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The Israeli Security Zone in southern Lebanon was a strip of territory of varying width, 5 to 25 km (3 to 16 mi), from the Israeli border and the Golan Heights, occupied by Israeli forces from 1985 to 2000. Additional regions controlled by the South Lebanon Army are sometimes included under the term. The stated purpose of this zone was to put Israel's border towns out of range of small arms and mortar fire.

Formation[link]

Following the Israeli Government's 1985 decision to pull back its positions in Lebanon, thus seemingly ending Operation Peace in Galilee (or the 1982 Lebanon War), a follow-up decision ordered the Israeli Defense Force to maintain a buffer zone inside Lebanon. A jointly patrolled zone formed part of a tentative agreement, never ratified, between Israel and Lebanon in 1983.

A small contingent of IDF units were left to patrol the Security Zone in order to prevent infiltration into Northern Israel, and to provide a deterrent force against any attempt by Palestinian or other militia groups to fire longer range weapons into Israel proper.

Over the following decade, the IDF expanded and institutionalized its presence in the Security Zone as commanders on the ground established better fortified posts and more troops. This presence was a direct response to the rise of Hezbollah (or Party of God) as a serious political force throughout Lebanon and a potent guerrilla army in the south.^{[citation needed]}

Conflict[link]

Hezbollah fighters engaged in steady low-level confrontations with the IDF. Operations included attacks on convoys and routine patrols; placement of roadside bombs and remote control activated devices; occasional attempts to storm IDF outposts (most famously the attack on the D'lat outpost, in which a Hezbollah fighter succeeded in breaching the walls of the outpost and planting a Hezbollah flag before the attack was repelled); launching ground-to-ground missiles, particularly AT-3 Sagger missiles at IDF tanks and outposts; and occasional shelling of Israeli border towns with Katyusha rockets.

Over the course of the conflict a set of unwritten but widely recognized "Rules of Engagement" developed between the sides. It was broadly understood that any Israeli killing of a Lebanese civilians in pro-active anti-Hezbollah operations would be met with a Katyusha barrage on the northern towns of Israel. It was understood that Katyusha fire would be met with proportional if unequal responses, including the use of IDF war planes and heavy artillery. Both sides also captured and exchanged prisoners.

Strategically, the conflict was a long-standing stalemate. Hezbollah was unable to inflict sufficient damage on either the IDF presence in Lebanon or on the quality of life in Israel's northern towns to force Israeli concessions. Israel was unwilling to either expand its control of Lebanon or to take the war to those countries that armed, funded and trained Hezbollah.

By the late 1990s a change in the political dynamic of the conflict was becoming more apparent. While Israel was strategically able to sustain its losses (normally around two to three soldiers killed each month), the will of the Israeli public to accept what were seen as pointless deaths began to fade. The security zone eventually failed to provide security as Hezbollah teams could still fire rockets into Northern Israel. With each loss, Hezbollah assumed ever more heroic proportions in the eyes of the Lebanese public and the rest of the Arab world as one of the first Arab armed forces to ever successfully match swords with the Jewish State. Through constant low-level combat, Hezbollah became an ever more effective and better trained force.

A number of other questionable activities occurred within the zone. For example, Israel cooperated with right-wing American Christian personality Pat Robertson in setting up a television network inside the security zone called Middle East Television that broadcast Christian religious programming to both Lebanon and northern Israel. The security zone also played host to the so-called Government of Free Lebanon which claimed to be the true government of Lebanon. Also in the security zone, Lebanese militias ran prisons with very bad reputations and conscripted the local population. While Israel ran the zone, it said it had no control over the actions of Lebanese militias within the zone.

Change in Israeli mood[link]

In February 1997, two Israeli military helicopters ferrying troops into the Security Zone collided, killing over 70 soldiers on board. (See 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster.) The event sparked days of national mourning. Out of this trauma, a number of women living on the northern border with sons serving in Lebanon came together and drafted an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling on him to bring the boys home. The women's letter would, over the coming weeks, evolve into The Four Mothers Movement.

Within days of the letter being published in the nation's newspapers, hundreds of people around the country, mainly mothers, were openly expressing their solidarity with the view expressed by the Four Mothers. While the issue of withdrawal from Lebanon had long been taboo in mainstream political circles, the Four Mothers appeal to core Israeli values opened up a flood gate of pent up frustration.

Over the course of the coming two years, the Movement grew from its original core band to a national organization with several hundred active members. The Four Mothers held protests, sponsored advertisements in newspapers, and, perhaps most effectively, held vigils outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv the day after an IDF soldier was killed in Lebanon.

The persistence of the movement sparked a national re-evaluation of the policy guiding Israel's continued presence in the Security Zone. Polls quickly began to shift. By the time the 1999 election rolled around, a majority of Israelis now supported unilateral withdrawal from the Security Zone.

Recognizing the shift in public sentiment, Ehud Barak, the Labor Party's candidate for Prime Minister, announced that if elected he would move to bring the IDF back to the blue line.

Withdrawal[link]

Barak was elected in a landslide. The IDF announced that it would hand over the security zone to the South Lebanon Army by July 2000. As the IDF started to hand positions in the security zone over to the South Lebanon Army, the Lebanese militia forces suddenly surrendered. The first to surrender were Shite Muslim units conscripted from the security zone. A day later, the majority of the SLA positions had collapsed. The IDF then began to withdraw from the zone under fire from Hezbollah. Over the course of two days in May 2000, the IDF fully withdrew from the Security Zone. The following month, the UN confirmed that Israel's force deployment was now entirely consistent with the various security council resolutions with regard to Lebanon.

See also[link]

• 1982-2000 South Lebanon conflict
• South Lebanon Army

David Ha'ivri

David Ha'ivri (Hebrew: דוד העברי‎ born in New York, USA in 1967) is an Israeli settler and political activist. He emigrated with his family from the United States to Israel at the age of 11 and served in the IDF. Ha'ivri lives with his wife and eight children in Kfar Tapuach in Samaria.^[1] He is a controversial leader, writer and speaker.^[2]

Documentary films[link]

David Ha'ivri has been featured in a number of documentary films dealing with issues that he is involved in. Canadian producer Igal Hecht of Chutzpa Productions film 35 Acres explores the issue of the Temple Mount the most contentious piece of real estate on the face of the Earth.^[3] Holy for both Jews and Muslims the Temple Mount, is one of the most volatile areas in Jerusalem. Many say that those who control it, control the entire land. This film shows both Palestinians and Israelis whose entire lives revolve around that area. Ha'ivri has been involved in the Jewish side of this story for over 25 years.^[4] Ha'ivri has also been interviewed by major media outlets BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera and others.

Present[link]

Shomron Liaison Office[link]

Ha'ivri is director of the Shomron Liaison Office.^[5] An NGO that works closely with the local government^[6] promoting public relations for the towns of the region. In this capacity he serves as English Language Spokesman interacting with all foreign language journalist. The Shomron Liaison Office under his direction has developed partnership and penpal programs connecting school children in the Shomron with their peers around the world. He frequently travels around the world^[7] speaking to a wide range of groups and well as hosting tours in the Shomron.^[8][9][10] As a spokesman ^[11] for the Shomron Regional Council, Ha'ivri interacts with international media, foreign government representatives and philanthropists. He serves as strategic adviser to Regional Council head Gershon Mesika on international affairs.^{[citation needed]}

Empowering local activists and spokespeople[link]

In 2009 Ha'ivri conducted professional training for 30 spokespeople from a wide range of settlements in the Shomron region aimed at improving their abilities to express themselves in English and so to improve the general public relations of the settlers in the area. He contracted Ron Bowman Director of Dale Carnegie Training in Israel provide a 13 week course for the local activists.^[12]

Student volunteer programs[link]

He organizes student volunteer programs in the Jewish communities in the Shomron (settlements). In these programs American youth are introduced to aspects of planting and building. They are offered an opportunity to take part in the actual expansion of the Jewish growth there.^[13]

UN Settlement Prize[link]

In August 2009 Ha'ivri advocated that the United Nations award the Jewish settlements in the West Bank an international prize for settlement activity.^[14] The annual prize, the Habitat Scroll of Honor, is handed out annually to acknowledge "outstanding contributions in developing and improving settlements and the quality of urban life."^{[15][citation needed]}

Connecting with American Zionists[link]

Ha'ivri has developed a number of programs aimed and establishing a connection for the settlements in the West Bank with Jewish communities and supporters around the world. One of those programs is the Purim package distribution to IDF soldiers in cooperation with the Zionist Organization of America. Thousands of gift packages are packaged by students in schools in the Shomron and then distributed it soldiers throughout the region and the whole country.^[16][17] Another project devised by Ha'ivri is twinning schools in Shomron with school children in the Jewish communities outside of Israel. The project is implemented by the Israel Connect program.^[18]

Political activism[link]

As a youth Ha'ivri became involved with rabbi Meir Kahane's Kach and was already active in the 1984 election that saw Kahane elected to Knesset^[19] and was a close with the rabbi's son Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane. The Kach party was banned from running in the 1988 Knesset elections and since has been added to terrorist watch lists by Israel, Canada^[20] and the United States.^[21] On July 5, 2010 New York Times article American officials were quoted saying that Ha'ivri himself is not on the terror watch list.^[11]

Jail term and legal battles[link]

Ha'ivri has had several disputes with the Israeli government. He was notably arrested for celebrating the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in a television interview and served six month jail time in connection with the desecration of a mosque.^[22] However, in an interview with the New York Times newspaper, Mr. Ha'Ivri said he no longer engaged in such activism, adding that, at 43, he had mellowed, even if his core convictions had not. "I’m a little older now, a little more mature," he said.^[22]

In 2001 Israeli Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein ruled that the slogan publicized by far-right activists, "No Arabs, no terror," constitutes incitement to racism and offence especially to the 20% of Arabs who have Israeli citizenship. Rubinstein handed his ruling to the police to investigate as a result in Jan. 2005 the Jerusalem Magistrate's court sentenced Ha'ivri to four months of community service for distributing the t-shirts.^[23]

Kfar Tapuach[link]

In the late 1980s, he formed a group of Rabbi Kahane's students at the Yeshivat HaRaayon HaYehudi, which later moved to the town of Kfar Tapuach. After Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane's assassination in December 2000, Ha'ivri took on responsibility for his bi-weekly publication, Darka Shel Torah and HaMeir L'David, a publishing group which prints and distributes the works of Rabbi Meir Kahane and Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane.^[24] Ha'ivri has been active in leadership of the town and has served as the town mayor, head of security and youth director. Organizing educational and social activity while also offering aid to At Risk Teen and developing programs for them in the Shomron region (West Bank). He has published articles on these issues.^{[25][citation needed]}

2005 Gaza pullout[link]

In the time leading up to the 2005 Gaza Disengagement, Ha'ivri together with Yisrael Meir Cohen founded Revava (Hebrew: רבבה‎ means ten thousand), an organization which initially aimed at preventing the Gaza expulsion by encouraging nationwide protests to tie up the Israeli security forces. Based on a play on words and on the concept that ten thousand activists could actually stop the Israeli pullout from Gaza and North of Shomron. As a toll to promote his ideas and tactics to oppose the disengagement plan Ha'ivri developed a monopoly type board game called Revava - Changing the rules of the game.^{[26][citation needed]}

Temple Mount[link]

In 2005 Ha'ivri headed a campaign calling for 10,000 Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount the holiest place to the Jewish people and the most explosive location in the world.^[27] Later he published Reclaiming the Temple Mount,^[28] a book on these events and the history of the site.

Ideology[link]

Annexing the West Bank[link]

He advocates that all territory controlled by the Israeli government and army between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River rightfully belongs to the Jewish people and should be officially annexed by the State of Israel and that the non Jewish population need to accept the Israel authority and be loyal to the State.^[29] And for those Arabs unwilling to integrate into Israeli society he offers a 22 State solution ...Palestinians could and should live in any of the other Arab states, rather than Israel. “Non-Jews who are willing to be loyal to the State of Israel … can live in Israel. But if they intend to be disloyal to the country, then they need to find other places to live and there are plenty [of those],” he said.^[30]

Periodically Ha'ivri goes on tour speaking on behalf of the settlements. In reply to US President Barack Obama's pressure on Israel to stop Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank “We are frustrated by the Chutzpah (audacity) of Obama and other world leaders to intervene and tell Israel what to do. The only country in the world where the international leaders can legitimately suggest ethnic cleansing is Israel. Anywhere else there would be an outcry.” He believes that Israel should annex all areas it has controlled since the 1967 war and that Jews should be allowed to settle all parts of those lands. “Judea and Samaria are wrongly called ’settlements.’ Yet the West Bank is actually the West Bank of the Jordan River. All of Israel is the West Bank. Both sides of the Jordan River belong to the Jewish people. That was the British Mandate. The British reneged and created TransJordan east of the river.”^[31]

Joseph's tomb[link]

Ha'ivri is active in a campaign to restore Joseph's tomb in Shechem (Nablus) - a site holy to Christians, Muslims, and Jewish populations in the region.^[32] The site was overrun and demolished by Arab rioters in October 2000 during clashes between IDF forces during the al-Aqsa Intifada. He calls on the Israeli government to retake the site and allow Jewish settlers to rebuild the yeshiva that once occupied the site. He has been involved in organizing monthly visits for Jewish worshipers in cooperation with the local IDF command.^[33]

References[link]

1. ^ Ha'ivri Bio on Shomron website
2. ^ Articles by David Ha'ivri
3. ^ 35 Acres
4. ^ [1] Chutzpa Productions Website]
5. ^ Shomron Liaison Office Website
6. ^ Shomron Regional Council Website
7. ^ The Australian Jewish News 2 Nov. 2009
8. ^ An outpost carved in bedrock Jerusalem Post
9. ^ World Net Daily
10. ^ Jerusalem Post Jul. 1, 2009
11. ^ ^{a b} New York Times July 5, 2010
12. ^ Jerusalem Post Feb. 10, 2010
13. ^ The Jerusalem Post
14. ^ http://imeu.net/news/article0017149.shtml
15. ^ Scroll of Honor
16. ^ ZOA Purim report
17. ^ Jerusalem Post TV report
18. ^ Jerusalem Post report
19. ^ Knesset Website
20. ^ Canada Public Safety website
21. ^ U.S. Dept. of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2004. April 2005
22. ^ ^{a b} Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank
23. ^ Prof. Paul Eidelberg The David Ha'ivri case
24. ^ http://kahanebooks.com/
25. ^ Why does Naftali live in the Street
26. ^ The IsraPost
27. ^ Haaretz 7 Apr. 2005
28. ^ ISBN 965-90509-6-8
29. ^ The Age October 24, 2009
30. ^ The Australian Jewish News 2 Nov. 2009
31. ^ The Australian Jewish News
32. ^ Activist Wants Joseph's Tomb Rebuilt The Jewish Press Jan. 28, 2009
33. ^ The Jerusalem Post

‎

Brigitte Gabriel (a.k.a. Nour Saman, born October 21, 1964), is the pseudonym of a Lebanese American journalist, author, and activist.^[1][2] Gabriel says that Islam keeps countries backward,^[3][4] and that it teaches terrorism.^[5][6][7] To promote her views, she founded the American Congress For Truth and ACT! for America so that others may "fearlessly speak out in defense of America, Israel and Western civilization."^[8]

She frequently speaks at American conservative-leaning organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, Christians United for Israel, Evangelicals and Jewish groups.^[9]

Stephen Lee, a publicist at St. Martins Press for Gabriel’s second book, has called her views "extreme".^[10] Gabriel claims she gives voice to "what many in America are thinking but afraid to say out loud, for fear of being labeled a racist, bigot, Islamophobic, or intolerant."^[9]

Early life[link]

Brigitte Gabriel was born in the Marjayoun District of Lebanon to a Maronite Christian family when her mother was fifty-five and her father was sixty as their first and only child after over twenty years of marriage.^[11] She recalls that during the Lebanese Civil War, Islamic militants launched an assault on a Lebanese military base near her family's house and destroyed her home. Gabriel, who was ten years old at the time, was injured by shrapnel in the attack.^[12] She and her parents were forced to live underground in all that remained, an 8'x10' bomb shelter for seven years, with only a small kerosene heater, no sanitary systems, no electricity or running water, and little food. She says she had to crawl in a roadside ditch to a spring for water to evade Muslim snipers.^[13][14]

At one point in the spring of 1978, a bomb explosion caused her and her parents to become trapped in the shelter for two days.^[15] They were eventually rescued by three Christian militia fighters.,^[16] one of whom befriended Gabriel but was later killed by a land mine.^[17]

Gabriel says that in 1978 a stranger warned her family of an impending attack by the Islamic militias on all Christians. She says that her life was saved when the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in Operation Litani. Later, when her mother was seriously injured and taken to an Israeli hospital, Gabriel was surprised by the humanity shown by the Israelis, in contrast to the constant propaganda against the Jews she saw as a child.^[18] She says of the experience:

"I was amazed that the Israelis were providing medical treatment to Palestinian and Muslim gunmen...These Palestinians and Muslims were sworn, mortal enemies, dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of Jews. Yet, Israeli doctors and nurses worked feverishly to save their lives. Each patient was treated solely according to the nature of his or her injury. The doctor treated my mother before he treated an Israeli soldier lying next to her because her injury was more severe than his. The Israelis did not see religion, political affiliation, or nationality. They saw only people in need, and they helped."^[19]

Critics of Gabriel claim that she over-simplifies the conflict in South Lebanon as a Muslim war against the Christians.^[20][21] An article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly claims that Gabriel's former neighbors in Marjayoun, who are not identified or quoted, recall that her family, like others in the village, were forced to spend occasional nights in their shelter or basement, but otherwise lived relatively normally.^[20] The same article accused Gabriel of incorrectly telling audiences that Hezbollah had terrorized her family for the seven years between 1975 and 1982, though the author did not name the time or place in which she allegedly made this claim.^[20] Another Arab newspaper admitted that she had lived in a bomb shelter for years, but asserted that it was for three rather than seven.^[21]

Education[link]

Graduating from high school, Gabriel then completed a one-year business administration course at a YWCA in 1984.^[22]

Career[link]

Using the name Nour Saman, Gabriel was a news anchor for World News, an Arabic-language evening news broadcast of Middle East Television, a Marjayoun-based station run by the now defunct SLA and funded by Israel.^[23] Broadcast in Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, Gabriel covered the Israeli withdrawal from central Lebanon, the Israeli Security Zone (occupied South Lebanon), and the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza. She moved to Israel^[20] before immigrating in 1989 to the United States, where she founded a television production, marketing and advertising agency.^[24]

According to the Center for International Policy (CIP), Gabriel, "has made a post-9/11 career out of roundly denouncing Islam, decrying 'political correctness,' and promoting the concept of an existential clash of cultures.^[25] States the CIP, "Her pro-Israel, anti-Islam spiel, coupled with her compelling personal history, has made her a popular speaker, writer, and general 'expert.' She appears sometimes as a commentator on television news and radio programs, often speaking out for the rights of Muslim women."^[25]

[edit] ACT! For America and American Congress for Truth

Gabriel is the founder of ACT! for America, a non-profit issues advocacy organization. ACT! for America has hundreds of chapters across America and members in 20 countries outside of America. She is also the founder of American Congress for Truth, a non-profit organization which denounces Islamic fundamentalism.^[24]

Other affiliations[link]

Gabriel is also a member of the Board of Advisors of The Intelligence Summit and lectures nationally and internationally on Global Terrorism. She has addressed former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, Members of the U.S. Congress, The Joint Forces Staff College, The United States Special Operations Command, the FBI and members of the House of Commons in London.^[24]

Gabriel is listed as a member of the Hasbara Fellowship Speakers Bureau, a pro-Israeli advocacy group, on their website;^[26] but has denied being a member of that organization.

Authorship[link]

Gabriel is the author of two books: Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America, and They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. She is a regular guest analyst on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC and various radio stations daily across America.^[24]

[edit] Because They Hate

In her first book Gabriel discusses her experiences as a Maronite (Eastern Catholic) Christian living in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1970s.^[27] She describes the story of her family and her childhood, hiding in a bomb shelter. She details her opinions that her country's inherent multicultural acceptance of all faiths and cultures including the then dominant Lebanese Christian phalangists, led to Lebanon's ruin by the continuous attacks from indigenous Muslims, other Christian groups and migrant Palestinians.^[28]

Gabriel comments that "anyone who voices his or her opinion contrary to 'politically correct think' is immediately tagged a "racist" or "bigot" and that this has resulted in a "social paranoia which discourages free thought and expression."^[29] Moreover, she states that societies and cultures must be held accountable for their actions and that "by not judging others... we have helped create the monsters we are dealing with today."^[30]

The book made The New York Times hardcover best seller list.^[31] According to the introduction of the 2008 edition of Because They Hate, the book was put on the reading list at the FBI Academy and was assigned as mandatory reading for Navy SEALs heading to the Middle East.^[32]

[edit] They Must Be Stopped

"We, as infidels in the eyes of our enemy, need to understand the danger we face: A totalitarian ideology — whether its origin is mainstream or marginal — threatens to enslave, dominate, and murder us in order to realize its vision for global conquest."^[33]

Viewpoints[link]

Opinions on Islam[link]

Gabriel is critical of Islam and believes that "the degraded state of Arab societies is caused by Islam",^[3] and that Arab Muslims are "lagging behind" because of social and religious values.^[4] She considers "Islamic terrorists" simply as devout followers of Islam,^[7] following an example set by Muhammad's behavior.^[5][6] According to the New York Times, she portrays Islam as "thoroughly bent on destruction and domination" and her message is anti-Islam.^[1]

Deborah Solomon of the New York Times Magazine, who interviewed Gabriel in August 2008, described her as a "radical Islamophobe."^[35]

Gabriel is critical of Americans who "find all sorts of things wrong with America", who "badmouth and put down our culture, government, and country", while having "never experienced life in an oppressive culture or under an oppressive leadership such as is found in the Middle East."^[34] She believes that Americans should "acknowledge that our Western culture is.. better than others."^[30]

In viewing America as "a powerful and great nation" possessing "superior.. culture and values", Gabriel sees the entitlements that American Western culture has bestowed through "the Judeo-Christian value system" and the ideals of the Founding Fathers, who "worked to establish rights for the individual, rights that did not exist under other forms of government at that time."^[36]

According to Gabriel, since Radical Islam views the destruction of Israel alongside the United States as "a parallel strategic objective",^[37] she therefore sees the survival of Israel as being of paramount importance as a vanguard of Western culture and as "the only Western-style nation in the Middle East, one that Arabs despise, feel threatened by, and vow to destroy."^[36]

In a symposium held in January 2009 titled "Homegrown Jihadis" by FrontPage Magazine, she stated Islam itself "promotes intolerance and violence", and that "Moderate Muslims must organize and engage those enlightened, educated and westernized Muslims in the community to begin a dialogue to discuss the possibility of reform in Islam just as Christianity and Judaism have been reformed."^[38]

Arab-Israeli conflict[link]

Gabriel views the Arab-Israeli conflict as being "intractable because the Arab world refuses to accept the right of a Jewish state to exist." This animosity, having once been rooted in Pan-Arabism has evolved, according to Gabriel, into the more sinister spectre of "radical Islamic supremacism" which now appears to seek "bigger game in the West." She cites examples such as the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the rise of Hamas as bringing to the forefront radical Islamic ideologies that are rooted in "religious hatred, humiliation, and resentment" of Israel and the West.^[39]

Gabriel believes this can be seen in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict where, in her view, Palestinian nationalism has largely been replaced by "holy obligation" motivating adherents to commit "terrorist murder."^[40] She states that the legitimization of Palestinian suicide attacks within Israel has now evolved to where, "Islamists believe that they may commit mass murder anywhere in the world to advance their holy cause." As a result, she believes the world now suffers "from a plague of Islamic terrorism... authored and perfected by the Palestinians."^[41]

With regard to the two-state solution, Gabriel states: "Forcing Israel to accept a two-state solution is not going to work unless the Palestinians first are forced to clean up their act and eliminate hatred from their schoolbooks, teach tolerance to their people, and preach acceptance of Israel and the Jews as a neighbor."^[42]

Controversy at speaking engagements[link]

When Gabriel was invited to speak as part of a lecture series organized by Duke University's Jewish community in October 2004, many in attendance were angered by her referring to Arabs as "barbarians." The Freeman Centre for Jewish Life at Duke University later apologized for her comments.^[20] Following her speech at women's campaign event for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa (JFO) in November 2008, many in attendance registered their protests, leading Mitchell Bellman, president and CEO of the JFO, to write a letter in which he acknowledged that Gabriel made, "unacceptable gross generalizations of Arabs and Muslims," distancing his organization from her views.^[35]

In 2007 at the Christians United For Israel annual conference, Gabriel delivered the following speech:

The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arab world is the difference between civilization and barbarism. It's the difference between good and evil [applause].... this is what we're witnessing in the Arabic world, They have no soul, they are dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call "Allah" which is very different from the God we believe....[applause] because our God is the God of love.

—Christians United For Israel annual conference 2007^[43]

This speech was subsequently criticised by journalist Bruce Wilson as being "hate speech" and stated that Brigitte Gabriel "paints a wide swath of humanity as subhuman", comparing her to Goebbel's Reich.^[43]

In March 2011 while being interviewed by Eliot Spitzer on CNN, Gabriel defended the speech stating:

I was talking about how Palestinian mothers are encouraging their children to go out and blow themselves up to smithereens just to kill Christians and Jews. And it was in that context that I - that I contrasted the difference between Israel and the Arabic world, was the difference between democracy and barbarism.^[44]

She further added:

How easily journalists, or people and comments especially now with the Internet age, can take few words and either paste them together or edit them together to basically express their own point of view.^[44]

See also[link]

	United States portal
	Biography portal
	Islam portal

• Criticism of Islam
• Radical Islam
• American exceptionalism
• Judeo-Christian values
• Wafa Sultan
• Walid Shoebat
• Nonie Darwish
• Robert Spencer
• Walid Phares
• Pamela Geller

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

• American Congress For Truth website
• Presentation to the Heritage Foundation
• "Polarized points of view", National Post
• Brigitte Gabriel's article about her lecture in Memphis: Muslims Muzzling Memphis

Video[link]

• Because They Hate presentation to Heritage Foundation