Wrongheaded Obama's policy.... it will backfire on the US and the free world, not only Israel and region.

 

Reports: Netanyahu 'Humiliated' by Obama Snub

Times of London

According to Israeli reports, Obama walked out of his meeting with the prime minister for a private dinner.

 

  

AP

Mar. 22: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference dinner in Washington.

For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Benjamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Obama walked out of his meeting with Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and "let me know if there is anything new", a U.S. congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

"It was awful," the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting "a hazing in stages", poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received "the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea".

Left to talk among themselves Netanyahu and his aides retreated to the Roosevelt Room. He spent a further half-hour with Obama and extended his stay for a day of emergency talks to try to restart peace negotiations. However, he left last night with no official statement from either side. He returned to Israel yesterday isolated after what Israeli media have called a White House ambush for which he is largely to blame.

Sources said that Netanyahu failed to impress Obama with a flow chart purporting to show that he was not responsible for the timing of announcements of new settlement projects in east Jerusalem. Obama was said to be livid when such an announcement derailed the visit to Israel by Joe Biden, the Vice-President, this month and his anger towards Israel does not appear to have cooled.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, cast doubt on minor details in Israeli accounts of the meeting but did not deny claims that it amounted to a dressing down for the Prime Minister, whose refusal to freeze settlements is seen in Washington as the main barrier to resuming peace talks.

Continue reading at The Times of London

Confessions of a Zionist soldier:

Yoav, an Israeli soldier, writes about army life...

With great power comes great responsibility

This post actually relates to an event that took place more than a year ago, soon after I was drafted to the IDF and began my mandatory service.

You see, as a kid, I've always been such a big fan of action films, especially the ones with the big explosions. And what's exactly the essence of action movies (beside the tough hero and the beautiful girl...)? That's right - guns. Big guns.

I mean, pretty much all of the kids worldwide are really enthusiastic about guns - they buy gun-like toys, they play outdoors pretending they shoot one another (while making funny noises), watch action films and playing video games. I was no different.

When I was 14, I remember having this conversation with my grandfather. "When I'll be in the army I'll fight all of the bad guys and let'em have it!" I said. I remember imagining myself jumping and shooting at the battlefield, completely unaware of danger and not even acknowledging the feeling of fear. "I wish we won't need the army when it's time for you to join it" he answered. Classic answer...

Few years went by, I turned 18, finished high school, and it was my time. Soon after we began the basic training, they told us that we're going to get guns - M16 automatic assault rifles. And although I already wasn't as excited about it as I was at the age of 14, I couldn't believe what I felt as my commander took the rifle from the armory guy and gave it to me: I was completely shocked and my stomach rolled over.

 

Continued: With great power comes great responsibility

An Israeli diplomat expelled? But look who the British government won't get rid of !!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

An Israeli diplomat expelled? But look who the British government won't get rid of !!

The following article from the Daily Telegraph UK is reprinted in its entirety to illustrate the hypocracy of the UK government

By Douglas Murray : March 23rd, 2010

So the British government has decided to expel an Israeli diplomat over the alleged forging of British passports relating to the assassination of a Hamas terrorist in Dubai on January 20.

We are told that the British government believes British passport holders would be at risk as a result of the assassination of the Hamas terrorist.

So it is interesting to record just some of the people whom the British government will not expel and who it must therefore believe pose no threat whatsoever to British passport holders.

Abu Qatada: known as Osama bin Laden's ambassador to Europe. He has been in London since 1993. He came here on a forged UAE passport. In 1999 he was convicted in absentia in Jordan for conspiracy to cause explosions, relating to an attempted bomb attack on an American school and a car bomb explosion outside an Amman hotel that was frequented by tourists in 1998. He was also convicted in absentia of conspiracy to cause explosions at Western and Israeli targets in Jordan, to coincide with the millennium New Year celebrations.

Farj Hassan al-Saadi: entered the UK illegally in March 2002. He was added to the United Nations Sanctions Committee's permanent register of al-Qaeda and Taliban members in November 2003. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that his cell 'clearly was a group of men with extremist Islamist views supportive of violence against the West which had been acting together for some time in the ways we have set out including recruiting for Al Qaeda, raising money for terrorist activities and obtaining false documents for that purpose. This group can properly be regarded as a serious terrorist group' and al-Saadi was 'a highly respected member of the group and that he may well have been its leader for a while'. On 7 February 2008, he was found guilty in absentia in Italy of belonging to a terrorist group and being part of a terrorism plot in 2002. At the trial, he was described as the 'European envoy' of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Ismail Kamoka: a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who arrived in the UK in November 1994 from Saudi Arabia, claiming asylum. His claim was based on the fact that he could not return to Libya because he belonged to a group there which aimed to overthrow the government and replace it with an Islamist one. When attempting to claim asylum in the UK he said he had been to Pakistan in 1992 to take part in jihad against communists in Afghanistan. Despite having his asylum claim refused, he was not removed from the UK as it was deemed unsafe for him to return to Libya. He was granted leave to remain in the UK in November 1999. On 21 November 2002 Kamoka was arrested while trying to travel to Iran from London Heathrow. On 23 November he was detained under Section 21 of the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 and was recommended for deportation. He successfully appealed this to the SIAC in 8 March 2004, as they were unconvinced that Kamoka was linked to al-Qaeda and had knowingly supported extremists linked to al-Qaeda. He was released on 18 March 2004 following a failed government appeal against the decision. In June 2007, he was convicted in the UK of terrorist offences.

I for one am deeply grateful to the UK government for their sudden concern for the sanctity of UK passports and the security of UK passport holders. Though it may be a little late in the day, has the Government thought about turning this concern towards people who actually are terrorists?

How on earth these people can be "peace partners" with Israel?

 

Abbas turns 3 latest terrorists into Palestinian heroes by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook Dec. 29, 2009

Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai - a 45-year old Israeli and father of seven children - was killed in a drive-by shooting last Thursday. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, part of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, took responsibility for the killing. On Friday night, Israeli forces located and killed three of the terrorists involved in the attack. The fourth surrendered to the PA police. The response of the PA has been unequivocal support and backing for the terrorists. Since Friday, the leadership of the PA, the heads of Fatah, the heads of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the PA-controlled media have continuously portrayed the killers as Palestinian heroes and Shahids -- holy Martyrs -- while describing Israel's killing of the three terrorists as "murder in cold blood" and "assassination." PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared the killers "Shahids" (holy Martyrs) and sent his personal emissary to visit the families: "Secretary General of the President's Bureau, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim, conveyed condolences on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas to the residents of Nablus and to the families of the three Shahids [Martyrs] for the Martyrdom of their sons, who were assassinated by Israeli occupation forces yesterday morning. He conveyed to the fighting families letters of condolences from the President [Abbas] and updated them as to [Abbas's] decision to declare them as Shahids [Martyrs] of the Palestinian revolution..." Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim: "Without doubt, what the [Israeli] occupation authorities have carried out is a wild and barbaric act and a deliberate, malicious assassination in cold blood." [PA TV (Fatah) News, Dec. 27, 2009] PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad went even further, personally visiting the families of the terrorists along with other senior PA officials. "Prime Minister visits Nablus and conveys condolences to the families of the Shahids (Martyrs). Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad today visited the city of Nablus in the wake of the Israeli military operation, and presented condolences to the families of the three Martyrs who were murdered by the occupation forces. Dr. Fayyad was accompanied by Internal Affairs Minister Dr. Said Abu Ali, leaders of the security agencies, and Police Director-General Major General Hazem Atallah, and they visited the house of mourning, which was held in the Trade Unions compound in the city... The Prime Minister condemned the Israeli military operation in the city." [WAFA news agency, Dec. 26, 2009]   The Fatah movement is glorifying the terrorists: "Mahmoud Al-Aloul, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said that the occupation murdered these three young men as well as another three in Gaza, in cold blood. He described them as '[military] commanders, brave heroes, and fighters.'" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2009] PA TV focused on the Fatah poster (above), signed with condolences of PA Chairman Abbas, honoring the three terrorists. The following is the text on the poster with pictures of the terrorists: "With honor and admiration to those who are more honored than all of us."  [Reference to supreme honor of Shahids - Martyrs in Islam] "The Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah, accompanies to their wedding:" [Reference to Islamic belief that Martyrs marry virgins in Paradise]   The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Rassan Abu Serah The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Ra'ed Al Aschregi The Martyr, Commander, Hero: Anan Sobh   The Director General of the Presidency expresses condolences to the Nablus Martyrs - in the name of the President [Abbas] It's important to note that in condemning Israel's killing of the terrorists, the PA is not denying that those killed were responsible for the murder of Rabbi Hai: "The Shahid Imad Mughniyeh group [named after Hezbollah terrorist] of the [Fatah's] Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has denounced the [Israeli] crime of the assassination in Nablus, killing three Fatah activists, including Anan Sobh, who, according to the [Fatah's Al-Aqsa] Brigades, planned the Tulkarem operation which led to the death of the settler in a shooting operation." [Ma'an News Agency, Dec. 26, 2009] In the official announcement right after the terror attack, Fatah took responsibility, while calling the killers "Jihad Fighters" and warning of more "quality operations": "A group announcing that it belonged to the Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the shooting... 'The Jihad Fighters confirmed that the person who was in the car had taken a direct hit, and praise to Allah - the Jihad Fighters escaped unharmed...' The announcement said that 'this action is part of a series of operations; you can expect more quality operations [terror attacks] from us.'" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 25, 2009] After the terrorists were killed, Fatah changed from threatening more "quality operations" to warning that it would avenge the killing of the "Jihad Fighters": Headline: "The occupation murders three residents of Nablus in cold blood... the President's [Abbas's] Bureau denounces the Israeli crime..." "The [Fatah's] Al-Aqsa Brigades announced: 'By the act of murdering an elite group of our Jihad Fighters in Nablus and in Gaza, the occupation is opening for itself the gates of Hell.' They threatened that 'our activists will not stand idly by while the blood of Jihad Fighters is spilled... The enemy will hear nothing from us but the language of blood and fire, and our Shahada [Martyrdom] Seekers will go out to [the enemy] from every place in order to turn his days into nights, and he will come to regret his crime. We shall not sleep over the blood of our Jihad Fighters, and our response will be swift... We affirm the continuation of our choice of blood and Martyrdom. The only choice, in the face of the repeated attacks against our people in the towns and villages and refugee camps of the occupied homeland. We shall turn the spilled blood of the Martyrs and the commanders into a torch of fury that will burn the forces of evil and aggression.'' [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2009]