Saturday, August 04, 2007

The Internet as a battleground used by the terrorist organizations: How Hezbollah and Hamas exploit the Internet in the battle for hearts and minds, and how to combat them


Introduction: The Internet’s importance for Hezbollah, Hamas and
the other Islamic terrorist organizations

1. Hezbollah and Hamas are prominent examples of Islamic terrorist organizations which learned to exploit the communications revolution of the last decade. They make extensive use of the media, especially television and the Internet , in the battle for hearts and minds, waged parallel to the fighting on the ground. They use the media to disseminate their ideology and political propaganda, generate public interest in their activities and attempt to win sympathy and support.

2. For Hezbollah, Hamas and the other terrorist organizations, the computer keyboard is a weapon no less important than their assault rifles, rockets or side charges. Beyond the battle for hearts and minds, the Internet has a variety of other uses :

A. Maintaining operational links between the organizations' headquarters, and the operational networks and target audiences , which are often widely separated by geography (for example, the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, headed by Khaled Mashaal, and the organization's networks in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip). Websites and surfer forums provide convenient platforms for transmitting operative instructions to individuals or to an entire audience (for example, posting bulletins calling for action, such as appearance at a demonstration.) 1 In addition, the Internet is also used to collect intelligence regarding terrorist attack targets. 2

B. Acquiring operational knowhow . Terrorist operatives use the Internet's technical sites which contain information about topics such as making explosives and constructing rockets. That is particularly important for the Palestinian terrorist organizations, which do not have standard advanced weapons such as those possessed by Hezbollah.

C. Collecting donations . In recent years there has been an increase in the amount of funds collected through the Internet for Islamic “charitable societies.” The Islamic terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and Hamas, use their vast networks of “charitable societies” to fund its civilian wing, although a portion of the money also leaks into funding terrorist activities.

3. The importance of marketing Islamic terrorist organization ideology and disseminating its propaganda through satellite TV and the Internet grew after the events of September 11, 2001. On the other hand, in recent years the United States , and to a lesser degree other countries, have hampered the various terrorist organizations' use of the media. A prominent example is the restrictions the United States , France and other European countries placed on the satellite broadcasts of Al-Manar TV, the Hezbollah channel.

4. By using the Internet, Hezbollah and Hamas, like Al-Qaeda and the global jihad organizations, can evade with relative ease the difficulties placed in their paths by various governments , including the United States administration, by claiming privileges of freedom of speech (guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution) and by exploiting the generally accepted principle that the Internet should not be subject to censorship. That allows it to be the main conduit for the almost completely unhampered dissemination of radical Islamic ideology, the encouragement of terrorist attacks, including suicide bombing attacks, the destruction of Israel and extreme anti-Semitic propaganda.

5. Hezbollah, Hamas and the radical Islamic terrorist organizations avail themselves of the Internet to support their terrorist activities and disseminate their ideology, and use Western Internet hosts to do so. At the same time, they refute and deny the basic Western principles which are also disseminated by the Internet, such as democracy, freedom of speech, the equality of women, etc. Thus it is no wonder that in the Gaza Strip, Internet cafes are a primary target for fundamentalist Islamic elements.

Events in Israel July 15-31

Rocket fire at western Negev settlements continues

During the last two weeks of July rockets continued to be fired at the western Negev settlements from the Gaza Strip. Some of the attacks were premeditated and some were responses to the IDF's counterterrorist activities. There were 32 identified rocket hits in Israeli territory. A total of 55 rocket hits were identified in July, as opposed to 120 in June. At the same time, mortar shells were fired at IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip, at the crossings and at Israeli settlements close to the border fence.

On July 22 one of the rockets hit the Sapir College near Sderot, slightly wounding an Israeli woman. On July 23 there was a direct rocket hit on a house in Kibbutz Carmia. An eight month-old baby girl was slightly wounded and her mother and grandmother had to be treated for shock; considerable damage was done to the building. On July 26 a rocket hit a house in Sderot, slightly wounding a woman and causing considerable property damage.

Responsibility for most of the attacks was claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad , which has been the organization behind most of them since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. Hamas has generally refrained from firing rockets into Israeli territory, although it does fire mortar shells at targets close to the border fence.

There are other possible solutions to THE Conflict

New Options for Middle East Peace: A Plan to Extend Israel’s Democracy to the West Bank

American-Israel Strategic Planning Group

August 3, 2007 Originally Published in the Washington Times under title: ‘Preserving Israel’

By Bennett Zimmerman and Michael L. Wise with Roberta Seid


The separation of Gaza and the West Bank provides the greatest opportunity since 1967 to resolve the status of the West Bank and Jerusalem. Policy-makers have been wedded to the vision of a two state concept and have not entertained alternative solutions.

Without a solution, Oslo adopted a two-state framework that left unresolved borders, limited defense rights and a "chutes and ladders" division of Jerusalem that has left chaos on the ground where Jewish and Arab populations live intertwined with the other.

West Bank Arabs have been voting with their feet for Israel, as they flee life under the PA. Israeli ID cards have become the most sought after commodity in the West Bank today, especially in the Jerusalem area.

The ability to attract the constituency of a rival is a political victory of the highest order. With Israel able to bypass external players, negotiation occurs at the individual, family or local level.

How Israel handles its political attractiveness will determine if it can use the opportunity to resolve the conflict.

"The Fourth Way: A New Demographic, Electoral and Political Paradigm for Israel's Extension of Democracy to the West Bank" provides the first integrated demographic and electoral analysis of the combined areas.

In Israel and the West Bank, 67 percent of the population is Jewish, 14 percent are Israeli Arab citizens fully enfranchised within pre-1967 Israel and 3 percent are permanent Jerusalem residents with rights to apply for Israeli citizenship. West Bank Arabs, who are currently outside of Israel's political system, make up only 16 percent of the combined populations.

To read more:
www.aispg.com

CAIR-the truth prevails

Confirming a five-year long IPT Investigation, on the stand at the HLF trial Thursday, FBI Special Agent Laura Burns testified to long time CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad’s presence at a secret meeting of two dozen HAMAS operatives and supporters in Philadelphia. The 1993 meeting, which took place in the wake of the Oslo Peace Accord, focused on how HAMAS front groups in the United States would adapt to the new political situation.

Thanks to Steve Emerson

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Who needs Israel anyway?
Pat Boone

WorldNetDaily

Posted: July 21, 2007

The above question, either in word or implication, is being voiced by way too many these days, as people and governments cast about desperately for lasting solutions in the Middle East.

Many Western and European political leaders having heard the deprecations and the determination to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, from the likes of Palestinian Yasser Arafat, Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden, Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have come dangerously close to deciding that little Israel is the "thorn in the side" of world order.

The next logical thought is: "Who needs Israel? Let her be erased, her people dispersed (or whatever), and the Middle East can settle comfortably into a harmonious Islamic community of states. Problem solved!"

What folly. What suicidal blindness.

I just returned from a momentous event in our nation's capital. An organization called Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, convened 4,000 people from all 50 states in several days of briefings and strategy sessions, culminating in an exhilarating, rousing rally in the D.C. Convention Center featuring Jewish leaders and top Christian ministers celebrating the things we hold in common and the spiritual bonds that unite us. The next day, several thousand of the participants fanned out over Washington and Capitol Hill, lobbying virtually every representative and senator on behalf of Israel and its sovereignty.

Why? Couldn't we all see this is an exercise in futility, an unnecessary bother that we'd all be better off if Israel didn't exist?

No, we all see clearly that the world needs Israel. The whole world.

What do I mean? Consider:

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can make claim to an astounding number of society's advances in almost every direction!

Intel's new multi-core processor was completely developed at facilities in Israel. And our ubiquitous cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in the little land.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology was pioneered in Israel.

AirTrain JFK the 8.1-mile light rail labyrinth that connects JFK Airport to NYC's mass transit is protected by the Israeli-developed Nextiva surveillance system.

Bill Gates calls Israel "a major player in the high-tech world"; most of Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel; the Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel; both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the U.S. in Israel; and, with more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of high-tech companies in the world apart from the Silicon Valley.

Get this: Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25 percent of its workforce employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as well!

It goes on and on.

The Weizmann Institute of Science has been voted "the best university in the world for life scientists to conduct research." Israeli researchers have:

  • Discovered the molecular trigger that causes psoriasis.
  • Developed the Ex-Press shunt to provide relief for glaucoma sufferers.
  • Unveiled a blood test that diagnoses heart attacks ... by telephone!
  • Found a combination of electrical stimulation and chemotherapy that makes cancerous metastases disappear and developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer!
  • Designed the first flight system to protect passenger and freighter aircraft against missile attack.
  • Developed the first ingestible video camera so small it fits inside a pill used to view the small intestine from the inside, enabling doctors to diagnose cancer and digestive disorders!
  • Perfected a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with congestive heart failure, synchronizing the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

These are only a few of Israel's recent contributions to the welfare of the world. There are just too many to list here. Water shortage, global warming, space travel, anti-virus, anti-smallpox, blood pressure, solar power, paralysis, diabetes, data storage these and hundreds more are being addressed by Israel's scientists. They're pioneering in DNA research, using tiny strands to create human transistors that can literally build themselves and playing an important role in identifying a defective gene that causes a rare and usually fatal disease in Arab infants!

WHO NEEDS ISRAEL? WHO DOESN'T ?

Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin; it has the largest number of startup companies globally, second only to the U.S.; it is No. 2 in the world for venture capital funds, financing all these advances; its $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined; and Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

And while it maintains, by far, the highest average living standards and per-capita income, exceeding even those of the UK, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth, relative to its population. It is truly an unparalleled marvel of our time.

So what's the point of all this?

Simply that the very idea of eradicating or even displacing Israel from its historic home is suicidal to the rest of the world, not just her Arabic neighbors. Though there are ominous biblical consequences pronounced on those who "curse Israel," there are also wonderful blessings promised those who "bless" her and we're seeing those real, practical, humanitarian blessings proliferate around the world, blessing all humanity.

Stop just for a second and imagine a world today that never knew Israel. And then go further: Given their living standards, ideologies and attitudes toward all who dare to disagree with them, imagine what our world would be like if Israel's enemies held sway. Would you rather live in an Iran, Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan? Or an Israel?

Who needs Israel? Let's be honest. We all do.

Demographic threat ? Nonsense



'Anyone who believes that Israel can maintain its current hold on all the West Bank is living in a dream." These confident words were spoken by embattled yet defiant Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as he addressed a recent gathering of Jordan Valley farmers. One might think that with the obvious Iranian and Hizbullah threats hanging over Israel's head and the ominous warnings of a senior IDF officer regarding the Hamas buildup in Gaza, Olmert would be placing his focus elsewhere. Nonetheless, the issue of the demographic threat to Israel caused by its presence in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) has returned to the front pages.

In order to judge this issue rationally, avoiding the emotional diatribes frequently launched by those on both sides of the issue, it is crucial to examine the facts. As Olmert rightly emphasizes, "Everyone understands that the State of Israel can't exist without a Jewish majority."

His convergence/realignment plan for unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria was based specifically on this perception, the problematic reality of a tiny Jewish population living among a large and rapidly rising Palestinian Arab population. Only by relinquishing control of these territories would Israel be able to maintain its Jewish majority. This has been the widely accepted solution to the demographic threat to Israel, having massive support, almost across the political spectrum. The problem, however, is that this view is usually accepted with very little questioning and far less analysis.

The demographic argument of those who advocate Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, whether unilateral or negotiated with our peace-loving neighbors, ignores both the steady high birthrates of the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria and the ongoing and increasing emigration of the Arab population from those areas. Furthermore, the media rarely notes that the reports of massive Arab population growth have been deliberately exaggerated to serve Arab/Muslim political interests. By closing our eyes to these simultaneous trends, we are simply supporting Hamas/Fatah propaganda and lies, intended to destroy the Jewish state.

YORAM ETTINGER, who headed the Israeli research team in a major demographic study carried out in 2005, has pointed out that Israel is not losing the demographic race and emphasized that "there is no need to retreat from Jewish geography in order to secure Jewish demography." Furthermore, the true demographic threat for Israel is not in Judea and Samaria, but in regions like the Galilee, with its large and growing Arab majority, or in secular Tel Aviv, where large families are unfortunately not the norm. As Prof. Dan Meyerstein, president of Ariel College, has pointed out, the birthrate in Judea and Samaria is "crazily higher than the rest of Israel" - 4.4 children, as opposed to the national average of 2.8.

No, the real demographic threat for Israel lies not in the "West Bank," but within pre-1967 Israel, and it is there that Prime Minister Olmert should be focusing his attention. The optimistic and idealistic Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria don't need the encouragement of government subsidies to have large families, and the many Jews who emigrate from Israel every year are greatly underrepresented in their numbers. In their large and growing population, they express their belief in both the Jewish past and future by settling the historic heartland of Israel, despite the current overwhelming political pressures to do the opposite.

According to the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria, there are now over 260,000 tax-paying Jewish residents in the region. Anyone who lives in these areas knows that the demand for homes, especially among young couples, is much greater than the supply, and the persistent reports of foolish Israeli withdrawal plans have limited building projects in these areas. But Jews continue to arrive from all parts of Israel, as well as from abroad, seeking homes in places such as Shiloh, Bet El, and Hebron, and many of those who have grown up there continue stay on after they marry, in whatever housing is available, raising large families and building for the future in those disputed areas.

This is the reality on the ground.

Yes, Zionism is alive and well in the Biblical heartland of Israel, both idealistically and demographically. It's okay for Mr. Olmert to debate differences based on facts, but the persistent mantra of the demographic threat in Judea and Samaria is based on an illusion.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Palestinian minister: We will return 18,000 Iraqi Palestinians to West Bank

The Palestinian Authority will attempt to return some 18,000 Palestinian refugees currently in Iraq to the West Bank, Palestinian Minister of Information Riyad al-Malki said yesterday. Israel recently approved the return of 40 Palestinians from Iraq to the Palestinian territories. According to Maliki, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has designated him to lead the Palestinian campaign to bring Iraqi refugees to the West Bank. Maliki has pro-actively contacted senior Israeli and Knesset officials to encourage them to permit the refugees' entry into the West Bank. “So far, the Israelis have agreed to let in just a small group of refugees. We’ll continue to make every effort so the Palestinian refugees in Iraq can come back to the territories,” Malki said.
The Hidden Basis for Hostility to Israel -and America
By Michael Medved
Wednesday, August 1, 2007

On Saturday in Jerusalem, I participated in a moving religious service to honor one of Israel’s most celebrated heroes from last summer’s war against the Hezbollah terrorists.

Lieutenant Eli Kahn, 23, led a unit of elite Paratrooper Commandos advancing against heavily defended Hezbollah positions in the Southern Lebanon town of Maroun al-Ras in the early days of the fighting. The Israelis, hoping to knock out Katyusha rockets that had already taken a bloody toll on civilian targets, drew unexpectedly intense fire from the enemy and sustained heavy casualties.
While tending to one of his wounded paratroopers, Lt. Kahn saw a terrorist run toward them and throw a grenade that landed at their feet. Rather than jumping out of the way and abandoning his comrade to certain death, Lt. Kahn immediately picked up the grenade and threw it directly back at the Hezbollah fighter --- killing the terrorist and turning the tide of battle. For his leadership and quick thinking, he received the Medal of Valor – Israel’s equivalent of America’s Medal of Honor. The young hero’s father, Howie Kahn, remembered that his boy played Little League before the family immigrated to Israel from the United States and suggested that his skills as a slick-fielding shortstop paid off with that one fateful and well-aimed toss on the field of battle.

Hearing the story of Eli Kahn, most Americans would feel gratified and inspired but the service I attended at the lieutenant’s Orthodox synagogue nonetheless serves to highlight the deeper, unspoken reasons that Israel provokes such visceral hostility from the international left.

The Middle East’s only democracy has recently enjoyed spectacular economic progress and unprecedented success in blocking and deterring terror attacks from its many Islamo-Nazi adversaries. Why, then, the increasingly shrill demands from politically correct activists throughout Western Europe and from college campuses in the United States for boycotts, UN condemnation, sanctions and diplomatic isolation aimed at punishing the Jewish state?
Why does the death of a few dozen Palestinians (mostly gunmen or racketeers from Hamas and Islamic Jihad) provoke more international indignation than the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocents in Darfur, or the butchery of additional thousands by Muslim terrorists in Pakistan, Indonesia, India, Algeria, Yemen, the Philippines and even Thailand?

The common explanations for singling out Israel for international denunciation make no sense when placed in any reasonably well-informed historical context.
For instance, leftist critics like to suggest that Israel deserves the world’s hostility because of its long-term “occupation” of lands captured in defensive wars. But the Jewish state has already withdrawn from the overwhelming majority of the disputed territory it ever controlled, hoping to demonstrate its eagerness to trade land for peace—abandoning the vast area of the Sinai Peninsula in 1978, its South Lebanon “Security Zone” in 2000, and all the Gaza Strip in 2005. Moreover, in the remaining zone of “occupation” in the West Bank, the results of Israeli rule can hardly count as brutal: according to UN figures, by all measures of economic prosperity, public health, and standards of living before the Second Intifada broke out in the Fall of 2000, West Bankers did better than their fellow Arabs in neighboring countries like Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

The historical record makes clear that Arab fury against Jews in the Middle East bears no connection to any occupation policy or to the plight of refugees, since this murderous rage claimed countless victims long before Israel occupied a single square inch or territory and before a single Palestinian had fled his home.

A brief history of the early conflict (published by the indispensable Israel Pocket Library) offers a necessary reminder of Palestinian terrorism as long ago as 1929. In that year, the bitterly anti-Semitic Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (who later traveled to Berlin and spent most of the war years at Hitler’s side) claimed that the largely unarmed and loosely organized Jewish community harbored secret “designs” on Muslim holy places, and launched bloody attacks on the Jews of Jerusalem. As the grim story unfolded, “The violence spread to other parts of the country. On Sabbath, August 24, the Arabs of Hebron fell upon the small, defenseless Jewish community in the town and slaughtered some 70 men and women. Old people and infants were butchered; the survivors, numbering several hundred, being evacuated to Jerusalem.

Attacks on Tel Aviv and the Jewish quarter in Haifa were repulsed, but on the fifth day of the riots an Arab mob killed 18 Jews and wounded many more before the Jews could take refuge in the police headquarters while the mob ransacked and burned the historic Jewish quarter. In Be’er Toviyah all the settlers held out in a cowshed while the mob plundered and destroyed the village. Huldah, too, was destroyed after the Jewish defenders held out for many hours against thousands of Arabs and were evacuated by a British army patrol.”
A mere eight years later, in 1937, unprovoked Palestinian violence broke out once again with even bloodier results: “415 Jews were killed by the terrorists in the period 1937-39, over half of them between July and October 1938.”
The most striking revelation in these all-but-forgotten chapters of Middle East history involves the brutal, determined, vicious nature of Palestinian terrorism before Israel occupied any territory whatever, or caused the departure of any refugees (the Palestinian population went up sharply – never declining for even a single year – as Jewish return to the ancient homeland intensified). As a matter of fact, the devastating riots of 1929 and 1937-39 (not to mention other deadly attacks in 1921, 1926 and 1936) occurred long before the state of Israel even existed—making clear that Palestinian violence against their Jewish neighbors arose from fanatical Jew-hatred, not any objection to the specific policies of a non-existent state.

Clearly, the same deep-seated anti-Semitic instincts help to explain some of the hostility to the Jewish state today, especially among purportedly enlightened Europeans.

There’s also the undeniable factor of worldwide anti-Americanism – Israel earns contempt as one of the closest, most reliable allies of the Superpower labeled by many leftists (including Michael Moore in his previous America-bashing film, “The Big One”) as “the real Evil Empire.” But other nations (like Britain, Canada and Australia, most obviously) align themselves equally closely with the United States and even more enthusiastically embrace America’s reviled culture, without provoking the animus that faces Israel in many corners of the globe.

One of the secrets of the world-wide suspicion and resentment toward the Jewish state involves the unmistakably prominent, even dominant, Israeli role for two institutions loathed by leftists everywhere: religion and the military.

While two-thirds of Israelis describe themselves as secular, the increasing popularity and influence of Orthodox religiosity remains an undeniable factor in Israeli society. Meanwhile, even the state’s famously agnostic and atheist founders made regular reference to Bible in urging their compatriots to return to Zion. The fact that Israel counts as the “Holy Land” to the world’s more than two billion Christians also provides a religious flavor and perspective to the nation’s existence that makes secular purists distinctly uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, the military continues to play a huge and necessary part in the life of the perpetually embattled nation. Some 75% of young people still do three full years of military service after their high school graduation, and continue with yearly reserve duty for 25 years after that. Even the leader of Israel’s leading party on the left (former Prime Minister Ehud Barak) is a one-time war hero and the most decorated soldier in the country’s history.

In other words, for trendy liberals who feel profound, instinctive distaste for the influence of armies and organized faith in human life, it’s only natural to feel somewhat uncomfortable with Israel.

The same attitudes, by the way, help to explain some of the fashionable anti-Americanism that’s taken hold among European and other international elites. Religion remains a vastly more potent force in the US than in any other Western nation, and our military remains far larger, more potent and more revered than the armies of other major nations. Those who love to denounce the impact of militarism and organized faith will inevitably find much to dislike about America – and about our close ally in the Middle East.

This US and Israeli devotion to both armed forces and religious institutions brings me back to the synagogue celebration I witnessed for Lt. Eli Kahn. Called to the Torah before a clapping, singing, admiring congregation, the young war hero chanted the weekly “Haftorah” (a passage from Isaiah) and received a good-natured pelting of candy tossed at him from all directions by his friends and neighbors. This treatment had little to do with his battlefield exploits of exactly one year earlier, but actually reflected his status as the community’s next bridegroom: in Jewish tradition, all young men receive similar honor on the Sabbath before their weddings. (Lt. Kahn stands under the wedding canopy with his bride tomorrow night, Thursday).

In Israeli eyes, there’s no contradiction between love of God and admiration of the military – between celebrating the beginning of a loving new family along with the courage and dedication of a battle-hardened soldier. Both religious and military institutions exist to promote life, not death; to facilitate peaceful communities and growing families, not bloodshed and martyrdom.

Americans and Israelis understand the connection between our soldiers and our survival, between faith in a compassionate God and the maintenance of military strength that allows decency and kindness to flourish. And of course, much of the rest of the world that believes that they’ve already moved on beyond such outmoded relics as organized religion and mighty armies, hates us for our decidedly different perspective.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The Al-Qaeda Reader

By Janet Levy
FrontPageMagazine.com | 7/17/2007

Recently, a shoeless President George Bush accompanied by female aides in makeshift hijabs (Islamic prayer scarves) spoke at the rededication of the Islamic Center of Washington. The president sang the praises of a “religion of peace,” despite the fact that the Center is a Saudi-funded promulgator of Wahhabism, a strict form of Islam that critics say has spawned Muslim fundamentalism and extremism. He extolled a “faith that has enriched civilization for centuries” as he stood surrounded by representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Islamic Society of North America, organizations that fund the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliated Islamic terrorist groups. Bush emphasized America’s solidarity with Muslims in the fight to preserve religious freedom and liberty and to combat terrorism. In his speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Islamic Center, Bush thanked Muslim leaders who oppose extremism and railed against “radical extremists who use the veneer of Islamic belief to support and fund acts of violence.”

Yet, this public reassurance by Bush amidst the apologists and supporters of jihad belies new evidence of just how closely Islamic extremism derives its strength and core beliefs from the basic tenets of the Islamic faith itself. A recently translated collection of Al Qaeda treatises, The Al-Qaeda Reader, calls into question many of the operating conceptions the Western world holds about the religion of Mohammed and its attitudes toward the West. Written by Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, the #1 and #2 Al Qaeda leaders, and translated by Raymond Ibrahim, a Middle East and Islam historian who works for the Library of Congress, The Al-Qaeda Reader contains exhortations and religious exegeses directed to Muslims, as well as propaganda tracts and warnings to non-Muslims of their imminent defeat and the consequences they will suffer for their perfidious actions, plus, invitations to embrace Islam. A timely and critically important collection, it provides a clearer picture of our enemies and casts serious doubt on the President’s assumptions of shared Muslim/Western aims.

Read more:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=EC06597E-99D3-49E1-8C86-7BA501FA38F0

A Leader with 1% of public support is doing what?

'Al-Hayat': PM, Abbas holding secret final status talks
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST
Jul. 31, 2007

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have been holding secret talks on a final status agreement on the critical issues between Israelis and Palestinians, Al-Hayat reported on Tuesday.
The London-based newspaper quoted a senior government source as saying that the "secret channel was set up in a mutual agreement between the two leaders."

The newspaper also reported that the two discussed the issue during their recent meeting in Jerusalem and decided that there was a need for deep discussions on the more "burning issues."

The source reportedly said that the talks were focusing on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, the Palestinian refugee issue, West Bank settlements and the future of Jerusalem.

"There were talks on these issues but as yet there has been no breakthrough on any of them," the source was quoted as saying.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1185789796466&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Cultural Differences-No wonder ...

The Corpse Trade in Iraq28/07/2007
By Maad Fayad

Asharq Al-Awsat, London - Ahmed Nizar Abdulaziz, a former officer in the Iraqi army who lives with his family in the al Khadra district in west Baghdad, was kidnapped from his home at midnight by one of the armed militia groups. He was then killed.

So far Ahmed’s story resembles many of those unfolding in present-day Baghdad; in fact, it is almost the norm considering the events taking place today. What is astonishing, however, is that his body was taken and delivered to another party, which then contacted the family of the deceased to demand huge sums of money in return for the body.

This phenomenon has come to be known as the ‘corpse trade’; individuals or groups look for bodies lying on the streets or elsewhere so they can use them to haggle with the families of the victims in return for money. And thus emerges the latest innovation devised by Iraq’s death traders.

According to Muwafaq, Ahmed Abdulaziz’s younger brother, “We were anticipating the customary phone call demanding a ransom for his release or with information as to the location of the body after he was kidnapped. But a week after the abduction, we received a call from the people we had suspected and they were demanding US $50,000 for his release. After long negotiations, we agreed to pay US $35,000 for my brother’s release.”

Muwafaq continued, “Negotiations had reached the stage where we were deciding on a time and place to receive my brother – after handing over the agreed ransom. The location to deliver the money was determined, after many changes were made in the space of an hour that they could ensure we would not try to con or ambush them, or bring the police into it. When we delivered the money in a remote area called Ziraa Digla, they said ‘we will call you tomorrow to let you know when and where you can find your son’.”

But it was a long wait. Muwafaq added, “The operation through which we delivered the money and the handing over of the kidnapped person is like a ‘Hollywood’ action movie in which the most likely loser is the victim. You are dealing with a gang of criminals and you are forced to trust them so that you don’t blame yourself later. You say to yourself, ‘if I submit to them now, my brother may still be alive.’ They used to call us using my brother’s mobile phone and they used to demand a sum of money to add credit to the phone line.”
Mujahid, another of Ahmed’s brothers said, “We remained in a tense state while we waited for them to call and inform us of the location and time to pick up my brother. Every time we called, the phone was switched off. They are clever in these matters.”

There are many similar stories in Iraq, which is regularly witnessing blind acts of violence. Many of the families of the kidnapped people have not found their loved ones – or their bodies yet.

A doctor at al Tib al Adli described the process of storing the corpses: “We photograph the faces of the victims and give every body a number and then store it in a fridge. The pictures and numbers of the victims are then placed on a bulletin board that is hung on the entrance of the morgue. Hundreds of Iraqi civilians come to check it on a daily basis in search of their missing fathers and sons.”

The young doctor who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity said, “It is a new and low profession that has emerged from the trade of corpses that we call ‘unidentified’. One of these professions is the theft of the actual bodies so that they can be sold to the families of the victim.”


At the same time, some unidentified parties stated that they had volunteered to bury these bodies “to honor them”. These parties would collect the bodies from the streets or from nearby the al Tib al Adli building to bury them in remote places, after which they would give them numbers following taking a picture of the victims’ faces. The information is then documented and registered in a special file.

However, it later transpired that these parties, after collecting the full information, would then contact the families of the victims and demand money in return for telling them the location of their sons’ graves. The sums of money sometimes reach US $10,000.

To read the complete article:

http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=9718

Monday, July 30, 2007

Recent letter to President Bush

Dear President Bush,

I am a Republican who is about to rescind my credentials in the Republican party.

I cannot be an accessory to the demands made by your administration that require the democracy, Israel, to commit suicide. You hear the same news that we all hear yet you are determined to continue with your disastrous plan for a Palestinian state although Israel is attacked daily with Kassam missiles and threatened with complete destruction. Your idea of a 'peaceful Palestinian state' living next to Israel is nothing more than fantasy; the Arabs themselves shout words of war and you are, apparently, not listening!! If you are , then it is immoral to contemplate such a plan.

The harm done to Israel - orchestrated by Secretary of State Rice - is unconscionable. I refer to her demand that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah - the undiplomatic shouting match she had with those in charge of security who feared exactly what happened. The enemy moved up and is shelling cities, and killing innocent Israelis.

It has become obvious, Mr. Bush, that you and Ms. Rice have no intention of keeping your word about a peace 'process'. It is only Israel whom you force to comply with your demands. The PA has not disarmed; Abbas has openly stated that he would not do so. Both Fatah and Hamas are terrorist organizations and have as their goal the destruction of Israel . Your administration is helping them and your legacy will be just that.

I cannot be a party to the destruction of a true friend of the United States in favor of false 'friends' who are applauding your flawed judgment.

Sincerely,
Name provided only to the President

A Story You Will NOT see in the Major Media

Greening the Green Line-from an Arab Newspaper-note how thet infuse historical revision concepts and how they daily frame the mantra of "occupation"

By
Omar Khalifa

Palestinian mayor, Muayed Hussein, left, and Israeli mayor, Yitzhak Wald, right [FoE]

A lack of solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, brought on by 40 years of occupation of Palestinian land by Israel, has meant years of failed attempts at co-operation between the two sides.

But two mayors - one Israeli and one Palestinian - signed a joint cross-border agreement in July for the benefit of the people in both of their two towns.
Yitzhak Wald, mayor of Baqa al-Gharbiya (West Baqa) on the Israeli side of the border, and Muayed Hussein, mayor of Baqa al-Sharqiya (East Baqa), on the Palestinian side, have agreed to co-operate over matters of health and the environment.

The declaration was brought about by Friends of the Earth (FOE) Middle East, to promote co-operation over water, waste management and conservation on both sides of the Green Line - established between Israel and Syria, Jordan, and Egypt, at the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War - between East and West Baqa.
Water hazard

The Wadi Abu Naar
Mira Edelstein, resource developer at FOE Middle East, said: "The idea was to look for a joint problem, to look for a joint solution."
The joint problem of which Edelstein speaks is the Wadi Abu Naar, a heavily polluted river that runs through the two towns. The solution, as Wald said, is to "clean the river on both sides of border".

The drinking water in Palestinian Baqa al-Sharqiya, home to 4,500 people, has become severely polluted due to the dumping of solid waste in the river as well as the lack of a sewage system and treatment plant from both sides of the border.

Yousef Sadeq, an environmental health expert with FOE, said: "The first and main health hazard the villagers face is pollution in their drinking water.
"Children get sick from the water. Diarrhoea, vomiting and other symptoms sometimes appear," he said.

Proud partnership
As a result, Israeli's Baqa al-Gharbiya is building a sewage system and treatment plant to combat the diseases borne by the river.
Instead of the Palestinian town spending the little money it has on building its own treatment plant, the Israeli mayor has agreed to allow his Palestinian neighbours to connect what is essentially a pipe to his town's plant when it is completed in the middle of 2008.

Edelstein said that when it comes to the health and well-being of the people of Wald and Hussein's municipalities, logic has prevailed over politics, even across such a traditionally impermeable border.

"When you're working in two communities for a while, with the youth, adults and municipalities, and you've built up trust with the community, and you have a logical solution to a problem, you just have to be persistent, even with all the politics around, and it works."

Simply put, Hussein said issues of health and the environment are borderless problems that require a borderless solution. "The sharing of air and water requires co-operation between the two sides." Wald agreed. "It is for the people ... without any political circumstances."
Good water neighbours

The two mayors signed thedeclaration on July 19

The Good Water Neighbours project, funded by the European Commission and run by FOE Middle East, has brought together 17 municipalities from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

Edelstein said that a project between Jordan and Israel to combat an infestation of flies across the border was currently being drawn up, and Wald said that another example was an agreement between Israel and the West Bank town of Nablus, taking sewage from Palestinian land and using it on Israeli agriculture.

Hussein's and Wald's villages still need more funding to fully connect their systems. Hussein said he would like to pay for the connection, but his village has suffered economic loss since the outbreak of violence within the Palestinian territories and under Israeli occupation particularly since 2000.
Edelstein, however, said that money in a region such as this, is less difficult to overcome than the politics. "We need funding, but it's harder in this region to get an agreement.

"It's mostly the politics you have to get through. When you get through that, we feel that now the matter of money is easier."
Once the environmental project is completed, Edelstein said the cross-border partnership will have a series of positive knock-on effects. "The environment is a lot of things. It's health, it's sustainability. It's not just making your town green, it's co-operating on very real issues."

Wald said: "The idea is that such projects can push politicians to understand that co-operation gives you the opportunity to go further toward peace here in the Middle East.
"We start with small steps and these small steps can lead us to much wider and longer steps later on."
Cleaning up the Wadi Abu Naar can lead to greater co-operation agreements between Israel and the Palestinian territories

Source: Al Jazeera

Post thoughts: Notice how they define "partnerships"-the sewage and fly mess is the result of Arab behavior in the disputed territory; Israel, at her expense, fixes the problem; they "partner" by hooking in pipes. Notice the admittance that money is not the issue; as long as Israel pays why should we? The suggestion is that they could get the money to hook up the pi0es but ...Let me fill in the blanks: divert attention away from the true problem (leadership needs squallor to present the "Palestinians" as ongoing victims); never credit Israel for all it really does do for the Arab people living in the disputed territories!

Be Aware-op-ed from an Arab country

Note: The following is but one example of the mindset of the Arab thinkers-read "between the lines" to understand that the Arab nations see a window of opportunity to move toward appeasement-we must become aware of these messages and prepare to take proactive diplomatic actions-thus far, we are failing!


US vs Europe -- new equations

THE new generation of leaders in Europe is definitely showing signs that they could put up a serious challenge to the implicit global domination of the United States, and this bodes well for the Middle East, which has been for long seeking a balance in the international approach to the region's crises.

There is a consensus among foreign-policy experts that Britain, France and Germany being all now under new leadership compared with four years ago, when the United States plunged it relations with Europe into their worst crisis for decades with its invasion of Iraq.

The new leaders of the three major European countries are seen to have fresh and assertive mindsets that could take them away from the US orbit, particularly given the disarray in Washington's international relations as well a domestic politics. Indeed, the Bush administration is putting up a brave face and dismissing suggestions that the European countries are stepping into the diplomatic vacuum left by US difficulties in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

In the Middle East, the Europeans have already made their moves. French President Nicolas Sarkozy played a key role in securing the release of six foreign medical personnel from Libya and is now involved in an intense effort to solve the political crisis in Lebanon. Sarkozy's government is also seeking the release of Myanmar's jailed democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Sarkozy has teamed up with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in efforts to solve the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. Brown, who was meeting President Bush in Washington on Sunday, has also announced that he would be naming his own envoy to the Middle East in what could trigger a dispute with his predecessor Tony Blair, who was always seen as too closely aligned with Bush and who was named the international Quartet's special envoy to the Middle East.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stepped in for international action on issues like global warming, where the US has suffered badly because of its insistence on having its own way regardless of how the rest of the world feels on issues that are of global concern. While some international experts see the European moves as making up for the major shortcomings in US foreign policy, others believe that it would only be a matter of time that the Europeans demanded their rightful role in the international scene that would supercede that of the US. For us in the Middle East, a strengthened Europe means better prospects for a fair and just settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict and other crises in the region.

Nudged by Israel, the US has always kept the Europeans on the fringes of political efforts for peace in the Middle East, and called them in only to bankroll agreements. For long the Europeans had tried to assume a higher political profile in efforts for peace in the Middle East if only because they stand to bear the impact of all negative developments in the region.

It would seem that a door of opportunity is slowly opening for the Europeans to assume a role that befits their political, economic and military clout as well as the goodwill they enjoy among countries of the Middle East. The Arab World could step in and accelerate the process by intensifying the ongoing Euro-Arab dialogue and setting up avenues for closer political co-operation with a view to building an international coalition that would not allow Israel to call all the shots in the Middle East through the US.

http://www.godubai.com/gulftoday/section.asp?section=Editorial

From Concessions-Based Diplomacy To Rights-Based Diplomacy

In a briefing done for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dan Diker visits the issue of narrative and how we've fallen on our faces with regard to defending our positions. In writing about "Why Israel Must Now Move from a Concessions-Based Diplomacy to Rights-Based Diplomacy," Diker explains:In spite of generous territorial concessions, Israel is not receiving international support, but, instead, faces an increased challenge internationally to her existence.

This is happening because with Oslo Israeli diplomacy was focused on helping the Palestinians achieve what they -- the Palestinians -- claimed were their "legitimate rights." This was a tacit recognition of the Palestinian narrative -- accepted in the hope that this position of granting concessions would lead to peace. But in the process, the Israeli narrative was lost.We spent painful years pretending that the Palestinians had "rights" that they don't have. And as we failed to defend the rights we do have, the world forgot about them. The world? Our own head of state.

Diker presents the following example among many.In June, the Guardian ran opposing op-eds by Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian Prime Minster Haniyeh.Haniyeh spoke of rights: "My people will...remain rooted in their land, whatever the price, and pursue their legitimate right to resist the occupation." Their land. Their legitimate right.All Olmert did was lament the poor response Israel was receiving from the Palestinians with regard to concessions made: "In the face of concessions that have threatened our own domestic consensus, the constant refrain has been the Palestinian refusal to end its violent attacks on our citizens." In spite of this, Olmert concluded with a restatement of his position that "Israel is prepared to make painful concessions to pay the price for a lasting and just peace that will allow the people of the Middle East to live in dignity and security."It's all about what we will give. No refutation of Palestinian claims and no statement of our own rights. This is a serious, serious business.See the entire briefing at: http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=2&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=375&PID=0&IID=1607&TTL=Why_Israel_Must_Now_Move_from_Concessions-Based_Diplomacy_to_Rights-Based_Diplomacy

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Dahlan isn't the answer

Israel must avoid tendency to rely on Fatah leaders in hopes of curbing Hamas
Dore Gold


Mohammed Dahlan has resigned from the post of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' national security advisor. More than any other Palestinian figure, Dahlan symbolized the cooperation between Israel and Fatah at the height of the Oslo period during the '90s.


Many Israeli citizens view Dahlan as a man who bravely fought against Hamas in the past and believe that his defeat by Hamas is part of the price he had to pay. Several reasons can be identified for Dahlan's resignation, but it is clear that they do not include unbridgeable dogmatic differences between him and Hamas, as history showed us otherwise.

The latest clashes between Fatah and Hamas made many forget how closely the two organizations cooperated on the operational level over the years. On January 22, 2006, Dahlan appeared on Lebanese television network LBC and revealed that he warned "the brothers in Hamas" that they must hide Yahya Ayyash, the military wing's leading engineer responsible for all suicide attacks against Israel at the time.

Dahlan bemoaned the fact Hamas failed to heed his warning and added: "All your military commanders were protected by the (Palestinian) defense establishment during the (second) Intifada. They enjoyed full protection."

Dahlan noted that one of the most notable figures he protected was none other than Mohammed Deif, Yahya Ayyash's successor. We also know that at the time Dahlan's deputy was responsible for a terror attack on a bus carrying children from the Gaza community of Kfar Darom to their school.

Another symbol of the emerging cooperation between Israel and Fatah today is Marwan Barghouti, who is perceived as a powerful figure able to lead a renewed Fatah struggle against Hamas should he be released from Israeli prison.


Many forget that at the height of the second Intifada, Barghouti headed an umbrella organization called The National and Islamic Forces that coordinated Hamas and Fatah attacks against Israel.


Think twice about helping Fatah

Documents seized by the IDF revealed that Barghouti signed orders to pay al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members involved in serious attacks against Israeli citizens.


We can assume that after he is released he will again be promoting reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, as he did in the "Prisoners' Document" that dealt with cooperation between Fatah and Hamas in the struggle against Israel.


Following Hamas' Gaza Strip takeover, we see Israeli enthusiasm over renewed cooperation with Fatah, without taking a moment to think back to past experience.


The Israeli leadership can go ahead and meet with Abbas in order to maintain open channels of communication with the Palestinians, but it should think twice before it invests funds and hands over weapons to Fatah and grants it international legitimacy – particularly in Washington.


After all, we are talking about an organization that is willing to cooperate with Israel at a time of weakness but can quickly renew its partnership with Hamas and other violent organizations, as was the case in the past decade.

It would be preferable for Israel to deepen its diplomatic cooperation on the Palestinian question with Jordan and Egypt, in light of the fact that those two countries present themselves as interested parties in this matter. An alternative diplomatic approach must be outlined to replace the one that has unequivocally failed upon the implementation of the Oslo agreements and the disengagement.


The return on such track cannot be immediate and would require years of hard diplomatic work, but Israel can count on the fact that both Egypt and Jordan fear Palestinian radicalization and a Hamas boost, which may ultimately constitute a catalyst for an Islamic revolution in their territory, with the Iranian threat looming in the background.

What is clear is that Israel cannot readopt the same overused formulae, which have proven to be unfeasible.

Dore Gold is a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nation and President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Dahlan isn't the answer

Israel must avoid tendency to rely on Fatah leaders in hopes of curbing Hamas
Dore Gold


Mohammed Dahlan has resigned from the post of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' national security advisor. More than any other Palestinian figure, Dahlan symbolized the cooperation between Israel and Fatah at the height of the Oslo period during the '90s.







Many Israeli citizens view Dahlan as a man who bravely fought against Hamas in the past and believe that his defeat by Hamas is part of the price he had to pay. Several reasons can be identified for Dahlan's resignation, but it is clear that they do not include unbridgeable dogmatic differences between him and Hamas, as history showed us otherwise.

The latest clashes between Fatah and Hamas made many forget how closely the two organizations cooperated on the operational level over the years. On January 22, 2006, Dahlan appeared on Lebanese television network LBC and revealed that he warned "the brothers in Hamas" that they must hide Yahya Ayyash, the military wing's leading engineer responsible for all suicide attacks against Israel at the time.


Dahlan bemoaned the fact Hamas failed to heed his warning and added: "All your military commanders were protected by the (Palestinian) defense establishment during the (second) Intifada. They enjoyed full protection."

Dahlan noted that one of the most notable figures he protected was none other than Mohammed Deif, Yahya Ayyash's successor. We also know that at the time Dahlan's deputy was responsible for a terror attack on a bus carrying children from the Gaza community of Kfar Darom to their school.

Another symbol of the emerging cooperation between Israel and Fatah today is Marwan Barghouti, who is perceived as a powerful figure able to lead a renewed Fatah struggle against Hamas should he be released from Israeli prison.


Many forget that at the height of the second Intifada, Barghouti headed an umbrella organization called The National and Islamic Forces that coordinated Hamas and Fatah attacks against Israel.


Think twice about helping Fatah

Documents seized by the IDF revealed that Barghouti signed orders to pay al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members involved in serious attacks against Israeli citizens.


We can assume that after he is released he will again be promoting reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, as he did in the "Prisoners' Document" that dealt with cooperation between Fatah and Hamas in the struggle against Israel.


Following Hamas' Gaza Strip takeover, we see Israeli enthusiasm over renewed cooperation with Fatah, without taking a moment to think back to past experience.


The Israeli leadership can go ahead and meet with Abbas in order to maintain open channels of communication with the Palestinians, but it should think twice before it invests funds and hands over weapons to Fatah and grants it international legitimacy – particularly in Washington.


After all, we are talking about an organization that is willing to cooperate with Israel at a time of weakness but can quickly renew its partnership with Hamas and other violent organizations, as was the case in the past decade.

It would be preferable for Israel to deepen its diplomatic cooperation on the Palestinian question with Jordan and Egypt, in light of the fact that those two countries present themselves as interested parties in this matter. An alternative diplomatic approach must be outlined to replace the one that has unequivocally failed upon the implementation of the Oslo agreements and the disengagement.


The return on such track cannot be immediate and would require years of hard diplomatic work, but Israel can count on the fact that both Egypt and Jordan fear Palestinian radicalization and a Hamas boost, which may ultimately constitute a catalyst for an Islamic revolution in their territory, with the Iranian threat looming in the background.

What is clear is that Israel cannot readopt the same overused formulae, which have proven to be unfeasible.

Dore Gold is a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nation and President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Dahlan isn't the answer

Israel must avoid tendency to rely on Fatah leaders in hopes of curbing Hamas
Dore Gold

Mohammed Dahlan has resigned from the post of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' national security advisor. More than any other Palestinian figure, Dahlan symbolized the cooperation between Israel and Fatah at the height of the Oslo period during the '90s.

Many Israeli citizens view Dahlan as a man who bravely fought against Hamas in the past and believe that his defeat by Hamas is part of the price he had to pay. Several reasons can be identified for Dahlan's resignation, but it is clear that they do not include unbridgeable dogmatic differences between him and Hamas, as history showed us otherwise.

The latest clashes between Fatah and Hamas made many forget how closely the two organizations cooperated on the operational level over the years. On January 22, 2006, Dahlan appeared on Lebanese television network LBC and revealed that he warned "the brothers in Hamas" that they must hide Yahya Ayyash, the military wing's leading engineer responsible for all suicide attacks against Israel at the time.

Dahlan bemoaned the fact Hamas failed to heed his warning and added: "All your military commanders were protected by the (Palestinian) defense establishment during the (second) Intifada. They enjoyed full protection."

Dahlan noted that one of the most notable figures he protected was none other than Mohammed Deif, Yahya Ayyash's successor. We also know that at the time Dahlan's deputy was responsible for a terror attack on a bus carrying children from the Gaza community of Kfar Darom to their school.

Another symbol of the emerging cooperation between Israel and Fatah today is Marwan Barghouti, who is perceived as a powerful figure able to lead a renewed Fatah struggle against Hamas should he be released from Israeli prison.

Many forget that at the height of the second Intifada, Barghouti headed an umbrella organization called The National and Islamic Forces that coordinated Hamas and Fatah attacks against Israel.

Think twice about helping Fatah

Documents seized by the IDF revealed that Barghouti signed orders to pay al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members involved in serious attacks against Israeli citizens.

We can assume that after he is released he will again be promoting reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, as he did in the "Prisoners' Document" that dealt with cooperation between Fatah and Hamas in the struggle against Israel.

Following Hamas' Gaza Strip takeover, we see Israeli enthusiasm over renewed cooperation with Fatah, without taking a moment to think back to past experience.

The Israeli leadership can go ahead and meet with Abbas in order to maintain open channels of communication with the Palestinians, but it should think twice before it invests funds and hands over weapons to Fatah and grants it international legitimacy – particularly in Washington.

After all, we are talking about an organization that is willing to cooperate with Israel at a time of weakness but can quickly renew its partnership with Hamas and other violent organizations, as was the case in the past decade.

It would be preferable for Israel to deepen its diplomatic cooperation on the Palestinian question with Jordan and Egypt, in light of the fact that those two countries present themselves as interested parties in this matter. An alternative diplomatic approach must be outlined to replace the one that has unequivocally failed upon the implementation of the Oslo agreements and the disengagement.

The return on such track cannot be immediate and would require years of hard diplomatic work, but Israel can count on the fact that both Egypt and Jordan fear Palestinian radicalization and a Hamas boost, which may ultimately constitute a catalyst for an Islamic revolution in their territory, with the Iranian threat looming in the background.

What is clear is that Israel cannot readopt the same overused formulae, which have proven to be unfeasible.

Dore Gold is a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nation and President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

The Growing Saudi Conundrum
Douglas Farah
http://www.douglasfarah.com/article/228/the-growing-sauid-conundrum.com

Well, six years after 9/11, the Saudis continue to be a major obstacle in the fighting radical Islam, while remaining a necessary partner because of the oil reserves.

Two recent stories shed a clear light on the huge damage the Saudi royal family and business elite continue to do in hindering meaningful progress is shutting down the hate speech, bigotry and twisted theology that drive the jihadist movement, financed by these actors.

The first was in the Wall Street Journal by Glenn Simpson, outlining the role of the al Rajhi family and banking institutions in funding radical Islamists, and what the U.S. knew about the activities.

In every case when U.S. officials could and should have been raising the issue publicly to force action, the administration opted for “quiet diplomacy,” resulting in nothing.

While there is only circumstantial evidence the Al Rajhi network directly aided terrorists, it is clear that Islamic banks, while mostly doing legitimate business, are the institutions extremists rely on. Why? In part because they are sharia compliant, and in part because the Islamic banks are largely exempt from Western (pagan) banking regulations, and have virtually no transparency requirements.
The article drops another interesting tidbit in the middle: That Saudi Arabia has never set up the commission, promised several years ago, to oversee Saudi charities, the lifeblood of many Islamist groups.

And, my sources tell me, they never set up the Financial Intelligence Unit either, and there has been virtually no cooperation on the financial side at all.
In essence, we still have the rivers of money flowing to spread wahhabism around the world, with no control, oversight or interest in stopping the spread of that venom. Hardly bolsters the claim of the Saudis being a “strong partner in the war on terror.” I wonder what a weak partner would look like.

The second shoe to drop is the splits with the Saudis over Iraq-a mess to be sure, and one with no easy answers. As the International Herald Tribune reports, the Saudis are intent on crippling the Shi’ite led government there and trying to use apparently forged documents with U.S. diplomats to convince them it is all an Iranian plot, let by the prime minister.

And perhaps it is, the waters are murky enough for many interpretations.
But aside from using apparently-forged documents to go after prime minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki (and there is plenty to go after there), the most interesting thing is the number of Saudis still making their way to Iraq to fight U.S. troops. And, of course, the very little effort the Saudis put into stopping them.

This goes back to the first point-no controls on the spread of wahhabism, so how can one try to control or punish the behavior this teaching so strongly encourages? The short answer is one doesn’t, and the Saudis don’t. They have learned that talking, especially if done in very good English, will buy them all the time they need to play their lethal double game. Six years have proven them to be correct.
Leader: Resistance Only Way Of Achieving Ideals

Islamic Republic,
A Manifestation
Of Imam Ali’s Path


TEHRAN, July 28--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the resistance of Iranian people and officials is the only way of achieving the ideals and expectations of the great nation of Iran.
Addressing a gathering on the auspicious birth anniversary of Imam Ali (the first Imam of Shiite Muslims) on Saturday, Ayatollah Khamenei noted that justice seeking, piety, and resisting oppressors and bullying powers were the characteristics of Imam Ali’s (AS) way of life, IRNA reported.

Referring to Imam Ali (AS) as “a shining sun in human history that never sets and the great ocean of wonders and beauties“, the leader said the establishment of the Islamic Republic was a manifestation, although an incomplete one, of Imam Ali’s (AS) path.

“The identity of the Islamic government is based on the objectives of Imam Ali (AS) which are justice seeking and combating oppression, bullying and discrimination. This is why the world oppressors, who tyrannize human beings with their deceiving propaganda in the name of democracy, freedom and human rights, are against the Islamic Republic,“ he said.

He added that the Iranian resistance against the Zionist network of the world bullies was a manifestation of Imam Ali’s (AS) cause and urged the nation to pursue the same to achieve the national ideals of the Islamic Republic.

Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the Zionist Israeli regime and the US government as the main enemies of Iranian nation.

Referring to the growing hatred of nations toward the US regime, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “In spite of the fruitless efforts of enemies, Iran is adored by Muslim nations and the Islamic Iran will strongly continue on its way with the mottos of justice and caring for people.“