Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (18391)	12/10/2002 4:01:39 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 23908

You don't need to be a Caucasian sexpot to travel to Israel --but it helps.... Knesset report: 3,000 women 'sold' by white slavers here every year NINA GILBERT Dec. 9, 2002 Some 3,000 women are brought into the country every year by white slavers to work in the billion-dollar-a-year sex industry, according to an interim report of the Knesset Committee of Inquiry into Trafficking in Women. The women, who are smuggled in from former East Bloc countries, are "sold" for some $3,000 to $6,000, the report says. It proposes that these crimes should have minimum prison sentences to deter the sex traders, who often jail, blackmail and enslave the women. As part of its work, the committee has drafted two bills, one banning trafficking in human beings and the other establishing a government authority to fight the problem. Chairwoman Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) said law enforcement agencies have made progress in cracking down on trafficking. However, she said that the legal system does not have the means to deter traffickers. "When traffickers get to court, they get lenient sentences," she said. As a result, under the bill, trafficking in human beings would have a minimum sentence of four years. Gal-On said the bill would be much wider than the present maximum sentence of 16 years for white slavers, and would also cover the realm of foreign labor. She said that some improvement has been made since July last year when Israel was included on the State Department's blacklist of countries whose laws don't meet US criteria for dealing with this crime and threatened economic sanctions. Most of the women are working in some 250 brothels in the Tel Aviv area. The total number of brothels in the country is estimated at 300 to 400. According to the information gathered by the committee, clients pay an average of NIS 120 to NIS 150, but the women keep only about NIS 100 to NIS 130. The women must use the money they earn to buy their freedom, the committee noted. The women work an average of 12 hours a day and six to seven days a week, and serve about 10 to 15 clients per day. Often, the women live in dismal conditions and sometimes they are physically abused or live in fear of their pimps. News agencies contributed to this report. jpost.com

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (18391)	12/10/2002 7:18:33 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23908

Palestine, again December 10, 2002 Israel is still committed to a two-state solution for peace in the Mideast, said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Despite two years of intense terrorism against Israeli civilians by the Palestinian Authority, Jerusalem is still willing to reward the violence and participate in the creation of yet another Arab police state in the Mideast – probably under the direction of the bloodthirsty, would-be tyrant and friend of Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat. Will they ever learn? Worse yet, this capitulation by Sharon comes under pressure from the United States, which claims to be fighting a war on terrorism. Maybe it's time for a little review of history. Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella group under which many Arab terrorist groups united, was classified as a terrorist organization from its inception in 1964 until 1993. Magically, following the Oslo Accords, in which Arafat theoretically renounced terrorism, he and his group become non-terrorists. They got a full pardon, a clean slate, they were bestowed political "grace" – or unmerited favor. It was truly unmerited. Arafat may have mumbled some magical words, but he did not stop his terrorist campaign. In fact, a study conducted by my friend Rachel Ehrenfeld showed Arafat used the public relations coup of 1993 to launch a whole new career as a drug trafficker, arms smuggler, money launderer and counterfeiter to help amass a fortune estimated by the British National Criminal Intelligence Services nearly 10 years ago at $10 billion. You might think a fortune like that would lead to moderation. But, Arafat has every incentive to maintain his terrorist and criminal escapades. After the first year of the 2-year-old uprising utilizing suicide bombings and other terrorist tactics against Israel, the Palestinian Authority's annual revenues from donations jumped 80 percent – from $555 million to more than $1 billion. Not surprising Arafat has provided the inspiration and financial model for terrorist groups all over the world – including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Arafat's PA has survived and flourished since 1993 based on two sources of revenue, reports Ehrenfeld: international donors such as the European Union, the Arab states and the United States; and criminal enterprises. Want to know how much of your taxpayer money goes to fund Arafat? You better sit down. The U.S. has given $548.7 million in direct aid to the PA, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. But the total sum, according to Ehrenfeld's study, is actually $1.1 billion. The European Union is even crazier than Washington. Altogether, in loans and aid, the EU has provided $2.52 billion to the PA. Then there's the U.N., which provided $521.7 million just this year, about 30 percent of which came from the U.S. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Arafat has taken these "investments" from the West and put them to work in criminal enterprises to create new revenue streams. The PA oversees massive counterfeiting of CDs, DVDs, clothing, cosmetics and schoolbooks. The PA oversees the counterfeiting of Israeli, Jordanian and Kuwaiti currency. The PA shakes down ordinary citizens for tribute through kidnappings, extortion, even phony traffic violations. Stealing cars from Israel is rampant in PA territory, and the government runs the relicensing of those cars. Then there's the drug-running, arms-smuggling, etc. It all adds hundreds of millions to the phantom PA budget. Where does all this money go? Israeli government estimates say about $1.3 billion went directly into the pockets of Yasser Arafat. So, not only is this man a murdering terrorist, he's a thief. Not only is he a liar, he's a con artist. Not only does he victimize Israelis, he victimizes his own people. Yet, Israel continues to travel down this dead-end "road to peace." And the United States and Europe, unable to admit their mistakes, keep applying the pressure to continue this business-as-usual approach to Mideast policy. It's time to call the PA what it is – a terrorist, criminal enterprise. It's time to cut off the donations. It's time to seize the assets. It's time to declare war on it as a terrorist entity. It's time to free the people under its grip like we're about to free the people of Iraq. worldnetdaily.com