Sunday, October 13, 2013
In the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood is in retreat
Whether or not it turns out that the reports regarding Mashaal’s relocation are true, Hamas is being forced to reposition itself, and to go back to Iran with cap in hand. The reason is because this movement, too, had placed its bets on a Qatar-financed alliance of Brotherhood-oriented states – which will now not come into being.Has Islamism peaked in the Middle East?
The Brothers are by no means finished. Their politics retain a natural purchase in the conservative, Sunni Arab Middle East. But the moment when everything seemed possible has decidedly passed. What looked like the potential beginning of a new age ended up as a brief moment in the sun.
The sun is now setting on the Muslim Brotherhood’s hopes of regional domination.
Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, spoke at the conference held by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies this week at Bar-Ilan University, and presented the original thesis that the events over the past few months may mean that Islamism has peaked in the region and has begun its decline.UNESCO and bias against Israel
He cited the popular opposition to Islamist-led governments in Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, and Sudan.
“The more you know it, the less you like it,” he said in reference to Islamism. “It is not popular in the long-term.”
The theater of the absurd was highlighted in March 2012 when, at a moment that the atrocities committed by the Syrian regime in the civil war raging there were being investigated by the Red Cross in Syria, UNESCO voted in favor of keeping Syria on the human rights committee.New York Times: Netanyahu on 'Messianic Crusade'
Irina Bokova was on October 4, 2013 nominated by the Executive Board of UNESCO to serve a second term as Director-General. She oversees an organization that spends more than 80 per cent of its budget on staff costs, travel, and operating expenses. Very little has been spent on projects except castigation of Israel.
Ten days after publishing a front-page editorial blasting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly as "combative" and sarcastic, the New York Times has published an interview-profile that portrays Netanyahu as a "shrill" voice on a one-man "messianic crusade" against Iran's nuclear weapons program.13 years on: BBC website still misleads over 2000 Ramallah lynching
In the piece, the Times says Netanyahu's long campaign against Iran is "a Messianic crusade" according to "critics and admirers alike."
Under the sub-heading “Rising anger”, Asser transparently tries to ‘contextualise’ the lynching by presenting readers with a set of ‘explanatory’A new kind of terrorism
circumstances. He first suggests that the murdered soldiers may have been members of an undercover unit, inventing a very creative interpretation of a picture of one of them being dragged off by a member of the mob after his eyes have been covered with a kefiya placed back to front. Asser also presents the fact that the two soldiers were wearing civilian clothes rather than army uniform (as is quite normal for reservists who have not yet reached their base) as though it were relevant.
In addition, Asser tries to ‘explain’ the lynching by patronisingly portraying it as an inevitable reaction to previous Palestinian casualties.
In the aftermath of the murder overnight Thursday of retired IDF colonel Seraiah Ofer in the Jordan Valley, early indications suggest that the incident was the latest in a series of sporadic terror attacks carried out by assailants using improvised weapons rather than by organized terror groups. Monique Mor, Ofer’s wife, who heard the assailants speaking outside their home in the Brosh Habika vacation village late Thursday, said they used axes and iron bars to carry out the killing — not “classic” murder weapons.Victim's Widow: 'He was Cut Down by Low-Lives, Just Like That'
The suspicion, when looking at what have now been four terror attacks in the West Bank in the past month, is of a new phenomenon: Terrorism that is not carefully premeditated by an organization such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad — rather, attacks by Palestinians acting independently, bent on murdering Israelis, be they soldiers or civilians.
The widow of Sariya Ofer, who was brutally murdered in the Jordan Valley Friday, told reporters at week's end that the Jordan Valley (Bik'a) is one of the safest places in Israel. She added that the state must give protection to all of its citizens, including those who live in secluded spots.Abbas to lobby EU to support sanctions against West Bank settlements
Speaking from her hospital bed at Afula's Ha'emek hospital, she said Sarya "was simply an amazing character who knew how to help, make others laugh, make others happy, and offer help. An amazing man who was cut down by two low-lives, just like that."
The PA leadership fears the EU may delay action against settlements under pressure from the US administration out of fear it could harm the current peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel.Mortar shells hit near chemical inspectors’ hotel in Syria, killing child
The US has already asked the EU not to move forward on the matter.
Abbas, who is expected to visit Germany, Italy and Belgium, will urge the leaders of the three countries to go ahead with the EU plan to impose sanctions, a Palestinian official in Ramallah said.
An 8 year old was killed and 11 people were hurt in the blasts in the upscale Abu Roumaneh area of Damascus, the SANA news agency said. One shell fell near a school and the other on a roof, damaging several shops and cars.Twitchy: Garry Kasparov surprised Nobel committee didn’t give Assad the award for chemistry
The blasts struck some 300 meters (1,000 feet) away from the Four Seasons Hotel where the chemical inspectors and U.N. staff are staying. A U.N. employee staying there said it did not appear that the hotel was affected by the twin explosions. The hotel remained open after the blasts, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
PM urges European leaders not to lift Iran sanctions
According to the officials, Netanyahu also warned Hollande and Cameron that Iran had ignored UN Security Council resolutions in the past, and that Tehran has been directly involved in terrorist activities across the globe.The West cannot afford to be the global village idiot
The prime minister added that Iran has provided Syrian President Bashar Assad with military assets that have been used to “slaughter” civilians in the country.
Western delusion over Middle Eastern pretentions of democracy is nothing new. Although initial hopes were high, the Arab Spring has surely shattered any illusions that the region stands at the dawn of a new age of freedom. President Barack Obama eagerly proclaimed hopes of “genuine democracy” in Egypt following the downfall of Hosni Mubarak, lapping up initial talk of real reform. When free elections ensued, they proved to be a mirage, instead paving the way for an attempted Islamist power grab. A return to military repression soon followed. In Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring, stability hangs in the balance following opposition assassinations and government resignations.Iran said to ready ‘three-stage’ nuclear compromise
The Iranian delegation to an upcoming round of nuclear talks with the P5+1 nations plans to present a three-stage compromise proposal that would entail Western recognition of the legitimacy of Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment program.Iran says ‘Israeli spy network’ put on trial
The first stage of the proposal includes a motion that would commit the P5+1 nations – the US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany – to defining “the recognition of the uranium enrichment right on Iran’s soil” as a goal of the negotiations, Xinhua reported Sunday.
A news agency in Iran said a group of suspected Israeli spies have gone on trial in the country’s southeast.Egypt not expected to be hit hard by US aid cuts
Judge Dadkhoda Salari was quoted Saturday by the semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying that the group was led by three people who recruited some 60 Iranians to conspire against Iran’s ruling Islamic government and passed information on to Israel.
The US decision to suspend delivery of tanks, helicopters and fighter jets to Egypt is more of a symbolic slap than a punishing wound to the military-backed government for its slog toward a return to democratic rule.Qaradhawi's Friend: Israel Planted a Chip in His Brain or Uses a Double; the Real Qaradhawi Is Dead
Egypt is awash in the tanks and planes it would need to fight a conventional war, and spare parts from US manufacturers will continue to be delivered.
2 Turkish students detained for using Nazi salute on concentration camp visit
Two Turkish students were taken into custody in Poland after they allegedly greeted an Israeli student group with a Nazi salute during their visit to a former Nazi concentration camp, the Turkish media reported on Friday.Barclays Capital: Israel Could See Several Billion-Dollar Deals in Coming Year
According to a report by Polish television station TVN24, the incident occurred in Majdanek, a former Nazi concentration camp near the city of Lublin, on Sunday.
Israel could be the beneficiary of several multi-billion dollar deals in the coming year, Barclays Capital technology M&A manager Richard Hardegree told Israel’s Globes.Israel Engineering Co Wins Lockheed Martin Contract to Supply ‘Smart Helmets’ for New F-35 Fighter Jets
“It’s possible that we’ll see two to three $1 billion-plus deals (in Israel) a year. We think that this is the direction, and that we’ll also see many transactions in the hundreds of millions,” Hardegree said ahead of his participation in the Globes-Ernst & Young Israel Journey Conference in Tel Aviv on October 17. “This is definitely a change from the sizes of the past. I think that it’s because Israeli companies are turning in the direction of bigger opportunities and the success of companies which have become market leaders.”
Israeli engineering company Elbit Systems Ltd., in partnership with U.S. firm Rockwell Collins Inc., won a new contract to supply “smart helmets” for Lockheed Martin’s next generation F-35 fighter jet, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Friday.Tarantino: Israeli flick ‘best of 2013’
The Elbit-designed “Helmet Mounted Display System” projects real-time images onto its visor, allowing a pilot access to more computer-based information, from weather conditions to night vision. The screen also projects images from six infrared cameras around the fuselage, providing the pilot with access to what’s usually unknown once the jet is airborne.
Quentin Tarantino is certainly not afraid of the “Big Bad Wolves.” In fact, the neo-noir kingpin was so enamored with the Israeli thriller after viewing it at a South Korean film festival over the weekend that he took to the microphone and declared it the best film of 2013.
“Big Bad Wolves,” from directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, is a gritty story of a vigilante cop (Lior Ashkenazi) chasing a child murderer. It’s one of the darkest films to ever come out of the Israeli film industry, and it’s been praised for its sophistication and subtlety.
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