US STATE DEPARTMENT: BOTH ISRAEL AND PA MUST HONOR ROADMAP!
by Avraham Zuroff (Israel National News)

The U.S. State Department may have toned down its demand on Israel to freeze construction within Judea and Samaria. In a press briefing Monday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly reiterated that the obligations signed by Israel under the Roadmap require Israel to freeze all construction within Judea and Samaria, including “natural growth.” Nevertheless, Kelly hinted that the U.S. is open to “negotiations.”

The official stated that both Israel and PA Arabs must honor their commitment to the Roadmap plan towards peace. “For the Palestinians, it means ending incitements to violence against Israel and demonstrating an ability to provide security. For Israel, it means: stop the settlements, which is laid out very specifically in the Roadmap. A freeze on all activity relating to settlements, including natural growth, is what it says in the Roadmap,” Kelly said.

Nevertheless, the spokesman hinted that a compromised agreement would be acceptable. “Well, inherent in the word ‘negotiation’ is, of course, sitting down and finding what one side – what the other side wants and then working out a way to come to a resolution that leads to our goal of a lasting peace in the Middle East,” Kelly said. “I’m not going to say we’re not willing to compromise or – I mean, let’s just see what happens,” the State Department official added, referring to Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s intended meeting Tuesday with U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell.

Barak plans to inform Mitchell during their meeting of a three-month freeze on new construction within Judea and Samaria. Barak’s meeting in New York comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cancelled his meeting last week with Mitchell in Paris.

Although the United Nations has not softened its tone towards Israel, the Obama administration has nonetheless pledged to support Israel in the international forum, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador stated Monday.

Gabriela Shalev’s statement came while a U.N. commission of inquiry has heard testimony from Gaza residents regarding Israel’s Cast Lead Operation.

Michele Montas, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told the press Monday that Ban has “repeatedly made it clear that there must be a full freeze on settlement building, including from natural growth.”

IAEA: IRAN TRYING FOR NUCLEAR BOMB
by Hana Levi Julian

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency took off the gloves this week and bluntly said it was his “gut feeling” that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon. The agency, which has spent years trying to conduct inspections at nuclear installations in the country, has been reticent to make a concrete statement about what Iran intends to do with the nuclear technology it has continued to pursue despite U.N. sanctions leveled against it.

Mohamed El Baradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency said in an interview with the British Broadcasting System (BBC) this week, “It is my gut feeling that Iran would like to have the technology to enable it to have nuclear weapons. They want to send a message to their neighbors, to the rest of the world, ‘Don’t mess with us,'” he said.

The “ultimate aim,” he added, was to be “recognized as a major power in the Middle East” and “the road to get that recognition, to get that power and prestige,” was through development of the country’s nuclear power. “It is also an insurance policy against what they have heard in the past about regime change,” he added.

Regime change is a major concern in Iran at the moment: incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to hold on to his position by stifling an insistent roar of protests by activists who say he stole last Friday’s presidential election.

The country’s Interior Ministry said that Ahmadinejad had won the race in a landslide victory announced in a hasty announcement made barely two hours after the polls had closed. When the votes were supposedly counted, the numbers were suspiciously lopsided even in the hometown of relatively moderate challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has since called for the election to be annulled and held a second time.

Hundreds of thousands of Mousavi supporters have continued to show up for massive protests in cities across Iran despite a violent crackdown on dissidents by Basij militia forces loyal to Ahmadinejad.

Dozens of protesters have been beaten and at least 12 have been shot and killed, according to media reports. Local sources said the numbers were far higher. A massive demonstration was called for Thursday afternoon in the capital, and Mousavi was to address the hundreds of thousands who were expected to attend. The challenger urged his supporters to wear black as a sign of mourning for the rigged elections and in honor of the memory of those who had been slain by government militia forces during demonstrations in the past week.

Presidential Change Won’t Bring Policy Change

Political analysts, as well as politicians outside the country, believe it is unlikely Iran’s nuclear policy will change, regardless of whether it is Ahmadinejad or Mousavi who ends up as president.

U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters Wednesday that he believes there is little difference between the two, but added that in any case, it didn’t really matter.

“It’s important to understand that although there is amazing ferment taking place in Iran, the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised,” he said.

Obama added that “either way we are going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that has historically been hostile to the United States, that has caused some problems in the neighborhood and has been pursuing nuclear weapons.”

Supreme Leader Controls Nukes, Not President

Israeli researcher Brandon Friedman disagreed with Obama that there was little difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi. “In the mind of U.S. policy makers that may be the case,” said Friedman, a doctoral candidate at Tel Aviv University’s Center for Iranian Studies, “but in the minds of the large portion of the Iranian public that is clearly not the case.”

The researcher, who spoke in an interview with Israel National News, added that Obama’s remarks suggested that the U.S. has “some sort of strategy in place and they intend to pursue it regardless of who the president is.” He added that ultimately, the election of Iran’s president was not relevant to the issue of the nuclear threat to Israel.

The question of which man is more dangerous to the State of Israel, Friedman said, “presumes that they are both dangerous. I am not willing to get on board with the underlying assumption here,” he said, adding, “Iranian foreign policy is under the control of Khameni. The question Israel should be asking is, what is the danger level of the office of the Supreme Leader with respect to Israel, as opposed to the presidency. I think foreign affairs begin and end with the Supreme Leader, so that’s the question we should be asking ourselves.”

The primary difference for Israel, as well as the rest of the world, he said, “has to do with perception and the face that Iran will be presenting to the world. Clearly Israel has a good idea what sort of face Ahmadinejad presents to the world. With Mousavi it is harder to know what sort of face he would have presented if he had won.”

‘Elections Reversal Unlikely’

Friedman agreed with an assessment by Israeli international Mossad intelligence agency head Meir Dagan that the unrest was likely to end shortly, but said that he, too, had been taken aback at the upheaval in Iran.

“I have certainly been surprised at the intensity and duration of the disturbances,” he acknowledged. “I think it is unlikely that there will be a reversal of the election but if the protest continue in real substance, it will force the regime to respond in one way or another.”

An allegation by an Iranian government prosecutor that the dissidents were being led or influenced by “outside forces” was scornfully dismissed. “That is a typical Islamic regime response to anything from a small crisis to a major crisis; everything is always blamed on outsiders. Cultural, social, military crises… they are almost always attributed to outside forces,” Friedman said.

“What we are seeing from Ahmadinejad right now is an attempt to conduct his business as usual. Will they go back to the polls? I personally think it’s unlikely. The regime is hoping that conciliating the candidates in some way might help. Behaving as if its business is as usual might help. Cracking down on dissidents might help. It’s uncharted territory at this point. Your guess is as good as mine.”

CARTER WANTS OBAMA TO REMOVE HAMAS FROM TERROR LIST
by Zalman Nelson

The Obama Administration should remove Hamas from the terrorist list, former President Jimmy Carter told media following his visit to Gaza today. He said he plans on pushing for the change when he meets with U.S. officials on Thursday to discuss his latest trip to the Middle East.

Carter’s comments came during a joint press conference with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh following their meeting today in Gaza. The former president said he tried to convince Hamas leaders to denounce violence, accept the existing interim agreements and recognize the right of the Jewish state to exist.

“Hamas leaders want peace and they want to have reconciliation not only with their Fatah brothers but also eventually with Israelis to live side by side, with two nations, both sovereign nations recognized by each other and living in peace,” Carter said.

Haniyeh told Carter that he supported any plan that aims at preserving Arab rights and leads to the establishment of a sovereign Arab state on all the territories that were occupied by Israel in 1967 “with Jerusalem as its capital.” He urged Carter to pressure Israel to lift the security blockade which was imposed on Gaza’s border crossings to prevent weapons smuggling.

During his visit Carter handed over a letter from kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s parents and asked the group to deliver it on humanitarian grounds. He shared his version of a prisoner swap proposal which included releasing PA women, children, and parliament members he claimed were being held by Israel.

Haniyeh said Hamas desired to end the Shalit case and welcomed Carter’s mediation efforts.

Asked about his feeling after touring Gaza, Carter said, “My feeling is a feeling of sadness, anger and despair after seeing all this destruction that was caused to innocent people.” He said that he would send President Obama a report explaining in details the situation in Gaza.

Carter said he felt personally responsible that American weapons were used during Israel’s offensive in Gaza in January to stop terrorists from launching rockets against Israeli civilians in the south. “I know that the Israeli destruction of houses, infrastructure, and factories in Gaza was carried out by American weapons. I hope that this won’t be repeated again,” he said.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SENT MESSAGE TO HAMAS!
Official with terror group says Carter ‘right person’ to serve as middle man!
By Aaron Klein (World Net Daily)

Former President Jimmy Carter passed a message to Hamas from the Obama administration, according to senior sources in the Islamist group. The sources did not disclose the content of the purported message or whether the communication was written or oral. They spoke on condition of anonymity, because they said Hamas had not yet reached a decision on officially releasing the information they were divulging.

Separately, in an interview with WND today, Ahmed Yousef, Hamas’ chief political adviser in Gaza, refused to confirm or deny that any message was passed to his group from the White House. Youssef said, however, Carter is the “right person” to serve as a middle man between Hamas and the Obama administration. “If we have anything to communicate, Carter will be the right person to convey messages from the movement (Hamas) to this (Obama) administration or from the administration to the movement,” said Yousef, speaking from Gaza.

Yousef told WND he spent three hours with Carter, holding private meetings and also showing the former president areas of Gaza that were damaged during Israel’s 22-day campaign against Hamas that ended in January.
“He promised he will write a report to explain what really is happening in Gaza,” said Yousef.

Separately, Mushir al-Masri, a member of Hamas’ parliament and a spokesman for the Islamist group, said in a joint interview with WND and Israel’s Ynetnews.com, “We know Carter is not acting alone. He is acting as part of the large American system.”

Masri refused to confirm or deny whether Carter passed any message to his group from Obama. Still, he claimed Hamas has “excellent relations with elements in the circle of the decision making in the U.S. administration.”
“We are appreciating the change in the attitude in the U.S. toward Hamas,” he said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a WND request for comment on the report of the Obama administration passing a message to Hamas.

Both Masri and Hamas’ political adviser Yousef strongly denied an earlier report in an Israeli media outlet claiming an assassination plot against Carter was foiled at the entrance to the Gaza Strip. The report claimed there is some suspicion extremists in Gaza linked to al-Qaida were behind the attempt. “This report is nonsense,” said Yousef. “Nobody in Gaza will touch this man. He is on a noble mission. Everyone here respects him.” Yousef continued that if extremists indeed tried to disturb Carter’s visit then Hamas’ so-called security forces “are fully capable of dealing with such a threat.”

Meanwhile, FoxNews.com reported it learned Carter intends to ask the U.S. to remove Hamas from its official list of terrorist organizations. Yousef responded to the online report telling WND he is not aware Carter will specifically make such a request. He said, however, Carter communicated to Hamas that “one way or another” the Islamist group must do its best to meet the three conditions previously set out by the U.S. for the opening of dialogue. Those conditions, expressed twice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are Hamas’ renouncement of violence, recognition of Israel, and agreement to abide by previous PLO commitments.

Yousef said Carter told his group “he will do his best to help to be sure Hamas will meet those conditions one way or another.”

“We have reservations about recognizing Israel,” Yousef said.

Hamas’ charter calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. The group is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and rocket attacks against Israeli civilian population centers.

MUBARAK JOINS ARAB WAR OF WORDS ON NETANYAHU, WARNS OF VIOLENCE
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has charged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with “complicating the situation further” and throwing obstacles in the way of establishing a Palestinian Authority state. Mubarak criticized Netanyahu in interviews with Arab media following Netanyahu’s policy speech at Bar Ilan University on Sunday night.

He flatly stated that Egypt will not support the Israeli position, which repeats the policy of previous governments in rejecting the demand of the 2002 Saudi Arabian Peace Plan for the immigration into Israel of five million Arabs claiming Israeli ancestry.

Mubarak dropped a sharp hint that violence will follow if Israel does not accept the Saudi plan. “The Middle East will be a scene of unrest if there is no comprehensive peace,” he said.

“The solution to the major problems of the Arab and Islamic worlds is through Jerusalem,” he added, referring to the Arab world’s demand that Israel surrender sovereignty over all of eastern Jerusalem, including several neighborhoods in the capital where more than 250,000 Jews live.

The entire Arab world has lambasted the Prime Minister, who until Sunday night had resisted American pressure to accept the creation of a new Arab state on the land of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Most of the conditions he stated are already incorporated in the American Roadmap plan or have been stated by previous governments. Critics, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, accused the Prime Minister of adding new terms.

Hamas called the speech “racist” for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish State.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called on the major powers throughout the world to isolate the Prime Minister. “They must isolate and confront this policy which Netanyahu is adopting and exert pressure on him so that he adheres to international legitimacy and the Roadmap,” he said.

The wall-to-wall Arab opposition throws the ball into the court of the Western world and places U.S. President Barack Obama into a tight spot. Both the U.S. and the European Union praised the speech as a move in the right direction, but Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear that his conditions are red lines that cannot be crossed.

His speech marked a sharp turnaround from statements by previous governments, which generally have agreed to most concessions under pressure by the American government. The PA has been used to Israel’s concessions and therefore could not accept the change in tone by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli National Security Adviser Uzi Arad told Voice of Israel government radio.

“They noticed that previous Israeli governments didn’t make any demands or conditions and they had hoped to slowly get more and more concessions from Israel,” said Arad. “However, they found out that this government will stand its ground and defend Israeli vital interests.”

One of the few, if not the only, Arab voice expressing optimism was the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American advocacy group in the U.S. “If Netanyahu follows up on something positive, that would be significant,” said ADC president Mary Rose Oakar. “But actions speak louder than words.”

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: ISRAEL IS A JEWISH STATE!
by Hana Levi Julian

An exchange between the State Department spokesman Ian Kelly and a journalist during a briefing on Monday briefing clarified U.S. President Barack Obama’s stand on Israel’s status as a Jewish State but it is not clear whether Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supports the idea.

The transcript of the exchange between the spokesman and the journalist follows:

QUESTION: Does the Obama Administration endorse Netanyahu’s view that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state?

MR. KELLY: I know you’re focusing on the adjective there. We do think that, yes, the Palestinians need to recognize the right of Israel to exist, and I’ll just leave it at that.

QUESTION: But hold on a second. Do you – is the position of the Obama Administration that Israel should be defined as a Jewish state?

MR. KELLY: I’m going to let the President’s words stand. You know that yesterday he said that he was committed to the Jewish state of Israel. Senator George Mitchell said it. And I’ll just let it stand at that.

In September 2007, then U.S. Senator (NY-D) Hillary Clinton wrote in a position paper that “Israel’s right to exist in safety as a Jewish state, with defensible borders and an undivided Jerusalem as its capital, must never be questioned.”

Since becoming Secretary of State, however, Clinton has studiously avoided using any phrase that might legitimize the status of Israel as a Jewish State.

Obama did not choose to make a point of debating the issue of natural growth in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria following Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s recent speech, and it remains to be seen how U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell will follow up on the matter when he arrives in Jerusalem.

On June 4, Obama stated in his address to the Muslim world in Cairo, “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements… it is time for these settlements to stop.”

Hillary Clinton also has made her position on natural growth abundantly clear, in a way that indicates a complete turnaround from the stance she took in 2004 as the junior senator representing the State of New York, with its millions-strong Jewish population. At that time, then-Senator Clinton had voted for a Senate resolution that endorsed the letter written by then-President George W. Bush to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which Bush said he would back Israel’s retaining major Jewish population centers in Judea and Samaria in any final status agreement.

Last month, however, the State Department spokesman spent days dodging reporters’ questions on whether in fact the Clinton, and by extension, the Obama administration, would recognize the letter written to Sharon by then-President Bush.

When at last the issue could not longer be avoided, Clinton herself responded during a joint May 27 news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. “There is no memorialization of any informal and oral agreements. If they did occur, which, of course, people say they did, they did not become part of the official position of the United States Government,” she said. “And there are contrary documents that suggest that they were not to be viewed as in any way contradicting the obligations that Israel undertook pursuant to the Roadmap. And those obligations are very clear.”

Clinton added that the United States does not recognize the legitimacy of any Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, regardless of status. “The president was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions,” Clinton said. She dined with Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas that night.

OBAMA PRAISES NETANYAHU’S SPEECH!
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

U.S. President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s call for a Palestinian Authority state “an important step forward” despite across-the-board condemnation from the Arab world.

The speech was crafted for the ears of the president, whose press secretary Robert Gibbs stated, “The president is committed to two states, a Jewish state of Israel and an independent Palestine, in the historic homeland of both peoples. He believes this solution can and must ensure both Israel’s security and the fulfillment of the Palestinians’ legitimate aspirations for a viable state, and he welcomes Prime Minister Netanyahu’s endorsement of that goal.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu referred to the concept of the rights of “two peoples” and used the phrase ”Palestinian state” sparingly. Many of the conditions for a PA state are contained in the American Roadmap plan and some of them contradicted several points that President Obama raised in his speech at Cairo University nearly two weeks ago.

The most issues of conflict were the status of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and the status of Jerusalem, which the prime minister referred to as the “united capital” of Israel.

The speech at Bar-Ilan University called for continued Jewish building in existing Jewish communities until an agreement is reached, while the president called all Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria “illegitimate.” The Prime Minister called residents “our brothers and sisters” who are not “the enemies of peace.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu also insisted that a PA state, if established, be de-militarized, as stated in the Roadmap. He stressed that the PA has been the main obstacle to an agreement with Israel, pointing out that its behavior is a continuation of the Arab refusal to accept the recognition of Israel by the United Nations in 1947.

“The closer we get to an agreement with them, the further they retreat and raise demands that are inconsistent with a true desire to end the conflict,” he said.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, said the speech was empty of any content and pointless, and he called the Prime Minister “a swindler, a fraud and a liar who makes up tricks about achievement of this peace.”

NETANYAHU ADVOCATES “PALESTINIAN STATE”‘ PLUS CONDITIONS!
by Gil Ronen

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu uttered the words “Palestinian state” in his speech Sunday evening, in a 45-minute speech that mixed tough Zionist statements with talk of peace and conciliation.

“I turn to you, our Palestinian neighbors,” he said, “let us start negotiations for peace immediately. I say to you – we want to live with you in peace and good neighborly relations. I want our children to dream of a better future and realize it. That we will put our energy into plowshares and pruning shears, not swords… I do not want war. No one in Israel wants war. Let us join hands and work at peace. There is no end to the flourishing growth we can bring to our two nations.

“The simple truth,” he said, however, “is that the root of the conflict is the refusal to accept the Jewish people’s right to exist in its historic homeland. Whoever thinks that the enmity against Israel is the result of our occupying Judea and Samaria, is confusing cause and effect.” He then enumerated instances of Arab belligerence against the Jews in the Land of Israel before 1967.

“The closer we come to a peace the more the Palestinians move away,” he said. “Every retreat by us was met with thousands of suicide terror bombings and rockets.”

“We vacated the Gaza Strip to the last centimeter and received a downpour of missiles on our communities and our children. Hamas and Hizbullah keep saying that their aim is to free Akko, Be’er Sheva and Haifa. Even the moderate Palestinians, even now, are unwilling to say the simplest thing: Israel is the State of the Jewish People and it will stay that way.”

He added: “In order to achieve peace one needs courage and honesty on both sides – not just the Israeli side. The Palestinian leadership must recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people.”

“The demand to settle Palestinian refugees inside Israel is incompatible with the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish State,” he said. “It is possible to solve this problem outside the borders of Israel. There is wide national agreement about this among us.”

“Judea and Samaria are not a foreign country for us. This is the land of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The sovereignty of the Jewish people in our Land does not come from the suffering we have been through. Some say if it weren’t for the Holocaust there would be no State if Israel. But I say that if Israel had been established in time there would have been no Holocaust,” Netanyahu said.

“Our right to establish our country here stems from one fact: IsraeI is the homeland of the Jewish people and it is here that our identity was forged.”

It was only at this point in his speech that Netanyahu reached the words “Palestinian state.”

“In our vision we see two states side by side, each with its own flag and anthem. We do not want Kassams on Petach Tikva or Grads on Tel Aviv. We want peace. We must make sure that the Palestinians cannot create an army. We cannot be expected to agree to a Palestinian state without receiving guarantees that it will be demilitarized. We ask the international community for an express commitment that the Palestinian state will be demilitarized with effective measures – not like the ones in Gaza.”

He added that the future Palestinian state must not have its own closed airspace and must not be able to sign military treaties with Israel’s enemies.

“If we achieve these guarantees we will accept as part of a true peace treaty a demilitarized Palestinian state beside a Jewish state,” he vowed.

Jerusalem, he said, will remain the unified Jewish capital, with freedom for all religions. As for Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu explained: “We do not intend to build new communities or expropriate land. But fathers and mothers in Judea and Samaria must be able to let their children live beside them. The settlers are not enemies of the people, they are a pioneering, Zionist, values-oriented public.”

“Arabs must choose between the way of peace and the way of Hamas,” he declared. “The Palestinian Authority must create law and order in the Gaza Strip and demilitarize Hamas. Israel will not negotiate with terrorists who wish to annihilate us. Hamas will not even let Red Cross representatives visit a soldier who is being held captive in Gaza – Gilad Shalit.”

GUSH ETZION RESIDENTS: KEEP CARTER OUT OF OUR TOWNS!
by David Lev

Three days after declaring that “Mideast peace is impossible without Hamas,” and a day after receiving one of the highest awards bestowed by the Palestinian Authority, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is set to visit Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion – and residents say they are very unhappy with the visit, to say the least.

In a letter, a grassroots residents’ committee urged residents to contact Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Shaul Goldstein, whose home Carter is supposed to visit, and express their disapproval of the meeting. Several petitions are being circulated condemning the visit.

The committee’s letter said that the former U.S. president, known for his hostitlity towards Israel, was trying to put on a guise of “even-handedness” in visiting a town in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), but “Carter is unfair and is far from being objective.”

“Carter has always, and will always, speak up and defend those who wish to destroy the State of Israel. He pushes an anti-Israel agenda, while presenting himself as a good-willed broker who seeks peace and is ready to listen to ‘both sides.’ This makes him all the more dangerous,” the letter added.

American Jews are less naïve about Carter, the committee’s letter says. Quoting several articles by prominent American attorney Alan Dershowitz on the subject of Carter, the letter lists the former president’s numerous anti-Israel writings and stances:

– Carter’s Atlanta-based research center is funded by Arab and anti-Semitic elements. The center has received a one million dollar donation from the Bin Laden family, among others.

– While Carter professes to be an advocate for human rights, he is in truth an advocate only for Arab rights, ignoring the real suffering of hundreds of millions in China, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran.

– In his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” Carter makes numerous slanderous statements against Jews, and mangles the history of the land of Israel, claiming erroneously that Christians and Arabs have inhabited the land since Roman times. Meanwhile, he completely ignores the continuous Jewish residency in the land for the past 2,000 years.

– His book also blames Israel for the mideast conflict, ignoring the fact that Israel proposed and agreed to many diplomatic compromises in an attempt to forge a peace treaty. In response to criticism of his book, Carter responded with the charge that “any voice that does not agree with Israel is immediately forced to shut up.”

The letter says that Carter long ago crossed the line, and that “he is a clear supporter of our enemies. Now he is attempting to present himself as an ‘honest broker.’ We cannot allow ourselves to be the instruments of his rehabilitation. We must tell him: ‘You are working against the Jewish nation in its land, and you cannot be an honest broker.’”

Receiving the Palestinian Authority’s International Award for Excellence and Creativity, Carter said in Ramallah that he has “been in love with the Palestinian people for many years. I have two great-grandsons that are rapidly learning about the people here and the anguish and suffering and deprivation of human rights that you have experienced ever since 1948,” he said. Adding that he supported fully President Barack Obama’s call for a freeze in construction in communities in Judea and Samaria, Carter said that “in the future, I am sure, he will call for the dismantling of the settlements that exist.”

VIOLENCE FOLLOWS AHMADINEJAD “VICTORY” IN IRAN
by Hana Levi Julian

Thousands of Iranians clashed Saturday with government forces in the streets of Tehran following the announcement of Friday’s election victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad allegedly won in a relative landslide against moderate challenger and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, 62.6 percent of the vote against 33.7 percent. Two other candidates pulled in very little support. A record 85 percent of 46.2 million eligible voters turned out for the vote.

Crowds chanted “What happened to our vote?” and “The government lied to the people,” calling attention to allegations of vote-rigging and other elections violations, leveled by Mousavi against Ahmadinejad. Ballots were reportedly missing in many locations where support was heavy for Mousavi.
The challenger also charged that campaign workers at his headquarters had been beaten “with batons, wooden sticks and electrical rods.”

Suspicion was further generated when the government announced Ahmadinejad to be the “clear winner” barely two hours after the polls closed, the first time such an event has ever occurred.

The challenger himself, Mousavi, disappeared Saturday during the unrest. He was reportedly arrested during the day, according to an unofficial source that said he had been seized as he was traveling to the home of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The defeated candidate had said he would protest the results of the election and vowed not to accept defeat in a message on his web site. “I’m warning that I will not surrender to this dangerous manipulation,” he stated. “The outcome of what we’ve seen from the performance of officials… is nothing but shaking the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s sacred system and governance of lies and dictatorship.”

It is unlikely that the Ayatollah would have extended himself to change matters, however; in a broadcast on state television, the Supreme Leader ordered viewers to unite behind Ahmadinejad. Khamenei, who is not an elected official and who holds absolute political power in Iran, proclaimed the election results a “divine assessment,” according to foreign reporters in the country.

Ahmadinejad claimed in his televised victory speech, “People voted for my policies” in a “free and healthy election.”

More than 100 activists were arrested in their homes by nightfall, including Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of former President Mohammad Khatami, according to activist spokesman Mohammad Ali Abtahi.

Former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, currently the head of the Expediency Council, the national political arbitration body, also resigned in protest from every official position he holds.

The riots were the worst recorded since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Protestors, many who were young and wearing the Mousavi campaign trademark green colors, hurled rocks at police and burned an empty bus, piles of tires and trash cans in the city’s streets. At least three protestors were killed by police on Saturday according to unconfirmed reports by local sources. Several hundred students at Tehran University were chased by some 100 riot police decked out in helmets and shields, who fired tear gas and pepper juice at the protestors. Other demonstrators staging a sit-in at Vanak Square were beaten with clubs by motorcycle police.

A number of foreign reporters who were caught in the melee related tales of violence by government forces. An Iranian interpreter for an Italian news crew was beaten with clubs by riot police, and officers confiscated the cameraman’s tapes, according to Italy’s state TV RAI. An Associated Press photographer witnessed an Iranian plainclothes security officer beating a woman with a truncheon. Other police officers smashed cars with their clubs, reporters said.

Communications in the capital were crippled over the weekend; the cellular phone network in the capital was shut down on Saturday and remained non-operational overnight, disabling SMS text-messaging capabilities as well. Internet social networking sites that had been used by Mousavi supporters, such as Facebook, were also jammed.

U.S. officials were clearly skeptical of the results. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration was paying close attention to allegations of irregularities at the polls.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. hopes the outcome of the election reflects the “genuine will and desire” of the Iranian people.