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Barack Obama's real thinking about Israel and the Middle East continues to be an enigma. The words he chose in an address to AIPAC create a different impression than the composition of his foreign policy advisory team. Several advisors have evidenced a history of suspicion and worse toward Israel. One of his advisors in particular, Robert Malley, clearly warrants attention, as does the reasoning that led him to being chosen by Barack Obama. A little family history may be in order to understand the genesis of Robert Malley's views. Normally, one should be reluctant in exploring a person's family background...

1. Report: China Selling Prisoners' Body Parts Chinese doctors are "harvesting" kidneys, corneas and other organs from live concentration camp inmates and selling them for up to $100,000 apiece. That's the shocking report from a former employee at Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, where the organ removal has allegedly been taking place. In an interview with The Epoch Times, the ex-employee said the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in Shenyang City is part of the hospital and since 2001 has secretly detained approximately 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners - none of whom has left the camp alive. "The...

It was a crucial mistake to send out the entire constitution to every French voter, the architect of the EU's first constitution Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has said in an interview. In an interview with the New York Times, his first since the French rejection of the constitution two weeks ago, the former French president apportions most of the blame to president Jacques Chirac for failure in the referendum campaign. One crucial mistake was to send out the entire three-part, 448-article document to every French voter, said Mr Giscard. Over the phone he had warned Mr Chirac already in March: "I...

It was a crucial mistake to send out the entire constitution to every French voter, the architect of the EU's first constitution Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has said in an interview. In an interview with the New York Times, his first since the French rejection of the constitution two weeks ago, the former French president apportions most of the blame to president Jacques Chirac for failure in the referendum campaign. One crucial mistake was to send out the entire three-part, 448-article document to every French voter, said Mr Giscard. Over the phone he had warned Mr Chirac already in March: "I...

<p>Giscard unveiled the new draft Officials in Brussels have omitted the word God from the European Union's future constitution. The president of the convention on the future of Europe, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, unveiled the constitution's first 15 draft articles on Thursday.</p>

The European Commission called yesterday for the abolition of the national veto in all constitutional matters. The demand was in proposed changes to the draft European constitution unveiled yesterday by Romano Prodi, the commission's president, supposedly in the name of the entire body. Dismissing the current text drafted by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president, as "unworkable" and "absurd", Mr Prodi said member states retained far too much power to block decisions. It would inevitably lead to gridlock once the European Union expanded to 25 next year. Mr Prodi said the veto must be eliminated on all future changes...

VILNIUS, Lithuania, Aug. 27 — The presidents of Lithuania and Poland both support enscribing specifically Christian values in a new constitution for the European Union, according to a communiqué issued here today after talks by the two leaders. Lithuania and Poland, mainly Roman Catholic countries, are scheduled to join the European Union next year. The communiqué said President Rolandas Paksas of Lithuania and President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland shared "support for Pope John Paul II's initiative that Christian values should be mentioned in the future constitution of the European Union." Petras Grazulis, a parliamentary deputy from the Lithuanian Christian Democratic...

All credit to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the chairman of the convention that has drafted the first EU Constitution, for exposing the Government's latest attempt to pull the wool over the public eyes on European integration [report July 8]. The former French president has admitted that the removal of the word "federal'' from the text was a ruse designed to make things easier for Tony Blair at home. He replaced the "f'' word with the term "communautaire'', which, he says, "means exactly the same thing''. We have predicted over many months that the Government would be allowed to win this "victory''...

Britain's representative on the elite body drafting a European Constitution stormed out of a crucial meeting last night in protest at last-minute changes to the text that were deemed profoundly threatening by Westminster and other national parliaments. Gisela Stuart, a Labour MP, reacted with fury to efforts by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who heads the drafting team, to sneak through new clauses that would change the character of the European Union. "These issues had never been discussed before by the praesidium, and there was no justification for adding them now," she said. "I told them this was getting silly, I had...

It was Louis XIV who is supposed to have told the Paris parlement: "L'État, c'est moi." ("I am the state."). Valéry Giscard d'Estaing - who, although he prefers to compare himself to the American founding fathers, has all the hauteur of the Sun King - might with equal frankness have declared: "I am the superstate." The British are becoming accustomed to the former French president's occasional lectures on the BBC, in which he expounds the grandiose schemes of the European constitutional convention he chairs. Yesterday M Giscard excelled himself. On the Today programme, he explained why we should be happy...

June 1 2003, 1:46 PM (Filed: 01/06/2003) The former French president has presented his draft for a new European constitution. It seeks to enshrine in law social and economic rights which would seriously constrain UK plc. Grant Ringshaw and Mary Fagan report Last week, after 15 months of tortuous negotiation, proposals for a new EU constitution, including a Charter of Fundamental Rights, were finally unveiled. The constitution and the charter could have a sweeping effect on the way that Britain does business, touching everything from employment practices to competition policy. Giscard d'Estaing: his Euro rights threaten UK profits Business feels...