Hitler Itu Mungkin Ada Benarnya

Ketika saya menulis rencana ini saya sedang berada di Osnabruck, Jerman. Pada Jumaat lalu saya memberikan ceramah ringkas di sebuah masjid di sini yang diberi nama Masjid Ibrahim. Kebanyakan ahli jemaahnya merupakan orang Arab.

Saya berucap dalam bahasa arab mengenai isu semasa umat Islam sekarang khususnya Palestin. Imamnya yang berasal dari Syria berkhutbah dengan berani dan bersemangat tentang isu Gaza. Bahkan beliau berkempen agar ahli jamaahnya menyertai demonstrasi aman membantah kekejaman yang dilakukan terhadap rakyat Palestin.

Saya melihat satu keperluan apa yang beliau kempenkan, sebab di Berlin telah dibuat demonstrasi besar menyokong tindakan Israel. Malanglah jika ada masjid di Malaysia yang tidak berani mengutuk Israel. Hari ini (Ahad) saya bercadang hendak ke Berlin untuk berjumpa dengan beberapa pihak.

Ini adalah kali pertama saya sampai ke Jerman. Semasa kecil apa yang saya tahu mengenai Jerman iaitu tenteranya di pihak yang jahat berperang melawan hero-hero Amerika. Ini semua adalah pengaruh filem ‘Combat’ semasa zaman tersebut.

Oleh kerana Amerika yang menerbitkan siri ‘Combat’ tersebut, maka digambarkan merekalah di pihak yang benar dan Jerman di pihak yang jahat. Alasan kejahatan tidak diketahui melainkan kerana hero yang ditabalkan berada di pihak tentera Amerika.

Demikianlah cara sesebuah filem mempengaruhi minda manusia, terutama kanak-kanak. Apabila masuk ke sekolah menengah serta terdedah kepada bahan bacaan yang berbagai, nama Adolf Hitler dan puak ‘Nazi’nya agak sinonim dengan Jerman di lintasan minda setiap kali perkataan Jerman itu disebut. Selain itu, tidak banyak maklumat tambahan tentang Jerman yang saya baca.

Sebelum saya sampai ke Jerman, seminggu lepas saya menghabiskan buku yang ditulis oleh Seymour Rossel yang bertajuk The Holocaust. Sebagai Yahudi, beliau memang membela Yahudi dan mengutuk Hitler habis-habisan. Beliau mengutip maklumat daripada Encyclopedia Judia mendakwa bahawa Nazi telah membunuh sebanyak 5,820,960 Yahudi terutama Yahudi Poland dan Rusia.

Saya tidak pasti sejauh manakah benar angka tersebut. Tapi yang pasti memang Hitler ialah seorang diktator yang sangat kejam. Membunuh dengan zalimnya bukan sahaja Yahudi, tetapi juga sesiapa sahaja yang menentangnya. Cara pembunuhannya juga begitu sistematik bagaikan kilang perusahaan yang teratur. Kekejaman itu tidak dapat diterima oleh sesiapa pun. Di Jerman sehingga hari ini kekejaman itu dikutuk oleh rakyat negaranya.

Namun, di samping kekejaman yang disandarkan kepada Adolf Hitler, persoalan yang patut ditanya, mengapakah kempen Adolf Hitler bahawa Yahudi adalah bangsa yang bahaya, telah merosak dan mengancam Jerman, mendapat sambutan ketika itu?

Ketika Hitler baru cuba muncul dalam politik Jerman pada tahun 1919, walaupun beliau seorang pemidato yang baik, beliau belum terkenal dan hanya beberapa orang sahaja yang hadir mendengar ucapannya. Namun selepas itu, apabila beliau membangkitkan dalam ucapan-ucapannya isu anti-semitic atau anti Yahudi, rakyat Jerman mula membanjiri ucapannya dan menyokong gerakannya membenci Yahudi.

Apabila Hitler dipenjarakan pada tahun 1923 selama sembilan bulan, beliau menulis bukunya yang terkenal Mein Kampf. Sejak awal penulisan buku tersebut, Hitler menegaskan bahawa penderitaan ekonomi yang dihadapi oleh bangsa Jerman yang ketika itu adalah berpunca dari kejahatan Yahudi. Perasaan kebencian terhadap Yahudi dihidupkan dalam buku tersebut.

Sebenarnya, Hitler bukanlah orang memulakan kepercayaan bahawa Yahudi adalah bangsa perosak. Pada 1542, pemimpin agung Prostestan Jerman, Martin Luther telah menulis tentang pembohongan dan kemerbahayaan Yahudi dalam bukunya Against The Jews And Their Lies. Pada kurun yang ke-14, Sepanyol dan Portugal memaksa masyarakat Yahudi hidup secara terpisah dari bukan Yahudi.

Pada 1516, di Venice, Itali, pihak Gereja Katholik memerintah agar dibina tembok mengelilingi penempatan Yahudi yang dinamakan dengan Ghetto. Yahudi tidak benarkan keluar pada waktu malam sehingga menjelang fajar. Masyarakat awam Kristian ketika itu percaya bahawa Yahudi adalah bangsa yang jahat dan beramal dengan ilmu hitam.

Pembinaan ghetto kemudiannya telah berkembang ke seluruh Eropah. Maka Yahudi Eropah dikepung disebalik tembok ghetto, atau pekan-pekan khas hanya untuk mereka. Mengapakah masyarakat Eropah ketika itu bersepakat mempercayai Yahudi adalah kaum yang jahat? Jawapannya, samada kepercayaan itu adalah khurafat, atau mereka mempunyai asas pengalaman dengan Bangsa Yahudi. Jikalau jawapannya yang pertama, Yahudi adalah memang bangsa yang teraniaya.

Jika jawapannya, Yahudi memang dalam sejarahnya telah merosakkan kehidupan manusia sehingga menjadi ketakutan kepada masyarakat Eropah, tindakan kejam atau rakus Adolf Hitler, sekalipun kejam dan tidak dapat diterima, namun ia secara tidak langsung mengurangkan jumlah kemerbahayaan Yahudi kepada masyarakat Eropah khususnya dan dunia amnya.

Apapun ceritanya, kesangsian pihak pihak Gereja Kristian telah lama berakar umbi, sehinggalah Yahudi kembali menipu Eropah pada hari ini. Lalu undang-undang Anti-Semitic dikuatkuasakan di Eropah, maka bangsa Yahudi mendapat kekebalannya di sini, terutama di Jerman ini.

Jika lihat dalam sejarah Islam, di samping menyedari tentang tabiat Yahudi, namun Islam tidak pernah menghukum mereka hanya kerana mereka Yahudi, tetapi menghukum berdasarkan tindakan mereka. Nabi s.a.w pernah mengizinkan mereka terus menetap di Khaibar yang subur. Namun mereka khianat, merancang dengan pihak musuh untuk menjatuhkan kerajaan Nabi s.a.w. Maka mereka pun diusir.

Pada zaman Khalifah ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, beliau telah memberikan kepada Yahudi penempatan dan keamanan di Alia, Palestin. Kebebasan beragama dan hidup diberikan dengan jelas serta termaktub dalam pengistiharan khalifah agung tersebut. Namun, seperti biasa, Yahudi terus khianat.

Sejarah pengkhianatan Yahudi bukan bermula sejak kemunculan pemikiran zionisme, tetapi sejak lama dahulu. Sejak kisah mereka dengan para nabi yang mengalami berbagai tragedi disebabkan kerenah mereka. Pun begitu, Islam tidaklah pula menghukum secara ‘borong’ dengan menyatakan setiap individu yahudi itu jahat.

Bahkan dalam sirah Nabi s.a.w, isteri baginda Safiyyah binti Huyyai merupakan anak ketua Kabilah Yahudi Bani Quraizah. Ada sahabah yang mulia bernama ‘Abd Allah bin Salam. Beliau seorang yahudi, bahkan tokoh agamawan besar Yahudi. Beliau menganut Islam dan amat dihormati. Islam amat adil dalam menilai, tidak ditanggung dosa orang lain atas bahu orang lain.

Maka walaupun secara umumnya, rekod Yahudi memanglah buruk, namun ini tidak menafikan kemungkinan adanya mereka yang baik di kalangan Yahudi. Tetapi rekod Yahudi secara umum, memanglah buruk.

Ini diakui oleh Abd Allah bin Salam sendiri ketika beliau menganut Islam. Katanya:

“Wahai Rasulullah! Kaum Yahudi adalah puak yang paling kuat berdusta. Mereka jika tahu aku menganut Islam mereka akan menuduhku bukan-bukan. Sembunyikanlah aku di sisi engkau dan hantarlah orang bertanya pendapat mereka mengenaiku”. Maka Rasulullah pun menyembunyikannya dan menghantar orang memanggil golongan Yahudi lalu mereka pun datang. Rasulullah s.a.w bertanya mereka: “Apakah kedudukan Abdullah bin Salam pada pandangan kamu?” Jawab mereka: “Dia orang yang terbaik di kalangan kami, anak orang terbaik. Pemimpin kami, anak pemimpin kami. Ulama kami, anak ulama kami”. Sabda Rasulullah: “Apakah jika dia menganut Islam, kamu akan turut menganut Islam?”. Jawab mereka: “Allah lindunginya dari perkara tersebut”. Sabda Rasulullah: “Wahai Abdulullah bin Salam, keluar dan beritahulah kepada mereka”. Abdullah bin Salam pun keluar dan berkata: “Aku menyaksikan bahawa tiada ilah melainkan Allah dan Muhammad Rasulullah”. Lantas mereka berkata: “Dia orang yang paling jahat di kalangan kami, anak orang yang paling jahat. Orang yang paling jahil di kalangan kami dan anak orang paling jahil”. Kata Abdullah bin Salam: “Aku telah beritahu wahai Rasulullah! Bahawa Yahudi adalah kaum yang kuat berdusta”. (Riwayat Ahmad dan al-Bukhari).

Kita bukan anti kaum tertentu, atau anti-semitic secara membabi buta seperti Hitler atau masyarakat Eropah dahulu. Namun jika kita melihat Yahudi Israel hari ini mengkhianati perjanjian atau bersikap jahat, itu bukanlah perkara baru dan pelik untuk mereka kerjakan. Kepercayaan Hitler itu, mungkin ada benarnya. - Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, bekas Mufti Perlis.

PM Turki kecam Peres

PERDANA Menteri Turki, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, menyebabkan hadirin Forum Ekonomi Dunia (WEF) terdiam apabila memarahi Presiden Israel, Shimon Peres, kerana menafikan Tel Aviv bersalah mengganas di Gaza dengan berkata: "Kamu bunuh mereka."

Erdogan berang selepas penulis Washington Post yang mempengerusikan majlis, David Ignatius, hanya memberinya 12 minit untuk berucap sedangkan Peres, 85, lantang berhujah selama 25 minit dan merujuk kepada pejuang Hamas sambil bertanya: "Mengapa mereka lancar roket? Gaza tidak dikepung. Mengapa mereka lawan kami, apa yang mereka mahu? Kebuluran tidak berlaku walau sehari di Gaza."

Apabila Ignatius memberinya satu minit untuk menjawab balas, Erdogan menuduh pengerusi itu menyekatnya membalas hujah Peres dengan berkata: "Saya kesal bagi mereka yang bertepuk tangan mendengar kamu bercakap. Kamu bunuh penduduk Gaza. Saya rasa itu adalah salah."

Peres, kamu lebih tua daripada saya. Suara kamu terlalu tinggi. Kamu bunuh mereka. Saya masih ingat kanak-kanak yang mati di tepi pantai. Saya masih ingat dua bekas Perdana Menteri (Israel) berkata mereka gembira masuk Palestin dengan kereta kebal. Dalam soal membunuh, kamu terlalu bagus." (gambar 1 dan 2)

Apabila Ignatius cuba menyampuk, Erdogan berkata beliau tidak akan datang lagi ke Davos, meninggalkan ahli panel termasuk Setiausaha Agung PBB, Ban Ki-moon dan Setiausaha Liga Arab, Amr Moussa, di pentas ucapan (gambar 3).

Kenali Yahudi

Saya amat tertarik dengan tulisan seorang penulis bebas, yang juga Pengarah Eksekutif Pusat Penyelidikan dan Kajian Keselamatan (CRSS) Pakistan, Dr. Farrukh Saleem (rujuk http://www.masada2000.org/Powerful-Jews.html) mengenai soal tersebut. Jadikanlah tulisan itu sebagai tatapan dan renungan kita semua - ke mana kita dan ke mana umat Islam harus pergi selepas ini. Dan, siapa yang harus disalahkan?

Begini tulisan beliau:

Hanya ada 14 juta Yahudi di muka bumi ini; tujuh juta di Amerika, lima juta di Asia, dua juta di Eropah dan 100,000 di Afrika. Bagi setiap orang Yahudi ada 100 orang Muslim (1:100). Namun, jika dicampur semua sekali, Yahudi lebih 100 kali berkuasa daripada orang Islam. Mengapa ini berlaku? Siapa mereka ini?


Nabi Isa (Jesus of Nazareth) ialah Yahudi. Albert Einstein, saintis zaman moden paling terkemuka dan disebut oleh majalah Time sebagai 'Manusia Abad ini' ialah seorang Yahudi; Sigmund Freud - melalui teori id, ego dan super-ego ialah bapa psikoanalisis, juga seorang Yahudi; begitu juga Karl Marx, Paul Samuelson dan Milton Friedman.

Selain mereka banyak lagi orang Yahudi yang hasil kebijaksanaan mereka berupaya menghasilkan keperluan untuk kita semua: Benjamin Rubin memperkenalkan jarum suntikan pelalian.

Johas Salk mereka vaksin polio yang pertama. Gertrude Elion mencipta ubat melawan leukemia. Baruch Blumberg mencipta vaksin Hepatitis B. Paul Ehrlich menemukan rawatan untuk siflis. Elie Metchnikoff menang Hadiah Nobel untuk penyakit berjangkit. Bernard Katz menang Hadiah Nobel kerana kajian mengenai transmisi neuromuskular.

Andrew Schally penerima Nobel dalam kajian endokrinologi (berkaitan sistem endokrin dan kencing manis). Aaron Beck menemui terapi kognitif (rawatan mental, kesugulan dan fobia).

Gregory Pincus membangunkan pil perancang keluarga yang pertama. George Wald menang Nobel bagi kajian mata manusia, Standley Cohen dianugerahi Hadiah Nobel dalam kajian embriologi (kajian janin dan perkembangannya). Willem Kolff mencipta mesin dialisis (mencuci) buah pinggang.

Sejak 105 tahun, 14 juta Yahudi menang 15 dozen Hadiah Nobel, sementara tiga dimenangi oleh 1.4 bilion umat Islam.

Stanley Mezor mencipta mikrocip pertama. Leo Szilards membangunkan reaktor rangkaian nuklear pertama; Peter Schultz (kabel gentian optik); Charles Adler (lampu isyarat); Benno Strauss (besi tahan karat - stainless steel); Isador Kisee (sistem suara di pawagam); Emile Berliner (mikrofon untuk telefon) dan Charles Ginsburg (alat pita rakaman).

Saudagar jenama terkaya dunia juga dikuasai Yahudi iaitu Ralph Lauren (Polo), Levis Strauss (Levi's Jeans), Howard Schultz (Starbuck's), Sergey Brin (Google), Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Donna Karan (DKNY), Irv Robbins (Baskin & Robbins) dan Bill Rossenberg (Dunkin Donuts).

Richard Levin, presiden universiti tersohor Yale Universiti ialah seorang Yahudi. Henry Kissinger, Joseph Lieberman dan Madeleine Albright (bekas-bekas Setiausaha Negara AS); Alan Greenspan (bekas pengerusi Rizab Persekutuan AS di bawah Reagan, Bush, Clinton dan Bush); Maxim Litvinov (bekas Menteri Luar Soviet Union); David Marshal (bekas Ketua Menteri pertama Singapura); Isaac Isaacs (bekas Gabenor Jeneral Australia); Benjamin Disraeli (negarawan dan penulis Britian); Yevgeny Primkov (bekas Perdana Menteri Rusia dan bekas jeneral KGB); Jorge Sampaio (bekas Presiden Portugal); Herb Gray (bekas Timbalan Perdana Menteri Kanada); Pierre Mendes (Perdana Menteri ke-143 Perancis); Michael Howard (bekas Setiausaha Negara British); Bruno Kreisky (bekas Canselor Austria) dan Robert Rubin (bekas Setiausaha Perbendaharaan AS).

Dalam dunia media, orang Yahudi yang terkemuka ialah Wolf Blitzer (CNN); Barbara Walters (ABC News); Eugene Meyer (Washington Post); Henry Grunwald (Ketua Editor Time); Katherine Graham (penerbit The Washington Post); Joseph Lelyyeld (Editor Eksekutif, The New York Times) dan Max Frankel (The New York Times).

Dermawan dan penyangak mata wang, George Soros ialah Yahudi. Dia menderma AS$4 bilion untuk membantu ahli sains dan universiti serata dunia..

Walter Annenberg menderma untuk membina ratusan perpustakaan berjumlah AS$2 bilion.

Di Olimpik, Mark Spitz membolot tujuh pingat emas. Lenny Krayzelburg ialah pemegang tiga kali pingat emas Olimpik. Spitz Krayzelburg dan Boris Becker adalah Yahudi.

Tahukah anda bahawa pelakon pujaan Harrison Ford, George Burns, Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson, Sandra Bullock, Billy Cystal, Woody Allen, Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Kirk Douglas, Willian Shatner, Jerry Lewis dan Peter Falk semuanya Yahudi?

Tambahan lagi, Hollywood sendiri diwujudkan oleh orang Yahudi. Antara pengarah dan penerbit, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Oliver Stone, Aaron Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210), Neil Simon (The Odd Couple), Andrew Vaina (Rambo 1- 2-3), Michael Man (Starsky and Hutch), Milos Forman (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest), Douglas Fairbanks (The Thief Of Baghdad) and Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) - semuanya adalah Yahudi..

Mempengaruhi

Washington yang merupakan ibu negara Amerika Syarikat, mempunyai satu pertubuhan lobi yang amat berkuasa. Ia dikenali sebagai Jawatankuasa Hal Ehwal Awam Amerika Israel (AIPAC) yang berupaya mempengaruhi Kongres meluluskan resolusi memuji dan 'membuat apa saja' demi Israel.

Tahukah lagi bahawa William James Sidis dengan IQ 250-300 ialah manusia tercerdik. Dia ialah Yahudi.

Jadi, mengapa mereka ini terlalu berkuasa?

Jawapannya: Pendidikan, pelajaran, ilmu.

Mengapa umat Islam terlalu lemah?

Dianggarkan 1,476,233,470 Muslim di atas muka bumi Allah ini. Satu bilion di Asia, 400 juta di Afrika, 44 juta di Eropah dan enam juta di Amerika. Setiap lima insan manusia ialah Muslim. Setiap seorang Hindu ada dua orang Islam, setiap seorang Buddha ada dua orang Islam dan setiap seorang Yahudi ada beratus orang Islam. Mengapa orang Islam terlalu lemah?

Ini jawapannya: Terdapat 57 negara anggota OIC dan jika dicampur semua cuma ada kira-kira 500 buah universiti; atau sebuah universiti untuk setiap tiga juta orang Islam.

AS mempunyai 5,758 universiti dan India ada 8,407. Pada 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong Universiti membuat kajian 'Kedudukan Akademik Universiti-universiti Dunia' - dan menakjubkan - tiada satu pun universiti-negara Islam yang berada di puncak 500.

Data yang dikumpul dari UNDP, tahap celik huruf di negara maju ialah hampir 90 peratus dan 15 negara itu mempunyai 100 peratus celik huruf. Negara majoriti penduduk Islam, purata kadar celik huruf ialah sekitar 40 peratus dan tiada negara yang mempunyai 100 peratus semuanya celik huruf.

Sekitar 98 peratus penduduk di negara maju menamatkan sekurang-kurang sekolah rendah, sementara hanya 50 peratus di negara majoriti Islam. Sekitar 40 peratus penduduk di negara maju memasuki universiti, sementara hanya 2 peratus di negara majoriti Islam.

Negara-negara majoriti Islam mempunyai 230 ahli sains bagi setiap (per) sejuta penduduk.. Di AS 4,000 per sejuta, Jepun 5,000 per sejuta. Di seluruh negara Arab, penyelidik sepenuh masa ialah 35,000 dan hanya 50 juruteknik per sejuta (berbanding di negara maju 1,000 juruteknik per sejuta).

Negara Islam membelanjakan 0.2 peratus daripada KDNK untuk penyelidikan dan pembangunan (R&D) sebaliknya, di negara maju membelanjakan 5 peratus daripada KDNKnya.

Kesimpulan: Dunia Islam kurang keupayaan untuk menghasilkan ilmu pengetahuan.

Akhbar harian yang dibaca oleh setiap 1,000 orang dan jumlah judul buku yang dibaca oleh setiap sejuta orang adalah dua angka tunjuk bagi menentukan sama ada ilmu pengetahuan disalurkan ke dalam masyarakat.

Di Pakistan, hanya ada 23 akhbar harian per 1,000 rakyat Pakistan sementara nisbah di Singapura ialah 360. Di UK, jumlah judul buku per juta orang ialah 2,000 sementara di Mesir ialah 20.

Kesimpulan: Dunia Islam gagal menyalurkan ilmu pengetahuan.

Yang menariknya, jumlah terkumpul KDNK tahunan 57 buah negara ahli OIC ialah di bawah AS$2 trilion. Amerika sahaja, menghasilkan barangan dan perkhidmatan bernilai AS$12 trilion, China AS$8 trilion, Jepun AS$3.8 trilion dan Jerman AS$2.4 trilion.

Pengeluar minyak yang kaya, Arab Saudi, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar secara rangkuman menghasilkan barangan dan perkhidmatan (rata-rata minyak) bernilai AS$500 bilion; Sepanyol sahaja menghasilkan barangan dan perkhidmatan bernilai lebih AS$1 trilion, Poland AS$489 bilion dan Thailand AS$545 bilion.

Jadi, mengapa orang Islam tidak berkuasa dan orang Yahudi paling berkuasa?

Jawapannya ialah: Kurangnya ilmu. Kurangnya pendidikan dan kurangnya pelajaran

Gelombang Wakil Rakyat

"Dalam politik, semua orang mahu menjaga kepentingan masing-masing dan istilah setiakawan adalah perkara terakhir yang diambil kira"

PETALING JAYA: Tindakan Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) Bota dari Umno, Datuk Nasarudin Hashim melompat Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) kelmarin, salah satu komponen Pakatan Rakyat, dilihat kemungkinan petanda awal "gelombang wakil rakyat" berbanding "gelombang rakyat" Mac lalu.

Justeru, penganalisis politik berpendapat tindakan Nasarudin yang mengumumkan untuk menyertai Pakatan Rakyat kelmarin dilihat mungkin akan membuka jalan kepada wakil rakyat BN yang lain untuk mengikut langkah beliau.

Pensyarah sains politik Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Prof. Madya Dr. Ghazali Mahyudin berkata, untuk menyifatkan tindakan melompat parti ini sebagai permulaan 'gelombang wakil rakyat' mungkin terlalu awal, namun ia tidak mustahil.

"Setakat ini, mungkin terlalu awal untuk meramalkan akan ada lagi wakil rakyat BN yang akan melompat ke pembangkang kerana pada masa ini baru ada seorang wakil rakyat BN yang menyertai pembangkang.

"Jika ada yang kedua (menyertai pembangkang), mungkin itu boleh dikatakan permulaan 'gelombang wakil rakyat' selepas berlakunya 'gelombang rakyat' pada pilihan raya umum, Mac lalu," katanya ketika dihubungi mStar Online.

Beliau berkata, tindakan Nasarudin seperti 'menunjuk jalan' kepada wakil rakyat BN lain yang mungkin sedang berkira-kira untuk menyertai pembangkang.

"Hal ini tidak mustahil akan berlaku kerana dalam Umno, ada banyak puak dan mungkin ada yang rasa mereka dipinggirkan lalu memikirkan perkara itu.

"Mungkin ada yang tidak puas hati kerana kalah dalam perebutan jawatan dan sebagainya.

"Mungkin mereka tidak menyatakannya tetapi dalam diam-diam, siapa tahu... seperti apa yang dilakukan Nasarudin," katanya.

Ghazali berkata, tindakan nekad tersebut mungkin diambil Nasarudin memandangkan Umno kini berada dalam keadaan lemah dan mempunyai saingan yang semakin kuat.

"Jika Umno kuat dan parti lawan lemah, mungkin mereka akan berfikir dua kali untuk ke parti lawan tetapi oleh sebab Umno sedang lemah, maka mereka rasakan tidak ada guna bertahan dalam Umno.

"Kita tahu dalam politik, semua orang mahu menjaga kepentingan masing-masing dan istilah setiakawan adalah perkara terakhir yang diambil kira," katanya.

Beliau berkata, gabungan parti dalam Pakatan Rakyat yang terdiri daripada PKR, PAS dan DAP yang semakin kuat sememangnya mampu menarik wakil rakyat BN menyertai mereka.

"Selepas menang di lima negeri pada pilihan raya umum Mac lalu, mereka juga telah memenangi pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh dan Kuala Terengganu dan jika tidak menang pun pada pilihan raya Sarawak yang akan datang, mereka mungkin berjaya menambah kerusi," katanya.

Sementara itu, Pensyarah Kanan Sains Politik dan Strategi Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Dr. Ahmad Nizamuddin Sulaiman juga berpendapat, tindakan Nasarudin itu akan menarik wakil rakyat BN yang lain untuk mengikut jejak langkah beliau.

"Saya tidak menolak kemungkinan bahawa ia akan menjadi bola salji yang semakin lama semakin besar... semakin lama, semakin ramai pula yang akan bertindak demikian.

"Mungkin pada masa ini, ada yang sedang tunggu dan lihat dan tindakan ADUN Bota ini menyebabkan mereka semakin berani," katanya.

Beliau berkata, tindakan Nasarudin sebagai wakil rakyat Umno menyertai PKR sememangnya sesuatu yang mengejutkan memandangkan ahli-ahli Umno mempunyai disiplin yang kuat dan patuh kepada arahan parti.

"Walaupun beliau adalah ADUN, bukan ahli Parlimen tetapi tindakan beliau sebagai seorang pemimpin daripada Umno sememangnya mengejutkan.

"Kita tidak jangka 'lompat parti' ini akan berlaku di kalangan ahli Umno yang kuat disiplinnya dan sering mengikut arahan parti. Kita jangka mungkin wakil rakyat dari Sabah atau Sarawak," katanya.

Beliau berkata, tindakan Nasarudin itu bagaimanapun merupakan langkah 'selamat' kerana Perak kini diperintah oleh Pakatan Rakyat.

Bagaimanapun, beliau percaya, kekalahan Nasarudin merebut jawatan Ketua Umno Bahagian Parit baru-baru ini menjadi penyumbang utama kepada tindakannya menyertai PKR.

"Walaupun beliau ADUN, jawatan Ketua Bahagian penting kerana saluran dana kerajaan pusat untuk membantu rakyat akan disalurkan kepada Ketua Bahagian.

"Mungkin kekalahannya itu menyebabkan beliau tidak berpuas hati dan merasakan telah hilang pengaruh," katanya.

Justeru katanya, BN sebagai parti pemerintah perlu mengkaji semula pengagihan dana ini yang bukan sahaja hanya diserahkan kepada Ketua Bahagian tetapi juga kepada ADUNnya.

Katanya, wakil-wakil rakyat Umno sepatutnya mempunyai semangat setiakawan yang kuat dan berjiwa Umno jika tidak mahu perkara ini terus berulang.

"Jangan kerana nyamuk seekor, habis kelambu dibakar," katanya. - thestar.

Bismillah jadi pendinding

Che Ibrahim menceritakan kejadian kedainya di masuki pencuri di Kampung Binjai, Kemaman

Seorang warga emas percaya amalan membaca bismillah dan doa setiap kali melangkah keluar dari rumahnya yang turut dijadikan kedai runcit membantu menyelamatkan premisnya daripada menjadi mangsa pencuri baru-baru ini.

Che Ibrahim Che Abdullah, 57, yakin kejadian misteri menimpa seorang pencuri yang 'terperangkap' dalam kedainya selama dua malam sehingga hampir maut akibat kelaparan dan dahaga ketika dia sekeluarga balik kampung pada Hari Raya Aidiladha baru-baru ini semata-mata kuasa Allah hasil amalannya itu.

Warga emas itu menolak anggapan dia menggunakan ilmu hitam sebagai pendinding untuk 'memagar' rumahnya daripada dimasuki pencuri.

''Ini semua kuasa Allah, saya tidak ada apa-apa ilmu mengenai kejadian ini," ujarnya ketika ditemui di rumahnya di Kampung Binjai di sini baru-baru ini.

Dalam kejadian yang berlaku pada 7 Disember lalu, seorang pemuda berusia 30-an memasuki kedai itu dipercayai untuk mencuri ketika Che Ibrahim sekeluarga pulang berhari raya di Selising, Kelantan.

Selepas tiga hari pulang berhari raya, dia terkejut melihat keadaan kedainya bertaburan, malah isterinya pengsan melihat keadaan itu manakala dari dalam bilik tidur terdengar bunyi orang mengerang kesakitan.

Apabila dijenguk ke dalam bilik itu, warga emas itu menemui seorang lelaki dalam keadaan lemah dan dia mendakwa gagal keluar daripada kedai itu kerana tidak mampu melihat apa-apa dan terdapat 'lembaga' yang menghalangnya daripada keluar.

Menurut Che Ibrahim, kedainya sebelum ini pernah dipecah masuk apabila dia sekeluarga pulang ke kampung mereka di Selising tetapi pencuri tersebut tidak mengambil apa-apa walaupun boleh berbuat demikian.

Tidak tahan dengan kejadian itu, dia yang telah berniaga 20 tahun mengamalkan bacaan bismillah dan doa memohon perlindungan Allah setiap kali meninggalkan premisnya.

''Ramai yang bertanya apa ilmu saya amalkan, tetapi terus-terang saya katakan tiada apa-apa ilmu dan semua kejadian ini adalah kuasa Allah," ujarnya.

Kata Che Ibrahim, jika difikirkan secara logik lelaki tersebut boleh mengambil apa jua makanan di kedainya tetapi kerana tidak dapat melihat apa-apa menyebabkannya terpaksa berlapar selama tiga hari.

''Nasib baik saya tinggalkan kedai selama tiga hari saja, kalau saya pulang lebih daripada seminggu, mungkin lain pula jadinya kepada lelaki tersebut," katanya yang lega lelaki itu dapat diselamatkan.

Dia juga bersyukur kerana tiada barangan yang hilang termasuk wang tunai.

KUBU RAHSIA HAMAS

INFO TEROWONG GAZA

Ada lebih 750 terowong di bawah bumi Gaza dan satu daripadanya ditemui Israel dikenali sebagai Koridor Philadephi.

Terowong yang biasa untuk penyeludupan barangan pengguna panjangnya antara 800 hingga 1,400 meter dengan kedalaman antara 15 hingga 30 meter.

Pembinaan mengambil masa paling kurang enam.

Upah menggali RM480 sehari.

Dianggarkan 90 peratus produk yang memasuki Gaza setiap bulan bernilai RM128 juta dan semuanya dibawa melalui terowong melalui Mesir.

Jaringan bawah tanah ini juga sumber pendapatan dan senjata bagi pergerakan Hamas dengan bayaran RM8,880 untuk setiap terowong.

JIKA terowong menjadi nadi kehidupan kebanyakan warga Semenanjung Gaza, bagi Hamas, terowong adalah paksi kekuatan ketenteraannya.

Ini diakui Komander Israel bahawa pergerakan Islam masih memiliki jumlah senjata yang besar dan mempunyai lebih 20,000 pejuang terlatih yang mana mereka bergerak melalui terowong jauh di bawah sempadan Mesir.

Terowong ini adalah kunci memastikan kuasa politik dan ketenteraan Hamas yang bukan saja menjadikan mereka sasaran serangan Israel malah menjadi isu utama dalam rundingan gencatan senjata.

Selain sebuah terowong yang dikenali sebagai Koridor Philadelphi yang sudah diketahui Israel, ada ratusan lagi terowong yang berselirat antara Gaza dan Mesir.

Pengarah Pusat Pengajian Strategik Begin-Sadat Universiti Bar-Ilan Israel, Prof Efraim Inbar, percaya kerajaan Israel bertanggungjawab pada kewujudan pelbagai terowong ini.

“Israel tidak melihatnya sebagai serius pada awalnya. Malah tidak menggunakan sumber dan wang yang ada untuk mengesan dan menghentikannya. Masalah yang dihadapi Israel sekarang adalah mereka perlu memusnahkan semua terowong ini dan memastikan ia tidak akan dibina pada masa depan,” katanya,


Terowong yang berselirat di bawah tanah Semenanjung Gaza memiliki sejarah yang panjang. Ia dibina bertahun dulu dengan pelbagai kedalaman dan keluasan.

Terowong menjadi laluan pelbagai benda, daripada anak kambing kepada roket. Malah, ada yang hanya dikhaskan untuk golongan kenamaan dengan laluan yang lebih pendek.

Sebelum ini, Israel pernah menimbangkan untuk menangani kewujudan terowong ini dengan menggali parit yang dipenuhi dengan air laut. Justeru, setiap pengguna terowong berisiko untuk lemas. Bagaimanapun, pelan itu tidak menjadi kerana ia boleh mendedahkan Gaza pada keadaan bawah tanah yang rapuh.

Israel juga pernah meminta Amerika Syarikat membekalkan jurutera tentera yang boleh membina dinding bawah tanah di sebelah Mesir bersebelahan Koridor Philadelphi. Amerika Syarikat bersetuju pada prinsipnya walaupun tidak jelas sama ada pihak Mesir memberikan kebenaran.

Ketakutan Israel pada terowong di Gaza yang semakin banyak dibuka semula amat jelas apabila mereka meminta pihak berkuasa antarabangsa memantau gencatan senjata.

Malah, Israel cuba untuk memusnahkan jaringan bawah tanah ini dengan bom jenis bunker-busting (bom yang boleh menembusi sasaran bawah tanah) yang diperoleh dari Amerika Syarikat.

Nicholas Pelham, penganalisis dari Kumpulan Krisis Antarabangsa berkata, penutupan terowong ini secara kekal adalah proses utama dan berpanjangan.

“Tanpa memperoleh semua wilayah, sukar untuk menutup terowong ini dalam masa yang lama,” katanya.

Apa yang membuat Israel lebih bimbang apabila sayap bersenjata Hamas, Briged Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam menggunakan terowong untuk persiapan perang. Sayap itu dikatakan menghantar ribuan pejuang untuk berlatih di Iran dan Lubnan melalui terowong, taktik yang digunakan secara berjaya oleh Hizbollah bagi menentang Israel pada 2006.

Menurut seorang Komander Hamas, satu daripada pelajaran yang dipelajari daripada terowong adalah ia mengurangkan risiko yang diambil apabila menyerang balas.

“Jangan ledakan bom di situ, gali terowong dan gunakan wayar peledak bagi membolehkan misil dilancarkan dari jauh. Jadi, Hamas hanya akan kerugian tiub atau alatan menembak yang hanya berharga RM30.20 dan bukan pejuang,” katanya.

Komander Islam Jihad, Abu Bilal yang beroperasi secara bebas di Gaza, mengakui serangan roket secara psikologinya memusnahkan Israel tetapi memiliki impak ketenteraan yang sedikit.

“Kami tidak boleh berbuat apa-apa selain serangan roket dan harapan mereka memasuki Gaza. Kami berdoa supaya kereta kebal masuk ke kawasan kami, semua pejuang akan menunggu peluang untuk membunuh mereka,” katanya.

Rangkaian persenjataan Hamas termasuk misil Qassam yang dihasilkan di Gaza dan roket tiruan Russia yang dihasilkan di China. Semua itu diseludup melalui sempadan selain mortar, mesingan, bom, pelancar roket dan pelbagai senjata perang lain yang diimprovisasi.

Hamas juga mewarisi stok senjata infantri Amerika Syarikat dan amunisi yang ditinggalkan Pergerakan Fatah apabila pejuangnya keluar dari Gaza pada 2007.

Hamas juga meningkatkan struktur ketenteraannya dengan lima briged di bawah komander berbeza yang melapor kepada Ketua Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam. Mereka juga dilatih bergerak dalam unit individu jika keadaan memerlukan.

Selain itu, pejuang Hamas juga meningkatkan propaganda melawan persenjataan Israel. Dengan wartawan yang dihalang memasuki Palestin oleh tentera Israel, laman web Hamas - Pusat Maklumat Palestin (PIC) adalah senjata utama bagi mendapatkan sumber berita. Ia menyiarkan berita duka berikutan serangan Israel dan ikrar untuk menyerang wilayah yang dikuasai Israel.

PIC juga memberi alamat web yang lain jika laman web itu gagal dicapai. Ini kerana Israel sentiasa mencari jalan memusnahkan Hamas termasuk mengganggu stesen TV Hamas, Al-Aqsa dengan menyelitkan kartun menunjukkan pejuang Hamas diletupkan dengan nasihat 'anda tidak akan berjaya'.

Obama Inaugural Address

Washington, D.C

My fellow citizens,

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted -- for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions -- who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them -- that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control -- and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort -- even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West -- know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment -- a moment that will define a generation -- it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence -- the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed -- why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Conflict in Gaza

The Inevitable War?

Palestine Monitor

4 January 2009

By: Abu Yusef

Yesterday, news agencies world-wide were waiting with baited breath. ‘Will Israel invade the Gaza Strip?’ they asked, ‘or will the government consider a brief ceasefire?’

Personally, I am not sure what the difference is between an invasion or a brief ceasefire followed by an invasion. It sounded more like a matter of ‘when’, rather than ‘if’.

The clues have been quite clear to predict to ground invasion that has begun yesterday:

The calling up of 9000 reservists; The troop and artillery build-up on the border; The arrival of artillery; The clearing of the crossing points into the strip; The evacuation of foreigners; The insistent Israeli refusal for a ceasefire;

Is it all Brinksmanship?

Some would ask whether these moves are simply political brinksmanship by the Israeli leadership. They ask whether Israel might only be pushing the speculation of invasion to the brink, before pulling back under international pressure and reengaging in a ceasefire.

It is a fair question and points out a very shrewd political tactic available to Israel. It would manage, in some small way, to make Israel look merciful, and perhaps even whitewash the horrible crimes of their ongoing air strike in the minds of the international community.

While we all focus on the impending carnage of the invasion, we forget that day after day, the Strip is slammed by ton after ton of bombs.

When the invasion does not happen, rather than being horrified by the airstrike, the world will be relieved by what has been avoided’.

I certainly do hope that what is occurring is only a matter of disgusting political calculation and not the preparation for what will surely be a slaughter of epic proportions. I do not however believe that it is.

What may have begun as an act of political brinksmanship, has become an inevitable march toward war.

Here’s why:

1. Political electioneering
Though the American media and policy makers have failed to mention how the attack is timed to coincide with the Israeli elections, any keen Israeli or Palestinian observer knows that this is a fallacy.

From the outset, this was clearly an attempt by Kadima and Labor to prove their ‘toughness’ to the voters in the face of Likud’s rapid rise. The aerial attack has greatly boosted Defense Minister Barak’s numbers in the poles, and it seems unlikely that he would be willing to pull back at the expense of these gains.

2. Hamas is not undermined militarily
Besides retaining full control of the Gaza Strip, Hamas’ military strength and rocket firing capabilities do not seem to have been undermined in any real way. The objectives of Israel’s assault – as ambiguous as they are – have not been achieved.

Whether the goal is to ‘eliminate the threat of Hamas’ rockets’ or to ‘eliminate Hamas itself’, there has been no success despite the week long massacre.

3. Hamas has benefited from Israeli belligerency
If Israel was aiming to undermine Hamas’ popularity in Palestine or throughout the region, they have failed. Instead of marginalizing the movement, Israel’s assault has victimized them.

Rallies are ongoing worldwide in support of the besieged and bombed Gaza Strip. Hamas is being praised for their staunch resolution and resistance in the face of an overwhelmingly disproportionate response.

The ground invasion of the Strip will be bloody and long. More Palestinian casualties will heighten international solidarity for the people of Gaza, and thereby Hamas’ standing in the Arab world. If they are able to wear down the Israeli public’s appetite for war and destruction, then they will be credited with ‘winning the war’ in the same way that Hizbollah was in 2006. There is no more impetus amongst the Hamas leadership to end hostilities than there is amongst Israeli leaders.

4. Political ambiguity leads to military empowerment
Perhaps the scariest part of the last week has been the utter ambiguity of Israel’s aims. Israeli leaders and spokespeople have been unwilling to outline what it means to achieve success, or when they will stop the violence.

The unwillingness of the Israeli politicians comes from the electoral pressure they are facing, the growing condemnation of their actions by the international community, and the overall lack of political planning to match with the intensive military design which preceded the attack.

Each day that Israel refuses to outline their plan, and each time they refer to the ‘commanders on the ground’, these commanders are empowered. It is these commanders who will ultimately make the decision to go or not if one does not come soon from the political leadership.

The ball is rolling and the momentum for war in Israeli is high. It is my hope that it can be stopped; but hope alone will not save lives.

Killing the Devil

In addition to bombs and missiles that have killed an ever increasing number of Palestinian civilians, Israel has dropped millions of flyers on the occupied, besieged Gaza Strip.

TEMAN-teman, saya tidak boleh menulis lebih awal kepada anda kerana bekalan elektrik terputus. Saya ingin menangis. Dr Nizar Rayan, profesor di Universiti Islam terbunuh, dibom bersama seluruh keluarga di dalam rumahnya.

"Dia seorang lelaki berani, enggan meninggalkan rumah walaupun menghadapi ancaman Israel. Prinsipnya ialah tidak gentar menghadapi ancaman, berjuang dengan penuh maruah atau mati sebagai seorang pejuang. Rumahnya dibom oleh empat roket. Tiga isteri dan lapan anak serta cucunya terbunuh.

"Hari ini, ledakan bom masih belum berhenti, malah semakin hebat. Waktu malam amat menggerunkan. Kami tidak mampu untuk tidur kerana ledakan demi ledakan dan cuaca sejuk yang mencengkam.

"Teman-teman, kami yang berada di Gaza kini hidup antara mereka yang terkorban, cedera, diselubungi rasa sedih, tidak bermaya dan kecewa, namun ramai yang masih optimis, berani, bersemangat. Hanya impian untuk mengecap kehidupan yang bebas dan bermaruah, terus menyelamatkan nyawa kami." - Salma Ahmed, 23, guru bahasa Perancis di Pusat Budaya Perancis Gaza.

Ini adalah antara e-mel diterima Pusat Pemantauan Palestin (Palestine Monitor) iaitu laman web khas yang diwujudkan pada Disember 2000, beberapa bulan selepas intifada kedua, sebagai saluran suara rakyat Palestin.

Salma adalah antara ribuan rakyat Palestin yang terperangkap di wilayah bergolak dan sehingga semalam, tentera Israel terus ganas meledakkan bom berangkai dan tentera mula memasuki daerah Semenanjung Gaza.

Keganasan yang tercetus semula di ambang tahun baru 2009, menggegarkan dunia. Dengan sokongan sekutu kuatnya, Amerika Syarikat - yang dalam suasana peralihan kuasa Presiden daripada George W Bush kepada Barack Obama - tentera rejim Yahudi terus bertindak tanpa belas kasihan serta tidak menghiraukan protes masyarakat dunia, malah dengan lantang mencabar 'perubahan dunia' yang ingin dilaksanakan bakal Presiden kulit hitam AS yang pertama itu.

Ketika mata lebih tertumpu kepada angka korban yang meningkat lebih 560 orang dan 2,704 lagi cedera sehingga semalam sejak serangan dilancar 27 Disember lalu, kesengsaraan sebenar rakyat Palestin yang berada dalam wilayah Gaza jauh lebih mencengkam jiwa.

Gambar yang terpampang di media cetak dan elektronik sejak seminggu lalu sudah cukup untuk menceritakan penderitaan rakyat Palestin.

Anak-anak maut di pangkuan ibu bapa, mayat dikafan dengan wajah masih berdarah disembahyangkan ribuan manusia dan tanpa gentar, anak Palestin melukis wajah mereka dengan bendera Palestin, menunjukkan semangat yang belum luntur walaupun diasak keganasan melampau puak Yahudi.

Di sebalik tabir, muncul cerita penderitaan yang lebih menyayat hati. Christina Wadi, anak seorang doktor, diminta ayahnya tidak meninggalkan rumah dan menjauhkan diri dari tingkap, ketika si ayah bergelut menyelamatkan nyawa teman yang cedera di Hospital Shifa.

Mungkin disebabkan serangan bertalu-talu Israel, Christina diserang asma dan memerlukan suntikan kecemasan. Ketiadaan telefon dan kesukaran mendapat pengangkutan membuatkan gadis berusia 15 tahun itu meninggal dunia dalam perjalanan ke hospital di mana ayahnya bekerja.

Serangan yang bermula sejak minggu lalu adalah paling menyayat hati dalam sejarah Palestin sejak Perang 1967.

Penganalisis, Dr Mustafa Barghouthi percaya ini 'hanya permulaan' kepada kempen untuk mewujudkan sebuah daerah keganasan di Semenanjung Gaza.

Beliau cuba merungkai persoalan mengenai pelbagai mitos yang sering diuar-uarkan Israel dan berharap penduduk dunia melihat jenayah perang yang terus dilakukan kaum Yahudi ini ke atas rakyat Palestin.

Mitos yang cuba diuar-uarkan kaum Yahudi ini kepada dunia ialah:

• Israel mendakwa sudah menamatkan penjajahan di Semenanjung Gaza pada 2005 apabila memindahkan penempatan warganya dari kawasan pantai kecil di semenanjung itu. Namun hakikatnya, mereka tidak pernah menamatkan penjajahan ke atas Palestin, sebaliknya terus menguasai sempadan, ruang udara dan terusan air di Gaza.
  
  Malah, sejak 2006, Israel mengenakan sekatan dan kepungan di seluruh Semenanjung Gaza. Lebih dua tahun penduduk Gaza hidup dalam suasana hampir kebuluran, tanpa keperluan asas sewajarnya, terutama bekalan perubatan. Kepungan itu mencetuskan bencana kemanusiaan paling menyayat hati;
  
  
• Israel mendakwa Hamas mencabul gencatan senjata dan menarik diri daripada perjanjian itu secara unilateral. Hamas menghormati gencatan senjata yang dipersetujui, kecuali beberapa kes ketika Israel melakukan pencabulan secara terang di Tebing Barat. Gencatan senjata terlerai dua bulan lalu apabila Israel membunuh beberapa rakyat Palestin, membuatkan Hamas bertindak balas.
  
  Sebaliknya, Israel tidak mematuhi perjanjian dipersetujui untuk menamatkan kepungan dan membenarkan bantuan kemanusiaan penting dibawa masuk ke Gaza. Daripada 450 trak yang dipersetujui dibenar memasuki sempadan setiap hari, pada hari yang mereka berasa murah hati, hanya lapan trak dibenarkan masuk. Sempadan ditutup hampir setiap masa.
  
  Dalam tempoh yang sepatutnya berlaku gencatan senjata, penduduk Gaza dipaksa hidup seperti binatang, menyebabkan 262 meninggal dunia kerana tidak menerima bantuan perubatan yang baik.
  
  Hari ini selepas beratus-ratus rakyat Palestin maut dan angkanya terus meningkat, Israel enggan mengadakan rundingan gencatan senjata. Mereka tidak kisah untuk mencipta keamanan seperti yang didakwa dan lebih jelas mereka kini berusaha untuk membuat perubahan regim;
  
  
• Israel mendakwa ingin mencipta keamanan dengan rakyat Palestin. Sebelum melancarkan pembunuhan beramai-ramai terkini di Gaza, Israel sudah meningkatkan penjajahannya di Tebing Barat. Pada 2008, penambahan penempatan meningkat sehingga 38 tempat, seramai 4,950 rakyat Palestin ditangkap dan pusat pemeriksaan meningkat dari 521 kepada 699;
  
  Di luar skop rundingan damai, Israel membunuh 546 rakyat Palestin dan di kalangan mereka 76 kanak-kanak. Jumlah itu meningkat lebih buruk minggu lalu.
  
  
• Israel mendakwa mereka bertindak kerana mempertahankan diri, tetapi hakikatnya mereka yang mencetuskan semua serangan;
  
  
• Israel mendakwa sasaran mereka hanya tentera, malah tentera Yahudi terus menegaskan perkara yang sama walaupun imej wanita dan kanak-kanak maut dan berdarah terus dipaparkan oleh media dunia. Serangan mereka tidak terhad, malah hospital dan masjid tidak terkecuali.
  
  
• Israel mendakwa mereka menyerang Hamas, bukan rakyat Palestin. Tetapi hakikatnya, ledakan peluru berpandu mereka tidak mengasingkan antara tentera Hamas dan rakyat Palestin. Israel sedar hakikat ini, begitu juga rakyat Palestin. Tetapi Israel juga sedar, walaupun tidak disebut secara lantang, betapa tindakan terbaru ini sebenarnya mengukuhkan lagi semangat Hamas dan rakyat Palestin;
  
  
• Israel mendakwa Palestin adalah sumber keganasan. Rakyat dunia tidak perlu terus ditipu. Penjajahan Palestin sejak 1967 menyaksikan betapa tanah Palestin dirampas Israel dan ia menjadi akar umbi kepada keganasan berpanjangan sehingga hari ini. Keganasan ini boleh dihentikan dengan Israel memberi semula tanah, hak kerakyatan dan hak asasi kepada umat Palestin untuk hidup sebagai manusia merdeka.
  
  Bukan Hamas yang menguasai Tebing Barat. Hari ini rakyat Palestin hidup dalam kepungan Israel dan diserang tanpa sebarang belas ihsan.

"Tanah kami dirampas, hak kami dicabul, suami, isteri dan anak-anak kami dibunuh." Itulah luahan rakyat Palestin.

GAZA: Humanitarian Catastrophe

How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe

"The only way to make sense of Israel’s senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel’s vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration’s complicity in this assault, have reopened the question."

By Avi Shlaim, Oxford professor of International Relations. (The Guardian, 7 January 2009)

I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.

Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza’s prospects were never bright. Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development. To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence.

Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era. Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion’s share of the scarce water resources. Cheek by jowl with these foreign intruders, the majority of the local population lived in abject poverty and unimaginable misery. Eighty per cent of them still subsist on less than $2 a day. The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding ground for political extremism.

In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence Forces. To the world, Sharon presented the withdrawal from Gaza as a contribution to peace based on a two-state solution. But in the year after, another 12,000 Israelis settled on the West Bank, further reducing the scope for an independent Palestinian state. Land-grabbing and peace-making are simply incompatible. Israel had a choice and it chose land over peace.

The real purpose behind the move was to redraw unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel by incorporating the main settlement blocs on the West Bank to the state of Israel. Withdrawal from Gaza was thus not a prelude to a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority but a prelude to further Zionist expansion on the West Bank. It was a unilateral Israeli move undertaken in what was seen, mistakenly in my view, as an Israeli national interest. Anchored in a fundamental rejection of the Palestinian national identity, the withdrawal from Gaza was part of a long-term effort to deny the Palestinian people any independent political existence on their land.

Israel’s settlers were withdrawn but Israeli soldiers continued to control all access to the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Gaza was converted overnight into an open-air prison. From this point on, the Israeli air force enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs, to make sonic booms by flying low and breaking the sound barrier, and to terrorise the hapless inhabitants of this prison.

Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism. Despite all the handicaps, the Palestinian people succeeded in building the only genuine democracy in the Arab world with the possible exception of Lebanon. In January 2006, free and fair elections for the Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority brought to power a Hamas-led government. Israel, however, refused to recognise the democratically elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist organisation.

America and the EU shamelessly joined Israel in ostracising and demonising the Hamas government and in trying to bring it down by withholding tax revenues and foreign aid. A surreal situation thus developed with a significant part of the international community imposing economic sanctions not against the occupier but against the occupied, not against the oppressor but against the oppressed.

As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims were blamed for their own misfortunes. Israel’s propaganda machine persistently purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject coexistence with the Jewish state, that their nationalism is little more than antisemitism, that Hamas is just a bunch of religious fanatics and that Islam is incompatible with democracy. But the simple truth is that the Palestinian people are a normal people with normal aspirations. They are no better but they are no worse than any other national group. What they aspire to, above all, is a piece of land to call their own on which to live in freedom and dignity.

Like other radical movements, Hamas began to moderate its political programme following its rise to power. From the ideological rejectionism of its charter, it began to move towards pragmatic accommodation of a two-state solution. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a national unity government that was ready to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel. Israel, however, refused to negotiate with a government that included Hamas.

It continued to play the old game of divide and rule between rival Palestinian factions. In the late 1980s, Israel had supported the nascent Hamas in order to weaken Fatah, the secular nationalist movement led by Yasser Arafat. Now Israel began to encourage the corrupt and pliant Fatah leaders to overthrow their religious political rivals and recapture power. Aggressive American neoconservatives participated in the sinister plot to instigate a Palestinian civil war. Their meddling was a major factor in the collapse of the national unity government and in driving Hamas to seize power in Gaza in June 2007 to pre-empt a Fatah coup.

The war unleashed by Israel on Gaza on 27 December was the culmination of a series of clashes and confrontations with the Hamas government. In a broader sense, however, it is a war between Israel and the Palestinian people, because the people had elected the party to power. The declared aim of the war is to weaken Hamas and to intensify the pressure until its leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel’s terms. The undeclared aim is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood.

The timing of the war was determined by political expediency. A general election is scheduled for 10 February and, in the lead-up to the election, all the main contenders are looking for an opportunity to prove their toughness. The army top brass had been champing at the bit to deliver a crushing blow to Hamas in order to remove the stain left on their reputation by the failure of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006. Israel’s cynical leaders could also count on apathy and impotence of the pro-western Arab regimes and on blind support from President Bush in the twilight of his term in the White House. Bush readily obliged by putting all the blame for the crisis on Hamas, vetoing proposals at the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and issuing Israel with a free pass to mount a ground invasion of Gaza.

As always, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little room for doubt as to who is the real victim. This is indeed a conflict between David and Goliath but the Biblical image has been inverted - a small and defenceless Palestinian David faces a heavily armed, merciless and overbearing Israeli Goliath. The resort to brute military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood and a farrago of self-pity overlaid with self-righteousness. In Hebrew this is known as the syndrome of bokhim ve-yorim, "crying and shooting".

To be sure, Hamas is not an entirely innocent party in this conflict. Denied the fruit of its electoral victory and confronted with an unscrupulous adversary, it has resorted to the weapon of the weak - terror. Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad kept launching Qassam rocket attacks against Israeli settlements near the border with Gaza until Egypt brokered a six-month ceasefire last June. The damage caused by these primitive rockets is minimal but the psychological impact is immense, prompting the public to demand protection from its government. Under the circumstances, Israel had the right to act in self-defence but its response to the pinpricks of rocket attacks was totally disproportionate. The figures speak for themselves. In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. On the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.

Whatever the numbers, killing civilians is wrong. This rule applies to Israel as much as it does to Hamas, but Israel’s entire record is one of unbridled and unremitting brutality towards the inhabitants of Gaza. Israel also maintained the blockade of Gaza after the ceasefire came into force which, in the view of the Hamas leaders, amounted to a violation of the agreement. During the ceasefire, Israel prevented any exports from leaving the strip in clear violation of a 2005 accord, leading to a sharp drop in employment opportunities. Officially, 49.1% of the population is unemployed. At the same time, Israel restricted drastically the number of trucks carrying food, fuel, cooking-gas canisters, spare parts for water and sanitation plants, and medical supplies to Gaza. It is difficult to see how starving and freezing the civilians of Gaza could protect the people on the Israeli side of the border. But even if it did, it would still be immoral, a form of collective punishment that is strictly forbidden by international humanitarian law.

The brutality of Israel’s soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesmen. Eight months before launching the current war on Gaza, Israel established a National Information Directorate. The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel’s objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel’s forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel’s spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.

A wide gap separates the reality of Israel’s actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen. It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It di d so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. Israel’s objective is not just the defence of its population but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers. And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel is guilty of indiscriminate bombing and of a three-year-old blockade that has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Biblical injunction of an eye for an eye is savage enough. But Israel’s insane offensive against Gaza seems to follow the logic of an eye for an eyelash. After eight days of bombing, with a death toll of more than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis, the gung-ho cabinet ordered a land invasion of Gaza the consequences of which are incalculable.

No amount of military escalation can buy Israel immunity from rocket attacks from the military wing of Hamas. Despite all the death and destruction that Israel has inflicted on them, they kept up their resistance and they kept firing their rockets. This is a movement that glorifies victimhood and martyrdom. There is simply no military solution to the conflict between the two communities. The problem with Israel’s concept of security is that it denies even the most elementary security to the other community. The only way for Israel to achieve security is not through shooting but through talks with Hamas, which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the Jewish state within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or even 50 years. Israel has rejected this offer for the same reason it spurned the Arab League peace plan of 2002, which is still on the table: it involves concessions and compromises.

This brief review of Israel’s record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel’s real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.

Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein’s Life in War and Peace.

غز

The Gaza Strip is a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea currently governed by Hamas. It borders Egypt on the south-west and Israel on the north and east. It is about 41 kilometers (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometers wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometers.

The area is not recognized internationally as part of any sovereign country but is claimed by the Palestinian National Authority as part of the Palestinian territories.

Since the June 2007 battle of Gaza, actual control of the area is in the hands of the Hamas de facto government. Israel, which governed the Gaza Strip from 1967-2005, still controls the strip's airspace, territorial waters, and offshore maritime access, as well as its side of the Gaza-Israel border.

This continued control has allowed the Israeli state, which opposes Hamas, to control the inflow and outflow of Gaza's essential resources, including food.

Whenever food is in short supply, Gazan have had little choice but to take in food supplied by World Food Programe workers in the area. Egypt governed the Gaza Strip from 1948-1967 and today runs the southern border between the Gaza strip and the Sinai desert, a border now famous for the breach in early 2008. The territory takes its name from Gaza, its main city. It has about 1.4 million Palestinian Arab (or Gazan) residents.

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