle vast amounts of weapons into Gaza from Egypt, including sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and Katyusha rockets. Hamas later used much of it against Israel - missiles that have killed and wounded dozens of Israelis in the last two years.

Now it's letting other terror groups launch attacks from its territory. After the Islamic Jihad strike came one from the Fatah-aligned al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. A mortar attack last Monday prompted Israel to close off all border crossings with Gaza, only to reopen them a day later at Egypt's urging.

Indeed, Israel has closed and reopened the borders with Gaza four times, despite Hamas' brazen violations of the truce.

Remember, Hamas is the government of Gaza responsible for what goes on there, including cross-border attacks.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has also announced that Hamas will continue its smuggling along the Egypt-Gaza border - which again should surprise no one, since Hamas clearly only wanted the "commitment to calm" so it could resupply and rebuild its infrastructure.

What did Israel gain from this truce? Nothing concrete, such as the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Merely Hamas' "promise" to enter into negotiations for another hugely unbalanced "prisoner swap," which will surely see Israel release dozens of Hamas operatives in exchange for Shalit.

This "truce" is eerily reminiscent of past Israeli agreements with the late Yasser Arafat, under similarly great international pressure. Despite Arafat's copious violations of the "peace" agreements, diplomatic pressure shielded him from major Israeli response.

Not only is Hamas failing to live up to its commitments in Gaza, it's still vigorously targeting Israeli civilians elsewhere: It recently claimed responsibility for a shooting attack that wounded three Israeli hikers north of Ramallah.

By continuing this charade, Israel is doing more than merely letting Hamas regroup and get away with murder. It's affording Hamas legitimacy that's likely to lead European governments to soften their already porous sanctions against the terror group, paving the way for public meetings with Hamas officials.

After all, if Israel can enter into an agreement with Hamas, why can't the Europeans?

So, as Hamas targets hikers in the West Bank and blatantly violates the "truce" in Gaza, perhaps the Israeli government will come to its senses and reconsider its deal with the devil.

Steven Emerson is executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, the largest US repository of intelligence, national security and terrorism documents and videos.

Is anyone responsible?

IPT News
July 16, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/721

That the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va. has been slow to remove troubling textbooks that teach that the killing of adulterers and apostates is acceptable in Islam is beyond dispute.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued a report in June which highlighted a series of disturbing passages in textbooks used at the Academy. It also noted that investigators have been unable to obtain a complete set of textbooks from the school despite promises of cooperation. The State Department has its own set of books, but has refused to share them with the Commission.

Other books still in use during the past academic year claim polytheism "makes blood and wealth permissible," which, according to the USCIRF report:

"in Islamic legal terms means that a Muslim can take the life and property of someone believed to be guilty of this alleged transgression with impunity. (Tawhid, Arabic/Sharia, 15) Under the Saudi interpretation of Islam, ‘major polytheists' include Shi'a and Sufi Muslims, who visit the shrines of their saints to ask for intercession with God on their behalf, as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists."

On Wednesday, the Hudson Institute detailed more troubling aspects of textbooks used by the Saudi Ministry of Education in a 90-page report, written in conjunction with the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs. Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington leads the school's board of directors and the Saudi Embassy owns one of the school's two properties. The Hudson report finds violent and intolerant teachings against other religious believers are unchanged since they were exposed in 2006. According to the report:

They assert that unbelievers, such as Christians, Jews, and Muslims who do not share Wahhabi beliefs and practices, are hated "enemies." Global jihad as an "effort to wage war against the unbelievers" is also promoted in the Ministry's textbooks: "In its general usage, 'jihad' is divided into the following categories: ...Wrestling with the infidels by calling them to the faith and battling against them." No argument is made here that such references to jihad mean only spiritual and defensive struggles.

Lessons remain that Jews and Christians are apes and swine, Jews conspire to "gain sole control over the world," the Christian Crusades never ended, the American universities of Cairo and Beirut are part of the continuing Crusades, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are historical fact, and on Judgment Day "the rocks or the trees" will call out to Muslims to kill the Jews.

But finding someone to take ownership of the issue is proving to be a challenge with no solution. Fairfax County's Board of Supervisors, which leases property to the school, punted to the State Department last month. State Department officials have been reluctant to exert any pressure to hasten any changes.

As the Washington Post reports, its own review of textbooks found one book that "still contained passages that extolled jihad and martyrdom, called for victory over one's enemies and said the killing of adulterers and apostates was ‘justified.'"

Now, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) has written a second letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, urging her to act. Wolf never received a response to his first letter, written June 24. The Post reports that Fairfax County's letter was met with equal silence at State. Wolf wants Rice to have State Department officials meet with the USCIRF to review the textbooks that the State Department possesses. Wolf writes:

With the start of the 2008 school year rapidly approaching, the timely resolution of this matter is of the utmost importance. If, in fact, the students at ISA are not being taught or exposed to texts that incite hatred and intolerance, then in all fairness to them and to the teachers and parents associated with the Academy, the cloud of suspicion presently surrounding the school should be lifted. If, however, the content of the textbooks is consistent with USCIRF's findings outlined in its June 11 report, then urgent action is required. Both scenarios require State Department involvement, in collaboration with USCIRF.

Wolf, the ranking member of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, which oversees the State Department and other international efforts, also asked Secretary Rice:

"If we can not be certain of what is being taught here at home in Saudi-affiliated schools, how can we take seriously their claims that the radical Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, which they have been known to propagate in educational institutions globally, is a thing of the past."

Congressman Wolf raises a very important question which deserves an answer, as do the other concerns he raises in both of his letters.