Lebanon: 7 dead, including Lebanese MP A powerful bomb killed a pro-government Parliament member and six others Wednesday in a Christian suburb east of the Lebanese capital, security officials said.
The blast targeted Antoine Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The Voice of Lebanon radio station, which is owned by the Phalange party, also confirmed Ghanem's death. The identities of the others killed were not immediately known.
The attack occurred six days before Parliament was scheduled to meet to elect a new president in a deeply divisive vote. Ghanem is the eighth prominent anti-Syrian figure assassinated since 2005, including three lawmakers from the majority, reducing the ruling party's margin in Parliament.
A local television station, LBC, said 20 people were wounded in the blast, which occurred in the Sin el-Fil district. TV footage showed severe damage in nearby buildings and several cars on fire. The explosion sent a cloud of gray smoke over the area, and blood covered several parts of the street.
The assassination of anti-Syrian figures began with former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a massive car bombing that year. Syria's opponents in Lebanon have accused Damascus of being behind the killings, a claim Syria denies.
Hariri's death sparked massive protests that helped bring an end to Syria's nearly 30-year domination of Lebanon. Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005, and a government led by anti-Syrian politicians was elected.
Since then, the government of US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has been locked in a power struggle with the opposition, led by Syria's ally Hizbullah. Government supporters have accused Syria of seeking to end Saniora's slim majority in parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition.
After the assassination of Lebanese Parliament member Walid Eido in June, many majority legislators had to leave the country to spend the summer abroad for security reasons. Others who stayed in Lebanon took extra security.
A landmark hotel near the Parliament building in downtown Beirut has reportedly been rented for majority members to protect them during the 60-day presidential election process, which begins Tuesday.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Part One Greek Unorthodox
The Holy Land: the place where Christianity was born, and has existed continuously from the beginning; yet the Greek Orthodox Church has moved in to key holy sites and treated them as its own fiefdom.
The Holy Land: the place where Christianity was born, and has existed continuously from the beginning; yet the Greek Orthodox Church has moved in to key holy sites and treated them as its own fiefdom. In doing so, it has alienated the local congregation of Palestinian Christians to the point where it's accused of running a property business, not a religious institution.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
This allegation coincides with a whole outburst of financial, sexual, political and legal scandal that's affected the Church, not only in Jerusalem and the Holy Land but in Greece itself. We focus on some land deals in Jerusalem which have profound political, financial and moral implications; they even impact on the larger Middle East issue as the land in question was a key discussion point when Clinton, Arafat and Barak met at Camp David. The Greek Orthodox Church is the second-largest landowner in Jerusalem after the Israeli state and this property business is presided over by a secretive organisation of Greek bishops called the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre - it owns the leases both of the prime minister's residence and the Knesset, which has just expired.
The Holy Land: the place where Christianity was born, and has existed continuously from the beginning; yet the Greek Orthodox Church has moved in to key holy sites and treated them as its own fiefdom. In doing so, it has alienated the local congregation of Palestinian Christians to the point where it's accused of running a property business, not a religious institution.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
This allegation coincides with a whole outburst of financial, sexual, political and legal scandal that's affected the Church, not only in Jerusalem and the Holy Land but in Greece itself. We focus on some land deals in Jerusalem which have profound political, financial and moral implications; they even impact on the larger Middle East issue as the land in question was a key discussion point when Clinton, Arafat and Barak met at Camp David. The Greek Orthodox Church is the second-largest landowner in Jerusalem after the Israeli state and this property business is presided over by a secretive organisation of Greek bishops called the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre - it owns the leases both of the prime minister's residence and the Knesset, which has just expired.
Iran promises 'response' to Zionism's supporters on Oct. 12
Supporters of the "Zionist regime" will receive a response from Iran during the world Qods Day rallies on October 12, the IRNA news agency reported government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham, saying Wednesday. Qods Day is held each year on the last Friday of Ramadan as a day to voice Islamic opposition to Zionism.
"The US loses all opportunities to cooperate with regional and other world states by trying to support a regime [the Zionist regime] which is now at its weakest political and social position," Elham said. The spokesman, who was addressing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Israel, did not specify what an Iranian "response" would entail.
He also warned that Washington's insistence on its wrong policies and arrogant approaches would have no result "but further political disgrace" for itself.
Elham's remarks came hours after a report by the Fars news agency that the deputy commander of Iran's air force said that plans have been drawn up to bomb Israel if it attacked Iran.
"We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake," deputy air force chief, Gen. Mohammad Alavi was quoted as telling Fars in an interview.
The Fars news agency confirmed the quotes when contacted by the Associated Press, but would not provide a tape of the interview. The Iranian Air Force, for its part, had no immediate comment on the interview.
The announcement comes amid rising tensions in the region with the United States calling for a new round of UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and Israeli planes having recently overflown Syria's territory.
Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar, however, did tell the official IRNA news agency Wednesday that "we keep various options open to respond to threats ... we will make use of them if required."
Iran has threatened in the past that Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target if attacked by the United States. But Alavi's comments were the first word of specific contingency plans for striking back at Israel.
Many in the region fear Israel could launch air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.
Alavi also warned that Israel was within Iran's medium-range missiles and its fighter bombers, while maintaining that Israel was not strong enough to launch an aerial attack against Iran.
"The whole territory of this regime is within the range of our missiles. Moreover, we can attack their territory with our fighter bombers as a response to any attack," the general said.
An upgraded version of Iran's Shihab-3 missile has a range of 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) capable of reaching Israel and carrying a nuclear warhead.
Alavi said Iran's radar bases were monitoring activities at the country's borders around the clock and boasted that it had the capability to confront US cruise missiles.
"One of the issues enemies make publicity about is their cruise missiles. Now, we possess the necessary systems to confront them (cruise missiles)," Alavi was quoted as saying.
"The US loses all opportunities to cooperate with regional and other world states by trying to support a regime [the Zionist regime] which is now at its weakest political and social position," Elham said. The spokesman, who was addressing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Israel, did not specify what an Iranian "response" would entail.
He also warned that Washington's insistence on its wrong policies and arrogant approaches would have no result "but further political disgrace" for itself.
Elham's remarks came hours after a report by the Fars news agency that the deputy commander of Iran's air force said that plans have been drawn up to bomb Israel if it attacked Iran.
"We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake," deputy air force chief, Gen. Mohammad Alavi was quoted as telling Fars in an interview.
The Fars news agency confirmed the quotes when contacted by the Associated Press, but would not provide a tape of the interview. The Iranian Air Force, for its part, had no immediate comment on the interview.
The announcement comes amid rising tensions in the region with the United States calling for a new round of UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and Israeli planes having recently overflown Syria's territory.
Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar, however, did tell the official IRNA news agency Wednesday that "we keep various options open to respond to threats ... we will make use of them if required."
Iran has threatened in the past that Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target if attacked by the United States. But Alavi's comments were the first word of specific contingency plans for striking back at Israel.
Many in the region fear Israel could launch air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.
Alavi also warned that Israel was within Iran's medium-range missiles and its fighter bombers, while maintaining that Israel was not strong enough to launch an aerial attack against Iran.
"The whole territory of this regime is within the range of our missiles. Moreover, we can attack their territory with our fighter bombers as a response to any attack," the general said.
An upgraded version of Iran's Shihab-3 missile has a range of 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) capable of reaching Israel and carrying a nuclear warhead.
Alavi said Iran's radar bases were monitoring activities at the country's borders around the clock and boasted that it had the capability to confront US cruise missiles.
"One of the issues enemies make publicity about is their cruise missiles. Now, we possess the necessary systems to confront them (cruise missiles)," Alavi was quoted as saying.
Part Three Islam in Israel
Comment: An Arab mini-series-here is their perspective;When Israel was created in 1948, the Palestinians were scattered and divided across many lands; today, the Palestinians who now make up 20 per cent of the Israeli population are growing ever closer to their fellows in the Occupied Territories.
When Israel was created in 1948, the Palestinians were scattered and divided across many lands; today, the Palestinians who now make up 20 per cent of the Israeli population are growing ever closer to their fellows in the Occupied Territories. Increasingly they are being drawn together by the Islamic faith as a religious, cultural and political force. At its centre is the most contested piece of land on earth: the site of the al-Aqsa mosque or, as the Israelis know it, the Temple of Solomon.
Al-Aqsa Dome in Israel
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories can no longer get to Jerusalem because of the Wall, so the Islamic movement organises busloads of Israeli Palestinians every week to come to attend the mosque and help sustain the battered economy of the Old City. This is the symbolic heart of the health, welfare and education projects that have made the Islamic movement a fast-growing political force; its supporters have elected mayors of Arab towns and members of the Knesset. These representatives also act as a bridge to Hamas, the elected leadership of the Occupied Territories. We show how, on both sides of the wall, Islam is becoming the dominant voice of Palestinian politics.
When Israel was created in 1948, the Palestinians were scattered and divided across many lands; today, the Palestinians who now make up 20 per cent of the Israeli population are growing ever closer to their fellows in the Occupied Territories. Increasingly they are being drawn together by the Islamic faith as a religious, cultural and political force. At its centre is the most contested piece of land on earth: the site of the al-Aqsa mosque or, as the Israelis know it, the Temple of Solomon.
Al-Aqsa Dome in Israel
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories can no longer get to Jerusalem because of the Wall, so the Islamic movement organises busloads of Israeli Palestinians every week to come to attend the mosque and help sustain the battered economy of the Old City. This is the symbolic heart of the health, welfare and education projects that have made the Islamic movement a fast-growing political force; its supporters have elected mayors of Arab towns and members of the Knesset. These representatives also act as a bridge to Hamas, the elected leadership of the Occupied Territories. We show how, on both sides of the wall, Islam is becoming the dominant voice of Palestinian politics.
Abbas under pressure to stay away from peace conference
Comment: This is from an Arab media source Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is under pressure from his Fatah faction not to attend a US-led Middle East conference Arab states were not interested in the conference as a "gimmick." In the Occupied West Bank, a Palestinian fighter and an Israeli soldier were killed in a shootout Tuesday.
Aides said Abbas believes preparations for the gathering, expected around mid-November, must continue. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives on Wednesday for talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert, who has met regularly with Abbas in a bid to find common ground ahead of the conference on Palestinian statehood, has sought to lower expectations, saying Israel wanted a joint declaration out of the deliberations rather than a binding deal.
Abbas is seeking a more explicit "framework agreement" with a timeline for implementation on the core "final-status" issues of borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
His aides said Fatah, which holds sway only in the West Bank after Hamas Islamists took control of the Gaza Strip in June, is pressing Abbas to skip the meeting unless achievements and wide international participation are assured."
"We can live without a conference, but we cannot live with a conference that fails," one aide said.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official, said Palestinians should not participate in a meeting that does not include "all concerned Arab parties," naming Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
"There must be political substance to the meeting and a clear agenda, with clear outcomes concerning final-status," Ahmad said.
The internal pressure on Abbas represents another challenge for Rice, who will try to spur the Palestinian leader and Olmert to narrow their differences in time for a gathering whose goals are still unclear.
Palestinian officials have raised the possibility the conference could be postponed if there was no meeting of minds.
US officials said Rice wants to see a commitment they can deliver enough at the conference to draw in key regional player Saudi Arabia, which has put Washington on notice it is not interested in coming unless substantive issues are addressed.
Arab diplomats have accused the US administration of inadequately preparing for the conference and suggested its aim will be only to create the illusion of progress toward peace.
"The conference should not be just one of those meetings for a handshake and a final communique that reflects general positions. We need specifics," Arab League chief Amr Moussa told Reuters at his Cairo headquarters. "This time if it is only gimmicks, we are not interested."
Israeli President Shimon Peres said relations between Abbas and Olmert were "in very good shape," but "that does not mean they have concluded the main problems. I believe while not all problems are solved and not all roads clear, by and large the chances to conclude a process of peace are higher than ever."
"There is a window of opportunity, and I say smilingly, the window is made of glass and we have to be careful not to break it," he added.
Pro-Western Gulf Arab states do not want the Middle East peace conference called by Washington to be aimed at helping get it out of "the Iraqi impasse," the oil-rich bloc's chief said on Tuesday.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states "welcome any attempt to reach a just and comprehensive solution of the Palestinian issue and settle the Arab-Israeli conflict," Abdel-Rahman al-Attiyah said in remarks released at GCC headquarters in Riyadh.
He said he hoped the proposed conference will address core issues and will "not be aimed at linking movement in the Middle East peace process to developments in Iraq in a bid to attract Arab states to a conference whose real goal is to help [the US] get out of the Iraqi impasse."
Attiyah did not elaborate on his suggestion that Gulf monarchies, which have close ties with the United States, fear Washington might use the conference to ease its difficulties in war-torn Iraq, where the continuing insurgency is fueling mounting domestic criticism.
His remarks came barely a week after GCC heavyweight Saudi Arabia said it might skip the international conference if the meeting is not comprehensive and does not tackle core issues of the conflict with Israel.
An Israeli soldier and an armed Palestinian were killed in a shootout at the Ein Bet Ilmeh camp, near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Palestinian ambulances were barred from entering the camp, witnesses said.
The incident began before dawn when troops in over 20 armored jeeps roared into the camp and were met by gunfire.
The army said troops were involved in exchanges of fire and encountered stone-throwing riots during the raid. One Israeli soldier was killed and another slightly wounded, the army said. Palestinian residents said one armed youth, 17, was killed in the shooting.
The army said it also arrested three suspected militants.
Captain Noa Meir said the army was acting on specific information of militants planning "to execute terrorist attacks."
Meir called Nablus "the capital of terror in the West Bank" and said that 10 weapons labs have been discovered in the city this year.In 2006, 117 out of 187 potential suicide bombers arrested by the army hailed from Nablus, she added.
Witnesses claimed that soldiers used a resident as a "human shield" as they moved house-to-house in search of suspected militants. Meir said the army was looking into the charge.
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled the practice is illegal.
The army says it has respected the ruling. But Palestinians and human-rights groups say that in some cases the army has continued to use civilians as human shields during operations in crowded urban areas - and at least one instance has been caught on camera.
Troops imposed a curfew in the crowded camp of 5,000 and searched from house to house, knocking down walls to get from one building to the next, witnesses said.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that the dead youth was a member, identifying him as Mohammad Ridah Khaled.
"We will follow in your path, Mohammad, until we expel the military occupation and achieve our own state," the group said.
Israeli authorities said they also foiled a plot by a Hamas militant to attack Israeli tourists at a hotel in neighboring Jordan, Olmert's office announced Tuesday.
A statement said that Khader Shkeir, from the West Bank village of Ein Arik, had been arrested on July 31. It gave no reason for the delay in announcing the arrest.
The statement said Shkeir admitted to planning the attack during a visit to Jordan in 2005 with an accomplice. It said the suspects chose the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman and a second hotel as their targets.
According to the statement, the pair planned to board a bus carrying tourists to the hotels and carry out a mass shooting attack. It said they bought two AK-47 automatic weapons for the attack, but the plan went awry when Jordanian authorities arrested Shkeir on suspicion of militant activity and deported him to the West Bank.
The statement said that Shkeir continued to work with Hamas after returning to the West Bank. Shkeir has not been charged. There was no immediate reaction from Jordan.
Hamas officials said that they were not aware of the arrest and could not confirm whether Shkeir was a member of the group.
But the officials cast doubt on the Israeli allegations, saying the group limits its military operations to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Still, ties between Hamas and Jordan have been strained.
In May 2006, the Jordanian government accused Hamas of plotting attacks in Jordan and smuggling arms into the country.
At the time, 20 Hamas suspects were arrested and later confessed on Jordanian television to plotting attacks.
But human-rights groups have questioned the confessions, pointing to incidences of torture among Jordanian security officials. - Agencies
Aides said Abbas believes preparations for the gathering, expected around mid-November, must continue. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives on Wednesday for talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert, who has met regularly with Abbas in a bid to find common ground ahead of the conference on Palestinian statehood, has sought to lower expectations, saying Israel wanted a joint declaration out of the deliberations rather than a binding deal.
Abbas is seeking a more explicit "framework agreement" with a timeline for implementation on the core "final-status" issues of borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
His aides said Fatah, which holds sway only in the West Bank after Hamas Islamists took control of the Gaza Strip in June, is pressing Abbas to skip the meeting unless achievements and wide international participation are assured."
"We can live without a conference, but we cannot live with a conference that fails," one aide said.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official, said Palestinians should not participate in a meeting that does not include "all concerned Arab parties," naming Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
"There must be political substance to the meeting and a clear agenda, with clear outcomes concerning final-status," Ahmad said.
The internal pressure on Abbas represents another challenge for Rice, who will try to spur the Palestinian leader and Olmert to narrow their differences in time for a gathering whose goals are still unclear.
Palestinian officials have raised the possibility the conference could be postponed if there was no meeting of minds.
US officials said Rice wants to see a commitment they can deliver enough at the conference to draw in key regional player Saudi Arabia, which has put Washington on notice it is not interested in coming unless substantive issues are addressed.
Arab diplomats have accused the US administration of inadequately preparing for the conference and suggested its aim will be only to create the illusion of progress toward peace.
"The conference should not be just one of those meetings for a handshake and a final communique that reflects general positions. We need specifics," Arab League chief Amr Moussa told Reuters at his Cairo headquarters. "This time if it is only gimmicks, we are not interested."
Israeli President Shimon Peres said relations between Abbas and Olmert were "in very good shape," but "that does not mean they have concluded the main problems. I believe while not all problems are solved and not all roads clear, by and large the chances to conclude a process of peace are higher than ever."
"There is a window of opportunity, and I say smilingly, the window is made of glass and we have to be careful not to break it," he added.
Pro-Western Gulf Arab states do not want the Middle East peace conference called by Washington to be aimed at helping get it out of "the Iraqi impasse," the oil-rich bloc's chief said on Tuesday.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states "welcome any attempt to reach a just and comprehensive solution of the Palestinian issue and settle the Arab-Israeli conflict," Abdel-Rahman al-Attiyah said in remarks released at GCC headquarters in Riyadh.
He said he hoped the proposed conference will address core issues and will "not be aimed at linking movement in the Middle East peace process to developments in Iraq in a bid to attract Arab states to a conference whose real goal is to help [the US] get out of the Iraqi impasse."
Attiyah did not elaborate on his suggestion that Gulf monarchies, which have close ties with the United States, fear Washington might use the conference to ease its difficulties in war-torn Iraq, where the continuing insurgency is fueling mounting domestic criticism.
His remarks came barely a week after GCC heavyweight Saudi Arabia said it might skip the international conference if the meeting is not comprehensive and does not tackle core issues of the conflict with Israel.
An Israeli soldier and an armed Palestinian were killed in a shootout at the Ein Bet Ilmeh camp, near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Palestinian ambulances were barred from entering the camp, witnesses said.
The incident began before dawn when troops in over 20 armored jeeps roared into the camp and were met by gunfire.
The army said troops were involved in exchanges of fire and encountered stone-throwing riots during the raid. One Israeli soldier was killed and another slightly wounded, the army said. Palestinian residents said one armed youth, 17, was killed in the shooting.
The army said it also arrested three suspected militants.
Captain Noa Meir said the army was acting on specific information of militants planning "to execute terrorist attacks."
Meir called Nablus "the capital of terror in the West Bank" and said that 10 weapons labs have been discovered in the city this year.In 2006, 117 out of 187 potential suicide bombers arrested by the army hailed from Nablus, she added.
Witnesses claimed that soldiers used a resident as a "human shield" as they moved house-to-house in search of suspected militants. Meir said the army was looking into the charge.
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled the practice is illegal.
The army says it has respected the ruling. But Palestinians and human-rights groups say that in some cases the army has continued to use civilians as human shields during operations in crowded urban areas - and at least one instance has been caught on camera.
Troops imposed a curfew in the crowded camp of 5,000 and searched from house to house, knocking down walls to get from one building to the next, witnesses said.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that the dead youth was a member, identifying him as Mohammad Ridah Khaled.
"We will follow in your path, Mohammad, until we expel the military occupation and achieve our own state," the group said.
Israeli authorities said they also foiled a plot by a Hamas militant to attack Israeli tourists at a hotel in neighboring Jordan, Olmert's office announced Tuesday.
A statement said that Khader Shkeir, from the West Bank village of Ein Arik, had been arrested on July 31. It gave no reason for the delay in announcing the arrest.
The statement said Shkeir admitted to planning the attack during a visit to Jordan in 2005 with an accomplice. It said the suspects chose the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman and a second hotel as their targets.
According to the statement, the pair planned to board a bus carrying tourists to the hotels and carry out a mass shooting attack. It said they bought two AK-47 automatic weapons for the attack, but the plan went awry when Jordanian authorities arrested Shkeir on suspicion of militant activity and deported him to the West Bank.
The statement said that Shkeir continued to work with Hamas after returning to the West Bank. Shkeir has not been charged. There was no immediate reaction from Jordan.
Hamas officials said that they were not aware of the arrest and could not confirm whether Shkeir was a member of the group.
But the officials cast doubt on the Israeli allegations, saying the group limits its military operations to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Still, ties between Hamas and Jordan have been strained.
In May 2006, the Jordanian government accused Hamas of plotting attacks in Jordan and smuggling arms into the country.
At the time, 20 Hamas suspects were arrested and later confessed on Jordanian television to plotting attacks.
But human-rights groups have questioned the confessions, pointing to incidences of torture among Jordanian security officials. - Agencies
MP Odwan warns of Rice's pressure on Abbas, Arab states over conference
Comment: An Arab point of view of Ms. Rice's upcoming visit
GAZA, (PIC)--Former PA minister and Hamas senior political leader MP Dr. Atef Odwan has expressed pessimism over the anticipated visit of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice "It is expected that Rice will pressure PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli premier Ehud Olmert into introducing compromises in a bid to attract and persuade reluctant Arab states into attending the said conference", said Odwan in press statement he made Tuesday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC.
He explained that the US top diplomat aims at convincing influential Arab states into attending and blessing the conference so as to portray the incumbent US administration of President George W. Bush as if it was indeed serious in searching for a solution to the Palestinian question and pushing the Middle East peace process forward.
But he stressed that the conference is doomed to failure due to the "absence of genuine Israeli and US willingness to grant the Palestinian people their legitimate rights that the Israeli occupation government had usurped six decades ago.
"I am of full conviction that the meeting was designed to achieve Israeli and USA political interest only without bothering about the legal rights of the Palestinian people", the Hamas's legislator said.
At the same time, Odwan ruled out talks between Hamas and Fatah movement, at least till the conference scheduled date, attributing his conclusions to the US and Israeli pressures on Abbas not to talk to Hamas.
"If the conference failed, Abbas will emerge empty handed out of it, and the US administration will definitely sideline him in order to concentrate on the upcoming US election campaign, and he (Abbas) will, at that time, realizes he was isolated and would seek Arab mediation to start national talks with Hamas", Odwan stated.
He also explained that Olmert was keen and concerned to hold that conference because it would provide him a short time to relax and after the headache caused by the Winograd report that reaped heads of a number of his cabinet members and war generals.
Moreover, Odwan opined that Olmert was searching for something to rescue him form the quagmire of the repercussions of the war his occupation army had waged on Lebanon last year and emerged defeated, in addition to his desire to portray himself before the world as a peacemaker.
Bush, on the other hand, Odwan underscored, wants to achieve something on the Palestinian track so as to be remembered as a peacemaker and not as a war-monger before he bids final farewell to the White House next year", Odwan explained.
As far as the Arab states' positions towards the conference are concerned, Odwan classified the Arab states into self-respecting states that prefer not to dance with the US policies in the region, and other states that blindly follow the US dictates without paying an attention to their own states' national interest or the Palestinian people's national interest.
GAZA, (PIC)--Former PA minister and Hamas senior political leader MP Dr. Atef Odwan has expressed pessimism over the anticipated visit of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice "It is expected that Rice will pressure PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli premier Ehud Olmert into introducing compromises in a bid to attract and persuade reluctant Arab states into attending the said conference", said Odwan in press statement he made Tuesday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC.
He explained that the US top diplomat aims at convincing influential Arab states into attending and blessing the conference so as to portray the incumbent US administration of President George W. Bush as if it was indeed serious in searching for a solution to the Palestinian question and pushing the Middle East peace process forward.
But he stressed that the conference is doomed to failure due to the "absence of genuine Israeli and US willingness to grant the Palestinian people their legitimate rights that the Israeli occupation government had usurped six decades ago.
"I am of full conviction that the meeting was designed to achieve Israeli and USA political interest only without bothering about the legal rights of the Palestinian people", the Hamas's legislator said.
At the same time, Odwan ruled out talks between Hamas and Fatah movement, at least till the conference scheduled date, attributing his conclusions to the US and Israeli pressures on Abbas not to talk to Hamas.
"If the conference failed, Abbas will emerge empty handed out of it, and the US administration will definitely sideline him in order to concentrate on the upcoming US election campaign, and he (Abbas) will, at that time, realizes he was isolated and would seek Arab mediation to start national talks with Hamas", Odwan stated.
He also explained that Olmert was keen and concerned to hold that conference because it would provide him a short time to relax and after the headache caused by the Winograd report that reaped heads of a number of his cabinet members and war generals.
Moreover, Odwan opined that Olmert was searching for something to rescue him form the quagmire of the repercussions of the war his occupation army had waged on Lebanon last year and emerged defeated, in addition to his desire to portray himself before the world as a peacemaker.
Bush, on the other hand, Odwan underscored, wants to achieve something on the Palestinian track so as to be remembered as a peacemaker and not as a war-monger before he bids final farewell to the White House next year", Odwan explained.
As far as the Arab states' positions towards the conference are concerned, Odwan classified the Arab states into self-respecting states that prefer not to dance with the US policies in the region, and other states that blindly follow the US dictates without paying an attention to their own states' national interest or the Palestinian people's national interest.
Hamas recruits women into police force as 'proof' of progressive thinking
GAZA CITY: Susan Aqal is a tightly veiled Palestinian mother who has a baby boy. But she has abandoned traditional domestic life to interrogate suspected drug addicts, thieves and murderers in the volatile Gaza Strip. A university graduate who worked as a lawyer for various organizations, she leapt at the chance to fulfill her dream of becoming a police officer after the radical Islamist movement Hamas seized the territory in June.
"This is my field. This is what I studied. I wanted a job in security and used to work in other organizations, but when I got the chance I didn't hesitate to join the police force," says the 28-year-old wife of a Hamas paramilitary officer.
Shrouded in a loose-fitting black coat, wearing a purple headscarf and white cotton underpiece designed to hide all of her hair, and with her face clean of make-up, Aqal is one of 50 women working with Hamas paramilitaries in Gaza City.
While most are secretaries, she is one of 10 policewomen based at the Saraya Prison in a nascent force set up by Hamas last month as "proof" of its progressive thinking.
"I know that this job needs a strong personality and someone who is courageous. I'm not scared. I just feel that the guilty need to be punished," she says, reeling off a list of crimes she interrogates suspects for - murder, drugs, theft and moral vice.
"We're treated very well within our brotherhood. I work here in the compound and deal with criminals directly. I interrogate men as well as women. At the moment I'm assisting our officers because we haven't finished our training yet," she says.
Amin Nawfal, a commander in the self-styled "man's police" - the Executive Force that supervises the women - says they will eventually be given firearms training, take part in arrest operations and be fully integrated.
"Females can't be touched by a man, therefore we need women police. That's proof
we are a lawful country and not an Islamic state. It doesn't violate Shariah law either," Nawfal says.
Women work as police across the Muslim world, including in Hamas' patron Iran, where women clad in black chadors are taught how to use guns, rappel down buildings, chase cars and disable bombs.
"Having women in security jobs shows how democratic we are and that we have equality between men and women," says Nawfal, dressed in military fatigues and sitting at an enormous desk, Hamas television flickering in the background.
But despite his lofty comments, he silences the suggestion that Aqal talk in private, saying he should be present because she might not know the answers to all the questions.
All the women administrators milling about outside opt for the conventional hijab as favored by Aqal, or the Saudi Arabian-style niqab that drapes the entire head in black, with just a slit for the eyes.
"My mother looks after my baby and my husband is a lawyer and in the force, so he is totally supportive," Aqal says. "All the women in my family are working, so they encourage me. This is no problem in our community and we don't face any discrimination."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
At the moment, she earns $300 a month working from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. six days a week, but after a six-month trial period she expects to nearly double her salary.
She proudly shows off her large office - standard issue for women recruits - complete with a desk, computer and mobile phone. Her only complaint is the lack of uniform.
"The women's force is asking for a uniform to differentiate them from the other women working in administration.
I'm wearing what I normally wear at the moment but we would like it to be dark blue or black, patterned the same as the men's."
The Executive Force wears blue and grey camouflage. Hamas will have no talk of shirts and trousers for women - it will be a cloak down to the ground.
"In time there will be a women's uniform in keeping with Islamic Sharia, so it won't be a shirt or a T-shirt. It'll be the same as she's wearing," says Nawfal, gesturing in Aqal's direction. "We hope it will be the same color and look as the men's uniform."
For the moment, Nawfal recognizes that women's recruitment is a controversial issue, and that few outside Hamas are even aware of it.
Nawfal says that some people are scared to join, worried about losing salaries paid by the Western-backed government in the West Bank should they cast their lot in with Hamas after the bloody takeover.
Others worry that working for the Hamas-run government will cause them to be branded terrorists by the United States and the European Union, both of which consider Hamas a terror organization.
"There are women police?" asks Talat Abdo, an award-winning hairdresser with dyed locks. His salon is deserted, a casualty of the economic meltdown that followed the formation of the first Hamas-led government in 2006.
"I thought they were religious. They control the Gaza Strip without anything, so why do they need women? I don't think they do. We're already a conservative community and not a lot of women break the law," he says.
Abdo says business over the past 18 months, roughly since Hamas formed its first government and the international community responded with an economic blockade, has never been worse in the 35 years he has owned a salon.
"Now it's about 25-30 women a week. During the good days of Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] and the Palestinian Authority, there was a lot of work. The shop was crowded and people had to book before they came," he says.
But not any more, Abdo adds, before going back to watching an Egyptian film. - AFP
"This is my field. This is what I studied. I wanted a job in security and used to work in other organizations, but when I got the chance I didn't hesitate to join the police force," says the 28-year-old wife of a Hamas paramilitary officer.
Shrouded in a loose-fitting black coat, wearing a purple headscarf and white cotton underpiece designed to hide all of her hair, and with her face clean of make-up, Aqal is one of 50 women working with Hamas paramilitaries in Gaza City.
While most are secretaries, she is one of 10 policewomen based at the Saraya Prison in a nascent force set up by Hamas last month as "proof" of its progressive thinking.
"I know that this job needs a strong personality and someone who is courageous. I'm not scared. I just feel that the guilty need to be punished," she says, reeling off a list of crimes she interrogates suspects for - murder, drugs, theft and moral vice.
"We're treated very well within our brotherhood. I work here in the compound and deal with criminals directly. I interrogate men as well as women. At the moment I'm assisting our officers because we haven't finished our training yet," she says.
Amin Nawfal, a commander in the self-styled "man's police" - the Executive Force that supervises the women - says they will eventually be given firearms training, take part in arrest operations and be fully integrated.
"Females can't be touched by a man, therefore we need women police. That's proof
we are a lawful country and not an Islamic state. It doesn't violate Shariah law either," Nawfal says.
Women work as police across the Muslim world, including in Hamas' patron Iran, where women clad in black chadors are taught how to use guns, rappel down buildings, chase cars and disable bombs.
"Having women in security jobs shows how democratic we are and that we have equality between men and women," says Nawfal, dressed in military fatigues and sitting at an enormous desk, Hamas television flickering in the background.
But despite his lofty comments, he silences the suggestion that Aqal talk in private, saying he should be present because she might not know the answers to all the questions.
All the women administrators milling about outside opt for the conventional hijab as favored by Aqal, or the Saudi Arabian-style niqab that drapes the entire head in black, with just a slit for the eyes.
"My mother looks after my baby and my husband is a lawyer and in the force, so he is totally supportive," Aqal says. "All the women in my family are working, so they encourage me. This is no problem in our community and we don't face any discrimination."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
At the moment, she earns $300 a month working from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. six days a week, but after a six-month trial period she expects to nearly double her salary.
She proudly shows off her large office - standard issue for women recruits - complete with a desk, computer and mobile phone. Her only complaint is the lack of uniform.
"The women's force is asking for a uniform to differentiate them from the other women working in administration.
I'm wearing what I normally wear at the moment but we would like it to be dark blue or black, patterned the same as the men's."
The Executive Force wears blue and grey camouflage. Hamas will have no talk of shirts and trousers for women - it will be a cloak down to the ground.
"In time there will be a women's uniform in keeping with Islamic Sharia, so it won't be a shirt or a T-shirt. It'll be the same as she's wearing," says Nawfal, gesturing in Aqal's direction. "We hope it will be the same color and look as the men's uniform."
For the moment, Nawfal recognizes that women's recruitment is a controversial issue, and that few outside Hamas are even aware of it.
Nawfal says that some people are scared to join, worried about losing salaries paid by the Western-backed government in the West Bank should they cast their lot in with Hamas after the bloody takeover.
Others worry that working for the Hamas-run government will cause them to be branded terrorists by the United States and the European Union, both of which consider Hamas a terror organization.
"There are women police?" asks Talat Abdo, an award-winning hairdresser with dyed locks. His salon is deserted, a casualty of the economic meltdown that followed the formation of the first Hamas-led government in 2006.
"I thought they were religious. They control the Gaza Strip without anything, so why do they need women? I don't think they do. We're already a conservative community and not a lot of women break the law," he says.
Abdo says business over the past 18 months, roughly since Hamas formed its first government and the international community responded with an economic blockade, has never been worse in the 35 years he has owned a salon.
"Now it's about 25-30 women a week. During the good days of Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] and the Palestinian Authority, there was a lot of work. The shop was crowded and people had to book before they came," he says.
But not any more, Abdo adds, before going back to watching an Egyptian film. - AFP
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
'Dozens died in Syrian-Iranian chemical weapons experiment'
Comment: This story just keeps growing-we did something correct! Now we understand why so much silence, however, the leaks will come rapidly now-the genie isout of the bottle.
Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Magazine report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria. According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas and VX gas.
The factory was created specifically for the purposes of altering ballistic missiles to carry chemical payloads, the magazine report claimed.
Reports of the accident were circulated at the time, however, no details were released by the Syrian government, and there were no hints of an Iranian connection.
The report comes on the heels of criticism leveled by the Syrains at the United States, accusing it of spreading "false" claims of Syrian nuclear activity and cooperation with North Korea to excuse an alleged Israeli air incursion over the country this month.
According to Global Security.org, Syria is not a signatory of either the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), - an international agreement banning the production, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons, or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Syria began developing chemical weapons in 1973, just before the Yom Kippur War. Global Security.org cites the country as having one of the most advanced chemical weapons programs in the Middle East.
Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Magazine report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria. According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas and VX gas.
The factory was created specifically for the purposes of altering ballistic missiles to carry chemical payloads, the magazine report claimed.
Reports of the accident were circulated at the time, however, no details were released by the Syrian government, and there were no hints of an Iranian connection.
The report comes on the heels of criticism leveled by the Syrains at the United States, accusing it of spreading "false" claims of Syrian nuclear activity and cooperation with North Korea to excuse an alleged Israeli air incursion over the country this month.
According to Global Security.org, Syria is not a signatory of either the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), - an international agreement banning the production, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons, or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Syria began developing chemical weapons in 1973, just before the Yom Kippur War. Global Security.org cites the country as having one of the most advanced chemical weapons programs in the Middle East.
Ramon: Give parts of Jerusalem to Palestinians
Vice premier authors position paper proposing transfer of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods to Palestinian Authority
Comment: The current government has lied to us by stating publicly that it has not discussed final borders, has no intention to decide upon “final principles” without conferring with the Knesset. I sat with a Knesset member last night, he is not in the Kadima party and he indicated that Olmert is moving forward with just such a plan. Olmert is using Ramon-he is the ‘test the waters” man and also the “fall guy” if these discussions go awry. Read along about the Israeli “fire sale” proposal #1 with others to follow. Best make your opinion known, now , loud and clear.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon outlined his official political agenda on Tuesday, acknowledging that he believes Israel should cede control of the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians and establish joint sovereignty over the city's holy sites.
Ramon went on record with his personal viewpoint in a letter to Nir Barkat, a member of Jerusalem's municipal council on behalf of Kadima.
"The Jewish neighborhoods will be recognized as Israeli and under Israeli sovereignty. Accordingly, the Arab neighborhoods (like Shoafat) will be recognized as Palestinian. Passages between the Israeli neighborhoods will be open and secure – accordingly the same will be true for the Palestinian neighborhoods," writes Ramon.
"There will be special sovereignty over the holy sites, taking into account Israel's unique interests in overseeing them. Within this framework the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and other holy sites in the Jerusalem vicinity will remain under Israeli rule forever."
Knesset members and cabinet ministers from Kadima recently voiced their objections to the divisive concessions proposed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Those opposing Olmert say they are concerned that he would propose withdrawing from the West Bank and handing over part of Jerusalem to the PA ahead of the upcoming peace summit in Washington.
'A danger to Jerusalem's future'
A fierce opponent of dividing Jerusalem, Barkat demanded that Ramon – as Olmert's designated man for negotiations with the PA - clarify his position.
"Recent reports have said that in your talks with the Palestinian prime minister you are working to divide Jerusalem between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Such a move would compromise Israel's sovereignty over the holy sites and the Old City as well as end in the transfer of Jerusalem neighborhoods to the Palestinians," wrote Barkat in his demand to Ramon.
"I remind you that these positions go against Kadima's guiding principles, that stress the inclusion of the sites holy to the Jewish faith and which are important national symbols – first and foremost of these is a unified Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. It is because of these principles that Kadima was given a mandate by the people of Israel.
"It is inconceivable that we would go along with actions that would endanger Jerusalem's security and Judaism's Holy of Holies."
In his response to Barkat Ramon wrote: "Kadima has raised the banner of a democratic and Jewish Israel with a solid Jewish majority. It is based on this belief that the prime minister is negotiating with President Abbas."
Ramon said he agreed with Barkat's sentiment of preserving Jerusalem's strength and added that expressing Israel's willingness to cede the Arab neighborhoods as part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority would only contribute to that strength.
Comment: The current government has lied to us by stating publicly that it has not discussed final borders, has no intention to decide upon “final principles” without conferring with the Knesset. I sat with a Knesset member last night, he is not in the Kadima party and he indicated that Olmert is moving forward with just such a plan. Olmert is using Ramon-he is the ‘test the waters” man and also the “fall guy” if these discussions go awry. Read along about the Israeli “fire sale” proposal #1 with others to follow. Best make your opinion known, now , loud and clear.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon outlined his official political agenda on Tuesday, acknowledging that he believes Israel should cede control of the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians and establish joint sovereignty over the city's holy sites.
Ramon went on record with his personal viewpoint in a letter to Nir Barkat, a member of Jerusalem's municipal council on behalf of Kadima.
"The Jewish neighborhoods will be recognized as Israeli and under Israeli sovereignty. Accordingly, the Arab neighborhoods (like Shoafat) will be recognized as Palestinian. Passages between the Israeli neighborhoods will be open and secure – accordingly the same will be true for the Palestinian neighborhoods," writes Ramon.
"There will be special sovereignty over the holy sites, taking into account Israel's unique interests in overseeing them. Within this framework the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and other holy sites in the Jerusalem vicinity will remain under Israeli rule forever."
Knesset members and cabinet ministers from Kadima recently voiced their objections to the divisive concessions proposed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Those opposing Olmert say they are concerned that he would propose withdrawing from the West Bank and handing over part of Jerusalem to the PA ahead of the upcoming peace summit in Washington.
'A danger to Jerusalem's future'
A fierce opponent of dividing Jerusalem, Barkat demanded that Ramon – as Olmert's designated man for negotiations with the PA - clarify his position.
"Recent reports have said that in your talks with the Palestinian prime minister you are working to divide Jerusalem between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Such a move would compromise Israel's sovereignty over the holy sites and the Old City as well as end in the transfer of Jerusalem neighborhoods to the Palestinians," wrote Barkat in his demand to Ramon.
"I remind you that these positions go against Kadima's guiding principles, that stress the inclusion of the sites holy to the Jewish faith and which are important national symbols – first and foremost of these is a unified Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. It is because of these principles that Kadima was given a mandate by the people of Israel.
"It is inconceivable that we would go along with actions that would endanger Jerusalem's security and Judaism's Holy of Holies."
In his response to Barkat Ramon wrote: "Kadima has raised the banner of a democratic and Jewish Israel with a solid Jewish majority. It is based on this belief that the prime minister is negotiating with President Abbas."
Ramon said he agreed with Barkat's sentiment of preserving Jerusalem's strength and added that expressing Israel's willingness to cede the Arab neighborhoods as part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority would only contribute to that strength.
Do Israel's Critics Have Anything Original To Say?
The Passover Seder liturgy tells us that in every generation an enemy arises seeking to eradicate the Jewish people In the last hundred years, those enemies included the Russian czar, Stalin, Hitler, Gamal Abdel Nasser and, more recently, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Reviewing recent publications and utterances by some of the most vocal detractors of Israel and its American supporters, it appears that every generation also sees new critics who arise to assail American support for the Jewish state. Sometimes the criticism is actually anti-Semitic utterances masked by euphemisms (I’m not anti-Semitic, just anti-Zionist). And sometimes the criticism is actually an echo of statements made a generation ago.
Indeed, recent anti-Israel essays, claims of “Jewish Lobby” cabals, and accusations that support for Israel runs counter to American national interests are old hat.
We’ve heard it before.
Earlier this year, retired general and unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark warned blogger Arianna Huffington that “New York money people” are pushing America into a war against Iran. “You just have to read what’s in the Israeli press,” he said. “The Jewish community is divided, but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers.”
The statement had a malodorous hint of anti-Semitism. Is the term “New York money people” a code for Jews? The statement elicited a distinct memory.
It was an echo of a statement made by Gen. George Scratchley Brown, chairman of the Joints Chiefs in 1974. Brown was smarting from the emergency drawdown of frontline American army equipment dispatched to Israel in the emergency airlift during the October 1973 war when Israel repelled an invasion by Soviet-armed Egypt and Syria. No military man wants to have his military toys taken away. Brown unleashed this classic anti-Semitic response at an appearance at Duke University law school on October 10, 1974:
[The American public could] get tough-minded enough to set down the Jewish influence in this country and break that lobby. We have the Israelis coming to us for equipment. We can say “we can’t possibly get the Congress to support a program like this.” And they say “don’t worry about the Congress. We will take care of the Congress.” This is somebody from another country, but they can do it. They own, you know, the banks in this country. The newspapers. Just look at where the Jewish money is.
Thirty years later, did the “New York money” line slip out of the recesses of Clark’s memory?
In the early 1970’s Wesley Clark worked in the office of the Army Chief of Staff in Washington and then taught at West Point. The 1973 Yom Kippur War was a major topic of discussion and instruction. Today, Clark rejects any suggestion that his comments were motivated by anti-Semitism.
Indeed, this son of a Jewish father was quick to assure Jewish organizations of his abhorrence of anti-Semitism. More likely, his comments reflect the milieu and culture of a young junior officer 35 years ago looking for the reasons his army’s tanks, bombs, and munitions were being taken out of European depots and turned over to Israel’s army.
Clark’s comments were not an isolated echo, however. Profs. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, authors of last year’s controversial paper (and a new book being released last week) “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” also repeat and amplify the 30- and 40-year-old opinions of two of the most prominent critics of American support for Israel a generation ago: Sen. J. William Fulbright and George Ball, an undersecretary of state in the 1960’s.
Curiously, the Fulbright and Ball names did not appear even once in the professors’ voluminous footnotes in their original study. As Walt and Mearsheimer publish their new book, how many readers will realize that it is a rehash of statements made by two foreign-policy gadflies of a generation past?
Consider the following examples of thematic similarities:
Dual Loyalty: In a Senate debate in May 1960 on the Douglas amendment to the Mutual Security Act, which would force the United Arab Republic to open the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, Senator Fulbright said that “a pressure group in the U.S. ... seeks to inject the Arab-Israeli dispute into domestic politics. Americans find their foreign policy being whip-sawed by a minority pressure group. The President cannot conduct our foreign policy in the Middle East under these circumstances. That policy is being directed by minority pressure groups. In recent years, we have seen the rise of organizations dedicated apparently not to America, but to foreign states and groups.”
And again, during an interview on “Face the Nation” on October 7, 1973, the second day of the Yom Kippur War, Sen. Fulbright said, “The U.S. government alone is not capable of [putting an embargo on arms to the Middle East], because the Israelis control the policy in the Congress and the Senate and unless we use the UN and do it collectively, we know the U.S. is not going to do that. . . . Somewhere around 80 percent of the Senate of the United States is completely in support of Israel and of anything Israel wants.”
In their original working paper on the Israel Lobby, Walt and Mearsheimer argued similarly: “The bottom line is that AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress, with the result that U.S. policy towards Israel is not debated there, even though that policy has important consequences for the entire world.”
Anti-Semitism Used to Silence Critics: As George Ball put it in his article “How to Save Israel in Spite of Herself,” (Foreign Affairs, April 1977), “Because many articulate Americans are passionately committed to Israel, the slightest challenge to any aspect of current Israeli policy is likely to provoke a shrill ad hominem response. To suggest that America should take a stronger and more assertive line in the search for Middle East peace is to risk being attacked as a servant either of Arab interests or of the oil companies, or being denounced as anti-Israel, or, by a careless confusion of language, even condemned as anti-Semitic.”
Again, Walt and Mearsheimer are recycling an old charge: “No discussion of how the Lobby operates would be complete without examining one of its most powerful weapons: the charge of anti-Semitism. Anyone who criticizes Israel’s actions or argues that pro-Israel groups have significant influence over U.S. Middle Eastern policy stands a good chance of being labeled an anti-Semite.”
American Aid to Israel: Here is Ball again in that same article in Foreign Affairs, now discussing American aid: “Last year, [U.S.] public sector aid [to Israel] amounted to $2.34 billion, which means more than $600 for every man, woman and child in Israel. . . . Our contribution will again be a very high percentage of our total foreign aid programs. Rarely before have so many done so much for so few.”
Here are Walt and Mearsheimer following suit: “Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976. Israel receives about $3 billion in direct assistance each year, roughly one-fifth of the foreign aid budget, and worth about $500 a year for every Israeli….It is hard to think of another instance where one country has provided another with a similar level of material and diplomatic support for such an extended period.”
American Interests, Israeli Interests: As Ball would have it, “How far should we go in continuing to subsidize a policy shaped to accommodate understandable Israeli compulsions which do not accord with the best interests – as we see it – either of Israel or the United States, but are a threat to world peace? The hard fact is that the national interests of the United States and Israel cannot, in the nature of things, be precisely congruent.... The time is ripe for the United States to take a strong hand to save Israel from herself.”
Walt and Mearsheimer come to the same conclusion: “Israel itself would probably be better off if the Lobby were less powerful and U.S. policy more even-handed.... What is needed is a candid discussion of the Lobby’s influence and a more open debate about U.S. interests in this vital region.... Open debate will expose the limits of the strategic and moral case for one-sided U.S. support and could move the U.S. to a position more consistent with its own national interest, with the interests of the other states in the region, and with Israel’s long-term interests as well.”
So what does it mean that Fulbright’s and Ball’s arguments against America’s strong support for Israel are parroted 30 years later by two prominent professors?
First, it is curious, even troubling, that the Walt and Mearsheimer paper failed to cite those two prominent foreign-policy mavericks who so clearly influenced their opinions. Did they take Fulbright’s and Ball’s material and rewrite it as their own?
They sound like Ball/Fulbright disciples, but did they conclude that Ball and Fulbright were perceived as so one-sided on Middle East issues that their opinions had little currency, and did the two professors keep those sources out lest their work suffer the same fate? And if they didn’t know of Ball and Fulbright’s influential works, what does that say about their scholarship?
Second, on the publication of Walt and Mearsheimer’s expanded polemic in book form, it is important to recall that there is not much new here – not the anti-Israel accusations, not the charges of dual loyalty, nor the challenges to the rights of American citizens who effectively petition their government.
Third, Walt and Mearsheimer were university students studying international relations and political science when Fulbright and Ball were at their peak challenging American policies in Vietnam and the Middle East. How much were the two influenced by Ball and Fulbright who, for many on campus, were heroes? Were positions stated then filed away in their heads much the same way Wesley Clark may have been influenced by Gen. George Scratchley Brown?
The possible residual effect of the professors’ anti-Israel and anti-Semitic declarations is troubling. Will the campus debates and anti-Israel demonstrations today produce the biased Walts and Mearsheimers 30 years from now?
Walt and Mearsheimer claim the amorphous, omnipotent “Lobby” is “policing academia,” that it has “worked hard to stifle criticism of Israel” on campus, and that “there is much less [criticism] on campuses today.”
Walt and Mearsheimer put the lie to their own charge of stifled debate on campus. Their claim that the accusation of anti-Semitism muffles critics was not true in Ball’s day, nor is it today.
An urban legend claims that the quacks of geese and ducks do not create an echo. But it doesn’t take sound laboratories to prove the legend false. The gaggles of Israel’s detractors do indeed have echoes, even over the broad expanse of 30 years.
Lenny Ben-David served as deputy chief of mission in Israel’s embassy in Washington. This column originally appeared on NationalRevewOnline.
Reviewing recent publications and utterances by some of the most vocal detractors of Israel and its American supporters, it appears that every generation also sees new critics who arise to assail American support for the Jewish state. Sometimes the criticism is actually anti-Semitic utterances masked by euphemisms (I’m not anti-Semitic, just anti-Zionist). And sometimes the criticism is actually an echo of statements made a generation ago.
Indeed, recent anti-Israel essays, claims of “Jewish Lobby” cabals, and accusations that support for Israel runs counter to American national interests are old hat.
We’ve heard it before.
Earlier this year, retired general and unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark warned blogger Arianna Huffington that “New York money people” are pushing America into a war against Iran. “You just have to read what’s in the Israeli press,” he said. “The Jewish community is divided, but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers.”
The statement had a malodorous hint of anti-Semitism. Is the term “New York money people” a code for Jews? The statement elicited a distinct memory.
It was an echo of a statement made by Gen. George Scratchley Brown, chairman of the Joints Chiefs in 1974. Brown was smarting from the emergency drawdown of frontline American army equipment dispatched to Israel in the emergency airlift during the October 1973 war when Israel repelled an invasion by Soviet-armed Egypt and Syria. No military man wants to have his military toys taken away. Brown unleashed this classic anti-Semitic response at an appearance at Duke University law school on October 10, 1974:
[The American public could] get tough-minded enough to set down the Jewish influence in this country and break that lobby. We have the Israelis coming to us for equipment. We can say “we can’t possibly get the Congress to support a program like this.” And they say “don’t worry about the Congress. We will take care of the Congress.” This is somebody from another country, but they can do it. They own, you know, the banks in this country. The newspapers. Just look at where the Jewish money is.
Thirty years later, did the “New York money” line slip out of the recesses of Clark’s memory?
In the early 1970’s Wesley Clark worked in the office of the Army Chief of Staff in Washington and then taught at West Point. The 1973 Yom Kippur War was a major topic of discussion and instruction. Today, Clark rejects any suggestion that his comments were motivated by anti-Semitism.
Indeed, this son of a Jewish father was quick to assure Jewish organizations of his abhorrence of anti-Semitism. More likely, his comments reflect the milieu and culture of a young junior officer 35 years ago looking for the reasons his army’s tanks, bombs, and munitions were being taken out of European depots and turned over to Israel’s army.
Clark’s comments were not an isolated echo, however. Profs. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, authors of last year’s controversial paper (and a new book being released last week) “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” also repeat and amplify the 30- and 40-year-old opinions of two of the most prominent critics of American support for Israel a generation ago: Sen. J. William Fulbright and George Ball, an undersecretary of state in the 1960’s.
Curiously, the Fulbright and Ball names did not appear even once in the professors’ voluminous footnotes in their original study. As Walt and Mearsheimer publish their new book, how many readers will realize that it is a rehash of statements made by two foreign-policy gadflies of a generation past?
Consider the following examples of thematic similarities:
Dual Loyalty: In a Senate debate in May 1960 on the Douglas amendment to the Mutual Security Act, which would force the United Arab Republic to open the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, Senator Fulbright said that “a pressure group in the U.S. ... seeks to inject the Arab-Israeli dispute into domestic politics. Americans find their foreign policy being whip-sawed by a minority pressure group. The President cannot conduct our foreign policy in the Middle East under these circumstances. That policy is being directed by minority pressure groups. In recent years, we have seen the rise of organizations dedicated apparently not to America, but to foreign states and groups.”
And again, during an interview on “Face the Nation” on October 7, 1973, the second day of the Yom Kippur War, Sen. Fulbright said, “The U.S. government alone is not capable of [putting an embargo on arms to the Middle East], because the Israelis control the policy in the Congress and the Senate and unless we use the UN and do it collectively, we know the U.S. is not going to do that. . . . Somewhere around 80 percent of the Senate of the United States is completely in support of Israel and of anything Israel wants.”
In their original working paper on the Israel Lobby, Walt and Mearsheimer argued similarly: “The bottom line is that AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress, with the result that U.S. policy towards Israel is not debated there, even though that policy has important consequences for the entire world.”
Anti-Semitism Used to Silence Critics: As George Ball put it in his article “How to Save Israel in Spite of Herself,” (Foreign Affairs, April 1977), “Because many articulate Americans are passionately committed to Israel, the slightest challenge to any aspect of current Israeli policy is likely to provoke a shrill ad hominem response. To suggest that America should take a stronger and more assertive line in the search for Middle East peace is to risk being attacked as a servant either of Arab interests or of the oil companies, or being denounced as anti-Israel, or, by a careless confusion of language, even condemned as anti-Semitic.”
Again, Walt and Mearsheimer are recycling an old charge: “No discussion of how the Lobby operates would be complete without examining one of its most powerful weapons: the charge of anti-Semitism. Anyone who criticizes Israel’s actions or argues that pro-Israel groups have significant influence over U.S. Middle Eastern policy stands a good chance of being labeled an anti-Semite.”
American Aid to Israel: Here is Ball again in that same article in Foreign Affairs, now discussing American aid: “Last year, [U.S.] public sector aid [to Israel] amounted to $2.34 billion, which means more than $600 for every man, woman and child in Israel. . . . Our contribution will again be a very high percentage of our total foreign aid programs. Rarely before have so many done so much for so few.”
Here are Walt and Mearsheimer following suit: “Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976. Israel receives about $3 billion in direct assistance each year, roughly one-fifth of the foreign aid budget, and worth about $500 a year for every Israeli….It is hard to think of another instance where one country has provided another with a similar level of material and diplomatic support for such an extended period.”
American Interests, Israeli Interests: As Ball would have it, “How far should we go in continuing to subsidize a policy shaped to accommodate understandable Israeli compulsions which do not accord with the best interests – as we see it – either of Israel or the United States, but are a threat to world peace? The hard fact is that the national interests of the United States and Israel cannot, in the nature of things, be precisely congruent.... The time is ripe for the United States to take a strong hand to save Israel from herself.”
Walt and Mearsheimer come to the same conclusion: “Israel itself would probably be better off if the Lobby were less powerful and U.S. policy more even-handed.... What is needed is a candid discussion of the Lobby’s influence and a more open debate about U.S. interests in this vital region.... Open debate will expose the limits of the strategic and moral case for one-sided U.S. support and could move the U.S. to a position more consistent with its own national interest, with the interests of the other states in the region, and with Israel’s long-term interests as well.”
So what does it mean that Fulbright’s and Ball’s arguments against America’s strong support for Israel are parroted 30 years later by two prominent professors?
First, it is curious, even troubling, that the Walt and Mearsheimer paper failed to cite those two prominent foreign-policy mavericks who so clearly influenced their opinions. Did they take Fulbright’s and Ball’s material and rewrite it as their own?
They sound like Ball/Fulbright disciples, but did they conclude that Ball and Fulbright were perceived as so one-sided on Middle East issues that their opinions had little currency, and did the two professors keep those sources out lest their work suffer the same fate? And if they didn’t know of Ball and Fulbright’s influential works, what does that say about their scholarship?
Second, on the publication of Walt and Mearsheimer’s expanded polemic in book form, it is important to recall that there is not much new here – not the anti-Israel accusations, not the charges of dual loyalty, nor the challenges to the rights of American citizens who effectively petition their government.
Third, Walt and Mearsheimer were university students studying international relations and political science when Fulbright and Ball were at their peak challenging American policies in Vietnam and the Middle East. How much were the two influenced by Ball and Fulbright who, for many on campus, were heroes? Were positions stated then filed away in their heads much the same way Wesley Clark may have been influenced by Gen. George Scratchley Brown?
The possible residual effect of the professors’ anti-Israel and anti-Semitic declarations is troubling. Will the campus debates and anti-Israel demonstrations today produce the biased Walts and Mearsheimers 30 years from now?
Walt and Mearsheimer claim the amorphous, omnipotent “Lobby” is “policing academia,” that it has “worked hard to stifle criticism of Israel” on campus, and that “there is much less [criticism] on campuses today.”
Walt and Mearsheimer put the lie to their own charge of stifled debate on campus. Their claim that the accusation of anti-Semitism muffles critics was not true in Ball’s day, nor is it today.
An urban legend claims that the quacks of geese and ducks do not create an echo. But it doesn’t take sound laboratories to prove the legend false. The gaggles of Israel’s detractors do indeed have echoes, even over the broad expanse of 30 years.
Lenny Ben-David served as deputy chief of mission in Israel’s embassy in Washington. This column originally appeared on NationalRevewOnline.
Palestinian caretaker government accuses Hamas of planning to bomb security HQs in the West Bank
Ma'an – Spokesperson of the Palestinian caretaker government, Riyad Al-Maliki, on Monday accused the Hamas movement of preparing bombing operations targeting the headquarters of the security services in the West Bank.
Caretaker government ministers(MaanImages)
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Spokesperson of the Palestinian caretaker government, Riyad Al-Maliki, on Monday accused the Hamas movement of preparing bombing operations targeting the headquarters of the security services in the West Bank.Al-Maliki, who is also minister of information, spoke during a press conference following the caretaker government's weekly session. Several Hamas loyalists have been arrested and, alleged Al-Maliki, during interrogation they confessed to receiving orders from the Hamas leadership to attack the security services in the West Bank.Autumn summitAl-Maliki said that within the coming forty-eight hours, the names of Palestinians who will take up positions on the joint Israeli-Palestinian committee will be announced.The remit of the committee is to prepare issues to be addressed at the coming summit, sponsored by the United States."President Abbas will announce the names in the coming hours," said Al-Maliki.Limited preparations for the event will herald negative repercussions, said Al-Maliki.He said "we must go and be convinced that the Palestinians will achieve results."Al-Maliki said that he expects United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to arrive for her visit of Israel and the Palestinian territories with comprehensive information regarding the conference.Rice is due to arrive in the area on Tuesday.Spokesperson of the Palestinian government stressed that consultations with the Israelis are ongoing will not cease despite the division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Projectile launchingThe caretaker government condemned the continuation of the launching of projectiles form the Gaza Strip towards Israeli targets.The projectile launching, said the government, has a detrimental impact on the residents of the Gaza Strip, as the crossings are closed, leading to the economic strangulation in the area.At the same time, the government condemned the Israeli incursions into northern Gaza.One-hundred-day reportAl-Maliki said the caretaker government is preparing a report commemorating one-hundred days since its inauguration.In terms of the ongoing economic problems facing Palestinians, Al-Maliki said that the government can do nothing about rising prices. He alleged that inflation is something which is currently being experienced worldwide and not just in the Palestinian territories."There is an institution called 'Protecting the Consumers' and it has been entrusted to monitor prices," he said.
Caretaker government ministers(MaanImages)
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Spokesperson of the Palestinian caretaker government, Riyad Al-Maliki, on Monday accused the Hamas movement of preparing bombing operations targeting the headquarters of the security services in the West Bank.Al-Maliki, who is also minister of information, spoke during a press conference following the caretaker government's weekly session. Several Hamas loyalists have been arrested and, alleged Al-Maliki, during interrogation they confessed to receiving orders from the Hamas leadership to attack the security services in the West Bank.Autumn summitAl-Maliki said that within the coming forty-eight hours, the names of Palestinians who will take up positions on the joint Israeli-Palestinian committee will be announced.The remit of the committee is to prepare issues to be addressed at the coming summit, sponsored by the United States."President Abbas will announce the names in the coming hours," said Al-Maliki.Limited preparations for the event will herald negative repercussions, said Al-Maliki.He said "we must go and be convinced that the Palestinians will achieve results."Al-Maliki said that he expects United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to arrive for her visit of Israel and the Palestinian territories with comprehensive information regarding the conference.Rice is due to arrive in the area on Tuesday.Spokesperson of the Palestinian government stressed that consultations with the Israelis are ongoing will not cease despite the division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Projectile launchingThe caretaker government condemned the continuation of the launching of projectiles form the Gaza Strip towards Israeli targets.The projectile launching, said the government, has a detrimental impact on the residents of the Gaza Strip, as the crossings are closed, leading to the economic strangulation in the area.At the same time, the government condemned the Israeli incursions into northern Gaza.One-hundred-day reportAl-Maliki said the caretaker government is preparing a report commemorating one-hundred days since its inauguration.In terms of the ongoing economic problems facing Palestinians, Al-Maliki said that the government can do nothing about rising prices. He alleged that inflation is something which is currently being experienced worldwide and not just in the Palestinian territories."There is an institution called 'Protecting the Consumers' and it has been entrusted to monitor prices," he said.
Palestinian Authority celebrates
The Palestinian Authority continues a long tradition of celebrating the 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks by publishing cartoons in its official daily that glorify Osama Bin Laden and the attacks, ...The Palestinian Authority continues a long tradition of celebrating the 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks by publishing cartoons in its official daily that glorify Osama Bin Laden and the attacks, or mock the suffering of the U.S. This year's cartoon shows Bin Laden smiling while making the “V” for victory sign with two fingers in the shape of the burning Twin Towers. The PA daily that published the cartoon, Al Hayat Al Jadida, is owned by the PA and controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas. The only text on this cartoon is "Exclusive to Al Hayat Al Jadida," which means it was prepared specifically for the official Palestinian Authority daily.
The Palestinian Authority has a long history of celebrating the 9-11 terror. The world was shocked by televised scenes of Palestinians celebrating the attacks in the streets the day they took place. A December 2005 poll found that "65% of Palestinians support(ed) Al Qaeda actions in the USA and Europe.” (Fafo – Institute for Applied International Studies – Norway. Survey Dec. 22, 2005). Earlier this year, a former Minister from Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party wished Al Qaeda success in its attacks against the U.S., and in its targeting of President George W. Bush. The Fatah leader, Abu Ali Shahin, said in an interview on official PA TV: "Oh [Al-Qaeda] brother, leave us and focus on your business. You have Bush! Do to Bush what you want, and we wish you success with Bush, even more. I, Abu Ali Shahin, wish you success with Bush... We are fighting the Americans and hate the Americans more than you!" [PA TV, Jan. 1, 2007
The official PA media's repeated glorification of Bin Laden is a reflection of the deep hatred of the U.S. by the Palestinian population. This hatred is the result of years of hate incitement against the U.S. by Palestinian political leaders (such as the hate promotion by Abu Ali Shahin cited above), by the PA media and even in official Western-funded schoolbooks. PMW has documented this anti-American hate promotion in many reports and bulletins.
It should be noted that the U.S. continues to fund PA institutions and the Palestinian Authority itself, and to support it politically, while ignoring the continued Palestinian hate promotion against the U.S. While there has been repeated legislation in the U.S. to prevent US money from going to terrorists and their supporters, it seems that the U.S. Congress has not restricted the funding of institutions and governments who promote anti-American hatred. Text on wall: "September", Twin Towers form "11" over dead bodiesText on left tower': "Rights of Nations"Text on right tower': "American Hegemony"[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 11, 2002]
Text: "September 11 - the day of the greatest conspiracy against the Arabs and Muslims."[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida September 13, 2002] Text on left tower: Arabs Text on right tower: Muslims [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 13, 2002]
The Palestinian Authority has a long history of celebrating the 9-11 terror. The world was shocked by televised scenes of Palestinians celebrating the attacks in the streets the day they took place. A December 2005 poll found that "65% of Palestinians support(ed) Al Qaeda actions in the USA and Europe.” (Fafo – Institute for Applied International Studies – Norway. Survey Dec. 22, 2005). Earlier this year, a former Minister from Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party wished Al Qaeda success in its attacks against the U.S., and in its targeting of President George W. Bush. The Fatah leader, Abu Ali Shahin, said in an interview on official PA TV: "Oh [Al-Qaeda] brother, leave us and focus on your business. You have Bush! Do to Bush what you want, and we wish you success with Bush, even more. I, Abu Ali Shahin, wish you success with Bush... We are fighting the Americans and hate the Americans more than you!" [PA TV, Jan. 1, 2007
The official PA media's repeated glorification of Bin Laden is a reflection of the deep hatred of the U.S. by the Palestinian population. This hatred is the result of years of hate incitement against the U.S. by Palestinian political leaders (such as the hate promotion by Abu Ali Shahin cited above), by the PA media and even in official Western-funded schoolbooks. PMW has documented this anti-American hate promotion in many reports and bulletins.
It should be noted that the U.S. continues to fund PA institutions and the Palestinian Authority itself, and to support it politically, while ignoring the continued Palestinian hate promotion against the U.S. While there has been repeated legislation in the U.S. to prevent US money from going to terrorists and their supporters, it seems that the U.S. Congress has not restricted the funding of institutions and governments who promote anti-American hatred. Text on wall: "September", Twin Towers form "11" over dead bodiesText on left tower': "Rights of Nations"Text on right tower': "American Hegemony"[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 11, 2002]
Text: "September 11 - the day of the greatest conspiracy against the Arabs and Muslims."[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida September 13, 2002] Text on left tower: Arabs Text on right tower: Muslims [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 13, 2002]
MKs to tour Homesh site, again
MKs Arye Eldad, Uri Ariel (NU/NRP) and Yuli-Yoel Edelstein (Likud) set out to visit the site of the former West Bank settlement of Homesh on Monday morning. The IDF permitted the MKs to conduct the tour, despite its announcement on Sunday that the tour would be forbidden for security reasons.
The MKs are expected to listen to briefings on security, land ownership and the legal status of Homesh. They will also speak to protestors who have visited the site over the past two months.
Over 20 right wing activists went to Homesh site during Rosh Hashana, despite threats issued by terror groups of planned attacks against such visitors.
Homesh has become a rallying point for those who wish to turn back the clock on Israel's 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip and four communities in northern Samaria.
Starting in December 2006, activists held a series of marches to the hilltop site. On Hanukka and Pessah, marches to Homesh were held without police or IDF permission.
In May and in June, thousands of demonstrators attended marches which called for the reestablishment of Homesh, and which promised that the event would pave the way for the other three evacuated Samarian settlements to be rebuilt as well.
The MKs are expected to listen to briefings on security, land ownership and the legal status of Homesh. They will also speak to protestors who have visited the site over the past two months.
Over 20 right wing activists went to Homesh site during Rosh Hashana, despite threats issued by terror groups of planned attacks against such visitors.
Homesh has become a rallying point for those who wish to turn back the clock on Israel's 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip and four communities in northern Samaria.
Starting in December 2006, activists held a series of marches to the hilltop site. On Hanukka and Pessah, marches to Homesh were held without police or IDF permission.
In May and in June, thousands of demonstrators attended marches which called for the reestablishment of Homesh, and which promised that the event would pave the way for the other three evacuated Samarian settlements to be rebuilt as well.
'600 Iranian missiles pointed at Israel'
Six hundred Iranian Shihab-3 missiles are pointed at targets throughout Israel, and will be launched if either Iran or Syria are attacked, an Iranian website affiliated with the regime reported on Monday.
"Iran will shoot at Israel 600 missiles if it is attacked," the Iranian news website, Assar Iran, reported. "600 missiles will only be the first reaction."
According to the report, dozens of locations throughout Iraq, which are being used by the US Army, have also been targeted.
The Shihab missile has a range of 1,300 km, and can reach anywhere in Israel.
On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that the nuclear Iranian crisis forces the world "to prepare for the worst," and said that in this case it "is war."
Kouchner emphasized, however, that negotiations should still be the preferred course of action.
Kouchner, quoted by French daily Le Figaro, added that "Iran does whatever it pleases in Iraq ... one cannot find in the entire world a crisis greater than this one."
In response to Kouchner's comments, Iran's state-owned news agency accused France of pandering to the interests of the United States.
"The new occupants of the Elysee (Presidential palace) want to copy the White House," the IRNA news agency said in an editorial. The editorial added that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taking on "an American skin."
Kouchner's statements came just hours after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the Bush administration's commitment, at least for the time being, to using diplomatic and economic means to counter the potential nuclear threat from Iran.
"Iran will shoot at Israel 600 missiles if it is attacked," the Iranian news website, Assar Iran, reported. "600 missiles will only be the first reaction."
According to the report, dozens of locations throughout Iraq, which are being used by the US Army, have also been targeted.
The Shihab missile has a range of 1,300 km, and can reach anywhere in Israel.
On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that the nuclear Iranian crisis forces the world "to prepare for the worst," and said that in this case it "is war."
Kouchner emphasized, however, that negotiations should still be the preferred course of action.
Kouchner, quoted by French daily Le Figaro, added that "Iran does whatever it pleases in Iraq ... one cannot find in the entire world a crisis greater than this one."
In response to Kouchner's comments, Iran's state-owned news agency accused France of pandering to the interests of the United States.
"The new occupants of the Elysee (Presidential palace) want to copy the White House," the IRNA news agency said in an editorial. The editorial added that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taking on "an American skin."
Kouchner's statements came just hours after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the Bush administration's commitment, at least for the time being, to using diplomatic and economic means to counter the potential nuclear threat from Iran.
The Israeli Government Wants the Wrong Prisoners Released
Before last week's Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year) holiday in Israel, ministers in the government were pondering when to release Arab prisoners who have killed Jews. Ostensibly this release would be done to strengthen the so-called moderate PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas in order to give him "Jew-free" our biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria ("the West Bank"). Another discussion took place about the actual Israeli neo-Nazi cell arrested for harassing Jews and painting swastikas around the country.
The enemies of the Jewish people, whether they are Arabs who participate in terror attacks or Russian-born neo-Nazis (who were permitted to become Israeli because they have one Jewish grandparent) have no place in the Jewish homeland. They must be tried and punished, and they are certainly not to be citizens of Israel. Manhigut Yehudit will never submit to blackmail to give away our precious Land of Israel in order to gain empty promises of our enemies, and we will not remain silent in the face of any form of anti-Semitism.
The ONLY prisoners that must be released are the ten Jews being held in captivity in Arab countries and right here in the United States.
Moshe Feiglin, President of Manhigut Yehudit, has made clear that as Prime Minister of Israel, he will not come to the United States until the US government releases the captive Jonathan Pollard. As far as the Arabs kidnapping our soldiers or not returning our prisoners, they will know reflexively that they will suffer dire consequences. Neo-Nazis will not be permitted to breathe the air of Eretz Yisrael.
The Jewish captives who must be released are:
Eliahu ben Shaoul (Cohen)
Yehonatan ben Malka (Pollard)
Gilad ben Aviva (Shalit)
Ehud ben Malka (Goldwasser)
Eldad ben Tova (Regev)
Zecharia Shlomo ben Miriam (Baumel)
Tzvi ben Penina (Feldman)
Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sara (Katz)
Ron ben Batya (Arad)
Guy ben Rina (Hever)
We bemoan the fact that the present leaders of Israel are so interested in giving away our homeland by chasing the false peace of the Oslo Accords, and are so uninterested in bringing home true Jewish heroes and in reinforcing the Jewish identity of our People.
The Land of Israel is our heritage and we will forever keep it. The People of Israel is as one and must be kept whole. Authentic Jewish Leadership does not sacrifice Jewish lives by placing its faith in any type of false god.
Manhigut Yehudit will never compromise when it comes to the safety of Jews and the return of our captives.
The enemies of the Jewish people, whether they are Arabs who participate in terror attacks or Russian-born neo-Nazis (who were permitted to become Israeli because they have one Jewish grandparent) have no place in the Jewish homeland. They must be tried and punished, and they are certainly not to be citizens of Israel. Manhigut Yehudit will never submit to blackmail to give away our precious Land of Israel in order to gain empty promises of our enemies, and we will not remain silent in the face of any form of anti-Semitism.
The ONLY prisoners that must be released are the ten Jews being held in captivity in Arab countries and right here in the United States.
Moshe Feiglin, President of Manhigut Yehudit, has made clear that as Prime Minister of Israel, he will not come to the United States until the US government releases the captive Jonathan Pollard. As far as the Arabs kidnapping our soldiers or not returning our prisoners, they will know reflexively that they will suffer dire consequences. Neo-Nazis will not be permitted to breathe the air of Eretz Yisrael.
The Jewish captives who must be released are:
Eliahu ben Shaoul (Cohen)
Yehonatan ben Malka (Pollard)
Gilad ben Aviva (Shalit)
Ehud ben Malka (Goldwasser)
Eldad ben Tova (Regev)
Zecharia Shlomo ben Miriam (Baumel)
Tzvi ben Penina (Feldman)
Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sara (Katz)
Ron ben Batya (Arad)
Guy ben Rina (Hever)
We bemoan the fact that the present leaders of Israel are so interested in giving away our homeland by chasing the false peace of the Oslo Accords, and are so uninterested in bringing home true Jewish heroes and in reinforcing the Jewish identity of our People.
The Land of Israel is our heritage and we will forever keep it. The People of Israel is as one and must be kept whole. Authentic Jewish Leadership does not sacrifice Jewish lives by placing its faith in any type of false god.
Manhigut Yehudit will never compromise when it comes to the safety of Jews and the return of our captives.
Jailed Hamas MPs to Abbas's militias: Don’t harass our families
NABLUS, (PIC)-- A number of Hamas legislators, who were kidnapped by the IOF troops more than 18 months ago and are kept in prison till now, have warned Monday the IOF troops and PA security apparatuses apparatuses in the West Bank not to harass their families.
The MPs warning came in a letter they secretly leaked from their detention cell in the Israeli Magiddo prison inside the 1948-occupied Palestinian lands in the wake of the IOF arrest of sons of kidnapped MPs Hamid Al-Bietawi and Nezzar Ramadhan in Al-Khalil city, and the arrest of son of MP Husni Al-Borini at the hands of the PA armed militias in Nablus city.
"This (the harassment of the MPs families) is a big insult to the Palestinian people democratic will that elected us, and constitutes a treacherous stab in the back of the Palestinian captives that the PA supposed to attend to instead of arresting their family members", affirmed the Hamas deputies in their letter.
They also affirmed that the arrest of their family members was meant to "pressure them and to break their determination in an obvious attempt to blackmail them into making political concessions".
However, they emphasized that such attempts will not succeed in extorting them into foreswearing the Palestinian people's national constants and aspirations.
In a related matter, six Palestinian citizens, including five teachers were kidnapped at the hands of the PA security elements in Nablus city Monday for being "Hamas's supporters".
According to local eyewitnesses, the PA security forces desecrated a local mosque and broke into it wearing their military boots.
The PA security element's campaign against Hamas cadres and local mosque had noticeably increased during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, local sources underlined.
The sources also explained that four of abducted teachers were seized by the PA security elements in a humiliating manner as the PA militias blocked their car along the road connecting Talloza town (where they teach) and the West Bank town of Aseera Al-Shamaleyya.
The four were ordered out of their car before the PA armed militias ganged on and beat them with their rifles' butts, the sources affirmed, adding that the four were, later on, led by the armed militias to an unidentified location.
A local mosque in Nablus city was also defiled by Abbas's security forces that ransacked and searched it thoroughly in a very savage manner that, according to local residents, superseded that of the Israelis.
But, the close cooperation between Abbas's armed militias in the West Bank and the IOF troops in targeting Hamas in the West Bank isn’t secret anymore as high-ranking IOF officer confirmed that the IOF troops and PA security apparatuses under Abbas's command were closely coordinating the campaign against Hamas cadres and Hamas-affiliated societies in the West Bank.
According to the IOF officer, "Israel will not allow Hamas to achieve its strategic objective of controlling the West Bank as it did in the Gaza Strip".
The officer was furthermore quoted as affirming that the Israeli occupation government was fighting Hamas in the West Bank in a bid to drain sources of finance of the Movement that are represented by tens of charities spread through out the West Bank.
He also added that he was of full conviction that the PA security apparatuses were sharing the same objective with Israel, in addition to its objective of blocking Hamas from forming a Gaza-like executive force.
"More than 1,000 aggressions at the hands of the PA security forces in the West Bank against Hamas's cadres, political leaders, and foundations among other Hamas's institutions had been recorded so far", revealed a documented report issued by Hamas.
The Movement also confirmed that more than 400 of its supporters in the West Bank, mostly students, mayors, and professionals among others were rounded up by Abbas's forces over the past three months, in addition to canceling the work permits of 103 Palestinian charities catering for thousands of poor Palestinian families and orphans.
The MPs warning came in a letter they secretly leaked from their detention cell in the Israeli Magiddo prison inside the 1948-occupied Palestinian lands in the wake of the IOF arrest of sons of kidnapped MPs Hamid Al-Bietawi and Nezzar Ramadhan in Al-Khalil city, and the arrest of son of MP Husni Al-Borini at the hands of the PA armed militias in Nablus city.
"This (the harassment of the MPs families) is a big insult to the Palestinian people democratic will that elected us, and constitutes a treacherous stab in the back of the Palestinian captives that the PA supposed to attend to instead of arresting their family members", affirmed the Hamas deputies in their letter.
They also affirmed that the arrest of their family members was meant to "pressure them and to break their determination in an obvious attempt to blackmail them into making political concessions".
However, they emphasized that such attempts will not succeed in extorting them into foreswearing the Palestinian people's national constants and aspirations.
In a related matter, six Palestinian citizens, including five teachers were kidnapped at the hands of the PA security elements in Nablus city Monday for being "Hamas's supporters".
According to local eyewitnesses, the PA security forces desecrated a local mosque and broke into it wearing their military boots.
The PA security element's campaign against Hamas cadres and local mosque had noticeably increased during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, local sources underlined.
The sources also explained that four of abducted teachers were seized by the PA security elements in a humiliating manner as the PA militias blocked their car along the road connecting Talloza town (where they teach) and the West Bank town of Aseera Al-Shamaleyya.
The four were ordered out of their car before the PA armed militias ganged on and beat them with their rifles' butts, the sources affirmed, adding that the four were, later on, led by the armed militias to an unidentified location.
A local mosque in Nablus city was also defiled by Abbas's security forces that ransacked and searched it thoroughly in a very savage manner that, according to local residents, superseded that of the Israelis.
But, the close cooperation between Abbas's armed militias in the West Bank and the IOF troops in targeting Hamas in the West Bank isn’t secret anymore as high-ranking IOF officer confirmed that the IOF troops and PA security apparatuses under Abbas's command were closely coordinating the campaign against Hamas cadres and Hamas-affiliated societies in the West Bank.
According to the IOF officer, "Israel will not allow Hamas to achieve its strategic objective of controlling the West Bank as it did in the Gaza Strip".
The officer was furthermore quoted as affirming that the Israeli occupation government was fighting Hamas in the West Bank in a bid to drain sources of finance of the Movement that are represented by tens of charities spread through out the West Bank.
He also added that he was of full conviction that the PA security apparatuses were sharing the same objective with Israel, in addition to its objective of blocking Hamas from forming a Gaza-like executive force.
"More than 1,000 aggressions at the hands of the PA security forces in the West Bank against Hamas's cadres, political leaders, and foundations among other Hamas's institutions had been recorded so far", revealed a documented report issued by Hamas.
The Movement also confirmed that more than 400 of its supporters in the West Bank, mostly students, mayors, and professionals among others were rounded up by Abbas's forces over the past three months, in addition to canceling the work permits of 103 Palestinian charities catering for thousands of poor Palestinian families and orphans.
Abbas Threatens to Boycott Summit
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not attend the US-hosted peace conference in November unless Israel agrees to reach an agreement with the Palestinians there, Abbas’ associates told Israeli daily Haaretz yesterday, adding the summit could “prove dangerous.”
The Palestinian sources were reacting to Olmert’s statement that Israel and the Palestinians will not present an “agreement of principles” on final status issues at the summit, but issue a joint declaration instead. “We are formulating a joint declaration to headline the regional meeting, should it take place,” Olmert told ministers from his party, Kadima, on Sunday.
“If Olmert says there’ll just be a declaration, it’s not worth going to this meeting in Washington,” said Nimr Hammad, an adviser to Abbas. In an unusual move, Abbas’ office issued a press statement reacting to Olmert’s statement.
In the statement, Abbas’ office did not refer to the possibility that Abbas would not attend. The statement did say, however, that the Palestinian Authority was seeking a structural agreement, and that a declaration of intentions would not suffice.
The statement called for a timetable and mechanisms outlining the implementation of stages of the permanent agreement. The statement also said that all issues of the permanent agreement — including jurisdiction on holy places, permanent borders and the question of Palestinian refugees — must be addressed in the agreement.
“We can live without the summit, but if it takes place and fails by producing nothing more than a joint statement, then it could prove to be dangerous for the whole region,” one of Abbas’ senior advisers told Haaretz. “We must not attend such a summit. We’re not demanding the resolution of the entire problem by then, but we are demanding a significant breakthrough from the meeting.”
At a media briefing in Jeddah last week, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal echoed the Palestinian demands. “If this conference will not discuss serious topics aimed to resolve the conflict, put Arab initiative as a key objective, set an agenda that details issues as required and oblige Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories, this conference will not have any objective and will turn into protracted negotiations.”
Western diplomats who recently visited the Kingdom told Haaretz that in their conversations with Saudi officials they got the impression that Saudi Arabia will not attend the summit. The sources say the Saudis think that a declaration of intentions is not sufficient justification for their attendance.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials said that they have quietly promoted Mahmoud Abbas from “Chairman Abbas” to “President Abbas” in an apparent effort to increase his stature both internationally and among the Palestinians. Last September, when Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni addressed the UN General Assembly, she referred to Abbas as chairman of the Palestinian Authority. When she addresses the body this year, she will — as she and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have been doing now for months — most likely refer to him as the president of the Palestinian Authority.
An Israeli government official said there is more at issue here than merely semantics. “The significance of the term ‘president’ is that it gives him greater esteem, both domestically and internationally. It is no secret that Israel is trying to bolster him, especially in contrast to the PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh,” the official said.
The Palestinian sources were reacting to Olmert’s statement that Israel and the Palestinians will not present an “agreement of principles” on final status issues at the summit, but issue a joint declaration instead. “We are formulating a joint declaration to headline the regional meeting, should it take place,” Olmert told ministers from his party, Kadima, on Sunday.
“If Olmert says there’ll just be a declaration, it’s not worth going to this meeting in Washington,” said Nimr Hammad, an adviser to Abbas. In an unusual move, Abbas’ office issued a press statement reacting to Olmert’s statement.
In the statement, Abbas’ office did not refer to the possibility that Abbas would not attend. The statement did say, however, that the Palestinian Authority was seeking a structural agreement, and that a declaration of intentions would not suffice.
The statement called for a timetable and mechanisms outlining the implementation of stages of the permanent agreement. The statement also said that all issues of the permanent agreement — including jurisdiction on holy places, permanent borders and the question of Palestinian refugees — must be addressed in the agreement.
“We can live without the summit, but if it takes place and fails by producing nothing more than a joint statement, then it could prove to be dangerous for the whole region,” one of Abbas’ senior advisers told Haaretz. “We must not attend such a summit. We’re not demanding the resolution of the entire problem by then, but we are demanding a significant breakthrough from the meeting.”
At a media briefing in Jeddah last week, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal echoed the Palestinian demands. “If this conference will not discuss serious topics aimed to resolve the conflict, put Arab initiative as a key objective, set an agenda that details issues as required and oblige Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories, this conference will not have any objective and will turn into protracted negotiations.”
Western diplomats who recently visited the Kingdom told Haaretz that in their conversations with Saudi officials they got the impression that Saudi Arabia will not attend the summit. The sources say the Saudis think that a declaration of intentions is not sufficient justification for their attendance.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials said that they have quietly promoted Mahmoud Abbas from “Chairman Abbas” to “President Abbas” in an apparent effort to increase his stature both internationally and among the Palestinians. Last September, when Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni addressed the UN General Assembly, she referred to Abbas as chairman of the Palestinian Authority. When she addresses the body this year, she will — as she and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have been doing now for months — most likely refer to him as the president of the Palestinian Authority.
An Israeli government official said there is more at issue here than merely semantics. “The significance of the term ‘president’ is that it gives him greater esteem, both domestically and internationally. It is no secret that Israel is trying to bolster him, especially in contrast to the PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh,” the official said.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Civil Fights: Bumps under the rug
Evelyn Gordon,
THE JERUSALEM POST
There is often more truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict in articles on unrelated subjects than in articles about the conflict itself. Consider, for instance, an item on mapmaking that appeared in the International Herald Tribune two weeks ago. In it, the owner of an Italian company that makes globes discussed issues such as whether Cyprus should be drawn divided or united (most countries do not recognize the island's de-facto division) and whether the gulf between Iran and Saudi Arabia should be named the Arabian or the Persian Gulf.
Then, in one throwaway sentence, the article hit on the real cause of our conflict: "And in much of the Arab world, Israel is nonexistent." Arab governments and educational institutions insist that their maps and globes eschew all mention of a country called Israel, and mapmakers obediently comply.
IT IS HARD to think of another interstate conflict in which one country refuses even to acknowledge the other's existence. Indian and Pakistani maps, for instance, show their disputed border in different places, but both include an entity called "India" or "Pakistan."
Neither American nor Soviet maps ever failed to depict the rival superpower during the Cold War. Israel's maps show Syria, a country with which it has been at war since its birth, as well as Iran, whose president routinely vows to wipe it off the rest of the world's maps as well.
But in the Arab world, even a depiction of Israel within its pre-1967 armistice lines is anathema.
Fifty-nine years after Israel's establishment, the Arab world is still not prepared to accept the Jewish state's existence. It continues to dream that Israel will somehow disappear, and that dream is transmitted to successive generations through its maps.
After all, a map reflects what its maker or commissioner deems the "correct" picture of the world. And the "correct" Arab picture of the world is still one where the Zionist entity does not exist.
THIS SAME truth was offhandedly acknowledged in a recent New York Times article on another unrelated subject: the possibility of partitioning Iraq. The article cited a column that ran last year in the Dubai-based Gulf News, entitled "Partitioning Iraq: No Starter." In it, author George Hishmeh, a former writer for the US Information Agency, explained that one reason the idea is a nonstarter is that the very word "partition" has "an ugly ring in Arab ears, especially after what happened in Palestine in 1948" - i.e., the UN partition plan that paved the way for Israel's establishment.
In other words, 59 years after Israel's creation, the idea of partition is still so taboo in the Arab world that it cannot even be considered in the completely unrelated context of Iraq. How likely is it, then, that the Arab world is ready to accept the "original sin" - partition of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea into two states, one of which would be Jewish?
Diplomats tend to dismiss such indications of Arab sentiment as unimportant, insisting that the "real" Arab position is reflected in documents like the Arab peace initiative adopted by the Arab League in 2002 and reaffirmed by an Arab League summit this year. Yet in fact, the Arab peace initiative is completely consistent with the vision shown on Arab maps; diplomats simply prefer to overlook this inconvenient truth.
THE DOCUMENT states explicitly that one condition for peace is "a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194." And the Arab world's consistent interpretation of this resolution, ever since its adoption in 1948, has been that it mandates a "right of return" for all refugees and their descendants - currently some 4.3 million people, according to UNRWA - to pre-1967 Israel.
Nor does the resolution's text preclude this interpretation (though it also admits other interpretations): It states that "refugees wishing to return to their homes… should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date."
Currently, Israel's population of about 7.1 million includes 1.4 million Arabs and 5.4 million Jews. It is not hard to realize that the addition of 4.3 million refugees and their descendants - or even a sizable fraction thereof - would turn Israel from a Jewish-majority state to an Arab-majority or binational state. In other words, the Jewish state would cease to exist, even if the name "Israel" remained on international maps.
Here, too, the standard diplomatic response is simply to pretend that the problem does not exist: that this does not reflect the "real" Arab position; it is merely a negotiating tactic.
Unfortunately, such assumptions have proven unfounded in the past - as they did at the Camp David summit in 2000 and the subsequent Washington and Taba talks in 2001. Then, too, the working assumption was that Yasser Arafat's stated positions, such as his insistence on the "right of return" and his refusal to acknowledge any Jewish link to the Temple Mount, were mere negotiating tactics. Yet in practice, according to then foreign minister and chief Israeli negotiator Shlomo Ben-Ami, the Palestinians - not only Arafat, but also the current "great white hope" of the peace process, Mahmoud Abbas - proved unwilling to budge from these positions.
PEACE, ACCORDING to the cliché, is made with enemies. But it cannot be made with an enemy that refuses to acknowledge your right to exist. That is the real root of the conflict, and until it is resolved, no amount of territorial concessions will make any difference.
Yet it will never be resolved as long as the international community insists on sweeping it under the rug. Thus if the world truly wants the Arab-Israeli conflict settled, it must begin challenging the Arab refusal to acknowledge Israel's right to exist wherever and whenever it comes up - from the public refusal by heads of state to abandon their demand for a "right of return" to the lowly globes that are teaching a whole new generation of Arab schoolchildren that the Jewish state does not, should not and, if God is kind, someday will not exist.
THE JERUSALEM POST
There is often more truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict in articles on unrelated subjects than in articles about the conflict itself. Consider, for instance, an item on mapmaking that appeared in the International Herald Tribune two weeks ago. In it, the owner of an Italian company that makes globes discussed issues such as whether Cyprus should be drawn divided or united (most countries do not recognize the island's de-facto division) and whether the gulf between Iran and Saudi Arabia should be named the Arabian or the Persian Gulf.
Then, in one throwaway sentence, the article hit on the real cause of our conflict: "And in much of the Arab world, Israel is nonexistent." Arab governments and educational institutions insist that their maps and globes eschew all mention of a country called Israel, and mapmakers obediently comply.
IT IS HARD to think of another interstate conflict in which one country refuses even to acknowledge the other's existence. Indian and Pakistani maps, for instance, show their disputed border in different places, but both include an entity called "India" or "Pakistan."
Neither American nor Soviet maps ever failed to depict the rival superpower during the Cold War. Israel's maps show Syria, a country with which it has been at war since its birth, as well as Iran, whose president routinely vows to wipe it off the rest of the world's maps as well.
But in the Arab world, even a depiction of Israel within its pre-1967 armistice lines is anathema.
Fifty-nine years after Israel's establishment, the Arab world is still not prepared to accept the Jewish state's existence. It continues to dream that Israel will somehow disappear, and that dream is transmitted to successive generations through its maps.
After all, a map reflects what its maker or commissioner deems the "correct" picture of the world. And the "correct" Arab picture of the world is still one where the Zionist entity does not exist.
THIS SAME truth was offhandedly acknowledged in a recent New York Times article on another unrelated subject: the possibility of partitioning Iraq. The article cited a column that ran last year in the Dubai-based Gulf News, entitled "Partitioning Iraq: No Starter." In it, author George Hishmeh, a former writer for the US Information Agency, explained that one reason the idea is a nonstarter is that the very word "partition" has "an ugly ring in Arab ears, especially after what happened in Palestine in 1948" - i.e., the UN partition plan that paved the way for Israel's establishment.
In other words, 59 years after Israel's creation, the idea of partition is still so taboo in the Arab world that it cannot even be considered in the completely unrelated context of Iraq. How likely is it, then, that the Arab world is ready to accept the "original sin" - partition of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea into two states, one of which would be Jewish?
Diplomats tend to dismiss such indications of Arab sentiment as unimportant, insisting that the "real" Arab position is reflected in documents like the Arab peace initiative adopted by the Arab League in 2002 and reaffirmed by an Arab League summit this year. Yet in fact, the Arab peace initiative is completely consistent with the vision shown on Arab maps; diplomats simply prefer to overlook this inconvenient truth.
THE DOCUMENT states explicitly that one condition for peace is "a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194." And the Arab world's consistent interpretation of this resolution, ever since its adoption in 1948, has been that it mandates a "right of return" for all refugees and their descendants - currently some 4.3 million people, according to UNRWA - to pre-1967 Israel.
Nor does the resolution's text preclude this interpretation (though it also admits other interpretations): It states that "refugees wishing to return to their homes… should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date."
Currently, Israel's population of about 7.1 million includes 1.4 million Arabs and 5.4 million Jews. It is not hard to realize that the addition of 4.3 million refugees and their descendants - or even a sizable fraction thereof - would turn Israel from a Jewish-majority state to an Arab-majority or binational state. In other words, the Jewish state would cease to exist, even if the name "Israel" remained on international maps.
Here, too, the standard diplomatic response is simply to pretend that the problem does not exist: that this does not reflect the "real" Arab position; it is merely a negotiating tactic.
Unfortunately, such assumptions have proven unfounded in the past - as they did at the Camp David summit in 2000 and the subsequent Washington and Taba talks in 2001. Then, too, the working assumption was that Yasser Arafat's stated positions, such as his insistence on the "right of return" and his refusal to acknowledge any Jewish link to the Temple Mount, were mere negotiating tactics. Yet in practice, according to then foreign minister and chief Israeli negotiator Shlomo Ben-Ami, the Palestinians - not only Arafat, but also the current "great white hope" of the peace process, Mahmoud Abbas - proved unwilling to budge from these positions.
PEACE, ACCORDING to the cliché, is made with enemies. But it cannot be made with an enemy that refuses to acknowledge your right to exist. That is the real root of the conflict, and until it is resolved, no amount of territorial concessions will make any difference.
Yet it will never be resolved as long as the international community insists on sweeping it under the rug. Thus if the world truly wants the Arab-Israeli conflict settled, it must begin challenging the Arab refusal to acknowledge Israel's right to exist wherever and whenever it comes up - from the public refusal by heads of state to abandon their demand for a "right of return" to the lowly globes that are teaching a whole new generation of Arab schoolchildren that the Jewish state does not, should not and, if God is kind, someday will not exist.
'Settlers must move to save their lives'
The letter was peppered with strong language explaining the "life-threatening reality" that awaited her should she stay in the settlement she has lived in for the last 21 years. Anita Finkelstein almost tossed the personally addressed letter from the "One House" movement warning that her home in the Tekoa settlement would soon be in "trapped in hostile territory" because it is located on the Palestinian side of the security barrier.
"I almost threw it in the rubbish before I even opened it because it looked like an advertisement," Finkelstein told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
But because she wasn't sure, she opened the one-page letter that was sent over the last few weeks to 10,000 residents of Judea and Samaria living outside the fence's boundaries. The letter was peppered with strong language explaining the "life-threatening reality" that awaited her should she stay in the settlement she has lived in for the last 21 years.
"We have already learned that military power cannot promise security for those stuck within Palestinian sovereignty. The terror threat that hovers over the heads of thousands of families will only increase," said the letter.
It added that settlers' lives outside of the fence were at a greater risk because of the growing unrest in the Palestinian Authority.
Time was of the essence, the letter warned, because "work on the fence will be completed in a number of months but no solution has been found for the families that live outside of it," said the letter.
It then explained that One House was a non-partisan organization that worked to compensate those who want to leave the West Bank, but can't because their homes have no value on the market.
According to MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz), one of the group's leaders, One House polls show that some 50 percent of the close to 70,000 settlers living outside the security fence are interested in checking out the possibility of leaving.
A few hundred people out of the 2,000 that responded to the letter campaign asked for more information about voluntarily leaving, Vilan told the Post. He and MK Colette Avital (Labor) have already filed a bill in the Knesset to compensate those who want to go, and the Law Committee is scheduled to review it next week, Vilan said.
But settlers in Tekoa contacted by the Post said they threw the letter in the trash. Far from scaring Finkelstein, the letter angered her. She said it was inaccurate and did not properly identify the sender.
"It is an insult to anyone's intelligence, because they pretend they are not a political organization," said Finkelstein. She hadn't heard of One House.
The letter, which was unsigned and offered only a phone number to a messaging center, had no name or signatures attached to it, Finkelstein said.
So she looked One House up on the Internet, where the presence of Vilan's and Avital's name, along with the group's agenda, quickly led her to conclude what she had suspected from the start, that this was a left-wing organization.
It claims to be non-partisan, but there is no avoiding the political implications of gathering a list of names to convince the government that it must support people leaving Judea and Samaria, she said.
The argument One House provides is illogical, because one need only look at the Gaza withdrawal from 2005 to understand that those who planned early didn't fare any better then those who waited until the last moment, said Finkelstein.
Her settlement is growing, Finkelstein said, and property values are not dropping.
As one who opposes the fence, she added that she doesn't believe it offers security.
"What's to stop the Arabs on my side of the wall from [launching Kassams]," she asked. "I feel more concerned for my neighbors who will be hurt by what is going to be thrown over the wall."
Amiel Ungar, also of Tekoa, who didn't receive the letter but was shown it by one of his neighbors, said it was Vilan who should be nervous about safety since he lived on Kibbutz Negba, which is near Gaza.
"We should reciprocate and make an offer to them to come here," Ungar wryly suggested.
Finkelstein said she had been scared about the future of her home back in 1993 when the Oslo Accords were signed. Since then, she said, "I guess I have become numb."
If anything, Finkelstein added, she has been buoyed lately by the opening in the last few weeks of a new bypass road that cuts half-an-hour off of her trip from the East Talpiot suburb of Jerusalem to her home, so that trip which once took 40 minutes, now takes 10.
Finkelstein said she is feeling more connected rather then less. "It is wonderful," she added.
Shaul Goldstein, who heads the Gush Etzion regional council, said he was encouraged by the new road and dismissed the letter as hypocritical.
In any event, he added, he didn't believe the fence would be completed in his area for another two years. Only one quarter of the fence is completed in the Gush Etzion area. Some portions of it have been delayed by court cases, others by budget shortfalls or lack of finished plans, said Goldstein.
According to the Defense Ministry, only 56 percent, some 450 kilometers of the 790 kilometers that make up the total route, have been finished to date. There are some 26 High Court petitions still under review with respect to the fence, of which eight are in the Gush Etzion area, where Tekoa is located.
According to a rough estimate by the Defense Ministry, it could take until 2010 to finish the fence.
But Vilan, who helped create One House in 2005 along with left-wing activists and settlers who do want to leave their homes, said the issue was not the date of the fence's completion.
Vilan said he was deeply concerned that those who live outside its boundaries are in physical danger and should they want to leave they have no financial recourse to do so.
The letter, he said, reflected the alarm that he felt for their fate. From where he sits, there are only two possibilities with respect to the fate of the close to 70,000 settlers who live on the Palestinian side of the fence.
In the first scenario they will be evacuated as the result of a political agreement worked out with the Palestinians. In the second, should diplomacy fail and a third intifada were to break out, they would be at risk of violent attacks from Palestinians.
From Hamas's point of view, the easiest place to attack Israel is in the territories, said Vilan.
The settlers there are like "hostages," he added. If they want to leave they should know that there is an organization that is working to make it possible.
"I almost threw it in the rubbish before I even opened it because it looked like an advertisement," Finkelstein told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
But because she wasn't sure, she opened the one-page letter that was sent over the last few weeks to 10,000 residents of Judea and Samaria living outside the fence's boundaries. The letter was peppered with strong language explaining the "life-threatening reality" that awaited her should she stay in the settlement she has lived in for the last 21 years.
"We have already learned that military power cannot promise security for those stuck within Palestinian sovereignty. The terror threat that hovers over the heads of thousands of families will only increase," said the letter.
It added that settlers' lives outside of the fence were at a greater risk because of the growing unrest in the Palestinian Authority.
Time was of the essence, the letter warned, because "work on the fence will be completed in a number of months but no solution has been found for the families that live outside of it," said the letter.
It then explained that One House was a non-partisan organization that worked to compensate those who want to leave the West Bank, but can't because their homes have no value on the market.
According to MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz), one of the group's leaders, One House polls show that some 50 percent of the close to 70,000 settlers living outside the security fence are interested in checking out the possibility of leaving.
A few hundred people out of the 2,000 that responded to the letter campaign asked for more information about voluntarily leaving, Vilan told the Post. He and MK Colette Avital (Labor) have already filed a bill in the Knesset to compensate those who want to go, and the Law Committee is scheduled to review it next week, Vilan said.
But settlers in Tekoa contacted by the Post said they threw the letter in the trash. Far from scaring Finkelstein, the letter angered her. She said it was inaccurate and did not properly identify the sender.
"It is an insult to anyone's intelligence, because they pretend they are not a political organization," said Finkelstein. She hadn't heard of One House.
The letter, which was unsigned and offered only a phone number to a messaging center, had no name or signatures attached to it, Finkelstein said.
So she looked One House up on the Internet, where the presence of Vilan's and Avital's name, along with the group's agenda, quickly led her to conclude what she had suspected from the start, that this was a left-wing organization.
It claims to be non-partisan, but there is no avoiding the political implications of gathering a list of names to convince the government that it must support people leaving Judea and Samaria, she said.
The argument One House provides is illogical, because one need only look at the Gaza withdrawal from 2005 to understand that those who planned early didn't fare any better then those who waited until the last moment, said Finkelstein.
Her settlement is growing, Finkelstein said, and property values are not dropping.
As one who opposes the fence, she added that she doesn't believe it offers security.
"What's to stop the Arabs on my side of the wall from [launching Kassams]," she asked. "I feel more concerned for my neighbors who will be hurt by what is going to be thrown over the wall."
Amiel Ungar, also of Tekoa, who didn't receive the letter but was shown it by one of his neighbors, said it was Vilan who should be nervous about safety since he lived on Kibbutz Negba, which is near Gaza.
"We should reciprocate and make an offer to them to come here," Ungar wryly suggested.
Finkelstein said she had been scared about the future of her home back in 1993 when the Oslo Accords were signed. Since then, she said, "I guess I have become numb."
If anything, Finkelstein added, she has been buoyed lately by the opening in the last few weeks of a new bypass road that cuts half-an-hour off of her trip from the East Talpiot suburb of Jerusalem to her home, so that trip which once took 40 minutes, now takes 10.
Finkelstein said she is feeling more connected rather then less. "It is wonderful," she added.
Shaul Goldstein, who heads the Gush Etzion regional council, said he was encouraged by the new road and dismissed the letter as hypocritical.
In any event, he added, he didn't believe the fence would be completed in his area for another two years. Only one quarter of the fence is completed in the Gush Etzion area. Some portions of it have been delayed by court cases, others by budget shortfalls or lack of finished plans, said Goldstein.
According to the Defense Ministry, only 56 percent, some 450 kilometers of the 790 kilometers that make up the total route, have been finished to date. There are some 26 High Court petitions still under review with respect to the fence, of which eight are in the Gush Etzion area, where Tekoa is located.
According to a rough estimate by the Defense Ministry, it could take until 2010 to finish the fence.
But Vilan, who helped create One House in 2005 along with left-wing activists and settlers who do want to leave their homes, said the issue was not the date of the fence's completion.
Vilan said he was deeply concerned that those who live outside its boundaries are in physical danger and should they want to leave they have no financial recourse to do so.
The letter, he said, reflected the alarm that he felt for their fate. From where he sits, there are only two possibilities with respect to the fate of the close to 70,000 settlers who live on the Palestinian side of the fence.
In the first scenario they will be evacuated as the result of a political agreement worked out with the Palestinians. In the second, should diplomacy fail and a third intifada were to break out, they would be at risk of violent attacks from Palestinians.
From Hamas's point of view, the easiest place to attack Israel is in the territories, said Vilan.
The settlers there are like "hostages," he added. If they want to leave they should know that there is an organization that is working to make it possible.
Barak: Ayalon joining cabinet won't extend Olmert's tenure
Olmert's associates praised Barak for bringing Ayalon into the cabinet Sources close to Labor chairman Ehud Barak rejected claims by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's associates on Sunday that the addition of Labor MK Ami Ayalon to the cabinet was a sign the party would remain in the government longer than expected.
Olmert's associates praised Barak for bringing Ayalon into the cabinet and expressed hope that Ayalon's joining was a sign that Labor was in the government for the long haul.
Ayalon met with Olmert ahead of his decision to join the government, and Ayalon reportedly hinted that he would not become a minister if it was for only a few months.
But sources close to Barak said he was still committed to his promise to remove Labor from the government ahead of the release of the Winograd Committee on the Second Lebanon War's final report, which is expected at the beginning of 2008. They cautioned Olmert's associates against "making political spin" out of an internal Labor issue.
"The people in the Prime Minister's Office are wrong if they think Ami entering the cabinet will help this government complete its term in office," a source close to the defense minister said. "Barak will make the decision about how long to keep Labor in the government based on what is right for him under the circumstances at the time. The decision will not be impacted by Ami joining the government."
The sources said the main factor that would determine how long Labor remained in the government would be Barak's success in repairing his image with the public. Barak loyalists said that adding Ayalon to the government would help in this quest because it would neutralize opposition to Barak within the party.
The defense minister himself praised Ayalon in a meeting of Labor ministers on Sunday. Barak told the ministers that he had wanted Ayalon to join the cabinet immediately upon his election as Labor leader. Barak received a commitment from Ayalon to not run against him in the next race for party chairman in return for the cabinet position.
Olmert's associates said they expected Ayalon to be "statesmanlike" in the cabinet and not to present internal opposition. They said his appointment, which was approved by the cabinet on Sunday, was a positive sign from Barak.
"Ayalon's joining points to Labor's intention to have a permanent presence in this government and to join in the reshaping of the Middle East," said Kadima MK Menahem Ben-Sasson, who is one of the closest lawmakers to Olmert. "People who want to leave the coalition tomorrow don't strengthen their hold inside the government."
Legislators from across the political spectrum bashed Ayalon for breaking three promises by joining the cabinet. Ayalon ruled out joining an Olmert-led government after the interim Winograd Report was released in April; he repeatedly ruled out ever becoming a minister-without-portfolio; and he promised MK Avishay Braverman (Labor) that he would not join the cabinet without him.
Labor MK Eitan Cabel, who resigned from the cabinet in May, noted that Ayalon had criticized him when he became a minister-without-portfolio, calling such positions "fictitious" and a "waste of taxpayers money."
Cabel said that Ayalon promised to bring a cleaner, different kind of politics, but ended up acting like just another politician.
"Ayalon metamorphosed from Mr. Clean to Dr. Zigzag," National Religious Party chairman Zevulun Orlev said. "This is a sad day for Israeli democracy, when a new record was set for betrayal of principles in return for a post as minister of nothing."
Dani Cohen, a strategist for Ayalon, said the criticism was unjustified, because the experience of the former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israel Navy head was needed in the cabinet.
"There are grave security concerns right now and we cannot afford to play the normal political games," Cohen said. "Things are different now than six months ago [when he made the commitments]. Even though he may have to pay a price, he was ready to make a sacrifice."
Politicians and advisers close to Ayalon had recommended that he not join the government. But he was concerned that if he remained a backbencher, he would lose his leadership role in the party and the support he developed when running for Labor leader.
A source close to Ayalon said he already decided two months ago to join the government and that he had been looking for the right time to announce this. Braverman said he was not disappointed in Ayalon and that he would continue his political alliance with him.
"The will of a man has to be respected," Braverman said. "We will still be friends and we will continue to collaborate."
Olmert's associates praised Barak for bringing Ayalon into the cabinet and expressed hope that Ayalon's joining was a sign that Labor was in the government for the long haul.
Ayalon met with Olmert ahead of his decision to join the government, and Ayalon reportedly hinted that he would not become a minister if it was for only a few months.
But sources close to Barak said he was still committed to his promise to remove Labor from the government ahead of the release of the Winograd Committee on the Second Lebanon War's final report, which is expected at the beginning of 2008. They cautioned Olmert's associates against "making political spin" out of an internal Labor issue.
"The people in the Prime Minister's Office are wrong if they think Ami entering the cabinet will help this government complete its term in office," a source close to the defense minister said. "Barak will make the decision about how long to keep Labor in the government based on what is right for him under the circumstances at the time. The decision will not be impacted by Ami joining the government."
The sources said the main factor that would determine how long Labor remained in the government would be Barak's success in repairing his image with the public. Barak loyalists said that adding Ayalon to the government would help in this quest because it would neutralize opposition to Barak within the party.
The defense minister himself praised Ayalon in a meeting of Labor ministers on Sunday. Barak told the ministers that he had wanted Ayalon to join the cabinet immediately upon his election as Labor leader. Barak received a commitment from Ayalon to not run against him in the next race for party chairman in return for the cabinet position.
Olmert's associates said they expected Ayalon to be "statesmanlike" in the cabinet and not to present internal opposition. They said his appointment, which was approved by the cabinet on Sunday, was a positive sign from Barak.
"Ayalon's joining points to Labor's intention to have a permanent presence in this government and to join in the reshaping of the Middle East," said Kadima MK Menahem Ben-Sasson, who is one of the closest lawmakers to Olmert. "People who want to leave the coalition tomorrow don't strengthen their hold inside the government."
Legislators from across the political spectrum bashed Ayalon for breaking three promises by joining the cabinet. Ayalon ruled out joining an Olmert-led government after the interim Winograd Report was released in April; he repeatedly ruled out ever becoming a minister-without-portfolio; and he promised MK Avishay Braverman (Labor) that he would not join the cabinet without him.
Labor MK Eitan Cabel, who resigned from the cabinet in May, noted that Ayalon had criticized him when he became a minister-without-portfolio, calling such positions "fictitious" and a "waste of taxpayers money."
Cabel said that Ayalon promised to bring a cleaner, different kind of politics, but ended up acting like just another politician.
"Ayalon metamorphosed from Mr. Clean to Dr. Zigzag," National Religious Party chairman Zevulun Orlev said. "This is a sad day for Israeli democracy, when a new record was set for betrayal of principles in return for a post as minister of nothing."
Dani Cohen, a strategist for Ayalon, said the criticism was unjustified, because the experience of the former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israel Navy head was needed in the cabinet.
"There are grave security concerns right now and we cannot afford to play the normal political games," Cohen said. "Things are different now than six months ago [when he made the commitments]. Even though he may have to pay a price, he was ready to make a sacrifice."
Politicians and advisers close to Ayalon had recommended that he not join the government. But he was concerned that if he remained a backbencher, he would lose his leadership role in the party and the support he developed when running for Labor leader.
A source close to Ayalon said he already decided two months ago to join the government and that he had been looking for the right time to announce this. Braverman said he was not disappointed in Ayalon and that he would continue his political alliance with him.
"The will of a man has to be respected," Braverman said. "We will still be friends and we will continue to collaborate."
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Hamas Factions Open Fire on Each Other
The escalation was characterized by several violent confrontations between the Executive Force, the Hamas paramilitary loyal to Haniyya, and Al-Qassam Brigades.
The competition for influence within Hamas between former Palestinian Authority prime minister Isma’il Haniyya and Hamas hard-line leader Mahmoud A-Zahhar has escalated to fierce armed confrontations in various areas in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The escalation was characterized by several violent confrontations between the Executive Force, the Hamas paramilitary loyal to Haniyya, and Al-Qassam Brigades, the powerful military wing controlled by A-Zahhar. According to eyewitness reports, several armed men were wounded, including an Al-Qassam leader, during a fierce gun battle last night between the Hamas militants in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Tension escalated after Haniyya expressed his readiness to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas for a resumption of talks. Haniyya’s offer for recommencement of dialogue was made in a phone call last week to Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz. During the conversation, Haniya also reiterated his commitment to national unity and dialogue with Fatah and expressed readiness to meet ‘Abbas for another round of talks under Saudi auspices in Mecca. The call for talks with Fatah elicited a violent reaction from A-Zahhar, who accused Haniyya of trying to undermine the group’s Islamic regime in the Gaza Strip. Considered the mastermind of the Gaza offensive that routed Fatah rival last June, A-Zahhar maintains strong relations with Hamas’ external leadership led by Damascus-based Khalid Mash’al. Since the Gaza takeover, Haniyya, who has developed a reputation for being a moderate, has repeatedly called for the resumption of dialogue with Fatah as the only way out of the crisis that has spilt Gaza into two separate entities. The violent Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip caused the severing of its relations with Fatah and most Arab neighbors which backed ‘Abbas. ‘Abbas has rebuffed offers by the Islamic movement to resume contacts, saying the group must first apologize and withdraw its forces from Palestinian security posts in Gaza. As a sign of the growing Arab isolation of Hamas, news reports revealed that both Saudi Arabia and Egypt have refused to receive Mash’al, who has asked for meetings with officials there.
Copyright © 2007 The Media Line. All Rights Reserved.
The competition for influence within Hamas between former Palestinian Authority prime minister Isma’il Haniyya and Hamas hard-line leader Mahmoud A-Zahhar has escalated to fierce armed confrontations in various areas in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The escalation was characterized by several violent confrontations between the Executive Force, the Hamas paramilitary loyal to Haniyya, and Al-Qassam Brigades, the powerful military wing controlled by A-Zahhar. According to eyewitness reports, several armed men were wounded, including an Al-Qassam leader, during a fierce gun battle last night between the Hamas militants in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Tension escalated after Haniyya expressed his readiness to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas for a resumption of talks. Haniyya’s offer for recommencement of dialogue was made in a phone call last week to Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz. During the conversation, Haniya also reiterated his commitment to national unity and dialogue with Fatah and expressed readiness to meet ‘Abbas for another round of talks under Saudi auspices in Mecca. The call for talks with Fatah elicited a violent reaction from A-Zahhar, who accused Haniyya of trying to undermine the group’s Islamic regime in the Gaza Strip. Considered the mastermind of the Gaza offensive that routed Fatah rival last June, A-Zahhar maintains strong relations with Hamas’ external leadership led by Damascus-based Khalid Mash’al. Since the Gaza takeover, Haniyya, who has developed a reputation for being a moderate, has repeatedly called for the resumption of dialogue with Fatah as the only way out of the crisis that has spilt Gaza into two separate entities. The violent Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip caused the severing of its relations with Fatah and most Arab neighbors which backed ‘Abbas. ‘Abbas has rebuffed offers by the Islamic movement to resume contacts, saying the group must first apologize and withdraw its forces from Palestinian security posts in Gaza. As a sign of the growing Arab isolation of Hamas, news reports revealed that both Saudi Arabia and Egypt have refused to receive Mash’al, who has asked for meetings with officials there.
Copyright © 2007 The Media Line. All Rights Reserved.
Release of Palestinian prisoners to be delayed, Israeli government source says
Bethlehem – Ma'an – The Israeli government will to immediately implement on a plan to release a hundred Palestinian prisoners, as promised by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his most recent meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a source close to Olmert said Saturday
Comment: Notice why the PA wants it delayed-they are not able to get what they want on a written document-so, delay, put pressure on USA to turn around and pressure Olmert-he will cave in to Bush et al. Watch!
Relatives of the Palestinian prisoners demonstratein Gaza City in January [Ma'anImages]
Bethlehem – Ma'an – The Israeli government will to immediately implement on a plan to release a hundred Palestinian prisoners, as promised by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his most recent meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a source close to Olmert said Saturday.A prisoner release, according to the sources, is likely to be delayed rather than cancelled. Olmert had pledged to ask his cabinet to approve a prisoner release as a goodwill gesture for the holy month of Ramadan.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Olmert removed the issue from the agenda for Sunday's cabinet meeting fearing that he could not garner enough support for the measure.The Palestinian minister for prisoners' affairs, Ashraf Eid Al-Ajrami told Ma'an that the release of only a hundred Fatah prisoners does not even meet the minimum that Palestinian negotiators have demanded.Al-Ajrami said that Israel because is preoccupied with a potential major military operation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a 'good will' gesture such as a prisoner release is not expected.
"Israel talks too much about good will while things take a different path, which is the erection of additional checkpoints and more tightening and restrictions on the daily life of the Palestinians," Al-Ajrami said.He continued: "I think they will set free a hundred detainees, however, the problem is that whether they do it or not, it is a very tiny conduct. The issue of detainees has always been avoided by the Israelis during negotiations."
Comment: Notice why the PA wants it delayed-they are not able to get what they want on a written document-so, delay, put pressure on USA to turn around and pressure Olmert-he will cave in to Bush et al. Watch!
Relatives of the Palestinian prisoners demonstratein Gaza City in January [Ma'anImages]
Bethlehem – Ma'an – The Israeli government will to immediately implement on a plan to release a hundred Palestinian prisoners, as promised by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his most recent meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a source close to Olmert said Saturday.A prisoner release, according to the sources, is likely to be delayed rather than cancelled. Olmert had pledged to ask his cabinet to approve a prisoner release as a goodwill gesture for the holy month of Ramadan.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Olmert removed the issue from the agenda for Sunday's cabinet meeting fearing that he could not garner enough support for the measure.The Palestinian minister for prisoners' affairs, Ashraf Eid Al-Ajrami told Ma'an that the release of only a hundred Fatah prisoners does not even meet the minimum that Palestinian negotiators have demanded.Al-Ajrami said that Israel because is preoccupied with a potential major military operation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a 'good will' gesture such as a prisoner release is not expected.
"Israel talks too much about good will while things take a different path, which is the erection of additional checkpoints and more tightening and restrictions on the daily life of the Palestinians," Al-Ajrami said.He continued: "I think they will set free a hundred detainees, however, the problem is that whether they do it or not, it is a very tiny conduct. The issue of detainees has always been avoided by the Israelis during negotiations."
"Moderate", peaceful Fatah:2 injured in West Bank shooting attack
Palestinians open fire at car traveling between settlements, flee scene, leaving man and woman mildly injured. Fatah's military wing claims responsibility for attack An Israeli man and woman driving in the West Bank were mildly injured when Palestinians fired gunshots at their vehicle.
The two managed to arrive at a nearby town where they were treated by emergency services and evacuated to Kfar Saba's Meir Hospital.
The al-Quds Brigades, Fatah's military wing, Llater claimed responsibility for the attack.
Military sources reported that the shooter or shooters escaped after firing at the car driving on the road between the settlements of Karnei Shomron and Kedumim. The shooter's vehicle was identified as a white Subaru, and soldiers have begun scanning the area for the runaway car.
Magen David Adom paramedic Danny Tiram told Ynet that the car had many traces of shrapnel on it.
"The couple were hit by shrapnel from the window, which was detached from the car, and by a bullet apparently fired from a hunting rifle. Another woman sitting in the back seat suffered from shock. We attended to them at the scene of the attack and evacuated them to the Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba," he said.
The three passengers said that as they were driving they saw a car traveling on the side of the road. As they overtook the car, they saw a rifle directed at them from the window and a shot was fired at their car.
Despite the relative calm in recent weeks, defense establishment sources have warned that terror organization may be planning attacks during the Jewish New Year and police were put on high alert throughout the country.
Over the holiday, the defense establishment received eight warnings of planned terror attacks and dozens of general alerts.
Due to the terror threat, Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for a full closure on all the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which will be lifted according to situation evaluations.
Efrat Weiss and Ali Waked contributed to this report
The two managed to arrive at a nearby town where they were treated by emergency services and evacuated to Kfar Saba's Meir Hospital.
The al-Quds Brigades, Fatah's military wing, Llater claimed responsibility for the attack.
Military sources reported that the shooter or shooters escaped after firing at the car driving on the road between the settlements of Karnei Shomron and Kedumim. The shooter's vehicle was identified as a white Subaru, and soldiers have begun scanning the area for the runaway car.
Magen David Adom paramedic Danny Tiram told Ynet that the car had many traces of shrapnel on it.
"The couple were hit by shrapnel from the window, which was detached from the car, and by a bullet apparently fired from a hunting rifle. Another woman sitting in the back seat suffered from shock. We attended to them at the scene of the attack and evacuated them to the Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba," he said.
The three passengers said that as they were driving they saw a car traveling on the side of the road. As they overtook the car, they saw a rifle directed at them from the window and a shot was fired at their car.
Despite the relative calm in recent weeks, defense establishment sources have warned that terror organization may be planning attacks during the Jewish New Year and police were put on high alert throughout the country.
Over the holiday, the defense establishment received eight warnings of planned terror attacks and dozens of general alerts.
Due to the terror threat, Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for a full closure on all the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which will be lifted according to situation evaluations.
Efrat Weiss and Ali Waked contributed to this report
Thought they had no money!
PA caretaker government to disburse $4m for Palestinian workers in Ramadan GAZA, (PIC)-- Prime minister of the legitimate PA caretaker government Ismail Haneyya has unveiled Friday his government's intention to release four million dollars for 40,000 Palestinian workers denied their salaries by PA chief Mahmoud Abbas.
Haneyya's good news came during the Friday Khutba (sermon) which he delivered in one of Gaza's mosques, where he also explained that the initiative was meant to alleviate suffering of the 40,000 PA employees who were denied their wages by the "unconstitutional" PA government in Ramallah city.
The USA, Israel, and the EU welcomed and recognized the "unconstitutional" PA government under Salam Fayyad, and immediately resumed monetary assistance to it, but maintained the wing-clipping economic sanctions against the legitimate PA government of Haneyya.
During his speech before thousands of Palestinian worshippers gathered to attend the Friday prayer in Al-Gharbi mosque in the Palestinian refugee camp of Al-Shati, north of Gaza city, Haneyya reiterated his call for national unity.
He also underlined that all Palestinian parties are obliged to put national interests above personal and factional interests in order to confront the ongoing Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people.
In this regard, Haneyya urged Arab countries, especially Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to press for reopening the Palestinian-Egyptian Rafah border terminal so as not to turn the populated Gaza Strip into "big jail".
Haneyya's government succeeded in securing salaries of 16,000 PA employees (mostly in Gaza Strip) who were arbitrarily dismissed by Fayyad's government in Ramallah for not revolting against Hamas.
"We had tried our best in securing 12 million dollars to give salaries for the oppressed PA employees, and we are ready to seek all possible means in order to grant our Palestinian workers the dignified and honorable life they deserve", Haneyya emphasized, describing suspending salaries of thousands of PA employees for political ends as an "unpatriotic act".
Haneyya's good news came during the Friday Khutba (sermon) which he delivered in one of Gaza's mosques, where he also explained that the initiative was meant to alleviate suffering of the 40,000 PA employees who were denied their wages by the "unconstitutional" PA government in Ramallah city.
The USA, Israel, and the EU welcomed and recognized the "unconstitutional" PA government under Salam Fayyad, and immediately resumed monetary assistance to it, but maintained the wing-clipping economic sanctions against the legitimate PA government of Haneyya.
During his speech before thousands of Palestinian worshippers gathered to attend the Friday prayer in Al-Gharbi mosque in the Palestinian refugee camp of Al-Shati, north of Gaza city, Haneyya reiterated his call for national unity.
He also underlined that all Palestinian parties are obliged to put national interests above personal and factional interests in order to confront the ongoing Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people.
In this regard, Haneyya urged Arab countries, especially Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to press for reopening the Palestinian-Egyptian Rafah border terminal so as not to turn the populated Gaza Strip into "big jail".
Haneyya's government succeeded in securing salaries of 16,000 PA employees (mostly in Gaza Strip) who were arbitrarily dismissed by Fayyad's government in Ramallah for not revolting against Hamas.
"We had tried our best in securing 12 million dollars to give salaries for the oppressed PA employees, and we are ready to seek all possible means in order to grant our Palestinian workers the dignified and honorable life they deserve", Haneyya emphasized, describing suspending salaries of thousands of PA employees for political ends as an "unpatriotic act".
We need brains
In order to win future wars we need cunning rather than expensive weapons The Americans are holding the world's largest arsenal of heavy war machines but were unable to win wars against hungry, poor, and zealous nations - armies with no tanks or planes that learned how to fight a modern war from King David, Yitzhak Sadeh, and Orde Wingate and his night squads.
Hizbullah didn't defeat the IDF. It won because Olmert made errors. Not because the army didn't train or because Peretz didn't know anything about security. It won because it learned the method which the IDF itself used in its early days: By wise counsel thou shalt make thy war.
This is how guerilla fighters defeated the largest and strongest of armies. With cunning. With small and smart units. This was the case in Vietnam, and this is the case in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The world is progressing, but it's moving backwards. The world is shifting back to the period of the Bible where mere violence made no difference. A thousand new tanks won't defeat partisans willing to fight using their head and not only their daggers and willing to die for the sake of an idea.
Today's war is against radical Muslims willing to die for their beliefs. No tank would be able to defeat them. So here comes a new and wise defense minister, Ehud Barak, who in the past came up with the term "small and smart army," and now builds up military power that will cost billions, and once it will be ready, it will be ready for World War II.
Where is this Jewish brain they're always talking about? How come we keep on going into alleys with heavy tanks when skilled field units or small and clever weapons could have defeated the Qassam rockets? No F-1000 jet will beat the mortar of a bold enemy who learned the Wingate doctrine and the Yitzhak Sadeh doctrine, and the doctrine of their student, Moshe Dayan.
The decision was taken to fix the army following the problematic war in Lebanon. A committee was established. More committees were set up. Yet no wisdom broke through the layers of folly. What the defense minister is preparing for us now, along with his distinguished military commanders, who lack real thinking ability, is an army that won't be able to handle any future war.
Iran, even if it wanted to, would not send tanks to cross hundreds of kilometers in the desert against Israel. Iran cares about the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. It knows that Israel is home to fools who fall victim to the arrogant words of the Iranian president, who is talking about destroying Israel and seeking ways to create a new Persian empire.
In that plan, Israel is a small footnote. Besides, so what? He can go ahead and talk. He knows there is only one country in the world that can destroy his country should it be attacked - the State of Israel and its missiles and what it reportedly possesses in Dimona.
We need to prepare for 21st Century wars
So who will attack Israel? Lebanon? For that we need heavy war machines and spy planes? Syria? Do we really need more heavy machines for that front beyond what we already have? Or maybe we need it for the West Bank? Apparently we do.
Perhaps this is the original thinking of the new defense minister, whose judgment I trusted so much, after he returned from his private journey and began seeking to turn the IDF into the best World War I army.
Something is off in this entire story. I'm not a former major-general or a military expert. I'm the taxi driver who always knows better than the generals. I'm an idiot who sees reality as it is, and sees things that heavy war machine traders don't wish to see: What we need is an army that would know how to win the wars of the 21st century. America is learning this now too. Immense power is no longer a guarantee.
What's truly amazing is that that military thinkers who established the IDF and won several wars never worked by the book. This book is good for learning what not to do. True education came after school was over. Barak understood this once upon a time, and suddenly his eyes were covered by darkness. Suddenly he forgot what he believed in for years.
For our wars in this century we need King David, who used a slingshot to defeat a heavily armed giant. We need brains. We need computer war knowledge.
There's no need to cut off the electricity supply to Gaza in order to punish. It doesn’t work. Five hackers could have paralyzed the computers of Islamic Jihad and Hamas leaders. Yet it won't help, and the laws of life rule that every mistake must be repeated. Failure is better understood than victory. Good luck.
Hizbullah didn't defeat the IDF. It won because Olmert made errors. Not because the army didn't train or because Peretz didn't know anything about security. It won because it learned the method which the IDF itself used in its early days: By wise counsel thou shalt make thy war.
This is how guerilla fighters defeated the largest and strongest of armies. With cunning. With small and smart units. This was the case in Vietnam, and this is the case in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The world is progressing, but it's moving backwards. The world is shifting back to the period of the Bible where mere violence made no difference. A thousand new tanks won't defeat partisans willing to fight using their head and not only their daggers and willing to die for the sake of an idea.
Today's war is against radical Muslims willing to die for their beliefs. No tank would be able to defeat them. So here comes a new and wise defense minister, Ehud Barak, who in the past came up with the term "small and smart army," and now builds up military power that will cost billions, and once it will be ready, it will be ready for World War II.
Where is this Jewish brain they're always talking about? How come we keep on going into alleys with heavy tanks when skilled field units or small and clever weapons could have defeated the Qassam rockets? No F-1000 jet will beat the mortar of a bold enemy who learned the Wingate doctrine and the Yitzhak Sadeh doctrine, and the doctrine of their student, Moshe Dayan.
The decision was taken to fix the army following the problematic war in Lebanon. A committee was established. More committees were set up. Yet no wisdom broke through the layers of folly. What the defense minister is preparing for us now, along with his distinguished military commanders, who lack real thinking ability, is an army that won't be able to handle any future war.
Iran, even if it wanted to, would not send tanks to cross hundreds of kilometers in the desert against Israel. Iran cares about the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. It knows that Israel is home to fools who fall victim to the arrogant words of the Iranian president, who is talking about destroying Israel and seeking ways to create a new Persian empire.
In that plan, Israel is a small footnote. Besides, so what? He can go ahead and talk. He knows there is only one country in the world that can destroy his country should it be attacked - the State of Israel and its missiles and what it reportedly possesses in Dimona.
We need to prepare for 21st Century wars
So who will attack Israel? Lebanon? For that we need heavy war machines and spy planes? Syria? Do we really need more heavy machines for that front beyond what we already have? Or maybe we need it for the West Bank? Apparently we do.
Perhaps this is the original thinking of the new defense minister, whose judgment I trusted so much, after he returned from his private journey and began seeking to turn the IDF into the best World War I army.
Something is off in this entire story. I'm not a former major-general or a military expert. I'm the taxi driver who always knows better than the generals. I'm an idiot who sees reality as it is, and sees things that heavy war machine traders don't wish to see: What we need is an army that would know how to win the wars of the 21st century. America is learning this now too. Immense power is no longer a guarantee.
What's truly amazing is that that military thinkers who established the IDF and won several wars never worked by the book. This book is good for learning what not to do. True education came after school was over. Barak understood this once upon a time, and suddenly his eyes were covered by darkness. Suddenly he forgot what he believed in for years.
For our wars in this century we need King David, who used a slingshot to defeat a heavily armed giant. We need brains. We need computer war knowledge.
There's no need to cut off the electricity supply to Gaza in order to punish. It doesn’t work. Five hackers could have paralyzed the computers of Islamic Jihad and Hamas leaders. Yet it won't help, and the laws of life rule that every mistake must be repeated. Failure is better understood than victory. Good luck.
MP Mousa: Hamas's ties with Arab countries strategic
GAZA, (PIC)-- PLC legislator and Hamas senior political figure MP Dr. Yahya Mousa has asserted Saturday that Hamas's relationship with Arab countries were healthy, strategic, and tied with unity of fate, history, and national security. GAZA, (PIC)-- PLC legislator and Hamas senior political figure MP Dr. Yahya Mousa has asserted Saturday that Hamas's relationship with Arab countries were healthy, strategic, and tied with unity of fate, history, and national security.
Mousa's affirmation came as he categorically denied "false" reports published by the Kuwaiti Al-Jareida news paper alleging that Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia refused to receive Hamas's supreme political leader Khaled Mishaal unless Hamas "turns Gaza Strip back to the PA leadership in Ramallah".In a statement he issued in this concern, the lawmaker affirmed that the reports have no legs to stand on, and that they were mere fabrication, describing Hamas's ties with the two Arab countries as "based on reciprocity and mutual respect"."We don’t pay attention to such inaccurate reports", affirmed Mousa.The Kuwaiti paper alleged that coordination between Hamas's leadership in Palestine and the Movement's leadership abroad doesn’t exist anymore, and that Egypt and KSA asked Hamas to end its control of Gaza before the two states can receive Mishaal."The paper's report was indeed reflecting the desire of the PA leadership in Ramallah of spoiling Hamas's good relationship with its Arab medium", Mousa furthermore charged.He said that Cairo and Riyadh were also in need to maintain good relationship with Hamas Movement for their national security concerns as the entire Arab region was affected by the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation that Hamas spearheads."Hamas is an essential part in the region's security and stability, and thus, no one can sideline or ignore the Movement in the region's political affairs", Mousa pointed out.
Moreover, the Hamas's political leader asserted that his Movement stands as a stumbling block before PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's hasty and unsolicited steps towards Israel, which "irked" the two Arab states and doesn’t pour in their national security interests. Earlier, the legitimate PA Prime Minister Ismael Haneyya conversed with the Saudi leadership by telephone, affirming Hamas's full respect and adherence to the Makka accord.Last June, Hamas Movement decided to put an end to the security turmoil in Gaza Strip militarily after Fatah's leadership ignored repeated calls from the Islamic Movement to bridle the mutiny trend within its ranks that was led by Fatah MP Mohammed Dahalan who sowed divisiveness and almost ignited a civil war in the Palestinian arena.
Top secret security information threatening national security of a number of neighboring Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia were seized by Hamas's fighters from the headquarters of the defunct PA security apparatuses under Abbas's command.
Mousa's affirmation came as he categorically denied "false" reports published by the Kuwaiti Al-Jareida news paper alleging that Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia refused to receive Hamas's supreme political leader Khaled Mishaal unless Hamas "turns Gaza Strip back to the PA leadership in Ramallah".In a statement he issued in this concern, the lawmaker affirmed that the reports have no legs to stand on, and that they were mere fabrication, describing Hamas's ties with the two Arab countries as "based on reciprocity and mutual respect"."We don’t pay attention to such inaccurate reports", affirmed Mousa.The Kuwaiti paper alleged that coordination between Hamas's leadership in Palestine and the Movement's leadership abroad doesn’t exist anymore, and that Egypt and KSA asked Hamas to end its control of Gaza before the two states can receive Mishaal."The paper's report was indeed reflecting the desire of the PA leadership in Ramallah of spoiling Hamas's good relationship with its Arab medium", Mousa furthermore charged.He said that Cairo and Riyadh were also in need to maintain good relationship with Hamas Movement for their national security concerns as the entire Arab region was affected by the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation that Hamas spearheads."Hamas is an essential part in the region's security and stability, and thus, no one can sideline or ignore the Movement in the region's political affairs", Mousa pointed out.
Moreover, the Hamas's political leader asserted that his Movement stands as a stumbling block before PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's hasty and unsolicited steps towards Israel, which "irked" the two Arab states and doesn’t pour in their national security interests. Earlier, the legitimate PA Prime Minister Ismael Haneyya conversed with the Saudi leadership by telephone, affirming Hamas's full respect and adherence to the Makka accord.Last June, Hamas Movement decided to put an end to the security turmoil in Gaza Strip militarily after Fatah's leadership ignored repeated calls from the Islamic Movement to bridle the mutiny trend within its ranks that was led by Fatah MP Mohammed Dahalan who sowed divisiveness and almost ignited a civil war in the Palestinian arena.
Top secret security information threatening national security of a number of neighboring Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia were seized by Hamas's fighters from the headquarters of the defunct PA security apparatuses under Abbas's command.
Rayyan: Palestinian fighters will turn Gaza into graveyard for invaders
GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Nezar Rayyan, the prominent political leader of Hamas Movement in Gaza Strip has affirmed Saturday that the Palestinian resistance was prepared to block any possible IOF troops' invasion of the Strip. "The IOF threats won't frighten or demoralize us as we are indeed prepared and determined to defend our land, and we will inflict heavy casualties in the enemy's lines in case they indeed carried out their threats and invaded the Strip", Rayyan underlined.
The Hamas figure was speaking before Palestinian resistance fighters in northern Gaza Strip as he attended military exercises of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, as part of the Palestinian resistance preparations to repel any Israeli military adventure into the Strip.
"If the IOF troops decided to start the invasion through the northern part of Gaza Strip, we will definitely be there and we will turn the area into graveyard for the Israeli soldiers", said Rayyan.
He also unveiled that the QB will use weapons it had seized from the defunct PA security apparatuses, which was supplied by the Israeli occupation government to those apparatuses with the aim to finish off the Hamas Movement.
"The weapons we will use in blocking the IOF troops aren’t the weapons we used to display before media apparatuses and cameramen as the enemy knows what kind of weapons we possess", Rayyan furthermore confirmed.
Although the QB was leading the Palestinian resistance, Rayyan underscored that all armed wings of the Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza Strip were collectively coordinating their plans and made up their minds to "teach the enemy a lesson they will not forget". "We shall bring more of [captured IOF serviceman Gilad] Shalit's friends into Gaza Strip" he added in allusion to capturing more IOF soldiers.
"Despite [possible] IOF bombardment of our houses and infrastructure, we will remain steadfast in resisting the enemy and we are ready for martyrdom anytime", the Hamas's senior official furthermore asserted.
Abu Obaida, the spokesman of the QB, explained that the Palestinian resistance military maneuvers in Gaza were meant to send a clear and sound message to the "Zionist enemy" that any military adventure into the Gaza Strip will take heavy toll on the IOF troops.
The QB was finalizing the Gaza defense plan, said abu Obaida, adding that unprecedented surprises were awaiting the IOF troops in the event they indeed attack Gaza.
In a statement it issued Saturday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC, the QB asserted that its fighters succeeded in thwarting an infiltration attempt by special IOF units at dawn Saturday.
One of the sneaking IOF troopers was directly hit with Palestinian resistance bullets, forcing the infiltrators to terminate their plan and pull out under air cover provided by Israeli apache copters, the statement furthermore added.
The Hamas figure was speaking before Palestinian resistance fighters in northern Gaza Strip as he attended military exercises of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, as part of the Palestinian resistance preparations to repel any Israeli military adventure into the Strip.
"If the IOF troops decided to start the invasion through the northern part of Gaza Strip, we will definitely be there and we will turn the area into graveyard for the Israeli soldiers", said Rayyan.
He also unveiled that the QB will use weapons it had seized from the defunct PA security apparatuses, which was supplied by the Israeli occupation government to those apparatuses with the aim to finish off the Hamas Movement.
"The weapons we will use in blocking the IOF troops aren’t the weapons we used to display before media apparatuses and cameramen as the enemy knows what kind of weapons we possess", Rayyan furthermore confirmed.
Although the QB was leading the Palestinian resistance, Rayyan underscored that all armed wings of the Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza Strip were collectively coordinating their plans and made up their minds to "teach the enemy a lesson they will not forget". "We shall bring more of [captured IOF serviceman Gilad] Shalit's friends into Gaza Strip" he added in allusion to capturing more IOF soldiers.
"Despite [possible] IOF bombardment of our houses and infrastructure, we will remain steadfast in resisting the enemy and we are ready for martyrdom anytime", the Hamas's senior official furthermore asserted.
Abu Obaida, the spokesman of the QB, explained that the Palestinian resistance military maneuvers in Gaza were meant to send a clear and sound message to the "Zionist enemy" that any military adventure into the Gaza Strip will take heavy toll on the IOF troops.
The QB was finalizing the Gaza defense plan, said abu Obaida, adding that unprecedented surprises were awaiting the IOF troops in the event they indeed attack Gaza.
In a statement it issued Saturday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC, the QB asserted that its fighters succeeded in thwarting an infiltration attempt by special IOF units at dawn Saturday.
One of the sneaking IOF troopers was directly hit with Palestinian resistance bullets, forcing the infiltrators to terminate their plan and pull out under air cover provided by Israeli apache copters, the statement furthermore added.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)