This week, the Prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu controversially addressed the US  Congress. Here is the full text of his speech, courtesy of the Embassy of Israel:

“Speaker of the House John Boehner,

President Pro Tem Senator Orrin Hatch,

Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi,

And House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy,

I also want to acknowledge Senator, Democratic Leader Harry Reid. Harry, it’s good to see you back on your feet. I guess it’s true what they say, you can’t keep a good man down.

My friends, I’m deeply humbled by the opportunity to speak for a third time before the most important legislative body in the world, the U.S. Congress. I want to thank you all for being here today. I know that my speech has been the subject of much controversy. I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political. That was never my intention.

I want to thank you, Democrats and Republicans, for your common support for Israel, year after year, decade after decade. I know that no matter on which side of the aisle you sit, you stand with Israel. The remarkable alliance between Israel and the United States has always been above politics. It must always remain above politics. Because America and Israel, we share a common destiny, the destiny of promised lands that cherish freedom and offer hope. Israel is grateful for the support of America’s people and of America’s presidents, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama.

We appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel. Now, some of that is widely known. Some of that is widely known, like strengthening security cooperation and intelligence sharing, opposing anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N.

Some of what the president has done for Israel is less well-known. I called him in 2010 when we had the Carmel forest fire, and he immediately agreed to respond to my request for urgent aid. In 2011, we had our embassy in Cairo under siege, and again, he provided vital assistance at the crucial moment. Or his support for more missile interceptors during our operation last summer when we took on Hamas terrorists. In each of those moments, I called the president, and he was there.

And some of what the president has done for Israel might never be known, because it touches on some of the most sensitive and strategic issues that arise between an American president and an Israeli prime minister. But I know it, and I will always be grateful to President Obama for that support.

And Israel is grateful to you, the American Congress, for your support, for supporting us in so many ways, especially in generous military assistance and missile defense, including Iron Dome. Last summer, millions of Israelis were protected from thousands of Hamas rockets because this capital dome helped build our Iron Dome.

Thank you, America. Thank you for everything you’ve done for Israel.
My friends,

I’ve come here today because, as Prime Minister of Israel, I feel a profound obligation to speak to you about an issue that could well threaten the survival of my country and the future of my people: Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons.

We’re an ancient people. In our nearly 4,000 years of history, many have tried repeatedly to destroy the Jewish people. Tomorrow night, on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we’ll read the Book of Esther. We’ll read of a powerful Persian viceroy named Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish people some 2,500 years ago. But a courageous Jewish woman, Queen Esther, exposed the plot and gave for the Jewish people the right to defend themselves against their enemies. The plot was foiled. Our people were saved.

Today the Jewish people face another attempt by yet another Persian potentate to destroy us. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei spews the oldest hatred, the oldest hatred of antisemitism with the newest technology. He tweets that Israel must be annihilated – he tweets. You know, in Iran, there isn’t exactly free Internet. But he tweets in English that Israel must be destroyed.

For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state, but not the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran’s chief terrorist proxy. He said: If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world.

But Iran’s regime is not merely a Jewish problem, any more than the Nazi regime was merely a Jewish problem. The 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis were but a fraction of the 60 million people killed in World War II. So, too, Iran’s regime poses a grave threat, not only to Israel, but also the peace of the entire world. To understand just how dangerous Iran would be with nuclear weapons, we must fully understand the nature of the regime. The people of Iran are very talented people. They’re heirs to one of the world’s great civilizations. But in 1979, they were hijacked by religious zealots – religious zealots who imposed on them immediately a dark and brutal dictatorship.

That year, the zealots drafted a constitution, a new one for Iran. It directed the revolutionary guards not only to protect Iran’s borders, but also to fulfill the ideological mission of jihad. The regime’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, exhorted his followers to ‘export the revolution throughout the world.’

I’m standing here in Washington, D.C. and the difference is so stark. America’s founding document promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Iran’s founding document pledges death, tyranny, and the pursuit of jihad. And as states are collapsing across the Middle East, Iran is charging into the void to do just that.

Iran’s goons in Gaza, its lackeys in Lebanon, its revolutionary guards on the Golan Heights are clutching Israel with three tentacles of terror. Backed by Iran, Assad is slaughtering Syrians. Backed by Iran, Shiite militias are rampaging through Iraq. Backed by Iran, Houthis are seizing control of Yemen, threatening the strategic straits at the mouth of the Red Sea. Along with the Straits of Hormuz, that would give Iran a second choke-point on the world’s oil supply. Just last week, near Hormuz, Iran carried out a military exercise blowing up a mock U.S. aircraft carrier. That’s just last week, while they’re having nuclear talks with the United States. But unfortunately, for the last 36 years, Iran’s attacks against the United States have been anything but mock. And the targets have been all too real.

Iran took dozens of Americans hostage in Tehran, murdered hundreds of American soldiers, Marines, in Beirut, and was responsible for killing and maiming thousands of American service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Beyond the Middle East, Iran attacks America and its allies through its global terror network. It blew up the Jewish community center and the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. It helped al-Qaeda bomb U.S. embassies in Africa. It even attempted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, right here in Washington, D.C.

In the Middle East, Iran now dominates four Arab capitals, Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa. And if Iran’s aggression is left unchecked, more will surely follow.

So, at a time when many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations. We must all stand together to stop Iran’s march of conquest, subjugation and terror.

Now, two years ago, we were told to give President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif a chance to bring change and moderation to Iran. Some change! Some moderation! Rouhani’s government hangs gays, persecutes Christians, jails journalists and executes even more prisoners than before.

Last year, the same Zarif who charms Western diplomats laid a wreath at the grave of Imad Mughniyeh. Imad Mughniyeh is the terrorist mastermind who spilled more American blood than any other terrorist besides Osama bin Laden. I’d like to see someone ask him a question about that.

Iran’s regime is as radical as ever, its cries of “Death to America,” that same America that it calls the “Great Satan,” as loud as ever. Now, this shouldn’t be surprising, because the ideology of Iran’s revolutionary regime is deeply rooted in militant Islam, and that’s why this regime will always be an enemy of America.

Don’t be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn’t turn Iran into a friend of America. Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. One calls itself the Islamic Republic. The other calls itself the Islamic State. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire first on the region and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves who will be the ruler of that empire.

In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no peace for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone. So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy.

The difference is that ISIS is armed with butcher knives, captured weapons and YouTube, whereas Iran could soon be armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs. We must always remember – I’ll say it one more time – the greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen.

But that, my friends, is exactly what could happen, if the deal now being negotiated is accepted by Iran. That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them.

Let me explain why. While the final deal has not yet been signed, certain elements of any potential deal are now a matter of public record. You don’t need intelligence agencies and secret information to know this. You can Google it. Absent a dramatic change, we know for sure that any deal with Iran will include two major concessions to Iran.

The first major concession would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure, providing it with a short breakout time to the bomb. Breakout time is the time it takes to amass enough weapons-grade uranium or plutonium for a nuclear bomb.

According to the deal, not a single nuclear facility would be demolished. Thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium would be left spinning. Thousands more would be temporarily disconnected, but not destroyed.

Because Iran’s nuclear program would be left largely intact, Iran’s breakout time would be very short – about a year by U.S. assessment, even shorter by Israel’s.

And if Iran’s work on advanced centrifuges, faster and faster centrifuges, is not stopped, that breakout time could still be shorter, a lot shorter.

True, certain restrictions would be imposed on Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s adherence to those restrictions would be supervised by international inspectors. But here’s the problem. You see, inspectors document violations; they don’t stop them.

Inspectors knew when North Korea broke to the bomb, but that didn’t stop anything. North Korea turned off the cameras, kicked out the inspectors. Within a few years, it got the bomb.

Now, we’re warned that within five years North Korea could have an arsenal of 100 nuclear bombs.

Like North Korea, Iran, too, has defied international inspectors. It’s done that on at least three separate occasions – 2005, 2006, 2010. Like North Korea, Iran broke the locks, shut off the cameras. Now, I know this is not going to come as a shock to any of you, but Iran not only defies inspectors, it also plays a pretty good game of hide-and-cheat with them.

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, said again yesterday that Iran still refuses to come clean about its military nuclear program. Iran was also caught – caught twice, not once, twice – operating secret nuclear facilities in Natanz and Qom, facilities that inspectors didn’t even know existed.

Right now, Iran could be hiding nuclear facilities that we don’t know about, the U.S. and Israel. As the former head of inspections for the IAEA said in 2013, he said, ‘If there’s no undeclared installation today in Iran, it will be the first time in 20 years that it doesn’t have one.’ Iran has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted. And that’s why the first major concession is a source of great concern. It leaves Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure and relies on inspectors to prevent a breakout. That concession creates a real danger that Iran could get to the bomb by violating the deal.

But the second major concession creates an even greater danger that Iran could get to the bomb by keeping the deal. Because virtually all the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program will automatically expire in about a decade. Now, a decade may seem like a long time in political life, but it’s the blink of an eye in the life of a nation. It’s a blink of an eye in the life of our children. We all have a responsibility to consider what will happen when Iran’s nuclear capabilities are virtually unrestricted and all the sanctions will have been lifted. Iran would then be free to build a huge nuclear capacity that could produce many, many nuclear bombs.

Iran’s Supreme Leader says that openly. He says Iran plans to have 190,000 centrifuges, not 6,000 or even the 19,000 that Iran has today, but 10 times that amount – 190,000 centrifuges enriching uranium. With this massive capacity, Iran could make the fuel for an entire nuclear arsenal and this in a matter of weeks, once it makes that decision.

My long-time friend, John Kerry, Secretary of State, confirmed last week that Iran could legitimately possess that massive centrifuge capacity when the deal expires.

Now I want you to think about that. The foremost sponsor of global terrorism could be weeks away from having enough enriched uranium for an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons and this with full international legitimacy.

And by the way, if Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile program is not part of the deal, and so far, Iran refuses to even put it on the negotiating table. Well, Iran could have the means to deliver that nuclear arsenal to the far-reaching corners of the Earth, including to every part of the United States. So you see, my friends, this deal has two major concessions: one, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program and two, lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade. That’s why this deal is so bad. It doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb; it paves Iran’s path to the bomb.

So why would anyone make this deal? Because they hope that Iran will change for the better in the coming years, or they believe that the alternative to this deal is worse?

Well, I disagree. I don’t believe that Iran’s radical regime will change for the better after this deal. This regime has been in power for 36 years, and its voracious appetite for aggression grows with each passing year. This deal would only whet Iran’s appetite for more.

Would Iran be less aggressive when sanctions are removed and its economy is stronger? If Iran is gobbling up four countries right now while it’s under sanctions, how many more countries will Iran devour when sanctions are lifted? Would Iran fund less terrorism when it has mountains of cash with which to fund more terrorism?

Why should Iran’s radical regime change for the better when it can enjoy the best of both worlds: aggression abroad, prosperity at home?

This is a question that everyone asks in our region. Israel’s neighbors, Iran’s neighbors, know that Iran will become even more aggressive and sponsor even more terrorism when its economy is unshackled and it’s been given a clear path to the bomb. And many of these neighbors say they’ll respond by racing to get nuclear weapons of their own. So this deal won’t change Iran for the better; it will only change the Middle East for the worse. A deal that’s supposed to prevent nuclear proliferation would instead spark a nuclear arms race in the most dangerous part of the planet.

This deal won’t be a farewell to arms. It would be a farewell to arms control. And the Middle East would soon be crisscrossed by nuclear tripwires. A region where small skirmishes can trigger big wars would turn into a nuclear tinderbox.

If anyone thinks this deal kicks the can down the road, think again. When we get down that road, we’ll face a much more dangerous Iran, a Middle East littered with nuclear bombs and a countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare.
Ladies and gentlemen,

I’ve come here today to tell you we don’t have to bet the security of the world on the hope that Iran will change for the better. We don’t have to gamble with our future and with our children’s future.

We can insist that restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program not be lifted for as long as Iran continues its aggression in the region and in the world. Before lifting those restrictions, the world should demand that Iran do three things. First, stop its aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East. Second, stop supporting terrorism around the world. And third, stop threatening to annihilate my country, Israel, the one and only Jewish state.

If the world powers are not prepared to insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal is signed, at the very least they should insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal expires. If Iran changes its behavior, the restrictions would be lifted. If Iran doesn’t change its behavior, the restrictions should not be lifted. If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country.
My friends,
What about the argument that there’s no alternative to this deal, that Iran’s nuclear know-how cannot be erased, that its nuclear program is so advanced that the best we can do is delay the inevitable, which is essentially what the proposed deal seeks to do?

Well, nuclear know-how without nuclear infrastructure doesn’t get you very much. A racecar driver without a car can’t drive. A pilot without a plane can’t fly. Without thousands of centrifuges, tons of enriched uranium or heavy water facilities, Iran can’t make nuclear weapons.

Iran’s nuclear program can be rolled back well-beyond the current proposal by insisting on a better deal and keeping up the pressure on a very vulnerable regime, especially given the recent collapse in the price of oil.

Now, if Iran threatens to walk away from the table – and this often happens in a Persian bazaar – call their bluff. They’ll be back, because they need the deal a lot more than you do.

And by maintaining the pressure on Iran and on those who do business with Iran, you have the power to make them need it even more. My friends, for over a year, we’ve been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, this is a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. We’re better off without it.

Now we’re being told that the only alternative to this bad deal is war. That’s just not true. The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal: a better deal that doesn’t leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure and such a short breakout time; a better deal that keeps the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in place until Iran’s aggression ends; a better deal that won’t give Iran an easy path to the bomb; a better deal that Israel and its neighbors may not like, but with which we could live, literally. And no country has a greater stake – no country has a greater stake than Israel in a good deal that peacefully removes this threat.
Ladies and gentlemen,

History has placed us at a fateful crossroads. We must now choose between two paths. One path leads to a bad deal that will at best curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions for a while, but it will inexorably lead to a nuclear-armed Iran whose unbridled aggression will inevitably lead to war. The second path, however difficult, could lead to a much better deal, that would prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclearized Middle East and the horrific consequences of both to all of humanity.

You don’t have to read Robert Frost to know. You have to live life to know that the difficult path is usually the one less traveled, but it will make all the difference for the future of my country, the security of the Middle East and the peace of the world, the peace we all desire.

My friends, standing up to Iran is not easy. Standing up to dark and murderous regimes never is. With us today is Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Elie, your life and work inspires to give meaning to the words, ‘Never Again.’ And I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history have been learned. I can only urge the leaders of the world not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Not to sacrifice the future for the present; not to ignore aggression in the hopes of gaining an illusory peace.

But I can guarantee you this, the days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves.

This is why as Prime Minister of Israel, I can promise you one more thing: Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But I know that Israel does not stand alone. I know that America stands with Israel. I know that you stand with Israel. You stand with Israel because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors.

Facing me right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us in this chamber is the image of Moses. Moses led our people from slavery to the gates of the Promised Land. And before the people of Israel entered the Land of Israel, Moses gave us a message that has steeled our resolve for thousands of years. I leave you with his message today, ‘Be strong and resolute, neither fear nor dread them.’

My friends, may Israel and America always stand together, strong and resolute. May we neither fear nor dread the challenges ahead. May we face the future with confidence, strength and hope.

May God bless the State of Israel and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you. You’re wonderful. Thank you, America.”

Sue Fea, Queenstown Mirror

SURVIVOR SPEAKS ABOUT HOLOCAUST

BY SUE FEA

QUEENSTOWN MIRROR, AUGUST 6, 2014

As a Jewish child he survived the Holocaust and now Lithuanian born Daniel Gold carries a tale of terror around the world, teaching the younger generation about the devastating consequences of racism.

Mr Gold in his late 70s will speak at a public meeting at St Margaret’s Presbyterian Church in Frankton tomorrow night at 7.30pm for a gold coin donation. He’ll also speak to students at Wakatipu High School on Friday.

Queenstown “Friends of Israel” coordinator Conny Vangronsvelt said, Mr Gold was hidden by his parents in 1943 during World War II when “actions” were carried out in the ghettos around Lithuania.

“All the old and weak people and children, were rounded up and sent to their deaths,” she said. “Parents tired to hide their children, but only a few remained undetected. Daniel and a few of his cousins were among them.”

She said the present unrest in Europe and on the Gaza Strip shows that the world has not learned the lesson about ethnic intolerance yet.

“Anti-Semitism is on the rise – it’s not extinct,” Mrs Vangronsvelt, a non-Jewish German who has lived in Israel said.

“There are daily demonstrations going on in Germany carrying terrible slogans like, “Hitler didn’t finish the job.””

“We have Israeli and Jewish friends who own shops in Israel, and whenever there’s a demonstration the police tell them to cover their windows,” she said.

Mr Gold’s tour, which takes in schools and universities in Auckland, Wellington Christchurch and Queenstown, is being organised by the Zionist Federation of New Zealand and New Zealand Friends of Israel. It’s his first visit to New Zealand and if time allows he may also speak at Cromwell College, Mrs Vangronsvelt said.

A professor of medical microbiology, Mr Gold who lives in Israel, retired eight years ago, but continues to teach medical students voluntarily.

One of the few remaining survivors of the Holocaust, Mrs Vangronsvelt said his mission was to teach history students and young people around the world about the Holocaust, bringing history books alive with his powerful firsthand account.

“He’s very passionate about communicating to the next generation about racism and prejudice.”

While in the Wakatipu he will officially open the travelling “Shadows of Shoah” Holocaust exhibition at Lakes District Museum on August 8.

• Anyone interested in attending the invitation only opening should contact the museum on 442 1824.

Sammy Eppel, activist and director of The Commission for Human Rights at B’nai B’rith Venezuela, said on Monday that anti-Semitism in Latin America has significantly increased in recent years.

“The problem is that there is big damage that has been done in the last 12, 10  years,” he said. “I was born in Venezuela and I lived there all my life and I never felt anti-Semitism from anybody… we were never discriminated and all of a sudden in 2004, it explodes.”

Eppel made his comments as a panelist at a special conference held at the United Nations in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In 2006, he said, the Venezuelan Jewish community had to open an office and hire five professionals to monitor anti-Semitism in government and government-sponsored media.

In April 2011, while former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was in Cuba undergoing treatment for various health problems, a correspondent for Venezuela’s national radio, Radio Nacional de Venezuela, did a series of programs promoting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The book, which is the second most printed publication in the Arab world after the Koran, describes a popular anti-Semitic notion that the Jewish people are planning global domination. The book is also available at book fairs in Venezuela promoted by the government, Eppel added.

“I’d never heard of the Protocols before 15 years ago. You couldn’t find it in Latin America before. Now, you see it all over the place,” he said. “It’s official literature for [Arab] schools, for their people…When they come to Latin America, they bring it with them.”

Eppel explained that while Venezuelan President Maduro, elected in 2013, pledged that he will not allow anti-Semitic behavior in his country, the damage has already been done in many areas. Hatred toward Jews has even seeped into Venezuela’s government.

“Why would a politician be demonized or be deemed not fit for public office for the fact of being Jewish? That’s anti-Semitism. That’s discrimination,” said Eppel, who is also a political analyst and journalist. “In Venezuela it happened that a Catholic, a practicing Catholic, he happened to have two Jewish grandparents, and because of that he was disqualified. I mean that’s very nasty stuff.”

The discrimination is prevalent across Latin America. Eppel pointed out that less than a month ago, on Good Friday, Madrid’s ABC ran an op-ed claiming that during Holy Week, Jews would kill Christian children, and extract their blood to make matzahs for Passover. Eppel expressed frustration over the limited response it received.

“You would think that the entire country of Spain would’ve risen to condemn this. Nobody did,” he said.

Eppel also stressed that “one of the big disturbances” in Latin America is Iran’s activism in the region as it works to spread its radical and anti-Semitic ideology.

The Islamic Republic operates a television station in Spanish that “spews venom” about Jews, according to Eppel. They are also taking over Arab and Christian institutions in Latin America and converting them into anti-Semitic establishments, he said.

“There seems to be a marriage between the extreme right, represented  by the Iranians and their Fascist type… of government, and the extreme left,” he said about Iran’s relations in Latin America. “They got together and said ‘well, the only thing that we all agree is that we have to bash Israel, we have to bash Zionism and we have to bash the Jews.’ ”

In Latin America, many terrorist groups are seen as ‘resistance movements’ and their members are identified as ‘freedom fighters,’ and are therefore recipients of aid.

The Latin American Parliament has adopted a comprehensive declaration against anti-Semitism, and Eppel hopes it becomes law one day. He called for government action in the form of legislation, to ensure that discrimination against Jews does not continue to expand in the region.

“I believe that the only answer to this situation is education and legislation,” he said. “After you enact the legislation, you have to train the police, you have to train the district attorneys, the judges to actually recognize that crime and how to prosecute it and how to go about it. That’s why legislation is important.”

“If we don’t have those two things – education and legislation – we are not going to succeed, at least in Latin America.”

Source:  Algemeiner:  May 1, 2014

CROWLEY: Joining me now is Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr. Prime Minister, as always, we thank you for being here.

I want to start with the fact that Israel is involved in its annual commemoration this day of the Holocaust. And in advance of that, Palestinian President Abbas issued a statement calling the Holocaust — and I quote here — “the most heinous crime in the modern era.” He expressed sympathies for the victims of the Holocaust.

What do you make of that?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, I try to reconcile that with the fact that he embraced just a few days ago the Hamas terrorist organization that denies the Holocaust and openly calls for a new extermination of the six million Jews in Israel.

So, President Abbas can’t have it both ways. He can’t say the Holocaust was terrible, but at the same time embrace those who deny the Holocaust and seek to perpetrate another destruction of the Jewish people.

I think probably what he’s trying to do is damage control. I think what President Abbas is trying to do is to placate Western public opinion that understands that he delivered a terrible blow to the peace process by embracing these Hamas terrorists. And I think he’s trying to wiggle his way out of it.

CROWLEY: He is also quoted in today’s “Jerusalem Post” as talking about this new unity government with Hamas, and saying: “The government reports to me and follows my policies. I recognize Israeli, and so will the government. I renounce violence and terrorism, and I recognize international legitimacy, and so will the government.”

So, essentially, he’s saying: This is still going to be my government. It still is going to follow what I have observed and what I have said.

What do you make of that, and do you believe him? And, if you do, is it enough to bring you back to the table?

NETANYAHU: Look, I will not, as the prime minister of Israel, negotiate with a government that is backed by the Hamas terror organization committed to our destruction.

Neither would you. You designate Hamas, the U.S., as a terrorist organization. It sends thousands of rockets into Israel. It sends scores of suicide bombers. It praised the murder of a father of five the other week on the way to a Passover dinner, praised it. They praised bin Laden when he was alive as a holy warrior and condemned the United States when you killed bin Laden.

This is one of the most preeminent terrorist organizations of our time. And, obviously, the U.S. abhors it, as we do. And nobody expects us to negotiate with a government that is backed by it.

Now, the statement that, well, I will put forward, even though I’m — I’m in national unity with Hamas, I’m putting forward in the front office more respectable people, we know that gambit. It’s the back office/front office gambit. In the back office, the mafia sits. In the front office, you have respectable lawyers.

We’re not going to buy that trick. We will not negotiate with a government backed by Hamas, unless Hamas had changed its position or unless Hamas said, oh, I’m willing to recognize Israel.

But Hamas, including after this pact with Abbas, is saying the very opposite. It’s saying, Israel is going to be destroyed; we will continue the terror campaign against Israel.

This is the partner that President Abbas has now joined. And I call on President Abbas, tear up your pact with Hamas. Recognize the Jewish state. Come back to a real peace process.

CROWLEY: One of the criticisms, Mr. Prime Minister, has been that, prior to this, when you were dealing with Abbas, you had said, look, I don’t know who I’m supposed to negotiate with. There’s Hamas and then there’s Abbas and Fatah.

So, now there’s a unity government, and you still don’t want to talk to them. So, there’s criticism here that this was an excuse for you to walk away.

NETANYAHU: Sorry, Candy. Whoa.

CROWLEY: Go ahead.

NETANYAHU: No, Candy. No, no. I’m sorry.

I heard that. I hear people write that up, but, in fact, it’s the very opposite. I said right from the start, I said, look, I could wait until President Abbas recognizes — represents the entire Palestinian people. But, in this case, we will wait until eternity, and we won’t have peace.

So, I chose deliberately, openly, specifically, and explicitly to negotiate with that part of the Palestinian people that said it was willing to make peace with Israel. I said, we’re not going to try to include the other part that seeks our extermination. And that’s what I did.

I have been very consistent on this. Now that he’s joined them, I say this. Look, unity for peace is good. Unity with Hamas that seeks to exterminate Israel, the opposite of peace, is bad. I have always been consistent on this.

I negotiate with those who are willing to make peace with my country. I will not negotiate with those who seek to exterminate peace with my country, whether they sit in the front office or the back office. That’s not where I’m going to go. CROWLEY: So, as I understand you, what you’re saying is: First, for me to come back to the table in any way, shape or form, Hamas or a representative — a top representative of Hamas would have to renounce violence and recognize Israel, or Abbas will have to not have a unity government.

Is that how I read you?

NETANYAHU: I think that’s a fair — that’s a fair summation.

Either Hamas disavows the destruction of Israel and embraces peace and denounces terror, or President Abbas renounces Hamas. If one of those things happens, then we can get back to the peace negotiations. I hope that he renounces Hamas. I hope that he gets back to the peace table, as I have just said.

CROWLEY: Do you need the United States…

NETANYAHU: The ball is in his court. It’s his decision.

CROWLEY: Do you need the United States to broker an ultimate deal?

NETANYAHU: I think the United States has been indispensable in all the peace negotiations that we have had up to now.

It doesn’t obviate the need for genuine, direct contact between the parties, but it can help a lot and I appreciate Secretary Kerry’s unbelievable efforts. They don’t always succeed. And, unfortunately, President Abbas made sure of that by embracing Hamas.

But I have to credit John Kerry for his efforts. I still hope that we will find a way to peace. You know, if we can’t get it through a negotiated agreement because of the composition of the Palestinian government, then we will seek other ways.

I’m not going to — I’m not going to accept a stalemate. I won’t accept a Palestinian state that is another Iranian offshoot of Iran firing missiles into our cities. This is what has happened with Hamas and Gaza. But I do seek a two-state-for-two-peoples solution. If I can’t have it right away with a Palestinian — this Palestinian government, then we will seek other ways.

I’m — I called on my cabinet ministers today, and I said, we’re going to take time out now for reassessment and try and figure out alternative paths to peace. But the simplest way to get back to the peace process is have President Abbas renounce the pact with Hamas and come back to negotiations.

CROWLEY: Mr. Prime Minister, finally, in September of 2012, you told me that you thought Iran was probably six to nine months away from being able to have full nuclear weapon capability. Where is it now?

NETANYAHU: I didn’t say weapon capability. I said nuclear- enriched material. CROWLEY: Nuclear-enriched, yes, sir.

NETANYAHU: That is fissile material for a bomb.

They’re about two months away. And they’d like — they’d like to be — to stay two months away. They have been under terrific sanctions pressure. There was an interim deal. Now they’re seeking a deal that would keep them more or less where they are. In other words, they will be a few months away — or they might be set back a few months from producing enough nuclear material for a bomb.

And, in exchange, they will have all the sanctions removed. That’s a terrible deal. It would keep Iran as a threshold nation that is capable of crossing the nuclear threshold at the time of their choosing within weeks or months. That would endanger the entire world. It would endanger you.

They’re developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to put nuclear bombs on those missiles for you. Don’t let it happen.

CROWLEY: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thank you for your time this morning.

Source: CNN

Israeli dance troupe’s Wellington performance protested

6:34 PM Sunday Feb 23, 2014

Protestors objected to the performance of Israeli dance group Batsheva.

A protest outside a performance of a visiting Israeli dance troupe prompted five people to avoid the show, protest organiser John Minto says.

Mr Minto was part of a 40-strong protest group outside Wellington’s St James theatre yesterday evening objecting to the performance of Israeli dance group Batsheva.

“It is an apartheid state. Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship – they’re not regarded as nationals of Israel. To be a national of Israel, you have to be Jewish and so you have a whole network of laws that follow through from that which actually discriminate against Arab-Israelis.”

The protest group, which are part of a the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign supporting Palestinian rights, faced-off with a group of Israeli supporters outside the theatre.

David Zwartz, a member of the Wellington Jewish Community, was among about 40 Israeli supporters.

“Police asked us to stand on one side, and the Minto crowd stood on the other side of the entranceway,” he said.

Allegations that Israel was an apartheid state were racist and unfounded, he said.

“Israel is a democratic state where all the citizens have equal rights under the law.”

There are no laws discriminating against Arab-Israelis in Israel which compare to those that determined how blacks and coloured people were treated in apartheid South Africa, he said.

Mr Minto told APNZ a family of three, and two other people decided not to attend last night’s Batsheva performance after seeing the protest.

While the group had two more performances in Wellington, no further protests had been planned, he said.

– APNZ

NY Times, 6 January 2014

Israeli Official Points to ‘Incitement’ by Palestinians

By JODI RUDOREN

JERUSALEM — Adolf Hitler is quoted on the websites of Palestinian Authority schools. A young girl appears on Palestinian television, describing Jews as “barbaric monkeys, wretched pigs” and the “murderers of Muhammad,” the Islamic prophet. Maps on the Facebook page of the Palestinian presidential guards do not show Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas himself embraced as “heroes” released Palestinian prisoners who killed Israelis.

These are among dozens of examples highlighted by Israeli officials in a new presentation documenting negative statements about Israel and Jews in official Palestinian Authority media and textbooks. As Secretary of State John Kerry departed here on Monday after an intense four-day push for a framework agreement outlining prospects for a peace deal, Israeli leaders said that such statements had not abated since negotiations began this summer and did not bode well.

“The general phenomenon is very clear: They are poisoning Palestinian children with deep hatred of Israel and the Jewish people,” Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, said on Monday as he showed the presentation to international reporters. “At the end of the day, let’s assume we’ll be able to resolve all the technical issues, which are extremely complicated. Are we going to get genuine peace, or just a piece of paper?”

The presentation, which Mr. Steinitz delivered at an Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday, is part of an intensifying campaign in which he, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others have emphasized what they call “incitement” as a prime obstacle to peace. It underpins their increasing demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, which they argue is the only way they will be assured that an agreement will end the long-running conflict.

Palestinian leaders dismiss the renewed focus on incitement as a ruse to distract from disagreements over issues including borders, the future of Jerusalem and the rights of refugees. They say that Israel has refused to reconvene a committee, which included Americans, that was established in 1998 to deal with incitement but disbanded after two years and about 20 meetings.

“If there is any incitement against Israel, this is a forum where they can provide it officially, and we can do the same,” said Majdi Khaldi, a diplomatic adviser to Mr. Abbas. “Why do we have to continue just complaints from one to the other? It’s better for all to go to the trilateral committee, and that will solve the whole issue.”

Asked about reviving the committee, Mr. Steinitz said Monday that it had been “completely useless” and would not help because the problems were coming from Palestinian government sources, not rogue individuals.

Mr. Khaldi says the problems go both ways. He pointed out that Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has repeatedly accused Mr. Abbas of “diplomatic terrorism,” and said he also saw Israel’s continued construction in West Bank settlements and military raids on Palestinian cities as forms of incitement.

Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization, noted that weather maps in Israeli newspapers do not demarcate Palestinian territory, just as maps cited in Mr. Steinitz’s report do not show the land divided.

Incitement is an issue as old as the conflict itself. An unusually comprehensive recent study of Israeli and Palestinian Authority textbooks found that each presented the other side as the enemy, but that the Palestinian books contained more negative characterizations. David Pollock, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who in September published a 172-page study of the issue, said that while incitement had decreased markedly since the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, a decade ago, it persists.

“There are ups and downs, there are exceptions,” Mr. Pollock said in an interview, “but unfortunately I think it is true that the official Palestinian media continue to incite against Israel and to claim that all of Palestine belongs to the Palestinians. There’s almost no positive discussion of peace, two peoples, any of that sort of favorable or even just moderate messages about Israel.”

On the Israeli side, Mr. Pollock said, “what you have are unofficial, extremist fringe individuals” whose statements are “disowned and discouraged, for the most part,” by government leaders.

Mr. Steinitz’s ministry has four people working full time tracking incitement, and since 2009 it has issued quarterly reports trying to quantify it. Mr. Steinitz said that numbers for the fall of 2013 were not yet available, but that “amazingly, surprisingly, since the resumption of the negotiations we see even more incidents.”

On the Nov. 2 anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which Britain endorsed the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine, the website of Mr. Abbas’s presidential guards posted bloodied pictures of Arthur Balfour, the British foreign secretary for whom the declaration is named, and Israeli prime ministers under the banner, “A promise from one who did not own it to one who did not deserve it,” according to the presentation.

The same site, on the Nov. 29 anniversary of the 1947 United Nations vote to partition Palestine, had a headline, “Palestine Is Not to Be Divided,” with a map that did not show Israel. The presentation also included a picture of a Nazi flag hung in the West Bank village of Beit Ummar in October.

And there was a November video on a website of Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction in which masked members of its military wing threatened to kidnap Israeli soldiers and showed off weapons, singing, “With these rockets we will liberate Jerusalem, with these rockets we will crush the Zionist enemy.”

Mr. Steinitz said that Mr. Netanyahu had shown Mr. Kerry some of these examples during a recent meeting in Rome. The prime minister also complained about incitement in an August letter to Mr. Kerry, and has frequently raised the issue in his public statements since the negotiations began.

“This Palestinian government incitement is rampant,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a joint appearance with Mr. Kerry when he arrived here on Thursday. “Instead of preparing Palestinians for peace, Palestinian leaders are teaching them to hate Israel.”