Ottoman imperial decrees debunk Erdogan’s claim

Turkish PM's statement contradicts firmans (imperial decrees) issued by the Ottoman authorities recognizing Jewish rights at Rachel’s Tomb.

Jerusalem Post Staff
08 November '10
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has been described as “neo- Ottoman” in outlook, told the Saudi paper Al-Watan in March that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb “were not and never will be Jewish sites, but Islamic sites.”
But Erdogan’s statement contradicts firmans (imperial decrees) issued by the Ottoman authorities in Turkey recognizing Jewish rights at Rachel’s Tomb, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has pointed out in a new research paper.
In 1830, the Turks issued the firman that gave legal force to Rachel’s Tomb being recognized as a Jewish holy site. Additionally, notes the JCPA’s Nadav Shragai, the governor of Damascus sent a written order to the mufti of Jerusalem to fulfill the sultan’s order:

“This is our order to you: [The following matter] was submitted to us by the subject of our order, the sage representative of honored Jerusalem’s Jewry and his translator that the tomb of esteemed Rachel, the mother of our Lord Joseph... They [the Jews] are accustomed to visit it from ancient days; and no one is permitted to prevent them or oppose them [from doing] this... It turned out that at this holy site, theyhave been visiting since ancient times, without any person preventing them or trespassing on their property and they [have it] as was their custom. In accordance with the respected judgment, I order that our commandment be issued to you so you will treat them accordingly without addition or without subtraction, without hindrance and without opposition to them by anyone in any way whatsoever – written August 10, 1830.”

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via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

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How many times do you have to tell Spitzer that there are no settlements in Jerusalem?

was Eliot playing dumb?

Iran to help Bolivia’s lithium industry

Iranian Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian says Iran will help Bolivia industrialize its lithium mines and produce lithium batteries.

Mehrabian said that the cooperation will be based on agreements signed between the two countries during the recent visit of Bolivian President Evo Morales to Tehran.

Iran will render technical and engineering assistance for the projects and will also cooperate with Bolivia in producing other lithium products, IRNA quoted Mehrabian as saying on Sunday.

During the Bolivian president’s visit, Tehran and La Paz inked five memoranda of understating following talks in the Iranian capital.

Last year, Iran signed a deal with Bolivia to help the Andean nation conduct research on the exploitation of lithium in the Salar de Uyuni desert.

Iranian experts, Brazil’s Ministry of Science, and researchers from companies such as France’s Eramet SA and Bollore SA conducted a joint study on Bolivia’s lithium reserves.

Bolivia possesses about 70 percent of the world’s lithium and should thus be able to supply the international market for the next 500 years and reduce the world’s reliance on dwindling fossil fuels, experts say.

Lithium has wide applications in the production of rechargeable batteries in cell phones, laptops, and electric cars. Lithium can also be compounded with aluminum for use in the production of light bodies for airplanes and cars.

The Bolivian government plans to eventually produce 30,000 tons of lithium per annum.

Iran is one of Bolivia’s main partners in the area of lithium production and has inked a number of agreements on the exploitation of the country’s lithium mines.

(Source: Press TV)

via tehrantimes.com

So now that we know that Green Tech is also dependent on terrorists... now what?

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Separation without Separating - New Arabist Piece Proposal

Instead of Taking a Shit on Jews... they will be Making a Shit on Jews.  it sounds less negative... but it is the same thing.  Essentially this means that the Muslim Government is throughout. Who are they fooling?

the two states would be defined more in terms of the political rights based on resident status than through an attempt to physically separate the two populations. As with any novel approach to resolving the conflict, its value hinges on a precursor that has yet to happen: a collective acknowledgment that the peace process aimed at a two-state solution has failed.

Each person living in this territory will be able to hold one of two citizenships: Israeli or Palestinian, regardless of which nation state is their place of residence.

via warincontext.org

"Moderate" Qaradawi Defends Hitler and Nuclear Terror :: The Investigative Project on Terrorism

http://www.investigativeproject.org/2315/moderate-qaradawi-defends-hitler-and...

During the past month, Imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi, spiritual guide to the Muslim Brotherhood, has called on Muslims to acquire nuclear weapons "to terrorize their enemies." He also boycotted an interfaith meeting with Jews on grounds he believes they support murdering Muslims in Palestine, and he additionally said Muslims are permitted to kill Israeli women because they serve in the army.
This continues Qaradawi's long-established support of violent jihad. But despite this record, he has been embraced as a "moderate" Muslim by his defenders in the West and the Arab world. In a September interview, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone said "the fact that Sheikh Qaradawi has been banned [from Britain] is a disgrace; he is one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world." Livingstone blamed "a huge smear campaign organized by Zionists."
In America, John Esposito, a religious scholar who is close to the Brotherhood, has called Qaradawi a supporter of a "reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism and human rights." The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and prominent Islamists like Tariq Ramadan, grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, have expressed similar sentiments about Qaradawi.
Barrie Osborne, producer of Hollywood blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, has hired Qaradawi as a consultant for a movie about the Prophet Mohammed. Last month, Qaradawi was given a medal for public service by King Abdullah of Jordan.
Qaradawi has won these awards despite a long record of anti-Semitism and advocating violence against purported enemies of islam. Consider the following examples:

• In an interview last month with Al-Jazeera's Arabic-language service, Qaradawi was asked if Muslims should try to get atomic weapons "to terrorize their enemies." Qaradawi replied that this goal would be permissible, saying he was "happy" to learn that Pakistan had such a nuclear weapon to defend itself. Qaradawi explained that that was the meaning of Koranic verses urging Muslims "to terrorize thereby the enemy of God and your enemy."

Support for Iran and Muslim rights to possess nuclear technology have been recurring themes for Qaradawi.
"It is obligatory on all Muslims to resist any possible attack the US might launch against Iran," Qaradawi said in a 2007 interview. "The U.S. is an enemy of Islam that has already declared war on Islam under the disguise of war on terrorism and provides Israel with unlimited support."
It was wrong to deny Iran the right to ostensibly peaceful nuclear technology so long as the United States and Israel had nuclear weapons, he said.

• Last month, Qaradawi boycotted the 8^th Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue conference in Qatar, saying he opposes discourse with Jews on principle.

"How can we conduct a dialogue in a time when they seize lands, shed blood, burn farms, and demolish houses? Palestine's conundrum has to be resolved first before we sit together at the same table," he said.
A source close to Qaradawi told the Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm that the imam does not oppose talking to Jews because of their religious affiliation, noting that he has met with representatives of the anti-Zionist Neturai Karta, an organization seen here attending a Holocaust-denial conference staged by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Neturai Karta are Jews who reject the principles of Zionism and the occupation of Muslim lands, although "the majority of Jews at present are with the actions of murder in Palestine," the source said in explaining Qaradawi's willingness to talk to the group.

• In a recorded address last month to a Hamas-organized parley in Gaza, Qaradawi said Palestinians must continue violence against Israel.

"Arms must not be laid down; he who wants freedom must pay the price. Independence is not given as alms," Qaradawi said. According to the Arabic-language newspaper al-Watan, Qaradawi stated: "We must irrigate [the] tree of freedom with our blood. We must not leave the Palestinians alone." Every Muslim "must play his part to help our brothers in Palestine until they obtain their rights," he said. "Not one inch of the Land of Islam must remain in the grasp of infidels and occupiers."

• In an interview with OnIslam.net last month, Qaradawi blamed "the Zionist media machine" for popular opposition to the location of the Ground Zero Mosque. Muslims in the U.S. and abroad also have voiced opposition to the plan.
• Qaradawi's website glorifies violence against Jews and against Palestinians deemed to be supporters of Israel. The front page links to a section entitled "Palestine under siege." At the top of the section is an entry from May 2002 showing the body of a "Palestinian collaborator with Israel" being dragged through the streets of Hebron. It consists of Koranic verses denouncing Muslims who work with "evil Jews" to betray Hamas and other "citizen resistance fighters."
• In a September speech reported by the Arabic-language website moheet.com, Qaradawi called jihad an Islamic moral duty and said Muslims are permitted to kill Israeli women because they serve in the army. He said the Prophet Mohammad's prohibition on killing the innocent did not apply to Israel because it is an invader and aggressor society which only knows how to violate the rights of others.
• In a February interview with BBC Arabic, Qaradawi affirmed his support for suicide bombings. "I supported martyrdom operations," he said, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) . "This is a necessary thing, as I told them in London. Give the Palestinians tanks, airplanes, and missiles, and they won't carry out martyrdom operations. They are forced to turn themselves into human bombs, in order to defend their land, their honor, and their homeland."
• According to excerpts of a speech that aired on Al-Jazeera in January 2009, Qaradawi called on Muslims to put Jews in "their place" as Hitler had done, in revenge for Israeli military operations in Gaza several weeks earlier. "Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption," he said. "The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them - even though they exaggerated this issue - he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hands of the believers."
• At a January 2009 "Gaza Victory Rally" in Doha, Qatar, Qaradawi prayed for the opportunity to kill a Jew before his death. "The only thing that I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. Praise be to Allah."
• In a January 2009 sermon broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, Qaradawi said Allah "will not allow these people [Jews] to continue to spread corruption in the land. We wait for the revenge of Allah to descend upon them, and Allah willing, it will be by our own hands: 'Fight them, Allah will torment them by your hands, and bring them to disgrace, and will assist you against them, and will heal the hearts of the believers, and you will still the anger of your hearts.' This is my message to the treacherous Jews." He went to urge Allah not to "spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one."

Qaradawi may hold more tolerant views on other issues. But when it comes to terrorism and anti-Semitism, his words and the consistency with which he offers them, speak for themselves.

Related Topics: Yusuf al-Qaradawi

via investigativeproject.org

liberal... like Robert Scoble... I get it now

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Mea Culpa: I Put Keith Olbermann on National TV

Mea Culpa: I Put Keith Olbermann on National TVThis YouTube video reminded me that I was the person who introduced Keith Olbermann to America.
Keith was a sportscaster at the local CBS affiliate in Los Angeles at the same time I was doing a talk show for that network. I thought Keith was pretty funny on the air, and I suggested we have him come on the show and talk sports. This was the first of several appearances he made on the show, and he always did a nice job.
Keith tended to wear out his welcome at stations and networks, and he bounced around to several places before he found his niche at MSNBC. When he first went on the air there, he was actually quite entertaining. He was wry and amusing, and he looked at the news at a kind of cockeyed angle that I enjoyed.
I’m not sure how he morphed into the bitter-sounding, hate-mongering name-caller he’s become, but I’m sorry he did. I liked the guy, and he was always a good guest. Maybe it’s just show business and trying to find a place in it and building an audience, but I don’t know. We were never friends away from the show, so I can’t even guess what drives him.
I do know that to whatever extent the political well has been poisoned, Keith has dumped more than his share of venom into the water. I’d like to think he knows that and maybe even regrets it. I liked the Keith Olbermann of 1989. This tape reminded me that I miss him.

via ricochet.com
OMG... I'm in stitches. Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Iran Liberation Act?

Going to war with Iran is not a Republican value,... it is an Islamic value that we inevitably have to deal with. Yesterday's radical leftist pacifist will become tomorrow's Neo Conservative again. Best to keep the paperwork ready for when the public wakes up and starts screaming.

Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen
is opposing US support to
UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority.
She is a strong supporter of Israel.^[13]
As of 2010, she is the top Republican
on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
After comments by State department
over Israeli settlements,
she demanded that the Obama administration
halt its condemnations of
"an indispensable ally and
friend of the United States."

via en.wikipedia.org

In 1998, Republicans pushed a bill through Congress called the Iraq Liberation Act, which made it the official policy of the United States to seek regime change in Iraq. The bill was even signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. It took five years after that for the US invasion of Iraq under the Bush administration. Now, the 'progressives' fear that Republicans will employ the same treatment for Iran.

Supporters of the Obama administration's diplomatic approach say that advocates of an Iran invasion are pursuing the same long-term strategy now.:By putting the issue on the table right now, Iran hawks are hoping to limit the president's room to maneuver, and make it easier for a future president to launch a military strike. "Iraq didn't happen in two months," Rubin told The Upshot, noting that it took five years from the passage of the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998 until the 2003 invasion. "So this is the playbook."

Indeed, Marc Lynch of Foreign Policy magazine wrote recently that he's anticipating "some kind of Iran Liberation Act on the horizon" from the GOP Congress.

Duss agreed. "You see them running a very similar game as they ran in the '90s," he said. During that period, Republicans and their allies frustrated many of Clinton's political goals, "then offered [the Iraq Liberation Act] as a way to be bipartisan."

And last week's election results give the hawks more leverage. "After the election, they feel the broader Obama agenda has been rejected," Rubin said. "There's a feeling they may have Obama a bit more on the ropes." And that, in turn, may make the president more willing to move toward the GOP on Iran policy, observers say. "Graham is saying: If [Obama] wants Republican support and bipartisanship, being tougher on Iran would work," according to Rubin.

Starting in January, advocates of a tougher line on Iran will have powerful allies in Congress who could help advance that plan. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) [pictured. CiJ], a veteran Iran hawk who has downplayed the effectiveness of sanctions, will take over as chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

I hope the next country we involve ourselves with will allow us to wise up and use less ground troops for occupation and more target bombing. There are ways to run these wars with less American casualties. We need to stop blaming ourselves and protect ourselves from these suicidal cultures. no more occupation thinking. this time we don't fix what we break.

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image via lynch.foreignpolicy.com