OPEN LETTER TO UK PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN (26 JANUARY 2009)

My friends in Jerusalem advise me that last week they were subject to great inconvenience as a result of the Tel Aviv / Jerusalem main highway being closed so that you and the President of France Sarkozy, Prime Minister of Spain Zapatero, Prime Minister of Italy Berlusconi and Chancellor Merkel of Germany could go to Jerusalem to pressurise the Israeli Government to open the crossing points into the Gaza Strip after Israel’s unilateral cease fire.

I am surprised that when you all met President Mubark in Sharem el Sheikh you did not pressurise him to stop the trafficking in weapons and ammunition and rockets that pass through Sinai to the Egyptian / Gaza border or forcing him to open up the crossing point into Gaza from Egypt, after of course ensuring that the material passing through the crossing could not be put to military / terrorist use. This was drawn to the attention of your predecessor, Tony Blair, twice in 2004 about the tunnels from Egypt to Gaza requesting he exert pressure on Egypt to take preventative action against smuggling. These communications were utterly ignored as recent history has shown.

The concern of your Government for the inhabitants of Gaza by increasing direct UK Government aid to the tune of £50m, does not take into consideration the reality on the ground.
I am one of the few UK citizens who had the privilege in the late 1970s of visiting Gaza and the surrounding areas. I well recollect travelling through the barren sand dunes where there were no villages or agricultural enterprises to get from Israel to Gaza City. For 19 years under Egyptian rule from the termination of the mandate, not one world body let alone Arab countries, showed any concern for the inhabitants of what is commonly known as the Gaza Strip but deliberately kept the people in abominable conditions, to be used as a political pawn to attempt to bring about the destruction of Israel. Between 1948 and 1956 the nascent State of Israel was subject to constant Fedayin raids emanating from Gaza and encouraged by the Egyptian Government, during that period over 500 Jews were slaughtered in cold blood by these terrorists. This culminated in the 1956 Sinai Campaign. When I visited Gaza City I was shown the two storey buildings that the Israeli Government had constructed to rehouse the residents of the shanty towns where I saw the raw sewage run through the streets and the buildings were constructed of flimsy materials with little adequate covering. However, year after year, until 2005, as a result of the Israeli so-called disengagement, HM Government together with those of Europe and most western states, voted in the United Nations for a Resolution that condemned Israel for attempting to rehouse these Gazan residents in proper acceptable residential accommodation with piped running water, electricity and sewage disposal facilities.[1] Thus, the blame for the condition of the Gazan people rests solely upon those governments including HM Government, who prevented Israel from rehousing these people.
Furthermore, as a result of disengagement in 2005, some 30 months ago, Israel left behind over 22 prosperous agricultural villages that had been built on the neglected sand dunes. Included amongst the items left behind were public buildings (schools, libraries, communal centres and synagogues) industrial buildings, offices, factories and greenhouses, yet the Gazan residents instead of using these premises to make themselves economically viable and increase their prosperity, deliberately destroyed all traces of these villages, their buildings and their agricultural equipment. Israel, having withdrawn from the Gaza district on the basis of the world demand that this would result in peace, both the Palestinian Authority and the various factions decided that this wasn’t sufficient for them and they continued their barrage of rockets and mortars, akin to the doodle bugs of WW2 in London, into the Israeli towns and villages adjacent to and within firing range of the Gaza Strip. In this they destroyed homes, schools, synagogues, medical centres and the citizens of Israel suffered trauma, injury and were killed just as they had been in the 5 previous years before Israel disengaged in the Gaza Strip.
The responsibility for the actions of both the Palestinian Authority and the associated terror groups lies clearly with the western governments and with the United Nations Agencies. It was noticed that prior to the disengagement, the world media, including the UK state operated BBC, (the World Service being operated from finance provided by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office) showed pictures of Gaza as if it was composed of hovels and shantytowns. But immediately after disengagement it was observed that these had suddenly disappeared overnight and had been replaced by villas, two storey and multi storey homes, all of which had been constructed after the 1995 interim arrangement between Israel and the PA. These buildings were constructed out of the equivalent of the UK cinder or breeze blocks, just as they are in Israel and there cannot be any subtle distinction between them. However, both the UN agencies and those of so-called international charities, currently appear to think that they are tugging at the heartstrings of the world pubic who are so gullible by pointing out that these buildings were made from blocks as opposed to brick or stone.
Having been given the opportunity 30 months ago to engage in complete self rule, all the Gazans could do was to ignore making themselves economically self sufficient and instead set themselves up as a military base especially after the Hamas terrorist party came to power in 2006. Instead of setting up industries for export or making themselves self sufficient, they set up a military arms industry to manufacture missiles, rockets, mortars etc. As they continued to do so, Israel which had been subject to suicide bombings for so many years, decided as the UK would have done, to restrict the entry of labourers from this area. As a result there was a world outcry led by your predecessor in 10 Downing Street. At the same time, Israel imposed restrictions on what passed through the crossings between Israel and Gaza to attempt to ensure that no precursor material for either the arms industry or the manufacture of explosives could enter. Of course we all know how HM Government stated that this was inhumane.
Several generations of Gazans have grown up and been educated in UNWRA schools. Instead of these schools providing a basic education, which would be aligned to producing industrious citizens, they educated the children in hate against Israel and the Jewish People. They inculcated in every possible way their hatred, be it in their mathematical or geographical lessons and certainly in their religious teachings. All this was going on under the auspices of the eagle eyed world body with a clear agenda to denigrate Israel and the Jewish People at every possible opportunity. This brainwashing has continued unabated for years yet no government has had the conviction to condemn this but has turned a deliberate blind eye. Indeed, when film was shown years ago of children in military uniform and carrying out paramilitary training exercises there was no word of condemnation from any world government. Are these the children that HM Government and UK charities are crying out for?

To look at those children compared with those of Darfur, Chechnya, Zimbabwe, is comparing chalk and cheese. The former in Gaza look well fed and well clothed and certainly not under nourished or diseased. Yet those of the latter are suffering from starvation as are their parents, clothed in rags and under nourished and subject to disease brought about by the political circumstances in which they live. Why don’t you and your government treat their plight to a higher degree of concern than that in Gaza? Added to this one can ask why the UK media and charities don’t make a play about these people’s plight to the same magnitude as they express their concern about Gaza? Could it possibly be that the correspondents and workers are loathed to go to places in their masses because of the absence of suitable luxury accommodation where they can draw on large expense accounts?
At every possible opportunity the media together with UK charities has expressed their concern of the plight of the children of Gaza. However, on careful analysis it has become clear that each family in Gaza has between 5 – 12 children and the average woman in Gaza gives birth to more than 5 children whilst each husband is permitted under Islamic law to have up to 4 wives. Of course monogamy, the norm throughout Europe, is exempt when it comes to Islamic immigrants as exhibited by the UK State Benefit System where the additional wives are also provided with Benefit Allowances [2] as you personally well know from your period as Chancellor. So instead of encouraging the Gazan citizens to live within their means the UN international agencies as well as UK based charities are encouraging them to procreate well beyond their economic means by giving them financial aid. How can this be possible that these organisations have turned such a blind eye to this stupidity?
On this basis there can be no grounds for HM Government to pour more money into this leaking bucket since it does not encourage the Gazans to be self-sufficient. The enormous wealth of the Arab oil producing countries has been squandered on luxuries rather than help their brethren. Instead of rehabilitating these so called ‘refugees’ into one of the 21 Muslim countries they have like no other refugee body not been resettled or rehoused but deliberately maintained in this refugee status for generation after generation by UNWRA.

It is time the Islamic dream of destroying the reborn Jewish State after 2000 years in its Biblical homeland was forced to come to an end. Islam is a modern religion, created some 1600 years ago and should not be permitted to practice such racism. Certainly Islam does not tolerate either Judaism or Christianity but considers these people to be second class citizens - dhimmis.

Their objective is to once again establish a Caliphate across Europe and the Middle East.

[1] While decrying the plight of the piteous refugees supposedly victimized by Israeli aggressors, Arab governments have caused the UN to pass resolutions that decried Israeli attempts to resettle refugees in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. Any effort by Israel to improve the living conditions of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza strip or to give them new homes outside the refugee camps, was met with UN resolutions with wording such as this:
Calls once more upon Israel to desist from removal and resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and from destruction of their shelters;
2. Requests the Secretary-General, after consulting with the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, to report to the General Assembly by the opening of the thirty-fifth session on Israel's compliance with paragraph 1 above. ( UN A/RES/34/52(A-F) 23 November 1979 )

[2] http://www.dwp.gov.uk/housingbenefit/claims-processing/operational-manuals/hbgm/parts/ptbw_03b.asp,

OPEN LETTER TO UK SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT - DOUGLAS ALEXANDER

Sunday Telegraph 21 December 2007 "Let us hope for peace next year in David's city"

Having just read the above article that you penned for the Sunday Telegraph I wish to express concern about the distortion of information with respect to Israel that appears in this article. Time and time again, it has been observed pro-Palestinian advocates being given an open door to preach anti-Israel sentiment in the UK media but without proper balance being provided to put the Jewish/Israel view or the right to reply.

This trend apparently has now extended to HM Government Ministers, who have no right to engage in such polemics. Many of the on-line comments regarding your article which were published on the Sunday Telegraph web site, but not published by the newspaper, sum up the extent of the distortion as viewed by members of the public.

By using the story of a British government employee you deliberately sought to put over a subtle message. The mention of the Shu’fat camp – a normal town but designated as a "refugee camp" - conveys the impression that Jerusalem is off-limits. Palestinians cannot get an education, let alone jobs. Why did you not inquire where exactly UK and EU aid to UNWRA and the PA has gone in the past 60 years? Why did you not cite how the situation was in Beit Lechem before 1967 – the year of your birth? The town was then prosperous and mainly inhabited by Christians. They began fleeing when the area came under PA control at the behest of the international community including the UK.

You failed to identify the root causes of ‘the history of instability and conflict ‘ and apparently know neither the history nor what gave rise to suicide bombers. These only appeared on the scene when the International Community recognised the PLO. The PLO’s avowed aim was, and is, the destruction of Israel and the denial of any links with Judaism’s ancestral homeland.

UK taxpayers are aware that they are paying to prop up the PA and "support economic regeneration". The EU has never validated where its donations were going, nor verified if the money was ending up in the pockets of the elite. How many millionaires have been created through the siphoning off of international aid? This was not spelt out in your article.

Furthermore, you did not tell us why, following Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza, rockets began raining down on Israeli towns. Why was there was not a call for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank when these territories were under Egyptian and Jordanian control? Why had Israel suffered terror attacks before the ‘occupation’, even before 1948? What about the massacres of the Jewish communities in the Holy Land in the late 1880’s, as well as those during the Mandate period of the 1920’s and 1930’s? Why have Palestinian refugees, most of whom left on their leaders’ orders, have been kept as political pawns by the Arab states aided and abetted by the international community, while a greater number of peaceful Jewish citizens expelled from Arab countries were resettled at no cost to either the international community or the UK?

Such articles as yours portray bias and lack of context. In extreme cases, they may even amount to incitement against the peaceful, non-threatening Jews of this country.



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Sunday Telegraph

Let us hope for peace next year in David's cityBy Douglas Alexander

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 23/12/2007 '



Once in royal David's city/Stood a lowly cattle shed/Where a mother laid her Baby/ In a manger for His bed." It is one of the most popular of all our Christmas carols and it will be sung by millions of people in high streets and in churches all over the world this week. This classic Victorian carol has a special place in my family because it was written by my great-aunt, more than 150 years ago. But Cecil Frances Alexander's hopeful vision of the Bethlehem she called "royal David's city" bears little resemblance to the beleaguered Palestinian communities I visited in the West Bank in recent days. While she imagined the dawn of hope in the place where King David is said to have been born, today the inhabitants of Bethlehem are struggling to keep any hope alive. I talked with a British government employee, Nassim, who is raising his family in Bethlehem. His commute to work in Jerusalem should take him only 30 minutes, but negotiating the security barrier and the repeated security checks means it takes at least an hour and a half, twice a day. Like any proud parent he showed me a picture of his two daughters, Warrd and Ghazal, aged six and four. ­Although they live just 25 miles from the sea, neither has ever played on the beach, or even seen the sea. As a family they simply cannot get there - the security situation makes it impossible. Visiting the security barrier next to Shu'fat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, I saw how sometimes it can almost completely exclude Palestinian communities from Jerusalem and from vital services - such as schools and doctor's surgeries. At a school in the Qalandiya refugee camp, a Palestinian mother told me of her fears for her teenage son. His prospects are so limited that she now chooses not even to raise the question of what he will do when he grows up. She herself lives with the quiet fear that in the absence of educational and employment prospects he might instead succumb to the persuasion of Islamic radicals. I could see in her face the aspiration for her children that any mother has, but it was also clear that she was beginning to lose hope. No one in my generation can fail to be aware of the history of instability and conflict between Palestinian and Israeli, nor the seemingly intractable positions of both sides. Neither is there any dispute that the first duty of any government - including Israel's - must be the security of its people in an era of terrorist threats. But mine is the generation in which walls and barriers have been coming down - from the Soviet Union to South Africa and Northern Ireland. The security barrier - built to protect Israeli citizens from the terror of suicide bombing - also creates physical and economic hardships that the Palestinian people now endure. This is why the talks that began in Annapolis last month are so urgent. And while we are all acutely aware of the false dawns that accompany the history of the peace process, it was a genuinely hopeful sign when the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, led their respective peoples to the negotiating table, watched by representatives from the whole world. And after attending the Paris Conference alongside Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy and Condoleezza Rice, I believe this Advent season there is a case for cautious optimism. In Paris, on behalf of the UK, I was able to pledge up to £243 million to the Palestinian Authority over three years. The funds are linked to the peace process and will support economic regeneration if significant political progress is made. At that conference, last week, the international community came together to reward the bravery of Abbas and Olmert with substantial promises of support. These financial pledges are only the start and for confidence to be maintained, the Palestinian Authority will have to make the hard yards, especially in the area of security. In the coming year Israel, too, as President Bush underlined, has to demonstrate its commitment by freezing settlement expansion and removing outposts. As Israeli foreign minister Livni has recognised, the security of the people of Israel and the welfare of the Palestinian people are linked. Of course, many are sceptical about these latest steps towards a final peace. And no one can ignore the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza. But I believe that as this year draws to a close, we may be on the brink of a new opportunity for peace. Like many Victorian hymn writers, Cecil Frances Alexander had what looks to us to be a highly idealised, even sentimental, notion of childhood, with her hope that "Christian children all must be/ Mild, obedient, good as He". But I believe she would have agreed with me that what today's children of Bethlehem, like Warrd and Ghazal, are looking for this Christmas is a chance to grow up in a place of peace and security, a place where they and their families can live rewarding lives in friendship with their neighbours. It's a big hope that 2008 might be the year when we work towards this final peace deal. But Christmas is a time of hope and that hope is needed today in royal David's city. • Douglas Alexander is Secretary of State for International Development
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=GXE22WMGVJSZ5QFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/opinion/2007/12/23/do2306.xml




PUBLISHED COMMENTS

Wishful thinking, Mr. Alexander. Politicians never learn - that is why the palestinians can try out their pretences at peace-making with each new crop of western leaders. Abbas can fool you with 'peace talk' all he likes - with his hand wide open to collect as much as he can financially - but he does not fool the Israelis. His TV channel has resumed the glorification of suicide bombing, just as arafat did in order to provoke the intifada in 2000. All the proof of his malevolence is here: link You, Mr. Alexander, together with the other western leaders, have made terrorism a very lucrative palestinian career. They have no incentive to stop while you continue to hand them the hard-earned income of your taxpayers.

Posted by Lily on December 23, 2007 5:05 PM



Douglas. I greatly admire your great aunt, we still sing many of her hymns in my church. You would do well to study the Scriptures yourself regarding the hope for peace in the Middle East, the appearance of the Antichrist, etc. Regards, ChrisPosted by Chris Perver on December 23, 2007 4:12 PMReport this comment A good try by Douglas Alexander who is fortunate indeed to be related to a writer of beautiful hymns. I wish we could see the difference between aid which creates dependency and builds nothing, even when it isn't being siphoned off as one tends to feel has always happened in the case of the Palestinians - and contributions which effect permanent change. I don't believe that their real enemy is Israel at all, no matter the hatred taken in at the Mother's breast and the lack of anything to do other than perhaps become a militant. Sometimes it is your supposed friends who hold you back, not those you have always been told are your enemies. An agenda amongst states in the region to remove Israel will never go anywhere - but it drives the way the Palestinians are kept in deprivation to form a 'cause' - a rallying point for terror and hatred. Organised and in synergy - for Israel surely has the businesses and the entrepreneurs - and the Palestinians the plentiful labour - there is much that could be done to give everyone a better life in peaceful coexistence. Posted by simon coulter on December 23, 2007 1:55 PM Report this comment The chances of Christian children gowning up in Bethlehem are getting more and more remote as the world turns the other way to Islamic oppression of Palestinian Christians, preferring to scape goat the Israelis instead. Posted by Man in a Shed on December 23, 2007 11:48 AMReport this comment Whilst the Secretary of State's sincerity is beyond doubt, as someone of his generation for whom the difficulties of the Middle East have been a lifelong buzz in the background, I would rather hope that one of his intentions for 2008 would be to devote his intelligence and vigour to trying to keep his own country together, as opposed to sorting out other peoples'.

Posted by Martin on December 23, 2007 7:36 AM



Douglas, Are you helping the Palestinians run an election?

Posted by Brian D Finch on December 23, 2007 1:00 AM



So what exactly is Mr Alexander saying here? To summarise:



1 - Isn't it a shame that the Israelis have found it necessary to build a wall and that this impedes travel? Yes it is, and the blame lies squarely on Arafat, and his successors. If they make some agreements and stick to them, the wall can come down.



2 - Let's hope Annapolis gets the "peace process" back on track. Get real, Annapolis is just going through the motions. The destruction of Israel is more important to the Arabs than a million lives of their own brothers, so why waste your pity on people for whom their own kin care little?



3 - Isn't is good of me to give money to the PA? Is it, particularly as it is not your money, Douglas, it is ours? So they can spend their scant resources on arms, instead of food, because some daft Brit will will feed them? How does that help, Douglas? Would you have given George Best a few quid for a bottle of Whiskey? I suppose it behoves a government minister to make optimistic noises, even if they be facile platitudes, but what the Palestinians really need is tough love, not an unconditional meal ticket from the West, and Semtex from the Arabs - both are mere fuel to the flames.

Posted by Richard Dell on December 23, 2007 12:55 AM