• POINT 1: Israel uses U.S. F-16 fighters and Apache helicopters in attacks against Palestinian civilians. This violates the U.S. Foreign Arms Export Act.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel does not attack civilians with US-made or any other weapons. It attacks terrorists who are enemy combatants. The guiding principle of its operations is to PROTECT Palestinian civilians. Indeed, the Israeli army's high humanitarian standards have made it risk-and lose-the lives of its own soldiers in order to protect the lives of innocent Palestinians. The IDF has also delayed surgical strikes on known terrorists to protect the lives of innocent Palestinian bystanders, even though many of these terrorist were in the process of planning suicide operations against innocent Jewish children, women and men.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "Many of today's critics (of the Jenin operation) know that Israel holds itself to a higher standard….The relatively high number of Israeli casualties is itself an indicator of what went on in the camp. Had the Israelis chosen, they could have easily pummeled the camp from afar and starved the terrorists out. Instead, they chose to do things the hard way, house to house-in part to avoid civilian casualties, not to inflict them. "Senator Joseph R Biden, May 6 2002 [1]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "[I]n battle, the Israeli army regularly accepted risks to its own men in order to reduce the risks that it posed on the civilian population. The contrast with the way the Russians fought in Grozny, to take the most recent example of large-scale urban warfare, is striking, and the crucial mark of that contrast is the very small number of civilian casualties in the Palestinian cities despite the fierceness of the fighting." Professor Michael Walzer of Princeton University. [2]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Major-General Giora Eiland, chief of military planning, told the Associated Press that the operation to kill [Hamas military commander Saleh] Shehada had been canceled several times because the Hamas commander had been in the presence of civilians."(*) "Israeli spokesmen said over and over again yesterday, if we had known there were civilians there, we would not have struck….True, the IDF canceled the operation several times (the defense minister says eight times) for fear of harming innocents."(**) July 23 2002 [3]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Because Israel sanctifies human life and goes out of its way to prevent innocent civilians from being harmed while waging a war against terror, it pays with the blood of its citizens - in this instance, six soldiers from the Givati Brigade. Ground forces, and not air forces, were deployed to demolish the metalworks in Gaza City because of the risk of collateral damage in the populated Palestinian civilian areas where terrorists manufacture the Kassam rockets and mortar shells they use to attack Israel." May 2004 [4]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel does not attack Palestinian civilians. It attacks terrorists, enemy combatants, who hide among civilians and use them as human shields for protection, a practice that has been severely condemned by human rights groups.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "By opening fire from heavily populated civilian areas, Palestinian gunmen endanger the lives of Palestinian civilians, and their action is a serious violation of international humanitarian law. The Palestinian Authority has an obligation to prevent its agents from operating in violation of international humanitarian law norms." - Human Rights Watch, Center of the Storm: Case Study on Human Rights Abuses in the Hebron District. April 11, 2001. [5]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Most of the Palestinian civilians interviewed by Human Rights Watch deeply resent the Palestinian gunmen who come to their neighborhoods, and hold them responsible for the damage to their homes. However, they also fear the Palestinian gunmen, and are unable to confront them or force them from the neighborhood." - Human Rights Watch, Center of the Storm: Case Study on Human Rights Abuses in the Hebron District. April 11, 2001. [6]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "I used to talk to them, say, `You see what you are doing to our houses, why do you come here?' They would say that they had orders, that it was out of their hands to stop the shooting." - Palestinian interviewee. Human Rights Watch, Center of the Storm: Case Study on Human Rights Abuses in the Hebron District. April 11, 2001. [7]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "When going out in public, they [members of the Islamic extremist group HAMAS] choose crowded places, especially those with women and children, to make themselves a difficult target." - Los Angeles Times, October 9, 2003. [8]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Palestinian residents of Al Barka and areas close to the community of Kfar Darom have called on the Nationalists and Islamic forces to stop firing, and especially from firing mortar bombs, from areas close to inhabited houses. Firing from densely populated areas just brings damage and destruction to the residents and their property." Al-Hayat Al Jadida (PA daily newspaper) November 7, 2002. [9]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "At the height of the battle [in Beit Lahia, Gaza, April 2004] dozens of masked Palestinian gunmen were queuing up on a street corner to join the fighting. The different factions were recognisable only by their headbands: the green of Hamas, the black and white of Islamic Jihad, and the red stars of the two smaller groups, the Popular Front and the Democratic Front. They were joined by unmasked freelance civilians who brought along their own guns." The Guardian, April 23 2004 [10]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The Israeli army always takes care to avoid civilian deaths, sometimes at the cost of its-own soldiers. But as in all urban military operations in the history of warfare, fighting inevitably and unfortunately harms civilians.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: During the NATO operation against Serbia over the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo, hundreds of civilians were inadvertently killed. "Human Rights Watch concludes that as few as 489 and as many as 528 Yugoslav civilians were killed in the ninety separate incidents in Operation Allied Force." [11]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In the October 2002 raid on a Moscow theater full of hostages, Russian commandos accidentally killed 129 of their own citizens and wounded 700 others in the process of disabling around 40 armed terrorists. That doesn't mean that Russians targeted their own civilians but rather that necessary anti-terror operations are not always as precise as governments would like. The Russia Journal, October 23 2003 [12]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel's efforts to avoid killing civilians can be demonstrated by its actions in Jenin. If Israel really wanted to use American F16's and Apache Helicopters to attack civilians they would have done what America did in Afghanistan or Iraq. They would have bombed the town from above. Instead, to save human life, Israel fought door to door in a booby trapped area. Israel lost 23 reservists in what was described as the heaviest fighting the IDF has seen since the Yom Kippur war. Not a single woman or child was killed in the fighting because Israel would not use its US warplanes and helicopters. [13]
      
      
    • Question: You have said, and the world recognizes, that Israel has one of the most powerful and advanced militaries in the world-even the US uses Israel's military developments and innovations. My question is what do you think the reasons are that Israel hasn't used its full military might in its so-called fight against Palestinian terrorism? For example, why didn't Israel just aerial bomb Jenin as the US did in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of sending in its soldiers and having casualties it would otherwise not have had? Do you think it's because Israel is playing a PR game so it looks humane to the world? What do you think Palestinians would have to do to provoke Israel to use its full military might?
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Compare this unfortunate reality of war to the constant and deliberate attacks by Palestinians, not on military targets, but on unarmed men, women and children, riding busses, at restaurants, cafes and clubs, in synagogues and on hikes -- even in their own beds. Terrorists deliberately target civilians. This was demonstrated by the Palestinian suicide bombing on families celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover that killed 29 and injured 140.
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel does not target civilians. Palestinian terrorist groups target civilians.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Palestinians, not Israelis target civilians. 80% of Israelis killed between Sept. 27, 2000 and July 22, 2003 were civilians. Only 36% of Palestinians killed were civilians, according to the Institute of Counter-Terrorism. [14]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Palestinians, not Israelis target children and women. 57.7% of all Israeli civilians killed between September 2000 and May 2002 were children under the age of 15 while 11.7% of Palestinians killed were in that age bracket. In the same period, 25% of Israelis killed were women while only 2.8% of Palestinians were women. [15]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Palestinians, not Israelis attack civilian centers in order to create maximal carnage. In the past three years alone Palestinian terrorists have attacked an ice cream parlor (May 2002), a University cafeteria (July 31, 2002), a Pizzeria (August 2001), Popular teen night clubs (April 30, 2003; June 1, 2001), Commuter buses (15 since October 2000, often timed for when schoolchildren are on them), a school playground (May 28, 2002), and children's bedrooms (November 11, 2002).
      
      
• POINT 2: The US taxpayers annually fund the Israeli war machine to the tune of $12 billion. The US should cease providing foreign aid to Israel.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: US taxpayers are not funding a 'war machine." They are assisting in funding the military defenses of one of their closest allies, one that is surrounded by 19 countries who have refused to make peace with it and are still dedicated to its destruction. The $3 billion a year the US has allotted to Israel in military and foreign aid programs since 1979 is dramatically less than what it spends defending its other foreign allies.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel is an embattled ally. Palestinian Islamic groups have stated their intention to destroy Israel and liquidate the Jews. Despite Israel's overtures for peace, 19 out of 21 Arab countries maintain a state of war with Israel and have displayed open hostility. Former president of Iran, Hashemi Rafsanjani, even said that his government should develop nuclear weapons to annihilate Israel.(*) The US government recognizes that it must support its ally. [16]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The US spends approximately $90 billion a year to subsidize the defense of its allies in Europe and Japan according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 1996. [17]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "There are more than 80,000 American troops currently stationed in Germany alone. The cost of maintaining these bases is in the billions of dollars." Congresswoman Kay Bailey Hutchison, April 8 2003 [18]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "U.S. annual aid to Israel is about the same as what we spend to defend South Korea, and far less than what we have spent annually to defend Western Europe since 1945." Journalist Tamar Sternthal [19]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: There is no reason to end US aid to Israel. To the contrary, it has proved to be one of the US' most successful investments and of its most valuable foreign efforts.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: A primary goal of US foreign aid is to support friendly nations and to foster democracy and human rights in developing nations. (*) Israel is one of the only nations created after World War II that has lived up to these ideals. It is the only democracy in the Middle East. (**) [20]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel provides strategic and military aid to the U.S. Its "navy and air force are the major deterrent forces in the eastern Mediterranean. Israel effectively secures NATO's southeastern flank, without having a single American soldier stationed in its territory. Still, the superb military installations, the air and sea lift capabilities, the equipment and food storage capacity, and the trained manpower to maintain and repair sophisticated U.S. equipment are instantly at hand in Israel. It is the only country in the area that makes itself available to the United States, in any contingency." [21]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The vast majority of what Israel receives must be spent in the United States to generate profits and jobs. More than 1,000 companies in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have signed contracts worth billions of dollars through this program over the last several years. [22]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The largest share of aid to Israel remains with American defense contractors. "Peter McPherson, former administrator of the Agency for International Development, estimated that every billion dollars of aid to Israel creates 60,000 to 70,000 jobs in the United States." [23]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israeli technological know-how has made it an equal partner in research and development of defensive military strategies. "..with funding from the United States, [Israeli firms developed] the Amos and Ofeq satellites and the world's first operational anti-missile missile system, the Arrow, unmanned air vehicles (UAV or pilotless aircraft) systems, including the Hunter….Python and Popeye "smart" airborne missiles…passive armor, naval decoys, …ceramic armor, air-breathing propulsion, and air-to-air, air-to-surface and surface-to-surface missiles." Global Security [24]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel is a partner for the US in multiple research fields. "There is worldwide recognition of the R&D capability of Israeli brainpower in this area. "The world's Silicon Valley" and "a global source of technological innovation" are just some of the superlatives the world has attributed to the Israeli high-tech industry. Trailblazers have included Scitex, Checkpoint, Comverse, Zoran, Indigo, and M-Systems, as well as some 50 R&D centers of foreign companies like Intel, Motorola and Texas Instruments. Common to all of them is technological innovation that allowed them to create new markets or change existing markets. Today, in practically every area of technology, there is something Israeli - a chip, application, or particle…..In addition to its achievements in "traditional" technological fields like medical equipment, software protection, digital printing, chips and telecommunications, the last two years have seen new and promising developments in the areas of digital video, nanotechnology, Internet and cellular applications." Ha'aretz April 26 2004 [25]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Rather than being a liability, the 1991 Gulf War proved Israel once again to be a strategic asset for the United States: Israeli developments in air-to-ground warfare were integrated into allied bombing against Iraqi missile sites and other targets; Israeli-designed conformal fuel tanks for F-15 fighter-bombers greatly enhanced their range; the Israeli-provided mine plows were utilized during the final assaults on Iraqi positions; Israeli mobile bridges were used by U.S. Marines; Israeli targeting systems and low-altitude warning devices were utilized by American helicopters; and Israel developed key components for the widely-used Tomahawk missiles." Professor Steven Zunes, in the anti-war magazine, Tikkun, April 2003 [26]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel has helped people throughout the world with its humanitarian missions. "From soil cultivation programs in Kenya to computer education in Ethiopia, from medical programs in Jordan to seminars on cattle husbandry in India, Israel has helped alleviate hunger, disease and poverty in many developing countries. In the '70s, Israel broadened its humanitarian aid agenda by granting safe haven to refugees and foreign nationals in distress such as 303 desperate Vietnamese refugees who now live side by side with Jewish-Israelis in Israel…More than 140 countries have benefited from Israel's humanitarian aid." Seattle Post Intelligencer February 13 2004 [27]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel is not alone in receiving US aid. Arab countries have received US foreign aid for signing peace agreements. Egypt, for instance, receives almost as much aid as Israel but with less favorable results.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Since signing the peace treaty with Israel, Egypt has been the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid ($2 billion in 2002, Israel received $2.8 billion (*)). Jordan has also been the beneficiary of higher levels of aid since it signed a treaty with Israel (more than $225 million annually between 1998 and 2002, and increased to $448 in 2003)(**) . The multibillion dollar debts to the U.S. of both Arab nations were also forgiven. Until recently the US was the largest single donor to the Palestinians as well.(***) [28]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "All told, Egypt has received over $50 billion in US largesse since 1975….But some critics question the aid's effectiveness in spurring economic and democratic development...'Aid offers an easy way out for Egypt to avoid reform,' says Edward Walker, the US ambassador to Egypt from 1994 to 1998. 'They use the money to support antiquated programs and to resist reforms.'" Christian Science Monitor, April 12 2004 [29]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US support for Israel is like its support for any embattled nation that has proved to be a staunch ally. The US spends far more on ensuring the defense of Japan, South Korea and Western Europe than it spends on Israel.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel is an embattled ally. Palestinian Islamic groups have stated their intention to destroy Israel and liquidate the Jews. Despite Israel's overtures for peace 19 out of 21 Arab countries maintain a state of war with Israel and have displayed open hostility. Former president of Iran, Hashemi Rafsanjani, even said that his government should develop nuclear weapons to annihilate Israel. The US government recognizes that it must support its ally. [30]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The US spends approximately $90 billion a year to subsidize the defense of its allies in Europe and Japan according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 1996. [31]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "There are more than 80,000 American troops currently stationed in Germany alone. The cost of maintaining these bases is in the billions of dollars." Congresswoman Kay Bailey Hutchison, April 8 2003 [32]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "U.S. annual aid to Israel is about the same as what we spend to defend South Korea, and far less than what we have spent annually to defend Western Europe since 1945." Journalist Tamar Sternthal [33]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: US foreign aid to Israel saves the US taxpayer money.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: If Israel were not a secure military ally, the US would have to deploy its own troops to the Middle East to ensure the stability of the region. "U.S. military analysts estimate that the U.S. would have to spend the equivalent of $150 billion a year in the Middle East to maintain a force equivalent to Israel's." [34]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "In 1981 Israel destroyed Iraq's Osirak reactor, setting back Saddam Hussein's quest for nuclear weapons. How much money and how many lives did this end up saving America?" Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal, December 2002 [35]
      
      
• POINT 3: Israel directs America to fight its wars of conquest and expansion. Jews and Israel were responsible for the American War in Iraq.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel and the Jews are not responsible for the current War with Iraq. The Bush administration and its political leaders chose the policy which fit their conservative politics. They certainly were not trying to satisfy their Jewish supporters: they did not have a sizeable Jewish constituency.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: President Bush won only 19% of the Jewish vote in the 2000 elections, while Ronald Reagan had garnered 40% of the Jewish vote.(*) It is clearly not the President's overwhelming Jewish constituency in Texas whom he was appealing to when he waged the war. [36]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Likewise it wasn't the Senate President Pro Tempore's overwhelming Jewish constituency in Alaska, the Senate Majority Leader's overwhelming Jewish constituency in Tennessee, or the Vice President's overwhelming Jewish constituency in Wyoming. There are only 400 Jews in that whole state.(*) These major proponents of the War in Iraq were motivated by their conservative politics, not by Jews. To blame Jews for the war is plainly disingenuous. [37]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel and the Jews are not responsible for the current war with Iraq. Indeed, the American Jewish community is as divided about the war in Iraq as is the general American population. If anything, a majority of Jews oppose the war.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "An important characteristic of American Jewry is that it remains stubbornly liberal despite realignments and evidence that neither the friends nor the enemies of yesterday have the same attitudes today. Like most non-Jewish liberals, the majority of American Jews were against the war in Iraq. Nevertheless it has been assumed all over the world that support for the war was disproportionately high among Jews." Manfred Gerstenfeld, October 2003 [38]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "While it is true that a disproportionate number of Jews can be found among the strategic analysts pushing for this more aggressive U.S. foreign policy, it is also true that a disproportionate number of Jews can be found among liberal Democrats in Congress and Marxist intellectuals in universities who oppose it. In short, it is simply a reflection of the same cultural and historical phenomenon that has seen Jews come to prominence in intellectual and other influential sectors of societies throughout the Diaspora." Professor Steven Zunes, in the anti-war magazine, Tikkun, April 2003 [39]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The charge that Jews and Israel somehow manipulated the Bush administration into launching the war on Iraq defies credulity. The Bush administration has strong-minded leaders who developed a conservative, hawkish foreign policy in the 1980's.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "Quite apart from its pernicious moral and political implications, the theory was ridiculous in its own right. To begin with, it asked one to believe the unbelievable: that strong-minded people like Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Rice could be fooled by a bunch of cunning subordinates, whether Jewish or not, into doing anything at all against their better judgment, let alone something so momentous as waging a war, let alone a war in which they could detect no clear relation to American interests." Norman Podheretz, 2004 [40]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Former Undersecretary of Defense (2001-2004), Dov Zakheim, in an interview: "Brushing aside claims that Jews were behind the war in Iraq, he cites a policy-making core of neo-cons who are not Jewish - Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Asked to elaborate, he denies that Jews persuaded decision-makers that America should go to war. "Did the Jews brainwash Donald Rumsfeld? Are you kidding? And President Bush? He's not a fool, or he would not be president." Ha'aretz Interview, June 29 2004 [41]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "[T]hese same neo-conservatives, while in the Reagan administration during the 1980s, were advocates of a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua and Cuba as well as a nuclear first strike-in a so-called "limited nuclear war"-against the Soviet Union. In short, they are hawks across the board, not just in regard to the Middle East." Steven Zunes, in the anti-war magazine, Tikkun, April 2003 [42]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: There would have been no reason for the Israel government to push for the US war in Iraq. Prior to the war, the Israeli military repeatedly underlined that Syria and Iran, not Iraq, were the major military threat to Israel
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "Speaking in August 2002, Israel's former defense minister, Moshe Arens, concluded that in the immediate future, "the [missile] threat that Israel most likely will have to contend with" is that of Syria. He described the Iraqi capability as "relatively limited." During the same month, Israel's current chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, declared in Jerusalem that the threat posed by Iraq "doesn't make me lose sleep." In an open address at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in October 2002, the former head of analysis for Israeli Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, explained to an Israeli audience that since the Iraqi missile units had not conducted military exercises and lacked spare parts, the Iraqi threat to Israel was minimal. "Dore Gold, Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, June 3 2004 [43]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Jews and Israel are not responsible for the American war in Iraq. The war fit the Bush administration's larger geopolitical agenda, and was much more important to other interest groups and nations than it was to Israel.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "While AIPAC undeniably has influenced congressional votes regarding Israeli-Palestinian concerns and other issues, it has not played a major role in lobbying for support of the president's call for a U.S. invasion. More fundamentally, there are far more powerful interests with a stake in what happens in the Persian Gulf region than AIPAC. These include the oil companies, the arms industry, and other special interests whose lobbying influence and campaign contributions far surpass that of the much-vaunted "Jewish lobby" and its allied donors to congressional races. Indeed, U.S. interests in the oil-rich states of the Persian Gulf have existed for many decades and even pre-dates the establishment of modern Israel." Steven Zunes, in the anti-war magazine, Tikkun, April 2003 [44]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The accusation that Jews are behind another country's war is not a new one. The same allegations were made concerning Jews before the second and first world wars. This accusation was used to justify Russian pogroms and the Nazi Holocaust. War against Iraq has been a policy suggested by members of the Bush administration since the mid-nineties. To accuse Jews of instigating this war is, frankly, anti-Semitic.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "To protect themselves against the taint of anti-Semitism, purveyors of this theory sometimes disingenuously continued to pretend that when they said "neoconservative" they did not mean "Jew." Yet the theory inescapably rested on all-too-familiar anti-Semitic canards-principally that Jews were never reliably loyal to the country in which they lived, and that they were always conspiring behind the scenes, often successfully, to manipulate the world for their own nefarious purposes." Norman Podheretz, 2004 [45]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: " [Former Undersecretary of Defense (2000-2003), Dov] Zakheim believes attacks against senior U.S. officials who are Jewish about responsibility for the war are a new form of anti-Semitism. "It's some sort of the `Protocols of the Elders of Zion' all over again," he claims. "This has become the fashionable way to be anti-Semitic. It's like saying `some of my best friends are Jews, but those neo-conservatives...'" Interview, Ha'aretz, June 20 2004 [46]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "One of the more unsettling aspects of this kind of strategic cooperation [Us-Israel] is how closely it corresponds with historic anti-Semitism. Throughout Europe in past centuries, the ruling class of a given country would, in return for granting limited religious and cultural autonomy, set up certain individuals in the Jewish community to become the visible agents of the oppressive social order, such as tax collectors and money lenders. When the population would threaten to rise up against the ruling class, the rulers could then blame the Jews, sending the wrath of an exploited people against convenient scapegoats, resulting in the pogroms and other notorious waves of repression which have taken place throughout the Jewish Diaspora over the centuries. The idea behind Zionism was to break this cycle through the creation of a Jewish nation-state, where Jews would no longer be dependent on the ruling class of a given country. The tragic irony is that this cycle has been perpetuated by Western powers-initially Great Britain and France until 1967 and subsequently by the United States-to maintain their interests in the Middle East. Therefore, one finds autocratic Arab governments, Islamic extremists, and others blaming Israel, Zionism, or the Jews for their problems, rather than the United States or the broader exploitative global economic system and their own elites who benefit from and help perpetuate such a system." ." Steven Zunes, in the anti-war magazine, Tikkun, April 2003 [47]
      
      
• POINT 4: The US supports Israel because of its oil interests in the region.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: It is absurd to argue that the US maintains its ties to Israel due to American oil interests in the region. Israel has no oil, and the Arab states who do have oil resent the US support of Israel. They control the region's oil resources and have on many occasions used oil as a political, military, and diplomatic tool against US support of Israel. The major petrol companies have lobbied aggressively against Israel and in favor of the major oil-rich Gulf States.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: ARAMCO (the consortium of oil companies including Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, and SOCAL) lobbied to prevent the US emergency airlift to Israel during the Arab invasion of Israel on Yom Kippur, 1973. - Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations. 1974. [48]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Saudi Arabia has a powerful lobby in the United States because hundreds of America's largest corporations do billions of dollars worth of business with the Kingdom. "And each of these corporations had hundreds of subcontractors and vendors equally dependent on maintaining the good graces of Muslim leaders whose countries now collectively represent the single richest market in the world." Hoag Levins (*)

      This was demonstrated when ARAMCO (the consortium of oil companies including Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, and SOCAL) energetically lobbied congress on behalf of the 1978 sale of F-15's and the 1981 sale of AWAC aircrafts to Saudi Arabia. (**) [49]
      
      

• POINT 5: The Zionist lobby argues that the US should support Israel on the basis of shared values. This is a manipulation. The State of Israel and support for Israel stands in contrast to American values.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: Americans admire Israel precisely because it upholds American values of pioneering, democracy, freedom, human rights, absorbing immigrants and entrepreneurial spiritedness...
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "While they live in a region characterized by autocracies, Israelis have a commitment to democracy no less passionate than that of Americans. All citizens of Israel, regardless of race, religion or sex, are guaranteed equality before the law and full democratic rights. Freedom of speech, assembly and press is embodied in the country's laws and traditions. Israel's independent judiciary vigorously upholds these rights." - Mitchell Bard [50]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Americans have long viewed Israelis with admiration, at least partly because they see much of themselves in their pioneering spirit and struggle for independence. Like the United States, Israel is also a nation of immigrants. As in America, immigrants to Israel have tried to make better lives for themselves and their children. Some have come from relatively undeveloped societies like Ethiopia or Yemen and arrived with virtually no possessions, education or training and become productive contributors to Israeli society." - Mitchell Bard [51]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Israel is the only country in the region that permits citizens of all faiths to worship freely and openly." Bill Bennett, Jack Kemp and Jeanne Kirkpatrick. Memorandum April 24, 2002 [52]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: According to Freedom House which has monitored political and civil freedoms around the globe for 30 years: "Among the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, there has been virtually no significant progress toward democratization in the three decades of the survey. In 1972, the survey rated only 2 countries-Israel and Lebanon-as Free, while 3 states were Partly Free, and 14 were rated Not Free. Today, Israel remains the region's sole democracy and Free country. There are 4 Partly Free and 13 Not Free states, virtually the same distribution as in 1972." "Freedom in the World 2003," Freedom House [53]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "….I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy." Martin Luther King 1968 [54]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Israel is a democracy; it is multi-racial; Arab citizens can vote freely and enter civil society; there is freedom of religion and a free press. An openly gay man just won election to the Knesset." Andrew Sullivan. Sunday London Times [55]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel and the US have established shared value initiatives in areas as diverse as environment, energy, space, education, occupational safety and health. "Nearly 400 American institutions in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have received funds from binational programs with Israel." - Mitchell Bard [56]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel is the only country in the Middle East in which there is legal protection for gays from discrimination and hate crimes. Israel is also the only country in the Middle East that outlaws "honor killings" of women.
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Every American President in recent history has commended Israel for upholding our values.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "America and Israel share a special bond. Our relations are unique among all nations. Like America, Israel is a strong democracy, as a symbol of freedom, and an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted. The relationship between our two countries is built on shared understandings and values. Our peoples continue to enjoy the fruits of our excellent economic and cultural cooperation as we prepare to enter the twenty-first century." - President Bill Clinton [57]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "This nation, from the time of President Woodrow Wilson, has established and continued a tradition of friendship with Israel because we are committed to all free societies that seek a path to peace and honor individual right." - President John F. Kennedy [58]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The United States has a warm and a unique relationship of friendship with Israel that is morally right. It is compatible with our deepest religious convictions, and it is right in terms of America's own strategic interests. We are committed to Israel's security, prosperity, and future as a land that has so much to offer the world." - President Jimmy Carter [59]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The friendship, the alliance between the United States and Israel is strong and solid, built upon a foundation of shared democratic values, of shared history and heritage, that sustains the life of our two countries. The emotional bond of our people transcends politics. Our strategic cooperation-and I renew today our determination that that go forward-is a source of mutual security. And the United States' commitment to the security of Israel remains unshakeable. We may differ over some policies from time to time, individual policies, but never over the principle." - President George Bush Sr. [60]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The United States admires Israel for all that it has overcome and for all that it has accomplished. We are proud of the strong bond we have forged with Israel, based on our shared values and ideals. That unique relationship will endure just as Israel has endured." - President Bill Clinton. [61]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Our friendship is based on historic moral and strategic ties, as well as our shared dedication to democracy" - President Ronald Reagan [62]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Our relationship would never vary from its allegiance to the shared values, the shared religious heritage, the shared democratic politics which have made the relationship between the United States and Israel a special-even on occasion a wonderful-relationship." - President Bill Clinton [63]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: When Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin asked [President Lyndon] Johnson why the United States supports Israel when there are 80 million Arabs and only three million Israelis, the President replied simply: "Because it is right." [64]
      
      
• POINT 6: Israel's claim that it is the 'only democracy in the Middle East' is false.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: The insinuation that there is another democracy in the Middle East besides Israel defies the facts and the judgements of human rights groups and Arab spokesmen.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Middle Eastern countries have not kept pace with the movement toward democratization occurring around the globe, according to Freedom House which has monitored political and civil freedoms around the globe for 30 years and recently concluded that "there has been dramatic progress in the expansion of freedom and democratic governance over the life of the survey…[but] Among the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, there has been virtually no significant progress toward democratization in the three decades of the survey. In 1972, the survey rated only 2 countries-Israel and Lebanon-as Free, while 3 states were Partly Free, and 14 were rated Not Free. Today, Israel remains the region's sole democracy and Free country. There are 4 Partly Free and 13 Not Free states, virtually the same distribution as in 1972." "Freedom in the World 2003," Freedom House [65]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Arab scholars, in the UN Arab Human Development Report of 2002, underscored the 'freedom deficit' of Arab countries which are non-elected despotisms that practice intolerance, human rights abuses and have little regard for the well-being of their citizens. [66]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The anti-democratic regimes of the Middle East are described by NGO's as among the least free(*) and most corrupt(**) countries in the world. In almost all states in the region a death penalty is attached (either legally or practically) to homosexuality(***) and conversion out of Islam.(****) In almost no country is there legislation protecting a woman from 'honor killing' by a jealous husband, brother, or father who suspects her of adultery.(*****) Finally, there is almost nowhere else in the world with a higher occurrence of Female Genital Mutilation.(******) [67]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The one constant in the history of Arab states over the past five decades is the abuse of people by power-holders in a part of the world -- between the Atlantic Ocean and the Persian Gulf -- where regimes rule without popular legitimacy. It is understandable, though inexcusable, that there are no demonstrations in the streets of Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, Tunis, Algiers or elsewhere in the wider Arab-Muslim world, denouncing the Khartoum regime for its crimes in Darfur. Freedom and democracy are sorely lacking among the Arab League members, and popular condemnation of an Arab regime would not be tolerated. "." Salim Mansur, London Free Press,August 18 2004 [68]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "There is no tradition in the Arab world of a leader of Arafat's stature voluntarily giving up power. 'Such a thing isn't part of our thinking or our vocabulary - there is no chance of Arafat stepping down by himself. In this part of the world, the ruler is replaced only by the undertaker's certificate. And Arafat believes he will live forever." Rafiq Natsheh, a former Palestinian Cabinet minister, LA Times, July 24 2004 [69]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: When you deny that the Middle East is dominated by repressive, tyrannical regimes, you undermine the embattled Middle East groups that are trying to press for humanitarian and political reform.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "It is time for a paradigm change in how the United States and Europe approach the region. We must abandon the chimera of stability offered by an autocratic status quo and instead overhaul our policies to put the weight of Western influence on the side of promoting democratic transformation and human development as an antidote against those radical ideologies and terrorist groups that seek to destroy our societies and values. In making this change, we will have to overcome a deep legacy of skepticism and cynicism. Both autocratic leaders and democracy activists doubt whether the West is serious. We need to demonstrate, in word and deed, that we are." From "Democracy and Human Development in the Broader Middle East: A Transatlantic Strategy for Partnership" Istanbul Policy Paper # 1, June 22 2004(*) (Paper written by European and American parliamentarians and policy experts.) [70]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Many voices in the region, ranging from the authors of the Arab Human Development Reports to the intellectuals who gathered at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in March 2004, are calling for greater civil and political freedom, both as an end in itself and as a fundamental condition for human development. Many brave activists have risked their personal well-being and their lives in the struggle for democratization. It is time we started listening to them and supporting them." From "Democracy and Human Development in the Broader Middle East: A Transatlantic Strategy for Partnership" Istanbul Policy Paper # 1, June 22 2004 (*) (Paper written by European and American parliamentarians and policy experts.) [71]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: You fail to give support to reformers like Dr.Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Egypt's leading advocate for democracy and human rights who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor in July 2002 by an Egyptian court(*) or to embattled students in Iran who demonstrated for "fundamental changes in the country's constitution, including the call for the removal of the position of supreme leader. This change enjoys the support of internal reformists and opposition forces, including a surprising majority of elected representatives."(**) [72]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: You fail to give support to reformers like those in the Project for Democracy Studies in the Arab World who met at Oxford on August 28, 2004 where: "100 of the best contemporary minds in the Arab world sat down to lament the state of the region's political leadership - united by the devastating reality that not a single one is able to return to work in his or her native country. ….While news reports are dominated by Iraq, Al Qaeda and the Palestinians, speakers focused on the structural weaknesses in Arab regimes: despotism, corruption and excessive government interference in the lives of ordinary people…. They remain unknown in the West, because neither are they terrorists nor do they have oil. But the Arab world cannot ultimately move forward without them. It's time the international community recognized that and helped them get a ticket back home." Mai Yamani, International Herald Tribune, September 2 2004 [73]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The claim that Israel is not a democracy is patently false. Israel has a vital, open and rambunctious democratic society. The government is selected according to free and fair elections in which every citizen - man, woman, Arab, and Jew - has the right to vote.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel's Declaration of Independence commits to, "complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture." [74]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel's Basic Law guarantees that, "The Knesset (Parliament) will be elected by universal, national direct equal, secret and proportional ballot." [75]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: All adult citizens of Israel, including women and minorities, have the right to form political parties and to vote. Israel has over 17 political parties in the Knesset representing every part of society and every political view.(*) Arab-Israelis, who constitute 20% of the population, have 5 parties.(**) [76]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Election Day is a national holiday, and free transportation is provided to polling booths. Voter turnout often reaches 97%. [77]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Even Arab commentators have praised Israel's democracy.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "Israel has proved that for fifty years its real power is in its democracy, guarding the rights of its citizens, applying laws (equally) to the rich and the poor, the big and the small…" - Dr. Talal Al-Shareef, Al-Quds, May 27, 1999. [78]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "I am also envious of … the simple Israeli citizen who can, with one ballot deposited into a small wooden box, humiliate one leader and raise another … I envy them and desire a similar regime in my future state … I respect (their) democratic discussion, debate, decision, the sovereignty of law and freedom of the press." - Columnist Ata Al-Qemari, Al-Quds, May 1999. [79]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Netanyahu, who was nicknamed 'King of Israel', fell out of power and within half an hour relinquished leadership of his party … such elections are the result of a democratic regime that accepts change (by means of) elections as the basis of governeance." - Dr Ali Al-Jirbawi, Al-Ayyam, May 22, 1999. [80]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel ranks with the democracies of the Western World in terms of its rankings in freedom and democracy. Arab regimes typically rank among the tyrannies and banana republics of Sub-Saharan Africa.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Freedom House, a non-partisan, broad-based non-profit organization that monitors and evaluates democracy and freedom around the world, rates Israel as the only "Free" country in the Middle East. Freedom House rates Israel's guarantee of political rights as "1" and its guarantee of civil rights at "2" on a scale from 1-7. This places Israel in a bracket with the U.S. and Great Britain. The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, is rated at a 5 and a 6 on the two scales respectively. This places the PA in the same bracket with The Congo. According to Freedom House, the majority of Arab regimes are among the least free countries in the world. [81]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: According to reports from the U.S. State Department, the U.N. and the non-profit, Freedom House, Israel is the only country in the Middle East to offer its citizens free media, freedom to criticize religion, unrestricted academic freedom, unrestricted freedom of artistic expression and unrestricted entry of foreign arts, books, and press. [82]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: According to reports from the U.S. State Department, the U.N. and the non-profit, Freedom House, Israel is the only country in the Middle East to offer its citizens unrestricted free speech and assembly, truly fair and open trials, and full protection of religious freedom. [83]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The implication that Israel cannot be a democracy because it is a "Jewish Democracy" is absurd.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Jews are as much a distinctive ethnic-national group as the French, the Greeks, the Russians, the Japanese, the Turks, the Cambodians and most other nations' populations are. There is absolutely no reason nations made up of dominant ethnic groups cannot be democracies. "This is clearly a misreading of the term "Jewish" in a "Jewish state," which refers not to religion but to national identity. The confusion stems from the fact that the relationship between nationality and religion in Judaism is a unique one. No other people has its own specific religion…. At the same time, no other religion has a specific nationality of its own:" Professor Ruth Gavison, Legal Scholar on Human Rights. [84]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Germany's Third Republic was not considered "undemocratic" because it had an ethnic character. Belgium's current government is not considered "undemocratic" because it has an established religion. Japan is not considered undemocratic because it is composed of Japanese people. The claim that the world's only Jewish country is undemocratic while many of the world's democracies have established religions and or ethnic characters is plainly anti-Semitic.
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Ironically, although Jews are an ethnic group united by historical ties and by ties of their heritage, they comprise one of the most racially diverse groups in the world. Israelis come from over 70 nations-from Africa to Latin America to all of Europe. ""Thousands of years of history, the ingathering of the Jews from over 70 countries, a society of multi-ethnic communities living side by side, and an unending flow of international input via satellite and cable have contributed to the development of an Israeli culture which reflects worldwide elements while striving for an identity of its own." Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website [85]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Nearly every country in the world boasts one majority community, and nearly all reflect the cultural identity of that community in one way or another. The United States officially celebrates only Christian holidays; many European countries openly identify as either Catholic or Protestant; and many Muslim countries uncontroversially refer to themselves as an "Islamic Republic," whether they are democratic or not. For some, such identification is simply a sign of the spiritual persuasion of the majority; for others, it is homage to the story of the country's founding. There is nothing obviously wrong with such expression." Dore Gold and Jeff Heimreich [86]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel's detractors often describe leaders in the Arab World like Yasser Arafat as "democratically elected", despite the fact that they were "elected" in highly undemocratic show elections. These same people are often the first to label Israel as "undemocratic".
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Yasser Arafat was "elected" president of the Palestinian Authority with 99.7% of the vote. His major political opponents were either executed or arrested by Arafat's private guard. The only man allowed to run against him was an unknown orthodontist.
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: According to Freedom House, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that monitors and evaluates freedom around the world, only one Arab country is considered free. Not one has a functional democracy.
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Freedom House, a non-partisan, broad-based non-profit organization that monitors and evaluates democracy and freedom around the world, rates Israel as the only "Free" country in the Middle East. Freedom House rates Israel's guarantee of political rights as "1" and its guarantee of civil rights at "2" on a scale from 1-7. This places Israel in a bracket with the U.S. and Great Britain.
      
      
• POINT 7: The US practices double standards. It investigates Muslim charities but it doesn't investigate Jewish charities.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US does not use double standards. The people committing terrorism in the Middle East, the US and around the globe claim they are doing it in the name of Islam and they are sometimes affiliated with Islamic charities. There is no reason to investigate Jewish or Israeli charities for suspected links to terrorism. Neither Israelis nor Jews have groups who blow themselves up among civilians or who have declared themselves enemies of the USA, its allies or its way of life.
    
    
    • Question: ""Government officials, investigations by federal agencies and the Congress and other reports have identified the crucial role that charities and foundations play in terror financing," the [Senate Finance] committee's leaders, Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democratic member Max Baucus (Mont.), wrote in a Dec. 22 letter to the IRS. "We have a responsibility to carry out oversight to ensure charities, foundations and other groups are abiding by the laws and regulations, to examine their source of funds, and to ensure government agencies, including the IRS, are policing them and enforcing the law efficiently and effectively." [87]
      
      
    • Question: "[O]n December 4, 2001, we blocked the assets of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which describes itself as the largest Islamic charity in the United States. It operates as a U.S. fundraising arm of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. We have also designated as terrorist supporters the Makhtab al-Khimamat/Al Kifah, a clearinghouse for Islamic charities financed directly by Usama bin Ladin and party to the 1993 World Trade Center attack; the Al Rashid Trust; the Wafa Humanitarian Organization; and the Rabita trust -- all Pakistan based al Qaida financier organizations; and the Ummah Tameer E-Nau, a Pakistani NGO which provided nuclear, biological and chemical weapons expertise to al Qaida. In addition, we have blocked the assets of the Global Relief Foundation and the Benevolence International Foundation, under the provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act to assist the ongoing investigation of alleged links to terrorism." Kenneth Dam, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Senate Testimony, August 1 2002 [88]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "[O]ur fight against the financing of terror has expanded to the abuse of charities. As Secretary O'Neill has said, few actions are more reprehensible than diverting money intended for charity and using it to support hatred and cruelty. Such abuse corrupts the sanctity of charitable giving, diverts funds and resources from those in need, betrays the trust and goodwill of donors, and is a danger to us all." Kenneth Dam, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Senate Testimony, August 1 2002 [89]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: We do know that the mechanism of charitable giving -- i.e., the collection of resources from willing donors and its redistribution to persons in need -- has been used to provide a cover for the financing of terror and that it has been a significant source of funds. In certain instances the charity itself was a mere sham that existed simply to funnel money to terrorists. However, the abuse often occurred without the knowledge of donors, or even of some members of the management and staff of the charity itself." Kenneth Dam, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Senate Testimony, August 1 2002 [90]
      
      
    • Question: Government investigations reveal that a bulk of terrorist funding comes through Islamic charity groups that are used as fronts. Aren't you outraged by this fraud which misleads ordinary Muslims who think they are supporting the poor, not terrorism and violence?
      
      
• POINT 8: The US is biased toward Israel and the Zionist lobby virtually allows 'foreign domination' of our international policy.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: There is no "Zionist" lobby in America. There are, however, many active pro-Israel organizations but they do not speak with one voice. They run the gamut politically from left to right and not infrequently differ about what American policies should be vis-à-vis Israel, for example about the American government's positions on how to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Therefore, they cannot dominate America's international policy.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: The pro-Israel Christian Right advocates policies quite different from the pro-Israel groups aligned with the Democratic Left.
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: American governments-both Republican and Democrat-have been biased toward Israel not because of the pro-Israel lobby, but because they feel Israel serves America's vital interests, because Israel is a sister democracy and a staunch, loyal ally and because Israel is now on the front lines of a dangerous new phenomenon, international terrorism.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "America and Israel share a special bond. Our relations are unique among all nations. Like America, Israel is a strong democracy, as a symbol of freedom, and an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted. The relationship between our two countries is built on shared understandings and values. Our peoples continue to enjoy the fruits of our excellent economic and cultural cooperation as we prepare to enter the twenty-first century." - President Bill Clinton [91]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "This nation, from the time of President Woodrow Wilson, has established and continued a tradition of friendship with Israel because we are committed to all free societies that seek a path to peace and honor individual right." - President John F. Kennedy [92]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The United States has a warm and a unique relationship of friendship with Israel that is morally right. It is compatible with our deepest religious convictions, and it is right in terms of America's own strategic interests. We are committed to Israel's security, prosperity, and future as a land that has so much to offer the world." - President Jimmy Carter [93]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The friendship, the alliance between the United States and Israel is strong and solid, built upon a foundation of shared democratic values, of shared history and heritage, that sustains the life of our two countries. The emotional bond of our people transcends politics. Our strategic cooperation-and I renew today our determination that that go forward-is a source of mutual security. And the United States' commitment to the security of Israel remains unshakeable. We may differ over some policies from time to time, individual policies, but never over the principle." - President George Bush Sr. [94]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Yes, the US does have a well-organized pro-Israel lobbies that encourage policy makers to be favorable to Israel. But there are many powerful and influential lobby groups in the US, including the pharmaceutical companies, trial attorneys, farmers, labor unions, Cuban-Americans, oil industry, etc. This is how the American government works. There is no reason pro-Israel groups should not also have one. Yet Israel's pro-lobby group is small compared to many of them.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Pro-Israel lobby groups' "contributions are dwarfed by those of labor unions, lawyers, doctors, and trade associations. In fact, out of 80 "industries," the pro-Israel contributors rank only 39th," according to the Center for Responsive Politics. [95]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: If you are concerned about foreign influence on American policy, you should be much more upset about countries like Saudi Arabia and lobby groups like ARAMCO, which have overwhelming financial and political clout. Pro-Israel money and activity pale in comparison.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Saudi Arabia has a powerful lobby in the United States because hundreds of America's largest corporations do billions of dollars worth of business with the Kingdom. "And each of these corporations had hundreds of subcontractors and vendors equally dependent on maintaining the good graces of Muslim leaders whose countries now collectively represent the single richest market in the world." Hoag Levins (*)

      This was demonstrated when ARAMCO (the consortium of oil companies including Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, and SOCAL) energetically lobbied congress on behalf of the 1978 sale of F-15's and the 1981 sale of AWAC aircrafts to Saudi Arabia. (**) [96]
      
      

    • Supporting Evidence: Prominent and not so prominent former government officials work for Saudi lobby groups and think tanks after they leave office. (*) Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, told the Washington Post that "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." (**) [97]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: It has been estimated that Saudi investments in the US approximate $600 billion.(*) Aren't you concerned about this foreign influence-or are you just concerned about the US' deep ties to Israel? [98]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Lobby groups like the pro-Israel groups do not direct policy. They try to ensure that policy makers and legislators hear their case and become sympathetic to it. If legislators do not agree with the lobby's positions, they do not support them. There is nothing illegal, dishonest or conspiratorial about lobby groups.
    
    
  • COUNTERPOINT: There is insidious racism in the claim that the Jewish lobby is all-powerful and directs American policy. The implication is that Jews control America, a charge that echoes the old anti-Semitic libel written in the Russian forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The claim is absurd.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: It presumes that all Jews agree on basic policy points. In fact, Jews are as divided on the issues of the day and on issues about Israel as other Americans are. Americans are. For example, "While it is true that a disproportionate number of Jews can be found among the strategic analysts pushing for this more aggressive U.S. foreign policy, it is also true that a disproportionate number of Jews can be found among liberal Democrats in Congress and Marxist intellectuals in universities who oppose it. In short, it is simply a reflection of the same cultural and historical phenomenon that has seen Jews come to prominence in intellectual and other influential sectors of societies throughout the Diaspora." Professor Steven Zunes, in the anti-war magazine, Tikkun, April 2003 To claim Jews are a monolithic group defies reality. To claim Jews are a monolithic group defies reality. [99]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The claim that Jews control American policy defies reality. The US is a democracy. Jews form less than 2% of the population. Such a small group cannot direct American policy which is based on their votes and sentiments as well as the votes and sentiments of the other 98% of the general population.
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The claim that Jews control American policy is anti-Semitic and defies reality. The fact that many Jews have risen to positions of prominence in George Bush's administration is a testament to the American dream that individuals, regardless of sex, religion, race or ethnicity can achieve success. To focus exclusively on their religious or ethnic identity and claim that this alone determines their views is in and of itself, a form of racism and undermines fundamental American principles.
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: To claim that the Jewish lobby controls American policy implies that the US only helps Israel and doesn't help the Arab countries or Arab peoples. This defies the facts. The US has provided significant aid to Palestinian refugees since 1950 and it has generously rewarded Arab countries willing to make peace in the region.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: The Unites States supplied close to two-thirds of UNRWA's (United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency) budget between its founding in 1950 and 1970, and subsequently supplied at least one-fourth of its funding. This money provides welfare, health care and education for Arab refugees of the 1948 and 1967 wars. [100]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: When Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979, it "became the second largest recipient of US foreign aid ($2.2 billion annually….)" and the US forgave Egypt's multibillion dollar debts. [101]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: When Jordan made peace with Israel in 1994, US foreign aid to the country went from "less than $40 million [annually] to more than $200 million" and the US forgave Jordan's multibillion dollar debts. [102]
      
      
• POINT 9: The US did not act as an honest broker in the negotiations because it is Israel's largest donor of foreign aid, weaponry, investment, political and moral support.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US can be and has been an honest broker. It has done more than any other nation in the world, including the Arab nations, for the Palestinian people. It has been the primary financial supporter of the Palestinian refugees for the past 54 years, and it has been a major donor to the Palestinian Authority. It has made strenuous diplomatic efforts since 1967 to resolve the dispute and grant Palestinians independence.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: The US has been the primary financial supporter of the Palestinian refugees for the past 54 years. The Unites States supplied close to two-thirds of UNRWA's (United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency) budget between its founding in 1950 and 1970, and subsequently supplied at least one-fourth of its funding. Since the program's inception in 1950, the US has been the largest donor, supplying about $6.5 billion according to the Palestine Chronicle. January 5 2004.(*) This money provides welfare, health care and education for Arab refugees of the 1948 and 1967 wars.(**) [103]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The United States has been a major donor to the Palestinian Authority to help it develop a viable infrastructure and economy. It gave Palestinian groups $1.3 billion through its US AID program between 1993 and 2003, according to the Palestine Chronicle. January 5 2004 This does not include other aid the US still provides the Palestinians through, for example, the United Nations Rehabilitation and Works Program (UNRWA). In 2002, the US upped its annual contribution to $119.25 million, according to the US Embassy. In 2003, it pledged $95 million. [104]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: More than any other nation, the United States has expended enormous amounts of time and made strenuous diplomatic efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli dispute and grant Palestinians some autonomy, from the Rogers Plan in 1969,to the Camp David Accords in 1978, the Schultz Plan in 1988, the Baker Plan in 1989, the Oslo Accords, and the Clinton-Barak plans in 2000.
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The Clinton and Bush Administrations were the first and only nations since 1948 that called for the Palestinian Arabs to have their own state in the Territories and that tried to broker a deal to make the state come into being.
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The fact that the US is committed to ensuring Israel's security and its integrity as a nation does not mean it cannot be an honest broker committed to finding a fair compromise solution to the conflict. The US has consistently presented peace plans to end the conflict. Both the Camp David plan of 2000 and the Road Map envisioned a two-state solution. Even Arab states, when they controlled the Territories, never offered the Palestinians a state or even autonomy. There is no Palestinian state because Palestinian leaders have repeatedly refused to yield their maximalist demands.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Palestinians don't have a state because they have had "an all or nothing policy," unlike the Zionists. "The Zionists never demanded the impossible….Our leadership….enabled the Zionists to succeed at every opportunity…by rejecting every proposal for compromise, rejecting proposals to give it a state on most of the land of Palestine…" Tawfiz Abu Bakr, Palestinian columnist, 2003 [105]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Because of "this irrational nihilist behavior [of Palestinians about accepting compromise], "Haj Amin Al-Husseini…rejected the settlement offered him by the Peel Commission in 1937…Then, he repeated his mistake by rejecting the Partition Plan that this time would have given 55% to the Jews and the rest to Palestine…." Al-'Afif Al-Akdhar, Tunisian columnist, 2002 [106]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The mania for armed struggle….is the cause for [us] missing …historical opportunities since 1937 to 2000, with…pristine excuses such as 'we have the right[s] on our side…" Al-'Aff Al-Akhdar, Tunisian columnist, 2002 [107]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: On the liberal Arab website Elaph, Egyptian columnist Sami Buheiri wrote: "[T]he rabble majority of the Arab and Palestinian street today….refuse to accept any kind of a peace agreement with Israel... It is they who applaud the bus and restaurant bombings in order to destroy any spark of hope for peace... They are Arab nationalists who have failed completely in all their wars with Israel and in all attempts to achieve peace with Israel, because they were not serious, and they were not men - neither in fighting nor in peacemaking..." [108]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003 [109]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US does not just support Israel. It has been a friend, ally and principal backer of many nations in the Middle East.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "Since World War II, the US had poured economic and military assistance into the region and today is the principal backer of nations like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt and the Gulf sheikdoms." Historian Mitchell Bard [110]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: When Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979, it "became the second largest recipient of US foreign aid ($2.2 billion annually….)" and the US forgave Egypt's multibillion dollar debts.(*) The US is also a primary supplier of military weapons for Egypt. [111]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Jordan has also been the beneficiary of higher levels of aid since it signed a treaty with Israel (more than $225 million annually between 1998 and 2002, and increased to $448 in 2003) and the US forgave Jordan's multi-bilion dollar debts. [112]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991, the US devoted its resources and military and led the coalition to protect Kuwait and other Gulf states from this aggression.
      
      
• POINT 10: The US always supports Israel in the UN.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US does usually support Israel at the UN, for good reason. The UN became a forum for virulent anti-Semitism and bias against Israel as it grew from 58 member states in 1948 to 191 members today. The block of Muslim-Third World countries wield political power (27% of voting power) that has permitted the UN to churn out resolution after resolution attacking Israel for trumped offenses in one-sided and blatantly hostile resolutions.The US justifiably has tried to stem this anti-Semitic, anti-Israel barrage.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Struck by the anti-Semitism at the UN where she served as a delegate for four years during President Regan's administration, Jeanne Kirkpatrick commented that "I felt for the first time in my life that I could understand how the Holocaust happened." [113]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "During the 1970's, an especially blatant and vulgar brand of anti-Semitism became a unifying global ideology of the totalitarian Left. Couched in the language of opposition to Zionism, this anti-Semitism became the preferred vehicle of the Soviet Union and its clients in international forums for political assaults against the democratic nations…A steady stream of denunciations of Israel…came to be adopted at international conferences and meetings. The height of the campaign, though not nearly its end, came on November 10 1975, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the infamous Resolution ….declaring that 'Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination. This marked a watershed in Soviet-inspired anti-Semitism…" Daniel Patrick Moynihan (former US Senator and UN Ambassador) 1981
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: As the UN Commission on Human Rights meets for its annual session in Geneva, one can understand why Israel feels picked on. Many commission members are abusive governments that will spend an inordinate amount of time condemning Israel while doing everything possible to protect themselves and their allies from critical scrutiny." Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, 2004
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The UN repeatedly condemns Israel and singles it out for blame, but it has not condemned the Arab nations for launching wars and terrorism against the Jewish state or condemned other states with clear records of human rights abuses.

      • The Security Council passed 97 resolutions condemning Israel and only 4 against all the Arab states from 1947 to 1989. The last time a resolution criticized Arab actions was on September 1, 1949 (*)

      • The General Assembly adopts an average of 19 anti-Israel Resolutions annually. The last anti-Arab vote by the General Assembly was in May, 1949.(**)

      • The General Assembly strongly censured Israel 321 times from 1947 to 1989. It condemned an Arab nation 0 times. Israel is the only country ever to have been branded a "non-peace loving state."(***)

      • The UN passed 34 resolutions deploring Israel but not one against terrorists between 1993 and 1998 when 259 Israelis were killed and 5000 injured by terrorist attacks.(****)

      • Only Israel, a democratic nation, has been singled out as requiring a special, permanent UN body, directly under the UN Secretariat, to monitor its human rights abuses: "Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices." The UN has never assigned such a permanent monitoring body for any other nation in the world, including those with long records of violence, suppression, and human rights abuses, such as Sudan, Liberia or Cuba.(*****)

      • "More than a quarter of the [Human Rights] commission's resolutions condemning a state's human rights violations passed over the last 30 years have been directed at Israel. There has never been a single resolution on China, Syria or Saudi Arabia. The current session ended by defeating a resolution to criticize anything about the situation in Zimbabwe, and by eliminating the 10-year-old position of rapporteur on human rights in Sudan. This was despite a report of the U.N. rapporteur on torture informing commission members of the Sudanese practice of "cross-amputation"--amputation of right hand and left foot for armed robbery, and various cases of women being stoned to death for alleged adultery." Anne Bayefsky 2003(******) [114]
      
      

  • COUNTERPOINT: Even UN Secretary General Kofi Annan confessed that the UN had historically been one-sided against Israel and convened a UN seminar on anti-Semitism in June 2004.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "It is hard to believe that, 60 years after the tragedy of the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is once again rearing its head. But it is clear that we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of this phenomenon in new forms and manifestations….Let us acknowledge that the United Nations' record on anti-Semitism has at times fallen short of our ideals….let us actively and uncompromisingly refute those who seek to deny the fact of the Holocaust or its uniqueness, or who continue to spread lies and vile stereotypes about Jews and Judaism….. The fight against anti-Semitism must be our fight. And Jews everywhere must feel that the United Nations is their home." Kofi Annan, June 24 2004 [115]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: When the UN proposed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in June 2004, EU members were "shocked" by Arab attitudes and intransigence.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "Arab states at the United Nations are trying to foil a proposal to raise a vote condemning anti-Semitism in the General Assembly this September. At a closed meeting held recently in New York, UN ambassadors from Arab and EU countries met and the Arabs made clear that they do not accept the initiative for the UN General Assembly to condemn anti-Semitism.The blunt language used by the Arabs describing their opposition, and their plans to use diplomatic means to prevent the resolution from reaching a vote, shocked the Europeans, said a UN source." Ha'aretz, July 28 2004 [116]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "According to UN sources, the Arab delegates were also critical of a UN seminar on anti-Semitism held last month. A senior Western diplomat said that among the Arabs who spoke with the Europeans was PLO observer Nasser al Kidwe, and he was particularly outspoken in his objections to a UN General Assembly resolution on anti-Semitism. The source said Kidwe attacked the content of UN Secretary general Koffi Anan's speech to the seminar last month, particularly Annan's pride in the cancelation of the 1975 Zionism equals racism resolution. "The Europeans were depressed when they left the meeting," said the source." Ha'aretz, July 28 2004 [117]
      
      
• POINT 11: The US shows a double standard with regard to Jews and Muslims. The US calls militant Muslims terrorists, but it does not call militant Jewish groups, like the Jewish Defense League, terrorists.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: Neither the US nor Israel show a double standard about terrorism. There are no militant Jewish or Israeli groups who blow themselves up among civilians, who have declared themselves enemies of the USA, its allies and its way of life, or who blow up civilians in the name of Judaism.
    
    
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US does not show a double standard about terrorism. The one Jewish group that has committed violent acts, the Jewish Defense League (JDL) has been denounced by the Jewish community, and the FBI, the CIA and law enforcement officials have investigated them and accused them of committing violent acts. JDL members have been arrested, tried and imprisoned for those acts. There is no evidence of a double standard.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: JDL members have repeatedly been investigated and tried for violent acts they allegedly committed, with many of them sentenced to long prison terms. The Anti-Defamation League has staunchly opposed them and detailed their acts and the sentences they received on its website. [118]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The former head of the JDL, Victor Vancier, was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison in October 1987. [119]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "According to the FBI, the JDL was responsible for at least 37 terrorist acts in the United States in the period from 1968-1983….For the most part, these attacks seemed intended to intimidate but not to kill their victims…. In 1987 several JDL members were convicted on a variety of criminal charges, and since then there has been no record of JDL terrorist activity." Historical Dictionary of Terrorism [120]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Despite the national prominence of the JDL, this group had poor to acrimonious relations with more conventional Jewish political and social organizations, such as B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League, which regarded the JDL as a marginal group and an embarrassment to the American Jewish community." Historical Dictionary of Terrorism [121]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel, too, forcefully condemned the JDL when its leader, Rabbi Kahane, moved to Israel and set up a political party, Kach. Israel outlawed Kach successor party, Kahane Chai in 1994.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Despite Israel's commitment to political pluralism, it amended its Basic Law (the equivalent of its Constitution) in 1985 to prohibit political groups that are "racist" or that "incite to racism" from participating in elections. The small Kach and Kahane Chai groups that advocated expelling Palestinians from Israel were barred from participating in elections. [122]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In March 1994, the Israeli government called Kach and Kahane Chai terrorist organizations and outlawed them. In accordance with the proposal of the Prime Minister and Defense Minister and in conformity with the opinion presented by the Attorney-General, defense and police officials, the Government decided as follows:

      "In accordance with its authority under Clause 8 of the Order for the Prevention of Terrorism, (1948), and supplementing the announcement published in the Official Gazette (No. 3305, Page 1436), the Government declares that the groups designated hereunder are terrorist organizations:

      (a) The Kach Movement
      (b) The Kahane Chai Movement" [123]
      
      

  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel also has been iron clad about delegitimizing any other groups that incite or preach racism and violence. Israel recently arrested four West Bank Israelis whom it suspected might be planning attacks against Palestinian civilians. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1061784378224)
    
    
• POINT 12: American taxpayers give Israel over $10 million per day (thorough and detailed analyses place this number at $15 million per day). This is far more tax money than is given to any other nation on earth.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: This claim willfully distorts reality. Many nations receive far more money than Israel. While the $3 billion a year that US allots to Israel in military aid and foreign assistance is included in the foreign aid section of the US budget, the US spends far more than $3 billion to subsidize the military defense of its allies in Europe, South Korea and Japan and to assist nations like Afghanistan. This assistance, however, is included in the defense budget instead of the foreign aid budget.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "U.S. annual aid to Israel is about the same as what we spend to defend South Korea, and far less than what we have spent annually to defend Western Europe since 1945." Journalist Tamar Sternthal [124]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The US spends approximately $90 billion a year to subsidize the defense of its allies in Europe and Japan according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 1996. [125]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "US expenditures in support of European allies in NATO are still many times the size of the aid to Israel: While the US defense budget is divided functionally, not regionally, roughly 40 to 50 percent--$80 billion to $112 billion-can be estimated to directly or indirectly support American defense commitments in Europe." Raphael Danziger and Bradley Gordon, 1995 [126]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "There are more than 80,000 American troops currently stationed in Germany alone. The cost of maintaining these bases is in the billions of dollars." Congresswoman Kay Bailey Hutchison, April 8 2003 [127]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Afghanistan has requested $27 to $28 billion in aid over the next seven years, approximately $4 billion a year. This is on top of the "13-billion-dollar annual cost of maintaining 13,500 US-led coalition troops and another 6,100 NATO peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force soldiers in the country [Afghanistan], Ashraf Ghani said." Agence France-Presse March 25 2004 [128]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinians have been the largest aid recipients of any people in the world, according to the World Bank. The Palestinians are subsidized by the World Bank, the UN, the US, the European Union, individual European countries, Japan and Arab countries.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: The World Bank's . "…level of assistance in the three years since the Intifada is at an extraordinary high level…It's a level of something over $300 (£160) per capita. According to our calculations, that is the highest per capita aid transfer in the history of foreign aid anywhere." Nigel Roberts, World Bank official in the Territories. February 29 2004 [129]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The United States gave Palestinian groups $1.3 billion through its US AID program between 1993 and 2003, according to the Palestine Chronicle. January 5 2004 (*) This does not include other aid the US provides the Palestinians through, for example, the United Nations Rehabilitation and Works Program (UNRWA). Since the program's inception in 1950, the US has been the largest donor, supplying about $6.5 billion according to the Palestine Chronicle. January 5 2004 .(**) In 2002, the US upped its annual contribution to $119.25 million, according to the US Embassy.(***) In 2003, it pledged $95 million. (****) [130]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The world community has given the Palestinian refugees welfare since 1950 through UNRWA. No other refugee group has become a permanent ward of the international community. In 2000, UNRWA's budget was $293,207,000. The oil rich states supplied only 2.19% of the funding. The European Union supplied 18%. The US was again the biggest donor by far at 31%. [131]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In 1993, at the first donor's conference, Europeans and Arabs joined together in order to help the emerging [Palestinian] state. The Europeans took their mission seriously, as seriously as they take only their agricultural subsidies. The enormous sum, of at least 4.1 Billion Euros that has flowed to Palestine, don't include grants from individual European countries….Since 2001, the EU has been providing 10 million Euros a month to the PA." German newspaper Die Zeit, June 7 2002 [132]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In 1998, Japan pledged an extra $200 million to assist the PA. [133]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Being an aid recipient is not unique to Israel. Arab countries have also received substantial aid from the US and other countries.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "All told, Egypt has received over $50 billion in US largesse since 1975." Christian Science Monitor , April 12 2004 [134]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Prior to 1971, Israel received a total of only $277 million in military aid, all in the form of loans as credit sales. The bulk of the economic aid was also lent to Israel. By comparison, the Arab states received nearly three times as much aid before 1971, $4.4 billion, or $170 million per year. Moreover, unlike Israel, which receives nearly all its aid from the United States, Arab nations have gotten assistance from Asia, Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and the European Community." Historian Mitchell Bard [135]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: As Israel's economy grew in the 1990's, it voluntarily offered to have the US reduce its economic aid package and phase it out altogether within ten years.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "In 1998, Israel offered to voluntarily reduce its dependence on U.S. economic aid. According to an agreement reached with the Clinton Administration and Congress, the $1.2 billion economic aid package will be reduced by $120 million each year so that it will be phased out in ten years." Historian Mitchell Bard [136]
      
      
• POINT 13: Without American aid, Israel would be unable to sustain its 'mega-military' that has enjoyed an unfair advantage in negotiations.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: The charge that Israel's military power has given it an unfair advantage in negotiations defies logic and the logic of any peace process. It suggests that if Israel were weak militarily, the Palestinian Arabs would be able to threaten military action if their demands weren't met, that is, they could return to the battlefield on a more even playing field. But the peace process is about laying down arms and negotiating, not resuming the old wars.
    
    
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel needs the advantage of its mega-military. For the past 50 years, Arab states and the PLO have made it clear that their goal is to destroy Israel and expel or exterminate Jews. Only two Arab nations finally made peace with Israel. The PA and the terrorist groups it supports have made clear that the destruction of Israel is still their goal. Anyone who makes this claim clearly supports the demise of the Jewish state.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: 71% of Palestinians support continuing the terrorist/military campaign against Israel. In a random sample of 1199 Palestinians conducted by JMCC Public Opinion Polls in September of 2002, 64.3% of Palestinians supported suicide bombings against civilians and 43% of Palestinians believed the goal of the current Intifada should be the elimination of Israel. [137]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In a 2002 Poll taken at Najah University in Nablus, "87% of Palestinians surveyed were in favor of continuing terror attacks," and, "87.5% were in favor of 'liberating all of Palestine'." [138]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: It is the Palestinians who throughout the Peace Process proclaimed that their goal was the conquest of all of Israel.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "You understand that we plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion; the Jews will not want to live among us Arabs! I have no use for Jews. They are and remain Jews." - Yassir Arafat, speech to Arab diplomats in the Spiegel Salon at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden, Jan 30, 1996. [139]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The Oslo Accords were a Trojan horse; the strategic goal is the liberation of Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea." - Faisal Husseini, PA Administrator for Jerusalem Affairs, July 13, 2001. [140]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "At this stage we talk about a state within the 1967 borders, but this is not the end of the story.... because I aspire, historically, culturally and geographically, to a unified Palestine. ...It can be established through peace, if the Israelis accept the logic of a [unified] democratic Palestinian state. If they don't accept this logic, then the logic of history will lead to a confrontation [ie war]." - Bilal Al-Hassan, representing the position of the Palestinian left, Al-Jazeera, November 17, 2000. [141]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: US military and economic aid to Israel is equal to only 10% of Israel's gross national product. Ending that aid would not end Israel's military advantage over the Palestinian Arabs. In any case, the US needs Israel to sustain its "mega-military' because of the benefits it brings to Americans and to American strategic needs.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "The United States has a warm and a unique relationship of friendship with Israel that is morally right. It is compatible with our deepest religious convictions, and it is right in terms of America's own strategic interests. We are committed to Israel's security, prosperity, and future as a land that has so much to offer the world." - President Jimmy Carter [142]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The friendship, the alliance between the United States and Israel is strong and solid, built upon a foundation of shared democratic values, of shared history and heritage, that sustains the life of our two countries. The emotional bond of our people transcends politics. Our strategic cooperation-and I renew today our determination that that go forward-is a source of mutual security. And the United States' commitment to the security of Israel remains unshakeable. We may differ over some policies from time to time, individual policies, but never over the principle." - President George Bush Sr. [143]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The largest share of aid to Israel remains with American defense contractors. "Peter McPherson, former administrator of the Agency for International Development, estimated that every billion dollars of aid to Israel creates 60,000 to 70,000 jobs in the United States." [144]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israeli technological know-how has made it an equal partner in research and development of defensive military strategies. "..with funding from the United States, [Israeli firms developed] the Amos and Ofeq satellites and the world's first operational anti-missile missile system, the Arrow, unmanned air vehicles (UAV or pilotless aircraft) systems, including the Hunter….Python and Popeye "smart" airborne missiles…passive armor, naval decoys, …ceramic armor, air-breathing propulsion, and air-to-air, air-to-surface and surface-to-surface missiles." Global Security [145]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: If Israel were not a secure military ally, the US would have to deploy its own troops to the Middle East to ensure the stability of the region. "U.S. military analysts estimate that the U.S. would have to spend the equivalent of $150 billion a year in the Middle East to maintain a force equivalent to Israel's." [146]
      
      
• POINT 14: The U.S. gives $15,139,178 per day to the Israeli government and military and $568,744 per day to Palestinian NGO's. (ie the US helps Israel dramatically more than it helps the PA)
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: Apart from the gross inaccuracies in its numbers, the main thrust in this charge is absurd. There is absolutely no reason the US should give as much aid to the Palestinian Arabs as it gives to Israel. Israel is not only twice as populous as the PA. It is also a long time ally with a highly sophisticated culture and economy. The US derives enormous benefit from the financial assistance it gives to Israel. It would not derive the same benefits from the PA.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: A primary goal of US foreign aid is to support friendly nations and to foster democracy and human rights in developing nations.(*) Israel is one of the only nations created after World War II that has lived up to these ideals. It is the only democracy in the Middle East. (**) [147]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel provides strategic and military aid to the U.S. Its "navy and air force are the major deterrent forces in the eastern Mediterranean. Israel effectively secures NATO's southeastern flank, without having a single American soldier stationed in its territory. Still, the superb military installations, the air and sea lift capabilities, the equipment and food storage capacity, and the trained manpower to maintain and repair sophisticated U.S. equipment are instantly at hand in Israel. It is the only country in the area that makes itself available to the United States, in any contingency." [148]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The vast majority of what Israel receives must be spent in the United States to generate profits and jobs. More than 1,000 companies in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have signed contracts worth billions of dollars through this program over the last several years. [149]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The largest share of aid to Israel remains with American defense contractors. "Peter McPherson, former administrator of the Agency for International Development, estimated that every billion dollars of aid to Israel creates 60,000 to 70,000 jobs in the United States." [150]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israeli technological know-how has made it an equal partner in research and development of defensive military strategies. "..with funding from the United States, [Israeli firms developed] the Amos and Ofeq satellites and the world's first operational anti-missile missile system, the Arrow, unmanned air vehicles (UAV or pilotless aircraft) systems, including the Hunter….Python and Popeye "smart" airborne missiles…passive armor, naval decoys, …ceramic armor, air-breathing propulsion, and air-to-air, air-to-surface and surface-to-surface missiles." Global Security [151]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel is a partner for the US in multiple research fields. "There is worldwide recognition of the R&D capability of Israeli brainpower in this area. "The world's Silicon Valley" and "a global source of technological innovation" are just some of the superlatives the world has attributed to the Israeli high-tech industry. Trailblazers have included Scitex, Checkpoint, Comverse, Zoran, Indigo, and M-Systems, as well as some 50 R&D centers of foreign companies like Intel, Motorola and Texas Instruments. Common to all of them is technological innovation that allowed them to create new markets or change existing markets. Today, in practically every area of technology, there is something Israeli - a chip, application, or particle…..In addition to its achievements in "traditional" technological fields like medical equipment, software protection, digital printing, chips and telecommunications, the last two years have seen new and promising developments in the areas of digital video, nanotechnology, Internet and cellular applications." Ha'aretz April 26 2004 [152]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Israel has helped people throughout the world with its humanitarian missions. "From soil cultivation programs in Kenya to computer education in Ethiopia, from medical programs in Jordan to seminars on cattle husbandry in India, Israel has helped alleviate hunger, disease and poverty in many developing countries. In the '70s, Israel broadened its humanitarian aid agenda by granting safe haven to refugees and foreign nationals in distress such as 303 desperate Vietnamese refugees who now live side by side with Jewish-Israelis in Israel…More than 140 countries have benefited from Israel's humanitarian aid." Seattle Post Intelligencer February 13 2004 [153]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Apart from the gross inaccuracies in its numbers, the main thrust in this charge is absurd. There is absolutely no reason the US should give as much aid to the Palestinian Arabs as it gives to Israel. The Palestinian Arabs get enormous aid from other sources as well. They have been the largest aid recipients of any people in the world, according to the World Bank. The Palestinians are also subsidized by the World Bank, the UN, the European Union, individual European countries, and Arab countries.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: The World Bank's . "…level of assistance in the three years since the Intifada is at an extraordinary high level…It's a level of something over $300 (£160) per capita. According to our calculations, that is the highest per capita aid transfer in the history of foreign aid anywhere." Nigel Roberts, World Bank official in the Territories. February 29 2004 [154]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The world community has given the Palestinian refugees welfare since 1950 through UNRWA. No other refugee group has become a permanent ward of the international community. In 2000, UNRWA's budget was $293,207,000. The oil rich states supplied only 2.19% of the funding. The European Union supplied 18%. The US was again the biggest donor by far at 31%. [155]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In 1993, at the first donor's conference, Europeans and Arabs joined together in order to help the emerging [Palestinian] state. The Europeans took their mission seriously, as seriously as they take only their agricultural subsidies. The enormous sums, of at least 4.1 Billion Euros that have flowed to Palestine, don't include grants from individual European countries….Since 2001, the EU has been providing 10 million Euros a month to the PA." German newspaper Die Zeit, June 7 2002 [156]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In 1998, Japan pledged an extra $200 million to assist the PA. [157]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: This claim is an example of how to lie with statistics. These figures are meaningless. They have little to do with each other. The amount the US allegedly gives Israel daily includes the total financial package it receives. The amount the US allegedly gives to Palestinian NGOs is only a fraction of the total package it gives to Palestinians.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: The United States gave Palestinian groups $1.3 billion through its US AID program between 1993 and 2003, according to the Palestine Chronicle. January 5 2004 [158]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The US also gives aid to Palestinians through the United Nations Rehabilitation and Works Program (UNRWA). Since the program's inception in 1950, the US has been the largest donor, supplying about $6.5 billion according to the Palestine Chronicle. January 5 2004 .(*) In 2002, the US upped its annual contribution to $119.25 million, according to the US Embassy.(**) In 2003, it pledged $95 million. (***) [159]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In 2003, the US pledged a direct grant of $20 million to the PA in hopes of shoring up then Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. [160]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: This claim is an example of how to lie with statistics. The amount the US allegedly "gives" Israel daily is grossly inflated. Israel receives approximately $3 billion a year in military and economic aid. That is equivalent to approximately $8 million a day, not $15 million.
    
    
  • COUNTERPOINT: This claim is an example of how to lie with statistics. The amount the US allegedly "gives" Israel is earmarked. Over two-thirds of the $3 billion is for military assistance, and Israel must spend 74% of it in the United States, so the aid serves to bolster the American economy. (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/foreign_aid.html )
    
    
• POINT 15: Israel intentionally attacked the United States ship, the USS Liberty, during the 1967 War.
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: Anti-Israel spokespeople focus on this event, a tragic incident of "friendly fire" during wartime, because it is the only example they have of Israel harming the US. It was a singular incident that could not in any way be described as representative of a systematic pattern. These spokespeople are simply trying to discredit Israel.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: The History Channel ran a biased account of the Liberty incident on August 9, 2001. It was "spiced by comments by James Bamford, a person well known for his animosity towards Israel who recently has stated in writing more than one time unqualifiedly that there has never been an investigation of the Liberty incident by the United States Government. The program [History Channel on August 9 2001] fails to mention the 10 U.S. official investigations including 5 by Congress. Many other less significant misstatements of fact and misrepresentations which further support the conclusion that the program was produced without adequate research, fact-checking and attention to detail that in the past has been the hallmark of History Channel programs". A J Cristol, PhD [161]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "The release of the Independent Commission of Inquiry's findings [about the USS Liberty incident] is a major step in debunking the myth that Israel is a friend to the United States and the American people." Alison Weir, 2003 [162]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The attack was not intentional. It was a tragic incident of "friendly fire" during the height of the 6-Day War, as Israel desperately tried to fend off Arab attacks from land, air and sea. Multiple investigations and newly released documents indicate that it was a tragic accident.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "[T]here have been 10 official U.S. investigations, including 5 by congress and three official Israeli investigations, all of which concluded the event was a tragic mistake, and 7 U.S. presidents (Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton) have endorsed that position." Judge A J Cristol, PhD 2001 [163]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "With the recent declassification of these documents in the United States and Israel, however, researchers have gained access to a wealth of primary sources - Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and U.S. military records, Israeli diplomatic correspondence, and memoranda from both the State Department and the White House. With the aid of these materials, the attack on the Liberty can now be reconstructed virtually minute-by-minute and with remarkable detail. The picture that emerges is not one of crime at all, nor even of criminal negligence, but of a string of failed communications, human errors, unfortunate coincidences and equipment failures on both the American and Israeli sides - the kind of tragic, senseless mistake that is all too common in the thick of war." Historian Michael Oren [164]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Israeli leaders apologized promptly and profusely, explaining that they had mistaken the Liberty for an enemy vessel--an explanation that subsequent investigations in both the United States and Israel upheld. Israel compensated the injured sailors and the families of those killed." Historian Michael Oren [165]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In the summer of 2003, the US National Security Council finally released highly classified intercepts from the incident. At a conference the following January, experts again confirmed that the attack was an accident. "The intercepts to me suggest strongly that the Israeli attackers did not know they were aiming deadly fire at a vessel belonging to the United States…In a careful reading, the intercepted communications between the air controller at Hatzor and helicopters dispatched in the wake of the attack show a progressive reversal of perception on their part. At first - confidence the aircraft were to inspect an Egyptian ship. Then - signs that the ship might not be Egyptian after all. And finally - growing evidence that it could belong to a friendly nation." NSA official David Hatch, January 2004 [166]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Israel could have had no conceivable motive for attacking the ship of one of its There is no conceivable motive Israel could have had for attacking a ship of its staunchest super-power ally, the US. Conspiracy theorists have tried to concoct motives over the years, but they have not held up to scrutiny.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Some suggest Israel believed that the USS Liberty had picked up evidence that Israel had plans to attack Jordan and didn't want the US to know, so it attacked the boat. This is absurd. "The Jordanian attack on Israel on June 5 and the fall of Jerusalem to Israeli forces on June 7 took place well before the Liberty's arrival off the Gaza coast, and none of the documents now available in any way link the Liberty incident on June 8 to these events." Historian Michael Oren [167]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The charge that Israel attacked the USS Liberty because it had eavesdropped on Israel's plans to attack Syria in the Golan Heights and would inform the US is also not born out by common sense or the evidence. "Like the other claims for Israel's alleged motive in attacking the Liberty, the one linking the assault to the Golan Heights campaign cannot withstand the scrutiny of the newly declassified documents. These confirm that Israel made no attempt to hide its preparations for an offensive against Syria, and that the United States government, relying on regular diplomatic channels, remained fully apprised of them. Thus, on June 8, the American consulate in Jerusalem reported that Israel was retaliating for Syria's bombardment of Israeli villages "in an apparent prelude to large-scale attack in effort to seize Heights overlooking border kibbutzim."" Historian Michael Oren [168]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In 2001, James Bamford published "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, [and] resurrected the canard by setting forth what is arguably the most audacious theory of all: that the Israelis deliberately attacked the Liberty to cover up a massacre of Egyptian prisoners of war…[the book] has no more basis in fact than its predecessors. Indeed, it may be the shoddiest screed of all…. he cites not one shred of evidence to prove that the Liberty ever intercepted a message about the alleged massacre. And then there's the question of whether such a massacre occurred at all. Israel captured more than 10,000 Egyptians in the Six Day War, but there are no known records--Israeli, American, Egyptian, or U.N.--of the Israelis mistreating them, let alone shooting them. Egypt has ruled the Sinai for over 20 years, yet it has never uncovered any mass graves." [169]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Casualties due to "friendly fire" are one of the tragic incidents in wars and mistaken aerial attacks have periodically occurred between friendly nations.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: In May 1992, during the first Gulf War, US pilots mistakenly attacked British armored vehicles. "How could the US pilots misidentify and attack British armored vehicles in broad daylight in the desert? Is it possible they couldn't tell the difference between the APC's of our British NATO allies and the Soviet-supplied ones used by Iraq? How could they have missed the special markers that identified the vehicles as British? The answer, of course, is that in the fog of war the US A-10 pilots missed the markers by mistake and misidentified the British armored vehicles, just like the Israelis who missed the Liberty's flag (which was hanging down in still air) and misidentified her as an Egyptian ship." CAMERA Report [170]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "[A]ccidental attacks, though tragic, are common in war. In 1967 alone, "friendly fire" killed 5,373 Americans fighting in Vietnam." Historian Michael Oren [171]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Another instructive example of mistaken attack occurred on June 2, 1967, just a few days before the Liberty incident, but this involved a US attack against the Russian freighter Turkestan in the North Vietnamese harbor of Cam Pha." Secretary MacNamara testified to Congress that "I would simply point out to you that, at the same time, I was denying that we had struck a Russian ship in Haiphong Harbor [sic] and I proved to be in error. These errors do occur. We had no more intention of attacking a Russian ship than Israel apparently did of attacking an American ship." [172]
      
      
• POINT 16: When will the Palestinian people deserve inclusion in America's drive for freedom and justice worldwide?
  
  
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US has included the Palestinians in its drive for freedom and justice worldwide. It has done more to help the Palestinians with humanitarian and financial aid than any other nation.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: The US has been the primary financial supporter of the Palestinian refugees for the past 54 years. The Unites States supplied close to two-thirds of UNRWA's (United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency) budget between its founding in 1950 and 1970, and subsequently supplied at least one-fourth of its funding. Since the program's inception in 1950, the US has been the largest donor, supplying a total of about $6.5 billion according to the Palestine Chronicle. January 5 2004 .(*) This money provides welfare, health care and education for Arab refugees of the 1948 and 1967 wars.(**) [173]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The United States has been a major donor to the Palestinian Authority to help it develop a viable infrastructure and economy. It gave Palestinian groups $1.3 billion through its US AID program between 1993 and 2003, according to the Palestine Chronicle on January 5 2004.(*) This does not include other aid the US still provides the Palestinians through, for example, the United Nations Rehabilitation and Works Program (UNRWA). In 2002, the US upped its annual contribution to $119.25 million, according to the US Embassy.(**) In 2003, it pledged $95 million.(***) [174]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In the 2000-2001 negotiations, the US promised to help raise $30 billion to resolve the plight of Palestinian refugees: "There would be a right of return for the refugees to their own state, not to Israel, but there would also be a fund of $30 billion internationally that would be put together for either compensation or to cover repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation costs." - Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East. [175]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US has included the Palestinians in its drive for freedom and justice and fairness worldwide. It has done more than any other nation-with the exception of Israel perhaps-to help the Palestinians resolve their grievances and achieve their national aspirations.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Arab states never helped the Palestinians achieve autonomy or independence in the Territories. When Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt controlled Gaza between 1948 and 1967, neither country ever supported the idea of autonomy or independence for Palestinians in the Territories [176]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Arab states never tried to help the Palestinians achieve autonomy or independence in the Territories. When Egypt fostered the development of the PLO in 1964, the original Charter explicitly excluded the Territories. The goal was to destroy Israel and replace it with Palestinian state: "This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or the Himmah Area." Article 24 of original PLO Charter, 1964 [177]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: More than any other nation, the United States has expended enormous amounts of time and led strenuous diplomatic efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli dispute and grant Palestinians autonomy, from the Rogers Plan in 1969, to President Carter's assistance with the Camp David Accords in 1978, the Schultz Plan in 1988, the Baker Plan in 1989, the Oslo Accords in 1993, and the Clinton-Barak plans in 2000.
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: The Carter, Clinton and Bush Administrations were the first and only nations since 1948 that called for the Palestinian Arabs to have their own state in the Territories and that tried to broker a deal to make the state come into being. Indeed, Jordan did not relinquish its claims to the West Bank until 1988. [178]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: Unfortunately, as long as Yasser Arafat, his Palestinian Authority and the terrorist groups leading the Intifada represent the Palestinian people, America cannot include them in its drive for freedom and justice worldwide. These groups are the enemies of freedom, justice, equality and peace, according to even Arab and Palestinian spokespeople.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: Arafat destroyed freedom, justice, and equality in the Territories. His governance has seen "…the rise of a regime characterized by a massive police force whose specialty was intimidation of political opponents; an executive branch in which Arafat alone made all major decisions and in which the civil service was reduced to a corrupt patronage machine; the institutionalized absence of the rule of law, and a judiciary that lacked any independence; and the intimidation of the media and human rights organizations, to the point that it became virtually impossible to transmit any message other than one personally approved by Arafat." Historian Daniel Polisar, Human Rights Watch monitor, 2002 [179]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Arafat has destroyed Palestine. He has led it to terrorism, death and a hopeless situation. Arafat has also divided the country, as Saddam Hussein divided Iraq, heaping humiliation on the nation. Although he has become senile, Arafat still wants to retain the reins of Palestine in his hands. He has to be relieved of his responsibilities and should be forced to retire." Ahmed Al-Jarallah, Editor of the Arab Times, July 18, 2004 [180]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "It may be time for Yasser Arafat to fall on his sword or leave. The situation in Palestine is bad and getting worse. It is too easy to blame it one more time on Israel and the usual suspects -- the West, the Arabs, the others. But if you listened to Palestinians, they are saying their president for life -- Yasser Arafat -- is the problem along with his cronies who rule them, rob them and impoverish them." Youssef M. Ibrahim, Gulf News, July 20 2004 [181]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "[T]he worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003 [182]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: On the liberal Arab website Elaph, Egyptian columnist Sami Buheiri wrote: "[T]he rabble majority of the Arab and Palestinian street today….refuse to accept any kind of a peace agreement with Israel... It is they who applaud the bus and restaurant bombings in order to destroy any spark of hope for peace... They are Arab nationalists who have failed completely in all their wars with Israel and in all attempts to achieve peace with Israel, because they were not serious, and they were not men - neither in fighting nor in peacemaking..." [183]
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, who was an intermediary in the negotiations, called Arafat's refusal to accept the Camp David offer "a crime against Palestinians, in fact against the whole region." (New Yorker interview March 24, 2003)
      
      
    • Supporting Evidence: "Prince Hassan bin Talal, uncle of Jordan's King Abdullah and a former heir to the throne of the Hashemite kingdom, has told an Italian newspaper that he sees Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a pragmatic man, who wants security for his people, but is unable to find a partner on the Palestinian side with whom to conduct negotiations."Ha'aretz, December 29 2003 [184]
      
      
  • COUNTERPOINT: The US tried to include the Palestinians in the drive for freedom and justice. It asked Palestinian NGOs (non-government organizations) to make a pledge against hatred, violence and terrorism. In return, these groups would receive aid from the US Agency for International Development. The Palestinian NGOs refused.
    
    
    • Supporting Evidence: "In January 2004, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) issued guidelines requiring NGOs receiving funds through this agency to pledge "not to promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry, or the destruction of any state, nor … make sub-grants to any entity that engages in these activities." The U.S. government guidelines list prohibited organizations, including many Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (the armed wing of Fatah), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In response, the Palestinian Nongovernmental Network, comprising ninety-two Palestinian NGOs, refused to sign the document. PNGO members announced that they preferred to forgo USAID funding, amounting to approximately $1 billion for the West Bank and Gaza between 1993 and 2002. PNGO urged its members to seek alternative funding from Europe and Japan, which do not require a similar pledge." [185]
      
      

[1] Senator Joseph R Biden, "Truth vs. Double Standards in Jenin," May 6 2002, NYU Global Beat at http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/biden060602.html

[2] Michael Walzer, "The Four Wars of Israel/Palestine," Dissent, Fall 2002

[3] (*)COP/J "Daily Alert," July 24 2003 at (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.dailyalert.org/archive/2002-07/2002-07-24.html

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://www.dailyalert.org/archive/2002-07/2002-07-24.html

(**)Amos Harel, "From A Pinpoint Operation to Massive Casualties, Haaretz, July 23 2002 at http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=189997&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y&itemNo=189997

[4] Margot Dudkevitch, "Counter-Terrorism and Protecting Civilians," Jerusalem Post, May 11 2004 at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1084251781435&p=1078027574121

[5] http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel/hebron6-06.htm#P765_157031

[6] http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel/hebron6-06.htm#P765_157031

[7] http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel/hebron6-06.htm#P765_157031

[8] Henry Chu. "Hamas Leaders Keep Low Profile." Los Angeles Times. October 9, 2003.

[9] Cited on IMRA Daily Digest Volume 2 Issue 260 at http://www.imra.org and http://ww.idf.il/newsite/images/021023-4arabic.gif

[10] Ewen MacAskill, "Youths on Gaza Frontline Keep Hatred Alive," The Guardian April 23, 2004 at http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1201534,00.html

[11] http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200-01.htm#P217_53015

[12] "Moscow Remembers Theater Siege," The Russia Journal, October 23 2003 at http://www.russiajournal.com/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=40973

[13] New York Post. May 3, 2002

[14] http://www.ict.org.il/casualties_project/stats_page.cfm

[15] http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=6/d/archives/260520022

[16] (*) Iran News, December 15, 2001. http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP32502

[17] Cited at http://www.lp.org/press/archive.php?function=view&record=436

[18] Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison, "Deployment of US Forces in Europe," Heritage Lecture #782 April 8 2003 at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/hl782.cfm

[19] Tamar Sternthal, "WSJ Columnist Overstates US Aid to Israel by Almost $ 1 Trillion," December 12 2003 at http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=596&x_context=2

[20] (*) http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0412/p07s01-wome.html

(**) http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP3499

[21] Reported in the Tampa Bay Reporter December 12 2002 http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?action=articles&drill=viewArt&art=664

[22] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf21.html#g

[23] Reported in the Tampa Bay Reporter December 12 2002 http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?action=articles&drill=viewArt&art=664

[24] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/industry.htm

[25] Oded Hermoni, “The Bottom Line: Made in Israel,” Ha’aretz, April 26 2004 at http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/420126.html

[26] Steven Zunes, "Iraq, Israel and the Jews," Tikkun, April 2003 at http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0303/article/030312g.html

[27] Karen L. Dunn, “Israel Doesn’t Deserve Brickbats,” Seattle Post Intelligencer, February 13 2004 at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/160430_ourplace13.html

[28] (*)"US Curbs Aid to Egypt Over Human Rights," CNN.com, , August 15 2002 at (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/15/us.egypt.aid/

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/15/us.egypt.aid/

(**)Alfred B. Prados, (Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division of Congressional Research Service)) "Jordan: US Relations and Bilateral Issues," Congressional Research Service, July 23 2003 at (***"" TARGET="_blank">http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:LWoKUgohQFYJ:http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/ib93085.pdf+Jordan+%22US+aid%22+debts&hl=en

(***" TARGET="_blank">http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:LWoKUgohQFYJ:http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/ib93085.pdf+Jordan+%22US+aid%22+debts&hl=en

(***)Mohammed Daraghmeh, "Palestinian Groups Refuse US Money," Palestine Chronicle, January 5 2004 at http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110 and US Embassy Press Release September 25 2002 at http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/peace/archives/2002/september/092604.html

[29] http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0412/p07s01-wome.html

[30] Iran News, December 15, 2001. http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP32502

[31] Cited at http://www.lp.org/press/archive.php?function=view&record=436

[32] Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison, “Deployment of US Forces in Europe,” Heritage Lecture #782 April 8 2003 at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/hl782.cfm

[33] Tamar Sternthal, “WSJ Columnist Overstates US Aid to Israel by Almost $ 1 Trillion,” December 12 2003 at http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=596&x_context=2

[34] Reported in the Tampa Bay Reporter December 12 2002 http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?action=articles&drill=viewArt&art=664

[35] http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002745

[36] (*)CBS News, "Republicans Look for Jewish Vote," September 2 2004 at http://cbs2.com/politics/politicsnational_story_246063038.html and Mark Z. Barabak, "Bush Move on Mideast May Sway Jewish Vote," LA Times, April 17 2004 at http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-jews17apr17,1,1697090.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[37] (*)Alexandra J. Wall, "Local Photographer Aims Her Lens at Cowboy Jews," The Jewish News Weekly, September 22 2000 at http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/14512/edition_id/282/format/html/displaystory.html

[38] Manfred Gerstenfeld, "Countervailing Trends in American Jewry: An Interview with Norman Podheretz," Jerusalem Viewpoints, October 15 2003 at http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp505.htm

[39] Steven Zunes, "Iraq, Israel and the Jews," Tikkun, April 2003 at http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0303/article/030312g.html

[40] Norman Podheretz, "World War IV: How It Started, What It Means and Why We Have to Win It," Commentary Magazine, September 2004 at http://www.commentarymagazine.com/podhoretz.htm

[41] Nathan Guttman, "Jews Brainwashed Bush? What a Joke!" Interview with Dov Zakheim, Ha'aretz , June 29 2004 at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/441712.html

[42] Steven Zunes, "Iraq, Israel and the Jews," Tikkun, April 2003 at http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0303/article/030312g.html

[43] Dore Gold, "Wartime Witch Hunt: Blaming Israel for the Iraq War," Jerusalem Issue Brief, June 3 2004 at http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief3-25.htm

[44] Steven Zunes, "Iraq, Israel and the Jews," Tikkun, April 2003 at http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0303/article/030312g.html

[45] Norman Podheretz, "World War IV: How It Started, What It Means and Why We Have to Win It," Commentary Magazine, September 2004 at http://www.commentarymagazine.com/podhoretz.htm

[46] Nathan Guttman, "Jews Brainwashed Bush? What a Joke!" Interview with Dov Zakheim, Ha'aretz , June 29 2004 at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/441712.html

[47] Steven Zunes, "Iraq, Israel and the Jews," Tikkun, April 2003 at http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0303/article/030312g.html

[48] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf21.html

[49] (*) http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf21.html#29

(**) Steven Emerson, “The Petrodollar Connection.” The New Republic. February 17, 1982.

[50] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf21.html#t

[51] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf21.html#t

[52] Reprinted at http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/middleeast/20_Facts_about_Israel_and_the_Middle_East.asp

[53] http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2003/akessay.htm

[54] Cited in Alan Dershowitz, The Case for Israel, p 210

[55] Andrew Sullivan, "The Wages of Hate," Sunday London Times, 10/20/02

[56] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf21.html#t

[57] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[58] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[59] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[60] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[61] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[62] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[63] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[64] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[65] http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2003/akessay.htm

[66] Report available at http://www.undp.org/rbas/ahdr

[67] (*) http://www.freedomhouse.org/pdf_docs/research/freeworld/2002/map2002.pdf and (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2002/combinedaverage.pdf

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2002/combinedaverage.pdf

(**) (***"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.iacnet.org/league/corruptionindex.pdf

(***" TARGET="_blank">http://www.iacnet.org/league/corruptionindex.pdf

(***) (****"" TARGET="_blank">http://middleeastinfo.org/forum577

(****" TARGET="_blank">http://middleeastinfo.org/forum577

(****) (*****)http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/01/jord0127.htm

(******"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0220/p13s01-lire.html

(*****)http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/01/jord0127.htm

(******" TARGET="_blank">http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0220/p13s01-lire.html

(*****)http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/01/jord0127.htm

(******) http://bookorders.who.int/newaccess/anglais/detart1.jsp?sesslan=1&codlan=1&codcol=15&codcch=454 http://www.iacnet.org/league/somalia/fgh-who.pdf

[68] Salim Mansur, "Darfur Exposes Trait of Arab Politics," London Free Press, August 18 2004 at http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Salim_Mansur/2004/08/18/588133.html

[69] Laura King, "Palestinians Peek Past Arafat," LA Times, July 24 2004 at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-arafat24jul24,1,3189691.story?coll=la-headlines-world

[70] (*)German Marshall Fund, "Democracy and Human Development in the Broader Middle East: A Transatlantic Strategy for Partnership" Istanbul Policy Paper # 1, June 22 2004, archived at http://www.aei.org/research/nai/news/newsID.20779,projectID.11/news_detail.asp

[71] (*)German Marshall Fund, "Democracy and Human Development in the Broader Middle East: A Transatlantic Strategy for Partnership" Istanbul Policy Paper # 1, June 22 2004, archived at http://www.aei.org/research/nai/news/newsID.20779,projectID.11/news_detail.asp

[72] (*) "2002 Human Rights Award Dinner," October 2002, Human Rights First website at (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/about_us/award_dinners/2002_dinner/2002_dinner.htm

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/about_us/award_dinners/2002_dinner/2002_dinner.htm

(**) Goudarz Eghtedari, "US Should Support Iran's Reform Movement, But From a Distance," Jomhouri, June 17 2003, archived at http://actagainstwar.org/dc/media/article10.html

[73] Mai, Yamani, "The Middle East's Lost Resources," International Herald Tribune, September 2 2004 at http://www.iht.com/articles/536995.html

[74] Israel's Declaration of Independence archived at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/israel.htm

[75] Israel's Basic Law archived at http://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/basic2_eng.htm

[76] (*) (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.fact-index.com/p/po/politics_of_israel.html

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://www.fact-index.com/p/po/politics_of_israel.html

(**) http://countrystudies.us/israel/103.htm

[77] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website, "Elections" at http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/State/THE+STATE-+Elections.htm

[78] http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP3499

[79] http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP3499

[80] http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP3499

[81] Freedom House Reports 1972-73 to 2000 at http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/FHSCORES.xls

[82] Freedom House Reports 2000 at http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/FHSCORES.xls; US Department of State, Human Rights Reports, 1999 at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/c1470.htm; ; United Nations Arab Human Development Report, 2002, p.2 http://www.undp.org.

[83] Freedom House Reports 2000 at http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/FHSCORES.xls US Department of State, Human Rights Reports, 1999 at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/c1470.htm; United Nations Arab Human Development Report, 2002, p.2 http://www.undp.org.

[84] Ruth Gavison, "The Jews' Right to Statehood: A Defense," Azure, Summer 2003 at http://www.tcheletjournal.org/15-gavison.html

[85] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Israel: Culture" at http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/facts%20about%20israel/israel%20in%20brief/

[86] Dore Gold and Jeff Helmreich, "Rights of the Jewish People to a Sovereignty in their Historic Homeland," Jerusalem Viewpoints, November 16 2003 at http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp507.htm

[87] Don Eggen and John Mintz, "Muslim Groups' IRS Files Sought," Washington Post, January 14 2004 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14205-2004Jan13.html

[88] Kenneth Dam, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Testimony before the Senate Committee on Housing, Banking and Urban Affairs, August 1 2002 archived at http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-se1560.html

[89] Kenneth Dam, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Testimony before the Senate Committee on Housing, Banking and Urban Affairs, August 1 2002 archived at http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-se1560.html

[90] Kenneth Dam, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Testimony before the Senate Committee on Housing, Banking and Urban Affairs, August 1 2002 archived at http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-se1560.html

[91] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[92] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[93] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[94] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[95] Cited at http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/lobby.html

[96] (*) http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf21.html#29

(**) Steven Emerson, “The Petrodollar Connection.” The New Republic. February 17, 1982.

[97] (*) Joel Mowbray, “Feeding at the Saudi Trough,” Town Hall, October 1 2003 at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/joelmowbray/printjm20031001.shtml

(**) http://student.cs.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/authors/SarahWeir.php

[98] (*) David Kaplan, “The Saudi Connection,” December 15 2003 at http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com/extra/saudi_connection.htm

[99] Steven Zunes, "Iraq, Israel and the Jews," Tikkun, April 2003 at http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0303/article/030312g.html

[100] Mitchell Bard, citing UNRWA data in Myths and Facts, 2001, p. 182 and US Congressional Services Research Department, November 21, 2003 at http://www.pennyhill.com/middleeastandnorthafrica/rs21668.html

[101] Mitchell Bard, Myths and Facts, 2001, p. 291

[102] Mitchell Bard, Myths and Facts, 2001, p. 291

[103] (*) Mohammed Daraghmeh, "Palestinian Groups Refuse US Money," Palestine Chronicle, January 5 2004 at (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(**) Mitchell Bard, Myths and Facts, 2001 p. 286

[104] http://www.useu.be/Categories/GlobalAffairs/Middle_East/May2203USAidPalestinians.html

[105] Al-Ayyam (Palestinian newspaper) September 3, 2003, translated at MEMRI at http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD57303

[106] Al-Hayat, London, July 14, 2002. Translated at MEMRI at http://www.memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP40102

[107] “Why an Even More Difficult Future Awaits Us, Palestinians and Arabs,” Al-Hayat (London) July 21, 2002, at MEMRI http://www.memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP40402

[108] Translated by MEMRI at http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP63604

[109] Translated by MEMRI at http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP63604

[110] Mitchell Bard, Myths and Facts, 2001 p. 286

[111] (*) Mitchell Bard, Myths and Facts, 2001 p. 291

[112] Alfred B. Prados, (Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division of Congressional Research Service)) "Jordan: US Relations and Bilateral Issues," Congressional Research Service, July 23 2003 at http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:LWoKUgohQFYJ:http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/ib93085.pdf+Jordan+%22US+aid%22+debts&hl=en

[113] http://wordofmessiah.org/kirkpatrick_blasts_un.htm

[114] (*) (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/un/record.html

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/un/record.html

(**) (***"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/un/record.html

(***" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/un/record.html

(***) http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/un/record.html and (****"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/4416081.htm

(****" TARGET="_blank">http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/4416081.htm

(****) (*****"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/un/record.html

(*****" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/un/record.html

(*****) (******"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.hri.ca/uninfo/about/chart2.shtml

(******" TARGET="_blank">http://www.hri.ca/uninfo/about/chart2.shtml

(******) Anne Bayefsky, "Human Wrongs," Wall Street Journal, April 29 2003, archived at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=7553

[115] Kofi Annan Remarks at UN Conference on "Confronting Anti-Semitism," June 21 2004 at http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2004/webArticles/062104_sg_remarks.asp#

[116] Shlomo Shamir, "Arabs Shock Europeans, Refuse to Condemn Anti-Semitism," Ha'aretz, July 28 2004 at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/456967.html

[117] Shlomo Shamir, "Arabs Shock Europeans, Refuse to Condemn Anti-Semitism," Ha'aretz, July 28 2004 at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/456967.html

[118] http://www.adl.org/extremism/jdl_chron.asp

[119] http://www.adl.org/extremism/jdl_chron.asp

[120] http://www.securitymanagement.com/library/000248.html

[121] http://www.securitymanagement.com/library/000248.html

[122] http://www.ict.org.il/

[123] http://www.ict.org.il/ under “Profiles of Terrorist Organizations in the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” “Kach”

[124] Tamar Sternthal, “WSJ Columnist Overstates US Aid to Israel by Almost $ 1 Trillion,” December 12 2003 at http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=596&x_context=2

[125] Cited at http://www.lp.org/press/archive.php?function=view&record=436

[126] Raphael Danziger and Bradley Gordon, “End American Aid to Israel?” Middle East Forum, September 1995 at http://www.meforum.org/article/259

[127] Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison, “Deployment of US Forces in Europe,” Heritage Lecture #782 April 8 2003 at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/hl782.cfm

[128] http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/0c7323dbe26a4aedc1256e66002efe8a?OpenDocument

[129] Ross Dunn In Ar-Ram, “ End sleaze or lose aid, Arafat told,” Scotsman on Sunday, February 29 2004 at http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=238542004

[130] (*) Mohammed Daraghmeh, “Palestinian Groups Refuse US Money,” Palestine Chronicle, January 5 2004 at http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(**) Mohammed Daraghmeh, “Palestinian Groups Refuse US Money,” Palestine Chronicle, January 5 2004 at http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(***) US Embassy Press Release September 25 2002 at http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/peace/archives/2002/september/092604.html

(****) http://www.useu.be/Categories/GlobalAffairs/Middle_East/May2203USAidPalestinians.html

[131] http://info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/Refugees/6-7.html

[132] Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff and Bruno Schirra, “Arafat Bombs, Europe Pays,” Die Zeit, June 7 2002, Article archived at http://www.aijac.org.au/updates/Jun-02/130602.html

[133] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Peace/aidpa.html

[134] http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0412/p07s01-wome.html

[135] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/foreign_aid.html

[136] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/foreign_aid.html

[137] http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=13885

[138] Dershowitz, 162

[139] http://www.middleeastfacts.com/Articles/arafatstockholm.htm

[140] http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP23601

[141] http://www.memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP15500

[142] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[143] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html

[144] Reported in the Tampa Bay Reporter December 12 2002 http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?action=articles&drill=viewArt&art=664

[145] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/industry.htm

[146] Reported in the Tampa Bay Reporter December 12 2002

[147] (*) http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0412/p07s01-wome.html

(**) http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP3499

[148] Reported in the Tampa Bay Reporter December 12 2002 http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?action=articles&drill=viewArt&art=664

[149] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf21.html#g

[150] Reported in the Tampa Bay Reporter December 12 2002 http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?action=articles&drill=viewArt&art=664

[151] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/industry.htm

[152] Oded Hermoni, “The Bottom Line: Made in Israel,” Ha’aretz, April 26 2004 at http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/420126.html

[153] Karen L. Dunn, “Israel Doesn’t Deserve Brickbats,” Seattle Post Intelligencer, February 13

[154] Ross Dunn In Ar-Ram, “ End sleaze or lose aid, Arafat told,” Scotsman on Sunday, February 29 2004 at http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=238542004

[155] http://info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/Refugees/6-7.html

[156] Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff and Bruno Schirra, “Arafat Bombs, Europe Pays,” Die Zeit, June 7 2002, Article archived at http://www.aijac.org.au/updates/Jun-02/130602.html

[157] http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Peace/aidpa.html

[158] Mohammed Daraghmeh, “Palestinian Groups Refuse US Money,” Palestine Chronicle, January 5 2004 at http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

[159] (*) Mohammed Daraghmeh, “Palestinian Groups Refuse US Money,” Palestine Chronicle, January 5 2004 at http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(**) US Embassy Press Release September 25 2002 at http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/peace/archives/2002/september/092604.html

(***) http://www.useu.be/Categories/GlobalAffairs/Middle_East/May2203USAidPalestinians.html

[160] http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33499

[161] Archived at http://www.jewishpublicaffairs.org/community_relations/newsanalysis/USSLiberty-8-13-01.html

[162] Sarah Weir, “Commission of Inquiry reveals US-Israeli cover-up of U.S.S. Liberty attack” The Electronic Intifada, 25 October 2003 at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2104.shtml

[163] Cited at http://www.jewishpublicaffairs.org/community_relations/newsanalysis/USSLiberty-8-13-01.html

[164] Michael Oren, “The USS Liberty: Case Closed” at http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/liberty1.html

[165] Michael Oren, “Unfriendly Fire,” The New Republic, July 2 2001 at http://www.tnr.com/072301/oren072301_print.html

[166] Cited January 13 2004 at http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13667&intcategoryid=3

[167] Michael Oren, “The USS Liberty: Case Closed” at http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/liberty1.html

[168] Michael Oren, “The USS Liberty: Case Closed” at http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/liberty1.html

[169] Michael Oren, “Unfriendly Fire,” The New Republic, July 2 2001 at http://www.tnr.com/072301/oren072301_print.html

[170] Cited at http://world.std.com/~camera/docs/alert/hchannel.html

[171] Michael Oren, “Unfriendly Fire,” The New Republic, July 2 2001 at http://www.tnr.com/072301/oren072301_print.html

[172] Judge A J Cristol, PhD, cited at CAMERA at http://world.std.com/~camera/docs/alert/hchannel.html

[173] (*) Mohammed Daraghmeh, "Palestinian Groups Refuse US Money," Palestine Chronicle, January 5 2004 at (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(**)Mitchell Bard, citing UNRWA data in Myths and Facts, 2001, p. 182 and US Congressional Services Research Department, November 21, 2003 at http://www.pennyhill.com/middleeastandnorthafrica/rs21668.html

[174] (*) Mohammed Daraghmeh, "Palestinian Groups Refuse US Money," Palestine Chronicle, January 5 2004 at (**"" TARGET="_blank">http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(**" TARGET="_blank">http://palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20040107135522110

(**) US Embassy Press Release September 25 2002 at (***"" TARGET="_blank">http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/peace/archives/2002/september/092604.html

(***" TARGET="_blank">http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/peace/archives/2002/september/092604.html

(***) http://www.useu.be/Categories/GlobalAffairs/Middle_East/May2203USAidPalestinians.html

[175] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,50830,00.html

[176] See Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, 1997, pp. 178-179

[177] PLO original Charter archived at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/cove1.html

[178] CBC News, "Quest for Peace: Jordan's King Hussein," archived at http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/mideast/hussein_text.html

[179] Daniel Polisar, "Yasser Arafat and the Myth of Legitimacy," 2002 at http://216.109.117.135/search/cache?p=Arafat+elected+president+percent+vote&ei=UTF8&cop=mss&xargs=0&pstart=1&b=21&u=http://www.jpef.net/sep02/Yasser%2520Arafat.pd&w=arafat+elected+president+percent+vote&d=1B921E5C46&icp=1

[180] http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/opinion/view.asp?msgID=514

[181] By Youssef M. Ibrahim, "Outside View: Time for Arafat to Go?" Gulf News, July 20 2004 archived at http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040720-094015-8208r

[182] Translated by MEMRI at http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP63604

[183] Translated by MEMRI at http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP63604

[184] Haaretz Service, "Jordan's Hassan: Sharon Pragmatic, But Cannot Find a Partner," Haaretz Daily, December 29 2003 at http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=377281&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

[185] Gerald Steinberg, "NGOs Make War on Israel," Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2004 at http://www.meforum.org/article/633