[All notes below by Tom Gross]

TWITTER'S FINEST HOUR

Twitter was previously known as a website for celebrities, not revolutionaries. Now it has played a key role in enabling many around the world to show what is happening in Iran. A few media (such as Sky News) have shown video posted on YouTube via Twitter, while others, such as the BBC, have downplayed the full severity of what is happening in Iran, and not shown these videos.

(Indeed, as pointed out over the years on this website, the BBC and others have regularly failed to report on the Iranian regime's use of extreme brutality against political liberals, ethnic minorities, and homosexuals, instead preferring to incessantly criticize Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.)

With text messaging and internet sites such as Facebook, Skype, Flickr and YouTube blocked in Iran, Twitter has become a crucial tool enabling Iranians to communicate. Twitter users have played an electronic cat and mouse game to defy authorities, to post videos taken with mobile phones on YouTube abroad, and to organize protests. Twitter remains much more resistant to censorship than other websites because there are so many ways for users to post without using twitter.com

 

ROGER COHEN AND THE SWISS PRESIDENT SHOULD BE ASHAMED

Below I attach a few of the videos showing the reality of Iran's dictatorship, a reality that many international TV networks are refusing to show. Some of these videos make for gruesome viewing, though I have not included those which are too bloody to watch. Please do watch them. To state the obvious, this is not some video game or Hollywood movie. These events really happened, and they happened last week, and the leader of the free world, Barack Obama, has been extraordinarily slow to criticize them.

Those journalists who for months before the election were apologizing for Ahmadinejad and whitewashing him – journalists like New York Times and International Herald Tribune columnist Roger Cohen (and the Times editors who continued to publish him), or editors at meretricious publications like The London Review of Books – should be ashamed of themselves.

So too should the Swiss president, who only two months ago hosted a state banquet for Ahmadinejad, and the authorities at Columbia university in New York who graciously invited Ahmadinejad to address their students. (Please see previous dispatches on this list for details of the red carpet treatment Ahmadinejad has been given there and elsewhere.)

 

VIDEOS: THE REAL FACE OF AHMADINEJAD

Some of these videos are disturbing but I feel they need to be watched to understand the true nature of Iran's regime and why it should never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. You are seeing history instantly in front of your eyes.

***

Fascist blackshirts, Iranian-style. I suggest you watch this 93-second video through to the end. Remember the Iranian protestors are completely unarmed.

***

One's own home is no escape from the revolutionary guards and Basij militia. This 43-second video shows a man beaten unconscious in his own front yard. The video was shot from an upstairs neighbor's house.

***

Tehran, June 22. This 22-second video shows what the regime is willing to do to its own people. Imagine what it will do to the satanic "Jews and infidels".

***

A girl shot in the eye by security services. This 16-second video, taken at 1.42 pm on Saturday June 20, is particularly violent. It has been shown on Sky News, though not on other channels.

(The girl in the above video has been named as Neda Salehi Agha Soltan. In the above video, her father watches over as she dies, desperately asking her not to be afraid. Her funeral was supposed to be held today at Tehran's Niloufar Mosque. But the Iranian regime’s agents contacted the mosque this morning and ordered the funeral service cancelled. Other mosques have also been issued directives warning them not to hold a funeral for Neda. Thousands of her fellow students were expected to attend her funeral.)

***

Another murdered protestor (a two-second video):

***

This 23-second video shows what it is like when a pro-democracy student has been shot. Where are all those British academics and students who are constantly calling for a boycott of Israeli students and academics? Their silence now is deafening.

***

This 41-second video shows the murder of another student:

***

Ahmadinejad's thugs smash up student dorms and cars:

***

Doctors and nurses protest the regime. Their placards read (in Persian) that they don’t want to treat any more victims killed and injured by the "dictator Ahmadinejad".

***

Another dead protestor carried by the crowd:

***

There are hundreds of videos like this coming out of Iran. The brutality in cities other than Tehran where there are fewer cameras is said to be much worse.

CNN put the death toll from last Saturday alone at 150. The BBC, taking a more conservative estimate than even the regime, said only 10 innocents died that day.

A picture of one of last week's demonstrations before the Iranian revolutionary guards and Basij militia broke it up:

 

SO WERE THE NEOCONS RIGHT ALL ALONG?

President Bush said liberating Iraq would have a regional domino effect and give people a taste for freedom and democracy. Is this what we're seeing now in Iran?

As Bush said, liberty isn’t American, or British, or French. It is human. No, the morality police in Iran are not just "part of Iranian culture" as some critics of Bush have claimed. Nor are public hangings. Nor are arbitrary detentions of doctors, or Holocaust denial conferences, or the public flogging and hanging of homosexuals.

Peace comes through the spread of liberalism and democracy. Whatever the "foreign policy realists" or "regime apologists" might claim, there is little doubt in my view that should Iran become a liberal nation the world will be a safer place for all, not just a better place for Iranians.

 

FAILING TO HIGHLIGHT KHAMENEI'S CENTRAL ROLE IN THE TERROR

Just as mainstream left-leaning media such as the BBC, have failed to report properly on the central role that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei plays in crushing dissent in Iran, they have also misled viewers by telling them that all in the vast crowds protesting the regime last week were supporting the "moderate reformer" Hossein Mousavi.

Pictures of Khamenei, 70, are pasted across Iran. He has maneuvered against reform, promoted the nuclear program, is close to the feared and ruthless revolutionary guards, and has ordered increased money and weapons be provided to Hizbullah and Hamas for use against Israel.

 

MOUSAVI IS NEITHER A LIBERAL NOR AN OPPONENT OF THE ISLAMIST STATE

The "opposition" candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi is one of the fathers of Iran's nuclear program, and was prime minister during the Iran-Iraq war, directing his army to send waves of teenage suicide bombers against Iraqi forces. (He is incidentally a cousin of Ayatollah Khamenei.) He is almost as much a hardliner of the regime as the "victor" President Ahmadinejad is. That is why he was one of just four candidates (out of over 4000 people who applied) allowed by the regime to stand in this stage-managed presidential election.

All four regime-approved candidates have long been involved in the regime's reign of terror. For example, Mousavi was responsible for ordering the execution of 30,000 Iraqi prisoners.

 

THE TRUE IRANIAN OPPOSITION IS STILL BEING IGNORED

The BBC and others continue to ignore real opposition to the dictatorship, supported by many of the demonstrators, such as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political umbrella coalition of five Iranian opposition political organizations, including secular democrats, led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi from exile in Paris. Several times last week, the Supreme Leader acknowledged this in his public statements. But the Western media has hardly mentioned the NCRI, even though in Paris on Saturday, tens of thousands of its supporters staged the largest ever demonstration by Iranians outside Iran.

As usual, the BBC, the world's largest news broadcaster, gets so much of its Middle East reporting wrong. This is not a battle between a hard-line reactionary Ahmadinejad and a "moderate reformist" Mousavi. It is a battle between rival factions of a ruthless and dangerous regime.

 

KHAMENEI AT PRAYER, RESTING ON THE BARREL OF A GUN

Here is a small detail from Saturday's coverage of Khamenei's Friday sermon in the 23rd paragraph of a story in The Washington Post:

"But Khamenei's comments rejecting significant irregularities appeared to preempt the council's probe. As Khamenei arrived to lead the Friday prayers, a sea of fists punched the air, and thousands of supporters roared their greetings: 'Our blood in our veins is for you, O Leader!' Khamenei smiled, raising his hand, which was resting on the barrel of a gun, to calm the audience."

It is in fact common for Khamenei to do this, although the Western media usually avoid mentioning or showing pictures of it. Here, as an exception, is a picture from two years ago.

Of course, in the context of this past Friday's sermon, for Khamenei to do so is particularly chilling.

 

THE LIST: IRAN'S WORST CLERICS

At the end of this dispatch, I attach a list of "Iran's Worst Clerics": five hard-line mullahs who stand in the way of any liberalization.

Here are extracts for those who don't have time to read the item in full:

* Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Chairman of the Guardian Council, the 12 member group that oversees elections and is tasked with ensuring Iran's government complies with the principals of the Islamic state. The 82-year old Jannati regularly uses his Friday sermons to call for the destruction of Israel and the United States and to encourage Iranians to support Hizbullah in Lebanon and an Islamic state in Iraq.

* Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the group that chooses Iran's supreme leader. Yazdi has publicly supported the use of suicide bombing against the enemies of Islam and the use of death squads against political reformers. He is often described as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor, though at times, even the incumbent president has been too moderate for him. When Ahmadinejad tried to change the law to allow women to attend soccer matches, he was publicly rebuked by Yazdi.

Yazdi, like Ahmadinejad, believes in the return of the 12th Imam as the final act in the preparations for the end of the world. There has been speculation that Yazdi will succeed Khamenei as supreme leader.

* Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi. A grand ayatollah, the highest rank for Shi'ite clerics, Shirazi was very politically active before and during the 1979 revolution and played a key role in writing the Islamic Republic's constitution. He's written that men should be permitted to beat their wives for failing to perform their sexual obligations.

* Ayatollah Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, Iran's prosecutor general. He earned some ridicule in the West for calling Barbie dolls and Harry Potter a "Zionist plot to undermine Islam" (as reported previously on this email list) but in Iran he is known and feared for his brutality and is said to have had a hand in many major atrocities over the years.

* Hojjatol-Islam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the Minister of intelligence and security. He played a key role in the trial and brief imprisonment recently of American journalist Roxanna Saberi. He has been equally prominent in quashing dissent during the current unrest.

 

WAS DENNIS ROSS OUSTED AS U.S. ENVOY TO IRAN BECAUSE HE REFUSED TO TAKE ANTI-ISRAEL POSITIONS?

On February 24 this year, Dennis Ross was appointed as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's advisor on the Persian Gulf and as special envoy to Iran.

In the coming days, he will abruptly be relieved of his duties, sources in Washington have confirmed to the Israeli paper Ha'aretz. An official announcement is expected shortly.

The Obama administration will announce that Ross has been reassigned to another position in the White House, reports the paper. In his new post, the former Mideast peace envoy under President Bill Clinton will deal primarily with regional issues related to the peace process.

Washington insiders speculate that Ross is being reassigned because he is regarded as too fair to Israel and he argued with others in the Obama administration against a linkage between the Palestinian issue and America's policy against Iran's nuclear ambitions. Ross maintains contacts with senior officials in Israel's defense establishment and the Israeli government. (Ross is also a subscriber to this email list.)

It is possible, however, that if Ross is based in the White House in future, he will gain better access to Obama.

 

BRITISH AMBASSADOR AND HIZBULLAH DEPUTY HOLD MEETING

In spite of, or perhaps because of Supreme Leader Khamenei's attack on Britain, the British government continues to appease the Iranian-created Lebanese Shia terror group Hizbullah. The British are making a nonsensical distinction (denied even by Hizbullah itself) that the "political wing" and "military wing" of the organization are separate.

The London based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Friday that:

"Almost three months after Britain announced it would pursue a more open policy toward Hizbullah, the first public meeting took place yesterday between the two sides. British Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Mary Guy visited Hizbullah Deputy Muhammad Raid in his office in parliament in central Beirut.

"A Hizbullah official told Asharq Al-Awsat that the meeting was held at Britain's request while a British Foreign Office source said the timing after the [Lebanese] elections was a coincidence and that the two sides had agreed to hold a meeting some time ago but did not have the time for this until now and referred to Hizbullah's preoccupation with the preparations for the elections."

 

PERES, MERKEL, MCCAIN SPEAK OUT STRONGLY, WHILE OBAMA'S MEEK RESPONSE IS CRITICIZED

Israeli President Shimon Peres, commenting on the unrest in Iran, said yesterday that he hoped the current Iranian government would be ousted from office.

"Let the young people raise their voice of freedom for a positive policy. Let the Iranian women, who are a very courageous group of people, voice their thirst for equality, for freedom," Peres said in a meeting with visiting American Jews in Jerusalem.

"I really don't know what will disappear first, their enriched uranium, or their wretched government," Peres continued. "Hopefully, the wretched government will disappear."

Conservative politicians, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, have been outspoken in their criticism of Iran's government and elections, and on behalf of human rights.

By contrast, U.S. President Barack Obama is coming under increased criticism, even from members of his own Democrat party, for his extremely mild response. Others in his administration have also, on Obama's instructions, given only very cautious responses.

Even after many unarmed peaceful Iranian protestors had been murdered, Vice-President Joe Biden said "We're going to withhold comment... mean we're just waiting to see." And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide."

On the other hand, U.S. Senator John McCain, last year's defeated Republican presidential candidate, made strong comments calling the Iranian government a "brutal dictatorship" which "orchestrated this sham election" and saying that "America should be acting as a symbol of hope for the Iranian people."

 

HAMAS, SYRIA HAIL AHMADINEJAD "VICTORY"

The brutal regime of Syria (which some Western governments are trying to fool themselves is a force for moderation in the Middle East) and the Islamist group Hamas, have hailed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "victory".

"The results of the elections in Iran show the wide public support for Iran's policy of challenge [to the United States, to the existence of Israel and to the truth about the Holocaust]," Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a statement.

Syrian President Bashir Assad sent Ahmadinejad a cable in which he offered Ahmadinejad his "best wishes for progress and prosperity," AFP reported, quoting the Syrian news agency SANA.

Hamas, like Hizbullah in Lebanon, is widely viewed as an Iranian client militia, receiving financial and military support from the Islamic Republic.

 

ARAB LEAGUE CHIEF CONGRATULATES AHMADINEJAD

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, also congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory, but voiced Arab concerns over Iran's nuclear program.

"We hope that the next term would witness progress on the relations between Iran and the Arab world and cooperation in establishing peace in the Middle East," he said.

"Also that the security, regional security in the region will be paramount in working together to free the region from all weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons."

 

PAKISTANI LEADERS CONGRATULATE AHMADINEJAD

Iran's state-controlled Fars news agency reports:

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in separate messages extended their congratulations to the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his landslide triumph in 10th presidential election in Iran.

"This is indeed testimony of the confidence of the people of Iran in your leadership qualities and an acknowledgement of your outstanding services," Pakistani President Zardari said in his message.

He also wished further expansion for Tehran-Islamabad ties in a near future based on close, brotherly relations. "I wish you every success and ever greater prosperity for the brotherly people of Iran. Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration," he reiterated.

Meantime, Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani said in his message, "It gives me immense pleasure to congratulate you on your well deserved re-election as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

"On behalf of the government and people of Pakistan, I wish to convey to you and our Iranian brothers every success, peace, happiness and prosperity."

Pakistan's Prime Minister also said, "We are determined to further strengthen our cooperative ties in a comprehensive manner. I have no doubt that our close brotherly relations will strengthen and attain new heights in the years ahead."

Ahmadinejad won a second term in office after gaining 24,527,516 votes from a total number of 39,165,191 ballots cast in the boxes, which accounts for 62.63% of the votes. His main rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi could secure only 13,216,411 (33.75%) of the votes. The ministry's election headquarters also put the rate of public participation at 85%.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8803240990

[Tom Gross adds: The above item comes from Iranian government sources and has not been independently verified.]

 

UPDATE: ROGER COHEN ON ROGER COHEN

Roger Cohen has now demonstrated a small glimmering of self-awareness:

He wrote in The New York Times: "I’ve argued for engagement with Iran and I still believe in it, although, in the name of the millions defrauded, President Obama’s outreach must now await a decent interval.

"I’ve also argued that, although repressive, the Islamic Republic offers significant margins of freedom by regional standards. I erred in underestimating the brutality and cynicism of a regime that understands the uses of ruthlessness."

[All notes above by Tom Gross]

THE FIGHT OVER IRAN’S FUTURE IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING

Tomorrow I will post a dispatch (titled: Twitter 1, BBC 0) exploring the current situation in Iran in more depth, with various videos and notes of my own. Meanwhile below, I attach four articles by others, exploring the aftermath of the rigged Iranian election, the uprising which has followed, and the response or lack of response by Western leaders.

I have prepared summaries of the articles first for those who don’t have time to read them in full, though I recommend reading the full pieces if you can.

-- Tom Gross

 

CARTOON: OBAMA’S 3 AM PHONE CALL

As mentioned in a previous dispatch, the Israeli cartoonist, Dry Bones, who is no longer with The Jerusalem Post, has given me permission to reproduce his cartoons on my website. His latest cartoon can be seen here:

 

SUMMARIES

SPOKEN LIKE A GOOD LAWYER

In an editorial last Thursday, The Wall Street Journal writes:

The President yesterday denounced the “extent of the fraud” and the “shocking” and “brutal” response of the Iranian regime to public demonstrations in Tehran these past four days.

“These elections are an atrocity,” he said. “If [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad had made such progress since the last elections, if he won two-thirds of the vote, why such violence?” The statement named the regime as the cause of the outrage in Iran and, without meddling or picking favorites, stood up for Iranian democracy.

The President who spoke those words was France’s Nicolas Sarkozy.

The French are hardly known for their idealistic foreign policy and moral fortitude. Then again many global roles are reversing in the era of Obama. The American President didn’t have anything to say the first two days after polls closed in Iran on Friday.

… When Obama finally did find his voice, he sounded like a good lawyer. Mr. Obama didn’t call the vote fraudulent, though he did allow that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election.” This is a generous interpretation of the Supreme Leader’s effort to defuse public rage by mooting a possible recount of select precincts. “How that plays out,” Mr. Obama said, “is ultimately for the Iranian people to decide.” Sort of like the 2000 Florida recount, no doubt.

… The Iranian rebellion, though too soon to call a revolution, is turning out to be that 3 a.m. phone call for Mr. Obama. As a French President shows up the American on moral clarity, Hillary Clinton’s point about his inexperience and instincts in a crisis is turning out to be prescient.

 

THE U.S. SHOULD VIGOROUSLY DEFEND A FREE IRAN

In the second article below, Michael Singh, the former senior director for Middle East affairs at the U.S. government’s National Security Council, writes on the website of Foreign Policy magazine:

While the remarkable turmoil in the aftermath of Iran’s presidential election has captured the world’s attention, other news relating to Iran has slipped by relatively unnoticed. Last week, the head of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency told Congress that Iran and North Korea were cooperating on ballistic missiles*. Diplomats in Vienna told the press that Iran had denied an IAEA request to install additional monitoring cameras at the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, and IAEA director-general Mohammad ElBaradei asserted that Iran desires nuclear weapons.

… The juxtaposition of these activities with the ferment in the streets of Tehran reveals two altogether different Irans struggling with one another – one marked by political dynamism and a hunger for justice, and another that is autocratic, bent on projecting power, and in which elected officials have little influence.

… This begs the question: Upon which Iran should U.S. policy be focused? Can the United States successfully support freedom in Iran without endangering its “tough diplomacy” aimed at the Iranian nuclear threat?

In formulating an answer, it is important to note that prospects for U.S.-Iran engagement, never too great, have been diminished by the election and its aftermath. The Iranian regime’s willingness to flout international opinion and the yearnings of its own people reveals either overconfidence or, conversely, serious insecurity. A cautious regime might see an opportunity in President Obama’s offer of dialogue, but a regime that is either supremely confident or shakily insecure is unlikely to grasp Obama’s outstretched hand. A confident regime is likely to dismiss the consequences of defiance, and an insecure one will see any opening to the West as a threat rather than a prize.

… Nevertheless, whatever chances exist for successful engagement with the Iranian regime will not be dimmed by a vigorous defense of the rights of the Iranian people; rather, those prospects would paradoxically be enhanced.

… Some have argued that Iranians will naturally resent any perceived involvement by foreign powers in their affairs, citing as an example the American-backed overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadeq in 1953. This reading of history strains credulity. Iranians’ wariness of outside powers arises in large part from Western indifference to the oppression of Iranians and failure to support their struggle for justice, whether in the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-11, or during the Mossadeq era. Iranians do not want outsiders, including the United States, to pick winners in their elections. But silence in the face of a violent crackdown in Iran would compound these historical errors, not reverse them…

* [TG adds: Japanese intelligence sources say North Korean nuclear personnel are packing up and leaving Iran, though perhaps only temporarily. They don’t want to be around to take the flak if the protestors win, and they don’t want information about their activities in Iran to be revealed.]

 

AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI: THE ELECTION IS A “MIRACLE” AND A “TRIUMPH FOR ISLAM”

In the third article below, Amir Taheri, probably the leading Iranian journalist and author working in the West (and a longtime subscriber to this email list), writes in today’s Sunday Times of London:

Just before noon on Friday, June 19, the Islamic republic died in Iran. Its death was announced by its “supreme guide”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had come to praise the system but buried it instead. Khamenei was addressing supporters on the campus of Tehran University, transformed into a mosque for the occasion. Many had expected him to speak as a guide, an arbiter of disputes – a voice for national reconciliation. Instead, he spoke as a rabble rouser and a tinpot despot.

… Elections in the Islamic republic resembled primaries in American political parties in which all candidates are from the same political family but the contest is free and fair. The June 12 election was exceptional because three of the four candidates challenged the results.

Once the initial shock had passed, everyone looked to the supreme leader to find a way out of the impasse. Instead, Khamenei came out with a long lyrical monologue, hailing the election as a “miracle” and a “triumph for Islam”. Never before had Khamenei commented on the results of elections beyond accepting them as an expression of the popular will. The Khomeinist system was supposed to be 80% theocracy and 20% democracy, regardless of how bizarre the combination looked.

On Friday, the 20% democratic part disappeared, as Iran was transformed from an Islamic republic into an Islamic emirate headed by the Emir al-Momeneen (Commander of the Faithful) Ali Khamenei…

… Today there are two Irans. One is prepared to support Khamenei’s bid to transform the republic into an emirate in the service of the Islamic cause. Then there is a second Iran – one that wishes to cease to be a cause and yearns to be an ordinary nation. This Iran has not yet found its ultimate leaders…

 

PRESIDENT AHMADINELANDSLIDE

In the fourth article below, American-based Canadian commentator Mark Steyn (who is also a subscriber to this email list), writes:

The polite explanation for Barack Obama’s diffidence on Iran is that he doesn’t want to give the mullahs the excuse to say the Great Satan is meddling in Tehran’s affairs. So the president’s official position is that he’s modestly encouraged by the regime’s supposed interest in investigating some of the allegations of fraud. “You’ve seen in Iran,” explained President Obama, “some initial reaction from the Supreme Leader that indicates he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election …”

“Supreme Leader”? I thought that was official house style for Barack Obama at Newsweek and MSNBC. But no. It’s also the title held by Ayatollah Khamenei for the last couple of decades. If it sounds odd from the lips of an American president, that’s because none has ever been as deferential in observing the Islamic republic’s dictatorial protocol. Like President Obama’s deep, ostentatious bow to the king of Saudi Arabia, it signals a fresh start in our relations with the Muslim world, “mutually respectful” and unilaterally fawning.

And how did it go down? At Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei attacked “dirty Zionists” and “bad British radio”. “The most evil of them all is the British government,” added the supreme leader, warming to his theme. The crowd, including President Ahmadinelandslide and his cabinet, chanted, “Death to the U.K.”

Her Majesty’s Government brought this on themselves by allowing their shoot-from-the-lip prime minister to issue saber-rattling threats like: “The regime must address the serious questions which have been asked about the conduct of the Iranian elections.”

Fortunately, President Obama was far more judicious. And in return, instead of denouncing him as “evil” and deploring the quality of his radio programming, Ayatollah Khamenei said Obama’s “agents” had been behind the protests: “They started to cause riots in the street, they caused destruction, they burnt houses.” …

 

SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS ON IRAN FROM TODAY’S ISRAELI PRESS

For those of you interested, here is a summary of editorials on the Iranian situation from newspapers in Israel:

Yediot Ahronot says that opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi “is merely the platform. He is not the story. The real story is the brave soccer players wearing green armbands. The real story is the beaten and shot-at masses in the streets. The real story is the women who are refusing to be quiet beneath head-coverings and are demanding freedom now.”

Ma’ariv believes that “It is difficult to tell how the ongoing riots in Tehran will end; however, one thing may be determined with certainty – The first seeds of a popular revolution have been sown, the results of which could lead to the crumbling of the existing Islamic regime… Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is now on the horns of a serious dilemma – to crack down hard and risk inflaming the protests further or to respond with restraint and risk appearing weak, which could also increase the numbers of protestors.

Yisrael Hayom argues that “Unless America responds with credible strength to what is happening in North Korea and in Iran, Obama’s vision will remain a pipedream,” and adds that “While George Bush gave a bad name to the forceful intervention of the U.S. against the axis of evil, Obama’s withdrawal from what Samuel Huntington referred to as ‘the clash of civilizations’ in favor of conciliating the dictators in Tehran and Pyongyang is liable to be disastrous for all humanity… President Obama should learn from the example of former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as well as from the examples of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, when freedom fighters were abandoned to their fate.”

SPEECH BY BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, JUNE 14, 2009

www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/PMSpeaks/speechbarilan140609.htm

Honored guests,

Citizens of Israel.

Peace has always been our people’s most ardent desire. Our prophets gave the world the vision of peace, we greet one another with wishes of peace, and our prayers conclude with the word peace.

We are gathered this evening in an institution named for two pioneers of peace, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and we share in their vision.

Two and half months ago, I took the oath of office as the Prime Minister of Israel. I pledged to establish a national unity government – and I did. I believed and I still believe that unity was essential for us now more than ever as we face three immense challenges – the Iranian threat, the economic crisis, and the advancement of peace.

The Iranian threat looms large before us, as was further demonstrated yesterday. The greatest danger confronting Israel, the Middle East, the entire world and human race, is the nexus between radical Islam and nuclear weapons. I discussed this issue with President Obama during my recent visit to Washington, and I will raise it again in my meetings next week with European leaders. For years, I have been working tirelessly to forge an international alliance to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Confronting a global economic crisis, the government acted swiftly to stabilize Israel’s economy. We passed a two year budget in the government – and the Knesset will soon approve it.

And the third challenge, so exceedingly important, is the advancement of peace. I also spoke about this with President Obama, and I fully support the idea of a regional peace that he is leading.

I share the President’s desire to bring about a new era of reconciliation in our region. To this end, I met with President Mubarak in Egypt, and King Abdullah in Jordan, to elicit the support of these leaders in expanding the circle of peace in our region.

I turn to all Arab leaders tonight and I say: “Let us meet. Let us speak of peace and let us make peace. I am ready to meet with you at any time. I am willing to go to Damascus, to Riyadh, to Beirut, to any place- including Jerusalem.

I call on the Arab countries to cooperate with the Palestinians and with us to advance an economic peace. An economic peace is not a substitute for a political peace, but an important element to achieving it. Together, we can undertake projects to overcome the scarcities of our region, like water desalination or to maximize its advantages, like developing solar energy, or laying gas and petroleum lines, and transportation links between Asia, Africa and Europe.

The economic success of the Gulf States has impressed us all and it has impressed me. I call on the talented entrepreneurs of the Arab world to come and invest here and to assist the Palestinians – and us – in spurring the economy.

Together, we can develop industrial areas that will generate thousands of jobs and create tourist sites that will attract millions of visitors eager to walk in the footsteps of history – in Nazareth and in Bethlehem, around the walls of Jericho and the walls of Jerusalem, on the banks of the Sea of Galilee and the baptismal site of the Jordan.

There is an enormous potential for archeological tourism, if we can only learn to cooperate and to develop it.

I turn to you, our Palestinian neighbors, led by the Palestinian Authority, and I say: Let’s begin negotiations immediately without preconditions.

Israel is obligated by its international commitments and expects all parties to keep their commitments.

We want to live with you in peace, as good neighbors. We want our children and your children to never again experience war: that parents, brothers and sisters will never again know the agony of losing loved ones in battle; that our children will be able to dream of a better future and realize that dream; and that together we will invest our energies in plowshares and pruning hooks, not swords and spears.

I know the face of war. I have experienced battle. I lost close friends, I lost a brother. I have seen the pain of bereaved families. I do not want war. No one in Israel wants war.

If we join hands and work together for peace, there is no limit to the development and prosperity we can achieve for our two peoples – in the economy, agriculture, trade, tourism and education - most importantly, in providing our youth a better world in which to live, a life full of tranquility, creativity, opportunity and hope.

If the advantages of peace are so evident, we must ask ourselves why peace remains so remote, even as our hand remains outstretched to peace? Why has this conflict continued for more than sixty years?

In order to bring an end to the conflict, we must give an honest and forthright answer to the question: What is the root of the conflict?

In his speech to the first Zionist Conference in Basel, the founder of the Zionist movement, Theodore Herzl, said about the Jewish national home “This idea is so big that we must speak of it only in the simplest terms.” Today, I will speak about the immense challenge of peace in the simplest words possible.

Even as we look toward the horizon, we must be firmly connected to reality, to the truth. And the simple truth is that the root of the conflict was, and remains, the refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own, in their historic homeland.

In 1947, when the United Nations proposed the partition plan of a Jewish state and an Arab state, the entire Arab world rejected the resolution. The Jewish community, by contrast, welcomed it by dancing and rejoicing.

The Arabs rejected any Jewish state, in any borders.

Those who think that the continued enmity toward Israel is a product of our presence in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, is confusing cause and consequence.

The attacks against us began in the 1920s, escalated into a comprehensive attack in 1948 with the declaration of Israel’s independence, continued with the fedayeen attacks in the 1950s, and climaxed in 1967, on the eve of the six-day war, in an attempt to tighten a noose around the neck of the State of Israel.

All this occurred during the fifty years before a single Israeli soldier ever set foot in Judea and Samaria.

Fortunately, Egypt and Jordan left this circle of enmity. The signing of peace treaties have brought about an end to their claims against Israel, an end to the conflict. But to our regret, this is not the case with the Palestinians. The closer we get to an agreement with them, the further they retreat and raise demands that are inconsistent with a true desire to end the conflict.

Many good people have told us that withdrawal from territories is the key to peace with the Palestinians. Well, we withdrew. But the fact is that every withdrawal was met with massive waves of terror, by suicide bombers and thousands of missiles.

We tried to withdraw with an agreement and without an agreement. We tried a partial withdrawal and a full withdrawal. In 2000 and again last year, Israel proposed an almost total withdrawal in exchange for an end to the conflict, and twice our offers were rejected.

We evacuated every last inch of the Gaza strip, we uprooted tens of settlements and evicted thousands of Israelis from their homes, and in response, we received a hail of missiles on our cities, towns and children.

The claim that territorial withdrawals will bring peace with the Palestinians, or at least advance peace, has up till now not stood the test of reality.

In addition to this, Hamas in the south, like Hezbollah in the north, repeatedly proclaims their commitment to “liberate” the Israeli cities of Ashkelon, Beersheba, Acre and Haifa.

Territorial withdrawals have not lessened the hatred, and to our regret, Palestinian moderates are not yet ready to say the simple words: Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and it will stay that way.

Achieving peace will require courage and candor from both sides, and not only from the Israeli side.

The Palestinian leadership must arise and say: “Enough of this conflict. We recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own in this land, and we are prepared to live beside you in true peace.”

I am yearning for that moment, for when Palestinian leaders say those words to our people and to their people, then a path will be opened to resolving all the problems between our peoples, no matter how complex they may be.

Therefore, a fundamental prerequisite for ending the conflict is a public, binding and unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.

To vest this declaration with practical meaning, there must also be a clear understanding that the Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel’s borders. For it is clear that any demand for resettling Palestinian refugees within Israel undermines Israel’s continued existence as the state of the Jewish people.

The Palestinian refugee problem must be solved, and it can be solved, as we ourselves proved in a similar situation. Tiny Israel successfully absorbed tens of thousands of Jewish refugees who left their homes and belongings in Arab countries.

Therefore, justice and logic demand that the Palestinian refugee problem be solved outside Israel’s borders. On this point, there is a broad national consensus. I believe that with goodwill and international investment, this humanitarian problem can be permanently resolved.

So far I have spoken about the need for Palestinians to recognize our rights. In am moment, I will speak openly about our need to recognize their rights.

But let me first say that the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has lasted for more than 3500 years. Judea and Samaria, the places where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David and Solomon, and Isaiah and Jeremiah lived, are not alien to us. This is the land of our forefathers.

The right of the Jewish people to a state in the land of Israel does not derive from the catastrophes that have plagued our people. True, for 2000 years the Jewish people suffered expulsions, pogroms, blood libels, and massacres which culminated in a Holocaust - a suffering which has no parallel in human history.

There are those who say that if the Holocaust had not occurred, the state of Israel would never have been established. But I say that if the state of Israel would have been established earlier, the Holocaust would not have occurred.

This tragic history of powerlessness explains why the Jewish people need a sovereign power of self-defense.

But our right to build our sovereign state here, in the land of Israel, arises from one simple fact: this is the homeland of the Jewish people, this is where our identity was forged.

As Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence: “The Jewish people arose in the land of Israel and it was here that its spiritual, religious and political character was shaped. Here they attained their sovereignty, and here they bequeathed to the world their national and cultural treasures, and the most eternal of books.”

But we must also tell the truth in its entirety: within this homeland lives a large Palestinian community. We do not want to rule over them, we do not want to govern their lives, we do not want to impose either our flag or our culture on them.

In my vision of peace, in this small land of ours, two peoples live freely, side-by-side, in amity and mutual respect. Each will have its own flag, its own national anthem, its own government. Neither will threaten the security or survival of the other.

These two realities – our connection to the land of Israel, and the Palestinian population living within it – have created deep divisions in Israeli society. But the truth is that we have much more that unites us than divides us.

I have come tonight to give expression to that unity, and to the principles of peace and security on which there is broad agreement within Israeli society. These are the principles that guide our policy.

This policy must take into account the international situation that has recently developed. We must recognize this reality and at the same time stand firmly on those principles essential for Israel.

I have already stressed the first principle – recognition. Palestinians must clearly and unambiguously recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The second principle is: demilitarization. The territory under Palestinian control must be demilitarized with ironclad security provisions for Israel.

Without these two conditions, there is a real danger that an armed Palestinian state would emerge that would become another terrorist base against the Jewish state, such as the one in Gaza.

We don’t want Kassam rockets on Petach Tikva, Grad rockets on Tel Aviv, or missiles on Ben-Gurion airport. We want peace.

In order to achieve peace, we must ensure that Palestinians will not be able to import missiles into their territory, to field an army, to close their airspace to us, or to make pacts with the likes of Hezbollah and Iran. On this point as well, there is wide consensus within Israel.

It is impossible to expect us to agree in advance to the principle of a Palestinian state without assurances that this state will be demilitarized.

On a matter so critical to the existence of Israel, we must first have our security needs addressed.

Therefore, today we ask our friends in the international community, led by the United States, for what is critical to the security of Israel: Clear commitments that in a future peace agreement, the territory controlled by the Palestinians will be demilitarized: namely, without an army, without control of its airspace, and with effective security measures to prevent weapons smuggling into the territory – real monitoring, and not what occurs in Gaza today. And obviously, the Palestinians will not be able to forge military pacts.

Without this, sooner or later, these territories will become another Hamastan. And that we cannot accept.

I told President Obama when I was in Washington that if we could agree on the substance, then the terminology would not pose a problem.

And here is the substance that I now state clearly:

If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitirization and Israel’s security needs, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state.

Regarding the remaining important issues that will be discussed as part of the final settlement, my positions are known: Israel needs defensible borders, and Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel with continued religious freedom for all faiths.

The territorial question will be discussed as part of the final peace agreement. In the meantime, we have no intention of building new settlements or of expropriating additional land for existing settlements.

But there is a need to enable the residents to live normal lives, to allow mothers and fathers to raise their children like families elsewhere. The settlers are neither the enemies of the people nor the enemies of peace. Rather, they are an integral part of our people, a principled, pioneering and Zionist public.

Unity among us is essential and will help us achieve reconciliation with our neighbors. That reconciliation must already begin by altering existing realities. I believe that a strong Palestinian economy will strengthen peace.

If the Palestinians turn toward peace – in fighting terror, in strengthening governance and the rule of law, in educating their children for peace and in stopping incitement against Israel - we will do our part in making every effort to facilitate freedom of movement and access, and to enable them to develop their economy. All of this will help us advance a peace treaty between us.

Above all else, the Palestinians must decide between the path of peace and the path of Hamas. The Palestinian Authority will have to establish the rule of law in Gaza and overcome Hamas. Israel will not sit at the negotiating table with terrorists who seek their destruction.

Hamas will not even allow the Red Cross to visit our kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, who has spent three years in captivity, cut off from his parents, his family and his people. We are committed to bringing him home, healthy and safe.

With a Palestinian leadership committed to peace, with the active participation of the Arab world, and the support of the United States and the international community, there is no reason why we cannot achieve a breakthrough to peace.

Our people have already proven that we can do the impossible. Over the past 61 years, while constantly defending our existence, we have performed wonders.

Our microchips are powering the world’s computers. Our medicines are treating diseases once considered incurable. Our drip irrigation is bringing arid lands back to life across the globe. And Israeli scientists are expanding the boundaries of human knowledge.

If only our neighbors would respond to our call – peace too will be in our reach.

I call on the leaders of the Arab world and on the Palestinian leadership, let us continue together on the path of Menahem Begin and Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein. Let us realize the vision of the prophet Isaiah, who in Jerusalem 2700 years ago said: “nations shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall learn war no more.”

With God’s help, we will know no more war. We will know peace.

[Note by Tom Gross]

NOT MERE ARMCHAIR COMMENTARY

This dispatch is a little different from my regular “Middle East dispatches”. I attach below, with their permission, email correspondence which took place last week between a U.S. Army Major currently stationed on the Iraq-Iran border, and a LTC (Res.) in the IAF (Israeli Airforce). The two have become friends. Both are subscribers to this email list. I have removed their names to protect their privacy.

The American writes late at night, asking what is the point of staying in Iraq until the end of August 2010 (the date by which President Obama has promised to withdraw most troops), since nothing will be gained strategically for the U.S. by staying another 15 months if the Americans are going to leave then anyway. Yet he says that although nothing will be gained, more American troops will be killed and injured and another $168 billion of American tax-payers’ money will be spent.

The American raises some very thoughtful points, based on frontline observations and long experience.

HEARTFELT REACTIONS FROM FIGHTING MEN

The Israeli then responds with particularly powerful answers that go to the very heart of America’s role in the world. He sets America’s role in a deeper historical perspective, and I think his arguments are well worth reading in full for those of you who have time.

I then attach a third email in which the American replies to the Israeli, making more good points.

This isn’t the end of the debate of course, and I know that this Israeli, indeed most Israelis, would dispute the idea that Iran would most likely not use or threaten to use a nuclear device. For Israel, a nuclear Iran and the resultant nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East and beyond, is an existential threat.

These are serious, thoughtful men who are actually living through the situation they discuss. This is not mere armchair commentary. These are the reflections of men who are involved body and soul in the issues at stake.

-- Tom Gross

[All notes below by Tom Gross]

WASHINGTON POST: ABBAS DOESN’T SEEM TOO INTERESTED IN PEACE

I attach three pieces taking a hard-headed look at U.S. President Barack Obama’s much billed “address to the Muslim world” that he is due to deliver at Cairo University tomorrow.

Given the heavy pro-Obama slant in reporting in major Western media regarding Middle East matters in particular, I think it is worth reading these pieces for an alternative view.

The full articles are attached further down this dispatch. There are extracts first for those who haven’t got time to read the full articles, and also various other notes by myself.

***

The fourth and final article (which is not summarized but is quite short) is also worth reading in full. As The Washington Post notes, “In the Obama administration, so far, it’s easy being Palestinian.”

Of some importance, the Post also confirms Abbas turned down a very good offer for an independent Palestinian state from Israel’s former left-leaning prime minister Ehud Olmert last year.

The Post breaks with the rest of the liberal media by noting Abbas is a “hardliner” and also says: “Abbas – usually described as the most moderate of Palestinian leaders – last year helped doom Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, by rejecting a generous outline for Palestinian statehood.”

Olmert’s Kadima government offered Abbas 97 percent of the West Bank (plus land swaps in Israel proper to make up the difference), and major concessions on refugees and Jerusalem. Abbas turned him down.

The Washington Post reveals Abbas’s Five Noes: Would he negotiate with Benjamin Netanyahu without preconditions? No. Would he recognize Israel as a Jewish state? No. Would he consider territorial compromise? No. Would he compromise on the refugee issue? No. Would he modify the Arab Peace Initiative to make it a more viable negotiating tool? No.

And yet a few hours after his candid talk with the Post in Washington last week, Abbas, sitting next to Obama in the Oval Office, told the assembled reporters in a press conference carried live by television stations across the world: “Time is of the essence.” Abbas said Israel needed to resume talks “right now” and blamed Israel for the deadlock. And the rest of the media once again seemed to be fooled by Abbas, the man who for four decades was Yasser Arafat’s trusted deputy as head of the PLO.

 

ASIA TIMES: OBAMA’S SPEECH TO THE “MUSLIM WORLD” WILL MERELY HELP THE ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS

The first piece below, an editorial column in yesterday’s Asia Times, warns Obama that his naïve Western outlook will do more harm than good. The writer argues that since there is no such thing as a “Muslim world” – any more than there is some kind of unified “Christian world” – Obama is merely helping to boost the Muslim extremist position by pretending there is. And by choosing Cairo for such an “address to the Muslim world” on Thursday, Obama is compounding his mistake, the writer explains.

EXTRACTS OF ASIA TIMES ARTICLE

Why should the president of the United States address the “Muslim world,” as Barack Obama will do in Egypt this Thursday? What would happen if the leader of a big country addressed the “Christian world”? Half the world would giggle and the other half would sulk. There is no such thing as a Christian world, of course; there hasn’t been since the Great Schism of 1054, even less so since the Reformation. Europe’s nations agreed at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 to subordinate the confessional to political sovereignty. America, the new model of a nation, kept church separate from state. To utter the words “Christian world” would persuade the Muslim world that a foul conspiracy was afoot, perhaps a new Crusade…

What does it mean to address the “Muslim world”? As a matter of practice, the Muslim world is just as fractured as the Christian world, even more so in the absence of any religious authority like the Catholic Church, which claims doctrinal authority over a billion people…

To speak to the “Muslim world” is to speak not to a fact, but rather to an aspiration, and that is the aspiration that Islam shall be a global state religion as its founders intended. To address this aspiration is to breathe life into it…

Obama, the White House press office told reporters last week, will address among other issues the Arab-Israeli issue. What does it imply to raise this issue in a speech to the “Muslim world”? Nearly 700 million of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims live in Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, countries which share no linguistic or cultural affinities with the Arabs, and have only religion in common. They have no strategic interest whatever in the outcome of war or peace in the Levant. Their only possible interest is religious. Does the United States really believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is religious in origin? …

It is quite possible for the state of Israel to live in peace with nation-states whose population is mainly Muslim, to be sure. Israel has done so since 1975 with Egypt and Jordan, and has until recently maintained excellent relations with Turkey. Until the Ruhollah Khomeini revolution of 1979, Israel was an ally and arms supplier of Iran. As a matter of national interest, many Muslim-majority countries may seek peaceful and even friendly relations with the Jewish state, irrespective of what the dictates of Islamic theology might be. Rather than addressing nations with national interest, though, Obama is addressing Muslims, over the heads as it were of majority-Muslim nation states.

Even though the Koran mentions Jerusalem not once (against 832 times in the Hebrew Bible and 161 times in the New Testament), later Muslim tradition makes Jerusalem a Muslim holy place. No Muslim religious authority in Asia or Africa can or will rule that Islam can tolerate a Jewish state in Palestine with its capital in Jerusalem. There are a few Muslim voices in Europe and the US favorably disposed to co-existence with the Jewish state, but they are whispers against the roar of an ocean…

By addressing the “Islamic world” from Cairo, Obama lends credibility to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and other advocates of political Islam who demand that Muslims be addressed globally and on religious terms – in contradistinction to nationalists such as Mubarak. Rather than buttress a loyal ally, Obama’s speech undermines him on his home ground. That is a lose-lose proposition…

(Full article below.)

 

WESTERN MEDIA MYTHS ABOUT POOR U.S.-ARAB RELATIONS

Tom Gross adds: In spite of what some Western media (notably the BBC World Service) keep on telling us, there are indications that America’s image in the Arab world improved in many ways during the Bush era. Since 2003, the number of popular anti-American street protests in the Arab world declined sharply compared to the 1980s and 1990s. The number of Arab citizens granted visas to visit the U.S. steadily increased in the Bush era. And U.S. exports to Arab countries have increased from $16 billion in 2000 to $52 billion in 2008.

 

“AMERICA HAS RECEIVED LITTLE GRATITUDE FROM THE MUSLIM WORLD”

In the second article below Dennis Prager (who is a syndicated columnist and radio host, as well as being a subscriber to this email list) writes:

Here is what an honest address by Obama would sound like:

“Lets’ look a little deeper at that relationship. For the truth is… in the last 20-30 years America did not just respect Muslims, it bled for Muslims. We Americans engaged in five military campaigns on behalf of Muslims, each one resulting in the liberation of a Muslim people: Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Bosnia and Kosovo, as well as the failed 1992-93 Somalia intervention to feed starving African Muslims – in which 43 Americans were killed – were all humanitarian exercises. In none of them was there a significant U.S. strategic interest at stake. So, in fact, in these 20 years, my country, the United States of America has done more for suffering and oppressed Muslims than any other nation, Muslim or non-Muslim.

“… America has not only not received little gratitude from the Muslim world, it has been the object of hatred, mass murder, and economic attack from Muslim individuals, groups, and countries.

“… I ask you to please ask yourselves what Egypt’s reaction would have been had 19 Christians, in the name of Christianity, slaughtered 3,000 Egyptians. How would the Christians of Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East have fared?

“As it is, because of persecution by Muslim majorities, Christians have been leaving the Middle East in such great numbers that for the first time since Christ, there are large parts of the Middle East that have become empty of both Jews and Christians.

“Yet, at the same time, millions of Muslims have moved to Western countries and to America. It is fair to say that the freest, and often the safest, place in the world for a practicing Muslim is the United States of America.

“… As a friend of Egypt and of the Muslim world, I want to say something from the bottom of my heart: The day the Arab world ceases obsessing over the existence of a Jewish state the size of Belize will be a great day for the Arab and Muslim worlds. Your obsession with Israel has cost you dearly in every area of social development.

“… Finally, my fellow Americans would feel more confident in American-Muslim relations if they had ever seen a large demonstration of Muslims anywhere against all the terror committed by Muslims in the name of Islam – whether in London, Madrid, New York, Bali, Cairo, or Mumbai…”

(Full article below.)

 

“OBAMA IS DISCOURAGING THE FORCES OF REFORM AND CHANGE”

In the third piece below (“Barack Obama is blind to his blunders over Islam”), exiled Iranian writer Amir Taheri (who is also a subscriber to this email list) writes in The Times of London:

Obama has aroused more curiosity in the Middle East than any previous U.S. leader, partly because of his Arabic-Islamic first and middle names. The choice of the date for Obama’s address indicates his attention to detail. It coincides with the anniversary of the start of the first battle between Islam, under Prophet Muhammad, and Christendom in the shape of a Byzantine expeditionary force in AD629.

The “address to Islam” also marks the 30th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini’s demise and the appointment of Ali Khamenei as the new “Supreme Guide of the Islamic ummah”. More importantly, it also coincides with the rebuilding of the Ka’abah, the stone at the heart of Mecca, which had been destroyed in a Muslim civil war.

Rich in symbolism, Obama’s “address to Islam” is also full of political implications… By adopting the key element of the Islamist narrative, that is to say the division of humanity into religious blocs, Obama also intends to send a signal to the Middle East’s nascent democratic forces that Washington is abandoning with a vengeance George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda”.

... In her recent visit to Cairo to prepare for Obama’s visit, his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, made no mention of human rights, democratization and good governance. Vice-President Biden’s visit to Lebanon, where a crucial election is due on June 7, was designed to hammer home a similar message: Obama is more interested in the country’s stability than the victory of democratic forces.

… In trying to prove that he is not George Bush, Barack Obama has committed big mistakes on key issues of foreign policy. His Cairo address, and his “one-size-fits-all” Islam policy, is just the latest. It encourages Islamists and ruling despots, discourages the forces of reform and change and, ultimately, could produce greater resentment of the United States among peoples thirsting for freedom, human rights and decent governance.

(Full article below.)

 

WILL OBAMA AGAIN BOW TO HIS MAJESTY?

Before his major speech in Cairo, Obama (age 47) today meets Saudi King Abdullah (age 86) in Riyadh. Last weekend, according to the official Saudi news agency, a man was publicly beheaded in the Saudi capital and his body and head were left on public display for many hours. Will Obama mention this, or is all his criticism reserved for Benjamin Netanyahu?

U.S.-ISRAELI TENSIONS

Reports in the Israeli press this week also indicate that Israeli leaders are “stunned” by the Obama administration’s repudiation of written agreements between Israel and the U.S. concluded under the previous American president. When questioned, a State Department spokesman refused to say whether the U.S. would or would not abide by the terms of previous agreements between the U.S. and Israel.

Israeli leaders say Obama appears to be criticizing the Israeli government, even though Israel is upholding the precise terms of the Road Map which was negotiated under a previous Israeli government, while Obama seems to think it is ok for him to dispense with U.S. agreements, agreements which are vital to Israel’s national security.

The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported that the American interference in Israel’s democratically-elected government may be being spearheaded by Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Senior Likud ministers said yesterday that the Obama administration’s criticism of Netanyahu’s policies had “crossed the line into interfering in Israeli politics.”

Kadima officials responded to the allegations by disagreeing that the U.S. was meddling but expressed concern that such a perception by the Israeli public would harm their party and end up strengthening the prime minister.

Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon accused Israeli far leftist groups and their American allies of “coaching Obama’s administration on how to handle Netanyahu’ even though they had lost a democratic election. Netanyahu said last weekend: “What do they want from me? Do they want my government to fall?”

Despite the current tension between Washington and Jerusalem, Obama unexpectedly joined a meeting between Israeli Defense Minister and U.S. National Security Adviser Jim Jones in Washington yesterday. Barak and Jones met for four hours, with Obama joining them for 15 minutes.

***

ISRAELIS: OUR GOVERNMENT SHOULD STAND ITS GROUND AGAINST OBAMA’S DICTATES

In an opinion poll conducted for Israeli Channel One TV yesterday, 54% of Israelis (Jews and Arabs) said Israel should say no to Obama’s one-sided pressure and “not make any more withdrawals and concessions to the Palestinians until conditions of peace and security on the ground are reached.” 33% Israelis said Israel should listen to Obama and 13% expressed no opinion.

 

CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS PRESSURE OBAMA ON ISRAEL

The Obama administration’s escalating pressure on Israel, which has surprised even the Israeli center and center-left, has begun to stir concern among Israel’s allies in both parties on Capitol Hill, reports Politico.

“My concern is that we are applying pressure to the wrong party in this dispute,” said Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), a subscriber to this email list. “I think it would serve America’s interest better if we were pressuring the Iranians to eliminate the potential of a nuclear threat from Iran, and less time pressuring our allies and the only democracy in the Middle East. When Congress gets back into session the administration is going to hear from many more members than just me,” she added.

Even a key defender of Obama’s Mideast policy, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), is reportedly concerned that Obama is squeezing Benjamin Netanyahu too much, to the point that the newly democratically elected Israeli government is likely to fall within months of being formed.

“There’s a line between articulating U.S. policy and seeming to be pressuring a democracy on what are their domestic policies, and the president is tiptoeing right up to that line,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).

“I don’t think anybody wants to dictate to an ally what they have to do in their own national security interests,” Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) told Politico.

Republicans have been even more critical of the pressure Obama is putting on Israel.

 

HOW TO WATCH PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SPEECH IN CAIRO

One of the American diplomats who subscribe to this email list asks me to pass on to readers his note, as follows:

In addition to being aired live in its entirety on local and international television networks, the president’s speech, which begins at 1.10 p.m. Cairo time (6.10 am EST), will be available through SMS updates created by the U.S. State Department.

This service will allow interested persons to receive speech highlights live via text message. To register for the service in any of five languages – English, Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Hebrew – you can visit American embassy websites, for example, this one in Tel Aviv: at http://israel.usembassy.gov/

Registration takes less than two minutes. Enrolled participants are invited to send comments to Obama Speech SMS highlights – via standard 2-way mobile SMS reply. Selected comments will be posted on www.america.gov/sms-comments.html.

[All notes above by Tom Gross]

[All notes below by Tom Gross]

“CHILDREN’S HEALTH CARE,” MIDDLE EAST STYLE

The Yemeni news site www.yemenportal.net, reports that a library and conference hall named after Palestinian suicide bomber Wafa Idris have been inaugurated at a children’s hospital in the province of Ibb in southern Yemen. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Yemeni officials, and the guest of honor was Samir Kuntar, the Palestinian terrorist and child murderer whom Israel released last year in a highly controversial swap for the bodies of three Israelis killed by Hizbullah.

At the ceremony in Yemen, speakers extolled the “resistance” and the perpetrators of suicide bombings, and little girls read out texts and poems.

Kuntar murdered two Israeli girls aged 2 and 4 and their father in 1979 in the northern Israeli coastal town of Nahariya. Kuntar smashed one of the girl’s heads in with a rifle butt. (For more on Kuntar, see here.)

Wafa Idris was a Palestinian Arab paramedic who in 2002 entered Israel in a Red Crescent ambulance to carry out her suicide attack. (See the dispatch of Feb. 6, 2002). The Red Crescent is a part of the International Red Cross, an organization long accused of vicious anti-Israeli bias, and before that of collaborating with the Nazis both before and during the Holocaust, and also after it, when they helped several senior Nazis to escape to South America and elsewhere.

 

PROTESTS AGAINST APPOINTMENT OF “ANTI-SEMITIC” EGYPTIAN CULTURE MINISTER AS UNESCO HEAD

[This is a follow-up to my note of May 18, 2008: “Egypt’s culture minister, tipped to be the next head of UNESCO, says he would burn Israeli books himself.”]

More than a year after I first wrote on this website about concerns that Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni might become head of the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the international media are finally reporting on this topic. For example, there was a front page reference in The International Herald Tribune last week.

Three leading Jewish figures have also now urged the international community to prevent Hosni from being appointed. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Wiesel, and French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann pleaded in an open letter to Le Monde last week that the position should not be awarded to Hosni, who has been Egypt’s culture minister for the past 22 years.

BOOK BURNING

In addition to calling for the burning of library books by Israeli authors, Hosni, 71, has accused Jews of “infiltrating” the international media. As culture minister, he has banned many Israeli films (including “peace films” made by left-wing Israelis) from international film festivals in Cairo and forbidden an Israeli bookstand at the international book fair there. He has also stated that Israeli Jews have never contributed to any field of humanity, and instead claim the achievements of others as their own.

However, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a deal with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak not to block Farouk Hosni’s appointment as UNESCO chief. The paper says that Netanyahu regards Egypt’s support on security issues as too important to challenge Mubarak on the UNESCO issue.

Israeli human rights organization Shurat ha Din (Israel Law Center) has said it will sue Netanyahu in Israel’s Supreme Court if he fails to challenge what they termed “this outrageous appointment”.

It remains to be seen why the UN’s education and cultural organization (which was founded in 1945 with the stated goal of promoting peace and security through international cooperation in the fields of education, science, and culture) would want to appoint Farouk Hosni as its head – unless of course the leading UN movers and shakers share his anti-Semitic views.

 

EGYPT REJECTS U.S. PLAN FOR ARAB-ISRAELI NORMALIZATION

Egypt has rejected an American proposal for gradual normalization between the Arab world and Israel that would have allowed Israeli planes to fly freely through Arab air space.

The idea arose during discussions in Washington last week between Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and senior White House and State Department officials, including National Security Advisor James Jones and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Ha’aretz notes that this implies that Egypt does not see the Arab peace initiative as requiring Arab states to normalize relations with Israel uniformly and simultaneously.

 

MUBARAK COMPETES WITH RAMSES II FOR TIME IN OFFICE

Meanwhile Israel has express anger after it was reported that the Obama administration said he was holding up the supply of 12 military helicopters to Israel whereas the U.S is delivering 12 of the same helicopters (the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter) to Egypt.

President Mubarak, 81, has now become the third-longest serving Egyptian ruler in the country’s recorded history. He has refused to appoint a vice president. He is thought to be grooming his son Gamal (46) to inherit the “throne.” Over 60% of Egypt’s population was born during Mubarak’s tenure and have not known any other ruler.

 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BLAMES ISRAEL FOR CHRISTIANITY’S DEMISE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The prestigious magazine National Geographic is being criticized by Jewish and Christian groups for blaming Israel for the decline in Christian populations in the Middle East. The article, written by the magazine’s senior editor for foreign affairs Don Belt, appears in the new June 2009 issue.

The magazine is being accused of whitewashing the central role Islam has played in causing Christianity’s decline in the region, and downplaying the mistreatment, harassment and even murder of Christians by Muslims, for example, in the Lebanese civil war, in Iraq in recent years, and in Gaza and the Palestinian-ruled parts of the West Bank today (many examples of which I have outlined in the past on this website).

Arab Christianity has in fact been on the decline ever since the process of forced conversion of Middle Eastern Christians began soon after the death of Mohammed in the year 632.

The one country in the Middle East where the Christian population is still increasing is Israel. Israel’s Christian population grew from 120,600 in 1995 to 151,600 in 2007, a growth rate of 25 percent. In fact, the Christian growth rate has outpaced the Jewish growth in Israel in the last 12 years. But National Geographic neglects to tell its readers any of this.

 

NASRALLAH: IRAN WILL “GLADLY” SUPPLY HIZBULLAH WITH ARMS

In a rally on Friday leading up to Lebanese elections on June 7, Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah announced that Iran would “gladly” supply Lebanon with increased weapons, including an advanced air-defense system, should Hizbullah (which means “Party of God” in Arabic) win the elections. “The Islamic Republic of Iran, and in particular [supreme leader] Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei, will not hold back on anything,” Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah’s speech was made to a crowd of tens of thousands. It was transmitted from his hiding-place via video link to supporters rallying in southern Beirut and was also broadcast live on local television. Nasrallah has not been seen in public (except by video link) for months.

Hizbullah may well solidify its power base and perhaps establish the next ruling coalition following Lebanon’s parliamentary elections. If it wins, Israeli officials believe the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group will install “acceptable faces” in the next cabinet. However, Israel is concerned that Hizbullah will appoint a defense minister affiliated with the group who will call for the participation of the Lebanese army in a future conflict with Israel. This scenario would be in contrast to the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when the Lebanese army stayed out of the war.

 

DER SPIEGEL STANDS BEHIND ITS REPORT THAT HIZBULLAH KILLED HARIRI

Hizbullah chief Nasrallah has denied a report published in the leading German weekly Der Spiegel that the radical Shi’ite group was directly involved in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese President Rafik Hariri. Instead he claimed that Zionists had “infiltrated” Der Spiegel.

Der Spiegel’s diplomatic correspondent Erich Follath, who wrote the story, called Nasrallah’s comments nonsense.

In an interview with the London-based Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, Follath said that he examined “countless authenticated documents” while researching the story, and that he “verified every single word before it went to print.”

The magazine said that the United Nations Special Tribunal (which comprises 11 judges including four Lebanese ones) has overwhelming proof that Hizbullah was behind the assassination of Hariri. The UN may be suppressing the information, not wishing to clash with what could soon be a Hizbullah-dominated government in Beirut.

Follath added that he was “far from being a Zionist” and had “criticized Israel numerous times in regards to human rights issues in the occupied territories.”

You can read an English translation of Der Spiegel’s original article on the magazine’s website here.

***

HIZBULLAH ATTACK PREVENTED

The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that Iran and Hizbullah were behind a plot to attack the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan. The newspaper said Azeri police and security services intercepted a fleeing car and captured two suspected Hizbullah militants from Lebanon. The vehicle contained explosives, binoculars, cameras, firearms and reconnaissance photos.

The Azerbaijani investigation concluded that the suspects intended to detonate four car bombs around the embassy simultaneously. Officials said the group had hundreds of pounds of explosives, allegedly supplied by Iranian spies. The Israeli embassy is located in the Hyatt Tower complex, which also houses the Thai and Japanese embassies.

Azerbaijan is a moderate Muslim nation of 8 million people, and has close ties to Israel. Roughly one-third of Iranians are of Azeri ethnicity and Iran is accused of occupying the whole of southern Azerbaijan.

 

ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE INAUGURATED

The Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been inaugurated with an event at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv. Among those attending were Israeli President Shimon Peres, Middle East Envoy Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, and various Israeli and Palestinian businessmen. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, from Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party, gave a speech saying his party would help aid the chamber of commerce, and hoping for better economic ties between Israelis and Palestinians.

***

Contrary to the anti-Israeli propaganda broadcast daily by the likes of the BBC and CNN, life in West Bank isn’t so bad now that Israeli security forces have restored order.

Mahmoud Abbas admitted as much in an interview in The Washington Post on Sunday. He said:

“I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements. Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality … the people are living a normal life.”

***

And The New York Times finally admitted in a news report last week that life in Gaza is better than “nearly all of Africa and most of Asia,” that there is no malnutrition, and that infant mortality rates are as bad or worse in Egypt and Jordan.

 

NETANYAHU SETS UP COMMITTEE TO IMPROVE PALESTINIAN LIFE

On May 27 May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a “Ministerial Committee on Improving the Situation of the Palestinian Residents of Judea and Samaria”. Netanyahu said that further “advancing economic projects for the Palestinian population would improve the Palestinians’ quality of life and personal welfare” and would be good for both Palestinians and Israelis.

Netanyahu said the committee would inaugurate a series of projects in the Palestinian Authority-run areas in the near future, and that the Israeli government would assist in the implementation of these investments.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak presented economic projects to the committee, including:
* The establishment of an industrial zone in the Mukibleh-Jenin area of northern Samaria
* The establishment of an industrial zone for the processing and marketing of agricultural produce in Jericho
* The establishment of an industrial zone in the Hebron-Tarkumiyeh area; the establishment of an industrial zone in Bethlehem
* Environmental protection projects (waste disposal and sewage treatment sites)
* And the establishment of a new Palestinian city near Ramallah

He noted that approximately 100 projects in the PA areas of Judea and Samaria are currently in various stages of planning.

 

SIX PALESTINIANS KILLED IN HAMAS-PA CLASHES IN WEST BANK

Six Palestinians were killed on Sunday morning in clashes between Palestinian Authority security services and Hamas gunmen in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

Three Palestinian Authority security officers and two Hamas members were killed, in addition to the owner of the building that the Hamas men had seized control of.

The clashes erupted late on Saturday night as a group from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades opened fire at PA security services in Qalqilya before they took control of a building in the city.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV declared the Hamas men “martyrs” and no doubt Western news agencies will add them to a Palestinian death toll and then suggest to readers that they were killed by Israel (which is what news agencies do routinely when Palestinians killed fellow Palestinians).

 

SDEROT HIT AGAIN

A rocket fired from Gaza smashed into a family home in the southern Israeli town of Sderot last week, causing extensive damage but no injuries. It was the first for some weeks. This followed a period in the first months of 2009 when 685 rockets and mortars hit southern Israel.

Despite the ongoing rocket fire, Israel continues to transfer humanitarian aid on an almost daily basis into Gaza. For example, on May 21, the day after the attack, Israel transferred 106 trucks carrying food and other supplies, 460,000 liters of fuel and 350 tons natural gas into Gaza.

BOMBING THWARTED

On May 22, 2009, an attempt by terrorists from Gaza to plant a bomb north of Kerem Shalom crossing was thwarted by the Israeli army. The terrorists were armed with explosive devices, AK-47 rifles, hand grenades and military vests.

 

13-YEAR OLD PALESTINIAN STABS ISRAELI SOLDIER

An Israeli soldier was stabbed this morning by a 13-year-old Palestinian boy at the Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus. The stabbing took place in the “humanitarian lane,” which is meant to be used by Palestinians in need of immediate medical attention and bypasses the inspection in the regular lane.

 

BOTH HAMAS AND FATAH SENTENCE ADDITIONAL PALESTINIANS TO DEATH

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported last week that a military court in Gaza has sentenced another three Palestinians to death by firing squad. They were named as Shadi Khader Deeb, 30, from Beit Lahi, a member of Fatah, detained for political activities; Shadi Abdul Karim al-Madhoun, from Beit Lahia; and Ra’ed Sabri al-Maqqoussi, 29, from Jabalya refugee camp.

The Hamas military prosecutor charged the three defendants with the killing of two journalists, Mohammed Matar Abdu and Suleiman Abdul Rahim al-Ashi, on May 13, 2009, near Sheikh Zayed mosque in the west of Gaza City.

***

In the West Bank, the Fatah-controlled “moderate” Palestinian Authority also last week sentenced to death a Palestinian (Anwar Brigith, 59, from the village of Bet Umar, north of Hebron), for the “crime” of selling land to Jews.

The U.S. State Department and the White House, both eager to portray the PA as a worthy peace-partner and deserving of statehood, has yet to call upon Abbas to pardon Brigith or commute the sentence.

 

MUSLIM RADICALS SUSPECTED OF CHRISTIAN CEMETERY DESECRATION ON WEST BANK

In another press release, the PCHR also strongly condemned the desecration of two cemeteries, one attached to the Orthodox and the other to the Latin (Catholic) church in Jafna, a village north of Ramallah on the West Bank, which occurred in the early hours of last Sunday.

In the Orthodox Church in Jafna, at least 70 graves, as well as some Christian symbols, were desecrated. Local Christians blamed Muslim radicals for the attack. Jafna’s population of 1,600 includes about 900 Christians.

 

HAMAS BLOCKS WOMEN FROM LEAVING GAZA

The Hamas authorities refused to let 85 women leave Gaza on Wednesday May 20. They were turned back at gunpoint. They were scheduled to participate in “activities for the advancement of women” taking place in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Women are increasingly being forced to cover up in Gaza, and men to grow beards. Last month, a senior education official said that from this fall all girls in school over the age of 13 had to wear the jilbab, an encompassing coat-dress that includes hair covering.

 

LIEBERMAN: ISRAEL TO OPEN EMBASSY IN (MUSLIM) TURKMENISTAN

Israel will open an embassy in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, for the first time. Turkmenistan is a mainly Muslim Central Asian nation bordering Iran.

The decision was announced following a meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his Turkmen counterpart Rashid Meredov. The two countries first established ties in the early 1990s, and enjoy a good bilateral relationship. Among other things, Israeli experts have been training Turkmen in the fields of agriculture and public health.

 

HIZBULLAH ALLOWS BEIRUT SYNAGOGUE RESTORATION

Beirut’s historic Magen Avraham synagogue has received permission to be rebuilt. Almost all of Lebanon’s synagogues have been destroyed by local militia in recent decades and most Jews have been killed or fled the country. With only a few Jews left in Lebanon, it is likely to be more of a museum than a working synagogue.

The ruined synagogue is due to be renovated in the coming weeks, after an agreement between various religious denominations and permission from the Lebanese government planning authorities, and an assurance from Hizbullah that they won’t destroy it. Diaspora Jews will fund the project, along with a $150,000 grant from a company privately owned by the family of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister assassinated in 2005.

“The project received the green light after political officials and community leaders became convinced it could show that Lebanon is an open country, tolerant of minorities and even Jews,” said one official. Lebanon’s Jewish community is one of the country’s 17 officially recognized faiths.

Yitzhak Levanon, an elderly Herzliya-based writer and translator who studied at the American University in Beirut decades ago, told Ha’aretz: “The story of the Jews in Lebanon is over. It cannot be returned.”

 

WOMEN MPS MAKE HISTORY IN KUWAIT

Kuwaitis have voted in their first women MPs. Two women – both U.S.-educated PhDs – were elected to parliament in the oil-rich Gulf state’s second election in less than a year.

The new MPs are Aseel al-Awadhi, professor of political philosophy at Kuwait University, who has a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, and Rula Dashti, chairwoman of the Kuwait Economic Society and a leading campaigner for Kuwaiti women’s political rights, who has a doctorate in economics from Johns Hopkins University.

“It’s a victory for Kuwaiti women and a victory for Kuwaiti democracy,” Awadhi said. “This is a major leap forward.”

 

MADONNA TO APPEAR IN ISRAEL’S LARGEST AND MOST EXPENSIVE CONCERT EVER

Madonna has chosen Tel Aviv as the last stop on her “Sticky & Sweet” world tour which began last summer. The show will take place on September 1. In a statement she said Israel was special to her and she was “delighted” to be concluding her tour there.

The show will take place on a specially-built stage and will include advanced visual technology and a 17-member dance group. The equipment required will be brought to Israel in five airplanes.

 

DRY BONES CARTOON: IRANIAN AND ISRAELI STRATEGIC DEFENSES

The cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen, aka “Dry Bones,” whose work I have long admired, has parted company with The Jerusalem Post after decades with the paper. With the permission of Yaakov Kirschen, who is a subscriber to this email list, some “Dry Bones” cartoons will now be carried on my website (as well as on his own).

[All notes below by Tom Gross]

KING OF MOROCCO ACKNOWLEDGES TRUTH OF THE HOLOCAUST

In a largely unreported speech at the Royal Palace in Fez, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has called the Holocaust “one of the blots, one of the most tragic chapters in modern history.”

“Amnesia has no bearing on my perception of the Holocaust, or on that of my people,” the king is reported as saying.

Holocaust denial, distortion, revisionism and inversion are rife throughout the Arab world and beyond, spurred on by Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and by various Arab newspaper editors, and it is extremely rare for an Arab or Muslim head of state to admit the truth about the world’s worst genocide.

Ahmadinejad has called the systematic murder of six million Jews a “myth,” and his government has sponsored a conference of Holocaust deniers. Meanwhile, Arabic translations of revisionist literature continue to appear on websites throughout the Arab world and some find their way into the state-sponsored Arab press. There has also been a notable increase in Holocaust distortion broadcast in English on media such as the BBC, often in the guise of “program guests” and “experts”.

ALBANIAN AND ARAB RESCUERS

Only a few Muslim majority countries openly acknowledge the Holocaust. Last year, the predominantly Muslim European nation of Albania held its first Holocaust Remembrance Day. (I have previous written extensively about the Albanian efforts, almost alone among the peoples of Europe, to shield its Jewish population from the Nazis, although some Albanian Jews were eventually deported to Bergen-Belsen.)

For writings on how some individual Arabs helped rescue Jews, please see the dispatch of Oct. 11, 2006 titled “The Holocaust’s Arab heroes”.

In denying the Holocaust and forgetting these brave Arabs, today’s Arab leaders are denying their own history. Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said that “Jews invented the legend of the Holocaust.” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told an interviewer that he doesn’t have “any clue how Jews were killed or how many were killed.” And Hamas’s official website calls the Nazi genocide “an alleged and invented story with no basis.”

King Mohammed’s grandfather, Mohammed V, managed to lessen application of the Vichy government’s racist laws toward Moroccan-born Jews. But thousands of European Jewish refugees who reached Morocco were placed in French-controlled slave-labor camps there, as they were in Algeria and Tunisia. Many of these Jews, as well as some Arabs and Berbers, were forced to work in horrific conditions, with insufficient food and in unbearable heat.

 

OVER 40% OF ISRAELI ARABS: HOLOCAUST NEVER HAPPENED

Only 53% of Israeli Arabs recognize Israel’s right to exist, while 40.5% believe the Holocaust never happened, a new poll conducted by Haifa University reveals. The results, which were prominently reported in the Israeli press, have dismayed and shocked Israeli Jews as well as moderate Israeli Arabs. The survey was supervised by Professor Sami Smooha, who has been monitoring Arab-Jewish relations in Israel for 35 years.

As Israel has made concessions and withdrawn from more territory since the Oslo accords began to be implemented in the mid-1990s, increasing numbers of Israeli Arabs, perhaps sensing Israeli weakness and retreat, have adopted more militant views. In 1995, only 7% of Arab-Israelis said the State of Israel had no right to exist, compared to 47% now.

DRAMATIC DECLINE AMONG THOSE SAYING ISRAEL HAS RIGHT TO EXIST

In a similar poll in 2003, before Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, Israel’s perceived loss at the hands of Hizbullah in 2006, and the wave of “successful” Hamas rocket attacks on Israel in 2007-8, 81% of Israeli Arabs said Israel had a right to exist.

Israeli Arabs are also being influenced by the rise in Holocaust denial throughout the Arab world. Whereas, 40.5% now claim that the Holocaust never happened, in 2006 28% denied the Holocaust.

In the new poll, 47% of Israeli Arabs object to having a Jewish neighbor, while in 2003 the figure stood at 27.2%.

The poll was based on face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of 700 male and female Arab, Druze and Bedouin citizens of Israel.

 

SIR NICHOLAS WINTON, THE ENGLISH SCHINDLER, TURNS 100

Sir Nicholas Winton celebrated his hundredth birthday on May 19. In the last months of peace in 1939, when there were already clear signs that Jews would be targeted for death, Winton, then a 29-year-old stockbroker’s clerk, traveled to Prague, set up an office there, and organized eight trains that brought 669 Czech Jewish children to London.

Winton, who was not someone of special means or influence, arranged for sponsors, papers, and funding. The ninth train, which was due to leave on September 3, the day war was declared, was cancelled and the 250 children who would have been on that train were murdered.

Following a campaign by Holocaust survivors living in Britain, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Winton in 2003, and the Czechs proposed him for the Nobel Peace Prize. A Jewish organization in London is holding a special concert for him this month to mark his 100th birthday. I met him a few years ago when he revisited Prague to receive an award from Vaclav Havel and he remained in exceptionally good heath and cheer for his age. He told me that he rejects the comparison with Schindler. “My life was never in risk, unlike Schindler’s. I was back in London by the time the war started. Anybody could and should have done what I did,” he said.

A commemorative sculpture of Winton by Venezuelan-born artist Flor Kent (who is a subscriber to this email list) will be unveiled at Prague’s main train station this fall. Although he comes from a German-Jewish background (his original family name is Wertheim) Winton does not regard himself as Jewish.

 

CAIR QUESTIONS FBI OVER NY SYNAGOGUE PLOT

It didn’t take long for the revisionism to begin. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) initially applauded the FBI and the other law enforcement agencies that took part in the investigation that uncovered a plot by four New York converts to Islam to attack worshippers at two Jewish synagogues in the Bronx last month.

Now CAIR, a prominent American Islamic advocacy group, have started to criticize the FBI and cast doubts on the veracity of their claims. In their press release they even placed the word “plot” in italics:

“This entire scheme seems to be the product of sending yet another FBI agent provocateur into an American mosque to instigate a ‘plot’ that would likely never have been hatched but for the rhetorical and financial inducements of the government informant,” CAIR claimed.

The authorities said the suspects had planned to detonate cars with plastic explosives at the synagogues. They were particularly furious that one of the synagogues has a woman rabbi.

***

Brazilian police, who thwarted an attempt to bomb two synagogues in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre on May 22, 2009, said they are investigating whether the neo-Nazi group behind the attempted terror attack has international ties. “I have no doubt that we have aborted a major tragedy,” police commander Paulo Cesar Jardim said.

 

ARAFAT’S FORMER OFFICE MANAGER: ISRAEL IS A CANCER AND SHOULD BE DESTROYED ANY WAY POSSIBLE

Yasser Arafat’s former office manager, known as “Umm Nasser,” has given an interview to Mihwar TV in which she called for the destruction of Israel, referring to the world’s only Jewish-majority state as a “cancer”. “One day Allah will give us a cure to rid ourselves of the cancer called Israel once and for all,” she said.

She also said that Arafat’s widow Suha had “only” received $10 million, out of a total of $900 million that Arafat had placed in European bank accounts (almost all of it foreign aid money, including American and European taxpayers’ funds donated to Arafat’s Palestinian Authority).

“What I also know for sure,” she added, “ is that she receives a monthly stipend from brother Abu Mazen [the nom de guerre of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who also continues to be given money by the U.S. and other governments], as a pension to which she is entitled as the widow of Abu Ammar [Arafat’s nom de guerre]. She gets a stipend for her monthly expenses, which she spends on herself, her daughters, and their life in exile. She receives a monthly allowance of $25,000. I know this for a fact.”

Hundreds of millions of dollars disappeared following Arafat’s death. It is thought that it was divided up between senior PLO officials.

Arafat’s aide also said in the interview that “The Palestinian people is the Jesus Christ of this world, it is crucified forever.”

(Translations courtesy of MEMRI, the senior staff of which subscribe to this email list.)

 

EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL BOWS TO PRESSURE FROM KEN LOACH’S ISRAELI BOYCOTT

The prestigious Edinburgh International Film Festival has returned a grant from the Israeli embassy in London, after bowing to pressure from film director Ken Loach. Loach had threatened the festival organizers with a widespread boycott if they accepted the Israeli embassy grant to help an Israeli film due to be shown at the festival. In March Loach called Israel’s action in Gaza in January “one of the great crimes the world has known” and justified the rise in anti-Semitism that he said was a direct consequence of Israel’s “crimes”.

Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor said: “Rather than encourage an open dialogue through cultural exchange, the festival is promoting bigotry by denying the British public the opportunity to hear all points of view. It is regrettable that the organizers would choose to boycott Israel and compromise their artistic integrity.”

The £300 grant was to enable Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer to fly to Scotland for a screening of her film “Surrogate”. Ezer’s film is a romance set in a sex-therapy clinic, and makes no reference to war or politics. It recently won an award for Best Film at Israel’s International Women’s Film Festival.

In a statement, Festival representatives said that Loach spoke “on behalf of the film community, therefore we will be returning the funding issued by the Israeli embassy.” (It is not clear what evidence they have that Loach speaks “on behalf of the film community.”)

“AN APPALLING DECISION”

This contradicted an earlier statement, reprinted on a number of websites, in which the EIFF said: “Not accepting support from one particular country would set a dangerous precedent by politicizing what is a wholly cultural and artistic mission. We are firm believers in free cultural exchange, and do not feel that ghettoizing filmmakers or restricting their ability to communicate artistically on the basis that they come from a troubled territory is of any benefit.

“Nor do we see that filmmakers are voices of their government. It is particularly important in situations of strife and conflict that artists be supported in having their voices heard.”

Sir Jeremy Isaacs, a leading figure in the world of British film and television, told The Times (of London) that the festival’s organizers made “an appalling decision” and urged them to reconsider.

Isaacs said Loach’s act of censorship was particularly hypocritical as Loach has always been critical of censorship of his own work.

Meanwhile, the Edinburgh festival includes the world premiere of “Nakba,” (the Arabic for “catastrophe”) a Belgian documentary which “tells the story of the Palestinian exodus”.

 

YORK UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE QUESTIONING ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST CRITICIZED

Canadian Jewish human rights have strongly criticized a conference due to be held this month at York University in Toronto, which will question Israel’s right to exist. Of additional concern is a statement by York University President Mamdouh Shoukri that the conference will form part of the university’s publicly advertised 50th anniversary celebrations.

“This sham of a conference, which questions the Jewish state’s very right to exist, promises to be a veritable ‘who’s who’ of anti-Israel propagandists,” said Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s Executive Vice President. “This is not an issue of academic freedom, despite the great lengths the university is going to try to paint it in that light. It is purely and simply about delegitimizing the Jewish state and promoting hatred of its supporters.”

“We call on York University professors, students, benefactors, alumni to demand that York cease becoming a breeding ground for encouraging anti-Jewish hatred and instead, use the opportunity of its 50th anniversary to return to its roots and celebrate tolerance and respect for all.”

 

BRITAIN’S MAIN ACADEMIC UNION AGAIN VOTES TO BOYCOTT ISRAELIS

Members of Britain’s University and College Union (UCU) defied a warning from their leadership at their annual congress last week, and passed a motion to boycott all Jewish Israeli academics.

The union’s executive had warned that the resolution would be declared null and void following legal advice that it would contravene British race discrimination laws.

Israeli universities are some of the most diverse in the Middle East and include a substantial number of Arab students.

Ha’aretz reports today that lecturers made racist remarks at a meeting held beforehand. Among them, Sean Wallis, secretary for the Union’s branch at University College London, reportedly told 80 people before the vote at a “fringe meeting” for the British Committee for Universities for Palestine that the position that a boycott was illegal was attributable to lawyers backed by people with “bank balances from Lehman Brothers that can’t be tracked down.” (A widespread anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in the Arab world, which Wallis may know about, holds that before Lehman Brothers collapsed last year, “Jews at Lehman Brothers sent $400 billion to Israel.”)

 

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES DECLARES “PALESTINE, ISRAEL PEACE WEEK”

The World Council of Churches will mark “World Week for Peace in Palestine, Israel” from June 4-10. But while the goal of the week is to “pray, educate and advocate for peace,” virtually all of the efforts center on criticism of Israeli policies.

The council’s website “calls participants to seek justice for Palestinians so that both Israelis and Palestinians can finally live in peace,” wording critics say omits half of the conflict.

A participating church in Edinburgh, Scotland, will require attendees to walk around a replica of Israel’s security barrier before entering the church. Efforts in Israel and the Palestinian areas will center on protests at checkpoints, refugee camps and Jewish communities in post-1967 territories. At least 20 nations will be represented in the World Council activities.

Meanwhile the churches are ignoring the other 130 conflicts around the world, many of which are far bloodier than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 

CANADIAN MINISTER: MUCH ANTI-ZIONISM IS SIMPLY ANTI-SEMITISM

Jason Kenney, Canada’s minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, has publicly identified the “new anti-Semitism” emanating from an alliance of Western far leftists and Islamic extremists, for what it is.

He said last week: “Israel is not perfect, obviously. Israelis should be the first to admit that. But we acknowledge that so much of the criticism Israel faces is motivated by a dangerous form of anti-Semitism that tries to hide behind anti-Zionism and is represented by a coalition of the far left in the West with extreme currents of jihadi Islam that seek the destruction of the Jewish nation. They seem to believe that the Jewish people are the only people in the world that don’t have a right to a homeland.”

Why won’t other Western politicians admit that?

 

“NEXT” RECALLS UNDERWEAR AFTER COMPLAINTS OVER HITLER IMAGE

The British retailing giant “Next” has recalled men’s underwear after two customers complained that the image on the underwear resembled the Nazi leader saluting as planes passed overhead.

The image was among a series of cartoons on the underwear. A spokesman for “Next” told The Sun newspaper it was withdrawing all remaining 5,200 pairs of the underwear.

 

RIVAL TEL AVIV, GAZA BEACHES ESTABLISHED ON THE DANUBE

A “Tel Aviv-style” beach has been set up on the right bank of the river running through the Austrian capital Vienna. The public relations operation, of Israel origin, is meant to promote Israeli leisure activity. Pro-Palestinian groups have put up a “Gaza Beach” on the opposite river bank complete with negative images of Israel.

(There is some more information on the Tel Aviv Danube beach here and here.)

 

DRY BONES CARTOON: OBAMA’S CONSISTENCY

The cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen, aka “Dry Bones,” whose work I have long admired, has parted company with The Jerusalem Post after decades with the paper. With the permission of Yaakov Kirschen, who is a subscriber to this email list, some “Dry Bones” cartoons will now be carried on my website (as well as on his own). The first is below.