10/13 Links Pt1: Rebuilding Gaza is rebuilding terrorism; The defender of the beheaders

From Ian:

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Rebuilding Gaza is rebuilding terrorism

If someone could promise us that the money would help the citizens of Gaza, I might even have sent over my own modest donation. After all, "Far better a neighbor that is near than a brother far off" (Proverbs 27:10). But with Hamas still in the picture, and Abbas competing with Haniyeh over who is more extreme in his policies on Israel in order to win the hearts of Gazan voters, it is clear that the donor conference is not going to build a new Middle East, or even a new Gaza.
It is difficult for the world to grasp that Israel has its own sizeable interest in Gazans having good lives, because we are close by, and when a Gazan sneezes, we have to blow our noses, and vice versa. This is not the case with the British, the Russians, the French or the Koreans.
$4 billion for the residents of Gaza? Yes. $4 billion for Hamas terrorists? No. If only naivete could be bought with money. What will we do when we run out of that commodity?

Ben-Dror Yemini: The defender of the beheaders

To get to the crux of the matter in just a few words: Rimon-Or bases her support for the Islamic State murderers on the claim that they are only responding to the misdeeds of the Americans, who are killing a lot more people with their tools of destruction – and "the more primitive and vulgar means" of the Jihad are nothing compared to that.
Before any of her students adopt this pseudo-sophisticated nonsense, one should remind them that the thousands who are being murdered in the name of Jihad in general, and the Islamic States' victims in particular, are in fact Muslims and Arabs. Only a handful are Westerners. But that's enough for her. Because the postcolonial school of thought is essentially racist.
It absolves "the others" of any responsibility. It rants and raves about the fact that two or three Westerners have been murdered. It turns the Jihad into an entity concerned with protest or the righting of social wrongs. It disregards the mass-murder festival. It ignores the fact that girls and women are being turned into sex slaves.
Whether any of that is of interest to her is doubtful. Rimon-Or, like many of her fellow followers of the same school of thought, is stuck like a scratched record in an anti-colonial model that has long since lost touch with reality. And the truth of the matter is that all the Jihad offshoots, from Boko Haram and through to the Taliban, operate with the same degree of barbarity, with or without Americans or Zionists in the vicinity. The Jihad groups perpetrate massacres against blacks and Muslims after all.

Palestinian Al-Aksa Mosque preacher to NATO’s Arab partners: Kill the Jews instead.

It is sentiments like these that persist not just throughout Hamas but throughout the more respected Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas.
Here is a clip that was broadcast on Palestinian Authority television in which the PA Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Hussein urges his followers to kill Jews.
So are our own Parliamentarians really going to vote to recognise “a state of Palestine” that has religious leaders and an official television network that propagates the message that Jews should be murdered?
If that is today’s outcome then Britain’s Parliament should hang its head in shame.

Palestinian Preacher Criticizes Int'l Coalition against ISIS in Impromptu Al-Aqsa Mosque Address





Israel-Bashing Westerners Beg the Caliph for Mercy

The caliphate is now at the “sublime door”, the Turkish borders of Europe, leaving behind piles of thousands of unburied dead. Yet the terrorist insurgency of the Islamic State does not lift an eyebrow on the faces of the self-righteous Westerners who unleashed hatred against Israel.
This summer there were two wars: the just war of Israel against the anti-Semitic terrorist regime in Gaza, which for two months tried to besiege the people of the Shoah, and the laconic war of the White House and the Western governments against the Islamic State.
The European governments, mirror of the idle self-righteous conscience, are reluctant to act against the Islamists of the Caliph Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and his terrorista, who want to scar the society in which they lived and that gave them birth, who take pride in fighting for the Prophet and who are trying to sweep away any sign of civilization through the imposition of a regime of submission.

In Ramallah, Ban Ki-moon blasts settlements, Temple Mount strife

Ban was in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he met Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, a day after a Cairo conference at which international donors pledged $5.4 billion (4.3 billion euros) to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
“The amount that has been committed, pledged by the international community is quite encouraging,” Ban said at a joint news conference with Hamdallah.
The funds would go towards the “urgently needed” reconstruction of infrastructure and homes, he said, referring to an “unprecedented” level of destruction in Gaza where nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed in the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in July and August.
Israel says residential neighborhoods were targeted due to the practice of Gazan fighters of embedding rocket launchers among civilian homes and institutions, though the army also targeted homes of Hamas’s leadership.
But “while rebuilding is important, we must tackle the root causes of instability,” Ban said. “We must give renewed attention to the West Bank.”
“I once again strongly condemn the continued settlement activity by Israel,” the UN chief said, echoing international condemnation of plans for new homes on territory claimed by the Palestinians

Palestinian Authority PM tells UN's Ban: Gaza aid not effective with Israel blockade in place

Ban arrived earlier in the West Bank city of Ramallah for a two-day visit during which he will meet with Israeli and Palestinian leadership and visit Gaza Strip where rebuilding efforts in the wake of a devastating war are gathering pace.
Ban, who attended a Gaza reconstruction conference in Egypt on Sunday, is expected to urge Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiation table to achieve a peace agreement and push for advance construction efforts in Gaza.
"I travel to the region then to contribute to the international effort to stop the fighting. This time I'm here with a message of hope, the hope of rebuilding Gaza and creating a brighter future for the people," Ban said at a joint news conference with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.
"The United Nations will make sure that there will be efficient and effective and quick delivery of goods. This will be different from previous one. This has much more broader, comprehensive, mandate and authorization. And therefore I'm sure that this will be very effectively implemented," he added.

PA: We have 7 of 9 Security Council votes needed to force ballot on resolution to end 'occupation'

A senior Palestinian official said Monday that the Palestinian Authority has mustered the support of seven of nine UN Security Council members needed to bring to a vote its resolution that would force an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by November 2016.
Speaking in an interview with the Bethlehem-based Ma'an News Agency, Sha'ath said, "We are at the stage of lobbying within the Security Council to get nine or more votes."
Sha'ath said that the PA was facing opposition to the move from the US, who was not only threatening to veto the resolution should it be brought to a vote, but also was urging other Security Council members to oppose the resolution and push back a vote on the measure until after US midterm elections in November.

Russia to Support Abbas's 'Deadline for Israel' Bid

Russia announced on Sunday that it will back Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s plan to ask the United Nations to impose a deadline for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria.
“I cannot see any reasons to cavil about this text, or about the Palestinian people’s wish to say once again ‘let’s have a look at this situation, in the UN framework,’” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
“So we say [to the Palestinians], if you find one option or another suitable, then we will support you as friends. You know better what you need and how to achieve it. We think that the Palestinian case is fair, meaning that people have a right to self-determination, up to establishing their state,” Bogdanov told journalists, according to the report.

France to host Palestinian unity government

The French government intends to hold a joint meeting with the Palestinian unity government in Paris at the beginning of 2015, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced, and he called for the international community to take a more active role in restarting peace talks with Israel.
Fabius agreed on the meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel Radio reported on Monday.
The two men met at a donor conference in Cairo the day before. The conference raised $5.4 billion from some 50 countries on behalf of the Palestinians, with half the amount slated for reconstructing the war-damaged Gaza Strip and the rest intended for the Palestinian Authority’s coffers.

Israel-Palestine: UK Parliament's vote for terrorism

Hamas, in the most appalling fashion, sacrificed its own children in a recent war which had the sole aim of slaughtering Israeli civilians. Hamas knew they were never going to beat the Israelis.
They just wanted to score a public relations victory among the Palestinian population: "We're the ones that stand up for you; we can kill those beastly Israelis at will; don't go near any kind of peace process; the Western media will lap it all up."
And so the Western media did. But even the most optimistic Hamas child-killer could not have hoped that the British Parliament would reward them still further with a vote that can only help them, and further degrade the position of those on the Palestinian side that might even conceivably be in favour of a peace agreement with Israel.
The vote itself is motivated by ignorance and bigotry. A vote in favour is a vote to turn the Mother of Parliaments into the Mother of all Stupidity; and a friend of terrorism to boot.
This might be a time for British MPs to drop the prejudice, and start thinking about what they are doing.

Cameron to abstain in Palestine recognition vote

The PM has indicated that a favorable outcome of the vote would not change the country’s foreign policy toward the Palestinians, Reuters reported, citing Cameron’s official spokesperson.
“I’ve been pretty clear about the government’s position and it won’t be changing,” the spokesman told reporters ahead of the vote.

UK Labour members pan parliamentary Palestine vote

Several senior party members are pushing back against an order that the whole party support the recognition. MPs objecting to the move argue that recognition of Palestine should only come as part of a wider Middle East peace settlement.
Rather than being subject to compulsory support for the motion, party members should be allowed to choose how to cast their vote, to the objectors say.
High-ranking Labour MPs have reportedly spoken with Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who is Jewish and visited Israel earlier this year, in an effort to get him to alter the instructions before the vote, which was scheduled to take place on Monday afternoon in the House of Commons. The motion for the recognizing Palestine was presented to parliament by Labour backbencher MP Grahame Morris.

Left-wing Israeli public figures urge the British Parliament to recognize Palestinian state

Some 363 Israeli left-wing public figures including former Knesset members called on the British Parliament to recognize the state of Palestine when it debates the matter in London on Monday.
They signed a letter which stated: ”We, Israelis who worry and care for the well-being of the state of Israel, believe that the long-term existence and security of Israel depends on the long-term existence and security of a Palestinian state.”
The document continued, “For this reason we, the undersigned, urge members of the UK Parliament to vote in favor of the motion to be debated on Monday 13th October 2014, calling on the British Government to recognize the State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel.”
The letter was initiated by former Foreign Ministry director-general Alon Liel, Peace Now founder Amiram Goldblum and “Breaking the Silence” founder Yehuda Shaul.
Among its signatories are veteran left wing activist Uri Avnery, former Meretz ministers Ran Cohen and Yossi Sarid as well as former MKs Yael Dayan of Labor and Mossi Raz and Naomi Chazan of Meretz.

Israeli Arab MK Tibi lobbies British MPs to back Palestinian statehood

Voting in favor of Palestinian statehood will spur the peace process, MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta'al) told British MPs Monday, lobbying them ahead of the vote in parliament.
"Supporting a Palestinian state is a moral act that will promote the peace process, not the other way around," Tibi told the MPs. "The old way of negotiating is over and the Netanyahu government is doing everything to sabotage the vision of two states, mostly by building settlements."
Tibi called the UK parliament vote, which he plans to attend, an important diplomatic event and a catalyst for other parliaments in Europe and around the world to do the same.

Arab MK: Temple Mount not holy to Jews

The Temple Mount is not holy to Jews, and they should not be allowed to visit the site, MK Taleb Abu Arar (Ra’am-Ta’al) told a Jewish activist on Friday.
“It should be closed all the time to Jews because they have no business there,” Abu Arar wrote in an email to Tom Nisani, who had written MKs to complain that the site was closed to Jews last week by Israeli authorities as a measure to prevent altercations with Palestinians on the site.
Writing in the name of “Students for the Temple Mount,” Nisani wrote the MKs demanding that they “act with the police and the government to correct the injustice.”
“I wrote before Shabbat to all 120 Members of Knesset to advise them of the injustice of the Temple Mount’s (repeated) hermetic closure to Jews and tourists, [which happened] without explanation and without notice,” Nisani wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

Arab Bank Submits Retrial on Hamas Funding

Arab Bank on Friday formally requested a re-trial from a US federal court in New York after a jury found the Jordan-based multinational liable for 24 Hamas terrorist attacks.
The bank claimed the September 22 verdict was "the inevitable consequence of a series of incorrect and prejudicial rulings" and called for a new trial "to correct this miscarriage of justice."
The case saw 300 US victims of 24 terror attacks carried out in Israel between 2001 and 2004 hold the bank for liable for supporting terrorism by transferring funds to Hamas.

Police lock rioting Arabs inside al-Aksa Mosque, clear Temple Mount for visiting Jews

Police forces ascended the Temple Mount early on Monday morning to face dozens of Arabs who were planning to riot at the site.
Barricades were set up at the entrance of the al-Aksa mosque at the site and the suspects collected rocks, fireworks, and firebombs in order to confront police and disturb Jewish visitors to the site.
Police said they removed the barricades while under assault of a barrage of rocks and managed to push the rioters inside the mosque and lock them inside.
The site was opening to visitors as planned on Monday morning, police said. Among the visitors to the Temple Mount compound was Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) and Likud MK Moshe Feiglin.
Police said on Sunday that they would permit Jews to ascend the Temple Mount for the first time in four days on Monday morning, giving permission to Feiglin and a large group of his supporters.

IDF Quells Arab Riots at Joseph's Tomb

Several Palestinian Arabs were injured early Monday during clashes with IDF soldiers in Shechem, the Bethlehem-based Maan News agency reported, citing “security officials and witnesses.”
According to the report, the IDF escorted over 300 Jews, traveling in seven buses, to Joseph's Tomb for religious prayers. At least 35 military vehicles accompanied the buses.
“Palestinians threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli soldiers during the incident, with soldiers firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets,” wrote Maan.

Silent Intifada Continues: Fireworks Attack in Jerusalem

A video apparently shot and uploaded by Arab activists Sunday night, showing multiple launches of fireworks at Maale Hazeitim, is making the rounds on Facebook. Maale Hazeitim is a Jewish neighborhood on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Temple Mount.
Local terrorists also attacked Maale Hazeitim around 3 p.m. last Friday, targeting Jewish residents with fireworks and rocks.
The fireworks caused a fire in the nearby brush, which spread quickly but was extinguished by the residents and private security guards before the fire department showed up.

Tunis: Muslim Cell Allegedly Tried to Kidnap Jewish Child (VIDEO)

Three would-be Muslim kidnappers failed in an attempted kidnapping of a 12-year-old Jewish child in the tiny community’s ancient quarter on the Tunisian island of Djerba on the eve of Sukkot, Israel’s NRG News reported Sunday.
The boy, who preferred not to give his name for fear of his life, testified that a bearded man and a friend entered the Jewish neighborhood, approached the child, and told him to get into a waiting taxi.
The taxi driver, who was apparently part of the kidnapping cell, aroused the boy’s suspicion, and he refused to enter the vehicle. The child started shouting for help, and the two alleged kidnappers fled on waiting motorcycles, as did the cabbie, in his vehicle.
Jewish community leaders quickly filed a complaint with police, and investigators questioned the child over the incident, and began searching for the suspects.

Egyptians: Head of Egyptian ISIS-allied Group Dead

The Egyptian military claims it killed the top leader of the Islamist terrorist group in the Sinai Peninsula, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM), according to Al-Arabiya News. The leader, Shehata Farhan, was killed during a raid in the town of Rafah, near the Gaza border.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police over the past year. ABM also have beheaded several people recently. The terrorist organization, based in the Sinai Peninsula, is funded by the Muslim Brotherhood. Its immediate goal is to topple the current Egyptian government. The reason the organization gave for the murders is that those Egyptians were “spies for Israeli intelligence.”
For its part, the Egyptian government claims ABM has ties to ISIS. Last month ISIS urged ABM to continue its attacks on Egyptian security forces and beheadings.

Syrian Minister of Culture: Jehovah and ISIS Use Same Terrorist Methods

In a recent TV interview, Syrian Minister of Culture Issam Khalil drew a parallel between ISIS and the Jews, saying: "Jehovah, the god of the Jews, does exactly what the leaders of ISIS are doing everywhere." "ISIS relies upon the same source that the god of the Jews relied upon in His killing, destruction, torching, and so on," said Khalil in the interview, aired by the Lebanese NBN TV channel on October 3, 2014.

America and Its Allies Must Unleash Full Fury on ISIS

The United States must learn from the bitter lessons of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which unfortunately paralyzed President Obama as he pledged not to involve America in another war, especially in an Arab country. We are now paying for this paralysis.
Although President Obama was forced to finally intervene to battle ISIS, he knows that winning this war will be costly and wearing on America. He also knows that the longer it lasts, the greater the cost and sacrifices will be, and the more intractable it will become.
For this reason, the U.S. with its allies must be resolute and rain hell on ISIS at a speed and with such firepower that will shatter ISIS in every direction.
This may well be Obama’s last chance to change the widespread perception of being weak and indecisive, and restore America’s image as the indispensable global leader because only the U.S. can lead the battle against ISIS to a successful conclusion.

ISIS Magazine: Islam Calls for Sexual Slavery

The brutal jihadist Islamic State (ISIS) terror group that has seized large portions of Iraq and Syria in recent months released the fourth edition of its English-language digital magazine "Dabiq" on Sunday, in which it encourages taking women as sex slaves as part of Islam.
In the article in question from the digital publication, entitled "The revival (of) slavery before the Hour" - a reference to Judgment Day - the group outright calls for the sexual enslavement of non-Muslim women, particularly from the Kurdish Yazidi ethnic minority.
"One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar - the infidels - and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah, or Islamic law," wrote ISIS in the article, reports CNN.

Turkey: No new deal with US on using air base

A Turkish official says there is no new agreement with the United States on using an air base in southern Turkey for operations against the Islamic State group.
Turkey and the United States are still talking about the Incirlik air base as well as Turkish demands for the creation of a no-fly zone and a safe haven for refugees, the government official told the Associated Press on Monday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the issue publicly.
On Sunday, U.S. defense officials said Turkey would let U.S. and coalition forces use its bases against Islamic State militants.

Turkish FM: Don't Expect Help from Us Defending Kobane

Turkey said Sunday that using Turkey as a corridor to transfer weapons and assistance to Kurdish fighters trying to defend the border city of Kobane from Isis was “unrealistic.” Speaking to French media, Mevlut Cavusoglu said that a “more comprehensive” approach was needed to stop ISIS.
"Turkey cannot actually give weapons and the civilians and ask to go back to fight with terrorist groups," Cavusoglu said in the interview, adding that “this (corridor) is not realistic. Who is going to supply the weapons today? First of all sending civilians to the war is a crime.
"Killing the mosquitoes one by one is not the right strategy. We have to eradicate the root causes of this situation,” he added. “Obviously it is the Assad regime in Syria," he said.

Bassil: Arabs should confront ISIS and Israeli terrorism

BEIRUT: Arabs have a duty to confront the terrorism of both ISIS and Israel, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said Sunday in Cairo during an international donor conference for Gaza.
“Our gathering today as Arabs is a normal thing, as Palestine is our mother cause,” Bassil said, addressing officials of Arab and Western countries who gathered in the Egyptian capital to announce pledges for rebuilding batter Gaza.
“We were the first to say that Israel and ISIS are similar in their terrorism and destruction, and that they converge to the extent that ISIS is the best Israeli tool to create divisions in the region.”
Describing Israel as a "racist" country, Bassil said that Gaza cannot witness sustainable development unless Israel stops its course of “sustainable destruction.”

Muslim group accuses government of double-standards in terror laws

AN Islamic group has condemned the government’s planned terror laws as “a provocation to act”, in a strongly worded statement that appears to legitimise participation in attacks on Israel.
In a submission to the joint standing committee on intelligence and security inquiry into the bills, the Islamic Council of Vic­toria has warned of a “volatile clim­ate” in the Middle East that “continues to produce groups which have to take up armed struggle”.
The submission cites the battle against the Assad regime in Syria and “the struggle against the occupation of Palestinian territory and Palestinian right to self-determin­ation in the face of Israeli aggression” as examples, adding that “many in the Muslim community support such movements and deem them to be legitimate forms of armed struggle”.

Harrods shoppers 'are buying into terror’

Customers of Harrods are being urged to boycott the department store in a symbolic protest against its Qatari owners.
Qatar, which bought Harrods in 2010, has been accused of either directly funding terrorist groups or turning a blind eye to financiers operating out of the Gulf state.
It is now facing a backlash from protesters sickened by the executions of Western hostages in Syria and the violence wreaked on the region by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil), al-Qaeda and other offshoot terror groups.
Harrods was sold by Mohamed Al Fayed, its previous owner, to Qatar Holdings, part of the Qatar Investment Authority, the state’s sovereign wealth fund, in May 2010 for a reported £1.5 billion. The sale was concluded by Qatar’s then prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al Thani, who was also chief executive of the wealth fund.

‘Archer’ Drops ISIS: The FX Series Dumps the Spy Org’s Name in Light of Recent Events

Archer creator Adam Reed and executive producer Matt Thompson explain why they decided to erase ‘ISIS’ from the show, whose sixth season returns in January.
It seems, on the surface, like a throwaway shot. During the premiere episode of the sixth season of Archer, FX’s outrageously funny animated spy series, spy matriarch Malory Archer (Jessica Walter) is seen speaking on the phone with her juvenile, coddled son. In the background, you can see two movers rolling out a large, circular blue ISIS sign.
You see, for the past five seasons, ISIS (International Secret Intelligence Service) has been the name for the underground, non-government approved, New York City-based spy organization at the heart of the show. In light of recent events, however, the creative team behind the Emmy nominated series—creator Adam Reed along with executive producers Matt Thompson and Casey Willis—made a decision to quietly eliminate the acronym from their show.
“We quietly did,” Reed told The Daily Beast. “We were waiting for it to go away—at least I was. Back in Season 5, FX said, ‘This might be a thing,’ and I thought, ‘Maybe it won’t be? Maybe it’ll be the mole that I’m gonna ignore and nothing will happen.’ We got sort of lucky and could organically make a merger with the CIA, so we went back and retroactively painted out the ISIS logos in parts of the show, and we just don’t talk about it in dialogue.”

Irwin Cotler calls for end to ‘wave of executions’ in Iran

Canadian parliamentarian Irwin Cotler decried in Canada’s House of Commons three impending executions in Iran and the country’s treatment of its Baha’i religious minority.
Cotler, a prominent Jewish human rights lawyer who previously served as Canada’s attorney general and justice minister, called for an end to “the wave of wanton executions in Iran, and the intensified persecution of the Baha’i.”
He specifically identified imprisoned senior Shiite cleric Ayatollah Hossein-Kazamani Boroujerdi, physicist Omid Kokabee, and sexual assault victim Rayhaneh Jabbari.

If Iran can’t hold human rights pledges, how can it abide by nuke deal?

The award of this week’s Nobel Peace Prize to Taliban victim Malala Yousafzai refocused attention on Iran’s gutting of human rights and its link to a nuclear agreement.
On Thursday, Amnesty International, invoking the award to Yousafzai, posted an appeal from 28 winners of the Nobel Physics Prize to Iran’s supreme leader demanding the release of “prisoner of conscience Omid Kokabee.”
Kokabee is serving a ten-year sentence for refusing to work on Iran’s illicit nuclear program. Amnesty wrote he “has been imprisoned solely due to his refusal to engage in military research for the Islamic Republic of Iran and as a result of spurious charges related to his legitimate scholarly ties with academic institutions outside of Iran.”
If the past is prologue in connection with Iran’s miserable human rights record, there are significant question marks over whether Rouhani’s regime can guarantee a nuclear agreement free from weapons development.

NYTimes: “There Won’t be Any Change” in Iran Under Rouhani

In a profile of British-Iranian activist Ghoncheh Ghavami yesterday, The New York Times quoted an Iranian women’s rights activist who said, “One of our friends was told by a security official, ‘We are arresting you to make clear that there won’t be any change in this country.’ ”
While the article noted that some outward forms of intimidation that existed under the previous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been removed overall the “limits of personal expression and rights” under President Hassan Rouhani haven’t been loosened any meaningful way.

As Deadline Nears, Khamenei Lays Out Impossible Red Lines for Nuclear Talks (VIDEO)

Some six weeks before the conclusion of crucial nuclear talks between P5+1 world powers and Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a Twitter feed he is believed to operate, posted a graphic laying out 11 non-negotiable “red lines,” beyond which his country’s negotiators would, presumably, not budge.
“During the past year, Ayatollah Khamenei, in line with his support for the Iranian negotiators, has also stressed on the Iranian nation’s rights and has called it necessary to observe the red lines in the course of the nuclear talks,” the infographic, which was posted on Sunday, said.
The talks with the P5+1 include the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia – the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany.
The list, essentially, rules out any agreement acceptable to the west, and particularly, Israel.

Diplomat Warns Obama May Be Holding Secret Iran Talks

According to a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem, the chances of a deal being reached on Iran's nuclear program between it and world powers before the November 24 deadline are slim - but US President Barack Obama is liable to flex on several points, including the deadline.
"When there's a will on the part of both leaders everything is possible, but Israel needs to stand guard so that a bad deal won't be made," the source told Walla!, warning against a deal that will leave the Islamic regime with thousands of centrifuges and breakout capability to quickly create a nuclear bomb.
The source further warned that the current American-led coalition against Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Iraq and Syria may impact the deal with Iran, as Obama's administration has already backtracked about possible military cooperation with Iran.
There is a real danger that the US will hold secret talks with Iran and make agreements against Israeli interests, warns the source.

Iranian expert: Explosion in Parchin was sabotage directed at Iran’s cruise missiles program

If Dr. Nourisadeh is right and Iran’s cruise missile program was targeted and Israel was involved in the attack it reveals something about the strategy of the Jewish state. This wasn’t the first time that a huge explosion targeted Iran’s long range missiles. The same happened in November 2011 when a huge explosion occurred at the air force base Bidganeh in Iran. This was a facility where Iran conducted tests with long range missiles such as the Sjejjil 3 intercontinental ballistic missile. Now the cruise missile program at Parchin apparently was targeted.
It could be that Israel has come to the conclusion that targeting all of Iran’s nuclear facilities has become a mission impossible. Instead Iran’s long range rockets that are able to carry a nuclear warhead have become the target alongside cyber attacks on the enrichment program.
This will not take out Iran’s nuclear weapon program but it will surely hamper the ability to carry out a nuclear attack once Iran obtains an atomic bomb.

Preoccupied Territory: Scientists Unable To Find Conspiracy Theory Arab World Won’t Believe (satire)

Cambridge, MA, October 12 – A team of scientists from two leading institutions announced today that despite countless man-hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in research grants, they have so far been unable to unearth a conspiracy theory regarding Jews that has not gained acceptance as factual in the Arab world.
A joint effort of the Political Science departments at Harvard and Dartmouth Universities aimed to discover at least one notion of dastardly Jewish manipulation of crucial world events that Arab societies reject out of hand. The project, begun in 2011, sought to find some anchor for common ground with Western institutions in critical thinking, a crucial element in fostering the intelligent polity necessary for a healthy democracy.
The project, dubbed the Islamic-Levant Liminal Ubiquity of Memes Involving Norms of Antisemitic Theories Initiative, or ILLUMINATI, documented every anti-Jewish conspiracy theory for which it could find a record, and surveyed the cultures across North Africa and the Middle East, including the sizable immigrant populations of various European countries, to gauge the acceptance of each theory. While the European communities displayed the greatest propensity to treat a given conspiracy theory with skepticism, only 31% of that population exhibited resistance to accepting antisemitic memes at face value, by far the highest percentage of all the populations surveyed. In North Africa and the Middle East, the figure seldom rose above 9%.