Yvonne,

I do sympathise with what your mother experienced. It must have been particularly frightening and uncertain for a teenage girl to be imprisoned in a concentration camp in Indonesia.

I was surprised anyone was reading this thread; no comment for quite a while other than between Gerit and myself.

The Riyadh Summit, 27/28 March this year held much promise to a peaceful Palestinian-Israeli solution - and still does. Yet, it is apparent that well financed groups don’t want a peaceful solution ... and “to hell” with their own people.

On the eve of this meeting, Abu Ubaida, the Hamas/Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesman, confirmed they fired dozens of rockets into Israel from north to south, adding a further total of 60 rockets and 61 mortar shells.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committees held a public march against any peace moves with Israel.

Delivered two days after the Riyadh Summit, Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan delivered a hate-filled sermon calling for the “liberation of Palestine” through terrorism rather than through inter-Arab and international conferences.

On April 24, Israel 's Independence Day, Hamas operatives launched a large-scale mortar attack in the southern part of the security road surrounding the Gaza Strip. Several Qassam rockets were fired on Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. Hamas wants nothing more than the destruction of Israel.

One spokesman said:

“We support the right of the Palestinian people to choose. They have chosen martyrdom. We support that choice.”

Another cynically added: ... “We support them and we’ll shoot them too.”

Many Palestinians, want peace and a separate Palestinian state. At present many need Israel to survive; they enter Israel to work, for which they receive exactly the same wage as Israelis. Understandably Palestinians are reticent to admit to holding politically incorrect opinions in areas ruled by gunmen.

At the end of the first intifada in the early 1990’s more Palestinians were killed by fellow Palestinians than in classes with Israeli security forces. During the
Palestinian war murder was again used to gag dissent; any who sought peace

cont ...

were labeled “collaborators, often murdered as seen in Shoebat’s site. This sent a message to anyone who dared cross those seeking Israel’s destruction A Palestinian need not be seeking peace, but just express opposition, or challenge an opinion of the ruling party. After student elections at Bir Zeit
University, Ramallah, an Islamic Bloc received more votes; the security forces opened fire on the crowd, wounding more than 100 students. Whilst no exact figures are available for Palestinians killed in internecine war, Amnesty International reported that scores have been murdered, yet none of the pertetrators brought to justice. The Independent Commission for Human Rights, a Palestinian organisation monitoring slayings of Palestinians by Palestinians recorded that by October of the year 2005, 151 Palestinians had already been killed. This was more than had died in clashes with Israeli troops. (Mohammed Daraghmeh, “Palestinian Vigilante Killings on the Rise,” Associated Press, October 6, 2005)

They are not “rag ‘n’ tail” terrorists, but very well financed and organised. Hamas and Fatah both have state-of-the-art, no cost denied, sophisticated communications/media systems such as TV, radio, press etc. Whilst Fatah recognises Israel’s right to exist, Hamas, and a number of other groups don’t. They promote virulent anti-Israeli propoganda. We all know how easily people are manipulated by the media - just look around us.

The Arab League have told these terrorists to recognize Israel, however, know they have no influence. In fact, one of the reasons Saudi Arabia is erecting its massive fence is that terrorists entered and detonated two car bombs in a major city.

When terrorists, sworn to the destruction of Israel, send rockets into Israel, kill fellow Palestinians, and are prepared to take such extra-ordinary actions as blowing up themselves, or their children - taking not only Israeli Jews with them, but also Israeli Muslims, also other Palestinians, extra-ordinary vigilence and measures have to be taken to prevent this.

Don’t you think that if Israel had the will to do so, it couldn’t put a stop to all this once and for all. But it hasn’t, because it acts as a democratic Western nation.

Danielle,

I found your postings very interesting to read but as I have been spending the entire day postings on my blog about CIVIL RIGHTS-DR HANEED-etc I am not going to do any further posting for this night, other then this brief posting.

It is terrible that we are heading for a CIVIL-UNREST if not CIVIL-WAR because the Federal Government is hell bend, so to say, to disregard the RULE OF LAW.

First they hold Dr Haneef unconstitutionally, and then when they no longer can they charge him but fail in their bid to oppose bail, so then they cancel his visa to get him nevertheless incarcerated, again unconstitutional.
Now, as Dr. Haneef by an order of the Court must remain in the Commonwealth of Australia then the cancellation of the visa had no effect as he is lawfully in the Commonwealth of Australia by order of the magistrate!

In any event, constitutionally, without Court order, the Minister for Immigration has no powers to enforce his decision to detain Dr. Haneef.

Not that the minister for immigration seems to care less about this and this is the problem as if a Minister doesn’t care about following the RULE OF LAW and DUE PROCESS OF LAW then how can we expect others to do so?

I have added more onto my blog and you may find some interesting reading about this and other matters.

My (late) father used to explain to me that the Dutch were worse then the Germans as the Dutch murdered many, in what is now called Indonesia, just after the Second World War. He didn’t like what the Germans did but he also pointed out that the Dutch were not any better, regardless of having more then a thousand years of Dutch heritage with even a town in the family name (SCHOREL but now for the last 200 years named SCHOORL) with St Michaels the dragon slayer in our family crest.

My (late) father taught me, since childhood, that all people are entitled to the same rights and dignity regardless of race, colour of skin, religion. If-just-this-lesson-was-understood-by-mankind-we-may-have-a-lot-less-killings-going-on.