Tuesday, June 11, 2013
EU slams Falk’s Israel report as biased at UNHRC
The European Union took a strong stand against United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur Richard Falk, denouncing as inaccurate and biased a report against Israel which he delivered to the body in Geneva on Monday.Ha'aretz Manipulates Child Casualty Figures
“The EU continues to regret the unbalanced mandate of the Special Rapporteur and is also concerned that parts of the report include political considerations.
In the past, the EU emphasized that future reports should be based on a more factual and legal analysis, and we regret to see no genuine progress in that direction,” it said.
“The council needs to be provided with accurate, factual information and solid allegations to fulfill its role and address the human rights situation in occupied Palestinian territory,” the EU said.
B'Tselem's full data, which Ha'aretz cites selectively and manipulates to smear the Israeli army, indicates that in fact, the situation for Palestinian children and teens is steadily improving. The number of fatalities has sharply declined, especially during periods in which there are no large scale army operations. The decline underscores the fact that the army does, in fact, draw lessons from prior failures, and does make an effort to reduce the number of innocent deaths. Children and teens in other areas of conflict around the world can only dream of such a high level of personal safety.Four Billion Dollars to the Palestinian Authority? Not by Arabs!
A December 9, 2011 article by Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News highlights a World Bank report: ”Arab countries have cut aid to Palestinians substantially, despite their rhetoric of supporting Palestinian rights…. Arab donors provided less than $80 million in the first half of 2011, compared to $231 million in 2010, $462 million in 2009 and $446 million in 2008…. Arab countries have committed to billions in aid in past years that never materialized…. One reason could be that the Arab world has become fed up with the Palestinian problem.”Palestinians call for right of return at UNHRC
The PLO called for the right of return for Palestinian refugees to Israel during a debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.Israel "contributes" to increase in drug addicts in the PA - PA TV News
Gaza govt plans to execute more collaborators
The Hamas-run government in Gaza plans to execute a number of collaborators with Israel in an attempt to "eradicate" collaboration this year, a security official said Monday.With ties to Iran in shambles, Hamas finds new ways to rearm
The reasons for the organization’s current restraint are threefold, he said. Hamas is still recuperating from Operation Pillar of Defense, building its political and military strength back up; it is “very occupied with the internal struggle” against Fatah for leadership among Palestinians; and its ties with the Muslim Brotherhood-led Egypt, counterintuitively, act as a restraining device and a useful channel of information.Hamas and Hezbollah Remain Allied Over Mutual Hatred for Israel, Says Former Hezbollah MP
Despite tensions between Hamas and Hezbollah over Syria, the lynchpin keeping the two allies relatively civil towards one another is their mutual hatred of Israel, according to a former Hezbollah official.Europe’s historic responsibility: Proscribe terror
“What brings us together, in terms of our hostility toward the Zionist entity, is greater than a dispute over the […] situation in Syria,” former Hezbollah MP Hassan Hoballah, said Friday.
From the Nazis to Stalin, and now to the Sunni Islamists of Hamas and the Shi’ite Islamists in Iran, we can see that the exponents of Jew-hatred are also brutal and bloodthirsty oppressors of their own people. The lessons of history are inescapable: The Jews may be the first victims of such ideologies, but they are rarely the last.Original Thinking: Good Hezbollah, bad Hezbollah
With a rampant Islamist shift across the region, it is plain that the extremist and violent political/religious firebrands will carry the people with them. It doesn’t matter whether it is out of fear or out of fondness, they are all part of the whirlwind that endangers those who do not share their agenda. When they strike on your soil, or on your street, the position you take will decide your future fate. There is no moderation in the seriousness of their mission.Terra Incognita: Why Hezbollah gets away with it
There is no such thing as a benign sect of Hezbollah, or Hamas, or Islamic Jihad, or the Salafists, or al-Qaida. Their mission and their aim are plain for all to see. It’s just a question of who can face the truth.
THE EXTRAORDINARY thing about the Wikileaks cables is that they reveal that most EU governments know Hezbollah is dangerous; they prefer to leave it be because they fear to provoke it. The Italian claim that the mere mention of “terror” would cause Hezbollah to terrorize Italian troops is like the boy who is afraid of calling the bully a bully because he might be bullied. How can an organization like Hezbollah intimidate the entire EU? Perhaps because Hezbollah operates as far away as South America and its agents have been detained in Spain, Cyprus, Texas in the US, Nigeria, and its operatives were involved in the Burgas bombing in Bulgaria in 2012.Lieberman: If EU Won't Blacklist Hizbullah, it's Irrelevant
The European Union is irrelevant when it comes to dealing with the Middle East because of its failure to blacklist Hizbullah as a terrorist organization, MK Avigdor Lieberman (Likud-Yisrael Beytenu) said on Monday.Former Lebanese President Warns Mideast Christians Face ‘Existential Crisis’
Former Lebanese President Amine Gemayel warned that Middle East Christians face an “existential crisis” due the threat of “religious cleansing” in the region, at a speech sponsored by Christian Solidarity International.Haroon Siddiqui Syria in danger of becoming Somalia or Afghanistan
Gemayel, a Maronite Christian who was president from 1982-1988 after taking over for his brother Bashir, who was assassinated during the bloody Lebanese Civil War, said Christians “are often victims of persecution by both the state and society in the Middle East.”
It turns out that even Obama’s “red line” on Syrian chemical and biological weapons is flexible. After reports of Assad’s use of sarin and chlorine gas, Obama made clear he had only been referring to a “systematic” use of such weapons. Spraying on civilians here and there doesn’t count. Washington would worry only if the weapons were in danger of falling in the wrong hands. (That presumably won’t happen as long as Assad is in charge.)Anti-Morsi Petition Claims Nearly 15 Million Signatures
Only Israel has adhered to its red lines. It has bombed Syria thrice, to stop the flow of arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Perversely, all the reasons cited for not intervening militarily have come true because of not intervening militarily.
The opposition campaign called Tamarod, which means “rebel” in Arabic was launched in early May with the aim of collecting 15 million signatures to outnumber the votes gained by Morsi in last year’s presidential election.25 years on, Saddam’s Kurdish victims seek justice
Spokesperson Mahmoud Badr said the opposition is campaign “studying the possibility of confidentially submitting the forms to the Supreme Constitutional Court” before June 30.
Twenty victims of Saddam Hussein’s 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja requested a judicial investigation of French suppliers on Monday, saying executives knew what they were sending to the Iraqi dictator and bore some responsibility.
An Iraqi official said the case serves as a warning to anyone who may still try to sell chemicals to tyrants, touching on a central concern in Syria’s civil war.
