Posted on 03/28/2009 10:37:54 PM PDT by Steelfish
The Sunday Times March 29, 2009
US tries to defuse a ticking timebomb
by Martin Ivens in Jerusalem
All eyes will be on Barack Obama at the G20 summit this week. Among the great and good, the dull and dreary, in London’s Docklands he will be the only superstar.
But the young president knows that what is decided inside a gleaming tower block in Tel Aviv will have more bearing on whether his presidency is accounted a success or failure than this talking shop.
High in the defence ministry building Major-General Amos Gilad points to a photograph on his wall of three Israeli F-15 jets flying over the site of Auschwitz. “I put it here to remind us of what happened and what may happen,” says the old fire-eater.
The press claims he has been the real leader of the state for the past six months while the politicians have been out wooing the voters.
On his shelves one book holds pride of place. It is a story written in childhood by Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped almost three years ago by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza strip.
As Israel’s security and foreign policy chief, Gilad has been negotiating for Shalit’s release. He is prepared to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to secure the return of one soldier. The Hollywood myth of Saving Private Ryan is national policy here.
The spectre of an Iranian nuclear bomb is also never far from Gilad’s thoughts. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic republic’s Holocaust-denying president, has called for Israel to be wiped from the map.
Iran funds and arms Israel’s enemies to its immediate north and south: Hezbollah, the armed Shi’ite movement that dominates southern Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza.
The clock is ticking on the clandestine Iranian nuclear programme.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
“...Among the great and good, the dull and dreary, in London’s Docklands he will be the only superstar....”
Paris Hilton couldn’t make the trip, so we are sending Barack instead.
Sadly Paris would probably come up with a better economic policy...
I know, sadly, I know.
I heard on Michael Medved’s show that the timer is set for 90 days.
Major-General Gilad briefs Medved on all his plans.
What will TOTUS have in store for us this trip, I wonder?
The message isn’t selling. Doesn’t matter if we are talking Gordon Brown’s dismal hook-up with Obama (the DVD gift), the economic package with Merkel of Germany (zero support), or the war in Iraq or Afghanistan (he was supposed to immediately end it, and he hasn’t really done that). Strangely enough....ALL print media survives in Europe (have you guys all noticed this? None of them have failed). The print media isn’t exactly helping the Obama gameplan, and they have been asking pretty difficult questions.
“What will TOTUS have in store for us this trip, I wonder?”
TOTUS is bringing our checkbook with him. I believe that $250,000 and above which was supposed to be taxed is now down to $35,000.
We must be coming across to the rest of the world as a bunch of bufoons for electing this ignoramus. Something that Chavez and I finally have in common.
That is exactly right...when reading German newspapers, for example, one notices the “just the facts” style reporting across the board...of course, editorial pages reflect certain biases depending on the particular paper, but there is still a very bright line between reporting and editorializing.
It is also worth noting that the major network news outlets employ “news readers” in the strictest sense of the word...no personality, no notoriety, no biased agenda (although they always look very, very good:-)).
Boy, are we f***ed.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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