BREAKING NEWS: U.S. PULLS OUT OF DURBAN II

Calls For U.S.-Led ‘Human Rights Coalition of the Willing’ to Convene Parallel Human Rights Conference!

The Simon Wiesenthal Center commends President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton for their decision not to attend the UN Durban II conference. Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, SWC dean and founder and associate dean, received confirmation during a conference call between senior White House and State Department officials and leaders of major Jewish groups.

“It’s a clear signal to the international community that this Administration refuses to validate the hijacking of human rights by regimes led by Libya and Iran,” the Rabbis said.

“To further isolate the haters, we call on the Administration to forge a ‘human rights coalition of the willing’ led by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and European Union in tandem with the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and convene a parallel conference on April 21st to openly grapple with racism and discrimination in all its manifestations,” Center officials added.

Wiesenthal Center officials served as spokesmen for Jewish participants at the 2001 Durban I ‘hate-fest’ that took place in Durban South Africa just days before 9/11.

SWC International Relations Director Dr. Shimon Samuels has also attended many Durban II prepcoms manipulated by Libya, Iran and other serial human rights abusers to single out Israel alone for criticism, nix any discussion of Islamist extremism and clear the way for Holocaust deniers to be heard.

POLL: PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY LEADS IN HATRED FOR USA!
by Maayana Miskin (Arutz Sheva News)

A poll released this week by the World Public Opinion polling group showed the Palestinian Authority leading several other Arab and Muslim countries in hatred for the United States, belief that the United States is battling Islam and support for attacks on American civilians.

The poll was conducted in 2007 and 2008 among residents of Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco and Pakistan, and in 2008 among residents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Jordan, Turkey and Palestinian Authority-controlled areas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Nigerian Muslims were polled as well.

The survey also showed a slight increase in support for terrorism and attacks on US civilians in countries where the poll was conducted in both 2007 and 2008. A total of 638 Palestinian Authority Arabs were questioned for the poll, and the margin of error regarding their responses was four percent.

Among the findings:

A full 88 percent of PA Arabs said spreading Christianity in the Middle East was “definitely” or “probably” one of the United States’ foreign policy goals, with PA residents the most likely to support this claim. Muslims in Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan were also likely to hold this belief, with between 70-80 percent of respondents in those countries answering that the spread of Christianity was “definitely” or “probably” a US goal.

Eighty-nine percent of PA respondents said the US was “definitely” or “probably” trying to control Middle East oil resources, a percent similar to that in other Muslim countries. Seventy percent said the US was “definitely” hoping to divide and weaken the Muslim world.

Over 50 percent said the US was “definitely” or “probably” interested in creating “an independent and economically viable” PA state. However, 90 percent said the US was also planning to expand Israel’s borders.

Forty-nine percent said the US “purposely tries to humiliate the Islamic world.”

When asked about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, 42 percent of PA respondents said they believed Al Qaeda or another Muslim terrorist group was behind the attacks, while 27 percent blamed the American government.

PA Arabs were the least likely to say they disapproved of all terrorist groups that attack Americans and were the most likely to express full or mixed approval for such groups. Fourteen percent of those PA Arabs surveyed fell into the former category, while 53 percent said they supported some terrorist groups that attack US citizens and 30 percent said they approve of “most or all” such groups.

Jordan was in second place in support of anti-US terror, with 20 percent of respondents saying they approve “most or all” groups that attack the US and 42 percent saying they approve of some such groups.

Sixty-seven percent of PA Arabs said they strongly approve of attacks on US troops in Iraq, and 23 percent said they somewhat approve. Only five percent reported that they “somewhat” or “strongly” disapprove. Sixty-one percent expressed strong support for attacks on US troops in the Persian Gulf; six percent disapproved.

While a much lower percentage expressed support for attacks on US civilians inside the United States, PA Muslims still led other respondents by a wide margin, with 10 percent expressing “strong approval” of such attacks, 14 percent “somewhat” approving, and 15 percent with mixed feelings.

HAMAS: WE’LL KEEP SMUGGLING ARMS!
by Hillel Fendel (Arutz Sheva News)

A top Hamas official has declared that his Palestinian terrorist group will continue to smuggle weapons into Gaza, despite international protests. “It’s our right to bring in everything – money and arms,” Mahmoud Zahar told Reuters. “We will not give anyone any commitment on this subject.” The promise to smuggle in war materiel comes as the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby group states that Iran is redoubling its efforts to smuggle advanced weaponry to Hamas terrorists.

In addition, not only is Hamas continuing to fire rockets at Israeli civilian areas – over 100 have slammed into Israel over the past several weeks – but Hamas also continues efforts to expand its military capabilities. The terrorist rulers of the Gaza Strip recently fired a rocket into the Mediterranean, measuring its distance as part of a military assessment of its weapons capabilities.

Gaza, ruled by Hamas since it overthrew Fatah in 2007, borders Israeli cities and areas such as Sderot, the Negev and the southern coastal plane.

WHERE DOES THE USA STAND?

The U.S. does not officially recognize Hamas, but has made some gestures towards Gaza. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will officially announce next week that the Obama administration intends to provide some $900 million to help rebuild the Gaza Strip. Clinton will be taking part in a donors’ conference in Cairo. The funds, which must first be approved by Congress, will not go directly to Hamas, but will rather be disbursed to non-governmental agencies and the United Nations.

Two U.S. Congressmen and a Senator have recently visited Gaza, with the former two taking an overtly anti-Israel tone. Rep. Brian Baird (D.-Wash) even said that Israel had “apparently willfully destroyed any capacity of the Palestinians to rebuild their own infrastructure.”

HAMAS PROVOCATIONS

Hamas has openly displayed its efforts to rebuild the arm-and-explosives smuggling tunnel network under the Gaza-Egypt border, even as it continues to use the tunnels that were not destroyed to bolster its arsenal.

In a Beirut rally on Jan. 25, Hamas Lebanese representative Osama Hamdan declared that Hamas will continue its violence. “It is our right to have weapons,” he said, “and we shall continue to enter arms into Gaza and the West Bank. Let no one think that we shall surrender.”

The Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terrorist organizations of Gaza do not even pretend to be beholden to a ceasefire. The former said, “The resistance will continue its battle as long as occupation forces are on the land of Gaza and as long as the siege and the blockade continue,” while a PRC spokesman said, “A unilateral cease-fire is nothing to do with us… and we will continue to bear arms.”

HUMANITARIAN AID PROVIDED BY ISRAEL

At the same time, since Israel’s anti-terrorism military operation in Gaza ended on Jan. 18, Israel has dramatically increased the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. There has been an average of more than 150 trucks a day, representing a five-fold increase from December and a six-fold increase from November. Since Jan. 18, 112,991 tons of food and medicine entered Gaza, as have over 10 million liters of fuel.

ISRAEL-TURKEY RELATIONS GO SOUTH AS PM COMPARES NETANYAHU WITH HAMAS!
(Israel Today News)

Tensions between Israel and Turkey escalated this week when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan compared incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the peace process to that of Hamas.

In an interview with London’s Guardian newspaper, Erdogan said that he cannot be expected to continue pushing Hamas to accept Israel’s existence when Netanyahu doesn’t accept the creation of a Palestinian state.

Said Erdogan: “Is Israel right now accepting Palestine? They are still not accepting them. But it is being expected of the Palestinian people to accept Israel. Now go and ask Mr. Netanyahu if he is accepting Palestine.”

Netanyahu has suggested that he will put the creation of a Palestinian Arab state on the back burner, since no leader has risen that is capable of or willing to fulfill commitments to Israel, and instead focus on bettering the lives of average Palestinians through economic growth.

Relations between Israel and Turkey, which were traditionally very strong, took a turn for the worse last month when Erdogan made himself the most outspoken international critic of Israel’s military offensive against the Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.

Erdogan even clashed personally with Israeli President Shimon Peres at a conference in Europe during the Gaza war.

In a sign that the friction is trickling down to the general public, Turkish television on Tuesday began airing a miniseries that focuses on Israel’s alleged role in spreading prostitution and drugs in Turkey.

EU WORRIED ABOUT NETANYAHU
by Maayana Miskin (Arutz Sheva News)

Several European Union officials expressed apprehension on Monday as Likud Chairman Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu worked to form a coalition. Netanyahu could be less likely than his predecessor, Kadima head Ehud Olmert, to reach a deal including the creation of a Palestinian Authority state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, they said. “We could have a rough start,” warned Czech Vice-Premier Alexandr Vondra, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. “We need to move forward on the Israel- peace process,” he added.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bilt accused Netanyahu of undermining negotiations already, saying Netanyahu’s conditions for those seeking to join his coalition “are clearly incompatible with existing commitments of the peace process.” “It is very important to send a strong signal that this is not going to be acceptable,” Bilt added, in a warning to EU leaders.

Other EU leaders urged patience, saying the EU should wait and see what Netanyahu did before criticizing. “Let’s wait until we have a result… We are ready to cooperate with a government elected by the people,” said EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana. Solana joined his colleagues in pushing for progress in Israel’s negotiations with the PA, saying, “the time for concentrating only on crisis management is over.. we have to do the conflict resolution as soon as possible.”

The outgoing Kadima-led government held negotiations with the PA for more than a year, beginning in late 2007. The content of the talks was secret.

Netanyahu has attempted to convince Kadima’s new head, Tzipi Livni, to join him in forming a centrist unity government, but Livni has rejected his offers, as has Labor head Ehud Barak. Netanyahu still has the option of creating a strongly right-wing government in cooperation with religious and nationalist parties.

US PLANS TO GIVE $900 MILLION TO GAZA!
(Haaretz News)
By Reuters

Preliminary estimates put the damage in Hamas-run Gaza after Israel’s offensive at nearly $2 billion.

Secretary of State Clinton’s bid to get the $900 million could face an uphill battle in Congress where requests for Gaza will likely meet resistance as Hamas continues to rule there and the U.S. focus is on its own souring economy.

In December, the former Bush administration said it would give $85 million to the United Nations agency giving aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Hamas is labeled a terrorist group by the United States and money must be channeled through UN bodies or the Palestinian Authority run by President Mahmoud Abbas.

The United States wants Abbas’ PA to play a central role in the reconstruction effort in Gaza, hoping this will increase its influence in the Hamas stronghold. Washington is also putting pressure on other donors to bolster the Palestinian Authority. Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza in a bloody 2007 coup.

“We call on donor countries to focus their pledges to meet the Palestinian Authority’s priorities, including budget support, and on projects that can be funded through the Palestinian Authority and other existing, trusted mechanisms,” said the State Department official.

The quartet of Middle East mediators – the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations – are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Egyptian conference where they will work on strategy on Gaza, U.S. officials said.

“We will also emphasize the importance of laying the conditions for successful negotiations toward the two-state solution and an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict,” the State Department official said of discussions in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Egypt will be Clinton’s first stop on a trip expected to include Israel and the occupied West Bank – a public demonstration of the Obama administration’s promise to make Arab-Israeli peacemaking a foreign policy priority.

The State Department has not formally announced her other stops in the region but Israeli officials said Clinton was expected there after the Egyptian conference.

Clinton’s special envoy to the region, George Mitchell, is set to visit there this week in a bid to revive stalled Palestinian statehood talks complicated both by Hamas and political uncertainty in last week’s general election.

On Sunday, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to work with U.S. President Barack Obama for Middle East peace by pursuing the formation of a broad coalition government.

“I intend and expect to cooperate with the Obama administration and to try to advance the common goals of peace, security and prosperity for us and our neighbors,” the U.S.-educated Netanyahu told reporters.

Following a February 10 election, Netanyahu already has the backing of 65 rightist members of the 120-seat parliament, but a narrow government could put him on a collision course with Obama and his promise to move quickly on a Palestinian statehood deal.

KERRY MEETS WITH BASHAR ASSAD!
by Avraham Zuroff (Arutz Sheva News)

In another possible sign of a changing U.S. foreign policy, Senate Foreign Relations Committee head Senator John Kerry met Saturday with Syrian President Bashar Assad. “I believe very deeply that this is an important moment of change, a moment of potential transformation, not just in the relationship between the United States and Syria but in the relationship of the region,” Kerry said after the meeting.

Senator Kerry announced that Syria has expressed its interest in helping create a Palestinian Authority unity government. “If you achieve that, then you have made a major step forward not only in dealing with the problems of Gaza, but you have made a major step forward in terms of how you reignite discussions for the two-state solution,” Kerry stated after his meeting with Assad.

The U.S. still officially considers Syria as a major funder of terrorism organizations. Nevertheless, U.S. President Barack Obama has said that he is seeking to engage countries like Syria and Iran in dialogue. However, Damascus remains close to Iran, and is still a staunch supporter of Hizbullah – two things that would have to change significantly before there could be warm relations between the U.S. and Syria, diplomats said.

The U.S. State Department announced Friday that it had scheduled a meeting with Syria’s Ambassador to Washington to iron out differences between the U.S. and Syria in the first such meeting in several months. “Our concerns include Syria’s support to terrorist groups and networks, Syria’s pursuit of nuclear and unconventional weaponry, interference in Lebanon and a worsening human rights situation,” State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid stated.

Kerry Maintains Hard Line Against Hamas

Hamas, which maintains ties with Syria, denied on Friday having passed on a letter to John Kerry for President Barack Obama. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told the French AFP news agency, “Hamas denies having given a letter to John Kerry. However, we are willing to forge ties with anyone who is ready to back the rights of the Palestinian people.”

However, Jerusalem-based United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Christopher Gunness earlier stated that Kerry was given a letter believed to be from Hamas.

On Kerry’s tour of Gaza, he reiterated that he supported Israel’s right to defend itself, and that his visit did not indicate a shift in the U.S. policy, which maintains Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

Kerry co-sponsored in the Senate the Syria Accountability Act, which grants the U.S. president the authority to sanction Syria, a concrete step against Syria’s support for terror and its occupation of Lebanon. The act became law in December 2003.

OBAMA APPOINTS ANTI-ISRAEL AIDE!
by David Lev (Arutz Sheva News)

A flurry of reports over the weekend said that the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, considered a sharp critic of Israel, is to be named to a top intelligence post in the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Chas W. Freeman Jr., who was U.S. ambassador in Riyadh from 1989-1992, is set to be named chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which has a strong influence on the content of the intelligence briefings presented to the President (and puts together the National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE, which in 2007 dissuaded the Bush regime from attacking Iran). The Council chairman is also often called on to give direct briefings to the President.

Typical of Freeman’s viewpoints is a statement he made in a speech before the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs in 2007, in which he more or less blames international terrorist acts on Israel: “American identification with Israeli policy has also become total. Those in the region and beyond it who detest Israeli behavior, which is to say almost everyone, now naturally extend their loathing to Americans. This has had the effect of universalizing anti-Americanism, legitimizing radical Islamism, and gaining Iran a foothold among Sunni as well as Shiite Arabs. For its part, Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them. Palestinian retaliation against this policy is as likely to be directed against Israel’s American backers as against Israel itself. Under the circumstances, such retaliation – whatever form it takes – will have the support or at least the sympathy of most people in the region and many outside it. This makes the long-term escalation of terrorism against the United States a certainty, not a matter of conjecture.”

Freeman also is a strong advocate of talking to Hamas, which he says “is the only democratically-elected government in the Arab world.” In his speech, Freeman said that “Hamas is showing that if we offer it nothing but unreasoning hostility and condemnation, it will only stiffen its position and seek allies among our enemies. In both cases, we forfeit our influence for no gain.”

Freeman says that Israel must be pressured to accept the American point of view, which does not coincide with its own. “We must talk with all parties, whatever we think of them or their means of struggle. Refusal to reason with those whose actions threaten injury to oneself, one’s friends, and one’s interests is foolish, feckless, and self-defeating. That is why it is past time for an active and honest discussion with both Israel and the government Palestinians have elected, which – in an irony that escapes few abroad – is the only democratically-elected government in the Arab world.”

In another speech Freeman said: “We destroyed the Iraqi state and catalyzed anarchy, sectarian violence, terrorism, and civil war in that country… Meanwhile, we embraced Israel’s enemies as our own; they responded by equating Americans with Israelis as their enemies. We abandoned the role of Middle East peacemaker to back Israel’s efforts to pacify its captive and increasingly ghettoized Arab populations. We wring our hands while sitting on them as the Jewish state continues to seize ever more Arab land for its colonists. This has convinced most Palestinians that Israel cannot be appeased and is persuading increasing numbers of them that a two-state solution is infeasible. It threatens Israelis with an unwelcome choice between a democratic society and a Jewish identity for their state. Now the United States has brought the Palestinian experience – of humiliation, dislocation, and death – to millions more in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel and the United States each have our reasons for what we are doing, but no amount of public diplomacy can persuade the victims of our policies that their suffering is justified, or spin away their anger, or assuage their desire for reprisal and revenge.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: We strongly oppose this appointment and want all of our readers to know that this new “aide” is, in fact, dominated by the continual lies of Islam toward Israel – he definitely does NOT believe in the Bible or God’s everlasting covenant with the Nation of Israel!)