Thursday, November 17, 2005

WHAT IS THE PLO? PART 1 IN A SERIES ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST

The PLO is a terror organization, created in 1964 by the Arab League three years before the territories, as a result of the Six-Day War, came under the administration of Israel. It was not created by the people of Palestine. According to its charter, it has only one aim: the destruction and elimination of the State of Israel through force and violence. Any apparent deviation from this single-minded aim is a temporary tactical maneuver.

The basic charter of the PLO is the so-called "Palestinian National Covenant." It was adopted in May 1964 and has been reconfirmed ever since. Its main theme is that only the Arabs are entitled to self-government and that the State of Israel is illegal from its inception with no right whatever to exist. It states clearly that "Palestine...is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland," that "Palestine...is an indivisible territorial unit," and that "the Arab Palestinian people...reject all solutions that are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine." That is the undeviating line. Those PLO and Arab leaders who have from time to time ventured to propose a less inflexible approach have invariably paid with their lives for such deviation from PLO "orthodoxy."

The PLO is enormously rich and is almost totally financed by the oil-producing Arab states, especially including the so-called "moderate" ones. Saudi Arabia is the main bankroller.

The PLO has factions and splinters that operate under several minor warlords. But there is only one central command, only one authority. Nothing happens without its approval. Nobody should be fooled by pleas of innocence when thing go wrong or if world opinion is outraged, as in the Achille Lauro shipjacking, in the hijacking of the AirEgypt plane, which cost 57 lives, in the coordinated shootouts at the Rome and Vienna airports, or in the Karachi and Istanbul murderous attacks.

The PLO is the kingpin of international terror. It maintains a complex network of relations with all the main terror organizations throughout the world. It has written a blood-spattered record of unrelenting terror in Israel and in many other countries. Some of their more "glorious" exploits: The attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (17 dead); the attack on the Ma'alot School (62 dead, mostly children); the attack on pilgrims and passengers at BenGurion International Airport (76 dead); the hijacking of a passenger bus on the Haifa-Tel Aviv Highway (82 dead). This is only a small sample. There have been many bombings, hijackings, and terrorist attacks in virtually every European country (except the Soviet Union and its satellites), leaving uncounted dead and wounded.

The PLO cannot be a force for peace in the Middle East, because it is totally committed to the destruction of Israel, because it engages in unremitting terror, and because it is not representative of the Palestinian Arab people. Though others are occasionally duped, Israel has always understood that. Israel knows that the fight against PLO terror is the fight for peace. Those that support the PLO are the greatest obstacle to peace in the Middle East, because knowingly or unknowingly they support terror. There will be no peace in the Middle East until all nations join Israel in fighting PLO terrorists. Terror and peace cannot exist together. To invite the PLO to the peace table would be a travesty.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention in your profile that you are also an asshole. Please update it ASAP.

Would true conservatives countenance the fiscal rape of their children and grandchildren?

One thing the Bush Administration clearly has been very good at is focusing the attention of the press (and by extension the American people) on issues that they want to highlight. This has had the effect of advancing the Bush agenda, but has had the added effect of deflecting focus away from things that the Administration does not want to highlight. One of those issues is clearly the rampant, runaway spending of your tax dollars by Bush and the Republican majority congress. At this point there can be no doubt that, as they try to focus your attention on issues like stem cells and Supreme Court nominations, Bush and the Republican Congress are spending us all into a hole from which it will take us, our children and our grandchildren years to recover.

You don’t need to take my word for this, nor the words of any democrat or Bush-hater. You need only to read what conservatives like George Will are saying, or the people at conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. The Cato Institute recently completed a report on the spending habits of all US presidents during the last 40 years. If you’re interested in reading the report I’ve included a link at the end of this post.

If you want to continue to believe that Bush and Congressional Republicans are “on your side” or if you care only about saving stem cells and banning gay marriage perhaps you should read no further. But if you’re interested in the truth and are concerned about your financial well-being and that of your children, perhaps you should read on. Here’s some of what the Cato Institute report had to say about presidential spending over the last 40 years:

All presidents presided over net increases in spending. As it turns out George W. Bush is one of the biggest spenders of them all. In fact he is an even bigger spender than Lyndon B. Johnson in terms of discretionary spending.

The increase in discretionary spending in Bush’s first term was 48.5% in nominal terms. That’s more than twice as large as the increase in discretionary spending during Clinton’s entire 2 terms (21.6%) and higher than Lyndon B. Johnson’s entire discretionary spending spree (48.3%).

Adjusting the budget trends for inflation Bush looks even worse; his spending rate is much higher then Lyndon Johnson’s. In other words, Bush expanded federal non-entitlement programs in his first term almost twice as fast each year as Lyndon Johnson did during his entire presidency.

George W. Bush is the biggest spending president of the last 40 years in both the defense and discretionary spending categories by a long shot. He beats Johnson by almost 4% in defense spending growth and more than 3% in domestic discretionary spending growth.

And conservative columnist George Will points out that federal spending has grown twice as fast under President Bush and congressional Republicans as under President Clinton. And with respect to the argument that this profligacy is related to 9/11 and homeland security, Will and the conservative think tanks have noted that over 65 percent of the spending increase is unrelated to national security.
Will further reports that Congressional Republicans (who achieved their majority by promising fiscal discipline) have presided over an orgy of pork spending with your tax dollars the likes of which have never been seen before. In 1991, the 546 pork projects in the 13 appropriation bills cost $3.1 billion. In 2005, the 13,997 pork projects cost $27.3 billion. Does that sound like fiscal discipline to you?

You may support Bush and the congressional Republicans because of some vague promise of “progress” on social issues with which you and the Republicans agree. In that case perhaps you are entitled to refer to yourself as a “social conservative.” But nobody who calls themselves a fiscal conservative could support Bush and the Republican Congress who are spending your tax dollars in an orgy of profligacy the likes of which has not been experienced in our lifetimes. You can continue to deny yourself this truth, but be assured that true conservatives know the truth. Bush and the Republican Congress are asking you to mortgage your future and the futures of your children and grandchildren in exchange for soft “promises” on social issues. You are justifying the fiscal rape of your children and grandchildren perpetrated by your “moral leaders” in exchange for a vague promise of gains on social issues.

Do yourself and your kids a favor; look them in the eye and explain to them why you have chosen to saddle them with these financial burdens, explain to them your reasoning. Then look in the mirror and explain to yourself how you can continue to support the people who you know in your heart are screwing you and to your kids. Is that morality? Is that conservatism?

Read the whole Cato article here:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb-0510-26.pdf

Read the Will column here:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/will/cst-edt-geo17.html