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Palestinians Right to Water by Ari Bussel A lecture Downtown Los Angeles by a self-declared “Palestinian from Palestine” was titled: Israel’s control of water as a tool of Apartheid and means of ethnic cleansing.” Following the talk, I was asked for my opinion. I replied: Nothing should surprise me any more. According to the speaker, America’s counterpart, Israel, is thirsting the “Palestinians” out of “their own” land. There is much to learn from Israel about water: from reclamation to desalination methods, from agriculture in arid areas to existence in the desert. Israel has perfected over the last century age-old methods,...

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri will announce a new national unity government to include Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah in the next few days, politicians said on Saturday. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since Hariri led his coalition, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to victory in a June parliamentary election against Hezbollah and its allies. Politicians from both sides said Hariri had now clinched a deal with the opposition on the new government's make-up. A government acceptable to all main parties is seen as key to maintaining stability in a country facing sectarian...

Blaming America - Planting Discord in Los Angeles by Ari Bussel Downtown Los Angeles is composed of many districts – jewelry, fashion, toys, flowers, produce and others. A concentration of skyscrapers, uncommon to the Southern California landscape, differentiates it from the vastness of the Greater Los Angeles area. It was during the last decade of constant increase in real estate prices that old buildings, often from utilities or institutions, were converted into affordable lots. Once dangerous and unwelcoming, Downtown went through a process of revitalization, its face today unrecognizable to past visitors. Back in 1984 I elected to go to...

Israel on Friday rejected a United Nations General Assembly resolution urging an investigation into a report saying war crimes were committed in Gaza, and condemned the world body vote as "completely detached from realities". In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said in response to Thursday's vote that Israel "maintains the right to self-defense", and would "continue to act to protect the lives of its citizens from the threat of international terrorism". The resolution, endorsing a report on the Gaza war commissioned by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, was nonbinding and seen as unlikely to force either Israel or Islamist...

Spending the better half of one day and one night searching the internet for information on the Ft. Hood Muslim shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, I have found this disturbing 2009 video from the online archives of C-Span in which the terrorist appears. There has been some reference to this video in US media but not widespread it seems. It is located HEREat C-Span.Nidal Malik Hasan was apparantly an invited guest to a public address in Washington by the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Sallai Meridor. Shooter Hasan took a seat in the second row nearly across from the...

Israel's warnings that it will not tolerate an existential threat in the form of a nuclear Iran should be taken seriously, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon warned in an interview with the Britain-based Sky News on Friday. "The one who's bluffing is Iran, which is trying to play with cards they don't have," Ayalon told the news network. "All the bravado that we see and the testing and the very dangerous and harsh rhetoric are hiding a lot of weaknesses." ...

Mideast: Iran tests an advanced warhead design as it gets caught shipping weapons to Hezbollah. Syria is reported to give the group operational control over Scud missiles. It's five minutes to midnight. Tyranny abhors a vacuum. While the U.S. and the West dither in Hamlet-like fashion over whatever we shall do in places such as Afghanistan and Iran, the Axis of Evil is in full swing in its plans to destroy Israel and threaten Europe and America. Israel last week seized what it said was the largest arms cache ever intercepted in the region. Israeli navy commandos boarded the Francop,...

In 2000, I was asked by the Israel Defense Forces to join a group of philosophers, lawyers, and generals for the purpose of drafting the army's ethics code. Since then, I have been deeply involved in the analysis of the moral issues that Israel faces in its war on terrorism. I have spent many hours in discussions with soldiers and officers in order to better grasp the dilemmas that they tackle in the field, and in an attempt to help facilitate the internalization of the code of ethics in war. It was no wonder that, when the Goldstone Report on...

The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a UN-sponsored report which says Israel committed war crimes during last winter's military assault on the Gaza Strip. The Goldstone report, which accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, has already been endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council, which sponsored the fact-finding commission. The General Assembly on Thursday voted by a margin of 114 to 18 to adopt the report after debating it for two days. Forty-four member-nations abstained from voting. The report calls on both Israel and the Palestinians to investigate accusations of human-rights violations during the 22-day conflict in...

Middle East peace hopes were dealt a blow on Thursday when Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian leader, announced he would stand down within weeks. He expressed frustration over shifts in the White House's policy on Israeli settlement construction as he told colleagues he was not prepared to seek a second term in elections in January. The loss of one of the Palestinian hierarchy's most conciliatory voices left President Barack Obama's Middle East peacekeeping efforts floundering and raised questions about his handling of negotiations in the region. Critics say the US president has fatally undermined Mr Abbas by conceding political ground...

Two Jerusalem residents have been arrested on suspicion of organ trafficking in an affair cleared for publication on Thursday. The police know of at least 10 Israelis who agreed to donate a kidney, most of them due to financial difficulties. Jerusalem Police investigators waited for the two suspects, Sami Shem-Tov and Dmitry Orenstein, at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem on Sunday. They are believed to have arrived there to perform a tissue analysis on two other people. According to the suspicions, the two published newspaper ads offering to mediate in kidney donations. They would then connect between a...

Hillary Clinton's retreat from the previous US demand for a settlement freeze leaves the administration's strategy for Israeli-Palestinian peace in limbo. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped from the frying pan into the fire this weekend, when she sparked a controversy regarding U.S. policy toward Israeli settlements right after some tough days of public and private diplomacy in Pakistan. But was the controversy as serious as it seemed? And what does it means for the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts? Here, a fact check on some settlement myths and misconceptions. 1. What is the significance of Clinton's linguistic acrobatics? Standing next...

Dore Gold Illustrates UN Goldstone Report Bias Against Israel In Brandeis Debate Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- November 5, 2009 ..... Israel's defensive war against Hamas terrorism in Gaza moved tonight to the sleepy and tranquil academic halls of Brandeis University. Former Israel UN Ambassador Dr. Dore Gold articulated in the most enlightened manner Israel's right to self-defense against a recognized terror group - Hamas. Justice Richard Goldstone who was appointed to lead the UN Human Rights Council Fact-finding mission on the Israel Gaza Conflict was left stuttering. In all fairness, one could witness that Goldstone is not...

The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned. The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency ...

The Washington conference of the new organization "J Street" took place on October 25-28. It was a fascinating but scary cultural experience. For three days I watched hundreds of intensely pious people sitting under an awning that reads "pro-Israel, pro-peace." But by far the dearest hopes of the folks on J Street were for the well-being, and especially the sovereignty, of a people whose leadership has stated repeatedly that its goal is to destroy Israel and murder Jews. I saw two overarching themes defining this conference: one, Iran is not a problem we care about; and two, a Palestinian State...

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president said Thursday he does not want to run for another term in January elections, blaming a stalemate in Mideast peace talks on Israel and the United States. In a televised speech to the Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas said he has told his "brothers" in the Fatah movement of his "desire not to run in the upcoming elections." But Abbas' careful wording left room for the possibility that he could be persuaded to change his mind, especially if he perceives the United States as backing his position on demanding an end to Israeli construction in...

WASHINGTON -- The Palestinians had hoped they would see a new day coming after the Bush administration’s eight-year capitulation to all that Israel wanted. But they were wrong. The Obama administration is moving down the same Bush road -- perhaps a little slower -- but nonetheless still enabling the Israelis to continue to violate international law and the U.N. Charter by annexing occupied Arab land. First, the new administration made it clear that U.S. policy opposed new Jewish settlements on the West Bank. This declaration was met with a thumping rejection from the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Then,...

November 05, 2009, 0:00 a.m. Small MiracleHow one tiny, endangered nation became an economic giant. By Clifford D. May People forget how small Israel is. Its entire population is a little more than 7 million — smaller than Lima, Peru. Its land area is about 8,000 square miles, smaller than New Jersey or Belize. By comparison, Jordan, its neighbor to the east, occupies 35,000 square miles; Egypt, its neighbor to the West, covers 386,000 square miles. There are more than 20 Arab states, which have a combined population of 325 million, and more than 50 majority-Muslim states, which have...

U.N. Human Rights Council witnesses dramatic face-off when head of controversial UN "fact-finding" mission on Gaza unexpectedly confronted by one of his own witnesses. Dr. Mirela Siderer, an Israeli doctor brutally disfigured by a 2008 rocket attack fired from Gaza into her Ashkelon medical clinic, pointedly accused Judge Richard Goldstone of ignoring her July oral testimony in his report, and of failing to disclose material information concerning the mandate and members of the mission. Both declared Israel guilty in advance. Testimony arranged by the Geneva human rights organization UN Watch.

November 05, 2009 At the J Street meeting By Lori Lowenthal Marcus The Washington conference of the new organization "J Street" took place on October 25-28. It was a fascinating but scary cultural experience. For three days I watched hundreds of intensely pious people sitting under an awning that reads "pro-Israel, pro-peace." But by far the dearest hopes of the folks on J Street were for the well-being, and especially the sovereignty, of a people whose leadership has stated repeatedly that its goal is to destroy Israel and murder Jews. I saw two overarching themes defining this conference: one, Iran...

With the history of twentieth-century science and technology largely a saga of Jewish accomplishment, in retrospect it might seem foreordained that after World War II the rising Jewish nation in the Middle East would emerge not only as a financial power but also as a scienti�c and technological leader. Yet surprisingly, for all the talk of deserts in bloom, the predictable miracle did not occur. Forty-some years on, Israel by 1990 was still mostly barren of technology and finance. Apart from military breakthroughs, the scores of thousands of brilliant Jews assembled in Israel generated few significant companies or technologies, no...

Hundreds of tons of weaponry, ten times the size of the Karine A shipment of 2002, were seized in an overnight raid Tuesday by the Israeli navy, some 100 nautical miles west of Israel, officials said. Defense officials said the 140-meter long Francop, intercepted near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and possibly also Hizbullah. The weapons seized on the ship, which was sailing under an Antiguan flag, included some 3,000 rockets of various types, as well as bullets and ammunition. The transfer of such large amounts of weapons out of Iran could "create a...

Hezbollah will underscore its case against Tehran in the international community, observers said Thursday. "Officials in Jerusalem had not dared even to dream of better timing for the capture of the vessel carrying so much arms and ammunition bound for Hezbollah," an editorial in Israel's Maariv newspaper said. "The capture of the ship was, for Israel, like a gift from heaven." The Israeli navy on Wednesday seized a ship carrying what it described as "hundreds of tonnes" of weapons, including rockets, grenades and ammunition, that it said was sent from Iran to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. A UN Security Council...

Hezbollah and its Iranian and Syrian backers have flatly rejected Israeli claims that a shipment of arms and ammunition intercepted at sea was destined for the Lebanese militia group. As Israel moved quickly to exploit the propaganda value of the find to highlight the role of Iran, Hezbollah "categorically" denied any connection to the case. The Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, said he hoped the weapons seizure would be a "wake-up call to those few in the international community who up until now have still held illusions about the true character of the extremist, radical regime in Tehran".

The peace process is in deep trouble because the US administration launched it the day after taking office without being fully prepared. Hillary Clinton's rescue mission last weekend to breathe life into the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process was either a failure or a success, depending on who's telling the story. The secretary of state made a quick stop in Abu Dhabi on Saturday to press Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to drop his demands for a total settlement construction freeze and return to the peace table with Israel. He refused. She then flew to Jerusalem, where she praised Prime Minister...

Israel’s chief of Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, addressed the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday. His tidings weren’t good. Regarding Hamas, Yadlin said the Gaza-based terror group now has a rocket with a 60-kilometer range that can reach Tel Aviv, and has already successfully test-fired it into the Mediterranean Sea. He said Hamas had also smuggled in Iranian-produced Fajr-style rockets, and overall has a better rocket capability than before the Gaza War last winter. Yadlin acknowledged that things have been relatively quiet lately, and attributed the reduced hostilities to Israeli deterrence as well as struggles within Gaza....

The Story of 'Operation Orchard' How Israel Destroyed Syria's Al Kibar Nuclear Reactor By Erich Follath and Holger Stark In September 2007, Israeli fighter jets destroyed a mysterious complex in the Syrian desert. The incident could have led to war, but it was hushed up by all sides. Was it a nuclear plant and who gave the orders for the strike? The mighty Euphrates river is the subject of the prophecies in the Bible's Book of Revelation, where it is written that the river will be the scene of the battle of Armageddon: "The sixth angel poured out his bowl...

JERUSALEM - Israeli commandos seized a ship Wednesday that defense officials said was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons from Iran bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas — the largest arms shipment Israel has ever commandeered. The Israeli military said an Iranian document was found on board, showing that the arms shipment originated from Iran, although the paper was not shown to reporters. Rear Admiral Roni Ben-Yehuda, the deputy Israeli navy commander, said that despite its size, the shipment of weapons was "a drop in the ocean" of arms being shipped to Hezbollah. "It's a cargo certificate that shows that it...

A Swedish radical Muslim has started political cooperation with both right and left wing extremists to build up an anti-Semitic party. Poet and journalist Mohamed Omar intends to fight what he calls the “danger of Zionism” that poses a threat to the world. Even though Omar’s political movement is rather weak as of today, experts warn of the anti-Democratic potential of this development.

A letter appealing for the support of the Goldstone report's findings was articulated by the leftist Jewish organization "Jews say no!" and signed by hundreds of Jews worldwide on Wednesday. "When it comes to Israel, hard-core censorship and intimidation by those claiming to speak in the name of the Jewish people have been the order of the day," the letter said regarding Israel's response to the Goldstone report findings. The letter also accused the worldwide Jewish community of unsuitably attacking Justice Goldstone and said "when those within a community try to "excommunicate" and dishonor truth-tellers, it is our obligation and...

CAIRO — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended the U.S. stance toward Israeli settlement building to worried Arab allies on Wednesday, saying Washington does not accept the legitimacy of the West Bank enclaves and wants to see their construction halted "forever." Still, she said an Israeli offer to restrain — but not halt — construction represents "positive movement forward" toward resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Clinton met for an hour with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a hastily arranged stopover in the Egyptian capital to soothe Arab concerns that Washington is backing off demands for an Israeli settlement halt. The...

At a recent meeting of the Israel-Europe Policy Network regarding Muslim minorities, MK Ophir Paz-Pines declared that as interior minister in Ariel Sharon's government he had presided over a discriminatory policy against Arabs. He claimed that Israel's Arab citizens have faced "structural" discrimination since the state's founding. As an example he pointed to discrepancies in state funding directed toward Arab municipalities. Israeli Arab municipalities do face financial discrimination, but in large part it is a discrimination of their own making. Israeli Arab municipalities barely collect taxes, many are on the verge of bankruptcy, there is a complete lack of enforcement...

Special Navy forces discovered weapons and ammunition on a cargo ship overnight Tuesday, after boarding the Francop some 100 nautical miles west of Israel flying an Antiguan flag. Defense officials said the 140-meter long Francop, captured near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and Hizbullah. More than 60 tons of weaponry were on board, in dozens of containers. The Francop carried hundreds of containers. A significant amount of 122 mm. Katyusha rockets, likely made in Iran, assault rifles, mortar shells and grenades were found on board. Israel Radio reported that advanced anti-aircraft platforms not before...

Israel's military intelligence chief has warned that Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have successfully tested an Iranian rocket that can reach Tel Aviv, the Jewish state's largest urban conurbation. That adds a new urgency to Israel's efforts to develop an effective defensive system capable of shooting down short-range rockets that, if the warning by Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin is correct, are becoming a strategic threat. Yadlin says the rocket has a range of 37 miles, 8 miles longer He did not identify the Iranian system, but there have been reports that Iran has been seeking to smuggle Fajr-5 (Dawn)...

(IsraelNN.com) A top advisor to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, considered to be a “moderate” and a peace partner by the U.S. government, has charged that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a “liar” who is being bribed by “Zionists.” Omar Hilmi Al-Ghul, and advisor to Fayyad and a columnist for a PA daily made the comments in an article translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Under the headline, "Clinton, Why Must You Lie?" he wrote, "Why is Mrs. Clinton lying to herself, to the American people, and to [other] world nations by twisting the truth...

By Ted Belman Hillary Clinton recently said, "And the Obama Administration's position on settlements is clear, unequivocal. It has not changed. And as the President has said on many occasions, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." That may well be his position but it has not always been the position of the US and its presidents. In 1995, The Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine and Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies co-hosted a June 2 symposium on "Settlements and Peace: The Problem of Jewish Colonization in Palestine." Geoffrey Aronson of the Foundation...

A former hareidi religious legislator warned the government on Tuesday to stop “bleeding hearts” from making the country a refuge for non-Jews and criminals. Journalist Yisrael Eichler, a former Knesset Member in the United Torah Judaism party, told Arutz 7 that while non-Jews from poor countries come to Israel, “the media prefers to deal with a screwball who puts up posters” and feel sorry for foreign workers and refugees who are flooding the country...

The Arabs carry on a continuous "war of nerves", cleverly using the press, UN and Western gullibility --or seminal Anti-Seminism--to isolate Israel and weaken it from psychologically from within and without. Here's how. “One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage. “ Sun Tzu The recent Arab riots on the Temple Mount and inside Jerusalem’s Old City, the Goldstone Report, academic and economic boycotts as well as other tactics are part of the familiar ongoing war against Israel. The Arabs employ a number of psychological techniques to demoralize Israelis in order to convince them...

Judea and Samaria are suburbs, states Dr. Sheila Lampert. When a resident of Judea or Samaria is arrested, he is not a "settler" but an Israeli who lives in a particular suburb--one that also acts as a buffer zone for the rest of Israel In the language of the Bible they were called settlements, and the Israelites answered the call of G-d to ‘settle’ the land. In the language of today, they are the ‘suburbs’ Webster’s dictionary defines as ‘outlying residential communities’. And for the most part they are closer to Israeli cities and towns than New York suburbs to...

Oct 29, 2009 — “Even the most ardent fan of Charles Darwin might be feeling weary as his anniversary year draws to a close,” remarked Clive Wynn in another issue of Nature celebrating his bicentennial. --snip-- The Editors are not done celebrating, though. They just began a 4-part essay series on how Darwin’s ideas were received around the world...

WASHINGTON — The US House of Representatives is expected to vote Tuesday on a resolution calling on President Barack Obama to reject the UN's Goldstone report, which accuses Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes in Gaza. The bipartisan proposal calls on President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration" of the Goldsone report, dismissing it as "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy." The measure also "reaffirms its support for the democratic, Jewish state of Israel, for Israel's security and right to self-defense," as well as "Israel's right to...

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 Text: Official PLO news agency bemoans Balfour Declaration anniversary while inadvertently documenting Israel's international legitimacy Balfour Declaration with its 92 Years Sad Memorial Date : 2/11/2009 Time : 15:38http://english.wafa.ps/?action=detail&id=13312RAMALLAH, November 2, 2009 (WAFA- PLO news agency)- Arthur James Balfour then the British Foreign Minister in UK was give his tragic declaration that gives the Jews a homeland in Palestine, while UK was mandating Palestine in November 2, 1917.Ninety two years passed on that sad declaration of Balfour's famous letter to Lord Rothschild one of the leaders of Zionist movement who made a false statement :...

Next month, Prof. Ada Yonath will be awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry, becoming the fifth Israeli scientist to win this award. This has sharpened, once again, the grim statistics regarding the scarcity of Nobel laureates in the Muslim and Arab worlds. While Jews, who are only around 0.2 percent of the world population, have won a quarter of all Nobel Prizes awarded in the sciences, Muslims, who are one quarter of the world population, have won only a handful, even by the most generous accounts. And while relative to its size, Israel's tiny academia has been the world's leading...

In an excavation conducted in late October, about 100 meters north of the Old City wall of Acre, a unique find was discovered from the Crusader period in the 13th Century; a hoard of 350 marble items that were collected from destroyed buildings. According to Dr. Edna Stern, excavation director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the hoard was found within the framework of an archaeological excavation conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority before the Acre Municipality began building a new structure to house classrooms in the Hilmi Shafi Educational Campus. "We have here a unique find, the likes of which...

The Tel Aviv area could become the newest target for rockets launched from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Tuesday morning during a briefing of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Yadlin said that the IDF had identified at least one test firing in which Hamas had successfully launched a rocket with a 60-kilometer range into the Mediterranean Sea. He went on to say he is concerned that Hamas has smuggled in Fajr-style rockets, an Iranian-produced artillery rocket that was also used by Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War. It was not clear whether...

Jerusalem - In a dramatic announcement, Israeli police said Monday they have arrested the alleged murder of a family of six - two grandparents, two parents, and two young children - who were found brutally stabbed to death in a partially burned-out apartment. The alleged perpetrator carried out the murders - which have been described as 'the worst in Israel's history' - apparently in revenge for being fired from his job as a waiter at the family restaurant in the town of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv, police said as a gag order on the investigation was lifted. Demian...

As Israel struggled to grasp the motive for the brutal murder of six members of the Oshrenko family, including two young children, four MKs from the coalition and the opposition called Monday for the establishment of a death penalty for the murder of children under the age of 13. ... The law would be an amendment to clause 300 of the Criminal Code. The bill's sponsors emphasized that "in light of the revelations of circumstances surrounding the murder of the Oshrenkos, the bill would try to prevent a repeat of circumstances in which people murder babies and children 'just because...

JERUSALEM — The six members of an Israeli family murdered in their Rishon LeZion home on the weekend were likely stabbed to death by a professional killer, according to police. Israelis reacted with horror to the murder of six members of the Oshrenko family. Among the three generations of victims found stabbed to death on Saturday in their burning apartment were a three-year-old girl and four-month-old boy. Police said the autopsy showed that the father of the children wrestled with the killer, Ha’aretz reported. The family was buried on Sunday afternoon. The members of the Oshrenko family killed were Revital,...

MARRAKECH, Morocco – Trying to mute Arab criticism that the Obama administration had retreated from its tough stance on Israeli settlements, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday softened her praise for Israel's offer to restrain new housing in Palestinian areas. While Israel was moving in the right direction in its offer to restrict but not stop the settlements, Clinton said, its offer "falls far short" of U.S. expectations. Clinton said her earlier praise of Israel's offer, during a stop in Jerusalem, had been intended as "positive reinforcement." But her comment drew widespread criticism from Persian Gulf ministers...

Turkey is looking to carve out its own Mideast sphere of influence without help from the West In the early '50s, when Israel was still young, the West was feeling the brunt of the Communist threat to the Middle East. The end of World War II had left festering wounds of Stalin's intrusions into Greece and Iran and his attempted appropriation of northeastern Turkey. There was also the unraveling Soviet fraternization with Egypt, Iraq and Syria. The West was concerned with the growing Soviet presence in eastern Mediterranean and the approaches to the Mideastern oil fields. The United States and...