Charlie Rangel Suffers Public Humiliation at the Hands of Nancy Pelosi

The House voted 333-79 on Thursday to censure Representative Charlie Rangel for ethics violations, despite his desperate plea for a lessened punishment: "I brought it on myself, and I still believe that this body has to be guided by fairness, but nobody has ever suffered the humiliation of a censure when the record is abundantly clear [that there is] no evidence at all of corruption," he begged, to no avail. Politico reports that Rangel "now finds his 40-year career tarnished" after Pelosi censured him, a public spanking in the form of an oral rebuke, the harshest form of punishment short of expulsion from Congress. Yep, the lady made him stand there and just take it. It sounds like it was almost barbaric:

"Pelosi called on the eighty-year-old to stand in the well of the House to be informed that he had been censured by his colleagues. Rangel stood, feet shoulder-width apart with one hand clasped over the other in front of his waist. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus and New York delegations crowded into the first two rows behind him."

Oh, no! What did they do? Did they stone him? Er, no: "The ordeal was over in about 45 seconds, bringing a surprisingly anti-climatic end to a long battle that cost Rangel $2 million in legal fees," Politico reports. Here's what went down:

"'By its adoption of House Resolution 1737, the House has resolved that Rep. Charles B. Rangel be censured by the public reading of this resolution by the speaker, and that Rep. Rangel pay restitution to the appropriate taxing authorities for any unpaid taxes,' Pelosi intoned. For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the ritual, that's basically the end of the process for Rangel, who will return as a member of Congress in the next session."

Oh, okay. Back to work then.
Check out this rather charming video below, in which Rangel keeps things in perspective by explaining that in no way was that worse than the time in Korea when he thought he was actually going to die:

House censures Charles Rangel by overwhelming vote [Politico]
House censures Rangel [CNN]

censured, charlie rangel, nancy pelosi, rangeling

via nymag.com

very sad.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

censured, charlie rangel, nancy pelosi, rangeling 

President Obama fails test: commitment to peace process less important than incarceration of Pollard

Before the first freeze ended the Obama administration was advised that they
could literally force Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to agree to extend
the freeze for three additional months by offering Mr. Netanyahu to free
Jonathan Pollard in exchange for the freeze extension.

via imra.org.il

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US State Department tells employees not to read WikiLeaks

The US State Department has pushed employees toward "digital diplomacy" with Twitter and iPhone apps, but the department has banned all employees from using WikiLeaks.

via csmonitor.com

Israel, Gulf states conducted secret diplomacy

do any of my online buddies earlier this year remember when I was called a conspiracy theorist for saying that Israeli war planes were flying over Arabia and a sub was in the Persian Gulf.  The truth about that will be out shortly too.

Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
speaks at a Knesset session
on Wednesday.
A classified 2009
diplomatic cable
disclosed this week
tells of secret diplomacy
between Israel
and Persian Gulf states.

"With the exception of Iraq and Libya, I believe every member of the Arab League had some form of contact, informal or otherwise, with Israel up to 1996," Mr. Miller said. "This was through multilateral fora in some cases, the Middle East North African Economic Summit, for example, it was interest sections, and it was quiet contacts as well."

In January 2009, after Israel launched "Operation Cast Lead" against Hamas in Gaza, Qatar, the last Arab Gulf state to have open ties with Israel closed an Israeli trade office, leaving Israel with no open diplomatic channels to the Persian Gulf states that it used during the 1990s.
But as the 2009 cable shows, by March of that year, the Qataris already invited an Israeli delegation back to Doha to discuss reopening the trade mission.
Nonetheless, that same month, the queen of Qatar, Mozah Bint Nasser al Missned, hired a U.S. public relations firm, Fenton Communications, to run a public-awareness campaign in America to highlight the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
Mr. Hadas argued that Qatar's position on Iran was less than ideal, but did not reflect a fundamental change in its foreign policy. He even noted that Egyptian and Saudi pressure on Qatar seemed to be having an effect on the kingdom's approach to Iran.
Israel has had access to the highest levels of the Qatari government. The memo discloses, for example, that Israel has contacts with Qatar's emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, also known as Prince Hamad.
"Prince Hamad had told the Israelis in October 2006 that he believed Iran was determined to develop a nuclear bomb no matter the cost," the cable says. "According to Hadas, Hamad complained at the time that he felt the U.S. would not listen to him and tended to believe what it heard from Iran."
The leaked cable says former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had "good personal relations" with Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Mr. Hadas said the UAE was "increasingly hostile" to Iran, but also noted that the Emirates allowed Iran to launder its money and had extensive financial dealings with the country. The Emiratis are "not ready to do publicly what they say in private," the cable quotes Mr. Hadas as saying.
In February, the police chief of Dubai, an emirate in the UAE, publicly accused Israel's Mossad of assassinating a Hamas arms dealer named Mahmoud al-Mabhouh

A classified 2009 diplomatic cable disclosed this week provides a rare glimpse into the secret and often high-level diplomacy between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, all countries that officially do not recognize the Jewish state.
Contrary to the condemnatory rhetoric opposing Israel in public, Arab diplomats behind the scenes have asked Israel to carry messages to the U.S. government and urged tougher action on Iran.
The March 19, 2009, cable quotes Yacov Hadas, deputy director of Israels Foreign Ministry, as telling an American diplomat: "The Gulf Arabs believe in Israel's role because of their perception of Israel's close relationship with the U.S., but also due to their sense that they can count on Israel against Iran."
Mr. Hadas then says, "They believe Israel can work magic."
Israel and the Gulf states have grown increasingly concerned in recent years about Iran's nuclear program and that country's support for radical political movements and terrorism throughout the Middle East.
The new disclosures by the website WikiLeaks coincide with other classified cables made public in recent days that show Arab leaders have been urging U.S. officials to take military action against Iran.
Throughout Israel's history, the state has maintained back channels to Arab governments, even on the eve of war and during a cold peace. Nonetheless, Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab states that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Israel with full representation at the ambassador level.
That said, nearly every Arab state has had less-formal ties with Israel on and off since the beginning of the Oslo peace process in the 1990s, but those ties began to sever in 2000 with the collapse of the peace process.
Aaron David Miller, who has been a senior Middle East adviser to six secretaries of state, said every Arab country with the exception of Iraq under Saddam Hussein and Libya has had some diplomatic channel to Israel.

Diplomats from the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia declined to comment for this article. A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy also declined to comment.
Other Israeli diplomats did, however, tell The Washington Times that Israeli officials have looked to coordinate some aspects of Iran policy with Arab states in private meetings in Europe and on the sidelines of international meetings. For example, Israelis have shared information with Gulf states on weapons and high-tech shipments bound for Iran, these diplomats said.
At the end of the cable, the American diplomat told Mr. Hadas that Arab leaders tell the United States that progress in the peace process "would make it easier for them to publicly engage Israel."
Mr. Hadas countered, "The Israeli-Palestinian track should not serve as an excuse for the Gulf to avoid action, whether against Iran or through practical steps to support the Palestinian Authority."
Mr. Miller said the secret contacts Arabs have maintained with Israel have some value, but not too much.
"In a sense, the Arabs are getting the best of both worlds: They get points with the Americans for carrying out quiet contacts with the Israelis, but they don't get hammered by their own press or their regional rivals. That is how they prefer it," he said.
In response to the disclosures this week, the White House announced it would be moving to change the classification procedures. In the past, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said the recent leaking may spell the end for the intelligence-sharing reforms instituted after the 9/11 attacks.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com, which lent some of its server space to WikiLeaks, took the group off its servers after government pressure.

via washingtontimes.com

First the Leaks, Then the Dark Theories : Wikileaks an anti-Turkish plot engineered by Israel

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI isn't the only person who is spinning the facts. We also have a few wackadoos on friendfeed

In Turkey and beyond, the release of U.S. diplomatic cables on website WikiLeaks has sparked a round of conspiracy theories.

Turkish leaders appear convinced that state actors, in particular the U.S. itself or Israel—rather than Julian Assange of WikiLeaks—are behind the release of U.S. State Department cables, whose contents have embarrassed leaders around the globe.

The skepticism about WikiLeaks' independence is widespread and appears to be rooted in sheer disbelief that the world's most powerful nation can't stop its secrets from spilling onto the Internet. That sentiment pairs with a willingness to believe the worst of Israel. Neither is limited to Turkey.

"Undoubtedly, the Western governments and the Zionist regime were involved," said Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this week.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered up on CNN's Larry King Live that "experts" believe WikiLeaks is being deliberately "inflated" by others, to be used for political purposes at a later date.

"Assange clearly has very well-informed high-level protectors who aren't for the first time 'leaking' strictly secret documents to him by the ton. There is no doubt that these protectors have their own, far from altruistic, goals," wrote the official Rossiskaya Gazeta on Thursday, surmising that U.S. officials were trying to revive a "rusted-through American bureaucratic machine."

"It could be Barack Obama himself," the newspaper said.

"No one in the United States government with a brain in their head wanted to see this happen," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "This is a crime, not grand strategy. We will work through it, but it has done substantial damage."

Turkish conspiracy theorists have long speculated that Israel is seeking to get rid of an Islamic-leaning Turkish government that has turned sharply against its former ally. The alleged Israeli goal, these people say, is to replace the Justice and Development party's rule with a more friendly Turkish regime.

The WikiLeaks documents include reports of widespread corruption among government ministers, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family, which opposition leaders have sought to highlight, triggering a furious response from the prime minister.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul started the ball rolling earlier this week, when he said of the cable leakage: "I think it has a system. It seems that it has an aim."

Huseyin Celik, spokesman for the Justice and Development party, or AKP, said Wednesday that Israel was behind the document release. The evidence, he told reporters, was that "Israel is very pleased" and was so quick to say it had nothing to fear.

"How did they know that?" Mr. Celik asked, adding that "the main goal of these leaks was to weaken the Turkish government."

The Israeli Embassy in Ankara issued a statement Thursday denying any role in the WikiLeaks release of some 250,000 documents.

Some Turkish newspaper columnists see more complex forces at work. It's a plot by a global "deep state," a kind of rogue organization within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that aims to weaken President Barack Obama, reshape the geopolitical playing field in Europe and the Middle East and whip Turkey into line, according to a Thursday column by Samill Tayyar of the religious conservative Star newspaper.

Comments from newspaper readers suggest the conspiracy theories are widely believed. "This has been prepared by the U.S. and Israel, it is one way to start the World War III from the Middle East by setting the Muslim countries against each other," said one reader of Hurriyet, the daily paper of Turkey's secularist establishment.

Not everyone is buying it, though. "Turkish AKP Party Members reveal: 'Israel is responsible for the extinction of the Dinosaurs,'" commented one reader on Mr. Celik's claims, on Hurriyet's English-language newspaper site.

On Thursday, after returning from meeting other leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Kazakhstan, Mr. Gul appeared to have changed his tune.

"I don't believe much in these conspiracy theories," he said on Turkey's NTV television. "All of the documents have not been released yet, as far as I know, so maybe some will come out [about Israel] later."

via online.wsj.com  h/t via Eric Logan to US Politics, Mideast Politics, Middle East Discussion on friendfeed.com

The Turks have become as predictable and paranoid as the Arabs (Hat Tip: Martin Kramer and Memeorandum).

Israel could have engineered the release of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents on WikiLeaks as a plot to corner Turkey on both domestic and foreign policy, according to a senior ruling party official.
“One has to look at which countries are pleased with these. Israel is very pleased. Israel has been making statements for days, even before the release of these documents,” Hüseyin Çelik, deputy leader of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and the party’s spokesperson, told reporters at a press conference Wednesday.
Following initial reaction to the leaked U.S. Embassy cables, which have revealed diplomatic secrets about Turkey, Azerbaijan, its Middle Eastern neighbors, Turkish officials have started to suspect that “the main cause of these leaks was to weaken the Turkish government.”
...
The first signal came from President Abdullah Gül, who said Tuesday the leaks seemed to be a result of a systematic work with some purpose behind it.
Though government officials like Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek avoided naming Israel in their public statements Wednesday, Çelik, a close aide to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, singled out the country with his comments Wednesday.
“Documents were released and they immediately said, ‘Israel will not suffer from this.’ How did they know that?” Çelik said.

Are they selling the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on the streets of Ankara yet? I'm sure it's a best seller in the Turkish government.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

the conspiracies are becoming more elaborate by the day. by the end of the week they will be slick enough for a printable brochure or PDF and by next month you can expect a coffee table book

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

A fire raging out of control in Israel's Carmel forest region.

 Earlier today the Prisons Service decided to evacuate the Kele 6 prison facility in Tirat Hacarmel because of the fire that was raging in the Carmel forest region.
As a result 40 prison wardens who were en route to the Damon Prison burned to death in the bus caught up in the blaze.


Families from Kibbutzim and Moshavim in the area have been evacuated as homes burn.
 Earlier Haifa University was also been evacuated and since a hospital. 
 Police have now ordered the evacuation of the 5,000 residents of Tirat Hacarmel.  Patrol cars with loudspeakers asked all inhabitants to leave the area as winds carried the flames in the town's direction.

 Carmel park wildfire, 2 december 2010, Israel.
 


Greek Firefighting Helicopters En Route to Assist Israel
 Greece will send firefighting helicopters to Israel Thursday night, to help fight the fire in the Carmel Mountains, Channel 2 reported. Cyprus will send its only firefighting helicopter as well. There were unconfirmed reports that Egypt and Turkey also offered help.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, it was earlier reported, has asked Russia, Italy, Greece and Cyprus to help Israel fight the fire. The request appears to reflect concern that the fire could spread further than it already has and may go on for days.
Israel's firefighting forces have no firefighting planes. According to reports in the press Thursday, there are only about a dozen privately owned firefighting planes in all of Israel, and they are all relatively small ones. Such planes are ineffective in combating a large-scale fire.
 Israel is calling up large-scale forces, including military ones, to fight the deadly blaze. The IDF has provided numerous water tankers and provided ground troops that are assisting in the evacuation efforts.
Fire Services Spokesman Hezi Levy said that when darkness fell, all airborne firefighting activity ceased. This, he said, means that the fire continues to spread rapidly. By morning, Levy estimated, Israel will be out of fire-dousing chemicals.
Using his live broadcast interview on Channel 2, Levy called on all firefighters in Israel to report to their stations, from which they will be transported to the area of the fire. He said Israel has a total of 1500 firefighters, and all of them are being called up.
Various spokesmen said that a major factor hindering firefighting attempts is the complete absence of large fire-dousing planes in Israel.
The IDF also provided firefighting forces, Home Front Command crews and helicopters. Dozens of medical crews have been provided to assist the police and are under the effective command of the Israel Police's Northern District.
At least four D-9 bulldozers were provided by the military
  Israel has never experienced a greater natural disaster the scope of which is still not known, as the fire still rages.
The extremely hot summer and the delay of the winter rains has been blamed for turning the area into a potential tinderbox.  No information is yet available on the cause of the fire.
 Firefighting chief, Shimon Romach said he was not optimistic about the prospects of containing the fire at this time.
-------------------------

via 9-11domorethenneverforget-stopislam.blogspot.com

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Ramallah, The De Facto Capital Of Palestine

Palestinian builders labour on a construction site in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

via news.bbc.co.uk

Instead of East Jerusalem, Ramallah is beginning to look like the de facto capital of Palestine:

A building frenzy that is transforming Ramallah's skyline is also consolidating its position as the de facto Palestinian capital.
Once a village outside Jerusalem, the West Bank city increasingly appears to be assuming the role marked out for East Jerusalem in the Palestinians' statehood plans.

Smart hotels and apartment blocks are rising from the hilly terrain, a new presidential palace is under construction and the Palestinians are building new ministries for their government rather than continuing to rent out office space.

via daledamos.blogspot.com

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PM Fayyad: Palestinian Authority 'Will Not Be a Prisoner to the Restrictions of Oslo'

Elder of Ziyon has noticed a article in Arabic reporting that Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad has announced that the PA no longer abides by the Oslo Accords:

Fayyad said during his weekly radio show on local Palestinian radio stations Wednesday that the Palestinian National Authority 'will not be a prisoner to the restrictions of Oslo'.

Fayyad has obviously not thought through the implications of abrogating the Oslo accords.
But Elder of Ziyon has.

via daledamos.blogspot.com

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Lawfare: The Abuse of International Law to Delegitimize Israel

Swedish Royal Family Hit By Fresh Nazi Allegations

Sweden loves to pretend they were neutral during World War 2 so that they can support Israel's enemies today

Sweden’s royal family has been rocked by a new scandal which has exposed the hidden Nazi past of the Queen’s father.
The latest revelations concern Walther Sommerlath, the late father of Sweden’s German-born Queen Silvia. He has been unmasked by an investigative television documentary as a Nazi party member who grew rich during the Second World War running an armaments factory that had been stolen from its Jewish owners.
The disturbing revelations, made by Sweden’s Kalla fakta (Cold facts) TV programme, directly contradict 67-year-old Queen Silvia’s claims earlier this year that her father was not “politically active” and that the factory he ran produced toy trains, hairdryers and parts for civilian gas masks. She also denied he had taken over the factory from its Jewish owners.
However, documents unearthed by Kalla facta in Berlin and South America show that Walther Sommerlath joined the Nazi party in Brazil in 1934 – only a year after Hitler took power.
They showed that he returned to Germany shortly before the Second World War broke out in 1939 and took over a previously Jewish-owned Berlin factory that had been “Aryanised” by the Nazis.
Under Sommerlath’s ownership, the plant produced tank parts, anti-aircraft guns and other items vital to the Nazi war effort.
When Silvia Sommerlath married Sweden’s King Carl Gustav in 1976, Walther Sommerlath denied he had ever been a Nazi party member. A Swedish newspaper first revealed the fact in 2003, but the Queen flatly refused to respond to the disclosure at the time. She spoke for the first time about the subject in July this year, saying that although he joined the Nazi party, her father was neither politically active nor a soldier.
She has so far refused to answer questions concerning the latest disclosures about her father.
Her brother Ralf told Sweden’s Expressen newspaper in a recent interview that the Queen was “terribly upset” by the documentary, which he dismissed as “lies and slander”.
A statement released by Sweden’s royal palace said: “The Queen has no reason to comment on the content of the programme,” adding, “Of course, the Queen is sorry about her father becoming a member of the Nazi party. She first knew about his membership in adulthood. She never had the opportunity to discuss this with her father.”
(Source: The Independent)

via theyeshivaworld.com

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WikiLeaks cables: You can't blame Israel for mistrusting Arabs, says Qatari ruler

Israelis can't be blamed for mistrusting Arabs, according to remarks by the ruler of the Arab state of Qatar released by the WikiLeaks group in the latest of a string of surprising revelations.
Qatar's Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, made the comments in a meeting with U.S. Senator John Kerry on February 23. A report of their discussions, obtained by the WikiLeaks group, was filed by America's Ambassador to Qatar Joseph LeBaron.

	The Emir of Qatar: Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, October 27, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

via haaretz.com

He went on to say that given the perceived victories for Hamas and Hezbollah, viewed across the Arab world as having driven Israel out of Gaza and southern Lebanon, Israelis deserved credit for still pursuing peace.
ouch... that will be hard to spin

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US deploys 'game-changer' weapon to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AFP) – It looks and acts like something best left in the hands of Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo," but this latest dream weapon is real -- and the US Army sees it becoming the Taliban's worst nightmare.
The Pentagon has rolled out prototypes of its first-ever programmable "smart" grenade launcher, a shoulder-fired weapon that uses microchipped ammunition to target and kill the enemy, even when the enemy is hidden behind walls or other cover.

  

After years of development, the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, about the size of a regular rifle, has now been deployed to US units on the battlefields of Afghanistan, where the Army expects it to be a "game-changer" in its counterinsurgency operations.
"For well over a week, it's been actively on patrols, and in various combat outposts in areas that are hot," said Lieutenant Colonel Chris Lehner, program manager for the XM25.
The gun's stats are formidable: it fires 25mm air-bursting shells up to 2,300 feet (700 meters), well past the range of most rifles used by today's soldiers, and programs them to explode at a precise distance, allowing troops to neutralize insurgents hiding behind walls, rocks or trenches or inside buildings.
With Afghan control by 2014, Obama sees combat end]
"This is the first time we're putting smart technology into the hands of the individual soldier," Lehner told AFP in a telephone interview. Previous grenade launchers needed to arc their shells over cover and land near the target to be effective.

I still say sending ground troops is an outdated concept to begin with. bomb them

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lol WikiLeaks: Clinton says Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is Co Co CRAZY

By way of WikiLeaks, Hillary-the-voyeur was caught trying to decode the "mindset of Kirchner's husband, who was [Cristina's] closest adviser prior to his death" (which, by the way, was from natural causes, not a spousal reaction to philandering). The confidential documents embarrassingly expose the former First Lady's imperious insolence, overlooking as she does the perverted mentality of her own husband while exploring the "mindset" of someone else's.

Furthermore, one can't help but ask: How does Hillary Clinton, of all people, have the effrontery to inquire into the "leadership dynamics" of any married political team?

via americanthinker.com

here is the WikiLeak:

HOW IS CRISTINA FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER MANAGING HER NERVES AND ANXIETY? HOW DOES STRESS AFFECT HER BEHAVIOR TOWARD ADVISORS AND/OR HER DECISIONMAKING? WHAT STEPS DOES CRISTINA FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER OR HER ADVISERS/HANDLERS, TAKE IN HELPING HER DEAL WITH STRESS? IS SHE TAKING ANY MEDICATIONS? UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES IS SHE BEST ABLE TO HANDLE STRESSES? HOW DO CRISTINA FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER,S EMOTIONS AFFECT HER DECISIONMAKING AND HOW DOES SHE CALM DOWN WHEN DISTRESSED?

via blog.foreignpolicy.com

image via gettyimages.com

Assange: Netanyahu said leaks would help peace

Is Assange really a supporter of Israel or is he trying to fend off criticism that the truth helped Israel?

In an interview with Time Magazine, WikiLeaks founder defends publication of classified materials by saying Israeli PM believes making privately held beliefs public will 'lead to increase in peace process, particularly in relation to Iran'

via ynetnews.com

Assange also complimented Netanyahu by saying he is "not a naïve man" and "a sophisticated politician". Private cables exposed by WikiLeaks revealed earlier this week that Arab leaders had urged the US to end Iran's nuclear program by force if necessary. The first of the world's leaders to address this cable was Netanyahu, who said Monday that "if the leaders make these statements publically there will be a significant change". "When leaders are willing to tell their people the truth it promotes peace." The prime minister said, adding that "peace based on truth has a lasting chance."

I know I'm supposed to know the answer here... but I don't

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Israel and the Arabs agree: It's just a nuisance

Reviewing the Wikileaks cables, Aluf Benn castigates the United States as an empire in decline. Although he argues that the cables from the Bush administration are equally as weak as those from the Obama administration, I don't believe anyone would have referred to America 'in decline' before January 20, 2009.
But it's Benn's biting assessment of where the 'Palestinians' stand in the World's eyes that is most striking about this article, especially because Benn is a committed Leftist who shares Obama's 'fierce moral urgency' to create a 'Palestinian state.' You will recall that in the summer of 2009, Benn begged Obama to come here via a piece in the New York Times so that Israelis would learn to trust him. As of this past spring, Benn continued to believe that Obama needed to endear himself to Israelis.
Even Aluf Benn understands now that no one cares about the 'Palestinians.' No one except Israel's and the Democratic party's Far Left.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first world leader to leverage the WikiLeaks revelations for his own purposes. At a press conference on Monday, Netanyahu used the leaked cables to trash Obama's position and advance the agenda of "Iran first." The cables prove, he said, that there's no truth in the narrative that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the greatest threat to the region and its future.
The doublespeak of the Arab leaders, who publicly attack Israel while warning against Iran in closed forums, helps the prime minister repulse the American administration's claim that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict takes precedence. It provides confirmation of Israel's assertion, which the West has disbelieved for years, that the Palestinians aren't important.
The Arab leaders didn't ignore the Palestinians. They raised this issue over and over in their talks with American representatives. But the Egyptians and the Gulf emirates share their Israeli counterparts' view of the conflict as a nuisance that must be managed, not a problem that can be solved.
None of them fantasized about a Palestinian state, about freedom and independence for Gaza and Nablus. All they wanted was to get this annoying nuisance off their backs, and they didn't care how. They viewed Obama as a pest and his envoys as bothers, not as spokesmen for the global superpower. Or perhaps that's no longer what America is.

Indeed.
But one thing has changed. There is no chance Israelis will trust Obama's assessment of the 'Palestinian' issue again. He's finished here.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

I don't think Obama cares anymore what Israel thinks of him. he is going to support the unilateral creation of the Palestine state in the UN and has no delusions that Jews will hate him for it. The fact that Israel has proof that he is caustic has Obama's loyalists laughing. They feel that these feelings already were out in the open. Israel's enemies were smirking and now they are going to kick sand.

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