

The Daily
Star
Ha'aretz
The Jerusalem Post
The Jordan
Times
MEMRI
NOW
Lebanon
* * *
* * * *
links
& blogs to note
Click on the above links to English language
sites and read the stories that interest you. Information I find
interesting is posted and archived on my Middle
East Notebook blog.

Daily blog notes from
international media on events pertaining to the Middle East in the past
week.

Thursday, 2 September
Ground
Zero Mosque: A split at the top?
Increasing questions about the character and qualifications of the
primary figures in “Ground Zero mosque,” as well as personal
rivalries between them, may have accomplished as much for the
mosque’s opponents as have protests and disapproving poll results.
An offensive concept was presented to Americans by flawed and
self-interested individuals; the combination may well guarantee its
eventual collapse.
Lee Smith: The
Arab Lobby
But there is an Arab lobby in the United States—one as
old as, if not older than, the Israel lobby, and it has helped to
shape U.S. foreign policy and economic life since the end of World War
II. Mitchell Bard’s The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That
Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East describes how
this Arab lobby—from U.S. foreign service officers, oil companies,
Christian anti-Zionists, and Ivy League universities to Gulf Arab
states, Arab-American activists and Islamist ideologues—exercises
its influence in U.S. politics. The book is already being dismissed by
critics as a slapdash attempt by a former AIPAC employee to answer
Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s 2007 book, The Israel Lobby.
But those who actually read the new book will find a serious and
timely look at a powerful and remarkably under-studied influence on
U.S. foreign policy.
Are
Saudi dissidents preparing to overthrow the king?
It’s
an allegation almost too surreal to be real.
In
a claim reminiscent of the most elaborate Middle East conspiracy
theories known to date, a “reliable” source in the beleaguered
Yemeni government has told the Yemeni news site Al Watan that a group
of Saudi dissidents are secretly being trained by separatist Yemeni
rebels in military warfare and covert communications so as to
overthrow the Saudi king.
Israel,
our ally
In
Iraq, publishing a magazine with the word Israel on its cover is a
risky business, considering the generally negative attitude toward
Israel and those in the Arab world who seek rapprochement with the
Jewish state.
Transparent,
credible and solid
The three words represented the true nature of a process, the
essence and objective of which have been bent, stretched and twisted
by those threatened by it or suspicious of it, but which for Lebanon
represents a watershed in legal accountability. In fact, these three
words that Bellemare used to argue that he was not a political puppet
are precisely the qualities that are lacking in modern Lebanese
society. No wonder then that a court that has been assembled at
considerable cost and with the backing of the international community
finds itself at odds with many of the people it genuinely seeks to
represent. In this situation, Bellemare must be credited with setting
the record straight, while maintaining the judicial and investigative
integrity of his mission.
The
price of brotherly love
Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali Moqdad told OTV on Friday
that Hezbollah’s arms are “legitimate and necessary to prevent
treason in Lebanon.” While we should all applaud any initiative that
seeks to curb activities that undermine the state, no one told us that
Hezbollah had extended its remit to include fighting subversion. The
last time we looked, Hezbollah’s weapons existed to protect Lebanon
from the ever-present Israeli threat, a 24/7 deterrent to thwart the
stated expansionist ambitions of the Zionist state. This it has done
with a degree of success, despite the misery and destruction Lebanon
has suffered in the process.
Abbas,
Netanyahu relaunch peace talks
Israeli and Palestinian leaders launched
their first direct talks in 20 months Wednesday, starting the clock on
a daunting one-year deadline to flesh out a Palestinian state to live
in peace with Israel.
Netanyahu:
Israel prepared to go long way for real peace
"We
are prepared to walk down this road, to go a long way to achieve
peace," said Netanyahu. He added, that Israel wished to
help "shape a new reality" and to have "good
neighbors" along its borders.
Israeli
peace effort rests on Netanyahu
Even more than his own aides, Mr. Netanyahu seems to believe that a
deal can be reached under his guidance. He does not want to hand the
negotiations over to committees of experts but to meet personally with
Mr. Abbas every two weeks.
Blame
game on the horizon
With Mahmoud Abbas, it is an entirely different story. He does not
have the backing of all Palestinians, not even of most of them. As far
as Hamas is concerned, he has no right to represent the Palestinians
in the upcoming negotiations. Even in Judea and Samaria, the extent of
the support he enjoys among Palestinians is questionable. But most
important, he does not have the authority to carry out any agreement
he might arrive at with Netanyahu. He is fully aware of this, and that
is probably the explanation for his reluctance to enter the
negotiations, to which he has been dragged, kicking and screaming
every inch of the way, by the president of the United States.
Iran
to stage anti-Israel rallies amid peace talks in Washington
The late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, grand
ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had declared the last Friday of the
fasting month of Ramadan as Quds (Jerusalem) Day and called for mass
rallies against Israel and in support of the Palestinians.
IDF
warns of wave of violence as Hamas vows to sink peace talks
The warning follows two drive-by shootings on Israeli targets in
the West Bank this week, which killed four Israeli civilians and
wounded two more. Hamas militants claimed responsibility for both
attacks.
'Hamas
won't let the PA reach a peace agreement'
"Let's
say [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] makes an agreement with us,
where we make painful sacrifices. Hamas and all the other terror
organizations will start attacking again - so what did we do?"
Yishai said. "We must stand up for our principles and never give
up on them: Stop terror, recognize Israel as a Jewish state, stop
provoking violence, and start negotiations without conditions.
Certainly not the condition of a building freeze."
Hamas
throws down gauntlet in West Bank
The armed wing of the Islamist group threw down the gauntlet to
President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday by killing four Israelis in the
occupied territory where his security forces, retrained with US
support, have worked to prevent such violence. The attack was proof
Hamas has survived what it describes as Abbas’ efforts to
“uproot” it from the West Bank.
Gaza:
Injustice against kin
Hamas police proceeded to close a water park in
Gaza due to the presence of "degrading and unethical gender
mixing" according to the justification reported in the news.
Subsequent information about this incident revealed that the citizens
who were removed from the water park, following the Hamas decisions,
had just sat down to break their fast [during the holy month of
Ramadan], and those evicted from this water park included a charity
organization that looked after orphans.
No
wineing, it's Ramadan
Lebanon, a country built on its religious and ethnic diversity, has
largely steered clear of government-imposed morality, and as such, has
gained a reputation for being a bastion of tolerance in the Arab
world, with Muslims and Christians living side by side. So when the
author of the An-Nahar article, who is a Lebanese Christian,
went to a high-end hotel in downtown Beirut, she was surprised to find
that the waiter did not want to serve her wine, due to the fact that
it is the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. When she insisted, saying
that she was Christian and that the restaurant should respect her
beliefs too, the waiter offered to disguise the wine by putting it in
an opaque glass. In the end, she left the restaurant, but to her and
to many other Lebanese, the incident was just one indication of how
the country is becoming less tolerant, or at least appearing to be so,
in order to cater to business interests.
3,000-year-old
Moabite temple unearthed near Dhiban
Archaeologists on Wednesday unveiled what they described as one of
the most important Iron Age discoveries in the region, including a
3,000-year-old Moabite temple.

Wednesday, 1 September
Some
thoughts about last night’s speech
What was also notable in the speech is how Obama — apart from one
perfunctory paragraph (he devoted four to the economy) — failed to
appropriately acknowledge many of the estimable things that have been
achieved by the Iraq war, including deposing a malevolent and
aggressive dictator, helping plant a representative (if imperfect)
democracy in the heart of the Middle East, and administering a
military defeat to al-Qaeda on the ground of its own choosing. Obama
hinted at some of this, but it was said without passion or conviction.
And we all know why: for Obama, this was a war without purpose, a
nihilistic misadventure whose only good result is its end. This is not
only wrong; it is a disfigurement of history and a failure to
acknowledge what a remarkable thing our combat troops in Iraq
achieved.
3. On the most important matter before us, Afghanistan, Obama did
substantial damage. The reason can be found in this paragraph:
Obama's
unsatisfactory Iraq speech
By neglecting the importance of the surge, Obama
was free to ignore President Bush’s decision to order it in the
first place. Nearly everyone in Bush’s orbit—Obama, the vast
majority of Democrats and many Republicans, the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
the State Department, the foreign policy establishment, the media, the
Washington echo chamber—was against the surge (initially, at any
rate). Bush’s decision to go ahead with it was an act of courage.
Obama exaggerated his role in winding down the
war in Iraq, citing his “pledge to the American people as a
candidate.” Then, “last February, I announced a plan that
would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq…That is what we have now
done.”
This is true as far it goes. But the overall
pullout from Iraq was put in place before Obama arrived in the White
House. It was established by the “status of forces” agreement
between the governments of the United States and Iraq that was
negotiated by the Bush administration and set the end of 2011 as the
date by which all American forces are to be gone from Iraq.
Historian Victor Davis Hanson: Iraq
through the looking glass
A few added thoughts: a) Obama warns against “open-ended wars,”
as if they are almost animate things. But wars end, not when they
reach a rational, previously agreed-upon expiration date, but usually
when tough, specific wartime choices are made that lead to victory or
end in defeat. One party must decide – for good or bad reasons –
that it doesn’t want to fight to win, or simply doesn’t believe it
has the resources for victory. To say that “open-ended wars” are
undesirable is a banality that offers no guidance for these real-life
choices. A better truism is that America should not fight wars it does
not intend to win.
Obama,
Bush, and war
Last night, at a moment he called “historic,” Obama gracelessly
refused to acknowledge his predecessor’s contribution to progress on
the war, vouching simply for his patriotism. He was palpably anxious
to “turn the page” on Iraq, where the book may in fact not yet be
closed, and to start turning it next year in Afghanistan — where the
“pace” will be “condition-based” but, “make no mistake,”
we’re leaving starting in July. It was not the steadfast commitment
to victory that marked George W. Bush’s approach to war, and which
is necessary if a leader wants to win one.
Top
Russian spy’s body washes up 'after swimming accident’
The circumstances of his death are reminiscent of a John Le Carre
novel and have therefore fuelled theories that he may have been
murdered in Syria and his body then thrown into the Mediterranean
where it drifted for days.
Armed
militias: a quandary for Lebanon
It started with a dispute over a parking space and erupted into a
four-hour street war between Hizbollah and a rival militia, with
masked snipers running through alleyways and rocket-propelled grenades
exploding in the middle of a Beirut neighbourhood.
Obama:
'senseless slaughter' will not thwart peace talks
On the eve of the first direct Israel-Palestinian talks for 20
months, Mr Obama gathered regional power brokers for one-to-one
sessions and a joint dinner at the White House, putting his personal
credibility on the line.
Hamas
leader rejects compromise with Israel, resists peace
The
top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip rejected compromise with Israel in
a fiery speech Wednesday, a day after gunmen killed four Israelis.
Terror
attack achieved its goal - embarrassing the PA
The shooting attack in the Hebron Hills on Tuesday could
not have been a surprise. Palestinian opposition groups, especially
Hamas, were highly motivated to embarrass the Palestinian Authority on
the eve of the start of direct talks in Washington. A short
conversation with the members of the Palestinian delegation to
Washington Tuesday night shows that the mission was indeed
accomplished.
PA
nabs over 200 Hamas suspects ...
Palestinian
Authority security forces arrested over two hundred Hamas-affiliated
suspects in the Hebron area overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday
morning, on suspicion of connection with a shooting attack in Kiryat
Arba which left four Israelis dead hours earlier.
Barry Rubin: Terror
attack near Hebron: not an incident but a revelation about what is
happening
An isolated fragment of news, a tragic story, or just another act
of terrorism? What's necessary, however, is to fit events into a
broader picture and so it is with the latest attack by Hamas,
killing four Israelis driving near Hebron.
Mubarak
calls for int'l security force in West Bank
Egyptian
President Hosni
Mubarak suggested that an international peacekeeping force be
stationed in the West Bank as a compromise between Israel's security
concerns and the Palestinian's desire for a complete Israeli
withdrawal from the territory. Mubarak's comments came in an op-ed
piece published in Wednesday's New
York Times.
Netanyahu
to tell Abbas: I came to Washington to reach historic compromise
"Our goal is to forge a secure and durable peace between
Israelis and Palestinians," Netanyahu is expected to say.
"We do not seek a brief interlude between two wars. We do not
seek a temporary respite between outbursts of terror. We seek a peace
that will end the conflict between us once and for all. We seek a
peace that will last for generations. This is the peace my people
want. This is the peace we all deserve."
Netanyahu
rules out extension on settlement freeze
“It is impossible to take the issue of settlements in the West
Bank, which is an issue for the permanent agreement and deal with it
separately at the beginning of the direct talks,” a statement from
his office quoted Mr Netanyahu as telling Hillary Clinton, the US
Secretary of State during their meeting on Tuesday.
Obama
peace talks for Israel, Palestine will fail
If there were even the slightest chance of the talks succeeding, I
would say it was worth making one more attempt. However, in this
situation, there is almost no such chance, whereas the grave
implications of failure are both clear and painful. I call upon the
U.S. administration to hurry up and change the goal of the talks. They
should deal with what the parties are prepared to implement, and not
with what they are forced to do as a result of American pressure: open
negotiations on a partial and temporary agreement.
Analysis:
What happens when the peace talks fail?
Before
noon on Wednesday, hundreds of Palestinians crowded around a main
square in the West Bank city of Ramallah to show their opposition to
the direct Israeli Palestinian peace talks being launched this week at
the White House.
What
happens when the talks fail?
It is a measure of how badly the Obami’s approach to the Middle
East has failed and how little the Israelis trust Obama when, as Josh
Rogin reports, the Israelis make it crystal clear how little they
regard the president’s positions:
I
am a refugee
As
a sitting member of a democratic government, it might appear strange
to declare that I am a refugee. However, my father, his parents and
family were just a few of the almost one million Jews who were
expelled or forced out of Arab lands. My father and his family were
Algerian, from a Jewish community thousands of years old that predated
the Arab conquest of North Africa and even Islam. Upon receiving
independence, Algeria allowed only Muslims to become citizens and
drove the indigenous Jewish community and the rest of my family out.
Archaeologists
unearth 3,000-year-old Iron Age temple in Jordan
The head of the Jordanian Antiquities Department, Ziad al-Saad,
said the sanctuary dates to the eighth century B.C. and was discovered
at Khirbat 'Ataroz near the town of Mabada, some 20 miles (32
kilometers) southwest of the capital Amman.

Tuesday, 31 August
Stuck
in the Middle (East) with you
Events
in Iraq offer the latest example of two important processes seen elsewhere in
the Arab world. The first is the phenomenon of relatively free and fair
elections, which then fail to have any effect on the real political and security
balance of power in the country in question.
The
second is the thorough penetration of Arab states and movements by non- Arab
regional forces.
Iraqis
want American to stay
With the formal end of US combat operations at midnight, Iraqis know the
world’s attention will be leaving them just as these different sides hover
between peace and a return to vicious conflict.
Iraq
premier hails US troop withdrawal
Iraq’s prime minister said the end of US combat
operations on Tuesday restored Iraq’s sovereignty and meant it stood as an
equal to the United States, despite political deadlock and persistent
violence.
How
to talk about Iraq
Former national security adviser Stephen Hadley provides some much
needed perspective on the Iraq war:
From a national security perspective, the U.S. objective for a
post-Saddam Iraq was an Iraqi government that would not pursue
weapons of mass destruction, invade its neighbors, support terror,
or oppress its people. That objective has been achieved. The
governments that have followed Saddam—and those that are likely to
govern going forward—have and will continue to meet these criteria
because the Iraqi people have concluded that doing so is in their
interest.
Iraq
needs U.S. engagement, and a slower clock
The list goes on. It is not a record of failure but an illustration of the
enormity of the challenges in Iraq. How successfully Iraqis deal with these
challenges has a great deal to do with the level of U.S. engagement going
forward, including the process of government formation. For the time being, we
remain the indispensable broker, mediator and catalyst. But we also face the
persistent problem of a Washington clock that runs much faster than the
Baghdad clock. Recent polling in both countries reveals an Iraqi public
fearful of the consequences of a U.S. departure, while American opinion leans
toward doing just that. Regional realities and American expectations seldom
coincide. Our lack of strategic patience is something that, over time, our
adversaries have come to count on and our allies to fear -- in Lebanon, Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Crocker
on Iraq
Here’s an idea: if Obama really wants to preserve our gains, why not send
Crocker back to Iraq for a couple of more years? That would be a signal of
support that the Iraqis would surely appreciate. And it would indicate that the
president finally understands the strategic smarts of the Bush team, which
snatched Iraq from the jaws of defeat.
Previewing
Obama Iraq speech, Gibbs won't credit surge
Since Gibbs says it is important to examine Obama's old statements on the
surge, there is this, from January 2007: "We cannot impose a military
solution on what has effectively become a civil war," Obama said on CBS'
Face the Nation. "And until we acknowledge that reality, we can send
15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops. I don't know any
expert on the region or any military officer that I've spoken to privately
that believe that that is going to make a substantial difference on the
situation on the ground."
Gibbs
vs. the historical record
That statement is false. As I pointed out in this COMMENTARY essay,
on the night of President Bush’s “surge” announcement, then-Senator Obama
proclaimed: “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq are
going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the
reverse” [emphasis added]. It’s worth pointing out as well that in
January 2007 then-Senator Joseph Biden declared: “If he surges another 20, 30
[thousand], or whatever number he’s going to, into Baghdad, it’ll be a
tragic mistake.”
Afghan
bomb attacks kill 21 US soldiers in 48 hours
A series of bomb attacks have badly hit US troops in eastern and southern
Afghanistan in the past 48 hours.
Taliban
footprint 'spreading': Petraeus
The US commander of the Afghan war acknowledged
Tuesday that the Taliban were expanding their footprint across the country
even as foreign forces close in on their traditional southern strongholds.
But US General David Petraeus said a sharp rise in attacks on international
troops showed that the hardline Islamist militia were feeling threatened in
their safe havens after almost nine years of war.
Bellemare:
No indictment in September
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will not file an indictment in the case
of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in September, said
Daniel Bellemare in an exclusive interview with NOW Lebanon. The Canadian
prosecutor, who has not spoken to the media for almost a year, reacts to some
recent rumors that have been circulating in the Lebanese media and states
clearly that he never said he would file the indictment next month.
Israel
braces for difficult month
As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepare for the first direct
negotiations since 2008, the Jewish state is braced for one of the most
difficult diplomatic months in its history.
Time
for Israeli answers - Fayyad
The Palestinian prime minister on Monday forecast a "moment of
reckoning" in the coming weeks when the Israeli prime minister is forced to
explain what kind of state he has in mind for the Palestinians.
Obama's
year of living peacefully
President Obama is taking a high-profile role, seeking to justify his
paid-in-advance Nobel Peace Prize. Exactly what he will bring to the process is
unclear. "The president's engagement and involvement in the future in these
talks will be determined by developments as we move forward," according to
John Brennan, the president's counterterrorism muse. This places Mr. Obama in a
position where if things are working out, he can step in to take credit - and if
not, he can rise above the process and call for mutual understanding, letting
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton take the blame.
Caroline Glick:
Washington’s
Israeli allies
The
Israeli Left knows no matter how forcefully its platforms are rejected
by public, the US government will embrace its members.
US
may give Israel arms in exchange for concessions
Israel is
looking into the possibility that it will receive an arms package as
compensation from the United States in the event that it reaches a peace
agreement with the Palestinians that entails significant concessions, The
Jerusalem Post has learned.
Mubarak
signals Egypt succession by taking son to Washington
Gamal Mubarak, son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, will accompany
his father to this week's Washington peace summit in what may be the clearest
sign yet that he is being groomed for the succession.
Central
Israel in range of Hamas rockets
Hamas has completed a series of experiments on its
advanced Fajar rocket, which has a range of almost 80 kilometers (roughly 50
miles) and can as far Kfar Saba, northeast of Tel Aviv, experts say.
Israeli
Arab MK Zuabi: IDF boarded Gaza flotilla ships with intent to kill
A UN inquiry team began hearings on Monday with Jordanian activists about the
May 31 Israeli raid on a Turkish ship trying to break an Israeli naval blockade
of the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish activists were killed in the raid.
IDF
general: 'No justification for Gaza aid flotilla'
Dangot said that the aid flotilla which was intercepted by the IDF in May was
unnecessary because "those who wanted to help the population of Gaza were
invited to deliver supplies via land, as it was always possible to do."
The
long history of anti-Semitism in Muslim lands
Amrozi was remembering an event 1,375 years in the past, when
Muhammad attacked Jewish farmers living in the oasis community of
Khaibar, in what is now Saudi Arabia. More than 600 Jews were killed and
the survivors lost all their property and had to pledge half of their
future crops to Muhammad.
Today, few Jews know the word Khaibar. But among certain Muslims it
has permanent resonance. Khaibar set a precedent, endorsed by the
actions of the Prophet. After Khaibar, non-Muslims who were conquered
had to give up their property and pay heavy permanent tribute to their
Muslim overseers. That form of discrimination lasted for centuries. It
was this incident and its aftermath that nourished Amrozi’s homicidal
ambition.

Monday, 30 August
Rami Khouri: The
Arab world, sick man of the globe
Looking around the Arab world this week, it
is hard to know what are the region’s real priority challenges,
because multiple issues stand out as problems, vulnerabilities,
weaknesses or threats. Most of the problems in our region can be
traced to local incompetence, or, in the worst cases, criminality and
irresponsibility in the seats of power – though everywhere there is
also an element of foreign involvement or manipulation that should not
be ignored. The regional picture is not pretty.
Seven
US troops killed in Afghanistan
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were
overthrown by US-backed forces in late 2001, with soaring casualty
rates among foreign and Afghan troops as well as among civilians who
are caught up in the conflict.
A
note to the President
So my sincere hope—and it is sincere, with no political agenda
(for what it's worth, I think following the advice I'm about to give
would help you politically)—is that you don't begin your remarks
tomorrow night, as you did your weekly address Saturday, by taking
credit for fulfilling a campaign promise. Your oath as president was
to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States," and it is in that capacity that you now make foreign
policy judgments, not as a former candidate keeping well- or
ill-considered campaign promises.
Sadly,
Obama needs the advice
None of this is controversial, none of it is partisan. But it is
remarkable that the advice need be given at all and that Obama to date
hasn’t explained what we have accomplished or the importance of
establishing a stable, non-despotic, non-terror supporting state in
the Middle East. He perpetually focuses on the draw-down, the
fulfillment of a promise by a candidate who opposed the winning
strategy.
As
US military bases close, Iraqis left behind
But now, as the American military winds down its time in Iraq, the
Iraqis who once worked so closely with US forces are starting to
wonder what will happen to them.
Did
Iran really do so well out of the Iraq war?
Proponents of this argument are forgetting one vital ingredient
that Iraq has and Iran lacks. Democracy. Iran can arm and fund
militias till kingdom come, but at the end of the day, in Iraq, it is
ballot papers, not bullets, that decide who stays in power and who
gets the boot. Of course, security issues can destabilise the
political process, as we have seen time and time again, but now the
Iraqi people have the last say. It is true that the recent election
results have been indecisive, and no clear winner has emerged, but a
closer look at the numbers proves one thing: Iran did not win.
'Iran
will hit Dimona if attacked'
"Teheran
is aware that Israel and the United States want to target Iran, but we
are also aware that while they actually have the option to launch war,
they do not have the option to end it. This is America's and Israel's
point of weakness. We know that there is no solution to this point of
weakness, thanks to the importance of the Gulf region, America's
problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the (geographically) small area
of the Zionist entity," the anonymous official was quoted by the
paper as saying. He also specified that the Dimona reactor would be on
the top of Iran's target list in a potential war.
Ahmadinejad:
Iran, Lebanon militants can stand up to 'enemies of humanity'
Lebanon's resistance groups, along with Iran must stand together to
thwart what he called foreign aggressors, Iranian ISNA news agency
quoted Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying on Monday, adding
that such an alliance would work against the "enemies of
humanity."
Russia
honors commitments to Syria
Moscow is fully compliant in its agreements with Syria in the
sphere of the military and technological co-operation, Russian
presidential aide Sergey Prikhodko said.
Barak
to visit Russia amid concern over arms sale to Syria
Israel is worried by Iranian and Syrian efforts to acquire Russian
anti-aircraft missile systems and has long lobbied Moscow to support
UN Security Council sanctions targeting Tehran's disputed nuclear
program.
Report:
Hezbollah, Syria to join forces in future clash with Israel
The Lebanon-based Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah and the Syrian
army have initiated a significant military cooperation in joint
preparation for the possibility of a future armed conflict with
Israel, the Kuwaiti daily al-Rai reported on Monday.
Assad
asks Lebanon to support Hizbullah
Sources
told the newspaper that Hizbullah and Syria now have joint
headquarters from which they can coordinate any operations pooling
resources and information, to be jointly commanded by officers from
the two groups.
A
Palestinian victory
For six decades, Palestinians have been forced by Arab governments
to live in often squalid conditions so that they could serve as
propaganda tools against Israel, even as millions of refugees
elsewhere have been repatriated and absorbed by their host countries.
This month's vote still falls short of giving Palestinian Lebanese the
rights they deserve, including citizenship. But it's a reminder of the
cynicism of so much Arab pro-Palestinian propaganda, and the credulity
of those who fall for it.
Scant
hope in Lebanon for Mideast “peace talks”
On September 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will sit down together
in Washington DC to begin a series of direct talks aimed at reigniting
the Middle East peace process. The summit, which was arranged by the
US, the Middle East Quartet and the European Union, will mark the
first face-to-face talks between Israeli and Palestinian heads of
state in 20 months. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s
King Hussein have also been invited to join. Lebanon has not.
“Lebanon is in the same position as other host countries [to
Palestinian refugees] like Syria and Jordan, where they are not party
to discussion, but they do have a presence at the table,” said Nadim
Shehadi, a fellow at the UK-based think tank Chatham House.
“And [the Lebanese] have to face the result, whenever it comes out,
and make up their minds whether to accept it or not.”
'PA
expects prerequisites for statehood within year'
Palestinian
Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced his intention to
continue moving forward with the second year of a two-year program of
institutional capacity-building to lay the groundwork for a future
Palestinian state at a cabinet meeting held in Ramallah on Monday.
Fayyad:
Netanyahu must explain his definition of 'Palestinian state'
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday forecast a
"moment of reckoning" in the coming weeks when Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is forced to explain what kind of state he
has in mind for the Palestinians.
Where
the negotiations could be useful
Where
the negotiations could conceivably be useful (and safer) for all
concerned is if the American sponsors steer them toward reinforcing
and facilitating the one success story they can point to: the
Palestinian state-building effort in the West Bank. But this means
precisely not seeking to resolve all final status issues in this round
and, instead, focusing on confidence-building measures and gestures
that narrow the gap on borders and security.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas
wants talks according to Quartet
Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Sunday that the
Palestinians were going to the direct talks with Israel on the basis
of the Quartet’s declaration in Moscow from March, which calls for
the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state and a
halt to settlement construction.
Abbas
is a man in exile, even among his own
“The direct talks will lead to direct failure,” Ms Buttu said.
“Failure could lead to another intifada, but not necessarily one
against Israel. This one might well be directed against the
Palestinian Authority.”
Simulators
try to gauge peace talks
If
a simulation game played on Sunday by a group of former IDF brass is
any guide, the chances for success are not great and the key
ultimately rests in the hands of one man – US President Barack
Obama.
Netanyahu:
I never promised to extend West Bank settlement construction freeze
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Likud ministers on Sunday
that he had not made any promises to U.S. President Barack Obama or
any other American government official regarding an extension of the
settlement construction freeze in the West Bank.
IDF
preparing for more settler violence if freeze extended
The
IDF is gearing up for a possible increase in settler violence late
next month amid reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is
mulling an extension of the freeze on housing starts in isolated West
Bank settlements.
Iraq:
‘Give us back the Torah’
Iraq is demanding Israeli authorities return an antique Torah
scroll smuggled into Israel in the early 1950s.

Sunday, 29 August
For
Obama, steep learning curve as Chief in time of war
Where George W. Bush saw the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as
his central mission and opportunities to transform critical regions,
Mr. Obama sees them as “problems that need managing,” as one
adviser put it, while he pursues his mission of transforming America.
The result, according to interviews with three dozen administration
officials, military leaders and national security experts, is an
uneasy balance between a president wary of endless commitment and a
military worried he is not fully invested in the cause.
He
really doesn’t want to be Commander In Chief
He simply doesn’t want to do the things that are expected of the
commander in chief, and the military’s ire is profound:
Iraq
on highest alert for terror attacks
Iraq’s prime minister put his nation on its highest level of
alert for terror attacks, warning of plots to sow fear and chaos as
the US combat mission in the country formally ends on Tuesday.
Afghan,
Iraqi passports deemed world's worst
Citizens
of the Arab world still have the hardest time of anyone on earth
getting visas for international travel, a new survey has found.
No
final decision on woman’s stoning - Iran
Iran said on Saturday that it has yet to take a final decision on
the stoning of a woman convicted of adultery and complicity in her
husband's murder in a case that has sparked an international outcry.
Hezbollah
under friendly fire
It is ironic that while Hezbollah militants were fighting in the
streets, Nasrallah said that Hezbollah fears foreign intelligence
services would use the electricity protests to trigger clashes to drag
the country into “a situation it cannot handle.” He called on the
Lebanese people to remain calm and not be dragged into fights, and yet
that’s exactly what his party members failed to do in Bourj Abi
Haidar.
Egyptian
forces find 5 more missile,TNT cashes in Sinai
Report:
110 anti-aircraft missiles, over 100kg of explosives material found
probably destined for Gaza; find comes day after anti-aircraft
missiles, rockets seized.
Egyptian
forces find additional missile, TNT caches in Sinai
Egyptian police raided three arms depots in the central Sinai
Peninsula Saturday containing nearly 200 surface-to-air missiles
apparently headed for Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an
reported.
'Israel
will bear blame for failure of talks if settlements expand'
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the upcoming
resumption of direct peace talks with Israel in a televised speech on
Sunday, saying that "Israel will be held accountable for the
failure of the talks if settlement construction should continue."
Arab
League chief: Peace talks will likely be unsuccessful
Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Sunday he had little hope that
direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which are due
to start on Thursday, will be successful.
The
F-35 and the Israel-Obama relationship
Ironically, however, the purchase also illuminates the nadir to
which the relationship has fallen under the current administration.
Barack Obama’s aides have tried to divert attention from their
boss’s efforts to put “daylight” between America and Israel by
insisting that on the all-important issue of security, “President
Obama has taken what was already a strong U.S.-Israel defense
relationship, and broadened and deepened it across the board,” as
Dan Shapiro of the National Security Council told the Anti-Defamation
League in May.
But in reality, Washington has attached unprecedented restrictions
to the F-35 sale — restrictions so severe that Israel’s defense
establishment agonized for months over whether to sign the deal, and
ultimately opted to buy only 20 planes instead of the 75 the Israel
Air Force originally sought.
RE:
The F-35 and the Israel-Obama relationship
But this situation is tailor-made for Team Obama’s unique
methods. In negotiations with one of our closest allies, the
administration has simply left a known sticking point to fester. From
the standpoint of professionalism, there is no good excuse for this:
the issue has been recognized in the halls of government and industry
for some time. But as Evelyn Gordon observes, it’s something the
public knows little about. Obama pays no real price for his
administration’s behavior.
Barry Rubin: The
real world versus fantasy land
There’s
nothing more tedious than sitting in a panel where the presentations
have interesting titles but are otherwise disappointing. Or listening
to a speaker who may be very good but says absolutely nothing you
don’t know already.
However,
sometimes you have fascinating experiences which are not exactly on
the agenda. Here are three from a conference I attended in Prague a
few years ago, each of which contains its own lessons.

Friday, 27 August
Administration
halts prosecution of alleged USS Cole bomber
The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd
al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide
attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing.
Ground
Zero Mosque developer: Mosque could accommodate 1,000 worshippers
Thus Al-Gamal disclosed that, contrary to what Frank Rich and
friends say, the real intent of the project was that for which it was
questioned: an ambitious mosque, capable of drawing a large crowd of
believers, close to the former World Trade Center.
Freaking
out the Left
Cliff May’s must-read
column documents the mainstream media’s abysmal failure (even
hostility) to explore the views and plans of the Ground Zero mosque
builders. Instead of sharp questioning about their funding and
justification for their provocative act, they have been granted
platforms to impugn America and to claim they are the victims of
smears. May responds:
The
last refuge of a liberal
And now the mosque near Ground Zero. The intelligentsia is near
unanimous that the only possible grounds for opposition is bigotry
toward Muslims. This smug attribution of bigotry to two-thirds of the
population hinges on the insistence on a complete lack of connection
between Islam and radical Islam, a proposition that dovetails
perfectly with the Obama administration's pretense that we are at war
with nothing more than "violent extremists" of inscrutable
motive and indiscernible belief. Those who reject this as both
ridiculous and politically correct (an admitted redundancy) are
declared Islamophobes, the ad hominem du jour.
Historian Victor Davis Hanson: Beware
the wars of late summer
We should keep such bothersome late-summer history in mind this
August. The world is once again heating up with the weather. Iran
boasts of its new nuclear reactor -- with more to come. A nuclear
North Korean keeps threatening South Korea. Hezbollah and Syria are
arming to the teeth with new missiles. And an assurgent Turkey is
seeking an updated version of its Ottoman imperial past.
Karzai:
Afghan withdrawal plans have boosted Taliban
Mr Karzai’s comments came amid ongoing debate about whether the
July 2011 milestone outlined by Washington was feasible or had
encouraged rebels to believe they could outlast the coalition.
Michael Rubin: Why
Najaf matters in post-war Iraq
The last U.S. brigade combat team departed Iraq on Aug. 18. While
President Obama says 50,000 U.S. troops will remain there through
December 2011 to train the Iraqi army, in reality the U.S. units are
focused more on packing up tons of equipment. This is so, as one
colonel explained to me this month, "we can shut the lights out
and close the door behind us."
The State Department is now the lead agency shaping the future of
U.S.-Iraqi relations. "We are fully prepared to assume our
responsibilities," spokesman P.J. Crowley declared on Aug. 19.
Beyond operating the largest U.S. embassy in the world, in Baghdad,
U.S. diplomats will also open consulates in Iraqi Kurdistan and Basra.
Missing in the post-occupation plan, however, is any permanent U.S.
representation in Najaf, perhaps the most important city in the new
Iraq.
Caroline Glick: Accepting
the unacceptable
Before
going into the question of whether Israel’s decision-makers were
correct in opting out of attacking the Bushehr reactor to prevent it
from being fueled, it is worth considering where “the Americans”
stand on Iran as it declares itself a nuclear power and tests new,
advanced weapons systems on a daily basis.
'France
to sell HOT missiles to LAF'
Israel
and the US are attempting to prevent a French-Lebanese arms deal that
could lead to increased Israeli casualties in any future
confrontation, Channel 10 cited from a Friday report by Arabic daily Asharq
al-Awsat.
David Schenker: Reassessing
U.S. military assistance to Lebanon
Since 2005, Washington has obligated more than $700 million in
military assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces. In the aftermath of
the LAF's August 3 cross-border shooting of two Israeli officers, one
fatal, this funding has come under increasing scrutiny. Not
coincidentally, the shooting followed a series of setbacks for
Washington's allies in Beirut, which in turn fundamentally altered the
conditions that had spurred the 2005 spike in U.S. funding. It is
unclear how this new dynamic is affecting the military, but many infer
from the shooting that the LAF is shifting away from neutrality and
toward Hizballah. More broadly, the incident has resurrected questions
as to whether Washington's main policy objective for the LAF --
establishing state sovereignty throughout Lebanese territory -- is
ultimately achievable.
What’s
next for Fatah al-Islam?
Fatah al-Islam, the group of militants who fought an arduous
summer-long battle with the Lebanese army in 2007, has always evoked
more questions than answers, and the queries keep coming. Earlier this
month, Lebanese security forces killed the group’s leader, Abdul
Rahman Awad, prompting the obvious question: Who will step in to head
the organization if, of course, there is even an organization left to
lead.
Obama
'to visit Jerusalem to press for peace'
President Barack Obama will visit Jerusalem in coming months to
press for a Middle East peace deal to be signed this year and
implemented within a decade, according to a leaked White House report.
US
wants agreement now, peace later
White House document reveals
American preparations for Israeli-Palestinian talks: President Obama
to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah, call for painful concessions;
permanent agreement to be signed within one year, implemented within
10 years.
The
president and the peace process
Whether Mr Obama is trying to solve the conflict or simply to
manage it is hard to say, since the secret of “managing” is to
maintain the pretence that the peace process will indeed one day
produce. Either way, it cannot be a bad thing to get old enemies to
talk, and this Mr Obama has now done. After the dinner he intends to
host at the White House on September 1st for Israel’s prime
minister, Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, and Mahmoud Abbas, the
president of the Palestinian Authority, the two sides are supposed to
start talking directly again, relieving George Mitchell, Mr Obama’s
envoy, of the need to shuttle between them. That is progress of a
sort, albeit not the sort that poses the slightest danger of raising
high expectations. It merely restores matters to where they stood
after Mr Bush inaugurated a previous set of direct talks in Annapolis
at the end of 2007. These were expected to fail, and lived up to
expectations.
Why
do some US officials believe talks will succeed?
On
the other hand, one Israeli diplomatic source said the problem with
extremely low expectations is that they have a tendency to turn into
self-fulfilling prophecies. If the sides don’t think anything will
work out, if they don’t expect anything at all, then they won’t
necessarily put themselves on the line –make the painful concession
– to get things to work out, knowing failure is expected anyhow.
Does
Abbas want a deal?
But
the Palestinians, often much better at reading Israel’s politics
than the Americans, are betting against it. They’re betting that,
come September 26, the freeze will melt, and the pressure – the
pressure, that is, for progress at the direct peace talks they are so
reluctantly about to enter with Israel – will be off them.
They’ve
only got to stall for another few weeks, and Israel will be in the
dock again.
Hamas:
PA can't give up Jerusalem in direct Mideast peace talks
Palestinian negotiators are not mandated to surrender Jerusalem or
any part of Palestine, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency quoted Gaza's
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as saying on Friday, with the
Hamas strongman dubbing upcoming direct peace talks as the latest in a
string of Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
In
defense of settlers
When direct talks begin next week between Israelis and
Palestinians, the fate of Jewish settlers in the West Bank – tens of
thousands of them – will be a major issue in the negotiations. But
the settlers themselves won’t be part of the discussion. Nor have
American officials involved in the talks been willing to meet with
them.
Arabic
is an essential part of being Israeli
The Education Ministry's decision to have the Arabic language
taught in 179 elementary schools in the north of the country is both
important and to be commended. As the Arab minority comprises about
one-fifth of Israel's population and Arabic is an official language,
teaching the indigenous language is not merely a practical necessity
but should be part of our concept of citizenship.
