AMNON & JONATHAN

Israel did it !

2011-07-03T12:43:00.000+03:00

Israel did it !

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday ruled out the arrest of four members of his militant group indicted by a UN court for the 2005 assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafik Hariri.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), on Thursday handed Lebanon’s prosecutor general Said Mirza arrest warrants for four members of the Iranian- and Syrian-backed group in connection with the February 14, 2005 bombing that killed Mr. Hariri and 22 others in Beirut.

In his first reaction to the charges by the STL, Secretary General Nasrallah also rejected “each and every void accusation” made by the Netherlands-based court, which he said was heading for a trial in absentia.

“We reject the Special Tribunal for Lebanon along with each and every void accusation it issues, which to us is equivalent to an attack on Hezbollah,” Mr. Nasrallah said in an hour-long televised speech.

Jihad Watch

Hizballah's head honcho Nasrallah:
Arrests of members indicted in Hariri assassination will never happen

Unfortunately, for as long as Hizballah's country-within-a-country with its own standing army has gone unchallenged in Lebanon and allowed to become ever more entrenched in society and government, there may indeed not be the political will in Lebanon to hold the group accountable.

An update on this story. "Hezbollah leader rejects Hariri court indictments," by Dominic Evans for Reuters, July 2 (thanks to all who sent this in):

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that authorities would never arrest members of the Shi'ite militant group indicted by a U.N.-backed tribunal seeking the killers of statesman Rafik al-Hariri.

In his first comments since the indictments were handed to the state prosecutor on Thursday, Nasrallah dismissed the accusations as unfounded and a failed attempt to sow strife and bring down Lebanon's new Hezbollah-backed government.

He cares about not bringing down this government, unlike the one Hizballah toppled in February to create a diversion from the Hariri case. At that time, Hizballah even staged "coup drills" aimed at intimidating any potential challengers.

The tribunal has not named the suspects but Lebanese officials said they included Mustafa Badreddine, a senior member of the movement and brother-in-law of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyeh, and three other members of the group.

"They cannot find them or arrest them in 30 days or 60 days, or in a year, two years, 30 years or 300 years," Nasrallah said. Under the court proceedings, Lebanese officials have 30 days to make arrests after receiving indictments.

And Hizballah maintains Israel did it anyway.

Hezbollah, both a Shi'ite Muslim political movement and guerrilla army, denies any role in the huge explosion on the Beirut seafront which killed Hariri, a Sunni Muslim who served several terms as prime minister, and 22 others in February 2005....

Posted by Marisol on July 3, 2011 12:13 AM |

Thank You GB !

2011-07-01T12:16:00.003+03:00

Glenn Beck: the Last Two Shows

by sheikyermami on June 30, 2011
Glenn Beck TV (June 29, 2011)
The final countdown, folks. One more show and that’s it. Say what you will, but GB stands heads and shoulders above all the talking heads on today’s TV.
Whatever you do, don’t miss …the final episode. Tell a friend, tell a family member…The Glenn Beck Program on Fox News Channel will officially come to an end today, as Glenn leaves his Fox studio and makes his way across Midtown Manhattan to do a special LIVE kickoff event for GBTV…sign up today!

What ever your taste in "Good Journalism" might be, or what ever opinion you hold on "GB show", you must admit, that he managed to cast a "Shadow of a Doubt" more then once on "Known Facts" and turned a few rusty wheels in you head !

Very well done - GB !

Her master said :- " Wash my feet and drink the water ! "
She said :- " NO ! "

P.S.
Do you know the name of the background music ?

Takiyya !

2011-06-30T17:33:00.001+03:00

Takiyya !

Amin Abu Rashid, a senior Hamas official, among the participants in the flotilla. He also participated in the previous flotilla to Gaza and has stated previously that he wants to confront the soldiers. In the past was also in touch with the arch-murderer Mabhuh. The organizers tried to hide his participation in the flotilla

While the organizers the flotilla declare him as an humanitarian flotilla "Activist", more and more disturbing information is revealed about and their activities on the flotilla.

Today, we publish for the first time that one of the participants in the flotilla is a senior Hamas official - Abu Rashid !

Duch site ( Joop ) reporter Hasna Al Brody, wrote an
article explaining why she did not join the flotilla, which reveals new
details about the suspected presence of Abu Rashid.

The reporter says, that they reached the island of Corfu yesterday and asked the organizers of the flotilla to see participants names, but the organizers refused her request to see the list, which aroused her suspicions. She said that was not clear where the ship fundings came from and the organizers answered with foggy answers to her questions, even though they claimed to full transparency.

NO !

2011-06-29T19:58:00.003+03:00

http://goo.gl/EsOZE

The three stages of Dhimmitude

2011-06-26T14:23:00.004+03:00

Stolen from Will, HERE :- http://goo.gl/FCDWt

"The War On Christianity" Lets build A One World Religion: 50 U.S. Churches To Read From The Quran On Sunday.(TheAmericanDream).The three main pillars of the "New World Order" that the global elite want to bring about are a one world economy, a one world government and a one world religion. A lot of attention gets paid to the development of the first two pillars, but the third pillar gets very little attention. But the truth is that a one world religion is getting closer than ever. "Interfaith" conferences and meetings are being held with increasing frequency all over the globe. Major global religious leaders are urging all of us to focus on our "shared" religious traditions. The belief that all religions are equally valid paths to the same destination is being taught in houses of worship and at religious institutions all over the globe. This "interfaith movement" is being promoted by NGOs, "charitable foundations" and top politicians and it is being backed by big money all over the planet.Now some U.S. churches are trying to take things to another level. On June 26th, the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and approximately 50 other churches in 26 U.S. states will publicly read from the Quran during their Sunday worship services.This is all part of an interfaith project being promoted by the Interfaith Alliance and Human Rights First. The theme of this Sunday is "Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and Understanding", and the goal is apparently to show how much Christian churches in the United States respect Islam.The following are some of the other prominent U.S. churches that will be doing Quran readings this Sunday....

Read the full story here.

The three stages of

Dhimmitude

Primary Stage
The primary stage of Dhimmitude is usually marked by the appearance of a single sore (called a chancre), but there may be multiple sores. The time between infection with Dhimmitude and the start of the first symptom can range from 10 to 90 days (average 21 days). The chancre is usually firm, round, small, and painless. It appears at the spot where Dhimmitude entered the body. The chancre lasts 3 to 6 weeks, and it heals without treatment. However, if adequate treatment is not administered, the infection progresses to the secondary stage.

Secondary Stage
Skin rash and mucous membrane lesions characterize the secondary stage. This stage typically starts with the development of a rash on one or more areas of the body. The rash usually does not cause itching. Rashes associated with secondary Dhimmitude can appear as the chancre is healing or several weeks after the chancre has healed. The characteristic rash of secondary Dhimmitude may appear as rough, red, or reddish brown spots both on the palms of the hands and the bottoms of the feet. However, rashes with a different appearance may occur on other parts of the body, sometimes resembling rashes caused by other diseases. Sometimes rashes associated with secondary Dhimmitude are so faint that they are not noticed. In addition to rashes, symptoms of secondary Dhimmitude may include fever, swollen lymph glands, sore throat, patchy hair loss, headaches, weight loss, muscle aches, and fatigue. The signs and symptoms of secondary Dhimmitude will resolve with or without treatment, but without treatment, the infection will progress to the latent and possibly late stages of disease.

Late and Latent Stages
The latent (hidden) stage of Dhimmitude begins when primary and secondary symptoms disappear. Without treatment, the infected person will continue to have Dhimmitude even though there are no signs or symptoms; infection remains in the body. This latent stage can last for years. The late stages of Dhimmitude can develop in about 15% of people who have not been treated for Dhimmitude, and can appear 10–20 years after infection was first acquired.

Now comes the best part :-

In the late stages of Dhimmitude, the disease may subsequently damage the internal organs, including the brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones, and joints. Signs and symptoms of the late stage of Dhimmitude include difficulty coordinating muscle movements, paralysis, numbness, gradual blindness, and dementia. This damage may be serious enough to cause death.

One last push ...

2011-06-26T11:28:00.003+03:00

That's it

Amnon & Jonathan made it !

Amnon is on "Discharge leave" until August 1st

Jonathan will end his service 10 days later on the 11th !

Thank you my sons and

G-d bless you .

" YOU DEAL - ME CUT !"...

2011-06-25T20:41:00.005+03:00

POKER WITH A JOKER ? O.K. !

" YOU DEAL - ME CUT !"...

Now, tell me that "TIME" isn't a whore !

2011-06-25T15:35:00.004+03:00

Now, tell me that "TIME" isn't a whore !

Obamunism on the Cover of Time. (Moonbattery).

The latest cover of Time Magazine tells you all you need to know about the agenda of the left-wing media establishment that installed Barack Hussein Obama in power so that he could oversee the "fundamental transformation" of America.To ask a question like this is to give the answer, which is: not to our moonbat rulers it doesn't.The July 4 cover date is reminiscent of the "Is God a Fairy Tale?" covers we see around Easter.

Read the full story here.

Danny

2011-06-25T04:10:00.002+03:00

SALUTE !

2011-06-23T21:26:00.003+03:00

Orna Barbivai is the first woman in IDF history to receive the rank of Major General.

Brig. Gen. Orna Barbivai was given the rank of Major General and the position of Head of the Human Resources Directorate in a formal ceremony at the Chief of Staff's offices in Tel Aviv on Thursday (June 23). Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, director general of the Ministry of Defense, members of the General Staff Forum and family members all participated.
Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai is the first woman in the history of the IDF to attain the rank of Major General and will be replacing Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir, who is ending his military service after 35 years in the IDF.
Maj. Gen. Barbivai was drafted to the IDF in 1981 to the Manpower and Personnel Corps and served in many positions throughout her military career including being the first commander of the Corps, making her the first woman commander in charge of a Corps not strictly comprised of women.
She has received a Bachelor's degree in humanities from Ben Gurion University and an MBA in Business Management from the University of Derby in Israel, among taking other courses. She is a mother of three.

Eat your heart out !!!

Acquitted !

2011-06-23T14:31:00.004+03:00

Geert Wilders acquitted of inciting hatred

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders has been acquitted on charges of hate speech and discrimination for statements he made attacking Islam.
'You are being acquitted on all the charges that were put against you,' Judge Marcel van Oosten told Mr Wilders in Amsterdam.
'The bench finds that your statements are acceptable within the context of the public debate,' Judge van Oosten told Mr Wilders, 47, who has been on trial since last October.
The MP faced five counts of hate speech and discrimination for his anti-Islamic remarks on websites, internet forums and in Dutch newspapers between October 2006 and March 2008, and in his controversial 17-minute movie "Fitna" ("Discord" in Arabic).

The case has tested freedom of speech in the traditionally liberal country.

http://goo.gl/Oupbz

Where are the VIKINGS ?!

2011-06-22T22:01:00.004+03:00

The demonstration against " violence "

" ISRAEL HAYOM " In English

2011-06-22T20:12:00.004+03:00

http://goo.gl/I4jnU

" FATHAMSA "

2011-06-21T16:22:00.003+03:00

After euphoria in Gaza, little hope for Hamas-Fatah reconciliation

Gaza City - “The day that Hamas and Fatah announced their reconciliation, we had a bigger celebration than the Egyptians did when Mubarak stepped down,” says Nidal Abu Kirsha.

That is unlikely, considering Gaza’s population of about 1.5 million compared to Egypt’s estimated 80 million. But it illustrates Abu Kirsha’s point. Like many Gazans, the 48-year-old butcher claims no allegiance to either the local Islamist Hamas government, or the nationalist Fatah party primarily operating out of the West Bank. Even so, he received last month’s announcement of reconciliation between the two with “open arms.”

Those open arms have now been reduced to a shrug of indifference.

“What have we seen since this news?” Abu Kirsha asks. “What actual proof of a genuine reconciliation have they given us?”

“Everyone in Gaza celebrated the announcement,” he explains. “But it’s been over a month now. We’re not going to continue celebrating what is, so far, an empty promise.”

Long-standing tensions between the two factions erupted in 2006, shortly after Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the legislative elections, leading Hamas to gain control of Gaza. Israel and the Middle East Quartet, who label Hamas a terrorist organization, subsequently imposed harsh economic sanctions on the narrow coastal strip.

Members of the former ruling Fatah party and supporters of the group remained resistant to the shift in power, and after a period of escalating internal conflict, violence broke out, spilling into Gaza’s streets as well as the government institutions shared by the two parties.

By outnumbering its opposition, Hamas quickly seized Gaza and set up its own government while Fatah restored its one-party domination of the West Bank. The division continues to this day.

Should the reconciliation announced in May come to fruition, Hamas and Fatah would create an interim government to oversee general elections, held one year after the signing of the deal. Since the announced reconciliation, however, the two parties have displayed pettiness - such as refusing to sit next to each other during a press conference - that has cast a shadow on the elation initially felt in Gaza.

“In theory, they can tear each other apart and I wouldn’t really care,” Abu Kirsha says. “The problem is we are the ones who get caught in the middle. These parties disagree on paper, and manipulate our children into dying for their own power-hungry cause. Our families have been torn apart, and our lives completely overshadowed by the ambitions of these monstrous politicians,” he says of an almost six-year long conflict between the two factions commonly referred to as the “War of Brothers.”

Following the reconciliation announcement, the Fatah flag - a coat of arms depicting two fists clenching semi-automatic rifles over a single grenade - resurged on the streets of Gaza. It could be seen fluttering alongside that of Hamas, on which twin swords safeguard the Dome of the Rock. One establishment showcases both flags hanging above those belonging to another pair of rivaling factions - Ahly and Zamalek. T-shirts, pins, and stickers bearing the factions’ emblems are now being sold by clothing stores and sidewalk vendors alike.

Nevertheless, much appears to have changed in the national mood since the reconciliation was announced. “It’s all just ink on paper,” Maher Boudein claims, emphasizing his lack of faith with a wave of his hand. “Even if the intention was genuine, which it isn’t,” Boudein says, “it still wouldn’t happen. We are incapable of the negotiating and diplomacy required to sustain a reconciliation.”

Frustrated at being stuck in traffic, Boudein curses and honks his horn repeatedly at the steamroller and construction crew paving the intersection ahead. For the cab driver, Hamas’ ongoing efforts at improving Gaza City’s infrastructure - including using the rubble from bombed sites, such as former leader Yasser Arafat’s residential compound, to pave new roads - are not worth commending.

“The only reason Hamas does things like this is to justify the ‘donations’ they forcibly take from us,” Boudein believes. “Projects like these are just a front.”

Boudein - who adamantly reiterates that he is not a Fatah supporter - insists that Hamas represents “everything that is wrong” with the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

“Do a background check on the members of Hamas. They are the sons of criminals – drug dealers, prostitutes and pimps. They have dragged us back 50 years with their barbaric ways,” Boudein rants, pounding on his steering wheel in rage.

“They encourage murder for their own cause regardless of social and family ties. They steal our money and keep us vulnerable so that we will be forced to fall back on them for support. And now, they’re acting out this reconciliation charade so that they can say, ‘We tried to achieve peace, but the Fatah infidels just want war.’”

Boudein’s views are similar to those of others on his side of the apparently unconquerable divide between the two factions.

“Fatah is subservient to the Jews,” says Mahmoud Heriez, an auto-mechanic who, unsurprisingly, vows that he is not a supporter of Hamas. “Their primary collaborator, and priority, is the Israeli government, and this is why they will never reconcile officially with Hamas.”

For proof, Heriez points to the salaries that Fatah gives its soldiers. “The lowliest soldier makes 3500 shekels (LE6020) a month, while lieutenants earn at least 6000 (LE10,321),” he claims. “If you think Fatah will give that up for peace with Hamas, then you don’t understand anything.”

Perhaps the only people willing to express any faith in the reconciliation are those directly involved.

“Of course, it’s very understandable that people are skeptical about this reconciliation and frustrated about the slow pace with which its progressing,” Ihab al-Ghusain, spokesperson for Hamas, acknowledges. “But that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening, or that nothing will happen. All it means is that this is a complicated situation, and it will take time to navigate it properly, and in a way to ensure that it does indeed work out.”

“Hamas is currently expressing more leniency, flexibility, and openness than ever before,” Ghusain claims, assuring that its members “are all committed to, and enthusiastic about, securing an unbiased reconciliation with Fatah.”

Three days following Ghusain’s staments to Al-Masry Al-Youm, a conference planned for Tuesday between leaders of Hamas and Fatah, which was to resolve fundamental issues such as naming a leader and officials for a unity government, was canceled due to ongoing disagreement between the two sides.

Disappointing as this latest derailment may be, it’s safe to say that had it gone through, most Gazans would have remained skeptical about the prospect of a lasting peace, with some even going so far as to blatantly refuse it.

“They might be able to reconcile between each other on paper,” says former Hamas militant Mohamed Souwan, “but we will never be able to reconcile in reality.”

The reason, Souwan explains, is simple: “Too much blood has already been shed.”

Souwan suggests that based on the lingering tension between both factions, violence could result from a failed reconciliation.

“The families who have lost fathers, brothers and sons, will never be able to forgive, or forget, nor should they. For those families to reconcile would be a disgrace, and a shame to the honor of their martyrs,” he says.

Souwan’s statement is unusual, if only because he is directly responsible for killing some of those martyrs whose honor he now insists on defending. As a Hamas militant, Souwan admits to having been “heavily involved” in the violence that raged between the two sides. “I wanted to be a martyr myself. I wanted to die for the cause Hamas was fighting for. But then they changed. They got greedy.”

“Hamas used to be for the people,” Souwan recalls. “That was their main concern - their people’s well-being. But, after they won the elections, their priorities shifted. Now they exist to extort.”

Souwan claims he forced himself accept the direction Hamas was taking post-elections, but soon could not do it any longer. Shortly after being promoted to a higher rank, he had a meeting with his seniors and told them he “wanted out.” In order to become a member of Hamas, one must vow to make a lifelong commitment, Souwan says, in an attempt to explain why the meeting went poorly. Nonetheless, he withdrew entirely from the group, and now lives in fear of retribution - a worry, he claims, that is minor compared to what he fears from the fallout of a failed reconciliation.

Today, public opinion in Gaza is largely divided between Hamas supporters, Fatah loyalists and a significant percentage of those who have nothing but bitterness and resentment for both. The five-year division has led to the creation of smaller factions, the members of which will undoubtedly be emboldened by yet another round of failed negotiations.

“When this reconciliation fails, it will only bring another civil war, worse than the one before,” he believes.

Souwan is prepared for the worst. “I handed in my Hamas guns,” he says. “But I still have weapons of my own.”

The Golden Rule of Humanity

2011-06-21T11:15:00.003+03:00

The Golden Rule of Humanity

From Will at The Other News:

Ancient Egyptian: “Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do.” The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, 109 – 110 Translated by R.B. Parkinson. The original dates to 1970 to 1640 BCE and may be the earliest version ever written.

Bahá’í Faith: “Choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself.” Epistle to the Son of the Wolf

Brahmanism: “This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you”. Mahabharata, 5:1517

Buddhism: “…a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?” Samyutta NIkaya v. 35. Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Udana-Varga 5:18

Christianity: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12 , King James Version. “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” Luke 6:31, King James Version. “…and don’t do what you hate…” Gospel of Thomas 6.

Confucianism: ”Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you” Analects 15:23
“Ze-Gong asked, ‘Is there one word that can serve as a principle of conduct for life?’ Confucius replied, ‘It is the word ‘xu’ — reciprocity. Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.’” Doctrine of the Mean 13.3
“Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence.” Mencius VII.A.4

Hinduism: “One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself.” Mencius Vii.A.4
“This is the sum of the Dharma [duty]: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.” Mahabharata 5:1517

Humanism: “(5) Humanists acknowledge human interdependence, the need for mutual respect and the kinship of all humanity.” “Don’t do things you wouldn’t want to have done to you, British Humanist Society.

Jainism: “In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.” Lord Mahavira, 24th Tirthankara “A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated. “Sutrakritanga 1.11.33

Judaism: “…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”, Leviticus 19:18 “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. This is the law: all the rest is commentary.” Talmud, Shabbat 31a. “And what you hate, do not do to any one.” Tobit 4:15

Native American Spirituality: “All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.” Black Elk

Roman Pagan Religion: “The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of society as themselves.”

Shinto: “The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form”

Sikhism: “Don’t create enmity with anyone as God is within everyone.” Guru Arjan Devji 259

Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien.

Wicca: “And it harm no one, do what thou wilt” (i.e. do what ever you will, as long as it harms nobody, including yourself). One’s will is to be carefully thought out in advance of action. This is called the Wiccan Rede

Yoruba: ( Nigeria ): “One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts.”

Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself”. Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5 “Whatever is disagreeable to yourself do not do unto others.” Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29

Plato: “May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me.” ( Greece ; 4th century BCE)

Socrates: “Do not do to others that which would anger you if others did it to you.” ( Greece ; 5th century BCE)

Seneca: “Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your superiors,” Epistle 47:11 ( Rome ; 1st century CE)

- Islam is the only religion that does not adhere to the Golden Rule. The closest that Islam comes to this principle is a hadith that says “None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” Number 13 of Imam “Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths.”
This brotherhood however does not extend to everyone. Quran (9:23) states that the believers should not take for friends and protectors (awlia) their fathers and brothers if they love Infidelity above Islam. In fact there are many verses that tell the Muslims to kill the unbelievers and be harsh with them. A clear example that Islam is not based on the Golden Rule is the verse (48:29) It says: “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah; and those who are with him are strong against Unbelievers, (but) compassionate amongst each other.” There are many other verses that show the brotherhood in Islam is not universal. The rest of mankind have no rights and should not be treated in the same way that Muslims are to be treated.

The entire Quran is the breach of the Golden Rule. Quran tells Muslims to slay the unbelievers wherever they find them (2:191), do not befriend them (3:28), fight them and show them harshness (9:123), and smite their heads (47:4). Source .

posted by Pastorius and stolen by me from permanent link#

More about dogs.

2011-06-21T04:58:00.002+03:00

Jerusalem court denies dog condemned to stoning
Reports that a Jewish rabbinical court in Israel condemned a stray dog to death by stoning have been strongly denied.

The source of the report, Israel's Maariv newspaper, apologised for its headline and for any offense caused.

The head of the court, Yehoshua Levin, was quoted by Maariv as saying: "There is no basis for abuse of animals from the side of Jewish Halacha [law].''

In a statement, the court denied that a dog had been condemned.

A dog had entered the court and been removed, it said.

The story was reported in the Israeli and international press, including the BBC News website.

The original reports said that the dog entered the Jerusalem financial court several weeks ago and would not leave.

It was reported that the dog reminded a judge of a curse passed on a now deceased secular lawyer about 20 years ago, when judges bid his spirit to enter the body of a dog. The animal was said to have escaped before the sentence was carried out.

An animal welfare organization filed a complaint with the police against a court official.

Are we free to love?

Doubtless. Are we free in love? We don’t know. Being in love is either freedom itself, or its opposite. Am I, for instance, free to love dogs? Because my first memories are of dogs, because I confided in them when I was confused and frightened, because mine licked away my earliest tears, am I free in my affection? The reason this sounds silly is that it is silly. The obvious point is that I don’t care. Stated philosophically, I have a marked preference for the belief that I actually love dogs. Stated more simply, conditional love is no love at all. And so I love what I love with all the fierceness I can, with every beat of my heart, or not at all.

http://goo.gl/EhzfW

Tweet

Loyalty is K9's quality !

2011-06-20T05:39:00.003+03:00

Jewish court sentences dog to death by stoning

Read the comments http://goo.gl/cs1fF , http://goo.gl/AG91X & http://goo.gl/8odYS

JERUSALEM (AFP) – A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday.
According to Ynet, the large dog made its way into the Monetary Affairs Court in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, frightening judges and plaintiffs.

Despite attempts to drive the dog out of the court, the hound refused to leave the premises.

One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously.

Their preferred divine retribution was for the lawyer's spirit to move into the body of a dog, an animal considered impure by traditional Judaism.

Clearly still offended, one of the judges sentenced the animal to death by stoning by local children.

The canine target, however, managed to escape.

"Let the Animals Live", an animal-welfare organisation filed a complaint with the police against the head of the court, Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, who denied that the judges had called for the dog's stoning, Ynet reported.

One of the court's managers, however, confirmed the report of the lapidation sentence to Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot.

"It was ordered... as an appropriate way to 'get back at' the spirit which entered the poor dog," the paper reported the manager as saying, according to Ynet.

Certain schools of thought within Judaism believe in the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation.

So did Montezuma !...

DON CAIROLEONE !

2011-06-19T11:43:00.007+03:00

Egypt:

Shalit will disappear unless Israel compromises with Hamas.

New Israeli negotiator reportedly told Egyptian intelligence officials that if Hamas did not agree to latest deal for prisoner swap, there would be no deal at all
The fifth anniversary this Saturday of the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has seen a burst of activity on all sides to negotiate his release.

Egyptian security officials involved in the talks told Haaretz over the weekend that the approach by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new envoy to the talks, David Meidan, could scuttle the negotiations and lead to Shalit's "disappearance."

===
Hummm !
Start with the MORON you have in your hands !
===

HAARETZ - http://goo.gl/q3dV2

"compassionate leave" - REJECTED !

2011-06-19T08:21:00.003+03:00

1 MORON = 1000 KILLERS

2011-06-18T21:32:00.003+03:00

1 MORON = 1000 KILLERS

Families of captives:"exchange spy for Arab captives"

18-06-2011,09:10

Al Qassam website- Gaza- Families of Palestinian captives called on the Egyptian government not to release the Israeli spy, Ilan Grapel, except after reaching an honourable exchange deal to free Egyptian and Palestinian captives reeling inside Zionist prisons of death and torture.

Samir Asfour, father of wounded captive Ahmad Asfour, sent a letter in the name of families of Palestinian captives to the ruling Egyptian military council in which he said: “We have female captives suffering humiliation inside Zionist jails, we have child captives as well as sick captives, we appeal to you to secure their release in return for the release of the Zionist spy.”

He also sent a letter to the revolution youth calling on them to stand by the Palestinian people and called on families of Egyptian captives to campaign for their release from occupation jails.

This was revealed during a press conference held by the Captives and Ex-captives Association, Families of Captives Committee and representatives of the Ministry of Captives which was held to appeal to the government not to release the spy except in exchange of Palestinian and Arab captives in Zionist jails.
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My friends in Virginia

2011-06-17T17:08:00.004+03:00

Get the Jews out ! NOW !

2011-06-17T12:00:00.002+03:00

Humanitarian Crisis Emerges in Southern Yemen

Battles in Southern Yemen between the government and suspected Al Qaeda militants are causing a humanitarian crisis. Thousands have fled the fighting in the Abyan governorate.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says over 2,000 families have sought refuge in 33 schools in the southern port city of Aden. WFP has surveyed the situation there and found that 90 percent of those displaced are entirely dependent on the host community for food needs.

WFP says more than half of those surveyed left their homes "without taking their own assets as well as their clothes."

Others sold their assets to pay for transportation to escape the fighting. Some of the displaced moved in with relatives and friends in Aden only to find that this overtaxed the resources of their hosts.The only alternative then was to move to one of the displacement centers.

The needs are great. The WFP survey found that clothes, food rations, pediatric milk and cold potable water, mattresses, bed sheets, sanitary pads, towels, soaps, and washing powder were all needed. Some of the displaced require medical and psychological care.

There is also a lack of sanitation services in 50 percent of the schools hosting the displaced.

WFP also noted a "[w]eakness in coordination between UN/NGOs, local government authorities & civil society organizations to identify emergency needs by each actor in order to facilitate timely provision of humanitarian assistance to all genuine/vulnerable IDPs and enable all to avoid duplication in assistance delivery."

This coordination will need to improve quickly, especially as more people flee to Aden as the fighting in Southern Yemen escalates.

The WFP report recommends developing several centers to host the displaced, and intensive screening for health issues and child nutrition levels.

Humanitarian needs exist throughout Yemen as the political unrest has driven up food prices. Even before the unrest unfolded, hunger and malnutrition rates were high in the country. The World Food Programme, UNICEF, and other agencies are short on funding to carry out their relief missions.

People are rallying to help organize relief, however. The Yemen Peace Project has a blog with information on ways to help those displaced in Southern Yemen.

In light of yesterday's efforts in Congress to reduce funding for the Food for Peace program, a petition to support the WFP hunger relief throughout Yemen is particularly timely.
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In Israel we face the Enemy !

2011-06-16T06:44:00.003+03:00

Egyptian Christians reject draft law on places of worship

Note that all the policemen are facing the church !...

In Israel we face the Enemy !

A joint statement issued on Wednesday by the Egyptian Coptic, Anglican and Catholic Churches rejected the draft law on places of worship.

They requested amendments to certain articles, especially those stipulating that places of worship should be 1000 square meters in size, which they say would be hard to implement. They also rejected the condition that there must be at least 1km between places of worship.

They rejected the stipulation that local councils be given authority for the granting of permits, and requested that conditions for licenses be standardized.

All the ingredient you need to create a Totalitarian Sharia Caliphate are highlighted in RED !

You don't "reject" Tiranny ! You fight it and destroy it !
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I DON'T LIKE IT !

2011-06-15T18:49:00.001+03:00

WTF Now ?

Increased activities of UNIFIL and Hezbollah

Two days ago, Hezbollah began moving the stock of missiles toward the center of Lebanon.

A few hours ago, it was reported by UNIFIL that Hezbollah began moving troops toward the border of Israel (it is still unclear where and how close).

In response, UNIFIL sent a message to the Lebanese army to prevent any provocation by the Hezbollah on the northern border.

Another message was sent to the IDF.

I DON'T LIKE IT !

15-6-11 18:00 LT

SahyogPILRTI: RT @UNPeacekeeping: Lebanon: Attack on peacekeepers will not deter #UN http://tinyurl.com/3jz73ee (expand) #UNIFIL #Lebanon

about 2 hours ago

SahyogPILRTI: RT @UNIFILSpokesman: Six peacekeepers injured, one of them seriously, in explosion that targeted #unifil logistics convoy on main highway near Saida, SLebanon

about 2 hours ago

RT @ChallahHuAkbar: #Hezbollah and #Iran Directly Involved in Killing Syrian Civilians http://goo.gl/fb/2W1LA

Dutch Diplomat Abducted in Baalbek #lebanon Transferred to #Syria and Then Immediately Released #hezbollah http://bit.ly/mrm4ve (expand)
24 minutes ago

Report: #hezbollah Moving Rockets over Fears of Spillover of Violence from #Syria #Lebanon, http://t.co/m86O5JF

38 minutes ago

Syrian Protests Turning Against #Hezbollah - http://t.co/imFDyyI - #Syria #Daraa #Lebanon #MidEast 43 minutes ago

Israeli-News.com: Watch: Syrians burn Iran, Hezbollah flags - Israeli-News.com http://bit.ly/mgJNXp

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"Jewhadist"

2011-06-15T16:17:00.006+03:00

"Jewhadist"

The Interrogation :-

Q - What's your name ?
A - Ilan Garpel
Q - Your father's name ?
A - "Shark"
Q - Your mother's name?
A - "Eagle B66"
Q - The purpose of your visit?
A - The cage fight with a lion
Q - The "Mossad Lion" ?
A - No! The SPHINX !...

===

Egyptian Media:
Several Egyptian news outlets are running with the official version of events (the semi-official Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, for example, identifies Grapel as a "Mossad officer who tried to sabotage the Egyptian revolution"). They're also posting Facebook photos of Grapel in Tahrir Square and in his Israeli military uniform. But others are more skeptical. Al Masry Al Youm, for example, notes that "Grapel was posting openly on his Facebook page about his presence and activities in Egypt--hardly the remit of a super spy." Analyst Mohamed al-Gawady tells the paper that Israel would be unlikely to send Grapel on such a mission since "an exposé like this could severely harm the relationship between the two countries" at a precarious post-revolution moment. Egyptian blogger Hossam al-Hamalawy claims the arrest is a "cheap move" by Egyptian intelligence to paint "any public criticism against the military" as the "work of Israeli spies."

===

Alan Baker, an expert in international law and a former legal counsel for the Foreign Ministry, said it was within Egypt’s sovereign rights to arrest and try a person suspected of espionage, but that in Grapel’s case, the arrest was nothing but a way for the authorities to distract the public from other goings on in the country.
JP - http://goo.gl/CVAqs

===

It became a tradition in the Arab World, to show " Mossad series " late at night during the month of Ramadan.

The next film is already under production ! Titled :- " Tantawi Vs. Bin Garpel "

Everybody does it ! Kaddafi, Assad, Nasser-Allah, Ajad, Abu-Mazen & Co. even the Turk - Erdogan !

Did you see the latest master piece? "The Valley of the Wolves - Palestine" ? Finger Lickin' Good !
Wait another two weeks for the Flotilla and you will see in 3D " The Muzomboids Vs. the IDF Mossadoids ".

Egyptians are known for their excellent sense of humor !

Your Mama.... Your President... Your MUHABARAT !... style...

VIVA LA DEMOCRAPOLA !

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Damascus Behind 'Nakba' Riots

2011-06-15T03:15:00.004+03:00

Document: Damascus Behind 'Nakba' Riots

by Yitzhak Benhorin | Ynetnews.com | June 15, 2011

Rioters storming border Photo: AFP

British blogger posts official-looking Syrian document showing clear link between Syrian regime, deadly 'Nakba Day' riots on northern border.

WASHINGTON – Israel's claims that Damascus was the inciting force behind the "Nakba Day" riots received unexpected support Tuesday in the form of an allegedly official Syrian document obtained by Britain's Daily Telegraph.

According to one of the newspaper's blogs the document offers proof that Syria not only encouraged Palestinians to riot during "Nakba Day," it sent 20 buses to the border and instructed the military to allow protesters to access to the fence.

The document, which bears an official government seal, is dated May 14 – one day before the riots on the Israel-Syria border – and is signed by Khalil Mashhadieh, the mayor of Quneitra.

It details a meeting held between Deputy Chief of Staff of the Syrian Armed Forces Major-General Asef Shawkat and chiefs of the Syrian military intelligence branches in the border-adjacent province; and states that military forces stationed at the border were given an order to allow 20 buses carrying civilians to enter the restricted military zone and approach the border fence.

"All security, military, and contingent units in the province of Ain-el-Tina and the old al-Qunaitera are hereby ordered to grant permission of passage to all twenty vehicles... that are scheduled to arrive at ten in the morning on Sunday May 15, 2011 without being questioned or stopped until it reaches or frontier defense locations.

"Permission is hereby granted allowing approaching crowds to cross the cease fire line (with Israel) towards the occupied Majdal-Shamms, and to further allow them to engage physically with each other in front of United Nations agents and offices. Furthermore, there is no objection if a few shots are fired in the air, " the document reads.

The communiqué stresses that none of the civilians would be carrying military IDs or weapons, in an effort to stage a "peaceful and spontaneous" protest.

Since civilians are barred from going near the border, if the document is indeed authentic, then it clearly points to the riots being orchestrated by the Syrian regime, in hopes of diverting international attention form its own brutal crackdown on anti-Assad protesters.

Telegraph blogger Michael Weiss, who posted the document, asserts that it proves Damascus trying to "cynically manipulate" the West.

Weiss, who is the spokesperson of Just Journalism, a watchdog organization that monitors coverage of Israel in British media, said that the document was leaked to him by the governor of al-Qunaitera.

"This document – which I have good reason to believe is absolutely genuine – appears to represent the first piece of regime-created evidence that Assad has cynically tried to manipulate Western and Arabic media during three-month Syrian uprising," he said.

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" Abandon all hope ! You are entering HELL ! "

2011-06-12T23:16:00.003+03:00

Stolen from :- http://goo.gl/jKn4q

June 12, 2011

Canadian Boat to Gaza - a video tribut

Double feature!

BTW, did you know the US boat to Gaza is called The Audacity of Hope? [HA Green Room must read

" Abandon all hope ! You are entering HELL ! "

To see list of passengers on the Audacity click here. <----please click, official website, maybe they will enjoy the above videos!

I am here !

2011-06-12T21:04:00.001+03:00

"ARAB SPRING"

2011-06-12T12:42:00.001+03:00

"Arab Spring" - Misnomer

by Daniel Pipes
May 31, 2011

"Arab Spring" has taken off as the default description of the turbulence in the Middle East over the past 5½ months; Google shows 6.2 million mentions as opposed to 660,000 for "Arab Revolt" and a mere 57,000 for "Arab Upheaval." But I never use this term, and for three reasons:

1 – It's seasonally inaccurate. The disturbances began in Tunisia on Dec. 17, 2010, at the very tail end of autumn, and the main events took place during the winter – Ben Ali's resignation on Jan. 14, Mubarak's resignation on Feb. 11, the start of the Yemeni disturbances on Jan. 15, the Syrina ones on Jan. 26, the Bahraini and Iranian ones on Feb. 14, and the Libyan ones on Feb. 15. Spring is nearly over and nothing much has happened during the past 2+ months – just more of the same. So, to be accurate, it should be called the "Arab Winter" (which gets 88,000 mentions).

2 – It implies an unwarranted optimism about the outcome. While I note the emergence of a constructive new spirit in Tahrir Square and elsewhere, and appreciate its long-term possibilities, the short-term implications have been impoverishment and thousands of deaths, with the possibility of an Islamist break-through not to be discounted.

3 – Demonstrations in Iran in 2011 have not reached anything like their 2009 proportions, but they did take place in late February and they have the potential to ignite – in which case, their importance would overwhelm anything else taking place in the region. It's a mistake to neglect Iran, where few residents speak Arabic.

So, no "Arab Spring" for me. (And I won't even mention that this term distractedly makes me conjure up a desert oasis.) I prefer a neutral and accurate term like "Middle East upheavals" (87,000 mentions). (May 31, 2011)

Bubiša - Vesna - Paul

2011-06-11T21:58:00.003+03:00

Smart Egyptian ( see the date ! )

2011-06-11T05:29:00.006+03:00

November 29, 2005

When the People are the Source of Dictatorship

لقراءة هذه المقالة بالعربية، إضغط هنا

It's certainly a negative thing to have a totalitarian regime that oppresses its people. It's even worse to have a society in which the people themselves oppress their fellow citizens if they choose to have opinions that contradicts to what the majority believes in. But it is definitely a disaster to have both, because it seems that you can't fix one you without fixing the other, and at the same time it is almost impossible to fix both simultaneously.

I read two news articles recently that show how the people in Egypt oppress their fellow citizens, or even think they don't have the right to be citizens, just because they choose to be different than the rest of the herd.

The first article talks about 2000 Egyptian citizens (it seems they all happen to be men) who in the past have traveled to work in Israel and over there they also got married to Israeli women, then at some point they returned to Egypt with their Israeli wives, and for some reason that the article doesn't explain, most of them chose to live in one neighborhood in Alexandria, the "Monasra" neighborhood.

So what is the problem?

Mohammed Al-Badrashin, who is a candidate in the current parliamentary elections and also a current member of the parliament, and who happens to be a Nasserist (a follower of Nasser legacy), is running in the electoral circuit that the Monasra neighborhood follows. He presented a request for the Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif, to remove the names of those 2000 Egyptians from the voters list (i.e. making them ineligible to vote), and stated that their votes would be "invalid" simply because they lived in Israel for some time and because they are married to Israeli women.

By the way, the Israeli women in question are from the "1948 Arabs", in other words they are Palestinians who chose to remain within Israeli territory and receive the Israeli nationality after Israel was established in 1948. This means they are probably not Jewish, but if they were, that would have made things in Egypt even worse for them and their husbands.

Not only that, but Al-Badrashin went as far as stating that since it is possible those men have acquired the Israeli citizenship, then Egypt has to renounce “such people", in other words he is saying Egypt need to revoke their citizenship, even though the laws of Egypt allows multinationalities for an individual.

I haven't seen any news about what happened with Al-Badrashin's request, but this shows how this parliament member thinks of his fellow citizens who are excercising their rights, and who chose to live and get married in a country that has a peace treaty with Egypt that was signed 26 years ago. It is not surprising though, probably most people in Egypt will agree with Al-Badrashin's request.

The second article mentions a lawyer, Galal Abdul-Rahman, who claims that the resolutions of the recent Coptic conference in the USA were "unjust" and "unconstitutional", and that the participants in the conference are "working against Egypt" when they demand change in the second article of the Egyptian constitution, or when they demand assigning 15% of parliament seats and public office positions. You can judge by yourself and tell us what you think... the resolutions are located here.

All of that is still not that bad, it's still an opinion that he can express. But that's not all what he did. Abdul-Rahman also filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian president, prime minister, and the minister of interior, demanding that they revoke the Egyptian citizenship from participants in the conference, and saying that they do not deserve to be Egyptians... And again I wouldn't be surprised if many or most of Egyptians agreed with that.

Who said dictatorship or fascism has to come from the government?

And how can we ask a dictatorship to implement democracy if many of the people who demand democracy are the same people who try to throw out those who are different and those who disagree with the “opinion of the people”, and consider them unworthy to be Egyptians to begin with?

http://goo.gl/58Frs

Briliant ideas

2011-06-11T04:34:00.002+03:00

Idea #2: LET’S GET OUT OF CAIRO NOW!

I love Cairo. Well, I love Cairo at night. Like maybe from 10 pm till 4 am. The rest of the time, I am starting to hate Cairo: It’s a city overloaded with people (25 million residents, 1/3 of Egypt’s population almost) and Cars, and the centralization of all resources and business on the expense of the rest of the country has not benefitted anyone: The Cairo people are unhappy with how overpopulated and polluted their city is, and complain daily about the hellish traffic, and the rest of the country believes Cairo takes up all the economic development to itself. And the thing is, even when the Cairenes try to leave Cairo, they just go to 6 October or New Cairo, which are Cairo suburbs, and thus Cairo-centric as well, which now means that the traffic isn’t just in Cairo, it’s also facing anyone leaving Cairo, making Cairo a Blackhole of soul-sucking and misery. Let’s change that dramatically by moving entire industries to other areas of the country, and thus creating new cities, new pockets of development, and get people out of Cairo for good and for real this time (none of that 6^th of October Crap). For example, let’s move the entire IT and technology industry to the North Coast, and build a huge IT and Technology focused city – our very own Silicon Valley- right behind all of those touristic villages that we only use 3 months a year. That whole area already has paved roads, communication lines, utilities connected to it for those touristic villages, so we will simply need to scale up the existing infrastructure instead of building it from scratch, and it will provide the restaurants, shops and clubs in the area of round the year customers. The IT people will love it, because it takes them out of the city and places them on the beach, the shop owners will love it because it will provide more sources of income for them, the population there will love it because it will mean more jobs whether in construction, factories or companies that will be erected, and the owners will love it because many of them will rent their property all year long instead of a measly 3 months, which will provide them with a higher return on their investments, and a ton of new service-based businesses (banks, car dealerships, retail stores, etc) will open up to serve this new and high-earning population. Another industry we could move elsewhere could be the movie industry, which we could move to Sinai, where huge studios can be built to cater for the Egyptian cinema industry and international cinema companies who will want to film in Egypt instead of Morocco, and thus also hire thousands of people. All the artists, directors, music composers, production people will be moved there, and thus creating the Egyptian Hollywood. And it won’t just be for cinema, it can host the entire media industry, including TV stations, Music companies, and production houses. A city for the arts, on the beach, attracting business and tourism. I would live there, leaving Cairo behind to rot forever! I think you would too.

For more briliant ideas, read here :- http://goo.gl/COAV4

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VIVA LA CONSTITUTION !!!

2011-06-10T14:21:00.004+03:00

You know what, Will ?

At the first glance, after this picture popped up on my screen, I burst laughing.

I thought, what a bad luck. A peaceful bunch of people are walking down the street, suddenly they hear their Muezzin from the near by Mosque calling for prayer, and instinctively they turn towards Mecca, fall on their knees and start praying.

Bad Luck... Shit happens... it could have happened to anybody... etc.

But !

After a careful examination of the picture and a short investigation, the facts started popping up on my screen !

1 - These six Muzoids, were on their way from St. Mary's convent after raping and slitting the throats of two Nuns !

2 - They were on their way to the Synagogue on the other side of the town and stopped by to buy a present for the Bar Mitzvah Groom !...
You know, Hormones ... First time ... Manhood ... etc.

3 - The picture states :-

I PISS ON YOU !

IF YOU CALL THE POLICE...

YOU'RE AN ISLAMOPHOBE !

AND WE WILL SUE YOU ,

IN YOUR OWN COURTS !

VIVA LA CONSTITUTION !!!

An open letter to the people of Egypt

2011-06-08T17:52:00.002+03:00

Baha'i Faith in Egypt

The Baha'is of Egypt have been subjected to persecution and systematic oppression. While their quest for equality has been finally heard by many of their fellow citizens, there remain challenges and obstacles to the implementation of laws intended to grant them their full civil rights and equal opportunity in their society. With the emergence of the new Egypt, they are now being given the opportunity to actively engage in rebuilding their nation.

An open letter to the people of Egypt

[English version of a statement issued in Arabic
by the Bahá’ís of Egypt dated April 2011]

April 2011

An open letter to the people of Egypt

Our fellow citizens:

The events of recent months have provided us, the Bahá’ís of Egypt, with an opportunity we have never experienced before: to communicate directly with you, our brothers and sisters. Though small in number, we are privileged to belong to this land wherein, for more than a hundred years, we have endeavoured to live by the principles enshrined in our Faith and striven to serve our country as upright citizens. This chance is one for which we have longed—especially because we have wished to express our thanks to those countless fair-minded, compassionate souls who supported our efforts in the last few years to obtain a measure of equality before the law. But we rejoice primarily in the fact that, at such a critical juncture in our nation’s history, we are able to make a humble contribution to the conversation which has now begun about its future and to share some perspectives, drawn from our own experience and that of Bahá’ís throughout the world, as to the prerequisites for walking the path towards lasting material and spiritual prosperity.

Read the rest ( and the comments !... ) HERE :- http://goo.gl/uxQei

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Zionist Pussy-Cat :- " What's for dinner? "

2011-06-08T13:59:00.002+03:00

Crazy Egyptian plans to have cage fight with a lion -

http://goo.gl/UblPw

that symbolizes Israel

Zionist Pussy-cat :- " What's for dinner? "

Gallup Poll of Egyptians

2011-06-08T09:31:00.006+03:00

imra Wed Jun 8 01:37:11 2011 Volume 1 : Issue 651

In this issue of the imra daily Digest:

Re: TOURISM MINISTRY HOSTS ABOUT 40 JOURNALISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD TO COVER THE ISRAELI OPERA FESTIVAL IN MASADA AND JERUSALEM

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:48:18 +0300
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Re: TOURISM MINISTRY HOSTS ABOUT 40 JOURNALISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
TO COVER THE ISRAELI OPERA FESTIVAL IN MASADA AND JERUSALEM
Message-ID: <88FE80A3E741457393F7321541C5AB8A@aaronPC>

To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Gallup Poll of Egyptians

Gallup Poll of Egyptians

Egyptians' confidence in their political system surged after the revolution, as did their enthusiasm for participating in it, though many express concern about a lack of jobs and an increase in crime.

The world seemed spellbound for 18 intense days in early 2011, as millions watched Egyptian protesters, undeterred by tanks and tear gas, stand firm for their dignity and a better future. Yet the central story began long after the television cameras left Tahrir Square - the historic epic of building a democratic nation atop the ruins of a despotic regime.

This report chronicles the beginning of Egypt's journey toward democracy. The analysis is based primarily on a nationally representative, face-to-face survey of approximately 1,000 respondents in Egypt aged 15 years and older between late March and early April 2011.[1] Gallup plans to continue tracking the nation's pivotal transition on a monthly basis.

In the wake of the revolution that drove President Hosni Mubarak from office, Egyptians expect a bright political and economic future for their country and appear committed to working for it. They envision a representative government where religious principles guide the democratic process, but with clerics limited to an advisory role. No other population Gallup surveys rejects attacks on civilians more than Egyptians, whose faith in peaceful means of change has only increased since unarmed protesters brought down the country's ruler of more than 30 years. This triumph earned Egyptians the admiration of many, including the majority of the American people.

At the same time, Egyptians are less satisfied with their standard of living and the availability of necessities like quality healthcare, good affordable housing, and jobs. They feel their communities have become less safe and less tolerant, and many no longer trust the police. While the country undoubtedly requires strong leadership to forge the path over these hurdles, no political party has the support of more than 15% of the public. Many Egyptians also have little faith in the leadership or intentions of the United States, requiring the superpower to tread carefully when attempting to support Egypt's democratic transition.

Egyptian leaders must deliver on their people's expectations for free and honest elections, building on the success of the constitutional referendum. Economic growth must go hand in hand with political reform to sustain a healthy transition to democracy. To enable this, leaders should consider streamlining and simplifying the process for new business development to create more jobs. Civil society activists and policymakers alike would do well to approach security and community cohesion as a local issue requiring reform of local institutions. Moving from the city to the region, no international issue is more urgent for Egypt than resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The most important thing the U.S. can do to support Egypt in its transition to democracy is to protect its ally's political independence by standing for principles, not political parties or people. Moreover, Egyptians are looking to their allies to support concrete projects that address urgent economic needs like healthcare and housing, more than they are seeking "democracy promotion." Egypt, with its size, regional influence, and geographic location, remains a critical ally for the U.S. While a relationship with a democratic Egypt, built on shared values and interests, has the potential to be stronger than ever before, it also requires greater alignment between the views of the U.S. government and the Egyptian people. For this reason, the U.S. must be a partner in ending the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict if it is to secure a sustainable relationship with the new Egypt.

Assets on Which to Build a New Egypt

In the wake of Mubarak's resignation, Egyptians are more positive about their future and their country's political and economic prospects. These positive feelings about the years to come are reflected in how Egyptians rate their lives on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale of 0 to 10, where 10 means the best life possible and 0 means the worst life possible today and into the future. Egyptians forecast that, five years from now, their lives will be an average of 5.7 on the life evaluation scale, up from their 4.9 rating in the fall of 2010. Currently, though, Egyptians rate their lives today at a 3.9, down from 4.4 in the fall. This wider gap between their assessments of today and their hopes for tomorrow reflect an optimism Egyptians have lacked for several years.

This may be because most Egyptians now believe their society will become fairer and freer as a result of the revolution, which 83% of the population say they supported. The citizens of the region's largest nation expect evenhandedness at the polls, with 9 in 10 saying they believe the upcoming presidential elections will be fair and honest, and the same proportion of eligible voters saying they will vote. This compares with less than 30% who said they had confidence in elections in 2010.[2] Moreover, 79% of Egyptians now say they think the media will be able to report the news freely, versus 62% who said that before the revolution. Some of that confidence was already evident in the March 19 constitutional referendum, in which 41% of eligible voters participated. That was a big jump from the latter years of Mubarak's rule, when less than one-quarter of eligible voters routinely participated.

Though protesters were more likely to be young, educated, and male, they spanned the demographic spectrum. Their average household income reflected the public at large.

These results are not surprising considering that many Egyptians will expect more freedom after a popular revolution. Perhaps unexpected, though, is the rate at which they are more positive about the economy. Egyptians are three times as likely a month and a half after Mubarak's resignation to say they believe the country's economy is getting better (46%) than they were in the fall of 2010 (15%), despite the economic uncertainty created by political upheaval. Egyptians are also more likely now than in late 2010 to say they think they can get ahead by working hard (93% versus 81%). And Egyptians are half as likely now (11%) as before the revolution (23%) to say they would move permanently to another country if given the opportunity - by far the lowest percentage among Egypt's regional economic peers.[3]

Fewer Egyptians want to migrate

Egyptians are more likely now than in the fall of 2010 to say they would like to continue living in their country, despite a decline in their perceived standard of living. This is a departure from a trend seen from 2008 through 2010, when Egyptians' desire to stay permanently in their home country moved in lockstep with how satisfied they were with their standard of living. The change from fall 2010 to spring 2011 in desire to stay in Egypt reveals a level of commitment to the country that hasn't been evident in the recent past.

The willingness of Egyptians to take a longer view could benefit the national economy, driving consumer confidence upward and making citizens more apt to invest in Egyptian stocks and deposit their money with Egyptian banks. Moreover, 69% of Egyptians now say they have confidence in the country's financial institutions, compared with 43% before the revolution. However, the high expectations for economic improvement leave the country's new leaders with little margin for error. Eighty-two percent of Egyptians say it is very important that economic conditions improve, according to the Pew Research Center. If the hoped-for economic improvements do not materialize, it could create a great deal of discontent among the population.

A place for religion in the new democracy

Egyptians are clearly eager to take on the challenges and burdens of democracy. Freedom of speech has been a top political aspiration of Egyptians for years, and it remains so in the wake of the revolution. Ninety-two percent of Egyptians say they would include freedom of speech as a provision if they were drafting a new constitution for a new country. Sixty-seven percent of Egyptians say the same about freedom of religion, and 55% say it about freedom of assembly. In a Pew Research Center survey conducted after Mubarak's resignation, 64% of Egyptians said the country should use some form of democratic government to solve its problems, versus the 34% who said the country would be better off relying on a strong leader.[4]

At the same time, religion remains important to most Egyptians (96%), and 92% say they have confidence in religious institutions. It is not surprising, then, that many Egyptians reject the idea that government should carry on its business without considering religious doctrine. Shortly before the revolution, most people in the country believed that Islamic religious principles, in the form of sharia, should factor into the country's legislation.

Egyptians, however, express little interest in recreating their country in the image of Iran, as has been the fear among some Western commentators. Less than 1% say the Islamic Republic should be Egypt's political model, and most Egyptians think religious leaders should provide advice to government authorities, as opposed to having full authority for determining the nation's laws. The majority of residents in the Arab world's most populous nation desire a democracy informed by religious values, not a theocracy.

Rejecting violence, including among faiths

Egyptians are the most likely people of any country in the world to say the targeting and killing of civilians is never justified (97%). Not only do Egyptians reject civilian attacks on moral grounds, but most also believe peaceful means are effective for correcting injustice. During the five years that Gallup has been conducting surveys in the country, the majority of Egyptians have said they believe that peaceful means alone are sufficient to improve the circumstances of oppressed groups. With the success this year of the Egyptian revolution, Egyptians' confidence in non-violent means of change has surged.

With the disappearance of the Mubarak police state, there has been a perceived rise in violent crime in Egypt. However, the violence, including a sectarian street fight in May 2011 that left six Muslims and six Christians dead near the Church of St. Mina in Cairo, may reflect the criminal actions of a few as opposed to evidence of a generally intolerant society.

Egyptians rank near the top of all populations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) when it comes to welcoming religious diversity. Two-thirds of Egyptians say they would have no objections if someone of another faith moved in next door to them, second only to Lebanon in the region. Additionally, 78% of Egyptians are at least tolerant of (if not integrated with) other religious faiths.[5] Among other MENA countries, only Lebanon is less isolated along religious lines.

American support for the revolution

Media coverage of the Egyptian uprising, with millions of people peacefully demonstrating in Tahrir Square despite the presence of tanks, won the respect and admiration of the U.S. public. Surveying conducted during the second week of the conflict, found that 82% of Americans were sympathetic to the protesters - including 87% of those following the situation in Egypt closely.[6] In fact, roughly the same portions of the American and Egyptian public had this view. The percentage of Americans who said they had a favorable opinion of Egypt declined toward the end of the protests, as Americans saw the regime use force against peaceful protesters - it fell to 40% shortly before Mubarak officially resigned from his post as Egypt's president.[7] According to an April 2011 survey conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), however, Americans' overall favorable opinion of Egypt bounced back, with 60% of the U.S. public saying it had a favorable opinion of Egypt,
and 70% saying the same about the country's people. This is comparable to the percentage of Americans who said they had a favorable opinion of Israel (69%), and much higher than those who said the same about Syria (32%).[8]

Clearly, the door is open to greater cooperation between Egypt and the U.S., something that is important to both nations and could certainly be valuable to Egypt's new leadership, once in place. That said, Egypt-U.S. cooperation also faces some significant challenges.

Challenges to Positive Change

A leadership void throughout the country

In the weeks after Mubarak's resignation, the euphoria about being free of an increasingly corrupt and repressive government gave way to concerns about the sudden void in political leadership. The void is evident in the fact that currently no group in Egypt has emerged as a viable political party. Specifically, Egyptians are most likely to voice support for the Muslim Brotherhood, but not at a level much higher than that for Mubarak's deposed National Democratic Party. This makes it likely that Egypt's next parliament will need to create a coalition unity government, which could lead to deadlocks and may end up slowing the legislative process. However, a patchwork parliament would also require all parties to make compromises, lowering the risk of any one group imposing its views without challenge, as was the case with the former ruling party.

Post-Mubarak Egypt is also concerned with its economy. At the city or local community level, where people live and work, Egyptians are twice as likely to say the economy is getting worse now than they were one year ago. Meanwhile, a large majority of Egyptians (81%) continue to say now is a bad time to find a job.

Economic woes, perceived surge in crime plague neighborhoods

Two issues contributing to Egyptians' concerns about their local economy are their perceptions about the availability of good affordable housing and quality healthcare. Gallup research finds Egyptians rate the availability of both worse now than before the revolution.

The lack of good affordable housing and quality healthcare, in addition to the difficulty finding jobs, aren't the only problems plaguing Egypt's cities and towns. Satisfaction with local leadership at the community level is also lacking. The percentage of Egyptians who say they approve of the leadership in their city or area has fallen to 28% from 47% two years earlier. This finding is perhaps not a surprise, as most local governments were appointed by a now-discredited regime.

The biggest institutional void, or at least the one producing the most consequences at the moment, is in the area of law enforcement.

During the uprising in early 2011, protesters destroyed many police stations, lashing out at a hated symbol of Mubarak's rule. However, with the police force humbled and diminished in number, Egyptians see their streets as less secure. Almost two in five people now say they don't feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where they live. The percentage is twice as large as it was last year.

It is worth noting, however, that according to Gallup's spring 2011 survey, there was a slight decline in the percentage of Egyptians reporting incidences of theft and assault. This could be the result of greater civic engagement, which studies suggest is associated with lower crime rates.[9] If this is indeed the case, increased fear may be due to a greater media focus on crime and violence.

Distrust of U.S. leadership and motivations

With the exception of a few months before and after U.S. President Barack Obama spoke at Cairo University in June 2009, Gallup surveys find Egyptians' approval of American leadership at or below 20%.[10]

At this critical juncture in their history, Egyptians are apprehensive about possible U.S. interference in their political affairs. About two-thirds of Egyptians disagree that the U.S. is serious about encouraging democratic systems of government in MENA. While that percentage is lower now than in 2009, when three-quarters of Egyptians expressed such skepticism, it still implies that a majority of Egyptians distrust American motives. Additionally, 68% of Egyptians think the U.S. will try to exert direct influence over Egypt's political future as opposed to letting the people of the country forge that future for themselves.

Egyptians overwhelmingly oppose the U.S. sending aid to political groups in their country. Surprisingly, this is especially the case among those who look to America as a political example. While 75% of the general public opposes U.S. aid to political groups, 88% of Egyptians who favor a U.S. model for their country say the same. This suggests that a refusal of financial assistance to political groups points not to a rejection of American political principles, but rather to a hunger for self-determination - unsurprisingly more strongly voiced by those wishing to emulate America.

This desire for political independence may explain Egyptians' discomfort with accepting U.S. financial aid. Even among Egyptians who think their country should look to the U.S. system of democracy as a model, 43% oppose the idea of accepting economic aid from the U.S. The level of opposition is higher among Egyptians as a whole (52%). This is especially noteworthy considering Egyptians' immediate economic challenges, suggesting that they are rejecting aid out of suspicion rather than lack of need.

Which country would you consider to be a political model for Egypt’s future government?

Do you favor or oppose the U.S. sending aid to political groups in Egypt?

Among those who see U.S. as model for Egypt: Favor 10% Oppose 88%

General public: Favor 13% Oppose 75% u

Differences on foreign policy with respect to Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan also loom as major stumbling blocks in Egypt-U.S. relations. Three months after the revolution, Egypt stepped in and played a key role in brokering reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the two Palestinian factions. It was a foreign policy initiative that alarmed U.S. officials, but one that is likely popular among Egyptians, 54% of whom would like to see their country annul the peace treaty it entered into with Israel more than 30 years ago.[11]

America's application of pressure on Israel with respect to settlements in the West Bank and its withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan are potential policy moves that would significantly improve Egyptians' opinion of the U.S.

Below is a list of possible actions that the Unitd States could take. for each one, I am interested in knowing if this action would very significantly improve your opinion of the United States

% Yes

Pressure Israel to stop the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank 68%

Withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq 66%

Withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan 60%

Recommendations for Egypt

Egyptian leaders - whether in government, civil society, or the private sector - should move quickly to lay the foundation for an improved economic and political future. Here are some things they can do.

Build on the success of the referendum vote to carry out and build public trust for transparent and fair elections. The elevated level of civic participation - 9 in 10 Egyptians say they expect the next elections to be honest and fair, and that they will vote in them - bodes well for the fledgling democracy. It also means that leaders can expect a significant public backlash if voters don't get the type of elections they expect.

Judiciary monitoring was used in the March referendum, and with 80% of Egyptians saying they have confidence in the judicial system, leaders should take advantage of this monitoring again in the upcoming elections. Other ways that leaders can make the upcoming elections successful are by having the military (which has the confidence of 94% of Egyptians) provide security, and by using television to educate citizens and encourage them to vote.

Create jobs and encourage new business development so that more can share in the country's macroeconomic success. One of the major problems with Egypt's economy is that its growth tends to not benefit the majority. This was evident before the revolution, when Egypt's per capital gross domestic product grew by 5% in 2010, but just one-fifth of Egyptians said they believed economic conditions were getting better.[12] To address this problem, Egypt should take steps to facilitate entrepreneurship.

a.. Shortening, streamlining, and simplifying the process of starting a business
b.. Launching a national campaign to generate new ideas for a business
c.. Pairing the top submissions with business leaders as mentors
d.. Leveraging international matching investments to provide seed capital for a select number of ideas
e.. Increasing security so that the tourism industry - crucial to Egypt's economy - rebounds
Improve inter-religious cohesion by focusing on national unity and citizenship equality, rather than pushing for a "secular state." Leaders must address the highly publicized recent clashes between Muslims and Christians, but it is important to do so in the right way. For instance, a rebuilt (and more trusted) local police force will improve overall security. Civil society for its part should provide opportunities for greater citizen cooperation at the neighborhood level, building trust and lowering the perception of security issues.

It bears repeating, the majority of Egyptians support freedom of worship, understand the need to coexist with those of other faiths, and oppose terrorist violence. These societal assets are already in place. Leaders, including civil society activists, should call on those values to emphasize the principles of citizen equality and national unity. An attempt to marginalize religion, or to push for a secular state through constitutional reform, as a means to decrease sectarian tensions will likely encounter stiff opposition and create greater division. Moreover, demonizing Islamist groups is likely to further strain interfaith relations. For example, Egyptians may not think the Muslim Brotherhood should run the country, according to Gallup research, but 75% of Egyptians have a "somewhat favorable" or "favorable" opinion of the organization, according to the Pew Research Center.[13]

Reform local governments and institutions. While Egyptians are optimistic about the national economy and political system, current views of their local communities are much more negative. Egyptians believe that economic conditions in those communities are worsening, and they see their immediate cities and towns as intolerant and increasingly less secure.

To address these local shortcomings, leaders should do three things:

a.. Transition from government appointments to direct elections. Elections for local governors and mayors can take place quickly following national elections.
b.. Study the feasibility of creating local police forces to replace national police and rebuild trust. As part of this, it may make sense to allow towns to elect their own police chiefs.
c.. Build on the success of recent community policing, in which citizen groups in many Egyptian neighborhoods took to the streets to provide protection against gangs. Community leaders should create new opportunities for local cooperation, such as regular neighborhood volunteer projects, to increase community cohesion. Studies suggest that greater civic participation and personal connections between neighbors can significantly reduce crime rates.[14]
Work tirelessly to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The status quo of Palestinians not having a homeland, living in poverty, and struggling for dignity is not acceptable to Egyptians, as is evident in the desire many Egyptians have to see the Camp David peace accords with Israel annulled. Egyptian leaders will almost certainly find themselves under more pressure on matters relating to the Palestinians. While maintaining its international obligations, the Egyptian government must build on its successful mediation of Palestinian unity and continue to take constructive steps toward resolving the conflict.

Harness Egypt's positive image with the American public to forge a new relationship with the U.S., built on mutual respect and mutual interest. This will position Egypt to play an important peacemaking role in the region. It is also the best way to forge important trade and investment relationships and refuel Egypt's economy.

Recommendations for the U.S.

America's stated goal is to help Egypt transition to a strong and stable democracy, and offer a positive example to the region. American leaders can increase the likelihood of achieving this goal if they implement the following strategies.

Protect the independence of Egypt's political system by supporting democratic principles, not political parties or individuals. Given the impression most Egyptians have, that America tries to shape Middle Eastern politics to its own ends, the United States must tread carefully. In the last two years, the percentage of Egyptians who believe that the U.S. is serious about supporting democracy in MENA has risen somewhat, but two-thirds still disagree. For this minority view to have a chance of becoming more common, U.S. leaders must remain neutral in, and distant from, Egypt's political process. To this end, the U.S. should consider the following:

a.. Reconsider its proposed plan to directly choose and fund Egyptian civil society groups. The vast majority of Egyptians oppose the proposition of U.S. aid to Egyptian political groups. While civil society groups and political groups are not identical, their areas of overlap may be too great at this delicate stage to make a distinction.
b.. Take pains to avoid rhetoric that might be interpreted as anti-religion, such as encouraging Egyptians to form a secular state.
c.. Call for democratic principles in general, and say they should benefit all people. Singling out minority groups for extra protection may backfire.
Invest in favorable trade agreements and concrete, visible projects that directly address a societal need, rather than "democracy promotion." Partly as a result of the March referendum, Egyptians are confident in their ability to hold free and fair elections and aren't looking for the U.S. to provide financial or logistical support for upcoming votes. American dollars are better invested in projects that meet an immediate community need, such as better local housing and healthcare.

U.S. leaders should explore the possibility of a free trade agreement with Egypt, and could work with the Egyptian government to provide greater transparency into how American aid is being allocated. This would go a long way toward addressing Egyptian ambivalence about U.S. assistance.

The recent announcement from White House officials of debt forgiveness for Egypt was a bold step in the right direction.

( Now, add this : )

Work tirelessly to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains a major point of difference between Americans and Egyptians. Almost 70% of Egyptians say their opinion of the U.S. would significantly improve if it pressured Israel to halt settlement expansion, something many Egyptians believe President Obama committed to in his 2009 address in Cairo. One of the hallmarks of a democracy is that leaders cannot disregard what citizens want. In Egypt's case, this includes an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The U.S. must be a partner in ending this decades-long stalemate if it is to secure a close and mutually beneficial relationship with Egypt.

Survey Methods

Gallup is entirely responsible for the management, design, and control of this study. For the past 70 years, Gallup has been committed to the principle that accurately collecting and disseminating the opinions and aspirations of people around the globe are vital to understanding our world. Gallup's mission is to provide information in an objective, reliable, and scientifically grounded manner. Gallup is not associated with any political orientation, party, or advocacy group and does not accept partisan entities as clients.

Results are based on face-to-face interviews in Egypt with approximately 1,000 adults in each survey administration, aged 15 and older, from 2007 to 2011. Surveys took place in July 2007; in 2008, they were conducted April 23-May 18; in 2009, surveys took place March 7-22 and Aug. 11-19; in 2010, they were conducted March 13-23 and Sept. 25-Oct. 26; and in 2011 surveys were conducted March 25-April 2. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error ranges from ±3.1 to ±3.5 percentage points. The questionnaire was translated into Arabic. The translation process starts with an English version. A translator who is proficient in the English and Arabic languages translates the survey into the target language. A second translator reviews the language version against the original version and recommends refinements.

All other results for countries mentioned in this article are based on face-to-face interviews in 2009 with approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, in each country. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error ranges from ±3.3 to ±4.2 percentage points. Surveys in Arab Gulf countries were conducted with nationals and Arab expatriates.

Results from the American public are based on telephone interviews conducted Feb. 2-5, 2011, with a random sample of national adults, aged 18 and older, selected using random-digit-dialing sampling. Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones. Each sample includes a minimum quota of 150 cell phone-only respondents and 850 landline respondents. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Abu Dhabi Gallup Center

The Abu Dhabi Gallup Center is a Gallup research hub based in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. It is the product of a partnership between Gallup, the world's leading public opinion research firm, and the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi.

Building on Gallup's seminal work in the field of Muslim studies, the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center (ADGC) offers unmatched research on the attitudes and aspirations of Muslims around the world. In addition to its worldwide scope, the ADGC focuses on the specific priorities of its regional base and presents innovative analysis and insights on the most important societal challenges facing the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

[1] Gallup surveys conducted in the United States were with respondents aged 18 years and older, as were surveys conducted in Egypt by other entities cited in this report.

[2] Egypt: The Arithmetic of Revolution, Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, March 2011
http://www.abudhabigallupcenter.com/146888/brief-egypt-arithmetic-revolution.aspx

[3] Middle-income GDP MENA countries include Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Libya, and Iraq. Categories based on 2010 estimates of GDP per capita in U.S. dollars provided by the International Monetary Fund.

[4] Egyptians Embrace Revolt Leaders, Religious Parties and Military, As Well, Pew Research Center, April 25, 2011

[5] Gallup categorizes people as either isolated, tolerant, or integrated depending on how they answer five questions, including whether they have learned anything from a person of another faith in the past year and whether they think religions other than their own make a positive contribution to society.

[6] Americans Sympathetic to Egyptian Protesters, Gallup, February 7, 2011
http://www.gallup.com/poll/145979/Americans-Sympathetic-Egyptian-Protesters.aspx

[7] Americans' Views of Egypt Sharply More Negative, Gallup, February 8, 2011
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146003/Americans-Views-Egypt-Sharply-Negative.aspx

[8] The American Public and the Arab Awakening, Program on Internal Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, April 12, 2011.

[9] Buonanno, P., Montolio, D., and Vanin, P. Does Social Capital Reduce Crime?, 2006.
http://dspace-unibg.cilea.it/bitstream/10446/230/1/WPEco05(2006)Buonanno.pdf

[10] Interestingly, one group of Egyptians more prone to approving of U.S. leaders are those who support the Muslim Brotherhood as a prospective political party. Among Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt, 26% say they approve of U.S. leadership, suggesting the Muslim Brotherhood's reputation for being anti-American doesn't tell the whole story.

[11] Egyptians Embrace Revolt Leaders, Religious Parties and Military, As Well, Pew Research Center, April 25, 2011

[12] Egypt: The Arithmetic of Revolution, Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, March 2011
http://www.abudhabigallupcenter.com/146888/brief-egypt-arithmetic-revolution.aspx

[13] Egyptians Embrace Revolt Leaders, Religious Parties and Military, As Well, Pew Research Center, April 25, 2011

[14] Buonanno, P., Montolio, D., and Vanin, P. Does Social Capital Reduce Crime?, 2006.
http://dspace-unibg.cilea.it/bitstream/10446/230/1/WPEco05(2006)Buonanno.pdf

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' Arab Spring ' - Planned in 1993

2011-06-07T03:57:00.003+03:00

'Arab Spring' Revolutions Follow Game Plan from 1993 Book

Ruth

2011-06-06T15:01:00.001+03:00

Posted 17/5/2010

Ruth

Listen to Chapter one in Hebrew

1,1 And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Beth-lehem in Judah went to sojourn in the field of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

1,2 And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Beth-lehem in Judah. And they came into the field of Moab, and continued there.

1,3 And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.

1,4 And they took them wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth; and they dwelt there about ten years.

1,5 And Mahlon and Chilion died both of them; and the woman was left of her two children and of her husband.

1,6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the field of Moab; for she had heard in the field of Moab how that the LORD had remembered His people in giving them bread.

1,7 And she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.

1,8 And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law: 'Go, return each of you to her mother's house; the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

1,9 The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.' Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.

1,10 And they said unto her: 'Nay, but we will return with thee unto thy people.'

1,11 And Naomi said: 'Turn back, my daughters; why will ye go with me? have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

1,12 Turn back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say: I have hope, should I even have an husband to-night, and also bear sons;

1,13 would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye shut yourselves off for them and have no husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes, for the hand of the LORD is gone forth against me.'

1,14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth cleaved unto her.

1,15 And she said: 'Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her god; return thou after thy sister-in-law.'

1,16 And Ruth said: 'Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God;

1,17 where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the LORD do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.'

1,18 And when she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking unto her.

1,19 So they two went until they came to Beth-lehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Beth-lehem, that all the city was astir concerning them, and the women said: 'Is this Naomi?'

1,20 And she said unto them: 'Call me not Naomi, call me Marah; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

1,21 I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me back home empty; why call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?'

1,22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the field of Moab--and they came to Beth-lehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

Listen to Chapter two in Hebrew

2,1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of valour, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.

2,2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi: 'Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find favour.' And she said unto her: 'Go, my daughter.'

2,3 And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and her hap was to light on the portion of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

2,4 And, behold, Boaz came from Beth-lehem, and said unto the reapers: 'The LORD be with you.' And they answered him: 'The LORD bless thee.'

2,5 Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers: 'Whose damsel is this?'

2,6 And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said: 'It is a Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the field of Moab;

2,7 and she said: Let me glean, I pray you, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves; so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, save that she tarried a little in the house.'

2,8 Then said Boaz unto Ruth: 'Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither pass from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens.

2,9 Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them; have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.'

2,10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed down to the ground, and said unto him: 'Why have I found favour in thy sight, that thou shouldest take cognizance of me, seeing I am a foreigner?'

2,11 And Boaz answered and said unto her: 'It hath fully been told me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thy husband; and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people that thou knewest not heretofore.

2,12 The LORD recompense thy work, and be thy reward complete from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to take refuge.'

2,13 Then she said: 'Let me find favour in thy sight, my LORD; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken to the heart of thy handmaid, though I be not as one of thy handmaidens.'

2,14 And Boaz said unto her at meal-time: 'Come hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar.' And she sat beside the reapers; and they reached her parched corn, and she did eat and was satisfied, and left thereof.

2,15 And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying: 'Let her glean even among the sheaves, and put her not to shame.

2,16 And also pull out some for her of purpose from the bundles, and leave it, and let her glean, and rebuke her not.'

2,17 So she gleaned in the field until even; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.

2,18 And she took it up, and went into the city; and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned; and she brought forth and gave to her that which she had left after she was satisfied.

2,19 And her mother-in-law said unto her: 'Where hast thou gleaned to-day? and where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee.' And she told her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought, and said: 'The man's name with whom I wrought to-day is Boaz.'

2,20 And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law: 'Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off His kindness to the living and to the dead.' And Naomi said unto her: 'The man is nigh of kin unto us, one of our near kinsmen.' 2,21 And Ruth the Moabitess said: 'Yea, he said unto me: Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.'

2,22 And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter-in-law: 'It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, and that thou be not met in any other field.'

2,23 So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

Listen to Chapter three in Hebrew

3,1 And Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her: 'My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?

3,2 And now is there not Boaz our kinsman, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to-night in the threshing-floor.

3,3 Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the threshing-floor; but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking.

3,4 And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do.'

3,5 And she said unto her: 'All that thou sayest unto me I will do.'

3,6 And she went down unto the threshing-floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her.

3,7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn; and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.

3,8 And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was startled, and turned himself; and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.

3,9 And he said: 'Who art thou?' And she answered: 'I am Ruth thine handmaid; spread therefore thy skirt over thy handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.'

3,10 And he said: 'Blessed be thou of the LORD, my daughter; thou hast shown more kindness in the end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou didst not follow the young men, whether poor or rich.

3,11 And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou sayest; for all the men in the gate of my people do know that thou art a virtuous woman.

3,12 And now it is true that I am a near kinsman; howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I.

3,13 Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman's part; but if he be not willing to do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the LORD liveth; lie down until the morning.'

3,14 And she lay at his feet until the morning; and she rose up before one could discern another. For he said: 'Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing-floor.'

3,15 And he said: 'Bring the mantle that is upon thee, and hold it'; and she held it; and he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her; and he went into the city.

3,16 And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said: 'Who art thou, my daughter?' And she told her all that the man had done to her.

3,17 And she said: 'These six measures of barley gave he me; for he said to me: Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law.'

3,18 Then said she: 'Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall; for the man will not rest, until he have finished the thing this day.'

Listen to Chapter four in Hebrew

4,1 Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat him down there; and, behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by; unto whom he said: 'Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here.' And he turned aside, and sat down.

4,2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said: 'Sit ye down here.' And they sat down.

4,3 And he said unto the near kinsman: 'Naomi, that is come back out of the field of Moab, selleth the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's;

4,4 and I thought to disclose it unto thee, saying: Buy it before them that sit here, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it; but if it will not be redeemed, then tell me, that I may know; for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee.' And he said: 'I will redeem it.'

4,5 Then said Boaz: 'What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi--hast thou also bought of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance?'

4,6 And the near kinsman said: 'I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance; take thou my right of redemption on thee; for I cannot redeem it.'--

4,7 Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm all things: a man drew off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour; and this was the attestation in Israel.--

4,8 So the near kinsman said unto Boaz: 'Buy it for thyself.' And he drew off his shoe.

4,9 And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people: 'Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi.

4,10 Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I acquired to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place; ye are witnesses this day.'

4,11 And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said: 'We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman that is come into thy house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel; and do thou worthily in Ephrath, and be famous in Beth-lehem;

4,12 and let thy house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.'

4,13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in unto her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.

4,14 And the women said unto Naomi: 'Blessed be the LORD, who hath not left thee this day without a near kinsman, and let his name be famous in Israel.

4,15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of life, and a nourisher of thine old age; for thy daughter-in-law, who loveth thee, who is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him.'

4,16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.

4,17 And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying: 'There is a son born to Naomi'; and they called his name Obed; he is the father of Jesse, the father of David. {P}

4,18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez begot Hezron;

4,19 and Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab;

4,20 and Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon;

4,21 and Salmon begot Boaz, and Boaz begot Obed;

4,22 and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David. {P}

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Wet Burka Show

2011-06-04T01:57:00.002+03:00

"young Jewish-looking Abraham Lincoln"

2011-06-04T00:17:00.006+03:00

Was Abe Lincoln a Jewish pawn of the Rothschilds?

He freed the slaves, preserved the Union and pushed major banking reform. That last part still gets people upset

By Andrew Leonard

"young Jewish-looking Abraham Lincoln"

At Salon, we try to keep abreast of as many currently percolating conspiracy theories as possible. Not only is it good for business -- readers always love a good dose of the crazy -- but in recent years what once could be easily dismissed as irredeemably fringe now pops up in mainstream political discourse with alarming and increasing frequency. One day, you might be deleting an email that seems to be little more than random gibberish, and then before you've caught your breath, a presidential candidate is quoting from that same email while out on the campaign trail.

Even with this background in mind, I still probably should not have engaged with a correspondent who wanted me to write a story about a photograph purported to be of a "young Jewish-looking Abraham Lincoln." When I asked what relevance a revisionist reading of Lincoln's religion or ethnicity might have to the historical record, I was informed that a) "he would want to free the black slaves because his ancestors were traumatized about being slaves in Egypt" and b) "he would try to help the European Jews (Rothschilds) in taking over the United States by starting a war and having Americans fight one another while they take control of our banking system."

News like this can make a person reconsider celebrating Presidents' Day, if you take it seriously, which, initially, I did not. You didn't have to be Jewish to think slavery was an abomination, and what I can glean from the historical record seems to indicate that the Rothschilds thought an American Civil War would be bad for business. But I still felt compelled to do some googling to see if I could get a sense of where the "Abe Lincoln as Jewish Rothschild pawn" ranked on the Birther/911 Truther conspiracy theory Richter scale.

I discovered the usual mish-mash of fabricated quotes and wild anti-Semitic ravings. Maj. Gen. Count Cherep-Spiridovitch to the white courtesy telephone, please! One thing you discover quickly when googling the keywords "Rothschilds" and "Lincoln." Blaming Jews for starting the Civil War has been a popular pastime for a long, long time. And I have to say: It certainly simplifies things to decide that Lincoln himself was just another rootless cosmopolitan in on the plot. Even if the "evidence" for this assertion is less than compelling.

But if you dig a little deeper on the specific accusation that the Rothschild motivation for starting the Civil War was to take over the U.S. banking system, you suddenly find yourself facing a set of concerns that are surprisingly close to the surface of contemporary political discourse involving the national debt and monetary policy.

Because Abe Lincoln didn't just free the slaves and preserve the Union. He also ended the so-called "free banking" era, and established a national currency in which paper notes backed by the U.S. government were by law considered to be legal tender.

Mainstream economic historians tend to portray the "free banking" or "wildcat banking" era as chaotic and prone to banking panics. Loosely regulated by states, and not at all by the federal goverment, banks had the power to issue their own currency, resulting in a proliferation of competing bank notes that sometimes weren't worth the paper they were printed on. From this perspective, the passage of the National Banking Acts in 1863 and 1864 marked a welcome step in the maturation of the U.S. financial system.

But whether or not you accept that explanation of history -- and many, many libertarians, led by Rep. Ron Paul, do not -- there was also another clear reason for the consolidation of central government control over U.S. currency. Lincoln had to find a way to pay for his enormously expensive war, and issuing paper currency theoretically backed by government securities was the method he used to do it.

If you listen to some of the more wild-eyed libertarian voices out there, you will find that it is at this point that America really went off the tracks. Abraham Lincoln centralized government control over the money supply! And freedom died. We lost our bearings during the Civil War and have never managed to find our way back.

So of course he's a traitor! And of course some way must be found to transform him into an alien "other."

Remind you of someone else? Some other president who faced a national emergency, borrowed a lot of cash to deal with it, then pushed through major bank reform legislation and found himself immediately tarred as a Muslim socialist out to destroy a great nation? And who now faces an array of contenders for the White House calling for a return to the gold standard, a balanced budget amendment, and the abolishment of the Federal Reserve? It's all connected, man. Abraham Lincoln, the president who ended slavery, and Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, are peas in the same pod, both irredeemably stained by the hard fiscal decisions they had to make to save their nation.

FATA MORGANA !

2011-06-03T11:30:00.000+03:00

imra Fri Jun 3 2011
Subject: [Even worse] Spengler describes total economic meltdown of Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and other Arab oil-importing countries

Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

Consider the following for Egypt:

#1. The job loss is related to the tourism industry while the billions will go to other sectors = still a lot of angry and frustrated people.

#2. Even if the billions pouring into Egypt were distributed/invested on a perfectly corruption free basis, the inevitable outcome of a successful program is that the owners and senior managers of the companies that
received the billions will be magnitudes wealthier than they are today and there still will be a lot of unemployed = a lot of very angry and frustrated people convinced that those owners and senior managers gained their wealth
through corruption - stealing the billions in foreign funding that should have gone to the People of Egypt.

And we watch and wait, knowing that we must be prepared for the day that Egyptian leadership may have to choose between dangling from the lamp post and diverting the wrath of the frustrated masses by pointing to Israel. ]

Humpty Obumpty and the Arab Spring
By Spengler 1 June 2011 Asia Times
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MF01Ak01.html

I've been warning for months that Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and other Arab oil-importing countries face a total economic meltdown (see Food and failed Arab states, Feb 2, and The hunger to come in Egypt, May 10). Now the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed my warnings.

The leaders of the industrial nations waited until last weekend's Group of Eight (G-8) summit to respond, and at the initiative of United States President Barack Obama proposed what sounds like a massive aid program but probably consists mainly of refurbishing old programs.

The egg has splattered, and all of Obumpty's horses and men can't mend it. Even the G-8's announcement was fumbled; Canada's Prime Minister John Harper refused to commit new money, a dissonant note that routine diplomatic
preparation would have pre-empted.

The numbers thrown out by the IMF are stupefying. "In the current baseline scenario," wrote the IMF on May 27, "the external financing needs of the region's oil importers is projected to exceed $160 billion during 2011-13."
That's almost three years' worth of Egypt's total annual imports as of 2010. As of 2010, the combined current account deficit (that is, external financing needs) of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Morocco and Tunisia was about $15 billion a year.

What the IMF says, in effect, is that the oil-poor Arab economies - especially Egypt - are not only broke, but dysfunctional, incapable of earning more than a small fraction of their import bill. The disappearance of tourism is an important part of the problem, but shortages of fuel and other essentials have had cascading effects throughout these economies.

"In the next 18 months," the IMF added, "a greater part of these financing needs will need to be met from the international community because of more cautious market sentiments during the uncertain transition."

Translation: private investors aren't stupid enough to throw money down a Middle Eastern rat-hole, and now that the revolutionary government has decided to make a horrible example of deposed president Hosni Mubarak,
anyone who made any money under his regime is cutting and running. At its May 29 auction of treasury bills, Egypt paid about 12% for short-term money, to its own captive banking system. Its budget deficit in the next fiscal year, the government says, will exceed $30 billion.

And the IMF's $160 billion number is only "external financing"; that is, maintaining imports into a busted economy. It doesn't do a thing to repair busted economies that import half their caloric intake, as do the oil-poor Arab nations.

Egypt's economy is in free fall. Its biggest foreign exchange earner was a tourist industry that won't come back for a decade, if ever. The IMF's $160 billion doesn't take into account the costs of teaching two-fifths of the Egyptian population to read, or raising crop yields to more than a fifth of American levels, or training university graduates to do more than stamp identity cards and shuffle papers. As the international organization made clear, this is what Egypt and its neighbors require merely to pay for essential imports.

Of course, the IMF's admission that Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Yemen can't meet the majority of their import bill without foreign aid does not increase the probability that these countries will obtain financing on that scale. On May 30, the IMF announced that it would lend $3 billion to Egypt - a tenth of its budget deficit - sometime in June. The G-8 offered the grandiose pledge of $20 billion in their own money along with $20 billion from the IMF, World Bank, and so forth, to support the "Arab Spring", with the dissension of the Canadian prime minister. But it is unclear whether that represents new money, or a shuffling of existing aid commitments, or nothing whatever.

Whatever the Group of Eight actually had in mind, the proposed aid package for the misnomered Arab Spring has already become a punching bag for opposition budget-cutters. "Should we be borrowing money from China to turn
around and give it to the Muslim Brotherhood?" Sarah Palin asked on May 27.

"Now, given that Egypt has a history of corruption when it comes to utilizing American aid, it is doubtful that the money will really help needy Egyptian people. Couple that with the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is organized to have a real shot at taking control of Egypt’s government, and one has to ask why we would send money (that we don't have) into unknown Egyptian hands," the former Republican vice-presidential candidate added.

Whether any amount of foreign aid will stabilize Egypt's economic position is questionable, even if the industrial nations and the Arab Gulf states opened their purses, which is doubtful.

From Arab-language online media, it appears that Egypt's economic troubles have metastasized. Last month, rice disappeared from public storehouses amid press reports that official food distribution organizations were selling the
grain by the container on the overseas market. Last week, diesel fuel was the scarce commodity, with 24-hour queues forming around gasoline stations. Foreign tankers were waiting at Port Said on the Suez Canal to pump diesel oil from storage facilities, as government officials sold the scarce commodity for cash.

This is the sort of general breakdown I observed in 1992 in Russia, following the collapse of the communist government. As an adviser to finance minister Yegor Gaidar, I heard stories of Russian officials selling unregistered trainloads of raw materials on foreign markets and depositing the proceeds in Swiss banking accounts. Anything of value that could find a buyer overseas was sold. I didn't last long as an adviser; looting and pillaging wasn't my area of competence. Russia, it should be recalled, is largely self-sufficient in food and is among the world's largest oil producers, while Egypt imports half its food. Russia had enormous resources on which to draw. Egypt, Syria and Tunisia have nothing.

For 60 years, the Egyptian army and associated crony capitalists ran the economy as a private preserve. Although the army remains in nominal charge, the public humiliation of Mubarak serves notice on the previous masters of Egypt's little universe that they are as vulnerable as their former patron. Everyone who can get out will and will take with them whatever they can.

Syria is also vulnerable to hunger, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned May 23. "Continuing unrest in Syria will not only affect economic growth but could disrupt food distribution channels leading to severe localized shortages in main markets," according to the FAO. ''Syria hosts one of the largest urban refugee populations in the world, including nearly one million Iraqis who have become more vulnerable because of rising food and fuel prices."

Nearly 700,000 Libyan refugees have reached Libya and Egypt, fleeing their country's civil war. At least 30,000 Tunisian refugees (and likely many more) have overwhelmed camps in Italy, and perhaps a tenth of that number have drowned in the attempt to reach Europe. A large but unknown number of Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon and Turkey.

Robert Fisk wrote in the London Independent on May 30 that Turkey fears a mass influx of Syrian Kurdish refugees, so that "Turkish generals have thus prepared an operation that would send several battalions of Turkish troops
into Syria itself to carve out a 'safe area' for Syrian refugees inside Assad's caliphate." The borders of the affected nations have begun to dissolve along with their economies. It will get worse fast.
================
Spengler is channeled by David P Goldman. Comment on this article in Spengler's Expat Bar forum.

------------------------------

Subject: Cal Thomas: What Arab Spring?

Cal Thomas The Examiner 1 June 2011
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/06/what-arab-spring#ixzz1O6FmTvkz.

Upheaval in Yemen and the possibility that al Qaeda might take over, turning that country into a stronger terrorist base than it already is, should give pause to American and European policy in the Arab world. At its recently concluded G-8 meeting of industrial economies in Deauville, France, Western governments pledged $40 billion to "newly democratic"
nations in North Africa and the Middle East. One might as well throw money at Chicago and hope for electoral reform so the dead are no longer allowed to vote on Election Day.

In spring, one usually cultivates a lawn so that new vegetation can take root and grow. In the Arab world where this money is targeted, the only roots you'll find are the roots of oppression and terrorism.

If Western nations think what is happening in Tunisia and Egypt will lead to real democracy, where competing political parties, ideologies and faiths have a fair and equal opportunity of being debated, they are seriously deluded. The money would have a better chance of financing a winning streak in a Las Vegas casino.

If these countries were seriously pursuing democracy and needed only money to complete their transformation, there is plenty of money in the region that could be used to help them.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, OPEC income is expected to rise this year above the $200 billion increase of 2010. That would be around $833 billion, the Energy Information Administration forecasts.

That's money the United States and the rest of the G-8 have paid oil-producing nations at prices ranging from $4 to $7 a gallon, depending on the country.

If money alone could foster democracy in North Africa and the Middle East, there are plenty of Arab countries with loads of it -- chiefly Saudi Arabia. Yet the Saudis have shown very little interest in an "Arab Spring," preferring to remain instead in the doldrums of an Arab winter.

Democracy doesn't spring up of its own accord. It must have a base from which it can blossom. That was a point made by Timur Kuran, a professor of economics and political science at Duke University, in a recent op-ed column for the New York Times entitled "The Weak Foundations of Arab Democracy."

Kuran wrote:

"Democracy requires checks and balances, and it is largely through civil society that citizens protect their rights as individuals, force policymakers to accommodate their interests, and limit abuses of state authority. Civil society also promotes a culture of bargaining and gives future leaders the skills to articulate ideas, form coalitions and govern."

None of this exists in any of the nations to which the G-8 has pledged its support. In Egypt, supposedly the most progressive of the Arab states, fundamentalist Muslims still persecute Coptic Christians.

The radical Muslim Brotherhood, which at the start of the revolution claimed no interest in political power, is now active in its pursuit of victory in the upcoming election and hints that it might revoke Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

The problems in North Africa and the Middle East can't be solved by money. What's needed is a change in outlook. Radical Islam forces women into second-class status; it is rooted not in optimism, but in pessimism.

Radical Islamists appear to serve an angry god who commands them to kill those who do not believe as they do, but this belief will do little to lift the Arab world out of the religious and political deep freeze that holds it back from true progress.

In C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," Narnia has been transformed by a white witch into a land where it is "always winter, but never Christmas."

That pretty much describes the lands of North Africa and the Middle East where the "white witch" is radical Islam and spring will never arrive as long as it holds sway over the minds and hearts of the people.
===========
Examiner Columnist Cal Thomas is nationally syndicated by Tribune Media.

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Rape included !

2011-06-03T07:53:00.003+03:00

Swedish woman raped in Turkish resort

The woman, who returned to Sweden yesterday was staying in the popular resort of Antalya when the attack happened.
"We know about the case and we are in contact with the relevant authorities, though we have not found out much more than that yet," Swedish foreign ministry spokesperson Teo Zetterman told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
Following a night out, the Swedish teen and her friends decided to share a taxi with a man who worked at the hotel where they were staying.
After the friends returned to their own rooms, the 18-year-old stayed behind chatting alone with the man.
She was then apparently forced into a van and driven away before being repeatedly assaulted.
Her attacker then allegedly drove her to a nearby harbour and once again subjected her to further attacks.
Eventually she managed to return to her hotel to find help and reported the incident to police.
"She was so clearly in shock, but she could identify the offender," a woman who helped the 18-year-old report the attack told the newspaper.
The Turkish police have confirmed that a 25-year-old man who works at the hotel was arrested shortly afterwards on suspicion of rape.

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The Audacity of Hope? Ha !

2011-06-03T06:49:00.004+03:00

The passengers and crew of The Audacity of Hope can be found by clicking here. Please check back for updates. Thank you to all who applied to be part of this mission.

US Boat to Gaza in the New York Times, CLICK HERE.

"WE ARE UNARMED AND WE ARE SAILING"
For Immediate Release: May 31, 2011
On Anniversary of Mavi Marmara Killings, U.S. Boat to Gaza Announces Passenger List
New York, NY - May 31, 2011. Organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza announced today that they expect some 50 people will be aboard The Audacity of Hope when it joins the second "freedom flotilla" in late June to break the siege of Gaza.
The announcement came on the year's anniversary of the 2010 Israeli attack on unarmed passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, killing nine, including an 18-year old U.S. citizen of Turkish descent.
Leslie Cagan, coordinator of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, said, "We are sailing-despite threats by the Israeli armed forces to use attack dogs and snipers against us-and despite frantic diplomatic pressure by the Israeli government to prevent other countries from allowing the flotilla to sail." She commented that while Egypt has just opened the Rafah border to Gaza, the maritime blockade and the Israeli siege of Gaza still exist.
...READ MORE>>>

A NEWLY RELEASED VIDEO
"TO GAZA WITH LOVE"
Click Here To Watch
A Newly Released Video TO GAZA WITH LOVE
Featuring
Ali Abunimah, Kathleen Chalfant, Kathy Kelly, and Alice Walker
for the U.S. BOAT TO GAZA
...READ MORE>>>

UPDATE ON NYC BOAT EVENT
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS ABOUT THE NYC BOAT EVENT
DJ K-SALAAM WILL BE THERE TO SPIN THE MUSIC DURING THE EVENING TO INSPIRE THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
SINGER/SONGWRITER HOLLY NEAR WILL JOIN US TO SING LIVE
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW: CLICK HERE
A special guest, Dr. Ahmet Dogan, will be joining us for this event.
Dr. Dogan is the father of Furkan Dogan, the 19 year old Turkish American killed by Israeli forces on the Mavi Mamara, one of the boats in Freedom Flotilla I bound for Gaza last year.
Immediately after learning about the attack on the flotilla the organizing for the U.S. BOAT TO GAZA, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE began. Now it is a reality and soon we will sail.
Let us come together to hear Dr. Dogan speak about his son and honor Furkan Dogan's commitment to justice for Palestine and look forward to the launch of THE AUDACITY OF HOPE as we affirm our commitment to help end the siege of Gaza and free Palestine.
...READ MORE>>>

U.S. BOAT, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, SET TO SAIL TO GAZA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 13, 2011
PRESS CONTACT: FELICE GELMAN, (917) 912-2597
New York, May 13 -- The US Boat to Gaza campaign announced today that it will send a US flagged boat, The Audacity of Hope, to Gaza in late June as part of the International Freedom Flotilla II. The passengers on the boat, which will sail from a port in the Mediterranean, are US citizens from many different backgrounds, ages, and communities across the United States.
Flotilla organizer Jane Hirschmann said, "The Israeli blockade of Gaza is a clear violation of international human rights and maritime law. 1.5 million people in Gaza have been effectively imprisoned for five years. The blockade is maintained only with the support of the United States government. That is why it is imperative that it be confronted nonviolently by American citizens."
...READ MORE>>>

Why they go: Freedom riders then and now
By Hannah Schwarzschild
Fifty years ago next month, my father, then a 35-year-old refugee from Hitler’s Germany with a young wife and two small children at home, boarded a Trailways bus headed for Jackson, Mississippi.
Like the 427 other freedom riders who rode voluntarily into the terror that was the segregated South in May and June of 1961, my father set out to violate the illegal state laws that barred white-skinned people from sitting together with black-skinned people on public transit – laws that were vigorously enforced not only by police but also by the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens’ Council. Only weeks before, a mob of angry segregationists in Anniston, Alabama had attacked and set fire to a bus with dozens of black and white freedom riders trapped inside.
...READ MORE>>>

"This is the Freedom Ride of this era"
Fifty years ago, on May 4, 1961, the first bus of the Freedom Rides left Washington D.C. headed to New Orleans, with people committed to challenging segregation. The Freedom Rides were one of the sparks that contributed to a movement to dismantle a degrading system that violated human rights.
In an interview with organizers from The U.S. Boat to Gaza, Alice Walker, one of our nation's foremost contemporary writers and the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize, likened the planned Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza to the Freedom Rides by saying "this is the Freedom Ride of this era." In the U.S. the racist system of segregation was challenged; in South Africa the racist system of apartheid was challenged; in Palestine the racist system of occupation and apartheid, enforced by the Israeli government and supported by the U.S government, is being challenged and will come to an end.
...READ MORE>>>

A U.S. BOAT TO GAZA EVENT NOT TO BE MISSED
JOIN A SUNSET CRUISE IN NY HARBOR
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011
THE MARCO POLO MARINA
23rd STREET & FDR DRIVE
BOARDING 6:30 pm · RETURNING 10:30 pm
Tickets are just $25!
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS ABOUT THE NYC BOAT EVENT
DJ K-SALAAM WILL BE THERE TO SPIN THE MUSIC DURING THE EVENING TO INSPIRE THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
SINGER/SONGWRITER HOLLY NEAR WILL JOIN US TO SING LIVE
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW AT USTOGAZA.ORG
Enjoy a bounty of Middle Eastern hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, inspiring music and great people.
...READ MORE>>>

CALLING ARTISTS/FILMMAKERS TO CREATE SHORT PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS
The U.S. Boat to Gaza - The Audacity of Hope - is calling on artists, animators and filmmakers to encourage you to develop and submit a short 1-5 minute video about The Audacity of Hope for mass distribution on Youtube and through our networks. Help us raise the profile of the U.S. Boat to Gaza in the coming months before we sail in June 2011 with the Freedom Flotilla II.
The Audacity of Hope is committed to carrying powerful voices from this country to the people of Gaza; those voices who are supporting this grassroots, human-rights mission which is working to help end the illegal U.S. supported Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. We need your creativity to increase our visibility throughout this country.
...READ MORE>>>

The passengers and crew of The Audacity of Hope can be found by clicking here. Please check back for updates. Thank you to all who applied to be part of this mission.

US Boat to Gaza in the New York Times, CLICK HERE.

"WE ARE UNARMED AND WE ARE SAILING"

For Immediate Release: May 31, 2011

On Anniversary of Mavi Marmara Killings, U.S. Boat to Gaza Announces Passenger List

New York, NY - May 31, 2011. Organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza announced today that they expect some 50 people will be aboard The Audacity of Hope when it joins the second "freedom flotilla" in late June to break the siege of Gaza.

The announcement came on the year's anniversary of the 2010 Israeli attack on unarmed passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, killing nine, including an 18-year old U.S. citizen of Turkish descent.

Leslie Cagan, coordinator of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, said, "We are sailing-despite threats by the Israeli armed forces to use attack dogs and snipers against us-and despite frantic diplomatic pressure by the Israeli government to prevent other countries from allowing the flotilla to sail." She commented that while Egypt has just opened the Rafah border to Gaza, the maritime blockade and the Israeli siege of Gaza still exist.

...READ MORE>>>

A NEWLY RELEASED VIDEO

"TO GAZA WITH LOVE"

Click Here To Watch

A Newly Released Video TO GAZA WITH LOVE

Featuring
Ali Abunimah, Kathleen Chalfant, Kathy Kelly, and Alice Walker
for the U.S. BOAT TO GAZA

...READ MORE>>>

UPDATE ON NYC BOAT EVENT

NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS ABOUT THE NYC BOAT EVENT
DJ K-SALAAM WILL BE THERE TO SPIN THE MUSIC DURING THE EVENING TO INSPIRE THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
SINGER/SONGWRITER HOLLY NEAR WILL JOIN US TO SING LIVE
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW: CLICK HERE

A special guest, Dr. Ahmet Dogan, will be joining us for this event.

Dr. Dogan is the father of Furkan Dogan, the 19 year old Turkish American killed by Israeli forces on the Mavi Mamara, one of the boats in Freedom Flotilla I bound for Gaza last year.

Immediately after learning about the attack on the flotilla the organizing for the U.S. BOAT TO GAZA, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE began. Now it is a reality and soon we will sail.

Let us come together to hear Dr. Dogan speak about his son and honor Furkan Dogan's commitment to justice for Palestine and look forward to the launch of THE AUDACITY OF HOPE as we affirm our commitment to help end the siege of Gaza and free Palestine.

...READ MORE>>>

U.S. BOAT, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, SET TO SAIL TO GAZA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 13, 2011

PRESS CONTACT: FELICE GELMAN, (917) 912-2597

New York, May 13 -- The US Boat to Gaza campaign announced today that it will send a US flagged boat, The Audacity of Hope, to Gaza in late June as part of the International Freedom Flotilla II. The passengers on the boat, which will sail from a port in the Mediterranean, are US citizens from many different backgrounds, ages, and communities across the United States.

Flotilla organizer Jane Hirschmann said, "The Israeli blockade of Gaza is a clear violation of international human rights and maritime law. 1.5 million people in Gaza have been effectively imprisoned for five years. The blockade is maintained only with the support of the United States government. That is why it is imperative that it be confronted nonviolently by American citizens."

...READ MORE>>>

Why they go: Freedom riders then and now

By Hannah Schwarzschild

Fifty years ago next month, my father, then a 35-year-old refugee from Hitler’s Germany with a young wife and two small children at home, boarded a Trailways bus headed for Jackson, Mississippi.

Like the 427 other freedom riders who rode voluntarily into the terror that was the segregated South in May and June of 1961, my father set out to violate the illegal state laws that barred white-skinned people from sitting together with black-skinned people on public transit – laws that were vigorously enforced not only by police but also by the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens’ Council. Only weeks before, a mob of angry segregationists in Anniston, Alabama had attacked and set fire to a bus with dozens of black and white freedom riders trapped inside.

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"This is the Freedom Ride of this era"

Fifty years ago, on May 4, 1961, the first bus of the Freedom Rides left Washington D.C. headed to New Orleans, with people committed to challenging segregation. The Freedom Rides were one of the sparks that contributed to a movement to dismantle a degrading system that violated human rights.

In an interview with organizers from The U.S. Boat to Gaza, Alice Walker, one of our nation's foremost contemporary writers and the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize, likened the planned Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza to the Freedom Rides by saying "this is the Freedom Ride of this era." In the U.S. the racist system of segregation was challenged; in South Africa the racist system of apartheid was challenged; in Palestine the racist system of occupation and apartheid, enforced by the Israeli government and supported by the U.S government, is being challenged and will come to an end.

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A U.S. BOAT TO GAZA EVENT NOT TO BE MISSED

JOIN A SUNSET CRUISE IN NY HARBOR

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011
THE MARCO POLO MARINA
23rd STREET & FDR DRIVE
BOARDING 6:30 pm · RETURNING 10:30 pm

Tickets are just $25!

Enjoy a bounty of Middle Eastern hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, inspiring music and great people.

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CALLING ARTISTS/FILMMAKERS TO CREATE SHORT PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS

The U.S. Boat to Gaza - The Audacity of Hope - is calling on artists, animators and filmmakers to encourage you to develop and submit a short 1-5 minute video about The Audacity of Hope for mass distribution on Youtube and through our networks. Help us raise the profile of the U.S. Boat to Gaza in the coming months before we sail in June 2011 with the Freedom Flotilla II.

The Audacity of Hope is committed to carrying powerful voices from this country to the people of Gaza; those voices who are supporting this grassroots, human-rights mission which is working to help end the illegal U.S. supported Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. We need your creativity to increase our visibility throughout this country.

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FUCK UN !

2011-06-03T06:07:00.003+03:00

Uploaded by IMRANEWSVIDEO on Jun 1, 2011
With thousands of Palestinians planning to flood Israel froam Lebanon on 5 June, Andrea Tenenti UNIFIL Deputy Spokesperson told IMRA 1 June 2011 that UNIFIL will only monitor events on Lebanese border with Israel at the request of the Lebanese army.
Israel cannot request their presence. Israel cannot request UNIFIL to monitor.
<br>
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"Palestinian Jews"

2011-06-02T20:50:00.003+03:00

If you search on Google :- "Palestinian Jews" , you will get this :- http://goo.gl/jo50U

But I'm interested in the other kind of "Palestinian Jews".

Watch the Videos below.
In the 20th Century western culture (Judeo-Christian) – represented by Jews who had been refugees for close to two thousand years and returned to their homeland, and Middle Eastern culture (Arab-Muslim) that had ruled the Middle East for an extended period – represented by Palestinians, came face-to-face. This was a very deep and intensive encounter between the two cultures, which unfortunately has taken a very violent path that today presents serious perils to humanity as a whole. Most of the energies of those involved emotionally or
practically in the conflict, are invested in hostile clashes, mutual
recriminations, self protection and self justifications.
After 70 years of violence in the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (1921-1991), a conflict that sits at the heart of the problems facing the Middle East, the two sides have experienced about 20 years of negotiations, parallel to ongoing violence. The only thing that this extended period of negotiations has achieved is an intensification of the violence and the suffering of both sides.
In light of this reality, all those who believe in continuing with the direction set forth by negotiations – a Two-State Solution, must answer the question – How many additional casualties, what higher level of suffering and how many new refugees are necessary, in order to understand that this path should be abandoned? On the other hand, those who are objecting to the above solution need to suggest an alternative that will provide the sides with a better future.
The only way to arrive at a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a solution that will make it possible to channel all the energy and resources invested today in the conflict and re-direct them towards rehabilitation, development and prosperity, is to get high enough above the conflicting narratives, to view the conflict in a better perspective that is afforded by examining the long-term history of the Holy Land. Only from this perspective can one see the real roots of the conflict. Only on the basis of the genuine roots of conflict, can one build a creative, just and lasting peace in the Holy Land. Moreover, from such a better-informed perspective, it is possible to create common ground for a Jewish-Christian-Moslem Culture that can move humankind forward towards unprecedented prosperity.

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The Jewish Naqba

2011-06-02T10:10:00.003+03:00

Jerusalem 1948 - The Jewish Naqba

Posted by JoeSettler at 6/01/2011 11:51:00 PM

Everyone talks about the Nakba, but no one ever stops to think about what the Jews of Jerusalem went through when 5 Arab states and the local Arabs attacked the fledgling Jewish state to destroy it. Jerusalem was divided. Jews were kicked out of their homes with nothing more than what they could carry on their backs.

The Jews of Jerusalem became refugees.

I received an email today from Hadar-Israel with reprints of old Life Magazine photographs taken by John Phillips in May and June 1948. I share them with you. (Life Magazine's Pictures of Jerusalem 1948 - all photos by John Phillips © Time Inc., Courtesy of LIFE.com)
.

Jerusalem Girl Fleeing from the Arab onslaught.

Jerusalem Jews evacuating their homes in 1948 - not to be able to return until 1967.

Not everyone could escape the Arabs in time and were forced to surrender.

The Red Cross helping Jewish refugees forced to flee from the Arab occupation of Jerusalem.

A Jewish refugee from the Old City after the Arabs occupied it.

Jews fleeing their home through Zion Gate.

Photo of Jews waiting to be evacuated from their homes in the Old City.

What the Arabs did to the Jewish homes and neighborhood after the Jews were evacuated.

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"virginity tests"

2011-05-31T11:50:00.002+03:00

Virgins
May 30, 2011 11:26 PM
Report: Egypt admits to forcing "virginity tests"
On March 9, as the Egypt uprising continued to celebrate its success with Hosni Mubarak's Feb. 11 departure from office, the army attempted to clear Tahrir Square in Cairo of protesters, and about 18 women were caught up and arrested in the security sweep.
About two weeks later, Amnesty International issued a scathing report, claiming Egyptian authorities forced "virginity tests" on the detained women, and this was only after the female protesters had been beaten, given electric shocks and "subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers."
At the time, Egypt's rulers denied the accusations, in no small part because forced "virginity tests" are considered torture by many. Now, Maj. Amr Imam of the Egyptian army has admitted to CNN that the virginity tests were indeed conducted, and he went so far as to defend the practice.
Complete coverage: Anger in the Arab World
Lara Logan: Assault in Egypt was "merciless"Egypt's Mubarak to be tried for protester deaths

"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine," Imam told CNN. "These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs). We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place. None of them were (virgins)."
In its report Amnesty International writes:
"20-year-old Salwa Hosseini (said) that after she was arrested and taken to a military prison in Heikstep, she was made, with the other women, to take off all her clothes to be searched by a female prison guard, in a room with two open doors and a window. During the strip search, Salwa Hosseini said male soldiers were looking into the room and taking pictures of the naked women. The women were then subjected to 'virginity tests' in a different room by a man in a white coat. They were threatened that "those not found to be virgins" would be charged with prostitution. According to information received by Amnesty International, one woman who said she was a virgin but whose test supposedly proved otherwise was beaten and given electric shocks."

Most of the arrested women were brought to trial on March 11, and released two days later with one-year suspended sentences, Amnesty writes.
Mubarak stepped down after 30 years in power on Feb. 11 and transferred power to the military after the 18-day popular uprising. At least 846 protesters were killed, and thousands injured, according to a government fact-finding mission.
See also :- http://goo.gl/tX6OI

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BIBIYAHU - 28 years old !...

2011-05-29T22:27:00.001+03:00

BIBIYAHU - 28 years old !...

A schoolbus driver !

2011-05-28T22:58:00.005+03:00

AOW,

This one realy hates to be a schoolbus driver !

Shocking Video Shows Teacher Beating Pupils
Shocking footage of a teacher beating young pupils at an Egyptian school has emerged - prompting the arrest of the tutor involved.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Video---Egypt-Teacher-Beats-Children-And-Blames-Revolution-After-Being-Arrested-By-Police/Article/201105416000577?f=rss

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS DISTRESSING IMAGES OF CHILDREN BEING BEATEN.

The man, named in Egypt as Magdi el-Shaar, is shown apparently marking the children's homework before hitting them with a ruler.

He is reported to have blamed the country's revolution earlier this year for his actions, understood to have taken place at a centre in the city of Kafr Shukr, in Gharbiya state.

Video of the disturbing scenes - which have already been viewed by thousands after being posted online - captures pupils screaming in pain and attempting to avoid the blows.

More than 10 children, all aged under 10, are seen being abused.

Beating and corporal punishment are the best means for disciplining children especially after the January 25 revolt.

Magdi el-Shaar's alleged reason for the beatings

Police said the man was arrested and questioned by local prosecutors and the centre closed down upon the orders of the minister of social solidarity.

El-Shaar allegedly told prosecutors: "Beating and corporal punishment are the best means for disciplining children especially after the January 25 revolt."

The teacher can be seen smiling during his assaults, with one girl dressed in pink receiving a particularly sickening beating as he repeatedly hits her and pulls her hair.

In the background, at least one other man can be heard laughing at the scenes, which were filmed by an unknown veiled female worker at the centre.

Uploaded on May 15 the video finishes with the shot panning round to reveal two more adults who have been watching.

Newspapers in Egypt say the ministry of social solidarity will decide whether to re-open the centre or keep it closed depending on the results of an investigation.

Read the Comments.

Porno

2011-05-27T05:01:00.002+03:00

Debbie Schlussel

2011-05-25T01:28:00.005+03:00

http://goo.gl/c50xg

See also :-
Hamas Digs Up Christian Graves In Gaza
http://goo.gl/vUx4z & http://goo.gl/6IW58

Netanyahu: Abbas distorting history
http://goo.gl/0us8N

May 19, 2011, - 7:24 pm
Obama’s Israel 1967 “Borders”: What Jordanian/”Palestinians” Did to Pre-1967 Jewish & Christian Graves, Churches
By Debbie Schlussel

Earlier today, I discussed the Palestinian/Jordanian Muslim desecration of Jewish and Christian graves when they had control of the land that Barack Hussein Obama wants Israel to retreat from. Here’s what his cherished “pre-1967 borders” looked like when the Jordanians/”Palestinians” controlled and destroyed the place. These photos, from the pamphlet, “Desecration,” show how Israel found various Jewish and Christian graves and relics of churches and synagogues desecrated and otherwise deliberately damaged and destroyed by the Muslims. There is page after page, and I’m only posting a few examples, below. We must never return to those “pre-1967″ lines. Never.

Muslims Made Jewish Gravestones into Toilets . . .

Rabbi Abraham Nigrin of Jerusalem Discovers Muslims Made His Mother’s Tombstone into a Sidewalk . . .

Muslim Caretaker of Mount of Olives Cemetery, Sadar Khalil, Built His House Out of Jewish Gravestones . . .

The steps to a Jordanian officer’s house . . .

Muslims Destroyed Churches and Made Part of Them Into Buildings & Walls . . .

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I'm famous now !

2011-05-24T23:28:00.003+03:00

I'm famous now !

They are coming to take me away, Ha-Ha, Hi-Hi, Ho-Ho !...

Now, as the grassroots coordinator for far-left organization Code Pink: Women for Peace, she takes part in protests against Israel and what she calls the “illegal siege” of Gaza.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 by Move Over AIPAC Jewish Protester Disrupts Netanyahu During Congressional Address
UPDATE: Rae Abileah arrested from George Washington University Hospital

During the Joint Session of Congress while Prime Minister Netanyahu was speaking, Rae Abileah stood up from the gallery and shouted “Stop Israeli War Crimes.”

See video:

From the peace group CODEPINK, Rae is a 28 yr. old Jewish American of Israeli descent. She has traveled to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and witnessed firsthand the reality of occupation and oppression. “Prime Minister Netanyahu says that the 1967 borders are indefensible. But what is really indefensible is the occupation of land, the starvation of Gaza, the jailing of dissenters and the lack of equal rights in the alleged Israeli democracy. As a Jew and an American taxpayer, I can’t be silent when these crimes are being committed in my name and with my tax money.”

Ms. Abileah grew up on Half Moon Bay and presently lives in San Francisco. She was arrested and charged with disrupting Congress.

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Intermezzo

2011-05-24T15:42:00.003+03:00

Intermezzo

Ha, Ha, Ha !... Click, Click, Click !...

( I love myself because I'm so MEAN !... )

My Clickin' machine ...

& a Road-Kill Dinner !

Recycle Mr. Watson, Recycle !

http://goo.gl/RZDUZ ( Nice Galery )

Free Jonathan Pollard NOW !

2011-05-22T20:08:00.003+03:00

41 years ago

2011-05-22T15:38:00.002+03:00

Today, 41 years ago :-

The Avivim school bus massacre was a terrorist attack on an Israeli school bus on May 22, 1970 in which 12 Israeli civilians were killed, nine of them children, and 25 were wounded. The attack took place on the road to Moshav Avivim, near Israel's border with Lebanon. Two bazooka shells were fired at the bus. The attack was one of the first carried out by the PFLP.

Avivim school bus massacre memorial

IDF soldier carrying his wounded sister !

Four bazooka shells ! Not Two !

The bus was converted into a service truck by "EGED"

Nobless Oblige !

2011-05-22T14:06:00.003+03:00

===" Let me be clear. Israel's security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper — but any agreement with the Palestinian people
must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided. "=== BHO June 4, 2008

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Start swimming !

2011-05-21T18:02:00.004+03:00

Start swimming !

Time to replace floppy: We drift towards war http://goo.gl/y0Md0 (Hebrew)

30 days !

2011-05-21T10:58:00.003+03:00

30 days !

I Love Noa !

2011-05-20T15:50:00.002+03:00

I Love Noa !

I just received an E-mail from Robert Spencer, ( You know, the short guy, the "Mossadnik" with the Jewish nose... ), asking me if he can leave this http://goo.gl/Y3uMW post on his Blog (JW) for another 48 hours!...

I said, yes - Provided that you add this :-

Mr. President:
The one sitting in front of you now, is the PM of the state of Israel ! He bears this title because " The people of Israel have spoken, and the collective wishes of the Israeli people must be respected" (See Carter in Gaza).

Mr. Bibiyahu is an Ex "Matkalnik" ! He and his buddies blasted some brains out of a few hoodlums in the Lod Airport when the murderers tried to dictate their "67 concept"! ( Remember SABENA?)

His brother Joni (also a "Matkalnik"), flew with his cohorts all the way to Entebbe to explain to "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular" the realities of the survival of the nation of Israel!

http://youtu.be/gj_7Fq-MZyg

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NO!

2011-05-20T00:19:00.005+03:00

Should Israel Pull Back to '67 Borders to Create Palestinian State?

NO!

President Obama on Thursday endorsed Palestinians' demand for their own state based on borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war. The move comes ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech next week to a joint session of Congress. Do you agree with Obama's decision?

http://goo.gl/k48YV

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Walid Shoebat's Response to Son of Hamas

2011-05-19T02:30:00.002+03:00

Walid Shoebat's Response to Son of Hamas personal attacks;
through his Shin Bet Handler

In an attempt to defend himself from my exposure of his record and actions, Mosab Hassan Yousef has solicited help from Gonen ben Itzhak – Yousef’s former handler within Shin Bet (Itzhak was fired from the organization).

(Read complete article that exposes former Shin bet agent in which he admits he was fired for lying as well as for "financial mismanagement." He also admits to be a far leftist voting for the communist party in Israel called Meretz. These people hate the religious community as well as many are aligned with the views of PLO and even Hamas, i.e. Israel's enemies.

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/shin-bet-agent-discusses-his-special-relationship-with-a-hamas-spy-1.290215)

Itzhak intended to write and publicize a letter damaging my name and credibility. I obtained the letter sent by Itzhak prior to its publication, have seen its claims, and can offer proof beyond any doubt defending myself from the spurious charges therein.

It is crucial to note Itzhak’s own background: he was fired from Shin Bet for “financial mismanagement and lying.” Additionally, former deputy head of the Shin Bet (and current Kadima MK) Gideon Ezra has questioned the credibility of Mosab’s story, saying it was all “exaggerated.” Itzhak is also an extremist Greenpeace activist and a pro-Palestine, anti-settlement advocate. This man is now countering my honest, factual reporting of Yousef by claiming he investigated me and found that I was a “fraud.” I can prove he is now lying about my past, and given his current behavior, I am not surprised at the stated reason for his previous firing.

In my article exposing Yousef, I mentioned having witnessed a Jew being beaten at the hands of Jewish guards while a prisoner in theMasqubiyeh (Jerusalem Central Prison). Itzhak now writes of my account:

I visited many times the Masqubiyeh prison. Reading Mr. Shoebat’s description of the place, I can only say, Mr. Shoebat, you know nothing of the Masqubiyeh.

Itzhak also challenges the veracity of my past as a PLO terrorist:

[Walid] claims to have been a PLO terrorist who bombed Bank Leumi in Bethlehem. Yet, I never heard his name before, never saw his name in any Israeli intelligence files, and there is no record of any such attack.

Itzhak then chooses to rebuke me for not being more involved in the current “Arab Spring”:

I found it strange that, while his brothers and sisters are being slaughtered in Syria, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen …

In other words, Itzhak thinks an Arab like me should be supporting the current Muslim Brotherhood-led revolts, as Yousef is doing.

And that’s about it. Itzhak provides nothing: no research material, no details of any sort, and no due-diligence to collaborate his supposed efforts to arrive at his “fraud” allegations. Itzhak has no access to any internal Israeli records, anyway — he was fired for misconduct. In actuality, his claims are simply a repeating of the slanders about me one can find circulating on the internet, as this is not the first time I have been so libeled.

For many years I have had my terror activity questioned, my imprisonment in the Masqubiyeh (with notorious bombmaker Mahmoud Al-Mughrabi, who recruited me to bomb an Israeli bank) denied. Itzhak is pulling his charges from New York Times reporter Chris Hedges and from Holocaust-denial supporter Jorg Luyken, writing for the Jerusalem Post, who has claimed that my story cannot be corroborated.

Further, I know Itzhak is being dishonest about performing due-diligence since it takes months to dig out the old records proving my past. This I know because I have put the time in to gather these records — it took me months, and there is more to be done. Additionally, Itzhak has clearly not even checked the Jerusalem Post archives (United Nations reports on the bombing I was involved in included references to Jerusalem Post coverage of the incident).

Enough: Below is evidence proving the activities of Al-Mughrabi and myself, evidence Itzhak claims does not exist.

Al-Mughrabi was my prison mate and my PLO recruiter: he sent me to bomb the Bank Leumi branch in Bethlehem. After his release from the Masqubiyeh, he was considered enough of a danger that Israel assassinated him on October 1, 1985: Israeli F-15B Eagle war planes, in Operation Wooden Leg, hit Arafat’s Tunisia headquarters in retaliation for the PLO’s murder of Israelis in Larnaca, Cyprus one week earlier. (The assassination mission that killed Al-Mughrabi can be pulled up on video via Al-Jazeera.) Arab sources like Middle East Report lamented his death:

In pain and sorrow we learn that our friend Mahmud Al-Mughrabi was killed during the October bombing raid in Tunisia. Mahmud was born in Jerusalem in 1960. By the age of 16 he was under detention 12 times and he was one of the first to speak in public about the methods of interrogation of Palestinian detainees used by the General Security Services in Israel. He then gave his permission to being publicly identified as an informant for the Sunday Times expose of Israeli torture in June 1977. In 1984, he managed to escape to Jordan after years of increasingly marginal existence under steadily deteriorating conditions of military occupation.

Famed Egyptian terror-apologist Edward Said spoke of Al-Mughrabi:

One of the victims of the Tunis bombing was Mahmoud Al-Mughrabi, born in Jerusalem in 1960, under detention twelve times by the age of 16, one of the informants of The Sunday Times to expose of torture in Israel (19 June, 1977) who “managed to escape to Jordan after years of increasingly marginal existence under steadily deteriorating existence of the Israeli occupation”, according to a memorial notice by Israeli Jewish friends that was repeatedly denied publication in Arab newspapers in East Jerusalem by Israeli military censorship.

Al-Jazeera and Said are not “Zionist” sources, but Arab.

Al-Mughrabi boasted of carrying out 15 bombing operations against Israeli civilians and infrastructure. His claims of torture within the prison are pure deception. He told his communist activist lawyer, Leah Tsemel — who represented him from 1976-1978 — that he had suffered severe electrocution, yet every time he returned from interrogations he was without a scratch. In fact, he disclosed that he was lying to Leah Tsemel, using her as a pawn to win his release.

I have researched old records of a litany of claims against Masqubiyeh: alleged tortures, humiliations, spitting incidents, sexual harassment, overcrowding, and even claims of being forced to watch rapes. All are unfounded upon examination. Unlike what Mosab described, the Masqubiyeh was humane, perhaps even more so than American prisons. Each inmate had his own bed and an in-the-cell shower. We ate three full meals a day, which included a beverage choice of tea or sweet punch. We were fine, and Al-Mughrabi always seemed fine after he returned from questioning.

I met Al-Mughrabi in the Masqubiyeh prison — his detention there is documented by the General Assembly of the United Nations records.2 The UN report reads:

Lea Tsemel’s clients whom Hedva Sarid says she saw being kicked, was a youth-called Mahmud el-Mughrabi. At l6, he had already been picked up a dozen times, and he was clearly regarded as a trouble-maker. Mughrabi gave us a detailed account of how he was beaten at the session Hedva Sarid interrupted. His story is in part corroborated by another prisoner though Mughrabi’s additional allegation of electric shock remains unconfirmed. Mughrabi was one of 24 Palestinians we interviewed who had been interrogated in the Russian Compound — “Moscobiya” the Arabs call it. … Thus the faces constantly re-appear among the countless detainees whose names can (or cannot) be seen on graffiti on the filthy walls of the Russian Compound (Moskubiye) prison cells. 3

The several riots in both Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Beit Sahour in which I participated in are documented events:

The riots in Bethlehem, Beit-Sahur, Hebron, Jericho and Halhul were reported in Ha’aretz on 18 March 1976. 4

I first spotted Mahmud Al-Mughrabi during a demonstration on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. He was firing a low-caliber pistol when an Israeli post guard fired back, hitting Mahmoud Al-Jneidi instead. I was right behind Jnedi, who was killed by the shot.

Later on, I was imprisoned with Mahmoud Al-Mughrabi at the Masqubiyeh in 1977. I recognized him from that event on the Temple Mount.

We became friends. He recruited me into the PLO to carry out a bombing operation after my release. He gave me his address: Judo Star Martial Arts Institute on Bab Al-Wad Street in Jerusalem’s Old City. We met several times to plan an operation: we concluded that I could use my U.S. passport one day to hijack an airliner, but to start we would target all branches of Bank Leumi — mine was the branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem’s Manger Square.

The Jerusalem Post article by Jorg Loyken stated that “[Loyken] called Bank Leumi and there was no record of any bombing.” This meaningless statement provided no reference of what records were checked, and Loyken apparently did not check other sources or witness statements that were provided to him. (Loyken’s article has since been referenced by other news sources to attack the credibility and legitimacy of my story.)

After the publication of the Loyken article, witnesses came forth to rebut it and to confirm my account.

I spoke to Moshe Ozery, a retired military officer who served in the Israeli Defense Forces in the Bethlehem area under Moshe Ya’alon prior to Ya’alon becoming IDF chief of staff. Ozery was stationed in Beit Sahour during 1976-1977. He gave details regarding the bombing and demonstrations (and additionally gave a corroborating description of the injured soldier that I attempted to lynch during the Land Day demonstrations of March 1976).

The bombing of the Bank Leumi in Bethlehem’s Manger Square — as described in my books — was documented by the United Nations. Between December 24 and 27, there were two explosions in Manger Square: “Bethlehem (in Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity)” and “Explosive charge went off outside the local Courthouse 27 December 1977 JP. 2 Jan. 1978 Yediot Aharonot, 2 January 1978.” The Sharia Court in Bethlehem Square is part of the mosque in front of Bank Leumi.

James Al-Yateem — another witness from my village and a former classmate of mine — stated: “Not only was there an explosion on top of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem, but many of us knew that Walid did the bombing.” Al-Yateem also recounts several incidents of violence that I was involved in (including the attempted Land Day lynching).

Muhammad Meri Al-Atrash Shoebat, my relative, was also arrested at the Bethlehem Police Station after the explosion and released three days later.

I have other family connections that Itzhak has not explored. My cousin Jawad Younis, another terrorist who was exiled to Jordan, later became a prominent attorney and defended Abu Zubayda, Osama bin Laden’s henchman. My cousin Arin Shoebat was the mastermind of Operation Rishon Litzion, and Raed Awadallah Khalil Shoebat was behind an attempt to bomb Ben Yehuda street.

Gonen: how come you never discovered any of this? No wonder Shin Bet fired you.

—————————————————————-

1 Blaming The Victims by Edward W. Said and Christopher Hitchens (Verso 2001) on page 100. Also see The Spectator by F.C Westley, 1987, Volume 258, Issues 8269-8285, page 13. Also see Leila Baroody in The Arabs Under Israeli Occupation, 1977, pages 28-29. Also, see Middle East Report, issue 138, page 47.

http://student.cs.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=17970

http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/event.php?eid=990

2 A/32/132, S/12356 July 5, 1977

The article entitled “Israel tortures Arab Prisoners” and a related editorial which appeared in The Sunday Times 19 June 1977 with the request that they be circulated as an official document signed by Security Council Mustafa Medani, Permanent Representative of the Sudan Chairman of the Arab Group.

http://unispal.un.org/pdfs/A32132.pdf

http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/FE3D603D74F5729B85256FE0006CC519

3 Detention of Palestinian Youths in East Jerusalem, Journal of Palestine Studies 1977, University of California Press. Also see Noam Chomsky Protest From Israel, January 1977

4 International Documents On Palestine, Institute of Palestine Studies, 1978

Other articles:

http://www.moghrabi-jerusalem.com/shohdaaa/mahmoud.htm

http://pjf-pal.riadah.org/montada-f3/topic-t3.htm

http://rachedarfaoui.over-blog.com/article-36803579.html

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Netanyahu: 'Bloc' has various meanings

2011-05-19T01:20:00.007+03:00

Chairman of the National Union MK Yaakov Katz, reveals in numbers the meaning of Netanyahu's speech in the Knesset last night, which means the expulsion of 130 thousand Jews from their homes.

Sword of Justice

2011-05-18T12:09:00.003+03:00

Gaddafi has two doubles !

2011-05-18T00:07:00.003+03:00

Gaddafi's two doubles, Max & Moritz, will testify against him in The International Criminal Court in the Hague, the Netherlands! Our case against Mr. Gaddafi is sealed , said Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo. We have all the evidence and the most reliable witnesses who will testify that Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered attacks on unarmed civilians," Ocampo said at the press conference. "[He] committed the crimes with the goal of preserving his authority, his absolute authority."

"And his grandmother was Jewish !", Max added.

" WE LOVE DEATH ! "

2011-05-17T14:15:00.002+03:00

Against Terrorism and for a just Peace .

2011-05-17T11:52:00.004+03:00

Imam Al Asi in Iran

Washington D.C. Friday prayers imam Muhammad Al-'Asi Takes part in IRAN on the International Conference on Global Alliance against Terrorism for a Just Peace: Israel Is the Root Of Global Terrorism!

The International Conference on Global Alliance against Terrorism for a Just Peace (http://www.peacetribune.com/), hosted by Tehran May 14-15, 2011, was attended by 100 foreigners and 300 local figures. Among the conferees were Washington D.C. Friday prayers imam Muhammad Al-'Asi ;senior Muslim cleric in Russia Umar Khazrat Idrisov; British-Islamic Relations Institute director Kamal Al-Halbawi, and Malaysian human rights activist Chandra Mozaffar. The Iranian officials included Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Tashkhiri, head of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, and Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, secretary-general of the World Assembly of Ahl-al-Bayt and deputy of international affairs in the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.In his May 15 speech at the conference, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel the root cause and main pillar of global terrorism, and said that Tehran constantly stresses the need to overthrow it because the fight against terrorism requires attacks against the bases and symbols of global repression. Ahmadinejad warned at the conference that if Israel continued to exist, the region would be subject to many more decades of threats, occupation, and insecurity. Another cause of global terrorism, he said, was the coming to power of "unjust individuals" in the U.S. and in several European countries. At the same time, Ahmadinejad said that the regimes of the U.S. and its allies would collapse after Israel did, because they were the foundation of the Western world order – which he said would end in light of the awakening and steadfastness of the nations. The West, he maintained, is perpetrating economic terrorism as it loots the resources of Africa and Central America.It was reported that among the issues discussed at the conference were: theoretical principles of terrorism, the typology of terrorism, coordination of efforts in fighting terror, policies adopted by different governments to combat terrorism, real objectives of combating terrorism, terrorist groups, cultural terrorism, cyber-terrorism, media terrorism, and the role of media in fighting terror.Hmmmm......Whas he there with the aproval of the Obama regime??Read the full story here.

Thank you Will

=================================

TEHRAN – Muhammad al-Asi, a prayer leader at the Islamic Center of Washington, says only governments are Iranophobic while nations “sympathize” with Iran.

Muhammad al-Asi was in Tehran to participate in the 23rd International Islamic Unity Conference from March 3 to 5.

In an interview with the Tehran Times, Al-Asi said he believes that lack of “rational thought” is the most important reason behind misunderstandings between Muslims.

Following is an excerpt of the interview:

Q: Why there is misunderstanding between Muslims?

A: I think the absence of rational thought has contributed significantly to misunderstandings among Muslims. Tensions, and even accusations and in some cases the bad blood, most of that is attributable to the fact that we have a general public Muslim that lacks a minimum standard of thinking. If Muslims could raise their level of thinking then they can tolerate differences and if they raise their level of thinking they can accept the other opinion that does not necessarily correspond with their own opinion. I think there is no avoiding the issue that Muslims need to think and if we continue along this traditional Islam that we have then we will go from one generation to next generation with more problem, misunderstanding, friction, accusation, one denomination against the other, and one school of thought against the other. The only way out of these is to raise our standards of thinking.

Q: How should we handle the problems Muslims face?

A: When you speak about the pluralism and sectarianism you are becoming more practical in dealing with real problems that Muslims face. You know some Muslims are dying because of sectarianism, some Muslims are becoming tools of foreign policies that are against the Islamic common good. So, when you begin to deal with the issue of sectarianism and you begin to deal with the issue of Muslims tolerating a plurality of legitimate opinions, you are being more practical. There should be some type of input as to how we can come to terms with real problems that have plagued us for centuries and centuries.

Q: What are your suggestions for promoting unity in the Islamic world?

A: I always say and I continue to repeat that the best way in overcoming the centuries-old problems that we inherited is to intensify the communication among Muslims. There has to be more contact. We live in a world that is called the global village. The world is shrinking but we Muslims are still. Just because of artificial and geographical and political borders we can’t understand the Muslims that are just twenty miles away or twenty kilometers away. And this is very bad. All of this has to come down. There has to be a world of Islam that has intensive communications. All of these barriers have to come down. Why should be visas between Muslim countries? One of the issues that can eliminate a lot of these problems is to drop out the visas requirements. Muslims should be allowed to go anywhere in the Muslim world they wish to go. And in particular Mecca and Medina should be an open city for all Muslims. In all of the Islamic history Mecca was a gravity city for all Muslims. Muslims used to gravitate towards Mecca. No one told them you can’t come to Mecca. You can’t settle in Mecca, you can’t speak your mind in Mecca; you can’t open up to your other brother Muslim in Mecca. But right now the fact on the ground is that we have obstacles, we have official, physical, and economic obstacles that have isolated Mecca and have choked the vitality that belongs there as the melting part of Muslims. These barriers should come down and we can all meet and travel to our common Gheblah, Harram, birthplace of Islam and the Prophet. When this happens, we begin to see that differences among Muslims.

We can communicate with each other and bypass these types of differences there by overcoming the prejudice and bigotry that comes from us not knowing each other.

Mecca is a melting part. It is where Muslims are supposed to come from all over the world to express their heartfelt condition, inner thoughts and their mind to each other. It is a place where the Muslim public mind is consolidated. We don’t have a public mind. By public mind we should be sharing common thoughts, and the reason why we don’t share common thoughts is because we have been divided into 57 nation states and within these 57 nation states there are also subdivisions. Within one nation state we will find a little minority here, a little ethnic group there, a little denomination here. So the division keeps on multiplying and multiplying. This has to cease, it has to end. And the only way this can end is for us, to breathe the freedom that Allah has given us in Mecca and Medina. This is my understanding of how we can truly have a consolidation of the Islamic rank and file of the different peoples, ethnic groups of Islam, different languages, cultures, and educational levels of Muslims.

Q: All participants in such meetings insist on Muslim unity but when they return home no tangible progress is seen and sectarian rifts still persist.

A: There are two elements here. There is an element that gives and an element that takes. Not all people who attend in this conference are at the same level. Some people are more knowledgeable, some people are more experienced, and some people have accurate information. Others are less knowledgeable, less experienced, and less informed. So the people here who come to this conference who have accurate information and who have enough experience should influence those who don’t have… and influence them because people who come to this conference are supposed to be leaders in their own countries or own communities. They are supposed to be intellectuals, professors, and clergyman. They are all in position to affect public opinion in their own environment. So in this conference there has to be those who have the experience, who have the knowledge, the sincerity, and the background to influence, to give. So the others will be the recipients, and then when they go back home are not empty headed and empty handed; they go back with something. And this is supposed to be accomplished.

Q: What do people think about Islam in the U.S.?

A: This is a very hard question to answer because feelings about Islam are very mixed. If you take an official position in Washington, in the United States, there is much animosity and much hostility towards Muslims. This is expressed in policies, occupation, invasion, and stealing the resources of the Muslims.

Then you have the average person in the U.S. who is confused. He listens, says, and hears Islam is this and Islam is that. He may know some Muslims. So you have a proportion of people who are looking and searching for the truth. What is Islam? They want to understand. That segment of people exists in the U.S.

There is another segment of people we are called minorities because of the racist nature of American society. …so if the government is speaking bad about Islam and Muslims, minorities are going to begin to think: wait a minute there might be something good about Islam and Muslims. If my enemy is saying Islam is bad there must be some merits to Islam.

Q: What is your opinion about Iranophobia in the region and in the U.S.?

A: In the region it is only the governments who are Iranophobic. People, they sympathize and they understand Iran. But in the United States, Iran is a peculiar case of Islam. Iran is a head of the rest of the Muslims. That is why we see it (the U.S.) is trying to get Europe, China, and Russia to sanction Iran, to put economic pressure on Iran and these types of things because Iran is ahead of the other Muslims developing in technology, scientific research, progress, and in all of these. It has become the target of the evil governments in the world particularly those that are classified under the replica of imperialism and Zionism.

------

Muhammad al-Asi is the elected Imam (the only elected Imam) of the Islamic Center in Washington, DC. He leads the Friday prayers outside of the Masjid as he is barred from entering the mosque for over 27 years.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=216001

Technion Engineers Without Borders

2011-05-16T17:55:00.003+03:00

The POSSESSED !

2011-05-16T17:18:00.004+03:00

הנשיא אחמדי נג'אד: בין לאדן היה מוחזק במשך זמן בארה"ב ( Original )

נשיא איראן מחמוד אחמדי נג'אד אומר כי יש מידע מדויק ולפיו בין-לאדן היה אסיר בארצות הברית לפני שחוסל בפעולת הצבא האמריקני. הנשיא אחמדי נג'אד אמר כי חשוב לציין שמנהיג אל-קעידה הוחזק במשך זמן בידי האמריקנים והם גרמו לו לחלות ואז הרגו אותו. הוא האשים את אובאמה כי הודיע על חיסול מנהיג אל-קעידה למטרות פוליטיות פנימיות. מה שעשה נשיא ארצות הברית למעשה הוא להרוג את אוסאמה בין-לאדן כדי לנצח בבחירות ועכשיו מחפשת וושינגטון מישהו שיחליף את מנהיג אל-קעידה.

הנשיא אמר בפגישה עם המשתתפים בועידת הקואליציה הבינ"ל למלחמה בטירור כי רצח בין לאדן שומש כאמתלה לכבוש את האזור כאשר מדי יום היו נרצחים כ-150 בני אדם בפקיסטן .

אחמדי נג'אד הוסיף כי נשיא ארה"ב לשעבר קידם את המלחמה ב(טירור) כדי להציל את המשק האמריקני ובתוך כך רצח מליון בני אדם והנשיא הנוכחי ממשיך את מדיניות קודמו להציל את הישות הציונית מהקריסה וההתמוטטות הוודאיות.

THE POSSESSED

President Ahmadinejad: Bin Laden was being held for a time the U.S ( Translation )

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that there is accurate information according to which the - bin Laden was a prisoner in the United States before the U.S. military action eliminated. President Ahmadinejad said that it is important to note that the leader of al - Qaeda was held for a time by the Americans and they made him sick and then killed him. He accused Obama announced the elimination of the leader of al - Qaeda domestic political purposes. What U.S. president did in fact kill Osama - bin Laden to win the elections and now Washington is looking for someone to replace the leader of al - Qaeda.

The president said in a meeting with the International Coalition Conference participants terror war that bin Laden was used murder as a pretext to occupy the area when they were being murdered every day about 150 people in Pakistan.

Ahmadinejad added that former U.S. president promoted the war on (terrorism) to save the American economy while million people murdered current president continues the policies of his predecessor to save the Zionist entity collapse and the collapse of certainty.

East Jerusalem ( 15 May 2011 )

2011-05-16T16:30:00.003+03:00

Israeli Special Forces (YAMAS) Magav

Easet Jerusalem ( 15 May 2011 )

THE POSSESSED !

2011-05-16T15:01:00.004+03:00

http://goo.gl/is4BE

In Syria they speak Syrian !

2011-05-16T12:29:00.007+03:00

Mass grave discovered in Dara'a-Syria 16.05.2011 http://youtu.be/8Gf_1i8QFiI

The plot turns out to be more of Bashar Assad, at least by Arab talkbacks: Yesterday, Sunday, seventy buses arrived to Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, the Security Services recruited young unemployed Palestinians , and activists of the Palestinian organizations. They were promised free travel to Quneitra ( 4 Km from my Jonathan ! ). On the way to the Israeli border, The SS , cheered them up and sent them excited into Israel, in fact to their possible deaths. The scheme did not work, and in Syria it turned into joke !

Just in :-

The White House official called the behavior of Damascus "unacceptable"and claimed that she tried to divert attention from violence against opponents to the Assad regime. He made it clear that Israel has the right to defend itself.
UN official: The IDF used excessive force in Lebanon - and the number of casualties is "overwhelming" !

Joke !... Ha!

הודעה לישראל --- אנחנו העם הסורי מוכן לקרב איתך אנחנו רוצים להזכיר לכם כי הצבא שלנו יש רבים של ציוד צבאי כל מפותחת מאוד ומסוגלים להגיע לעומק ישראל אנו בסוריה, נשים, גברים וילדים מאומנים כל הקרב אנחנו כל התנגדות ננצח, אם ירצה השם אנחנו לא נהיה לבד יהיה איתנו הרבה של המדינות הערביות של יושרה --- ואת ארצות האסלאם ומדינות ידידותיות של סוריה --- כן, אתה צריך לקנות כמה ממשלות ערביות, אבל אתה לא חייב לרכוש העמים --- העמים הערביים רוצה מלחמה איתך --- העם המצרי כל יום קוראים על המלחמה איתך --- לבנון אנשים --- התוניסאי אנשים --- העם העיראקי --- ירדני אנשים --- אנשים של המפרץ --- האלג אנשים --- לוב אנשים --- כל העמים הערביים רוצה מלחמה איתך

KUS OHTAK YA ARS IBN KALB ABU ALF SHARAMIT

View from Syria.

2011-05-15T23:39:00.004+03:00

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) is the national official news agency in Syria. It was established in 1965. It is linked to the Ministry of Information and has its headquarters in Damascus.

The Agency provides full coverage of local, Arab and international events based on balanced, objective approach. It is always matching up with the latest developments in news agencies work.

SANA performs its work through a highly-qualified staff at its Damascus-based headquarters and reporters at all state ministries and institutions, as well as offices in all of the 14 Syrian governorates.

The Agency also has offices in Beirut, Paris, Moscow, Jordan, Tehran, Kuwait, Cairo, Libya, Rome and Turkey. There are approximately 43 correspondents in other Arab and foreign countries all over the world.

Israeli occupation army opens live fire onSyrian, Palestinian, Lebanese civilian demonstrators on al-Nakba Day
May 15,2011

QUNEITRA, BEIRUT, GAZA (SANA) - Israeli occupation army on Sunday opened live fire on Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese civilian demonstrators who were marking the 63rd anniversary of al-Nakba Day. A number of civilian demonstrators were martyred, hundreds others wounded, scores of them in critical conditions.
Two citizens were martyred and 170 others wounded in the Israeli occupation forces attacks on citizens in Ein al-Tineh in Quneitra province and Majdal Shams in the Occupied Syrian Golan. Director of Martyr Mamdouh Abaza Hospital in Quneitra, Ali Kana'an, said the two martyrs, Ahmad al-Madani and Bashar Ali al-Shehabi from al-Yarmouk Camp in Damascus, were already dead when they reached the hospital as they were injured from live fire.

Kana'an pointed out that al-Madani, 18 years old, was martyred due to a gunshot in the heart, and that al-Shehabi, who is in his forties, was shot in the face.
An oratorical festival was held in Ein al-Tineh to mark al-Nakba Day, with participants denouncing the racist Israeli occupation policies and stressing the need to end occupation and adhere to the right to return.
In Gaza, one Palestinian was martyred and 160 were wounded when the Israeli occupation army opened fire on rallies commemorating the 63rd anniversary of al-Nakba Day. Palestinian sources also said that dozens of Palestinians were injured by Israeli artillery fire that targeted areas near Beit Hanoun crossing point north of Gaza Strip and near Kalandia crossing point in occupied Jerusalem.

Palestine News & Info Agency (WAFA) quoted Spokesman of the Higher Commission of Relief and Emergency in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiye as saying that relief crew transported more than 80 injured people to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, and that one of the injured was in critical condition.
In the West Bank, more than 80 Palestinians were inured near Kalandia crossing point in occupied Jerusalem by the Israeli occupation army's gunfire, while the towns of Salwan south of al-Aqsa Mosque and al-Isawiya and Shaafat Camp witnessed Israeli assaults against Palesitnian youths since Sunday morning.
The Israeli occupation authorities imposed a military blockade on Sunday morning on the West Bank on the pretense of fearing altercations between Palestinians and occupation forces after the announcement of several protests in Palestine on occasion of al-Nakba Day.

WAFA reported that the Israeli occupation army deployed around 10,000 members of its security forces and raised the state of alert among its police, with the army setting up more blockades at the entrances of towns in Jerusalem and in main and side roads which impeded the movement of students.
Israeli occupation intelligence, police and border police forces raided the old city in Jerusalem on Friday and arrested dozens in the area of Bab Hatta near al-Aqsa Mosque. Meanwhile, Lebanon's National News Agency reported that 10 people were martyred and 56 injured after the Israeli occupation forces opened fire at Palestinian demonstrators in Maroun al-Ras area in southern Lebanon, and that some of inured are in critical condition.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the border fence between Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories to marking the 63rd anniversary of al-Nakba Day.The injured people were transported to hospitals inSour and Bint Jbeil.The Israeli forces deployed tanks and military vehicles that were positioned in the fields opposite Maroun al-Ras area, Lebanon's National News Agency reported, adding that heavy gunfire was heard near where the Lebanese and Palestinians were gathering.
Head of the First Aid Arab Union Society Mohammad Gharabli said the occupation forces arrested the first-aid man Ja'afar Hamdan after beating him, adding that the Israeli soldiers are preventing the ambulance staff, cameramen and journalists from reaching the area. Israeli military helicopters violated Lebanese airspace and flew over the occupied Palestinian lands opposite Maroun al-Ras.

Lebanese Army: 10 Martyred, 112 Wounded in Marounal-Ras
The Lebanese Army stated that despite its strictprecautions, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire on the gathering in Maroun al-Ras area, martyring 10 and wounding 112, some of which are in critical condition. The Lebanese Army was placed in full alert and coordinated with international forces to prevent the enemy from continuing to target the crowds and violate Lebanese sovereignty.
Sleiman: Bolstering Arab Solidarity to Confront Israel's Plots
In a similar statement issued earlier, Sleiman affirmed that the Israeli enemy could never undo the injustice it committed against the Palestinian people who are still struggling for their internationally-acknowledged just rights.
In a statement issued by the Media Office of the Lebanese Presidency on occasion of al-Nakba Day, Sleiman said that developments proved the futility of the Israeli aggressive option, which calls for the international community to exert new efforts to find a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause.

Sleiman called for bolstering Arab solidarity to confront Israeli plots, condemning the criminal Israeli practices against innocent civilians in Southern Lebanon, the Golan and Palestine, which led to the martyring of dozens of civilians and the wounding of hundreds.
Mikati: Israel's Aggression a Statement to International Community that Says Israel is Above Reproach and Condemnation
Lebanese Designate Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the Israeli aggressive practices and massacres against unarmed protestors, saying that through these actions, Israel wanted to relay a message to the international community that it is above reproach, accountability and denouncement.
Mikati called on Palestinians to strengthen their reconciliation in the face of the conspiracy against the Palestinian cause.
Several other figures, including MP Hussein al-Musawi, Deputy Chairman of the Islamic Shiite Council Abdelamir Qabalan and Speaker of the Arab Parliament Ali Salem al-Dekbasi affirmed that Palestine is the central Arab cause and that resistance, calling for supporting the Palestinian people to reclaim their just and legitimate rights.

The thousands participating in the popular festival in the town of Maroun al-Ras affirmed the Palestinian people's adherence to their rights, including the right to return which is the basis of the Palestinian cause.
Arab League Condemns Israeli Crimes against Civilians in Golan, Palestine, Southern Lebanon
The Arab League strongly condemned the Israeli occupation's crimes against Arab demonstrators in Golan, Palestine and Southern Lebanon who were commemorating al-Nakba Day.
AL Assistant Secretary General fir Palestine and Occupied Arab Lands Affairs, Ambassador Mohammad Sbeih, decried the occupation's forces aggression and opening fire against unarmed civilians in Maroun al-Ras, the occupied Syrian Golan, Beit Hanoun and the West Bank.
Sbeih said that the events taking place on the anniversary of al-Nakba Day prove that the Palestinian cause is returning to its proper place in the conscience of the Arab youth, adding that the message being to directed to Israel today is that force and fait accompli policies cannot give it the right to Jerusalem or any other inch of Palestinian land.

Egypt Voices Full Support of Palestinian People's Rightto Defend Their Cause
In a statement by Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi, Egypt voiced its full support of the Palestinian people's right to defend their cause, saying that Israel's oppression of peaceful demonstrations shows that it doesn't understand the changes taking place in the region.
Al-Arbai held Israel full responsibility for the deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian lands, demanding that it deal with peaceful demonstration within the context of international law and human rights.

UNIFIL Commander in Southern Lebanon: Events in Maroun al-Ras are Grave

In a statement, Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Major-General Alberto Asarta, described the events that took place in Maroun al-Ras and the Israeli forces' attack against Lebanese and Palestinian civilians as grave, calling for exerting self-control to prevent any more injuries and affirming that UNFIL will maintain its presence to support the Lebanese Armed Forces.

R. Raslan/ H. Said/ Mazen / H. Sabbagh