Obama Says U.S.-Israel Bond Is 'Unbreakable'

From The Wall Street Journal, 7 July 2010, by JARED A. FAVOLE:

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, on Tuesday hailed the bond between the U.S. and Israel as "unbreakable" and said the two agreed on concrete steps to begin direct talks on Mideast peace.

The two, speaking with reporters in the Oval Office after meeting for about an hour ...reaffirmed their shared interest, particularly in the area of national security and peace.

Mr. Obama said Mr. Netanyahu was prepared to take "risks" on Mideast peace and praised the prime minister for recently instituting a partial freeze on Jewish construction in disputed territories.

Mr. Netanyahu said the two discussed "concrete" steps they would take in the coming weeks to help move toward direct talks on Mideast peace. Mr. Netanyahu said it was "high-time" for he, Mr. Obama and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to have direct talks on Mideast peace.

Mr. Obama said he hoped direct talks would begin before the moratorium on Jewish construction ends in September.

Mr. Obama said Palestinians have taken positive steps recently in the area of security but warned the country not to look for "opportunities to embarrass Israel." He added, "I think it's very important that the Palestinians not look for excuses for incitement, that they are not engaging in provocative language."

...Mr. Netanyahu praised Mr. Obama for signing last week a tough set of sanctions against Iran, saying they have "teeth. They bite." He also urged other countries to adopt similar measures.

When Mr. Obama was asked whether it was a mistake for him to distance himself from Israel, he claimed that "the premise of your question was wrong. I entirely disagree with it." He added, "If you look at every public statement I have made over the last year and a half it has been a constant reaffirmation of the special relationship between the United States and Israel."

Netanyahu and Obama "Get Along"

From CBS News, July 6, 2010, by Dan Raviv:

After spending more than an hour in private - plainly aware that it is widely believed that they do not get along and do not trust each other - President Obama and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu insisted that all is well.

The United States and the Jewish state have shared interests, and they have decided to send out a loud message that they will be working together in major endeavors that top the entire world's agenda.

Mr. Obama, summarizing the talks to a group of reporters in the Oval Office, chose to begin with Gaza. He applauded Netanyahu's government for easing the blockade of the Palestinians there "more quickly and effectively than many had expected."

The next subject mentioned was Iran. The president stressed that the United Nations and the U.S. have now adopted the strongest sanctions ever, aimed at persuading Iran to stop its nuclear program "and to cease the kinds of provocative behavior that have made it a threat to its neighbors and to the international community."

Netanyahu could only be delighted that Iran was stressed even before the president turned to the on-again-off-again negotiations for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The visitor must have also enjoyed this statement from Mr. Obama: "I believe the Prime Minister wants peace and is willing to take risks for peace."

...Mr. Obama also voiced some of the concerns ...about: the need for Arab countries to support peace negotiations, and a call on the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to stop anti-Jewish incitement and stop "looking for opportunities to embarrass Israel."

Netanyahu, somewhat surprisingly, mentioned several times that Israel and the U.S. have a lot of clandestine cooperation. Both men spoke of intelligence exchanges, and the Israeli leader seemed to be hinting that the two nations will secretly be working closely together in the coming months. This might be taken as an indication that the CIA, the Mossad, and perhaps other agencies are jointly trying to slow or stop Iran's nuclear program.

Israelis may have felt great relief when Mr. Obama went out of his way to crush a story that several newspapers and media outlets have been highlighting lately: the U.S. letting a U.N. non-proliferation document contain an implicit call on Israel to acknowledge or give up its own nuclear arsenal.


"I reiterated to the Prime Minister there is no change in U.S. policy when it comes to these issues," Mr. Obama said, immediately adding that because Israel is so tiny and surrounded by enemies it "has unique security requirements."


It was in this context, and not with reference to surrendering territories to the Palestinians, that the president declared: "The United States will never ask Israel to take any steps that would undermine its security interests."

...At this fifth meeting in the United States between them as president and prime minister, Netanyahu said "it's time to redress the balance," so he invited the Obamas to visit Israel. Many Israeli political analysts say that could go a long way to shatter the distrust that most Israelis - based on polls - seem to feel toward Mr. Obama, after eight years of being showered with almost unquestioning friendship by George W. Bush.

Though no dates were set for a trip, Mr. Obama immediately offered a strong handshake - as the two men sat in chairs positioned very close to each other - and said with a bright smile: "Look forward to it!"

The veteran U.S. diplomat, who was watching on TV, said: "They are such great actors. Now let's see what they do."

Washington Unplugged: What Did the Obama-Netanyahu Meeting Achieve?

PA Chairman Abbas continues honoring terrorists

From Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, July 6, 2010, by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik:

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah movement have used the death of the mastermind of the murders of the 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics as their latest opportunity to honor and glorify terror, presenting him as a Palestinian hero and role model.


In a condolence telegram quoted in the official PA daily newspaper, Abbas referred to Muhammad Daoud Oudeh, who died Saturday, as "a wonderful brother, companion, tough and stubborn, relentless fighter," and described him as "one of the prominent leaders of the Fatah movement." Abbas also called the family to express his condolences.

On Sept. 5, 1972, eight members of the Palestinian terror organization Black September broke into the athletes' village at the Munich Olympics. They kidnapped and ultimately murdered 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. Oudeh, also known as Abu Daoud, planned the attack. He never expressed remorse for his killings.

Another senior Fatah official, Abbas Zaki, member of the Fatah Central Committee, described the planner of the Munich Olympics hostage taking with the following words: "He started his life as a regular individual and concluded it with giant stature," and referred to "his noble actions and his glorious history."

The pride that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah movement take in Palestinian terrorists who have killed Israeli civilians is part of a pattern. Palestinian Media Watch has reported that Abbas himself has expressed pride in training Hezbollah terrorists, sent greetings to some of the worst Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons and funded a computer center named after Dalal Mughrabi, who led the worst terror attack in Israel's history, in which 37 civilians were killed....

Hezbollah stirs violence against UNFIL in Lebanon

From Reuters Africa, 3 July 2010:

Villagers threw stones at U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Saturday, seizing their weapons and wounding their patrol leader...

Tension has increased in recent months between the UNIFIL peacekeepers and residents in Lebanon's south, a stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group.

Some Western diplomats say Hezbollah members have encouraged and taken part in the confrontations...
...U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams told reporters on Thursday there were several incidents in southern Lebanon last week. "Some of these may have been something spontaneous in the street, but some were clearly organised," he said.

[U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon]'s latest report to the U.N. Security Council on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, which halted hostilities in the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006, said there was reason for "doubt on the motives of those (civilians) involved" in some of the recent confrontations with UNIFIL.

...Resolution 1701 calls for a stop to arms smuggling and bans all unauthorised weapons between the Litani River and the Blue Line, the U.N.-monitored border between Israel and Lebanon.

Israel has criticised UNIFIL for not stopping weapons it says are flowing to Hezbollah guerrillas. The United Nations says that is the responsibility of the Lebanese authorities.

Extradition of Zentai should be granted - Justice demands no less

From a MEDIA RELEASE, 5 July 2010, by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry:

[Commenting on a] Federal Court decision on 2 July 2010 concerning Charles Zentai, The President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert Goot, said today:

“The Federal Court’s latest finding that Charles Zentai is not capable of being extradited to Hungary is a sad one for the family of Peter Balazs and those who wish Zentai to face his accusers."

“The violent death of the young boy Peter Balazs in Hungary in 1944  ...constituted not only a war crime but also murder. Most civilized countries, including Australia, do not place a legal time limit on bringing murder charges.”

“Hungary is a democratic country with an independent judiciary."

The Hungarian government’s request to Australia for the extradition of Zentai should be granted to allow the Hungarian investigation into the death of Peter Balazs to be completed and, if Zentai is charged, his guilt or innocence to be determined."

"Justice demands no less.”...

UK jury legalizes anti-Israel crimes

From guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 June 2010, by Bibi van der Zee and Rob Evans:

Five activists who caused £180,000 damage ...were acquitted after they argued they were seeking to prevent Israeli war crimes. ... a jury found them not guilty of conspiring to cause criminal damage ...The five admitted they had broken in and sabotaged [a] factory, but argued they were legally justified in doing so.

They believed that EDO MBM, the firm that owns the factory, was breaking export regulations by manufacturing and selling to the Israelis military equipment which would be used in the occupied territories. They wanted to slow down the manufacture of these components, and impede what they believed were war crimes being committed by Israel against the Palestinians.

...They are the latest group of peace and climate-change activists to successfully use the "lawful excuse" defence – committing an offence to prevent a more serious crime – as a tactic in their campaigns. ...
In his summing up, Judge George Bathurst-Norman suggested to the jury that "you may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time".

The judge highlighted the testimony by Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, that "all democratic paths had been exhausted" before the activists embarked on their action.

Hove crown court heard the activists had broken into the factory in the night. They had video-taped interviews beforehand outlining their intention to cause damage and, in the words of prosecutor Stephen Shay, "smash-up" the factory.

These statements were posted on the Indymedia website shortly after they were arrested...

Israel should totally close its border with Gaza

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 111, June 30, 2010, by Efraim Inbar, professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University and director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The recent decision of the Israeli government to ease its blockade on the Gaza Strip works more in favor of strengthening Hamas rule than it does toward advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

The international pressure that led to this move indicates a gross misunderstanding of Israel's right to self-defense as well as a grave misperception as to Israel's responsibilities as a non-occupying power.

It is clear that the international community has succumbed to the anti-Israel propaganda war.

Introduction
Bowing to misguided international pressure, particularly from the West, the Israeli government, on June 20, 2010, lifted nearly three years of restrictions on civilian goods allowed into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The restrictions had been imposed in reaction to the repeated launching of missiles into Israel's population centers. This decision hardly makes any strategic sense because it helps Hamas, an ally of revolutionary Islamist Iran. Both are anti-Western forces focused on destroying the Jewish state.

Giving Credence to Hamas
The easing of the blockade reflects the success of a Hamas propaganda campaign to depict the situation in Gaza as a humanitarian disaster. While Gaza is not prospering, the standard of living there is generally higher than in Egypt – a little noticed fact. The ability of this Goebbels-type propaganda to entrench a tremendous lie in the consciousness of the international community testifies to the continued vulnerability of naive Westerners to sophisticated psychological warfare and to the complicity of much of the Western press in this enterprise.

The step taken by the Israeli government also significantly helps Hamas strengthen its grip on Gazans, as Hamas controls the distribution of any goods entering its territory. Moreover, even if Hamas allows for a general improvement in the daily lives of all Gazans, this reduces the incentive for regime change, which should be part of the Western goal to give Gazans a better future. Strengthening this radical theological regime in the eastern Mediterranean, which is linked to revolutionary Iran, defies Western rational thinking.
The entrenchment of Hamas rule in Gaza amplifies the schism in Palestinian society and strengthens Hamas' influence in the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. It is also a slap in the face of President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the PA, who demanded the blockade's continuation. Hamas' achievement here further undermines whatever ability, albeit very limited, the Palestinian national movement had to move toward a compromise with the Jewish state.

The international pressure that led to the Israeli decision also indicates a gross misunderstanding of Israel's predicament and its legitimate right of self-defense. Israel totally disengaged from Gaza in 2005, hoping that the Gazans would focus their energy on state-building and achieving prosperity. Gaza could have decided to try to become a Hong Kong or a Singapore. Yet, Hamas turned Gaza into a political entity engaged in waging war on the Jewish state by launching thousands of missiles with the specific intent to harm Israeli civilians. Ironically, Hamas demands that Israel allow a supply of goods into the Strip.

It is legally and morally outrageous to claim that Israel is responsible for the Gazans, who are no longer under Israeli occupation and who have supported in great numbers the rule of Hamas. After the 2005 withdrawal, Israel's responsibilities – stemming from previously being an occupying power – ended.

Since Gaza is an enemy country, it does not deserve any special treatment from Israel beyond the latter's legitimate steps taken in pursuit of self-defense. Israel, like any other sovereign state, has every right to close its border with a belligerent neighbor. Moreover, it has no obligation whatsoever to provide water, electricity, fuel or access to food and/or medical supplies to its forsworn enemies. Why on earth should Israel aid those that want to eradicate its existence?

The bewildering and hypocritical international response to Israel's attempts to prevent war materiel from reaching Gaza, as manifested in the criticism surrounding the "Gaza flotilla" incident, should be of great concern to Jerusalem. Again, we see the successful application of a propaganda war whose objective is to deny Israel its legitimate right of self-defense. This campaign is part of a larger plan designed by the enemies of the West to neutralize the superior capacity of the West, and Israel in particular.

Conclusion
Instead of easing the blockade, the Israeli government should have announced its intention to exercise its sovereign right to close the border with Gaza and to halt the transfer of any goods to its enemy within several months. Israel must make clear to the world that it refuses to accept responsibility for the welfare of Gazan residents, particularly since they are employing violence against the Jewish state.

The period of time leading up to the actual border closure should be used to establish alternative routes of supply via Egypt, which also borders Gaza. Egypt is unlikely to welcome such a development because it prefers to keep the Gaza hot potato in Israel's lap. However, the Egyptians are much more adept at dealing with the Gazans, whom they ruled in the past using Arab methods. The Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere are not only Israel's problem, but constitute a regional headache. Therefore, responsible Arab actors should take part in addressing this issue.

Iran's persecution of their Bahai community

From BBC, Friday, 2 July 2010, by Kasra Naji:
First there are the images of wooden beams on fire. Then buildings come into view, some without windows and doors, others reduced to rubble.

The shaky mobile phone footage posted on YouTube by Iranian human rights activists shows scenes of destruction filmed secretly from inside a car.

The activists say the footage shows the results of an attack on the properties of Bahai residents in Ivel, a village in northern Iran.

They also say that non-Bahai residents supported the demolitions.

Bahai groups outside Iran have also received eyewitness reports from Ivel.

The witnesses said that several days before the bulldozers moved in, some people in the village signed a petition demanding the expulsion of their Bahai neighbours.

Many Bahais had left already: a number of families had fled previous attacks on Bahai property in Ivel. In 2007, for example, six houses were torched.

However, this time the Bahais left in the village complained to the police in the nearest town, Kiasar.

The police denied that there was a petition against them and refused to provide any protection.

The reports from Ivel residents say that by June 22, almost 50 houses belonging to Bahais had been flattened.

Not recognised
Bahais have lived in the area in Iran's Mazadaran province for more than 100 years, says Diane Alai, the representative of the Bahai community at the UN in Geneva.

Bahai groups warn that life is becoming harder and harder for the 300,000 followers of the religion in Iran.

They say they have noticed an increase in the persecution of Bahais since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner
It has not been this difficult for Bahais since the early years of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Bahai representatives say.

The Bahai faith emerged after a split in Shia Islam in the 19th Century. It was founded in Iran - but it has long been banned in its country of origin.

The Bahais consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, to be the latest prophet sent by God.

Followers of the faith have faced discrimination in Iran both before and after the 1979 revolution.

The religion was not recognised by the post-revolutionary constitution, and its followers have limited rights under Iranian laws.

For example, Bahais are banned from working in government offices, and they are not allowed to study at university.

Iranian inheritance laws do not apply to Bahais, and Bahai businessmen are often denied a licence to set up shop.

Bahai cemeteries have also been desecrated.

Jailed leaders
The leadership of Iran's Bahai community - five men and two women - have been in jail for more than two years.

They have have been accused of spying for Israel - a common charge against Bahais, whose international headquarters is in the Israeli port of Haifa.

Ms Ebadi fled Iran after her own life was threatened.

Now human rights activists fear that the discrimination against Bahais is intensifying and that history is repeating itself.

Nearly 300 members of the faith have been executed so far - mostly in the first few years of the revolution.

Some Bahai leaders were executed shortly after the revolution. Others were arrested and have not been heard of until today.

"We call them the years of horror," one Bahai woman told the BBC. She did not want to be identified.

Bahai organisations say that their religion has six million followers across the world.

Their teachings have not gone down well with many mainstream Muslims, who see the Bahai faith as an affront to Islam. Some even call the Bahai blasphemous...

Obama - Israel gulf is immense

From the National Post · Friday, Jul. 2, 2010, by Peter Goodspeed (my emphasis added. SL):

...next Tuesday’s meeting in Washington between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama ...aims to rebuild trust. ...It could be a tall order. The gulf separating the two sides is immense.

Israeli leaders, fearing for their country’s very existence, are reluctant to trust anyone, including the Americans, and won’t be rushed into a peace deal with the Palestinians, while Washington suddenly fears its failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian problem is harming its strategic interests.

The last time the two leaders met, in March, Mr. Netanyahu was treated to the diplomatic equivalent of a trip to the woodshed and U.S.-Israeli relations plunged to their lowest level in decades....Mr. Obama refused to have his meeting with Mr. Netanyahu photographed and didn’t bother to mark the occasion with a formal statement afterwards.

Later, it was learned the U.S. leader presented Mr. Netanyahu with a list of 13 demands for rebuilding confidence in the peace process and abruptly left him to peruse the points while he went for dinner with his family. “I’m still around,” he allegedly said. “Let me know if there is anything new.”

While some American pundits fumed, accusing Mr. Obama of treating Mr. Netanyahu like an unsavory Third World dictator, the Israeli news media anxiously wondered if Israel’s relationship with Washington was permanently damaged.

... Mr. Netanyahu’s brother-in-law, Hagi Ben Artzi, fanned the flames of the crisis telling an Israeli talk-radio show, “There is an anti-Semitic president in America."

... Mr. Obama’s support among Jews, both at home and in Israel, has been plummeting, as anxieties soar over apparent U.S. attempts to make a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — not the relationship with Israel — a core U.S. national security interest.

“We consider Obama’s actions an affront and an insult to all Jews in America and Israel,” said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America. “This administration is hostile to Israel. Period. Over the past 18-months there has been a dramatic shift in the U.S.-Israel relationship, including harsh, repeated criticism of Israel.”

...While there is still a moral and emotional commitment to Israel, U.S. policy makers are looking beyond their traditional views of the Middle East to lay more stress on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock.

“With 200,000 American troops committed to two wars in the greater Middle East and the U.S. president leading a major international effort to block Iran’s nuclear program, resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a U.S. strategic imperative,” said Martin Indyk, a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel who is now with the Brookings Institution in Washington. “The President views curbing Iran’s nuclear program and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as two sides of the same coin,” Mr. Indyk said. “In order to isolate and pressure Iran, he believes he needs to unite Israelis and Arabs with the rest of the world in a grand international anti-Iranian coalition.”

U.S. Army General David Petraeus made a similar point this spring, when he told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, that “enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbours present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the [Middle East].” “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples [in the region],” Gen. Petraeus said.

Israel needs to be more pragmatic, said Anthony Cordesman, an expert with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “It is time Israel realized that it has obligations to the U.S., as well as the U.S. to Israel, and that it becomes far more careful about the extent to which it tests the limits of U.S. patience and exploits the support of American Jews,” Mr. Cordesman said. “Israel should show enough discretion to reflect the fact that it is a tertiary U.S. strategic interest in a complex and demanding world..."

Zentai wins extradition appeal

From ABC News, 2 July 2010:

Zentai had previously lost all of his legal battles against the extradition.

Accused war criminal Charles Zentai has successfully appealed against a decision which would have allowed for his extradition to Hungary over an alleged murder.

Mr Zentai, 88, has been fighting for five years against a Hungarian government request for him to be returned to face questioning over the death of a Jewish teenager in 1944.

...He had previously lost all of his legal battles against the extradition.

Earlier this year Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor approved his extradition.

However, today a Federal Court Judge in Perth overturned the Mr O'Connor's decision....

Note that in a SMH article, April 27, 2010, by LLOYD JONES:

Zentai's lawyer Malcolm McCusker QC ...said Hungarian authorities had made it clear there was ...a "well-founded suspicion" he may have participated in the crime.

Hypocrisy in UK Media

From Just Journalism, 30 June 2010:

[In] the cases of the alleged Russian spy ring arrested in the US yesterday and the suspected assassination by Israeli agents of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January this year, the common misuse of British and Irish passports is worth noting. In the latter case, expressions of political and media outrage were abundant; in the former, not so much on either front.

An editorial published by The Guardian ...following the Dubai affair: ‘Israel and Britain: The rule of law,’ (24 March 2010)  ...described the faking of UK passports as ‘the mark[s] of an arrogant nation that has overreached itself.’

In today’s editorial, ‘Russian espionage: Spies like us,’ in the same newspaper, the alleged use of a forged UK passport failed to even elicit a mention.

...In [BBC] coverage so far the profile given to the UK passport forgery is negligible. Of the eight articles published on its news website on the subject in the last 24 hours, only three even mention the issue...
BBC broadcast coverage followed the same line, treating the misuse of UK passports as a footnote. Yesterday's PM programme on Radio 4 contained a three-minute report on the story in which the introduction stated: ‘British officials say they’re investigating whether a member of the alleged Russian spy ring used a UK passport.’ In the subsequent interview with an ex-KGB agent, the subject was not revisited. Last night's The World Tonight did not mention this point in its brief coverage at all. On the channel’s flagship news programme, Today, only one of the numerous reports contained a (passing) reference to the use of a British passport by the alleged spies.

Both the BBC Six and Ten O’clock news editions contained brief mentions of the fact that a British passport may have been used by the alleged Russian spies, whereas Channel 4 News gave the allegation prominence by including it in its introduction to the story; however, this was not followed up subsequently.

Unlike the swift and strong political reaction from the UK to the suggestion that Israel had misused British passports in the Dubai affair, the Foreign Office has, as yet, not issued harsh words aimed at the Russian government...

Obama: "...a menace to Israel, Westen Europe ...and the whole of the Western world..."

From YouTube, 23 June 2010 (an interview by Jerry Gordon, Senior editor of the New English Review):



Dr. Richard L. Rubinstein, author of "Jihad and Genocide", Harvard Phd, Yale fellow, "Distinguished Professor of the Year", and Harvard Phd, states that president Obama's intention is to "correct the historical mistake of the creation of the state of Israel." Dr. Rubenstein states that president Obama due to his family heritage is extremely pro Muslim - to the point of "wanting to see the destruction of Israel."