“There is no escaping the fact that the day will come when we will free the Golan, through peace or through war,” Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday.

He added: “We have our principles, and whoever abides by them will not constitute a problem for us.”

According to Assad, “From the war of Palestine (in 1948) to the occupation of the Golan (in the Six Day War – R.N.) people are becoming more hostile towards Israel. There may come a generation that is unwilling to talk peace.

“There is now a resurgence of the idea of resistance. Israel is advancing in a direction that goes against its interests, and eventually all people are moving towards resistance, which is certainly in the interest of the Arabs.”

This points to a fundamental difference between Israel and most of its neighbors. To Israel, the major goal is peace. The means to get to that goal is negotiations, concessions, and sometimes through shows of strength, but the ultimate goal is to live in peace with her neighbors.

To Arabs, though, peace is not the goal. The goal is land, concessions, “Palestinian rights,” apologies, compensation, and a whole host of other demands – but the end-goal is not to have peace.

For Israel, concessions are a way to bring peace. For the Arabs, the pretense of “peace” is a way to wrangle a never-ending stream of concessions.

Which is, as Assad implies, exactly how they view war and terrorism (”resistance.”)

What kind of a peace can be expected when one side views it as a tactic and not as a goal?

Following are excerpts from speeches by Arab Islamic leaders expressing solidarity with Gaza, which aired on Al-Manar and Al-Aqsa TV, December 3 and 5, 2008.

Sheik Himam Sa’id, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan: Oh noble Gaza, raise your head high. You have made the Muslims raise their heads high. And you, people of Hebron – you are now waging a war against the Jews. You are well-versed in this. We saw how, on a day in 1929, you slaughtered the Jews in Hebron. Today, slaughter them on the land of Hebron. Kill them in Palestine. Arise, oh people of Palestine, all the people of Palestine – arise in defense of your Al-Aqsa Mosque, arise in defense of Nablus and Hebron. Arise and face the [PA] Preventive Security forces. Fear them not, for they are rabbits. They are wolves, so fear them not, oh lions.

Now the Jews are rabbits and the palestinians are lions? I thought the palestinians actually liked rabbits, and were not so keen on lions.

From The MEMRi Blog, quoting Akhbar Al-Arab, November 18, 2008:

But I’m sure that waves of outraged Muslims who respect Judaism will be writing letters to the editor complaining about this bigotry, and pundits and politicians will appear on TV to condemn it, and the editor of the newspaper will issue a formal apology and fire the cartoonist.

After all, this is what would happen in the West, and they are just like us, right?

MPs are threatening to take action unless Israel’s name is removed from Gulf Air’s website among a list of countries under its frequent flyers services.

The parliamentary Palestinian Support Committee plans to send a letter to the airline on Sunday demanding answers.

Under the scheme, passengers from any nationality can apply for frequent flyers membership stating their country of origin.

Committee chairman Nasser Al Fadhala said that the airline had been alerted previously on the issue, but they never responded.

“We don’t normalise ties in any possible way with Israel and the inclusion of Israel as one of the countries, in which its citizens are allowed to benefit from the scheme, implies the opposite,” he said.

“Bahrain is a country that refuses to accept any normalisation with Israel, especially with the Palestinians being evicted from their homes, tortured and killed.”

“Gulf Air and officials behind it will pay the price heavily if they insist on not having Israel’s name removed,” he said.

“We plan to start using our monitoring tools, which will certainly enable us to reach the bottom of this issue.

“The minister is not responding, but maybe if we take a tougher approach, he will take action, or else we will force him to do so.”

A Gulf Air spokesman said the reference to Israel on the website was merely in a dropdown menu so passengers registering for the frequent flyers offer could enter where they live.

“In fact, we have a number Israel-based Arabs in our programme already and it would be a pity to deny future passengers the opportunity to join our programme,” he said.

In the end, the people who they are hurting are the Arabs who have the audacity of living in Israel. You know…. the very “Palestinians” whom they claim they are doing this for.

Here is the outrageous webpage that is causing members of Bahrain’s parliament to spend hours of their time seething, with a visual aid so you can find the problem yourself. Israel is listed in the drop-down menu along with some 200 other countries:

Just in case anyone is still wondering how much the Arab world really cares about “Palestinian” rights, as opposed to destroying Israel, here’s a little clue:

“Palestine” is not mentioned in Gulf Air’s list of countries for “nationality.” But the MPs are not complaining about the absence of “Palestine” on the website, but the existence of “Israel.“

The Palestinian Arabic media is reporting that Lebanon is trying to sue Israel for selling traditional Lebanese foods as well.

The autotranslation is a little muddled, but it appears that Lebanon is upset over Israel marketing hummus, falafel, tabouleh and fattoush.

The president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association claims that Lebanese losses over Israel selling these foods rather than Lebanese is in the tens of millions of dollars annually.

For the record, falafel is supposed to have been invented in Egypt, the earliest verifiable use of hummus was in Syria, and tabouleh and fattoush are both from the Levant as well.

So, will Lebanese food manufacturers be suing any other Arab or Levantine countries who market these foods as well?

Apparently not. The articles about this refer to this lawsuit as a new type of “resistance” – meaning it is just like terrorism against Israel, but meant to take place in various legal venues for the purpose of hurting Israelis economically rather than physically.

(We’ve seen Arabs upset over Israelis making falafel in the past, and it is always good for a laugh.)

“Shamir” has been denounced as a fraud by even far left anti-Zionists and goes by many other names including Jöran Jermas and Adam Ermash and probably was never Jewish (he now happily says he is Christian and he advocates all Jews converting to Christianity.)

The article is typical “Shamir”, where he says things like:

Stereotypes and prejudice are a legitimate part of our life. They are here to make our life easier. If you walk the dark streets of an urban ghetto and notice a gang of male teenagers without a single woman among them, your prejudice tells you to make a prudent detour. If a tramp in rags proposes to sell you a gold watch, your prejudice advises you to avoid the deal. If a charming stranger is eager to get bedded, your prejudice calls you to use a condom – or run away. ADL correctly states that there is a stereotype of a “malicious cabal of Jews” who are “pushing for war,” as well as that of “Jewish media-lords” that “clinch the party line.” A stereotype, or prejudice, usually is a result of many unpleasant experiences by persons who did not heed them….

A person unhappy with a stereotype or with prejudice may fight it. There is a good, hard way to fight a stereotype you dislike: act contrary to the stereotype….The Jews fought against prejudice a few times and won every time….They can do it now again. They may engage in work conducive to the general benefit, shy away from stock markets and banks, give Christmas presents, demand “troops out of Iraq, no aid to apartheid Israel.” be friendly to their non-Jewish neighbors. Do not demonize nor threaten with legal action everybody who does not agree with you. Do not turn the media into your private reserve. Try this, and an old stereotype will wither and vanish.

The stereotyping of Jews is quite justifiable, and only their behavior change will change it.

“Shamir” of course can write whatever bigoted tripe he wants, but it is telling that the Arab-American News would choose to publish this pure hate – because that newspaper seems more interested in maintaining anti-Jewish stereotypes than in fighting against anti-Arab stereotypes.

All of “Shamir”’s arguments can be used against Arabs to stereotype them as terror supporters or as anti-semitic. This obvious point is lost to the editors of this periodical, whose apparent hatred of Jews overcomes their own sense of self-preservation.

There is as of yet not a single comment on the article decrying its premise nor the flip-side that it implies against Arabs.

From Al-Arabiya:

Algerian TV will launch an Islamic-inspired adaptation with a twist of the infamous Arab talent show Star Academy following a ban on the Lebanese version. Instead of showcasing contestants’ singing talents, the new show, a collaboration between Algerian TV and the Ministry of Religious Affairs, will be a Quran recitation competition.

The decision comes as part of a plan to implement more balance in the messages Algerian T.V. delivers to its audience. Star Academy, one of the most successful programs in Arab television history, enjoyed a large number of viewers in Algeria because of its prime time slot but was banned because of excessive “nudity.”

Sixteen contestants were chosen for the new show from 15,000 applicants. The show will host the most prominent reciters from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, and Indonesia.

The best Quran reciter will be named “Knight of Quran” and will be announced on the last day of Ramadan. Throughout the show, the competitors will recite verses from the Quran and the audience will vote for who they think is best.

I wonder if they will have three celebrity critics as well.

“I don’t think you chose the best verse, calba. You didn’t convince me that you really wanted to kill the infidels. I think you would have been better off doing something from The Cow.”

“Great job! I could feel Allah’s words in their pristine form. It was almost as if I only heard that verse six hundred times before. I mean this from my heart, from one Abdul to another. Allah akbar!”

“That performance was simply dreadful. Your meter was off and your accent makes you sound more Canadian than Arab. You may have a good future career as a torturer in a Syrian prison.”