SWI NEWS: Monday, October 25 2010 17 Heshvan,5771
Monday, October 25th, 2010
Bayefsky: U.S. is More Hostile to Israel than it Appears
by Elad Benari
According to political writer Anne Bayefsky, the Obama administration’s treatment of Israel is not as hostile as it appears, but is, in fact, worse.
In an article which appeared last week on the Unity Coalition for Israel’s website, Bayefsky wrote that the U.S. State Department has adopted a practice of saying different things to different audiences. She brought as an example claims by the U.S. that recent speeches delivered the U.N. Human Rights Council were in Israel’s defense, when in fact the remarks American diplomats actually delivered were “strikingly different.”
While U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Eileen Donahoe, said during the Council’s last session in October that the Human Rights Council had “made historic progress…in advancing the rights of human rights defenders throughout the world,” Bayefsky said that Donahoe’s claim “turns on the virtue of legitimizing the demonization of Israel in favor of other people’s human rights.”
Bayefsky explains that during the latest session, the Human Rights Council had before it a report produced by a committee chaired by German lawyer Christian Tomuschat, a former legal adviser to former PA President Yasser Arafat. In the spirit of last year’s Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, the Tomuschat Report repeats the claim that Israel engaged in “violence against civilians as part of a deliberate policy” and criticizes Israel’s legal system for failing to mount a witch hunt for “officials at the highest levels.” The report also refers to Hamas’ internal investigation of the events during Operation Cast Lead, which exonerates itself from any wrongdoings, and finally concludes that it “is not in a position to ascertain the veracity of any of these assertions.”
According to Bayefsky, when the Human Rights Council took up this report, Ambassador Donahoe told the Human Rights Council: “We appreciate that the Tomuschat Committee did not jump to conclusions…” and also praised the committee on the grounds that it “did not recommend any further UN action,” despite the fact that the report was written so that it would guarantee the committee’s reappointment, which did indeed occur.
Furthermore, says Bayefsky, Ambassador Donahoe dropped from her speech the words “Because Israel has the right and the demonstrated ability to conduct credible investigations and serious self-scrutiny, further follow-up of the Goldstone Report by UN bodies is unnecessary and unwarranted,” a version which appears on the State Department website.
Bayefsky adds that this was not a one-time occurrence. A second anti-Israel report, commissioned in June after the flotilla incident, was written following a Human Rights Council investigation created within 48 hours of the incident and carried out by a three-person group that included lawyer Desmond de Silva, who headed a British law office with a Palestinian legal advisor, and hosted the team which is supporting a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. De Silva was has told the Human Rights Council that “ven if Bin Laden himself was on board the Mavi Marmara, it wouldn’t have made the blockade legal.”
De Silva and his group said they couldn’t trust Israeli video evidence of the incident, and described the IHH activists on the Marmara as “persons genuinely committed to the spirit of humanitarianism.” They produced what Bayefsky calls “the usual U.N. laundry list of wild accusations and demands, such as prosecuting Israelis for torture.”
In this case as well, the State Department gave the U.N. a speech by Ambassador Donahoe to post on its website which includes an important defense of Israel, which once again was omitted from her actual delivery. On September 29, several days after Donahoe addressed the Council, it voted to approve both reports.
Bayefesky notes that even though at the conclusion of this session, the Human Rights Council maintained its record of having adopted more resolutions and decisions condemning Israel than all other 191 U.N. states combined, the Obama administration still described it as an “historic” session advancing human rights.
“This administration’s message is that demonizing Israelis is a price worth paying for the sake of other people’s human rights,” concludes Bayfesky. “’Several developments’ for anybody else trump several losses for the Jewish state. Legitimizing the Human Rights Council with American membership and financial support is justified regardless of the threat that it poses to the safety and security of the Jewish people. The Obama administration ought to know better. Equality and human dignity cannot be built on the inequality of the few.”
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
Most Palestinians think it's OK to kill Jews
Another Palestinian public opinion poll has yet again revealed that the conditions for lasting peaceful coexistence simply do not exist, and that any final status peace deal signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is doomed to failure.
As part of the now-15-year-old peace process, both sides were supposed to create and foster an atmosphere conducive to peaceful coexistence. On the Palestinian side, the people were to be encouraged to stop viewing the murder of Israeli Jews as an acceptable practice, regardless of the reasons behind it.
But in a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research earlier this month, a majority of the respondents signaled that they never received that memo.
Those polled were asked about the deadly roadside shooting attack that took place just as direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were resuming in early September. Four Israelis were killed in that attack, including a mother and father who left behind six young children.
Nearly 50 percent of respondents said they view the attack as an effort to derail the fresh peace talks. Despite being painted as a society hungry for peace, 51 percent said they either strongly support or support that attack.
Because of the backdrop to that shooting, the Palestinian Authority had to make a very public show of cracking down on the terrorists behind it. But over 76 percent of the poll’s respondents said they either oppose or strongly oppose such harsh measures against Palestinians who murder Jewish civilians.
And it’s not only attacks against “settlers” that the Palestinian public endorses. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they either strongly support or support renewing “armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel.” The other 49 percent said they oppose the renewal of such attacks.
With nearly half of Palestinian society still viewing attacks on Israeli Jews in general as perfectly legitimate (to say nothing of the overwhelming majority that supports killing Jews who overstep their boundaries), is it any wonder that most Israelis do not view the Palestinians under their current leadership as viable peace partners?
GOP Congress Candidate Rev. Faulkner: Obama Delegitimizes Israel
by Fern Sidman, INN NY Corresponden
This may be the first time that the Rev. Michael Faulkner is running for elected office, but it is not the first time that Faulkner is running. If the name sounds at all familiar, especially to sports fans, it is because this passionate Christian evangelical minister is also a former NY Jets defensive lineman and has more than ample practice achieving his goals both on the gridiron and on the field of life.
Israel National News spoke with Rev. Faulkner (R) about his campaign to unseat his political rival, Charles Rangel (D-NY); a political icon who has spent the last 40 years representing the people of Manhattan's 15th congressional district, which includes the upper West Side, Harlem and Washington Heights.
Rangel, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has been the subject of media scrutiny as of late because of 13 violations of congressional ethics standards that were leveled against him by House investigators. The allegations include failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic and hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income and assets on his financial disclosure statements. Other charges focused on Rangel's use of congressional staff and stationery to raise money for a college center in New York named after him; accepting favors and benefits from the donors that may have influenced his congressional actions; use of a subsidized New York apartment as a campaign office instead of a residence; and misuse of the congressional free mail privilege.
"I am throwing my hat in the ring and running for Congress because I personally feel, as do my consituents, that greed and corruption is choking the life out of our government" said Faulkner. We are living during one of those times in history when people are saying enough is enough. We need representatives in Congress who do not have a personal agenda, but rather we must elect those who seek to solve the problems that government has imposed on the people. I have always believed that the highest calling is to serve the powerless and to speak for the voiceless," he continued.
Rev. Faulkner's position as pastor of the New Horizon Church in Harlem has allowed him to tune in to and gain a hands-on understanding of the issues effecting his constituency. Having received his ordination in December of 1991, Faulkner has rooted himself in the community he serves by leading the ministries specifically geared toward junior and senior high school students as well as managing the church’s programs for the homeless, the prison ministry and an HIV/AIDS program. During his tenure as a minister, numerous city and community outreach programs were conceived and implemented including the development of The Institute for Leadership, a non-profit organization dedicated to making future leaders of the city’s youth. He is a 1992-1993 Coro Leadership New York Fellow and has served as regional chaplain for the New York State Office of Family and Children Services, vice president for community government relations at King’s College and advisor to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a member of the Task Force on Police Community Relations and Commissioner for the City Charter Revision.
"The jobless rate is my community and others like it is staggering" said Faulkner. "My plan for creating jobs is based on something we call "Jobenomics" which is based on a book by economist Chuck Vollmer, with a goal of creating 20 million private sector jobs by the year 2020. The Jobenomics initiative is focused on teaching people to achieve personal freedom and dignity through finding and maintaining meaningful work. Jobenomics will provide mentoring from established coaches and successful individuals. We have also secured relationships with various lending institutions to assist qualified businesses to receive the microfinance loans to these small businesses which have been traditionally underserved by mainstream financial institutions", declared Faulkner.
Faulkner takes issue with the Obama administration's policy of entitlements and government bailouts. "I don't believe in entitlements because I feel it diminishes the dignity and value of the American worker. The Talmud explains that the highest form of charity is to give in such a way as to affirm a person's dignity, worth and value. This means that it is much more valuable to give a person a job, meaning a hand up, rather than a check for not working such as a hand out. I will support entrepreneurial initiatives in my community which expand economic opportunities, foster a path to economic self-reliance, and restore the promise of the American Dream", he intoned.
As to the thorny issue of health care reform, Rev. Faulkner weighs in on his opinion of the Obamacare plan. "This bill was signed into law before any legislators had read it completely, which means they committed the American public and taxpayers to undisclosed and undetermined costs for benefits that will not be fully realized within 10 years", says Faulkner. "The health care industry is extremely complex. The amount of federal controls and regulations that were added to this bill to ensure its enforcement are dangerous. I believe a great deal could have been accomplished with stronger tort reform and a deregulation of the interstate health insurance provision. Such deregulation would allow for competition between insurance companies, which would have eventually driven down the cost. We all now wait with baited breath for exactly what these costs will be to every American. This healthcare reform bill is detrimental to New Yorkers as it will cause the loss of thousands of jobs throughout the state and will be responsible for the closure of hundreds of community health care facilities including hospitals and nursing homes", he said.
Rev. Faulkner tells INN that he is looking forward to speaking out and making a difference on issues pertaining to foreign affairs as well while in Congress. "Let's make it abundantly clear. The pressure that Israel faces under the current administration has got to stop", says Faulkner. "Look, I am a proud Zionist and not not ashamed to admit it. I am also a Christian evangelical and my total support is behind Israel because I am enjoined by scripture. I can tell you that millions of other Christian evangelicals feel the same way that I do. We have got to get the message out that the security of the United States is inextricably tied to Israel's security and we have to do everything in our power to ensure that Israel's security is not compromised", he declared.
When asked about President Obama's plans to compel the Netanyahu government to extend the freeze on settlement construction in Judea, Samaria and parts of East Jerusalem, Faulkner says, 'I am tired of hearing the words 'occupation' and 'return to 1967 borders' when it comes to defining Israel because that simply is not the case. Israel is not an occupying power and thus anyone who says that Jewish settlement construction is an obstacle to peace in the Middle East is just using that as a smokescreen. The real obstacle to peace in that region are terrorists such as Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies."
As to Rev. Faulkner's perspectives on the creation of a Palestinian state, he says, "The Palestinians could have had an independent state in the past but they didn't come to the table. Israel has made territorial compromises and has proffered numerous peace proposals, only to be with resistance by those who really do not want peace. Any proposal for the creation of a Palestinian state must come from Israel and not the US and if such a state is established it must be demilitarized for security reasons."
Expressing anger at the myopic view of the Obama administration as it pertains to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Faulkner says, "Obama has participated in the delegitimization of Israel through his maltreatment of our best friend and stalwart ally in the region. By doing so he helps to fuel feelings of anti-Semitism. Where does he come off meddling in the internal affairs of Israel? Doesn't our president understand that our best hope for peace lies in solidifying our relationship with Israel rather than alienating her? Doesn't he comprehend the fact that any attack on the Jewish people and their land will be the harbinger for attacks on Christians and other peoples of the Western world?"
Concerning the Iranian nuclear arms threat, Rev Faulkner is quite clear. "You cannot appease these people because they are driven to destroy the West. I don't feel our president should be traveling to the Middle East and apologizing for America's support for Israel. Iran and Syria must be taken to task for underwriting and hosting terrorism in the region and the US should make it clear that we will not negotiate with terrorists under any conditions."
Citing the significance of the upcoming November 2nd mid-term elections, Rev. Faulkner makes a heartfelt appeal: "This is a most important and critical election that will help define the trajectory that our country, and the world for that matter, is taking. The Jewish people have the opportunity to help Israel through their participation in the electoral process. I look forward to working with my Jewish supporters to make our country stronger and better for future generations."
Rev. Faulkner's candidacy has received endorsements from FOX TV commentator Sean Hannity, the New Era Democrats, the Frederick Douglass Foundation, the East Harlem Concerned Pastors, Operation Black Storm, the Black Republicans PAC, the New York and National Right to Life parties, Newt Gingrich, the Republican Party of the State of New York, the Libertarian Party of the State of New York,Harold Augustus, West Harlem Senior Citizen Center, Howard Bernstein, West Harlem Senior Citizen Center, Apostle Edwards, One Way International Ministry, Yvonne Russell, Financial Network, Pastor Nelson, President, World International Chaplaincy, Pastor Debra L Smith, Christ Holiness Temple, Bishop Randall B. Gillis, Overseer, El Shaddei Church, Deacon Diaz, Calvary Baptist Church, Pastor Michael Bozwa, Zion Tabernacle and Chaplain Desiree Bernstein, United Chaplains of the State of New York.
WASHINGTON – A top White House advisor warned Monday night that the progress Palestinians have made on security in the West Bank could be jeopardized if peace talks don’t move forward.
Dennis Ross, a senior White House Middle East advisor, pointed to improvements the Palestinians have made in security and coordination with Israel over the past two years in a speech before American Israel Public Affairs Committee activists in Florida.
RELATED:
Fayyad slams IDF's killing of two Hamas terrorists
Clinton: Talks the only way to move forward toward peace
“These positive developments will be difficult to sustain if the prospects for peace look less and less real,” he cautioned, according to prepared remarks released by the White House.
Ross was speaking as talks between Israelis and Palestinians have stalled, with Israel refusing to extend a freeze on settlements and the Palestinians refusing to negotiate with a reinstatement of the freeze.
He also urged that Israel not lose the chance to make peace with “unique” Palestinian leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad, who have rejected violence.
The US administration has been stymied in its effort to shepherd peace talks forward after launching them in September and making them a high priority. Ross reminded the audience of “the strategic importance of peace” from America’s perspective.
But he primarily focused on Iran in his address, which he described as a preeminent threat to America.
He said that US President Obama “has consistently devoted more time to this issue than almost any other national security challenge.”
Ross noted the administration’s achievement in enacting “biting” sanctions, and detailed the many companies and countries that were pulling back on doing business with Iran to the detriment of the Iranian economy.
He emphasized that “the door for diplomacy is still open and we certainly seek a peaceful resolution to our conflict with Iran.”
But, should Iran continue to defy the international community’s demand that it halt enrichment, Ross recited Obama’s pledge that “we are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”
Ross noted that when it came to Iran and a wide range of other issues, “this degree of coordination is unprecedented” between the US and Israel.
Stressing the strength of a relationship that observers have suggested is under strain, Ross maintained, “I have participated in these types of discussions for the last 30 years, and they have never been as intense or focused, reflecting the serious cooperation that we have today with Israel.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Pope Benedict XVI on Monday to immediately denounce a statement by Melkite Catholic Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros at a Vatican Synod on the Middle East.
The archbishop had opined that “We Christians cannot speak about the promised land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people. All men and women of all countries have become the chosen people. The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians.”
RELATED: Editorial: The pope must speak up Ayalon: 'Vatican Synod is a forum for Arab propaganda' Vatican synod calls for end to Israel’s ‘occupation’ Butrus added that the “justification of Israel’s occupation of the land of Palestine cannot be based on sacred scriptures.” Jewish reaction was swift. “This political stunt, wrapped in theological garb, not only insults every Jew, but flies in the face of the statements and actions of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, both who have visited Israel and expressed solidarity with her people,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, dean and founder and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, respectively. The two men had audiences with both pontiffs. “The archbishop’s statement comes at the end of the conference wherein the so-called ‘Palestine Kairos’ document – which openly denies the right of Israel to be a Jewish state – was presented at the Vatican for the first time. These developments demand immediate action by the pope. Hopes for peace in the Middle East will only come when both sides recognize the rights of the others. These latest moves, left unchallenged, will damage interfaith relations and embolden anti- Semites and terrorists,” said Hier and Cooper. The Anti-Defamation League also expressed deep concern over the remarks, calling them “the worst kind of anti-Judaism, bordering on anti-Semitism.” In a letter to Cardinal-elect Kurt Koch, the newly-appointed president of the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, ADL national director Abe Foxman wrote: “By stating that God’s covenantal promise of land to the Jewish people ‘was nullified by Christ’ and that ‘there is no longer a chosen people,’ Bustros is effectively stating that Judaism should no longer exist.” A spokesman for the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi, issued a statement Monday that sought to play down Butrus’s remarks and distance the Holy See from them. “If one wants a summary of the Synod’s position, attention must currently be paid to the “Message,” which is the only written text approved by the synod in the last few days,” Lombardi said. “There is also a great richness and variety in the contributions made by the fathers, but which as such should not all be considered as the voice of the synod as a whole.” Lombardi, without specifically mentioning Bustros, embraced the synod’s call for “an end to the occupation” while suggesting that the Arab bishop’s statements belonged to the collection of “individual” contributions that did not express the synod’s official stance. According to the Catholic News Service, the Synod Message regarding the Jews “warned against inappropriate use of the words of the Bible,” and said that “recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable.”
RELATED: Editorial: The pope must speak up Ayalon: 'Vatican Synod is a forum for Arab propaganda' Vatican synod calls for end to Israel’s ‘occupation’ Butrus added that the “justification of Israel’s occupation of the land of Palestine cannot be based on sacred scriptures.” Jewish reaction was swift. “This political stunt, wrapped in theological garb, not only insults every Jew, but flies in the face of the statements and actions of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, both who have visited Israel and expressed solidarity with her people,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, dean and founder and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, respectively. The two men had audiences with both pontiffs. “The archbishop’s statement comes at the end of the conference wherein the so-called ‘Palestine Kairos’ document – which openly denies the right of Israel to be a Jewish state – was presented at the Vatican for the first time. These developments demand immediate action by the pope. Hopes for peace in the Middle East will only come when both sides recognize the rights of the others. These latest moves, left unchallenged, will damage interfaith relations and embolden anti- Semites and terrorists,” said Hier and Cooper. The Anti-Defamation League also expressed deep concern over the remarks, calling them “the worst kind of anti-Judaism, bordering on anti-Semitism.” In a letter to Cardinal-elect Kurt Koch, the newly-appointed president of the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, ADL national director Abe Foxman wrote: “By stating that God’s covenantal promise of land to the Jewish people ‘was nullified by Christ’ and that ‘there is no longer a chosen people,’ Bustros is effectively stating that Judaism should no longer exist.” A spokesman for the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi, issued a statement Monday that sought to play down Butrus’s remarks and distance the Holy See from them. “If one wants a summary of the Synod’s position, attention must currently be paid to the “Message,” which is the only written text approved by the synod in the last few days,” Lombardi said. “There is also a great richness and variety in the contributions made by the fathers, but which as such should not all be considered as the voice of the synod as a whole.” Lombardi, without specifically mentioning Bustros, embraced the synod’s call for “an end to the occupation” while suggesting that the Arab bishop’s statements belonged to the collection of “individual” contributions that did not express the synod’s official stance. According to the Catholic News Service, the Synod Message regarding the Jews “warned against inappropriate use of the words of the Bible,” and said that “recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable.”
Saudis push Lebanese PM Hariri to quit, Lebanon near abyss
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 25, 2010, 9:15 PM (GMT+02:00)
In a sudden about-face, the Saudis Monday, Oct. 25, urged Lebanon's pro-Western Prime Minister Saad Hariri to step down without delay and make way for an administration dominated by pro-Syrian ministers and Hizballah. King Abdullah, according to debkafile's Middle East and Beirut sources, sees no other way of saving Lebanon from tipping over into civil strife over Hizballah's demand to disband the international tribunal probing the 2005 murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
Last week, Hariri confided to US Deputy Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman he was close to resigning and giving way to the Saudi King, long a friend of the Hariri family, now siding with its antagonists. When Riyadh saw he was sticking to his guns, the Saudi mouthpiece Asharq al-Awsat published an article of a sort rarely seen in the Arab media telling the Lebanese prime minister in no uncertain terms that he had choice in the matter. Chief Editor Tariq Alhomayed warned Saad Hariri that he had run out of options and the only thing left him was to follow his father's example and resign as prime minister as Rafiq Hariri did in late 2004.
(A few months later, Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in Beirut.)
"Afterwards," said Alhomayed, "you will become, wherever you may be, a sanctuary" because only then will the Lebanese public and Arab leaders appreciate the threat against them.
debkafile's sources spell out this "threat" as the Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah conspiracy to break up the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in time to pre-empt the indictments of nine senior Hizballah security officials for involvement in the assassination due to be published before the end of the year.
Asharq al-Awsat acknowledged that no Lebanese leader stepping into Hariri's shoes would be able to invalidate the tribunal's legitimacy or dismantle it because this would condemn Lebanon to the anarchy of civil war. Nonetheless, the writer stood by the demand for Hariri to remove himself from office without delay as the only viable option left in the unfolding crisis.
Our sources note that a new Lebanese government under the thumb of Damascus and Hizballah will waste no time in annulling the tribunal and so be free to parrot the Hizballah charge that Israeli intelligence was behind the Hariri murder. When the tribunal asked Hizballah for evidence of its charge earlier this year, it received no answer. Raising it again may well have the effect of precipitating a renewed Lebanese-Israeli clash of arms which a new government would not raise a finger to prevent.
Also Monday, it was reported in Beirut that two employees of the Lebanese Alfa cell phone company had provided evidence under questioning that for the thirty-two days of the 2006 Lebanon War Israel had controlled the company's exchanges.
debkafile's intelligence sources report that Hizballah is laying the ground for the speech its secretary Hassan Nasrallah is preparing to deliver in the coming days. He has promised to produce evidence that Israel was responsible for the Hariri murder and trumped up a case against Syria and Hizballah by means of its command of Lebanon's telephone system.
Lebanese PM Saad Hariri pushed to quit
