Maverick News Media MNM

Video: President Bush addresses the Knesset

During a special Knesset session in his honor, US president George W. Bush criticizes deadly the tactics of extremist groups, and (most importantly) denounces anti-Semitism, 'especially by those who question Israel's right to exist.'

Not in the video: Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert tells Bush 'future peace agreement based on your vision will be approved by this house and by the Israeli public.'

Let's go to the videotape.

Iraqi parliament protests treatment of sick kids in Israel

I don't know where to start with this one. Biting the hand that feeds you? The Arabs complain when we won't take less-than-desperate medical cases from Gaza and complain when we take desperate cases from Iraq. Is this what the US had in mind when it invaded Iraq and tried to replace Saddam Hussein with a government that would care about its people? Something is really messed up in the Arab psyche here.

The Media Line is reporting that Iraqi MP's are trying to put a stop to an organization that is sending sick Iraqi children to Israel for medical treatment. Can you believe that?

The Iraqi parliament is angry over reports that an organization in the capital has been sending Iraqi children for medical treatment in Israel.

A parliament statement confirmed reports about this enterprise, even though government sources previously said it was untrue, according to Al-Jazeera.

The statement, released by the parliament’s Health and Environment Committee, said the activities of this organization, which is operating out of Baghdad’s Green Zone, was harmful both to the Iraqi people and to the government, since there are no diplomatic relations with Israel at any level, and this practice is a violation of the Arab League’s boycott policy of Israel. [Hey - does this mean we can stop treating all the 'Palestinians' from Gaza? CiJ]

The committee demanded the government investigate the matter and take the necessary legal measures against the organization, if the allegations prove to be accurate.

A source at the Iraqi Health Ministry told Al-Jazeera the organization included Iraqi and American medical doctors and that it worked in conjunction with an Israeli organization.

The Iraqi Health Ministry insisted it had no knowledge of this organization’s operations and that all the sick people the ministry sent outside of Iraq for treatment were sent through legal channels.

The Iraqi parliament is sicker than those kids but in a very different way. I'm glad to hear someone in that country is sane enough to 'dishonor' the Arab boycott and get these kids treatment.

You've all heard that Israel treats kids from Arab countries, but I don't think you realize the extent of it. One of my kids was hospitalized in the children's ward at Ichilov in Tel Aviv in the late 90's for several weeks. The ward was crawling with kids from Jordan who had been sent to Ichilov for treatment they couldn't get there. These kids came with their parents and they weren't charged a dime (this was while King Hussein was still alive so he might have paid something, but I doubt it mattered to the hospital). You'd think the Arab countries would show some appreciation! But no. They'd rather their kids die than admit they're being treated by Jews or thank the Jews for treating them.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Ahmadinejad: 'The hidden Imam manages all the affairs of the world'

This is an excerpt of the (in)famous 'hidden Imam' speech, which was broadcast on Iran's Channel 1 on May 5. Let's go to the videotape. A transcript follows.

Ahmadinejad: Israel 'dead' and a 'disintegrating regime,' US 'bound to become extinct,' calls for takeover of British embassy

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which aired on the Iranian News Channel IRINN on May 15, 2008. Let's go to the videotape. A transcript follows.

Jordanian professor: Send suicide bombers with nukes to Israel

I know that a lot of you have seen a lot of Al-Jazeera in English either on cable or through YouTube, and you may be wondering to yourself what the big deal is all about other than the slight anti-Israel slant. That's because Al-Jazeera in English is mostly politically correct. But Al-Jazeera is continuing a long-standing Arab tradition of saying one thing in English and another in Arabic, and what they're saying in Arabic is not politically correct at all.

In this interview, which aired on Al-Jazeera's Arabic channel on May 13, Jordanian University Lecturer Ibrahim 'Alloush suggests sending suicide-bombers armed with "Small Nuclear Bombs" to Israel. Here's a transcript.

Dr. Ibrahim 'Alloush: Whoever managed to get a martyrdom-seeker into Dimona armed with conventional explosives should consider how to get martyrdom-seekers into Dimona and elsewhere armed with non-conventional explosives and perhaps even small nuclear bombs. We should think in this direction.

Let's go to the videotape.

'We have no moral obligation to Israel'

In 1991, six weeks after I made aliya (immigrated) to Israel, a client dragged me to Vienna for two days of meetings. It took me several years to figure out why but I have never felt so uncomfortable in a major city (and I love traveling!) in my life. I finally figured out why I was so uncomfortable in Vienna when I had occasion to visit Frankfurt several years later. Without going into the details, while both Germany and Austria were on the wrong side of World War II, Germans feel a sense of guilt and responsibility for what happened. The Austrians see themselves as victims. If you're a victim, you're not responsible for what happened to anyone. Including the Jews who used to live among you.

That attitude is the attitude of the directors of OMV, the largest oil and gas company in Central Europe and one whose principal shareholder is - you'll see below. At a shareholders' meeting on Wednesday, the directors were asked uncomfortable questions about the moral and financial propriety of the €22 billion deal they signed in April 2007 to produce liquefied natural gas from Iran's South Pars gas field.

Protesters from Vienna's Stop the Bomb organization distributed flyers at the start of OMV's annual stockholder meeting here on Wednesday, outlining Teheran's military threat to Israel and its persecution of minority groups in Iran.

Was the company's investment in Iran a "miscalculation" because of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program and the sanctions imposed for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for the regime to halt enrichment of uranium, asked Dr. Hava Bugajer, an OMV shareholder and president of the Women's International Zionist Organization in Austria.

"The details are to be negotiated" and there is "no foreseeable result" regarding the implementation of the deal, replied CEO Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer to a packed auditorium at the Austrian Center Vienna.

OMV sees time as an ally and is waiting for "political change in the USA," Ruttenstorfer said in response to questions about sanctions against Iran at the stockholder meeting. [Think they're expecting Barack Hussein Obama to be the next President of the United States? CiJ]

He declined to comment on whether OMV's gas deal would violate the US Iran Sanctions Act, which prohibits large energy investments in Iran and spells out penalties for conducting more than $20 million of annual business in Iran's energy sector.

OMV spokesman Thomas Huemer told the The Jerusalem Post that "OMV as a company does not have a moral responsibility toward a particular state."

Bugajer told thePost that Ruttenstorfer' responses were "not really answers."

It's kind of ironic that the same candidates for 'change' in the United States are the ones who would remove any shred of morality from American foreign policy by negotiating unconditionally with terror states. But Americans will especially appreciate this next little tidbit which could be indicative of the type of moral equivalence that awaits us all in - God forbid - an Obama Presidency:

Shortly following the OMV Board's euphoric presentation of its "corporate social responsibility" record, Hartmann asked Ruttenstorfer whether it conformed to OMV's ethical code to conduct business with a country that "has executed more adolescents than any other state."

"We reject the execution of adolescents, whether in the USA, China or Iran," said Ruttenstorfer, adding, "We cannot change governments."

And you thought only a 'Palestinian' could compare a government like Iran's with a government like the United States.

Guess who OMV's largest shareholder is.

Continue reading "'We have no moral obligation to Israel'"

Video: Holocaust survivor sibling reunion after 65 years

I found this video totally by chance, but it's too good not to pass on.

Hilda Shlick (formerly Glasberg) thought she had lost practically all of her family in the Holocaust. By searching Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, Hilda's grandchildren discovered that most of Hilda's family had in fact survived. As a result, an emotional meeting between Hilda and her brother Simon was able to take place at Yad Vashem (actually at the airport, but the blurb said Yad Vashem). A family that had been separated for over 60 years was finally reunited.

Watch the video here.

Video: 'We desire Death as you desire life'

This says it all, doesn't it?

This is a speech by Hamas official Fathi Hamad, which was broadcast on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008.

Watch the video here.

Be'er Sheva next rocket target?

A Grad-type Kassam rocket fired by 'Palestinian' terrorists from Gaza landed on the outskirts of Netivot Thursday morning. While this is not the first time that the 'Palestinians' have shot a rocket into the area of Netivot, it serves as a reminder that the terrorists' range is always increasing. Until Wednesday, nearly all the rockets that were shot at Ashkelon had landed on the outskirts of town.

All of which points to taking the warning issued on Thursday morning by Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin quite seriously: Be'er Sheva is in range.

Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin has told Haaretz that in two years time every community within 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip border could be vulnerable to rocket attacks.

...

He had told Haaretz that "every community within a 40-kilometer range may come within range of the Hamas rockets: Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, even Be'er Sheva." He spoke in an interview to be published in full Friday in Haaretz Magazine.

Yadlin also said that Hamas is not interested in peace because it is unwilling to recognize the State of Israel. The group is willing to accept a long-term cease-fire (hudna) only in exchange for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, including Jerusalem, and with refugees returning to their homes.  "As long as those are Hamas' conditions, a hudna appears to be impossible," he said.

On the likelihood of agreeing on a lull (tahadiyeh) in the fighting with Hamas, with Egyptian mediation, Yadlin said that "the tahadiyeh, as agreed between [Egyptian intelligence chief] Omar Suleiman and Hamas perhaps solves the problem of terror from Gaza for the short term. But in the long term, it does not provide an answer to the ongoing smuggling or the Hamas buildup. Separating the issue from the release of [the abducted soldier] Gilad Shalit is also very problematic."

In discussing Israel's strategic situation vis-a-vis Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, Yadlin said Hamas is trying to create deterrence against Israel similar to that of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Part of this effort comes by broadening the range of its missile strikes in Israel.

Yadlin says Hamas has already significant capabilities, and several dozen rockets capable of striking targets in a radius of 20 kilometers, and that the group seeks to extend that range.

"If this matter is not dealt with, Hamas will bring more cities within its range of fire," Yadlin said.

He pointed out that Hamas is preparing its defensive positions in case the IDF invades the Gaza Strip. "Hamas' ground deployment is based on subterranean fortifications, explosive devices and snipers. Hamas has also set up a number of brigade-size units," he said.

And Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert's response to all this? Why of course! Send in the clowns!

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Giving Churches to Muslims

This is a tragedy and is more proof of the gutting of European culture and the progress of Eurabia.   

When you sell your symbols of your history and culture, it’s only a matter of tie that you submit to the barbarians at the gate. An Antwerp alderman of public worship proposes to give churches to Muslims.

Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.

Is it It's not really about borders

The JPost's editorial Thursday morning asks the question that the world should have been asking itself for at least the last 85 years: Is the Arab-Israeli dispute really about borders?

A 1921 British Mandate map showed Palestine's borders already divided between a Jewish homeland west of the Jordan (today Israel, the West Bank and Gaza), and an area to the east closed to Jewish settlement (today Jordan).

The Arab response to that map was: This isn't about borders.

In 1937 the Peel Commission offered another set of borders. Transjordan would, of course, remain in Arab hands, and virtually all of what was left west of the Jordan would also be Arab. The Jews would be given land from Tel Aviv running northward along the coastal plain and parts of Galilee. The Arabs said: It's not about borders.

A third map, proposed by the UN in 1947 as General Assembly Resolution 181 - the Partition Plan - divided Palestine west of the Jordan River (the eastern bank now being Transjordan): The Jews were to be given an indefensible, checkerboard territory, the biggest chunk of which consisted of the then arid Negev. Jerusalem, the epicenter of Jewish longing since 70 CE, would be internationalized; a tiny corridor would connect Israel's truncated parts. To get to Galilee, Jews would have to traverse Arab Palestine.

The Jews took the deal. The Arabs said: It's not about borders.

On May 15, 1948 - 60 years ago today - the Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Syrian and Lebanese armies, along with Palestinian irregulars, sought to throttle the birth of Israel. Their failure to do so created the 1949 Armistice Lines. The West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and east Jerusalem were all in Arab hands. There was no "occupation."

The Jews said: Now, can we live in peace? The Arabs said: It's not about borders.

TODAY, 41 years ago, Egyptian troops moved into the Sinai as Gamal Abdel Nasser declared "total war." The Syrians, for their part, promised "annihilation." Even King Hussein figured the time was ripe to strike. But, instead of destroying Israel, the Arabs lost more territory. The heartland of Jewish civilization, Judea and Samaria, was now in Israel's hands, as was Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

Even so, the Jews said: Let's trade land for peace.

In August 1967, Arab leaders assembled in Khartoum gave their reply: No peace. No negotiations. No recognition.

...

In 2000, Ehud Barak offered at Camp David his vision of a viable Palestinian state. Yasser Arafat's "counter-offer" was the Aksa intifada, an orgy of suicide bombings nationwide and drive-by shootings in the West Bank that would claim over 1,000 Israeli lives. Clearly for Arafat, the issue wasn't borders.

For Israelis to now take the idea of a "shelf-agreement" about borders seriously, the Palestinians would have to declare - once and for all - that their dispute with us really is about borders. And that they accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.

If they do that, the rest will fall into place.

Insanity, said Albert Einstein, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The 'Palestinians' have already answered the question. As a bonus, they have even already answered it in the context of this round of 'negotiations.' In fact, they have answered it again this morning - the same way Hamas did. They are not willing to accept a Jewish state anywhere or anyhow.

The Palestinians are planning to mark Israel's 60th anniversary Thursday by staging a series of marches and strikes throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

On this occasion, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas pledged that they would never give up the "right of return" for all refugees to their original homes inside Israel.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas [George Bush's 'partner for peace' CiJ] joined dozens of Palestinians in signing a document pledging to continue the "struggle" until all the Palestinian refugees are permitted to return.

'Israel has failed in wiping out the memory of the nakba [catastrophe] from the minds of successive Palestinian generations," Abbas declared. "They [Israel] thought that perhaps the elderly would forget. But today we see that neither the elderly nor the young have forgotten. Everyone remembers the nakba."

The 'right of return' is a code phrase for the 'Palestinians' doing to Israel demographically what they could not do militarily: extirpating the Jewish state's existence.

The 'Palestinians' and their Arab 'brothers' have answered the question time and time again and they've answered it the same way each time. It's not about borders. It's time to stop asking!

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Video: North Korea to 'cooperate fully' on nukes

The State Department's top Korea expert, Sung Kim, said North Korea has agreed to "cooperate fully" on verifying its nuclear declaration after supplying the United States with more than 18,000 pages of documents detailing its nuclear activities. Kim added that the six nations discussing the ending of North Korea's nuclear ambitions could have talks as early as next week.

Let's go to the videotape and then I'd like to add a comment.

Britain's triplicitous behavior in the Middle East

Britain's behavior in the Middle East, dating back for nearly a century, has been and continues to be triplicitous. It's not that they're playing two parties off against each other - they're playing three. During the Mandate period, Britain promised what is now the State of Israel (plus Judea and Samaria) to the Jews for a Jewish state, to the 'Palestinians' as a 'Palestinian state' and to Syria as the 'restoration' of 'southern Syria.' Now, with the State of Israel being sixty years old, Britain is still up to the same old tricks. It's worth looking back to see the pattern over the last hundred years or so (Hat Tip: 2blue4u via Little Green Footballs).

The British press creates the impression that Britain has no connection to "Palestine" except as a sympathetic observer of the suffering of its Arab inhabitants at the hands of "Zionism." One would never guess from reading it that it was not so long ago that Britain ruled Palestine, or that she set in motion the Arab-Israel conflict in the first place, or that the conflict would not even exist without decades of British broken promises and odious divide-and rule maneuvers in the Middle East.

Britain conquered Palestine from the Turks in 1917-18. First Her Majesty's Government promised Palestine to the Jews in the Balfour Declaration in 1917, and then again in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine of 1922, in which it solemnly accepted as "a sacred trust of civilization" to "be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home." Then it repudiated that promise in a "White Paper" of 1939, which announced her intention to allow only 75,000 Jewish immigrants into Palestine over the next five years (this as World War II and the Holocaust was just beginning) and after that to allow no further Jewish immigration without Arab consent. The White Paper also placed severe restrictions on the purchase of land by Jews. And it promised the Palestinian Arabs that Palestine would become an independent Arab state within ten years. All this was in flagrant violations of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine; the League of Nations Mandates Commission noted this, and refused to ratify the White Paper. Britain implemented it anyway -- to the extent of refusing to admit to Palestine 750 Jews who had managed to escape Nazi Europe in a leaky boat while the Holocaust was in full swing. The Jews were forced to turn back into the human-shark-infested waters of the Black Sea, where their leaky crate was torpedoed, and all but one of them killed.

Other Jews who managed to reach the shores of Palestine were deported by the British Navy to the remote island of Mauritius and kept in a detention camp, where many of them died of disease before finally being released after the end of the war. This British measure was strangely reminiscent of an earlier Nazi plan to deport the Jews of Europe to Madagascar, a larger island in the Indian Ocean not far from Mauritius. Still the British detained other Jews who managed to board ships bound for Palestine for years in camps on Cyprus. This was the way His Majesty's Government kept its promises to the Jews.

Having already promised Palestine to both the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs, Britain after World War II promised it again, this time to Syria! Secret British correspondence, recently discovered by an Israeli scholar, not in the archives of Britain but in those of France, which intercepted British and Syrian communications through espionage, reveals that the British promised to hand over Palestine to Syria in return for making Britain Syria's "protector" to replace France. The British even assisted the Syrians to carry out a massacre of French civilians and soldiers in order to force France out of Syria.

Britain encouraged the Arab states to form an "Arab League" as World War II came to an end. A British representative sat in on the League's meetings and raised no objections as the Arab states planned to invade Palestine -- even though Palestine was still under British control!

In 1947, Britain referred Palestine to the United Nations and asked it to find a solution to the conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine that Britain had done so much to foster through its contradictory promises to both sides. When the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending that Palestine be partitioned into separate and independent Jewish and Arab states, His Majesty's Government, through its representative in the United Nations, solemnly promised to help implement the resolution, even though it had not voted for it.

Instead, the British sabotaged the resolution in every way possible. It refused even to allow the commission that had been appointed by the United Nations General Assembly to oversee implementation of the partition resolution into the country. On the other hand, it permitted the Arab states to send troops into Palestine under the guise of "volunteers," even before the British administration had completed its withdrawal from the country. It stood aside and did nothing to preserve order as war raged throughout the country and thousands of both Jews and Arabs were killed, even though it nominally retained responsibility for the administration of Palestine until May 15, 1948. Worst of all, it withdrew its administration without appointing or recognizing any government, Jewish or Arab, to take its place, or organizing any kind of successor administration. In an unprecedented act in the history of colonialism, the British simply withdrew, leaving the country that they had misgoverned for thirty years in total chaos. One British author has called this bizarre act an "experiment in anarchy." Another has characterized British policy in Palestine as "divide and lose."

Britain's two-faced machinations did not prevent Israel from winning the independence that the Jews had been promised, but only at the cost of thousands of lives, and with no help whatsoever from the promise-bearing great power. However, Israel has had to live in a constant state of siege from neighbors who remain at war with her, and who still refuse to allow her the "secure and recognized borders" enjoyed by all other sovereign states in the world.

The Palestinian Arabs never got the state that Britain promised them. Syria never "received" Palestine in accordance with Britain's secret promise, either. First incited to go to war for Palestine, and then left to shift for themselves by their forked-tongued British ‘friends," the Palestinian and Syrian Arabs are still fighting Israel for the land that Britain once promised each of them.

Britain, for her part, has done absolutely nothing to encourage the Arab states to make peace with Israel. Instead, its inflammatory press incessantly incites the Arabs to continue their war of terror against the Jews. The British Foreign Office has done nothing to discourage the British gutter press from indulging in this incendiary propaganda and misinformation campaign. And the BBC, a government owned and controlled station with close ties to the Foreign Office, has actively participated in the hostile propaganda and incitement against Israel, in both its Arabic and English-language services.

Read the whole thing. With Britain being overrun by Muslims, it's only going to get worse.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Biased, self-hating and proud of it

In an astounding article in The Nation, an extreme leftist publication, Haaretz reporter Akiva Eldar (pictured) admits what we all knew all along: He does not write objectively about Israel. He has nothing good to say about it. He is the picture of 21st century media bias. And he's proud of it (Hat Tip: Elder of Ziyon).

The prominent Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in November 2000 (in a publication of the Israel Democracy Institute) that "there are Israeli reporters who do not pass the 'lynch test.'" These, he wrote, are journalists who could not bring themselves to criticize the Arabs even when two Israelis were savagely murdered by a mob in Ramallah [pictured below. CiJ]. Barnea, who last year was awarded the Israel Prize for journalism, went on to argue that our support for the Palestinian position is absolute. He concluded, "They have a mission." I was honored to be mentioned as one of those journalists, alongside my fine colleagues Gideon Levy and Amira Hass.

I admit to being guilty as charged. I am a journalist with a mission, and also no small amount of passion. Every Israeli with a conscience, in particular one who watches reality from up close on a daily basis, cannot write about the occupation from an objective observer's neutral point of view. My parents immigrated to Israel in 1933 out of choice and hope, not out of despair or fear. Sixty years ago, shortly after I was born, they sat glued to the radio when David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of a Jewish state that would be democratic, egalitarian and peaceful. My primary mission is to leave behind for my children and grandchildren a state that is loyal to these principles and values. The occupation of a people, while denying its basic rights, robbing its lands and trampling its dignity, is turning us Israelis into prisoners--prison guards spend a significant part of their lives behind prison walls.

There are many Jews who believe that there is no difference between Hebron and Tel Aviv, or between West and East Jerusalem. As far as they are concerned, the Land of Israel was promised solely to the People of Israel. Yet anyone who perceives the West Bank (and not "Judea and Samaria") and East Jerusalem as occupied territories cannot accept the policies of Israel's governments for the past forty years. Occupation does not have two sides. There is no symmetry between the occupier and the occupied. This is true even if the occupied fight the occupier with despicable and contemptuous methods.

Akiva Eldar is chief political columnist and editorial writer for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. We don't call it Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' Daily for nothing. Gideon Levy and Amira Hess - both of whom are mentioned in this article - also write for Ha'aretz. Until recently, David Landau was its editor in chief.

I just want to address one substantive point in the material quoted above. Eldar says "There are many Jews who believe that there is no difference between Hebron and Tel Aviv, or between West and East Jerusalem." What he may be missing (or maybe he just doesn't care) is that to the 'Palestinians' there is no difference between Hebron and Tel Aviv or between West and East Jerusalem. To the 'Palestinians' it is all occupied. None of us has the right to be here. If, as Eldar claims, he believes that Israel should be a "Jewish state that [is] democratic, egalitarian and peaceful" he will have to confront the reality of the 'Palestinian' view that all of us are interlopers. Or he can be like Avram Burg and just run away to France.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

American terror victims in Israel sue Switzerland's largest bank

American terror victims in Israel have sued UBS - Switzerland's largest bank - for financing terror through its dealings with Iran (Hat Tip: Solomonia).

American victims of bombings and rocket attacks in Israel have sued Swiss bank UBS AG for more than $500 million, accusing the bank of helping fund the militants behind the attacks through dealings with Iran.

The lawsuit seeks damages from Switzerland's largest bank for more than 50 U.S. citizens hurt or relatives of those killed in bombings in Israel between 1997 and 2006 that it said were carried out by militant groups Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

UBS AG broke several 1996 U.S. laws that prohibit persons and companies from engaging with state sponsors of terrorism and were designed to impede Iran's access to foreign capital, the suit said.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in federal court in New York, cited U.S. government reports that conclude Iran has been the main sponsor of Hezbollah and Hamas since 1996, including providing tens of millions of cash annually. The U.S. government considers Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations.

"UBS knew full well that the cash dollars it was providing to a state-sponsor of terrorism such as Iran would be used to cause and facilitate terrorist attacks by Iranian-sponsored terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah and PIJ," the lawsuit said.

UBS spokeswoman Rohini Pragasam declined to comment on the suit.

In 2004, UBS paid a $100 million fine for transferring dollars to Iran, Cuba and 'other nations' (Syria? North Korea?) that were the subjects of US trade sanctions and then hiding the transactions. UBS claims that it stopped all its dealings with Iran in 2006.

Too bad this kind of remedy only works for US citizens. They're a lot more likely to get money out of UBS than out of Hamas, the 'Palestinian Authority' or Hezbullah. Unfortunately, being a terror victim doesn't do wonders for your pocket either.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Raw video of Ashkelon mall terror attack

This is raw (uncommented) video from the Ashkelon mall terror rocket attack. This comes from Israel's Channel 10 (cable news):

At least 14 people were wounded Wednesday evening, including a mother and her three-year-old daughter, when a Grad rocket fired from Gaza hit the Hutzot Shopping Center in Ashkelon.

The rocket ripped through the roof of the mall, causing a large chunk of the roof to collapse in a huge pile of rubble and twisted metal. Four windows were blown out of the side of the building. The floor of the building, which bore the brunt of the attack, is where offices and clinics are located.

A hospital official said a woman and her young daughter were seriously wounded, along with another child. Another woman was seriously wounded, and several other people were slightly wounded, said the official, Leah Malul of Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

MDA said 14 people were wounded - three seriously, two moderately and nine slightly, adding that all the casualties had been evacuated from the site of the attack, including four people who were briefly trapped under the rubble.

Let's go to the videotape.

Your tax dollars at work: US, EU money promotes 'Palestinian' ideology of world without Israel

Palestinian Media Watch reports on the use of American and European money to promote the 'Palestinian' dream of wiping out the State of Israel:

Palestinian Authority (PA) infrastructures controlled by Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah continue to promote the ideology that "Palestine" will replace a destroyed Israel. US and EU money facilitates this.

1- The Palestinian Security Services Academy, a military branch of Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah government, prominently depicts as the center of its symbol the map of a "Palestine" state that erases all of Israel. This map is common in the Palestinian Authority and symbolizes the hope for the destruction of Israel. Voice of America reports that the academy is funded by "... Arab states and the European Union. The U.S. also has offered some indirect support."

Continue reading "Your tax dollars at work: US, EU money promotes 'Palestinian' ideology of world without Israel"

Hezbullah's woman in the FBI and the CIA gets a $750 fine

Nadia Prouty, the woman who spied for Hezbullah at the FBI and the CIA (and who is married to a State Department employee who had 'sensitive posts' in the Middle East), was fined $750 on Tuesday. No jail time. Her former sister-in-law, who also gained US citizenship via a sham marriage was fined $500. No jail time. Meanwhile, Jonathan Pollard languishes in jail for more than 22 years and Ben Ami Kadish awaits trial. Outraged yet? If not, you will be once you've seen what Debbie Schlussel has to say about it.

What's more, Judge Cohn heaped praise on Prouty. In his "reasoning" for this absurd ad infinitem sentence, Judge Cohn said that Ms. Prouty was getting no jailtime because there was "no evidence" that she shared the info she got on the Hezbollah investigations with her former brother-in-law. Hello . . .? Was she doing this for her health? He secured a kitchen worker from his restaurant to marry her so she could fraudulently obtain U.S. citizenship. And she owed him.

 

Moreover, Chahine fled the country before he was indicted. I'd say that's proof that she informed him of the status of the investigation. Any claim that she didn't share the info is dubious, to say the least.

 

Cohn also said that Prouty served with distinction in terrorism investigations in Iraq and elsewhere. But, big whoop. Prouty was working on behalf of Shi'ite Hezbollah. The investigations she was involved with were going after Sunni terrorists. This is a Hezbollah/Shi'ite goal, not something for which she was brave or merits plaudits:

 

A former Detroit-area woman who engaged in a sham marriage to obtain U.S. citizenship and obtained key jobs in the CIA and FBI was fined $750 but given no jail time today by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn blasted media coverage of Nada Prouty's indictment, which he said was fueled by government news releases, and said it distorted the circumstances behind the charges against Prouty. Cohn said Prouty, who lives in suburban Washington, served the United States with distinction in Iraq and elsewhere, at times placing herself in peril on behalf of her adopted country.

  Uh, not. See my comments above. Her adopted country is Hezbollahstan, and for that country, she did place herself in peril on its behalf. But NOT for us. 

It's interesting that Ms. Prouty--who is Druze, not Muslim--worked on behalf of Hezbollah over here, while the group is now killing Druze (and Sunnis and Christians) all over Lebanon. They're suffering, and she wins big. Sickening.

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Bush to be targeted in Saudi Arabia

President Bush arrived in Israel Wednesday afternoon and he will be here until Friday, when he moves on to Saudi Arabia. Jihad Watch reports on a posting on an Islamist site that claims that the President will be targeted in Saudi Arabia by al-Qaeda trained snipers.

According to the posting, members of a pro-Al-Qaeda cell from a Gulf country have undergone sniper training in a Western country, and "will lie in wait during [Bush's] upcoming visit [to Saudi Arabia]."

Read the whole thing.

The real question is why the President is going to Saudi Arabia in the first place. He says he is going to discuss oil prices, something that was futile in January. It's time for Bush to ratchet things up with the Saudis. If they want all those fancy weapons he promised to sell them, they ought to bring back the million barrels of oil per day they cut from production two years ago.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Australia to Ahmadinejad: 'See you in court?'

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (pictured, left) is considering hauling Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pictured, right) before the International Court of Justice due to the latter's repeated, hateful anti-Semitic remarks. On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad attacked the Jewish State once again, saying, "The era of the Zionist literature and the Zionist political mechanism and the Zionist bullying policies has come to an end."

Speaking to Sky TV Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accused the Iranian president of repeating anti-Semitic statements.

The Australian premier said Iranian comments are 'dangerous stuff' in context of international relations and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 'must be condemned' for making such statements.

Rudd said his Attorney-General Robert McClelland is currently taking legal advice on the benefits of launching a case against Ahmadinejad in the United Nation's International Court of Justice.

I appreciate the sentiment, but even if the court - by some miracle - found that Ahmadinejad's 'freedom of expression' does not include the right to incite to genocide, does anyone really believe they could or would do something about it?

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

This Week on The Gathering Storm Radio Show

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which Always On Watch and I co-host. The show broadcasts live every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, May 16 (90 minute Show): Our guests this week are Ibn Misr of Sons of Apes and Pigs and Chaim of Freedom's Cost.
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Ibn Misr, who will be with us for the first hour, is a Coptic and a real firebrand who knows Islam inside out. According to information at his web site, his blog was launched in an effort to blow away the barrier of the Arabic language for Westerners, and give the proofs, from none other than Mohammad himself in his Koran and Hadiths.

Chaim will be with us at the top of the second hour for thirty minutes. According to information at his web site, his blog counters the revisionism, the lies and the ignorance (whether real or purposeful) of what is written about world events.

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen later by CLICKING HERE.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

UPCOMING SHOWS
May 23: Cassandra USA
May 30: John Kenneth Press and Radio Free Dar Al Harb
June 6: Gary Swenchonis and Vadim

Sleeping With the Enemy

It goes without saying that our troops fighting in the middle-east should learn Arabic. But is this the place to do it? Hat tip to Cinnamon Stillwell.      

According to the Mount Vernon Gazette, twenty-two soldiers from Fort Belvoir in Fairfax, Virginia just graduated from the nearby Islamic Saudi Academy's "Arabic as a Second Language" program, where they also learned about "Middle Eastern culture and traditions."

Language and traditions. OK. But what traditions did they learn? 

Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.

Lebanese Civil War Watch: Sunni 'Islamic resistance' to Iranian takeover launched

In this interview, which was aired on Lebanon's LBC TV on May 12, former Lebanese MP Khaled Al-Dhaher announces the launching of the Sunni "Islamic Resistance" to Iran and its proxies in Lebanon.

Here's a transcript:

Since the army and the security forces are incapable of defending our sons, our religion, our faith, and our liberty, we in the Islamic Gathering have decided to launch national-Islamic resistance, in order to protect Lebanon and defend its people, and in order to prevent the Persian enterprise from getting its clutches on an Arab capital, because the people who have occupied Beirut belong to the Persian-Iranian army.

Let's go to the videotape.

Hamas' Jihadi TV: Assud the bunny's grandfather claims Tel Aviv was 'Palestinian'

On Hamas' Jihadi Children's Television (al-Aqsa) on Friday, May 9, the grandfather of Assud the (Jew-eating) bunny insisted that Tel Aviv was a 'Palestinian' city. Here's a transcript:

Assud the Bunny: Grandpa, where did you live? In what city?

Grandpa: We used to live in the most beautiful place in Palestine.

Assud: Where?

Grandpa: My dear, you've never seen such a place. I used to live in Tel Al-Rabi' [the Arab word for "spring," which is "Aviv" in Hebrew]. What a beautiful place. My God, when I recall Tel Al-Rabi', which the Zionists have called...

Assud: There's no such place called Tel Al-Rabi'. What's the matter, Grandpa? Have you gone senile?

Grandpa: I'm not senile. My head is working just fine. How can you say I'm senile? This place was called Tel Al-Rabi', but the Zionists and Jews Hebraicized the name to "Tel Aviv." Where did this "Tel Aviv" come from? It has been Tel Al-Rabi' for generations, on the land of Palestine, right next to Yafa. How can you say I've gone senile? I know this. My head still works just fine. Are you trying to confuse me? I'm not senile yet. I have documents and proof. I have all the papers here. The documents are right here with me. How can you say I'm senile? I have all the documents with me. Here they are. Everything is here, from the days of the British and even before. This is our land, as well as the fields, the trees, and the houses. I can even show you the key. You're calling me senile? I have proof.

Assud: Forgive me, Grandpa, it's not our fault. It's the fault of the school curricula, which did not teach us that Tel Aviv is in fact Tel Al-Rabi', and vice versa.

Grandpa: No, my dear, take it from me. I know, and I have the papers and the land deeds. The name Tel Al-Rabi' has been forged by the Jews and Hebraicized to "Tel Aviv." They invented all these names. "Ashdod" is, in fact, Isdud. "Ashkelon" is, in fact, Al-Majdal. Where did they get these names? Al-Sab' is called "Beer Sheva"! It's all a lie. There are all pseudonyms. Yafa, Al-Lydd, Al-Ramla, Al-Sab' – they changed all these names and Hebraicized them, and now they say: That's Tel Al-Rabi'? There is no such thing. It's Tel Aviv. It's all a lie. All these names were Hebraicized by the Jews.

Let's go to the videotape and then we'll look at the history of Tel Aviv.

Bush gives, Bush takes away

In Wednesday's JPost, David Horovitz has a disturbing account of part of his oval office interview with US President George W. Bush last week. In it, Horovitz discusses the letter that Bush issued to Ariel Sharon in April 2004 suggesting that the US would support Israel on keeping 'settlement blocs' in Judea and Samaria as part of any 'final settlement' with the 'Palestinians.' Now, the Bush administration is backing away from the vague commitment embodied in the letter, which Sharon regarded as a quid pro quo for expelling Gaza's Jews from their home, and as his administration's big diplomatic achievement, because, in Horovitz's words, 'Swiss cheese trumps a four-year old letter.'

"What I'll be doing is encouraging people to see if they can reach agreement on what the borders of a state will look like, for example," he said, "because once you can define the borders of a state, then you can deal with the settlement issue in much more concrete terms..."

Not only do settlements come after borders on the agenda, moreover. So does the "right of return." I asked the president whether he believed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was prepared to relinquish that demand for a mass Palestinian influx into Israel. And he phrased his response in the context of borders: When it comes to the right of return, he said, "The question is, how bad do people want to have a state defined?... Tough issues... It makes it an easier issue if there is a clearer, clearly defined state that's contiguous in territory, for someone on the Palestinian side to say, oh, okay."

In other words, if Israel and the Palestinians could agree on the borders of a Palestinian state, in Bush's assessment, that might give the Palestinian leadership the push to take a viable position on the issue of the refugees.

All of which seems to add up to a more gentle, presidential way of saying what Rice said much more bluntly last week: "They need to draw a map and get it done." And if Bush was rather vague on the ostensible commitments he'd made to Israel in a half-forgotten letter, he was strikingly specific about what the Palestinians had the right to expect on the border issue.

"We... try to make sure that the Palestinians understand that we believe in the contiguous state," he said. "It can't look like Swiss cheese. How can you have a hopeful place if you're not really in charge of a contiguous territory?... It won't be a viable state."

I suppose this should not come as much of a surprise to any of you. After all, the commitment was never explicit, and other members of Bush's foreign policy team have downplayed it before. Take, for instance, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley:

"That letter was issued now almost four years ago...," Hadley said at one point. "It had an impact in April of 2004, at the time it was issued - as a way of giving support to prime minister Sharon when he did a very bold thing, which was to decide to disengage from Gaza. And it was an effort to show where some bold step like that might at some point lead. But it was really issued at the time of the Gaza disengagement..."

In other words, "we never really meant it." Olmert somehow missed that message during Bush's last trip here three months ago:

Olmert, in an interview last week with the Post, said that while the road map called for a freeze to settlement activity, including natural growth, "if everything began and ended with that, then that's what we have to do according to our commitment. But as you know well, America, which sponsored the road map, President Bush, on the 14th of April, 2004, sent a letter that said one can't ignore the demographic reality unfolding in the territories and that this will certainly need to be given expression in the agreements between us and the Palestinians. And this, I would say, renders flexible to a degree the significance of what is written in the road map."

Now that Bush has been convinced that 'Swiss cheese' is the paramount issue when it comes to borders, it is frightening to think how he might suggest resolving the real elephant in the room: How to connect Gaza to Judea and Samaria. Of course, the Hamas takeover in Gaza may play right into the Americans' hands on that question by making it moot.

So much for Ariel Sharon's big diplomatic achievement.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Olmert claims 'real progress,' 'Palestinians' look shocked

Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert told Shimon Peres' Presidents' Conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday that 'real progress' is being made in negotiations with the 'Palestinians' and that 'understandings' have been reached.

Hours before the arrival of US President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday evening that "real progress" has been achieved in the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and that "understandings and agreements have been reached on important matters, although not on all issues."

Speaking at the gala opening of the presidential conference in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary in Jerusalem, Olmert termed the discussions with the PA "highly serious and significant."

"There is some real progress, and some important understandings have been reached in important areas, though not in all areas," he said.

This was the first time, diplomatic officials said, that the prime minister had publicly characterized the talks in such an upbeat fashion.

Last week, after Olmert met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, it was Olmert's spokesmen - not the prime minister himself - who said the talks were progressing significantly, leading some to charge that the Prime Minister's Office was merely trying to deflect attention from the Talansky affair with positive diplomatic news.

We'll come back to what the Post refers to as the 'Talansky affair' in a minute, but first I'd like to get to the 'Palestinian' reaction to Olmert's statement.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat responded Tuesday night to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks on progress made in Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians, saying that "our negotiations have been serious and in depth, but gaps still exist in all issues. We hope to bridge the gaps."

Another senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters, "I don't know what kind of progress he's talking about. We still have a long way to go."

Olmert is starting to remind me of Shlomo Ben Ami, who was foreign minister under Ehud Barak and helped bring about the Camp David disaster of 2000. If you're wondering where this kind of 'progress' is heading, here's the denouement of Taba - after Camp David and three days before Barak was defeated in a special election - in January 2001 (this was largely written by me for my mailing list in 2001, with some marked updates in 2007).

Continue reading "Olmert claims 'real progress;' 'Palestinians' look shocked"

Hamas condemns the Holocaust - by comparing Israel to Nazis

The headline looked promising. The JPost told us Tuesday evening that a Hamas minister - Health and Information Minister Bassem Naeem had 'condemned Holocaust denial' in an op-ed published in London's Al-Guardian.

"But it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust," his op-ed continued. "The Holocaust was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality."

Naeem then went on to write that while he "unreservedly condemns the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews of Europe, [he] categorically rejects the exploitation of the Holocaust by the Zionists to justify their crimes... of ethnic cleansing and subjection they have been waging against us."

Maybe? Could it be? No, it wasn't. In fact, the only thing in this op-ed that's new is the unprecedented low level to which Al-Guardian stooped to publish it. Quite simply, there is no excuse for giving a voice to terrorists - particularly to publish this kind of risible drivel:

In fact, the al-Aqsa Channel is an independent media institution that often does not express the views of the Palestinian government headed by Ismail Haniyeh or of the Hamas movement. The channel regularly gives Palestinians of different convictions the chance to express views that are not shared by the Palestinian government or the Hamas movement. In the case of the opinion expressed on al-Aqsa TV by Amin Dabbur, it is his alone and he is solely responsible for it.

Really? Which programming on Al-Aqsa didn't reflect the views of Haniyeh and Hamas? The claim that the Jews perpetrated the Holocaust to get rid of their own handicapped and infirm populations? The Tomorrow's Pioneers children's program hosted by Hamas spokesman Fawzi Bahoum's niece Saraa, which brought us such heroes as Farfour the Mouse (beaten to death by an 'Israeli agent'), Nahoul the Bee ('died' because he couldn't get to his free care in a hospital in Israel due to the blockade), and Assud the Jew-eating rabbit? Kuku and Fuku (who want to return to Tel Aviv and Haifa and throw the Jews into the sea)? Did Hamas 'Culture' Minister Atallah Abu Al-Subh reading the Protocols of the Elders of Zion reflect the views of Haniyeh and Hamas? How about the puppet show in which a child stabbed President Bush to death? Did that reflect the views of Haniyeh and Hamas? How about all the calls to 'Palestinians' to protect   act as human shields for terrorists' homes? Do those reflect the views of Hamas and Haniyeh?

Please tell us Minister Naeem - which of these programs and countless others don't reflect Hamas or Haniyeh's policies?

Continue reading "Hamas condemns the Holocaust - by comparing Israel to Nazis"

The ideological allies of a future 'Palestinian' state are America's enemies

US President George W. Bush arrived here Wednesday for a brief visit in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary. While it's always nice to have the President here, the main purpose of this visit is actually not to wish us a Happy Birthday. It's to promote his plan to bring about an agreement on the establishment of a 'Palestinian' state  reichlet by the end of 2008. Given that the 'Palestinian' reichlet is likely to be hostile to America's interests, one has to wonder why President Bush is so hung up on establishing it. This is from Palestinian Media Watch.

Last month PMW director Itamar Marcus was invited to the US Congress by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Rep. Elliot Engel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to release a report documenting the dangers to US interests of a Palestinian state with ideological alliances to many US enemies. "Strengthening America's Enemies" The ideological allies of a future Palestinian state," now being released, concludes:

"There is overwhelming evidence that the contacts between the Palestinian Authority and the enemies of the United States are relations between allies who share a common ideological bond. Strikingly, hatred of the United States and disdain for the US role of world leadership are what unite them. Unless the Palestinian Authority demonstrates a major shift in ideology, a future Palestinian state will be firmly allied with North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Iran, Chavez's Venezuela, and Hezbollah, the forces that are seen as threats to the US and which are linked to world terror...There is no reason to believe that were a Palestinian Fatah state created, and its dependency on the US reduced, it would then choose to embrace the US. Indeed, in all likelihood the ties with the enemy states would intensify."

The full 30-page report (PDF warning) is here.

Why is the United States looking to aid its enemies? I wish I had an answer to that question. But there is little doubt that the 'Palestinians' are aligned with America's enemies.

This report reveals that the Palestinian Authority-Fatah government of Mahmoud Abbas is allied with many states who see themselves as enemies of the US and whom the US sees as threatening US security and world peace. Significantly, the affinity that is felt for such geographically distant non-Muslim countries, such as North Korea, Cuba, and Chavez's Venezuela is precisely because these states publicly challenge and express loathing for the US. The PA admires such organizations as Hezbullah, PA- Fatah heroes are master terrorists such as Imad Mughniyeh, killer of 241 American soldiers in Lebanon and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 are celebrated almost every annual anniversary with a political cartoon in the official PA daily (see Part 1).

The US, on the other hand, is depicted by Fatah leaders, their controlled media and PA education with disdain and loathing. Language such as, "the greatest Satan in the world, America" [PA TV, March 3, 2008], by a Fatah legislator is routine.

The United States doesn't provide aid to North Korea, Cuba or Chavez's Venezuela. The United States doesn't provide aid or weapons to Hezbullah. Why is it providing them to Fatah?

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

Video: IDF's elite aero-medical unit stages a rescue

This video is neat. In it, the IDF's elite aero-medical unit stages a rescue, apparently as part of the 60th Independence Day celebrations.

Let's go to the videotape.

Video: Call to Lebanese army to topple government

For those of you who are wondering why the Lebanese army is doing nothing to oppose Hezbullah, please have a look at this video. In it, pro-Syrian Lebanese Druze leader Wiam Wahhab calls on the Lebanese army to topple the Lebanese government. It was broadcast on Al-Manar (Hezbullah's television station) on May 12.

Let's go to the videotape.