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The Obama Administration has signalled a tougher approach towards Israel ahead of fresh talks on the Middle East peace process by insisting it must endorse the creation of an independent Palestinian state. “Israel has to work toward a two-state solution,” declared Vice-President Joe Biden today in a speech to the annual conference of a powerful pro-Israel lobby group in Washington. “You’re not going to like my saying this,” he warned the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) before adding that the Jewish state should not build any more settlements on Palestinian territory, and should “dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians...

One of the Palestinians who hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and killed an American Jewish passenger in 1985 has been released after more than 23 years in jail, officials said Thursday. Youssef Magied al-Molqui left prison in Palermo, Sicily, on Wednesday and was transferred to a holding center for immigrants in nearby Trapani while officials work to expel him, police in the Sicilian capital said.

The title of this article might have been more to the point if we substitute ‘Pieces” for ‘Peace,” as the breaking up of Israel is seemingly looming just over the horizon. With President Obama promising to take whatever steps are necessary to not only avoid any war or conflict, but to actually force a peace settlement establishing a Palestinian State upon Israel and the “occupied territories”, the Arab World has seen this as an opening to finally defeat Israel, a goal unattainable by their past aggressions. Now they have the magic formula, threaten a possibility of war, then sit back,...

Adding the United States to the list of countries, mostly European, demanding that Israel immediately return to the peace negotiations with the Palestinians or face ostracization, Secretary of State Clinton further insisted that Israel would also lose the support of the Arab Nations when it comes to Iran. I must wonder, when was it that Israel had the support of the Arab Nations when it comes to, well, exactly anything? From what this run-of-the-mill observer has seen, the only support the Arab Nations have ever given Israel is for their demise as a nation among the nations of this world....

It's official - Cairo and Hizbullah are fighting a full-fledged media war. The Egyptian press and government officials have, for several consecutive days, been hurling insults at the Shi'ite group, in one instance comparing its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to a monkey.

When one speaks of or advocates non-violence, does he promote such an idea because he believes that historically it has been a more effective means of liberation, or is it purely because he thinks that it is a more self-respecting means of struggle? In recent history, many advocates of non-violence have been celebrated as modern day icons. From Gandhi to King, songs are written in their honour, their life stories fill the pages of our children's history volumes as noble examples of which everyone must aspire to emulate. Holidays are instituted in their honour and around the world; streets and...

Even before Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel’s new Prime Minister and Avigdor Lieberman officially became the new Israeli Foreign Minister the world had declared that they were not men of peace and their taking power would be the death of any prospect for peace with the Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared even before the approval and swearing in of the new Israeli governing coalition that he saw no reason to continue talking with Israel as no peace is possible as long as the Netanyahu Government is in power. Abbas further demanded the world to aid in efforts...

Yasser Arafat's official Web site posted pictures Monday that it said showed the late Palestinian leader's modest bedroom, offering a glimpse into the way he lived under Israeli siege during the final two years of his life. The spartan room included a single bed, a lamp and a narrow closet containing Arafat's iconic wardrobe: five military-style suits and four checkered black-and-white Palestinian scarfs.

The Palestinian youths from the tough West Bank refugee camp stood facing the elderly Holocaust survivors Wednesday, appearing somewhat defiant in a teenage sort of way. Then they began to sing. The choir burst into songs for peace, bringing surprised smiles from the audience. But the event had another twist: Most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank, a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide — or even what the Holocaust was. "I feel sympathy for...

Video at link (with additional link to transcript).Hat Tip to George76.Interviewer: Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam has proposed that young Arab men should sexually harass Israeli girls wherever they may be and using any possible method, as a new means in the resistance against Israel. [...] leave the land so we won't rape you.

A female Egyptian lawyer has very publicly recommended that Palestinian and Israeli Arab men begin sexually harassing Israeli Jewish women as a means of pressuring them to leave the region and thereby bringing about the demise of the Jewish state. In an interview on the pan-Arab Al Arabiyah television network late last month, Nagla Al-Imam said that Israeli women “are fair game for all Arabs, and there is nothing wrong with this…this is a new form of resistance.”

It has become commonplace in academia to look at Hamas as the natural reaction to Israeli aggression and unwillingness to provide Palestinians with a better life — the political application of Newton’s Third Law of Motion, for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. The idea that Hamas’ individual actions are reprehensible but are simply an outgrowth of long-ignored “legitimate claims,” as President Obama once said during the 2008 campaign, reflects a fundamental flaw in understanding the radical Islamic ideology and sophisticated political strategy of the terrorist group. Hamas is not a force fighting for Palestinian liberation; nor...

Rachel Corrie has been set up to be a martyr to the Palestinian cause by the International Solidarity Movement, yet the circumstances surrounding her death are almost as suspect as those of Muhammad al-Dura. The only difference is that we know that Corrie really died. We also know that she jumped out of a hole and placed herself in front of an IDF bulldozer six years ago outside of the drivers sight lines and that when she left the accident site she was very much alive. What happened afterward has been covered up by the Palestinian Authority and the International...

A unity government will reportedly not be created, because Tzipi Livni thinks Benjamin Netanyahu does not adhere to the notion of the "two-state solution." But is this the only political solution? This is what Livni and many others around the world think, but it isn't so. Not only is it far from being the single solution, it’s a bad solution, and will likely never be achieved. The idea of "two states" is based on a series of assumptions: First, the assumption that the primary Palestinian national ambition is statehood. There is no basis to this. The Palestinian ethos is based...

Obama is hiking taxes here while giving Palestinians almost $1 billion in aid. Hillary Clinton is set to announce the Obama Administration will give $300 billion in aid to Gaza and another $600 billion in aid to the Palestinian Authority. Are they serious serious? President Obama has already hiked taxes on cigarettes. He is planning large tax increases on businesses and the "rich." Even with tax hikes the there will be a $1.75 trillion deficit. President Obama needs to remember he was voted in y Americans, not Palestinians.

BBC staff protest failure to air pro-Palestinian video Many have wondered if the BBC had a pro-Palestinian bias in their reporting. This has now been confirmed. Over 400 of their staff have signed a protest petition because they failed to air a video that the corporation deemed to be too biased in favor of Palestinians. That must have been one very biased news video. Hat tip to Axis of Right.

US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell expressed support during for Egyptian efforts to forge a Palestinian national unity government, indicating that America could take a new tack on Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, during a conference call Thursday with Jewish leaders. In sharp contrast to the Bush administration, which opposed a Palestinian national unity government, Mitchell said that should Egypt bring the sides together it would be "a step forward," and that until now divisions among the Palestinians have been a major obstacle to bringing peace to the region, according to representatives of Jewish organizations who participated in the call. The 45-minute call...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has raised the prospect of the collapse of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. The report, titled "Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community," said Hamas, in the aftermath of its war with Israel in early 2009, has intensified the threat to the PA. The report warned that both Fatah and the PA were split over such issues as a successor to chairman Mahmoud Abbas as well as government reforms. The report said Hamas planned to exploit the divisions within Fatah and could challenge the PA over the next year. "Disagreement between Fatah and Hamas...

(photo) The number of civilians killed in the recent Gaza conflict is dropping almost as fast as Hamas’ credibility. During the conflict, the Palestinian Authority wailed that Israel was slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians. One of them was supposedly an “innocent” medic named Naim. And the international press dutifully reported every word as truth. “Following the clashes,” the Israel Defense Force announced, “the Palestinian press reported that Naim was killed and that he was a medic with the Palestinian Red Crescent. The Gaza CLA, however, produced photographs of Naim posing holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and ...

Initially dismayed at the phenomenon, we have by now grown used to seeing pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas demonstrators behave like Holocaust-era Nazis. These haters goose-step, Nazi-style, and shoot out their arms as they deliver the Hitlerian sieg heil salute. They also chant and scream such charming slogans as "Jews to the ovens," "Hitler did not kill enough of you" and "Jews to the gas chambers." This is rank Jew-hatred; that much is clear. But we are also faced with a major paradox. These same "activists" routinely flash signs accusing Israel of being a "Nazi" state. To them, Gaza is "Auschwitz" and...

Eighty-six years ago Ze'ev Jabotinsky said this about the Jewish People but he could have very well been talking about President Obama: It is incredible what political simpletons Jews are. They shut their eyes to one of the most elementary rules of life, that you must not "meet halfway" those who do not want to meet you --Ze'ev Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall November 4, 1923 Our President believes that by talking nice and "engaging" terrorists they will "see the light and change their ways. His first test was making nice with Iran. Their reaction was: was a smack in the...

A new Palestinian militant group whose members have been trained to carry out rocket-launching and bombing operations was reportedly formed in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh to carry out among others an attack on the Egyptian embassy. Al-Balad daily reported on Sunday that a Palestinian named Jamal Hamad formed the organization, which he named "Jihad movement for the victory of Gaza" with the assistance of Ghandi Sahmarani, a Lebanese wanted from the authorities on several terrorist charges. The newspaper said several militants from Jund al-Sham and Osbat al-Ansar have joined the new group. The militants have received training...

Accusing the Jewish state of "genocide," an anti-Israel Palestinian activist once commended by President Obama has predicted the end of Israel, which, he boasted, is "within reach, in our lifetimes." In a piece earlier this month titled, "Why Israel won't survive," Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada, a pro-Palestinian online publication, accused Israel of war crimes and gloated, "Now, the other pillar of Israeli power – Western support and complicity – is starting to crack. We must do all we can to push it over." "It is Israel as a Zionist state, not Palestine or the Palestinian people, that cannot...

Why don’t we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona? Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam? Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan? Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel? Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism? Why don’t they defend Israel’s...

DAMASCUS, Syria – Hamas called Thursday for reconciliation with supporters of rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but insisted on pursuing "resistance" against Israel. The condition appeared to preclude any agreement with Abbas, who seeks a peace deal with Israel and whose moderate Fatah faction was not among the groups that backed the statement by eight Damascus-based radical Palestinian factions including Hamas.

Immediately upon the end of the fighting in Gaza, the international community will enlist on behalf of an extensive rehabilitation project to enable the Palestinian population to return to their homes and get on with their civil and economic lives. It is of prime importance to prevent Iran from acquiring influence in post-war Gaza through any assistance programs. Following the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Iran and Hizbullah grasped the political and economic significance of the rehabilitation project in the Shiite areas of southern Lebanon damaged during the war. Hizbullah directed the rehabilitation work, while totally ignoring the central Lebanese...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- At least nine protesters were arrested in a pro-Palestinian rally Sunday afternoon in New York that injured seven police officers, authorities said. The extent of injuries varied from minor to serious, New York police said. Two officers sustained head injuries. Detective Cheryl Crispin said the protesters taken into custody faced charges ranging from disorderly conduct to reckless endangerment. In a statement, the NYPD said the officers were injured when trying to break up a fight between two demonstrators. "While attempting to separate the males, several others joined in and began to assault the officers," the statement...

Location 2100 Maple Los Angeles, CA INTERESTING POINTS: 1. Interesting that this group has the recourses to rent a permanent facility. (even if it is in downtown) 2. Note the mural there is a man holding a Palestinian flag, leading a group of Hispanic people. 3. This facility just opened this month. Downtown Los Angeles is unbelievably dirty. Trash everywhere and just dirt. Very few light posts so it is dark and creepy. The meeting was supposed to start at 6:00 but at 7;15 a gang looking crowd was developing and since I was alone, I thought it best to...

Unión del Barrio invites the Southern California community... END the OCCUPATION NOW!! 1848 (Mexico) and 1948 (Palestine): Two People's; ONE STRUGGLE!! (Teach-in and Video Presentation) From Venezuela to Los Angeles, Raza shows its solidarity with the people and struggle of Palestine! Saturday, January 17, 2009 6:00 - 8:00PM Centro Cultural Francisco Villa 2100 Maple Ave. LA, CA 90011 (Corner of Maple Ave and 21st Street) Come learn about the Palestinian people's struggle for liberation Speakers: Christian Ramirez, American Friends Service Committee: Will speak about his experience from his 2008 visit to Palestine (will include a video segment) Daniel Montes, Union...

It may be too early to discuss both a comprehensive solution for the future of a Palestinian state and to anticipate an end to the global War on Terror at the same time but here goes. In any discussion of peace in the Middle East it’s important to remember the intentions of the Iranian and Syrian regimes and their proxy, Hezbollah when we think about saving the civilian population of Gaza from war, shielding the Israeli populations from rockets and avoiding an escalation of violence that could engulf the entire region. The Iranian and Syrian regimes and their ally Hezbollah...

Hamas is a radical group which only allows veiled women in Gaza. A technician of the Hamas propaganda station, Al-Aqsa TV, based in Gaza, made an hilarious mistake during the night of January 7-8. During the live coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, a technician decided to take some rest and watch satellite TV, especially a polish erotic channel. He didn't realize for a while that he had actually sent those images on the screen. Palestinians in Gaza got erotic spots during a few minutes on live TV, sponsored by Hamas !!

With Hamas, Hitlerism comes to the Middle East wearing the mask of anti-Hitlerism.‘Go back to the oven! You need a big oven, that’s what you need!” This is what one young woman thought passed for acceptable discourse during an anti-Israel rally last week in, of all places, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Other chants were similarly unlovely. You can watch it on YouTube if you like. But why bother? The Fort Lauderdale outburst is just one window on the upside-down world of Israel hatred. Across the Islamic world, and in too many points West, it is still considered a penetrating and poignant...

Palestinian representatives are flooding the media explaining why Israel is the offending party in the Gaza war. Their pitch is that Israel is the Occupying power,and there were NO Hamas rockets during the six-month long cease fire that ended in December. Remarkably, those claims usually go unchallenged by the anchor asking the questions. Do they forget that that Israel pulled out of Gaza three years ago? HECK it was in all the papers. This is the real truth of the "peace efforts" made by the international community. Two years ago Hezbollah attacked an Israeli patrol kidnapping Israeli soldiers and launching...

"Summary of Overnight Events, 03 January 2009"

As the Israeli offensive against Hamas heats up, new fronts in the war are opening up. Tonight, reported attacks against pro-Israeli websites are being stepped up. A number of pro-Israeli websites have reported online attacks.

Northern Mexico along the Arizona and California border is taken over by a drug cartel. The Mexican government is powerless and does not interfere, virtually ceding its sovereignty to the drug lords. The cartel orders the American government to stop interfering with its drug curriers’ deliveries across the border into the United States. A US Border Patrol and Customs Enforcement operation results in a gun battle with a trio of drug runners transporting 300 pounds of cocaine, caught crossing into southern California. The 3 smugglers are killed. During the following 24 hours, from within the heart of Tijuana’s heaviest populated...

The article is in Hebrew, so anyone who can read it is welcome to check out the link, but the following photos are from the article: While the exact location has not been disclosed in order to avoid providing artillery spotting intelligence to the terrorists, the release of this photo of the vicinity was permitted, and you can see the playground and weightlifting equipment in the background. This shows the shrapnel's effects on a steel fence, which helped deflect the blast from an adjacent bus stop and playing fields. Memorials to earlier victims of terrorists were placed on the bench.

Perhaps the Bush Administration goes through the motions of urging “restraint” and the like – not really meaning it and understanding that Israel knows this – because it needs to do so for global political cover. But aren’t we past the point when the need to “avoid civilian casualties” – as tragic as such casualties are – can really be our biggest concern here? Such diplomatic blather, now emerging from the White House in the aftermath of the Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel, and of Israel’s forceful response, merely avoids the real issue. The only strategic priority that can seriously...

Sooner or later “present” isn’t going to be an option anymore. As our president-elect and his entourage recover from a power outage, there are signs of a growing conflagration in the Middle East. Will Obama break with 60 years of US foreign policy or will he continue our longstanding support of Israel? Administrative appointments and nominees thus far have been a mixed bag. Rahm Emmanuel, a strong supporter of Israel, has been named as Chief of Staff. At the same time, Gen. Jim Jones, an outspoken critic of our Israel policy, has been named Obama’s National Security Advisor

Talk about destroying the "Christmas Spirit!" British NGOs are using Christmas as a cover to distribute/sell anti Israel and Anti-Semitic materials. These NGOs include War on Want, Amos Trust, and Pax Christi For example they NGOs organized an event entitled, "Bethlehem Now: Nine Alternative Lessons and Carols for Palestine," involving "traditional carols with nontraditional lyrics, interspersed with poetry and prose readings, to highlight the current reality in the Holy Land." The biased lyrics and themes were so "way out there" they lead to strong condemnations from Christian and Jewish community leaders. Another group War on Want is promoting an "Alternative...

Syria -- Former President Jimmy Carter met with the exiled leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the second time this year . . . Carter first met with the head of Hamas' policy-making body, Khaled Mashaal, in April. That meeting drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration, which labels Hamas a terrorist group and contends such meetings give credibility to hard-line militants. Carter said on Saturday, however, that he intends to continue meeting with Hamas leaders because peace requires dialogue with all sides.

"grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within" Islamic Society of Boston Mosque Madness Update. "Texas Terrorism Trial Ties Boston mosque leaders to Extremist Network," from Citizens for Peace and Tolerance (thanks to Jerry): Dennis Hale, President of Citizens for Peace and Tolerance, called today for a public investigation of the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s sale of land to the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) for the construction of New England ’s largest mosque. Hale noted that officers of the largest Muslim charity in America , The Holy Land Foundation (HLF), convicted in Texas last week of funding Middle...

Remember Rashid Khalidi, a former colleague of Mr. Obama's at the University of Chicago and now a professor at Columbia? Mr. Khalidi is an enthusiastic supporter of the Palestinians, fervent critic of Israel (which he calls a destructive "racist" state), an admirer of suicide bombers and a driving force behind the Arab American Action Network (AAAN). This so-called pro-Palestinian "community organization" in Chicago is another beneficiary of the largess of the Obama-Ayers team at the Woods Fund and promotes an agenda that would horrify many of the 78% of Jews that voted for Mr. Obama. It was Mr. Khalidi's Going...

A Fatah terrorist in Gaza was killed during terrorist training in 2005, and more than three years later the cellphone video recording documenting the event is circulating in terrorist websites. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128603

In May 1948, Egypt was one of a half dozen Arab states which tried to nip a nascent, resurrected Israel in the bud. And for the same reasons Arabs and Arabized have slaughtered, subjugated, and committed genocide against Kurds, black Africans, Berbers, Assyrians and others besides "their" kilab yahud--Jew dogs--who dared insinuate that they too--besides Arabs--have rights in a region proclaimed by the latter as purely Arab patrimony. One half of Israel's Jews today consist of Jews who pre-dated Arabs in that region but who fled to Israel...the refugees no one talks about. Over another million of these folks fled...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Greenfield man has been indicted on accusations he tried to sell the names of U.S. intelligence agents to Iraq before the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Authorities: Man Was In Iraq In '02 Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban, a 52-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested Thursday after an investigation of more than a year by the FBI and other agencies, U.S. Attorney Susan W. Brooks said. Shaaban, also known as Shaaban Shaaban Hafed and Joe H. Brown, is suspected of going to Iraq in 2002 and making a deal to sell the names. He isn't accused...

Interpal the controversial UK-based Palestinian charity, is facing closure after Lloyds TSB instructed the Islamic Bank of Britain to shut its bank account. Interpal (pictured), which is on a list of banned organisations in the US because of suspected links with terrorists, is also under investigation by the UK Charity Commission for the third time. The first two investigations by the Commission, which concluded in 1996 and 2003, found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the charity. The latest one, which opened in December 2006, is examining fresh concerns about the potential for inappropriate links between the charity and terrorist...

To mark the holiday season, British pro-Palestinian activists have announced plans to hold an evening of “traditional carols with untraditional lyrics” to protest Israeli policies in Bethlehem. The historic church of St. James’s in central London’s Piccadilly will host a number of Christmas carols concerts through late December. In a twist, however, two Palestinian solidarity groups sponsoring one of the events, on Nov. 26, have rewritten the lyrics to make a political statement. Palestinian Authority-controlled Bethlehem, traditionally regarded as the birthplace of Jesus, is bordered on three sides by a network of security walls and fences separating it from nearby...

PHOENIX, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Muslim leaders in Arizona have drawn increased scrutiny from federal officials in the past year because of a string of suspicious incidents, officials say. Although no one in the state has been accused of supporting terrorists, one Mesa, Ariz., man was charged with lying to the FBI during the terror financing investigation into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday. Also drawing attention to Arizona Muslims was a target-shooting episode in Phoenix that involved a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of...

DALLAS – Jury deliberations begin Wednesday morning in the case of five men accused of routing millions of dollars to Hamas. Closing arguments in the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and its former officers ended late Tuesday afternoon. After the second full day of hearing from attorneys, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis suggested jurors select a foreperson and go home for the evening. The men are accused of routing millions of dollars to Hamas through a series of Palestinian charities prosecutors say were controlled by the terrorist group. But defense attorneys cast...