As always, the message depends on who your audience is.
When speaking to the West, cry about how you cannot get hold of concrete and iron. But to your own people, brag about how much you are building.
Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said Sunday that his movement would win a sweeping victory in upcoming legislative elections due in May.In the Arabic interview, Zahar said that Hamas is "delighted" by polls showing Fatah leading them, because he said the polls said the same in 2006, when Hamas rolled to a large victory over Fatah.
The Hamas leader said that Hamas would gain a better percentage than their 2006 election victory, where they won 74 of an available 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Hamas has not yet made a decision about a presidential candidate, he added.
Zahhar made the remarks during an interview with London based pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
The Israel Air Force recently struck two vehicles in eastern Sudan that were smuggling Iranian weapons to Gaza, according to Sudanese media reports published on Sunday.I couldn't find the original Al Intibaha article; the Al Rakoba article is here.
Sudanese government and army officials have denied that any such attack occurred, and Israeli officials were remaining mum on the reports.
According to Sudanese newspaper Al-Intibaha on Sunday, quoting sources from local tribes who witnessed the attacks, the first IAF strike took place about 10 days ago, targeting a convoy of six Land Cruiser SUVs. Four people were killed and two cars were completely destroyed, the report said.
The second attack, according to the newspaper, took place last Sunday, hitting a Toyota and killing everyone in it. The people in the car, however, were reported to be "gold seekers" and not arms smugglers.
Another local report on the attacks, appearing in the Sudanese Al-Rakoba newspaper, claimed that Israel Defense Force soldiers onboard two Israeli Apache helicopters disembarked on an island off the coast of Sudan, wandered around the island, and then left on the helicopters without Sudanese security forces being able to intercept them. In contrast to the Al-Intibaha report, Al-Rakoba claimed that the attacks occurred in late November.
The same report also noted that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir remarked that his country could not protect its own soldiers and he asked Egypt to help monitor any Israeli incursions into Sudanese territory
The Sudanese newspapers said the targeted vehicles were travelling on a path known to be a Hamas smuggling route: from Port Sudan, where ships carrying weapons from Iran are unloaded, continuing along a western route heading to Egypt and into the Sinai Peninsula, and finally entering the Gaza Strip.
Despite the detailed report, Sudanese government officials were quick to deny penetration of Sudanese airspace by foreign elements. The Sudanese army spokesman also claimed that he had no information regarding such an attack, calling the reports "rumors."
Mohammed Shtayyeh, member of the Fatah Central Committee and one of the Palestinian Authority negotiators with Israel, was quoted Sunday as saying that the Palestinians may cancel the agreements signed between the PLO and Israel.You mean that recognition is reversible? Come on, it can't be. Teams of Western Middle East experts have told us that the PLO's recognition of Israel is permanent and proof of their peaceful intent. If the PLO can decide in an instant that their agreements are worthless that would mean that "peace" was a tactical move to take land away from Jewish control, not a strategic move to live in peace with their neighbors. And after hearing how peaceful they are for two decades - even after they launched a terrorist war in the midst of it - how can we believe that they would change their minds?
Shtayyeh's comments were published by the London-based Asharq Al Awsat newspaper.
This was not the first time that a senior PA official had talked about the possibility of abrogating the Oslo Accords.
The comments came less than 48 hours after Hamas and Islamic Jihad agreed to join a temporary leadership of the PLO that would prepare for new elections for the organization's two key bodies - the Palestine National Council and Executive Committee.
It amazes me how Jews and Muslims live peacefully together in Brooklyn, Detroit, and other regions outside of the Middle East. I think even in Israel and Palestine there must be good stories...Sometimes, a spark of truth turns into a flame.
the problem is we, Arabs living in Saudi Egypt or other countries only hear about the bad things going on in Israel/ Palestine.... I think the same applies for Jews living in Europe, Australia, and US... they only hear bad things...
I was personally moved when I read about the Oud concert in Jerusalem... naming a street after Om Kolthoom.... an Israeli child singing om kolthoom in Israeli idol show...
The media doesn't cover that... all we know about Israelis is that "they are European colonialists""" but at least half of Israeli Jews come from the Middle East....
I don't know what went wrong but I think the Arabs had difficult times coping with the way Israel was formed.... other than that, I think Hebrew is the closest language to Arabic.. and Judaism is the closest to true Islamic values (islam need to be reformed just like what was done to Judaism)...
Peace upon you all, and hopefully one day will live in peace....
yazeed , Saudi (12.25.11)
According to a report in Israel National News, the commander of Israel Army Radio, the national radio station in Israel operated by the Israel Defense Forces, has determined that all the station’s reporters should refer to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria.” The report states the decision was made as a result of complaints made by Israel Media Watch that the radio station’s referral to the area as the “West Bank” gives the impression to listeners that the territory does not in fact belong to Israel.
Israel Army Radio is a popular mainstream station in Israel listened to by people from across the political spectrum. It is thus significant that it is now being directed to use the same terminology used by the settler movement when invoking the Biblical, divine notion of “Greater Israel” that is completely detached from reality, diplomacy and human rights.
I just chose to point out this news item since it is a good example of the “zeitgeist” in Israel, the slow unraveling of rhetoric that exposes the reality on the ground.I love how these guys believe that "West Bank" is a historic term and "Judea and Samaria" are modern, rightist settler terms, a phrase daring enough to ring alarm bells in their little heads that cannot conceive of a Middle East before the 1970s.
That day there was a funeral in the neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, and I went up to Jerusalem to photograph it for the Russian news agency. At the funeral there was a commotion and disturbances, so we expected a mess. I stood at a major intersection located above the where they have the tent demonstrations in the neighborhood, just below the Cinematheque, and there were bunch of kids who were throwing stones at passing vehicles. For every vehicle they checked if the driver was Jewish and [if so] threw stones at him. At one point, a string of cars passed and the children ran toward the vehicle and began to throw stones at it; the driver pulled the steering wheel and hit the children.You will recall that no photographer bothered taking a shot of the shattered back window of that same car.
This picture undoubtedly is highly debatable. My job as a photographer is to document the scene - the events I shoot were happening with or without the presence of the camera. I started taking journalism because I wanted to see with my own eyes how everything looks, on the news every reporter puts his personal views . The press here in Israel have a very big problem when the photographer becomes part of the news - then it's not news, it's propaganda. The average reader should be able to read between the lines and understand the truth, and not the opinion of some writers and editors.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
If you want real peace, don't insist on a divided Jerusalem, @USAmbIsrael
The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!