Sunday, October 20, 2013
JPost Edtorial: Tall tales
Fatah co-founder Farouk Kaddoumi – who brands the two-state solution “just a temporary phase” – showed Al Jazeera TV in 2009 what he insisted were protocols of a three-way collusion by Abbas, Arafat’s longtime sidekick Muhammad Dahlan and then-prime minister Ariel Sharon to assassinate Arafat.The Saudis are sulking
Unfortunately such slander is not the exception. It is a Palestinian norm. Fantastic convolutions of cloak and dagger canards do not bolster the cause of peace. Falsehoods negate peace.
Where the culture of mendacity reigns, trustworthy accords cannot grow. That is why recurrent twists in the Arafat assassination tale matter.
Despite its candid anger, Saudi Arabia cannot forgo its military partnership with the U.S. After seeing how the U.S. recently froze military aid to Egypt, the Saudis realized that, with Obama in power, anything is possible. It is preferable for Saudi Arabia to not publicly confront the U.S. on the U.N. stage. Rather, it should do so indirectly. There is much more Saudi Arabia can do to thwart the Iranian nuclear project. It may be that Saudi Arabia's open refusal of a Security Council seat is masking other behind-the-scenes moves, such as building a discrete and unnatural coalition. It is best that such things are done as far away from the spotlight as possible.France suggests reforming veto power on Security Council
In light of the Security Council’s stalemate on Syria — Russia and China have repeatedly blocked resolutions calling for the use of force against the Bashar Assad regime — France has suggested reforming the mighty veto power of the body’s five permanent members: the US, UK, France, Russia, and China.The world from here: Why Jordan relies on Israel to secure the Jordan Valley
Both the king and his closest advisers are also keenly aware that in the event of an Israeli withdrawal, the Jordan Valley could easily be transformed into the “Philadelphi Corridor” of the West Bank.CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Gaza Imports
With the West Bank under prospective Palestinian control, jihadi groups from Iraq and Syria would be attracted to cross into Jordan and then to Palestinian territory. A common Palestinian-Jordanian border would also likely increase Palestinian irredentism towards the East Bank, which has been a major Jordanian concern since “Black September” in 1970, when Syrian-backed Palestinian insurgents threatened the Hashemite Kingdom.
CAMERA's Israel office has prompted a correction on an article in the Sept. 23 English print edition of Ha'aretz which had wrongly reported that Israel allowed concrete and steel to enter the Gaza Strip legally for the first time in six years.BBC’s “Obstacles to Peace” erases pre-1967 Jewish history in Jerusalem
Gili Cohen's inaccurate article, with the erroneous headline stating that "Cement enters Gaza Strip legally for first time in six years," appears below:
It is, of course, bad enough that this one-sided political polemic has been allowed to stand on the website of an organization supposedly committed to accuracy and impartiality for well over six years. It is even worse that this misleading article and its accompanying ones in the same series are now being promoted by the BBC as additional reading for audience members seeking to learn more about the issues surrounding the talks between Israel and the PLO. That promotion comes in direct conflict with the constitutional basis according to which the BBC’s defined public purposes include building “a global understanding on international issues”.Israel 'Knew about Terror Tunnel for a Year'
Daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot wrote Friday that Israel had known for over a year about the terror tunnel that Hamas was digging into its territory, but let Hamas leaders continue to pour resources into it.Sraya Ofer Met his Killers 2 Weeks before Murder
"Sometimes, as part of the war of minds, [Israel] lets them invest money, wrack their brains, waste human resources, and only towards the end of the digging, does it hold up a stop sign," the paper's defence correspondent Alex Fishman wrote.
According to new information reported by Channel 2, the man brutally murdered outside his home in the Jordan Valley last week, Sraya Ofer, had encountered his Arab murderers two weeks earlier, when they approached his home. They aroused his suspicion in that encounter and he reported the license number of their car to police.IDF wounds Palestinian attempting to infiltrate Negev town of Meitar
IDF forces opened fire on and wounded a Palestinian who was attempting to infiltrate into the village of Meitar in the Negev. The man was found sabotaging the fence in an apparent attempt to enter the community, the IDF said.Socialist MEP from Belgium hold anti-Israel event over Beduin policy
The forces fired warning shots at the suspect who was ultimately shot in the leg.
The Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament on Thursday prevented an Israeli official from participating in panel discussion on the Israeli Beduin community, which degenerated into a anti-Israel hate festival, Israeli diplomats said.Abbas: Reports are wrong — peace talks not at a dead end
Véronique De Keyser, a socialist MEP from Belgium, led the seminar sponsored by the group titled “Beduin in the Naqab/Negev: Dreams and Nightmare.”
Notwithstanding recent Israeli media reports, the Middle East peace talks are not at an impasse, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday.PMW: Fatah - “All means of struggle until statehood”
“The negotiations are difficult, but they haven’t reached a dead end. They are still in the initial stage and we have enough time to further deal with the main issues that turn out to be difficult,” Abbas told German Deutsche Welle television. “Such things are being claimed, but we have not gotten into a dead end.”
Another Fatah posting also illustrated the use of violence as one of Fatah's "means." A picture showed a member of Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, taking aim with a rifle, accompanied by the following text:PA TV teaches children not to trust Jews
"The Al-Aqsa [Martyrs'] Brigades:
When they speak - they act;
When they promise - they fulfill;
and when they strike - they cause pain."
Archbishop Gets Award for Arming Terrorists
Melkite Archbishop Hillarion Capucci ran guns for the PLO in the 1970s. He got caught and was sentenced to 12 years in jail. He was released after serving a few years of his sentence. The Vatican, embarrassed by the presence of an Archbishop in an Israeli jail, secured his early release by promising that the Archbishop would not engage in any anti-Israel activism once he was out of jail. Capucci violated the terms of his release on a number of occasions, most recently participating in the so-called humanitarian flotilla into the Gaza Strip.Again: Arabs Fly Nazi Flag Near Road
For at least the second time in five months, Arab residents of Beit Umar in the Palestinian Authority (PA) have placed a Nazi flag over a major thoroughfare where Jews pass in their vehicles.Kidnapped Lebanese Pilgrims Released in Exchange for Pilots
Beit Umar is located between Halhoul and the Etzion Bloc, not far from Hevron.
Nine Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped by rebels in Syria 17 months ago arrived on Saturday in Beirut, after being freed in exchange for two Turkish pilots seized in Lebanon in August, reports Al Arabiya.Let’s stop deluding ourselves about Turkey, says Liberman
Responding to Turkey’s accusation that Israel was behind a “media campaign” against Ankara over the exposure of an Israeli spy ring in Iran, as well as past accusations, Liberman said the claims were “baseless” and served as proof that Turkey under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would never warm to Israel, despite the formal apology issued to Erdogan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March over the 2010 Mavi Marmara affair.State officials: Talks with Turkey 'stuck'
“My opposition to apologizing to Turkey is nothing new. I expressed it clearly before and after the fact,” Liberman said. “I thought, and explained, that it would not bring about improved relations between the two countries, but would only hurt Israel’s standing in the region and play into the hands of extremists in the Middle East — among them Turkey under the Islamist extremist Erdogan.”
The Washington Post's report about Turkey's disclosure to Iran of an Israeli spy network might have failed to elicit an official Israeli response, but state officials admit that security relations with Ankara are extremely limited and went as far as saying that reconciliation talks surrounding the Marmara raid are "stuck."MEMRI: Egyptian Poet Fatima Naoot: Egypt Was Conquered by the Arabs, Coptic Language Changed By Force
"The Turks are destroying any attempt to reach understandings," an Israeli official close to the talks said. "They don't want to resolve this thing. It's completely stuck and despite President Obama's efforts, they don't want to move ahead at this point."
Nevertheless, he stressed that Ankara might decide to resolve the matter if it suited its interests.
US quietly releasing $1.6B in Pakistan assistance
The U.S. has quietly decided to release more than $1.6 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan that was suspended when relations between the two countries disintegrated over the covert raid that killed Usama bin Laden and deadly U.S. airstrikes against Pakistani soldiers.Israel Defense Forces to Develop Drone Submarines, Market Expected to Reach $2 Billion
Officials and congressional aides said ties have improved enough to allow the money to flow again.
The department within Israel’s Ministry of Defense, tasked with developing next generation weaponry, MAFAT, is working on developing unmanned underwater vehicles, the market for which could exceed $2 billion by 2020, Israel’s Globes business daily reported, citing MAFAT aeronautics director Dr. Yuval Cohen.Kennedy Was a Friend to American and Soviet Jews
UUVs include ROVs - remotely operated underwater vehicles that are operated by remote control – and AUVs - autonomous underwater vehicles which are fully robotic, submarine drones, where Israel’s ingenuity could add the most value. As with Israel’s leadership in developing flying drones, the Jewish state could be very successful in this industry as well, but operating in the deep sea adds another level of complexity.
The conventional community memory of Kennedy would be enough by itself. JFK overcame the legacy of his father, Joseph Kennedy, FDR’s notoriously appeasement-minded ambassador to Britain, to build a warm relationship with American Jews. As Warren Bass recounted a decade ago in his book Support Any Friend, the U.S.-Israel alliance took a big step forward with Kennedy’s approval of the sale of Hawk missiles to Israel.
