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DUBIOUS DUBAI DEAL EXPANDS TO 21 PORTS!
Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water after the ever
turbulent “PortsGate”, the dubious Dubai Ports deal has proliferated from
controlling 6 US ports to a whopping 21 US Ports being operated by The
United Arab Emirates. Initially it appeared the Bush Administration was
sympathetic to its constituency who overwhelmingly disapproved of
transferring control of our ports to a Moslem nation. The olive branch
offering was a 45 day delay to be sure what’s good for the Bush
administration is also good, and safe, for America. But now it has been
revealed that the foreign hand-over was not for 6 ports but for a whopping
21 US port. According to UPI, 11 of the ports are on the East Coast,
ranging from Portland, Maine to Miami, Florida, and 10 ports are on the
Gulf Coast, from Gulfport, Miss., to Corpus Christi, Texas. How this plays
out is anybody’s guess but one thing no one can accuse the Bush
Administration of is pandering to popular public opinion.
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COVER STORY: BRIGHTEST JEWISH MINDS.
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WEEKLY COMMENTARY BY DR. AARON LERNER
Israel's rapidly
closing window of opportunity to respond to the Hamas victory
Less than three years ago Ehud Olmert still
understood the score: "Israel will have to destroy the Islamic
terrorist groups along with Arafat's Fatah guerillas. There can be
no short cuts when it comes to eradicating the terrorist groups.
Goodwill gestures have repeatedly come back to haunt us and we must
now be prepared to finish off the task. If we are not prepared to
undertake the task of dismantling the terrorist groups that infest
the Palestinian Authority, our civilian population will continue to
be targeted for murder." [End of the Road Map By Ehud Olmert The
Wall Street Journal Monday, September 15, 2003]
And today?
According to plan, the many tens of thousands of official PA armed
security forces will soon be under the command of Hamas. Mr. Olmert
has nothing to say. According to the plan, Hamas will soon be in
charge of the Palestinian side of every crossing point, with the
possible exception of Rafah. Mr. Olmert has nothing to say. Today
Mr. Olmert and his team would like us to believe that the Hamas
challenge is actually no more than an accounting problem: it would
appear that it would suffice if Hamas doesn't get funding
specifically earmarked for their army through Israel and
contributing western nations and instead gets that funding from Iran
and the rest of the Arab world. But the threat created by the rise
of Hamas is not an accounting problem.
The problem is not who pays the salaries of the tens of thousands of
official PA armed security forces joined by an equally huge armed
popular army or who buys them weapons. The problem is that Hamas
will have tens of thousands of official PA armed security
forces joined by an equally huge armed popular army. The problem is
that Hamas can take this conflict well beyond its current
scope via third parties. It is easy to understand Mr. Olmert's
motivation. Here he is, a month away from what all the polls
indicate will be a tremendous victory for his Kadima Party, and the
last thing he needs to do is concede that the Palestinians cannot
simply be ignored. After all, Ehud Olmert's plan to unilaterally
withdraw after the elections hinges on the assertion that it
doesn't matter who or what fills the void created by the
retreat. The failed Oslo experiment cost Israel dearly, but at
almost every turn, Israel has enjoyed the luxury of being able to
pick both the time and place to unilaterally act to address problems
created by Oslo's failure. When Israel felt it had no choice but to
act, the IDF proved that it could go essentially anywhere and do
most anything at a minimum of Israeli casualties - figures that
would have been even lower if not for bizarre temporarily
self-imposed operational restrictions. But Hamas and the rest of the
Palestinians know this and are racing to change it.
Already today Palestinian weapons programs are rushing to reach the
point that Palestinian rockets represent a serious enough threat
that the IDF: Palestinian relationship takes on the characteristics
of the IDF: Hezbullah stand-off. A "stand=off" under which Israel
makes no real effort to prevent the enemy from continuously
strengthening and in turn expanding its threat. This would be bad
enough, but the situation promises to become much worse with the
very real possibility that the new Hamas government will quickly
enter into defense pacts with radical and other states Today Mr.
Olmert can still "undertake the task of dismantling the terrorist
groups that infest the Palestinian Authority" at a relatively low
risk of either regional conflict or large losses among the Israeli
civilian population. But if acting PM Olmert opts to continue to
heed the advice of his election campaign advisors over the advice of
the security experts this last-minute "window of opportunity" will
slam shut leaving Israel to face the Hamas challenge at a cost many
magnitudes greater to the Jewish State.
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BREAKING NEWS
ISRAEL'S LATEST POLL RESULTS: Kadima 38-39 Labor 18-19
Likud 14-17 NRP/Nat'l Union 10-11, By Dr. Aaron Lerner.
Link
Security Chaos and
Proliferation of Small Arms Attacks on public institutions and officials.
Gunmen Storm the Rafah Governorate and the
Khan Yunis Municipality.
Link
IS EUROPE AGAINST
ISRAEL? Arabs, OIC, Sweden
and Russia Rushing to 'Aid' PNA... UN Envoy Alvaro de Soto: Israel's Decision
Unhelpful, Premature...UN Objects to
Israeli Sanctions...Switzerland Regrets Israel's Decision...Sweden Rushes to
help the Palestinians with US$6.4 Million...
Link
Jordan and Russia have
been discussing a major aircraft deal.
Russian industry sources said
Jordan has been briefed on several advanced combat platforms for the kingdom's
air force. The sources said Amman has expressed interest in the Mi-28 attack
helicopter, Su-30 fighter jet and Mi-17-1 utility helicopter. "There is a
possibility of a long-term relationship between Russia and Jordan that would
include a series of sales over the next decade," an industry source said. In
August 2005, Jordan and Russia signed a contract for the sale of two IL-76MF
military transport to Amman. Industry sources said the contract was valued at
$100 million.
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FROM ISRAEL:
Peres: Stop the Hamas fear campaign
The campaign of
scaring ourselves from Hamas must stop," said former prime minister
Shimon Peres, as he addressed high school pupils in Raanana. "We've won
five wars and we'll do it again if we have to," he said, adding
that the Palestinians have an elected president, Mahmoud Abbas, who won
with a larger majority than Hamas, and who wants to reach peace
with Israel.
Olmert: Hamas is not a threat
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee that the Hamas is not a strategic threat
on the State of Israel. Two days ago, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said
Hamas did indeed form a strategic threat. When asked about the
differences if opinion, Olmert said: "I highly value the Shin Bet
head but I do not agree with his view."
200th Qassam rocket this month -
accuracy improving, NIS 6.4 million on shelling empty fields
By Dr. Aaron Lerner
Israel Radio's correspondent for the South, Nissim Keinan, reported this
morning that the 200th Qassam rocket this month to hit Israel from the
Gaza Strip landed this morning. Keinan said that this is already double
the 100 Qassams in January. Defense sources told Keinan that while the
rockets hitting Israel so far have remained within a 9 kilometer
range that the accuracy and quality of the rockets have improved.
Keinan reported that defense sources expressed their view that the IDF
response of firing artillery shells at empty fields has failed. So far
Israel has fired some 1,600 shells - each costing NIS 4,000 for an
overall cost of NIS 6.4 million. In addition to the NIS 6.4 million in
artillery shells fired at empty fields the IAF has spent a considerable
amount of money on breaking the sound barrier over the area and firing
rockets considerably more expensive than artillery shells at the empty
fields. While the Palestinians now are hitting the strategic Ashkelon
Industrial Zone on close to a dailybasis, following the Israeli
tradition that only successful attacks count (when many tens of
thousands of Israelis were almost incinerated when a tanker truck blew
up in Israel's largest gas (and other fuel) depot, the Pi Glilot fuel
depot on Thursday May 23, 2002 it had literally no impact on Israeli
decision makers) it can be expected that no significant action will be
taken until the Palestinians actually succeed in killing hundreds in an
attack.
Israel: Influx of missiles via
Gaza could change balance of power
TEL AVIV - Israel's military has warned that the Palestinian Authority
or aligned groups would acquire a range of rockets and anti-aircraft
missiles over the next few months. Military intelligence has determined
that Palestinian forces in the Gaza Strip have or wo ld acquire such
weapons as the Soviet-origin Katyusha rocket, SA-7 anti-aircraft missile
and advanced variants of anti-tank missiles in 2006. The assessment said
the weapons would be provided by Hizbullah and smuggled through Egypt's
Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip. In a lecture at the Jerusalem Center
for Public Affairs, Zeevi-Farkash said Palestinian insurgents have
managed to smuggle weapons from the Sinai Peninsula into the Gaza Strip.
He said that despite Egyptian efforts, weapons and insurgents continue
to move through the Gaza-Egypt border, Middle East Newsline reported.
Military intelligence has termed AAMs and Katyushas as weapons that
could change the balance of power between Israel and the
Palestinians. "We estimate that in 2006 anti-aircraft missiles or
Katyushas will infiltrate the Gaza Strip and change the situation,"
outgoing military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash
said. [On Tuesday, Palestinian gunners fired missiles from the northern
Gaza Strip that landed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. At least one
missile struck the industrial zone, which contains such strategic sites
as an oil terminal andwater facility. Two cars were said to have been
damaged.] "I am worried about three things," Zeevi-Farkash, who left his
post in January, said on Feb. 9. "They are anti-aircraft missiles,
anti-tank missiles and Katyushas. Today, it's easier to smuggle to the
Gaza Strip through Philadelphi [border zone]. This is a huge problem."
On Feb. 2, military sources reported that Islamic Jihad launched its
first anti-aircraft weapon toward an AH-64A Apache attack helicopter in
the northern Gaza Strip. The helicopter was not struck. "We have to
obtain Egyptian cooperation or else the situation will change,"
Zeevi-Farkash said. Source: IMARA, WorldTribune.
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FROM THE ARAB WORLD:
Israeli Foreign Minister regrets
statements by Naveh, Defense Ministry & Army Chief of Staff order
immediate investigation
(Petra-Jordan News Agency). Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib on
Wednesday received a phone call from his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni
expressing her regret over the statements made by Israeli Commander Gen.
Yair Nave. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the army
Chief of Staff have ordered immediate investigation on the issue. "
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Syria and Iran Discuss Scientific-Military
Cooperation
DAMASCUS, (SANA - Syrian News Agency)- Syria and Iran discussed Tuesday
military, scientific, cultural and research cooperation between their
universities. Rector of Damascus University Dr. Wa'el Mu'lla and Deputy
Iranian Higher Education Minister Dr. Arsolan Karabani and Deputy Rector
of Iranian University of 'Tarbiat Modares University' Hossni Nadiri
talked about the best ways of enhancing the joint cooperation between
Syria and Iran in scientific, cultural and research fields. Talks during
the meeting dealt with issues and cases of joint concern and the
possibility of opening a branch of 'Tarbiat Modares University' and
joint scientific programs for higher studies.
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PEOPLE, NEWSMAKERS, SOCIETY:
LIST OF WORLD CELEBRITIES 2005-2006
2005 HOTTEST GOSSIPS, ACCUSATIONS AND PREDICTIONS
OF
STARS & CELEBRITIES
OF THE YEAR.
By Maximillien de
Lafayette
GEORGE BUSH'S "CHRISTIAN" WAR
AMUSES THE ISRAELIS AND INFURIATES THE ARABS;
U.S. LT. GENERAL "CHRISTIAN" REMARKS
EMBARRASSED THE WHITE HOUSE AND GEORGE BUSH...Revisiting
what celebrities, stars and powerful people predicted, complained and
gossiped about in 2005. Their complaints, predictions, accusations and
gossips. Where they right on? Wrong? Pretentious? Off base. Judge for
yourself...Link
Personality
and Guts: Tovia Singer and Rachelle Bronfman:
Photo:
The flamboyant and brilliant Rabbi
Tovia Singer with Rachelle Bronfman.
Rabbi Tovia Singer is a modern
Bernard Shaw Jewish philosophico-satirico-politico know-how media
genius. He is funny, bright, young, very handsome, sharp and your kind
of a media sparkling personality. Tovia had a brilliant idea. But not
all brilliant ideas shine. Tovia's one did! So what did he do? Along
with Rachelle Bronfman, he put a sparkling idea-vision into motion and
co-created one of the world's most successful, provocative and
compelling Israeli/Jewish radio shows: THE TOVIA SINGER SHOW which he
launched with Bronfman in January of 2002 on Israel National Radio.
Well-informed insiders claim that Singer's show "
is the brainchild of Torontonian Rachelle Bronfman, who used her own
funds to start the program, which continues to be funded entirely
through private donations.
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New York:
Hottest names, stars, shows, socialites, artists,
celebrities, events, newsmakers and gossips.
Link
LATEST NEWS AND HOT GOSSIPS: COMING SOON
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IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS:
ALARMING NEW EDITORIAL TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS TO BE USED BY ARABS AND
PALESTINIANS AGAINST ISRAEL AND THE JEWS.
The Arab media and the Arab Palestinian
Media Watch group are getting prolific and visibly aggressive in their
editorial efforts and media campaigns against Israel and the Jewish
people. Palestinian
youngsters and adults still throw rocks at Israeli tanks. Arab
terrorists keep on kidnapping and murdering innocent foreigners. Arab
governments influenced and monitored editors and journalists in the
Arab world keep on telling lies and deceiving public opinion, etc.,
but, there is now, a new strategy and an innovative way, Arabs,
Muslims and Palestinians are using to...Link
Sources of
Islamic extremism. The Islamic "street", by Dr. Joseph Lerner.
Link
What If
Iran Gets the Bomb? The Iranian Challenge to the West
By Dr. Ephraim Kam.
The Iranians are conducting a clandestine nuclear program in parallel
to the public one, the aim of which is clearly the acquisition of
nuclear weapons. The Israeli intelligence assessment speaks of three
or four years; the Americans add another year or two to this
timetable. The Americans conducted a large-scale operation in Iraq in
order to bring down a regime which was engaged, it was thought at the
time, in supporting terrorism and having weapons of mass destruction
programs. Iran is clearly in the same category, and therefore it is
concerned about an American/Israeli operation against its nuclear
facilities...
UNDERSTANDING THE ARAB MIND: WHAT
THEY SAY, WHAT THEY WRITE ABOUT AND WHAT THEY INTEND TO DO.
THE TWO FACES OF ARAB MEDIA AND POLITICAL
LEADERS...DENIAL AND HYPOCRISY...PRAISING THE UNITED
STATES AND ISRAEL-ARAB PEACE
EFFORTS IN OFFICIAL MEETINGS, WHILE ATTACKING THE UNITED
STATES AND ISRAEL
IN THEIR ARAB NEWSPAPERS...What usually, Arab heads of states,
politicians, scholars, moderate leaders and reporters tell the
American public, IS NOT de facto, what they tell their own people
and intend to do, as it is evidenced in their Arab media.
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Iran's Redefined Strategy.
By George Friedman.
The Iranians have broken the
International Atomic Energy Agency seals on some of their nuclear
facilities. They did this very deliberately and publicly to make
certain that everyone knew that Tehran was proceeding with its nuclear
program. Prior to this, and in parallel, the Iranians began to --
among other things -- systematically bait the Israelis, threatening to
wipe them from the face of the earth. The question, of course, is what
exactly the Iranians are up to. They do not yet have nuclear weapons.
The Israelis do. The Iranians have now hinted that (a) they plan to
build nuclear weapons and have implied, as clearly as possible without
saying it, that (b) they plan to use them against Israel.
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The
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership - Israel's Perspective.
Israel's Perspective on the Barcelona Process.
By
Silvan Shalom, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign
Affairs.
A decade ago, the Barcelona Declaration stated that members of
the process are "convinced that the general objective of turning the
Mediterranean basin into an area of dialogue, exchange and cooperation
guaranteeing peace, stability and prosperity requires a strengthening
of democracy and respect for human rights, sustainable and balanced
economic and social development...Link
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JEWISH OPINIONS:
"PRAGMATIC HAMAS" -- NOT VERY LIKELY.
Twenty years ago, they told us that Arafat and PLO were becoming pragmatic, and
were ready to give up terror and make peace with Israel. It turned out that
these hopeful predictions were wrong, but the same people are now appearing on
radio and television, to declare that the leaders of Hamas will form a pragmatic
Palestinian government. The odds that they will get this one right are
not very high.
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Prince Charles: Islam’s New Ambassador. Prince
Charles of Wales and his new bride, Camilla Parker Bowles, the
Duchess of Cornwall, have been in the United States, hobnobbing
at the White House and imparting royal pearls of wisdom.
According to statements made prior to this visit, Prince Charles
thinks the U.S. is “intolerant” towards Islam. In Prince
Charles’ view, it’s all gone downhill since 9/11 because of the Bush
administration’s “confrontational” approach to Muslim countries.
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So
when Do Western Bleeding Hearts NOT Think that Cartoonists Need to be
Repudiated?
By Professor Steven Plaut,
World Jewish News
Agency and New York Jewish Herald Senior Political Analyst. Professor at Haifa University, Israel.
All those people whining about how the West needs to be more sensitive
and all when it comes to cartoons depicting Moslems or Islamic symbols
have never had anything to say about the vicious anti-Semitic cartoons
of Michael Leunig, an Australian cartoonist. Leunig's cartoons
are so anti-Semitic that they were subjects of a practical joke and
hoax over the past few days. As you know, Iran is having its own
Holocaust Denial Cartoon contest, to "avenge" the Danish cartoons that
showed the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, and some other
offensive images.
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