Free Republic

An aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that if the Islamic republic is attacked, it will retaliate against the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv, official media reported on Sunday. "If the enemy attacks Iran, our missiles will strike Tel Aviv," the official IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei's representative in the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mojhtaba Zolnoor, as saying late on Saturday. His comments came as Iranian air defence forces were set to carry out five days of manoeuvres involving simulated attacks on the country's nuclear facilities.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday defended US President Barack Obama's Middle East policies, saying that efforts to engage Iran through dialogue and earnest attempts to jump-start the peace process were bearing fruit. "A year ago, Iran was united in its nuclear ambitions and the world was divided in its response," Emanuel said while addressing the Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly in Washington. "Today, thanks to the work of the president, there is strong and international consensus against a nuclear armed Iran. That is the goal of America."

In a front page Los Angeles Times article "Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama" , a going away party for Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian academic and activist with a long-record of anti-Israel action, Barack Obama gave a special tribute to Khalidi, his friend and frequent dinner companion. Then state senator Obama spoke warmly about the meals prepared by Khalidi's wife and credited his many talks with Khalidi as being:

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 Damascus the World's Most Dangerous Destination! By Bill Salus According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, tourism in Israel has steadily declined in 2009 in comparison to 2008. There appears to be a developing concern among would be “holy land” travelers that a major Mideast war involving Israel, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and others is inevitable and soon to happen. In a semi-related area, Israel’s concerns are further fueled by the genuine possibility that immigration into Israel will come to a complete halt the minute Iran possesses its own nuclear weapon. Ephraim Sneh, the former...

When US President Barack Obama met with 15 representatives of American Jewish organizations on July 13, Haaretz reported that he told them that he wanted to help Israel achieve peace but that if they were to benefit from his well-intentioned counsel, Israelis must "engage in serious self-reflection." The breathtaking condescension toward the Jewish state that this remark betrays, as well as the implicit dismissal of the last 16 years of Middle East history, says a lot about Obama and the direction in which American foreign policy is heading. The fact that Israel has already gone through several periods of serious...

"Last week, Etisalat told its 100,000 BlackBerry subscribers that a "performance enhancement patch" would be sent to them to "provide the best BlackBerry service and ultimate experience". But users who downloaded the software complained of dramatically reduced battery life and slower than usual performance of their devices. Nigel Gourlay, a Doha-based Sun-certified Java programmer who has been developing open source software for 15 years, analysed the patch after it was posted on BlackBerry's community support forum and he said that once installed, it potentially gives Etisalat the power to view all emails and text messages sent from the BlackBerry." "Gourlay...

Sources say White House cadre bypassing agencies, jeopardizing security JERUSALEM – A small group of officials working mostly from the White House are tightly controlling U.S. foreign policy, bypassing other government agencies and making decisions without employing the expertise of those agencies, according to diplomatic sources speaking to WND. The sources said some of the decisions may be jeopardizing U.S. security. A senior Middle East diplomatic source said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently apologized to a Mideast leader, explaining to him U.S. policy regarding his country is being dictated by the White House and not her agency. The diplomatic...

HELD AL-QUDS: The Israeli navy on Tuesday boarded and seized a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists that was heading to the Gaza Strip in defiance of Israel's blockade, a military spokesman said. "In the last hour an Israeli navy force intercepted, boarded and took control of the cargo boat 'Arion' ... as it was illegally attempting to enter the Gaza Strip," the spokesman said late in the afternoon. The military said the ship, which was sailing under a Greek flag, was the same vessel known as the "Spirit of Humanity", which was sailing to Gaza to protest the Israeli blockade on...

Osama bin Laden was so worried that President Obama’s Cairo speech might win over Muslim hearts and minds that the jihadist sent out a pre-emptory audiotaped message denouncing the United States and warning against Obama’s “new beginning.” It turns out that bin Laden was right to be worried: The president did, it seems, change some minds in the Middle East. On Sunday, an American-aligned coalition won a surprising victory in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, pushing back a challenge by Hezbollah, which had been widely expected to win a majority of seats. There were undoubtedly many factors at play — Lebanon’s politics...

JEDDAH: The June 4 speech at Cairo University by US President Barack Obama was watched widely in the Arab world, including the desert of Hail province where traffic virtually vanished during the address. According to a report in Asharq Alawsat daily, residents of Dhabi village gathered around TV screens to catch Obama’s words. “Obama’s speech caused the postponement of some of my appointments by request of my guests, relatives and friends, as well as some nearby Bedouin,” said Awad Khudair Al-Shammari, the owner of one of the few television sets in the area. Al-Shammari, who owns and breeds camels, said...

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan's king pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to immediately commit to the establishment of a Palestinian state, as he pursues a sweeping resolution of the Muslim world's conflicts with Israel.

More pain to come for Mideast economies By Andrew England and Roula Khalaf at the Dead Sea, Jordan Published: May 15 2009 13:33 | Last updated: May 15 2009 13:33 The Middle East is not yet through the worst of the economic crisis because non-performing loans are likely to rise and the full impact of declines in tourism and remittances has still to be felt, experts warned on Friday. Masood Ahmed, director of the Middle East and Central Asia at the International Monetary Fund, predicted that the level of NPLs would increase in the second half of the year. He...

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Swine flu crosses new frontiers in Mideast, Asia Cuba imposes travel ban to and from Mexico; virus spreading overseas Cuba suspended flights to and from Mexico on Tuesday, becoming the first country to impose a travel ban, as the fast-moving swine flu strain extended its reach overseas and in the United States. World health officials in Geneva said they believed the virus appears to be establishing itself in communities and be able to produce larger outbreaks outside Mexico. In the U.S., there were new reports of hospitalizations among those affected, and officials are watching for a potential flu pandemic. "It's...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a stern warning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government that its continued opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state risks alienating its Middle East neighbors. “Friendly relations require compromises,” Clinton declared. “You’ve got to be willing to bend a little in order to show good faith.” Clinton contended that the Palestinians had already made the first gesture of good faith by promising not to use any of the US aid being provided by the Obama Administration to fund future attacks on Israel. “They have given their word that only weapons supplied by Israel’s...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said it would be "fine with us" if the Palestinians reach a "two state" peace deal with Israel, despite his full-throated opposition to the Jewish nation. The firebrand leader, in an interview broadcast Sunday on US network ABC, appeared unhappy with President Barack Obama's failure to return a message of greetings and said nuclear talks could only proceed with a clear agenda. After triggering a storm with anti-Israel remarks at a UN racism conference in Geneva, Ahmadinejad attacked Obama's "support of the massacre of Gazans, in support for the criminals who were...

Over the last 40 years, the United States has become increasingly dependent on foreign oil and reluctant to develop domestic, fossil fuel resources. Today, America imports two-thirds of its oil at a cost of $300 billion per year, much of it from politically unstable, Middle East countries which control 45% of the world's oil, overall. This is occurring despite the existence of bountiful, untapped oil resources within the United States. Developing these resources could free America from imports, create badly needed, oil-production jobs and meet U.S. energy demand for the next 200 years. With nearly three-fourths of Americans favoring increased...

Psalm 140 1Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; 2Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. 3They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah. 4Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings. 5The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah. 6I said unto the LORD, Thou art my...

Scholarship suggesting the existence of the Essenes, a religious Jewish group that lived in the Judea before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, is wrong, according to Prof. Rachel Elior, whose study on the subject will be released soon. Elior blasts the predominant opinion of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars that the Essenes had written the scrolls in Qumran, claiming instead that they were written by ousted Temple priests in Jerusalem. "Sixty years of research have been wasted trying to find the Essenes in the scrolls. But they didn't exist, they were invented by [Jewish-Roman historian] Josephus. It's...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Prominent scholars and experts are urging President Obama to adopt strong policies backing democracy in the Middle East. More than 140 people signed an open letter to the president. Its message will be the topic of a news conference Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington. "We urge you to elevate democratic reform and respect for human rights as key considerations in your engagement with both Arab regimes and Arab publics," the letter said. "We are writing this letter to raise our profound belief that supporting democrats and democracy in the Middle East is not only...

Obama administration would be ill-advised to pursue Annapolis track against all odds Published: 02.26.09, 13:22 / Israel Opinion www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3678035,00.html The Obama administration will have to address on an immediate basis a number of burning problems of varying degrees of magnitude. In the short run it will be required to tackle the rehabilitation of Gaza under Hamas' rule: On the one hand to secure aid to assure the fundamental wellbeing of its inhabitants, while at the same time curtailing the influx of weaponry into Gaza. The fight against terror, its performers and sources has to be continued in all vigor. The...

It appears that Barack Obama's foreign policy team is going to make us pine for the days of the Bush Administration's competency by comparison very soon. I'm not sure what exactly this story illustrates except there doesn't seem to be anyone home at the White House yet. You may recall the hubbub over Senator Kerry being handed a letter that was from Hamas which he promptly turned over to the American consulate at his next stop which happened to be Jerusalem. Well now Kerry swears he didn't know it was from Hamas (who did he think it was from, Santa...

Will Jimmy Carter be President Barack Obama's role model on how to bring peace to the Middle East? Some, especially in Israel, view that prospect with apprehension. Others, like Ralph Nader, have greeted the possibility with enthusiasm, urging Mr. Obama to rely on Mr. Carter's "wise and seasoned counsel" in dealings with the volatile region. After all, Mr. Carter is renowned as the master craftsman of the historic accord between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin at Camp David in September 1978, which opened the way for a formal peace agreement three months later. The myth of Camp David...

The Israeli election is less than one week away so I decided to get an opinion from someone who knows much better than me. My Friend and Teacher Barry Rubin. Barry is not only a historian and professor but he is also a candidate for Knesset on the Israel Hazaka List. Below is Barry's analysis of the election in Less than 100 words:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy said on Friday that the new administration's push for Israeli-Palestinian peace after the war in the Gaza Strip faced big hurdles and he warned of setbacks ahead. The sombre assessment by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell followed two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on shoring up a shaky ceasefire that ended Israel's 22-day offensive against Gaza's Hamas Islamist rulers. In the talks, Israel has balked at fully reopening Gaza's border crossings to allow reconstruction. Washington supports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Iranian-backed Hamas...

In the words of the great Bette Davis "Fasten Your seat belts...." The appointment of George Mitchell as Mideast envoy is just the first official step in President Obama's promise to screw Israel as best as he can. Mitchell doesn't get it on so many levels. First there is Mitchell's comparison of the Middle East to the British Conflict with the terrorists in Northern Ireland. There is so much more that Mitchell doesn't get. Mitchell does not believe that morality or right and wrong should comes into to play in negotiations. Or to put it this way, if George Mitchell...

One of the great misconceptions the Senator Mitchell has about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is that if things worked in Northern Ireland it can work there.That argument is as relevant as saying Michael Jackson should play Quarterback for the Tennessee Titans because both he and Vince Young are African Americans. There is little relationship between the two. It is true that Britain and the IRA negotiated for peace, but there were MAJOR differences to the Middle East including; * The IRA did not threaten the very existence of Great Britain. Hamas promises to destroy Israel as a Jewish State. * At...

Much of the world buys the line -- peddled by the Palestinians and the Arab Muslim world and, indeed, many Western countries -- that paints Israel as the bad "Goliath" that "stole" the land from the "Palestinians." Israel gave Gaza self-rule in 1994, unilaterally withdrawing the last of its citizens and soldiers from Gaza in 2005. Hamas, voted into power via free elections in 2006, fought and defeated their political and military rival, Fatah, to seize de facto control of Gaza in 2007. In the past eight years, Hamas has fired more than 10,000 rockets and mortars into Israel --...

President-Elect Barack Obama’s initial attempt to reason with the Iranian government on the issue of nuclear weaponry was disdained by Iran’s conservative parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani. “I find Mr. Obama’s emphasis on phallic implements offensive and inane,” Larijani said. “There is nothing he can offer. There is no threat he can utter that will deter us from our holy mission to wipe the Jews off the map.” Larijani scoffed at Obama’s so-called “nuclear umbrella” for Israel. “The Americans don’t have the stomach for death that we have in Iran,” Larijani boasted. “If they could prove that we are the ones...

Clinton Supporter and Jewish Kappo Martin Indyk Has a message of Warning for Israel: Israel can no longer expect "blank cheques" from Washington once president-elect Barack Obama's administration takes over in January, a former US ambassador to the Jewish state said on Sunday. "The era of the blank cheque is over," said Martin Indyk, director of the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute who is considered close to incoming secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

US President-elect Barack Obama has properly sought to maintain a low profile in foreign affairs in this transition period ahead of his January inauguration. But while Obama has stipulated that the US can have only one president at a time, his aides and advisors are signaling that he intends to move US foreign policy in a sharply different direction from its current trajectory once he assumes office. And they are signaling that this new direction will be applied most immediately and directly to US policy towards the Middle East.

West goes cap in hand to the East for credit crunch help Gordon Brown fears that IMF will run out of money Philip Webster, Political Editor, and Gary Duncan, Economics Editor Europe turned to Asia and the Middle East for help yesterday as the financial crisis threatened to overwhelm Hungary and other ailing economies. After talks with other Western leaders, Gordon Brown urged China and the oil-rich Gulf states to come up with hundreds of billions of dollars to aid countries struggling to survive. Any help from the East is likely to come at a high price. China, Japan and...

Russia said Friday it was renovating a Syrian port for use by the Russian fleet, signaling an effort to establish a firmer foothold in the Mediterranean at a time of tensions with the United States over Georgia. Syria was Moscow's strongest Mideast ally during the Cold War. The alliance largely waned after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, though Russia has continued some weapons sales to Damascus. But Syrian President Bashar Assad has increasingly reached out to Russia recently, including seeking weapons and offering broader military cooperation. Friday's announcement was the first tangible sign of any new cooperation. The...

In terms of weaponry, strategic and political positioning, and its ever-expanding international reach; Hezbollah is “five times more capable today,” than it was at the beginning of the July 2006 war with Israel: A fact, according to experts, that prompted Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to tell his troops during a Tuesday morning tour of positions along the Golan Heights, “It’s not for nothing that we’re training here.”

In the past decade, global defense spending has grown 45 percent, to over $1.3 trillion. That's about 2.5 percent of global GDP. After the Cold War ended in 1991, defense spending declined for a few years, to under a trillion dollars a year. But by the end of the 1990s, it was on the rise again. The region with the greatest growth has been the Middle East, where spending has increased 62 percent in the last decade. The region with the lowest growth (six percent) was Western Europe. About a third of global defense spending is in weapons and major...

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- The United States said Tuesday that reaching a Mideast peace agreement within the next eight months "might be improbable but it's not impossible," cautioning that no major breakthroughs are expected when President Bush arrives in Israel on Wednesday. Bush will attend ceremonies in Jerusalem marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state. He also will go to Saudi Arabia where he promises to press King Abdullah to increase oil production to ease soaring costs on consumers. Bush made a similar plea in January but it was ignored. The president's final stop will be...

Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, starting a visit on Saturday to try to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Washington would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security. Palestinians accuse Israel of undermining the U.S.-sponsored peace talks by expanding Jewish settlements, refusing to remove West Bank roadblocks and mounting offensives against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state. "America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,"...

A few months ago, a day before one of the occasional marches the Capital sees demanding an end to the Iraq War, I began the descent into the Metro stop near my office, looked up, and saw a number of representatives of Code Pink standing at the railing overlooking the escalator. Or rather, I heard them first. They were screaming at the parade of commuters, at the top of their lungs and in a tone somewhere between simple frustration and righteous anger, "End the war!!!" Well, I thought, that ought to take care of things. Good work, hippies! I kid...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain says he will emphasize national security issues from Afghanistan to global climate change on a visit to Europe and the Middle East next week. McCain, who will be his party's presidential nominee to face the Democrats' choice in the November election, will visit Israel, Britain and France as part of a congressional delegation. He will be joined by two of his closest Senate allies, Democrat-turned-Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus on Wednesday that while many in Europe might want to...

Cannot Post due to copyright issues: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/03/17/080317taco_talk_hertzberg

WASHINGTON - Borrowing a theme from the presidential contest, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that the possibility of a 3 a.m. emergency call to the White House is all the more reason for the next commander in chief to follow through on President Bush's plans for a national missile defense. "It's plain to see that the world around us gives ample reason to continue working on missile defense," Cheney told the conservative Heritage Foundation at a dinner recognizing the 25th anniversary of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a proposed network of rockets capable of shooting down incoming intercontinental ballistic...

Was Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King on the mark last week when he asserted Islamic terrorists would rejoice if Sen. Barack Obama becomes the next U.S. president? As a journalist and author who has conducted dozens of on-the-record interviews with Muslim terrorists, including with some of the most notorious Palestinian terror leaders, and who has documented many of those interviews in a recently released, 210-page book, "Schmoozing with Terrorists," I can answer the above question with a resounding "yes." Terrorists worldwide would indeed be emboldened by an Obama election victory not so much because of the senator's middle name –...

Today I am announcing my candidacy for president of the United States. It's a little late in the game, but frankly, I got fed up with all those specious claims that this has been a historically diverse election. Sure, we've had a Mormon, a Baptist minister, a Catholic, and various other Christians running for president, including one who, according to some reports, has attended a Muslim madrasa. We've also had a woman candidate, candidates with poufy, pretty hair, candidates with thinning hair, candidates who were once so poor they lived in their cars (or claimed to) and candidates so rich...

WEED - Comments made by College of the Siskiyous Trustee Doris Wood at last month’s board meeting were the subject at Tuesday’s board meeting of several faculty, board and student statements and a campus community resolution calling for her censure and resignation. Wood’s comments were made in regard to the two new course proposals, Beginning Arabic I and History of the Middle East, on the board’s January consent agenda. She asked to have the new class proposals removed from the consent agenda, which commonly contains several items which are approved together with one vote, and either discussed on their own...

ORLANDO, FL -- A small Florida company has turned one of the world's most popular high tech gadgets into a tool for American troops that can help save lives. "They speak with their hands -- a lot," US Army Sergeant Darren Williams said, remembering the times he worked to communicate with the local people during his year as a soldier in Iraq. "If you grab something, or if you say, 'Hold it.' Or, 'Pick it up. Pick it up.' You use that a lot, too," the Jacksonville-based Army recruiter said, waving his hands through a series of gestures. For Williams,...

I have just had the privilege of returning to Iraq and more specifically to Al Anbar Province for my third tour. I say privilege for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity to again serve with young Americans ---- the best of their generation ---- in combat. A second reason is there is no greater honor for any man or woman than to protect one's country in time of grave danger while wearing the nation's cloth. Finally, I do not think there can be anything more gratifying on this earth for an American than...

Internet services have been disrupted in parts of the Middle East following damage to an undersea cable in the Mediterranean, according to reports. There was disruption to 70% of the nationwide network in Egypt, a government official told Reuters. There was also disruption in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, reported the Associated Press. India also suffered up to 60% disruption, a national industry body told Reuters news agency. Egypt's Telecommunications Ministry said it would probably take several days for internet services to return to normal following the disruption on Wednesday. In Dubai, one of the two...

During his recent trip to Israel, President Bush visited several places that re-affirmed his faith, including Bethlehem and the Sea of Galilee. Then exhibiting far greater faith than believing Jesus could walk on water, he asserted that "peace" could be had between Israel, the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors. One exhibition of faith has some historic roots and witnesses; the other is rooted in fantasy. As the president's visit neared, one might have expected the Palestinians, were they interested in peace, to at least tone down anti-Israel_rants. According to Palestinian Media Watch, the government-controlled_television station instead "intensified its rhetoric calling...

Today was the final day of President Bush’s Middle East tour. He ended his tour in an upbeat mood, saying he was optimistic an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal can be reached despite failing to win full Arab backing for his efforts. On this final day of his tour, President Bush met with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt at the Royal Suite Garden, Four Seasons Resort, Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island