Comments on another Wheelchaired Patroit Mocking Haneyya's call for rehabilitating Egyptian-Saudi-Syrian axis in region

Contributed by Nadia

Nadia said...

Another Good Comment on another Wheelchaired Patroit. "What do you expect Haniyeh to say? The people of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria support Palestinian resistance and Hamas. Obviously, the governments are a different story. This is politics and sometimes you have to soften your rhetoric and look for a solution - thats what Haniyeh is doing. I dont think he believes that Egypt and Saudi are going to help Palestinians acheive their rights but he is leaving his options open - this is a clever strategy. Your constant description of Ismail Haniyeh as Habila is also offensive to the many Muslims and Arabs that see this man as a great leader who is humble, principled and steadfast. Obviously, you can say what you want but I doubt you'll get very far. "

Bilal,

The Arm chair Pundit [TON TFUUUU] preyed

"Habila may be honest and steadfast, but he is no liberation leader. What the Palestinians need is a leader of the caliber of Castro, Guevara or Nasrallah, not a low-grade politician who you think is using "a clever strategy."

What has all the politicking and running for elections under Oslo and being part of the PA bought us? A big open-air jail and starvation! "

Tony Sayegh

Breaking and Exciting News....Habila Has a Strategy! A New Resistance Axis: Egypt-S.A.-Syria-Turkey (why not Togo?)...

What is he smoking anyway?

# posted by Tony : 8:56 AM

إسماعيل هنية يدعو لإستراتيجية فلسطينية عربية جديدة عبر محور تركيا

"غزة- دعا رئيس الحكومة الفلسطينية المقالة التي تديرها حركة حماس إسماعيل هنية الجمعة إلى رسم إستراتيجية فلسطينية عربية جديدة تقوم على أسس تقييم حقيقي لمسيرة التسوية التي وصلت إلى طريق مسدود.
وحث هنية خلال إلقائه خطبة صلاة الجمعة في أحد مساجد مدينة غزة على أن يكون التوازن الجديد قائما على المحور المصري والسعودي والسوري الذي ينفتح على تركيا.

وقال هنية إن تركيا تطوي حاليا صفحة تحالف استراتيجي مع إسرائيل وهي تستعيد دورها الإسلامي وتعود بقوة لقضايا الأمة وبالتحديد القضية الفلسطينية.

وحدد هنية ثلاثة أسس لهذا التحالف هي الاعتراف بفشل المفاوضات والذهاب إلى حوار وطني بهدف التوصل إلى برنامج سياسي يقوم على الثوابت الفلسطينية، وتحقيق المصالحة الوطنية الفلسطينية الحقيقية.
...."

My Comment

Screwed because Pharaoh failed to produce a domisticated Hamas as he, SUN TZU, (I mean TON TFUUUU) pridicted, he would hunt any thing to attack Hamas.

I shall translate the last 2 lines:
"Habila" set 3 conditions for the Syrian, Egyptian, Suadi Axis:
1- Admitting the failure of peace option (Oslo).
2- National dialogue to reach a political agreement based on Palestinian constants.
3-Palestinian reconciliation.

I agree with Billal, its a smart movement, and would add well co-ordinated with Syria, Iran, and Turkey.

However what do you expect from an asshole who mocked Syria's assad call for rejional alliance saying that it shall deliver a joint Syrian-Iraqi-Turkish-Israeli-U.S.-Iranian military exercises pretty soon?

# posted by Tony : 3:14 AM

We have seen Assad's call in action in Davos, in Viva Palestina, we have seen how the Zionist entity  bowed to Sultan Rajab Tayeb Erdogan, and Livni slaming Netanyahu and calling Turkey to Choose a Side. Thanks to Assad's for involving Turkey in the indirect negociations. Turlish, including secular Turkish are united behind Sultan Rajab Tayeb Erdogan,

Britain, Egypt need leaders like Erdogan Thus said Galloway.


The asshole asked: "What has all the politicking and running for elections under Oslo and being part of the PA bought us? A big open-air jail and starvation!"

Resistance forced Sharon to leave Gaza without conditions, and politicking and running for election "under Oslo" Liberated Gaza from Dayton's thugs. According to real Patriots, like Abulsattar Qasem,

Hamas made history in Making a Focal Point in Gaza and fighting the Ist Palestiinan war since 1948

Few days ago the asshole posted an Arabic Article written by Azzam Tamimi (Azzam is Hamas or at least a Pro-Hamas) about Hamas's Only Statigy

This very moment I am watching Azzam, on Al-Hewar Channel. He said Saudis boycotted Hamas for violation of Mecca agreement. He confirmed that Hamas surprised Khalid Mashaal by the so called "coup". Azzam confirmed that the decission to Take Gaza was an operational decission taken by Hamas Leadership in Gaza. Azzam consider that Mashaal tout in Gulf states is break through the political siege.

Thats how I read Mashaal's tour, Assad's visit and Haneyeh's call.

Update: Here is Hameya speech for non-arabic readers

Haneyya calls for rehabilitating Egyptian-Saudi-Syrian axis in region

 

[ 16/01/2010 - 08:01 AM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya on Friday called for having a new Arab strategy based on the rehabilitation of the historic axis of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria in order to create a kind of power of balance in the face of Israel.

During the weekly Friday khutba (sermon), Haneyya called on this axis to renew its historic relations with Turkey, which started to reconsider 60 years of its alliance with Israel and restored its Islamic role.

He also expressed his pride to see the rapprochement between Turkey and the Arab and Muslim worlds, calling for investing this for the benefit of the Palestinian cause.

The premier, in another context, stressed the importance of keeping the strategic relations with Egypt and called for addressing the last events of Rafah in a responsible way and stopping the media campaign against Gaza.

In an interview with the Iranian Al-Kawthar satellite channel, premier Haneyya had condemned Thursday the option of settlement and negotiations with Israel to restore the usurped Palestinian rights as a “false pregnancy”, highlighting that the adoption of this option will not lead to real results in light of Israel’s intransigent attitude.

The premier called for a Palestinian-Arab strategy taking into account the fact that the option of negotiation had failed and there is a need for restoring the Palestinian-Arab initiative.

“We do not call on the Arab states to wage a war on the Zionist entity, but we say that we must build a new balance in the region based on the axis of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria in addition to Turkey and benefit from the Islamic republic of Iran,” he underlined.

Regarding the inter-Palestinian reconciliation file, the premier said that 2010 is the year of the national reconciliation because it is a strategic choice and a national need, stressing that his government is seriously determined to end the internal division.

KEEPING THE ‘MASTER RACE’ WHITE

DessertPeace

January 16, 2010 at 9:54 am (Believe it or not, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights, Israel, Racism)

A new DesertPeace ‘BELIEVE IT OR NOT’ series…

To reduce the number of Black Babies, Israel subjects Ethiopians to long-term birth control

Health officials in Israel are subjecting many female Ethiopian immigrants to a controversial long-term birth control drug in what Israeli women’s groups allege is a racist policy to reduce the number of black babies.

Posted AT

FILMMAKER LOACH URGES CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL

SNIPPITS and SNAPPITS

THANK YOU, MR. LOACH!! YOUR HELP IS APPRECIATED
FROM ALL WHO CARE ABOUT PALESTINE.

Fri, 15 Jan 20
Press TV

The acclaimed British director and winner of Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Ken Loach, has called for the boycott of Israeli movies at the international film festivals and cultural events.

“The massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make the showcasing of Israeli films in various sections of international film festivals unacceptable,” Loach was quoted as saying at a ceremony commemorating Israeli offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip by IRNA.

“Tel Aviv sponsors various international film festivals with the intention to open the way for Israeli films.”

He added the call for a boycott of Israeli cultural products comes from many writers, artists, journalists, lawyers, academics, trades unionists and teachers. They see it as “a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation, colonization and system of apartheid.”

Last July, Loach withdrew his film ''Looking for Eric'' from the Melbourne International Film Festival in protest against the Israel's sponsorship of another filmmaker. Tel Aviv provided airfare for Tatia Rosenthal, whose film ''9.99'' is an Israeli-Australian co-production.

In May 2009, Loach as director of the Edinburgh International film festival returned a £300 gift from the Israeli embassy as a sign of his cultural boycott of Israel and in protest at Tel Aviv's policies towards the Palestinian people.

Loach has been active towards the Palestinian cause in the part of the world he knows best, the world of film and theatre.

The Toronto international film festival (TIFF) came under fire in September for selecting Tel Aviv as the subject of its inaugural City-to-City Spotlight strand. Renowned movie makers including Loach, Jane Fonda and David Byrne were among those who signed a statement supporting Canadian film-maker John Greyson, who withdrew his short film “Covered” from TIFF after learning of the program.

In a letter to the festival, Greyson cited Israeli action in Gaza and the expansion of illegal settlements as reasons for his withdrawal.

A United Nations inquiry led by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone details what investigators call Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during Israel's offensive against Gaza.

Tel Aviv is worried that charges could be lodged against politicians and army officers for war crimes committed during Israel's 22-day offensive against blockaded Gaza Strip. Top officials who would be in the judicial cross-hairs could include former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as well as current Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during three weeks of Israel's land, sea and air assault in the impoverished coastal sliver. The offensive also inflicted $ 1.6 billion damage to Gaza economy.

Filmmaker Ken Loach Joins the Cultural Boycott of Israel
Ken Loach, Wikipedia
Edinburgh film festival refuses Israeli grant due to pressure by Ken Loach  

Posted by Noor al Haqiqa at

Labels: Activist, BOYCOTT, entertainment, films, Israel, Palestine

6:09 PM

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Gaza: what are promises of humanitarian aid worth?

Redress

---

By Stuart Littlewood

16 January 2010

Stuart Littlewood takes the British government to task for failing to deliver aid it pledged to beleaguered Gaza, for the lack of any sense of urgency or determination "to actually deliver real help into the living (and dying) hell that our so-called friends in Tel Aviv have created", and for making Britain "appear complicit in prolonging the criminal devastation” of Gaza.

”... with reports coming in of Israel massing its military strength in the western Negev and elsewhere near the Gaza border, presumably for a second Gaza war as if last year’s wasn’t unforgivable, and the US storing extra ordnance in Israel presumably for the Israeli military to use against Palestinian civilians, it’s time Dogsbody Britain finally snarled a little at the bloodthirsty lunatics in Tel Aviv and Washington instead of sitting at their feet and wagging its tail.”

We keep hearing from the British government that they have spent millions of pounds in humanitarian aid for Gaza. But nobody is saying exactly where the money has gone and who benefited.

Of course, if they had done what they were supposed to and (with the rest of the international community) made sure the Palestinians were left in peace to run their own affairs with their homeland intact, there would be no need to endlessly raid taxpayers’ pockets for aid.

Here’s the text of a letter to foreign secretary David Miliband:

Some two months ago, on 10 November, Lord Brett announced that the British government had "pledged 30 million GBP at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference, of which 20 million GBP was allocated for reconstruction and 10 million GBP for early recovery. We are already funding a number of early recovery projects, such as cash for work schemes employing people to clear rubble and repair agricultural roads, and expect to spend the full 10 million GBP allocated for this purpose by March 2010. However, due to restrictions on the entry of building materials into Gaza, the UK has not yet been able to spend any of the funding earmarked for reconstruction. We stand ready to provide support as soon as the situation improves, and continue to press the Israeli government for improved access to Gaza for aid, aid workers and reconstruction materials.

"The UK has spent 16.9 million GBP in the West Bank and Gaza so far this financial year, including £5.2 million in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and 10 million GBP in support to the Palestinian Authority to enable it to provide essential public services. We have also provided nearly 20 million GBP to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to provide support to Palestinian refugees, of which around half is allocated to Gaza and the West Bank."

Exactly what have Britain's efforts amounted to so far? How much humanitarian aid has Britain succeeded in bringing to bear on the crisis and human suffering in Gaza? Where has it been spent and by whom?

On 5 January Mr Michael Foster of the Department for International Development [DFID] said: "The 32-million-euro pledge for Gaza made by the Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy in March 2009 was for humanitarian aid and early recovery activities… Like the DFID, the EU has been unable to spend money on formal reconstruction activities in Gaza due to Israeli restrictions on the import of essential materials."

How long is this inaction likely to continue and why are Britain and the EU merely "pressing" Israel to no effect instead of forcing the issue? If the intended reconstruction aid has been blocked for nine months, why was the money not reallocated to other critical humanitarian needs such as medical care and public health? What is stopping you, for example, asking Gaza's Ministry of Health for a list of hospital spares and shipping them direct?

What concerns so many people out here is that there is no sense of urgency or determination within the Foreign Office or Number 10 to actually deliver real help into the living (and dying) hell that our so-called friends in Tel Aviv have created in Gaza, and that consequently Britain is made to appear complicit in prolonging the criminal devastation when our duty is surely clear enough.

Miliband and his chums need to understand that the death toll of Palestinian hospital patients due Israel’s blockade of life-saving facilities is nearing 370, itself a scandalous crime against humanity that can be added to the long list of Israel’s other atrocities.

Gaza, tell us how much aid has reached you

Perhaps the authorities in Gaza -- government and non-government -- would please tell the world how much humanitarian aid they were hoping to receive and how much has actually been allowed to reach them?

The siege was inhumanly severe two years ago when, after visiting Gaza, I was sent a list of urgently-required hospital spares by the Ministry of Health, which I forwarded to the British government. To my eternal shame it was ignored. Would our beleaguered healthcare friends in Gaza like to send an up-to-date list to see if that too is rejected? I would suggest they send it to all three UK party leaders, who are in moralizing overdrive with elections looming, and we’ll see what each one is really made of.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown likes saying that “the only solution is a peace settlement between an Israel that needs security within its borders and a Palestine that needs to be a viable economic state”. How long have people like him been saying tosh like that? No, Mr Brown, you simply don’t get it. The only solution is compliance with international law and the dispensing of justice, not more shabby peace “negotiations” dictated by a massively strong side subsidized by powerful friends, armed to the teeth with state-of-the-art weaponry and holding a gun to the head of an impoverished side weakened by 40 years of brutal occupation and equipped only with makeshift weapons and smuggled small arms.

Incidentally, note how Western leaders always stick to the Israeli script and never acknowledge that Palestine is equally entitled to “security within its borders”.

We have the worst British government in my lifetime, guilty of the most disastrous foreign policy blunder of the last 100 years -- Iraq -- and happy to blindly make other lethal mistakes. In centuries past, politicians were parted from their heads for treachery or incompetence. Nowadays they are allowed to profit while innocent masses pay with their lives.

Hopefully this perverse government will be kicked out in the coming elections. Before they go, however, let us see if they can do one decent thing.

And with reports coming in of Israel massing its military strength in the western Negev and elsewhere near the Gaza border, presumably for a second Gaza war as if last year’s wasn’t unforgivable, and the US storing extra ordnance in Israel presumably for the Israeli military to use against Palestinian civilians, it’s time Dogsbody Britain finally snarled a little at the bloodthirsty lunatics in Tel Aviv and Washington instead of sitting at their feet and wagging its tail.

---

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.

---

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

ISRAELI CHARITIES ‘CASHING IN’ ON PALESTINIAN SUFFERING

ISRAELI CHARITIES ‘CASHING IN’ ON PALESTINIAN SUFFERING

Steve Amsel, Desertpeace

:: Article nr. 62145 sent on 14-jan-2010 12:54 ECT

January 14, 2010

The above photo (part of an ad campaign) is being circulated throughout the Israeli press. The organisation that sponsored the ad operates (for hungry Jews only) soup kitchens in every major Israeli city. Below is the ad in question….

Feeding the poor is a wonderful deed…..asking for contributions to continue this work is to be expected….. BUT…. the photo used is not one of a poor, hungry Jewish child. It is the photo of a child in Gaza at the funeral of her brother who was killed by the zionists during the blitzkrieg a year ago. The same child can be seen in THIS article that appeared in the Telegraph.

The following montage shows the child in the ad and the (same) Palestinian child.

click on image to enlarge

How could the zionists be so deceptive? Along with their beliefs that Palestinians are not human, do they also believe that they feel no pain or suffering? Do they see nothing morally wrong with using images of suffering Palestinian children to raise funds for 'Jewish only’ charities?

I have no problem supporting charitable institutions, especially those that feed the hungry, but I would NEVER support one that would turn away a non Jew, especially one such as Meir Panim.

Just another example of the inhumanity of zionism and those associated with it.

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian
www.uruknet.info?p=62145

Link: desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/israeli-charities-cashing-in-on-palestinian
   -suffering/

Who Killed Massoud Ali Mohammadi? – and why?

Link

by Justin Raimondo, January 15, 2010

 Antiwar Forum

Imagine the following scenario: The chief executive of a foreign country decides to conduct terrorist operations inside U.S. territory, and signs a “presidential finding” to that effect. Furthermore, that “finding” authorizes the foreign government’s agents to engage in “defensive lethal action,” i.e. assassinations. And what if, shortly after this information has been leaked to the public, prominent US government officials and even a nuclear scientist or two are assassinated, kidnapped, or otherwise targeted by mysterious terrorists, with no one taking “credit” for these actions?

How long before the United States military turned that country into a pile of molten rock and charred debris? 

I give it about fifteen minutes, max. 

However, if that chief executive happened to be an American president, and if the “finding” was approved by Democratic congressonal leaders, and if the targets of these assassinations and kidnappings were Iranian – well, then, it isn’t terrorism, now is it – since nothing we do is ever so characterized, no matter how accurate such a description may be. 

The assassination of Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a prominent Iranian nuclear physicist, had all the earmarks of a state agency behind it: he was killed in an explosion set off by a sophisticated remote-controlled device attached to the underside of a motorbike parked outside his home. However, a closer look shows that the killing, if it was carried out by the US or its agents, doesn’t fit the expected pattern. 

Looking at Mohammadi’s list of publications, it appears he was an astrophysicist, and not the sort one would normally associate with Iran’s nuclear program, but that may be neither here nor there. After all, our own CIA has said, “with high confidence,” [.pdf] that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and hasn’t re-started it – so the idea that this is an attempt to set back Iran’s drive for nukes is flat out wrong, because there are no Iranian nukes and little likelihood of them any time soon. 

So there must have been another reason for the targeting of Mohammadi in particular, and both the timing and the politics bear this out. The killing comes at a time when Iranian regime is threatened by an extensive popular upsurge, the “Green” movement, led by former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, made manifest in street demonstrations which the government has reacted to with vicious violence. In spite of the regime’s efforts to portray Mohammadi as one of their own, he was in fact a supporter of Moussavi: he was one of the signatories of a statement issued by Mossavi’s academic supporters. He was, in short, clearly aligned with the “Greens,” although not an activist type.

Of course, we don’t know who killed Mohammadi, although Tehran has variously accused the US, the Israelis, Iranian royalists, and the neo-Marxist Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) of being behind the bombing. Certainly any of these are credible suspects, but the instrument of the assassination is less important than the motivation or intent behind it, and in any case the question of whodunit could be at least partially illuminated if we ask why it was done.

Before we can answer that question, however, we need to go back and look at the context, including the rationale for and motivation behind that presidential “finding.” Issued in the final months of the Bush administration, the finding was an attempt to get around military and congressional opposition to the idea of a direct attack on Iran by the US. The joint chiefs were horrified by the prospect and made their opposition plain, and the Democratic-controlled Congress was none too enthusiastic about ginning up another war when we were already knee-deep in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardliners in the Bush administration, however, were not content to let it go at that, naturally, and so President Bush, in this finding, authorized a covert campaign dedicated to “regime change” — including those “defensive lethal actions” that sound like assassinations to me. 

The idea was to destabilize the Iranian “prison house of nations” by forging links with underground secessionist and dissident organizations, such as the Sunni terrorist group operating in Baluchistan on the border with Pakistan. There was also a lot of agitation, at the time, among neoconservatives to rehabilitate the MEK, which has been classified by the US State Department as an officially-designated terrorist organization, and use them to effect “regime change” in Iran. Given MEK’s degree of support amongst the then-dominant neocons inside the administration, as well as in Congress, can there be much doubt MEK got in on the $400 million gravy train? 

Forced to abandon plans for striking Iran, the Bush administration took the route of subversion, and set the stage for a series of provocations aimed at “regime change.” Given the complicity of the Democrats in this scheme, there is no reason to assume the program stopped with the ascension of Obama. Indeed, there is every reason to think the program may have even been accelerated, given the reluctance with which the present administration would contemplate a frontal assault on Tehran. War may be out of the question, for the moment, but what about a revolution? Indeed, Team Obama have recently been more effusive with their open support for the Iranian “Greens,” and US government support for the Moussavi movement is all but official. Yet Mohammadi was himself a Green supporter, and therefore his execution may be seen as the act of some entity that aims at blocking this indirect means of dealing with the Iranians.

On the one hand, there is plenty of speculation revolving around the possibility that the Iranians took out Mohammadi themselves, as a warning to dissidents, particularly dissident scientists. However, this seems highly improbable: at a  time when Tehran is touting its technological prowess as a point of pride in its conflict with the West, this they-did-it-to-themselves scenario makes little sense. 

On the other hand, there are those who have every interest in blocking any and all attempts to deal with Iran relatively peacefully, i.e. short of a full-scale frontal military assault. Israel has made plain its desire to strike at Iran, or have the US do it for them, and Israel’s lobby in the U.S. is busy beating the drums for war.
What points toward the Israelis in this instance is Mohammadi’s Green affiliation: an Associated Press video report shows pro-Green mourners at Mohammadi’s funeral procession, hailing him as a martyr and denouncing the Mossad. Inside Iran, the political effect of the assassination is to blur the ideological distinctions between the Greens and their opponents in the government — and blunt the US administration’s covert effort to carry out “regime change” short of an invasion. 

The Israelis are well aware that the Greens are just as nationalist and intransigent on the subject of Iran’s right to pursue nuclear research as the hardliners. They therefore have every interest in destabilizing this movement, sowing fear among prominent Green supporters – such as Mohammadi’s academic colleagues – and also spreading the rumor that domestic assassins struck him due to his support for Moussavi. Deprived of the Holocaust-denying fire-breathing President Ahmadinejad as the public face of the Iranian government, and with the Greens in power, the Israelis would have a much harder time convincing their American sponsors Iran represents a danger to the world and must be stopped at all costs. 

The Israelis have long utilized assassination as a tool in their bag of tricks, and do so semi-openly: what other intelligence agency has an entire special section devoted to taking out its enemies? Mohammadi is the third prominent Iranian scientist to have met with foul play in the past year or so – see here, and here – and the idea that the Israelis are behind it was not only given voice by the Iranians, but also by the Stratfor research organization, which is said to have ties with Israeli intelligence. 

Who killed Mohammadi? We don’t know, and may never know for sure: but all indications point to Israel, and it’s no wonder that even Debka, the Israeli web site with links to Mossad, practically claimed “credit” for the act on Tel Aviv’s behalf. 

What’s interesting is that this explanation for Mohammadi’s unsightly end underscores the role played by Israel in the geopolitics of the Middle East, as not only Iran’s chief adversary in the region but also as a subverter of American policy and interests. The Iranians, with their cartoon-version worldview of the US and Israel as two heads of the same hydra-headed monster, are too simplistic by far: when it comes to the Middle East, Israel is working to undermine not only Tehran but also Washington – and anyone who gets in the way of their agenda.

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Pope Shenouda III: "...most Egyptians love Gamal Mubarak and they will vote for him..."

Link

'Shenouda & Bozo '

WINEP/ here

" .... the community was politically marginalized after Gamal Abdul Nasser's 1952 coup......

News of the killings in Naga Hammadi came as a shock, though the church in question had reportedly been placed under police protection before the shooting because of threats related to the alleged rape. The day after the attack, thousands of Copts gathered at the morgue to protest the lack of effective protection and to collect the bodies. There, they clashed with security forces, and six more Copts were killed in the resulting melee. On January 8, police announced that three suspects had been apprehended, but the news did little to calm the situation. The next day, several Christian homes in nearby villages were torched, prompting retaliation against Muslim dwellings.

Meanwhile, back in Cairo, parliament has been consumed by the incident, with Qena provincial governor Magdy Ayoub providing controversial testimony before a joint meeting of the Defense and National Security and Religious Affairs committees. According to Ayoub, the Naga Hammadi killers were "not religiously inspired," as the Copts and most other observers have argued. Rather, they were motivated by the rape and by anger over reports of Christians downloading pornographic pictures of Muslim women on their cellphones. For his part, perennial speaker of parliament Fathi Srour offered a more traditional official explanation of the killings, pointing to "the presence of foreign hands...looking for an opportunity to shake Egyptian security." ............ in Naga Hammadi, the Copts are calling for Ayoub (a Mubarak appointee) to resign.

This latest incident comes in the aftermath of some dramatic government steps to curtail Islamist political participation. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood won eighty-eight seats, or 20 percent of the legislature. In 2007, in an effort to forestall similar gains in this year's elections, the Mubarak regime engineered constitutional amendments and a restrictive new electoral law that makes it nearly impossible for the group to participate. In addition, the government has arrested hundreds of MB members over the past two years, including the group's leading local financier.

The regime's campaign appears to be influencing the MB's orientation. In 2008, in a direct challenge to government policy, the group issued several unprecedented statements in support of Hamas and Hizballah. More recently, during December 2009 internal balloting to select its 16-member executive committee and replace Supreme Guide Muhammad Mehdi Akef, the MB bypassed several moderate incumbents -- including Akef's deputy, Muhammad Habib -- and installed a more conservative leadership instead. Yesterday, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported that the new Supreme Guide will be Muhammad Badia, who received 66 of 100 votes from the organization's Shura Council. According to the newspaper, Badia is "among the most hardline leaders, devoted to the tactics of Sayyed Qutb," .........

The MB's shift toward a more conservative leadership does not suggest that Egypt's Islamists have decided to return to violence -- in fact, the MB condemned the Naga Hammadi attack on its website. Rather, the vote reflects the outcome of an internal debate regarding the utility of participating in the sclerotic and repressive Egyptian political system. ......

If history is any indication, Egypt's Copts would likely be among the first victims should this kind of radicalization occur. In addition to religious motivations, the targeting of Christians would also have a political dimension related to the presumed transfer of power from President Hosni Mubarak to his son Gamal. Whereas former MB Supreme Guide Akef has stated that his organization "will never agree to a man like [Gamal] as Egypt's president," Coptic Pope Shenouda III has seemingly endorsed his candidacy, declaring at one point that "most Egyptians love Gamal Mubarak and they will vote for him ahead of any other candidate."

The outrage in Naga Hammadi may turn out to be an isolated incident. Even so, developments within the MB suggest that frustrations among Egypt's Islamists are on the rise. Although the government will likely take steps to keep these frustrations in check -- especially through this year's parliamentary voting and the 2011 presidential election resumed targeting of the Coptic community may prove a leading indicator of future, broader violence: Christians today, regime authorities and foreign tourists tomorrow.

Posted by G, Z, or B at 3:20 PM

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Livni Slams Netanyahu; Says Turkey Has to Choose a Side

Almanar

Livni Slams Netanyahu; Says Turkey Has to Choose a Side

15/01/2010 As the most recent confrontation with Turkey, over Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon humiliating Turkish ambassador to Israel Ahmet Oguz Celikkol on Tuesday, began to abate, Kadima and opposition leader Tzipi Livni said that Ankara would have to decide which side to align itself with.

"Every country in the region must decide which side it is on. This goes for Turkey, too," Livni said Thursday. "The choice is not between Israel and the Palestinians or the Jews and the Arab but between Israel, the legitimate Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and Jordan and the world of fundamental Islam."

Livni was adamant that Valley of the Wolves, the Turkish TV series depicting Mossad agents as kidnappers and baby-killers, could only serve to incite violence. "Erdogan's words are also very worrying," she said.

Livni also slammed the Israeli prime minister, foreign minister and his deputy for their conduct. She said that the government is jeopardizing Israel's strategic position and creating a situation whereby Israel's enemies think it "only understands threats."

"If anyone thinks that games of [musical] chairs are the way to defend Israel's interests ... they are making a strategic mistake," Livni concluded.

Livni's remarks came after Ayalon humiliated the Turkish Ambassador by sitting him in a lower chair during their meeting and making comments about it to the Israeli media.

The Kadima chairwoman also criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initially backed Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and only later demanded that Deputy Minister Ayalon apologize to the Turks. "The question is not only the manner in which the deputy foreign minister express himself, but also where was the prime minister all this time? We have been talking about who was taller and who was shorter for the past three days, while the real damage is to Israel's interests," she said.

Livni noted that she was careful not to criticize the prime minister on this matter due to the conflict between Israel and Turkey, but said that the recent incident cannot be disregarded because it "constitutes Israel's policy rather than that of a misguided individual."

Earlier Thursday, Israeli President Shimon Peres criticized Ayalon, stressing that the incident was the mistake of a single man, and not of the entire country. "This is not diplomacy, but rather a mistake by one person. It is good that this man, the deputy foreign minister, fixed his mistake," the president said at an event in Tel Aviv.

"This must not be attributed to the entire country and to all diplomats. We must learn not to make such mistakes," Peres reportedly said.

Earlier Thursday, Kadima Council chairman and former MK Haim Ramon said that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government should send a letter of apology to all the Israeli settlers for humiliating Israel in an unnecessary confrontation with Turkey.

In an interview with Israel Radio, Ramon said that the government should have acted intelligently and sensibly and not like a bull in a china shop. "Netanyahu supported Ayalon," Ramon said, adding that "only the intervention by Peres, who played the role of responsible adult, prevented a major diplomatic crisis with Turkey."

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Sayyed Nasrallah: We Will Defeat Enemy, Change Region’s Face

Via silver lining

Posted on January 15, 2010 by realistic bird

Israeli war on Lebanon, 2006

by Hussein Assi, Al Manar

15/01/2010 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said on Friday that in case of any confrontation with Israel, the Resistance will foil the aggressions’ objectives, defeat the enemy, and change the face of the region.

Sayyed Nasrallah was delivering a speech via video link before the Arab and International Forum for Supporting the Resistance at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut.

Sayyed Nasrallah started his speech by saying that Lebanon has abandoned the myth saying “Lebanon’s strength is in its weakness” to adopt the truth saying “Lebanon’s strength is in the solidarity of its army, people, and resistance.”

The Resistance leader said that Lebanon has achieved victory by kicking out the occupier from its land giving its nation and people the pride of enjoying a new and advanced position in the way towards decisive victory.
His eminence chose to highlight the bright and shining side of the current conflict in his speech and recalled that the forces of hegemony were seeking to create a settling entity that would constitute an eternal guarantee for their interests in the region. “The Zionists thought that they were achieving their scheme when the October 1973 war was launched. This war was a turning point in the conflict with Israel during which the Egyptian and Syrian armies put a limit on the Israeli dream of expansion. But a few years later, the Egyptian regime expelled Egypt from the conflict with Israel, thus marking the biggest transformation in the history of the conflict alongside the entry of Iran in it.”

“In 1982, Israel succeeded in invading Lebanon and its hopes of re-vivifying the Greater Israel project became high. But the Resistance was able to achieve Liberation in 2000, the year in which the Israeli troops withdrew from the Lebanese territories in a flagrant announcement of the failure of the theory of the Greater Israel project. Then came the Al-Aqsa Intifada that made Israel feel weak and talk about a battle for its existence but Resistant Gaza made it again and kicked out the occupation. Israel then continued its aggressive war against Lebanon and planned in 2006 to beat the Resistance but the Resistance remained. It was even strengthened.”

Sayyed Nasrallah concluded that Israel is living today a real dilemma: the dilemma of leadership and command, the dilemma of the invincible army which was defeated on the hands of the resistance fighters, and the dilemma of trusting the future. “Israel is trying to cover up its dilemmas through daily threats which scare only advocates of defeat and cowards,” his eminence added. “However, those who experienced Jihad, they are missing the confrontations to produce a new victory and a new glory for their nation.”

Hezbollah Secretary General then said that Israel is leaning today on intimidation attempts and on settlements’ building with the help of some countries, including the international community, the Security Council as well as some Arab regimes. “However, for the first time, Israel fears the military option and talks about the victory guarantees in any upcoming war.”

His eminence then noted that the Resistance overcame the most dangerous periods in the region when the United States was trying to transform the region into the so-called “New Middle East.”

While emphasizing that the resistance made its achievements amid the worst Arab situation and despite being stabbed in the back by some forces, Sayyed Nasrallah that the aim of the hegemony forces was to eliminate the Resistance movements in Lebanon and in Palestine and surrender to US and Israeli conditions. “The New Middle East was the title of the battle but the Resistance and its people were able to achieve victories. Our people held on to the culture of dignity and Jihad and rejected giving up,” his eminence said.

Hezbollah Secretary General said that it was possible to talk about a US failure and impotence. His eminence addressed the nation’s people and said: “The choice of Resistance is a true, logical and victorious one.”

His eminence, meanwhile, pointed out that the project of the Resistance and its people needs all political, legal, media and moral support to confront the psychological war waged against it. “The resistance is still facing many threats topped by defaming attempts through accusations of committing crimes, drugs trafficking, and blind submission to Iran and Syria,” Sayyed Nasrallah highlighted. “The threats also include besieging the Resistance and its voice through preventing it of attending conferences and through the bill the US working is preparing against Arab satellite networks, targeting Al-Manar and Al-Aqsa first of all.”

“If I had to address your forum with one call, I call you to support the resistance against this psychological warfare, but I assure you that this war will not shake us and that we will face it through patience and self confidence,” Sayyed Nasrallah stressed.

Hezbollah Secretary General concluded his speech by stressing that the Resistance would continue to recommend its soul to God and therefore achieve victory in any war. “I promise you, as I have always promised you. In any coming confrontation, we will foil the aggressions’ objectives, defeat the enemy, achieve a great historical victory, and change the face of the region,” his eminence said.

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Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Hizbollah, Israeli attacks, Israeli crimes, Israeli policies, Lebanon, Occupation, palestine, resistance, Sayyed Nasrallah

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ISRAEL PROTECTS THE ‘HUMAN RIGHTS’ OF SEX OFFENDERS

DesertPeace

January 15, 2010 at 4:30 pm (Corrupt Politics, DesertPeace Editorial, From The Media, Human Rights, Israel)

Parents might want to think twice about allowing their children to visit Israel on youth delegations…. at least until the country gets its priorities straight…. (no pun intended)

The Supreme Court of Israel has officially lost its collective mind.

The Supreme Court accepted an appeal by Yitzhak Mondrovich against his extradition on Thursday, 25 years after he arrived in Israel and 24 years after US authorities indicted him on suspicion of committing 13 sexual crimes against five boys aged nine to 13.

“The legal and moral basis of the extradition procedure according to the Israeli extradition law is not restricted to being an important tool in the war against international and domestic crime,” Justice Ayala Procaccia wrote.”

“It is also, at the same time, a procedure which takes human rights into consideration, both by the country requesting the extradition and the extraditing country. The fear of undermining an extradition procedure like this one cannot surmount the need to look at its implications for human rights and the fundamental values of the system of the country being asked to extradite.”


A country that bars journalists from entry, simply because they REPORT the truth about the occupation, bars entry to notable world leaders for fear that they might SEE the truth, is concerned about Human Rights?

What about the rights of the Palestinian people that have been living under the most inhumane occupation in centuries?

What about the rights of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem whose homes are siezed illegally by Jewish settlers?

What about the rights of Ethiopian children to go to school?

Obviously none of the above is important enough to be dealt with by the ‘lawmakers’ of the country.

The article that the above in italics is from can be read HERE.
Zion be proud….. you are showing the world your true colours!

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 Uprooted Palestinian

Kafarna: The PA betrayed Sa’adat and comrades

PIC

[ 15/01/2010 - 07:38 PM ]

PA police surrender prior to the kidnapping of Saadat and his comrades by the IOF

GAZA, (PIC)-- Nasser Kafarna, the member of the PFLP political bureau, has accused the PA leadership of betraying Ahmad Sa’adat, the secretary-general of the PFLP, who is detained in Israeli jails, and the Palestinian prisoners for agreeing to go to negotiations with the Israelis without first releasing those captives.

“This crime and other heinous crimes and practices of the PA security forces in the West Bank against the Palestinian resistance leaders and heroes, in addition to the disgraced security coordination with the Israeli occupation have proved to be futile and serve only the Israeli interests”, Kafarna asserted in press statements he made Thursday in Ramallah city as he commemorated the ninth anniversary for the arrest of Sa’adat and four of his comrades at the hands of the IOF troops in coordination with the PA security forces in the West Bank, the USA, and Britain.

In this regard, Kafarna criticized the performance of the PA security forces, stressing that they were there to protect the Palestinian people and to defend the Palestinian interests, and block the Israeli aggression on Palestinians as the Palestinian Islamic and national action factions agreed on many times, urging the PA security forces to derive lessons from the arrest of Sa’adat.

“The proper response to the arrest of Sa’adat at that time should have been to halt all forms of negotiations with the Israelis till those freedom fighters and the rest of the Palestinian captives are set free”, Kafarna underscored.

He, however, called on the military wing of the PFLP, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, to exert more efforts to free Sa’adat and his comrades, and the rest of the Palestinian captives through prisoners’ swap deals.

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 Uprooted Palestinian

Israeli authorities prevent 17 Palestinians from getting necessary eye surgery

Via Silver Lining

Posted on January 15, 2010 by realistic bird

{The siege} by Umayyah Jiha

by Saed Bannoura, IMEMC, January 14, 2010

After the Israeli human rights group Physicians for Human Rights arranged a donation of 17 corneas to allow sight-impaired Palestinians from Gaza to receive necessary eye surgery, Israeli border agents stationed at Erez crossing prevented the sight-impaired patients from entering the West Bank. The cornea donations had to be discarded.

According to the Physicians for Human Rights, “Because of this delay, the medical window of opportunity to perform the transplants for these patients was closed, because corneas can be transplanted only within the shortest time frame (24-48 hours after they are extracted from the donor’s body). The patients from Gaza whose exit was prevented will therefore have to wait for another donation, which may or may not happen.”
Due to the ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza, cornea replacement surgery is not available in the Gaza health system, which lacks many of the most basic medical supplies.

The main Musallam Medical Center in Ramallah received two deliveries from the US on January 3rd, with dozens of corneas donated by Tissue Bank International, an American organization that facilitates cornea and tissue transplants. Every year corneas are sent during Christmas break, during which such operations do not take place in the US, as a donation to the Palestinian health system, and dedicated especially to eye patients from Gaza. The Medical Center contacted their branch in Gaza to inform them that the corneas were ready, and the patients should cross into the West Bank to get their long-awaited surgeries.

The group of patients includes some who were waiting weeks or even months for cornea transplants. The longest wait was 31-year-old S.A., who has been waiting for this operation for three years.

The inquiry by the medical center in Ramallah raised the concern that the exit of the patients from Gaza was being prevented by the Israeli authorities, and accordingly PHR-Israel on Sunday made an urgent request to the DCO in Gaza, responsible for issuing exit permits to patients. In its appeal to the DCO, PHR warned that preventing the exit of the vision-impaired patients for eye operations this week will necessarily cause them to lose the opportunity for cornea transplants in the near future, if ever, because the corneas designated for the transplants have a very short expiration date.

Despite this request, the Israeli authorities prevented the exit of the 17 patients for the operation on time. Five patients were not given any answer; two patients were summoned to investigations by the General Security Service (GSS), scheduled for dates later than the cornea expiration dates; two requests were rejected; and eight requests were approved only after media intervention, but after the corneas had already expired.
According to the Physicians for Human Rights, this case, with its far-reaching consequences for the vision-impaired patients who now lost the opportunity to repair their eyesight, illustrates the many difficulties that face the residents of Gaza who need medical care that is not available in the Gaza Strip.

The group added that the delays, apathy and rejection by the Israeli authorities, which every month curtail the access of dozens of patients to medical care, had particularly severe significance in this case, because prevention of these patients’ exit from Gaza caused the loss of the corneas (which can be transplanted within no more than 48 hours from the moment of donation). Now the patients will have to wait for another cornea donation, at an unknown time and likelihood.

Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Gaza, Israeli crimes, Israeli policies, news, palestine, Palestinians, Politics, siege | Leave a Comment »

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