Ziosweat International News Blog

”Iran can now produce nuclear bomb”, The Jerusalem Post.

2009-12-20T09:30:00.002+02:00

By Rebecca Anna Stoil (08/12/2009)

"In the last year, two things have happened: Iran has advanced its military nuclear program, and Iran has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the international community," Netanyahu told the committee, adding that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities was Israel's "central problem."

"Our highest interest is in preventing Iran's [nuclear] armament," he said.

To that end, Netanyahu added, "there is coordination with America regarding Iran - information and intensive assessment - and diplomatic coordination cannot be ruled out." He did, however note that "it is not clear if cooperation by Russia and China against Iran will continue, but at this time, we do have an agreement."

"The use of the Internet and Twitter against the Iranian regime is a great thing," said Netanyahu. "In past years, Iran was portrayed as an unpleasant regime, but today there is deep hatred on the part of part of the Iranian nation against the regime. It is trickling out and constitutes a very important resource for the State of Israel."

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”IAEA should avoid double standards: general”, Tehran Times (20/12/2009)

2009-12-20T09:28:00.001+02:00

TEHRAN – Brigadier General Seyyed Massoud Jazayeri, the deputy head of Iran’s armed forces headquarters, criticized harshly the performance of the former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran’s nuclear dossier. ElBaradei stepped down as the head of the IAEA on November 30, 2009 and IAEA chose Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, who took over the office on December 1. The senior military official also urged the new director to change the IAEA’s suspicious actions and double standards towards Iran. “It is better that ElBaradei avoids meddling in the Iran’s internal affairs, and tries to resolve problems created for some countries during his term in office,” he said. IAEA officials know that Iran nuclear program is completely legal and peaceful, but hegemonic powers have always made attempts to negatively influence the world public opinion over Iran’s nuclear plans by depicting the truth reversely, he stated. Undoubtedly the former director of the IAEA played a major role in line with the hegemonic powers’ policies to thwart Iran nuclear plans, he added. Jazayeri went on to say that ElBaradei should apologize to Iranian nation on his stances towards Iran nuclear issue, saying, “Iranian nation will never forget ElBaradei’s suspicious and equivocal remarks. View Full Article

” Understanding Iran's Defiant Nuclear Policy ”, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. By Hossein Aryan (01/12/2009)

2009-12-20T09:27:00.000+02:00

By Hossein Aryan (01/12/2009)

The diplomatic standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions has grown more intense since President Mahmud Ahmadinejad announced publicly on November 29 that his government intends to build 10 new sites to enrich uranium to supply nuclear power plants that will increase the country's annual generating capacity by 20,000 megawatts over the next 20 years. He explained that in order to achieve this, Iran will need to install 500,000 centrifuges at the planned facilities to produce 250 to 300 tons of nuclear fuel annually.

'Yes, No, Maybe'

Although a majority of Iranian lawmakers have asked the government to scale back its cooperation with the IAEA, Iranian officials have made it clear that the country has no intention of leaving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and that the door remains open for further negotiations. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani too, in spite of an earlier intemperate statement about the IAEA for criticizing Iran, later said that notwithstanding the latest tension, Iran is still open to diplomacy. He added that if the major powers "adopt other policies, Iran would adopt other policies, as well." This is not the first time that top Iranian officials have sent such mixed signals, alternating blustery statements with conciliatory gestures. The recent rejection of the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, United States, plus Germany) proposal to send Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia in exchange for nuclear fuel for Tehran's research reactor is another example. The Iranian leadership initially accepted the proposal in principle, triggering a host of arguments

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”Nuclear rights and human rights in Iran Office”, Asia Times

2009-12-20T09:25:00.000+02:00

By Kaveth L Afrasiabi (10/12/2009) There is now a direct linkage between the Iranian government's defense of the country's "inalienable nuclear rights" in the international arena and the country's contentious domestic politics that, in turn, has raised the international community's alarm over rights violations in Iran, reflected in a United Nations General Assembly resolution last month. In a vote of 74 in favor, 48 against and 59 abstentions, the assembly committee responsible for social, humanitarian and cultural affairs - known as the Third Committee - adopted a resolution condemning human-rights violations in Iran, particularly those that have occurred since June's presidential election, when many opposition supporters were arrested and detained. Without doubt, the vote, backed by many of Iran's non-aligned friends who support Iran's nuclear rights, is a political setback for Tehran that cannot be ignored; rather, it requires concerted efforts by the government to push the arch of reconciliation, tolerance and respect for the constitutional rights of the political opposition. This is especially so, given fresh unrest in the capital, Tehran. Security forces on Tuesday clashed with thousands of university students protesting for a second day, as the top prosecutor warned of "no mercy toward anyone who acts against national security". About 200 people were detained on Monday. The students have revitalized the June protests. … One thing is clear, however; namely, there are definite costs to Iran's national security interests due to the political rifts at home and the exploitation of those rifts by Iran's opponents who seek to deprive the country of its nuclear rights. This is starkly illustrated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to members of the Knesset (parliament's) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. "The use of the Internet and Twitter against the Iranian regime is a great thing," he said. "In past years, Iran was portrayed as an unpleasant regime, but today there is deep hatred on the part of part of the Iranian nation against the regime. It is trickling out and constitutes a very important resource for the state of Israel." View Full Article

” Iraq, Iran play cat-and-mouse game over oil well”, The Montreal Gazette

2009-12-20T09:22:00.003+02:00

By Steven Edwards (18/12/2009)

Iranian snipers in full camouflage march during an annual military parade which marks Iran's eight-year war with Iraq, Sept. 22, 2009. Iranian soldiers reportedly crossed into Iraqi territory on Friday.

Photograph by: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, called an emergency meeting of the Iraqi National Security Council, which ruled Iran had violated Iraq's "territorial integrity" and issued the demand for withdrawal.

But it stopped short of saying what Iraq would do if the Iranian soldiers stayed put.

The U.S. military in Iraq said "no violence" had taken place as it confirmed the presence of the Iranian soldiers.

"Iranian forces come to this well periodically, and then at daybreak they withdraw," a senior engineer of Maysan oil Company told Reuters. "They are provoking us . . . I don't know why this is a big deal this time."

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"The only realistic use of this is in a nuclear weapon," said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and Intl Security, CNN.com

2009-12-20T09:19:00.003+02:00

”Source: 'Alarming' secret document details Iran's nuclear goals”, CNN World. By (14/12/2009)

Video Clip on CNN.com

London, England (CNN) -- A secret document that appears to show that Iran was working on building nuclear weapons as recently as 2007 is "alarming" and "part of a body of evidence backing up deep concerns over Iran's nuclear program," a Western diplomatic source with knowledge of the papers told CNN on Monday. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, has a copy of the secret papers, which were also obtained by the Times of London, the source said. IAEA officials confirm they are investigating the document but said they have not formally asked Iran for more information about it. A top international nuclear expert said it seemed to point to Iranian efforts to build a bomb. "The only realistic use of this is in a nuclear weapon," said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security. The fact that the document comes out at this time makes it very difficult for Russia and China not to go along with more sanctions. --Mehrdad Khonsari, former Iranian diplomat "It shows that either Iran is developing the capability [to build nuclear weapons] or it is moving to implement a bomb program -- and either one is bad," said Albright, who reviewed the document for the Times before the newspaper published its report Sunday. View Full Article

”WATCH: Dramatic footage of IDF rescue of sailors lost at sea”, Haaretz

2009-12-20T09:16:00.002+02:00

”WATCH: Dramatic footage of IDF rescue of sailors lost at sea”, Haaretz. By Fadi Eyadat and Anshel Pfeffer (12/12/2009)

The five Ukrainian sailors who were rescued at sea off the coast of the Lebanese town of Tyre were released on Sunday from Rambam Hospital in Haifa. The crewmen were extricated from the water by the elite rescue unit 669 after their freighter ship, the Sala II, sank on its way to Israel. A video clip released by the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's Unit provides a glimpse into how the dramatic developments unfolded. The footage, which was shot by a military patrol helicopter which hovered above, depicts how one of the rescued sailors was spotted as he was floating in the choppy waters.

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” Lieberman: Anti-Israel views are anti-Semitism”, Israel Today

2009-12-20T09:13:00.001+02:00

” Lieberman: Anti-Israel views are anti-Semitism”, Israel Today (17/12/2009)

"Modern anti-Semitism has taken on the form of being anti-Israel... Instead of saying 'throw the Jews into the sea,' they talk of a world without Zionism, and without Israel," Lieberman said at the Foreign Ministry's third annual Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism.

This new form of anti-Semitism is actually far more dangerous, suggested Lieberman. Instead of lowest elements lashing out at Jews in vile hatred, anti-Israelism is spearheaded by society's elite academics, power brokers and human rights groups that are viewed as inherently good and is couched in eloquent language.

But the goal is the same, warned Lieberman. These people "seek to destroy Israel piece by piece."

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” Leaked IDF memo details tactics to enforce settlement freeze” Haaretz

2009-12-20T09:08:00.002+02:00

” Leaked IDF memo details tactics to enforce settlement freeze” Haaretz. By Chaim Levinson (20/12/2009) IDF troops would be called in to evict settlers "only in extreme instances whichi will be decided upon individually," the document says in reference to this sensitive issue. There have been acts of disobedience by troops who refused to carry out orders on ideological grounds. The eviction itself is supposed to be carried out be police officers. ...The Human Rights for Yesh organization said the doumcent was a "military operation against the settler public" and would trample on their human rights. It added that as much as the freeze is menat to please the Americans, "the government needs to be reminded that the United States does not take such actions against citizens in its territory." The IDF Spokesman's Office said that leaving the army out of any political discussion was a "national responsibility" View Full Article

”Abbas Assails Hamas, Israel in Effort to Extend Term in Office”, Bloomberg

2009-12-20T09:03:00.001+02:00

”Abbas Assails Hamas,

Israel

in Effort to Extend Term in Office”, Bloomberg. By Jonathan Ferziger and Gwen Ackerman (15/12/2009)

“There is a need to hold elections and Hamas should not be allowed to disrupt democratic life,” Abbas told the PLO leadership during a 75-minute speech at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “We believe in democracy. Hamas does not.”

“...When Israel stops settlement activity for a specific period and when it recognizes the borders we are calling for, and these are the legal borders, there would be nothing to prevent us from going to negotiations,” Abbas said, sitting at a table beneath a banner with his picture and that of PLO founder Yasser Arafat.

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”Mosque attack in West Bank draws condemnation from Israeli leaders”, The Washington Post

2009-12-20T08:59:00.002+02:00

”Mosque attack in West Bank draws condemnation from Israeli leaders”, The Washington Post. By Howard Schneider (20/12/2009) Those who burned the mosque "are extremists and Arab-haters, fundamentalists," said Adbul Fathi Madi, head of realigious affairs for the West Bank area that includes Yasuf. View Full Article

”Americans support action on Iran - if needed”, The Jerusalem Post

2009-12-20T08:51:00.002+02:00

”Americans support action on Iran - if needed”, The Jerusalem Post. By Hilary Krieger (19/12/2009)

Just over half of Americans support a military attack on Iran by the United States and its allies if Teheran doesn't halt its nuclear program, according to a new poll by The Israel Project.

In such a scenario, 51% of Americans would support targeted military strikes and 44% would oppose them. Fewer of those polled, however, would support Israel taking such action on its own, by a split of 42% to 49%.

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”Israel, EU's new FM start off poorly”, The Jerusalem Post

2009-12-20T08:45:00.003+02:00

”Israel, EU's new FM start off poorly”, The Jerusalem Post. By Herb Keinon (20/12/2009) "East Jerusalem is occupied territory together with the West Bank. The EU is opposed to the destruction of homes, the eviction of Arab residents and the construction of the separation barrier," EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton. View Full Article

”UK is committed to Israel's security”, The Jerusalem Post

2009-12-20T08:36:00.002+02:00

”UK is committed to Israel's security”, The Jerusalem Post. By Jonny Paul (19/12/2009)

"The unchanging fundamental is first, a very strong belief in Israel's legitimacy and its right to exist. Secondly, the strong desire for Israel to live in security based on peace. And thirdly, the desire to have the best possible relationship between Israel and Britain.”

Matthew Gould, Incoming British Ambassador.

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Poll: Hamas approval rating extremely low

2009-09-08T03:40:00.002+03:00

The Jerusalem Post, By Abe Selig (7/9/2009) Hamas's approval rating has sunk to significantly low levels in the West Bank and even lower levels inside the Gaza Strip, according to a recent poll for The Israel Project that gathers Arab public opinion on a number of key issues.

Hamas gunmen at a march in Rafah. [file] Photo: AP

The poll, conducted by Stan Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, included face-to-face interviews with hundreds of adults in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, along with a series of focus groups in Cairo and Ramallah...

According to the poll, 58 percent of Gazans said they disapprove of the job being done by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, while 42% of them said they "disapprove strongly."

Fifty-seven percent of Palestinians in the West Bank also said they disapprove of Hamas, but only 16% disapproved "strongly."

"I've polled in a number of war zones in the 20th century, including Nicaragua and El Salvador during the conflicts there [in the 1980s], and I polled in Afghanistan under the Taliban, before 9/11," Greenberg said. "And I thought that in Gaza, after [Hamas's 2006] takeover, people would be cautious about responding to the poll. But just look at the results. Nearly 60% of the people there have a negative image of Hamas, and felt free to say it, which says to me that it's even worse than that."

The poll also shows Fatah would beat Hamas by a solid 10 percentage points in both the West Bank and Gaza, if Palestinians were to vote in parliamentary elections today. While Fatah's popularity was much higher than Hamas's in the West Bank, by a 45-28% margin, Fatah was still able to edge Hamas by 3% in Gaza, where 33% of those polled said they favored Fatah, compared to 30% for Hamas.

When asked who was responsible for the current crisis in Gaza, Israel was overwhelmingly blamed by all the groups polled. But while 5% of Egyptians and Jordanians blamed Hamas for the current crisis, 35% of Palestinians in the West Bank said Hamas was to blame, while 16% of Gazans agreed.

Additionally, of all the places polled, Gazans made up the highest percentage - 38% - of those who said they believed that both Israel and Hamas, together, were responsible for the current Gaza crisis.

Nonetheless, Gazans and Jordanians both showed a surprisingly high level of support for direct negotiations with Israel. More than half of those two groups - 52% of those polled - said they believed Palestinians should negotiate directly with Israel, accept its right to exist and honor past agreements. Thirty-nine percent of Egyptians said the same, compared to 36% of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Also surprising, Greenberg said, was that while 35% of the other groups polled stressed the importance of releasing captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, an overwhelming two-thirds of Gazans said the same.

The poll also revealed that nearly a decade after the breakdown of the Camp David Accords between Yasser Arafat, then-US president Bill Clinton and then-prime minister Ehud Barak, a majority of those polled in Egypt, Jordan and the West Bank expressed regret that Arafat failed to accept the peace deal proposed there.

Fifty-six percent of West Bank Palestinians said that in retrospect, they wished Arafat had accepted the agreement, while 50% of Jordanians and 39% of Egyptians said the same. In Gaza, 57% of those polled said they did not regret Arafat's rejection of the deal.

Greenberg said that these West Bank results show a change of heart since the breakdown of the Camp David talks.

The poll had a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.

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IDF preparing for US missile systems

2009-09-08T03:32:00.003+03:00

The Jerusalem Post, By Yaakov Katz (7/9/2009) The Defense Ministry is preparing for the possibility that the United States will decide to leave missile defense systems in Israel following a joint missile defense exercise the two countries will hold next month, senior officials said Sunday.

The X-Band Radar. Photo: Courtesy

While the US has yet to announce that it will leave systems in place here, the possibility is strong, one official said, particularly in light of reports that the Pentagon was conducting a review of its European missile shield and was leaning towards deploying the systems in Turkey.

The Israeli Air Force's Air Defense Division will hold a joint drill, called Juniper Cobra, with the US Military's European Command (EUCOM) and the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) next month in what is being described as the largest joint exercise ever held by the two countries, during which they will jointly test three different ballistic missile defense systems.

...Meanwhile Sunday, Iranian television claimed that the Iranian military had developed an anti-cruise missile system. Announcing the latest milestone in domestic military-industrial achievements, Air Force Brig.-Gen. Ahmad Miqani said, "[Despite] 30 years of military sanctions by the enemy, the armed forces have taken appropriate steps toward self-sufficiency and have been able not only to update their equipment, but also to achieve wide-ranging progress in the military and aerospace sector."

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PA judge: Jews have no history in Jerusalem

2009-09-08T03:18:00.003+03:00

The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (27/8/2009) The Palestinian Authority's chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, said on Wednesday that there was no evidence to back up claims that Jews had ever lived in Jerusalem or that the Temple ever existed.

Tamimi claimed that Israeli archeologists had "admitted" that Jerusalem was never inhabited by Jews.

Tamimi's announcement came in response to statements made earlier this week by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who said that Jerusalem "is not a settlement," and that "the Jews built it 3,000 years ago."

"Netanyahu's claims are baseless and untrue," said Tamimi, the highest religious authority in the PA. "Jerusalem is an Arab and Islamic city and it always has been so."

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Ahmadinejad: We won't halt nuclear work

2009-09-08T03:11:00.002+03:00

Photo: AP

The Jerusalem Post, By Associated Press (7/9/2009)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday Iran will neither halt uranium enrichment nor negotiate over its nuclear rights but is ready to sit and talk with world powers over "global challenges."

..."From our point of view, Iran's nuclear issue is over. We continue our work within the framework of global regulations and in close interaction with the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said. "We will never negotiate over obvious rights of the Iranian nation."

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Opinion: Nothing new in the East

2009-09-08T03:03:00.003+03:00

Clinton and Lavrov address reporters. Photo: AP

The Jerusalem Post, By Boris Mozorov (6/9/2009) Five months have passed since US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov publicly pushed the "perezagruzka" (reset) button in Geneva, yet tangible results of this gimmick have yet to be seen. The same holds true in the wake of President Obama's visit to Moscow in July; although the two sides reached agreements on a variety of topics, including weapons reductions and the transfer of American military equipment via Russia, there was no real breakthrough in US-Russia relations...

DESPITE OBAMA'S skirting around human rights and Russia's relations with Georgia and Ukraine, he failed to establish a friendly, reciprocal relationship with Medvedev. As a result, no progress was reached on the touchiest of topics: the US anti-missile defense system will remain in Eastern Europe, much to the chagrin of the Russians, and Medvedev didn't offer a compromise on the Iranian nuclear program, which is clearly an American priority.

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2009-09-06T19:44:00.004+03:00

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Barack Obama and the Middle East Peace Plan

2009-09-06T18:04:00.004+03:00

"Obama facing hurdles to nuclear disarmament goals" The Associated Press, By Desmond Butler (3/9/2009): Five months after President Barack Obama, with great fanfare, called for a world free of nuclear weapons, a crucial step toward that goal is running into resistance. There is little indication Obama will have the votes he needs for a cornerstone of his nonproliferation efforts: Senate ratification of a nuclear test ban treaty. If Obama can't get the treaty approved, he probably will have a hard time persuading the rest of the world to rein in nuclear weapon programs... "If you build it, the state will come" The Guardian, By Ziad Asali (4/9/2009): Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad's blueprint for what he has called "de facto Palestinian statehood" offers a new and important element to the quest for peace in the Middle East. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians hinges on recognition and security for Israel and freedom and independence for a Palestinian state. Fayyad's model emphasises the importance of the reality of the Palestinian state as a functioning entity, irrespective of international recognition and grand diplomatic gestures. By doing so, Fayyad challenges the sole reliance on political and rhetorical tools of diplomacy and international recognition, the traditional path through which Palestinians have sought statehood... The plan is a call to action for Palestinians to establish "strong state institutions capable of providing, equitably and effectively, for the needs of our citizens, despite the occupation", and "to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years". The 38-page document lays out the generalised blueprint for the Palestinian Authority to begin to transform itself into a functioning, responsive and responsible government as if the Palestinians had independence, and in preparation for independence... Fayyad has described a two-year timeframe for the initial implementation of his de facto statehood plan, consistent with President Obama's stated intention of achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement... "Peres: Palestinian state first, full peace later" The Associated Press, By Dan Perry and Alessandra Rizzo (4/9/2009): Israeli President Shimon Peres, a longtime advocate of peace with the Palestinians, said Friday that a comprehensive settlement resolving the century-old dispute was not currently achievable. He called instead for a Palestinian state under a provisional arrangement even without a formal peace deal... "US harshly rebukes Israel on settlement plans" The Associated Press, By Matthew Lee (5/9/2009): Alarmed by Israeli plans to build new housing units in settlements and dimming prospects for American peace efforts, the Obama administration on Friday put out a rare and harsh public rebuke of its main Mideast ally... "United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "We are working to create a climate in which negotiations can take place, and such actions make it harder to create such a climate..." "Binyamin Netanyahu pushes Barack Obama into a corner with settlement plan" The Times Online, By James Hider (5/9/2009): Israel’s plans to have one last burst of settlement building in the West Bank before agreeing to a temporary, partial freeze is a slap in the face to the Obama Administration and a warning to the Palestinians that it intends to fight for every inch of land... Backing down now would involve a serious loss of face for Mr Obama and a victory for Mr Netanyahu that would set the tone for any talks that could still be salvaged from the crumbling US plan. But the Israeli leader may be reckoning that his US ally is so deeply bogged down in a worsening war in Afghanistan, the global financial crisis, selling unpopular healthcare reforms and facing down a potentially nuclear Iran that he will take his eye off the ball in this crucial area. Click here for more media monitoring reports about Israel and its security

Missing channel pirate ship carried Russian arms for Iran

2009-09-06T17:58:00.004+03:00

The Arctic Sea mysteriously disappeared off the coast of France on 1 August 2009

The Sunday Times, By Mark Franchetti and Uzi Mahnaimi (6/9/2009) A CARGO ship that vanished in the Channel was carrying arms to Iran and was being tracked by Mossad, the Israeli security service, according to sources in both Russia and Israel.

The Arctic Sea, officially carrying a cargo of timber worth £1.3m, disappeared en route from Finland to Algeria on July 24. It was recovered off west Africa on August 17 when eight alleged hijackers were arrested. The Kremlin has consistently denied that the vessel was carrying a secret cargo. It claims the ship was hijacked by criminals who demanded a £1m ransom.

The official version was challenged by sources in Tel Aviv and Moscow who claimed the ship had been loaded with S-300 missiles, Russia’s most advanced anti-aircraft weapon, while undergoing repairs in the Russian port of Kaliningrad.

Mossad, which closely monitors arms supplies to Iran, is said to have tipped off the Russian government that the shipment had been sold by former military officers linked to the underworld...

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Plot to kill Israel’s army chief of staff

2009-09-06T17:49:00.003+03:00

The Sunday Times, By Uzi Mahnaimiin (6/9/2009) The Kfar Saba country club has a reputation as a fashionable hotspot in a prosperous commuter town just half an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv. The £700-a-year, members-only club attracts young, professional Israelis to its state-of-the-art gym and luxurious pool. Its bar, a magnet for young singles, specialises in Vodka Red Bull cocktails. The barman boasts that it is the best pickup spot in the area.

It is an unlikely backdrop to a daring attempt by Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based Islamic fundamentalist group, to assassinate Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff of the Israeli army and the club’s most prominent member.

Yet last month Rawi Sultani, 23, an Israeli Arab law student and fellow member, was arrested by agents from Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, and charged with planning to murder the general. The allegation points to an alarming lack of security among Israel’s well-off elite and the military who rub shoulders with them.

Sultani, a lawyer’s son, was a regular at the gym... Click here for full story Click here for more articles on the Middle East Conflict

Ukraine mayor accused of anti-Semitism

2009-09-06T17:48:00.000+03:00

The Associated Press, By Maria Danilova (3/9/2009) KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Jewish leaders in Ukraine and Russia on Thursday condemned the mayor of a Ukrainian city who called a presidential hopeful "an impudent little Jew," and Russia's chief rabbi said he would travel there in a show of support for the local Jewish community.

The incident was a worrying sign of persistent anti-Semitism in a country that lost hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Holocaust, but also evidence of a heated presidential election campaign in a politically chaotic country and Ukraine's tense relations with neighboring Russia...

Ratushnyak denied he attacked the campaign activist, calling the incident a "myth." He did, however, confirm his remarks regarding Yatsenyuk but said he believed they were not offensive.

"Is everybody obliged to love Jews and Israel? If I don't like Jews and Israel, does that make me an anti-Semite?" he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview...

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Spain daily to run interview with Holocaust denier

2009-09-06T17:11:00.002+03:00

The Associated Press, By Daniel Woolls (3/9/2009)

MADRID (AP) -- A Spanish newspaper is defending its plans to publish an interview this weekend with a British writer who denies the Holocaust, despite a furious complaint from Israel.

The center-right daily El Mundo plans to run the interview Saturday with David Irving, who served 13 months in prison in Austria after being convicted there in 2006 over charges he denied the Nazis exterminated 6 million Jews...

[Israeli Ambassador] Schutz told The Associated Press that Irving lacks any credibility and does not deserve to be in the same interview lineup. It includes Ian Kershaw, a Briton who is a leading biographer of Hitler, and Avner Shalev, director of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel.

"To put Irving on the same platform with these people may create an impression, and as a matter of fact it does, that he has the same stand while everyone who knows something about the issue knows that David Irving is nothing but ... a con man," the ambassador said.

In the upcoming interview, Irving does not deny the Holocaust, Laviana said. Rather, he stresses that the Allies are to blame for "looking the other way" and ignoring the Nazi genocide, he told the AP...

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Artists protest Tel Aviv focus at Toronto film fest

2009-09-06T17:07:00.003+03:00

Reuters, By Cameron French (4/9/2009)

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto International Film Festival is under attack for its decision to present a series of films spotlighting the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, which a group of high-profile artists and celebrities say constitutes complicity in "the Israeli propaganda machine".

At issue is the festival's new City to City program, which will present 10 films focused on Tel Aviv.

The 34th edition of the festival will begin next Thursday.

Canadian filmmaker John Greyson last week pulled his documentary "Covered" from the festival in protest, and a statement published online on Thursday and signed by more than 50 artists, academics, and filmmakers likened the program to a celebration of apartheid-era South Africa.

"This program ignores the suffering of thousands of former residents and descendants of the (Tel Aviv) area who currently live in refugee camps in the Occupied Territories or who have been dispersed to other countries," say the signatories, which include actors Jane Fonda and Danny Glover, author Naomi Klein, and filmmaker Ken Loach...

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Iran's Mousavi defiant after MPs back Ahmadinejad

2009-09-06T17:03:00.002+03:00

Reuters, By Fredrik Dahl (5/9/2009) * Mousavi urges supporters to create opposition network * Ceremony where Khatami had been due to speak cancelled * Reformist website publishes names of 72 people killed * Tehran to present proposals to world powers soon TEHRAN, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi called on Saturday for more protests over Iran's disputed June election, two days after lawmakers backed most of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new government ministers. But a religious ceremony next week which could have become a rallying point for the moderates was cancelled after authorities put pressure on its hosts, Iranian media said... Click here for full story Click here for more articles on the Middle East Conlfict

Unmanned military aircraft: Attack of the drones

2009-09-06T16:44:00.004+03:00

From The Economist print edition (3/9/2009) Military technology: Smaller and smarter unmanned aircraft are transforming spying and redefining the idea of air power

FIVE years ago, in the mountainous Afghan province of Baghlan...And in conflicts like that in Afghanistan, they are no longer the most widespread form of air power. The nature of air power, and the notion of air superiority, have been transformed in the past few years by the rise of remote-controlled drone aircraft, known in military jargon as “unmanned aerial vehicles” (UAVs).

Drones are much less expensive to operate than manned warplanes. The cost per flight-hour of Israel’s drone fleet, for example, is less than 5% the cost of its fighter jets, says Antan Israeli, the commander of an Israeli drone squadron. In the past two years the Israeli Defence Forces’ fleet of UAVs has tripled in size. Mr Israeli says that “almost all” IDF ground operations now have drone support.

Global sales of UAVs this year are expected to increase by more than 10% over last year to exceed $4.7 billion, according to Visiongain, a market-research firm based in London. It estimates that America will spend about 60% of the total. For its part, America’s Department of Defence says it will spend more than $22 billion to develop, buy and operate drones between 2007 and 2013. Following the United States, Israel ranks second in the development and possession of drones, according to those in the industry. The European leaders, trailing Israel, are roughly matched: Britain, France, Germany and Italy. Russia and Spain are not far behind, and nor, say some experts, is China...

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Hamas slams UN over "Holocaust classes" in Gaza

2009-08-31T16:35:00.001+03:00

Reuters, By Nidal al-Mughrabi (30/8/2009)

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas condemned the United Nations Sunday, saying it planned to teach Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip about the Holocaust -- but the U.N. agency which runs schools in the enclave would not confirm any change.

Branding the Nazi genocide of the Jews "a lie invented by the Zionists," the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza Strip wrote in an open letter to a senior U.N. official that he should withdraw plans for a new history book in U.N. schools.

A spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which educates some 200,000 refugee children in Gaza, said the Holocaust was not on its current curriculum. He would not comment on Hamas's statement that it was about to change...

Israelis are angered by denial of the Holocaust among some in the Middle East, notably lately by leaders in Iran, who provide support for Hamas. Abbas, who has engaged in negotiation with Israel, has had to distance himself from his own 1980s doctoral thesis, which cast doubt on the scale of the Holocaust.

Hamas's official spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said he did not want to discuss the history of the Holocaust but said:

"Regardless of the controversy, we oppose forcing the issue of the so-called Holocaust onto the syllabus, because it aims to reinforce acceptance of the occupation of Palestinian land."

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Israeli-Arab indicted for Hizbullah plot to assassinate Ashkenazi

2009-08-31T16:27:00.002+03:00

The Jerusalem Post, By Yaakov Katz (31/8/2009) Rawi Sultani. Photo: Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency)

On Monday, an indictment was filed at the Petah Tikva District Court against Rawi Sultani, a 23-year-old Israeli-Arab from the town of Tira, was recruited by Hizbullah in the summer of 2008 when he traveled to Morocco to attend a Balad Party summer camp.

Hizbullah recruited an Israeli-Arab and ordered him to collect intelligence on IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi ahead of plans to assassinate him to avenge the death of the guerrilla group's military leader Imad Mughniyeh...

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Will the Japanese Obama put pressure on Israel?

2009-08-31T16:18:00.001+03:00

Haaretz, By Ben-Ami Shillony (31/8/2009) The immediate consequence of the opposition's sweeping victory in Japan's elections yesterday will be psychological - it will create an atmosphere of optimism that could strengthen the economy. Such optimism will be fleeting if it is not followed by concrete results. The victorious Democratic Party, headed by Yukio Hatoyama, has never before governed in Japan. It is seeking to be perceived as a center-left party... Withdrawing from American guardianship could also change Japanese policy toward Israel. Until now, Japan limited its support for the Palestinians to aiding economic projects, in keeping with American requests. The Hatoyama government is likely to take a more pro-Arab stance, such as by recognizing Hamas and making tougher demands of Israel, such as calling for an end to construction in the settlements. Such a position would be similar to the line taken by some European governments, and will not necessarily lead to a confrontation with the United States. The Obama administration may actually be pleased. This January, the Israeli ambassador in Tokyo, Nissim Ben-Shitrit, participated in a Democratic Party convention. At the end of the convention, he met with Hatoyama. The party's Web site stated that Hatoyama expressed his deep concern over the Palestinian victims of Israel's Cast Lead operation in the Gaza Strip, and added that he hoped Israel would change its policies toward the Arab world, like American foreign policy had changed with the election of Barack Obama. Hatoyama called himself the Japanese Obama in his election campaign, and said he would bring hoped-for change. When it comes to Israel, Obama and Hatoyama may coordinate efforts in ways Israel hasn't expected. Ben-Ami Shillony is an emeritus professor of East Asian studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

Following inflammatory article, Sweden to demand EU condemn anti-Semitism

2009-08-31T16:14:00.001+03:00

Haaretz, By Adar Primor (31/8/2009) Is the crisis in relations between Israel and Sweden coming to an end? That is what Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, would like to believe. In a telephone conversation with Haaretz, Frattini said he recently met with his Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt, and the two agreed that at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers later this week, they will work to pass a resolution making it clear that the EU, under the Swedish presidency, strongly condemns anti-Semitism and will take action against any manifestation of it on the continent... Click here for full story

At War - Arab Press Roundup

2009-08-31T15:47:00.003+03:00

The New York Times, By Nadia Taha (25/8/20009) A look at discussions inside the Arab world, as played out on the front pages of five major Arabic newspapers. Azzaman.com: The most recent major bombing in Baghdad has led the Arab news media to focus its attentions on who, exactly, among Iraq’s intelligence services fell down on the job and who was responsible for the continuing violence. Al-Quds al-Arabiya: Just days after a visit to the White House by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the emergency state security court in Cairo held a hearing for 26 men who are suspected of belonging to a Hezbollah cell. Al-Quds al-Arabiya, a pan-Arab newspaper published in London by Palestinian expatriates, leads with coverage of the hearing. The group denied all the allegations that they collaborated with Hezbollah to attack tourist destinations and ships in the Suez Canal, and they said they were tortured during their interrogations. During Sunday’s proceedings, in which the judge ruled to postpone the trial until October, one defendant shouted, “I obey you, Nasrallah,” referring to the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Asharq al-Awsat, another major pan-Arab newspaper published in London, prominently features the Hezbollah trial in Cairo. The article also reports that the judge allowed one of the defendants to be taken to a hospital for treatment for internal bleeding, potentially giving credence to the prisoners’ claims that they were tortured. Al-Ahram , the major Egyptian newspaper, leads with the return of the fishermen, who were held hostage for four months. They escaped by killing two of their captors and overpowering the others. The Somalis will now be tried in Egyptian court. Al-Akhbar , a populist publication from Beirut, Lebanon, leads with the latest on the fallout of a Swedish newspaper article that alleges the harvesting of organs from Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers. The headline reads, “Sale of Organs of Prisoners of War: Israel Denies, Hamas Confirms, Sweden Does Not Apologize.” The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist Palestinian group, has called for investigation into the accusations.

Most Western news organizations covering Iran for the day focused on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet nominations, but Al-Akhbar instead ran an article from United Press International reporting that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard claimed to have killed 26 people in an airstrike against the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, on the southern Kurdish border.

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70 years on, Poland's WWII wounds haven't healed

2009-08-31T15:40:00.003+03:00

The Associated Press, By Vanessa Gera (31/8/2009)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Back home in Germany, Erika Steinbach is hardly a household name. But in neighboring Poland she is a national hate figure, caricatured on magazine covers as a Nazi in SS uniform.

Her offense, in Polish eyes, is that she claims to speak for the millions of ethnic Germans who were expelled from their homes in Poland and elsewhere in eastern Europe after World War II. These accusers say she is revising history and drawing a moral parallel between the cruelties the Germans inflicted and the sufferings they later endured.

...And what horrors they were. Less than three weeks after the Germans attacked, the Soviet army invaded from the east. The Nazis regarded Poles as an inferior race. Centuries of shared history, during which innumerable Germans had settled in what is now Poland, became a master-slave relationship. The Germans blitzed Polish cities and built Auschwitz on Polish soil. At the end of the war, 6 million Polish citizens out of a prewar population of 35 million were dead - half of them Jews, half Christians... Click here for full story

Meir Amit: Israeli intelligence chief and soldier

2009-08-31T15:34:00.003+03:00

Times Online (26/8/2009)

As chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, Meir Amit did more than anyone to build the organisation’s reputation for audacity and cunning. Most famously, in the spring of 1967, he convinced the United States of Israel’s need to strike pre-emptively at Egyptian positions, which coupled with the intelligence he had accumulated, laid the groundwork for Israel’s triumph in the ensuing Six-Day War.

A decorated soldier, Amit combined a talent for military strategy with the negotiating skills of a diplomat. His assertions that “personal contacts can solve most problems” and that “people are more important than rifles” enabled him to find allies in the most unexpected of places...

Meir Amit, intelligence chief and soldier, was born on March 17, 1921. He died on July 17, 2009, aged 88

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Ziosweat launches ziosweat.com!

2009-08-30T02:05:00.003+03:00

Ziosweat.com

Ziosweat.com will work together with the blog to keep you updated on a variety of news as well as many sources and recommendations. Join the Era of Ziosweat!

Auschwitz blueprints given to Israeli PM (AP)

2009-08-27T16:14:00.002+03:00

The Associated Press, By David Rising (27/8/2009)

BERLIN (AP) -- Architectural plans for the Auschwitz death camp that were discovered in Berlin last year were handed over Thursday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for display at Israel's Holocaust memorial.

The 29 sketches of the death camp built in Nazi-occupied Poland date as far back as 1941. They include detailed blueprints for living barracks, delousing facilities and crematoria, including gas chambers, and are considered important for understanding the genesis of the Nazi genocide.

The sketches are initialed by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess.

"There are those who deny that the Holocaust happened," Netanyahu said. "Let them come to Jerusalem and look at these plans, these plans for the factory of death."

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Yad Vashem Official Website- The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

"Diplomacy, painful history for Netanyahu in Berlin" The Associated Press, By Matti Friedman (27/8/2009): 'We cannot allow those who wish to perpetrate mass deaths, those who call for the destruction of the Jewish people or the Jewish state to go unchallenged," he said.

Big-name celebrities to appear on Jewish kids show (AP)

2009-08-27T16:10:00.002+03:00

The Associated Press, By Jen Thomas (26/8/2009)

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Stiller and Christina Applegate are just a few of the stars slated to appear in a new Sesame Street-style production geared at teaching Jewish-American children about Jewish culture.

"Shalom Sesame," a 12-part series for preschoolers featuring the globe-trotting Muppet Grover, will explore Jewish identity and traditions and will film on location at several Israeli sites, including the Western Wall.

Big-name guest stars, including actors Debra Messing, Greg Kinnear and Cedric the Entertainer, will join puppets and children in segments filmed in Israel and the U.S., according to the series' producers...

The series is expected to debut around the Hanukkah holiday in December 2010.

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Children in the Service of Terror

2009-08-25T19:54:00.001+03:00

MEMRI (21/7/2009)

"From Afghanistan to Pakistan, from Iraq to Palestine, [terror] organizations are recruiting boys (some under 15) and training them to carry out suicide bombings - and sometimes these are carried out. For diverse reasons and under diverse circumstances, children are stripped of their innocence and transformed into deadly weapons. Whatever the [reasons and circumstances], the result is the same: lost childhood, a bleak future, and the spread of terrorism...

"The recruitment of children is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly widespread. UNESCO estimates that a quarter of a million children have been recruited into armed organizations, behind whose banner of religion are political causes."

Thus read the introduction to a series of articles posted on May 26 and 27, 2009, [1] on the liberal website Elaph, about recruitment of children by terror organizations, particularly for suicide bombings. The articles present examples of children who were recruited by terror organizations, including some who carried out suicide operations, as well as interviews with clerics and social affairs experts on the phenomenon.

The clerics interviewed largely rejected the legitimacy of recruiting children for military activity, although some said it was permissible under extreme circumstances. Representatives of Palestinian organizations, in their interviews, denied that they were using children - even though the article on Palestinian organizations in the Elaph series includes statistics on these children. Most of the articles in the series are descriptive in nature, and present no practical proposals for solving this problem.

The following are summaries of and excerpts from the articles in the series: Here

Hamas Transforms Gaza Into Totaliltarian Islamists State

2009-08-25T19:48:00.001+03:00

GLORIA, By Barry Rubin Hamas is Turning the Gaza Strip into a Repressive, Radical Islamist, Terrorist State Allied to Iran. Might this suggest the need for concerted Western action to eliminate this threat? Apparently not. Here’s a detailed report on how Hamas is gradually turning the Gaza Strip into an Islamist state by a wide variety of activities including: indoctrination of children in its Islamist beliefs, control of the media, gender segregation, banning of alcohol, spending considerable parts of its limited funds on building additional mosques (the number has doubled in eight years) fully controlled by Hamas, and creation of morals’ police. Traditional weddings have been broken up (because they played music) and two singers have been arrested because of their song lyrics. Chewing gum is banned, clothing stores are inspected and items removed if they don’t correspond with Hamas’s dress code. Paramilitary summer camps have been created to prepare young people to be terrorists. There, in school, and in children's television shows, kids are being taught systematic hatred of Jews, Christians, and the West, while being told that violence is the remedy to wipe out all these evil forces... Click here for full story

Egyptian Government Daily 'Al-Gumhouriyya': The Palestinian People, All of It, Should Adhere to the Path of Resistance

2009-08-25T19:42:00.002+03:00

Al-Gymhouriyya (Egyptian government daily, translated by MEMRI) (7/8/2009)

In response to statements by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the sixth Fatah conference regarding the Palestinians' right to resistance, [1] the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhouriyya published a short editorial supporting his position and calling on the Palestinians to persist in resistance in order to obtain their rights.

The following is a translation of the editorial: [2]

"PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas provoked the wrath of the radical racists who rule Israel when he mentioned, at the Fatah conference, that the Palestinians have a right to resistance [muqawama] if the peace process has failed to restore their historic rights, and especially [their right] to their stolen land, to an independent state and to the return of the refugees.

"The angry racists in Israel have deluded themselves [into thinking] that the Palestinian people have laid down their arms, to which they clung so steadfastly throughout their exhausting and noble struggle, and have capitulated to the illusion of the peace process and the [empty] talk of the negotiation tables...

"The Palestinian people, all of it, has no choice but to cling to the path of resistance, like all the oppressed people who seized their freedom and rights through force and steadfastness, struggle and unity..." Click here for full story

Why the Israeli Organ-Harvesting Story Is Probably False

2009-08-25T19:32:00.003+03:00

The New York Times, By Stephen J. Dubner (25/8/2009)

A strange story has broken out in Sweden and Israel, with an article in Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper, by a journalist named Donald Boström.

According to The Times, Boström’s article “accuses the Israeli Army of harvesting organs from Palestinians wounded or killed by soldiers.”

...Al Roth, the Harvard economist whose work on matched-pair organ donations has started to transform the organ-transplantation scenario, told me he found the accusation unbelievable because of the logistics of organ harvesting itself. “Organs don’t last very long and have to be matched rather particularly,” he said, “so it would be hard to take them on spec for an international market. So I think black market organs must mostly be from live donors. Live donors can take blood tests well in advance and travel to where the patient is. Deceased organs have to be put on ice, and the clock starts ticking immediately and fast.”

Roth also points to a response of sorts on Ynet, a website affiliated with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot. It’s by Uria Asor, and is headlined “Special Report: Sweden’s Dirty Secret” :

[T]hose in the know and lox connoisseurs have been claiming that the Swedish gravad lax tastes differently than the Norwegian, Finnish, and Danish variety. ‘The Swedish variety contains some sort of slight sourness,’ says Danish Chef Richard Muller Holstrum. ‘I was never able to detect its source.’

However, Ynet’s special investigative report has revealed, for the first time, what may be the secret ingredient in Sweden’s gravad lax. The horrifying findings indicate that the source is fungus removed from the feet of innocent Norwegian fishermen.

Those who dislike Israel for whatever reason should at least acknowledge that, between parody and poetry, its journalism is pretty interesting.

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Reflections on the Sixth Fatah General Congress

2009-08-24T17:15:00.002+03:00

"Reflections on the Sixth Fatah General Congress" Europe News, By Daniel Pipes (18/8/2009): As Khaled Abu Toameh summed it up, "Fatah is sending a message both to the Palestinians and the world that it's still not ready for any form of compromise or reforms." "Fatah Members: The Principle of Resistance and Armed Struggle Must Not Be Relinquished"MEMRI, By C. Jacob (6/8/2009) "Palestinian Politics and The Peace Process: The Looming Gigantic Danger" GLORIA Center, By Barry Rubin (12/8/2009): What happened at the Fatah Congress? It was pretty successful as far as maintaining the status quo goes, but very bad for any chance at making progress toward a comprehensive peace. And there’s one terribly dangerous issue—the next Fatah leader—which could blow up everything...

Once Abbas appoints four more to make a Fatah Central Committee of 22 people, at least two-thirds will be old-style Fatah bureaucrats, with almost all the rest younger Fatah bureaucrats. Of the 18 elected, at least 5 are hardliners who don’t even accept the peace process and Oslo agreement and the rest are Abbas’s allies or lieutenants. "Fatah's Sixth Convention: An Initial Assessment" INSS, By Shlomo Brom (17/8/2009) "A Critique: Jewish Telegraphic Agency coverage of Fatah Congress in Bethlehem" Israel Resource Review, By David Bedein (4/8/2009) "Sixth Fatah Congress: The Myth of Moderation" CAMERA (12/8/2009): The media has long promoted Fatah — in contrast to Hamas — as the party of Palestinian political moderates seeking peace with Israel, while glossing over evidence to the contrary. (See "Is Fatah Moderate?") "Nobody Here but Us Moderates" Commentary Magazine, By Noah Pollack (13/8/2009):

Who to believe in reportage of the Fatah conference: the New York Times’s Isabel Kershner or Khaled Abu Toameh, the Jerusalem Post’s veteran reporter on the Palestinians, himself an Arab Muslim?

Kershner:

The new leaders [elected at the conference] are considered more pragmatic than their predecessors and grew up locally, in contrast to the exile-dominated leadership they are replacing. . . . By the end, many of the participants seemed buoyant. They said that Fatah, led by the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, had emerged from the conference energized and more unified than it had been in years.

The rest of her report is a litany of mostly self-serving quotes from Fatah leaders, interspersed with Kershner’s own credulous analysis.

Reading Toameh, one wonders if they attended the same event:

The assumption that [the newly-elected] Muhammad Dahlan, Jibril Rajoub, Marwan Barghouti and Tawfik Tirawi are more moderate than old-timers like Ahmed Qurei, Nabil Sha’ath and Hani al-Hassan is completely mistaken. . . .

In fact, all the newly-elected Central Committee members voted during the Fatah convention in Bethlehem last week in favor of a political platform that does not rule out the armed struggle option against Israel.

Jerusalem Post Guest Blog: Is Israel responsible for Palestinian misery?

2009-08-24T14:58:00.001+03:00

The Jerusalem Post Blog, By David Turner (23/8/2009) At Camp David in 2000, Yasser Arafat rejected Israel's offer to return to the 1967 pre-war borders with minor land swaps, East Jerusalem as Palestinian capital, the return of refugees to unite Israeli Arab families, and compensation for Arab refugees settling outside of Israel.

Seven years later, Mahmoud Abbas is reported to have turned down a better offer, and for the same reason: the demand that Israel absorb "all refugees and their descendents."

Do the Palestinians want independence and sovereignty? Put differently and more to the point, are their leaders willing to share what was previously Mandatory Palestine with an independent Jewish state?

In 1947, the Palestinian leadership turned down any division of the land leading to Jewish independence. The result was what they now describe as the nakba, the loss not only of the opportunity for their own state, but also the creation of the Palestinian Diaspora and their 60+ year-long refugee problem.

Fifty years later, in 1998, Yasser Arafat turned down Netanyahu and Clinton at the Wye River summit, and two years after that refused Ehud Barak and Clinton at Camp David, turning down concessions many believe to be maximum Israel can offer if it is to survive as an independent state...

So, do the Palestinians want a state? Maybe, but apparently not one that also provides for a Jewish state...

Israel is a partner in Palestinian misery because status quo, even with terror and Intifada, is easier than the difficulties of achieving peace.

But primary responsibility for 60+ years of Palestinian misery lies squarely at the doorstep of the Palestinians themselves. To remain true to their 1947 decision of all-or-nothing to the lands of Mandatory Palestine through the demand that Israel absorb all "refugees" is nothing less than a guarantee of continued statelessness, perpetual reaffirmation of their Nakba.

Until the Palestinians manage to produce a leader of the caliber of a Ben-Gurion, a politician with the intelligence and acumen to appreciate that compromise and accommodation are the path to statehood, they will continue a people of the Diaspora, apparently content in their misery, a self-pitying and dignity-less existence. That is their curse, and their choice.

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Israel says UN covering up Iran's nuclear arms drive

2009-08-21T15:48:00.002+03:00

Agence France Presse (19/8/2009)

JERUSALEM — Israel is accusing the UN nuclear weapons watchdog of holding back incriminating evidence of Iran's drive to obtain nuclear weapons, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday.

It cited unnamed Israeli officials as saying the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was refraining from publishing data obtained in recent months that indicates Iran is pursing information about weaponisation efforts and a military nuclear programme.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is to vacate his post in December, has said the UN watchdog does not have any evidence suggesting Iran is developing a nuclear weapons programme.

But Haaretz cited officials as saying the new evidence was presented to the IAEA in a classified annex written by its inspectors and said to have been signed by the head of the inspection team in Iran.

The document was not included in the final report, it said...

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Hamas rejects elections, Arab normalization with Israel

2009-08-21T15:45:00.001+03:00

Xinhua, By Saud Abu Ramadan (19/8/2009)

GAZA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Hamas movement rejected on Wednesday participation in Palestinian elections early next year unless a reconciliation deal is reached with rival Fatah party.

Hamas sources in Gaza stressed that the movement would never go to legislative and presidential elections on Jan. 25 before signing a reconciliation deal that ends the current internal rift.

"Ending the file of political prisoners in the West Bank, and reaching a reconciliation agreement are conditions for holding the elections on time. Otherwise, the idea will be rejected for sure," the sources told Xinhua.

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Israel Says Russia May Reconsider Plans to Sell Missiles to Iran

2009-08-21T15:35:00.003+03:00

The New York Times, By Ellen Barry (19/8/2009)

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, right, shakes hands with Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres, left. AP Photo.

MOSCOW — The Israeli president, Shimon Peres, said Wednesday that his Russian counterpart, Dmitri A. Medvedev, had promised to reconsider Russia’s plans to provide advanced surface-to-air missiles to Iran, a deal that Washington has also sought to halt.

The missiles would offer Iran considerable confidence that it could prevent airstrikes on its nuclear sites...

Mr. Peres spoke about the missiles at a morning news conference in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, after talks with Mr. Medvedev there on Tuesday. He said Mr. Medvedev “gave a promise he will reconsider the sales of the S-300 because this affects the delicate balance which exists already in the Middle East, and will enforce, in my judgment, the aggressive intentions of Iran.”

Israel and many Western nations suspect that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon, while Iran says its nuclear program is solely for generating electricity. Israel has repeatedly raised the possibility of airstrikes to halt Iran’s nuclear progress.

Blocking the missile deal has been one of the United States’ goals in its pursuit of improved relations with Moscow...

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Israel fury at Sweden organ claim

2009-08-21T15:27:00.002+03:00

BBC News (21/8/2009) Israel is to lodge an official complaint with Sweden over claims in a newspaper that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to sell their organs.

The article was published in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet this week.

The Swedish ambassador to Israel condemned the newspaper article as "shocking and appalling".

The government in Stockholm has not issued a similar condemnation, and Israeli foreign ministry officials have reacted furiously.

"It is regrettable that the Swedish foreign ministry does not intervene when it comes to a blood libel against Jews," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

"[This] reminds one of Sweden's conduct during World War II, when it also did not intervene."

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Obama and Israel, Into the Abyss

2009-08-17T17:47:00.002+03:00

Philadelphia Bulletin, By Daniel Pipes (21/7/2009)

What I dubbed the Obama administration's "rapid and harsh turn against Israel" has had three quick, predictable, and counter-productive results. These point to further difficulties ahead.

First result: Barack Obama's decision to get tough with Israel translates into escalating Palestinian demands on Israel. In early July, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat, his top negotiator, insisted on five unilateral concessions by Israel:

An independent Palestinian state;
Israel shrunk to its pre-June 1967 borders, minus a Palestinian land-bridge between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip;
A Palestinian "right of return" to Israel;
Resolution of all permanent status issues on the basis of the 2002 Abdullah plan; and
A complete stop to building by Jews in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Palestinians and Americans are the intended audience for this preemptory list; such exorbitant demands, the record shows, only reduces Israeli willingness to make concessions...

Third result: The U.S. demand has prompted an Israeli resolve not to bend but to reiterate its traditional positions. Oren rejected State's demand. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who confessed to being "surprised" by the U.S. demand, assured colleagues "I won't cave in on this matter."

Publicly, Netanyahu closed the door on concessions. Insisting that Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem "cannot be challenged," he noted that "residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city" and pointedly recalled that "in recent years hundreds of apartments in Jewish neighborhoods and in the western part of the city have been purchased by – or rented to – Arab residents and we did not interfere.

"This says that there is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the western part of the city and there is no ban on Jews buying or building apartments in the eastern part of the city. This is the policy of an open city, an undivided city that has no separation according to religion or national affiliation."

Then, his blistering finale: "We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and purchase in all parts of Jerusalem. I can only describe to myself what would happen if someone would propose that Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods in New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a major international outcry. Accordingly, we cannot agree to such a decree in Jerusalem."

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Hezbollah vows tougher reaction than 2006 if Israel attacks

2009-08-12T12:34:00.002+03:00

Xinhua (10/8/2009)

BEIRUT -- Hezbollah's Executive Council Chief Hashem Safiyyeddine warned Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the organization will take tougher reactions than that during the second Lebanon war if Israel attacks again, the local El-Nashra website reported on Monday.

"If Barak's threats were serious, though I don't think they were, he should be aware that if he commits an error or stupid act against Lebanon... he will discover that the months of July and August 2006 were just a bit of fun," Safiyyeddine said... Click here for full story

Lebanon army on alert after reported IDF build-up on border

2009-08-12T12:31:00.001+03:00

Haaretz, By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff, Zohar Blumenkrantz, and Irit Rosenblum, and DPA (10/8/2009) Tension mounted Monday in southern Lebanon after Israeli forces reportedly advanced to the area of the Shaba farms, forcing the Lebanese army on alert, a Lebanese army source said. The source said three armored Israeli vehicles, accompanied by a civilian car, advanced towards Shaba Farms, located at the junction of south-east Lebanon, south-west Syria and northern Israel... Click here for full story

Iran Executes Seven Lawyers

2009-08-12T12:27:00.002+03:00

CBN News (7/8/2009)

MASHHAD, Iran - Seven lawyers representing young Iranians being held for protesting the recent presidential election have been killed, The Jerusalem Post reported on Friday.

According to anonymous Iranian sources who spoke with the Post by telephone, the killings took place in two cities - Tabriz and Mashhad.

The bodies of five of the lawyers, who were representing many of the young Iranians imprisoned by the government, were delivered to their families in Tabriz earlier in the week.

According to the sources, some family members were sentenced to three-year prison terms for "disrupting security" and "encouraging unethical actions" against the Iranian regime.

Three of the attorneys had been beaten to death, their swollen faces barely recognizable by their families...

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2009-08-10T14:53:00.000+03:00

Fatah's 6th General Assembly Coverage

2009-08-10T13:27:00.005+03:00

"Fatah set for West Bank conference" Al Jazeera (3/8/2009) "Fatah commits to Israel Peace Talks in Party Draft" The Associated Press (3/8/2009) "Abbas: Popular resistance to go on" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (4/8/2009): The Palestinians will not resume peace talks with Israel unless Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government accepts a two-state solution and halts settlement construction "in the West Bank and Jerusalem," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Tuesday...Abbas boasted that the PA had succeeded in mobilizing the world to exert pressure on Israel to halt construction in the settlements, accept the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 and fulfill its obligations in accordance with the road map for peace in the Middle East... "Fatah Seeks to Expand Influence" The Wall Street Journal, By Margaret Coker and Joshua Mitnick (4/8/2009) "Abbas Urges 'New Start' at Fatah Conference" The New York Times, By Isabel Kershner (4/8/2009) "Delegates gather for Fatah congress" Al Jazeera (4/8/2009) "Profile: Fatah Palestinian movement" BBC News (4/8/2009) "Can Fatah reinvent itself?" BBC News, By Heather Sharp (4/8/2009) "Mideast media say Gaza overshadows conference" BBC News (4/8/2009) "Palestinian rift worse than Israel" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (5/8/2009): Saudi King Abdullah told Fatah delegates meeting in Bethlehem Wednesday that divisions among the Palestinians were more damaging to their cause of an independent state than the Israeli "enemy..." "The arrogant and criminal enemy was not able, during years of continued aggression, to hurt the Palestinian cause as much as the Palestinians hurt their cause themselves in the past few months," Abdullah said in the letter... "At Palestinian congress, Abbas urges nonviolent resistance" The Los Angeles Times, By Richard Boudreaux (5/8/2009) "No talks unless Israel frees prisoners" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (6/8/2009): Fatah delegates meeting here Thursday resolved not to renew peace negotiations with Israel until all Palestinian prisoners are released from Israeli jails, all settlement-building is frozen and the Gaza blockade is lifted... "Fatah extends stormy conference" BBC News (6/8/2009) "Fatah searches for renewal" The Economist (6/8/2009) "Fatah voting delayed by divisions" BBC News (7/8/2009) "Fatah reform problems highlight Palestinian split" Reuters, By Douglas Hamilton (7/8/2009) "We'll sacrifice victims until Jerusalem is ours" Haaretz (8/8/2009): ...According to Israel Radio, the Fatah general conference, which convened in Bethlehem for a three-day gathering, adopted a position paper which also states that the Palestinian national enterprise will not reach fruition until all of Jerusalem, including the outlying villages, come under Palestinian sovereignty... "Fatah will continue to sacrifice victims until Jerusalem will be returned [to the Palestinians], clean of settlements and settlers," the paper states... "Fatah: Jerusalem must be made void of settlers" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (8/8/2009) "The agony of Fatah" The Financial Times (9/8/2009)

The Iranian Threat Coverage

2009-08-10T13:10:00.003+03:00

"Time's running out for Obama in Iran" The Guardian, By Simon Tisdall (3/8/2009): Humiliated by North Korea's nuclear defiance, struggling to keep Israel on side in planned Middle East peace talks, and with engagement undermined by the regime's brutality, Obama still wants to talk to Iran – but may lack the political strength to keep the path to dialogue open much longer. His officials are already anticipating that moment. "Clinton: No illusions about Iran talks" The Associated Press (9/8/2009) "America will confront Iran alone if the United Nations dithers" Times Online, By Bronwen Maddox (4/8/2009) "There is a Military Option on Iran" The Wall Street Journal, By Chuck Wald (6/8/2009): The military can play an important role in solving this complex problem without firing a single shot. Publicly signaling serious preparation for a military strike might obviate the need for one if deployments force Tehran to recognize the costs of its nuclear defiance. Mr. Obama might consider, for example, the deployment of additional carrier battle groups and minesweepers to the waters off Iran, and the conduct of military exercises with allies.

If such pressure fails to impress Iranian leadership, the U.S. Navy could move to blockade Iranian ports. A blockade—which is an act of war—would effectively cut off Iran’s gasoline imports, which constitute about one-third of its consumption. Especially in the aftermath of post-election protests, the Iranian leadership must worry about the economic dislocations and political impact of such action.

Should these measures not compel Tehran to reverse course on its nuclear program, and only after all other diplomatic avenues and economic pressures have been exhausted, the U.S. military is capable of launching a devastating attack on Iranian nuclear and military facilities... But the risks of military action must be weighed against those of doing nothing. If the Iranian regime continues to advance its nuclear program despite the best efforts of Mr. Obama and other world leaders, we risk Iranian domination of the oil-rich Persian Gulf, threats to U.S.-allied Arab regimes, the emboldening of radicals in the region, the creation of an existential threat to Israel, the destabilization of Iraq, the shutdown of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, and a regional nuclear-arms race...

"Iran in arms race with Israel" Al Jazeera, By Paul Beaver (6/8/2009) "Countdown" Al Jazeera (6/8/2009): As mutual fear, mistrust and polarisation increases between Iran and Israel, an arms race between the two sworn enemies is gathering momentum. Central to this is the Russian-made S-300 missile system. "NKorea, Iran use similar script to get their way" The Associated Press, By Brian Murphy (6/8/2009) "Hezbollah rockets part of Iran and Israel's political game of chess" Times Online, By Richard Beeston (5/8/2009) "Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border" Times Online, By Richard Beeston (5/8/2009)

Obama's Middle East Peace Plan Coverage

2009-08-10T11:52:00.005+03:00

"Barack Obama is close to revealing plan for Middle East peace" Times Online , By James Hider and Tim Reid (5/8/2009): “...In the coming weeks, their plan will be formulated and presented to the parties,” Mr Barak told the parliamentary foreign and defence committee. “I believe that Israel must take the lead in accepting the plan...” No details were released, although it is thought that the plan is based on an Arab initiative whereby Israel would gain recognition from the Arab world in return for the creation of a Palestinian state... It is thought that the plan will have a broader regional approach than previous peace efforts, and will include the participation of Syria, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.The Palestinian leadership refuses to resume negotiations until all settlement construction ceases... "Obama's faltering peace drive" The Guardian, By Simon Tisdall (27/7/2009): ...Obama's peace drive, like some other of his flagship policies, has faltered. Now the Americans are publicly making nice while continuing to press hard in private. US envoy George Mitchell stressed the enduring strength of bilateral friendship. Defence secretary Robert Gates is offering security reassurance in talks on missile defence and Iran. Meanwhile, a deal on freezing Jewish settlement construction for a fixed, possibly six-month period, with the exception of 700 buildings now under construction, is reportedly edging closer – although no announcements are expected this week.The response from the Arab neighbours and the Palestinians to any such deal will be crucial if Obama is to achieve negotiating lift-off... "U.S. Wants Israel to Freeze Settlements For Year - Report" Reuters (6/8/2009) "Saudis reject call for Israel Ties" Al Jazeera (1/8/2009)

Fatah prepares for 6th General Assembly

2009-08-05T00:31:00.003+03:00

The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (4/8/2009) Fatah is scheduled to launch its sixth General Assembly in Bethlehem on Tuesday, amid growing skepticism that the faction will succeed in implementing major reforms or endorsing a more moderate attitude toward the conflict with Israel. The conference, which is supposed to bring together more than 2,000 delegates, is the first since 1989...

Many Fatah officials said on Monday that they would strongly oppose any attempt to drop the armed struggle option from the faction's political program that was endorsed in 1989.

According to a draft of the proposed political program that was leaked to the Palestinian media on Monday, the Fatah leadership plans to replace the term "armed struggle" with "resistance."

The new program would state that while Fatah supports the peace process with Israel, it maintains the right to continue the "resistance" to achieve the goals of the Palestinians.

"Negotiations with Israel were not part of Fatah's culture," said Jamal Nazzal, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank.

He declared that Fatah had never recognized Israel's right to exist and denied that his faction had asked Hamas or any other Palestinian party to do so...

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Ziosweat Photos: Beef Tour visits Israel

2009-08-03T02:44:00.009+03:00

Analysis: Depressing signs from Riyadh, Ramallah and Damascus

2009-08-02T16:46:00.002+03:00

The Jerusalem Post, By Herb Keinon (2/8/2009) Call it the three noes of the summer of '09. Following intensive efforts by US Mideast envoy George Mitchell to relaunch a diplomatic process in the region that would lead to a comprehensive peace process, the Arab world over the weekend - in three seemingly disconnected events - seemed to give its response, and it sounded like echoes of the famous three noes from Khartoum following the Six Day War...

Sources in Jerusalem were less diplomatic.

"For many years most of the Arab world was not involved directly in the peace process. It was like a soccer game, and they chose not to be a player, but rather to sit in the stands and boo or cheer," one senior government source said.

"If they decide to continue with that pattern of behavior they will continue to be largely irrelevant," the source said. "They can continue booing and cheering, but their ability to influence the peace process will be marginal."

And then, sounding a warning that Israel was indeed watching carefully to see what gesture the Arab world would make, the official added, "It is clear that Israel's ability to move forward in the peace process will be more limited if the Arab world takes a decision to remain aloof."

Six months after US President Barack Obama took over and began seriously recalibrating the country's Middle East policy, and a week after he sent his A-Team here for intensive discussions, this is what he has to show for it: an Israeli public that, as recent polls indicate, doesn't trust him; and an Arab world that remains unwilling, despite all his coddling, to make any practical move or gesture toward Israel - not promises of normalization at the end of the process, but practical steps that would give Israelis any confidence in any of those promises.

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Iran's "show trial" of foes hurts system: Khatami

2009-08-02T16:27:00.002+03:00

Reuters, By Parisa Hafezi (2/8/2009)

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have tightened pressure on their opponents by staging what former President Mohammad Khatami derided on Sunday as a "show trial" of 100 reformists accused of trying to instigate a "velvet revolution."

...The political uncertainty has posed fresh challenges for Western powers which had hoped to engage the Islamic Republic in substantive talks on its nuclear program, which they suspect has military purposes, not only civilian ones as Iran insists.

Another potential source of friction with the United States arose on Saturday when Iran arrested three American hikers who an Iraqi Kurdish official said had strayed across the border.

Washington said it was taking the case very seriously.

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Palestinian peace-making, through the eyes of a Diaspora Jew

2009-08-02T00:44:00.003+03:00

Haaretz, Adam Abrams (17/7/2009) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and various Western leaders have taken of late to touting the "illegal Jewish settlements" in the West Bank as a major obstacle to peace. After visiting the settlements and coming to know them intimately first hand, I can agree that in many ways they do indeed complicate matters. Nevertheless, forcing the settlers to leave the West Bank will not create peace, nor will it create a viable Palestinian state. Why? Because there is no viable peace partner to be found within the Palestinian leadership. I also believe that if Israel were to withdraw from the West Bank right now, Hamas would take control the following morning. Let's say the Jewish settlers were all moved out of the West Bank and a Palestinian state was created there. Who would rule this newly declared Palestinian state? Mahmoud Abbas? Hamas? The Islamic Jihad? If Abbas were put in control of the new Palestinian state, how would he implement a peace agreement with Israel? One thing that is certain: He would find no willing peace partners in the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip. Over the last fifteen years, the Palestinian Authority has received approximately $6.5 billion in aid from the European Union and United States yet, what do they have to show for it? ...The majority of Israelis do not want to occupy the West Bank, and they accept the two-state solution. The majority of Israelis want to disengage from the Palestinians and because of this, a Palestinian state could greatly benefit Israel. However, the formation of a Palestinian state is still many generations away from becoming a reality. Click here for full story

Netanyahu says he seeks peace with Palestinians

2009-07-24T05:43:00.003+03:00

Reuters, By Dan Williams (23/7/2009) * Israeli prime minister says he seeks peace; no specifics * Netanyahu welcomes Bahrain call for "action in good faith" * Abbas aide says talks could resume "immediately" (Recasts with new quotes, details and background) HERZLIYA, Israel, July 23 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he hoped to forge peace with the Palestinians and welcomed Arab overtures as a possible starting point, but offered no details on how it could be done. The right-wing Israeli leader's comments came shortly before U.S. President Barack Obama's peace envoy, George Mitchell, visits the region for a new push to resume negotiations, stalled for months over controversy about settlement building... Click here for full story Click here for transcript of the PM's press conference

'Hamas may get its claws into Gaza reconstruction funds'

2009-07-24T05:33:00.002+03:00

The Jerusalem Post, By Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon (24/7/2009) Increasingly concerned that Hamas will steal money donated for Gaza's rehabilitation, the Defense Ministry distributed a document this week revealing that unions affiliated with the terrorist group have set up joint committees with UN agencies that dispense humanitarian aid.

The document was distributed to the Foreign Ministry, Finance Ministry and the Israeli intelligence community, and was also sent to the United States to warn it that the $900 million it has pledged to help rebuild the Gaza Strip could fall into Hamas hands.

"All humanitarian aid sent into the Gaza Strip today needs to receive Hamas clearance," a senior defense official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "Hamas uses violence against international organizations, including UNRWA, if they do not cooperate."

Hamas recently published an ad in a Palestinian newspaper warning that "whoever does not follow its orders will be forced to leave Gaza."

Click here for full story Other Hamas Articles: "Hamas Shifts From Rockets to Public Relation," The New York Times, By Ethan Bronner (23/7/2009) "Italian FM: Hamas Influence Holding up ME Peace," Arutz Sheva (23/7/2009)

Israel government wins praise for steps to boost Arab sector businesses

2009-07-24T05:31:00.000+03:00

Haaretz, By Nadav Shemer (23/7/2009) The head of Israel's Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development believes that Benjamin Netanyahu's government has undergone a welcome policy shift on boosting business ventures in the Arab sector, citing the creation of a private equity fund precisely for that purpose. CJAED executive chairman Eytan Biderman and director Helmi Kittani praised the launch of the fund, saying that the need to integrate Arab sector into the Israeli workforce - which their organization has been promoting for over two decades - "is now recognized as national policy." Click here for full story

Israeli FM starts Latin America tour to counter Iran

2009-07-24T05:26:00.001+03:00

Agence France Press, By Marc Burleigh (22/7/2009) SAO PAULO — Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday began a 10-day tour of Latin America aimed at countering growing Iranian influence in the region...

Brazil, the region's biggest economy, is seen as the most important leg of the Latin America trip, according to the Israeli ambassador to the country, Giora Becher.

While bilateral trade is meager though growing -- amounting to 1.6 billion dollars last year, according to the Brazilian government -- the political dimension is increasingly important...

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Arab Affairs

2009-07-23T04:42:00.005+03:00

Palestinian Affairs: "Amman revoking Palestinians' citizenship" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (20/7/2009): Jordanian authorities have started revoking the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians living in Jordan to avoid a situation in which they would be "resettled" permanently in the kingdom, Jordanian and Palestinian officials revealed on Monday. The new measure has increased tensions between Jordanians and Palestinians, who make up around 70 percent of the kingdom's population... "Ma'aleh Adumim, Gilo are no different" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (20/7/2009): The Palestinian Authority is hoping that the intervention of the US State Department with Israel to halt a construction project in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood would be the first step toward taking action against new homes in Jewish neighborhoods established in the parts of the city annexed after 1967..."These attempts [by Israel] will fail and east Jerusalem will become the eternal capital of our Palestinian state," Fayad said, calling for an end to settlement construction in all the Palestinian territories, "including Jerusalem and its surroundings." "Blast injures 50 at wedding for nephew of Fatah leader" CNN (21/7/2009): A large explosion late Tuesday at a wedding party for relatives of a Fatah leader injured at least 50 people in Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said... Syrian and Lebanese Affairs "Honour killings in Syria - The law changes. Will attitudes?" The Economist (16/7/2009): BASHAR ASSAD, Syria’s president, has made it a bit harder for men to kill their daughters and sisters for the sake of “honour”. The crime had previously carried no minimum sentence; the maximum was a year. Now, a presidential decree has made a small but significant change: honour-killers must face at least two years in prison... "Lebanese army says suspects were planning foreign attacks" CNN (21/7/2009): The Lebanese army has arrested 10 suspected members of a terrorist network who the military believes were planning to attack targets abroad, the army said.Most of the suspects are not from Lebanon, said the army...

Obama's first six months, Reuters Video

2009-07-23T04:30:00.001+03:00

Jul 22 - In his first six months in the White House, President Barack Obama has seen his approval ratings slip about 10 percentage points as he takes on a battered U.S. economy.

Jon Decker reports.

Reports: Iran reactor to be switched on this year

2009-07-23T00:27:00.002+03:00

The Associated Press (22/7/2009)

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian news agencies quote the country's nuclear agency chief as saying a Russian-built nuclear power reactor in Iran is still set to be switched on this year.

State-run RIA-Novosti and ITAR-Tass quote Sergei Kiriyenko as saying plans remain for a start-up of the reactor near the Iranian city of Bushehr by the end of the year.

Russia is helping Iran build its first nuclear power plant as part of a program Iran says is purely peaceful. The United States and Israel say it is meant to develop atomic weapons.

Officials in Russia and Iran had previously announced plans to switch the reactor on this year. But that was cast in doubt last month when reports quoted the head of the Russian company building the plant as saying there had been problems with financing.

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ANALYSIS-Iran's hardline leaders failing to stem discontent

2009-07-23T00:22:00.002+03:00

Reuters, By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent (21/7/2009) * Iran's post-election power struggle persists * Turmoil dims prospects for nuclear dialogue with West * Rafsanjani sermon emboldens opposition * Khamenei faces unprecedented challenge to authority "I fear Ahmadinejad's presence serves as an insurmountable obstacle to confidence-building with the United States," Carnegie's Sadjadpour said of the prospects for engagement. "It's going to be impossible for Tehran to reassure us that its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful as long as Ahmadinejad remains so outspokenly belligerent towards Israel." (Editing by Jon Hemming) Click here for full story

US pledges to defend Gulf against Iran (Financial Times, NY Times, Al Jazeera, Reuters)

2009-07-23T00:06:00.004+03:00

Financial Times, By Daniel Dombey and Tim Johnston (22/7/2009)

Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that the US was ready to guarantee the safety of its Gulf allies against Iran and would increase pressure on North Korea, as she set out Washington’s strategy to tackle nuclear proliferation from Tehran and Pyongyang.

Speaking on a visit to Thailand, the US secretary of state sought to counter recent setbacks to the Obama administration’s plans for negotiations with Iran by insisting that the US could “extend a defence umbrella over the [Gulf] region” if Tehran developed a nuclear weapon.

In the face of recent missile and nuclear tests by North Korea and worries about its military and possibly nuclear links with Burma, she also argued that Pyongyang would be subjected to “unrelenting” sanctions unless it irreversibly ended its nuclear weapons programme...

But her remarks were immediately attacked by Israel. Dan Meridor, intelligence service minister, said Mrs Clinton’s remarks made it seem as if the US were “already resigned” to a nuclear-armed Iran. “This is a mistake,” he said, according to Reuters. “We cannot act now by assuming that Iran will be able to arm itself with a nuclear weapon, but to prevent such a possibility.”

Click here for the Financial Times, "Us pledges to defend Gulf against Iran"

The New York Times, "Clinton Warns North Korea and Iran"

Al Jazeera, "US mulls Gulf defences against Iran"

Reuters, "Clinton outlines how US might deal with nuclear Iran"

Israel to Lebanon: stop border violations

2009-07-22T23:56:00.003+03:00

The Associated Press, By Edith M. Lederer (20/7/2009) UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Israel urged the Lebanese government and U.N. peacekeepers on Monday to prevent Hezbollah militants and their supporters from violating its territory and jeopardizing the fragile stability along the border.

The resolution, which ended the inconclusive 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, put the zone under the control of 15,000 Lebanese troops and a 13,300-member U.N. peacekeeping force. It prohibited Hezbollah from engaging in military activities in south Lebanon and banned weapon smuggling to the group...

Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev cited three recent incidents that she said were "severe violations" of the U.N. resolution.

In the first, on July 14, a Hezbollah arms cache exploded...

Three days later, 15 Lebanese civilians crossed the U.N.-drawn Blue Line...

The July 17 incident took place near a position manned by U.N. peacekeepers, but Shalev said the force, known as UNIFIL, "refrained from taking any action to prevent the crossing of these individuals into Israeli territory."

...A third serious incident took place the following day, July 18...

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Israel to demolish 23 illegal settlements in one day

2009-07-22T23:52:00.001+03:00

The Guardian, By Ian Black (21/7/2009) Israel is planning to remove 23 "illegal outposts" from the West Bank in the course of a single day in response to mounting US demands that it halt all settlement activity, it was reported today.

These outposts are defined as illegal by the Israeli government because they have not received planning permission. But under international law all settlements built on occupied territory are illegal. According to the Ha'aretz newspaper the outposts, housing 1,200 people, will all be evacuated and dismantled simultaneously following a decision by the Likud prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu...

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'US, Israel rift on settlement issue to be resolved soon'

2009-07-22T23:48:00.002+03:00

The Jerusalem Post (22/7/2009) Israel's Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said that the disagreement between America and Israel on the settlement issue would be resolved soon. In an interview with Israel radio Wednesday, Oren claimed that there was no confrontation and no tension between the two countries... Click here for full story

From Israel to the N.B.A., Missing the Hummus

2009-07-22T23:40:00.003+03:00

The New York Times, By Howard Beck (18/7/2009) LAS VEGAS — The first Israeli in the N.B.A., Omri Casspi, is busily trying to adapt to life in the United States...

Then there are weightier adjustments, like getting used to being the greatest hope in Israeli basketball history.

No Israeli has ever played in the N.B.A. Until last month, none had ever been drafted in the first round.

When the Kings took Casspi with the 23rd pick, he became the first Israeli to secure a guaranteed contract, which will almost assuredly make him the first to play in an N.B.A. game...

Casspi’s arrival has energized Jews in Sacramento. A large contingent — many wearing jerseys with Casspi’s name spelled in Hebrew — turned out for a postdraft rally. They have taken Casspi on tours of the city and offered assistance in finding a house, a car and, naturally, some good restaurants.

“I feel blessed, really, to be in this situation,” Casspi said.

He is, however, still searching for a good Israeli restaurant and a worthy tub of hummus.

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Czech, Israel seek more cooperation in science, technology

2009-07-22T23:22:00.002+03:00

Ceske Noviny (22/7/2009) Jerusalem/Prague - Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer is on visit to Israel to seek further possibilities of cooperation in science and technology between the two countries, Fischer´s spokesman Roman Prorok told CTK after Fischer´s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today...

Trade between the two countries is five times higher now than in 2003, or one year before the Czech Republic joined the European Union, Hovorka recalled.

Peres and Fischer agreed that their countries have a very great cooperation potential, particularly in science and the economy.

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Ziosweat Israel International Media Monitoring (July 12-19, 2009)

2009-07-20T03:04:00.007+03:00

Sources Monitored: CNN, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, BBC News, The Associated Press, Reuters

The Iranian Threat and the Disputed Presidential Election After-Math:

Recent intensification of coverage of Israel’s preparation for a potential war with Iran continues to hit the international media. The Associated Press (AP) reports on a successful Israeli anti-missile live fire test, while The Times reports that two Israeli missile class warships on Tuesday sailed through the Suez Canal 10 days after an Israeli submarine capable of launching nuclear missile strikes also sailed through the Suez Canal.

Ziosweat Analysis: The reason behind the sudden increase in exposure of the Israeli Defense Forces’ activities in international media may be directly linked with failing U.S. policies in Iran. President Barack Obama has preached about “exhausting diplomatic efforts” since his campaign, and continues to do so. Since the widespread police and militia brutality against the election protesters in Iran, the world and the U.S. public are starting to understand that perhaps these are not the kind of leaders that you can have constructive, diplomatic talks with. So far the Iranian leaders (Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) have not implied in any way a halt to their nuclear ambitions or an interest in serious talks with the Obama Administration. Moreover, “if Obama now spoke with Ahmadinejad, it would be as if he were granting legitimacy to an oppressive and violent regime.“ Yaakov Katz, a journalist for The Jerusalem Post continues, “This is where Israel comes into play. Biden can use Israel to threaten Iran that if it doesn't settle down at the negotiating table, who knows what the Netanyahu government might do.” Katz mentions U.S. Vice President Biden because Biden has recently said in an ABC interview that “Israel can determine for itself - it's a sovereign nation - what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”

Troublesome news from both the AP and Haaretz state that Iran could have a nuclear bomb within six months. Al Jazeera and AP articles analyze U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s address to the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington on Wednesday. Her address was described by Al Jazeera as a “strong message to Iran, saying it is running out of time to engage in dialogue over its nuclear programme to avoid further isolation or even military action.”

Political instability continues to be the theme in Iranian news, as a key Iranian cleric, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned Iranian leaders and called on Friday for the release of people arrested after last month’s disputed presidential election, CNN reports. He warned: "The system cannot lose them. If the system reproaches them they will come back to us." The Guardian published an article revealing Iran’s next move: intimidation, as Iranian police officers publicly hanged 13 “convicted terrorists” in south-eastern Iran this week. Ian Black, the Middle East editor for The Guardian writes: “Analysts believe this spate of executions is meant to assert the regime's authority amid the worst unrest Iran has seen since the 1979 revolution.”

IDF Soldiers’ claims of irregularities during Cast Lead

This week there has been widespread international media focus on a group of (unidentified) IDF soldiers who claim that there were “irregularities” during the operation Cast Lead in Gaza six months ago. These anonymous soldiers claim that Palestinians were used as human shields, CNN reports, or that there were “no clear red lines” (AP). Al Jazeera, who also covered the scoop stated that “the Israeli military has rejected the criticisms leveled against it, saying in a statement the they were ‘based on hearsay’.”

Ziosweat Analysis: Besides what a small group of unidentified people are claiming, it is an indisputable fact that the IDF is one of the world’s most moral armies. More on this coming up on Ziosweat. The reason such loose accusations (no information whatsoever was provided about the so-called “irregularities” or the people involved) receive so much international media attention is because of its clear bias to report news that shed light on Israel in an unflattering way. I have heard this phenomenon in first person from a local journalist who is one of the first people international media contacts in the event of a story in the West Bank or Gaza. He said to me that if there was an IDF soldier shouting at a Palestinian it is possible that CNN would send a helicopter to cover the incident. But if there are public executions of several Arab journalists in the middle of a public square in Ramallah, international journalists do not view it as an adequate story.

Lebanon: Hezbollah Explosion, Rearming

International media widely reported on an explosion of a two-story building that held Hezbollah arms cashe in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. The UN called it a “serious violation” (AP) while Haaretz reported that the UN learned of the Hezbollah arms cache months ago. The New York Times noted how this incident is “evidence of Hezbollah’s rearming” and how “this epitomizes the problem that we are facing in south Lebanon,” Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, head of the Israeli military’s operations branch, said in a telephone briefing for foreign journalists. “This non-state terror organization is growing and becoming a semi-military organization. It poses a major threat to the state of Israel.”

Following the incident the AP reported later in the week that Lebanese villagers threw stones at U.N. peacekeeping troops, lightly injuring 14 soldiers, in an attempt to prevent an investigation near the site of the recent explosion. AP continues, “under the U.N. resolution, a 13,300-member U.N. peacekeeping force from 28 nations was deployed along Lebanon's border with Israel to help 15,000 Lebanese government troops extend their authority into the south for the first time in decades and create a buffer zone free of Hezbollah fighters.”

Ziosweat Analysis: This so-called U.N. peacekeeping troops is one of the biggest security liabilities in the modern history of peacekeeping. Three years after the war ended with Hezbollah, they have now managed to rearm from about 3,000 rockets to almost 50,000 rockets that now have the capabilities of reaching most of Israel, including Tel Aviv. Right under the nose of over 13,000 U.N. troops. This was highlighted in an article published earlier this month by Maariv with the headline “Hezbollah can hit Tel Aviv with 600 rockets daily, for 60 days.” Hezbollah has claimed that their goal is to reach 1,000 rockets daily, for 60 days.

Jewish Settlements

Ziosweat Analysis: One of the biggest issues since U.S. President Obama took office earlier this year has been the Jewish Settlements in the West Bank. No other topic receives such diverse coverage in the international press. Most coverage condemns the continuous building of settlements, while domestic coverage tries to, as always, focus on the real obstacle to peace which is the Palestinian leadership’s refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State and the threat of a nuclear Iran.

A prominent journalist who explains this issue with both clarity and blatancy is Khaled Abu Toameh, an Israeli-Arab journalist with a Palestinian mother. He says, “I wish the settlements were the problem” because it can be solved by the Israelis. If settlements were the problem, he argues, then Gaza would now be at peace. After all, the Israelis pulled out in 2005. But the result has been war — war among the Palestinians, war with Israel. “The real obstacle to peace is not a Jew building a settlement but the failure of the Palestinians to have a government. Is there a partner on the Palestinian side for peace talks? No.”

Moreover, Mr. Abu Toameh accurately claims that the “high-profile controversy over Israel's policy of building new homes for Jewish settlements has in fact facilitated Hamas's mission.”

Palestinian Leadership: Hamas, Fatah, PA, PLO

The Jerusalem Post reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated last Sunday his refusal to resume peace talks with Israel unless Binyamin Netanyahu's government accepted the two-state solution and agreed to freeze all construction in the settlements in the West Bank. One week later the newspaper reports that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad has made a fresh appeal to the United States for a plan and a timetable aimed at resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. "I call anew on the United States to come up with a plan and a timetable for its application that will contribute to put an end to Jewish settlements and Israeli offensives, and lead to serious negotiations," Fayad was quoted by AFP as saying on Saturday.

In foreign media BBC News reported last Monday a direct response to Abbas’ demands for resuming peace negotiations. Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Mr Abbas “was not exactly legitimate” and was therefore in no position to make demands on the Israeli leadership. Mr. Lieberman also rejected a call by outgoing EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana for the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state if Israel and the Palestinians fail to reach a peace agreement by a certain deadline.

"With all due respect to Solana, he's about to retire ... and we should not overstate the importance of his statement," Mr. Lieberman said.

An article published by The Jerusalem Post last Sunday reinforced Mr. Lieberman’s statement. Written by a well-respected Arab-Israeli journalist, Mr. Abu Toameh reports that Egypt has decided to temporarily suspend its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Fatah after the two rival parties rejected Cairo's latest proposals for ending the conflict.

Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official closely associated with Abbas, said that the Egyptian team did not bring new proposals for solving the conflict…He said differences over the status of the Palestinian security forces and the possibility of forming a joint Hamas-Fatah police apparatus in the Gaza Strip were among the main reasons for the mediation efforts' failure. The two parties have also failed to resolve their differences on most of the outstanding issues, such as the political agenda of a unity government and holding new presidential and parliamentary elections, Ahmed said.

CNN submitted an article and video (from the archives of PMW) regarding a kids TV-show that praises Gaza mom’s suicide bombing.

The Jerusalem Post also reports on the first Qassam rocket to be launched at Israel in over a month.

Ziosweat Analysis: As opposed to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Mr. Abbas paradoxically rejects to resume peace negotiations. I say paradoxically because Mr. Netanyahu has everything to offer Mr. Abbas, whereas Abbas has nothing to offer Netanyahu. As seen from previous articles, Mr. Abbas barely controls half of the Palestinian population after having fled the Gaza Strip after Hamas out-gunned Fatah. Moreover there seems to be no progress made between Hamas and Fatah, so who would Netanyahu actually hand the Palestinian state to? Certainly not Hamas who will never recognize Israel’s right to exist (and are very open about it). How about Fatah and Mr. Abbas? Once the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be joined by a thin strip of land cutting Israel in half, won’t history repeat itself and Hamas will overthrow once again a weak Fatah? If the status quo remains, this is certainly the assumption of most Middle Eastern experts and governments.

So what does the “not exactly legitimate” leader of the Palestinian people? He knows he cannot handle a Palestinian State today, and therefore rejects talks based on a completely new issue (or excuse?): the total freezing of Jewish Settlements. An excuse to refuse peace talks handed to the Palestinian leadership by Mr. Obama. While the Obama administration increases the pressure on Netanyahu to accept a two-state solution and a total freeze on settlements, the Palestinian leadership can sit back and enjoy the show. Why should they offer anything they don’t want to give up when the Americans will do the dirty work (negotiations) for them?

These articles clearly show that President Obama has (unintentionally) given the Palestinian leaders another ace up their sleeve.

While Palestinians are killing each other over power, money and territory, spreading hate propaganda via kids TV shows, firing Qassam rockets at Israeli civilians; apparently the real obstacle to peace is the Jewish father isolating his garage so his mother can move in with the family.

Financial Coverage

There was promising international financial coverage this week as Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer told Fox News, “Israel remained relatively free from severe damage in the worldwide financial crisis and stands to be one of the world’s safest places for investors.” Fischer noted that several foreign companies, such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have recently opened production and development centers in the Jewish state. “Americans tend to be very concerned about pictures on TV of the violence. In terms of capital investment, exporting and importing, that part of business is relatively easy. [Israel has] a highly-skilled work force that’s highly motivated. It’s an exciting place, but most impressive is the talent and the interesting people.”

Sports – The 18^th Maccabiah Games

International media briefly covered the opening ceremony of the 18^th Maccabiah Games that will include almost 8,000 athletes from 56 countries. The New York Times published an article about one of the U.S. Olympic gold medallists, Jason Lezak, the swimmer who finished the relay that allowed Michael Phelps to break the all-time gold medals count in the same Olympic Games. Lezak chose the Maccabiah over the World Championships in Rome, justifying his decision by saying “This is the perfect time in my career to do something like this…Finally I’ve gotten to a point in my career where I have done enough.”

Immigration (Aliyah)

One of the underlying reasons behind Israel’s success as a Jewish State over the past 60 years is largely due to its ability to handle mass immigration. This issue continues to receive favourable domestic and international coverage.

The Jerusalem Post reports on The Immigrant Absorption Ministry celebrating a milestone by helping its 30,000^th newcomer find a job in Israel. Claudia Katz, the director of employment in Immigrant Absorption Ministry was quoted saying "We have a 76% success rate [employment of 12 consecutive months]. Roughly 38,350 people have been admitted to our centers, out of which slightly over 30,000 have found jobs. The project costs NIS 12 million a year at a cost of NIS 3,130 per immigrant and is the most cost-efficient employment program in the ministry." She showed that government income from taxes generated by workers placed by the centers came to well over NIS 1 billion.

International media reports that “Israel may admit 3,000 Ethiopia migrants if Jews” (Reuters) and that “around 2,000 French Jews to move to Israel this year” (Agence France Press). Earlier this month Haaretz reported that Israel expects to absorb 15 percent more new arrivals this year compared to last year. This would be the first year of an increase in rate of Aliyah, after years of decline in immigration.

Other Categories

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was mentioned extensively in international media as he invited Abbas for peace talks (The Financial Times), reaffirmed that “Palestinian recognition of Jewish state [is] ‘key’ to peace,” (The Jerusalem Post) and is considering to speak to the United Nation’s General Assmbly in September which will be attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Arutz Sheva)

Barack Obama coverage has been relatively limited this week, even though he starred in a feature article for The Financial Times, “The Middle East chess game Obama needs to win.” The Jerusalem Post reported that the U.S. is gaining ground (partly as a result of Obama’s well received June 4 speech in Cairo) among the Arab public following a survey where approximately half of the Arabs questioned agree that “if Iran does not accept new restrictions and more international oversight of its nuclear program, the Arabs should support stronger sanctions against Iran around the end of this year.”

Ultra-Orthodox protests in Jerusalem: The Associated Press reports, “In recent weeks, ultra-Orthodox Jews and authorities have clashed repeatedly over a decision by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to open a municipal parking lot on the Sabbath. Ultra-Orthodox Jews oppose the idea because driving is forbidden on the Sabbath. Police and ultra-Orthodox protesters have clashed nightly since Tuesday, and smoldering trash cans and broken glass still littered Jerusalem streets Friday after overnight battles.”

Gilad Shalit – 1,121 Days and Counting: The Jerusalem Post reports, “Hadas ends first round of Schalit talks in Cairo” after last weeks announcement by Egyptian President Mubarak that Schalit was in good condition and expressed hope he would be released soon. A Hamas official later dismissed Mubarak’s comments as “wishful thinking.”

In other news: “The Legal Assault on Israel is Gathering Speed,” The Jerusalem Post; “Saudis Step Up Efforts to Repair Syria Ties,” The Wall Street Journal; “Britain Says Israel Misused U.K. Arms,” The Wall Street Journal; “Fugitive U.S. white supremacist captured in Israel,” CNN; “World Bank to give Palestinians $33.5m in aid,” The Jerusalem Post; “PA suspends Al-Jazeera in West Bank,” The Jerusalem Post and Al Jazeera; “Saudis Step Up Efforts to Repair Syria Ties,” The Wall Street Journal.

Monitoring Results (19/7/2009) and Sources Referenced:

*To find these articles copy and paste the title (and source) to Google News or Yahoo News.

The Iranian Threat and The Disputed Presidential Election After-Math:

“Analysis: Is the PM shifting the Obama administration's attention from the Palestinian issue to Iran?,” The Jerusalem Post, By Yaakov Katz (6/7/2009)
“Diplomats: Iran has means to test bomb in 6 months,” The Associated Press, By George Jahn (17/7/2009)
“Analysis: The nucleus of an opportunity,” The Jerusalem Post, By Helit Barel (12/6/2009)
“Israel anti-missile system passes live fire test,” The Associated Press, By Steve Weizman (15/7/2009)
“Israel to hold missile test in US,” Al Jazeera (15/7/2009)
”Report: Israel preparing Iran attack,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency (16/7/2009)
“Iran names new head of atomic energy body,” Reuters (17/7/2009)
“Clinton warns Iran on engagement,” The Associated Press, By Matthew Lee (15/7/2009)
“US tells Iran 'time running out',” Al Jazeera (16/7/2009)
“Execution of 13 for terror attacks reveals Iran's next move: intimidation,” The Guardian, By Ian Black (16/7/2009)
“Clashes as key Iranian cleric warns leaders,” CNN (18/7/2009)

IDF Soldiers’ claims of irregularities during Cast Lead

“IDF soldiers give testimonies to counter Gaza war crimes claims,” Haaretz, By Cnaan Lipshiz (16/7/2009)
“Report claims Israelis used Palestinians as human shields,” CNN, By Kevin Flower and Paula Hancocks (15/7/2009)
“Israeli soldiers: 'No clear red lines' in Gaza war,” The Associated Press, By Steve Weizman (16/7/2009)
“Israel troops speak out on Gaza war,” Al Jazeera (15/7/2009)

Lebanon: Hezbollah Explosion, Rearming

“Israel Sees Evidence of Hezbollah’s Rearming in Explosion,” The New York Times, By Ethan Bronner (15/7/2009)
“Israel informed UN of Hezbollah cache months ago,” Haaretz, By Barak Ravid, Zvi Bar’el, Amos Harel and Jack Khoury (19/7/2009)
“Israel: Lebanon blast shows Hezbollah stocking weapons,” CNN (15/7/2009)
“IDF: Hizbullah hiding rockets in homes,” The Jerusalem Post, By Yaakov Katz (15/7/2009)
“UN says south Lebanon weapons cache a violation,” The Associated Press, By Zeina Karam (15/7/2009)
“Lebanese stone UN peacekeepers, injure 14, The Associated Press, By Bassem Mroue (18/7/2009)

Jewish Settlements

"Arab Writer: Obama Focus on Settlements Benefits Hamas," Arutz Sheva, By Hillel Fendel (9/7/2009)
"How to Achieve a Lasting Peace," The Washington Post, By Ehud Olmert (17/7/2009)
"Defending the indefensible settlements," The Guardian, By Richard Silverstein (13/7/2009)
“U.S. tells Israel to halt East Jerusalem building,” Haaretz, By Avi Issacharoff (19/7/2009)
“Abbas: Israel not respecting int'l law with settlement building,” The Jerusalem Post and AP (18/7/2009)

Palestinian Leadership: Hamas, Fatah, PA, PLO

“Abbas says he won't meet Netanyahu,” The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh and Haviv Rettig Gur (12/7/2009)
“Israel FM queries Abbas authority,” BBC News (13/7/2009)
“Egypt calls off Hamas-Fatah mediation,” The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (12/7/2009)
“Kids TV praises Gaza mom's suicide bombing,” CNN, By Paula Hancocks (16/7/2009)
“PLO calls estranged leader Qaddoumi 'deranged',” The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (15/7/2009)
“Fayad calls on US for new plan to promote peace talks with Israel,” The Jerusalem Post (19/7/2009)
“Palestinians fire Kassam after long lull,” The Jerusalem Post (16/7/2009)

Financial Coverage

“Fischer: Israel One of World’s Safest Places for Investors,” Arutz Sheva, By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (19/7/2009)
“June CPI shocks with 0.9% leap,” Haaretz, By Tal Levy and Moti Bassok (17/7/2009)

Sports – The 18^th Maccabiah Games

"Drawn to Israel for Maccabiah Games," The New York Times, By Dina Kraft (11/7/2009)
"Israel stun Russia to reach Davis Cup semis," CNN (11/7/2009)
"NBA Hall-of-Famer says games in Israel forged his Jewish identity," Haaretz, By Steve Klein (18/7/2009)

Immigration

"Immigrant employment centers mark successful decade," The Jerusalem Post, By Ron Friedman (19/7/2009)
"Around 2,000 French Jews to move to Israel this year," Agence France Press (16/7/2009)
"Israel braces for influx of new immigrants this summer," Haaretz, By Jonathan Lis (5/7/2009)

Other

“Britain Says Israel Misused U.K. Arms,” The Wall Street Journal, By Charles Levinson and Alistair Macdonald (14/7/2009)
“Fugitive U.S. white supremacist captured in Israel,” CNN (14/7/2009)

Benjamin Netanyahu

“Netanyahu invites Palestinian leader for peace talks,” The Financial Times, By Dina Kraft (13/7/2009)
“Netanyahu: Palestinians could achieve more if they cooperated,” Haaretz, By Barak Ravid (15/7/2009)
“Netanyahu: Palestinian recognition of Jewish state 'key' to peace,” The Jerusalem Post (12/7/2009)
“Netanyahu Considering UN Speech,” Arutz Sheva (16/7/2009)

Barack Obama

“The Middle East chess game Obama needs to win,” The Financial Times, By Philip Stephens (16/7/2009)
“Analysis: 'Arab street' polls: US gaining ground, Iran losing,” The Jerusalem Post, By David Pollock (12/7/2009)
“U.S. Agrees to Resettle Palestinians Displaced by Iraq War,” The Wall Street Journal, By Miriam Jordan (17/7/2009)

Ultra-Orthodox protests in Jerusalem

“Authorities hope court deal will end ultra-Orthodox protests,” CNN (17/7/2009)
“Jerusalem court and ultra-Orthodox reach deal,” The Associated Press, By Steve Weizman (17/7/2009)

Gilad Shalit – 1,121 Days and Counting

“Hadas ends first round of Schalit talks in Cairo,” The Jerusalem Post and Associated Press (14/7/2009)

The West Bank and Gaza

“West Bank boom,” The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Tomaeh (17/7/2009)
“Signs of Hope Emerge in the West Bank,” The New York Times, By Ethan Bronner (16/7/2009)
“IMF: West Bank economy can grow if Israel eases up,” The Associated Press (15/7/2009)
“World Bank to give Palestinians $33.5m. in aid,” The Jerusalem Post, By Tovah Lazaroff (14/7/2009)
“PA suspends Al-Jazeera in West Bank,” The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (15/7/2009)
“Al Jazeera West Bank ban 'revoked',” Al Jazeera (18/7/2009)

Ziosweat meets prominent Israeli-Arab/Palestinian journalist working for The Jerusalem Post

2009-07-18T18:35:00.005+03:00

I had the great pleasure of meeting Khaled Abu Toameh, a journalist writing for The Jerusalem Post and formerly for the PLO. He is one of the first journalists international media contacts about a story from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Mr Abu Toameh is a very courageous, intelligent and soft-spoken man, claiming to be a journalist above all. He says he is not pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-America or pro-Russia, but believes in reporting the facts. After meeting him I looked up some of his articles published in worldwide media, and I can confirm that what he says in the interviews is exactly what he told me. Selected quotes from sources at the bottom of the page: Abu Toameh on being objective and his views: "People say, 'You work for a Jewish paper, why should we believe you?' If I worked for a Hamas paper, you'd believe me more?" he says, adding, "I said all the same things when I worked for a PLO newspaper." Abu Toameh on living in Israel as an Israeli-Arab: "Israel can be a Jewish state for all its citizens . . . I would choose to be a third-class citizen in Israel than a first class citizen in Cairo or Amman."On the security barrier Israel built to keep out suicide bombers, a fence which has stirred ugly cries of "apartheid" among Canadian protesters: "I don't believe in walls. I wish it weren't there. But if I were Israel, I'd go write on it, 'Made By Hamas and Yasser Arafat.' Jews didn't wake up one morning and say, 'We're bored. Let's spend billions of dollars and build a wall' . . . For three years I was scared to take my children to the mall, afraid to stop at a red light next to an Israeli bus. More than 50 Arabs have died in suicide bombings in Israel. They (the suicide bombers) don't care (who they kill)." "I meet many Palestinians in Ramallah who say they wish the occupation would come back; it was better under the Jews. Some want the Jordanians back," he says.

Palestinians have "always admired the freedom of expression in Israel" and they say "we hope we'll have a free media like the Jews have."

Abu Toameh on democracy and Israel: This yearning for democracy is a theme that runs through Abu Toameh's revelations about what ordinary Palestinians want. They envy Israel and they "want to build something like what the Jews have." Under the occupation, the Palestinians got a taste of "democracy, prosperity and stability. We were exposed under Israel to all these things."He adds: "We Arabs are trying to become like the Jews. We see how much they've achieved. The Jews are moving forward and we're moving backward." Moreover, the ordinary Palestinians know who's responsible for their miseries: "They know the Jews did not prevent Arafat from establishing good government."

Abu Toameh on Fatah and Hamas: Fatah, of course, is considered the “moderate” Palestinian force, as opposed to radical Hamas. Abu Toameh thinks neither of them could be called moderate by any sensible Arabic speaker. Fatah makes moderate sounds in English but in Arabic sounds as anti-Semitic and anti-American as Hamas. Abu Toameh sees no moderates on either side. Both factions suppress moderate opinion wherever it raises its head, which is apparently not often.

“This is not a power struggle between good guys and bad guys,” he said in a recent speech. “It is a struggle between bad guys and bad guys.” He wishes they were fighting over what would be best for Palestinians. “But they’re only fighting over money and power.”

Abu Toameh on Jewish Settlements: Most of the world believes, often with passionate intensity, that Jewish settlements on land claimed by Arabs limits the chances for peace. Abu Toameh disagrees. “I wish the settlements were the problem,” he says, because it can be solved by the Israelis. If settlements were the problem, he argues, then Gaza would now be at peace. After all, the Israelis pulled out in 2005. But the result has been war — war among the Palestinians, war with Israel. “The real obstacle to peace is not a Jew building a settlement but the failure of the Palestinians to have a government. Is there a partner on the Palestinian side for peace talks? No.”

What is to be done? He thinks Israel should simply wait until the Palestinians stop killing each other and create a credible political entity that can make a deal. Peace will then become possible.

Below you will find several interesting articles regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of someone who has interests on both sides: "Palestinian sheds light on who's right in Middle East," Calgary Herald, By Naomi Lakritz (27/5/2009) "A Palestinian struggle between bad guys and bad guys," National Post, By Robert Fulford (11/7/2009) "Arab Writer: Obama Focus on Settlements Benefits Hamas," Arutz Sheva, By Hillel Fendel (7/9/2009) "Telling the Truth about the Palestinians," Middle East Forum, A briefing by Khaled Abu Toameh (27/4/2004) Khaled Abu Toameh Wikipedia Entry

The Middle East chess game Obama needs to win

2009-07-17T18:42:00.003+03:00

Financial Times, By Philip Stephens (16/7/2009) Simultaneous chess offers a useful metaphor for Barack Obama’s approach to foreign policy. The US president might have chosen to take a cautious, sequential approach to the lengthy list of global challenges: Iraq first; then Afghanistan, Pakistan and al-Qaeda; Iran next; climate change, Russia and nuclear proliferation some way down the track; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict towards the end of his term. Instead, Mr Obama has sprinted from continent to continent with the speed and confidence of a grandmaster. He has made the opening moves in almost all of the important games. In each instance, he has opted for boldness over caution, pushing out his pawns to deploy his bishops and knights at the centre of the board... For their part, Palestinians are divided between Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. Arab leaders worry about the reaction on the street to anything that looks like a concession to Israel. After talking to senior Palestinian officials during a recent visit to Ramallah, I was not left with the impression of a leadership ready to take big risks for peace. The paradox on the Israeli side is that most people accept the logic of a two-state solution – if only because in the long term it is the only way Israel can retain its character as a Jewish and democratic state. But in voting for a government led by Mr Netanyahu, the same people have voiced profound doubts that a peace accord is possible without sacrificing security. Hamas’ control of Gaza casts a long shadow... Click here for full story

Kids TV praises Gaza mom's suicide bombing

2009-07-17T18:36:00.002+03:00

CNN, By Paula Hancocks (16/7/2009)

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- It's meant to be a children's program, but "Young Pioneers" on Hamas-run television is well-known for pushing the boundaries of what most people would deem suitable content for children.

One episode raised eyebrows when it first aired two years ago on al Aqsa TV, featuring two young Palestinian children being shown a re-enactment of their mother's preparations for and execution of a suicide bombing.
The show was recently aired for the children of the bomber and other youths in a studio audience.
The young anchor sounds a defiant note: "And here we say to the occupier that we will follow her doctrine, the doctrine of the martyr mujahida Reem Riyashi, until we liberate our homeland from your illegitimate hands."
Riyashi killed four Israelis in a 2004 attack at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel...

Click here for full story

Iran names new head of atomic energy body

2009-07-17T18:31:00.002+03:00

Reuters (17/7/2009) Iran's government has named a former envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog as new head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization after its head for 12 years resigned, Iranian media reported on Friday. The Organization leads a nuclear program that has put Tehran at odds with the West, which fears it is aimed at making bombs. Tehran says it is for peaceful power purposes. Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's former representative to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, was named to replace Gholamreza Aghazadeh as head of the Atomic Energy Organization at a cabinet meeting late on Thursday... "Salehi's appointment is a positive signal to the West. Salehi is a logical and soft spoken person who is trusted by the IAEA," said the analyst, who asked not to be named... Ahmadinejad, who has signaled he will make changes in his next government that is expected to take office in August, has appointed a new first vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, to replace Parviz Davoudi, Iranian media reported. Mashaie was previously one of at least seven vice presidents and in charge of a culture and tourism body. He came under fire last year for attending a ceremony that involved actions deemed insulting to the Koran, Islam's holy book. He also created a storm in 2008 by saying Iran was friendly even to the people of Israel, Iran's sworn foe. Ahmadinejad had said those comments by his vice-president were misrepresented... Click here for full story

Israel may admit 3,000 Ethiopia migrants if Jews

2009-07-17T18:27:00.003+03:00

Reuters, By Allyn Fisher-Ilan (16/7/2009) *Israeli envoys in Ethiopia to check would-be emigrants *Interior Minister wants to renew influx Israel has sent envoys to Ethiopia to examine the applications of 3,000 Ethiopians who claim to be descended from Jews and are waiting in transit camps to emigrate to Israel, an official said on Thursday. Some 100,000 Jews from Ethiopia already live in Israel. Many arrived in airlifts in the 1980s and 1990s in times of hunger and political strife in Ethiopia. Thousands more Falash Mura people, who claim they were forced to convert to Christianity in Ethiopia, have also immigrated in smaller groups, but Israel largely halted the flow about two years ago. Some Israeli officials cited financial concern and questions about the applicants' Jewish origins as reasons for the halt... Israel grants automatic citizenship to Jews who immigrate. Most Falash Mura must undergo a conversion ritual before receiving citizenship papers. Click here for full story

Execution of 13 for terror attacks reveals Iran's next move: intimidation

2009-07-17T18:21:00.003+03:00

Guardian, By Ian Black (16/7/2009)

Hanging of Baluch rebels sends stark message to opponents and reasserts regime's crumbling legitimacy, say analysts

Iranian police officers and other officials look on as five convicted criminals are hanged in public Photograph: AP

It's a long way from Tehran to Zahedan, in Iran's remote south-east, but the hanging of 13 convicted terrorists this week sent out a chilling message about the readiness of the Islamic Republic to act ruthlessly to defend its core interests.

On the face of it, there was no link between the mass execution and last month's disputed presidential election, in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a second term. But these and other recent judicial killings may be designed to intimidate at a time of unprecedented unrest and uncertainty about Iran's future.

The 13 men who mounted the gallows early on Tuesday morning were not supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi...

Click here for full story

Saudis Step Up Efforts to Repair Syria Ties

2009-07-17T18:11:00.005+03:00

The Wall Street Journal, By Margaret Coker (17/7/2009) Saudi Arabia is accelerating its effort to lure Syria from Iranian influence, Saudi officials said, a move they hope will improve chances for a renewed peace initiative in the region. Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's largest economy and the world's biggest oil exporter, is offering economic incentives to Syria, including the promise of increased investment in Syria's moribund economy. It has also moved aggressively to repair the nations' strained diplomatic ties...

The Saudi royal adviser said the planned bilateral meeting between King Abdullah and Mr. Assad will seek to cement the two leaders' cooperation in forming the Lebanese government.

Click here for full story

U.S. Agrees to Resettle Palestinians Displaced by Iraq War

2009-07-17T18:06:00.003+03:00

The Wall Street Journal, By Miriam Jordan (17/7/2009)

The U.S. agreed to resettle 1,350 Palestinians displaced by fighting in Iraq, marking the largest resettlement ever of Palestinian refugees in the nation.

The decision appears to signal a shift in Washington's previous position against resettling Palestinians out of concern about the potential impact on U.S. relations with Israel and the Arab world. The resettlement, which is slated to begin this fall, is likely to illicit strong reactions from people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...

The U.S. committed to absorb the largest number of Iraqi Palestinians. Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.K. also joined the effort, he said. So far, 24 Palestinian refugees have been resettled in the U.S. The remainder are expected to arrive by early 2010.

Click here for full story

Drawn to Israel for Maccabiah Games

2009-07-15T23:09:00.003+03:00

The New York Times, By Dina Kraft (11/7/2009)

Jason Lezak said it was easy to choose to swim in the Maccabiah Games instead of this month’s world championships in Rome...

Lezak provided a highlight of the Beijing Games last summer with his photo-finish victory as anchor of the United States’ 4x100-meter freestyle relay helping Michael Phelps’s bid for eight gold medals. The 6-foot-4 Lezak out-touched Alain Bernard of France by 0.08 of a second with the fastest split ever, 46.06 seconds.

This year’s gathering will include almost 8,000 athletes from 56 countries. Organizers say this is the second-largest worldwide event after the Olympics. Along with international Jewish athletes, Arab citizens will also compete as members of the Israeli team...

He said that the draw of the Maccabiah Games was not simply athletic, but they also gave him a chance to visit Israel for the first time and to learn more about his Jewish roots. He toured Israel with the rest of the 900-member United States delegation, bobbing in weightless wonder in the Dead Sea, learning the history of the ancient desert Jewish fortress of Masada while walking among its ruins, and exploring Jerusalem’s Old City.

Lezak said he was especially moved during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Relatives of his grandfather were killed by the Nazis.

“To be there and see the videos and the testimonials is horrifying,” he said. “It’s hard to believe such things happened.”

The Maccabiah was founded to encourage Jewish participation in sports and strengthen a sense of Jewish identity. The first Games were held in 1932 in what was then the British mandate of Palestine. When they reconvened in 1935, many of the European athletes remained behind, seeking sanctuary from Hitler’s rise...

Click here for full story

'Germany believes Iran could have nuclear bomb within 6 months'

2009-07-15T23:06:00.002+03:00

Haaretz, By Assaf Uni (15/7/2009) Iran is capable of assembling an atomic bomb within six months, German intelligence analysts told the German weekly newsmagazine Stern. "If they want to, they will be able to set off a uranium bomb within six months," an analyst with Germany's intelligence service, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), told the magazine. German intelligence officials told Stern believe Iran has "mastered" every stage of uranium enrichment and that they have activated enough centrifuges to produce sufficient quantities of weapons-grade uranium for at least one atomic bomb... Click here for full story

Israeli tourism posters banned by watchdog over controversial map

2009-07-15T22:59:00.003+03:00

ASA censures adverts for misleadingly implying that West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights were part of the state of Israel

Guardian, By Mark Sweney (15/7/2009)

A tourism campaign depicting the areas of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights as part of Israel has been banned by the advertising watchdog following hundreds of complaints.

The poster campaign, run by the Israeli Government Tourist Office, ran with the headline "experience Israel" with a picture of a boy snorkelling with dolphins. The ad featured a map of Israel that included the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights...

The State of Israel Ministry of Tourism, replying on behalf of the IGTO, said the map was a "general schematic tourism and travel map, rather than a political map". SIMT argued that the complaints were political in nature and not relevant to a tourist ad...

Click here for full story

Israel Blames Hezbollah in Explosion

2009-07-15T22:56:00.001+03:00

The New York Times, By Ethan Bronner (15/7/2009) Israel said Wednesday that a two-story building that held a Hezbollah arms cache exploded in a village in south Lebanon a day earlier and that the arsenal was a violation of the United Nations resolution that brought an end to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war... “This epitomizes the problem that we are facing in south Lebanon,” Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, head of the Israeli military’s operations branch, said in a telephone briefing for foreign journalists. “This nonstate terror organization is growing and becoming a semimilitary organization. It poses a major threat to the state of Israel.” General Kochavi said the building “contained a lot of mortars, shells and rockets and other kinds of ammunition,” adding that Israel believed the process of rearming by Hezbollah had mushroomed in the past three years despite the United Nations resolution and the presence in southern Lebanon of international peacekeeping troops... Click here for full story

Israel blasts 'dangerous' EU call for deadline on Palestinian state

2009-07-13T03:12:00.004+03:00

Haaretz, By Barak Ravid and Assaf Uni (12/7/2009)

[Left: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana(Reuters)]

The Foreign Ministry on Sunday dismissed a call by the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, for the United Nations to set a deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state as "dangerous."

"Resolutions 242 and 338 of the United Nations, the roadmap [peace plan] and agreements between Israel and the Palestinians all cautiously determine that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be reached through negotiations by the sides," the ministry said in a statement.

Speaking Saturday at a lecture in London, Solana said the UN Security Council should recognize a Palestinian state even if no peace accord had been reached between Israel and the Palestinians by the deadline...

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Iran Protesters Take to Streets Despite Threats

2009-07-13T03:09:00.003+03:00

The New York Times, By Michael Slackman (12/7/2009) Thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran on Thursday, clapping, chanting, almost mocking the authorities as they once again turned out in large numbers in defiance of the government’s threat to crush their protests with violence. As tear gas canisters cracked and hissed in the middle of crowds, and baton-wielding police officers chased protesters up and down sidewalks, young people, some bloodied, ran for cover, but there was an almost festive feeling on the streets of Tehran, witnesses reported in e-mail exchanges. A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kargar Street, paused for a moment and said, “I am not scared, because we are in this together.” Click here for full story

PM: Palestinian recognition of Jewish state 'key to peace'

2009-07-13T03:05:00.002+03:00

The Jerusalem Post (12/7/2009) Palestinian recognition of the Jewish nature of Israel is an essential condition to peace, as well as their willingness to relinquish the demand that the descendents of Palestinian refugees be allowed to resettle in the Jewish state, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday. "The key to peace lies in explicit and unequivocal recognition of Israel as the Jewish state on the part of the Palestinians. They must once and for all give up the demand to resettle inside of Israel the descendents of the refugees," Netanyahu said during a Jerusalem memorial ceremony marking 105 years since the death of Theodor Herzl. Click here for full story

U.K. hits Israel with partial arms sanctions over Cast Lead

2009-07-13T02:31:00.002+03:00

Haaretz, By Barak Ravid (12/7/09) Britain has slapped a partial arms embargo on Israel, refusing to supply replacement parts and other equipment for Sa'ar 4.5 gunships because they participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Britain's Foreign Office informed Israel's embassy in London of the sanctions a few days ago. The embassy, in a classified telegram to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, said the decision stemmed from heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human rights organizations. The embargo followed a government review of all British defense exports to Israel... Click here for full story

Israeli Military Official Threatens Lebanon War

2009-07-13T02:29:00.001+03:00

Arutz Sheva (12/7/2009) (IsraelNN.com) Israel will wage war against Lebanon, its infrastructure and all those who support Hizbullah, if the new Lebanese cabinet legitimizes the terrorist group, former head of the Israeli National Security Council Giora Eiland said on Sunday. Hizbullah’s political wing, closely tied with its military-terrorist division, may gain a strengthened position in the parliament during attempts to form a government following the recent elections... Click here for full story.

Israel struggles to adapt to a changing picture of Iran

2009-07-11T01:51:00.003+03:00

Financial Times, By Philip Stephens (2/7/2009)

No one watches events in Iran more closely than Israel. Tehran has long been the abiding preoccupation, some would say obsession of political discourse in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Now the story line has changed.

At first glance the violent repression deployed by Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad’s regime in the wake of last month’s presidential election has been grist to the mill. The images of beaten and bloodied demonstrators have described vividly to a global audience Israel’s long-held view of the Iranian theocracy. Yet the implications do not all run in the same direction. The apparent fixing of the poll result and the subsequent crushing of dissent has also made the case for more rather than less engagement by the west...

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The government says it's perky

2009-07-11T01:46:00.003+03:00

The Economist (9/7/2009)

Israel’s economy looks quite resilient

YUVAL STEINITZ, Israel’s finance minister, radiates confidence. Once a popular young left-wing philosopher, he is now a leading light of the right-wing Likud party, the main bit of Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition, which took office at the end of March. Israel’s economy, he insists, can weather the global turmoil. “Nietzsche taught us, ‘That which does not kill me makes me stronger’”, he muses. “The recession has shown we’re strong. Now we can turn the recovery to our advantage."

It is the job of a finance minister to talk up his economy. Even so, Mr Steinitz’s optimism seems broadly justified, as he prepares to present a budget for this year and next. Israel’s economy has grown by an average annual rate of 5% in the past five years. Its GDP per head is ahead of Portugal, a shade behind Greece and five times bigger than its neighbour Egypt (see chart).

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Analysis: Sept. may bring push for Iran sanctions

2009-07-11T01:43:00.002+03:00

Associated Press, By Robert Burns (10/7/2009) After a half-year of extending patient feelers to Iran, President Barack Obama has set a timeline - warning Tehran it must show willingness to negotiate an end to its nuclear program by September or face consequences. If the West weighs new moves against Iran this fall, as Obama suggested Friday, it will likely mean new U.N. sanctions or unilateral U.S. penalties, rather than military strikes. Obama told reporters in Italy... Click here for full story

Netanyahu adviser raises "MAD" nuclear scenario

2009-07-11T01:30:00.001+03:00

Reuters (9/7/2009) Israel must have "tremendously powerful" weapons to deter a nuclear attack or destroy an enemy that dares to launch an atomic strike, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted on Thursday as saying... Click here for full story

My gorgeous friend Serefina at a tattoo photo shoot for Cool Israel.com

2009-07-10T17:33:00.002+03:00

Ziosweat at Netanyahu's MASA speech July 2009

2009-07-10T14:12:00.001+03:00

Obama and Palestine

2009-07-09T13:09:00.003+03:00

The Administration's distancing of itself from Israel is likely to empower those who believe that American support can be degraded. The Wall Street Journal, By Jeff Robbins (7/7/2009) In his new book, "One State, Two States: Resolving The Israel/Palestine Conflict," historian Benny Morris recounts the lugubrious history of Palestinian refusal to actually accept Israel as a Jewish state in the heart of the uniformly Muslim Middle East. Morris examines the widespread rejection by Palestinians in particular and Arabs in general of a two-state solution that, he points out, has been "a constant refrain of Palestinian leaders … throughout the history of the Palestinian national movement," up to and including the present. The refusal of Palestinian politicians, academics and clerics to stipulate that they accept a permanent Jewish state existing next to a Palestinian state is, of course, at once a dirty little secret and the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to the debate over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For over 80 years, as Morris notes, Palestinians have "persuasively demonstrated" that they do not want any Jewish state in the region, regardless of the boundaries, and regardless of the settlement policy pursued by this Israeli government or that one. The Palestinian rejection of any Jewish state has not merely been the recurring theme of the conflict, but the dominant one. Thus, in the 1930s, the Palestinians rejected a proposed two-state solution that would have created a Jewish state in less than 20 percent of Palestine. In the 1940s, the Palestinians rejected the United Nations partition plan which created a Jewish state on less than half of the arable land in Palestine. From 1948 to 1967, when Israel had no presence in Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem, the Arabs created no Palestinian state. After the 1967 war, when Israel accepted the land-for-peace formulation in UN Resolution 242, the Arab world, including the Palestinians, rejected it. In 2000, when Israel supported a plan put forth by President Clinton that would have created an independent Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem comprising all of Gaza and virtually all of the West Bank, the Palestinians rejected this too, instead commencing a campaign of bombings that left 1,100 Israelis dead and, not incidentally, 4,000 Palestinians dead as well. And in 2006, when Israel unilaterally and forcibly removed thousands of settlers from the Gaza Strip, abandoning any Jewish presence there, Palestinians responded by rocketing Israeli civilian centers, eventually leaving Israel with the unenviable choice between abandoning ever greater numbers of its civilians to daily Palestinian rocket attacks, on one hand, or entering Gaza to stop those attacks, with the inevitable harm done to civilians there, on the other. For its part, the Hamas leadership, which had assassinated many of its opponents and achieved a military takeover of Gaza, was more than content to trade hundreds of Palestinian lives in Gaza for the international criticism of Israel which Israel's efforts to protect its civilians from these rocket attacks would reliably trigger. Recently, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told The Washington Post that the Palestinians had once again rejected a two-state solution. Former Prime Minister Olmert, Abbas told the Post, had recently offered an independent Palestinian state comprising all of Gaza, a capital in East Jerusalem and 97 percent of the West Bank - - and Abbas had flatly rejected this as well. "The gaps," Abbas said, without elaboration, "were too wide." Click here for full story