Jimmy Carter is sued for lying about Israel/other news
(Below is a list of some newsletters that you can copy and paste into your browser if you care to see more, of today's news. I will be adding more websites to the newsletter list, as time permits MBS)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/660883/posts
Seven Reasons To Support Israel
(and yet the ahem, "anti-Zionists" still WHINE. MBS)
The Jewish Press ^ | March 20 2002 | U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe
Seven Reasons To Support Israel
By U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe
Editor's Note: The following is a slightly condensed version of a remarkable statement of principle delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate earlier this month by Sen. James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma.
Senator Inhofe
I was interested the other day when I heard that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah made a statement which was received by many in this country as if it were a statement of fact, as if it were something new — a concept for peace in the Middle East that no one had ever heard of before. I was kind of shocked that it was so well received by many people who had been down this road before.
I suggest to you that what Crown Prince Abdullah talked about was not new at all. He talked about the fact that under the Abdullah plan, Arabs would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for the Jewish state surrendering the territory it received after the 1976 Six-Day War as if that were something new. When it gets right down to it, the land doesn't make that much difference because Yasir Arafat and others don't recognize Israel's right to any of the land. They do not recognize Israel's right to exist.
I would like to emphasize seven reasons why Israel has the right to its land.
1. Israel has the right to the land because of all of the archeological evidence.
Every time there is a dig in Israel, it does nothing but support the fact that Israelis have had a presence there for 3,000 years. The coins, the cities, the pottery, the culture — there is no mistaking the fact that Israelis have been present in that land for 3,000 years.
The ancient Philistines are extinct. Many other ancient peoples are extinct. They do not have the unbroken line to this date that the Israelis have. Even the Egyptians of today are not racial Egyptians of 2,000, or 3,000 years ago. They are primarily an Arab people. The land is called Egypt, but they are not the same racial and ethnic stock as the old Egyptians of the ancient world. The first Israelis are in fact descended from the original Israelites.
2. The second proof of Israel's right to the land is the historic right.
History supports it totally and completely. We know there had been an Israel up until the time of the Roman Empire. The Romans conquered the land, although Jews were allowed to live there. They were driven from the land in two dispersions: One was in 70 A.D. and the other was in 135 A.D. But there was always a Jewish presence in the land.
The Turks took over about 700 years ago and ruled up until about World War I, when the land was conquered by the British. The British government -- grateful to a Jewish chemist named Weizmann who discovered a way to manufacture nitroglycerin from materials that existed in England and to Jewish bankers who helped finance the war — promised to give the Jewish people a homeland. That is all a part of history. It is all written down in history.
The homeland that Britain said it would set aside consisted of all of what is now Israel and all of what is Jordan — the whole thing. That was what Britain promised to give the Jews. In the beginning, there was some Arab support for this action. There was not a huge Arab population in the land at that time, and there is a reason for that. The land was not able to sustain a large population of people. It just did not have the development it needed to handle those people, and the land was not really wanted by anybody. Nobody really wanted this land. It was considered to be worthless land.
I want the Presiding Officer to hear what Mark Twain said. Mark Twain — Samuel Clemens — took a tour of Palestine in 1867. This is how he described that land. We are talking about Israel now. He said:
"A desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country."
Where was this great Palestinian nation? It did not exist. It was not there. Palestinians were not there. Palestine was a region named by the Romans, but at that time it was under the control of Turkey, and there was no large mass of people there because the land would not support them.
The report of the Palestinian Royal Commission, created by the British, quotes an account of the conditions on the coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea in 1913:
"The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track, suitable for transport by camels or carts. No orange groves, orchards or vineyards were to be seen until one reached the Yavnev village. Houses were mud. Schools did not exist. The western part toward the sea was almost a desert. The villages in this area were few and thinly populated. Many villages were deserted by their inhabitants."
In short, under the Turks the land suffered from neglect and low population. That is a historical fact. The nation became populated by both Jews and Arabs because the land came to prosper when Jews came back and began to reclaim it.
If there had never been any archaeological evidence to support the rights of the Israelis to the territory, it is also important to recognize that other nations in the area have no longstanding claim to the country either.
Did you know that Saudi Arabia was not created until 1913, Lebanon until 1920? Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932, Syria until 1941; the borders of Jordan were established in 1946 and Kuwait in 1961. Any of these nations that would say Israel is only a recent arrival would have to deny their own rights as recent arrivals as well.
3. The third reason that land belongs to Israel is the practical value of the Israelis being there.
Israel today is a modern marvel of agriculture. Israel is able to bring more food out of a desert environment than any other country in the world. The Arab nations ought to make Israel their friend and import technology from Israel that would allow all the Middle East, not just Israel, to become an exporter of food. Israel has unarguable success in its agriculture.
4. The fourth reason I believe Israel has the right to the land is on the grounds of humanitarian concern.
You see, there were six million Jews slaughtered in Europe in World War II. The persecution against the Jews had been very strong in Russia since the advent of communism. It was against them even before then under the Czars. These people have a right to their homeland. If we are not going to allow them a homeland in the Middle East, then where? What other nation on Earth is going to cede territory, is going to give up land? They are not asking for a great deal. The whole nation of Israel would fit into my home state of Oklahoma seven times.
5. The fifth reason Israel ought to have the land is that she is a strategic ally of the United States.
Israel is a detriment, an impediment, to certain groups hostile to democracies, hostile to what we believe in, hostile to that which makes us the greatest nation in the history of the world. Israel has kept them from taking complete control of the Middle East. If it were not for Israel, they would overrun the region.
Israel is our strategic ally. It is good to know we have a friend in the Middle East on whom we can count. They vote with us in the United Nations more than England, more than Canada, more than France, more than Germany — more than any other country in the world.
6. The sixth reason is that Israel is a roadblock to terrorism.
The war we are now facing is not against a sovereign nation; it is against a group of terrorists who are very fluid, moving from one country to another. They are almost invisible. That is whom we are fighting against today. We need every ally we can get. If we do not stop terrorism in the Middle East, it will be on our shores.
One of the reasons I believe the door was opened for an attack against us is that the policy of our government has been to ask the Israelis — and demand it with pressure — not to retaliate in a significant way against the terrorist strikes that have been launched against them.
There were 39 Scud missiles that landed on Israeli soil during the Gulf War. Our president asked Israel not to respond. In order to have the Arab nations on board, we asked Israel not to participate in the war. The Israelis showed tremendous restraint and did not. Now we have asked them to stand back and not do anything over these last several attacks. We have criticized them. We have criticized them in our media. Local people in television and radio often criticize Israel, not knowing the true facts. We need to be informed.
Back in December the Israelis went into Gaza with gunships and into the West Bank with F-16s. With the exception of last May, the Israelis had not used F-16s since the 1967 Six-Day War. And I am so proud of them, because we have to stop terrorism. It is not going to go away.
If Israel were driven into the sea tomorrow, if every Jew in the Middle East were killed, terrorism would not end. You know that in your heart. Should they be successful in overrunning Israel — which they won't be — it would not be enough. They will never be satisfied.
7. The seventh, and most important, reason why we ought to support Israel is because G-d said so.
Look it up in the book of Genesis. In Genesis 13:14-17, the Bible says: The L-rd said to Abram, "Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are northward, and southward, and eastward and westward: for all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever....Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it to thee."
That is G-d talking.
The Bible says that Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar before the L-rd. Hebron is in the West Bank. It is at this place where G-d appeared to Abram and said, "I am giving you this land" — the West Bank. This is not a political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the Word of G-d is true.
Israel's Hand Of Peace Rejected
Eight years ago on the lawn of the White House, Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with Yasir Arafat. It was a historic occasion. It was a tragic occasion. At that time, the official policy of the government of Israel began to be, "Let us appease the terrorists. Let us begin to trade the land for peace."
This process continued unabated up until last year. At Camp David in the summer of 2000, the then-prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, offered the most generous concessions to Arafat that had ever been laid on the table. He offered him more than 90 percent of all the West Bank territory, sovereign control of it. There were parts he did not want to offer, but in exchange for that he said he would give up land in Israel proper that the PLO had not even asked for.
And he also did the unthinkable. He spoke of dividing Jerusalem and allowing the Palestinians to have their capital there in the East. Arafat stormed out of the meeting. Why did he storm out of the meeting? Everything he had said he wanted was offered there. It was put into his hands. Why did he storm out of the meeting?
A couple of months later there began riots and terrorism. It began when the current Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, went to the Temple Mount. Did you know that Sharon did not go unannounced and that he contacted the Islamic authorities before he went and secured their permission and had permission to be there?
It was no surprise. The response was very carefully calculated. The Palestinians knew the world would not pay attention to the details. They would portray this in the Arab world as an attack upon the holy mosque and use it as an excuse to riot.
Over these past eight years of the peace process, when the Israeli public pressured its leaders to give up land for peace because they were tired of fighting, there has been increased terror. In fact, it has been greater in the past eight years than any other time in Israel's history. Showing restraint and giving in has not produced any kind of peace.
Israel did offer a hand of peace, and it was not taken. Even today the stationery of the PLO still has on it the map of the entire state of Israel, not just the tiny little part they call the West Bank that they say they want. They want it all.
I yield the floor.
Within the past couple of weeks, Israel-U.S. relations have sunk to one of their lowest ebbs in decades. The Obama Administration is pressuring the Netanyahu government over construction of Jewish homes in Jerusalem.
Former New York City mayor Ed Koch calls the Obama Administration's treatment of the Israeli government over this issue "outrageous and a breach of trust."
We recently interviewed Caroline Glick, the managing editor of the Jerusalem Post and senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington. In light of the U.S.-Israel crisis, she expounded on why Israel matters to the U.S.
Click play to watch.
http://www.israpundit.com/archives/33234#more-33234 
I
met Nitsana Darsha-Leitner in Toronto almost 10 years ago. She was just out of law school and had come to talk about her pioneering lawsuits on behalf of victims of terror. She just sent me a press release, which is below, announcing her latest lawsuit in which she is suing Jimmy Carter et al for violating NY commerece law by publishing lies. She has fashioned the suit as a class action on behalf of all those who bought the book and were thus harmed. This is no small matter.I wonder how many other organizations and people can be sued for the same thing.
Wikipedia has this to say about her great impact and success. Since 2003 Darshan-Leitner and a team of lawyers have worked with hundreds of terror victims in lawsuits [3] and legal actions against Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Iran, Syria,[4] Islamic Jihad and numerous financial institutions.[4] The cases are litigated in the Israeli, American, Canadian and European courts.
Darshan-Leitner has been involved in a wide-range of legal actions in Israel.[5] and abroad on behalf of Jewish rights cases[6] In total she has won judgments of over $702 million against organizations such as the Palestinian Authority. In February 2002 Darshan-Leitner was awarded $183 million from Iran by a U.S court for Iran's role in a Hamas suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
In September 2006, Darshan-Leitner and New York attorney Robert Tolchin filed a law suit in federal court on behalf of the families of 12 missing Jewish-Iranians against the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Khatami has refused to answer the complaint and has defaulted the case.
In January 2008, she filed a lawsuit for NIS 260,000,000 ($65,000,000 US) against the Egyptian Government in a court in Beersheba on behalf of ten families of Sderot (Israel) whose relatives were killed or seriously injured by Palestinian Kassam rockets.
In May 2008, Shurat HaDin was co-counsel in filing in Manhattan Federal Court against Swiss mega bank UBS GA[5] which is accused by the plaintiffs of financing terror. Included amongst the plaintiffs were three families who were physically and emotionally harmed by the Katyusha rockets launched by Hizbollah into Israeli cities during the 2006 war with Lebanon. Attorneys for UBS have denied the allegations and said they would vigorously defend the law suit.
In June 2008, the families of 12 missing Iranian Jews filed a petition in the Israeli High Court of Justice seeking to block the Israeli government from releasing information on the fate of four disappeared Iranian diplomats as part of the prisoner release deal with Hizbollah. The Iranian diplomats were captured by Christian militia forces, the Samir Jaja faction, in South Lebanon in 1982. The families are represented in the court proceeding before the High Court by Darshan-Leitner.
In July 2008, Darshan-Leiter received word from the Israeli High Court of Justice that the petition was being dismissed as the issue was one of "diplomatic concern." The court did however point a harsh finger at Israeli PM at the time, Mr. Ehud Olmert, with an expectation that the "matter not be pushed assunder." Darshan-Leinter then turned to the PM with a request by the families for an urgent meeting before the deal went through. Receiving no response, Darshan-Leiter then turned to all 120 members of the Israeli Parliament, The Knesset, asking that they remember the 12 Missing Jews of Iran in their speeches and activities throughout their term of service.
In July 2008, the Center joined with Montreal-based attorney Jeffrey Boro and Professor Ed Morgan of the University of Toronto's International Law and Counter-Terrorism Project to file a civil action by Canadian victims of Hizbollah. The law suit.[7] contends that since 2004, the Lebanese-Canadian Bank (LCB), formerly the Lebanese branch of the Royal Bank of Canada, permitted the Yousser Company for Finance and Investment and the and Martyrs Foundation, two Lebanese organizations recognized by the United States as active terrorist groups, to open and maintain accounts at the bank. The suit alleges that LCB allowed the two groups to freely transfer many millions of dollars of Hizbollah funds and to carry out millions of dollars in financial transactions, within and without Lebanon, by means of wire transfers, letters of credit, checks and credit cards provided by LCB. LCB, the suit charged, facilitated Hizbollah' s terrorist activities and is liable to the plaintiffs for the harm that has been inflicted upon them and their families in the rockets attacks launched by Hizbollah on civilians in Northern Israel in the year 2006. Darshan-Leitner claimed in filing the suit that LCB knew that both charities are part of Hizbollah's financial arm and that by providing them banking services they were really assisting the Iranian backed terrorists in Lebanon and their rocket attacks against civilians.
On July 14, 2008, Darshan-Leiter and Attorney Robert Tolchin of New York filed a civil action on behalf of victims of the Hizbollah against an American Bank. The action was filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan Representing 85 victims and their family members, the law suit[8] alleges that the American Express Bank, Ltd. and the Lebanese-Canadian Bank (LCB) unlawfully executed millions of dollars in wire transfers for Hizbollah between 2004 and 2006. The plaintiffs assert that Hizbollah used the funds transferred by AMEX Bank and LCB to prepare and carry out the rocket attacks which the terrorist organization rained on Israeli cities between July 12 and August 14, 2006.
The plaintiffs rested their claims in part on written findings issued by the New York State Banking Department in 2007, which determined that AMEX Bank had failed to establish adequate procedures to prevent terrorism financing as demanded by state and federal law. This is the first lawsuit brought by terror victims against an U.S. financial institution that serves as a correspondent for a bank in Lebanon. Darshan-Leitner told the Associated Press that "the idea of the lawsuit in part is to warn American correspondent banks that they will be held responsible for attacks by Hezbollah if they transfer money to them," Darshan-Leitner said. "We expect them to follow the law."
On August 21, 2008, over 100 victims of terrorist attacks carried out by the Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad ("PIJ") terror organizations in Israel filed a civil action in Los Angeles Superior Court against China's largest bank, the Bank of China Ltd. ("BOC"). The suit, Zahavi v. Bank of China, seeks both compensatory and punitive damages. The plaintiffs allege in their complaint that starting in 2003, BOC executed dozens of wire transfers for the Hamas and PIJ totaling several million dollars. In April 2005, Israeli counterterrorism officers met with officials from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and China's Central Bank regarding these Hamas and PIJ wire transfers. The Israelis demanded that the Chinese officials take action to prevent BOC from making any further such transfers. Despite the Israeli warnings, the BOC – with the Chinese government's approval – c ontinued to wire terrorist funds for the Hamas and PIJ. The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Federico C. Sayre of Los Angeles, Robert J. Tolchin of New York and Darshan-Leitner.
PRESS RELEASE
FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER NAMED IN CLASS ACTION SUIT FILED IN NEW YORK COURT ALLEGING DECEPTIONS AND FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATIONS IN BOOK ATTACKING ISRAEL
NEW YORK: An historic class action suit has been filed against former President Jimmy Carter and the Simon & Schuster publishing company alleging that Carter's book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, contained numerous false and knowingly misleading statements intended to promote the author's agenda of anti-Israel propaganda and to deceive the reading public instead of presenting accurate information as advertised. The suit, captioned Unterberg et al. v. Jimmy Carter et.al (11 cv 0720), filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
The plaintiffs, who hope to have the case certified as a class action, are members of the reading public who purchased Carter's book expecting that they were buying an accurate and factual record of historic events concerning Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. The lawsuit contends that Carter, who holds himself out as a Middle-East expert, and his publisher, intentionally presented untrue and inaccurate information and sought to capitalize on the author's status as a former President to mislead unsuspecting members of the public. The complaint alleges that the defendants' misrepresentations, all highly critical of Israel, violate New York consumer protection laws, specifically New York General Business Law § 349, which makes it unlawful to engage in deceptive acts in the course of conducting business. While acknowledging Carter's right to publish his personal view s, the plaintiffs assert that the defendants violated the law and, thus, harmed those who purchased the book.
The suit is the first time a former President and a publishing house have been sued for violating consumer protection laws by knowingly publishing inaccurate information while promoting a book as factual.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorney David Schoen, Esq. of Montgomery, Alabama and attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Esq. of Tel-Aviv, Israel.
The complaint notes that after the book's publication some of Carter's closest aides, including distinguished public officials and scholars personally involved in the events described, condemned the book as untruthful. Despite being presented with irrefutable proof that many of representations in the book are false, the defendants have refused to make any corrections.
Attorney Schoen stated that:
"It is, indeed, a sad day for all of us as Americans, when a former President demeans the dignity of his office by intentionally misstating critically important facts concerning events of great historic significance and public interest, simply to advance a personal anti-Israel animus and to foster the agenda of the enemies of Israel who pump so much money into the Center which bears his name."
Attorney Darshan-Leitner stated that:
"The lawsuit will expose all the falsehoods and misrepresentations in Carter's book and prove that his hatred of Israel has led him to commit this fraud on the public. He is entitled to his opinions but deceptions and lies have no place in works of history."
A copy of the complaint is available here: For more information please contact:
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner (516) 684-9983,
Email: nitsanad@zahav.net.il Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel www.dailyalert.org
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February 3, 2011 |
In-Depth Issues:
WikiLeaks: Al-Qaeda on the Verge of Producing Radioactive Weapons - Heidi Blake and Christopher Hope (Telegraph-UK)
Al-Qaeda is on the verge of producing radioactive weapons after sourcing nuclear material and recruiting rogue scientists to build "dirty" bombs, according to leaked diplomatic documents.
A leading atomic regulator has privately warned that the world stands on the brink of a "nuclear 9/11."
Security briefings suggest that jihadi groups are also close to producing "workable and efficient" biological and chemical weapons that could kill thousands if unleashed in attacks on the West.
At a NATO meeting in January 2009, security chiefs briefed member states that al-Qaeda was plotting a pro gram of "dirty radioactive IEDs," nuclear roadside bombs.
The briefings also state that al-Qaeda documents found in Afghanistan in 2007 revealed that "greater advances" had been made in bioterrorism than was previously realized.
ElBaradei Critiques the U.S., Yet Nurtures Ties - Steve Stecklow, David Crawford and Matt Bradley (Wall Street Journal)
Hitting the streets of Cairo with bullhorn in hand, Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei has been demanding the immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, denouncing the diplomacy of the Obama administration, and defending the Muslim Brotherhood.
See also Mohamed ElBaradei: On the Record (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
See also ElBaradei, an Improbable Revolutionar y - Colum Lynch and Janine Zacharia (Washington Post)
The New Arab World Order - Robert Kaplan (Foreign Policy)
The most telling aspect of the anti-regime demonstrations that have rocked the Arab world is what they are not about: They are not about the existential plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation; nor are they at least overtly anti-Western or even anti-American.
The demonstrators have directed their ire against unemployment, tyranny, and the general lack of dignity and justice in their own societies. This constitutes a sea change in modern Middle Eastern history.
Were demonstrations to spread in a big way to Jordan and Saudi Arabia, a catastrophe could be looming. Imagine all that weaponry the U.S. has sold the Saudis over the decades falling into the hands of Wahhabi radicals.
It's Never Been about Palestine - John Podhoretz (New York Post)
Recent events in the Middle East reveal a truth that can no longer be denied: Israel is a sideshow, not the root cause of the region's tempestuousness.
The problem for the overwhelming majority of countries in the Middle East has been an excess of stability - the result of sclerotic regimes of preposterously long duration.
Mubarak has been in power since 1981, as part of a movement in charge of Egypt for nearly 60 years. The al-Saud family has run Saudi Arabia since 1903; the al-Sabahs have been Kuwait's poohbahs since 1913. The Jordanian royal family has held sway for eight decades; the Assads, father and son, have bossed Syria since 1970.
There's little reason to feel optimistic that the new regimes will be friendlier toward Israel and good reason to fear their ideological predilections may pose a renewed threat.
|
| News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia: - Mubarak Supporters Strike Back - Will Englund and Leila Fadel
Whipped up by state television and spoiling for a fight, thousands of supporters of President Hosni Mubarak flooded into the center of Egypt's capital Wednesday, sparking violent clashes that shifted the momentum in the political confrontation. The president's supporters fueled the showdown with a charge by men riding camels and horses, wielding whips and clubs. Both sides then went at it with rocks, sticks and firebombs. Hospitals reported that three people had been killed and more than 600 injured in Wednesday's clashes.
The violence came after the army had urged pro-democracy demonstrators to go home, saying Mubarak's pledge the previous night to hand over power this fall showed that their voices had been h eard. Mubarak's opponents said Wednesday they would not back down from their quest to force him from office. But Mubarak loyalists seemed to be pushing back with new vigor. Omar Suleiman, the new vice president, said there would be no dialogue with the opposition until the protests stopped. (Washington Post)
See also Mubarak Still Has Support from Rich and Poor - Griff Witte
There are many in Egypt who are deeply invested in the current system and will fight to preserve it - businessmen with rich government contracts, civil servants, security officers, ruling-party activists and poor Egyptians who fear instability. The country may be rich with revolutionary fervor, but Wednesday's events proved that the guardians of the existing order still wield tremendous clout. Many poor Egyptians, who constitute the majority, say they cannot afford the unre st, and they blame the protesters for sparking it. (Washington Post) - U.S. Reexamining Its Relationship with Muslim Brotherhood - Craig Whitlock
As it braces for the likelihood of a new ruler in Egypt, the U.S. government is rapidly reassessing its tenuous relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, an opposition movement whose fundamentalist ideology has long been a source of distrust in Washington. It marked a change from previous days, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials expressed concern that the uprising in Egypt could shift power to an Islamist government much like the one in Iran, where ayatollah-led factions elbowed aside other groups to seize control of the country in 1979. (Washington Post)
See also A Diplomatic Scramble as an Ally Is Pushed to the Exit - Mark Landler, Helene Cooper and David D. Kirkpatrick
During a meeting with more than a dozen foreign policy experts in Washington on Monday, White House staff members "made clear that they did not rule out engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood as part of an orderly process," according to one attendee. The Muslim group had been suppressed by Mubarak, and Bush administration officials believed it was involved in terrorist activities. It renounced violence years ago. (New York Times) - Sudden Split Recasts U.S. Foreign Policy - Helene Cooper, Mark Landler and Mark Mazzetti
After days of delicate public and private diplomacy, the U.S. openly broke with its most stalwart ally in the Arab world on Wednesday, as the Obama administration strongly condemned violence by allies of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt against protesters and called on him to speed up his exit from power. Egypt's government hit back swiftly. The Foreign Ministry released a defiant statement saying the calls from "foreign parties" had been "rejected and aimed to incite the internal situation in Egypt."
Separately, in an interview, a senior Egyptian government official took aim at President Obama's call on Tuesday for a political transition to begin "now" - a call that infuriated Cairo. But the White H ouse was not backing down. "I want to be clear," said Robert Gibbs, the press secretary. "'Now' started yesterday." The open rupture between the U.S. and Egypt illustrates how swift and dramatic changes in Cairo are altering the calculus of the entire region and the administration's foreign policy agenda. (New York Times) - Key U.S. Military, Intelligence Assets Imperiled in Egypt - Rowan Scarborough
U.S. military and intelligence agencies would lose vital air, land and sea assets if Egypt falls into the hands of radical Islamists, as Iran did in 1979, foreign policy analysts say. The U.S. armed forces are entwined with Egypt's military more than with any other Arab country. The U.S. Navy would not be able to use the Egyptian-run Suez Canal. The waterway sharply reduces sailing time for Atlantic-based carriers and other warships going from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Air Force likely would lose overflight rights into the Middle East, and the Army would lose a partner in building the M1A1 tank. Egypt receives more t han $1 billion in U.S. military aid each year and uses it to buy tanks, F-16 fighters, Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons systems. A radicalized Egypt likely would stop hosting the scores of Egyptian officers who come to the U.S. to attend service schools such as the Army War College. The U.S. also has been working with Egyptian forces to stop the smuggling of arms to Hamas in Gaza.
A Cairo run by Islamists likely would end such operations and develop close ties with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that calls for the destruction of Israel. The CIA, too, would lose a valuable partner. It operates a robust station at the U.S. Embassy as well as classified bases. (Washington Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast: - Israel Seeks UN Condemnation of Attacks from Gaza - Jordana Horn
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Meron Reuben sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, president of the Security Council, on Tuesday to ask the Security Council, the secretary-general and the international community to "firmly condemn" continued terror attacks on Israel from Gaza. Three long-range rockets were launched from Gaza on Monday, and 15 rockets and 17 mortars have been launched into Israel in the past month.
"Many of these rockets have exploded in the heart of civilian population centers, including numerous attacks on the city of Ashkelon - which is home to more than 100,000 people - and an attack on 8 January 2011 on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which injured three agricultural workers," Re uben noted. "These attacks constitute a clear violation of international law and must be addressed with the utmost seriousness." "While Israel has taken a series of measures to improve life for the inhabitants of Gaza, terrorist organizations continue to operate in the area and attack Israeli civilians with impunity." (Jerusalem Post) - Vigilante Checkpoints Spread Throughout Cairo - Ben Hartman
On the way into Cairo from the airport, vigilante checkpoints ran about every 100 meters on the main roads and blocked every side street. The barriers varied from cinder blocks to park benches and scorched trash dumpsters. Other than the occasional firearm, the weapons deployed by the vigilantes included machetes, swords, bed posts, chains, and spiked blunt objects. The vigilantes began to take to the streets after the Egyptian police disappeared, which coincided with spontaneous jailbreaks in prisons across the country. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel): - In the Middle East, Militaries Remain the Ultimate Power Brokers - Daniel Pipes
Tunisia's experience bears close examination for a pattern that may be repeated elsewhere. The military leadership there apparently concluded that its strongman, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, had become too high-maintenance to maintain in power, so it ousted him. That done, nearly the entire remaining old guard remains in power, with the top military man, Chief of Staff Rachid Ammar, apparently having replaced Ben Ali as the country's power broker. The old guard hopes that tweaking the system, granting more civil and political rights, will suffice for it to hold on to power.
This scenario could be repeated elsewhere, especially in Egypt, where soldiers have dominated the government since 1952 and intend to ma intain their power against the Muslim Brotherhood they have suppressed since 1954. The writer is director of the Middle East Forum and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He lived in Egypt for three years. (Washington Times) - Iran Views the Egyptian Revolution as the Direct Continuation of Khomeini's Revolution - IDF Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall
Iran perceives the Egyptian revolution as the direct continuation of the Islamist revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini. In Tehran's view, the events in Egypt validate Iran's political doctrine, according to which "true Islam" is the only alternative to the decades-long American hegemony in the Middle East. Iran will exploit the current changes to advance its Islamic agenda in order to deepen Israel's isolation in the region and will try to bring about the termination of the peace treaties with Israel. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) - Wheat Prices and Egyptian Instability - Spengler
Egypt is the world's largest wheat importer, beholden to foreign providers for nearly half its total food consumption. Half of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day. Food comprises almost half the country's consumer price index, and much more than half of spending for the poorer half of the country. This will get worse, not better. 35% of all Egyptians, and 45% of Egyptian women, can't read. To expect Egypt to leap from the intimate violence of traditional society to the full rights of a modern democracy seems whimsical.
Asian demand has priced food staples out of the Arab budget. As prosperous Asians consume more protein, global demand for grain increases sharply. Asians are rich enough to pay a much higher price for food whenever prices spike due to t emporary supply disruptions. Egyptians, Jordanians, Tunisians and Yemenis are not. It turns out that China, not the U.S. or Israel, presents an existential threat to the Arab world, and through no fault of its own. (Asia Times-Hong Kong) Observations: - "All those who cherish human liberty, including the people of Israel, are inspired by genuine calls for reform and by the possibility that it will take place. It is obvious that an Egypt that fully embraces the 21st century and that adopts these reforms would be a source of great hope for the entire world....If we have learned anything from modern history, it is that the stronger the foundations of democracy, the stronger the foundations of peace."
- "Recent history shows us many cases in the Middle East when extreme Islamist elements abused the rules of the democratic game to gain power and impose anti-democratic regimes. It happened in Iran; it happened in Lebanon; and it happened when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip."
- "Preserving the existing peace is vital for us. We expect any government of Egypt to honor the peace. Moreover, we expect the international community to expect any government of Egypt to honor the peace."
- "I have said numerous times that we need real security arrangements, not only because they sustain peace, but also because they ensure our security in the event that peace unravels - and in the Middle East no one can guarantee the survival of any regime."
- "That was and is the central issue that I discussed with President Abbas in our short conversation. Short, not because we didn't want to talk...but because he did not want to....I hope that President Abbas will regard the changes taking place in the region as an opportunity to sit down with us and discuss peace without preconditions."
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I met Nitsana Darsha-Leitner in Toronto almost 10 years ago. She was just out of law school and had come to talk about her pioneering lawsuits on behalf of victims of terror. She just sent me a press release, which is below, announcing her latest lawsuit in which she is suing Jimmy Carter et al for violating NY commerece law by publishing lies. She has fashioned the suit as a class action on behalf of all those who bought the book and were thus harmed. This is no small matter.
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