Funny that no one noticed the irony of Obama's Nooruz message to the Iranian people, and more importantly, the government, last week.
Did anyone tell the imperial leader that the holiday that he was sending greeting for is illegal in Iran?
Ha, ha, funny joke right? Nope.
Nooruz is a Persian holiday, which, although still celebrated surreptitiously in Iran, is illegal according to the Sharia Law under which the country operates.
Also not noticed by the mainstream press was the immediate letter sent by the leading dissident/democratic movement in Iran, to his royal highness Obama.
It practically begged him to change course, describing his stated change in course as being potentially disastrous for hopes of change in Iran.
Adding to the humorous, (well, it would be humorous if you didn't live in Iran, and weren't one of the ones beheaded) nature of the President's buffoonery, was the almost simultaneous release of the State Department's report on the suppression of religious freedom around the world.
The two most repressive nations, as found by Obama's State Department? Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Funny, but at the same time, the report noted the fact that these two nations also lead the world in beheading religious dissidents.
Oooops, sorry, my bad!! Says OHHH!!Bama
Monday, March 30, 2009
Hey ma, what's on TV?
A report was prepared for the Canadian parliament by Palestinian Media Watch, an organization run by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, a Canadian.
If anyone is interested, you can send me a message and I will send you the full PDF, or the link where you can read it.
Palestinian Media Watch
Special Report - March 25, 2009
Canada and the Palestinian Authority
Canada's Foreign Policy Misled by PA:
Canadian funding conditions consistently violated
More than a year after the Annapolis conference,
the Palestinian Authority continues to mislead donor countries.
In English, it talks peace, but in Arabic, it:
# denies Israel's existence
# incites hatred
# promotes terror and glorifies terrorists
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Executive Summary
The Annapolis Conference in November 2007 created hope for the renewal of a peace process after years of Palestinian Authority (PA)-supported terror. PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas assured Israel and the world in English that there had been a sincere change.
However, in Arabic the Palestinian Authority, Fatah leaders and the Abbas-controlled official PA media are no more peaceful towards Israel than they were during the Arafat era. In fact, during the 12 years of PMW's existence, there has never been a period of such intense demonization of Israel, continuous hate promotion, terror glorification, and open denial of Israel's existence by the PA (Fatah) and the Abbas-controlled media than what we have witnessed in 2008 - 2009.
Canadian Funding of the Palestinian Authority
Canada halted funding for the Palestinian Authority after the January 2006 Palestinian Authority general elections led to the formation of a Hamas government:
"Canada became the first donor to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday, saying the new Hamas-led government had failed to give assurances that it would recognize Israel's right to exist." [Reuters, March 29, 2006]
Canada reinstituted funding for the PA in July 2007 after the split between Fatah and Hamas. On Dec. 17, 2007, at the Conference of Donors for the Palestinian Territories, Canadian Foreign Minister Bernier announced:
"Canada is increasing support to the peace process through additional assistance to Palestinian reform and development... Canada will commit $300 million over the next five years to build security, governance and prosperity."
This commitment included a clear stipulation of specific expectations:
"Our funding is not unconditional," said Minister Bernier... "This contribution will be conditional on progress in negotiations and Palestinian reforms. In every facet of our work, we will devote special attention to the issues of hatred and incitement of violence."
(News Release, Dec. 17, 2007 Website of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada International.gc.ca)
To this day, Canada continues to fund the Palestinian Authority based on the English- language assurances by PA leader Abbas that he accepts Israel's right to exist, rejects terror, and does not incite to hatred and violence.
This report shows that in its own Arabic media, aimed at a Palestinian audience, the Palestinian Authority violates all these conditions.
1. Denial of Israel's existence, calls for Israel's destruction:
Examples:
a. Muhammad Dahlan, a senior PA official, stated plainly on official PA TV: " I want to say for the thousandth time, in my own name and in the name of all of my fellow members of the Fatah movement: We do not demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. On the contrary, we demand of the Hamas movement not to recognize Israel, because the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel, even today." [PA TV March 17, 2009]
b. A PA TV educational geography program has been broadcast regularly since August 2007, and most recently in January 2009, teaching there is no Israel and all of Israel is "Palestine: "
"... another section in Palestine ...Ashkelon in the south, until Haifa, in the Carmel Mountains. Haifa is a well-known Palestinian port... To its north, we find Acre. East of Acre, we reach a city with history and importance, the city of Tiberius, near a famous lake, the lake of Tiberius [Kinneret- Sea of Galilee]. Jaffa, an ancient coastal city, is the bride of the sea, and Palestine's gateway to the world."
Note that all of these are Israeli cities, spread over the entire country.
c. Official PA schoolbooks describe a Middle East without Israel:
"Coastal states differ in terms of their access to water sources, such as...: states located on sea coasts with accesses to two seas, for example: Palestine and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea."
[Physical Geography and Human Geography, Grade 12, p. 105]
"Palestine has a long coast facing the Mediterranean sea and a short coast on the Gulf of Aqaba."
[Health and Environment Studies, Grade 8 (2003), p. 130]
Note that the Israeli city of Eilat is on the Gulf of Eilat (Aqaba).
"... The Tiberias Lake [Sea of Galilee], in Palestine"
[Physical Geography, Grade 5, p. 25]
Israel is painted over in the colors of the PLO flag in PA government Census Bureau announcements. These announcements were aired on PA TV (Fatah) - often several times a day - during and after the Annapolis conference at the end of 2007. Maps similar to this one continue to appear on official web sites in 2009 [see below].
2. Hatred is actively promoted as policy for children and adults. Hate videos, libels and lies remain a backbone of PA TV.
Examples:
a. The official PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, has propogated a long-standing blood libel against Israel, falsely accusing Israel of conducting horrific Nazi-like medical experiments on Palestinian prisoners:
"Many of the male and female inmates received injections from needles they had not seen before, and which caused their hair and facial hair to fall out permanently ... others lost their sanity, or their mental condition is constantly deteriorating... and some are suffering from infertility." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 4, 2008]
b. Another wild accusation concerns the deployment of "supernatural rats" against Arab residents of Jerusalem's Old City:
"... [Israeli] settlers have been bringing chests filled with rats and releasing them in the Old City's [Arab] neighborhoods... the [Arab] residents' efforts to counter this infestation have failed, especially since cats run away from these rats because of their size and ferocity... All of the conventional efforts to kill them have not succeeded... which compels Jerusalem's [Arabs] today to face the dangers of settlement and the infestation of rats..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 18, 2008]
c. PA TV has been broadcasting a music video from 2007 to February 2009, with the repeated refrain, "My enemy, my enemy." Israel is called a "snake, coiled around the land." The hate video denies Israel's right to exist and anticipates Israel's destruction: "You have no choice, O enemy, but to leave my country."
3. The PA openly glorifies not only past but current terrorists, venerating terrorist murderers - even those who have murdered since Annapolis.
Examples:
a. The suicide terrorist in the Israeli city of Dimona, the killer of the eight Jerusalem yeshiva students, arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh and other terrorists were all glorified as Palestinian heroes in official PA newspapers and television in 2008.
b. In February 2009 the PA glorified the terrorist who murdered three civilians and seven Israeli soldiers in a 2002 ambush. The terrorist and his action were praised as "the hero of the Intifada... [doing] what tens of brigades and platoons, and hundreds of missiles and heroic stories, failed to do."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 17, 2009]
c. On March 11, 2009, PA TV broadcast a special program commemorating and celebrating the 30th anniversary of the most deadly terror attack ever carried out in Israel - a bus hijacking that left 37 civilians dead. The program opened with the narrator glorifying this attack as "one of the most important and most prominent special operations, executed by the Palestinian revolution by sea, on the coast between Haifa and Tel Aviv. This operation, carried out by a team of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi... ."
4. Far from distancing itself from earlier Arafat ideologies, the PA leadership continues to advocate Israel's destruction.
Example:
PA Fatah MP: "It doesn't mean that we don't want the 1948 borders [i.e. destroy Israel], but in our current political program, we [Fatah] say we want a state on the 1967 borders..."
[PA TV Aug. 25, 2008]
Contrary to the perception that Hamas alone preaches terror, violence and denial of Israel's right to exist, this PMW Special Report documents that the PA-Fatah leadership and media promote the same message. In contrast to the moderate message that it conveys to the English-speaking world, the Palestinian Authority's Arabic-language world continues to be imbued with hate promotion and promises of Israel's expected destruction.
Canada is directly funding
the responsible government frameworks.
The report
1. Denying Israel's right to exist, rejecting Israel's existence and advocating its destruction
2. Hate promotion and demonization for children and adults - PA Hate Media
2.1 Libels and lies
2.2 Hate through videos and demonization
3. Honoring and glorifying terror
3.1 Murderers since Annapolis deemed heroic
3.2 Other past terrorists - likewise deemed heroic
3.3 PA lauds terrorist-mass murderers as heroes
4. PA Political and Religious Leaders - hatred in Arabic
4.1 PM Mahmoud Abbas - in Arabic
4.2 Other PA political and religious officials (MPs, party leaders, etc.)
5. Conclusions
If anyone is interested, you can send me a message and I will send you the full PDF, or the link where you can read it.
Palestinian Media Watch
Special Report - March 25, 2009
Canada and the Palestinian Authority
Canada's Foreign Policy Misled by PA:
Canadian funding conditions consistently violated
More than a year after the Annapolis conference,
the Palestinian Authority continues to mislead donor countries.
In English, it talks peace, but in Arabic, it:
# denies Israel's existence
# incites hatred
# promotes terror and glorifies terrorists
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Executive Summary
The Annapolis Conference in November 2007 created hope for the renewal of a peace process after years of Palestinian Authority (PA)-supported terror. PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas assured Israel and the world in English that there had been a sincere change.
However, in Arabic the Palestinian Authority, Fatah leaders and the Abbas-controlled official PA media are no more peaceful towards Israel than they were during the Arafat era. In fact, during the 12 years of PMW's existence, there has never been a period of such intense demonization of Israel, continuous hate promotion, terror glorification, and open denial of Israel's existence by the PA (Fatah) and the Abbas-controlled media than what we have witnessed in 2008 - 2009.
Canadian Funding of the Palestinian Authority
Canada halted funding for the Palestinian Authority after the January 2006 Palestinian Authority general elections led to the formation of a Hamas government:
"Canada became the first donor to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday, saying the new Hamas-led government had failed to give assurances that it would recognize Israel's right to exist." [Reuters, March 29, 2006]
Canada reinstituted funding for the PA in July 2007 after the split between Fatah and Hamas. On Dec. 17, 2007, at the Conference of Donors for the Palestinian Territories, Canadian Foreign Minister Bernier announced:
"Canada is increasing support to the peace process through additional assistance to Palestinian reform and development... Canada will commit $300 million over the next five years to build security, governance and prosperity."
This commitment included a clear stipulation of specific expectations:
"Our funding is not unconditional," said Minister Bernier... "This contribution will be conditional on progress in negotiations and Palestinian reforms. In every facet of our work, we will devote special attention to the issues of hatred and incitement of violence."
(News Release, Dec. 17, 2007 Website of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada International.gc.ca)
To this day, Canada continues to fund the Palestinian Authority based on the English- language assurances by PA leader Abbas that he accepts Israel's right to exist, rejects terror, and does not incite to hatred and violence.
This report shows that in its own Arabic media, aimed at a Palestinian audience, the Palestinian Authority violates all these conditions.
1. Denial of Israel's existence, calls for Israel's destruction:
Examples:
a. Muhammad Dahlan, a senior PA official, stated plainly on official PA TV: " I want to say for the thousandth time, in my own name and in the name of all of my fellow members of the Fatah movement: We do not demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. On the contrary, we demand of the Hamas movement not to recognize Israel, because the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel, even today." [PA TV March 17, 2009]
b. A PA TV educational geography program has been broadcast regularly since August 2007, and most recently in January 2009, teaching there is no Israel and all of Israel is "Palestine: "
"... another section in Palestine ...Ashkelon in the south, until Haifa, in the Carmel Mountains. Haifa is a well-known Palestinian port... To its north, we find Acre. East of Acre, we reach a city with history and importance, the city of Tiberius, near a famous lake, the lake of Tiberius [Kinneret- Sea of Galilee]. Jaffa, an ancient coastal city, is the bride of the sea, and Palestine's gateway to the world."
Note that all of these are Israeli cities, spread over the entire country.
c. Official PA schoolbooks describe a Middle East without Israel:
"Coastal states differ in terms of their access to water sources, such as...: states located on sea coasts with accesses to two seas, for example: Palestine and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea."
[Physical Geography and Human Geography, Grade 12, p. 105]
"Palestine has a long coast facing the Mediterranean sea and a short coast on the Gulf of Aqaba."
[Health and Environment Studies, Grade 8 (2003), p. 130]
Note that the Israeli city of Eilat is on the Gulf of Eilat (Aqaba).
"... The Tiberias Lake [Sea of Galilee], in Palestine"
[Physical Geography, Grade 5, p. 25]
Israel is painted over in the colors of the PLO flag in PA government Census Bureau announcements. These announcements were aired on PA TV (Fatah) - often several times a day - during and after the Annapolis conference at the end of 2007. Maps similar to this one continue to appear on official web sites in 2009 [see below].
2. Hatred is actively promoted as policy for children and adults. Hate videos, libels and lies remain a backbone of PA TV.
Examples:
a. The official PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, has propogated a long-standing blood libel against Israel, falsely accusing Israel of conducting horrific Nazi-like medical experiments on Palestinian prisoners:
"Many of the male and female inmates received injections from needles they had not seen before, and which caused their hair and facial hair to fall out permanently ... others lost their sanity, or their mental condition is constantly deteriorating... and some are suffering from infertility." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 4, 2008]
b. Another wild accusation concerns the deployment of "supernatural rats" against Arab residents of Jerusalem's Old City:
"... [Israeli] settlers have been bringing chests filled with rats and releasing them in the Old City's [Arab] neighborhoods... the [Arab] residents' efforts to counter this infestation have failed, especially since cats run away from these rats because of their size and ferocity... All of the conventional efforts to kill them have not succeeded... which compels Jerusalem's [Arabs] today to face the dangers of settlement and the infestation of rats..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 18, 2008]
c. PA TV has been broadcasting a music video from 2007 to February 2009, with the repeated refrain, "My enemy, my enemy." Israel is called a "snake, coiled around the land." The hate video denies Israel's right to exist and anticipates Israel's destruction: "You have no choice, O enemy, but to leave my country."
3. The PA openly glorifies not only past but current terrorists, venerating terrorist murderers - even those who have murdered since Annapolis.
Examples:
a. The suicide terrorist in the Israeli city of Dimona, the killer of the eight Jerusalem yeshiva students, arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh and other terrorists were all glorified as Palestinian heroes in official PA newspapers and television in 2008.
b. In February 2009 the PA glorified the terrorist who murdered three civilians and seven Israeli soldiers in a 2002 ambush. The terrorist and his action were praised as "the hero of the Intifada... [doing] what tens of brigades and platoons, and hundreds of missiles and heroic stories, failed to do."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 17, 2009]
c. On March 11, 2009, PA TV broadcast a special program commemorating and celebrating the 30th anniversary of the most deadly terror attack ever carried out in Israel - a bus hijacking that left 37 civilians dead. The program opened with the narrator glorifying this attack as "one of the most important and most prominent special operations, executed by the Palestinian revolution by sea, on the coast between Haifa and Tel Aviv. This operation, carried out by a team of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi... ."
4. Far from distancing itself from earlier Arafat ideologies, the PA leadership continues to advocate Israel's destruction.
Example:
PA Fatah MP: "It doesn't mean that we don't want the 1948 borders [i.e. destroy Israel], but in our current political program, we [Fatah] say we want a state on the 1967 borders..."
[PA TV Aug. 25, 2008]
Contrary to the perception that Hamas alone preaches terror, violence and denial of Israel's right to exist, this PMW Special Report documents that the PA-Fatah leadership and media promote the same message. In contrast to the moderate message that it conveys to the English-speaking world, the Palestinian Authority's Arabic-language world continues to be imbued with hate promotion and promises of Israel's expected destruction.
Canada is directly funding
the responsible government frameworks.
The report
1. Denying Israel's right to exist, rejecting Israel's existence and advocating its destruction
2. Hate promotion and demonization for children and adults - PA Hate Media
2.1 Libels and lies
2.2 Hate through videos and demonization
3. Honoring and glorifying terror
3.1 Murderers since Annapolis deemed heroic
3.2 Other past terrorists - likewise deemed heroic
3.3 PA lauds terrorist-mass murderers as heroes
4. PA Political and Religious Leaders - hatred in Arabic
4.1 PM Mahmoud Abbas - in Arabic
4.2 Other PA political and religious officials (MPs, party leaders, etc.)
5. Conclusions
Thursday, March 26, 2009
For those of you who still doubt my fears. And don't understand that the daily conversation about the Middle East has turned into a totally backward, anti semitic hate fest remiscent of 1930's Germany, the following cartoon appeared, not on some Neo Nazi website, or on the pages of The Egyptian Daily, but on the web site of the NY Times.
It was drawn by Pat Oliphant and was titled "Jack Boot Justice".
The clear reference to Nazism is obvious.
This is such a perversion of actual events (just like the quickly debunked stories of IDF soldiers purposely killing innocents) such a blatant, and disgusting anti semitic call to arms that no one can now deny it.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Obama getting ready to recognize Hamas?
March 22, 2009
Hamas's Free Lunch
By Caroline Glick
Today Hamas stands on the cusp of international acceptance. It may take a week or a month or a year, but today Hamas stands where Fatah and the PLO stood in the late 1980s. The genocidal jihadist terror group is but a step away from an invitation to the Oval Office. Two events in the past week show this to be the case.
First, last Saturday, The Boston Globe reported that Paul Volcker, who serves as President Barack Obama's economic recovery adviser, and several former senior US officials have written a letter to Obama calling for the US to recognize Hamas. As one of the signatories, Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser under president George H.W. Bush, explained, "I see no reason not to talk to Hamas."
Scowcroft further argued, "The main gist is that you need to push hard on the Palestinian peace process. Don't move it to end of your agenda and say you have too much to do. And the US needs to have a position, not just hold their coats while they sit down."
Congressional sources claim that Obama has selected Scowcroft to replace Chas Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council.
The second reason that it is becoming apparent that the Obama administration is poised to recognize Hamas is that on Thursday, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman held talks at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and enjoined the administration to support the reestablishment of a Hamas-Fatah unity government to control and reunify the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
This is significant because it is becoming apparent that top administration officials only meet with people who tell them what they want to hear.
Case in point is IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi's trip this week to Washington. Ashkenazi went to the US to brief top administration officials on Iran's progress toward a nuclear bomb. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Ashkenazi's counterpart, Adm. Michael Mullen, both managed to be out of town. Defense Ministry sources say that Ashkenazi only met with National Security Adviser James Jones, who reportedly wished to speak exclusively about the Palestinians, and with Clinton's Iran adviser Dennis Ross, whose role in shaping US policy toward Iran remains unclear.
Hamas, for its part, prefers the unconditional recognition recommended by Scowcroft and Volcker and their colleagues, (who include unofficial Obama advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Lee Hamilton), over the option of forming a government with Fatah. After all, why should Hamas agree to share power with Fatah to gain international acceptance if Washington power brokers close to the administration endorse unconditional recognition of the terror group?
Scowcroft's statement that recognition of Hamas is necessary because "you need to push hard on the Palestinian peace process" is indicative of how
Obama's milieu views the peace process. For them, pushing hard on the peace process is more important than determining or even caring if the Palestinians involved in the said process are genocidal terror groups or not, or determining or even caring whether the said peace process has any chance whatsoever of leading to peace.
AND THE Obama view is not particularly new. After Hamas won the 2006
Palestinian elections, in the interest of the peace process, the US and the
EU placed certain conditions on Hamas which they claimed it would have to meet before the West would recognize it.
The US and Europe said they would recognize Hamas if it announced that it forswore terror, accepted Israel's right to exist, and committed itself to carrying out previous agreements signed between the PLO and Israel. The Americans and the Europeans undoubtedly viewed these conditions as a low bar to cross. After all, the PLO crossed it.
The West's conditions were given with a wink and a nod. Everyone understood that the only thing it wanted was for Hamas to say the magic words. They didn't have to be true. If Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh would just tell the US and Europe what they wanted to hear, all would be forgiven. Hamas -like the PLO before it - would be removed from the US and European terror lists. Billions would pour into the bank accounts of Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus. The CIA might even agree to train its terror forces.
It is obvious that all that the West wanted was for Hamas to lie to it, because that is all it ever required from the PLO. After Yasser Arafat said the magic words, the Americans and the Europeans were only too happy to ignore the fact that he was lying.
When immediately after signing the initial peace accord with Israel on the
White House lawn on September 13, 1993, Arafat flew to South Africa and gave a speech calling for jihad against Israel, no one cared.
When Arafat destroyed the free press in Judea, Samaria and Gaza and transformed the Palestinian media into propaganda organs calling for the eradication of Israel and the Jewish people, the world yawned.
When he launched his terror war against Israel and his US-trained forces began plotting and carrying out bombings of Israeli civilians, the US announced its chief goal in the Middle East was to establish a Palestinian state.
And when Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, announced that Fatah didn't accept Israel's right to exist and considered terrorism against Israel legitimate, he was declared the indispensable and sole legitimate Palestinian leader. Indeed, when his US-trained forces surrendered to Hamas in Gaza without a fight, the US showered an additional $80 million on Fatah forces.
ON TUESDAY, Fatah strongman and the West's favorite son of Palestine
Muhammad Dahlan tried to explain the facts of life to Hamas.
In an interview on PA television, Dahlan became the first senior Fatah official to openly admit that Fatah has never accepted Israel's right to exist. Dahlan denied reports that in the negotiations toward a Hamas-Fatah government, Fatah representatives are pressuring Hamas to recognize Israel.
In his words, "I want to say in my own name and in the name of all my fellow members of the Fatah movement, we are not asking Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist. Rather, we are asking Hamas not to do so because Fatah never recognized Israel's right to exist."
Dahlan went on to explain how the fiction worked. Arafat was the head of the PLO but also the head of Fatah. While as chairman of the PLO he recognized
Israel and pledged to end terrorism and live at peace with the Jewish state, as head of Fatah he continued his war against Israel. Dahlan even bragged that to date, Fatah has killed 10 times more Palestinians suspected of cooperating with Israel's counterterror operations (the same operations the PLO committed to assisting) than Hamas has.
Dahlan explained that all Hamas needs to do is to follow in Fatah's footsteps. It should say that the PA government accepts the West's terms, but in the meantime, those terms will remain inapplicable to Hamas as a "resistance group." In that way, Dahlan explained, Hamas will be able to receive all the West's billions in financial assistance.
As he put it, "Do you imagine that Gaza's reconstruction is possible under the shadow of this bickering between us and the international community?
[Gaza reconstruction] can only be dealt with by a government... that is acceptable to the international community so that we can... benefit from the international community."
Not surprisingly, Dahlan's statement went almost completely unnoted. Only
The Jerusalem Post and one or two other Jewish publications and a few anti-jihadist blogs made note of it. The US, European and pro-peace process Hebrew media all ignored it. No government spokesman anywhere in the world commented on it.
Unfortunately, though, for the likes of Dahlan and his admirers in the West, Hamas isn't interested in joining Fatah's fiction. It refuses to say those magic words. So now the West looks for ways to lower its bar still further.
THE WEST'S nonresponse to Dahlan's statements, like its growing eagerness to treat with Hamas despite Hamas's unabashed refusal to even lie about its intentions, tells us something important about what the West is actually doing when it says that its paramount interest is to advance the so-called peace process. It tells us the same thing that the West's courtship of Damascus and Teheran tells us about what the West means when it speaks of peace processes.
Syrian President Bashar Assad this week told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that he and outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were just a stone's throw away from a peace deal last year. Last week Assad participated in what was supposed to be an anti-Iranian conference in Saudi Arabia.
Both of Assad's gestures were meant to make the Americans feel comfortable as they renew their diplomatic relations with Syria, cast aside their backing for the UN tribunal set up to investigate Syria's assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, begin pressuring Israel to surrender the Golan Heights, and recognize Hamas.
And just as Arafat understood that after he said the magic words the West would ignore his bad behavior, so Assad knew that Washington and Paris would pay no attention when upon returning from Riyadh he announced that Syria's relations with Iran will never be weakened. He knew they will never question his false account of his indirect negotiations with Israel. He and Olmert couldn't have been a stone's throw away from a peace accord, because Assad refused to have any direct contact with Israel.
If Damascus is the state equivalent of the PLO, then Teheran is the state equivalent of Hamas. Today, as the mullahs sprint toward the nuclear finish line, the Obama administration is pretending that the jury is still out on whether or not the Islamic republic wants a nuclear arsenal. As with Hamas, so with Teheran, the Americans have dropped even the pretense of requiring a change in Iran's rhetorical positions as a precondition for diplomatic recognition. The US now pursues its diplomatic reconciliation with Teheran with the sure knowledge that this peace process will lead to Iran's emergence as a nuclear power.
So the question is, if the American and European pursuits of peace with Fatah, Hamas, Syria and Iran have not caused them to change their behavior one iota, what are the Western powers talking about when they say that it is imperative to push the peace process or engage the Syrians and the Iranians? After all, Western leaders must know that these processes are complete farces.
Sadly, the answer is clear. Western leaders are not pursuing peace in these processes. They are pursuing appeasement. They call this appeasement process a peace process for two reasons. First, they know their countrymen don't like the sound of appeasement. And second, by claiming to be championing the noble goal of peace in our time, they feel free to attack anyone who points out the folly of their actions as a warmongering member of the Israel Lobby.
Hamas's Free Lunch
By Caroline Glick
Today Hamas stands on the cusp of international acceptance. It may take a week or a month or a year, but today Hamas stands where Fatah and the PLO stood in the late 1980s. The genocidal jihadist terror group is but a step away from an invitation to the Oval Office. Two events in the past week show this to be the case.
First, last Saturday, The Boston Globe reported that Paul Volcker, who serves as President Barack Obama's economic recovery adviser, and several former senior US officials have written a letter to Obama calling for the US to recognize Hamas. As one of the signatories, Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser under president George H.W. Bush, explained, "I see no reason not to talk to Hamas."
Scowcroft further argued, "The main gist is that you need to push hard on the Palestinian peace process. Don't move it to end of your agenda and say you have too much to do. And the US needs to have a position, not just hold their coats while they sit down."
Congressional sources claim that Obama has selected Scowcroft to replace Chas Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council.
The second reason that it is becoming apparent that the Obama administration is poised to recognize Hamas is that on Thursday, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman held talks at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and enjoined the administration to support the reestablishment of a Hamas-Fatah unity government to control and reunify the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
This is significant because it is becoming apparent that top administration officials only meet with people who tell them what they want to hear.
Case in point is IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi's trip this week to Washington. Ashkenazi went to the US to brief top administration officials on Iran's progress toward a nuclear bomb. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Ashkenazi's counterpart, Adm. Michael Mullen, both managed to be out of town. Defense Ministry sources say that Ashkenazi only met with National Security Adviser James Jones, who reportedly wished to speak exclusively about the Palestinians, and with Clinton's Iran adviser Dennis Ross, whose role in shaping US policy toward Iran remains unclear.
Hamas, for its part, prefers the unconditional recognition recommended by Scowcroft and Volcker and their colleagues, (who include unofficial Obama advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Lee Hamilton), over the option of forming a government with Fatah. After all, why should Hamas agree to share power with Fatah to gain international acceptance if Washington power brokers close to the administration endorse unconditional recognition of the terror group?
Scowcroft's statement that recognition of Hamas is necessary because "you need to push hard on the Palestinian peace process" is indicative of how
Obama's milieu views the peace process. For them, pushing hard on the peace process is more important than determining or even caring if the Palestinians involved in the said process are genocidal terror groups or not, or determining or even caring whether the said peace process has any chance whatsoever of leading to peace.
AND THE Obama view is not particularly new. After Hamas won the 2006
Palestinian elections, in the interest of the peace process, the US and the
EU placed certain conditions on Hamas which they claimed it would have to meet before the West would recognize it.
The US and Europe said they would recognize Hamas if it announced that it forswore terror, accepted Israel's right to exist, and committed itself to carrying out previous agreements signed between the PLO and Israel. The Americans and the Europeans undoubtedly viewed these conditions as a low bar to cross. After all, the PLO crossed it.
The West's conditions were given with a wink and a nod. Everyone understood that the only thing it wanted was for Hamas to say the magic words. They didn't have to be true. If Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh would just tell the US and Europe what they wanted to hear, all would be forgiven. Hamas -like the PLO before it - would be removed from the US and European terror lists. Billions would pour into the bank accounts of Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus. The CIA might even agree to train its terror forces.
It is obvious that all that the West wanted was for Hamas to lie to it, because that is all it ever required from the PLO. After Yasser Arafat said the magic words, the Americans and the Europeans were only too happy to ignore the fact that he was lying.
When immediately after signing the initial peace accord with Israel on the
White House lawn on September 13, 1993, Arafat flew to South Africa and gave a speech calling for jihad against Israel, no one cared.
When Arafat destroyed the free press in Judea, Samaria and Gaza and transformed the Palestinian media into propaganda organs calling for the eradication of Israel and the Jewish people, the world yawned.
When he launched his terror war against Israel and his US-trained forces began plotting and carrying out bombings of Israeli civilians, the US announced its chief goal in the Middle East was to establish a Palestinian state.
And when Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, announced that Fatah didn't accept Israel's right to exist and considered terrorism against Israel legitimate, he was declared the indispensable and sole legitimate Palestinian leader. Indeed, when his US-trained forces surrendered to Hamas in Gaza without a fight, the US showered an additional $80 million on Fatah forces.
ON TUESDAY, Fatah strongman and the West's favorite son of Palestine
Muhammad Dahlan tried to explain the facts of life to Hamas.
In an interview on PA television, Dahlan became the first senior Fatah official to openly admit that Fatah has never accepted Israel's right to exist. Dahlan denied reports that in the negotiations toward a Hamas-Fatah government, Fatah representatives are pressuring Hamas to recognize Israel.
In his words, "I want to say in my own name and in the name of all my fellow members of the Fatah movement, we are not asking Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist. Rather, we are asking Hamas not to do so because Fatah never recognized Israel's right to exist."
Dahlan went on to explain how the fiction worked. Arafat was the head of the PLO but also the head of Fatah. While as chairman of the PLO he recognized
Israel and pledged to end terrorism and live at peace with the Jewish state, as head of Fatah he continued his war against Israel. Dahlan even bragged that to date, Fatah has killed 10 times more Palestinians suspected of cooperating with Israel's counterterror operations (the same operations the PLO committed to assisting) than Hamas has.
Dahlan explained that all Hamas needs to do is to follow in Fatah's footsteps. It should say that the PA government accepts the West's terms, but in the meantime, those terms will remain inapplicable to Hamas as a "resistance group." In that way, Dahlan explained, Hamas will be able to receive all the West's billions in financial assistance.
As he put it, "Do you imagine that Gaza's reconstruction is possible under the shadow of this bickering between us and the international community?
[Gaza reconstruction] can only be dealt with by a government... that is acceptable to the international community so that we can... benefit from the international community."
Not surprisingly, Dahlan's statement went almost completely unnoted. Only
The Jerusalem Post and one or two other Jewish publications and a few anti-jihadist blogs made note of it. The US, European and pro-peace process Hebrew media all ignored it. No government spokesman anywhere in the world commented on it.
Unfortunately, though, for the likes of Dahlan and his admirers in the West, Hamas isn't interested in joining Fatah's fiction. It refuses to say those magic words. So now the West looks for ways to lower its bar still further.
THE WEST'S nonresponse to Dahlan's statements, like its growing eagerness to treat with Hamas despite Hamas's unabashed refusal to even lie about its intentions, tells us something important about what the West is actually doing when it says that its paramount interest is to advance the so-called peace process. It tells us the same thing that the West's courtship of Damascus and Teheran tells us about what the West means when it speaks of peace processes.
Syrian President Bashar Assad this week told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that he and outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were just a stone's throw away from a peace deal last year. Last week Assad participated in what was supposed to be an anti-Iranian conference in Saudi Arabia.
Both of Assad's gestures were meant to make the Americans feel comfortable as they renew their diplomatic relations with Syria, cast aside their backing for the UN tribunal set up to investigate Syria's assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, begin pressuring Israel to surrender the Golan Heights, and recognize Hamas.
And just as Arafat understood that after he said the magic words the West would ignore his bad behavior, so Assad knew that Washington and Paris would pay no attention when upon returning from Riyadh he announced that Syria's relations with Iran will never be weakened. He knew they will never question his false account of his indirect negotiations with Israel. He and Olmert couldn't have been a stone's throw away from a peace accord, because Assad refused to have any direct contact with Israel.
If Damascus is the state equivalent of the PLO, then Teheran is the state equivalent of Hamas. Today, as the mullahs sprint toward the nuclear finish line, the Obama administration is pretending that the jury is still out on whether or not the Islamic republic wants a nuclear arsenal. As with Hamas, so with Teheran, the Americans have dropped even the pretense of requiring a change in Iran's rhetorical positions as a precondition for diplomatic recognition. The US now pursues its diplomatic reconciliation with Teheran with the sure knowledge that this peace process will lead to Iran's emergence as a nuclear power.
So the question is, if the American and European pursuits of peace with Fatah, Hamas, Syria and Iran have not caused them to change their behavior one iota, what are the Western powers talking about when they say that it is imperative to push the peace process or engage the Syrians and the Iranians? After all, Western leaders must know that these processes are complete farces.
Sadly, the answer is clear. Western leaders are not pursuing peace in these processes. They are pursuing appeasement. They call this appeasement process a peace process for two reasons. First, they know their countrymen don't like the sound of appeasement. And second, by claiming to be championing the noble goal of peace in our time, they feel free to attack anyone who points out the folly of their actions as a warmongering member of the Israel Lobby.
Friday, March 20, 2009
New Proof of the myth of land for peace
In his exit interview for the Prime Ministership of Israel, Ehud Ohlmert has revealed just how far he went to make peace with the so called Palestinians.
How far? Farther than ANYONE, American, or Israeli has ever gone.
He promised them EVERYTHING. Every land request they had.
The 1967 lines? No. Ohlmert offered to pull back to the 1948 lines, thereby making Israel a sitting duck.
Not only did he offer these obscene territorial concessions, he even offered to build a bridge, or tunnel, whichever THEY preferred, linking Gaza to the West Bank.
And surprise surprise, just as every other time any Israeli leader made similar offers, the answer was an unhesitating NO.
Without "the right of return" there would be no peace. In other words, without allowing the so called Palestinians taking over all of Israel, there is no peace.
Land for Peace? Sure, when Israel disappears.
How far? Farther than ANYONE, American, or Israeli has ever gone.
He promised them EVERYTHING. Every land request they had.
The 1967 lines? No. Ohlmert offered to pull back to the 1948 lines, thereby making Israel a sitting duck.
Not only did he offer these obscene territorial concessions, he even offered to build a bridge, or tunnel, whichever THEY preferred, linking Gaza to the West Bank.
And surprise surprise, just as every other time any Israeli leader made similar offers, the answer was an unhesitating NO.
Without "the right of return" there would be no peace. In other words, without allowing the so called Palestinians taking over all of Israel, there is no peace.
Land for Peace? Sure, when Israel disappears.
Tumbling Tim Tries to tread
As Timothy Geithner tries desperately to hold onto his job, let's remember just how much of a compulsive liar he is (sort of like his boss?).
As President of the NY Federal Reserve, he was heavily involved in the design of the AIG bailout plan.
In addition, isn't it amazing that no one is discussing the fact that he never paid all the taxes he owed even after being caught?
While accepting responsibility, he took advantage of the statute of limitations and DID NOT repay the money he owed for those years.
Now remember, the issue was that he had received money from the IMF SPECIFICALLY to pay these taxes and had signed a release stating that he was aware that this was the purpose of these funds.
But he was "unaware" that he owed the taxes.
Just as he was "unaware" of the bonuses at AIG.
Unaware. Seems like a good description of Mr. Geithner himself.
As President of the NY Federal Reserve, he was heavily involved in the design of the AIG bailout plan.
In addition, isn't it amazing that no one is discussing the fact that he never paid all the taxes he owed even after being caught?
While accepting responsibility, he took advantage of the statute of limitations and DID NOT repay the money he owed for those years.
Now remember, the issue was that he had received money from the IMF SPECIFICALLY to pay these taxes and had signed a release stating that he was aware that this was the purpose of these funds.
But he was "unaware" that he owed the taxes.
Just as he was "unaware" of the bonuses at AIG.
Unaware. Seems like a good description of Mr. Geithner himself.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
"How do they justify this outrage?" Motto for a new age...
This was President Obama speaking about the AIG bonuses that have gotten so much press this week.
Funny, but if the "most powerful man in the free world", someone who has just sent billions of additional dollars to this distraught, once great, company, asks this question over something over which he has direct control, what might happen in other places in the world?
As the Taliban two weeks ago was given an entire region of Pakistan.
"How do they justify this outrage?"
As nominee after nominee is found to have violated some law or another, or better yet, be the equivalent of an anti Jewish grand wizard of the KKK?
"How do they justify this outrage?"
As the Soviets, er Russians, continue their march toward a rebirth of the Soviet Empire, swallowing Republics along the way?
"How do they justify this outrage?"
As the Iranians, as the administration admitted last week, move one step from having a nuclear weapon?
"How do they justify this outrage?"
As China declares that the new American economy is causing them to consider what to do with their American debt?
"How do they justify this outrage?"
Now, as to AIG. How DARE he ask this question?
Let's start here. You pass emergency legislation that declares that any company that requires government bailout is, in effect, in bankruptcy, thereby disqualifying current contracts.
Or how about this, you pass legislation that for any company taking bailouts bonuses are 100% taxable at a 100% rate?
Gee, that's tough, huh?
Or much more simply.
"Hey, Edward Liddy, who we appointed, we are withholding any additional monies in light of the bonuses being paid out."
Then when Liddy witholds the bonuses you say to the thieves that have the NERVE to ask for this money "Go ahead and sue, and I will plaster your name in every newspaper in the country and make sure you never get another job".
There, that was tough, huh? Problem solved.
Funny, but if the "most powerful man in the free world", someone who has just sent billions of additional dollars to this distraught, once great, company, asks this question over something over which he has direct control, what might happen in other places in the world?
As the Taliban two weeks ago was given an entire region of Pakistan.
"How do they justify this outrage?"
As nominee after nominee is found to have violated some law or another, or better yet, be the equivalent of an anti Jewish grand wizard of the KKK?
"How do they justify this outrage?"
As the Soviets, er Russians, continue their march toward a rebirth of the Soviet Empire, swallowing Republics along the way?
"How do they justify this outrage?"
As the Iranians, as the administration admitted last week, move one step from having a nuclear weapon?
"How do they justify this outrage?"
As China declares that the new American economy is causing them to consider what to do with their American debt?
"How do they justify this outrage?"
Now, as to AIG. How DARE he ask this question?
Let's start here. You pass emergency legislation that declares that any company that requires government bailout is, in effect, in bankruptcy, thereby disqualifying current contracts.
Or how about this, you pass legislation that for any company taking bailouts bonuses are 100% taxable at a 100% rate?
Gee, that's tough, huh?
Or much more simply.
"Hey, Edward Liddy, who we appointed, we are withholding any additional monies in light of the bonuses being paid out."
Then when Liddy witholds the bonuses you say to the thieves that have the NERVE to ask for this money "Go ahead and sue, and I will plaster your name in every newspaper in the country and make sure you never get another job".
There, that was tough, huh? Problem solved.
Monday, March 16, 2009
SICKENING: Paletinian Authority TV celebrates most murderous terror attack in Israel's history
Bulletin
March 12, 2009
Palestinian Media Watch
PA TV celebrates most murderous
terror attack in Israel's history
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
The most murderous Palestinian terror attack in Israel's history was carried out on March 11, 1978 when a bus was hijacked and 37 civilians were killed. The Palestinian Authority celebrated this attack yesterday on the anniversary of the hijacking, with an hour long TV special about the terror attack. The program included file film of PLO training camps, and interviews with a number of terrorists describing the planning and implementation of
the attack.
The program opened with the narrator glorifying the attack as:
"... one of the most important and most prominent special actions, executed by the Palestinian revolution by sea, on the coast between Haifa and Tel Aviv. This action, which was carried out by a group of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi, had a great impact on continuing events of the Arab-Israeli conflict." [PATV (Fatah) March 11 2009]
For those who fail to note and understand territorial issues. The Palestinians are celebrating an attack on the WEST Coast of Israel. As far from the "territories" or the "Green Line" as there is in that country. The coast mentioned is the Mediterranean coast.
This is what I am frequently referencing as I discuss the Palestinian, and Arab screed of "From the River to the Sea".
Next time you hear a discussion of "Palestinian Lands" hopefully you will understand that, as the charters of Hamas and Fatah both say, this means ALL of what is Israel.
March 12, 2009
Palestinian Media Watch
PA TV celebrates most murderous
terror attack in Israel's history
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
The most murderous Palestinian terror attack in Israel's history was carried out on March 11, 1978 when a bus was hijacked and 37 civilians were killed. The Palestinian Authority celebrated this attack yesterday on the anniversary of the hijacking, with an hour long TV special about the terror attack. The program included file film of PLO training camps, and interviews with a number of terrorists describing the planning and implementation of
the attack.
The program opened with the narrator glorifying the attack as:
"... one of the most important and most prominent special actions, executed by the Palestinian revolution by sea, on the coast between Haifa and Tel Aviv. This action, which was carried out by a group of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi, had a great impact on continuing events of the Arab-Israeli conflict." [PATV (Fatah) March 11 2009]
For those who fail to note and understand territorial issues. The Palestinians are celebrating an attack on the WEST Coast of Israel. As far from the "territories" or the "Green Line" as there is in that country. The coast mentioned is the Mediterranean coast.
This is what I am frequently referencing as I discuss the Palestinian, and Arab screed of "From the River to the Sea".
Next time you hear a discussion of "Palestinian Lands" hopefully you will understand that, as the charters of Hamas and Fatah both say, this means ALL of what is Israel.
On Freeman, from the Washington Post
Blame the 'Lobby' Washington Post Editorial
The Obama administration's latest failed nominee peddles a conspiracy theory.
FORMER ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. looked like a poor choice to chair the Obama administration's National Intelligence Council. A former envoy to Saudi Arabia and China, he suffered from an extreme case of clientitis on both accounts. In addition to chiding Beijing for not crushing the Tiananmen Square democracy protests sooner and offering sycophantic paeans to Saudi King "Abdullah the Great," Mr. Freeman headed a Saudi-funded Middle East advocacy group in Washington and served on the advisory board of a state-owned Chinese oil company. It was only reasonable to ask -- as numerous members of Congress had begun to do -- whether such an actor was the right person to oversee the preparation of National Intelligence Estimates.
It wasn't until Mr. Freeman withdrew from consideration for the job, however, that it became clear just how bad a selection Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair had made. Mr. Freeman issued a two-page screed on Tuesday in which he described himself as the victim of a shadowy and sinister "Lobby" whose "tactics plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency" and which is "intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government." Yes, Mr. Freeman was referring to Americans who support Israel -- and his statement was a grotesque libel.
For the record, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee says that it took no formal position on Mr. Freeman's appointment and undertook no lobbying against him. If there was a campaign, its leaders didn't bother to contact the Post editorial board. According to a report by Newsweek, Mr. Freeman's most formidable critic -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- was incensed by his position on dissent in China. But let's consider the ambassador's broader charge: He describes "an inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for U.S. policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics." That will certainly be news to Israel's "ruling faction," which in the past few years alone has seen the U.S. government promote a Palestinian election that it opposed; refuse it weapons it might have used for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities; and adopt a policy of direct negotiations with a regime that denies the Holocaust and that promises to wipe Israel off the map.
Two Israeli governments have been forced from office since the early 1990s after open clashes with Washington over matters such as settlement construction in the occupied territories. What's striking about the charges by Mr. Freeman and like-minded conspiracy theorists is their blatant disregard for such established facts. Mr. Freeman darkly claims that "it is not permitted for anyone in the United States" to describe Israel's nefarious influence. But several of his allies have made themselves famous (and advanced their careers) by making such charges -- and no doubt Mr. Freeman himself will now win plenty of admiring attention. Crackpot tirades such as his have always had an eager audience here and around the world. The real question is why an administration that says it aims to depoliticize U.S. intelligence estimates would have chosen such a man to oversee them.
The Obama administration's latest failed nominee peddles a conspiracy theory.
FORMER ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. looked like a poor choice to chair the Obama administration's National Intelligence Council. A former envoy to Saudi Arabia and China, he suffered from an extreme case of clientitis on both accounts. In addition to chiding Beijing for not crushing the Tiananmen Square democracy protests sooner and offering sycophantic paeans to Saudi King "Abdullah the Great," Mr. Freeman headed a Saudi-funded Middle East advocacy group in Washington and served on the advisory board of a state-owned Chinese oil company. It was only reasonable to ask -- as numerous members of Congress had begun to do -- whether such an actor was the right person to oversee the preparation of National Intelligence Estimates.
It wasn't until Mr. Freeman withdrew from consideration for the job, however, that it became clear just how bad a selection Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair had made. Mr. Freeman issued a two-page screed on Tuesday in which he described himself as the victim of a shadowy and sinister "Lobby" whose "tactics plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency" and which is "intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government." Yes, Mr. Freeman was referring to Americans who support Israel -- and his statement was a grotesque libel.
For the record, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee says that it took no formal position on Mr. Freeman's appointment and undertook no lobbying against him. If there was a campaign, its leaders didn't bother to contact the Post editorial board. According to a report by Newsweek, Mr. Freeman's most formidable critic -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- was incensed by his position on dissent in China. But let's consider the ambassador's broader charge: He describes "an inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for U.S. policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics." That will certainly be news to Israel's "ruling faction," which in the past few years alone has seen the U.S. government promote a Palestinian election that it opposed; refuse it weapons it might have used for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities; and adopt a policy of direct negotiations with a regime that denies the Holocaust and that promises to wipe Israel off the map.
Two Israeli governments have been forced from office since the early 1990s after open clashes with Washington over matters such as settlement construction in the occupied territories. What's striking about the charges by Mr. Freeman and like-minded conspiracy theorists is their blatant disregard for such established facts. Mr. Freeman darkly claims that "it is not permitted for anyone in the United States" to describe Israel's nefarious influence. But several of his allies have made themselves famous (and advanced their careers) by making such charges -- and no doubt Mr. Freeman himself will now win plenty of admiring attention. Crackpot tirades such as his have always had an eager audience here and around the world. The real question is why an administration that says it aims to depoliticize U.S. intelligence estimates would have chosen such a man to oversee them.
Feeding the Palestinian Leetch
Misery Pays
by Rachel Ehrenfeld
Posted March 9, 2009 | 03:14 PM (EST)
www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-rachel-ehrenfeld/misery-pays_b_172882.html
Giving $5.2 billion to the Palestinian Authority (PA) will do little to bring real change in the condition of the Palestinian refugees or security in the Middle East. Instead of rebuilding the "shelters" in the refugee camps as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has done for decades, this huge sum of money should go to build new communities, industry and a civilian infrastructure for a viable Palestinian state.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared the U.S. has "worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands."
The World Bank recommending that the donors give their "budget support" to the PA directly through its Central Treasury Account. It also suggested direct donations through other organizations such as: "the EU-PEGASE, the World Bank administered PRDP-Trust Fund," and a few others.
The U.S., the World Bank and other donors rely on Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's promise that the money would not reach Hamas or be used for any terrorist activity. Yet, Fayyad, a former Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the West Bank and Gaza, has little control over PA funds in Fatah-controlled West Bank, let alone in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Fayyad himself stated many times that controlling Palestinian finances "is virtually impossible." Moreover, last month, despite Fatah-Hamas bloody disagreements, Fayyad diverted $21.5 million sent from Israel to Gaza to pay PA employees' salaries, to rebuild the houses of Gaza residents that were destroyed during Operation Cast Lead. On March 7th, Fayyad announced his resignation, to facilitate the Fatah unity government with Hamas.
This was not the first time the Fatah-led government was sending money to Hamas. On Jan. 15, 2008, Fayyad's government declared it would give Hamas 40% ($3.1 billion) of the $7.4 billion that was pledged in December 2007 by international donors. Furthermore, in October, 2008, despite the bloody crackdown on Fatah members in Gaza, the PA was paying the salaries of at least 77,000 "loyal employees." Yet, before Hamas took over, there were only 21,000 PA paid loyalists in Gaza. Once the power-sharing negotiations between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are completed, billions of dollars will go to Hamas, which continue to call for the destruction of Israel.
Since the Oslo Accords, the PA received some $14 billion to $20 billion in international aid, according to a 2007 Funding for Peace Coalition (FPC) report to the British Parliament. Each Palestinian received $4,000 to $8,000 per year. However, of the $7 billion pledged international aid, only $5 billion were spent to assist more than 5 million Tsunami victims in more than 15 countries on two continents.
If the newly pledged $5.2 billion are distributed, each of the 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza would receive $1,300 dollars. In comparison, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), provided in humanitarian aid for 2.5 million Darfur refugees from 2003 to 2006 -- only $100 per person annually.
The PA uses a large amount of the aid it receives to support the terrorist activities against Israel. Each Palestinian or Israeli Arab, imprisoned in an Israeli jail, is entitled to financial assistance from the Palestinian Authority, if he (or she) was sentenced for activity connected to the "struggle against the Israeli occupation."
Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi documented at least $40 million per year, paid to at least 11,600 (in march 2008 ) Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails. In addition, the PA uses its budget to assist thousands more released prisoners and pay bonuses to the families of suicide bombers. Thus, foreign aid to the PA should be given only when the PA publicly denounces terrorist activities against Israel and stop the support to the terrorists.
The billions of dollars poured into Gaza since Israel pulled out in 2005, have resulted in the strengthening of the radical Islamic Hamas. It keeps the Palestinians under its thumb poor and oppressed and uses their children and women as human shields. Hamas strives not only for the destruction of Israel. It hosts other terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, and uses the Gaza Strip as training grounds. With Iran's help, it threatens to undermine pro Western regimes in the region.
The only way to ensure the $5.2 billion produces a real change to the lives of the impoverished Palestinian in Gaza, create a viable Palestinian state and stability in the region, is by conditioning this money on the PA's cessation of all terrorist activities. Moreover, to ensure the funds do not reach Hamas and are used properly, the money should not be administered by any Palestinian organization, or Hamas supporting UNRWA, but by an
international monitoring group.
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is Director of American Center for Democracy and author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed -- and How to Stop It.
by Rachel Ehrenfeld
Posted March 9, 2009 | 03:14 PM (EST)
www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-rachel-ehrenfeld/misery-pays_b_172882.html
Giving $5.2 billion to the Palestinian Authority (PA) will do little to bring real change in the condition of the Palestinian refugees or security in the Middle East. Instead of rebuilding the "shelters" in the refugee camps as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has done for decades, this huge sum of money should go to build new communities, industry and a civilian infrastructure for a viable Palestinian state.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared the U.S. has "worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands."
The World Bank recommending that the donors give their "budget support" to the PA directly through its Central Treasury Account. It also suggested direct donations through other organizations such as: "the EU-PEGASE, the World Bank administered PRDP-Trust Fund," and a few others.
The U.S., the World Bank and other donors rely on Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's promise that the money would not reach Hamas or be used for any terrorist activity. Yet, Fayyad, a former Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the West Bank and Gaza, has little control over PA funds in Fatah-controlled West Bank, let alone in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Fayyad himself stated many times that controlling Palestinian finances "is virtually impossible." Moreover, last month, despite Fatah-Hamas bloody disagreements, Fayyad diverted $21.5 million sent from Israel to Gaza to pay PA employees' salaries, to rebuild the houses of Gaza residents that were destroyed during Operation Cast Lead. On March 7th, Fayyad announced his resignation, to facilitate the Fatah unity government with Hamas.
This was not the first time the Fatah-led government was sending money to Hamas. On Jan. 15, 2008, Fayyad's government declared it would give Hamas 40% ($3.1 billion) of the $7.4 billion that was pledged in December 2007 by international donors. Furthermore, in October, 2008, despite the bloody crackdown on Fatah members in Gaza, the PA was paying the salaries of at least 77,000 "loyal employees." Yet, before Hamas took over, there were only 21,000 PA paid loyalists in Gaza. Once the power-sharing negotiations between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are completed, billions of dollars will go to Hamas, which continue to call for the destruction of Israel.
Since the Oslo Accords, the PA received some $14 billion to $20 billion in international aid, according to a 2007 Funding for Peace Coalition (FPC) report to the British Parliament. Each Palestinian received $4,000 to $8,000 per year. However, of the $7 billion pledged international aid, only $5 billion were spent to assist more than 5 million Tsunami victims in more than 15 countries on two continents.
If the newly pledged $5.2 billion are distributed, each of the 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza would receive $1,300 dollars. In comparison, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), provided in humanitarian aid for 2.5 million Darfur refugees from 2003 to 2006 -- only $100 per person annually.
The PA uses a large amount of the aid it receives to support the terrorist activities against Israel. Each Palestinian or Israeli Arab, imprisoned in an Israeli jail, is entitled to financial assistance from the Palestinian Authority, if he (or she) was sentenced for activity connected to the "struggle against the Israeli occupation."
Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi documented at least $40 million per year, paid to at least 11,600 (in march 2008 ) Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails. In addition, the PA uses its budget to assist thousands more released prisoners and pay bonuses to the families of suicide bombers. Thus, foreign aid to the PA should be given only when the PA publicly denounces terrorist activities against Israel and stop the support to the terrorists.
The billions of dollars poured into Gaza since Israel pulled out in 2005, have resulted in the strengthening of the radical Islamic Hamas. It keeps the Palestinians under its thumb poor and oppressed and uses their children and women as human shields. Hamas strives not only for the destruction of Israel. It hosts other terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, and uses the Gaza Strip as training grounds. With Iran's help, it threatens to undermine pro Western regimes in the region.
The only way to ensure the $5.2 billion produces a real change to the lives of the impoverished Palestinian in Gaza, create a viable Palestinian state and stability in the region, is by conditioning this money on the PA's cessation of all terrorist activities. Moreover, to ensure the funds do not reach Hamas and are used properly, the money should not be administered by any Palestinian organization, or Hamas supporting UNRWA, but by an
international monitoring group.
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is Director of American Center for Democracy and author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed -- and How to Stop It.
Just a few facts to get in your way...
As of 2 weeks ago:
Humanitarian Aid to Gaza since the End of Operation Cast Lead The Israel Project
Four out of the five Israel-Gaza border crossings are currently open: the Karni crossing for raw materials such as grain; the Kerem Shalom goods crossing, the Nahal Oz fuel terminal and the Erez pedestrian crossing for medical evacuations. According to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since the end of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in Gaza (Jan. 18, 2009) 121,748 tons of aid and 3,009,157 gallons (11,390,900 liters) of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza Strip. Goods imported into Gaza include blankets, canned food, diapers, electricity generators, fish, flour, frozen vegetables, fruit, grain, eggs, meat, medical supplies, oil, pasta, peas, personal hygiene items, powdered milk, rice, sugar, vaccines for people and livestock, veterinary medication and equipment for reconstruction of the electricity network.
Wonder what the Egyptians have been sending in? Oh, but we're not supposed to mention that Gaza is bordered EQUALLY by Israel and Egypt.
I always wonder why the "embargo" is blamed on the Israelis.
Humanitarian Aid to Gaza since the End of Operation Cast Lead The Israel Project
Four out of the five Israel-Gaza border crossings are currently open: the Karni crossing for raw materials such as grain; the Kerem Shalom goods crossing, the Nahal Oz fuel terminal and the Erez pedestrian crossing for medical evacuations. According to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since the end of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in Gaza (Jan. 18, 2009) 121,748 tons of aid and 3,009,157 gallons (11,390,900 liters) of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza Strip. Goods imported into Gaza include blankets, canned food, diapers, electricity generators, fish, flour, frozen vegetables, fruit, grain, eggs, meat, medical supplies, oil, pasta, peas, personal hygiene items, powdered milk, rice, sugar, vaccines for people and livestock, veterinary medication and equipment for reconstruction of the electricity network.
Wonder what the Egyptians have been sending in? Oh, but we're not supposed to mention that Gaza is bordered EQUALLY by Israel and Egypt.
I always wonder why the "embargo" is blamed on the Israelis.
Everyone is working for the weekend....
I was a little lazy reporting this one last week, but in what has become a standard part of the Obama administration's strategy for minimizing things they want to keep out of the news cycle, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair let loose what should have been a bombshell last Friday.
As part of efforts to prevent a nuclear Iran, Blair said that "some combination of threats of intensified international scrutiny and pressures, along with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security and goals" could persuade the Iranian regime to halt is nuclear activities.
I guess threats are part of "negotiating without preconditions".
As part of efforts to prevent a nuclear Iran, Blair said that "some combination of threats of intensified international scrutiny and pressures, along with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security and goals" could persuade the Iranian regime to halt is nuclear activities.
I guess threats are part of "negotiating without preconditions".
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Follow the money...
Charles "Chas" Freeman has withdrawn his name for nomination as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council that he was tapped for by the Obama administration.
Pressure mounted on Freeman when the full extent of his financial ties to the Saudis and Chinese were revealed.
Actually, that is too nice. When it was revealed that virtually his entire income from the last decade or more has come from the Saudi government, supplanted by the income he received by sitting on the board of the Chinese Government's oil company, the pressure from Congress became too intense.
Despite vehement criticism of his radical anti Israel positions and blatantly anti semitic comments, none of that caused even a burp in his nomination.
It was the financial ties, finalized by the revelation he made in regard to a peaceful protest about Tibet that caught up to him. In defending the violent Chinese crackdown he described the Tibetan protest as a "race riot". In addition to, of course, expressing his opinion that the Chinese government should have cracked down earlier, and harder, to have prevented Tianamen Square.
But did Freeman see it that way? Of course not.
When all else fails, blame the Jews. And that's what he, and even worse, his son did.
From Freeman himself:
"The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth," he said. "The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors."
Of course, only two Jewish Organization even TOOK a stance on his appointment. And AIPAC, which is usually viewed by those who believe in the Jewish conspiracy, as the leader of the Jews control the world organization, had nothing to say about Freeman.
The two Congressman who really led the fight against him, both said they were not contacted by any lobbyists, and Mark Kirk of Illinois (one of the two, the other being Steve Israel) had this to say "There was a steady revelation of financial conflicts of interest involving foreign powers that were troubling. If it had simply been a dispute about Middle East policy, he would have survived.
But that wasn't enough for the Jews control the world conspiracy theorists, including Freemans' son. In a recent blog post on the washingtonnote(dot)com, the younger Freeman declared that he would like to "punch some of these guys in the face" and said his father's "appointment is being challenged these days by a small cabal of folks that believe first and foremost in the importance of allegiance to Israel as a core U.S. priority." He referred to his father’s critics as "low-lives," "Israel first-ers" and "schmucks" while accusing them of smearing his father.
Pressure mounted on Freeman when the full extent of his financial ties to the Saudis and Chinese were revealed.
Actually, that is too nice. When it was revealed that virtually his entire income from the last decade or more has come from the Saudi government, supplanted by the income he received by sitting on the board of the Chinese Government's oil company, the pressure from Congress became too intense.
Despite vehement criticism of his radical anti Israel positions and blatantly anti semitic comments, none of that caused even a burp in his nomination.
It was the financial ties, finalized by the revelation he made in regard to a peaceful protest about Tibet that caught up to him. In defending the violent Chinese crackdown he described the Tibetan protest as a "race riot". In addition to, of course, expressing his opinion that the Chinese government should have cracked down earlier, and harder, to have prevented Tianamen Square.
But did Freeman see it that way? Of course not.
When all else fails, blame the Jews. And that's what he, and even worse, his son did.
From Freeman himself:
"The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth," he said. "The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors."
Of course, only two Jewish Organization even TOOK a stance on his appointment. And AIPAC, which is usually viewed by those who believe in the Jewish conspiracy, as the leader of the Jews control the world organization, had nothing to say about Freeman.
The two Congressman who really led the fight against him, both said they were not contacted by any lobbyists, and Mark Kirk of Illinois (one of the two, the other being Steve Israel) had this to say "There was a steady revelation of financial conflicts of interest involving foreign powers that were troubling. If it had simply been a dispute about Middle East policy, he would have survived.
But that wasn't enough for the Jews control the world conspiracy theorists, including Freemans' son. In a recent blog post on the washingtonnote(dot)com, the younger Freeman declared that he would like to "punch some of these guys in the face" and said his father's "appointment is being challenged these days by a small cabal of folks that believe first and foremost in the importance of allegiance to Israel as a core U.S. priority." He referred to his father’s critics as "low-lives," "Israel first-ers" and "schmucks" while accusing them of smearing his father.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Obama Two Step
Just when you thought it was safe to think that President Obama had decided that the last "addition" to the Durban II conference expressly forbidding free speech meant that he had to witchdraw US attendance at the conference, comes the official statement from the State Department.
It seems our intrepid leader has not withdrawn at all. The statement simply says that unless the document is changed, we will not participate. In other words, get rid of the unconstitutional thorn in my side, and we're back.
Oh, and no mention of the holocaust denial being eliminated.
Even better, in a gift to those powers that would overlook human rights abuses all over the world in the interest of vilifying Israel, he has agreed to reverse another long standing US policy and submit the US application for the UN Human Commission on Human Rights.
This is the august body, controlled by the Organization of Islamic States, that has been chaired by such human rights supporters as Iran, Libya, China and many of the world's other staunch defenders of the basic rights such as... oh wait, there are no human rights in those countries.
This is the same body that in it's history, has adopted more condemnations against Israel than against all 191 of the world's OTHER nations COMBINED.
What's additionally interesting is what was going on while these dual announcements were being made.
There were two phone calls taking place. One was by Assistant Secretary of State Karen Stewart to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.N. Foundation, the UNA-USA Association and the Arab American Institute, among others.
The other was by the notorious Samantha Power to various Jewish Organizations.
Apparently, the message was that Arab groups do Human Rights, while Jewish Organizations are concerned only with Jews.
If the feet move any faster, you won't see the hands.
It seems our intrepid leader has not withdrawn at all. The statement simply says that unless the document is changed, we will not participate. In other words, get rid of the unconstitutional thorn in my side, and we're back.
Oh, and no mention of the holocaust denial being eliminated.
Even better, in a gift to those powers that would overlook human rights abuses all over the world in the interest of vilifying Israel, he has agreed to reverse another long standing US policy and submit the US application for the UN Human Commission on Human Rights.
This is the august body, controlled by the Organization of Islamic States, that has been chaired by such human rights supporters as Iran, Libya, China and many of the world's other staunch defenders of the basic rights such as... oh wait, there are no human rights in those countries.
This is the same body that in it's history, has adopted more condemnations against Israel than against all 191 of the world's OTHER nations COMBINED.
What's additionally interesting is what was going on while these dual announcements were being made.
There were two phone calls taking place. One was by Assistant Secretary of State Karen Stewart to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.N. Foundation, the UNA-USA Association and the Arab American Institute, among others.
The other was by the notorious Samantha Power to various Jewish Organizations.
Apparently, the message was that Arab groups do Human Rights, while Jewish Organizations are concerned only with Jews.
If the feet move any faster, you won't see the hands.
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