Sequester? What sequester? The Easter bunny comes early this year. Obama offers Palestinians $500 million and Jordan $200 million.

Sequester? What sequester? The Easter bunny comes early this year. Obama offers Palestinians $500 million and Jordan $200 million.(TheHill).

In a meeting with a group of Arab Americans this week, U.S. President Barack Obama revealed that he will not push the Israelis and Palestinians toward restarting negotiations or outline a new peace initiative during his upcoming visit to the region, but he will take with him a cash infusion of $500 million – which Congress will soon release – of much needed financial aid to the Palestinian Authority. 

President Obama said Friday he would work with Congress to provide Jordan an additional $200 million in aid this year, as the country struggles to cope with nearly half a million refugees who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria.
King Abdullah II in Amman, Obama pledged to continue supporting Jordan and efforts to broker peace in Syria. He also predicted the number of refugees could double within the year, at a cost of $1.1 billion — a serious imposition on a country that economists say could have an unemployment rate of almost 30 percent. Nevertheless, Abdullah pledged to continue accepting refugees. "How are you going to turn back women, children or the wounded? This is just something we can’t do … that is a challenge that we just can't turn our backs on," he said. 
The president also warned that there was potential that a post-Assad Syria could become a breeding ground for other extremist groups, saying a chief challenge of the ongoing conflict was developing a stable government for the country post-Assad. "I am very concerned about Syria becoming an enclave for extremism, because extremists thrive in crisis. They thrive in failed states. They thrive in chaos," Obama said.Hmmmm.....Talking about 'extremists' New "Syrian PM" Yet Another 'Obama Approved' Muslim Brotherhood Extremist.Read the full story here.

Bethlehem darkens during Pres Obama's visit.

Job 3:23 - "Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?"

Obama Speaks Under Arafat Banner

Obama Speaks Under Arafat Banner.(WS)."Hope everyone saw 'Israel's Staunchest Ally'. If not there, it was notable that Obama and Abbas spoke from under a banner bearing pictures of Arafat and Abbas. Also another big banner was hanging on wall nearby with Abbas kind of superimposed on Arafat," the White House pool reporter notes.

Arafat, as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting has noted, "is known to many as the “father of modern terrorism.” Below is a timeline of some of the key events of his life and terrorist acts with which he was associated."

CAMERA notes, "In fact, groups under Arafat's direct or indirect command – including Fatah, Black September, Tanzim and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade – were responsible for hundreds of bombings, hijackings, assassinations and other attacks, including the 1972 murder of 11 of Israel's Olympic athletes in Munich, the 1973 murder of the American ambassador to Sudan, Cleo Noel, and the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruiseship (resulting in the murder of wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer)."Read the full story here.

Pres Barack Hussein Obama: "Palestinians deserve an independent and sovereign state and an end to occupation by Israel."

Pres Barack Hussein Obama: "Palestinians deserve an independent and sovereign state and an end to occupation by Israel."(RT). Obama spoke at a news conference in the West Bank with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

He confirmed the US is committed to creating two independent states, Israel and Palestine, however long it takes. Obama stressed direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis is the only way to reach the goal.

He says Palestinians should not have to confront the daily indignities that come with occupation.

Obama says the US needs a “viable and contiguous”Palestinian state co-existing alongside the state of Israel.

The US president condemned construction of new Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories.
"I told Mr. Netanyahu that it has been US policy not to consider settlement activity to be constructive, appropriate or advance the cause of peace,” criticized Obama.

Still, Obama acknowledged that Israeli politics is a complicated matter and that the issue of settlements cannot be “resolved overnight”.

"I want both sides [Israel and Palestine] to be doing what they can to build a sense of trust, and I hope that the US government will be helpful in that," Obama said.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas added that "We never gave up our vision that settlement activity is illegal, that the Israeli government understands this. We hope they listen. We spoke about this with the president and we clarified this."

Abbas recalled that Israeli settlements are considered illegal also by the United Nations, which so far has issued “13 resolutions, not only condemning settlements, but demanding ending and removing them because they’re illegal.”

"We’re demanding nothing other than the implementation of international law," Abbas said, pointing out that the question of settlements is one of the biggest obstacles towards realization of a two-state solution.

Abbas said that the Palestinians recognize the state of Israel."We continue to recognize Israel according to the Road Map and the Arab Initiative,” he said.

Palestinian leader said he told President Obama that peace between the Palestinians and Israel cannot be achieved through violence, occupation, settlements, arrests or denial of refugee rights. Despite the fact that the negotiation process between Israel and Palestine is stalled, no hope is lost and negotiation will continue. “I absolutely believe that it is still possible, but I think it is very difficult,” Obama said.Read the full story here.

White House compared Israel's parliament to Arafat's grave?

White House compared Israel's parliament to Arafat's grave?HT: WND.By Aaron Klein. JERUSALEM – In a conversation with the Palestinian Authority, a White House official apparently compared Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, to the gravesite of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, according to a PA official speaking to WND.

The Palestinian official, who asked that his name be withheld, said he was in contact with members of the Obama administration regarding Obama’s slated visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the U.S. president will meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The official said the White House turned down a request for Obama to pay homage to Arafat at the deceased leader’s grave, which is located just outside Abbas’s offices.

When asked to explain why Obama would not visit Arafat’s resting place, the PA official claimed that a White House official made the comparison between the gravesite and Israel’s Knesset.

“The official explained to me that just as Obama won’t address the Knesset, which is a symbol of Israeli nationalism, so too he won’t visit the grave, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism,” the PA official said.

Arafat developed a terrorist apparatus responsible for deadly attacks against scores of Israelis. He presided over the so-called second intifada, or terrorist war against Israel.

Obama, meanwhile, is taking some criticism here for his decision not to address the parliament, a custom for visiting U.S. presidents.

Former Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin told Israel National News that “when President Obama avoids the Knesset in Jerusalem, that’s a worrying sign, it’s a statement of lack of faith in the representatives of the nation he’s addressing.”

Yaakov Ahimeir, a columnist for Israel Today, the country’s second largest newspaper, wrote that the Knesset is “preparing itself to digest Obama’s insulting refusal to deliver his keynote address at the head of the plenum, thereby failing to acknowledge the Knesset as a symbol of Israeli sovereignty.” Hmmmm.......He doesn't recognize the 'state' of Israel in it's current form?Read the full story here.

While Obama’s on 'goodwill' Tour, Congress Sends Tough Love to PA.

Source 

While Obama’s on 'goodwill' Tour, Congress Sends Tough Love to PA.(JP).By Lori Lowenthal Marcus. While President Barack Obama is in the Middle East shaking hands, kissing babies and visiting historic sites, there are those in the U.S. congress who are working to ensure that this government engages in serious Middle East tough love. A new bill may finally provide the purveyors of terrorism with a real incentive to join the brotherhood of nations by rejecting violence, dismantling terrorism and bringing terrorists to justice or else forfeit American largesse.

The bill is being introduced at a time when even Americans are being told they cannot afford to continue providing what law-abiding U.S. citizens have come to expect from their government.

On Thursday, March 21, Rep. Ron DeSantis, Republican congressman who represents Florida’s 6th District, will introduce the Palestinian Accountability Act. This proposed legislation requires several things of the Palestinian Authority without which it will not receive certain U.S. benefits including significant financial aid and the privilege of being referred to as anything other than “the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.”

Those actions which the PA will be expected to do and to cease doing include: end government corruption, regularly condemn terrorism, confiscate unauthorized weapons, bring terrorists to justice, end incitement to violence and hatred in PA media, schools, mosques, cease all boycotts of Israel, conducts diplomatic relations with Israel just as it does with any other country, and refuse to co-govern with Hamas.
The Accountability Act also directs that “no United States document may refer to the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority as ‘Palestine’ until the secretary of state has certified to congress” that the foregoing conditions have been met.

The U.S. will also cut off its’ portion of funding to the United Nations in general and its refugee agency in particular if the U.N. recognizes a State of Palestine without the above conditions having been met.

“Congressman Desantis is fed up with years and years of promises of reform and peace from an entity that can not even publicly acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state,” Justin Roth, chief of staff to Rep. DeSantis told The Jewish Press Wednesday evening. “Where has all of the aid gone and what has it achieved?” Read the full story here.

Obama in Ramallah, hoping to energize peace efforts, hours after Gaza rocket hits Sderot.Live blog Obama in Israel day Two.

Obama in Ramallah, hoping to energize peace efforts, hours after Gaza rocket hits Sderot.Live blog Obama in Israel day Two.HT: TimesOfIsrael.

Hamas leader says ‘American policies perpetuate the Israeli occupation’

Ahead of the Abbas-Obama joint press conference, Hamas in Gaza head Ismail Haniyeh gives the American president a vote of no confidence.

“We believe American policies perpetuate the Israeli occupation and settlements in Palestine under a slogan of peace,” he said, according to a report in the Palestinian Ma’an news agency.

Earlier in the day, four rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel, breaking a fragile calm in the south, in what was thought to be an attack timed to coincide with Obama’s visit.

A leaked draft of talking points Mahmoud Abbas intends to bring up with US President Barack Obama includes support for a secret freeze on settlements, the New York Times reports.

The report points to a softening of the Palestinian Authority’s demands as preconditions for returning to the negotiating table.

They also include pleas for Benjamin Netanyahu to commit to the 1967 lines as a starting point in peace talks and a suggestion by Abbas that he will dissolve the PA if progress is not made.

“I am not threatening, I am sharing a fact with you,” Abbas will tell Obama according to the memo. “If this situation continues I will be forced to ask Prime Minister Netenyahoo[sic] to resume his responsibilities.”

As Obama lands in Ramallah, the city’s central Al-Manara square has filled with 200-300 angry protesters demonstrating against the US president’s visit. Many are shouting slogans such as, “We don’t want anything peaceful, only bullets and missiles,” and, “Go home you devil, we don’t want to see Americans here,” Times of Israel correspondent Elhanan Miller reports.

Many protesters are holding up signs calling for Palestinian prisoners to be released, including Fathiya Ajaji, whose son Ahmed is in jail in the US for involvement in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. Most of the parties represented at the rally are leftist Palestinian factions.Read the live updates here.

A 'Palestinian' Arab view of Pres Obama.

Arab MK Tibi: Obama’s airport address was ‘a Zionist speech’.(TOI).

Arab MK Ahmad Tibi says Obama’s arrival address was “a Zionist speech.” He doesn’t mean it as a compliment.

“There’s no symmetry” in America’s relations with Israel and the Palestinians, he notes.

Tibi also protests the presence in the Israeli coalition of a party — Jewish Home — “with a veto” over any progress toward Palestinian statehood.

But the root of the problem, Tibi says, is Netanyahu — “a principled right-winger,” who will never say the words “a sovereign Palestinian state.”

Tibi says Abbas will “absolutely” seek a settlement freeze when he meets Obama tomorrow.

The 'juice' poisoned 'the Beast', The presidential limo doesn’t run on diesel.

The 'juice' poisoned 'the Beast', The presidential limo doesn’t run on diesel.(TOI).More on that broken down presidential limousine, which had to be replaced at short notice. 

 “The Americans filled it up with diesel, rather than petrol,” reports Channel 2 — stressing that it was the Americans, not the Israelis. Unsurprisingly, the car wouldn’t start. 

Update: Israeli and Jordanian officials have been coordinating the transfer of a replacement presidential limousine from a US storage facility in Jordan to Israel, after the one parked at Ben-Gurion Airport failed to start this morning. The limo is an armored Chevrolet known as “The Beast.” A transport plane is on its way with the substitute vehicle now.Hmmmm.....Makes me wonder how many of these $300,000 'Beasts' have been bought? More here.

President Obama arrives in Israel.Live updates.

President Obama arrives in Israel.Live updates. HT: TimesOfIsrael.JerusalemPost. Peres says, “People are really excited… I never saw the people so excited.”

“I’m thrilled to be here,” says Obama.

The president is introduced to the line of dignitaries. He meets Yuli Edelstein, the new Knesset speaker, and is told that Edelstein sat in jail in the FSU for seeking to come to Israel.

“Very nice to see you… Good to see you,” Obama says as he is introduced to the chief rabbis and to government ministers.

Netanyahu tells the president about each minister in turn. “It’s wonderful to see you,” he tells Tzipi Livni.

“I’m sure” we’ll spend time together, Obama tells Yair Lapid.

Defense Minister Ya’alon says something to the effect of Israel’s security being the US’s security.

Now Obama meets a representative of the diplomatic community here, and shakes hands with Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren.

Obama begins in Hebrew, says “Tov lihyot ba’aretz” — it’s good to be in Israel.
He notes it’s his third visit???

A large procession of “national Islamic forces” is holding a rally in the Gaza Strip to protest President Obama’s visit to Israel and the PA, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reports.

Palestinians also protesting the the West bank.

Another rally is also being held in Hebron. On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority issued a ban on releasing photos and videos from Hebron. The PA is hoping to avoid embarrassment over hateful displays in the city.Live updates can be read here and here.

Update: New link for Live updates at Perez here.

Video - Hamas Women Officers Shoot at Photos of Israeli Leaders during Graduation Ceremony.

Hamas Women Officers Shoot at Photos of Israeli Leaders during Graduation Ceremony.

Following are excerpts from footage of a Hamas officers’ graduation ceremony, in which female snipers exhibited their skills by shooting at photos of Israeli leaders. The ceremony aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 19, 2013.

Announcer: Now, brothers and sisters, we shall watch a shooting performance by sisters. The men are not the only ones in the battlefield. The sisters, the Muslim women, participate alongside the men in defending the soil of Palestine and our holy places.

Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh is seen sitting next to Salafi Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi, watching the show.

[…]

Two female snipers aim at a target consisting of a Star of David, with images of Israeli leaders attached to each point. Source: Memri.

Video - PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: EU Can Remove Hamas from Terror List, No Difference between Our Policies and Theirs.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: EU Can Remove Hamas from Terror List, No Difference between Our Policies and Theirs.

Following are excerpts from an interview with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which aired on Russia Today TV on March 15, 2013.

Interviewer: It is said that the EU plans to remove Hamas from the list of terror organizations. Do you view this as a step toward complete recognition of the legitimacy of the [Hamas] government?

Mahmoud Abbas: I do not think that they will acknowledge the legitimacy of the Hamas government. After what happened, and given that Hamas has honored the truce, and has declared that it supports peaceful popular resistance… As far as I am concerned, there is no difference between our policies and those of Hamas. So why are they labeled as terrorists? In my opinion, [the EU] can remove Hamas [from the list], why not?

Interviewer: But you do not fire missiles at Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas: Neither we nor Hamas fire missiles. Since the end of the second Intifada, we have committed ourselves to refrain from using weapons. We say this out in the open. It’s no secret. We don’t hide this under the table. We say loud and clear that we have no intention or desire to violate… or rather, to engage in an armed Intifada with Israel. I say this loud and clear.

Hamas declared [the same], but then there were skirmishes once or twice. Hopefully, that was the end of it.

[…]

Nobody wants to take in the Palestinians who leave Syria. They came to Syria as refugees, and they should remain in Syria or return to their own country. That’s it. That’s why the situation is difficult. I hope the crisis is alleviated or resolved.

Interviewer: These [refugees] are unable to return to Palestine…

Mahmoud Abbas: Exactly. Now they cannot. Many have already returned. If I told you the numbers, you’d be amazed. From the return of the Palestinian Authority to our homeland in 1994 until 2000, half a million Palestinians returned. Source: Memri.

Video - Palestinians in Bethlehem Vandalize Obama Poster with Swastikas and Throw Shoes to Protest His Visit.

Palestinians in Bethlehem Vandalize Obama Poster with Swastikas and Throw Shoes to Protest His Visit.

Following are excerpts from a report on a demonstration in Bethlehem against US President Obama’s planned March 20 visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The report was posted on the Internet on March 18.

Reporter: There are ongoing protests against U.S. President Obama’s visit to Palestine, which he has claimed is for touristic purposes, and which, moreover, does not bring any new plan for peace in the region.

Protestor: We have come here to say to Obama that we don’t need 3G technology in Palestine. What we need is a state, we need the prisoners to return to their homes, we need to put an end to the settlements, and we need the Palestinian refugees to return, in accordance with U.N. Resolution 194 and 242.

These [posters] represent personal, business interests. They want to make a profit by bringing 3G technology here. It’s not the Palestinian citizens who will profit from it.

Reporter: On Monday afternoon, angry protestors expressed their opposition to the visit, by ripping up and burning images of Obama near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Protestor: Through our protest, we are saying that Obama has no place among us. Obama implements the Israeli occupation policy of killing, of destroying, of Judaizing the settlements, of opposing a Palestinian state, and of opposing the release of the prisoners.

President Obama will not be welcomed with roses and a red carpet. We will greet him with shoes and with black banners of grief. He will be greeted by the children of the martyrs, by those who have been banished, and by the prisoners. That way, we will be saying that U.S. policy has no place in our hearts.

Reporter: The demonstrators said that Palestine would welcome Obama if his visit were to include real measures that would put an end to the suffering of the prisoners and the refugees, and would address other issues at the heart of the struggle against the occupation.

Protestor: We wanted to send President Obama a message that the Palestinian people is not in need of pilgrims. What it needs is a savior who will relieve it of the pain inflicted upon us daily by the Israeli occupation, which affects all aspects of the Palestinian people’s lives.

The Palestinian people will not welcome Obama. It sends the message that he is not welcome here because his visit is intended to strengthen the extreme right government in Israel.

Old woman: I’d like to tell him not to come here. He is a collaborator of Israel. He is Netanyahu’s greatest collaborator.

Reporter: The area is undergoing stringent security measures, with U.S. helicopters circling above Bethlehem and Ramallah, and then landing in the government compound in Ramallah. Source Memri.

Bethlehem Arabs 'Shoe' Obama Posters, American Officials.

Bethlehem Arabs 'Shoe' Obama Posters, American Officials.(INN).Arabs in Bethlehem had a “warm welcome” for American officials who on Monday came to prepare for President Barack H. Obama's visit to the city Friday, by throwing shoes and garbage at the vehicles in an entourage from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem. Hundreds of Arabs mobbed the vehicles outside the Church of the Nativity, where Obama is scheduled to visit when he comes to Bethlehem.

Sources in the city told Israel Radio that Arab protesters tore down posters with Obama's image, throwing them to the ground and spitting and stepping on them. The protesters threw shoes at other posters that were hung too high for them to easily tear down.

The American entourage had entered Bethlehem unannounced, apparently in an effort to avoid such scenes. The entourage was said to be comprised chiefly of security officials who were there to ensure that Obama would be safe during his visit. PA police attempted to stop the crowd from throwing shoes and debris at the American vehicles, and were only partially successful, witnesses said.

Sources in the PA said they were examining ways to ensure that Monday's protests were not repeated when Obama came to town.Hmmmm.......Promises to be a very interesting visit.Read the full story here.

Video - Israel Radio Anchor: Boycott Obama Address Since Pollard Not Free

Israel Radio Anchor Arieh Golan opened the second hour of the morning news magazine with a call for Israelis to boycott President Obama's address in protest of President Obama's decision to leave Jonathan Pollard "rotting in prison".

Video - Clip re imagines Obama as Aladdin.

Video - Clip re imagines Obama as Aladdin.HT: TimesOfIsrael.Online parody rewrites Disney movie to celebrate and satirize US president’s impending visit to Israel.

The music sounds familiar, but the lyrics — a takeoff on Disney’s “Aladdin” — definitely don’t.

Hebrew speakers have been doing a double take since Wednesday as they’ve watched a new online clip inspired by the 1992 movie. The video, a parody tied to President Obama’s trip to Israel next week, rewrites the words to the song “Prince Ali.” Instead of featuring the arrival of Aladdin (disguised as the prince) at the Sultan’s palace, the scene now trumpets the visit by “President Barack” to Israel.

Creator Yuval Binder is so good at vocal imitation it’s impossible to tell exactly where he’s inserted his own voice over the original Hebrew dubbing, provided by legendary Israeli comic actor Tuvia Tzafir. For the big finale, the Genie talks tachlis, or gets to the bottom line, about why Obama is making his grand journey: “He’s mentioned that there’s some major chaos here, so that’s why he’s coming to the sh**ty Middle East. Welcome, President Barack!”Read the full story here.

IDF Military Intelligence chief: Assad Will Use WMDs While Hizbullah, Iran Plan New Army.

IDF Military Intelligence chief: Assad Will Use WMDs While Hizbullah, Iran Plan New Army.(INN).
IDF Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi had sobering news for policy makers at the Herzliya Conference, predicting chemical warfare and a post-Assad Iranian-Hizbullah military force.

Kochavi told the audience at Thursday’s annual convention the Lebanon-based terrorist organization has teamed up with Iran to form a full-scale army, knowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s days in office are numbered.

Hizbullah, which like Iran is comprised by Shi’ite Muslims, has long been generously funded, equipped and trained by the Islamic Republic, as has Assad, who has been protected by the terrorist forces and the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards to this point.The two have so far created a militia of 50,000 fighters to support the regime, he said.“Hizbullah and Iran know Assad is finished, and are establishing an army in preparation for the post-Assad era,” warned Kochavi in his address to policy makers.

Outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said in his final testimony to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, “The Middle East today is far less stable because the forces leading much of it are Islamist. In the short to long-term, we can redefine the Arab Spring as an ‘Islamic Winter,’ as we see radicals leading it to social and national extremes.”

In his assessment Thursday, Kochavi commented that Assad himself “plans to escalate preparations to use chemical weapons but has yet to give the orders to deploy them.”
Researcher Yiftah Shapir of the Institute for National Security Studies said Hezbollah probably already possesses most of the chemical weapons and other unconventional means of attack that it could have acquired from Syria, since the two are allies in the axis with Iran, but is unlikely to use them.Hmmm.........'Assad himself “plans to escalate preparations to use chemical weapons but has yet to give the orders to deploy them'.........You think he waits for Obama's visit?That might explain the moving of the Patriot battery.Read the full story here.

Hamas Calls for Daily Confrontations Ahead of Obama’s Visit.

Hamas Calls for Daily Confrontations Ahead of Obama’s Visit.(Matzav).

In an op-ed titled “Receive Obama the way Sharon was received,” published Monday on Hamas’ news website Al-Resalah, columnist Mustafa Sawwaf wrote: “Palestinians everywhere should begin their activities with direct confrontation with the Zionists in preparation for Obama’s visit, even if this entails martyrs and injured until the ominous day of the visit. That should be the day of battle, the great day of mobilization worthy of the American president.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank demanded on Tuesday that President Obama coordinate his Yerushalayim tour with the PA, since the city, it claimed, is “occupied territory.”

And not wanting to be left out the Palestinian youth group called to reject US President Barack Obama's visit to Palestine and to demonstrate against resuming negotiations, said a press release by Palestinians For Dignity group published on Sunday.

The group said Obama's visit to Palestine, which is expected between 20-22 of March, comes while the hunger striking prisoners are battling Israeli policies and arbitrary measures and the US silence.

Palestinians For Dignity said that it is “naive to presume that US policy toward Israel has changed since Obama took office.”

The group said, “It is hypocritical and disingenuous that the PLO disregards the role of the Obama administration in blocking its membership request in 2011 at the Security Council, and its vote against the resolution at the General Assembly in 2012.”

It criticized the idea of receiving Obama in Ramallah even though the Palestinian leadership assured Palestinians that it considers Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.

It pointed out the financial sanctions imposed by US congress on international institutions that recognized Palestine. Palestinians For Dignity called on all Palestinians to demonstrate against receiving Obama, who considers Israel “the closest ally in the region” and to refuse return to negotiations.Hmmm.....Get the popcorn ready folks this is going to get a real interesting visit.Read the full story here. more here.

Video - Islamist Palestinian Leaders Warn Obama Not to Visit Al-Aqsa Mosque: He Will Be Pelted with Shoes and Stones.

Islamist Palestinian Leaders Warn Obama Not to Visit Al-Aqsa Mosque: He Will Be Pelted with Shoes and Stones.

Following are excerpts from statements by various Islamist Palestinian leaders prior to U.S. President Obama’s visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The statements were made on Al-Aqsa TV on March 8, 2013, and on the Al-Jazeera network on March 8, 2013:

Al-Aqsa TV, March 8, 2013:

Khaled Al-Batsh, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader: I call upon our people in Jerusalem... If Obama enters [the Al-Aqsa Mosque] with Israeli guards, they should confront him and prevent him from entering. They should pelt him with shoes and with the sacred stones of Jerusalem. You must not allow him to legitimize the occupation, by entering under the protection of the Zionists.

[...]

Hamas spokesman Mushir Al-Masri: We warn against the politicization of US President Obama’s visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We stress that a visit by Obama to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under the authority and influence of the occupation, will constitute a declaration of war on our Arab and Islamic nation. This will be a provocation against the sensibilities of the Islamic nation. We call upon Obama to refrain from visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under the influence and authority of the occupation, because this mosque, and Jerusalem, are owned by the Palestinian people alone.

[...]

Al-Jazeera Network, March 11, 2013:

Raed Sallah, Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel: When Obama enters occupied Jerusalem, the message is clear: a false legitimization of the sovereignty of the Israeli occupation in Jerusalem, and if Obama takes the more heinous act of entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque, he will be giving false legitimacy to Israeli sovereignty over the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

[...]

Such a visit is extremely dangerous. If it takes place, we will consider it a declaration of hostility against the Muslim nation, the Arab world, and the Palestinian people.

[...]

We expect a show of anger and support for our right over Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which will emphasize to Obama and the White House that such a visit will cross all the red lines, and will constitute a declaration of hostility, which will affect every Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian worldwide.Source: Memri.