By Paul Colsey, CNN
updated 6:30 AM EST, Wed February 29, 2012
Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli security forces and intelligence officers raided a Palestinian television station overnight and took computers, tapes, transmitters and paperwork, the director of the station said Wednesday.
The raid began at 2 a.m., Wattan TV director Muamar Orabi said.
"Four night-shift employees were detained for more than three hours inside the offices after their mobile phones were taken," he added.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the raid had taken place.
Israeli Ministry of Communications spokesman Yehiel Shavi said Wattan broadcasts "were interfering with the signals of Israeli broadcasters" and said the interference had been stopped "with the assistance of the IDF."
The IDF said repeated requests had been made to Wattan to stop their broadcasts because they interfere with Israeli broadcasters and flight communications at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.
But Orabi said his station had never received a complaint about transmission frequencies, and said the response was disproportionate even if that was the reason for the raid.
"Why destroy the TV station when they could have just confiscated the two transmitters?" he asked.
"This is not the first time this has happened. Wattan TV was destroyed 10 years ago, in March 2002," he said.
The station called the raid an act of piracy and vowed to continue its work.
"Wattan TV deplores this aggressive behavior against an efficient and effective media organization and will work through its contacts with local and international media and human rights organizations to expose this criminal act," the station said in a statement. "Wattan will work on restoring all the stolen equipment and transmitters and continue interrupted broadcasting."
CNN's Enas Muthaffar contributed to this report
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Iran Accuses West of Double Standard on Nuclear Weapons
Voice of America
February 28, 2012
Lisa Schlein | Geneva
In this photo released by the Iranian President's Office, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, is escorted by technicians during a tour of Tehran's research reactor center in northern Tehran, Iran, February 15, 2012.
With tensions high over whether Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, Iran on Tuesday repeated that it is open to talks on its nuclear program, and it accused the West of a double standard on the nuclear issue.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stressed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program as he addressed the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
He called for nuclear disarmament worldwide - saying the gravest threat to sustainable security is the existence of thousands of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of a few countries.
Western countries and Israel fear that Iran, despite its denials, is trying to join that group of nuclear-armed nations.
Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has "major differences" and "major concerns" with Iran over its nuclear program and possible weapons development.
U.N. inspectors said their latest visit to Tehran, aimed at gaining greater access to key nuclear sites and scientists, ended in failure.
On Tuesday, Salehi told the U.N. conference that Iran will continue to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. He said other countries have two choices on how to deal with this program.
“One way is engagement, cooperation and interaction, and the other is confrontation and conflict. The Islamic Republic of Iran, confident of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, has always insisted on the first alternative," said Salehi. "When it comes to our relevant rights and obligations, our consistent position is that Iran does not seek confrontation, nor does it want anything beyond its inalienable legitimate rights.”
Salehi said the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed, upholds the right of member states to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
He criticized the sanctions placed on Iran by nations that fear Iran's nuclear intentions are not peaceful.
“Monopolizing selfishly the scientific knowledge and the technology of peaceful nuclear energy and depriving others from it through various means including atrocious assassination of scientists is an illusion, which will certainly not lead to the preservation of their perceived supremacy,” said Salehi.
Salehi was referring to the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist last month. Iran blames the killing on Israel.
The Iranian foreign minister accused the West of double standards and discrimination in supporting Israel, which has not joined the NPT and is widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, although it has never confirmed having a nuclear arsenal.
The U.S. ambassador to the disarmament conference, Laura Kennedy, cast doubt on Iran’s nuclear program. She said the Iranian minister’s stated commitment to nuclear disarmament stands in stark contrast to Iran’s failure to comply with its international obligations.
She said Iran has just expanded its ability to enrich uranium and noted Tehran continues to deny U.N. inspectors full access to its nuclear facilities.
It's amazing to see this concerted political attack on Iran's nuclear program orchestrated by Israel which is actually the supreme villainous military entity that has developed nuclear weapons in secret and refuses any international inspection of its nuclear facilities. Israel never has let any outside agencies in and Israel is the record holder for non-compliance with U.N. resolutions. Why do we turn a blind eye to Israel? Because Israel is running our American foreign policy with Zionists positioned throughout the Bush/Obama administrations and acting as a 5th Column in America to get the U.S. to do Israel's bidding.
February 28, 2012
Lisa Schlein | Geneva
With tensions high over whether Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, Iran on Tuesday repeated that it is open to talks on its nuclear program, and it accused the West of a double standard on the nuclear issue.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stressed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program as he addressed the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
He called for nuclear disarmament worldwide - saying the gravest threat to sustainable security is the existence of thousands of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of a few countries.
Western countries and Israel fear that Iran, despite its denials, is trying to join that group of nuclear-armed nations.
Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has "major differences" and "major concerns" with Iran over its nuclear program and possible weapons development.
U.N. inspectors said their latest visit to Tehran, aimed at gaining greater access to key nuclear sites and scientists, ended in failure.
On Tuesday, Salehi told the U.N. conference that Iran will continue to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. He said other countries have two choices on how to deal with this program.
“One way is engagement, cooperation and interaction, and the other is confrontation and conflict. The Islamic Republic of Iran, confident of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, has always insisted on the first alternative," said Salehi. "When it comes to our relevant rights and obligations, our consistent position is that Iran does not seek confrontation, nor does it want anything beyond its inalienable legitimate rights.”
Salehi said the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed, upholds the right of member states to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
He criticized the sanctions placed on Iran by nations that fear Iran's nuclear intentions are not peaceful.
“Monopolizing selfishly the scientific knowledge and the technology of peaceful nuclear energy and depriving others from it through various means including atrocious assassination of scientists is an illusion, which will certainly not lead to the preservation of their perceived supremacy,” said Salehi.
Salehi was referring to the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist last month. Iran blames the killing on Israel.
The Iranian foreign minister accused the West of double standards and discrimination in supporting Israel, which has not joined the NPT and is widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, although it has never confirmed having a nuclear arsenal.
The U.S. ambassador to the disarmament conference, Laura Kennedy, cast doubt on Iran’s nuclear program. She said the Iranian minister’s stated commitment to nuclear disarmament stands in stark contrast to Iran’s failure to comply with its international obligations.
She said Iran has just expanded its ability to enrich uranium and noted Tehran continues to deny U.N. inspectors full access to its nuclear facilities.
It's amazing to see this concerted political attack on Iran's nuclear program orchestrated by Israel which is actually the supreme villainous military entity that has developed nuclear weapons in secret and refuses any international inspection of its nuclear facilities. Israel never has let any outside agencies in and Israel is the record holder for non-compliance with U.N. resolutions. Why do we turn a blind eye to Israel? Because Israel is running our American foreign policy with Zionists positioned throughout the Bush/Obama administrations and acting as a 5th Column in America to get the U.S. to do Israel's bidding.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Report: Millions of White House dollars helped pay for NYPD Muslim surveillance
Published February 27, 2012
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance.
The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135 million to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, known as HIDTA.
Some of that money -- it's unclear exactly how much because the program has little oversight -- has paid for the cars that plainclothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods. It also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons and social events.
When NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly was filled in on these efforts, his briefings were prepared on HIDTA computers.
The AP confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on HIDTA computers. The HIDTA grant program is overseen by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The disclosure that the White House is at least partially paying for the NYPD's wholesale surveillance of places where Muslims eat, shop, work and pray complicates efforts by the Obama administration to stay out of the fray over New York's controversial counterterrorism programs. The administration has championed outreach to American Muslims and has said law enforcement should not put entire communities under suspicion.
The Obama administration, however, has pointedly refused to endorse or repudiate the NYPD programs it helps pay for. The White House last week declined to comment on its grant payments.
John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, last year called the NYPD's efforts "heroic" but would not elaborate. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department also gives grant money to the NYPD and is one of the lead federal agencies helping police build relationships with Muslims, has refused in recent months to discuss the police tactics. Tom Perez, the Justice Department's top civil rights lawyer, has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the NYPD.
Outside Washington, the NYPD's efforts drew increased criticism last week. College administrators at Yale, Columbia and elsewhere issued harsh rebukes for NYPD's infiltration of Muslim student groups and its monitoring of school websites. New Jersey's governor and the mayor of its largest city have complained about the NYPD's widespread surveillance there, outside New York's police jurisdiction.
The White House HIDTA grant program was established at the height of the drug war to help police fight drug gangs and unravel supply routes. It has provided about $2.3 billion to local authorities in the past decade.
After the terror attacks, law enforcement was allowed to use some of that money to fight terrorism. It's unclear how much HIDTA money has been used to pay for the intelligence division, in part because NYPD intelligence operations receive scant oversight in New York.
Congress, which approves the money for the program, is not provided with a detailed breakdown of activities. None of the NYPD's clandestine programs is cited in the New York-New Jersey region's annual reports to Congress between 2006 and 2010.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not respond to questions the AP sent to him in two emails about the White House money and the department's intelligence division.
Most of the money from the White House grants in New York and New Jersey has been spent fighting drugs, said Chauncey Parker, director of the program there. He said less than $1.3 million was spent on vehicles used by the NYPD intelligence unit.
"Those cars are used to collect and analyze counterterrorism information with the goal of preventing a terrorist attack in New York City or anywhere else," Parker said. "If it's been used for specific counterterrorism effort, then it's been used to pay for those cars."
Former police officials told the AP those vehicles have been used to photograph mosques and record the license plates of worshippers.
In addition to paying for the cars, the White House money pays for part of the office space the intelligence division shares with other agencies in Manhattan.
When police compiled lists of Muslims who took new, Americanized names, they kept those records on HIDTA computer servers. That was ongoing as recently as October, city officials said.
Many NYPD intelligence officers, including those that conducted surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods, had HIDTA email addresses. Briefing documents for Kelly, the police commissioner, were compiled on HIDTA computers. Those documents described what police informants were hearing inside mosques and which academic conferences Muslim scholars attended.
When police wanted to pay a confidential informant, they were told to sign onto the HIDTA website to file the paperwork, according to a 2007 internal document obtained by the AP.
Parker said the White House grant money was never used to pay any of the NYPD intelligence division's confidential informants. The HIDTA computer systems, he said, are platforms that allow different law enforcement agencies to share information and work.
"I am shocked to hear that federal dollars may have helped finance the NYPD's misguided efforts to spy on Muslims in America," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., one of 34 members of Congress who have asked the Justice Department and House Judiciary Committee to investigate the NYPD.
The connection between NYPD and the White House anti-drug grant program surfaced years ago, during a long-running civil rights lawsuit against police. Civil rights attorneys asked in court about a "demonstration debriefing form" that police used whenever they arrested people for civil disobedience. The form carried the seal of both the NYPD Intelligence Division and HIDTA.
A city lawyer downplayed any connection. She said the NYPD and HIDTA not only shared office space, they also shared office supplies like paper. The NYPD form with the seal of a White House anti-drug program was "a recycled piece of paper that got picked up and modified," attorney Gail Donoghue told a federal judge in 2003.
The issue died in court and was never pursued further.
Last week, the controversy over NYPD's programs drew one former Obama administration official into the discussion.
After the AP revealed an extensive program to monitor Muslims in Newark, N.J., police there denied knowing anything about it. The Newark police director at the time, Garry McCarthy, has since moved on to lead Chicago's police department where President Barack Obama's first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is now the mayor.
"We don't do that in Chicago and we're not going to do that," Emanuel said last week.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the NYPD surveillance in his state was "disturbing" and has asked the attorney general to investigate. Christie was New Jersey's top federal prosecutor and sat on the HIDTA executive board during 2006 and 2007 when the NYPD was conducting surveillance in New Jersey cities. Christie said he didn't know that, in 2007, the NYPD catalogued every mosque and Muslim business in Newark, the state's largest city.
"I kind of think I would have remembered that," he said on Fox Business News last week.
Why has Obama turned out to be another Clinton sell-out to Zionists? Can no one get elected to high office in the U.S. who is not in Israel's pocket? So it would seem. How long do we have to wait for America to become the America Americans can be proud of anywhere in the world? Every decade I've lived I seen America's image of a haven for democracy ruined by take-over by self-serving politicians who cave in to anyone who's got the money to pay for their elitist lifestyle needs. I voted for Obama but next time it will be for Kucinich who still has integrity.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance.
The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135 million to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, known as HIDTA.
Some of that money -- it's unclear exactly how much because the program has little oversight -- has paid for the cars that plainclothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods. It also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons and social events.
When NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly was filled in on these efforts, his briefings were prepared on HIDTA computers.
The AP confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on HIDTA computers. The HIDTA grant program is overseen by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The disclosure that the White House is at least partially paying for the NYPD's wholesale surveillance of places where Muslims eat, shop, work and pray complicates efforts by the Obama administration to stay out of the fray over New York's controversial counterterrorism programs. The administration has championed outreach to American Muslims and has said law enforcement should not put entire communities under suspicion.
The Obama administration, however, has pointedly refused to endorse or repudiate the NYPD programs it helps pay for. The White House last week declined to comment on its grant payments.
John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, last year called the NYPD's efforts "heroic" but would not elaborate. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department also gives grant money to the NYPD and is one of the lead federal agencies helping police build relationships with Muslims, has refused in recent months to discuss the police tactics. Tom Perez, the Justice Department's top civil rights lawyer, has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the NYPD.
Outside Washington, the NYPD's efforts drew increased criticism last week. College administrators at Yale, Columbia and elsewhere issued harsh rebukes for NYPD's infiltration of Muslim student groups and its monitoring of school websites. New Jersey's governor and the mayor of its largest city have complained about the NYPD's widespread surveillance there, outside New York's police jurisdiction.
The White House HIDTA grant program was established at the height of the drug war to help police fight drug gangs and unravel supply routes. It has provided about $2.3 billion to local authorities in the past decade.
After the terror attacks, law enforcement was allowed to use some of that money to fight terrorism. It's unclear how much HIDTA money has been used to pay for the intelligence division, in part because NYPD intelligence operations receive scant oversight in New York.
Congress, which approves the money for the program, is not provided with a detailed breakdown of activities. None of the NYPD's clandestine programs is cited in the New York-New Jersey region's annual reports to Congress between 2006 and 2010.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not respond to questions the AP sent to him in two emails about the White House money and the department's intelligence division.
Most of the money from the White House grants in New York and New Jersey has been spent fighting drugs, said Chauncey Parker, director of the program there. He said less than $1.3 million was spent on vehicles used by the NYPD intelligence unit.
"Those cars are used to collect and analyze counterterrorism information with the goal of preventing a terrorist attack in New York City or anywhere else," Parker said. "If it's been used for specific counterterrorism effort, then it's been used to pay for those cars."
Former police officials told the AP those vehicles have been used to photograph mosques and record the license plates of worshippers.
In addition to paying for the cars, the White House money pays for part of the office space the intelligence division shares with other agencies in Manhattan.
When police compiled lists of Muslims who took new, Americanized names, they kept those records on HIDTA computer servers. That was ongoing as recently as October, city officials said.
Many NYPD intelligence officers, including those that conducted surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods, had HIDTA email addresses. Briefing documents for Kelly, the police commissioner, were compiled on HIDTA computers. Those documents described what police informants were hearing inside mosques and which academic conferences Muslim scholars attended.
When police wanted to pay a confidential informant, they were told to sign onto the HIDTA website to file the paperwork, according to a 2007 internal document obtained by the AP.
Parker said the White House grant money was never used to pay any of the NYPD intelligence division's confidential informants. The HIDTA computer systems, he said, are platforms that allow different law enforcement agencies to share information and work.
"I am shocked to hear that federal dollars may have helped finance the NYPD's misguided efforts to spy on Muslims in America," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., one of 34 members of Congress who have asked the Justice Department and House Judiciary Committee to investigate the NYPD.
The connection between NYPD and the White House anti-drug grant program surfaced years ago, during a long-running civil rights lawsuit against police. Civil rights attorneys asked in court about a "demonstration debriefing form" that police used whenever they arrested people for civil disobedience. The form carried the seal of both the NYPD Intelligence Division and HIDTA.
A city lawyer downplayed any connection. She said the NYPD and HIDTA not only shared office space, they also shared office supplies like paper. The NYPD form with the seal of a White House anti-drug program was "a recycled piece of paper that got picked up and modified," attorney Gail Donoghue told a federal judge in 2003.
The issue died in court and was never pursued further.
Last week, the controversy over NYPD's programs drew one former Obama administration official into the discussion.
After the AP revealed an extensive program to monitor Muslims in Newark, N.J., police there denied knowing anything about it. The Newark police director at the time, Garry McCarthy, has since moved on to lead Chicago's police department where President Barack Obama's first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is now the mayor.
"We don't do that in Chicago and we're not going to do that," Emanuel said last week.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the NYPD surveillance in his state was "disturbing" and has asked the attorney general to investigate. Christie was New Jersey's top federal prosecutor and sat on the HIDTA executive board during 2006 and 2007 when the NYPD was conducting surveillance in New Jersey cities. Christie said he didn't know that, in 2007, the NYPD catalogued every mosque and Muslim business in Newark, the state's largest city.
"I kind of think I would have remembered that," he said on Fox Business News last week.
Why has Obama turned out to be another Clinton sell-out to Zionists? Can no one get elected to high office in the U.S. who is not in Israel's pocket? So it would seem. How long do we have to wait for America to become the America Americans can be proud of anywhere in the world? Every decade I've lived I seen America's image of a haven for democracy ruined by take-over by self-serving politicians who cave in to anyone who's got the money to pay for their elitist lifestyle needs. I voted for Obama but next time it will be for Kucinich who still has integrity.
Friday, February 24, 2012
EU report calls for action against Israeli settlements
By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem
The European Commission is being urged to consider drafting legislation to ensure financial transactions by EU member states do not support Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem.
The proposal is made in a confidential report by top EU diplomats in the area.
The report says "the systematic increase in settlement activity" undermines a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
It also describes a "deteriorating situation on the ground".
The EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem, which was sent to Brussels this week and was leaked to the BBC, builds on earlier reports that also criticised Israeli policies.
In a long list of recommendations, it suggests that the Commission proposes "appropriate EU legislation to prevent/discourage financial transactions in support of settlement activity".
Settlements are considered illegal under international law although Israel disputes this.
Continue reading the main story
"The EU treats these serial reports in the best possible way - they are discussed briefly, their absurd recommendations are disregarded and the reports are quickly shelved”
Yigal Palmor Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman
The EU document argues that Israel is "actively perpetuating its annexation" of Arab East Jerusalem, which it captured in 1967, by "systematically undermining the Palestinian presence in the city".
It outlines the problems caused by "the continued expansion of settlements, restrictive zoning and planning, ongoing demolitions and evictions, an inequitable education policy, difficult access to health care, the inadequate provision of resources and investment and the precarious residency issue".
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state, but Israel is determined that Jerusalem be its undivided capital.
'Facts on the ground'
Palestinian officials are reluctant to respond to the report because it has not been published.
However, speaking on condition of anonymity one told the BBC: "We think it shows facts on the ground that nobody can dispute. We now expect European capitals to implement the recommendations."
The Israeli foreign ministry's spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said there had been no consultation with Israel on the subject and that it was "therefore the result of an extremely dubious methodology".
"The EU treats these serial reports in the best possible way - they are discussed briefly, their absurd recommendations are disregarded and the reports are quickly shelved," he added.
This document follows a number of strongly-worded European statements and reports that have come to light in recent days.
On Monday, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, condemned settlements as "an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise upon which negotiations have taken place for years".
Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, who is visiting the UK, described Mr Clegg's comments as "ill-informed" and "irresponsible", saying they gave the Palestinians an excuse to set pre-conditions on negotiations with Israel on a peace settlement.
An internal EU report leaked last week was very critical of Israel's policies and planning rules in "Area C", the 62% of the West Bank which it fully controls.
A French parliamentary report also described Israel's water policies in the occupied Palestinian territories as a form of "apartheid", because they give preferential treatment to Jewish settlers. The comments were welcomed by the head of the Palestinian Water Authority.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Tent of Nations Told to Stop Working its Own Land – Be Ready to Act!
Friends of Tent of Nations has just shared this upsetting letter from Daoud Nasser (above left):
From Shalom Rav
A Blog by Rabbi Brant Rosen
Posted on February 21, 2012 |
Dear Friends,
Today, the 14th of February at 1.30 PM and as we were working on our land, specifically in the tree of life orchard, we found on three different places , papers with maps signed by the civil administration of Judea and Samaria which is the Israeli military government.
The papers say that we have to stop working on the land specified on the map, because they declared it as a state land. According to them, this land doesn’t belong to us but it is a state land and we are cultivating it. The papers also say that if we want to challenge this order, we can appeal against it within 45 days in front of the military representative office.
It is a shock to receive something like that after 21 years of legal battle defending our land and the right to it in front of Israeli courts.
We sent those papers to our attorney in Jerusalem and he is going to appeal against it within the next days.
This is just to inform you about what happened today, please be aware that the situation might get worse, please be prepared in case actions are needed. In the meanwhile, our attorney will appeal against it and we will see what kind of reaction we receive”
We will keep you updated and will inform you about our next steps and how you can help.
Thank you so much for your support and solidarity. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
Blessings and Salaam.
Readers of my blog should be well acquainted with my friend and personal hero Daoud Nasser. Last year I wrote about Tent of Nations and my visit, together with twenty JRC congregants, with Daoud on his family farm.
This new development is just the latest in a long history of harassment courtesy of the military administration in the West Bank – an institution that provides the shameful “legal” cover for Israel’s outright theft of Palestinian lands. Please stand by – I will forward any further news from Daoud and let you know how you can act on his behalf.
Tent of Nation outside of Bethlehem, Palestine, has adopted Paxcalibur as it's official logo so I therefore have a personal stake in supporting this great Palestinian Christian peace activist organization. This action by Israel against Tent of Nations showcases Israeli Apartheid ethnic cleansing in action. Anyone wishing to help Tent of Nations check out their blog links and do what you can to support Palestinian right to their own land.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan 'ends hunger strike'
BBC News
21 February 2012
Last updated at 08:36 ET
A Palestinian prisoner has ended his 66-day hunger strike over his detention by Israel in a deal that will see him released in two months, officials say.
The Israeli justice ministry said it had decided to end Khader Adnan's "administrative detention", but that he would remain in custody until 17 April.
Mr Adnan has not eaten since December, when he was arrested in the West Bank.
He is widely believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad, which Israel has designated a terrorist organisation.
The Israeli military has said that Mr Adnan - a 33-year-old baker - was arrested "for activities that threaten regional security".
Earlier this month, an Israeli military court ordered that Mr Adnan be placed for four months in administrative detention. Under Israeli law, such prisoners can be held indefinitely without trial or charge.
'Imminent danger of death'
Mr Adnan has been refusing food since 18 December - one day after he was detained at his home in the village of Arabah - in protest at what he says was a violent arrest as well as humiliating interrogation sessions.
On Tuesday, Mr Adnan's lawyers had been due to petition the Israeli Supreme Court for his release when the Israeli justice ministry announced that it had reached a deal that would see him eventually released.
"[Khader Adnan] will stop his hunger strike. They will not extend his administrative detention and he will be free on 17 April," a justice ministry spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency.
On Friday, the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring his condition, warned that he was "in immediate danger of death", adding that he had suffered "significant muscular atrophy".
Human rights groups also criticised the conditions in which he was being held at Ziv hospital in the northern Israeli town of Safed, where he was shackled to his bed by chains on both legs and one arm.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said the bloc was following Mr Adnan's case with "great concern."
"Detainees have the right to be informed about the charges underlying any detention and be subject to a fair trial," she added.
Thousands of Palestinians also took to the streets of the Gaza Strip and West Bank to demand Mr Adnan's release, while Islamic Jihad had promised revenge if he was allowed to die by the Israeli authorities.
It is unclear whether Mr Adnan has ever participated in any attacks by the Iranian-backed militant group, which has killed dozens of Israelis.
21 February 2012
Last updated at 08:36 ET
A Palestinian prisoner has ended his 66-day hunger strike over his detention by Israel in a deal that will see him released in two months, officials say.
The Israeli justice ministry said it had decided to end Khader Adnan's "administrative detention", but that he would remain in custody until 17 April.
Mr Adnan has not eaten since December, when he was arrested in the West Bank.
He is widely believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad, which Israel has designated a terrorist organisation.
The Israeli military has said that Mr Adnan - a 33-year-old baker - was arrested "for activities that threaten regional security".
Earlier this month, an Israeli military court ordered that Mr Adnan be placed for four months in administrative detention. Under Israeli law, such prisoners can be held indefinitely without trial or charge.
'Imminent danger of death'
Mr Adnan has been refusing food since 18 December - one day after he was detained at his home in the village of Arabah - in protest at what he says was a violent arrest as well as humiliating interrogation sessions.
On Tuesday, Mr Adnan's lawyers had been due to petition the Israeli Supreme Court for his release when the Israeli justice ministry announced that it had reached a deal that would see him eventually released.
"[Khader Adnan] will stop his hunger strike. They will not extend his administrative detention and he will be free on 17 April," a justice ministry spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency.
On Friday, the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring his condition, warned that he was "in immediate danger of death", adding that he had suffered "significant muscular atrophy".
Human rights groups also criticised the conditions in which he was being held at Ziv hospital in the northern Israeli town of Safed, where he was shackled to his bed by chains on both legs and one arm.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said the bloc was following Mr Adnan's case with "great concern."
"Detainees have the right to be informed about the charges underlying any detention and be subject to a fair trial," she added.
Thousands of Palestinians also took to the streets of the Gaza Strip and West Bank to demand Mr Adnan's release, while Islamic Jihad had promised revenge if he was allowed to die by the Israeli authorities.
It is unclear whether Mr Adnan has ever participated in any attacks by the Iranian-backed militant group, which has killed dozens of Israelis.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Palestinians rally in support of hunger strike prisoner
BBC News
17 February 2012
Last updated at 12:50 ET
Palestinians rally in support of hunger strike prisoner
Mr Adnan is protesting against what he says was a violent arrest
Thousands have rallied in Gaza and the West Bank in support of a Palestinian on the 62nd day of a hunger strike in protest at his detention by Israel.
All the main factions were represented at the Gaza demonstration, where crowds chanted: "We are all Khader Adnan."
Mr Adnan has not had food since mid-December, when Israeli security forces raided his home in the West Bank.
He is widely believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad, which Israel has designated a terrorist organisation.
The Israeli military has said that Mr Adnan - a 33-year-old baker - was arrested "for activities that threaten regional security". It has not given further details.
Earlier this month, an Israeli military court ordered that Mr Adnan be placed for four months in "administrative detention". Under Israeli law, such prisoners can be held indefinitely without trial or charge.
'Immediate danger of death'
Mr Adnan has been refusing food since 18 December - one day after he was detained - in protest at what he says was a violent arrest as well as humiliating interrogation sessions.
On Friday, the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring his condition, said he was "in immediate danger of death", adding that he had suffered "significant muscular atrophy".
"There is a risk to his health even if he starts eating now because his system has got used to not having any food at all," a spokesman added.
At least 5,000 people meanwhile took to the streets of Gaza City, waving a mixture of black Islamic Jihad flags, the green flags of the Islamist movement Hamas, and the yellow flags of the secular Fatah movement.
"The Palestinian people, with all its components and its factions, will never abandon the hero prisoners, especially those who lead this hunger strike battle," said Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniya.
Senior Islamic Jihad leader Nafiz Azzam said Mr Adnan was "not fighting for a personal cause, but for the defence of thousands of prisoners".
Hundreds of Palestinians also demonstrated in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, while Palestinian officials said many other prisoners in Is
17 February 2012
Last updated at 12:50 ET
Mr Adnan is protesting against what he says was a violent arrest
Thousands have rallied in Gaza and the West Bank in support of a Palestinian on the 62nd day of a hunger strike in protest at his detention by Israel.
All the main factions were represented at the Gaza demonstration, where crowds chanted: "We are all Khader Adnan."
Mr Adnan has not had food since mid-December, when Israeli security forces raided his home in the West Bank.
He is widely believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad, which Israel has designated a terrorist organisation.
The Israeli military has said that Mr Adnan - a 33-year-old baker - was arrested "for activities that threaten regional security". It has not given further details.
Earlier this month, an Israeli military court ordered that Mr Adnan be placed for four months in "administrative detention". Under Israeli law, such prisoners can be held indefinitely without trial or charge.
'Immediate danger of death'
Mr Adnan has been refusing food since 18 December - one day after he was detained - in protest at what he says was a violent arrest as well as humiliating interrogation sessions.
On Friday, the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring his condition, said he was "in immediate danger of death", adding that he had suffered "significant muscular atrophy".
"There is a risk to his health even if he starts eating now because his system has got used to not having any food at all," a spokesman added.
At least 5,000 people meanwhile took to the streets of Gaza City, waving a mixture of black Islamic Jihad flags, the green flags of the Islamist movement Hamas, and the yellow flags of the secular Fatah movement.
"The Palestinian people, with all its components and its factions, will never abandon the hero prisoners, especially those who lead this hunger strike battle," said Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniya.
Senior Islamic Jihad leader Nafiz Azzam said Mr Adnan was "not fighting for a personal cause, but for the defence of thousands of prisoners".
Hundreds of Palestinians also demonstrated in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, while Palestinian officials said many other prisoners in Is
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Gaza's only power station closes
BBC News
14 February 2012
Last updated at 08:05 ET
By Jon Donnison
BBC News, Gaza City
The authorities in Gaza say the Palestinian territory's only power station has shut down because of a lack of fuel.
The closure is believed to be caused by a shortage in fuel being supplied through smuggling tunnels from Egypt.
Power cuts, already common, are expected to increase. The station provides around 30-40% of Gaza's electricity.
The rest of the electricity used by the territory is supplied by Israel.
The Gaza Power Company said the strip would soon be "swimming in a sea of darkness".
Supplies of fuel smuggled into the territory have diminished due to the recent Egyptian political unrest.
Many families and businesses have private generators to avoid the blackouts. But fuel for those is also hard to come by.
This week long queues can be seen outside petrol stations with people worried about filling up their cars.
A statement from the power station called on Egypt to allow more fuel to pass through the tunnels. It also blamed Israel's continuing blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Israel and Egypt imposed sanctions on Gaza after the Islamist movement Hamas came to power in 2007.
Last year Egypt eased restrictions allowing people to travel more easily, but all legal trade is still forbidden and the tunnel industry continues to thrive.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Haniyeh calls Israel ‘cancer that’s threatening to spread’
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Jerusalem Post
02/14/2012 01:30
Rounding up a three-day visit to Iran, Hamas prime minister says Israel remains "main enemy" of Arab, Islamic world; reiterates Hamas refusal to recognize, compromise with Israel; denies tension with Iran over Assad.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh continued Monday to issue fiery statements about Israel, which he compared to a cancer that is threatening to spread to other parts of the body.
Rounding up a three-day visit to Iran, Haniyeh said in an interview with an Iranian TV station that Israel remained the “main enemy” of the Arab and Islamic world.
Reiterating Hamas’s refusal to recognize Israel or compromise on Palestinian rights, Haniyeh praised Iran for its “unconditional support” for the Palestinians and his movement.
Iran’s stance toward the Palestinian issue is a strategic one, the Hamas leader said.
“Iran’s support for the resistance and the Palestinian people stems from an Islamic commitment and belief and moral and political values.”
Haniyeh pointed out that Iran supported the Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip more than three years ago.
“The reality is that the Palestinians are under occupation and the Islamic Republic of Iran has faithfully heeded their appeal for help,” he said. “Iran never asked for anything in return for its support.”
He also denied reports about tensions between Hamas and Iran over the situation in Syria.
With regards to last week’s Qatari-brokered reconciliation accord between Hamas and Fatah, Haniyeh expressed hope the two sides would be able to form a Palestinian unity government in the near future.
The proposed unity government, he said, would consist of Palestinian technocrats and would not deal with political issues or negotiations with Israel.
Instead, the unity government would focus on lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip, preparing for presidential and parliamentary elections and rebuilding the Gaza Strip, Haniyeh said.
On Monday, Haniyeh arrived in Abu Dhabi, where he was received by the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.
In addition to Iran and the UAE, Haniyeh’s current tour has taken him to Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Sources close to Hamas said Haniyeh may also visit Saudi Arabia later this week.
This is Haniyeh’s second tour outside Gaza since Hamas seized control of the Strip in 2007. Last month, he visited Egypt, Sudan, Turkey and Tunisia.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Arabs support Palestinian call for peace conference
Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abass (R) shakes hands with Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem (AFP, Khaled Desouki)
In a statement after talks, they stressed "the importance of holding an international peace conference on the Palestinian issue." The international meeting would seek "an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories and to reach a comprehensive solution to the issues of borders, security, Jerusalem and refugees based on the Arab peace initiative." The statement came after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas addressed the Arab League's Follow-Up Committee, which tracks Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
The League statement also called on its members to contribute financially to support the Palestinian Authority with $100 million a month.
The 22-member body said the funds were needed "in light of the financial strain on the Palestinian leadership and Palestinian people, with Israel not transferring the rightful money of the Palestinian Authority."
The Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas has warned of financial crisis many times in recent months, in part because aid pledges by Arab nations have not been paid on time.
Speaking before Abbas addressed the organisation, Palestinian official Azzam al-Ahmad said the delegation would seek backing for an international peace conference, without giving further details.
"One of the proposals we will request from the Arab Follow-Up Committee is for a call to convene an international peace conference on the Palestinian issue," Ahmad told AFP in Ramallah by telephone.
Abbas addressed the organisation on Sunday afternoon, and warned that the current stalemate in negotiations with Israel could not continue.
"We will send letters to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and world leaders to determine the basis and the terms for the resumption of negotiations," he said.
He warned that if Israel failed to respond, the Palestinians would forge ahead instead with attempts to gain recognition as a full member of the United Nations, a bid opposed by the Jewish state.
Abbas also warned that the continued deadlock could have dire consequences for the Palestinian Authority.
"The current situation cannot continue as it is, that of an Authority without power," he said.
Abbas was in Cairo after five rounds of "exploratory" talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Amman. The discussions were sponsored by the peacemaking Quartet and intended to chart a return to direct negotiations, but they ended without a deal to continue talks.
The Palestinians say Israel failed to present its parameters for territory and security, as requested by the Quartet, and that they will not hold direct talks without a freeze of Israeli settlement activity.
They also want discussions on borders to be based on the lines that preceded the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel has urged the Palestinians to begin direct negotiations without preconditions.
The Quartet, which comprises the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia, has also said it wants to see talks resume, but officials -- including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- have called on Israel to provide the Palestinians with goodwill gestures in a bid to lure them back to talks.
Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Woolly Mammoth to Be Cloned
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Discovery News
Analysis by Jennifer Viegas
Mon Dec 5, 2011 04:56 PM ET
Within five years, a woolly mammoth will likely be cloned, according to scientists who have just recovered well-preserved bone marrow in a mammoth thigh bone. Japan's Kyodo News first reported the find. You can see photos of the thigh bone at this Kyodo page.
Russian scientist Semyon Grigoriev, acting director of the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum, and colleagues are now analyzing the marrow, which they extracted from the mammoth's femur, found in Siberian permafrost soil.
NEWS: All About the Ice Age
Grigoriev and his team, along with colleagues from Japan's Kinki University, have announced that they will launch a joint research project next year aimed at re-creating the enormous mammal, which went extinct around 10,000 years ago.
Mammoths used to be a common sight on the landscape of North America and Eurasia. One of my favorite papers of recent months concerned the earliest-known depiction of an animal from the Americas. It was a mammoth engraved on a mammoth bone. Many of our distant ancestors probably had regular face-to-face encounters with the elephant-like giants.
The key to cloning the woolly mammoth is to replace the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those extracted from the mammoth's bone marrow cells. Doing this, according to the researchers, can result in embryos with mammoth DNA. That's actually been known for a while.
NEWS: Prehistoric Dog Found With Mammoth Bone in Mouth
What's been missing is woolly mammoth nuclei with undamaged genes. Scientists have been on a Holy Grail-type search for such pristine nuclei since the late 1990s. Now it sounds like the missing genes may have been found.
In an odd twist, global warming may be responsible for the breakthrough.
Warmer temperatures tied to global warming have thawed ground in eastern Russia that is almost always permanently frozen. As a result, researchers have found a fair number of well-preserved frozen mammoths there, including the one that yielded the bone marrow.
Is it such a good idea, however, to clone animals that have long been extinct? For a while there's been some discussion of a real-life Jurassic Park setup containing such animals. Introducing these beasts into existing ecosystems could be like bringing in a potentially invasive species that would try to fill some space presently held by other animal(s). Even if the cloned animals were contained in special parks, there could still be a risk of spreading.
So if the woolly mammoth is successfully cloned sooner rather than later, we'd probably be left with more questions and controversy than answers, at least in the short term.
Friday, February 10, 2012
"Smoking pot a few hours before driving may almost double crash risk" Oh yeah? Read it again
By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog
February 10, 2012, 10:14 a.m.
Drinking and driving is never a good idea, and neither is smoking pot and driving, a study finds. People who smoke marijuana within a few hours of getting behind the wheel may be almost twice as likely to cause an accident compared with those who are sober.
A review of nine studies on pot smoking and car crashes was done by researchers from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. The authors wrote that previous studies have been somewhat inconclusive about marijuana's effect on automobile collisions, some showing it linked with a higher risk of crashes, and some showing a lower risk.
The research included in the meta-analysis included observational studies of drivers who had been treated for serious injuries following a crash, or who had been part of a fatal crash. Those crashes took place on public roads and included at least one moving vehicle, such as a car, van, truck, motorcycle or snowmobile. Evidence of marijuana was found via blood tests or self-reported drug use. The studies represented a sample of 49,411 people.
When results from the nine studies were grouped together, the risk of driving under the influence of marijuana was nearly twice that of driving while unimpaired. In seven of the nine studies the risk of a crash went up when drivers had smoked marijuana within a few hours of the accident. The other two studies found that the risk of having a collision while under the influence was lower than that of sober drivers.
The study was released this week in the British Medical Journal.
Personally, I have to credit to driving while under the influence of marijuana for saving my and my wife's young lives many years ago. In some fashion I don't know how I managed to steer our car past a suddenly stopped vehicle in front of us while narrowly missing a tree on the opposite side. There were only a couple of inches on either side of our car to squeeze through and I did it and I was definitely stoned when I did. I don't think I could have done it sober, not in the nano-seconds it took to react. We also noticed we played much better ping pong when stoned..not saying bong and drive but am wondering when the witch hunt for negative marijuana test results will ever stop.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News
Rock Center with Brian Williams
-
Thu Feb 9, 2012 6:16 AM EST
ROCK CENTER EXCLUSIVE
A car that was bombed by two assailants on a motorcycle in Tehran on Jan. 11, killing Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan, is removed by a mobile crane. The photo was distributed by the semi-official Iranian photo agency Fars.
Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.
The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.
The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.
The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible – Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI.
Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, describes what Iranian leaders believe is a close relationship between Israel's secret service, the Mossad, and the People's Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.
“The relation is very intricate and close,” said Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, speaking of the MEK and Israel. “They (Israelis) are paying … the Mujahedin. Some of their (MEK) agents … (are) providing Israel with information. And they recruit and also manage logistical support.”
Moreover, he said, the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, is training MEK members in Israel on the use of motorcycles and small bombs. In one case, he said, Mossad agents built a replica of the home of an Iranian nuclear scientist so that the assassins could familiarize themselves with the layout prior to the attack.
Much of what the Iranian government knows of the attacks and the links between Israel and MEK comes from interrogation of an assassin who failed to carry out an attack in late 2010 and the materials found on him, Larijani said. (Click here to see a video report of the interrogation shown on Iranian televsion.)
The U.S.-educated Larijani, whose two younger brothers run the legislative and judicial branches of the Iranian government, said the Israelis’ rationale is simple. “Israel does not have direct access to our society. Mujahedin, being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have … a good number of … places to get into the touch with people. So I think they are working hand-to-hand very close. And we do have very concrete documents.”
Two senior U.S. officials confirmed for NBC News the MEK’s role in the assassinations, with one senior official saying, “All your inclinations are correct.” A third official would not confirm or deny the relationship, saying only, “It hasn’t been clearly confirmed yet.” All the officials denied any U.S. involvement in the assassinations.
As it has in the past, Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined comment. Said a spokesman, "As long as we can't see all the evidence being claimed by NBC, the Foreign Ministry won't react to every gossip and report being published worldwide."
For its part, the MEK pointed to a statement calling the allegations “absolutely false.”
The sophistication of the attacks supports the Iranian claims that an experienced intelligence service is involved, experts say.
In the most recent attack, on Jan. 11, 2012, Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan died in a blast in Tehran moments after two assailants on a motorcycle placed a small magnetic bomb on his vehicle. Roshan was a deputy director at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and was reportedly involved in procurement for the nuclear program, which Iran insists is not a weapons program.
Previous attacks include the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home in January 2010, and an explosion in November of that year that took the life of Majid Shahriari and wounded Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who is now the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
In the case of Roshan, the bomb appears to have been a shaped charge that directed all the explosive power inside the vehicle, killing him and his bodyguard driver but leaving nearby traffic unaffected.
Although Roshan was directly involved in the nuclear program, working at the huge centrifuge facility between Tehran and Qom, Iran’s religious center, at least one other scientist who was killed wasn’t linked to the Iranian nuclear program, according to Larijani.
Speaking of bombing victim Ali-Mohammadi, whom he described as a friend, Larijani told NBC News, “In fact this guy who was assassinated was not involved in the nitty-gritty of the situation. He was a scientist, a physicist, working on the theoretically parts of nuclear energy, which you can teach it in every university. You can find it in every text.”
“This is an Israeli plot. A dirty plot,” Larijani added angrily. He also claimed the assassinations are not having an effect on the program and have only made scientists more resolute in carrying out their mission.
Not so, said Ronen Bergman, an Israeli commentator and author of “Israel’s Secret War with Iran” and an upcoming book tentatively titled, “Mossad and the Art of Assassination.”
Israel has long used assassination against its enemies, "hoping that by taking out individuals, they can alter, change the course of history," says Ronen Bergman, an Israeli commentator and author of "Israel's Secret War with Iran" and an upcoming book tentatively titled "Mossad and the Art of Assassination."
Bergman said the attacks have three purposes, the most obvious being the removal of high-ranking scientists and their knowledge. The others: forcing Iran to increase security for its scientists and facilities and to spur “white defections.”
He explained the latter this way: “Scientists leaving the project, afraid that they are going to be next on the assassination list, and say, ‘We don't want this. Indeed, we get good money, we are promoted, we are honored by everybody, but we might get killed. It isn't worth it. Maybe we should go back to teach … in a university.’”
There are unconfirmed reports in the Israeli press and elsewhere that Israel and the MEK were involved in a Nov. 12 explosion that destroyed the Iranian missile research and development site at Bin Kaneh, 30 miles outside Tehran. Among those killed was Maj. Gen. Hassan Moghaddam, director of missile development for the Revolutionary Guard, and a dozen other researchers. So important was Moghaddam that Ayatollah Khamenei attended his funeral.
Unlike the assassinations, Iran claims the missile site explosion was an accident; the MEK, meanwhile, trumpeted it but denied any involvement.
Indeed, there may be other covert operations carried out either by Israel acting alone or in concert with others, according to Bergman.
“Two labs caught fire,” said Bergman, enumerating the attacks. “Scientists got blown up or disappeared. A missile base and the R&D base of the Revolutionary Guard exploded some time ago, with the director of the R&D division of the Revolutionary Guard being killed along with … his soldiers.”
Bergman added, “So, a long series of … something that was termed by an Israeli (Cabinet) minister … as ‘mysterious mishaps’ happening and rehappening to the project. Then the Iranians claim, ‘This is Israeli Mossad trying to sabotage our attempts to be a nuclear superpower.’”
Dr. Uzi Rabi, director of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, said the supposed accidents could all be part of “psychological warfare” conducted against Iran. “It seems logical. It makes sense,” he said of possible MEK involvement, “and it’s been done before.”
Rabi, who regularly briefs Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Iran also said the ultimate goal of the range of covert operations being carried out by Israel is “to damage the politics of survivability … to send a message that could strike fear into the rulers of Iran.”
For the United States, the alleged role of the MEK is particularly troublesome. In 1997, the State Department designated it a terrorist group, justifying it with an unclassified 40-page summary of the organization’s activities going back more than 25 years. The paper, sent to Congress in 1998, was written by Wendy Sherman, now undersecretary of state for political affairs and then an aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The report, which was obtained by NBC News, was unsparing in its assessment. “The Mujahedin (MEK) collaborated with Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the former shah of Iran,” it said. “As part of that struggle, they assassinated at least six American citizens, supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy, and opposed the release of the American hostages.” In each case, the paper noted, “Bombs were the Mujahedin's weapon of choice, which they frequently employed against American targets.”
“In the post-revolutionary political chaos, however, the Mujahedin lost political power to Iran's Islamic clergy. They then applied their dedication to armed struggle and the use of propaganda against the new Iranian government, launching a violent and polemical cycle of attack and reprisal."
U.S. officials have said publicly that the information contained in the report was limited to unclassified material, but that it also drew on classified material in making its determination to add the MEK to the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.
Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, greets several hundred Iranian expatriates who had gathered to welcome her at Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany, on March 22, 2010.
The MEK and its sister organizations have since the beginning been run by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, a husband-wife team who have maintained tight control despite assassination threats and internal dissent. Massoud Rajavi, 63, founded the MEK, but since the U.S. invasion of Iraq has taken a backseat to his wife.
The State Department report describes the Rajavis as “fundamentally undemocratic” and “not a viable alternative to the current government of Iran.”
One reason for that is the MEK’s close relationship with Saddam Hussein, as demonstrated by this 1986 video showing the late Iraqi dictator meeting with Massoud Rajavi. Saddam recruited the MEK in much the same way the Israelis allegedly have, using them to fight Iranian forces during the Iran-Iraq War, a role they took on proudly. So proudly, they invited NBC News to one of their military camps outside Baghdad in 1993.
“The National Liberation Army (MLA), the military wing of the Mujahedin, conducted raids into Iran during the latter years of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War,” according to the State Department report. The NLA's last major offensive reportedly was conducted against Iraqi Kurds in 1991, when it joined Saddam Hussein's brutal repression of the Kurdish rebellion. In addition to occasional acts of sabotage, the Mujahedin are responsible for violent attacks in Iran that victimize civilians.”
“Internally, the Mujahedin run their organization autocratically, suppressing dissent and eschewing tolerance of differing viewpoints,” it said. “Rajavi, who heads the Mojahedin’s political and military wings, has fostered a cult of personality around himself.”
The U.S. suspicion of the MEK doesn’t end there. Law enforcement officials have told NBC News that in 1994, the MEK made a pact with terrorist Ramzi Yousef a year after he masterminded the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Yousef built an 11-pound bomb that MEK agents placed inside one of Shia Islam’s greatest shrines in Mashad, Iran, on June 20, 1994. At least 26 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 200 wounded in the attack.
That connection between Yousef, nephew of 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, and the MEK was first reported in a book, “The New Jackals,” by Simon Reeve. NBC News confirmed that Yousef told U.S. law enforcement that he had worked with the MEK on the bombing.
In recent years, the MEK has said it has renounced violence, but Iranian officials say that is not true, that killings of Iranians continue. Still, through some deft lobbying, the group has been able to get the United Kingdom and the European Union to remove it from their lists of terrorist groups.
The alleged involvement of the MEK in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists provides the U.S. with a cloak of deniability regarding the clandestine killings. Because the U.S. has designated the MEK as a terrorist organization, neither military nor intelligence units of the U.S. government, can work with them. “We cannot deal with them, “ said one senior U.S. official. “We would not deal with them because of the designation.”
Iranian officials initially accused the Israelis and MEK of being behind the attacks, but they have since added the CIA to the list. Three days after the Jan. 11, 2012, bombing in Tehran that killed Roshan, the state news agency IRNA reported that Iran’s Foreign Ministry had sent a diplomatic letter to the U.S. claiming to have “evidence and reliable information” that the CIA provided “guidance, support and planning” to assassins directly involved in the attack.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton immediately denied any connection to the killings. “I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran,” Clinton told reporters on the day of the attack.
But at least two GOP presidential candidates have no problem with the targeting of nuclear scientists. In a November debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich endorsed “taking out their scientists,” and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum called it, ”a wonderful thing.”
The MEK’s opposition to the Iranian government also has recently earned it both plaudits and support from an odd mix of political bedfellows.
A group of former Cabinet-level officials have joined together to support the MEK’s removal from the official U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization list, even taking out a full-page ad last year in the New York Times calling for the removal of the MEK from the U.S. terrorist list. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former FBI Director Louis Freeh and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy were among those whose signatures were on the ad.
“There’s an extraordinary group of bipartisan or even apolitical leaders, military leaders, diplomats, the United States … the United Kingdom, the European Union, even a U.S. District Court in Washington, said that this group that was put on the foreign terrorist organization watch list in 1997 doesn’t deserve to be there,” Ridge said in November on “The Andrea Mitchell Show” on MSNBC TV.
U.S. politicians also have been pushing the U.S. government to protect the 3,400 MEK members and their families at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, about 35 miles north of Baghdad. With the departure of U.S. troops, the MEK feared that Iraqi forces, with encouragement from Iran, would attack the camp, leading to a bloodbath. At the last minute, however, agreement was brokered with the United Nations that would permit the MEK members’ departure for resettlement in unspecified democratic countries. As of this week, there’s been little movement on the planned resettlement.
Iranian fighters with the National Liberation Army, the military wing of the MEK, clean armored personnel carriers in 1997 after a field exercise near Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
The Iranians see what’s happening as terrorism and hypocrisy by the United States. They have forwarded documents and other evidence to the United Nations – and directly to the United States, they say.
“I think this is very cynical plan. This is unacceptable,” said Larijani. “This is a bad trend in the world. Unprecedented. We should kill scientists … to block a scientific program? I mean this is disaster!”
Daniel Byman, a professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and also a senior fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said that if the accounts of the Israeli-MEK assassinations are accurate, the operation borders on terrorism.
“In theory, states cannot be terrorist, but if they hire locals to do assassinations, that would be state sponsorship,” said Byman, author of the recent book, “A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.” “You could argue that they took action not to terrorize the public, the purpose of terrorism, but only the nuclear community. An argument could also be made that degrading the program means that you don’t have to take military action and thus, this is a lower level of violence and that really these are military targets, where normally terrorist targets are civilians.”
But ultimately, Byman said, there is a “spectrum of responsibility” and that Israel is ultimately responsible.
Ronen Bergman, while not speaking on behalf of the Israeli government, suggests that there is a justification, citing an oft-repeated but disputed quote in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth.
“Meir Degan, the chief of Mossad, when he was in office, hung a photograph behind him, behind the chair of the chief of Mossad,” notes the Israeli commentator. “And in that photograph you see -- an ultra-orthodox Jew -- long beard, standing on his knees with his-- hands up in the air, and two Gestapo soldiers standing -- beside him with guns pointed at him. One of -- one of them is smiling.
“And Degan used to say to his people and the people coming to visit him from CIA, NSA, et cetera, ‘Look at this guy in the picture. This is my grandfather just seconds before he was killed by the SS,’” Bergman said. “’… We are here to prevent this from happening again.’"
Richard Engel is NBC News' chief foreign correspondent; Robert Windrem is a senior investigative producer.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
UNRWAÂ's Emergency Appeal
Dear Friend,
The West Bank and Gaza are in the midst of a
humanitarian crisis. Restrictions on the movement of people and goods,
the destruction of homes and infrastructure, and widespread violence
against Palestinians, characterized by a disregard for human dignity and
international human rights, have created an ongoing emergency.
To help address these urgent concerns, UNRWA has just released its 2012 Emergency Appeal, outlining important life-saving food, health, employment, and protection programs. But, with millions of dollars needed to carry out these emergency programs, we need your support now more than ever. Here are a few shocking current statistics:
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Refugees’ humanitarian needs are rising at a rapid
rate, and funding is simply not keeping pace. At the end of 2011,
UNRWA’s emergency school feeding, job creation, and community mental
health programs were nearly cut entirely because of a lack of funding.
Please help make 2012 different for Palestinian refugees. Your support for UNRWA’s 2012 Emergency Appeal can do so much:
- $15.00 will provide mental counseling for one child suffering from PTSD;
- $25.00 will help UNRWA ensure access to safe water and sanitation for refugees;
- $50.00 will help UNRWA monitor and report on protection violations, including home demolitions and settler violence;
- $125.00 will provide a student in Gaza with food for the entire school year, including evening meals;
- $800.00 will provide a refugee in the West Bank with 3 months of work through UNRWA’s Job Creation Program.
UNRWA has always played a key role in meeting the
urgent needs of Palestinian refugees, but as conditions for these
refugees continue to deteriorate, we ask you to continue to join us in
playing a key role too. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to UNRWA’s 2012 Emergency Appeal. Your donation could save a life.
Thank you for all that you do to protect and empower Palestinian refugees.
Sincerely,
Abby Smardon
Executive Director
American Friends of UNRWA
Abby Smardon
Executive Director
American Friends of UNRWA
P.S.—At the end of the month, my
colleague and I will be traveling to the West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan to
report on important UNRWA projects and participate in the 2012 Gaza Marathon in support of the Summer Games! Be on the lookout for important reports we’ll be sending to keep you informed of the latest developments in the field!
Monday, February 06, 2012
Mahmoud Abbas to head interim Palestinian government
BBC News
6 February 2012
Last updated at 10:26 ET
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will head a Palestinian unity government, after a second meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.
The interim government is to prepare polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Mr Abbas and Mr Meshaal have been holding talks in Qatar over a reconciliation deal reached in April 2011 and who would head the government.
Correspondents say the issue has been one of the main stumbling blocks to implementing the agreement.
The April deal sought to end more than four years of separate governments in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and the West Bank - areas of which are governed by Mr Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised Mr Abbas's announcement, saying he had chosen to "abandon the way of peace" in reaching a power-sharing deal with Hamas.
Last month Israel and the Palestinian Authority held their first talks in more than a year, without making any apparent progress.
New government
The line-up of the government will be announced on 18 February in Cairo, a Fatah official told the AFP news agency.
The government will be made up of technocrats and independents, reports say.
Mr Abbas says the two sides are serious about political unity.
Mr Meshaal added: "We inform our people that we are serious about healing the wounds... to reunite our people on the foundation of a political partnership, in order to devote our effort to resisting the [Israeli] occupation.''
As part of the agreement in April, an interim unity government was to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections.
But Hamas strongly opposed Mr Abbas's initial choice of Salam Fayyad, the current prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
The elections were expected to be held in May, but the Palestinian election commission says more time will be needed, Reuters news agency reports.
The BBC's correspondent in the West Bank, Jon Donnison, says there have been plenty of false dawns for Palestinian political reconciliation and people here will want to see if unity works in practice, not just on paper. There remain serious differences in policy not least, how to deal with Isreael, he adds.
Rift
Fatah has historically been the dominant faction in the Palestinian national movement, but in January 2006 the Islamist militant movement Hamas won Palestinian Authority legislative elections.
The government subsequently sworn in was widely boycotted by the international community.
In early 2007 Fatah and Hamas agreed to form coalition to end growing factional warfare.
In June of that year Hamas seized control of Gaza by force. Gaza and the West Bank came under separate government, and Israel and Egypt tightened the blockade on Gaza.
Israel opposes the formation of a Palestinian unity government. It views Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
The Middle East Quartet of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations insists Hamas should renounce violence, recognise Israel and back past Israeli-Palestinian agreements before a Palestinian unity government can be recognised.
6 February 2012
Last updated at 10:26 ET
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will head a Palestinian unity government, after a second meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.
The interim government is to prepare polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Mr Abbas and Mr Meshaal have been holding talks in Qatar over a reconciliation deal reached in April 2011 and who would head the government.
Correspondents say the issue has been one of the main stumbling blocks to implementing the agreement.
The April deal sought to end more than four years of separate governments in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and the West Bank - areas of which are governed by Mr Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised Mr Abbas's announcement, saying he had chosen to "abandon the way of peace" in reaching a power-sharing deal with Hamas.
Last month Israel and the Palestinian Authority held their first talks in more than a year, without making any apparent progress.
New government
The line-up of the government will be announced on 18 February in Cairo, a Fatah official told the AFP news agency.
The government will be made up of technocrats and independents, reports say.
Mr Abbas says the two sides are serious about political unity.
Mr Meshaal added: "We inform our people that we are serious about healing the wounds... to reunite our people on the foundation of a political partnership, in order to devote our effort to resisting the [Israeli] occupation.''
As part of the agreement in April, an interim unity government was to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections.
But Hamas strongly opposed Mr Abbas's initial choice of Salam Fayyad, the current prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
The elections were expected to be held in May, but the Palestinian election commission says more time will be needed, Reuters news agency reports.
The BBC's correspondent in the West Bank, Jon Donnison, says there have been plenty of false dawns for Palestinian political reconciliation and people here will want to see if unity works in practice, not just on paper. There remain serious differences in policy not least, how to deal with Isreael, he adds.
Rift
Fatah has historically been the dominant faction in the Palestinian national movement, but in January 2006 the Islamist militant movement Hamas won Palestinian Authority legislative elections.
The government subsequently sworn in was widely boycotted by the international community.
In early 2007 Fatah and Hamas agreed to form coalition to end growing factional warfare.
In June of that year Hamas seized control of Gaza by force. Gaza and the West Bank came under separate government, and Israel and Egypt tightened the blockade on Gaza.
Israel opposes the formation of a Palestinian unity government. It views Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
The Middle East Quartet of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations insists Hamas should renounce violence, recognise Israel and back past Israeli-Palestinian agreements before a Palestinian unity government can be recognised.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Film-maker Zalman King dies at 69
BBC News
5 February 2012
Last updated at 08:05 ET
Film-maker Zalman King, best known for writing and producing the hit movie Nine and a Half Weeks, has died at the age of 69.
King's son-in-law Allison Burnett said he died on Friday at home in Santa Monica, California.
He had been after battling cancer for six years, Burnett said.
"Zalman was an extraordinary man and artist, more complex and humane than those who knew him only from afar could possibly imagine," he told Reuters.
Zalman's 1986 movie Nine and a Half Weeks became a big hit in many countries as well as the US and the UK. It stars Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in a torrid story of sexual obsession and manipulation.
Zalman then went on to make other erotic films such as Two Moon Junction in 1988 and Wild Orchid in 1989, also starring Mickey Rourke.
He was also known for the US TV movie and series Red Shoes Diaries.
Actor Charlie Sheen paid tribute to the late director on his Facebook page, saying "the world lost a brilliant and noble soul today".
King started his career on screen in the 1960s, starring alongside James Caan and Walter Koenig in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, before going on to play an attorney in television drama The Young Lawyers in the 70s.
He moved to working behind the cameras in the 1980s, using erotica as a central theme in his films.
Burnett said director Stanley Kubrick consulted King every night when filming Eyes Wide Shut, starring then husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, because "he wanted to learn how to shoot eroticism".
Burnett also said King "had a singular vision, a unique vision, and very few film-makers in the advent of cinema have made a visual statement that undeniably belongs to them, a visual signature".
King is survived by wife Patricia Louisianna Knop, a screenwriter, and daughters Chloe King and Gillian Lefkowitz.
Zalman King's Wild Orchid is a fabulous work of art, a masterpiece of cinema. Mickey Rourke never was able to recapture his leading man performance again after this film. King's collaboration with Kubrick shows too as Eyes Wide Shut is one of Kubrick's masterpieces. We lost a great artist in Zalman King's passing.
5 February 2012
Last updated at 08:05 ET
Film-maker Zalman King, best known for writing and producing the hit movie Nine and a Half Weeks, has died at the age of 69.
King's son-in-law Allison Burnett said he died on Friday at home in Santa Monica, California.
He had been after battling cancer for six years, Burnett said.
"Zalman was an extraordinary man and artist, more complex and humane than those who knew him only from afar could possibly imagine," he told Reuters.
Zalman's 1986 movie Nine and a Half Weeks became a big hit in many countries as well as the US and the UK. It stars Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in a torrid story of sexual obsession and manipulation.
Zalman then went on to make other erotic films such as Two Moon Junction in 1988 and Wild Orchid in 1989, also starring Mickey Rourke.
He was also known for the US TV movie and series Red Shoes Diaries.
Actor Charlie Sheen paid tribute to the late director on his Facebook page, saying "the world lost a brilliant and noble soul today".
King started his career on screen in the 1960s, starring alongside James Caan and Walter Koenig in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, before going on to play an attorney in television drama The Young Lawyers in the 70s.
He moved to working behind the cameras in the 1980s, using erotica as a central theme in his films.
Burnett said director Stanley Kubrick consulted King every night when filming Eyes Wide Shut, starring then husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, because "he wanted to learn how to shoot eroticism".
Burnett also said King "had a singular vision, a unique vision, and very few film-makers in the advent of cinema have made a visual statement that undeniably belongs to them, a visual signature".
King is survived by wife Patricia Louisianna Knop, a screenwriter, and daughters Chloe King and Gillian Lefkowitz.
Zalman King's Wild Orchid is a fabulous work of art, a masterpiece of cinema. Mickey Rourke never was able to recapture his leading man performance again after this film. King's collaboration with Kubrick shows too as Eyes Wide Shut is one of Kubrick's masterpieces. We lost a great artist in Zalman King's passing.
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Palestinian protesters target UN chief Ban Ki-moon
BBC News
2 February 2012
Last updated at 05:59 ET
"Ban Ki-moon: Enough bias for Israel", read one protester's sign
Dozens of Palestinians staged a hostile protest as the convoy of visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon crossed into Gaza from Israel.
Many were relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and said they were angry at Mr Ban's refusal to meet them to discuss the prisoners' situation.
Some threw shoes and some held signs reading "enough bias for Israel".
Mr Ban is visiting the region to try to kick-start stalled peace negotiations.
A month of "exploratory talks" ended last week without any breakthroughs.
Negotiations on a two-state solution stalled in late 2010 after a dispute over Jewish settlement construction.
Human chain
Forty or 50 protesters gathered on the Gaza side of the Erez crossing as Mr Ban's armoured vehicle passed into Gaza, reports said.
Many were relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, who are currently said to number about 4,000.
The protesters formed a human chain in an attempt to hold up his convoy, reported AP news agency, but Hamas security forces moved them away.
His convoy continued on to Khan Younis, where he is reportedly scheduled to visit a school and a Japanese-funded housing project.
On Wednesday Mr Ban urged Israeli leaders to offer "goodwill gestures" to Palestinians to provide fresh momentum for peace negotiations which stalled over the issue of Jewish settlement construction.
Talks falter
With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by his side, Mr Ban affirmed that "all Israeli settlements are contrary to international law and prejudice'' the outcome of a final peace deal, reported AP.
The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the US, UN, EU and Russia - said last year that they expected both sides to use the exploratory talks to submit detailed proposals on borders and security arrangements, in the hope that the dialogue would encourage direct peace talks.
But the Palestinians say while they have made proposals, the Israelis have not.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected demands for a settlement freeze as a precondition for talks.
2 February 2012
Last updated at 05:59 ET
"Ban Ki-moon: Enough bias for Israel", read one protester's sign
Dozens of Palestinians staged a hostile protest as the convoy of visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon crossed into Gaza from Israel.
Many were relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and said they were angry at Mr Ban's refusal to meet them to discuss the prisoners' situation.
Some threw shoes and some held signs reading "enough bias for Israel".
Mr Ban is visiting the region to try to kick-start stalled peace negotiations.
A month of "exploratory talks" ended last week without any breakthroughs.
Negotiations on a two-state solution stalled in late 2010 after a dispute over Jewish settlement construction.
Human chain
Forty or 50 protesters gathered on the Gaza side of the Erez crossing as Mr Ban's armoured vehicle passed into Gaza, reports said.
Many were relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, who are currently said to number about 4,000.
The protesters formed a human chain in an attempt to hold up his convoy, reported AP news agency, but Hamas security forces moved them away.
His convoy continued on to Khan Younis, where he is reportedly scheduled to visit a school and a Japanese-funded housing project.
On Wednesday Mr Ban urged Israeli leaders to offer "goodwill gestures" to Palestinians to provide fresh momentum for peace negotiations which stalled over the issue of Jewish settlement construction.
Talks falter
With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by his side, Mr Ban affirmed that "all Israeli settlements are contrary to international law and prejudice'' the outcome of a final peace deal, reported AP.
The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the US, UN, EU and Russia - said last year that they expected both sides to use the exploratory talks to submit detailed proposals on borders and security arrangements, in the hope that the dialogue would encourage direct peace talks.
But the Palestinians say while they have made proposals, the Israelis have not.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected demands for a settlement freeze as a precondition for talks.
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About Me
- Steve Lewis
- Prophesy bearer for four religious traditions, revealer of Christ's Sword, revealer of Josephine bearing the Spirit of Christ, revealer of the identity of God, revealer of the Celestial Torah astro-theological code within the Bible. Celestial Torah Christian Theologian, Climax Civilization theorist and activist, Eco-Village Organizer, Master Psychedelic Artist, Inventor of the Next Big Thing in wearable tech, and always your Prophet-At-Large.