Abbas greets liberated prisoners with hero's welcome in Occupied West Bank

Te Daily Star
Arab media

RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank: Israel freed 198 Palestinian prisoners on Monday in a gesture to President Mahmoud Abbas as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region to spur US-backed peace talks. The prisoners were welcomed by thousands of cheering supporters at an outdoor celebration at Abbas' headquarters in the Occupied West Bank political capital of Ramallah.

"The release of this group fills us with joy, but we will not be satisfied until all prisoners are released, the 11,000 who are still waiting," Abbas told the crowd, referring to Palestinians still in Israeli jails.

"There will be no peace without the release of all our prisoners," he added.

The release took place just hours before Rice arrived on her 18th visit in two years aimed at encouraging peace talks formally relaunched at a conference hosted by US President George W. Bush in November.

"This is a day of joy for the fighters of freedom and independence," said Said al-Attaba, 56, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner as he had been behind bars since 1977 for killing an Israeli woman.

"It is like a wedding celebration for the Palestinian people, but our joy will not be complete until all Palestinian prisoners are released," he said.

Those released also included Mohammad Ibrahim Abu Ali, known as "Abu Ali Yatta," who was jailed in 1979 for killing an Israeli settler who was studying at a religious school in the Occupied West Bank town of Hebron.

A member of Abbas' Fatah party, he was elected to Parliament in 2006 while behind bars.

The releases of Attaba and Abu Ali were rare and controversial exceptions to Israel's policy of not freeing those who have been implicated in deadly attacks against its citizens.

"This is a big day we have been awaiting for 32 years," said Attaba's sister Sanaa, who along with friends and family has been preparing a hero's welcome feast for her brother in his hometown of Nablus.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed the release earlier this month, saying that it would bolster the Western-backed Abbas, whom he has met on a roughly fortnightly basis since the peace talks were formally relaunched.

"We hope it will contribute to a positive climate," Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said. "It is not easy to release prisoners, and particularly those who have been involved in murderous terrorist attacks."

Last month Israel carried out a prisoner exchange with Lebanon's Hizbullah, in which Israel traded five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of nearly 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters for the bodies of two soldiers.

The fate of the two Israeli soldiers, whose abduction in a deadly cross-border raid had sparked Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon, was not known until they were brought to the border in two black coffins.

Israel has been indirectly negotiating a similar deal with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, in a bid to recover Gilad Shalit, an Israeli corporal seized in a deadly raid launched from Gaza in June 2006.

The latest release is seen as a boost to Rice's efforts to push the two sides toward their stated goal of reaching a full peace agreement by early 2009 despite a lack of tangible progress.

Abbas once again vowed that he would not accept a partial agreement that did not fully resolve the decades-old conflict.

"All the issues, including the fate of [Occupied] Jerusalem, the refugees, the settlements and the borders should be resolved. We will not accept any other accord," he said.

French FM Plays Down Hezbollah-Israel War of Words

Asharq Alawsat
Arab media

BEIRUT (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner played down on Monday the significance of a mounting war of words between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah but acknowledged the region was tense. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Sunday to destroy Israel if it carries out threats to hit Lebanon.

He was responding to warnings by Israeli leaders that Lebanon's civilian infrastructure could become a legitimate target following the formation of a unity government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition has 11 ministries and the power of veto over cabinet decisions.

"One must always take threats seriously, both those made by Israel and by Mr. Nasrallah... because this is a very inflammatory region," Kouchner said after talks in Beirut with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

"But honestly this time I don't take either side very seriously... and I hope I am not mistaken," he said.

Kouchner, whose government currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, arrived in Beirut on Sunday at the start of a two-nation tour that will also take him to Syria. He said he scrapped a planned visit to Israel for scheduling reasons.

The French foreign minister said his trip to Damascus later Monday would focus on preparing a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Syria due September 3-4.

His visit to Lebanon and Syria also follows an announcement by the two governments on August 13 that they intend to establish diplomatic ties for the first time since they both attained independence from France six decades ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned last week that Israel would fight a far more devastating campaign than in the 2006 war with Hezbollah if the Shiite movement led the government. Other leaders made similar threats.

But on Sunday the Hezbollah chief retorted: "If (a war) were to happen as they are threatening, our victory this time will be decisive, unquestionable and final."

Biden Does Nothing for Obama

ohn LeBoutillier

Barack Obama’s selection of long-time Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate was a huge political mistake.

Why? Because Biden gives Obama almost nothing to help him in the one and only one thing they ought to be thinking about: accumulating 270 Electoral votes on Nov. 4. Biden does not give them a state that they would not have already had. Thus he is like so many other recent, and failed, Democrat veep picks: Lloyd Bentsen, Geraldine Ferraro, Joe Lieberman and John Edwards. None of these selections helped their ticket gather those 270 electoral votes or even accomplished the converse: kept their GOP opponents from getting to that magic number.

Evan Bayh would have automatically made Indiana, a traditional GOP lock, a competitive state and hurt McCain by stretching and stressing his limited campaign budget. Mark Warner or Jim Webb would similarly vault Virginia, a longtime GOP bastion, into the undecided column.

Bill Richardson would have guaranteed New Mexico for Obama and maybe locked up Nevada and Colorado, too. But Joe Biden’s Delaware is a solid Democratic state anyway.

The sycophants in the media were downright disgraceful as everyone inside the D.C. Beltway rushed forward to praise Biden. Where is the objectivity? Where is the balance? Where are stories about his alleged law school plagiarism? Where is a recounting of the brutal way he assaulted Judge Clarence Thomas?

Instead we are told how this life-long political hack is the Third Coming (the second is Obama himself). The fawning by the MSNBC talking heads was unbelievable.

How about some objectivity? How about the fact that, as a Catholic, he is pro-choice? No one mentioned that. They did say that he is a Catholic and thus will help Obama in heavily Catholic states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. Oh, really? Do all Catholics go against Church doctrine?

Why is it that Biden, after years of campaigning and national TV appearances, could not get even 1 percent of the vote in this year’s Iowa caucuses?

Why is that the Beltway media love him so much, but the voters in Iowa didn’t buy his act one bit?

This just points out the incestuous relationship between the media and the people they cover; they trade leaks for access and puffery for access. What a disgrace.

Biden does help flesh out the weaknesses in Obama’s (thin or nonexistent) resume. He has D.C. experience and foreign policy knowledge. And he will be an aggressive attack dog against Mccain and a Bush third term (the Obama fall campaign theme). But he seems to be all talk.

Obama may regret this selection, not because Biden will do badly, but because someone else could have helped him get to that magic 270.

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

EU aid to Palestine is funding the conflict

Daniel Hannan
Telegraph. Co. UK

The EU is to increase its aid to the Palestinian Authority by €40 million, in order to pay the salaries of government employees. The first sympathy of any Eurocrat is, of course, always and everywhere with the public sector worker. If, in some bizarre parallel universe, the EU were to run out of money, you can bet its last euros would be spent on its own apparatchiks. Still, the EU's generosity with our money - it has paid the Palestinian Authority €256 million so far this year - creates two problems. First, the PA is run by Hamas, which is on the EU's list of designated terrorist operations. Under Brussels rules, funding such an organisation is a criminal offence. Euro-lawyers have sought to circumvent the letter of the law by funnelling aid money through NGOs, but this is sheer sophistry. Many of the PA's officials are Hamas militants, whose salaries are being paid while they serve their sentences in Israeli jails.

Second, it is becoming increasingly clear that overseas aid is arresting a political settlement in the region. (This goes equally for American subventions to Israel which, as Ron Paul argues, have sapped the enterprise of the Jewish state; but that's another story.) Palestinians receive more assistance, per capita, than any other people on Earth, and live in one of its most violent spaces. The two facts are connected.

The idea that aggression can be buried under a landslide of euros sounds reasonable, but it is based on a false premise, namely that political violence is caused by economic deprivation. This notion derives ultimately from Marx and, like many of his ideas, it looks plausible on the page, but turns out to be specious.

Most of the world's revolutions have taken place, not at times of rising poverty, but at times of rising wealth and aspirations. Put bluntly, people who are worried about food and shelter have little time to go on demos. It is when they have time to sit and brood that their thoughts turn to bloodshed.

A welfare state is thus the perfect terrorist habitat. Think of the two London Tube bombers who had been living on income support and housing benefit. Had this option been closed, perhaps they might have had to go out and get jobs, and so been too busy to work themselves into a suicidal rage.

Sean O'Callaghan, the former IRA volunteer, recalls talking to the republican leader Brian Keenan. "The Brits are very clever," Keenan told him. "The only thing they don't get is the Fenian thing. We speak their language, are the same skin colour, live in their council houses, take their dole and still hate them." Might it have been precisely because of the council houses and the dole that they hated us?

It doesn't have to be this way. Palestinians are a naturally enterprising people who, in other Arab states, often form the professional and administrative class. A capitalist Palestine, in which citizens looked to themselves rather than to the state, would be more stable. Its propertied classes would have a stake in civil order. Its businessmen would have an incentive to remain on cordial terms with their customers, including those in Israel.

None of this will happen, however, as long as Palestinians remain trapped in the squalor of dependency. The EU, in its well-intentioned but doltish way, is fuelling the conflict.

IDF Begins Major Move to the Negev

Hillel Fendel

A Hercules jet will take off Monday afternoon from central Israel to the new Nevatim Israel Air Force base in the Negev, marking the start of the herculean IDF move to the Negev. The move marks today's closing of the IAF's main transport base, in Lod, and its replacement in Nevatim. The new base will be formally dedicated later this week in the presence of President Shimon Peres and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi

At the same time, infrastructure work is beginning on the new army city in the Negev, to be called Ir HaBahadim, or City of the Training Bases. Construction was long delayed because of environmental concerns. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is in attendance for a ceremony marking the construction.

The new town is set to be built on an area of 1,065 dunams (263 acres, just over a square kilometer), and and will house the IDF's Armaments School, Logistics Training School, Military Police, and more. Ir HaBahadim will also include an inn for visitors, a shopping mall, a country club and theaters, and is expected to provide a welcome economic boon for the sparsely-populated area - as well as boost for the IDF, technologically and manpower-wise.

The move to the Negev, called "Project IDF Ascent to the Negev," is being termed by security network personnel "one of the largest and most important military projects in the history of the State of Israel." Some 11,000 soldiers, both in the standing army and career officers, will serve on the technological campus of the 4CI Branch - the army's Command, Control, Computers, Communications and Information Branch. Another 9,000 soldiers will serve in other branches there.

Ir HaBahadim (Bahad is an acronym for Bsis Hadrachah, or Training Base) has long been in the planning, and will feature state-of-the-art elements in the training and preparation spheres.

Response to Mr. Lapid

Deceit and double standards

Lapid’s anti-settler article reflects supremacy of political correctness over facts

Martin Sherman
Israel Opinion

Last week I published an article which pointed to the vehement and irrationally obsessive enmity towards the Jewish settlers and settlements across the 1967 "Green Line". The very next day, this claim was vividly illustrated by an article "This land isn’t Israel" by Yair Lapid which provided dramatic endorsement for my argument. In it, Lapid, a somewhat ionic figure in the shallow mindless glitz that has become dominant norm in today's Israeli media, launched into a toxic tirade against the Jewish population living across the 1967 lines.


In his "masterpiece" of malice, he sternly warns an entire population, the overwhelming majority of which are demonstrably law-abiding - perhaps the nation's most law-abiding - citizens, residing in government approved towns and villages - that due to the alleged actions of a unspecified number of youthful hot-heads, they have been excluded from being part of Israel and part of the Israeli people. According to Lapid "…they define the place they live in as “not Israel.” This is a lawless land, lacking respect, where people who are different than us live and conduct themselves in line with codes we don’t understand. It is a land that has rejected all the basic values that hold us together."


However, in his closing sentence, Lapid lets the cat out of the bag. For he does not call on his allegedly recalcitrant fellow-Jews to recant so that he can welcome them back into the fold of his self-prescribed version of Israel as his self-prescribed version of Israelis. Oh No. For Lapid, his self-perceived distortion of reality serves only as a facilitating factor – an excuse – for the implementation of political agenda, Israeli withdrawal and concessions to the Palestinians.


In what is perhaps a seminal exhibition of a flat learning-curve, Lapid - undaunted by the calamity of Oslo and catastrophe of Disengagement - issues a menacing prognosis: "These people create a situation whereby, when the day comes, and the agreements are signed on the lawn in Washington, it will be easier to give up this land, which isn’t really ours; this land where not only the laws and landscape are different, but also the people.”


The deceit and double standards that permeate Lapid's latest piece are hardly surprising. For example, in ascribing to the allegedly recurring clashes with security forces, a "reject(ion) all the basic values that hold us together " he could just of easily included the left-wing radicals who regularly assail and hurl abuse at the IDF forces charged with facilitating the construction of the security barrier. But for some reason they are not to be excluded from Lapidian Israel.


Proud of disengagement?

Lapid cites incidents such as "daily infiltrations to the evacuated settlement Homesh" as evidence of the settlers "contempt (for) the law, and refus(al) to accept the State’s authority," conveniently omitting to mention that many of leading figures in the endeavor to resurrect Homesh are secular citizens living inside the Green Line including former combatants in elite army and Air Force units, residents of Moshavim and Kibbutzim, well known doctors and lawyers. Would Lapid "excommunicate" all of them as "not Israeli"?


And when he accuses the settlers of lacking "respect (for) IDF soldiers" can it be amnesia or intent that causes him to overlook the considerable contribution the settler youth make to the IDF; not only did they perform admirable acts of courage and daring during the last war, they were one of the sectors that sustained the highest combat casualties in the fighting – in stark contrast to Lapid's Tel Avivian milieu, which sustained among the lowest.


Moreover, Lapid's characterization of the "lawless land" in which settlers reside could perhaps be better applied to the Negev where the Bedouin reside and where there is almost a total collapse of the rule of law, or to the Arab villages in the north where flouting of the building code and illegal construction is arguably the rule rather exception. But does Lapid suggest that this should result in the inhabitants of these areas being declared "not Israel."? Not on your nelly! Run the risk of being dubbed a "racist" and ostracized as by his trendy mates in the elegant haunts of up-market suburbia? Perish the thought!


Incredibly, Lapid still sees reason to be "proud" of

Remember this ruling!!

High Court rejects appeal against Palestinian prisoner release

Court says it has no right to rule on 'matter of the State', prisoners to attend Ramallah ceremony in their honor before heading home. Palestinian minister: Release signifies breaking down of criteria Israel was so adamant about Ali Waked
Latest Update: 08.25.08, 01:01 / Israel News

The High Court of Justice rejected Sunday evening a petition filed by the 'Almagor' organization, which claimed that the Palestinian prisoner release scheduled for Monday should be canceled.


The court explained that it had no right to rule on the issue as it is a matter of the State.



The 199 prisoners slated for release, including senior Tanzim figure Hussam Khader, were to be transferred to the Palestinian territories and take part in a special ceremony that will be held in their honor at the Muqata compound in Ramallah before heading home.



However after 198 of them were transferred to Ofer Prison near Ramallah to await their release, the final prisoner's pardon was revoked due to the discovery that there are criminal charges pending against him.



Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs Ashraf al-Ajrami responded to the prisoners' release with a moderate tone, saying the number of Palestinian inmates to be set free was "relatively small compared with the 9,000 prisoners that remain in prison."



However he maintained that the pardons signified "the breaking of traditional criteria Israel had been adamant about."



Al-Ajrami was referring to the fact that two of the prisoners to be released belong to the category Israel refers to as having "blood on their hands", Sayed al-Ataba, Fatah operative jailed for 32 years for the murder of one Israeli and the injuring of 33, and Abu ali-Yata, detained in 1980 for the murder of an Israeli and a Palestinian suspected of collaborating with Israel.



Al-Ajrami claimed that the fact that these prisoners were pardoned "is a very important point for the Palestinian Authority, and could provide an opening for the future."


'Saddened sons won't be freed'

Several West Bank families were disappointed to hear that their loved ones were not on Israel's list of Palestinian prisoners slated for release as a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.



"I am happy for the prisoners who are being released, but saddened by the fact that my sons will not be freed," said 60-year-old Umm Muhammad Shtiwi, the mother of three Palestinians who are currently imprisoned in Israel for their involvement in terror-related activity.



"I prayed that at least one of them would be set free, so that we'd experience a little happiness too."



Asked by Ynet whether she regretted that her sons had chosen the path of terror, Shtiwi said "No, I am not sorry; this is their fate, but when they will finally be released it will be a different story – they will not return to the activity in the organizations. Enough.



"We have sacrificed enough. Very few families have sacrificed what ours has – three sons in jail, another one who is on the run and another who was a hero and died as a shahid," she said.



Aviad Glickman and Raanan Ben-Zur contributed to the report

Senator Barack Obama and DNC called upon to 'un-invite' and denounce Ingrid Mattson

DNC Invites Radical Islamic Speaker to 'Interfaith' Gathering," from CNW, August 24:

Contact: Meredith Turney, 208-659-1057; www.WatchObsession.org

DENVER, August 24 /Christian Newswire/ -- Kicking off their week of inclusion at the Democratic National Convention, the party will host its first-ever "interfaith gathering" on Sunday afternoon at the Colorado Convention Center. However, among its featured speakers will be Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The ISNA is suspected of having ties to radical terrorism organizations worldwide. In fact, the ISNA is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. ISNA is also supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical organization that calls on Muslim organizations in America to dedicate themselves to "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands ... so that ... God's religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions."

"National security is supposed to be a major theme for the Democratic National Convention-especially with Joe Biden now Obama's running mate," explained Tom Trento, director of the Watch Obsession Citizen Education Program. "Inviting a speaker with documented ties to extremist terrorists makes a complete mockery of this emphasis on national security."

"Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and the Democratic Party should not allow an individual who sympathizes with murderous terrorists to speak at a peaceful interfaith gathering," continued Trento. "It's shocking that leaders such as Colorado Governor Bill Ritter are willing to share the stage with someone who at best tolerates extremists who wan[t] to destroy his constituents."

Re a message to Secretary of State Rice

To the Editor
The Jerusalem Post

Far too long have we heard the phrase 'peace process' bandied about in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. The word 'process' implies give and take on both sides until compromise is reached. This has not been the case in the Middle East.
While Israel has been required to uphold commitments and has forced 'painful concessions' from its citizens there has been no such demand from the 'peace partner' that openly refused to disarm and disband its terrorist groups. Relinquishing territory has only brought the enemy closer to Israel's urban areas.

Now it is time to set the record straight and relegate the phrase 'peace process' to the category of fiction.
The conflict is not about territory; the demand for Israel to relinquish land is only for the purpose of weakening the state in order to destroy it. The enemy does not hide its true goals; it is we who are not listening!

Secretary of State Rice is arriving for the umpteenth time to force more concessions from Israel. She must be firmly informed by Olmert and Livni that 'land for peace' is out and the new slogan is 'peace for peace'!

Syrian Request For Russian Missiles a Ploy for US Intervention

Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel


“Syria was planning to acquire the weapons systems a long time before the negotiations between Israel and Syria were resumed. [The Syrians] have been trying to do so for a very long time as part of their policy, and this is not something new,” said Shalom.
Syria’s announcement last week that it plans to purchase arms from Russia, including long-range missiles and fighter jets, is aimed at getting the United States involved in a new round of Israeli-Syrian peace talks, according to Israeli sources Prior to last Thursday’s talks in Russia between President Dmitry Medvedev and Syrian President Bashar Assad, the latter hinted that he would consider a deal with Moscow to place Russian missiles on Syrian soil as a countermeasure to U.S.-made NATO missiles recently installed in Poland. On the first day of the talks, Russian officials were quoted as saying that the sale of a wide array of advanced weaponry, including long-range missiles and MIG-31 fighter jets, was a key item on the agenda.

In Israel, senior defense officials reacted on Saturday by saying that, to the best of their knowledge, Russia has no plans to sell the arms to Syria. According to the sources, Assad requested Russian weapons in an attempt to pressure the White House to become more involved with the ongoing peace talks between Israel and Syria. Israel recently concluded its fourth round of indirect talks with the hostile Arab regime, in the mediating country Turkey.

Russians Promised No Balance-Changing Weapons Sales
The Israelis said that Russia had promised not to sell any weaponry to Syria that would violate the regional balance of power in the Middle East. That "promise" perhaps referred to a statement by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, that his country was considering arms sales to Syria, but that Russia was “indeed prepared to sell only defensive weapons which do not violate the regional balance of power.” The acting Russian ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Yurkov, was also quoted as saying that Russia had no intention of installing the advanced Iskander missile system in Syria.

"The Syrians are making noise about the weapons deals to pressure the U.S. to provide sponsorship for the talks," said one of the Israeli defense sources. He explained that "[t]he Syrians are hoping to use the talks with Israel to gain more credit and strengthen ties with the U.S."

The Iskander: A Considerable Threat
Among the weapons that were claimed to be under discussion, the S-300 surface-to-air (SAM) missiles and the Iskanders worried Israeli officials most.

The export version of the Iskander missiles have a range of 280 kilometers, and if fired from Syria’s border at the Golan Heights, could hit almost every major population center and military target in Israel. Each such missile has the capability to destroy critical civilian infrastructure facilities, such as roads, bridges and large buildings; enemy rocket and missile equipment in the air or on the ground, including missile defense systems; and it can wreak havoc on civilian and military aircraft on the ground. It is classified as a quasi-ballistic missile, a recent innovation allowing for a lower flight trajectory, making it much harder to predict where it will hit.

Israeli MKs: Syria Does Want Those Missiles
MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) told IsraelNationalNews on Sunday that he believes Syria’s attempts at acquiring missiles is genuine, and dismissed the theory that Assad is feigning in order to alarm and pressure the United States to intervene in the Israel-Syria negotiations.

“Syria was planning to acquire the weapons systems a long time before the negotiations between Israel and Syria were resumed. [The Syrians] have been trying to do so for a very long time as part of their policy, and this is not something new,” said Shalom.

“So I cannot accept it…. I cannot really buy it,” said Shalom about the coercion theory. “This is their policy: On the one hand, to support axis of evil countries like Iran in their terrorist activities and to get more missiles.” On the other hand, said the Israeli parliamentarian, the Syrians are striving to “show themselves as willing to move toward a peace treaty with Israel, and [convince the world] they in fact accept it already,” while Israel is still weighing its options.

MK Shalom said earlier that Israel should demand that Moscow refrain from "arming its enemies."

"Arming Syria would lead to a strategic change and could destabilize the Middle East and the world," he noted.

Fellow Likud member MK Yuval Steinitz echoed the doubts of his colleague. “This is over-sophistication,” he said. “You have to take it as it is. Syria is trying to rearm not just itself but the entire Middle East against Israel, and we are now facing the possibility that the axis of evil stretching from Iran through Syria to Lebanon, which is now dominated by Hizbullah, will now gain Russian military assistance.

“I think that Syria is eager to get longer-range missiles, both ground-to-ground Iskander missiles, and also long-range anti-aircraft and long-range anti-ship missiles that will enable Syria not only to threaten every military target inside Israel, but also to threaten Israeli airspace and Israeli waters from Syria. And this is of course the real threat.”

RJC: With Biden, Obama Ticket Gets Riskier

Washington, D.C. (August 23, 2008) -- Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Executive Director Matt Brooks issued the following statement today:

"With the selection of Senator Joe Biden as Senator Obama's vice president, the Democrat's ticket has now become an even greater gamble for the Jewish community. Throughout his career, Senator Biden has consistently been wrong on Iran and his voting record on Israel has been inconsistent. Like Obama, Biden fundamentally misunderstands the threat posed by an Iran determined to obtain nuclear weapons. Biden has continuously demonstrated poor judgment on Iran. He has voted against significant legislation that would pressure Iran to stop pursuing nuclear weapons. Biden has failed to recognize the serious threat that Iran poses to Israel and the US and its allies in the Middle East," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.

In 1998, Sen. Biden was one of only four senators to vote against the Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act, a bill that punished foreign companies or other entities that sent Iran sensitive missile technology or expertise. Biden was one of the few senators to oppose the bipartisan 2007 Kyl-Lieberman Ammendment labeling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. In a December 2007 debate, Biden said "Iran is not a nuclear threat to the United States of America." On MSNBC's "Hardball," Biden said he "never believed" Iran had a weapon system under production.

"The Jewish community was already gravely concerned with Senator Obama's naïve understanding of the Iranian threat. An Obama-Biden ticket has proven that it is ill-equipped to deal with this threat. By selecting Senator Biden to join his ticket, voting for Senator Obama has now become an even greater risk," said Brooks.

Analysis: 'You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist'

Haviv Rettig , THE JERUSALEM POST

Within hours of the Saturday announcement that Democratic senator and former presidential candidate Joe Biden will be Barack Obama's running mate in the 2008 presidential election, a debate began among Jewish groups over his pro-Israel credentials. While Biden is considered to be pro-Israel and is popular among Jewish voters who have heard of him, his views on Iran were the target of fierce criticism from a Republican Jewish group Saturday.

Biden's selection made Obama's presidential bid "an even greater gamble for the Jewish community," read a statement released by Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks. "Throughout his career, Senator Biden has consistently been wrong on Iran, and his voting record on Israel has been inconsistent."

Brooks cited Biden's vote against the 1998 Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act, which was intended to punish companies or organizations that provided certain missile technologies to Iran. Biden was one of only four senators to oppose the bill, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

At the time, Biden explained to The New York Times that the bill would serve to weaken, rather than strengthen, the Clinton administration's influence over Russia, whose arms sales with Iran were the target of the legislation.

"I'm trying to approach this from a practical point of view," said Biden, since it was unrealistic for the Senate to expect then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin to have "his finger on" every one of his government's agencies.

Biden also opposed the 2007 Senate resolution that labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization. That resolution passed 76 to 22. His vote was based on his belief that the resolution could serve as a pretext for President George W. Bush to attack Iran, a move he adamantly opposed, he said.

"This is a mindless, mindless approach to dealing with proliferation," he told The Boston Globe at the time, saying he had "zero faith" in Bush's judgment on the issue.

"The Jewish community was already gravely concerned with Senator Obama's naïve understanding of the Iranian threat," Brooks claimed in the Saturday statement. "By selecting Senator Biden to join his ticket, voting for Senator Obama has now become an even greater risk."

Jewish Democrats, meanwhile, believe Biden will be well-received among Jewish voters.

Steve Grossman, a former president of AIPAC and chair of the Democratic Party, said before the announcement of Biden's selection that the Delaware senator would be popular among Jews because he's "as well known an individual as any elected official in America" with a lengthy "track record" of backing the US-Israel relationship.

Others pointed to a March 2007 interview with the Jewish cable television network Shalom TV in which Biden expressed strong support for Israel, calling it "the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East" and emphatically declaring that "you don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist." Biden is Catholic.

In the interview, Biden also rejected claims that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was hurting America's efforts in Iraq.

"When the Baker Commission filed its report saying peace in Israel is related to Iraq, I was the first in Congress to point out [that] if tomorrow peace broke out between Israelis and Palestinians, does anyone think there wouldn't be a full-blown war with Iraq?" he said.

He further suggested that he understood American Jews' concern for Israel. "There is this inextricable tie between culture, religion, [and] ethnicity that most people don't fully understand - that is unique and so strong with Jews worldwide," he said in the interview, which was conducted during his campaign in the Democratic primaries.

Biden's selection was widely expected. He was endorsed by influential New York Times columnist David Brooks on Friday and topped the charts of the prediction market Web site InTrade for several days.

In a week that saw Obama's lead over Republican rival John McCain drop to just 1.5 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, the choice of Biden was widely seen on Saturday as an attempt to fend off some of the harshest criticism leveled at Obama by his opponents - that he lacks experience, particularly in foreign policy, and that his views and political connections are too left-wing.

Biden is now in his 36th year in the Senate, making him the sixth most veteran senator currently serving. That legislative experience and repeated chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations are expected to be the political assets Obama will need to secure his unstable lead over McCain.

Biden is considered a centrist Democrat. His choice as a vice-presidential candidate was welcomed by the pro-choice organization NARAL, while his views on same-sex marriage led to a vote in favor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act which forbade defining same-sex unions as marriage. He supported the Iraq invasion of 2003, but has criticized the Bush administration's handling of the war.

Hilary Krieger contributed to this report from Washington

CAN IT GET MUCH DARKER?

When one observes what is happening in today's world things look very, very, serious indeed.

On one side we see the rise of the exceedingly sly and ruthless dictator, Vladimir Putin, who although he has allowed Dmitry Medvedev - his former trusted chief aide - to become president, remains virtually Russia's sole ruler as prime minister and also as chief of the ruling party. He now threatens the whole free world with his Soviet-like aggressive designs - much in accordance with Putin's former KGB past. So, as Putin has just brutally invaded pro-western and pro-Israel, Christian Georgia, and threateningly holds out the possibility of an attack on peace-loving, democratic Poland - in wily response to the just-signed agreement between Poland and the U.S. to have a defensive missile shield placed on Polish soil - it all looks very much like it was at the beginning of the Second World War.

On the other side we see in America, unbelievably, the rise of presidential forerunner Barack Obama, a former Muslim and a man who - like British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on the eve of World War Two - promises wonderful change in our times, much as Chamberlain promised Britain peace in his time.

Obama is no match for Putin or for the new radicalized Muslim leadership that is springing up all around Israel: Ahmadinejad in Iran, Nasrallah in Lebanon, Iranian-backed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, and the new radical Muslim leader who will likely replace the pro-Western Pervez Musharraf as President of Pakistan - all gearing up against the West and little Israel.

The Bible tells us this would all happen: an evil prince or leader of Rosh to Israel's far north who would make an alliance with nations like Persia, Libya etc - as indeed Putin is now doing. And now as I write these lines, Syrian President Bashar Assad is with Putin and Medvedev in Moscow on a two day visit - believing he will receive from the Russians his extensive shopping list for military hardware in case of a war with Israel.

As all this unfolds, Israel is mainly caught up with internal political bickering and maneuvering that may well lead to upcoming general elections - just as the United States is in the thralls of its election campaign, unable or unwilling to pose much of a problem either to Putin or to Assad's and Ahmadinejad's evil and most dangerous designs.

One would think the Europeans would do everything to see a Churchill-like president brought to power on the other side of their ocean. But no - fully despising the legacy of President GeorgeW. Bush, most Europeans in their utter blindness would prefer a weak, Chamberlain-like Obama, who will rather talk to the warlike Russian and the Muslim dictators than courageously face up to them.

The world, then, is going down - and that quite quickly - unable or unwilling to defend its own fading freedoms and democracies. While Israel is the only nation still prepared to fight and withstand this joint onslaught, she will have to look higher - than to trust in the weak and failing western nations who increasingly are afraid to stand up for her - for a miracle of divine intervention as her own God, the God of Israel, promises in His word.

"Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord God: "On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes." "And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel," says the Lord God, "that My fury will show in My face. I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains," says the Lord God. "Every man's sword will be against his brother. And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel 38:14, 16, 18, 21-23)

We seem to come closer and closer to these, already centuries ago, prophesied scenarios and this to the shock of the nations, but to the Glory of God of Israel.

Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director
International Christian Zionist Center

Israel's missile shield against Iran: Three Americans in a trailer

Aluf Benn and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents


A commander and two operators monitor missile radars in an armored trailer somewhere in Europe. Inside, they use satellite technology to track the origin and trajectory of long-range missiles. In true American fashion, each shift begins with calisthenics, followed by an intelligence briefing. That is the envisioned routine of the U.S. team that will be responsible for protecting Israel from surface-to-surface missiles launched from Iran or Syria.

Earlier this month the U.S. and Israel agreed on the deployment of a high-powered early-warning missile radar system in the Negev, to be staffed by U.S. military personnel. The station will receive information from the U.S. team in Europe that will aid it in its work.
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The deployment of the Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS) system, is widely seen as a kind of parting gift from Washington to Jerusalem as President George W. Bush prepares to leave office.

The system will protect Israel's skies from missile attacks, but the flip side of the deal is that Israel's freedom of action against Iran or Syria will be significantly curtailed.

Israel will be required to obtain U.S. permission for any such operation, since it would endanger the lives of the U.S. personnel operating the system. The ground station itself would likely become the target of any reprisal attack by Iran or Syria.

Senior defense officials view the radar system deployment as a signal of Washington's opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program.

Sources in Jerusalem said on Saturday that the Negev station would be operated by civilian firms contracted by the Pentagon, along with a small staff of liaison officers. The early warning station is expected to be transferred to Israeli operation at some point in the future.

The officials said the agreement does not stipulate the establishment of a permanent U.S. base in Israeli territory.

They said the warning station would significantly extend the response time to a missile attack and intercept those attacks from a far greater distance than had been previously possible.

Israel's current missile defense system depends on the identification of a single U.S. satellite, which can spot the missile itself but not its origin or path.

The new system is significantly more accurate than Israel's "Green Pine" radar system, which supports the Arrow anti-missile system.

JTAGS will cost between $20 and $30 million, the U.S. periodical Defense News reported last week.

The system is expected to be set up next year, but it could go on-line earlier, ahead of a large-scale U.S.-Israeli missile defense drill slated for this fall.

Israel asked for a similar system ten years ago, but encountered firm opposition from the Pentagon, which was opposed to divulging U.S. defense secrets.

Two years ago, U.S. Senator John McCain voiced support for the deal while visiting Israel.

Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois also joined lobbying efforts for the agreement. Kirk is a former naval officer and is expected to be given a senior position in the Department of Defense if McCain is elected president.

On onee of his own visits to Israel, Kirk heard a briefing on the Iran threat, after which he contacted Yoram Ben Ze'ev, then head of the Foreign Ministry's North America division, about setting up an early warning station in Israel.

Kirk suggested building a U.S. base in Israel which would enjoy extraterritorial status, like U.S. bases in South Korea.

Proponents of the plan in Jerusalem said that sealing the deal would "raise the price" of an Iranian strike on Israel, as such an attack would now be viewed as targeting the United States itself.

On the other hand, critics said the U.S. presence in Israel would tie Israel's hands in dealing with its adversaries, and subject any attack to prior U.S. approval.

Kirk also recruited Congresswoman Jane Harman of California to the cause.

On the eve of President Bush's May visit to Israel, some 70 members of Congress from both parties signed a petition calling for the missile defense system.

In July, after Iran tested its long-range Shihab-3 missile, Kirk and Harman wrote to Bush again, urging him to take action.

In the subsequent meetings between Israeli and American officials, the latter reiterated their opposition to a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran.

The deal was finally sealed in a meeting between Barak and his U.S. counterpart, Robert Gates, in July, and details were worked out by Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, earlier this month.

Kadima reaches out to Putin party

Haviv Rettig , THE JERUSALEM POST

A proposed Kadima link to Russia's ruling Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia) Party has sparked furious criticism from Israeli political opponents. The criticism follows a recent trip to Moscow by Kadima officials, including Nada Chozoy, who is on the staff of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Kadima treasurer Yitzhak Hadad, to meet with officials from Yedinaya Rossiya to discuss developing formal ties between the parties.

The envisioned relationship - first reported in the Russian-language Web site Izrus - is of the type commonly maintained between two parties with similar outlooks. Among other such connections, Kadima currently has ties to the Social Democratic Party of Germany which have resulted in mutual visits by party officials.

The proposed relationship with United Russia is described by a senior Kadima official familiar with the plans as "extremely preliminary." Yet officials in the Likud, and even some in Kadima itself, have blasted the initiative, saying this is a bad time to have Israel's ruling party developing close ties with the party of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, currently the cause of much anger in Washington and elsewhere over the conflict in Georgia, a close friend to Israel.

"This is a diplomatic problem for Israel's relationship with Washington," said a Likud official, echoing sentiments also heard from Kadima sources close to Transportation Minister and would-be Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz.

"If they did this to show that Livni was close to Russians [ahead of the Kadima primaries], then it backfired," the Likud official said, "because young Russian-speaking Israelis hate Putin's authoritarianism."

A Kadima official denied the talks in Moscow were initiated for reasons of internal Kadima politics and noted that the contact with United Russia was begun several months before the outbreak of the conflict in Georgia.

At the same time, World Kadima, a separate international organization which lobbies on Kadima's behalf abroad, is examining the idea of opening an office in Moscow. Such representative branches already exist in the US, France and South America, according to outgoing World Kadima chairman MK Yoel Hasson. Their sole purpose, he maintains, "is to take care of the Jews there."

This initiative, too, is at an early stage, contrary to some reports which suggested a branch has already been opened. "We're still looking for appropriate people to be on the board and for a president," said Hasson.

The planned branch would expand on Kadima's existing presence in Moscow , where it is already represented by local businessman and Jewish activist Eugene Satanovsky, who leads Kadima's Russian-speaking delegation to the World Zionist Organization and other international Jewish forums.
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No response from Israel on Jerusalem site - official

Mohammad Ghazal
The Jordan Times

AMMAN - In response to media reports that Israel rejected Jordan's protest against its plans on Jerusalem’s Bab Al Magharbeh, a Foreign Ministry source said Saturday the government has not officially received any reply from Israel in this regard. Some Arabic press reported that Israel rejected Jordan’s stand on the issue regarding the old gate of the city, the source said, stressing that there has been nothing official and the government did not receive anything from Israel in this regard.

Last week, Minister of Foreign Affairs Salah Bashir met with the Israeli ambassador in Amman and clarified Jordan's position on Bab Al Magharbeh, the source explained Saturday.

He added that the minister clarified Jordan's position and highlighted the negative consequences in case of any unilateral measures by Israel.

Last Thursday, Raef Nejem, vice president of Restoration Committee of Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, said Israel has a plan to build a steel bridge at the gate, which he said would destroy the Islamic antiquities in the area.

The source, who asked for anonymity, stressed there is no dialogue on the issue outside the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee as Jerusalem and its walls are registered on the endangered World Heritage List.

In a recent meeting in Quebec, Canada, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported Friday, the committee issued a decision stressing the need to preserve the identity and the originality of Tal Al Magharbeh location and urged Israel to limit its construction work in the location to "strengthening" work.

The committee's decision also urged Israel to allow employees of the Jordanian Awqaf Department to continue collecting information to end the proposed Jordanian design in this regard, according to Petra.

Nejem said in an interview with The Jordan Times that Jordan has an alternative design to restore the road at Tal Al Magharbeh through a non-asphalted road.

According to Nejem, the Jordanian project was welcomed by UNESCO as it preserves the history of the site and does not affect the mosque but the Israeli proposal was not welcomed.

A Foreign Ministry official told Petra Friday that Israel's claims that UNESCO’s panel allows Jerusalem Municipality to take unilateral measures and prepare a design to build a "bridge" in Bab Al Magharbeh are not accurate and legally baseless.

The committee's decision seek to safeguard Jerusalem and the awqaf as an endangered humanitarian, Islamic heritage, the official told the news agency.

The source explained that UNESCO’s decisions have nothing to do with the legal status of Jerusalem or the Security Council's resolutions in this regard.

In addition, he said, UNESCO's latest decision commits Israel to halt its measures in Bab Al Magharbeh and obliges it not to take any unilateral measures such as the regulatory decisions by the Jerusalem Municipality that affect the legal status of east Jerusalem as it is an occupied city.

The ministry source told Petra: “Jordan will continue to exert diplomatic efforts to urge Israel to stop its practices with regard to east Jerusalem in general and Bab Al Magharbeh in particular” and respect the international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, La Hague agreement for the year 1954 that protects cultural sites in case of armed conflict, international legitimacy resolutions, UNESCO's instructions and relevant articles of the peace treaty signed between Jordan and Israel in 1994.

Venezuelan Ties to Hezbollah

ICT Database Staff

In June of 2008 the United States government accused two Venezuelan men, both of Lebanese decent, of maintaining ties with the terrorist organization Hezbollah[1]. This is not the first time government officials and citizens of Venezuela have been found to engage in business with militants, nor is it likely to be the last. . The Lebanese population has been a part of the Venezuelan community for almost three decades; and, accordingly, Hezbollah cells have become embedded within the society as well[2]. But, according to documents produced by the United States' government and statements issued by former Venezuelan officials, it has been under the government of President Hugo Chavez that the terrorist organization has truly thrived, and it is under his authority that Hezbollah has begun to pose an even larger threat to the Western world[3].

The Lebanese population had become a large part of Venezuelan society by the time Chavez came to power in 1999[4]. According to a 2002 report released by the U.S. Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State, radical Islam has become prominent throughout the Latin American region, and Venezuela, specifically Margarita Island, has become a focal point for the Arab population[5]. Evidence shows that the Venezuelan president and his government actively aid militants, specifically in the acquisition of illegal documents; these documents make it possible, and especially easy, for terrorists and terror organizations to thrive in the region[6]. Chavez's maintains a strong relationship with several state sponsors of terror, or countries that support terror organizations[7]. Consequently, Hezbollah cells and members have been located on the peninsula which Colombia and Venezuela both share, Guajira[8].

The Arab Population and Terrorist Activity on the Guajira Peninsula

Easy access to false identification makes this region highly attractive to militants. In Colombia, Hezbollah has not been found to be one of the main actors especially when compared to the activity of cells which exist in the tri-border region. However, according to data provided by the U.S. Library of Congress, Hezbollah is prominent in the small village Maicao. Maicao is located on the border with Venezuela in the Guajira peninsula. There, Islamics control 70 percent of commerce; the orthodox Islamic community numbers 4,670 out of 58,000 total residents; but 8,000 people are of Arab decent; of the Sunni and Shi’ite members of the community the Shi’ite most regularly aligns itself with radical Islamic thought. Studies by U.S. officials show that Maicao is also a popular tourist spot for other orthodox Islamics. Many residents donate 10 percent, sometimes even 30 percent of their incomes to Hezbollah. Similar to the findings of the INSIGHT report, money is then sent through banks in Maracaibo, Venezuela and Panama; personal deliveries by emissaries also exist, a U.S. source reported to O Globo according to the Library of Congress report. Maracaibo is a city in the Venezuelan piece of the peninsula.[9]

The Arab population in Maicao has the capacity fuel its own education system, businesses and cultural institutions. Maicao is also the free trade capital of the La Guajira Department. And, regardless of the fact that the city is infamously known for its black market and money laundering, it has little interference from lawmakers and law enforcers. One of the few incidences came when a radio broadcaster was accused of issuing Hezbollah propaganda on 15 August 1997. Since the community straddles the border, the heavy involvement in the black market and money laundering inevitably flows over the border into the Zulia State of Venezuela. U.S. Government studies have shown that money laundering, which originates with the narcotrafficking in the region, is used to hide funds used to fund terrorist activity across the globe.[10]

Similar to the border-city of Maicao, Venezuela’s Margarita Island is a popular tourist spot for orthodox Islamics. Eighty percent of businesses on Margarita Island are owned by the Arab population on the Island.[11] In that past several years, many of these businesses and business owners have been found to have ties to illicit activities, money laundering, and the BMPE.[12] In 2003, an analyst visiting the island described it as a “‘fortress’ with armed guards outside.”[13] Margarita Island seems to be the center of a "terrorist financial network stretching throughout the Caribbean to Panama and the Cayman Islands” the INSIGHT article reported. In August 2001, three Afghanis were caught upon their arrival in the Cayman Islands for traveling on fake Pakistani passports; they carried $200,000 in cash. According to British officials Arabs were behind money laundering efforts through Cayman banks, as well.[14]

The BMPE is a process used by drug smugglers in Venezuela and Colombia as well as other Latin American states to clean drug money. Profits, in the form of U.S. dollars, from sales in the United States are difficult to bring over the border; dollars are heavier than the drugs and once over the border extremely difficult to convert pesos once in the Latin American countries. Instead, peso brokers sell the dollars to Colombian businessmen, who purchase products from legitimate American companies and then sell the products for pesos. The pesos returned to the peso Broker are funneled back to the traffickers after a percentage is taken out by the broker.[15]

The report released by the U.S. Library of Congress maintains that profits received in this region are sent to fund acts of terrorism run by Hezbollah cells and other organizations such as al-Qai’da. For example, the U.S. government studies found that funds from the 26 February 1993 terror attack came from terrorist cells that moved money through Colombia. One of the men believed to be a large financier, Mohamed Ali Farhad of Syrian-Lebanese decent, was a part of a cigarette trade which included his clan, which he allegedly heads, and another worth $650 million. Farhad, a shareholder of a casino on Margarita Island and the owner of an American textiles store there, has sent many large checks to fund terrorist organizations, namely Hezbollah. Farhad has also been tied to the Mansur Free Zone Trading Company N.V., which is based in Netherlands Antilles. According to the U.S. authorities, the Mansur clan came into the forefront of the illicit drug trade when it inherited the narcotrafficking territories run by the Cosa Nostra's Cuntrera-Caruana clan, when it began to work in with the Cali Cartel in Venezuela. Another man accused of terrorist activity, “‘Sinforoso Caballero,’” ran the Border Business Group and Cabadi Investments from March to October 1993, the report stated. The business was allegedly used to move the funds of the two Arab clans that are based in Maicao.[16] A strategy report released by the U.S. Department of State International Narcotics Control (INCSR) in March 1997 cited “‘Sinforoso Caballero’” as a money laundering organization of which 35 members were arrested in October of 1993. Due to judicial corruption, the INCSR stated, the case got “bounced” around to several courts, was dismissed by the Tachira judge it finally resided with in May 1994 and was reopened the following December; by the close of 1996 the case remained undecided.[17] “Caballero,” himself, was arrested in 1997 the Library of Congress reported.[18]

Nasser Mohammed al-Din, a close friend of Chavez and "powerful entrepreneur," is another member of the Arab population on Margarita Island. He was listed in the report withheld from the U.S. and given to INSIGHT by intelligence sources. Chavez has been found to pay frequent visits and often stays at Mohammad al-Din's on the Island. According to presidential pilot Major Juan Diaz Castillo, his home was the site of the bi- and tri-weekly visits with Cuban President Fidel Castro as recently as 2003.[19]

Combating Terrorist Activity

At the turn of the century, the Library of Congress report cited, the Venezuelan intelligence made attempts to put a stop to the terrorist activity. In 1996, an operation run by the DISIP discovered a 15-person cell living in the tourist center of Margarita Island was identified; one, Yousset Farhat, was believed to be a local clan member. In 1997, suspected Hezbollah members, Wahid Mugnie and Ali Makke, were arrested by DISIP. In October 2001, bank accounts in Zulia State were investigated by the Judicial Technical Police of Venezuela (PTJ) and the International Police (Interpol). Large sums of money and equally large transfers were found in the accounts believed to be held by terrorist organization members and supporters. After the attacks on 11 September 2001, three men of Lebanese decent, with reported residences in Maicao, but believed to be living elsewhere in the La Guajira Department, were placed on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorists.[20]

As the businesses on Margarita Island and in Maicao exemplify, legitimate companies are often used as a disguise to funnel money to illegal organizations, particularly Hezbollah[21]. When a DISIP agent acted undercover with a Lebanese group he found the organization funded Hezbollah through local businesses in areas like Margarita and on Baralt Avenue in Caracas, an October 2006 El Nacional reported.[22] The two travel agencies owned and operated by Fawzi Kan’an which were named in the U.S. Department of Treasury’s (DOT) press release on 18 June 2008 are both found on Baralt Avenue. Biblos Travel Agency and Hilal Travel Agency, according to the U.S. government are both used to “courier funds to Lebanon.”[23]

The Biblos Travel Agency also known as Biblios Travel, Biblos Travel CA, Biblos Travel, C.A., is located at Avenida Baralt, Esquina Madero Edifico Santa Isabel II, PB, Loc. 1 Caracas, Venezuela.[24] The AP reported the Venezuela-based agency was owned and operated by Kan’an until a year ago, 2007, when Kan’an shut it down.[25] The press release from the DOT did not state that the agency had been closed; it reported that the travel agency was actively used as a front to send money to Lebanon.[26]

The Hilal Travel Agency, which opened in April 2001, is also based in Venezuela. It is also known as Hilal Travel C.A. and located at Avenida Baralt, Esquina Madero, Edifico Santa Isabel, Caracas, Venezuela, business identification number, 80074366.[27] According to the AP report on 19 June 2008, Kan’an was in the process of closing this agency, too, when they interviewed him.[28] In an earlier AP article on 18 June 2008, Kan’an, whom reporters reached at a number listed for Biblos Travel Agency, was said to have stated in the phone interview that both agencies had been closed for one year.[29] Kan’an plans to open a new travel agency and claims that the closing of Biblos and Hilal is in no way related to U.S. allegations.[30]

In addition to the businesses, the United States Department of Treasury named two Venezuelans accused of having ties with Hezbollah.[31] Ghazi Nasr al Din and Fawzi Kan'an were found to have been involved with terrorist training, conspiracies and fundraising within Venezuela, Lebanon and Iran.[32] The men are allegedly links between the Venezuelan government and Hezbollah in Lebanon.[33]

Ghazi Nasr Al Din is a Venezuelan Diplomat and President of the Shi'a Islamic Center in Caracas. He was born 13 December 1962 in Lebanon. His Venezuelan Identification number is 18.190.527; his Venezuelan passport number is B-047256.[34]

Nasr al Din has, according to the DOT, used these positions to provide financing to Hezbollah leaders and operatives.[35] Mohamad Mtayrek, a Lebanese immigrant to Venezuela and one of the managers of the Imam al Hadi Venezuelan Islamic Center, the largest Shiite Muslim center in Caracas, stated the Center had no ties to Hezbollah. Though he knows him, Mtayrek would not comment on Nasr al Din specifically.[36]

Before Nasr al Din became a Venezuelan Diplomat to Lebanon he was Charge d' Affaires at the Venezuelan Embassy in Damascus, Syria. In the Venezuelan Embassy in Lebanon he serves as the Director of Political Aspects.[37] The Associated Press reported that there was some confusion as to whether Nasr al Din’s was currently stationed in Syria or Lebanon, though the DOT document lists, clearly, that he is currently stationed in Lebanon.[38]

Nasr al Din's interactions with and activities on behalf of Hezbollah largely includes soliciting finances from Hezbollah supporters, specifically within Venezuela. According to the DOT report Nasr al Din has provided donors with information on effective fundraising methods and the proper bank accounts established for depositing the fundraised and donated money directly into the hands of Hezbollah. In January 2006, Nasr al Din brought two Hezbollah lawmakers from the Lebanese Parliament to Caracas to enhance fundraising efforts and, also, to publicize the establishment of a Hezbollah-funded community center and office within Venezuela.[39]

U.S. authorities reported that Nasr al Din also aided in the travel preparations to send Hezbollah operatives to participate in a training camp in Iran.[40] According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in 2005, Nasr al Din organized a trip of Hezbollah members to Iran, where he supposedly organized a group.[41]

His aliases include: Haj Ghazi Nasseredine, Ghazi Nassereddine, Gazi Nasseridine, Gazi Nasser El-Din, Ghazil Nasser Al-Din, Haj Ghazzi Nassereddine, Ghassan Attef Salame Nasserddine, Ghassan Nasr El Din Ghassan, Ghazi Nasserddine, Ghazi `Atef Nasraldine, Atef Salameh Nasserdine Ghasan, and Hajj Ghazi `Atif Nasr al-Din.[42]

Fawzi Kan’an, born in Lebanon, is a naturalized Venezuelan citizen as of 16 December 1977; the AP reported that he moved to Venezuela in 1986 in an attempt to escape the fighting.[43] His naturalization number is 2108, his passport number is 0877677 and his identification number is V-6.919.272. The documentation provided by the U.S. Department of Treasury lists three birthplaces: Lebanon, Baalbeck, Lebanon and Betechelida, Lebanon. The document listed three birthdates as well; 7 June 1943, February 1943 and 1 June 1943, respectively. According to the DOT, Kan’an is the owner of two residences in Caracas, Venezuela: Calle 2, Residencias Cosmos, Fifth Floor, Apartment 5D, La Urbina Caracas, Venezuela and Esquina Bucare, Building 703, Second Floor, Apartment 20, Caracas, Venezuela.[44]

The DOT cited Kan’an as a major financier of Hezbollah. He sent large sums of money to Hezbollah in Lebanon from his fundraising efforts and donations received in Venezuela. Kan’an also frequently aided in the travel of Hezbollah members, and has traveled, himself, to Lebanon to meet with ranking Hezbollah members to “discuss operational issues” and to train in Iran with other Hezbollah operatives.[45]

Kan’an has denied all allegations and ties to Hezbollah.[46] In an interview with the Associated Press, he stated he did not “know the group, [did not] know anyone.”[47] He stated that he did not have any assets within U.S. jurisdiction, nor had he ever traveled to Iran. During the interview he answered phone calls in Arabic.[48] He also told the AP that he does not work anymore.[49]

He is also known as: Fazi Canaan, Faouzi Can'an, Fouzi Kanan, Fauzi Kanaan, Fauzi Ganan and Maustaf Fawzi (Faouzi) Kanaan.[50]

U.S.-Venezuelan Relations

Strained relations which have existed between the United States and Venezuela were exacerbated by the accusations put forth by the U.S. government on 18 June 2008. The Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the DOT, Adam J. Szubin, criticized the Venezuelan government for “providing safe harbor” to Hezbollah operatives.[51] Officials from both the DOT and Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that an in-depth inter-agency process, involving the State Department as well, occurred before any actions against the Venezuelan men were taken. The DOJ failed to comment on whether a criminal investigation has begun or would begin.[52]

On Thursday, 19 June 2001, Venezuelan officials denied U.S. allegations. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro stated that there were no terrorists in Venezuela; “‘if they want to search for terrorists, look for them in the White House,’ he said.”[53] Venezuelan Minister of Communication Andrés Izarra stated that none of the U.S. government's accusations warranted investigation.[54] Particularly, since no formal complaint came from Lebanon; and, since Hezbollah currently holds the majority in the Lebanese legislature none have been expected to follow.[55]

On Friday, 20 June 2008 President Chavez accused the U.S. of bringing the allegations against the Venezuelan men in an attempt to bring himself before the international court; the U.S. made the accusations to “‘see if the world will make a move,’” the AP quoted.[56] According to statements issued by Izzara, the Venezuelan government finds Hezbollah to be a legitimate party in Lebanon. This, in return, has given the American government more reason to make accusations that Venezuela provides Hezbollah members refuge an El Universal article stated.[57]

The Venezuelan government's definition of terrorism states that terrorism is an act against innocent civilians; it does not include accidental casualties. According to the Venezuelan media, the attacks from Hezbollah in the past 80 years against the American and French military headquarters in Beirut have been "asymmetric" acts of war.[58] The article published on 19 June 2008 in El Universal complained of the "stupid" manner in which the American government treats other nationalities, including diplomats it specified. The article added that Hezbollah intended to speak out on the matter, but no date was given.[59] Roy Daza, the president of the Commission of the Political Exterior of the National Assembly in Venezuela, stated that the accusation against the two Venezuelans was a vain attempt to destabilize the government of President Chávez and isolate the Venezuelan state. He accused the United States government of attacking that of Venezuela, customarily, from time to time.[60]

Venezuelan Government Officials Have Ties to Terrorism

In addition to the illegal operations of many Venezuelan government agencies and offices, such as the falsification of documents, Nasr al Din's alleged ties to Hezbollah are not the first to be uncovered and declared by the United States. Tarek William Saab Halabi, a member of MVR and formerly the National Assembly deputy, currently serves as the governor of the Venezuelan state Anzoátegui; he won 57% of the vote in 2004. His election, according to MVR party members, was corrupt; the nominated candidates were “handpicked” and “‘protected by (MVR leaders) Tarek William Saab and Freddy Bernal’” they claimed.[61] Two years earlier Saab was refused entry into the United States for suspected ties to international terror groups.[62] “Terror Threat from Venezuela: Al Qaeda Involved,” published 27 December 2002 cited that Bernal had been caught by U.N. forces in an attempt to smuggle weapons from Iraq to Saudi Arabia.[63] Also, Saab and Abdel Elsabayar, both of Arab decent, were accused of aiding in the release of three men suspected to be behind the 1994 bombings in Argentina. The study conducted by Tel Aviv University found that three men arrived in Venezuela, on Margarita Island, from Colombia in November 1999; they were released following their arrest on 7 July 2002.[64] A letter from Chavez to the terrorist trainer, El Chacal (the jackal), provides evidence of his personal ties to terrorists an 24 June 2008 El Universal article reported. The letter discovered was addressed to his fellow countryman or "'distinguido compatriota'" and concluded with "con profunda fe en la causa y en la misión, ¡por ahora y para siempre!," meaning "with profound faith in the cause and in the mission, for now and forever!"[65]

Venezuela's Ties to State Sponsors of Terror

Ties between Venezuela and Lebanon and states that sponsor terror such as Syria and Iran have only increased since the summer of 2006 U.S. officials have reported.[66] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has strengthened his country’s ties to Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua as well. Venezuela remains his closest and most important ally in the region; they have formed the “Axis of Unity” against the United States.[67] A report released by the Nine/Eleven Finding Answers (NEFA) organization on 1 April 2008 found that as the leader of a state sponsor of terrorism and because of his direct link to Hezbollah, Ahmadinejad’s relationship with Chavez poses a direct threat to the United States.[68] The DOT cites that the Iranian government has provided weaponry, monetary resources and training facilities for Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon; the same is occurring in Venezuela.[69]

Similar to the sentiment in Lebanon, Chavez is extremely popular in Iran, too, studies have shown. An article published 17 March 2008 by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) stated that the American government does not focus enough on the threat that has been developing in Latin America as a result of the relationships between these states. Though Hezbollah has been present in Latin America for over a decade, AEI reported, only under the leadership of Ahmadinejad has there been a “sustained effort” to establish relations in Latin America; specifically an anti-American bloc. Funding for his efforts has been plentiful; millions of dollars have been spent.[70]

Beyond meetings, public forums and rallies, such as frequent television appearances of Iranian officials in Venezuela, Ahmadinejad and Chavez have cemented the relationship between their two countries with direct flights, economic relations and a banking system.[71] As of 12 July 2007, when Global Research announced that Venezuela and Iran were to invest $4 billion in a new oil project, 33 bilateral energy accords had already been signed between the two governments.[72] Two Iranian factories opened in Caracas in June 2007.[73] In March of 2007 the first plane on the airline between Tehran and Caracas landed at its stopover, Damascus, Syria.[74] The state controlled airlines, Conviasa of Venezuela and Iran Air of Iran planned to run weekly flights between the two nations with Damascus stopover.[75] The Iranian ambassador to Venezuela stated that the flights would serve to strengthen the relations between the countries’ governments and citizens; according to the statement issued there are many families scattered between Iran, Syria and Venezuela.[76] Chavez “‘is much loved in our country and our people want to come here to get to know this land’” the Ambassador Abdullah Zifan reported when the flight plans were announced in February 2007.[77]

Most recently, Fars News Agency released an article on 23 June 2008 which announced the Venezuelan and Iranian governments' plans to establish a joint bank. This announcement came in conjunction with a claim by the Venezuelan Planning and Development Minister Haiman El Troudi that the two countries will have 30 industrial projects running by the close of 2008. According to the plans, the bank, based in Tehran, will have $1.2 million to begin with used to finance projects in “infrastructure, housing and technology.” The Fars News Agency reported that some political observers found it “much interesting that just as Tehran and Caracas announced the new deal, the US has started making new charges about Hezbollah activity in Venezuela.”[78]

Conclusion

The charges made most recently are not without evidence. President Chavez has proven time and again that he actively supports terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.[79] The activities in places such as Margarita Island and the false identification papers found on militants attempting to cross the U.S. border only serve to substantiate these claims[80]. And, as he strengthens the ties between Venezuela and state sponsors of terror, he continues to reinforce these suspicions; all this is reason for great concern among citizens of the Western world[81].

Work Cited

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), “Iran's Global Ambition”, 17 March 2008.

AP via The Seattle Times, “Anger and fear mix with empathy as world remembers Sept. 11”, 12 September 2006.

AP via KansasCity.com, "Chavez refutes US Hezbollah charges", 21 June 2008.

AP via IHT “Lebanese Born businessman living in Venezuela denies helping finance Hezbollah”, 19 June 2008.

Associated Press (AP) via Israel Insider, “Lebanese in Venezuela back Chavez's threat, Jewish groups express concern”, 10 August 2006.

Associated Press (AP) via Miami Herald, “US targets Hezbollah links in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008.

Associated Press (AP) via Atlanta-Journal Constitution, “Venezuela rebuffs US on Hezbollah aid”, 19 June 2008.

Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, U.S. Department of State, “Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, U.S. Department of State”, March 1997.

CNN, “U.S.: Two Venezuelans are supporting terrorism” 18 June 2008

Fars News Agency (FNA), “Iran, Venezuela To Establish Joint Bank”, 23 June 2008.

Fars News Agency (FNA), “Iran, Venezuela to Start Direct Flights”, 10 February 2007.

Federal Observer, “MAKING THE CASE: For War Against Iraq”, 2003.

Global Researcher, “Venezuela, Iran to Invest $4 billion in Joint Oil Project in Orinoco

Belt”, 12 July 2007.

GlobalSecurity.org, “US Says Latin American Terrorism Backed by Iran", 25 September 1995.

The Guardian, “Profile: Imad Mughniyeh”, 13 February 2008.

INSIGHT, “About Insight: About Insight Cutting-edge political intelligence from Washington”, 2008.

INSIGHT, “Chavez plans for terrorist regime: Venezuelan security officials say that President Hugo Chavez is plugging terrorist networks into the country's infrastructure, embracing jihadists and Castroites" 7 January 2003.

Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), “First Tehran-Caracas plane lands in Damascus,” 2 March 2007.

Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002

Long War Journal, “US designates two Hezbollah operatives in Venezuela as terrorists”, 19 June 2008.

El Nacional, "Hezbolá niega que los venezolanos acusados por EE UU sean sus miembros," 19 June 2008.

El Nacional, “To Annihilate Criminals and the Corrupt,” 27 October 2006.

National Review Online (NRO),”Operation Syria”, 2 May 2003.

New York Times (NYT), “Venezuela and Iran Strengthen Ties With Caracas-to-Tehran Flight”, 3 March 2007.

Nine/Eleven Finding Answers, “What the FARC Papers Show Us about Latin American Terrorism”, 1 April 2008.

OSC Report, “Highlights: Venezuela Crime and Narcotics Issues 17-21 Nov 06”, 22 November 2006.

People’s Daily Online, “Latin American countries condemn Israeli brutal attack on Lebanon”, 31 July 2006.

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), “The Black Market Peso Exchange" 19 April 2002.

Quinto Dia, “Lo que dijo US News que tanto indignó a Chávez What U.S. News said that both indignant Chavez” 10 October 2003.

Tel Aviv University, “Venezuela 2002-3”, 2003.

U.S. Department of State, “Country Reports on Terrorism”, 28 April 2006.

U.S. Department of the Treasury (DOT), “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela” 18 June 2008.

El Universal, "Hezbolá niega que los dos venezolanos acusados por EEUU sean sus miembros," 19 June 2008.

El Universal, "EEUU acusa a diplomático venezolano de trabajar para hizbula", 18 June 2008.

El Universal, “In party election to designate candidates to local polls Chávez' MVR members report electoral fraud”, 12 April 2005.

El Universal, "Líbano no ha protestado al diplomático señalado," 20 June 2008.

El Universal, "Roy Daza: Acusaciones que vinculan a venezolanos con el Hezbolá pretenden aislar al país", 22 June 2008.

El Universal, “Tarek Saab solicitará reunión a embajador de Estados Unidos”, 3 October 2002.

El Universal, "Venezuela y Hezbolá," 24 June 2008.

Venezuelanalysis.com, “Popular Participation Forum Holds Caracas 9-11 Peace March”, 12 September 2006.

Venezuelanalysis.com, “Venezuela Launches New Social Program for Poor Children”, 17 June 2008.

Venezuelanalysis.com, “Voices of Lebanese Refugees in Venezuela’s Embassy”, 17 August 2006.

Washington Post, “Hezbollah Chief Defiant at Huge Rally”, 23 September 2006.

Washington Post, “U.S. ties Caracas to Hezbollah aid,” 7 July 2008.

World Net Daily, “Venezuelan IDs help terrorist enter U.S.”, 26 October 2006.

World-Check, “If you finance the Taliban, Al-Qaida, Hezbollah and the FARC, expect a designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism”, 30 March 2008.


Notes:

[1] U.S. Department of the Treasury (DOT), “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008.

[2] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002.

[3] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002 and INSIGHT, “Chavez plans for terrorist regime: Venezuelan security officials say that President Hugo Chavez is plugging terrorist networks into the country's infrastructure, embracing jihadists and Castroites", 7 January 2003.

[4] AP via IHT “Lebanese Born businessman living in Venezuela denies helping finance Hezbollah”, 19 June 2008.

[5] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002.

[6] World Net Daily, “Venezuelan IDs help terrorist enter U.S.”, 26 October 2006.

[7] Nine/Eleven Finding Answers, “What the FARC Papers Show Us about Latin American Terrorism”, 1 April 2008 and American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), “Iran's Global Ambition”, 17 March 2008

[8] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002.

[9] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Quinto Dia, “Lo que dijo US News que tanto indignó a Chávez What U.S. News said that both indignant Chavez”, 10 October 2003.

[14] INSIGHT, “Chavez plans for terrorist regime: Venezuelan security officials say that President Hugo Chavez is plugging terrorist networks into the country's infrastructure, embracing jihadists and Castroites", 7 January 2003.

[15] Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), “The Black Market Peso Exchange", 19 April 2002.



[16] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002.

[17] Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, U.S. Department of State, “Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, U.S. Department of State”, March 1997.

[18] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002.

[19] INSIGHT, “Chavez plans for terrorist regime: Venezuelan security officials say that President Hugo Chavez is plugging terrorist networks into the country's infrastructure, embracing jihadists and Castroites", 7 January 2003.

[20] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002.

[21] Ibid.

[22] El Nacional, “To Annihilate Criminals and the Corrupt,” 27 October 2006.

[23] U.S. Department of the Treasury (DOT), “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008.



[24] Ibid.

[25] Associated Press (AP) via International Herald Tribune (IHT) “Lebanese-born businessman living in Venezuela denies helping finance Hezbollah”, 19 June 2008.

[26] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela” 18 June 2008.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Associated Press (AP) via International Herald Tribune (IHT) “Lebanese-born businessman living in Venezuela denies helping finance Hezbollah”, 19 June 2008.

[29] Associated Press (AP) via Atlanta-Journal Constitution, “Venezuela rebuffs US on Hezbollah aid”,19 June 2008.

[30] Associated Press (AP) via International Herald Tribune (IHT) “Lebanese-born businessman living in Venezuela denies helping finance Hezbollah”, 19 June 2008.

[31] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008.

[32] Ibid and El Universal, "Hezbolá niega que los dos venezolanos acusados por EEUU sean sus miembros," 19 June 2008.

[33] Washington Post, “U.S. ties Caracas to Hezbollah aid”, 7 July 2008.

[34] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Associated Press (AP) via Atlanta-Journal Constitution, “Venezuela rebuffs US on Hezbollah aid”, 19 June 2008.

[37] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008 and El Nacional, "Hezbolá niega que los venezolanos acusados por EE UU sean sus miembros", 19 June 2008.

[38] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008 and Associated Press (AP) via Atlanta-Journal Constitution, “Venezuela rebuffs US on Hezbollah aid”, 19 June 2008.

[39] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008 and El Universal, "Venezuela y Hezbolá," 24 June 2008.

[40] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008

[41] El Universal, "Venezuela y Hezbolá", 24 June 2008.

[42] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008

[43] Ibid and Associated Press (AP) via International Herald Tribune (IHT) “Lebanese-born businessman living in Venezuela denies helping finance Hezbollah”, 19 June 2008.

[44] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008

[45] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”,18 June 2008 and El Universal, "Venezuela y Hezbolá", 24 June 2008.

[46] Associated Press (AP) via Atlanta-Journal Constitution, “Venezuela rebuffs US on Hezbollah aid”, 19 June 2008.

[47] Associated Press (AP) via International Herald Tribune (IHT), “Lebanese-born businessman living in Venezuela denies helping finance Hezbollah”, 19 June 2008.

[48] Ibid.

[49] Associated Press (AP) via Miami Herald, “US targets Hezbollah links in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008.

[50] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela”, 18 June 2008 and El Nacional, "Hezbolá niega que los venezolanos acusados por EE UU sean sus miembros", 19 June 2008.

[51] DOT, “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela” 18 June 2008

[52] CNN, “U.S.: Two Venezuelans are supporting terrorism”, 18 June 2008

[53] Associated Press (AP) via Atlanta-Journal Constitution, “Venezuela rebuffs US on Hezbollah aid”, 19 June 2008 and El Universal, "Líbano no ha protestado al diplomático señalado", 20 June 2008.

[54] El Nacional, "Hezbolá niega que los venezolanos acusados por EE UU sean sus miembros", 19 June 2008.

[55] El Nacional, "Hezbolá niega que los venezolanos acusados por EE UU sean sus miembros", 19 June 2008 and El Universal, "Venezuela y Hezbolá", 24 June 2008.

[56] AP via KansasCity.com, "Chavez refutes US Hezbollah charges", 21 June 2008 and El Universal, "Roy Daza: Acusaciones que vinculan a venezolanos con el Hezbolá pretenden aislar al país", 22 June 2008.

[57] El Universal, "EEUU acusa a diplomático venezolano de trabajar para hizbula", 18 June 2008.

[58] El Universal, "Venezuela y Hezbolá", 24 June 2008.

[59] El Universal, "Hezbolá niega que los dos venezolanos acusados por EEUU sean sus miembros", 19 June 2008.

[60] El Universal, "Roy Daza: Acusaciones que vinculan a venezolanos con el Hezbolá pretenden aislar al país", 22 June 2008.

[61] El Universal, “In party election to designate candidates to local polls Chávez' MVR members report electoral fraud”, 12 April 2005.

[62] El Universal, “Tarek Saab solicitará reunión a embajador de Estados Unidos”, 3 October 2002.

[63] Federal Observer, “MAKING THE CASE: For War Against Iraq”, 2003.

[64] Tel Aviv University, “Venezuela 2002-3”, 2003.

[65] El Universal, "Venezuela y Hezbolá", 24 June 2008.

[66] U.S. Department of State, “Country Reports on Terrorism”, 28 April 2006.

[67] Nine/Eleven Finding Answers, “What the FARC Papers Show Us about Latin American Terrorism”, 1 April 2008 and American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), “Iran's Global Ambition”, 17 March 2008

[68] Nine/Eleven Finding Answers, “What the FARC Papers Show Us about Latin American Terrorism”, 1 April 2008

[69] U.S. Department of the Treasury (DOT), “Treasury Targets Hezbollah in Venezuela” 18 June 2008.

[70] American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), “Iran's Global Ambition”, 17 March 2008.

[71] New York Times (NYT), “Venezuela and Iran Strengthen Ties With Caracas-to-Tehran Flight”, 3 March 2007.

[72] Global Researcher, “Venezuela, Iran to Invest $4 billion in Joint Oil Project in Orinoco Belt”, 12 July 2007.

[73] American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), “Iran's Global Ambition”, 17 March 2008.

[74] Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), “First Tehran-Caracas plane lands in Damascus,” 2 March 2007.

[75] New York Times (NYT), “Venezuela and Iran Strengthen Ties With Caracas-to-Tehran Flight”, 3 March 2007.

[76] Fars News Agency (FNA), “Iran, Venezuela to Start Direct Flights”, 10 February 2007.

[77] New York Times (NYT), “Venezuela and Iran Strengthen Ties With Caracas-to-Tehran Flight”, 3 March 2007.

[78] Fars News Agency (FNA), “Iran, Venezuela To Establish Joint Bank”, 23 June 2008.

[79] NSIGHT, “Chavez plans for terrorist regime: Venezuelan security officials say that President Hugo Chavez is plugging terrorist networks into the country's infrastructure, embracing jihadists and Castroites", 7 January 2003.

[80] Library of Congress, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”, May 2002 and World Net Daily, “Venezuelan IDs help terrorist enter U.S.”, 26 October 2006.

[81] American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), “Iran's Global Ambition”, 17 March 2008.

"Caught Between"

Arlene Kushner

Never mind that Israel isn't flexing her muscles to the maximum that she might, she is, in no regard a superpower. And when the dynamics between the superpowers shifts, and tensions ignite, it ultimately has an effect -- or several effects -- on us here. It is still too soon to know how it will all play out, but this is some of what we're seeing:

Israel had been selling weapons to Georgia, but stopped with the current crisis, afraid that we would incur unnecessary wrath from Russia (which subsequently played down concerns). At the same time the government invited domestic criticism for abandoning a victim of Russian aggression.

~~~~~~~~~~

In moves reminiscent of the cold war, the US this week signed a defensive pact with Poland that will place 10 US interceptor missiles in that country just 115 miles from the Russian border. A retaliatory response from an infuriated Russia -- possibly in the Middle East -- was seen as a possibility, and the following scenario then enfolded:

Syrian President Bashar Assad went to Russia Thursday and met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Assad, who had been taking a totally pro-Russian line during the Russian-Georgian hostilities, invited the Russians to place the sophisticated Iskander missile system -- with a range that could reach all of Israel -- on Syrian soil. He suggested that both because of the US deal with Poland and Israel's relationship with Georgia, this might appeal to Medvedev.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was thinking of responding to Assad's invitation, but qualified this by saying only defensive weapons would be supplied, which would "not harm the region's strategic balance." But even defensive weapons -- presumably anti-aircraft missiles -- would have an effect if Israel found it necessary to fly over or attack sites in Syria, as was the case when we took out the reactor.

Amidst a flurry of protests, acting Russian ambassador to lsrael Anatoly Yurkov told Ynet, "Why in the world would we need to deploy our missiles here? Against whom? We have no enemies in the region." And Medvedev placed a "business as usual" call directly to Olmert.

Finally Assad, likely thinking better of it, denied he had made such an offer. But withdrawal of an offer to place the Iskander system in Syria does not necessarily mean that Assad will walk away empty-handed; he went hoping to buy Russian military equipment.

~~~~~~~~~~

Incomprehensibly, in the face of all of this, the government is continuing to pursue indirect negotiations with Syria via Turkey.

MK Gideon Sa'ar (head, Likud faction) criticized this, saying that it gave Syria increased international legitimacy.

~~~~~~~~~~

Another rejection: According to Channel 10 news, the US has refused a request by Barak to buy the Boeing 767 aircraft, which can be used for refueling mid-air, reportedly because this would appear to give assistance to Israeli plans to hit Iran.

Israel already has plans that have a mid-air refueling capacity, as well as jets that can reach Iran without refueling.

~~~~~~~~~~

According to a Palestinian news agency, Ahmed Qurei, head of the PA negotiating team, speaking at a Fatah gathering in Ramallah, said that he didn't believe a final agreement with Israel would be possible in 2008.

"We [will not] accept less than a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders (sic) with East Jerusalem as its capital. [And including] a just solution of the issue of the refugees based on the international resolutions and the right of return."

Saying that eastern Jerusalem must be the spiritual, economic, and geographical center of the Palestinian state, Qurei stressed that there would be no partial deal -- that everything had to be agreed upon "in one package."

This is good news for us. If the PA will not consent to signing on to a partial deal (with Jerusalem still unresolved) it becomes considerably less likely that Olmert will commit to paper formally what Israel is willing to concede.

~~~~~~~~~~

Hamas also agrees that Jerusalem is critical to Palestinian interests, but it, of course, is not promoting a final "one package" deal. Said Ismail Haniyeh:

"...no one can cede Jerusalem, the city from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to the heavens. [Note: this is not from the Koran, which never mentions Jerusalem by name, but from later legend.]

"Jerusalem will be retrieved to the Palestinians not through negotiations or by hugging and kissing the enemy, but by way of jihad, blood, shahids and resistance. With Allah's help, Jerusalem will be returned."

~~~~~~~~~~

Haniyeh, it must be noted, added this:

"...the Israeli-Arabs are safeguarding the Al-Aksa Mosque; it is as if they are inside the belly of a whale. They represent the Islamic nation. We send them our regards, especially to Sheikh Raed Salah.

Sheikh Salad is founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a radical Islamist group of Arabs with Israeli citizenship working against the wellbeing of Israel.

~~~~~~~~~~

As happens on a regular basis, fallacious and inflammatory claims by Arabs regarding Israel's intent to destroy the Al Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount have again been circulating. These charges serve at one and the same time to incite against Israel and rally various Arab factions together in a common cause.

Mohammad Al-Saqer, who is the parliamentary president of Kuwait, has just called upon the Arab League and other Arab groups to combat an Israeli scheme to divide the Al Aksa Mosque, so that it is half for Jews, half for Muslims.

He said that the Israeli digging under the Mosque has reached a dangerous stage. This charge about digging is ludicrous. For the remains of the Temple lie under the Mount and all digging is strictly forbidden by the Israeli Antiquities Authority and all rabbis. But let's not get confused by facts.

Much is being made, as well, of the anniversary of a fire set at the Al Aksa Mosque in 1969, which caused damage to one wing. And here, too, reality is obscured, for the fire was set by an Australian tourist, Michael Dennis Rohan, of the Worldwide Church of God, who told the police he hoped this would hasten the second coming of Jesus. That the fire was quickly put out by the Israelis is forgotten as the libel spreads that Israel paid Rohan to do it.

~~~~~~~~~~

And in the face of all of this, what does foreign minister and candidate for Kadima leadership Tzipi Livni have to say?

Given the increasing power of extremists, time is of the essence to reach an agreement with the Palestinians. The only possibility for reaching an agreement is with the leadership that exists now in the Palestinian Authority.

This is the stuff of nightmares. Rather than rushing, we should be pulling back and reassessing.

Can it truly be that she doesn't understand? The increasing power of extremists has already infected the Fatah party, which is moving towards a more radical (and Islamist) line. It renders the so-called moderates impotent, so that they would not be able to honor any agreement with us.

~~~~~~~~~~

Contrary to recent reports that she might go to elections if she secured victory in the Kadima primary, she is now calling for a unity government.

Interestingly, even though she continues to lead in Kadima polls, her lead weakens -- Mofaz gets stronger -- if the question is asked who would be preferred in time of national crisis. Apparently those responding with a move toward Mofaz, given this hypothetical situation, don't understand that we are in crisis now.

~~~~~~~~~~

Investigators are questioning Olmert for the sixth time today.

An attempt is being made by Israeli law enforcement officials to secure US immunity for Talansky for testimony he might still give here. He is in trouble with the FBI for what he has already revealed, and thus is afraid to come back and say more.

~~~~~~~~~~

We have been on guard for some time -- and Israel has warned Israelis traveling abroad to be watch for kidnapping attempts -- but now a warning has come from a sheikh in Hezbollah that they are coming close to time to exact revenge for the assassination of Imad Mugniyah in February.

"The revenge will be shocking and huge surprises are in store," he said. He spoke about all-out war, as Israel would respond to this attack.

Even though all precautions without reservation must be taken, I cannot help wonder how much of this is bombast. Why would they warn of an attack rather than using the element of surprise?

~~~~~~~~~~

Khaled Abu Rakaiek of the Tel Sheva local Bedouin Council in the Negev has been indicted in Beersheva court for attempting to make contact with an agent of Al Qaida and Global Jihad, with the intent of starting a cell to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel.

Abu Rakaiek was formerly a student at the Technological College of Beersheva, where he acquired computer knowledge that allowed him to surf the Internet, make contact with radical groups, and download information on preparing belts.

~~~~~~~~~~

According to a new Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs report by Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, off-shoots of Al Qaida -- Jaish al-Islam (army of Islam), Army of the Umma, and Fatah al-Islam -- have freedom of movement in the Hamas-ruled Gaza. In fact, Jaish al-Islam has been officially recognized by Hamas as a legitimate armed movement in Gaza.

http://www.jcpa.org/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=2408&TTL=Al-Qaeda_Affiliate_-_Jaish_al-Islam_-_Receives_Formal_Sanctuary_in_Hamas-Ruled_Gaz

And here we sit?