The Israeli Crisis

STRATFOR - By George Friedman - August 14, 2012
Crises are normally short, sharp and intense affairs. Israel's predicament has developed on a different time frame, is more diffuse than most crises and has not reached a decisive and intense moment. But it is still a crisis. It is not a crisis solely about Iran, although the Israeli government focuses on that issue. Rather, it is over Israel's strategic reality since 1978, when it signed the Camp David accords with Egypt.

Perhaps the deepest aspect of the crisis is that Israel has no internal consensus on whether it is in fact a crisis, or if so, what the crisis is about. The Israeli government speaks of an existential threat from Iranian nuclear weapons. I would argue that the existential threat is broader and deeper, part of it very new, and part of it embedded in the founding of Israel.

Israel now finds itself in a long-term crisis in which it is struggling to develop a strategy and foreign policy to deal with a new reality. This is causing substantial internal stress, since the domestic consensus on Israeli policy is fragmenting at the same time that the strategic reality is shifting. Though this happens periodically to nations, Israel sees itself in a weak position in the long run due to its size and population, despite its current military superiority. More precisely, it sees the evolution of events over time potentially undermining that military reality, and it therefore feels pressured to act to preserve it. How to preserve its superiority in the context of the emerging strategic reality is the core of the Israeli crisis.

Egypt
Since 1978, Israel's strategic reality had been that it faced no threat of a full peripheral war. After Camp David, the buffer of the Sinai Peninsula separated Egypt and Israel, and Egypt had a government that did not want that arrangement to break. Israel still faced a formally hostile Syria. Syria had invaded Lebanon in 1976 to crush the Palestine Liberation Organization based there and reconsolidate its hold over Lebanon, but knew it could not attack Israel by itself. Syria remained content reaching informal understandings with Israel. Meanwhile, relatively weak and isolated Jordan depended on Israel for its national security. Lebanon alone was unstable. Israel periodically intervened there, not very successfully, but not at very high cost.

The most important of Israel's neighbors, Egypt, is now moving on an uncertain course. This weekend, new Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi removed five key leaders of the military and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and revoked constitutional amendments introduced by the military. There are two theories on what has happened. In the first, Morsi -- who until his election was a senior leader of the country's mainstream Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood -- is actually much more powerful than the military and is acting decisively to transform the Egyptian political system. In the second, this is all part of an agreement between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood that gives Morsi the appearance of greater power while actually leaving power with the military.

On the whole, I tend to think that the second is the case. Still, it is not clear how this will evolve: The appearance of power can turn into the reality of power. Despite any sub rosa agreements between the military and Morsi, how these might play out in a year or two as the public increasingly perceives Morsi as being in charge -- limiting the military's options and cementing Morsi's power -- is unknown. In the same sense, Morsi has been supportive of security measures taken by the military against militant Islamists, as was seen in the past week's operations in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Sinai remains a buffer zone against major military forces but not against the paramilitaries linked to radical Islamists who have increased their activities in the peninsula since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Last week, they attacked an Egyptian military post on the Gaza border, killing 16 Egyptian soldiers. This followed several attacks against Israeli border crossings. Morsi condemned the attack and ordered a large-scale military crackdown in the Sinai. Two problems could arise from this.

First, the Egyptians' ability to defeat the militant Islamists depends on redefining the Camp David accords, at least informally, to allow Egypt to deploy substantial forces there (though even this might not suffice). These additional military forces might not threaten Israel immediately, but setting a precedent for a greater Egyptian military presence in the Sinai Peninsula could eventually lead to a threat.

This would be particularly true if Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood impose their will on the Egyptian military. If we take Morsi at face value as a moderate, the question becomes who will succeed him. The Muslim Brotherhood is clearly ascendant, and the possibility that a secular democracy would emerge from the Egyptian uprising is unlikely. It is also clear that the Muslim Brotherhood is a movement with many competing factions. And it is clear from the elections that the Muslim Brotherhood represents the most popular movement in Egypt and that no one can predict how it will evolve or which factions will dominate and what new tendencies will arise. Egypt in the coming years will not resemble Egypt of the past generation, and that means that the Israeli calculus for what will happen on its southern front will need to take Hamas in Gaza into account and perhaps an Islamist Egypt prepared to ally with Hamas.

Syria and Lebanon
A similar situation exists in Syria. The secular and militarist regime of the al Assad family is in serious trouble. As mentioned, the Israelis had a working relationship with the Syrians going back to the Syrian invasion of Lebanon against the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1976. It was not a warm relationship, but it was predictable, particularly in the 1990s: Israel allowed Syria a free hand in Lebanon in exchange for Damascus' limiting Hezbollah's actions.

Lebanon was not exactly stable, but its instability hewed to a predictable framework. That understanding broke down when the United States seized an opportunity to force Syria to retreat from Lebanon in 2006 following the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The United States used the Cedar Revolution that rose up in defiance of Damascus to retaliate against Syria for allowing al Qaeda to send jihadists into Iraq from Syria.

This didn't spark the current unrest in Syria, which appears to involve a loose coalition of Sunnis, including elements of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. Though Israel far preferred Syrian President Bashar al Assad to them, al Assad himself was shifting his behavior. The more pressure he came under, the more he became dependent on Iran. Israel began facing the unpleasant prospect of a Sunni Islamist government emerging or a government heavily dependent on Iran. Neither outcome appealed to Israel, and neither outcome was in Israel's control.

Just as dangerous to Israel would be the Lebanonization of Syria. Syria and Lebanon are linked in many ways, though Lebanon's political order was completely different and Syria could serve as a stabilizing force for it. There is now a reasonable probability that Syria will become like Lebanon, namely, a highly fragmented country divided along religious and ethnic lines at war with itself. Israel's best outcome would be for the West to succeed in preserving Syria's secular military regime without al Assad. But it is unclear how long a Western-backed regime resting on the structure of al Assad's Syria would survive. Even the best outcome has its own danger. And while Lebanon itself has been reasonably stable in recent years, when Syria catches a cold, Lebanon gets pneumonia. Israel thus faces the prospect of declining security to its north.

The U.S. Role and Israel's Strategic Lockdown
It is important to take into account the American role in this, because ultimately Israel's national security -- particularly if its strategic environment deteriorates -- rests on the United States. For the United States, the current situation is a strategic triumph. Iran had been extending its power westward, through Iraq and into Syria. This represented a new force in the region that directly challenged American interests. Where Israel originally had an interest in seeing al Assad survive, the United States did not. Washington's primary interest lay in blocking Iran and keeping it from posing a threat to the Arabian Peninsula. The United States saw Syria, particularly after the uprising, as an Iranian puppet. While the United States was delighted to see Iran face a reversal in Syria, Israel was much more ambivalent about that outcome.

The Israelis are always opposed to the rising regional force. When that was Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, they focused on Nasser. When it was al Qaeda and its sympathizers, they focused on al Qaeda. When it was Iran, they focused on Tehran. But simple opposition to a regional tendency is no longer a sufficient basis for Israeli strategy. As in Syria, Israel must potentially oppose all tendencies, where the United States can back one. That leaves Israeli policy incoherent. Lacking the power to impose a reality on Syria, the best Israel can do is play the balance of power. When its choice is between a pro-Iranian power and a Sunni Islamist power, it can no longer play the balance of power. Since it lacks the power to impose a reality, it winds up in a strategic lockdown.

Israel's ability to influence events on its borders was never great, but events taking place in bordering countries are now completely beyond its control. While Israeli policy has historically focused on the main threat, using the balance of power to stabilize the situation and ultimately on the decisive use of military force, it is no longer possible to identify the main threat. There are threats in all of its neighbors, including Jordan (where the kingdom's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood is growing in influence while the Hashemite monarchy is reviving relations with Hamas). This means using the balance of power within these countries to create secure frontiers is no longer an option. It is not clear there is a faction for Israel to support or a balance that can be achieved. Finally, the problem is political rather than military. The ability to impose a political solution is not available.

Against the backdrop, any serious negotiations with the Palestinians are impossible. First, the Palestinians are divided. Second, they are watching carefully what happens in Egypt and Syria since this might provide new political opportunities. Finally, depending on what happens in neighboring countries, any agreement Israel might reach with the Palestinians could turn into a nightmare.

The occupation therefore continues, with the Palestinians holding the initiative. Unrest begins when they want it to begin and takes the form they want it to have within the limits of their resources. The Israelis are in a responsive mode. They can't eradicate the Palestinian threat. Extensive combat in Gaza, for example, has both political consequences and military limits. Occupying Gaza is easy; pacifying Gaza is not.

Israel's Military and Domestic Political Challenges
The crisis the Israelis face is that their levers of power, the open and covert relationships they had, and their military force are not up to the task of effectively shaping their immediate environment. They have lost the strategic initiative, and the type of power they possess will not prove decisive in dealing with their strategic issues. They no longer are operating at the extremes of power, but in a complex sphere not amenable to military solutions.

Israel's strong suit is conventional military force. It can't fully understand or control the forces at work on its borders, but it can understand the Iranian nuclear threat. This leads it to focus on the sort of conventional conflict it excels at, or at least used to excel at. The 2006 war with Hezbollah was quite conventional, but Israel was not prepared for an infantry war. The Israelis instead chose to deal with Lebanon via an air campaign, but that failed to achieve their political ends.

The Israelis want to redefine the game to something they can win, which is why their attention is drawn to the Iranian nuclear program. Of all their options in the region, a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities apparently plays to their strengths. Two things make such a move attractive. The first is that eliminating Iran's nuclear capability is desirable for Israel. The nuclear threat is so devastating that no matter how realistic the threat is, removing it is desirable.

Second, it would allow Israel to demonstrate the relevance of its power in the region. It has been a while since Israel has had a significant, large-scale military victory. The 1980s invasion of Lebanon didn't end well; the 2006 war was a stalemate; and while Israel may have achieved its military goals in the 2008 invasion of Gaza, that conflict was a political setback. Israel is still taken seriously in the regional psychology, but the sense of inevitability Israel enjoyed after 1967 is tattered. A victory on the order of destroying Iranian weapons would reinforce Israel's relevance.

It is, of course, not clear that the Israelis intend to launch such an attack. And it is not clear that such an attack would succeed. It is also not clear that the Iranian counter at the Strait of Hormuz wouldn't leave Israel in a difficult political situation, and above all it is not clear that Egyptian and Syrian factions would even be impressed by the attacks enough to change their behavior.

Israel also has a domestic problem, a crisis of confidence. Many military and intelligence leaders oppose an attack on Iran. Part of their opposition is rooted in calculation. Part of it is rooted in a series of less-than-successful military operations that have shaken their confidence in the military option. They are afraid both of failure and of the irrelevance of the attack on the strategic issues confronting Israel.

Political inertia can be seen among Israeli policymakers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to form a coalition with the centrist Kadima Party, but that fell apart over the parochial Israeli issue of whether Orthodox Jews should be drafted. Rather than rising to the level of a strategic dialogue, the secularist constituency of Kadima confronted the religious constituencies of the Likud coalition and failed to create a government able to devise a platform for decisive action.

This is Israel's crisis. It is not a sudden, life-threatening problem but instead is the product of unraveling regional strategies, a lack of confidence earned through failure and a political system incapable of unity on any particular course. Israel, a small country that always has used military force as its ultimate weapon, now faces a situation where the only possible use of military force -- against Iran -- is not only risky, it is not clearly linked to any of the main issues Israel faces other than the nuclear issue.

The French Third Republic was marked by a similar sense of self-regard overlaying a deep anxiety. This led to political paralysis and Paris' inability to understand the precise nature of the threat and to shape its response to it. Rather than deal with the issues at hand in the 1930s, the French relied on past glories to guide them. That didn't turn out very well.

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/israeli-crisis 
 
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

WikiLeaks Revelations on Israel

The latest round of cables released by WikiLeaks details the intimate security concerns of Israel's intelligence community; Israel-US ties.

ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Gavriel Queenann - April 8, 2011

The latest media-barnstorm by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange reveals the private concerns and assessments of Israel's intelligence services, the Guardian reports.

The documents on Israel and the Middle East come as Assange agreed to be interviewed by the Hebrew-language Yedidot Acharonot this week to defend his organization from charges of anti-Semitism.

According to the cables,

Israel Forecasted Mideast Upheaval in 2007

Classified documents from 2007 - long before unrest swept though the Mideast - revealed Director of Military Intelligence Major-General Amos Yadlin had told Americans that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is unlikely to survive another war with Israel.

Mossad Chief Meir Dagan echoed the sentiment at the time, further expressing his concern over the instability of several Middle East regimes.

Dagan intimated the Israel's security community felt that the regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon were unstable - an assessment proved right in early 2011.

Tantawi Obdurate On Arms Smuggling

Mohammed Tantawi, the head of the interim junta ruling Egypt who has expressed solidarity with the Palestinian Authority, was an obstacle to efforts to stop arms smuggling within the Gaza strip, according to Israeli security forces in 2009. The cables also revealed praise for former Egyptian intelligence minister Omar Suleiman, who was described as "supportive".

Egypt is the primary route for weapons and munitions into the Gaza strip, and the US has been facilitating co-operation between Israel and Egypt to tackle this for several years. Israel routinely bombs smuggling tunnels transiting the southern Gaza boundary in retaliatory strikes.

Bahrain-Israel Cooperation

The King of Bahrain, whose Sunni-ruled Arab state has recently been shaken by Shiite protests, has had friendly links with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. The US learned of the contacts during a private conversation between US ambassador, William Monroe, and King Hamad of Bahrain in the king's palace on 15 February 2005.

Monroe reported back to Washington: "He [the king] revealed that Bahrain already has contacts with Israel at the intelligence/security level (ie [sic] with Mossad) and indicated that Bahrain will be willing to move forward in other areas."

Such cooperation is not overly surprising in light of tenion between Sunni-Arab states and Shiite Iran in the Persian Gulf. The Mossad has had back-channel contact with Arab counterparts, most notably Morocco and Jordan (prior to the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty) in the past.

Hizbullah Ready To Slam Israel With 400-600 Rockets Per Day

Hizbullah's mounting capability to strike directly at Tel Aviv rests on an arsenal of more than 20,000 missiles.

Israeli intelligence chiefs briefed their US counterparts during a regular Joint Political Military Group (JPMG) session on November18, 2009 about the scale of potential Hizbullah attacks from Lebanon when hostilities next erupt between Iran's Shiite terror proxy and the Jewish State.

Washington was told, "Hizbullah possesses over 20,000 rockets ... Hizbullah was preparing for a long conflict with Israel in which it hopes to launch a massive number of rockets at Israel per day. A Mossad official estimated that Hizbullah will try to launch 400-600 rockets and missiles at Israel per day - 100 of which will be aimed at Tel Aviv. He noted that Hizbullah is looking to sustain such launches for at least two months."

Israeli Leaders Muddled On Gaza

Other cables detail secret talks between Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin and US diplomats over the role of Hamas in Gaza. On November 12, 2009 the embassy reported the views of Major General Yoav Galant, then head of Israel's Southern Command, that Hamas needed to be "strong enough to enforce a ceasefire."

Galant told the Americans: "Israel's political leadership has not yet made the necessary policy choices among competing priorities: a short-term priority of wanting Hamas to be strong enough to enforce the de facto ceasefire and prevent the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel; a medium priority of preventing Hamas from consolidating its hold on Gaza; and a longer-term priority of avoiding a return of Israeli control of Gaza and full responsibility for the well being of Gaza's civilian population."

Galant was to be made Israel's chief of defense staff earlier this year, but the appointment was canceled due to scandal.

Arab-Israeli Leaders Flirting With The Enemy

Diskin also offered the Americans the Shin Beth's stance on the of Israeli Arabs, of whom he said many "have taken their liberties too far."

Diskin said some Israeli-Arab leaders see themselves as Arabs and Muslims first, and Israeli citizens last. He also criticized Arab MKs, saying they were "flirting with the enemy."

He allegedly said "…these people don’t spread Israel's democratic values and principles, and abuse their diplomatic immunity." He also attributed the problem to Arab refugees who returned to Israel and "brought bad ideas" with them.

The Shin Bet Chief was quoted as having criticized the Israel Police in the documents, saying it was their "incompetence" that forced the Shin Bet to involve itself in former Balad Chairman Azmi Bishara's supposed espionage case, saying his organization "would welcome him back to Israel."

Bishara fled Israel in 2007, and is facing a lengthy prison sentence should he return.

More on this topic

• Wikileaks Blunder Outs Intelligence Sources
• U.S. Concerned Over WikiLeaks Blunder
• WikiLeaks Document Sheds Light on Iraqi Jews

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143443

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Norway to Israel: Dialogue is no, Jonas

AUF leader Eskil Pedersen believes it is time for stronger measures against Israel.

DAGBALDET - July 20, 2011

Ed. Note: The following is a literal translation using Google Translate from Norwegian to English from the website of Dagbaldet posted the day before the Norway terror attacks.

This week is about a thousand members of Labour Youth (AUF) collected Utøya to discuss politics.  On Thursday comes Jonas Gahr Store to Utøya to debate the Middle East.

The foreign minister believes in dialogue in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but the leader of AUF Eskil Pedersen has a clear message to the Minister.

- We like to talk, but as we have seen so has Israel not been interested, and have not listened to any of the clashes that have been made. The peace process is the wrong way, and though the whole world screaming for Israel to comply, they do not. We in Labour Youth will have a unilateral economic embargo of Israel from the Norwegian side, says Pedersen.

Extreme

AUF leader says dialogue can no longer have anything to offer in the face of Israel, and believes it is high time that the new measures are adopted. Pedersen believes that the Israeli authorities have now moved so far right that it is impossible to have any conversations with them.

 - Norway has little opportunity to influence in any way, and we are no closer to any peace in the conflict. Rather the contrary. Israel has moved very far to the right, which means that it will get the dialogue partners. I would dare say that even foreign politicians from the Progress Party will struggle to find conversation partners in Israel. There is no call web anymore. I mean is that we should talk to everyone, but we can not sacrifice our principles and our policies, just to talk, he said.

Rent

AUF has long been an international boycott of Israel, but the decision at the last congress, demanding that Norway imposes a unilateral economic embargo of the country, was sharper than before.

- I acknowledge that this is a drastic measure, but I think it gives a clear indication that we are tired of Israel's behavior. Large parts of the world react all the time, but Israel will not listen. I think the decision is a sign that we in the AUF is tired of Israel, quite simply, he says.

http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/07/20/nyheter/politikk/innenriks/auf/17367745/

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Jewish bodies found in medieval well in Norwich

BBC NEWS [PSB operated by BBC Trust] - June 22, 2011

The remains of 17 bodies found at the bottom of a medieval well in England could have been victims of persecution, new evidence has suggested.

The most likely explanation is that those down the well were Jewish and were probably murdered or forced to commit suicide, according to scientists who used a combination of DNA analysis, carbon dating and bone chemical studies in their investigation.

The skeletons date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries at a time when Jewish people were facing persecution throughout Europe.

They were discovered in 2004 during an excavation of a site in the centre of Norwich, ahead of construction of the Chapelfield Shopping Centre. The remains were put into storage and have only recently been the subject of investigation.

Seven skeletons were successfully tested and five of them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a single Jewish family.

DNA expert Dr Ian Barnes, who carried out the tests, said: "This is a really unusual situation for us. This is a unique set of data that we have been able to get for these individuals.

"I am not aware that this has been done before - that we have been able to pin them down to this level of specificity of the ethnic group that they seem to come from."

'Ethnic cleansing'

The team has been led by forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black, of the University of Dundee's Centre for Anthropology and Human Identification.

Professor Black, who went to the Balkans following the Kosovo war - where her job was to piece together the bodies of massacred Kosovan Albanians - said this discovery had changed the direction of the whole investigation.

Regarding the nature of the discovery, Professor Black said: "We are possibly talking about persecution. We are possibly talking about ethnic cleansing and this all brings to mind the scenario that we dealt with during the Balkan War crimes."

Eleven of the 17 skeletons were those of children aged between two and 15. The remaining six were adult men and women.

"In terms of the brutality of the ethnic cleansing, it was thought women and children quite frankly weren't worth wasting the bullets on," added Professor Black.

"Pregnant women were bayoneted because that way you got rid of a woman because that wasn't important and you got rid of the next generation because you didn't want them to survive. So I know what sort of pattern I am looking for."

Cushioned fall

Pictures taken at the time of excavation suggested the bodies were thrown down the well together, head first.

A close examination of the adult bones showed fractures caused by the impact of hitting the bottom of the well. But the same damage was not seen on the children's bones, suggesting they were thrown in after the adults who cushioned the fall of their bodies.

The team had earlier considered the possibility of death by disease but the bone examination also showed no evidence of diseases such as leprosy or tuberculosis.

Giles Emery, the archaeologist who led the original excavation, said at first he thought it might have been a plague burial, but carbon dating had shown that to be impossible as the plague came much later.

And historians pointed out that even during times of plague when mass graves were used, bodies were buried in an ordered way with respect and religious rites.

Norwich had been home to a thriving Jewish community since 1135 and many lived near the well site. But there are records of persecution of Jews in medieval England including in Norwich (see fact box).

Sophie Cabot, an archaeologist and expert on Norwich's Jewish history, said the Jewish people had been invited to England by the King to lend money because at the time, the Christian interpretation of the bible did not allow Christians to lend money and charge interest. It was regarded as a sin.

So cash finance for big projects came from the Jewish community and some became very wealthy - which in turn, caused friction.

"There is a resentment of the fact that Jews are making money... and they are doing it in a way that doesn't involve physical labour, things that are necessarily recognised as work... like people feel about bankers now," said Ms Cabot.

The findings of the investigation represented a sad day for Norwich.

Ms Cabot added: "It changes the story of what we know about the community. We don't know everything about the community but what we do know is changed by this."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13855238

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner

Secret behind Norwich skeletons revealed

GREAT YARMOUTH MERCURY, Great Yarmouth, England, UK [Archant] - By John Owens - June 22, 2011

They lay hidden for centuries, a gruesome 13th-century secret left untouched until chanced upon by workmen digging the foundations for a new Norwich consumer haven.

But this week, the mystery behind 17 skeletons discovered during excavations for the Chapelfield shopping centre in 2004 will be unravelled before an audience of millions - and with it, an unsettling tale of persecution.

Combining detective skills and 21st- century forensics, a team of experts pieced together evidence for a BBC2 History Cold Case programme to be broadcast on Thursday.

It will reveal that the bodies, found down a well, are believed to have been murdered or committed suicide.

The reason for those people’s deaths? They were Jewish.

Giles Emery was working for the Norfolk Archaeological Unit when the “one-off” remains were found and has followed their fate ever since.

“What happened is a tragedy, but now we can see these people as human beings again and they are able to tell their story,” said Mr Emery, who now runs Norvic Archaeology.

He and fellow researchers knew they were on to something special when the bones were found accidentally by a builder about five metres below ground. Of the skeletons, 11 were small children.

However, their funding and studies could only take them so far, and, when the BBC first contacted them two years ago, it proved an opportunity not to be missed.

Having visited the site earlier this year, the real breakthrough came through when analysis of some of the bones revealed they had DNA consistent with Jewish communities and belonged to family members who had lived in the area for many years.

It proved a key finding. The group had lived in a time rife with anti-Semitism as Europe became more Christian. Norwich was known too to have had a thriving Jewish community since 1135: it had lived just a few hundred yards from the well.

Miri Rubin is a professor and historian at Queen Mary, University of London and was part of the most recent studies. She said: “There was a real deepening of this sense of Jewish evil, so it is a picture of worsening and, ultimately, the age of expulsions.”

With natural death ruled out, and neither the Christian nor Jewish communities ever having been found to bury members of their communities in this way, the team was left with only the bleakest of conclusions.

Mr Emery was one of those present when the findings were first presented to a recent gathering of historians in Norwich Guildhall. He said: “It was astounding when we found out.

“Everyone recognised that it was quite an unusual thing to be able to find out something we couldn’t have done a few years ago, and now we’re just trying to spread awareness of it.” ...

john.owens@archant.co.uk

http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/secret_behind_norwich_skeletons_revealed_1_929821

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Keeping Up with the Qaddafis

The family that fights the United Nations together, stays together.
FOREIGN POLICY [The Slate Group-Wash Post Group/Graham] - BY Suzanne Merkelson - March 17, 2011
As the world prepares for a military intervention in Libya, Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi has few allies on the international stage. But sometimes, it's family that counts -- and Qaddafi's close-knit family has stood him in good stead during these days of civil war and threats of no-fly zones. In fact, in a bizarre twist on normal family dynamics, the Qaddafi clan's hard times over the last month seem to have only pulled them closer around their erratic patriarch. Qaddafi has eight biological children, seven of them sons, many of them embracing, in one way or another, the Western values that their father hated (and has railed against). But with his regime under fire, the Qaddafi children have been among their father's most ardent supporters, in many ways rejecting their past inclinations toward reform and partnership with the West. Here, Qaddafi poses with his second wife, Safia, and some of his children in November 1986 near the Bab Aziza palace in Libya, destroyed in a U.S. air raid. According to Muammar, another raid that year killed his adopted daughter.

Muammar al-Qaddafi was born in the Libyan desert near the city of Sirte in 1942. He graduated with honors from the University of Libya before, like many of his children after him, pursuing a European education and doing some army training in Britain, where he first began plotting to overthrow the Libyan government. In 1969, he organized a coup that removed King Idris I. After taking power, Qaddafi launched a cultural upheaval and eventually a "people's revolution," creating a unique government system known as the "Jamahiriya"-state of the masses. Though he wields absolute power over the Libyan government, Qaddafi technically holds no formal office. He defended the system in New York on March 2006, saying, "There is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet." ...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/17/keeping_up_with_the_qaddafis?page=0,0


FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Ben-Eliezer: Americans Don't Realize What They've Done

ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Hillel Fendel - February 4, 2011
First Israeli politician to castigate Obama: Former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer says Americans still don't realize the catastrophe into which they have pushed the Middle East.
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer - a former army general, Labor Party Chairman and Cabinet minister - praises Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom he has known for many years, and has strong criticism for U.S. President Obama's abandonment of him. ... "it pained me to see his collapse. He stood by our side for 30 years, he was a strong leader, he kept proudly to Sadat's commitments and followed in his path. He always emphasized the strategic importance of peace with Israel, and that this peace was the basis for stability in the Middle East." ...

Just Like in Iran and Gaza...
Ben-Eliezer does not agree that he is being too pessimistic: "We learn from history. We remember what was said when Carter proposed that the Shah of Iran give up nicely and allow Khomeini to take his place. In Gaza, too, when the Americans came in, they supervised the democratic elections [via which Hamas came into power]. If there are elections in Egypt the way the Americans want, I will be surprised if the Muslim Brotherhood does not win... This will be a new Middle East - radical, Islamic and extremist."
"I think the Americans still don't realize the extent of the catastrophe into which they have pushed the Middle East," Ben-Eliezer said. " ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142127

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Egypt and More

THE GOLDEN REPORT - By Jerry Golden - February 5, 2011
[...] If you are getting your news from the mainline media you are imbibing a lot of spin and very little reality. But let me say at this point that aside from God no one knows what the final outcome will be in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Tunisia, Lebanon and later Saudi Arabia. One thing we do know is that they all have one common denominator that binds them together. They all want to destroy Israel and kill the Jews. That, as we know, is a very old war that started with Isaac and Ishmael and rages on to this day - and will continue.

Obama has once again shown his hand by protecting Islam at the expense of Israel's survival at every turn, and in every way he possibly can. There are a few questions that have crossed my mind lately. How did these street protests become so organized so quickly? Who has been printing all the signs and why are they in English instead of Arabic? Why did Obama so quickly turn on an old friend of the US in favour of the possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood getting into power in Egypt? One thing is certain. The few friends the US has around the world are now looking at how quickly they can lose the support of Obama in a crisis. They are all coming to the same conclusion: "who needs a friend such as that?". ...

But if you are listening to the American News you would think it is all about Democracy.
We have learned from Gaza that a personal vote does not a democracy make. When people are desperate and hungry they don't think clearly, and you have to add the fact that they have been brainwashed all there lives. When there are no institutions in place to establish a real democracy then we simply see another take- over by the most evil of mankind.

Mubarak is a Dictator, but not of the Saddam Hussein variety. For the past 30 years he has held over 80 million Egyptians together. The United States has given him 1.5 Billion a year in Military aid. He has made the Muslim Brotherhood illegal in Egypt and held down other Islamic extremists. That is until Obama came on the scene. ...

People say, "Jerry, why don't you write some good news?" My answer is; "I do". The only Good News is that you must be saved and filled with the Spirit of God. ...

No, there is no good news for the people of the USA. Their fate was sealed when they elected an unknown to be President. When everything they knew about him was terrible, they still elected him. They still know nearly nothing about his past or his family, or where he was born. And he has made it very clear by his actions that he hates Israel as do Muslims around the world. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.thegoldenreport.com/asp/jerrysnewsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=1396&z=1

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Aaron Klein: Why Glenn Beck is right on Egypt chaos

WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - February 10, 2011
JERUSALEM - A conflict has erupted between conservative pundit William Kristol and Fox News host Glenn Beck over the chaos in Egypt, with a number of right-leaning authors taking sides, and a few even hurling insults. In my job as a Mideast-based, boots-on-the-ground reporter who has lived and breathed these issues for the past six years, in constant communication with all sides of the Mideast conflict - including near-daily interviews with Arab officials, jihadist leaders (such as those from the Muslim Brotherhood), as well as average citizens - I feel compelled to join Glenn Beck's side.

Chastising Beck from his position as editor of the influential Weekly Standard, Kristol criticizes the talk-show host for his "rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and [he] lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left." Kristol then evinces a highly optimistic view of the upheaval now roiling Egypt and hails the protests there as a precursor for democracy, while urging the United States to support "the Egyptian awakening."

Besides excoriating Beck, Kristol takes issue with Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, who warns the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood may come to power as result of the revolution, but quotes approvingly of Krauthammer's view that the "Egyptian awakening carries promise and hope and of course merits our support." Krauthammer also asserts that "our paramount moral and strategic interest in Egypt is real democracy in which power does not devolve to those who believe in one man, one vote, one time." And to top it off, Kristol compares the Egyptian revolution to America's own founding. "The Egyptian people want to exercise their capacity for self-government. American conservatives, heirs to our own bold and far-sighted revolutionaries, should help them," he writes. Unfortunately, the Egypt Kristol wishes for does not reflect reality on the ground. Glenn Beck's vision of an emerging Islamic caliphate - with the radical American left aiding and abetting the Muslim Brotherhood - is far closer to the truth and supported by abundant evidence. (Beck is not the only nationally syndicated commentator to make this argument. Popular talker Michael Savage devoted an entire broadcast last Friday to showing that leftist American figures had their hands in the Egyptian revolt, which, he said, will favor Islamists.) ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=261681


FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The New Middle East

The New Middle East at a Glance - Country by Country

ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Hillel Fendel - February 15, 2011


Arab countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing unrest. Israel National News brings you a brief review on what’s happening with the Arabs - and the Jews - in the various states:

Part One

ALGERIA
Hundreds of protestors clashed with security forces in the capital city of Algiers over the past few days, demanding the ouster of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. About 100 have been arrested. Bouteflika has agreed to lift the nearly 20-year-old state of emergency with which the country has been ruled.

Algeria’s Jewish population can be traced back about 2,600 years, to when the First Temple was destroyed. After Algeria achieved independence from France in 1962, most of the country’s 130,000 Jews - who had long suffered from local anti-Semitism - emigrated to France. By the 1990’s, most of the remaining Jews had emigrated. In 1994, the rebel Armed Islamic Group declared war on all non-Muslims in the country. The Algiers synagogue was abandoned that year and later became a mosque. Slightly more than 200 Jews remain today in Algeria, mostly in Algiers.

BAHRAIN
Thousands of people are marching in the streets today, demanding the regime’s ousting. At least two protestors have been killed and three police officers hurt. The small island kingdom (population 1.25 million) has been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family for nearly two centuries, since 1820.

After World War II, riots were focused against the middle-class Jewish community. By 1948, most of Bahrain Jewry abandoned its properties and evacuated to Bombay, India and later to Israel and the United Kingdom. As of 2008, 37 Jews remained in the country; the issue of compensation was never settled. In 2008, King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa called on the Jews who emigrated to return.

EGYPT
Unrest continues despite the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on Friday. Banks and the stock market remain closed, while the army attempts to take control until elections are able to be arranged.

In 1956, the Egyptian government issued a proclamation stating that “all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state” and threatened them with expulsion. As a result, half of Egypt’s 50,000 Jews left, and 1,000 were imprisoned. After the 1967 war, nearly all Egyptian Jewish men aged 17-60 were either thrown out of the country or incarcerated and tortured. Fewer than 100 Jews remain in Egypt today.

IRAN
Tens of thousands of anti-Ahmadinejad demonstrators marched in downtown Tehran on Monday. The Parliament Speaker blamed the United States and Israel for the protests. Opposition activists continue to call for more demonstrations, in which security forces have fired tear gas; dozens of people have been arrested, and two opposition leaders have been placed under house arrest.

"The parliament condemns the Zionist, American, anti-revolutionary and anti-national action of the misled seditionists," Speaker Ali Larijani said during a parliament session.

Jews in Iran, formerly known as Persia, date back 4,000 years. In 1948, the population numbered close to 150,000, and at the time of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the number was 80,000. From then on, Jewish emigration increased dramatically. Estimates of today’s population range from 20,000 to 35,000. Iran's Jewish community, the largest among Muslim countries, is officially recognized as a religious minority group and as such is allocated one seat in the Iranian Parliament. Tehran has 11 functioning synagogues.

 IRAQ
Though Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s regime does not appear to be in imminent danger, thousands of people have rallied in recent days and weeks across the country, protesting poverty, high unemployment, and shortages of food, electricity and water. Al-Maliki has announced a 50% cut in his $350,000 salary and that he would not run for a third term in 2014.

Iraqi Jewry dates back at least 2,600 years, and numbered around 120,000 in 1948. Nearly all the Jews left because of persecution following Israel’s War of Independence, and today fewer than 100 Jews remain.

 TUNISIA
The future of Tunisia is still in doubt, following the fleeing of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as a result of the December unrest that sparked the protests across the Middle East. The EU’s top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, met yesterday with various leaders in an attempt to shape a policy for governing the country.

In 1941, Tunisia was home to roughly 100,000 Jews, and a year later became the only Arab country to come under direct Nazi occupation during World War II. The Nazis forced Jews to wear the yellow Star of David, confiscated property, and sent some 5,700 Jews to forced labor camps, where 150 died in the camps or the bombings. In the 1950’s, anti-Semitism and other forms of persecution led to the departure of tens of thousands of Jews; each person was allowed to leave with approximately $5 of their own money. As of now, 700 Jews live in the city of Tunis and 1,000 on the island of Djerba.

Part Two

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
The Cabinet headed by prime minister Salam Fayyad submitted its resignation to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, and Fayyad was immediately re-appointed to head the new government. Abbas, whose Fatah organization runs the Judea/Samaria parts of the Palestinian Authority, has called for new elections "by September at the latest" - but Hamas, which controls Gaza, says it will not take part.

Only minor protests have been held, but the Abbas government has been under criticism for the lack of progress in the talks with Israel, for having reportedly made concessions to Israel, and in light of constant Hamas criticism.

Jews, by definition, do not live in the PA-controlled areas. This past December, Abbas said, “We have frankly said, and always will say: If there is an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it." Months earlier, he even said that he would not agree to a single Jewish soldier in a NATO peacekeeping in the region, but later backtracked.

JORDAN
Though no acute danger faces King Abdullah's regime, he is experiencing popular protests, and his wife, Queen Rania, has been accused of corruption. A letter signed by 36 leading Bedouin representatives says that Rania must return land and farms expropriated by her family. The letter endorses several demands expressed by the Islamist opposition, and warns that Jordan "will sooner or later face the flood of Tunisia and Egypt, due to the suppression of freedoms and looting of public funds."

At the same time, Islamist voices are coming to the fore in Jordan; the country's new Justice Minister has praised the murderer of seven Israeli girls and called for his release from prison. The lethal attack occurred on the Israeli-Jordanian border in 1997.

Abdullah has formed a new government in response to the protests, and U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Jordan over the weekend to discuss current events with the leadership.

Jewish history in what is now Jordan goes back to Biblical times, when Moses granted permission to two and a half tribes to live there after taking part in the war for the Land of Israel. Over the centuries, the Jewish population dwindled to nothing. In the 1930's, leading residents of what was then Transjordan requested that Jews move in to help revive the economy - but the British, who ruled the area, did not want more Jewish-Arab problems, and passed legislation banning Jews from living there.

After the Kingdom of Jordan was created, it ratified this law in 1954, declaring that any person may become a citizen unless he is a Jew (or if a special council approves his request and he has fulfilled other conditions). Jordan has no Jewish community at present.

LIBYA
Underground opposition groups reportedly tried to organize Day of Rage protests on Monday, and have now rescheduled them for this Thursday. Moammar Gadhafi, who has ruled the country since 1969, met last month with political activists and journalists, warned that they would be held responsible if they took part "in any way in disturbing the peace or creating chaos in Libya."

In 1931, 21,000 Jews lived in Libya - 4% of the total population - under generally good conditions. In the late 1930s, the Fascist Italian regime began passing anti-Semitic laws, and in 1942 - when 44 synagogues were operative in Tripoli - German troops occupied the Jewish quarter of Benghazi and deported more than 2,000 Jews to labor camps across the desert, where more than a fifth of them perished.

After World War II, anti-Jewish violence and murderous pogroms caused many Jews to leave the country, principally for Israel, and under Gaddafi's rule, the situation deteriorated so badly that only 20 Jews remained by 1974. In 2003, the last Jew of Libya, 80-year-old Rina Debach, left the country.

MOROCCO
A video has been distributed calling for a protest to be held on Feb. 20 to demand "equality, social justice, employment, housing, study grants and higher salaries," as well as "change, political reforms, the resignation of the Government and the dissolution of Parliament." Analysts do not expect the campaign to succeed. Some have said that the Moroccan government may face unrest in the west, thanks to Algerian instigators.

Before the founding of Israel in 1948, there were over 250,000 Jews in the country, but only 3,000 - 7,000 remain today, mostly in Casablanca. In June 1948, 44 Jews were killed in anti-Semitic riots, and large-scale emigration to Israel began. Between 1961 and 1964, more than 80,000 Moroccan Jews emigrated to Israel; by 1967, only 60,000 Jews remained, and four years later, this number was 35,000. Today, the State of Israel is home to nearly 1,000,000 Jews of Moroccan descent, around 15% of the nation's total population.

SYRIA
In an attempt to head off protests, the Assad government withdrew a plan to remove some subsidies. President Bashar Assad gave a rare interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he said he to hold local elections, pass a new media law, and give more power to private organizations. A planned "Day of Rage" that was organized via Facebook for February 5 failed to materialize.

 Large Jewish communities existed in Aleppo, Damascus, and Qamishli for centuries. About 100 years ago, a large percentage of Syrian Jews emigrated to the U.S., Central and South America and Israel. Anti-Jewish feeling reached a climax in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and some 5,000 Jews left in the 1940's for what became Israel. The Aleppo pogrom of December 1947, a pogrom in Aleppo - the third in 100 years - left many dead, hundreds wounded, and the community devastated. Another pogrom in Damascus in 1949 left 12 Jews dead. In 1992, the few thousand remaining Jews were permitted to leave Syria, as long as they did not head for Israel. The few remaining Jews in Syria live in Damascus.

YEMEN
Tuesday marks four straight days of clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. At least three people were injured on Tuesday as 3,000 activists attempted to march on the presidential palace. They are demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years. Protests have become increasingly violent. Besides poverty and unemployment, the Saleh government is grappling a secessionist movement in the south, rebellion in the north, and a regrouping of Al Qaeda on its soil.

Between June 1949 and September 1950, 49,000 Yemenite Jews - the overwhelming majority of the country's Jewish population - was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet. Only a few dozen mostly elderly Jews remain in Yemen.

Amidst the Arab demands for the restitution of Arab refugees from the 1948 war, it is largely forgotten that around that time, more than 870,000 Jews lived in the various Arab countries. In many cases, they were persecuted politically and physically, and their property was confiscated; some 600,000 Jews found refuge in the State of Israel. Their material claims for their lost assets have never been seriously considered.

Part 1 Link

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142345

Part 2 Link

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142358


FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Doubletalk by MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell: MSNBC's Mitchell is Warned by Ex Muslim Brotherhood Member The Brotherhood Wants Sharia

America’s MSM (main stream media) just cannot shake the warm fuzzies for demonically possessed madmen, especially when they toss around terms like “democracy” and “social justice”.
BE/\LERT!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ETzOClvQZc


FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

US Intelligence Dir Says Muslim Brotherhood is Secular Hours After Member of MB Goal is Sharia Law

Ed. Note: This is the kind of thing that truly perplexes me: 1) The Director of National Intelligence is either an absolute incompetent and it is part of the judgment of God on America that he is oblivious to what is obvious to nearly everyone else. Or: 2) A most clever ‘out in the open’ strategic deception by the intelligence community to make everyone think they are just a bunch of dunces. Especially in this case when reading between the lines one gets the impression that the Obama/U.S. goal was to take down the Mubarak regime and eventually install the Muslim Brotherhood.
BE/\LERT!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPgEvJtp2JI

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

For Israel: An unexpected Norwegian friend

'I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.' - Genesis 12:3

In Norway he's considered the odd exception - a pro-Israel newspaper editor. Four years ago Vebjørn Selbekk published Prophet Muhammad cartoons, resulting in countless death threats. In recent visit to Jewish state he explains why it is so important to him to champion Israel
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH [Yedioth Ahronoth Group - Private] - By Ravid Oren - October 25, 2010
Four years ago, Norwegian journalist Vebjørn Selbekk received an e-mail with two photos of burnt bodies. "Take a good look at these pictures and imagine yourself in their place. You are criticizing the Prophet Muhammad and therefore your destiny will match that of the man in the picture," the e-mail noted.

"It was a shocking moment. I suddenly realized that my life had changed in an instant, that from a regular journalist I have turned into man whose life and family were being threatened," Selbekk remembers. "My wife immediately left the office and rushed home to be with our young son who was only nine at the time, and I rushed to call the police."

Selbekk became widely known in 2006 when as the editor of the newspaper Magazinet he decided to run cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad which had appeared in a Danish newspaper three months earlier and sparked a worldwide uproar.

"We wanted to show our readers what the fuss was about in Denmark, to give them the opportunity to decide for themselves whether the cartoons were offensive. To do this we had no choice but to run them ourselves," he says.

That decision proved to have serious consequences and Selbekk's life was soon being threatened on a regular basis. "After the 50th time I just stopped counting. I received thousands of harsh messages: 'We'll behead you' 'We'll come to your bedroom and wipe you out.'"

The family's panic led national police and the Norwegian intelligence agency to take the threats seriously. "Not only did they guard my house for nine months, they also talked to my kids and tried to prepare them for the new situation in their lives. They taught them how to identify suspicious envelopes and how you find out someone put a bomb under daddy's car. When things got worse we had to flee the house. We went into hiding for a week and changed various hotels. We even moved houses."

Selbekk visited Israel last week together with senior members of his newspaper's staff who came to get a more intimate look at Israel and the personal and political aspects they cover in their stories. We accompanied them in a tour of the Old City in Jerusalem as they observed the dozens of soldiers patrolling the area. Selbekk points to kaffiyahs being sold at the market stalls. "In Oslo Jews never dare to wear yarmulkes," he says, part sad and part angry, "but the radical Muslims don kaffiyahs to be recognized."

Selbekk continues to warn against the growing power of radical Islam in Europe, particularly in Norway. "I'm not against Islam, but for freedom for all religions," he says. "But I do see the demographic change in Europe, particularly the change in Norway and we need to defend several important values on which democracy is based, such as freedom of the press, freedom of expression and religion."

Guilt trip
It is the journalist's 10th visit to Israel. Last year he came here with his wife and children and showed them the country whose image and right of existence he fights for in the Norwegian press. Selbekk's desire to champion Israel dates back to his first days as a reporter.

"My mother was born in East Germany and my grandfather was a soldier in the German army during World War II. They moved to Norway only later," he says. "I can't shake the thought of what was being done to Jews at that time. All Europeans have guilty feelings towards you. That's the main reason I decided I wanted to do something good for the Jewish people.

"As a child my parents would talk about the young new democratic state in the Middle East and followed was happening here with concern. Obviously my interest in Israel also grew being a religious person and as there's a connection between Judaism and the Christian faith."

How do Norwegians feel about Israel nowadays?

"Until the end of the 1960s there was a great amount of sympathy towards Israel, but Norwegians' image of Israel changed in the Six Day War. Suddenly it changed from a small country fighting for its existence and which must be protected at all costs, to a small country that succeeded in besting many enemies in six days. In time, the radical approach towards Israel also found its way into the political realm. Not to mention the fact that the Muslim minority in Norway, which is very anti-Israel, has an enormous effect on the national state of mind, which is seeping into the younger generation."

Selbekk adds that despite its image, modern day Norway is not anti-Semitic but anti-Israel and mainly pro-Palestinian. "I think that the majority of Norwegians are pro-Palestinian in respect to what is happening in Israel, certainly the political establishment and the media. But the riots and violence you see on the news only apply to a small group," he explains. "I am extremely worried about anti-Israel sentiments in Norway, but feel that the discourse on the growing power of Islam is beneficial for you.

"In my opinion, the Norwegians' fear of Islam is greater than their anger towards Israel. That is also the message I am trying to convey, that the anger and extremism we are experiencing happen on a daily basis in Israel. In fact, you're a democratic oasis in an area of dictatorships. Just like us, Israel as a nation and society is trying to succeed, only that your starting point is harder and we need to take that into account."

How do you explain the fact that Norway was very involved in peace efforts in the Middle East, such as the Oslo Accords, and now appears to be disconnected from such processes?

"Our partnership in the early 1990s, in the Oslo Accords, was unique and was made possible due to personal relations with Rabin and Arafat. But the partnership in the peace efforts went to our heads and created a sense that we, as Norwegians, know what's best for others. I don’t like this feeling we have now in Norway, that we're the world's conscience. Personally I also don't believe the Oslo Accords were good for Israel. Look what a mess and terror this created in Israel later on." ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3974810,00.html

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.