Sunday Links

From Ian:

---

Kissinger Sees Little Hope for Mideast Peace, Arab Spring

“To have a meaningful Palestinian-Israeli agreement, the Arab world has to be prepared to guarantee it and to accept it,” Kissinger said, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt doesn’t seem prepared to “accept genuine coexistence.”
Kissinger sees a contest in Egypt between the military and the Islamists. Those who have been sidelined include the “small group of Cairo-based intellectuals and professionals who know how to get people” to Tahrir Square, the site of mass demonstrations, “but don’t know what to do with them when they get them there.”

US asks Turkey for help with ME peace process

Kerry calls Turkish counterpart, asks for Ankara's help in restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace process; Ankara turns down request.

The Irrelevancy of the UN Correction

Journalists vied to paint a word picture of evil (Jewish) villain and innocent (Arab) victim. The Israelis had deliberately attacked Gaza, said the stories. They, the Jews, were targeting civilians. Anyone who surfed the “Net was treated to this story in one version or another, each more colorful and imaginary than the last.

BBC fails to report on Route 5 terror attack

Video footage filmed by another driver who was travelling on the same section of road just two minutes before the accident occurred and who was also subjected to stone-throwing shows the impact of such attacks.
The IDF later arrested ten people suspected of being responsible for the stone-throwing which caused the accident. As previously noted here, there has been a sharp rise in the number of terror attacks in recent weeks –in particular, stone and petrol bomb throwing attacks – with Israeli motorists often being the targets.

Iran is ‘dead scared of Israel,’ says ex-Mossad chief
Islamist regime ‘won’t make it’ to the bomb, Efraim Halevy tells UK Zionist Federation; former MI6 head compares Iran to ‘dangerous adolescent’

Addressing the same event, Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain’s MI6 secret intelligence service, described Iran as “a state with many flaws and weakness, and a political system that is very fragile. There is a way through this crisis,” he insisted.
Dearlove added: “Iran is equivalent to a dangerous adolescent, but one does not want that adolescent to have access to certain technologies and weapons. The route the international community is on is the best and most practical.”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused of 'heresy'

A senior Iranian cleric has accused Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of "heresy" after saying Hugo Chavez would be resurrected with the 12th imam.

Syrian Army General and Son Defect to Jordan

Major-General Mohammed Ezz al-Din Khalouf, who headed the army branch dealing with supplies and fuel, announced his new status in a video statement over the weekend. Khalouf, dressed in civilian attire, was shown sitting next to his son, Captain Ezz al-Din Khalouf, who headed a reconnaissance unit. The two were sitting with an opposition fighter.

Irish Jews face uncertain future (as usual)
A community that produced a beloved Israeli president confronts dwindling numbers, but also a rich and largely peaceful history

Brest borrowed her Yahoo group’s new name from a 2003 documentary by Valerie Lapin Ganley, a Jewish woman from Pacifica, Calif., who discovered after marrying a non-Jewish Irish-American that she herself had Irish roots. The film, which still plays at festivals, “tells the untold story of how Irish Jews participated in the creation of both Israel and Ireland.”
The documentary includes amazing archival footage, especially from the Irish War of Independence between 1919 and 1922.

Irish minister to ‘Post’: Ireland not hostile

Jerusalem should distinguish between Irish NGOs, some of which are obsessively focused on Israel, and the Irish government that wants to deepen and extend ties with the Jewish state, Irish Justice, Equality and Defense Minister Alan Shatter told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Israeli who pioneered computer security wins top prize
The work done by the Weizmann Institute’s Shafi Goldwasser is a cornerstone of safe network interactions. For that, she and her American research partner are to win the prestigious Turing Award

In a world desperately searching for ways to increase computer security, the theories and studies of the Weizmann Institute’s Shafi Goldwasser, a pioneer in the field of cryptography, have become more relevant and appreciated than ever. So much so that Goldwasser, along with her research partner Prof. Silvio Micali of MIT, will receive the prestigious Turing Award, “for transformative work that laid the complexity-theoretic foundations for the science of cryptography, and in the process pioneered new methods for efficient verification of mathematical proofs in complexity theory,” the Weizmann Institute said.

Barbra Streisand to play two more gigs in Israel
Singer/actress to perform twice in Tel Aviv, as well as at an event marking Peres’s 90th birthday

Barbra Streisand will perform in Israel on June 15 and 16, as well as at the opening ceremony of Shimon Peres’s annual Presidential Conference, the legendary Jewish-American singer and actress announced Saturday.
Earlier this week, Streisand announced that she would perform in Israel on June 18 at the opening ceremony of Shimon Peres’s annual Presidential Conference, which will also honor his 90th birthday. On Saturday, it was announced that she had added two more gigs to her Israeli tour — at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium.