From Arab media:
The Palestinian dismissed government, in Gaza, declared on Tuesday, that any Palestinian- Israeli agreement or declaration of principles is totally rejected. The spokesman of dismissed government Taher Al-Nono, said in press statement following the weekly cabinet session in Gaza, that they won't recognize any deals done apart of "the government in Gaza."
Mentioning to President Abbas, Al-Nono asserted that and "who negotiates" the Israeli now does not represent the Palestinian people.
"All border crossings should not be targeted by Palestinian resistance, in order to guarantee entering crucial goods into Gaza Strip",
Al-Nono said.
Al-Nono condemned "the violations and unfair measures against members of Hamas in the West Bank by Palestinian security services."
Concerning the attempt of bombarding the building of Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza, Al-Nono said that "they won't allow such incident and will take all legal measure with criminals."
He renewed invitation for "non-conditioned" national dialogue to end the separation between Gaza and West Bank.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Rice as a supporting actor
Judging from her assistant's statements, she is meant to serve as a training wheel for a two-wheeled vehicle Rice as a supporting actor
By Shmuel Rosner
WASHINGTON - The word "bilateral" was mentioned nine times within 30 minutes during Monday's press briefing by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Welch. Nine times, eight of them were in reference to the talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen]. This is a pretty clear answer - at least an official answer - to all those who wondered who was responsible for furthering the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks: "an effective bilateral process," "a bilateral process that is productive," "we want a constructive and effective bilateral process," "are willing to envision bilateral negotiations," "galvanize this bilateral discussion." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives today for another round of talks, not the last one, before the summit, or "meeting" for furthering the peace process, scheduled for later this fall. Judging from her assistant's statements, she is meant to serve as a training wheel for a two-wheeled vehicle. Since the day President George Bush made his address on the Middle East early this summer, and to the point in which expectations were lowered, by summer's end, the formula has remained unchanged. The bottom line is that everything depends on the "bi," in other words Olmert and Abu Mazen. If they want, they will move forward. Bush and Rice promise to support them. It is a promise that is relatively easy to keep. More complicated is meeting their promise to recruit rejectionist countries such as Saudi Arabia to the supporters' camp. Rice's immediate schedule is filled to bursting with meetings on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It's as if all the other problems of the world have been resolved. During the second part of her short visit to the Middle East, she is expected to attend a meeting of the Quartet with its representative, Tony Blair, during the gathering of the UN General Assembly in New York; one with Arab representatives; another with the donor nations to the Palestinian Authority and one with the Gulf states. In October she will return to Israel.
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Maybe all this is a sign that Rice is serious in her intention to enlist the world in supporting the "bi": possibly a sign that the talk about the "bi" is no more than camouflage for an attempt at a more blatant intervention, an unnecessary push that she will give Abbas, and mostly Olmert, during their meeting. After all, Rice has put herself in an undesirable situation: if Olmert and Abbas succeed in their talks, they will get the credit for the work and she will be credited with assisting. If they fail - and by extension cause her summit to fail - the embarrassment will be registered only to her name. We can praise Rice for being willing to take such a risk. Even more, it is possible to question the wisdom in giving so much weight to a plan in which the external actors are beyond her control. Besides Olmert and Abbas - a rather fragile support structure - Rice is basing her future success on another flimsy stalk: Saudi Arabia. The House Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia, headed by Congressman Gary Ackerman, held a hearing entitled "U.S. Relations with Saudi Arabia: oil, anxiety and ambivalence." If Rice was did not ask for this hearing, she must certainly depend on it. Its declared aim is to understand how the arms deal worth billions promised to the Saudis by the Bush administration will affect their future support in shaping Iraq, in stopping Iran and in peaceful relations between Israel and the Palestinians. The Saudis are supposed to pick up on the hint: If they do not attend the peace summit the Congress may raise obstacles on the arms deal. These are the first signs of what will happen in the coming weeks. A lively Middle Eastern bazaar, at the end of which, we hope, will emerge some form of document and some kind of meeting. In view of the historical record, Welch said, I understand the reservations. But there are reservations that come before, concerning the ability to produce such a document, and much bigger ones that come after, concerning the ability to move from document to implementation. Shlomo Brom, of the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, wrote the following assessment in a paper published this week: "Even if the November meeting produces no real achievement, it will probably not have the same dramatic aftermath as did the failure of Camp David." This, too, is some sort of consolation.
By Shmuel Rosner
WASHINGTON - The word "bilateral" was mentioned nine times within 30 minutes during Monday's press briefing by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Welch. Nine times, eight of them were in reference to the talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen]. This is a pretty clear answer - at least an official answer - to all those who wondered who was responsible for furthering the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks: "an effective bilateral process," "a bilateral process that is productive," "we want a constructive and effective bilateral process," "are willing to envision bilateral negotiations," "galvanize this bilateral discussion." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives today for another round of talks, not the last one, before the summit, or "meeting" for furthering the peace process, scheduled for later this fall. Judging from her assistant's statements, she is meant to serve as a training wheel for a two-wheeled vehicle. Since the day President George Bush made his address on the Middle East early this summer, and to the point in which expectations were lowered, by summer's end, the formula has remained unchanged. The bottom line is that everything depends on the "bi," in other words Olmert and Abu Mazen. If they want, they will move forward. Bush and Rice promise to support them. It is a promise that is relatively easy to keep. More complicated is meeting their promise to recruit rejectionist countries such as Saudi Arabia to the supporters' camp. Rice's immediate schedule is filled to bursting with meetings on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It's as if all the other problems of the world have been resolved. During the second part of her short visit to the Middle East, she is expected to attend a meeting of the Quartet with its representative, Tony Blair, during the gathering of the UN General Assembly in New York; one with Arab representatives; another with the donor nations to the Palestinian Authority and one with the Gulf states. In October she will return to Israel.
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Maybe all this is a sign that Rice is serious in her intention to enlist the world in supporting the "bi": possibly a sign that the talk about the "bi" is no more than camouflage for an attempt at a more blatant intervention, an unnecessary push that she will give Abbas, and mostly Olmert, during their meeting. After all, Rice has put herself in an undesirable situation: if Olmert and Abbas succeed in their talks, they will get the credit for the work and she will be credited with assisting. If they fail - and by extension cause her summit to fail - the embarrassment will be registered only to her name. We can praise Rice for being willing to take such a risk. Even more, it is possible to question the wisdom in giving so much weight to a plan in which the external actors are beyond her control. Besides Olmert and Abbas - a rather fragile support structure - Rice is basing her future success on another flimsy stalk: Saudi Arabia. The House Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia, headed by Congressman Gary Ackerman, held a hearing entitled "U.S. Relations with Saudi Arabia: oil, anxiety and ambivalence." If Rice was did not ask for this hearing, she must certainly depend on it. Its declared aim is to understand how the arms deal worth billions promised to the Saudis by the Bush administration will affect their future support in shaping Iraq, in stopping Iran and in peaceful relations between Israel and the Palestinians. The Saudis are supposed to pick up on the hint: If they do not attend the peace summit the Congress may raise obstacles on the arms deal. These are the first signs of what will happen in the coming weeks. A lively Middle Eastern bazaar, at the end of which, we hope, will emerge some form of document and some kind of meeting. In view of the historical record, Welch said, I understand the reservations. But there are reservations that come before, concerning the ability to produce such a document, and much bigger ones that come after, concerning the ability to move from document to implementation. Shlomo Brom, of the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, wrote the following assessment in a paper published this week: "Even if the November meeting produces no real achievement, it will probably not have the same dramatic aftermath as did the failure of Camp David." This, too, is some sort of consolation.
Carter Iran not yet a realistic threat to Israel
Former US president says attack by Islamic Republic on Jewish State 'almost inconceivable', stating distance and superior Israeli capabilties Former President Jimmy Carter said that he does not think Iran poses an immediate threat to Israel,
despite claims by Iranian officials that they have drawn up bombing plans if the Jewish state should attack.
Speaking on Wednesday at Emory University, Carter said Israel's superior military power and distance from Iran likely are enough to discourage an actual attack.
"Iran is quite distant from Israel," Said Carter, 83. "I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would
commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel."
Iranian threat
Report: Iran draws up plans to bomb Israel / Associated Press
'We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake,' Iran's deputy air force chief says
Full Story
Iran's deputy air force commander said Wednesday that Israel is within range of Iran's medium-range missiles and bombers and that Tehran would strike back if Israel "makes a silly mistake." The White House said the comments almost sound geared toward provoking a fight and Israeli officials said they take the threats seriously.
Responding to a question from an Emory student during a public forum, Carter did not dismiss the desire of the Iranian government to attack Israel, noting a nuclear program Iran's leaders claim is to fuel nuclear reactors, not make weapons.
"Obviously, we all hope we can do whatever we can to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power," Carter said. Carter said unease between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is a far greater threat to the nation's security than Iran.
He criticized President George W. Bush's administration for not doing enough to broker peace in the region.
"Since President Clinton made his heroic effort at Camp David, there hasn't been a single day of peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis," he said.
Carter spoke roughly a year after he completed his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". Jewish groups and other critics condemned Carter for comparing Israeli actions in Palestine to the oppression under South Africa's apartheid regime.
Carter said he chose the title to be provocative, not inflammatory, and that he hoped to encourage debate over Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
In a new afterword to editions of the book released this month, Carter criticizes the lack of "balanced debate" in the US about the Middle East and warns officials against being "seen as knee-jerk supporters of every action and policy" of Israel's government.
despite claims by Iranian officials that they have drawn up bombing plans if the Jewish state should attack.
Speaking on Wednesday at Emory University, Carter said Israel's superior military power and distance from Iran likely are enough to discourage an actual attack.
"Iran is quite distant from Israel," Said Carter, 83. "I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would
commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel."
Iranian threat
Report: Iran draws up plans to bomb Israel / Associated Press
'We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake,' Iran's deputy air force chief says
Full Story
Iran's deputy air force commander said Wednesday that Israel is within range of Iran's medium-range missiles and bombers and that Tehran would strike back if Israel "makes a silly mistake." The White House said the comments almost sound geared toward provoking a fight and Israeli officials said they take the threats seriously.
Responding to a question from an Emory student during a public forum, Carter did not dismiss the desire of the Iranian government to attack Israel, noting a nuclear program Iran's leaders claim is to fuel nuclear reactors, not make weapons.
"Obviously, we all hope we can do whatever we can to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power," Carter said. Carter said unease between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is a far greater threat to the nation's security than Iran.
He criticized President George W. Bush's administration for not doing enough to broker peace in the region.
"Since President Clinton made his heroic effort at Camp David, there hasn't been a single day of peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis," he said.
Carter spoke roughly a year after he completed his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". Jewish groups and other critics condemned Carter for comparing Israeli actions in Palestine to the oppression under South Africa's apartheid regime.
Carter said he chose the title to be provocative, not inflammatory, and that he hoped to encourage debate over Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
In a new afterword to editions of the book released this month, Carter criticizes the lack of "balanced debate" in the US about the Middle East and warns officials against being "seen as knee-jerk supporters of every action and policy" of Israel's government.
Siyam warns Fatah against targeting Hamas leaders
GAZA, PIC-- Former PA interior minister and Hamas senior official MP Sa'aeed Siyam has warned Wednesday Fatah's leadership against harming any Hamas political leaders in Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He unmasked authenticated reports that Fatah leadership was planning to target Hamas political leaders in a bid to destabilize security condition in Gaza Strip.
"A number of those [Fatah] leaders are in Gaza strip and the others are in the West Bank; yet, we want to make it clear for them in both regions that the hand of Hamas will reach them in the event they think of committing any foolish acts of this kind", Siyam underlined in statement he made Wednesday.
However, the veteran Hamas political leader confirmed his Movement's keenness on holding unconditional inter-Palestinian national dialogue and on preserving unity of the Palestinian land.
But he ruled out possible Hamas-Fatah talks before the start of the US-planned "peace conference" this coming autumn, affirming that Hamas Movement had withdrawn the authority it gave to PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to handle political negotiations with the Israeli occupation government.
"Hamas will not anymore be bound by any agreement Abbas might sign with the Israelis while the Palestinian arena is drowning in political division", Siyam underscored.
He also unveiled that the legitimate PA caretaker government established the "nucleus" of the new PA national security apparatus comprising 400 elements who formerly worked for the same apparatus under the former unruly set up of the apparatus under Fatah leadership.
According to Siyam, the national security apparatus will be under the leadership of former PA security officer Hussien Abu A'athra, and that the apparatus will be in-charge of the borders and crossings.
Yet, he explained that Hamas wasn’t keen on controlling those apparatuses, and that the Movement's main objective was to reestablish PA security apparatuses properly based on national and professional basis and away from factional, personal, and external influence.
Furthermore, the Hamas political leader reaffirmed his Movement's adherence to the Cairo declaration, national harmony document, and the Makka agreement that were signed between Fatah and Hamas.
For his part, Islam Shahwan, the spokesman of the PA interior ministry's executive force that Siyam founded during his term as an interior minister, affirmed that security condition in Gaza was "calm and under control".
He also vehemently denied reports suggesting that a "big" explosion had rocked the executive force headquarters in Gaza city, explaining that the incident was caused by an electric short-circuit.
"No one was harmed in the incident as PA civil defense men rushed to the place and put off the fire", Shahwan elaborated.
Seconding Siyam's remarks, Shahwan unveiled that his department possesses first-hand information on a group of Fatah leaders planning to sabotage the calm in the Gaza Strip, but he didn’t give details on that group, saying that investigation and data gathering were underway.
"A number of those [Fatah] leaders are in Gaza strip and the others are in the West Bank; yet, we want to make it clear for them in both regions that the hand of Hamas will reach them in the event they think of committing any foolish acts of this kind", Siyam underlined in statement he made Wednesday.
However, the veteran Hamas political leader confirmed his Movement's keenness on holding unconditional inter-Palestinian national dialogue and on preserving unity of the Palestinian land.
But he ruled out possible Hamas-Fatah talks before the start of the US-planned "peace conference" this coming autumn, affirming that Hamas Movement had withdrawn the authority it gave to PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to handle political negotiations with the Israeli occupation government.
"Hamas will not anymore be bound by any agreement Abbas might sign with the Israelis while the Palestinian arena is drowning in political division", Siyam underscored.
He also unveiled that the legitimate PA caretaker government established the "nucleus" of the new PA national security apparatus comprising 400 elements who formerly worked for the same apparatus under the former unruly set up of the apparatus under Fatah leadership.
According to Siyam, the national security apparatus will be under the leadership of former PA security officer Hussien Abu A'athra, and that the apparatus will be in-charge of the borders and crossings.
Yet, he explained that Hamas wasn’t keen on controlling those apparatuses, and that the Movement's main objective was to reestablish PA security apparatuses properly based on national and professional basis and away from factional, personal, and external influence.
Furthermore, the Hamas political leader reaffirmed his Movement's adherence to the Cairo declaration, national harmony document, and the Makka agreement that were signed between Fatah and Hamas.
For his part, Islam Shahwan, the spokesman of the PA interior ministry's executive force that Siyam founded during his term as an interior minister, affirmed that security condition in Gaza was "calm and under control".
He also vehemently denied reports suggesting that a "big" explosion had rocked the executive force headquarters in Gaza city, explaining that the incident was caused by an electric short-circuit.
"No one was harmed in the incident as PA civil defense men rushed to the place and put off the fire", Shahwan elaborated.
Seconding Siyam's remarks, Shahwan unveiled that his department possesses first-hand information on a group of Fatah leaders planning to sabotage the calm in the Gaza Strip, but he didn’t give details on that group, saying that investigation and data gathering were underway.
Freedom Speech in Israel-it is disappearing here
A public gathering last night in Jerusalem went array and you did not hear about it. Two groups held their demonstrations relatively close to one another. Peace Now had a demonstration closer to Olmert's house. The Women in Green held their demonstration at French Square which is opposite the Kings Hotel at the corner of Ramban and King George. Women in Green finished our demonstration and were ready to disperse when the police suddenly said that they wanted to arrest Nadia (Nadia Matar of WIG).
A heavyset policeman was standing next to me and seemed to be running the show. I asked him why he had ordered the action and he said that it was because she 'had a history'. There were about 20 people standing around and we all were shocked. Nadia had done nothing wrong; we were all witness to this. If they had thought that she had why did they wait until everything was quiet and the main part of the crowd had left (there were probably 200 people there at the height of the rally and signs were distributed that said "Israel is not Olmert's Real Estate"/ "Condoleezza Rice Go Home",and the like). It was obvious that the police knew that had more people been present there would have been stiff opposition to their even approaching Nadia who was just sitting on a wall and not doing anything.
There were about a dozen police there and suddenly the heavyset one charged into the group and directed others to take Nadia. She was dragged by 4 of them -two held her legs and two her arms - and another woman who tried to protect her was also taken into custody. Both were practically thrown into a van with others following and trying to prevent this - to no avail. There was no effort to protect their modesty; Nadia's cap also fell off
I had never seen this kind of police violence - although I had heard of it. A man in the group had a van and a bunch of us piled into it and went to the police station in Talpiot Interesting to me was the fact that Hezbollah can have open rallies in the US and make all kinds of threats - but freedom of speech is not permitted in Israel.
This is a developing story-more to follow
A heavyset policeman was standing next to me and seemed to be running the show. I asked him why he had ordered the action and he said that it was because she 'had a history'. There were about 20 people standing around and we all were shocked. Nadia had done nothing wrong; we were all witness to this. If they had thought that she had why did they wait until everything was quiet and the main part of the crowd had left (there were probably 200 people there at the height of the rally and signs were distributed that said "Israel is not Olmert's Real Estate"/ "Condoleezza Rice Go Home",and the like). It was obvious that the police knew that had more people been present there would have been stiff opposition to their even approaching Nadia who was just sitting on a wall and not doing anything.
There were about a dozen police there and suddenly the heavyset one charged into the group and directed others to take Nadia. She was dragged by 4 of them -two held her legs and two her arms - and another woman who tried to protect her was also taken into custody. Both were practically thrown into a van with others following and trying to prevent this - to no avail. There was no effort to protect their modesty; Nadia's cap also fell off
I had never seen this kind of police violence - although I had heard of it. A man in the group had a van and a bunch of us piled into it and went to the police station in Talpiot Interesting to me was the fact that Hezbollah can have open rallies in the US and make all kinds of threats - but freedom of speech is not permitted in Israel.
This is a developing story-more to follow
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
PA government freezes top Hamas lawmakers' wages
The government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has frozen the salaries of leading parliamentarians from Hamas, including the deposed Prime Minister, as a warning not to "conduct illegal activities," government officials said on Wednesday. The 21 parliamentarians are prominent Hamas members from the Gaza Strip, including ousted premier Ismail Haniyeh, and senior hardline Hamas member, Mahmoud Zahar. They did not receive their usual $3,000 (€2,196) monthly salary at the end of August, although legislators from Abbas' Fatah were paid.
Less-prominent figures among Hamas' 74 lawmakers _ including the group's three women delegates in the Gaza Strip _ also received their paychecks.
The wage embargo was the latest blow in the power struggle between bitter enemies Fatah and Hamas. They have been at loggerheads since heavily-armed Hamas militiamen seized the Gaza Strip in mid-June after thrashing pro-Fatah security forces.
"It was a warning to them, that they must act according to their national responsibilities, not according to political considerations which have caused them to conduct illegal activities," Cabinet minister Ashraf Ajrami, said of the Hamas wage freeze.
He said the salaries were "delayed," not cut off indefinitely.
The international community maintains an aid boycott on Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel or forego violence and has been listed by the US, Europe and Israel as a terrorist organization.
As a result, Abbas' West Bank-based government, which receives money from international donors and tax revenues collected by Israel, pays most of the Gaza Strip's bills, including most civil servants' salaries. Hamas' rival Gaza administration struggles to get by.
Hamas said Fatah was using its control of the national pursestrings to stifle ideological dissent, and by singling out certain elected members of parliament was endangering the standing of the entire house.
"It is not for the President or (Prime Minister Salaam) Fayaad to intervene in the matters of parliamentarians or their immunity or their political position," said Taher Nunu, a spokesman for Haniyeh. "It's a blow to the legislative institution itself...and a dangerous precedent for the Palestinian people."
A staffer for a Hamas parliamentarian whose salary was frozen, said the move would also hit dozens of lawmakers' aides and bodyguards.
Abbas' government had previously stopped payment of the salaries of thousands of civil servants considered Hamas loyalists.
In the tit-for-tat dispute Hamas has come down on Gaza public officials close to Fatah, arresting senior hospital administrators, among others.
Less-prominent figures among Hamas' 74 lawmakers _ including the group's three women delegates in the Gaza Strip _ also received their paychecks.
The wage embargo was the latest blow in the power struggle between bitter enemies Fatah and Hamas. They have been at loggerheads since heavily-armed Hamas militiamen seized the Gaza Strip in mid-June after thrashing pro-Fatah security forces.
"It was a warning to them, that they must act according to their national responsibilities, not according to political considerations which have caused them to conduct illegal activities," Cabinet minister Ashraf Ajrami, said of the Hamas wage freeze.
He said the salaries were "delayed," not cut off indefinitely.
The international community maintains an aid boycott on Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel or forego violence and has been listed by the US, Europe and Israel as a terrorist organization.
As a result, Abbas' West Bank-based government, which receives money from international donors and tax revenues collected by Israel, pays most of the Gaza Strip's bills, including most civil servants' salaries. Hamas' rival Gaza administration struggles to get by.
Hamas said Fatah was using its control of the national pursestrings to stifle ideological dissent, and by singling out certain elected members of parliament was endangering the standing of the entire house.
"It is not for the President or (Prime Minister Salaam) Fayaad to intervene in the matters of parliamentarians or their immunity or their political position," said Taher Nunu, a spokesman for Haniyeh. "It's a blow to the legislative institution itself...and a dangerous precedent for the Palestinian people."
A staffer for a Hamas parliamentarian whose salary was frozen, said the move would also hit dozens of lawmakers' aides and bodyguards.
Abbas' government had previously stopped payment of the salaries of thousands of civil servants considered Hamas loyalists.
In the tit-for-tat dispute Hamas has come down on Gaza public officials close to Fatah, arresting senior hospital administrators, among others.
Syria-what are you thinking? Have you lost all ...?
Lebanon: 7 dead, including Lebanese MP A powerful bomb killed a pro-government Parliament member and six others Wednesday in a Christian suburb east of the Lebanese capital, security officials said.
The blast targeted Antoine Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The Voice of Lebanon radio station, which is owned by the Phalange party, also confirmed Ghanem's death. The identities of the others killed were not immediately known.
The attack occurred six days before Parliament was scheduled to meet to elect a new president in a deeply divisive vote. Ghanem is the eighth prominent anti-Syrian figure assassinated since 2005, including three lawmakers from the majority, reducing the ruling party's margin in Parliament.
A local television station, LBC, said 20 people were wounded in the blast, which occurred in the Sin el-Fil district. TV footage showed severe damage in nearby buildings and several cars on fire. The explosion sent a cloud of gray smoke over the area, and blood covered several parts of the street.
The assassination of anti-Syrian figures began with former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a massive car bombing that year. Syria's opponents in Lebanon have accused Damascus of being behind the killings, a claim Syria denies.
Hariri's death sparked massive protests that helped bring an end to Syria's nearly 30-year domination of Lebanon. Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005, and a government led by anti-Syrian politicians was elected.
Since then, the government of US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has been locked in a power struggle with the opposition, led by Syria's ally Hizbullah. Government supporters have accused Syria of seeking to end Saniora's slim majority in parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition.
After the assassination of Lebanese Parliament member Walid Eido in June, many majority legislators had to leave the country to spend the summer abroad for security reasons. Others who stayed in Lebanon took extra security.
A landmark hotel near the Parliament building in downtown Beirut has reportedly been rented for majority members to protect them during the 60-day presidential election process, which begins Tuesday.
The blast targeted Antoine Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The Voice of Lebanon radio station, which is owned by the Phalange party, also confirmed Ghanem's death. The identities of the others killed were not immediately known.
The attack occurred six days before Parliament was scheduled to meet to elect a new president in a deeply divisive vote. Ghanem is the eighth prominent anti-Syrian figure assassinated since 2005, including three lawmakers from the majority, reducing the ruling party's margin in Parliament.
A local television station, LBC, said 20 people were wounded in the blast, which occurred in the Sin el-Fil district. TV footage showed severe damage in nearby buildings and several cars on fire. The explosion sent a cloud of gray smoke over the area, and blood covered several parts of the street.
The assassination of anti-Syrian figures began with former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a massive car bombing that year. Syria's opponents in Lebanon have accused Damascus of being behind the killings, a claim Syria denies.
Hariri's death sparked massive protests that helped bring an end to Syria's nearly 30-year domination of Lebanon. Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005, and a government led by anti-Syrian politicians was elected.
Since then, the government of US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has been locked in a power struggle with the opposition, led by Syria's ally Hizbullah. Government supporters have accused Syria of seeking to end Saniora's slim majority in parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition.
After the assassination of Lebanese Parliament member Walid Eido in June, many majority legislators had to leave the country to spend the summer abroad for security reasons. Others who stayed in Lebanon took extra security.
A landmark hotel near the Parliament building in downtown Beirut has reportedly been rented for majority members to protect them during the 60-day presidential election process, which begins Tuesday.
Part One Greek Unorthodox
The Holy Land: the place where Christianity was born, and has existed continuously from the beginning; yet the Greek Orthodox Church has moved in to key holy sites and treated them as its own fiefdom.
The Holy Land: the place where Christianity was born, and has existed continuously from the beginning; yet the Greek Orthodox Church has moved in to key holy sites and treated them as its own fiefdom. In doing so, it has alienated the local congregation of Palestinian Christians to the point where it's accused of running a property business, not a religious institution.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
This allegation coincides with a whole outburst of financial, sexual, political and legal scandal that's affected the Church, not only in Jerusalem and the Holy Land but in Greece itself. We focus on some land deals in Jerusalem which have profound political, financial and moral implications; they even impact on the larger Middle East issue as the land in question was a key discussion point when Clinton, Arafat and Barak met at Camp David. The Greek Orthodox Church is the second-largest landowner in Jerusalem after the Israeli state and this property business is presided over by a secretive organisation of Greek bishops called the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre - it owns the leases both of the prime minister's residence and the Knesset, which has just expired.
The Holy Land: the place where Christianity was born, and has existed continuously from the beginning; yet the Greek Orthodox Church has moved in to key holy sites and treated them as its own fiefdom. In doing so, it has alienated the local congregation of Palestinian Christians to the point where it's accused of running a property business, not a religious institution.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
This allegation coincides with a whole outburst of financial, sexual, political and legal scandal that's affected the Church, not only in Jerusalem and the Holy Land but in Greece itself. We focus on some land deals in Jerusalem which have profound political, financial and moral implications; they even impact on the larger Middle East issue as the land in question was a key discussion point when Clinton, Arafat and Barak met at Camp David. The Greek Orthodox Church is the second-largest landowner in Jerusalem after the Israeli state and this property business is presided over by a secretive organisation of Greek bishops called the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre - it owns the leases both of the prime minister's residence and the Knesset, which has just expired.
Iran promises 'response' to Zionism's supporters on Oct. 12
Supporters of the "Zionist regime" will receive a response from Iran during the world Qods Day rallies on October 12, the IRNA news agency reported government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham, saying Wednesday. Qods Day is held each year on the last Friday of Ramadan as a day to voice Islamic opposition to Zionism.
"The US loses all opportunities to cooperate with regional and other world states by trying to support a regime [the Zionist regime] which is now at its weakest political and social position," Elham said. The spokesman, who was addressing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Israel, did not specify what an Iranian "response" would entail.
He also warned that Washington's insistence on its wrong policies and arrogant approaches would have no result "but further political disgrace" for itself.
Elham's remarks came hours after a report by the Fars news agency that the deputy commander of Iran's air force said that plans have been drawn up to bomb Israel if it attacked Iran.
"We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake," deputy air force chief, Gen. Mohammad Alavi was quoted as telling Fars in an interview.
The Fars news agency confirmed the quotes when contacted by the Associated Press, but would not provide a tape of the interview. The Iranian Air Force, for its part, had no immediate comment on the interview.
The announcement comes amid rising tensions in the region with the United States calling for a new round of UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and Israeli planes having recently overflown Syria's territory.
Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar, however, did tell the official IRNA news agency Wednesday that "we keep various options open to respond to threats ... we will make use of them if required."
Iran has threatened in the past that Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target if attacked by the United States. But Alavi's comments were the first word of specific contingency plans for striking back at Israel.
Many in the region fear Israel could launch air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.
Alavi also warned that Israel was within Iran's medium-range missiles and its fighter bombers, while maintaining that Israel was not strong enough to launch an aerial attack against Iran.
"The whole territory of this regime is within the range of our missiles. Moreover, we can attack their territory with our fighter bombers as a response to any attack," the general said.
An upgraded version of Iran's Shihab-3 missile has a range of 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) capable of reaching Israel and carrying a nuclear warhead.
Alavi said Iran's radar bases were monitoring activities at the country's borders around the clock and boasted that it had the capability to confront US cruise missiles.
"One of the issues enemies make publicity about is their cruise missiles. Now, we possess the necessary systems to confront them (cruise missiles)," Alavi was quoted as saying.
"The US loses all opportunities to cooperate with regional and other world states by trying to support a regime [the Zionist regime] which is now at its weakest political and social position," Elham said. The spokesman, who was addressing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Israel, did not specify what an Iranian "response" would entail.
He also warned that Washington's insistence on its wrong policies and arrogant approaches would have no result "but further political disgrace" for itself.
Elham's remarks came hours after a report by the Fars news agency that the deputy commander of Iran's air force said that plans have been drawn up to bomb Israel if it attacked Iran.
"We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake," deputy air force chief, Gen. Mohammad Alavi was quoted as telling Fars in an interview.
The Fars news agency confirmed the quotes when contacted by the Associated Press, but would not provide a tape of the interview. The Iranian Air Force, for its part, had no immediate comment on the interview.
The announcement comes amid rising tensions in the region with the United States calling for a new round of UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and Israeli planes having recently overflown Syria's territory.
Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar, however, did tell the official IRNA news agency Wednesday that "we keep various options open to respond to threats ... we will make use of them if required."
Iran has threatened in the past that Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target if attacked by the United States. But Alavi's comments were the first word of specific contingency plans for striking back at Israel.
Many in the region fear Israel could launch air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.
Alavi also warned that Israel was within Iran's medium-range missiles and its fighter bombers, while maintaining that Israel was not strong enough to launch an aerial attack against Iran.
"The whole territory of this regime is within the range of our missiles. Moreover, we can attack their territory with our fighter bombers as a response to any attack," the general said.
An upgraded version of Iran's Shihab-3 missile has a range of 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) capable of reaching Israel and carrying a nuclear warhead.
Alavi said Iran's radar bases were monitoring activities at the country's borders around the clock and boasted that it had the capability to confront US cruise missiles.
"One of the issues enemies make publicity about is their cruise missiles. Now, we possess the necessary systems to confront them (cruise missiles)," Alavi was quoted as saying.
Part Three Islam in Israel
Comment: An Arab mini-series-here is their perspective;When Israel was created in 1948, the Palestinians were scattered and divided across many lands; today, the Palestinians who now make up 20 per cent of the Israeli population are growing ever closer to their fellows in the Occupied Territories.
When Israel was created in 1948, the Palestinians were scattered and divided across many lands; today, the Palestinians who now make up 20 per cent of the Israeli population are growing ever closer to their fellows in the Occupied Territories. Increasingly they are being drawn together by the Islamic faith as a religious, cultural and political force. At its centre is the most contested piece of land on earth: the site of the al-Aqsa mosque or, as the Israelis know it, the Temple of Solomon.
Al-Aqsa Dome in Israel
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories can no longer get to Jerusalem because of the Wall, so the Islamic movement organises busloads of Israeli Palestinians every week to come to attend the mosque and help sustain the battered economy of the Old City. This is the symbolic heart of the health, welfare and education projects that have made the Islamic movement a fast-growing political force; its supporters have elected mayors of Arab towns and members of the Knesset. These representatives also act as a bridge to Hamas, the elected leadership of the Occupied Territories. We show how, on both sides of the wall, Islam is becoming the dominant voice of Palestinian politics.
When Israel was created in 1948, the Palestinians were scattered and divided across many lands; today, the Palestinians who now make up 20 per cent of the Israeli population are growing ever closer to their fellows in the Occupied Territories. Increasingly they are being drawn together by the Islamic faith as a religious, cultural and political force. At its centre is the most contested piece of land on earth: the site of the al-Aqsa mosque or, as the Israelis know it, the Temple of Solomon.
Al-Aqsa Dome in Israel
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories can no longer get to Jerusalem because of the Wall, so the Islamic movement organises busloads of Israeli Palestinians every week to come to attend the mosque and help sustain the battered economy of the Old City. This is the symbolic heart of the health, welfare and education projects that have made the Islamic movement a fast-growing political force; its supporters have elected mayors of Arab towns and members of the Knesset. These representatives also act as a bridge to Hamas, the elected leadership of the Occupied Territories. We show how, on both sides of the wall, Islam is becoming the dominant voice of Palestinian politics.
Abbas under pressure to stay away from peace conference
Comment: This is from an Arab media source Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is under pressure from his Fatah faction not to attend a US-led Middle East conference Arab states were not interested in the conference as a "gimmick." In the Occupied West Bank, a Palestinian fighter and an Israeli soldier were killed in a shootout Tuesday.
Aides said Abbas believes preparations for the gathering, expected around mid-November, must continue. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives on Wednesday for talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert, who has met regularly with Abbas in a bid to find common ground ahead of the conference on Palestinian statehood, has sought to lower expectations, saying Israel wanted a joint declaration out of the deliberations rather than a binding deal.
Abbas is seeking a more explicit "framework agreement" with a timeline for implementation on the core "final-status" issues of borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
His aides said Fatah, which holds sway only in the West Bank after Hamas Islamists took control of the Gaza Strip in June, is pressing Abbas to skip the meeting unless achievements and wide international participation are assured."
"We can live without a conference, but we cannot live with a conference that fails," one aide said.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official, said Palestinians should not participate in a meeting that does not include "all concerned Arab parties," naming Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
"There must be political substance to the meeting and a clear agenda, with clear outcomes concerning final-status," Ahmad said.
The internal pressure on Abbas represents another challenge for Rice, who will try to spur the Palestinian leader and Olmert to narrow their differences in time for a gathering whose goals are still unclear.
Palestinian officials have raised the possibility the conference could be postponed if there was no meeting of minds.
US officials said Rice wants to see a commitment they can deliver enough at the conference to draw in key regional player Saudi Arabia, which has put Washington on notice it is not interested in coming unless substantive issues are addressed.
Arab diplomats have accused the US administration of inadequately preparing for the conference and suggested its aim will be only to create the illusion of progress toward peace.
"The conference should not be just one of those meetings for a handshake and a final communique that reflects general positions. We need specifics," Arab League chief Amr Moussa told Reuters at his Cairo headquarters. "This time if it is only gimmicks, we are not interested."
Israeli President Shimon Peres said relations between Abbas and Olmert were "in very good shape," but "that does not mean they have concluded the main problems. I believe while not all problems are solved and not all roads clear, by and large the chances to conclude a process of peace are higher than ever."
"There is a window of opportunity, and I say smilingly, the window is made of glass and we have to be careful not to break it," he added.
Pro-Western Gulf Arab states do not want the Middle East peace conference called by Washington to be aimed at helping get it out of "the Iraqi impasse," the oil-rich bloc's chief said on Tuesday.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states "welcome any attempt to reach a just and comprehensive solution of the Palestinian issue and settle the Arab-Israeli conflict," Abdel-Rahman al-Attiyah said in remarks released at GCC headquarters in Riyadh.
He said he hoped the proposed conference will address core issues and will "not be aimed at linking movement in the Middle East peace process to developments in Iraq in a bid to attract Arab states to a conference whose real goal is to help [the US] get out of the Iraqi impasse."
Attiyah did not elaborate on his suggestion that Gulf monarchies, which have close ties with the United States, fear Washington might use the conference to ease its difficulties in war-torn Iraq, where the continuing insurgency is fueling mounting domestic criticism.
His remarks came barely a week after GCC heavyweight Saudi Arabia said it might skip the international conference if the meeting is not comprehensive and does not tackle core issues of the conflict with Israel.
An Israeli soldier and an armed Palestinian were killed in a shootout at the Ein Bet Ilmeh camp, near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Palestinian ambulances were barred from entering the camp, witnesses said.
The incident began before dawn when troops in over 20 armored jeeps roared into the camp and were met by gunfire.
The army said troops were involved in exchanges of fire and encountered stone-throwing riots during the raid. One Israeli soldier was killed and another slightly wounded, the army said. Palestinian residents said one armed youth, 17, was killed in the shooting.
The army said it also arrested three suspected militants.
Captain Noa Meir said the army was acting on specific information of militants planning "to execute terrorist attacks."
Meir called Nablus "the capital of terror in the West Bank" and said that 10 weapons labs have been discovered in the city this year.In 2006, 117 out of 187 potential suicide bombers arrested by the army hailed from Nablus, she added.
Witnesses claimed that soldiers used a resident as a "human shield" as they moved house-to-house in search of suspected militants. Meir said the army was looking into the charge.
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled the practice is illegal.
The army says it has respected the ruling. But Palestinians and human-rights groups say that in some cases the army has continued to use civilians as human shields during operations in crowded urban areas - and at least one instance has been caught on camera.
Troops imposed a curfew in the crowded camp of 5,000 and searched from house to house, knocking down walls to get from one building to the next, witnesses said.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that the dead youth was a member, identifying him as Mohammad Ridah Khaled.
"We will follow in your path, Mohammad, until we expel the military occupation and achieve our own state," the group said.
Israeli authorities said they also foiled a plot by a Hamas militant to attack Israeli tourists at a hotel in neighboring Jordan, Olmert's office announced Tuesday.
A statement said that Khader Shkeir, from the West Bank village of Ein Arik, had been arrested on July 31. It gave no reason for the delay in announcing the arrest.
The statement said Shkeir admitted to planning the attack during a visit to Jordan in 2005 with an accomplice. It said the suspects chose the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman and a second hotel as their targets.
According to the statement, the pair planned to board a bus carrying tourists to the hotels and carry out a mass shooting attack. It said they bought two AK-47 automatic weapons for the attack, but the plan went awry when Jordanian authorities arrested Shkeir on suspicion of militant activity and deported him to the West Bank.
The statement said that Shkeir continued to work with Hamas after returning to the West Bank. Shkeir has not been charged. There was no immediate reaction from Jordan.
Hamas officials said that they were not aware of the arrest and could not confirm whether Shkeir was a member of the group.
But the officials cast doubt on the Israeli allegations, saying the group limits its military operations to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Still, ties between Hamas and Jordan have been strained.
In May 2006, the Jordanian government accused Hamas of plotting attacks in Jordan and smuggling arms into the country.
At the time, 20 Hamas suspects were arrested and later confessed on Jordanian television to plotting attacks.
But human-rights groups have questioned the confessions, pointing to incidences of torture among Jordanian security officials. - Agencies
Aides said Abbas believes preparations for the gathering, expected around mid-November, must continue. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives on Wednesday for talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert, who has met regularly with Abbas in a bid to find common ground ahead of the conference on Palestinian statehood, has sought to lower expectations, saying Israel wanted a joint declaration out of the deliberations rather than a binding deal.
Abbas is seeking a more explicit "framework agreement" with a timeline for implementation on the core "final-status" issues of borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
His aides said Fatah, which holds sway only in the West Bank after Hamas Islamists took control of the Gaza Strip in June, is pressing Abbas to skip the meeting unless achievements and wide international participation are assured."
"We can live without a conference, but we cannot live with a conference that fails," one aide said.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official, said Palestinians should not participate in a meeting that does not include "all concerned Arab parties," naming Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
"There must be political substance to the meeting and a clear agenda, with clear outcomes concerning final-status," Ahmad said.
The internal pressure on Abbas represents another challenge for Rice, who will try to spur the Palestinian leader and Olmert to narrow their differences in time for a gathering whose goals are still unclear.
Palestinian officials have raised the possibility the conference could be postponed if there was no meeting of minds.
US officials said Rice wants to see a commitment they can deliver enough at the conference to draw in key regional player Saudi Arabia, which has put Washington on notice it is not interested in coming unless substantive issues are addressed.
Arab diplomats have accused the US administration of inadequately preparing for the conference and suggested its aim will be only to create the illusion of progress toward peace.
"The conference should not be just one of those meetings for a handshake and a final communique that reflects general positions. We need specifics," Arab League chief Amr Moussa told Reuters at his Cairo headquarters. "This time if it is only gimmicks, we are not interested."
Israeli President Shimon Peres said relations between Abbas and Olmert were "in very good shape," but "that does not mean they have concluded the main problems. I believe while not all problems are solved and not all roads clear, by and large the chances to conclude a process of peace are higher than ever."
"There is a window of opportunity, and I say smilingly, the window is made of glass and we have to be careful not to break it," he added.
Pro-Western Gulf Arab states do not want the Middle East peace conference called by Washington to be aimed at helping get it out of "the Iraqi impasse," the oil-rich bloc's chief said on Tuesday.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states "welcome any attempt to reach a just and comprehensive solution of the Palestinian issue and settle the Arab-Israeli conflict," Abdel-Rahman al-Attiyah said in remarks released at GCC headquarters in Riyadh.
He said he hoped the proposed conference will address core issues and will "not be aimed at linking movement in the Middle East peace process to developments in Iraq in a bid to attract Arab states to a conference whose real goal is to help [the US] get out of the Iraqi impasse."
Attiyah did not elaborate on his suggestion that Gulf monarchies, which have close ties with the United States, fear Washington might use the conference to ease its difficulties in war-torn Iraq, where the continuing insurgency is fueling mounting domestic criticism.
His remarks came barely a week after GCC heavyweight Saudi Arabia said it might skip the international conference if the meeting is not comprehensive and does not tackle core issues of the conflict with Israel.
An Israeli soldier and an armed Palestinian were killed in a shootout at the Ein Bet Ilmeh camp, near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Palestinian ambulances were barred from entering the camp, witnesses said.
The incident began before dawn when troops in over 20 armored jeeps roared into the camp and were met by gunfire.
The army said troops were involved in exchanges of fire and encountered stone-throwing riots during the raid. One Israeli soldier was killed and another slightly wounded, the army said. Palestinian residents said one armed youth, 17, was killed in the shooting.
The army said it also arrested three suspected militants.
Captain Noa Meir said the army was acting on specific information of militants planning "to execute terrorist attacks."
Meir called Nablus "the capital of terror in the West Bank" and said that 10 weapons labs have been discovered in the city this year.In 2006, 117 out of 187 potential suicide bombers arrested by the army hailed from Nablus, she added.
Witnesses claimed that soldiers used a resident as a "human shield" as they moved house-to-house in search of suspected militants. Meir said the army was looking into the charge.
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled the practice is illegal.
The army says it has respected the ruling. But Palestinians and human-rights groups say that in some cases the army has continued to use civilians as human shields during operations in crowded urban areas - and at least one instance has been caught on camera.
Troops imposed a curfew in the crowded camp of 5,000 and searched from house to house, knocking down walls to get from one building to the next, witnesses said.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that the dead youth was a member, identifying him as Mohammad Ridah Khaled.
"We will follow in your path, Mohammad, until we expel the military occupation and achieve our own state," the group said.
Israeli authorities said they also foiled a plot by a Hamas militant to attack Israeli tourists at a hotel in neighboring Jordan, Olmert's office announced Tuesday.
A statement said that Khader Shkeir, from the West Bank village of Ein Arik, had been arrested on July 31. It gave no reason for the delay in announcing the arrest.
The statement said Shkeir admitted to planning the attack during a visit to Jordan in 2005 with an accomplice. It said the suspects chose the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman and a second hotel as their targets.
According to the statement, the pair planned to board a bus carrying tourists to the hotels and carry out a mass shooting attack. It said they bought two AK-47 automatic weapons for the attack, but the plan went awry when Jordanian authorities arrested Shkeir on suspicion of militant activity and deported him to the West Bank.
The statement said that Shkeir continued to work with Hamas after returning to the West Bank. Shkeir has not been charged. There was no immediate reaction from Jordan.
Hamas officials said that they were not aware of the arrest and could not confirm whether Shkeir was a member of the group.
But the officials cast doubt on the Israeli allegations, saying the group limits its military operations to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Still, ties between Hamas and Jordan have been strained.
In May 2006, the Jordanian government accused Hamas of plotting attacks in Jordan and smuggling arms into the country.
At the time, 20 Hamas suspects were arrested and later confessed on Jordanian television to plotting attacks.
But human-rights groups have questioned the confessions, pointing to incidences of torture among Jordanian security officials. - Agencies
MP Odwan warns of Rice's pressure on Abbas, Arab states over conference
Comment: An Arab point of view of Ms. Rice's upcoming visit
GAZA, (PIC)--Former PA minister and Hamas senior political leader MP Dr. Atef Odwan has expressed pessimism over the anticipated visit of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice "It is expected that Rice will pressure PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli premier Ehud Olmert into introducing compromises in a bid to attract and persuade reluctant Arab states into attending the said conference", said Odwan in press statement he made Tuesday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC.
He explained that the US top diplomat aims at convincing influential Arab states into attending and blessing the conference so as to portray the incumbent US administration of President George W. Bush as if it was indeed serious in searching for a solution to the Palestinian question and pushing the Middle East peace process forward.
But he stressed that the conference is doomed to failure due to the "absence of genuine Israeli and US willingness to grant the Palestinian people their legitimate rights that the Israeli occupation government had usurped six decades ago.
"I am of full conviction that the meeting was designed to achieve Israeli and USA political interest only without bothering about the legal rights of the Palestinian people", the Hamas's legislator said.
At the same time, Odwan ruled out talks between Hamas and Fatah movement, at least till the conference scheduled date, attributing his conclusions to the US and Israeli pressures on Abbas not to talk to Hamas.
"If the conference failed, Abbas will emerge empty handed out of it, and the US administration will definitely sideline him in order to concentrate on the upcoming US election campaign, and he (Abbas) will, at that time, realizes he was isolated and would seek Arab mediation to start national talks with Hamas", Odwan stated.
He also explained that Olmert was keen and concerned to hold that conference because it would provide him a short time to relax and after the headache caused by the Winograd report that reaped heads of a number of his cabinet members and war generals.
Moreover, Odwan opined that Olmert was searching for something to rescue him form the quagmire of the repercussions of the war his occupation army had waged on Lebanon last year and emerged defeated, in addition to his desire to portray himself before the world as a peacemaker.
Bush, on the other hand, Odwan underscored, wants to achieve something on the Palestinian track so as to be remembered as a peacemaker and not as a war-monger before he bids final farewell to the White House next year", Odwan explained.
As far as the Arab states' positions towards the conference are concerned, Odwan classified the Arab states into self-respecting states that prefer not to dance with the US policies in the region, and other states that blindly follow the US dictates without paying an attention to their own states' national interest or the Palestinian people's national interest.
GAZA, (PIC)--Former PA minister and Hamas senior political leader MP Dr. Atef Odwan has expressed pessimism over the anticipated visit of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice "It is expected that Rice will pressure PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli premier Ehud Olmert into introducing compromises in a bid to attract and persuade reluctant Arab states into attending the said conference", said Odwan in press statement he made Tuesday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC.
He explained that the US top diplomat aims at convincing influential Arab states into attending and blessing the conference so as to portray the incumbent US administration of President George W. Bush as if it was indeed serious in searching for a solution to the Palestinian question and pushing the Middle East peace process forward.
But he stressed that the conference is doomed to failure due to the "absence of genuine Israeli and US willingness to grant the Palestinian people their legitimate rights that the Israeli occupation government had usurped six decades ago.
"I am of full conviction that the meeting was designed to achieve Israeli and USA political interest only without bothering about the legal rights of the Palestinian people", the Hamas's legislator said.
At the same time, Odwan ruled out talks between Hamas and Fatah movement, at least till the conference scheduled date, attributing his conclusions to the US and Israeli pressures on Abbas not to talk to Hamas.
"If the conference failed, Abbas will emerge empty handed out of it, and the US administration will definitely sideline him in order to concentrate on the upcoming US election campaign, and he (Abbas) will, at that time, realizes he was isolated and would seek Arab mediation to start national talks with Hamas", Odwan stated.
He also explained that Olmert was keen and concerned to hold that conference because it would provide him a short time to relax and after the headache caused by the Winograd report that reaped heads of a number of his cabinet members and war generals.
Moreover, Odwan opined that Olmert was searching for something to rescue him form the quagmire of the repercussions of the war his occupation army had waged on Lebanon last year and emerged defeated, in addition to his desire to portray himself before the world as a peacemaker.
Bush, on the other hand, Odwan underscored, wants to achieve something on the Palestinian track so as to be remembered as a peacemaker and not as a war-monger before he bids final farewell to the White House next year", Odwan explained.
As far as the Arab states' positions towards the conference are concerned, Odwan classified the Arab states into self-respecting states that prefer not to dance with the US policies in the region, and other states that blindly follow the US dictates without paying an attention to their own states' national interest or the Palestinian people's national interest.
Hamas recruits women into police force as 'proof' of progressive thinking
GAZA CITY: Susan Aqal is a tightly veiled Palestinian mother who has a baby boy. But she has abandoned traditional domestic life to interrogate suspected drug addicts, thieves and murderers in the volatile Gaza Strip. A university graduate who worked as a lawyer for various organizations, she leapt at the chance to fulfill her dream of becoming a police officer after the radical Islamist movement Hamas seized the territory in June.
"This is my field. This is what I studied. I wanted a job in security and used to work in other organizations, but when I got the chance I didn't hesitate to join the police force," says the 28-year-old wife of a Hamas paramilitary officer.
Shrouded in a loose-fitting black coat, wearing a purple headscarf and white cotton underpiece designed to hide all of her hair, and with her face clean of make-up, Aqal is one of 50 women working with Hamas paramilitaries in Gaza City.
While most are secretaries, she is one of 10 policewomen based at the Saraya Prison in a nascent force set up by Hamas last month as "proof" of its progressive thinking.
"I know that this job needs a strong personality and someone who is courageous. I'm not scared. I just feel that the guilty need to be punished," she says, reeling off a list of crimes she interrogates suspects for - murder, drugs, theft and moral vice.
"We're treated very well within our brotherhood. I work here in the compound and deal with criminals directly. I interrogate men as well as women. At the moment I'm assisting our officers because we haven't finished our training yet," she says.
Amin Nawfal, a commander in the self-styled "man's police" - the Executive Force that supervises the women - says they will eventually be given firearms training, take part in arrest operations and be fully integrated.
"Females can't be touched by a man, therefore we need women police. That's proof
we are a lawful country and not an Islamic state. It doesn't violate Shariah law either," Nawfal says.
Women work as police across the Muslim world, including in Hamas' patron Iran, where women clad in black chadors are taught how to use guns, rappel down buildings, chase cars and disable bombs.
"Having women in security jobs shows how democratic we are and that we have equality between men and women," says Nawfal, dressed in military fatigues and sitting at an enormous desk, Hamas television flickering in the background.
But despite his lofty comments, he silences the suggestion that Aqal talk in private, saying he should be present because she might not know the answers to all the questions.
All the women administrators milling about outside opt for the conventional hijab as favored by Aqal, or the Saudi Arabian-style niqab that drapes the entire head in black, with just a slit for the eyes.
"My mother looks after my baby and my husband is a lawyer and in the force, so he is totally supportive," Aqal says. "All the women in my family are working, so they encourage me. This is no problem in our community and we don't face any discrimination."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
At the moment, she earns $300 a month working from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. six days a week, but after a six-month trial period she expects to nearly double her salary.
She proudly shows off her large office - standard issue for women recruits - complete with a desk, computer and mobile phone. Her only complaint is the lack of uniform.
"The women's force is asking for a uniform to differentiate them from the other women working in administration.
I'm wearing what I normally wear at the moment but we would like it to be dark blue or black, patterned the same as the men's."
The Executive Force wears blue and grey camouflage. Hamas will have no talk of shirts and trousers for women - it will be a cloak down to the ground.
"In time there will be a women's uniform in keeping with Islamic Sharia, so it won't be a shirt or a T-shirt. It'll be the same as she's wearing," says Nawfal, gesturing in Aqal's direction. "We hope it will be the same color and look as the men's uniform."
For the moment, Nawfal recognizes that women's recruitment is a controversial issue, and that few outside Hamas are even aware of it.
Nawfal says that some people are scared to join, worried about losing salaries paid by the Western-backed government in the West Bank should they cast their lot in with Hamas after the bloody takeover.
Others worry that working for the Hamas-run government will cause them to be branded terrorists by the United States and the European Union, both of which consider Hamas a terror organization.
"There are women police?" asks Talat Abdo, an award-winning hairdresser with dyed locks. His salon is deserted, a casualty of the economic meltdown that followed the formation of the first Hamas-led government in 2006.
"I thought they were religious. They control the Gaza Strip without anything, so why do they need women? I don't think they do. We're already a conservative community and not a lot of women break the law," he says.
Abdo says business over the past 18 months, roughly since Hamas formed its first government and the international community responded with an economic blockade, has never been worse in the 35 years he has owned a salon.
"Now it's about 25-30 women a week. During the good days of Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] and the Palestinian Authority, there was a lot of work. The shop was crowded and people had to book before they came," he says.
But not any more, Abdo adds, before going back to watching an Egyptian film. - AFP
"This is my field. This is what I studied. I wanted a job in security and used to work in other organizations, but when I got the chance I didn't hesitate to join the police force," says the 28-year-old wife of a Hamas paramilitary officer.
Shrouded in a loose-fitting black coat, wearing a purple headscarf and white cotton underpiece designed to hide all of her hair, and with her face clean of make-up, Aqal is one of 50 women working with Hamas paramilitaries in Gaza City.
While most are secretaries, she is one of 10 policewomen based at the Saraya Prison in a nascent force set up by Hamas last month as "proof" of its progressive thinking.
"I know that this job needs a strong personality and someone who is courageous. I'm not scared. I just feel that the guilty need to be punished," she says, reeling off a list of crimes she interrogates suspects for - murder, drugs, theft and moral vice.
"We're treated very well within our brotherhood. I work here in the compound and deal with criminals directly. I interrogate men as well as women. At the moment I'm assisting our officers because we haven't finished our training yet," she says.
Amin Nawfal, a commander in the self-styled "man's police" - the Executive Force that supervises the women - says they will eventually be given firearms training, take part in arrest operations and be fully integrated.
"Females can't be touched by a man, therefore we need women police. That's proof
we are a lawful country and not an Islamic state. It doesn't violate Shariah law either," Nawfal says.
Women work as police across the Muslim world, including in Hamas' patron Iran, where women clad in black chadors are taught how to use guns, rappel down buildings, chase cars and disable bombs.
"Having women in security jobs shows how democratic we are and that we have equality between men and women," says Nawfal, dressed in military fatigues and sitting at an enormous desk, Hamas television flickering in the background.
But despite his lofty comments, he silences the suggestion that Aqal talk in private, saying he should be present because she might not know the answers to all the questions.
All the women administrators milling about outside opt for the conventional hijab as favored by Aqal, or the Saudi Arabian-style niqab that drapes the entire head in black, with just a slit for the eyes.
"My mother looks after my baby and my husband is a lawyer and in the force, so he is totally supportive," Aqal says. "All the women in my family are working, so they encourage me. This is no problem in our community and we don't face any discrimination."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
At the moment, she earns $300 a month working from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. six days a week, but after a six-month trial period she expects to nearly double her salary.
She proudly shows off her large office - standard issue for women recruits - complete with a desk, computer and mobile phone. Her only complaint is the lack of uniform.
"The women's force is asking for a uniform to differentiate them from the other women working in administration.
I'm wearing what I normally wear at the moment but we would like it to be dark blue or black, patterned the same as the men's."
The Executive Force wears blue and grey camouflage. Hamas will have no talk of shirts and trousers for women - it will be a cloak down to the ground.
"In time there will be a women's uniform in keeping with Islamic Sharia, so it won't be a shirt or a T-shirt. It'll be the same as she's wearing," says Nawfal, gesturing in Aqal's direction. "We hope it will be the same color and look as the men's uniform."
For the moment, Nawfal recognizes that women's recruitment is a controversial issue, and that few outside Hamas are even aware of it.
Nawfal says that some people are scared to join, worried about losing salaries paid by the Western-backed government in the West Bank should they cast their lot in with Hamas after the bloody takeover.
Others worry that working for the Hamas-run government will cause them to be branded terrorists by the United States and the European Union, both of which consider Hamas a terror organization.
"There are women police?" asks Talat Abdo, an award-winning hairdresser with dyed locks. His salon is deserted, a casualty of the economic meltdown that followed the formation of the first Hamas-led government in 2006.
"I thought they were religious. They control the Gaza Strip without anything, so why do they need women? I don't think they do. We're already a conservative community and not a lot of women break the law," he says.
Abdo says business over the past 18 months, roughly since Hamas formed its first government and the international community responded with an economic blockade, has never been worse in the 35 years he has owned a salon.
"Now it's about 25-30 women a week. During the good days of Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] and the Palestinian Authority, there was a lot of work. The shop was crowded and people had to book before they came," he says.
But not any more, Abdo adds, before going back to watching an Egyptian film. - AFP
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
'Dozens died in Syrian-Iranian chemical weapons experiment'
Comment: This story just keeps growing-we did something correct! Now we understand why so much silence, however, the leaks will come rapidly now-the genie isout of the bottle.
Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Magazine report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria. According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas and VX gas.
The factory was created specifically for the purposes of altering ballistic missiles to carry chemical payloads, the magazine report claimed.
Reports of the accident were circulated at the time, however, no details were released by the Syrian government, and there were no hints of an Iranian connection.
The report comes on the heels of criticism leveled by the Syrains at the United States, accusing it of spreading "false" claims of Syrian nuclear activity and cooperation with North Korea to excuse an alleged Israeli air incursion over the country this month.
According to Global Security.org, Syria is not a signatory of either the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), - an international agreement banning the production, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons, or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Syria began developing chemical weapons in 1973, just before the Yom Kippur War. Global Security.org cites the country as having one of the most advanced chemical weapons programs in the Middle East.
Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Magazine report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria. According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas and VX gas.
The factory was created specifically for the purposes of altering ballistic missiles to carry chemical payloads, the magazine report claimed.
Reports of the accident were circulated at the time, however, no details were released by the Syrian government, and there were no hints of an Iranian connection.
The report comes on the heels of criticism leveled by the Syrains at the United States, accusing it of spreading "false" claims of Syrian nuclear activity and cooperation with North Korea to excuse an alleged Israeli air incursion over the country this month.
According to Global Security.org, Syria is not a signatory of either the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), - an international agreement banning the production, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons, or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Syria began developing chemical weapons in 1973, just before the Yom Kippur War. Global Security.org cites the country as having one of the most advanced chemical weapons programs in the Middle East.
Ramon: Give parts of Jerusalem to Palestinians
Vice premier authors position paper proposing transfer of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods to Palestinian Authority
Comment: The current government has lied to us by stating publicly that it has not discussed final borders, has no intention to decide upon “final principles” without conferring with the Knesset. I sat with a Knesset member last night, he is not in the Kadima party and he indicated that Olmert is moving forward with just such a plan. Olmert is using Ramon-he is the ‘test the waters” man and also the “fall guy” if these discussions go awry. Read along about the Israeli “fire sale” proposal #1 with others to follow. Best make your opinion known, now , loud and clear.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon outlined his official political agenda on Tuesday, acknowledging that he believes Israel should cede control of the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians and establish joint sovereignty over the city's holy sites.
Ramon went on record with his personal viewpoint in a letter to Nir Barkat, a member of Jerusalem's municipal council on behalf of Kadima.
"The Jewish neighborhoods will be recognized as Israeli and under Israeli sovereignty. Accordingly, the Arab neighborhoods (like Shoafat) will be recognized as Palestinian. Passages between the Israeli neighborhoods will be open and secure – accordingly the same will be true for the Palestinian neighborhoods," writes Ramon.
"There will be special sovereignty over the holy sites, taking into account Israel's unique interests in overseeing them. Within this framework the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and other holy sites in the Jerusalem vicinity will remain under Israeli rule forever."
Knesset members and cabinet ministers from Kadima recently voiced their objections to the divisive concessions proposed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Those opposing Olmert say they are concerned that he would propose withdrawing from the West Bank and handing over part of Jerusalem to the PA ahead of the upcoming peace summit in Washington.
'A danger to Jerusalem's future'
A fierce opponent of dividing Jerusalem, Barkat demanded that Ramon – as Olmert's designated man for negotiations with the PA - clarify his position.
"Recent reports have said that in your talks with the Palestinian prime minister you are working to divide Jerusalem between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Such a move would compromise Israel's sovereignty over the holy sites and the Old City as well as end in the transfer of Jerusalem neighborhoods to the Palestinians," wrote Barkat in his demand to Ramon.
"I remind you that these positions go against Kadima's guiding principles, that stress the inclusion of the sites holy to the Jewish faith and which are important national symbols – first and foremost of these is a unified Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. It is because of these principles that Kadima was given a mandate by the people of Israel.
"It is inconceivable that we would go along with actions that would endanger Jerusalem's security and Judaism's Holy of Holies."
In his response to Barkat Ramon wrote: "Kadima has raised the banner of a democratic and Jewish Israel with a solid Jewish majority. It is based on this belief that the prime minister is negotiating with President Abbas."
Ramon said he agreed with Barkat's sentiment of preserving Jerusalem's strength and added that expressing Israel's willingness to cede the Arab neighborhoods as part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority would only contribute to that strength.
Comment: The current government has lied to us by stating publicly that it has not discussed final borders, has no intention to decide upon “final principles” without conferring with the Knesset. I sat with a Knesset member last night, he is not in the Kadima party and he indicated that Olmert is moving forward with just such a plan. Olmert is using Ramon-he is the ‘test the waters” man and also the “fall guy” if these discussions go awry. Read along about the Israeli “fire sale” proposal #1 with others to follow. Best make your opinion known, now , loud and clear.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon outlined his official political agenda on Tuesday, acknowledging that he believes Israel should cede control of the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians and establish joint sovereignty over the city's holy sites.
Ramon went on record with his personal viewpoint in a letter to Nir Barkat, a member of Jerusalem's municipal council on behalf of Kadima.
"The Jewish neighborhoods will be recognized as Israeli and under Israeli sovereignty. Accordingly, the Arab neighborhoods (like Shoafat) will be recognized as Palestinian. Passages between the Israeli neighborhoods will be open and secure – accordingly the same will be true for the Palestinian neighborhoods," writes Ramon.
"There will be special sovereignty over the holy sites, taking into account Israel's unique interests in overseeing them. Within this framework the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and other holy sites in the Jerusalem vicinity will remain under Israeli rule forever."
Knesset members and cabinet ministers from Kadima recently voiced their objections to the divisive concessions proposed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Those opposing Olmert say they are concerned that he would propose withdrawing from the West Bank and handing over part of Jerusalem to the PA ahead of the upcoming peace summit in Washington.
'A danger to Jerusalem's future'
A fierce opponent of dividing Jerusalem, Barkat demanded that Ramon – as Olmert's designated man for negotiations with the PA - clarify his position.
"Recent reports have said that in your talks with the Palestinian prime minister you are working to divide Jerusalem between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Such a move would compromise Israel's sovereignty over the holy sites and the Old City as well as end in the transfer of Jerusalem neighborhoods to the Palestinians," wrote Barkat in his demand to Ramon.
"I remind you that these positions go against Kadima's guiding principles, that stress the inclusion of the sites holy to the Jewish faith and which are important national symbols – first and foremost of these is a unified Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. It is because of these principles that Kadima was given a mandate by the people of Israel.
"It is inconceivable that we would go along with actions that would endanger Jerusalem's security and Judaism's Holy of Holies."
In his response to Barkat Ramon wrote: "Kadima has raised the banner of a democratic and Jewish Israel with a solid Jewish majority. It is based on this belief that the prime minister is negotiating with President Abbas."
Ramon said he agreed with Barkat's sentiment of preserving Jerusalem's strength and added that expressing Israel's willingness to cede the Arab neighborhoods as part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority would only contribute to that strength.
Do Israel's Critics Have Anything Original To Say?
The Passover Seder liturgy tells us that in every generation an enemy arises seeking to eradicate the Jewish people In the last hundred years, those enemies included the Russian czar, Stalin, Hitler, Gamal Abdel Nasser and, more recently, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Reviewing recent publications and utterances by some of the most vocal detractors of Israel and its American supporters, it appears that every generation also sees new critics who arise to assail American support for the Jewish state. Sometimes the criticism is actually anti-Semitic utterances masked by euphemisms (I’m not anti-Semitic, just anti-Zionist). And sometimes the criticism is actually an echo of statements made a generation ago.
Indeed, recent anti-Israel essays, claims of “Jewish Lobby” cabals, and accusations that support for Israel runs counter to American national interests are old hat.
We’ve heard it before.
Earlier this year, retired general and unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark warned blogger Arianna Huffington that “New York money people” are pushing America into a war against Iran. “You just have to read what’s in the Israeli press,” he said. “The Jewish community is divided, but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers.”
The statement had a malodorous hint of anti-Semitism. Is the term “New York money people” a code for Jews? The statement elicited a distinct memory.
It was an echo of a statement made by Gen. George Scratchley Brown, chairman of the Joints Chiefs in 1974. Brown was smarting from the emergency drawdown of frontline American army equipment dispatched to Israel in the emergency airlift during the October 1973 war when Israel repelled an invasion by Soviet-armed Egypt and Syria. No military man wants to have his military toys taken away. Brown unleashed this classic anti-Semitic response at an appearance at Duke University law school on October 10, 1974:
[The American public could] get tough-minded enough to set down the Jewish influence in this country and break that lobby. We have the Israelis coming to us for equipment. We can say “we can’t possibly get the Congress to support a program like this.” And they say “don’t worry about the Congress. We will take care of the Congress.” This is somebody from another country, but they can do it. They own, you know, the banks in this country. The newspapers. Just look at where the Jewish money is.
Thirty years later, did the “New York money” line slip out of the recesses of Clark’s memory?
In the early 1970’s Wesley Clark worked in the office of the Army Chief of Staff in Washington and then taught at West Point. The 1973 Yom Kippur War was a major topic of discussion and instruction. Today, Clark rejects any suggestion that his comments were motivated by anti-Semitism.
Indeed, this son of a Jewish father was quick to assure Jewish organizations of his abhorrence of anti-Semitism. More likely, his comments reflect the milieu and culture of a young junior officer 35 years ago looking for the reasons his army’s tanks, bombs, and munitions were being taken out of European depots and turned over to Israel’s army.
Clark’s comments were not an isolated echo, however. Profs. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, authors of last year’s controversial paper (and a new book being released last week) “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” also repeat and amplify the 30- and 40-year-old opinions of two of the most prominent critics of American support for Israel a generation ago: Sen. J. William Fulbright and George Ball, an undersecretary of state in the 1960’s.
Curiously, the Fulbright and Ball names did not appear even once in the professors’ voluminous footnotes in their original study. As Walt and Mearsheimer publish their new book, how many readers will realize that it is a rehash of statements made by two foreign-policy gadflies of a generation past?
Consider the following examples of thematic similarities:
Dual Loyalty: In a Senate debate in May 1960 on the Douglas amendment to the Mutual Security Act, which would force the United Arab Republic to open the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, Senator Fulbright said that “a pressure group in the U.S. ... seeks to inject the Arab-Israeli dispute into domestic politics. Americans find their foreign policy being whip-sawed by a minority pressure group. The President cannot conduct our foreign policy in the Middle East under these circumstances. That policy is being directed by minority pressure groups. In recent years, we have seen the rise of organizations dedicated apparently not to America, but to foreign states and groups.”
And again, during an interview on “Face the Nation” on October 7, 1973, the second day of the Yom Kippur War, Sen. Fulbright said, “The U.S. government alone is not capable of [putting an embargo on arms to the Middle East], because the Israelis control the policy in the Congress and the Senate and unless we use the UN and do it collectively, we know the U.S. is not going to do that. . . . Somewhere around 80 percent of the Senate of the United States is completely in support of Israel and of anything Israel wants.”
In their original working paper on the Israel Lobby, Walt and Mearsheimer argued similarly: “The bottom line is that AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress, with the result that U.S. policy towards Israel is not debated there, even though that policy has important consequences for the entire world.”
Anti-Semitism Used to Silence Critics: As George Ball put it in his article “How to Save Israel in Spite of Herself,” (Foreign Affairs, April 1977), “Because many articulate Americans are passionately committed to Israel, the slightest challenge to any aspect of current Israeli policy is likely to provoke a shrill ad hominem response. To suggest that America should take a stronger and more assertive line in the search for Middle East peace is to risk being attacked as a servant either of Arab interests or of the oil companies, or being denounced as anti-Israel, or, by a careless confusion of language, even condemned as anti-Semitic.”
Again, Walt and Mearsheimer are recycling an old charge: “No discussion of how the Lobby operates would be complete without examining one of its most powerful weapons: the charge of anti-Semitism. Anyone who criticizes Israel’s actions or argues that pro-Israel groups have significant influence over U.S. Middle Eastern policy stands a good chance of being labeled an anti-Semite.”
American Aid to Israel: Here is Ball again in that same article in Foreign Affairs, now discussing American aid: “Last year, [U.S.] public sector aid [to Israel] amounted to $2.34 billion, which means more than $600 for every man, woman and child in Israel. . . . Our contribution will again be a very high percentage of our total foreign aid programs. Rarely before have so many done so much for so few.”
Here are Walt and Mearsheimer following suit: “Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976. Israel receives about $3 billion in direct assistance each year, roughly one-fifth of the foreign aid budget, and worth about $500 a year for every Israeli….It is hard to think of another instance where one country has provided another with a similar level of material and diplomatic support for such an extended period.”
American Interests, Israeli Interests: As Ball would have it, “How far should we go in continuing to subsidize a policy shaped to accommodate understandable Israeli compulsions which do not accord with the best interests – as we see it – either of Israel or the United States, but are a threat to world peace? The hard fact is that the national interests of the United States and Israel cannot, in the nature of things, be precisely congruent.... The time is ripe for the United States to take a strong hand to save Israel from herself.”
Walt and Mearsheimer come to the same conclusion: “Israel itself would probably be better off if the Lobby were less powerful and U.S. policy more even-handed.... What is needed is a candid discussion of the Lobby’s influence and a more open debate about U.S. interests in this vital region.... Open debate will expose the limits of the strategic and moral case for one-sided U.S. support and could move the U.S. to a position more consistent with its own national interest, with the interests of the other states in the region, and with Israel’s long-term interests as well.”
So what does it mean that Fulbright’s and Ball’s arguments against America’s strong support for Israel are parroted 30 years later by two prominent professors?
First, it is curious, even troubling, that the Walt and Mearsheimer paper failed to cite those two prominent foreign-policy mavericks who so clearly influenced their opinions. Did they take Fulbright’s and Ball’s material and rewrite it as their own?
They sound like Ball/Fulbright disciples, but did they conclude that Ball and Fulbright were perceived as so one-sided on Middle East issues that their opinions had little currency, and did the two professors keep those sources out lest their work suffer the same fate? And if they didn’t know of Ball and Fulbright’s influential works, what does that say about their scholarship?
Second, on the publication of Walt and Mearsheimer’s expanded polemic in book form, it is important to recall that there is not much new here – not the anti-Israel accusations, not the charges of dual loyalty, nor the challenges to the rights of American citizens who effectively petition their government.
Third, Walt and Mearsheimer were university students studying international relations and political science when Fulbright and Ball were at their peak challenging American policies in Vietnam and the Middle East. How much were the two influenced by Ball and Fulbright who, for many on campus, were heroes? Were positions stated then filed away in their heads much the same way Wesley Clark may have been influenced by Gen. George Scratchley Brown?
The possible residual effect of the professors’ anti-Israel and anti-Semitic declarations is troubling. Will the campus debates and anti-Israel demonstrations today produce the biased Walts and Mearsheimers 30 years from now?
Walt and Mearsheimer claim the amorphous, omnipotent “Lobby” is “policing academia,” that it has “worked hard to stifle criticism of Israel” on campus, and that “there is much less [criticism] on campuses today.”
Walt and Mearsheimer put the lie to their own charge of stifled debate on campus. Their claim that the accusation of anti-Semitism muffles critics was not true in Ball’s day, nor is it today.
An urban legend claims that the quacks of geese and ducks do not create an echo. But it doesn’t take sound laboratories to prove the legend false. The gaggles of Israel’s detractors do indeed have echoes, even over the broad expanse of 30 years.
Lenny Ben-David served as deputy chief of mission in Israel’s embassy in Washington. This column originally appeared on NationalRevewOnline.
Reviewing recent publications and utterances by some of the most vocal detractors of Israel and its American supporters, it appears that every generation also sees new critics who arise to assail American support for the Jewish state. Sometimes the criticism is actually anti-Semitic utterances masked by euphemisms (I’m not anti-Semitic, just anti-Zionist). And sometimes the criticism is actually an echo of statements made a generation ago.
Indeed, recent anti-Israel essays, claims of “Jewish Lobby” cabals, and accusations that support for Israel runs counter to American national interests are old hat.
We’ve heard it before.
Earlier this year, retired general and unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark warned blogger Arianna Huffington that “New York money people” are pushing America into a war against Iran. “You just have to read what’s in the Israeli press,” he said. “The Jewish community is divided, but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers.”
The statement had a malodorous hint of anti-Semitism. Is the term “New York money people” a code for Jews? The statement elicited a distinct memory.
It was an echo of a statement made by Gen. George Scratchley Brown, chairman of the Joints Chiefs in 1974. Brown was smarting from the emergency drawdown of frontline American army equipment dispatched to Israel in the emergency airlift during the October 1973 war when Israel repelled an invasion by Soviet-armed Egypt and Syria. No military man wants to have his military toys taken away. Brown unleashed this classic anti-Semitic response at an appearance at Duke University law school on October 10, 1974:
[The American public could] get tough-minded enough to set down the Jewish influence in this country and break that lobby. We have the Israelis coming to us for equipment. We can say “we can’t possibly get the Congress to support a program like this.” And they say “don’t worry about the Congress. We will take care of the Congress.” This is somebody from another country, but they can do it. They own, you know, the banks in this country. The newspapers. Just look at where the Jewish money is.
Thirty years later, did the “New York money” line slip out of the recesses of Clark’s memory?
In the early 1970’s Wesley Clark worked in the office of the Army Chief of Staff in Washington and then taught at West Point. The 1973 Yom Kippur War was a major topic of discussion and instruction. Today, Clark rejects any suggestion that his comments were motivated by anti-Semitism.
Indeed, this son of a Jewish father was quick to assure Jewish organizations of his abhorrence of anti-Semitism. More likely, his comments reflect the milieu and culture of a young junior officer 35 years ago looking for the reasons his army’s tanks, bombs, and munitions were being taken out of European depots and turned over to Israel’s army.
Clark’s comments were not an isolated echo, however. Profs. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, authors of last year’s controversial paper (and a new book being released last week) “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” also repeat and amplify the 30- and 40-year-old opinions of two of the most prominent critics of American support for Israel a generation ago: Sen. J. William Fulbright and George Ball, an undersecretary of state in the 1960’s.
Curiously, the Fulbright and Ball names did not appear even once in the professors’ voluminous footnotes in their original study. As Walt and Mearsheimer publish their new book, how many readers will realize that it is a rehash of statements made by two foreign-policy gadflies of a generation past?
Consider the following examples of thematic similarities:
Dual Loyalty: In a Senate debate in May 1960 on the Douglas amendment to the Mutual Security Act, which would force the United Arab Republic to open the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, Senator Fulbright said that “a pressure group in the U.S. ... seeks to inject the Arab-Israeli dispute into domestic politics. Americans find their foreign policy being whip-sawed by a minority pressure group. The President cannot conduct our foreign policy in the Middle East under these circumstances. That policy is being directed by minority pressure groups. In recent years, we have seen the rise of organizations dedicated apparently not to America, but to foreign states and groups.”
And again, during an interview on “Face the Nation” on October 7, 1973, the second day of the Yom Kippur War, Sen. Fulbright said, “The U.S. government alone is not capable of [putting an embargo on arms to the Middle East], because the Israelis control the policy in the Congress and the Senate and unless we use the UN and do it collectively, we know the U.S. is not going to do that. . . . Somewhere around 80 percent of the Senate of the United States is completely in support of Israel and of anything Israel wants.”
In their original working paper on the Israel Lobby, Walt and Mearsheimer argued similarly: “The bottom line is that AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress, with the result that U.S. policy towards Israel is not debated there, even though that policy has important consequences for the entire world.”
Anti-Semitism Used to Silence Critics: As George Ball put it in his article “How to Save Israel in Spite of Herself,” (Foreign Affairs, April 1977), “Because many articulate Americans are passionately committed to Israel, the slightest challenge to any aspect of current Israeli policy is likely to provoke a shrill ad hominem response. To suggest that America should take a stronger and more assertive line in the search for Middle East peace is to risk being attacked as a servant either of Arab interests or of the oil companies, or being denounced as anti-Israel, or, by a careless confusion of language, even condemned as anti-Semitic.”
Again, Walt and Mearsheimer are recycling an old charge: “No discussion of how the Lobby operates would be complete without examining one of its most powerful weapons: the charge of anti-Semitism. Anyone who criticizes Israel’s actions or argues that pro-Israel groups have significant influence over U.S. Middle Eastern policy stands a good chance of being labeled an anti-Semite.”
American Aid to Israel: Here is Ball again in that same article in Foreign Affairs, now discussing American aid: “Last year, [U.S.] public sector aid [to Israel] amounted to $2.34 billion, which means more than $600 for every man, woman and child in Israel. . . . Our contribution will again be a very high percentage of our total foreign aid programs. Rarely before have so many done so much for so few.”
Here are Walt and Mearsheimer following suit: “Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976. Israel receives about $3 billion in direct assistance each year, roughly one-fifth of the foreign aid budget, and worth about $500 a year for every Israeli….It is hard to think of another instance where one country has provided another with a similar level of material and diplomatic support for such an extended period.”
American Interests, Israeli Interests: As Ball would have it, “How far should we go in continuing to subsidize a policy shaped to accommodate understandable Israeli compulsions which do not accord with the best interests – as we see it – either of Israel or the United States, but are a threat to world peace? The hard fact is that the national interests of the United States and Israel cannot, in the nature of things, be precisely congruent.... The time is ripe for the United States to take a strong hand to save Israel from herself.”
Walt and Mearsheimer come to the same conclusion: “Israel itself would probably be better off if the Lobby were less powerful and U.S. policy more even-handed.... What is needed is a candid discussion of the Lobby’s influence and a more open debate about U.S. interests in this vital region.... Open debate will expose the limits of the strategic and moral case for one-sided U.S. support and could move the U.S. to a position more consistent with its own national interest, with the interests of the other states in the region, and with Israel’s long-term interests as well.”
So what does it mean that Fulbright’s and Ball’s arguments against America’s strong support for Israel are parroted 30 years later by two prominent professors?
First, it is curious, even troubling, that the Walt and Mearsheimer paper failed to cite those two prominent foreign-policy mavericks who so clearly influenced their opinions. Did they take Fulbright’s and Ball’s material and rewrite it as their own?
They sound like Ball/Fulbright disciples, but did they conclude that Ball and Fulbright were perceived as so one-sided on Middle East issues that their opinions had little currency, and did the two professors keep those sources out lest their work suffer the same fate? And if they didn’t know of Ball and Fulbright’s influential works, what does that say about their scholarship?
Second, on the publication of Walt and Mearsheimer’s expanded polemic in book form, it is important to recall that there is not much new here – not the anti-Israel accusations, not the charges of dual loyalty, nor the challenges to the rights of American citizens who effectively petition their government.
Third, Walt and Mearsheimer were university students studying international relations and political science when Fulbright and Ball were at their peak challenging American policies in Vietnam and the Middle East. How much were the two influenced by Ball and Fulbright who, for many on campus, were heroes? Were positions stated then filed away in their heads much the same way Wesley Clark may have been influenced by Gen. George Scratchley Brown?
The possible residual effect of the professors’ anti-Israel and anti-Semitic declarations is troubling. Will the campus debates and anti-Israel demonstrations today produce the biased Walts and Mearsheimers 30 years from now?
Walt and Mearsheimer claim the amorphous, omnipotent “Lobby” is “policing academia,” that it has “worked hard to stifle criticism of Israel” on campus, and that “there is much less [criticism] on campuses today.”
Walt and Mearsheimer put the lie to their own charge of stifled debate on campus. Their claim that the accusation of anti-Semitism muffles critics was not true in Ball’s day, nor is it today.
An urban legend claims that the quacks of geese and ducks do not create an echo. But it doesn’t take sound laboratories to prove the legend false. The gaggles of Israel’s detractors do indeed have echoes, even over the broad expanse of 30 years.
Lenny Ben-David served as deputy chief of mission in Israel’s embassy in Washington. This column originally appeared on NationalRevewOnline.
Palestinian caretaker government accuses Hamas of planning to bomb security HQs in the West Bank
Ma'an – Spokesperson of the Palestinian caretaker government, Riyad Al-Maliki, on Monday accused the Hamas movement of preparing bombing operations targeting the headquarters of the security services in the West Bank.
Caretaker government ministers(MaanImages)
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Spokesperson of the Palestinian caretaker government, Riyad Al-Maliki, on Monday accused the Hamas movement of preparing bombing operations targeting the headquarters of the security services in the West Bank.Al-Maliki, who is also minister of information, spoke during a press conference following the caretaker government's weekly session. Several Hamas loyalists have been arrested and, alleged Al-Maliki, during interrogation they confessed to receiving orders from the Hamas leadership to attack the security services in the West Bank.Autumn summitAl-Maliki said that within the coming forty-eight hours, the names of Palestinians who will take up positions on the joint Israeli-Palestinian committee will be announced.The remit of the committee is to prepare issues to be addressed at the coming summit, sponsored by the United States."President Abbas will announce the names in the coming hours," said Al-Maliki.Limited preparations for the event will herald negative repercussions, said Al-Maliki.He said "we must go and be convinced that the Palestinians will achieve results."Al-Maliki said that he expects United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to arrive for her visit of Israel and the Palestinian territories with comprehensive information regarding the conference.Rice is due to arrive in the area on Tuesday.Spokesperson of the Palestinian government stressed that consultations with the Israelis are ongoing will not cease despite the division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Projectile launchingThe caretaker government condemned the continuation of the launching of projectiles form the Gaza Strip towards Israeli targets.The projectile launching, said the government, has a detrimental impact on the residents of the Gaza Strip, as the crossings are closed, leading to the economic strangulation in the area.At the same time, the government condemned the Israeli incursions into northern Gaza.One-hundred-day reportAl-Maliki said the caretaker government is preparing a report commemorating one-hundred days since its inauguration.In terms of the ongoing economic problems facing Palestinians, Al-Maliki said that the government can do nothing about rising prices. He alleged that inflation is something which is currently being experienced worldwide and not just in the Palestinian territories."There is an institution called 'Protecting the Consumers' and it has been entrusted to monitor prices," he said.
Caretaker government ministers(MaanImages)
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Spokesperson of the Palestinian caretaker government, Riyad Al-Maliki, on Monday accused the Hamas movement of preparing bombing operations targeting the headquarters of the security services in the West Bank.Al-Maliki, who is also minister of information, spoke during a press conference following the caretaker government's weekly session. Several Hamas loyalists have been arrested and, alleged Al-Maliki, during interrogation they confessed to receiving orders from the Hamas leadership to attack the security services in the West Bank.Autumn summitAl-Maliki said that within the coming forty-eight hours, the names of Palestinians who will take up positions on the joint Israeli-Palestinian committee will be announced.The remit of the committee is to prepare issues to be addressed at the coming summit, sponsored by the United States."President Abbas will announce the names in the coming hours," said Al-Maliki.Limited preparations for the event will herald negative repercussions, said Al-Maliki.He said "we must go and be convinced that the Palestinians will achieve results."Al-Maliki said that he expects United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to arrive for her visit of Israel and the Palestinian territories with comprehensive information regarding the conference.Rice is due to arrive in the area on Tuesday.Spokesperson of the Palestinian government stressed that consultations with the Israelis are ongoing will not cease despite the division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Projectile launchingThe caretaker government condemned the continuation of the launching of projectiles form the Gaza Strip towards Israeli targets.The projectile launching, said the government, has a detrimental impact on the residents of the Gaza Strip, as the crossings are closed, leading to the economic strangulation in the area.At the same time, the government condemned the Israeli incursions into northern Gaza.One-hundred-day reportAl-Maliki said the caretaker government is preparing a report commemorating one-hundred days since its inauguration.In terms of the ongoing economic problems facing Palestinians, Al-Maliki said that the government can do nothing about rising prices. He alleged that inflation is something which is currently being experienced worldwide and not just in the Palestinian territories."There is an institution called 'Protecting the Consumers' and it has been entrusted to monitor prices," he said.
Palestinian Authority celebrates
The Palestinian Authority continues a long tradition of celebrating the 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks by publishing cartoons in its official daily that glorify Osama Bin Laden and the attacks, ...The Palestinian Authority continues a long tradition of celebrating the 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks by publishing cartoons in its official daily that glorify Osama Bin Laden and the attacks, or mock the suffering of the U.S. This year's cartoon shows Bin Laden smiling while making the “V” for victory sign with two fingers in the shape of the burning Twin Towers. The PA daily that published the cartoon, Al Hayat Al Jadida, is owned by the PA and controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas. The only text on this cartoon is "Exclusive to Al Hayat Al Jadida," which means it was prepared specifically for the official Palestinian Authority daily.
The Palestinian Authority has a long history of celebrating the 9-11 terror. The world was shocked by televised scenes of Palestinians celebrating the attacks in the streets the day they took place. A December 2005 poll found that "65% of Palestinians support(ed) Al Qaeda actions in the USA and Europe.” (Fafo – Institute for Applied International Studies – Norway. Survey Dec. 22, 2005). Earlier this year, a former Minister from Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party wished Al Qaeda success in its attacks against the U.S., and in its targeting of President George W. Bush. The Fatah leader, Abu Ali Shahin, said in an interview on official PA TV: "Oh [Al-Qaeda] brother, leave us and focus on your business. You have Bush! Do to Bush what you want, and we wish you success with Bush, even more. I, Abu Ali Shahin, wish you success with Bush... We are fighting the Americans and hate the Americans more than you!" [PA TV, Jan. 1, 2007
The official PA media's repeated glorification of Bin Laden is a reflection of the deep hatred of the U.S. by the Palestinian population. This hatred is the result of years of hate incitement against the U.S. by Palestinian political leaders (such as the hate promotion by Abu Ali Shahin cited above), by the PA media and even in official Western-funded schoolbooks. PMW has documented this anti-American hate promotion in many reports and bulletins.
It should be noted that the U.S. continues to fund PA institutions and the Palestinian Authority itself, and to support it politically, while ignoring the continued Palestinian hate promotion against the U.S. While there has been repeated legislation in the U.S. to prevent US money from going to terrorists and their supporters, it seems that the U.S. Congress has not restricted the funding of institutions and governments who promote anti-American hatred. Text on wall: "September", Twin Towers form "11" over dead bodiesText on left tower': "Rights of Nations"Text on right tower': "American Hegemony"[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 11, 2002]
Text: "September 11 - the day of the greatest conspiracy against the Arabs and Muslims."[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida September 13, 2002] Text on left tower: Arabs Text on right tower: Muslims [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 13, 2002]
The Palestinian Authority has a long history of celebrating the 9-11 terror. The world was shocked by televised scenes of Palestinians celebrating the attacks in the streets the day they took place. A December 2005 poll found that "65% of Palestinians support(ed) Al Qaeda actions in the USA and Europe.” (Fafo – Institute for Applied International Studies – Norway. Survey Dec. 22, 2005). Earlier this year, a former Minister from Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party wished Al Qaeda success in its attacks against the U.S., and in its targeting of President George W. Bush. The Fatah leader, Abu Ali Shahin, said in an interview on official PA TV: "Oh [Al-Qaeda] brother, leave us and focus on your business. You have Bush! Do to Bush what you want, and we wish you success with Bush, even more. I, Abu Ali Shahin, wish you success with Bush... We are fighting the Americans and hate the Americans more than you!" [PA TV, Jan. 1, 2007
The official PA media's repeated glorification of Bin Laden is a reflection of the deep hatred of the U.S. by the Palestinian population. This hatred is the result of years of hate incitement against the U.S. by Palestinian political leaders (such as the hate promotion by Abu Ali Shahin cited above), by the PA media and even in official Western-funded schoolbooks. PMW has documented this anti-American hate promotion in many reports and bulletins.
It should be noted that the U.S. continues to fund PA institutions and the Palestinian Authority itself, and to support it politically, while ignoring the continued Palestinian hate promotion against the U.S. While there has been repeated legislation in the U.S. to prevent US money from going to terrorists and their supporters, it seems that the U.S. Congress has not restricted the funding of institutions and governments who promote anti-American hatred. Text on wall: "September", Twin Towers form "11" over dead bodiesText on left tower': "Rights of Nations"Text on right tower': "American Hegemony"[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 11, 2002]
Text: "September 11 - the day of the greatest conspiracy against the Arabs and Muslims."[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida September 13, 2002] Text on left tower: Arabs Text on right tower: Muslims [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 13, 2002]
MKs to tour Homesh site, again
MKs Arye Eldad, Uri Ariel (NU/NRP) and Yuli-Yoel Edelstein (Likud) set out to visit the site of the former West Bank settlement of Homesh on Monday morning. The IDF permitted the MKs to conduct the tour, despite its announcement on Sunday that the tour would be forbidden for security reasons.
The MKs are expected to listen to briefings on security, land ownership and the legal status of Homesh. They will also speak to protestors who have visited the site over the past two months.
Over 20 right wing activists went to Homesh site during Rosh Hashana, despite threats issued by terror groups of planned attacks against such visitors.
Homesh has become a rallying point for those who wish to turn back the clock on Israel's 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip and four communities in northern Samaria.
Starting in December 2006, activists held a series of marches to the hilltop site. On Hanukka and Pessah, marches to Homesh were held without police or IDF permission.
In May and in June, thousands of demonstrators attended marches which called for the reestablishment of Homesh, and which promised that the event would pave the way for the other three evacuated Samarian settlements to be rebuilt as well.
The MKs are expected to listen to briefings on security, land ownership and the legal status of Homesh. They will also speak to protestors who have visited the site over the past two months.
Over 20 right wing activists went to Homesh site during Rosh Hashana, despite threats issued by terror groups of planned attacks against such visitors.
Homesh has become a rallying point for those who wish to turn back the clock on Israel's 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip and four communities in northern Samaria.
Starting in December 2006, activists held a series of marches to the hilltop site. On Hanukka and Pessah, marches to Homesh were held without police or IDF permission.
In May and in June, thousands of demonstrators attended marches which called for the reestablishment of Homesh, and which promised that the event would pave the way for the other three evacuated Samarian settlements to be rebuilt as well.
'600 Iranian missiles pointed at Israel'
Six hundred Iranian Shihab-3 missiles are pointed at targets throughout Israel, and will be launched if either Iran or Syria are attacked, an Iranian website affiliated with the regime reported on Monday.
"Iran will shoot at Israel 600 missiles if it is attacked," the Iranian news website, Assar Iran, reported. "600 missiles will only be the first reaction."
According to the report, dozens of locations throughout Iraq, which are being used by the US Army, have also been targeted.
The Shihab missile has a range of 1,300 km, and can reach anywhere in Israel.
On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that the nuclear Iranian crisis forces the world "to prepare for the worst," and said that in this case it "is war."
Kouchner emphasized, however, that negotiations should still be the preferred course of action.
Kouchner, quoted by French daily Le Figaro, added that "Iran does whatever it pleases in Iraq ... one cannot find in the entire world a crisis greater than this one."
In response to Kouchner's comments, Iran's state-owned news agency accused France of pandering to the interests of the United States.
"The new occupants of the Elysee (Presidential palace) want to copy the White House," the IRNA news agency said in an editorial. The editorial added that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taking on "an American skin."
Kouchner's statements came just hours after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the Bush administration's commitment, at least for the time being, to using diplomatic and economic means to counter the potential nuclear threat from Iran.
"Iran will shoot at Israel 600 missiles if it is attacked," the Iranian news website, Assar Iran, reported. "600 missiles will only be the first reaction."
According to the report, dozens of locations throughout Iraq, which are being used by the US Army, have also been targeted.
The Shihab missile has a range of 1,300 km, and can reach anywhere in Israel.
On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that the nuclear Iranian crisis forces the world "to prepare for the worst," and said that in this case it "is war."
Kouchner emphasized, however, that negotiations should still be the preferred course of action.
Kouchner, quoted by French daily Le Figaro, added that "Iran does whatever it pleases in Iraq ... one cannot find in the entire world a crisis greater than this one."
In response to Kouchner's comments, Iran's state-owned news agency accused France of pandering to the interests of the United States.
"The new occupants of the Elysee (Presidential palace) want to copy the White House," the IRNA news agency said in an editorial. The editorial added that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taking on "an American skin."
Kouchner's statements came just hours after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the Bush administration's commitment, at least for the time being, to using diplomatic and economic means to counter the potential nuclear threat from Iran.
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