King Abdullah: 'Israel Has an Expiration date'

(Docs Talk/By A7 Staff) King Abdullah of Jordan claims Israel has an 'expiration date' - unless it pursues a two-state solution.

Israel Radio reported Monday morning that King Abdullah of Jordan said "Israel has an expiration date."
Abdullah's comments were reportedly made to the BBC last week. During the interview Abdullah said Israel's survival was dependent on a two-state solution. Israel does not realize it needs such a solution, he added Abdullah added his government would increase pressure on Israel to reach a final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
He did not, however, provide any concrete facts to buttress his oft repeated assertion of Israel's imminent doom.
Israel remains a regional leader in the realms of economics, military, science, and technology.
Meanwhile, former defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel cannot afford to cut the defense budget because Israel is likely to find itself in renewed conflict with Egypt in the long-run.
Comment: Some would say that Jordan is certainly not our friend and I would concur. However he is signaling to us a particular message regarding the future of talks. Perhaps it would be useful to engage the King in public discourse-he needs us to succeed to save his entire monarchy.

that would explain why he didn't visit Jerusalem. I have a hunch that these hard line tactics are a sign of desperation. It was reported that the PAL will not be involved in land swaps. It is also inevitable that Obama will probably lose the election unless an economic miracle happens. Given that... I have a hunch that the Arabs are scared and are reacting with harsh words because they will be forced to make concessions now. The attempt to appear strong is a bluff. The Arabs do not have the money to attack as nations... nor do they have the strength. They know this. The one thing they have is the UN... and they are playing to the UN's emotions to pressure Israel into something through the international community. Israel's best play is a stiff neck. There is going to be a lot of barking as these guys lose an advantage.

Meghan McCain Officially Joins MSNBC

(mediabistro.com) “I couldn’t more be excited to be joining the MSNBC family,” said McCain in a statement. “It’s a unique opportunity to share my perspective as a Republican on a network I respect and have built a relationship with over the past two years.”

huh? I liked her Dad, but she ain't her Dad. Anything on MSNBC... I don't care what they call label it... is crap or annoying. It got so annoying... that I don't even watch it... or have found any reason to mention it. CNN is crap too, but I have to mention them. This station is so irrelevant that it isn't even offensive. I can watch Rachel Maddow and laugh my head off. It isn't even stressful because I know what to expect... though I do admit I get bored and change the channel pretty fast. So this is where Meghan wants to go? She blinks a lot... don't she?

Biden Sold Out Soviet Dissidents

FrontPageMagazine.com has published a troubling article concerning Joe Biden's diplomatic priorities by Vladimir Bukovsky, the renowned human rights activist and former 12-year political prisoner in the Soviet Union, and Pavel Stroilov, a Russian exile and translator living in London.
Titled Biden's Secret Diplomacy, it is a report about a secret document, first uncovered at the Gorbachev Foundation Archive in Moscow three years ago, that provides insight into Senator Joe Biden's true priorities and proclivity towards political double-speak during one of the most tense periods of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union - and who Biden thought was expendable.
According to the article and the document, Senator Biden led a delegation of Senators to Moscow for discussions about arms control issues in 1979. During that meeting, Biden told his Communist hosts "off the record" that in his esteemed opinion, the internal persecution of Soviet dissidents and the overall suppression of human rights was of no real concern and that bringing it up would only impede other, more important negotiations. Senator Biden did, however, request that his Soviet hosts put on a bit of a show for him - he indicated that it would help with his constituents back home if the Soviets publicly acknowledged that the current Vice-Presidential candidate did bring up human rights and the plight of the dissidents - particularly the Jewish refuseniks.
Remember hearing and reading about gulags, psikhushkas, and Soviet prisons? Remember the name Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn? Those are the horrific practices, and the type of people, that Joe Biden was willing to ignore.
Via the article and from the original document:

The delegation did not officially raise the issue of human rights during the negotiations. Biden said they did not want 'to spoil the atmosphere with problems which are bound to cause distrust in our relations.' However, during the breaks between the sessions the senators passed to us several letters concerning these or those 'refuseniks'.
Unofficially, Biden and [Senator Richard] Lugar said that, in the end of the day, they were not so much concerned with having a problem of this or that citizen solved as with showing to the American public that they do care for 'human rights'. They must prove to their voters that they are 'effective in fulfilling their wishes'. In other words, the collocutors directly admitted that what is happening is a kind of a show, that they absolutely do not care for the fate of most so-called dissidents.
In the same conversation, Biden asked us to ensure that senators' appeals on those issues are not left unanswered - even if we just reply that the letter is received but we cannot do anything.

No wonder the Soviet Union thought they were beating us in 1979.
It was Ronald Reagan's laser-like focus on human rights in the "evil empire" - the Eastern Bloc controlled by the Soviet Union - that led to the popular uprisings throughout Eastern Europe and broke the back of Communism. The Soviet Union as it existed from after World War II to its fall was an empty vessel - the West was vastly superior to the East economically, militarily, and above all concerning the issue of human rights. What was needed to give hundreds of millions of people their freedom and hope back was for a courageous leader of a strong nation to confront the Soviets with those facts.
Documents show that Joe Biden was not one of those courageous leaders. In fact, he opposed Ronald Reagan every step of the way.
Joe Biden is knowledgeable about foreign policy "facts", but the true measure of foreign policy effectiveness is how one turns knowledge of those facts into successful policies. Senator Biden has been, in the end, on the wrong side of every major foreign policy issue since he has been in politics. Having said that, I am still surprised by this story. His cowardice in the face of true evil is despicable.
And this is the person who is supposedly giving Barack Obama foreign policy credibility? God help us all, especially those currently persecuted around the world.

via conspiracysquirrels.com

Videos: Rick Santorum on Israeli developments in Judea and Samaria and on Iran's nuclear threat

There's a lot of background noise in this video, but Rick Santorum sure puts this interviewer in his place. This interview is from Friday in Iowa.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Think Progress).

Also on Friday, Santorum said that the United States should target Iranian nuclear scientists, which also got Think Progress all worked up.
Let's go to the videotape.

I could vote for this guy.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

exactly what I was thinking. Perhaps less baggage is more. He knows his bag.

Flashback Charlie Rose from Creeping Sharia

<----flashback Rose....(creepingsharia.wordpress.com) A follow-up to a post on the PBS documentary ‘Jihad in America’. The video below is an episode of Charlie Rose. It aired on PBS fifteen seventeen years ago today. Watch it.

Charlie Rose hosts the executive producer of the documentary, Steve Emerson, and three Muslims (3 on 1). They are one-time CAIR board member Anisa Abd El-Fattah, Mohammad Mehdi, and possibly the most irrational of the lot, Abdurahman Alamoudi. The twist we told you about in the last post is that the defiant, evidence-ignoring Alamoudi is now in prison, convicted of terror-related offenses. Read more, here, about Alamoudi – who set up the troubling U.S. military Muslim chaplain infrastructure and recruiting process (to ensure wahabbi-trained Muslims could infiltrate the military). Grab a snack/drink and watch.The tactics used

SAVING AMERICA

15 17 years ago are the same tactics used today. Deflect questions, ignore evidence, provide cover for the Islamist threat, blame the messenger for the words and actions of Muslims, blame Israel, dominant the discussion and waste time with irrelevant chatter, portray Muslims as victims in the wake of Americans being killed by Muslims, and so on.
No politician, young or old, has any excuse – this issue has been known for at least 15 years, yet still has been ignored, if not aided, by most in office.

Charlie Rose - Mohammad Javad Larijani

Charlie Rose | Mohammad-Javad Larijani 2011 ,,,sorry if you missed this one ...Charlie says there is no Al Qaeda in Iraq and Larijani corrects him. Larijani says Egyptian Arab Spring was about overthrowing Israel. Charlie Rose disagrees. We get this guy in the media's face and the media still doesn't believe it. Charlie Rose goes... I was in Egypt, I know what it was about. come now ( Mohammad-Javad Larijani <----video here in Current Affairs on Friday, November 18, 2011 ) Description: Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of Iran’s Human Rights Council and close adviser to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

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Over a Dozen CIA Agents Caught in Iran, Fear Execution in Middle East

In yet another disaster of  American foreign policy, more than a dozen American CIA agents working in Iran have been captured and face execution (if they haven't been tortured and killed by the devout Islamic government already).
How long will it be before the executions show up on youTube?
The media continues to carry water for the most disastrous President in American history. To call it a "setback" is intentionally misleading and attempt to minimize the damage.
I pray for these American heroes and their families.

Exclusive: CIA Spies Caught, Fear Execution in Middle East
In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community.
The spies were paid informants recruited by the CIA for two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and the Beirut-based Hezbollah organization, considered by the U.S. to be a terror group backed by Iran.
"Espionage is a risky business," a U.S. official briefed on the developments told ABC News, confirming the loss of the unspecified number of spies over the last six months.
"Many risks lead to wins, but some result in occasional setbacks," the official said.
But others inside the American intelligence community say sloppy "tradecraft" -- the method of covert operations -- by the CIA is also to blame for the disruption of the vital spy networks.
CIA Spies Caught in Iran
At about the same time that Hezbollah was identifying the CIA network in Lebanon, Iranian intelligence agents discovered a secret internet communication method used by CIA-paid assets in Iran.
The CIA has yet to determine precisely how many of its assets were compromised in Iran, but the number could be in the dozens, according to one current and one former U.S. intelligence official.

via atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com

Steinitz: Arabs 'Too Broke' to Start a War

There is no need to increase the country's defense budget, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Monday - because Israel's Arab enemies are too disorganized and too broke to start a war.

Steinitz was speaking at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday, which was discussing a request by the Defense Ministry for a further increase in its budget for the coming year.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz

Israel News photo: Flash 90

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has been seeking to spend beyond the NIS 7-8 billion already allocated to his ministry, because of what he says are major defense problems and emergencies that Israel faces. Steinitz has said that he opposes increasing the budget, because the government needs any extra money it has to pay for social programs, in accordance with the recommendations made by the Trachtenberg Committee in response to protests for social justice over the summer.

Barak based his request on the conclusions of another government committee – the Brodet Committee, formed in the wake of the Second Lebanon War. That committee recommended increasing the defense budget by NIS 100 billion over a period of ten years. Steinitz said that the Defense Ministry's “raise” was already included in the upcoming budget, and that it is expected to deal with all security issues Israel faces from those funds. Exceeding the framework of the budget would be appropriate only in the event of a real national emergency, such as an invasion of Israel by a neighboring country – a very unlikely scenario over the next few years, Steinitz said.

“The Middle East is currently facing a major crisis,” Steinitz told the committee, referring to the various uprisings and revolutions in several Arab countries. “On the one hand there is more instability in the region, and a higher likelihood of terror because of the loss of control by governments. And we face the threats of missiles – nuclear and conventional – from Iran and Syria.

“On the other hand,” Steinitz continued, “there is no doubt that the Arab states around us are weaker, militarily and certainly economically, to the extent that their ability to enter into an arms race with us will be very limited over at least the next 5 to 10 years. Some of these countries are near bankruptcy,” Steinitz said, and as a result Israel did not need to overspend on defense needs, certainly not beyond what the Brodet Committee recommended to bring Israel's defense facilities up to par.

via israelnationalnews.com

if you spend money on social programs it might be a good idea to also spend money on education from the Jewish perspective. That could be the best defense Israel can have right now. Too many Jews are simply uninformed as to why the state of Israel is necessary. Spending on social programs would be the perfect opportunity for the Jews to reach out to their own community. Generally I would say too much money is spent on education, but from what I can see by talking to Israelis... they are getting education and learning lots of the wrong things about themselves. Does anyone have any free market strategies to help Israel teach itself to respect themselves? I'm listening.

Mount of Olives Mosque Construction Proceeds Apace

(israelnationalnews.com) Arabs are building an illegal mosque on the Mount of Olives adjacent to the graves of late Prime Minister Menachem Begin and modern Hebrew rejuvenator Eliezer Ben Yehuda.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Land of Israel Foundation chairman Aryeh King said the struggle to stop the mosque's construction has yet to bear fruit and that official responses have been filled with platitudes and untruths.

Illegal Mosque Construction

Flash 90

King said in recent days it has been established the area the mosque is being built in is clearly designated as a part of the cemetery itself on land some 200 meters into undisputed Israeli territory.
"The city places the blame on the police and the police lay blame on the municipality – while the criminals are celebrating and we are ashamed to exercise our sovereignty," King said.
Instead, King says he received a letter from an attorney for the Israel police asserting there are no grounds for action against construction at the site because the only work being done is the renovation of the lavatory and moving a sink.
Aerial photographs recently published by King, however, shows construction on land that - until 18 months ago - was occupied by fruit-bearing olive trees. King noted, in addition to the failure to obtain a permit for such work, that the uprooting of trees for the purpose of construction is illegal.
"The Israeli government is allowing it to happen," King said. "The Minister did not lift a finger. We were not able to convince them the importance of place , and thus we failed," King said - emphasizing government inaction came despite the Mosque's close promity to Begin and Ben-Yehuda's graves.
King said, "There is no way to explain this reality except for the fact that the District [Police] Commander is afraid of upsetting the Arabs. There is no other explanation for a document filled with lies.
"Even when he was police chief in the Old City he allowed Arabs to bury their dead in the compound, which is defined as a national park - right in the Old City itself. How can police produce a fallacious document when there are clear violations happening right under their nose - the use of heavy equipment - which can be clearly seen from the Temple Mount?"
King said rabbis he lobbied for support were reluctant to pressure the authorities. King also said Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat had not issued a demolition or stop work order at the Mosque site.
"We need to rouse the public to action," King said.

that is a mighty big sink you are building on the Mount of Olives, sheik!

Protests continue ahead of Egypt elections

Large crowds were again seen streaming into Tahrir Square on Monday - defying attempts by security forces to end the protests in what had been the symbolic heart of demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak earlier in the year.

• Large crowds were again seen streaming into Tahrir Square on Monday - defying attempts by security forces to end the protests in what had been the symbolic heart of demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak earlier in the year.
• In recent weeks, protesters - mostly Islamists and young activists - have been holding demonstrations against a draft constitution that they say would allow the military to retain too much power after a new civilian government is elected.
• State television reported in the early hours of Monday that a truce had been agreed between the security forces and the imam of Tahrir Square's main Omar Makram mosque, but it did not apply to streets leading to the interior ministry where much of the fighting has been taking place.
• TV footage showed tear gas being fired into the crowds as security forces again attempted to disperse protesters.
• The health ministry has confirmed at least 22 deaths during the weekend unrest.
• The latest violence is some of the worst in months between the Egyptian authorities and demonstrators.
• This is the longest continuous protest since President Mubarak was ousted in February and casts a shadow over elections due to start next week.

American spies outed, CIA suffers in Lebanon

WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming.
Hezbollah's longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further.
In recent months, CIA officials have secretly been scrambling to protect their remaining spies - foreign assets or agents working for the agency - before Hezbollah can find them.
To be sure, some deaths are to be expected in shadowy spy wars. It's an extremely risky business and people get killed. But the damage to the agency's spy network in Lebanon has been greater than usual, several former and current U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about security matters.

The Lebanon crisis is the latest mishap involving CIA counterintelligence, the undermining or manipulating of the enemy's ability to gather information. Former CIA officials have said that once-essential skill has been eroded as the agency shifted from outmaneuvering rival spy agencies to fighting terrorists. In the rush for immediate results, former officers say, tradecraft has suffered. The most recent high-profile example was the suicide bomber who posed as an informant and killed seven CIA employees and wounded six others in Khost, Afghanistan in December 2009.
Last year, then-CIA director Leon Panetta said the agency had to maintain "a greater awareness of counterintelligence." But eight months later, Nasrallah let the world know he had bested the CIA, demonstrating that the agency still struggles with this critical aspect of spying and sending a message to those who would betray Hezbollah.
The CIA was well aware the spies were vulnerable in Lebanon. CIA officials were warned, including the chief of the unit that supervises Hezbollah operations from CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and the head of counterintelligence. It remains unclear whether anyone has been or will be held accountable in the wake of this counterintelligence disaster or whether the incident will affect the CIA's ability to recruit assets in Lebanon.
In response to AP's questions about what happened in Lebanon, a U.S. official said Hezbollah is recognized as a complicated enemy responsible for killing more Americans than any other terrorist group before September 2001. The agency does not underestimate the organization, the official said.
The CIA's toughest adversaries, like Hezbollah and Iran, have for years been improving their ability to hunt spies, relying on patience and guile to exploit counterintelligence holes.
In 2007, for instance, when Ali-Reza Asgari, a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, disappeared in Turkey, it was assumed that he was either killed or defected. In response, the Iranian government began a painstaking review of foreign travel by its citizens, particularly to places like Turkey where Iranians don't need a visa and could meet with foreign intelligence services.
It didn't take long, a Western intelligence official told the AP, before the U.S., Britain and Israel began losing contact with some of their Iranian spies.
The State Department last year described Hezbollah as "the most technically capable terrorist group in the world," and the Defense Department estimates it receives between $100 million and $200 million per year in funding from Iran.
Backed by Iran, Hezbollah has built a professional counterintelligence apparatus that Nasrallah - whom the U.S. government designated an international terrorist a decade ago - proudly describes as the "spy combat unit." U.S. intelligence officials believe the unit, which is considered formidable and ruthless, went operational in about 2004.
Using the latest commercial software, Nasrallah's spy-hunters unit began methodically searching for spies in Hezbollah's midst. To find them, U.S. officials said, Hezbollah examined cellphone data looking for anomalies. The analysis identified cellphones that, for instance, were used rarely or always from specific locations and only for a short period of time. Then it came down to old-fashioned, shoe-leather detective work: Who in that area had information that might be worth selling to the enemy?
The effort took years but eventually Hezbollah, and later the Lebanese government, began making arrests. By one estimate, 100 Israeli assets were apprehended as the news made headlines across the region in 2009. Some of those suspected Israeli spies worked for telecommunications companies and served in the military.
Back at CIA headquarters, the arrests alarmed senior officials. The agency prepared a study on its own vulnerabilities, U.S. officials said, and the results proved to be prescient.
The analysis concluded that the CIA was susceptible to the same analysis that had compromised the Israelis, the officials said.
CIA managers were instructed to be extra careful about handling sources in Lebanon. A U.S. official said recommendations were issued to counter the potential problem.
But it's unclear what preventive measures were taken by the Hezbollah unit chief or the officer in charge of the Beirut station. Former officials say the Hezbollah unit chief is no stranger to the necessity of counterintelligence and knew the risks. The unit chief has worked overseas in hostile environments like Afghanistan and played an important role in the capture of a top terrorist while stationed in the Persian Gulf region after the attacks of 9/11.
"We've lost a lot of people in Beirut over the years, so everyone should know the drill," said a former Middle East case officer familiar with the situation.
But whatever actions the CIA took, they were not enough. Like the Israelis, bad tradecraft doomed these CIA assets and the agency ultimately failed to protect them, an official said. In some instances, CIA officers fell into predictable patterns when meeting their sources, the official said.
This allowed Hezbollah to identify assets and case officers and unravel at least part of the CIA's spy network in Lebanon. There was also a reluctance to share cases and some files were put in "restricted handling." The designation severely limits the number of people who know the identity of the source but also reduces the number of experts who could spot problems that might lead to their discovery, officials said.
Nasrallah's televised announcement in June was followed by finger-pointing among departments inside the CIA as the spy agency tried figure out what went wrong and contain the damage.
The fate of these CIA assets is unknown. Hezbollah treats spies differently, said Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism and intelligence expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies who's writing a book about the terrorist organization
"It all depends on who these guys were and what they have to say," Levitt said. "Hezbollah has disappeared people before. Others they have kept around."
Who's responsible for the mess in Lebanon? It's not clear. The chief of Hezbollah operations at CIA headquarters continues to run the unit that also focuses on Iranians and Palestinians. The CIA's top counterintelligence officer, who was one of the most senior women in the clandestine service, recently retired after approximately five years in the job. She is credited with some important cases, including the recent arrests of Russian spies who had been living in the U.S. for years.
Officials said the woman was succeeded by a more experienced operations officer. That officer has held important posts in Moscow, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Balkans, important frontlines of the agency's spy wars with foreign intelligence services and terrorist organizations.
---
Contact the Washington investigative team at DCInvestigations(at)ap.org
Follow Apuzzo http://twitter.com/mattapuzzo  and Goldman http://twitter.com/goldmandc

Dennis Miller Says He Fantasized About Attacking A Muslim Man On His Plane | ThinkProgress

Watch it:

“You’re doing the Juan Williams thing!” O’Reilly responded to Miller, apparently laughing off his remarks. Miller’s comments come at a time when Islamophobia continues to be pervasive on the far-right. Last week, Tennessee state Rep. Rick Womick (R-Murfreesboro) told ThinkProgress that he thinks Muslims should be banned from the military, earning a rebuke from the Anti-Defamation League.

(thinkprogress.org) By Zaid Jilani on Nov 18, 2011 at 10:20 am

On Wednesday night, comedian and right-wing pundit Dennis Miller appeared on Fox News’s The O’Reilly Factor to talk about various political issues. At one point, Miller explained that on a flight from Los Angeles to New York, he was sitting next to a Muslim man. He told O’Reilly that he fantasized about assaulting the man if he stood up:

MILLER: Billy, I just flew five hours from L.A. to New York next to Islamic kid who was in his 30s. I couldn’t even watch the movie. I just fantasized [about] hitting him in the head with an elbow if he went up.

(CHART from EOZ)

I suppose this was supposed to offend people and make them scream racist... politicians should listen up. The people in the U.S. no longer think Islam is a race. make a note of that "Think Progress". ...a lot of us (like me) don't think Islam is a religion either.

NPR's Jaffa Story Alleges Israeli Plot to Eradicate Arabs

(camera.org) Sheera Frenkel's Nov. 18 NPR news report charges Israel with a purported agenda "to have a purely Jewish state and to get rid of all Palestinians, the ones in the West Bank and in Israel," as one of her main interviewees puts it. Frenkel bases her alarmist story on three cases of vandalism and the distortion of terminology, among other misrepresentations ("Attacks Target Palestinians in Israeli Towns").

Host Renee Montagne introduces the broadcast:

In Israel, tensions are rising between the country’s Jews and the Palestinian Arab citizens, who make up about 20 percent of the population. Over the past few months, several Arab sites in Israel have been vandalized by militant Jews who’ve left graffiti such as Death to Arabs. Sheera Frankel reports.

Frenkel reports:

Over the last few months, there have been a series of attacks targeting Palestinians within Israel. In October, a mosque in the northern Arab village of Tuba Zangaria was torched and a Muslim cemetery [sic] was vandalized and tombstones smashed. At both sites, graffiti was found linking the attacks to Israeli settlers from the occupied West Bank. Avia says she came to the protest because she was shocked by what was happening. She speaks in English as she points out that many right-wing Israelis use different terms for Palestinians that live within Israel.

Avia: They don’t call them Palestinians. They call them Israeli Arabs. That’s their way to erase their Palestinian identity, okay, and kind of contain them within Israel. But the agenda is to have a purely Jewish state and to get rid of all Palestinians, the ones in the West Bank and in Israel. 

Misrepresentation of Terminology
Avia’s assertion, which Frenkel wholeheartedly accepts, that the term "Israeli Arab" is a derogatory term used by "right-wing Israelis" is patently absurd. In fact, a broad swath of Israel, as well as non-Israelis, use this accepted terminology. While in recent years some Israeli Arabs have in fact prefered the term "Palestinian," and some members of the Israeli far-left (as well as, apparently, NPR as of late) have adopted this terminology, "Israeli Arabs" is most commonly in use. Even groups on the left, such as the New Israel Fund , refer to Arabs in Israel as Israeli Arabs. Moreover, Avia herself even signed a NIF petition which refers to Israel’s Arab population as Israeli Arabs. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, which can hardly be considered right-wing, regularly uses the term Israeli Arab, and the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, mentioned in Frenkel's broadcast as fighting against alleged racist practices in Jaffa, also uses that language. Outside of Israel, Al Jazeera apparently has no problem with the term, nor does NPR itself. (For example, Terry Gross and John Powers used the term on "Fresh Air," Feb. 25, 2010, and Robert Siegel likewise referred to "Israeli Arabs" on Jan. 19, 2010, and on July 23, 2009). Are Ha’aretz, the New Israel Fund, Al Jazeera and NPR also guilty of being right-wing outfits bent on erasing Palestinian identity because they refer to "Israeli Arabs"?
Settlements Bogeyman Following the false "Israeli Arabs" bogeyman, Frenkel then raises the West Bank settlements bogeyman by misrepresenting the B’Emuna construction firm. She reports:

Avia says these kids of attacks are new in Jaffa, a coastal community hugging the southern outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city. For years, Jews and Arabs coexisted here in relative peace. That was interrupted in early 2010, said Fatima Helewa, a local Palestinian activist. That’s when B’Emuna, a construction company that specializes in building subsidized homes for religious Jewish families in West Bank settlements, started building in Jaffa. Their first project was in the largely Palestinian neighborhood of Ajami. The Israeli Association for Civil Rights petitioned Israel’s high court against the building, claiming that B’Emuna’s openly stated policy of only providing apartments to Jews is racist. Israel’s high court ruled against them, and B’Emuna continues to build in Jaffa. (Emphasis added.)

But B’Emuna does not specialize "in building subsidized homes for religious Jewish families in West Bank settlements." According to its Web site, the construction firm specializes "in the establishment of housing neighborhoods for the national religious public (Dati), all over the country." (Emphasis added.) Of the five building sites featured as of press time on the firm’s Hebrew home page, three are within Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries – Even Shmuel, Yokneam, Pardes Chana, and Tirosh. But Frenkel’s alarmist report, charging Israel with erasing the Palestinian identity and seeking to establish a purely Jewish state eradicated of Palestinians, piles on the hot button settlement issue as well, no matter its relevance or lack thereof. Heaping on to the tangled charges of racism, settlements, and the ultimate sin -- Zionism itself, Frenkel quotes Fatima Helewa, "a local [ie Jaffa] Palestinian activist": "Arab people, they ready to live with the Jews. We are living with them for years by years. It’s just Zionism (ph) made the Jewish people, the settlers, more and more racist."
Exclusive Housing
A balanced report, as mandated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, would have noted that it’s not just religious Zionist Jews who can look forward to ethnic-based housing in Jaffa. As reported by Ha’aretz on Feb. 28, 2011 :

The Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality is planning to build affordable housing exclusively for Jaffa's Arab residents, in order to send the community a clear message that city hall supports it. Municipal officials have met with representatives of the Israel Lands Administration, the Housing and Construction Ministry and the attorney general several times in recent months. The city intends to build about 100 housing units on two Jaffa lots owned by the municipality and the ILA. It wants to condition their sale on the buyer being an Arab resident of Jaffa.

But government building exclusively for Arabs in Jaffa undercuts the narrative of racist Zionism seeking a purely Jewish state, so why mention it? (Of course, if you wanted to find a distinction between the two projects, you could. In the case of the B'Emuna project for religious Zionists, the construction is private, and that firm weighed in with the highest tender. In the case of the Arab-only building project, it is the Zionist municipal government which is footing the bill and the Zionist Israel Lands Administration which is providing the land. So, the two cases are not exactly equivalent. While the government funds Arab-only housing in Jaffa, it does not fund Jews-only housing.)
Three Acts of Vandalism
Beyond the distortion of the "Israeli Arab" terminology and the apparent racist crime of a Jews-only residential building in Jaffa, the remaining substance of Frenkel’s heated report on anti-Arab activity involve three cases of vandalism – the attack on the mosque in Tuba Zangaria, the graffiti in the Muslim and Christian cemetery, and the graffiti and apparent arson attempt of an Arab-owned Jaffa restaurant. Such acts, directed at a certain population, are deplorable hate crimes which warrant condemnation. Yet, in the case of the cemetery, it is not at all clear that the motive was nationalist. As reported by the Jerusalem Post:

The words "death to Russians – G.A. 02" were also spray-painted in the cemetery. Police said the incident was "linked to a soccer group," and that they were not convinced it was carried out by right-wing elements.

Yet, Frenkel does not report that the circumstances behind the cemetery vandalism are unclear. Instead, she presents the questionable anti-Arab motive as fact. (The Muqata blogger points out that soccer-related graffiti, namely the word "Barcelona," also appears at the vandalized restaurant.)
Moreover, it is inexcusable that a report specifically dealing with Arab-Jewish tensions in Jaffa ignored the molotov cocktail attack on the Rabbi Meir Ba'al Hanes synagogue which took place just one day after the cemetery vandalism. If vandalism of one sacred place in Jaffa is worthy of news coverage, then surely a violent attack of another sacred site in the very same city is also newsworthy. And, finally, it is worth noting, the attack on the Jaffa synagogue was not the only religious Jewish site targeted in Israel in recent months. On Nov. 6, several tombstones were smashed at the ancient Jewish cemetery at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Apparently, though, attacks, violent or otherwise, on Jewish sacred sites do not warrant mention at NPR
Official Reaction to the Vandalism
As mentioned above, NPR’s Frenkel quotes Israeli activist Avia as stating the Israel right-wing agenda, as evidenced by using the term "Israeli Arab," and as demonstrated by the vandalism is "to have a purely Jewish state and to get rid of all Palestinians, the ones in the West Bank and in Israel." And yet, Israel’s government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party, strongly denounced the attacks on the Arab sites. As Ha’aretz reported:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday decried the desecration of graves in Christian and Muslim cemeteries in Jaffa during Yom Kippur, saying that Israel is "not willing to tolerate vandalism, especially not the kind that would offend religious sensibilities." "Israel shows tolerance for religious sentiments and a desire for peaceful coexistence without violence, but will show no tolerance for those who oppose it", said Netanyahu during a cabinet meeting.

Ha’aretz added that others to condemn the attacks on the Arab sites included Israel Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau, and President Shimon Peres. But, once again, the high-level condemnations of deplorable attacks such as the one on the Tuba Zangaria mosque does not fit with Frenkel’s narrative about a Zionist plot to drive out Palestinians, wherever they be. And so she ignores them.
Population Error
Finally, in a straightforward factual error, Frenkel refers to Tel Aviv as "Israel's largest city." With a population of 773,000 (as of 2009), Jerusalem is nearly double the size of Tel Aviv (population 403,700).

Iranian missile expert killed in explosion had helped Hezbollah

AP photo from video of blast

(EOZ) From AP:

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot last week was testing an intercontinental missile when the blast occurred, his brother was quoted by a government newspaper as saying Saturday. Hours later, he reportedly denied the comments.
The conflicting accounts reflect the extreme sensitivity in Iran about the explosion, which killed at least 21 people, including Gen. Hasan Tehrani Moghaddam, who was in charge of the country's missile program. Iran said an accident caused the powerful explosion Nov. 12, strongly rejecting Western suspicions that Israeli sabotage touched off the powerful explosion as a pre-emptive strike against weapons that could potentially hit the Jewish state.
Moghaddam's brother Mohammad — himself a Guard officer — was quoted by the government-run Iran newspaper as saying the blast occurred during testing of the long-range missile. He did not dispute that the explosion was accidental.
"He lost his life while doing a final test of the missile," Moghaddam said. "The project was in the final testing phase. It was related to an intercontinental ballistic missile. ... It was a completely high-tech, confidential process."
These key quotes were left out of the text printed by the newspaper. They appeared on the paper's website early Saturday, but were deleted later in the day.

About the same time, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported that Moghaddam had denied making the comments and said the government-run newspaper ran quotes that weren't his.
"Materials about intercontinental and ballistic missile are creations of themselves (paper). I'm sending a letter to Iran newspaper denying the quotes," he was quoted as saying by the news agency, which is considered close to the Revolutionary Guard.

The jury is still out as to whether the explosion was accidental or an act of sabotage; I've seen compelling arguments from observers I respect both ways.
However, this next part is being overlooked:

In the interview, Mohammed Tehrani Moghaddam said that his brother had set up missile batteries for Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is strongly backed by Iran although Tehran denies it arms the group. Hezbollah, also closely allied to Syria, fired rockets deep inside Israel during a conflict in 2006. This quote was also removed from the newspaper's website.

Further implicating Iran in terrorist activities, as these rockets were aimed and shot at civilians.

US State Dept: Arafat was behind 1973 Khartoum murders of US diplomats

Ha'aretz has a good article about the 1973 murder of American diplomats in Khartoum that gives a lot of background:

On the eve of UN recognition of Palestine, 18 years after the Oslo Accords carried Arafat to the White House and from there to the Nobel Peace Prize, and seven years after his death, the U.S. government now confirms that Arafat was responsible for the 1973 murder of its ambassador and his deputy in Khartoum, Sudan. The two were taken hostage and killed "with the full knowledge and by the personal authorization" of Arafat, according to a study released last month by the U.S. State Department's Office of the Historian, entitled "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume XXV, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1973."
The incident began on March 1, 1973, when eight members of Black September stormed the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum during a reception, and captured the Saudi ambassador and four of his guests: American ambassador Cleo Noel, U.S. deputy chief of mission George Curtis Moore, and the Belgian and Jordanian charge d'affaires in Sudan. Black September was a transparent front for Fatah, and Arafat was the commander of both, as well as head of the PLO. When the kidnappers understood that Jordan, Israel and the United States would not be releasing prisoners in exchange for the captives, Fatah headquarters in Beirut ordered them to shoot the two Americans and the Belgian, Guy Eid.
Two months later - and one month after the so-called Spring of Youth raid on Beirut by an elite Israel Defense Forces unit, paratroopers and the Mossad, which killed three senior Palestinian leaders - Foreign Minister Abba Eban visited U.S. President Richard Nixon's National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger.

Here is how the State Department describes the incident in the document:

In the early evening of March 1, eight Black September Organization terrorists seized the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum during a diplomatic reception. The terrorists took U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission George C. Moore, the Belgian Charge´, the Saudi Ambassador, and the Jordanian Charge´ hostage. In return for the hostages’ freedom, the terrorists demanded the release of various individuals, mostly Palestinian guerrillas, imprisioned in Jordan, Israel, and the United States. The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the head of Fatah. When the terrorists became convinced that their demands would not be met and after they reportedly had received orders from Fatah headquarters in Beirut, they killed the two U.S. officials and the Belgian Charge´. Thirty-four hours later, upon receipt of orders from Arafat in Beirut, the terrorists released the other hostages unharmed and surrendered to Sudanese authorities.

Already a month after the incident, Secretary of State Rogers showed that the US knew the orders for the murders came from Beirut:

Memorandum From Secretary of State Rogers to President Nixon
Washington, April 11, 1973.
SUBJECT
Actions to Encourage Lebanon to Move Against Black September and Other Terrorist Groups
As you know, the Black September Organization’s operation in Khartoum was planned and directed from headquarters which that group has in Lebanon.

Abba Eban and Henry Kissinger spoke in May:

Kissinger: During the Khartoum incident, someone suggested we ask you for help. You would have blown up Beirut.
Eban: You know that it was from Beirut that the phone call went to finish them off.
Kissinger: We know that.

In November, there was an initial backchannel communication between the CIA's Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Walters and PLO leaders in Morocco, including Khalid al Hassan, at the time Arafat's number two man. Even then, there are appearances that the US was willing to downplay the murders of the diplomats in order to strengthen relations with the PLO, although Khalid put out an opaque denial:

He then with visible embarrassment asked me whether the U.S. had anything to do with the murder of their leaders in Beirut. I replied quite firmly that we had nothing to do with these murders. I gave him my word of honor as a soldier this was so. I replied that we did not resort to murder because it was morally wrong, dishonorable and did not produce results. Bullets killed only men, not ideas. I said I would ask him no questions about Khartoum but we did not resort to murder. He replied with some embarrassment that in all large groups where there has been much suffering, there are some who undertake violence on their own. I understood him to be telling me that the Khartoum murders were not sanctioned by the Fatah leadership.

As Ha'aretz writes, the NSA knew about Arafat's orders to murder the men ahead of time:

At the end of the 1990s, a former navy officer named James Welsh launched a campaign to denounce the intelligence, security and diplomacy establishments' failure to warn about the Khartoum attack. In letters to Congress and interviews with the media, Welsh said that between 1970 and 1974, he had worked in the NSA and secretly monitored the Palestinians' actions.
A day or two before the attack, the NSA recorded conversations about the terror plans, Welsh said, adding that he recognized the voice of Arafat telling his aides, Abu Jihad and Abu Iyad, to carry out the attack. The U.S. State Department was warned immediately, so it could pass on the message to the diplomats in Khartoum.
When he heard about the attack in the media, Welsh was astounded to discover that the person on duty had decided on her own that the warning was not urgent, and thus had delayed disseminating it. It arrived in Khartoum after the murders.
Welsh claimed that when he demanded that the State Department's failure be investigated, his superiors at the NSA told him such a campaign would cost him his security clearance and result in his transfer from Washington's quiet corridors to the rigors of a navy fueling ship. Welsh backed down.

If you think that the information here still allows for the possibility that the State Department believed that Black September was not under the complete control of Yasser Arafat, this State Dept. summary of a June 1973 intelligence memo should dispel all doubt:

The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the head of Fatah. Fatah representatives based in Khartoum participated in the attack, using a Fatah vehicle to transport the terrorists to the Saudi Arabian Embassy.
Initially, the main objective of the attack appeared to be to secure the release of Fatah/BSO leader Muhammed Awadh (Abu Da'ud) from Jordanian captivity. Information acquired subsequently reveals that the Fatah/BSO leaders did not expect Awadh to be freed, and indicates that one of the primary goals of the operation was to strike at the United States because of its efforts to achieve a Middle East peace settlement which many Arabs believe would be inimical to Palestinian interests....
The Khartoum operation again demonstrated the ability of the BSO to strike where least expected. The open participation of Fatah representatives in Khartoum in the attack provides further evidence of the Fatah/BSO relationship. The emergence of the United States as a primary fedayeen target indicates a serious threat of further incidents similar to that which occurred in Khartoum.

The picture that emerges is that the US seemed to be willing to overlook the PLO participation in the murders of its diplomats for what it perceived was the greater good of engaging the PLO in the nascent "peace process."
Only a year later, murderer Yasser Arafat was greeted by a standing ovation at the United Nations.

(h/t Yoel for original Ha'aretz article)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com