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[i]Saudi Officials Reinforce Crown Prince Abdallah's Accusation that Zionists Are Behind Terror Attacks in Saudi Arabia[/i] http://www.memri.org/bin/open...
At the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. on June 2, 2004, U.S. and Saudi officials held a news conference to announce stricter Saudi government oversight of charitable organizations which have been accused of supporting terrorism.
The officials present at the press conference were Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah, E. Anthony Wayne, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, and Juan Zarate, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Executive Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime, Treasury Department.
The officials were asked by the media about comments made by Crown Prince Abdallah in reaction to the May 1, 2004 terrorist attack in Yunbu, Saudi Arabia, in which seven people were killed. On the day after the attack, Crown Prince Abdallah stated at a gathering of Saudi dignitaries that "Zionists" were to blame: "This is seduction. You all know who is behind it all. Zionism is behind it. It has become clear now. It has become clear to us. I don't say, I mean... It is not 100%, but 95% [certain] that the Zionist hands are behind what happened. But I tell you that you can be 100% sure that, Allah willing, this country will be victorious, whoever the faction that turns against it may be. But we are convinced that Zionism is behind everything. This has been established, I am not saying by 100%, but by 95%."
Adel Al-Jubeir responded to questions about the statement by comparing American critics of Saudi Arabia to Al-Qa'ida terrorists, and E. Anthony Wayne of the U.S. State Department also did not criticize Crown Prince Abdallah's remarks. The above link directs you to excerpts from the Saudi Embassy press conference, and other statements by high-ranking members of the Saudi royal family defending Crown Prince Abdallah's statement.
JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asserted that Irael had reached an understanding with the United States concerning Iran's nuclear weapons arsenal. Sharon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday that he and President George Bush agreed to a series of strategic understandings concerning Israel's defensive posture in the Middle East. Sharon said the understandings were among the benefits offered by the Bush administration for the prime minister's pledge to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank.
[b]French sports officials are denying that the main tennis stadium for the French Open was a transit camp for Jews during the Holocaust. [/b]
It has been widely reported that Jews were held at Roland Garros during World War II. But French officials say that while political prisoners were held there, it was not a transit camp for Jews. The tournament, one of tennis’ four Grand Slam events, concludes this weekend.
[b]The Turkish prime minister likened Israel’s handling of the Palestinian uprising to the Spanish Inquisition.[/b] “Our forbears, at the height of their strength, opened their hearts to the Jews expelled from Spain during the Inquisition,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a Ha’aretz interview published Thursday, his first remarks to Israeli media since stirring up controversy last month by attacking the Sharon government´s security policies. “Today the Palestinians are the victims, and unfortunately the people of Israel treat the Palestinians the way they were treated 500 years ago.”
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem did not immediately comment. Despite its pro-Islamic government, Turkey is a strategic ally for the Jewish state.
[i]Wartime Witch Hunt: Blaming Israel for the Iraq War - Dore Gold (Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)[/i] http://www.jcpa.org/brief/bri...
An insidious but steady drumbeat can be discerned over the last several weeks charging that the primary interest of the Bush administration in going to war against Saddam Hussein was to defend Israeli security interests. This newest wave is often more subtle but also far more mainstream than what was voiced in this regard just last year.
Yet from Israel's perspective, by 2003 the Iraqi Army had been severely degraded in both military manpower and equipment. Continuing UN sanctions had made Iraqi re-armament difficult and Iraq was clearly not Israel's primary concern. Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens concluded in August 2002 that in the immediate future, "the [missile] threat that Israel most likely will have to contend with" is that of Syria. He described the Iraqi capability as "relatively limited." During the same month, Israel's current chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, declared in Jerusalem that the threat posed by Iraq "doesn't make me lose sleep."
If prior to the Iraq War the Israeli security establishment was somewhat ambivalent about the extent of the Iraqi threat, there was one state that threatened Israel about which Israeli statements were unmistakably clear: Iran. Israel used language with respect to Iran that it did not apply to Iraq. Thus, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would call Iran "the main existential threat to Israel."
In other words, the American war against Iraq may have had an unintended side-effect of removing a secondary or tertiary threat to Israel, but not a primary threat.
There is something persuasive about Richard Clarke's thesis that in the case of Iraq, the dominant consideration was concern over the long-term stability of the House of Saud and the need for the U.S. to replace a shaky Saudi Arabia with an alternative friendly source of oil for the industrial West. Considering the widespread presence of al-Qaeda cells across virtually all parts of Saudi Arabia that now has become evident after repeated terrorist attacks in that country, this American consideration has been proven to be prescient. But this has absolutely nothing to do with Israel.
A recent Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma survey of young people in Jerusalem found that 50% had been exposed to a terrorist attack and that 20% had lost a relative.
Despite this, researchers found that Israeli children are "extraordinarily resilient" and that only 5% had developed full blown post-traumatic stress disorder.
The study found that young people living on settlements in the West Bank and Gaza were less susceptible to trauma despite being exposed to more frequent attacks
MEANWHILE, PALESTINIAN CHILDREN ARE STRAPPING BOMBS ON THEIR CHESTS AND WALKING INTO RESTAURANTS.
[b]The Palestinian Legislative Council Wednesday rejected a U.S.-sponsored demand that Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) refrain from transferring funds to individuals or groups that engage in terrorism. [/b] After the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) presented the pledge to NGOs in 2003, entitled "Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing." It includes a pledge that NGOs will not engage in activity with groups deemed as terrorist, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. (Jerusalem Post)
[i]Palestinian Security Forces on Strike in Gaza - Nidal al-Mughrabi (Reuters and Maariv International)[/i] http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...
[b]More than 100 members of the Palestinian security forces have gone on strike in Gaza over what they charged was rampant corruption among senior officers.[/b] The protesters took over a position belonging to the elite Force 17 in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
They said senior officers of the National Security Forces were "pursuing their personal interests at the expense of the homeland" and had turned the security forces into "fiefdoms." The wives and children of some of the officers had been put on the payroll of security agencies.
The men claimed that their top commander, General Abdel Razak el Mujeida, is corrupt, and [b]complained that while low-ranking officers and enlisted men are ordered to oppose IDF incursions, the senior command leaves for safe areas, taking their families with them. They also accused the top brass of stealing their salaries and supplies. [/b]
I HOPE HERSH GOT A BIG BONUS FOR THIS, BECAUSE HIS LACK OF JUDGMENT JUST MAY COST MILLIONS OF ISRAELIS THEIR LIVES FROM A NUCLEAR ATTACK BY IRAN. WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED DURING WWII IF SOME "JOURNALIST" HAD ALERTED THE GERMANS TO THE FACT THAT EXPATRIOT POLES LIVING IN LONDON HAD BROKEN THEIR CODE? UNBELIEVABLE.
On March 2, 2004, investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh wrote in the New Yorker: "On a trip to the Middle East last month, I was told that a number of years ago the Israeli signals-intelligence agency, known as Unit 8200, broke a sophisticated Iranian code and began monitoring communications that included talk between Iran and Pakistan about Iran's burgeoning nuclear-weapons program." According to Hersh, the findings were also shared with U.S. intelligence services. (Jerusalem Post)
Peninsula Congressman and Iraq war advocate Tom Lantos abruptly pulled out of an appearance at City College of San Francisco's commencement this past weekend, fearing that if he showed up, caps and gowns would be overshadowed by pickets and protests.
Here's the story:
A couple of months back, City College Chancellor Phil Day met with Lantos back in Washington, D.C., to lobby for more funding. On the way out the door, Day extended a courtesy invitation for the congressman to attend the college's commencement exercises, if he happened to be in town over the Memorial Day weekend.
Something must have gotten lost in the translation, because the next thing anyone knew, Lantos was calling to say he'd be glad to give the commencement address. Unfortunately, Mayor Gavin Newsom had already gotten that invitation.
As a face-saving gesture, the school brass decided to honor Lantos with a "Friend of City College'' medal. That way he could at least share the stage with Newsom and even make some remarks.
Everything looked to be going smoothly until Thursday night, when[b] three very vocal faculty members and five students showed up at the college's Board of Trustees meeting to protest Lantos' appearance.
The litany of complaints against Democrat Lantos included everything from his unwavering Iraq war stance to his support for the Patriot Act to his "one- sided'' backing of Israel, including his recent handshake with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. [/b] One student warned the ceremony would be picketed if Lantos appeared.
"Our consciences wouldn't let us sit back,'' Allan Fisher, a union leader who teaches English as a second language at City College, said of the uproar over Lantos.
The next day -- at the urging of trustees -- Day was on the telephone with Lantos' staffers, warning them of possible trouble. "They decided that it would be in the best interest of all parties not to participate in the graduation ceremonies because it might detract from the atmosphere,'' Day said. "I give Tom Lantos and his staff a lot of credit for understanding the situation.''
To which Lantos' chief of staff, Robert King, added: "His feeling was that this ought to be about the kids who are being honored for the work they did -- not politics.''
YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT I'VE DELETED A FEW COMMENTS POSTED TO MY ARTICLES. I'M ALL IN FAVOR OF LETTING PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE WITH ME HAVE THEIR SAY. I WELCOME THE BACK AND FORTH. HOWEVER, I DRAW THE LINE AT DEATH THREATS.
P.S. TO NUTBALLS: YOUR ARGUMENTS AREN'T HELPED BY APPLAUDING ADOLPH HITLER.
Orthodox Jews in New York have become concerned that the city's drinking water may not be kosher because it contains tiny crustaceans known as copepods. The organisms, which measure about a millimeter long, first came to the attention of Jewish leaders in Brooklyn two weeks ago, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
An Israeli produce company that exports kosher vegetables to New York alleged that its products had become infested with insects after being washed in the city's water, which is unfiltered. An examination of the water under a microscope revealed the copepods.
An intelligence officer told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that there are some 10-20 weapons smugglers in Gaza who belong to the PA's security forces.
He also said there are preliminary indications of efforts to divert smuggling to areas other than Rafah as a result of the recent IDF operation.
