Newsletter No 356

                                                                               ISSN 1440-9828
                                                                       October 2007
                                                                  No 356

THE LEGAL BATTLE BEFORE THE FCA

- in an attempt to silence those who refuse to believe in the Jewish Holocaust-Shoah. The importance of this legal battle rests on a simple fact: the enforcing of the Holocaust-Shoah belief is a direct attack on our civilization’s basic values – TRUTH and HONESTY.

This is a brief Update on the action begun in the Federal Court of Australia – FCA – in 2001, originating before the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1996, then taken for enforcement to the FCA. In both instances Fredrick Töben remained legally unrepresented because he could not find any legal person willing to act on a pro bono basis – free. Mrs Olga Scully in Launceston, Tasmania did likewise, and as expected, was found >guilty<. She was billed for about $150,00 legal costs. Fortunately for her she had declared herself bankrupt before the action had begun in the FCA. Töben is luckier – he has nothing to lose! He has been living in a friend’s house in Adelaide since 1994 – and does not have to pay any rent!

The current Contempt of Court action was originally set down in the FCA, Sydney, for 5 December 1006, but on account of Töben being in Teheran, Iran, it was adjourned until his return in January 2007. A number of directions hearings followed until the FCA made use of Rule 80 that permits a judge to ask a barrister to act in a pro bono capacity for the Defendant.

The latest directions hearing was set down at 9:00 AM, Thursday, 20 September 2007, with Justice Moore and Applicant Jeremy Jones’ Defence Counsel in the FCA, Sydney, and appearing via video link in the FCA, Adelaide, Respondent Fredrick Töben and Defence Counsel, Barrister Paul Charman.

In the past, and since the action began in the FCA in 2001, Fredrick Töben had the privilege of sitting at the Bar Table because he was then representing himself. He is now able to sit behind his Counsel and watch as Mr Charman does battle for him.

The main points arising out of the directions hearing:

1. Statement of Charge needs to be amended, i.e. it is alleged that Töben is in breach of the 2002 Court Order. The evidence comes from 144 items taken from Adelaide Institute’s website on 16 August 2006. It was conceded that in order to make out a defence, it is necessary for the Applicant to specify when the items were placed on the website, and whether they were published or merely re-published.

2. A defence argument can be made out that there has been a delay of over four years before this current action was begun, and this may constitute an abuse of process.

3. The trial dates of Monday-Tuesday 24-25 September 2007 are vacated and new dates – 27-28 November 2007 – have been set down for a hearing of this matter.

4. The matter will commence at the Federal Court of Australia, Adelaide, on 27 November 2007 at 10:15 AM.

5. Though legal proceedings have been set down to be heard on a specified date, matters may still be subject to change. However, anyone who wishes to attend is cordially invited to visit the beautiful City of Adelaide – but beforehand go to Adelaide Institute’s website for any update information, or contact Fredrick Töben on Mobile: 04170 88217.

Fredrick Töben standing at the Bar Table during one of his numerous Sydney FCA appearances

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The Latest Non-News from the HOLOCAUST HUCKSTERS

LOOK HOW IT’S DONE! POSITIVES TURNED INTO NEGATIVES!

More distortions, exaggerations, and outright lies from the professionals

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Day off from Auschwitz: The laughing death-camp guards at play

By ALLAN HALL –Daily Mail, 19th September 2007

Laughing and pulling faces for the camera, the uniformed men and women line up for a sing-song.

In another photo, nurses in starched aprons smile beneath the gaze of smart young officers.

Yet another picture shows a group of girls sitting along a fence eating bowls of blueberries. They turn their bowls upside down to show they have all eaten their portions.

Laughter lines the faces of camp staff as they prepare for a sing-song

SS officers and German nurses gather during the dedication ceremony of the new SS hospital in Auschwitz

Only the men's uniforms and the SS insignia on their collars offer a clue to the identity of those in the photographs.

They are all staff at the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz, pictured on their time off from the business of running Hitler's death factory.

The pictures, revealed for first time, were taken from the personal scrapbook of Karl Hocker, the adjutant to the commandant of the camp in Poland where 1.1million prisoners, mostly Jews, were murdered.

Among them also are photos of a handsome, well-groomed SS doctor whose name itself has become synonymous with the Holocaust.

Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death, is seen for the first time at Auschwitz, sharing a conversation with his superiors.

The Angel of Death, Josef Mengele (centre), with commandant Richard Baer on his right.

The photos represent a sensational historical find for the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

They underline the sickening hypocrisy of the servants of Nazism - morally bankrupt, illimitably cruel - and yet able to laugh, joke, drink and sunbathe as if they were no different to anyone else.

None of the pictures show their benighted victims or depict the paraphernalia of carrying out murder on an industrial scale.

It was Rebecca Erbelding, an archivist at the Holocaust Museum, who opened the letter from a former United States Army intelligence officer in December last year.

He said he wanted to donate photographs of Auschwitz he had found when he lived in a Frankfurt apartment in 1946.

Members of the SS Helferinnen (female auxiliaries) and SS officer Karl Hoecker sit on a fence railing in Solahutte eating bowls of blueberries, accompanied by an accordionist

Karl Hocker and SS auxiliaries at a recreation lodge near the camp

Although Auschwitz may be the most notorious of the Nazi death camps, there are few photos of the place taken before its liberation in 1945.

In January Miss Erbelding received a package containing 16 cardboard pages with the photos pasted on both sides - and their historical significance quickly became apparent.

As the Zyklon B gas killed prisoners at a rate of 6,000 a day, and as Mengele and his cronies performed hideous medical experiments on other inmates, here were men and women charged with the smooth running of the camp taking time out to enjoy life.

In all, there are 116 pictures, beginning with a photo from June 21, 1944, of Hocker and the then commandant, Richard Baer, both in full SS regalia.

The album also contains eight photos of Mengele, the camp doctor notorious for participating in the selection of arriving prisoners for his barbaric medical experiments.

"These are the first authenticated pictures of Mengele at Auschwitz," said the museum.

An accordionist leads a sing-along for SS officers at their retreat at Solahutte outside Auschwitz - pictured in the front row are Karl Hoecker, Otto Moll, Rudolf Hoess, Richard Baer, Josef Karmer, Franz Hoessler, and Josef Mengele.

One of the pictures, taken on July 22, 1944, shows a group of cheerful young women who worked as SS communications specialists eating bowls of fresh blueberries.

Many were taken at Solahuette, an SS rest-and-relaxation facility built in the style of an Alpine lodge a few miles away from the camp.

The Holocaust Museum has put the photos on its website - ushmm.org - while it deliberates whether or not to make them part of a permanent display.

Around 1.1 million prisoners were executed by the Nazis at Auschwitz

Child prisoners at Auschwitz just after its liberation in 1945. The museum says the photos are instructive in that they showed the murderers were, in their self-image, "good men, good comrades, even civilised".

Hocker fled Auschwitz before the camp's liberation. When he was captured by the British, he was carrying false documents identifying him as a combat soldier, but was released after 18 months.

In the Sixties he was tracked down to Engershausen, his hometown, where he was working as a bank official.

He was convicted of war crimes and served seven years before his release in 1970, when he walked out of prison and was rehired by the bank. He died in 2000 at 89.

"It's hard to fathom the kind of people who ran these camps and one always struggles to understand who they were and how they saw themselves," said museum director Sara Bloomfield.

SS officer Karl Hoecker lights a candle on a Christmas tree.

"These unique photographs vividly illustrate the contented world they enjoyed while overseeing a world of unimaginable suffering.

"They offer an important perspective on the psychology of those perpetrating genocide."

The album complements the only other known collection of photographs taken at Auschwitz, published as the "Auschwitz Album" in 1980.

Those images specifically depict the arrival of Hungarian Jews at the camp in late May 1944, and the selection process that the SS imposed on them.

The American donor, who had asked to remain anonymous, was in his 90s when he contacted the museum. He died this summer.

The death camp at Auschwitz today

***

Fredrick Töben writes a Letter to the Editor, The Daily Mail, 20 September 2007

Should you now balance the story by writing about the following:

1. In 1996 Robert Jan van Pelt and Deborah Dwork de-commissioned Krema I as a homicidal gas chamber;

2. In 2001 Gitta Sereni stated Auschwitz was not a death camp;

3. In May 2002 Fritjof Meyer stated that Krema II, Auschwitz-Birkenau did not contain homicidal gas chambers but that gassings occurred in Bunker II - farm house outside of the concentration camp complex. Again, Meyer's reduces the victim number from 1.-1.5 million to 500,000 thousands.

4. Why does your newspaper continue with the lies when reporting a death figure - up to 1998 it was 4 million, then after the Ernst Zündel Toronto trial this number was reduced to 1-1.5 million, and of those about 900,000 were >unregistered< deaths!

5. Would you give me a right-of-reply to the above article without labelling, abusing, defaming me as a >hater<, >Holocaust denier<, >antisemite<, >racist<, >neo-Nazi<, >xenophobe<, etc.?

Please advise.

Dr Fredrick Töben

Adelaide Institute - www.adelaideinstitute.org toben@adelaideinstitute.org 65xng

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/dmstandard/rcthanks.html?in_page_id=1811

PS: This comment was submitted twice but was not published by the Daily Mail.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, makes his way to deliver a report of his activities on Iran's fourth development plan during an open session of parliament in Teheran, Iran, Tuesday. Photo: AP

Barred by police from visiting Ground Zero, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may find more of a welcome at Columbia University, where he has been cleared to speak on Monday at the school's annual World Leaders Forum despite outrage expressed by New York area Jewish leaders.

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger has vowed to used a planned question and answer session to challenge Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust, call to destroy Israel and Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The New York Police Department Wednesday denied a request by Ahmadinejad to tour the site of the 9/11 disaster during his visit to New York for the start of the UN General Assembly's 62nd Session. The Iranian president is due to arrive in the city on Sunday.

A slew of US diplomats, and presidential candidates blasted a request by Ahmadinejad to "lay a wreath" at Ground Zero as an attempt to turn the site into a "photo op."

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly initially caused confusion, after announcing the Iranian president's request without saying whether the police department would allow the visit. Later Kelly rejected the request because of ongoing construction at the site, though it remains unclear whether police would be able to legally prevent Ahmadinejad from visiting the area.

The US has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980, and members of the Iranian Mission are limited to travelling within a 40-kilometer radius of Columbus Circle in Midtown Manhattan. However, Ground Zero falls well within that radius.

Getting to speak at Columbia proved far easier, however, with the university agreeing to a request by the Iranian Mission to the UN for Ahmadinejad to speak on campus Monday.

"Opportunities to hear, challenge, and learn from controversial speakers of different views are central to the education and training of students for citizenship in a shrinking and dangerous world," the dean of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), John Coatsworth, said in a statement. Ahmadinejad will open a series of lectures and events about Iran.

Bollinger is scheduled to introduce Ahmadinejad to an audience that will be made up exclusively of Columbia students, faculty and a few invited guests.

In a statement released Wednesday, Bollinger said it is a "critical" premise of freedom of speech "that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices."

"It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas, or our naiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas," said Bollinger.

Bollinger agreed to host Ahmadinejad under the condition that he divide his time equally between delivering remarks and responding to audience questions.

Bollinger said he will pose a series of "challenges" that include the Iranian president's denial of the Holocaust; his public call for the destruction of the state of Israel; his reported support for international terrorism that targets innocent civilians and American troops; Iran's pursuit of nuclear ambitions in opposition to international sanction; his government's widely documented suppression of civil society and particularly of women's rights; and his government's imprisoning of journalists and scholars, including one of Columbia's own alumni, Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh.

One year ago, after initially okaying a request by Ahmadinejad to speak on campus, Columbia University later withdrew the offer.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, hopes Columbia will withdraw again.

Hoenlein wrote Bollinger Wednesday: "While I respect academic freedom and the importance of diverse views being heard, it would not violate those principles to deny a platform to someone who persecutes his people, denies freedom of speech in his own country, violates the UN Charter with threats to destroy other states, and is the leading state sponsor of terror," he wrote.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti Defamation League, called Columbia's decision a "perversion of the First Amendment." "If Bollinger wants to communicate with him let him send him a letter; there's no imperative to let him speak," said Foxman.

The Conference of Presidents is sponsoring a protest to take place outside the UN on Monday, when Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak at the General Assembly.

Likewise, the Columbia-Barnard Hillel is organizing a demonstration to take place on the Columbia campus. It hopes to include a wide range of campus groups, including those that promote women's rights, the rights of gays and lesbians, and diverse political and cultural bodies.

In a related development, Ali Reza Moaiyeri, who heads Iran's mission to the United Nations in Geneva, was denied entry to the United States because of allegations he was among those who held American diplomats hostage for 444 days shortly after Iran's revolution.

Moaiyeri had wanted to attend next week's ministerial meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York.

However, Iranian diplomats rejected the US assertions. "He was never and in no way part of the group of students who took the US embassy," Kourosh Ahmadi of the Iranian mission in Geneva told The Associated Press.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=118941145501&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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As I write these words, it is the month of Ellul, a time of reflection in the days before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the High Holy Days of Awe and Remembrance.

As it happens this year, Rosh Hashanah fell the day after the sixth anniversary of 9/11, of which it was said, at the time, that “the whole world changed”. I do not know if the whole world was changed — or that what was revealed was a darker side of evil that had always been there — but it is clear that 9/11 has had a transformative impact on our psyche as well as on our politics.

But if 9/11 was a transformative event, the same holds true for another event that ended on the eve of 9/11. I am referring to the UN’s World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which ended on September 8, 2001, and which became the tipping point for the emergence of a new wave of antisemitism which masquerades as anti-racism. Unfortunately, the “Durban” anniversaries have gone largely unremarked, though they also bear remembrance and reminder.

Indeed, if 9/11 overshadowed Durban, Durban may be said to have foreshadowed 9/11. As one of my colleagues put it at the time, if 9/11 was the Kristallnacht of terror, Durban was the Mein Kampf. Those of us who witnessed the “Durban-speak” festival of hate, with its antisemitic declarations, incantations, pamphlets and marches, have forever been transformed by this experience.

When the World Conference against Racism was first proposed some 10 years ago, I was among those who greeted it with anticipation, if not excitement. This was to be the first world conference on human rights in the 21st century. Anti-racism was finally going to be a priority on the international human-rights agenda. The under-represented human-rights cases and causes would now have a platform and presence. Durban, as host city, was to commemorate the dismantling of South Africa as an apartheid state, a watershed event in the international struggle against racism.

But what happened at Durban was truly Orwellian. A World Conference against Racism turned into a conference of racism against Israel and the Jewish people. A conference intended to commemorate the dismantling of South Africa as an apartheid state resonated with the call for the dismantling of Israel as an apartheid state. A conference dedicated to the promotion of human rights as the new secular religion of our time increasingly singled out Israel as the meta-human-rights violator of our day, indeed as the new anti-Christ of our time.

At Durban, there crystalised a new, virulent, globalising and even lethal anti-Jewishness reminiscent of the atmospherics of the ’30s. In its benign (if it can be called benign) yet sophisticated form, it finds particular expression in “legalised” antisemitism — the singling-out of Israel and the Jewish people for discriminatory treatment in the international arena. In its lethal form, it finds expression as state-sanctioned genocidal antisemitism.

So it should not be surprising, given the experience of “Durban I”, that the advent of the Preparatory Commission for “Durban II”, scheduled for 2009, was awaited with a certain degree of concern, if not apprehension.

The committee meeting which concluded at the end of last month did not “disappoint”. Regrettably, there were initial echoes — both in its organisation and content — that were disconcerting, if not somewhat reminiscent of the preparatory road to Durban I.

First, the PrepCom elected Gaddafi’s Libya, which gave its highest human-rights award in 2002 to convicted Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy, as chair of the UN organising committee for Durban II.

Second, the PrepCom elected Ahmadinejad’s Iran as vice-chair of the 20-member planning bureau, notwithstanding that Iran constitutes a clear and present danger to international peace and security, as well as a massive violator of the rights of its own citizens. Meanwhile Cuba, yet another oppressive regime, was elected as vice-chair and rapporteur.

Third, the United Nations Human Rights Council, which has made a fetish of condemning Israel while providing the major human-rights violators with exculpatory immunity, will have superintending authority over the PrepComs on the way to Durban II.

So much for the organised leadership. The content of this initial PrepCom was no less disturbing. On the first day of the meeting, Pakistan, for the Islamic group, and Egypt, for the African group, called for the conference to focus on the plight of the Palestinians. The balance of the PrepCom discussion was dominated by the demand of the Organisation of Islamist Countries (OIC) to convert Durban II — when it was not dealing with the plight of the Palestinians — into new accusations against the West for allegedly defaming Islam and discriminating against Muslims.

None of this is intended to suggest that Israel is somehow above the law, or that Israel is not accountable before the law like any other state. On the contrary, Israel, like any other state, must be held accountable for any violations of international humanitarian law, and Israel and the Jewish people are not entitled to any privilege or preference because of the horror of Holocaust or the threat of antisemitism.

Yet the problem is not that Israel be held out as being above the law, but that Israel is being systematically denied equality before the law in the international arena. Not that human-rights standards should not be applied to Israel, which they must be, but that these same standards must be applied equally to everyone else. Not that Israel should be required to respect human rights, but that the rights of Israel deserve equal respect in the international arena, including, in particular, the right to live in peace and security.

Antisemitism — the old and the new — is the canary in the contemporary pantheon of evil. As history has taught us only too well, while it begins with Jews, it does not end with Jews. Combating racism and antisemitism is everyone’s responsibility.

The question then is this: Will those that gave us Durban I be part of the problem or become part of the resolution for an authentic Durban II Antiracism Conference?

Irwin Cotler is a Member of the Canadian Parliament and is former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. He is a professor of law (on leave) at McGill University and was a member of the Canadian delegation to the Durban Conference

http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m12&SecId=12&AId=55429&ATypeId=1

Fredrick Töben comments: This is the first time that I have seen a Jew admit the importance of the failed Durban conference. Mrs Olga Scully and I witnessed television report on 9:11 at a café just outside Oslo, Norway, then travelled to Durban, South Africa, where we could still see the huge billboards proclaiming: Zionism = Racism. It was clear to us that the conference was directly linked to 9:11 – a kind of contingency plan gone live. After all, those who rule must have many plans afoot in order to remain on top of the pecking order because challenges to that position never cease – hence the battle-of-the-wills in which we are also engaged!

Shas Minister Itzhak Cohen said Monday that his party's ministers would be boycotting new German-made cars offered to members of the cabinet. The government recently announced that its ministers would part with their Swedish Volvos after German car makers Skoda and Audi won the tender to provide the officials with new cars. In response, Cohen is calling on all government ministers to refuse to drive German cars out of respect for the Holocaust and in light of what he said was a new wave of people who deny the Holocaust took place. After World War II ended in 1945 and the State of Israel was founded in 1948, it was common for Israelis to boycott German goods. However, as time as passed since the Holocaust and ties between the two countries developed, the phenomenon has faded. Cohen repeatedly insisted during an Israel Radio interview that the move is "very emotional and very symbolic," and not a denunciation of all German-made products. He emphasized that Shas had no interest in the private matters of ministers, but rather sought to make a public statement with the boycott. "On private matters, we don't get involved. Everyone in their home can do what they want. Especially today, as Holocaust deniers are multiplying, we're the ones who need to commemorate the Holocaust. And if, by this act, we bring about public discourse on the issue, then we reached our goal," he continued. In the interview with Israel Radio, Cohen recalled public figures who adopted the policy against German goods, including "important men like Rabbi [Yisrael] Lau who never spent a night on German soil, or [former MK] Shevah Weiss didn't receive German representatives."

Israel is not the cause of all the world's problems. By Barry Rubin September 18, 2007

The following was published as a response to an editorial in The Diplomat, a top Canadian international affairs' magazine, which explicitly claimed that the Arab-Israeli conflict--and specifically Israel's "occupation" policy--was at the root of all the problems in the Middle East, between the Middle East and the West, and between Islam and the West.

This notion continues to be expressed (perhaps increasingly so) despite the fact that there is so much evidence to the contrary and that (though many in the West seem to have failed to nice this little detail) Israel has withdrawn from the Sinai, south Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and much of the West Bank, as well as offering to leave the rest of the West Bank and the Golan Heights in exchange for full peace.

What is antisemitism? It is not merely the Nazi view that all Jews are evil and should be killed without exception. It is a set of beliefs including the idea that Jews are the cause of all the world's problems--which is expressed in this editorial--and others which are not contained in this particular editorial.

These other ideas include, Jews are conspiring to seize world power, Jews are traitors to the nation and pursue their own interests at its expense, and Jews drag countries into unnecessary wars for their own greedy reasons. We can look to Jimmy Carter and Walt-Mearsheimer for these aspects of antisemitism.

Another contemporary mistake about antisemitism during most of history is to think it is present only if all Jews are seen as enemies. Historically, of course, if Jews ceased to be Jews religiously (by conversion) or took a position that advocated the community disappear by other means (as left-wing revolutionaries dissolving any Jewish identity in the new socialist or communist utopia), they were given immunity from being denounced or persecuted. Even Usama bin Ladin likes Noam Chomsky.

But I digress. If you are interested in these issues, please see my book, Barry Rubin, Assimilation and Its Discontents.

On the other side, there is acceptance of a myth -- if it was ever true at all it is 20 years out of date -- that all Arab states are obsessed with the Palestinians. It ignores such things as: inter-Arab rivalries, fear of Islamism and Iran, disgust with the Palestinian political groups and leaders, the use of the issue in demagoguery at home and manipulating the West internationally, and many other factors, not to mention radical Islamist revolutionary ideology. If you are interested on this point, please see my book, Barry Rubin, The Tragedy of the Middle East. ------It's understandable that many people want to believe that the sole or core issue of the Middle East is the Arab-Israeli conflict, as you suggest in your September 5 editorial ("The Problem Is Still Israel-Palestine") but to think in this manner is to ensure the region will be misunderstood and that problems there become much worse.

After all, if everything can be pinned on the Arab-Israeli conflict, it means the West need fight no battle, face no threat, bear no cost, or deal with complex issues. All that is necessary is to force Israel into concessions that risk its existence or eliminates it altogether and all problems of Arab nationalism, Islamism, terrorism, and revolution disappear.

Father Kung, cited as the source for this view, may be a great theologian but is certainly no expert on Middle East, politics, Islamism, terrorism, nationalism, or revolution. In fact, the key issues there are: who holds power in each country and in the region; who gets rich and what ideas govern society. The Middle East's troubles stem, too, from failure in development rooted within the local societies. Arab nationalists and Islamists strive for power; states seek to expand their influence and perhaps territory.

That is what's going on in the region. Iran and Syria seek hegemony; Sunni and Shia fight for control of Iraq; Arab nationalist dictatorships survive their shortcomings by demagoguery against Israel and the West. Radical Islamist movements challenge them for power.

This isn't surprising. European history was marked by violence and ideological dispute for centuries along similar lines even though European countries were far more successful in economic, social, and intellectual development. All this turmoil took place without there being an Israel there.

Even radical non-Palestinian Islamist literature in Arabic has not focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Prior to September 11, for example, Usama bin Ladin mentioned the Palestinian issue around 10 percent of the time, far less than he talked about Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and many other things. As for the Arab states (other than Syria), the emphasis they put and the resources they devote to the Arab-Israeli conflict have fallen steadily over the last thirty years as they turned their attention to other matters.

Your editorial claims: "The problem is, 'as it always was' still rooted in Israel and Palestine." Really? Conflict between Middle East and West isn't rooted in decades of colonial rule over Algeria, Egypt, or Iraq? In Western support for Arab regimes past and present including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt while radical Islamists want to overthrow them? Not rooted in jealousy over the West's greater success and power? In the Islamist view that the West is decadent and the Arab nationalist view that it is imperialistic, whether or not these accusations are true?

Not rooted in murderous conflict between Sunni and Shia, advocates of capitalism and socialism, and other internal disputes spilling over as participants think they can get Western help or use anti-Western xenophobia to mobilize support? Not rooted in the false picture daily presented of Western society, religions, and culture? Not rooted in antagonism that powerful Muslim groups find in Islam itself, whether or not they "misinterpret" it?

Has it really come down to this: that all problems between the Middle East and West or the Middle East and Christianity can be blamed on Israel?

The idea that the "essential rift between Islam and the West is still to be found in the Israeli-Palestinian divide," is also highly inaccurate. Inasmuch as there is a rift, Islam is a different religion with its own historical culture and worldview whereas the West has been shaped by different religions.

Ordinary Muslims worry about their societies becoming secular like the West, overwhelmed by Western culture and attitudes. Islamists know the West opposes its goal of turning the Middle East into the equivalent of Iran and Taliban Afghanistan. September 11 didn't happen because of Israel but due to al-Qaida's goal of spreading radical Islamist revolution and most immediately due to U.S. backing for the Saudi regime, their top target. To believe the problem is mainly or basically Israel is to fool oneself.

Moreover, the greatest outpouring of attacks on Israel happened after Israel made the Oslo agreement, withdrew from southern Lebanon, the whole Gaza Strip, and virtually all populated portions of the West Bank, proposed an independent Palestinian state, and so on. Israel has made numerous concessions and taken many risks for peace, which have not been reciprocated by Syria and Palestinians, though Jordan and Egypt have shown through diplomatic compromise how real progress can be attained.

Blaming Israel for everything blinds one to the real issues, which must also be addressed if any problems are going to be solved: the Palestinian movement is still largely based on Israel's destruction, radical Islamists seek to take over Middle East countries and transform their societies, Iran and Syria seek regional hegemony, and failed Arab nationalist dictatorships make their people discontented.

The Middle East and the problem of radical Islamism require a bit more work than a single-issue approach and a single scapegoat for the turmoil there.

Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.

On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said with respect to Iran, "We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst, sir, is war." He called for "more effective sanctions," as a follow on to President Nicholas Sarkozy's warning last month that the alternative is "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran."

In addition to this tough talk, France claims it is finally beginning to reduce its economic ties to Iran by warning companies, including oil giant Total, against cutting new deals with Teheran. The problem, of course, is that there are no points for effort in this battle. The Iranian media boasts that it has received $37 billion in investments in its oil sector alone over the last two years. Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hussein Nozari claims, "We have got used to US sanctions and have learned how to handle them."

Clearly, the Western sanctions effort is nowhere near where it should be to force Iran to back down. The welcome change in French attitudes, moreover, is not being matched by Germany, which in some respects is literally trying to demonstrate a "business as usual" approach.

According to Haaretz, a conference entitled "Iran: Business Opportunities for German Exporters" opens today in Darmstadt, Germany, under the auspices of the Hessian state government and an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Germany exported about $5b. in good to Iran last year, representing a substantial growth in exports over the last six years. This year, German exports have reportedly dropped 20 percent, presumably due to the Western sanctions campaign. But Germany is dragging its feet, both economically and diplomatically, with respect to tightening the pressure on Teheran.

As Reuters reported on Friday, "A split has emerged in the coalition of Western powers pressuring Iran to freeze its nuclear enrichment program, as France backs US calls for a new round of sanctions while Germany urges restraint."

Germany is open to "giving Iran a chance to recover the international community's lost confidence in its nuclear program," a spokesman for its foreign ministry said. "If Iran is ready to do this ... then I think we can spare ourselves future sanctions debates."

This sort of "give Iran a chance" rhetoric is offensive and absurd in light of Iran's open defiance of the international community. On August 21, the Iranian news agency (IRNA) quoted President Ahmadinejad promising to place nuclear technology "at the service of those who are determined to confront the bullying powers and aggressors."

The Iranian newspaper Kayhan reported on September 12 that Ahmadinejad told Revolutionary Guard commanders that "some violent powers are now officially declaring they want to cooperate with the Iranian nation ... [acknowledging] Iran's status as a regional power. They must know, however, that Iran is a global power." [translations by www.memri.org].

The statements show that Iran is not even bothering to hide that it intends to give nuclear technology to terrorists who are "confronting" the West, and that its goal is not nuclear energy but world domination. France seems to be taking its head out of the sand. What about Germany?

The recent alleged Israeli military operation in Syria seems likely to be related to the Begin Doctrine, namely, that Israel will prevent hostile powers from obtaining nuclear weapons. If Israel has, through this action, begun to demonstrate that it has the will and ability to defend itself, this should signal the world that there is no option of living with a nuclear Iran, only a choice between different paths toward preventing such an eventuality.

It is, indeed, Israel's role to concentrate the West's mind and rule out a path of accommodation that would ultimately lead to a much more devastating conflict, as did the attempt to appease Nazi Germany. But this does not mean that Israeli military action is the ideal solution - far from it.

Any such military operation, whether by Israel or not, is fraught with risks to Israel and other nations. If France, Germany, and the UK were to join the US trade embargo, impose stiff banking sanctions, and back calls, most recently by US presidential candidate Mitt Romney, to indict Ahmadinejad for incitement under the Genocide Convention, Iran could be forced to back down.

Now that France is coming around, we would hope Germany would also be a leader in such an effort, and certainly that it not effectively place itself among nations that still claim to be baffled by Iran's intentions and are acting as helpmates in Teheran's bid for more and more time.

The US-British-Zionists may have lost the military-action in Iraq, but they have won the political-economical war for hegemony in this region. Iraq will disappear and split. The people there will be depend on the latest technology of the Wall-Street - & City of London Manufacturing Companies, to clean up the destruction of Depleted Uranium in the next 25 to 50 years. The people sick from Depleted Uranium will be depend on the Wall-Street – and City of London Pharmaceutical Companies. The Zionist State of Israel will administer the region on behalf of those Wall-Street - & City of London Companies. Thus the US-British-Zionists will do to Iraq & Afghanistan that what they have done to Palestine. What is left of Palestine. Will you still be a dreamer and believe in the Co-Existence of Arabs & Jewish Zionists in Palestine. The Friends of Palestine-People in the World still believe in this none-sense. Do not kid yourself and discover how you can stop the US-British-Zionist, by exposing their propaganda – weapon No. 1 to dominate the Palestinian People and the Middle-East! Learn all about their propaganda-weapon on:

You will see how the US-British-Zionists will lose their Power, when the People of the World will realize what Hoaxers they are.