More info:Saudis air corridor is open, US, Israel self-immobilized on Iran

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
Saudi air corridor to Iran is unused. Israeli bombers are grounded

The Saudi air corridor offered Israel for an attack on Iran reported in the London Times of Saturday, June 12, was an old story rehashed by Riyadh in the hope of egging the US and Israel on to break free of their self-imposed restraints and halt Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb before it is too late. debkafile's Middle East sources report the explosive developments of the last two weeks, primarily the meteoric rise of a thrusting partnership between the two non-Arab powers, Turkey and Iran, have badly rattled Arab capitals, especially when they see the Obama administration and Netanyahu government immersed in tying themselves and each other in knots over the format of an inquiry into Turkish flotilla incident.

The London Times reported that Saudi Arabia had conducted tests to stand down its air defenses to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Riyadh was said to have agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defense systems not activated.

“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” said a US defense source in the area. Sources in Saudi Arabia say, "It is common knowledge within defense circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions."

debkafile adds: Appearing in the week UN sanctions were approved against Iran, this report amounted to a Saudi no-confidence vote in its value.

Low expectations of the sanctions are no secret in Washington either. According to the New York Times, the Obama administration has prepared Plans A, B, C. and D, if sanctions fail to stop Iran's push for a nuke. No details were published, but the NYT quoted Barak Obama as noting in April: "…once Iran passes a certain point, it may be impossible to know when it has taken the last steps to manufacture a (nuclear) weapon."
This did not stop defense secretary Robert Gates speaking after a NATO meeting in Brussels on June 11, from whipping out the rusty device beloved of the Bush administration: "I think everyone agrees we have some more time, including the Israelis. …I would say the intelligence estimates range from one to three years."

In the Middle East meanwhile, events are rushing forward with explosive haste, impelled in the last ten days by the Turkish-led flotilla for breaking the Gaza blockade and the Israeli commando raid to intercept it.

The rise of the Turkish-Iranian alliance has not only thrust America and Israel to the wings the Middle East stage, but is deeply alarming Cairo, Riyadh, the Gulf emirate and even Syria. They suddenly see Prime minister Recep Erdogan and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dictating the region's agenda with no one there to stop them.

Within days, the balance of power in the region has been reshuffled to extend way beyond Tehran's hand on Hizballah's levers in Beirut and the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza. Iran has acquired an important member of NATO as a proactive ally.

Gates' only comment on this development was: "I was disappointed by the Turkey vote on the Iranian sanctions. That said, Turkey is a decades-long ally of the US and a member of NATO. Turkey continues to play a critical part in the alliance."

Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minster Ehud Barak are just as laggard in addressing the formidable new axis looming over the region and the Jewish state, in particular. They are too busy quibbling with Washington over the shape of the impartial commission the UN has demanded for probing Israel's actions against the Turkish-led flotilla of May 31 - though certainly not, perish the thought, Turkey's role or the Erdogan government's close ties with the IHH terrorists aboard the Turkish ship.

What Netanyahu and Barak have not told the public is that the dickering with the Obama administration has dragged out for five days because the US wants the impartial commission empowered to question the Israeli officers and soldiers who raided the Mavi Marmara in a clash which left 9 Turks dead, and several wounded including six Israel commandos.

If Obama has his way, Israeli soldiers will for the first time face questioning by American and European investigators. Israeli leaders understand that compliance would add fuel to the international campaign for de-legitimizing the Jewish state as a sovereign state and respectable member of the world community of nations. The Israelli Defense Forces would be further immobilized under a sustained international campaign to discredit them on the lines of the Goldstone report on the Gaza war - only this time Washington is taking the lead in the de-legitimacy campaign.

With no one apparently available for keeping Iran out of the nuclear club, Riyadh did what it could. Using the London Times platform, Saudi Arabia's princely rulers opened the door to positive action in order to lift morale in the oil kingdom and its army and remind Washington, Jerusalem and the other Middle East players that soft sanctions need not be the last word; they are offering Israeli bombers a corridor for striking Iran's nuclear facilities and chance to reshape the region's declining reality.
debkafile adds: The air corridor is now clearly open but still unused. There appears to be no one in Washington or Jerusalem willing or able to order the bombers to take off.

via docstalk.blogspot.com

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When Rabbis Attack: Standing Up for Charles Jacobs

The name Charles Jacobs should be a familiar one to readers of this blog. Charles Jacobs, founder of The David Project, co-founder of the Boston branch of CAMERA and the American Anti-Slavery Group, and now Americans for Peace and Tolerance. I would hazard to say, without any exaggeration at all, that Charles Jacobs has done as much or more for the Jewish People (and Western Values in general) off the pulpit than any other single person in New England.
Unfortunately for Charles, and more importantly, for us all, Charles Jacobs stepped on the toes of the Massachusetts left-wing Rabbinical establishment with his recent column: What's up with Deval Patrick? In the column, Jacobs addresses the political controversy stirred up by Governor Deval Patrick's recent visit to the Islamic Society of Boston Mosque. (More on that in the videos below.) Along the way, Jacobs called out some of the local religious leadership which has credulously run toward the cliff in allowing themselves to be used as a whitewash for some of the mosque's radical connections, many of whom should well know better. Jacobs even had the temerity (honesty) to call Rabbi Eric Gurvis by name.
Read the linked column. What's written about Gurvis may sting for the truth of it, but it can hardly be called a substance-less personal attack.
Not so the response it has garnered, however.
Not allowing any slight to go unpunished, seventy of Gurvis' colleagues -- most of them on the liberal left-wing of the Reform and Reconstructionist movements -- have counterattacked with an open letter, printed in the same local paper that Jacobs' column originally appeared in. I have pasted the letter and the complete list of signatories at the end of this post. Please review the list to see if your Rabbi is on it.
The Rabbis call the Jacobs column a "vicious, personal attack," when it was anything but. In fact, it is these Rabbis who are guilty of committing a scurrilous personal attack on a man who has put more on the line for this community than most of them can ever hope to do in their lifetimes. Their letter is devoid of any response whatsoever to the substantive matters that Charles Jacobs has exposed. Their letter is a reply the nature of which ought to be beneath the dignity of Jewish clergy. They didn't respond this way when it was brought to light that patrons of this mosque were preaching the worst kind of despicable Jew hatred. No, these "leaders" who have elevated "dialogue" and "interfaith relations" to the level of a fetish have reserved their worst invective for a man who dared simply to criticize one of their guild. They have utterly abdicated their responsibility to protect their own community in favor of good relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and a few friendly photo-ops, even stooping to the commandeering of Torah verse as a bludgeon, a blackjack employed in the service of their personal vendetta.
Where have they been as the Wahhabis have built the east coasts' largest Mosque? Silent. Hiding. Complicit. And they dare attack the one man -- more leader than any of them -- who was willing to put himself and his own reputation on the line when none of them would? Shame on them. The fact is they know they've lost authority, though their own inaction, to this unordained layman...and it galls them.
They have so badly forgotten that their primary responsibility to the rest of us is not comity at all costs, but to speak the truth and stand for our community, that they have cast their sense of propriety to the wind and shamed themselves.
Again I ask, is your Rabbi on the list?
Here is everything you need to know. First, watch this excellent video of Charles discussing matters with Bill Whittle of PJTV. Jacobs is eloquent and measured throughout:

Second, here is that Americans for Peace and Tolerance video about the Patrick visit to the Mosque. This is that painful substance the Rabbis wish to ignore:

By the way, even the lefty Boston Phoenix assails the Patrick visit to the ISB in an excellent editorial entitled Mickey Mouse Multiculturalism
Now, here is that "Rabbinical" letter:

Rabbis come to the defense of a colleague under fire
We write in defense of our colleague Rabbi Eric Gurvis. Rabbi Gurvis leads Temple Shalom of Newton, is the past president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, Boston Area Reform Rabbis and currently serves as the president of the Newton Clergy Association. He is a distinguished teacher and respected community leader.
We were shocked and appalled by the vicious, personal attack written by Charles Jacobs and printed in
The Jewish A dvocate. We denounce this attack and call upon Mr. Jacobs to discontinue his destructive campaign against Boston's Muslim community, which is based on innuendo, half-truths and unproven conspiracy theories. We call upon members of our community to reject the dangerous politics of division that Mr. Jacobs fosters.
Rabbi Gurvis stood with a number of us at a recent interfaith press conference, denouncing the inappropriate words of a gubernatorial candidate who implied that addressing a large group of Muslims was "pandering to terrorists." Just as we rabbis would expect Christians and Muslims to stand with us Jews if we were unjustly held accountable for the actions of a handful of our people, Rabbi Gurvis stood with our Muslim neighbors. In fact, he pointed out that when Temple Shalom was defaced by a swastika, one of the first calls he received was from Bilal Kaleem from the Muslim American Society.
During these difficult times, Rabbi Gurvis, along with other courageous religious leaders, is attempting to foster a different kind of politics. We support his commitment to interfaith dialogue and cooperation. We stand together in our commitment to a community in which neighbors seek to know one another and join together for the common good.
We write these words following the week in which the Torah portion was Shelach Lecha. It tells the stories of the Israelite scouts who were overcome by fear. As a result, they "spread calumnies" among the entire Israelite camp, who in turn broke out into loud cries and weeping. Because they succumbed to their fears, G-d condemned this generation to die in the wilderness. We refuse to allow Mr. Jacobs to spread his calumnies and paralyze our community in fear.
We the undersigned rabbis support Rabbi Eric Gurvis and walk together in faith. (Institutional affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.)
Rabbi Thomas Alpert
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
(dean, Rabbinical School, Hebrew College)
Rabbi Stephen Arnold
Rabbi Lev Baesh (B'nai Or, Newton)
Rabbi Alfred Benjamin
(Rabbi, Temple Shalom, Milton)
Rabbi Joseph Berman
Rabbi Allison Berry (Temple Beth David, Canton)
Rabbi Herman Blumberg (Emeritus, Temple Shir
Tikva, Wayland)
Rabbi Carey Brown (Temple Isaiah, Lexington)
Rabbi Sharon Clevenger (The Rashi School,
Newton)
Rabbi Joe Eiduson (Congregation B'nai Shalom,
Westborough)
Rabbi Lisa Eiduson (Temple Beth Avodah,
Newton Centre)
Rabbi John Franken (Temple Ohabei Shalom,
Brookline)
Rabbi David Freelund (Cape Cod Synagogue,
Hyannis)
Rabbi Ronne Friedman (Temple Israel, Boston)
Rabbi Neal Gold (Temple Shir Tikva, Wayland)
Rabbi Robert Goldstein (Temple Emanuel
Andover)
Rabbi David Gordis (past president, Hebrew
College)
Rabbi Art Green (Hebrew College, Newton)
Rabbi Neil Hirsch (Temple Shalom, Newton)
Rabbi Boaz Heilman (Congregation B'nai Torah,
Sudbury)
Rabbi Sandi Intraub (Chaplain Resident, Hebrew
SeniorLife )
Rabbi Howard Jaffe (Temple Isaiah, Lexington)
Rabbi Shira Joseph (Congregation Sha'aray
Shalom, Hingham)
Rabbi Dan Judson (Hebrew College, Newton)
Rabbi Randy Kafka (Temple Israel South Shore,
North Easton)
Rabbi Daniel Klein
Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein
Rabbi David Kline
Rabbi Stephanie Kolin (Temple Israel, Boston)
Rabbi Neil Kominsky (Emeritus, Temple Emanuel,
Lowell)
Rabbi Jonathan Kraus (Beth El Temple Center,
Belmont)
Rabbi Claudia Kreiman (Temple Beth Zion,
Brookline)
Rabbi Judith Kummer
Rabbi Stephen Landau (Congregation Tikvoh
Chadoshoh, West Hartford, Conn.)
Rabbi Karen Landy (Hebrew Senior Life, Dedham;
Havurat Shalom, Andover)
Rabbi David Lerner (Temple Emunah, Lexington)
Rabbi Michele Lenke (Temple Beth Shalom,
Needham)
Rabbi Allan Lehmann (vice president,
Massachusetts Board of Rabbis)
Rabbi Greg Litcofsky (Temple Shir Tikva, Wayland)
Rabbi Natan Margalit (Hebrew College, Newton)
Rabbi Todd Markley (Temple Beth Shalom,
Needham)
Rabbi Daniel Medwin
Rabbi Bernard Mehlman (Emeritus, Temple Israel,
Boston)
Rabbi Rim Meirowitz (Temple Shir Tikvah,
Winchester)
Rabbi Joseph Meszler (Temple Sinai, Sharon)
Rabbi Laurence Milder (Congregation B'nai
Shalom, Westborough)
Rabbi James Morgan
Rabbi Jeremy Morrison (Temple Israel, Boston)
Rabbi Beth Naditch
Rabbi Michelle Pearlman (Temple Shalom,
Newton)
Rabbi Barbara Penzner (Temple Hillel B'nai Torah,
West Roxbury)
Rabbi Jay Perlman (Temple Beth Shalom,
Needham)
Rabbi Jonah Pesner (Director, Union for Reform
Judaism Just Congregations, Newton)
Rabbi Ellen Pildis (Jewish Studies Director,
The Rashi School, Newton)
Rabbi Elaine Pollack (Newton Lower Falls)
Rabbi David Reiner
Rabbi Victor Reinstein (Nehar Shalom Community
Synagogue, Jamaica Plain)
Rabbi Rachel Saphire (Temple Beth Elohim,
Wellesley)
Rabbi Talya Weisbard Shalem
Rabbi Lawrence Silverman (Congregation Beth
Jacob, Plymouth)
Rabbi Jodi Seewald Smith (Temple Chayai
Shalom, Easton MA)
Rabbi Joel Sisenwine (Temple Beth Elohim,
Wellesley)
RabbI Toba Spitzer (Congregation Dorshei Tzedek,
West Newton)
Rabbi Keith Stern (Temple Beth Avodah,
Newton Centre)
Rabbi David Thomas (Congregation Beth El of the
Sudbury River Valley, Sudbury, MA)
Rabbi Van Lanckton, (Temple B'nai Shalom,
Braintree)
Rabbi Andrew Vogel (Temple Sinai, Brookline)
Rabbi Moshe Waldoks (Temple Beth Zion, Brookline)
Rabbi Jeffrey Wildstein (Temple Beth David,
Westwood)
Rabbi David Wolfman (director, URJ National
Commission on Rabbinic-Congregational Relations)
Rabbi Julie Wolkoff
Rabbi Sara Zacharia (Hebrew College, Newton)
Rabbi Elaine Zecher (Temple Israel, Boston)
Rabbi Henry Zoob (Emeritus, Temple Beth David,
Westwood)
Hebrew College rabbinical students: Joel Baron, Rogerio Zingerevitz Cukierman, Tiffany Gordon, Margie Klein, Lev Meirowitz, Nelson, Suzie Schwartz, Lila Veissid and Judith Kates (professor)

Jacobs has issued his own response through APT (far more measured than mine, here):

In response to our video sounding the alarm about a Muslim American Society (MAS) imam who told followers to "pick up the gun and the sword," as well as to our criticism of Rabbi Eric Gurvis for embracing the MAS leadership, a group of seventy New England rabbis published a letter denouncing me in the Jewish Advocate.
The letter ignored every concern we raised about the MAS - its Saudi funders, its extremist leaders, its connections to terror and hate speakers. Instead, the rabbis who wrote it, accused me falsely of waging a campaign to defame Boston's Muslim community. These rabbis should have known, with minimal fact-checking, that I have been consistent in my positions: I believe the radical leaders of MAS Boston are first and foremost a threat to Boston's historically moderate Muslim community. The best way to fight this threat is to support the true moderates and reformers of Islam. This is a major component of the Americans for Peace and Tolerance mission and activity. Yet the rabbis irresponsibly claimed that I am defaming all Boston Muslims. This kind of slander can play right into the hands of MAS radicals, who may use this letter to incite Muslims against Americans for Peace and Tolerance and me. Their letter is untrue, inappropriate, and unbecoming for Jewish leaders.
The letter also contains a bizarre interpretation of a Biblical story to justify the rabbis' misguided attack. It is hard for me to believe that the signers actually read their own letter or thought through the weirdly constructed Biblical analogy. I think most signed on to support their colleague, Rabbi Gurvis. Others may have been motivated by progressive politics, political correctness, and the desire to show their universalism. None of the signed leaders approached Americans for Peace and Tolerance to get the facts about the MAS's Imam Faarooq.
You can read the rabbis' letter, which will appear in today's Jewish Advocate, below [above -MS]. You might also want to review our video and my op-ed discussing the relationship between the Governor and the MAS, as well as criticizing Rabbi Gurvis's support for the MAS.
As you know the Jewish community is under siege, and it is unfortunate that we are so divided. I hope you will take the time to call or write the rabbis who signed the letter and urge them to withdraw their names, to seek out the truth about the Muslim American Society and Imam Faarooq, and to join us in countering the radicalization of the Boston Muslim community...

Update: Another worthwhile response:

To the Editor, on your recent article, "Rabbis come to defense of a colleague under fire" (6/11 issue),
With all due respect, I invite the 70 rabbis who signed the open letter, "Rabbis come to defense of a colleague under fire," (6/11 issue), to reexamine Charles Jacobs' assertions in his article, "What's up with Patrick?" Jacobs' main point was not to discredit Rabbi Gurvis' past service to the community or to wage a "destructive campaign against Boston's Muslim community." Rather, Jacob's main point was to bring to light the danger of closing one's eyes to these specific Roxbury Mosque leaders' documented association with, and support of, global radical Islamic terror groups and indicted and jailed terrorists, such as Aafia Siddiqui. Jacobs does not base his assertions on innuendo or half-truths. Instead he has made available numerous FBI and court documents, public information, and videos, which everyone should read before criticizing Jacobs (see his website, www.peaceandtolerance.org). America is under attack both from within and without by radical Islamic terrorists whose goal is to destroy our lives and our freedom. We mustn't falsely accuse or limit freedoms of any Muslim citizen simply because he/she is Muslim. But every political and community leader - indeed every citizen - must be on the alert for those who are found to support acts of terror and anti-Semitism, and be careful not to embrace them as our co-laborer of peace. Nor should we accept them as speaking on behalf of truly moderate Muslims who support every citizen's security and liberty under the US Constitution.
Rev. Fumio Taku
President
Christians and Jews United for Israel

via solomonia.com

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Obama pleads for $50 billion in state, local aid

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

via washingtonpost.com

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Prince Charles Muslim Who Believes in the Gharquat Tree and Talking Stones

Poor Princess Diana. She would have been better off kissing a frog. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has been croaking again. This time, he hopped up to Oxford University to tell his  audience, some of whom seemed obviously bored, how the world needs to follow the spiritual path of Islam -- for the sake of our environment. Prince Charles, who has been greener than Kermit the Frog for several decades now, thinks Islam is better than the rest of us in taking care of the planet.

Well, I suspect he has not sold any stock in BP. But let's see if that record of Islam on the environment holds water, so to speak. We all remember what a serious Muslim Saddam Hussein was. He declared jihad against the West when we moved in 1991 to kick him out of Kuwait. To show his new-found zeal for Islam, Saddam set fire to all the oil wells in Kuwait. They burned out of control for months, turning the skies black, making the day night for many of the invaders.

The Saudis lay claim to being Custodians of the Holy Places of Islam. Mecca and Medina are off-limits to non-Muslims, so the rest of us can't actually go there and see if they're all re-cycling and limiting their carbon footprints. The Saudis also lay claim to vast petroleum reserves.

Anyone visiting these will note that flare-offs -- burning unused gases -- are very common there.

Hmmm. Burning off these gases yields what? Water vapor, perhaps?

I had a chance personally to witness the tender regard shown for the environment by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Back in the `70s, he came to visit San Francisco. Because IRA radicals at Berkeley had threatened to blow him up, our government decided to bring him in to the Coast Guard Air Station in San Francisco rather than the municipal airport. I was assigned to an Honor Guard that was actually a body guard. The idea was to shield the precious body of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales -- with ours.

We were trained for weeks by detectives from Scotland Yard. Very professional, very serious fellows. No joking. No light touches at all. And they never referred to their charge as "Prince Charles" or even "The Prince of Wales." The invariable usage was His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Poor Charles didn't even get a pronoun. They never used a "he" or "him" when speaking of, er, you know who.

The great day dawned. We Coast Guardsmen were all spit and polish. We watched, surprised, when the chartered jet of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales landed three minutes early. It taxied out to the end of our runway. Why, we thought? We soon found out. It turned around and now sported the Royal Standard of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in addition to the Union Jack. The flags were flying outside the jet cockpit. It was all intended to impress the natives. It did.

When he descended the stairway, he moved briskly through our ranks. Every step he took had been choreographed for weeks in advance. I was surprised to see, when he looked me in the eye, that I was somewhat taller than he. His pictures suggest otherwise.

Off he went. Our brief encounter with history flashed before us. The entire exercise was over in less than twenty-three minutes, even as it might have been clocked by the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.

Are we to assume the Prince's chartered jet was powered by water vapor? Can anyone even begin to calculate the carbon footprint of the man who wants us all to submit to Islam's way of cherishing the earth? Charles is slated to become the Head of the Church of England if he ever ascends the throne. His title would then be "Defender of the Faith." He doesn't like that so much.

He says he'd rather be known as Defender of the Faiths. That's a bit like being faithful to all wives.

Prince Charles may be the leading dhimmicrat in the world. That's a person, who may not himself be a Muslim, but who uses his power and influence to smooth the path to shariah--the law they have in Saudi Arabia. Large swatches of British cities are even now falling under shariah.

Hearing him, we Americans can thank God once again for our Founding Fathers. What a blessing it is not having to take seriously the hypocritical croakings of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

via americanthinker.com

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Some encouraging news about Israel

Clarice Feldman

This past week was full of the usual: Double standards being applied to cast Israel as a vicious, law-breaking state and more threats from Iran to an already besieged country.

Yesterday, there were two bits of encouraging news.

First, at almost the very place where the flotilla of thugs and useful idiots were engaged by the Israelis (well within its territorial waters) there has been a major gas find which should meet its critical energy needs.

... a gigantic deposit of natural gas called Leviathan, 6.5 times the size of Tel Aviv, was found, roughly 100 nautical miles from where the flotilla fiasco took place and well within Israel's extended territorial waters. This discovery may provide Israel with security in terms of its supply of electricity, turn it into an important natural gas exporter and provide a shot in the arm of some $300 billion over the life of the field - one-and-a-half times the national GDP - to the Israeli economy, already one of the most resilient in the world.

More importantly, this discovery is nothing short of a geopolitical game changer. To understand its magnitude, consider this: The world's biggest gas discovery in 2009, 238 billion cubic meters, was made by a U.S.-Israel consortium at a site called Tamar, 60 miles off the coast of Haifa. The nearby Leviathan field is estimated to be twice that size. Altogether the basin in the eastern Mediterranean to which those fields belong could contain an amount of gas equivalent to one-fifth of U.S. natural gas reserves. For a small country like Israel, such a bonanza could not have come at a better time.

Secondly, there is evidence that the certain but secret cooperation between Israel and the Arab states which see Iran as a threat has not been damaged by the Turkish connivers.

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran's nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal. In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran.

Looks like Hanukah in June to me.

image via mattanzak.com

via americanthinker.com

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YouTube Censors We Con The World

via carolineglick.com

via dailymotion.com

YouTube's decision to pull Latma's hit song We Con the World after 3 million viewers shows that Israel's enemies are afraid of us. Since they cannot refute our points, they are trying to silence us. First they threw ridiculous accusations at Latma that our parody of We are the World was racist. When that didn't stick and more and more people continued to watch our song, they decided to silence us. 

via carolineglick.com

The Jewish Internet Defense Force has requested YouTube to take down Jihadist videos that support Genocide and Holocaust denial. Many of those requests were denied. Obviously YouTube has an agenda.

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As Israel went offline for the Jewish sabbath, YouTube removed most versions of Latma's hit parody song We Con the World. If you try to access the song on YouTube you receive the notification:

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Warner/ Chappell Music, Inc. .

Copyright experts we advised with before posting the song told us in no uncertain terms that we were within our rights to use the song because we did so in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine. The Fair Use Doctrine, copied and pasted below from the US Copyright Office stipulates that it is legal and permissible to use copyrighted material under the fair use doctrine for purposes of parody. 

Copyright attorneys also warned us that given our clearly lawful use of the song We are the World, if anyone wished to silence our voices, they wouldn't target us. Instead they would target YouTube. It is YouTube's standard practice to remove any material that they receive even the flimsiest threat for because the company wishes to avoid all litigation.

At the same time, this is not YouTube's first move to silence Israeli voices. During Operation Cast Lead, the IDF Spokesman's Unit established a YouTube channel and began posting combat footage on its channel to bypass the anti-Israel media and go directly to news consumers. 

Shortly after the IDF channel began making waves, YouTube - which is owned by Google - removed IDF videos from the website. After the move evoked a storm of protest, YouTube restored them but flagged the videos in the same manner it flags pornography. People trying to access the videos received a screen saying, "This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community. To view this video or group please verify that you are 18 or older by singing in and signing up."

Here's a link to the write-up of the YouTube move.

If YouTube didn't already have a track record for censoring pro-Israel material, I would say that despite the obviously frivolous and unsubstantiated nature of the copyright claim against We Con the World, the company was simply erring on the side of caution. 

The fact that more than 3 million people have already seen the video and that it has been written up in major newspapers and featured on major television networks around the world since we first posted it last Thursday night however causes me to fear that something else is going on here. 

Despite these obstacles, we at Latma have no intention of crying Uncle. By tomorrow, we will repost our song on blogs throughout the world. If you already downloaded the song, please post it on your website. If not, I will post a non-youtube version on my site tomorrow with instructions from my webmaster about how to download it. 

Moreover, stay tuned for our next video next Thursday night. 

If someone is in fact trying to silence our voices, they will soon discover that they are messing with the wrong Jews. 

Here's that Fair Use Doctrine from the US Copyright Office 

One of the rights accorded to the owner of copyright is the right to reproduce or to authorize others to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords. This right is subject to certain limitations found in sections 107 through 118 of the copyright law (title 17, U. S. Code). One of the more important limitations is the doctrine of "fair use." The doctrine of fair use has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years and has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law.

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

2. The nature of the copyrighted work

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

The distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission.

Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported."

Copyright protects the particular way an author has expressed himself. It does not extend to any ideas, systems, or factual information conveyed in the work.

The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. The Copyright Office cannot give this permission.

When it is impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of fair use would clearly apply to the situation. The Copyright Office can neither determine if a certain use may be considered fair nor advise on possible copyright violations. If there is any doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney.

FL-102, Revised May 2009