Video - Obama and Israel: The Undermining of a Historic Relationship.

Assisted by a biased media, Barack Obama has turned his back on more than six decades of American-Israeli friendship. This video, produced by Accuracy in Media, documents President Obama's often hostile, one-sided pressure on Israel. It also shows how the President will do anything to ensure his own chances for re-election, even if it means allowing Iran to continue developing nuclear weapons while it plays a cynical game of stalling and deception. Direct press inquiries to logan(dot)churchwell(at)aim(dot)org.
Obama : "But I’m also mindful of the proverb, “A man is judged by his deeds, not his words.” So if you want to know where my heart lies, look no further than what I have done — to stand up for Israel." HT: AccuracyInMedia.

S. Africa: W. Bank products won't be labeled Israeli, will have ‘made in Palestinian territories’ labels.

S. Africa: W. Bank products won't be labeled Israeli, will have ‘made in Palestinian territories’ labels.(JPost).Pretoria – South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry is preparing a policy change mandating that products originating from West Bank settlements not be labeled as Israeli products. In a statement published last week in the governmental gazette, Trade Minister Rob Davies declared that consumers in South Africa should not be misled into believing that products originating from the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” originate from Israel. The minister specified in his note some “misleading labeled products” as “Ahava products, and other cosmetic brands, technology and soft drinks.”“For now, there is no decision but people should know that South Africa recognizes Israel inside the 1948 U.N. borders,” Macdonald Netshitenzhe, the trade ministry’s director for trade policies and legislations, told AFP.“Now coming to the issue of Palestine and Israel, a product from Israel has to be manufactured or produced within the borders of 1948,” he said.Any territories taken over by Israel in the wake of the war which accompanied its independence in 1948 -- such as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which were occupied in 1967 -- would not be included in that definition.

“Therefore, for the goods or vegetables which are grown in the area where Israel invaded other Arab countries, South Africa says, you better say these products are grown in Palestine or Occupied Palestinian Territories,” Netshitenzhe added. Israel reacted furiously to the South African announcement, which the Foreign Ministry said was the first of its kind in the world. Spokesman Paul Hirschson said the ministry would call in the South African ambassador to protest the move. “The singling out of one side of one conflict out of all the conflicts in the world is verging on racism,” he said, adding that “this is sad coming from South Africa, which should know better.” Open Shuhada Street, a Palestinian international organization focusing on the issue of “rules of origin,” has been campaigning in South Africa for several months against products manufactured by Israelis in the West Bank. It has been threatening legal action whose goal would be to require the South African government to declare the labeling of these products as “illegal” and “consumer misleading.” The Palestinian lobby group specifically targets Dead Sea beauty products made in Mitzpe Shalem.The Israeli Embassy in Pretoria criticized the proposal on Saturday, saying, “We regret the decision to adopt this notice, which carries an unpleasant scent of singling out Israel on a national and on a political basis.”Ben Swartz, the spokesman of the South African Zionist Federation, said the Jewish community in South Africa was deeply concerned about the proposal. Swartz said that the content of the notice is “highly political and politicized, and has been prepared without proper public debate and discussion.” He added that he did not believe that this proposal reflected the policy of all governing parties in South Africa, nor of the African National Congress as a whole.Read the full story here, more @ IsraelMatzav and here.

Foreigners can now buy more Turkish land, no mention if Jews and Greeks are now allowed to buy land.

Foreigners can now buy more Turkish land, no mention if Jews and Greeks are now allowed to buy land.(HD).Turkish President Abdullah Gül approved a law on May 17 which envisages the sale of real estate to foreign nationals. According to the law, foreigners will be able to buy real estate in Turkey in line with the interests of the country.
The new law has raised the amount of land a foreign buyer can purchase from 25,000 square meters to 300,000. The Turkish Cabinet, however, may increase the amount of land a foreign buyer can purchase to 600,000 square meters.
Under the new legislation, foreign buyers must provide construction plans before a purchase is made.
Individuals and businesses will need to submit project proposals for vacant land to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization within two years. If approved, the project will be sent to the local land registry office.The draft law also allows for the purchase of up to 10 percent of the total area of densely populated towns.Foreign companies may purchase land only as allowed by law.
The Turkish Cabinet may decide which country’s citizens or companies will be able to buy property and will determine the location and the size of the real estate.Hmmmm.........Europe is right to keep Turkey out!Flashback: Turkey Bans Sale of Land to Israelis and Greeks--Oh, you didn't hear about it? Why am I not surprised?? Read the full story here.

NATO Confirms, Israel not invited to NATO's Chicago summit.

NATO Confirms, Israel not invited to NATO's Chicago summit.(HD).NATO has announced that Israel will not be invited to its May 20-21 summit in Chicago, but denied that alliance member Turkey blocked Israel's participation. Instead, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday, the reason is Israel does not participate in NATO's main military missions. News report have claimed that Turkey blocked Israel's participation because of the raid in 2010 by Israeli troops on aid ships heading to Gaza during which eight Turks and a Turkish-American died. NATO has a system of partnerships with dozens of nations across the globe such as the Mediterranean Dialogue, a NATO outreach program with seven friendly nations, including Israel. Fogh Rasmussen said 13 partners will attend the summit, but only those that have taken part in such NATO military operations.Hmmmm......Obama and his 'Buddy" Erdogan got Israel's back alright.Read the full story here.

Canada - Police investigating Toronto Islamic school over curriculum comparing Jews to Nazis.

Canada - Police investigating Toronto Islamic school over curriculum comparing Jews to Nazis.(NP).Police are investigating a complaint about a Toronto Muslim school whose curriculum tells boys to exercise so they are “ready for jihad,” refers to “treacherous Jews” and contrasts Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.” “Yes, I can confirm for you that a complaint has been made and our Hate Crimes Unit is investigating,” Acting Sergeant Rebecca Boyd, a York Region Police spokeswoman, told the National Post on Monday. “However, they are in the early stages of the investigation,” she added. The complaint was made by the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which found the material on the website of the East End Madrassah. The Islamic school operates out of David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute, a public high school in Toronto. But the complaint was made to police in York because the Islamic school’s mailing address is in that region. “We are looking into it,” said Masuma Jessa, principal of the East End Madrassah. She said the curriculum document in question had been removed from the school’s website. Later on Monday, the entire school website went offline.
The Toronto District School Board said in a statement it was cooperating with police and would “take appropriate action pending the conclusion of the investigation.” Spokesman Ryan Bird said the board could revoke a school permit if the holder was found to be promoting hatred. “The TDSB does not support or tolerate any group that promotes hatred.” The complaints concerned the school’s Level 8 curriculum, which describe historical conflicts between Muslims and Jews. It refers to “Jewish plots and treacheries” as well as “crafty” and “treacherous” Jews. 
Another section discusses jihad, which it says means “to strive for something.” But it adds that jihad “sometimes also involves fighting a war against an unjust ruler.” It then quotes Muslim scripture that says about “fighting (in the cause of Allah) is ordained unto you…” In “Sports and Jihad,” a section of the Level 7 curriculum, it says Islam encouraged boys to engaged in physical training in order to be ready for jihad, but girls were instead to stick to “hobbies” that prepare them to become wives and mothers. “To think that this is happening right here in Canada, in our backyards, in our own country where we promote tolerance, diversity, understanding, human rights, and bringing those types of concepts over the from the ancient world if you will, its just unbelievable,” said Avi Benlolo, President and CEO of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs also raised concerns about the curriculum in a press release issued Monday, as well as in a complaint to the Toronto school board. “Using religion to promote hatred among youth is not just offensive and abhorrent – it shows a stunning disregard for Canada’s basic values of decency and tolerance,” said David Spiro, Greater Toronto Co-Chair of centre.Read the full story here.

Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood rise from the ashes as dominant force in the opposition.

Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood rise from the ashes as dominant force in the opposition.(VOC).By Khaled Yacoub Oweis.At a meeting of Syria’s opposition, Muslim Brotherhood officials gather round Marxists colleagues, nudging them to produce policy statements for the Syrian National Council, the main political group challenging President Bashar al-Assad. With many living in the West, and some ditching their trademark beards, it is hard to differentiate Brotherhood from leftists. But there is little dispute about who calls the shots. From annihilation at home 30 years ago when they challenged the iron-fisted rule of Hafez al-Assad, the Brotherhood has recovered to become the dominant force of the exile opposition in the 14-month-old revolt against his son Bashar.
Careful not to undermine the council’s disparate supporters, the Brotherhood has played down its growing influence within the Syrian National Council (SNC), whose public face is the secular Paris-based professor Bourhan Ghalioun. “We chose this face, accepted by the West and by the inside. We don’t want the regime to take advantage if an Islamist becomes the Syrian National Council’s head,” former Brotherhood leader Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni told supporters in a video. The footage is now being circulated by Brotherhood opponents, seeking to highlight its undeclared power. “We nominated Ghalioun as a front for national action. We are not moving now as Muslim Brotherhood but as part of a front that includes all currents,” said Bayanouni. The Syrian Brotherhood is a branch of the Sunni Muslim movement founded in Egypt in the 1920s. It was a minor political player before a 1963 Baath Party coup but its support grew under the authoritarian 30-year rule of Hafez al-Assad, as his minority Alawite community dominated the majority Sunni country.
Mindful of international fears of Islamists taking power, and of the worries of Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, the Syrian Brotherhood portrays itself as espousing a moderate, Turkish-style Islamist agenda. It unveiled a manifesto last month that did not mention the word Islam and contained pledges to respect individual rights. With backing from Ankara, and following the political ascendancy of the Brotherhood in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya since Arab Spring revolts broke out two years ago, the group is poised to be at the top of any new governing system in Syria. Extending the loose Brotherhood umbrella to Syria will raise pressure on the U.S.-backed Hashemite monarchy in Jordan, where the local Brotherhood has been sidelined by laws that favor tribal politicians allied with the security apparatus. Iraq’s Shi’ite rulers could also find they have a hardline Sunni government as their neighbor, and Lebanon’s Shi’ite guerrilla group Hezbollah would lose its main Arab backer. Working quietly, the Brotherhood has been financing Free Syrian Army defectors based in Turkey and channeling money and supplies to Syria, reviving their base among small Sunni farmers and middle class Syrians, opposition sources say. “We bicker while the Brotherhood works,” said Fawaz al-Tello, a veteran opposition figure who is a pious Muslim while being on the liberal end of the Syrian political spectrum. “They have gained control of the SNC’s aid division and the military bureau, its only important components,” said Tello, a former political prisoner who fled Syria four months ago. “But they still have to work more do to get support on the inside. Lots of clerics, activists and rebels do not want to be linked to them.” Tello, however, acknowledged that the Brotherhood has clawed back influence inside Syria, especially in the cities of Homs and Hama and the rural province of Idlib on the border with Turkey, hotbeds of the revolt against Assad. This is no small feat after three decades in the political wilderness. Unlike Arab rulers who tried to co-opt the movement by granting it limited operation, the Assads excluded it and all other opposition from the political system. Bashar’s father Hafez al-Assad’s forces killed, tortured and imprisoned tens of thousands of people after leftists and Islamists began challenging his rule in the 1970s. The Brotherhood took the brunt of the repression, and a 1980 decree singled out membership as punishable by death. Mulhem Droubi, educated in Canada and one of a younger generation of Brotherhood leaders, said the group is not primarily concerned with political prominence. “We are a party that presents moderate solutions. We are not extremists, neither to the left nor to the right and our program is the most accepted by the Syrian street,” he said. “We are working for the downfall of Bashar al-Assad and not to find a popular base. We leave competition for the future in a free Syria,” the softly spoken Droubi told Reuters. Droubi, however, acknowledged that the road to democracy will be even more bloody, adding that the Brotherhood began supporting armed resistance in earnest a month ago. The issue sharply divided the group in the 1980s, when it took up arms against the president. Assad’s forces killed nearly 20,000 people when they overran the city of Hama in 1982, where the Brotherhood’s armed division made it last stand. Droubi said there is no dispute now about the need for armed resistance, alongside street protests against Assad. “Too many of our people have been killed. Too many have been raped,” Droubi said, adding that Brotherhood was committed to a setting up a multi-party democracy if Assad is toppled. 
Droubi pointed to a political program unveiled by the Brotherhood last month in Istanbul, which committed to multi-party democracy in a future Syria. It said a new constitution would be reached through consensus and guarantee fair representation for diverse ethnicities and religious groups. “Our proposals are more advanced than the Brotherhood in other countries,” he said.
Bassam Ishaq, a Christian opposition figure who has worked with the Brotherhood within the SNC, said the manifesto bore the marks of the Brotherhood’s pragmatism. “If they get a chance to seize power by themselves they will do it, but they realize that it will be difficult in country where 30 percent of the population are ethnic or religious minorities,” said Ishaq. “The street has lost faith in leftist politicians. After the repression in the 1980s, the leftists dispersed. The Brotherhood kept together and rebuilt while in exile, aided by donations from wealthy Syrians in and support in the Gulf,” he added. In a demonstration of their financial muscle, Brotherhood operatives were dispatched last month with suitcases of cash to a dusty camp for Free Syrian Army defectors in a Turkish region bordering Syria near Antakya. Sources in the camp said the Brotherhood was supporting Colonel Riad al-Asaad, one of the first prominent defectors last year, now at odds with more senior officers who deserted later. Colonel Asaad now sports a Brotherhood-style beard. Street activists who have had little to do with the Brotherhood are also being lured by promises of instant support for the revolt. “I approached them and they instantly gave me 2,000 euros when I asked for help…and I am not even Ikhwan (Brotherhood),” said veteran activist Othman al-Bidewi, who regularly travels between Syria and the border region in Turkey to drum up support for street demonstrations against Assad in Idlib province. “The Brotherhood wants to restore its political base. It is their right,” he added.Hmmmm........."Obama: "All the Choices We've Made Have Been the Right Ones"........for the Muslim Brotherhood?Read the full story here.

Official London Olympics website remembers 40 years ago "1972 Munich Olympic Games terrorist attack" by making Jerusalem Palestine's Capital.

Official London Olympics website remembers 40 years ago "1972 Munich Olympic Games terrorist attack" by making Jerusalem Palestine's Capital.(IsraelMatzav).Here's a screen shot from the official London Olympics website as it was until Monday morning (Hat Tip: Tom Gross).
Tom Gross adds:

Unlike dozens of other disputed territories throughout the world, such as Tibet, Kurdistan or Baluchistan, Palestine is invited to participate in the Olympics as if it were already a nation state.

Of course. None of those territories are connected to Jews.

Cheryl H points out that on the same London Olympics web site, Israel is part of Europe, while 'Palestine' (and Arab countries like Jordan and Syria) are part of Asia.

Maybe they're afraid we'll be offended if they place the Arab countries on the same continent as us?

Things haven't changed much in the last 40 years, have they?Hmmm.........WELCOME TO LONDONISTAN.Israel should refuse to participate in the games after such an insult.Read the full story here.

NATO 'Bully' Turkey blocks EU from NATO summit unless OIC (Among OIC Members: Iran - Syria) also attends.

NATO 'Bully' Turkey blocks EU from NATO summit unless OIC (Among OIC Members: Iran - Syria) also attends.(TZ).Ankara says it will block EU participation in an upcoming NATO summit unless the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is also allowed to be present. EU member states had proposed participation by some of the top EU bureaucrats, including European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, who are now unsure whether they will be able to attend the summit taking in Chicago on May 20-21 as representatives of the union due to the objections from Turkey, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday. Raising the EU's commitment to a NATO peace mission in Afghanistan, EU member countries including France had argued that the EU should be represented, while Turkey is maintaining that there should only be member state participation in the summit, the WSJ claimed. “If non-NATO members will also participate, the OIC should be represented [in the Chicago summit] first and foremost,” Turkish diplomatic sources said in explaining Ankara’s position, speaking to Today’s Zaman on Sunday. Meanwhile, the OIC, a bloc of 56 countries, is also taking a growing interest in the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in 2010 it accepted a proposal by member states Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to appoint an OIC permanent representative for Afghanistan.The US administration (Obama) has joined the push for greater OIC involvement in Afghanistan for the last couple of years, which would bring benefits in efforts towards reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban. The Turkish diplomatic sources also noted that the different proposals coming from NATO members on who will participate are still being discussed and there is not an ultimate decision yet. They added that there are also objections from other non-EU NATO members to the proposed EU participation in the Chicago summit. The background to Turkey’s objection to EU participation in NATO activities involves a more long-standing dispute. Greek Cyprus, representing the entire island as a full member of the EU, blocks Turkish participation in European defense institutions such as the European Defense Agency (EDA). Turkey, a NATO member, has responded by obstructing the EU’s integration in NATO activities. Turkey has also blocked Israel’s participation in the summit in a sign of Turkey’s determination to prevent its new foe from cooperating with the alliance following a deadly ship raid.Hmmmm.....Example of Some OIC Members : Iran - Syria - Lebanon -Palestine - Iraq etc, etc.It is time for Nato to get Turkey out. Read the full story here.

Obama Administration may let Iran partially enrich uranium.

Obama Administration may let Iran partially enrich uranium: report.(AA).The United States could let Iran partially enrich uranium in return for strict measures to curb its ability to build a nuclear bomb, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. In what would be a major concession, Washington could agree to allow Tehran to enrich uranium up to five percent purity if the Islamic Republic agrees to unrestricted inspections of its nuclear sites and other conditions, the newspaper said, citing U.S. officials.
Tehran would also be required to agree to strict oversight and safeguards that the United Nations has long demanded. Approving any level of enrichment has been a subject of much controversy within the US government and among its allies. U.S. officials did not immediately confirm the report. At present Iran has some 6,600 pounds (3,000 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium of 3.5-percent purity, but of greater concern is the country’s rapidly expanding capacity to enrich to 20 percent at its virtually impregnable Fordo site. Western powers fear that if Iran were to take the decision to develop the bomb, it could relatively quickly reconfigure Fordo’s centrifuges to enrich to weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. But the Times said a consensus has gradually emerged that the Iranians are unlikely to accept a complete halt to enrichment, and that the issue could prevent a negotiated deal to stop Iran’s program short of a military attack. Earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran will not give up its right to enrich uranium, but hinted that the level of enrichment is open to discussion.
The international community, particularly Iran’s arch-nemesis Israel, is concerned about Tehran’s growing capacity to enrich uranium, which can be used for peaceful purposes but also, when purified further, for a nuclear weapon. Salehi’s comments came on the heels of talks in Istanbul between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group of world powers ̶ U.N. Security Council permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany ̶ the first in 15 months. In related news, Israel’s defense minister has said the world must prepare to “swiftly and firmly” stop Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons and setting off a regional nuclear arms race. In a thinly veiled reference to a military strike, Ehud Barak acknowledged that such an operation would be “complex, risky and unpredictable.” He warned that a nuclear Iran “would be far more complex, dangerous and immeasurably more costly,” both in terms of human lives and financially. At the Israeli Defense Ministry’s annual Independence Day reception late Thursday, Barak warned that “Saudi Arabia, Turkey and even Egypt would be forced to join the race.” He also predicted a nuclear Iran would “assertively” back anti-Israel militants in “sowing terror in the region and throughout the world.”Hmmmm......As i said last week Saudi Arabiya better start shopping in Pakistan.Read the full story here.

Video - Friday Sermon on Jordan TV: Jordanian Army Is Invincible, Will Shatter the Might of Israel.

Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Jordanian cleric Ghaleb Rabab'a, which aired on Jordan TV on March 23, 2012 :

Ghaleb Rabab'a : The [Jordanian] army is invincible. Its units are filled with people who pray, with imams, and with people who memorized the Koran. This army will never be defeated, Allah willing. Jerusalem will be regained, Allah willing, by these modest and pure hands, which hold the Koran high and recite it day and night. This is an army that bows before none but Allah.
Today, we must take pride in our country and its army, which descends from the Prophet Muhammad. Indeed, my brothers in faith, things happen, but the arrogance of the Jews will be defeated, Allah willing. […] This army, my brothers in faith, will shatter the might of Israel, Allah willing, just as the might of the Crusaders and the Byzantines was shattered at Hittin, at Yarmouk, Al-Qadisiyya, 'Ain Jalut, Mu'ta, and Al-Karamah. [Israel's might] will be shattered by the will of Allah. […] Allah will not leave for long the first direction of prayer for the Islamic nation in the hands of the slayers of the prophets Source Memri.

"The Flexible Presidency " - No Holds Barred: Obama’s doublespeak Russia, Israel.

"The Flexible Presidency " - No Holds Barred: Obama’s doublespeak Russia, Israel.(JPost).By Shmuley Boteach.US President Barack Obama’s recent open mic comments to President Sergei Medvedev of Russia are troubling, which explains why Obama and the White House have decided to make light of them. Obama told Medvedev that he and Putin have to give him “space” on missile defense until his reelection when he’ll have far greater “flexibility,” presumably because he no longer has to answer to the American people. A great debate has been waged this year as to whether President Obama is reliably pro- Israel and deserves the support of the pro-Israel community. The president made his case to AIPAC by listing a long record of promoting military and intelligence cooperation with the Jewish state, arguing that “I have Israel’s back.” For the first three years of his presidency, Obama largely declared Israel’s settlements to be illegitimate and put near-unilateral pressure on Israel to make peace without any expectations from the Palestinian side. Ever since his self-confessed “shellacking” during the mid-term elections, part of which was due to his perceived unfriendliness to the Jewish state, the president decided to make nice with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and treat him with the same respect he accords other world leaders, albeit without the warmth of the two-armed embrace he reserved for Hugo Chavez or the bow he accorded the King of Saudi Arabia. At the UN in September, 2011, the president strongly supported Israel against a Palestinian attempt at unilateral statehood. He deserves credit for the effort. Then, he talked tough to Iran and imposed even greater sanctions. The president has gotten much better in his posture vis-à-vis Israel. But the all-important question here is: Why? Based on his actions, rather than his rhetoric, I believe the answer to the president’s new posture toward Israel lies in his words to President Medvedev. He has no “flexibility” before an election in which Jewish votes and financial support are critical to what will be a very close race.
And he therefore cannot be trusted to refrain from exerting undue pressure on Israel after the election to push through a peace deal that will likely not lead to peace but will simply compromise Israel’s security. Say what you want about Jimmy Carter, at least his disdain for Israel and its leadership was out in the open and consistent. Here is a man who outrageously compared Israel in his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid to apartheid South Africa. Likewise Clinton, who, as president, treated Netanyahu mostly with contempt, attacked him yet again in September of last year as an obstacle to peace. But Obama’s doublespeak when microphones are off and on is troubling. If the president dislikes Netanyahu, let him not play games with the American Jewish community and feign friendship for votes. After all, Obama came to the White House as the anti-politician, a man who was going to change the ways of Washington. A leader who was going to say what he means and mean what he says.How disappointing to discover he is guilty of the same beltway double-speak he once condemned. How worrisome to ponder what his policies on Israel will be once he has greater “flexibility.”Hmmmm........You may bet on the fact that he will not veto another Palestinian statehood bid if reelected.Read the full story here.

Mohamed Merah's brother was investigated by the Belgian police in 2007-2008 for recruiting Jihadists.

Mohamed Merah's brother was investigated by the Belgian police in 2007-2008 for recruiting Jihadists.(LaMeuse).In 2007-2008, the Belgian Federal Judicial Police has taken a close interest in Merah Abdelkader, Mohamed's brother. But the evidence was not sufficient to press charges. However, Abdelkader could be the brain, the instigator of the murders committed in Toulouse by the younger brother, shot by men of the Raid. Abdelkader was not the focus of research. It would rather appear "on the edge" of a 'gang', or more specifically a recruitment network jhadiste based in Belgium. A network that was suspected of sending young Belgian and French activists to Cairo before joining the fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "But the evidence was not sufficient, either in France or Belgium. This case then could not succeed in court, "says the source.Read the full story here.(GoogleTranslate).

Video - Step Up For Israel Promo

STEP UP FOR ISRAEL is an international, grassroots campaign that connects individuals and communities to Israel by providing a strong foundation in Israel education and activist opportunities. Campaign Chairs are Professor Alan Dershowitz and Ambassador Dore Gold.

Get Educated. Get Empowered.HT: Israel Matzav.

Dutch Government Opposes Anti-Israeli EU Report.

Dutch Government Opposes Anti-Israeli EU Report.(StonegateInstitute).The European Union, the supranational organization of the 27 most developed European nations, is one of the most outspoken and frequent international critics of Israel. Its reports on the situation in the Middle East are often so unfair and biased that not only have they drawn the ire of Israel, they have also angered the government of one of the EU's six original founding states, the Netherlands, which no longer wants to endorse the reports emanating from the EU mission in Ramallah.
Last December, the EU heads of mission in Ramallah authored a report on the situation in Jerusalem in which they accused Israel of trying to destroy chances for peace with Palestinians by snatching control of East Jerusalem through the construction of Israeli settlements. "If current trends continue, the prospect of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states becomes increasingly unlikely and unworkable, undermining a two-state solution … [Israeli actions] provide fuel to those who want to further radicalise the conflict," the report stated.
It noted that the 790,000 Arabs living in Jerusalem suffer from overcrowding, dirty streets and poor sewage, that Palestinian children in Israeli-run schools are forced to use books which are "edited" for "sensitive" content, that ambulances with Palestinian patients are subjected to "unnecessary and potentially life-threatening delays" and that archeological projects put "emphasis on biblical and Jewish-Israeli connotations of the area while neglecting Arab/Muslim claims of historic-archeological ties."
The report advocated that the European Commission, the EU's executive body, propose legislation "to prevent/discourage [EU] financial transactions in support of settlement activity," "ensure" that Israeli vegetables from settlement farms do not get preferential import tariffs in the EU, and that EU countries "share information on violent settlers … to assess whether to grant entry into EU member states."
This report came barely a week after another report which had accused Israel of monopolizing farm land and water in the Jordan Valley in a bid to drive out native Arabs, while another recent EU paper had accused Israel of eroding the civil liberties of Arab-Israeli citizens.
Last January, Israeli information minister Yuli Yoel Edelstein questioned the accuracy of the EU reports which are drafted without Israeli input. Edelstein said these surveys are part of a decades-long "attempt to undermine [Israel's] very legitimacy.
Last week it was revealed that the EU ambassadors in Ramallah had composed yet another report. This time they accuse Israel of not doing enough to stop aggression from Jewish settlers against Palestinians. The report claims that the Jewish violence is rapidly increasing, while "the Israeli state … has so far failed to protect the Palestinian population."
According to the report, Jewish attacks vary from gunfire to throwing stones and garbage at Arabs, including children, burning homes and mosques, killing livestock and uprooting olive trees. The report says that the attacks resulted in three Palestinian deaths last year. "There has been no widespread response from the Palestinian side," the EU report states, although it admits that Palestinians killed eight Jews (including five members of one family). The aim of the Jewish attacks is to "effectively force a withdrawal of the Palestinian population, … thereby increasing the scope for settlement expansion."
The Netherlands declined to endorse the report, forcing the non-Dutch EU diplomats in Ramallah to add the footnote: "the NL [Netherlands] places a general reserve on the document." A senior Israeli official also dismissed the report. "It's unacceptable," he said. "We had numerous cases over the past year when Israeli citizens, including schoolchildren, were brutally murdered by Palestinians and I think for the Israeli public these reports would have more credibility if they were more neutral."
The fact that the Dutch openly distanced themselves from an EU report angered the other EU countries. "We are witnessing the toughest position the Netherlands has ever adopted," one EU diplomat told the Dutch newspaper NRC-Handelsblad. "Moreover, it is a position which resembles the toughest position within Israel."
It is, however, not the first time that Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal has stood up for Israel. Last September, he managed to stop European diplomats at the UN reaching a common position on the status of human rights in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The Dutch government is a minority government of Liberals and Christian-Democrats, backed by the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders. Both Uri Rosenthal, who is Jewish, and Geert Wilders, who is not Jewish, are politicians who are personally acquainted with the situation in Israel. Rosenthal's wife is an Israeli citizen. Wilders spent a year living in Israel, including in a Jewish settlement in the Jordan valley.
The Dutch government is not only on a collision course with the EU over Israel, but is also pushing for stricter immigration rules. European immigration rules are to a large extent set by the EU and not by the member states. While the Dutch insist on stricter regulations, the European Commission and other EU members are so far unwilling to address the issue.One hope EU leaders, like Sarkozy, will soon also notice that a more realistic approach to Israel – in line with that of the Dutch – is in the national security interests of Europe.Read the full story here.

After attack, MK calls on Jews to leave France

After attack, MK calls on Jews to leave France.(TimesofIsrael).MK Ya’akov Katz called Monday for Jews to leave France in the wake of a deadly attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse.
“There is no Jewish future in France,” Katz, of the National Union party, said, adding that the state of Israel is the future of the Jewish people, and that Jews should not trust their fate to “Sarkozy, Obama or other world leaders.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry, by contrast, expressing shock over the attack, said Israel was confident the French authorities would do “everything possible” to bring the perpetrator to justice.
Opposition head Tzipi Livni posted on her Facebook page, calling it a sad day. “The state of Israel and the Jewish people are partners in battling antisemitism and hate crimes,” she said. Livni said France must protect its citizens from events like this one, adding that she trusts the French authorities will find the person responsible.
The UK board of Jewish Deputies issued a press statement, saying the attack is “a terrible reminder of the threat” minorities in Europe face.
A rabbi, two of his children and a young girl were killed when a man on a motorbike shot them in front of a Jewish school in Toulouse. The man fled, and French police were searching for him.
In the wake of the deadly attack, MK Danny Danon (Likud), called for an urgent session Tuesday of the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, which he chairs, to discuss the attack.“We will not allow the pogroms of the beginning of the 20th century to return to Europe,” Danon said.The French ambassador to Israel, Christophe Bigot, is expected to attend the session, entitled “Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in Europe.”Read the full story here.

Turkey to go to war against Israel if Israel attacks Iran?

Turkey to go to war against Israel if Israel attacks Iran?HT:IsraelMatzav.Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has hinted to Iranian media that Turkey will go to war against Israel if Israel attacks Iran (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

“In our area, we do not accept such an operation. We will also react negatively to such operation," he added.

The minister stated that there are circles willing to cause strife between Tehran and Ankara but they cannot affect ties between the two sides.

Davutoglu noted that Iran and Turkey have different ideas about developments in Syria but Ankara will oppose any possible military move against Tehran.

 Hmmm........Who needs enemies with NATO allies like this.Read the full story here.

Muslim Brotherhood controlled Egyptian parliament demands expulsion of Israeli ambassador & stops Gas to Israel.

 

Muslim Brotherhood controlled Egyptian parliament demands expulsion of Israeli ambassador & stops Gas to Israel.In an evening session Monday, the People’s Assembly demanded the deportation of the Israeli ambassador, Yaakov Amitai, and the withdrawal of the Egyptian ambassador from Tel Aviv.
The assembly voted unanimously on a statement prepared by the Committee on Arab Affairs, which also called for stopping gas exports to Israel in protest against the brutal attacks committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, considering it a flagrant violation of human rights.Assembly speaker Saad al-Katatny asked a special parliamentary committee to follow up the implementation of the demands with the government.
The statement said, “Egypt after the revolution will never be a friend of the Zionist entity, the first enemy of Egypt and the Arab nation,” and demanded that the Egyptian government review all its relations and agreements with that “enemy.”
It also called for activating the Arab boycott of the “Zionist entity” and the international companies that deal with it, considering such boycott strong support of the “choice of resistance,” the strategic option for the liberation of the occupied territories.Israel has launched several air strikes on the Gaza Strip, while militants in Gaza continued to fire rockets into southern Israel on Monday, the fourth day of violence that has taken the lives of 23 Palestinians.
Egyptian efforts to mediate a cease-fire were met with a demand by the Islamic Jihad Movement that Israel agree first not to target the movement’s leaders in future air strikes.Hmmm.........Obama "I've got your back" and Egypt has 1,000 M1 Abrams Battle tanks now thanks to me.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• HT:Frontline. Flying Cheap is it safe? A decade ago aircraft repairs were mostly done by the airlines flying the planes. Today, carriers are outsourcing the bulk of heavy maintenance. Should we worry? A co-production with the Investigative Reporting Workshop.In a follow-up to the hard-hitting investigation of the regional airline industry, FRONTLINE sets its sights on another growing trend -- the outsourcing of major airline repair work to foreign-based maintenance operations, from China to El Salvador, and to U.S.-based contractors who keep costs low by using unlicensed mechanics. FRONTLINE correspondent Miles O'Brien investigates reports of undertrained mechanics, foreign workers who can't read the English language repair manuals, inadequate FAA oversight and the use of unauthorized airline parts.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Uproar in Germany over Anti-Israeli, Anti-Semitic Turkish Film Due for Release on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.An uproar has erupted in Germany over the upcoming launching of the Turkish film "Valley of the Wolves: Palestine," about Turkish commando team which goes to Israel to track down the Israeli military commander responsible for the Gaza flotilla raid. The film's intended release date in Germany, January 27, coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.German politicians have condemned both the film and the date chosen for its release. PM Kerstin Griese, of the Social Democratic Party, criticized the film for inciting to violence and fomenting anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiment. MPs Philip Missfelder of the Christian Democratic Party and Jerzy Montag of the Green Party said its release on January 28 disrespected victims of the Holocaust. The latter added, however, that the film could not be banned unless it breached the law, because, unless illegal, "sickening things [could] be shown in Germany.A spokesman for the film's distributors, the Cologne-based Pera Film, said the company had been unaware of the sensitivity of the date.Hmmmmm.....The hatred of Israel by theTurks is even bigger than that of the Palestinians.Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full story here.

• Developping!Egypt protesters clash with police. Police fire tear gas at anti-government demonstrators in Cairo as thousands call for ouster of president Hosni Mubarak.Unconfirmed sources(twitter) say police opend fire with live bullets,one person killed.Inspired by Tunisian demonstrators, thousands of Egyptian protesters on Tuesday gathered in Cairo and other major cities, calling for reforms and demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, Al Jazeera's correspondents have reported.The anti-government protesters, some hurling rocks and climbing atop an armoured police truck, were chanting slogans against Mubarak, who ruled the country for three decades.Downtown Cairo came to a standstill with protesters chanting slogans against the police, the interior minister and the government, in scenes that the capital has not seen since the 1970s.Demonstrators marched toward what Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh called the "symbols of their complaints and their agony," the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party, the foreign ministry and the state television.But police responded with blasts from a water cannon and set upon crowds with batons and acrid clouds of tear gas to clear demonstrators crying out "Down with Mubarak'' and demanding an end to the country's grinding poverty.Earlier on Tuesday, Rageh reported from the protests, calling them "unprecedented" in the leniency showed by security forces who allowed demonstrators to march through the capital.The Egyptian government had earlier warned activists hoping to emulate Tunisian pro-democracy protesters that they faced arrest if they went ahead with Tuesday's mass demonstrations, which some labelled the "Day of wrath".Black-clad riot police, backed by armoured vehicles and fire engines, have been deployed in a massive security operation in Cairo, with the biggest concentrations and likely flashpoints, including: the Cairo University campus, the central Tahrir Square and the courthouse where protesters are said to be gathering. Coinciding with a national holiday in honour of the police, a key force in keeping president Mubarak in power for 30 years, the outcome in Egypt on Tuesday is seen as a test on whether vibrant Web activism can translate into street action.Organisers have called for a "day of revolution against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment"."Activists said they wanted to use this particular day to highlight the irony of celebrating Egypt's police at a time when police brutality is making headlines," reported Rawya Rageh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Cairo."In fact, the call originated from a Facebook page initially set up to honour a 28-year-old man from Alexandria who activists say was tortured to death by police."Witnesses are telling us that there are hundreds on the streets. This is an indication that the protests seem so far to be larger than the usual protests that have taken place here in Egypt over the past few years."Read the full story here.Video here.

• UK - Film on dangers of Asian sex gangs commissioned by Government agency... then withheld for three years!A specially commissioned film warning young girls of the dangers posed by Asian sex gangs is yet to be seen in schools after almost three years, it was revealed today.My Dangerous Loverboy, a 20-minute drama ordered by UK Human Trafficking Centre in 2008, was intended to be seen by 13 and 14-year-old girls across Britain.It tells the story of an under-age girl whose older Asian boyfriend lures her into parties where drug and alcohol abuse are rife before selling her for sex with older men.Officials feared teenage girls were increasingly at risk of become victims of such crimes, concerns that have recently been backed by a string of convictions.However, after a series of delays blamed variously blamed on technical difficulties and budget problems, the film has only been seen by a small number of youngsters in test screenings.The screenings brought great acclaim for the drama which was hoped would make a real difference to the then almost unpublicised issue of Asian sex gangs.Sheila Taylor, chief executive of Safe & Sound Derby, told The Times newspaper that 'the bureaucracy and technical problems associated with this project have been deeply frustrating for all involved.'The UKHTC has denied the delay was due to fears about racial sensitivities.In the film, set in an unnamed northern town, 14-year-old Jade regularly bunks off school and is charmed by Raz, 27.He separates her from friends, giving her a mobile phone as she enjoys the parties and fast cars that he is involved with.At one such party he urges her to 'be nice' to a man he says is a record producer, and keen to oblige she does. The teenager then descends into being trafficked from town to town where she is sold to older men for sex.David Dillnutt, head of UKHTC said the film was being developed for use in schools soon.He added: 'Since 2009, My Dangerous Loverboy has been well used by frontline professional, including police officers and child support workers, who are in a position to spot warning signs and help prevent child exploitation taking place.'The UK Human Trafficking Centre and its partners, who commissioned the film, hope that in addition to encouraging early intervention, it will give victims confidence to come forward and help bring their abusers to justice.'The film has been shown at numerous national, regional and local conferences and seminars, film festivals and other events throughout the UK by a range of different organisations.'Further enhancements have now been made to develop it into an educational package for use in schools.' Read the full story here.video here.

• HT:What'sUpWithThat.Browner out at the White House – Hansen bites back.The plot thickens: White House aides Monday were mum about what would happen to the Office of Energy and Climate Change except to declare that Browner, a former Senate staffer to Al Gore, believed energy issues would remain front and center for the president.One wonders now if Obama will even mention climate during the State of the Union Address Tuesday night. With jobs and economy taking front and center and Browner’s announcement right before SOTUA, government climate initiatives may be relegated to the back-burner. We’ll have to wait and see.New York Times. Dot Earth. NASA’s Hansen Pushes Obama for a Carbon Cost and a Nuclear Push.Hansen also slammed President Obama for buckling to advocacy groups who impede progress on nuclear power, rather than being a “responsible leader” and authorizing a major new programme of building new nuclear power stations.Despite frequently proclaiming global warming to be an existential threat to humanity, Romm has hindered the move to low emissions energy by waging a campaign against nuclear power, which – as Hansen notes – has “the best safety record of any major industry”. Why is Romm ignoring the advice of the scientists he himself champions? Is it science, or is it politics?Read the full story here.

• HT:SultanKnish.In the Crosshairs of the Speech Police.In the weeks since the Arizona massacre, the media has revealed a preoccupation with language almost as intense as the one that motivated her shooter. Loughner's obsession with Congresswoman Giffords seems to have begun in 2007 when she mockingly replied to his question, "How do you know words mean anything?" And Loughner's killing spree has touched off the media's obsession with that same question, leading a CNN anchor to apologize for using the term "crosshairs".It was almost as if the media had come down with a lighter version of Loughner's fixation on grammar as a tool of mind control. If only they could properly censor the language, no one would have to die or go on shooting sprees. Somehow if we refuse to use the word 'crosshairs', no one will ever wind up in anyone else's crosshairs. It's as if the use of the word creates the idea, rather than the word being only another means of describing an idea.But controlling language is not the same thing as controlling minds. Orwell's 1984 depicted a totalitarian regime which controlled language in order to prevent forbidden ideas from finding expression. Since then (1948 not 1984) the left has obsessively tried to politicize language. There are entire seminars on the political uses of language. Newscasts are dotted with politically correct terminology, homeless, differently abled, custodial worker-- yet has changing language actually changed attitudes?Loughner and the media both agree that words can control men's minds. The media's descent into the madness of the speech police reflects a multichannel schizophrenia of their own. The belief that their words create reality. And in the crosshairs of the speech police, criminals become the victims of language, and language becomes the target.Read the full story here.

• Renewed Push to Give Obama an Internet "Kill Switch".A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a "national cyberemergency," and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year. Internet companies should not be alarmed by the legislation, first introduced last summer by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), a Senate aide said last week. Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "We're not trying to mandate any requirements for the entire Internet, the entire Internet backbone," said Brandon Milhorn, Republican staff director and counsel for the committee. Instead, Milhorn said at a conference in Washington, D.C., the point of the proposal is to assert governmental control only over those "crucial components that form our nation's critical infrastructure." Portions of the Lieberman-Collins bill, which was not uniformly well-received when it became public in June 2010, became even more restrictive when a Senate committee approved a modified version on December 15. The full Senate did not act on the measure."Declaration of National Cyber Emergency"The revised Lieberman-Collins bill, dubbed the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, works this way: Homeland Security will "establish and maintain a list of systems or assets that constitute covered critical infrastructure" and that will be subject to emergency decrees. (The term "kill switch" does not appear in the legislation.) Under the revised legislation, the definition of critical infrastructure has been tightened. DHS is only supposed to place a computer system (including a server, Web site, router, and so on) on the list if it meets three requirements. First, the disruption of the system could cause "severe economic consequences" or worse. Second, that the system "is a component of the national information infrastructure." Third, that the "national information infrastructure is essential to the reliable operation of the system." At last week's event, Milhorn, the Senate aide, used the example of computers at a nuclear power plant or the Hoover Dam but acknowledged that "the legislation does not foreclose additional requirements, or additional additions to the list." A company that objects to being subject to the emergency regulations is permitted to appeal to DHS secretary Janet Napolitano. But her decision is final and courts are explicitly prohibited from reviewing it. President Obama would then have the power to "issue a declaration of a national cyberemergency." What that entails is a little unclear, including whether DHS could pry user information out of Internet companies that it would not normally be entitled to obtain without a court order. One section says they can disclose certain types of noncommunications data if "specifically authorized by law," but a presidential decree may suffice.For their part, Lieberman and Collins say the president already has "nearly unchecked authority" to control Internet companies. A 1934 law (PDF) creating the Federal Communications Commission says that in wartime, or if a "state of public peril or disaster or other national emergency" exists, the president may "authorize the use or control of any...station or device." In congressional testimony (PDF) last year, DHS Deputy Undersecretary Philip Reitinger stopped short of endorsing the Lieberman-Collins bill. The 1934 law already addresses "presidential emergency authorities, and Congress and the administration should work together to identify any needed adjustments to the act," he said, "as opposed to developing overlapping legislation." Hmmmm......Democracy or dictatorship?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.No Jobs, No Hope, No Future: 27 Signs That America’s Poverty Class Is Rapidly Becoming Larger Than America’s Middle Class.In the America that most of us grew up in, most Americans considered themselves to be part of the "upper middle class", the "middle class" or "the lower middle class". Yes, there have always been poor people and homeless people, but they were thought to be a very small sliver of the population. Well, today all of that is dramatically changing. America's emerging "poverty class" is exploding in size at the same time that America's middle class is rapidly disappearing. You won't hear it on the mainstream news, but the truth is that the United States has lost ten percent of its middle class jobs over the past decade. Only the top 5 percent of income earners in the U.S. has had their incomes increase enough to keep up with the rising cost of living over the past 40 years. The truth is that today there are a whole lot of people aggressively jostling for the small number of good jobs that are actually available and each year millions more Americans are being squeezed out of the middle class. The number of Americans that are financially dependent on the U.S. government continues to set new records month after month. The number of Americans that are participating in the labor force continues to go down. The sad reality is that the "American Dream" that so many Americans used to take for granted is being ripped away from us. If you still believe that the United States is guaranteed to always have a very large, very prosperous middle class then you really need to read the statistics listed below.If you told most Americans ten years ago that in 2011 over 43 million Americans would be on food stamps hardly anyone would have believed you.But yet here we are.Read the full "Change" story here.

• And the Debt Bomb Ticks On.With his approval rating moving up to 50 percent and higher in some polls, the pundits are all agreed. President Obama has turned the corner. He is now the winter-book favorite in 2012.How, two months after his "shellacking," did he do it?First, by taking the wheel from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, cutting a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts, bringing aboard Bill Daley, and separating himself from the demonizers of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck as moral accomplices in the Tucson massacre.Second, Obama has been the beneficiary of bullish news.Undeniably. Yet, consider. The federal deficit for the fiscal year 2011, which ends Sept. 30, is projected at between $1,200 billion and $1,500 billion.Thus, the $100 billion in cuts the firebrands are pushing, and few think they will get, add up at best to 8 percent of the deficit and 2.5 percent of the $3.87 trillion budget Obama proposed.Thus, at best, this Congress will only slightly reduce the rate of speed at which we are heading toward a debt default.The last few days have brought other news bearing on the debt bomb hanging over the Western world.Now, facing trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, House Republicans are balking at agreeing to raise the debit limit of $14.3 trillion, though the national debt just crossed the $14 trillion mark.Are the happy days really here again?Hmmm......"Together we thrive" over the cliff?Read the full story here.

• HT:StrategyPage.Iraq Prepares For War With Iran.January 25, 2011: The Iraqi Army is hustling to get ready to deal with Iran, by the time the last 50,000 U.S. troops leave at the end of the year. Increased oil production, and oil prices, has made it possible to recruit more troops, and equip more combat divisions. Particularly noteworthy is the creation of Chemical Defense Regiments, with the goal of one of these units being assigned to each combat division over the next few years. The only neighbor known to have chemical weapons is Iran. Iraqi diplomats spend a lot of time trying to improve relationships with Iran, but just in case things go south, the Iraqi military is preparing for the worst. While Iraq has sought to obtain a lot of American weapons, particularly tanks, artillery and combat aircraft, it's been easier, and faster, to get Russian type gear from Russia or East European nations. A lot of this stuff is newly made, but most of it is Cold War surplus. These vehicles and artillery are cheap, a lot of older Iraqis are familiar with them, and they are as good as anything the Iranians have.By the end of the year, the army will have about 230,000 troops. They will not be as well as equipped as during Saddam Hussein's tenure (1960s-2003), but they are better trained. This is important, because Iraqi troops have long been the least effective in the Arab world, largely because of poor leadership. The war with Iran in the 1980s changed that, but Saddam purged most of the competent new leaders, soon after, as he feared they would lead a coup against his disastrous rule (he was probably right.)Read the full story here.

• HT:ElderOfZion.Hamas imam: "Please, Allah, kill all the Jews".Richard Millett watched a new two-hour anti-Israel documentary claiming that Israel targeted children in Gaza. The film is now being shown on college campuses. It included this lovely clip.Read and see the full story here.

• Obama won't endorse raising retirement age or reducing Social Security benefits.President Obama has decided not to endorse his deficit commission's recommendation to raise the retirement age, and otherwise reduce Social Security benefits, in Tuesday's State of the Union address, cheering liberals and drawing a stark line between the White House and key Republicans in Congress.Over the weekend, the White House informed Democratic lawmakers and advocates for seniors that Obama will emphasize the need to reduce record deficits in the speech, but that he will not call for reducing spending on Social Security - the single largest federal program - as part of that effort. Liberals, who have been alarmed by Obama's recent to shift to the center and his effort to court the nation's business community, applauded the decision, arguing that Social Security cuts are neither necessary to reduce current deficits nor a wise move politically. Polls show that large majorities of Americans in both parties - even in households that identify themselves as part of the tea party movement - oppose cuts to Social Security."The commission said nothing surprising about Social Security. The options they recommended are perfectly reasonable and balanced. If the president wasn't willing to embrace these sort of changes, he shouldn't have appointed a commission to find solutions. What did he expect?" Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the nonprofit Concord Coalition, which advocates for balanced budgets, said in an e-mail."I'm increasingly concerned that both parties are content to have a knock-down-drag-out fight over waste, fraud and abuse," Bixby said. "It's a fiscal sideshow, but very safe territory before a presidential election. Very depressing."Hmmmm....It seems there are politicians who would even kiss an Skunk's bottom if it would yield votes? Read the full story here.

• HT:SeeingRed.“Honor killing” trial begins in Phoenix.Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 49, an Iraqi immigrant intentionally drove his vehicle into his 20-year-old daughter, Noor Almaleki and Amal Khalaf her boyfriend’s mother, as the two walked through a parking lot. After running them over, he backed up and ran over them again. Noor was in a coma for two weeks before she died.This horrific, premeditated 2009 crime in which the Muslim father intentionally killed his own daughter and seriously injured another woman, was filed as a first degree murder case, but apparently not one worthy of the death penalty. Although Almaleki admitted his role in the murder, he pled not guilty. The Arizona Republic reported that a plea deal was considered earlier this month. Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugged writes: Honor killing should be a capital crime. Islamic honor killing is on the rise in the West. These barbaric crimes should be stamped out, not sanctioned. They should be dealt with in the harshest terms. Instead unemployed trucker Faleh Hassan Almaleki faces life in prison if a jury finds him guilty of this vicious “honor killing“and hit and run of two. No death penalty was sought.Why?Incredibly, Almaleki’s public defender, Billy Little, asked the judge to take special precautions to ensure the prosecution wouldn’t wrongly seek the death penalty because Almaleki is a Muslim. Little requested that the court “provide some level of assurance that there is no appearance that a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, religious or cultural beliefs.”No American court should tolerate brutal and premeditated murder out of political, religious and cultural considerations. The message to Muslim girls who are threatened by honor killing is that American courts will offer them no refuge.Hmmmm....America must say NO TO SHARIA LAW and dishonor killings!Read the full story here.

• "Life Or Death in Iran's Prisons".Amnesty : Iran hangs two activists detained during the 2009 unrest.Amnesty International has condemned the executions of two political activists who were arrested in September 2009 during mass protests following Iran’s disputed presidential election..Ja’far Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei are reported to have been hanged this morning at Tehran’s Evin Prison. Both men had been convicted of moharebeh (enmity against God), “propaganda against the system” and having contacts with a banned opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).Their hangings are the latest in a wave of executions which has seen the Iranian authorities execute at least 71 prisoners since the beginning of this year – an average of more than 20 each week. Thousands more prisoners are on death row.“We are appalled by the executions of Ja’far Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei, as we are appalled by the continuing use in Iran of this most cruel and extreme penalty,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.“Like so many other victims, neither of these men received a fair trial.According to some reports, Ja’far Kazemi was tortured for months by his interrogators at Evin Prison to force him to make a televised “confession” but he refused to do so.He and Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei were tried together. They are believed to have been sentenced to death in April 2010 and to have had their appeals rejected in July and September.Before they were arrested both men had visited members of their families who live in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, where some 3,400 members and supporters of the PMOI live in exile. Ja’far Kazemi’s son lives at the Camp, which is located some 60km north of Baghdad.Read the full story here.

• US awards $300,000 to four Turkish projects to empower women.Four Turkish projects aimed at increasing women’s and girls’ access to education and healthcare and combating all forms of violence against women and girls were awarded a total of $300,000 from the US Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues in the implementation of its first small grants initiative program. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, appointed by US President Barrack Obama, spoke at a press conference yesterday in İstanbul. During the announcement of recipients of the grants, she said they had received many valuable project proposals.“I wish we could have funded even more projects because we had so many project proposals,” Verveer said, adding that 38 countries had been awarded funding for 57 projects.One of the four Turkish organizations is the Mother and Child Education Foundation (AÇEV), which received approximately $95,000 to implement its “Raising Young Girls” project to benefit 2,550 young girls in İstanbul and Diyarbakır over the next 16 months.Representing AÇEV, Çiğdem Kağıtçıbaşı said their programs in early education, family education and adult literacy have been exemplary since the organization was founded in 1993.The Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work (KEDV), established in 1986, was granted $100,000 for its “solar cooker” project. Şengül Akçar from KEDV said they will work with local women’s cooperatives to implement the solar cooker project, which is aimed at reducing dependency on fossil fuels, providing economic advantages to women and providing benefits for those implementing the solar cooking project.Two more projects received funding from donations to the US State Department by the Avon Foundation. One was the Hüseyin Özyeğin Foundation, which was awarded approximately $50,000 to implement its program “Empowering young women against violence.” Aslı Bekmen from the foundation said the funds will be utilized in the provinces of Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Bitlis and Muş for seminars at six dormitories for girls housing 1,148 students.The fourth grant was $50,000 for Anadolu University’s (AÜ) education projects for journalism students on the issue of gender. İncilal Cangöz from AÜ said their purpose will be to raise awareness of the language journalists use in their reporting of gender-related topics. She said they plan to educate 40 students from five universities and produce educational DVDs and books on the issue to be distributed at journalism schools.Verveer’s visit to İstanbul will also include the inauguration of the US State Department sponsored “Invest for the Future: Women Driving Economic Growth Conference” -- a three-year program geared towards improving the economic situation for women across Southern and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The conference on Jan. 24-26 will bring together 125 women business owners from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece and Turkey in İstanbul to learn about innovative ways women entrepreneurs can grow their businesses. The program is being implemented in partnership with the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey.Hmmmmmm......KEDV  A "Solar cooker?AÇEV who works together with Harvard?Coincidence Mr president?Read the full story here.

• Russia - Two terrorists involved in Domodedovo blast, both killed.Two terrorists were involved in a suicide bomb attack at Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport that killed 35 and injured up to 180 on Monday, a law enforcement source said.Both died in the explosion that ripped through the international arrivals zone at 4:32 p.m. (13:32 GMT), as friends and taxi drivers were meeting arriving passengers.The blast was equivalent to 5 kilograms of TNT and the bomb was packed with metal objects to cause maximum damage. Earlier reports said that the bomb was equivalent to 7 kg of TNT."The blast occurred when a suspected female terrorist opened a bag. She was accompanied by a man whose head was ripped off by the explosion," the source told RIA Novosti."It cannot be ruled out that the terrorists wanted to leave the explosive device in the hall but the bomb was detonated inadvertently or by a remote control device," he said."The terror attack was done according to a scheme that is used by terrorists from the North Caucasus region," he said. "The [2004] blasts at the Rizhskaya subway station and other explosions in the Moscow metro [2010] were carried out similarly, when the terrorists were accompanied by militants."Reports suggest the terrorists were driven to the airport, Moscow's busiest, by an accomplice.The bombing was the worst terror attack since two female suicide bombers from the volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan blew themselves up at two of the capital's subway stations last March, killing 40.Police have hinted the latest outrage may be linked to the Islamist radicals in the North Caucasus.Three suspects are being sought over the bombing.Hmmmm....Makes me wonder...If female terrorists blow themselves up ,do they also get 72 virgins?Read the full story here.

• Sen. Sessions on Obama Initiatives: ‘Can’t See How We Could Possibly Spend More Money’.ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: President Obama is leavening his calls for fiscal restraint for targeted “investments” aimed at helping the economy – including new spending on areas such as education, infrastructure, and job creation.But the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, told us on ABC’s “Top Line” today that he doesn’t foresee supporting even limited expansions in government spending.“I can't see how we could possibly spend more money at this point,” said Sessions, R-Ala. “Start new programs perhaps -- if some were reduced or eliminated, you might reorder money, and I'd be open to that. But we'd really have to have at least, I think, this year, a 10 percent reduction in spending.”“Ryan has done a fabulous thing. He's developed a plan that goes 60 years, and he deals with Social Security and Medicare, a lot of those changes don't take place until in the distant years in the future,” Sessions said. “But his whole plan and approach is fabulous, we need to be listening to it. The president needs to be engaging it, just those kinds of serious discussions, and from what I'm hearing he's still talking about ‘investments’ which is a code word for spending. We've got to get off that road -- we can't go 30 miles an hour down the road just because we [were doing] 60. It’s the wrong road, so we get on the right road to a solvent America. This will be the best thing for our economic growth.”We also checked in with Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Van Hollen said the president is pursuing “two paths” – one of fiscal discipline, and another with targeted investments “to get jobs moving again in this country.”Read the full story here.

• Pro-Palestinian groups plan largest Gaza flotilla ever.Convoy of ships is expected to arrive in Gaza on the anniversary of the Israeli raid on the "Mavi Marmara," in May.International pro-Palestinian groups are preparing a massive flotilla of ships to the Gaza Strip in the spring, to coincide with the first anniversary of the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara in late May, organizers said on Monday.The convoy will be named “Freedom Flotilla 2” and is expected to include delegations from close to a dozen countries including, for the first time, vessels from the US and Canada.According to the organizers, the various groups are in the process of raising money, buying vessels and recruiting volunteers.Dror Feiler, an Israeli- Swedish musician and artist who lives in Stockholm – and one of the organizers behind the new flotilla – said that the flotilla would try to reach Gaza on May 31, the same day that the Israel Navy stopped the Turkish flotilla last year.The coalition behind the new blockade-busting effort includes the Turkish IHH and the Free Gaza Movement, both of which were involved in the May flotilla. It is demanding “an immediate and complete lifting of the closure, including a lifting of the travel ban as well as the ban on exports from Gaza.”According to Feiler, the new flotilla will include activists from Norway, Spain, the US, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Indonesia and Malaysia.Read the full story here.

• New trends in Halal retailing in North America.The halal retail market in North America is brimming with opportunities and creative retailers are experimenting in numerous ways of capitalizing it. An often overlooked but growing trend is the emergence of large super-market style stores which are open until late night or for twenty four hours. Despite facing a slew of hurdles these businesses have grown and expanded.In Toronto Iqbal Foods has become a landmark and a hit not only with Muslims but also non-Muslim consumers. Open until midnight it attracts customers from throughout the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. Unlike the Queens case, Nayab and Iqbal Foods have faced little opposition because the areas in which they opened were already dominated by the immigrant population. Devon Avenue is a well known South Asian hub. Thorncliffe Park, where Iqbal is located, is a dense neighborhood with highrises populated mainly by Muslims.Hmmm......Merriam-Webster Dictionary "Dominate" Synonyms: conquer, overpower, pacify, subdue, subject, subjugate, subordinate, vanquish.Read the full story here.

• Top Senate Budget Republican not ruling out government shutdown.Washington (CNN) – Most Republicans demanding to slash federal spending won't entertain the idea of taking a possible standoff with President Obama so far that the government shuts down.But the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN Monday he's not ruling out that possibility "if the President just stonewalls – refuses to pass anything that will be responsible."In 1995, when Republicans controlled all of Congress and a spending stalemate resulted in a government shutdown, President Clinton went on to win re-election.Most Republicans remember that as a politically disastrous move they don't want to repeat. Sessions says there was an upside – the country's fiscal condition did get better."It worked out good for the country. We had three years of balanced budgets that would never have happened had they not fought that hard in Congress so I think that Congress does have to fight," said Sessions.Sessions said he is worried that the "gulf" between what Republicans want in spending cuts and what President Obama will tolerate may be too hard to bridge."It does appear that the president is a man of the left. He believes in government - he's still talking about it now – investments, which are spending programs," said Sessions.Hmmmmm.....If he really wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Russian Bear protects BP against a takeover.Almost three years ago, Bob Dudley fled Russia. Now he's going back in a big way. Dudley was the chief executive of TNK-BP, a joint venture between the British oil giant and a Russian company to produce oil from Siberia. Today, of course, Dudley runs BP itself.The company recently announced a stock swap in which BP will get a 9.5 percent stake in Russia's state-owned oil company, Rosneft, and Rosneft will get 5 percent of BP's common stock.The deal, which Russia's deputy prime minister valued at about $8 billion, gives BP access to the Russian Arctic, perhaps the world's greatest potential untapped oil reserves, and it gives Rosneft access to Western capital. For BP, though, the deal has an added benefit. For the past six months, the company has been working to shore up its finances in the wake of its disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.Back in the summer, BP faced the threat of a hostile takeover, because, as I wrote at the time, the value of its assets was greater than its market value.Now, nine months after the Deepwater Horizon accident, BP's U.S. shares are within striking distance of their pre-disaster level. Last week they traded more than 75 percent above their low of $27.02 in late June. Even so, takeover rumors have persisted. BP's weakened stock price, combined with rising oil prices, made it a cheap way for another major to bolster its reserves at a bargain price, the theory went.The Russian deal pretty much quashes any chance that another oil major would make a hostile offer for BP, because any buyer would have to deal with the Russian government.Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell have struggled with Russian investments because of that country's hostile business climate.For BP, though, the Rosneft stock swap is a devil-you-know sort of deal. In 2003, the company became the biggest foreign investor in Russia by setting up the 50-50 joint venture with TNK.The equal ownership stakes, though, meant neither side was really in charge, and the Russian oligarchs who control TNK accused Dudley of managing the venture to benefit BP at their expense. The oligarchs, for example, wanted to expand internationally, but BP's directors shot down the idea, presumably because the venture might compete with BP's own interests abroad.The Rosneft deal could indeed prove lucrative just on its merits. In the meantime, it's better than any poison pill takeover defense BP's board could cook up.Hmmmm.....Hiding behind the Russian bear?Read the full story here.

• HT:NewZeal.When Obama Talks like Reagan, Remember Mark Rudd's Warning Words.It is clear that President Barack Obama is going to move his rhetoric to the center, even to the right, as he positions himself for 2012. After all he can hardly talk further left can he?But as the beguiling one talks like Ronald Reagan, we should all keep an eye on his actions.We should also remember this analysis from former Weather Underground terrorist Mark Rudd, written just after the 2008 elections;Obama is a very strategic thinker. He knew precisely what it would take to get elected and didn't blow it. He used community organizing methods to mobilize a base consisting of many people who had never voted before or who regularly don't vote....But he also knew that what he said had to basically play to the center to not be run over by the press, the Republicans, scare centrist and cross-over voters away. He made it.So he has a narrow mandate for change, without any direction specified. What he's doing now is moving on the most popular issues -- the environment, health care, and the economy. He'll be progressive on the environment because that has broad popular support; health care will be extended to children, then made universal, but the medical, pharmaceutical, and insurance corporations will stay in place, perhaps yielding some power; the economic agenda will stress stimulation from the bottom sometimes and handouts to the top at other times. It will be pragmatic... Read Obama's first book, "Dreams from My Father." The second section is the story of his three years doing community organizing in Chicago. It's some of the best writing on organizing I've ever seen. That's all it's about, the core of the book. Obama learned many lessons of strategy and patience... This is no stupid guy... Had any of the stupid Republicans read his books, they never could have said, "We don't know who this guy is." You know every thought he's ever had.Hmmmmm......"They don't trust me because of my middle name"And a million other things?Read the full story here.

• Black Pro-Life Leaders: Santorum ‘Absolutely Right’ to Wonder How Obama Could Support Abortion. Black pro-life leaders say they agree with former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who in an interview with CNSNews.com last week, referred to President Obama's African-American heritage and said he found it “almost remarkable” that the president could be pro-abortion.The former senator touched off a media storm when he said that he agreed with the argument Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., made in his 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” that a just law is a manmade law that comports with the natural law or the law of God, and that he finds it “almost remarkable” that a black man like President Barack Obama would want to deny legal recognition for the human rights of an unborn child.“I have to agree with him and say that I find it remarkable, also,” Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union in Washington, D.C., told CNSNews.com. “In light of the fact that coming out of slavery, we were not considered full human beings. We were treated as no better than pack mules, working in fields, without any rights at all.”During the one-hour-and-40 minute interview, Santorum said that, when asked during the 2008 campaign by Pastor Rick Warren "at what point" a baby "gets human rights," President Obama was wrong to answer “(T)hat is above my pay grade.”Santorum then said: "(T)he question is--and this is what Barack Obama didn't want to answer -- is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well, if that person, human life, is not a person, then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, no, we are going to decide who are people and who are not people."“It’s very interesting that the ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ was referenced,” Childress said. “In that same letter, Martin Luther King references infanticide or child-killing as evil. So what Martin Luther King calls evil, Barack Obama and this administration calls good -- because all of their policies have more or less facilitated the growth or the intrusion of abortion in our community and our legislation a hundred fold.” "Unfortunately Barack Obama, undoubtedly, is a facilitator for black genocide. What’s the irony of that? Well, Barack Obama himself is black.”“We look at the conditions in which Barack Obama was born himself, his mother endured, and took on the challenges that were given her and did not choose to kill the child that was in her womb," said Childress. "She was abandoned by her father. She did not have any certain dwelling place. She was unquestionably unsure about her financial stability, and yet she chose to have Barack – and as, we can see, this has turned out to be something that became a historic decision to have him -- because this man is the first black president of the United States."“Just because I’m born in Bedford-Stuy or born in the projects and my mother is single and 16 and doesn’t have an education, you don’t have the right to cut off my pursuit of happiness," said the pastor. "You don’t have that right. The Declaration says you don’t have that right. The Constitution says that these rights are for ‘us and for our posterity’ – our future children."Hmmm.....Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. Martin Luther King, Jr.Read the full story here.

• Charles Aznavour called on Israel to officially recognize Armenian 'genocide'.Turkey pursues “cave anti-Semitism”, Aznavour says.World renowned French chansionnier Charles Aznavour called on Israel to officially recognize Armenian 'genocide', perpetrated under Ottoman Empire in 1915, Kol Israel radio reports.Speaking at the ceremony of International Award of Jerusalem University on January 23, Aznavour said “cave anti-Semitism” has been observed in Turkey in recent years, which took obvious anti-Israeli positions on all Middle East problems, Nashe.orbita.co.il reports.Source.

• Turkey urges Canada not to adopt new 'genocide' resolution.Turkish Parliament Speaker meets Canadian counterpart.Turkish Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Shahin has urged Canada to change its policies recognizing Armenian genocide claims, requesting that the country’s Parliament not adopt more resolutions on the same issue in April.“Our wish is not [to see] new problems this April,” Shahin said during a joint press conference with his visiting Canadian counterpart, Noel Kinsella.The Canadian Parliament recognized the 1915 killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as genocide in 2004. The parliamentary recognition was later approved by the government as well, prompting severe reaction from Turkey. However, because the Canadian government later softened its comments on the issue, relations have improved between the two in recent years.Noting that nearly 50,000 Turkish citizens are living in Canada, Shahin said: “They are civilized humans who contribute to the stability and the development of Canada. I want to believe that the Canadian government and its officials will not make a move that could hurt Turkish citizens.”Hmmmmm......Keep silent .....or else what?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.'Abbas: If We Fail in the U.N., We Will Take an "Inconceivable" Decision.PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas said that September 2011 was the deadline by which the U.N. must respond to Palestinian appeals regarding the peace process. If these appeals were rejected, he said, the Palestinian leadership would take a decision of which nobody could conceive.Hmmmm......They might leave and go and live in Iran?Read the full story here.