LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 12/09
Bible Reading of the
day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Mark 1,7-11. And this is what he proclaimed: "One
mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the
thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with
the holy Spirit."It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of
Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he
saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon
him. And a voice came from the heavens, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am
well pleased."
Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem (?-639),
monk, Bishop
Hymn of the Byzantine Office of the Theophany (copyright Mother Mary of the
Monastery of the Veil of the Mother of God)
"The heavens opened and the Father's voice resounded: 'This is my Son, the
Beloved'" (Alleluia verse)
Today the Sun that never sets has risen and the world is filled with
splendour by the light of the Lord... Today the clouds drop down upon mankind
the dew of righteousness from on high. Today, the Uncreated of His own will
accepts the laying on of hands from His own creature. Today the Prophet and
Forerunner approaches the Master, but stands before Him with trembling, seeing
the condescension of God towards us.
Today waters of the Jordan are transformed into healing by coming of the Lord...
Today the transgressions of men are washed away by the waters of the Jordan.
Today Paradise been opened to men and the Sun of Righteousness shines down upon
us (Mal 3,20)... Today the Master hastens towards baptism that He may lift man
up to the heights. Today He that bows not, bows down to His own servant that He
may set us free from bondage. Today we have purchased the Kingdom of Heaven: for
the Lord's Kingdom shall have no end.
Today earth and sea share the joy of the world, and the world is filled with
gladness. «The waters, O God, the waters saw Thee and were afraid» (Ps
78[77],17). «The Jordan turned back» (Ps 113,3), seeing the fire of the Godhead
descending bodily and entering its stream. The Jordan turned back, beholding the
Holy Spirit coming down in the form of a dove and flying about Thee. The Jordan
turned back, seeing the Invisible made visible, the Creator made flesh, the
Master in the form of a servant...The clouds gave voice, marvelling at Him who
was come,, the Light of Light, true God of true God. For today in the Jordan
they saw the triumph of the Master; they saw Him drown in the death of
disobedience, the sting of error, and the chains of hell, and bestow upon the
world the salvation.
Free
Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Hamas' war crimes-By Alan M. Dershowitz/
Los Angeles Times 11/01/09
Outcome of Gaza conflict
will echo in Iran-the
Chicago Tribune 11/01/09
Who killed Mr Lebanon?: The hunt
for Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's assassins. By Robert Fisk.Independent.11/01/09
Where have our friends gone?By Zvi Ba'rel/Haaretz
11/01/09
Latest News Reports From
Miscellaneous Sources for January 11/09
Report: Iran uses front companies
to import weapons technology-AP
Israeli troops battle Hamas
fighters deep in Gaza-AP
Names of Palestinian Militants
Involved in Katyusha Attack on Israel Revealed-Naharnet
New
Resistance Group Conducts 1st Training Maneuvers in Lebanon-Naharnet
Casualties in Pro-Gaza Rally in Akkar-Naharnet
Fadlallah Wants 'Islamic Poles' to Cooperate-Naharnet
Suleiman: Israel Should
Abide by U.N. Resolution 1860-Naharnet
Raad: Hizbullah Ready to
Face any Israeli Stupidity-Naharnet
Berri to Istanbul Next
Week to Take Part in Gaza Conference-Naharnet
Lebanese Army, U.N. Find
Weapons Cache Near Israel Border-Naharnet
Makari: Palestinian Arms
Are Syrian Tools-Naharnet
Mughniyeh's Posthumous
Role in the Gaza Fighting-Naharnet
Israel says Gaza War Nearing End as Fighting Rages-Naharnet
Israel Nearing Goals in
Gaza, but Offensive Will Continue: Olmert-Naharnet
Israeli Troops Push Deeper
into Gaza City, Death Toll Passes 850-Naharnet
A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery-New
York Times
Hezbollah warns Israel against sparking
conflict-Reuters
Tens of thousands march against Israel in France-Africasia
Ten of the world's top banks accused of laundering
money for Iran-New York Daily News
Obama gives outspoken ex-spy key White House job-Reuters
Study: South to recover more quickly from war
than north after Lebanon-Ha'aretz
Iran uses
front companies to flout US export
WASHINGTON, (AFP) Iran is successfully using front companies based in the Gulf
region and Asia to import American technology that can be can have military use,
The Washington Post reported on its website. Citing US researchers and Justice
Department documents, the newspaper said Iran in the past two years had acquired
numerous banned items including circuit boards, software and Global Positioning
System devices that are used to make sophisticated versions of the improvised
explosive devices, or IEDs, that kill US troops in Iraq. The trade was briefly
disrupted after the United States imposed sanctions against several Dubai-based,
Iranian front companies in 2006, but the technology pipeline to Tehran is now
flowing at an even faster pace, the report said.
In some cases, Iran simply opened new front companies and shifted its operations
from Dubai to Asia, said the paper, citing unnamed officials.
"Without doubt, it is still going on," the report quoted one former US
intelligence official as saying. Bomb circuitry is only a part of the global
clandestine trade that continues to flourish, The Post said. A federal
investigation in New York into whether banks helped customers skirt US rules
forbidding business with Iran turned up evidence of Iranian interests trying to
buy tungsten and other materials used in the guidance systems of long-range
missiles, the paper said.
British-based Lloyds TSB Bank agreed Friday to pay a 350 million dollar penalty
to settle a probe that it illegally handled financial transfers for Iran and
Sudan in violation of US sanctions. A Justice Department statement said Lloyd's
"has accepted and acknowledged responsibility for its criminal conduct" in a
criminal complain filed in US District Court in New York. "Lloyds agreed to
forfeit the funds as part of deferred prosecution agreements with the Department
of Justice and the New York County District Attorney's Office," the statement
said.
Israeli reservists enter Gaza,
signaling new phase
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) Israeli troops made their deepest advance into the
Gaza Strip's most heavily populated area on Sunday, encountering increasingly
fierce resistance from Islamic Hamas fighters as they warned civilians to stay
clear of the battle zone.
Speaking to his Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the country "is
nearing" its goals, but that the offensive will continue despite global calls
for a cease-fire, led by the U.N. Security Council. Israel warned Gaza's 1.4
million residents on Saturday that it plans to escalate a devastating air and
ground assault that already has killed more than 800 Palestinians. Israel
launched the offensive on Dec. 27 to halt years of Palestinian rocket attacks on
its southern towns.
Egypt has been trying to broker a truce. Germany's foreign minister was in
Israel on Sunday to promote the U.N. proposal, and Israel planned to send a
senior defense official to Egypt later in the week. U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon plans to travel to the region this week.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops moved to within one kilometer (half a
mile) of Gaza City's southern neighborhoods, and within half a kilometer (a
quarter mile) of the northern neighborhood of Sheikh Ajleen. The fighting in
Sheikh Ajleen erupted before dawn and continued into the morning as Israeli
infantrymen and tanks advanced toward Gaza City and its approximately 400,000
residents, Palestinian witnesses said.
"We are safe, but we don't know for how long," said Khamis Alawi, 44, who
huddled with his wife and six children in their kitchen overnight. He said
bullets riddled his walls and several came in through the windows.
Hamas and the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad said they ambushed the
Israelis, leading to some of the heaviest fighting since Israel sent ground
forces into the coastal territory on Jan. 3. Gunfire subsided in the early
afternoon, with the Israelis in control of buildings on the neighborhood's
outskirts. Israeli tanks later withdrew from the area. Palestinian medical
officials said at least 20 Palestinians were killed in fighting by midday. There
were no reports of Israeli casualties.
Israel began the offensive with a weeklong aerial blitz, before launching a
ground invasion on Jan. 3. Gaza medical officials say more than 869 Palestinians
have died, at least half of them civilians. The Israeli military says troops
have killed some 300 armed fighters since the ground offensive began and that
many more were killed in the air phase. Thirteen Israelis have died, three of
them civilians.
A top Israeli defense official said Hamas has been badly hurt by the offensive
in Gaza especially by the deaths of senior militants and shortages of
ammunition but predicted that the group would fight on. The group "is not
expected to raise a white flag," military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told
the Israeli Cabinet Sunday.
The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate cease-fire Thursday, but
Olmert said Israel "never agreed that anyone would decide for us if it is
permissible to strike at those who send bombs against our kindergartens and
schools." Hamas, the Islamic group that seized control of Gaza in June 2007,
likewise has ignored the resolution, complaining that it was not consulted.
Hamas' government has not been internationally recognized.
Israel dropped leaflets on Gaza City on Saturday warning of a wider offensive.
"The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) is not working against the people of Gaza but
against Hamas and the terrorists only," the leaflets said in Arabic. "Stay safe
by following our orders." On Sunday, it dropped additional leaflets urging Gaza
residents to report the whereabouts of Hamas fighters, even providing a phone
number to call. "You can call the numbers listed below to inform us about the
locations of rocket launchers, warehouses, tunnels and terrorist groups
operating in your area," said the leaflet, promising "confidentiality
guaranteed."
Israeli defense officials say they are prepared for a third stage of their
offensive, in which ground troops would push further into Gaza, but are waiting
for approval from the government. The first phase was the massive aerial
bombardment, and the second saw ground forces enter Gaza, seize open areas used
to fire rockets and surround Gaza City. The officials, speaking on condition of
anonymity because military plans have not been made public, said the army also
has a contingency plan for a fourth phase the full reoccupation of Gaza and
toppling of Hamas. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of military
occupation.
In other fighting, Hamas militants launched barrages of rockets at the Israeli
city of Beersheba and at the town of Sderot. Hamas has been hard-hit by the
Israeli offensive, but continues to fire rockets from inside Palestinian
residential areas, paralyzing much of southern Israel.
Israeli warplanes bombed targets along the Egypt-Gaza frontier near the town of
Rafah early Sunday, shattering windows at the border terminal. The area is
riddled by tunnels used to smuggle weapons and supplies into Gaza, and has been
repeatedly bombed throughout the Israeli offensive.
Most of those killed Sunday were noncombatants, medical officials said,
including four members of one family killed when a tank shell hit their home
near Gaza City. The military says Hamas fighters are wearing civilian clothes
and endangering civilians by operating out of heavily populated residential
areas.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces fired phosphorus shells early Sunday
at Khouza, a village near the border, setting a row of houses on fire. Hospital
official Dr. Yusuf Abu Rish said a woman was killed and more than 100 injured,
most suffering from gas inhalation and burns. Israeli military spokesman Capt.
Guy Spigelman denied the claims. One of the main uses of phosphorous shells is
to create smoke and mask ground forces, which is legal under international law,
but the chemical can be harmful if used in densely populated areas.
Israel wants guarantees that any cease-fire would end Hamas rocket fire and
weapons smuggling from Egypt. Hamas is demanding that Israel open Gaza's
blockaded border crossings. Israel is unlikely to agree to that condition unless
international monitors ensure the border is not used to bring weapons into the
territory.
The rising death toll of civilians has put heavy pressure on Israel to halt the
offensive. Israeli leaders have so far rejected the international criticism.
One of the deadliest single incidents was an Israeli strike near a U.N. school
Tuesday that Gaza health officials said killed 39 Palestinians. On Sunday,
Israeli defense officials said an investigation by the military concluded that
an Israeli mortar shell missed its target and hit near the school. The defense
officials spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity because the investigation has
not been made public, and there was no official comment from the military.
The U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees resumed operations after
suspending them because of Israeli attacks on its convoys. U.N. aid vehicles
were moving around Gaza on Sunday and U.N. workers tended to about 30,000 people
in shelters, but aid officials warned that the dire security situation made it
impossible to operate at full capacity. "This is a very small fraction of what
we normally do in the Gaza Strip," said Filippo Grandi of the U.N. Relief and
Works Agency. "Things might get worse."
**Barzak reported from Gaza City and Friedman from Jerusalem.
Israeli troops, militants
battle in Gaza suburb
Associated Press Writers Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen in a suburb
of Gaza City Sunday in one of the fiercest ground battles so far as Israel's
military inched toward Gaza's population centers. A top Israeli defense official
said Hamas has been badly hurt by the offensive in Gaza especialy by the
deaths of senior militants and shortages of ammunition but predicted that the
group would fight on. The group "is not expected to raise a white flag,"
military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told the Israeli Cabinet Sunday. The
fighting in the Sheikh Ajleen neighborhood erupted before dawn and continued
through the morning as Israeli infantrymen and tanks advanced toward Gaza City
and its approximately 400,000 residents, Palestinian witnesses said. Hamas and
the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad said they ambushed the Israelis,
leading to some of the heaviest fighting since Israel sent ground forces into
the coastal territory on Jan. 3. Gunfire subsided in the early afternoon, with
the Israelis in control of buildings on the neighborhood's outskirts. Israel
launched its offensive against Hamas on Dec. 27 in an attempt to halt years of
rocket fire from Gaza at Israeli towns. Gaza health officials have counted more
than 820 Palestinians dead and say at least half are civilians. The Israeli
military says troops have killed some 300 armed fighters since the ground
offensive began and that many more were killed in the week of aerial
bombardments that preceded it.
Thirteen Israelis have died, three of them civilians.
"Israel is nearing the goals which it set itself, but more patience,
determination and effort is still demanded," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
said ahead of his government's weekly meeting Sunday. The U.N. Security Council
called for an immediate cease-fire Thursday, but Olmert said Israel "never
agreed that anyone would decide for us if it is permissible to strike at those
who send bombs against our kindergartens and schools."
Hamas, the Islamic group whose government controls Gaza but is not recognized
internationally, likewise has ignored the resolution, complaining that it was
not consulted. Israel wants a guarantee that any cease-fire would end Hamas
rocket fire and weapons smuggling from Egypt. Hamas is demanding that Israel
open Gaza's blockaded border crossings. Israel is unlikely to agree to that
condition because it would hand Hamas a victory and allow the group to
strengthen its hold on the territory it violently seized in June 2007.
Israeli defense officials say they are prepared for a third stage of their
offensive, in which ground troops would push further into Gaza, but are waiting
for approval from the government. Israel dropped leaflets on Gaza on Saturday
warning of a wider offensive.
The first phase was the massive aerial bombardment, and the second saw ground
forces enter Gaza, seize open areas used to fire rockets and surround Gaza City.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because military plans have
not been made public, said the army also has a contingency plan for a fourth
phase the full reoccupation of Gaza and toppling of Hamas. "We are safe, but
we don't know for how long," said Khamis Alawi, 44, who huddled with his wife
and six children in their kitchen overnight. He said bullets riddled his walls
and several came in through the windows.
Hamas militants launched barrages of rockets at the Israeli city of Beersheba
and at the town of Sderot. Hamas has been hard-hit by the Israeli offensive, but
continued to fire rockets from Palestinian residential areas, paralyzing much of
southern Israel.
Israeli warplanes bombed targets along the Egypt-Gaza frontier near the town of
Rafah early Sunday, shattering windows at the border terminal. The area is
riddled by tunnels used to smuggle weapons and supplies into Gaza, and has been
repeatedly bombed throughout the Israeli offensive.
At least 20 Palestinians had been killed across Gaza by midday Sunday, according
to Gaza health officials. Most were noncombatants, they said, including four
members of one family killed when a tank shell hit their home near Gaza City.
There was no word on Israeli casualties. The military says Hamas fighters are
wearing civilian clothes and endangering civilians by operating out of heavily
populated residential areas.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces fired phosphorus shells early Sunday
at Khouza, a village near the border, setting a row of houses on fire. Hospital
official Dr. Yusuf Abu Rish said a woman was killed and more than 100 injured,
most suffering from gas inhalation and burns.
Israeli military spokesman Capt. Guy Spigelman denied the claims. One of the
main uses of phosphorous shells is to create smoke and mask ground forces, which
is legal under international law, but the chemical can be harmful if used in
densely populated areas. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal made a fiery
speech on Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, describing the Israeli assault as a
"holocaust." Still, Hamas teams were in Cairo to discuss a cease-fire proposed
by Egypt.
Struggling to keep peace efforts alive, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has
urged Israel and Hamas to agree to a truce. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier was set to hold talks with Israeli leaders Sunday in Egypt in an
attempt to advance the Security Council's cease-fire call.
"Israel must be persuaded to let the firearms rest now," Steinmeier told
reporters Sunday. One of the deadliest single incidents since the offensive
began was an Israeli strike near a U.N. school Tuesday that Gaza health
officials said killed 39 Palestinians. On Sunday, Israeli defense officials said
an investigation by the military concluded that an Israeli mortar shell missed
its target and hit near the school.
The Israeli investigation concluded that troops fired three mortar shells at
Hamas militants who had just launched a rocket, the officials said. Two shells
hit the target, but a third missed by about 30 yards, striking near the school
and killing bystanders. The Israeli military believes the number of casualties
was inflated by Hamas.
The defense officials spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity because the
investigation has not been made public, and there was no official comment from
the military.
The U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees has resumed its operations
after suspending them because of Israeli attacks on its convoys. U.N. Relief and
Works Agency spokesman Christopher Gunness said nine aid convoys were planned
Sunday, but that the Israeli military had to "stand up and deliver" on its
promises to allow aid to reach Gaza civilians. But the international Red Cross
said Sunday it was halting its service of escorting Palestinian medical teams
after one of its ambulances came under fire on Saturday during a three-hour lull
declared by Israel to allow aid groups to do their work in besieged areas.
Red Cross spokesman Iyad Nasr said his organization is still investigating the
source of the fire.
The Red Cross escorts are meant to provide extra protection to Palestinian
ambulances and guarantee that all occupants are civilians. In the past Israel
has charged that ambulances have been used to transport militants and arms.
**Barzak reported from Gaza City and Friedman from Jerusalem.
Bush reportedly rejected Israeli plea to raid Iran
FOX News WASHINGTON President George W. Bush rejected a plea from Israel
last year to help it raid Iran's main nuclear complex, opting instead to
authorize a new U.S. covert action aimed at sabotaging Iran's suspected nuclear
weapons program, The New York Times reported.
Israel's request was for specialized bunker-busting bombs that it wanted for an
attack that tentatively involved flying over Iraq to reach Iran's major nuclear
complex at Natanz, where the country's only known uranium enrichment plant is
located, the Times reported Saturday in its online edition. The White House
deflected requests for the bombs and flyover but said it would improve
intelligence-sharing with Israel on covert U.S. efforts to sabotage Iran's
nuclear program.
The covert efforts, which began in early 2008, involved plans to penetrate
Iran's nuclear supply chain abroad and undermine electrical systems and other
networks on which Iran relies, the Times said, citing interviews with current
and former U.S. officials, outside experts and international nuclear inspectors
who spoke on condition of anonymity. The covert program will be handed off to
President-elect Barack Obama, who will deciding whether to continue it.
According to the Times, Bush decided against an overt attack based on input from
top administration officials such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who
believed that doing so would likely prove ineffective and could ignite a broader
Middle East war.
Israel made the push for permission to fly over Iraq for an attack on Iran
following its anger over a U.S. intelligence assessment in late 2007 that
concluded Iran had effectively suspended its development of nuclear weapons four
years earlier. Israel sought to rebut the report, providing evidence to U.S.
intelligence officials that they said indicated the Iranians were still working
on a weapon.
Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council, declined to
comment Saturday.
In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Stephen Hadley,
Bush's national security adviser, said he believed that Iran is the biggest
challenge Obama will face in the Middle East and that more sanctions will be
needed to force Tehran to forgo its nuclear ambitions and support for
extremists. He said the Bush administration has been trying to "shore up and
store up leverage" to bequeath to the Obama administration.
Last month, Obama suggested that a combination of economic incentives and
tighter sanctions might work. Tehran rejected the proposal. Obama also has said
he would pursue tough-minded diplomacy.
From the Chicago Tribune
Outcome of Gaza conflict will echo in Iran
Tehran stands to lose influence if Israel beats Hamas outright
By Liz Sly | Tribune correspondent
January 11, 2009
BEIRUT Looming over the Gaza conflict is the long shadow of Iran, which has
much to win or lose from the outcome of the battles raging nearly two weeks
after Israel launched its devastating onslaught to stop Hamas rocket attacks.
For Iran, which provides funding and training to Hamas, the crisis represents an
almost existential battle in its quest to become a regional superpower, in which
Hamas plays a key role as an extension of Shiite Iranian influence. "Iran stands
to gain more influence if Hamas survives, because Hamas is a direct auxiliary
for Iranan Iranian foothold on the Mediterranean," said Oussama Safa, a Mideast
analyst who heads the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.
"Crushing Hamas in Gaza means chasing out the influence of the Iranians from
this part of the region."
Israel drops leaflets on Gaza warning residents to brace for escalation of
offensive With the current fighting representing a battle in a wider struggle
for regional dominance, Iran's intentions will be key in determining whether the
conflict remains confined to Gaza or escalates into a wider war that would
almost certainly embroil its other chief ally, Lebanon's militant Hezbollah
movement, analysts say.
So far, Iran has not indicated any desire to see an escalation. Noisy displays
of outrage on the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities may have offered a
useful diversion from the country's economic woes, which is to the benefit of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is up for re-election this year.
At the international level, Iranian leaders have confined their fiery
anti-Israel rhetoric to efforts to pressure Arab and world leaders to push
Israel to accept a cease-fire, one that would enable Hamas to survive.
After claims by hard-line student groups in Iran that 70,000 young men had
volunteered to carry out suicide missions against Israel, Iran's supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, forbade them from traveling.
Iran also dispatched to Beirut its top national security adviser, Saeed Jalili,
who met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Jan. 3. Though the substance
of their talks has not been disclosed, the Arab daily Al-Hayat said they focused
on "ways to stop the aggression" but not on an escalation.
Hamas is no puppet of Iran'sit came into being without Iranian support and its
goal of retrieving territory for a future Palestine would continue without Iran,
said Hilal Khashan, a political scientist at the American University of Beirut.
It would also not serve Hamas' interests to be supported by Iran too publicly,
at a time when many in the mostly Sunni Arab world view Shiite Iran with deep
suspicion, he said.
That's another reason Hamas, a Sunni fundamentalist movement, is important to
Iranbecause it helps give Iran credibility among Arabs, said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb,
of the Lebanese American University. "Playing the Palestinian card is a way of
winning Arab hearts and minds. Hamas is a bridge for Iran to the Arab Sunni
world," she said. She does not rule out the possibility that Iran would open a
second front in the Gaza conflict, by encouraging its well-armed Hezbollah ally
to take action along Israel's northern border if Hamas appeared to be in danger
of collapse.
"If Hamas were to be defeated, it would be a grave blow for Iran," she said.
Analyst Safa thinks it unlikely that Hezbollah would intervene: The Shiite
movement is participating in June elections, which it hopes to win, and its
chances could be jeopardized if it precipitates another war with Israel like the
one that killed over 1,000 people in 2006, he said.
"Iran is very cool-headed. Iran doesn't get angry, it gets even," Safa said.
But with Iran still defiantly pursuing a nuclear program that the West alleges
is intended to build weapons, many wonder how long it will be before there is a
full-scale showdown with Israel. As Israel's chief ally, and with over 170,000
troops stationed on Iran's borders in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. would
almost certainly risk becoming involved. President-elect Barack Obama reiterated
on Friday his intention to seek a negotiated solution to the standoff with Iran.
"I have said in the past, during the course of the [election] campaign, that
Iran is a genuine threat to U.S. national security," Obama told reporters in
Washington. "But I have also said that we should be willing to initiate
diplomacy as a mechanism to achieve our national security goals."
At a forum organized last week by the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington,
however, former Defense Secretary William Perry warned that Iran's quest for
nuclear weapons appears unstoppable and will likely present Obama with his first
major foreign policy crisis.
"It seems clear that Israel will not sit by idly while Iran takes defiant steps
toward becoming a nuclear power," said Perry, who served under Bill Clinton. "As
a result President Obama will almost certainly face a serious crisis with Iran.
Indeed, I believe that crisis point will be reached in his first year in
office."
lsly@tribune.com
Ten of the world's top banks accused of laundering money
for Iran
BY BARBARA ROSS and WILLIAM SHERMAN
Saturday, January 10th 2009, 4:00 AM
Dunham/AP
The facade of branch of Lloyds TSB, which admitted to laundering $300 million to
Iran. Sources say some of the money went to fund terrorist groups like Hamas and
Hezbollah. Some of the world's top banks helped Iran get around international
sanctions even as the rogue nation was steering its blood money into the hands
of terror groups, prosecutors charged Friday.
Ten international banks including British-based Lloyds laundered "billions of
dollars" for Iran through New York banks, Manhattan District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau announced Friday. The scheme helped Iran turn its dirty money into
greenbacks, which it could then use to buy goods prohibited by international
sanctions.
Some of the money went to fund terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and to
help Iran get materials, including tungsten, for long-range missiles, sources
said.
"This is one of the biggest investigations we've ever conducted," said
Morgenthau.
Lloyds admitted it laundered $300 million and agreed to pay a $350 million fine
and open its books to investigators. If records show that the bank knew it was
helping Iran break international law or foster terrorism, Lloyds could face
criminal prosecution, authorities said.
None of the other nine banks was identified because they are working out similar
agreements with Morgenthau's investigators. The CIA will also review the bank
records. Steven Weber, a terrorism expert and professor of political science at
the University of California Berkeley, said it is unusual for a bank like Lloyds
to admit wrongdoing on such a large scale. "The consensus view is that Iran is
one of if not the most active state sponsors of terrorist groups," Weber said.
"There's a lot of people [in the U.S. government] thinking about ways to make it
much harder for Iran to move money around."
The laundering began more than 13 years ago and ran through 2007, according to
the DA's probe. Lloyds also washed money for Sudanese banks, even though
financial dealings with both governments are prohibited by international
sanctions.
In the scheme, first disclosed last March by The News, Iran would deposit huge
sums in the international banks, which then converted it into dollars and
parceled it out under altered names and routing codes. The money was moved
through a series of smaller banks and ultimately drawn on for banned purposes.
"You couldn't tell where the money was coming from or where it was going to,"
said Morgenthau.
Because the origin of the funds was disguised, the money slipped through
computerized filters at New York banks designed to stop any transfers to and
from Iranian interests, Morgenthau said. Much of the money went to Iranian
banks, which typically send money to terror groups in the West Bank, Gaza,
Lebanon and Afghanistan through front organizations and so-called charities,
according to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
wsherman@nydailynews.com
Hamas' war crimes
In Gaza, it targets Israeli citizens with rockets, then shields its fighters
behind Palestinian civilians.
By Alan M. Dershowitz
Los Angeles Times
January 10, 2009
A temporary cease-fire in Gaza that simply allows Hamas to obtain more lethal
weapons will assure a repetition of Hamas' win-win tactic of firing rockets at
Israeli civilians while using Palestinian civilians as human shields.
The best example of Hamas' double war crime tactic was Tuesday, when it
succeeded in sending a rocket to a town less than 20 miles south of Tel Aviv and
injuring a child. At the same time, it provoked Israel to attack a United
Nations school from which Hamas was launching its rockets. Residents of the
neighborhood said two Hamas fighters were in the area at the time, and the
Israeli military said they had been killed, according to the New York Times.
National Security & Foreign Policy Institute of World Politics in DC
www.iwp.edu
The Hamas tactic of firing rockets from schools, hospitals and mosques dates
back to 2005, when Israel ended its occupation of Gaza. Several months ago, the
head of the Israeli air force showed me a videotape (now available on YouTube)
of a Hamas terrorist deliberately moving his rocket launcher to the front of a
U.N. school, firing a rocket and then running away, no doubt hoping that Israel
would then respond by attacking the rocket launcher and thus killing Palestinian
children in the school.
This is the Hamas dual strategy: to kill and injure as many Israeli civilians as
possible by firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilian targets, and to
provoke Israel to kill as many Palestinian civilians as possible to garner world
sympathy.
Lest there be any doubt about this, recall the recent case of Nizar Rayan, the
Hamas terrorist and commander killed in Gaza by an Israeli missile strike Jan.
1. Israeli authorities had warned him that he was a legitimate military target,
as was his home, which was a storage site for rockets. This is the same man who
in 2001 sent one of his sons on a suicide mission to blow himself up at a Jewish
settlement in Gaza. Rayan had the option of moving his family to a safe area.
Instead, his four wives and children remained with him and became martyrs as
Israel targeted his home for destruction.
Hamas leaders have echoed the mantra of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of
Hezbollah, that "we are going to win because they love life and we love death."
It is difficult to fight an enemy that loves death in a world that loves life.
The world tends to think emotionally rather than rationally when it is shown
dead women and children who are deliberately placed in harm's way by Hamas.
Instead of asking who was really to blame for these civilian deaths, people
place responsibility on those who fired the fatal shots.
Consider a related situation: An armed bank robber kills several tellers and
takes a customer hostage. Hiding behind his human shield, the robber continues
to kill civilians. A police officer, trying to prevent further killings, shoots
at the robber but accidentally kills the hostage. Who is guilty of murder? Not
the police officer who fired the fatal shot but the bank robber who fired from
behind the human shield.
The international law of war, likewise, makes it a war crime to use human
shields in the way Hamas does. It also makes it a war crime for Hamas to target
Israeli civilians with anti-personnel rockets loaded with ball bearings and
shrapnel designed to kill as many civilians as possible.
In Lebanon in 2006, Hezbollah used this same tactic in its war with Israel,
setting up civilians to be in harm's way of Israeli responses to rocket fire.
When Israel accidentally killed civilians, Hezbollah celebrated them as martyrs.
Similarly, the Hamas leadership quietly celebrates the deaths they provoke by
causing Israel to fire at its rocket launchers, treating the dead Palestinian
civilians as martyrs. The New York Times reported Friday that a wounded fighter
was smiling at the suffering of civilians, saying "they should be happy" because
they "lost their loved ones as martyrs."
The best proof of Hamas' media strategy of manipulating sympathy is the way it
dealt with a rocket it fired the day before Israel's airstrikes began. The
rocket fell short of its target in Israel and landed in Gaza, killing two young
Palestinian girls. Hamas, which exercises total control of Gaza, censored any
video coverage of those deaths. Although there were print reports, no one saw
pictures of these two dead Palestinian children because they were killed by
Palestinian rockets rather than by Israeli rockets. Hamas knows that pictures
are more powerful than words. That is probably why Israel has -- mistakenly in
my view -- kept foreign journalists from entering the war zone.
Israel must continue to try to stop the Hamas rockets that endanger more than a
million Israeli civilians. It also must continue to do everything in its power
to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties, not only because that is the right
thing to do but because every Palestinian death plays into the hands of Hamas'
leaders.
A bad day for Hamas is a day in which its rockets fail to kill or injure any
Israeli civilians and Israel kills no Palestinian civilians. That is what Israel
and the world must strive for. Hamas knows that the moment it ends its policy of
firing rockets at Israeli civilians from behind the shield of Palestinian
civilians, Israel will end its military activities in Gaza. That is precisely
the result Hamas does not want to achieve.
**Alan M. Dershowitz is a professor of law at Harvard University. He is the
author of many books, including, most recently, "The Case Against Israel's
Enemies."
Who killed Mr Lebanon?: The hunt for Prime Minister Rafiq
Hariri's assassins
In 2005, a 1,700kg bomb ripped through the heart of Beirut, taking with it
Lebanon's former premier, Rafiq Hariri. His alleged assassins are due in court
in The Hague early this year. But will a trial with potentially explosive
implications for the entire Middle East ever be allowed to go ahead?
By Robert Fisk
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Reuters
Independent.co.uk Web
Near the old civil-war front line in the centre of Beirut stands a large digital
clock with blood-red numbers. It has almost reached the neat, round figure of
1,500 and represents the days since Rafiq Hariri was murdered. You still hear
people in Lebanon asking for "haqiqa" "the truth"; my driver Abed even has a
slim, black sticker tied to the mirror of our car with the word in Arabic
script. The trouble is that as that figure on the digital clock goes on
climbing, a lot of Lebanese are beginning to doubt they will ever know who
murdered the billionaire and former prime minister along with 21 others on
the Beirut Corniche on 14 February 2005. This St Valentine's Day massacre was
caused by an estimated 1,700kg of explosives, but despite a massive United
Nations inquiry involving Irish police officers, judges from Germany, Belgium
and Canada, and the setting up of an entire tribunal headquarters in The Hague,
no one has been charged.
Four men are still in the grim prison at Roumieh, north of Beirut, on suspicion
of involvement in the crime; they are or were senior officers in the
Lebanese security apparatus whose first loyalty was to Damascus rather than
Beirut. In the aftermath of the assassination, everyone from the then-president
of France, Jacques Chirac, to the leader of the Lebanese Druze community Walid
Jumblatt saw the hand of Syria. Who else could plan such a massive explosion in
one of the most supposedly secure parts of the Lebanese capital? Hadn't the
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad expressed his contempt for Hariri? And weren't
the string of assassination victims that followed Hariri's death all opposed to
Syria? Sister Syria was the butler in the Lebanese manor house, and it was the
butler what did it.
Perhaps. But now that Barack Obama is arriving in the White House with a mission
to start a "dialogue" with Syria and since America desperately needs Syria's
help in preventing insurgents from attacking its troops in Iraq it's not hard
to imagine what form this "dialogue" will take. Yes, the Americans need help.
Yes, Damascus will understand the need for a less confrontational approach to
the Arab world from a US administration. And yes, the Americans would like Syria
to break off its relations with Iran some hope! and with Hamas. But,
hem-hem, there may be a little matter of the Hariri tribunal to be discussed
before the "dialogue" begins.
Hariri was always a problem for Syria. While a friend of the Syrian regime he
built the presidential palace in Damascus as a gift and a citizen of Saudi
Arabia, to whom Syria has always shown respect, the Syrians always suspected
Hariri wanted to restore Lebanon's full sovereignty and free it from the
overlordship of Damascus. Fearful of a pro-Israeli regime in Beirut which
briefly occurred in 1982 after Israel's massive invasion Syria felt
comfortable only when its own allies were in power in Lebanon. Hence it "fixed"
the Beirut parliament to contain more friends than enemies and ensured the
Lebanese president would always show fealty to Damascus. Hence Hariri's
dangerous position.
Assad never believed there would be a UN inquiry into Hariri's murder and it was
only after I revealed in the Independent that there would be, that an astonished
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt rushed to his presidential jet and flew to
Syria to warn Assad that he might be in very hot water indeed. The first UN team
was led by Irish Deputy Garda Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, who discovered that
the wreckage of Hariri's six-car motorcade had incredibly been moved from
the crime scene at midnight on the day of the killings and other materials not
associated with the bomb placed in the massive crater. The man responsible for
doing so was General Ali al-Hajj, director general of the (then
Syrian-dominated) Lebanese Internal Security Forces and one of the four men now
locked up in Roumieh awaiting his day in court. If there is a court.
Al-Hajj used to work for Hariri, as his bodyguard, but was removed from his
personal retinue when Hariri discovered he was also working for Syrian
intelligence. He actually ' had the nerve to turn up at the Hariri family palace
in Beirut's Koreitem district to offer his condolences on the day of the murder.
I reported that night that one of Hariri's young relatives had told him: "Your
place is not here." She turned up at my home with some student friends 24 hours
later to say I had misquoted her. "What I said was, 'Your place is not here
you dog!'" Well, I tried. Also in Roumieh is the former head of Lebanese
military intelligence General Raymond Azar, Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan
(commander of the Presidential Guards Brigade), and the sinister figure of a
certain Jamil Sayed. I received a sharp example of where power lies in Beirut
when I appealed to Hariri some years before his death to un-ban my book on the
Lebanese civil war. Hariri said it was not "the right time" to risk offending
Syria. But strange as the ironies are in Beirut the ban was immediately
lifted after eight years of censorship following a one-minute phone call to
Sayed. Sayed was director-general of the General Security Department of the
Lebanese interior ministry; not a man you would choose to argue with.
But nor was Hariri. Although he was an immensely wealthy philanthropist he
sent my driver Abed's son through university (he was at Essex), along with
thousands of other Lebanese students he could be a ruthless businessman. He
built hospitals and even tried to rebuild Beirut in the middle of the 1975-1990
civil war then rebuilt it again after. But bankers feared his power,
especially when he began buying up square miles of real estate. I once asked if
he believed in God, and he said he did (which I thought was true) but when I
asked him how much of Lebanon he had bought, he said he didn't know (which I
think was untrue). A Lebanese businessman with whom he was involved in a
ferocious row was wounded by the bomb that killed Hariri and thought at first
that the bomb had been set off by Hariri to kill him.
But how was the bomb constructed? The second UN team to arrive in Lebanon
believed it was in a truck driven by a suicide bomber. Indeed, within hours of
the murder the pro-Syrian information minister blurted out that it had been "a
martyrdom mission", which could have been a giveaway. Surely the minister
regarded Hariri as the "martyr"? Or did he not?
The killings were followed by a series of macabre assassinations, which showed
that the killers were still operational: the writer and journalist Samir Kassir
blown up in his car outside his Beirut home; the politicians George Hawi, also
blown up in his car in west Beirut, and Walid Eido (another car bomb, outside
his favourite watering hole); the newspaper editor Gibran Tueni, atomised by a
car bomb on a lonely pine-lined road in east Beirut; the MP Pierre Gemayel. All
these men had come out firmly against Syria's involvement in Lebanon Kassir
had apparently been threatened by Sayed over the telephone when Hariri was still
alive.
Then Samir Shehade, an army officer investigating the thousands of phone calls
made in the hour of Hariri's murder he was the Lebanese military's top
cell-phone expert was also killed by car bomb. One of the calls he was
investigating was allegedly made to the presidential palace where Ιmile Lahoud,
a Damascus protιgι, still ruled. An official who took the call was told Hariri
was dead. He should have responded with shock, one might think. What he asked
was: "Are you sure?"
Syria, it should be said, has always denied the killings. When I asked Syria's
foreign minister in Paris who killed Hariri, he produced all the money in his
pocket, put it on the table in the lobby of his palatial hotel and told me: "If
you can tell me who killed Hariri, you can take all that!" The American
journalist Seymour Hersh was with Assad when he received news of Hariri's
murder. Hersh told me that although Assad had been deeply critical of Hariri and
regarded him as a corrupt man, he appeared astonished at the news. Yet the Druze
leader Jumblatt, among the world's greatest nihilists I should explain that he
rather likes this description had no doubt that Syria was to blame; indeed
that Syria had murdered his father Kamal because he "refused... Syria's
Anschluss".
Jumblatt was at his Beirut home when the explosion that killed Hariri thundered
across the city. "I knew at once that it must be Hariri," he told me. "It was
either going to be me or Hariri and it wasn't me. I felt I should go upstairs
and put on a black tie, but that this was a way of killing Hariri and I
hesitated. Then I called his house at Koreitem and they said that all his mobile
phones were dead; then I knew, and went upstairs and put on a black tie. At the
American University Hospital, I knew one of the people in the morgue and he told
me that Hariri was gone. So I got one of his sons into the car with me and told
him, 'The news is not good.'"
The slaughter led to a UN Security Council resolution that demanded and got
the withdrawal of Syria's 14,000 troops from Lebanon. They had first been sent
to Beirut with US President Jimmy Carter's approval to stop the civil war in
1976 they failed, of course, but stayed on to police the country for another
29 years, with men such as al-Hajj and Sayed working for them. After Hariri's
murder the UN inquiries blundered on, sometimes arresting the wrong men and
constantly promising "the truth" without providing it. One UN report was
released in New York with the names of Syrian security apparatchiks in the text.
It was hurriedly censored by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan the first
indication that Sister Syria might, after all, escape unscathed.
Jumblatt himself was so worried that the UN tribunal might be abandoned that he
set off to Washington and secured a 35-minute interview with George W Bush
only 10 minutes less than the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert received and
spent even longer with the head of the CIA. This was pretty suicidal stuff, an
anti-Syrian Lebanese politician talking to the neo-conservatives of the US about
the need for a tribunal to indict Syria. President Chirac of France had joined
the Americans in sponsoring the Security Council military-withdrawal call to
Damascus, although the Hariri-Chirac friendship was said to be based on business
as much as mutual admiration. (When in Paris, Hariri lived in the old home of
Gustave Eiffel and was widely believed to have helped fund Chirac's presidential
campaigns a subject Chirac avoided on his visits to Beirut. Chirac, who had
wanted to be friends with Bashar, felt personally betrayed by Hariri's murder.)
But Nicolas Sarkozy is no Chirac. He wanted to restore France's relations with
Syria not to mention Syria's relations with the French Total oil company and
invited Bashar to this year's Bastille Day bash on the Champs-Ιlysιes. Sarkozy
was duly invited to Damascus, then popped across to Beirut to reassure the
Lebanese that France was their best friend. There is a suspicion in the Lebanese
capital that all French presidents want, in their heart of hearts, to restore
France's prewar mandates over Lebanon and Syria General Henri Gouraud created
Lebanon out of Syria against the wishes of the country's Muslim population and a
young Captain Charles de Gaulle served that mandate in a villa which Hariri
later restored. It was a miserable story and one which Sarkozy has continued by
supporting the Doha peace agreement, which effectively gave the pro-Syrian
opposition in Beirut veto powers over cabinet decisions. In other words, Syrian
hegemony returned to Lebanon without its army.
All this while, the Hizballah militia or "resistance army", as it likes to
call itself remained a faithful friend (or servant) of Syria. After Hariri's
murder, its general-secretary, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, said that he sometimes
held secret meetings with Hariri to discuss the future of Lebanon. But I
remember Hariri expressing his anger at Nasrallah when he discovered that the
Hizballah intended to bury some of their south Lebanese "martyrs" in front of
Beirut International Airport a step unlikely to encourage more tourists or
businessmen to the country Hariri was trying to rebuild.
In Beirut, Hariri's memory is safeguarded by his anti-Syrian son Saad. But
Saad's power was brutally cut down when his ragtag militia failed to halt a
virtual Hizballah takeover of west Beirut in which they seized Saad's party
headquarters and closed down his television station. Jumblatt had warned Saad
not to collect a militia because the Hizballah could overwhelm it. But Saad went
ahead. He was wrong. Jumblatt was right.
And so Rafiq Hariri's reputation has been diminished by his son's failure. The
money is still intact, of course: the Hariris own parts of Houston, Texas, as
well as Beirut and Paris; and honest reflection by Beirut's bankers who are
not always very honest suggests that Hariri's rise to financial prominence
during the Syrian presence in Lebanon encouraged widespread corruption. At one
point, he ran two governments; a dull, official one that reflected Syria's views
and a "shadow" government of technocrats paid by Hariri himself, which actually
managed the country. When he first became prime minister in 1992, Hariri was
worth about $1bn. But he was primary shareholder in Solidere, the company that
built (and is still building) downtown Beirut, which left him worth $16bn at his
death, listed among Forbes' top 100 wealthiest men and women in the world and
the fourth-richest politician. Solidere appropriated the wrecked centre of
Beirut and compensated property owners with shares in the company that were
sometimes worth 15 per cent of the value. Money would be dispatched to
government ministers to "minimize the inconvenience" of their offices to use
the words of Thomas Cromwell in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons. Indeed,
there was something of Henry VIII in Hariri, a man who in the words of a
colleague reflecting on his business activities was overweight and ruthless
but quite prepared to smile like a cat that had just eaten the family
budgerigar.
Hence he became known as "Mr Lebanon", a dangerous title in a land so soaked in
blood. The integrity of Lebanon's internal quarrel remains intact despite its
people's intelligence and charm and kindness. And the Hizballah have shown a
side to this country that had never before been witnessed in Lebanon. Seeing
themselves as warriors rather than mere gunmen, they fought the Israeli army to
a standstill in the summer of 2006 and may do the same this year when a new
right-wing Israeli government might be provoked by Iran's most valuable ally in
Lebanon.
What would Hariri have said? He always believed Iran would try to play a major
role in Lebanon's internal politics. The Iranians became convinced that he was
killed by an off-shoot of al-Qa'ida from Iraq after holding a secret meeting
with Iraq's acting prime minister in Beirut. Other stories suggested something
had gone wrong in a Saudi-Russian arms deal which Hariri had negotiated.
Meanwhile, the UN tribunal has been given a home in The Hague in a former
Dutch intelligence headquarters so that its work can begin in February. Or
March. Or sometime this year. Even in late 2007, Serge Brammertz, who was then
in charge of the inquiry, was talking about the "extreme delicacy" of his work
because his investigation was "approaching a sensitive and complicated phase".
Ho hum, said the Lebanese. They knew what that meant. Then in mid-December last
year, the Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare the latest in a bewildering
range of UN officials to become involved announced that despite
"difficulties", the case of Hariri's murder could be solved. "Absolutely!" he
announced with Blair-like assurance. The Lebanese were not assured.
Will there ever be a trial? And even if there is, will it merely be a UN faηade
in which nameless murderers will be excoriated, Syria absolved from the crime
and Hariri's death remain unavenged? Will lawyers for the four Lebanese already
locked up succeed in their petitions to obtain at least their limited freedom?
Not once in more than three decades has a single political murder in Lebanon
ever been solved. Besides, just as the 2006 Israeli-Hizballah war overwhelmed
all interest in the UN investigation, there will be more crises and,
unfortunately, more violent conflicts in Lebanon to give Hariri's murder yet
further historical distance and dare one say it political irrelevancy. The
Lebanese would not agree with this. But the world might.
A few metres from the spot where he died, a larger-than-life statue of Rafiq
Hariri now stands on a plinth opposite the sea. It's a good likeness, the
overweight ex-prime minister with his hands shoved into his pockets, his
trousers curling slightly over his shoes, a proud, immensely wealthy, rather
frightening man who stares out over the city he rebuilt. Abed still keeps his
label over the mirror with "the truth" printed on it. But all of us in Beirut
are beginning to wonder if we will ever know what that is.
Where have our friends gone?
By Zvi Ba'rel
Haaretz 11/01/09
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked to speak with his Israeli
counterpart Ehud Olmert just before the start of Israel's offensive in Gaza.
Olmert avoided Erdogan because he did not want to tell the Turkish premier about
the coming attack. He did not want to be in Menachem Begin's situation when
Begin spoke to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat one time in 1981 and did not tell
him Israel was about to attack Iraq's nuclear reactor. As a result, Erdogan was
enraged and insulted. Turkish sources say Erdogan's campaign of insults against
Israel in recent weeks is a reaction to this.
"Israel is the biggest provoker of terror in the world," the Turkish justice
minister accused. Erdogan no longer wants to talk to Olmert, ties between Ankara
and the Israeli ambassador have been cut off, an Israeli basketball team was
attacked by fans in Ankara and Israeli tourists are advised to hold off on trips
to Turkey. "Being in Ankara feels like being in a hostile Arab country," an
Israeli official stationed in Turkey told Haaretz.
In Jordan, Prime Minister Nader al-Dahabi gave a speech in parliament asking to
"re-evaluate ties between Israel and Jordan," the first time this has happened
since the two countries made peace. No denials or corrections were issued.
"Jordan and Israel have important mutual interests," an Israeli foreign ministry
official said indifferently. Do they? Does that argument take into account
Jordan's delicate position regarding the Palestinians, Hamas or its general
public? How does that official respond to the Jordanian ambassador's return to
Amman?
Qatar, which is on the list of moderate countries, still allows in Israeli
representatives and holds talks with Israel, but it is now closer to the
Syrian-Iranian axis than the Saudi-Egyptian one. Of all the cease-fire
initiatives, Qatar favors the one by Syria, which supports Hamas. Qatar favors
this over the Egyptian proposal. Saudi Arabia, another moderate, has started to
talk about "turning its back" to its peace initiative unless the international
community stops Israel.
Just three weeks ago the regional leaders were euphoric. Turkey spoke about
continuing mediation between Israel and Syria, and its president was about to
visit Jerusalem; Syria talked about direct negotiations with Israel; Jordan was
steadfast in its traditional position of guaranteed friendship with Israel; the
foreign ministers of Qatar and Israel acted like best buddies; and Saudi Foreign
Minister Saud al-Faisal said his country had no intention of abandoning the
Saudi peace initiative just because the Israeli right was benefiting from it.
Such scenes have disappeared. Even our friendly partner, Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas, has cut his ties. Israel is again in a familiar
situation: a threatened state, not speaking to any of its neighbors and not
willing for anyone to waste its time with talks.
Short-term tactics - that's all Israel is capable of. On the issue of relations
with Turkey? They'll need us when the U.S. Congress debates the massacres of the
Armenians. Upset Jordanians? They get water from us and signed a free trade
agreement with the United States thanks to us. Qatar? It leans on our U.S. ally
for support. Now it wants to join the axis of evil? And Syria too is turning its
back on us? We've told everyone there is no partner for peace. Our key industry
is war, not peace or talks with our neighbors. We want only want Arabs as
enemies.
For a moment it seemed like we convinced ourselves that ties with the Arabs were
not important until it turned out we needed Egypt's help to solve our "problems"
with Hamas, and that Qatar helped solve the crisis in Lebanon. And Jordan is
able to keep the border safe and until only recently we wanted so badly to meet
with the Saudi king.
And there's one more small, pestering problem keeping us from enjoying our
indifference toward our neighbors. Who has gained so far from the situation? So
far it is Hamas, which can claim to have undermined greatly Israel's ties with
Turkey, Jordan and Qatar. And it has only just begun.