Friday, November 01, 2013
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: The War between Mahmoud and Mohamed
The failure of the mediation efforts prompted Dahlan last week to launch a scathing attack on Abbas and his close aides in Ramallah, reigniting the war between the two men.The beautification of Bashar, the veneration of Rouhani
Dahlan was quoted as saying that Abbas and his team were not negotiating with Israel about the restoration of Palestinian rights, but in order to win American and Israeli backing. "The leadership of the Palestinian Authority is so weak that it can't turn down any Israeli request," Dahlan was quoted as saying.
Dahlan was also quoted as accusing unnamed Palestinian Authority officials of providing logistical aid to construction work in Jewish settlements.
When he took power 13 years ago, Bashar Assad was considered the great white hope of the West. Western analysts told us that Bashar (“Baby Assad”) was going to modernize and moderate-tize Syria. He was going to bring Syria into the civilized world, and make peace with Israel.Kerry to arrive as Palestinians threaten to walk away from talks
Now the same “experts” are working overtime to lionize and sanitize the new Iranian poster boy, President Hassan Rouhani.
According to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency, Erekat sent PA President Mahmoud Abbas a letter in which he cited Israel’s lack of commitment to the peace process and continued construction beyond the Green Line as the reasons for his resignation.The Guardian corrects false Palestinian “political prisoner” claim
The report was published as the PLO’s Executive Committee was convening in Ramallah for a session chaired by Abbas.
Top PLO official Wassel Abu Yousef, however, denied the reports of Erekat’s quitting.
At the end of the meeting, he said the subject of Erekat’s resigning was not even discussed during the committee’s session.
Though this may seem like a narrow issue to some, it needs to be understood as part of the British media’s increasing tendency to submit to the corruption and politicization of ordinary language by radical ideologies which attempt to turn truth, logic and moral common sense upside down.IAF strikes in southern Gaza after 5 soldiers injured by Hamas bomb
It is quite urgent that we continue to resist efforts to mainstream such horribly misleading euphemisms, so please contact us if you see other examples of British media reports on the Palestinian prisoner release issue which employ such propagandistic terms.
One soldier was seriously wounded and another was in moderate condition Friday after an IDF operation Thursday night to destroy part of a tunnel, east of Khan Younis inside the Gaza Strip, was targeted by Hamas. A total of five soldiers were injured when an explosive device planted by Hamas detonated, the IDF said in a statement Friday.IDF sources deny Palestinian killed by army fire
Four members of Hamas’s armed wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, were killed in the clash, including three of the Islamist group’s tunnel and rocket experts, an Israeli military source said.
Ahmed Tazata, 20, a Palestinian who was reportedly shot and killed by IDF soldiers during a Thursday morning clash near Jenin in the West Bank, was actually injured in an “internal conflict” among Palestinian factions, according to a report Thursday afternoon.Accuracy and impartiality failures in BBC report on incident in Kabatiya
Tazata had been injured and was already hospitalized at the time of the confrontation between Israeli troops and a group of Palestinian stone-throwers, during which he was reported by Palestinian media to have been killed, according to Israel Radio, which cited anonymous IDF sources.
The report – which is based entirely on claims made by Palestinian sources – leaves readers with the definite impression that Ahmed Tazaza was killed by Israeli forces during an operation in the town of Kabatiya (also Qabatiya), south of Jenin.‘Israel loaned Soviet jets to US for testing in 1968’
The US “secretly acquired” a Soviet MiG-21 aircraft from Israel in 1968 and tested the fighter jet at the legendary Area 51, a US government facility in the Nevada desert, The Guardian reported this week.US fast-tracking six Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to Israel
The US government – which released the relevant documents on Tuesday – declassified them after George Washington University’s National Security Archive requested them through the Freedom of Information Act.
Israel will be the first U.S. ally to get the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, a star of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday night.Israeli Security Official: Assad Still Transferring Advanced Weaponry to Hezbollah
Hagel said in an address to the Anti-Defamation League in New York that delivery would be "expedited," meaning "Israel will get six V-22s out of the next order to go on the assembly line, and they will be compatible with other [Israeli defense] capabilities."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has not given up on his effort to move advanced weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, behavior Israel considers to be crossing a red line, an Israeli security official told Israel’s Walla News website Thursday.‘Turkey behind strike on Latakia airbase in Syria’
A report by Lebanon’s MTV Thursday cited Turkey as being behind the Wednesday attack in Latakia, Syria, which targeted “missiles and related equipment” meant for Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. The Lebanese report cited Israeli officials who allegedly claimed the attack came in response to the June 2012 interception of a Turkish jet, which Syrian forces shot down. The pilots were subsequently killed. The report could not be independently confirmed.Syrian refugees face hardships in Jordan’s cities
Most can’t legally work, aid officials say. Some scrounge for off-the-books jobs in construction or on farms. Refugees say they earn less than Jordanians and live in fear of getting caught by police. All are eligible for UN food vouchers, but fewer than half qualify for cash aid.Largest camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan becoming a city
Psychological burdens compound the struggle. The refugees often feel isolated or say they are resented by their Jordanian neighbors, whose own rents have risen and wages fallen in areas with large numbers of Syrians.
The vast majority of refugees have settled in cities: Of the 550,000 in the country, about 423,000 are in urban areas rather than in camps.
The manager of the region’s largest camp for Syrian refugees arranges toy figures, trucks and houses on a map in his office trailer to illustrate his ambitious vision. In a year, he wants to turn the chaotic shantytown of 100,000 into a city with local councils, paved streets, parks, an electricity grid and sewage pipes.Elkin briefs Israeli ambassadors in countries near Iran
Zaatari, a desert camp near Jordan’s border with Syria, is far from that ideal. Life is tough here. The strong often take from the weak, women fear going to communal bathrooms after dark, sewage runs between pre-fab trailers and boys hustle for pennies carting goods in wheelbarrows instead of going to school.
According to a report in Walla News Friday, the meeting was held in Tbilisi, Georgia, and was aimed at discussing efforts to strengthen ties with these countries. The Israeli ambassadors to Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan — three countries that share a direct border with the Islamic Republic — as well as those from Kazakhstan and Georgia, were reportedly in attendance.Iran Enrichment Commitment Repeats Increasingly Familiar Pattern of Rumored Concessions, Explicit Walkbac
The dynamic – in which optimistic coverage produced in Western outlets was quickly followed by an explicit Iranian walkback – repeats a pattern that has become almost routine since the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.Analysis: As Iran closes in on nuclear capability, regional states pursue their own programs
For example, in 2011, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al-Faisal said his country might produce nuclear weapons if Iran got them. The Guardian reported in 2010 that Western intelligence officials believe Pakistan promised to provide Saudi Arabia with nuclear weapons in a crisis.This Turkey is cold
And in a TV interview on Egypt’s Channel 1 this month, Egyptian Prof. Muhammad al-Naschie said that nuclear energy was needed for energy, desalination and military defense, according to a transcript provided by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute).
We have not yet reached the point of seeing the end of Turkey, according to the Americans, but this could certainly be the direction things are headed. Washington is not alone in asking itself, unhappily, if under the stewardship of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey has distanced itself from its traditional ties to the West to the point that its 61-year membership in NATO is becoming increasingly meaningless.Turkey Government Conducts “Purge” Against Economic Technocrats for Supporting Protesters
Now Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is moving against the country’s cadre of economic technocrats in general, and especially those who were linked to this summer’s anti-government protests. Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News described the moves under the headline “The Great Purge in Turkish economic policymaking”:Turkish military ‘trying to provoke an incident’ with Israelis in Mediterranean
The sources said Ankara has been dismayed by Israel’s growing military cooperation with Greece. They said the Israeli cooperation, which includedShrugging Off Turkey Isolation Efforts, Israeli Air Force Preps Trilateral Air Exercises
military exercises, training and arms projects, replaced Turkey with Greece as a leading defense partner of the Jewish state. In November, Israel plans to host three NATO members in the largest international exercise in the country.
“Erdogan thought that Turkey could isolate Israel militarily, particularly in NATO, when the opposite has taken place,” another source said. “Israel has more military exchanges than ever with individual NATO members while Ankara has been marginalized.”
Last August the Israeli Defense Forces and U.S. European Command ran two weeks of bilateral naval and air exercises military exercises.
Now the Israeli Air Force is prepping for wider, trilateral exercises. Next month Israel will assemble nearly 1,000 personnel from three nations for two weeks of air-to-air and air-to-ground exercises modeled on the U.S. Air Force’s annual Red Flag military training exercise. Dubbed Blue Flag, the drill will take place at the Ovda training range in the Jewish state’s south.
