[All notes below by Tom Gross]

“SIR SHIMON PERES”

Israeli president Shimon Peres is expected to be knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II when he visits the UK next month. It is rare for Britain to bestow this honor of non-British nationals. Past recipients have included former American president “Sir Ronald Regan,” U2’s lead singer “Sir Bono,” and Microsoft founder “Sir Bill Gates.”

As noted on a dispatch on this website in 2006, the Nobel laureate, human rights campaigner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was also knighted. Foreign citizens who receive honorary knighthoods do not in fact have the right to call themselves “Sir”.

The other highlight of Peres’ visit, which begins on November 18, will be a speech before both houses of the British Parliament (the House of Lords and the House of Commons). Peres will also deliver an address at Oxford University, where he is expected to urge the leading lights of British academia to lift the unofficial academic boycott placed on Israeli institutions.

 

LIVNI: “TOMORROW MARKS LAST CHANCE TO FORM A NEW GOVERNMENT”

Israel’s prime minister-designate, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, says if there is no agreement on a new working coalition by tomorrow (Sunday) she will ask President Shimon Peres to call a general election instead. Livni has been unable to persuade the religious Shas party to enter a new coalition government. She has rejected demands by Shas to pump tens of millions of dollars into the religious education budget. Shas is the fourth largest party in the Knesset and part of the departing government.

Livni is trying to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as head of the government midway through its term without the need to call a general election. Polls indicate that if an election were held now, the opposition Likud would likely emerge as the biggest party. (For more, see Netanyahu: “Joining a coalition under Livni is like joining Lehman brothers”.)

For the time being, Olmert remains as Israel’s caretaker prime minister.

 

“HIZBULLAH CHIEF POISONED; IRANIAN DOCTORS SAVED HIS LIFE”

[This item of mine was originally published on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 22, on National Review Online -- TG]

In a report posted this morning on the Iraqi news website Almalaf, diplomatic sources in Beirut are quoted as saying that Hizbullah supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah was poisoned with a deadly chemical last week and that his life was saved by Iranian doctors who were rushed to Lebanon to treat him.

Nasrallah’s medical condition was apparently critical for a number of days, according to the report, but he is now stable.

Almalaf claimed that the sources believed it was “highly likely that the poisoning was an Israeli assassination attempt.” In fact Hizbullah is more hated in Lebanon than in Israel, and any assassination attempt could have stemmed from the many enemies Nasrallah has in Lebanon.

Hizbullah, a Lebanese Shia militia which is under the de facto control of the Iranian regime, has denied the report. But that would not explain why on Monday, the Iranian newspaper Khoursid suddenly reported that Nasrallah’s cousin, Safi al-Din, had been elected to take over Hizbullah in the event that “the Zionists succeed in assassinating Hassan Nasrallah.”

Nasrallah’s second-in-command Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated in February in a bomb blast in Damascus, shortly after he had left Syrian intelligence headquarters. (See: He’s not quite Osama Bin Laden... But he almost is; and Robert Fisk compares master terrorist Mughniyeh with President Bush.)

 

ISRAEL PRAISES UN CALL FOR HIZBULLAH TO BE DISBANDED

Israel has welcomed a fresh call from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Hizbullah to be disbanded.

“If Lebanon is a sovereign state with an army, it must have a monopoly over power and the situation where Lebanese political parties have armies is totally unacceptable,” an Israeli Foreign Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post.

Ban said he was encouraged by the recent establishment of diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Syria, but called on the two countries to take further steps to improve security along the border. He said that Lebanon would not be a fully sovereign state until Hizbullah and other armed groups were disbanded. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Hizbullah-Israel war, called for the dismantling of all militias in Lebanon.

The foreign ministers of Syria and Lebanon signed a document last week formalizing diplomatic ties between the two countries for the first time in their turbulent history. Syrian nationalists claim that Lebanon is really part of Syria.

 

EGYPTIAN NAVY LAUNCHES LARGEST EXERCISE IN HISTORY – CELEBRATING ATTACK ON ISRAEL

The Egyptian navy yesterday carried out the largest exercise in its history, calling it “Victory 41” to mark the sinking of the Israeli navy vessel “Eilat” 41 years ago. 47 Israeli sailors died and 91 were wounded in that attack.

Egypt is meant to be at peace with Israel, not celebrating the killing of Israelis.

Egypt’s navy is much larger and better equipped than Israel’s small navy, which comprises of only a few boats.

In an interview in the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram earlier this week, Vice Admiral Mohab Mamish, the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian navy, noted that the Egyptian navy has advanced world class frigates, destroyers, fast missile boats, and submarines outfitted with advanced missiles and that the navy has supply contracts with Germany, Russia and the U.S.

 

PALESTINIAN ATTACKS CONTINUE...

An elderly Israeli was stabbed to death in the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo on Thursday.

86-year-old Abraham Ozeri died of his wounds shortly after the attack. A 30-year-old Israeli policeman who tried to disarm the attacker was badly wounded and remains in hospital where his condition is listed as serious. The 20-year-old Palestinian attacker was then shot and wounded as he tried to kill more Israelis. He later admitted he had been sent by Hamas “to kill Jews.”

The BBC and several other media, relying on a misleading Reuters report, wrongly called Ozeri, who lived and died in Jerusalem, a “settler” in their headlines. By contrast, Agence France Presse (AFP) headlined their story “Israeli killed in Jerusalem knife attack.”

There have been a number of terror attacks in Jerusalem recently. In September, a Palestinian plowed his car into a group of soldiers at a busy intersection, injuring 13 before he was shot dead. In two incidents in July, Palestinians carried out attacks using bulldozers, killing three Israelis and wounding dozens of others.

***

On Tuesday, a Qassam rocket launched from Gaza landed in the Hof Ashkelon area of southern Israel. No injuries were reported.

***

On Wednesday, a 17-year old Palestinian was arrested when soldiers at Hawara checkpoint near Nablus found a Molotov cocktail, a pipe bomb and other explosives on his person.

 

... BUT IDF REDEPLOYS IN HEBRON TODAY

Meanwhile, because of the generally improved security situation, Israel has announced it will continue to hand over more control of security in West Bank towns to Palestinian forces.

In Hebron this morning (Saturday), the IDF scaled back its presence, lifted roadblocks, and permitted the deployment of 550 U.S.-trained Palestinian forces in the city. Israel has already made similar moves in Jenin. Now it plans to do the same in Nablus, Tulkarem and Qalqilya.

The new Palestinian forces in Hebron, some of whom were trained in Jordan under the supervision of the U.S. security coordinator in the region, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, will not be responsible for guarding the Jewish neighborhoods in the city, which will remain under the guard of the Israeli army.

The move has been criticized by many in Israel, who claim that the country is in danger of repeating the mistakes of the much-discredited “Oslo peace process” of the 1990s. Then Israel also handed over security to Fatah forces (some of whom were American-trained) only to have those forces turn their guns on Israeli civilians. Many Israeli civilians, including dozens of children, were murdered by the supposedly moderate and disciplined Palestinian security forces.

 

“MODERATE” ABBAS DISMISSES COMMANDERS WHO CRACKED DOWN ON HAMAS

There is outrage in Fatah, and profound disappointment in Israel, after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday fired Gen. Tawfik Tirawi, commander of the PA’s General Intelligence Service, after Hamas requested Abbas to do.

Fatah officials criticized the dismissal, noting that the timing was particularly “problematic.”

Tirawi had led a crackdown on Hamas members and institutions in the West Bank, in order to prevent Hamas from extending its control to the West Bank.

A senior Fatah official in Ramallah said: “It appears as if President Abbas took the decision to appease Hamas. Many people in Fatah believe that Abbas made a huge mistake.”

 

UP TO 3,500 PALESTINIANS TO LOSE JOBS THANKS TO RELOCATION OF MUL-T-LOCK FROM WEST BANK

Following pressure from Swedish and Israeli left-wing pressure groups, the Swedish locksmith firm Mul-T-Lock has relocated from the West Bank’s Barkan Industrial Park to within Israel’s Green Line for political reasons.

A Swedish company bought Mul-T-Lock, originally an Israeli company, in 2000, and also purchased a subsidiary plant at that time in the Barkan Industrial Park, which is located a few miles over the Green Line, near the city of Ariel.

Other businesses, such as Barkan wines, have also relocated recently. The industrial park is an important source of employment for both Israelis and Palestinians in the area, and as a result as many as 3,500 Palestinians are expected to lose their jobs

“In this park,” a local businessman said, “Jews are Arabs are working together, and this is the true meaning of coexistence.” He blamed the European Union for the move and said, “It is unfortunate that the policy of the European Union is forcing successful factories out of the Barkan area.”

 

MALAYSIA ISSUES FATWA AGAINST LESBIANISM AND MEN’S CLOTHES FOR WOMEN

Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council has issued a fatwa banning men’s clothes for women, and also lesbian relationships amongst women.

Abdul Shukor Husin, chairman of the National Fatwa Council, said women wearing men’s clothes and behaving like men was “unacceptable,” as was lesbianism, which he said was “highly unacceptable.”

Male homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and punishable by up to 20 years in jail. However, Malaysia’s civil code does not make any mention about banning lesbianism.

 

SLAUGHTERING THE DOGS

The local municipality in Mashhad last week killed 4,000 stray dogs in the city. (In Persian here.)

Mashhad is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia world.

Islam regards dogs as unclean and the Koran has several edicts aimed at discouraging dog ownership.

 

SARAH PALIN WIG A HIT IN BROOKLYN

The Associated Press reports from New York that a new Sarah Palin wig has become a best-seller in ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods like Brooklyn’s Borough Park. Many ultra-orthodox women traditionally wear wigs for reasons of modesty.

“It’s a very conservative yet fashion-forward look,” said Shlomo Klein, Vice President of Georgie Wigs. “It can be worn down, it can be worn up. There are a lot of styling options. The bun higher, the bun lower.”

“She’s pro-Israel,” he noted of Palin. Klein said Georgie Wigs has carried Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jennifer Anniston wigs in the past. Its catalog currently includes a Posh Spice wig.

[Notes below by Tom Gross]

WOULD OBAMA BE A CENTRIST IN OFFICE?

With just over two weeks to go, it looks like Barack Obama will win the election, possibly by a landslide – though as the new poll data below indicates, one shouldn’t rely too heavily on the reporting of some journalists who are running ahead of themselves, so giddy with excitement are they at the prospect of an Obama victory.

If Obama wins, America will have elected a president with a more radical background and a greater number of radical associates than anybody to have entered the White House in living memory.

However, my hunch is that in office a president Obama would disappoint his MoveOn.org and Daily Kos support base and form a centrist government. I say this not because Obama doesn’t have genuine radical leanings, but because as the astute politician that he is, his first priority will to be re-elected in 2012, and given the increasing lengths of presidential campaigns, he needs to strategize for re-election almost from his first day in office. If Obama does gravitate to the center, then he will disappoint his own support base more than he will disappoint moderates (among whom I include myself).

There is, however, a distinct possibility that Obama really would be the radical in office that many of his past and present associates would like him to be. That makes McCain a safer bet as president, since I can see no reason to doubt that in office he would act as the centrist he has always been.

For all his faults, McCain has a very solid set of opinions which (unlike Obama’s) have been properly scrutinized by the mainstream American media. Even though we can all see that Obama is highly eloquent, can be a great orator when addressing large crowds, and knows how to keep exceptionally calm, at least in public, we still don’t really know who he is.

 

STILL MUCH TO CONCERN SUPPORTERS OF ISRAEL

Certainly on questions concerning the Middle East, for sympathizers of Israel and for anyone seriously concerned about nuclear proliferation in the Muslim world, McCain is a much safer bet than Obama, who remains something of an unknown quantity.

The principal Republican being touted for office in an Obama administration, Sen. Chuck Hagel, who is now being tipped as a possible defense secretary, would prove disastrous for Israel if one judges by Hagel’s past record.

Hagel stands out among Republicans for taking positions not shared by the rest of his party, or indeed by moderate Democrats. He has consistently advocated anti-Israel measures. He vehemently opposed the surge in Iraq. He was one of only two senators to vote against renewing the 2001 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which passed 96-2 and helped deny Iran and Libya money that they would have spent on supporting terrorism or acquiring weapons of mass destruction. He was one of only four senators who voted against the 2003 Syria Accountability Act which condemned Syria for its support of terrorism and its occupation of Lebanon. And he was one of only four senators who voted against the 1998 Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act, imposing sanctions on foreigners who help Iran’s missile program. (See more on Hagel here.) One might ask why Obama is so enamored with Hagel?

(In an interview recorded yesterday evening, Hamas’ chief political adviser in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed Yousef, told WABC Radio’s John Batchelor that Hamas was “hoping for an Obama victory,” and that he had confidence Obama would engage in the “right policy” toward Hamas.)

Obama is also said to admire General Jim Jones, the former NATO commander, and more recently Middle East peace envoy, whom many in Israel have been very unhappy with.

A much better – and bolder – choice would be for Obama to appoint John McCain as his defense secretary.

 

NEVER BEFORE HAVE THE MEDIA BEEN SO LOATH TO EXAMINE A CANDIDATE

Academics who study the media as neutral observers say that we are being subjected to the most biased media coverage that has ever disfigured an American election. Even though the campaign has dragged on for two years, and many millions of words have been written and broadcast, most major media have shied away from investigating the many troubling questions still surrounding Obama.

An increasing number of newspapers have now publicly and formally stated what has been obvious for some time: that they endorse Obama for president.

The 40th such major American paper to do so, in a gushing endorsement on Friday, was The Washington Post.

If Obama wins, it is surely essential that it should be in a fair way, not because most of the media have done their utmost to avoid asking questions they would have asked of any other candidate with Obama’s associations. The media seemed more interested in investigating who “Joe the plumber” is in a 24-hour-period last week than they have been in discovering who Barack Obama is over a two year campaign period.

The items below are designed to provide a counterbalance to what you hear in much of the media.

 

DON’T GET READY TO BOARD AIRFORCE ONE JUST YET

The polls that some Obama-supporting media have chosen to headline and highlight show Obama pulling well ahead to the point where it looks as though he may enjoy a landslide victory. However, some commentators say that this is (at least in part) primarily an attempt by those media to dishearten McCain supporters and make it appear that the election is all but over. There are indeed other polls from reliable organizations which suggest Obama shouldn’t be ordering new furniture for the White House quite yet.

Gallup’s traditional “likely voter model” poll released on Saturday (Oct. 18) shows McCain within only two points of Obama, well within the poll’s margin of error. The three-day sampling shows Obama leading 49 percent to 47 percent. Among registered voters, Obama leads 49 to 43 percent. Most importantly for McCain, Gallup shows twice as many undecided voters this year as in 2004. (By contrast to Gallup, a New York Times/CBS poll taken the same time showed Obama up 14 percentage points.)

***

OBAMA’S LEAD SLIPS TO 3 POINTS

Even more strikingly, in a new Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released yesterday (Sunday), Obama’s lead among likely voters is only by 48 to 45 percent, down 1 percentage point from Saturday. The four-day tracking poll has a margin of error of 2.9 points.

Pollster John Zogby said the numbers reflected a bump following McCain’s impressive appearance in the third and final presidential debate on Wednesday.

“For the first time in the polling McCain is up above 45 percent. There is no question something has happened,” Zogby said.

Zogby added that the Arizona senator appeared to have solidified his support with the Republican base – where 9 out of 10 voters now back him – and was also gaining ground among the independents who may play a decisive role in the November 4 election.

 

“STILL NOT QUALIFIED”

A recent Washington Post/ABC Poll found 45 percent of voters still don’t think Obama is qualified to be president, about the same number who doubted his qualifications in March.

The chief reason, they say, is that Obama has accomplished virtually nothing during the three years since he joined the U.S. Senate, other than run for president.

Only once in recent elections have a larger percentage of voters told pollsters that they believed a candidate lacked the necessary qualifications to be president – when they were asked about Michael Dukakis in 1988.

Not reported properly by many media, a group of over 100 leading economists have endorsed McCain because they say he has a better economic plan. “Barack Obama’s financial proposals run a high risk of throwing the U.S. into a deep recession,” they said in a letter sent to newspapers (though not published by most).

 

“OBAMA WILL SIT DOWN WITH AHMADINEJAD BUT NOT WITH THE RJC”

The Obama campaign has withdrawn from two debates with Jewish Republicans, and is trying to cancel all remaining debates in the Jewish community that include the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), The Jewish Journal reports. These include 29 scheduled events, in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, Cleveland, and elsewhere.

RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said: “Obama is refusing to have his representatives debate what his Middle East policies would actually look like. We find it a curious paradox that Obama would engage Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions, but the Obama campaign will not engage the RJC. Given how troubling Obama’s record is on Israel, I guess he’s afraid to have a fair debate.”

“The RJC is deeply troubled by this effort on the part of the Obama campaign to stifle and limit debate. More than anything the Jewish community values dialogue. Why is the Obama campaign afraid to have a candid conversation on issues of great concern to Jewish voters?”

A prominent member of the Jewish community in Los Angeles, where one of cancelled debates was due to be held this week, confirmed they would now only take a question and answer session with the Republican representative and called the decision by the Obama campaign to withdraw a “huge blunder.” (One Democratic source said Obama is confident he will win California in any event and doesn’t want to run the risk of his representatives answering hard questions about his likely Mideast policies which could then be published in media elsewhere in the U.S.)

According to polls, Obama may become only the second Democratic presidential candidate since the 1920s to receive less than 60 percent of the Jewish vote. President Carter in 1980 was the other.

 

OBAMA WILL END ZIONIST CONTROL OF AMERICA, DECLARES JESSE JACKSON

Rev. Jesse Jackson has been widely criticized for his remarks, made last week at a conference on international relations in France, that if elected president, Obama will “end decades of putting Israel first” and “Zionists will no longer control American policy.”

Among those condemning the comments were the traditionally liberal-leaning American Jewish Committee (AJC).

“Rev. Jackson’s remarks echo classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish power,” the AJC said in a press release. “As poll after poll has revealed, over a span of decades, the United States is deeply committed to Israel because the vast majority of Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, identify with Israel as a proven friend and ally. It is this commonality of shared values and shared interests, and not Jackson’s conspiratorial notions of power, that unite Israel and America.”

The Obama campaign quickly sought to distance itself from Jackson’s remarks and reiterated that Obama would maintain America’s “close relationship” with Israel.

This seems to be the latest chapter in what appears to be a protracted falling-out between the two prominent Chicago African-American politicians. In July, Jackson created a controversy when he was caught saying of Obama, “I want to cut his nuts off,” in what he apparently thought was a private conversation.

In apologizing for the remarks about Obama, Jackson said his son has been a close friend of Obama for years, and Jackson’s daughter went to school with Obama’s wife Michelle. “I helped Barack start his career,” Jackson said.

At the same conference last week in France, Jackson admitted that American troops would likely stay in Iraq “for a very long time” under an Obama presidency.

McCain’s spokesman, Tucker Bounds, also reacted to Jackson’s comments, saying: “Literally, nobody knows what Barack Obama’s policies would be if he were elected president, but it’s very concerning that people believe he will not be a friend to Israel.”

Jackson’s sentiments almost exactly mirror those made by Obama national campaign co-chairman Gen. Tony McPeak in a 2003 newspaper interview when he blamed what he said was lack of progress in the Mideast on “people in New York City and Miami” (i.e. Jews).

 

OBAMA PLAYS THE RACE CARD

The following are extracts of Charles Krauthammer’s column on Friday. (The full version of this article is further down this dispatch.)

Let me get this straight. A couple of agitated yahoos in a rally of thousands yell something offensive and incendiary, and John McCain and Sarah Palin are not just guilty by association – with total strangers, mind you – but worse: guilty according to The New York Times of “race-baiting and xenophobia.”

But should you bring up Barack Obama’s real associations – 20 years with Jeremiah Wright, working on two foundations and distributing money with William Ayers, citing the raving Michael Pfleger as one who helps him keep his moral compass (Chicago Sun-Times, April 2004) and the long-standing relationship with the left-wing vote-fraud specialist ACORN – you have crossed the line into illegitimate guilt by association. Moreover, it is tinged with racism.

The fact that, when John McCain actually heard one of those nasty things said about Obama, he incurred the boos of his own crowd by insisting that Obama is “a decent person that you do not have to be scared (of) as president” makes no difference.

... What makes the charges against McCain especially revolting is that he has been scrupulous in eschewing the race card. He has gone far beyond what is right and necessary, refusing even to make an issue of Obama’s deep, self-declared connection with the race-baiting Jeremiah Wright.

... AGAINST THE CLINTONS TOO

... The reason Bill Clinton is sulking in his tent is because he feels that Obama surrogates succeeded in painting him as a racist. Clinton has many sins, but from his student days to his post-presidency, his commitment and sincerity in advancing the cause of African-Americans have been undeniable. If the man Toni Morrison called the first black president can be turned into a closet racist, then anyone can.

And Obama has shown no hesitation in doing so to McCain... What makes this all the more dismaying is that it comes from Barack Obama, who has consistently presented himself as a healer, a man of a new generation above and beyond race, the man who would turn the page on the guilt-tripping grievance politics of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. I once believed him.

***

Tom Gross adds:

It is worth reading Krauthammer’s column in full below, especially his expose of the absurd and vile attacks on McCain by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, who have fallen over themselves to make completely unsubstantiated allegations about McCain.

Obama has helped encourage such attacks (and unlike McCain who has denounced fringe elements on the Republican side, hasn’t denounced them). This might give even the most ardent Obama supporter pause for thought about saintly their “candidate of change” really is.

 

JOE-THE-PLUMBER VETTED MORE THAN OBAMA-THE-PRESIDENTIAL-CANDIDATE

* “Within 24 hours the media gave us more information about Joe the plumber’s life than they’ve given us about Barack Obama’s life in the past two years”

The following is a blog post from the Clinton Dems for McCain website:

A Guy named Joe, who happens to be a plumber with ambitions for a bigger business, questioned and challenged a Guy named Barack, who happens to be running for President of the US/Leader of the Free World.

And within 24 hours The Media has given us more information about Joe’s life than they’ve given us about Barack’s life in the past 22 months!

Thanks to a diligent press corps, we now know about Joe’s professional licensing status, his income tax situation, his employment history, his domestic squabbles, his voting record, everything associated with his personal identity; his education... It’s probably been reported somewhere whether he wears boxers or briefs.

Thanks to a lazy press corps... We still don’t know what grades Obama made in college; how he got into Harvard; when he met Bill “the bomber” Ayers; when he stopped doing illegal drugs; his medical history; whether he still smokes cigarettes; the extent of his affiliation with socialist/communist organizations; why he’s no longer a licensed attorney; whether he lied on his Bar application; what passport he used to travel to Pakistan in 1981; whether he was or still is an Indonesian citizen; why his Kenyan grandmother insists he was born in Kenya; whether he was ever legally named Barry Soetoro or anything else besides Barack Obama; why he needed the help of a crook in Chicago to purchase his family home; where he was on Nov. 6 and 7, 1999; what the long-version of his birth certificate says; why he helped an anti-American, pro-Islamic candidate for Kenyan President against U.S. interests; why he listened to Rev. Wright’s sermons for 20 years; how many times he took his kids to a Rev. Wright sermon; what he actually did as chair of the Annenberg Challenge; the depth of his relationship with ACORN…

***

Writer Claudia Rosett asks, along similar lines:

In the interest of having an informed electorate, it would be far more valuable were the media teams working less frantically to dig up dirt on Joe, and a lot harder on filling in the gaps in the record of candidate Obama. Why won’t Obama release his Columbia transcripts? What exactly was he doing during those gaps in the bio?

How are we supposed to square the lavish praise of Obama’s intellectual powers and refined sensitivities with his professed failure during years of intimate acquaintance to notice the hate-speech of Rev. Wright? What is the real story with the ties to Bill Ayers, to Tony Rezko? What does that say about his judgment in choosing friends and advisers and associates?

Would Obama appoint similar pals to high office in Washington? Would he bring similarly blinkered perceptions to the job of making policy? Would his critics receive the kind of savaging just dished out to Joe? If there’s any chance that the answer is yes, then the drubbing of Joe the Plumber is a warning to us all.

 

ROLL UP, ROLL UP FOR THE GREAT OBAMA!

Columnist Kimberley Strassel writes in The Wall Street Journal:

And now, America, we introduce the Great Obama! The world’s most gifted political magician! A thing of wonder. A thing of awe. Just watch him defy politics, economics, even gravity! (And hold your applause until the end, please.)

To kick off our show tonight, Mr. Obama will give 95% of American working families a tax cut, even though 40% of Americans today don’t pay income taxes! How can our star enact such mathemagic? How can he “cut” zero? Abracadabra! It’s called a “refundable tax credit.” It involves the federal government taking money from those who do pay taxes, and writing checks to those who don’t. Yes, yes, in the real world this is known as “welfare,” but please try not to ruin the show.

... And just watch the Great Obama perform a feat never yet managed in all history. He will create that enormous new government health program, spend billions to transform our energy economy, provide financial assistance to former Soviet satellites, invest in infrastructure, increase education spending, provide job training assistance, and give 95% of Americans a tax (ahem) cut – all without raising the deficit a single penny! And he’ll do it in the middle of a financial crisis. And with falling tax revenues! Voila!

Moving along to a little ventriloquism. Study his mouth carefully, folks: It looks like he’s saying “I’ll stop the special interests,” when in fact the words coming out are “Welcome to Washington, friends!”

Tada!

(The full version of this article is at the end of this dispatch.)

 

THE INDEFINABLE BARACK OBAMA

Leading columnist Mark Steyn writes (extracts only):

Traditionally, when an unknown politician emerges on the national scene, it’s a race to define him...

But Obama is defined by his indefinability. When I pointed out to [two young female students in Vermont I met who are enamored with Obama] that he lives in a swank pad in Chicago that was part of some shady real estate deal with a convicted fraudster (Tony Rezko), that he entrusted his daughters’ entire religious education to a neo-segregationist anti-American nut who preaches that the government created the AIDS virus to kill black people (Jeremiah Wright), that he attended fundraisers with a political patron who’s an unrepentant terrorist proud of plotting to blow up young ladies just like them at a dance at the Fort Dix military base (William Ayers), when I pointed all this out, they looked at me as if I’d brought a baseball bat to a croquet match. Mere earthbound politicians are defined by their real estate deals and sleazy buddies, but Obama is defined only by his vibe.”

... Gaze into the giant zero of the Obama logo, the hole in the star-spangled donut, the vast fathomless nullity that is the gaping keyhole to the door of utopia. To a sad shriveled Republican cynic, there’s nothing there but the wide open spaces of Obama’s blank resume. But a believer will see therein the healing of the planet and the receding of the oceans...

 

CNN EXPOSES OBAMA-LINKED VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD

CNN has finally covered the claims of mass voter registration fraud by the militant pro-Obama group Acorn, which it says is responsible for thousands of fake registrations across America this year. In the key swing state of Philadelphia alone, CNN reports there are at least 1500 “obvious fraudulent registrations” and 8000 more which are definitely “problematic”.

Most other Obama-supporting mainstream media outlets have ignored or downplayed this important story.

In the primary elections alone, CNN reveals the Obama campaign gave $800,000 to Acorn for them to register votes, many fraudulent. (Some Hillary Clinton supporters are said to be considering legal action against Acorn.)

Acorn is now even registering dead people to vote for Obama in the key swing state Pennsylvania, according to CNN.

And here, importantly, is CNN on Acorn’s ties to Barack Obama.

Even though the FBI has opened an investigation into a likely a nationwide, coordinated voter-registration scam, many Obama-supporting media are refusing to tell their readers about it.

A New York Post investigation found that as many as 200,000 of the 660,000 voters registered this year, largely by Acorn, were suspicious.

***

HOW OBAMA HARASSED OTHER DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES IN CHICAGO IN THE 1990s

We shouldn’t be surprised. As far back as 1996, when Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate unopposed, this was no accident. He used every trick in the book to harass the four other candidates, including fellow Democrat and sitting senator Alice Palmer, and find ways to disqualify them, according to local Democrats in Chicago. There is a litany of other accusations of malpractice by Obama in Illinois in the 1990s, but it is very hard to find reporting on this in the mainstream media. (For a quick summary of some of the others, see this article from a British mid-market newspaper. )

***

ALL ACROSS AMERICA

The Wall Street Journal reports (but pro-Obama media ignores):

The Michigan Secretary of State told the press in September that Acorn had submitted “a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications.” Earlier this month, Nevada’s Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller requested a raid on Acorn’s offices, following complaints of false names and fictional addresses (including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys). Nevada’s Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said he saw rampant fraud in 2,000 to 3,000 applications Acorn submitted weekly.

Officials in Ohio are investigating voter fraud connected with Acorn, and Florida’s Seminole County is withholding Acorn registrations that appear fraudulent. New Mexico, North Carolina and Missouri are looking into hundreds of dubious Acorn registrations. Wisconsin is investigating Acorn employees for, according to an election official, “making people up or registering people that were still in prison.”

Then there’s Lake County, Indiana, which has already found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 Acorn dumped right before the deadline. “All the signatures looked exactly the same,” said Ruthann Hoagland, of the county election board. Bridgeport, Connecticut estimates about 20% of Acorn’s registrations were faulty. As of July, the city of Houston had rejected or put on hold about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by Acorn.

... During Obama’s tenure on the board of Chicago’s Woods Fund, that body funneled more than $200,000 to Acorn. More recently, the Obama campaign paid $832,000 to an Acorn affiliate. The campaign initially told the Federal Election Commission this money was for “staging, sound, lighting.” It later admitted the cash was to get out the vote.

... The Justice Department needs to treat these fraud reports as something larger than a few local violators. The question is whether Acorn is systematically subverting U.S. election law – on the taxpayer’s dime.

 

OBAMA SWAMPING TV NETWORKS WITH ADS

Not only are most media blatantly in Obama’s court in their programming, but Obama is using an advertising campaign of unrivaled scale and complexity to out advertise John McCain nationwide in between programs too, by at least four to one.

The New York Times reports: “With advertisements running repeatedly day and night, on local stations and on the major broadcast networks, on niche cable networks and even on video games and his own dedicated satellite channels, Mr. Obama is now out-advertising Senator John McCain nationwide by a ratio of at least four to one. That difference is even larger in several closely contested states... Analysts say his campaign is on pace to surpass next week the record of $188 million in advertising spending in a general election.”

In one swing state, a BBC correspondent found that Obama has aired 1000 ads last week, whereas McCain had aired only 8.

On the evening of Oct. 29, less than a week before the election, Obama is planning to host a half-hour TV commercial on CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, costing many millions of dollars.

(Barack Obama has paid Fox TV so much that they have even agreed to move the start time of the baseball world series game on Oct. 29 by about 15 minutes, so that Obama can have the main 8 – 8.30 pm primetime slot.)

The Wisconsin Advertising Project found that 61 percent of Obama’s general election advertisements so far had been devoted to attacking McCain. So much for Obama’s promise of “change” and “healing” and “a new kind of politics.”

 

OBAMA RENEGED ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE PLEDGE

The huge advertising gap has been made possible by Obama’s decision to opt out of the federal campaign finance system, which gives presidential nominees $84 million in public money and prohibits them from spending any amount above that from their party convention to Election Day. McCain – who is the real change candidate here – rejected the “big money” Obama has so eagerly and energetically courted and is participating in the new system.

Obama, who had previously promised to participate in it as well, is expected to announce that he raised more than $100 million in September, a figure that would shatter fund-raising records.

“This is uncharted territory,” Kenneth M. Goldstein, the director of the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin, told The New York Times. “We’ve certainly seen heavy advertising battles before. But we’ve never seen in a presidential race one side having such a lopsided advantage.”

 

“KILL HIM” ALLEGATION CONCOCTED BY OBAMA-SUPPORTING JOURNALIST

The agents in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton, Pennsylvania have concluded that allegations that someone in the crowd yelled “kill him” when Barack Obama’s name was mentioned in a warm-up to last Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded.

The Scranton Times-Tribune first reported the alleged incident on its website last Tuesday, written by reporter David Singleton. News organizations including ABC, The Associated Press, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and many others reported the claim, with most attributing the allegations to the Times-Tribune story.

Abroad, media just headlined this accusation as fact without saying it was an allegation. Last week I was in France and Britain, and commentators on TV in both countries referred to the “fact” that “Republicans are shouting ‘kill him, kill him’ at rallies against Obama.”

Dozens of undercover secret service agents and law enforcement officers were in the crowd and not one heard the comment, nor did any witnesses they spoke to.

Upon questioning Singleton in order to find and arrest the perpetrator of the alleged death threat, the journalist admitted that he couldn’t give a description of the man because he didn’t see him but thought that he heard him.

 

30,000 FLORIDA FELONS ON VOTER ROLLS

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that in the key swing state of Florida, more than 30,000 felons who should not be allowed to vote remain registered to cast ballots in this year’s presidential election. Of the Florida felons who registered with a party, reports the newspaper, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2-to-1.

Florida is one of 10 states that restrict felons from voting even after they have served their time. Felons are removed from voter rolls by state and county elections officials after they have been convicted, and can be put back on the rolls only if they appeal for clemency to restore their voting rights.

 

“DEAR MR. OBAMA”

I include this not because I think it is a particularly good video, but because well over ten million people have had to go to the internet to watch this YouTube version, which is the only place where they can see it. It was made less than two months ago. In other words, virtually the entire American media are too partisan and close-minded to give voices to men like this.

 

SARAH PALIN APPEARS WITH TINA FEY ON SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

On “Saturday Night Live” this past weekend, the Republican vice-presidential candidate was shown laughing as comedian Tina Fey performed impressions of her, before Palin took the stage herself to deliver the hit satire show’s “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night” opening line. Fey’s biting, often vicious, parodies have been credited with contributing to Palin’s declining popularity.

Backstage, Palin was approached by the left-wing Hollywood star Alec Baldwin. “This is the most important election in our nation’s history and you want her, our Tina, to go out there and stand with that horrible woman?” Baldwin said

When informed that he was speaking to the real Palin, Baldwin replied: “You are way hotter in person.” “I must say, your brother Stephen is my favorite Baldwin brother,” she responded.

The real Sarah Palin also shuffles to rap music in this clip on SNL, together with some Eskimos and a moose.

 

ACTOR DUVALL BLASTS PALIN CRITICS

Introducing Sarah Palin at a rally last week, actor Robert Duvall, star of The Godfather and other hit movies, blasted conservatives who have criticized the McCain-Palin ticket in recent days, calling conservative columnist George Will a “super-nerd” and former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson a “block of wood”.

“It bothers me that certain people in the Republican Party are attacking the McCain-Palin ticket, like super-nerd George... What’s his name?” Duvall asked, prompting a few attendees to laugh and shout out George Will. “George... George, I can’t even think. George Will,” Duvall said, referring to the Washington Post columnist who has been critical of Palin. Duvall, who has now introduced Palin at three events, said that upon meeting her he found her to be a “very impressive political leader.”

***

I attach two articles below.

-- Tom Gross

[All notes below by Tom Gross]

AL-QAEDA NUMBER TWO KILLED BY U.S. WAS SWEDISH

Al-Qaeda’s number two in Iraq, Abu Qaswarah, who the U.S. military on Wednesday announced had been killed, held Swedish citizenship.

“Abu Qaswarah is a Swede of Moroccan origin,” Iraqi defense ministry spokesman General Mohammed al-Askari confirmed yesterday.

The U.S military on Wednesday revealed that Abu Qaswarah had been killed on October 5 during a raid on a building in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

His Swedish background was confirmed this morning by Sweden’s intelligence service, Saepo. They added that he had forged close ties to Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in Iraq in June 2006.

Abu Qaswara attended the Brandbergen mosque in Stockholm, which in the past has been connected to extremist Islamic networks. There has been an increasing trend among some Muslim radicals in Europe to engage in terrorist activity.

The U.S. raid also led to the death of four other insurgents as well as three women and three children, the military said.

***

CHILD PORN LINK REVEALED

Today’s Times of London (which could now be described as center-left having just endorsed Barack Obama) has an important article, headlined “Link between child porn and Muslim terrorists discovered in police raids.”

The Times reveals how pedophile websites are being used to pass information between Islamist terrorists in Britain, Italy and Spain. In one case, 40,000 images of children being forced to perform pornographic acts was found, reports The Times.

 

SAUDI CLERIC SAYS WOMEN SHOULD WEAR A ONE-EYED VEIL

A leading Saudi cleric has called on women to wear a full-body and face veil in future that reveals only one eye. Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan told viewers on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd that showing both eyes was “seductive” and should be forbidden.

Whatever next for the poor suffering women of Saudi Arabia?

When are the zealous feminists of the West going to speak out forcibly? (Or are they too busy slurring the first female Republican vice-presidential candidate of the U.S., because she chooses to be a working mother?)

 

RECORD NUMBERS OF SAUDI EXECUTIONS, SOME BY CRUCIFIXION

Meanwhile, a new report reveals that executions are surging in Saudi Arabia, and those most likely to face death by the sword are migrant workers and poor Saudis because they are unable to pay the hefty bribes needed to avoid punishment.

Of the last 1,695 executions in Saudi Arabia, 830 have been of foreign nationals, mainly poor guest workers from Asia.

In some cases, execution is followed by crucifixion, Amnesty International said.

 

IRANIAN BOY TO UNDERGO CANCER SURGERY IN ISRAEL

A 12-year-old Iranian boy suffering from brain cancer arrived in Israel last weekend for emergency surgery.

The boy, whose brain tumor had not responded to chemotherapy and radiation in Tehran, was admitted to a Turkish hospital, but the physicians in Ankara said last week that their facility lacked the technological and medical expertise needed to treat him properly.

The Turkish doctors said the top medical specialists were in Israel, and persuaded the family to go there, even though Iran regards Israel as an “enemy state” which should cease to exist.

“I contacted Dr. Feldman and Prof. Shapira from the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv, and they agreed to treat the boy,” a Turkish doctor said.

Doctors say the boy’s prognosis is not good, given the fact he has had the tumor for a year before arriving in Israel. Israel has not revealed the patient’s family’s name for fear they will face repercussions upon their return to Iran.

 

WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD TRAINING IN IRAN THIS WEEK

Photos courtesy of the official Iranian Fars news agency:

www.farsnews.net/plarg.php?nn=M372720.jpg
www.farsnews.net/plarg.php?nn=M372710.jpg
www.farsnews.net/plarg.php?nn=M372708.jpg
www.farsnews.net/plarg.php?nn=M372705.jpg
www.farsnews.net/plarg.php?nn=M372724.jpg

 

HIZBULLAH SPYING THROUGH FACEBOOK

The Israeli military has ordered soldiers to stop using Facebook and other social networking sites, since Hizbullah terrorists are trailing the pages of young off-duty Israeli soldiers, looking for potential opportunities to mount kidnap attempts.

Israeli officials are concerned that soldiers may unwittingly give Hizbullah information through the sites or even arrange to meet an Internet companion who is in fact a terrorist, or invite one to a social event. In the past, the Palestinian group Fatah lured a teenage Israeli to a “date” near Jerusalem where he was brutally killed.

 

BOTH IRAN AND THE U.S. AIDING THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY?

President Bush has ordered the U.S. government to waive congressional restrictions against giving direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), on the very day that Arab sources revealed that the PA was also receiving money from Iran.

The Palestinian Authority is presided over by Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas.

In a message to the State Department, President Bush declared, “I hereby certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive [the restrictions].”

The move will enable $75 million to be given directly to the cash-strapped PA, in addition to hundreds of millions paid through various agencies and third parties. Congress had added the waiver clause to ensure aid be directed through non-PA organizations to prevent the money from going into PA leaders’ Swiss bank accounts or to terrorists.

Direct American financing to the PA is supposed to be contingent upon the PA showing that it has ceased incitement against Israel and has disarmed terrorists.

 

PALESTINIAN INCITEMENT CONTINUES: “NEW SYNAGOGUE BUILT WITHIN AL-AQSA MOSQUE”

The official Palestinian Authority media website, headed by PLO Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo, claimed in a headline on Tuesday that: “New Synagogue Built within Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

In the past, such false rumors about “Israel destroying or damaging the Al-Aqsa Mosque” have led to deadly rioting as far away as Indonesia.

 

NINE OF THE ISRAELI CARIBBEAN HOSTAGES RELEASED

Nine of the fifteen Israeli men being held hostage on the Caribbean island of West Caicos were released yesterday, three days after being kidnapped. The men are managers and engineers of an Israeli construction company building a tourist resort on the island. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it was working to secure the release of the remaining men. The event is one of piracy resulting from a work dispute, not politically-inspired terrorism.

 

FEMALE SOLDIER PREVENTS ATTACK; 3 PALESTINIANS CARRYING BOMBS ARRESTED

Three Palestinians carrying nine bombs have been apprehended at (what the international media claim is a “humiliating”) roadblock near Nablus. The arrested men have admitted they were planning a terror attack in Israel.

The attack was foiled as a result of the alertness and insistence of a female soldier at the checkpoint. No injuries were reported in the incident.

A similar attack was thwarted at a different roadblock near Nablus last week.

 

LEADING SAUDI PAPER: HAMAS-RULED GAZA BECOMING LIKE AFGHANISTAN

Here are extracts from a new article by Tariq Alhomayed, the editor-in-chief of the leading Saudi-owned, pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Alawsat, which is published in London:

Gaza is following in the footsteps of Afghanistan with regard to an abundance of arms, poverty, and division between one armed group and another, who are more than prepared to fight, leading to even greater divisions. The transformation of Gaza into Afghanistan is a future whose first casualty will be the Palestinians and their cause, which has been shattered by Hamas. The first thing we must do is stop this nonsense of saying that Hamas came to power through elections. Those who come to power via elections do not have the right to be selective with regard to agreements made by the legitimate authority - the very same authority which pushed for the elections which Hamas won. Those who call for elections must respect all previous agreements.

Hamas is a very real danger to the Palestinian cause. They have already blown the chance of creating a Palestinian state thanks to their division from the legitimate authority of Mahmoud Abbas. We have yet to see a reasonable trend within Hamas which appreciates the consequences of governing Gaza. So we must take a decisive stand against Hamas, and for a simple reason: the boat which they are drilling holes in will not only drown them, but drown all of us, and we will all be the victims. We cannot allow Hamas to fragmentize the Palestinians as they wish, or to plot with Iran as they see fit.

 

FRENCH PAPER: RUSSIA SECRETLY DELIVERING WEAPONS TO HIZBULLAH

The leftist French newspaper Liberation yesterday reported that Russia has been secretly delivering weapons to Hizbullah. Here are extracts from the article (translated from the French):

With the exception of local newspapers, the event went unnoticed: On July 4, the Angela, a cargo ship flying the flag of Gibraltar, was subjected to a thorough search in the Bulgarian port of Varna. Two containers were found to contain dual-use metal pipes produced in Russia. The grooves on both sides of the tubes suggest that these were parts for the assembly of missiles.

Questioned for 17 hours, the captain, a Lithuanian, eventually confessed that the vessel was destined for Latakia, a major Syrian port. Why was such a delivery clandestine since Moscow and Damascus are linked by military cooperation agreements, unless the final destination of the material seized in Varna is not Syria?

According to Western military sources, these missiles were assembled in Syria, and destined for Hizbullah.

 

IDF HAS OVERSUPPLY OF NEW OFFICERS

Contrary to the regular reports by anti-Israeli journalists in mainstream western news media that Israeli army is suffering from lack of morale and there are many young Israelis refusing service, in fact Israel this year has a record number of young recruits in combat units who have volunteered for the officer program, reports Ma’ariv.

The IDF now has a 10% oversupply of new officers –this after suffering from an almost 20% shortage after the 2006 Lebanon War, says Israel’s second highest circulation newspaper. According to the IDF, there is now both an increase in the willingness of recruits to volunteer for the officer program as well as an improvement in the quality of the participants in the program.

 

GULF BEACH JAUNT LEADS TO PRISON

A Dubai court has sentenced a British man and woman to three months in one of the country’s notorious jails after they were said to have been discovered having sex on a beach. The two admitted to being drunk and cuddling but denied charges of sex outside marriage and public indecency.

 

FIRST SHOW OF ARAB CONTEMPORARY ART IN AN ISRAELI MUSEUM

The Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in west Jerusalem, which is supported by a Jewish endowment fund, run by Jewish staff, and located in a Jewish neighborhood, is showing work by 13 Arab artists – the first group exhibition featuring only Israeli Arab works in an Israeli museum. The show is also the first contemporary art exhibition in an Israeli museum organized by an Arab curator, Farid Abu Shakra.

The museum was founded in 1974 with an endowment from the late British philanthropist Vera Frances Bryce Salomons and named after a Jewish professor of Middle Eastern art and architecture she had admired at Hebrew University. Until now it has primarily exhibited antiquities and ethnographic works. The museum director said she hoped the Arab art show would be the first of many such shows.

Jerusalem also has an Islamic antiquities museum run by the Islamic Waqf (religious authority), and a satellite antiquities museum of the Israel Museum, the Rockefeller Museum, headed by Arab curator Fariz Ibrahim. There is an Arab modern art gallery in east Jerusalem, but it identifies itself as Palestinian, not Israeli.

[All notes below by Tom Gross]

SENIOR ISRAELI SECURITY OFFICIALS CLAIM THEY WERE DUPED INTO PRO-OBAMA AD

Several retired Israeli security officials who are shown in a pro-Obama ad giving the impression they endorse the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, say they were “duped” and are furious with the left-wing American Jewish organization which aired the film.

One participant, former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Uzi Dayan, told the Associated Press that the behavior of the Obama support group was “pure and simple deceit” and he was considering legal action if they didn’t stop showing the film.

Another participant, former Mossad spy agency head Ephraim Halevy, noted that he had also made favorable comments about McCain in the interview but these were edited out. Halevy, who is a subscriber to this email list, said that the ad marked “a complete misrepresentation of what I said. I said nothing that could be interpreted as support for Obama in the U.S. presidential elections.”

Others who expressed outrage include former Mossad agent Yossi Alpher. He said the filmmakers told him he was being interviewed on the regional strategic affairs that will face the next U.S. president. Alpher was angered by what he called “an act of deception.”

“I made it very clear that I did not wish to take sides in the American elections,” he told AP. “I would never have given the interview had I known that they would edit my words into a film that endorsed either candidate. They really misrepresented the purpose of the film.”

DECEPTION AND MISREPRESENTATION

Even the press release promoting the film is incorrect, identifying Dayan as being the son of famed general Moshe Dayan.

The advert was made by a pro-Obama “not for profit” group which goes by the decidedly non-political name of “Jewish Council for Education and Research.”

The group is also behind “The Great Schlep” – a website featuring Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman encouraging young Jews to go to Florida to persuade their grandparents to vote for Obama. Silverman’s video has also been criticized as being “littered with misleading information.”

Officially neutral, many in the Israeli political and security establishment are privately very nervous about an Obama presidency given the large number of anti-Israeli foreign policy advisers he has chosen to surrounded himself with, and his stated willingness to deal with Iran’s anti-Semitic president.

 

VIDEO OF OBAMA AIDE CALLING FOR “MAMMOTH” MILITARY INCURSION INTO ISRAEL

According to the opinion polls, Barack Obama seems to be pulling well ahead of John McCain now in the run up the American presidential election, which is less than four weeks away. McCain’s campaign seems to be as much a victim of the financial crisis as Lehman Brothers or Merrill Lynch.

But for those of us interested in foreign policy, Obama’s choice of advisors remains of deep concern.

Here, for example, is Samantha Power, who is tipped to be one of Obama’s closest foreign policy aides if he is elected, in interview at Berkeley University in 2002 basically calling for Israel’s invasion to stop a genocide. (The video is also here.)

She speaks of Israel’s “major human rights abuses” and the need to land a “mammoth force” of U.S. troops in Israel to protect Palestinians from genocide, even though it may “alienate a constituency of major political and financial import” (i.e. American Jews).

This is Israel, which for all its terrorist prisoners, has not had anything close to an Abu Ghraib scandal in 60 years.

Obama hired Power after she gave this interview at Berkeley, not before. He was forced to suspend Power from his campaign earlier this year after a British journalist overheard her call Hillary Clinton “a monster,” but Power is expected to resume her key role with Obama after the election.

 

BIDEN’S FOREIGN POLICY MISTAKES LARGELY IGNORED BY MEDIA

Much of the media seem to be rooting for one candidate in this election to a greater extent than we have seen before. Some news reporters and editors at publications like The New York Times, Washington Post, Time and Newsweek seem to be so openly hoping for an Obama victory that they just won’t print news that reflects badly on the Democratic ticket.

I am particularly concerned that Joe Biden’s many foreign policy mistakes are not being covered.

For example, many newspapers wrote that Biden made no gaffes in the vice-presidential debate last week. In fact he made several misstatements about foreign policy, far more than Sarah Palin did.

For instance, he said: “When we kicked – along with France, we kicked Hizbullah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, ‘Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know – if you don’t, Hizbullah will control it’. Now what’s happened? Hizbullah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.”

Of course, the United States and France have never kicked Hizbullah out of Lebanon and Joe Biden has no idea what he’s talking about, but neither the debate moderator Gwen Ifill, nor the mainstream media have followed Biden up on this, and his other foreign policy misstatements. Instead they keep on referring to Biden as a foreign policy expert.

(For background on Biden, please see: Soft on Iran: Serious concerns in Israel about Joe Biden (Aug. 28, 2008).)

 

HAMAS: JEWS TO BLAME FOR GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

Hamas yesterday accused what it called a “Jewish lobby” of fermenting the global financial crisis. The “bad banking system was deliberately put into place and controlled by the Jewish lobby,” Hamas’s official spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.

Hamas’s statement mirror those made by the Iranian regime last month, as reported on this website. (See the first note in this dispatch.)

The Nazis too blamed “the Jews” for the financial crises of the 1920s and 1930s, and their scapegoating of Jews helped pave the way for genocide.

***

UPSURGE IN ANTI-SEMITIC INTERNET POSTS

Separately, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States has reported that there has been a major upsurge in the number of anti-Semitic postings on the Internet relating to the current global financial crisis. The messages attacked Jews in general, with some charging that Jews control the U.S. government and finance as part of a “Jew world order.”

The ADL said the Internet chatter had moved from fringe sites to mainstream ones such as Yahoo! and AOL, where hundreds of anti-Semitic messages have flooded financial discussion boards.

***

NBC REMOVES “ANTI-SEMITIC” “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE” CLIP

Writers of the comedy show “Saturday Night Live” have also been criticized for suggesting Jews were to blame for the financial crisis in a skit broadcast Saturday night, barely a day after Congress authorized a massive bailout of the ailing financial industry, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).

NBC, which produces the program, has now removed the clip from the show’s website.

 

IRAN: BAN PICTURES OF SHREK AND SNOW WHITE

The Director General of the Iranian Supreme Council of Education has told Iranian schoolchildren that they must stop having school bags and notebooks that carry pictures of “decadent Hollywood personalities such as Shrek and Snow White.” In Persian, with pictures, here.

***

IRANIAN MANUFACTURER LAUNCHES WOMEN-ONLY CAR

Meanwhile, Iran announced yesterday that it intends to manufacture a car designed especially for women. The car will be available only in soft and “feminine” colors and will be equipped with accessories that male-dominated Iran considers feminine, like an automatic gearbox, parking aid devices, and an easy-to-use jack. The manufacturer said the first model would be released next June, ahead of the Iranian women’s day.

Last year, Iran’s Islamic authorities passed a bill promoting the production of a bicycle especially designed for women, that will conceal the rider’s legs and upper body. Iranian women are banned from riding motorcycles, except as passengers.

Male and female passengers are segregated on buses and the Tehran underground (subway) system.

 

FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF EX-MUSLIMS TO BE HELD ON FRIDAY

Usually I have a strict policy against promoting events or organizations on this website but am going to make an exception in this case because the organization involved – “The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain” – is being ignored by the mainstream media who seem too fearful to mention their work.

This Friday (October 10) the first ever international conference of ex-Muslims in Europe will be held in London. The conference’s title is “Political Islam, Sharia Law, and Civil Society.” (October 10 was chosen since this also marks the “International day against the Death Penalty.”)

“The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain” boasts thousands of members, and similar organizations in Germany, Belgium, Scandinavia and elsewhere will participate.

Members of “The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain” subscribe to this email list. The subscribers to this list are members of the exiled Iranian Communist party and are atheists, but the Council has members from all backgrounds and viewpoints.

Besides ex-Muslims the conference will be addressed by such writers as Richard Dawkins and philosopher A.C. Grayling.

 

YEDIOT AHRONOT: ONCE A TERRORIST, ALWAYS A TERRORIST

The headline of yesterday’s edition of Yediot Ahronot was “Once a terrorist, always a terrorist: pictures from Lebanon – Samir Kuntar training with firearms.”

The accompanying photos showed Kuntar, who was released by Israel in July in a highly controversial swap for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers, training with guns and rocket launchers.

The family of one of Kuntar victims (Eliyahu Shahar) expressed outraged. “We feel sorry for the family of his next victim,” they said.

Kuntar brutally murdered Israelis, including a four-year-old girl whose head he bashed in, during a terror attack in northern Israel. He was repatriated to Lebanon along with several other terrorists in return for the remains of kidnapped Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

For background on Kuntar, please see: A long way from Entebbe: Hizbullah’s triumph, as Israel lets murderers go free (July 16, 2008).

 

ISRAEL SAYS NORTH KOREA HAS HELPED ARM 6 MIDEAST NATIONS

Israel accused North Korea on Saturday of providing weapons of mass destruction to six countries in the Middle East. Israeli envoy David Danieli told the global meeting in Vienna of the 145-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna that “North Korea has become a source of proliferation of dangerous weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in the Middle East.”

Israel said there were six Middle Eastern countries which had obtained the means to produce doomsday weapons and ballistic missiles covertly from North Korea.

The IAEA adopted a resolution unanimously urging North Korea to reverse steps it has taken to revive its shutdown atom bomb program.

Western intelligence officials say that Iran, Syria, Libya and Iraq under Saddam Hussein were believed to have received North Korean military aid, some applicable to mass-destruction weaponry, in the past.

Danieli said there was growing evidence that such states were “emulating the dangerous unlawful practices” of North Korea, which left the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003 and developed atom bombs.

 

“PALESTINIAN FORCES FOIL SUICIDE BOMBING ATTACK IN ISRAEL”

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has thwarted an attempted suicide bombing inside Israel, Palestinian sources told Ha’aretz.

If true, this would mark a rare case of the PA’s security forces actually doing something to prevent an act of terror against Israel.

The PA security service arrested two senior members of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank city of Hebron, who were found in possession of weapons and an explosives belt, the sources said. The suspects were also in possession of a large quantity of cash, which they were thought to be planning to use in carrying out the attack.

One of the suspects is Wail al-Bitar, one of the heads of Izz al-Din al-Qassam in the area. Both are said to be part of a Hamas network that planned and carried out a suicide bombing in Dimona in February that killed an elderly Israeli professor and seriously wounded her husband as they were shopping in the market.

Israeli security sources had expressed concern over the high level of sophistication evident in the planning of the Dimona attack.

***

ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES ON HIGH ALERT

The holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur (or the Day of Atonement), begins this evening. In Israel it is marked not only by a day of fasting and prayer but also by intense security. It was on this day 35 years ago that the 1973 Yom Kippur War erupted, when Israel was invaded from north and south in an attack deliberately timed to catch Israelis off guard. That war also led to a massive rise in international oil prices.

 

“MAJOR FATAH ASSAULT ON HAMAS CLOSE”

There are signs that Fatah is preparing to launch a major operation against Hamas in the West Bank in the coming weeks ahead of expected turmoil when Mahmoud Abbas’s term as PA president ends in January, Israeli security sources have told The Jerusalem Post.

Abbas’s presidential term is scheduled to end on January 9, and the IDF Central Command is preparing for the possibility that Hamas will try to take advantage of political instability at Fatah headquarters in Ramallah to take over West Bank towns and cities.

In the absence of elections, according to the Palestinian Authority constitution, Abbas will be replaced by the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Abdel Aziz Dweik, a member of Hamas who has been held in an Israeli prison since August 2006.

A senior IDF officer said there was evidence that Fatah forces were planning a widespread West Bank operation against Hamas infrastructure and terrorist cells to weaken the Islamist group ahead of potential clashes in January.

Some Fatah troops are currently receiving U.S.-directed training in Jordan, and are expected to return to the West Bank in late December.

 

SAUDI PAPER: HAMAS WILL ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE PA LEADERS IN THE WEST BANK

Meanwhile the London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq Al Awsat reported over the weekend that PA forces were preparing for the possibility that Hamas would attempt to assassinate PA leaders in the West Bank, in the prelude to a “hostile takeover” of the West Bank to bring down the Fatah-led government there.

“The experience in Gaza taught us not to trust them,” one security source was quoted as saying by the paper.

 

HAMAS FUNDS BEING TRANSFERRED TO ISRAELI ARAB “NON-PROFIT GROUPS”

Ha’aretz reports that Arab-Israeli non-profit groups are receiving funds from Hamas-linked “charity” organizations. Previously, according to Israeli intelligence officials, some Israeli Arabs helped send funds to Hamas. Now the reverse is true, marking a worrying trend as the Islamist terror group tries to gain influence inside Israel itself.

Despite efforts to stop it, much money is pouring into Hamas from sources abroad, especially from Persian Gulf states, as well as from Muslim communities in Belgium and Britain. Israel says some of this money is used to buy arms and for other militant purposes.

Senior IDF officers told Ha’aretz that contributions are flowing to Hamas in the West Bank in the amount of tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars, thereby helping Hamas prepare for an eventual takeover of the West Bank.

 

ANTI-GOVERNMENT MALAYSIAN BLOGGER GOES ON TRIAL

The trial of one of the most prominent anti-government bloggers in Malaysia, who faces charges of sedition, began on Monday.

British-born Raja Petra Kamarudin, who runs the popular Malaysia Today news website, is accused of implying that a government minister was involved in the murder of his interpreter last year.

The 58-year-old faces up to three years in prison if found guilty. He is being held at the Kamunting prison, in central Malaysia. His supporters have accused the Malaysian government of misusing the judiciary to suppress freedom of speech.

 

MUSEUM TO COMMEMORATE LOST JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF GAZA OPENS

Jews have lived on and off in Gaza for millennia, long before Islam or Christianity were founded. In the past, others have driven Jews out of Gaza. But in August 2005, in a period of just seven days, 21 Jewish communities were forcibly removed by their own government, as Israel became the first country in modern history to relinquish land acquired in a defensive war to an enemy that had not yet made peace with it.

After the Jewish residents had gone, the Israeli army, at the behest of the Palestinian Authority, destroyed the settlements, leaving only the synagogues, which it was hoped the Palestinians would respect. On September 12, 2005, the last Israeli soldier left Gaza, and it took just 15 minutes for the first abandoned synagogue to be set alight.

Now a museum (called the Gush Katif museum) has opened in Jerusalem to commemorate Jewish life in Gaza that dates back to 145 years before Christ.

For details, see here. For a photo collage, please see here.

[All notes below by Tom Gross]

OBAMA AND MCCAIN’S ROSH HASHANA GREETINGS (SATIRE)

Since it is the Jewish new year (Rosh Hashana) this week and a number of subscribers to this list are Jewish, here is Barack Obama and John McCain’s new year greetings (with Sarah Palin and Joe Biden joining in too).

And here is something for younger readers.

 

IF YOU MISSED THE DEBATE...

You can now watch the first John McCain-Barack Obama Presidential Debate here, in less than a minute. How’s this for soundbites?

 

“ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION IN OUR LIFETIME”

Some apologists for Iran in the western media claim that it is “only” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that wants to destroy Israel, and the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is more “pragmatic” and “moderate.”

Well yesterday, to celebrated Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Khamenei led prayers for the wiping out of Israel and predicted the Zionist entity’s “destruction in our lifetime.” (In Persian here.)

Khamenei’s anti-Israel comments are hardly his first, but they are significant because they were made at one of Islam’s holiest events, the Eid Al-Fitr celebration.

Also, earlier this week, the influential former head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Rahim Safavi, said “future maps of the region will not include Israel.”

***

Below are some photos from the anti-Israel rally that took place last week in Tehran at the same time as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was being fawned with soppy questions by Larry King on CNN in New York.

Larry King warmly shook the Iranian president's hand and asked him “Where in the US would you like to travel? ... Would you like to meet Sarah Palin, since you’re both former mayors? ... You don't wish the Jewish people any harm, do you?”

(1) www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M367568.jpg
(2) www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M367558.jpg
(3) www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M367557.jpg
(4) www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M367545.jpg
(5) www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M367542.jpg
(6) www.mojnews.com/show_images.asp?newsid=151552

***

This is how the Iranian regime destroys cemeteries by night of people they don’t like. These pictures are from earlier this week in Kerman, a city south of Tehran with a population of half a million.

 

GOV. PALIN INSPIRES HER FIRST FATWA

The new president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, has been condemned for making friendly comments to Sarah Palin at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week.

A radical Muslim prayer leader in Pakistan said the president shamed the nation for “indecent gestures, filthy remarks, and repeated praise of a non-Muslim lady wearing a short skirt.”

Zardari smiled, shook her hand and had an engaging conversation with Palin. After meeting Palin, Zardari said he was very impressed by her.

“ZARDARI AND PALIN NOT MARRIED”

The Pakistani press has also condemned the meeting pointing out that Zardari and Palin are not married and therefore should not have been in close proximity with one another. One newspaper called it a “great sin”.

Last year, the mosque that issued the new fatwa, Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, condemned the former tourism minister, Nilofar Bahktiar, after she was photographed being hugged by a male parachuting coach in France.

The Red Mosque came to international attention in July 2007 when the Pakistan Army tried to root out militants there.

 

BRITNEY SPEARS IS “ZIONIST, JEWISH SORCERER”

Shi’a News on Tuesday depicted pop stars Madonna and Britney Spears, British footballer David Beckham, and American screen goddess Elizabeth Taylor as “Zionists” engaged in “black sorcery of Jewish Kabala.”

***

“THE JEWEL OF MEDINA”

Another Iranian publication, Asr-e Iran yesterday wrote that Sherry Jones’ new novel The Jewel of Medina is a British conspiracy against Islam.

Last weekend the British publisher of the novel, Martin Rynja (who owns Gibson Square publishers), had his home firebombed in London.

Three men have been arrested under the UK Terrorism Act. Random House had canceled publication of the novel in August, stating that they had been advised that “the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community” and that “it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.” (The novel has since been bought by another American publisher, Beaufort Books.)

This is not the first time that Rynja, owner of a small, independent publishing house, has taken risks to preserve the principle of freedom of speech. He is also the publisher of Alexander Litvinenko’s book Blowing Up Russia.

Rynja is now under police guard. The Jewel of Medina is scheduled for release on Oct. 30 in Britain. 15 others countries, including Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil and Hungary, also plan to publish it.

Author Sherry Jones said “anyone who reads the book will see that it honors the prophet and his favorite wife.”

 

NY JUDGE: PLO CAN’T DISGUISE TERRORISM AS WAR

The Associated Press reports from New York that the Palestine Liberation Organization can’t win dismissal of a lawsuit by victims of bombings in Israel, by claiming the attacks were acts of war rather than terrorism.

U.S. District Judge George Daniels ruled on Tuesday that the 2004 lawsuit on behalf of victims and their families can proceed toward trial. It seeks up to $3 billion in damages for seven particular attacks between January 2001 and February 2004.

Daniels rejected the PLO’s argument that the terrorist acts in question were acts of war. The Jerusalem-area attacks killed 33 people and wounded hundreds, including scores of U.S. citizens.

“BOMBING A CAFÉ IS NOT AN ACT OF WAR”

Daniels said the attacks targeted public places – not military or government personnel or interests. Two bombings were on downtown streets; others occurred at a crowded bus stop, a cafeteria at the Hebrew University and a passenger-filled civilian bus.

The use of bombs in these circumstances indicates intent “to cause indiscriminate killing and maiming untold numbers in heavily populated civilian areas,” he ruled.

Such attacks “upon non-combative civilians, who were simply going about their everyday lives, do not constitute acts of war,” he said.

Daniels also said the violence meets the legal definition of “international terrorism.”

The PLO has billions of dollars in bank accounts which it uses to enrich its senior members and to fund terrorism. It is concerned that the lawsuit will force their banks in Europe and elsewhere to freeze these accounts.

 

PALESTINIANS FIRE ROCKET AT ISRAEL AS “NEW YEAR’S GIFT”

A Qassam rocket was fired on Monday afternoon from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israel, but landed on the Palestinian side of the border. There were no reports of injuries. It was the first rocket in two weeks fired at Israel. Palestinian groups, which are supposed to be observing a ceasefire, said they wanted to hit an Israeli home as families sat down for the traditional New Year’s meal.

 

BAHRAIN CALLS FOR REGIONAL GROUPING OF ARAB STATES TO INCLUDE ISRAEL

The pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported yesterday that the foreign minister of the Gulf state of Bahrain has called for the creation of a regional grouping of Arab states together with Israel, Iran and Turkey. “Israel, Iran, Turkey and Arab states should sit together in one organization… even if we don’t recognize each other [diplomatically],” Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa was quoted as saying.

“Aren’t we all members of a global organization called the United Nations? Why not [come together] on a regional basis? This is the only way to solve our problems. There is no other way to solve them, now or in 200 years.”

Earlier this year, as reported on this website some weeks before it was reported elsewhere, Bahrain decided it would appoint the Arab world’s first Jewish ambassador as its envoy to Washington.

Bahrain, a pro-Western island nation with Sunni rulers and a Shiite majority, is a close U.S. ally and hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Bahrain’s crown prince, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, met Israeli officials during the Davos World Economic Forum summits in 2000 and 2003, while Sheikh Khaled met his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni at the UN last year. Officially, Bahrain doesn’t recognize Israel.

(See also: Bahrain set to appoint Jewish woman as its ambassador to the U.S. (& Yemeni girl, 8, gets divorced) April 29, 2008.)

 

EGYPTIAN JOURNALIST’S IMPRISONMENT UPHELD FOR WRITING ABOUT MUBARAK’S HEALTH

Following up a previous item on this website: an Egyptian journalist’s conviction for writing about President Hosni Mubarak’s health was this week upheld by a Cairo appeals court.

The original sentence of six months in prison for Ibrahim Eissa was reduced to two, however. Eissa is the editor of the newspaper Al-Dustor. The court ruled that writing about Mubarak’s health was illegal and “threatened the country’s stability.”

The Mubarak dictatorship has an appalling human rights record. Mubarak has no clear successor.

 

PENTAGON APPROVES SALE OF “VERTICAL TAKEOFF” FIGHTER JETS TO ISRAEL

The U.S. Department of Defense has approved the sale of 25 F-35 stealth-enabled Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) to the Israeli Air Force (IAF). The U.S. Defense Department notified Congress on Tuesday about the $15.2 billion sale.

A Pentagon official said the sale was essential to American national interests. Lockheed Martin manufactures the jets, which are able to take off vertically (by first hovering above the ground), or (if they are carrying a heavy load) using a very short runway.

The ability for vertical or short takeoff is considered crucial in future times of war, since Israel is a very small country and Israeli bases and runways will probably be heavily targeted by Iranian and Hizbullah missiles.

Pentagon sources said eight other countries – including Britain, Turkey and Australia – are likely to be allowed to purchase the jet too.

Fearing that the United States will also sell it to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states, Israel is seeking American permission to install Israeli-made electronic systems on the jets it buys. The Israeli version will be harder for other countries to detect.

If approved by Congress in the next 30 days, Israel will likely sign an official contract with the U.S. Air Force in the coming months and begin receiving the aircraft in 2014.

Please also see the note “U.S. delivers advanced high-powered radar system to Israel” in Monday’s dispatch.

 

ISRAELI POLICE TRAINED CHINESE COUNTERPARTS PRIOR TO OLYMPICS

The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has revealed that Israeli police held secret training sessions for Chinese police officers ahead of the recent Olympic Games. The six-week course was held in Israel for about 20 selected officers of the People’s Armed Police Force, to use Israeli experience to train them for possible scenarios involving terror and civil disturbances at the Games.

The training involved, among other things, how to neutralize terrorists with their bare hands, how to deal with a crowd that riots on the playing field, and how to protect VIPS and remove demonstrators from main traffic arteries.

The Chinese officers arrived in Israel last May for the training, at the request of the Chinese public safety ministry. The training occurred at the Kiryat Eliezer soccer stadium in Haifa.

 

THERE GOES THE SUN

The New York Sun has ceased publication. The paper’s last edition was published on Tuesday, having been unable to raise fresh capital.

I have included articles from The New York Sun on various past dispatches, and the paper has also quoted from and made reference to this email list and website. Among other things, the Sun provided a more sympathetic approach to Israel to counterbalance the often unfair reporting of its much bigger rival, The New York Times.

Most print newspapers are losing advertising and circulation as a result of the rise of the Internet. The Sun’s losses were believed to be over $1 million a month.

[All notes above by Tom Gross]