SWI NEWS: Monday, May 24, 2010 11 Sivan, 5770
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010PM: Nations must prevent Iran nukes
By JPOST.COM STAFF 23/05/2010 23:05The nations of the world must unite to stop the Iranian nuclear program, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at a conference of Russian-speaking journalists on Sunday.
Netanyahu spoke at the 12th world conference of Russian-speaking press, held at Dan Panorama hotel in Tel Aviv. He said the world must recognize the danger that a nuclear Iran poses to all nations, and act to prevent it.
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“Most of world terrorism originates in radical Islam,” he said, adding that the greatest danger humanity faces is if the most fanatical and violent ideology attains the most destructive tool of terrorism possible – nuclear arms.
“The greatest tragedies to befall the Jewish, Russian and Ukrainian people, occurred when they did not recognize danger in time. I expect all peace-seeking nations to join hands to stop evil,” Netanyahu said.
Iran said it would submit the understandings reached in the Teheran Declaration on transferring its low-enriched Uranium to Turkey to the International Atomic Energy Agency Monday.
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Obama Advisor: Warm Words for Saudi Arabia, Hizbullah, Al-Quds
by Hillel Fende
John Brennan, Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security, called Jerusalem “Al-Quds,” praised Saudi Arabian religious tolerance, and is encouraging of Hizbullah.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has drawn attention to the above three instances of recent remarks by one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s top terrorism-issues advisors, calling them “outrageous” and “disgraceful.”
Speaking to an apparently Muslim audience at New York University in February, at a forum co-hosted by the White House and the Islamic Center at New York University." Brennan first told a story in Arabic, evoking laughter and concluding with, “Don’t tell the folks who don’t speak Arabic what I said.” He then said that his favorite city in the Middle East is “Al Quds, Jerusalem.”
In the same speech, Brennan also spoke of his time at the American University in Cairo in the 1970s, referring to the common aspirations of his former Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian classmates, including the freedom “to practice our faith freely … In Saudi Arabia, I saw how our Saudi partners fulfilled their duty as custodians of the two holy mosques at Mecca and Medina.”
In another speech before Lebanese leaders who visited Washington recently, Brennan told them, “Hizbullah is a very interesting organization,” and said that it had evolved from “purely a terrorist organization” to a militia and now to an organization that has members within the parliament and the cabinet. “There is certainly the elements of Hizbullah that are truly a concern to us, what they’re doing,” Brennan said. “And what we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements.”
The ZOA noted that Hizbullah is actually a Lebanese-Iranian proxy terrorist group that has called continually for the elimination of Israel.
“These comments by John Brennan are as outrageous as they are deeply troubling,” ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “No one refers to Jerusalem in the English language as Al-Quds, unless they have a specific political, anti-Israel agenda - in this case, pandering to Israel’s enemies, who will draw comfort from the use of the term Al-Quds by a senior U.S. government official.”
Klein termed “disgraceful” the fact that “Mr. Brennan’s pandering is taken so far that he speaks of some supposed shared goal of freedom of religious practice, and then immediately refers in complimentary words to Saudi Arabia - a country that is notorious for its harsh denial of freedom of religion, in which even non-Wahhabi Muslim mosques are prohibited, let alone churches and synagogues.”
Regarding Brennan’s comments about Hizbullah, Klein said, “Worse, Brennan give unwarranted legitimacy to the recognized terrorist group Hizbullah, thereby undercutting past U.S. efforts to isolate this murderous outfit.”
Klein sums up: “John Brennan is yet another hand-picked Obama adviser who shows a distinct animus against Israel and partiality for its enemies. It is unsurprising that, when Barack Obama is advised by people like these, quite apart from the President’s own troubling history of friendships with vicious critics of Israel and having belonged for two decades to an anti-Israel, anti-American black supremacist church, the Obama Administration has ignited major tensions in its relations with Israel while not holding accountable and penalizing the Palestinian Authority for continuing terrorism and incitement to hatred and murder.”
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
The Emanuels Feast in Eilat – Israel Foots Bill
by Gil Ronen
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and his family dined on seafood at an Eilat restaurant and left the bill for the Israeli Tourism Ministry, according to reports in Israeli media. The report was met with consternation by MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari of the National Union, who wants the bill sent back to Emanuel.
Emanuel is in Israel on a private visit with his parents, his wife, his children and other family members, to make preparations for his son's upcoming Bar Mitzvah. Upon arrival in Israel Friday, the Emanuels headed for Eilat, where they dined on seafood at a restaurant. After the (unkosher) meal, which included cheviche (citrus marinaded seafood), calamari (fried squid), various fish, salads and hamburgers, the bill was handed over to a Ministry of Tourism representative who accompanied the Emanuels.
Ben-Ari fired off a letter to the Attorney General in which he said: "I was amazed to hear that following the sumptuous meal at the 'Boston' restaurant Emanuel handed the bill to a Ministry of Tourism representative who was present. In my humble legal opinion there is no possibility of making the State of Israel pay for such a meal, as part of a private visit by the White House Chief of Staff and his family.”
"The public coffers are not up for grabs and the fact that the gentleman sponsors anti-Semitic policies in the White House is certainly no justification for digging into the public coffer at the expense of the old lady in the corridor of the hospital,” Ben-Ari added – in a reference to the shortage of hospital beds in Israel, which is attributed to budgetary problems.
"I ask you, sir, to immediately cancel the debiting of the Ministry of Tourism's account and to promptly send the bill directly to Mr. Emanuel's private home,” he added.
It is not known where the Bar Mitzvah ceremony will take place. Nationalists have said that they will prevent Emanuel from celebrating at the Kotel, but there have been reports that the ceremony will be held at Robinson's Arch, which is slightly removed from the Kotel and which serves Reform and Conservative communities.
The media-savvy Emanuel made no attempt to keep his family's culinary experience in Eilat -- at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer -- from becoming known to the Israeli media and even posed for a picture with the restaurant's chef. The event might therefore be interpreted by some as a deliberate message by Emanuel, in keeping with a line of theatrically insulting messages to Israel delivered by the White House since it came under Emanuel's direction. The most notorious of these was the photograph released by the White House of President Barack Obama speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with his feet propped up on his desk and the soles thrust at the camera. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Video
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137657
PA Negotiator: Accept 1967 Borders or We Go to Security Council
by Gil Ronen and Yoni Kempinski
Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat spoke at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv last week and apparently tried to convince his audience that the Palestinian Authority is serious about negotiations with Israel but the Israeli government is not.
Erekat said that if Israel does not agree to return to its pre-1967 borders – with some land swaps – nothing will stop the PA from going to the United Nations Security Council in 2011 and asking it to recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.
By then, he predicted, the European Union will have recognized such a Palestinian state.
Erekat sounded a somewhat scornful note regarding the current Israeli leadership, saying that he will be discussing “core issues” with with United States Special Mideast Envoy George Mitchell, and he does not care if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaks to him “about the game between HaPoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa.”
Abbas insists Israel must not behave like a democracy
US Consulate staff involved in Jerusalem beating
Gang of American 'diplomats' reportedly attack young Israeli man, are freed from custody due to 'diplomatic immunity'
A young Israeli man who was brutally beaten in downtown Jerusalem earlier this month revealed to The Jerusalem Post that his assailants were apparently employees of the US Consulate in the Israeli capital.
The young man, who identified himself only by his first name, Yishai, said the attack occurred as he and a friend stepped out of a downtown bar where they were celebrating another friend's birthday to buy some cigarettes.
As they were returning to the party, the two Israelis were approached by a group of people speaking English. One of the larger of the English-speakers exchanged words with Yishai and then punched him in the face. The others proceeded to punch and kick Yishai, leaving him with multiple head and body injuries that required him being taken to a nearby hospital.
Yishai's friend, who was also lightly injured, rushed back to the bar to let the rest of his friends know what happened to and to call the police. The group searched for the attackers and found them at another bar, to which they directed police. The assailants were arrested and taken to a downtown jail, but were shortly after released.
When Yishai's friends demanded to know why those who had perpetrated an unprovoked and brutal attack were simply allowed to walk free, one officer revealed that the attackers were employees of the US Consulate, and so enjoy diplomatic immunity.
Police officials later contacted by the Post refused to confirm or deny that the assailants were US diplomats. US Consulate staff insisted that they were cooperating fully with the Israeli police in the investigation.
The US Consulate in Jerusalem has many Palestinian Arabs who possess US citizenship on its staff. They, together with other American employees of the mission, have on numerous occasions confronted both Israeli civilians and security personnel in a very hostile manner. One of the more recent incidents involved a consulate driver refusing to allow Israeli guards at a border crossing check his vehicle. He reportedly attempted to drive the car into one of the guards as the situation escalated.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas indicated in his meeting with US envoy George Mitchell that he has a problem with Israel behaving like a democracy when it comes to the land-for-peace process. Details of the meeting provided over the weekend to Ha'aretz revealed that Abbas pressed Mitchell to in turn press Israel to honor the offers former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had made to the Palestinians. That Israel has since had a democratic election and chosen a leader who ran on a platform of not surrendering so much to the Palestinians should make no difference, Abbas suggested. "The points agreed upon with Olmert are agreements with the government of Israel," the Palestinian leader said. While Abbas did tentatively accept Olmert's offer to surrender all but about six percent of Judea and Samaria and some Israeli territory to make up the difference, as well as divide Jerusalem, the Palestinian leader at the time did not openly agree to the proposal, since Olmert also wanted him to shelf his demand that Israel open its borders to millions of so-called "Palestinian refugees." Abbas' remarks are just the latest in a long series of incidents that make it clear the Arab countries and the Western power-brokers involved in the peace process are not pleased that negotiations are subject to the will of the voting Israeli public. The last few elections in Israel show that the public is only willing to let its leaders go so far in pursuing what increasingly looks to be a phony peace with the Palestinians.
The White House has dispatched three top officials to the Middle East in an effort to calm war tensions which Lebanon and Syria have played up over Israel's homeland missile defense exercise Turning-Point 4, debkafile's Washington sources report. As the exercise began, Sunday, May 23, OC Northern Command, Brig. Gady Eisenkott said: "No party concerned has an interest in another showdown, but the IDF could be ready to fight within hours." He added that "Israel could take on both the Syrian-Lebanese front and Gaza." He was talking to the local council heads in Galilee, northern Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the weekly cabinet meeting that the drill is just routine, not the consequence of any unusual security event. Israel seeks calm, stability and peace, he stressed, adding: "It is no secret that we live in a region beset with rocket and missile threats." The five-day exercise covering the whole country will test local and national authorities' responses to simultaneous missile and rocket attacks against civilian locations from Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the Gaza Strip. Sirens Wednesday, May 27, will signal civilians to make for sheltered areas. Syria has placed its air force and air defense forces on high alert, while Hizballah has transferred thousands of its militiamen to South Lebanon and placed the border region on a war footing against a supposed Israeli attack. Saturday, May 22, John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arrived in Damascus for talks with President Bashar Assad, his fifth visit to the Syrian capital. His spokesman said "Chairman Kerry planned to speak with President Assad about a range of issues critical to the stability of the region." His obvious mission, debkafile's sources report, was to prevent security on the Syrian and Lebanese borders from running out of control in the wake of Damascus' continuing buildup of Hizballah smuggled weapons arsenal. The US official assigned with holding Israel back is President Barack Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel. Although his visit to Israel was described as private - for the traditional celebration of his son's Bar Mitzva this week at the Western Wall - he set up appointments with President Shimon Peres, the prime minister and the defense minister Ehud Barak. Assistant secretary of state Jeffrey Feltman who heads the Syrian-Lebanese desk, while on a round tour of Middle East capitals, is using press interviews to call on Syria to prevent smuggled arms reaching the Lebanese Hizballah and other terrorist organizations in Iraq. He said talking to the Syrians was "not easy, but most important." Speaking in Amman, Feltman said: "President Assad's decisions affect security in the region and so Washington must be sure that he fully understands our concerns." Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri arrives in Washington Monday, May 24, for his first meeting with President Barack Obama. This will also be the first time the White House receives a Lebanese prime minister bound in a power-sharing accord with a terrorist organization committed to "resistance" against Israel and bearing arms in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Obama's adviser on counter-terrorism John Brennan "sanitized" the event by announcing after an advance trip to Beirut last week that the "United States should build up moderate (!) elements within Hizballah." This Iran-backed Shiite terrorist organization has always boasted that violent hatred for Israel and Jews is its only raison d'etre, yet not a single Israel official voice was raised to query Brennan's delusive prescription.
