Saturday, November 14, 2009
VideoBite: Krauthammer takes on Obama's 9-11 trial decision
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a 2009 photoVideo of Charles Krauthammer on Obama's decision to give Sheikh Mohammed a criminal trial
NYC trial of 9/11 suspects -Delvin Barrett
In a move both politically and legally risky, the Obama administration plans to put on trial the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and four alleged accomplices in a lower Manhattan courthouse.
Held at Guantanamo since September 2006, [Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed said in military proceedings there that he wanted to plead guilty and be executed to achieve martyrdom. In a letter from him released by the war crimes court, he referred to the attacks as a "noble victory."
[Associated Press]
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Friday, November 13, 2009
Cartoon Bites Iran
For a larger view, click on the image above Understanding How Iran Negotiates -Emily Landau
[O]ver the past seven years we've seen Iran agree, then disagree, then agree a little bit, then reject again, then say more time is needed to consider, then finally present a counter-proposal, then say it wants cooperation, then say it will never give up on its rights.
[T]he Iranians never took cooperation so far that it diverted them from their overall goal in the nuclear realm.
Iran knows that when armed with a military nuclear capability it will be much better positioned to get a better deal from the international community. Iran's rational interest is to put off any real negotiation until it has reached [nuclear] capability.
(bitterlemons-international.org)
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
VideoBite: Major Hasan's radical ties
CBS News video highlighting Major Hasan's radical ties
A cartoon is worth a thousand words
Click image for larger view
The Rush to Therapy -David Brooks
[M]any Americans had an understandable reaction. They didn’t want the horror to become a pretext for anti-Muslim bigotry. The possibility of Islamic extremism was immediately played down. This was an isolated personal breakdown, not an ideological assault, many people emphasized. Major Hasan was portrayed as a disturbed individual who was under a lot of stress.
A shroud of political correctness settled over the conversation. Hasan was portrayed as a victim of society, a poor soul who was pushed over the edge by prejudice and unhappiness. There was a national rush to therapy. Hasan was a loner who had trouble finding a wife and socializing with his neighbors.
The conversation was a willful flight from reality. It ignored the fact that the war narrative can be embraced by a self-radicalizing individual in the U.S. as much as by groups in Tehran, Gaza or Kandahar.
It denied, before the evidence was in, the possibility of evil. It sought to reduce a heinous act to social maladjustment. It wasn’t the reaction of a morally or politically serious nation.
[New York Times]
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Pretend Play: when will we stop playing?
Stop Pretending that Iran Might Compromise -Editorial
The single greatest threat to peace and stability in the world is Iran's headlong rush to gain nuclear weapons to cow their Mideast neighbors, export Shiite fundamentalism and obliterate Israel.
At what point will the world take "no" for an answer?
(New York Daily News)
Iran's "Great Satan" Addiction -David Ignatius
It has been more than a month since what was touted as a breakthrough meeting with the Iranians in Geneva over their nuclear program.
[T]he Iranians now seem to be backpedaling - disavowing the tentative agreement that their own negotiators had signaled they supported. A Stanford professor, Abbas Milani, who closely follows events in Iran, says: "They clearly want to back out of the deal."
(Washington Post)
*
The single greatest threat to peace and stability in the world is Iran's headlong rush to gain nuclear weapons to cow their Mideast neighbors, export Shiite fundamentalism and obliterate Israel.
At what point will the world take "no" for an answer?
(New York Daily News)
Iran's "Great Satan" Addiction -David Ignatius
It has been more than a month since what was touted as a breakthrough meeting with the Iranians in Geneva over their nuclear program.
[T]he Iranians now seem to be backpedaling - disavowing the tentative agreement that their own negotiators had signaled they supported. A Stanford professor, Abbas Milani, who closely follows events in Iran, says: "They clearly want to back out of the deal."
(Washington Post)
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Abbas: 'moderate' or rejectionist
Abbas Hardens PA Position over Talks -Steven J. Rosen
It is a matter of record that Mahmoud Abbas [pictured] participated in 18 years of direct negotiations with seven Israeli governments, all without the settlements freeze that he now insists is an absolute precondition to begin even low-level talks.
(Foreign Policy)
*
It is a matter of record that Mahmoud Abbas [pictured] participated in 18 years of direct negotiations with seven Israeli governments, all without the settlements freeze that he now insists is an absolute precondition to begin even low-level talks.
(Foreign Policy)
*
Monday, November 09, 2009
Ft. Hood attack: Sudden Jihad Syndrome
Sudden Jihad or "Inordinate Stress" at Ft. Hood? -Daniel Pipes
When a Muslim in the West for no apparent reason violently attacks non-Muslims, a predictable argument ensues about motives.
[L]aw enforcement, politicians, the media, and the academy – stands on one side of this debate, insisting that some kind of oppression caused Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, to kill 13 and wound 38 at Ft. Hood.
It disagrees on the specifics, however, presenting Hasan as the victim alternatively of "racism," "harassment he had received as a Muslim," a sense of not belonging," "pre-traumatic stress disorder," "mental problems," "emotional problems," "an inordinate amount of stress," or being deployed to Afghanistan as his "worst nightmare." Accordingly, a typical newspaper headline reads "Mindset of Rogue Major a Mystery."
Instances of Muslim-on-unbeliever violence inspire the victim school to dig up new and imaginative excuses. Colorful examples include:
*1990: "A prescription drug for … depression" (to explain the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane)
*1991: "A robbery gone wrong" (the murder of Makin Morcos in Sydney)
*1994: "Road rage" (the killing of a random Jew on the Brooklyn Bridge)
*1997: "Many, many enemies in his mind" (the shooting murder atop the Empire State Building)
*2000: A traffic incident (the attack on a bus of Jewish schoolchildren near Paris)
*2002: "A work dispute" (the double murder at LAX)
*2002: A "stormy [family] relationship" (the Beltway snipers)
*2003: An "attitude problem" (Hasan Karim Akbar's attack on fellow soldiers, killing two)
*2003: Mental illness (the mutilation murder of Sebastian Sellam)
*2004: "Loneliness and depression" (an explosion in Brescia, Italy outside a McDonald's restaurant)
*2005: "A disagreement between the suspect and another staff member" (a rampage at a retirement center in Virginia)
*2006: "An animus toward women" (a murderous rampage at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle)
*2006: "His recent, arranged marriage may have made him stressed" (killing with an SUV in northern California)
Additionally, when a Osama bin Laden-admiring Arab-American crashed a plane into a Tampa high-rise, blame fell on the acne drug Accutane.
As a charter member of the jihad school of interpretation, I reject these explanations as weak, obfuscatory, and apologetic. The jihadi school, still in the minority, perceives Hasan's attack as one of many Muslim efforts to vanquish infidels and impose Islamic law. We recall a prior episode of sudden jihad syndrome in the U.S. military, as well as the numerous cases of non-lethal Pentagon jihadi plots and the history of Muslim violence on American soil.
Far from being mystified by Hasan, we see overwhelming evidence of his jihadi intentions. He handed out Korans to neighbors just before going on his rampage and yelled "Allahu Akbar," the jihadi's cry, as he fired off over 100 rounds from two pistols. His superiors reportedly put him on probation for inappropriately proselytizing about Islam.
We note what former associates say about him: one, Val Finnell, quotes Hasan saying, "I'm a Muslim first and an American second" and recalls Hasan justifying suicide terrorism; another, Col Terry Lee, recalls that Hasan "claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans"; the third, a psychiatrist who worked very closely with Hasan, described him as "almost belligerent about being Muslim."
Finally, the jihad school of thought attributes importance to the Islamic authorities' urging American Muslim soldiers to refuse to fight their co-religionists, thereby providing a basis for sudden jihad. In 2001, for example, responding to the U.S. attack on the Taliban, the mufti of Egypt, Ali Gum'a, issued a fatwa stating that "The Muslim soldier in the American army must refrain [from participating] in this war." Hasan himself, echoing that message, advised a young Muslim disciple, Duane Reasoner Jr., not to join the U.S. army because "Muslims shouldn't kill Muslims."
If the jihad explanation is overwhelmingly more persuasive than the victim one, it's also far more awkward to articulate. Everyone finds blaming road rage, Accutane, or an arranged marriage easier than discussing Islamic doctrines. And so, a prediction: what Ralph Peters calls the army's "unforgivable political correctness" will officially ascribe Hasan's assault to his victimization and will leave jihad unmentioned.
And thus will the army blind itself and not prepare for its next jihadi attack.
[FrontPageMagazine]
UPDATES:
Fort Hood Gunman: Infidels Should Have Their Throats Cut -Nick Allen
Hasan once gave a lecture to other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats. Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe.
One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.
(Telegraph-UK)
Ft. Hood Shooter Tried to Contact Al-Qaeda -Richard Esposito, et al
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al-Qaeda, two American officials told ABC News.
(ABC News)
*
When a Muslim in the West for no apparent reason violently attacks non-Muslims, a predictable argument ensues about motives.
[L]aw enforcement, politicians, the media, and the academy – stands on one side of this debate, insisting that some kind of oppression caused Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, to kill 13 and wound 38 at Ft. Hood.
It disagrees on the specifics, however, presenting Hasan as the victim alternatively of "racism," "harassment he had received as a Muslim," a sense of not belonging," "pre-traumatic stress disorder," "mental problems," "emotional problems," "an inordinate amount of stress," or being deployed to Afghanistan as his "worst nightmare." Accordingly, a typical newspaper headline reads "Mindset of Rogue Major a Mystery."
Instances of Muslim-on-unbeliever violence inspire the victim school to dig up new and imaginative excuses. Colorful examples include:
*1990: "A prescription drug for … depression" (to explain the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane)
*1991: "A robbery gone wrong" (the murder of Makin Morcos in Sydney)
*1994: "Road rage" (the killing of a random Jew on the Brooklyn Bridge)
*1997: "Many, many enemies in his mind" (the shooting murder atop the Empire State Building)
*2000: A traffic incident (the attack on a bus of Jewish schoolchildren near Paris)
*2002: "A work dispute" (the double murder at LAX)
*2002: A "stormy [family] relationship" (the Beltway snipers)
*2003: An "attitude problem" (Hasan Karim Akbar's attack on fellow soldiers, killing two)
*2003: Mental illness (the mutilation murder of Sebastian Sellam)
*2004: "Loneliness and depression" (an explosion in Brescia, Italy outside a McDonald's restaurant)
*2005: "A disagreement between the suspect and another staff member" (a rampage at a retirement center in Virginia)
*2006: "An animus toward women" (a murderous rampage at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle)
*2006: "His recent, arranged marriage may have made him stressed" (killing with an SUV in northern California)
Additionally, when a Osama bin Laden-admiring Arab-American crashed a plane into a Tampa high-rise, blame fell on the acne drug Accutane.
As a charter member of the jihad school of interpretation, I reject these explanations as weak, obfuscatory, and apologetic. The jihadi school, still in the minority, perceives Hasan's attack as one of many Muslim efforts to vanquish infidels and impose Islamic law. We recall a prior episode of sudden jihad syndrome in the U.S. military, as well as the numerous cases of non-lethal Pentagon jihadi plots and the history of Muslim violence on American soil.
Far from being mystified by Hasan, we see overwhelming evidence of his jihadi intentions. He handed out Korans to neighbors just before going on his rampage and yelled "Allahu Akbar," the jihadi's cry, as he fired off over 100 rounds from two pistols. His superiors reportedly put him on probation for inappropriately proselytizing about Islam.
We note what former associates say about him: one, Val Finnell, quotes Hasan saying, "I'm a Muslim first and an American second" and recalls Hasan justifying suicide terrorism; another, Col Terry Lee, recalls that Hasan "claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans"; the third, a psychiatrist who worked very closely with Hasan, described him as "almost belligerent about being Muslim."
Finally, the jihad school of thought attributes importance to the Islamic authorities' urging American Muslim soldiers to refuse to fight their co-religionists, thereby providing a basis for sudden jihad. In 2001, for example, responding to the U.S. attack on the Taliban, the mufti of Egypt, Ali Gum'a, issued a fatwa stating that "The Muslim soldier in the American army must refrain [from participating] in this war." Hasan himself, echoing that message, advised a young Muslim disciple, Duane Reasoner Jr., not to join the U.S. army because "Muslims shouldn't kill Muslims."
If the jihad explanation is overwhelmingly more persuasive than the victim one, it's also far more awkward to articulate. Everyone finds blaming road rage, Accutane, or an arranged marriage easier than discussing Islamic doctrines. And so, a prediction: what Ralph Peters calls the army's "unforgivable political correctness" will officially ascribe Hasan's assault to his victimization and will leave jihad unmentioned.
And thus will the army blind itself and not prepare for its next jihadi attack.
[FrontPageMagazine]
UPDATES:
Fort Hood Gunman: Infidels Should Have Their Throats Cut -Nick Allen
Hasan once gave a lecture to other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats. Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe.
One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.
(Telegraph-UK)
Ft. Hood Shooter Tried to Contact Al-Qaeda -Richard Esposito, et al
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al-Qaeda, two American officials told ABC News.
(ABC News)
*
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Israel Innovation: Cancer research
Israeli Scientists Find Drug that Could Help Cure Cancer -Ofri Ilani
Israeli scientists have identified a substance that can kill cancerous cells without harming healthy ones, paving the way for more effective cancer treatment, the journal Breast Cancer Research reported.
"We actually found the Achilles heel of the cancer cell," said Prof. Malka Cohen-Armon from Tel Aviv University, who headed the research team.
"As soon as you can target cancerous cells without killing healthy ones, you can produce medications that would cause a lot less suffering to the patient."
(Ha'aretz)
*
Israeli scientists have identified a substance that can kill cancerous cells without harming healthy ones, paving the way for more effective cancer treatment, the journal Breast Cancer Research reported.
"We actually found the Achilles heel of the cancer cell," said Prof. Malka Cohen-Armon from Tel Aviv University, who headed the research team.
"As soon as you can target cancerous cells without killing healthy ones, you can produce medications that would cause a lot less suffering to the patient."
(Ha'aretz)
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Do Radical Muslims have a veto over EU policy?
Spain and the Fight over UNIFIL -Soeren Kern
Europeans are afraid that if they take a hard line against Hizbullah, their troops in Lebanon may be attacked. They are also afraid that Hizbullah may activate sleeper cells to carry out attacks inside Europe. And Europeans are afraid of inciting the thousands of Muslim immigrants throughout "Eurabia."
Indeed, the fear of angry Muslims is so pervasive in Europe that in practical terms Islam has already established a de facto veto on European foreign policymaking.
Spanish troops must look the other way as Hizbullah rearms for its next war against Israel.
The writer is Senior Analyst at the Madrid-based Strategic Studies Group
(Pajamas Media)
*
Europeans are afraid that if they take a hard line against Hizbullah, their troops in Lebanon may be attacked. They are also afraid that Hizbullah may activate sleeper cells to carry out attacks inside Europe. And Europeans are afraid of inciting the thousands of Muslim immigrants throughout "Eurabia."
Indeed, the fear of angry Muslims is so pervasive in Europe that in practical terms Islam has already established a de facto veto on European foreign policymaking.
Spanish troops must look the other way as Hizbullah rearms for its next war against Israel.
The writer is Senior Analyst at the Madrid-based Strategic Studies Group
(Pajamas Media)
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Saturday, November 07, 2009
Fort Hood Massacre: Jihad, insanity or both?
Army Tests Sole-Killer Theory: Details Emerge -Clifford Krauss & James Dao
Major Hasan [pictured], the 39-year-old Army psychiatrist accused of a shooting spree at Fort Hood that killed 13 people and wounded at least 30 others, [is] an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent.
[O]fficials were not prepared to say whether the attack was the act of a lone and troubled man or connected to terrorist groups, foreign or domestic.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation became aware earlier this year of Internet postings by a man calling himself Nidal Hasan. The postings drew attention
because they favorably discussed suicide bombings. But the investigators are still not clear as to whether the writer was Major Hasan.Major Hasan [was] described as having few friends and being quiet to the point of introversion.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, the Fort Hood commander, was asked about reports that before opening fire, Major Hasan had yelled “Allahu akbar!” — “God is great!”
General Cone said soldiers at the scene had reported “similar” accounts.
[New York Times]
UPDATE:
Little Evidence of Plot -David Johnston & Eric Schmitt
After two days of inquiry into the mass shooting, investigators have tentatively concluded that it was not part of a terrorist plot. [But] [i]nvestigators have not ruled out the possibility that Major Hasan believed he was carrying out an extremist’s suicide mission.
[Investigators] have come to believe that Nidal Malik Hasan, acted out under a welter of emotional, ideological and religious pressures.
[O]fficials said a continuing search of Major Hasan’s computer indicates that he had logged on to Web sites that celebrated radical Islamic ideologies and that he had exchanged e-mail messages with like-minded people, some possibly overseas. In addition, they believe that he may have written inflammatory Internet postings that justified suicide attacks.
[New York Times]
*
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Iran caught shipping deadly cargo to Hizbullah
3,000 Missiles Found on Seized Arms Ship -Aron Heller
At least 3,000 missiles were on board the Francop, a vessel stopped by Israel off the coast of Cyprus and towed to the port of Ashdod.
Containers with dark green missiles inside bore writing in English that said "I.R. Iranian Shipping Lines Group." Israel alleged that the shipment of hundreds of tons of rockets, missiles, mortars, grenades and anti-tank weapons - the largest it ever seized - was headed for Hizbullah in Lebanon.
The ship had departed an Iranian port for Syria. [T]he ship carried ten times as many weapons as the Karine A, a weapons ship captured by Israeli forces in 2002.
(AP)
Revolutionary Guard Behind Arms Shipment -Hanan Greenberg
Israel hoped the operation will deter shipping companies, European harbors and insurance companies from doing business with seemingly innocent Iranian vessels which can blow up at any time.
(Ynet News)
Ship Proves Iran Supports Terror -Yaakov Katz & Tovah Lazaroff
Prime Minister Netanyahu said:
"Whoever still needed decisive proof that Iran continues to send weapons to terrorist organizations received it today in a very clear and unequivocal way."
(Jerusalem Post)
UPDATE: Click here for a 6 minute IDF Video of the Francop freighter, documenting it's capture and its contents
Israel hoped the operation will deter shipping companies, European harbors and insurance companies from doing business with seemingly innocent Iranian vessels which can blow up at any time.
(Ynet News)
Ship Proves Iran Supports Terror -Yaakov Katz & Tovah Lazaroff
Prime Minister Netanyahu said:
"Whoever still needed decisive proof that Iran continues to send weapons to terrorist organizations received it today in a very clear and unequivocal way."
(Jerusalem Post)
UPDATE: Click here for a 6 minute IDF Video of the Francop freighter, documenting it's capture and its contents
Iranian protestors appeal to Obama
Dissidents Mass in Tehran to Subvert Anti-U.S. Rally -Robert F. Worth
Tens of thousands of Iranian opposition protesters [pictured above] braved police beatings and clouds of tear gas on the sidelines of a major, government-sponsored anti-American rally.
The protests in Tehran and other cities were the opposition's largest street showing in two months.
Protesters declared their impatience with President Obama's policy of dialogue with the Iranian government. Many could be heard chanting, "Obama, Obama - either you're with them or you're with us," witnesses said.
(New York Times)
*
Tens of thousands of Iranian opposition protesters [pictured above] braved police beatings and clouds of tear gas on the sidelines of a major, government-sponsored anti-American rally.
The protests in Tehran and other cities were the opposition's largest street showing in two months.
Protesters declared their impatience with President Obama's policy of dialogue with the Iranian government. Many could be heard chanting, "Obama, Obama - either you're with them or you're with us," witnesses said.
(New York Times)
*
VideoBite: Israel's clean technology revolution
Israel One of Top Five Cleantech Countries -Shawn Lesser
Israel, the "Silicon Valley" of water technology, is fast becoming the cleantech incubator to the world.
Israel recycles 75% of its wastewater, invented drip irrigation, and is home to the world's largest reverse osmosis desalination plant. Israel is also the first test-market for a nationwide electric vehicle recharge network.
(Cleantech)
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Monday, November 02, 2009
The end of Yemenite Jewry
History will record that 2,500 years of Jewish life in Yemen is now over.
As The Wall Street Journal reported, the US State Department has completed a clandestine operation which brought 60 of the country's remaining Jews to America. The newspaper quoted Yeshiva University's Hayim Tawil, a Yemeni Jewry expert, as issuing the certificate of death: "This is the end of the Jewish Diaspora of Yemen. That's it."
The rescue illuminates an often overlooked aspect of the 60-year-plus Arab-Israel conflict. Whereas the Arab world has purposefully maintained the 700,000 or so Palestinian Arabs made homeless in the course of the 1948 war and their descendants as permanent refugees and political pawns, the State of Israel and world Jewry have worked hard to resettle a roughly equal number of Jewish refugees forced to flee Arab lands.
In 1947, Arab rioters in Aden [Southern Yemen] killed dozens of Jews to protest a two-state solution in Palestine. In 1949 and 1950 the bulk of Yemen's Jews, some 49,000 souls, were airlifted here in "Operation Magic Carpet."
As The Wall Street Journal reported, the US State Department has completed a clandestine operation which brought 60 of the country's remaining Jews to America. The newspaper quoted Yeshiva University's Hayim Tawil, a Yemeni Jewry expert, as issuing the certificate of death: "This is the end of the Jewish Diaspora of Yemen. That's it."
The rescue illuminates an often overlooked aspect of the 60-year-plus Arab-Israel conflict. Whereas the Arab world has purposefully maintained the 700,000 or so Palestinian Arabs made homeless in the course of the 1948 war and their descendants as permanent refugees and political pawns, the State of Israel and world Jewry have worked hard to resettle a roughly equal number of Jewish refugees forced to flee Arab lands.
In 1947, Arab rioters in Aden [Southern Yemen] killed dozens of Jews to protest a two-state solution in Palestine. In 1949 and 1950 the bulk of Yemen's Jews, some 49,000 souls, were airlifted here in "Operation Magic Carpet."
[Jerusalem Post]
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Sunday, November 01, 2009
Negotiating with Iran is like "playing chess with a monkey"
Iran Accused of Playing Games on Nuclear Deal -Richard Spencer
Britain and other EU nations were preparing to reject Iran's counterproposal on sending its uranium abroad for enrichment, raising the threat of a protracted confrontation and new sanctions. Britain, France and Germany believe Iran is trying to use the deal merely as a starting point for another protracted round of talks. During that time they think the Iranians could
continue to enrich uranium and conduct more research on the scientific know-how necessary to turn it into a nuclear weapon.
"It's like playing chess with a monkey," said one diplomat close to the talks. "You get them to checkmate, and then they swallow the king."
(Telegraph-UK)
Iran Counters UN on Uranium Plan -Glenn Kessler & Thomas Erdbrink
Iran appeared to reject a key element of a UN-backed proposal aimed at quickly reducing its stockpile of enriched uranium...
The long-awaited Iranian answer appeared to dash hopes that Tehran would be willing to quickly embrace engagement with the West on its nuclear program.
Obama administration officials will now need to assess whether engagement has run its course - and whether to shift toward tougher sanctions.
(Washington Post)
*
Britain and other EU nations were preparing to reject Iran's counterproposal on sending its uranium abroad for enrichment, raising the threat of a protracted confrontation and new sanctions. Britain, France and Germany believe Iran is trying to use the deal merely as a starting point for another protracted round of talks. During that time they think the Iranians could
continue to enrich uranium and conduct more research on the scientific know-how necessary to turn it into a nuclear weapon."It's like playing chess with a monkey," said one diplomat close to the talks. "You get them to checkmate, and then they swallow the king."
(Telegraph-UK)
Iran Counters UN on Uranium Plan -Glenn Kessler & Thomas Erdbrink
Iran appeared to reject a key element of a UN-backed proposal aimed at quickly reducing its stockpile of enriched uranium...
The long-awaited Iranian answer appeared to dash hopes that Tehran would be willing to quickly embrace engagement with the West on its nuclear program.
Obama administration officials will now need to assess whether engagement has run its course - and whether to shift toward tougher sanctions.
(Washington Post)
*
Palestinians kick sand at Hillary Clinton
Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu, appears to be dancing with Hillary Clinton at a press conference this weekend
Clinton Asks Abbas to Return to Talks -Mark Landler & Ethan Bronner
Dealing a blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to restart Middle East peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to persuade the Palestinian leader [Abbas] to accept an Israeli proposal that would slow but not stop the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
[New York Times]
Clinton: Israel's "Unprecedented" Concessions -Karen DeYoung & Howard Schneider
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had offered "unprecedented" concessions on West Bank settlement construction in an effort to restart peace talks, a departure from the administration's earlier criticism of Israel and a possible signal of impatience with the refusal of Palestinian leaders to join negotiations.
(Washington Post)
UPDATE:
PA Accuses Clinton of Taking Bribes -Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook
The official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, which is controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas, accused Secretary of State Clinton of taking bribes from Israel.
"Why, Mrs. Hillary? How much did the Zionists pay you as a bribe?" taunted an article. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida also ran a cartoon reiterating the Palestinian claim that the U.S. is controlled by Jews.
(Palestinian Media Watch)
*
Dealing a blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to restart Middle East peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to persuade the Palestinian leader [Abbas] to accept an Israeli proposal that would slow but not stop the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
[New York Times]
Clinton: Israel's "Unprecedented" Concessions -Karen DeYoung & Howard Schneider
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had offered "unprecedented" concessions on West Bank settlement construction in an effort to restart peace talks, a departure from the administration's earlier criticism of Israel and a possible signal of impatience with the refusal of Palestinian leaders to join negotiations.
(Washington Post)
UPDATE:
PA Accuses Clinton of Taking Bribes -Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook
The official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, which is controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas, accused Secretary of State Clinton of taking bribes from Israel.
"Why, Mrs. Hillary? How much did the Zionists pay you as a bribe?" taunted an article. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida also ran a cartoon reiterating the Palestinian claim that the U.S. is controlled by Jews.
(Palestinian Media Watch)
*
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Threat Within: US jihadist killed
FBI agents take cover under a trailer during an operation outside a warehouse in Dearborn. A leader of an Islamist group was fatally shot while resisting arrest and exchanging gunfire with federal agents
FBI Kills Islamic Leader -Nick Bunkley
FBI agents fatally shot Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, described as the leader of a violent Sunni Muslim separatist group.
Abdullah, whom the agents were trying to arrest in Dearborn on charges that included illegal possession and sale of firearms and conspiracy to sell stolen goods, refused to surrender and began firing at them from a warehouse.
Abdullah trained his followers in the use of firearms, martial arts and sword fighting, and directed them to conduct an "offensive jihad" against the U.S. government.
(New York Times)
*
Clinton receives warm welcome in Pakistan
An attack in a marketplace in Pakistan killed and injured mostly women and childrenClinton Arrival in Pakistan Met by Fatal Attacks -Mark Landler & Ismail Khan
Militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan punctuated Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's arrival here with deadly attacks, underscoring their ability to cause chaos even in the face of offensives on both sides of the border.
In Pakistan, a devastating car bomb tore through a congested market in the northwest city of Peshawar, killing as many as 101 people, many of them women and children. Pakistani authorities said the attack was the country's most serious in two years, and the deadliest ever in Peshawar, which has become a front line for Taliban efforts to destabilize the government through violence.
In the Afghan capital, Kabul, Taliban militants stormed a guesthouse, killing five United Nations employees and three other people in a furious two-hour siege. The attack was meant to scare Afghans away from voting in a runoff election on Nov. 7.
The violence cast a shadow over the visit of Mrs. Clinton.
[New York Times]
*
Militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan punctuated Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's arrival here with deadly attacks, underscoring their ability to cause chaos even in the face of offensives on both sides of the border.
In Pakistan, a devastating car bomb tore through a congested market in the northwest city of Peshawar, killing as many as 101 people, many of them women and children. Pakistani authorities said the attack was the country's most serious in two years, and the deadliest ever in Peshawar, which has become a front line for Taliban efforts to destabilize the government through violence.
In the Afghan capital, Kabul, Taliban militants stormed a guesthouse, killing five United Nations employees and three other people in a furious two-hour siege. The attack was meant to scare Afghans away from voting in a runoff election on Nov. 7.
The violence cast a shadow over the visit of Mrs. Clinton.
[New York Times]
*
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Clinton finally presses Palestinians
Hillary Clinton preparing for her meeting with Abbas? Clinton Tries to Persuade Abbas to Negotiate with Israel -Avi Issacharoff
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will arrive for a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority during which she will attempt to persuade PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to reopen negotiations with Israel on a final peace agreement. Clinton will ask Abbas to restart the negotiations with Israel without a complete freeze of construction in the settlements.
(Ha'aretz)
Deadlock on Restarting Israeli-Palestinian Talks -Barry Rubin
What both the U.S. and Europe fail to
see is that the Palestinians don't need or want rapid progress on negotiations or even a state. They believe that intransigence on their part actually brings more criticism of Israel.
If you believe that the world is about to condemn Israel as a pariah, war criminal state, why make compromises with it?
(Jerusalem Post)
*
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will arrive for a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority during which she will attempt to persuade PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to reopen negotiations with Israel on a final peace agreement. Clinton will ask Abbas to restart the negotiations with Israel without a complete freeze of construction in the settlements.
(Ha'aretz)
Deadlock on Restarting Israeli-Palestinian Talks -Barry Rubin
What both the U.S. and Europe fail to
see is that the Palestinians don't need or want rapid progress on negotiations or even a state. They believe that intransigence on their part actually brings more criticism of Israel.If you believe that the world is about to condemn Israel as a pariah, war criminal state, why make compromises with it?
(Jerusalem Post)
*
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Palestinian Authority & Hamas keep tension high on Temple Mount, hoping for new Intifada
Abbas Aide Among Rioters Arrested on Temple Mount -Liel Kyzer
Some 100 Arabs hurled stones and firebombs at Israeli police on the Temple Mount, wounding three policemen, after Muslim leaders urged Arabs to defend Jerusalem against "Jewish conquest."
During the clashes, police arrested Mahmoud Abbas' adviser on Jerusalem affairs, Hatam Abd al-Qadir [pictured above].
(Ha'aretz/Ynet News)
Hamas: "Jerusalem's Fate Will Be Decided by War" -Jack Khoury
Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal declared that "Jerusalem's fate will be decided with jihad (holy war) and resistance, and not negotiations."
Israel Police Commissioner David Cohen said the leaders responsible for inciting the riots were on location at the Temple Mount, provoking the rioters. Cohen added that Israel's policy is to keep the Temple Mount open to both Jewish and Muslim visitors "today and on every other day."
(Ha'aretz)
Netanyahu: UN Gives Terrorists New Weapon -Lally Weymouth
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:
There has yet to be a Palestinian leader who actually turns to his people and says - it's over....We recognize that Israel is the Jewish state just as we ask the Israelis to recognize the Palestinian state.
The Arabs fought wars and terror campaigns in the 1920s, '30s and '40s against any Jewish state, and then they rejected the [United Nations] partition.
Our presence in the territories is not the cause of the conflict but one of its results....[t]he cause is the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish state at any point.
(Washington Post)
*
Some 100 Arabs hurled stones and firebombs at Israeli police on the Temple Mount, wounding three policemen, after Muslim leaders urged Arabs to defend Jerusalem against "Jewish conquest."
During the clashes, police arrested Mahmoud Abbas' adviser on Jerusalem affairs, Hatam Abd al-Qadir [pictured above].
(Ha'aretz/Ynet News)
Hamas: "Jerusalem's Fate Will Be Decided by War" -Jack Khoury
Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal declared that "Jerusalem's fate will be decided with jihad (holy war) and resistance, and not negotiations."
Israel Police Commissioner David Cohen said the leaders responsible for inciting the riots were on location at the Temple Mount, provoking the rioters. Cohen added that Israel's policy is to keep the Temple Mount open to both Jewish and Muslim visitors "today and on every other day."
(Ha'aretz)
Netanyahu: UN Gives Terrorists New Weapon -Lally Weymouth
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:
There has yet to be a Palestinian leader who actually turns to his people and says - it's over....We recognize that Israel is the Jewish state just as we ask the Israelis to recognize the Palestinian state.
The Arabs fought wars and terror campaigns in the 1920s, '30s and '40s against any Jewish state, and then they rejected the [United Nations] partition.
Our presence in the territories is not the cause of the conflict but one of its results....[t]he cause is the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish state at any point.
(Washington Post)
*
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Chinese Jews arrive in Israel
Chinese Jewish Descendants Start a New Life in Israel
Seven young Chinese men wearing kippot arrived in Israel via Uzbekistan to make aliya, descendants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng.
At its peak during the Middle Ages, Kaifeng Jewry numbered about 5,000, and the community lasted until the middle of the 19th century.
Hundreds of people in Kaifeng still cling to their identity as descendants of the city's Jewish community and, in recent years, a growing number have begun to express an interest in studying Jewish history and culture.
(Jerusalem Post)
*
Seven young Chinese men wearing kippot arrived in Israel via Uzbekistan to make aliya, descendants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng.
At its peak during the Middle Ages, Kaifeng Jewry numbered about 5,000, and the community lasted until the middle of the 19th century.
Hundreds of people in Kaifeng still cling to their identity as descendants of the city's Jewish community and, in recent years, a growing number have begun to express an interest in studying Jewish history and culture.
(Jerusalem Post)
*
Iran Double-Crosses Obama
Iranian Lawmaker Dismisses Deal -Robert F. Worth
Mohammad Reza Bahonar [pictured above], the deputy speaker of Iran's Parliament, appeared to reject a plan to have Iran ship its uranium abroad for processing. Bahonar said the terms of the deal were "not acceptable," the official news agency IRNA reported.
(New York Times)
Is Tehran Toying with the World - Again? -Peter Grier
Is Tehran just yanking our chain?
(Christian Science Monitor)
Iran Talks Finish Amid Doubts on Uranium Deal -James Blitz
Western diplomats expressed serious doubts that Tehran would sign up to an agreement to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium.
One European official said: "The last two days in Vienna have been something of a reality check for Obama's officials on just how difficult and intransigent Iran really is."
(Financial Times-UK)
*
Mohammad Reza Bahonar [pictured above], the deputy speaker of Iran's Parliament, appeared to reject a plan to have Iran ship its uranium abroad for processing. Bahonar said the terms of the deal were "not acceptable," the official news agency IRNA reported.
(New York Times)
Is Tehran Toying with the World - Again? -Peter Grier
Is Tehran just yanking our chain?
(Christian Science Monitor)
Iran Talks Finish Amid Doubts on Uranium Deal -James Blitz
Western diplomats expressed serious doubts that Tehran would sign up to an agreement to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium.
One European official said: "The last two days in Vienna have been something of a reality check for Obama's officials on just how difficult and intransigent Iran really is."
(Financial Times-UK)
*
Thursday, October 22, 2009
VideoBite: UN trashed by HonestReporting
HonestReporting takes on the United Nations
UN Council's Anti-Israel Agenda -Adam Raskin
The UN Human Rights Council has become a shill for the international delegitimizing of a single nation: Israel.
Since its inception three years ago, 80% of the business of the Human Rights Council has involved the censure of Israel. For a country with a democratically elected government that enshrines freedom of speech and religion, protects the rights of women, gays and lesbians and minorities - a country that has 80 human rights organizations of its own - all this attention seems a bit strange.
(Dallas Morning News)
*
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Novel tackles Iran
Serendipity -John Clayton
[T]here's a little thing in the publishing business called serendipity, and it comes into play when you write a novel and your fictional premise suddenly becomes a shocking truth, a truth that results in global outrage, banner headlines and round-the-clock cable news coverage.
That's what's happening to [author] Joe Smiga. [T]he central storyline in "Behind the Lies," [is that] Iran has nukes [and] Hamas, Hezbollah and renegade Ayatollahs control Kilo-class submarines. Joe has scripted a cliff-hanger.
Talk about lucky timing.
"[T]he fact that my book has a black President who's in his first term in the book strikes a chord with readers," Joe said.
[Union Leader]
*
[T]here's a little thing in the publishing business called serendipity, and it comes into play when you write a novel and your fictional premise suddenly becomes a shocking truth, a truth that results in global outrage, banner headlines and round-the-clock cable news coverage.
That's what's happening to [author] Joe Smiga. [T]he central storyline in "Behind the Lies," [is that] Iran has nukes [and] Hamas, Hezbollah and renegade Ayatollahs control Kilo-class submarines. Joe has scripted a cliff-hanger.
Talk about lucky timing.
"[T]he fact that my book has a black President who's in his first term in the book strikes a chord with readers," Joe said.
[Union Leader]
*
Friday, October 16, 2009
VideoBite: Turkish TV spreads hate of Israel
The video above is the shortest I could find of this anti-Israel propaganda brought to you by a country that has formally been seen as Israel's ally.
Turkish TV Portrays IDF Soldiers as Murderers -Barak Ravid
[Israel's] Foreign Minister instructed the Foreign Ministry to protest to Turkey a new television drama airing on [a Turkish] state-sponsored television channel that depicts Israel Defense Forces soldiers as brutal murderers.
The show depicts multiple images of the IDF brutalizing the Palestinian population in Gaza by shooting children, kicking elderly people on the ground, and lining up Palestinians to be shot by a firing squad.
Israeli soldiers can be seen shooting a smiling young girl in the chest [and] steamrolling a tank through a crowded street.
(Ha'aretz)
*
Jacoby: Obama's failure is predictable in the MidEast
Peace vs. the 'peace process' -Jeff Jacoby
Obama was right when he said there had been no progress toward Arab-Israeli peace under Bush. Nor had there been any under Clinton. Nor will there be any under Obama.
Why? Because the "peace process" to which all of them, their sharp differences notwithstanding, have been so committed, is not a formula for ending the decades-long war in the Holy Land, but for prolonging it.
Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands at the White House in September 1993, launching the Oslo "peace process." What resulted was not peace but an intensified war.
Arafat called [then President Bill] Clinton in January 2001 to tell him what a great man he was, Clinton was bitter. "I am not a great man," he told Arafat. "I am a failure, and you have made me one."
Diplomacy cannot settle the Arab-Israeli conflict until the Palestinians abandon their anti-Israel rejectionism. US policy should be focused on getting them to abandon it. The Palestinians must be put on notice that benefits will flow to them only after they prove their acceptance of Israel.
Until then -- no diplomacy, no discussion of final status, no recognition as a state, and certainly no financial aid or weapons."
[The Boston Globe]
*
Obama was right when he said there had been no progress toward Arab-Israeli peace under Bush. Nor had there been any under Clinton. Nor will there be any under Obama.
Why? Because the "peace process" to which all of them, their sharp differences notwithstanding, have been so committed, is not a formula for ending the decades-long war in the Holy Land, but for prolonging it.
Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands at the White House in September 1993, launching the Oslo "peace process." What resulted was not peace but an intensified war.
Arafat called [then President Bill] Clinton in January 2001 to tell him what a great man he was, Clinton was bitter. "I am not a great man," he told Arafat. "I am a failure, and you have made me one."
Diplomacy cannot settle the Arab-Israeli conflict until the Palestinians abandon their anti-Israel rejectionism. US policy should be focused on getting them to abandon it. The Palestinians must be put on notice that benefits will flow to them only after they prove their acceptance of Israel.
Until then -- no diplomacy, no discussion of final status, no recognition as a state, and certainly no financial aid or weapons."
[The Boston Globe]
*
Osama's cash flow problem
Al-Qaeda "Faces Funding Crisis"
Al-Qaeda is in its worst financial state for many years and has made several appeals for funds already this year, according to senior U.S. Treasury official David Cohen.
"We assess that al-Qaeda is in its weakest financial condition in several years and that, as a result, its influence is waning," Cohen said in Washington.
He also noted a trend in militant organizations turning to criminal activities to finance themselves. Hizbullah, he alleged, is involved in making and selling illegal copies of music and computer software, as well as cigarette smuggling.
(BBC News)
*
Al-Qaeda is in its worst financial state for many years and has made several appeals for funds already this year, according to senior U.S. Treasury official David Cohen.
"We assess that al-Qaeda is in its weakest financial condition in several years and that, as a result, its influence is waning," Cohen said in Washington.
He also noted a trend in militant organizations turning to criminal activities to finance themselves. Hizbullah, he alleged, is involved in making and selling illegal copies of music and computer software, as well as cigarette smuggling.
(BBC News)
*
Monday, October 12, 2009
Obsessive Compulsive Israel Disorder
VideoBite:
This short clip suggests the world's obsessive focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict, ignores other vital global problems
Conclusions about Israel's Guilt in Gaza -Zion Evrony
The Goldstone mission was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, which has passed 20 resolutions censuring Israel in the three years since its founding, out of a total of 25 resolutions passed by the Council.
Yet the Council, which includes paragons of human rights values such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Cuba, currently has nothing to say about the 400,000 deaths in Darfur for which Sudan is responsible, or the 1,000,000 displaced civilians in Somalia.
(Irish Independent)
*
Obama and the Internet: the dangers of giving up control of ICANN
Surrendering the Superhighway –Seth Mandel
We owe a debt of gratitude to Bangladeshi dissident Salah Uddin Shoaib
Choudhury [pictured right], and many other[s], who have been able to, despite attempts to silence them, make important information public at great personal risk -- often using the Internet as their only line of communication with the outside world.
One way the United States has aided journalists like Choudhury in the past has been by simply retaining control over the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit body that oversees and regulates Internet domain name registration, ensuring such voices weren't denied access to the World Wide Web.
The U.S. Commerce Department had control over ICANN and held veto power on its decisions to award domain names, but stayed away from any real involvement. America's veto power prevented despotic regimes and Islamic overlords from trying to prevent organizations they didn't like from registering domain names.
[T]he Internet flourished under America's watch, and the free flow of information enabled people like Choudhury to reach millions. It also prevented the world from taking punitive action against Israel, since the U.S. would never allow, for example, Israel to be stripped of its national Internet domain address (.il).
Until now.
"ICANN had previously been operating under the auspices of the American government, which had control of the [Internet] thanks to its initial role in developing the underlying technologies used for connecting computers together," explained the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, in a story titled "U.S. relinquishes control of the Internet".
America had control until Sept. 30, when the Obama administration announced it was ceding that control to a more "international" forum. How, then, will decisions be made going forward? Who will have control, and how will it all function?
The Guardian adds:
"[This] will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens -- opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the Internet."
Unfortunately, you know just how a "virtual United Nations" would rule. [W]e've surrendered the [internet to] the World Wide Web version of the United Nations.
We know what what the internationalization of the Internet means. It means the Choudhury’s of the world will be far less of a threat to their regimes. After all, in the last couple of years Russia has led "cyber-attacks" against its enemies in Georgia and Estonia, two post-Soviet democracies. Now it won't have to go through all that trouble.
The ICANN decision means the enemies of freedom can far more acutely silence the voices of opposition. But it also means [that dissidents who] don't have the free speech rights Americans enjoy, [will no longer have] America’s protect[ion].
A "virtual United Nations" is a nightmare.
[The Jewish State]
*
We owe a debt of gratitude to Bangladeshi dissident Salah Uddin Shoaib
Choudhury [pictured right], and many other[s], who have been able to, despite attempts to silence them, make important information public at great personal risk -- often using the Internet as their only line of communication with the outside world.One way the United States has aided journalists like Choudhury in the past has been by simply retaining control over the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit body that oversees and regulates Internet domain name registration, ensuring such voices weren't denied access to the World Wide Web.
The U.S. Commerce Department had control over ICANN and held veto power on its decisions to award domain names, but stayed away from any real involvement. America's veto power prevented despotic regimes and Islamic overlords from trying to prevent organizations they didn't like from registering domain names.
[T]he Internet flourished under America's watch, and the free flow of information enabled people like Choudhury to reach millions. It also prevented the world from taking punitive action against Israel, since the U.S. would never allow, for example, Israel to be stripped of its national Internet domain address (.il).
Until now.
"ICANN had previously been operating under the auspices of the American government, which had control of the [Internet] thanks to its initial role in developing the underlying technologies used for connecting computers together," explained the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, in a story titled "U.S. relinquishes control of the Internet".
America had control until Sept. 30, when the Obama administration announced it was ceding that control to a more "international" forum. How, then, will decisions be made going forward? Who will have control, and how will it all function?
The Guardian adds:
"[This] will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens -- opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the Internet."
Unfortunately, you know just how a "virtual United Nations" would rule. [W]e've surrendered the [internet to] the World Wide Web version of the United Nations.
We know what what the internationalization of the Internet means. It means the Choudhury’s of the world will be far less of a threat to their regimes. After all, in the last couple of years Russia has led "cyber-attacks" against its enemies in Georgia and Estonia, two post-Soviet democracies. Now it won't have to go through all that trouble.
The ICANN decision means the enemies of freedom can far more acutely silence the voices of opposition. But it also means [that dissidents who] don't have the free speech rights Americans enjoy, [will no longer have] America’s protect[ion].
A "virtual United Nations" is a nightmare.
[The Jewish State]
*
Sunday, October 11, 2009
PA rachets up rhetoric: compares Jews praying on Temple Mount to bombing; decries sharing Cave of the Patriarchs
Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, has separate Muslim & Jewish prayer spacesJews Praying on Mount is Like 'Suicide Bombing'
Mohammed Dahlan [pictured right], a top Palestinian Authority official, told Israel Radio that
Israel was aggravating the situation by sending Jewish worshippers to pray on the Temple Mount. According to Dahlan, Israel's purpose is to "split" the Temple Mount into Jewish and Muslim areas, much as the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron is shared by worshippers.
Dahlan said that Jewish worshippers on the Temple Mount were, as far as the Arabs were concerned, a tragedy as terrible as a suicide bombing was for Jews.
(IsraelNN.com)
[Note: Since Israeli law already forbids non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount, the PA seems to consider non-Muslims visiting as a provocation.]
*
Mohammed Dahlan [pictured right], a top Palestinian Authority official, told Israel Radio that
Israel was aggravating the situation by sending Jewish worshippers to pray on the Temple Mount. According to Dahlan, Israel's purpose is to "split" the Temple Mount into Jewish and Muslim areas, much as the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron is shared by worshippers.Dahlan said that Jewish worshippers on the Temple Mount were, as far as the Arabs were concerned, a tragedy as terrible as a suicide bombing was for Jews.
(IsraelNN.com)
[Note: Since Israeli law already forbids non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount, the PA seems to consider non-Muslims visiting as a provocation.]
*
Will anyone challenge Palestinian Sheikh on racism?
Israel soldier of Ethiopian background Violence Began with Attack on French Tourists -Avi Issacharoff
Sheikh Kamal Khatib of the Islamic Movement explained in an interview with Army Radio that he finds it unacceptable that "an [Israeli] Ethiopian policeman, a Negro, would ask a Muslim for his identity card" at the entrance to the Temple Mount compound.
(Ha'aretz)
*
Friday, October 09, 2009
Assessing Abbas: Will the PA fall?
Abbas Facing Leadership Crisis -Richard Boudreaux
Hounded by his moderate supporters and militant rivals alike, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas [pictured] is facing a leadership crisis that will make it harder for the Obama administration to draw him into peace talks with Israel.
He made two concessions that ignited fury at home and across the Arab world: First he joined President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for a meeting in New York last month to explore prospects for formal talks. Then last week he agreed, under American pressure, to postpone the Palestinians' demand for a UN Security Council debate on a UN report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has for months offered to resume talks.
(Los Angeles Times)
Abbas Tries to Rally Support -Khaled Abu Toameh
In response to a fierce protest campaign against Mahmoud Abbas over his decision not to press Israel over the Goldstone report on Gaza, the PA has begun organizing demonstrations in support of Abbas in different parts of the West Bank.
PA civil servants and schoolchildren have been ordered to take to the streets and demonstrate in favor of Abbas, eyewitnesses said. They said senior PA officials had threatened that anyone who refused to participate would be dismissed from their job.
About 40 Palestinian organizations have launched a campaign aimed at pressuring Abbas to resign.
(Jerusalem Post)
Palestinian Reconciliation Pact on Hold -Nidal al-Mughrabi
A crowd in Gaza threw shoes at a defaced portrait of Mahmoud
Abbas and called him a traitor.
Hamas, by contrast, is enjoying a wave of popularity for securing the release of 20 female prisoners from Israel last week in return for a video showing that the Israeli soldier it has held captive for three years is alive and well.
(Reuters)
No Breakthrough Expected -Haviv Rettig Gur
According to one senior Israeli official, it is unclear whether PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is politically able to conduct meaningful negotiations.
(Jerusalem Post)
Lieberman: Only Interim Peace Deal Possible
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman [pictured] said he would tell visiting
U.S. envoy George Mitchell that there was no chance of reaching a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians for many years.
"I will tell him clearly, there are many conflicts in the world that haven't reached a comprehensive solution and people learned to live with it," Lieberman told Israel Radio.
"Whoever says that it's possible to reach in the coming years a comprehensive agreement that means the end of conflict, simply doesn't understand the reality," Lieberman said. "He's spreading illusions and in the end brings disappointment and drags us into comprehensive confrontation."
(Reuters-New York Times)
*
Hounded by his moderate supporters and militant rivals alike, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas [pictured] is facing a leadership crisis that will make it harder for the Obama administration to draw him into peace talks with Israel.
He made two concessions that ignited fury at home and across the Arab world: First he joined President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for a meeting in New York last month to explore prospects for formal talks. Then last week he agreed, under American pressure, to postpone the Palestinians' demand for a UN Security Council debate on a UN report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has for months offered to resume talks.
(Los Angeles Times)
Abbas Tries to Rally Support -Khaled Abu Toameh
In response to a fierce protest campaign against Mahmoud Abbas over his decision not to press Israel over the Goldstone report on Gaza, the PA has begun organizing demonstrations in support of Abbas in different parts of the West Bank.
PA civil servants and schoolchildren have been ordered to take to the streets and demonstrate in favor of Abbas, eyewitnesses said. They said senior PA officials had threatened that anyone who refused to participate would be dismissed from their job.
About 40 Palestinian organizations have launched a campaign aimed at pressuring Abbas to resign.
(Jerusalem Post)
Palestinian Reconciliation Pact on Hold -Nidal al-Mughrabi
A crowd in Gaza threw shoes at a defaced portrait of Mahmoud
Abbas and called him a traitor.Hamas, by contrast, is enjoying a wave of popularity for securing the release of 20 female prisoners from Israel last week in return for a video showing that the Israeli soldier it has held captive for three years is alive and well.
(Reuters)
No Breakthrough Expected -Haviv Rettig Gur
According to one senior Israeli official, it is unclear whether PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is politically able to conduct meaningful negotiations.
(Jerusalem Post)
Lieberman: Only Interim Peace Deal Possible
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman [pictured] said he would tell visiting
U.S. envoy George Mitchell that there was no chance of reaching a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians for many years."I will tell him clearly, there are many conflicts in the world that haven't reached a comprehensive solution and people learned to live with it," Lieberman told Israel Radio.
"Whoever says that it's possible to reach in the coming years a comprehensive agreement that means the end of conflict, simply doesn't understand the reality," Lieberman said. "He's spreading illusions and in the end brings disappointment and drags us into comprehensive confrontation."
(Reuters-New York Times)
*
Disraeli echos thru time
Jerusalem United -Malcolm Hedding
Benjamin Disraeli [pictured], the prime minister of the United Kingdom at the turn of the 20th century, told detractors who heckled him as a Jew when he rose to speak in parliament: "My people were kings in Jerusalem while you were still scratching around in the fields for mushrooms."
The point is, Jerusalem was the capital of Israel long before Berlin or New York even existed. The city has been the capital of only one people, and that is the Jewish people.
When the Ottoman Turks conquered the region and reigned over it for 400 years, they never treated the city as anything more than a backwater provincial town. How strange it is then that the world believes that the ancient biblical city should not be Jewish.
The Jews have more claim to Jerusalem than the French have to Paris or the Germans to Berlin or the British to London.
The writer is executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
(Jerusalem Post)
*
Benjamin Disraeli [pictured], the prime minister of the United Kingdom at the turn of the 20th century, told detractors who heckled him as a Jew when he rose to speak in parliament: "My people were kings in Jerusalem while you were still scratching around in the fields for mushrooms."
The point is, Jerusalem was the capital of Israel long before Berlin or New York even existed. The city has been the capital of only one people, and that is the Jewish people.
When the Ottoman Turks conquered the region and reigned over it for 400 years, they never treated the city as anything more than a backwater provincial town. How strange it is then that the world believes that the ancient biblical city should not be Jewish.
The Jews have more claim to Jerusalem than the French have to Paris or the Germans to Berlin or the British to London.
The writer is executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
(Jerusalem Post)
*
Battleground-Egypt: Islam battles itself over covering women
Egypt's Lurch Toward Fundamentalism -Samer al-Atrush
Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab, which covers the hair, but the niqab [pictured], which covers the entire face, is becoming
more popular on the streets of Cairo, a trend that worries the government as it battles a lurch toward fundamentalism.
Mohammed Tantawi, head of the Islamic Al-Azhar University and the country's top religious authority, said he intends to ban the niqab at the university.
The Ministry of Religious Endowments has distributed booklets explaining that wearing a niqab is un-Islamic. The majority of mainstream Muslim scholars say the niqab is unnecessary. It is commonly associated with followers of Salafism, an ultra-conservative school of thought mostly practiced in Saudi Arabia.
(AFP)
*
Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab, which covers the hair, but the niqab [pictured], which covers the entire face, is becoming
more popular on the streets of Cairo, a trend that worries the government as it battles a lurch toward fundamentalism.Mohammed Tantawi, head of the Islamic Al-Azhar University and the country's top religious authority, said he intends to ban the niqab at the university.
The Ministry of Religious Endowments has distributed booklets explaining that wearing a niqab is un-Islamic. The majority of mainstream Muslim scholars say the niqab is unnecessary. It is commonly associated with followers of Salafism, an ultra-conservative school of thought mostly practiced in Saudi Arabia.
(AFP)
*
