8/05 Links Part 1: Reuters Kills the Mideast Domino Theory, The Return of Al Qaeda

From Ian:

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Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians Dismiss Prisoner Release as a "Bribe"

The prisoner release could benefit Abbas in the short-term. But in the long-term, many Palestinians will continue to see it as part of an Israeli-American scheme to extract concessions from Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership.
After the celebrations over the release of the prisoners end, Palestinians will continue to criticize Abbas for "succumbing" to US pressure and going to the peace talks against the recommendation of the PLO leadership. And of course they will continue to attack Israel for not fulfilling all their demands, including a settlement freeze and the release of the rest of the prisoners.

Palestinians, Breaking Kerry’s Promise, Reveal Timetable for Prisoner Release

Although U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams would keep the details of their renewed talks confidential, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Saturday said Israel would release 26 Palestinian prisoners on Aug. 13, Israel Hayom reported.

‘Boycott Israeli sports,’ urges PA official

Departing starkly from messages of peace and coexistence expressed by Israeli President Shimon Peres as he welcomed the Barcelona FC soccer team on Sunday, Fatah official and Palestinian Soccer Association head Jibril Rajoub took advantage of “the most important event in the history of Palestinian sports” to call for a sports boycott of Israel.
Speaking to journalists at the entrance to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem Saturday, Rajoub said that sports were the best means to combat racism. He then proceeded to call for a sports ban on Israel, which “incites against anything Arab.”

Dore Gold: The Return of Al Qaeda

In the meantime, internal security in Iraq has been deteriorating with about 80 car bombs and suicide bombing attacks employed. Over 1,000 Iraqis have been killed in May, the highest number in five years. Understanding that the escape of al-Qaeda operatives from an Iraqi prison had broader implications beyond Iraq itself, Interpol issued an alert that the escape constituted a “major threat to global security.” The New York Times ran an editorial on July 29 with the title “Al-Qaeda in Iraq scores big,” which reached the conclusion that the “attacks showed the fearsome and growing strength” of the organization.

US reopens Tel Aviv embassy, but extends closures across region

The US State Department on Sunday announced the extension of the closure of 19 US embassies and consulates across the Middle East and Africa through to Saturday August 10, but removed its Tel Aviv posting from the watch list.
Over the weekend, security forces closed roads, put up extra blast walls and increased patrols near some of the 21 diplomatic missions in Asia and Middle East — including Israel — that Washington had ordered closed following warnings of a possible al-Qaeda attack.

Honest Reporting: Reuters Kills the Mideast Domino Theory

More than 100,000 people have died in the Syrian conflict and violence has flared again in Iraq, with over 1,000 killed there in July alone, many at the hands of al Qaeda. Tensions over Iran’s disputed nuclear program have also risen, while a struggle for power between Islamists and the military is playing out on the streets of predominantly Sunni Egypt.
Arguably, none of these crises will come any closer to being settled should, by some miracle, Israel and the Palestinians finally agree to divide the land where they live . . .
In public, Muslim leaders have traditionally railed against Israel, happy to fan ordinary Arabs’ sincere anger about the plight of the Palestinians – and perhaps deflect criticism of their own failure to make badly needed reforms.
Arab leaders can no longer get away with this.

Michael Totten: Hezbollah Plays the Israel Card

Hezbollah desperately needs the Israel card, but it won’t work this time unless Israel invades Lebanon. Yet Israel won’t invade Lebanon unless Hezbollah starts something. And Hezbollah wouldn’t dare start something now while it’s busy in Syria. The last thing it needs is open-ended conflict on two fronts at once. Hezbollah isn’t a superpower. It only has a few thousand fighters.
It’s obvious to just about everyone now that Nasrallah needs a distraction, but the truth is that his relentless war against Israel has always been partially a distraction. His hatred of Israel is real, no doubt, but it serves a dual purpose. It papers over the dangerous rift between Sunni and Shia Muslims that has led to so many wars, the majority of which the Shia lost.

CiF asks Palestinian supporter of ‘armed resistance’ her views on the peace process

An August 1 essay at ‘Comment is Free’, titled ‘The Middle East peace talks are back to disappoint‘, by Gaza based blogger (and Electronic Intifada contributor) Rana Baker didn’t include anything particularly surprising – at least by ‘CiF’ standards.
In her column, Baker, an activist from Gaza, demonizes Israelis as ‘colonisers’ who administer an “apartheid-like system in impoverished Bantustans”, dismisses the newly relaunched peace talks as an act of surrender and exercise in futility, and mocks as “irrelevant”, weak and spineless Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

BBC tones down Iranian rhetoric and extremism

Why the BBC should find it necessary to tone down Rouhani’s remarks in a manner which it presumably thinks makes them more palatable to Western audiences is anybody’s guess, especially as other members of the Western media managed to report the geographical intentions of Rouhani’s words accurately.
The problem is, of course, that the BBC has invested much in educating its audiences with regard to its own definition of “occupation”, but rarely bothers to clarify the fact that for other parties – including Iran and its terrorist proxies – “occupation” means every last inch of Israel. Hence, average readers would be liable to fail to grasp the real significance of Rouhani’s words quoted later on in the article:

Lebanese Christian Leader: Hizbullah Fired on Palace

One of the rockets struck within the security perimeter of the Presidential Palace, and the other exploded within the security perimeter of the Army headquarters. The attack came hours after a speech by President Michel Suleiman on Lebanon's Army Day.
“The rocket attacks came the same day of the president’s speech on Army Day. They were launched from areas that come under the military control of a certain party,” Geagea said, in a reference to Hizbullah.

Israel, US have vastly different takes on Iran's Rouhani inauguration

The US hoped the new Iranian government would “heed the will of the voters by making choices that will lead to a better life for the Iranian people,” Carney said.
This conciliatory tone was at odds with the tone coming from Jerusalem, where Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu again urged the world not to be “taken in” by Rouhani’s perceived moderation.
“On Friday, the Iranian president said that Israel ‘has been a wound on the body of the Islamic world,’” Netanyahu said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting.
“The president of Iran has been replaced, but the goal of the regime has not been replaced, it remains as it was,” he continued. “Iran’s intention is to develop a nuclear capability and nuclear weapons in order to destroy the State of Israel, and this constitutes a danger not only to us and the Middle East, but the entire world, and we are all committed to prevent this.”

Iran May Try New Path to Nukes

Iran may be preparing to use a heavy water reactor for producing weapons-grade plutonium, according to U.S. and European officials cited in the Wall Street Journal. This is an alternative method for reaching a nuclear bomb, which joins its existing uranium enrichment project.
A heavy-water reactor is an easier target to hit than the underground facilities that house Iran's uranium-enrichment facilities, the newspaper notes.