Saturday 9 October 2010

Nicholas Blanford's book on Hariri

Angry Arab

There is a new edition of Blanford's book on Hariri which--based on accounts of Hariri entourage--accuses Syria of murdering Rafiq Hariri.  I heard that the new edition will be be exactly like the old edition but the new edition will carry this instruction to readers: read the book as is but replace every reference to Syria with a reference to Hizbullah.

Posted by As'ad at 7:05 PM

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Arab League Gives US 1 Month to Save Talks, US “Appreciates”

After Washington to arm Israel with 20 stealth planes and despite the Israeli daily crimes aginst Palestinians, and refusal to freez settlement activities, and while Zionist settlers attack farmers during olive harvesting and daily crimes aginst Palestinians, the Arab leaders, ignored Hamas calls to quit negotiations and back resistance strategy and Haneyyas calls on Arab summit to take responsible decisions the Arab League Gives US 1 Month to Save Talks, US “Appreciates”


09/10/2010 Arab countries will give the US one month to find a compromise which can save ‘peace talks’ between Israel and the Palestinians after negotiations stalled over the issue of Israeli building in occupied West Bank settlements, AFP quoted a diplomat at the Arab League meeting in Libya as saying on Friday.

The unnamed diplomat said that a resolution to be approved later Friday by the Arab League Follow-up Committee on the so-called peace process calls for the US administration to be given "a one month chance to seek the resumption of negotiations, including a halt to settlement [building]."

Under the resolution, the Arab foreign ministers would reconvene in one month's time "to examine the policy alternatives if the diplomatic efforts fail."

Prior to the meeting on Friday, Arab League head Amr Moussa said the leaders will attempt to find alternatives to the currently stalled “peace process”.

Moussa stated that Israel's "very, very negative" stance toward the talks is responsible for the current impasse. He added that the Arab League does not plan to tell Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas what steps to take going forward.

Some Arab countries are proposing that Abbas return to indirect negotiations to avoid a total breakdown of Mideast peace talks, diplomats said Friday.

Abbas arrived in Libya on Thursday to seek Arab League backing for his decision to quit direct talks with Israel until the settlement construction moratorium is renewed, amid no signs that the US and Israel have a formula in hand to break the impasse.

Although Ambassador to the US Michael Oren on Thursday was the first Israeli or American official to acknowledge that Washington had offered Jerusalem inducements to extend the freeze, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – in public statements he made later in the day – sounded more like someone trying to shift the blame for failure onto the other side, rather than someone on the verge of announcing a breakthrough.

The US late Friday welcomed AL decision. "We appreciate the Arab League's statement of support for our efforts to create conditions that will allow direct talks to move forward," US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley said in a written statement.

"We will continue to work with the parties, and all our international partners, to advance negotiations toward a two-state solution and encourage the parties to take constructive actions toward that end," Crowley added.
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Is it a joke ???? or just absurdity !!

Frustrated Arab's Diary

http://www.inisrael.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mikdash.jpg


Salomon´s Temple
only this temple ,  shall please God...???

What is that religion which needs a piece of Land ??
and not any piece of land,
but someone´s else own land...

What kind of God is that
who needs that a specific-Temple
to be build in a specific-place,  for him ??
(is the St.Peter Cathedral in the Vatican
not good enough for him ?? as example.)
What kind of religion is that
which you get only if
your mother has it ??
(what happens when the mother
is an atheist-Jew?)

What kind of God is it
who discriminates between the humans ??
(why should a Canaanite loose his home to a Chaldean??)
What kind of holy-scriptures
you would want to rely on
when there is no original-text ,available ??


What kind of monotheists are they
when they do not share their God ??
( when there is only one God , 
you should share it with others)
Why would any people be "chosen"
while the rest of the other peoples
would be all "forgotten" ??

If any land were to be " promised "

why not the Sunny-Hawaii 
or the beautiful-Switzerland ??(why the Land-of Canaan and not Cyprus ??)


If God wanted to free the Slaves
from the Pharaoh´s
why did God free  only
a selective-part of those salves ??
(and why only jewish-slaves could leave Babylon ??)If God were a racist
why did Jesus and Mohammad
preach all of us  universally ??


What kind of religion teaches
segregation and discrimination
and
inequality among the people ??
(does racism become a religion ??)



Raja Chemayeluniversalist 


Posted by Tlaxcala at 10:55 PM

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Nasrallah Speech: Campaign to plant one million trees, Ahmadinejad vist, and, SLT

Video

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We Need Your Support.

We Need Your Support.

Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 1:59PM Gilad Atzmon

Hello Everybody, Sarah Gillespie, myself and at least 40 other leading artists from UK and Palestine are trying to achieve the impossible next week.

We are promoting and playing together in a massive music festival for Palestine. We are flying musicians to London, we are mixing jazz with folk with hip hop and roots music. We all believe one thing - that artists who support Palestine must say so loudly and proudly using our notes and our voices. Jazza Festival is serious but is also a big party and we want you to join in. 

Jazza Music Festival 12 & 13 October 2010 @ THE SCALA
275 Pentonville Road, London

For line up: click here
From 7.30

The funds raised in these 2 nights will help Free Palestine Movement deliver more and more humanitarian aid to Palestine.

I am also proud and delighted to announce that Shadia Mansour, the Palestinian Hip Hop queen also joined the Jazza Festival line up.

You can listen to the amazing Shadia and mind blowing Stormtrap (ex- Ramalah Underground) singing together on a track I produced recently together with Robert Wyatt and Ros Stephen.

Please circulate this message as far as you can
Book Tickets on line for Tuesday, October 12
Book Tickets on line for Wednesday, October 13
We need your support. Palestine needs your support.
Music against oppression.
 Gilad
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“The Peace Talks are Dead, Mate!”: On the Road to Damascus, Thinking of Monty Python

Via Silver Lining

Posted on October 9, 2010 by realistic bird

by Hamid Najib

by YVONNE RIDLEY, source

Damascus.

How many of you remember Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch? It was a wonderful comedic routine that transcended nationality and culture. Timeless in its appeal, it is often cited in doomed or desperate situations when a bit of gallows humour is needed.

I was reminded of it on the road to Damascus the other day as news filtered through that the Middle East peace talks had stalled and failed; well, I wonder who saw that one coming? Yes, Barack Obama’s peace initiative is even deader than the Norwegian Blue parrot “bought from this ‘ere emporium” by John Cleese. Just like the Monty Python pet-shop owner, played so brilliantly by Michael Palin (“It’s stunned; it’s pining for the fjords!”), Obama is in complete denial that the peace talks are a busted flush. Can he resurrect them, like Michael Palin tried to resurrect the extremely dead parrot? Can he do it? No, he can’t!

My travelling companions, a gaggle of assorted journalists and travel writers from various media outlets, expressed no surprise either. Later that day we walked through the ancient ruins of the oasis city of Palmyra north-east of Damascus, and I began to realise then just how insignificant Israel really is in the grand scheme of things in the Arab world.

The state is just over 60 years old and in that time it has never known a day of peace for itself or its neighbours. It is in a permanent state of advanced paranoia and is always on a war footing, real or imagined. That sort of negative energy and existence can never be sustained for very long but, in the Middle East, time is measured in centuries not months and years.

Sitting in a magnificent, ancient open-air amphitheatre in Palmyra, I watched a play about Zenobia, a 3rd century Syrian queen of the Palmyrene Empire. Portrayed as a magnificent, fearless warrior who led a revolt against the mighty Romans, Zenobia’s story was inspiring. As the drama unfolded, she expanded her own territory and even conquered Egypt, but it was obvious before the curtain call that it would all end in tears. And it did – the invincible female warrior’s reign was finished after a handful of years and she was shipped off to Rome to be paraded through the streets in gold chains and cuffs, humiliated and defeated.

As I wandered through the ruins of Palmyra after the performance, it occurred to me why many in the Arab world seem laid back and disinterested in the latest failure of yet another round of faux peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. You see, in the history of the Middle East there have been hundreds of rulers, men and women like Zenobia who believed themselves to be invincible; with the exception of a very few, most of their names have disappeared beneath the sands of time.

The moral of this tale is simple: nothing lasts forever; empires and emperors come and go; borders disappear and expand; and so will arrogant, vicious little Israel. Not even the size of an African game reserve it is already experiencing the first stages of its death throes. The Zionist State is a failed project with very high maintenance costs and a simply unsustainable future.

Conversely, no matter what wars and natural disasters engulf the region, or borders change, or countries appear and disappear, the Arab world will always be there.

In terms of history, seven decades – the blood-soaked lifespan of Israel – barely registers as a blip on the Arab world’s timeline. The author of its own misfortune, this pox on the region’s landscape will disappear. History tells us that. The state’s demise is inevitable.

All that remains of Palmyra is a series of magnificent ruins which fire the imagination, but I can almost guarantee that after another thousand years the name of Zenobia will still be talked about because of her legendary courage and spirit. I wonder if anyone will remember Israel and, if so, for what? It’s illegal and immoral occupation of the Palestinians, perhaps, or its complete disregard for the rule of international laws and conventions?

Perhaps someone should explain this to the other new kids on the block: the Americans. And if Obama still doesn’t get it then maybe one of his special advisors should run the Monty Python dead parrot sketch in the White House’s private cinema one evening soon.

Mr President, to misquote John Cleese’s character, I think it is fair to say: “These peace talks are no more! They have ceased to be! The process has shuffled off this mortal coil and gone to meet its maker! It is expired, bereft of life. The peace talks are dead, mate. They’ve snuffed it!” And, despite being nailed on by US support, all we need now is for Israel to fall off its somewhat precarious perch. What a day that will be.

Yvonne Ridley is the European President of the International Muslim Women’s Union.

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New Attack on NATO Tankers in Pakistan

09/10/2010 In the sixth attack in just a week, gunmen again set fire in at least 29 NATO oil tankers in southwest Pakistan, as the main land route for NATO for NATO supplies still closed for the tenth day.

Two police officers were hurt in the attack in remote Mitri area, 180 kilometers southeast of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
"Some 30 gunmen attacked the tankers, which were parked outside a roadside hotel and opened fire early Saturday morning, injuring two local police officials," Abdul Mateen, a senior administration official in Mitri, told AFP.

Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the latest attack, which came three days after militants torched over 40 NATO oil tankers and containers in the northwestern city of Nowshera and in southwestern Quetta.
Taliban militants have launched five attacks on NATO supply vehicles in Pakistan in the past week to avenge a new wave of US drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in the country's northwest.

Pakistani authorities have reported 26 drone attacks since September 3 which have killed more than 140 people in the region.

The latest tanker attack came as the main land route for NATO supplies crossing from Pakistan to Afghanistan at Torkham in the northwest remained closed for tenth day running, following a US drone attack which killed three Pakistani soldiers.

The United States on Thursday apologized for the deadly strike on Pakistani soil, but Pakistan responded by saying there was "neither justification nor understanding" for the strike.

"We extend our deepest apology to Pakistan and the families of the Frontier Scouts who were killed and injured," US ambassador Anne Patterson said in a statement in Islamabad Wednesday.
"Pakistan's brave security forces are our allies in a war that threatens both Pakistan and the US," Patterson added.

"We believe that they are counter-productive and also a violation of our sovereignty," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters, adding "we hope that the US will revisit its policy."

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Geert Wilders and the Veil-Tax

Frustrated Arab's Diary

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k7Ujo41Wxbg/TFf-SpmNbnI/AAAAAAAAAS4/stb-D3WfEZk/s1600/burkas-and-bikinis.jpg
the burka in Beirut ...


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_U54NM9QE5VY/SfXy80x79CI/AAAAAAAAG3o/5mg6u0AAxMg/s400/Snap117.bmp
the true face of Wilders
the true hat of Wilders
the true flag of Wilders


Gert Wilders , that smart-politician , wants to raise taxes
on each veil worn in the Netherlands.

This is one way to cover the budget´s deficit in the Dutch economy.
And probably the traffic-jams on the highways might disappear , also.

But , I have another suggestion :
if we all decide to exile Gert Wilders to Afghanistan
and to place him there to replace Hamid Karzay
and then have Wilders there ,collecting the tax from Veil and Burka
..............the traffic-jams on Afghan highways shall disappear !!


Sherlock Hommos

Wildersologist
 
Posted by Tlaxcala at 10:59 PM

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"We do not make compromises in our relations with any resistant movements or any state."

Muallem: Situation in Lebanon Worrisome, Coordination with KSA Ongoing

09/10/2010 Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said that the current domestic situation in Lebanon is worrying, stressing coordination between Syria and Saudi Arabia over Lebanon.

In an interview with As-Safir newspaper published on Saturday, al-Muallem said that the Syrian-Saudi efforts are ongoing "but Lebanon alone can remove the factors that are causing instability," stating that the situation in the country is "worrisome."

The Syrian FM said that Damascus is not concerned with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, but noted: "Whoever is interested in Lebanon's stability should work on preventing the tribunal's politicization."

Addressing U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's remarks to Syria "not to harm Lebanon's stability through its ties with Hezbollah", the Syrian official said: "We do not make compromises in our relations with any resistant movements or any state."

"Syria's goals in Lebanon are clear and they do not exceed wanting to reach calm and stability," he added to al-Jazeera television on Friday.

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Bahar calls on Abbas to stop security teamwork with Israel - Barghouthi: There is no authority in WB except that of occupation


[ 09/10/2010 - 08:29 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- PLC first deputy speaker Dr. Ahmed Bahar called on Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to make “a daring national resolution to stop security cooperation with Israel before it’s to late”.

He said in a statement on Friday: “To continue to engage in security cooperation with Israel poses a national crime by all standards, and leads to dangerous effects and results.”

Bahar blamed Abbas, the PA, and its security forces for the assassination operation against Nashaat al-Karmi and Maamoun al-Natsha in Al-Khalil because of security coordination with Israel.

The PLC leader said the PA was absent during and after the assassination and did not stop Israeli forces from carrying it out.

Abbas continues to discuss peace with Israel and has not yet pulled out of the talks despite ongoing violations on Israel’s part against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Bahar added.

Informed sources in the PA security forces in the West Bank said a number of relatives of the murder victims, who were killed Friday morning in Al-Khalil, are still in PA detention.

The source told the PIC that the PA security militia still detains 11 of Natsha’s relatives. Natsha himself was previously detained and tortured by the militia. Several of Natsha’s brothers were arrested by PA security to obtain information on his whereabouts.

A group of Karmi’s relatives, including his wife’s father, are still being held.

The sources said the detainees were subjected to harsh investigations to force out information that would ease access to Karmi and Natsha after Fatah had learned of their ties to the heroic operation in Al-Khalil that left four Israeli settlers dead.

PLC speaker Dr. Aziz al-Dweik called on Fatah to immediately release the detainees and consider the anger of people throughout Palestine resulting from their relatives' murder.

The PA militia mobilized during the Friday payers in several cities in the West Bank for fear of demonstrations against the Karmi and Natsha assassinations.

Eyewitnesses said they saw the PA militia patrolling around West Bank mosques heavily armed with weapons licensed by Israel.

The witnesses added that the security forces were in a state of alert in preparation to crack down on mass anger movements over the Al-Khalil assassination.

The militia issued dozens of summonses against Hamas supporters who attended the funeral of Maamoun al-Natsha.

A PIC reporter in Al-Khalil said a big PA security force was deployed in southern Al-Khalil and searched for funeral attendants. Elements from the militia appeared at the funeral to take down names of attendees.



[ 09/10/2010 - 02:14 PM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank strongly denounced the Palestinian Authority's security apparatuses for kidnapping ex-detainee and noted national figure Omar Al-Barghouti and held them fully responsible for his life and safety.

In a statement on Saturday, the lawmakers said that the kidnapping of Palestinians released from Israeli jails is a mockery of the sacrifices and struggles they made for Palestine and gives a free service to the Israeli occupation.

They added that these arbitrary arrest campaigns reflect that Fatah faction and its authority are not serious at all about ending the internal division in the Palestinian arena, and are insistent on their security cooperation with the occupation.

In a separate incident, the PA security militias kidnapped nine Palestinian citizens thought to be affiliated with Hamas in Al-Khalil city, according to local sources on Saturday.

They also summoned dozens of other citizens after they participated in the funeral processions of the two resistance fighters who were assassinated at an early hour Friday by Israeli troops.



[ 09/10/2010 - 08:06 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- MP Mustafa Al-Barghouthi, the secretary general of the national initiative party, has asserted that the Israeli assassination of resistance cadres in Al-Khalil and before it in Tulkarem proves that there is no authority in the occupied West Bank except that of the Israeli occupation.

Barghouthi told the PIC that the Israeli occupation forces were committing yet another crime before the very eyes of the entire world, which keeps silent toward such crimes.

Security in the West Bank is only for occupation and settlers, the lawmaker said, adding that what happened in Al-Khalil was downright aggression that coincided with settlers' crimes whether in targeting mosques or in continuing settlement building.

He described both acts as a racist, aggressive that necessitate uniting Palestinian ranks in face of occupation and settlement activity.

Barghouthi also described the negotiations process with the Israeli occupation authority as "worthless" since it only provides cover for such practices and for the settlement drive.

Hamas: Netanyahu will send condolences to his troops soon

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Arab regime credibility hanging by its last invisible thread

Dear Alan,
Once upon a time, an Arab Leader did it, turned off the oil taps for few weeks, and others followed, and you know what hapenned to that leader, and what hapenned to Saddam later.
Do you still support calling Netanyahu to visit Riyadh?
UP

Arab regime credibility hanging by its last invisible thread


By Alan Hart

 On 25 September I wrote a piece headlined Obama speaks at the UN… Goodbye to peace.

Since then I’ve seen no need for me to contribute to the debate about the farce that President Obama’s push for peace is and was always going to be. But the Arab League’s decision to give Obama a one-month deadline to rescue the direct talks between Abbas and his quisling administration and Netanyahu and his deluded coalition government demands a comment or two.

 Arab leaders know that with America’s mid-term elections fast approaching, there is no way a humiliated, increasingly desperate and isolated Obama can even think about applying real pressure on Israel.

(I am still of the opinion that he did not enter the Oval Office programmed to do Zionism’s bidding. His real problem was that he was too inexperienced and naïve. As a consequence of that he was bound to become the prisoner of the Zionist lobby and its stooges in Congress. At the time of writing, and given his counter-productive escalation of targeted assassinations by armed drones, I am beginning to wonder if Obama will go down in history as one of the worst presidents America has ever had).

 So why are they, Arab leaders, going through the motions?

 The short answer is that once again they are seeking to cover the ugly nakedness of their impotence.

The most relevant question, it seems to me, is what, in theory, could Arab leaders still do to give themselves a reasonable chance of countering Zionism’s influence on American policy for the Middle East?

 Prefaced by a summary statement of all the initiatives the Arabs including the Palestinians have taken for peace on terms which any rational government and people in Israel would have accepted with relief, they could threaten to 
  • Sever their diplomatic relations with the U.S.
  • Withdraw their financial support for America’s broken economy
  • Turn off the oil taps 
As I have written and said on more than a few occasions in the past, Zionism’s key players know how to play the cards they were dealt and Arab leaders don’t.

 Zionism’s four main cards were and are the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust for blackmail purposes; money (virtually unlimited funds) and the influence it buys; the organized Jewish vote; and, more generally speaking, breathtakingly, brilliant organization and co-ordination.

 The Arabs have always had an ace that would trump all of Zionism’s cards. OIL.

 Imagine what would have happened in the immediate aftermarth of the 1967 war if Arab leaders had put their act together and sent one of their number secretly to Washington DC to say something very like the following to President Johnson behind closed doors: “If you don’t get Israel back behind its pre-war borders, we’ll turn off the oil taps.”

 If Johnson had believed that Arab leaders were united and serious, he would have replied with something very like the following: “I can’t guarantee swift action on Jerusalem but give me two or three weeks for the rest.”

 If the Zionists had been in the Arab position, that IS how they would have played their hand. And that is not pure speculation on my part. Over the years I have been told so by a number of Israeli leaders including former Directors of Military Intelligence.

 The main point I’m making is that if Johnson had believed that Arab leaders were united and serious, they would not have had to turn off the oil taps. A secret, credible threat to do so would have been enough to cause Johnson (or any president) to put America’s own best interests first.

 Will Arab leaders ever learn how to play their cards (if only to best protect their own longer term, real interests)?

 I fear not.

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Rothshild , the Bible and the Holocaust

Frustrated Arab's Diary

 
 The Ashkenazim who bought for himself Palestine.


The State of Israel is much more related to the Rothschild-clan
than to the Old Testament or to the Holocaust.
Actually,  
the Israeli-relations and connections to the Rothschild dynasty 
is greater than its connection to the Old-testament
and even to the  Holocaust all together.
To start with ,
the Jews of the 20Th.Century have nothing to do
with the Jews mentioned in the times of the Bible......nothing !!
Secondly ,
only 1.7 % of the citzens of the State of Israel
are Holocaust-survivors, or children thereof.
Thirdly ,
The Jews of today are made out of ,at least, 5 races
and out of 10 different cultures......
Conclusion :
"Israelis" are impostors  who came to us
under illegal and false-pretentions !!!
  
Raja Chemayel
Posted by Tlaxcala at 11:03 PM

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Who killed Gamal Abdul Nasser?

08. Oct, 2010

Sami Moubayed


Forty years after his death at the age of 52, president Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt still raises plenty of controversy throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

There are many theories regarding Nasser’s untimely death in 1970, ranging from heart failure to poisoning at the hands of his Russian masseuse. Nasser was famously wrapping up an Arab summit aimed at ending war in Jordan between King Hussein and Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization.

After seeing off his Kuwaiti guest, Prince Sabah Salem al-Sabah, the Egyptian leader collapsed and was proclaimed dead on September 28, 1970. Today, 40 years down the road, Nasser’s trusted aide, the Anwar Sadat, poisoned the Egyptian leader, has created uproar in Egypt by implying that Nasser’s deputy and successor, Anwar Sadat, poisoned the Egyptian leader.

Sadat was the third president of Egypt, serving from October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalists on October 6, 1981.

Speaking on his program on the Doha-based al-Jazeera on September 16, Haikal said that both he and Sadat were present at a meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Cairo between Nasser and Arafat. Sadat noticed that Nasser was very tired, offering to make him a cup of coffee. He asked Nasser’s private cook to leave the kitchen, prepared the coffee, which Nasser drank – and died three days later.

The story ripped through Egypt and the Arab world like thunder, eliciting an immediate response from Sadat’s family, which sued Haikal for reputation slander. A few years back, Nasser’s daughter accused Sadat of killing her father and was fined 150,000 Egyptian pounds (US$25,120) by a Cairo court for slandering Sadat’s reputation.

Her brother Abdul Hakim Nasser called on Egyptian authorities to investigate Haikal’s claim, adding that one of Nasser’s aids, who later served under Sadat, had concealed nail clippings of the late president and snippets of his hair, to prevent a laboratory investigation on the causes of death.

Abdul Hakim noted that he was aware of the coffee incident but said there was no evidence to date implicating Sadat in his father’s murder. Speaking to an Egyptian daily, he said, “My father was a target of the American CIA and of the Israeli Mossad. There were a lot of people at the talks at the Nile Hilton. Even if you assume my father was poisoned, it is impossible to say who was involved.”

Nasser’s physician, al-Sawy Habib, ended his own 40 years of silence by penning an article for the mass-circulation daily al-Ahram, saying that Nasser suffered from myocardial infarction (the interruption of blood supply to the heart), hypercholesterolemia (high levels of cholesterol) and high blood pressure. Many members of Nasser’s family, including his mother, brothers, sisters and uncles, had died in their 50s, he added.

Haikal’s story, however, raises plenty of questions, for a variety of reasons. One is Haikal’s age, currently at 87, along with the fact that Haikal is known for weaving tales impossible to verify, filled with nothing but dead witnesses.

One question that comes to mind is why Haikal has waited 40 years to come out with such a bold statement. Why didn’t he do it when emotions were high against Sadat, during his 1977 visit to Jerusalem or after the signing of the Camp David Accords? Why didn’t he do it when Sadat fired him from his job at al-Ahram in February, 1974?

Another fact that raises doubt over Haikal’s argument is the status of Sadat in September 1970. He was a senior member of the Egyptian government, an ex-speaker of parliament serving as vice president. It is doubtful that he would offer to make Nasser’s coffee himself. And even if he wanted to kill his long-time friend and mentor, he would not have gotten his own hands dirty with such a crime, preferring to do it through a third party. Additionally, Nasser – unlike Arafat – was very careful when it came to his security after having suffered an assassination attempt in Alexandria in 1954.

The entire ordeal is a sad repetition of what was debated, behind closed doors, throughout the Arab world for most of the 20th century. It is a common argument for any leader who dies while in office without falling ill.

When Syrian president Taj al-Din al-Hasani died at the age of 57 in 1943, rumors circulated in Damascus that he had been poisoned by his doctors. When the author of Syria’s first republican constitution, Fawzi al-Ghazzi, died of poisoning at the age of 38 in 1929, Syrian courts accused his wife of killing him to pursue a love affair with his nephew.

Today, 81 years later, theories are emerging that he might have been poisoned by French intelligence. The same story emerged when Arafat died, also of unnatural causes – believed to be poisoning – in November 2004.

The Haikal “bombshell”, as the Egyptian press is labeling it, opens the door wide for similar future arguments, blaming perhaps current Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of “poisoning” Arafat. When taking the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas claimed it found documents implicating one of Arafat’s aides, Mohammad Dahlan, ex-chief of preventive security, of having discussed “slaughtering” Arafat with then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Even if these figures were indeed murdered, the sad truth is that we will never know who killed them because archiving in the Arab world is poor – to say the least – and those who knew what happened, with the notable exception of Haikal, have taken the truth with them to the grave.

In Arafat’s case, for example, many Palestinians insist he was poisoned by Mossad. There is no way to verify that since last August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on prolonging the confidentiality of national archives related to events before, during and after the war of 1948.
Anything related to the early years of the Zionist state and its relationship with the Arabs will therefore remain classified until 2018. Interestingly, the entire Nasser-Sadat ordeal resurfaces amid plenty of talk in the region about yet another political murder, that of Rafik al-Hariri, the ex-prime minister of Lebanon, in February 2005.

Hariri’s fortunes, and the audacity of the George W Bush White House, apparently entitled him to a special international tribunal to hunt down his assassins, costing millions of dollars. This is a luxury that neither Nasser nor Arafat had.

Just like we never really knew if Lee Harvey Oswald gunned down US president John F Kennedy on that fateful day in Dallas in November 1963, we might never know whether Nasser simply died young or was killed at the hands of one of his many opponents.

Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria. This article appeared in Asia Times on October 8, 2010 entitled, “Egyptian Journalist Tells Poisoner’s Tale.”

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Would a Date Save our Planet? (10-10-2010)

Would a Date Save our Planet? (10-10-2010)
Batoul Wehbe

09/10/2010 With a shovel in hand, Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah appeared on television screens planting and watering a small tree outside his home in the southern suburbs of Beirut. His message to the whole world was save the environment; go green.

Hezbollah’s Jihad al Binaa foundation has led a campaign to plant one million trees in Lebanon where Sayyed Nasrallah’s tree was the millionth.

These actions come in line with other campaigns throughout the world. Tomorrow environmental activists around the world move to take from the date 10-10-2010 a day of action with more than 7,000 community organizations partnering to dedicate this date to environmental work.

To a certain extent, any day would be appropriate for a global environmental work. But this day, which is full of occasions, is an easy-to-remember date.

“Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar,” read an invitation from environmentalist Bill McKibben that’s posted on climate crisis website 350.org. “That's the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.”

Also in Lebanon, a series of activities are organized in more than one area. Musician Habib Alberto is organizing a concert where donations will be collected to buy a solar heater. The heater will be provided to the Ministry of Environment, to be installed on the roof of its headquarters in a building in Azarieh.

Fashion designer Jean Fares chose to celebrate this day by planting olive trees in his atelier garden near Jdeideh road, Beirut.

Climate change, polluted air, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, global warming all are the reasons for our global crisis that nobody knows when our world would revolutionize against us.

Imagine you are coming out from your home and all you see is black smoke with no trees, hear cars uproar not birds, smell gasoline rather than flowers. So come out from your houses now before it’s too late and answer Sayyed Nasrallah’s call: Go green.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Hugo or Mahmoud ???

Frustrated Arab's Diary  

The first South-American ruling
a South-American-country !!
 The last Israeli-prisoner !! 
Yesterday,
Hugo Chavez has lost an election
How can you call him dictator when he makes an election ??
How can you call him dictator when he makes and loses an election ??
How can you call him dictator when he makes and loses an election ,
twice in a  5 year period of time ???
Look at Husny Mubarak....
he never lost any election and yet ,he is called as being a "democrat"
Look at Mahmoud Abbas ......
he lost the elections and also his official-term is long over
he never did a re-election , never had any majority ,
and he wants to negotiate a peace with his own jailers  !!
when the "prisoners" do not recognise him as leader !!
Hugo at least has kept the majority
but not the absolute two-third-majority
while Mahmoud Abbas has won nothing
and he cannot do anything , neither.
What is the use of democracy when it is fake ??
Give me a social(ist)-democracy ran by a so called "dictator "
rather than  , a democracy ran by the Pentagon
or the State-Department .
Raja Chemayel
 
Posted by Tlaxcala at 11:06 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

In south Lebanon, tourism develops despite threat of war

Mona Alami, The Electronic Intifada, 8 October 2010

KHIAM, Lebanon (IPS) - The contours of a modern medieval castle stretch along the Wazzani River delineating Lebanon's border with Israel. A few meters away from the United Nations-mandated Blue Line, on Lebanon's first line of fire with Israel, a tourism project at an estimated cost of 20 million dollars is slowly taking shape.

Lebanon has been at war with its southern neighbor often since the creation of Israel in 1948. South Lebanon bore the brunt of the longtime enmity and fell under Israel occupancy for over 22 years from 1978-2000. Over the years, an unstable peace has reigned over the region, but broken every now and then because south Lebanon is home to Hizballah, Lebanon's local resistance movement against Israel.

The Israelis established one of their main detention and interrogation centers in the neighboring Khiam village. "The area is of strategic importance due to its proximity to the borders," General Wehbe Katish, former Lebanese general tells IPS. "The Wazzani river, which is a confluent of the Jordan river, is also another point of contention between the two countries."

A couple of investors have nevertheless decided to promote the area as a tourist destination. Khalil Abdallah and his sister Zahra are building restaurants and a hotel on their 50,000 square meter family estate, a few meters from the barbed wire fence that separates the two countries.

"It was always my father's dream to build a tourism project on our lands," says Zahra. Her brother Khalil made his fortune in the construction sector in Cote d'Ivoire.

The resort will be an eco-lodge, built around the riverbed. It would include a restaurant Les Pieds dans l'Eau (Feet in the Water), where visitors can literally dip their feet sitting by the river, as well as luxury chalets and villas, a hotel and three swimming pools.

Two structures shaped in the form of a mosque and a church have are also planned. "We have decided to include the symbols of both religions in our new project to show the region's openness; we will be building a mosque and church in a later phase," says Zahra.

In the preliminary phase, the project will include 18 chalets, rising to 60 on completion. "People in the south do not have access to large tourism projects like in other Lebanese regions, where they can hold weddings, go out for dinner or take a few relaxing days off. The south is also largely underdeveloped in terms of tourism infrastructure. Our project will certainly be meeting a growing need," says Zahra.

An additional hotel is in the plans, to include a conference centre and rotating restaurant, surrounded by 15 villas. Two pools, a playground, a tennis court and an equestrian centre are also under construction.

"The land's value alone is estimated at about 7.5 million dollars, to which will be added the cost of the project, valued at about 20 million dollars on completion. We have invested about 3.5 million dollars up until now," says Zahra.

Pointing towards the southern border, the young woman explains she is not worried about a renewed war with Israel. "The 2006 conflict showed that a new balance of power was established here in the south," she says. "This project is part of our act of defiance, and promoting development projects in the south is a peaceful way of fighting Israel."

But she does admit that having Israel's border so close to her land has raised problems. From time to time, soldiers from the Israeli army can be seen patrolling on the other side of the river.

"We have had problems with Israeli soldiers, who prohibit our workers from crossing to the other side of the river, which is also our property," says Zahra.

According to Mohamad Rida Abdallah, deputy mayor in Khiam, the project will have a positive impact on the local economy because it will employ people from nearby villages. The deputy mayor estimates unemployment levels in the area at about twenty percent. Zahra Abdallah says the Wazzani complex will employ around a hundred people in the initial phases of the launch.

Zahra and Khalil are not the only ones taking a chance by investing in the south. At Khiam, a few kilometres away from the Wazzani River, another member of the Abdallah family is building a four-star hotel.

"We can't live in fear of another war with Israel; we need to progress," says Mohamad Ali Abdallah, who is doing the three million dollar project.

In the face of such optimism, it is hard to miss the Israeli tanks in plain sight, motionless on the ground as if laying in wait. "If there is peace with Israel, the area is perfectly suited for any tourist project. But in a war, it will be a direct zone of confrontation," warns Gen. Katish.

All rights reserved, IPS -- Inter Press Service (2010). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden.