July 2012

PA daily: Jews/Israelis are enemies of Allah by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

June 26, 2012
A regular columnist on religious affairs in the official Palestinian Authority daily chose to describe Jews/Israelis as "Allah's enemies, the children of Zion." They "kill, behave violently, spill blood, and desecrate sacred things," Sheikh Taleb Al-Silwadi wrote in his weekly column.

Writers for the religious section in the official PA daily have demonized Jews many times. Palestinian Media Watch reported that another regular columnist referred to the Jews' "evil nature" and described Judaism as a "distorted, corrupted, falsified religion."

Arab World: Staying On the Sidelines By Jonathan Spyer

June 29, 2012
At a recent meeting in London, I asked a Syrian Kurd whose affiliations are close to the nationalist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) why the Kurds of Syria remained on the sidelines in the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

The Kurds of Syria, who number around 10 percent of the country’s population, have largely preferred to avoid active involvement in the civil war now taking place.

Al-Qaeda and the Jihadists Join the Battle against the Syrian Regime/ DR. Jacques Neriah

May 28, 2012
The battle over Syria has descended into sectarian strife led by extreme Salafists and other Islamic splinter organizations in a carefully orchestrated uprising coordinated and fueled by al-Qaeda operatives.

The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, could well be in a process of disintegration, as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) did not recognize its authority. Yet the FSA is no longer the sole force in the fight against Assad.

Will the Middle East Lose Its Importance? by Daniel Pipes

July 1, 2012
In a provocative and well executed article in the July/August issue of the National Interest, "The Fading Arab Oil Empire," Paul D. Miller, assistant professor of international-security studies at the National Defense University, argues that

The geostrategic importance of the Middle East is vastly overblown. The region matters to the United States chiefly because of its influence in the world oil market, but that influence has been in terminal decline for a generation, a fact almost wholly unnoticed by outside observers.

Egypt as Islamist Epicentre / Colin Rubenstein

July2 2012
Just last month, Tareq al-Suwaidan, a leading Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood figure, was granted a visa to give lectures in Sydney and Melbourne, including at a forum on the campus of Monash University. It was his second visit to Australia.

Defections Reflect Doubts Among Assad Loyalists By Jonathan Spyer

June 26, 2012
The defection this week of a Syrian general, five other officers and 33 soldiers to Turkey represents the latest setback to the beleaguered regime of Bashar Assad in Damascus.

This brings the number of generals who have deserted Assad’s cause to 13 – in addition to thousands of rank-and-file soldiers and more junior officers.

Three Syrian pilots also defected to Jordan on Sunday.

The Arab Spring and its Effects on the Middle East States / Aylin Unver Noi

THE ARAB SPRING, ITS EFFECTS ON THE KURDS, AND THE APPROACHES OF TURKEY, IRAN, SYRIA, AND IRAQ ON THE KURDISH ISSUE
July 1, 2012
This article addresses the approaches of Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq in dealing with the Kurdish issue, with a special focus on historical background. In addition, the article discusses how this issue affects relations among the aforementioned countries and whether cooperation on this issue is possible. The article also examines how the Arab Spring has impacted the Kurds and the attitudes of these countries toward the Kurdish issue.

Iran, Israel, and the Bomb / David Harris

July 1, 2012
When I first saw the headline in the current issue (July/August 2012) of Foreign Affairs – "Why Iran Should Get the Bomb" – I thought there was a typo. Surely it was meant to read "Why Iran Should Get the Bomb – Not!"

But then I remembered that this bimonthly journal is not known for its typos – nor, for that matter, irony.

On the contrary, this is arguably the world's most influential and straight-shooting publication on foreign policy.

Romirowsky: Challenging UNRWA / Ahron Shapiro

Jul 2 2012
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), formed as a temporary organisation in 1949 to take care of the immediate needs of the Arab refugees from Israel's existential War of Independence, has evolved into a sprawling, politically compromised advocate of the Palestinian narrative, according to Asaf Romirowsky, an adjunct scholar at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Romirowsky, who has devoted a decade of post-graduate studies to UNRWA, visited Australia in early June.

Islam vs. History by Daniel Pipes

July 2, 2012
The Islamist destruction underway in Timbuktu (including the tomb of Sidi Mahmoudou, d. 955, and the doors of the Sidi Yahya Mosque, ca. 1400) raises a question: What is it about Islam that so often turns its adherents against their own patrimony? Consider some examples:

The doors of the Sidi Yahya Mosque, built ca. 1400, which were only to open at the end of time, smashed apart today by Islamists.

The destruction of Hindu temples in medieval India.
The Mamluks using the Great Sphinx of Egypt as target practice and the Great Pyramid as a quarry.

Hate Israel Day at the U.N.

GENEVA, July 2 - Despite continued killings today of civilians across Syria, the U.N.'s top human rights body devoted all discussion to its ritual Hate Israel Day. A day against Israel is a permanent feature of every council meeting, under its only country-specific agenda item, entitled "the Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories."

Egypt under Islamists The Trouble Has Just Begun by Mudar Zahran

July 3, 2012
Since the US Administration insisted early on that the Muslim Brotherhood be invited to the Cairo speech and presented with the choicest seats there – all in direct violation of the wishes of then-President Hosni Mubarak, who ultimately refused even to attend the speech – all options but surrender seem to have been off the table, not only in the Middle East, but in Russia, China and South America as well.

Radical Islam Spreading in Spain by Soeren Kern

July 3, 2012
The report, which examines some of the main Islamist groups operating in Spain, shows that the common thread linking all the groups together is their mutual desire to establish an Islamic Caliphate.

Two Islamists have been arrested in Spain on charges of torturing and murdering two fellow Muslims for "abandoning radical Islam."

The arrests came just days after Spanish newspapers reported that jihadists in Spain are travelling to Syria to help overthrow the government there.

Russia, China & Israel against Islamism? by Daniel Pipes

July 3, 2012
Two recent developments - Vladimir Putin's recent trip to the Middle East and the Chinese government's financing of an Israeli cargo railway - hint at a reshuffling of alliances in the region.

IS THE ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS DEAD? By Barry Rubin

July 1, 2012
Western governments, experts, and journalists have long assumed that an Israel-Palestinian or comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace agreement ending the conflict was near at hand and easily achieved. In fact, the truth is the exact opposite.

UNESCO bucks own experts to pass Palestinian "emergency measure" / Or Avi Guy

Jul 4 2012
Last Friday at the 36th meeting of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee, held in St. Petersburg, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List as an endangered heritage site, registered under the location "Palestine."

News; 37,298 Readers during June 2012

Dear readers, thank you for reading my web.
I hope it gives you a better understanding of the Middle East and the Israeli- Palestinian - Arab conflict.

Syria Running for the U.N. Human Rights Council, Says U.S. By Hillel Neuer

July 4 2012
U.S.-Sponsored Resolution Slams Syrian Candidacy
GENEVA - In the past decade, the U.N. Human Rights Council elected Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya as chair, hailed Sri Lanka’s “promotion and protection of all human rights” after its army had killed thousands of civilians, and convened an emergency session to lament the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Hamas terrorist organization.

Even so, historians will now have to decide whether the U.N.’s flagship human rights body is about to sink to a new low.

THE GROWING POWER OF HAMAS’S GAZA LEADERSHIP By Jonathan Spyer

July 1, 2012
This article will observe the process whereby Hamas has consolidated and maintained its rule in Gaza. It will argue that the gradual strengthening of the Gaza leadership within Hamas preceded the upheavals of 2011. The fallout from the events in Egypt and Syria, however, served to accelerate and accentuate the process whereby the Gaza leadership made gains at the expense of the external leadership.

INTRODUCTION

Egypt's Sex-Slave Marriage by Raymond Ibrahim

July 5, 2012
"When I want a sex-slave," [I] should be able to go "to the market and pick out whichever female I desire and marry her." — Sheikh Huwaini

Egypt's "first sex-slave marriage" took place mere days after the Muslim Brotherhood's Muhammad Morsi was made president.

Canadian senators warn United Church over Israel boycott / CAMPBELL CLARK

CAMPBELL CLARK
Jul. 04 2012, 7:00 AM EDT

A group of nine senators has warned the United Church of Canada that it could spark a rift with the Jewish community if it approves the boycott of goods from Israeli settlements in occupied lands.

The senators, all United Church members and from both the Conservative and Liberal parties, have waded publicly into a controversial issue before it comes to a vote in mid-August.
More Related to this Story

Muslim Brotherhood leader: Liberating Jerusalem and Palestine should be "sole goal" / Allon Lee

Jul 4 2012
A June 14 speech by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's leader Mohammed Badie in which he dreams of a Muslim leadership ready to make the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem "the sole goal" does not engender hope the world's leading Sunni Islamist organisation is ready to moderate its extremist positions now that its candidate has won the country's presidency.

In the speech, Brotherhood General Guide Badie, who selected Mohammed Mursi to run for the Egyptian presidency, says:

Palestinians' Islamist Spring by Khaled Abu Toameh

July 6, 2012
In the absence of a credible and organized Palestinian opposition in the West Bank, Hamas will most likely hijack the "Palestinian Spring," paving the way for Hamas to seize control over the West Bank.

After the recent wave of protests and clashes with Palestinian Authority policemen in the West Bank, the Palestinians are asking if the "Arab Spring" might be finally knocking on their door.

The protests, organized by young Palestinians through Facebook and Twitter, are a reflection of increased discontent with the Palestinian Authority leadership.

A Settlement Freeze Can Advance Israeli-Palestinian Peace by Alan M. Dershowitz

July 5, 2012
Now that Israel has a broad and secure national unity government, the time is ripe for that government to make a bold peace offer to the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian Authority refuses to negotiate unless Israel accepts a "freeze" on settlement building in the West Bank. Israel accepted a 10-month freeze in 2009, but the Palestinian Authority didn't come to the bargaining table until weeks before the freeze expired. Its negotiators demanded that the freeze be extended indefinitely. When Israel refused, they walked away from the table.

ASSESSING IRAQ’S OIL INDUSTRY By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

July 6, 2012
This article provides an overview of Iraq’s oil and gas industry, focusing in particular on its history since 2003 under the Coalition Provisional Authority and the sovereign Iraqi government. It also examines the relationship between the development of natural gas reserves and local autonomy, as well as the controversy surrounding ExxonMobil’s dealings with the Kurdistan Regional Government. Finally, the article considers how the oil and gas industry relates to the wider economy both now and for the future.

INTRODUCTION

Out of Africa / Yehonathan Tommer

July 2 2012
Compared to the revolutionary upheavals in the Arab states, the Jewish state is a haven of political stability, domestic quiet and economic prosperity. And while it involves a hazardous, overland desert journey fraught with Bedouin marauders and human traffickers, Israel's largely unfenced Negev border with the Egyptian Sinai has nonetheless seen between 1,000 to 2,000 foot-weary, traumatised Africans crossing into Israel each month over the past few years.

"And What Do You Want to Say to the Iraqi People?" (& Everyone Else in the Middle East) / Prof.B.Rubin

05 Jul 2012
In the new Middle East where people talk a lot behind the scenes using high-technology communications, we have far more frequent interactions with people who live in countries ostensibly at war with Israel. Such conversations are always interesting and useful for analysts.
Sometimes the exchanges are even happening in public. I’ve been interviewed a number of times, for example, by Iraqi journalists. But this time there was a different kind of question at the end of the interview.

Robert Fisk Demonizes Mideast's Persecuted Christians by Raymond Ibrahim

June 28, 2012
Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent for the U.K.'s widely-read Independent, recently showed why it is that Islamic jihadists and terrorists, including the late Osama bin Laden, strongly recommend his propaganda to Western readers.

ACRE HAS BEEN SETTLED BY JEWS ALTERNATELY SINCE THE 3rd CENTURY BCE, UNTIL FORCED TO LEAVE DURING THE ARABIC REVOLT IN 1936:Part One / DR.Rivka Shpak Lissak

PART I

Jews lived in Acre continuously from the 3rd century BCE until massacred by the Byzantines in the 7th century CE. Jews returned to Acre in the 10th or 11th century, remaining there until its conquest and destruction by the Mamluk in the 13th century. Jews lived in Acre continuously from the 14th century until 1936. Jews returned to Acre since 1948.

ACRE HAS BEEN SETTLED BY JEWS ALTERNATELY SINCE THE 3rd CENTURY BCE, UNTIL FORCED TO LEAVE DURING THE ARABIC REVOLT IN 1936 :Part Two / DR.Rivka Shpak Lissak

Part Two

THE OTTOMAN PERIOD (1516 – 1918)

At the beginning of the Ottoman period Acre was a small and poor town. The Ottomans did not continue its reconstruction. Acre’s Jewish community was small, its members engaged in trade. At the middle of the 16th century they served as middlemen between the Galilean Jews and Europe, trading with Syria and Jerusalem. In his book, The Land of Israel and Its Settlement, Yitzhak ben Zvi brings the story of the Jewish merchant, Yeshayah HaCohen, who was harassed by the governor of Acre until he was forced to leave the city.

Chapter 5 - Acculturation without Islamization under Arab- Muslim Occupation (640 – 1099)/ DR.Rivka Shpak Lissak

The Arab policy did not include forced Islamization (except for short periods),but mainly cultural Arabization.

Introduction

The Disquieting Treatment of Christians by the Palestinians by Michael Curtis

February 15, 2012
Centuries of persecution before Israeli "occupation."
In the voluminous commentaries on the Middle East today very little attention has been given to the sad fate of Christians in the Arab and Muslim countries. Even less attention has been paid to the contrast between the treatment of Christians in Israel and their treatment in Arab countries. In Israel Christians have religious freedom and their numbers have increased. In Arab countries the religious freedom of Christians is restricted and their number has been reduced because of harassment, fear, and persecution.

Arab World: Sunni Islamism Stirs In Lebanon By Jonathan Spyer

July 6, 2012
As the civil war in Syria grinds on and assumes an increasingly sectarian character, echoes of the strife are being heard across the border in Lebanon.

Tunisia: Goodbye Democracy? Islamists Start to Take Over Media / Prof.B.Rubin

July 5, 2012
The much-touted, Islamist-led coalition government in Tunisia is showing how little has changed. It is imposing the regime’s power on the media, choosing loyal editors and censoring the news. The liberal and independent National Authority for the Reform of Media and Communications (INRIC) is so disgusted that it’s closing down.

IMF denies Israel’s request for loan to help struggling PA / Andrea Nadel

Jul 5 2012
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has denied Israel’s request for a loan to assist the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA).

Experts: Radioactive residues on Arafat's clothing no proof of poisoning / Ahron Shapiro

Jul 6 2012
After the media excitement over the allegation polonium poisoning might have caused Yasser Arafat's death in 2004, some sober and cogent analysis is debunking the thrust of the al-Jazeera report - that the radioactive levels that were reportedly found recently on Arafat's personal effects, could have come from Arafat himself.

The Battle over Silwan Fabricating Palestinian History by Shaul Bartal

On August 26, 2010, a violent clash broke out between Jewish and Arab residents of Silwan, a predominantly Muslim village outside the southern end of the walled Old City of Jerusalem. The name derives from the biblical "Shiloah"[1] and its subsequently Graecized "Siloam."[2]

Who Is Being "Intransigent"? by Michael Curtis

Who Is Being "Intransigent"?
by Michael Curtis
July 9, 2012
The Israeli cabinet also agreed that east Jerusalem would not be returned to Jordan, which had ruled it; that Egypt had no greater claim to Gaza than Israel has, and that Jordan had no greater claim to the West Bank than Israel has, as all three countries had acquired the areas through war.

Syria: UN's Newest Champion of Human Rights by Arsen Ostrovsky

July 9, 2012
Syria is now running for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. The U.S. caved in to the demands of Syria's allies, who also abuse human rights.

According to UN Watch, an independent human rights group based in Geneva, Syria is now running for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council: "The murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad is a declared candidate for a seat on the 47-nation U.N. body, in elections to be held next year at the 193-member General Assembly."

A Neglected Anniversary / David Harris

July 9, 2012
Libya is once again in the news.
It's been a while, since the media largely lost interest following Muammar el-Qaddafi's ouster and assassination.

The North African nation just held its first election. What emerges will doubtless have regional consequences.

But there's another reason Libya should be in the public eye now, though don't hold your breath it will make the news anytime soon.

Forty-five years ago this month, the last Jews of Libya were forced to flee the country. They included my wife, then 16 years old, her seven siblings, and her parents.

- The new inquiry into Arafat’s death puts Palestinian Authority in awkard position By Pinhas Inbari

9July 2012
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was surprised last week by a report on 'al-Jazeera' report which suggested that former PLO leader Yasser Arafat might have been poisoned by radioactive polonium. The suggestion came as a result of an examination of Arafat’s clothing supplied by Arafat's widow Suha .

Al-Jazeera’s investigation directly undermines the reputation of the PLO and the PA, which had both conducted countless investigations into Arafat’s death. Yet, nothing of note was revealed until 'al-Jazeera' decided to roll up its sleeves.

Lessening UNRWA's Damage by Steven J. Rosen and Daniel Pipes

July 10, 2012
Critics of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the organization tasked with oversight of Palestine refugees, have tended to focus on its sins. Its camps are havens for terrorists. Its bureaucracy is bloated and its payroll includes radicals. Its schools teach incitement. Its registration rolls reek with fraud. Its policies encourage a mentality of victimhood.

Food distribution now constitutes a small part of UNRWA's spending; most of it concerns education and health.

The Islamist Tsunami and Arab Society by Najat Fawzy AlSaied

July 10, 2012
Whenever the Muslim Brotherhood are asked if Sharia law will be imposed, the response is that their intention is to build "a democratic and civil state" that guarantees freedom of religion and the right to peaceful protest. But anyone who traces the actions of the Muslim Brotherhood -- in Egypt, Tunisia or anywhere else in the Arab world, will see that their intention is to further Islamize their societies, not to create civil alternatives.

Islamic Jihadists Using Switzerland as Base by Soeren Kern

July 9, 2012
Swiss analysts say the initiative of "Ummah Schweiz" is an effort to establish "parallel" legislative body in Switzerland that will be a mouthpiece for the Islamic fundamentalists, who are seeking to impose Sharia law on the country. With representatives in all 26 cantons, the group will be fully functional in 2013.

Radical Muslim groups are using Switzerland as a base from which to promote Islamic jihad in Europe and beyond.

Morsi’s Victory and Egypt’s Second Republic Col. (ret) Dr. Jacques Neriah

July 9, 2012
In an unprecedented reversal of fortunes, the son of a peasant farmer from the Nile Delta, an Islamist jailed several times by Hosni Mubarak, has succeeded him as president of the largest Arab nation in a victory at the ballot box – thus inaugurating Egypt’s Second Republic.

Calls to Destroy Egypt's Great Pyramids Begin by Raymond Ibrahim

July 10, 2012
According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt's Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi'i, those "symbols of paganism," which Egypt's Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain's "Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs" and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt's new president, Muhammad Morsi, to "destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what Amr bin al-As could not."

Has the sun finally set for Egypt's Great Pyramids?

Will Syria Remain a Unified State? by Harold Rhode

July 10, 2012
What stands behind much of the violence in Syria is the rise of Arab Sunni fundamentalism in its various forms – whether Salafi, Wahhabi, or Muslim Brotherhood? All of these threaten the very existence of the Alawites, the Kurds, and other non-Sunni ethnic and religious groups.

Europe's New Antisemitism / Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

11/7/2012
Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
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In May 2007 a small group of religious leaders met in the E.U. headquarters in Brussels with the three most significant leaders of Europe: Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and at the time president of the European Council; Jose-Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; and Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament.

Egypt's Real Ruler: Mohamed Tantawi by Daniel Pipes and Cynthia Farahat

July 11, 2012
What does it mean that Mohamed Morsi is president of Egypt? Speaking for the American consensus, Bret Stephens recently argued in the Wall Street Journal against the consolation that the Muslim Brotherhood's victory "is merely symbolic, since the army still has the guns." He concluded that "Egypt is lost."

We shall argue to the contrary: the election was not just symbolic but illusory, and Egypt's future remains very much in play.

Muslim Brotherhood 'Democracy' Slapping, Stabbing, and Slaying for Sharia by Raymond Ibrahim

July 9, 2012
Prior to Egypt's presidential elections, Islamists made clear that the electoral process was an obligatory form of "holy war." Then, any number of Islamic clerics, including influential ones, declared that it was mandatory for Muslims to cheat during elections—if so doing would help Islamist candidates win; that the elections were a form of jihad, and those who die are "martyrs" who will attain the highest levels of paradise.