Stephen Walt says Obama failed in Asia because of Israel

So where's the connection between this issue and our strategic position in Asia? Indonesia is a potentially crucial partner for the United States (if you want to see why, take a look at the sea lanes in Southeast Asia), and it is also a moderate Muslim country with history of toleration. Yet the Palestinian issue resonates there too, and makes it harder for the Indonesian government to openly embrace the United States. As Kaplan notes in his Times op-ed, "China also plays on the tension between the West and global Islam in order to limit American influence there. That is why President Obama's mission to rebrand America in the eyes of Muslims carries benefits that go far beyond Indonesia and the Middle East."
What Kaplan doesn't say is that the United States' one-sided support for Israel against the Palestinians is an important source of the "tension" that China is exploiting. As the deputy chairman of Indonesia's largest Islamic group, Masdar Mas'udi, put it last week: "The solution of the Palestine problem is key to many problems between the West and the Muslim world… Our hope as Muslims to Obama and the U.S. is not unreasonable: If the Palestine problem could be resolved, it would be more than enough."
So the next time you read about some senator or congressperson denouncing any attempt to use U.S. leverage on both sides to bring about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, ask yourself why they are trying to undermine the U.S. effort to bolster its strategic position in a region that ultimately matters far more to U.S. security and prosperity. And by making it harder to achieve a workable two-state solution that would preserve its democratic and Jewish character and enhance its international legitimacy, they aren't doing Israel any favors either. Indeed, the remarkable thing about these zealots is that they are managing to undermine the United States' security and Israel's long-term future at the same time.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

crazy... as if there were no other factors such as money and greed? Undervaluation of a Chinese currency is Israel's fault too?   ... oy. don't forget the weather. If anyone quotes Walt again I'm not taking them seriously. We can't take all the Hitlers out there as legitimate intellectuals.

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Intelligence official: Hamas rockets can reach Tel Aviv

Anonymous official blames lax Egyptian security for failing to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza; MK Arye Eldad backs assessment.

via jpost.com

unacceptable and if the world community continues to do nothing they can not expect Israel to just accept it's death. there is going to be a war before things get dangerous.

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Israeli student attacked by Palestinians in Italy

via ynetnews.com

police did nothing

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US proposes 90-day building freeze in exchange for not murdering Israel through the UN. Bibi asks for council from his cabinet to decide?

these deals are not agreements. they merely demand that Israel do something for nothing. Obama still has the right to attack Israel through the UN within a year if Israel complies

PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the Start of the Weekly Cabinet Meeting:

“At this morning’s meeting, I intend to update my fellow ministers on the general outline of the American proposal for the resumption of the peace talks. This proposal was raised during my talks with Secy. of State Clinton. It is still not final; it is still being formulated by Israeli and the American teams. If and when it is complete, I will bring this proposal to the appropriate Government forum, which in this case is the Cabinet. In any case, I insist that any proposal meet the State of Israel’s security needs, both in the immediate term and vis-à-vis the threats that we will face in the coming decade.”

US President Barack Obama on Sunday called the proposed 90-day settlement freeze in the West Bank presented by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to his cabinet as a “very constructive step” that he hopes will lead to serious peace negotiations soon. “I think it’s a signal that he’s serious,” Obama said in reference to Netanyahu. [Jpost; Sun, Nov 14, 2010]
Moshe Ya’alon called the American proposal a “honey trap that will plunge us into another crisis with the Americans in the future, in three months or maybe even before then.” Ya’alon made his remarks in a forum of Likud ministers that met prior to the cabinet meeting. [Jpost; Sun, Nov 14, 2010]

via crethiplethi.com

Israel is expected to announce a 90-day building freeze in Judea and Samaria, according to a stipulation in the latest American proposal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently presenting this proposal to the forum of top seven ministers in Jerusalem.

In exchange, the United States promises not to demand another freeze and veto any anti-Israel initiatives proposed to the UN Security Council in the coming year.

via ynetnews.com

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Clinton offered Netanyahu a package of incentives for Israel to agree to an extension of the 'settlement freeze.' Here's what's been reported in Israel.

The US asked Israel to freeze all new settlement construction begun after September 26th for a 90-day period in exchange for support in the United Nations and 20 additional advanced fighter planes worth $3 billion, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The principles of this agreement designed to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, were relayed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to his inner cabinet, a forum of seven ministers, on Saturday night and will be explained to the full cabinet on Sunday.
The US said that if the deal was accepted it would not request an additional settlement freeze. The request does not include east Jerusalem.
...
Should Israel accept the offer, the US in turn has pledged in the next year to veto any efforts by the UN Security Council to impose on Israel a non-negotiated solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, as the Palestinians have requested.
It would further veto any resolutions that deny Israel the right to self-defense or seek to de-legitimize Israel. The US would also oppose such efforts in other UN bodies and forums.

Haaretz identifies the 'advanced fighters' as F-35's and adds:

The U.S. will not ask Israel to extend the new moratorium when it expires.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, said the Americans had not officially informed the Palestinians about the details of the proposal, "but they know we have a major problem in not including east Jerusalem".
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will put the U.S. plan before Palestinian
decision-makers and call for an immediate session of Arab League officials before announcing an official decision, Erekat said.
In return for an Israeli freeze, the U.S. government would deliver 20 F-35 fighter jets to Israel, a deal worth $3 billion. Moreover, if an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is achieved, the U.S. would sign a comprehensive security agreement with Israel. The U.S. and Israel are to discuss the nature of the new security arrangements in the next few weeks.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu told the cabinet that the US freeze proposal was 'not final.'

"This proposal was raised during my talks with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. It is still not final; it is still being formulated by Israeli and the American teams."
Speaking at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said "if and when it is complete, I will bring this proposal to the appropriate Government forum, which in this case is the Cabinet."
"In any case, I insist that any proposal meet the State of Israel's security needs, both in the immediate term and vis-à-vis the threats that we will face in the coming decade," Netanyahu explained.

There's been lots of speculation over who will vote in favor and who against in the cabinet. Read the whole thing.
Here's the key to the American offer: The offer to support Israel in the UN is not open-ended. It's good for a year. (It also bears pointing out that the 'security agreement' with the US is also contingent upon Israel reaching a final status deal with the 'Palestinians'). As one cabinet minister asked on Sunday, why should we give a three-month settlement freeze for support that has always been automatic until now? Why let the US tell us that in a year they will stop supporting us in the UN? Well, it's worse than that.
Why would the 'Palestinians' accept this deal without a 'settlement freeze' in Jerusalem? Because the Obama administration is going to promise them that if they accept it and there's still no deal in year or in August 2011, the Obama administration will not veto (at least!) a Security Council initiative to declare a 'Palestinian state.' And that's why this deal is so dangerous for Israel.
Could Obama let a 'Palestinian state' go through the Security Council without a deal like this? Of course he could. But he wouldn't be able to say that Israel agreed to it and Congress would then be outraged. It would also ensure that Obama is a one-term President. But if we agree to this deal, we are agreeing that if there's no deal with the 'Palestinians' in a year (and we all know there won't be), the Obama administration will allow a 'Palestinian state' to be created by the Security Council.
There is very little else that is more dangerous to Israel's existence right now than the prospect of a Chapter 7 (compulsory for all UN members) resolution creating a 'Palestinian state.' That's why Israel's government must say no!

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Merkel also believes Obama devalues Dollar

Castro accuses America
of attempting to devalue it's currency
and says Far-Right Takes
Over U.S. After Midterms

via cbsnews.com

wow..... I hope Castro is right.

Posted via email
from noahdavidsimon's posterous

At her meeting with Mr. Obama, the German leader repeated concerns about the Federal Reserve's controversial decision last week to buy $900 billion of U.S. Treasury debt in the next six months. European officials worry the move will provoke a round of inflation and destructive currency devaluations.

President Obama meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the G-20 summit Thursday in Seoul. She rejected a U.S. proposal to try to cap global trade imbalances. "To set political limits on trade surpluses and deficits is neither economically justified nor politically appropriate," she told the G-20 business summit. (Associated Press)

But White House aides said the president pointed out that the U.S. dollar actually is benefiting and getting stronger because of a renewed outbreak of the European debt crisis this week. Investors on Thursday forced Ireland to pay unprecedented interest rates of near 10 percent on its bonds because of growing fears of default.
The renewed European crisis is reviving a "flight to safety" to the U.S. dollar and Treasury bonds, the president pointed out. He also repeated U.S. concerns that Germany's attempts to attach more stringent conditions to loans to countries like Ireland that may need a bailout may be "spooking markets."

via washingtontimes.com

and according to this video they are buying assets from Goldman Sachs to print the money... I suppose the money comes from the loans our government made. why is Goldman Sachs selling the government stuff when we know how dirty they are? I suppose at least it is nice to know they are buying something... but how do we know Goldman isn't selling Oregano?

The Jewish People vs George Soros

The Jewish People vs George Soros
I spent yesterday evening in the company of a man whose grandfather spent much of the Holocaust dressed in a Nazi uniform. The difference between him and George Soros, is that he used that uniform as a disguise in order to find Jewish refugees and lead them to shelter. And that difference is a profound one. It is the difference between a perpetrator and a rescuer. Between a collaborator and a hero.

Soros did not wear a Nazi uniform, but he might as well have, because he aided in the persecution of the Jews of Europe, without compassion, without guilt and without regret. Various excuses have been made for his actions, and none of them hold the least bit of water.
Yes Soros was only a teenager at the time. So was my father, who nevertheless escaped to join the partisans, rather than accompanying a Nazi officer in his search for Jewish property he could loot. He had no choice? He certainly had a choice. Even in the worst of times, people still can and do make moral choices. And the choice for everyone, for Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Frenchmen and so on down the line– was to collaborate with evil, or to do the right thing.


George Soros made the wrong choice then. As he has made the wrong choice over and over again. And he has never regretted any of them. And the one thing that clearly emerges from that, is that he has no understanding that evil is wrong. That participating in the persecution and murder of Jews is wrong. He didn’t know it back then, while the Holocaust was going on. He doesn’t know it today, when he helps set up and fund organizations like J Street, whose sole purpose is to help the Muslim terrorists who are murdering Jews today.

The liberal media which is busy defending Soros as a victim of the Holocaust and a survivor should find the bare decency to remain silent for once. To call Soros a Holocaust survivor is an obscenity. Soros was not victimized by the Holocaust. He was never targeted by it. He was on the other side of the line. The side that was pulling the trigger, running the gas chambers and sorting the gold teeth. Soros was not a victim, he was a perpetrator. Yes, he was only a teenager, but we do jail teenagers as accomplices to crimes much milder than that of collaborating in genocide.
Liberal using charges of Anti-Semitism to silence critics of Soros is one of the most profoundly cynical exercises imaginable, by people who routinely mock the idea that their bias again Israel is in any way motivated by Anti-Semitism. It is all the more cynical, because Soros has described himself as growing up in a “Jewish, Anti-Semitic home”and suggested that Jewish behavior causes Anti-Semitism. Defending criticism of a billionaire Anti-Semite as Anti-Semitism is thoroughly surreal. It’s an inversion of the meaning of the word that punches a hole through reason and all the way over into the other side.
Soros has funded organizations that actively promoted Anti-Semitic smears against Jews. MoveOn’s bulletins have linked to sites like CounterPunch, a site which actually published an article in defense of blood libels. One bulletin linked to pieces which accused Jews of dual loyalty, claimed that a small group of Jewish elites monopolize foreign policy and began with a “special feature” from former Klansman, Senator Byrd. All this is from an organization funded by George Soros. A man so reviled within the Jewish community that his funding for J Street had to be kept secret for fear of a backlash against the entire group.
The media’s implication that criticism of Soros is an attack on Jews as a whole is mind-bogglingly false. When even an organization aimed at liberal Jews actually has to hide its Soros funding, it is safe to say that Herr Soros is not representative of the Jewish community. After a failed attempt to scam money out of a Jewish charity in his youth, Soros has avoided Jewish organizations and Jewish causes. J Street is one of those exceptions, only because it is an Anti-Jewish organizations masquerading as a Jewish organization.
Soros has said that he doesn’t want to be part of any Jewish national existence, and that the solution to Anti-Semitism is for Jews to “give up on the tribalness”. His narrative has always been to blame Anti-Semitism on Jews and on Israel. And frankly that is the essence of what Anti-Semitism is. Blame the victim. And there’s every reason for Soros to do that. because he helps the perpetrators. And that seems to have been a lifelong hobby with him.
Soros’ father identified with Germans, more than with Jews. Like some of that type, he wanted to be more German, than the Germans. After Nazi Germany fell, George seemed to hold a special animus for the countries that had defeated the Third Reich. His political and economic primarily war targeted America, Europe and Russia. The countries and societies that had destroyed Hitler’s dream of world conquest. Whether that is deliberate or not, is not a question I can answer. But if Soros had strongly resented the Allied forces that shut down National Socialism, then his likely course of behavior would be the same one that he has followed. To find weak spots in the system, exploit them to make money and then use that money to bring those societies and countries down.
Over the years Soros has made it very clear that he doesn’t like Jews, and doesn’t want to be associated with them. This wasn’t an aberration that developed during the Holocaust, but runs in his family. His father changed his last name from Schwartz to Soros. His ex-wife has stated that Soros’ mother disliked her, because she was “openly Jewish”. In his biography, Soros agreed that his ex-wife’s Jewishness was the problem. He even referred to his own mother as a “Jewish Anti-Semite”. Indeed Soros’ mother disliked Jews so much, she ended up converting.
George Soros has not converted, but he considers himself an atheist and like the rest of his family, is hostile to Jews. He has mentioned an “antipathy” to Jewish organizations, one which he dates back to his time delivering deportation orders to Jewish lawyers. At one point he describes his Jewishness as a “secret shame” that required psychoanalysis. While Soros has said that he has no guilt over his Nazi collaboration, he apparently did feel guilt for whatever Jewishness he still felt he had. That is not the attitude of a moral man, but of a man who enjoyed being a Nazi, but hated being Jewish. With that kind of attitude, it’s no wonder that Soros acts the way he does.
But having excluded himself from the Jewish community and having waged war against the places and countries where Jews are secure– having even funded Anti-Semitic organizations, he has absolutely no right to try and hide from criticism over his political activities by using his front groups to denounce critics as Anti-Semitic. Certainly not by claiming to be a Holocaust survivor, when he was actually a collaborator. His front groups have produced and circulated materials that accused American Jews of secret conspiracies, that certainly meet the same test that his front groups are now using to argue that Beck is engaging in Anti-Semitism.
But Soros is never held to the standards of the people he wages war on. Soros destroys the savings of British pensioners, while using the money to fund left wing groups which claim to care about the plight of the poor. Now left wing groups which promote Anti-Semitism are accusing Soros critics of being Anti-Semitic. To them it’s just a word. Another weapon they can use to promote their agenda. To us however it’s not just a word. It’s a reality. It’s a reality that Jews have been living with for a very long time now.
For thousands of years, the Jewish people have survived persecution, outlived genocide, and every form of oppression under the sun. And during all that time, there have been Jewish survivors and heroes, and collaborators as well. The upcoming holiday of Chanukah is the story of Jews who refused to collaborate. On the other hand, the story of Soros is the story of those who brought pigs on altars. Who hated their Jewishness and eagerly sought to join with the oppressors. Soros is only one of that number. But it is not the collaborators or the traitors who continue on. They die and turn to dust. Their malice may be great and the harm they cause terrible, but like all mortals, they still perish and pass away. But the Nation of Israel, like the lights of the Menorah, go on.

via sheikyermami.com

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Israel to allow in 8,000 Falash Mura from Ethiopia

Israel restarted the immigration scheme for Falash Mura in January. via bbc.co.uk
bringing new meaning to an Apartheid State.
We call it Israel lol

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to those who were wondering why it took so long... many of the Falashas are no longer Jewish, but Christian.

Andrew Sullivan claims Cantor commits treason lol.... but not Nancy Pelosi?

so get this... It is treasonous according to Andrew Sullivan for a politician to do the will of the majority of Americans who are against Obama's foreign policy, but it is just fine for the Democrats and Pelosi to undermine the Republicans by talking to Syria when Bush was president. Undermining Bush was fine,,, but undermining Obama is treason. You would have to be pretty liberal thinking to oblige that conclusion... so liberal that suicide could be an option

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via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

American Flag Banned in Public School

DENAIR, Calif. -- A Stanislaus County school is forcing a student to take an American flag off of his bike.
Thirteen-year-old Cody Alicea put the flag there as a show of support for the veterans in his family.
But officials at Denair Middle School told him he couldn't fly it. He said he was told some students had complained.
So now the eighth-grader folds up the flag and puts it in his backpack while he is in class.
His father, Robert Kisner, said his son should not have to put the flag away.
"He's got that flag on his bik

via ksbw.com

“(The) First Amendment is important,” Superintendent Edward Parraz said. “We want the kids to respect it, understand it, and with that comes a responsiblity.”

He doesn’t elaborate on what that “responsibility” might be but it seems as though he is equating proudly displaying the National flag with screaming fire in a crowded theater.

via shallowthought.net

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How Stuxnet attacks an Iranian Site

#TeaParty Bot Tart has ALTERCATION with Airport Security.

Alex Jones acts like  it is a conspiracy
why a pervert would want to
get it on with Meg here... I mean come on!
Isn't it obvious.

Alex Jones and pals have a gal that had a little problem at the airport, but she has a history of doing outlandish media stunts.... and frankly... I can see why some dude in an airport would get his rocks off by a little lock up... ok but seriously.... oh noes!
Bid on her tattoo auction here!

Some US scientists warned Friday that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners now being used to screen passengers and airline crews at airports around the country may be unsafe.

via ca.news.yahoo.com

The TSA chose Meg McLain for special screening. They wanted her to go through the new porno-scanners. When she opted out, TSA agents raised an enormous ruckus. When she asked some question about what they planned to do to her, they flipped out. TSA agents yelled at her, handcuffed her to a chair, ripped up her ticket, called in 12 local Miami cops and finally escorted her out of the airport.

via blog.survivalstation.org

Free Keene blogger Meg McLain is the subject of a recent Ridley Report:

via freekeene.com

BLAME THE NEO CONS .,,,lol

They Live to EAT ORGANS

http://xrl.us/OBEY

veteranstoday.com now claims that the
Jews are buying South African Organs
probably got the idea from Amanpour

....Carpenter’s aliens are the Jews. 

via veteranstoday.com

The filmmaker John Carpenter made a great training film for us in this coming struggle. THEY LIVE. Malevolent aliens live among us. But most of us can’t tell who’s who, or realize how they control our lives. A small group of resistance fighters have special glasses that reveal the hideous faces of the aliens, who have taken over the organs of power. The aliens are so evil that no mercy can be shown them. If you see the scary face, start shooting, because they mean to enslave all of us and kill some of us. The only way to save ourselves is to kill them and keep killing them until the source of their power can be turned off – forever.

IsrAliens

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com
image via futureshipwreck.com

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Tom Friedman Chicken Little: the SKY IS FALLING!

And let's not forget that many of us are old enough to remember that not too long ago (in climate terms) scientists were assuring us that a new ice age was on the way.

No amount of legislation is going to make the green technologies Friedman touts economically viable in the near term, no matter how much Friedman claims that it will. The failure of the Chicago Carbon Exchange - as unmentioned by Friedman as Pickens' wind farm retreat - demonstrates the (current) lack of viability of green technologies.

It's also interesting that he accuses "climate deniers" of mounting an effective disinformation campaign. Really? It was the "climate hysteriers" who hid the decline and, in general, behaved badly.

via soccerdad.baltiblogs.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Saudi fatwa: Women must cover alluring eyes

Al Quds reports that the northern branch of the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has started warning women to cover their eyes if they are judged to be "exciting." (The other autotranslated word used is "seditious.")

The exact criteria were not publicized.

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

they do have a point. I have always felt that a woman's eyes were the sexist part... but then I would argue that the whole Burqa thing was a fail in restricting perversions.
I'm not against saying there are some places where men and women should be separate at times in the interests of dignity for both genders... but that should be in exclusive places... not all of society.

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China Fired Missile seen over California Coast

Wayne Madsen Report
Pentagon and its embedded media covering up Chinese show of force off LA
China flexed its military muscle Monday evening in the skies west of Los Angeles when a Chinese Navy Jin class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, deployed secretly from its underground home base on the south coast of Hainan island, launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from international waters off the southern California coast. WMR’s intelligence sources in Asia, including Japan, say the belief by the military commands in Asia and the intelligence services is that the Chinese decided to demonstrate to the United States its capabilities on the eve of the G-20 Summit in Seoul and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Tokyo, where President Obama is scheduled to attend during his ten-day trip to AsiaThe reported Chinese missile test off Los Angeles came as a double blow to Obama. The day after the missile firing, China’s leading credit rating agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating, downgraded sovereign debt rating of the United States to A-plus from AA. The missile demonstration coupled with the downgrading of the United States financial grade represents a military and financial show of force by Beijing to Washington.

The Pentagon spin machine, backed by the media reporters who regularly cover the Defense Department, as well as officials of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and the U.S. Northern Command, is now spinning various conspiracy theories, including describing the missile plume videotaped by KCBS news helicopter cameraman Gil Leyvas at around 5:00 pm Pacific Standard Time, during the height of evening rush hour, as the condensation trail from a jet aircraft. Other Pentagon-inspired cover stories are that the missile was actually an amateur rocket or an optical illusion.

Experts agree that this was a ballistic missile being fired off of Los Angeles. Pentagon insists it was a jet aircraft or model rocket.

There are no records of a plane in the area having taken off from Los Angeles International Airport or from other airports in the region. The Navy and Air Force have said that they were not conducting any missile tests from submarines, ships, or Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Navy has also ruled out an accidental firing from one of its own submarines.

Missile experts, including those from Jane’s in London, say the plume was definitely from a missile, possibly launched from a submarine. WMR has learned that the missile was likely a JL-2 ICBM, which has a range of 7,000 miles, and was fired in a northwesterly direction over the Pacific and away from U.S. territory from a Jin class submarine. The Jin class can carry up to twelve such missiles.

Navy sources have revealed that the missile may have impacted on Chinese territory and that the National Security Agency (NSA) likely possesses intercepts of Chinese telemetry signals during the missile firing and subsequent testing operations.

Japanese and other Asian intelligence agencies believe that a Chinese Jin-class SSBN submarine conducted missile “show of force” in skies west of Los Angeles.
Asian intelligence sources believe the submarine transited from its base on Hainan through South Pacific waters, where U.S. anti-submarine warfare detection capabilities are not as effective as they are in the northern and mid-Pacific, and then transited north to waters off of Los Angeles. The Pentagon, which has spent billions on ballistic missile defense systems, a pet project of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is clearly embarrassed over the Chinese show of strength.

Likely route of Jin-class submarine from Hainan base.
The White House also wants to downplay the missile story before President Obama meets with his Chinese counterpart in Seoul and Tokyo. According to Japanese intelligence sources, Beijing has been angry over United States and allied naval exercises in the South China and Yellow Seas, in what China considers its sphere of influence, and the missile firing within the view of people in Southern California was a demonstration that China’s navy can also play in waters off the American coast.

For the U.S. Navy, the Chinese show of force is a huge embarrassment, especially for the Navy’s Pacific Command in Pearl Harbor, where Japan’s December 7, 1941 attack on the fleet at Pearl Harbor remains a sore subject.

In 2002, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice reportedly scolded visiting Chinese General Xiong Guankai, the deputy chief of staff for intelligence of the People’s Liberation Army, for remarks he allegedly made in 1995 that China would use nuclear weapons on Los Angeles. Xiong denied he made any such comments but the “spin” on the story helped convince Congress to sink billions of additional dollars into ballistic missile defense, sometimes referred to at “Star Wars II.”
http://real-agenda.com/2010/11/12/china-fired-missile-seen-over-california-coast/

Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Z STREET president
WWW.ZSTREET.ORG

via docstalk.blogspot.com

I heard about this yesterday, but thought it was too crazy to be true... I was wrong

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Playboy model panics and tries to open door to NJ-bound plane mid-air

thank goodness for Supermodels give us something to talk about...

tiffany livingston

via hottrendss.blogspot.com

A buxom Playboy centerfold tried to bust out -- midair -- from a jet yesterday amid a bad case of high anxiety.
Sexy 21-year-old model Tiffany Livingston was aboard JetBlue Flight 522 from Orlando, Fla., to Newark when she bolted from her seat and tried to open the door of the plane, a law-enforcement official said.
"She said she's gone through this before, but never this bad, and didn't have . . . her medication," one source said.
Livingston was detained and placed in federal custody, with charges pending, last night.
Last year, Livingston, a 5-foot-6 brunette from Merrimac, RI, was featured as the centerfold for the debut edition of VIP, the Singapore version of Playboy, in which she was described as "not just another pretty face.
"Tiffany boasts the immaculate poise of a mature model wrapped with a bubbly demeanor," the profile said.
Her agent did not return a call seeking comment.

via nypost.com

the gorgeous ones in my opinion always seem to be crazy. At least she isn't in Israel freeing Chickens from their cages like Pamela Anderson

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Congress Gives Tax Paid Dollars to Lebanese Again. Democrats desperate to give taxes to terrorists

Representatives Howard Berman (D-Cal) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) lifted their holds on the provision of military aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces on Friday.

"On August 2, I placed a hold on a $100 million spending plan for military assistance for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) out of concern that this plan did not reflect changing political realities in Lebanon. The following day, August 3, a shooting initiated by the LAF on its southern border, resulting in the needless death of an Israeli soldier, further complicated the situation; Israeli restraint prevented that situation from getting out of hand."In response to our hold, the Administration initiated a thorough, inter-agency review of its military assistance program for Lebanon. I have been fully briefed, in a classified setting, on the results of that review. As a result, I am convinced that implementation of the spending plan will now have greater focus, and I am re-assured as to the nature and purposes of the proposed package. I also understand that the LAF has taken important steps to prevent recurrence of dangerous and provocative actions like that which occurred August 3. I have also been given reason for confidence that assistance to the LAF has not fallen into the hands of Hezbollah and that every possible measure is being taken by Lebanese and American authorities to prevent that from happening. As a result of these assurances, I am lifting the hold on the $100 million spending plan for the LAF."I continue to be concerned about developments in Lebanon, and I will continue my ongoing discussions with State regarding the optimal contours of future military assistance for Lebanon. Some of the key elements of the current package are not yet ready for actual delivery to the LAF and will be further notified to Congress prior to actual delivery. We will, of course, further assess the situation at that time."

The Jerusalem Post has a statement from Lowey's staff:

“The administration gave detailed briefings and provided thorough, written responses to Congresswoman Lowey’s questions and concerns about the assistance and safeguards in place to prevent it from falling into terrorists’ hands,” a Democratic congressional staffer said of Lowey’s decision to lift the hold on Friday.
“Improving Lebanon’s ability to defend its borders, stop arms trafficking, build institutions and fight terrorist elements is imperative to the security and stability of the region.”

And the Wall Street Journal adds this statement from the State Department.

"We reviewed our assistance to Lebanon and concluded that it is vital, given ongoing challenges to the Lebanese state from Hezbollah and others," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Friday.

Remember what happened to all the weapons that the US supplied to Fatah when Hamas took over in 2007? Look for the same thing to happen in Lebanon between the LAF and Hezbullah. Trust me on this.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

it was barely a few weeks after the Lebanese were caught attacking Israel with U.S. guns.

Ireland's Law Of Return

Israel's Law of Return is sometimes held to be racist because it confers the right to citizenship on Jews born outside Israel who may have had no previous connection with it.
via solomonia.com

Another Double Standard.

Ireland has the same law.

Mary Robinson you suck

the Israeli right of return gives that right to anyone with Jewish grandparents or parents, so these people wishing to become citizens can be non-Jews, they only need relatives who were born Jewish and did not convert to other religions and there are those who converted to Judiasm.
a comment via blog.z-word.com

An open letter to Mary Robinson

Jimmy Carter (C), former Irish president and UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson (C-back) and Indian activist Ela Bhatt (R) joined the weekly demonstration against Israeli occupation Jerusalem Sheikh Jarrah on Friday

via presstv.ir

From Maurice Ostroff 
(in cooperation with Australian author on international law, Ian Lacey - see http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/id160.html)

November 3, 2010

Dear Ms. Mary Robinson,

Thank you for your email of October 14 about the Elders’ delegation that you led to the Middle East accompanied by Lakhdar Brahimi, Ela Bhatt and former President Jimmy Carter

Replying to your kind invitation to respond, I would appreciate it if you would kindly assist me in trying to reconcile your declared objective to address major causes of human suffering with your focus on relatively insignificant events in Israel while displaying apparent unconcern about many truly catastrophic events of human suffering world wide. For example:

1. Evictions in Sheikh Jarrah.
During your visit to Sheikh Jarrah you pronounced that the eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes is against international law.

I ask with respect which international law you claim is being violated? Are you perhaps referring to claims by many pundits that these evictions conflict with Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states; "The occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into territory it occupies". Though there may, or may not, exist  other cogent reasons to object to the evictions, these pundits are clearly wrong, as the situation involves neither deportation nor transfer of population by the Israeli government. It is a dispute about land ownership and conditions of tenancy.

The undisputed facts are that the property in question was occupied by twenty eight families all protected by Israel's Tenant Protection Law, which prevents tenants from eviction after rental contracts have elapsed, provided they continue to pay rentals even, as in this case, where such rentals are only 10-20 percent of the market price. The reason the high court authorized eviction of two of the 28 families was their refusal to pay even this low rental. The remaining  families who continue to pay rent have not been affected and I ask how you arrived at the conclusion that evicting tenants who refuse to pay rent is against international law Or, were you perhaps unaware of the refusal to pay rent in view of the gross irresponsibility of the media in suppressing this crucial information in the many pages of hysterical reporting about the evictions.

It may surprise you to learn that Jewish ownership of this property dates back to the 19th century. After a protracted series of legal battles over ownership since 1982, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the titles properly belong to the Jewish claimants. Even the Palestinian group "Sheik Jarrah Solidarity" acknowledges this historical background in a statement on its web site that reads "The litigation over the houses is complicated and has been running for over four decades. At a certain stage the Supreme Court recognized the validity of the ownership deeds from the Ottoman period (from the end of the 19th century), according to which the land belonged to the “Sephardic Community Committee” and the “Knesset Yisrael Committee”. The Sheikh Jarrah evictions are carried out on the strength of these deeds".
http://www.en.justjlm.org/what-is-our-struggle-about/faq-about-sheikh-jarrah

As you can see the Sheikh Jarrah situation is a private dispute involving no Israeli government action at all. Indeed the only government action affecting the properties was the Jordanian disposition of Jewish property when it came under Jordanian occupation. The matter is being dealt with by the Supreme Court, the high judicial standard of which is acknowledged even by Israel's fiercest critics. It has, in fact, ruled against the government in favor of Arab residents and Palestinians in many important cases.

As background, it is relevant to recall that the Sheikh Jarrah area is in a vital corridor to the Mt. Scopus Hadassah hospital that serves hundreds of thousands of Jews and Arabs. In April 1948 before the declaration of Israel, 78 Jews, mostly doctors and nurses, were ambushed and killed by Arab forces as their convoy passed through Sheikh Jarrah on their way to Mount Scopus. By the end of the 1948 war Mount Scopus was cut off from West Jerusalem and remained a demilitarized Israeli enclave under UN control until it was returned to Israel in 1967. 

Most unfortunately, the impression given by the condemnations pronounced by the "Elders" is one of preconceived judgments. After all, if you are sincerely concerned about evictions and enforced homelessness, surely you would have said something while in Cairo about the eviction of thousands in the Barmil (Helwan) village and the master plan for Cairo that threatens millions of impoverished families. You cannot be unaware of Amnesty International's appeal last month, to the Egyptian authorities to prevent the imminent forced evictions that will leave thousands in inadequate housing or homeless.

And closer to your home ground one may ask why the Elders are silent about the 20 families of Roma people who were forced to flee their homes in Belfast during a spate of racist attacks last June.

Nor is it unreasonable to ask your colleague, Ela Bhatt, whom I admire for her magnificent contribution to the uplift of poor women in India, to protest about the 52,000 hutments that have been bulldozed in Mumbai where, the Youth for Unity & Voluntary Action, reports that millions of people were thrown out of their houses at the peak of the winter season and were left to live around the demolished site without shelter, food, livelihood or basic amenities. And more recently about the 45 houses, affecting approximately 225 persons, of the Baradevi Pavement Community in Sewri, Mumbai that were forcefully demolished last May as reported by the Housing and Land Rights Network, http://www.hlrn.org/english/about.asp
 
If the Elders are seriously interested in protecting evictees not only in Israel, I suggest a visit to the HLRN web site which lists an ongoing evictions and demolition program affecting 1,000s in the Cameroons, 50,000 persons who face eviction and homelessness in Kenya, hundreds of thousands being evicted by Nigerian authorities in Port Harcourt and very many others including more than 15,000 people who have been made homeless in forced evictions in Angola to make way for condominiums and shopping centers.

The eviction of two families in Jerusalem for not paying rent, which motivated a visit by your high powered delegation, pales into insignificance against the background of true human suffering elsewhere that is ignored. Again with respect, I ask the Elders to reconsider their position and publicly withdraw their unjust denunciations of Israel in the light of the actual realities and the absurd interpretations of international law which are being promoted by Israel's enemies. 

2. GAZA – The blockade and Gilat Shalit
According to the Elders report, during your visit to Syria former President Carter called for Israel to lift completely its blockade on the Gaza Strip. In doing so, he totally ignored the history of rocket attacks, the threat posed by the importation into Gaza of missiles which can reach Israel's major population centers and the need to prevent such importation.

But more puzzling is the unmistakable bias in calling on Israel only to end a blockade that is known to be a joint Egyptian-Israeli operation? Are you not aware that Egypt is regulating the flow of goods and persons into and out of Gaza perhaps even more strictly than Israel?
When I learned that you would be going to Gaza I was hopeful that as the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, you would seize the opportunity to deal with the Gilad Shalit situation directly with the perpetrators of this blatantly and deliberately cruel human rights violation and insist on the minimum of Red cross visits.

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" and one must ask why the deliberate torture of Gilad’s family by Hamas is ignored. What greater torture can there be than tormenting parents with 24/7 anxiety since June 2006 about whether their son is dead or if alive in what condition and it is difficult to understand why the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights did not deal forcefully with this blatant continuing violation while she had the opportunity to do so face to face with Shalit's captors.

And to compound the cruelty, a while ago Hamas held a public rally during which a boy dressed in IDF uniform masqueraded as Gilad Shalit reading a letter in Hebrew, telling the jeering crowd how he misses his parents.

As you know, better than I, the Third Geneva Convention provides for humane treatment and the right of POW’s to unfettered access to the Red Cross, as well as their right to send and receive monthly letters and cards. All of these rights are being denied to Shalit. While there may be some technical quibble about his status as a prisoner of war, I hope you will agree that the overriding motivation of international humanitarian law relating to warfare, is to protect all persons who become prisoners as a result of war, whether conducted by regular armies or militias. By its own admission, Hamas controls Shalit’s fate. And as such, they are undeniably guilty of this appalling war crime. I am sure you will agree that no human being with a conscience can fail to acknowledge and protest this diabolical cruelty.

As you surely know, by way of contrast, Palestinian prisoners in Israel enjoy visitation rights, including conjugal visits, access to telephones, newspapers, television and radio broadcasts, lawyers' visits and even academic studies at state expense.

Again I would ask you to re-examine the evidence on all these issues, and to withdraw those unjustified accusations. The aims and objectives of the "Elders" are truly noble and worthy, and I am sure you will agree that to achieve the confidence and cooperation of all parties it is essential that no room be left for doubting your reputation as impartial and balanced observers.

This open letter will be published as will the response that I hope to receive from you.
Sincerely,
Maurice Ostroff

via 2nd-thoughts.org

Ireland... where the Nazi U Boats landed during the Holocaust. Can anyone actually prove Mary's claims that she is a Jew?

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

It’s Time for Nick Clegg to Scrape this Foul Tonge – Spinning Jenny the Lib Dem Peer Slurs Israel Yet Again

Daphne Anson
13 November '10
Jenny Tonge – who sits in the House of Lords on the Lib Dem benches as Baroness Tonge, having been given a life peerage in 2005 after several years as an MP – is a veteran detester and demoniser of the world’s only Jewish State, and as a result has earned the epithet “Jihad Jenny”. In 2004 the then Lib Dem leader, Charles Kennedy, sacked her as a party spokesperson after she had refused to apologise for saying of Palestinian suicide bombers: "If I had to live in that situation – and I say that advisedly – I might just consider becoming one myself."
In 2006 Tonge made headlines when she announced: "The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a grip on our party." Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell – himself no great friend of Israel – called her remarks "unacceptable" and possessing "clear antisemitic connotations”.
An all-party group of members of the House of Lords led by former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey noted that her comments "evoked a classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theory”. She retorted that Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's article "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" that appeared in the 23 March 2006 issue of The London Review of Books – whose “as-a-Jew” editor Mary-Kay Wilmers is on record, incidentally, as describing herself as "unambiguously hostile to Israel” – bore out her contention that the "'Israel lobby' had a disproportionate voice in Anglo-American foreign policy".
(Read full post)

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Turkish Media State - A MONOPOLY

how does a obviously false portrayal of the Mavi Marmara incident get made into a film?

 few Turks will ever know
what really happened that night
 because the government has
a near monopoly over the media
and it produces films like this one
to a public that speaks little else then Turkish

Deep ignorance: Most Turks know nothing about what really happened on the "Mavi Marmara" 

via standpointmag.co.uk

So far, yet close: The exiled Fethullah Gülen 

When Western journalists note in a casual aside that press freedom has experienced certain setbacks under the AKP, they are failing to do justice to the severity of this calamity and its ramifications for Turkey and the region. The calamity is exacerbated by the tendency of the foreign media to repeat, without scrutiny, the very idiocies peddled in the Turkish press, where the range of opinion on offer has become severely limited. The result is the growth of a grossly distorted and dangerous consensus about Turkey, here and abroad — to wit, that Turkey under the AKP has become more democratic and politically healthier, even if it is a bit up the duff with Islamism.

When the AKP took power, four large private groups owned almost all the country's media-a concentration of power already far too dense for political health. The largest was the Dogan group, which controlled some 70 per cent of the nation's print and broadcast outlets. The group enjoyed warm relations with the AKP until 2007. Then its outlets began reporting details of the Deniz Feneri scandal, the biggest charity corruption case in German history. Billions of dollars raised by this Islamist charity, Dogan newspapers announced, had found their way into AKP coffers. Soon thereafter, the Turkish Ministry of Finance began investigating the group, then levied upon it the largest tax fine ever assessed on a Turkish company. The company is appealing, but if the appeal fails, it will be annihilated. 

Then there is Sabah, the second-biggest media conglomerate, which controls the largest-circulation daily in Turkey and the powerful ATV television channel. Facing bankruptcy in 2007, it went up for sale. Curiously, all but one bidder dropped out at the last minute. The bidder left standing was the Calik group, whose CEO is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law, Berat Albayrak. A Qatari company, Al-Wasaeel, mysteriously swam up from nowhere to partner Calik's bid — in defiance of Turkish law, which forbids the foreign financing of the media — and two state banks led by figures close to the AKP, Halk and Vakif, lent Calik $750 million to finance the transaction, even though private banks in Turkey and abroad had declined. 

Associates of the sect leader Fethullah Gülen, who has been exiled in the US since 1998, control many of these media outlets. No one is quite sure what the reclusive Gülen's agenda really is, but there is no doubt that before the AKP came to power, he was prosecuted here for trying to establish an Islamic state. Nor is there any doubt that he is close to, and supportive of, the AKP. When Gülen is mentioned in the Western press, usually in passing, almost never is the most important fact about him noted: many Turks fear he's their Ayatollah Khomeini. I do not know if they are right. But I don't know that they're wrong, either, and the people here who tell me his influence is a major cause for concern have proved right about many things. Outside a handful of academic publications, Gülen's name is rarely mentioned in the Western media, and when it is, he is usually described — as the New York Times recently put it — as a "provincial Turkish preacher" who organises inspiring summer camps.

The AKP has by this means brought under its influence most of the media in Turkey, and what it hasn't purchased or neutered, it has terrified. Since taking office in 2003, Erdogan has launched an energetic series of lawsuits against Turkish journalists and cartoonists for character defamation. No one knows how many have been sued, though the number is probably in the hundreds, and Erdogan has refused to answer this question when asked in parliament. 

Then there is the hydra-headed Ergenekon case. Ergenekon, supposedly, is an ultra-nationalist terrorist gang that schemed to foment unrest in Turkey by blowing up mosques full of supplicants, shooting down Greek fighter planes and assassinating the Turkish Nobel laureate for literature Orhan Pamuk. The unrest unleashed by this, according to prosecutors, was to be used as a pretext to topple the AKP. A sprawling investigation into this alleged network of shadowy coup-plotters has resulted in the arrest of many prominent journalists critical of the AKP, including the Ankara bureau chief of Cumhuriyet, who is still rotting in jail. Last year, in protest, the front page of Cumhuriyet was left blank but for the words: "If we go silent, who will speak?" I don't recall seeing this reported anywhere in the international press. If it was, I will assume charitably, David Cameron merely overlooked it. Surely he would not deliberately have ignored it. That would have been cynical.

The government, meanwhile, has been locking down larger and larger portions of the internet: more than 1,000 websites have been banned, among them YouTube. Most of these bans have been initiated by the judiciary, not the executive, but the AKP has done nothing to change the laws the judiciary is enforcing.

So what's left? Chiefly such newspapers as Zaman and Yeni Safak — the AKP's unofficial mouthpiece — which are staunchly Islamist and connected to or controlled by the AKP or the Gülen media empire. Now, cronyism and government influence over the media is nothing new in Turkey; it would be completely misleading to suggest otherwise. What's new, and disturbing, is the agenda this media consolidation is now serving and the eagerness of foreign journalists to swallow it whole and promote it.

via standpointmag.co.uk