[All notes below by Tom Gross]

The dates on which these items were written appear before each of them.

 

Monday, January 21, 2008

DOES OXFORD THINK IT OK TO HONOR A MAN WHO CALLS ANNE FRANK A PORN STAR?

In October, I wrote about criticism of the Oxford Union in a dispatch titled “Outrage after Holocaust denier David Irving invited to Oxford Union.”

Oxford University’s world famous Oxford Union debating society went ahead with the invitation to Irving, and British fascist leader Nick Griffin, in November. Shortly before, in the latest of several outrageous pronouncements, Irving had told the British daily The Guardian that the Jews were responsible for “most of the wars of the last 100 years.”

Tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Oxford Union, four academics who all support a boycott of Israel, will debate the motion “This House Believes That The State of Israel has a Right to Exist.”

American revisionist “historian” Norman Finkelstein along with Prof. Ted Honderich will be speaking for the motion while opposing them will be Exeter University academics Ghada Karmi and Ilan Pappe, a former Israeli Jew who has made a career out of slandering the country where he was born and grew up.

MOST VILE

It is harder to know which of these four is the most vile.

Just last week, Finkelstein reprinted on his website an article from the Israeli paper Ha’aretz about worrying signs of failures in Holocaust education among German youth, and added the mock headline: “To reverse declining German interest in Holocaust, Britney Spears to play Anne Frank in new Holo-porn video.”

Making fun of Holocaust survivors has been a frequent feature of Finkelstein’s work (even though he is himself the son of survivors) and it is not surprising that so many regard him (as was the case with former chess champion Bobby Fischer who died last week) as a highly disturbed Jewish self-hater.

What is surprising – and dangerous – however, is Oxford’s behavior.

Do the university authorities think it is ok to honor (and indeed pay a fee to) a man who thinks it is fun to call child Holocaust victim Anne Frank a porn star?

Do people in turn think it is ok to continue making donations to Oxford University’s fundraising appeals?

The issue is not just why Israel is the only country whose right to exist is being questioned at Oxford. Perhaps of even greater concern is why Oxford has chosen such anti-Israeli figures as Finkelstein and Honderich to argue Israel has a right to exist. All four speakers have in the past supported organizations that have called for the delegitimization of the State of Israel.

DOES BRITAIN HAVE A RIGHT TO EXIST?

Fresh from his tour of Lebanon earlier this month (where he was warmly welcomed by Hizbullah supporters), Finkelstein is this week on a British tour organized and paid for by FOSIS (the Federation of Student Islamic Societies in the UK and Ireland) and supported by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. In addition to Oxford, he will be speaking to students at Manchester, Keele, Sussex and Edinburgh Universities, and at the London School of Economics (LSE).

The posters advertising the speaking tour show a map depicting a one state solution for Palestine, with Israel eliminated, and Palestine represented in red with dripping blood. So why has Oxford chosen Finkelstein, of all people, as the speaker students will hear putting the case for a Jewish state not to be wiped out?

What would people in Britain think if foreign universities debated whether Britain had a right to exist?

I also attach below, in the “Full Articles” section, a piece on how the idiocy of the Oxford Union has spread to American universities. It is by Cliff May, a subscriber to this list.

I should add that when I was a student at Oxford University, and a member of the Oxford Union, it never invited quite such evil people to appear before it as it does now.

 

Friday, January 11, 2008

BUSH AT YAD VASHEM: U.S. SHOULD HAVE BOMBED AUSCHWITZ

President George W. Bush visited Israel’s official Holocaust memorial (Yad Vashem) today, placing a red-white-and-blue wreath on a stone slab that covers ashes of Holocaust victims taken from six extermination camps.

“I wish as many people as possible would come to this place. It is a sobering reminder that evil exists, and a call that when evil exists we must resist it,” he said.

At one point, Bush viewed aerial photos of the Auschwitz death camp taken during the war by U.S. forces and called Secretary of State Rice over to discuss why the American government had decided against bombing the site. “We should have bombed it,” Bush said, according to Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev. In the memorial’s visitors’ book, the president wrote simply, “God bless Israel, George Bush.”

Bush’s comment about bombing Auschwitz, which those present said appeared to be spontaneous, marked the first time an American president has publicly made such an acknowledgment.

***

Below in the “Full Articles” section, I attach a piece which appeared a week later, on Jan. 18 in Ha’aretz, by Michael Berenbaum, a subscriber to this email list and co-editor (with Michael Neufeld), of “The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted It?”

 

Sunday, January 20, 2008

BUSH PRIVATELY LAUDS ISRAELI ATTACK ON SYRIA

On January 9, in one of the most wide-ranging security discussions since the Israeli airstrike on a Syrian nuclear reactor last September, President Bush privately commended his Israeli hosts on what was described as an important preventive action, reveals Defense News. (For background on the September airstrike, see here.)

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that the Syrians have begun rebuilding the bombed site. The newspaper said satellite pictures showed the new structure appears to closely resemble the original structure, but that the roof of the new building is vaulted instead of flat.

In a related development, Israeli intelligence has determined (after “multiple examinations by various means”) that there is no link between the Iranian and Syrian nuclear drives. Israeli intelligence agencies concluded that Iran had no connection to the Syrian nuclear program and probably was not even aware of the clandestine site in eastern Syria, according to Defense News sources.

 

Sunday, January 20, 2008

NEWSWEEK: BUSH, IN PRIVATE, DISOWNS THE NIE REPORT ON IRAN

Concerning the Iranian issue, Newsweek reports in its Jan. 21 issue that Bush, in private, has all but disowned the National Intelligence Estimate, which was made public on Dec. 3. The NIE dramatically downplayed the efforts made by the Islamic dictatorship in Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb. Bush made the remarks in conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, according to a senior administration official who accompanied Bush on his trip to the Mideast.

 

Thursday, January 17, 2008

BUSH GETS TO THE HEART OF THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

So says The Jerusalem Post in this editorial titled “10 essential words” (extracts below).

“The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people.”

-- US President George W. Bush, January 10 (emphasis added)

This sentence may seem like nothing new, just another restatement of the two-state vision. But the last 10 words are the key to resolving the conflict, a missing element whose absence has caused the peace process to oscillate between stalemate and war rather than move steadily toward lasting peace.

These words are critical because they signal an end to the Arab world’s double game. On the one hand, the Arab states and the Palestinians have claimed to embrace the two-state plan. On the other, the Arab side has demanded something that completely negates the most fundamental prerequisite of the two-state concept, namely mutual recognition of each side’s national rights.

The Arab demand for a “right of return” is utterly asymmetrical; according to this demand, Palestinians have a right to move to Israel, while Jews not only have no right to move to a future Palestinian state, but those who live now within the future borders of that state must leave.

... If Palestinians have a right to move to Israel, and Jews or Israelis can’t move to Palestine, then the Palestinians are saying: What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine. They are denying Israel’s sovereignty and therefore the Jewish state’s right to exist.

... If Israel is not a Jewish state, meaning a state with a large Jewish majority, then it will become another Arab state.

For Israel, its Jewish character is not a matter of religious preference – unlike the Arab world, Israel protects religion freedom and respects all holy places – but of existence. In this context, the Arab refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state, along with the denial of Jewish history and of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, is tantamount to rejecting Israel’s existence.

... The Arab states could change the climate completely if they would do two things: meet Israeli leaders and say, as Bush did, that the Jewish people has a right to a state just as the Palestinians do. Such actions cannot wait for an agreement because, without them, there will be no agreement, only more stalemate and war.

 

Thursday, January 10, 2008

NICE WELCOME...

President Bush, visiting the Palestinian territories today, made remarks strongly supportive of the Palestinian cause, to back up the hundreds of millions of dollars his administration has pledged for the Palestinian people.

Among the reaction so far:

(1) 20,000 Islamists in Gaza Protest Against “Vampire” Bush (By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters)

Brandishing placards showing George W. Bush as a vampire swigging Muslim blood, some 20,000 Hamas supporters protested in Gaza on Wednesday against the U.S. president’s visit to Israel and the West Bank.

(2) Palestinians Attack American School in Gaza (By Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post)

Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday launched a rocket attack on the local American International School in protest against President Bush’s visit. Witnesses said large parts of the school were damaged by rockets, mortars and explosive devices. The attack came hours after several Palestinian groups called on Palestinians to kill Bush.

(3) Palestinian Rocket Hits Sderot Home, Wounds Four (By Shmulik Hadad, Ynet News)

Palestinians in Gaza fired five Kassam rockets at Israel Wednesday afternoon, including one that hit a house in Sderot. Four people sustained injuries, including a 17-year-old girl who suffered shrapnel wounds and a boy who was hurt while attempting to take cover.

***

None of this has been mentioned even in passing on the BBC, CNN International, Sky or Fox News reports I have watched today on Bush’s trip to the Middle East.

 

Thursday, January 17, 2008

ISRAEL THWARTS ISLAMIC JIHAD PLAN TO BOMB TEL AVIV-JERUSALEM RAILROAD

Israeli security forces thwarted an attempt by an Islamic Jihad cell to place a bomb on the railroad tracks leading from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem according to information made public today. The members of the cell were captured a month ago near Bethlehem. The investigation revealed that the suspects learned to make bombs via the Internet.

 

Saturday, January 12, 2008

TURKMEN RIOTS IN IRAN IGNORED BY WESTERN MEDIA

Over 300 Turkmen were arrested in Iran following riots on Jan. 4-6. The anger against the Iranian regime among the ethnic Turkmen community follows the recent ethnic revolts in both Baluchistan and Iranian Kurdistan.

Groups of enraged Turkmen attacked government offices and set vehicles on fire in Golestan after Islamic Revolutionary Guards shot dead a Turkmen fisherman on Jan. 4, bringing long simmering resentment against the Tehran regime to a head. Turkmen anger was so strong that the government in neighboring Turkmenistan halted its flow of natural gas to Iran.

***

Iran yesterday took delivery of its fourth fuel shipment from Russia for its Bushehr nuclear power plant, as Iran moves closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon.

 

Saturday, January 12, 2008

“PETRAEUS’ VICTORY”

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of President Bush’s declaration of the Iraq troop surge. In large part, thus far it has worked. Sectarian violence has declined in recent months, the number of car bombings and suicide attacks has plummeted, American casualties are down sharply, and an increasing number of Iraqi refugees are returning to the country.

So what do those in America who spoke out so forcibly against the surge have to say now?

The New York Post notes, in an editorial titled “Petraeus’ Victory,” the following. (The rest of this item is written by The New York Post editors, the senior ones of which subscribe to this email list) :

... Uber-dove Ted Kennedy grudgingly conceded the success of the surge yesterday (while sneeringly referring to it as “the escalation”).

Said Kennedy: “The violence has declined.”

His disappointment was palpable – but not surprising. He was among the congressional Democrats who so arrogantly predicted (hoped?) one year ago that the surge would fail.

Indeed, four days before Bush announced the surge, the top two Democrats on Capitol Hill – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – defiantly declared that “adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans.”

New York’s own Sen. Chuck Schumer, who normally knows better, complained that the president had offered “a new surge without a new strategy.”

And those Democrats who even then were hoping to succeed Bush as commander-in-chief piled on.

“The president’s plan has been flawed from the outset,” said Sen. Barack Obama, adding: “At what point do we say, ‘Enough’?”

John Edwards called on Congress to de-fund the surge and demanded the immediate withdrawal of 50,000 US troops.

And Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton – newly converted to fervent opponent of the war following the Democrats’ 2006 wins – complained that the surge “will take us down the wrong road.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

... Iraq, to be sure, is far from a pacified country. Neither can it be said that political normalcy is just around the corner.

But it remains that no political progress could have been made amongst the chaos and bloodshed that marked daily life a year ago – and today Iraqis are infinitely closer to being able to rebuild their country unfettered by Islamist terror.

This is good news.

... But are any of the Democratic candidates honest enough to admit they were wrong?

Are you kidding?

Indeed, as Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman wrote yesterday in The Wall Street Journal: “Had we heeded their calls for retreat, Iraq today would be a country in chaos: a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, overrun by al Qaeda and Iran.”

Instead, “the forces of Islamist extremism are facing their single and most humiliating defeat since the loss of Afghanistan in 2001.”

... But Democrats – especially the party’s White House hopefuls – either refuse to admit their error or display willful cut-and-run mulishness.

Do none of them understand the consequences of failure in Iraq?

Do they even care?

***

Tom Gross adds: it was reported today (January 21) in The New York Times that the Pentagon is considering moving Petraeus out of Iraq and appointing him to a top NATO command job, so pleased are they with his performance during the “surge”.

 

I attach three articles below, and suggest you read them all if you have time. Each of the authors (Michael Berenbaum, Jeff Jacoby and Cliff May) is a long time subscriber to this email list.

-- Tom Gross

[Note by Tom Gross]

A lot of readers tell me they like the occasional lighter, non-Middle East items to help complement and balance the often distressing Middle East ones. The other dispatch I am posting tomorrow contains only Mideast news and articles. This dispatch includes some of the items on other subjects that I have published in recent days on the National Review’s Media Blog.

***

I include three items at the end on global warming to provide a small counterweight to the mainstream media (and to the Nobel prize and Oscar committees) which refuse to properly air the opinion of those who express doubts about the global warming orthodoxy. Some on the left (and far-right) are using global warming issues as a kind of post-Marxist method of attacking capitalism and America.

As I report below, with record cold temperatures and unprecedented levels of snowfall recently in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Siberia (minus 57!), Argentina, Peru, Chile, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and in parts of the U.S. and Canada, one might at least consider allowing some of the scientists who are being shunned by the mainstream media to express their findings about what they say is the myth of man-made global warming.

Some (though of course not all) of the prominent global warming activists are deliberately using the subject to deflect attention from what others feel are even more important issues, such as the Iranian rush to acquire a nuclear arsenal and instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

 

[All notes below by Tom Gross]

ON JOURNALISTS AND MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS

Sunday, January 20, 2008

A WELL-DESERVED APOLOGY FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

Following recent criticism by myself and others about a piece prominently highlighted on The Washington Post’s home page on January 7, which suggested Israel was somehow following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany, the newspaper has issued a rare apology.

The piece, part of the Post’s religion column, was penned by Arun Gandhi, grandson of India’s legendary leader “Mahatma” Gandhi, and was titled “Jewish Identity Can’t Depend on Violence.”

The Washington Post has often been criticized by Jewish groups for running pieces highly slanted against Israel, but it is extremely unusual for the paper to acknowledge bias.

In a statement on Friday, The Washington Post wrote that readers “found Gandhi’s initial remarks anti-Semitic and his subsequent apology insufficient. When we undertook this project over a year ago, we wrote that our goal was to shed light on a subject – religion – that too often generates heat. The Gandhi post failed to comply with that mission, and we can only ask our readers to extend ‘On Faith’ a measure of forbearance and tolerance as the site endeavors to conduct a civil and illuminating conversation. We regret the initial posting, and we apologize for the episode.”

Arun Gandhi’s original piece also appeared on the Newsweek website.

 

Saturday, January 19, 2008

BELARUS JAILS EDITOR FOR THREE YEARS FOR PRINTING MOHAMMED CARTOONS

Yesterday Belarus – one of the world’s most oppressive states – jailed for three years a newspaper editor who reproduced cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that first appeared in Denmark in 2005.

Alexander Sdvizhkov was sentenced in a closed session of the court for incitement of religious and national hatred.

Miklos Haraszti, media freedom representative for the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, protested against Sdvizhkov’s jailing, calling the case against him “shocking” and saying he should be freed. His lawyer said there would be an appeal.

(Scroll down here to see the controversial cartoons.)

 

Friday, January 18, 2008

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS CRITICIZES SAUDI ARABIA

Reporters Without Borders have finally criticized Saudi Arabia after the regime in Riyadh refused to allow Gideon Kouts, a journalist who holds an Israeli passport, into the country as part of the media delegation accompanying French President Nicolas Sarkozy to the kingdom earlier this week.

“The discrimination practiced by Saudi Arabia with respect to Israeli journalists is unacceptable,” Reporters Without Borders announced.

 

Friday, January 18, 2008

EUROPEAN JOURNALIST MURDERED BY TALIBAN IN KABUL HOTEL

Carsten Thomassen, 39, the correspondent for the Norwegian paper Dagbladet, was among seven people killed as Taliban “militants” (the AP’s word) stormed Kabul’s leading hotel.

The Taliban attacked the luxury five-star Serena hotel with guns, grenades, and a suicide bomb, after forcing their way through a heavily fortified gate by lobbing grenades at the guards.

It was the first attack on a Kabul hotel since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. Until recently suicide bombers in the country mostly hit military targets, although many civilians also died in the blasts.

The Serena is patronized by diplomats, journalists and dignitaries. When it opened in 2006, the hotel was hailed “an oasis of luxury in a war-ravaged city.”

Taliban violence greatly increased last year, with 140 recorded suicide attacks in 2007.

 

Sunday, January 20, 2008

ROBERT FISK’S “INDEPENDENT” IN FINANCIAL TROUBLE?

Media insiders in London say that The Independent, the British paper of which the viciously anti-American and anti-Israeli polemicist Robert Fisk is the star foreign correspondent, is in dire financial straights and is now considering launching a “free edition” to boost circulation and shore up its advertising revenues.

The Independent’s editor, Simon Kelner, has denied the reports but the rumors persist.

Circulation for The Independent was 228,400 in December, down 4.3% compared with November and down 5.7% compared with the previous year. This is now well below sales for each of the other dozen or so British national daily papers.

About 40,000 of The Independent’s December sales are estimated to be bulk copies, sold to airlines, gyms and hotels and then distributed to customers for free.

Nevertheless the paper continues to have influence far beyond its immediate readership, with articles by Fisk and others republished on anti-American websites the world over.

Among those who have praised the writings of Fisk is Osama Bin Laden.

 

Friday, January 18, 2008

COMING SOON: OPRAH’S VERY OWN TV NETWORK

Fresh from having made the most significant endorsement of the 2008 presidential election campaign to date – which many analysts have credited with reviving Barack Obama’s run for the White House – talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey is getting her own TV network, it has been announced in New York.

Winfrey has signed a deal with Discovery Communications to create “OWN” – the Oprah Winfrey Network – next year. It will be available in more than 70 million homes.

“I always felt my show was just the beginning of what the future could hold,” said a thrilled Winfrey (whose own father, Vernon, is currently writing a tell-all book about her).

No teaming up as Obama’s running mate for Oprah then, as some have suggested?

 

ON POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Friday, January 18, 2008

WHITE HOUSE STUDY FOUND 473 DAYS OF E-MAIL GONE

Whoops.

The Washington Post reports today:

The White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President, for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary of an internal White House study that was disclosed yesterday.

 

Sunday, January 20, 2008

SHOULD NABOKOV’S SON DESTROY HIS FINAL MANUSCRIPT?

Writer Ron Rosenbaum, who has been corresponding with Dmitri Nabokov about this issue for the last two years, reveals a fascinating dilemma in Slate:

Says Rosenbaum: It’s the question of whether the last unpublished work of Vladimir Nabokov, which is now reposing unread in a Swiss bank vault, should be destroyed – as Nabokov explicitly requested before he died.

... It’s a decision that has fallen to his sole surviving heir (and translator), Dmitri Nabokov, now 73. Dmitri has been torn for years between his father’s unequivocal request and the demands of the literary world to view the final fragment of his father’s genius, a manuscript known as The Original of Laura.

Dmitri’s predicament goes beyond Laura. It’s one that raises the difficult issue of who “owns” a work of art, particularly an unfinished work of art by a dead author who did not want anything but his finished work to become public. Who controls its fate? The dead hand from the grave? Or the eager, perhaps overeager, readers, scholars, and biographers who want to get their hands on it no matter what state it’s in?

... Dmitri’s past pronouncements suggest that Laura is not merely another scrap of paper. At one point he called it “the most concentrated distillation of [my father’s] creativity.”

 

Friday, January 18, 2008

IT LOOKS LIKE FACEBOOK’S VERSION OF SCRABBLE MAY SPELL L-A-W-S-U-I-T

The companies that make Scrabble are trying to shut down Scrabulous, an online version of the game which has become an instant hit on the Facebook website.

Indeed with 2.4 million weekly users worldwide (600,000 of whom play every day), Scrabulous is now Facebook’s most popular game.

Created last July by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, two young brothers from Kolkata (the Indian city that was until 2001 called Calcutta), Scrabulous has become an internet phenomenon. Revenue from advertising alone makes the pair, the younger of whom is still at university, $25,000 a month.

Now the world’s two largest toymakers, Hasbro, which owns the rights to Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, and Mattel, which owns the rights elsewhere, are claiming that the Facebook electronic version infringes their copyrights and trademarks.

Lawyers’ letters have been sent to Facebook’s U.S. headquarters and to the brothers. But the brothers say they are undeterred and have announced plans for a Scrabulous championship, as well as a Facebook version of chess.

Facebook, devised by Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg, now accounts for 1% of all traffic on the Internet.

 

Friday, January 18, 2008

MUSLIM STORE WORKER REFUSES TO SELL “UNCLEAN” BIBLE BOOK TO GRANDMOTHER

Yet another sign of creeping Islamicization in Britain?

The Daily Mail reports:

A Muslim store worker at Marks & Spencer refused to serve a customer buying a children’s book on biblical stories because she said it was “unclean”.

Sally Friday, a customer at a branch of one of the famous stores, felt publicly humiliated when she tried to pay for First Bible Stories as a gift for her young grandson.

When the grandmother put the book on the counter, the assistant refused to touch it, declared it was unclean.

... Conservative MP Philip Davies said the refusal to serve Mrs. Friday, 69, was “unacceptable” and “damaging” to community relations.

... Mrs. Friday said “Had this been a copy of the Koran I am confident any Christian person would be happy to do her job, and for this to happen in a Marks & Spencer of all places beggars belief.”

 

Friday, January 11, 2008

NICOLAS SARKOZY’S EX ATTACKS “STINGY” HUSBAND WHO “LIKES NO-ONE, NOT EVEN HIS CHILDREN”

The Élysée palace soap opera descends to new depths of vitriol.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ex-wife Cécilia has branded him a “stingy philanderer” with a “behavioral problem” who is an “unworthy president” of France.

Cécilia Sarkozy is reported to have made the comments before Mr. Sarkozy hinted that he will marry the ex-supermodel Carla Bruni following a whirlwind affair of less than three months.

... Mrs. Sarkozy alleged that her 52-year-old ex-husband was “a man who likes no-one, not even his children”.

According to a new book, she even called the president’s other female friends “a bunch of slappers” and young female government ministers “boring wallflowers”.

 

Thursday, January 17, 2008

CONGRATULATIONS JENNA (A NEW GENERATION OF BUSH POLITICIANS ON ITS WAY?)

President Bush’s daughter Jenna, 26, and her fiancé, Henry Hager, 29, are to be married on May 10, according to a report on People magazine’s website. (This date might interfere with Bush’s plan return to Israel for a second visit this May, to help celebrate the state’s 60th birthday.)

The wedding will apparently be held at the president’s 1,600-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas. A spokeswoman for first lady Laura Bush said she could not confirm the report and had no comment on it.

“It’s going to be a small wedding,” a source told People, adding Jenna had already selected her bridesmaids. “She’s very excited. They make a great couple.”

And if Hager, who comes from a prominent Republican family and worked on the president’s re-election campaign, one day has greater political ambitions of his own, perhaps he can even find himself added to this website.

 

Friday, January 11, 2008

TWINS SEPARATED AT BIRTH, WHO MARRIED EACH OTHER BY ACCIDENT, GRANTED DIVORCE

A bizarre and sad story is dominating the media in Britain today, as a married couple makes a devastating discovery:

The Times of London writes:

Twins who were separated at birth married each other without knowing they were brother and sister. The couple were adopted as babies by different families, and neither was told that they had a twin.

They met, fell in love and got married before discovering that they were blood relatives. The British couple were recently granted an annulment at a special hearing at the High Court in London, the Evening Standard reported today.

... Professor Lord Alton, who uncovered the case, said that the twins’ experience demonstrated the need to strengthen the rights of children to know the identity of their biological parents.

The Daily Telegraph adds:

The couple’s identities, along with details of how they met and fell in love, remain a closely-guarded secret.

Lord Alton said: “They were never told they were twins. They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of their marriage that they entered into, and all the issues of their separation. The right for children to know the identity of their biological parents is a human right.

“There will be more cases like this if children are not given access to the truth. The needs of the child must always be paramount.”

 

ON GLOBAL WARMING

BR-R-R! WHERE DID GLOBAL WARMING GO?

As snow blanketed the deserts of Iran for the first time in living memory yesterday and Iranian motorists froze to death in their cars, Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby asks “Where did all the Global Warming go?”

Was Al Gore too busy collecting prizes in 2007 to notice?

Jacoby writes:

The stark headline appeared just over a year ago. “2007 to be ‘warmest on record,’ “ BBC News reported on Jan. 4, 2007. Citing experts in the British government’s Meteorological Office, the story announced that “the world is likely to experience the warmest year on record in 2007,” surpassing the all-time high reached in 1998.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the planetary hot flash: Much of the planet grew bitterly cold.

In South America, for example, the start of winter last year was one of the coldest ever observed... The death toll for the 10-day cold wave was the highest for any single weather event in Argentina in recent history.” In Buenos Aires, it snowed for the first time in 89 years, while in Peru the cold was so intense that hundreds of people died and the government declared a state of emergency in 14 of the country’s 24 provinces. In August, Chile’s agriculture minister lamented “the toughest winter we have seen in the past 50 years,” which caused losses of at least $200 million in destroyed crops and livestock.

Latin Americans weren’t the only ones shivering. University of Oklahoma geophysicist David Deming, a specialist in temperature and heat flow, notes in the Washington Times that “unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007.” Johannesburg experienced its first significant snowfall in a quarter-century. Australia had its coldest ever June. New Zealand’s vineyards lost much of their 2007 harvest when spring temperatures dropped to record lows.

Closer to home, 44.5 inches of snow fell in New Hampshire last month, breaking the previous record of 43 inches, set in 1876. And the Canadian government is forecasting the coldest winter in 15 years.

... Just last month, more than 100 scientists signed a strongly worded open letter to [UN Sec.-Gen.] Ban pointing out that climate change is a well-known natural phenomenon, and that adapting to it is far more sensible than attempting to prevent it. Because slashing carbon dioxide emissions means retarding economic development, they warned, “the current US approach of CO2 reduction is likely to increase human suffering from future climate change rather than to decrease it.”

Climate science isn’t a religion, and those who dispute its leading theory are not heretics. Much remains to be learned about how and why climate changes, and there is neither virtue nor wisdom in an emotional rush to counter global warming – especially if what’s coming is a global Big Chill.

***

For some background stories on this issue, see:
(1) Weather Channel boss calls global warming “the greatest scam in history”
(2) Al Gore’s inconvenient judgment

 

Saturday, January 12, 2008

NOW THE GLOBAL COOLING REACHES IRAQ AND SAUDI ARABIA

Following up my item earlier in the week (Br-r-r! Where Did Global Warming Go?), snow yesterday reached Baghdad, Reuters reports:

Snow fell on Baghdad on Friday for the first time in memory, and delighted residents declared it an omen of peace.

“It is the first time we’ve seen snow in Baghdad,” said 60-year-old Hassan Zahar. “We’ve seen sleet before, but never snow. I looked at the faces of all the people, they were astonished,” he said.

Tom Gross adds: The next day snow fell in areas of Saudi Arabia where it had also not fallen in living memory.

 

Friday, January 18, 2008

EMERGENCY WARNING FOR SIBERIA: MINUS 67 FAHRENHEIT

After the unprecedented snow storms in Iraq and Iran, yet more signs of global warming?

Siberia has issue an emergency warning as a near record bout of cold weather is forecast. Temperatures are predicted to reach minus 55 degrees Celsius (minus 67 Fahrenheit) which officials fear may lead to dozens of people freezing to death. They say the extreme chill is expected to last until January 21st.

-- Tom Gross

[All notes below by Tom Gross]

“AHMADINEJAD SECRETLY MET WITH U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES IN QATAR”

Citing Russian, Arab and Swiss sources, the Iranian publication Entekhab reports on a secret meeting between Iran’s dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in Qatar.

According to these sources Gates and Ahmadinejad agreed a non-aggression pact and the meeting occurred on the same day that the Pentagon and the CIA released the hitherto top secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report on Iran’s nuclear program to the media. (The meeting, according to the sources, preceded the release of the NIE report by a few hours.)

The Arabic source is al-Watan al-Arabi.

Entekhab appears to be an opposition publication and it is of course possible that these reports are incorrect. (Entekhab used to be a popular daily in Iran, and it is currently run as a news agency from the U.S. Entekhab means “choice” or “election” in Farsi.)

Nevertheless, as Iran expert and Giuliani advisor Michael Rubin points out to me, rumors can be important in their own right in a region where perception means more than reality. “Certainly, if the White House had been more consistent and transparent on Iran policy, such rumors wouldn’t fly,” he adds.

U.S. President George W. Bush is currently on the second day of an eight-day tour of the Middle East. In Israel yesterday, Israeli defense and security officials showed Bush classified information that demonstrates that the American National Intelligence Estimate suggesting that Iran abandoned plans for nuclear weapons in 2003, is wrong.

(For background on the NIE, see:
* British intelligence: Israelis are right, U.S. is wrong; Iran is rushing to acquire nukes (Dec. 11, 2007)
* Ahmadinejad doesn’t want a nuclear bomb? Just like there are no gays in Iran? (Dec. 6, 2007)

 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS AND DEANS “PLAN TO APOLOGIZE TO AHMADINEJAD”

Iran’s Mehr News Agency reports that a group of senior professors and deans of faculties from Columbia University plans to travel to Iran in order to present their “formal apologies” for “the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger made to President Ahmadinejad.”

The report is in Farsi here. And in English here and also here.

While condemning Bollinger, the delegation – which is said to include deans and/or professors from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy and Islamic studies – have failed to properly condemn Ahmadinejad for his Holocaust denial and his threats to further the genocide of the Jews by wiping out Israel.

UPDATE: The “Teheran apology” trip has now been confirmed by sources at Columbia.

(For background on Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia, see:
* Deny Holocaust? Get welcomed by Columbia University (Sept. 24, 2007)
* “Bravo, bravo, bravo, Columbia!” (& Hillary Clinton “confirms” Israel took out Syrian nukes) (Sept. 27, 2007)

 

PROTESTS AGAINST THE LOS ANGELES TIMES’S “ANTI-SEMITIC CARTOON”

There have been widespread protests against The Los Angeles Times after it carried what many said was a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon earlier this week to accompany yet another piece slurring Israel by the historical revisionists Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer.

The cartoon showed America, dressed as Uncle Sam, in a concentration camp inmate-type uniform, with his hands manacled in handcuffs shaped as a Star of David.

As I have documented previously on this website, Professors Walt and Mearsheimer have done much to stir up anti-Semitic feeling in the United States and beyond in the last two years with a series of false and slanderous accusations against American Jews.

***

There has also been criticism of The Times of London which ran a lengthy feature yesterday full of untrue statements about Israel. Even the article’s byline was incorrect, referring to “a wall built on 2500 years of implacable enmity and hatred”. Islam was in fact only founded in the 7th century AD.

 

LIBYA VETOES UN CONDEMNATION OF ROCKET ATTACK ON ISRAEL FROM LEBANON

Last week, in a move that shocked people who genuinely care about human rights (as opposed to the many phony “human rights groups”), Libya assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council.

In one of its very first moves, Libya blocked a resolution yesterday condemning the unprovoked firing the day before of Katyusha rockets by Hizbullah or a related terror group from Lebanon into civilian homes in the Israeli town of Shlomi.

Israel says that the attack – which much of the international media failed to report – was a clear and serious violation of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the war between Israel and Hizbullah in the summer of 2006.

Libya’s term in the rotating UN presidency lasts one month.

 

ISRAEL COMPLAINS THAT UNIFIL IS LEAKING INFORMATION TO HIZBULLAH

Israel has also once again complained to the Italian and French-led UNIFIL forces in south Lebanon that they are doing next to noting to prevent the smuggling of Syrian and Iranian arms across the Syrian-Lebanese border. Nor, says Israel, have they taken any action at all to disarm the militias in south Lebanon, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.

On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a conference of military officials that Hizbullah now had more – and longer-range – missiles than it had prior to the war it fought against Israel during the summer of 2006. UNIFIL was supposed to disarm the terror group.

Furthermore Israeli defense officials yesterday raised concerns that information they were regularly passing on to UNIFIL concerning Hizbullah’s military buildup in southern Lebanon was then being leaked to Hizbullah, either directly, or indirectly by Lebanese army officials with whom UNIFIL shared the Israeli information with.

For more on Hizbullah, see here.

 

PALESTINIAN DOCTOR HELD BY LIBYA FILES TORTURE CHARGES

A Palestinian doctor who was imprisoned with five Bulgarian nurses by Libya for eight years on trumped up charges of deliberately infecting Libyan children with AIDS, has filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee charging that he was tortured during his captivity. Ashraf Al-Hazouz and the nurses were pardoned last summer after a deal with the Libyan government was brokered by France. (In return, France arranged for Libya to received hundreds of millions of dollars in economic benefits.)

At the time of their release, all six were forced by the Libyan regime to sign a statement saying they were treated well while in captivity. But immediately after they arrived in Bulgaria they gave interviews outlining what they said was “horrific torture,” including the use of electric shocks, beatings and violation of their bodies with blunt instruments.

The Associated Press reports that Dr. Al-Hazouz has been warned by European Union officials not to sue because it could undermine diplomatic relations between European states and Libya. Al-Hazouz says he will ignore the European Union warnings.

 

OLMERT PREVENTS ISRAELI TERROR VICTIMS FROM CONDEMNING FATAH

There was anger among many in Israel yesterday after the Jerusalem police, acting on orders from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, arrested a group of Israeli mothers who had lost their children in Palestinian suicide bombings, for distributing a booklet to foreign journalists detailing Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement’s involvement in terrorist attacks.

They had been handing out the booklet to coincide with George W. Bush’s visit to Jerusalem yesterday. Police released the group without charge once most of the foreign journalists had moved on to Ramallah in the West Bank.

The booklet, “Fatah as ‘Moderate’: A Hard Look Post-Annapolis,” can be found in English here.

***

In a not very nice welcome yesterday, Reuters reports that 20,000 Islamists in Gaza protested against “Vampire” Bush. Using international aid money still pouring into Gaza, they brandished thousands of placards showing George W. Bush as a vampire swigging Muslim blood.

***

And today Palestinians in Gaza launched a rocket attack on the local American International School in protest against President Bush’s visit. Witnesses said large parts of the school were damaged by rockets, mortars and explosive devices. The attack came hours after several Palestinian groups called on Palestinians to kill Bush.

***

The Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv today asks why Israel has not devoted greater resources to explaining the plight of Jews who were forced to leave Arab and Islamic countries in the years after 1948. The editors assert that “Someone must remind Bush: There were more Jewish refugees from Arab countries than Palestinian refugees, and more Jewish property was confiscated than Palestinian property.”

And The Jerusalem Post today opines that “the most important thing Bush can do in Ramallah is to say to the Palestinians that if they want a state they must stop spewing hatred and glorifying terrorism. Rather than constantly using the ‘right of return’ as code for Israel’s destruction, Abbas must tell his people the truth: a Palestinian state requires giving up the dream of Greater Palestine, making peace with the Jewish democracy of Israel, and building a state alongside it in most of the West Bank and Gaza.”

 

PALESTINIAN POLL AS BUSH VISITS: ONLY 9% SAY ISRAELI OCCUPATION IS THEIR MAIN CONCERN

President Bush, who today visited the West Bank, might want to consider the results of this poll, taken by a leading Palestinian polling company. It shows that contrary to what Condoleezza Rice and various journalists would have us believe, most Palestinians are much less concerned about ending the Israeli “occupation” than they are about finding reliable and honest leaders to govern any future Palestinian state.

The poll was taken in the run-up to Bush’s visit by the Near East Consulting company in Ramallah on the West Bank. 959 Palestinians over the age of 18 from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were interviewed by phone.

Among the results:

What is the main issue that makes you feel concerned?
The economic hardship of my household: 29%
The absence of security for my family and me: 19%
The internal power struggle: 27%
The Israeli occupation: 9%
Family problems: 3%
I have no concerns: 13%

Do you support the security plan by the caretaker (Palestinian) government, and the collection of weapons (from Palestinian militia)?
Support: 83%
Oppose: 17%

What is your level of optimism about the future?
Very optimistic: 10%
Optimistic: 56%
Pessimistic: 25%
Very Pessimistic: 9%

Do you think the new aid to the Palestinians will be managed properly by the Palestinian Authority?
Yes: 59%
No: 41%

Which party do you support?
West Bank residents:
Fatah: 34%
Hamas: 12%
PFLP: 3%
Islamic Jihad: 2%
Others: 3%
I trust none of these factions: 47%

Gaza residents:
Fatah: 44%
Hamas: 19%
PFLP: 2%
Islamic Jihad: 5%
I trust none of these factions: 27%

Perceptions about Hamas’ position towards the elimination of Israel, according to region:
West Bank residents:
Hamas should maintain its position: 35%
Hamas should change its position: 65%

Gaza Strip residents:
Hamas should maintain its position: 39%
Hamas should change its position: 61%

 

“I DIVORCE YOU BY TEXT MESSAGE BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T ANSWER YOUR HUSBAND”

The Egyptian government-run daily al-Akhbar reports from Cairo that a woman is seeking clarification from a court on whether her husband’s declaration of divorce by text message is legally valid.

After missing a call from her husband on her mobile phone, Iqbal Abul Nasr received a text message from him which read: “I divorce you because you didn’t answer your husband.”

In line with Sharia law, Egyptian men do not need to go to court to file for divorce. A unilateral declaration of divorce by a man, repeated three times, formally ends a marriage. Mrs. Abul Nasr, an engineer from Cairo, received three such text messages from her husband, says the newspaper.

If a family court declares the couple divorced, it would be the first reported case of divorce by SMS text message in Egypt.

 

SPREADING JIHAD BY CELL PHONE

First (as I reported on my January 2 dispatch) al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al Zawahri announced he was becoming a blogger. Now al-Qaeda says it is preparing propaganda videos you can download to your cell phone, reports The Associated Press from Cairo:

In an effort to extend its influence and its message, al-Qaeda is reissuing batches of its video recordings in formats suitable for viewing on cell phones.

Al-Qaeda’s media wing, al-Sahab, has announced the move on websites commonly used by Islamic militants. Yesterday eight previously recorded videos were made available including a tribute to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, killed by U.S. forces in June 2006.

... Watching videos on cell phones is increasingly popular in the Middle East. Clips showing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s execution in December 2006 showed up on cell phones soon after his death. In Egypt, images showing police brutality have been passed around via handsets...

 

U.S. ARMY BLOGGER DIES IN IRAQ, WRITES ABOUT HIS OWN DEATH

An American army officer who blogged from Iraq for The Rocky Mountain News in Colorado has been killed in an attack in the north of the country.

The U.S. army said Major Andrew Olmsted died with another American soldier when insurgents attacked with small arms near Sadiyah, 100 miles north-east of Baghdad.

But before he left for Iraq in July, he penned a final entry about his death in the event that he did not make it back, and this has now been published posthumously.

“I’m dead,” he wrote in July 2007 as he arrived in Iraq for an 18-month tour of duty. “But if you’re reading this, you’re not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact.”

“[Being dead] sucks, at least for me and my family and friends,” he wrote. “But all the tears in the world aren’t going to bring me back, so I would prefer that people remember the good things about me rather than mourning my loss.”

In his final post, Olmsted, 37, warned against making his death an argument for or against the war.

“My life isn’t a chit to be used to bludgeon people to silence on either side,” Olmstead wrote. “I have my own opinions about what we should do about Iraq, but since I’m not around to expound on them I’d prefer others not try and use me as some kind of moral capital to support a position I probably didn’t support.”

He added that one of the things he would miss the most would be “not being able to blog any longer… The ability to put my thoughts on (virtual) paper and put them where people can read and respond to them has been marvelous, even if most people who have read my writings haven’t agreed with them.

“If there is any hope for the long term success of democracy, it will be if people agree to listen to and try to understand their political opponents rather than simply seeking to crush them.”

The editor of The Rocky Mountain News, John Temple, said news of Olmstead’s death was “devastating”:

“The major was a brave man who obviously thrived on sharing his experiences and thoughts on his blog. He provided a perspective on Iraq that would have been impossible for a journalist.”

 

U.K. BISHOP WARNS OF “NO-GO ZONES FOR NON-MUSLIMS ACROSS BRITAIN”

Writing in the (London) Sunday Telegraph, one of Britain’s most senior clerics, the Rt. Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, has warned that people of different faiths risk physical attack if they live or work in communities in Britain dominated by radical Muslims.

Islamic extremists have created “no-go” areas across Britain where it is too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter, writes Bishop Nazir-Ali, who is the Church of England’s only Pakistani-born bishop.

Bishop Nazir-Ali added that attempts are being made to give Britain an increasingly Islamic character by introducing the call to prayer and wider use of sharia law, a legal system based on the Koran.

 

OXFORD MOTHERS CONDEMN SCHOOL’S HALAL MEAT DECISION

Scarcely a day goes by without further reports of Islamic customs encroaching on the British way of life.

The Oxford Mail reports from Britain’s famous university town:

Mums have criticised an Oxford [primary] school for serving halal meat in children’s lunches without their knowledge.

Parents of pupils at Rose Hill Primary School, in The Oval, were angered by a letter they received from headmistress Sue Mortimer.

It informed them the halal meat, which involves slaughtering animals in a special way for consumption by Muslims, had been used in all school meals as part of the school’s inclusion policy.

The letter said the reason for the decision was that since halal meat was not forbidden by any religion or culture, its use would allow everyone to choose a meat dish for lunch.

But parents had not been consulted… Mum-of-three Sharon Haynes, 35, from Radford Close, said: “Why should we let our kids eat halal meat?”

 

I attach two articles below. The first relates to the chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace as Bush visits. The second argues that the lack of reaction last Sunday by the U.S. Navy (as five armed Iranian speedboats belonging to the Revolutionary Guard harassed American naval ships in international waters in the Gulf of Hormuz) “guarantees that American sailors will die at Iranian hands in the future.” (The writers of both articles are subscribers to this email list, as is Michael Rubin, mentioned above.)

-- Tom Gross

[Note by Tom Gross]

Friday, December 28, 2007

EGYPTIAN MAGAZINE CONFIRMS ARAFAT WAS BEHIND MUNICH OLYMPIC AND OTHER MURDERS

The latest edition of the Egyptian magazine Al-Ahram Al-Arabi has confirmed what many in the West have suspected for a long time: that Yasser Arafat personally directed the Black September terrorist organization that claimed responsibility for the 1971 murder of Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi at-Tal, the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, and other atrocities.

The Cairo newspaper quotes a new book by PLO leader Marwan Kanafani, “Years of Hope,” to be published soon.

There have also long been claims that Arafat’s longtime deputy Mahmoud Abbas, who is still widely known in the Middle East by his nom de guerre Abu Mazen, was very closely involved in the Munich Olympics massacre. For more, see here.)

 

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

PALESTINIANS PAY TRIBUTE TO SADDAM HUSSEIN ONE YEAR AFTER HIS HANGING

Agence France Presse reports from the West Bank:

Some 700 Palestinians observed a minute’s silence on Monday as they marked the first anniversary of the hanging of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

… Holding Saddam portraits and gripping Iraqi and Palestinian flags, rally participants recited poems praising the dictator who was hanged on December 30, 2006 in Iraq after a court sentenced him to death for his role in the slaughter of tens of thousands of ethnic Kurds in 1988.

In spite of the AFP story, very few mainstream media outlets mentioned this Palestinian show of solidarity. And hardly any have reported the ongoing Fatah-Hamas Palestinian infighting in Gaza, which on Monday and Tuesday alone resulted in eight Palestinians being shot dead (including a 10-year-old boy) and 30 being wounded. Both Hamas and Fatah are continuing to buy ever more sophisticated weapons using the international aid money given to the Palestinian Authority by Western states.

 

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN DEATHS DOWN, THANKS TO SECURITY BARRIER

While the number of Palestinians killed by Israel dropped 43% in 2007 to the lowest number since the second intifada began, the overall number of Palestinians killed in 2007 reached a record high because of the 344 Palestinians killed in intra-Palestinian fighting, the human rights group B’Tselem said in its year-end report.

The report also found a significant drop in the proportion of Palestinian civilians killed, with the vast majority of those dying in 2007 being militants. The number of Israeli civilians killed last year in Palestinian terror attacks was also greatly down, further proof that Israel’s security barrier and checkpoints are working.

 

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

BUT FATAH STILL KILLING ISRAELIS

At the same time, Israel has expressed anger that the murderers of two young Israeli hikers last Friday belonged to President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, and had been armed by them. Western media regularly refer to Fatah as a “moderate” organization.

Fatah activists said the attack was “to celebrate Fatah’s 43rd anniversary this week,” and that the attackers, they explained, were apparently hoping to send a message to the Palestinian public that, contrary to claims by Hamas, Fatah has not abandoned “the path of armed struggle.” They added that the $9 billion just pledged to the Palestinians over the next three years by the international community would come in handy in this regard.

 

Monday, December 24, 2007

NEW FATAH MAP SHOWS ALL OF ISRAEL AS PALESTINE

Fatah is marking its 43rd anniversary with a new poster that presents all of Israel as Palestine. The poster, posted on a number of Fatah-affiliated websites, features a map of Israel that is entirely draped with a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.

The poster, which has been endorsed by the Fatah leadership, also carries a drawing of a rifle as a symbol of the “armed struggle” against Israel.

Analysts say that the underlying message to its own supporters is that Fatah, like Hamas, does not recognize Israel’s existence and the two groups merely disagree on tactics and the level of religiosity in Palestinian society.

 

Thursday, December 13, 2007

TONY BLAIR: I WOULD HESITATE TO CEDE THE WEST BANK TO THE PALESTINIANS AFTER THE “NIGHTMARE” ISRAEL HAS FACED SINCE THE GAZA WITHDRAWAL

Now that the new Mideast peace envoy Tony Blair has spent a bit of time in Israel and the Palestinian-run areas since he stepped down as British prime minister last summer, he says he has gained a better understanding of the threat Israel is under.

“For people on the outside it is hard to understand the problems that the [Israelis] are having. Today I understand more than when I was the prime minister the difficulties here,” he said yesterday in Jerusalem. (For starters, Blair doesn’t have to rely anymore on the lies about Israel by the BBC and British newspapers, but can see the situation for himself.)

Yesterday alone the supposedly cash-strapped Palestinians fired 37 missiles on the southern Israeli working class town of Sderot – a record number for a single day. Five Israeli civilians were injured.

Blair: Israel faced post-pullout nightmare
The Jerusalem Post
Dec 13, 2007

If he were an MK (Member of the Knesset), the Quartet’s Middle East envoy Tony Blair would hesitate to cede land in the West Bank to the Palestinians after the “nightmare” that the Israelis faced after they disengaged from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, he said yesterday.

However Blair, addressing the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, added that Israel must continue with the peace process despite its security concerns.

“I understand and sympathize with the problems that the [Israelis] are having. For people on the outside it is hard to understand… today I understand more than when I was the prime minister the difficulties here,” said Blair.

Blair told the committee about the economic programs that he hopes to launch to bolster the Palestinian economy. He explained that a diplomatic process would be useless unless there were real changes on the ground to improve the lives of the Palestinian people.

Likud MK Limor Livnat was angered when Blair refused to answer her question regarding PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

“He would not, or could not, answer the question of why the Palestinians leadership was entering into peace talks without recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state,” she said.

 

Thursday, December 27, 2007

EGYPT TO COPYRIGHT PYRAMIDS

Las Vegas beware.

Egypt plans to pass a law requiring payment of royalties to the Egyptian regime whenever its ancient monuments, from the Pyramids to the Sphinx, are reproduced in full-scale fashion.

Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Christmas Day that the move was necessary to pay for the upkeep of the country’s thousands of historic sites.

“The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100 per cent copies,” he said.

He did not explain how Egypt intended to enforce the law.

 

Monday, December 10, 2007

ISRAELIS IN MECCA

Ahmad Jum’a, a 25-year-old student from Nazareth, feels the need to defend Israel from the misconceptions and untruths he hears from fellow Muslims during the Haj.

Explaining that he is a Muslim Arab with Israeli citizenship often leaves his audience gobsmacked [reports The Media Line] ...

Jum’a also encounters anti-Israel views. He holds the Arab media partially to blame for this, for failing to provide an accurate and comprehensive picture of Israeli culture and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The Arab media always shows negative things about Israel and as a Muslim Arab living inside Israel I want to show a positive side of the country. I tell them there are good things in Israel and that we live side by side with the Jews. There are problems sometimes but the relations with our Jewish neighbors are generally good.”

… On his recent trip to Medina he found a group of four Palestinians from a refugee camp in Lebanon. They told him they agreed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be wiped off the map.

… The Muslims in Israel have freedom and passports, he tells them. They have a good economic situation and good jobs; they get along with their Jewish neighbors and they benefit from Israel’s services.

… Jum’a is not alone in this conviction. Sheikh ‘Ali Bakr, 47, an imam from northern Israel… has been to Saudi Arabia 24 times on pilgrimages. Bakr does not feel a contradiction in holding Israeli citizenship and attending the Haj.

… “Some think that Israeli Arabs are neglected and underprivileged, so we tell them that’s not the case, that we live here as equal citizens and that we fit well into the Jewish social fabric.”

***

I attach two articles below. The second in particular is worth reading. It reiterates the fact that, as the late Lord (Peter) Bauer and others have noted, foreign aid does not work. It corrupts and distorts an economy; and the greater the amounts involved, the greater the damage. The Palestinians have received more per capita aid in recent years than any other nation in world history, and the result has been to stifle incentive for useful economic development in the Palestinian Authority-run areas.

-- Tom Gross