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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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POPSAs US talks tough, Jewish settlements keep booming They will not be happy until the last of the Palestinians has been driven into the sea or dead. Then they will start on other countries around them. Obama will not hold any sway. He is expected to support their every move, as did his predecessors.
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POPSObama Needs to Brush Up on Middle East History Saddam Hussein" and that the government of Iraq is "democratically elected." But he still has some history left to learn. "No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other." But that's what the United States did in Germany and Japan, and in Iraq, as well. As one of the Democratic senators who insisted that the Iraqis meet benchmarks, Obama was a micromanager in that process himself. "We did not go by choice; we went because of necessity" into Afghanistan. And as for his claim that "Islam has always been a part of America's story," that's a stretch, and one that requires airbrushing out the war against the Barbary pirates. Most disturbingly, Obama seems to have gotten the history of the Israel-Palestine issue wrong. The plight of the Palestinians since 1948 or 1967 is not the moral equivalent of the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust, as Obama's "on the other hand" segue suggested. Michael Barone
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POPSObama Reaches Out To Apartheid Regime Purging Jewish Families From Yemen the Palestinian and Israeli, stopping building settlements and his confession of the Palestinians' rights and that security of Israeli is linked to a just solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Less high on Yemen's list: closing the terrorist camps that their intelligence services use for political ends, up to and including the targeting of domestic opponents: Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces crises on many fronts. A southern populist uprising in the six governorates of the former PDRY has taken on separatist overtones. At the same time, the northern Saada war with Zaidi Shiite rebels may erupt for the sixth time since 2004. As a result, Saleh has embarked on a strategy of empowering Islamic militants who, in exchange, have been given a free hand over some local populations. At least those camps don't then become safe havens for international terrorism. Think how awkward that would be.
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POPSObama and Netanyahu Meet: What's Next? by Daniel Pipes (2) Larger strategic concerns consistently drive U.S. attitudes to Israel: Republicans kept their distance when they perceived Israel as a liability in confronting the Soviet Union (1948-70) and only warmed to it when Israel proved its strategic utility (after 1970); Democrats cooled in the post-Cold War period (after 1991), when many came to see it as an "apartheid" state that destabilizes the Middle East and impedes U.S. policies there. By now, the political parties diverge greatly; polls find Republican support for Israel exceeds Democratic support by an average margin of 26 percentage points. Likewise, Republicans endorse the United States helping Israel attack Iran far more than Democrats. Known in years past to stand up for Israel, he now accuses it of perpetuating "settler pogroms" and thus taking part in a "destructive dynamic." Question: Will the Democrats' critical views translate into a policy shift at the forthcoming summit meeting?
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POPS Obama’s U.N. Mistake On Tuesday the Obama administration did it again: It ran for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council. As expected, the administration won election to represent the Council’s Western European and Others Group — it was a three-state contest for three spaces. The Council is most famous, not for protecting human rights, but for its obsession with Israel. In its three-year history it has: * adopted more resolutions and decisions condemning Israel than condemning the 191 other U.N. members combined; * entrenched an agenda with only ten items, one permanently reserved for condemning Israel and another for condemning any other U.N. state that might “require the Council’s attention”; * held ten regular sessions on human rights, and five special sessions to condemn only Israel; * insisted on an investigator with an open-ended mandate to condemn Israel, while all other investigators must be regularly renewed;
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POPS"Rebuilding Gaza is the least we can do" John B. Quigley is a professor of law at the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University, where he is the Presidents' Club Professor of Law. In 1995 he was recipient of The Ohio State University Distinguished Scholar Award. Before joining the Ohio State faculty in 1969, Professor Quigley was a research scholar at Moscow State University, and a research associate in comparative law at Harvard Law School. He teaches International Law and Comparative Law and holds an adjunct appointment in the Political Science Department. In 1982-83 he was a visiting professor at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He is active in international human rights work. He has published many articles and books on human rights, the United Nations, war and peace, east European law, African law, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is fluent in Russian and French and highly proficient in Spanish, and Swahil
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POPS30 Years on, Relations Frosty. In Israel "Cold Peace"!!!! Was Carter correct to cobble together the Camp David historic agreement on Sept 6, 2006 leading to the agreement on March 26, 1979 and the Sadat visit to Israel? Is he not worthy for being honoured as a great peacemaker for that singular achievement, given the inability of any other American leader to bring the Zionist to boot? After all, the Zionists have much the same war criminals in charge then as now!!!!
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POPSNetanyahu Warns Obama on Talks as He Challenges Livni Obama, by contrast, addressed Muslim countries in his inaugural speech Jan. 20, calling for “a new way forward based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” He gave his first interview as president to Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television and pledged to “start now” on Palestinian-Israeli peace efforts. Netanyahu, 59, has said he wants to continue talks with the Palestinians, though he would shift the focus to “creating infrastructure for a political settlement,” helping rebuild the West Bank economy and demanding an end to violence. Netanyahu says he won’t remove any Jewish settlements from the West Bank, a key Palestinian demand. Netanyahu -- popularly known by his nickname, Bibi -- was born in Tel Aviv and attended high school in suburban Philadelphia where his father, a historian, went to teach. After serving in the Israeli army as a commando, Netanyahu returned to the U.S. to study management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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POPSObama Endorses Two-State Solution for Arab-Israeli Conflic
This "two-state solution," has been proposed for decades. It would seem like a "solution,' to those who don't want to continue supporting Israeli aggression -- and non-stop expansion and collective punishment and apartheid policies. Would they be two equal states? Would Israel stop invading Gaza? Would assassinations of Palestinian leaders end? Would extraordinary rendition (kidnapping and jailing) of thousands of innocent people end? Would the blockade and slow starvation of over a million and a half people in the Gaza Strip end? Will even a pretense of accepting a two-state solution be endorsed by Israel? Will the Palestinian puppet government buy the deal? Will Hamas go away? I can only wonder what mess will be made of this. The President's willingness to declare it important and directly tackle the problem is admirable...certainly much better than uncritical, blind support for Israel, hundreds of millions every year for murder, and see no evil, speak no ev
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POPSOlmert and EU 'leaders' Dance on Dead Children of Gaza? Not Germany. They are still paying dearly for the sins of the Holocaust. How often has the Zionist begging-bowl been stuck in their faces? Why not the Zionist laughing? Where else will the supplies to rebuild Gaza come from? Who else has the right to charge exorbitant prices? Who else maintains a most profitable blockade on Gaza. Would they still be laughing if Gaza declared for joining up with the Zionists. Close down the prison! Ruin Israel with no cheap labour from the work camps. The land isn't worth stealing by the settlers. Join the other 20% of Arab-Israeli second class citizens with no effective vote. Quasi citizens with no representation now. Take Palestine back by stealth! One state solution by degrees. They already have all the water of the West Bank, sucking you dry. They have stolen your best land. Embrace the thieving bastards and you'll outnumber them!!
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POPSTwo British Reporters Assassinated By Israeli Troops Hurndall's Killer. The IDF said the shooter was an Arab/Israeli, and he would serve time. He denies he was the shooter. Miller's Killer This one is a Jewish/Israeli and is free as a bird. Israeli Commander Israel has investigated and cleared the IDF shooters Sir Gerald Kaufman MP Kaufman, the Labor MP, says Israel must hand over killers.
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POPSViews of Arab-Israeli citizens of their undemocratic state In Jaffa, several local Arab activists were arrested on trumped-up charges and held in jail, purportedly to prevent them carrying out future acts of sedition. Their detention served to scare off not only them from attending subsequent demonstrations, but also their friends, families and the rest of the Jaffa community, leading to the sharp drop in attendees at last night's protest.
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POPSEven in Soccer, Apartheid Zionist discriminate against Arab Israeli Citizens
Last year Beitar had to play a game behind closed doors after their fans sang songs defaming the Prophet Muhammad during a cup game. But it was a huge protest that took place in Sakhnin before the Toto Cup games were due to take place that not only shocked the Israeli FA into action, but also reopened the debate about the country's Arab, Muslim minority. Debate raged in the Israeli press over how many people turned up to the pro-Gaza protests, where Palestinian flags were flown and plastic baby dolls were brandished covered in red paint to mimic blood. The Jerusalem Post reported that only 10,000 protesters turned up, singing anti-Israeli songs and flying Hamas flags, which for many Israelis is akin to flying the Swastika. Ha'aretz on the other hand, reported that 100,000 people protested and that it was largely peaceful. Prominent in the protests was Genaim, the football club's outspoken former chairman who left his position at Bnei Sakhnin in November to successfully be elected
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POPSThe USSR's Role in the Middle East Goes Down the Memory Hole After Israel emerged victorious beyond its wildest dreams in 1967, the influence of the USSR was apparent in several ways. First, the Soviet bloc led an international campaign of boycott and defamation, larded with anti-Semitism, against Israel, creating a siege mentality that has stayed with Israel ever since, and made it that much more difficult to persuade Israel, already traumatized by the Holocaust and the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands, that the "international community" is to be trusted.
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POPSWe Regret To Inform~You The Sheikh Won’t Be Down For Pita Bread . . . . . . . .DEATH TO ALL JUICE protesters . . . . http://www.julescrittenden.com/2009/01/02/we-regret-to-inform/#more-9189 Now that you’re all geared up, some light reading: The Case Against Israel’s Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace The Case for Israel 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War O Jerusalem! Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Power Israeli Counter-Insurgency and the Intifadas: Dilemmas of a Conventional Army (Middle Eastern Military Studies) Brotherhood of Warriors: Behind Enemy Lines with a Commando in One of the World’s Most Elite Counterterrorism Units Lonely Soldier: The Memoir of an American in the Israeli Army Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad The Volunteer: The Incredible True Story of an Israeli Spy on the Trail of International
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POPSVicar bans Christmas Carol O Little Town of Bethlehem He added: "My parishioners know why we will not be singing O Little Town in church this year." And he highlighted reports that the Israeli government was prohibiting the movement of communion wine from Bethlehem this Christmas because it was deemed a security risk. Sarah McLachlan - O Little Town Of Bethlehem
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