Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported today that President Bush “sent tough messages to Israel in the past few days about the possibility that Jerusalem might renew negotiations with the Syrians.” The article further explains that the Israelis “understood from President Bush that the United States would not take kindly to reopening a dialogue between Israel and Syria…” The messages were reportedly sent in the wake of Syrian declarations of its willingness to reach a peace agreement. [More]
“Observers rarely note that Israel has never recognised the Palestinians’ right to statehood, not even in the Oslo accords, nor has it defined the extent of its own borders; it has not for one moment renounced violence against Palestinian resistance to occupation; and it has consistently broken its agreements, including by expanding its illegal settlement programme and by annexing Palestinian land under cover of building the West Bank wall.
But more strangely, observers have also failed to note both that Fatah, first under Arafat and then Abbas, agreed to all three conditions years ago and that Fatah’s compliance to Israeli demands never helped advance the struggle for statehood by one inch.” [“The Struggle for Palestine’s Soul” By Jonathan Cook]
Dear All,
It is not odd that Israel has constantly broken its agreements and the fact that that Fatah agreed to all “three conditions” has not made the slightest difference to Israeli policy. Nor is it suprising that Israel also refused to accept the Saudi Arabian plan, which promised Israel not only peace, but also normalization with all the Arab countries in the Middle East. The reason that none of these is surprising is because the main criterion of Israel’s leaders has always been expansion, not peace. Thus, Israel’s leaders have consistently refused to draw borders. And the world has let Israel have its way, much as the world let Hitler have his. But this has not brought Israel what most Israelis want most: security. Nor will it. No wonder that many of Israel’s young prefer emigration to living here, and that the Jewish Agency now is forced to find ‘lost tribes’ in India to prop up immigration.
Dorothy
Dear friends,
As we struggle for the right of entry, return and life, this news story is surreal.
Sad. So sad,
Sam
Lost Tribe of Jews Migrates from India to Israel
Achal Narayanan
Religion News Service
CHENNAI, India (RNS) A group of 218 people belonging to an Indian tribe recently recognized as “lost descendants of ancient Israelites” will soon be welcomed to their new homes in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The emigrants are members of the Bnei Menashe tribe living and practicing Judaism in northeast India. The Bnei Menashe believe they are descended from one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel who were exiled when Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom of Israel in the 8th century B.C.
Many of the exiled Israelites made their way across the “silk route”, ending up in China. The Shinlung tribe, as they were also called in China, eventually migrated to Myanmar and northeast India, losing many of their Jewish customs along the way.
There are more than 300,000 Bnei Menashes in the state of Manipur, but most of them follow Christianity. Only around 6,000 have converted to Judaism — many in the 1970s. The rabbis sent to Manipur and Mizoram states by the chief rabbi of the Sephardic Jews, Shlomo Amar, declared the converts “descendants of the Jewish people.”
Bnei Menashe members welcomed the announcement, saying they could now “go to the Promised Land.” Michael Freund, founder of Shavei Israel, an association assisting “lost Jews” to return to Israel, described the proposed relocation by the 218-strong Bnei Menashe group as “a turning point.”
“This is a major historical event,” he said, “because these members of a lost tribe of Israel can return home after 27 centuries.”
Copyright 2006 Religion News Service.