U.S. government to renew 'limited contacts' with Muslim Brotherhood

BY Christine Roberts
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Thursday, June 30th 2011, 1:54 PM

The Obama administration is reaching out to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to Secretary of State Clinton.
She revealed Thursday that America will renew its "limited contacts" with the organization, a move that is likely to anger Israel and its supporters who are uncomfortable with the group's highly conservative version of Islam.
Clinton said during a visit to Budapest that Egypt's upcoming parliamentary elections in September have given the U.S. a new impetus to recognize the country's largest Islamist movement.
The Brotherhood, which boasts a non-violent ideology, was outlawed under the presidency of former U.S.-ally Hosni Mubarak and had no role in the country's legislative bodies.
The U.S. ended communication with the group in 2006 when George W. Bush instituted a policy that authorized U.S. officials to only deal with groups that have members in Parliament.
The group, however, began to play an integral role in Egypt's political sphere when Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February.
"We believe, given the changing political landscape in Egypt, that it is in the interests of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency," Clinton said during a press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
While the secretary of state stressed that this is not a new policy, the decision is a change from earlier practices as U.S. diplomats will now be able to communicate directly with an Islamist movement that is not represented in parliament.
Isreal has not officially commented on the U.S. policy shift.
Clinton did not say whether the U.S. has already contacted the Brotherhood or how involved the communication will be.
"Now in any of those contacts, prior or future, we will continue to emphasize the importance of and support for democratic principles and especially a commitment to non-violence, respect for minority rights, and the full inclusion of women in any democracy," she said.
The Brotherhood said that it has not yet engaged in "direct contact" with the U.S. government.
"If the U.S. is truly willing to respect our values and support freedom, as it says it does, then we have no problem," Brotherhood spokesman Mahmud Ghozlan told the AFP news agency.
With Wire News Services
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Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/06/30/2011-06-30_us_government_to_renew_limited_contacts_with_muslim_brotherhood.html#ixzz1Qmy9k6Th

So Israel is on the list of terrorist countries and the American Secretary of State has called the Muslim Brotherhood a non violent organization and has now made contact.

At the rate America is going, how soon will we hear Juden Raus?

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 01:40 PM | Permalink

Israel has been added to a list of terrorist countries by the current administration.

If any American Jew can still vote for Obama, they are traitors to the Jewish people.

Below is the link to the Department of Home Land Security report that list Israel as a terrorist supporting State.

Scroll down to to Appendix D for the list.

http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtrpts/OIG_11-81_May11.pdf

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 08:37 AM | Permalink

By JPOST.COM STAFF
29/06/2011
Public security minister looks to act on Netenyahu's vow to toughen prisoners' conditions; MK Danon says move is "not enough."

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Wednesday said that the government is considering the use of electronic devices to stop the operation of smuggled cell phones by Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed last week to toughen the conditions of Hamas prisoners following the Gaza leadership's refusal of a Red Cross request to receive proof that captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit is alive.

Hamas prisoners are forbidden from using cellular phones but the Prison Service has been only partially successful in preventing the phenomenon, Aharonovitch said. Prisoners use the devices to communicate with Hamas leadership as well as prisoners in other jails.

In response to a query by Likud MK Danny Danon on the Hamas prisoners' conditions, Aharonovitch said that "at the moment we are considering implementing an advanced system that would prevent completely the possibility of prisoners using cellular telephones."

Aharonovitch added that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) also intended on performing more thorough searches of those visiting the prisoners to prevent further smuggling.

Danon said that the moves were not harsh enough. "We must stop the celebrations inside of our jails," he stated.

Let us start by asking why any terrorist in jail has any rights what so ever?

Caught with a cell phone you go to solitary confinement for a year, and a year is added to your sentence.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 10:46 AM | Permalink

Israeli medical device prevents stroke from heart surgery

By Karin Kloosterman
June 29, 2011

A simple filter could cut the high risk of stroke during a new minimally invasive operation to repair heart valves.
SMT heart device
The device designed by Dr. Dov Shimon prevents calcified pieces of artery from migrating to the brain.

It's a classic Catch-22: A revolutionary, minimally invasive heart repair procedure now being investigated in America, and already being performed by European doctors, could save the lives of older people who might not be able to withstand open-heart surgery to repair their heart valves. However, up to 15 percent of all patients undergoing this procedure -- called TAVI, for transcatheter aortic valve implantation -- suffer a stroke on the operating table.

Foreseeing the risk years ago as TAVI was being developed, Israeli cardiologist Dr. Dov Shimon invented a novel way to prevent stroke, which happens when hardened bits of calcium come dislodged during the TAVI procedure, passing through the heart and going into the brain.

His innovation is a filter against these embolisms. Fitted onto the aortic arch, the medical device, now under development by the Israeli company SMT Research and Development in Herzliya Pituach, ensures that particles do not get into the blood flowing to the three main vessels leading from the heart.

The company of seven was founded in 2005 and has already raised $15 million, $10 million of which is from the healthcare equity fund OrbiMed. It is running its first human clinical trials in Europe, and similar clinical trials are to begin in the United States in 2012. In 15 surgeries performed in Holland using the SMT device, not one stroke has occurred.

A successful deflection system

Inserted before the operation and removed shortly after, the SMT filter appears to successfully prevent hardened artery materials from coming dislodged during TAVI, which holds great promise for many patients because it is performed through an artery in the leg.

"Studies of the last two years have shown significant incidence of stroke with this procedure," SMT CEO Paul Zalesky tells ISRAEL21c. "These valves are so diseased that big chunks of calcium [break off] when they go in to do the procedure. Sometimes this material is knocked off, and breaks loose and goes into the brain."

The SMT solution offers "a deflection system that sits on top of the arch of the aorta so any material will be deflected and not go to the brain," he says.

Zalesky, who travels widely, and divides his time between Israel and California, recently presented the technology at the Paris Course on Revascularization, the second biggest conference in the world for cardiologists.

Physicians there told him they are eager to start using this device, he reports, but it must first get approval from the US Food and Drug Administration before it can be mass marketed.

Dr. Pieter Stella of the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands, got a sneak preview by participating in the clinical trials.

"The SMT device is the first embolic protection device that I have seen that offers coverage of all three primary vessels feeding the brain. I have been pleased with our early results, and believe that the SMT deflector will help to ensure the continued market expansion for safe, effective TAVI procedures," he says.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 10:04 AM | Permalink

By JPOST.COM STAFF
28/06/2011
"I clearly believe this is sabotage by those who wish the boat not to participate in the Freedom Flotilla," Thodoris Boukas says; comments come after Free Gaza Movement warns "underhanded tactics" will not stop flotilla.

A ship captain participating in a protest flotilla scheduled to sail to Gaza this week said on Tuesday that one of the passenger boats was sabotaged in a Greek port the previous day.

In a video featured on the Freedom Flotilla's website, captain Thodoris Boukas explains how the sabotage was discovered and said "I clearly believe it is sabotage by those who wish the boat not to participate in the Freedom Flotilla."

"Today we came here to test the boat, we added some fuel, started the engines, and at some point, one of the engines ceased [to work] as if a rope was tangled in its propeller. That's what we thought in the first place. We looked around, and there was no sign of the rope," Boukas said.

After asking a diver to help determine the problem, the captain said "The boat has been sabotaged. Someone has rasped the axle that is made by stainless steel, a very hard material."

He noted the tool used was very specific, indicating that the act was calculated.

The captain's statement comes after the Free Gaza Movement on Monday vowed to continue with its plans to sail the flotilla to Gaza despite repeated warnings from Israel not to do so.

The group said in a statement that "Israel's best efforts to stop our boats at port, including pressure on governments, threats against insurance and communications companies, intimidation of human rights defenders, frivolous lawsuits and other underhanded tactics, have thus far failed. The Freedom Flotilla has set sail."

I think that Israel has failed to take the flotilla and other Palestinian related issues serious enough.

Israel needs to fight these terrorist like we fought fatah in the 1970's.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 07:00 AM | Permalink

By YAAKOV KATZ
27/06/2011
Military sources tell the 'Post' they have intelligence showing that some participants in upcoming flotilla plan use chemical weapons against troops; say IHH members will participate in flotilla.

IDF sources said Monday night that new intelligence information obtained in recent days shows that participants of the flotilla planning to break Israel’s sea blockade over the Gaza Strip later this week plan to kill IDF soldiers who board their ships.

According to the information obtained by the IDF, some of the participants have prepared sacks with sulfur, which they plan to pour on the soldiers as they board the vessels.

“This is a chemical weapon, and if poured on a soldier it can paralyze him,” an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post Monday night. “If the sulfur is then lit on fire, the soldier will light up like a torch.”

The information was obtained from closed meetings held by participants on the ships during which some voiced their intention to “murder Israeli soldiers,” according to the IDF.

Also, despite earlier predictions that members of the Turkish organization IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation would not participate in the flotilla, it now appears that some members will sail with the ships alongside other radical Islamic activists.

The Navy has begun its final preparations to stop the vessels, and the IDF sources said that commandos who board the ships will be prepared for a wide-range of scenarios from no violence at all to extreme and violent resistance from the passengers.

Israel should just sink these terrorist at sea why risk our boys.

Let's put our submarines to work and sink the whole bunch of them.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 08:49 PM | Permalink

Rabbi Lior released; protesters block entrance to J'lem
By JONAH MANDEL AND YAAKOV LAPPIN
27/06/2011
Kiryat Arba chief rabbi questioned for endorsing book condoning murder of non-Jews; religious political community furious; 6 detained in protests.

Kiryat Arba's Chief Rabbi Dov Lior was released by police on Monday after he was detained "on suspicion of publishing material that incites racism." Lior was released after being questioned for an hour.

Dozens of right-wing activists blocked the Route 1 entrance to Jerusalem in protest of Lior's arrest. Six people were arrested during the demonstrations. The protests were ongoing and police were working to clear the streets of demonstrators and fully open roads to vehicle traffic. Traffic Police have asked drivers heading in and out of Jerusalem to use Route 443. Drivers heading into Jerusalem are being diverted to the Erazim Tunnel (Route 9).

Lior was detained Monday afternoon over his endorsement of the Torat Hamelekh (King's Torah) book. The arrest was made by the National Serious and International Crimes Unit.

Lior, head of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Rabbis and one of the most senior national religious rabbis, was pulled over while driving on the Tunnel Road connecting Gush Etzion and Jerusalem and taken to Lod for questioning.

The arrest was met with fury from the religious political community.

MK Yaakov Katz called on all yeshiva students, as well as members of the Knesset, to come to the Russian Compound in Jerusalem later Monday to protest the “disgrace of the Torah.” Religious Services Minister Yaakov Margi (Shas) expressed his indignation to Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch. "The rabbi was abducted on his way to Jerusalem like a common criminal. It would have been appropriate that if the police want to investigate the rabbi, they could have done so respectfully," Margi said.

In the past, police have accused Lior of failing to answer calls to appear for questioning. Last year, one of the two co-authors of the book, Rabbi Yosef Elizur-Hershkowitz, from Yitzhar was arrested on suspicion of incitement to racial violence, possession of racist text, and and possession of material that incites to violence. Elizur-Hershkowitz cooperated with police and was released soon after his arrest

Torat Hamelech, authored by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira and Rabbi Yosef Elitzur of the Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva in Yitzhar, advocates killing innocent non-Jews in certain situations during wartime.

In February, nearly 70 prominent national religious rabbis signed a letter of protest over the police’s announced intention to arrest Lior if he continued to ignore their requests to present himself for questioning.

Heads of the some of the leading educational institutions within the sector – including Rabbi Haim Druckman of Or Etzion, Rabbi David Stav of Tzohar and the Petah Tikva hesder yeshiva, Rabbi Elyakim Levanon and Rabbi Eliezer Melamed – defended Lior’s ongoing refusal to be investigated for the rabbinic endorsement (haskama) he gave the book.

Lior and Rabbi Ya’acov Yosef, son of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, have been publicly refusing the police summons since last year. Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsberg of Kfar Chabad, who also endorsed Torat Hamelech, appeared for police questioning as requested last year and used the opportunity to explain to police the halachic reasoning behind his support for the book.

Knesset members from the National Union were outraged over the arrest. Uri Ariel said on Monday afternoon that “hunting down rabbis who rule on matters of Jewish law is not the task of the police and State Attorney's Office.” Michael Ben Ari called for the dismissal of the public security minister, since police “treat Arab leaders with kid gloves, while here are disgracing a great rabbi.”

Others joined them in expressing their anger. Heads of the Land of Israel Caucus MK Zeev Elkin (Likud) and MK Arie Eldad expressed their “shock over the police's decision to employ detectives to arrest a rabbi in Israel, as though he were a common criminal, just because of his halachic stance.” The caucus called for the release of Lior and that the investigation be called off.

Last week I posted and also spoke on Middle East Radio Forum on Sunday how you have no freedom of speech in Israel as evidenced in the jailing of the soldiers from Golani. I also pointed out that for defending yourself you have to risk loosing your government granted license for a pistol because in Israel you have no right to keep and bear arms.

Israel moves against Jews and not Arabs, Israel is racist against religious conservative Jews that want a strong Israel.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 07:55 AM | Permalink

Shin Bet cracks top Palestinian terror cell
By YAAKOV KATZ
27/06/2011
Security forces arrest nearly two dozen PFLP operatives running terrorist cells near Jerusalem; were planning on kidnapping IDF soldiers, shootings, and bombings; many had previously served in Israeli prisons.

The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have arrested close to two dozen Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) operatives who were running a number of terror cells near Jerusalem and were planning to kidnap soldiers and perpetrate other terror attacks against Israel, it was released for publication on Sunday.

Some of the operatives, the Shin Bet said, were Arabs from east Jerusalem in possession of Israeli identity cards enabling them to travel freely throughout the country.

Over 20 suspects have been arrested in recent weeks, the Shin Bet said, including a number who have significant military experience and have previously served time in Israeli prisons. One of the alleged leaders of the group was Nasser Abu-Khadir, a 50-year-old resident of the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem.

In 1981, Khadir was seriously injured when an explosive device he was building blew up in his hands. In 1988, he was released from prison and continued to engage in anti-Israel terrorist activity, for which he was arrested a number of additional times over the years.

The Shin Bet said that Khadir told his interrogators that he was responsible for establishing the terrorist infrastructure based in Jerusalem and Ramallah and was in touch with PFLP leadership in Damascus, which was supposed to provide financial and logistical assistance as well as overseas military training for Israel-based operatives.

Khadir allegedly instructed other members of the cells to purchase pistols and silencers and surrendered a weapon that he had already obtained following his arrest.

Another senior operative was Walid Habas, 31, from Kfar Akab in northern Jerusalem. Habas was released from an Israeli prison in 2007 after serving a four-year sentence for his involvement in the attempted lynching of an IDF soldier near Ramallah in 1998. Habas allegedly recruited new operatives into PFLP ranks and worked with Khadir to purchase weaponry. The Shin Bet said that he told interrogators he had discussed the possibility of training in Iran with Khadir.

A cell run by Habas was allegedly planning to kidnap an IDF soldier, a number of shooting attacks at soldiers and settlers in the Ramallah area and a bomb attack in Jerusalem. One target considered for the attack was a hotel near the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The cell, the Shin Bet said, was in the midst of working to obtain explosives as well as a cellphone which was to serve as the detonator. The cell members were also planning to murder a Palestinian they suspected of serving as a collaborator with Israeli security services.

Another operative, named Fares Barghouti, had served time in Israeli prisons between 2001 and 2005 and was released as part of an Israeli gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He was arrested a year later for involvement in the outlawed PFLP and was enlisted into the new terror cells in 2010.

Other cell members were responsible for locating apartments that could be used as headquarters and base of operations for the cell, and for obtaining false Israeli identity cards that they could use to enter Israel.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 07:53 AM | Permalink

For those who would like to hear me on the radio, I am very pleased to announce that I will be having a weekly appearance on the Middle East Radio Forum, the show is hosted By William Wolf.

You can listen to the show by going to the MERF web page
http://www.middleeastradioforum.org/

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 05:22 PM | Permalink

By YAAKOV KATZ
24/06/2011
"I wonder if a soldier who wears a Peace Now shirt would be punished this way," says shirt creator, which denounce settler evacuations.

Yair Ben-David, creator of the t-shirts that have caused an uproar in the IDF, demonstrated on Friday outside the home of Golani commander Col. Ofek Buchris for sending his brother to 30 days in prison.

The incident took place Thursday night at a ceremony for soldiers of Golani's 13th Battalion who had completed their training. The soldiers were pictured wearing t-shirts with the slogan "Golani fights the enemy and does not expel Jews" written on their backs.

Buchris, who was not present at the ceremony, immediately summoned four out of the 10 soldiers who wore the shirts and sentenced them to jail time for "expressing political opinions", something soldiers in uniform are not allowed to do. Ben-David's brother was sentenced to 30 days since Buchris accused him of knowing of the scheme to wear the shirts. The other soldiers were sentenced to 20 and 10 days in jail.

Ben-David tells a different story. He said he brought the shirts to the ceremony after seeing soldiers wear them at a different ceremony. In contrast to original reports, Ben-David claimed Friday that the soldiers did not wear the shirts during the ceremony and only put them on after the ceremony was completed, they had been discharged to their homes and were standing in the parking lot.

"This was not a political protest," Ben-David said Friday. "The soldiers did not show the shirts during the ceremony. They weren't even wearing them then. They only put them on after the ceremony was finished and they were released home for the weekend."

As a former soldier from Golani who had served in the past under Buchris, Ben-David said he was surprised by the harsh punishment.

"I wonder if a soldier who wears a Peace Now shirt under his uniform would be punished this way," he said. "There is also nothing political with what was said on the shirt. I think everyone in Israel will agree with me that Golani's job is to fight our enemies and not fellow Jews."

IDF sources said that the incident was under investigation and that if Ben-David's story turned out to be true and that the soldiers did not intend to make a political statement then it is possible that Buchris will change the punishments and possibly annul them altogether.

Where is freedom of speech?

When a large number of combat soldiers are coming from Judea and Samaria, what do you want you want these men to throw their parents from the homes they grew up in.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 05:12 PM | Permalink

Iranian nuclear efforts suffer major setback as five leading figures in design of its nuclear facilities perish in crash
Stav Spivak

Five Russian scientists who assisted in the design of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant were among the 44 fatalities of Monday's Russian plain crash, Moscow's International News Agency RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

The Tupolev-134 plane broke up and caught fire upon making an emergency landing outside the northern city of Petrozavodsk. A preliminary investigation ruled out the possibility of a technical failure.

Brazenness
Iran 'not afraid' to make nuclear weapons / Associated Press
Tehran TV quotes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Islamic Republic could manufacture atom bombs 'but does not intend to'

The five worked at Bushehr and were to ensure the facility would withstand natural disasters.

Three of the experts – Sergei Rizhov, Gennadi Benyok, and Nicolai Tronov – were among the atom facility's designers. Andrei Trokinov, a top Russian nuclear technological expert, was also killed, as was Valery Lalyn, another nuclear expert.

The five were employed by Hydropress, a member-organization of Russia's State Nuclear Corporation. Hydropress is one of the main companies involved in the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, and is also involved in projects in China, India and Bulgaria.

Novosti sources said that the deaths were "a great blow to the Russian nuclear industry."

According to the news agency's sources, no foul play was involved.

General

When will the world figure it out, be nice to the Jews and good things happen to you. Do bad things to the Jews and you will pay

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 08:16 AM | Permalink

Israel home to 8,419 millionaires according to Merrill Lynch Capgemini World Wealth Report
Yair Hasson

The number of millionaires in Israel increased last year by 42.7%, from 5,900 in 2008 to 8,419 in 2009, according to the 14th Merrill Lynch Capgemini World Wealth Report released Tuesday.

According to the report, the number of millionaires in the world rose in 2009 by 17.1%, to some 10 million, despite the economic downturn. Israel takes third place in the increase of millionaires after Hong Kong and India, where the number of millionaires grew by 104% and 50.9% respectively.

The report defines a millionaire as anyone with at least $1 million in liquid funds, not including invested capital, and after all debts are deducted. In 2009, the world's millionaires held a total of $39 trillion – an increase of 18.9% compared to the previous year.

The number of multimillionaires (who have at least $30 million) grew by 15.4%, to some 90,000. The total wealth held by these multimillionaires grew last year by 21.5%.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 02:35 PM | Permalink

Deri making a comeback

Former Shas leader returning to politics, establishing new movement; Deri, once considered one of most powerful men in country, says he will aim to unite Israelis, voices support for peace process
Elior Levy

Former Shas chairman coming back: Aryeh Deri, the former political meteor who at one time held great clout and was considered one of Israel's most powerful men, announced Wednesday that he is returning to politics.

Speaking at the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, Deri said: "In the State of Israel, one can make no contribution without political power, and I therefore decided to establish a movement. I'm coming back and I wish to use political power for the sake of unity and public responsibility."

Deri said, however, that his new movement will not be a sectoral party like Shas. "What was appropriate in 1984 is no longer relevant," he said.

The 52-year-old Deri served as interior minister and Knesset member since 1998, but in 1993 quit the government over corruption suspicions. In 1999 he was convicted of several offences, including receiving a bribe, fraud, and breach of trust.

Deri's conviction, and the claims that he faced injustice because he is Sephardic and haredi, played a prominent role in Shas' subsequent elections campaign, enabling the party to boost its Knesset presence from 10 to 17 seats. Despite the favorable outcome, Deri quit as head of Shas and was replaced by Eli Yishai.

'My great fear is wars'

"I'm not coming from a place of vengeance or ambition," Deri said. "In every poll out there I get seven or eight Knesset seats, despite jail and all the other things that happened to me."

Turning his attention to the peace process, the former Shas chairman said: "My great fear is wars. I never voted in favor of a war or military operation."

He added that his return is motivated first and foremost by a desire to bring the public together, "so that if we go into a peace process we'll be united."

"I'm obviously in favor of a peace process, but there is no black or white. The question is how many risks we'd be able and willing to assume," he said.

Over the past year, Deri joined critics of the government over rising prices in Israel. A few months ago he told Ynet that "a government under which young people who work hard cannot afford an apartment does not deserve to govern."

So are you coming back to the Knesset for the money, for the ego, because it sure isn't to be a servant and a leader for Am Israel.

But now you have hit the Yoni jack pot, you are a coward, scum and a traitor.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 08:16 AM | Permalink

Military vet perplexed by decision to revoke gun license
By YAAKOV LAPPIN
21/06/2011
Bobby Sargel, who made aliya from the UK in 1987, says he was arrested after coming under an unprovoked rock attack.

Ten months after an arrest that failed to result in charges, Bobby Sargel, 63, from Moshav Ramat Zvi in the Jezreel Valley, remains baffled by the conduct of police.

Sargel, who made aliya from the UK in 1987, is no stranger to law enforcement. He did his military duty in the Prisons Service, and then faithfully showed up for reserve duty, serving in the West Bank, the Center and the North.

Despite long being free of the need to serve in reserves, Sargel, who is married and has two adult children, became a volunteer with the Border Police, where he has served in the Lower Galilee Response Team since 1995, and where he has faced life-threatening situations on more than one occasion.

“I consider it my duty as an Israeli citizen to do the best that I can for the country,” he told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

A farmer, Sargel also works as a manager at a salt production plant based in a quarry near Beit She’an, together with his son.

Last August, Sargel said, he intervened in a fairly commonplace dispute between tractor drivers from a nearby Arab village who work at the quarry.

“I work with Arabs and Jews alike, it doesn’t make the slightest difference to me,” Sargel said. “The argument erupted about who would be first in line.”

After instructing the drivers to stop the dispute, Sargel returned to his control cabin with his son, when a stone suddenly smashed into his window.

“We rushed out to see what was happening. One of the drivers was throwing rocks at us. I shouted at him to stop. My son was then hit in the back by a rock thrown from another direction,” he said.

He chased the driver, caught up with him, and grabbed his arms in order to stop the rock throwing, Sargel added. Sargel’s son came to separate his father from the driver.

“Suddenly, another driver came and jumped on my son’s back, bringing him to the ground. The first driver ran away. Then both drivers disappeared,” he said.

Sargel again pursued the men.

“Then, the younger of the drivers appeared on a ramp above me with a rock the size of an American football over my head.”

At this stage, Sargel felt that his life was in danger.

“I’ve got 19 years of Border Police volunteer service behind me. I’ve been hospitalized twice and have been the target of an attempt to run me down. I stood up to two armed illegal hunters. Never, ever in all of this time did I feel a need to draw a weapon. This time, I looked into his eyes, and I saw that he was out of his cage.

“I told him to drop the rock, but he wouldn’t. I drew my pistol, which had no magazine in it, since I had locked it in my drawer earlier.

He dropped the rock,” Sargel said.

At that stage, “my son ran toward the other driver. The driver grabbed hold of a large paving stone and threatened him with it. I rapped his knuckles with my pistol and he dropped the paving stone,” he said.

“We came under a rain of rocks. Fortunately, none of them hit.”

Sargel ordered the drivers to leave the quarry. “I didn’t report this to my boss because I didn’t want to disrupt the production line. I didn’t report this to police; this was a big mistake,” he added.

But the drivers did call police, and officers from the Beit She’an police station arrived on the scene.

An officer confiscated Sargel’s pistol.

“When I told him rocks were thrown at me, he looked around the quarry and said, ‘I can’t see any rocks,’” he said.

Sargel and his son were ordered to report to the station later that day, where they were questioned and then arrested.

“To my knowledge, the rockthrowers were not questioned until February or March. This is a farcical situation. It’s not justice,” he said.

“My son and I were put in handcuffs and leg irons. We were escorted to what I can only describe as a medieval cesspit, the holding cell in Beit She’an station. I was so ashamed of the conditions, I told the officers to give me a broom and swept up the rubbish into the toilet pit,” Sargel said. “I can’t describe the conditions. I’m ashamed to think about it.”

The two Sargels were held overnight and then brought to the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court in handcuffs, where the judge ordered their immediate release to house arrest after bail was posted.

No charges were brought against Sargel, but this month, he received a notice from the Public Security Ministry saying that his firearm license had been revoked.

A spokeswoman from the ministry told the Post that Sargel’s license was taken away “due to a recommendation made by the Israel Police to revoke it following an incident that resulted in a criminal case being opened against him.”

The spokeswoman added that Sargel could apply for a new license at the Firearms Licensing Department in Afula. “His request will be examined in accordance with the regulations,” she said.

The Israel Police said in a statement that Sargel was “suspected of threatening the attacker with his gun. His firearm was therefore confiscated and a criminal case was opened. The case has, in the meantime, been closed by state prosecutors due to a lack of public interest, but the criminal registration remains, and this therefore is the basis for revoking his license. Should he choose to do so, Mr. Sargel can appeal the decision.”

In January, the commander of the Border Police base in Gilboa where Sargel is based, Gonen Firstenberg, sent a letter to the Firearms Licensing Department, saying that Sargel required a long-barreled firearm and a personal handgun in his capacity as a Border Police volunteer.

In 2009, Sargel was praised by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority after confronting two illegal hunters. The authority sent Sargel’s commanders a letter that praised his “determination and professionalism.”

“I’m bitter,” Sargel said. “I don’t expect to be let off because I’m a volunteer. However, I’m bitter that no attempt was made to question the guys who attacked us. We don’t need extra protection. I just want the same protection as everyone else.”

This is so stupid, every Jew or Druze should be allowed as many firearms as they can afford to buy. Not just pistols, but rifles also. I am not talking bout bolt action hunting rifles, let Israeli's own AR15's, AK47's, Uzi's.

But it is also for the protection of Jewish life.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 06:33 PM | Permalink

Monday, June 20, 2011
PSR poll: 40% of Gazans seek to emigrate, 66% of Palestinians: Top two goals include right of refugees to return to Israel

20 June 2011
PRESS RELEASE
Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No (40)
http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2011/p40epressrelease.html

Fateh-Hamas reconciliation agreement improves the standing of Hamas, but the
public prefers Fayyad as prime minister to Hamas’ candidate and wants the
new government to follow Abbas’ and the PLO’s peace policy rather than Hamas’

16-18 June 2011

These are the results of the latest poll conducted by the Palestinian Center
for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
between 16-18 June 2011. The poll was conducted after the signing of the
reconciliation agreement between Fateh and Hamas and during the continued
turmoil and revolt in the Arab World including the popular uprisings in
Syria, Yemen and Libya. This press release covers Palestinian domestic
conditions, the performance of the governments of Salam Fayyad and Ismail
Haniyeh, the internal balance of power between Fateh and Hamas, the future
of the reconciliation agreement, and the views of the public on the most
vital Palestinian goals and the most serious problems confronting
Palestinians today. Total size of the sample is 1200 adults interviewed face
to face in 120 randomly selected locations. Margin of error is 3%. While
this press release covers domestic Palestinian issues, other issues related
to the peace process and Israeli-Palestinian relations will be covered in a
separate joint Palestinian-Israeli press release and later in our more
detailed report on the poll.

For further details, contact PSR director, Dr. Khalil Shikaki, or Walid
Ladadweh at tel 02-296 4933 or email pcpsr@pcpsr.org.

Main Findings:

Findings of the second quarter of 2011 show that the reconciliation
agreement between Fateh and Hamas has triggered important changes in public
attitudes and perceptions. Indeed, the agreement has removed, almost
completely, the issue of the split between West Bank and the Gaza Strip from
the list of critical problems in the minds of the public. But the fading of
the problem of the split led to the emergence of a new problem: the concern
that the agreement, once implemented, and a majority believes that it will
indeed be implemented, it will bring back international political and
financial sanctions and boycott. For this reason, and while findings show
that Hamas has benefited considerably from signing the agreement, a clear
majority of the public wants the new Palestinian government of specialists,
once formed, to implement the president’s and the PLO’s peace program and
policy rather than that of Hamas. Most importantly, the largest percentage
wants Salam Fayyad, Fateh’s candidate, to be the next prime minister.
Indeed, only a small minority wants Jamal Khodari, Hamas’ candidate, to be
the next prime minister. Perhaps the public believes that if Fayyad stays as
prime minister and if he continues to implement Abbas’s peace agenda and
policies, the threat of boycott and sanctions would diminish or disappear.

(1) The future of the reconciliation agreement:

A majority of 59% believes that Fateh and Hamas will succeed in implementing
the reconciliation agreement and in unifying the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip while 37% believe they will fail.

A majority of 55% expects the return of international boycott and financial
sanctions after the formation of a new reconciliation government and 37% do
not expect that.

In a choice between Fateh’s candidate, Salam Fayyad, and Hamas’ candidate,
Jamal Khodari, 45% of the public favors the former and only 22% favor the
latter. 12% favor other candidates and 21% remain undecided.

Moreover, a majority of 61% wants the new government of reconciliation to
follow the peace policies and agendas of President Abbas and the PLO rather
than Hamas’. Only 18% want the new government to follow the peace policy and
agenda of Hamas.

Half of the public (50%) says that both Fateh and Hamas came out winners
from the reconciliation agreement, 12% say Hamas came out the winner, 11%
say Fateh came out the winner, and 20% say neither came out a winner.

29% believe that the reason a reconciliation agreement was signed has to do
with the fall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt while 27% believe it was the
youth demonstrations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip that was
responsible for forcing the two sides to sign the agreement. Moreover, 21%
believe the reason was the failure of negotiations with Israel while 12%
believe it was the eruption of youth demonstrations against the Syrian
regime.

(2) Domestic Conditions

25% describe conditions in the Gaza Strip as good or very good and 47%
describe them as bad or very bad. In our last poll, three months ago, in
March 2011, 21% described conditions in the Gaza Strip as good or very good
and 56% said they were bad or very bad. It is worth noting that a year ago,
in June 2010, only 9% described conditions in the Gaza Strip as good or very
good. Today, 37% describe conditions in the West Bank as good or very good
and 29% describe them as bad or very bad. Three months ago, these
percentages stood at 33% and 33% respectively. As can be seen in the
following table, a year ago, positive evaluation of conditions in the West
Bank stood at 35%.

71% say there is corruption in the PA institutions in the West Bank while
only 60% say there is corruption in the institutions of the dismissed
government in the Gaza Strip. These percentages are similar to those
obtained three months ago.

61% say there is, or there is to some extent, press freedom in the West Bank
and 34% say there is no such freedom in the West Bank. By contrast, 47% say
there is, or there is to some extent, press freedom in the Gaza Strip while
41% say there is no such freedom in the Gaza Strip.

31% say people in the West Bank can criticize the authority in the West Bank
without fear. By contrast, 25% say people in the Gaza Strip can criticize
the authorities in Gaza without fear. These findings reflect an improvement
in the situation in the Gaza Strip and a slight decline in the West Bank
compared to where things stood three months ago. Since the split between the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in June 2007, these percentages have witnessed
gradual and significant decrease. As the table below shows, belief that
people can criticize the authorities in the West Bank without fear stood at
56% while 52% believed that people can criticize the authorities without
fear in the Gaza Strip. This is the first time since the split that we have
seen an increase in the percentage of those who believe that people in the
Gaza Strip can criticize the authorities there without fear. The change may
be due to changing perceptions of Hamas’ behavior in the Gaza Strip after
the signing of the reconciliation agreement.

Perception of safety and security stands at 56% in the West Bank and 80% in
the Gaza Strip. This finding indicates a large increase in the perception of
safety and security in the Gaza Strip compared to March 2011 when it stood
at 67%. The difference may reflect a perception change in light of the
reconciliation agreement.

Positive evaluation of the performance of the governments of Ismail Haniyeh
stands at 39% and Salam Fayyad’s at 43%. Three months ago, these percentages
stood at 31% and 39% respectively.

Findings show that the percentage of Gazans who say that political,
security, and economic conditions force them to seek immigration to other
countries stands at 40%; in the West Bank, the percentage stands at 26%.
Three months ago, these figures stood at 37% and 21% respectively, which
means that the signing of the reconciliation agreement, despite the public
support, has nonetheless brought back concerns about international sanctions
and boycott.

Percentage of satisfaction with the performance of President Abbas stands at
52% while 45% say they are dissatisfied with his performance. These
percentages reflect an increase in the level of satisfaction with the
performance of the president, which stood at 46% three months ago while the
level of dissatisfaction stood at 51%. Satisfaction with the performance of
the president stands at 47% in the Gaza Strip and 55% in the West Bank. The
increase in the percentage of satisfaction with the performance of Abbas may
be an outcome of the signing of the reconciliation agreement.

(3) Presidency and Legislative Elections:

If new presidential elections are held today, and only two were nominated,
Abbas would receive the vote of 54% and Haniyeh 38% of the vote of those
participating. The rate of participation in such election would reach 60%.
In the Gaza Strip, Abbas receives in this poll 51% and Haniyeh 44% and in
the West Bank Abbas receives 56% and Haniyeh 34%. These results are similar
to those obtained in our pervious poll three months ago.
If the presidential elections were between Marwan Barghouti and Ismail
Haniyeh, the former would receive 61% and the latter would receive 33% of
the participants’ votes. The rate of participation in this case would reach
67%. In the Gaza Strip, Barghouti receives 56% and Haniyeh 40% and in the
West Bank Barghouti receives 64% and Haniyeh 29%. These results are similar
to those obtained three months ago.

Most popular figures selected by the public as possible vice presidents from
a list of five provided to respondents are Marwan Barghouti (selected by 27%
of the public), Ismail Haniyeh (22%), Salam Fayyad (17%) Mustafa Barghouti
(9%) and Saeb Erekat (4%).

If new legislative elections are held today with the participation of all
factions, 69% say they would participate in such elections. Of those who
would participate, 28% say they would vote for Hamas and 42% say they would
vote for Fateh, 10% would vote for all other third parties combined, and 19%
are undecided. These results indicate an increase of two percentage points
to each of Fateh and Hamas compared to our results three months ago. Vote
for Hamas in the Gaza Strip in this poll stands at36 % and in the West Bank
24%. Vote for Fateh in the Gaza Strip is 43% and in the West Bank 42%.

(4) Internal disagreements within Fateh and Hamas and Abbas’ decision
regarding “family honor” killings:

An overwhelming majority of 75% supports and 19% oppose PA president
decision annulling articles in the penal code whereby those accused of
“family honor” killings are given light sentences.

70% support and 21% oppose the decision by Fateh’s Central Committee to
expel Mohammad Dahlan from Fateh and transferring his file to the Attorney
General’s office. Opposition to the decision increases to 28% in the Gaza
Strip and drops to 17% in the West Bank.

Moreover, 61% believe that differences of opinion within Fateh regarding
Dahlan reflect big and serious disagreement within the movement while 33%
believe they reflect a minor disagreement.

Differences of opinion that erupted within Hamas after the signing of the
reconciliation agreement reflect big and serious disagreement within the
movement in the views of 42% of the public while 48% believe that they
reflect minor disagreements.

(5) Youth demonstrations in Syria and Yemen:

An overwhelming majority of 89% sympathizes with the demonstrators against
the Assad regime in Syria and 90% sympathize with the demonstrators against
the regime in Yemen.

(6) Most vital Palestinian goals and the main problems confronting
Palestinians today:

The largest percentage (48%) believes that the first most vital Palestinian
goal should be to end Israeli occupation in the areas occupied in 1967 and
build a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East
Jerusalem as its capital. By contrast, 26% believe the first most vital goal
should be to obtain the right of return of refugees to their 1948 towns and
villages, 15% believe that it should be to build a pious or moral individual
and a religious society, one that applies all Islamic teachings, and 11%
believe that the first and most vital goal should be to establish a
democratic political system that respects freedoms and rights of
Palestinians.

The largest percentage (40%) believes that the second most vital Palestinian
goal should be to obtain the right of return of refugees to their 1948 towns
and villages. 25% believe that the second goal should be to end Israeli
occupation in the areas occupied in 1967 and build a Palestinian state in
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital, 19%
believe that the second goal should be to establish a democratic political
system that respects freedoms and rights of Palestinians, and 16% believe
the second most vital goal should be to build a pious or moral individual
and a religious society, one that applies all Islamic teachings.

The most serious problem confronting Palestinian society today is the spread
of poverty and unemployment in the eyes of 36% of the public while 30%
believe that it is the continuation of occupation and settlement activities,
18% believe it to be the corruption in some public institutions, and 11%
believe it to be the siege and the closure of the Gaza border crossings.
Only 2% mentioned the absence of national unity due to the West Bank-Gaza
Strip split which was mentioned by 28% in our previous poll in March 2011.
It is clear that the signing of the reconciliation agreement and the belief
of the majority that the agreement will indeed be implemented has removed
this issue from among the list of main problems as perceived by the public.

This poll was conducted with the support of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung -
Ramallah.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 11:27 AM | Permalink

US flotilla ship: We intend to break Gaza blockade
By JORDANA HORN, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
20/06/2011
'Audacity of Hope' organizers at NY press conference: "We'll carry no goods. Our mission is from US society to Gaza civil society."

NEW YORK – Passengers on a US-flagged boat, The Audacity of Hope, spoke at a press conference Monday to discuss their plans and reasons for joining the “International Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human,” a flotilla intended to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.

It is estimated that people from more than 20 countries will participate in the eight to ten boat flotilla, which will sail the last week of June, in part from Greece. One quarter of the participants on the US boat, which will have 36 passengers, are American Jews.

According to a letter the Audacity of Hope group sent to US President Barack Obama, in addition to 36 passengers, 4 crew members, and 10 members of the press, the US-flagged boat “will carry thousands of letters of support and friendship from people throughout the US to the women, children and men of Gaza. There will be no weapons of any sort on board."

"We will carry no goods of any kind for delivery in Gaza," the group's letter read. "Our mission is from American civil society to the civil society of Gaza. We do not serve the agenda of any political leadership, government or group. We are engaged solely in non-violent action in support of the Palestinian people and their human rights.”

“Citizen activists are coming to the Mediterranean from all over the world to confront the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza and US government protection of Israeli criminal acts,” Audacity of Hope passenger Ann Wright said. “As a former US diplomat and retired military colonel, I strongly believe it is the responsibility of citizens to act when our governments fail to protect the human rights and dignity of any people—in this case, the Palestinians.”

Leslie Cagan, the US boat coordinator leading Monday’s press conference, said the Israeli government acted with extreme violence against Freedom Flotilla I in 2010, killing nine passengers and injuring more than 50, and has threatened the use of attack dogs and snipers against this Freedom Flotilla II.

Cagan said, “Following the example of years of non-violent Palestinian protests, everyone participating in this project is deeply committed to non-violence. We hope and plan to arrive in Gaza City safely by the beginning of July. Any other outcome is the responsibility of the US and Israeli government's decision to maintain the illegal and unjustifiable imprisonment of 1.5 million people in the Gaza strip.”

“We are trying to act in alignment with our conscience,” Audacity of Hope passenger Kathy Kelly said at the press conference.

Cagan added that the flotilla organizers have urged United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to put into place a UN inspection of the ships but have received no official response as yet.

In late May, the Secretary General expressed his opposition to flotilla operations intended to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, believing that assistance and goods bound for Gaza should go through legitimate crossings.

Ban has called on governments to use their influence to discourage flotillas, stating that they carry the potential to exacerbate rather than ameliorate the conflict. The United States government, participants in the US-flagged ship said, have warned the US citizens not to participate in the flotilla.

So 9 of the 36 Americans on this ship call themselves Jews, let us cut through the lies and call them what they are kapos or traitors.

You want to take on the IDF then you will pay the price and I will shed no tears for the traitors if they don't make it. I am sick of people calling themselves Jews. If they want to be Jews they should act like Jewskeep the Torah and support the Jewish State of Israel.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 10:19 AM | Permalink

Border Guard soldier shoots at Palestinian man who rushes on IDF outpost bearing knife
Ynet reporters

A Border Guard soldier prevented a terror attack at an IDF outpost near Qalqilya Sunday, the army said. The soldier opened fire at a Palestinian man bearing a knife. Witnesses said he yelled "Allahu Akbar".

The commander on the scene commended the soldier and said troops had showed determination and proper conduct.

The incident occurred at 12:40 pm, when a Palestinian man arrived at the outpost and pulled out a knife. The combat soldier on guard fired a warning shot, but the man rushed at him and began climbing the fence, the IDF said.

The soldier fired at the Palestinian's lower body, injuring him moderately. He is currently being treated by IDF medics, who say they will transfer him to security forces for interrogation once he is stabilized.

Hanan Greenberg, Yair Altman, and Omri Efraim contributed to this report

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 09:27 AM | Permalink

For those who would like to hear me on the radio, I am very pleased to announce that I will be having a weekly appearance on the Middle East Radio Forum, the show is hosted By William Wolf.

You can listen to the show by going to the MERF web page
http://www.middleeastradioforum.org/

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 03:01 PM | Permalink

17 June 2011 Last updated at 06:18 ET
Argentine leader says UK 'arrogant' over Falklands

The president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has called Britain "arrogant" for refusing to negotiate on the Falklands.

She was speaking a day after UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the issue of sovereignty was non-negotiable.

President Fernandez called his refusal to hold talks on the sovereignty of the Falklands, or Malvinas, arrogant and bordering on stupidity.

Britain defeated an Argentine invasion of the islands in 1982.

The Falklands are at the centre of a territorial dispute dating back to the 19th Century.

Argentina has repeatedly requested talks on the islands' future sovereignty.

But most Falkland islanders wish to retain British sovereignty and 14 June is marked as Liberation Day in the capital, Port Stanley.

Last week Washington called on Britain and Argentina to negotiate over the Falklands' sovereignty.

But during Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell urged Mr Cameron to remind President Barack Obama that "the British government will never accept any kind of negotiations over the South Atlantic archipelago".

Second for Obama and his merry band of Marxist, will you please go away in the next election. Obama is a fool that let's his revolutionary father's view of the UK cloud his mind so instead of acting as the President of the United states he acts like a little boy trying to gain his father approval.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 06:22 AM | Permalink

The Jewish majority west of the Jordan River will remain strong
Yoram Ettinger

Here's an earthshaking fact: Now that Israel has pulled out of Gaza, there is a clear, firm Jewish majority in the territory west of the Jordan River. 67 percent, in fact.

In contrast to popular notion, this majority is assured to continue well into the future, in light of a shrinking Arab population in Judea and Samaria (1. 8 percent), a rising Jewish population in Israel (2.1 percent), large scale Arab emigration since 1950 and Jewish aliya (immigration to Israel) that began in 1882.

Hamas' victory will spur on Arab emigration (especially amongst PA employees and their families), and growing anti-Semitism in France and the former Soviet Union will spur aliya (Jewish immigration).

False predictions

Israel's demographic establishment is based on predictions released by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics in 1997, according to which there are currently 2.4 million Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria. In reality, there are 1.4 million.

The Bureau claimed there would be a population explosion of some 170 percent in the 14 years between 1990-2004, from 1.5 million people according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics to 3.8 million according to the Palestinians, but not one demographer agreed.

How does one come up a million short? A new American-Israeli study presented at last month's Herzliya Conference by California researcher Bennet Zimmerman proves that the Palestinian predictions bore no semblance to the facts on the ground. For example:

• 325,000 Palestinians who reside abroad are counted in the 1997 statistics, according to the head of the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, February 26, 1998. This is similar to counting the 800,000 Israelis who live in the United States.

• 210,000 Jerusalem Arabs are counted twice – as "green line" Arabs and West Bank residents.

• 300,000 births never actually happened, as we see if we compare the Palestinian's 1997 prediction with subsequent birth records kept by the Palestinian health and education authorities.

• 236,000 Palestinians (total) were supposed to have moved to PA territory between 1997-2003 according to the Palestinian Bureau, but just 74,000 left the PA during that (310,000 difference).

• 105,000 Palestinians received blue Israeli identity cards in 1997, and they continue to be counted twice.

The Palestinian Election Committee says there are 760,000 eligible voters in Judea and Samaria, which points to 1.4 (not 2.4) million total residents. In other words, the ministries of health and education have documented a 70 percent exaggeration in the bureau of statistics prediction that forms the basis for Israel's demographic assessment.

Logical conclusions

How did a million Palestinians "disappear"?

Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt, the Washington-based demography expert that appeared at the Herzliya Conference, praised the study: "The conclusions are logical and overwhelmingly convincing. This study caught the demographers sleeping on guard duty," he said.

And so, the demographic establishment ignores the quick drop in natural growth in the third world, the Muslim world (1.9 children per woman in Iran), and the Arab world (2.9 children per woman in Egypt).

The establishment is unaware of reports by the Palestinian health ministry about developments that have led to a drop in natural replacement rates amongst Palestinians: The introduction of family planning (52 percent of married women use birth control), a rising median age of marrying couples and divorce rates, better education, higher awareness of women's careers and the drastic move from villages to cities.

Minimizing Jewish growth

The demographic establishment leans – and has done so since 1948 – to minimize Jewish natural growth and to exaggerate that of the Arabs, to dismiss the potential of Jewish immigration to Israel and to ignore Arab emigration from Israel.

For example, Jewish productivity over the last five years (2.7 children per woman) is higher than the highest scenario considered by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, whereas the Arab numbers (4 children) approaches the lowest scenario.

According to UNRWA, Arab productivity in the West Bank has plummeted, from 5.4 children per woman to 3.24.

In the 1980s Prof. Della Pergola erred in estimating the number of Jews in the Soviet Union (50 percent) and claimed there was no chance for massive aliya from there.

Today he uses the Palestinian bureau's numbers (minus Jerusalem Arabs) as a source for his estimates (American Jewish Congress yearbook, 2003). If he used the Israeli numbers (2.1 million in 1997), it would have been mathematically impossible to have reached 3.4 million in 2004, as he claims.

Faulty numbers

Prof. Arnon Sofer claimed in April, 2004 that there were 2.8 million Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. By October 2004 that number had risen to 3.8 million, but in November the number was back to 2.8 million.

In May, 2005, at a debate at Haifa University, he moved from 3.4 million to 3 million, and in a Ynetnews article on January 24 the number was back up to 3.7 million.

And so it turns out that the demographic knife is not really hanging over our heads. In 1900 Jews constituted just eight percent of the population west of the Jordan, in 1948 it was 48 percent, and today we are 60 percent. Without Gaza, the Jewish majority is stable at 67 percent within the "green line", Judea and Samaria.

Only Palestinian immigration to the West Bank – and from there over the "green line" – will upset the demographic scales. Fateful policy decisions must be based on facts, not on statistics provided by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, and certainly not on superficial assumptions about demography that bear no relation to reality.

Yoram Ettinger is a regular contributor to Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 07:13 PM | Permalink

Nano Retina develops bionic retina for visually impaired

By Karin Kloosterman
June 12, 2011

The Israeli company expects clinical trials to position its tiny implant as the most advanced solution for people with damaged retinas.
Nano Retina
Bio-Retina is activated by special eyeglasses, transforming light into an electrical impulse that stimulates the neurons to send images to the brain.

A two-year-old Israeli company is pairing electrodes with living neurons in the eye to create bionic sight for the vision impaired, in a nanotech development that sounds more like science fiction, than real life.

Nano Retina, operating since 2009 in Herzliya, is now manufacturing an R&D prototype of the development. While it is not the first in the field to develop such a technology, its advance offers a tenfold improvement in vision compared to the two technology solution providers on the market today, according to the company's managing director, Ra'anan Gefen.

Inserted into the retina in a 30-minute procedure, Nano Retina's implant device, about the size of a grain of rice, turns into an artificial retina that melds to the neurons in the eye. It is activated by the wearer using special eyeglasses, transforming natural light into an electrical impulse that stimulates the neurons to send images to the brain.

With investment money from its founding partners, and a grant from BIRD, the US-Israel Bilateral Research and Development Fund, Nano Retina plans to start clinical trials in 2013. If successful, these trials could lead to restoring the vision of millions of people with degenerative retinal disease, including those suffering from age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

According to the National Federation of the Blind, some 50,000 people in the United States go blind every year, and there are currently some 3.6 million Americans aged 40 and up who are legally blind.

Easy procedure for instant results

A joint venture of Rainbow Medical and Zyvex Labs, Nano Retina's Bio-Retina is a man-made electronic retina activated by glasses fitted with a laser energy source.

The implantation requires only local anesthesia and a small incision. Vision is restored almost immediately, with a recovery time of one week.

"We are talking about a 10 times better resolution [than existing solutions] and in the gray scale, instead of black and white," Gefen says. "It will enable people to have vision similar to somebody who wears glasses, so they can read, watch TV and function in society."

The best that can be hoped for with existing procedures is a 50 percent chance that the patient would be able to recognize the door in the room, says Gefen, referring to the industry benchmark of how to measure restored sight. "We hope [Bio-Retina] can do much better than that," Gefen says confidently.

"We are working extremely fast to facilitate it. I am sure we can deliver, and can show [how this device will] function by the end of this year."

"At the edge of technology, we are working at helping disabled people." This is, he says, "a good reason to wake up in the morning and do our best to bring it to life."

The people behind a life-changing technology

Nano Retina was founded by a team of entrepreneurs and businessmen, including veteran inventor Yossi Gross, Jim R. Von Ehr and Efi Cohen-Arazi. The company also works with consultants and researchers including Prof. Yael Hanein from Tel Aviv University.

At the helm is Gefen, a graduate of the prestigious Talpiot, an elite Israel Defense Forces training program that allows young people gifted in science and mathematics to pursue higher education and then bring their expertise to further IDF research and development. Given his experience in the defense market, and the last 10 years in biotech, Gefen is certain that Nano Retina is offering a life-changing technology.

And he is not alone: In advance of the BioMed Conference held last month in Tel Aviv, Nano Retina was named one of Israel's top 10 promising biotech companies.

This is just the kind of thing that the Israeli government should use in a PR campaign to demonstrate how Israel and the Jewish people are fulfilling the commandment to be a light unto the world.

In this case it is literally a light unto a world or a person who was blind and now can see.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 08:44 AM | Permalink

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
14/06/2011
Ramallah official refuses to confirm report Fayyad won’t serve in next gov't; Fatah fears PA leadership without him will lead West to suspend aid.

Hamas and Fatah have reached an agreement over the composition of a unity government, Azzam al-Ahmed, head of the Fatah negotiating team with Hamas, announced late on Tuesday.

The announcement came at the conclusion of another round of talks between Hamas and Fatah representatives in Cairo, who met to discuss the implementation of their Egyptian- brokered reconciliation agreement.

Ahmed said the new government would be announced in Cairo next week during a meeting between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.

He added that the two parties still had not agreed on who would be prime minister.

Ahmed would neither confirm nor deny a report on Al- Jazeera that claimed Fatah and Hamas had agreed that incumbent Prime Minister Salam Fayyad would be left out of the new government.

“We don’t want to talk about excluding anyone,” the Fatah official said. “But we agreed that there would be conformity on this issue. So far there no conformity on the issue of the prime minister.”

Asked about Hamas’s demand that the prime minister be from the Gaza Strip, Ahmed said: “We are searching for a Palestinian prime minister, and not a prime minister from South Africa or any other country. It’s not important if the prime minister is from this city or that.”

According to the Al-Jazeera report, Hamas and Fatah have in fact agreed on a prime minister, but have decided not name him for now. Fayyad would not be part of the unity government, the report said.

Earlier this week, the Fatah Central Committee voted to nominate Fayyad to continue as prime minister – a proposal that was immediately rejected by Hamas.

Ezzat Risheq, a senior Damascus-based Hamas official, said that during the Cairo discussions on Tuesday, his movement reiterated fierce opposition to the appointment of Fayyad as head of a unity government.

Fatah leaders expressed fear that the exclusion of Fayyad from the new government would prompt the US and EU donor countries to suspend financial aid to the Palestinians.

Sources in the Gaza Strip claimed that Muhammad Mustafa, economic adviser to Abbas, was a leading candidate to head the unity government, which would consist of independent technocrats.

True colors come shining through,because you all are Jew hating terrorist.

But it doesn't matter as the world no longer has the ability to identify evil.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 05:40 PM | Permalink

Obama Gives Netanyahu Ultimatum on Resuming Talks

Israel Radio Reported Sunday that The United States gave Netanyahu an ultimatum on renewing negotiations with the Palestinians.

According to the ultimatum, Netanyahu has to decide within a month whether he agrees to accept US President Obama’s proposal and resume talks based on 1967 lines.

Washington is pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accede to its proposal to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on the basis of U.S. President Barack Obama’s May 19 speech.

An Israeli source who spoke recently with senior officials in Washington said the Americans were very frustrated with Netanyahu’s behavior, feeling that he was impeding America’s efforts to keep the Palestinians from unilaterally seeking UN recognition of a state in September.

Netanyahu’s personal envoy, Isaac Molho, spent last week in Washington, where the Americans presented their proposal for resuming talks on the basis of Obama’s speech. Specifically, Obama’s plan calls for negotiating over borders and security first, while deferring issues such as Jerusalem and the refugees until later. It also calls for the borders to be based on the 1967 lines, with mutually agreed land swaps.

The Americans told Molho that to block European initiatives such as France’s proposal for an international peace conference in Paris, they must have something concrete to offer, like Netanyahu‘s agreement to negotiate on the basis of Obama’s speech.

The U.S. proposal was also given to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who said the Palestinians would resume talks on this basis.

Bibi do not cave into pressure, stay strong.

Call Obama's bluff. He has an election coming up and can not afford to throw Israel to the wolves. G-D forbid he get's a second term because he will do everything in his power to insure the wolves get fed.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 02:30 PM | Permalink

This Sunday will be a special edition or at least as far as I am concerned of Middle East Radio Forum.

I will be the only guest and the topic will be what would I do if I were the Prime Minister of Israel.

Do not miss this show as it will be any thing but PC.

The time of the show is 3pm EDT, 12 noon Pacific, 10pm Israel, every Sunday. Please feel free to call in if you have any questions about my weekly comments. If you should happen to miss the show then you can go to the MERF web page and listen to me and other guest in the archives.

You can listen to the show by going to the MERF web page

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 05:05 AM | Permalink

Israel, the masses are coming

Op-ed: Israel in a race against time to find non-lethal weapons to be used against Arab masses

Alex Fishman
Published: 06.09.11, 23:45

There were days when we mocked the “Hatzatzit,” the stone-throwing vehicle developed by the IDF to respond to the first Intifada’s mass demonstrations. How could it be, we wondered, that the great, wise IDF goes back to the Stone Age and confronts civilians so primitively?

Yet these days, in the face of the embarrassing images of hundreds of Palestinians storming into Israel from Syria, some defense officials here long for the good old “Hatzatzit,” which was capable of hurling stones in every direction in order to disperse crowds. However, we no longer have a “Hatzatzit.” The vehicles were taken apart years ago in one of the IDF’s frugality binges.

Yet the “Hatzatzit” is merely a parable, of course. At this time, the IDF does not possess a modern, proper means characterized as a “non-lethal weapon” that can contend with mass riots by unarmed civilians

Only after the operational mishap on the Golan Heights, where dozens of Syrians entered Israel, did someone around here wake up: Officials issued a sweeping order to seek non-lethal weapons at any price, anywhere on the globe. Our entire establishment is now focusing on this mission.

It’s not as though they failed to see the need for such weapons before. We even saw early-stage developments based on sound waves that can paralyze large crowds or a system that utilizes electric fields (a project that was rejected by the IDF’s chief medical officer.) For some 20 years, various ideas came up following traumatic incidents involving encounters with civilians – yet the events ended, and the ideas and budgets dried up

Criminal neglect

After all, this is how the State of Israel conducts itself in the areas most critical to its existence: Leaks are fixed, fires are put out, and we hope for the best until the next crisis comes around. Does anyone even remember the march of Hezbollah members in May 2000 towards South Lebanon Army outposts that dictated the timing and manner of the IDF’s withdrawal?

Back then too, the marchers faced confused commanders who had two choices: Kill them or fold. An IDF division commander faced the exact same dilemma in Majdal Shams recently, as if 11 years haven’t passed since then.

The State of Israel’s security and existence are currently facing three threats: Iranian nukes, the thousands of rockets and missiles that cover the entire country’s territory, and mass uprisings like the Intifadas, Nakba Day and the new model that emerged in the Arab world in recent months.

Israel has invested and is investing huge sums of money and diplomatic efforts to thwart the first two long-range threats. Yet in the face of the third threat, what we’ve seen thus far is criminal neglect. We saw it with the Turkish flotilla. We see it daily on the Egyptian border, with hundreds of African refugees coming in and encountering an army that does not have the means to respond.

The Palestinians continue to erode Israel’s global status through a gradual effort aimed at painting us as the culprit in the international theater by September. Meanwhile, the world holds greater sympathy for popular uprisings. For that reason, we shall see more flotillas as well as more marches to our borders, and the IDF won’t know what to do.

We have orders and contingency plans, but in the final analysis the only effective military solution at this time is bullets. Those who cross the border put their lives at risk. Needless to say, the world will not accept this. We cannot massacre hundreds of unarmed civilians that storm the border fence. It is doubtful whether any IDF officer would issue such order.

So now we have a commotion. We must find a solution, quickly. The Defense Ministry already established expert committees. Officials are already mulling the possibility of using Israel’s new firefighting squadron to hurl smelly or colored water at the masses. Other officials are meeting with military attachés, seeking American solutions used in Afghanistan, and hoping that the answers will arrive here before the masses do.

STOP IT, STOP BEING AFRAID.

I know our soldiers will have no problem opening fire, and this will start the long way back to reestablishing deterrence.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 04:56 AM | Permalink

By REUTERS AND JPOST.COM STAFF
07/06/2011
Group becomes an official political party for the first time since they were outlawed in 1954; can run in September's elections.

CAIRO - The Egyptian official news agency on Tuesday recognized the Muslim Brotherhood as a legitimate party for the first time since it was outlawed in 1954, AP reported.

The party was recognized as the "Freedom and Justice Party" and will be allowed to run in the parliamentary elections scheduled for September, the report said.

The party's candidates, running as independents, won 20 percent of the Egyptian vote in the 2005 parliamentary election.

To be recognized as a party under the new rules, the party has announced it will be open to Muslims, Christians and women, AP said.

Previously, a senior member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said he would run for president as an independent. At the time, the Islamist group that said it will not field a candidate.

Secular groups and the West are concerned by how much power the Brotherhood may gain after the first elections since the toppling of president Hosni Mubarak. Decades of authoritarian rule has curbed the development of potential rivals.

Egypt's biggest Islamist movement had sought to assuage fears by saying it would not seek the presidency in polls due by early next year; nor would it pursue a majority in September parliamentary polls, contesting only 50 percent of seats.

But Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, a reformist leading member of the group, told Reuters:

"I will run as an independent candidate in the coming presidential elections. I am not a member of any party now."

Abul Futuh said his move did not mean the Brotherhood had changed tack. "The Brotherhood as a group is not competing for the presidency and is now separating its mandates, a move I had called for four years ago," he said, a reference to a new political party the Brotherhood has set up.

Under Mubarak, the group fielded candidates as independents in elections, skirting a ban on its political activities and maintaining a nationwide organization others lacked.

The military council, in charge until a new president is elected, has said Egypt will not become an Iran-style theocracy.

A poll published on April 22 in the staterun Ahram newspaper showed Abul Futuh and outgoing Arab League chief Amr Moussa, with the highest voter support at 20 percent, while Mohamed ElBaradei, a retired U.N. diplomat, had 12 percent support. A senior Brotherhood member said Abul Futuh's decision was personal and the group would not back his candidacy. "Abul Futuh's decision counters the Brotherhood's official decision," said Sobhi Saleh, a leading Brotherhood member in Alexandria.

http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=224063

Do not be surprised if the Brotherhood is the largest political party after the election. Also do not be surprised if the second largest party is the Nazi party of Egypt.

The time is coming for America to be tested, to see how strong the ties are between Israel and the USA.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 08:00 AM | Permalink

By GIL HOFFMAN
06/06/2011
Large majorities recognize importance of keeping J'lem under Israeli sovereignty, oppose transferring Temple Mount to Palestinian control.

Seventy-seven percent of Israelis oppose returning to pre-1967 lines even if it would lead to a peace agreement and declarations by Arab states of an end to their conflict with Israel, a poll revealed Monday.

The Dahaf Institute poll of 500 Israelis representing a sample of the population was taken last week and commissioned by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs to coincide with Monday night's presentation of Bar Ilan University's Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies' Guardian of Zion Award to JCPA's head, former ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold.

The poll found that large majorities of 85% and 75% respectively recognized the importance of maintaining a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty within the framework of any final peace deal and opposed transferring the Temple Mount to Palestinian control even if the Western Wall were to remain in Israeli hands.

Regarding the Jordan Valley, 84% believe Israel must maintain control of the strategic border with Jordan even in the framework of a final peace agreement.

The JCPA has been a major advocate of ensuring that Israel keep defensible borders as the United Nations decided after the Six Day War. The poll found that 60% of Israelis believed that defensible borders would ensure security more than a peace agreement would and that 82% considered security concerns more important than a peace deal.

In comparison with polls sponsored by JCPA in 2005, Israelis have become less convinced the Palestinians will recognize the right of Israel to exist and give up their demand for millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees to enter the final borders of Israel.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 03:00 PM | Permalink

Amjad Awad said he has no regrets over butchering five members of Fogel family in Itamar, even if it means he'll get death sentence
Ahiya Raved

"I'm proud of what I did," so declared Amjad Mahmad Awad, 19, on Sunday just moments before an indictment against him and his partner Hakim Awad was filed before the Judea and Samaria Sector Military Court, over the murders of five members of the Fogel family two and a half months ago.

"I don't regret what I did, even if it means I'm sentenced to death," Amjad said ahead of the indictment hearing.

Five members of the Fogel family were butchered in the March 11 terror attack in Itamar. Husband and wife Udi and Ruthie Fogel and three of their children: Yoav (11) Elad (4) and baby Hadas (four months).

A month after the attack elite IDF forces succeeded in capturing the murderers. A few soldiers arrived at Amjad's house in the village of Awarta near Itamar in the middle of the night.

"He was sleeping and surprised by our arrival. He was very frightened. In spite of his young age he carried out these monstrous acts," said Captain N, commander of the Duvdevan (cherry) unit.

According to N, "since the attack we were on high alert to arrest those responsible for this horrific murder. It was clear to us that this was an important case and that we needed to be prepared. Our preparations included many scenarios…When it was all over I told my soldiers that they did a great thing."

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 10:18 PM | Permalink

Protestors at northern border promised $1,000 reward by Assad's regime, Reform Party of Syria claims; Israeli officials: Damascus encouraged rioters. Syria says IDF killed 23 people, wounded 350; army says figures inflated
Ynet

Protestors for hire? Demonstrators along the Syria-Israel border were paid thousands of dollars by President Bashar Assad's regime to take part in Sunday's riots, Syrian opposition activists charge.

Israeli officials later reinforced the claims, accusing the Syrian regime of encouraging protests along the northern border.

Sunday’s riots were an attempt "to divert attention away from the massacre in Syria,” one official charged. "The Syrians will be held accountable for these events.”

Late Sunday, Syrian officials claimed that 23 people were killed and 350 were wounded after the IDF fired at protestors aiming to rush the border fence earlier in the day. However, the army dismissed the figures, claiming that they were inflated.

Washington-based members of the Reform Party of Syria said intelligence sources close to the Syrian government in Lebanon informed them that the protesters on the Syrian side of the Druze community of Majdal Shams were in fact poverty-stricken farmers paid by the Assad regime.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 07:32 PM | Permalink

Op-ed: While world seeks to defeat terror, Stockholm welcomes notorious terrorist into country
Abraham Cooper, Daniel Schatz

The number one topic around the globe has been the world after Bin Laden and the appropriate ways for democracies to dispose of terrorists. From Washington, to Brussels, to Tel Aviv and Islamabad, pundits and average citizens have weighed in on the debate.

Sweden’s contribution to the question of how to deal with terrorism was to provide a welcome mat - in the form of a taxpayer-funded lecture tour - for the notorious Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) airplane hijacker, Leila Khaled.

Khaled literally burst onto the world scene in 1969 when she boarded TWA’s flight 840 in Rome with hand grenades taped around her waist. She stormed the cockpit, declaring she belonged to the Che Guevara Commando Unit of the Marxist-Leninist PFLP. Terrified passengers were held hostage and only released after Israel agreed to free Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. One year later, she masterminded a new brutal hijacking after undergoing plastic surgery to conceal her identity.

In 2002, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, The European Union through its European Council decided to include the PFLP on its list of terrorist groups.

The people of Israel are all too familiar with the savagery of the PFLP. It took responsibility for the 2001 assassination of Tourism Minister, Rehavam Zeevi. On Friday night, March 11th 2011, two PFLP members butchered the Fogel family in Itamar, including four-and eleven-year-old children and a three-month infant.

Ms. Khaled sits on the PFLP Central Committee and has not expressed regret for her involvement in terrorism. Because of her history of aiding and abetting terrorism, a police complaint was recently issued against her in Sweden for gross violations of international law.

But that came too late. During her tax-payer funded visit to Sweden, Khaled spoke at the May Day demonstrations of the Stalinist Swedish Communist Party and the Anarcho-syndicalist Trade Union Federation. She held publicly funded lectures at an Art Gallery and spoke on developments in the Middle East at the publicly- funded Södertörn

University College.

Incredibly, Khaled also participated at a seminar on political activism arranged by the Left Party represented in Sweden’s Parliament.

The organizers of her appearances had nothing but praise for the PFLP leader. Anna Ahlstrand, Project Manager at Konsthall C, which is funded by the government’s Arts Grant Committee, declared “she is an icon for many people”. Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Project Manager at the Governmental Arts Grants Committee that financed her tour described the arch terrorist as “a very established feminist thinker.”

Irresponsible behavior

Unfortunately, Leila Khaled isn’t the first member of a Palestinian terrorist group to get special treatment from Stockholm. In 2006, the Swedish consulate in Jerusalem, in contravention of EU regulations, granted a Schengen visa to Hamas’ Minister of Refugees, Atef Adwan. Such a visa makes it possible for the bearer to travel across 15 European Countries. That decision provoked protests from Israel, which said it lent legitimacy to Hamas, and from France, which had rejected earlier visa requests by Hamas leaders.

So far Sweden’s decision to grant entry to Khaled – a leading representative of an organization deemed a terrorist group by more than 30 countries, including Sweden, all EU Member States and the United States – hasn’t spurred protest from the US or other

European countries.

But the decision to allow her into Sweden could have broader consequences. It comes at a time when many European nations want to take back direct control of their national frontiers. Indeed, the European Commission is currently debating the re-imposition of border controls within the so-called Schengen region.

Leila Khalid’s taxpayer-funded trip comes even as Swedish authorities continue to turn a deaf ear to repeated calls from the Jewish Community and the Simon Wiesenthal Center to fund security for Jewish institutions facing increasing anti-Semitism and global Islamist threats.

The irresponsible behavior of Swedish authorities will likely doom any future role in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Back in 2000, following a more even-handed Middle East policy under then Swedish PM Goran Persson, Stockholm did help facilitate Israeli Palestinian negotiations.

According to leaked WikiLeaks reports, Carl Bildt, the current Foreign Minister is characterized, as a “medium size dog with big dog attitude.” But his government hasn’t even bothered to present a veneer of neutrality when it comes to the Holy Land, as evidenced by the fact that not a single minister visited Israel during the Swedish EU Presidency.

On the Iranian front, Bildt distinguished himself as one of the EU leaders most opposed to increased sanctions against Tehran. The very same diplomat rushed to Istanbul in June 2010 to personally greet and have his picture taken with Swedish participants in the infamous Turkish Gaza Flotilla.

If Sweden is serious about opposing terrorism and promoting Mideast peace, it must reveal the circumstances behind Leila Khalid’s entry and departure from Swedish and EU Territory and who approved the allocation of taxpayers’ funds for a woman who stands for everything Osama Bin Laden lived and died for.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is the Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Daniel Schatz is a Visiting Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University and is an expert on European and Scandinavian Politics

Why have we allowed her to live all these years.

Or we just might find our back against the wall.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 07:28 PM | Permalink

For those who would like to hear me on the radio, I am very pleased to announce that I will be having a weekly appearance on the Middle East Radio Forum, the show is hosted By William Wolf.

You can listen to the show by going to the MERF web page
http://www.middleeastradioforum.org/

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 02:32 PM | Permalink

Security forces ready for riots, mass marches on Israel's borders as part of Palestinian 'Naksa Day' marking 44th anniversary of Six Day War
Alex Fishman

IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz has ordered the increased deployment of security forces across all Israel's borders starting Friday and pending the conclusion of all "Naksa Day" events.

The Palestinians are planning a series of events to mark "Naksa Day" – the 44th anniversary of the Six Day War – starting Sunday.

Most disconcerting, as far as Israel is concerned, are calls by pro-Palestinian supporters – issued mostly on social media website – for Palestinians to march on and possibly storm all of Israel's borders.

Israel wishes avoid a reoccurrence of the events of "Nakba Day," and since Military Intelligence indicates that Syrian and Lebanese elements plane to mobilize thousands of people for the sake of trying to rush the northern borders, the IDF has increased the order of battle on the ground in all sectors, and especially in the Northern Command.

Israel must be ready to use any and all force to secure our borders.

I also call on Israel to go to war against the leadership of all these groups seeking to destroy Israel. Again using all the force needed to stop the leadership from being able to function against Israel.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 06:15 AM | Permalink

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
01/06/2011
Central C'tee member, close to Abbas says only governments recognize each other, not political parties; praises Hamas leader's speech.

Fatah has never recognized Israel’s right to exist and will never do so, according to Azzam al-Ahmed, member of the Fatah Central Committee, who is closely associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Ahmed, who is also head of the Fatah negotiating team with Hamas, said that PA security forces in the West Bank were arresting Hamas supporters to protect them from being targeted by the IDF.

Ahmed’s remarks were made in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Asked whether Fatah had asked with Hamas about recognizing Israel, the senior Fatah official said: “Fatah has not recognized Israel. I challenge anyone who says that the case if otherwise, whether it’s Hamas or others. Neither Fatah nor Hamas are required to recognize Israel. Only governments and states recognize. It was the Palestinian government that recognized Israel, just as the Israeli government recognized us.”

Ahmed pointed out that the PLO had recognized Israel with the signing of the Oslo Accords. “An organization recognized a state and a state recognized an organization,” he said. “Now states should recognize each other when a Palestinian state is declared next September.”

In response to allegations that PA security forces have been cracking down on Hamas supporters in the West Bank, Ahmed said: “We in Fatah arrest Hamas members to protect them from Israel or from family disputes.”

The Fatah official praised Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal for delivering a “wonderful” speech during the signing ceremony for the Egyptian-brokered Fatah-Hamas reconciliation accord in Cairo last month.

“Mashaal used political language like President Abbas,” he added. “He talked about a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders and said that he would give political efforts and negotiations a chance. Therefore, I consider this speech to be responsible.”

Ahmed said that the new Palestinian unity government, which would be established in accordance with the reconciliation pact, would not deal with peace talks with Israel. “The PLO is in charge of the negotiations,” he emphasized. “Hamas will enter the PLO Executive Committee and become part of the PLO.”

He said that he was happy to see Egyptians demonstrate outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo in the aftermath of the departure of the regime of Hosni Mubarak.

“When I see the demonstrations surrounding the Israeli embassy in Cairo, I feel optimistic and that, as a Palestinians, I have received a new weapon and pressure force,” Ahmed explained. “This is a new change and we have seen how the Israelis are worried about these demonstrations.”

Now if only Bibi and all of the Israelis' would pay we could get ready for war. Give the Palestinians a war like they have never even thought possible and then after they scream surrender, we can build our future.

We could then offer those Arabs that want to live in peace with green cards a chance to do so and the rest of the Arabs that choose to continue war and terrorism would be deported.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 08:37 AM | Permalink

By REUTERS
01/06/2011
Ahmadinejad urges Cairo to rebuild diplomatic relations with Iran, saying it would lead to emergence of a new "great power"; "our enemies" see rapprochement as a threat, offers Egypt "Iranian experiences."

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Egypt on Wednesday to rebuild diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, saying the emergence of a new "great power" would force "Zionists" to leave the region.

At a meeting with Egyptian academics, clerics and media representatives in Tehran, Ahmadinejad pushed his plan to rebuild links with Cairo after the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February.

The idea of a rapprochement between Shi'ite-led Iran and Sunni-majority Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, would alarm the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"Our enemies do not want us rebuild our ties because they know a great political and economic power will emerge from our cooperation," Ahmadinejad said.

"Then all the Zionists along with other enemies of nations must leave and escape this region."

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly forecast the imminent disappearance of the Jewish state, which Jerusalem says is a threat of annihilation, especially because of Iran's nuclear program. Tehran denies it is seeking atomic bombs.

"I proudly announce that we are ready to give all our experiences to the Egyptian nation ... if there is an investment opportunity in Egypt we are proudly willing to do that," state broadcaster IRIB quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Under Mubarak, Egypt was a close US ally which maintained its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and shared Saudi Arabia's suspicions of Iran and its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Ahmadinejad said an alliance with Iran would remove Egypt's need to rely on US support.

"If we stand together, there is no need for their [American] help because Iran and Egypt have needs which can be met by relying on each other's capabilities," he said.

Ties between Cairo and Tehran were severed after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and Egypt's signing of the peace treaty with Israel. Although Egypt and Iran do not have full diplomatic relations, each has a diplomatic mission in the other's capital.

Tehran sees improved ties with Egypt as a desirable outcome of what it calls the Arab world's "Islamic awakening", which it hopes will reduce US influence and unite Muslim countries.

Last week Egyptian authorities briefly detained and questioned an Iranian diplomat on suspicion of spying. He was released when his diplomatic status was confirmed and returned to Iran.

Two Iranian naval ships passed through Egypt's Suez Canal in February, the first to be allowed to do so since the Islamic revolution, a move Israel described as a "provocation".

Obama said he would change things, and boy oh boy are things changing.

The really scary part is I think this is part of the change he wanted, which implies intent on his part. It would be so much nicer to stick your head in the sand and think Obama is just a Jimmy Carter an idiot. But alas Obama is far beyond being an idiot he is evil.

Posted by Yoni Tidi at 08:32 AM | Permalink