Obama identifies with Jewish struggle
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
07/08/2010 16:02
US President: Outreach to Muslims designed to reduce antagonism.
US President Barak Obama discussed his affiliation with the Muslim community on Thursday in a yet-to-be-aired Channel 2 television interview.
"My middle name is Husssain and that attracts suspicion," Obama said. He continued by stating that his outreach to the Muslim community is designed to reduce the antagonism towards Israel.
Obama said that he is able to identify with the Jewish struggle for a state because there are many similarities to the African American freedom movement.
RELATED:
Obama ‘ready' to come to Israel
Analysis: President now working with the PM, not against him
Coalition strengthened by Netanyahu-Obama meeting
"Not only is Netanyahu smart and savvy, the fact that he is not perceived as a dove in some ways can be helpful. Any successful peace will have to include the hawks and the doves on both sides," the US president said.
Obama used examples from US history and said "In the same way Nixon was able to go to China with strong anti-communist credentials, I think Netanyahu is well positioned to bring about peace."
Regarding the recent talks between the two on Wednesday, Obama noted, "I had the impression that Netanyahu is not just interested in occupying a space and filling a role, he is interested in being a statesman and putting his country on more secure tracks."
Obama also said that Israel is right to be skeptical about the peace process. But he noted that many people thought the founding of Israel was impossible, so its very existence should be "a great source of hope."
The US president also recalled visiting Jerusalem before he became president. He escribed wandering anonymously through the Old City as "a profound pleasure" that he's too well-known to enjoy now. Obama laughed about leaving a prayer at the Western Wall during his most recent visit, only to have someone remove it and print it in a newspaper.
Obama's comments came after he and Netanyahu exchanged affirmations of the strength of the US-Israel relationship during an Oval Office meeting Tuesday in which they stressed the shared goal of quickly moving forward with the peace process.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbas to Arabs: We'd Support a War Against Israel
by Maayana Miskin
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told Arab leaders that the PA is ready to wage war on Israel if the rest of the Arab world does, according to the PA daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida as translated by Palestinian Media Watch.
"If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don't have the ability to do it," Abbas quoted himself as having said at the March Arab League Summit in Libya.
Arab cities in Judea and Samaria were "completely destroyed" in the Israeli counterterrorism operations that took place during the Oslo War (Second Intifada), Abbas told Arab League members. "We will not agree that it will be destroyed again," he said.
Abbas quoted his own statements to the Arab League while in a meeting with the PA's ambassador to Jordan. The statements were used in explanation of his opposition to the approach taken by Hamas. Hamas pushes for "resistance" - a word often used to refer to terrorism - and refusal to negotiate with Israel.
"What we hear from everyone is that the basis is negotiations. At a time that the entire world agrees about this... We are unable to confront Israeli militarily," Abbas told the PA envoy.
Abbas, who is serving his fifth term as head of the PA after unilaterally extending his term in office, has made several statements in recent years that have raised concerns as to his true intentions. In 2008, as Israel and the PA engaged in peace talks, Abbas told a Jordanian paper that he opposed terrorism "at present" but that "things may change."
In March 2010, the PA held a ceremony naming a main square in Ramallah for a terrorist who led a cell that murdered 37 Israelis. In June, a broadcast on official PA television referred to Jews as "our enemies" and to the entire state of Israel as "Palestine."
Earlier this week, Abbas eulogized terrorist Abu Daoud, the mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, calling him "one of the leading figures in Fatah."
Israel has officially referred to Abbas a "moderate" leader, as opposed to the leadership of Hamas.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Palestinian leader calls for Arab invasion of Israel
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, branded a "moderate" by the international community, let his true colors show during a recent meeting with writers and journalists when he stated that he would favor a pan-Arab military offensive against the Jewish state.
The official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on Tuesday wrote that when Abbas met recently with media figures at the home of the Palestinian ambassador to Jordan, he recounted that during an Arab League Summit in Libya in March he told his fellow leaders that he still preferred war against Israel, but could not do it alone.
"We are unable to confront Israel militarily, and this point was discussed at the Arab League Summit," said Abbas. "There I turned to the Arab States and I said: 'If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don't have the ability to do it.'"
The Arab states of the Middle East have tried at least three times to militarily destroy Israel, but each time ended up losing territory to the Jewish state.
The "Palestinian crisis" that was birthed after Israel's liberation of Judea and Samaria (the so-called "West Bank") in 1967 is seen by many Israelis as nothing more than a more calculated and patient approach to ultimately removing Israel from the map.
Yasser Arafat admitted as much in 1993 when he told fellow Palestinians in a pre-recorded message played on Arab television as he signed the "Oslo Accords" that his PLO's guerilla tactics and eventual land-for-peace diplomacy was a phased strategy that would lead to the complete replacement of Israel with another Arab Muslim state:
"Do not forget that our Palestine National Council accepted the decision in 1974. It called for the establishment of a national authority on any part of Palestinian land that is liberated or from which the Israelis withdrew... This is the moment of return, the moment of gaining a foothold on the first liberated Palestinian land."
The 1974 decision referenced by Arafat was the PLO's official acceptance of a phased strategy for destroying Israel, as opposed to the more direct strategy of military conquest that had been employed up until the Yom Kippur War a year earlier.
Despite co-founding the PLO with Arafat, Abbas has long been whitewashed by an international community eager to impose its idea of peaceful conflict resolution on the region. That is why Abbas' remarks in Arabic, such as the one above, are regularly ignored by the world media and Western leaders. But Israelis warn that his views, and the influence they have an the Palestinian general public, ensure that a genuine and lasting peace is impossible to achieve.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'EU pushed Turkey to look elsewhere'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
07/08/2010 15:03
In interview, Obama encourages Europe to ally with Turkey.
US President Barack Obama said that Europe's reluctance to allow Turkey into the European Unions may have pushed Ankara to "look elsewhere," in an interview published in the Thursday edition of Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Obama said that the US "always expressed the opinion that it would be wise to accept Turkey into the European Union. I recognize this raises strong feelings in Europe, and I do not think... is the sole or predominant factor at the root of some changes recently observed in Turkey's orientation."
RELATED:
Erdogan's party seeks more power
FM: Turkey chose wrong diplomacy
An emerging rupture in Iran-Turkey relations
However, Obama told the Italian newspaper, this is "destined to play a role in how Turkish people see Europe. If they do not feel like they're being treated as part of the European family, it's natural that they would look elsewhere for alliances.
"Although some things, such as an attempt to broker an agreement with Iran on nuclear issue, have been unfortunate, I think they were motivated by the fact that Turkey has a long border area with Iran and does not want any type of conflict in that area," Obama added.
"Perhaps the desire to flex muscles played a role," Obama told Corriere della Sera. "What we can do is continue to work with Ankara, clarify to them the benefits of integrating with the West, while respecting their unique qualities, that they are a great Islamic democracy."
Obama said that alliances with Turkey "can potentially be very good for us, if they embody a kind of Islam that respects universal human rights and the secular state, and can have a positive influence on the Muslim world."
Talkback
Prophet Obama has spoken
La follie des grandeurs afflicts Obama. Now he tells the E.U. What they should do or not do. Up to now he told Israel what it must do. Now he tells the E.U. that they must embrace the great Islamic democracy, Turkey. It is the E.U.'s fault that Turkey is allied with Iran. The French definition is to the point. Obama suffers from a greatness syndrome. His followers accordingly suffer from the cult of the Messiah Obama. US Jews in particular will vote for him no matter what even if he tells them to drink coolaid.
-------------------
Obama can have Turkey
If Obama thinks that Turkey is such a great state, then why not make it the 51st state of America? We Europeans will never accept Turkey in the EU. Never!
----------------
Turkey--EU
Turkey is not ready to beecome a member of the EU.The understanding of Democracy,the treatment of the Kurds,children in prisons,the Police still tortures,the negativ list is long.Erdogan even told the Turkish people not to integrate. Antisemitism will increase further,its allready bad enough. Europe should not be blackmailed in this matter.The USA has no right to be overbearing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Al-Khiam rockets
IDF Releases Map of Hizbullah Targets
by Hillel Fendel
The IDF has taken the unusual step of publicizing some of its "targets banks" in southern Lebanon - buildings in southern Lebanese villages that Hizbullah has taken over for the storage and launching of long-range rockets.
It has long been known that Hizbullah uses quiet villages nestled in the hills of southern Lebanon to stockpile weapons and rockets. The IDF has now announced openly that it knows precisely which buildings to target if and when the Third Lebanon War breaks out.
The first war fought by Israel in Lebanese territory took place in the summer of 1982, and was known as Operation Peace for Galilee. 675 Israeli soldiers were killed, as were nearly 10,000 Syrian and PLO fighters. The Second Lebanon War, in the summer of 2006, between Israel and Hizbullah, cost Israel 119 military casualties and 42 civilian dead, with an estimated 500-600 enemy dead.
Col. Ronen Marli, commander of the Western Brigade in the Galilee Formation, briefed military reporters on the general direction of Israel's plans. "From my standpoint, it could be tomorrow, or next year. I have to be ready at all times."
He told them that the Lebanese village of Al-Khiam, just a few kilometers from Kiryat Shmonah, Metulah, and other Israeli towns, currently has some 200 rockets, each with a range of between 20 and 40 kilometers.
Col. Marli showed unprecedented pictures of the houses of Al-Khiam, with the buildings that are "untouchable," such as hospitals, schools and the like, colored blue. The red-colored structures are used to house and launch rockets; they will be Israel's targets in the next war.
The IDF says it has a list of thousands of such targets.
It is estimated that Hizbullah has the capacity to fire 700 rockets a day at Israel. In comparison, Hizbullah fired some 4,000 rockets during the 34-day 2006 war, for an average of fewer than 120 a day.
Col. Marli says that Israel knows the identity of the Iranian commander stationed in Beirut who is responsible for the Iranian command over Hizbullah. His name is Hussein Mahadawi, and he is in charge of preparatory training for the Hizbullah terrorists.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IDF: Hizbullah Holing Up Near Schools, Hospitals Again
Video
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138488
by Gil Ronen
Hizbullah is placing military positions, weapons and explosive charges next to schools and hospitals in southern Lebanon, a senior IDF source said Wednesday. The IDF may have to take action against these targets in case of hostilities with Hizbullah, and has said as much to the UN force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL).
An officer in the IDF Northern Command said that Hizbullah is digging tunnels, preparing communications infrastructure and making other preparations for war. Hizbullah has about 40,000 rockets and about 10,000 militiamen scattered in about 160 villages in southern Lebanon.
Inside each of these villages, the terror militia has an infrastructure that includes weapons, control centers, mines and other explosives, all of which are located very short distances away from population centers, schools and hospitals.
IDF sources gave conflicting estimates regarding Hizbullah's warlike intentions. While one source said the militia is not showing signs that it is about to attack, the Commander of the Regional Brigade in northern Israel, Col. Ronen Morali, said Hizbullah is steadily inching toward the Israeli border. "The organization has the will to penetrate and mount an attack, against communities and against IDF soldiers," Morali said. "It is clear that the Hizbullah organization wants to carry out a terror strike or a penetration, beyond the use of gunfire, light arms or rockets."
Morali said that the IDF is working in full cooperation with UNIFIL and that the UN soldiers have increased their presence and "are doing a good job." The Lebanese Army has also deployed three brigades in southern Lebanon in order to improve its control over the region, he said.
A favored tactic of terror militias Hamas and Hizbullah is to attack Israel from within population centers, thus luring Israeli forces into inadvertently causing civilian casualties among the Arab noncombatants. Macabre photographs of dead children are then circulated in the world as proof of Israel's supposed inhumanity. More than any other country that causes civilian casualties in war, Israel regularly apologizes for such events.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rabbis: 'Don't rent to foreign workers'
By LAHAV HARKOV
07/08/2010 12:42
25 Tel Aviv rabbis sign petition: "Do not have mercy on them."
Twenty-five rabbis in southern Tel Aviv released a letter on Thursday, warning Jews not to rent their homes to illegal immigrants and foreign workers.
"The neighborhood and synagogue rabbis who signed below warn the public about the halachic prohibition and the predicted danger of renting homes to these people!!!" the letter reads.
RELATED:
Eilat mayor launches anti-migrant campaign
'Send them back where they came from'
Crackdown on illegal foreign workers also targets employees
Rabbi Chanania Leviev of the Chabad House in Kiryat Shalem told The Jerusalem Post to "walk around the streets here, and see what it's like - it's impossible to live like this!"
The southern Tel Aviv rabbi relayed that the petition is essential to maintaining the quality of life in his neighborhood, and that illegal foreign workers are adversly effecting his congregation.
"You see them everywhere, in all the streets, all the parks," Leviev said. "Girls walk by and get hit on all the time!"
The rabbis added to the letter that, according to police estimates, 40 percent of the crimes in south Tel Aviv are committed by "infiltrators," and that four murders were committed by illegal immigrants in the past year.
The rabbis quote the Talmud as saying "do not have mercy on them," and cite the Shulchan Aruch, a major halachic source, to justify their actions.
Many rabbis added messages next to their signatures, such as "may whoever helps preserve the Jewish nature of Tel Aviv be blessed."
In recent months, protests have been held in the southern Tel Aviv neighborhoods HaTikvah and Shapira, opposing the influx of illegal immigrants and refugees.
Talkback
Israelis only need comment
As usual the majority of people commenting on their desire to endanger and give away the only Jewish state, don't live here. They've never been to the only dangerous neighborhoods left in Tel Aviv and saw that the danger from African and Asian drug addicts in the parks (the only unsafe ones in all of Israel), and from the Somali, Sudanese, and Eritrean illegals from Africa. Also notice the 3 most common countries for these people to come from are either infested with Islamic terrorists like Al Qaeda (Somalia), or are run by Islamists (Sudan/Eritrea). Big time danger. Zeh mesukan me'od.
----------------------------
This Is Not A Racial Issue
This is not a racial issue. No country should be forced to entertain illegal aliens. If they serve no useful purpose and are a threat to the stability of a nation, they should be rounded up and deported. And don't tell me that they take the jobs other Israelis do not take. We hear that same insipid argument in the USA. Unfortunately, illegal aliens are a major cause of violent crime in our border states. In this case, the rabbis are correct.
