Saturday, April 7, 2007

Israeli minister: Everyone knows we'll surrender the Golan

Shame!
 
A minister in the government of Ehud Olmert said openly Thursday Israel would eventually give in to Arab demands and European insistence and surrender the Golan Heights to the Syrians.

"We know that the price will be, in the end, that Israel will come down from the Golan Heights," Immigrant Absorption Minister Ze'ev Boim said.

The Kadima Party member's irresponsible and capitulatory statement echoed sentiments expressed by individual wrong-thinking Israeli leaders over the past decade-and-a-half.
 
 
Thomas Braun, Lima, Peru

Pappe smear: Anti-Israel soon-to-be-ex-Israeli prof slams UK "Jewish Lobby"

Good-riddance!
 
A controversial anti-Israel academic, reportedly emigrating from Israel to England, has lashed out at British Jewish students ahead of his arrival in the UK.

Dr. Ilan Pappe, on his way out at Haifa University, has been trying, unsuccessfully, to arrange anti-Israel boycotts. Now he is set to leave Israel and assume a position as chair of history at the University of Exeter, where he reportedly plans to set up a "center for Palestinian studies."

Complete article: http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/AntiSemi/11100.htm
 
Thomas Braun, Lima, Peru

Friday, April 6, 2007

Carter : Jewish lobby does not want peace

 
No comment needed except "Carterism is racism"
Despite the campaign against him led by the Zionist lobby in the United States, former American President Jimmy Carter did not hesitate  to criticize the practices and the influence of such groups in America.

Carter said that the American Israeli Public Affairs Comittee, one of the strongest arms of these groups in the United States, is not seeking to achieve peace in the Middle East, nor justice for the Palestinians. 

He said following receipt of the Ridenhour Award for courage, that it will be difficult for any member of Congress who calls for Israel to withdraw to internationally recognized borders, because AIPAC exerts a strong influence on members of Congress during the election.
 
Translation Copyright 2007 MidEastWeb for Coexistence. www.mideastweb.org  All rights reserved

The fire next time: Christian Science Monitor in service of Iranian propaganda

Iranians and Syrians have started a fake propaganda war about a coming US or Israeli instigated war. Christian Science Monitor obliges them, by publishing the opinions of "analysts" that Israel is really planning a war. In this way, the absurd ideas of propagandists are clothed in the respectability of American journalism.
 
Here is the original:
 
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi declared on Saturday that the international Zionism and the Zionist regime, being supported by American neoconservatists, are determined to implement a new plan in the center of Palestinian occupied territory...
 
And here is the translation into sane and respectable English of the Christian Science Monitor:
 
The prospect of an attack by the United States against Iran has triggered a flurry of military activity around the Middle East as Tehran mobilizes its allies to prepare a defense. In a region where suspicion dominates and trust is rare, politicians and analysts warn, mounting tensions between the US and Iran could spark a war by accident.
 
 
Ami Isseroff

London underground bombings: whodunit? Muslims (not the Mossad)

The ethnic and religious  identity of the militants (freedom fighters? AKA terrorists) who perpetrated the bombings in the London transportation system in 2005 is not really a mystery except in media headlines and in the minds of sick people. Most people in the Arab world are convinced, despite evidence to the contrary, that the bombings were perpetrated by the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency. Arab world editorials explain that nobody has ever been caught and the identity of the perpetrators is not known.
 
Here is a quote from an "anti-Zionist Web site:
judicial-inc.biz/London_bus.htm
 
Near simultaneous explosions rocked the London subway system and three double-decker buses during the morning rush hour on Thursday. At least 45 people were killed in the carnage.
 
The Mossad has been blowing up buses in Israel for years. The London bus was their MO, notice the timing with the G-8 conference, and as usual the target was poor immigrants.
 
What the news media isn't discussing is, Edgware Road station is the most heavily Arab-populated part of London.
Of course, the Mossad never blew up any busses, and certainly never killed any poor immigrants.
 
Headlines say "Three charged over London 2005 suicide bombings" like the one below (I added the word "Muslim" in brackets). Could you imagine what the headlines would say if the Israeli Mossad had really been involved???
 
The ethnic and religious identity of the suspects who were caught and charged is not mentioned in the headline.  It is alluded to deep in the text. It can  be surmised from their names, as the article says nothing at all about their re motivation:
 
The men -- identified as Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil -- were involved in the "reconnaissance and planning" of the attacks, in which four bombers blew themselves up on underground trains and a bus, police said.
Funny thing, those names don't sound Israeli or Jewish. In fact, the article tells us about the suicide bombers:
 
Here is another clue:
 
The four suicide bombers -- three of them Britons of Pakistani origin and one a naturalised Jamaican -- died when they set off rucksack bombs on three Underground trains and a double-decker bus.
And here is another clue:
 
At the time of their arrests police said detectives had been investigating at home and abroad since the July 7 bombings, which prompted soul-searching about the extent of Muslim integration in British society.

The suspected ringleader of the bombings, Mohamed Sidique Khan, and fellow bomber Shehzad Tanweer said in videos recorded before their deaths that British foreign policy, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, motivated their actions.
Anyhow, those who get their information from sites like "judicial-inc" should read the whole article below, carefully.
 
Ami Isseroff
 
 
Three [Muslims] charged over London 2005 suicide bombings
AFP

Thursday, April 05, 2007

by Lachlan Carmichael

British prosecutors charged three suspects Thursday over the July 7, 2005 suicide bombings in London which killed 52 commuters, the first indictments since the horrific attacks.

The men -- identified as Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil -- were involved in the "reconnaissance and planning" of the attacks, in which four bombers blew themselves up on underground trains and a bus, police said....

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Talking with the Enemy

April 4, 2007, 8:47AM
I am pleased that a bipartisan (Republican and Democratic) Congressional delegation is in Damascus, pressing, however hopelessly, for peace. It sends an important signal to the ordinary people of Syria (not to mention thousands of Iraqi refugees that Syria is hosting) that not all Americans agree with George W. Bush's administration's policy of "if we don't talk with them, they'll change." That sure hasn't worked well with Cuba.
Draw your own conclusions. Interesting that among the delegates is Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who is staunchly pro-Israel.
--Wendy in Washington

Pelosi meets Syrian president
By ZEINA KARAM Associated Press Writer

DAMASCUS, Syria — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held talks with Syria's leader Wednesday despite White House objections, saying she pressed President Bashar Assad over his country's support for militant groups and passed him a peace message from Israel.

The meeting was an attempt to push the Bush administration to open a direct dialogue with Syria, a step that the White House has rejected. Congressional Democrats insist the U.S. attempts to isolate Syria have failed to force the Assad government to change its policies.

Rep. Tom Lantos, the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who was in Pelosi's delegation, said the meeting "reinforced sharply" the potential benefits of talking to Syria. "This is only the beginning of our constructive dialogue with Syria and we hope to build on this visit," he told reporters.

On Tuesday, President Bush denounced Pelosi's visit to Syria, saying it sends mixed signals to Assad's government. "Sending delegations doesn't work. It's simply been counterproductive," Bush said.

Washington says Syria is fueling Iraq's violence by allowing Sunni insurgents to operate from its territory. It also accuses it of backing terrorism because of its support for the Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups and of destabilizing the Lebanese government.

"We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace," Pelosi told reporters after her talks with Assad.

Pelosi said she and her delegation "expressed our concern about Syria's connections to Hezbollah and Hamas" and discussed the issue of militant fights slipping across the Syrian border into Iraq.

"These are important issues not only in the fight against terrorism but important priorities for us for peace in the Middle East," she said.

She said she brought a message to Assad from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel was ready for peace talks with Syria. Assad gave assurances that "he's ready to engage in negotiations for peace with Israel," Pelosi said. She later left Syria, heading for Saudi Arabia, the next leg of a Mideast tour.

At a meeting Sunday, Olmert asked Pelosi to take a message to Assad that Israel would be interested in peace if Syria stops its support for terrorism. Assad has repeatedly said in the past year that Damascus is willing to negotiate with Israel, insisting the talks must lead to the return of the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.

In the talks with Assad, the delegation raised the issue of Israeli soldiers kidnapped by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas and conveyed "the importance of Syria's role with Hamas in promoting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis," Pelosi said.

Syria hosts the exiled leadership of Hamas, as well as other Palestinian radical groups, and is a major patron of Hezbollah. But while the United States regards Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups, Syria insists that Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement working for Palestinian freedom and Hezbollah is a regular Lebanese political party.

Pelosi's visit to Syria was the latest challenge to the White House by congressional Democrats, who are taking a more assertive role in influencing policy in the Middle East and the Iraq war.

Last year, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended Washington open talks with Iran and Syria to try to resolve the war in Iraq and other regional crises. Bush rejected the recommendations, insisting dialogue would not bring results. But in February, the U.S. joined a gathering of regional diplomats in Baghdad that included Iran and Syria for talks on Iraq.

Read the rest at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4687185.html

Satire: Olmert makes sexual advances to Saudis

From Rotten Falafel Web log...

Olmert makes sexual advances to Saudis

Experts in the field of diplomatic nuance said that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's gesture to the Saudi Arabians in his message of piece was a sexual overture. Olmert was responding to the Arab League's offer to surrender everything and to stop referring to the Zionist Entity as the Zionist Entity in their useless political posturing and public outcries of hypocricies.

But while inviting the Arab leaders Sunday to meet to discuss the discussion of peace, Olmert also invited the King of Saudi Arabia, Ab-dull-ah Binabdelazziz to a whine and cheese squeezing party at his private condo in Berlin. Olmert was overheard telling his sexually harassed female aides, "I know that Condi beyitch is a hottie, but that Ab-dull-ah looks fine in that Channel Chador."

More

Message for "liberals" from a Muslim - What's wrong with Islam?

A reformed Al-Qaeda militant explains the problem with Islam. It could be fixed, but Western liberals have to help reformers fight for the same values that progressives fight for in our own countries: tolerance, equality for minorities, non-violence, respect for different opnions. Excusing terrorism and accepting religious fanaticism are not going to help.
 
Ami Isseroff
 

SENSE OF UMMAH
The Trouble With Islam
Sadly, mainstream Muslim teaching accepts and promotes violence.

BY TAWFIK HAMID
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 

Not many years ago the brilliant Orientalist, Bernard Lewis, published a short history of the Islamic world's decline, entitled "What Went Wrong?" Astonishingly, there was, among many Western "progressives," a vocal dislike for the title. It is a false premise, these critics protested. They ignored Mr. Lewis's implicit statement that things have been, or could be, right.

But indeed, there is much that is clearly wrong with the Islamic world. Women are stoned to death and undergo clitorectomies. Gays hang from the gallows under the approving eyes of the proponents of Shariah, the legal code of Islam. Sunni and Shia massacre each other daily in Iraq. Palestinian mothers teach 3-year-old boys and girls the ideal of martyrdom. One would expect the orthodox Islamic establishment to evade or dismiss these complaints, but less happily, the non-Muslim priests of enlightenment in the West have come, actively and passively, to the Islamists' defense.

These "progressives" frequently cite the need to examine "root causes." In this they are correct: Terrorism is only the manifestation of a disease and not the disease itself. But the root-causes are quite different from what they think. As a former member of Jemaah Islamiya, a group led by al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, I know firsthand that the inhumane teaching in Islamist ideology can transform a young, benevolent mind into that of a terrorist. Without confronting the ideological roots of radical Islam it will be impossible to combat it. While there are many ideological "rootlets" of Islamism, the main tap root has a name--Salafism, or Salafi Islam, a violent, ultra-conservative version of the religion.

It is vital to grasp that traditional and even mainstream Islamic teaching accepts and promotes violence. Shariah, for example, allows apostates to be killed, permits beating women to discipline them, seeks to subjugate non-Muslims to Islam as dhimmis and justifies declaring war to do so. It exhorts good Muslims to exterminate the Jews before the "end of days." The near deafening silence of the Muslim majority against these barbaric practices is evidence enough that there is something fundamentally wrong.

The grave predicament we face in the Islamic world is the virtual lack of approved, theologically rigorous interpretations of Islam that clearly challenge the abusive aspects of Shariah. Unlike Salafism, more liberal branches of Islam, such as Sufism, typically do not provide the essential theological base to nullify the cruel proclamations of their Salafist counterparts. And so, for more than 20 years I have been developing and working to establish a theologically-rigorous Islam that teaches peace.

Yet it is ironic and discouraging that many non-Muslim, Western intellectuals--who unceasingly claim to support human rights--have become obstacles to reforming Islam. Political correctness among Westerners obstructs unambiguous criticism of Shariah's inhumanity. They find socioeconomic or political excuses for Islamist terrorism such as poverty, colonialism, discrimination or the existence of Israel. What incentive is there for Muslims to demand reform when Western "progressives" pave the way for Islamist barbarity? Indeed, if the problem is not one of religious beliefs, it leaves one to wonder why Christians who live among Muslims under identical circumstances refrain from contributing to wide-scale, systematic campaigns of terror.

Politicians and scholars in the West have taken up the chant that Islamic extremism is caused by the Arab-Israeli conflict. This analysis cannot convince any rational person that the Islamist murder of over 150,000 innocent people in Algeria--which happened in the last few decades--or their slaying of hundreds of Buddhists in Thailand, or the brutal violence between Sunni and Shia in Iraq could have anything to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Western feminists duly fight in their home countries for equal pay and opportunity, but seemingly ignore, under a façade of cultural relativism, that large numbers of women in the Islamic world live under threat of beating, execution and genital mutilation, or cannot vote, drive cars and dress as they please.

The tendency of many Westerners to restrict themselves to self-criticism further obstructs reformation in Islam. Americans demonstrate against the war in Iraq, yet decline to demonstrate against the terrorists who kidnap innocent people and behead them. Similarly, after the Madrid train bombings, millions of Spanish citizens demonstrated against their separatist organization, ETA. But once the demonstrators realized that Muslims were behind the terror attacks they suspended the demonstrations. This example sent a message to radical Islamists to continue their violent methods.

Western appeasement of their Muslim communities has exacerbated the problem. During the four-month period after the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in a Danish magazine, there were comparatively few violent demonstrations by Muslims. Within a few days of the Danish magazine's formal apology, riots erupted throughout the world. The apology had been perceived by Islamists as weakness and concession.

Worst of all, perhaps, is the anti-Americanism among many Westerners. It is a resentment so strong, so deep-seated, so rooted in personal identity, that it has led many, consciously or unconsciously, to morally support America's enemies.

Progressives need to realize that radical Islam is based on an antiliberal system. They need to awaken to the inhumane policies and practices of Islamists around the world. They need to realize that Islamism spells the death of liberal values. And they must not take for granted the respect for human rights and dignity that we experience in America, and indeed, the West, today.

Well-meaning interfaith dialogues with Muslims have largely been fruitless. Participants must demand--but so far haven't--that Muslim organizations and scholars specifically and unambiguously denounce violent Salafi components in their mosques and in the media. Muslims who do not vocally oppose brutal Shariah decrees should not be considered "moderates."

All of this makes the efforts of Muslim reformers more difficult. When Westerners make politically-correct excuses for Islamism, it actually endangers the lives of reformers and in many cases has the effect of suppressing their voices.

Tolerance does not mean toleration of atrocities under the umbrella of relativism. It is time for all of us in the free world to face the reality of Salafi Islam or the reality of radical Islam will continue to face us.

Dr. Hamid, a onetime member of Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamist terrorist group, is a medical doctor and Muslim reformer living in the West.

Copyright © 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Monday, April 2, 2007

Three Weeks Since BBC Reporter Kidnapped in Gaza

It's been three weeks since the BBC's Alan Johnston was kidnapped by Palestinian militants. It's not an unusual occurrence--the kidnappers want money, and most foreign media outlets, particularly European ones, pay up, thus keeping the kidnappers in business. Three weeks is a long time for someone to be missing, though. A demonstration on Monday by other journalists called for Mr. Johnston's release. Let's pray, on the eve of Passover and during Christian Holy Week, that he's released soon from captivity. Let's not forget the Israeli soldiers being held hostage. Soon, may the whole world be free. --Wendy

"In Gaza City, dozens of reporters holding signs saying 'Free Alan' and 'Stop Security Chaos and Lawlessness' marched to the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, as he was convening his weekly cabinet session.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) also called for a three-day media boycott of the Palestinian Authority (PA), starting Monday.

Its chairman, Naim Toubasi, asked journalists to refrain from covering any news about the PA, to protest its failure to secure Johnston's release.

A statement issued by the PSJ Monday threatened to expand the boycott by calling on civilians to boycott all PA institutions, ministries and offices.

The PJS organized the rally in Ramallah jointly with the Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents foreign correspondents covering Israel and the Palestinian areas."

Full story (pro-Palestinian point of view):
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1285941.php/Protests_mark_three_weeks_since_BBC_correspondent_snatched__Roundup_

Terror as an export industry - Made in Iran

Iran is not exporting so much oil these days, but they are exporting something else. Their main export agency and its personnel are discussed below.

The Islamic Republic of Iran 's concept of exporting the revolution

1. The aspiration to export the Islamic revolution to all Muslim societies (and to all human society as well) was an integral part of the philosophy of the Ayatollah Khomeini, who led the revolution and founded the Islamic republic in 1979. Khomeini and his supporters sought to ignore the religious and national differences between Shi'ites and Sunnis, and to create a revolutionary Islamic force. Such a force would, under Iranian leadership, destroy the "root of evil," the superpowers which were corrupting the world, led by the United States ("the great evil") and its ally, Israel ("the little evil"). That would be done while efforts continued to establish Shi'a as the dominant Islamic sect.

2. The concept of exporting the revolution was, for Khomeini and his heir the Iranian "leader" Ali Khamenei, a tool for advancing Iran's strategic interests, at the center of which was Iran's desire to achieve regional hegemony and further the campaign against Israel and the West, while meddling in the internal affair of other countries (including neighboring Arab-Muslim countries in the Middle East and beyond).

The Quds Force as the main tool for exporting the revolution

3. The Quds 1 ( Jerusalem ) Force is one of five branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps , which is the strongest military-security body in the country and the regime's main support. The Quds Force is an elite unit numbering, as far as is known, several thousand. It was established at the beginning of the 1990s to help export the revolution beyond the borders of Iran , and became the main Iranian apparatus working secretly beyond its borders . More