Clipmarks | merrie's 'israel' clips

War Mom Takes Hard Line: Warns U.S. Foes

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:09:15 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: When asked whether the United States should be able to invade ally Pakistan in pursuit of terrorists along the Afghanistan border, Palin said, "I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hellbent on destroying America and our allies."

He son Track, 19, joined the Army last summer and is part of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division based at Fort Wainwright near Fairbanks.

As governor, Palin spoke at a ceremony there yesterday marking the brigade's 12-month deployment to Iraq beginning next week.

Palin spoke at a ceremony there yesterday marking the brigade's 12-month deployment to Iraq beginning next week.

Yesterday's ceremony coincided with the seventh anniversary of 9/11.

Calling the Iraq mission a "just and vital cause" and predicting victory, Palin said, "America can never go back to that false sense of security that came before Sept. 11, 2001."

Clip Source: www.nypost.com

Vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin saw her eldest son off to war yesterday as she took a hard line on Russia, Iran and terrorists "hellbent on destroying America and our allies."

Asked in her first extended interview since becoming John McCain's running mate if she thinks she's qualified to take over the presidency, Palin replied, "I do."

"I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink," she told ABC News. "You have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission that we're on - reform of this country and victory in the war."

ABCNEWS.COM VIDEO: Palin Interview

Palin also said that a nuclear Iran would present a threat to "everyone in the world" and that if Israel's existence were endangered by those weapons, it had a right to defend itself.

"We are friends with Israel, and I don't think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security," she said.

Tags: vp candidate, gov. sarah palin, russia, nuclear iran, israel, georgia, ukraine, nato

The Balfour Declaration and the Mandate Under the League of Nations

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:00:10 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: ........The Jewish Connection To The Land......
We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic, and geographical bonds."[10]

The purpose of post-World War I's League of Nations was to prepare those liberated from the Turks for independence. Once the indigenous populations demonstrated their ability to assume control, the mandates given to the war's victorious superpowers were supposed to be self-terminating. For the international community, justice for the Arabs meant guaranteeing their economic, civil, and religious rights. Awarding the Arabs any form of self-government within Palestine was precluded by British commitments to the Jews under the Balfour Declaration, which had been incorporated in the mandate of the League of Nations.[11]

Clip Source: globalpolitician.com

At this point in history, post-World War I, political pressure caused the international community to endorse the Jewish desire for national self-determination and acc epted that the Jewish people had a justifiable claim to return to their homeland. Significantly, in this recognition, the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate under the League of Nations make no mention of Palestinians as a separate and distinct people with their own national rights. The indigenous people were regarded as residents whose political identity was connected to the larger Arab nation.[9]

For the British, the matter was quite clear: Palestine was not a state but the name of a geographical area. This had been reinforced by the indigenous Arabs themselves.

When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to select Palestinian Arab representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, they adopted the following resolution:

Arthur Balfour
British Foreign Secretary

Tags: israel, league of nations, balfour declaration, palestinians

Israel Backs Georgia in Caspian Oil Pipeline Battle with Russia

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:41:28 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: until a "durable peace" is reached. "As soon as a durable peace takes hold we need to move forward with dialogue and peaceful negotiations."

DEBKAfile’s geopolitical experts note that on the surface level, the Russians are backing the separatists of S. Ossetia and neighboring Abkhazia as payback for the strengthening of American influence in tiny Georgia and its 4.5 million inhabitants. However, more immediately, the conflict has been sparked by the race for control over the pipelines carrying oil and gas out of the Caspian region.

The Russians may just bear with the pro-US Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambition to bring his country into NATO. But they draw a heavy line against his plans and those of Western oil companies, including Israeli firms, to route the oil routes from Azerbaijan and the gas lines from Turkmenistan, which transit Georgia, through Turkey instead of hooking them up to Russian pipelines.

Clip Source: www.debka.com

Georgian tanks and infantry, aided by Israeli military advisers, captured the capital of breakaway South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, early Friday, Aug. 8, bringing the Georgian-Russian conflict over the province to a military climax.

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin threatened a “military response.”

Former Soviet Georgia called up its military reserves after Russian warplanes bombed its new positions in the renegade province

In Moscow’s first response to the fall of Tskhinvali, president Dimitry Medvedev ordered the Russian army to prepare for a national emergency after calling the UN Security Council into emergency session early Friday.

Reinforcements were rushed to the Russian “peacekeeping force” present in the region to support the separatists.

Georgian tanks entered the capital after heavy overnight heavy aerial strikes, in which dozens of people were killed.

Lado Gurgenidze, Georgia's prime minister, said on Friday that Georgia will continue its military operation in South Ossetia

Tags: putin, president mikhail saakashvili, oil routes, gas lines, transit georgia and turkey, western oil companies, israel

Is Syrian President Assad Bluffing?

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:04:39 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: something his country has always refused since it considered that Lebanon is just a Syrian province. This was a huge condition for the French who see it a pledge given by Damascus to Lebanese sovereignty.

Fifth, Syria has, according to Arab sources, made a big "summer housecleaning" by eliminating dozens of prisoners at the Sidnaya prison. Among them, two leaders of Jund al-Sham, the Islamist organization linked to Syrian services.

Sixth, according to the Kuwaiti daily Al-Seyassah, Syria also asked Hamas leaders based in Damascus to leave the Syrian territory. The latter could move into the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Hezbollah stronghold.

Seventh, Syria is allegedly trying to break up Hezbollah. Al-Seyassah believes that Syria has resumed its contacts with the former secretary general of Hezbollah and one of its co-founders, Sobhi Toufaili. Syria wants to strengthen Toufaili's faction to weaken Hassan Nasrallah and divide the party.

Clip Source: www.metimes.com

The real star at the French Bastille Day parade earlier this month in Paris was Syrian President Bashar Assad. It marked his return into the international community. In fact, the French Nicolas Sarkozy administration believes, along with to a lesser degree the Ehud Olmert government in Israel, that Assad can be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. But what are Assad's real intentions?

Since actions speak louder than words, let's look at the facts.

First, in February, Hezbollah terror master Imad Mugnieh was assassinated in Damascus in what is likely a Syrian-made operation.

Second, Assef Shawkat, the powerful head of Syrian security and Assad's brother-in-law was suddenly pushed aside. Shawkat is close to Tehran and has allegedly a hand in former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's murder in Beirut in 2005.

Third, Assad acknowledged publicly peace negotiations with Israel.

Fourth, Assad agreed on opening a Syrian embassy in Beirut,

Tags: syrian's bashar assad, nicolas sarkozy, hezbollah terror master mugnieh, syrian peace negotiations, israel, embassy in beirut

Obama's Idol Status Overseas

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:55:25 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Many in Washington were scratching their heads while he (McCain) was traipsing through the jungles of Colombia last month. But then came the freeing of hostages held by the FARC Colombian rebels, and McCain looked, well, presidential. And really, that’s the whole point of these “fact-finding” missions – looking good for the cameras.

Perhaps these work vacations by politicians are more sophisticated than they first appear. Maybe Americans appreciate the fact that their presidential candidates are traveling beyond the confines of America and seeing the world firsthand. Perhaps, but do not be deceived. These are trips staged to the finest detail, with little left to chance and happenstance. Obama and McCain know this, and they have treated it as such – an extension of their political campaigns. Why do you think the network anchors are along for the ride? It is surely not because of the news quotient that the “surge” is working.

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

I can’t get over the media circus surrounding Senator Barack Obama’s current trip to the Middle East. Never mind that Senator John McCain’s recent trip overseas hardly made the nightly news (we will just chalk that up to another instance of media bias), but the fact that the world went crazy as soon as Obama stepped on the plane means something deeper is being established here. Apparently, Obama’s handlers and the national media have deluded themselves into believing the hip presidential candidate can transform himself into some sort of super-diplomat simply by spending a few hours in some war-torn countries. Need to burnish some foreign policy credentials for your presidential campaign? No problem, just hit the road to the remotest regions of the world and voilà – instant international policy expert.

Tags: obama, mccain, overseas excursion, israel, middle east, europe

This Day In Israel, 1967 The Six-Day War Began

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:56:49 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Seven months later, at a dinner at the LBJ Ranch in Texas, President Lyndon B. Johnson toasted Israeli Prime Minister Eshkol, saying: "That is our intention in the Middle East and throughout our world. To pursue peace. To find peace. To keep peace forever among men. If we are wise, if we are fortunate, if we work together-perhaps our Nation and all nations may know the joys of that promise God once made about the children of Israel: 'I will make a covenant of peace with them...it shall be an everlasting covenant.'"

Clip Source: www.familysecuritymatters.org

On JUNE 5, 1967, the Six-Day War began. Egypt had 80,000 troops and 900 tanks advancing on Israel. Jordan and Syria, using Soviet weapons, violently shelled Jerusalem and Israeli villages. Cairo radio announced: "The hour has come in which we shall destroy Israel." The hot line between Washington and Moscow was used for the first time. In a surprise move, Israeli air force destroyed 400 Egyptian planes, courageously drove Syria from the Golan Heights and captured all of Jerusalem. In a CBS-TV interview, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion stated: "In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."

Tags: pm david ben-gurion, israel, six-day war, egypt, jordan, syria, soviet weapons, golan heights, jerusalem, washington

Was He Lying Then Or Now?

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:34:33 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator—when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.

I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

I have been proud to be a part of a strong, bipartisan consensus that has stood by Israel in the face of all threats... I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself in the United Nations and around the world.

Lie: In January 2008, a Palestinian activist named Ali Abunimah described Barack Obama’s overnight switch from Pro-Palestinian activist to supporter of Israel.

Clip Source: directorblue.blogspot.com

For a skilled politician capable of evading concrete positions, Obama's speech was characterized by an unprecidented series of fabrications, gyroscopic spin, and outright lies.

Recall that Barack Obama spent two decades attending a church that supported Hamas, attacked Jews and repeatedly honored Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

...I will ensure that Israel can defend itself from any threat — from Gaza to Tehran... First, we must approve the foreign aid request for 2009. Going forward, we can enhance our cooperation on missile defense. We should export military equipment to our ally Israel under the same guidelines as NATO...

Lie. Obama opposes all missile defense technology.

There is no greater threat to Israel — or to the peace and stability of the region — than Iran...

Lie. Barack Obama told a crowd of 75,000 last month that Iran is not a threat.

Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation

Tags: israel, palestinian activist, obama

Another Obama victim, the Palestinians

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:07:03 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks: An earlier case of Obama CYA? Seems he didn't think it was prudent to be anti-Israel in a nation wide election.

Clip Source: gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

Ali Abunimah is the co-founder of the online Pro-Palestinian publication The Electronic Intifada and the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

Here is part of the transcript from the interview with Democracy Now from January:

I remember, Amy—I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator—when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.

I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. And that’s just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation. And just yesterday, he apparently sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador at the UN, to urge the US not to allow any resolution to pass criticizing Israel

[Video]

There is more of this video interview at Democracy Now!

Tags: obama, palestinians, jews, israel, politics

Ahmadinejad: Israel Is Doomed

Thu, 15 May 2008 11:30:57 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Ahmadinejad used an Arabic word, ismihlal, that can also be translated as destruction, death and collapse.

"Nations of the region hate this criminal fabricated regime (Israel) and will uproot this fabricated regime if the smallest and shortest opportunity is given to them," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in an address broadcast live on state television.

He spoke hours after President Bush arrived in Israel for the anniversary celebrations.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Israel considers Iran a serious threat because of its support for Hamas and Hezbollah militants, its nuclear program and its arsenal of long-range missiles, which can be fitted with nuclear warheads and are capable of striking the Jewish state.

Tehran is equipped with Shahab-3 missiles, which have a range of up to 1,250 miles. Israel is about 625 miles west of Iran.

Iran doesn't recognize Israel, and Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction. Threatening exchanges between Iran and Israel have intensified since 2005, when Ahmadinejad said in a speech that Israel will one day be "wiped off the map." The Iranian leader has also described the Holocaust as a "myth."

"The Zionist (Israeli) regime is dying," said Ahmadinejad during a speech in northern Iran. "The criminals assume that by holding celebrations ... they can save the sinister Zionist regime from death and annihilation."

Tags: ahmadinejad, "annihilation", israel, 60th anniversary celebrations, hezbollah, hamas, shahab-e missiles

Fanaticism Without A Cause

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:50:46 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Fortunately, these warriors are under-equipped. But their aims are clear and plenary. When they have nuclear weapons at their disposal, they will use them.

Clip Source: blogs.tnr.com

I just came from a lecture by Bernard-Henri Levy at the 92nd Street "Y" in New York. Lucid and learned, the talk was about anti-Zionism as the favored new form of anti-Semitism. Levy spoke for an hour and a half without a note...and without hesitation. His is the eloquence of the great orators, word following thought, of course, but with careful cadence and deep symbolic association. A friend said to me that Levy reminded him of how Leon Blum was said to move a crowd: with the passion of his intelligence.

BHL focused on the contemporary war against Israel. Taking Hezbollah and Hamas as exemplars, he pointed out that their strategies are post-Clausewitzian. They have no recognizable politics, or no politics except the total elmination of Israeli society and the Israeli state. Has either one of these movements ever stated another aim? So they are enlisted by definition in the enterprise of total war, like some of the wars of antiquity.

Tags: anti-semitism, israel, hezbollah, hamas, nuclear weapons

'End the War in 2009' February 20, 2008 The Nation

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:33:56 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: General David Petraeus will be testifying in Washington that the conditions are improving in Iraq and that the United States must "stay the course." Petraeus will be acting as a de facto surrogate for McCain in domestic politics. Obama will have to respond to the general's serious claims without retreating from the commitment he has given to early withdrawal.The questions of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan could intensify as a symbol of America's current policies towards terrorism. McCain has already absorbed both neoconservative doctrines and the neoconservatives themselves in his campaign against "Islamo-fascism" as the greatest threat in American history.
They will attack Obama for proposing to pull the plug on Iraq just when the tide is turning.

They will question Obama's experience in pushing for diplomacy towards Iran, draw him out on why he favors more troops in Afghanistan and a pre-emptive strike against Pakistan if there is "actionable intelligence."

Clip Source: www.thenation.com

In his victory speech in Texas Tuesday, Barack Obama promised to end the Iraq war in 2009, a new commitment that parallels recent opinion pieces in The Nation.

Ending the war in the first year of his potential presidency, therefore, is the strongest stand Obama has taken thus far, and one he will be questioned on sharply by the Republicans and the media. As Juan Cole noted last year, the Bush-Cheney team is preparing a "poison pill" of disorder and blame for any future President contemplating an Iraq troop withdrawal.

Did Obama mean it? Was it only rhetoric? Perhaps, but as Obama has said over and over lately, words make a difference. He may be asked to square his 2009 goal with his previous eighteen-month timetable.

But McCain's personal experience as a tough Navy pilot and prisoner of war makes him much more formidable than Hillary Clinton as a "national security" advocate against Obama

Obama faces two immediate tests aside from the primary contests ahead

Tags: 2009, obama, end iraq war, mccain, israel, pakistan, iran, afghanistan

al-Qaeda Prepares Dual-Track Offensive In Iraq Just In Time For Jan 20, 2009

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:29:03 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: February 11, 2008, 2:11 PM (GMT+02:00)
Just in time for President Bush’s first – and last - Middle East tour, al Qaeda’s new operational arm, Fatah al-Islam, completed its redeployment from Lebanon on two warfronts: Iraq and the Gaza Strip. Al Qaeda has managed to pull together two fronts for twin campaigns orchestrated by a single commander, Fatah al-Islam’s Palestinian chief Shaker al-Abessi, from his new base in Iraq.

Fatah al-Islam under Abessi’s command pinned the Lebanese army down at the northern Nahar al-Badr camp for four months in the summer of 2007 before being driven out.

With his top command, Abessi was able to access Iraq from Syria in the last month by transiting a purportedly sealed border. According to our sources, the Palestinian-led terrorist force has reached North Iraq and is taking reinforcements from Lebanon and Syria preparatory to joining the main al Qaeda body fighting US and Iraqi forces in other parts of the country.

Clip Source: www.debka.com

A high-placed Israeli military source said: “One would imagine the Taliban in Palestinian form had landed on our southwestern doorstep - the same sort of weapons, methods of operation and hot-eyed fervor.”

But Israeli policy-makers refuse to admit a new peril is closing in from the Palestinian territory at war with the Jewish state. An Israeli military officer conversant with the new development sees the Gaza Strip descending further into fundamentalist Islamization. He says: “If until now Hamas and JihadJihad IslamiIslami were the barriers to the return of Palestinian Authority rule evicted from the Gaza Strip last June, now they are bolstered and being further radicalized by al Qaeda’s ideology, propaganda, funds and arms, which are streaming unimpeded to the Palestinian territory.

These violent elements are further boosted by Al Qaeda jihadists, most Palestinian, who are escaping SuezSuez CanalCanal towns in flight from Egyptian security forces. They are finding sanctuary in Gaza.

Tags: gaza, israel, iraq, al-qaeda, hamas, jihad islami, palestinian authority, egypt, suez canal

The Problem With Bush's "Unconscionable Historical And Moral Lapse"

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:49:35 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Robert Spencer, one of the nation’s leading critics on Islam, says President Bush experienced "an unconscionable historical and moral lapse" when he recently called for an end to what he called the "occupation" of Arab land by the Israeli military.

The Islam critic says it is interesting there were no calls for a Palestinian state when the same territory was occupied by Egypt and Jordan prior to 1967.

[Camp David Accords, or “Framework for Peace in the Middle East” (Egyptian-Israeli history)
Encyclopædia Britannica : Related Articles]

http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-91061/Camp-David-Accords

Clip Source: www.onenewsnow.com

Speaking from the West Bank town of Ramallah, Bush said that "painful political concessions" are needed for the peace process. And he said Israel must agree to adjust its borders back to the lines drawn before the Israeli victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, says territorial acquisitions in war is nothing new. "The idea that after a successful war the victorious nation may occupy some land from the defeated nation in order to increase its national security and minimize the risk of a future attack -- that is something that is as old as warfare," he claims.

But Spencer says the problem is that President Bush does not seem to think Israel has that right. "When Israel does exactly the same thing when faced by an array of hostile states that have sworn its destruction," he continues, "then suddenly this becomes an unacceptable occupation of Arab land. It's really an unconscionable historical and moral lapse on the part of the president."

Tags: bush, abbas, olmert, palestine, israel

Israel Pics

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:16:28 GMT

clipped by: axelsenzon

Clip Source: www.zuzafun.com

Tags: israel, nature, pictures, interersting

Cascade Of World-Wide Nuclear Proliferation

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:19:26 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: If the sanctions and threats and carrots all still failed? If Kim and Ahmadinejad's successors insisted, after all, on tooling up? A denuclearising world could - as an absolutely last resort - justify taking military action to prevent other countries going nuclear. But today, to go to war to uphold the NPT would be a sick joke, when the world's leaders are all blatantly burning it themselves - and ramping up the risks of the second nuclear age

Clip Source: www6.lexisnexis.com

In Syria, a mysterious series of explosions in the desert turn out to have been an Israeli military strike which it claims was designed to take out the early stages of a nuclear weapons programme. In Iran, the chief nuclear negotiator with the West has quit because he doesn't agree with the hardline stance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

In the second nuclear age, we have mini-cold wars spreading across the world's hot-spots. India vs Pakistan. Israel vs (soon) Iran. North Korea vs the US (over Japan). And - back from the dead - the US vs Russia. Yet this time there are no hot-lines, no agreements not to fire first, and barely any plans to defuse the stand-offs, just 27,000 nuclear weapons, each one 70 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Some scientists suggest it would take less than 5 per cent of this arsenal to trigger a global nuclear winter

Obama wants the bargain Kennedy proposed to be brought back to life

Tags: asia, middle east, russia, israel, u.s., europe