Could We Actually See A War Between Syria And Turkey?

THE AMERICAN DREAM - By Michael - June 28, 2011

In recent days, there have been persistent rumors that we could potentially be on the verge of a military conflict between Syria and Turkey.  As impossible as such a thing may have seemed just a few months ago, it is now a very real possibility.  Over the past several months, we have seen the same kind of "pro-democracy" protests erupt in Syria that we have seen in many of the other countries in the Middle East.  The Syrian government has no intention of being toppled by a bunch of protesters and has cracked down on these gatherings harshly.  There are reports in the mainstream media that say that over 1,300 people have been killed and more than 10,000 people have been arrested since the protests began.  Just like with Libya, the United States and the EU are strongly condemning the actions that the Syrian government has taken to break up these protests.  The violence in Syria has been particularly heavy in the northern sections of the country, and thousands upon thousands of refugees have poured across the border into neighboring Turkey.  Syria has sent large numbers of troops to the border area to keep more citizens from escaping.  Turkey has responded by reinforcing its own troops along the border.  Tension between Turkey and Syria is now at an all-time high.  So could we actually see a war between Syria and Turkey? ...

Since the Syrian government began cracking down on the protests, approximately 12,000 Syrians have flooded into Turkey.  The Turkish government is deeply concerned that Syria may try to strike these refugees while they are inside Turkish territory.

Troop levels are increasing on both sides of the border and tension is rising.  One wrong move could set off a firestorm.

The government of Turkey is demanding that Syrian military forces retreat from the border area.

The government of Syria says that Turkey is just being used to promote the goals of the U.S. and the EU.  Syria also seems to be concerned that Turkey may attempt to take control of a bit of territory over the border in order to provide a "buffer zone" for refugees coming from Syria.

What makes things even more controversial is that the area where many of the Syrian refugees are encamped actually used to belong to Syria.  In fact, many of the maps currently in use inside Syria still show that the area belongs to Syria.

War between Syria and Turkey has almost happened before.  Back in the 1990s, the fact that the government of Syria was strongly supporting the Kurds pushed the two nations dangerously close to a military conflict.

Today, the border between Syria and Turkey is approximately 850 kilometers long.  The military forces of both nations are massing along that border.  One wrong move could set off a war.

Right now, it almost sounds as though the U.S. government is preparing for a war to erupt in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently stated that the situation along the border with Turkey is "very worrisome" and that we could see "an escalation of conflict in the area".

Not only that, but when you study what Clinton and Obama have been saying about Syria it sounds very, very similar to what they were saying about Libya before the airstrikes began.

In a recent editorial entitled "There Is No Going Back in Syria", Clinton wrote the following....

Finally, the answer to the most important question of all -- what does this mean for Syria's future? -- is increasingly clear: There is no going back.

Syrians have recognized the violence as a sign of weakness from a regime that rules by coercion, not consent. They have overcome their fears and have shaken the foundations of this authoritarian system.

Syria is headed toward a new political order -- and the Syrian people should be the ones to shape it. They should insist on accountability, but resist any temptation to exact revenge or reprisals that might split the country, and instead join together to build a democratic, peaceful and tolerant Syria.

Considering the answers to all these questions, the United States chooses to stand with the Syrian people and their universal rights. We condemn the Assad regime's disregard for the will of its citizens and Iran's insidious interference.

"There is no going back"?

"Syria is headed toward a new political order"?

It almost sounds like they are already planning the transitional government.

The EU has been using some tough language as well.

A recent EU summit in Brussels issued a statement that declared that the EU "condemns in the strongest possible terms the ongoing repression and unacceptable and shocking violence the Syrian regime continues to apply against its own citizens. By choosing a path of repression instead of fulfilling its own promises on broad reforms, the regime is calling its legitimacy into question. Those responsible for crimes and violence against civilians shall be held accountable."

If you take the word "Syrian" out of that statement and replace it with the word "Libyan" it would sound exactly like what they were saying about Gadhafi just a few months ago.

The EU has hit Syria with new economic sanctions and it is also calling on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the crackdown by the Syrian government.

It seems clear that the U.S. and the EU want to see "regime change" happen in Syria.

The important thing to keep in mind in all of this is that Turkey is a member of NATO.  If anyone attacks Turkey, NATO has a duty to protect them.

If Syria attacked Turkey or if it was made to appear that Syria had attacked Turkey, then NATO would have the justification it needs to go to war with Syria.

If NATO goes to war with Syria, it is very doubtful that Iran would just sit by and watch it happen.  Syria is a very close ally to Iran and the Iranian government would likely consider an attack on their neighbor to be a fundamental threat to their nation.

In fact, there are already reports in the international media that Iran has warned Turkey that they better not allow NATO to use their airbases to attack Syria.

So if it was NATO taking on Syria and Iran, who else in the Middle East would jump in? ...

Would Russia and China sit by and do nothing while all of this was going on?

Could a conflict in the Middle East be the thing that sets off World War III?

Let's certainly hope not. ...

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/could-we-actually-see-a-war-between-syria-and-turkey

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.

Women in the Cairo Street Scenes: a Troubling Photo Essay

ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Prof. Phyllis Chesler - February 7, 2011
For days now, the mainstream and leftstream media have been telling us that the Muslim Brotherhood is not dangerous, not radically Islamist-but that even if they are Islamist that they are popular amongst the people. Western leftists view the Brothers as engaged in a Hamas-like form of soup kitchen social work/theocratic totalitarianism, but who nevertheless have earned the right to be democratically voted into power by the people. They have been invited to join the negotiations with Mubarak's regime. ...

Such journalists also claim that the Egyptian people in the streets are not "political," that they are impoverished, broken, barefoot warriors who have heroically risen up for jobs, food, and an end to corruption and tyranny. Indeed, the people may not be "political"-but their heroism may end up benefiting those who, unlike themselves, are already organized militarily, economically, and ideologically-like the Muslim Brotherhood.

On the other hand, unorganized though they may be, the people may still have views and beliefs. According to a June, 2010 Pew opinion survey of Egyptians:

Fifty nine percent said they back Islamists. Only 27% said they back modernizers. Half of Egyptians support Hamas. Thirty percent support Hizbullah and 20% support al Qaida. Moreover, 95% of them would welcome Islamic influence over their politics....Eighty two percent of Egyptians support executing adulterers by stoning, 77% support whipping and cutting the hands off thieves. 84% support executing any Muslim who changes his religion...When this preference is translated into actual government policy, it is clear that the Islam they support is the al Qaida Salafist version.

When given the opportunity, the crowds on the street are not shy about showing what motivates them. They attack Mubarak and his new Vice President Omar Suleiman as American puppets and Zionist agents. The US, protesters told CNN's Nick Robertson, is controlled by Israel. They hate and want to destroy Israel. That is why they hate Mubarak and Suleiman.

Is this Pew Center survey really true? What other indicators might we rely upon?

In the last week, we have seen massive coverage of the street uprising in Cairo on every major television channel and in print and Internet media of all political persuasions. No one has commented upon what the photos are showing us. Some say that a picture speaks a thousand words-and so it does. Follow along with me.

First, view these photos of Cairo University graduates in 1959, 1978, 1995, and 2004. Clearly, there is a progression-a regression really, in terms of women's rights. Former women's gains have, increasingly, been washed away.

As you can see, despite the size of the picture, the female graduates in 1959 and 1978 had bare arms, wore short sleeved blouses,  dresses, or pants, and were both bare-faced and bare-headed. By  1995, we see a smattering of headscarves-and by 2004 we see a plurality of female university graduates in serious hijab: Tight, and draping the shoulders. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here & See All Pictures
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142158


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.

Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his traveling Tent Show (Flashback to Sept 2009)

"But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels. "But rumors from the East and from the North will disturb him, and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many. "He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.
- Daniel 11:43-45

Considering how much Libya and Col. Gaddafi is in the news these days here is a post for those who wish to think and dig below the surface.

PLEASE, PLEASE, understand my point in all of this: I am NOT suggesting Gaddafi is the anti-Christ (or better, one of the two, i.e. anti-Christ and false prophet) or even to suggest he is a candidate. Most students of the bible would find that laughable at best. No, just that here is a character that lives in such a way that shows just how precisely Scripture can and will be fulfilled. I am just looking at facts and keeping emotions out.

One other curious phenomenon surrounding Gaddafi is some of the “Messianic” descriptions used for him just similar to that of Barack Obama. However, we are in a time when there are “many anti-Christs” and many who have titles and descriptions that are “Messianic” in nature including the pope in Rome who walks around with the literal title of anti-Christ “Vicarious Christos” written across his body.

The following is from a set of articles a planned for but never published ‘Be Alert!’ regarding Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the nightmare of logistics, upheaval and uproar surrounding his visit to the UN in September of 2009 some interesting Scriptural considerations concerning unfulfilled prophecy with the nation of Libya.

Col. Gaddafi, travels with a large retinue and “pitches” his Bedouin style tents wherever he travels just like in biblical times, the only exception being that he is able to load them up onto aircraft and ships them cross-country, cross-continent or overseas when necessary.

Again, when this was hitting the press in 2009 it struck me how this lined up with the anti-Christ character mentioned in Daniel 11. My thoughts were that I could not see how Gaddafi fit into this other than it showed that some are living this way today and Scripture will be fulfilled exactly.

BE/\LERT!

A Tents Standoff Pits a Town Against Gadhafi and a Synagogue Whether Shelter for Libya's Strongman or Site For a Bar Mitzvah, Englewood DisapprovesTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Barry Newman and Suzanne Sataline - August 27, 2009 ENGLEWOOD, N.J. -- This green, unassuming New York City suburb has a couple of problems involving tents.

One concerns Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Many people here believe Libya's leader plans to put up a tent in Englewood during his trip to the United Nations in September. They don't like that.

The second problem concerns East Hill Synagogue. It puts up tents for bar mitzvahs. Some people in Englewood don't like that, either.

"I was hoping the community had put this behind it," Mayor Michael Wildes says of the bar-mitzvah-tent battle -- "until the head of a nation decided to pitch his own tent in Englewood."

As Col. Gadhafi has become visible in countries that once shunned him, his tent has been getting a lot of attention. He travels with it. Visiting Paris in 2007, he pitched his tent in a garden of the Elysée Palace, the presidential residence. Last June in Rome, he chose Villa Doria Pamphili, a park. (Protesters pasted up "No Camping" signs.) Now the colonel is getting ready for his first chance to address the U.N. General Assembly. He needs a place to camp out.

The State Department is trying to persuade the Libyans to steer clear of New Jersey. "We're expecting that we'll be able to come to some sort of agreement where all of these sensitivities are respected," spokesman Ian Kelly said Wednesday.

But New York City is defiantly anti-tent. A few weeks ago, Libya's government asked if Col. Gadhafi could sleep in Central Park. A city department said no.

"There is no camping in the park," said Jason Post, a city spokesman.

For Libya, that left Englewood. In 1982, Libya's U.N. mission paid $1 million for a 10,000-square-foot stone mansion here -- some people in town know it as "Thunder Rock" -- on nearly five acres of land in East Hill, one of the city's leafier neighborhoods.

The Libyans, who at the time had no diplomatic relations with the U.S., got a letter from the State Department warning them that only their ambassador had the run of the property. Neither the ambassador nor his successors appear to have taken up the invitation: Over the years, the house went to ruin.

Englewood's mayor would like to keep it unoccupied. He's doing everything he can to keep Col. Gadhafi from camping out in his city of 26,000, across the Hudson River from the Big Apple. That counts double after last week, when Libya gave a hero's welcome to the man responsible for blowing up Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

"Our tent-enforcement rules are laborious and tedious," says the mayor, Mr. Wildes. "When you're putting up a Bedouin-style tent for a period of weeks, there's enough to warrant a more aggressive approach."

Tents, of course, have special meaning for people with deep roots in the desert. For Col. Gadhafi, they seem to represent a nomadic heritage applied to jet travel and diplomacy. Religious Jews, for their part, get married under a kind of tent and celebrate the harvest in another kind of tent.

Over the years, Englewood's Orthodox Jewish community has grown. It now numbers about 700 families. One of the newcomers was Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whose Web site identifies him as "America's Rabbi," and who has gained fame for his book, "Kosher Sex." Rabbi Boteach's much more modest house is next door to Libya's.

"I wanted to go say hello, but there was never anybody to say hello to," he says. "It was a real hovel," he adds.

A month ago, Rabbi Boteach and his family awoke to noise. Workers next door had cut down some oak trees between the two properties. Libya's house was under total renovation.

The rabbi went over to complain, and received warm apologies. Then, the Lockerbie bomber was released, and the rabbi is ready to sue.

"I was prepared to give Gadhafi the benefit of the doubt -- that he really wanted to change," Rabbi Boteach says. "Now he's shown that he's the same guy. And they haven't replanted my trees, which they cut down."

As of yesterday, newly raked earth led down to a pond and a new cabana at Col. Gadhafi's place. It might be a good spot for a tent. But unless the colonel is planning a bar mitzvah, Englewood's other tent controversy won't help him escape the tent enforcers.

East Hill Synagogue occupies a shingled three-story house with a turret, a short drive from Libya's mansion. The temple bought the property 10 years ago, and began holding bar mitzahs, and the occasional circumcision party, under a tent in the parking lot. Not unlike the Libyans, the synagogue ran into trouble from the neighbors. They complained about noise, and said the parking-lot parties, often held on Saturdays, forced members of the congregation to park their cars out on the street.

But the temple said that was impossible: Its members don't drive on Saturdays. "Come the Sabbath, we don't drive -- we walk," says a temple member who asked not to be identified. "Nobody's going to be driving there. So, we figured, why not a tent?"

The dispute was big news. Before Col. Gadhafi's trip loomed, it was Englewood's prime source of ethnic and religious passions.

When the planning board ruled tents could go up just three times a year, the temple went to court, claiming religious discrimination. Englewood's tent-suppression, it contended, "imposed a substantial burden on religious exercise." A settlement in 2008 finally let the temple put up tents 12 times a year.

But if Libya's diplomats imagine they might turn to East Hill Synagogue's fight for tent liberation to ensure that Col. Gadhafi has a place to sleep in New Jersey, they will be disappointed.

"The government of Libya can't sue under a statute designed to protect religious freedom," says Andrew Frackman, the attorney who represented the synagogue in court. "Gadhafi's situation is more like putting up a tent for a wedding. In Englewood, everybody has to ask for permission to put up a tent."

Unedited :: Link to Original Postinghttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB125132927204562111.html


Qaddafi’s Visit Upsets N.J. ResidentsNEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Joseph Berger - August 27, 2009ENGLEWOOD, N.J. - At a run-down estate on Palisade Avenue here, construction workers and landscapers clamber around in what appears to be a hurried top-to-bottom, inside-and-out makeover - all in anticipation of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his traveling tent.
Colonel Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, will be coming next month to address the United Nations, and the logistics of his stay are complicated by the Bedouin-style, air-conditioned tent that he uses to greet visitors. In a visit to Russia, for example, the tent was pitched in a garden at the Kremlin; in Rome, a public park.
Colonel Qaddafi had wanted to plunk his tent down in Central Park, but New York officials rejected the idea. Next on the list was the Libyan-owned estate on Palisade Avenue, which would produce one of those only-in-America cultural collisions.
Many Americans are incensed at the Libyan leader for his past sponsorship of terrorists and would probably prefer that he not come at all. But Englewood is a suburban city of 30,000 with a large Orthodox Jewish population, a community that has particularly detested Colonel Qaddafi because Israel has been a favored target of terror.
In fact, Englewood’s largest yeshiva is right next door to the estate on Palisade Avenue. …
On Wednesday, the rabbi addressed reporters gathered on his lawn. He took note of the star-crossed coincidence that Colonel Qaddafi could become his neighbor, and sounded like Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca” lamenting, “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/nyregion/28tent.html


‘African King of Kings’ Makes Waves in New York, Offers to Move U.N. to LibyaIn his long and disjointed address, Gaddafi said the Taliban should be allowed to establish an emirate, he $7.77 trillion in compensation for Africans, and he called for new investigations into the JFK and Martin Luther King assassinations. He also suggested that the U.N. headquarters move away from the U.S.CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE (CNSN.com) [Media Research Center] - By Patrick Goodenough - September 24, 2009(Editor’s note: [CNSN] Although he was scheduled to attend and address Thursday’s Security Council summit on nonproliferation, Gaddafi did not appear and a Libyan envoy read out a statement instead.)
– It took 40 years in power before Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi decided to address the U.N. General Assembly, and he made up for it on Wednesday, delivering a seemingly interminable address in which he tore up the U.N. Charter and laid out his vision for revolutionizing the Security Council.

The speech, running some 80 minutes longer than the usual 15 minute time limit, threw out the day’s carefully-crafted schedule, but there appeared to be nothing the General Assembly president, Libya’s Ali Triki, could or would do to stop it.

Triki, who served as Gaddafi’s foreign minister in the late 1970s, had earlier introduced him as “king of kings of Africa” – an epithet bestowed on him by a group of African traditional leaders when Gaddafi was elected head of the African Union (A.U.) early this year.

As A.U. head, Gaddafi had a prime speaking slot, immediately after President Obama, who left before the Libyan began his address. Also not in the chamber to hear Gaddafi’s speech were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, who vacated the U.S. delegation seats. Lower-level diplomats took their places.

Early on in his speech, Gaddafi called the recently-departed Obama “my son,” and later described him as “a young African Kenyan.”

“Can you guarantee after Obama how America will be governed?” he asked. “We are content and happy if Obama can stay forever as the president of the United States of America.”

The Libyan’s lengthy address covered numerous bases ranging from calling for the Taliban to be allowed to establish an emirate if it wished, to demands that former colonial powers compensate Africans to the tune of $7.77 trillion and that investigations be opened into the JFK and Martin Luther King assassinations.

He suggested the U.N. headquarters move away from the U.S. Having been in the western hemisphere for more than half a century it should now be moved to the “middle of the globe or the eastern part of the globe.”

“All of you came across the Atlantic Ocean, the Asian continent, the African continent to reach this place. Why? Is this Jerusalem? Is this the Vatican? Is this Mecca? All of you are tired, suffering from jet lag …”

Gaddafi said the General Assembly should vote on the proposal: if it decides to move the U.N. to the “middle part” of the globe, Libya could host it; if it chooses to go to the east, Beijing or New Delhi could do so.

“You will thank me for this proposal, for eliminating the suffering and the trouble of flying for over 20 hours to come to this place.” Gaddafi also spoke at length about the Security Council – which he dubbed “the Terror Council” – saying it was responsible for the conflict in the world since the end of World War II. Rather than reform it by adding other countries it should be remade, he said, with seats being designated for multinational organizations like the A.U., Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League.

Gaddafi also tried to rip apart a copy of the U.N. Charter, saying the existence of the Security Council violated the charter’s provision about the equality of all member states. ...
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54480

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

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The Gaddafi dossier: Ten things you might not know about Colonel Gaddafi

THE WEEK - By Harry Underwood - August 25, 2009
On September 1, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the bloodless coup in which he overthrew King Idris I. Since 1969, when he took power as a stylish, and, at only 27, very young revolutionary leader, he has supported terrorism, led a pariah state and brutally quelled opposition dissent.

While there are questions from some quarters over Libya's culpability in the Lockerbie tragedy - back in the headlines because of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's controversial release from a Scottish jail - there is no doubt that Gaddafi has been responsible for financing many high-profile terrorists.

Libya was linked with the Black September Movement which carried out the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and the bombing of a Berlin disco in 1986 in which three died and many US soldiers were injured. Gaddafi was also reported to have financed Carlos the Jackal, the famous Venezuelan-born revolutionary, and the IRA.

Famously, Britain and Libya called off diplomatic relations for a decade after a London police constable, Yvonne Fletcher, was fatally shot by a machine-gun fired from the Libyan embassy in London. She was policing a demonstration against Gaddafi's rule in 1984.

Yet now the seemingly rehabilitated despot is accepted by many of the countries he once classed as enemies.

Here are ten things you might not know about one of the West's unlikeliest - and most fickle - friends:

• After Omar Bongo of Gabon died earlier this year, Gaddafi became the world's third-longest serving head of state, after King Rama IX of Thailand, and Queen Elizabeth II.

• Like Chairman Mao with his Little Red Book, Gaddafi wrote about his beliefs and ambitions for a socialist-Islamic state in a widely read work. His Green Book was published in three volumes from 1975 to 1979, and he has also released a collection of essays and allegories, Escape to Hell and other stories.

• Gaddafi recently expressed his desire for a 'United States of Africa'. In 1972 he tried to join Libya with Egypt and Syria in a 'Federation of Arab Republics', and two years later, he made another effort, ultimately acrimoniously, to merge Libya with Tunisia.

• In 2002, Gaddafi bought a significant stake in Juventus, the Italian football club, from his friend Gianni Agnelli, the owner of Fiat.

• Gaddafi has awarded himself the title 'King of Kings of Africa'. He has also decided that he should be known as 'Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya' or 'Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution'. (President Ronald Reagan was less complimentary; he called the Libyan leader the 'mad dog of the Middle East'.)
• Gaddafi spoke out quickly and strongly against al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks, and urged Libyans to donate blood for the victims.

• Libya has one of the world's most ambitious irrigation systems. The Great Manmade River is a huge network of pipes, viaducts and wells, sometimes as much as 500 metres underneath the surface of the earth, which transports more than 6 million cubic metres of water from underneath the Sahara to the country's northern regions every day.

• Of Gaddafi's eight children, one is a former professional footballer in Italy. However, Saadi Gaddafi managed to play only two Serie A games during spells with Perugia, Udinese and Sampdoria.

• Moatessem-Billah Gaddafi, another son, once tried, with Egyptian backing, to engineer a coup against his father, but has since returned to the fold.

• On every foreign trip he makes, Gaddafi is surrounded by a 40-strong retinue of female bodyguards, who he insists must be virgins. "Women should be trained for combat, so that they do not become easy prey for their enemies," he once said.

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/52723,news-comment,news-politics,ten-facts-about-muammar-gaddafi-the-king-of-kings-of-africa-libya

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.

A waxing crescent: Islam is growing. But ageing and slowing. That will change the world

THE ECONOMIST [The Economist Newspaper Ltd] - January 27, 2011
[...] The authors call their calculations demographic, not political. Drawing on earlier Pew research, they say conversion is not a big factor in the global contest between Islam, Christianity and other faiths; the converts balance out. Nor do they assess piety; via the imperfect data of the United Nations, the European Union and national statistics, they aim simply to measure how many people call themselves Muslim, at least culturally, if asked.

New numbers, they say, will change the world map. As Indonesia prospers, its birth rate is falling; South Asia's remains very high. By 2030, 80m extra mouths in Pakistan will boost its Muslim numbers to 256m, ousting Indonesia (with 239m) as the most populous Islamic land. India's Muslim minority will be nearly as large at 236m-though growth is slowing there too. And in 2030 India's Muslims will still constitute only a modest 15.9% of that country's swelling total, against 14.6% now. ...

Eurabian nights
The total Muslim share of Europe's population is predicted to grow from 6% now to 8% in 2030: hardly the stuff of nightmares. But amid that are some sharp rises. The report assumes Britain has 2.9m Muslims now (far higher than the usual estimates, which suggest 2.4m at most), rising to 5.6m by 2030. As poor migrants start families in Spain and Italy, numbers there will rocket; in France and Germany, where some Muslims are middle-class, rises will be more modest-though from a higher base. Russia's Muslims will increase to 14.4% or 18.6m, up from 11.7% now (partly because non-Muslims are declining). The report takes a cautious baseline of 2.6m American Muslims in 2010, but predicts the number will surge by 2030 to 6.2m, or 1.7% of the population-about the same size as Jews or Episcopalians. In Canada the Muslim share will surge from 2.8% to 6.6%. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.economist.com/node/18008022


See:
The Future of the Global Muslim Population Projections for 2010-2030
http://pewforum.org/The-Future-of-the-Global-Muslim-Population.aspx



Majority of Muslims want Islam in politics, poll says
LOS ANGELES TIMES [Tribune Company] - By Meris Lutz - December 6, 2010
Reporting from Beirut - A majority of Muslims around the world welcome a significant role for Islam in their countries' political life, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, but have mixed feelings toward militant religious groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

According to the survey, majorities in Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Nigeria would favor changing current laws to allow stoning as a punishment for adultery, hand amputation for theft and death for those who convert from Islam to another religion. About 85% of Pakistani Muslims said they would support a law segregating men and women in the workplace.

Muslims in Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria and Jordan were among the most enthusiastic, with more than three-quarters of poll respondents in those countries reporting positive views of Islam's influence in politics: either that Islam had a large role in politics, and that was a good thing, or that it played a small role, and that was bad.

Turkish Muslims were the most conflicted, with just more than half reporting positive views of Islam's influence in politics. Turkey has struggled in recent years to balance a secular political system with an increasingly fervent Muslim population. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/06/world/la-fg-1206-muslim-poll-20101206

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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


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Mubarak moves vast assets from Europe to Saudi Arabia

"Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. "But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels.
- Daniel 11:42-43

DEBKAFILE - February 14, 2011
Hosni Mubarak and his family have moved a large part of their assets - guesstimated at between $20 and $70 billion - from European banks to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republics against personal guarantees from King Abdullah and Sheik Al Nahyan to block access to outside parties.This is reported by Gulf and West European sources. Tunisian ex-ruler Zein Al Abdain Ben Ali received the same guarantee when he fled his country and received asylum in the oil kingdom.

A Swiss financial source commented: "If he had any real money in Zurich, it may be gone by now."

According to Debkafile's sources, the transfers took place on Feb. 12-13. Although a weekend when European banks are closed, high-ranking officials in Riyadh had their managers hauled out of home to execute Mubarak's transfer orders without delay.

The ousted Egyptian ruler was on the phone to Saudi King Abdullah Friday, Feb. 11, immediately after his vice president Omar Suleiman went on state television to announce his resignation and handover of rule to the army. Mubarak called it a military putsch conducted under pressure from Washington. He denied he had resigned or passed any powers to the army. "I had no idea Omar Suleiman was about to read out that statement. I would never have signed it or allowed it to be published," said Mubarak.

The Saudi king voiced understanding for the ex-president's plight and said the Riyadh government was under orders to meet any requests for assistance received from him.

Mubarak views himself still as the rightful president of Egypt. Aware of this, the High Military Council Sunday, Feb. 13, abolished the constitution. Otherwise, Mubarak would have been correct and the military would have had no authority to issue decrees and pass laws without his signature.

The military junta's Western sympathizers were quick to read in the military statement a pledge to call an election in six months. This was not exactly stated. The military council announced that the incumbent (Mubarak-appointed) cabinet would stay in office "for six months or until elections."

Elections cannot be held until a new a new constitution is enacted because the old one has been abolished leaving a void which is filled by martial law and no clear obligation for an election date.

One major obstacle confronting orderly transition to civilian rule is the opposition's clamor for an all-inclusive investigation of corruption within the Mubarak family and its ruling circle. As one of the opposition leaders George Ishak put it: "We will research everything, all of them: the families of the ministers, the family of the president, everyone."

Prof. Samer Soliman, of the American University in Cairo said: "The corruption of the Mubarak family was not stealing from the budget; it was transforming political capital into private capital."
Debkafile's military sources stress that all 25 generals serving in the High Army Council can be relied on to raise a high wall against any such probe. Members of Egypt's high officer class are heavily invested in Egyptian industry, financial institutions and banks, having built their personal fortunes by the same methods as the Mubarak clan and its hangers-on.

An exhaustive investigation might also bring to light American and Israel capital interests linked to businesses close to the Mubarak regime. The military will not doubt use its powers under martial law to put a spoke in the opposition's demand for an inquiry.

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.debka.com/article/20666/

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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.