Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Hamas female suiciders captured on way to kill Fatah officers
June 9, 2009
Hamas is escalating its attacks on fellow Palestinians to demonstrate that US presidential envoy George Mitchell's peace talks in the region, starting Tuesday, June 9, were a mission impossible so long as Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah were at war.
DEBKAfile's counter terror sources disclose that Monday night, three Palestinian female members of Hamas, one of whom wore a bomb vest, were captured in the West Bank town of Qalqilya on their way to kill Palestinian Authority security officers.
The reappearance of suicide bombers on the West Bank is extremely troubling, say military sources, because of the likelihood that they will next attack their old targets in Israel.
This supposition is well founded. On June 7, DEBKAfile revealed exclusively that the Islamist terror organization had been ordered by Damascus headquarters to unleash a new campaign of violence against PA and Israeli targets alike – a first in Palestinian annals.
Ahead of its foiled triple suicide attack, Hamas circulated the photos of six senior Palestinian security officers in Qalqilya over the caption: "These commanders are sentenced to execution." The most prominent was Hussam Sheik Hamed, who is accused of liquidating several Hamas operatives in the town last month. DEBKAfile's security sources emphasize that as matters stand today within the Palestinian camp, President Obama, the Saudi king Abdullah and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak can forget about making headway in their peace moves.
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal made this clear to Egypt's intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman who summoned him to Cairo from Damascus Tuesday to try and persuade the rejectionist leader to come to terms with the rival Fatah and give the Obama peace diplomacy a chance.
Meshaal refused point blank to call off Hamas' terror campaign against fellow Palestinians. As a pre-condition for reconciliation, he said the US-trained Palestinian Authority security force must end its crackdown on Hamas gunmen. He totally rejected President Obama's call from Cairo to give up violence, reinforcing the message carried by the Hamas-led massive cross-border assault on Israeli forces from Gaza Monday.
Meshaal had a special message for the Egyptian government too.
Shortly after his conversation with Gen. Suleiman in Cairo, Hamas staged its first ever Qassam missile strike on Egyptian security forces guarding the Sinai-Gazan border. This was Hamas' first missile attack ever against Egypt. It was meant to support a fresh Palestinian attempt to break through the border for the first time since January 2008. The missiles exploded 3 kilometers inside Sinai.
In Ramallah, guards escorting the convoy of Palestinian Authority official Saad al Rahim, opened fire on a vehicle racing at high speed on the same road, certain that a Hamas bomb car was about to ram them.
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
Netanyahu rejects Obama's call to fly UN flag over Western Wall

May 24, 2009
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
IsraelNN.com
H/T: Jihad Watch
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem Thursday night that the Israeli flag will continue to fly over the Western Wall (Kotel). The first prime minister in years to appear at the venerable yeshiva on Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), he ignored U.S. President Barack Obama’s apparent trial balloon that he wants to see the United Nations flag fly over the Old City holy sites.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II said the president put forward the proposal during his visit to the White House last month.
Prime Minister Netanyahu declared, "The flag that flies over the Kotel is the Israeli flag... Our holy places, the Temple Mount -- will remain under Israeli sovereignty forever.”...
Between 1949 and 1967, the religious sites in the City, as well as all of Judea and Samaria, had been under the control of Jordan, which forbid entry of Jews to the Western Wall (Kotel) and other holy places, as well as barring Christians from churches. Israel immediately opened all holy sites to all religions after the entire city was re-united in 1967, returning the Old City to Israeli sovereignty after nearly 2,000 years.
In his short but enthusiastic speech at the yeshiva, where an Arab terrorist slaughtered eight young students slightly more than a year ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu repeated his “Undivided Jerusalem” message.
The packed study hall of the yeshiva interrupted Prime Minister Netanyahu’s short speech several times with applause. The first clap of hands was in response to the statement that Israel’s capital “never will be divided again.” Jerusalem Day marks the day in the Six Day War upon which the Israel Defense Forces liberated the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem from Jordanian rule.
In an attempt to appeal to the national-religious community after years of neglect from a prime minister, Netanyahu said, “It is important for me to stay in warm communication with you. The connection with Jerusalem unites all sectors of the people, secular and religious, as one."
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had kept a very close relation with Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav when he was mayor of Jerusalem and attended annual Jerusalem Day ceremonies there, but he became more distant from religious institutions after he followed former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to his new Kadima party.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s vow on Jerusalem was made in the presence of Israel’s two chief rabbis, Likud Knesset Member and former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, and Jewish Home party chairman MK Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz.
It was the second time during the day he promised to keep the city united, having stated earlier in the day that “Jerusalem was always ours, will always be ours, and will never again be divided.” His speech was delivered at Ammunition Hill in memory of soldiers who fell in the Six-Day War in 1967.
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Sunday, April 12, 2009
Right’s rage at overbearing Obama

From The Sunday Times
by Sarah Baxter in Washington
April 12, 2009
A CONSERVATIVE talk show host claims Barack Obama’s policies amount to dousing the American public with petrol and lighting a match. A top adviser to George W Bush calls the vice-president a liar. And a congressman says there are 17 “socialists” in the House of Representatives.
The political invective is turning ugly after the promise of hope and change. Some say it is Obama’s fault for his hyperactivist style of government. Others say it is time the Republicans realised they lost.
The meaning of “Obamaism” – yes, he already has his own “ism” – is being hotly debated. Is it style or substance? The hype about his cool has been overtaken by the realisation on both sides of the divide that Obama meant what he said on the campaign trail about being a transformational president.
In his first three months in office, his administration has put forward a $3.5 trillion budget, produced a rescue plan for banks and bailed out the car industry and is promising a green energy “revolution”, universal healthcare, school reform and an overhaul of immigration.
That’s not counting foreign policy after a week of European summits, dubbed the Obama “apology tour” after he called America “arrogant”, and topped off with a row over whether the president bowed ingratiatingly to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at the G20 meeting in London.
There have been diplomatic overtures to Iran, the announcement of a “surge” in Afghani-stan and a demand for $83 billion in supplementary funding for the two wars, including Iraq, which will no longer be known as the “war on terror” but still upsets the left.
On top of it all, Obama turned salesman last week, urging homeowners to refinance their mortgages at the favourable new low interest rates.
“We’re starting to see glimmers of hope across the economy,” he said as the Dow Jones rose by 20% and jobless benefit claims recorded a slight fall.
For George Packer, a liberal commentator writing in The New Yorker, Obamaism is “activist government on every front”. The president’s attempt to preserve the fabric of society is not left-wing but “a pretty good description of what used to pass for conservatism”.
On the right, Peter Wehner argued in Commentary magazine that Obamaism represents the emergence of “European-style social democracy”, which will change America’s social and political landscape.
Moderate “blue dog” Democrats are concerned that Obama is taking on too much. Those who are defending tiny majorities in conservative-leaning districts fear a backlash from voters who worry the president is tilting too far to the left.
The scale of Obama’s ambition is enough to make Republicans see red. Glenn Beck, a Fox News host who has been generating his own headlines with exaggerated outbursts, said: “They’re marching us toward 1984. . . Like it or not, fascism is on the rise.”
Hearing of Obama’s plans for immigration reform, Beck imitated pouring petrol over a guest and lighting a match. “How much more can he disenfranchise us?” he fumed.
Spencer Bachus, a Republican congressman from Alabama, was accused of McCarthyism for saying Congress was pushing Obama too far to the left. “Some of the men and women I work with . . . are socialists,” he said. He has been keeping count. Pressed to explain, he said there were 17, but declined to name names.
Bush’s former aide, Karl Rove, caused a further stir last week after he called Joe Biden, the vice-president, a fantasist and a liar. Biden had recounted a conversation he had had with Bush in the Oval Office. “Well, Joe,” Bush said. “I’m a leader.”
“And I said: ‘Mr President, turn around and look behind you. No one is following’.”
Rove denied the exchange had ever taken place. “I hate to say this, but he’s a serial exaggerator. If I was being unkind, I would say liar.”
Despite the Democrats’ irritation with Rove, White House officials hope to take a leaf out of his book by keeping party activists in a state of permanent mobilisation. Obama’s campaign e-mail list of 13m supporters has already been used to drum up support in Congress for his spending plans.
In another attempt to energise the grass roots, plans are under way for activists from groups such as moveon.org and the labour organisation Change to Win to meet on Tuesdays in Washington.
Called the Common Purpose project, it is meant to provide “a way for the White House to manage its relationship with some of these independent groups”, according to one of those involved. Ellen Moran, White House communications director, has already turned up to one meeting.
The gathering is modelled on the Republicans’s long-established Wednesday meetings, run by Grover Norquist, the prominent tax reform activist.
But Norquist is sceptical the Democrats’ version will work. Various left-wing groups have been trying to copy it without success for years, he said.
“Our coalition holds together because nobody wants anything at the expense of anybody else. You can’t have healthcare reform that saves money if the labour unions take everything there is and you can’t have money for education workers if it is spent on health. That makes their coalition more brittle than ours.”
Norquist believes the president has pledged far more than he can deliver. But Obama is helped by the ability to raise colossal sums to stave off recession and reflate the economy. Temporarily, at least, there is plenty to go around.
The true nature of Obamaism may be revealed only once the money runs out. Then we will know if his hyperactivism has worked.
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Friday, April 10, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Aide Denies Obama Bowed to Saudi King - That is an outright lie!
from Politico.com
by Ben Smith
April 8, 2009
The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets.
"It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
BS - start watching at about 50 seconds - this comment explains exactly what happened:
That was a bow...and an outright lie from the White House if they are denying it was... They say he was shaking hands with 2 hands...but he didn't extend his second hand until he was fully upright again, you can see his second hand at his waist level. A total lie from the White House!!!
Posted By: Sean April 08, 2009 at 04:16 PM
The Washington Times called the alleged bow a "shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate" and said it violated centuries of American tradition of not deferring to royalty. The Weekly Standard, meanwhile, noted that American protocol apparently rules out bowing, or at least it reportedly did on the occasion of a Clinton "near-bow" to the emperor of Japan.
Interestingly, a columnist in the Saudi-backed Arabic paper Asharq Alawsat also took the gesture as a bow and appreciated the move.
"Obama wished to demonstrate his respect and appreciation of the personality of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, who has made one of the most important calls in the modern era, namely the call for inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue to defuse the hatred, conflict and wars," wrote the columnist, Muhammah Diyab.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
New York Times Theme Song: Silence is Beholden
Flashback: NYT scolded Clinton for almost bowing to royalty
When will the New York Times cover this, even to the extent they covered Clinton’s inclined shoulders? Or is the unthinkable in 1994 turned into the unmentionable in 2009, thanks to a national media that has completely sold out to Barack Obama?
from Hot Air.com
April 4, 2009
by Ed Morrissey
So far, the media has remained entirely silent on Barack Obama’s deep-waist bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. They used to defend American protocol a lot more closely, as The Anchoress discovered in doing research on the subject. The New York Times sharply criticized Bill Clinton for a mere inclination of his shoulders towards Japanese Emperor Akihito in 1994:
It wasn’t a bow, exactly. But Mr. Clinton came close. He inclined his head and shoulders forward, he pressed his hands together. It lasted no longer than a snapshot, but the image on the South Lawn was indelible: an obsequent President, and the Emperor of Japan.
Canadians still bow to England’s Queen; so do Australians. Americans shake hands. If not to stand eye-to-eye with royalty, what else were 1776 and all that about? …
Guests invited to a white-tie state dinner at the White House (a Clinton administration first) were instructed to address the Emperor as “Your Majesty,” not “Your Highness” or, worse, “King.” And in what one Administration aide called “some emperor thing,” an Army general was cautioned that he should not address the Emperor Akihito at all as he escorted him to the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.
But the “thou need not bow” commandment from the State Department’s protocol office maintained a constancy of more than 200 years. Administration officials scurried to insist that the eager-to-please President had not really done the unthinkable.
The media took Clinton to task for even suggesting the unthinkable. Now they remain silent on Obama’s leap to the unthinkable.
Obama Endorses Saudi Peace Ultimatum

US President Barack Obama reiterated his support for the Saudi Mideast peace initiative in a meeting with King Abdullah on Thursday night, the White House said in a statement.
The February 2002 initiative calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories taken in the Six Day War, including east Jerusalem, and a "just settlement" to the Palestinian refugee crisis in exchange for normalizing ties
with the Arab world.
The leaders "reaffirmed the long-standing, strong relationship between the two countries," continued the statement after the two met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London.