- 24 juli 2012
New President of Egypt Ridiculed in Israeli Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPmViwmJSJE
Israeli TV has lately screened one of a new series of ads, sponsored by The Temple Institute, which promote the so called “rebuilding of the temple mount.
The video titled ‘The Children are Ready’ is causing a lot of controversy amongst Egyptians, especially users of Twitter, facebook and YouTube who saw the video as an insult to their president.
The proposed location for this temple mount is very provocative, for it is the site occupied, since 705 CE, by the Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest places for Muslims on earth.
Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during a miraculous Night Journey. While Judaism regards the Temple Mount as the place where God chose the Divine Presence to rest. Both explanations are really cool.
Anyway, for this “temple mount” to be built, Al-Aqsa mosque has to be demolished. It is as simple as that.
And as a matter of fact, this dangerously ambitious plan is what the Israeli governments have in mind as the non-stop digging underneath the mosque has been going/eroding the foundation of the mosque in the name of archeological excavations for almost four decades now.
The Israeli archeologists know they won’t find/stumble upon any Hebrew relic, but they hope that, thru their ruthless digging under the mosque, they would contribute to the Zionist cause of undermining the Arab/Muslim identity of the old city of Jerusalem. All part of an undergoing plan for the judaization of Palestine
In the video, an Israeli family in a relaxing outing at the beach, only the father is not so relaxed.
While he is totally consumed with reading news of the Syrian unrest and the newly elected president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsy, his kids are having fun building what, on first glance, seemed to be as an ordinary sandcastle.
But upon completion of their work, the boy and the girl haven’t just built any castle. They built something very close to the design of the temple mount, the Israeli media have been promoting for ages now.
Enthusiastic and extremely thrilled by their accomplishment, the kids drag their reluctant father out of his chair and preoccupation with what is going on in Egypt and urge him to take a look at their sand model of the “temple mount”
Speechless and stunned by the kids’ vision clarity and powerful expression, his fears of an Islamist president of post-Mubarak Egypt suddenly seemed groundless and somehow childish.
And still in his dumbstruck mood, the paper slips through his fingers, and falls to the ground, in a slow motion shot, where it thoughtlessly sets close to his feet, highlighting the photo of Mohamed morsy, the new president of Egypt.
There are actually three messages in the video. The first one is simple and straightforward; the newly elected president of Egypt, whose affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and support for Hamas that have left a lot of Israelis worried lately, won’t hinder the Zionist dream of Judaizing Palestine.
The second message is somehow subdued and mainly addresses the western audience of Zionist Christians and Jews who are being brainwashed, since 9/11, with the idea that the Islamists are the new bogeyman/ enemy of the west and Israel.
The third one is to Embarrass the new president of Egypt, especially that Tel Aviv is fully conscious of the deep divide amongst the Egyptians themselves regarding Mr. Morsy and their doubts of his hidden MB agenda for the most important country in the Middle East.
But the buzz this video has created on the social web sites has clearly shown that while Egyptians, after toppling Mubarak, are willing to criticize whomever will occupy the presidential palace, they remain staunch in their rejection to any disrespectful remark that would touch the Egyptian presidency, especially if it was Israeli.
For more articles by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat visit his website
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/07/24/egyptian-president-ridiculed-in-israeli-video/
30 jul 2012, 23:05 , Respect -
Maria 26 juli 2012
Brand Israel: BBC changed website photo at Israel’s request
The BBC changed a picture on its Israel profile page at the request of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, replacing a photo of a soldier confronting a Palestinian with a shot of a Bauhaus style building in Tel Aviv. Success for Brand Israel.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office contacted the BBC this week, asking that the photo on the BBC Israel profile page be changed; the Israeli media source nrg.co.il reports that this request was part of Israel’s current “battle with the BBC to list Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”
The photo on the profile page was indeed changed to show a Bauhaus style building in Tel Aviv, with the caption “Tel Aviv is also known as the White City for its collection of more than 4,000 buildings in the Bauhuas style."
Israel is very open about its Brand Israel policy. When beginning his job as Director of the Israeli Government Press Office last year, Oran Helman stated that he plans to “sell Israel as a democracy…an economic miracle.” Helman expressed hope that Israeli-government supplied information (including photographs) about “interesting stories,” together with a new perception of international journalists as “clients,” would result in more positive coverage of Israel.
http://fwd4.me/16rX
Conservative magazine opposes settler leader’s call to annex the West Bank
Commentary magazine is up in arms over yesterday's New York Times op-ed, where Dani Dayan, head of the Settlers Council of Judea and Samaria, announced Israel's "unassailable" right to takeover Palestinian land. Today the pro-Israel, neoconservative publication ran a piece by Seth Mandel, decrying Dayan's "settlers are here to stay" call as callous:
What about the Palestinians? Dayan doesn’t say Israel should give the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria voting rights. If he would, is he not concerned about the demographics at play? If he would not, is he suggesting that the Palestinians should be a permanently stateless people and that Israel would be permanently without clear national borders? He writes that Israeli security should be paramount, but the Judea and Samaria he envisions would be a long-term security nightmare for Israel.
Mandel also knocks Dayan as dangerous to U.S. interests:
[H]as he [Dayan] thought through the implications to U.S. foreign policy of his proposal? Specifically, he seems to want the U.S.–a principal external force on the peace process–to ignore its own dedication to the right of self-determination for the Palestinians. But that would mean weakening American devotion to the general principle of self-determination, which is a major driving force behind continued American support for Israel.
And Dayan is called out for claiming it is impossible to dismantle settlements:
Dayan claims removing the settlers would be impossible. Why? Today there are no settlers in Gaza.
In a separate piece today, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)'s Uriel Heilman caught Dayan mirroring an editorial written months earlier by a representative of the Israeli government, Likud Knesset member Danny Danon.
While most voices in the Israeli and international news media are calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to grant major concessions to the Palestinians to forestall such a move, he should in fact do the opposite: he should annex the Jewish communities of the West Bank, or as Israelis prefer to refer to our historic heartland, Judea and Samaria...
In addition to its obvious ideological and symbolic significance, legalizing our hold on the West Bank would also increase the security of all Israelis by depriving terrorists of a base and creating a buffer against threats from the east. Moreover, we would be well within our rights to assert, as we did in Gaza after our disengagement in 2005, that we are no longer responsible for the Palestinian residents of the West Bank, who would continue to live in their own — unannexed — towns.
These Palestinians would not have the option to become Israeli citizens, therefore averting the threat to the Jewish and democratic status of Israel by a growing Palestinian population.
The JTA's report clearly indicates that while Mandel and other U.S. conservatives oppose Dayan's bid to conquer the West Bank, the settler leader is backed by the Israeli government's ruling party.
http://fwd4.me/16jB
One apartheid state, with liberty and justice for Jews only
Heartfelt thanks (truly) to the New York Times for doing a public service by publishing this op-ed by Dani Dayan, the essential manifesto of the current state of Israeli colonialism, stripped of any pretense: one state in all of Palestine, run by the Jews in perpetuity, with a basket of limited rights for the lucky subject people—if they behave themselves.
And forget about the "right of return of Palestinians to Palestine," the sine qua non of the so-called homeland of the Palestinian people. NB: I'm not speaking of Israel. Dayan makes clear: Greater Israel (i.e., what others call the occupied territories) will not allow itself to be overrun by returning Palestinians). That's out of the question. The bizarre Israeli concept of democracy rests on controlling the demographic threat such that there must never be a Palestinian majority in the one state. So long as Jews are the majority, the thinking goes, they may in good conscience oppress the minority. That is the meaning of majoritarian democracy (also known as ethnocracy) as understood by Israeli Jews; a bill of rights protecting all does not figure in to this system.
Author Dani Dayan is not a crank in the sense of being a wild-eyed outlier. Rather, he is the chairman of the settler council in the "Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria" (to the rest of us aka the occupied Palestinian territories). He speaks truth to
(1) the leadership of the Western world, too cowardly ever to challenge the voracious Israeli appetite for Lebensraum; to
(2) all those Jewish organizations that supported Israeli aggression and colonialism through thick and thin in the name of a "two-state solution" that was being obviated by the very acts they supported; and to
(3) all those individual Jews who have mouthed the two-state lies themselves while also denying the aggression and colonialism to critics. I know plenty of the number 3's myself, and I know that many of you do, too.
There are many in the Jewish world—the Adelson types, the Malcom Hoenlein types, the Mort Klein (ZOA) types, the Aipac types, most of the Orthodox Jewish world—who were already on board with the apartheid program. But for the faux liberals—the JStreet types—this will be uncomfortable indeed, as playing pretend has been their stock in trade.
But the mask has been removed, revealing the ugly face of Israeli colonialism for all to see. The time for denial has ended, because this, then, is the dystopian vision of the single state of Greater Israel, in which the Palestinian population will live in its bantustans under the oppressive thumb of the Jewish overlords as Israeli Jewish colonists expand their illegal reach to every corner of Palestine, what the rest of the world considers the OPT (occupied Palestinian territories). The solution (Lebensraum) to the Israeli housing crisis lies on stolen land.
This is the apartheid one-state solution of which Jimmy Carter warned in Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2006). No doubt all recall that he was excoriated as an anti-Semite for daring to utter the words. Now we should welcome this bald, if grotesque, presentation by Dani Dayan because it is indeed the reality on the ground and it is time that everyone knew it.
Let the foolish Europeans sort this one out, for they know well that Dayan expresses the reality that comes out of Netanyahu's government and yet, as we read not two days ago in the Guardian, the EU is piling up the presents it intends to heap on Israel—for bad behavior, apparently. Presumably President Obama, if reelected, will not embarrass himself with any more talk of two states. And presumably the Israelis advocating Israeli unilateralism to get toward a two-state solution (that is, of course, totally unfair to the Palestinians), e.g., Blue White Future, or Shaul Mofaz's absurd 60 percent plan, will realize that they have been exposed as frauds by the settler movement and the government that backs it.
The question now is how the "world"—states, organizations, individuals—will choose to go forward. Will they continue to support the one apartheid state? One thing is for sure: the growing grass roots movement to end the occupation, including BDS, will continue to expand its push for justice and equality for all (i.e., for Palestinians, who are the ones lacking justice and equality). And that effort is looking more and more as if it must be in the context of the one-state reality created by the Jewish colonial project—only without the apartheid.
Dani Dayan pulls no punches: it's there in blue and white for all to see.
http://fwd4.me/16j7
31 jul 2012, 09:26 , Respect -
Maria 29 juli 2012
AOHR accuses Israeli security firms of committing war crimes
LONDON, (PIC)-- The Arab organization for human rights (AOHR) in Britain accused Israeli security contractors of being involved in armed conflicts happening in some African countries and in killing innocent people there.
In a report, AOHR said many Israeli retired security and army officers established private companies for security and bodyguarding services around the world, but due to the sensitivity raised by the Israeli nationality of such companies, their owners registered them in other countries especially in European states.
These Israeli companies recruit military and security personnel from different countries to work as mercenaries and bodyguards, AOHR added.
The most notorious security company of those, according to the Arab organization, is "Benital International Security" which was founded by the retired Israeli general Beni Tal in 1981 and this man was responsible for the personal security of high-level Israeli figures such as Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.
Banital company carries out its international operations and services through five main branches in the occupied Palestinian territories, France, the US, Russia and Italy.
This company managed through its branches to build extensive international relations that have enabled it to intervene and take sides in internal conflicts of many countries especially in Africa, AOHR underlined.
Given the secrecy surrounding the activities of such companies, AOHR says, the size of human losses caused by them in flashpoint areas is still imprecisely known.
AOHR appealed to the international community and the European Union to take action against such companies which use the European lands as a base to commit crimes against humanity.
http://fwd4.me/16pO
31 jul 2012, 09:39 , Respect -
Maria 30 juli 2012
Alleged crime boss leaves for Morocco, cites police harassment
Alleged crime boss Shalom Domrani leaves Israel to do business in Morocco
Shalom Domrani's attorney: My client went to Morocco to develop an agricultural business. He will return to Israel soon • Domrani has been a suspect in several recent criminal cases but has in each case been released after investigations yielded no indictments against him.
Alleged Israeli mob boss Shalom Domrani has decided to leave the country, citing non-stop police harassment and repeated arrests. Domrani has been residing in Morocco for the past three months developing businesses with Moroccan counterparts, his lawyer says.
Attorney Moshe Sherman said on Sunday Domrani will return to Israel soon after having established several business enterprises in Morocco.
With a reputation as a crime boss and a top target for the Negev and Lachish central police commands, Domrani has been a suspect in several recent criminal cases but has been released from detention after investigations yielded no indictments against him.
Last November, however, Domrani was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Beersheba District Court, in a case in which other criminals were sentenced as well due to their confessions as part of a plea bargain deal. After an investigation by police's elite Lahav 433 investigative unit and an indictment, Domrani was convicted of conspiring to commit a crime, extortion, badgering a witness and involvement in monopolizing the natural gas industry in Sderot and its surrounding areas.
Domrani and the other defendants denied playing any role in the crimes and the alleged crime boss spent time in jail, although he did not complete his entire sentence in prison.
A close friend said that after his release from prison, Domrani decided to travel to Morocco to open an agricultural business there and to escape the wrath of police units in the south that he said were focusing on him as a primary target.
In August 2011, police investigators asked Israeli singer and television personality Margalit Tzanani about her connection with Domrani. Tzanani said she did meet him, but added that the meeting was purely for business. Tzanani was suspected of violently extorting her agent Assaf Atadegi, of conspiring to commit a crime and of making threats.
Tzanani was eventually convicted of extortion by the Tel Aviv District Court and, as part of a plea bargain that excluded the original charge of conspiracy to commit a crime, did not serve time in prison.
‘Racist,’ ‘extremist,’ ‘lacking in vision’ — Romney not a hit among Palestinians
Republican contender ‘outdid the Israeli apartheid state,’ according to one commentator.
The visit of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Israel left many politicians smiling in Israel. But Romney’s unequivocal support for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as his patently pro-Israeli statements on Jerusalem, left Palestinians across the political spectrum offended and disappointed.
Most aggravating to Palestinians was Romney’s reference to Jerusalem as “the capital of Israel.” Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP Sunday that Romney’s comments on Jerusalem were “harmful to American interests in our region.” On Monday, he told BBC that they were “completely unacceptable.”
“Even if this statement is within the US election campaign, it is unacceptable and we completely reject it. The US election campaign should never be at the expense of the Palestinians,” he said, and added, “Romney is rewarding occupation, settlement and extremism in the region with such declarations.”
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum was less diplomatic. He told Palestinian press Monday that Romney’s statements on Jerusalem were “racist and extremist and denied the Palestinian rights.”
“Romney’s statements on Jerusalem distort the truth, falsify history and misguide public opinion,” Barhoum added. “They provoke the emotions of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims and encourage Judaization [of Jerusalem] and settlement building.”
It was not only Romney’s words that troubled Palestinians, however, but also his visit schedule. He reportedly refused to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, briefly meeting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Jerusalem instead.
According to an editorial in establishment Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Romney’s decision to meet Fayyad alone was an intentional attempt “to stick a wedge in internal Palestinian relations.”
“Romney… outdid the Israeli apartheid state on many issues,” wrote Palestinian columnist Adel Abdul Rahman Monday. “He went further than Israel on the Iranian issue, on Syria’s chemical weapons and on the political solution [to the Palestinian issue].”
Palestinian journalist and political commentator Daoud Kuttab said that Romney’s trip to Israel should be viewed as part of his domestic election campaign rather than a foreign visit.
“His speech was written by AIPAC and by the Christian Zionists,” Kuttab told The Times of Israel. “The trip has nothing to do with the Middle East, the peace process or the war on terror. It is entirely for internal consumption.”
True, Romney made few public statements on Palestinian issues during his Israel visit, but comments made to Jewish donors behind closed doors could be construed as abrasive to Palestinian ears.
During his breakfast fundraiser at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, shortly before leaving the country for Poland, Romney compared the Israeli GDP to that of the Palestinians. He told the audience that “at least culture and a few other things” were to thank for Israel’s relative economic vitality, citing also the innovative business climate and “the hand of providence.”
Erekat blasted those remarks too. ”It is a racist statement, and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” said Erekat. “It seems to me this man [Romney] lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people. He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.”
Kuttab noted, however, that Romney’s position on Israel was not essentially different from that of his Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama. Indeed, the sentiment prevalent in Monday’s Palestinian editorials was that American antipathy towards the Palestinian cause was bipartisan.
“Those who follow the statements of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will find them almost void of any references to the Palestinian issue,” read an editorial in Bethlehem-based news agency Maan Monday. “This indicates, without a doubt, that Arabs have no effect on American policy, contrary to the effect of the Zionist lobby.”
Kuttab noted, however, that many Palestinians were apathetic toward Romney’s visit rather than angry about it.
“We simply don’t have the votes or the money to match the other side,” he said.
http://fwd4.me/16rE
Romney courts Jewish donors, says occupied J'lem capital of Israel
US right-wing republican candidate Mitt Romney claimed on Sunday that the occupied city of Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and vowed to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if elected president.
In a speech described as an attempt to bootlick the Jewish audience and donors of his presidential campaign, Romney emphasized, during a visit to Jerusalem, the shared interests and values between the US and the Israeli regime.
He also gave a solemn pledge to block Iran from achieving its nuclear aspirations and to stand by Israel if it decided to use military force against Iran.
"The ayatollahs in Iran are testing our moral defenses. They want to know who will object and who will look the other way," he said. "We will not look away nor will our country ever look away from our passion and commitment to Israel."
Political analysts opined that Romney declared himself in advance as a warmonger when he made an irresponsible full commitment to siding with Israel against its enemies by every conceivable means.
Mitt Romney arrived in the occupied Palestinian territories late on Saturday to meet top Israeli officials, deliver a public speech and hold a major fundraiser for his presidential campaign.
http://fwd4.me/16rk
Cabinet approves ‘economic safeguard’ package by wide margin
Prime minister praises measures raising income and sales taxes and reducing ministry funding; Likud minister Kahlon votes against.
The Cabinet on Monday passed a controversial economic package that included tax hikes and ministry budget cuts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the proposal’s approval as a “vital step that will safeguard Israel’s economy.”
The measures passed by a 20-9 vote. Welfare and Communications Minister Moshe, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, voted against, along with Shas and Independence party ministers.
“My heart simply couldn’t allow me to vote in favor when I know that there are people who earn NIS 2,100 per month and they’re losing NIS 70 that would go to vegetables and chicken,” Kahlon said.
Earlier on Monday, 150 social activists protested the measure opposite the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.
The plan, which includes a one percent income tax and sales tax hike and cuts to the budgets of all ministries but Defense, Welfare and Education, is touted by Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz as necessary to close the budget deficit while providing new social programs. The measures aim to add an estimated NIS 15 billion to the state treasury.
In the run up to the vote, several political figures voiced their opposition to the cuts and tax raises, including ministers from the Shas party and the Independence party, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman.
Litzman said that if the budget cuts affected funding for psychiatric hospitals, he could not be held responsible for the well-being of patients.
“With one hand, [the government] promises benefits to the public, and with the other takes from them through taxes,” Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias told Ynet News Sunday.
However, most ministers from Likud and Yisrael Beytenu supported the package.
Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich slammed the cuts, saying they were the result of a failed economic policy. In an interview with Israel Radio Monday morning, Yachimovich said that the government was planning to overcome the deficit using the same economic measures that created the problem in the first place.
“Our welfare state is falling apart, services are crumbling. We must protect our country from unrestrained market forces. The state must take responsibility for its citizens,” said Yachimovich. “I agree that the hole needs to be filled, but not by increasing the sales tax, which falls unfairly on the shoulders of the poor.”
The measures met opposition in the public, with protesters taking particular exception to Netanyahu’s comment that there was “no such thing as a free meal.”
A message posted to Netanyahu’s Facebook wall recently by a mother struggling to get by despite years of paying taxes and service to the state gained tens of thousands of likes and begot a flurry of similar letters to the prime minister via Facebook against the measures.
“I know that you’ll knock on my door and I’ll open it and you’ll give me my free meal. How fun, eh? because for 18 years I haven’t done anything,” Tali Oz Albo wrote sarcastically. “I just sat and waited for my free meal. I don’t pay loads of money for my kids’ education. I didn’t open a business in the State of Israel and pay taxes from here to Honolulu…”
Netanyahu and Steinitz say the package is needed to pay for a series of programs implemented following last summer’s cost of living protests, including free schooling from age three.
Steinitz has said that he wants to use the measures to protect the country from going the way of several Euro bloc countries who have found themselves in harsh financial straits.
“This is a defensive line for Israel’s economy and for its citizens. Whoever suggests otherwise, whoever suggests that we proclaim that we are not on the edge of the deficit, [I] suggest Spain and Greece,” he said last week.
While Israeli media has reported the average Israeli family will end up paying an estimated extra NIS 1,700 per year, Netanyahu claimed that the new programs will end up putting citizens ahead financially.
Ilan Ben Zion contributed to this report.
http://fwd4.me/16rH
Romney holds Jerusalem fundraiser before leaving Israel
Seven-digit sum raised in breakfast meet with supporters.
Having publicly pledged to uphold “a solemn duty and moral imperative” to protect Israel, Mitt Romney spent his final hours in Jerusalem courting wealthy donors before heading to Poland in the final leg of a three-nation tour designed to bolster the Republican presidential candidate’s foreign policy credentials.
Nearly 50 donors lined up to meet Romney at a $50,000-a-plate breakfast at the luxurious King David Hotel. Each got to spend a couple of minutes shmoozing with him and each had a picture taken. The guests were then treated to the standard hotel breakfast and heard speeches from Romney, his wife Ann, his son Josh and billionaire Jewish casino owner Sheldon Adelson.
“As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel, which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” the Republican presidential candidate told the donors.
The economic disparity between the Israelis and the Palestinians is actually much greater. Israel had a per capita gross domestic product of about $31,000 in 2011, while the West Bank and Gaza had a per capita GDP of just over $1,500, according to the World Bank.
Romney, seated next to Adelson at the head of the table, said he had read books and relied on his own business experience to understand why the difference is so great.
“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of ‘at least culture’ and a few other things,” Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.”
The breakfast with top donors — including Adelson, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and hedge fund manager Paul Singer — concluded Romney’s visit to Israel, the second stop in a three-nation tour.
According to Republicans Abroad-Israel co-chair Marc Zell, the event managed to raise “a seven-digit sum.”
Zell told Army Radio that in addition to addressing Israel’s economy, Romney spoke about his affection for the country and the warm ties between Israel and the US.
The group’s second co-chair Kory Bardash, told The Times of Israel that Adelson called Romney the best candidate for Israel and the economy.
“Israel is heart and soul of Jewish people and we need a president who understands that,” Adelson said.
Ann Romney told guests that she was very excited to be in Israel and was especially moved by her visit to the City of David, an archaeological site in Jerusalem.
Standing on Israeli soil for the first time as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, Romney on Sunday declared Jerusalem to be the capital of the Jewish state and said the United States has promised never to “look away from our passion and commitment to Israel.”
Romney’s campaign says his trip abroad, which began in England last week, is aimed at improving the former Massachusetts governor’s foreign policy experience through a series of meetings with foreign leaders. The candidate has largely avoided direct criticism of US President Barack Obama while on foreign soil.
The Jerusalem fundraiser marks at least the second finance event during his tour. The first, in London, attracted about 250 people to a $2,500 per person fundraiser.
Both presidential candidates have aggressively courted American donors living abroad, a practice that is legal and has been used for decades.
Several donors were among those gathered in Jerusalem for Romney’s speech on Sunday.
Romney’s declaration that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital was in keeping with claims made by Israeli governments for decades, even though the United States, like other nations, maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv. He did not say if he would order the embassy moved if he won the White House, but strongly suggested so in a CNN interview.
His remarks on the subject during his speech drew a standing ovation from his audience, which included Adelson, the American businessman who has promised to donate more than $100 million to help defeat Obama.
Adelson was among several donors who flew to Israel for a day of sightseeing with Romney in addition to private meetings with top Israeli officials.
A group of donors also met with a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one donor said on the condition of anonymity. After the meeting, the donors toured other historical sites in Jerusalem.
Romney met with Netanyahu and other leaders before the speech. He also visited the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, where he was mobbed by worshipers. In addition, Romney met with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
In his remarks, Romney steered clear of overt criticism of Obama, even though he said the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran “has only become worse” in the past five years.
In an unspoken rebuttal to Obama and other critics, Romney said, “It is sometimes said that those who are the most committed to stopping the Iranian regime from securing nuclear weapons are reckless and provocative and inviting war.
“The opposite is true. We are the true peacemakers,” he said.
Romney flew to the Middle East from Britain, where he caused a stir by questioning whether officials there were fully prepared for the Olympic Games.
Romney headed to Poland on Monday, where he was to visit the site of the first shots fired in World War II and pay tribute to the country’s anti-communist movement.
Romney was to meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Gdansk before heading to the Westerplatte memorial, where a German battleship shelled a Polish military outpost in 1939.
Romney also plans to see former Polish president Lech Walesa and visit the famed shipyard where the electrician began an anti-government movement in the 1970s.
Romney is expected to receive a warm reception in the conservative, Catholic country. Last year, when President Barack Obama traveled to Poland, the local press reported that Walesa had refused to meet with Obama.
Four years ago, Obama visited Israel as a presidential candidate, part of a five-nation trip meant to establish his own foreign policy credentials.
A goal of Romney’s overseas trip is to demonstrate his confidence on the world stage, but his stop in Israel also was designed to appeal to evangelical voters at home and to cut into Obama’s support among Jewish voters and donors. A Gallup survey of Jewish voters released Friday showed Obama with a 68-25 edge over Romney.
Romney and other Republicans have said Obama is insufficiently supportive of Israel, noting statements the president has made about settlements and his handling of evident Iranian attempts to develop nuclear weapons.
In a March speech before a pro-Israel lobby in Washington, Obama warned of “loose talk of war” that serves only to drive up oil prices. “Now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in and sustain the broad international coalition we have built,” he said at the time.
http://fwd4.me/16rF
4 aug 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 31 juli 2012
Mitt Romney's insult-the-world tour excels in picking on the Palestinians
In his enthusiasm to attract Jewish donors, Romney fails to acknowledge Israel's iron grip on Palestinian economic hopes.
Mitt Romney isn't on an ordinary world tour. He's on an insult-the-world tour, during which he's constantly trying to outdo his previous personal best. How else to explain the Republican presidential candidate's horribly offensive comments about Palestinians during his recent trip to Jerusalem, so soon after the clunking insults levelled at his British hosts in London last week?
Over a £16,000-a-plate campaign fundraiser breakfast with Jewish donors in Jerusalem, Romney aired his deep thoughts on "the dramatic, stark difference in economic vitality" between the Palestinian and Israeli economies. These thoughts were obtained by reading books, he prefixed, before surmising that Israeli accomplishments were down to "at least culture and a few other things" – oh, and also, "the hand of providence". So Romney thinks that Palestinians are screwed because Israelis have a better culture and a better god. It's a shame he didn't add something about bad karma and the Palestinians not doing their positive affirmations properly.
The presidential hopeful doubtless believes this standard-issue, superiority-complex racism – and that it's what his donors want to hear. Romney was, after all, only in Jerusalem to assure rightwing Israelis that he is an even bigger fan of their peace-quashing ways than President Obama. Sitting next to the Republican candidate at that Israeli hotel breakfast was American casino-billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who bankrolled Romney's visit and has indicated his readiness to part with $100m (£63.5m) for the Romney campaign.
Adelson thinks that the Palestinians are an "invented people", supports Israeli hard-right prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and vigorously opposes a two-state solution, so we can presume that Romney's remarks were designed to help him reach for his wallet.
Or perhaps, when the Republican visitor noted that Palestinians were stumped by "a few other things" he was just using internationally recognised shorthand? Maybe he meant "things" like Israel's 45-year occupation, which has kept a chokehold on Palestinians, while at the same time creating a captive market for Israeli products, boosting the occupier's economy. Maybe he's parsing for "things" like the checkpoints, barriers and roadblocks that thwart movement of Palestinians and products – and thereby railroad any attempts to revive an economy.
And he couldn't possibly have referenced "things" without it also alluding to America's generous aid package to Israel, the largest annual recipient of US financial assistance and whose military aid was upped just prior to Romney's visit.
Romney must know all of this, because it's practically impossible to avoid. He could have just glanced out of that Jerusalem hotel window and seen the Israeli separation wall, which has helped to stifle the Palestinian economy – and Palestinian cultural life with it. He could skim through a just-issued World Bank report, which puts the blame for the crawling Palestinian economy firmly at Israel's feet. The report notes that "the removal of Israeli restrictions on access to markets and to natural resources continues to be a prerequisite for the expansion of the Palestinian private sector." The bank concludes that, while there are other factors (these not including god or culture), "Israeli restrictions remain the biggest impediment to investing".
In addition to those books, Romney could read any number of reports about Gaza, including from the IMF and the World Bank, which state that its crippled economy is down to Israel's five-year blockade.
Palestinians have, quite naturally, responded with outrage at Romney's remarks. "The statement reflects a clear racist spirit," said Palestinian labour minister Ahmed Majdalani. "If Romney came here to rally Israeli and Jewish support in the US election, he can do that without insulting the Palestinian people."
Some Israelis noted that Romney's comments weren't exactly complementary to them either. "You can understand this remark in several ways," political scientist Abraham Diskin told the Associated Press. "You can say it's anti-Semitic. 'Jews and money'."
But beyond these necessary rebuttals, there are really only two sensible reactions to this offence-prone presidential contender. One is to set up a sweepstake on the rate of insults generated by Romney while overseas. And the other is to pray to providence that he doesn't come to a country near you.
http://fwd4.me/16sR
Palestinian Youths Denounce EU Agreements with Israel
The Palestinian youth movement, Palestinians for Dignity, strongly denounced in a statement issued Monday the European Union’s upgrading of its trade and economic cooperation with Israel in spite of its strong criticism of Israel’s occupation and settlement policy.
“The EU has decided to upgrade its trade and diplomatic relations with the state of Israel despite the latter’s intensification of its occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” said the statement.
“The new deal will reportedly offer Israel upgraded trade and diplomatic relations in more than 60 areas, effectively reversing the freeze that was imposed after the vicious assault of the Israeli occupation forces on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 - January 2009,” it added.
Palestinians for Dignity described this move as “nothing less than outrageous.”
It said Israel’s non-stop policies flouting the will of the international community, its breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions, its violations of international law and its daily abuses the human rights of the Palestinian people whether in its settlement policies, construction of the Apartheid Wall and its blockade of Gaza are “deserving of condemnation and sanctions, not rewards and benefits.”
The statement said “EU’s policies have only served to prolong Israel’s occupation and our oppression.”
It called on the EU Member States, and the EU as a whole, to decide “to either demonstrate their support for human rights or continue their support of Israel’s violent occupation and apartheid regime and risk losing not only the Palestinian people but Arab peoples and people of conscience all over the world.”
Palestinians for Dignity called on the EU to immediately freeze the new upgrade of relations with Israel, suspend the existing EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel complies with international law, and investigate and halt the work of all European companies benefiting from Israel’s occupation and settlement policies.
The Palestinian youth movement warned that unless the EU agrees to its call, it will organize protests “to challenge (the EU’s) presence and operations in Palestine.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20367
Finance minister snips NIS 100 million from Defense Ministry budget
Defence Minister Ehud Barak (L ) and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz (R)
Unexpected cut, slammed by Barak’s aides as ‘immature,’ apparently a punishment for Barak’s opposing latest economic plan.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz lopped NIS 100 million from the defense budget in what was seen as a smack on the wrist for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who on Monday voted against the government’s latest economic plan.
Steinitz increased the budget cut to the Defense Ministry from NIS 18 million to NIS 118 million. The move came after Barak (Independence), along with eight other ministers from the coalition, voted against the latest round of budget cuts and tax hikes at a cabinet meeting on Monday.
Sources close to Barak criticized the move as being “immature.”
“Steinitz’s behavior is childish and punishes the security of the country,” the sources said.
Earlier, Barak explained in a statement his objections to the budget cuts that hit most ministries and why he believes they will only make a recession worse. The defense minister said that when an economy is growing, the government should reduce its debt and put something away for a rainy day. Then, “during a recession, the main job of the government is to protect the human element and the investment system,” Barak said. “We are talking about people who work hard in small and medium size businesses and who are carrying the whole country on their backs.”
Opposition leader MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) blasted the budget cuts and tax hikes in an interview with Army Radio.
“The little guy is being made to pay for [Prime Minister] Netanyahu’s mistakes,” Mofaz said.
Half the money slashed from the Defense Ministry will reportedly be used in part to pay for the ongoing fortification of Barzilai Hospital, a project that was thrown into doubt following Health Ministry cuts. Critical wards and emergency units at the hospital will be moved to special bunkers to protect patients and staff against rocket fire from Gaza. The remaining NIS 50 million will be spent on education.
http://fwd4.me/16rG