LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 18/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 13,16-20. Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it. I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, 'The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.' From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me."

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Jimmy Carter: a fool on a fool's errand-By Michael Young 17/04/08
Hizbullah's guns are a symptom, not a cause, of what ails Lebanon-The Daily Star 17/04/08
A new kind of war: remembering Beirut 25 years on-By David Ignatius 17/04/08
Naharnet: Interview with Lebanese MP. Jawad Boloulos 17/04/08
Do the Jews Have Any Less Right to Palestine than the Arabs?/ By: Aref  Alwan 17/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 18/08
Pope advises US to rely more on diplomacy-AFP
Jubilant Hamas officials head for Cairo to meet with Carter-AFP
Oil passes $115 on supply fears, new dollar slump-AFP
Tehran supplies cheap condoms, needles for addicts-AFP
Livni hosts US official to compare notes on region-AFP
Major powers fail to agree on agenda for Iran nuclear talks-AFP
New US Jewish group aims to counterbalance AIPAC-By Inter Press Service
Berri dialogue pitch makes no headway as next election session draws near
Hizbullah questions missing Syrian, detention of generals-Daily Star  
Will Lebanese leaders accomplish anything with regional tours?-Daily Star  
Survivors, widows recall 1983 US Embassy bombing-Daily Star  
SSNP accuses Rice of overt meddling-Daily Star
Safadi laments impact of presidential hiatus-Daily Star  
Ban demurs on detention of ex-security chiefs-Daily Star  
EU envoy backs Saudi line on Lebanon, region-Daily Star
Berlusconi to revisit rules for Italian UNIFIL troops-Daily Star  
Fadlallah accuses Washington of using Lebanon to pressure regional foes-Daily Star  
Hizbullah lashes out at globalapathy toward Israeli violations-Daily Star
Labor stands by wage demands, vows general strike on May 7-Daily Star  
Photo exhibition at children's science museum puts focus on rare wildlife-Daily Star
US charge d'affaires touts American training assistance at ISF ceremony-Daily Star  
Doctors, lawyers join forces to fight drug addiction-Daily Star  
Lecture hails French language as bringer of peace, freedoms-Daily Star  
Key players discuss ways to improve state hospitals-Daily Star  
White House crowd sings 'Happy Birthday' to pope-AP
MP. Amar Houry Accuses Berri of Seeking to Finish Off the Arab Initiative-Naharnet
SSNP Wants Coordination with Russia and China-Naharnet
Fadlallah Warns against Arab-Israeli Alliance-Naharnet
Qabalan Wants Saniora to Visit Iran-Naharnet
Hizbullah Slams International 'Inaction' over Israeli Incursions-Naharnet
U.N. Calls for Hizbullah Disarmament, Respect for Blue Line-Naharnet
Rice, Gates Cite Nahr al-Bared Fighting to Urge Extension of Security-Assistance Legislation-Naharnet
PLO Accuses FPM of Victimizing Palestinians-Naharnet
UN Says Its Lebanon Resolution Still in Force-AINA
Qassem Accuses US of Prolonging Lebanon Crisis-Naharnet
Washington Keener to See Lebanese President Elected-Naharnet
Security Council urges solution to Israel-Lebanon conflict-The Associated Press
Deadly merriment, the fallout from celebratory gunfire-CBC.ca
Shibani: Iran Welcomes Possible Saniora Visit-Naharnet
Sison Congratulates ISF Cadets Trained by U.S. Instructors-Naharnet
Qassem Accuses U.S. of Prolonging Lebanon Crisis-Naharnet
Fadlallah Attacks Livni's Visit to Qatar-Naharnet
Phalange Party, Palestinians Reconcile After 33 Years-Naharnet
Berri Criticizes Adding Lebanese-Syrian relations to Arab Initiative-Naharnet
Lavrov Urges Lebanese to Prevent Foreign Intervention-Naharnet
Assad to Hoss: Ready to Help 'Brethren'-Naharnet
Barak For U.N. Move to Enforce 1701-Naharnet
American Strike on Iran likely-Naharnet
Ahmadinejad: 9/11 Attacks Were Pretext to Invade Iraq, Afghanistan-Naharnet
U.S. National Security Advisor in Israel for Talks on Iran-Naharnet

Pope advises US to rely more on diplomacy
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Thursday, April 17, 2008
WASHINGTON: Pope Benedict XVI urged US President George W. BushMBA-Presidents Sep-07 on Wednesday to use "patient diplomacy to resolve conflicts," but did not mention the Iraq war to which the Vatican has been opposed - or America's refusal to rule out an attack on Iran over that country's nuclear program. "America has traditionally shown herself generous in meeting immediate human needs, fostering development and offering relief to the victims of natural catastrophes," Benedict told a ceremony at the White House on his first US visit as pope.
"I am confident that this concern for the greater human family will continue to find expression in support for the patient efforts of international diplomacy to resolve conflicts and promote progress," he said. "In this way, coming generations will be able to live in a world where truth, freedom and justice can flourish - a world where the God-given dignity and rights of every man, woman and child are cherished, protected and effectively advanced."
The pope also backed international efforts to make the United Nations "an ever more effective voice for the legitimate aspirations of all the world's peoples."
"The need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity," he said.
The Bush administration has been widely criticized for working outside the United Nations, as in the case of Iraq, which it invaded in 2003 without a UN mandate. Washington has worked with the UN to pressure Iran over what is says is that country's plan to develop nuclear weapons, but it has also reserved the right to act unilaterally. The pope also praised the vibrant religious life in the United States, and urged Americans not to lose sight of the right of "each individual and group.
"Historically ... all believers have found here the freedom to worship God in accordance with the dictates of their conscience, while at the same time being accepted as part of a commonwealth in which each individual and group can make its voice heard," he said. "As the nation faces the increasingly complex political and ethical issues of our time, I am confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned, responsible and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more humane and free society." - AFP

Rice, Gates Cite Nahr al-Bared Fighting to Urge Extension of Security-Assistance Legislation
Naharnet/U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said last year's battles between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam fighters at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp would have had a different ending had the U.S. not been able to provide immediate help. "I think had the United States not been able to respond to the needs of the Lebanese armed forces for immediate military assistance in fighting the al-Qaida-linked terrorists in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, we might have seen a very different outcome," Rice told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. "In the case that we were able to respond, we saw a Lebanese army and a Lebanese government -- democratically elected government -- able to respond to that exigency," she said.
Rice's comments came as she and Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought Congressional approval to give the Pentagon permanent authority over training and equipping foreign militaries, in a shifting of roles from the State Department. The two officials also urged authorization for the Defense Department to spend 750 million dollars in 2009 in helping foreign militaries. Gates told members of the committee that the foreign military assistance program is "a vital and enduring military requirement, irrespective of the capacity of other departments, and its authorities and funding mechanisms should reflect that reality." He gave the example of Lebanon and other countries to reveal the success of the current program. He said among military assistance to other countries was "providing urgently needed parts and ammunition to the Lebanese army to defeat a serious al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist threat in a Palestinian refugee camp."
"We need help from the Congress to sustain this program that military leaders from combatant commanders to brigade level say they need," Gates said.
Gates and Rice cast the proposals as part of a broader effort to make U.S. government agencies work together more effectively in dealing with suddenly emerging security challenges. Traditionally the State Department oversees the foreign military assistance programs as part of U.S. diplomacy, even as the U.S. military had a key role in implementing them. But since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the Pentagon has sought to be able to move more quickly to help allied militaries. Congress has authorized the Pentagon to run military train and equip programs over the past three years, but the authority expires at the end of this year.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 07:34

Washington Keener to See Lebanese President Elected
Naharnet/U.S. Charge d'Affaires Michele Sison denied that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the absence of a president in Lebanon was not a problem and that her top priority was to keep Premier Fouad Saniora as head of the executive body. Sison told An Nahar daily on Wednesday that the Bush administration wanted presidential elections in Lebanon to be held as soon as possible. She stressed that Lebanon was still a priority and that Washington has the same objectives of the Arab initiative in terms of electing a new Lebanese head of state and ending the presidential vacuum.  As Safir daily on Monday quoted Rice as telling foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council that her concern was to keep Saniora in power and not the election of a new Lebanese president. "What's wrong with keeping the situation in Lebanon as it is? Our priority is to keep Fouad Saniora as head of the democratically elected government…and that he acts according to the powers granted to him and the president," An Arab diplomatic source quoted Rice as saying. Sison described as nonsense accusations against the United States that it wants to prolong the crisis gripping Lebanon and back the government rather than a new president. She told An Nahar that her country was keener to see that a president is elected, expressing hope that parliament would choose a new head of state during a session scheduled for April 22. Lebanon has been without a president since November, when Emile Lahoud stepped down with no successor elected. Seventeen sessions in parliament to elect a successor to Lahoud have failed since November amid bickering between the majority and the opposition. A new session is scheduled for April 22. Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 05:36

SSNP Wants Coordination with Russia and China
Naharnet/The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) on Wednesday urged the Hizbullah-led opposition to coordinate with Russia and China in efforts aimed at finishing off "U.S. hegemony."The SSNP, which advocates the merger of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Cyprus, also criticized a statement by president of the U.N. Security Council on implementation of resolution 1701 as "misguiding."The party, which is allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, also accused the March 14 majority alliance of "following a U.S. agenda by rejecting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's initiative." Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 17:34

Houry Accuses Berri of Seeking to Finish Off the Arab Initiative
Naharnet/MP Ammar Houry on Wednesday accused Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri of seeking to finish off the Arab initiative designed to settle Lebanon's ongoing political crisis. Houry, in a radio interview, said Berri's attempt to sponsor dialogue among leaders of the various factions is designed as a "substitute to opening parliament gates" so that MPs would be able to elect a president. "Any dialogue should be presided over by the elected President Gen. Michel Suleiman. We should elect Gen. Suleiman immediately," he added.He criticized calls by factions of the Hizbullah-led opposition to re-adopt the 1960 general elections law, saying: "the 1960 law was designed to elect 99 legislators. Now our parliament is made up of 128 seats, so what to do with the extra 29 legislators?" Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 18:04

U.N. Calls for Hizbullah Disarmament, Respect for Blue Line
Naharnet/The U.N. Security Council called for the disarming of Hizbullah and all other militias in Lebanon and urged Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and long-term solution based on full respect for the Blue Line along their border. In a statement read out by the council's president for April, South African Ambassador to the U.N. Dumisani Kumalo, said the council "reiterates its commitment to the full implementation of all provisions of Resolution 1701" which ended the monthlong war between Israel and Hizbullah in August 2006. That Resolution brought an end to a devastating 34-day Israeli military offensive against Lebanon, launched after Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid. The council "takes note of the progress as well as of the concerns expressed" by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the resolution's implementation in his latest report on the matter. The statement, adopted unanimously by the 15-member council, "emphasizes the need for greater progress on all the key issues required for a permanent ceasefire and long term solution."
It does not spell out, however, what these "key issues" are. Council members also urged all parties in the region "to intensify their efforts" to comply with the text which has demanded the pullout of the Israeli army from south Lebanon and its replacement by a U.N.-backed Lebanese army deployment. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) monitors the separation of forces following the war.
The resolution also called for the disarming of all militias -- an allusion to Hizbullah as well as to Palestinian militant groups -- and the prevention of illegal arms sales and smuggling operations in Lebanon. On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Syria was still supplying weapons to Hizbullah.
"Resolution 1701 is not being applied," Barak said. "The transfer of rockets from Syria to Lebanon is continuing and Hizbullah's military build-up is continuing."
He called on the Security Council "to act and see how the resolution is applied and enforced." The U.N. chief, speaking to reporters, said he hoped Syria and Lebanon "will be able to resolve these border issues so that this border will be transparent, without any illegal, illicit transfer of illegal arms."
Ban added that he had not decided when to send a U.N. mission "to facilitate the border demarcation issues, but I will continue to consult on this matter with the countries concerned." The U.N. resolution failed to resolve a key territorial dispute that Hizbullah had used to justify its attacks on Israel -- the Israeli occupation of a small parcel of land north of its border called the Shebaa Farms.
UNIFIL, created in 1978 after an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, saw its mission extended by resolution 1701. It currently has 13,500 troops along with 1,000 civilian employees, compared to only 2,000 before 2006. South Africa's ambassador said in the statement read after Tuesday's meeting that the Council gives its full support to UNIFIL and welcomes its recent enhanced cooperation with the Lebanese army.
The statement also urged all parties to abide by their obligations to respect the safety of U.N. personnel in south Lebanon. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said negotiations on the "good, acceptable" statement took time because it involved different countries inside and outside the Security Council. "With regard to the implementation, I think there are pluses and minuses there," he said. "We would like to see more progress on disarming militias."(AFP-AP-Naharnet) Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 04:29

American Strike on Iran 'Likely'
Naharnet/A ranking official with a pro-Israeli lobbying group in the United Sates says a military strike on Iran is "likely" but awaits a "major provocation."
An-Nahar's Sarkis Naoum quoted the unnamed official as saying "two factors delay the American strike: First-its financial and humanitarian costs. Second-the lack of major provocation to justify it." "The president (Bush) told me that he would order it (strike) once its conditions are available … it would usher him into history," the source added. He said such a strike "would not include landing operations and no overland war. It would be restricted to air war that would demolish everything."The source advised Naoum to "follow up the deployment of our fleets in Hormuz (straits) and the Mediterranean and you would know if we would hit Iran or not."In answering a question as to whether Israel would take part in attacking Iran, the source said: "… Iran, certainly, is a very serious threat to Israel, either directly or through Hizbullah and Hamas.""Hizbullah has rearmed and redeployed both south and north of the Litani River and UNIFIL doesn't do anything about it," he added. "Maybe Hizbullah would make use of a wide-ranging war in Gaza to strike in Lebanon," the source added. Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 13:00

Shibani: Iran Welcomes Possible Saniora Visit
Naharnet/Iran's ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Reza Shibani discussed with Prime Minister Fouad Saniora regional and bilateral developments.
Shibani told reporters after Tuesday's meeting that he also discussed with Saniora ways to promote Lebanese-Iranian relations.
Shibani stressed that Iran "respects all official institutions and the constitution of Lebanon." He reiterated Tehran's support for "resolving the political crisis in Lebanon" and the election of a President "through diplomatic efforts." On Saniora's possible visit to Iran, Shibani said Iran "welcomes" such a trip "if it helps find a solution to the country's problem." Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 11:33

Sison Congratulates ISF Cadets Trained by U.S. Instructors
Naharnet/U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Michele Sison congratulated the first 166 Internal Security Forces cadet graduates of a U.S.-funded training program and presented them with their certificates, the U.S. embassy said in a statement on Tuesday. It said the "program is part of the ongoing $60 million law enforcement assistance program, which is assisting the Internal Security Forces to enforce the rule of law and protect the Lebanese people within their sovereign state."
The embassy said U.S. instructors and curriculum developers with the assistance of Lebanese police and legal professionals taught the police recruits during the 10-week training program. The recruits "are instructed in the latest policing and law enforcement skills and how to apply these to real life situations. Modern police practices, administration, democratic policing, human rights, criminal investigations and other essential law enforcement skills are all part of the program," the embassy said. Sison announced during the graduation ceremony a new ISF visitor program to the U.S. "We will invite a small, selected group of Internal Security Forces police trainees, instructors and officers to the United States to meet with their professional colleagues. The participants will observe and exchange best practices with U.S. police departments, academies, and, criminal units," she said.The U.S. government has been assisting the ISF in its development since October 2006 through different programs, the embassy statement said. Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 05:48

Qassem Accuses U.S. of Prolonging Lebanon Crisis
Naharnet/Hizbullah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem has slammed Washington, accusing it of prolonging the political crisis in Lebanon.
"The United States is not hurrying to reach a settlement in Lebanon that achieves partnership between the ruling (March 14) coalition and the (Hizbullah-led) opposition," Qassem said in remarks published Wednesday. He said that if Washington was prompted to choose between partnership and maintaining the government of Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, the U.S. would "undoubtedly select the second option." Qassem stressed that March 14 "simply cannot override the American stance" no matter what the coalition's position was regarding an end to the Lebanon crisis. He maintained that the "real problem" was between Lebanon and the United States, not between Lebanon and Syria. Qassem accused March 14 of intending to deceive the opposition once Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman is elected President."They want us to elect Suleiman and after that they will turn their back on us concerning creation of a national unity government and drafting of a new election law," Qassem said. Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 07:49 

Fadlallah Attacks Livni's Visit to Qatar
Naharnet/Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric sharply criticized Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's visit to Qatar, saying her comments about Hizbullah and Hamas reflect Israel's "brazenness and arrogance." Livni's two-day visit to Doha was her first to any Gulf state. Qatar has no diplomatic ties with Israel, but the two nations maintain low-level trade relations. Speaking at a democracy and trade forum Monday, Livni said Israel and Arab states are mired in the same struggle with extremists like Iranian-backed Hizbullah and Hamas. "We, the moderates of the region, are all members of the same camp," Livni said. Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah issued a statement calling Livni's trip and her remarks "a big insult to all Arabs and Muslims." Such trips are designed to drive a wedge between Arab countries willing to make peace with Israel, and those who are not, the statement said. "The visits ... are not only meant to normalize (Israel's ties with Arab countries)...but are also designed to pave the way for an Arab-Israeli alliance against other Arabs and Muslims who refuse to let the usurper entity (Israel) liquidate the Palestinian people," Fadlallah was quoted as saying. Fadlallah, 72, is the top religious authority for Lebanon's Shiites and has followers across the Middle East. He is a strong supporter of Hamas and other radical Palestinian factions that fight Israeli occupation. He also supports Hizbullah.
Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 12:06

Kuwait Charges 7 Shiites for Eulogizing Mughniyeh
Naharnet/Seven Kuwaitis will be put on trial for allegedly sending a statement to Lebanese and Iranian television stations eulogizing slain Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, their lawyer has said.Prosecutors charged the men, who are all Shiites, with "spreading false news about the situation in the country" for sending the statement that "weakened the position of the state abroad," said defense attorney Abdul-Karim bin Haidar on Tuesday. He said his clients deny any connection to the statement that eulogized Mughniyeh who was killed in a Damascus car bombing Feb. 12. The statement was broadcast by Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV station in Lebanon and Iran's state-run Arabic satellite channel Al-Alam. Shortly after Mughniyeh's assassination, hundreds of Shiites gathered in a Kuwait City suburb to mourn him as a martyr and a hero. The ceremony provoked an uproar in the predominantly Sunni country that blames Mughniyeh for hijacking a Kuwait Airways flight in 1988 and murdering two of its passengers. A Kuwaiti criminal court will begin hearing the case against the men, who include four former legislators and one cleric, on April 30, bin Haidar said. If convicted, they could face a minimum of three years in jail, he said.(AP-Naharnet) Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 10:10

Phalange Party, Palestinians Reconcile After 33 Years
The Phalange Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization ended 33 years of animosity which developed between the two groups when Christian militias ambushed a bus April 13, 1975, killing 30 Palestinians. The ambush was said to be in retaliation for an earlier attack in which unidentified gunmen in a speeding car fired on a church in Ain El Rummaneh, killing four people, including two Phalangists. The "bus massacre" triggered a conflict between the Christian party and the PLO which soon widened into general warfare between Lebanon's Christians and Muslims, killing 150,000 people. "People don't learn from history, but learn (in the stream of) history - through bitter trials, rather than from what is written and read concerning the past," former President Amin Gemayel said during a meeting held on Tuesday to mark the signing of mutual forgiveness pacts between the Phalangists and Palestinian leaders 33 years after the outbreak of the civil war. PLO representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki expressed Palestinian regrets with regard to earlier actions in Lebanon. The conference, held at Phalange Party headquarters in Saifi, was attended by representatives from Druze leader Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party and the Democratic Left Party. Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 09:18

No Mass Grave Found in Halat
The judiciary on Tuesday interrogated three suspects on charges of spreading misguiding information regarding an alleged mass grave in the northern region of Halat and released them pending completion of the investigation. Regional Prosecutor for Mount Lebanon Ghassan Oueidat also ordered the interrogation of journalist Manal Shaaya in connection with reporting on the alleged mass grave, but she failed to report to his office pending interference by the newspaper editors' syndicate.
The three were identified as Jacqueline Elias al-Rai, Milad al-Rai and Joseph Abi Sharr. They were interrogated for four hours and released pending completion of the probe, a reliable source said. The interrogation was launched after a police force completed excavations in the site in search of the alleged mass grave, but found nothing. The state-run National News Agency said the search for the alleged mass grave ended by 3 p.m. after digging through 80 meters of the highway in the northern Halat region "without finding a trace to the (alleged) mass grave."MPs Shamel Mouzaya and Abbas Hashem, members of Gen. Michel Aoun's Change and Reform Bloc, expressed reservation regarding the whole search operation. Mouzaya said the operation was carried out "without proper measures." He called for expanding the search by three meters towards the east and west from the center of the highway. He described the search effort as "play acting."
Hashem also said the operation should have sought the help of "experts in criminology." Beirut, 15 Apr 08, 17:55

The Jews Have an Historic Right to Palestine
Iraqi Author 'Aref 'Alwan
MEMRI
April 15, 2008 No. 1897
In an article posted December 7, 2007, on the leftist website www.ahewar.org, [1] 'Aref 'Alwan, an Iraqi author and playwright who resides in London and is the author of 12 novels, [2] states that the Jews have an historic right to Palestine because their presence there preceded the Arab conquest and has continued to this day.
In the article, titled "Do the Jews Have Any Less Right to Palestine than the Arabs?" 'Alwan called on the Arab world to acknowledge the Jews' right to Palestine, because justice demanded it and also because doing so would end the violence and the killing of Arabs, as well as intra-Arab strife. He added that such a move would also open up new avenues for the Arab world that would be more consistent with the values and needs of modern society.
'Alwan writes that the Arab League is to blame for the refusal to recognize the 1947 U.N. partition plan, for starting a war to prevent its implementation, and for the results of that war, which the Arabs call the Nakba (disaster). He points an accusing finger at the Arab regimes, the Arab League, and the educated circles in the Arab world, saying that they had all used the term "nakba" to direct popular consciousness toward a cultural tradition that neither accepts the other side nor recognizes its rights - thereby promoting bigotry, violence and extremism. He also claims that there have been attempts to rewrite Palestinian history, in order to deny any connection between it and the Jewish people.
'Alwan contends that the "Nakba mentality" among Arabs has boomeranged, giving rise to tyrannical rulers, extremist clerics, and religious zealots of every description. In his view, the Arab world will never shed the stigma of terrorism in the West unless it abandons this concept and all that it entails.
To boost his claim that the Jews have an historic right to Palestine, 'Alwan provides an overview of Jewish history in the land of Israel. He questions the validity of the Islamic traditions underpinning the Arab claim to Palestine, Jerusalem, and the TempleMount, and presents evidence that religions that preceded Islam had conducted rituals on the TempleMount.
As an example of the traditional Arab mentality that does not accept the other or recognize his rights, 'Alwan discusses the Arabs' abuse of the Kurds in Iraq and of the Christians in Egypt and Lebanon.
The following are excerpts from the article:
The Nakba: A Great Lie
"When the Salafi mob in Gaza tied the hands and feet of a senior Palestinian official and hurled him, alive, from the 14th floor, I asked myself: What political or religious precepts must have been inculcated into the minds of these young people to make them treat a human life with such shocking cruelty?
"Earlier, I had watched on TV as the bodies of two Israeli soldiers were thrown from the second floor [of a building] in a Palestinian city. Whether or not it was the same Salafi mob behind that incident, [one asks oneself]: What language, [or rather,] what historic linguistic distortion could have erased from the human heart [all] moral sensibilities when dealing with a living and helpless human being?
"Arabs who are averse to such inhuman behavior must help me expose and eliminate the enormous lie that has for 60 years justified, extolled, and supported brutality. [Such behavior] is no longer limited to the expression of unconscious [impulses] by individuals, but constitutes a broad cultural phenomenon, which began in Lebanon, [spread to] Iraq and Palestine, and then [spread] - slowly but surely - to other Arab states as well.
"This enormous lie is what the Arabs called the Nakba - that is, the establishment of two states in Palestine: the state of Israel, which the Jews agreed to accept, and the state of Palestine, which the Arabs rejected.
"In our times, when science, with its accurate instruments, can predict climatic changes that will lead to drought or the movement of tectonic plates that causes earthquakes, it is inconceivable that a modern man can, without making a laughingstock of himself, attribute the destruction of cities ancient or modern to the wrath of Allah. Nevertheless, today, 80% of Arabs claim this to be the case. They are neither embarrassed nor afraid of being laughed at.
"This high percentage includes not only the illiterates who densely populate rural areas, villages, and small and large cities, but also students, teachers, lecturers, graduates of institutions of higher education, scientists, technology experts, physicians, graduates of religious universities such as Al-Azhar, historians, and politicians who have held or are currently holding public office.
"It is those numerous educated elites who have forced the Arab mentality into a narrow, restrictive, and deficient cultural mold, spewing violence, terrorism, and zealotry, and prohibiting innovative thought... All this was done to instill a false sense of oppression in the hearts of the Arabs, and to destroy them with the infectious disease of despair and confusion.
"[This attitude] is rooted in the 1947 Arab League resolution stating that Palestine is a 'stolen' land and that none but a Muslim Arab is entitled to benefit from it as an autonomous [political entity], even if another's historic roots there predate those of the Muslims or the Arabs."
The Nakba Boomerang
"[The upshot] of this confusion in [Arab] mentality is that the lie has boomeranged on the Arabs. [Thus] appeared [on the scene] Saddam Hussein, Hafez Al-Assad, Bashar Al-Assad, Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, Hassan Nasrallah, Nabih Berri, Khaled Mash'al, Isma'il Haniya, and Mahmoud Al-Zahar, whose young [thugs] threw the senior Palestinian official from the 14th floor. Finally, from the foot of the eastern mountains bordering the Middle East came Ahmadinejad, who is committed to preparing the way for the anarchy and destruction that accompanies the advent of the long-awaited Mahdi, who will resolve the Palestinian problem.
"Today, owing to the ideological distortions that have afflicted the Arab popular consciousness since the so-called Nakba, and [also owing] to the lies that have accumulated around this notion, [the label of] 'terrorism' has become attached to Arabs, wherever they are.
"Despite the great political and cultural efforts by large and important Arab states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and some Gulf states to restore Arab ties with the rest of the world, and to curb the culture of terrorism in Arab societies, they have all failed. This is because these attempts to rectify [the situation], from both within and without [the Arab countries], both stemmed from and were a logical extension of the concept of the Nakba.
"This proves that the Arabs have no hope of extricating themselves from the cultural and political challenge of terrorism unless they come up with [new] and different [fundamental] premises, and with an outlook completely free of the fetters of the religious ritual that they have devised in modern times and called the Nakba.
"Although Palestinian senior officials, leaders, educated circles, and public figures, whose patriotism is beyond doubt, have come to terms with the existence of the State of Israel, the aforementioned 80% of Arabs... do not accept this view, and consider it religious apostasy. Leaders of the [Arab] states in the region, and party leaders, inflame sentiment, entrancing them with the drumbeat of extremism.
"With the strident chorus of its secretaries, the Arab League ensures that every car crash in Gaza or the West Bank is interpreted as an Israeli conspiracy against the Arab future. This is because the Arab League... was established as a pan-Arab entity whose main function was to write reports and studies rife with distortions of fact so as to quell the conscience of any Arab who dared think independently and expunge [the concept of] the Nakba from his consciousness. [It has done] this instead of devising creative strategies for cultural and economic development, so as to improve the deteriorating standard of living in the Arab societies."
The Nakba is Rooted in a Culture that Does Not Recognize the Right of the Other
"Why did the partition resolution, which gave a state in Palestine to the Jews and one to the Arabs next to it, become the Nakba - [the star] that rises and sets daily over the Arab lands without emitting even the tiniest ray of light to illuminate the path for their peoples?
"Did the Jews have any less right to Palestine than the Arabs? What historic criteria can be used to determine the precedence of one [nation's] right over that of the other?
"Refusing to recognize the right of the other so as to usurp his rights was a governing principle of the Islamic conquests from the time of 'Omar bin Al-Khattab; during that historical period it was the norm. [But] at the turn of the [20th] century, this principle was abandoned and prohibited, because it sparked wars and [violent] conflict. The international community passed laws restricting the principle of non-acceptance of the other, in the founding principles of the League of Nations in 1919. Subsequently, with the U.N.'s establishment, these laws were developed [further], with appendices and commentary, to adapt them to the current historical era and to express the commonly accepted values of national sovereignty and peoples' right to self-determination.
"But because of their sentimental yearning for the past and zealous adherence to [old] criteria, the Arabs purged their hearts of any inclination to adjust to the spirit of the age. They thus became captives of the principle of non-acceptance of the other and of denying the other [the right] to live, [among] other rights.
"As a result, damage was done to the rights and interests of non-Arab nations and ethnic groups in the Arab lands - among them the Kurds, the Copts, and the Jews. [Thus,] the Arabs still treat the numerous minorities that came under their dominion 1,400 years ago in accordance with the laws from the era of Arab conquest.
"Despite the consequences of denying the other the right to exist, not to mention other rights - that is, [despite] the oppression, conflicts, wars, and instability [resulting from this]... the Arabs have steadfastly clung to their clearly chauvinist position. All problems in the region arising from minorities' increasing awareness of their rights have been dealt with by the Arabs in accordance with [the principle of non-acceptance]... [even] after the emergence of international institutions giving these rights legal validity, in keeping with the mentality and rationale of our time."
Refusing to Accept the Other: The Kurds in Iraq; the Christians in Egypt and Lebanon
The Kurds
"The denial of the Kurds' national rights by the Iraqi government, and the Arab League's support for it, has brought on wars lasting 50 years - that is, three-quarters of the life span of the state that arose in Iraq...
"After fabricating arguments to justify the [1921] combining of the Basra region with the Baghdad region in order to establish a new state in Iraq, British colonialist interests demanded that a large area historically populated by Kurds be added to the new state. [This was done] to satisfy the aspirations of King Faisal bin Al-Hussein [bin Ali Al-Hashemi], who had been proposed as head of state in return for protecting British interests in the region.
"In his persistent refusal to grant the Kurds their rights, from 1988 through 1989 Saddam Hussein murdered approximately 180,000 Kurds, in an organized [genocidal] campaign he called 'Al-Anfal.' He then used mustard gas against one [Kurdish] city (Halabja), killing its residents (5,000 people). The Arab conscience silently acquiesced to this human slaughterhouse, while Arab League secretary-general (Shadhli Al-Qalibi) called the international press coverage of these events 'a colonialist conspiracy against the Arabs and the Iraqi regime.'
"Syrian Kurds are considered second-class citizens, and are banned from using their language or [practicing] their culture in public."
The Christians in Egypt and Lebanon
"The ethnic oppression of the Kurds [in Iraq] was echoed by sectarian extremism against the Copts [in Egypt]. In both cases, the Arabs used the principle of denying the existence of the other so as to strip him of his rights.
"The Copts, who [initially] assimilated Arabs into their society, but who have over time themselves assimilated into Arab society, discover time and again that this assimilated state is but a surface shell, which quickly cracks whenever they demand equality... As a result, Egypt, as a state, is gripped by constant social tensions that keep rising to the surface and threatening to undermine its stability...
"Sectarian extremism in Egypt took the form of an organized party with the 1928 emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, with the aim of splitting Egyptian society into two mutually hostile and conflicting parts. This was in line with the Arab religious and political principle of denying legitimacy to all non-Muslims or non-Arabs, [a principle practiced] since the Muslim armies reached Egypt in 639 [CE]...
"In Lebanon, the presence of armed Palestinian militias - which was in accordance with the decision of the Arab states - encouraged the formation of Lebanese militias, both Sunni and Shi'ite. Chanting slogans proclaiming Palestinian liberation, they frightened Christians by appearing armed in streets swarming with Lebanese [citizens] and tourists.
"This eventually led to a confrontation with Christian militias, which had also armed themselves out of fear of the pan-Arab slogans and fear for the [preservation of] the rights of the Christian sects.
"Lebanon was engulfed by an ugly 15-year civil war, that ended only after Syria, which had played an ignominious role as instigator [of the hostilities], attained full protectorate status over Lebanese affairs and the Lebanese people - [and this] took on the nature of colonialist hegemony...
"After the Lebanese were liberated from this [Syrian] control, in 2005 the clouds of civil war - albeit of a different kind - reappeared on the Lebanese horizon. The Arab League is making no effort to prevent the eruption [of this civil war] for two main reasons. First, the Syrian regime still supports ethnic tension, in order to regain control of Lebanon; and second, the current majority government, which opposes the renewed Syrian influence, is predominantly Christian...
"We had hoped that the Arab national conscience would recover from the illness afflicting it since the time of the Nakba, and that it would adopt [views] which, if not ahead of their time, would at least be appropriate to our time. But a group of journalists, writers, and several Arab historians guided by the principle of non-acceptance of the other has twisted the facts and concocted a false and gloomy history of the region - thereby trampling these dreams to the ground."
Jews Have a Rich and Ancient History in Palestine
"The Arabs see the Palestinian problem as exceedingly complicated, while it actually appears so only to them - [that is], from the point of view of the Arabs' emotional attitudes and their national and religious philosophy. The Arabs have amassed false claims regarding their exclusive right to the Palestinian land, [and] these are based on phony arguments and on several axioms taken from written and oral sources - most of which they [themselves] created after the Islamic, and which they forbade anyone, Arab or foreigner, from questioning.
"When the Arabs agreed to U.N. arbitration... to resolve the Palestinian problem, it transpired that their axioms clearly contradicted reliable historical documents [that] this new international organization [had in its possession]. As a result, they wasted decades stubbornly defending the validity of their documents, which do not correspond to the officially accepted version of the region's history - which is based on concrete and solid evidence [such as] archaeological findings in the land of Palestine, the holy books of the three monotheistic religions, accounts by Roman, Greek, and Jewish historians... and modern historical research..."
Jewish and Christian Ritual Sites in Jerusalem Predate Muslim Sites
"[A look at] the story of Al-Aqsa is now in order - a site considered holy by Muslim Arabs, who call it 'Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif' [The Noble Sanctuary] and [believe that] it was set aside for them by Allah since the time of Adam.
"[This site] contains several places of worship, including the Dome of the Rock, built by the [Umayyad Caliph] 'Abd Al-Malik bin Marwan in the seventh century CE - that is, 72 years after the Muslim conquests. This religious public gathering place was erected over a prominent [foundation] stone at the peak of 'Mount Moriah.' [Mount Moriah] contains three ancient Jewish public worship sites, as well as [some] Christian sites... The octagonal structure of the Dome of the Rock Mosque was constructed on the site of an ancient Byzantine church, adjoining Solomon's Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
"Since the majority of Muslims claim that the Temple Mount is an Islamic site to which no one else is entitled, they do not acknowledge the presence of Jewish and Christian places of worship predating the Dome of the Rock within its walls...
"The Arabs take great pride in their tolerance of and benign treatment of the Jews and Christians who lived under the Muslim rule since the Muslim conquests. This account is part of the distortions underpinning the edifice of the Arabs' religious and national culture. [Arab] writers and historians keep eulogizing this epoch... while the truth is the opposite of what they claim. [Indeed,] the Pact of 'Omar [compelled] the Jews and the Christians to choose between either abandoning their religion and embracing Islam, or paying the [poll] tax in return for being permitted to reside... and receive protection of life and property in their homeland. [The Pact of 'Omar] allowed them to practice their religion, build new houses of worship, and repair the old ones [only] with the permission of a Muslim ruler, and subject to numerous conditions.
"In subsequent historical periods, the Muslims imposed [additional restrictions] on the members of [these] two religions: They forbade them to raise their voices during prayer; [they forced them] to conduct their prayers and religious ceremonies in closed areas so as not [to disturb] passersby; they forbade them to carry weapons, ride saddled horses, or build houses taller than those of the Muslims. [Christians and Jews] were required to show respect for the Muslims, e.g. by giving up their seat to a Muslim if he wanted it. They were banned from holding government posts or from working in 'sensitive' public places.
"The Koranic verses cursing the Jews and casting doubt on [the veracity of] their Holy Book [the Torah] promulgated a desire among Arabs to set themselves above the Jews who lived in their midst, humiliating and persecuting them even without pretext. In time, this treatment made large numbers of Jews abandon their cities and their land and emigrate... while those who stayed [in Palestine] until the 19th century remained marginalized, living among the Arabs like criminals in a foreign land...
"The Arabs claim that the 'Wailing Wall' has been their property since the Prophet Muhammad tied his horse Al-Buraq to one of its supports when Allah transported him by night from the Holy Mosque in Mecca to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem... Although this night-journey story seems dubious, Arab historiography after the advent of Islam contains such oddities as giving a horse the prerogative of making a wall weighing more than 2,000 tons into Muslim property. This is only one of thousands of examples of tales concocted by zealots, with which they swept away the Arab imagination.
"...When the U.N. resolution on the partition of Palestine was issued on November 29, 1947... the Arabs refused to recognize it. They thereby rejected the state set out by the resolution as the right of the Palestinians and the Arabs, with the aim of establishing legal and historical equity. The Arabs called this resolution the Nakba, while their new states, formed several years before the State of Israel, launched the first war against Israel, in which regular military operations were combined with local attacks by gangs comprising Palestinians and Arabs from Arab regions near and far. [That war] ended in [the Arabs'] defeat. Persisting in their error, the Arabs established refugee camps for the Palestinians who had fled during and after the war...
"Chairman Mahmoud 'Abbas... was the first Palestinian leader to acknowledge that the Christian church in Gaza plundered by Hamas gangs had stood there 'before [we] came to Gaza.' By this he meant 'we the Palestinians' - particularly the current Gaza residents, [the descendants of] Bedouins from the Sinai and the Arabian Peninsula and of others, of unknown origin. [These people were] attracted by the wealth of the new Islamic state that extended from Persia to Southern Ethiopia, and came after the Muslim conquests and set themselves up over the local population - Christians, Jews, Phoenicians, Byzantines, and the remnants of the Sumerians...
Arabs Must Recognize the Jews' Right to Palestine
"In order to prevent more bloodshed among the innocent [population]... and in order to keep the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza, and the West Bank from making [these regions into] a quagmire that will spread to engulf all Arab states and societies, the Arabs must reassess the question of the Nakba and come up with a new, courageous vision for the region and for the future of its residents.
"[This vision] must involve public recognition of the Jews' legitimate right to their state - which is based on historical fact - instead of [recognition] of the writings filled with anger and demagogy produced and formed into an ideology by the confused [Arab] consciousness - a consciousness built upon lies, myths, and distortions stemming from the principle of non-acceptance of the other.
"The most important factor in strengthening such a new vision is [the adoption of] a principle [requiring] official condemnation of all individuals, groups, companies, religious and political parties, and totalitarian regimes that built their glory and hollow leaderships upon the notion of the Nakba, and which are always ready to absorb other false claims and fabrications.
"This must be done, so that a modern Arab face is turned to the world - [a face reflecting] ethical values that will not allow any Arab, under any pretext, to oppress his son or his brother who differs from him in religion, ethnicity, or ideology."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] www.ahewar.org (formerly www.rezgar.com ), December 7, 2007.
[2] 'Aref 'Alwan is the first Arab author to publish his novels on the Internet. His doing so was the subject of his January 20, 2005 interview in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

MP Boulos: Berri Should Elect President, Not Mend Arab Fences
By Dalia Nehme-Naharnet
MP Jawad Boulos, member of the Mustaqbal bloc, urged opposition legislators to rid themselves off the "regional chain" and facilitate the election of a president.
Boulos, who represents the Zghorta constituency in parliament, criticized Speaker Nabih Berri's visits to Syria and Egypt, saying he "went too far to get what he could have achieved in Beirut."
"Berri is required to tell members of his bloc to head to parliament on April 22 to elect a president," Boulos told Naharnet.
"They are Lebanese MPs and their duty is to elect a president. He is not required as parliament speaker to tour the Arab world with the aim of enlisting support for inter-Arab entente. He is required to elect a president for Lebanon," he added.
Boulos rejected Berri's call for dialogue prior to electing a new head of state.
"The opposition and majority cannot agree on any topic related to the nation's higher interests in the absence of a president, who should have a say in this issue so that he would be committed to implementing it," he noted.
"I don't see how dialogue could be useful in the absence of a president," he added.
Boulos also rejected as "non-feasible" an offer by some opposition factions trading the presidential election for prior agreement on re-adopting the 1960 general elections law.
"We support implementation of the Arab initiative that calls for electing a president, forming a national unity cabinet, and adopting the election law.
"But there should be a president presiding over the deliberations regarding forming the cabinet and adopting the elections law … We cannot take such decisions and impose them on the president," he argued.
He reaffirmed that the March 14 majority alliance "adheres to the Arab initiative and rejects foreign intervention in Lebanese affairs."
March 14 would "exert all possible efforts to bolster the government" of Premier Fouad Saniora "so that it would be able to tackle economic and social challenges resulting from the opposition's very bad practices," Boulos said.
He called for appointing a successor to slain minister Pierre Gemayel.
"He was assassinated because he was a member of the cabinet. A successor should be appointed to send a message to the criminals that assassinating MPs and ministers would not succeed" in crippling the majority government.
As for reshuffling the cabinet, Boulos noted, it requires "using presidential powers" referred to the cabinet collectively since ex-President Emile Lahoud's term expired on Nov. 22.
"Premier Saniora has committed himself not to using presidential powers without the approval of the Maronite Patriarch. This issue depends on Bkirki's say," he added.
He urged Christian MPs to follow the Patriarch's advice and head to parliament on April 22 to elect a president. Beirut, 16 Apr 08, 16:34

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release April 16, 2008
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT BUSH
AND HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
IN ARRIVAL CEREMONY

South Lawn
10:38 A.M. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: Holy Father, Laura and I are privileged to have you here at the White House. We welcome you with the ancient words commended by Saint Augustine: "Pax Tecum." Peace be with you.

You've chosen to visit America on your birthday. Well, birthdays are traditionally spent with close friends, so our entire nation is moved and honored that you've decided to share this special day with us. We wish you much health and happiness -- today and for many years to come. (Applause.)

This is your first trip to the United States since you ascended to the Chair of Saint Peter. You will visit two of our greatest cities and meet countless Americans, including many who have traveled from across the country to see with you and to share in the joy of this visit. Here in America you'll find a nation of prayer. Each day millions of our citizens approach our Maker on bended knee, seeking His grace and giving thanks for the many blessings He bestows upon us. Millions of Americans have been praying for your visit, and millions look forward to praying with you this week.

Here in America you'll find a nation of compassion. Americans believe that the measure of a free society is how we treat the weakest and most vulnerable among us. So each day citizens across America answer the universal call to feed the hungry and comfort the sick and care for the infirm. Each day across the world the United States is working to eradicate disease, alleviate poverty, promote peace and bring the light of hope to places still mired in the darkness of tyranny and despair.

Here in America you'll find a nation that welcomes the role of faith in the public square. When our Founders declared our nation's independence, they rested their case on an appeal to the "laws of nature, and of nature's God." We believe in religious liberty. We also believe that a love for freedom and a common moral law are written into every human heart, and that these constitute the firm foundation on which any successful free society must be built.

Here in America, you'll find a nation that is fully modern, yet guided by ancient and eternal truths. The United States is the most innovative, creative and dynamic country on earth -- it is also among the most religious. In our nation, faith and reason coexist in harmony. This is one of our country's greatest strengths, and one of the reasons that our land remains a beacon of hope and opportunity for millions across the world.

Most of all, Holy Father, you will find in America people whose hearts are open to your message of hope. And America and the world need this message. In a world where some invoke the name of God to justify acts of terror and murder and hate, we need your message that "God is love." And embracing this love is the surest way to save men from "falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism."

In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred, and that "each of us is willed, each of us is loved" -- (applause) -- and your message that "each of us is willed, each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary."

In a world where some no longer believe that we can distinguish between simple right and wrong, we need your message to reject this "dictatorship of relativism," and embrace a culture of justice and truth. (Applause.)

In a world where some see freedom as simply the right to do as they wish, we need your message that true liberty requires us to live our freedom not just for ourselves, but "in a spirit of mutual support."

Holy Father, thank you for making this journey to America. Our nation welcomes you. We appreciate the example you set for the world, and we ask that you always keep us in your prayers. (Applause.)

POPE BENEDICT XVI: Mr. President, thank you for your gracious words of welcome on behalf of the people of the United States of America. I deeply appreciate your invitation to visit this great country. My visit coincides with an important moment in the life of the Catholic community in America: the celebration of the 200th anniversary of elevation of the country's first Diocese -- Baltimore -- to a metropolitan Archdiocese and the establishment of the Sees of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Louisville.

Yet I am happy to be here as a guest of all Americans. I come as a friend, a preacher of the Gospel, and one with great respect for this vast pluralistic society. America's Catholics have made, and continue to make, an excellent contribution to the life of their country. As I begin my visit, I trust that my presence will be a source of renewal and hope for the Church in the United States, and strengthen the resolve of Catholics to contribute ever more responsibly to the life of this nation, of which they are proud to be citizens.

From the dawn of the Republic, America's quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the Creator. The framers of this nation's founding documents drew upon this conviction when they proclaimed the self-evident truth that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights grounded in the laws of nature and of nature's God.

The course of American history demonstrates the difficulties, the struggles, and the great intellectual and moral resolve which were demanded to shape a society which faithfully embodied these noble principles. In that process, which forged the soul of the nation, religious beliefs were a constant inspiration and driving force, as for example in the struggle against slavery and in the civil rights movement. In our time, too, particularly in moments of crisis, Americans continue to find their strength in a commitment to this patrimony of shared ideas and aspirations.

In the next few days, I look forward to meeting not only with America's Catholic community, but with other Christian communities and representatives of the many religious traditions present in this country. Historically, not only Catholics, but all believers have found here the freedom to worship God in accordance with the dictates of their conscience, while at the same time being accepted as part of a commonwealth in which each individual group can make its voice heard.

As the nation faces the increasingly complex political and ethical issues of our time, I am confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned, responsible and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more human and free society.

Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience -- almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad. The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good, and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one's deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate.

In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good. Few have understood this as clearly as the late Pope John Paul II. In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in Eastern Europe, he reminded us that history shows time and again that "in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation," and a democracy without values can lose its very soul. Those prophetic words in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent "indispensable supports" of political prosperity.

The Church, for her part, wishes to contribute to building a world ever more worthy of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God. She is convinced that faith sheds new light on all things, and that the Gospel reveals the noble vocation and sublime destiny of every man and woman. Faith also gives us the strength to respond to our high calling and to hope that inspires us to work for an ever more just and fraternal society. Democracy can only flourish, as your founding fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth and bring the wisdom born of firm moral principle to decisions affecting the life and future of the nation.

For well over a century, the United States of America has played an important role in the international community. On Friday, God willing, I will have the honor of addressing the United Nations organization, where I hope to encourage the efforts underway to make that institution an ever more effective voice for the legitimate aspirations of all the world's peoples.

On this, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity -- as brothers and sisters dwelling in the same house and around that table which God's bounty has set for all his children. America has traditionally shown herself generous in meeting immediate human needs, fostering development and offering relief to the victims of natural catastrophes. I am confident that this concern for the greater human family will continue to find expression in support for the patient efforts of international diplomacy to resolve conflicts and promote progress. In this way, coming generations will be able to live in a world where truth, freedom and justice can flourish -- a world where the God-given dignity and the rights of every man, women and child are cherished, protected and effectively advanced.

Mr. President, dear friends, as I begin my visit to the United States, I express once more my gratitude for your invitation, my joy to be in your midst, and my fervent prayers that Almighty God will confirm this nation and its people in the ways of justice, prosperity and peace. God bless America. (Applause.)

 Ahmadinejad's smile
Written by Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST
Thursday, 10 April 2008
The regime-affiliated Iranian Fars news agency published a sensational story this week. According to the Fars report, Saudi Arabia and Israel collaborated in killing Iranian terror-master Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in February. The story is important regardless of whether it is true. It is important because it says something important about the nature of Iran's relationship with Syria. Specifically, it says that Iran views Syria as a vassal state.
If Teheran were not convinced of its control of the Syrian regime, it would never have dared to publish a story that places the Assad regime in an open confrontation with Saudi Arabia. An even partially independent Syria would never go along with such an open challenge to Saudi Arabia.
Syria, of course, is not Iran's only proxy in the Arab world. There is the Hamas regime in Gaza as well. On Thursday the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released an in-depth report on Hamas's military buildup since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005. The report notes that Hamas receives arms and funding from Iran and Syria and sends its fighters for extending training at camps in Iran and Syria.
By directly supporting Hamas and by supporting Hamas indirectly through Syria and Hizbullah, Teheran has transformed Gaza into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran. While Hamas may have independent interests, the fact is that any independent will Hamas may have had at one time has become entirely subservient to Teheran. This is so because Teheran has rendered itself Hamas's indispensable ally and protector. Without Iran, Hamas would have no staying power.
Then there is Lebanon. The weak Saniora government, which was brought to power by the anti-Syrian and anti-Iranian March 14 Democracy Movement three years ago, is clearly no match for Iran and its proxies. Presidential elections have been held up for five months due to Hizbullah's Syrian- and Iranian-ordered refusal to agree on a compromise candidate. The Saniora government needs Hizbullah's agreement because Iran's proxies have murdered a sufficient number of cabinet ministers and members of parliament to take away Saniora's parliamentary capacity to elect a successor to the Syrian-puppet, former president Emile Lahoud.
The assassination of political opponents in Lebanon, of course, began in earnest with the March 2005 assassination of pro-Western and pro-Saudi former prime minister Rafik Hariri. This week in Washington, Sen. Arlen Specter asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to comment on an interesting Syrian offer. According to Specter, during Jordanian King Abdullah's visit to Washington last month, he suggested that Syria might be willing to rein in Hizbullah and Hamas in exchange for an offer of immunity for President Bashar Assad in the UN's probe of Hariri's murder. Rice rejected the offer, but that is not what is interesting.
What is interesting is that Syria would feel comfortable making what amounts to a confession of control over Hizbullah and Hamas. While at first glance the Syrian offer seems to contradict the assertion that Syria is an Iranian proxy, it actually does no such thing. It shows that Iran is willing to shuffle some proxies around to protect other ones. To protect Assad, for instance, Iran may be willing to have Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal temporarily decamp to Teheran or Qatar or Bahrain. While such a move would have absolutely no impact on Iran's continued control over its proxies, it could neutralize the UN tribunal's threat to the Syrian regime.
To sum up, through its proxy strategy, Iran has taken control of Syria, has paralyzed and is increasingly calling the shots in Lebanon, and has effective control over Gaza, from which it can attack Israel and Egypt at will. And of course, it is the primary sponsor of the insurgency in Iraq.
LED BY Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the Sunni Arab states are well aware of Iran's proxy strategy for attaining regional dominance, and they are not pleased. The partial boycott of the Arab League summit in Damascus last month was the Sunni Arab states' way of showing their displeasure with Iran's domination of Syria and Lebanon.
On a more operational level, this week the Syrian media reported that the Syrian oppositionist National Salvation Front run by the Muslim Brotherhood and former Syrian vice president Abd al Halim Khaddam will launch an anti-regime satellite television channel in a few months. Presumably wealthy Gulf kingdoms are bankrolling the project.
Strategically, the Sunni Arab states have voiced varying degrees of interest in building their own nuclear programs to compete with the Iranian nuclear program But diplomatic snubs, jihadist television stations with anti-regime bents, and loud plans to build nuclear reactors will not suffice to defeat Iran or even to slow down its bid for regional domination. And the fact is that the Sunni states are aligned with most of Iran's policies. They keep Iraq at arm's length and loudly criticize US operations in the country. They continue to back Hamas and ostracize Israel. And they have taken no substantive stands against Hizbullah's subversion of the Saniora government since the end of the Second Lebanon War.
The main reason that the Sunni Arab countries cannot contend with Iran is that their publics share Iran's jihadist ideology. And their publics share Iran's general jihadist ideology because the Sunni states have indoctrinated their publics to believe in jihad through their state-controlled media.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and their Sunni Arab brothers are in no position to argue with Iran publicly or to confront Iran's Arab proxies because they can't explain to their own people why Iran's bid to destroy Israel and to dominate the world in the name of Islam is a bad thing.
The attraction of Iran's jihadist ideology for so many Muslims has also helped Teheran expand its army of proxies. Acting as the avant guard of global jihad, Iran has collected otherwise adversarial terror groups in their hours of need and has transformed them into Iranian proxies over time. After the al-Qaida leadership fled Afghanistan in late 2001, for instance, many of its leaders received sanctuary in Iran from which they continued to operate.
The late al-Qaida in Iraq commander Abu Musab Zarkawi received medical care in Iran and entered Iraq from Iran. He received his operational orders from the al Qaida leadership in Iran.
In a recent interview with the Qatari Al-Arab newspaper translated by MEMRI, Ahmad Salah al-Din, who serves as the spokesman for the Iraqi Sunni jihadist group Hamas-Iraq, alleged that al-Qaida in Iraq today is wholly subservient to Iran. Salah al-Din claimed, "We found Iranian toman [currency] at an al-Qaida headquarters that we uncovered. We have also captured Iranian weapons, not to mention audio and video recordings containing announcements by al-Qaida fighters that they had received training in Iranian military camps and that al-Qaida wounded were being transported to Iran for medical treatment."
So too, Iran has a long history of collaboration with Fatah dating back to the early 1970s, when Ayatollah Khomeini's future revolutionary leaders received training in PLO camps in Lebanon. In 1999, as Yasser Arafat geared up his terror armies ahead of the launch of his terror war against Israel in 2000, Iran began funding Fatah terror cells. Today, after sponsoring Hamas's rout of Fatah in Gaza last June, Iran no longer needs to deal with the Fatah leadership. Through Syria, Hamas and Hizbullah it controls Fatah terror cells directly.
IRAN'S POLICY of combining a proxy war strategy with a popular revolutionary ideology is almost an exact reenactment of the Soviet Union's Cold War strategy for fighting the US. Two things, however, distinguish Iran's war against the West today from the Soviets' war against the West in the 20th century. First, Iran is much less powerful than the Soviet Union was. Second, the Iranian regime is far less open to deterrence than the Soviets were.
As David Wurmser, US Vice President Richard Cheney's former Middle East adviser noted recently at an address before the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, the Iranian regime is motivated by a messianic ideology with a strong apocalyptic component. This renders useless the threat of mutually assured destruction.
The other main distinction between the Soviet war against the West and the Iranian war against the West is that the US-led West embraced a dual strategy of confrontation and containment against the Soviets. Today, the same US-led West follows no coherent strategy for contending with Iran.
The only battleground where Iranian proxies are directly confronted today is in Iraq. After the 2006 Iranian proxy war against Israel, the US largely abandoned its support for the Saniora government. Hizbullah has been permitted to rebuild its forces and its arsenal and to reassert control over much of south Lebanon and to extend its control north of the Litani River. Rather than confront Hamas, at the US's insistence, Israel has done nothing to prevent Hamas's military buildup in Gaza or even to prevent it from continuing its rocket campaign against the western Negev.
Then too, by supporting the defeated Fatah leadership, the US and Israel are indirectly strengthening Hamas. During the Arab League summit, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas announced that he spends some 58 percent of his US, Israeli and European supplied budget on paying the salaries of 77,000 officials who serve under the Hamas regime in Gaza. So by funding Fatah, which supports Hamas, Israel and the US are strengthening Iran's control of Gaza through its Hamas proxy. They are also facilitating the weaker Fatah's incremental absorption into the Iranian axis.
As for Syria, both Israel and the US consistently ignore the fact that Syria is no longer an independent actor. By effectively adopting the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group's recommendations from 2006, the Bush administration and Israel give credence to the notion that Syria will moderate its behavior if Israel surrenders the Golan Heights, and so encourage Iran to continue its aggression by seeming to reward it.
Then too, while allowing Sunni states to support the Muslim Brotherhood as a presumed counterweight to Iran, Israel and the US ignore the repeated pleas of Syrian Kurds for assistance in their campaign to overthrow the Syrian regime in favor of a federal, anti-Iranian democratic state. The Syrian Kurds receive no assistance from either the US or Israel in their own bid to set up a pro-democracy satellite television station to broadcast into Syria, even as they are violently repressed by the regime.
In the absence of a strategy of confronting Iran either directly or through its proxies, the only coherent course that remains is one of containment. But this option is raft with danger. With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement this week that Iran is introducing 3,000 upgraded centrifuges to its Natanz nuclear installation, it is clear that international sanctions have had no impact on Iran's quest for nuclear weapons. It is also clear that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it will be impossible to confront its proxies, who will operate under Iran's nuclear umbrella.
So as Iran progresses forward with its grand strategy for regional hegemony, the West dithers and so assists it. No wonder Ahmadinejad is always smiling.

U.S. Strike on Iran Nearing
By: Jim Meyers
Monday, April 14, 2008 9:37 PM
By: Jim Meyers
Contrary to some claims that the Bush administration will allow diplomacy to handle Iran’s nuclear weapons program, a leading member of America’s Jewish community tells Newsmax that a military strike is not only on the table – but likely.
“Israel is preparing for heavy casualties,” the source said, suggesting that although Israel will not take part in the strike, it is expecting to be the target of Iranian retribution. “Look at Dick Cheney’s recent trip through the Middle East as preparation for the U.S. attack,” the source said.
Cheney’s hastily arranged 9-day visit to the region, which began on March 16, included stops in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Turkey, and the Palestinian territories.
Tensions in the region have been rising.
While Israel was conducting the largest homefront military exercises in its history last week, Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned Tehran about expected attacks on the Jewish state.
“An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel, which will destroy the Iranian nation,” he said.
He predicted that in a future war, “hundreds of missiles will rain on Israel,” but added that Iran “is definitely aware of our strength.”
In addition to long-range missiles Iran has been developing to strike Israel, Israel’s military strategists see the Iranians using terror groups they back like Hamas operating from Palestine and Hezbollah from Lebanon to launch attacks.
Iran has supplied Hezbollah with an arsenal that now contains “tens of thousands of missiles,” according to the Washington Post.
Israel’s recent war exercises, including preparations for chemical and biological weapons attacks, drew a sharp response from Syria which held its own military drills. The Syrian government accused Israel of preparing for a war which Damascus predicted would be begin anytime between May 1 and the end of June.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently told foreign journalists that Israel needs to confront the threat posed by Iran. Privately he has been telling associates his number one priority is have the Israeli military strike Iran if the U.S. is unwilling.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz disclosed that Israel is concerned that North Korea has transferred technology and nuclear materials to Iran to aid Tehran’s secret nuclear weapons program.
Iran remains intransigent to international pressure that it offer full transparency relating to its nuclear program. On Sunday the head of Iran’s nuclear program “abruptly canceled a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, dealing a blow to the U.N. monitor's efforts to investigate allegations that Iran tried to make nuclear arms, an agency official said,” according to an AP report.
“But a senior diplomat had told the AP that IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] head Mohamed ElBaradei likely planned to use the meeting with Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's nuclear program, to renew a request for more information on allegations Tehran had tried to make atomic arms.”
A number of signs indicate that, contrary to the belief President Bush is a lame duck who will not act before he leaves office, the U.S. is poised to strike before Iran can acquire nuclear weapons and carry out the threat of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “wipe Israel off the map”:
According to intelligence sources, the administration now rejects the National Intelligence Estimate report issued in December that asserted Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in late 2003. The French daily Le Monde reported in March that newly surfaced documents show that Iran has continued developing nuclear weapons. In late 2006, U.S. intelligence reportedly intercepted a phone conversation in Iran’s Defense Ministry in which the nuclear weapons program was discussed. The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Admiral William Fallon, resigned in March amid media reports that he broke with President Bush’s strategy on Iran and did not want to be in the chain of command when the order comes down from the President to launch a strike on the Islamic Republic.
Democrats suggested he had been forced out because of his candor in opposing Bush’s Iran plans, and Esquire magazine contended that Fallon’s departure signaled that the U.S. is preparing to attack Iran.
According to a Tehran-based Iranian news network, Press TV, Saudi Arabia is taking emergency steps in preparing to counter any “radioactive hazards” that may result from an American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The Saudi newspaper Okaz disclosed that the Saudi government has approved nuclear fallout preparations, and the Iranian network reported that the approval came a day after Cheney met with the kingdom’s high-ranking officials, further stating that the U.S. “is now informing its Arab allies of a potential war.”
The American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has stepped up criticism of Iran, telling Congress last week that Iranian support for Shiite militias posed the most serious threat to Iraq’s stability. He told senators : “Iran has fueled the violence in a particularly damaging way.” Last week, the U.S. said Iran was providing insurgents with missiles that were killing Americans and hitting targets within the U.S. occupied Green Zone in Baghdad.
MSNBC Commentator Pat Buchanan said Petraeus’ remarks to Congress lay the groundwork for a U.S. attack on Iran.
President Bush said in a speech at the White House on April 10 that Iran, along with al-Qaida, are “two of the greatest threats to America.”
He said Iran “can live in peace with its neighbors,” or “continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups which are terrorizing the Iraqi people … If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests and our troops and our Iraqi partners.”
He later told ABC News that if Iran continues to help militants in Iraq, “then we’ll deal with them.”
Members of Congress are said to have been briefed by the administration about the rising Iran threat.
Iran did little to cool tensions when it announced that it had begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.
Centrifuges can enrich uranium to a low level to produce nuclear fuel or a high level for use in weapons.
The announcement of the new centrifuges by President Ahmadinejad came on April 8, Iran’s National Day of Nuclear Technology, which marked the second anniversary of Iran’s first enrichment of uranium.
Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges operating in Natanz, and the new announcement was widely seen as a show of defiance to international demands to halt a nuclear program that the U.S. and its allies insist is aimed at building nuclear weapons. © 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.