'Missiles not Israel's business'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
16/04/2010 19:24
Hizbullah minister refuses to confirm or deny that group has Scuds.
BEIRUT - A Hizbullah government minister refused Friday to confirm or deny Israeli allegations that the Lebanese group has acquired Scud missiles.
In the first Hizbullah comment on the Israeli charges, Minister Hussein Haj Hassan said the group was always arming and preparing itself but, "what we have is not their business."
Israeli defense officials have said they believe Hizbullah has obtained Scud missiles capable of hitting targets anywhere in Israel. President Shimon Peres earlier this week directly accused Damascus of providing the weapons.
Israel has not offered proof to back up the claim, and Syria's Foreign Ministry strongly denied the charge, saying it "believes that Israel aims through these claims to further strain the atmosphere in the region."
It added that Israel could be setting the stage for a possible "aggression in order to run away from the requirements of a just and comprehensive peace."
Haj Hassan told Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV Friday that Israel possessed all kinds of weapons, including nuclear warheads.
"It's only natural for Lebanon to have the means to defend itself against an Israeli attack," he said.
Hizbullah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has said his followers have more than 30,000 rockets and are capable of hitting anywhere in Israel. Those claims match Israeli intelligence assessments.
Some Scud missiles have a range of hundreds of kilometers, meaning that guerrillas could launch them from deeper inside Lebanon and farther from Israel's reach. Scuds can carry a warhead of up to 1 ton, making them far larger than the biggest rockets previously in Hizbullah's arsenal, and are also more accurate.
Also Friday, around 20 villagers from the southern Lebanese town of Abbasiyeh removed a barbed wire that was set up three days earlier by IDF troops just south of the Blue Line, which separates Israeli and Lebanese forces.
The demonstration was a protest against the fence, placed by Israel earlier this week. Some Lebanese say the blue line is not accurate and had given parts of Lebanon to Israel. The villagers were led by a lawmaker close to Hizbullah, Qassem Hashem.
UN spokesman, Andrea Teneti said the villagers also removed a minefield sign and placed Lebanese flags near the location.
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Clinton Pushes Israel, not PA, to Take Risks for Peace
by Maayana Miskin
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has increased the pressure on Israel again to strengthen the PLO and Fatah and make concessions to the Palestinian Authority. The pressure is an apparent response to an impasse in talks between Israel and the PA, which has refused to hold direct negotiations. It is in direct contradiction to Obama's recent remarks about not continuing to concentrate on the Middle East, since he sees no progress after all the U.S. efforts to start talks.
For an analyst's look at how to get things going, click here.
Clinton spoke Thursday at the opening of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace think tank. While she called for the PA, led by Mahmoud Abbas, to end its incitement against Israel, she had a number of steps for Israel to take.
"We encourage Israel to continue building momentum toward a comprehensive peace by demonstrating respect for the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, stopping settlement activity and addressing the humanitarian needs in Gaza," she said. "And to refrain from unilateral statements and actions that could undermine trust or risk prejudicing the outcome of talks."
Israel must strengthen the PA and the PLO in order to counter Hamas, Clinton said. "Israel can and should do more to support the Palestinian Authority's efforts to build credible institutions and deliver results," she argued.
Clinton praised Abbas's work in the PA, but said that if Abbas is seen as unable to get results, "there is no doubt his support will fade and Palestinians will turn to alternatives - including Hamas."
As Israel has halted construction in Judea and Samaria's Jewish communities, Clinton's reference to "settlement activity" was apparently in regard to the construction of Jewish homes in Jerusalem. Israel's capital city was split in 1949 as Jordan seized half the city, and reunited in 1967 during the Six Day War.
Israel has declared united Jerusalem as its capital. The PA has demanded that those areas that were under Jordanian control for 18 years be given to the PA as the capital of a future Arab state.
When Clinton served as senator of New York she supported Israel's position, stating that Jerusalem's status as Israel's undivided capital "must never be questioned." However, since her appointment as President Barack Obama's secretary of state, Clinton has changed her position in favor of the PA, and recently called the construction of housing in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo "insulting".
Following the Obama administration's insistence that Israel cease construction in much of Jerusalem, the PA took up the same demand and PA leaders have now stated that they will not hold direct talks with Israel as long as Jews are allowed to build in areas once under Jordanian control - including historically Jewish neighborhoods such as the Old City. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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'Israel made world better'
By JTA
16/04/2010 17:29
Petraeus: Nation built by Shoa survivors "one of our greatest allies."
WASHINGTON - The Holocaust survivors who helped build Israel "made our world better," US Gen. David Petraeus said Thursday.
"The men and women who walked or were carried out of the death camps, and their descendents, have enriched our world immeasurably in the sciences and in the arts, in literature and in philanthropy," said Petraeus, the key note speaker at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum commemoration in the Capitol Rotunda.
"They have made extraordinary contributions in academia, in business, and in government. And, they have, of course, helped build a nation that stands as one of our great allies. The survivors have, in short, made our country and our world better, leaving lasting achievements wherever they settled."
Petraeus's speech comes just days after the commander of Central Command, who directs US deployments in the Middle East, said "Israel is - has been, is and will be an important strategic ally of the United States."
Petraeus has sought to place in context his Senate testimony last month which drew some conservative and pro-Israel crticism - and some liberal praise - for linking some US difficulties in the region with perceptions that the United States favors Israel.
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British chutzpa
By JERUSALEM POST EDITORIAL
15/04/2010 20:52
What else can explain the ban of an Israeli ad featuring the Kotel.
"The Temple Mount is in our hands."
These six words, radioed by Mordechai "Motta" Gur, commander of the 55th Paratroopers Brigade, to his commander Uzi Narkiss on the third day of the Six Day War, resonate to this day in the Israeli consciousness.
These words marked the end of 19 years of Jordanian rule, during which - in brazen disregard for Article VII of the 1949 Armistice Agreement - Jews were forbidden to visit, let alone pray at, the Western Wall. These words also signified the end of the Jewish people's humiliating exile from its spiritual focal point.
But Gur's call was not triumphalist. Though shocked by the revelation that Jordan had destroyed Old City synagogues and had paved roads and even latrines with Jewish tombstones from the Mount of Olives, the mood among Israelis was uplifting exuberance which led to magnanimous gestures.
Wasting no time, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol placed the holy places of Jews, Muslims and Christians under the jurisdiction of their respective clergy. Eye-patched, battle-hardened defense minister Moshe Dayan ensured that the Palestinian community and religious leaders, for the most part, remained in their prewar positions, leaving the Muslim Wakf atop the Temple Mount, a move criticized by Israeli hawks.
To this day Israel skillfully and sensitively balances the potentially explosive religious interests in Jerusalem, ensuring freedom of religious expression to all. It even forbids the prayer of Jews on the Temple Mount out of deference to Muslim sensitivities.
But Israel's extraordinary efforts go unappreciated.
What else can explain the ban of an Israeli Tourism Ministry ad featuring the Kotel that has been issued by the British Advertising Standards Authority, an independent advertising watchdog?
The ASA determined that it was "misleading" for the Tourism Ministry to include pictures of the Western Wall in a promotional ad encouraging Britons to visit Israel:
"The ASA noted the itinerary image of Jerusalem used in the ad featured the Western Wall of the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock, which were both in East Jerusalem, a part of the occupied territories of the West Bank... and considered that readers were likely to understand that the places featured in the itinerary were all within the state of Israel...The ad breached Committee of Advertising Practice Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness)," the ruling stated.
Broadcasters are obligated by a condition of their broadcast licenses to enforce ASA rulings. If they don't, Ofcom, Britain's communications authority, can force them to.
IRONICALLY, WHEN Palestine was under British rule, Jews suffered severe discrimination. The Mandate repeatedly caved in to Arab demands, prohibiting Jews - even the elderly and the sick - to sit on chairs near the Kotel.
On Yom Kippur 1928, women were beaten by British police when they attempted to erect a partition that separated them from men. Nor did the British take steps to stop the incitement of Jerusalem's Mufti Amin al-Husseini, who had close ties with the Nazis.
Britain's treatment was a continuation of centuries of discrimination against Jews - whether it was by the Crusaders or under various Muslim decrees. Thankfully, after nearly two millennia of yearning, the Jewish people have finally returned to the remnants of their destroyed spiritual center, bringing with them justice, freedom of religious expression and respect for all faiths.
As the ASA pointed out, de jure the majority of UN countries around the world do not recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem. Nor do they recognize the 1980 Jerusalem Law which declared a "complete and united" Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. That's why foreign embassies are generally located in Tel Aviv.
On a practical level, as the Tourism Ministry has argued in response to the ASA's ban, it was "entirely accurate to assert that a visitor to Israel could visit Jerusalem as part of a short visit."
On a more fundamental level, however, it is unadulterated chutzpa for a country like Britain, with its dismal record on protecting religious rights at the Kotel, to preach to Israel.
Through its fair treatment of all religious faiths, in such acute contrast to previous eras, Israel has strengthened its claim to continue to maintain control over the religious sites of Jerusalem's Old City.
As for its right to sovereignty at the Kotel, that is beyond question.
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Former UN Nuclear Chief: 'Israel Understands Only Violence'
by Hana Levi Julian
The former head of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, expressed support on Tuesday for Palestinian Authority violence against Israel.
In a published report, The 68-year-old ElBaradei said the "resistance" was the only path open to PA Arabs because "the Israeli occupation only understands the language of violence." ElBaradei, who recently stepped down as head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, is considering a run for the Egyptian presidency.
According to ElBaradei associate Ibrahim Nawar, the possible candidate told members of his new opposition party on Monday, "The peace process has become a stupid joke which we talk about without achieving any progress." As for the security fence along the Gaza border, Nawar told reporters that ElBaradei said "It appears to be participation in the siege of Gaza, which has become the world's largest prison. The logical solution to the problem would be to close the tunnels and open border crossings while creating a free trade zone in Rafiah, where Palestinians can trade and then return to Gaza."
Gaza's ruling Hamas terrorist faction allegedly closed down the tunnels for a short time on Wednesday, but later lifted the ban and clarified that supervision of the underground smuggling network would instead be intensified.
Strengthening or Splintering the Opposition in Egypt?
If the former nuclear inspector decides to run in the elections, scheduled for September 2011, it is likely he will further splinter the already divided opposition coalition, according to a Newsweek analysis. The strongest faction within that coalition, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, won 20 percent of the seats in the 2005 parliamentary elections running as an independent group. However, the faction is now split between the older, more conservative leaders and the younger, more politically motivated members. ElBaradei would deepen the divide, writes Newsweek analyst Sarah A. Topol.
President Hosni Mubarak, 81 and seriously ill, is undoubtedly hoping for just such an opportunity, given that he is working to ensure that his son Gamal follows in his footsteps to the presidency. Nonetheless, the feat may be more difficult than he originally anticipated; the ongoing government crackdowns on Muslim Brotherhood activities have sparked increased opposition at the grassroots level.
ElBaradei has already begun the not-so-quiet campaigning that precedes an official run for office, with visits to mosques and churches, complete with photo ops. He also established an official national "foundation" for democratic reform in the country.
At least 90 activists were beaten and jailed last week at a protest organized by the "6th of April Movement" linked to ElBaradei. The protest called for constitutional reform to ensure transparent elections, and demanded the lifting of the emergency laws that have allowed Mubarak to rule as a military dictator. The laws were enacted after the assassination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, who signed Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
