NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: DÉJÀ VU: IBRAHIM MOIZ

I am working on a memoir book with the proposed title of “Islam, the West and Me: From “Madrassa” to Monastery.” I was born, and lived until I was 16, in a very conservative Sudanese village, on the Nile River, south of the borders with Egypt. In America for about 35 years, almost every year since 9/11 attacks, I spend a weekend at a Catholic monastery, near Washington, DC, and more than once I fasted Ramadan there.

I have divided the book according to the almost four decades I have been in America (1970′s, 1980′s, etc).

The last chapter will have some “déjà vu,” observations about Muslims who came to America after me, those I know or learned about.
According to the similarities of their experiences to mine, I grade them by years: 1970, 1980, up to 2010. I do the same for Muslims who were born in America, according to the experiences of my three children, now grown-up and left home.

I like the experience of US-born Ibrahim Moiz that was published in “The Washington Post.” (Read below).

Muslims like him have a different – and freer – way of thinking than their immigrant parents and the Middle Eastern imams.

My children didn’t travel and study in the Middle East like him and don’t have the depth of his experience, but, most probably, they agree with him.

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NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: UNDER SUSPICION: AMRICAN MUSLIMS SEACH FOR IDENTITY TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11:

… “Islam has flourished for 1,400 years because it fits into every society and adapts to it,” says Ibrahim Moiz.

“So those people who would require women to wear the hijab, or men who say you have to grow your beard out two fists long, are making life more difficult for their children if they take such a rigid approach,” he added.

The blame for Americans’ suspicion toward Muslims, Moiz argues, lies mostly with his fellow Muslims, especially those who refuse to adapt to the culture of their new home.

Moiz, an American-born child of immigrants from India, is a devout Muslim who spent years studying the Koran in Syria before beginning his legal career in the Washington area. Ask Moiz about Islam, and his answers often cite the Constitution and the Founding Fathers.

“We have to figure out what’s right for Islam in this country,” he says.

“It’s like in the law — you have your Scalias who strictly construe the Constitution and you have your Justice Kagans, who ask how we can interpret those texts for today. We know we have to emulate the prophet, but does that mean we have to have a long beard? Do we have to look like him or is it more important to understand him?”

Moiz clerked in Prince George’s County for Maryland’s first Muslim judge and then worked for a time on discrimination claims made by American Muslims. He left that job believing that too many of his fellow Muslims — such as the worker who complained that his employer wouldn’t give him Fridays off to pray, when he really needed only an hour — are too quick to take on the victim label.

The Islam that Moiz has chosen is traditional in some ways yet markedly American in others.

“I don’t wear the traditional garb,” says Moiz, who has on a tennis shirt and chinos. “But I believe the way I dress is Islamic” because it is simple and modest.

But Moiz knows that “a lot of American kids really struggle with Islam. They may pray at home but drop it entirely at school. They hear about jihad and all these strict laws that weren’t even applied through most of Islamic history.”

Moiz says Islam will adapt to American values only when U.S.-born Muslims — guys like him who know football and video games as well as they know the Koran — are handed the torch of leadership.

In the meantime, he tries to show immigrant parents the advantage of America’s questioning culture.

“What helped me stay away from extremists — either religious crazies or wild partying — was always questioning, doubting whatever I was taught,” he says. “That’s the American way, and that fits perfectly with Islam, but not with the rigid, closed Islam that too many of the imams from other cultures bring here.”

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: DÉJÀ VU: ZEHRA FAZAL

I am working on a memoir book with the proposed title of “Islam, the West and Me: From “Madrassa” to Monastery.” I was born, and lived until I was 16, in a very conservative Sudanese village, on the Nile River, south of the borders with Egypt. In America for about 35 years, almost every year since 9/11 attacks, I spend a weekend at a Catholic monastery, near Washington, DC, and more than once I fasted Ramadan there.

I have divided the book according to the almost four decades I have been in America (1970′s, 1980′s, etc).

The last chapter will have some “déjà vu,” observations about Muslims who came to America after me, those I know or learned about.
According to the similarities of their experiences to mine, I grade them by years: 1970, 1980, up to 2010. I do the same for Muslims who were born in America, according to the experiences of my three children, now grown-up and left home.

I like the experience of US-born Zehra Fazal that was published in “The Washington Post” (Read below).

Muslims like her have a different – and freer – way of thinking than their immigrant parents and the Middle Eastern imams.

My children don’t have the depth of her experience, but, most probably they agree with her.

I learned from Zehra Fazal, almost 40 years younger than me, that Muslims, and especially immigrant ones, should be less serious as they face America’s fear and suspicions.

Also, thanks to former President Ronald Reagan who, about 30 years ago, made fun of himself (for being old) and taught me about self-deprecation.

Also, thanks to my Christian white conservative wife of 35 years for repeating: “humor me, humor me.”

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NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: UNDER SUSPICION: AMRICAN MUSLIMS SEACH FOR IDENTITY TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11:

… Zehra Fazal wraps a hijab over her hair, takes a deep breath and steps onstage, transformed into Zed Headscarf, Muslim punk rocker and bisexual.

An audience of 150, a mix of Muslims and others at the Round House Theatre in Silver Spring, meet Fazal’s alter ego, a brash but flirty character who relishes asking the kinds of questions most young Muslims wouldn’t dare pose to parents:

Why must she and her father stay in separate rooms at a party at the mosque? If a woman must cover her hair in front of men who are not part of her family, how about a lesbian — must she wear a hijab in front of all women?

“Why do I have to be the ambassador for Islam? Why do I have to represent Pakistan when I’ve only been there twice?” Zed demands in her one-woman show “Headscarf and the Angry Bitch.” Zed frankly tells her lover, “The only thing I’ll do five times a day is you.”

But Zed and the show win over the parents. Soon enough, the generations are laughing together as Zed sings, to the tune of America’s “A Horse With No Name”: “I been through the airport as a Muslim detained / At the airport, you can’t use your real name / ‘Cause the no-fly list forbids any Hussein.”

Fazal’s parents, Pakistani physicians, never got to see “Headscarf and the Angry Bitch.” They died before their daughter finished writing it. But she thinks they would recognize the pain, humor and anger of her portrait of Muslim life in America…

At Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Fazal steered clear of the Muslim student groups. Her friends were mostly white.

But in the aftermath of Sept. 11, she became uncomfortable with her father’s decision to go on local TV to try to explain that Islam was a religion of peace. She grew exasperated over having to somehow prove her patriotism to strangers and angry when her dad’s name temporarily popped up on a no-fly list because it was similar to that of some bad guy…

“It’s time for this religion and ethnic group to stop taking itself so seriously,” Fazal says. “I’m not sure the conservative Muslim community has a sense of humor yet, but the younger generation is ready for this. They know it’s okay to let different labels make up your identity. Just because I’m Muslim doesn’t mean I can’t also be this other thing, even if that thing is haram”…

Or, as Zed puts it in the show: “Skittles — first they were haram, now they’re halal. Ellen DeGeneres — definitely haram.”

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: DÉJÀ VU: YAHYA HENDI:

I am working on a memoir book with the proposed title of “Islam, the West and Me: From “madrassa” to monastery.” I was born, and lived until I was 16, in a very conservative Sudanese village, on the Nile River, south of the borders with Egypt. In America for about 35 years, almost every year since 9/11 attacks, I spend a weekend at a Catholic monastery, near Washington, DC, and once I fasted Ramadan there.

I have divided the book according to the almost four decades I have been in America (1970′s, 1980′s, etc).

The last chapter will have some “déjà vu,” observations about Muslims who came to America after me and how they have managed their lives in their new country.

According to the similarities of their experiences to mine, I grade them as 1970, 1980, up to 2010.

Here is Imam Yahya Hendi’ experience (read below).

I grade him “2000″.

I would have graded him “2010″if he had said that he believed in what I have come to believe in during these 2010′s: Islam’s supremacy. Did he believe in Islam’s supremacy but didn’t want to tell the newspaper? That would make me grade him as “1990,” my decade of confusion and stress.

Of course, there is freedom of religion in America; and of course, America is the world’s top in decency, grace and morals. But, Imam Hendi didn’t say a word about America’s injustice towards Muslims. And he didn’t say a word about Israel’s occupation of his homeland.

Imam Hendi doesn’t need to be so eager to please; the Americans would be the first to notice that.

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NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: UNDER SUSPICION: AMRICAN MUSLIMS SEACH FOR IDENTITY TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11:

… As a Palestinian child, Yahya Hendi (official Imam at Georgetown University) says he saw the world in black and white.

“To me, Jews were Israelis in tanks,” he says. “I thought if you weren’t Muslim, you were going to hellfire.”

He moved to the United States at 22 for graduate school at Temple University. Hendi studied Hebrew and the Torah under an Israeli professor who regularly invited him to her home. One day, when the professor had to go out shopping, she left Hendi alone in her house…

“That simple gesture changed my life,” he says. “That she would trust me, a Palestinian, and show me that love. America opened the door for me to see the beauty of Islam as an open, inclusive, pluralistic faith. America taught me that I can sit with friends who are drinking alcohol even if I am not. America showed me that music can be holy, that marriage is about love, and that all of this fits easily in an open, modern Islam”…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VEWS: DÉJÀ VU: FAWAZ ISMAIL

I am working on a memoir book with the proposed title of “Islam, the West and Me: From “madrassa” to monastery.” I was born, and lived until I was 16, in a very conservative Sudanese village, on the Nile River, south of the borders with Egypt. In America for about 35 years, almost every year since 9/11 attacks, I spend a weekend at a Catholic monastery, near Washington, DC, and once I fasted Ramadan there.

I have divided the book according to the almost four decades I have been in America (1970′s, 1980′s, etc).

The last chapter will have some “déjà vu,” observations about Muslims who came to America after me and how they have managed their lives in their new country.

According to the similarities of their experiences to mine, I grade them as 1970, 1980, up to 2010.

Here is Mr. Fawaz Ismail experience (read below).

I grade him “2000″ because, after 9/11 attacks, and like me, he went back to Islam, felt very proud, and is still stressed. Although I don’t share with him the following experience: “I smoke because I’m stressed. Sometimes I wish I was born a Swede”…

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NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: UNDER SUSPICION: AMRICAN MUSLIMS SEACH FOR IDENTITY TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11:

… When he first immigrated to Texas, Fawas Ismail asked everybody to call him “Tony.” The nickname put people at ease at his Dallas high school, where Tony switched from soccer to football and picked up a bit of a Texas twang…

He remained Tony when he moved to Northern Virginia to expand his family’s flag-selling business. The name made him feel as American as his Falls Church store, Alamo Flag, a patriot’s paradise brimming with Stars and Stripes banners, pins and stickers…

Then came the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the day Tony became a foreigner again… He decided to push back. He sent Tony into permanent exile, taking back his given name. Now, a decade later, his name is a daily message to his fellow Americans: They must deal with him for who he is…

Like most American Muslims, Ismail, who is a buff and hale 50, is not particularly religious. He likes to listen to tapes of Koranic chants at night to relax. But in the past few years, he has struggled with the reality that some Americans take one look at him and think, “Hmm, is he really one of us?”…

Late at night, Ismail has a cup of chamomile tea with anise seed to try to get to sleep. It can be a struggle, just as it is for many of his Muslim friends. “I see them with their sleeping pills and antidepressants, and I know how hard it is,” he says. “I smoke because I’m stressed. Sometimes I wish I was born a Swede”…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: JEWISH MARC FISHER AND MUSLIMS:

Today, “The Washington Post” published a major story about Muslims in America. It covered more than half of its front page (with four medium-size photos) and two full pages inside (with five large and medium-size photos).

The title: “Tests of Faith.”

Some of the sub-titles: “under suspicion,” “in search of an American Islam,” “US Muslims … feel their follow citizens’ doubts,” and “… they face doubts of their own.”

I believe Fisher wrote an excellent professional piece. But, I felt the piece is harsh on the Muslims:

First, they face animosity and suspicion from the Americans (read: Christians and Jews). Religion is a very important factor here, but Fisher (a Jew) ignored it.

Second, the Muslims suffer from doubts in themselves (read: because of the doubts of the Christians and Jews about them).

The message is that the Muslims suffer twice because the Christians and the Jews doubt their intentions, loyalties and, yes, religion.

So, what is new?

The conflict between Islam and the West is centuries old, long before 9/11 attacks. But, Fisher wrote a “secular” piece about a very religious subject. It was as if he went to Iraq and interviewed its Christians as a “secular” minority.

I find the following interesting: C-SPAN’s Lamb interview of Fisher about Fisher’s years as “Washington Post” correspondent in Germany. I noticed that Fisher talked about the Germans’ suspicion of him because he is Jewish.

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NEWS: C-SPAN, 1995, INTERVIEW: MARC FISHER, AUTHOR OF “AFTR THE WALL” (OF BERLIN WALL):

LAMB: Did you ever get a sense that they were suspicious of you because you’re Jewish?
FISHER: I did. It was a question they asked me from time to time. Different government officials would ask me, “Are you Jewish?” In fact at one point, one of Chancellor Kohl’s aides approached a colleague of mine at a party and said, “Is Fisher Jewish?” And the friend said, “Yes, he is.” And the aide replied, “Ah, well, that explains everything,” as if somehow there was a connection there between my religion and the way in which I covered their country for the newspaper.

LAMB: You did talk about a Jewish cabal.
FISHER: There is within the German government a sense that they have been subject to undue criticism and attack by what they see as a Jewish cabal of columnists in this country. They refer to people like A.M. Rosenthal of The New York Times, William Safire of The New York Times, even Richard Cohen of The Washington Post, who, by my reading, has been very sympathetic to Germany over the years. But they somehow see this as not quite a conspiracy but an effort by Jewish columnists to be particularly critical of Germany, never cutting the Germans a break, always comparing the present day Germans with the Nazis…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: CHRISTIAN WEST ALWAYS CHRISTIAN

I was looking of editorials in “The New York Times” about the current demonstrations in Syria when I found the editorial below.

It was written in 1860.

It strongly supported the European countries plans to invade the Ottoman Empire to save the Christians in Syria (which now includes Syria and Lebanon, and the Christians have been mainly in Lebanon).

First, the campaign was called “intervention,” straightforward, not “operation freedom” or even “operation stability.”

Second, Russia allied with Britain and France to send troops because Orthodox Russia was concerned about the Orthodox among those Christians. Russia must have been very religious then, not like Russia today.

Third, Christian Holland had another excuse: its Consul in Syria was killed, most probably by Muslims.

Fourth, “This armament, contributed by nearly every Power in Europe for the protection of Syrian Christians, ought to be amply sufficient to accomplish its object.”

Fifth, “That design is not merely to punish the instigators, … but (also) to obtain some solid guarantee that the (instigation)… shall not again be repeated.” The same Western way of thinking towards the Muslims today: we will punish you, and you will not repeat what you did.

Sixth, “the sick man,” Sultan Abdulmajeed, was too weak to face the intervention. Later, the Christian Europe used the term “sick man of Europe” to describe the Muslim empire which they were more than eager to dismantle, even after they save the Christians of Syria.

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NEWS: AUGUST 16, 1860: EDITORIAL: “NEW YORK TIMES”

European Intervention in Syria.

We learn, by the Persia, that the representatives of the European Powers, lately assembled in Paris, have agreed upon the conditions of intervention in Syria. This intervention will doubtless be complete, and will fully attain the end in view. It is understood that, as soon as the Porte’s assent is obtained, 20,000 troops will be dispatched to the Levant. One half of this force will be French, and the other half Russian and English. A large fleet of British and French men-of-war have been for some time assembled at Beyrout; a Russian fleet, of which the General Admiral, built in this City, is the flag-ship, is already on its way thither; Spain will be also represented; and Holland, whose Consul was murdered at Damascus, has sent to Syria several vessels for the protection of its subjects.

This armament, contributed by nearly every Power in Europe for the protection of Syrian Christians, ought to be amply sufficient to accomplish its object. We can only hope that the work imposed upon it may be thoroughly and satisfactorily performed. It has been stipulated that the intervention shall last only as long as the Porte shall deem advisable; but this, we presume, is a mere empty compliment to ABDUL MEDJID. It is not likely that “the sick man” would attempt to remonstrate or to prevent Europe from accomplishing the design of the present expedition. That design is not merely to punish the instigators and abettors of the late outrages, but to obtain some solid guarantee that the scenes we have lately been called upon to record shall not again be repeated, and that the Christian inhabitants of Syria shall be able to live for the future in security and peace…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: THE JEWS: RACISM CONFERENCE

Three cheers for the Jews, particularly Washington Jewish leaders (WJL; my name and initials). They have been able to lobby the Congress, to put their money where their mouths are and to be faithful to their cause, which is mainly the support of Israel’s expansionist policies.

But, I strongly oppose this cause.

Since 1980, as a Washington, DC, full-time correspondent for major Arabic newspapers and magazines in the Middle East, I have been reporting, almost daily, on the WJL powerful influence.

But, from the beginning, I was told that it was not PC to label the Jews as such. But, after 9/11 attacks, the start of the so-called “war on terrorism,” the invasion of Iraq and the continuous occupation of Afghanistan, I have come to believe that the WJL have been strongly influencing the US policies towards the Muslim governments and the Muslims.

I have also come to believe that the WJL (politicians, columnist, and think tankers) have been the driving force behind labels like “extreme Muslims,” “radical Islam” and “jihadists.”

So, I asked myself: why don’t the Americans use “extreme Jews” and “radical Jews”? What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Of course, I will never use “radical Judaism” because I believe Judaism is embodied in Islam.

I have always been intrigued by the American media use of “neo-conservatives,” an apparent PC reference to the Jews, although there are non-Jews among them.

Now, here is a new news item:

The WJL pressured the US to boycott the UN-sponsored Third International Conference on Racism which will take place in New York in September. (Read below).

Why? Because the past conferences labeled – actually not exactly — Zionism as racism.

How about Obama, the first Black US president? Many Jews don’t like him.

Finally, nothing against Judaism and the Jews, but I strongly oppose the policies of the “extreme Jews” as embodied in this “success” of the WJL.

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NEWS: “JEWISH TELEGRAPH AGENCY”: JEWS LAUD US DECISION NOT TO ATTEND DURBAN III:

The American Jewish Committee lauded the Obama administration for its decision not to take part in the upcoming United Nations’ Commemoration of the Durban World Conference Against Racism, set to take place in September in New York.

The conference, referred to as “Durban 3″, is to mark the 10-year anniversary of the contentious 2001 conference in the South African city of Durban which was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery…

The U.S. and Israel walked out midway through the eight-day meeting over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism – the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state – to racism…

The AJC director called on other democratic countries to follow the United States’ and Canada’s (who has also said it will not participate in the UN sponsored conference) example and refuse to attend…

The Jewish leaders said that they would fully support the conference if it “truly addressed bigotry and xenophobia”, claiming that Durban 3 is little more than a “sham”…

The U.S. announcement that it would not be participating in Durban 3 came in a letter to Congress from Joseph E. Macmanus, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs. The letter stated that the U.S. will not participate because the Durban process “included ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism,” Macmanus wrote…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: JEWISH HUSBAND OF A MUSLIM

Another month, another sex scandal that involves the powerful and the famous. This one is more interesting: a Jewish husband of a Muslim.

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D) of New York who last year married Huma Abedin, a top assistant to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Abedin was born in the US to an Indian father and a Pakistani mother and spent many years with them in Saudi Arabia.

Weiner introduced to Congress in 2007 the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act, designed to “halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure full Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents…”

Weiner is considered a defender of Israel, and is a supporter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

Let us see whether the Muslim wife will stand by her Jewish husband. (Read below).

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NEWS: “CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR”: TWITTER SCANDAL

At 45,000 Twitter followers, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) of New York says that he just passed Congress’s reigning queen of the 140-character social media message, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota…

The downside is that, for the moment at least, Weiner is answering question after frenzied question about one particular tweet – a lewd picture from the waist down of a boxer-clad man, sent from his Twitter account to a young follower who is not his wife. He says he did not send it and has hired an outside firm to help find out how his Twitter account was hacked…

For Congress, which has embraced Twitter in the wake of President Obama‘s success with social media, it is a potentially sobering lesson…

The media hordes have been hard to miss. “I didn’t send this photograph,” Weiner told a scrum of reporters who converged on him just off the House floor. “I was tweeting about a hockey game at the time. I deleted it.”

Known for his edgy comments and fiery rhetoric, Weiner’s selective responses to media questioning has dialed up the pressure on him. “Maybe it will turn out that this is the point of Al Qaeda‘s sword,” he quipped about the mysterious origins of the tweet.

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: CHRISTIAN JIHADIST: CARDENAL OF NICARAGUA

In 1980, when I first came to Washington in my current job as a full-time correspondent for major Arabic newspapers and magazines in the Middle East, President Ronald Reagan was on his way to the White House to change America’s landscape: politically and economically. One of his targets was Russian’s “Evil Empire” and its allies all over the world, and particularly in Latin America and particularly in Nicaragua.

From those days, I remember Rev. Ernesto Cardenal, leader of the liberation theory movement in Nicaragua. Then, I mixed-up between his name and that he was a Catholic “cardinal” – until today when I read a piece about him. (Read below).

Now, “during these post-9/11 days,” is it possible to describe Cadenal as a Christian jihadist? Why not? He is a religious leader who believes that his faith calls upon him to fight for justice and to sacrifice by his time, money, efforts, family and life – he was jailed for many and long periods and was targeted for assassination.

Three cheers for Jihadist Cardenal as he came to visit America.

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NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: RADICAL BEATS GOES ON

Baltimore — “It was a beautiful revolution,” said Ernesto Cardenal (86)… “El Padre,” as friends call him, became a Catholic priest, championed Marxism and the Sandinistas and evolved into a pillar of the liberation theology movement… He defied a pope, conjured an artist’s utopia on a picturesque island in Lake Nicaragua and produced an astonishingly vast cascade of words in the form of poems and books…

On this day in Baltimore, Cardenal arrives to read to an audience of students and local lefties at Loyola University in sandals and a loose-fitting, collarless white shirt that he wears untucked…

Cardenal was born into an upper-crust family in the charming colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua, but he’s spent his life upending the establishment. In the 1950s, he fled Nicaragua after a failed coup d’etat and entered a Trappist monastery in Kentucky … He returned to Nicaragua, where he was ordained as a Catholic priest…

Years later, he would see his “beautiful revolution” up close, acting as a spokesman for the Sandinista National Liberation Front in the late 1970s as it waged war against and eventually toppled Dictator Anastasio Somoza…

In 1983, Cardenal became an international cause celebre when Pope John Paul II publicly admonished him during a visit to Managua. The photograph of the moment is unsettling. There is Cardenal, even then snowy-bearded, kneeling before the pope on the tarmac of the Managua airport. But rather than bestow blessings, the pope wags his finger at Cardenal, a rare gesture of condemnation. Cardenal’s defiance prompted a Vatican ban on him administering the sacraments, which he has made no attempt to overturn…

The clarity of the revolution, as is so often the case, gave way to the ambiguity of governance. Cardenal, who served as Nicaragua’s culture minister after the revolutionary triumph of 1979, eventually renounced the Sandinistas in 1994, having become disillusioned with the party’s course under the leftist leader and current Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega...

Now, with a poet’s gift for molding language, Cardenal calls Ortega’s reign a “robo-lucion,” inserting the Spanish word for robbery to decry what he claims is widespread corruption…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: THE JEWS AND THE KORAN

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the Congress, and was interrupted about 60 times with applauds and sometimes standing ovations.

What he basically said was that God Almighty gave the land of Israel (not the land of Palestine) to the Jews.

This is a new declared opinion by an Israeli Prime Minister – and all the Congress members stood up and applauded and some cheered.

Two points from the Koran:

1. Almost half of the Koran is, directly or indirectly, about the Jews; and most of it is negative.

2. the Koran, clearly and repeatedly, says that, yes, God was good to the Jews (“Bani Israel”). But, He became angry at them when they repeatedly broke their promises to Him to be good.

2. The Koran, clearly and repeatedly, calls upon the faithful (“almoominoon”) to be fighters (“mujahidoon”) against injustice, particularly foreign aggression. And promises those who die while fighting to be martyrs and to go to Heaven.

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NEWS: NETANYAHU’S ADDRESS TO THE CONGRESS (EXCERPTS):

… The peace agreements between Israel and Egypt and Israel and Jordan are vital, but they’re not enough. We must also find a way to forge a lasting peace with the Palestinians.

Two years ago, I publicly committed to a solution of two states for two peoples: a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state.

I’m willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historic peace. As the leader of Israel it’s my responsibility to lead my people to peace.

Now, this is not easy for me. It’s not easy…

… because I recognize that in a genuine peace, we’ll be required to give up parts of the ancestral Jewish homeland. And you have to understand this: In Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers.

We’re not the British in India. We’re not the Belgians in the Congo. This is the land of our forefathers, the land of Israel, to which Abraham brought the idea of one God, where David set out to confront Goliath, and where Isaiah saw a vision of eternal peace.

No distortion of history — and boy, is I reading a lot of distortions of history lately, old and new — no distortion of history could deny the 4,000-year-old bond between the Jewish people and the Jewish land.

But there is another truth: The Palestinians share this small land with us. We seek a peace…