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POPSIsrael Says It Seized Iranian Arms Shipment for Hezbollah Israel says it seized Iranian arms shipment for Hezbollah November 4 By David Buimovitch (AFP) " 15 hours ago ASHDOD, Israel " Israel said on Wednesday that commandos had intercepted a ship carrying "hundreds of tonnes" of arms from Iran to Hezbollah in a raid dozens of miles off its coast but both Iran and Syria denied the cargo was headed to the Lebanese militia. "We found dozens of containers, with hundreds of tonnes of arms bound for Hezbollah from Iran," Israeli deputy naval commander Rani Ben Yehuda told reporters. The shipment was among the largest ever seized by Israel, dwarfing the 50 tonnes of weapons found aboard the Karine A seized in 2002 on its way to Gaza, which dealt a major blow to relations between the Palestinians and Washington. At the Mediterranean port of Ashdod, soldiers pulled hundreds of olive-green ammunition crates from shipping containers, many of them concealed by sacks of cement.
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POPSAlternate Iraq War Universe … Obama Won!
Never mind that the surge was initiated by President George Bush, and the current withdrawal was negotiated by the Bush administration with a sovereign, elected Iraqi government which his actions allowed to come into being, in place of the prior despot he had deposed, while Democrats, including Obama, were howling for abandonment. Obama deserves some credit, of course. For staying Bush’s course and throwing his own boneheaded pandering demands for a precipitous pullout under the bus. OK, I thought Friedman had got about as weird as he could. Silly me. This next step is particularly important, which is why we cannot let Afghanistan distract U.S. diplomats from Iraq. Remember: Transform Iraq and it will impact the whole Arab-Muslim world. Change Afghanistan and you just change Afghanistan. Fascinating. The big clamor for the last few years of course has been that Iraq was distracting us from Afghanistan, and now every jackanape out there, to include Friedman . . .
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POPSAfghanistan: 'No Democracy~Just Islam' and Burn Obama Effigy Afghan university students shout anti-US slogans and hold a banner reading 'No Democracy; We want just Islam!' during a demonstration in Kabul on October 25, 2009. ISLAMIZATION WATCH More than 100,000 foreign troops are battling a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, where violence this year reached its highest level since the austere Islamists were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001. Thick plumes of smoke rose above the crowd as protesters set fire to a large effigy of what they said was U.S. President Barack Obama. "Death to America. Down with Israel," chanted one man at the rally, which was organized mainly by university students. Others threw stones and clashed with police but no casualties were reported. "No to democracy. We just want Islam," said one banner carried by protesters, many of whom shook their fists in the air. Captain Elizabeth Mathias, a media officer for U.S. and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan,
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POPSOct. 23,1983 Lebanese Terrorists Bomb the Marine Barracks in Beirut . . with Syria. Although the United States had mounted two previous successful peacekeeping operations in Lebanon in 1958 and earlier in 1982 (to facilitate the evacuation of P.L.O. forces from Beirut that had been defeated by Israel), the ignominious end of the MNF intervention brought disastrous consequences. The failure of the peacekeeping mission led to renewed fighting between Lebanese factions and the ascendancy of Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria. Moreover, the Marine barracks bombing, which was the deadliest terrorist attack against Americans before the 9/11 attacks, later inspired Osama bin Laden, who viewed the United States as a “paper tiger” because of its rapid withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from Lebanon and Somalia after suffering casualties. Al Qaeda members were later dispatched to Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon, according to the 9/11 Commission Report (p. 68). Posted October 23rd, 2009 in American Leadership.
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POPS Is Barack Obama Anti-American? And with other dreams (for example, the Second Amendment) he’s doing a fancy dance by which he tries to hide his authoritarian impulses. But it doesn’t matter. This post isn’t about what Obama will actually do. It’s about what he wants to do, what his desires are vis a vis the American people " and it’s very clear that his desire is antithetical to the American essence. He wants to limit or destroy individual liberties. Politically, too, Obama’s impulses are all antithetical to liberty. Again, some examples: He has turned against the only democratic nation in the Middle East (that would be Israel), in favor of the bloodied tyrannical theocracies on her borders. By reversing his pledge to keep a missile defense system in place in Poland and the Czech Republic, he has favored Iran’s Muslim tyranny Figuratively and literally, he bows to dictators (Saudis, Venezuelans, Russians, Iranians, Cubans). In Honduras, he sided with the delusional Zelaya against the . . .
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POPS Debacle in Moscow by Charles Krauthammer And what's come from Obama's single most dramatic foreign policy stroke -- the sudden abrogation of missile defense arrangements with Poland and the Czech Republic that Russia had virulently opposed? For the East Europeans it was a crushing blow, a gratuitous restoration of Russian influence over a region that thought it had regained independence under American protection. But maybe not gratuitous. Some brilliant secret trade-off to get strong Russian support for stopping Iran from going nuclear before it's too late? Just wait and see, said administration officials, who then gleefully played up an oblique statement by President Dmitry Medvedev a week later as vindication of the missile defense betrayal. The Russian statement was so equivocal that such a claim seemed a ridiculous stretch at the time. Well, Clinton went to Moscow this week to nail down the deal. What did she get? "Russia Not Budging On Iran Sanctions: Clinton Unable to Sway Counterpart."
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POPSUrge World Leaders: Vote No to Biased Goldstone Report I'm here at the emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, facing a draft resolution by the Arab and Islamic blocs that seeks to endorse the biased Goldstone Report"a 500-page document that falsely accuses Israel of “deliberate attacks” against civilians during its defensive war against Hamas rocket attacks last January. (For details, see www.unwatch.org/goldstone.) Adoption of this dangerous text will trigger proceedings toward the indictment and prosecution of Israeli leaders and officers in the International Criminal Court. What’s at stake is the very survival of democratic societies under the assault of terrorists"enemies of human rights who cynically invoke its protective cover. The debate began yesterday and reaches its climax today. UN Watch will be there to address the assembled delegates. Representing us will be none other than Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan,
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POPSHard to Imagine, Australia Brings Israel, Iran Together of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East. Contact between Israeli and Iranian officials is sporadic and only takes place at international forums - no formal meetings between the two countries have occurred since the 1979 Iranian revolution. Officials from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and other regional countries also took part in the three-day meeting and it is believed the talks floated an idea for a further regional conference - possibly hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - to outline the broad aims of a treaty to create a Middle East nuclear-free zone. Similar ideas have stalled in the past over the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and questions of security guarantees for Israel. But last month's talks in Egypt attempted to skirt such obstacles by focusing on proposals to safeguard any fissile material in the region that could potentially be used for nuclear weapons.
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POPSStratfor: Hezbollah Gets Punk'd There were three men on board, one of whom said they represented EDL and that the purpose of their visit was to upgrade electricity meter switches in the neighborhood... The explosion occurred three hours after the presumably fake EDL van had left the building... ...Hezbollah uses numerous basements in the south Litani area as weapons depots in violation of U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the 33-day military campaign by Israel against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon in July 2006 and called for Hezbollah’s disarmament. UNIFIL lacks the capability to enforce the resolution, and the Lebanese army lacks both the capability and the will to confront Hezbollah over this explosive issue... ...Hezbollah’s rearmament is naturally a concern for Israel, but the Israeli intelligence apparatus has ways to derail Hezbollah’s plans, and blowing up a munitions depot is not beyond its means.
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POPS The Greatest Threat in the Middle East Dr. ElBaradei has long considered a confrontational strategy toward Iran to be counterproductive. Responding to calls for the report’s release, he has raised doubts about its completeness and reliability.” ElBaradei’s non-confrontational approach likely explains today’s statement in Tehran that “Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses.” Because it’s much safer to verbally attack democratic nations like Israel than unpredictable authoritarian regimes like Iran. patterico's pontifications http://patterico.com/
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POPSOMG, How Dumb Is This Administration! (Act II) For what purpose? Shore up their support with the Jewish voters or Israeli lobby? Show how savvy they are in international matters? Are they that dumb, or do they think we are that dumb to think we few 100+ million are being quietly let in on the big secret?
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POPS19 Female Palestinian Prisoners to be Released in Exchange for Sign of Life From Gilad Shalit From there, they were handed over to the Red Cross at 11:30 am, where they awaited the green light from Israel's envoy to Shalit talks Hagai Hadas' authorization before being released via Bitunia Checkpoint near Ramallah and Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel and the Bitunia Checkpoint near Ramallah. At around 1 pm, Hadas is slated to take the tape to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, to present it to Netanyahu. A copy of the tape will be delivered to the Shalit family by helicopter. Brigadier General Avi Zamir, head of the army's Human Resources Branch, will present the video to the Shalit family at around 3 pm. The video may even be flown in a helicopter to the family so as not to expedite its arrival. The family requested to watch the video in private. Copies of the video will also be delivered to the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff and the Shin Bet chief. Who will see the tape? After watching the videotape, Jerusalem will have . .
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POPSObama's Move: Iran and Afghanistan United States between April and September. In his speech to the Islamic world from Cairo, he planned to show a desire not only to find common ground, but also to acknowledge shortcomings in U.S. policy in the region. With the appointment of special envoys George Mitchell (for Israel and the Palestinian territories) and Richard Holbrooke (for Pakistan and Afghanistan), Obama sought to build on his opening to the Islamic world with intense diplomatic activity designed to reshape regional relationships. It can be argued that the Islamic masses responded positively to Obama’s opening " it has been asserted to be so and we will accept this " but the diplomatic mission did not solve the core problem. Mitchell could not get the Israelis to move on the settlement issue, and while Holbrooke appears to have made some headway on increasing Pakistan’s aggressiveness toward the Taliban, no fundamental shift has occurred in the Afghan war.
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POPSIran Prepares For War, While Obama Sleeps! What damage has been caused by Obama’s withholding this information from the world? Yet, he praised the Islamic Republic of Iran and apologized for America’s actions in the Middle East. He held out his hand to a regime that denies the Holocaust while plotting to commit another one, and has a history of lying repeatedly to the international community while murdering away around the world (including its own citizens, uh..subjects). Obama has given Iran more time to develop nuclear weapons. But is there more damage that Obama has caused? He has allowed Iran time and wiggle room to escape the brunt of the one type of sanction that once held promise to restrain Iran: crafting and enforcing sanctions on companies and nations that export refined gas to Iran. In the last year, threats of sanctions on those few companies and nations that supply Iran with gasoline and heating oil have been partially effective. But the serious pressure would have come from sanctions passed by .
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POPS The Iran Attack Plan Israel would have to contend with the fact that it has consistently had a "red light" from both the Bush and Obama administrations opposing such strikes. Any strike that overflew Arab territory or attacked a fellow Islamic state would stir the ire of neighboring Arab states, as well as Russia, China and several European states. No one knows what specialized weapons Israel may have developed on its own, but Israeli intelligence has probably given Israel good access to U.S., European, and Russian designs for more advanced weapons than the GBU-28. Therefore, the odds are that Israel can have a serious impact on Iran's three most visible nuclear targets and possibly delay Iran's efforts for several years. The story is very different, however, when it comes to destroying the full range of Iranian capabilities. There are no meaningful unclassified estimates of Iran's total mix of nuclear facilities, but known unclassified research, reactor, and centrifuge facilities number . . .
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POPSObama: From Savior to Leftist Windbag in Nine Months Hugo Chavez got a big round of American-hating applause when he said “it doesn’t smell like sulfur in here anymore” in reference to President Bush whom he had previously referred to as the devil. Words are cheap and Obama used a whole lot of them to promote his socialist-light agenda to the nation last year. There might not be much in the ways of original ideas floating around in his head - just a collection of discarded Democrat lost causes from the past half century or so - Obama has convinced himself that as a man of destiny he doesn’t have to bother with trivial matters like telling the truth or keeping his word. In an effort to sell healthcare reform to the nation that it doesn’t want, Obama habitually plays fast and loose with the truth. It’s gotten to the point where he can barely speak on the subject for longer than a few minutes without someone wanting to cough up the word “liar” in the background, just like Rep. Joe Wilson did last week.
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POPS Delegates Walk Out On Ahmadinejad Undeterred, Mr Ahmadinejad went on to accuse foreign troops of spreading "war, bloodshed, aggression, terror and intimidation" in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he also used his speech to brush off accusations that his re-election in June was a fraud, describing the polling day as "glorious and fully democratic". Notably absent from Mr Ahmadinejad's podium address was the subject of Tehran's stand-off with Western powers over its nuclear ambitions. As the Iranian leader prepared to address delegates, the UN Security Council members announced that they were expecting Iran to engage with them on the issue. "We expect a serious response from Iran and will decide, in the context of our dual track approach, as a result of the meeting, on our next steps," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on behalf of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Realtime results for #GreenNY http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23GreenNY
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POPSZbigniew Brzezinski To Obama: Shot Down Israeli Planes If They Attack Iran In an interview with the Daily Beast, Brzezinski was quoted as saying, "They have to fly over our air space in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?" Currently a professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Maryland, the former White House official added, "We have to be serious about denying them that right. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back, or not." Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi maintained, however, that Israel will do whatever is necessary to defend itself when the time comes. "Israel has the right to defend itself, and all options are open," said the IDF Chief of Staff. "The IDF's working premise is that we have to be prepared for that possibility, and that is exactly what we are doing." With regard to the cooperation between the IDF and the U.S. Armed Forces that would be essential should military intervention become necessary,
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POPSAnalysis: Why Everyone Is Saying No To Obama The only thing Obama did manage to get Bibi and Abbas to say yes to is a photo-op at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in NY. Mazel tov. So why is everyone saying no to Obama? It's the economy, stupid. Everyone has worked it out by now: The great secret is out. America's economy has made Obama a weak president, and he will likely remain weak throughout his first term. He has about two years to pull the American economy out of its free-fall before he begins his reelection campaign. If he can do it, and that's a big if, chances are good that he'll get reelected, and in his second term he can try to pull some geopolitical strings. But for the next three years, expect to see a world that says no to Obama. No meaningful and dramatic diplomatic initiative can come out of the White House in the next three years, as long as Obama remains weak. And that's a real pity, because there are some serious and imminent issues that need to be addressed.
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POPSAnother brilliant move by Obama.... Changing one word in its name, the Human Rights Council instantly resumed its former practices: ignoring massive human rights violations around the globe and condemning Israel. Rest here>>> http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTFlNGRjMDdiNTU5NDExYWZkN2NjMjkxNTY3ODRmMGI= Poles, Czechs Decry Obama's "Betrayal".... http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2009/09/poles-czechs-decry-obamas-betrayal.html.
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POPS“It’s Life Has Come To An End” Ahmadinejad Lays The Smack Talk On Israel Ahmadinejad’s fresh comments came ahead of his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly next week and before Tehran attends talks on Oct. 1 with major powers worried about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear strategy. NUCLEAR PROGRAMME Ahmadinejad repeated on Thursday that Iran would “never” abandon its disputed nuclear programme to appease critics. In an NBC-TV interview, he also offered no direct response when asked whether there were any conditions under which Iran would develop a nuclear weapon. “We don’t need nuclear weapons,” Ahmadinejad said, speaking through an interpreter. “We do not see any need for such weapons. And the conditions around the world are moving to favour our ideas,” he added. President Barack Obama, who came to office pledging to engage with Iran, has suggested Tehran may face harsher sanctions, possibly targeting its gasoline imports, if it does not accept good-faith talks by the end of September.
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POPSObama Heads For Foreign Policy Disaster The U.S. is applying pressure to Israel, because Israel is susceptible to U.S. pressure, in hopes of gaining concessions from the Palestinians, who are not. The process is the diplomatic equivalent of a drunk searching for his key under the streetlamp"because it's brighter there. The approach has never worked before, but repeated failure does not seem to have discouraged Obama from trying yet again. Not everything that goes wrong in the world is the president's fault, of course. Vladimir Putin's Russia would behave aggressively no matter who was president, just as any president would confront the same unappealing range of options in Pakistan. But the very intractability of such problems makes it more important to do right what can be done right. Despite the domestic focus of these early months of his presidency, Barack Obama thinks of himself as a foreign policy thinker above all, according to those who know him best. His confidence is undiminished by his lack . . .
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POPSObama’s UN Gambit: King of the Universe and the Polls While “non-proliferation” is mentioned, “disarmament” is not. Similarly, a UN Secretariat compilation “forecasting the Council’s program of work” for the month of September " based on prior activities and requests " lists non-proliferation specifically in relation to Iran and North Korea and does not list disarmament. But in light of Obama’s wishes, a tailor-made subheading will likely be adopted under the existing entry “maintenance of international peace and security.” The new item will insist on simultaneous consideration of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament and make no mention of particular states. This is no trivial technicality. The linguistic formula, which Obama’s confrere Qaddafi will undoubtedly exploit, shamelessly panders to Arab and Muslim states. It is a familiar recipe for stonewalling efforts to prevent Iran or other Muslim and Arab states from acquiring nuclear weapons until Israel is disarmed or Israel’s (unofficial) nuclear
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POPSIsraeli President Calls Deal on Kidnapped Soldier 'Close' Asked about that decision, Peres told Fox News, “You’re right. It is a very difficult decision and it’s very painful. But, according to our set of values and to our way of life " the life of a single person is worth the whole world. We take care of every individual as though he would be the collective sum of many people.” Peres also said Sunday that Israel will "reply immediately" if attacked by Hamas " one day after after Israel Air Force planes bombed a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip in response to a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants into an Israeli town early Saturday. "They know immediately there will be retaliation," he said. "There is an unwritten game between us and them. They know if they won’t respect it, they will pay heavily.”
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POPSHezbollah Readies for War as UN Can Only Observe Hezbollah, which has the backing of Iran and Syria, is rebuilding its force in the south, undaunted by its loss in Lebanon’s June elections, in which a pro-U.S. coalition won a parliamentary majority. The peacekeepers’ stay in south Lebanon expires on Aug. 31 and the UN Security Council must decide whether to extend it without change or authorize them to impose the weapons ban by force even without the support of the Lebanese army. Free of Hezbollah The 12,000 UN soldiers were sent to Lebanon after a 2006 war with Israel that began when Hezbollah, which the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist organization, captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. After the fighting ended, the Security Council passed a resolution prohibiting “weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.” The peacekeepers were deployed to keep south Lebanon free of Hezbollah’s militia and arms, a role they have to perform with the cooperation of the Lebanese army.
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POPSJohn Bolton Expects Israel To Take Iranian Matters Into It’s Own Hands He vaguely promises to offer the country the carrot of diplomacy"followed by an empty threat of sanctions down the road if Iran does not comply with the U.S.’s requests. This is precisely the European Union’s approach, which has failed for over six years. There’s no reason Iran would suddenly now bow to Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts, especially after its embarrassing election in June. Under the worst-case scenario, Iran will continue improving its nuclear facilities and Mr. Obama will become the first U.S. president to tie the issue of Israel’s nuclear capabilities into negotiations about Iran’s. Israel understands that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent commitment to extend the U.S. “defense umbrella” to Israel is not a guarantee of nuclear retaliation, and that it is wholly insufficient to deter Iran from obliterating Israel if it so decides. In fact, Mrs. Clinton’s comment tacitly concedes that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, exactly the wrong message.
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POPS Bias and Cynicism Exactly the way he does not allow his bias and lack of knowledge of the facts interfere with his pronouncing judgement on Israel.
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POPSA Case Study in UN Hypocrisy only after the council president expanded the examination to include both sides. In contrast to the original mandate, Goldstone speaks only of "alleged" violations. In other words, he is trying to conduct a genuine inquiry despite having been appointed to a farcical one. It's a tricky feat. When the inquiry last week invited not only Palestinians to speak, but Israeli victims as well, Goldstone introduced something new to the UN. He deserves particular credit for inviting Noam Shalit, father of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held incommunicado by Hamas since 2006, and denied access to the Red Cross. Yet whatever balance Goldstone may bring, the inherent problem with his mission is that it plays into the collective strategy of the council's repressive regimes, which is to cover up abuses in places such as Iran, China, Pakistan, Russia, Egypt and Zimbabwe -- all ignored this year -- and instead shine a permanent spotlight on Israel.
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POPS ix-nay that "Death to Israel" Already! One of the participants at the meeting asked the president to take a lower profile regarding the public differences between his administration and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the United States’ demand that Israel freeze all settlement construction activity in the West Bank. “This situation is not helpful,” he told the president, who rejected the request, saying that during the eight years of the Bush administration, such disagreements were never made public but that such an approach was not helpful in advancing the peace process. Kind of sounds like a White House WTF moment to me. Also sounds like all of that pulpit-thumping Zionist-bashing the Rev. Wright did at the Trinity United Church of Christ wasn’t a complete waste of time, even if Obama said he wasn’t listening to those parts. But the Rev. Wright was wrong about at least one thing. It turns out Obama isn’t afraid of offending Jews and Israel at all.
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POPSAfrica Vs. The Arab World ~ Anne Bayefsky, 07.12.09 Why does Obama treat the two so differently? http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/12/obama-africa-ghana-egypt-mubarak-opinions-contributors-anne-bayefsky.html Before the Muslim world Obama donned the role of apologist-in-chief. Over and over again his examples of shortfalls in the protection of rights and freedoms were American: the "prison at Guantanamo Bay," "rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation," impediments to the "choice" of Muslim women to shroud their bodies. Christian Africa was to be treated to no such self-flagellation. In a rare tongue-lashing for Africans from any American president, he chastised: "It's easy to point fingers and to pin the blame of these problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense helped to breed conflict ... But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy ... or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants …
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POPSThe Green Brief #21 (July 07) . . . Rafsanjani himself has so far not supported this statement and where he stands is still unknown at this time. 6. There are partially-confirmed reports that Mousavi met with one, mourning protester’s family on Monday night. The protester’s father told Mousavi that his son was not very political, yet had taken a great deal of interest in Mr. Mousavi’s message. He also claimed that his son was not violent. Mousavi told the grieving family that the blood of the innocent never goes in vain. 7. After US Vice President Joe Biden’s statement yesterday, that suggested the US would not interfere if Israel were to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Saudi Arabia was reported as offering Israel its airspace for any future attacks on Iran. However, Saudi Arabia today denied that it had made such comments. In the meantime, US President Obama has vehemently denied that Biden’s statements implied that the US had given Israel “a green light” to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
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POPSHe Doesn't Get It . . . . would be doing this to Israel even if Iran was not the problem that it is. In any event, the double standard is egregious. Obama has torn up his previous understandings with Israel over the settlements while putting no pressure at all on the Palestinians, even though since they are the regional aggressor there can be no peace unless they end their aggression and certainly not until they accept Israel as a Jewish state, which they have said explicitly they will never do. On this, Obama is totally silent. So too is Dershowitz. That’s some omission. Next, Obama is pressuring Israel to set up a Palestine state " within two years this will exist, swaggers Rahm Emanuel. But everyone knows that as soon as Israel leaves the West Bank, Hamas " or even worse " will take over. The only reason the (also appalling) Abbas is still in Ramallah, enabling Obama to pretend there is a Palestinian interlocutor for peace, is because the Israelis are keeping Hamas at bay.
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POPSThe Clinton-Obama “feud” Growing? The White House has played an active role in clearing the field for Gillibrand, who was appointed earlier this year to fill the seat vacated when Obama tapped Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his secretary of state. Obama asked Rep. Steve Israel not to challenge Gillibrand, a request he honored. Just days ago, Vice President Joe Biden called Maloney to discuss the race, a clear sign that the White House didn’t want a primary fight next year. The Clinton-Obama relationship has always been strained, ever since Obama overtook Hillary in her bid for a history and a return to the White House. Obama appointed her as Secretary of State for his own political needs, not out of any sense of expertise on Hillary’s part for diplomacy. It took her almost no time to demonstrate that herself, with unforced errors like proclaiming her complete bemusement on multi-party democracy and the “reset” button she presented Sergei Lavrov that was mistranslated " and not in Cyrillic script, eith
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POPSLive-Tweeting The Revolution: Day 14 26 Jun 2009 Tonight, like past nights, the chants of "Allah-o-Akbar" were heard on roof tops of Tehran & other cities. R.I.P Micheal Jackson, many in Iran loved you and grew up with your songs, despite all the Regime's confinements and propaganda
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POPS Iran's Hidden Revolution Far from fretting about an impending attack from Israel or America, guard leaders have been warning the ayatollah that the most formidable threat to the Islamic Republic is a “soft regime change policy” involving the use of “orange revolutions” (as the hard-line Iranian newspaper Kayhan recently editorialized) Encircled by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, besieged from within by disgruntled citizens, the supreme leader has turned to a bellicose strongman to preserve the system that elevated him. Indeed, Ayatollah Khamenei " who was scorned as a religious lightweight by many more established mullahs when he was chosen for the top post in 1989 " has repeatedly shown himself willing to undercut the “Islamic” in Islamic revolution. In doing so, he has painted himself into a corner " a permanent alliance with Mr. Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guards. And this fraudulent election will only push them closer together.
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POPSWhy We Protest - IRAN The Green Brief #6 - NiteOwl helped protesters or are accused of masterminding the unrest. The government earlier in the day alleged that the US had paid 400 million dollars to people in order to organize unrest in Iran. They also blamed the UK and Germany " saying the latter was coaxed into taking action by Israel " 5. The government is actively trying to suppress news from getting out. BBC and Al-Arabiya’s correspondents were told to get out in 24 hours, twitter sites are being hacked, people are being tricked into getting out late at night by others chanting in the streets who are actually Basijis and the spread of spam and propaganda on twitter. The government has also established dozens of sites with pictures of protesters, asking people to identify them. At least two of these sites that were based abroad have been taken down by hackers sympathetic to Iranians today.
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POPSWhy We Should Support the Green Revolution The obvious flaw in the argument is that less actual terror, with ambiguous world support, is still better than more actual terror with worldwide sympathy. Sympathy evaporates eventually; lives lost can never be returned. Predictably, what happened with Gaza was that Israel ended up losing on both counts. On the one hand, Hamas took over and built a massive terror infrastructure that enabled it to start taking the fight into Israel’s urban centers in the South. On the other hand, international support was short-lived. When Israel dared fight back, it was subjected to a brutal international outcry. The same arguments are surfacing today with regard to the Iranian demonstrations since the election. For several days we’ve been hearing both Israeli and American officials saying we’re better off having Ahmedinejad win rather than the reformer Mousavi. (Today it comes from the head of the Mossad.) True, it’s unlikely that an explicit supporter of the Islamic revolution in Iran wi
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POPSPalestinian Extremists are Out Beating Iranians in the Streets… Another protester, who spoke as he carried a kitchen knife in one hand and a stone in the other, also cited the presence of Hamas in Teheran. On Monday, he said, "my brother had his ribs beaten in by those Palestinian animals. Taking our people's money is not enough, they are thirsty for our blood too." It was ironic, this man said, that the victorious Ahmadinejad "tells us to pray for the young Palestinians, suffering at the hands of Israel." His hope, he added, was that Israel would "come to its senses" and ruthlessly deal with the Palestinians. When asked if these militia fighters could have been mistaken for Lebanese Shi'ites, sent by Hizbullah, he rejected the idea. "Ask anyone, they will tell you the same thing. They are out beating Iranians in the streets… The more we gave this arrogant race, the more they want… we will not let them push us around in our own country." http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/
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