WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 25 THROUGH OCTOBER 1
Israel retaliates after rocket launches from Gaza
Sept. 30….(CNN) Israeli warplanes took to the
air overnight Thursday, striking back after rockets were fired into territory
from Gaza, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Hamas security sources said that two Palestinian rockets were fired into
Israel on Thursday night. The Israel Defense Forces said in a news release that
one such rocket caused damage to an abandoned building.
In response, an Israeli military aircraft targeted what the IDF described as
a "terror activity site" in the central Gaza Strip overnight.
"A direct hit was confirmed," the statement added.
Around 1 a.m. Friday, an Israeli missile hit a Hamas military base located
east of the al-Maghazi refugee camp, said Hamas security sources. They added
that Israeli warplanes remained in the skies at least 40 minutes later.
There were no related injuries, local medical sources said.
Obama’s Jew-free Policy
Sept. 30….(ynetnews) By seeking to force Israel to cease building houses in Jewish neighborhoods
of Jerusalem, Barack Obama is legitimizing the Islamist zeal for the eviction of
300,000 Jews who live in parts of Jerusalem that were illegally occupied by
Jordan between 1948 and 1967.
Obama’s administration just blasted Israel for the new homes to be built in
Gilo, a Jerusalem neighborhood where 40,000 Israelis live. For 19 horrible
years, Jordanians and Palestinians controlled the neighborhoods now under
Obama’s attack. Jews were summarily expelled. Property was seized. The historic
synagogues of the walled enclave were gutted, trashed, some turned into
makeshift barns. Obama’s de-legitimization of Jerusalem’s post-1967 neighborhoods is nothing
less than a renewed “Judenrein” (empty of Jews) policy. To decide, as a matter
of policy, not to endorse the building of Jewish homes within existing Israeli
areas is the abrogation of the right of Jews to live wherever they wish in
Israel. If Israel cannot build in Gilo without US approval, then it cannot build in
Neveh Yaakov, Ramot Eshkol, French Hill, Pisgat Ze’ev and East Talpiot. Gilo is
also a special symbol of the Israeli resistance during the Second Intifada, when
Arab snipers fired at Jews from the village of Beit Jala. Gilo was turned into
another Ireland. The Jewish residents began to evacuate. Fear, rage and worry
dominated their minds. Belatedly, the Israeli government provided cement
barriers and bullet-proof glass to protect the neighborhood’s residents. Today, Gilo is a strategic neighborhood for the security of the entire State
of Israel: Not building there means accepting a Palestinian belt around the
capital of Israel, which could be in a state of siege. Gilo was the laboratory
where Palestinian terrorists sought to discover whether they could force Jews
into abandoning their homes. They failed. Now the US president is reviving this
goal by “peaceful” means.
Return to Jewish ghettos?
Obama has also blasted Israel for new homes in Har Homa, another Jewish
neighborhood on Jerusalem’s southern flanks, where in 1940 a group of Jews
purchased 130 dunams of land. In 1948, the hill was rendered “Judenrein” by the
Jordanians (Jews are still not permitted to live in Jordan). Har Homa is a strategic impediment to Arab attempts to link up northern
Bethlehem with Jerusalem. Har Homa is about a kilometer from the Palestinian
Authority-controlled town of Bethlehem and the Old City of Jerusalem lies just
5.5 kilometers beyond. No wonder Palestinians are launching an attack on the new
apartments. Yet more surprising is Obama’s attack on any inch of land in Jewish
neighborhoods built after 1967. In stark contrast to cities like Belfast, Beirut
and Sarajevo, Jerusalem under Israeli control is a model of freedom and
guaranteed rights for all. Moreover, these neighborhoods, which house about one-third of Jerusalem’s
population, also serve to protect the city. The neighborhood of Ramot serves as
a buffer to the north; Mount Scopus, French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, and Sanhedria
protect Jerusalem’s east. In the 16th century, many Polish towns obtained the so called “privilegia de
non tolerandis Judaeis”, cities in which the Jews were forbidden to live. Europe
had the Jewish ghettos during the Middle Ages and the “zoning restrictions” for
Jews in the Czarist Russia. Now, it’s Obama’s turn
Rosh
Hashana Greetings
(Good wishes for all our readers and friends for a good and sweet Jewish New Year!)
Sept.
29…. As Israel marks the holiday of Rosh Hashana, also known as the Jewish
New Year on the biblical or Hebrew calendar, Jews worldwide take stock of their
lives and prepare for entering the coming year with a clean slate before God.
US Condemns Israeli Settlement Construction Beyond Green Line
(EU, Palestinians also denounce Israel's
plan for 1,100 new homes in Jerusalem's contested Gilo neighborhood)
Sept.
28….(Ha Aretz) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that
Israel's decision to build 1,100 homes in Jerusalem's contested Gilo
neighborhood, which lies beyond the Green Line, is counter-productive to
reviving peace talks with the Palestinians. "We believe that this morning's
announcement by the government of Israel approving the construction of (1,100)
housing units in East Jerusalem is counter-productive to our efforts to resume
direct negotiations between the parties," Clinton told reporters at a news
conference. "As you know, we have long urged both sides to avoid any kind of
action which could undermine trust, including, and perhaps most particularly, in
Jerusalem, any action that could be viewed as provocative by either side," she
added.
The
European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also expressed
disappointment with Israel's new plan to build homes in Gilo, saying they
"should be reversed" since it undermines peace negotiations with the
Palestinians. Ashton told the EU parliament that she heard "with deep regret"
that Israeli plans to build homes beyond the Green Line were continuing.
Speaking in Strasbourg, France, Ashton said the expansion of settlements
"threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution" between the two sides,
as backed by the EU, the United States, Russia and the United Nations. The
Palestinians also condemned Israel's construction plans in Gilo. "The Israeli
Prime Minister claims to have no preconditions, but with this decision is
putting concrete preconditions on the ground," the Palestinian Prime Minister's
Office said in a statement. "Netanyahu says there should be no unilateral steps,
but there could be nothing more unilateral than a huge new round of settlement
building on Palestinian land. The Israeli Prime Minister told the UN that he had
come to tell the truth, but it is this decision which tells the truth.” In New
York on Monday, a divided UN Security Council met behind closed doors for its
first discussion of last week's Palestinian application for full UN membership
as a state. The move seems certain to fail due to Israeli and US opposition,
despite substantial support by other governments. A spokesperson for Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said it was up to the Security Council to put a stop to
Israel's settlement policy "which is destroying the two-state solution and
putting more obstacles in front of any effort to bring about a resumption of
negotiations".
Israeli’s: Palestinians Don’t Want Peace
Sept.
28….(Israel Today) For Israelis, the unilateral motion by the Palestinian
Authority to gain admittance to the UN as a sovereign nation epitomized the
Palestinian approach to the peace process over the entirety of the past 15
years. In short, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it in numerous
interviews while visiting the US this week, "the Palestinians want a state, but
don't want to give us peace." On top of seeking to achieve their political goals
in the absence of an agreement with Israel, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas'
speech to the UN was, in most Israelis' eyes, an act of incitement.
Abbas'
speech, during which he all but labeled Israel as illegitimate, "distorted the
historical record and showed open hatred and hostility for the Jewish state,"
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin told Japanese Ambassador Haruhisa Takeuchi on
Monday. Prior to his speech, Abbas' delegation handed out maps of "Palestine" to
UN members. The maps erased Israel completely and replaced the entire Jewish
state with a Palestinian one.
Rivlin
concluded that Abbas' actions "leave little hope for peace." Nevertheless,
Netanyahu and Western leaders continue to urge Abbas to return to the
negotiating table.
At the
weekend, the Middle East Quartet - the US, EU, Russia and the UN, submitted a
proposal for the immediate resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The
proposal calls on both sides to set aside their differences and return to the
negotiating table without preconditions. The Quartet plan envisions a rapid
series of meetings, including a summit in Moscow, concluding with a final status
peace deal to be signed no later than December 2012. Israeli officials responded
favorably to the proposal, while the Palestinians rejected it outright.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki called the Quartet proposal
"incomplete" because it failed to incorporate the Palestinians' preconditions -
that Israel immediately halt all Jewish building in Judea and Samaria and agree
to the pre-1967 armistice lines as the future border even before negotiations
have begun. The Palestinian side's intransigence was clear for all to see.
US
Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told Army Radio on Tuesday that the Palestinian
insistence on preconditions is not consistent with the terms of the peace
process or American policy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said she
spoke to Abbas by telephone "insisting" that he reopen peace talks with Israel
based on the Quartet's proposal. Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Shimon Peres on Monday urged Abbas to "not waste time."
Netanyahu
expressed in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press his concern that Abbas and
the Palestinians are trying to "detour negotiations" in such a way as to make a
genuine peace impossible to achieve. "They're trying to get a state to continue
the conflict with Israel rather than to end it," stated Netanyahu. The UN
Security Council is expected to vote on the Palestinian motion for statehood in
the coming weeks, but there are rumors it may purposefully delay the issue. If
it does come to a vote, the US has vowed to veto the motion.
Netanyahu:‘If Palestinians Want to Live in Peace, It Can be Achieved'
Sept.
28….(Jerusalem Post) To be sure, nothing is moving ahead with the
Palestinians, but that, Netanyahu says, and sincerely believes, is a result of
their decision, not his own. And as the Palestinians dally, and even as the
Middle East undergoes transformative turmoil, Israel continues to build, grow,
develop and fortify itself, not at all a bad place to be, he says, as 5771 turns
into 5772. We should go into direct negotiations, that was always the idea. To
have the parties negotiate directly with each other without preconditions.
Israel has always wanted that, and I have announced that as our intention from
day one. The Palestinians have avoided it. They have avoided it because they
don’t want to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people, to give up the
ghost on the refugees, and to give us the security conditions necessary to the
defense of Israel. These are the things I will insist on when the negotiations
are resumed, and they are the right things to insist on if we are to have a
realistic and enduring peace rather than a fictitious and ephemeral one.
It is hard
for me to tell you what the Palestinians will do. They have consistently been
true to Abba Eban’s immortal phrase of never missing an opportunity to miss an
opportunity. I hope they will prove Eban wrong. the issue of settlements is one
of the issues that would be discussed in the negotiations. But what the
Palestinians have done is cherry-pick one of the final core issues and put it up
front as a pre-condition. I could do the same. I could do it with rehabilitating
a refugee camp, I could do it with demanding recognition of the Jewish state. So
far I haven’t done that because I want to get into direct negotiations and not
create obstructions to entering them. The Palestinians, by coming back to the
issue of the settlement freeze, indicate that they don’t really want to
negotiate. And remember, in an unprecedented action, which wasn’t easy, I gave
them nearly a year of a freeze on new construction in the settlements. It didn’t
help any, did it? So it’s a pretext. I mean, they use it again and again, but I
think a lot of people see it as a ruse to avoid direct negotiations.
The Bible and a Palestinian State
Sept.
27….(Israel Today) The Palestinian statehood bid provided a platform for
many views and positions regarding the Middle East, including those of
Evangelical Christians who no longer believe in the validity of the promises
contained in the Bible. In the run-up to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
officially requesting UN membership for the "State of Palestine," Carl Medearis,
a recognized expert on Middle East Christians, suggested on CNN's Belief Blog
that Jesus would support the Palestinian statehood motion. "So how would Jesus
vote this week if he had a seat at the UN?" Medearis asked. "Surely love,
compassion, justice and peace-making would top his lists of concerns for all
involved. Maybe he would give a new parable, the Parable of the Good
Palestinian, offending all who would hear." Medearis continued by deriding the
Christian Zionist movement and its insistence on a literal reading of the Bible:
"In their minds, the modern Israeli state is not only a fulfillment of biblical
prophecy. In a bizarre twist that leaves most outsiders dumbfounded, Christian
Zionists say the Bible predicts that Jews and Palestinians will forever be at
war until Jesus returns." Medearis' remarks were hotly debated in various
publications, but it is not his personal view of the situation that is
troubling. Medearis was merely the mouthpiece of a post-modern,
humanist-infected strand of Christianity that no longer believes the Bible
carries any literal meaning beyond the commandments regarding basic gestures of
goodwill and proper moral behavior.
In other
words, while it is still important to love one's neighbor and not to steal,
passages like Jeremiah 31:36-38 or Ezekiel 36:24-28 that confirm the eternal
nature of Israel's divine right to the land are, in Medearis' words, "obscure
Old Testament promises." In order to cement their position as the "sane
Christians," Medearis and others like him will highlight the often-unsympathetic
positions of those perceived "lunatics" who do hold fast to the Bible's every
promise. It is true that in their zealousness a good many Christian Zionists
often spout rhetoric that is hateful toward the Palestinian Arabs. It is also
true, as Medearis pointed out, that Yeshua told us to love our enemies, even
those seeking Israel's demise. But this point of supporting Israel
(uncritically, Medearis wrongly claims) and opposing Palestinian statehood is
not what Christian Zionism is really about, not at its core.
Christian
Zionism is the recognition that long-awaited biblical promises and prophecies
are being fulfilled in our time. It is about getting behind that fulfillment,
and opposing efforts to reverse it. And though God may not actually need our
help in preventing that attempted reversal, one day we will be held accountable
for the stand we took (or didn't take). Ultimately it is a question of whether
or not God keeps His word and has the sovereignty in our lives to do so.
"Christian Zionists believe the scriptures are true, active and alive today.
They believe that by acknowledging the truth that God has given the Land of
Israel to the Jewish People as an everlasting inheritance we are acknowledging
God's sovereignty," wrote local Messianic leader Eliyahu Ben-Chaim in his book
Setting the Record Straight. If God can renege on a promise to Israel that He
repeatedly labeled as "everlasting," surely we should all be concerned that
other promises can be annulled or rewritten, like that promise of eternal life
for the members of an equally sinful Church. The truth is that God does not go
back on or alter His promises. He made abundantly clear that the most important
factor is the glory of His name. The biblical record has shown, even up to the
present day with the rebirth of Israel, that when God makes a promise, He keeps
it, not for our sake, but for the sake of His good name. To suggest otherwise is
to attack not only God's credibility, but, more detrimentally, the glory of His
name.
Is Peace With Israel Unholy?
Sept.
27….(Israel Today) “The peace between Israel and Egypt is no longer holy!”
declared the Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi. “It cannot be
considered equal to the holy Koran and the holy New Testament.” In effect, the
Old Testament of the Jewish people is unholy in the eyes of the 75-year-old
jurist. The Muslim East and Christian West are sacrosanct; but the State of
Israel is illegitimate, both politically and religiously. And that has
repercussions on the 32-year-old peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. “The
peace agreement with Egypt is truly in danger,” said top Middle East expert Ehud
Ya’ari on Israel’s Channel 2 television. About two weeks after al-Arabi’s
comments, thousands of Egyptians ransacked the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. And
things could get worse. “The likelihood of an all-out war is growing,” said
Major-General Eyal Eisenberg, the head of Israel’s Home Front Command, adding
that Israel could be attacked with weapons of mass destruction. “After the Arab
Spring, we predict that a winter of radical Islam will arrive.”
Palestinian Moves Reshapes Attitudes
Sept. 27….(In
The Days) The Palestinian bid for United Nations statehood, whatever its
outcome, is already helping reshape Palestinian attitudes to expect less of
negotiations, which most feel have failed to deliver after nearly two decades,
and embrace a more confrontational stance toward Israel. That could mean
challenging Israel using boycotts, demonstrations and international diplomatic
forums more aggressively, ideas that are gaining currency among young
Palestinians. In a year when peaceful demonstrations have radically altered the
political landscape of the Arab world, they increasingly embrace notions of
nonviolent resistance. Still, many observers say that tensions are building in
the Palestinian areas, especially in the West Bank, where Jewish settlements
continue to grow and chafe against Palestinian communities. Even peaceful
confrontations, they worry, could escalate and set off another round of
violence.
Mahmoud Abbas,
the Palestinian leader, has stressed that the UN bid won’t substitute for
negotiations or replace the existing framework for working toward a two-state
solution laid out in the Oslo agreement that has guided Israeli-Palestinian
relations for two decades. But many Palestinians, especially youths who make up
the majority of the population, see the UN bid as something else: a sharp break
with a peace process and the beginning of a new era. They want their leadership
to actively challenge Israel for sovereignty over the West Bank, though not
necessarily through an armed struggle. “We’re hoping to have a state.
Checkpoints should be dismantled. Palestinians will patrol where Israelis do
now,” said Ahmed Aqtish, a 24-year-old mechanic. Those sorts of soaring
expectations almost certainly won’t be met in the coming months, though, and
could cause problems for Abbas and the Palestinian leadership now that they have
returned home from New York.
Young
Palestinians, long the foot soldiers of the Palestinian cause, have become
disenchanted with their aging leadership. That has grown as the protests across
the Arab world have played out. Abbas’s Fatah movement, as well as the militant
group Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip, are both losing support, according to
Khalil Shikaki, head of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
Quarterly polling that the center has conducted since March shows that young
adults are “essentially abandoning Fatah and Hamas,” he said. Young people have
gotten behind Abbas’s statehood push, elevating his popularity for now. Abbas
returned to cheering crowds in the West Bank on Sunday, and the Palestinian
Authority called a public holiday and released children from schools to welcome
him back.
Abbas and the
Palestinian leadership began planning for, and talking up, the statehood bid
months ago. On Friday he formally submitted a request for the UN’s security
council to take up the issue. It could take weeks to come up for a vote at the
council, where it has almost no chance of success. That’s because the US has
promised to veto the measure, saying the Palestinians should negotiate directly
with Israel and not involve the UN. Abbas also could choose to ask the UN’s
General Assembly to elevate the status of the Palestinians to that of an
observers state, recognition that has a much better chance of being granted but
that would have almost no immediate impact on the lives of Palestinians. Abbas
sees the bid as a way to pressure the Israelis in negotiations within the Oslo
framework, a process that the current leadership started and has a huge stake in
continuing. But for much of the younger generation, it has come to represent a
defining moment, marking a sort of logical conclusion of the Oslo process. “They
want him to put an end to Oslo,” said Mr. Shikaki. “The last thing Abbas wants
to do is throw out Oslo.”
Yet even
Abbas’s supporters say the UN move is born of a sense that time and support
could be running out for the two-decade-old framework for negotiations and the
Palestinian Authority that was created as part of that framework. “Our
international situation is not sustainable,” said Ghassan Katib, a spokesman for
the authority. “We’ve staked our reputations on a peace process that is going
nowhere.” Abbas may come under pressure to try a new direction that young
Palestinians increasingly favor, nonviolent resistance, and advocate the sort of
boycotts that were aimed at South Africa’s former apartheid government. Abbas
mentioned nonviolent resistance in his speech to the UN on Friday.
Palestinian
activists such as Mustafa Barghouti, a politician, have been working for years
to rally support for a sustained campaign of nonviolent resistance. He believes
support for nonviolence has also been bolstered by efforts to break the blockade
that Israel has imposed on Gaza and a series of rallies in one Palestinian area
that persuaded Israel to change the course of a security wall it constructed.
“We must make the cost of the occupation higher than the benefits,” for the
Israelis, he said. Increasingly, Shikaki’s polling shows that young Palestinians
are more impressed with what the Tahrir Square protests accomplished in Egypt
and less enamored of the sort of violent struggle the Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah has championed. “Tahrir seems to be winning out, and Hezbollah is out
of favor,” said Mr. Shikaki. Still, Mr. Shikaki worries that without meaningful
negotiations, a sustained campaign of nonviolent confrontation could easily slip
into another spasm of violence, given the underlying tensions in the West Bank.
That could happen because of violence by Israeli or Palestinian extremists,
undisciplined protesters or a miscalculation by Israeli soldiers confronting the
sort of nonviolent tactics they aren’t used to handling.
UN Security
Council to begin informal debate on Palestinian statehood
Security Council's five permanent members
split over PA's request, so consultations are not expected to lead to a formal
vote anytime in the near future, UN sources say.
Sept. 27….(Ha Aretz) UN Security
Council members will convene on Monday for informal consultations on the
Palestinian Authority's application for admission to the United Nations as a
full member state. Under UN rules, a new member state can be admitted only on
the Security Council's recommendation. If the council recommends acceptance, the
General Assembly must then vote on whether to ratify the decision. Currently,
the council's five permanent members are split over the PA's request, so the
consultations are not expected to lead to a formal vote anytime in the near
future, UN sources said. "It's highly likely that the consultations will
continue for some weeks," said the deputy head of one Western mission to the
United Nations. "The Palestinian application is considered an extremely
sensitive issue, and in particular, it's a source of controversy between the
council's two leading powers, the United States and Russia. Therefore, no quick
decision that would produce an official debate and vote is expected."
However, the diplomat added, the
rules allow an unofficial consultation to be declared official on the spot and
without warning, albeit this happens only rarely. The pace of the informal
consultations and the timing of the meetings is generally dictated by the
council's five permanent members. Because these five have veto power over
resolutions, the council would usually prefer to find a formula they can all
live with, if that is possible, rather than proceeding immediately to a vote in
which one of the five is certain to cast a veto.
However, this process can result in
substantial delays. As an example, officials in New York cited the fate of a
draft resolution proposing sanctions on Syria that France submitted six weeks
ago. Due to Russia's opposition, the council has yet to hold a single official
debate on the matter, a situation French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe recently
described as scandalous. Informal consultations are always held behind closed
doors, and no one except the council members' official representatives are
allowed to attend. Nothing said in such a consultation is binding.
AQ Khan Documents Suggest Pakistan Spread
Nuclear Weapon Technology
Sept. 26….(Fox
News) Documents obtained by Fox News suggest that for decades Pakistan spread
nuclear weapon technology around the globe in exchange for cash, political
influence and help with its own atomic bomb program. Among those on the other
side of the deals: China, Iran, North Korea and Libya. The charges are contained
in two documents written by AQ Khan, the Pakistani nuclear arms trafficker long
thought to be the mastermind behind an elaborate global supply and procurement
network: a thirteen-page confession to government authorities and a dramatic
letter hastily written to his wife as an international manhunt tightened around
him.
In a Fox News
exclusive, never-before-seen Khan photographs and documents will be featured in
an upcoming special: "Fox News Reporting: Iran's Nuclear Secrets," airing
Saturday at 10 p.m. ET and Sunday at 1 a.m. ET. The documents include the
thirteen-page confession, the letter to his wife, and a Pakistani intelligence
service report on Khan. The exclusive photographs show the Khans in a variety of
intimate settings, including under house arrest. Fox News is also releasing the
documents and photographs over the Internet today. The extent of official
Pakistan government involvement with Khan is a matter of intense and at times
acrimonious debate among counter-proliferation experts. Was Khan a master
criminal operating outside the system, or was he part of the system?
The documents
obtained by Fox News are AQ Khan’s version of events. They should be carefully
weighed against other available evidence. But with US-Pakistan relations
severely strained by the killing of Usama bin Laden and the imminent draw-down
of US troops in neighboring Afghanistan, the question of nuclear-armed Islamabad
spreading weapons of mass destruction takes on a new urgency. At one time, Khan
feared his own government might kill him. “Darling,” he writes to his wife in
December 2003, “if the government plays any mischief with me take a tough
stand.” He warns her, “they might try to get rid of me to cover up all the
things (dirty) they got done by me in connection with Iran, Libya & N. Korea.” A
scientist and strong-willed bureaucrat known as “the father of the Islamic
bomb,” Khan was a popular figure in Pakistan. But prodded by the United States
over mounting evidence of smuggled nuclear shipments to Libya, Pakistan began
tightening the noose around Khan in 2003. In early 2004, the ISI, Pakistan’s
Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, brought Khan in for questioning.
Khan’s written confession is a result of those sessions. In February 2004, Khan
appeared on Pakistan television and offered a brief confession. The next day,
President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan and sentenced him to house arrest. In
recent years, the terms of Khan’s house arrest have been modified, but he
remains under tight government control.
Putin to Return as Russian President
Sept.
25….(Financial Times) Russia’s Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin will return to his post as president next year, after he
and President Dmitry Medvedev announced they were switching jobs. The
announcement was made on Saturday at the annual conference of United Russia, the
party that controls two-thirds of Russia’s parliament. It put to rest intrigue
over Putin’s next move. High quality global journalism requires investment.
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the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Putin is now
likely to win two consecutive 6 year terms, giving him a total of quarter
century in power from the time he took over the Kremlin in 2000. He remains
Russia's strongest political figure despite stepping aside for four years. The
announcement confirms the long-held impression that Medvedev was only ever a
place holder for Putin, who was constitutionally prohibited from a third term
after serving as president from 2000-2008. Putin started proceedings, telling
delegates that Medvedev would succeed him in heading the United Russia party’s
election list in December 4 parliamentary elections. He also announced
Medvedev’s candidacy for prime minister, which Medvedev accepted. Medvedev in
turn said: “Taking into account my agreement to lead the party’s election list,
I consider it correct to support the candidacy of Putin for the post of
president of the country.” He suggested the arrangement had been made as early
as 2007, when Putin had all but appointed Medvedev as his temporary successor.
“What we have suggested to the congress, is a deeply thought out decision. Even
more, we actually discussed this variant of events while we were first forming
our comradely alliance” he said. Putin said that the agreement “on who should do
what” had been reached long ago. Putin aimed the rest of his speech at state
workers, promising to raise their wages and give them federal land. United
Russia is nicknamed “the party of bureaucrats” for its reliance on federal
workers. At one point the former KGB colonel raised his voice to be heard
through a failing microphone. “I have not lost my commander’s voice!” he said.
The job switch surprises few in Moscow, where Putin was the favorite to return
to the presidency. However, the two men had remained coy on the subject,
spinning out the intrigue for the previous three and a half years. Putin’s
return is likely to complicate Russia’s thawing relations with the West,
particularly the US-Russia “reset” begun in 2009. The reset was driven largely
by a good personal relationship between Medvedev and US President Barack Obama,
and produced a new arms control treaty and US-Russia diplomatic co-operation in
troubled areas of the Middle East. “If Putin returns then I guess we will need
another reset” joked a former high ranking Kremlin official earlier this month.
The news
could turn Medvedev into a lame duck who will struggle to be heard during his
remaining 6 months in power. Throughout Medvedev’s four year term, Putin was
seen as the country’s power broker and had veto over most of Medvedev’s
decisions. The two publicly disagreed only a handful of times, last spring, for
example, Medvedev slapped Putin down over his opposition to NATO’s operation in
Libya. However, they agree on most issues. Putin is believed to want to continue
the liberal economic reforms begun under Medvedev, including privatization.
Medvedev’s switch to prime minister will give him the chance to continue
modernizing Russia’s economy. “I expect Putin will establish a very pro-business
and pro-reform cabinet,” said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Troika Dialog,
the Moscow investment bank. But opposition politicians have long criticized the
prospect of Putin’s return to presidency, saying it amounts to the old Soviet
practice of staying in power for decades. Putin’s return makes it clear that
Russia revolves around a dominant cult of personality, and is moving farther
than ever from a society based on democratic institutions.
Middle East Peace Quartet Comes to Blows
(Ynet learns that international
foursome's efforts to reignite stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process nearly
brought about forum's end)
Sept. 26….(YNET) The
Israeli-Palestinian conflict which was the focal point of the 66th UN General
Assembly in New York saw more than just the historic bid for Palestinian
statehood and impassioned speeches, but also the near-disassembling of the
Mideast Quartet, Ynet learned on Saturday. The Quartet of Middle East mediators,
which is made up of the he United States, Russia, the European Union and the UN,
worked frantically throughout Thursday and Friday to put together a blueprint
which would facilitate the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,
but their efforts nearly brought about the forum's end, with Russia facing off
against the United States over the Quartet's draft.
The
Quartet's draft proposed that Israel and the Palestinians should meet within one
month to agree an agenda for new peace talks with a goal of a deal by the end of
2012. According to Western diplomats, the Quartet's integrity was compromised
when deliberations on the draft became heated, mainly due to Russia's rigid
demands. The Russians vetoed Israel's demand for a Palestinian recognition of
the Jewish state as a prerequisite for the talks, which led to the dismissal
of the Palestinian prerequisite demand for the negotiations to be based on the
1967 lines. After what was described as "harsh, discordant tones" exchanged
between the Russians and their Quartet colleagues, which were accompanied by
concerns that the former would be excluded from the final Quartet statement, a
draft was finally achieved. The blueprint, however, did not specify the exact
guidelines for the negotiations, and de facto fails to address both Israel and
the Palestinian's cardinal demands. "The proposal contains the most important
thing, resuming negotiations," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's associates
told Ynet. "We have to study it, but it looks satisfactory." The Palestinians
however, rejected the draft as "favorable to Israel" and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed it, saying he would not entertain any proposal which
disregard the PA's conditions for peace talks.
HS Freshman Suspended for Speaking Out Against Homosexuality
Sept. 26….(By
Amanda Winkler/ Christian Post Reporter) A freshman at Western Hills High
School in Fort Worth, Texas, was suspended Tuesday for making a statement about
his religious beliefs. The suspended student, Dakota Ary, commented to his
friend in their German class that his Christian beliefs say homosexuality is
wrong. "I said, 'I'm Christian and, to me, being homosexual is wrong,'" Ary
recounted to NBC. "And then he (the teacher) got mad, wrote me an infraction and
sent me to the office." The teacher was reportedly telling students how to say
religion and Christianity in German. Ary asked a question about Bibles in
different countries and what language they are in. According to the family’s
attorney, Matt Krause with Liberty Counsel, religious discussions had come up in
the classroom before.
After Ary
commented to his friend about his Christian beliefs, the teacher reportedly
began yelling at him and took him to the front office. His mother was
contacted while at work to be informed that her son would have a referral and
two-day suspension because of his “inappropriate” comments. “When I got the
phone call saying Dakota disrupted the class by making an inappropriate comment,
I knew that just wasn’t right,” his mother, Holly Pope, told The Christian Post.
“Dakota doesn’t do that. It’s out of his character.” Pope believes there was a
problem with the classroom. According to reports, just one week earlier the
German teacher posted a picture of two men kissing, on the chalkboard in front
of the classroom. “He told the students that this was homosexuality and that
they needed to accept it,” Krause said. Some students protested and when the
teacher left the classroom, one student tore down the poster. Commenting on the
poster, Pope said, “He’s (Dakota) been in church his whole life. Just being a
Christian doesn’t mean you surround yourself with just Christians. He goes to a
public school, so he will be faced with things he doesn’t believe in or feel is
right. That’s fine. For a picture, I didn’t feel it was necessary to raise
alarm. ”With this new incident, however, red flags may need to be raised. “The
whole idea of a student being suspended for stating their religious beliefs in a
factual manner is extremely concerning,” Candi Cushman, education analyst at
Focus on the Family, said. “Have we gotten to the point where students have to
check their religious beliefs at the door before entering school?”
After hearing
Ary’s version of the events, the principal reduced the in-school suspension to
one day. However, for Ary and Pope, even one day of suspension is wrong. “It
can’t be one day, it needs to be no days. He didn’t do anything wrong. It was a
class discussion about religion,” Pope said.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 18 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 24
Abbas Accuses Israel of Ethnic
Cleansing
(Mahmoud Abbas
delivers fiery anti-Israel speech at UN, accuses Jewish state of ethnically
cleansing east Jerusalem; FM Lieberman walks out during address, blasts
Palestinian leader’s ‘speech of incitement)
|
(FOJ) Abbas started
his UN speech by referring to Israel as “an occupying power who has
committed ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, pushing them
away from their ancestral homeland.” Abbas, who does not recognize
the “holocaust” urged the UN to declare the inalienable rights of
the Palestinian people,” Abbas said, adding that many Arabs were
forced to leave their homes by Israeli ‘occupiers’ in 1948. Holding
up a copy of the application, he said it we request full nation
status in the UN based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as
our capital.
|
Sept. 23….(YNET)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations on
Friday to recognize a state for his people, accusing Israel of engaging in
ethnic cleansing in his United Nations speech. Speaking at the UN General
Assembly, Abbas accused Israel of employing an “ethnic cleansing policy” in
Jerusalem. “Israel issues building permits to settlers so they can build in
occupied Jerusalem, while it keeps confiscating lands in eastern Jerusalem and
driving away Palestinians from their ancestral lands,” he said in his address to
the United Nations General Assembly. “Now, after the Arab springs emphasized
their desire for liberty, it’s time for a Palestinian spring, the moment of
independence,” he said. “Sixty-three years after the Nakba, I say enough,
enough, enough,” the Palestinian leader declared. “It’s time for the Palestinian
people to get their liberty, and for the suffering of millions of Palestinian
refugees to end.”
Earlier he
was more positive, saying: "We extend our hands to the Israeli government and
the Israeli people for peacemaking. Shortly before his speech, the PA leader
handed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a letter requesting full UN. membership,
which the Security Council must consider, although this may take some time.
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, walked out during Abbas’ address.
He later told Ynet the Palestinian leader delivered “speech of incitement” that
included “harsh threats.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not present
during Abbas’ speech to begin with. Abbas also ranted that he is adamant
about not recognizing Israel as the Jewish state. "They talk to us about the
Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize
a Jewish state!"
Meanwhile,
Hamas said Friday Palestinians should liberate their land, not beg for
recognition at the United Nations, firmly rejecting President Abbas' quest for
statehood. Speaking hours before Abbas was due to ask formally that the UN
recognize a Palestinian state, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said this
would not bring independence. "Our Palestinian people do not beg for a state.
...States are not built upon UN resolutions. States liberate their land and
establish their entities," Haniyeh said.
Palestinians Submit UN Statehood Bid
Sept. 23….(AP)
Defying US and Israeli opposition, Palestinians asked the United Nations on
Friday to accept them as a member state, sidestepping nearly two decades of
failed negotiations in the hope this dramatic move on the world stage would
reenergize their quest for an independent homeland. Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas was greeted by sustained applause and appreciative whistles as he
approached the dais in the General Assembly hall to deliver a speech outlining
his people's hopes and dreams of becoming a full member of the United Nations.
Some members of the Israeli delegation, including Foreign Minister Avigdor
Liebermann, left the hall as Abbas approached the podium. Negotiations with
Israel "will be meaningless" as long as it continues building on lands the
Palestinians claim for that state, he declared, warning that his government
could collapse if the construction persists. That would put 150,000 people out
of work. "This policy is responsible for the continued failure of the successive
international attempts to salvage the peace process," said Abbas, who has
refused to negotiate until the construction stops. "This settlement policy
threatens to also undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority
and even end its existence." To another round of applause, he held up a copy
of the formal membership application and said he had asked UN chief Ban Ki-moon
to expedite deliberation of his request to have the United Nations recognize a
Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Ban has
to examine the application before referring it to the Security Council. Action
on the membership request could take weeks, if not months.
The statehood
strategy has put the Palestinians in direct confrontation with the US, which has
threatened to veto their membership bid in the Council, reasoning, like Israel,
that statehood can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the
parties to end the long and bloody conflict. Yet by seeking approval at a world
forum overwhelmingly sympathetic to their quest, Palestinians hope to make it
harder for Israel to resist already heavy global pressure to negotiate the
borders of a future Palestine based on lines Israel held before capturing the
West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in 1967.
Palestinians
say they turned to the UN in desperation over 18 failed years of peace talks.
They say they decided to reinvigorate their flagging statehood campaign by
bringing it to the broadest possible international forum, the United Nations in
the hope an enhanced world status would pressure Israel to act more boldly.
Netanyahu insists his commitment to peacemaking is genuine and accuses the
Palestinians of going to the UN specifically to avoid negotiations. The
resumption of talks seems an elusive goal, with both sides digging in to
positions that have tripped up negotiations for years. Israel insists that
negotiations go ahead without any preconditions. But Palestinians say they will
not return to the bargaining table without assurances that Israel would halt
settlement building and drop its opposition to basing negotiations on the
borders it held before capturing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza in
1967. Israel has warned that the Palestinian appeal to the UN will have a
disastrous effect on negotiations, which have been the cornerstone of
international Mideast policy for the past two decades. Netanyahu opposes
negotiations based on 1967 lines, saying a return to those frontiers would
expose Israel's heartland to rocket fire from the West Bank.
The UN
recognition bid has won Abbas broad popular support at home and help him gain
political ground against his main political rival, the Islamic militant Hamas
movement, which violently wrested control of Gaza in 2007 and opposes the UN
move. Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, accused Abbas on Friday of
relinquishing Palestinian rights by seeking recognition for a state in the
pre-1967 borders. Hamas' founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel
and a state in all of the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan
River. "The Palestinian people do not beg the world for a state, and the
state can't be created through decisions and initiatives," Haniyeh said. "States
liberate their land first and then the political body can be established."
Netanyahu: Palestinians Want State Without Peace
(Responding to
Abbas’ fiery anti-Israel speech, PM Netanyahu tells UN General Assembly
Palestinians want state without peace; ‘Israel has extended its hand in peace
from the moment it was established')
|
(FOJ) Former US President Bill
Clinton, who was only too willing to trade all of Israel to the
Arabs for a Nobel Peace Prize is now blaming the failure of the Oslo
peace process with the Palestinians on Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu back in 2000. I guess Mr. Clinton had no problem with
Yasser Arafat walking out of Camp David when Israel offered him a
state on 97% of the West Bank.
|
Sept. 23….(YNET)
The Palestinians should recognize Israel as the Jewish state and make peace
with it, before seeking a state of their own, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
told the UN General Assembly Friday. “Israel has extended its hand in peace from
the moment it was established,” offering Israel’s response to a fiery
anti-Israel speech delivered by the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas earlier.
Netanyahu said that he extended his hand to the Arab nations of the Middle East
“on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people,” and mostly to the Palestinian
people, “with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.” “I came here to speak the
truth. The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The
truth is that Israel wants peace with the Palestinians, but they want a state
without peace, and the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen,” he said. “The
Palestinian should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. After
peace is signed, Israel won’t be the last country to accept a Palestinian state
– we will be the first.”
Declaring
that Israel is a Jewish state, Netanyahu said: “We don’t want the Palestinian to
change the Jewish character of the state. We want them to give up the fantasy of
flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians. “ The prime minister added that
settlements were not the main obstacle to peace, saying: “The core of the
conflict is not the settlement, the settlements is a result of the conflict. The
core of the conflict is the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish
state in any border.”
Mistakes That Led to the Palestinian Statehood Bid, and
How to Fix Them
Sept. 23….(By
Mitt Romney & Norman Coleman) This Friday, Palestinian Authority president
Mahmoud Abbas will appeal to the General Assembly for United Nations recognition
of Palestinian statehood. We need to be completely clear about what is
transpiring. This is not a step forward in the quest for peace and, legally,
will not create a Palestinian state. Rather, it is a step forward in the vicious
campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel. The Palestinian action in the
United Nations does not conform to the process for arriving at a two-state
solution laid out in the Oslo Accords. Indeed, it is taking place in naked
defiance of an agreement to which the Palestinians are signatory. Its effect
will be to once again dash the hopes of all who seek lasting peace in the Middle
East. This is an especially dangerous moment for the state of Israel. It has
deteriorating relationships with Turkey and Egypt. It faces longstanding dangers
from Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, a violent and highly unstable Syria,
and a nuclear-aspiring Iran. United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state
at this juncture will serve only to further isolate the Jewish State, sap its
confidence in the peace process, and exacerbate regional tensions. Worse,
because it will not change the facts on the ground, it will raise and then dash
Palestinian and Arab expectations. This increases the likelihood of violence,
particularly at a moment when despots like Bashar al Assad want nothing more
than to divert attention from their internal crises by scape-goating Israel.
Without question, a blow is being struck against peace. How did we arrive at
this point?
Unfortunately, the road was paved largely by a series of mistakes and
miscalculations by President Obama. He and his administration have badly
misunderstood the dynamics of the region. Instead of fostering stability and
security, they have diminished US authority and painted our ally Israel into a
corner. To begin with, President Obama for too long has been in the grip of
several illusions. One is that the Palestinian–Israeli dispute is the central
problem in the region. This has been disproved repeatedly by events, most
recently and most dramatically by the eruption of the Arab Spring. But it
nonetheless led the administration to believe that distancing the United States
from Israel was a smart move that would earn us credits in the Arab world and
somehow bring peace closer. The record proves otherwise. But the
administration’s errors extend in other directions as well. President Obama has
repeatedly and unilaterally created new preconditions for restarting peace
talks. The result has been to encourage Palestinians simply to hold out and wait
for Washington to deliver more Israeli concessions on a silver platter. Why,
after all, should the Palestinians even negotiate with Israel if the White House
is pressuring Israel without extracting any price from the Palestinians in
return?
First,
President Obama has picked fights with Israel over policies that were properly
the subject of negotiations between the parties themselves. Then, when he
summarily announced in May that the indefensible 1967 lines should be the
starting point for resumed negotiations, he threw Israel under the bus and
emboldened the Palestinians to raise the ante even more. Naively or otherwise,
when Obama last year identified September 2011 as a target date for the
formation of a Palestinian state and named the United Nations General Assembly
as the location to declare it, he effectively wrote the script for the showdown
we now have on our hands.
Where should
the United States go from here? Although the Obama administration has
demonstrated a congenital inability to get things right, a proper US policy
would be to launch an all-out diplomatic campaign to discourage the vote. We
must leave no doubt that the United States will react firmly if the General
Assembly recognizes a Palestinian state. The United States should put the world
on notice that it will begin by taking a long hard look at American support for
UN programs and that it will re-evaluate its relationship with any state that
votes in favor of recognition. The United States also should communicate that we
are prepared to cut foreign assistance to the Palestinians so long as they
continue to pursue statehood apart from the negotiating table. But beyond the
diplomacy, we need to draw some lessons from the past three years of Obama’s
presidency. A first lesson is that the United States needs a president who will
not be a fair-weather friend of Israel. President Obama has shamefully broken
with longstanding American traditions in distancing the United States from
Israel, a fellow democracy and a beacon of freedom in the Middle East. Second,
we must work as individuals and as a country to resist the worldwide campaign to
delegitimize Israel. We must fight against that campaign in every forum, call it
for what it is, and make clear that Israel’s existence is not up for debate.
Pakistan Chastens US Over Taliban Charges
Sept.
23….(MSN) Pakistan's foreign minister warned the United States in remarks
broadcast Friday that it risks losing an ally if it continued to accuse
Islamabad of playing a double game in the war against militancy, escalating the
crisis in relations between the two countries. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani
Khar was responding to comments by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm.
Michael Mullen, who said Pakistan's top spy agency was closely tied to the
Haqqani network, the most violent and effective faction among Islamic Taliban
militants in Afghanistan. It is the most serious allegation leveled by the
United States against nuclear-armed and Muslim-majority Pakistan since they
began an alliance a decade ago. "You will lose an ally," Khar told Geo TV in New
York, where she is attending a UN General Assembly meeting. "You cannot afford
to alienate Pakistan, you cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people. If you
are choosing to do so and if they are choosing to do so it will be at their (the
United States') own cost," she said. "Anything which is said about an ally,
about a partner publicly to recriminate it, to humiliate it is not acceptable,"
Khar added. US military officials told NBC News that the Pakistani government,
through its intelligence service, is "actively involved" in directing the
militant Haqqani network to launch terrorist attacks against US and Afghan
government targets in Kabul.
The officials
told NBC News the ISI, Pakistan's powerful spy agency, directed the attacks by
Haqqani militants on the US Embassy on Sept. 13 and on the Inter-Continental
Hotel on June 28. It is suspected the ISI also had a role in the massive truck
bombing targeting an American base in eastern Afghanistan on the eve of the 10th
anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the officials said. In a congressional
hearing Thursday, Mullen called the Haqqani network a "veritable arm" of the
ISI. Testifying alongside Mullen, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United
States has warned Pakistani authorities it will not tolerate a continuation of
the group's cross-border attacks
Israel Readies For Violence as Palestinians Work the UN
|
|
(FOJ) President Obama
met with both Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA President
Mahmoud Abbas in New York as the “statehood issue” looms for Friday. |
Sept. 23….(DEBKA) Israeli police have
mobilized 22,000 officers and border police alongside thousands of soldiers as
the country's forces go on the highest level of preparedness ahead of
Palestinian prayers and demonstrations Friday, Sept. 23, in support of their
application for UN approval of statehood. Beefed up police and troops are
preparing for the rallies to turn violent and surge out of the Palestinian
towns. They are also deployed at mixed population centers of Jews and Arabs up
and down the country to avert clashes and concentrated on the Green Line
enclosing the West Bank and the approaches to Jerusalem. In defiance of
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' directive for rallies to stay
within the limits of Palestinian towns and remain orderly, the PA's Religious
Affairs Minister Mahmoud Habbash secretly instructed the imams Thursday to turn
up the volume of their loudspeakers at Friday prayers and keep on shouting Allah
is Great! This call will be coming from Al Aqsa on Temple Mount and aims at
reaching every Muslim in the West Bank and Israel. At UN headquarters in New
York, meanwhile, Debkafile's exclusive sources disclose that the Palestinian
delegation and its leader Mahmoud Abbas, under extreme pressure to back away
from their application for UN recognition, have informed Lebanese President
Michel Suleiman who presides over the UN Security Council session Friday that
their application will be filed on that day as planned. However, they will not
insist on having it debated at once or put to vote. Our sources report that this
is the first crack in the Palestinian determination to go through with their UN
initiative against all odds. A western source in New York says that the
Palestinians have begun to finally wake up to the virtual impossibility of their
motion being carried by the Security Council. Straight after the Obama speech,
US diplomacy threw all its resources into persuading every Security Council
member to oppose or at least abstain from endorsing the Palestinian motion. As
of now, Nigeria, Gabon, India and Bosnia have agreed to consider withholding
their support.
Russia Warns US About Veto of PA Statehood
(Russian foreign minister says that while
negotiations are preferred, 'No one should deny Palestinians' right to ask for
recognition of state')
Sept. 22….(YNET) Moscow authorities on
Wednesday called on Washington not to veto a Security Council vote on
Palestinian membership at the United Nations. "We think it's better for the two
parties to sit to the negotiations table, but they are not willing to do so
because they do not agree between themselves," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. The foreign minister added that "no one should deny the
Palestinians the right to ask the Security Council to consider recognizing them
as a state."
'Obama to Blame for Palestinian UN Bid'
(Israeli experts claim
Israeli-Palestinian discordance cannot be separated from America's waning
regional influence, which served as catalyst for Abbas' refusal to resume talks)
|
(FOJ) Obama's failed
Mideast foreign policy has led to the Palestinian UN statehood bid,
and to avoid any agreements with Israel. Obama’s Middle East policy
has also greatly reduced American power and influence in the Middle
East, and allowed Russia and China to gain more influence with the
Arabs.
|
Sept. 22….(YNET)
Ahead of the Palestinian statehood vote at the United Nations, Israeli experts
believe the United States played a major part in the hardening of the
Palestinian stance and the failure to bring the parties back to the negotiations
table. "To a large extent, the American caused the Palestinians to develop high
expectations," political science Professor and Director of the Begin-Saadat
Center for Strategic Studies Efraim Inbar told Ynet. "Obama demanded that Israel
freeze the construction in the settlements, a demand that has not been voiced by
any American administration prior to Obama. The Palestinians hoped that Obama
will continue with this line, but when they were urged to sit down to the
negotiations table without receiving any guarantees on the right of return or
the division of Jerusalem, they refused to compromise." Professor Inbar stressed
that the Israeli-Palestinian discordance cannot be separated from the waning
American influence in the region, which he says "gave a basis to the Palestinian
refusal. "It's a new strategy, by which they are trying to receive things
without negotiations. They decided to turn to international organizations, where
they enjoy majority support," he added.
Professor
Eytan Gilboa Director of the Center for International Communication at Bar-Ilan
University, also points to Washington as a main catalyst in the current
Israeli-Palestinian crisis. "Because Obama asked Israel to freeze settlements,
the Palestinians couldn’t ask for anything less than that," he noted, while
stressing the big differences between the sides: "The Americans regarded the
10-month moratorium as a great achievement, while the Palestinians demanded a
full moratorium, including Jerusalem, and without a time limit."
Former
Ambassador to the United States Zalman Shoval, believes that it was the
Palestinians' stance that led to the collapse of negotiations. "Undoubtedly, the
Palestinians, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, made a strategic decision not
to return to talks with Israel, because they realized that negotiations will
require both sides to make compromises. According to Shoval, Abbas is unable and
unwilling to make any concessions vis-à-vis the core issues, and therefore is
planning a way to circumvent the United Nations and Europe. "The Palestinians
are thinking, if we don’t get a state, at least we'll get a symbolic declaration
from the United Nations; maybe we'll be declared as a non-member state, and then
we can put it in the headlines and omit the rest," Shoval explained. At the end
of the day, he noted, even of the American weakness has strengthened the
Palestinians' hard-line stance, "The Americans are the only ones who can move
things, and disregarding them might carry a high cost for all of us."
Poll: 70% of Israelis say Israel Should Accept UN Decision
Sept.
22….(Jerusalem Post) Israel should accept the decision if the UN recognizes a
Palestinian state, about 70 percent of Israelis answered in a recent Hebrew
University poll. The poll, which was conducted jointly by the Harry S. Truman
Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah,
also found that over 80% of the Palestinians support turning to the UN to obtain
recognition of a Palestinian state. The survey was supported by the Ford
Foundation Cairo office and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Ramallah and
Jerusalem. In response to questions about the Palestinian appeal at the UN, 83%
of the Palestinians surveyed supported the move to obtain recognition for their
state. Majorities on both sides, 77% of the Palestinians and 79% of the
Israelis, believed that the US would use its veto power in the UN Security
Council in order to prevent the UN from admitting the state of Palestine as a UN
member. In the face of UN recognition of a Palestinian state, 69% of Israelis
thought that Israel should accept the decision and either start negotiations
with the Palestinians about its implementation (34%) or not allow any change on
the ground by the Palestinians (35%); 16% believed Israel should oppose the
decision and intensify the construction in the settlements; 7% think that Israel
should annex the PA territory to Israel; and 4% think Israel should invade the
PA territories and use force to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian
state.
Faced with
the same scenario, Palestinian participants of the survey answered on how they
thought Israel might be made to withdraw from PA territory: 26% of
Palestinians supported a return to armed attacks on army and settlers; 37%
thought peaceful non-violent resistance could be successful; and 30% supported
negotiations with Israel. 54% of Palestinians in the West Bank said they would
join large peaceful demonstrations in the West Bank and Jerusalem if they were
to take place after the recognition of the Palestinian State.
No Big UN Showdown on Palestinian State, Not This Week
(Anti-US feeling
runs high among Palestinians)
Sept. 22….(DEBKA)
Accounts of the big diplomatic showdown facing the United Nations when the
Palestinian bid for statehood is filed Friday, Sept. 23 have been blown up and
overdramatized . Neither the Security Council nor the UN General Assembly will
be making any immediate decisions this week and US President Barack Obama will
not be called on as yet to veto the Palestinian application. Therefore the
dispute over which side can muster the magic majority of nine members is
premature. Indeed, Debkafile's diplomatic sources are assured that UN Secretary
Ban Ki-moon and the United States, which holds the key to the tussle, have
arranged to put the Palestinian application on hold, or more diplomatically,
under consideration, a process which could consume weeks if not months before it
is referred to the Security Council. In the volatile Middle East, a couple of
months are a long time; the Arab uprisings have demonstrated how much can happen
in a short period.
After the
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
deliver their speeches on Friday, the General Assembly is not expected to get
right down to debating the Palestinian request. It will most likely be held in
abeyance for the next session. A special session might be summoned in the
interim, but that is the UN Secretary General's prerogative and he normally
makes these decisions in consultation with the White House. Therefore, the real
diplomatic battle over the Palestinian drive for UN acceptance will not take
place this week in the GA chamber where the speeches are made, but in
Washington. The Obama administration has absurdly been maneuvered, or maneuvered
itself, into the lead role for defeating the Palestinian claim for an
independent state within the 1967 borders. The high point of Obama's May 19
address on the Middle East was a call for Israel to accept a Palestinian state
based on the 1967 borders. He even refrained from a demand to demilitarize the
prospective state. Five months later, he is bending every ounce of
diplomatic leverage to prevent the Security Council from approving a Palestinian
state's acceptance by the world body. Obama's path to this quandary was littered
with missteps. His ultimatum to the Netanyahu government to halt settlement
construction on the West Bank was later abandoned but meanwhile it was hijacked
by Abbas as his main pretext for rejecting direct talks with Israel and turning
to the UN.
Further US
weakness was displayed in the Middle East Quartet's inability to reach a
decision this week on how to deal with the diplomatic crisis posed by the
Palestinian bid. Composed of representatives from the US, Russia, the European
Union and the UN, the Quartet used to be the supreme body for shaping
international consensus on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. This time,
Washington's lead was not strong enough to pull the parties together and,
moreover, the US and Europe are discovering they are beginning to pay for their
involvement through NATO in the Libyan conflict. Russia is playing hard to get
and deliberately slowing the momentum of Middle East diplomacy in protest
against what Moscow sees as US and European participation in the conquest of
Libya, which has gone well beyond their UN Security Council mandate. The
Russians were also obstructive on the Syrian issue. They torpedoed every
Security Council resolution penalizing and condemning Bashar Assad for his
barbaric methods in suppressing dissent, maintaining they would not allow the
West to repeat its Libya scenario in Syria.
Now, Moscow
is trying to trap the United States into exercising its Security Council veto
power against the Palestinian application for UN membership, in order to
support its claim that Washington maintains a double standard on the Middle
East, defeating Palestinian independence on the one hand and preaching the Arab
peoples' rights to oust their rulers in the name of independence, on the other.
Moscow, partnered actively by Mahmoud Abbas, would thus aim to strip the
United States of its last vestiges of credibility in the Arab world. With no
exit from this predicament, Washington and Jerusalem are resorting to the
language of threats.
The
Palestinians are warned by White House sources that unless they withdraw their
application for UN recognition, they will face severe measures. They were given
to understand that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah stood to lose all or
part of the half-billion dollars of its annual aid allocation. Israeli Finance
Minister Yuval Steinitz also warned Tuesday, Sept. 20, that Israel would
consider halting the transfer of customs revenues to the PA. Abbas and his party
are putting a brave face on these threats. They say loss of income will not
deter them from their drive for UN acceptance. The Palestinians say their Arab
allies have pledged to make up any shortfall sustained in consequence of their
UN initiative. But they know as well as anyone that no Arab government aside
from Saudi Arabia and some of the Arab Gulf emirates will make good on those
pledges because they are all wholly preoccupied with the unrest sweeping their
streets and have no time or cash to spare for the Palestinians. Once the Abbas
initiative is seen to be hanging fire, the situation on Palestinian home ground
could turn nasty. Ramallah, Wednesday, Sept. 21, saw the first large Palestinian
gathering of several marches and rallies scheduled for the coming days to
celebrate their approaching independence. These demonstrations of joy, financed
by Abbas and his associates out of the PA's half-empty coffers, are scheduled to
climax with his speech Friday and roll on into Saturday. However, once the penny
drops and the Palestinian request is seen to be held up, these rallies may turn
to violence against the security forces fielded both by Abbas and Israel to keep
them within bounds and out of Israeli locations. It is more than likely that
Hamas, which rules the separate Palestinian Gaza Strip, the Islamic Jihad and
Hizballah, both Iranian proxies, will turn the crowded streets into stages for
mounting terrorist activity, without even waiting for instructions from Tehran
and Damascus. They would aim not just to punish Israel but to torpedo the
Palestinian UN initiative which the rejectionists and extremists regard as a
forbidden compromise on their claim to every inch of Palestinian soil and
Israel's removal. They would also seek to challenge the credibility and potency
of the Palestinian leader and his US-trained security legions. This outlook will
be further exacerbated when the Palestinian Authority, deprived of aid funds,
cannot pay wages to civil and security personnel. Without pay, they may well
vent their frustrations on the Palestinian Authority heads, especially Abbas,
and Israel. No one can tell whether Syria, where Assad is in the last stages of
suppressing the uprising against his regime, and Iran, through Hizballah, Hamas
and Jihad Islami will intervene.
Partition Rejected by Arabs in 1947 to be Basis for Future
State?
(Palestinians
rejected compromise, launched war, now want 63-year old plan back)
Sept. 22….(WND)
he Palestinian Authority is considering changing the language of its United
Nations statehood request so the official document does not ask for a state in
what is known as the pre-1967 borders, according to PA officials speaking to WND.
While the move comes in response to US and Israeli diplomatic efforts, the PA
justifies the possible language change by believing that in the future it can
request an even larger percentage of the land of Israel based on a nonbinding UN
resolution long ago rejected by the Arabs.
Resolution
181, passed by the UN General Assembly in 1947, one year before Israel was
founded, stipulated that all territories should be divided into two states,
giving Jews and Arabs nearly equal space, with Jerusalem administered by an
international body. The Jewish leadership immediately accepted the partition
plan without reservation. Representatives for the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab
League, however, firmly opposed the UN resolution and even rejected the
international body's authority to involve itself in the matter. Following the
passage of the resolution, the Arabs launched a series of terror assaults
against the Jewish communities throughout Israel, including a blockade of
Jerusalem. After the Arabs rejected the resolution, and following several months
of Arab attacks, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of
the state of Israel on May 14, 1948. The next day, armies of several Arab states
launched war with the stated goal of destroying the Jewish State.
Now, 63
years later, the resolution rejected by the Arabs could come into play in the
future as PA President Mahmoud Abbas debates the requested language for the UN
unilateral recognition of a state. Why do the Arabs accept it now? PA
officials told WND that instead of asking for the pre-1967 borders, Abbas is
considering a more general request for which territory should be declared a
state. The officials said Abbas could use Resolution 181 in the future when
defining which specific territory should become part of a Palestinian state.
Pre-1967 refers to all of Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank; as
well as the Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem, theoretically including the Temple
Mount. Many historic Jewish communities are located in these areas. Any UN
declaration regarding these territories would have international legal
consequences for Israel's communities there. Meanwhile, Palestinian officials
reportedly enlisted the support of at least six or seven members of the
15-member Security Council ahead of Friday's expected vote on creating as
Palestinian State. For any decision to pass in the 15-member Council, nine
affirmative votes are needed, as well as no veto by any of the permanent
Security Council members. The US holds a veto and has promised to use it, if
necessary.
The Palestinian "Statehood Issue" in Prophecy
This week, (September 20-23, 2011)
Palestinian Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to lobby the
United Nations to accept the PA as the 194th member state of the UN.
Previous to this week, the PA claims that 125-140 countries have
promised to back the Palestinian statehood bid this week in New York
City. The push at the world body is the first step to statehood for
Palestinians who have for decades complained of being "occupied" by
an oppressive foreign power. (Israel) Should the PA win
the vote at the UN, and survive any veto action in the Security
Council, the PA says it would work toward establishing a national
unity government with Hamas and hold presidential and
parliamentary elections.
UN protocol calls for Secretary General Ban (who
favors PA statehood) to receive a letter from Abbas and then to give
it approval before moving it forward in the arduous and complicated
process for a new member state. Ban has"reiterated his support for the "two-state
solution" and stressed his desire to ensure that the
international community and the two parties can find a way forward for
resuming negotiations within a legitimate and balanced framework. Any
state-candidate for UN membership must submit a letter to the
secretary-general stating it is a "peace-loving" (repudiates
terrorism) state and accepts the UN Charter. Ban is expected to
examine the Palestinian letter and then send it to the 15-member UN
Security Council which must give its approval before a vote in the
larger General Assembly. In the General Assembly, the PA enjoys
overwhelming support.
Israel has lobbied dozens of UN members to oppose the effort, but it
is widely held that the PA is in a position to get the two-thirds
support from the UN General Assembly for the upgrade from its current
status as “entity.” Russia, China, Spain and much of the EU, the 22
member Arab League, the IMF and the World Bank all support Palestinian
statehood. Meanwhile, the USA, Canada, Britain and Israel oppose the
statehood bid. The "Quartet of Mideast" mediators, the US, the UN, the
EU and Russia, have been unable to resolve key issues between Israel
and the Palestinians.
Ironically, Hamas and Hezbollah, with Iranian support
also oppose the statehood appeal to the UN by the PA. They oppose the
Palestinian statehood request because they are emphatic in their zeal to
simply deny Israel's right to exist.
World diplomacy surrounding Palestinian statehood
will be a key component in the geo-political strategy of the Last Days
Antichrist. As many prophecy enthusiasts realize, the Antichrist will
coerce Israel into a "covenant of peace" with "many"
(22 Arab/Muslim nations and the 10 king power-brokers) at the outset
of the tribulation era. A key component of that "covenant of peace" will
be the political dividing of the promised land," as evidenced by the
following verse from Daniel. (Daniel 11:39 Thus shall he (AC) do in the
most strong holds with a strange god, whom he (AC) shall acknowledge and
increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and
shall divide the land for gain.)
Eleven years ago at Camp David, then Fatah terrorist
and PA leader Yasser Arafat refused to accept a negotiated political
state for Palestine. Arafat refused statehood because Israel required
the Palestinians to accept an "end of conflict" clause in the negotiated
peace process. Arafat refused statehood for the Palestinians because he
knew it would mean either, assassination for him, or it was not
compatible with the strategy of the Trojan Horse mission to destroy
Israel from within the territories around Jerusalem.
In the final analysis, God is causing all nations to
be burdened down with the heavy weight of impending judgment that comes
with the controversy over Jerusalem. The Palestinians desire Jerusalem
as their state capital, as does Israel. The Vatican also desires to have
Jerusalem reserved as an international religious city.
(Jeremiah 25:31 A noise shall come even to the ends of
the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he
will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the
sword, saith the Lord.)
(Isaiah 34:8 For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of
recompenses for the controversy of Zion.)
The nations of this world are willingly ignorant of
the fact that the God of Israel has promised a kingdom to Israel, with
Jesus Christ as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Albeit, the gods of
Islam and modern corrupt Christianity, and many other religions are
working in league with the conspiracy of Satan to steal the heritage of
God's only Son. Sadly, even Israel is blinded to this reality, and will
be drawn into the quagmire of compromising the land.
The mere fact that the Palestinians are today in
search of an international stage for the legal sanction for "dividing
the land" is evidence that the Antichrist can quickly emerge, for he
will be the one to sustain the "dividing of the land."
Darrell G. Young
Israel Atomic Chief says Iran Designing Nuclear Weapons
(IAEC chief also warns of nuclear
terrorism from Libyan and Syrian fallout as both countries become more
unstable.)
Sept.
21….(Jerusalem Post) Iran is directly involved in activities related to the
design and testing of nuclear weapons, head of the Israel Atomic Energy
Commission (IAEC) Dr. Shaul Chorev warned on Tuesday in a speech at the General
Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. Chorev
addressed the meeting ahead of a vote expected later this week on a resolution
submitted by Arab states to single out Israel for condemnation over its nuclear
activities. The IAEC and the Foreign Ministry have spent the past few months
recruiting states to vote down the resolution titled “Israeli Nuclear
Capabilities.” “Not only is Iran continuing its enrichment-related activities
in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, but it is also engaged in
activities directly related to the design and testing of nuclear weapons,”
Chorev said. “Absent an effective response by the international community, Iran
may become the first country to acquire nuclear weapons while being a member of
the Non Proliferation Treaty.”
Chorev said
that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons under the cover of its membership in the
NPT and that its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent served no real civilian
purpose. “Against this backdrop, some still prefer to find refuge in carefully
worded diplomatic phrases, which are obscuring ominous realities, and
obstructing effective concerted response,” he said. Chorev also called on
international community to take steps to prevent the proliferation of nuclear
components by Libya and Syria which are both facing growing instability to
terrorist organizations. “With the collapse of Gaddafi's regime, and the
volatile situation in Syria, efforts by the international community should be
directed towards urgent counter proliferation issues in these two countries,” he
said. “This worrisome situation in Libya and Syria is a fresh reminder of the
need to work together to secure nuclear materials and to prevent illicit nuclear
trafficking and terrorism.”
Obama Has Thrown Israel Under The Bus
(The battlefield: UN Security Council) |
(FOJ) Seven of the
fifteen UN Security Council states have made definitive statements
on how they are going to vote. Joining the US against are Germany
and Colombia, although reports in Bogota said that the best Colombia
could do would be to abstain. Definitely yes for the PA bid include
China, India, Lebanon, Russia, and South Africa. The PA also claims
that Brazil and Portugal will approve the bid, giving them seven
votes so far.
Of the others, France, Serbia, Nigeria,
Bosnia and Herzegovina still have not decided.
|
Sept. 21….(Newsmax) Wading into a
tense foreign policy dispute, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on
Tuesday criticized the Palestinian Authority's effort to seek a formal
recognition of statehood by the UN General Assembly and assailed the Obama
administration's broader policies in the Middle East. In a 10-minute speech in
New York, Perry pledged strong support for Israel and criticized President
Barack Obama for demanding concessions from the Jewish state that Perry says
emboldened the Palestinians to seek recognition by the UN. "We would not be here
today at this very precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama policy in the
Middle East wasn't naive and arrogant, misguided and dangerous," Perry said.
"The Obama policy of moral equivalency which gives equal standing to the
grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, including the orchestrators of
terrorism, is a very dangerous insult."
Perry also
criticized the administration's belief that any negotiations should be based on
the borders Israel had before a 1967 war that expanded the Jewish state. Perry
called that stance "insulting and naïve." In a statement before Perry spoke, GOP
rival Mitt Romney called the jockeying at the United Nations this week an
"unmitigated diplomatic disaster." The former Massachusetts governor accused
Obama's administration of "repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel
under the bus and undermine its negotiating position." "That policy must stop
now," Romney said, calling on Obama to unequivocally reaffirm the US commitment
to Israel's security and a promise to cut foreign assistance to the Palestinians
if they succeed in getting UN recognition. Both Perry and Romney said the US
should reconsider funding for the UN itself if the global body recognizes a
Palestinian state. These and other Republican candidates are intent on showing
they stand strongly behind Israel, an effort to appeal to Jewish voters and
donors who play a pivotal role in presidential elections. Thus, Perry and Romney
are seeking part of the spotlight as the Palestinians push for statehood this
week at the UN.
The US has
promised a veto in the Security Council, but the Palestinians can press for a
more limited recognition of statehood before the full, and much more supportive
General Assembly. The Obama administration has pushed hard for countries around
the world to block the Palestinian bid, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton said Monday there was still time to avert a divisive showdown. Obama has
been criticized by Republicans and many pro-Israel activists for seeming to push
the Jewish state harder than the Palestinians to make compromises to achieve
peace. Among other things, Obama has called on Israel to cease building housing
settlements in the West Bank and to negotiate the scope of the Palestinian state
using 1967 borders as a starting point, a diplomatic position the US has long
maintained but one that has never before been explicitly embraced by a US
president. Complaints about Obama's Israel policy helped a Republican, Bob
Turner, win a special election in a heavily Jewish and Democratic New York
congressional district last week. "It's vitally important for America to
preserve alliances with leaders who seek to preserve peace and stability in the
region," Perry said. "But today, neither adversaries nor allies know where
America stands. Our muddle of a foreign policy has created great uncertainty in
the midst of the Arab Spring." Obama is also in New York on Tuesday for meetings
on the sidelines of the General Assembly. He planned to meet later in the week
with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
UN Vote: Diplomatic Blitz in New York
Sept. 21….(YNET)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to the US early Wednesday, as an
Israeli diplomatic blitz was underway in New York in the aims of thwarting a
Palestinian statehood win at the Security Council. The Israeli campaign is meant
to prevent a two-thirds majority from endorsing a Palestinian state in the vote,
thereby avoiding a US veto against the decision. PM Netanyahu will be meeting
with President Barack Obama Wednesday to discuss the latest developments. The
Israeli effort is already bearing fruit, with Nigeria, previously slated to
support the Palestinian bid, now saying it will abstain in the vote. The
Nigerian announcement was made following a meeting between Defense Minister Ehud
Barak and Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, who visited Israel back in
2007. Barak also met with Nigeria's oil minister.
At this
time, five Security Council members are certain not to endorse the Palestinian
statehood bid: The US, Germany, France, Britain and Columbia. The Palestinians
need a majority of nine out of the Security Council's 15 members to win the vote
and force the US to impose a veto. Meanwhile, Britain's Catherine Ashton and
Tony Blair were joining forces with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a
bid to formulate an International Quartet statement that would prompt the
resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Before
heading to New York, Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Likud ministers and
Knesset members, vowing to safeguard Israel's interests at the UN. "It is
important for us to go to the UN and present our truth, that of a nation
attacked time after time by those who object to its existence," the prime
minister said. "We are extending our hand in peace. I said that the way to peace
is through direct negotiations and not through unilateral declarations in the
UN.
Palestinian Catholic Clerics Bless Palestinian UN Bid
Sept. 20….(Breitbart)
Priests in the Holy Land used their sermons on Sunday to give their blessing to
the Palestinians' bid for United Nations membership. The retired Latin Patriarch
of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, the first Palestinian to hold the post since the
Crusades, was to preach in the Roman Catholic church in the northern West Bank
city of Nablus. A joint statement by Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran
priests pledged their "support for the diplomatic efforts being deployed to win
international recognition for the State of Palestine... on the June 1967 borders
with Jerusalem as our capital." The priests went further than their bishops, who
in a statement this week confined themselves to a call for intensified prayer
and diplomatic efforts ahead of the Palestinian membership request, to be sent
to the UN Security Council on Friday. "Palestinians and Israelis should exercise
restraint, whatever the outcome of the vote at the United Nations," the bishops
said. "We call upon decision-makers and people of good will to do their utmost
to achieve the long-awaited justice, peace and reconciliation between Israelis
and Palestinians."
No to the Palestinian ‘State’
Sept.
20….(National Review) There is no such thing as a Palestinian state, and the
United Nations can’t conjure one into existence. That apparently won’t stop the
Palestinians from seeking recognition as a state in the Security Council this
week. We should veto the Palestinian effort without hesitation. On top of its
legal nullity, the push for recognition at the UN trashes the spirit of the Oslo
Accords, which commit both the Israelis and the Palestinians to addressing their
differences through negotiations. Thwarted at the Security Council, the
Palestinians will likely go to the rabble in the General Assembly, where we
don’t have a veto and they will presumably succeed in putting a fig leaf on a
fraud.
The General
Assembly can change the status of the PLO from an observer “entity,” as it is
now, to a “non-member state” observer, like the Vatican, and thereby recognize
it indirectly as a state. But this won’t create a real state, either in law or
in fact. Under international law, the Montevideo Convention of 1933 explicitly
provides that the existence of a sovereign state is independent of recognition
by other states, and further provides that a state must have a permanent
population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into
relations with other states. The Palestinians arguably have none of those
things. By their own admission, they don’t have a defined territory. Their
government, meanwhile, is riven: Terrorists control one half of the territories
and the other half is controlled by a former terrorist whose term of office
expired two years ago.
Nobody would
like to see the Palestinians under a functioning state of laws more than the
Israelis. But a state must have a monopoly of violence, and Hamas has always
rejected the monopoly of violence in favor of the inherent individual right of
resistance to occupation. The Palestinians have barely managed to maintain
political institutions of any kind, and a declaration of statehood will do
nothing to solve that problem.
Any action in the
cause of Palestinian statehood at the UN will serve to isolate Israel further,
and could make its government subject to international legal proceedings. But
the main danger is the effect it could have in the Muslim world, including the
occupied territories. Another intifada would force Israel to resort to military
measures, giving Egypt and Turkey another excuse to express their growing
hostility to the Jewish State.
The Middle
East has come to this pass despite President Obama’s blithe belief at the
inception of his administration that he could forge an Israeli-Palestinian
peace. From the start, Obama cast his role in the Middle East as one of
impartial mediator, not realizing that America’s influence among the
Palestinians requires Israel’s confidence that we will protect the Jewish state
come what may. Anyone can play the role of mediator, but only America can
underwrite the risks of a negotiated settlement for both sides. The strategic
prerequisites for Israeli-Palestinian peace are the same as they were for peace
between Israel and Egypt in the 1970s: We must convince the Arabs that they can
get what they want from the Israelis only by going through us, and we can
deliver Israeli concessions only if we can guarantee Israel’s security. Yet the
Obama Administration has reprised the Clinton administration’s childish
schoolyard spats with Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu. By embracing the
Palestinian insistence on a halt to settlement construction as a precondition
for talks, Obama encouraged the Palestinians to dig in their heels. Now the
Palestinians think they can get what they want by forcing the issue at the UN
and encouraging Egyptian and Turkish belligerence.
The new
government of Egypt is seeking legitimacy by embracing the worst anti-Israeli
sentiments of its populace. The army recently stood by as a Cairo mob ransacked
the Israeli embassy. The Camp David Accords of 1979 are starting to crumble.
Because no combination of Arab states could afford to go to war with Israel
without Egypt’s help, Henry Kissinger realized that peace between Israel and
Egypt would end the era of Arab-Israeli wars. The fraying of the Camp David
Accords, which preserved a tenuous peace for more than three decades, is
ominous. So is the reemergence of Turkey as a regional power. Turkey has pledged
a military escort for the next “humanitarian flotilla” aimed at forcibly
breaching the Gaza blockade, a fully legal blockade even according to the United
Nations. The Middle East is again on the cusp of crisis, with the UN about to
stoke the flames and the Obama Administration caught in a self-imposed
impotence.
This Week’s UN Disaster is Obama's Fault
Sept. 20….(JWR)
For many liberal pundits, the blame for the circus that will unfold this week at
the UN with the start of a debate over Palestinian statehood is to be assigned
to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu whom they wrongly claim has obstructed peace
talks. Others are inclined, with more justice, to put the onus for the problem
on Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas whose pursuit of UN recognition of
statehood without first making peace with Israel is seen as both futile and
counter-productive to the end that he claims to seek. But the lion's share of
the blame ought to fall on President Obama. Though peace talks were stalled when
he took office in January 2009, the deterioration of a relatively stable
standoff into the volatile situation that exists today is due in no small
measure to the blunders that the president's team has committed over the past 32
months. Though friends of Israel will rightly give Obama credit for sticking to
his word and vetoing the Palestinian resolution, a stand that will be undertaken
as much if not more in defense of US interests than those of the Jewish state,
the diplomatic disaster that is about to be played out is the fruit of his own
misjudgments.
It was just
three years ago in the fall of 2008 when then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
offered Abbas a Palestinian state in almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and a
share of Jerusalem. Though the Palestinians had spent much of the previous
months dickering with the Israelis over the terms of a peace agreement, in the
end Abbas refused to sign much in the same way his predecessor Yasir Arafat had
also declined to make peace after he had received such offers in 2000 and 2001.
By the end of that year with a new American president about to take office, it
was clear that the state of Palestinian politics was such that no PA leader
could afford to make peace with Israel, no matter what the terms or where its
borders would be drawn. Even if they were inclined to make peace, with Gaza in
the hands of Hamas, Fatah leaders like Abbas couldn't survive an accord.
That should
have signaled the new American president that prioritizing the Middle East peace
process would do more harm than good. But Obama was convinced the problem had
more to do with his predecessor's closeness with Israel than the realities of
Palestinian politics. So instead of watching and waiting for the Palestinians to
come to their senses, Obama plunged ahead with a new strategy that distanced the
United States from Israel in a futile effort to entice its foes to come back to
the negotiations that they had abandoned months earlier.
The result of
this tactical switch was the opposite of what Obama intended. The president's
decision to ask Israel to make unilateral concessions to bribe Abbas to talk as
well as his inexplicable decision to pick fights with the newly elected
Netanyahu over the status of Jerusalem only persuaded the Palestinians that they
need only sit back and watch while America battered its Jewish ally. Rather than
working on the Palestinians to take yes for an answer and accept a state that
would recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state next door and conclusively
end the conflict, Obama's actions encouraged Abbas to believe that he did not
have to make concessions. Every demand from Obama on Israel was taken up by the
Palestinians and put forward as a non-negotiable condition for the resumption of
talks. Yet even when the Israelis gave in on some points and accepted a
settlement freeze, the Palestinians still refused to negotiate.
Previously
the Palestinians understood that any progress toward their stated goal of a
state must come through the aid of the United States. Yet ironically it was
Obama's ham-handed efforts to signal that America was demanding such an outcome
without forcing the Palestinians to compromise that convinced Abbas that he
could only profit by abandoning the US-sponsored peace process. Obama's
determination to distance himself from Israel upset the precarious balance that
made an accord at least a theoretical possibility. Though the Palestinians claim
they are going to the UN because the peace process failed the truth is what they
are doing is an effort to evade negotiations. Obama's weakening of Israel had
the effect of undermining America's own diplomatic standing leaving the
Palestinians thinking they could ignore Washington's interests. Their UN gambit
is a crude maneuver aimed at clipping America's influence in the region. The
debate in the UN this fall is just one more chapter in the ongoing war against
Israel. The Palestinians will not get a state from this show and it may well be
that Abbas and the PA will lose more from the resulting tumult than anyone else
including Netanyahu. But it must also be understood as a profound defeat for
American diplomacy that was only made possible by the hubris of Barack Obama.
Many Palestinians Ready to Flee new Palestinian State
Sept.
20….(Israel Today) It is no secret that most Israelis oppose the
Palestinians' unilateral statehood bid scheduled to take place at the UN this
week. What is less known is that a very sizable portion of Palestinians aren't
too keen on the idea, either. The latest poll by the Palestinian Center for
Policy and Survey Research found that 83 percent of Palestinians verbally
support the UN stunt. However, and this is an important discrepancy, 38.5
percent demonstrated how they really feel by symbolically voting with their
feet: they want to emigrate from the new Palestinian state they hope to see
established.
In Gaza,
where the Palestinians have had a chance to see exactly what will happen in an
independent Palestinian-controlled territory, a full 49 percent want to leave.
By comparison, while 28 percent of them still want out, a 39 percent plurality
of the residents of the Israeli-controlled "West Bank" say it isn't such a bad
place to live. Why the discrepancy? Why do nearly one-third of West Bank
residents want to leave if nearly half of the locals think living conditions are
"good or very good"? Again, the answer likely lies in Gaza, which was given full
independence from Israel and Jews in general, and quickly fell under the sway of
terrorist thugs. Further demonstrating that many Palestinians have no desire to
participate in the nation they purportedly want to see established, only 60
percent of respondents said they will vote in the next presidential election.
What Would Arab State # 23 Muslim State # 58 Palestine be
Like?
Sept.
20….(INN) Global leaders are so busy speaking of how essential it is for a
“State of Palestine” to be founded that none of them seems to have noticed that
it already exists in practice in the Palestinian Authority. Since the
Palestinian Authority was established in 1994, the contours of the “State of
Palestine” that they wish have taken form in front of our eyes. So what will
this famous “State of Palestine” be like? It will be a racist state ethnically
cleansed of Jews, as the PLO representatives proclaimed the last week. It will
be a state led by Holocaust enablers like Hamas or by a Holocaust-denier like
Mahmoud Abbas, who in a book downgraded the number of Jewish victims and denied
that the gas chambers were used to murder Jews.
In any case,
it will be a state committed to the destruction of the nearby Jews’ homeland. A
state that will banish freedom of conscience for artists, journalists and
writers. A state that will drive away Christians from the land, while
proclaiming Jesus “the first fedayeen. A state that will torture Arab inmates in
prisons and that will throw political dissidents from the roofs of public
buildings. A state where the Iranian clergy will preach the Khomeinist ideology.
A state that will accept checks and support from the genocidal Muslim
Brotherhood in the name of “the caliphate or death,” as the Islamists who
assassinated Egypt’s Anwar Sadat in 1981 decorated their holding cages. A state
where the sharia, the Islamic code will be the only rule of law. A state that
will be put to death human beings simply because guilty of apostasy (conversion
to Christianity). A state where the women will be obliged to wear
headscarves. A state where “honor killings” will terrorize the female
population. A state that will commemorate terrorists, human bombs and baby
killers in public squares, streets and monuments. A state that will not hold
democratic elections, but that will be a combination of corruption,
dictatorship, Islamic theology and “binladenism.” A state that would be a
heavily armed union of rejectionists all dedicated to destroying the shards of
Western values. A state that will declare war on Judaism, depicting Jewish
history in the Middle East as no more than an insignificant, brief sojourn by
arrogant colonizers.
Who would
live in such a state? So why the world is dribbling at the mouth about the
creation of a “State of Palestine”? Is it because Arab State number 23 and
Muslim state number 58 will be the perfect tool for the evaporization of the
lone Jewish state in the world? Building the small Palestinian caliphate on
Israel’s shoulders is the first step of throwing the Jews in the sea.
Palestinians Warn Obama not to Stand in Way of Statehood
Sept.
19….(Israel Today) The Palestinian Authority knows all the right buttons to
push with Washington. The Palestinian leadership is fully aware of the value US
President Barack Obama (like his predecessors) puts on overseeing an
Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, and has regularly wielding that weakness
like a diplomatic bludgeon against the White House. On Saturday, the
Palestinians were at it again, warning the Obama Administration that vetoing
their UN Security Council bid for statehood would "destroy" the two-state
solution to the conflict. "Anyone who supports the two-state solution should
back the Palestinian effort at the UN," insisted chief Palestinian negotiator
Saeb Erekat. Senior PLO official Zakariya al-Agha followed up by reminding Obama
that in September of 2010 he promised that a Palestinian state would be
established in one year. The warnings came just hours after Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas confirmed in a speech in Ramallah that on Friday, September 23 he
will address the UN General Assembly, after which he will submit to the Security
Council an official application for UN membership for "Palestine."
The Obama
White House has repeatedly stated that it will veto the motion, with Obama
himself going so far as to call the Palestinian stunt a "distraction." Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu couldn't agree more, and continues to call on
Abbas to return to the negotiating table. "Peace is not achieved by taking
unilateral steps at the UN and not by linking up with the Hamas terror
organization. Peace can only be achieved through direct negotiations with
Israel," said Netanyahu in a statement released by his office. The leadership of
the Palestinian Authority has consistently evaded peace negotiations with
Israel," continued Netanyahu, recalling the fact that ever since he took office
in 2009, Abbas has refused to talk peace, constantly introducing new
preconditions he knew Israel could not accept. Abbas chose to paint the
situation differently, telling reporters that he had tried everything, but that
despite his "extensive and sincere" efforts he simply was not able to achieve a
Palestinian state through peaceful negotiations.
Netanyahu at UN Will Present 4000 Year Jewish History in Land
Sept. 19….(Algemeiner)
At the last weekly Cabinet meeting before his scheduled trip to meet with
President Barak Obama and address the United Nations, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu characterized his General Assembly speech as “important … to represent
both the State of Israel and the truth.” He recalled the multiple offers to the
Palestinian Authority to negotiate towards peace, while the PA remained
“unwilling to come and negotiate” reiterating that “peace will be achieved only
through direct negotiations.” “Their attempt to be accepted as a member of the
UN will fail,” declared the PM, noting that the United States will veto the
attempt in the Security Council, and noted that Israel was “coordinating our
efforts with those of the US and with other important countries, in Europe and
beyond.”
Netanyahu
said “we are not foreigners in this country, that we have rights in this country
that go ‘only’ 4,000 years.” He acknowledged the upheavals in the Middle East
saying “we do not know what will happen from day to day and how things will go,”
and stressed Israel’s continuing readiness to “return to the table in order to
achieve peace and security both for us and our neighbors.” In Geneva,
announcement has been made of Israel’s enhanced status at CERN, the European
Organization for Nuclear Research, where the Jewish State has gained Associate
Membership, a preliminary step towards full membership. Israel has been an
Observer at the CERN Council since 1991. CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said
“I am very pleased that CERN’s relationship with Israel is moving to a higher
level.” The status change symbolizes the increasing recognition of the Israeli
contributions, both scientific and technological to CERN over the years. “The
Israeli scientific community is looking forward to the continuation of this
joint venture,” said Eliezer Rabinovici, Professor and Director of the Institute
for Advanced Study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Israel’s scientific
observer to Council. He noted that “Israel has also supported Palestinian
students at CERN, notably sending mixed Israeli-Palestinian contingents to
CERN’s summer student program.”
Analyst: Islamic Awakening to Push Israel out of Region
Sept. 19…..(FNA)
The growing power and impacts of Islamic awakening and popular uprisings in the
Muslim countries will entail dire consequences for the Zionist regime of Israel,
including its further isolation in the region, a prominent Middle-East and
African affairs analyst underlined. Speaking to FNA on the sidelines of the
First International Islamic Awakening Conference here in Tehran on Sunday,
Binghamton State University Professor Akbar Mohammad noted the anti-Israeli
nature of the current popular uprisings in the region, and said people in Egypt
and Jordan have very openly and repeatedly voiced their strong opposition to the
existence of Israel embassy in their countries. "The Israeli authorities know
that continuation of Islamic awakening will result in their expulsion from
Muslim countries," Mohammad stated, and added, "Thus, Israelis are trying to
have a stronger presence in the African countries." Egyptians raided the Israeli
embassy in Cairo earlier this month and forced the Israeli ambassador to leave
their country. Less than a week later, Jordanians staged a similar demonstration
and intimidated the Israeli diplomats in their country so deeply that the
Zionist regime's diplomatic corps in Amman ran away even before the start of the
rally in anticipation of the raid. Tehran is hosting a two-day international
conference on Islamic Awakening these days. The high-profile meeting kicked off
work here in Tehran on Saturday in the presence of the Supreme Leader of the
Islamic Revolution.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 11 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 17
Abbas Says He Will Press UN For Statehood to Highlight
Occupation
Sept.
17….(CNN) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he will pursue
a full United Nations membership bid during a speech Friday that was likely
meant to both make the case for membership and manage domestic expectations. "We
are going to the United Nations to attain full membership" from the UN Security
Council, Abbas told an audience in Ramallah, tempering his rhetoric by adding
that "we are not going to bring independence. Let's not exaggerate. "We will
continue to negotiate," he said. Abbas says he wants the Palestinian territories
"to be represented in its natural borders," calling disputed territories
inhabited by Israeli settlers "illegal." "We want a seat at the United Nations,
and we don't want anything more," Abbas said. He says Palestinian leadership
does not seek to "isolate the state of Israel, but rather isolate the policies
of Israel," saying he will head to the United Nations headquarters in New York
"carrying an olive branch with us." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
who is also expected to speak next Friday at the United Nations, has said the
move could complicate the peace process and further destabilize the region. "We
have been calling all along for the Palestinians to return to negotiations,"
said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.
Regev called
the issue of settlements "a red herring" that he says Palestinian leaders have
used to avoid talks with Israel, deciding to grandstand on the international
stage instead of re-engaging in peace negotiations. Hamas, the Palestinian
organization that holds sway in Gaza, also was critical of Abbas on Friday,
saying he is showing a willingness to negotiate and acknowledgement of Israel,
which would "deprive the Palestinian people from their right to come back to
their homeland." "We are warning him not to go," said senior Hamas official
Mahmoud al-Zahar. "This is going to make more division inside the Palestinian
people." As regional pressure mounts over the prospective bid next week, US
diplomats have been scrambling to head off the burgeoning controversy, though
some analysts suggest the decision to take the vote to the Security Council
could reflect a political posturing by the Palestinian leader. Abbas concluded
his speech Friday by acknowledging "other options," presumably referring to his
government's ability to weigh a host of decisions at the UN General Assembly
next week, which may or may not include the full membership bid. "As for the
other options, we have not taken a decision," he said.
While the United States has vowed to
veto a full membership application, should it actually come before the UN
Security Council next Friday, the Palestinian government could also go to the
General Assembly, where only a majority vote would be needed to gain a lesser
status, that of a permanent observer state, similar to the position that the
Vatican currently holds. A vote in its favor would be all but assured. The
Palestinians currently hold the status of a permanent observer entity. As an
observer, the delegation can speak in the General Assembly but not vote. A
successful vote in either body will not lead to an established "state" with
defined borders, but would afford the Palestinian government an upgraded
international status allowing them to pursue legal actions against Israel. Abbas
is expected to personally submit the request for full membership.
Is The Oslo Peace Agreement Dead?
(Will Israeli-Palestinian accords be
annulled in wake of Abbas' UN bid?)
Sept. 17….(YNET) Diplomatic
earthquake in store? The upcoming Palestinian statehood bid constitutes a "new
game" that will allow Israel to respond without being constrained by past
agreements, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon says. Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas is "not only changing the rules of the game, but the game itself,"
Ayalon told Ynet Friday. "Israel knows how to respond and from now on would be
able to realize its interests without any limitations or concessions stemming
from previous agreements, including the Oslo Accords." The implicit threat was
voiced by Ayalon after Abbas delivered a dramatic speech in Ramallah earlier
Friday, declaring that the Palestinians will be seeking full UN membership and
approaching the Security Council later this month.
The deputy FM's words may indicate
that should the Palestinian go ahead with their UN bid, Israel would view itself
as absolved of the obligations of the Oslo Accords, which call for Israel and
the Palestinian Authority to bridge their differences through negotiations,
rather than unilaterally. Such move would fundamentally change the current
relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
office also slammed Abbas' speech Friday, stressing that peace can only be
achieved through talks. "Peace is not achieved by unilaterally going to the
United Nations and not by joining forces with terror group Hamas," Netanyahu's
statement said: "Peace shall only be achieved via direct negotiations with
Israel." Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman already hinted at the potentially
grave consequences of the Palestinian UN bid earlier this week, warning that a
unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood would have "dire consequences"
and also referring to the Oslo deals. "It's been 18 years since the Oslo Accords
and we've tried everything… I accept that I'm the 'bad guy' but what have the
others done? Barak, in Camp David, agreed to all (Palestinian) demands. What did
we get in return? Another intifada and more bloodshed," he said.
Hamas Against PA Statehood Bid
Sept. 17….(Arutz) The Hamas terror
group, which rules the Gaza Strip, was quick to condemn on Friday the speech by
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in which he confirmed that he intends to turn to the
United Nations and ask for recognition of a Palestinian state. In a statement it
released on Friday and which was quoted by Israel’s Channel 2 News, Hamas said
Abbas’ statehood plan is “full of doubts.” “We are against any step that will be
giving up any inch of the land of Palestine or the rights of the Palestinians,
including the right of return,” the organization’s statement said. The ‘right of
return’ refers to the Arab leaders demand that as part of a future peace
agreement Israel allow millions of Arabs descended from those who fled during
the 1948 War of Independence to “return” to the cities in which their
grandparents and great-grandparents once lived. Barhoum added, “Hamas movement
will not give Abbas or the PLO any legal cover or permission to apply to the UN
for full membership, because we believe that his act of heading to the UN is a
preparation for resuming the negotiations with Israel.” Barhoum ended by
saying: “Hamas will never recognize Israel.”
Abbas Claims 1947 Borders for
Palestinian State
Sept. 17….(DEBKAfile Special Report)
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced Friday, Sept. 16, in Ramallah
that he would ask the UN Security Council next week for recognition of
Palestinian statehood. Once they have a state and a flag and recognition by
two-thirds of the world's nations, the Palestinians would leave all other issues
open for negotiation with Israel, he said. While citing the 1967 borders for a
future Palestinian state in reference to his UN application, Abbas stressed that
Israel's "occupation" will not will not end the next day and much more remains
to be done because the 1967 lines do not define the true borders, any more than
the roadblocks and the settlements. The real Palestinian borders were laid down
in 1947 down by the UN. All other areas [meaning large parts of the state of
Israel] are "occupied territory" which the Palestinians intend to claim. The
Palestinian leader sought to imply that the 126 governments which have
recognized the Palestinian right to a state had accepted this interpretation.
His other points:
1. The Palestinian application to the UN
Security Council is only one step on the road to full independence, after which
"all options remain open." Its purpose is to obtain full UN membership and then
return to the table for negotiation on this new basis.
2. He emphasized the Palestinian claim to
Jerusalem as state capital, pledged to work for the refugees' return and strive
for national unity by healing the rift with Hamas.
3. Abbas issued a strict caution against
violence demonstrations and protests, because he said this would play into
Israel's hands.
A long passage was devoted to the
obstacles he accused Israel of placing in the path of Palestinian independence,
especially by building new settlements on the West Bank and set them against the
strenuous efforts the Palestinians have made to establish the administration and
institutions of the future state. "We promised Obama to have them ready by
September," he said and "so they are." He accused Israel soldiers and settlers
of letting dogs loose against Palestinians and even wild boars to destroy crops.
At the same time, Abbas said he was turning to the UN not in order to isolate
Israel or assail its legitimacy but only to delegitimize and terminate the
occupation. In another part of his speech, Mahmoud Abbas boasted about the
democracy prevailing in the Palestinian Authority (West Bank). We respect the
will of the people, he said: "They don't have to demonstrate in the squares (a
dig at the Arab Revolt)." Debkafile: The last Palestinian elections took place
in 2006. The president, the legislature and the municipal councils are no longer
legally in office. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority which he heads are
maintained by the Palestinian armed security forces.
Palestinians Back off UN Security Council Statehood Bid
Sept. 15….(DEBKAfile
Special Report) The tempest which Israel had tensely anticipated for
September in the wake of a Palestinian bid for unilateral UN recognition of
their state looks like it may be fizzling out before it begins as a result of a
massive US campaign to avert it, backed by Saudi Arabia, Europe and Egypt. Early
Wednesday, Sept. 14, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas decided
crucially not to submit his application to the UN Security Council. He also
notified Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and European Union foreign
executive Catherine Ashton in Cairo that he was considering watering down his
application to the UN General Assembly, possibly by dropping the "state within
1967 borders" provision from the text. Abbas said he would make his final
decision known in a public address from Ramallah Friday, Sept 16 before flying
to New York to join world leaders at the UN General Assembly's 66th session
which began Tuesday.
But first, he
meets Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair in Amman for a conversation which
Debkafile's exclusive sources term critical, because Blair will hand him a
document termed by senior Washington sources "an outline" of a new format
designed to oil Palestinian wheels into unlocking the long-stalled Palestinian
dialogue with Israel. This outline has been endorsed by Washington, the EU and
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. It is now subject to acceptance by Israel and
the Palestinians. Moscow has not yet indicated whether it approves the document
or wants changes. By Wednesday morning, the Israeli government had not yet
received a copy. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has no doubt that he will be
called upon for concessions extreme enough to lure the Palestinian leader back
to the table. Blair is expected to deliver the document to Netanyahu some time
Thursday after Abbas has seen it. To tie up the ends, senior White House envoys,
Dennis Ross and David Hale, are due back in Jerusalem and Ramallah Wednesday.
During his visit to Cairo, Mahmoud Abbas was sternly warned by Saud al Faisal,
Ashton and Egyptian leaders of the grave consequences awaiting the Palestinians
if he forced the US to exercise its veto against their statehood at the UN
Security Council. US President Barack Obama Tuesday made it crystal clear that
he "objects very strongly" to the Palestinian statehood motion as
"counterproductive" and "a distraction from solving problems that can only be
addressed through negotiations."
US sources report that the US
President has refused to talk to Abbas for the past eight months owing to his
refusal to join Israel for direct peace talks. He was advised by the Europeans,
the Saudis and Egyptians this week that the US presidential boycott would almost
certainly extend to fellow Palestinian leaders and US financial aid. The
Palestinian Authority would thus be placed under American sanctions. However, if
he withdrew his statehood bid from the Security Council and accepted the new
position paper, Obama would consider restoring communications. Tuesday, Sept.
13, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "The path to creating an
independent Palestinian state lies through direct talks between Ramallah and
Jerusalem, not New York," she said. Early Wednesday, the General Assembly
President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar reported that the Palestinians had
not yet submitted their request to the General Assembly. It would therefore not
come up for debate before October. debkafile's sources report that while Mahmoud
Abbas appears to have been hassled into a partial climb-down from his original
plan to bypass talks with Israel by gaining UN approval of Palestinian
statehood, he may not have caved in completely. Neither is it clear whether
Netanyahu will swallow the new blueprint Tony Blair is about to dish up.
Western Plan for UN Action Against Syria Being Blocked by
Russia
|
(FOJ) Russia has long used Syria as a client
state in the Middle East to foment anti-Israel and anti-American
policies. Syria represents Russia’s fate for supremacy in the Middle
East, and holds a key to its prophetic destiny. Russia supports the
Damascus axis of evil, and that city will one day compel Russia to
lead its other allies against Israel.
|
(Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev and President of Syria Bashar al-Assad)
Sept. 14….(JWR)
The United Nations said Monday that more than 2,600 Syrians have died in the
Assad regime's repression of pro-democracy protests, but the grim report seemed
unlikely to boost prospects for international sanctions against the Syrian
government. The reason? Russia. That leaves Russia and Western powers including
the United States poles apart on Syria, and suspicious of the other side's
motivations. Russia sees the West's hardening stance towards the regime of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and worries that tough Security Council action
could open the door to the kind of armed intervention that NATO has undertaken
in Libya. Western countries consider Russia's historic ties to Syria and wonder
if it isn't trying to preserve a foothold in the Middle East, a suspicion
bolstered by recent reports of a percolating Russia-Syria arms deal. Medvedev
said that any new resolution "mustn't automatically involve sanctions," adding
that, "There is absolutely no need now for any additional pressure." Later, in a
meeting with British Prime Minster David Cameron, Medvedev said a resolution was
possible but would have to be "balanced." With Russia one of five permanent
Security Council members who wield a veto over council action, Medvedev's
statements appeared to doom a resolution the US and European powers proposed
last month. The resolution calls for an arms embargo and other sanctions aimed
at stopping what the State Department has called Assad's "despicable violence"
against his own people.
Israel-Turkey/Egypt Military Clash Becoming More Likely
|
(FOJ) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday
night was greeted by a cheering crowd of thousands in Cairo, as he
arrived to sign strategic and commercial agreements with Egypt’s
interim government.
Erdogan has accused Israel of atrocities against Turkey and the
Palestinian people, and demanded apologies from Israel for its
interception of a suspected terrorist shipment to Gaza.
|
Sept.
13….(Israel Yoday) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday
significantly increased the likelihood of an Israeli-Turkish military clash when
he dispatched a naval task force to the eastern Mediterranean with orders to
confront Israeli warships. Erdogan has called Israel's May 2010 interception of
a Turkish-led "humanitarian aid" flotilla to Gaza an act of piracy. He labeled
as a "war crime" the killing of nine Turkish nationals who, along with other
passengers, tried to lynch the Israeli boarding party. Last week, Erdogan
ratcheted up his hostile rhetoric when he told an Al Jazeera interviewer that
Israel's raid on the Mavi Marmara and its fellow vessels had been "grounds for
war." War was only averted, said Erdogan, because "befitting Turkey's greatness,
we decided to act with patience." That won't be the case next time around,
Erdogan suggested in a thinly veiled threat. "Right now, without a doubt, the
primary duty of Turkish navy ships is to protect its own ships," he said. And it
seems Erdogan is determined to actually provoke a confrontation. He told Al
Jazeera that Turkey has "humanitarian aid that we want to carry" to Gaza, under
the protection of his warships, in violation of the Israeli blockade.
Israel says it will not back down on
its maritime blockade of Gaza, which the UN commissioned Palmer Committee
certified as legal and legitimate just last month. While the Palmer Report
criticized Israel for the level of violence used in subduing the Mavi Marmara
crew, it approved of Israel's enforcement of the Gaza blockade, even in
international waters. Erdogan's threat also completely ignores the fact that an
enormous amount of humanitarian aid enters Gaza ever day via the coastal
territory's land crossings with Israel. Prior to the Mavi Marmara incident,
Israel and other nations urged the flotilla's organizers to transfer their aid
via those land crossings. Readily admitting that their main goal was to break
Israel's UN-certified blockade, the flotilla organizers refused. Now it appears
Erdogan is prepared to do the same, but with far more serious consequences.
Israel Anticipates Fighting WMD in 'Multi-front War
(After the
Arab Spring, we assess that a winter of radical Islam will arrive)
Sept. 13….(WND)
The Israeli military, alarmed by the increasing hostility that is coming
from Middle East and North African countries as a result of the "Arab Spring,"
is forecasting there is a "likelihood of an all-out war with the possibility of
weapons of mass destruction being used against it”. In an address before the
Institute for National Security Studies, Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Eyal
Eisenberg said that governments previously supported by the United States and
Israel, particularly Egypt and Turkey, are turning against Israel. "After the
Arab Spring, we assess that a winter of radical Islam will arrive and as a
result the possibility for a multi-front war has increased including the
potential use of weapons of mass destruction," Eisenberg said. In referring to
WMDs, Eisenberg pointed to the prospect of Iran's development of a nuclear
program and the prospect of a WMD attack on Israel. He also referred to Iran's
assistance to Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah and to the Gaza Strip's Hamas.
He claimed that Hezbollah is dominating the Lebanese army and has gained access
to its weapons.
"In Lebanon,
Hezbollah is growing stronger within government arms, but it has not lost its
desire to harm Israel," he said. For its part, Hezbollah Secretary General
Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has stated that Hezbollah will attack Israel only if
Israel attacks Lebanon. With Eisenberg's statement cleared prior to its
presentation, his warning about Egypt and Turkey in particular was the first
time they have been identified as potential belligerents against the Jewish
state. Turkey and Egypt had maintained strategic relations with Israel until
unrelated events drew the countries in separate directions. "In Egypt, the army
is collapsing under the burden of regular security operations," the general
said. "And this is reflected in the loss of control in the Sinai and the turning
of the border with Israel into a terror border, with the possibility that Sinai
will fall under the control of an Islamic entity."Regarding Turkey, Israeli
Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged Turkey to reduce tensions in expressing
concern over the poor relations between Israel and Turkey.
Was Iran Behind 9/11?
(US lawsuit charges that Iran, Hezbollah
involved in facilitation of September 11 attacks. Ynet news presents special
report about dramatic revelations that could change everything we knew about 9/11)
Sept. 12….(YNET)
In July of 2004, members of the National Commission established to look into
the September 11 attacks were facing immense pressure. The target date for
submitting the report the whole of America was waiting for had passed, and
commission members were given a 60-day extension that was also about to expire.
However, eight days before the final submission date, some commission members
received word of new information; a real intelligence time bomb. Commission
members didn’t know what to do. On one hand, a whole new lead emerged; yet on
the other hand, nobody could process this huge amount of information within
days. At the end of the day, the commission chose a solution that turned out to
be the worst of all: It crammed some of the information into three pages (pp.
240-242 in the report) written hectically, ignored most of the information, and
in fact left the big question open. As it turned out, the prominent building
housing the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade includes a
particularly interesting room. In this room, the NSA
accumulated tens of thousands of conversation records pertaining to one subject:
The ties between Iran’s intelligence service and al-Qaeda from the 1990s to the
eve of the 9/11 attacks. The piles of information included 75 intelligence
documents characterized as critical to understanding the relationship between
Tehran and al-Qaeda.
At the end of
the day, the commission noted in its report that the issue deserves further
scrutiny by the US Administration. However, such examination was not undertaken
and may have never materialized. Indeed, this entire affair may have remained
buried in the three abovementioned pages, had it not been for one brave woman:
Ellen Saracini. Saracini is not an intelligence analyst or counter-terrorism
expert. She is the widow of pilot victor Saracini, the captain of the Boeing jet
that took off from Boston aboard United flight 175, which was crashed into the
southern tower. However, Ellen was unwilling to see the death of her husband and
father of her two daughters end with yet another line in the commission’s
report; she decided to seek justice on her own. Saracini approached attorney
Thomas Mellon, who specializes in lawsuits against large corporations. Mellon’s
team members launched an investigation. They met potential witnesses,
interviewed intelligence officials, CIA agents, Iranian defectors, a French
judge and others. They even reached Israel in their search (in the interest of
full disclosure, the writer of this article was also summoned to testify in the
trial, as one of nine expert witnesses.)
The
investigation kept progressing, diving deep into the dark corners of the global
world of intelligence and terrorism. Ten years later, Mellon and his team are
convinced that they possess the “smoking gun” that will tie Iran to the
September 11 attacks. The legal team drafted a huge lawsuit, recently submitted
to the Manhattan District Court. What hides inside it is far from being routine.
The lawsuit is premised on a dramatic charge: The responsibility for the 9/11
attacks lies not only with al-Qaeda, but also with Iran and Hezbollah, based
on what attorneys say is clear, unequivocal evidence. The case has far-reaching
implications, which explain why the US government is not eager to look into the
conversation records in the above mentioned NSA room. A ruling that Iran is
linked to the attacks would pose a tough test to Administration officials: On
the one hand, they would not be able to ignore such verdict. Yet on the other
hand, what exactly will they do with it? Will they attack Iran, just as they
invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?
The huge
amount of evidence included in the lawsuit comes together to form a fascinating
charge: Starting in the 1990s, Iran and Hezbollah helped Osama Bin Laden and
his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri create a new terror organization from scratch, to
be headed by Afghanistan veterans and members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
Iran trained group members, equipped them with advanced technological means,
enabled them to move freely and provided them with plenty of terror-related
expertise and experience accumulated by Hezbollah in its operations against
Israel and the United States. Later, according to the lawsuit, Iran assisted in
the preparations ahead of September 11. Should Mellon and his team prove all of
the above, everything we thought we knew about the terror offensive will change
forever.
According to
the lawsuit, the relationship between Iran and al-Qaeda was initiated in the
early 1990s in Sudan. At the time, Sudan turned into the world’s second state,
after Iran, to be ruled by radical Islam. According to the testimonies of senior
CIA officials, Iran’s President Rafsanjani, Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian
and Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohsen Rezai visited Sudan. They were accompanied
by a figure well-known to Israel’s intelligence services: Imad Mugniyah, the
head of Hezbollah’s military wing (Mugniyah was assassinated in February of
2008 in an operation attributed to Israel.) All participants in the meeting
pledged to assist the Sudanese regime and join forces with it in supporting
other Jihadist movements in the Middle East. When it turned out that Sudan was
emerging as a new terrorism theater, Israel’s intelligence agencies started to
deploy human and electronic resources there. The file on developments in Sudan
until 1996 is known in Israel as “Blue Smurfs” and contains a treasure trove of
information about the seed that later became Global Jihad. When Saracini’s
attorneys sought the Israeli government’s assistance in receiving the Blue
Smurfs file, they were told the information was acquired in cooperation with a
foreign party, and that this information can only be shared with this party’s
approval. Such authorization has not been given to this day. What we are allowed
to reveal here is that Israel’s intelligence officials identified at the time
tight relations between radical Islamic terrorists in Egypt and Department 15 in
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Notably, Department 15 was tasked with exporting
the Islamic revolution to other Arab states.
Israel was
also able to identify a prominent terror leader in Sudan. His name was Ayman al-Zawahiri,
an Egyptian jihadist who served a prison term for his role in President Anwar
Sadat’s assassination. Year later, Zawahiri’s name became known worldwide; he
turned into al-Qaeda’s chief strategist, Bin Laden’s deputy and successor, and a
man with a $25 million price tag on his head, courtesy of the FBI. In April of
1991, Zawahiri secretly visited Iran and sought Iranian assistance for a Cairo
revolution. The parties agreed on Iranian support for Zawahiri’s organization in
the form of money and training. The terror leader sent many of his men to train
in Iranian camps, mostly under the guidance of Lebanese Hezbollah members led by
Imad Mugniyah. During his visit to Iran, al-Zawahiri was convinced of the
immense power of a suicide attack as an effective modus operandi. Years later he
realized that if a suicide bomber is effective, a terrorist who crashes a Boeing
aircraft into a tower would be much more effective.
Following
further efforts, it turned out that an even bigger group of Muslim radicals was
operating in Sudan alongside Zawahiri and his men. Some of them were veterans of
the guerilla war initiated by America in Afghanistan against the Russian
invasion in the 1980s. Yet who was the leader of these Afghanistan veterans? How
did he operate? Where was he getting his funding? Israel’s intelligence effort
continued, and the name of a Saudi contractor who was expelled from his country
started to surface, with his real estate work being used as cover for secret
terror activity. The contractor’s name started to appear in intelligence
reports: Osama Bin Laden. One of his construction companies was known as
al-Qaeda (“The Base” in Arabic.) Israel’s intelligence services
discovered that Bin Laden joined forces with Zawahiri. During this period, the
two grew much closer, with Zawahiri (a surgeon by training) also becoming Bin
Laden’s personal physician. The new friendship prompted Bin Laden to send some
of his senior aides for training in Tehran and in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon.
The infrastructure for al-Qaeda’s establishment was now ready.
In 1998, an Egyptian-born US Marine
called Ali Mohammed was detained on suspicion of involvement in blowing up
America’s embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. In his testimony he confessed that in
1989 he traveled to Afghanistan and joined Islamic Jihad and Bin Laden. Mohammed
said he trained al-Qaeda terrorists on using explosives as well as on
intelligence-gathering techniques to be used in attacks on US targets. Mohammed
also testified that he personally handled security arrangements for a Sudan
meeting between Hezbollah’s Mugniyah and Bin Laden. Following these meetings,
Hezbollah provided al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad with explosives training. Iran
also used Hezbollah in order to provide explosive materials designed to resemble
rocks. Israeli veterans of the Lebanon wars are well familiar with these bombs.
Mohammed
testified that many of the training sessions were held in an Iranian camp run by
the Intelligence Ministry. Based on information from the Blue Smurfs file, which
was discovered in the NSA basement, the National Commission ruled that senior
al-Qaeda members received training and advice from Hezbollah while in Sudan.
These are important testimonies for Ellen Saracini. If Hezbollah equals Iran,
and Bin Laden’s men were trained by Hezbollah, there is a basis to the charge
about an Iran-al-Qaeda link. The jihadist group identified in Sudan maintained
close ties with Afghanistan veterans worldwide and tirelessly worked to form
global networks and connections. “We felt that something very big was brewing
there; something very different than anything we’ve seen before,” an Israeli
intelligence official said. “This was not about a state dispatching terrorists,
but rather, about an organization that seemingly created itself.” A short while
later, a special intelligence desk was formed in Israel to deal with the
subject. Indeed, the IDF Intelligence Branch and Mossad were the first to
recognize the danger.
Early in the 9/11 commission’s work,
it turned out that the issue of traveling and visas was a major component in the
affair. According to the documents submitted to the court, an immense operation
was managed prior to September 11 in order to facilitate the many trips required
by the operation. The reason is clear: Only a well-oiled arrangement of flights
and secret border crossings could have enabled the terrorists to enter and exit
the US and go to Afghanistan. Anyone who ever tried to get a US visa knows this
is no simple matter. A passport stamp of a state on America’s list of
terror-sponsors immediately turns one into a suspect. So how did the 19
terrorists manage to enter the US after all? How could it be that US immigration
officials in Germany and Saudi Arabia suspected nothing? The answer to these
questions remained unknown, until the treasure trove was discovered at the NSA
basement. As it turned out, many of the terrorists headed from Afghanistan to
Iran, with Iranian officials ordering border control officers not to stamp these
passports. The other terrorists passed through Beirut in their many trips, where
Hezbollah officials similarly cared for them. Mellon’s team hopes that this is
where the “smoking gun” can be found, proving a direct link between Iran and
9/11. If Iran did not know about the attacks and was not involved in them, why
did it keep its stamps off the terrorists’ passports? Yet that’s not all. The
intelligence information submitted to the court includes yet another “smoking
gun”: In some of the flights, the terrorists were accompanied by figures whose
names were identical to the aliases used by former Hezbollah “army chief” Imad
Mugniyah and some of his close aides. This would be hard to dismiss as an “odd
coincidence.”
The Iranian defectors
The materials
gathered for the trial include three rare testimonies by three Iranian
intelligence establishment defectors. They have been marked as witnesses X, Y
and Z. Their videotaped testimonies offer a profound peek into the depths of the
kingdom of evil. For long hours they recount their childhood and adolescence in
Tehran and how they were hired for the prestigious posts in Iran’s spy agencies.
Then, they start talking about the ties between Iran, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.
Witness X testifies about Iran’s advance knowledge of the plan to crash
passenger airliners into strategic targets in Washington and New York. He
testifies that he was present at training facilities for Sunni terrorists in
Iran and adds many details about the way Iran’s intelligence service utilizes
legitimate Iranian organizations such as its airline and shipping company for
terror aims. Witness Y testifies about Imad Mugniyah’s personal involvement in
training the September 11 hijackers and the shelter granted by Iran to
al-Qaeda’s men after the attacks. Meanwhile, witness Z says that he was present
in a series of meetings in Tehran involving senior al-Qaeda men, local
intelligence officials and Mugniyah’s men in the months before the 9/11 attacks.
Following the attacks, many senior al-Qaeda men found shelter in Iran.
Tehran denied their presence for some time and later admitted that hundreds of
al-Qaeda members are in the country and are under “house arrest.”
Why the West cares about Israel-Turkey relations
Sept.
12….(Dore Gold) Under the surface, there have been growing concerns in the
West about the general direction of Turkish foreign policy under Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party. In an extremely important 2004 cable
from the U.S. State Department revealed by WikiLeaks, which was described
previously in this column, an American diplomat in Turkey wrote about his
concerns over Ankara's "new, highly activist foreign policy." Like many other
commentators he focused on what he called the "neo-Ottoman fantasies" of Ahmet
Davutoglu, who was then only an adviser and today is Turkey's foreign minister.
But the American diplomat went much further in his description. He attended a
meeting at the main think tank of Turkey's ruling AKP party where he heard many
in the AKP saying that it is Turkey's role to spread Islam in Europe. He added
that there was "the widespread belief" among the participants in the think tank
that Turkey should "avenge the defeat at the siege of Vienna in 1683," when the
Ottoman armies lost to the Hapsburg Empire.
Even assuming
that this American cable overstates the ideological orientation of the Turkish
government by relying on impressions from a think tank of the AKP party, it
nonetheless illustrates the concerns of a Western diplomat about the ideas
making the rounds in ruling circles within Erdogan's Turkey. Can Turkey still be
viewed as a reliable NATO ally or is it now adopting an approach toward the
world based on an Islamist agenda? As a result, will it give preference to its
partnerships with Middle Eastern countries, like Iran, despite its disagreements
with Tehran? These trends are not just of concern for the US, but for other
countries who are doubtlessly monitoring trends in Turkey. In late 2009,
Davutoglu spoke in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and laid out his approach
for Turkey's foreign policy. According to a State Department report on the
speech, Davutoglu said that, "The Balkans, the Caucuses, and the Middle East
were all better off when under Ottoman control or influence." For many states
that were once part of the Ottoman Empire, especially in Europe, this statement
undoubtedly raised eyebrows. Across Eastern Europe, from Hungary to Serbia,
there are sites that are remembered as battlefields between Christian armies and
the Ottoman Empire.
Many
commentators have missed another recent tendency in Turkey's approach to the
Middle East, in particular. In a study by Steven Merley, an expert on the
European Muslim Brotherhood networks, he points out that since 2006, when the
Muslim Brotherhood wanted to convene a major international conference, it has
not gone to Qatar or Saudi Arabia, which would not have granted permission for
such a meeting. Instead, Muslim Brotherhood conferences have convened in Turkey,
and on a regular basis.
It was also
in 2006 that Turkey hosted Hamas for the first time, and welcomed its
Damascus-based Political Bureau Chief Khaled Mashaal. More recently, in 2011,
the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, along with the rest of the Syrian opposition, has
been meeting in the old favorite resort town of Israeli tourists, Anatalya. Even
if the old regimes of the Middle East fall as a result of the Arab Spring,
Turkey is well-placed for exerting influence among the parties that most are
likely to replace them. What is happening to Turkey may not be just explained by
Islamism, but also by geopolitics. Prior to the French invasion of Egypt in
1799, the Middle East was dominated by two powers, the Ottoman Empire and the
Persian (or Safavid) Empire. The West was not yet in control of the region.
During the next two centuries, the Middle East was under mostly Anglo-French
hegemony that was replaced by American power. Professor Bernard Lewis has
remarked on occasion that the Middle East could return to its earlier state in
which Turkey and Iran once again become the dominant powers. Today, if the US is
seen as losing influence in the region, Turkey may well be positioning itself to
resume its earlier role.
Davutoglu has
many reasons to escalate his conflict with Israel. There are those who might
conjecture that it is a personal conflict, since his grandfather was an Ottoman
soldier who fought the British in the Gaza Strip. A few years ago the
prestigious American quarterly, Foreign Affairs, published an article entitled
"Is Turkey Leaving the West?" Turkey is aware of these concerns. It has sought
to blunt criticism by agreeing to the deployment of a NATO early-warning radar
and offering its services to the West for helping prepare the groundwork for a
post-Assad Syria. Some Western politicians have been satisfied by these Turkish
moves. But many others are still concerned by Turkey's overall direction. For
them what Erdogan and Davutoglu do with Israel is seen as a warning sign
regarding the future direction of Turkish policy. Will Turkey return to being a
pragmatic ally of the West that serves as a bridge to the Middle East or will it
pursue a new radical course that increasingly draws it into conflict with the
countries around it?
Israel Remembers 9/11 Too
Sept.
12….(Israel Today) Israelis across the country on Sunday solemnly remembered
the September 11, 2001 terrorist assault on the US, as Americans prepared to
mark the 10th anniversary of the largest terrorist attack in history. Israeli
Internet news sites and television news stations provided live broadcasts of
memorial ceremonies being held in the US. Israeli President Shimon Peres phoned
US President Barack Obama to tell him: "The Israeli nation has shared happy
times with you, but has also shed tears with you a decade ago. Today Israel once
again bows its head as America mourns the loss."
Israel was
the only nation in the Middle East to stand by America on that fateful day 10
years ago. The surrounding nations, and even the "Palestinian" half of
Jerusalem, erupted in celebration as the Twin Towers burned and then fell. It
was a critical reminder of who America's true friends are in the Middle East
(speaking at the national level; there are many Arab individuals who equally
detested what was done to America)
Israeli Embassy Break-in led by Jam'a al-Islamiya of NY 1993 Bombing
Sept. 11….(DEBKA file)
In first new disclosures on the
storming of Israel's Cairo embassy which started Friday night, Sept. 9, debkafile's counter-terror sources reveal that the mob was led by the terrorist
Jama'a al-Islamiya, the Egyptian founding branch of Al Qaeda, and two other
radical Egyptian Islamist groups. The February 1993 car bombing of the World
Trade Center of New York, which was the forerunner of the Sept. 11, 2001
atrocities, was an early Jama'a operation under the al Qaeda label. Closely
linked to Osama bin Laden's successor, Ayman al Zawahri, Jama'a al-Islamiya is
now running for election in post-Mubarak Egypt. Its mentor is the "blind sheikh"
Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for masterminding the first
World Trade Center bombing. Jama'a adherents stormed the Israeli embassy Friday
night along with activists of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Students
April 6 Movement. Debkafile's intelligence sources also reveal that Egyptian
security forces delayed for eight hours before tackling the mob smashing into
the embassy building and rampaging inside, even after US Ambassador Anne
Patterson interceded on behalf of the six Israel security officers barricaded in
the embassy's security room as the rabble battered on its steel door. She acted
to save their lives on direct orders from President Barack Obama and Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton after Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon and 80 members of
staff and families had been collected from their homes and lifted out of Egypt
by two Israeli military planes.
The Egyptian
authorities only tackled the mob when violent groups broke into police
headquarters in the upscale Giza district, stripped the gunroom and shared the
weapons among themselves before returning to the street. Before that, the local
police stood by and watched them sacking and burning the embassy without moving.
Scared of the rioters, the Egyptian commandos ordered to rescue the six Israelis
under threat of lynch, discarded their uniforms and mingled with the crowd. When
they reached the locked room, they were unable to open the steel door. The head
of Egyptian unit had to find the Israeli Shin Bet director Yoram Cohen, who was
in urgent conference with Israel's national leaders in the situation room, to
obtain the code. They then dressed the six Israelis like typical Egyptians and
hustled them to safety past a throng of 40,000 howling for Israeli blood. During
the embassy attack until early Saturday Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried
unsuccessfully to raise Field Marshall Mohammed Tantawi, head of the Supreme
Military Council ruling Egypt, on the phone. Tantawi refused to take his calls.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak kept open lines to US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
in Washington and Egyptian intelligence chief Gen. Murad Muwafi in Cairo. At
some point, Panetta was patched through to Muwafi through Jerusalem.
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Mob Torches Israeli Embassy
|
(FOJ) The Obama
Administration meets in emergency session to analyze the
Turkey-Egypt uprising against Israel. President Obama is finding out
about the “Biblical curse” that foes with coercing Israel into
compromising its God-given heritage, the Land.
|
Sept.
11….(DEBKAfile Special Report) The Israeli embassy in Cairo stands empty
Saturday, Sept. 10 after thousands of demonstrators using sledgehammers smashed
through the wall enclosing the building broke in and dumped the flag and
hundreds of documents through the windows. Egyptian security forces using tear
gas and shooting in air failed to contain the howling mob led by Muslim
Brotherhood adherents. Egyptian sources report that classified papers were
seized by demonstrators. At least 5 Egyptian soldiers killed and more than 500
police and demonstrators were injured in the clashes. Ambassador Yizhak Levanon,
his family and 80 embassy staff members were taken from their homes to Cairo
airport and flown home aboard by two Israeli military planes. Six Israeli
security officers remained on guard until early morning and were later rescued
from a room with steel doors by Egyptian commandos who drove them to the airport
in an armored car. The first secretary stayed in Cairo in a secure place.
The Egyptian
government after declaring a high alert sent armored vehicles to the burning
building and cut off the power in the street. The demonstrators attacked police
and other vehicles in the vicinity with Molotov cocktails. Some moved on to
attack a police station. US President Barack Obama expressed concern at the
attack and told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu he was taking steps to help
resolve the situation without further violence. He called on the Egyptian
government to honor its international obligations to safeguard the embassy.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for
assistance for securing the building.
Israel
takes a grave view of this violation of every diplomatic norm, Netanyahu said
later. The attack came two days before a scheduled visit by the Turkish prime
minister Tayyip Erdogan to Cairo amid an escalating Turkish diplomatic offensive
against Israel which the US is seeking to contain. Egypt's Muslim
Brotherhood whipped up the Israeli embassy attack to show the military rulers in
Cairo who calls the shots and pressure them into breaking off three decades
of peace ties with the Jewish state. The Turkish leader set the scene for the
rampage in Cairo by his spiraling anti-Israel hate campaign which is winning him
popularity on the Arab Muslim street. Not only have Egyptian-Israeli ties
entered a crisis phase, but so have US relations with the Arab world. Erdogan's
campaign has derailed America's Middle East policy by placing its key allies
Turkey and Israel on a course of military collision. Erdogan is putting
Washington on notice that Turkey's friendship and support in the region is
contingent on the US turning against Israel.
Israel is
taken back 32 years to the seventies when it stood out as the only pro-Western
outpost of democracy in the Middle East beset by Arab enemies. The burning of
the Israeli embassy in Cairo means that Ambassador Levanon will not return to
his post in a hurry, the temperature of relations with Egypt will drop from cold
to frigid and Israel can forget about the resupply of natural gas. Already, the
military junta instead of battling the terrorists at large in Sinai, including
al Qaeda, has forged deals with them and left them in control of the inflammable
Israeli border area. The Egyptian rulers' policy of appeasement for the Muslim
Brotherhood and other Islamic extremists has backfired against them too. The
spreading extremist violence climaxing in the attack on the Israeli embassy
augurs the further breakdown of their authority. As well as an outrage against
Israel and setback for US influence, it confronts the generals with their moment
of truth: Their failure to deal with the rioters, who quickly vented their fury
on police vehicles and buildings, will pave the way for Muslim extremist control
of Egypt. Israel stands in grave peril of the region's two top Muslim powers
lining up at the head of its enemies.
In Jerusalem,
Netanyahu, Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman spent long hours Friday
night mulling Israel's reaction to the invasion of its Cairo embassy. A proposal
to relocate it at the Sinai resort of Sharm al-Sheikh was abandoned because of
the potential of its becoming a new Muslim Brotherhood target vulnerable also to
al Qaeda and Palestinian terrorist networks at large in the Egyptian peninsula.
Israeli official spokesmen tried explaining that the continued presence of the
Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv meant that diplomatic relations with Egypt were
unchanged. Debkafile notes that this argument served to further illustrate the
Netanyahu-Barak's ostrich-like attitude to adverse events. In the new
circumstances, the Egyptian diplomat is certain to be recalled for "home leave"
or some other pretext before long. Only this week, the defense minister's senior
political adviser Amos Gilead claimed that Israel's security situation "had
never been better" and Arab regimes were "stable," providing a vivid example of
the wide gap between the government's situation evaluations and reality.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 4 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 10
UN Secretary General: Palestinian Statehood is 'Long
Overdue'
(Ban Ki-moon
says supports two-state solution for Middle East peace, adding that it was up to
UN members whether or not to recognize an independent Palestinian state)
Sept. 10….(Ha Aretz) The
Palestinian people are "long overdue" in their quest for an independent state,
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday, ahead of a
Palestinian push for statehood in the UN planned for later this month. Ban's
comments came a day after Palestinian activists launched a campaign for the
recognition of a Palestinian state in the United Nations. The move contradicts
earlier reports that the Palestinian Authority was the one who issued the
request. In a letter addressed to Ban's Ramallah office, Palestinian activists
urged the leader of the international community to "exert all possible efforts
toward the achievement of the Palestinian people's just demands." Speaking on
Friday, the UN chief was quoted by the French news agency AFP as saying he fully
supported Palestinian statehood: "The two state vision where Israel and
Palestinians can live side by side in peace and security, that is a still a
valid vision and I fully support it." "And I support also the statehood of
Palestinians; an independent, sovereign state of Palestine. It has been long
overdue," Ban told reporters in Canberra, adding that a "recognition of a state
is something to be determined by the member states." Ban stressed the point
further, saying, according to AFP, that it was not a decision to be made "by the
Secretary General so I leave it to the member states to decide to recognize or
not to recognize."
The UN
chief's comments came following following an Haaretz report, according to which
White House Middle East emissaries Dennis Ross and David Hale met Wednesday with
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and made it clear to him that a
request to the United Nations for recognition in about two weeks of an
independent Palestinian state could have serious implications. For his part,
Abbas said the Palestinian request for recognition of statehood within the 1967
borders had reached a point of no return and he could not retract it. Ross and
Hale also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud
Barak in the course of their visit to the region, but the trip was aimed at
applying last-minute pressure on the Palestinian president. An Israeli source
with knowledge of the details of the meeting between the visiting Americans and
Abbas noted that this was the first time the Americans had spelled out the full
negative implications of the Palestinian request to the UN.
Hamas May Move HQ from Damascus to Cairo
(Amid growing Syria tensions, Hamas
leader says there are many options for where to move group's operation center,
Egypt is one of them)
Sept. 10….(Jerusalem Post) Hamas
leader Mahmoud Zahar announced on Friday that he is considering the possibility
of moving the group's headquarters from Damascus in Syria to Cairo in Egypt.
"All the Palestinians in Syria are in distress, and it's not just Hamas," Zahar
said. "When it comes down to where the headquarters of the organization are
located, there are many options and Egypt is one of them," he continued. This is
not the first time that reports have surfaced about Hamas moving its
headquarters out of Syria. In April, the group said it had no plans to move its
headquarters from Damascus to Qatar because of the unrest in Syria. “Hamas is
continuing to carry out its work in Damascus,” said Izat Risheq, a member of the
Hamas political bureau. “There is no change on our status in Syria.” The
London-based pan Arab daily Al-Hayat reported that Syria asked Hamas to leave
the country and that Qatar only agreed to receive the movement’s political
leadership The report claimed that Egypt and Jordan refused to receive the Hamas
leadership. The paper said that the decision to ask Hamas to leave Syria came in
response to the movement’s support for the popular uprising in that country.
Egyptians Storm Israeli Embassy in
Act of War Reminiscent of Iran
|
(FOJ) In 1979, Islamic
Iranian revolutionaries broke into the US embassy in Teheran and
took hundreds of American diplomats hostage. Occupying an
international embassy is tantamount to an act of war against the
country.
|
Sept. 10….(DEBKA) The Egyptian
government declared state of alert early Saturday, Sept. 10, after thousands of
demonstrators using sledgehammers smashed through the wall outside the Israeli
embassy, broke into the building, hauled down the Israeli flag and dumped
hundreds of documents through the windows before setting the embassy on fire.
Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon, his family and staff were transported to Cairo to
await a military plane to evacuate them. US President Barack Obama expressed
concern at the attack and told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu he was taking
steps to help resolve the situation without further violence. He called on the
Egyptian government to honor its international obligations to safeguard the
embassy. The attack came two days before a scheduled visit by the Turkish prime
minister to Cairo amid an escalating diplomatic offensive against Israel which
the US is seeking to contain.
US President
Barack Obama called on Egypt to "honor its international obligations" and
protect the Israeli mission after protesters, who had been demonstrating at
Tahrir Square to push for a timetable for reforms and an end to military trials
for civilians, smashed through a wall protecting the embassy building. The US
president said he was concerned about the storming of the Israeli mission, and
said the US was working to resolve the situation without an escalation in
violence.
Can You Tell Which Leader is the
American Ally?
Sept. 8….(FOJ)
Former US Secretary of Defense says Israel is an ungrateful ally. But when
your enemies receive millions of dollars in foreign aid, and other Arab
countries receive military hardware that endangers the survival of your country,
how can Israel be pleased? And beyond that, the US has constantly coerced Israel
to give up chunks of its land to appease the enemies, not only of Israel, but
enemies also of Christianity and America. Zechariah 12:2-3 Behold, I will
make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they
shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day
will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden
themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be
gathered together against it. Alas, the US has forced Israel into compromising the “promised
land,” in order to acquire cheap (humm!) oil prices from our Arab trading
partners. The President should have a foreign policy advisor that is familiar
with Genesis 12, then perhaps the US would find blessings in its economy and
foreign endeavors. (Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them
that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed.)
Conversely, the leader of the Palestinian Authority has more
reason to be all smiles while meeting with President Obama. He, like Yasser
Arafat before him (both terrorists) continually acquire major concessions from
America in return for absolutely nothing.
Robert Gates: Israel is an Ungrateful Ally
(Former
US secretary of defense says Prime Minister Netanyahu's policies isolating
Israel on a global level)
Sept. 7….(YNET)
Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates blasted Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, saying that his policies were ungrateful towards the US and were
isolating Israel on a global level. Gates' harsh words were said during a
meeting of the National Security Council Principals Committee, Bloomberg's
Jeffrey Goldber reported Tuesday. Gates believes Netanyahu's government has
offered the Obama administration "nothing in return" for its generous security
aid, which includes access to top-quality weapons, assistance in developing
missile-defense systems and high-level intelligence sharing. The former defense
secretary said that not only is Netanyahu ungrateful, but his polices were
"endangering his country by refusing to grapple with Israel’s growing isolation
and with the demographic challenges it faces if it keeps control of the West
Bank." Bloomberg added that Gates’s analysis met with no resistance from other
committee members.
(Not friends. Netanyahu and Obama) |
This was not the
first time Gates had expressed his frustration with Netanyahu's government: In
2010, when Israel announced new building plans for east Jerusalem during Vice
President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel, Gates said that Netanyahu should "call
Obama when he was serious about negotiations." The former defense chief was also
irked by incessant squabbling with the prime minister over US arms sales to its
Arab allies. According to both Israeli and American sources, Netanyahu and Gates
met in March, when the latter was visiting Israel. The PM reportedly lectured
Gates at length on the possible dangers Israel may face following such arms
deals. According to the report, Gates resented Netanyahu’s tone and reminded him
that the "sales were organized in consultation with Israel and pro-Israel
members of Congress."
Washington's frustration with Israel
is growing, the report hedged, and such feelings are becoming more poignant as
the US is once again gearing to go to the mat for Israel – this time to thwart
the Palestinian Authority's nearing bid for recognition by the UN General
Assembly. The US has voiced its objection to the PA's unilateral move, which
Washington believes would undermine the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and
is likely to veto it in the Security Council. Bloomberg's analyst believes that
the US vote in the UN will be in spite of Netanyahu, not to help him. Sources
close to Netanyahu said Tuesday that Netanyahu's first concern is to look out
for Israel's interests, adding he will continue to do so relentlessly. "The
prime minister has been calling for direct negotiations since he took office,
and he's sure such talks could lead to a solution. Netanyahu insisted upon
Israel's security needs and the demand to recognize it as a Jewish state," a
Jerusalem source said.
Obama demands Israel apologize for defending itself
Sept. 7….(WND) The Obama administration is
applying intense pressure on Israel to issue an apology for the 2010 raid of a
Hamas-supporting flotilla attempting to enter the Gaza Strip, according to
informed Israeli officials. That flotilla, sponsored in part by a Turkish group,
engaged in deadly clashes with Israeli special forces. Dozens of flotilla
activists armed with knives, bats and metal pipes confronted the Israeli naval
raid and immediately attacked the soldiers. Nine activists were killed, while 15
Israeli solders were wounded. Turkey has since been demanding that Israel issue
an apology for the raid, a request scoffed at by Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. Informed Israeli officials told WND the US has sided with Turkey in
its demand for an apology. The officials said that while the US does not blame
Israel for the raid, the Obama administration sees Turkey as key to the
transformation of the Middle East and North Africa. Obama wants to end the
diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel. Israeli officials said the Obama
administration does not believe it can persuade Turkey to drop its apology
demand and so is instead pressuring Israel.
Jihad is Against the Bible
Sept. 7….(Diane West) Beyond the 10th
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks looms another signal date in the annals of
global jihad. That date is Sept. 20, when the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud
Abbas is expected to petition the United Nations for statehood. What would a
UN-ordained Palestinian state have to do with global jihad? Practically
everything, because such statehood would mark a major victory in the long war
on Israel's existence. And, whether unadmitted or unimagined, it is Israel
on which the axis of Islamic jihad turns. I've never been more convinced of this
than after reading four, clarifying pages of Bat Ye'or's new book, "Europe,
Globalization, and the Coming Universal Caliphate". In a first-chapter primer on
the relationship between the European Union and the Organization of the Islamic
Conference, much of which revolves around mutual animus toward Israel,
Ye'or revisits the hateful perversion
that passes for political normal: the relentless mission of the Islamic
world, with EU encouragement, "to appropriate a tiny piece of land," Israel,
as a political and religious cause despite the fact, as she reminds us, no town,
village or hamlet of Israel is mentioned in the Koran or early biographies of
Muhammad. Why Israel? Ye'or asks. "Given the immense territories conquered and
Islamized over thirteen centuries of expansion and war," she writes, "why
would Muslim countries keep plotting to destroy Israel?" And further: "Why
does the immense oil wealth of Muslim nations nourish a flood of hatred that
poisons the heart of humanity against such a small nation? Why is Israel
considered so alarming?" What Israel possesses is the Bible. It is Israel on
which the axis of Islamic jihad turns.
The well-read global citizen might
regurgitate something about land, modern Zionism and the post-1948 "plight of
the Palestinians," but these are stock narratives overwriting the age-old
reason. "What Israel possesses and makes her hated," Ye'or explains, "is the
Bible." To appreciate the depth and breadth of this perhaps obvious but
seldom pondered explanation, it's essential to realize that Jewish and Christian
Bible characters, from Abraham to Moses to Jesus, pop up in the Koran as Muslim
prophets who actually preach Islam, not Judaism or Christianity. This is the
time-wrinkling, religion-morphing way in which Islam repudiates what it regards
as falsifications in both the first (old) and second (new) testaments.
Given that the Jewish and Christian
religious books long predate the Islamic religious book, it's not surprising
that in their Koranic guises the biblical characters "wander," as Bat Ye'or
writes, "in uncertain space with no geographical or temporal references." Still,
Muslims claim that these same "Muslim" characters lived in "Palestine," Bat
Ye'or writes, on the basis of the "Jewish and Christian scriptures that they
reject." It follows from this highly unstable construct that Islam sees the
biblical past as Islamic history "usurped" by Jews and Christians. Thus, "the
land in which it took place, though, never mentioned in the Koran, is considered
a Muslim land, and Jewish and Christian holy sites are all considered Muslim,"
writes Ye'or, the pre-eminent modern historian of "dhimmitude," the diminished
condition of non-Muslims under Islamic law (Shariah).
The land of Israel itself, whose
"every region, town and village is mentioned in the Bible with historical and
chronological precision," is thus "sacrilegious" to Muslims, she explains.
"They observe with destructive rage this unfolding return of history that they
claim as their own. Any confirmation of the veracity of the Bible is seen as an
attack on the Islamic authenticity of the Koranic figures taken from the Bible."
So much for those slivers of real estate as being the driver of war on Israel.
It is, in fact, a jihad, a religious war against Judaism and the land of the
Bible, root of Christianity. As Ye'or puts it, "Israel, in the land of its
history, towns and villages, resuscitates the Bible, the book the Koran must
supplant."
This back-to-basics interpretation
allows us to see through the masks and deceptions to a war on Israel that is
also a jihad against Christianity. Remember that the Koranic Jesus, Isa, has
Muslim, not Jewish roots. As Ye'or writes, Muslims see Christians as having gone
astray by "placing themselves in the lineage of the Hebrew Bible, because their
real origin is Islam." The Islamic answer is to return Christianity to its
supposedly Koranic origins. And then? Bat Ye'or believes "the destruction of
Christianity's sustaining Jewish roots (would) facilitate its Islamization." And
the world's.
IDF General: Likelihood of Regional War Growing
(Senior IDF officer warns of 'radical
Islamic winter' that may lead to regional war, could prompt use of WMDs; new,
more lethal weapons discovered in hands of terrorists during latest round of
fighting in Gaza, Major General Eisenberg says)
Sept. 6….(YNET)
Recent revolutions in the Arab world and the deteriorating ties with Turkey are
raising the likelihood of a regional war in the Middle East, IDF Home Front
Command Chief, Major General Eyal Eisenberg warned Monday. "It looks like the
Arab Spring, but it can also be a radical Islamic winter," he said in a speech
at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "This leads us to
the conclusion that through a long-term process, the likelihood of an all-out
war is increasingly growing," the IDF general said. "Iran has not abandoned its
nuclear program. The opposite it true; it continues full steam ahead," he said.
"In Egypt, the army is collapsing under the burden of regular security
operations, and this is reflected in the loss of control in the Sinai and the
turning of the border with Israel into a terror border, with the possibility
that Sinai will fall under the control of an Islamic entity." "In Lebanon,
Hezbollah is growing stronger within government arms, but it has not lost its
desire to harm Israel, and the ties with Turkey aren't at their best," Major
General Eisenberg added. Referring to what he characterized as the possibility
of a "radical Islamic winter," Major-General Eisenberg said: "This raises the
likelihood of an all-out, total war, with the possibility of weapons of mass
destruction being used."
IAF Concerned About Syrian Military Upgrades in Lebanon
(Hezbollah building up air defense
systems, moving weapons out of Syria as Bashar Assad loses his grip)
Sept.
6….(Jerusalem Post) Due to the ongoing instability in the Arab world, the
Israel Air Force has instituted new guidelines for surveillance and
reconnaissance flights in the region to minimize the risk that such flights will
lead to a military escalation. Under the new guidelines, only experienced and
advanced pilots can fly the reconnaissance flights, which are conducted
regularly over Lebanon. In addition, the flights can only be conducted when a
senior officer is present in the IAF control room in Tel Aviv. Such flights are
usually approved by the IDF Chief of General Staff. “We need to consider the
effect such flights can have, considering the changes in the region,” a senior
officer said this week. “We understand that there is a short distance between a
tactical mistake and a larger crisis.”
Israeli
flights over Lebanon have been the source of continuous tension between Israel
and Lebanon since the end of the Second Lebanon War five years ago. The flights
are conducted by manned aircraft such as fighter jets as well as IAF unmanned
aerial vehicles. In addition to Lebanon, Israeli aircraft also fly over the Red
Sea where they track ships suspected of transferring weaponry to Hamas and
Hezbollah. Israel claims it needs to continue flying over Lebanon to track
Hezbollah’s military buildup and particularly the flow of arms from Syria to the
Iranian-backed guerrilla group. On Monday, as an example, Lebanese media said
six Israeli planes flew over the Bekaa Valley, a known Hezbollah stronghold.
Israel’s concern is not just about the potential diplomatic fallout from such
flights and how they could fuel already growing anti-Israel sentiment in the
region, but also stems from concern that Hezbollah will receive advanced
surface-to-air defense systems.
Media
reports recently revealed Hezbollah was transferring advanced high quality
weaponry that it had been storing in Syria to Lebanon. The move was made out of
concern for the weaponry’s fate in the face of the ongoing unrest in the country
and the possibility that President Bashar Assad, the group’s close ally, will be
overthrown. Hezbollah’s air defense systems are believed to have been recently
boosted by the arrival last year of a sophisticated radar system to Syria. The
radar is perceived as a significant challenge for Israel’s continued operational
freedom and is reportedly believed to be capable of providing Syria with early
warning of Israeli sorties.
At Least 140 Nations Expected to Vote for Palestinian Statehood Bid
Sept. 5….(Jerusalem Post)
At least 140 countries are expected to vote in favor of a Palestinian state at the
United Nations on September 23, Nabil Sha’ath, member of the Fatah Central
Committee, said on Sunday. He said that Palestinian Authority officials were
continuing their efforts to persuade more countries to support the statehood
bid. At a press conference in Ramallah, Sha’ath, a former PA foreign minister,
said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas would soon brief Fatah and PLO leaders on
the ongoing efforts to secure the support of as many countries as possible for
the statehood plan. He said that Abbas would make it clear that the PA would
seek full membership of a Palestinian state in the UN. Sha’ath pointed out that
125 countries have so far promised to back the statehood bid at the UN. “We want
Palestine to become the 194th member of the UN,” he added. He also voiced hope
that the EU countries would support the PA’s application for full membership in
the UN.